My tardiness in posting a brief tribute to the late, great film producer Jeremy Thomas – who died last Friday, aged 77 – was due not only to the fact that, at the time of his death, I myself was just out of hospital and having to take it easy after a fairly serious operation; … Continue reading The Film Producer as Mensch: Remembering Jeremy Thomas
If you’re tired of superhero fantasies (and yes, I do include Nolan’s The Odyssey) and often disappointed by what now seems to pass for a substantial art-movie – think Almodóvar’s elegant, intelligent but rather lifelessly academic Bitter Christmas or Anna Cazenave Cambet’s heartfelt but underwritten and cliché-fraught Love Me Tender, neither of which moved me … Continue reading The Poetry of Film: ‘Late Fame’
I may not have written here before about Éric Rohmer, but anyone familiar with my writings for Time Out and Sight & Sound or my programming for the BFI will probably be aware that I’ve long held the late, great French writer-director in especially high esteem. Indeed, for two or three decades, until his death … Continue reading New before the New Wave: Éric Rohmer, novelist
It is incredibly hard to write these words so soon after my remembrances of Tony Rayns and Brian Case, especially since I learned of the death of the film programmer, festival director and producer Simon Field just a few hours on the same day after hearing of Brian’s. But of the three – whose paths … Continue reading Remembering Simon Field (1946-26): programmer, producer and dear, dear friend
It was with great sadness that I learned yesterday of the recent death of Tony Rayns, one of the most important, insightful and influential figures in international film culture during the last half-century. For me, as for many others, he was not only a hugely valued colleague but a friend and, to some degree, something … Continue reading Tony Rayns (1948-2026): A Supreme Cinephile Remembered
June 1st saw the centenary of the birth of Norma Jeane Mortenson, far better known as Marilyn Monroe, whose iconic status remains as vital and widespread today as it was at the time of her sad, premature death on August 4th, 1962. (I was just eight years old when her demise was announced, but I … Continue reading On Marilyn (and Buñuel): images, images, still and moving.
I’m not about to explain, once more, my reasons for always wanting to catch any new movie (or any small screen fare, for that matter) by Steven Soderbergh; I already wrote about my enduring interest in his work in posts about Black Bag and Presence and about his low-budget web series Command Z. But that … Continue reading The Christophers: another gem from Steven Soderbergh
The first time I encountered Peter Howden was shortly after I moved to London in the autumn of 1976. I had moved into a seedy basement flat in Westbourne Park, and the similarly seedy Electric Cinema Club, five minutes’ walk away in Portobello Road, soon became my second home. There was a bearded, bespectacled guy … Continue reading Man of the Cinema: one or two things I know about Peter Howden (1945-2026)
notes and observations by Geoff Andrew 