Tyneside Cinema Faces a New Competitor
Everyman Cinemas is set to open a new arthouse cinema on Grey Street to rival Tyneside Cinema. But with declining interest in specialised films is this decision viable?
Tag: cinema
Images of the Old Odeon Interior
The demolition of the Old Odeon will begin in November 2016. Here are a few images of the original interior.
British Cinema: Northern Realism vs. Southern Splendour? In Conversation with Tom Jackson
Recently, I talked to Tom Jackson about a few British films. Here is the transcript of our recorded conversation Tom Draper: Unlike our previous talk Documentary Ethics and Aesthetics which looked at how a few contemporary documentaries experiment with the form and methods of documentary practice, today we are going to discuss British fictional… Continue reading British Cinema: Northern Realism vs. Southern Splendour? In Conversation with Tom Jackson
On the Unfortunate Fate of Newcastle’s Old Odeon Cinema
Newcastle’s historic art-deco Odeon Cinema is facing demolition at the hands of billionaire businessmen David and Simon Reuben.
A Personal Note on 35mm v Digital Film Projection
Last week, I watched Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown at the BFI Southbank in glorious 35mm, the first time I had seen a film in this format for over a year. The Tyneside Cinema – my local independent cinema and employer – like most mainstream and independent cinemas since the beginning of the digital (projection) age,… Continue reading A Personal Note on 35mm v Digital Film Projection
Summer Film Viewing
Followers of this site will already know of my love for Jafar Panahi and the Iranian cinema in general, so it is fairly straightforward that I would find Closed Curtain (Panahi, 2013) appealing in all of its postmodern, metatextual exuberance. It is a film which may seem unintelligible to audiences unaware of the director’s plight… Continue reading Summer Film Viewing
The Tribe (Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, 2015)
It could be said that like the elongated motorway sequence in Solaris (1972), supposedly included to alienate audiences unworthy of an Andrei Tarkovsky film, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky offers a similar manoeuvre by warning us both in the trailer and at the film’s inception that The Tribe will include no subtitles, voice-over or any other explanation of… Continue reading The Tribe (Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, 2015)
Whiplash, Jazz and Creativity
It could be said that the history of jazz has followed the same course as the history of the American cinema. Born around the same time in the late 19th century – one in the Deep South, the other in France – and progressing to become the popular American art forms of choice in the… Continue reading Whiplash, Jazz and Creativity
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2015)
In the first years of the 21st century, Hollywood discovered a thirst for male and female characters with superhuman powers. These extraordinary individuals were able to confront the type of modern crime that has progressively rendered the classical systems of state power – the police and governmental intelligence services – helpless. Exploiting the widespread paranoia… Continue reading Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2015)
2014: The Year’s Best Films
Here’s my list of the ten best films of the year: Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev) Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)* Boyhood (Richard Linklater) Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh) The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki) Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer) The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson) Starred Up (David Mackenzie) Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan) Her… Continue reading 2014: The Year’s Best Films
