As the late, great Ken Campbell put it, “And when Jesus saw them nailing up the wrong bloke, well, he couldn’t help but laugh.”
Image from Bunuel’s NAZARIN.
Archive for December, 2009
Merry Christ!
Posted in FILM, Mythology, Painting with tags Bunuel, Ken Campbell, Nazarin on December 26, 2009 by dcairns12 Days Wonder
Posted in FILM with tags On the Twelfth Day, The Stranger Left no Card, Wendy Toye on December 25, 2009 by dcairnsHere it is, your Shadowplay Christmas present — Wendy Toye’s ON THE TWELFTH DAY (1955).
Toye, a former ballet dancer, is a notable figure in British cinema — alas, British cinema didn’t know what to do with her after her impressive shorts, THE STRANGER LEFT NO CARD and this one, which shows a slight Powell-Pressburger influence, I think. She’s still among us, so raise a glass of egg-nog to her continued health.
Maybe because of her dance-school background, one of Toye’s distinguishing traits as director is her predilection for somewhat campy leading men!
Santa’s Angry
Posted in FILM with tags Christian-Jacque, L'Assassinat du Pere Noel on December 24, 2009 by dcairns
L’ASSASSINAT DE PERE NOEL is so full of gorgeous images that it demands another post just to show them off, especially as they’re so seasonal. It’s snowing in Edinburgh too, as I type this (we never get a White Christmas normally).
This film is chocka with shadowy figures skulking through the snowdrifts, bent on criminous misdeeds. Which is what Christmas is all about, at the end of the day, isn’t it?
