Blog Feed: By Kubrick's Beard

As part of ongoing series I continue my countdown of the best films released in UK Cinemas in 2009. #46 - Tales from the Golden Age (Constantin Mungiu/Cristian Popescu/Hanno Hofer/Ioana Uricaru/Razvan Marclescu)"Humour is the absence of terror, and terror is the absence of humour."Did you hear the one about the Romanian village committee that got trapped on a carousel, or the one about the doctored photo to make Nicolae Ceauşescu taller than the president of France? No? What about the one a [..] > read more

Snap-Shot #2 - One Movie, One Shot

Published on 2011-11-15 12:00:00

A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger, 1946)"Position - nil, repeat nil. Age - 27, 27, did you get that? Very important. Education - interrupted, violently interrupted. Religion - Church of England. Politics - Conservative by nature, Labour by experience. What's your name?" > read more

The Week Measured in Film

Published on 2011-11-14 12:00:00

If only...So both Brett Ratner and Eddie Murphy have gone, surely that's a good thing? I can't see how either of those two misanthropes, one a throwback and the other a shock jock groupie, could have added anything of any value to Oscar night but what's this? The Muppets? Oh, wait a minute, no, it's a no go, Billy Crystal is doing it. Again. The old order is once again established.There was an excellent extract from Roger Ebert's book 'Life Itself : A Memoir' in The Observer.I can't get enou [..] > read more

And on the 7th Day, God Created...

Published on 2011-11-06 12:00:00

...The Story of FilmMark Cousin's epic 15 part film series has to be one of the finest TV series I have ever had the pleasure to watch. Put aside the fact that I am a film nut to the very bone, Cousins has managed to put across how vital and wonderful our film history is, how countries, people and eras have used film to represent, depict and capture the unique cultural, social, political, economical and emotional aspects of their time, space and place.Cousins covers 120 years of this unique and [..] > read more

Snap-Shot #1 - One Movie, One Shot

Published on 2011-11-01 13:00:00

The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973)"Yeah, I even lost my cat." > read more

The Week Measured In Film

Published on 2011-10-31 14:32:00

The BFI London film festival came to a close this week with Lynne Ramsay's mesmerising and haunting 'We Need To Talk About Kevin'; a film I caught on it's opening Friday night, scooping the top prize for best film. Jury president John Madden said of the film it 'is made with the kind of singular vision that links great directors across all the traditions of cinema', having now seen the film I couldn't agree more with the statement. It's gratifying to see Lynne Ramsay back in the director's cha [..] > read more

Playing Catch- Up - Best films of 2009: #47 Where The Wild Things Are

Published on 2011-09-17 10:20:00

In this ongoing series, I continue my countdown of the best films released in UK Cinemas in 2009. #47 - Where The Wild Things Are (Spike Jonez)'Wild thing. You make my heart sing'When it was announced that an adaptation of 'Where The Wild Things Are' was to be made into a film with man-child Spike Jonez at the helm, I suppose I went through the same kind of giddiness usually afforded to my fanboy friends whenever Batman dons a new cape, or Peter Jackson declares something interesting with Hobbi [..] > read more

Fat City - Pulling No Punches

Published on 2011-08-18 08:00:00

(John Huston, 1972) Whenever you hear someone telling people about the great run of films America made in the early 1970's, and they get to the list, and they begin to feel fatigue, just wait for a pause and say "And Fat City. John Huston's Fat City." At that point the kids frown, and they admit they've not even seen Fat City. "Right," you say, "and you never even heard of "Fat City" David Thompson - Have You Seen?I love the quote above for two reasons, [..] > read more

'Double Feature Theater' Blog-a-thon

Published on 2011-07-31 08:16:00

My contribution to 'Go, See, Talk's' excellent blog-a-thon, here's the blurb from the website:Who doesn’t love a good double feature? Even if one movie turns out crappy you still get a good flick under your belt right? In this Blog-A-Thon I have assigned each of our participants a theater of their very own ans asked them to create a week’s worth of Double Features. The weeks worth of films will begin on Monday and end on Sunday. The bonus here is that on Sunday there’s a Triple Featur [..] > read more

The Maid

Published on 2011-06-11 11:58:00

The Maid (Sebastian Silva, 2009) A current theme running through much of contemporary South American cinema is the distinct class factor of them and us, of those that have and those that have not in a very class conscious continent. Lucretia Ma > read more

The Social Network

Published on 2011-04-27 15:03:00

The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)From the rapid fire beginning Sorkin's fingerprints are all over this tight knit, kinetic script. It practically oozes the quick wit, intelligence and ambition he showed time and again on the hit TV serie > read more

Playing Catch Up - Best Films of 2009

Published on 2011-04-19 11:25:00

In this ongoing series, I continue my countdown of the best films released in UK Cinemas in 2009.#49 - Frozen River (Courtney Hunt) For your consideration Blue in collar and earnest in its portrayal of desperate people driven by economic > read more

Stray Dog: A Country in Mourning

Published on 2011-04-11 15:33:00

This is a contribution to the Japanese Cinema Blogathon hosted by the cool guys at Cinematon! Cinematon!, who along with others in the blogsphere are celebrating Japan's contribution to the world of cinema. Please feel free to contribute to the > read more

R.I.P Sidney Lumet (1924 - 2011)

Published on 2011-04-10 14:47:00

Here at By Kubrick's Beard we are saddened to learn of the news of the passing of Sidney Lumet and would like to take this moment to pay tribute to a very special director, writer and gentleman.Quite simply there isn't much I can say except that the > read more

The Destructive Mrs Ibetolis

Published on 2011-03-30 05:15:00

In case you're wondering, no I haven't done another runner.I'm waiting for a new router and am currently typing this at work. You see, Mrs Ibetolis thought that by moving my previous router, albeit temporarily, she could rearrang > read more

Coming To A Cinema Nowhere Near Me - 18th March 11'

Published on 2011-03-20 18:14:00

After last weeks disappointing releases, this week oversees the release of a film by a considerable British talent, an old British stalwart, another past master whose glory days are far behind him and a Sundance winner from some years back that fin > read more

Coming To A Cinema Nowhere Near Me - 11th March 11'

Published on 2011-03-11 11:45:00

After the buzz of the Oscars the good/bad movie ratio has certainly swung back in the favour of the bad, with that said there is at least one UK cinema release that I am looking forward to.Norwegian Wood (Tran Anh Hung)The adaptation of the huge inte > read more

Short Reel : Condemned (Oren Shai)

Published on 2011-03-09 12:39:00

At a mere 14 minutes, I guarantee that you would wish 'Condemned', the latest short from emerging talent Oren Shai, was longer. It's my only criticism of this brilliant little gem.With an obvious cinema lovers eye, Condemned plays homage to 195 > read more

Another Year - Life's not always kind, is it?

Published on 2011-03-07 17:03:00

(Mike Leigh, 2010) Ah, Another Year, if ever there were a title ripe for mocking it would be Mike Leigh's accomplished , intimate and craftily assembled drama about the slow movement of time, the disappointments, the assembly of those nearest and dea > read more

Coming To A Cinema Nowhere Near Me - 4th Mar 11'

Published on 2011-03-05 07:41:00

A weekly rundown of the must see UK Cinema ReleasesArchipelago (Joanna Hogg)Again Joanna Hogg gives us a middle/upper class family holiday from hell which, just like her directorial debut Unrelated, has polarised critics and audiences alike in the UK > read more

Oscar Predictions 2011

Published on 2011-02-27 09:26:00

Here are my predictions for all the Oscar winners for tonight's 83rd Academy Awards ceremony, I'm going out on a limb with this one, my gut is telling me that The King's Speech won't make the clean sweep it's expected to make and the winners will be > read more

Coming To A Cinema Nowhere Near Me 25th Feb 11'

Published on 2011-02-25 13:22:00

Now, what follows is a rather nerdy admission but one that is completely necessary for both myself, in order to keep on top of the numerous amount of films being released in the UK cinema week after week, and for the point of this post.I use spreadsh > read more

Playing catch up - Best Films of 2009

Published on 2011-02-23 17:30:00

The first part in an ongoing series, my countdown of the best films released in UK Cinemas in 2009.#50 - Public Enemies (Michael Mann) 'it was the golden age of bank robbery'. The gangster movie, that bastion of the American film industry which came > read more

Festival Update: Berlin hands Golden Lion to Iranian Drama

Published on 2011-02-21 07:00:00

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi picked up the Golden Bear at this years Berlin Festival for the film 'Nader and Simin, a Separation', charting the aftermath of a 15 year marriage. At his acceptance speech Farhadi paid tribute to Jafar Panahi, h > read more

Ten for 2010 - so far

Published on 2011-02-19 06:08:00

I know it's a little late in the day for all this and I know it's February but hey, I've been out of the loop for a real long time so I hereby give myself permission to make this little list, ok? Good, that's settled then. Anyway, here are my picks o > read more

Stray Dog: A Country in Mourning

Published on 2011-02-16 18:01:00

(Akira Kurosawa, 1949)The effects of an evident hangover subtly plays out in the background during Kurosawa's, detective procedural and noir styled, Stray Dog; a year before the international success of Rashomon (1950) and like the ele > read more

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