The Big Picture MagazineJez has contributed to numerous film-related books, magazines and websites. He has co-edited three books in Intellect's World Film Locations series, covering Dublin, Reykjavik and Liverpool and has contributed pieces to many more volumes in the series. His monograph on John Carpenter's The Thing in Auteur's Devil's Advocates series of books was published in 2013. He is currently working on another book in the same series, concerning Ealing Studios' Dead of Night.
Four Frames is our new web feature that takes an extended look at a select series of shots from a movie that exemplify the film’s (and director’s) unique storytelling ability. First up, the final sequence in Terence Davies’ memory montage The Long Day Closes. Bud: Some of those stars are dead. The light in them […]
It’s a moment burnt into the retina of thousands of film fans; Michael Caine as the bank robber Charlie Croker, edging towards the bullion at the tail end of the coach dangling precariously over the edge of a precipice in the final moments of The Italian Job (Peter Collinson 1969). It’s literally the end of […]
Devotees of that hardy perennial spotters’ guide, the I-Spy Book of British Films, will tell you that spotting a British road movie while on your travels will score you a respectable 40 points – miles better than a British costume drama aimed at the US market (2 points, ten a penny) but not as good […]
Bristol-born director Christopher Smith returned to his alma mater this week to talk to current students about his career since graduating and to offer a sneaky peak at his new film Black Death. Jez Conolly spoke to Christopher about his latest venture, as well as his last picture Triangle, released on DVD back in March, […]
‘Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion’. So said that famous raconteur and aesthete ‘Stormin’ Norman Schwartzkopf. When John McTiernan dropped his crack troupe of commandos into a Central American jungle meat-grinder in the film Predator he made sure they were packing more than their accordions. Ladies and gentlemen, […]
A few years ago I was fortunate enough to be in the audience for a special screening of Powell and Pressburger’s A Matter Of Life And Death (1946) introduced with a talk by the late, great cinematographer Jack Cardiff. Jack was in his late 80s then but the spectrum of colours that he mastered during […]
So this guy Freud wrote a book called The Interpretation of Dreams. Or did he? Maybe he dreamt that he wrote it. Or maybe you dreamt it. Maybe you’re dreaming that you’re reading this right now and in a minute you’ll wake up to find that you’re Sigmund Freud. Confusing, no? When cinema deals in […]
If you’re looking for a way to relax and recover from a hectic Saturday night why not drop by the Watershed in Bristol and unwind with one of the five movies that have been selected for their upcoming Sunday Brunch film season ‘The 1970s: Paranoia, Politics and Punk’, which forms part of this year’s Bristol […]
To link in with the article in issue 7 of The Big Picture about Hollywood screen actor Lionel Stander’s stand against the House Committee on Un-American Activities during the McCarthy era, Jez Conolly asked Lionel’s daughter Bella to reflect upon her father’s career and legacy. JC: What would you say is your father Lionel’s most […]