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Feature Screengem

Screengem: Michael Myers’ Mask in Halloween (1978)

A definitive feature of the definitive slasher film, the Michael Myers mask is an unlikely masterpiece of movie design. It was, in a favourite titbit of horror fan trivia, adapted by production designer Tommy Lee Wallace from a store-bought Halloween mask of William Shatner. Mercifully, the mask looked little like Captain Kirk when Wallace acquired […]

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Lost Classic Reviews

Lost Classic: Seven Days To Noon (John and Roy Boulting 1950)

Released last year for the first time on DVD, the Boulting brothers’ Seven Days to Noon is nearly sixty years old now but seems more relevant and frightening than ever. As well as working as an entertaining thriller it offers an interesting insight into how people might have dealt with the ultimate threat of annihilation […]

Categories
Feature Screengem

Screengem: The Sled in Citizen Kane (1941)

Practically every notable bit of movie memorabilia has been bought for some obscene sum by some obsessive fan. But the sale of the Rosebud sled was special: the buyer who forked out a fortune for it wasn’t bidding on behalf of an ostentatious movie museum-cum-café or an anonymous Charles Foster Kane-esque collector – he was […]

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Feature

Really most sincerely dead?: the myth of the hanging Munchkin

As urban myths go, the one about the suicidal Munchkin, supposedly visible dangling from a tree as Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man meander down the yellow brick road in The Wizard Of Oz is fairly easily debunked, as any cursory study of the clip on youtube will attest. But does the myth say something about the viewing […]

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Lost Classic Reviews

Lost Classic: Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)

Agnès Varda’s piquant tale of a beautiful young singer’s existential crisis, told in real-time, is part subversive fairy-tale and part innovative character study. This dynamic and influential film has remained impervious to the ravages of time yet, despite its radiance and reputation, it is currently only available on second-hand VHS or Region 1 DVD. Cléo de […]

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Feature

If a film wins an Oscar, but nobody saw it, does it make a sound?

When Chris Rock hosted the 77th Annual Academy Awards, a pre-filmed segment flashed across the screen. Edited for giggles, it showed a microphone-equipped Rock smirking mischievously as he wandered around a Los Angeles cinema asking regular Joes which movies they’d paid to see that year. To refresh our collective short-term memories, films like Finding Neverland, Ray, […]

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Feature

Future Visions: Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)

The character of Lemmy Caution – a cliché-surfing private eye in the Sam Spade / Philip Marlowe mould – first appeared in a series of stories (with titles like ‘Dames Don’t Care’ and ‘You Can Always Duck’) by English author Peter Cheyney and then, played by American actor Eddie Constantine, in a number of popular […]

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Feature One Sheet

Poster Boy: One sheets of distinction

Traditionally seen as a vital part of any PR campaign, one sheet movie posters continue to have an affect on our decision making when it comes to choosing what films to see. Successful posters effectively act as conduits of the movies themes, tone and style and – like good book covers or cd sleeves – […]