The Big Picture Magazine
Set in 1348 – the year the plague is believed to have reached England from Europe – Black Death captures the devastation this pandemic once caused with unflinching realism. In an early scene, gruesome shots emphasise the severity of this wave of disease. The protagonist, a young monk named Osmund (Eddie Redmayne), surveys a large collection […]
Fairy tales are for kids. Or are they? Natural landscapes have inspired imaginations for centuries. Norway’s spectacular scenery in particular has conjured a considerable legacy of folklore, fairy tales, and mythology; it is a landscape full of mystery, with plenty of pockets to hide in. André Øvredal’s Troll Hunter (2010) takes us back to Norway’s narrative origins, […]
A feathered archipelago stretching northward into the Arctic Circle, Canada’s Nunavut territory is known for its rich and storied Inuit art, including sculpture, music and dance. It’s also the home of a 21st century wave of independent filmmaking – stories told by the Inuit population using homegrown talent. At the centre is Isuma, the award-winning […]
To coincide with the London Film Festal 2014 The Big Picture is casting its eye back through London’s rich cinematic history, to explore some the films that have been set and shot in this iconic city. The following films have been selected from World Film Locations: London (edited by Neil Mitchell). The Blue Lamp (Basil […]
The favela is still seen as a place of deprivation and negativity…
World cinema’s hidden gems handpicked by the Big Picture and well worth seeking out.
For our latest On Location, Marcelline Block picks out 2 of the great films set and shot in the Garden State. A Beautiful Mind (2001) Dir. Ron Howard A Beautiful Mind, adapted from Sylvia Nasar’s eponymous book, narrates the saga of John Nash (b. 1928), Nobel laureate and Princeton mathematician, in his struggle to recover […]
Joy Division was always slightly apart from other iconic Manchester bands: darker, sharper and alienated from the swagger and mischief. As a band they were also geographically slightly apart. They hailed from and remained, largely, in nearby Macclesfield throughout their brief period together. As a young man Anton Corbijn created some of the most iconic […]
Where a film is set is not always integral to the movie, unless it’s a Sci-Fi. Try setting Aliens or Moon on a council estate in Clapham and see where it gets you. But something like Midnight In Paris, for example, could be Midnight In Anywhere. It’s nice that it’s Paris, and it helps with […]