Universal Pictures has secured a director for its highly anticipated Leonardo da Vinci film. Andrew Haigh, known for his work on “All of Us Strangers,” has been chosen to direct and adapt Walter Isaacson’s celebrated biography of the Renaissance polymath. Isaacson’s book, based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks and recent discoveries… Continue reading ‘All of Us Strangers’ Director Andrew Haigh Set to direct Leonardo Da Vinci film for Universal
Quentin Tarantino has reportedly scrapped what was supposed to be his tenth and final feature film, The Movie Critic, deep into pre-production. This decision is one in a long line of cancelled or unproduced projects left by the Hollywood wayside. For every film that makes it to our screens, hundreds if not thousands fail to… Continue reading Tarantino abandons his tenth film – five other times Hollywood giants cancelled big projects
Trần Anh Hùng, the Vietnamese-born French director known for his Oscar-nominated film The Scent of Green Papaya (1993) and Norwegian Wood (2010), returns with another gorgeous work, The Taste of Things. Due for UK release in February 2024, the film is already out in France. The Taste of Things won the best director award at… Continue reading The Taste of Things review: this gastronomic French tale is a feast for the senses
Science fiction is never really about the future. The best sci-fi makes use of an imagined future world to provide a critical distance from our current time; to ask questions about what we are doing rather than where we are going. Director Garth Davis’ Foe, adapted from the novel by Iain Reid, is sci-fi for… Continue reading Foe review: a Frankenstein tale of the not-so-distant future
There have been more than 60,000 books written about Napoleon since his death in 1821. Cinema too has been drawn to him time and again. The Lumière brothers made a short film in 1897 and he featured in the mostly lost British film The Battle of Waterloo (1913). Already, the standard image of Napoleon was… Continue reading Napoleon Bonaparte features in 60,000 books and more than 100 films – does Ridley Scott’s stand up?
Ideas about the soul have been powerful throughout the history of religion and philosophy. Until the 19th-century, most people took the existence of souls for granted. With the rise of modern psychology, this belief lost its plausibility, and today it is largely absent from academic philosophical and even theological writing. Many now deny the existence… Continue reading How Disney took Plato’s view of existence and added a modern twist
Have you ever wondered if you’re just a character in some elaborate simulation? You shake the thought off because you’re a real person, living a real life, in a concrete reality. But can you be certain that you are? Isn’t it at least possible that your body and that the world around you are nothing… Continue reading The philosophy of the film Free Guy – could we just be lines of code in a grand simulation?
Premiering at TIFF in 2023 and featuring on this year’s lineup at BFI Flare, M.H. Murray both directs and writes this deeply personal feature debut. In the landscape of healthcare systems where affordability often dictates access to life-saving treatments, “I Don’t Know Who You Are” shines a piercing light on the stark realities faced by… Continue reading I Don’t Know Who You Are review
BAFTA and BFI have announced the names of the six emerging LGBTQIA+ creatives, each working towards their debuts in film and television, who have been selected for the 2024 BFI Flare x BAFTA professional development programme. BFI FLARE x BAFTA supports emerging talent to develop their LGBTQIA+ stories for the screen in the UK and… Continue reading The emerging LGBTQIA+ creatives selected for BFI Flare x BAFTA
Coming of age cinema has taken over our screens and brought us laughs, tears, iconic soundtracks and performances. But is it doing more harm than good? What makes a coming-of-age story so brilliant in cinema is the euphoria and joy it brings viewers. Although many of them tackle complex and difficult issues, there is always… Continue reading How the glorification of youth in cinema is ruining the teen experience
