Two stunning movies, just out on DVD, have almost restored my will to live (and faith in cinema) after a bout of Oscar-induced depression: Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man and Bennett "Capote" Miller’s The Cruise. Needless to say, both are documentaries.
Archive for the ‘Documentaries’ Category
Wild and crazy guys
Posted in Documentaries on March 15, 2006 |
No Words Can Express the Sorrow
Posted in Documentaries on October 27, 2005 |
Here’s an experiment: try watching Bernard-Henri Lévy’s Bosna! without knowing a word of French. I recently ordered this controversial 1994 film from Amazon France, fully realising the DVD has no English subtitles, because, well, I was overcome by a sudden urge to see it.
The People They Shot
Posted in Documentaries on October 9, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
With all due respect, I think Shooting War, Richard Schickel’s documentary about WWII combat cameramen, isn’t up to snuff. I watched it in tandem with The Dreams of Sparrows, a film about life in wartime Iraq by a couple of camera-toting locals, and I’m sorry to say this, but there’s no comparison.
Truth Is a Many-Splendored Thing
Posted in Documentaries on September 19, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
Little by little, betrayed by Hollywood and lacking the time to indulge in Tarkovsky, I find myself gravitating towards documentaries. The reason is simple. You get so much more bang for the buck. Just think about it: Life. Truth. Drama. It’s all there. With an added bonus: in a world full of celluloid waste, these [...]
Survival of the fittest
Posted in Documentaries, Filmmakers on July 26, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
I have high hopes for Kevin Macdonald, who is now filming his first feature The Last King of Scotland in Uganda. This guy enters the feature film business with already a BAFTA and an Oscar under his belt. Of course, this in itself doesn’t mean diddlysquat in the Hollywood meat grinder. But, judging by his [...]
