Starring: Jean Marais, Maria Casares, Marie Dea Director: Jean Cocteau Rated: PG Distributor: Madman director’s Suite The Surrealist French director Jean Cocteau once said that “film is a petrified fountain of thought”. Judging by his cinematic interpretation of the classical Greek myth ‘Orpheus and Eurydice’, his thoughts at the time were pouring over the meaning …

Starring: Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani, Marcello Pagliero, Harry Feist Director: Roberto Rossellini Rated: M 15+ Distributor: Umbrella World Cinema DVD It was Martin Scorsese who alerted me to Roberto Rossellini’s classic Open City featuring prominently, as it does, in his brilliant Italian movie master class My Voyage to Italy. In it, he remembers how, as …

Starring: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardener, Anthony Perkins, Fred Astaire Director: Stanley Kramer Rated: PG Distributor: MGM DVD Picture Melbourne, circa 1964, with no motor vehicles on the main streets – just bicycles, horses and the odd trusty tram. Petrol is scarce in the wake of a nuclear accident that has left life the northern hemisphere …

Starring: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Junior Director: Lewis Milestone Rated: PG Distributor: Warner Brothers With Clooney, Pitt and Damon currently causing all sorts of havoc in Ocean’s 13, it’s worth taking a look at the team that started it all in the original Ocean’s 11. Frank Sinatra and his so-called Rat Pack were …

Starring: Winona Ryder, Roberto Begnini, Giancarlo Esposito, Armin Mueller-Stahl Director: Jim Jarmuch Rated: M Distributor: Madman At exactly the same time in five different cities around the globe, a cabbie picks up a fare. For the next twenty minutes we enter into the lives of both driver and passenger to discover that human beings are …

Starring: Bryan Brown, Chris Haywood, Gerard Kennedy Director: Phillip Noyce Rated: PG Distributor: Roadshow Entertainment In the days before television, Australians were kept abreast of current events through the weekly newsreels of Cinesound Review and Movietone News. Each company had its own star cameraman – at Movietone it was Ross Wood and at Cinesound it …

Starring: John Belushi; Tim Matheson; Peter Riegert; Verna Bloom; Kevin Bacon Director: John Landis Rated: R Distributor: Universal Studio Schoolboy humour doesn’t mature much at college – it only gets R rated. That’s the distinct message you get while watching the 1978 cult comedy Animal House. At the oh-so-refined Omega House, home coming queens are …

Starring: Steve Buscemi, Joe Strummer, Masatoshi Nagase Director: Jim Jarmusch Rated: M Distributor: Madman Director’s Suite Jim Jarmusch has a penchant for discombobulation. His characters, while often appearing to be in charge, are really just being buffeted about by forces beyond their control. Luisa (Nicoletta Braschi) in Mystery Train articulates this confused state when she …

Starring: Raquel Welch, Mae West, John Huston Director: Michael Searne Rated: R Distributor: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Like a freakish time capsule from planet Hollywood, Myra Breckinridge is one of those notorious cinematic bombs that has to be seen to be believed. Based on Gore Vidal’s 1968 bestseller, this kooky film follows the warpath …

Starring: Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature Director: John Ford Rated: G Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Brokeback Mountain might be responsible for a resurgence of interest in cowboy style but for some good old fashioned, way out western looks check out John Ford’s My Darling Clementine. Spurs, chaps, ten gallon hats – they’re …

Starring: Judy Davis, Sam Neill, Wendy Hughes, Robert Grubb, Max Cullen Director: Gillian Armstrong Rated: G Distributor: Madman Entertainment In 1897, one of the worst places in the world for a free-spirited teenage girl with aspirations of becoming a writer to find herself would have had to be Possum Gully. Drawn from the imagination of …

Starring: Noni Hazlehurst, Colin Friels Director: Ken Cameron Rated: M 15+ Distributor: AV Channel Sex ‘n drugs ‘n rock ‘n roll are not quite all Nora’s brain and body need. She’s a writer bringing up two kids in the late ’70s and although she’s surrounded by a bevy of actors, artists and musos, she needs …

Starring; Terence Donovan, Ed Devereaux, Bryan Brown Director: Bruce Beresford Rated: R 18+ Distributor: Umbrella Entertainment Back in the ’70s, Australian television was stocked with cop shows like Division 4, Homicide and Matlock Police and the stars of all these shows were familiar and much-loved faces. Director Bruce Beresford claims he was unaware of their …

Starring: Jacques Tati, Jean Pierre Zola, Adrienne Servantie Director: Jacques Tati Rated: G Distributor: Madman Cinema If you’re the type of person who still has difficulty operating a video recorder (and I know I am), then you’ll adore Mon Oncle. In it, the much loved French actor/director Jacques Tati revived a character that he created …

Starring: Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman Director: John Schlesinger Rated: M 15+ Distributor: MGM DVD Joe Buck (Jon Voight) is a picture perfect Texan cowboy, from his black Stetson right down to his shiny, flamboyant boot tips. He may not be able to ride a horse but as he himself admits he’s one hell of a …

Starring: Alfred Abel, Gustav Frohlich, Brigitte Helm Director: Fritz Lang Rated: G Distributor: Madman/Av channel It was after a trip to New York in the mid 1920s that German director Fritz Lang and his wife and collaborator Thea von Harbou concocted the masterpiece that is Metropolis. Inspired by the skyscrapers of Manhattan, Lang, a former …

Starring: Maria Callas, Massimo Girotti Director: Pier Paulo Pasolini Rated: M Distributor: Madman Director’s Suite The legendary opera singer Maria Callas was at the height of her fame and beauty when her millionaire lover Aristotle Onassis decided to ditch her and marry Jackie Kennedy instead. Spurned and full of anger, she channelled her feelings into …

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Marthe Keller, Roy Scheider Director: John Schlesinger Rated: M 15+ Distributor: Paramount Golden Classics When I was at NIDA, there was a wonderful story that used to amuse us acting students no end. It was about Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier on the set of the thriller Marathon Man. Hoffman …

Director: Dziga Vertov Rated: G Distributor: Madman Directors Suite A miniature man climbs on top of a massive movie camera and sets up his trusty tripod. Morphing into a giant, he straddles the horizon and pans his lens across the city below. Life size again, he rides through the streets on the back of a …

Starring: Tatsuo Matsumura, Kyoko Kagawa Director: Akira Kurosawa Rated: PG Distributor: Madman Director’s Suite It is a truly special teacher who, without the slightest provocation, motivates his students to buy him a house then purchase the adjacent block so that developers won’t block out his sunlight. Such was the gratitude bestowed on Hyaakken Uehida by …

Starring: Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Bryne, Roger Ward Director: Dr George Miller Rated: R Distributor: DVD by Roadshow Entertainment If the sound of squeaky leather turns you on, you’ll probably already be a huge fan of Mad Max. If it doesn’t, then the sight of the spunky young Mel Gibson wearing it top to …

Starring: Thomas Gibson, Ruth Marshall, Mia Kirshner Director: Denys Arcand Rated: R 18+ Distributor: Madman/Newvision According to Canadian director Denys Arcand there are two main subjects in life; death and sex. And both of them get a good work out in Love and Human Remains. Made a full decade before The Barbarian Invasions which won …

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Terry Gilliam, Johnny Depp, Jean Rochefort Director: Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe Rated: R Distributor: Madman Entertainment When you watch a film for two hours or so it’s easy to forget the weeks, months and years of intense work that went into the making of it. In the case of maverick director Terry …

Starring: Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte Director: George Miller Rated: PG Distributor: Universal A newspaper article was the genesis for this film that went on to receive widespread critical acclaim and two Oscar nominations; one for Susan Sarandon for her powerful portrait of a mother dealing with the unimaginable reality of witnessing her only son crippled …

Starring: John Hargreaves, Briony Behets Director: Colin Eggleston Rated: M Distributor: Umbrella Entertainment, ScreenSound Australia Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t Tasmanian Devils only found in Tassie? And aren’t dugongs restricted to Australia’s northern waters? The makers of Long Weekend, a film set just a ways up the coast from Melbourne (but in fact, …