One of the joys of the summer time in Bologna, and many would say there are few as the city becomes extremely hot and humid between the months of June and September, is the profusion of open air cinemas that spring up, between some of the cities parks, and the big screen in the impressive […]
The footage that makes up “Berlusconi's Mousetrap,” an account of what happened in Genoa at the G8 meeting three years ago, was shot by as many as 200 videographers. Two weeks were spent going through 300-400 hours of video material to produce a more manageable 14 hours of footage. This was truly a group and […]
The product of a combination between lo and hi tech approaches to film making. That's how film maker Peter Weir, opening Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato festival, describes his latest film Master and Commander, an epic adaptation of one of novelist Richard O'Brian's best selling books, set at sea during the Napoleonic wars. Weir, the Australian […]
For most people, the idea of reading James Joyce’s Ulysses is an intimidating prospect. Film director, Sean Walsh, has gone one step further in adapting it to a two-hour movie. Bloom takes Joyce’s tome and converts it into a largely conventional drama, concentrating on the human aspects of the central characters’ life journeys, which are […]
I’m late turning up for the interview, thanks to the summer time clock change, but director Mark Brozel is unfazed and welcoming. He’s quietly spoken and pensive throughout the interview, often pausing to reflect on the answers, to give them due weight. His film Holy Cross received an enthusiastic reception at the fourth international Human […]
Mel Gibson's third directorial outing, The Passion Of The Christ, caused something of a stir even before the cameras started rolling. When Gibson announced he was using his own money to make a film about the last twelve hours of Jesus Christ in Aramaic and Latin (and he intended the film to be shown without […]
The reason why 2001: A Space Odyssey still fascinates audience cannot be ascribed wholly to the film's outstanding special effects, which continue to convince over thirty years after its release – a major achievement for a science-fiction movie made before the first Moon landing. The less obvious draw, which compels the picture's devotees to return […]
As a young boy I remember late nights spent reading The Lord of the Rings (LOTR), mesmerised by this gripping tale of good against evil. It was only years later, and especially seeing Peter Jackson's film trilogy, that I realised it was foundational in planting a lot of Christian spirituality within me. Many may be […]
