The James Marsh film review archive

Criterion

  • James is speaking about The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp this weekend

    I’m a sucker for watching older films restored on the big screen, so the fact that the Hong Kong Film Archive is currently screening a series of classic World War… Read More

  • The Tale Of Zatoichi Continues

    Brisk, no-nonsense sequel that pits Zatoichi against a clan of disgruntled yakuza and government officials, while a mysterious wandering bandit also takes an interest, who is revealed to be the… Read More

  • Genocide

    Also known as War of the Insects, this is a real sci-fi horror oddity from Criterion’s Eclipse series, When Horror Came to Shochiku, about a swarm of marauding bugs capable… Read More

  • The Big City

    Madhabi Mukherjee is luminous in Satyajit Ray’s film about a Bengali housewife who experiences her first taste of freedom and financial independence when her husband (reluctantly) allows her to get… Read More

  • Richard III

    Olivier is brilliant as the utter bastard who schemes and murders his way through his own family to seize the British throne for himself. The third of Larry’s big screen… Read More

  • Things To Come

    This is what happens when H.G. Wells is allowed to make a science fiction. Visually impressive, wildly prescient and stunning in its ambition. Read More

  • Les Enfants du Paradis

    An epic tale of jealousy & unrequited love set in the boisterous theatres of 1830s Paris. Arrietty is fantastic in the lead role, but perhaps slightly too old for the… Read More

  • Arabian Nights

    2 hours+ of beautifully shot, brilliantly conceived, yet pitifully acted sex, poetry and slapstick. It can only be Pasolini. Is there a Pasolini supercut anywhere of characters laughing at each… Read More

  • The Devil’s Backbone

    Arguably the scariest of Guillermo del Toro’s films to-date, this chilling ghost story takes place in a remote orphanage during the Spanish Civil War. When young Carlos is dumped there… Read More

  • Koyaanisqatsi

    One of the finest – and certainly my favourite – non-narrative films ever made, Godfrey Reggio’s beautiful work examines mankind’s relationship with the natural world through a kaleidoscope of juxtaposed… Read More

  • Seconds

    Rock Hudson stars as Tony Wilson, the newly rejuvenated version of tired businessman Arthur Hamilton, who enlisted the services of a secret organisation to give him a “second chance” at… Read More

  • Safety Last!

    An undisputed classic of American Silent Cinema and one of the very best examples of physical comedy committed to screen, Safety Last! remains the best-known film of Harold Lloyd, despite… Read More

  • Pickpocket

    There are some epic displays of sleight of hand in Robert Bresson’s tale of crime through desperation, but it’s not much of a thrill ride. Many great filmmakers of crime… Read More

  • The Canterbury Tales

    Pasolini’s films are challenging but I like to challenge myself from time to time, and his body of work has become one of my go-to selections when I’m looking to… Read More

  • Harold And Maude

    One of the most eccentric and distinctive voices of the New Hollywood movement, Hal Ashby created some of the most interesting and unique American films of the period. None more… Read More

  • Red Beard

    For this month’s Full Disclosure over at Twitch, my July entry on the list of shame was Kurosawa Akira’s 1965 drama, Red Beard – his last collaboration with actor Mifune… Read More

  • Secret Sunshine

    I’m ashamed to say that I’ve largely allowed the films of Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong to pass me by until now. I did catch Poetry (although I much preferred Bong… Read More

  • Shallow Grave

    It has been a very long time since I have seen this, but was definitely a highlight when it first arrived back in 1995. An incredible debut from Danny Boyle,… Read More