Richard III (1995)

reviewed by Nick Burton

Originally published on July 1, 1999

The conceit of Ian McKellen’s brave and wonderfully imagined adaptation of Shakespeare’s most durable History (the Internet Movie Database lists eight versions filmed dating back to 1908!) looks to have been cribbed from Orson Welles’ 1937 Mercury Theater production of Julius Caesar, which turned Caesar into a black-shirted, Mussolini-style fascist. McKellan and director Richard Loncraine [...]

Throne of Blood (1957)

reviewed by Nick Burton

Originally published on July 1, 1999

It’s very possible that two of the best interpretations of Shakespeare on film come from the late Akira Kurosawa. His 1985 Ran is one of the few successful adaptations of King Lear, and his 1957 Throne of Blood, the samurai Macbeth stands up well against the best traditional films of the play (most notably Orson [...]

The Play’s the Thing

reviewed by Nick Burton

Originally published on July 1, 1999

It’s all about Shakespeare! Ian McKellen’ Richard III brings the Bard kicking and screaming into the pulp `90s, while Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood may be the best “Macbeth” ever put on film. While Baz Luhrmann’s
Romeo and Juliet is little more than overwrought filmmaking, Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books is an elegant visual masterpiece.

Romeo & Juliet (1996)

reviewed by Nick Burton

Originally published on July 1, 1999

The name Baz Luhrmann has been circulating a lot recently as the producer of a singularly hateful little hit record called “Everyone’s Free To Wear Sunscreen,” a speech to a graduating class mistakenly attributed at one time to Kurt Vonnegut. And while his updating of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy is nowhere near as dreadful, neither [...]

Homework

reviewed by Nick Burton

Originally published on June 1, 1999

Vertov’s radical documentary style may make him The Man With The Movie Camera, but we’ll take Truffaut Day for Night when it comes to films about the film life. While Fellini’s 8 1/2 may be a surreal circus, we’re still trying to figure out how Irma Vep wriggled into that latex cat-suit.

8 1/ 2 (1963)

reviewed by Nick Burton

Originally published on June 1, 1999

After his phenomenal success with La Dolce Vita (1960) Federico Fellini delivered a film with such an astonishing stylistic jump from his previous work that over 35 years later it still seems like one of the most original films ever made – a seamless fusion of dreams, fantasies and reality that ironically make up the [...]

Irma Vep (1996)

reviewed by Nick Burton

Originally published on June 1, 1999

Olivier Assayas’ Irma Vep is such an unassuming and seductive piece of film making that it’s possible to watch the entire film without realizing that it is a punchy satire on the neutering of French cinema by American pop culturization. Filmed in 16 millimeter and blown up to 35, this brilliant little comedy stars Hong [...]

The Man With The Movie Camera (1929)

reviewed by Nick Burton

Originally published on June 1, 1999

Dziga Vertov was a Polish-born poet and filmmaker who lived and worked in the Soviet Union and made films according to his rigorous aesthetic called “Kino-Pravda” or “Cinema Truth.” His documentary films eschewed anything associated with literature or theater – thus no intertitles, scripts, actors or costumes – relying instead on the purity and truth [...]

Day for Night (1973)

reviewed by Nick Burton

Originally published on June 1, 1999

At one point during Francois Truffaut’s Day For Night (La Nuit Americaine), Ferrand, the genial film director played by Truffaut himself, is shown dealing with production problems with his film while he listens to composer Georges Delerue play excerpts of his musical score over the phone. In the midst of this, he receives a package [...]

The Producers (1968)

reviewed by Nick Burton

Originally published on May 1, 1999

I’m not Mel Brooks’ biggest fan. In fact, I think most of his genre parody films such as Blazing Saddles and Spaceballs are fairly awful films full of the kind of facile fart humor that I rarely find funny. But Brooks’ first film, The Producers is different – a genuinely funny satire that has a [...]