E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

Is there a person over the age of 18 alive who hasn't seen Pulp Fiction - or some offshoot of its pop culture impact? Like exploding brain splatter, Pulp Fiction became the film hit of 1994, and is, arguably, the greatest American film of that decade - perhaps of all time (in a short list that includes Blue Velvet and Apocalypse Now and Taxi Driver , to be sure). A sort of sexier, even darker Touch of Evil for our time. Soundtrack to our twisted dreams Tarantino , despite or because of seeming to be a nerdy creep in "real life" is, in reel terms, a cinematic genius of B-thrills and Cannes insight - a rare balance.  Indeed, only a few other Western directors have ever managed to fuse art and thrills better or as well - Welles, Hitchcock, Spielberg, Scorsese  are peers. That poster!  That gimp scene! That watch monologue! That dance! That heroin! That soundtrack!  That amoral ultra-violence! I still remember seeing it with a friend.  When it ended...

Life of Pi is truly spellbinding. But then again, what else is to be expected? Ang Lee has won two Oscars for his directing, the poetic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the perfectly formed Brokeback Mountain . Yet Lee’s name is not chimed as often as that of other champions of Hollywood. Perhaps his Taiwanese heart is secretly driving his movies to their end result – somewhat off-kilter; it would be restricting to call Brokeback a gay film since it isn’t really a gay film; Crouching Tiger is a kung-fu film that isn’t really a kung-fu film; and the ensemble masterpiece The Ice Storm (based on a novel, the writer of which was so pleased that he sobbed throughout the credits at the film premiere), which is a family drama that isn’t so easily definable as such. And again, with Life of Pi he gives us what we could not have expected. Not since Werner Herzog’s documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams has 3D been used with real intent and craft. From the cinematography an...

The more I think about it, Force 10 From Navarone, which did not fare well at the Box Office, is a classic that remains undeservedly unsung.  It came out in 1978, and, one supposes, in the wake of Jaws , and Star Wars , looked a bit  old fashioned with its boy's own derring-do.  I last saw it the other night, as a birthday treat on DVD in an extended cut - before then, in the cinema, when I was 12. It is has held up very well, and is in fact as entertaining as the film it is the far-fetched sequel of.  It is a genuine marvel of 70s casting, as each of its main actors (many my favourites) had recently been in one of the great, quintessential 70s films: Edward Fox was hot from The Day of the Jackal ; Robert Shaw from Jaws ; Harrison Ford from Star Wars ; Carl Weathers , from Rocky ; Barbara Bach from The Spy Who Loved Me, as was Richard Kiel .  Indeed, the Bond connection is hardly accidental - for the director was none other than Guy Hamilton , director of...

Good news.   The   Tree of Life has been chosen by Sight & Sound 's critics poll as the top art house film of 2011.   Eyewear saw it this summer and loved it.

I was in Leytonstone, in London's far East End, out past where the Olympics will be held next year, in 2012 ( Eyewear readers may recall that one of my first ever posts, in 2005, was about the announcement that London had won the bid).  I was reading out there today with John Stiles , and with a band, Public Speech (worth checking out for their online hit, ' The Queen's Speech ').  Anyway, the Leytonstone tube station features 17 mosaics honoring Alfred Hitchcock , the greatest British film director of all time, who was born there in 1899.  There are some lovely buildings in Leytonstone, but trying to locate the house where Hitch was born was sad, because 517 High Road is now a petrol station (it must have been an area bombed in the war).  Anyway, the mosaics are brilliant, and really should be on every visitor's radar.  Above is the one for 'North by North-West' with the famous crop-duster scene.

Sidney Lumet , one of my favourite directors, has died.  His greatest film was his first - 12 Angry Men - but unlike Welles , who also faced that challenge, he went on to direct more than 39 other feature films, many of them classics.  I think my favourites are his great 70s gritty cop films with a young Pacino - Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico .  Fanously, he directed his last film at age 83, and it wasn't half-bad.  Other classics include The Pawnbroker , Network , and The Verdict .  So far, that's by my count six of the greatest American films.  Throw in Murder on the Orient Express, Fail-Safe, Long Day's Journey Into Night , and Deathtrap , and you have a very impressive list.  He will be missed.

Tetro , by Francis Ford Coppola , his latest film, now out on DVD, is a sort of cinematic folly - a late-style work by an old man who can't possibly replicate his great early works: The Godfather, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now , three of the greatest American films.  Coppola has made other stylish masterworks, too: The Godfather II , Rumblefish , and Dracula .   Tetro , shot in Buenos Aires, has elements of all his major films, and is in fact a not-subtle commentary on the life of fame ("don't look into the lights") and the absurdity of critical and commercial success.  Indeed, it's main Tragic core - how a family dominated by a cruel egomaniacal patriarch is sapped of life - clearly echoes The Godfather saga; but family issues - especially between brothers - have long been of interest to Coppola; as has been the absent, yet powerful father-figure who may be God (see "the Director" in The Conversation ). Most notably, Tetro's black and whit...

Sad news. The great Montreal-born character actor, Joseph Wiseman , unforgettable as the first major Bond villain, Dr No, has died. He was also in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz , that important Canadian-American film set in Montreal.

I am stunned. I just saw this at Baroque in Hackney - John Hughes , the retired genius of the American teen film genre, has died. Now is not the time to go into this in detail - readers of Eyewear will know I have long thought the intersection between Hughes and Simple Minds may be the quintessential preppie 80s North American adolescent moment - but he was great, and will not be forgotten.