Film

A middle-aged woman is being examined by a man who could be a doctor, or a vet. She is standing, naked, though it is mainly her skull that receives attention. Her nose is measured with a specially designed instrument, the shape of her jaw, the heaviness of her lower lip, the characteristics of her gums, the type of her body hair, the shape of her hips, and finally the fact that she has flat feet, all are recorded with 'scientific' precision by an assistant who notes down the 'doctor"s comments. The woman's face is pink from the rough explorations of the doctor's fingers, and it has a fixed...

A middle-aged woman is being examined by a man who could be a doctor, or a vet. She is standing, naked, though it is mainly her skull that receives attention. Her nose is measured with a specially designed instrument, one the shape of her jaw, the heaviness of her lower lip, the characteristics of her gums, the type of her body hair, the shape of her hips, and finally the fact that she has flat feet, are all recorded with 'scientific' precision by an assistant who notes down the 'doctor"s comments. The woman's face is pink from the rough explorations of the 'doctor''s fingers, and it has a...

Sidney Lumet's Daniel is an emotionally powerful account of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, Communist Party USA members who were victims of a legal Iynching in the early '5Os, and of their children. Many thousands of victims were ruined, blacklisted, driven to suicide and by other routes to an early grave by the 'McCarthyite' witch-hunts. The Rosenbergs were the only ones to be literally burned alive in the electric chair at Sing Sing prison, on June 19,1953. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were arrested in 1950 and charged with 'conspiracy to commit espionage'. Linked by the testimony of others with...

SIDNEY Lumet's 'Daniel' is a powerful emotional account of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, Communist Party USA members who were victims of a legal Iynching in the early '5Os, and of their children. Many thousands of victims were ruined, blacklisted, driven to suicide and by other routes to an early grave by the 'McCarthyite' witch-hunts. The Rosenbergs were the only ones to be literally burned alive in the electric chair at Sing Sing prison, on June 19,1953. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were arrested in 1950 and charged with 'conspiracy to commit espionage'. Linked by the testimony of others with...

Jimmy’s Hall is in many ways the sequel of director Ken Loach’s (and screen writer Paul Laverty’s) 2006 film The Wind That Shakes the Barley. In the previous film Loach depicted the Irish War of Independence (1919-21), siding with the losing republicans in the subsequent civil war (1922-1923). It was a compelling film, although Loach was criticised in this paper for oversimplifying the politics of the situation and finding no way of marrying large scale politics to a more intimate human story. Jimmy’s Hall shares its predecessor strengths and weaknesses. The film, based on real people and...

Warning: plot spoiler! We are not in Sligo although it might seem so from time to time. We are in “the world” and when “the world” is the subject we have to expect a certain lack of realism and the onset of allegory. Who is going to kill the Roman Catholic priest (Brendan Gleeson) is the whodunit aspect, but the sins of “the world” and their victory are the real issue; and it fills the space between, on Sunday, a promise to kill the parish priest and, a week later, the murder itself. And what a week! Gay people in need of redemption, bankers with consciences, deeply cynical doctors high on...

History Of The Left Socialist Realism Films On Labor And Big Business Peace, Imperialism And The Third World Racism and anti-racism Feminist Films Sexual Freedom Anti-Authoritarian Struggle Films Environmental And Farm Struggle Films History Of The Left 1900 - Robert DeNiro learned to speak Italian for this 3-hour saga about the Italian Communist party and the rise of the Black Shirts. Absolute Beginners - A one-hour show about the Bolshevik-Menshevik split, starring Patrick Stewart as Lenin, which is one of 13 episodes of the British Series "Fall of Eagles" series. Bread and Roses (1994) -...

Hollywood has a long history of taking a real person and creating fictionalised versions. ‘Citizen Kane’, ‘Sunset Boulevard’, and ‘The Godfather’ all did this. The Coen Brothers did it themselves in ‘Barton Fink’ and they have done it again in their new film — ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’. Llewyn Davis, a former merchant seaman, is a folk singer on the Greenwich Village scene in the New York of the early 60s. Dave Van Ronk was a real folk singer who also used to be a merchant seaman. There are a couple of nods to some other similarities but one of the great strengths of the movie is that Llewyn Davis...

"Playtime", a video installation by Isaac Julien. Victoria Miro Gallery, 16 Wharf Rd, London N1 7RW (to 1 March). Of the six segments of film comprising Isaac Julien's "Playtime" video installation, the most ostentatiously playful and fictional is also the most literal and documentary. It is a parody of the adulatory celebrity interview, with the actress Maggie Cheung portraying an extravagantly gushing interviewer. The interviewee, Simon de Pury, one of the world's most famous art auctioneers, is however playing himself. When a wealthy person commissions him to sell an artwork, says de Pury...

Solomon Northup, on whose autobiographical memoir 12 Years a Slave is based, was lucky by the standards of most of the thousands of “free negroes” kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Southern United States. His release in 1853 and the story he went back North to tell boosted the abolitionist movement which a decade later helped destroy slavery in the US. Yet, after regaining his freedom, his colour meant he was unable to testify against his kidnappers in a Washington D.C. court. Like Steve McQueen’s first film, Hunger, 12 Years is often difficult to watch, unflinchingly brutal in its...