As an acting student I once had to take part in a scene in which all of us wore masks that were drawn by random out of a box. We spent a few moments [...]

When magicians are omnipotent there is no magic. Heroes need a flaw and the chance to fall or there is no story. Complete plenty eliminates desire, and when everything is visible imagination dies. So [...]

Double Indemnity and Chinatown The movie mogul Sam Goldwyn rightly growled through his cigar to a screenwriter, “If you want to send a message use a telegram.” Didacticism in storytelling is always a disaster [...]

The Clash of Secular and Sacred Stalin famously asked how many battalions had the Pope. Today, with the Catholic faithful numbering over a billion, the answer might be, “Not battalions but billions.” In every [...]

As I enter a darkened cinema I'm often reminded of Plato's myth of the cave. There people sat chained in darkness watching the shadow images of the real world shimmer across the wall before [...]

If there is any literary film adaptation worth adding to one’s library it is the Granada TV version of Brideshead Revisited. It really is the most perfect screen adaptation of any novel ever. The [...]