Ken writing in The Times

[Iain Fisher]

Thanks, I will look at it on youtube.

[spasmo]

Land of the Blind is available for streaming on Youtube in eleven 10 minute parts. It's a straight to video film in every aspect but a bit more original than the current big budget blockbusters. Though its theme can be interpreted as anti-American, it's still an American movie: that means it's not enough clever for me – too simple and calculable. Acting is average, sometimes quite bad. Some of the imagery is very "russellish", so I understand why the maestro found it interesting. It could have been a much better film if it were English and had been shot by Ken...

[Iain Fisher]

On 21 Feb 2008 Ken writes "Looking for a suprise?  Go straight to DVD".

Straight to video films used to be seen as failures not worth having, but Warner Bros have introduced Fox Movie Premiere, where straight to video films are presented properly.

Ken uses this excuse to rate some straight to video films.  His top ones:
- Land of the Blind.  About brainwashing with Ralph Fiennes and Donald Sutherland
- The Dark Hour. A Spanish thriller seen through an eight-year-old's camcorder
- Everything is Illuminated.  Jews in the Ukraine.
- Flood.  A disaster movie with London underwater.
- Save the Green Planet.  Korean horror.

Anyone seen any of these?

Iain

[Iain Fisher]

Every so often Ken's piece does not appear, today 14 Feb 2008 is one of those days.  Let's hope he is back next week.

Iain

[BoyScoutKevin]

What's wrong with kids today?

They start out making films. They go to film school, where they make more films. And when they get out of film school, they go straight into making films. And that is all they know how to do.

But not our Ken. He served a stint in the Merchant Marine. He was in the RAF. He was a ballet dancer for a couple of years. And he was a photographer. Before he started making films, first for television, then for the theater, and then for the internet. And that is why he'll always be a better director than most of today's directors.

To actor, cinematographer, director, editor, producer, and writer, you can now add film critic.

[Iain Fisher]

In his article in The Times on 7 Feb 2008 Ken look at Bergman, inspired by the release of The Bergman Faith Trilogy on DVD.

Ken's admiration for Bergman is clear, "The guy was a magician".  And why is Bergman so good- "The dark night of his soul is his speciality.  Yet for Bergman, and for us watching Bergman, there's light in all that darkness".

Makes you want to rediscover Bergman.

Iain

[Iain Fisher]

Ken's article on 31 Jan 2008 is called The genius that goes into looking good and covers film designers.   He covers a wide range of films including Fritz Lang's Metropolis "a city if the future that I assume the director designed himself (he was also a talented architect.  But even then he was helped by gifted craftsmen such as Walter Schultz-Mittendorf, who create the sexiest robot on the planet)".  He mention that the film inspired him and Derek Jarman.

Iain

[Iain Fisher]

Ken writes every Thursday for The Times, and is always entertaining, even when he brings in his well known anecdotes.

On 24 Jan 2008 he wrote about two up-and-coming film directors, Tim Reynard and Ben Derrick, both 16 years old.

Ben Derrick directed Fashion Police which Ken describes as about "a dystopian future... youngsters are stripped of their hoodies and jeans in the street and hauled off for reprogramming".  Ken describes the film as funny, menacing and strangely moving.

Tim Reynard directed Denied, a "complex thriller with tragic developments involving a young man... whose mother's death in hospital by an untested drug has been covered up by the drug developer".  Ken describes the film as "gripping and mysterious".

The trailers for the films are
www.deniedthemovie.com
vids.myspace.com/fashionpolice

As always Ken writes with humour, for example at the end of party for the filmmakers '...when Ben and Tim started showing "humorous" outtakes from the movies, it was time to bow out...'.

Iain