House of Anansi press has released an updated version of Deborah Ellis’ poignant and beautifully written tale, The Breadwinner. Aimed at younger readers, the book puts a face to stories that help the reader empathise and understand some of the issues that are taking place in Afghanistan. Canadian born Ellis has crafted a whole series, with…
Tag: film
West Side Story (1961) – Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins
Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins direct the film that brings me back to the musical genre in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book. Stephen Sondheim pens the lyrics for this Academy Award winning musical (including Best Picture) that is an updated retelling of Shakespeare’s beautiful tragedy Romeo & Juliet with Richard Beymer…
The Artist (2011) – Michel Hazanavicius
The multi-Oscar winning film, The Artist is the next film in the What Else to Watch list as I continue my journey through DK Canada’s The Movie Book. Coming in as a recommendation for Chaplin’s City Lights, this film definitely entertains. Taking home Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (Jean Dujardin), Best Director, Best…
The Twilight Zone (1963) – Printer’s Devil, and No Time Like the Past
It’s back to The Zone with Paramount Pictures’ The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series on blu-ray. And it’s nice to be met by Burgess Meredith on his fourth trip to the Zone! Printer’s Devil was written by Charles Beaumont and first aired on 28 February, 1963. Meredith plays Mr. Smith, who comes to bedevil poor…
Beauty And The Beast (1991) – Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise
The new classics of the Disney renaissance continue as the recommendations from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of The Lion King brings me to Beauty and the Beast. Taking on the classic tale that had been visited in both film and television formats the story gets the Disney…
Man with a Movie Camera (1929) – Dziga Vertov
Vertov’s engaging documentary is the next stop in DK Canada’s The Movie Book. It falls solidly and enjoyably in the What Else to Watch list of Battleship Potemkin. A man, Mikhail Kaufman, wanders the city and captures the daily life of the Soviet Union in a brilliantly engaging way, marrying idea to image as only…
Dune (1965) – Frank Herbert
Arrakis. Dune. Desert planet. It was time for a revisit to Frank Herbert’s science fiction classic. I had journeyed there twice before. The most recent trip had been in the early 90s when my friend Dennis had convinced me to read them again, as they were some of his favourite books. I had worked my…
Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia (2017) – Tricia Barr, Adam Bray and Cole Horton
Star Wars. Sometimes, I wish I could go back to visit six year old me, who had just had his life changed after seeing that film in late summer of ’77 and tell him that Star Wars would be with him for his entire life, and that he would see a time when there would…
The Movie Book (2016) – Danny Leigh, Louis Baxter, John Farndon, Kieran Grant and Damon Wise
I always love to take a look at movie books and see what films made the lists contained within. Then I’ll spend an inordinate amount of time ruminating why others were left out. They also tend to add a pile of movies to my viewing queue, and as I’m coming up on the end of…
Star Wars: Catalyst – A Rogue One Novel (2016) – James Luceno
This weekend, new names will be added to the Star Wars cinematic universe, those of Orson Krennic, Galen, Lyra and Jyn Orso. But Star Wars readers get to know these characters already, through James Luceno’s new canon novel Catalyst. Set during the closing years of the Clone Wars and those following it, as the Rebellion…
The Mind Reels 