Remember the story of the boy who cried wolf. He cried wolf one too many times and paid with his life. The Girl on the Train could reductively be described as a modern rendition of this timely fable, except this story is true. In 2004 Marie-Léonie Leblanc claimed she was the victim of an anti-Semitic [...]

It is not everyday that you get to interview a documentary maker, in the backdrop of the Royal Academy, with the sound of a paint canister being sling-shot across a room and hitting a bare wall, every ten minutes – modern art, right? But even this oddity is probably mild for Ondi Timoner, director of [...]

Sight & Sound Special Screening “Un Prophéte” Saturday 24th October Vue 5 Monday 26th October Vue 5 UK Release 15th January 2010* Limited US Release 12th February 2010* It is very rare that I would get up on a Saturday before 12 in the afternoon, let alone trudge down to Central London for a screening [...]

World Cinema “Wah Do Dem” Friday 16th October NFT2 Saturday 17th October Studio Sunday 18th October ICA I’d spent nearly a week eagerly waiting to get the screener from the DVD library, and in that time I’d increased the expectation on this little micro-budget film’s wee shoulders. Why the frenzied expectation? I don’t know whether [...]

Film on the Square La Danse – The Paris Opera Ballet La Danse – Le Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris Thursday 15th October Vue 6 Friday 16th October Vue 6 US release: 4th November* No talking-heads, no archival footage, no title cards and no voice-over narration; for those unfamiliar with Frederick Wiseman’s documentaries, myself including, [...]

Film on the Square Gala The Road Friday 16th October Vue 5 and 7 Saturday 17th October Vue 6 Monday 19th October Vue 6 Nationwide UK release: 8th January* Nationwide US release: 25th November* Upended and uprooted trees, vandalized shops, torched depleted fields and the barren wasteland. Something has happened to the world, what it [...]

On Friday I took a 5:30am train to travel to London in order to see Gaspar Noe’s latest film, Enter the Void, screening as part of this year’s London Film Festival. As I stood outside the Vue cinema in Leicester Square a young man approached the box office and asked, quite confidently, for a ticket [...]

Film on the Square We Live in Public Friday 23rd October Vue 6 and 7 Sunday 25th October Vue 6 Monday 26th October Vue 5 UK release: 13th November* Dig! director Ondi Timoner recently became the first filmmaker to win the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for documentary twice with her latest unflinching venture, We Live [...]

New British Cinema Shed Your Tears and Walk Away Tuesday 20th October NFT1 Thursday 22nd October NFT1 Friday 23rd October Studio The small town of Hebdon Bridge, once reputed as a paradise for bohemian drug experimentation and free hippie love, has swapped its carefree past for one just as addictive and all the more destructive. [...]

Film on the Square Lebanon Monday 26th October Vue 6 Tuesday 27th October Vue 6 In Kill Bill 2, I recall the scene with The Bride buried six foot under to be very uncomfortable and disturbing that today I often skip the scene, so I wondered how I would cope with Samuel Maoz’s debut feature [...]