Notes on a Scandal is perverted, deranged and filled to the brim with some of the most unbelievably grotesque characters in the history of cinema – and it also happens to be one of the most deliciously off-the-wall dramas of the past two decades. Richard Eyre’s adaptation of the novel by Zoë Heller is an…

One of the more interesting anecdotal facts about The Paradine Case is that, at the time of its production, it was considered extraordinarily expensive, with the cost to produce this film being close to that of Gone with the Wind, the gold standard for epic-scale filmmaking. Where this money went is anyone’s guess, since the…

As David Lynch once famously said about suburban life “I discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath”, which is a quote that is often brought out when any work of literature is produced in which an artist is looking at the broken promises of…

For all the talk about Alfred Hitchcock being the definition of conventional, not in the sense of it being derogatory but rather as a way of explaining how he defined cinema in a considerable way, he certainly did not find it difficult to experiment with form and content from time to time, as made abundantly…

While their more notable collaboration may have been The Third Man (quite simply one of the greatest films ever made), Carol Reed and Graham Greene did collaborate on a few other projects, one of which is the woefully underrated The Fallen Idol, which is based on a short story Greene himself wrote in the 1930s,…

Resurrection is a film that was made about two decades too late. This kind of deeply disturbing, undeniably bizarre psychological thriller seems to be more at home with those low-budget blockbusters that centered on ordinary people having their fragile lives shaken by the presence of some vaguely psychopathic individual, who gradually encroaches into their lives…

While he never failed to receive an abundance of acclaim and adoration during his lifetime, Alfred Hitchcock was undeniably more appreciated after his passing, particularly in terms of the sheer number of younger filmmakers that cited him as an influence, and would direct films that were explicitly inspired by his work. This is perfect logical…

One of the reasons I revere Alfred Hitchcock as much as I do is because, despite being arguably the finest filmmaker to ever work in the English language, he wasn’t afraid to take a few risks on occasion. Some of these turned out splendidly, many of his films being subversive and influential entries that would…

Where does one start with The Silent Partner? There have been quite a few trusted voices that have drawn my attention to this film, an independent Canadian psychological thriller from the late 1970s, which (despite boasting some major actors in the central roles) seemed like a relatively minor work, and never found its way into…

If there was ever a film that’s title reflected the most deranged sense of false marketing, it would be Strangers on a Train, since only approximately ten minutes of this film are spent on a train, and the two titular characters introduce themselves almost immediately, removing all sense of them being strangers. Luckily, this is…