Stanley Kubrick – A Biography, by John Baxter

This biography of Stanley Kubrick is by the Australian author John Baxter, who has also written books on other directors, including John Ford, Ken Russell, Steven Spielberg, Frederico Fellini and Luis Bunuel. 

And there’s no question that Stanley Kubrick, with his acclaimed films, his famously secretive nature and the mass of strange myths and rumours that have accumulated around him, is an excellent choice of subject for a biographer.  Read more …

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Porridge (1979)

This feature film version of the classic 1970s sitcom Porridge sees Slade Prison cellmates Fletcher (Ronnie Barker) and Lennie Godber (Richard Beckinsale) becoming involved in a football match against a visiting celebrity team. But the football match is also being used as cover for a daring escape attempt, leading Fletcher and Godber to find themselves on the wrong side of the prison walls. Read more …

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Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

The 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan created a major problem for the Star Trek film series; the death of one of its main characters, Mr Spock. Whether Star Trek would, could or should have continued without Spock is debateable.

Fortunately, Leonard Nimoy had second thoughts about leaving Star Trek and the makers inserted a coda into the film suggesting that his character might indeed return. A photon torpedo tube used as Spock’s coffin was shown having safely landed on the Genesis planet in the final scene of Star Trek II. So could Spock still be alive by some miracle? Read more …

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The Man in Grey (1943)

The Man in Grey is usually considered to be the first in Gainsborough Pictures’ series of popular melodramas of the mid-1940s. The Gainsborough films won huge audiences during World War II and made stars of their leading actors, including Margaret Lockwood, James Mason, Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger, Patricia Roc, Jean Kent and Michael Rennie.  Read more …

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Watching Movies With Quentin Tarantino

Cinema Speculation is the first non-fiction book from Quentin Tarantino, the writer-director of Reservoir Dogs (1991), Pulp Fiction (1994), Django Unchained (2012) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), among others. Tarantino is easily one of the best-known and most inimitable film makers working today, but he’s also known for being a hardcore film nerd. 

Cinema Speculation explores some of the films of Tarantino’s favoured 1970s era and interweaves this with some of his personal moviegoing reminiscences from his childhood and early adulthood. Read more …

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2022: The Year in Review

It’s the end of another year, and so time for the traditional Cinema Essentials end-of-year review. 

What were our most popular posts, what were the year’s best films and books, and who is delivering our special message to readers? Read more …

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