On Dark and Lonely Waters: PIFs and Rural Landscapes as Sites of Danger
“Public Information Films, once tools for instruction, became haunted reflections of a nation’s growing uncertainty and discontent…”
Edwin Miles
I Am of Mud and Flame: Landscapes as Conjurors in British Folk Horror
“Whether it’s Holkham Wood or the stone circle at Avebury, British folk horror frequently uses the eeriness of empty, liminal spaces to evoke a sense of psychological unease.”
Shifting Landscapes: Jerzy Skolimowski’s ‘Deep End’ and ‘The Shout’
“Skolimowski imbues his films with his signature iconographic sense of obscurity and mystique; both ‘Deep End’ and ‘The Shout’ grapple with the tensions brought about by characters suddenly entering (and quickly coming to terms with) new environments.”
In a State of Exile: ‘The Last of England’ in 1987
“If ‘The Angelic Conversation’ portrays a time where loving affection could be found amongst the rubble of industrialization, then ‘The Last of England’ shows how affection, love and hope are lost qualities of a paradisal past.”
They Know Not What They Do: The Passion of the Christ in Franco Zeffirelli’s ‘Jesus of Nazareth’
“‘Jesus of Nazareth’ is precisely a film of moments, and Zeffirelli depicts them with expert technique.”
By the Rivers of Babylon: Structure and Setting in Margaret Tait’s ‘Orquil Burn’
“In ‘Orquil Burn,’ an internalised inquiry meets external spaces with a quiet yet insistent beauty.”
The Past Dreamed the Future Present: Derek Jarman’s ‘Jubilee’
“Jarman’s mix of time, history, memory, fantasy and dreams in ‘Jubilee’ is ultimately a hopeful warning for the future.”
The Ten Commandments: Observation and Humilty in Kazuhiro Sôda’s ‘Inland Sea’
“By focusing on three elderly Ushimado residents, Sôda has unconsciously managed to both comment on the present and the past, as the subjects seem like relics or museum articles that have come to life through monochromatic photography.”