Summary: Based on a story by Graham Greene, it charts the post-Second World War moral and material decay of Western Europe via the adventures of a naive American writer, Holly Martins, who goes to Vienna in search of his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles on magnificent form). At first told that he is dead,…
Tag: British Movies
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Film) – Summary – Analysis
Summary: A rebellious, hard-living factory worker juggles relationships with two women, one of whom is married to another man but pregnant with his child. Analysis: Released in 1960, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is rooted in the new cinematic and literary movements of its day. Its screenplay, written by so-called ‘angry young man’ Alan Sillitoe,…
The Red Shoes (Movie): Story Summary & Analysis
Summary: Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s folk tale, the plot follows the career of Vicky Page (Moira Shearer) who rises to fame to dance the ballet of The Red Shoes. She falls in love with conductor Julian Craster (Marius Goring), but impresario Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook), fiercely protective of Vicky’s career, forces Julian to resign….
Dr. Strangelove: Summary & Analysis
The sheer audacity of attempting a dark comedy about nuclear annihilation at the height of the Cold War and only months after the assassination of President John Kennedy, would have assured Stanley Kubrick cult filmmaker status. When US General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) orders wing attack plan R into operation he sets planes on…
A Clockwork Orange – Movie – Explained
Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) is the leader of a quartet of ‘droogs’ in an unspecified English city in the near future. They spend their nights raping, brawling, attacking helpless drunks and breaking into houses. Fissures develop in the group when two of the four members, Dim (Warren Clarke) and Georgie (James Marcus), express an unwillingness…
Brazil (Movie): Summary, Explanation
When Kafka wrote The Trial, he set it out of any specific point in history, making it contemporary to all time. Whereas in 1948, when George Orwell wrote 1984, it had a necessarily futuristic element to it. When Terry Gilliam fused both these stories into his intellectually loaded and visually remarkable masterpiece, Brazil, one of…
The Ladykillers (1955) – Synopsis & Analysis
Synopsis: The eccentric, old-fashioned home of Mrs Wilberforce, in a quiet London cul-de-sac, provides the unlikely venue for the planning of an audacious train robbery. The sinister figure of Professor Marcus takes a lodging room with the seemingly gentle old lady and holds regular musical soirees there with his friends, forming a string quintet. These…
If… (Movie) – Summary, Analysis
Summary: Travis, Knightly and Wallace routinely defy the traditions and Establishment values of their public school. In an attempt to bring them into line, they are beaten viciously by head prefect, Rowntree. This triggers an increasingly surreal series of episodes culminating in an attack from the rooftops with automatic weapons on parents, dignitaries, and boys…
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover: Synopsis and Analysis
Synopsis: Albert Spica has commandeered ‘La Hollandais’, an exclusive restaurant where the chef, Richard Borst, creates elaborate cuisine. Albert dines there regularly with his gang of unruly associates and his wife, Georgina; he extorts protection money from Borst. During their visits to the restaurant, Georgina, bored and disgusted by her life with Spica, begins a…