A year before creating their beloved The Third Man director Carol Reed and writer Graham Greene collaborated for the first time on an adaptation of Greene’s short story “The Basement Room.” The result was The Fallen Idol, a minor masterpiece that made quite a splash on its release before plunging into oblivion along with the […]

Whenever people use the phrase “a fairy tale for grown-ups,” I always get a little cranky, because it suggests something that is not true: that adults cannot watch fairy tales unless they have been tarted up. Adults like fantasy as much as anyone. I think it’s also mostly inaccurate, anyway. Nine times in ten, a […]

I try to write about films within 48 hours of viewing them, but with one thing and another, it took me almost a week to get around to The Painted Veil, and this I think is a good thing, because immediately after viewing it, I was under the distinct impression that it was a great […]

I think the success of Notes on a Scandal probably depends on how one responds to the following: Cate Blanchett calls Judi Dench a “fucking vampire.” To those who find this strange or off-putting, the film will be a flat mess. To those whose response is – as mine was – that it seem like […]