Culch.ie

February 10th, 2010

La Chienne, 1931

Jean Renoir is best known for two movie masterpieces he directed in the late 1930s: La Règle du jeu, a social satire often cited as one of the best films of all time, and La Grand Illusion, a highly regarded anti-war film. The latter was infamously described by Joseph Goebbels as “cinematic public enemy no.1”, [...]

Posted in Movies, The Culch
By Stan

2

January 20th, 2010

Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People

This week’s cult film recommendation is Matango, a little-known Japanese oddity from 1963. You might imagine from its full American title, Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People, that it’s a daft and trashy piece of work. Contrary to appearances, though, this is an unusually well-made and thoughtful genre film. It plays by the rules of [...]

Posted in Movies, The Culch
By Stan

3

January 9th, 2010

Galway Film Society winter/spring season

The Galway Film Society has announced its winter/spring season for the new year. As usual, the films will be screened at the Town Hall Theatre [map ]. Titles and dates are as follows:
Séraphine (17 Jan.), Home (24 Jan.), Mid August Lunch (31 Jan.), Welcome (07 Feb.), Tales from a [...]

Posted in The Culch
By Stan

9

November 27th, 2009

Master of the Flying Guillotine

Jimmy Wang Yu’s outrageous martial arts film from 1975 is something of a cult classic. I re-watched it recently and can happily report that it’s as over the top and crazily entertaining as ever. This fight scene — between the one-armed boxer (Wang Yu) and a yoga master with an unexpected special power — is [...]

Posted in The Culch
By Stan

3

October 19th, 2009

Fantomas, the silent killer

Instead of keeping up to date with the latest offerings from the world of cinema, I have been catching up on a crime serial from its early days. Fantômas is a criminal mastermind who originated in a flurry of 32 detective novels published monthly between 1911 and 1913; the first film adaptation, directed by [...]

Posted in Movies, The Culch
By Stan

4

October 1st, 2009

2 Years after 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Here’s another recommendation from the 2007 vault. This film, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, is a very different sort to the last one I wrote about on Culch.ie. RTE recently broadcast it in a late-night slot (23 September), and although I didn’t re-watch it then, I got to thinking about it again [...]

Posted in Movies, The Culch
By Stan