It’s been a while since I’ve posted on here – not least because I moved from London to Berlin a year ago to teach in an international school! I took on my first IBDP Film group partway through the year, and getting my head around the different requirements of the course has been quite a journey. To help with this I’ve been trying to complete the same tasks as my students – starting with this essay on Barry Jenkins ‘Moonlight’. IB Film: Textual Analysis  Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)  Sequence Chosen (01:11:47 to 01:16:47)  Word Count: 1,807  This paper will analyse an ext ..read more

Welcome to this second instalment of my list of suggestions for the AL film curriculum, compiled with a view to including films by directors of colour. My first blog post on this subject dealt directly with Sections 2 and 3 of the Component 1 exam, offering four suggestions for each one. This second instalment will, for the most part, take a more freeform approach, as some of these films could be considered appropriate for more than one section. NB: I struggled to find any films that would be appropriate for the Classical Hollywood list, so would love to hear from anyone that has been successf ..read more

Over the course of nearly thirty years, Quentin Tarantino has consistently garnered both critical acclaim and box office success, and his films have become increasingly ambitious. While his various directorial curios (Four Rooms, Sin City) and writer-only forays (True Romance, From Dusk Till Dawn) all contain aspects of his distinctive style, an initial appraisal of his auteur signature needs to start with the nine films below, which can be defined as being ‘by Quentin Tarantino’. Auteur theory posits that certain filmmakers exert control over all aspects of the film’s production, to the exten ..read more

Damien Chazelle’s La La Land and Matt Ross’s Captain Fantastic might appear to originate from very different political perspectives, however both emerged from the contentious period of the 2015-16 US presidential campaign. An analysis of left and right wing thought in America is useful for spectators to interpret how apparently opposing ideas can influence filmmakers, as is a consideration of the country’s unique founding ideologies such as the American Dream and the pioneer spirit. On the face of it La La Land appears to be a perfect example of apolitical Hollywood escapism. The opening music ..read more

With Pulp Fiction (1994), Quentin Tarantino continued to define his auteur style, experimenting with unconventional approaches to narrative construction. His redefinition of the crime film through non-chronology and blurring of genres also marks the film out as a prime example of many aspects of postmodernism. One of the most recognisable features of Pulp Fiction is its episodic, non-chronological narrative. Tarantino had already explored this approach in Reservoir Dogs, and it has since become a feature of man of his films. A key effect of this is to subvert the traditional cause and eff ..read more

Both Shane Meadows’ This is England and Lynne Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin centre around the difficulties associated with teenage boys approaching adulthood, however whereas This Is England revolves around Shaun as the central protagonist, …Kevin pursues an alternative perspective, using the title character as a focal point to explore the identity of his mother, Eva. Although the spectator will automatically form their own ideas about these two protagonists, the study of feminist film theory can help to illuminate the directors’ explorations of the central theme of parental relationshi ..read more

Please note the following is adapted from my dissertation on the television play and its role in the development of the British film industry, from 2006. ———————————-     Drama has always held an important and prestigious place in television schedules, and for nearly forty years this status was exemplified by the single play. This chapter will trace the development of the single play in television, and the new relationship between television and the British film industry. Starting with its origins on ITV and the BBC in the late 1950s, the chapter will examine how the form came to suc ..read more

Please note the following is adapted from my dissertation on the television play and its role in the development of the British film industry, from 2006. 1. MEANTIME (1983)     Meantime was the first film Mike Leigh made with the newly established Channel Four, a creative partnership which would result in a further five feature films for cinematic distribution over the next fourteen years, as well as television projects The Short and Curlies (1987) and A Sense of History (1992). As Michael Coveney notes, the foundation of the new television channel, and the funding it provided for fi ..read more

Please note the following is adapted from my dissertation on the television play and its role in the development of the British film industry, from 2006. 1. UP THE JUNCTION (1965)     Up The Junction was Ken Loach’s fourth Wednesday Play, following A Tap on the Shoulder (the first play to be broadcast in the Wednesday Play slot, attracting 10million viewers), Wear a Very Big Hat and Three Clear Sundays (all 1965). Up the Junction is now recognised as pioneering a new form of television drama, including, in an early form, many of the elements which would mature into Loach’s signature ..read more