Writing about movies, monsters, cinematic events and other wild trips
One of the most amazing minds in film commentary, Lee Gambin, has invited me to join him behind the mic to create a commentary track for a new DVD release from Kino Lorber of the 1971 film, KOTCH.
Starring Walter Matthau in an Oscar-nominated role, KOTCH is the one and only film directed by Jack Lemmon but it is the second DVD commentary by Lee and myself. What is the first one? That’s still under wraps.
Keep your eyes (and ears) peeled for more…
A reminder to everyone that the Melbourne International Film Festival is now in top gear, and the Plato’s Cave crew on Triple R is spending hours upon hours across the next two and a bit weeks in darkened cinemas to bring you the best festival coverage in town.
Tune in live on Monday 6th August and Monday 13th August at 7pm for your MIFF filmic fill or listen back to the podcast…
The brief was ambitious (and contentious) but Luke Buckmaster from Flicks.com.au approached over 50 Australian film critics and asked us to vote for the greatest Australian films since the year 2000. The clincher was: we needed to rank them in order of best to worst, with number one being our choice for the best film of the century so far.
As you can appreciate, this was a very challenging task, and I speak for myself in saying that the inclusions and running order changed several times. However, when all the votes were tallied, the top ten looked like this… Continue reading “The 25 greatest Australian films of the 21st century”
It was a pleasure to host a panel on bears in cinema following the Cinemaniacs screening of Prophecy earlier this year.
For those who weren’t in attendance, we created a Facebook live video that is now immortalised on the Diabolique website. Please watch it, and be aware that the screen will turn from landscape to portrait at about the three-minute mark.
Thanks to Lee Gambin, Clem Bastow and Christian McCrea for being so wonderful.
This was a difficult article to write and, while it’s impossible to answer, I’m hoping it provides some means for people to navigate a challenging ethical landscape.
Thanks to Kat and Lee at Diabolique for having the editorial balls to run with me…
What do you do in a 10-minute interview with one of the greatest actors of our time? You ask him about his role as private eye Mike Hammer and a lesser known made-for-TV movie from 1974, All the Kind Strangers.
That’s what I did when I spoke to Stacy Keach for Diabolique...
On Saturday 17th March 2018, I get to introduce John Frankenheimer’s little-screened eco-monster thriller, Prophecy, at the Backlot Studios in Melbourne.
Following the screening, I will be hosting a panel featuring a menagerie of experts – Lee Gambin, Clem Bastow and Christian McCrea – discussing the subject of bears in cinema. And that’s not human bears but actual bears with claws and fur all over them.
I highly doubt there’s been a screening and panel anywhere in the world quite like this one. Here is the video evidence of it.
This event took place in March 2018 (see the preamble under ‘Continue reading’ below) and the results have now been posted on YouTube. Or you can watch it right here:
Continue reading “Cinemaniacs Presents: “All of Them Witches” – The Devil in ’60s and ’70s Cinema”
Mattie Do is a pioneer. She is one of very few filmmakers in Laos, and she is her country’s first female horror filmmaker. She also may have secured Laos’ first ever nomination for an Oscar with her second film, Dearest Sister.
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas from Senses of Cinema commissioned me to write a piece on Mattie Do and – 8,000 words of interviewing later, faithfully transcribed by the always awesome Faith Everard – this piece came into being.
While this article is half the length of the actual interview, it is, hopefully, one that manages to capture Mattie accurately in her own words, as well as the big things she’s doing with some small films that are light years away from Hollywood.
Stepping up for the November 2017 episode of Hell is for Hyphenates was… shall we say… intimidating.
We’d laboured over my selection of the films of Roman Polanski for almost a year and, within that year, Polanski as a contentious topic had only got more contentious and more dangerous with the likes of #metoo gaining momentum.
But we decided to do it anyway. And we decided to debate the concept of separating art from the artist. Can it be done? Should it be done?
What resulted was a full-throttle episode of Hell is for Hyphenates that went for 2.5 hours and, miraculously, Lee Zachariah edited down to a sharp one hour that rockets along at the speed of light, and includes a few contemporary film reviews as well.
I cannot thank Lee and Rochelle Siemienowicz enough for putting their trust in me for what could have been a complete car crash. I feel very proud of the result, and I urge you to listen to Hell is for Hyphenates every month because it is an excellent podcast.
Click on the link below to listen, and click on this link to read the fantastic show notes on Roman Polanski that Lee compiled.
Emma Westwood 