Author Darragh O’Donoghue

The opening frames of Peter Weir’s film contrast the natural permanence of Hanging Rock with the man-made elevation of Appleyard College. This has led viewers to read the immutability of the Australian landscap...

“Now that I’m somebody, I’d much rather be nobody” sighs the title character, Lulu (Janie Marèse), of Jean Renoir’s La Chienne (1931) to her pimp Dédé (Georges Flamant). She has become an unlikely “somebody” by...

“Men of my generation, particularly if they’re Spanish, suffer from a hereditary timidity where sex and women are concerned. Our sexual desire has to be seen as the product of centuries of repressive and emascu...

“Before the forces which lie dormant in the pale and wistful face of a little child.” (1) A Diary for Timothy (Humphrey Jennings, 1945) is an account of the British home front between September 1944 and March ...

Flight – the defiance of gravity by humans using various technologies – has always been an ambiguous motif in Werner Herzog’s cinema. It can be an emblem of the pure soul, freed from the mundane humiliations, s...

Keisuke Kinoshita was the cineaste laureate of Official Japan, his films seeming to pander to his audience rather than challenge it. His best-loved work, Nijûshi no hitomi(Twenty-Four Eyes, 1954), allowed the n...

“There should be a ladder under every window. Just in case.” - Busquerosin Rekopis znaleziony w Saragossie (The Saragossa Manuscript, 1965) Jan Potocki’s The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (1805-1814) is a cel...

Sensei (Masayuki Mori) is first seen standing in a doorway, looking down at his wife as she sits embroidering (1). Shizu (Michiyo Aratama) has opened Kon Ichikawa’s Kokoro (1955) in a luminous, enigmatic close-...

The trailer for Salvatore Giuliano (1962) begins with a town crier walking down a Sicilian street, banging a drum. This is followed by a group of men distributed across the town square, one playing a Jew’s harp...

The idea of the lost or broken film is central to cinephilia, but its implications are ambiguous. On the one hand, it allows the film lover to construct a neo-Platonic ideal of the perfect film. However, such d...

Memory is also found brilliantly manifested in a large number of madmen. - Dr. Vastel (1) In 1991, documentary film student Alison Millar recorded life in the home of of Fr Michael Cleary, Ireland’s “Singing ...

In Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s first film, Der stadtstreicher (The City Tramp, 1966), the director enters a public pissort and sneers at his derelict anti-hero (Christoph Roser). Public toilets also provide an o...

Lawyer: “Those are life’s little difficulties, you see!” - August Strindberg, A Dream Play (1901) When Ingmar Bergman wanted to recreate the late 19th century youth of Isaac Borg in Smultronstället (Wild Stra...

In the silent era, the movies became such a popular phenomenon that special halls were built to house them, nicknamed “picture palaces”. So it is not such a stretch that a festival dedicated to the period shoul...

Alonzo de Monçado: “When a powerful agency is thus exercised on us, - when another undertakes to think, feel, and act for us, we are delighted to transfer to him, not only our physical, but our moral responsibi...

Roy Armes claimed that Max Ophuls, to whom Lola is dedicated, was a cinematic “test case”: For those whose concern is purely visual and whose ideal is an abstract symphony of images, Ophüls has the status of o...

In both content and form, a strong pedagogical endeavour has informed the work of Rohmer throughout his career. Darragh O’Donoghue discusses this inclination, focusing on some of the earlier shorts and made-for-television documentaries.

Roma città aperta/Rome, Open City/Open City (1945 Italy 103 mins) Prod Co: Excelsa Film Dir: Roberto Rossellini Scr: Sergio Amidei, Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini Phot: Ubaldo Arata Ed: Erlado Da R...

Ascenseur pour l’échafaud/Lift to the Scaffold/Elevator to the Gallows (1957 France 88 mins) Prod Co: Nouvelles Éditions de Films Prod: Jean Thuillier Dir: Louis Malle Scr: Louis Malle, Roger Nimier, fro...

Det Sjunde inseglet/The Seventh Seal (1957 Sweden 96 mins) Prod Co: Svensk Filmindustri Prod: Allan Ekelund Dir, Scr: Ingmar Bergman Phot: Gunnar Fischer Ed: Lennart Wallén Prod Des: P.A. Lundgren Mus: E...

Comment je me suis disputé… (ma vie sexuelle)/Ma vie sexuelle/My Sex Life… or How I got into an Argument (1996 France 178 mins) Prod Co: France 2 Cinéma/La Sept Ciné/Why Not Productions Prod: Pascal Cauc...

Ordet/The Word (1955 Denmark 126 mins) Prod Co: Palladium Film Prod: Erik Nielsen Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer Scr: Carl Theodor Dreyer, based on the play by Kaj Munk Phot: Henning Bendsten Ed: Edith Schlüss...

Dance of the Vampires/The Fearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me, but Your Teeth are in My Neck (1967 UK 107 mins) Prod Co: M-G-M/Cadre/Filmways Prod: Gene Gutowski Dir: Roman Polanski Scr: Gerard Brach,...

The Wild One (1953 USA 79 mins) Prod Co: Stanley Kramer Productions/Columbia Pictures Prod: Stanley Kramer Dir: László Benedek Scr: John Paxton, based on the novel The Cyclists’ Raid by Frank Rooney Phot...

Spione/Spies (1928 Germany 145 mins) Prod Co: Fritz Lang-Film/UFA Prod: Erich Pommer Dir: Fritz Lang Scr: Thea von Harbou, Fritz Lang, based on the novel by von Harbou Phot: Fritz Arno Wagner Art Dir: Ot...

La belle noiseuse (1991 France 240 mins) Prod Co: Pierre Grise Productions/George Reinhardt Productions/FR3 Films Productions/Région Languedoc-Roussillon Prod: Martine Marignac Dir: Jacques Rivette Scr: ...

Blind Chance/Przypadek (1981/87 Poland 122 mins) Prod Co: P. P. Film Polski Prod: Jacek Szelígowski Dir, Scr: Krzysztof Kieslowski Phot: Krzysztof Pakulski Ed: Elzbieta Kurkowska Prod Des: Rafal Wlatenbe...

Of Human Bondage (1934 USA 88 mins) Prod Co: RKO Prod: Pandro S. Berman Dir: John Cromwell Scr: Lester Cohen from the novel by W. Somerset Maugham Phot: Henry W. Gerrard Ed: William Morgan Art Dir: Carro...

Van Gogh (1991 France 158 mins) Prod Co: Canal +/CNC/Club des Investissments/Cofimage 2/Erato Films/Films A2/Les Films du Livradois/Sofiarp/Sofica Investimage Dir, Scr: Maurice Pialat Phot: Gilles Henry,...

Le Trou/The Hole (1960 France/Italy 118 mins) Source: ACMI/FE Prod Co: Filmsonor S. A./Play Art/Titanus Prod: Serge Silberman Dir: Jacques Becker Scr: Jean Aurel, Jacques Becker, José Giovanni, based on the ...

Chimes at Midnight/Campanadas a medianoche/Falstaff (1966 Spain/Switzerland 119 mins) Source: NFSA Prod Co: Alpine Films/Internacional Films Prod: Ángel Escolano, Emiliano Piedra Dir: Orson Welles Scr: O...

La Chinoise, ou plutôt à la chinoise (1967 France 90 mins) Source: ACMI Collections/FE Prod Co: Productions de la Guéville/Parc Films/Athos-Films/Simar Films/Anouchka Films Dir, Scr: Jean-Luc Godard Phot...

The Edge of the World (1937 UK 81 mins) Source: BFI Prod Co: Rock Studios Prod: Joe Rock Dir, Scr: Michael Powell Phot: Ernest Palmer, Skeets Kelly, Monty Berman Ed: Derek Twist Mus Dir: Cyril Ray Cas...

Whisky Galore! (1949 UK 82 mins) Source: NFVLS Prod Co: Ealing Prod: Michael Balcon Dir: Alexander Mackendrick Scr: Compton MacKenzie, Angus MacPhail, based on the novel by Compton MacKenzie Phot: Gerald...

Code inconnu: Récit incomplete de divers voyages (2000 France 118 mins) Source: CNC Prod Co: ARTE France Cinéma/Bavaria Films/Filmex/Les Films Alain Sarde/France 2 Cinéma/MK2 Productions/Romanian Culture...