Film Nitrate

"Can duty ever mean accepting the crime?" Many films have a fairly straightforward production process, following well-trod paths ensuring things running smoothly from inception through to the film's final release. Some, however, can have a truly tumultuous time, and it's the sign of a great filmmaker that they can deal with all of the obstacles that are presented to them, and not only prevent them from ruining the film, but use it as motivation to ensure they completely dedicate themselves to try and produce the best possible film. Watching the great French Resistance film Le Silence de la mer it's not at all apparent that there were any production issues at all, but in reality director Jean-Pierre Melville had almost insurmountable problems to contend with. And that's before the cameras had even started rolling. The film is an adaptation of an illegal novel written by Jean Bruller (under the pseudonym of Vercors) at the height of the German occup...

At the start of the 1950s, there were very few science-fiction films which dealt with the perceived threat to Earth from other planets and alien species. There were a few right at the birth of cinema, such as Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon (1902) and R.W. Paul's The '?' Motorist , and over the next few decades a few isolated films such as Fritz Lang's Woman in the Moon (1929) appeared, but the subject wasn't particularly popular with the public until cinema was into its sixth decade. Part of the reason was that special effects weren't up to much, and usually if the effects simply weren't a distraction it was considered a success, even at the time it was too easy to accidentally create laughter rather than fear due to the limitations of effects. Also, with two devastating  world wars in the meantime, people had enough to be worrying about with Nazis and fascism, without adding aliens to the list. But in the 50s there was a huge boom in these sci...

"You laugh at my big belly but you don't know how I got it! You laugh at my mustache but you don't know why I grew it!" The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp   was the first true classic that came out of the fruitful partnership of Michael Powell, who took up directing responsibilities, and Emeric Pressburger who wrote and produced the film. After cutting their teeth on war-films such as   The Spy in Black   (1939) and  46th Parallel   (1941) by 1943 they were keen to take on something more substantial than a typical World War II British propaganda film. Here they managed to fit in two world wars, the Boer War, and along the way called into question the generals whose dated tactics had caused Britain to become embroiled in so much devastation, as well as demonstrate just how outdated and ultimately futile the English gentlemen's code of conduct was. Unsurprisingly, Winston Churchill was furious at the film's barely-concealed message, but looking back on it n...