As we reach the end of August, it appears as if everyone is retuning from their holidays as there are a ton of DVDs being released over the next couple of weeks. So whether you like French movies, Anime or comedy (or indeed French Anime Comedies) let Laurence Boyce and Special Edition # 9 help you sort the wheat from the chaff as the last hazy days of summer gently slip away. Or disappe…

  That is how Barbara - the chillingly unreliable narrator of Notes on a Scandal, played by the pitch-perfect Judi Dench, describes her first in-depth conversation with Sheba, the new girl - sorry, teacher - at school. Barbara quickly becomes her confidant, and records the minutiae of her and Sheba's life and conversations in a diary that will prove to be the undoing of both of their…

  HDV Filmmaking by Chad Fahs An Authoritative Guide to the Brave New World of HDV 470 pages Thomson Course Technology $49.99 High definition video is the latest technology to enable filmmakers to capture the best possible image at lowest cost. Because it shares tape transport with DV format, it is often see as the next step up, but this is not DV, it is a very differen…

  by Robert Latham Brown Chalk Hill Books, L.A, March 2006, 416 pages, $29.95 Low budget film production is a chicken and egg scenario. For the production to be successful you need experience to avoid potentially costly mistakes. If you have that sort of experience already, you are unlikely to be making low budget films at all. If you want to go the low budget route, how do you get…

The 55th BFI London Film Festival opens tonight!  Oh. Fernando Meirelles. This is no City of God. This isn't even Love Actually. It just. Doesn't. Work. So... there's sex trafficking, infidelity, infidelity, people meeting on a plane, loooooads of interminable airport scenes, a brilliant bit of Anthony Hopkins in AA (but his character never rings true), pretty brunettes bringing sad guys redemp…

The London Film Festival opens tonight with a screening of Never Let Me Go, an adaptation of the 2005 Kazuo Ishiguro novel, starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield. The screenplay was written by Alex Garland, and the movie directed by Mark (One Hour Photo) Romanek. The story takes place in an alternate England, where medical research has solved most illnesses, and the averag…

Laurence Boyce has a lot to catch up on as he’s been under water for the last couple of weeks. Nope, he’s not been on a fun diving holiday. He’s been in the city of Hull, which – for those of you who haven’t been following the news – has the kind of weather that would make Noah very happy. He wrings himself out and removes the damp from his DVD player to find t…

It’s looking like a pretty quiet summer for blockbusters. Harry Potter has caused a stir but seems somehow slight, Transformers 2 has distinguished itself by being absolutely diabolical and Star Trek seems like ages ago. So, if you’re not fancying your local multiplex then Special Edition # 31 would seem to be the perfect option for all your film watching needs. Laurence Boyce leads y…

As the film world anxiously awaits the release of David Lynch's latest film Inland Empire, Michel Chion's definitive book on the one of the most complex directors in American Cinema today is finally updated. But if you're looking for a book that explains all of Lynch's work then you're going to be disappointed: after all, it's sometimes questionable if Lynch himself knows…

  Reviewed by James MacGregor Publisher; Wildeye      ISBN 978-0-9541899-3-8 It has the elements of all good screen stories; the long slow build of anticipation, the tension, the frustrations and finally, the reveal. Yet the wildlife film is film art in a class all of its own, requiring painstaking research and endless patience, often in less than com…

Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited will close the London Film Festival tonight, with a sold-out screening in the West End.  The film follows three brothers - reunited for the first time in the year since their father's death - who take a train journey across northern India, in the hope of renewing their relationships, finding someone they lost and, in true gap-year style, findin…

It seems that everyone has buggered off on holiday - especially those who release DVD's. So whilst Special Edition # 8 is a little bit shorter there are still some little gems to be found for your delight and delectation. It also allows Laurence Boyce to nip away from the computer and TV screen for a while for a spot of sunbathing. And, after turning pasty white sitting in the dark and watchi…

As the nights begin to draw in and the weather becomes increasingly cold (well, at least here in the jolly old UK - you could be reading this anywhere across the world whilst basking in tropical sunshine for all I know) what better time to curl up be the fire and purchase some DVDs to keep you company. But what DVDs should you buy? Thank goodness that Special Edition # 11 is here to…

Everyone who says that there are no decent films being made in the UK are dead wrong. There are plenty of decent movies made in the UK. It's just that no-one really gets the chance to see them. With UK distributors consistently playing it safe, there's a raft of excellent stuff that - apart from an occasional screening at a film festival - that's gathering dust on a shelf. But t…

As the  50th London Film Festival begins today, here's a third update from Suchandrika Chakrabarti, with previews of Infamous, a Truman Capote biopic, Who Loves the Sun, a Canadian indie feature and Shut Up & Sing, a Dixie Chicks documentary.     Infamous (dir. Douglas McGrath, USA, 2006)     Brit Toby Jones gives the…

Years in the making, The Master Course In High-End Blocking And Staging is the most comprehensive and ambitious Directing Course in the world. A groundbreaking learning tool, the course teaches high-end camera work through over 9 hours of 3D animated instruction on 6 Region-Free DVDs.    WHO'S IT FOR? For Directors, Cinematographers, Script Supervisors, 3D Animato…

Television interviews for set-piece programmes somehow always get everything just right; the framing of the subject on screen, the facial modelling that gives definition to the features without making the face into something more like a silhouette. In the best interview examples, the lighting camera operator’s skill appears to put an apparently 3-D image on to a 2-D television screen – and in HD…

Francois Truffaut memorably said that there was “… a certain incompatibility between the words ‘cinema’ and ‘Britain’.” Stephen Frears had an equally memorable retort, stunning in its simplicity and epic in its sentiments: “Bollocks to Truffaut.” Yet aside from certainly glorious moments – the Free Cinema movement, the Swinging Sixties…

Cocaine Cowboys is a documentary looking at the rise of drug gangs in 1980s Florida. It was released in UK cinemas on 23rd November, so should be on near you. For those unfamilar with the events of the period, the documentary tracks the transformation of Miami from sleepy retirement village to a place made rich through drugs and violent killings. Read on for the trailer, which is fa…

Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, King Kong), Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G. Borat et al), Milo Twomey (Band of Brothers), Rebecca Craig (Casualty, Emma, Silent Witness) star in this recently discovered remarkable British comedy. The Jolly Boys Last Stand is a unique and unforgettable show of their raw talent available to rent and buy from 13th February 2006 (RRP £14.99) When "El Presidente&…

Laurence Boyce presents Netribution’s first regular round-up of the best DVD’s available for all those who want to know which shiny discs to watch and which to use as coasters. Just brace yourself, as the first time around, our Special Edition is massive (and, with a line like that, it’s a shame that we’re not reviewing a Carry On film …)   Wes Craven moves away from the horror movie to…

The LFF has chosen well for its opening night. Ahead of the final presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain in New York tonight, Frost/Nixon, the tale of a president undone in a television interview, has its world premiere in London tonight. Surely you know the story? The 37th president of the United States was involved in some bad stuff called Watergate (let's ignore t…

Back in March during the battle between The Hurt Locker and Avatar at the Oscars, much-loved political theorist Zizek waded in with a comparative review of the politics of the two films. His conclusion was that James Cameron's film had been the best attack on the military-industrial complex and US corporate hegemony. Kathryn Bigelow, on the other hand, he argued, legitimised the Iraqi invasion…

As always, the summer becomes a time when the focus is on the spectacle of cinema-going with movies such as Inception and Toy Story 3 packing them in. So, Special Edition # 41 will show you that it’s excellent time to chill out and enjoy some low key delights as they hit the shelves. Laurence Boyce finds some excellent films that have proved wildly popular on the festival circuit and a choice sel…

    Michael Powell's The Edge Of The World, a black and white classic film of 1937, filmed in Scotland's remotest island community, has been released for the first time on DVD by the British Film Institute. The film has been printed afresh and the DVD package comes with a wealth of supporting documentary material that shows just why this was such a remarkable testament…