In the early 1960s the Ford motor company was losing market share as, in a rapidly changing cultural landscape, its mass-produced vehicles looked decidedly uncool to the youth of the time. Convincing his boss, Henry Ford the Second, the grandson of the famous Henry Ford, that they needed to sex-up the brand, marketing head Lee Iacocca decided that Ford needed
Read moreBack in 2002 The Bourne Identity established in Jason Bourne, a new kind of movie spy, one with the destructive skills and resourcefulness of James Bond but none of the imperialism, sexism or playboy antics. This approach was refreshingly gritty and confronting and not surprisingly has heavily influenced the style of recent Bond films. The Bourne franchise struck a major
Read moreBased on the non-fiction book The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, Monuments Men dramatises the time during World War Two when art critics invaded Germany. Throughout the war, the Nazis had stolen copious art treasures including Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child, from galleries and private collections across Europe. For what are purported in
Read moreSouth African director Neill Blomkamp burst onto cinema screens in 2009 with his superb debut film District 9. That film intelligently mixed sci-fi spectacle with biting humour, Kafkaesque themes of identity loss and potent social commentary about poverty, the plight of refugees and socio-economic and racial divisions in South Africa. District 9 was always going to be a tough act
Read moreThere’s something about the rarefied heights of superstardom in America that produces eccentricity bordering on craziness. From Elvis shooting the TV to Michael Jackson living in an amusement park with lamas, it seems that the power and fame bestowed upon stars irreparably warps their sense of reality. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the person of outrageously flamboyant piano
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