New series from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand dominate this month’s suggestions for what you should stream next.
- Associate Professor, Film Studies, University of Sydney
New Hollywood filmmaker William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist and The French Connection, has died at 87.
Elvis is full of Luhrmann’s signature self-indulgence, inflated budget and artistic grandiosity – I loved it.
In this 1970 Italian classic, director Bernardo Bertolucci uses the camera frame to throw the audience off-kilter again and again.
Rewatching the 1991 film classic JFK shows the intricate choreography of montage — and the line between fact and truth still being navigated today.
Like Stanley Kubrick before him, Christopher Nolan uses perspective to mess with our minds in his 2010 film Inception.
In a pivotal scene from Brad Pitt zombie movie World War Z, we see the frame shift from the individual to the undead mass. In doing so, it taps into deep fears.
Whether you’re home sick or sick of being at home, our 13 experts have picked excellent things you can read, watch, look at or listen to.
With big theatre chains refusing to show Martin Scorsese’s new big budget mob movie, the future of cinema is looking a little dimmer.
In this video, Bruce Isaacs looks at Rome, Open City. Made in 1945, it was Roberto Rossellini’s neorealist response to the end of German occupation, and Italy’s history of Fascism under Benito Mussolini.
Back to the Future is one of the most loved films from the 1980s, and galvanised audiences across every demographic. In this episode of Close-Up, Bruce Isaacs looks at the politics underpinning the film.
When it was released in 1999, The Matrix introduced a new type of image: bullet-time. Bruce Isaacs explains why it has become one of the most influential special effects in the history of cinema.
Bruce Isaacs dissects a scene from Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. In this video, Isaacs looks at the director’s unique use of camera technique to create a deeply subjective and intimate sequence.
While Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette may not be faithful to historical events, the film is a rhythmic, impressionistic and comical retelling of the young queen’s life by a sophisticated filmmaker.
Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey broke all the rules of science fiction cinema, and allowed the audience to experience a uniquely philosophical film about the evolution of human consciousness.
The final scene of The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola deploys a technique known as parallel montage to great and rhythmic effect.
In this episode of Close-up, Bruce Isaacs contrasts the unsettling musical score from Hitchcock’s Psycho with Howard Shore’s score for Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.
The 1975 film Jaws launched the career of a young Steven Spielberg. In this scene, the town’s police chief Martin Brody witnesses the shark’s brutal attack for the first time - taking the viewer along for the ride.
Bruce Isaacs analyses the deceptively complex closing scene of Charlie Kaufman’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), starring Jim Carey and Kate Winslet.
Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger (1975), starring Jack Nicholson, explored time and memory. We look at a single scene, featuring one of the most influential camera moves of ‘70s cinema.
What makes a film a classic? In a new monthly column, film scholar Bruce Isaacs analyses a single sequence from a great film. Here, we look at a scene from Vertigo.
Bruce Isaacs analyses two related but very different scenes: the famous Copacabana tracking shot from Goodfellas (1990) and the opening scene in Hugo (2011).
Bruce Isaacs looks at an intense and emotionally charged scene from the 1980 classic, Raging Bull.
Bruce Isaacs analyses the iconic ‘You talkin’ to me’ scene from Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.
Film scholar Bruce Isaacs dissects five classic Martin Scorsese scenes. In episode two, Isaacs looks at the opening credit sequence from the iconic 1973 film Mean Streets.
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