Author David Sanjek

During the course of a conversation in the crime drama Quai des Orfèvres (1947) between the photographer Dora Monier (Simone Renant) and the investigator Antoine (Louis Jouvet), he discourses upon how the demar...

Does it come at all as a surprise that the first image in the often-hallucinatory Johnny Guitar features an explosion, and one whose cause is not immediately apparent? Or that the next sequence draws attention ...

While William Powell’s eponymous butler in My Man Godfrey is characterised as the “forgotten man”, perhaps the film’s director, Gregory La Cava (1892-1952) might more appropriately merit this title. For someone...

How do you solve a problem like Richard Lester? Typically, analysts have taken one or another extreme position: either to extol the American-born, long-term English resident as an overlooked, underestimated pur...

The Cineteca del Comune di Bologna is located in a residential portion of the city, down a side street and then within a lovely, small piazza. The facility incorporates the organisation’s administrative offices...

The first of five novels Patricia Highsmith published about her murderous protagonist Tom Ripley, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) begins with the eponymous central character fearful of his presumed pursuit by an...

A hot topic in literary circles of late has been whether the memoir has successfully superseded forms of fiction as the pre-eminent formal expression of contemporary life. Certainly the sales and critical appro...

Le Feu follet/The Fire Within (1963 France 103 mins) Prod Co: Nouvelles Éditions de Films Dir: Louis Malle Scr: Louis Malle, from the novella by Drieu la Rochelle Phot: Ghislain Gloquet Ed: Monique Nana ...

The Shop Around The Corner (1940 USA 99 mins) Prod Co: MGM Prod, Dir: Ernst Lubitsch Scr: Samson Raphaelson, from the play Parfumerie by Nikolaus Laszlo Phot: William Daniels Ed: Gene Ruggiero Mus: Werne...

Medium Cool (1969 USA 110 mins) Prod Co: Paramount Prod: Tully Friedman, Haskell Wexler, Jerrold Wexler Dir, Scr, Phot: Haskell Wexler Ed: Verna Fields Art Dir: Leon Erickson Mus: Mike Bloomfield Cast...

The Godless Girl (1929 US 113 mins) Prod Co: C.B. DeMille Prod, Dir: Cecil B. DeMille Scr: Jeanie Macpherson Phot: J. Peverell Marley Ed: Anne Bauchens Prod Des: Mitchell Leisen Cast: Lina Basquette, ...

The Professionals (1966 USA 123 mins) Prod Co: Columbia Dir: Richard Brooks Scr: Richard Brooks, based on the novel A Mule for the Marquesa by Frank O’Rourke Phot: Conrad Hall Ed: Peter Zinner Art Dir: E...

Exiled/Fongchuk (2006 Hong Kong 100 mins) Prod Co: Milkyway Image Production Prod, Dir: Johnnie To Scr: Szeto Kam-yuen, Yip Tin-shing, Milkyway Creative Team Phot: Cheng Siu-keung Ed: David M. Richardson...

Bitter Victory (1957 France/USA 102 mins) Prod Co: Columbia Pictures Corporation/Productions – Robert Laffont/Transcontinental Films Prod: Paul Graetz Dir: Nicholas Ray Scr: Rene Hardy, Gavin Lambert, Ni...

Running out of Time (1999 Hong Kong 93 mins) Prod Co: Milky Way Image Dir: Johnnie To Scr: Julien Carbon, Laurent Courtiaud, Nai-Hoi Yau Phot: Siu-keung Cheng Ed: Chi Wai Chan Prod Des: Jerome Fong Mus: ...

Summer Storm (1944 USA 105 mins) Source: NFVLS Prod Co: United Artists/Angelus Prod: Seymour Nebenzal Dir: Douglas Sirk Scr: Douglas Sirk, Rowland Leigh, Robert Thoeren (additional dialogue), based on A...

Abroad with Two Yanks (1944 USA 85 mins) Source: The Library of Congress Prod Co: United Artists-Small Productions Prod: Edward Small Dir: Allan Dwan Scr: Charles Rogers, Wilkie Mahoney, Ted Sills, form ...

Hands Up! (1926 USA 56 mins) Source: NFVLS Prod Co: Paramount Prod: B. P. Schulberg Dir: Clarence Badger Scr: Monte Brice, Lloyd Corrigan Phot: H. Kinley Martin Cast: Raymond Griffith, Marian Nixon, V...

In favour of Losey's genre work, Sanjek puts forward The Damned as a crazed, rich highlight.