Author Pedro Blas Gonzalez

Werner Herzog's 1979 Nosferatu the Vampyre takes its inspiration from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula. Herzog’s version of the Dracula tale pays homage to F.W. Murnau’s unauthorized 1922 film, Nosferatu: beca...

Les Diaboliques (1955) is a tale of cold-blooded, calculated murder and suspense. Murder and suspense are always billed together in this kind of film, however, in the case of Les Diaboliques, this is equivalent...

It is general knowledge that in communist societies no aspects of human life ever go unnoticed or unscrutinised by the cyclopic, tyrannous intentions of mother state. The aforementioned reality is encountered a...

Socratic lessons can be articulated in all manner of ways. Pedro Blas Gonzalez examines John Huston’s 1947 fable about avarice and greed.

Combining social satire, a thematic preoccupation with Chinese nationalism and the changing tide of technological development, and a lot of action, Wong Fei Hung (Once Upon a Time in China) never fails to enter...

Not doubt two of the more fascinating films dealing with the supernatural and the paranormal, and the presence of the ‘other’ that cannot be denied.

Struktura krysztalu (The Structure of Crystals) is Krzysztof Zanussi’s debut feature film. From the beginning we quickly notice that this is a film that will explore the values of the sedentary life. The first ...

Self evidently, Citizen Kane is a biographical drama of a public figure, but it is also one of the great reflections on the very nature of the biographical phenomenon itself.

Pedro Blas Gonzalez discusses Ray Bradbury’s novel and François Truffaut’s 1966 film in equal measure, and argues that as “studies of a type of human temperament that revolves around an anti-humanism that prides itself in destruction” they remain as prescient as ever.

The creative process is difficult under any circumstances and in any milieu. However, it becomes excruciatingly difficult under the all-seeing, intrusive cloak of a communist dictatorship. Milos Forman’s Horí, ...

Le notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria) is Federico Fellini’s classic visual study of romantic resilience and faith in human nature. The film is also a lyrical take on themes that embrace a tragic-omic view of ...

Since the time of this classic’s release, the one question that seems to have always hung over it is: “But what does it all mean?” Pedro Blas Gonzalez goes in search of answers.

Sommarnattens leende/Smiles of a Summer Night (1955 Sweden 108 mins) Prod Co: Svensk Filmindustri Prod: Allan Ekelund Dir, Scr: Ingmar Bergman Phot: Gunnar Fischer Ed: Oscar Rosander Prod Des: P.A. Lundg...

An essay that reflects on Andrei Tarkovsky’s two seminal works, Solaris and Stalker, in the light of the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset’s reference to man as a “conscious cosmic phenomenon”.

Ceiling Zero (1936 USA 95 mins) Prod Co: Cosmopolitan Pictures and First National/Warner Bros. Prod: Harry Joe Brown Dir: Howard Hawks Scr: Frank Wead, based on his play Phot: Arthur Edeson Ed: William H...

What seems at first little more than a run-of-the-mill Hollywood heist movie of the 1960s is for Gonzalez a film that “allows us to re-discover, or re-event, the order of what Edmund Husserl has referred to as the lived-world of experience”.

Rosemary’s Baby (1968 USA 136 mins) Prod Co: Paramount Prod: William Castle Dir: Roman Polanski Scr: Roman Polanski, based on the novel by Ira Levin Phot: William Fraker Ed: Sam O’Steen, Bob Wyman Prod D...

A cult film, and arguably Jacques Tourneur’s last great metaphysical gem in his long and distinguished B-grade career.

Philosophical meditations on the existential and moral landscape of Melville’s cinema.

An astute philosophical reflection on Tati's sublime films.