At times the F Tipi Film resembles the many films about IRA prisoners in The Maze; the hunger strikes, the solidarity of the prisoners, their determination to communicate with each other, and the sadness of the families supporting them outside. But these prisoners are not bound by a common political ideology; they are bound by a common opposition to Turkey’s ‘F-Type’ prisons, of which solitary confinement is a feature. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on January 11th, 2015 at 9:23 am. Updated on March 7th, 2016 at 8:04 pm.
You might think that I’m struggling to find new prison movies when I have to resort to watching filmed performances of operas about prison life. And you’d be right. But at least this has more prison in it than Carmen (2003). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on January 3rd, 2015 at 8:40 pm. Updated on January 3rd, 2015 at 8:40 pm.
You know that I’m not a huge fan of the action genre. Well, there’s no danger of having to endure any of that tiresome action stuff here; this is as unhurried a film as it is possible to make about a prison hostage situation. There’s not even much dialogue in the film’s 105 minutes, all of which are heavily laden with absurdist political satire. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on January 1st, 2015 at 5:58 pm. Updated on January 1st, 2015 at 5:58 pm.
Surely the chief joy in watching futuristic movies of any sort is examining the bits of contemporary culture that have survived in the filmmaker’s vision of what the future might look like. “Besides, the ship won’t fly without this,” says the spaceship pilot, Wilson, smugly holding aloft a 3½” floppy disk. It is supposed to be the year 2251. Wonderful. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on December 26th, 2014 at 10:15 pm. Updated on December 26th, 2014 at 10:15 pm.
This isn’t so much about what happens behind prison walls, as how much influence one can still wield from behind prison walls. If that’s not the same thing. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on December 26th, 2014 at 7:17 pm. Updated on December 26th, 2014 at 7:17 pm.
I don’t quite understand these extra-judicial prisons, juvenile or otherwise. They seem to be somewhere in between a strict boarding school for which parents pay exorbitant fees, and out-of-control prisons where the brutality comes for free. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on December 7th, 2014 at 11:45 am. Updated on December 7th, 2014 at 11:45 am.
I’m still trying to work out myself whether this qualifies as a movie. It’s a three-part original video animation (OVA), apparently, following on from the TV series based on Yuichi Kumakuru’s manga. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 30th, 2014 at 1:34 pm. Updated on November 30th, 2014 at 1:34 pm.
What you do, apparently, if you have a woman who has inherited a particularly nasty isomer from her father that is eating away at her humanity, is find two condemned men and pit them against each other in the hope that the isomer will attach itself to the one who most wants to kill the other. That’s the gist of things here. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 23rd, 2014 at 5:34 pm. Updated on November 23rd, 2014 at 5:38 pm.
The Loners is a classic tragedy. It charts the fall of two proud, patriotic soldiers accused of treason, and follows them through a doomed prison insurrection. Over nothing. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 18th, 2014 at 9:23 pm. Updated on November 18th, 2014 at 9:23 pm.
The opening credits of Blackwell’s Island contain the standard disclaimer about no resemblance to any person living or dead being intended, but without the resemblance to actual persons and events this film would be decidedly more silly than it already is. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on November 10th, 2014 at 7:57 pm. Updated on November 10th, 2014 at 7:57 pm.