Category Archives: Film

Venice hit ‘In the City of Sylvia’ to open in the UK

Posted on March 11, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett Thanks to Axiom Films, a terrific film titled “In the City of Sylvia”, which I reviewed in Venice in 2007, is finally to open in the UK from March 13. You can see details of London screenings at … Continue reading →

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How a nightclub doorman’s stories became a film in ‘Clubbed’

Posted on March 8, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett It has taken many years for Geoff Thompson’s book “Watch My Back”, which details his time as a doorman at nightclubs in Coventry in the 1980s, to become a film. When “Clubbed”, as the film version is … Continue reading →

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Nicole Haeusser’s ‘Little Joe’

Posted on February 14, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett BERLIN – He became famous in the 1960s as Andy Warhol’s naked muse in several Paul Morrissey movies and he was immortalized in song by Lou Reed but, as Nicole Haeusser’s documentary “Little Joe” shows, the life … Continue reading →

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John Hurt talks about returning to play Quentin Crisp

Posted on February 14, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett BERLIN – British actor John Hurt told me that he is the straight actor who has played the greatest number of gay characters onscreen and he returns to the most famous one of them all, Quentin Crisp, in … Continue reading →

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Boris Khlebnikov’s ‘Help Gone Mad’

Posted on February 13, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett BERLIN – Russian director Boris Khlebnikov’s enigmatic urban saga “Help Gone Mad” is very Russian indeed with long slow scenes and the driest comedy involving two lost men who take on some resemblance to Don Quixote and … Continue reading →

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: John Hurt in ‘An Englishman in New York’

Posted on February 12, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett BERLIN – When John Hurt portrayed Quentin Crisp in the movie “The Naked Civil Servant” 33 years ago, it gave Crisp the stardom he’d always craved. Now Hurt is back in the same role in “An Englishman … Continue reading →

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Simon Bitton’s documentary ‘Rachel’

Posted on February 12, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett BERLIN – The drive to keep alive the name of a young American woman who died beneath a U.S.-made bulldozer driven by an Israeli soldier in Palestine continues in Simone Bitton’s sober documentary “Rachel.” The idealistic Rachel … Continue reading →

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Sally Potter’s ‘Rage’

Posted on February 9, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett BERLIN – Sally Potter’s Berlin competition film “Rage” shows that no matter how shallow, pretentious, self-regarding and irrelevant the fashion industry might be, there will always be a filmmaker who is more so. The British writer and … Continue reading →

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Wolfgang Murmberger’s ‘The Bone Man’

Posted on February 9, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett BERLIN – Austrian comedian Josef Hader returns as lugubrious former police officer Simon Brenner in “The Bone Man,” the third of director Wolfgang Murmberger’s screen versions of the blackly comic crime novels by Wolf Haas. Star, director … Continue reading →

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Rie Rasmussen’s ‘Human Zoo’

Posted on February 8, 2009 by admin

By Ray Bennett BERLIN – Former Danish model Rie Rasmussen, who had the lead role in Luc Besson’s 2005 film “Angel,” writes, directs, edits and stars in her ambitious first feature, “Human Zoo,” about a woman haunted by her hellish … Continue reading →

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