December 4, 2020
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JAWS: Beyond The Sea

[This article is an edited version of an assignment originally written for my MSc.]

Arguably the first summer blockbuster, Jaws is an Ahab-like tale of a journey to kill a shark which has been terrorising the waters of Amity Island. The film, which starred Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw, grossed $470.7m worldwide in the box-office from a production budget of $12m.

However, I want to go explore how the film has more beneath the surface than just it being the blockbuster classic it is viewed today. As I will go into more detail, I feel that Jaws tells more of American attitudes, American politics, and also the values held by the movie studios of the era, than what is immediately shown.

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July 12, 2020
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A Cosmatos Odyssey – The work of Panos Cosmatos

[This article was originally written as an assignment for my degree.]

There is a danger in calling him ‘the son of George P. Cosmatos’. Because even though he worked on Tombstone as the second unit director (the residuals of which he used to finance his work), he holds no through line to the director of Cobra, and Rambo: First Blood Part II. In Beyond The Black Rainbow and this year’s festival hit, Mandy, Panos Cosmatos has already dictated a style of filmmaking that is unique, but at the same time a stew of influences and styles.

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May 5, 2020
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FuBball Wie Noch Nie X MOGWAI

On 12th September 1970, Hullmuth Costard took a load of cameras to Old Trafford and filmed George Best playing football against Coventry City. The final film, ‘Fußball Wie Noch Nie’ was released in 1971, its status as a document to the best footballer to never play a World Cup only being a footnote.

A footnote I discovered in 2006, with the release of ‘Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait’, my hunt for this film began. A hunt which ended in 2020. This is my edit of the film.

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