Mobtober: Miller’s Crossing (Coen, US, 1990)
I’m sure that I first saw this as a double-bill with Blood Simple (1984) at Manchester CornerHouse back in 1991. It was a new golden age of the American Gangster […]
Author Archives: Dirk
DIRK’S FILM SCHOOL: PRE-SOLD SOURCES
Cinema has always had a dependence on other media for its content. This is driven by it’s need to find a ready made audience, as much as for creative purposes. […]
Dirking About … nothing on.
I have to make a terrible admission. For the past couple of months I’ve been a bit ‘off’ cinema. I’ve hardly watched anything in the past month. I can’t quite […]
Starburst Memories: She knows you know
Part of my nostalgic affection for GREASE (1978) is related to the comedy version of You’re The One That I Want by Hylda Baker and Arthur Mullard. He was a […]
Dirk’s Five: Odeon Memories
In a mash up of our usual features, this is a Starburst Memory that meets the Dirk’s Five. The Odeon in Bolton held a very special space in the heart […]
DIRK’S FILM SCHOOL: THE DREAM PALACES
SEMINAR NOTES Film has had a long association with the idea of ‘dreams’. American anthropologist Hortense Powdermaker coined the phrase ‘The Dream Factory’ to describe the film studios. A. Spenser […]
Chris: Grease (Kleiser, US, 1978)
It’s got a groove, it’s got a meaning Grease is the time, is the place, is the motion Grease is the way we are feeling Barry Gibb George Lucas […]
Dirk’s Five: The Art of Noise!
Back to school! Before the Summer Holidays I set an assignment for the students of Dirk’s Film School. It seems a long time ago now, but I asked the collective […]
DOM: The Wild Bunch (Peckinpah, US, 1969)
For me now, perhaps the strongest contender for the greatest Western of them all, during the early 90s I thought it was “The Searchers”, then changed my mind to “Once […]
DIRK’S FILM SCHOOL: SOUND
SEMINAR NOTES Good morning, Mr Edison, glad to see you back. Hope you like the KINETOPHONE. To show you the synchronisation, I will lift my hand to count to ten. […]
The Dirk Malcolm Alternative 