The Sigla Blog

Today’s Telegraph has an article on the worst accents in film and not only are Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s atrocious beggorah-isms in Far and Away omitted, no Irish accents feature on the list (well ok, there’s a general hat tip to Sean Connery and every non-Scottish accent he’s ever attempted). But no Pete Postlethwaite […]

If you’re insane enough not to be following Life on Mars on BBC1 tonight at 9pm, watch More 4 at the same time. Or if you’re perfectly rational and religiously following LoM at 9, switch over to More4+1 at 10pm. Why? So you can watch Infernal Affairs, the film which Marty Scorsese remade - not […]

If you’re home tonight and have Film Four, tune in at 10.55pm to see a film called Somersault. It’s an Australian-made independent film from a couple of years back. In 2004, it cleaned up in all 13 categories at the Australian Film Institute awards - the first time that had ever happened in the award’s […]

Apart from the costumes (which won an Oscar on Sunday night for Milena Canonero), there is very little to recommend Sophia Coppola’s overblown, dull biopic Marie Antoinette. We had to suffer the non-acting talent that is Kirsten Dunst, but there was one ray of light in the film: an updated version of ‘Hong Kong Garden’ […]

We seem to be knee-deep in Blog Awards chatter this week (voting closes at 5pm today, so if you haven’t already voted, and would like to see The Sigla blog on the shortlist for Best Arts & Culture Blog and Best Music blog, mosey on over here) and as with every Awards bash, there’s bound […]

When you hear the words “Nazi propaganda films”, most people immediately think of Leni Riefenstahl, The Triumph of the Will and other fervent homages to the Third Reich fatherland. Very few people will be aware of the fact that a sub-genre of propagandist cinema existed in 1940’s Germany: the so-called ‘Irish films’. A documentary called […]

One of the best things about NTL (apart from Turner Classic Movies) is being able to listen to the BBC’s various radio stations. BBC 7 has become my firm favourite, not just because you can listen to Garrison Keillor’s show (which has probably pulled in more listeners recently thanks to Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home […]

My next book purchase is Cancer Vixen, which featured in the Guardian magazine two weeks ago (can’t find a link to the feature, but here’s the paper’s review). Dovegreyreader is equally enamoured of Marisa Acocella Marchetto’s graphic novel about the Big C.
Bjork’s new album, due for release in a couple of months, will feature […]

Leonardo Di Caprio’s new film Blood Diamond tackles a worthy subject - the smuggling of ‘conflict diamonds’, ie diamonds that come from war-afflicted countries who use the money to buy arms and fund violence. It’s a thought-provoking if predictable film; tough but not without its faults. Joe Queenan of The Guardian points to one […]

When: This morning
Where: The Savoy cinema
What: A screening of Rocky Balboa, that at first glance looked as though it might be a car crash of a film.
When I mentioned that I was going to see a new Rocky film to some friends, the handful that were interested asked if it was a) a remake […]

Last week, a chance conversation with a friend revealed our mutual love of Napoleon Dynamite, one of the funniest films ever. It totally cheers me up and given that my RSI has reared up again with a vengeance, I could do with a laugh. As much as I love Jon Heder, his geeky internet-obsessed bro […]

Seeing as Guardian film critic Mark Kermode’s name came up recently in the comments here, I thought I’d post this - BBC Radio Five Live’s Mark Kermode Advent Calendar. For each day of December, you get the bequiffed one reviewing a film a day - today it’s Walk the Line. Thanks to Sore Eyes […]