The Cinemasitter

Tag: Skyfall

  • Interview with John Logan

    Last week at Watersprite (the Cambridge International Student Film Festival) I was given a chance to sit down with one of their guest speakers, John Logan. He was very funny, clearly passionate about his trade, and generous with his time. The full interview is now up at Take One (link at the bottom of this article). Thanks again to all those at Watersprite who pulled off what was, by all accounts, a great festival.

    John Logan – the writer behind GLADIATOR, THE AVIATOR, HUGO and SKYFALL – was in energetic and affable form at this year’s Watersprite Student Film Festival in Cambridge. A lively speaker, he extolled the virtues of poetry as a means to learning the craft of scriptwriting: “Poetry teaches economy.” The 51 year old playwright-turned-screenwriter, nominated for three Oscars over the course of his brief yet productive film career, is keen to raise awareness of the debt owed to history in today’s cultural landscape: “Know the continuum of writers”, he urges. “If you want to learn how to write, read Shakespeare’s Hamlet. And then read it again and again, until you know and understand it completely.”

    Full article: Interview with John Logan | TakeOneCFF.com

  • Review: Skyfall (2012)

    Arriving amidst a blizzard of marketing and publicity the likes of which has rarely been seen, it’s some sort of miracle that Skyfall delivers the goods. Despite worrying surface similarities with Die Another Day – Bond put out of action during the pre-credits sequence, overt nods to earlier films in the franchise – this film doesn’t make the same mistake of thinking bigger is better. Skyfall is arguably the most personal entry yet in Daniel Craig’s run, and perhaps (with the possible exception of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) the series as a whole. Director Sam Mendes brings a gently melancholic perspective to cinema’s most famous spy, where Bond is on the backfoot for much of the time and only has drink and an old-fashioned sense of duty to keep him company.

    Full review: Skyfall | Cinema Review | Film @ The Digital Fix