Sight and Sound Magazine - October 2026

 

Editorial

Yet another boring article from Mike Williams to the start of this month's review. Do we really want to watch a documentary about Salman Rushdie? Mike tells us about the 1990 action movie International Gorillay that was "banned by the BBFC because of it showing the disturbing death of Rushdie". But this new documentary seems no better. Williams wants more of Rushdie's books filmed; the only one so far is Midnight's Children. 

Opening Scenes

A preview of the BFI Film Festival. Every year, this magazine looks at all the films on show. But why, oh why, is there a full page on Ken Russell's The Devils (1971) and not new movies! There are mentions of eight foreign films, none of which will get a release into mainstream cinemas. Nor those under Editor's Choice.

Under the Influence

Blake Simons introduces the American director Gregg Araki, who talks about his influences. None I had heard of.

In Production

Luna Carmoon has a new film called To Make Ends Meet. There is a short film by Bong Joon Ho. Production starts on The Brutalist director Brady Corbet's new project called The Origin of the World. But will it be the projected four hours long? Filming started in June on Sarah Polley's adaptation of Sylvia Plath's 1963 novel The Bell Jar. It stars Billie Eilish and Carey Mulligan.

In Conversation

Director Georgia Oakley talks about her new film Sense and Sensibility and how she has related to Jane Austen's novel. A very good interview with Hope Rangaswani.

Interview

Alan Davidson talks about a Blu-Ray release for Jennie Livingston's Paris is Burning. But probably not for me.

Mean Sheets

Hope Rangaswani is again showing us some unique hand-painted posters of mainstream films for distribution in Ghana.

Reader's Letters

As usual, nothing interesting.

The Long Take

Pamela Hutchinson is inspired by Samamtha Morton's brilliant depiction of Circe in The Odyssey (the bruising sincerity of Morton's performance) and looks at many other single-scene successes. 

Flick Lit

Nicole Flattery talks about Lena Dunham and her new memoir, Fame-sick. Now that is quite interesting, but why then a major turn to Mike Leigh's 1997 film Career Girls, whose plot is revealed in detail? 

TV Eye

Andrew Male on Elizabeth Merriweather's eight-part crime thriller, Furious. It's on Disney+. So did I need to read anymore? Well, I did and know it's not worth watching anyway.

Jane Schoenbrun and Camp Marisma

A twelve-page article plus the front cover of this month's magazine. Katie McCabe talks to the American writer/director, who says she is "committing to excess rather than restraint. We hear about her background, her earlier experiments in film culminating in the success of Were All Going to the World's Fair (2021). It was about the "internet subculture". Then came 2024's I Saw the TV Glow, about television shows of the 1990s. 

Now comes Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Marisma, starring Gillian Anderson (Billy Presley) and Hannah Einbinder as Kris. "A satirical send-up of the 1980s slasher genre." It's how one of these original movies spawned many sequels that get ever more violent. But it's the first time that the two sit down to watch. One having appeared in the movie forty years ago and the other a hard core fan. 

Katie and Jane talk about the 1980s slasher boom, but here on VHS, "If it gets too real, you can always turn it off." That message is posted over the door to the old cinema. Katie calls 

Kris "tightly wound". We hear about the invention of the term "the final girl" by film critic Carol J Clover and then about the director's new book Public Access: Afterworld. 

However, there is this long attack on "every major studio and distributor" who passed on her film. Jane goes on and on about the twelve men who decide about what gets made. " They don't feel great about the progress that queer storytellers have made over the past decade." 

Jane Schoenbrun: Film by Film

All her feature films are described by the director.

Building Camp Miasma

For the snowy mountains we have "hand-painted mountain backdrops". The artist is Kyle Moore. We hear about Jane's influences, including Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and Secretary (2002), where it's about "two freaks finding each other". Which could be a tag line for Camp Miasma. 

Anatomy Lesson

An introduction by John Bleasdale of a conversation between Nicolas Winding Refn and Dario Argento, preceded by a rundown of their earlier movies. "We have arranged their conversation in an anatomical order." So here we go:

EYES

Nicolas is colour blind. Dario thinks his new film is quite complex.

EARS

They talk about the music.

NOSE

All about the film Suspira.

HEART

Nicolas says a year ago he was dead for twenty minutes and "brought back to life with electricity". (Have we heard of that somewhere?)

RIBCAGE

He didn't have to have heart surgery. There is an opening of a chest in his new movie.

GUT

All about the film Valhalla Rising.

HANDS

Apparently Nicolas has the softest hands.

BRAIN

The cinematic devices that Nicolas uses to penetrate the watcher's brain.

PHYSICAL REMAINS

About his film Suspira and physical decomposition.

Direct Action

Philip Concannon looks at twenty-five years in film of director David Ayer. His latest movie is The Heart of the Beast, starring Brad Pitt. We hear about Ayer's earlier films from Training Day (2001) and through "twenty-five years of forging thrills". Many of those with Jason Statham. The new film "solely features Pitt and his canine companion". Alone in a wilderness after a plane crash.

Ayer talks about all the preparation he does for his action sequences. "It's physics, it's geometry, it's trigonometry, it's motion," and lots more. It's all very interesting, especially when they talk about the tank battles in Fury. Apparently Ayer operates the camera quite a bit. 

At the movies with ..... Salman Rushdie

Nick James introduces his interview, which includes Rushdie's life, favourite films and his screenwriting and cameo roles. Not at all interesting.

Dancing at the Revolution

Sarah Moldoror has a season of her films at the BFI Southbank. None of any interest.

All About My Mother

The curator of this BFI Southbank season is ....... her mother.

Who Cares

Jonathan Romney discusses with the writer/director Lance Hammer his new film Queen at Sea that is set in London. It stars Tom Courtney, Anna Calder-Marshall and Juliette Binoche. So a top-notch cast. And guess what, it's about old age, infirmity and dementia, so not particularly uplifting. It's Hammer's first feature since 2008. Set in Tuffnel Park, north London. The whole film is about the repercussions of an intimate moment between the old couple. Why would the daughter involve the police? I cannot think that would ever happen, despite her mother's dementia. All the long discussions about "social and medical procedures". Does not sound like my cup of tea. More interesting is the background to the casting.

Reviews

They start with a double-page review by Kate Stables of Bad Apples. It stars Soirse Ronan as a teacher under stress. A kind of satire about modern schooling. A well-written review, but maybe not a film for me.

I will pass on the documentary Knife that looks at Salman Rushdie's recovery from that brutal assault. Also pass on the horror film Leviticus. 

I have already seen The End of Oak Street. Not a great review by Kim Newman, as there is nothing to add to mine. 

Emsan Khoshbakht reviews Everybody Digs Bill Evans, a dramatised documentary about the jazz pianist. But apparently "it's not about jazz, nor is it about Bill Evans, the pianist. It's more of a family story." The film takes place between June and October of 1961, between a recording and its release. Adapted from the novel Intermission (2013) by Owen Martell. "It's magic .... lay in tracing loss in the passing of time." The things and people he had lost. But will it get a cinema release?

Henry K. Miller this time looking at Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass. A comedy drama from David Wain, his first film for eight and a half years. A pretty weird premise sees Zoey Deutch tracking down the real-life John Hamm as revenge for her husband's infidelity with Jennifer Anniston. A trail across Los Angeles where she gathers helpers along the way. An American comedy that might be OK, but not really for me.

The Weight is reviewed by Philip Concannon, and he is impressed with this thriller starring Ethan Hawke. "A stellar performance" as a miner helping to smuggle loot during the depression. But apart from director Padraic McKinley apparently bungling a set piece, "it's a solid and often impressive adventure".

Philip Kemp and a review of Tony. (See mine). Despite the fact that he congratulates Dominic Sessa and Leo Woodall for their performances, "the film is stolen (as it often is) by Antonio Banderas as Chef. It's a tale of a real-life chef in his earlier loutish non-cooking days. There is a "summery haze" over Provincetown. "The prevailing mood is relaxed and entertaining."

Extra Geography is only a small film from Molly Manners, based on a short story by Rose Tremain. Simran Hans tells us about two high-achieving girls at a boarding school becoming inspired over the summer by the plot of A Midsummer Night's Dream. They also decide to fall in love with the next person they see. Geography teacher Miss Delavigne. It stars Marnie Duggan and Galaxie (?) Clear. Might be interesting if it ever gets a mainstream release.

Giovanni Marchini Camia reviews Her Private Hell, written, produced and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (see previous article). Again, a really weird but interesting film from the director of Neon Demon and Dtive. (See my reviews). This time we are in a "dystopian metropolis", and Elle (Sophie Thatcher) is in a tower block where there is a serial killer on the loose. Before this movie, Refn had been away making two streaming series on Amazon and Netflix, neither of which were renewed. No surprise there. 

I'm not sure about the alternative plot set in Japan, but the review says "it's more satisfying partly because the action keeps things lively". Also because the lead actor in this part Charles Melton, is "by far the most talented actor here". The review has lots about the music that "plays almost without pause". Finally we hear this is "Refn's version of a fairytale" and "with buckets of gore".

Rachel Pronger has a full-page review for Queen at Sea. Despite my reservations, she says, "This is an impressively subtle film." See the earlier article. 

DVD and Blu-Ray

Histoire(s) du cinéma and other works. This is a collection of films from Jean-Luc Goddard. Henry K Miller warns us, "You have to accept you will not understand it." 

Lost and Found

The only one I recognise is Billy Liar, relegated to a minor review by Kate Stables. She says it's "a glorious 4K transfer".

Wider Screen

I wish we had something more interesting than two unmade screenplays by Alex Cox.

Books

The Edges of Cinema: Essays on Twenty-first Century Film Culture by Erika Balsom and reviewed by Imogen Sara Smith. But this is definitely not about mainstream movies but "the effects of duration, stillness or movement, tactility, and sound" in films. It's more a collection of pieces, "many from the end of Covid and Black Lives Matter". Not for me.

Kinky Bio

Here is an article in Sight and Sound from twenty-four years ago. It's by Ryan Gilby about what was then a new film: 24 Hour Party People by director Michael Winterbottom. It's definitely of its time, set in 1976-1992, when Tony Wilson established Factory Records in 1980s Manchester. And the Hacienda nightclub. The film is being re-released in October. But the article is way too serious with much academic research, so it's really hard work. 

This Month in ...... 1954

Jay Leyda talked about Kurosawa's Rashamon (1950) that won an Oscar. Also a review of On the Waterfront (see my recent post) and Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. It was called at the time graceless. How opinions have changed.

My Village Walk

I have a regular circular walk that takes me from Weston Turville to Halton for about four miles. I walk from the house so I don't have to take the car. I can choose whether to go clockwise or anticlockwise. At the weekend it was the former, so I started off through the outskirts of the village, starting along Church Lane. This is a very quiet road, pretty much perfect, the oldest part of the village, with thatched cottages and older houses, parallel but well away from the busier Main Street, which is the main route through the village. Church Lane is only just wide enough for cars to pass each other. There are not many of these around. There is a nice footpath on the right, and on the left are an odd house and countryside behind.

Such as this one behind a flint wall. It's called Ivy House.

Also on the left are a number of tracks that lead to the canal.

Further along Church Lane and on the right is the entrance to The Chequers Inn car park.

The tables outside The Chequers are popular in the summer.

Further along there is now a bench on a patch of grass and a map and historical information of the village. It has the title Weston Turville 2000 and has maps of the Millennium Trail and the parish. These are surrounded by photos of cottages, the church and shops.

This is where I turn left into Church Walk. On the corner is the vicarage. 

Just down the lane there is a turning on the right and a track down to Church Farm. The notice on the left is for teas on Saturdays and Sundays.

I ignore the turning and go straight on to where Church Walk crosses Wendover Brook. (See post 18th February 2024).

At the end of Church Walk is the parish church of St Mary the Virgin.

A nice public footpath through the churchyard leads to fields. I'm only fifteen minutes into my walk.

At the end of the churchyard is a gate into a large field and the Chiltern Hills in the distance. I love this view.

The path through the middle of the field has great views of hills ahead.

I then reach a gate into a much larger field that has just been ploughed. 

Through the gate and a long path runs along the side of a hedge to the left. Part of Wendover Woods is in the distance.

To the right are some great views of the Chiltern Hills. On the left is the end of Wendover Woods, then Beacon Hill with those two trees at the top. Then Whiteleaf Hill and, in the very far distance, the top of The Ridgeway beyond Princes Risborough.

Note in the photo above, the ploughed field had left a wide area next to the path. But this had disappeared by the time I took the photo below.

Down the path and in the distance is Aylesbury County Hall.

At the end of the field is the gate to the canal path of the Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal.

On this particular route I turn left. If I turned right, there is a long towpath alongside the canal to Wendover. Note the improvement of the path below courtesy of funding from HS2. It's about two thirds of a mile down to Halton. 

The canal is on the right, and there are nice views over fields on the left. The hills in the background stretch from Wingrave to Aston Abbotts and then Weedon.

The canal is overgrown in parts, so there is no sign it will be revived as a waterway. So the old towpath is now a perfect route even at the muddiest time of the winter. Now it's great for the wildlife, and there are ducks along the way.

At the end of the path is a gate to the road at Halton Lane.

Here on one corner is a wild flower border.

I am in the village of Halton, and across the road is the Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels. I usually go straight past, but I decided to take a look for a change. This used to be on one of my very long walks to Wendover Woods.

Here there is a well-kept graveyard for the RAF.

Just past the church, I turn right onto a one-way public road through Halton Tennis Centre.

Past the tennis courts is a large open area that used to be RAF Halton Cricket Club. Now only an area of grass, it is used for the occasional function parking. And, I guess, in reserve if ever needed by the military. 

It is actually a beautiful location, quiet and surrounded by trees with the Chiltern Hills in the distance. All that remains of its use for cricket are these dilapidated nets and some concrete bases for a catching cradle.

I come out at a road called Halton Village that then becomes Chestnut Avenue after a few yards. No guessing what the trees are. I turn right along the footpath heading for the canal. 

A short way down the road and I come to a bridge over the canal.

Again, the towpath on the left leads to Wendover and on the right to Halton. But I don't cross the canal. Instead I take a wooded path off the road.

Only a short walk and I'm back on the same road in Halton. 

I cross the road and take the signposted path to Weston Turville Reservoir.

This long path has Wendover Brook on the left all the way to the reservoir.

To the left are fields and later the slope of the Chilterns once again.

Near the end of the path and on the right, the reservoir is seen through the hedge 

I'm at the top of the steps that lead down to the water. With the hills in the background, another superb setting. The yachts are out at the weekend. There is a path all the way round the reservoir, so I use the alternative route that goes past the yacht club when the one I'm on is too muddy.

I 

On Friday, the swans and cygnets were out on the bank.

Just before the gate is Wendover Brook again, only a trickle after the dry spell.

Through the gate, I come out onto Worlds End Lane.

Only a short distance to a signpost and the path to the allotments.

At the end of the short grassy path above is a stile, and beyond a small field where there often cows who have made their way through a gap from the lower field on the right.

At the end of this field is another style to the allotments. This is a signposted public right of way.

At the end of the track through the allotments I rejoin Church Lane.

One of the thatched cottages on the left. 

And the old Church Room on the right. Now part of a house.

And I'm nearly home. The photos were taken over two days, one sunny and the other cloudy. I never tire of this walk; there are so many different parts. And I can go one of two ways. Always a decision when I start off.