Category Archives: Introductions

How personal was Vertigo to Hitchcock? In terms of the director’s infamous control over his films, particularly on set, there may have have been a good deal of the director that went into the film. I look at how that comes through in the cycles of Vertigo in this introduction I gave to the filmContinue reading “Vertigo – Introduction”

David Lynch’s love for The Wizard Of Oz and its “truthful” nature came most to the fore in Wild At Heart, a film that came as decades-long passion project Ronnie Rocket once again stalled. Falling in love with Barry Gifford’s characters of Sailor and Lula he had to make the film, with one or twoContinue reading “Wild At Heart – Introduction”

The sudden flood of colour onto the screen as we first enter Oz is just as wonderous as it ever was, however I think that what’s just as striking about The Wizard Of Oz is just how much it moves. It’s one of the points that I talk about in this introduction to the filmContinue reading “The Wizard Of Oz – Introduction”

Back in June 2025 I introduced a screening of Blue Velvet at The Little Theatre in Bath as part of Picturehouse’s ‘Lynchspirations’ season. The film was paired with Hitchcock’s Rear Window, which is said to have inspired Blue Velvet. I look at those possible inspirations, alongside those of Lynch’s favourite Kubrick film, Lolita, and hisContinue reading “Blue Velvet – Introduction”

As part of Picturehouse’s ‘Lynchspirations’ season Rear Window was paired with David Lynch’s Blue Velvet as a film that inspired it. Below is the introduction I gave for Hitchcock’s classic thriller, based on the rough one I had written before the screening at The Little Theatre in Bath in June 2025. Fuelled by the 50sContinue reading “Rear Window – Introduction”

Originally intended as a film within a film, Airplane borrowed so much from one 50s disaster flick that the ZAZ creative team got the rights to remake it in order to get away with their spoof. As everyone was asking “surely, you can’t be serious?” the line that followed got everyone to relax about whatContinue reading “Airplane – Introduction”

Back in the summer of 2023 I introduced a screening of writer-director Julia Ducournau’s body horror Titane at the Bristol Megascreen (at the time simply known as the former Bristol IMAX) in Bristol Aquarium. The video below features a specially re-recorded version of that introduction, read from what I had written before the screening. LookingContinue reading “Titane – Introduction”