Rear Window is one of my all-time favourite films so in this episode I discuss its unique production, the ethics of spying and voyeurism explored in the story, and feminist critiques of both Hitchcock and his movies. Transcript Rear Window is one of my favourite films of all time, which is why I’ve decided […](Read more...)
Alfred Hitchcock virtually invented the spy movie genre, and made a career making films about murder, intrigue, cover-ups, suspense and spies. He suspected that he was under FBI surveillance during the production of Notorious, but the release file only covers a later period. Rather than being concerned with Hitchcock himself, it tells the story of […](Read more...)
In a low-key announcement the British government have demanded that Russia extradite two suspects in the Salisbury novichok attack. Media reporting on this latest move in the novichok saga is replete with the same contradictions and absurdities that have plagued this story since day one. This is my latest article on the unfolding novichok drama. […](Read more...)
The American President is a romantic comedy set in the White House, set against a backdrop of political issues that are still part of our public conversation. In this episode I analyse the film's politics of nostalgia, its idealisation of the liberal agenda, and its promotion of the military and security state. (Read more...)
A recently-released syllabus for the US Naval Academy’s course FP130: American Government and Constitutional Development includes a section that advises students to watch and learn from the 1995 romantic comedy The American President. Bizarrely, the scene does not involve the military or foreign or security policy in any way, but is about the President trying […](Read more...)<
For movie censors, crime is perhaps the most complex issue to make decisions about. They want the public to be alert to the possibility of crimes happening, and respectful of law enforcement institutions. But entertainers and audiences want dramatic, ambiguous villains and stories of institutional corruption and hubris.
The West’s claim to moral superiority and its assumption of the role of ‘world’s policeman’ are largely derived from a classical approach to liberalism. In short, the argument is that our societies are more liberal (and therefore superior), so we have the unique right to spread our values around the world by force and coercion. […](Read more...)
For the last several weeks the British media has been in full panic mode after two people were apparently poisoned in the English town of Amesbury, a few miles from Salisbury. The official story is that the pair found a perfume bottle containing Novichok that was discarded by Russian assassins after the poisoning of the […](Read more...)
Recently released files show that Denis Thatcher – the oil baron husband of British PM Margaret Thatcher – personally vetted a list of celebrities to be invited for a glitzy reception at Number 10. While the likes of Ronnie Corbett, Judi Dench and Andrew Lloyd-Webber were considered friends of the government others such as Paul […](Read more...)
