Month: October 2026

Ken Russell’s
The Devils

Ken Russell’s The Devils

Director – Ken Russell – 1971 – UK – Cert. 18 – 114m

*****

Restored. Remastered. Uncensored. Ken Russell’s notorious masterpiece finally reaches the big screen as he originally intended it to be seen – from the BFI London Film Festival 2026 which runs from Wednesday, October 7th to Sunday, October 18th in cinemas and on BFI Player, a new 35mm film print previews at BFI Southbank from Friday, October 23rd to Thursday 29th, and the film is out in UK and Ireland cinemas Friday, October 30th

NSFW.

To anyone who has seen the version of The Devils released theatrically in the UK with an X certificate in 1971, and put out on DVD by the BFI about ten years ago, watching this new version has about it the sensation of tasting forbidden fruit. (If you’ve never seen that version, all I can say is, start with this one: this is the version that Russell intended.) It’s perhaps instructive to look at what has changed, in other words those scenes which were considered by the BBFC and / or distributor Warner Bros. too shocking for inclusion back in the day.

Writing about the X certificate version on its DVD release, I noted that the four areas in which the film didn’t hold back were sex, religion, politics and torture.… Read the rest

Tags artistic quality, BBFC, BFI, blasphemy, British cinema, British Film Institute, Cardinal Richelieu, Catholic Church, Christian spirituality, Christopher Logue, church history, city walls, concession, convent, decadent, demon-possessed, director's cut exists, distributor, diversion, eerie, experimental, father, France, Graham Armitage, gratuitous, John Trevelyan, Ken Russell, knock down walls, LFF, LFF 2026, London Film Festival, London Film Festival 2026, Loudun, Louis XIII, modern city, Monarch, mother superior, nation, nudity, nun, nunsploitation, Oliver Reed, orgy, Peter Maxwell Davies, political history, politics, power, power base, priest, promiscuity, protector, public lavatory, rape, Rape of Christ, religion, restoration, score, self-governing entities, seventeenth century, sex, sexuality, sister, torture, total freedom, UK, UK censor, Vanessa Redgrave, Warner Bros., X Certificate

Features Live Action Movies

The Uprising
(2026)

The Uprising (2026)

Director – Paul Greengrass – 2026 – UK – Cert. 15 – 128m

****

A farmer, a priest and an ex-soldier lead a march on London that will later become known as the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 – out in UK cinemas on Friday, October 9th

1381. South East England. Ploughman (Andrew Garfield) stands, a lone figure in a desolate landscape. A commoner.

At a local village, backed up by a small retinue of soldiers representing the Crown, a tax collector is collecting annual revenue from each and every adult male, which has increased to a point where ordinary people who work the land can no longer afford to pay it.

It comes out that Ploughman has lost his wife and kids to the recent outbreak of the Black Death, and he loses his composure and gets into a fracas with a soldier over the latter’s inappropriate treatment of a woman. You expect at this point for Ploughman to get carted off and imprisoned, but somehow his act inspires others to stand up to the soldiers, and he comes through the experience rather better than the official, who is forced to leave.

Meanwhile, the 14-year-old King (Woody Norman) is a spiritually troubled young man beset with nightmares and doubts.… Read the rest

Tags 1381, 14-year-old, 14-year-old king, Andrew Garfield, architecture, bereaved, Black Death, Canterbury, commoner, Cosmo Jarvis, court, docudrama, doubts, emissary, England. ploughman, equality, farmer, figurehead, grievance, heretic, illiterate, Jamie Bell, John Ball, Jonny Lee Miller, Katherine Waterston, London, Lord Mayor of London, march, medieval, military, mob, mob violence, monarchist, nightmare, Paul Greengrass, Peasants’ Revolt, Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, petition, poor people, preaching, priest, privilege, raising taxes, revenue, royal barge, rule, soldier, South East, spiritually troubled, status, status quo, Stephen Dillane, subjects, tax, tax collector, Thames, the Crown, the mass, The Uprising, Thomasin McKenzie, Tom Hollander, UK, village, Wat Tyler, wealth, Woody Norman

Animation Art Immersive Movies Shorts

Water Body

Water Body

Artists / Directors – Barney Steel, Ersin Han Ersin, Robin McNicholas – 2026 – UK – 25m

*****

A sensory experience centred around a moving image of the Thames as part of the global water network based on data sets – installation at St. Martin-in-the-Fields crypt 12:30-21:00 hours from Saturday, October 3rd to Sunday, October 18th as part of the London Film Festival’s LFF Expanded strand

A little waiting area shows a series of hand-crafted hangings by artist Elena Landinez showing various river tributaries before you enter the experience space proper. Before entering that space, you are alerted to the fact that the experience includes a total blackout section, also that there are pottery vessels handmade by ceramicist Ludmilla Balkis inside the space for you to take containing water that was cloud some two weeks ago, from which you can drink. Seating is mostly bean bags on the floor, and a single row of conventional seating at the back.

So I’m sitting on a seat at the back – or is it the back? – not really knowing what to expect. The lights go down: total blackout. All around me, sounds. (These started, I think, before the blackout, as if little rivulets of water were running somewhere.)… Read the rest

Tags abstract, Antarctica, Astrida Neimanis, Barney Steel, blackout, blue, ceramic, cloud, colour, computer model, data set, Earth, Elena Landinez, Ersin Han Ersin, Europe, five senses, global water network, globe, hand-crafted, hanging, installation, James Bulley, LFF, LFF 2026, LFF Expanded, LFF Expanded 2026, London Film Festival, London Film Festival 2026, Ludmilla Balkis, map, Mark Rothko, Marshmallow Laser Feast, migration, movement, nature, patterns in motion, penguins, planet, plankton, pottery vessels, River Thames, river tributaries, rivulet, Robert McFarlane, Robin McNicholas, seabirds, sharks, simulation, sip, sound field, species, species migration, surface, surface area, Thames Estuary, turtles, waiting area, water, whales

Features Live Action Movies

A Better Tomorrow II
(Yingxiong Bense 2,
英雄本色2)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date October 2 2026
No Comments on A Better Tomorrow II
(Yingxiong Bense 2,
英雄本色2)

A Better Tomorrow II (Yingxiong Bense 2, 英雄本色2)

Director – John Woo – 1987 – Hong Kong – Cert. 18 – 105m – Workprint cut 140m

The first half **

The second half *****

Workprint cut *****

To continue the franchise, Chow Yun-fat returns playing the brother of his character in the first film, a New York restaurateur – 4K Restoration is out on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from Monday, 28th September

There’s something hugely endearing when Chow Yun-fat appears here, playing the brother of his character in the first film, insisting his name is not Mark but Ken. Nevertheless, he has on hand his late brother’s coat, with a few holes from bullets, to don in the closing scenes. Mark can’t possibly return having died at the end of the first film, and yet, to all intents and purposes, he’s back for this sequel!

The film as it appeared in release prints feels like little more than an excuse to have another big shoot out with Chow Yun-fat and others at the end, and you can feel Woo struggling as he tries to find a way of getting there without completely losing interest.

(Update: for struggling read; struggling with the editing required to get the film down to 105 minutes for cinema release.… Read the rest