Films – The Orbital

14Nov

By Victoria BurdenNo Comments

Features, Film & TV, News

The 12 Days of Christmas Films

With Christmas well and truly underway here are twelve festive favourites to get you in the spirit! Day 1 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (2005) While not technically a Christmas film, Narnia’s eternal winter and an appearance from Santa himself gives enough reason to consider this film a great way to ease you into the festive season. With a mixture of action, adventure, fantasy, and a sprinkle of Christmas, there’s plenty for everyone to enjoy in this children’s classic. Day 2 How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) / The Grinch (2018) For the Scrooges among us, this one is ideal for you. If you’re not quite ready for the chaos of Christmas but equally don’t want to miss out on the fun, sit yourself down and give this a watch. You might just find the Gr...

6Mar

By Georgia BeithNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV, Literature

Historical Fact or Fiction?

Georgia Beith discusses whether historical fiction should be more accurate. A piece of historical fiction, whether that be in the form of a book or a period drama, is one of life’s ultimate guilty pleasures. And as a student, especially a history student like myself, it’s not the most respectable thing in the world to admit that you like them. They’re riddled with anachronisms and inaccuracies that make a lot of people look down on them but that doesn’t diminish their entertainment factor. Perhaps as someone who studies the past it should bother me that Anne Boleyn probably didn’t consider sleeping with her brother in order to produce a child, or that Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ wasn’t likely to be heard at medieval jousting tournaments. But it doesn’t, though there are a number of p...

31Oct

By Isabella MansellNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Anti-Halloween Film Picks

The Orbital's Arts journalists give you their favourite films to watch to combat the spooky season of Halloween and the cold wintry nights to come! Beth Carr - Love Actually You can't not smile while watching a load of people fall in and out of love and connect their lives in unexpected ways. The music is sublime and the storyline is extremely clever, brought to life by a stunning cast of cinematic favourites. Plus, Halloween means it's basically almost Christmas, right? Isabella Mansell - Mamma Mia Who doesn't love an Abba singalong? The feel-good plot of love and comic wit leaves everyone with a smile on their face and a toe-tapping experience! Why not escape the British cold and drizzle through the Grecian Summer and nothing could be further away from the t...

28Jan

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

BAFTA Masterclass with Cinematographer Dick Pope

A rapturous round of applause ensues as Dick Pope, a leading creative force in cinematography, takes to the stage. The academy award nominated Mr Pope is still working today, and his impressive portfolio spans many films including a variety with the iconic film maker Mike Leigh to Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008) – the later which was neglected from the talk, unfortunately. What came next was a selection of personally selected clips, conversation and audience questions. Dick seemed a lovely, humble gentleman passionate about his craft who saw cinematography as an art form. At its core cinematography is the basics of what goes into a shot – the colours, lights and camera shots for instance that creatively manipulate every frame we view and can add so much more depth and intrigue...

28Jan

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Jeremy Irvine and Phoebe Fox talk Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death

Following the success of the unnerving first instalment of The Woman in Black, I went to meet with stars of the sequel, Jeremy Irvine and Phoebe Fox, to talk horror, rocking chairs and men in shorts… Q: So, the film draws on many traditions of the horror genre, what is it about these elements that make the film so scary for audiences? Jeremy – A lot of it is down to sound mixing and the way that you prepare a scare through the editing. We all know something is about to happen and then it happens when you don’t expect it, and that’s when you get the best jumps. Phoebe – One of the things that works really well in the first movie, and in the play, that feeds through into our movie is the sound of the rocking chair – it’s terrifying! Q: There’s a very creepy atmosphere, as you menti...

28Jan

By Eleanor WaltonNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Tales as old as time

Trends come and go in Hollywood from fashion to A-lister; everything comes in and out of style and the world audiences taste in films is no less fickle. An example? Twilight. It dawned the vampire era in tv and film in 2008 and the fallout from is still being felt with films like The Vampire Academy, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and Warm Bodies all being greenlit following its success. But with the lacklustre response from audiences for similar franchises in comparison to Twilights’ success the tastes have changed. It may be easy for people to claim that now is the era of the superhero with another eleven films planned in the genre over the next five years. But in the shadow of trends rising and falling in recent years has been one far more consistent and it’s seen its fair s...

28Jan

By Harry BrownNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

The Top 5 Greatest and Most Disappointing Films of 2014

The film industry had its fair share of tragedies and scandals in 2014. The losses of talents such as Robin Williams, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Harold Ramis in devastatingly quick succession, while the recent Sony Pictures hacking and the following cancellation of The Interview’s release has set a troubling precedent. On the brighter side though, the sheer number of quality releases was staggering. With that said, my top five films of the year! 5. Locke (Steven Knight) One incredibly hard film to recommend, Locke is simply 85 minutes of Tom Hardy talking to people on his phone in a car. It might sound boring but it quickly becomes clear how engrossing this character’s struggle is, combined with Hardy’s best acting to date. 4. The Raid 2 (Gareth Evans) The most precise and dynamic ...

2Nov

By Harry CrawfordNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Wild at the BFI London Film Festival

Gather round film-lovers, for it’s that time of year again - yes, the BFI London Film Festival is back! It saddens me to say that I did not get the chance to see this year’s prime starlets, (Mr Turner, Foxcatcher and The Imitation Game spring to mind) but all is not lost. 'Wild' has crept below many people’s radars, even my own. I can blame the marketing campaign as much as I like but I should have known better. This is director Jean-Marc Vallée’s second film of 2014, and the first, 'Dallas Buyers Club', was outstanding, landing two Oscars. Is 'Wild' another Academy contender? Based on Cheryl Strayed’s similarly titled memoir, 'Wild' focuses on her hike along the Pacific Crest Trail in the mid-nineties. Years of reckless behaviour as a drug and sex addict, kickstarted by the untimely de...