David Cairns
@dcairns.bsky.social
Film maker, film critic, film teacher, film lover, fool for film
Big piece on Edward Dmytryk at Columbia. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/09/05/n...
Neat trick, Dmytryk
This is my essay on Dmytryk for Locarno Film Festival’s Lady with the Torch retrospective on Columbia Pictures under Harry Coen two years back. I *think* it’s the final draft. Born 1908…
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Enjoyed writing about Bernard "Mad" Vorhaus for this big red book: dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/08/30/t...
The Big Red Book
My copy of Red and Black: Hollywood Left and the Blacklist, edited by Ehsan Khoshbakht, just arrived! I’m in here, blabbering on about Bernard “Mad” Vorhaus, the New York-born fil…
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DOUGLAS GORDON BY DOUGLAS GORDON, not so much a documentary, more an open-plan labyrinth. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/08/24/g...
One of the best films I saw at Edinburgh International Film Festival was THE EDUCATION OF JANE CUMMING, based on a story that may be somewhat familiar to classic movie fans... dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/08/20/a...
An Education
THE EDUCATION OF JANE CUMMING, screened at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, is based on the same story that inspired Lillian Hellman’s play The Children’s Hour a…
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A good biographical-critical look at comics titan Harvey Kurtzman just played at Edinburgh. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/08/19/m...
Mad World
THE MAD WORLD OF HARVEY KURTZMAN, screened at Edinburgh International Film Festival, celebrates the creator of Mad Magazine and shows there was much more to the man than just one paradigm-changing …
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David Melville WIngrove provides another swooning guest post on classic French cinema, this time tackling Jacques Becker's delirious FALBALAS: dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/08/18/p...
PAPA KNOWS BEST: “F is for Falbalas”
PAPA KNOWS BEST An A-Z of French Cinema Before the New Wave F is for ‘Falbalas’ “Why do people swim upstream and not just go with the flow?” “Because they want to know where they are going.” ~ Raym…
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My first two films at Edinburgh Film Fest both featured John Hannah and dildos used as throwing weapons. Coincidence? Yeah, I'm going with coincidence. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/08/14/h...
#CheesyMovies EAST OF EDAM; REVENGE OF THE CHEDDAR; WHEN DINOSAURS ROULADE EARTH; BRIE GODFATHERS; MUNSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR; ROQUE IV
I didn't know a week ago that Scottish comedian Rikki Fulton made two silent movies in the fifties. I know now. Am I happier for it? dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/08/09/t...
The Sunday Intertitle: Scots Whaaa
I picked up for a pound a weird DVD combining some olde Scottish musical shorts and a couple of short silent comedies starring and made by Rikki Fulton in the 50s. I figured I’d get intertitl…
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Wolf Mankiewitz's satire on the British film industry is pretty spicy. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/08/08/w...
Two nautical comedies starring Awful British Comedians: dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/08/06/b...
Britannia Waives the Rules
More Awful British Comedians, because there are ALWAYS more. I picked up the Network DVD of FREEDOM OF THE SEAS because it was pretty cheap and pretty mysterious. I hadn’t heard of anybody in…
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Is HEAT hot? It has its points. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/08/05/m...
Mann on Fire
So, finally watched HEAT. I tend to have issues with Michael Mann films but, despite reservations about this one, I did not experience my usual issue of finding that his bold stylistic choices are …
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Watching HEAT and I'm sorry but I don't believe that a cop would say "Let's violate his ass right now," without clarifying his intent.
I'm pretty bad at watching Tarkovsky but this one was somewhere between a gruelling arse marathon and a real transfiguring experience. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/08/01/l...
Long longing
I’ve been very slow at getting into Tarkovsky. I have several unwatched discs that’ve been unwatched for years. But then I have too many discs. I have liked what I’ve seen but sel…
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A Richard Matheson TV thriller that isn't Duel but IS rather good. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/07/27/d...
The makers of the 1911 L'ODDYSSEA get some cyclops things right that Nolan, with a 116 year advantage, still struggles with. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/07/26/t...
The Sunday Intertitle: Polyphemus Perversity
This 1911 L’ODYSSEA is pretty good from a spectacle viewpoint. It’s from that naive period of cinema where the intertitles tell you want you’re ABOUT to see, relieving the images …
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If you only read one review of THE ODYSSEY, here is one review of THE ODYSSEY. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/07/23/t...
A piece I did about Brit director Anthony Kimmins: dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/07/22/k...
Kimmins and Goings
This is another piece written for the Locarno Film Festival’s “Great Expectations” retrospective on postwar British cinema. Anthony Kimmins began in the early 1930s – unusually – …
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This is a piece I wrote for the Locarno Film Festival on the semi-admirable, semi-deplorable Val Guest. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/07/17/f...
Foul Pest
The following was written for Locarno Film Festival’s retrospective and book Great Expectations: British Postwar Cinema 1945-1960, edited by Ehsan Khoshbakht. It wasn’t called Foul Pest…
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I used to make 20-minute video essays, like a person. But now the two most recent are about 45 mins and another, yet to be announced, is an hour forty-five. But I feel it would take longer to make them shorter.
Double Indemnity... doubled! dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/07/11/d...
Double Double Indemnity
I own a book entitled The Five Great Novels of James M Cain, anthologising The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Butterfly, Serenade, Mildred Pierce, and Double Indemnity. I’d only read Serenad…
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Richard Dix, Fay Wray, and a bunch of stand-ins are the stars of IT HAPPENED IN HOLLYWOOD. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/07/09/s...
Sticks Nix Dick Dix Pix
I like Richard Dix in movies, especially his WHISTLER B pictures, and GHOST SHIP, where he fits in perfectly with Val Lewton’s fondness for understated villainy. Unfortunately some the RKO st…
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Marcello Matroianni has been at it for a full week. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/07/05/l...
La Dolce Vita, Day 7, Night 7
Another short day, another long night. We see Marcello trying to do some actual writing in an open-air cafe, then getting attracted by an actual person’s story. He’s a little flirtatiou…
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We loved BACKROOMS and @monsterfromid66.bsky.social was moved to write about it: dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/07/02/w...
Daniel Kremer's jumbo video essay gives us all something to aim for. dcairns.wordpress.com/2026/07/01/z...
