‘It is up to the Great Film Critic in the Sky to deal with Life of Brian.’
Penelope Mortimer
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
In 1958, The Times referred to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo as ‘not an important film or even major Hitchcock’. In 2012, they reported that it had been declared the best film of all time.
Cinematic history is filled with hindsight; filled with tales of the ‘underdog’ being talked down only to rise triumphantly — nobody thought The Wizard of Oz or Titanic would be remotely successful.
But they were.
In The Times on Cinema, celebrated film author and journalist Brian Pendreigh throws open the archives on one of Britain’s favourite pastimes. From the Fatty Arbuckle scandal in the 1920s to the infamous Oscars mix up of 2017, from Harry Potter to James Bond, cinema’s most revered and sharp-tongued critics line up to review and retell some of the world’s most famous films and infamous events.
