New Empress Magazine

Unveiled: The Final Bumper Issue

This month sees the release of our last print issue! When I started this project in 2010 I had no idea what I was getting myself into (how difficult could… [Continue Reading...]
In Review: Listen Up Philip on DVD

Philip Lewis Friedman (Jason Schwartzman) is a young, New York author on the verge of having his second novel published. He is also a self-absorbed, arrogant… [Continue Reading...]
In Review: Life Moves Pretty Fast (Book)

How could we not be sceptical about another book on 1980s movies? Nostalgia, ho! But Hadley Freeman's ode slash entreaty to us not to forget how good we… [Continue Reading...]
In Review: The Misfits (1961) re-released

It is understandable how the stories and controversy surrounding a film's production can contribute to the way it’s eventually perceived when released.… [Continue Reading...]
Old Hollywood: Sidney Poitier and the Civil Rights Era

Cinema has always been seen as a mirror to society, the changes, the fears, the angers and the themes of a nation are often represented and reflected on… [Continue Reading...]
COFILMIC Comedy Film Festival: Entries wanted

Attention all prospective comedy writers and filmmakers: a festival you will not want to miss is coming to Manchester on the 29th and 30th October. Now… [Continue Reading...]
Win A Blu-ray Bundle And Signed Poster With The Release Of T.S. Spivet

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s beautiful T.S. Spivet is released in UK cinemas on Friday 13th June and to celebrate, we’ve got a very special package to giveaway… [Continue Reading...]
Old Hollywood: The Woman’s Picture

In the 1940s a term to describe a type of (sub) genre of film came to prominence in cinema- The ‘woman’s picture’. Though films of this nature had… [Continue Reading...]
In Preview: BFI Flare 2015

As usual it’s a glorious action-packed schedule at BFI Flare (19th-29th March, London) helpfully divided into three sections; documentaries sit side… [Continue Reading...]

The New Empress Magazine Video Blog: James Dean, A Legend Restored

by Maryann O'Connor 17 April 2014

James Dean, yeah? Yeah. The man, the legend, returns to cinema screens this week, so Mark Searby has taken the time to refresh our memory on exactly who the legend was. We love a rumour of indiscriminate public urination. Over to you, Mark… More of our video blog shizzle can be found here

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In Focus: Paul Giamatti, from Private Parts to Madame Bovary

by Daniel Goodwin 17 April 2014

Wily and lovable, character actor Paul Giamatti is one of those rare supporting performers who works equally well in the background of a big budget film as he does leading a smaller independent. After appearing in this year’s Academy Award winning best film 12 Years A Slave, Giamatti returns to cinemas this week as super-villain […]

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Birds Eye View Film Festival 2014: Review Roundup

by Mairéad Roche 16 April 2014

Our coverage of the excellent Birds Eye View Film Festival 2014 is brought to a close by this selection of reviews by Mairéad Roche. Reviews of I am Yours, Belleville Baby and Gabrielle

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In Review: Fill the Void on DVD

by Amanda Keats 16 April 2014

When a woman dies during her nine month of pregnancy, she leaves behind her husband Yochay (Yiftach Klein), younger sister Shira (Hadas Yaron), parents and a new baby boy. Though everybody is still dealing with their grief, it is soon agreed that baby Mordechai needs a mother and his father needs a new wife. When […]

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Birds Eye View Film Festival 2014: Girlfriends (1978)

by Maryann O'Connor 15 April 2014

As someone who doesn’t particularly care for comparing films, the introduction to Sunday night’s screening of Girlfriends (1978) by I am Dora front woman Jemma Desai resounded in the ol’ brain and heart. Jemma told us persons there present that the film we were about to see was most commonly mentioned in conjunction with some […]

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Birds Eye View Film Festival 2014: Nothing Bad Can Happen

by Daniel Goodwin 13 April 2014

What starts as a quaint drama about a young, child-like Christian (Julius Feldmeier) taken in by a struggling family to help work on their allotment, Nothing Bad Can Happen slowly evolves into a different beast entirely.

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Birds Eye View Film Festival 2014: Gone Too Far

by Daniel Goodwin 12 April 2014

Many films have been made about British youth culture over the last decade but few can be held up as examples of great film-making. Even less are based around London’s African/ Caribbean communities and hardly any portray the youth of today in a positive light. But because of the overabundance, when it came to adapting […]

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In Review: Half of a Yellow Sun

by Maryann O'Connor 12 April 2014

Watching Biyi Bandele’s depiction of a Nigeria in transition is like receiving a sharp elbow to the ribs; first it takes your breath and then it hurts. Nigeria 1960: hardly any time passes between the glorious party to mark independence and the stark, brutal decimation of the old order. We witness all of this through […]

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Birds Eye View Film Festival 2014: Lucky

by Daniel Goodwin 11 April 2014

Laura Checkoway’s documentary about young, homeless mother Lucky Torres and her battle through life in downtown New York is an unyielding exposé of a troubled soul struggling to raise a family during times of hardship.

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In Review: The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears

by Josh Slater-Williams 10 April 2014

Before even watching a frame of the work in question, genre-savvy film enthusiasts will likely gather from its title that The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears is a tribute to giallo cinema, a form of Italian thriller fuelled with fantastical horror and eroticism that was host to striking film names such as Your Vice […]

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In Review: The Raid 2

by Daniel Goodwin 10 April 2014

Gareth Evans’ original, excellent one-location crime battle ballet was never going to be an easy one to follow. But rather than taking the Die Hard route of re-housing the carnage in a different location, for the sequel Evans wisely expands The Raid’s Indonesian underworld, presenting characters only previously name-checked in the first film and hurling […]

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