“Purple Rain is a transparent – yet very effective – attempt at creating an origin for its star which its target audience can buy into, exploiting our urge to mythologise public figures.”

“The American funnyman is juvenile, even antisocial, but wins over the doubters by way of maddeningly unfunny films that are both mawkishly sentimental and transparently unrealistic.”

“The cinema is a place of escape, however, we have also constructed it to be a place where some actors are irrevocably trapped within a role we demand them ceaselessly to reprise.”

“Kubrick makes sure that, whilst we are afraid of the criminals, we are also profoundly uncomfortable with how the state deals with them on our behalf.”

“Welles pretends to deceive the audience, whilst letting us in on it and allowing us to anticipate the rabbit emerging from the hat.”

“His detractors often criticise him as callous. Yet, these two shots from The 39 Steps show a filmmaker capable of great compassion.”

“For Adorno and Horkheimer, mass culture is what eats us alive, yet we consume it quite freely and unthinkingly.”