Sight and Sound April 2014

April 2014 edition of Sight and Sound. This issue is billed as a 'Made in Britain' special; the cover feature is on 'Under the Skin' with an analysis of the film by Jonathan Romney and an interview with the director, Jonathan Glazer. Scarlett Johansson is pictured from the film on the cover and a sidebar feature interviews composer Mica Levi about her score. There are also British cinema features on David Mackenzie and his prison film 'Starred Up' and Richard Ayoade's adaptation of Dostoyevsky's 'The Double'. There is also the second part of the interview with veteran producer Jeremy Thomas by editor Nick James. In his editorial James argues that British cinema is now more inclusive in its combination of the popular and art, notes the controversies of categorising national cinema and calls for more British films to engage with contemporary issues. There is also a feature article by Pascal Iannone on depictions of childhood in cinema, inspired by the recent death of Shirley Temple. Films discussed include 'The 400 Blows', 'The Fallen Idol' and 'Cria Cuervos'. Iannone then interviews Mark Cosuins about his new documentary on this topic, 'A Story of Children and Film'. In other articles this month Ben Walters looks at the rebranding of the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival as BFI Flare; Hannah McGill's 'object stories' column is on the anklet, especially the one worn by Barbra Stanwyck in 'Double Indemnity'; 5 fictional European States in film are showcased; Jonathan Romney interviews French female director Karell Quillevere about her new film 'Suzanne'; Mark Cousins discusses his relationship with Iranian filmmaker Mohammed-Ali Talebi; in the industry pages filmmaker Jonny Owen talks about the development of his music industry comedy 'Svengali', which began as internet webisodes, and Charles Gant looks at the UK box office success of 'Dallas Buyer's Club' with a list of the performance of star Matthew McConaughey's films in Britain. Ben Roberts , the Head of the BFI Film Fund, considers the state of gay filmmaking in the UK. Nick James reports from the 2014 Berlin Film Festival, with a piece by Geoff Andrew on Diao Yinan's 'Black Coal, Thin Ice' and Jonathan Romney on Tsai Ming-Liang's IMAX film 'Journey to the West'. The Wide Angle features looks at the work of Quebec cinema verite filmmakers Michel Brault and Pierre Perrault and Sukhdev Sandhu writes about Bill Morrison's 'The Great Flood'. There is a piece by Crystal Chan on the experimental soundtracks of Norman McLaren's animations and in the 'Primal Screen' column Pamela Hutchinson examines the restoration of Edward S Curtis's documentary on Native North Americans 'In the Land of the Headhunters'. The regular piece on artist's moving image is on an exhibition at the Glasgow Tramway on Michael Smith and his alter-ego character 'Mike'. The films of the month are Asghar Farhadi's Iranian -French drama 'The Past'; Austrian thriller 'The Robber'. Sicilian drama 'Salvo' and Errol Morris's documentary 'The Unknown Known: The Rules and Memos of Donald Rumsfeld'. Other cinema releases reviewed this month include: 'Half a Yellow Sun', adapted from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel; 'The Lego Movie'; George Clooney's 'The Monuments Men'; the remake of 'Robocop'; Xavier Dolan's 'Tom at the Farm' as well as the films covered in the main features. In the Home Cinema section there are longer reviews of Michael Mann's 'Thief' by Nick Pinkerton and Don Siegel's version of 'The Killers' by Kim Newman with a look at 'Parks and Recreation' and 'Bates Motel' in the TV section. The 'Lost and Found' feature is on late Noir 'The Burglar', adapted from David Goodis' novel and in 'Endings' Danny Leigh considers the conclusion to Scorsese's 'After Hours'.