David Cairns on mubi.com, the social network for people who love film.

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David

Cairns

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

About Me

Filmmaker (struggling), lecturer and writer. Just give me £200,000 and I’ll be happy.

Favorite Films

Displaying 4 of 31 films

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The 400 Blows

Style

Auteur-driven
Melancholy
Zip, whiz, and energetic!
Wildly romantic
Deliriously surreal
Nouvelle vague
Of-the-past
Pop Art
Other-worldly

Following

Following 132 people

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Ramin S. Khanjani

10Aug12

Thanks for following back, as well as for your piece on Nerven. Now I regret neglecting it before.

Waterloo Sunset

12Jul12

Your article on Siodmak that Mubi Notebook provided a link to is fantastic. I really want to see Pièges.

David Cairns likes this

David Cairns

12Jul12

Thanks! The Sirk remake, Lured, is very very similar, even the titles are the same. The Siodmak is better, though, and Chevalier's rather untrustworthy quality is very well used.
Waterloo Sunset

12Jul12

i love that you said "Chevalier's rather untrustworthy quality".i have a problem with him because of his pliabilty (at the very least) with vichy etc. but even as a kid his schtick seemed phony to me.
David Cairns

12Jul12

I don't know how bad he was really during the Occupation -- others were certainly worse. But the film of him trying to justify himself is very creepy. Nobody else really used that quality: he plays a murder suspect for Siodmak and you think he might well be guilty. George Sanders in the remake also has an edge, but it's more conventional casting.

I don't guess you'll be making it to the New York-based retrospective-within-a-retrospective of Universal's 100th and a backroom Siodmak tribute? Some marvelous double features: Uncle Harry and Cobra Woman for the price of Jaws!

David Cairns

8Jul12

Sounds great, but financially I don't think there's any way. I always thought Cobra Woman really belongs with The Dark Mirror though...
Scout

9Jul12

Leave it to Americans! That said, their pre-code double bills were pretty stunning. Red Dust followed by Safe in Hell. It was like Christmas and Fat Tuesday stuffed in a suggestively-named dessert.
David Cairns

9Jul12

I'm sure it'll be terrific anyway. There's such a wealth in Siodmak's back catalogue, including rarely-seen stuff like Someone to Remember (which is very Christmassy, actually)...
Scout

9Jul12

That's sitting on my hard-drive, actually, thanks to your article. I'll be viewing in the next few days. But don't tell the government.