Following hot on the heels of the recent French cinematic masterpiece "WC2006 – The Official Video", comes a much anticipated trilogy of short films from revered British director Sir Carol Reeve. Boldly moving from the more familiar cricketing arena (check out his classic post-war film noir The Third Man), Reeve considers some of the more disturbing psychological issues buried deep under the glamorous veneer of the planet's most celebrated sporting tournament – The LogicaCMG World Cup.

The elaborate director reveals that all is not as it might seem in the cash and booze-fuelled world of international football. Reeve employs some acute camera angles to expose the disturbing problems faced by those constantly in the public spotlight, producing a haunting series of portrayals of the mental damage wreaked by unseen predators such as tedium, fear of old age, and a dismal inability to find hit the onion bag from twelve yards.

Unusually for him, Reeve defended his choice of such a controversial format for his set of films (collectively entitled The Grandfather Trilogy), angrily declaring that "shorts do matter, especially when they're too small," in response to a constant stream of criticism emanating from the US. In contrast, the trilogy has been widely acclaimed as a stunning cinematic tour de force by British critics, and the public can now make up their own minds as all three parts (Part I, Part II and Part III) of the trilogy have now been released online.

THE GRANDFATHER TRILOGY
Director: Sir Carol Reeve

Part I – The Big Sleep: Reeve draws on inspiration from Chandler's hard-boiled classic to produce an in-depth study of psychological torture. An ageing and infirm General offers our wise-cracking, hard-drinking heroes the ultimate assignment in a plot that is infamously complex and quite hard to follow. "They don't write speeches like this anymore. It's criminal!" – Lack of Variety Magazine. [Released: 12 Sept 2006]

Part II – The Siddysburg Address: Unable to take part himself, some old bloke in America writes a speech blathering on about battles past and present. In an attempt to inspire war-weary troops to victory, the author returns to the glories of his youth "four score and seven years ago" with unexpectedly humourous results. Narrated by comedy straight-man, 'Bud' Abbott. "Like a lengthy bout of penalty box pinball wizardry, you will end up laughing at the relentless paucity of it all..." – Screening Legends Magazine. [Released: 26 Sept 2006]

Part III – Twelve Yard Monkeys: A futuristic thriller set in the year 2006 that, unusually from the pen of Reeve, fails to hit the mark. Our heroes are sent back in time to try and halt a vicious plague (spawned sixteen years earlier by the so-called 'Twelve Yard Monkeys') that has afflicted the nation ever since. Predictably the time machine over-shoots, and our travellers pay the ultimate penalty, twice over. "DON'T MISS IT!!!" – DreamTeam Productions. [Released: 14 Dec 2006]