Book Ed Rosenbaum, scr Robert Caswell
William Hurt (great as always), Christine Lahti, Mandy Patinkin, Adam Arkin, Elizabeth Perkins
Ph. John Seale
Takes getting cancer for doctor to become better human being. Actually could apply to any profession.
Monday 31 December 2012
Something's Gotta Give ( 2003 Nancy Myers & scr)
Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton (praised in this by Woody Allen), Amanda Peet, Frances Macdormand. Keanu Reeves
Ph Michael Ballhaus Second film today dedicated to recently deceased father (Myers'). Rather long. Restaurant in Paris featured is Le Grand Colbert
Ballhaus is restrained. Might have benefitted from a more golden look like Rotunno or di Palma?
Ph Michael Ballhaus Second film today dedicated to recently deceased father (Myers'). Rather long. Restaurant in Paris featured is Le Grand Colbert
Ballhaus is restrained. Might have benefitted from a more golden look like Rotunno or di Palma?
Play It Again Sam (1972 Herbert Ross)
Screenplay Woody Allen (from his play).
Woody Allen, Diane Keaton (with GF1, her big films), Tony Roberts, Jerry Lacy (Bogart), Susan Anspach and coincidentally Jennifer Salt.
Not as funny as it used to be. Roberts constantly giving phone number has great pay-off when he says he's moving to Alaska.
Ph. Owen Roizman.
 |
| Still: Kristian Goddard |
Not as funny as it used to be. Roberts constantly giving phone number has great pay-off when he says he's moving to Alaska.
Ph. Owen Roizman.
Eat Pray Love (2010 Ryan Murphy)
Written by Murphy and Jennifer Salt.
Julia Roberts, javier Bardem, Richard Jenkins, Billy Crudup, some foreign people.
Ph. Robert Richardson
Long, rather dull and flabby story of soul-searching.
But... "dolce niente" (the sweetness of doing nothing).
Julia Roberts, javier Bardem, Richard Jenkins, Billy Crudup, some foreign people.
Ph. Robert Richardson
Long, rather dull and flabby story of soul-searching.
But... "dolce niente" (the sweetness of doing nothing).
Boys' Night Out (1962 Michael Gordon)
MGM. Kim Novak, James Garner. Tony Randall, Howard Duff, Howard Morris, Jessie Royce Landis, Oskar Homolka.
Ph. Arthur E. Arling, 'Scope.
Music Frank de Vol
Men take apartment so they can be unfaithful with Kim.
Ph. Arthur E. Arling, 'Scope.
Music Frank de Vol
Men take apartment so they can be unfaithful with Kim.
Sunday 30 December 2012
The Apartment (1960 Billy Wilder)
One of the 10 best films ever made. If you look up 'bittersweet' in the Film Dictionary, this is what you'll get.
Here are some other dates when I've watched this film.
27 December 1977.
30 December 1978.
29 December 1980. (The BBC were very reliable in those days.)
January 1992.
7 May 1992.
16 August 1993.
24 December 1994.
27 December 2003.
11 December 2004.
17 December 2006.
29 March 2009.
18 June 2010 (to get over the disappointment of the England Algeria game).
15 October 2011.
13 October 2012.
Some thoughts:
She says 'check your nose'. He checks it in the glass of Sheldrake's office, sees the secretary. It all drives the plot along.. Such as her face, when she sees Sheldrake at the Chinese. The direction serves the screenplay and so there's not a shot wasted.
"I'd like to get her on a slow elevator to China." It's written by Wilder and IAL Diamond and they won the Oscar for their perfect screenplay. Billy also won another two for directing and producing. Also Alexandre Trauner for the sets (Mark Cousins points out the giant office is a reference to The Crowd) and Daniel Mandell's editing. The British Academy were more generous to the stars, giving both Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine the award for Best Foreign Actor. Joseph Lashelle's photography is beautifully luminous, like Charles Lang's.
Great cast. Jack Kruschen was nominated also (Dr Dreyfuss: "Mind if I cool this off?"). And you have to love Fred MacMurray for two reasons. One, risking his safe Disney career for Wilder (for the second time, cf. Double Indemnity when he went against type to be the bad guy). Two, the scene where Lemmon accidentally squirts cold medicine at him and he doesn't break the moment.
Kirkeby: David Lewis.
Vanderhoff: Willard Waterman.
Eichelberger: David White.
Dobisch ("What's buddy boy ever done for us?"): Ray Walston.
Baxter's pissed date is Hope Holiday, Joyce Jameson the blonde who sounds like Marilyn, Joan Shawlee is Kirkeby's date. Edie Adams is Miss Olsen.
Everyone has unfolding papers.
The importance of the key. The perfection of the cracked mirror (my favourite shot in a Wilder). He was not a technical, tricksy director, but even he was pleased with this. Because it is a major plot moment, but also reflects his conflict:
In the Sight and Sound poll's Top 10 of Richard Ayoade, Coppola, Hazanavicius and Asghar Farhadi (A Separation). Naturally. one of Cameron Crowe's Top 10.
We don't know Baxter's first name. I realise Baxter is Hil, and that makes us laugh a lot!
Interesting watching the the filming: great use of widescreen and deep focus means less need to cut.
Great music by Adolph Deutsch (Some like It Hot, The Maltese Falcon).
Here are some other dates when I've watched this film.
27 December 1977.
30 December 1978.
29 December 1980. (The BBC were very reliable in those days.)
January 1992.
7 May 1992.
16 August 1993.
24 December 1994.
27 December 2003.
11 December 2004.
17 December 2006.
29 March 2009.
18 June 2010 (to get over the disappointment of the England Algeria game).
15 October 2011.
13 October 2012.
Some thoughts:
She says 'check your nose'. He checks it in the glass of Sheldrake's office, sees the secretary. It all drives the plot along.. Such as her face, when she sees Sheldrake at the Chinese. The direction serves the screenplay and so there's not a shot wasted.
"I'd like to get her on a slow elevator to China." It's written by Wilder and IAL Diamond and they won the Oscar for their perfect screenplay. Billy also won another two for directing and producing. Also Alexandre Trauner for the sets (Mark Cousins points out the giant office is a reference to The Crowd) and Daniel Mandell's editing. The British Academy were more generous to the stars, giving both Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine the award for Best Foreign Actor. Joseph Lashelle's photography is beautifully luminous, like Charles Lang's.
Great cast. Jack Kruschen was nominated also (Dr Dreyfuss: "Mind if I cool this off?"). And you have to love Fred MacMurray for two reasons. One, risking his safe Disney career for Wilder (for the second time, cf. Double Indemnity when he went against type to be the bad guy). Two, the scene where Lemmon accidentally squirts cold medicine at him and he doesn't break the moment.
Kirkeby: David Lewis.
Vanderhoff: Willard Waterman.
Eichelberger: David White.
Dobisch ("What's buddy boy ever done for us?"): Ray Walston.
Baxter's pissed date is Hope Holiday, Joyce Jameson the blonde who sounds like Marilyn, Joan Shawlee is Kirkeby's date. Edie Adams is Miss Olsen.
Everyone has unfolding papers.
The importance of the key. The perfection of the cracked mirror (my favourite shot in a Wilder). He was not a technical, tricksy director, but even he was pleased with this. Because it is a major plot moment, but also reflects his conflict:
In the Sight and Sound poll's Top 10 of Richard Ayoade, Coppola, Hazanavicius and Asghar Farhadi (A Separation). Naturally. one of Cameron Crowe's Top 10.
We don't know Baxter's first name. I realise Baxter is Hil, and that makes us laugh a lot!
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| For some reason, G. Nius Qued puts this together with A Clockwork Orange! |
Great music by Adolph Deutsch (Some like It Hot, The Maltese Falcon).
Saturday 29 December 2012
Restless (2012 Edward Hall)
Screenplay William Boyd, from his novel (& exec prod.)
Hayley Atwell, Rufus Sewell, Michelle Dockery, Charlotte Rampling, Michael Gambon ("Never bring peanuts with whisky. Never."), Thekla Reuten, Adrian Scarborough
Ph. David Higgs. Music Lorne Balfe.
The team is being "rolled up".
Hayley good as self-sufficient heroine who can't shake off paranoia.
Hayley Atwell, Rufus Sewell, Michelle Dockery, Charlotte Rampling, Michael Gambon ("Never bring peanuts with whisky. Never."), Thekla Reuten, Adrian Scarborough
Ph. David Higgs. Music Lorne Balfe.
The team is being "rolled up".
Hayley good as self-sufficient heroine who can't shake off paranoia.
The Groove Tube (1974 Ken Shapiro)
Written by Sapiro and Lane Sarasohn.
Ken Shapiro, Richard Belzer, Chevy Chase.
Uneven, yes. A relic of the stoned seventies, yes. Crude and rude, yes.
And yet there is something unforgettable about the film's best bits. Every time I'm listening to a discussion on Radio 4 and I hear the click of a teacup I think of the TV interview that is overtaken by coffee and cake.
Did Seth Macfarlen see this? I have a funny feeling he did.
Other highlights:
Krupps vegetable shortening (those wonderfully expressive hands):
Various ads for Uranus Corporation.
Sex Olympics ("a beautiful curl".)
"Wonderful you" in the pink suit (and where the cop joins in a la Singin' in the Rain).
Keystone Cops / Vietnam.
Ken Shapiro, Richard Belzer, Chevy Chase.
Uneven, yes. A relic of the stoned seventies, yes. Crude and rude, yes.
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| Richmond Baier: poetry in motion (her only film, sadly) |
Did Seth Macfarlen see this? I have a funny feeling he did.
Other highlights:
Krupps vegetable shortening (those wonderfully expressive hands):
Various ads for Uranus Corporation.
Sex Olympics ("a beautiful curl".)
"Wonderful you" in the pink suit (and where the cop joins in a la Singin' in the Rain).
Keystone Cops / Vietnam.
Friday 28 December 2012
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011 Guy Ritchie)
Scr. Michele and brother-in-law Kieran Mulroney.
Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Jared Harris, Naomi Rapace, Stephen Fry, Paul Anderson (rather good as the assassin), Kelly Reilly, Rachel McAdams.
Good music by Hans Zimmer, lovely ph. Philippe Rousselot (Panavision).
Usual complaint about too fast and tricksy editing, slow mo scenes are beautiful, good script. Though why didn't Holmes and Watson blow up the munitions factory?
Very funny ending.
Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Jared Harris, Naomi Rapace, Stephen Fry, Paul Anderson (rather good as the assassin), Kelly Reilly, Rachel McAdams.
Good music by Hans Zimmer, lovely ph. Philippe Rousselot (Panavision).
Usual complaint about too fast and tricksy editing, slow mo scenes are beautiful, good script. Though why didn't Holmes and Watson blow up the munitions factory?
Very funny ending.
The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942 Charles Vidor)
Charles Laughton, Jon Hall, Peggy Drake, Victor Francen (doctor), Florence Bates, Curt Bois (dealer; Casablanca's pickpocket), Adeline de Walt Reynolds (granny)
Music Roy Webb, Ph. Nick Musuraca (RKO).
Well shot storm.
Laughton very likable.
Music Roy Webb, Ph. Nick Musuraca (RKO).
Well shot storm.
Laughton very likable.
Love Actually (2003 Richard Curtis & scr)
Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Bill Nighy, Gregor Fisher, Liam Neeson (a powerful irony), Colin Firth, Sienna Guillory, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Kris Marshall, Martin Freeman, Andrew LIncoln, Kiera Knightley, Chiwetal Ejiofor, Joanna Page, Heike Makatsch, Laura Linney
Ph. Michael Coulter.
Impossible to argue with.
The Prime Minister we wish we had.
Ph. Michael Coulter.
Impossible to argue with.
The Prime Minister we wish we had.
Thursday 27 December 2012
The Girl (2012 Julian Jarrold)
Scr. Gwyneth Hughes from a muck-raking book by Donald Spoto.
Toby Jones does a great job as Hitch, Sienna Miller is Tippi, Imelda Staunton as Alma...
... though it doesn't chime with what I and Kim Novak believe he was like.
The days of bird endurance are well shot.
Also Penelope Wilton, Carl Benkes as Jim Brown, on whose interview this was based, though his widow denies he would have been anti-Hitch.
Good, but not a great dramatic piece.
Ph. John Pardue.
Toby Jones does a great job as Hitch, Sienna Miller is Tippi, Imelda Staunton as Alma...
... though it doesn't chime with what I and Kim Novak believe he was like.
The days of bird endurance are well shot.
Also Penelope Wilton, Carl Benkes as Jim Brown, on whose interview this was based, though his widow denies he would have been anti-Hitch.
Good, but not a great dramatic piece.
Ph. John Pardue.
The Birds (1963 Alfred Hitchcock)
So then we watched THE BIRDS, which always did have too many special effects and process shots that Blu-Ray now emphasizes.
It takes a long time building (50 minutes before an attack) and feels very much like the later zombie film cycle. With the danger not emanating from people for a change, it's Hitch's most atypical piece. It doesn't have quite the same sense of style as his best films, e.g. in the petrol station explosion the cuts between Tippi's turning face look absurd.
Some great pure horror scenes and a somewhat anticlimactic ending.
Rod Taylor on good form as always. Jessica Tandy keeps looking like Lili Palmer as over-protective mother who finally accepts motherless Tippi. Also Suzanne Pleshette, Veronica Cartwright (kid), Ethel Griffies (ornithologist).
Still, note wonderful silent film sequence as Tippi rows out to Rod's place. Usual multiple camera positionings / angles in diner sequence. Classic sequence at school playing ground.
It takes a long time building (50 minutes before an attack) and feels very much like the later zombie film cycle. With the danger not emanating from people for a change, it's Hitch's most atypical piece. It doesn't have quite the same sense of style as his best films, e.g. in the petrol station explosion the cuts between Tippi's turning face look absurd.
Some great pure horror scenes and a somewhat anticlimactic ending.
Rod Taylor on good form as always. Jessica Tandy keeps looking like Lili Palmer as over-protective mother who finally accepts motherless Tippi. Also Suzanne Pleshette, Veronica Cartwright (kid), Ethel Griffies (ornithologist).
Still, note wonderful silent film sequence as Tippi rows out to Rod's place. Usual multiple camera positionings / angles in diner sequence. Classic sequence at school playing ground.
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| Poster: Saul Bass |
Wednesday 26 December 2012
Double Indemnity (1944 Billy Wilder)
Written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler from the novel by James M. Cain, plot is perhaps best summarised by its own quotation: " I killed him for money - and a woman - and I didn't get the money and I didn't get the woman. Pretty, isn't it?"
Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson.
Film was nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay. Also for best Actress, Music, Cinematography* and Sound. Legendary cameraman John Seitz**, who started in silents on Rex Ingram films, shot some of the best Sturges and early Wilders (all his films for the latter were Oscar nominated). This is one of Miklós Rózsa's finest scores and he too worked again with Wilder, perhaps trumping all earlier work with his Private Life of Sherlock Holmes in 1970.
The dialogue is absolutely crackling, e.g. the "There's a speed limit in this state" exchange.
"You're not smarter, just a little taller."
"The time for thinking had run out."
And the memorably eerie line: "I couldn't hear my own footsteps. It was the walk of a dead man."
All three leads are particularly credible in their respective roles.
* The fact that this film lost to Laura, which was only partially
shot by the credited camerman Joseph Lashelle, is rather unfair (in fact
Lucien Ballard had completed 75% of it before he and Rouben Mamoulian
were removed, see Leonard Maltin 'The Art of the Cinematographer' 1978 ed. p. 110).
** John SEITZ (from 1916).
Notable credits:
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (21)
Prisoner of Zenda (22)
The Divine Lady (29)(nom)
Another Thin Man (39)
Sullivan's Travels (41)
Five Graves to Cairo (43)(nom)
Miracle of Morgan's Creek (44)
Double Indemnity
Hail the Conquoring Hero (44)
Lost Weekend (45)(nom)
Sunset Boulevard (50)(nom)
When Worlds Collide (co-ph)(52)(nom)
Rogue Cop (54)(nom)
Miklós Rózsa (born Budapest)
Met Korda in London, 1935.
Knight Without Armour (37)
Thief of Bagdad (40)(nom)
Lydia (41)(nom)
Sundown (41)(nom)
Jungle Book (42) (nom)
The Woman of the Town (43)(nom)
Double Indemnity (nom)
Blood on the Sun (45)
The Song to Remember (45) (nom)
Lost Weekend (45) (nom)
Spellbound (45) (won)
The Killers (46) (nom)
Brute Force (47)
A Double Life (47) (won)
Criss Cross (49)
Asphalt Jungle (50)
Quo Vadis (51) (nom)
Ivanhoe (52) (nom)
Julius Caesar (53) (nom)
Ben Hur (59) (won)
El Cid (61) (nom)
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (70)
Fedora (78)
Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson.
Film was nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay. Also for best Actress, Music, Cinematography* and Sound. Legendary cameraman John Seitz**, who started in silents on Rex Ingram films, shot some of the best Sturges and early Wilders (all his films for the latter were Oscar nominated). This is one of Miklós Rózsa's finest scores and he too worked again with Wilder, perhaps trumping all earlier work with his Private Life of Sherlock Holmes in 1970.
The dialogue is absolutely crackling, e.g. the "There's a speed limit in this state" exchange.
"You're not smarter, just a little taller."
"The time for thinking had run out."
And the memorably eerie line: "I couldn't hear my own footsteps. It was the walk of a dead man."
All three leads are particularly credible in their respective roles.
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| Fred MacMurray admiring Barbara Stanwyck's ... ankle bracelet. |
** John SEITZ (from 1916).
Notable credits:
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (21)
Prisoner of Zenda (22)
The Divine Lady (29)(nom)
Another Thin Man (39)
Sullivan's Travels (41)
Five Graves to Cairo (43)(nom)
Miracle of Morgan's Creek (44)
Double Indemnity
Hail the Conquoring Hero (44)
Lost Weekend (45)(nom)
Sunset Boulevard (50)(nom)
When Worlds Collide (co-ph)(52)(nom)
Rogue Cop (54)(nom)
Miklós Rózsa (born Budapest)
Met Korda in London, 1935.
Knight Without Armour (37)
Thief of Bagdad (40)(nom)
Lydia (41)(nom)
Sundown (41)(nom)
Jungle Book (42) (nom)
The Woman of the Town (43)(nom)
Double Indemnity (nom)
Blood on the Sun (45)
The Song to Remember (45) (nom)
Lost Weekend (45) (nom)
Spellbound (45) (won)
The Killers (46) (nom)
Brute Force (47)
A Double Life (47) (won)
Criss Cross (49)
Asphalt Jungle (50)
Quo Vadis (51) (nom)
Ivanhoe (52) (nom)
Julius Caesar (53) (nom)
Ben Hur (59) (won)
El Cid (61) (nom)
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (70)
Fedora (78)
Tuesday 25 December 2012
Rear Window (1954 Alfred Hitchcock)
On Blu-Ray, exposing both the colour of Wendell Corey's eyes, and showing off that amazing track from dog to Stewart to its best advantage. Use of set and sound phenomenal.
Monday 24 December 2012
Four Christmases (2008 Seth Gordon)
I hated this obnoxious film. Hoped would improve when Vince Vaughan and Reese Witherspoon leave Robert Duvall's house, but it actually gets worse. People in it are so horrible it just isn't funny (unless babies puking on people is funny).
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989 Woody Allen)
Thankfully we had CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, as serious as a Bergman (and indeed he uses Bergman's cinematographer Sven Nykvist), though manages to be funny as well (note Alda's memos to himself).
Interesting bits. Theme of eyes, film of professor of philosophy (Martin Bergman, a real professor), climactic meeting of Allen and Landau all come together beautifully, with irony of Farrow / Allen story.
Also with Claire Bloom, Anjelica Huston, Sam Waterston, Jerry Orbach (killer).
This is the one Woody famously wrote on holiday on scraps of hotel stationary, and quite a list it is:
Interesting bits. Theme of eyes, film of professor of philosophy (Martin Bergman, a real professor), climactic meeting of Allen and Landau all come together beautifully, with irony of Farrow / Allen story.
Also with Claire Bloom, Anjelica Huston, Sam Waterston, Jerry Orbach (killer).
This is the one Woody famously wrote on holiday on scraps of hotel stationary, and quite a list it is:
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| Photo from Eric Lax, Conversations with Woody Allen |
Sunday 23 December 2012
It's A Wonderful Life (1946 Frank Capra)
James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers, Beulah Bondi (mother), Gloria Grahame
Written by Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett.
Photographed by Joseph Walker (a Capra collaborater from the old days) and Joseph Biroc (a newcomer).
Music Dimitri Tiomkin.
Liberty Films.
Another one we never watch at Christmas:
23 December 2009.
20 December 2010:
There's a great moment when Stewart's greeted at the door of his new 'house' by hat tip trick: he lowers the brim and rain falls off.
A long, serious film that may have emanated from A Christmas Carol.
The telephone scene between Stewart and Reed is one of several highly effective long takes (and Capra's positioning of them so close together charges it erotically).
21 December 2011
"Boys and girls and music.. who needs gin?" asks Lillian Randolph as she steps artfully into close up (Stewart does this too). It's a good trick.
23 December 2012
Lose control of tear ducts the moment it begins.
Written by Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett.
Photographed by Joseph Walker (a Capra collaborater from the old days) and Joseph Biroc (a newcomer).
Music Dimitri Tiomkin.
Liberty Films.
Another one we never watch at Christmas:
23 December 2009.
20 December 2010:
There's a great moment when Stewart's greeted at the door of his new 'house' by hat tip trick: he lowers the brim and rain falls off.
A long, serious film that may have emanated from A Christmas Carol.
The telephone scene between Stewart and Reed is one of several highly effective long takes (and Capra's positioning of them so close together charges it erotically).
21 December 2011
"Boys and girls and music.. who needs gin?" asks Lillian Randolph as she steps artfully into close up (Stewart does this too). It's a good trick.
23 December 2012
Lose control of tear ducts the moment it begins.
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942 William Keighley)
Not much of a Christmas favourite:
23 December 2010
22 December 2011
23 December 2012
3 January 2010
Adapted by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein from the play by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman.
Monte Woolley (his best part), Bette Davis (her most sympathetic role), Ann Sheridan ("the oomph girl, here?"), Richard Travis, Jimmy Durante ("did you ever get the feeling that you wanted to stay?"), Billy Burke and Grant Mitchell (the beleagured parents), Mary Wickes (Nurse Preen: "Mister White Side!"), George Barbier (the doctor, who actually starts looking like a penguin), Reginald Gardiner.
The plot timing is wonderful. The arrival of Ann Sheridan and her CDNs (censor defying nipples). Then the timely appearance of Jimmy Durante.
Tony Gaudio's photography is a particularly beautiful grey and white, inside and out.
Fantastic lines. "Mr Stanley's been arrested for peddling dope. Go away!"
"He announces the time every few minutes."
Richard Travis on being kissed by Bette "Say, I'll write another right away!"
23 December 2010
22 December 2011
23 December 2012
3 January 2010
Adapted by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein from the play by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman.
Monte Woolley (his best part), Bette Davis (her most sympathetic role), Ann Sheridan ("the oomph girl, here?"), Richard Travis, Jimmy Durante ("did you ever get the feeling that you wanted to stay?"), Billy Burke and Grant Mitchell (the beleagured parents), Mary Wickes (Nurse Preen: "Mister White Side!"), George Barbier (the doctor, who actually starts looking like a penguin), Reginald Gardiner.
The plot timing is wonderful. The arrival of Ann Sheridan and her CDNs (censor defying nipples). Then the timely appearance of Jimmy Durante.
Tony Gaudio's photography is a particularly beautiful grey and white, inside and out.
Fantastic lines. "Mr Stanley's been arrested for peddling dope. Go away!"
"He announces the time every few minutes."
Richard Travis on being kissed by Bette "Say, I'll write another right away!"
Saturday 22 December 2012
The Passionate Stranger (1957 Muriel Box)
Box co-wrote with Sydney.
Ralph Richardson, Margaret Leighton, Carlo Giustini, Patricia Dainton.
This print (can't remember where it even came from now) was found on the bottom of someone's shoe. It's so bad, it's difficult to differentiate between day and night, so impossible to judge Otto Heller's photography. According to Wikipedia, the fantasy scenes were in colour - not in this print.
Idea is fun and bad. (About writer who turns her Italian servant into a torrid love story).
Film should be called "The Stupid Italian".
Love the way RR says a wheel chair.
Ralph Richardson, Margaret Leighton, Carlo Giustini, Patricia Dainton.
This print (can't remember where it even came from now) was found on the bottom of someone's shoe. It's so bad, it's difficult to differentiate between day and night, so impossible to judge Otto Heller's photography. According to Wikipedia, the fantasy scenes were in colour - not in this print.
Idea is fun and bad. (About writer who turns her Italian servant into a torrid love story).
Film should be called "The Stupid Italian".
Love the way RR says a wheel chair.
Grace is Gone (2007 James C Strouse & scr)
Man tries to tell two daughters mummy is dead. Another film that has the wrong title: should be called "Just tell them!!"
Not the most helpful review on earth.
John Cusack, Shelan O'Keefe, Garcie Bednarczyk.
Ph. Jean-Louis Bompoint
Music by someone called Clint Eastwood.
Not the most helpful review on earth.
John Cusack, Shelan O'Keefe, Garcie Bednarczyk.
Ph. Jean-Louis Bompoint
Music by someone called Clint Eastwood.
Friday 21 December 2012
China Seas (1935 Tay Garnett)
Scr. Jules Furthman (lots of Hawks, von Sternberg, since 20s), James Kevin McGuinness
Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Rosalind Russell, Lewis Stone, Dudley Digges, C. Aubrey Smith, Robert Benchley, Edward Brophy (The Thin Man), Akim Tamiroff, Hattie McDaniel.
Ph. Ray June
Good model work in exciting storm scene.
Great fun. Nasty boot torture. Great cast. MGM.
Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Rosalind Russell, Lewis Stone, Dudley Digges, C. Aubrey Smith, Robert Benchley, Edward Brophy (The Thin Man), Akim Tamiroff, Hattie McDaniel.
Ph. Ray June
Good model work in exciting storm scene.
Great fun. Nasty boot torture. Great cast. MGM.
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| Stills courtesy doctormacro.com |
Thursday 20 December 2012
The Shanghai Gesture (1941 von Sternberg)
Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Victor Mature, Ona Munson (Mother Gin Sling, the madame 'Belle' from GWTW), Phyllis Brooks (who's good), Albert Basserman, Mike Mazurki, Maria Ouspenskaya (silent), Eric Blore, Michael Dalmatoff.
Ph. Paul Ivano (B movies)
Music Richard Hageman
Terrible picture and sound (UK DVD, Cornerstone Media) masks ornate detail, Munson's hair sculptures amazing. Has some wry dialogue and a Casablancery air, with JVS exoticism (girls in baskets, dragons) but not much in the way of sympathetic characters. Quite weird, of course
Ph. Paul Ivano (B movies)
Music Richard Hageman
Terrible picture and sound (UK DVD, Cornerstone Media) masks ornate detail, Munson's hair sculptures amazing. Has some wry dialogue and a Casablancery air, with JVS exoticism (girls in baskets, dragons) but not much in the way of sympathetic characters. Quite weird, of course
Susan Slept Here (1954 Frank Tashlin)
Dick Powell, Debbie Reynolds (aged 22, two years after Singin in the Rain), Anne Francis (girlfriend), Glenda Farrell, Alvy Moore
Ph. Nicholas Musuraca
You don't often see a colour RKO title nor a film narrated by an Oscar.
Dance number made me think that The Red Shoes/The tales of Hoffmann were very influential on musicals.
Film is nonsense fun, like strawberries and pickles.
Ph. Nicholas Musuraca
You don't often see a colour RKO title nor a film narrated by an Oscar.
Dance number made me think that The Red Shoes/The tales of Hoffmann were very influential on musicals.
Wednesday 19 December 2012
Turn the Key Softly (1953 Jack Lee)
Novel John Brophy, Scr. Lee & Maurice Cowman.
Yvonne Mitchell again (cf. Woman in a Dressing Gown) in a completely different part, Kathleen Harrison (granny), Joan Collins, Terence Morgan.
Ph. Geoffrey Unsworth, particularly good in night scenes.
Three women simultaneously released from Holloway prison, atmospherically told. Nice touches e.g. baby dropping cushion, daughter dropping flowers. When Morgan forces her into crime we were FURIOUS! Gripping rooftop finale.
Yvonne Mitchell again (cf. Woman in a Dressing Gown) in a completely different part, Kathleen Harrison (granny), Joan Collins, Terence Morgan.
Ph. Geoffrey Unsworth, particularly good in night scenes.
Three women simultaneously released from Holloway prison, atmospherically told. Nice touches e.g. baby dropping cushion, daughter dropping flowers. When Morgan forces her into crime we were FURIOUS! Gripping rooftop finale.
Rings On Her Fingers (1942 Rouben Mamoulian)
Source novel (info not known) was originally adapted by Emeric Pressburger as a vehicle for Elizabeth Bergner, who ended up appearing in 49th Parallel instead. The credited screenplay is by Robert Pirosh, Joseph Schrank & Ken Englund - whether there's any Pressburger left is unknown, but either way it is a very entertaining piece of work, e.g. Fonda on the phone describing a yacht whilst Tierney is lying in front of him sunbathing, and the two descriptions seem to go together!
It's a sort of reworking of the previous year's The Lady Eve, in which dope Henry Fonda is suckered by professional con artists (the great) Laird Cregar and Spring Byington, who have roped in gorgeous shopgirl Gene Tierney. John Shepperd, Frank Orth (detective) and Henry Stephenson (Colonel-ish casino owner) also feature.
Examples of film's wit:
Byington describing their somewhat illegal activities as a "supertax".
Fonda to Tierney: "If you didn't have a face like that our quarrels would last a lot longer".
When Honda 'holds up' the accomplices and Laird says "How corny was that?"
Incredible dancing scene.
Film is quite risqué, and highly recommended.
Photography: George Barnes.
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| Courtesey http://anneyhall.tumblr.com/ |
Examples of film's wit:
Byington describing their somewhat illegal activities as a "supertax".
Fonda to Tierney: "If you didn't have a face like that our quarrels would last a lot longer".
When Honda 'holds up' the accomplices and Laird says "How corny was that?"
Incredible dancing scene.
Film is quite risqué, and highly recommended.
Photography: George Barnes.
Tuesday 18 December 2012
Alice Adams (1935 George Stevens)
In Katharine Hepburn's capable hands we initially feel so sorry for Alice Adams where she gamely attempts not to feel lonely at a snobbish dance, though she becomes annoying trying to cover up the family poverty. Able support from Fred Stone, Anne Shoemaker and Frank Albertson (Sam Wainwright in It's A Wonderful Life), along with Fred MacMurray and, too briefly, Hattie 'McDaniels' as a particularly slow maid.
Ph. Robert de Grasse, Music Roy Webb, so it must be RKO.
Katharine is the only actor to have won four Oscars: Morning Glory (33), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (67), The Lion in Winter (68) and On Golden Pond (81). Lion in Winter looks great: former editor Anthony Harvey directing, John Barry, Douglas Slocombe on camera, Anthony Hopkins, Peter O'Toole, widescreen. Danish Blu-Ray £25.
Ph. Robert de Grasse, Music Roy Webb, so it must be RKO.
Katharine is the only actor to have won four Oscars: Morning Glory (33), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (67), The Lion in Winter (68) and On Golden Pond (81). Lion in Winter looks great: former editor Anthony Harvey directing, John Barry, Douglas Slocombe on camera, Anthony Hopkins, Peter O'Toole, widescreen. Danish Blu-Ray £25.
Saturday 15 December 2012
Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957 J. Lee Thompson)
Scr Ted Willis, who created Dixon of Dock Green and much else on TV.
Yvonne Mitchell, Anthony Quayle, Sylvia Sims.
Kitchen sink drama with lovely photography by Gilbert Taylor, contrasty and wide-angled.
The film is quite modern, but almost a three-hander play.
The wife is a nightmare.
Yvonne Mitchell, Anthony Quayle, Sylvia Sims.
Kitchen sink drama with lovely photography by Gilbert Taylor, contrasty and wide-angled.
The film is quite modern, but almost a three-hander play.
The wife is a nightmare.
Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972 Gene Saks)
We had never before encountered this Neil Simon comedy (clearly based on a play like most of his stuff), in which Alan Arkin attempts to seduce Sally Kellerman, Paula Prentiss and Renee Taylor in his mother's apartment. Cue amusement with Arkin's drinking voice, pot smoking etc. Much better than rated.
Music Neal Hefti, ph. Victor J. Kemper.
Music Neal Hefti, ph. Victor J. Kemper.
Friday 14 December 2012
American Graffiti (1973 George Lucas)
I daresay I'll upset lots of people by saying this is Lucas' only good film (he also co-wrote it).
Richard Dreyfuss, Ronny Howard, Charles Martin Smith (all pictured below), Paul Le Mat, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Bo Hopkins and Harrison Ford are 1950s adolescents on the cusp of change, metaphorically through night into day. With Wolfman Jack.
Haskell Wexler is 'visual consultant' and Walter Murch is involved in the sound editing (there's a wonderful stereo shriek that travels from the left to right spectrum). Verna Fields is editing. So lots of good creative people on the team.
Has a bitter final title scene after an ironic ending.
Richard Dreyfuss, Ronny Howard, Charles Martin Smith (all pictured below), Paul Le Mat, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Bo Hopkins and Harrison Ford are 1950s adolescents on the cusp of change, metaphorically through night into day. With Wolfman Jack.
Haskell Wexler is 'visual consultant' and Walter Murch is involved in the sound editing (there's a wonderful stereo shriek that travels from the left to right spectrum). Verna Fields is editing. So lots of good creative people on the team.
Has a bitter final title scene after an ironic ending.
Sunday 9 December 2012
Great Expectations (1946 David Lean)
Adapted by Lean, Ronald Neame (who produced), Anthony Havelock-Allen, Cecil McGivern and Kay Walsh (Mrs Lean 1940 - 49).
With John Mills, Bernard Miles (a perfect Joe Gargery), Finlay Currie, Jean Simmons - who slightly disappointingly becomes Valerie Hobson, Francis L. Sullivan, Alec Guinness (his debut), Tony Wager (young Pip), Eileen Erskine (Biddy; and Vi in This Happy Breed) and Martita Hunt as Mrs - I mean of course Miss - Havisham.
A far more cinematic event that you might expect with very clever use of sound; and I had greatly underestimated the music of Walter Goehr (whose few credits include Hitchcock's Spellbound)*.
Wonderfully lit by Guy Green, including remarkable, memorable shots of the coast and St Mary's Marshes, Rochester, after Krasker was fired for not being up to the task. Lean also suggested the kids should be shot in wide 35 and 24mm lenses, then longer (50 and 75mm) when they were adults, giving the effect of making the sets look much bigger. Lean was also complimentary about John Bryan's forced perspective set designs. (This info from Chapter 18 of Kevin Brownlow's house-sized book on Lean.)
With many clever touches, such as the experimental scene before Pip collapses, and much humour (young Pip's fight with Herbert Pocket!)
As well edited as you'd expect though as credited editor Jack Harris complained to Kay Walsh he wasn't contributing anything we can deduce that Lean was all over it (Brownlow again).
With John Mills, Bernard Miles (a perfect Joe Gargery), Finlay Currie, Jean Simmons - who slightly disappointingly becomes Valerie Hobson, Francis L. Sullivan, Alec Guinness (his debut), Tony Wager (young Pip), Eileen Erskine (Biddy; and Vi in This Happy Breed) and Martita Hunt as Mrs - I mean of course Miss - Havisham.
A far more cinematic event that you might expect with very clever use of sound; and I had greatly underestimated the music of Walter Goehr (whose few credits include Hitchcock's Spellbound)*.
Wonderfully lit by Guy Green, including remarkable, memorable shots of the coast and St Mary's Marshes, Rochester, after Krasker was fired for not being up to the task. Lean also suggested the kids should be shot in wide 35 and 24mm lenses, then longer (50 and 75mm) when they were adults, giving the effect of making the sets look much bigger. Lean was also complimentary about John Bryan's forced perspective set designs. (This info from Chapter 18 of Kevin Brownlow's house-sized book on Lean.)
With many clever touches, such as the experimental scene before Pip collapses, and much humour (young Pip's fight with Herbert Pocket!)
As well edited as you'd expect though as credited editor Jack Harris complained to Kay Walsh he wasn't contributing anything we can deduce that Lean was all over it (Brownlow again).
* No they don't, that would be a different Spellbound altogether, a 1941 British film about spiritualism.
Sweet Liberty (1986 Alan Alda & scr)
Alan Alda, Michael Caine, Michelle Pfeiffer, Bob Hoskins, Lillian Gish (a sprightly 93), Saul Rubinek (good as director)
Very similar (though not as good) as later State and Maine. Bob has non-role as writer, The 80s music now sounds appallingly dated.
Very similar (though not as good) as later State and Maine. Bob has non-role as writer, The 80s music now sounds appallingly dated.
The Ipcress File (1965 Sidney J Furie)
Michael Caine, Nigel Green, Guy Doleman, Gordon Jackson.
Incredible photography by Otto Heller in his distinctive hue of colours and featuring some of the widest shots ever seen.
Music John Barry (sensational). Editor Peter Hunt.
Won BAFTAs for best film, photography and art direction (Ken Adam).
The film was apparently taken away from Furie at the editing stage by producer Harry Saltzman.
Caine's glasses are Teviot 74s.
Incredible photography by Otto Heller in his distinctive hue of colours and featuring some of the widest shots ever seen.
Music John Barry (sensational). Editor Peter Hunt.
Won BAFTAs for best film, photography and art direction (Ken Adam).
The film was apparently taken away from Furie at the editing stage by producer Harry Saltzman.
Caine's glasses are Teviot 74s.
Saturday 8 December 2012
The Perfect Furlough (1958 Blake Edwards)
aka Strictly for Pleasure.
Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh (they divorced in '62), Linda Cristal, Keenan Wynn.
Ph. Philip Lathrop, CinemaScope, Eastmancolor.
Music Frank Skinner.
I'll wager none of the cast were ever in back-projected Paris. Comedy is forced as MPs endeavour to keep Curtis and Cristal apart.
Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh (they divorced in '62), Linda Cristal, Keenan Wynn.
Ph. Philip Lathrop, CinemaScope, Eastmancolor.
Music Frank Skinner.
I'll wager none of the cast were ever in back-projected Paris. Comedy is forced as MPs endeavour to keep Curtis and Cristal apart.
Sunday 2 December 2012
J. Edgar Daffodil (2011 Clint Eastwood, & music)
Leonardo di Caprio, Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer, Judi Dench
Sensational ph. by Tom Stern, almost b&w.
Editors Joel Cox & Cary Roach. Written by Dustin Lance Black (Milk).
Not sure at first, but grew more interesting. Time jumps are engaging but don't really add much. Mr Eastwood's own score a bit too plinky. Leo great as usual. We don't really care about J. Edgar or anyone else and film is too long like 'serious' Hollywood films always are.
Sensational ph. by Tom Stern, almost b&w.
Editors Joel Cox & Cary Roach. Written by Dustin Lance Black (Milk).
Not sure at first, but grew more interesting. Time jumps are engaging but don't really add much. Mr Eastwood's own score a bit too plinky. Leo great as usual. We don't really care about J. Edgar or anyone else and film is too long like 'serious' Hollywood films always are.
Man's Favourite Sport (1964 Howard Hawks & prod)
Rock Hudson, Paula Prentiss, Marin Perschy, John McGiver, Chalene Holt, Roscoe Karns, Norman Alden (John Screaming Eagle).
Music Mancini. Ph. Russell Harlan.
Hawks proving you could make an old-fashioned 40s style comedy in the 60s by essentially reworking Bringing Up Baby. Most enjoyable fishing scenes, bear on bike, Prentiss wonderful as Kate Hepburn character.
Music Mancini. Ph. Russell Harlan.
Hawks proving you could make an old-fashioned 40s style comedy in the 60s by essentially reworking Bringing Up Baby. Most enjoyable fishing scenes, bear on bike, Prentiss wonderful as Kate Hepburn character.
Ted (2012 Seth MacFarlane & co-scr)
Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis. Seth MacFarlane, Joel McHale, Giovanni Ribisi, Sam Jones
Not as fast or as funny as a good episode of Family Guy but v. enjoyable. Resurrection of FLash Gordon inspired.
Music by Walter Murphy sounds like a 60s TV show. Rich images by Michael Barrett (Bobby).
We watched the unrated version, naturally.
Not as fast or as funny as a good episode of Family Guy but v. enjoyable. Resurrection of FLash Gordon inspired.
Music by Walter Murphy sounds like a 60s TV show. Rich images by Michael Barrett (Bobby).
We watched the unrated version, naturally.
Saturday 1 December 2012
Viaggio in Italia (1954 Roberto Rosselini, & co-scr)
A bit like an early Antonioni, with an alienated couple trying to connect to life through people (Sanders) and history (Bergman) with the backdrop of Napoli and around. Memorable scenes with statues and sulphur pits.
Restless (2011 Gus Van Sant)
In Gus Van Sant's Restless (the only screenplay of Jason Lew) Mia Wasikowska is befriended by Henry Hopper and his kamikaze ghost Ryo Kase (thereby invoking a Japanese sub-text). Harris Savides shoots fabulously like every scene takes place on a late Autumn afternoon. Whether Van Sant's alternative silent version works is for another day.
The fact that Savides died on October 9, aged 55, of brain cancer, is a tragically ironic footnote. The beautiful, mournful style of this works better than any eulogy.
The fact that Savides died on October 9, aged 55, of brain cancer, is a tragically ironic footnote. The beautiful, mournful style of this works better than any eulogy.
Friday 30 November 2012
The Five Year Engagement (2012 Nicholas Stoller)
Good screen play by Stoller and star Jason Segel. With Emily Blunt, Chris Pratt, Alison Brie, Lauren Weedman (chef), David Paymer, Rhys Ifans.
Ph. Javier Aguirresarobe, Panavision.
We've got an Emily Blunt fan club going. The camera loves her, her face is so expressive, and she or her agent are making interesting, varied choices. And she hasn't gone for the accent. We couldn't watch The Wolf Man however.
The film is jolly good and Segel's not bad either!
Ph. Javier Aguirresarobe, Panavision.
We've got an Emily Blunt fan club going. The camera loves her, her face is so expressive, and she or her agent are making interesting, varied choices. And she hasn't gone for the accent. We couldn't watch The Wolf Man however.
The film is jolly good and Segel's not bad either!
A Matter of Life and Death (1945 Powell & Pressburger)
Managed to watch most of AMOLAD as had a hankering for Powell's red.
I don't mean to imply any kinkiness on Powell's part but in visiting Taormina I was most surprised to see a familiar image by resident 1900s photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden, surely the shepherd boy scene is a reference?
Niven fresh from distinguished military service is in great form, Marius Goring enjoying role as Conductor:
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| "Pardon? 'Ad a few?" |
The casting is perfection. Note Kathleen Byron with a perfect halo (frame) around her head.
Brilliant line: "Where's Frank?" "He's gone ahead." Brilliant. And "We'll invent the greatest lie in medical history".
In literature and language, colour, motion, emotion and humorous sensitivity there is more going on in any ten minutes of this film than in the whole of most others. It is quite literally out of this world.
5 August 2012.
Seen for the first time purely about Peter Carter's hallucinations it's enormously clever. Dead centre on the target. Plenty of lines that seem likely are Pressburger's. Every scene, every shot almost, is full of intelligence and interest.
15 August 2010.
Perhaps a perfect collaboration of artists. Edited by Reginald Mills.
The heavenly records office sure looks like a microchip.
18 December 2009.
Cardiff / Powell's red. Kim Hunter close ups. Joseph Zmigrod's piano. Roger Livesey the most reassuring doctor. A surgeon who is also in heaven (the judge, Abraham Sofaer, ends up in Head).
It's totally wonderful and without equal.
"Oh. I'd always hoped there'd be dogs!"
Thursday 29 November 2012
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011 Stephen Daldry)
... who directed the Hours and The Reader.
Scr Eric Roth, who has many screenplay credits, though some of them are a bit suspicious, Benjamin Button being a good example. Also Forrest Gump (he was a friend of Jim Morrison, apparently), Munich, Horse Whisperer.
Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Max von Sydow, Viola Davis, Jeffrey Wright (her ex), John Goodman.
Somewhat too much music from Alexandre Desplat.
Some nice images from Chris Menges. (Illness prevented Harris Savides from shooting it.)
Didn't like the title.
A bit Hollwoody schmaltzy.
Good flashes of people he meets. Picks up with Max. We wanted to know what the bequeathment was.
Scr Eric Roth, who has many screenplay credits, though some of them are a bit suspicious, Benjamin Button being a good example. Also Forrest Gump (he was a friend of Jim Morrison, apparently), Munich, Horse Whisperer.
Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Max von Sydow, Viola Davis, Jeffrey Wright (her ex), John Goodman.
Somewhat too much music from Alexandre Desplat.
Some nice images from Chris Menges. (Illness prevented Harris Savides from shooting it.)
Didn't like the title.
A bit Hollwoody schmaltzy.
Good flashes of people he meets. Picks up with Max. We wanted to know what the bequeathment was.
Sunday 25 November 2012
Las Acacias (2011 Pablo Giorgelli & co-scr)
Germán de Silva, Hebe Duarte and Nayra Callemamani.
Subtle, very minimalist film. Truck hardly ever seen (lots of wing mirror stuff).
Subtle, very minimalist film. Truck hardly ever seen (lots of wing mirror stuff).
Saturday 24 November 2012
Dinner Rush (2000 Bob Giraldi)
Scr Rick Shaughnessy, Brian Kaleta.
Danny Aiello, Vivian Wu, Summer Phoenix.
Badly directed. Though seems largely unsympathetic, good story does emerge.
Danny Aiello, Vivian Wu, Summer Phoenix.
Badly directed. Though seems largely unsympathetic, good story does emerge.
Tuesday 20 November 2012
After the Thin Man (1936 W.S. Van Dyke)
William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart, Joseph Calleia (bad guy), Jessie Ralph (the unspeakable Aunt Katherine), Sam Levene (cop), George Zucco (quack doctor - "Good Lord, I was right!"), William Law (Chinaman)
Great, enjoyable first sequel is still written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. Best line: after Loy asks Law why he saved Nick when he'd sent his brother down: "I don't like my brother. I like my brother's girl."
Nick's associates are as rude and pushy as the bad guys; Nora's relatives aren't much better.
Great, enjoyable first sequel is still written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. Best line: after Loy asks Law why he saved Nick when he'd sent his brother down: "I don't like my brother. I like my brother's girl."
Nick's associates are as rude and pushy as the bad guys; Nora's relatives aren't much better.
Sunday 18 November 2012
Everyday (2012 Michael Winterbottom & co-scr)
... who did not direct United 93 (that was Paul Greengrass).
John Simm, Shirley Henderson, Stephanie, Shaun, Katrina and Robert Kirk.
An array of cameramen.
Music Michael Nyman.
Incredible experiment. Elliptical. It's irrelevant what he's inside for. Distinctive music.
John Simm, Shirley Henderson, Stephanie, Shaun, Katrina and Robert Kirk.
An array of cameramen.
Music Michael Nyman.
Incredible experiment. Elliptical. It's irrelevant what he's inside for. Distinctive music.
What's Cooking? (2000 Gurinder Chadha & co-scr)
Two years before Bend It Like Beckham.
Mercedes Ruehl, Douglas Spain, Joan Chen, Will Yun Lee, Lainie Kazan, Maury Chaykin, Kyra Sedgwick, Joanna Margulies, Alfre Woodard, Dennis Haysbert, Ann Weldon.
Seems really old (video store, no mobile phones). Only at the end did I realise we'd seen it before.
Things go wrong over mysterious combinations of Thanksgiving lunches. Set in Fairfax district of LA.
Mercedes Ruehl, Douglas Spain, Joan Chen, Will Yun Lee, Lainie Kazan, Maury Chaykin, Kyra Sedgwick, Joanna Margulies, Alfre Woodard, Dennis Haysbert, Ann Weldon.
Seems really old (video store, no mobile phones). Only at the end did I realise we'd seen it before.
Things go wrong over mysterious combinations of Thanksgiving lunches. Set in Fairfax district of LA.
Saturday 17 November 2012
Big Night (1996 Campbell Scott & Stanley Tucci)
Directed somewhat self-consciously. Written by Tucci and Joseph Tropiano.
Tucci, Tony Shaloub, Minnie Driver, Isabella Rossellini, Ian Holm, Alison Janney, Scott funny as car salesman.
Kind of pointless. Q's decisions today...
Tucci, Tony Shaloub, Minnie Driver, Isabella Rossellini, Ian Holm, Alison Janney, Scott funny as car salesman.
Kind of pointless. Q's decisions today...
Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009 Phil Claydon)
James Corden, Matthew Horne. Myana Buring.
Really not good.
Really not good.
Tortilla Soup (2011 Maria Ripoll)
Based on Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman.
Hector Elizondo, Tamara Mello, various other Hispanics, Klaus's son Nikolai Kinski.
Um.. yeah. Food doesn't come over as well as it should. makes you want to watch the original.
Hector Elizondo, Tamara Mello, various other Hispanics, Klaus's son Nikolai Kinski.
Um.. yeah. Food doesn't come over as well as it should. makes you want to watch the original.
Foster (2011 Jonathan Newman & scr)
He wrote it so its his fault. Maurice Cole (kept reminding me of dummy in Dead of Night), Toni Colette (in a class of her own), Ioan Gruffudd, Richard E Grant, nice to see Hayley Mills, Anne Reid.
With teatime serial music and puke-inducing kid, film is like a puddle. Hamleys is older than the USA! Take that, America.
With teatime serial music and puke-inducing kid, film is like a puddle. Hamleys is older than the USA! Take that, America.
Sunday 11 November 2012
Outcast of the Islands (1951 Carol Reed & prod)
Scr. William Fairchild, novel Joseph Conrad.
Ralph Richardson, Trevor Howard, Robert (& Annabel!) Morley, Kerima, Wendy Hiller, George Coulouris as a native, Wilfred Hyde White, Frederick Valk.
Music Brian Easdale, photography John Wilcox and Ted Scaife, filmed in Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
Atmospheric. Strikingly edited and shot.
Ralph Richardson, Trevor Howard, Robert (& Annabel!) Morley, Kerima, Wendy Hiller, George Coulouris as a native, Wilfred Hyde White, Frederick Valk.
Music Brian Easdale, photography John Wilcox and Ted Scaife, filmed in Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
Atmospheric. Strikingly edited and shot.
Good Will Hunting (1997 Gus Van Sant)
He's talented - why did he remake Psycho? "It was my sort of anti-remake statement!" It ended up being not a shot by shot remake because it had to have its own life. Danny Elfman scored it, and said the critics would kill him, which they did.
Written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (AA), with Robin Williams (AA), Stellan Skarsgaard, Minnie Driver (who's fabulous - her giggles sound real, then she made me cry when Damon dumps her. Not really made it - all TV lately).
Music Danny Elfman, ph. Jean-Yves Escoffier.
Interesting positioning of camera / lenses. Good interplay between Williams and Damon (something about 'the bad stuff reminds you of the good things you were too busy to notice'). Great ending (Affleck, then car on road). Well overdue.
Written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (AA), with Robin Williams (AA), Stellan Skarsgaard, Minnie Driver (who's fabulous - her giggles sound real, then she made me cry when Damon dumps her. Not really made it - all TV lately).
Music Danny Elfman, ph. Jean-Yves Escoffier.
Interesting positioning of camera / lenses. Good interplay between Williams and Damon (something about 'the bad stuff reminds you of the good things you were too busy to notice'). Great ending (Affleck, then car on road). Well overdue.
Saturday 10 November 2012
Revolutionary Road (2008 Sam Mendes & co-prod)
Screenplay Justine Hathe, novel Richard Yates.
Kate Winslet, Leonardo Di Caprio (both rather good), David Harbour, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon (Take Shelter).
Ph. Roger Deakins. Music Thomas Newman. Editor Tariq Anwar.
Not quite as engaging as Sam's others. Great ending.
Kate Winslet, Leonardo Di Caprio (both rather good), David Harbour, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon (Take Shelter).
Ph. Roger Deakins. Music Thomas Newman. Editor Tariq Anwar.
Not quite as engaging as Sam's others. Great ending.
Wednesday 7 November 2012
Topaz (1969 AH)
Written by Samuel Taylor (Sabrina, Vertigo, Avanti), novel Leon Uris.
Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin (wife), John Vernon, Karin Dor (mistress), Michel Piccoli (Bunuels), Philippe Noiret (Cinema Paradiso), Claude Jade (daughter, Truffauts), Roscoe Lee Brown.
Music - Maurice Jarre. Ph. Jack Hildyard.
Forty years on, Hitch begins Topaz like Blackmail - as a near silent film (and later plays a trick with the audio of a fountain). Another great silent scene featuring Stafford and Brown at a hotel leads to film's best suspense moment: photographing of papers and chase (Browne is unfortunately the most charismatic character in it). Though plenty of good touches (cameras in sandwiches) film is restrained and one of the longest Hitchcocks isn't sustained by enough suspense. Still, much underrated. Hitch appears leaping from a wheelchair!
Stafford-Dor love scenes not very convincing, either.
Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin (wife), John Vernon, Karin Dor (mistress), Michel Piccoli (Bunuels), Philippe Noiret (Cinema Paradiso), Claude Jade (daughter, Truffauts), Roscoe Lee Brown.
Music - Maurice Jarre. Ph. Jack Hildyard.
Forty years on, Hitch begins Topaz like Blackmail - as a near silent film (and later plays a trick with the audio of a fountain). Another great silent scene featuring Stafford and Brown at a hotel leads to film's best suspense moment: photographing of papers and chase (Browne is unfortunately the most charismatic character in it). Though plenty of good touches (cameras in sandwiches) film is restrained and one of the longest Hitchcocks isn't sustained by enough suspense. Still, much underrated. Hitch appears leaping from a wheelchair!
Stafford-Dor love scenes not very convincing, either.
Sunday 4 November 2012
Attack the Block (2011 Joe Cornish & scr)
Edgar Wright is an exec producer.
Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Nick Frost
Ph. Tom Townend (Panavision)
Was making me think of tons of 70s movies esp. Assault on Precinct 13, Shivers, The Warriors and even the Zombie films.
Funny and subversive, it even manages a politically pointed conclusion.
Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Nick Frost
Ph. Tom Townend (Panavision)
Was making me think of tons of 70s movies esp. Assault on Precinct 13, Shivers, The Warriors and even the Zombie films.
Funny and subversive, it even manages a politically pointed conclusion.
Saturday 3 November 2012
Away We Go (2009 Sam Mendes)
Scr. Dave Eggers, Vendela Vida.
John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Allison Janney, Jeff Daniels, Maggie Gyllenhaal.
A sweet and subtle look at relationships and their offspring. "Yeah my tilted uterus is a fucking secret". And when he keeps trying to 'argue' with her.
Music Alexi Murdoch. Ph. Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine, Be Kind Rewind, Blow).
John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Allison Janney, Jeff Daniels, Maggie Gyllenhaal.
A sweet and subtle look at relationships and their offspring. "Yeah my tilted uterus is a fucking secret". And when he keeps trying to 'argue' with her.
Music Alexi Murdoch. Ph. Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine, Be Kind Rewind, Blow).
Your Sister's Sister (2011 Lynn Shelton & scr)
Emily Blunt, Mark Duplass, Rosemarie de Witt.
Has slightly improvved feel. Good.
Has slightly improvved feel. Good.
Friday 2 November 2012
Romance on the Orient Express (1985 Lawrence Gordon Clark)
Should have taken a clue from the title.
Cheryl Ladd, Stuart Wilson, Ruby Wax, Julian Sands, John Gielgud.
Difficult to know what's worse: script, direction or leading actors, but it's good to watch bad films now and then to remind you how good good ones are. A clue is that Ruby Wax gives the best performance. Music sounds like it's from Reggie Perrin. The ending is genuinely sick-making.
Made me wonder whether Murder.. was filmed on sets. I beliueve it was, at Elstree. Did they reuse them for this?
Cheryl Ladd, Stuart Wilson, Ruby Wax, Julian Sands, John Gielgud.
Difficult to know what's worse: script, direction or leading actors, but it's good to watch bad films now and then to remind you how good good ones are. A clue is that Ruby Wax gives the best performance. Music sounds like it's from Reggie Perrin. The ending is genuinely sick-making.
Made me wonder whether Murder.. was filmed on sets. I beliueve it was, at Elstree. Did they reuse them for this?
Wednesday 31 October 2012
Dr Phibes Rises Again (1972 Robert Fuest & co-scr)
Price, Robert Quarry, Valli Kemp, Peter Jeffrey, Hugh Griffith, Peter Cushing, Beryl Reid, Terry-Thomas, John Cater, John Thaw.
I didn't think Mrs Phibes was Caroline Munro this time. Unfortunately every time Phibes (doesn't) speak, boring crap comes out that doesn't advance the plot much. Good clockwork snake murder, but body in bottle is curiously under-presented.
Some lovely deco design, this time shot by Alex Thomson.
I remembered it being funnier than the first one, but it isn't.
I didn't think Mrs Phibes was Caroline Munro this time. Unfortunately every time Phibes (doesn't) speak, boring crap comes out that doesn't advance the plot much. Good clockwork snake murder, but body in bottle is curiously under-presented.
Some lovely deco design, this time shot by Alex Thomson.
I remembered it being funnier than the first one, but it isn't.
Monday 29 October 2012
Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987 Louis Malle & scr)
Gaspard Manesse, Raphael Fejto.
Devastating and totally unsentimental. Unexpected (teachers are OK, so are some Germans, French boy shops them).
Devastating and totally unsentimental. Unexpected (teachers are OK, so are some Germans, French boy shops them).
Monday 22 October 2012
Carrie's War (2004 Coky Giedroyc)
Yes, Mel's sister.
Keely Fawcett (who seems to have retired after this), Lesley Sharp, Alun Armstrong, Pauline Quirke (who's great in this kind of role).
Novel, Nina Bowden.
Quite fine.
Keely Fawcett (who seems to have retired after this), Lesley Sharp, Alun Armstrong, Pauline Quirke (who's great in this kind of role).
Novel, Nina Bowden.
Quite fine.
Sunday 21 October 2012
Ruggles of Red Gap (1935 Leo McCarey)
Novel Harry Leon Wilson, screenplay Humphrey Pearson (accidentally shot by wife while he was in a drunken rage) Walter DeLeon, Harlan Thompson.
Charles Laughton, Roland Young, Charles Ruggles, Mary Boland, Zasu Pitts, Leila Hyams (Freaks, Island of Lost Souls, retired 1936).
Photographed by Alfred Gilks (since 1920), editor Edward Dmytryk.
Maybe Roland Young's best film.
Charles Laughton, Roland Young, Charles Ruggles, Mary Boland, Zasu Pitts, Leila Hyams (Freaks, Island of Lost Souls, retired 1936).
Photographed by Alfred Gilks (since 1920), editor Edward Dmytryk.
Maybe Roland Young's best film.
Experiment in Terror / The Grip of Fear (1962 Blake Edwards)
Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Stefanie Powers, Ross Martin, Ned Glass (Charade, The Fortune Cookie), Anita Loo, Clifton James.
Crisply shot by Philip Lathrop, music by Mancini.
Crisply shot by Philip Lathrop, music by Mancini.
The Iron Lady (2011 Phillida Lloyd)
Written by Abi Morgan.
Meryl Streep (AA and BAFTA, as did make-up), Jim Broadbent, Alexandra Roach (young MT), Olivia Colman, John Sessions, Anthony Head, Richard E Grant, Roger Allum.
Music Thomas Newman, photography Elliot Davis.
The acting is better than the film.
All the archive footage is stretched.
Meryl Streep (AA and BAFTA, as did make-up), Jim Broadbent, Alexandra Roach (young MT), Olivia Colman, John Sessions, Anthony Head, Richard E Grant, Roger Allum.
Music Thomas Newman, photography Elliot Davis.
The acting is better than the film.
All the archive footage is stretched.
Duck Soup (1933 Leo McCarey)
Not to be confused with 1927 Laurel & Hardy film of same name, on which allegedly McCarey worked (unsubstantiated). He made dozens of shorts in the twenties and is one of seven winners of top three Oscars for Picture, Director and Screenplay on same film - the others being Wilder, Coppola, Coen Brothers, James L Brooks and Peter Jackson - his was Going My Way (1944). He also made Make Way for Tomorrow which Orson Welles said would make a stone cry, one of Ayoade's Top 10.
Scr. Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, Arthur Sheekman & Nat Perrin.
With Raquel Torres.
Actually made it through to the end, which seemed quite unfamiliar!
Scr. Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, Arthur Sheekman & Nat Perrin.
With Raquel Torres.
Actually made it through to the end, which seemed quite unfamiliar!
Saturday 20 October 2012
Fast Girls (2012 Regan Hall)
Lenora Crichlow, Bradley Jones, Rupert Graves, Phil Davis (a curiously under-written role), Noel Clarke (co-scr.)
Unremarkable film about girls in relay team.
Unremarkable film about girls in relay team.
Sunday 14 October 2012
To Be Or Not To Be (1942 Ernst Lubitsch)
Story Melchior Lengyel, scr Edwin Justus Meyer (also co-wrote the story of Midnight).
Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill, Stanley Ridges, Sig Ruman, Halliwell Hobbes.
Ph. Rudolph Maté.
Great identity confusion. Lombard's last (plane crash). Beard scene incomparable.
Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill, Stanley Ridges, Sig Ruman, Halliwell Hobbes.
Ph. Rudolph Maté.
Great identity confusion. Lombard's last (plane crash). Beard scene incomparable.
Sunday 7 October 2012
Marley (2012 Kevin Macdonald)
Our third premiere of the day, intelligently put together (some of the new footage has beautifully filmed shots, use of photos and Bob's words in titles).
Interestingly quite light on family (11 children by 7 women) and drug-taking, through we gather he liked fish tea and football.
Ph. Alwin Kuchler (Hanna ), Mike Eley (Parade's End, Touching the Void ) & Wally Pfister (additional footage).
It isn't overwhelmed with greatest hits either.
Interestingly quite light on family (11 children by 7 women) and drug-taking, through we gather he liked fish tea and football.
Ph. Alwin Kuchler (Hanna ), Mike Eley (Parade's End, Touching the Void ) & Wally Pfister (additional footage).
It isn't overwhelmed with greatest hits either.
What Did You Do In the War Daddy? (1965 Blake Edwards, & story)
Another premiere, a wacky war comedy, scr by William Peter Blatty!
James Coburn, Dick Shawn (reminding us of Alec Baldwin), Sergio Fantoni, Aldo Ray, Harry Morgan (who goes completely mad), Carroll O'Connor (General), Giovanna Ralli
Mus. Henry Mancini, ph Philip Lathrop.
Great fun with highlights of festival, fake battle, Shawn in drag, finale. Lots of silent stuff - where it all came from.
James Coburn, Dick Shawn (reminding us of Alec Baldwin), Sergio Fantoni, Aldo Ray, Harry Morgan (who goes completely mad), Carroll O'Connor (General), Giovanna Ralli
Mus. Henry Mancini, ph Philip Lathrop.
Great fun with highlights of festival, fake battle, Shawn in drag, finale. Lots of silent stuff - where it all came from.
Design for Living (1933 Ernst Lubitsch & prod)
Play Noel Coward, scr. Ben Hecht
Fredric March, Gary Cooper, Miriam Hopkins, Edward Everett Horton, Franklin Pangborn, Jane Darwell
Ph Victor Milner
On first viewing, not as sprightly or funny as other Lubitsches, but I'm sure when we get to know it we'll love it. Great opening. Seems to have no music. Very risqué material. The dusty mattress!
Fredric March, Gary Cooper, Miriam Hopkins, Edward Everett Horton, Franklin Pangborn, Jane Darwell
Ph Victor Milner
On first viewing, not as sprightly or funny as other Lubitsches, but I'm sure when we get to know it we'll love it. Great opening. Seems to have no music. Very risqué material. The dusty mattress!
Saturday 29 September 2012
The Searchers (1956 John Ford)
Scr Frank S Nugent, novel Alan le May
John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond ('Rev'), Natalie Wood, John Qualen, Henry Brandon (Scar), Hank Worden (Mose), Patrick Wayne (the young lieutenant).
Incredible photography Winton C. Hoch. You can tell Ford was a silent director - whole film works without dialogue. Simple filming. Wayne is starting to soften when he covers up dead squaw / wife. Picks Wood up like he did the child. Amusing letter sequence. Really good.
John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond ('Rev'), Natalie Wood, John Qualen, Henry Brandon (Scar), Hank Worden (Mose), Patrick Wayne (the young lieutenant).
Incredible photography Winton C. Hoch. You can tell Ford was a silent director - whole film works without dialogue. Simple filming. Wayne is starting to soften when he covers up dead squaw / wife. Picks Wood up like he did the child. Amusing letter sequence. Really good.
Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo / The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966 Sergio Leone)
The Quantum Leap for Leone (seriousness, scale).
It seems only right to watch Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo while reading Christopher Frayling's excellent 'Once Upon a Time in Italy', which acknowledges the contribution of production designer Carlo Simi to the Leone classics. This is certainly an epic western, in the production of which the bridge was blown up twice (due to an Italian-Spanish misunderstanding).
Eli Wallach is the heart of the film (it's perhaps his best performance), chosen not on the back of The Magnificent Seven but because Leone saw him being playful with children in How the West Was Won, and in the train / handcuff scene it's not a double (the train comes close to taking his head off). And his growl at the spectators to his lynching is a genuine out-of-character response that Leone left in.
Leone, it seems, liked his duels in circles: Simi guessed at some psychological reasons but didn't ask. But Leone was very sensitive as well, it seems - he cut the ending of Giu La Testa because someone stood up before the film had ended - Sit Down You Sucker!
Damaged people (prison camp and bridge scene), emotional reunion of Tuco and his brother Luigi Pistilli (Illustrious Corpses ) (who didn't speak a word of English), the perfection of the shots in the final duel (he was very technical, and filmed many takes). The mocking Morricone.
"There are two types of people..."
"Every gun makes its own tune."
Footnote whilst cleaning, 12 October 2017:
"Leone was inspired in TGTB&TU by photographs of the horrible condition of Civil War camps like Andersonville but also had in mind Nazi concentration camps in the scene where the cries of tortured prisoners is drowned out by the orchestra. The scenes of prison camps have a double impact, both questioning America's official line on the Civil War (it is striking how few westerns emphasize Civil War prison camps) and commenting on the eternal recurrence of wartime atrocities by bringing twentieth century political touchstones into a nineteenth century story."
'The Art of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West: A Critical Appreciation' by John Fawell.
Not sure Frayling picked up on that specifically, and the above is unsubstantiated (though I'm sure I've heard of this elsewhere)... I guess I need to read his 'Something To Do With Death' next...
It seems only right to watch Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo while reading Christopher Frayling's excellent 'Once Upon a Time in Italy', which acknowledges the contribution of production designer Carlo Simi to the Leone classics. This is certainly an epic western, in the production of which the bridge was blown up twice (due to an Italian-Spanish misunderstanding).
Eli Wallach is the heart of the film (it's perhaps his best performance), chosen not on the back of The Magnificent Seven but because Leone saw him being playful with children in How the West Was Won, and in the train / handcuff scene it's not a double (the train comes close to taking his head off). And his growl at the spectators to his lynching is a genuine out-of-character response that Leone left in.
Leone, it seems, liked his duels in circles: Simi guessed at some psychological reasons but didn't ask. But Leone was very sensitive as well, it seems - he cut the ending of Giu La Testa because someone stood up before the film had ended - Sit Down You Sucker!
Damaged people (prison camp and bridge scene), emotional reunion of Tuco and his brother Luigi Pistilli (Illustrious Corpses ) (who didn't speak a word of English), the perfection of the shots in the final duel (he was very technical, and filmed many takes). The mocking Morricone.
"There are two types of people..."
"Every gun makes its own tune."
Footnote whilst cleaning, 12 October 2017:
"Leone was inspired in TGTB&TU by photographs of the horrible condition of Civil War camps like Andersonville but also had in mind Nazi concentration camps in the scene where the cries of tortured prisoners is drowned out by the orchestra. The scenes of prison camps have a double impact, both questioning America's official line on the Civil War (it is striking how few westerns emphasize Civil War prison camps) and commenting on the eternal recurrence of wartime atrocities by bringing twentieth century political touchstones into a nineteenth century story."
'The Art of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West: A Critical Appreciation' by John Fawell.
Not sure Frayling picked up on that specifically, and the above is unsubstantiated (though I'm sure I've heard of this elsewhere)... I guess I need to read his 'Something To Do With Death' next...
The Long Memory (1952 Robert Hamer)
Written by Hamer and Frank Hardy from a novel by Howard Clewes.
Tons of location atmosphere in moody Kent seafront and night silent towns, a revenge tale with a wonderfully (and uncharacteristically) terse John Mills seeking out Pimlico's John Slater and ex Elizabeth Sellars, whilst real culprit John Chandos and henchman John Horsely appear to be gay (Horsely is Doc Morrissey, no less!)
Eva Bergh (not much of a career) is the refugee, Geoffrey Keene a helpful journalist, John McCallum the investigator. Also, Thora Hird, Laurence Naismith, Peter Jones.
Shot by Harry Waxman, music William Alwyn.
Good framing, deep focus, moments cut to dramatic music like 'The Haunted Mirror' e.g. terse Mills seen through letterbox. Final hurrah to Michael Martin Harvey who I knew would save the day, though frankly film would have worked as well with a downbeat ending.
Top marks to Eagle Eye Qued who in one second identified 11 year old Christopher Beeny as Edward in Upstairs Downstairs.
A Europa film.
Also liked some of the angles, e.g. Mills and Bergh head to head. Two stars in Radio Times? Fuck off.
Johnny: "It would have been better if Hamer had laid off the sauce. He twice walked backwards into the Thames with viewfinder in eye!"
Tons of location atmosphere in moody Kent seafront and night silent towns, a revenge tale with a wonderfully (and uncharacteristically) terse John Mills seeking out Pimlico's John Slater and ex Elizabeth Sellars, whilst real culprit John Chandos and henchman John Horsely appear to be gay (Horsely is Doc Morrissey, no less!)
Eva Bergh (not much of a career) is the refugee, Geoffrey Keene a helpful journalist, John McCallum the investigator. Also, Thora Hird, Laurence Naismith, Peter Jones.
Shot by Harry Waxman, music William Alwyn.
Good framing, deep focus, moments cut to dramatic music like 'The Haunted Mirror' e.g. terse Mills seen through letterbox. Final hurrah to Michael Martin Harvey who I knew would save the day, though frankly film would have worked as well with a downbeat ending.
Top marks to Eagle Eye Qued who in one second identified 11 year old Christopher Beeny as Edward in Upstairs Downstairs.
A Europa film.
Also liked some of the angles, e.g. Mills and Bergh head to head. Two stars in Radio Times? Fuck off.
Johnny: "It would have been better if Hamer had laid off the sauce. He twice walked backwards into the Thames with viewfinder in eye!"
Sunday 23 September 2012
Cavalcade (1933 Frank Lloyd)
Cavalcade is like an early version of This Happy Breed (Noel Coward was 33). Diana Wynyard (one of those stare into the distance breed), Clive Brook, Una O'Connor, Herbert Mundin, Beryl Mercer, Merle Tottenham, Ursula Jeans. Wynyard though Oscar nominated - and film, Lloyd and art direction won.
Directed by the unremarkable Lloyd, with a memorable war montage by (William) Cameron Menzies and shot by Ernest Palmer (it is actually a US production, for Fox, so that probably is the American Ernest Palmer not the British one).
The stripy seaside entertainer could be straight out of Family Guy.
Directed by the unremarkable Lloyd, with a memorable war montage by (William) Cameron Menzies and shot by Ernest Palmer (it is actually a US production, for Fox, so that probably is the American Ernest Palmer not the British one).
The stripy seaside entertainer could be straight out of Family Guy.
Saturday 15 September 2012
The Woman in the Fifth (2011 Pawel Pawlikowski)
We were somewhat baffled and disappointed by Pawel Pawlikowski's treatment of Douglas Kennedy's The Woman in the Fifth. It was stunningly directed, but to no avail in audience-defying 'wh'appen?' plot.
Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas and Joanna Kulig, plus Samir Guesmi.
Why pick that book??
Ph. Ryszard Lenczewski, music Max de Wardener.
Shame, as it begins so well. Love the way he hangs on to certain shots a bit longer than you'd expect.
Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas and Joanna Kulig, plus Samir Guesmi.
Why pick that book??
Ph. Ryszard Lenczewski, music Max de Wardener.
Shame, as it begins so well. Love the way he hangs on to certain shots a bit longer than you'd expect.
Monday 3 September 2012
My Summer of Love (2004 Pawel Pawlikowski)
I was wondering what happened to Pawel Pawlikowski after winning Newcomer BAFTA for The Last Resort (2001) and film BAFTA for My Summer of Love. He'd shot 60% of black comedy The Restraint of Beasts ('Looks great, like nothing I've ever done or seen before') when wife became seriously ill. He quit to look after her and kids but she died a few months later. Then he was supposed to be making a Stalin film for Film 4. Now at least has finished Douglas Kennedy adaptation.
Anyway My Summer was feature debut of Natalie Press (Wasp) and Emily Blunt, and the style is quite distinctive (our fave moments: the girls disappear into gorse, then a puff of smoke; Natalie showing how her ex made love).
Shot by Ryszard Lenczewski, music Will Gregory & Alison Goldfrapp.
Sweet and sour.
Paddy Considine was also in Last Resort. Both leads fab. Sense of summer and place well caught. Can't be England though as it doesn't rain once. Intimate close-ups.
Anyway My Summer was feature debut of Natalie Press (Wasp) and Emily Blunt, and the style is quite distinctive (our fave moments: the girls disappear into gorse, then a puff of smoke; Natalie showing how her ex made love).
Shot by Ryszard Lenczewski, music Will Gregory & Alison Goldfrapp.
Sweet and sour.
Paddy Considine was also in Last Resort. Both leads fab. Sense of summer and place well caught. Can't be England though as it doesn't rain once. Intimate close-ups.
Sunday 2 September 2012
Young Victoria (2009 Jean-Marc Vallée)
An accidental double-bill of Jim Broadbent films. In Young Victoria he has a short but powerful part as King William. Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend are perfect as the young couple, great support from Mark Strong, Miranda Richardson, Paul Bettany and Harriet Walter as Queen Adelaide. Had forgotten Julian Fellowes wrote it and Scorsese co-produced.
The Director is a Canadian whose previous film C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) was very well received.
Hagen Bogdanski's lighting is very natural (The Lives of Others ), and apart from the totally inappropriate pop ballad that accompanies the end credits, my only critique is to say it's a bit like eating a fabulous meal but still feeling hungry afterwards.
The Director is a Canadian whose previous film C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) was very well received.
Hagen Bogdanski's lighting is very natural (The Lives of Others ), and apart from the totally inappropriate pop ballad that accompanies the end credits, my only critique is to say it's a bit like eating a fabulous meal but still feeling hungry afterwards.
Tuesday 31 July 2012
The Boys are Back (2009 Scott Hicks)
We watch an interesting double bill about men dealing with the loss of their wives!
Clive Owen does so by building relationships with his two sons, in somewhat unconventional ways, amongst South Australian scenery, directed by Shine's Scott Hicks. The boys younger and older are Nicholas McAnulty and George Mackay, with Emma Booth and Laura Fraser.
Written by Allan Cubitt from Simon Carr's novel.
Clive Owen does so by building relationships with his two sons, in somewhat unconventional ways, amongst South Australian scenery, directed by Shine's Scott Hicks. The boys younger and older are Nicholas McAnulty and George Mackay, with Emma Booth and Laura Fraser.
Written by Allan Cubitt from Simon Carr's novel.
The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971 Robert Fuest)
Taking a rather different approach to dealing with the loss of his wife (in our double bill), an almost silent Vincent Price takes grisly revenge on the doctors who he considered murdered her (Caroline Munro in stills only), with much humour ("I'm a headshrink!")
Is this the most elegant horror film ever? Former artist and art director Fuest and his a.d. Bernard Reeves cram every frame with beautiful art deco detail, even down to the cups, all handsomely lit by Norman Warwick.
AIP.
Is this the most elegant horror film ever? Former artist and art director Fuest and his a.d. Bernard Reeves cram every frame with beautiful art deco detail, even down to the cups, all handsomely lit by Norman Warwick.
AIP.
Wednesday 18 July 2012
Avanti (1972 Billy Wilder)
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| Juliet Mills on the terrace of the Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria, Sorrento, doubling for Ischia |
Brilliantly written by Wilder and IAL Diamond - "The black socks... was it because you were in mourning?" From a play by Samuel A Taylor.
Carlo Rustichelli is only credited as music arranger leading me to infer that the properly catchy melodies are all Italian traditionals.
Notice the brilliant, silent movie opening. Plenty of jokes at the expense of America (and Italy and GB too, come to that). 'Will and Kate Carlucci'. Pippo Franco is Qued's wonderful mortuary guy. So well constructed. Use of 'avanti', three coffins, 'weight problem' etc.
Can't argue with Cameron Crowe: "The prize of Wilder's later-period work." This beautifully constructed, wonderfully written jewel of a film is unfairly undervalued and all but unknown.
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| The hotel set is very clearly modelled on the Excelsior's actual decor |
 |
| A view of the front of the hotel - still very much as it is today |
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| Only a few scenes were actually filmed on Ischia - for example, the morgue, harbour and burial scenes, Actually I don't know that! Does anyone? |
More Avanti
Monday 28 May 2012
Chinatown (1974 Roman Polanski)
Just the one Oscar, for writer Robert Towne (though Polanski worked so extensively on the script that he reportedly could have claimed co-author credit), but the film was up against Godfather II, Lenny, Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More, Day for Night and The Conversation in all other categories.
Trademark skilful use of sound.
Also hadn't realised quite how good Faye Dunaway is.
Still there are mysteries - whose glasses are they?
Sam O'Steen is the editor and Jerry Goldsmith's memorable score was apparently written in 10 days.
Wide lenses put you right in the action, as does camera in back of car (John A Alonzo).
With Jack Nicholson, John Huston, Perry Lopez (cop).
Trademark skilful use of sound.
Also hadn't realised quite how good Faye Dunaway is.
Still there are mysteries - whose glasses are they?
Sam O'Steen is the editor and Jerry Goldsmith's memorable score was apparently written in 10 days.
Wide lenses put you right in the action, as does camera in back of car (John A Alonzo).
With Jack Nicholson, John Huston, Perry Lopez (cop).
Sunday 15 April 2012
Rebecca (1940 Alfred Hitchcock)
A double bill of Hitchcocks. There's quite a bit to be said about REBECCA. For example, it contradicts the theory that Citizen Kane invented cinema. Like Kane, this begins with the camera gliding through Manderley's gates followed by some clever trick photography / model work.
The acting is great and quite rightly Olivier, Fontaine and Judith Anderson (who virtually steals the show) were nominated, along with Hitch, Franz Waxman (who appears to be using an organ at points and is thus being quite experimental: a great score), writers Robert E Sherwood and Joan Harrison ("I am Mrs. de Winter now!") and editor Hal Kern. George Barnes throws lovely shadows everywhere and there's a great curtain-drawing shot in Rebecca's bedroom. Does the second Mrs De W. have a first name?
Gladys Cooper and Nigel Bruce aren't in it enough, Leo G. Carroll just enough, George Sanders is beastly and Florence Bates ghastly. Reginald Denny as the estate manager is perhaps the weak link. C. Aubrey appears too.
Also, Bates to Fontaine:
"Have you been doing something you shouldn't?"
Oddly, it's not particularly Hitchcocky, as opposed to Q's choice:
The acting is great and quite rightly Olivier, Fontaine and Judith Anderson (who virtually steals the show) were nominated, along with Hitch, Franz Waxman (who appears to be using an organ at points and is thus being quite experimental: a great score), writers Robert E Sherwood and Joan Harrison ("I am Mrs. de Winter now!") and editor Hal Kern. George Barnes throws lovely shadows everywhere and there's a great curtain-drawing shot in Rebecca's bedroom. Does the second Mrs De W. have a first name?
Gladys Cooper and Nigel Bruce aren't in it enough, Leo G. Carroll just enough, George Sanders is beastly and Florence Bates ghastly. Reginald Denny as the estate manager is perhaps the weak link. C. Aubrey appears too.
Also, Bates to Fontaine:
"Have you been doing something you shouldn't?"
Oddly, it's not particularly Hitchcocky, as opposed to Q's choice:
Rear Window (1954 Alfred Hitchcock)
Despite its striking visual nature, John Michael Hayes' script should not be undervalued (e.g. Thelma Ritter predicting the Wall Street crash).
It's from his fade to black period.
Contains Hitch's grisliest murder, but there's no corpse nor drop of blood in sight (nor even a murder!)
Love that slow motion kiss, and the varying states of relationships through the windows.
Sunday 1 January 2012
Queen of Spades (1948 Thorold Dickinson)
Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans, Yvonne Mitchell, Ronald Howard
Ph. Otto Heller
Music Georges Auric
Clock stops as she dies.
Ph. Otto Heller
Music Georges Auric
Clock stops as she dies.
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