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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!