Hilarious episode, awfully directed and acted, about a voodoo doll.
Angela Bruce is about the only decent actor in it - she was one of our 'Angels' and is still on TV.
Though Marius Goring is apparently in it.
Contains the great line "I'll drive faster on my own."
Just what was needed.
Sunday, 21 June 2015
Jaws (1975 Steven Spielberg)
It's a very nicely made movie full of artful compositions and blocking making you wonder what happened to the kid?
Because it was the 40th anniversary and Midsummer's Eve (not that the latter has anything to do with it). The three Rs are great indeed.
The shark is funny.
There are not one but two shooting stars in it - just after the one that shoots past Scheider's head there's a second one in the very next shot.
Well shot by Bill Butler with Michael Chapman operating. According to Carl Gottlieb's film record 'The Jaws Log' (which has since been updated), Chapman was rock steady hand-holding the camera in most scenes (only the night discovery of Ben Gardner's boat was studio set - everything else was on location). Talking of the latter, he's played by local legend Craig Kingsbury, whose colourful, salty language inspired some of Quint's dialogue, and who can be seen welcoming Dreyfuss, commenting on the crazy armada, and whose prosthetic mask made every single person in the cinema jump.
Because it was the 40th anniversary and Midsummer's Eve (not that the latter has anything to do with it). The three Rs are great indeed.
The shark is funny.
There are not one but two shooting stars in it - just after the one that shoots past Scheider's head there's a second one in the very next shot.
Well shot by Bill Butler with Michael Chapman operating. According to Carl Gottlieb's film record 'The Jaws Log' (which has since been updated), Chapman was rock steady hand-holding the camera in most scenes (only the night discovery of Ben Gardner's boat was studio set - everything else was on location). Talking of the latter, he's played by local legend Craig Kingsbury, whose colourful, salty language inspired some of Quint's dialogue, and who can be seen welcoming Dreyfuss, commenting on the crazy armada, and whose prosthetic mask made every single person in the cinema jump.
Entourage Series 5 (2008)
Vince finally gets a movie break with Smoke Jumpers but his co-star and director are real shits. There's a most amusing magic mushrooms episode at the Joshua Tree. Turtle starts going out with Meadow Soprano (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) and he reveals to her his real name. Even Vince's mum can't get him a job (with Gas Van Sant) and the unthinkable happens - Vince loses his temper. Then fires E.
E has another run in with the odious Seth Green.
Though the season ends on a high when Vince gets an unexpected phone call...
E has another run in with the odious Seth Green.
Though the season ends on a high when Vince gets an unexpected phone call...
Saturday, 20 June 2015
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970 Billy WIlder)
In memory of Christopher Lee, who just died aged 93. He played Sir Henry Baskerville in the Hammer version, Holmes himself in Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes (1962), Mycroft here, Holmes again in Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady/Incident at Victoria Fall, and was alleged to be Moriarty in the unfilmed Baker Street Irregulars, though my contention that he also played Watson seems to be false.
Poor old Robert Stephens - who's utterly fantastic as Holmes - was heavily drinking then and suffered a nervous breakdown - you can see his hands shaking occasionally. Colin Blakely is also good as Watson - his comic timing is great - note scene with butter knife. And talking of timing, Wilder does another of his energetic musical numbers featuring members of a ballet - note the perfect way in which the girls are fluidly replaced with boys. Screenplay is excellent - many very funny lines, though part two is less funny than part one. (Watson: "We need to get married!". Holmes "Now that would make people talk!") Note the way in which any normal director would give you some night to day transition shot - Wilder does it by using a joke with a policeman. Genevieve Page is the mystery woman and Stanley Holloway is in it very briefly (one of his last films, though he lived another 12 years) and Clive Revill displays the same perfect pitch performance that he demonstrates in Avanti as a Russian (note his timing when he opens and closes the curtain of the opera box). And how can anyone resist Irene Handl as Mrs Hudson?
Miklós Rózsa's theme is his own violin concerto and is wonderful. Chris Challis shot it in diffused style; the posh sets are by Alexandre Trauner.
But. 30% of the picture is lost. Wilder left the cutting to someone else while he pursued a mysterious film project which he couldn't subsequently remember:
It was another collaboration between Wilder and John Williams, but sadly he was cut.
Poor old Robert Stephens - who's utterly fantastic as Holmes - was heavily drinking then and suffered a nervous breakdown - you can see his hands shaking occasionally. Colin Blakely is also good as Watson - his comic timing is great - note scene with butter knife. And talking of timing, Wilder does another of his energetic musical numbers featuring members of a ballet - note the perfect way in which the girls are fluidly replaced with boys. Screenplay is excellent - many very funny lines, though part two is less funny than part one. (Watson: "We need to get married!". Holmes "Now that would make people talk!") Note the way in which any normal director would give you some night to day transition shot - Wilder does it by using a joke with a policeman. Genevieve Page is the mystery woman and Stanley Holloway is in it very briefly (one of his last films, though he lived another 12 years) and Clive Revill displays the same perfect pitch performance that he demonstrates in Avanti as a Russian (note his timing when he opens and closes the curtain of the opera box). And how can anyone resist Irene Handl as Mrs Hudson?
Miklós Rózsa's theme is his own violin concerto and is wonderful. Chris Challis shot it in diffused style; the posh sets are by Alexandre Trauner.
But. 30% of the picture is lost. Wilder left the cutting to someone else while he pursued a mysterious film project which he couldn't subsequently remember:
Source: http://bakerstreetdozen.com/lee2.htmlThe opening sequence was to feature Watson’s grandson in London claiming his inherited dispatch box from Cox & Co., there was also a flashback to Holmes’ Oxford days to explain his distrust of women [she turns out to be a prostitute]. All were shot, but deleted from the final print. So what happened? Well, it appears that United Artists suffered a number of major film flops in 1969 that pretty much scuppered the road show format for Wilder’s massive project. Studio exec’s ordered the film to be cut to fill a regular theatrical running time, whittling the film down to a 125-minute version. The episodic format made the pruning process relatively simple, so cut were the opening sequence, the Oxford flashback and two full episodes entitled “The Dreadful Business of the Naked Honeymooners” at 15 minutes and “The Curious Case of the Upside Down Room” at 30 minutes. We can only hope that the full footage can one day be restored, although a full print is not currently thought to exist.However, in 1994 Image Entertainment released a laser disc that did contain the soundtrack (without picture) to the “Upside Down Room” sequence and picture (without sound) for the “Naked Honeymooners” sequence. With any luck, perhaps something more will come to light before a DVD version is released.
It was another collaboration between Wilder and John Williams, but sadly he was cut.
Thursday, 18 June 2015
Entourage 4 (2007)
The infamous Medellin has been finished but no one's seen it yet, and no one sees it until the end of the season. Where it's shown at Cannes...
One of the good thing about this show is it does make you think about what (your favourite) actors are doing when they're not acting - auditioning, reading scripts, hustling, getting green lit, going into turnaround, being cancelled, becoming a producer, producing.... Having fun....
One of the good thing about this show is it does make you think about what (your favourite) actors are doing when they're not acting - auditioning, reading scripts, hustling, getting green lit, going into turnaround, being cancelled, becoming a producer, producing.... Having fun....
Monday, 15 June 2015
Entourage Series 2 - 3 (2005 - 6)
Finding it difficult to stop watching.
In the sweetest moment in the series, all their mums (led by Mercedes Ruehl) come to the Aquaman premiere. Ari is fired by a malevolent Malcolm MacDowell. We have now been firmly introduced to Lloyd (Rex Lee) and their tough PR agent from the hood Shauna (Debi Mazar). Ari's outrageous behaviour is getting worse - he calls E a 'cunt muscle' and says he'd rather 'stick needles in my cock' than talk to Drama. An annoying old friend now ex-con Domenick Lombardozzi (from The Wire) quickly wears out his welcome. 'Queen's Boulevard' has been colourised - Rhys Coiro plays the arrogant director Billy Walsh superbly. Turtle becomes a hip hop act manager. The boys attend a high school party thus making heroes out of two nerds - Vince even leaves them E's Maserati.
With James Woods, Bruno Kirby, Seth Green.
In the sweetest moment in the series, all their mums (led by Mercedes Ruehl) come to the Aquaman premiere. Ari is fired by a malevolent Malcolm MacDowell. We have now been firmly introduced to Lloyd (Rex Lee) and their tough PR agent from the hood Shauna (Debi Mazar). Ari's outrageous behaviour is getting worse - he calls E a 'cunt muscle' and says he'd rather 'stick needles in my cock' than talk to Drama. An annoying old friend now ex-con Domenick Lombardozzi (from The Wire) quickly wears out his welcome. 'Queen's Boulevard' has been colourised - Rhys Coiro plays the arrogant director Billy Walsh superbly. Turtle becomes a hip hop act manager. The boys attend a high school party thus making heroes out of two nerds - Vince even leaves them E's Maserati.
With James Woods, Bruno Kirby, Seth Green.
Sunday, 14 June 2015
Went the Day Well? (1942 Cavalcanti)
Gripping, shocking film displays casual disregard for life from the moment the vicar is shot dead in his own church, and must have hit the British public hard. Mervyn Johns opens by telling us that the story didn't come out until after the war and Hitler was defeated - a brave stance indeed.
Undercover Germans (led by Basil Sydney, David Farrar and John Slater) take over village (actually Turville, in one of its long line of movie appearances - even the windmill from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is in it). A most useful cast of not terribly well known actors is gradually decimated. Leslie Banks, Valerie Taylor, Marie Lohr (who, as the plucky lady of the manor, is the last to expire saving the children from a hand grenade in a wonderfully understated moment), Harry Fowler, Frank Lawton, Norman Pierce, Elizabeth Allan, Thora Hird, Muriel George, Patricia Hayes. When reliable old poacher Edward Rigby is killed, then plucky boy Harry Fowler (Hue and Cry) is shot, we realise all the usual rules have been abandoned.
Wilkie Cooper filmed it, with a D. Slocombe assisting. The story was from Graham Greene ('The Lieutenant Died Last'), and ingeniously the various tricks and escape plans the villagers come up with all misfire, through the writing of John Dighton, Diana Morgan and Angus MacPhail. William Walton wrote the music, though in key sequences, there isn't any.
You'd think it must have been quite shocking for the audience of the time. But George Perry in 'Forever Ealing' says:
Undercover Germans (led by Basil Sydney, David Farrar and John Slater) take over village (actually Turville, in one of its long line of movie appearances - even the windmill from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is in it). A most useful cast of not terribly well known actors is gradually decimated. Leslie Banks, Valerie Taylor, Marie Lohr (who, as the plucky lady of the manor, is the last to expire saving the children from a hand grenade in a wonderfully understated moment), Harry Fowler, Frank Lawton, Norman Pierce, Elizabeth Allan, Thora Hird, Muriel George, Patricia Hayes. When reliable old poacher Edward Rigby is killed, then plucky boy Harry Fowler (Hue and Cry) is shot, we realise all the usual rules have been abandoned.
Wilkie Cooper filmed it, with a D. Slocombe assisting. The story was from Graham Greene ('The Lieutenant Died Last'), and ingeniously the various tricks and escape plans the villagers come up with all misfire, through the writing of John Dighton, Diana Morgan and Angus MacPhail. William Walton wrote the music, though in key sequences, there isn't any.
You'd think it must have been quite shocking for the audience of the time. But George Perry in 'Forever Ealing' says:
".. it seems the reaction in its own time was more blasé. 'The scripting is indifferent, banal at times, and the direction lacks cohesion,' said the Monthly Film Bulletin. 'Artificial... trite melodrama' said Picturegoer.'It's sensational.
Saturday, 13 June 2015
Suspiria (1977 Dario Argento)
A masterpiece of mood through Luciano Tovoli's masterly and colourful lighting, Goblin's creepy score and Jessica Harper's bewilderment and fear. Quite nasty in its uncut form, but nevertheless a feast for the eyes and senses.
Shot with a very slow film stock, I seem to remember, and printed with the three strip Technicolor process to give it a unique appearance - the blacks in this film are so black that they make the borders around the letterboxed area look not dark enough!
Shot with a very slow film stock, I seem to remember, and printed with the three strip Technicolor process to give it a unique appearance - the blacks in this film are so black that they make the borders around the letterboxed area look not dark enough!
Imitation of Life (1959 Douglas Sirk)
Warning: force ten weepie ahead.
Sirk goes out on a massive high in story of black girl passing as white, with inherent difficulties. Lana Turner is not bad at all but Juanita Moore oozes warmth as the maid / mother, Susan Kohner also nominated as the daughter. With Sandra Dee, John Gavin and Robert Alda.
His compositions and camera moves are absolutely peerless; film has a great momentum (the editor is Milton Carruth, many credits since 1929). Lovely, artfully placed shadows by Russell Metty; scored by Frank Skinner.
Juanita lived to be 100, died in 2014. The last time we watched the film, she was alive.
Sirk goes out on a massive high in story of black girl passing as white, with inherent difficulties. Lana Turner is not bad at all but Juanita Moore oozes warmth as the maid / mother, Susan Kohner also nominated as the daughter. With Sandra Dee, John Gavin and Robert Alda.
His compositions and camera moves are absolutely peerless; film has a great momentum (the editor is Milton Carruth, many credits since 1929). Lovely, artfully placed shadows by Russell Metty; scored by Frank Skinner.
Juanita lived to be 100, died in 2014. The last time we watched the film, she was alive.
Ted (2012 Seth MacFarlane)
Sweet, funny movie about relationship between man and his toy bear (Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane) has plenty of humour, as you'd expect. With Mila Kunis and revitalising the career of Flash Gordon star Sam Jones.
Entourage Series 1 (2004, created by Doug Ellin)
Great to see the boys back: Kevin Connolly, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, Jeremy Piven.
Exec produced by Mark Wahlberg and loosely based on his own experience.
Exec produced by Mark Wahlberg and loosely based on his own experience.
Friday, 12 June 2015
Inherent Vice (2014 Paul Thomas Anderson & scr)
Noirish turn of events in 1970 California making one think of Altman's The Long Goodbye and Chinatown, from novel by Thomas Pynchon. Joaquin is spellbindingly good as stoned PI (Q says 'River would have been proud of him'). With: Josh Brolin, Maya Rudolph, Hong Chau (Treme), Benicio del Toro, Owen Wilson and Reese Witherspoon (is it a coincidence she appears like Tippi Hedren in Marnie?).
Anderson's funniest film. Shot by regular Robert Elswitt with lots of great music by Neil Young and the like and (where orchestrated) Jonny Greenwood, edited by Leslie (The Master) Jones.
'The Golden Fang'. And has the week's best line: 'Doctor, the couch is broken, and bring that bottle with you'. (He then drops his trousers on the way in to her.)
Anderson's funniest film. Shot by regular Robert Elswitt with lots of great music by Neil Young and the like and (where orchestrated) Jonny Greenwood, edited by Leslie (The Master) Jones.
'The Golden Fang'. And has the week's best line: 'Doctor, the couch is broken, and bring that bottle with you'. (He then drops his trousers on the way in to her.)
Wednesday, 10 June 2015
Election (1999 Alexander Payne & co-scr)
Well, this was enormously bouncy and overdue, made very stylishly, e.g. those bedroom tracks that go up and up into an impossibly high ceiling. Rolfe Kent 's Morricone-western pastiche score also adds class, Kevin Tent is the editor who insisted on that very fast succession of cuts at the end.
Love the way nobody's voiceover matches up to their behaviour - good screenplay by Payne and Jim Taylor (also Sideways and About Schmidt), based on novel by Tom Perrotta. Also love the girl's election speech - "Don't bother to vote at all!" - and the reaction she gets.
Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Broderick, Chris Klein (sympathetic as the dumb jock), Jessica Campbell (gay sister), Phil Reeves (head), Colleen Camp (didn't recognise her as Reese's mom).
Nice twists throughout.
Love the way nobody's voiceover matches up to their behaviour - good screenplay by Payne and Jim Taylor (also Sideways and About Schmidt), based on novel by Tom Perrotta. Also love the girl's election speech - "Don't bother to vote at all!" - and the reaction she gets.
Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Broderick, Chris Klein (sympathetic as the dumb jock), Jessica Campbell (gay sister), Phil Reeves (head), Colleen Camp (didn't recognise her as Reese's mom).
Nice twists throughout.
September (1987 Woody Allen & scr)
Even more claustrophobic than Interiors, taking place entirely in Vermont home, and therefore like a filmed stage play (there isn't a single exterior shot - this film should have been called Interiors).
Ex good-time girl Elaine Stritch and new husband Jack Warden come to visit her daughter Mia Farrow, an unhappy creature who may have killed her mother's gangster boyfriend. Farrow fancies writer Sam Waterstone but he fancies her (married) friend Diane Wiest. Meanwhile widower Denholm Elliott wants to be more than Farrow's protector.
Nice low key lighting by Carlo di Palma; (jazz) music is all diegetic. Slight carp - the thunder and lightning are always together and that's not how thunder and lightning works. Unless things happen differently in Vermont, of course.
Um, I still think that Woody's 'dramas' (as opposed to 'comedies' like Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Blue Jasmine) work better than this precisely because they do contain funny lines and irony (the latter especially) and this very straight-faced stuff simply does not bring out the best in Mr Allen (Husbands and Wives contains perhaps his most powerful moments).
Has a good ear for fractured, selfish people and situations.
Ex good-time girl Elaine Stritch and new husband Jack Warden come to visit her daughter Mia Farrow, an unhappy creature who may have killed her mother's gangster boyfriend. Farrow fancies writer Sam Waterstone but he fancies her (married) friend Diane Wiest. Meanwhile widower Denholm Elliott wants to be more than Farrow's protector.
Nice low key lighting by Carlo di Palma; (jazz) music is all diegetic. Slight carp - the thunder and lightning are always together and that's not how thunder and lightning works. Unless things happen differently in Vermont, of course.
Um, I still think that Woody's 'dramas' (as opposed to 'comedies' like Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Blue Jasmine) work better than this precisely because they do contain funny lines and irony (the latter especially) and this very straight-faced stuff simply does not bring out the best in Mr Allen (Husbands and Wives contains perhaps his most powerful moments).
Has a good ear for fractured, selfish people and situations.
Tuesday, 9 June 2015
I Capture the Castle (2003 Tim Fywell)
Though it feels autobiographical, there's nothing of Dodie Smith's real life in it. After writing many successful plays including 'Dear Octopus', it was her first novel, written in the US in 1948 ('One Hundred and One Dalmations' came eight years later). The screenplay is by Heidi Thomas.
The family is great, particularly Romola Garai and Bill Nighy but good too are Rose Byrne, Tara Fitzgerald and Joe Sowerbutts; with Henry Cavill as the faithful worker. Then the visiting Americans are Henry Thomas and Marc Blucas and Sinead Cusack.
It has a poignant feel to it, fuelled by a particularly good Dario Marianelli score; and shot by Richard Greatrex and edited by Roy Sharman. Fywell works almost exclusively on British TV.
The castle itself is on the Isle of Man; eagle-eyed Q correctly identifies the village as Turville.
Very successful. I can hear Romola though saying 'Christ I'm cold! I wish I'd never agreed to this sodding film now!'
The family is great, particularly Romola Garai and Bill Nighy but good too are Rose Byrne, Tara Fitzgerald and Joe Sowerbutts; with Henry Cavill as the faithful worker. Then the visiting Americans are Henry Thomas and Marc Blucas and Sinead Cusack.
It has a poignant feel to it, fuelled by a particularly good Dario Marianelli score; and shot by Richard Greatrex and edited by Roy Sharman. Fywell works almost exclusively on British TV.
The castle itself is on the Isle of Man; eagle-eyed Q correctly identifies the village as Turville.
Very successful. I can hear Romola though saying 'Christ I'm cold! I wish I'd never agreed to this sodding film now!'
Monday, 8 June 2015
Infamous (2006 Douglas McGrath & scr)
Toby Jones is brilliant as Capote in film based on the oral biography (or 'gossip' as it is also referred to) 'Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career' by George Plimpton. Though I'm not 100% convinced that the 'interviews' work that successfully and a linear tale might have progressed better. However overall we thought it very good.
Amazing cast - Daniel Craig as fantastic as ever, Sandra Bullock good as Harper Lee, plus Sigourney Weaver, Peter Bogdanovich, Juliet Stevenson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Isabella Rossellini, Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis and Lee Pace as the other murderer.
Shot by Bruno Delbonnel, editor Camilla Toniolo, music Rachel Portman, production design Judy Becker (American Hustle, Ruby Sparks).
Amazing cast - Daniel Craig as fantastic as ever, Sandra Bullock good as Harper Lee, plus Sigourney Weaver, Peter Bogdanovich, Juliet Stevenson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Isabella Rossellini, Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis and Lee Pace as the other murderer.
Shot by Bruno Delbonnel, editor Camilla Toniolo, music Rachel Portman, production design Judy Becker (American Hustle, Ruby Sparks).
Interiors (1978 Woody Allen & scr)
When Woody chose to follow Annie Hall with a serious film, he certainly succeeded - there isn't one funny line or irony in the film at all. Even Bergman had jokes (although I suppose if you want to put it this way, this is later Cries and Whispers Bergman: between you and me, not the best sort. Shh.)
Very well acted by Mary Beth Hurt, Diane Keaton and Kristin Griffith as the messed up sisters, Geraldine Page the extremely messed up mother (she is maddening - her fastidiousness and insecurity) and E.G. Marshall the understandably distancing father (though even he has issues and definitely favours the Hurt child). Husbands are Sam Waterstone and Richard Jordan and the new wife to be Maureen Stapleton is actually the sanest of the lot.
Beautifully shot by Gordon Willis (love that tracking shot through the church) and edited by Ralph Rosenblum. This is one of only two Woodys I think with no music (the other being Husbands and Wives.) No - Annie Hall doesn't either.*
So I'm not sure it's one we'd watch over and over again, but good to see.
* Yes it does.
Very well acted by Mary Beth Hurt, Diane Keaton and Kristin Griffith as the messed up sisters, Geraldine Page the extremely messed up mother (she is maddening - her fastidiousness and insecurity) and E.G. Marshall the understandably distancing father (though even he has issues and definitely favours the Hurt child). Husbands are Sam Waterstone and Richard Jordan and the new wife to be Maureen Stapleton is actually the sanest of the lot.
Beautifully shot by Gordon Willis (love that tracking shot through the church) and edited by Ralph Rosenblum. This is one of only two Woodys I think with no music (the other being Husbands and Wives.) No - Annie Hall doesn't either.*
So I'm not sure it's one we'd watch over and over again, but good to see.
* Yes it does.
Saturday, 6 June 2015
Friday, 5 June 2015
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