Suspect (1987 Peter Yates)

Suspensefully directed film, perhaps rather tenuously plotted when put under examination (Eric Roth the writer... ah yes, who has mixed credits). Not really convinced by Cher as an actor, or Dennis Quaid, but John Mahoney is great as a steely judge who wants the trial over quickly. Some excellent, cinematic scenes - for example in the library and in the tense finale - well caught by Billy Williams, with Lethal Weapon's Michael Kamen adding sonic support, or music, as it's sometimes known.

With Liam Neeson, Philip Bosco, Joe Mantegna, Fred Melamed.

To sequester a jury is to keep them in isolation and away from media.

The Lady In The Van (2015 Nicholas Hytner)

Written by Alan Bennett from his own short publication - thus it was his own idea to split his character into two people, which makes a different way of presenting the internal thought process, that's for sure! (and allows him to 'make up' material in a creative way also.) "You don't put yourself into your writing. You find yourself there."

Actually filmed in and around Bennett's old house in 23 Gloucester Crescent. It was put on the market in 2017 and is at time of writing still for sale at £2.6m; it really did cost him £13,500 in 1969.

The reason James Cordon has a two second appearance as a veg dealer is that all the original cast of The History Boys have cameos.

Maggie is fabulous in nuanced performance, Alex Jennings is the Bennetts. With Roger Allam, Frances de la Tour, Claire Foy, Jim Broadbent, Gwen Taylor, David Calder.

Photographed by Andrew Dunn, edited by Tariq Anwar, music by George Fenton.

Lots of good stuff: the boa constrictor and the peacocks, the neighbours, yellow paint...

Defending Your Life (1991 Albert Brooks & scr)

Apparently we haven't seen this since 2011... Like then, I love his past life of savage African running from a lion, and the moment where he drops in on Meryl Streep's 'trial' and they're all watching her clip for fun... And the Japanese restaurant. He never acknowledges that he is a twit for crashing his brand new BMW into a bus... But the story about life self-examination is a potent one, and makes you think of your own life...

Photographed by Allen Daviau, music by Michael Gore.

Perhaps the inspiration for Kore-eda Hirokazu's 1998 After Life.

Broadcast News (1987 James L Brooks & scr, prod)

William Hurt, Albert Brooks and Holly Hunter. Now Hunter's maybe not my favourite actress, and her character here is volatile and frankly unlikable, but it's a good performance from her and the other two (highlight is Brooks singing along to French record, reprised in credits).

With Robert Prosky (station boss), Lois Chiles, Joan Cusack, Peter Hackes, Jack Nicholson, Christian Clemenson as the editor.

Edited by Richard Marks, shot by Michael Ballhaus.

Its essence - that the news should be reported honestly -

Broken (2012 Rufus Norris)

Rufus tells us that Skunk (Larry Lamb's daughter Eloise Laurence) is the positive centre of a story which otherwise would be dark, relieved by a few laughs (the appearance of George Sargeant on not his bicycle, for example, or the scene where brother Bill Milner attaches clothes pegs to her). From a novel by Daniel Clay, adapted by Mark O'Rowe, cannily structured (the very beginning is the very end, only you don't realise unless you're paying an unusual amount of attention).

Good cast: Tim Roth, Rory Kinnear, Cillian Murphy (with a hard 'c'), Robert Emms, Faye Daveney, the evil little Martha Bryant, Clare Burt, Denis Lawson, Zana Marjonovic, Nell Tiger Free (that is a real name, apparently - she's been in an Endeavour - the one with the girl's school). And - fleetingly - none other than Lily James as grown up Skunk.

So good collaborations from Rob Hardy on camera, Victoria Boydell in the editing room and Electric Wave Bureau with the music.

It's seriously good. Rufus seems still to be immersed in the world of theatre, unfortunately.

Spring Forward (1999 Tom Gilroy & scr)

He is I think nothing to do with Michael Clayton's Tony Gilroy.

Essentially a series of conversations over time between older and wiser Parks & Rec worker Ned Beatty and younger ex-con Liev Schreiber. Ellipses are many, insights subtle, action sporadic, and because of its talky nature, feels longer than it is. But it is a warm film as the two become friends. I particularly liked the moment at the funeral home when Beatty reaches into Schreiber's top pocket where he knows his cigarettes will be, and takes one.

Nicely filmed in New Jersey by Terry Stacey.

With Ian Hart, Peri Gilpin.

Breathe In (2013 Drake Doremus & co-scr)

A very simple story, beautifully and artfully presented, in its discretion (and with the beginning being the end) similar to Brief Encounter. Has scenes which are stunningly well edited by Jonathan Alberts (also 45 Years, Like Crazy). Q liked John Guleserian's widescreen photography, which is as intense as everything else, not least the longing desperation of Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce... Subtle, terrific.

Murder on the Orient Express (1974 Sidney Lumet)

Lumet (pronounced with a hard t) had an interesting career - I'm slightly surprised he got the job, not really being his sort of thing, noted for New York pictures... Twelve Angry Men his first feature, and he made several with Connery, including the British The Offence, The Hill, The Anderson Tapes... plus Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Running on Empty...

Denis Quilley as the Italian was the one I didn't recognise, Bergman won the Oscar, several performances are nicely nuanced (Rachel Roberts, Gielgud) but Finney owns the train...

Paul Dehn (pronounced 'Dane') made a good, entertaining job of adapting Agatha's 1934 novel (which followed Greene's 'Stamboul Train' and the film Rome Express, both 1932 - there's certainly some similarities to the latter, in particular). Roger Deakins is catching up with DP Geoffrey Unsworth's five BAFTAs (nominated for this but lost to Douglas Slocombe for The Great Gatsby); Anne Coates also lost to Richard Chew and Walter Murch for The Conversation. Richard Rodney Bennett's score is perfect (at least he won). production design and costumes by Tony Walton.

But what's this going on in the credits - Colin Blankey - in the opening titles - and Wendy Miller in the end credits (where I didn't notice Finney has gone missing altogether)? According to IMDB these were just mistakes, but I think someone was having a bit of fun...

Because it was snowing a lot.

The Old Maid (1939 Edmund Goulding)

Screenplay by Casey Robinson, based on the play by Zoe Atkins and the 1924 short story by Edith Wharton (who also wrote Age of Innocence). Perc Westmore ages Bette Davis convincingly, but there's nothing he can do about Miriam Hopkins' acting.

The problem for me is that Bette doesn't have to be so hard with her daughter (pretending to be aunt), who grows up to be Jane Bryan. George Brent is the deceased father. With Donald Crisp (who doesn't seem to age at all), James Stephenson, Jerome Cowan, Cecilia Loftus (Grandmother).

Gaudio, Steiner, Warners.

Collateral (2018 SJ Clarkson)

We've started off enjoying David Hare's meditation on immigration, wrapped up as a political crime thriller. But we were disappointed by the end - the Billy Piper story seemed particularly redundant.

Great to see Carey Mulligan on home shores. Nicola Walker, John Simm, Billy Piper, Jeany Spark (soldier), Nathaniel Marcello-White, Ahd, Kae Alexander, Hayley Squires, July Namir, Ben Miles.

That Uncertain Feeling (1941 Ernst Lubitsch)

The Lubitsch that seems unfairly neglected is like music, with its rhythms and sporadic outbursts of 'Keeks!', 'Phooey!' and the like. And seems only to exist in fuzzy, public domain prints, a great shame as George Barnes' lighting is clearly beautiful, in Alexander Golitzen's sets. Maybe one of the French or Spanish releases is better. Where's Criterion...?

I loved the Amazon reviewer who said "Too many one-room scenes with characters opening and closing doors" thus missing one of the delightful features of a Lubitsch comedy, which are always focusing on doorways.

"Really darling, you talk as if you've never been in a meadow."

"Was it a dull party?"
"No, I'd say she was about your size."

Victorien Sardou and Emilie deNajac's play 'Divorçons' (1883) was adapted by Walter Reisch and screenwritten by Donald Ogden Stewart who found fame mainly through adapting the work of others (won Oscar for the Philadelphia Story) - he emigrated to England in the 1950s Communist witch hunt, and died here.

The King's Speech (2010 Tom Hooper)

A huge hit - it grossed $400m worldwide from a $15m production budget - did Hooper get a share? I bet he didn't. He had made The Damned United previously so wasn't a complete newbie. (Didn't really enjoy that or his The Danish Girl.) I was pleased that in the credits, Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are billed side by side - quite right, it's a two-hander in which they both deserved the top award - as it happens BAFTA awarded them both, but Rush's was for best supporting actor - which is kind of nonsense. It was also interesting that Timothy Spall had a higher billing than Derek Jacobi, who's on-screen more, and just as good an actor. I must stop spending so much time dwelling on the credits...

Firth is soon to be in The Happy Prince, the last days of Oscar Wilde, written and directed by his buddy Rupert Everett.

Fully reviewed here. After swearing - "That's a side of you you don't see too often."

Chalet Girl (2011 Phil Traill)

I got it right the first time - it's that long take of Felicity Jones recounting her mother's death that shows just how good she is - and unfortunately, Ed Westwick is not in her league, thus the acting is imbalanced, no matter how many little scene stealing asides Bill Nighy throws in.

She did put in several weeks of snowboard training prior to filming in St Anton, Austria (the town's museum appeared as the chalet), but how much of her is actually in the film?

In Tom Williams' debut feature screenplay, the best line is 'No, the irony is free. It's the sarcasm you're paying for, ironically.'

Jane Eyre (1943 Robert Stevenson)

Stevenson and ace cameraman George Barnes give Bronte the full on expressionistic treatment with wonderful shadows and clever lighting around every corner. The novel's been adapted by Aldous Huxley, John Houseman and Stevenson, who directed many Hitchcock half hours and latterly worked for Disney.

Jane's childhood is portrayed grimly through Peggy Ann Garner, her adoptive aunt Agnes Moorehead and brute Henry Daniell, kindly maid Sara Allgood and childhood friend Elizabeth Taylor. John Sutton is the doctor. Then grown up as Joan Fontaine ('so grave and quiet in the mouth of hell'), Orson Welles makes a towering and brutish Rochester, with Edith Barrett as the housekeeper and Margaret O'Brien a prospective fiancee.

Bernard Herrmann's music is unlike anyone else's, and sensational, hallmarking this as a superior literary adaptation, made for Fox.

Scene where Jane tends to wounded man while door rattles behind her is a perfect horror movie moment.

These scenes impressed me the last time (23 March 2010):

Magic in the Moonlight (2014 Woody Allen & scr)

Reviewed here, here and here. The production design is by Anne Seibel, for a change (also To Rome With Love and Midnight in Paris).

The long take between Eileen Atkins and Colin Firth is special. Film is delightful, probably closest in mood to Midummer Night's Sex Comedy.

This one did well - $10m at home and $40m in the rest of the world (particularly France and Italy).

Bastille Day / The Take (2016 James Watkins)

It was broadcast on Channel 4 under the second title. Features those ridiculously quickly edited fight and chase scenes. Idris brandishes his weapons with aplomb, Richard Madden is a pickpocket and Charlotte le Bon an innocent bomber (who looks like she could do with a decent meal). With the added value of a Thierry Godard as the baddie, and Kelly Reilly, and Paris locations (though scarcely one  recognisable).

James Watkins (Eden Lake and the leaden McMafia) and Andrew Baldwin's plot is quite clever, though a bit easily guessable. It was not a very good film, really - not character-driven...

The Browning Version (1951 Anthony Asquith)

Should really be called 'the Crocker-Harris Version' as that's the translation of Aeschylus' Agamemnon that we're interested in. Terence Rattigan adapted his shorter 1948 play and the screenplay and Michael Redgrave both won awards at Cannes.

Jean Kent is the vicious wife, Nigel Patrick the sympathetic teacher, Wilfred Hyde White plays the headmaster, Brian Smith the boy and Bill Travers the sporty teacher.

Shot by Desmond Dickinson.

Rattigan wrote one of my favourite WW2 films, The Way to the Stars, then Brighton Rock, The Winslow Boy, David Lean's The Sound Barrier, The Deep Blue Sea, The Prince and the Showgirl, Separate Tables, The VIPs and The Yellow Rolls Royce.

Vivre Sa Vie (1962 Jean-Luc Godard & co-scr)

Anna Karina is 77. Here, she is 22. The moment where she looks directly into the camera is disconcerting, Michel Legrand's theme is haunting, the ending abrupt and sad. Godard's home turf of the Champs Elysées features prominently, Truffaut is on at the pictures, Raoul Coutard shot it in 4x3.

AMOLAD

Those lamps that surround Kim Hunter, the beginning, the heavenly conductor... A remarkable cinematographic debut.

I don't think you can get a better set of characters and actors than Niven, Livesey, Marius Goring, Kathleen Byron, Raymond Massey, Kim, Robert Coote and Abraham Sofaer.

"Stupidity has saved many a man from going mad."

This Happy Breed (1944 David Lean)

It's Lean doing Mike Leigh.

There's some subtlety about what sort of war Newton and Holloway have had - the latter's initial comment is 'I thought you were dead that night...' Then later, they both appear quite well decorated. And certainly Newton has a thing or two to say to Alison Leggatt on the subject... I like a bit of subtlety.

The line 'and a nice bit of leg of lamb it was too' has since stuck in my mind.