The Durrells - Seasons 3 & 4 (2018 - 2019 Simon Nye)

Aunt Barbara Flynn has died - mum and Larry visit England. Larry gets mixed up with often naked Henry Miller. Les becomes a policeman, Margot an x-ray assistant. Spiro's wife and kids leave him, leading to almost romance with 'Mrs Durrells'. Gerry has a girlfriend.

Here's some examples of Ben Wheeler's fine work:

Daisy with fine Croatian actor Goran Navojec

Then in four, war is in the air. Josh presumably has had a better offer, as most of his scenes are shot in a room in Paris. Margot is in England, discovering the cinema (L'Atalante and I think something from Fritz Lang). We finally meet Mrs. Spiro, who starts an affair with Basil (Miles Jupp).

But in an eye-watering finale, the kids all return home and put on a version of Odysseus for the village before embarking for England.

In a wonderful follow up documentary, What the Durrells Did Next, we learn about Gerald's success with his books and conservation zoo in Jersey, from where there's that amazing footage of a boy having fallen in to the gorilla enclosure being protected from the others by one gorilla - Gerry's humane animal treatment literally in action.

Daisy is coming up in Prime Target, was in The Long Shadow, The Capture and Dalgleish

We realise that Simon Nye has done a splendid job of depicting this eccentric family and made it a warm and funny series. We also think Elbow nicked the Greek end credits song.

Towards Zero (2025 Rachel Bennette)

Anjelica Huston (great accent), Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ella Lily Hyland (his ex), Mimi Keene (the new wife), Anjana Vasan (Wicked Little Letters, Killing Eve), Clarke Peters and his ward Grace Doherty, Jack Farthing (disgraced son), Matthew Rhys (alcoholic detective), Adam Hugill, Khalil Gharbia.

Thankfully not written by the vile Sarah Phelps. Reenactment of Christie's 1944 novel.

Photographed by Laura Bellingham, edited by Mark Keady, Agnieszka Liggett and Christopher Watson, production designer Lucienne Suren.

The Durrells - Seasons 1 & 2 (2016 - 2017 Simon Nye)

Nye wrote this after coming off of Men Behaving Badly; he hasn't done anything this good since.

1935. Unconventional mother Keeley Hawes brings her family - Josh O'Connor, Milo Parker, Daisy Waterhouse and Callum Woodhouse - to Corfu, where luckily they are immediately taken under the wing of Alexis Georgoulis.

With Yorgos Karamihos ( a wonderfully natural performance), Anna Savva, Leslie Caron, James Cosmo, Jeremy Swift.

It actually was filmed on Corfu, for a change.

Guest stars include Una Stubbs and Barbara Flynn.

Good ending with three simultaneous births and a stabbing!

The Painted Hills (1951 Harold Kress)

At last with the Roan version we have a lovely copy of the film, photographed by Alfred Gilks and Harold Lipstein.

Pal is up to his usual amazing stuff. There's a moment where he effortlessly crosses a river on a rolling log, and the stuff high up on rocky slopes looks properly difficult.

I think this is one of the best MGM Lassie films, even though it only had B movie status and a lack of stars or publicity - MGM had had enough of their once golden boy - his contract was up. It's genuinely tense and gripping, with the dog being poisoned but luckily rescued by Native Indians, shot at and generally abused. For gold-mad Bruce Cowling has killed 'Shep's' master Paul Kelly and is now after the dog and a young boy, Gary Gray. It's one of Pal's best performances, and I don't say that with my tongue in cheek.

The White Lotus - Season 3 (2025 Mike White & d)

Natasha Rothwell was in the Hawaii one. Joined by son Nicholas Duvernay.

Tayme Thapthimthong is besotted by Lalisa Monobal.

Walton Coggins (dark, unhappy past; Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight) and Aimee Lou Wood.

They befriend Charlotte le Bon and Jon Gries

Michelle Monaghan (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), Leslie Bibb and Carrie Coon old 'friends'.

Family comprising Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sam Nivola and Sarah Catherine Hook.

Lek Patravardi is the hotel owner / singer / actor, a big star in Thailand.

Eight episodes for HBO. I am told by my reliable Q that it's called The White Lotus after its creator. Although she might have been winding me up. I'm not sure.

As Time Goes By - The Reunion (2005 Bob Larbey)

Three years later, one plot year later. Jean wants grandchildren, Lionel doesn't. His 'son' from Kenya turns up, David Oyelowo. Sandy is pregnant. Goodbye.

Newman brothers double bill: War of the Roses (1989 Danny de Vito) / A Man Called Otto (2022 Marc Forster)

The Douglas - Turner war is scored by David Newman and photographed by Stephen Burum, who photographed  Rumble Fish  and  The Outsiders, Body Double, The Untouchables, The Escape Artist and St Elmo's Fire. So it's a handsome and well presented tale of marital discord with black comedy moments ("If I were you I'd pass on the fish course").

There's a non-Bond Ian Fleming short story called 'A Quantum of Solace' about a simple man who marries an air hostess, then she takes him for anything he can afford, and has affairs, and he ends up by demarcating areas of the house that she's allowed to live in. I wondered if this might have spawned the idea in the head of novelist Warren Adler (the screenplay's by Michael Leeson). 

As I found last time, the gimmick of de Vito's client never saying a word was stupid. Ida Random is the production designer.

A Man Called Otto is a simple and moving story told in drip-feed style, scored by Tom Newman in at times his recognisable style, at other times sounding totally something different.

I didn't notice the over-directing / editing thing this time, was enjoying Hanks' performance and the relationship between he and Mariana Treviño.

Photographed by Matthias Koenigsweiser.

Loved the line "She always paints you in colour". Hanks' frustrations at the world are totally understandable. The pay-off is fabulous.

Hacks - Season Three (2025 Lucia Aniello, Paul Downs)

Deborah badly wants the late night TV show gig. But she cravenly doesn't want Ava to be the head writer, leading to a wonderful showdown between the two - Hannah Einbinder finally has a great moment. (I hope they filmed that with two cameras. I'd hate to think of her having to do it multiple times.) And then - to use my wife's fantastic expression - she brilliantly twists the tables.

It was over in a flash.

"What a cunt!"

Another Woman (1988 Woody Allen & scr)

First things first - it rains! (In a flashback scene.)

Gene Hackman, and his wife and dog, all died recently in somewhat mysterious circumstances, though he was 95. An actor with great range and charisma, who's never far away. In fact we just saw him in Runaway Jury. Here he plays a man who is madly in love with repressed housewife Gena Rowlands, but she rejects him.. we think to her regret. Particularly as her current husband is not really interested in her (Ian Holm). Because she starts over hearing Mia Farrow's therapy sessions she starts looking at her own life - sometimes in flashback but also through an extended dream scene - and we find out more about her. So in a way it's an early Blue Jasmine, but this woman is a sympathetic character who is going to change for the better,

Shot with mournful sensitivity by Sven Nykvist, contains an atypical (and mainly classical) soundtrack and concludes in an hour and fifteen - Woody's shortest film? Wonderfully complex in its storytelling techniques and really a very good human drama. He certainly could attract the talent then. With Gena are Martha Plimpton, Blythe Danner, Betty Buckley, John Houseman, sandy Dennis, David Ogden Stiers. Philip Boscoe, Frances Conroy, Fred Melamed (who I confused with Francis Ford Coppola!)

Woody himself thought the film was too cold, the characters too cold. But it's very interesting.

As Time Goes By - Seasons 5 - 9 (1996 - 2002 Bob Larbey)

Our happy 'family' of Judi Dench, Geoffrey Palmer, Moira Brooker and Jenny Funnell now includes Frank Middlemiss and Joan Sims (who sadly died 2001), and even extends to Philip Bretherton... and almost to housekeeper Mrs Bale, Janet Henfrey. You note that both the Alistair and Sandy characters don't seem to have parents or families of their own and thus fit into the 'family' that much more easily.

It wasn't until Season Five that we finally took in that the house was four storeys. We thought at that time that the kitchen was in the sub-basement but that seems only if it serves that episode's purpose, same as the desk that magically converts to a dining table when needed.

Ruth Jones has a cameo. So does Mark Benton.

Did Larbey enjoy that Fawlty Towers episode where Palmer is the doctor who wants his sausages? He's often given the word 'sausages' in his lines and does say it so well. It wasn't until the last season that I realised that Larbey writes happy couples so well - The Good Life - but also does that counterpoint - the unhappy couple - in that it's the Jerry-Margo one, and here it's sister-in-law Penny and Steven (Moyra Fraser and Paul Chapman).

Will miss Alistair calling Lionel 'Li' and pulling strings to get last minute airline passage, Mrs Bale's shipping forecasts, Lionel and Jeans' sarcastic sniping at each other or her throwing carrots at him.

Heretic (2024 Scott Beck & Bryan Woods & scr)

Weirdly enough I was only thinking earlier in the day that I was sure the Abraham story features in both the Islamic and Christian religions and probably also the Jewish, and therefore all these three religions came from the same place and thus are essentially the same. And that's one of the thought provoking ideas that come about when nutter Hugh Grant tries to freak out young religious women Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East in this frankly ridiculous three-hander set in a creepy house on a rainy night.

The acting's fine, though the cinematography (Chung-hoon Chung) is rather grubby. I daresay we'll be seeing more of the two young women.

I doubt it would have been financed without Grant's involvement - either he or his agent have a screw loose. Whether or not I was supposed, to, I found it quite funny.

Zero Day (2025 Eric Newman Noah Oppenheimer, Michael Schmidt)

Lesli Linka Glatter directed all 6 episodes.

Following a nationwide tourist hack, ex President Robert de Niro is lured out of retirement to take the flak while they find the suspects. But either he's experiencing dementia or he's being hacked.

With Jesse Plemons, Lizzy Caplan, Connie Britton, Joan Allen, Angela Bassett.

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023 Martin Scorsese & co-scr)

Marty's latest challenge to the attention span - I watched the three and a half hour film in two instalments. It is indeed a true story, based on David Grann's non-fiction book - so well worth telling.

Leo and Bob are both great as very unlikeable characters but Lily Gladstone really steals it with her quiet, enigmatic presence.

Lots of good sequences of course, well photographed by Rodrigo Prieto. Music by Robbie Robertson, Production designer Jack Fisk, edited by Thelma. All Oscar nominated, as were Gladstone and de Niro, but won none.

I'm glad I watched it, but nothing really stands out - it was curiously uninvolving, and the exposition from time to time seemed muffled. You kind of suspect de Niro's up to no good early on. Didn't like Gladstone's descent into near death but did enjoy seeing Jesse Plemons, knowing (at two hours in) that the FBI were on the case - still no guarantee of a good outcome, but at least providing hope.

Generally I find that if a film relies on end text after the action has finished that it's lacking in some way.

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989 Woody Allen & scr)

A very clever contemplation on morality and faith, as Martin Landau decides to do away with his now inconvenient lover Angelica Huston - so A Place in the Sun again (and the post-murder guilt of course crops up in Cassandra's Dream). Confides to rabbi Sam Waterson, who's going blind under the eye of the "All Seeing God".

Woody handles murders so well. In this one it's just a knock on the door - "I got a delivery of flowers". That's it. His use of flashbacks is also quite distinctive.

Also, Woody and Mia on the trail of this great philosopher who despite years of positivism commits suicide! Whilst making a film about Alan Alda.

Lots of film references under the excuse of Woody taking his niece to the cinema - didn't get the Laid Cregar clip (it was This Gun For Hire) nor The Last Gangster (1937 Edward G. - I'd confidently predicted it was a Warner Bros film, but it was MGM!) nor Happy Go Lucky (Betty Hutton, not Grable).

Not the only time he got to work with Bergman's cinematographer Sven Nyvist. He'd also shot Another Woman and the Oedipus Wrecks section of New York Stories.

And yes - there is a scene in the rain!

The Clock / Under the Clock (1945 Vincente Minnelli)

Some of it is in New York - the establishing shots of Pennsylvania Station, for example, though they scene where they meet at the escalators was a set.

Lots of long takes are good. It's a very elegantly made film, with Minnelli also liking to be high up, looking down. The DP is George Folsey. Music: George Bassman. MGM.

It's a shame the leads were such unhappy people.

We thought this clock was upside down but in fact it's the 7 that looks so weird.

Woody Allen Double Bill: Cassandra's Dream (2007) / The Rainiest Film in the World (2019)

Let's deal with one thing straight away: it rains in both films. In the former, it's the  crucial scene where Tom Wilkinson tells his nephews that they have to kill someone for them. And in the latter, it just happens all the time, giving it its new title.

Cassandra's Dream is quite striking from the off - it has a composed music score, by Philip Glass, which makes a real difference. I was wondering about the casting - the Scottish Ewan McGregor and the Irish Colin Farrell playing Londoners? But they are both totally convincing as the brothers who find themselves in a right mess. It gets really tense, particularly the first murder attempt in the apartment and the victim has brought a woman back with him. 

Some of the less potent scenes seem a bit clunky in the acting or writing - I can't quite work it out. But the locations are interesting, and Vilmos Zsigmond is a great cinematographer.

Also you just know the relationship with Hayley Atwell is never going to work out.

Murder - and its ramifications - is of much interest to Mr. Allen, from Crimes and Misdemeanours through Irrational Man and Match Point up to Coup de Grace.

I enjoyed Rainy Day more than any other viewing, even though the plot is quite similar to the young marrieds in To Rome with Love, it goes its own merry way. And funnily enough, gambling links the two films. In the first Farrell has it bad, and in great writing it looks like he keeps losing, but doesn't... until he does, badly. In the latter, Timothée Chalamet does the opposite - wins big - uses the money to take a hooker to his mum's autumn bash (echoes here of To Paris...) but then learns something huge about his mom - played, incidentally, by Cherry Jones.

"I need to hide."
"Why don't you jump into this mummy case. I'll find some white tape."

It's gorgeously photographed by Vittorio Storaro. And benefits from great cast, especially Selena Gomez.

Two more examples of art as backgrounds:

SAS Rogue Heroes - Season 2 (2025 Steven Knight)

The problem here is that Knight wrote himself into a corner. He had three great anti-heroes in Season 1 in the shape of Jack O'Connell, Connor Swindells and Alfie Allen. Allen is dead and Swindells is barely seen, in prison, until finally being released at the end of episode five (scheduling clash meant he was time restricted, or was Knight just playing a black joke on the actor?) leaving too much of Jack waffling on about pretentious crap in Sicily (Croatia) and Italy.

Also the plot about not picking up drowning airman because it would delay their landing is nonsense. The series dwells on the psychological effects of war more than the first, and maybe for these reasons above isn't so good.

Does have good lines like "I have to retrieve a donkey and then have breakfast with the Mafia". And "Special Air Service? You deliver mail?"

With Sofia Boutella, Dominic West, Bobby Schofield (so good in The Suspect), Gwilym Lee (by-the-book commander), Corin Silva, Theo Barklem-Biggs, Jacob Ifan, Jack Barton, Con O'Neill.

Jack Barton

Series cinematographer: Stijn Van Der Veken

As Q observed, the archive footage is nicely cut into the action. And indeed some of this story is true, like the defense of Termoli. Ends on 6th June...

To Rome With Love (2012 Woody Allen & scr)

Some of Woody's own bits seem stilted. But Roberto Benigni is hilarious.

Woody twists the plot of The White Sheik beautifully into something his own.

Also the great twist at the end of the Eisenberg-Page story - the film invite. And Alec Baldwin's deadpan responses.

Fabulous atypical music tracks.

Beautifully photographed by Darius Khondji. (The other films he shot for Woody were Anything Else (2003), Midnight in Paris (2011), Magic in the Moonlight (2014) and Irrational Man (2015). I guess they filmed towards the beginning and end of the day to avoid the summer heat and to get that distinctive saturated look.

And - it rains again! Is there a Woody Allen where it doesn't rain? Probably.