Trois Couleurs Blanc

Nadine (1987 Robert Benton & scr)

Somewhat contrived 1950s set comedy thriller as Kim Basinger stumbles upon maps of real estate development and involves ex Jeff Bridges. There isn't much chemistry between them and the ensuing thrills are on the childish side. Quite enjoyable; short.

Rip Torn, Gwen Verdon, Glenne Headley.

Shot by Nestor Almendros, edited by Sam O'Steen, music by Howard Shore.

Silent Witness (2013)

Home. Michael Crompton.

We're back in Africa, South. Nikki is there identifying victims of a political execution, is being manipulated by boyfriend. Leo is involved in young torture victim who has been deported - gets drawn into sex trade. Best moments - Nikki meeting her former nanny, and no nonsense detective punching suspect in the face.

The Best Silent Witnesses

Divided Loyalties. Niall Leonard. Dead woman and baby. Drugs. 'Stukie'.

The World Cruise. Tony McHale. Auschwitz resurfaces.

The Fall Out. Tony McHale. Multiple vehicle pile up. And a spare arm.

Closed Ranks. Tony McHale, Season 6. Leo's wife and daughter are visiting when a case similar to one of his old ones appears.

Answering Fire. Dusty Hughes. Fire in hotel. Dodgy politician.

Choices. Doug Milburn. Harry befriends kid who's involved in night club drive by shooting.

Cargo. Doug Milburn. Boat of illegals capsize. Infectious disease on board, and little missing girl who Nikki just will not give up on.

Body of Work. Rhidian Brook, Season 10. Harry and Nikki are starting to get it on when an old flame of Harry's turns up dead.

Schism. Christian Spurrier. A bit far-fetched, but Nikki is kidnapped.

Hippocratic Oath. Tony McHale. Two bodies in one coffin...

Shadows, Dudi Appleton and Jim Keeble. Killing spree at Uni. Season 13.

Silent Witness - Season 13 (2010)

Voids, concluding part.  Harry loses it with his Mum for having had an affair when married. 'Undercover' cop turns out to be a complete fantasist. Sue Tully directed.

Then Shadows, Part 1 is one of the most terrifying things we've seen so far,as Nikki and Harry are trapped in a classroom when a deranged student starts a killing spree. 'What's Harry doing?' we were shouting, expecting him to be dead at any minute. It's very exciting.

Dudi Appleton and Jim Keeble are the writers and Farren Blackburn directs with a sure hand.

For me, Part 2 was something of a let-down. Although the two-hander between Nikki and killer suspect Toby Wharton is engaging enough, it lies - he is not the cold-blooded killer at all, but someone who's just been traumatised by what his 'friend' has just done. Still, ends on Harry having another near miss...

Wunmi Mosaku's back. With Anna Chancellor, Phyllis Logan.

The Left Handed Gun (1958 Arthur Penn)

A version of the Billy the Kid story, adapted from a Gore Vidal play by Leslie Stevens. From the get go I didn't understand scenes and motivations. Why does William Bonney take it upon himself to avenge the murder of a cattle man he barely knows? Why is a house set alight? Why attack the soldiers with flour? And so on. It makes for a frustrating experience; in fact we didn't even finish it.

Paul Newman is OK giving a Methody performance. The antics of him and his two buddies are nothing short of childish. I didn't know anyone else in the cast, which includes Lita Milan, John Dehner (Pat Garrett), Hurd Hatfield (OK, I do know him), James Congdon, James Best.

Photographed by J Peverell Marley and edited by someone called Folmar Blangsted. The film was apparently taken out of Penn's hands by Warner Bros. and recut without him.

William Boyd referred to Bonney as 'a revolting scumbag of a human being'. Now his version I'd love to see...

A Half and a Half of Silent Witness (2010)

Sounds like some sort of order you'd give in a pub.

Thankfully, Harry and Nikki stop 'squabbling' (to use Leo's description) in Voids. We think John Lynch's daughter (Josephine Butler) killed her step-mother, and planted the evidence elsewhere, and she then commits suicide. Ed Whitmore's screenplay is somewhat opaque in that department.

Then we begin Andrew Holden's Run, directed by Sue Tully. DI John Bowe doesn't seem to give much of a shit about an unknown suicide, but it turns out she has been shot and may be connected to a case involving (possibly) an undercover copper, Alec Newman. His GF is a young Denise Gough - I didn't recognise her. Well blow my chimneys.

Tender Mercies (1983 Bruce Beresford)

Robert Duvall's Oscar (and Golden Globe) win; Horton Foote's screenplay won also (he adapted To Kill a Mocking Bird). It was Beresford's (and regular editor William Anderson's) first American film, and he compared the desolate community living in rural Texas as similar to that of the Australian outback. Beresford I should remind us directed A Good Man in Africa and Mister Johnson, as well as Driving Miss Daisy and Breaker Morant.

It's a very quiet (and thus you notice the really good sound design) film, almost European in its laid backness. Duvall sang all the songs and indeed wrote a couple of them himself in tale of singer's redemption. It's quietly moving.

Tess Harper is the saviour and Allan Hubbard rather good as her young son. Betty Buckley is Duvall's ex and Ellen Barkin their daughter, Wilford Brimley the manager; Norman Bennett is familiar to us from Terms of Endearment.

Russell Boyd photographed it evocatively. Chris Newman is the sound mixer, Maurice Schell is the supervising sound editor and our old friend Dick Vorisek supervised the rerecording.

2 ½ Silent Witnesses (2008/2010)

Season 12 ends in Zambia, Zaire, Zululand or somewhere. Robert Pugh's daughter had gone missing, Patrick Baladi knew Nikki from before, Kevin Doyle, Sian Webber and Nina Milner are religious hospital workers, John Kani a helpful local pathologist, Siyabonga Shibe a wronged suspect. Pugh and Baladi's accents quaver badly, and it's distracting. Finding Rachel was written by Martin Crompton and directed by Tim Fywell. Suspect runs away - again. Such a cliché.

You may get nice giraffes and all, but when you weigh that up against machetes, corruption, superstition, AIDS and no doubt a selection of poisonous snakes and insects, I'd rather stay at home. As such, it's not a particularly helpful film for the Zambian Tourist Board.

Season 13 kicks off with a story revolving around insurance fraud, written by Timothy Prager, Intent. It's directed by Udayan Prasad.

Features a very persistently annoying investigator Polly Frame, who we hope never to meet again, and Harry stupidly falls for obviously dodgy femme fatale Lucy Cohu (a somewhat unlikely character development). Wunmi Mosaku is a smart pathology assistant red herring. Nigel Lindsay investigates.

But Leo is seriously injured...

Then in a new screenplay by Ed Whitmore, Voids, a left wing writer supposedly finds his wife dead at the bottom of the stairs. Nikki and Harry both do autopsies and come out with completely different conclusions.

Three Secrets (1950 Robert Wise)

In Martin Rackin and Gina Kraus's story 'Rock Bottom', a five year old boy in a plane crash may be the son of one of three women who all gave up their babies for adoption. They are Eleanor Parker (The Voice of the Turtle, Caged, Detective Story, Between Two Worlds) -

- who's been jilted by a soldier in WWII, Patricia Neal (Hud, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Breaking Point) -

- a workaholic journalist whose career always comes first, and Ruth Roman (Strangers on a Train) -

- a dancer who has been horribly rejected by her powerful boyfriend, and kills him. (Ted de Corsia is his minder.)

Of the three, Neal's is the best developed character, all told in watery flashbacks. It's good though; Wise knows his stuff from years editing and graduating to director under Val Lewton.

Photographed by Sid Hickox, good score from David Buttolph (The Enforcer, Till We Meet Again, This Gun for Hire). Warners.

Bollocks of 2026

It's sadly early to start this list (5 January) but unfortunately we have a contender already, Hunting Wives, some crap about a woman who finds herself in the gun packing heart of Texas Republicanism. The title indicates how crap it will be.

Can You Keep a Secret? Dawn French, Mark Heap 'comedy'.

The Lady. True story of Fergie's dresser-turned-murderer. Just wasn't engaging.

Silent Witness - Season 12 (2008)

We've done Muslims, now the series turns to Hassidic Jews. And Polish Nazis. Judgement was written by Christian Spurrier and directed by Diarmuid Lawrence. Fake accents are the order of the day, especially from 'Rabbi' Ron Cook.

Then The Lost Child kicks off with one dead boy and another missing. Nikki reconnects with a head teacher who was important to her when a teenager - he knows her rather too well, we thought. Is the title about her, or the missing person? Dudi Appleton co-wrote (with Jim Keeble) and directed.

Reece Dinsdale, Alan Williams.

The BAFTAs

Biggest surprise was Robert Aramayo not only winning Rising Star, but sweeping Best Actor from under the noses of Leo, Timothee Chalamet, Ethan Hawke, Michael Jordan and Jesse Plemons.

Sinners won Best Original Screenplay over I Swear, Marty Supreme, The Secret Agent and Sentimental Value. But PTA won for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director. He credited his AD Adam Somner who had been his assistant for 20 years and who died during the filming of One Battle After Another.

We were delighted that Jessie Buckley and Wunmi Mosaku won their acting categories.

Pushed into the 'awarded earlier' slot was now Best Cinematography - can you believe that? They'll cover Visual Effects but not Cinematography?? Michael Bauman won for One Battle. Editing went to Andy Jurgensen for the same film.

There was some controversy over the fact that in the audience was I Swear's real life protagonist John Davidson, who happened to unfortunately tick while Michael Jordan and Delroy Lino were presenting. If only this moment had been embraced by somebody - presenter Alan Cumming for example - it would have helped understanding of Tourette's instead of becoming yet another embarrassing moment for the BBC - 36 hours later, the ceremony has still been pulled from BBC iPlayer. (Cumming has in fact pre-warned the audience but that didn't make it to the edit - another unfortunate decision.)

Sherlock Holmes (2009 Guy Ritchie)

I think Guy Ritchie's incarnation of Sherlock Holmes to be the worst on film; and I think Sir Arthur would agree with me. Over-edited, over-CGIed film is fairly exhausting. Good people though - Downey, Jude Law, Mark Strong, Rachel McAdams, Eddie Marsan, Kelly Reilly, James Fox, Clive Russell. Robert Maillet is the French juggernaut.

Good music from Hans Zimmer and photography by Philippe Rousselot. The dockside blowing up is rather beautifully filmed.

Silent Witness - Season 12 (2008)

Terror.  Michael Crompton. Director Alex Pillai.

Police shooting in 'terrorist' house comes under investigation.

Best bit: Nikki taking part in armed simulation.

Shaun Dooley, Ciaran McMenamin (The Trench), Andrea Lowe, Gary Lewis.

The Fabelmans (2022 Steven Spielberg)

'What sort of film are you in the mood for next?' I asked Q. 'The Fabelmans,' she replied.

Spielberg wrote this autobiographical story - as much about his parents' relationship as anything - with Tony Kushner.

Best bits: tornado causing shopping trollies to cross the street; visit of uncle Judd Hirsch; finding his mother's secret in the edit; meeting John Ford (David Lynch) (and that funny camera move on last frame).

Gabriel LaBelle carries it well. With Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogan, Jeannie Berlin.

Usual team of Kaminski, Williams and Khan (with Sarah Broshar), production design Rick Carter (The Post, The BFG, Munich etc.)

Its 2 hours 25 runs past effortlessly.

Late Autumn / 秋日和 (1960 Yasujiro Ozu & co-scr)

How can you not love Ozu? He's the most lovely of filmmakers, with his small (yet immense) stories of families and relationships, presented in the most polite way in cinema. Aged only 57, this was one of his last films (he died in 1963- he went out as I came in).

And this is Jane Austen by Ozu! It is! Three elderly former college friends try to matchmake the daughter of a passed fourth and make a hash of it. Naturally the women involved are smarter.

The three men: Shin Saburi, Nobuo Nakamura and Ryuji Kita. And their observations about aging are great, and youth vs age, and the fact they keep lying to their wives and obviously all still fancy the widow.

The pipes!

Loved Yoko Tsukasa not being pushed around by her uncle; claiming not to want marriage for her mother's sake; becoming extremely sulky and petty when she thinks her mother is remarrying. Setsuko Hara is the wonderfully upbeat mother. And the way that friend Mariko Okada becomes so important to the story (she's absolutely delightful).

Keiji Sada is the fiance. (Loved his story about his tantrum with his mother who then died and how you shouldn't quarrel.) And Ozu's favourite actor Chisû Ryû, who appeared in 52 of his 54 films, also turns up.

All told through Ozu's precision square on set ups and low camera. And with its atypical music dividing up sections of the story it strangely makes you think of Woodv Allen.

The establishing shots showing Japan in 1960 alone are fascinating. I can even get excited by shots like this - no one in frame, just gently moving patterns of light on the walls:

Another humane, funny and acute study of human behaviour.

Photographed by Yuharu Atsuta (several other Ozu's including Tokyo Story).

Trois Couleurs: Bleu (1993 Krzysztof Kieslowski & co-scr)

Not the debut of La Binoche - she had for example been in Godard's Hail Mary in 1985, then The Unbearable Lightness of Being in 1988, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf in 1991 and funnily enough a version of Wuthering Heights in 1992 before this, but for Kieslowski's film she won the César, and Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival.

And of course she's wonderful as a woman who has lost her husband and seven year old daughter in a car crash, and withdraws from the world. Or at least, she tries to.

From its arresting opening, photographed by Slawomir Idziak and edited by Jacques Witta, this is a most absorbing, quietly gripping piece of work. I like the way we get these big hits of music, then a fade to black, then the scene fades back in and resumes - not sure I'd seen that before.

Her new address is near Rue Mouffetard in the 5eme.

She cameos in Kieslowski's sequels, Blanc and Rouge, which I'm sure are worth watching. I'd seen A Short Film About Killing ages ago but would also like to catch up with A Short Film About Love (1988).

I was slightly underwhelmed by composer Zbigniew Preisner's supposedly great concerto. In fact I would have ended the film with Binoche saying '"I'll be right over". However the ending as is, with its creative montage to music, is interesting enough.

Agnieszka Holland contributed to the screenplay and Julie Delpy has a cameo (didn't spot her).

A Civil Action (1998 Steve Zaillian & scr)

Robert Duvall died February 15. He's as good as always in this as a world-weary lawyer who's seen it all before and knows how to win. In fact that's the problem with this film - unlike something like Erin Brockovich, the case defeats them and literally leaves all the partners bankrupt. Who are: John Travolta, Tony Shaloub, William H Macy and Zeljko Ivanek.

But it's another seriously staggering piece of work from 'every frame' Conrad Hall, whose pools of light are just mesmerizing. But it's also the way the cinematography enhances the story - the way water and water in glasses is shot. He and Duvall were Oscar nominated.

Also with Bruce Norris ('Cheeseman'), John Lithgow, Kathleen Quinlan, James Gandolfini, Stephen Fry (a non part really - he just disappears) and Dan Hedaya. And Sydney Pollack.

Silent Witness - Season 12 (2008)

Death's Door. Stephen Davis. Director Diarmuid Lawrence.

A body is found with its face removed. An annoying student (Naomi Bentley) has been assigned to the pathology team, clearly with her own agenda. The story takes a sharp turn when she is murdered, and Russians come in to play. And Harry is assigned a particularly useful security officer (played by John Kirk, I believe).

The investigating detective on this one is particularly unpleasant (Midsomer's Neil Dudgeon). And there's a ruthless PR man involved (Phil Davis). Jaye Griffiths is a little bit of love interest for Leo.

Babou Ceesay (We Hunt Together. The Best of Enemies) isn't in it much. Richard Atlee and Philip Quast play Russian.

John Kirk (I think)