Commodity. Timothy Prager / Daniel O'Hara.
New pathologist Richard Lintern steps in to take Leo's job (Nikki didn't want it).
Jack has insulted a detective (Adrian Rawlins). So he has to apologise, but Lintern enders himself to us (and the team) by making the DI apologise as well. Then he leaves Nikki with Leo's old creaky chair.
The plot is all about whether a cocky footballer has murdered the ex nanny.
Completely coincidentally both films are linked by mediums. In the first, Pauline Collins predicts Gemma Jones' future, much to the disbelief of daughter Naomi Watts and her husband, Josh Brolin, a writer. She in turn hopes to have an affair with boss Antonio Banderas and he with neighbour Freida Pinto. Jones' ex Anthony Hopkins is in a very misguided relationship with Lucy Punch. And they all make a big mess of everything!
Vilmos Zsigmond shot it in London.
With Fenella Woolgar, Philip Glenister, Neil Jackson, Ewen Bremner, Anna Friel, Celia Imrie, and briefly, Joanna David.
Darius Khondji shoots the Cote d'Azur beautifully. Great production design / locations. Most enjoyable film.
I quite enjoyed this seventies British thriller, which takes after Performance and its ilk.
Convict Oliver Reed - sporting ugly accent - learns wife Jill St John is leaving him and determines to break out of prison with mate Ian McShane and escape planner Freddie Jones - leading to an exciting scene, well shot, and showing what a difficult and scary task it is.
Reed's mission is to kill her, and it involves fellow criminal Frank Finlay and detective Edward Woodward. There's some good action scenes and a nice twist ending.
Well photographed by Ted Scaife, edited by John Glen, music by Stanley Myers.
A restrained Victor McLaglan leads said British patrol across Mesopotamian desert (now Iraq) to oasis where they are gradually picked off by an unseen enemy - an inspiration on Assault on Precinct 13?
Boris Karloff is a religious nutter. With Reginald Denny, Wallace Ford (no relation), J.M. Kerrigan.
Music by Steiner, shot by Harold Wenstrom, filmed in the Imperial Sand Dunes, Buttercup City for RKO.
Some surprising and memorable deaths, e.g. soldier who has just scaled a palm tree, aircraft pilot; but there's not a lot to it, really, certainly not the **** which Maltin bestows it with.
I was surprised to read that Quentin Tarantino thought it 'a piece of crap' as it's Hitch's last great film, a real change of pace, a nouvelle vague Hitchcock.
Written by Gluck, David A Newman and Keith Merryman..
Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis. Patricia Clarkson, Woody Harrelson, Jenna Elfman, Richard Jenkins, Emma Stone.
I'm not sure we were in quite the right mood to experience the histrionics of Carole Lombard and John Barrymore, though they are both great in Ben Hecht / Charles MacArthur screenplay. Based on the play 'Napoleon of Broadway' by Charles Bruce Millholland.
With Roscoe Karns, Walter Connolly, Etienne Girardot (mad man).
Ms Lombard in an array of glamorous fashion:
Mr Barrytmore's response:
German version of film fair zips along in story of Russian (Uno Henning) who has loved a French girl but they must flee to Paris. I can't tell you how unspeakable some of the men are in this, particularly the vile Fritz Rasp, who whilst embracing blind fiancee Brigitte Helm is also trying to seduce title heroine Edith Jéhanne. He's also boasted to a girl whose eye he has kissed (not a typo) - a sort of Louise Brooks protégée Hertha van Walther - that he's going to kill said fiancee for her money. There's an amusing scene with a diamond stealing parrot, and a wonderful little moment where the couple spy a just married bride... and she's crying.
The uncle is another monster who is absolutely overwhelmed by greed (another standout moment) and who suddenly decides to seduce his niece... For fuck's sake. The screenplay is by Rudolf Leonhardt and Ladislaus Vajda from Ilja Ehrenburg's novel.
Most interesting, though Bernd Thewes modern recreation of an old piano cue sheet leaves something to be desired. Good performances by and large. Sig Arnio, best known to us from The Palm Beach Story, is funny as an investigator. With Hans Jaray, Vladimir Sokoloff, Eugen Jensen.
The agile camerawork is by Robert Lach and Fritz Arno Wagner (Nosferatu, Diary of a Lost Girl, Westfront 1918, The Threepenny Opera, M, The Testament of Dr Mabuse).
Greater Love. Dudi Appleton and Jim Keeble. Directed by Douglas Mackinnon, who has an annoying habit of putting something in the way of his subject and tracking the camera through it, like this:
The gang go to Afghanistan to retrieve a fallen soldier from a water project. Unfortunately they spend a lot of time in debate with others and each other about war vs crime, west vs. everyone else, personal morality, justice, chicken decomposition etc and it seems to be a showcase for polemical discussion rather than the exciting episode it could have been... Until the somehow not unexpected twist and shock ending.
Nikki: "Leo was as close to a father as I'll ever have."
David Caves, Brana Bajic, Sam Hazeldine, Joe Doyle.
We don't think Rob Jarvis killed his wife and even investigating detective Christine Bottomley isn't sure - but her dad Christopher Fulford puts the pressure on. Turns out a former policeman David Murray has been killing and cutting fingers off all over the place (literally). Nikki saves Jack's life with a clonk over the head. True Love Waits was written by the normally reliable Ed Whitmore, and Tracey Malone, but I wasn't sure what was going on half the time.
Then in Stephen Gallagher's The Legacy. Nikki gets involved with a politician who you know is going to be a wrongun (Ed Stoppard) whilst a nuclear train crash has been covered up. (Sorry - he was going to build low cost housing on land he knew was contaminated with uranium? Have I got that wrong?)
It's nicely photographed, anyway - by Jon Conroy - but really over-edited by Catherine Creed.
Jason Segel, Jessica Williams, Luke Tennie, Harrison Ford, Michael Urie, Lukita Maxwell, Ted McGinley, Christa Miller, Michael J Fox, Devin Kawaoka.
Ted and Liz have to kick their son out so he can make something of himself. Brian and Charlie have a baby. Sean's girlfriend returns. Great to see Fox as Parkinson's patient.
Various writers. Good stuff.
Change is right - there's no more Harry. Tom Ward had had enough. But, you know, he was our favourite character, so that's hard. Though we had just watched him in 96 episodes. So that should be enough really.
David Caves is Jack, the new Harry, who we meet in a boxing ring, and he's accompanied by his diminutive sidekick Liz Carr (Clarissa).
Death of a confectionary magnate is the rather cumbersome plot here. With Sharon Small, Louis Emerick, Anna Madeley, Derek Riddell. Timothy Prager wrote it, Anthony Byrne directed.
Then in Trust (Richard Davidson / Richard Clark) Jack bumps into former colleague / lover Amanda Drew who's investigating a double murder, which revolves around an anthrax plot involving Bryan Dick ns Mark Bonnar. The ending is a bit shit. In a side story, Leo helps the mother of a deceased infant. With Adam James.
This - directed by Keith Boak - is the hardest watch of the series so far, as it deals with impressionable teenage schoolgirls being seduced through presents and flattery and drugs into becoming unwilling prostitutes for a gang of Pakistani men. And these girls don't seem stupid, but they all seem to come from unhappy home lives.
Begins with two bangs - Nikki witnesses a barefoot girl being run over and helps her; Harry's flat blows up!
Rather successful in that we see the miserable fate of one of the girls imprisoned and desperate to escape cross cut with how it all begins for another couple of girls.
Elyes Gabel is good as the charismatic gang leader, with Faraz Ayub, Ashwin Bolar and thankfully Tony Jayawardena as the slightly thick one who knows they are doing wrong and eventually comes to the rescue (also good; A Street Cat Named Bob). The girls are Emma Amos, Juliet Cowan, Chloe May.
A taciturn detective is Sam Troughton; Sanjeev Bhaskar also features.
To leaven the dark proceedings, Harry moves into Nikki's flat (though doesn't get much more sleep there!)
What is also quite disturbing that although we see all the gang being arrested, we're not convinced there will be enough evidence to convict them all. And this was some years before the Bradford grooming scandal, also.
When Audrey says she's aware of her responsibility and that's why she's come back; had she not been aware of it she may not have returned at all - I was wondering how many times Willie made her say it! Certainly you can see in the climactic press conference at the palace quite how good a director of actors he is.
Audrey would not have been known at all in Rome, which must have been liberating.
Caffe Rocca next to the Pantheon is no longer there. Via Margutta is near the Spanish Steps; Fellini lived there.
John Steinbeck 'Cain and Abel' story adapted by Paul Osborn - the irony being that the 'bad' character is the better one. Strong performance from James Dean, who was Oscar nominated after his death. With Raymond Massey, Julie Harris, Richard Davalos, Burl Ives, Jo Van Fleet and a young Lois Smith (pictured at bar with Dean below). And more ironies in that Dean and Harris make a better couple than her and his brother. And also that Dean is a better businessman than his father. And that he could have had a good relationship with his mother when the others couldn't.
Creatively photographed by Conrad Hall's mentor Ted McCord, using the widescreen well.
Editor Owen Marks is not afraid of the widescreen. Strong score from Leonard Rosenman
It was a Warner Bros film, designed by James Basevi and Malcolm Bert.
I wanted to see this as it was reportedly the only adaptation of a Ruth Rendall novel 'A Judgement in Stone' that she approved. (Chabrol adapted it with Caroline Eliacheff), And it's quite shocking.
As usual we're in an isolated house in the country near a small village. (Are any Chabrols set in a city?) A slightly strange lady, Sandrine Bonnaire, is employed as a maid by Jacqueline Bisset to look after her husband (Jean-Pierre Cassel), step daughter (Virginie Ledoyen) and son (Valentin Merlet). The family are quite good to her, really, particularly the daughter, but her path crosses with wilful and rebellious post office worker Isabelle Huppert (a performance of some vigour) who you could argue leads her astray. But they both may have had darker secrets in their pasts. They have funny quirks. Bonnaire keeps saying 'I don't know' to something she should know, like 'Do you like your room?' Huppert seems slightly obsessed in washing her hands.
One interpretation is it's a film about class differences.
The ending - that the murders have accidentally been recorded on tape - is a real doozy, and actually plays out right through to the very end of the credits.
Quite high key lighting by Bernard Zitzermann, incisively edited by Monique Fardoulis.
Murder to opera - is this where Woody took inspiration from?
Bisset's mother was French but she had to learn the language. As far as I can tell she doesn't live in France.
It's quite stunning as well as shocking. Huppert was the only winner of its seven César nominations.
From the off, as Terry Thomas addresses the audience - the men in the audience, as the wives wouldn't want to see this picture and are at home in their kitchens - it's knowingly sending up the old-fashioned attitudes of the bachelors, and ends on a reassuring note - the man needs the woman. "Now's your chance - go in there and finish her off." George Axelrod's the writer, who preferred comedy, though let us not forget also adapted Richard Condon's 'The Manchurian Candidate' rather brilliantly in 1962. He had started writing for radio, then television, and his first play was a hit - 'The Seven Year Itch'. His next Broadway hit 'Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter' was completely changed for its film adaptation.
Lemmon's great as usual - a real one-off - but Terry-Thomas and Verna Lisi are strong in support.
And I would have to say if I was teaching how to score a movie, then this would be a really fun example. For it's not only Neal Hefti's themes that are interesting - there's one for the Brash Brannigan capers, one for Lemmon and Lisi canoodling, an Italian theme just for her, the funeral marches etc. - but it's also the way he arranges the themes as needed to really suit a particular scene or moment. The minute people started putting pop songs into movies, that fine art started to get lost - you rarely if ever get it now.
I was only thinking a couple of days before of Lemmon saying' You no speak-a de English" and I couldn't remember what film it was from!
Like though the credit 'A film by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden' (she co-wrote and edited).
Yes, see here. Anthony Mackie is as good as Gosling and Epps.
Could have done with the occasional shot - the last one. for example - not being hand held.
Does Gosling say at one point that he's 'been over there' (the war)?
The music's by Broken Social Scene and it was filmed in Brooklyn.
Daniel Ellsberg was a political activist who published the Pentagon Papers in 1971 which revealed the Government's thinking over Vietnam.
Written by Andrew Davies, who has represented some of the trial itself - which now seems mad - including a Bishop who claims the book 'sanctifies' sex and a lecturer who describes it as 'Puritanical'. But what Davies has also done is to make up the jury - in particular a couple, who - perhaps because of the shared experience of the book - get it together. They are Rafe Spall and Louise Delamere, played older by Kenneth Cranham and Claire Bloom.
It's funny that the minute Spall goes down on his wife Alyson Coote, she realises he's been having an affair!
The courtroom stuff goes on a bit.
With Karl Johnson, Pip Torrens, David Tennant, Montserrat Lombard, Gerard Horan, Mary Healey.
Perhaps influenced by Don't Look Now, this uses water in a creepy way, as couple Emma Thompson and Adrian Dunbar on holiday in Scotland experience mysterious manifestations... yes it's got more in common with Roeg's film than I realised. Joanna Roth is the other woman, David Horovitch the landlord. Eleanor Bron the gnostic, Phyllida Law appropriately Thompson's mum.
They found the right location. It was quite engaging, thank you.
Stuart Wyld shot it and Peter Hayes cuts it all together sensibly.
The familiar name of Rebecca Eaton is there as Executive Producer for BBC / WGBH Boston.
