Welles hated the incidental music that was snuck on quickly, when he had already created a temporary library music and effects track - the mirrors sequence should have been silent, just sound effects, for example. Another request he made that was ignored was to cut the very last scene, which PB thinks is the worst in any Orson Welles picture.
Nothing new to add. Mitchum's fabulous. When Mitchum is apprehended and the boy cries out for him is memorable. We presume that crowd's going to lynch Mitchum at the end.
One of those ones you're glad when it's over as to terribly overdone sound effects we keep referring back to a sort of pagan drug fuelled male bonding ritual which ends in death. Wounds was written by Paul Farrell. Familiar faces are Lorcan Cranitch, Ian Puleston-Davies, Christoper Fulford and Ian Dunn.
In a shock ending, Boyd's son has been found dead of an overdose. We don't think the writers used the son at all effectively in the series.
In fact Dinner was released second, December 1967; Heat was August. But what a year for American cinema - Bonnie and Clyde also came out that year, and changed everything. But get this - Poitier was not even Oscar nominated for either film. Can you dig that? His performances in both films are fantastic.
To get Dinner into perspective, it is mentioned in William Rose's screenplay (which seems like it was adapted from the theatre but isn't) that in sixteen or seventeen states then, mixed race marriage was illegal. I mean, that's absolutely shattering, and puts the whole dilemma of Spencer Tracy into much sharper focus. Which as I mentioned in my review of Loving, has never been illegal in the UK or any other European country. No, it's just the fucking stupid American dickheads that have this persistent race problem.
With that in mind I don't think it can be written off as "fluff" the way Maltin glibly does.
We did think, however, that the couple are in far too much of a rush - they have only known each other ten days for Christ's sake.
And - I usually laugh at the funny and corny way the delivery boy jives with the help; but look - there's an interracial couple there getting along famously.
And then Heat, written by Sterling Silliphant from John Ball's novel (which resulted in six sequels). "Why are you dressed in white man's clothes?" Good lord, it seems dated, but again, it's in our lifetimes. My favourite moment: when Larry Gates slaps Poitier and he immediately slaps him back - "I could have had you shot for that in the old days".
Quincy Jones' score is most interesting. Plus you have Hal Ashby editing (and assistant to the producer) and Haskell Wexler on camera. it's cinematically the more interesting of the two films.
Initially a rather cool film about how we've lost touch with the way things were better - that moment of 'Don't look it up on your phone, let's try and remember it' - summarised brilliantly by the closing shot of the toddler on the phone.
But it turns into a story about how 'hip' youngster Adam Driver manages to manipulate his way into Ben Stiller's documentary making world and steals his contacts while making his own film in in a most underhanded way. Stiller and Naomi Watts are great attempting to act young, Driver's fantastically edgy. Amanda Seyfried is his partner. With Charles Grodin and (fleetingly) Peter Bogdanovich.
And also about how Stiller has spent 10 years making a six hour documentary which is 'boring'.
Very well written.
"Are you filming me??"
"Your sleeve's on fire!"
Shot by Sam Levy. Jennifer Lame, future Oscar winner of Oppenheim, does some great cross-cutting.
From Elmore Leonard novel. John Hawkes and Yaslin Bey hatch a plan to kidnap crooked property developer Tim Robbins' wife Jen An and hold her for a cool $1million ransom - but he's planning to divorce her and resists paying, egged on by mercenary girlfriend Isla Fisher. The pair have unwisely involved Nazi obsessed lunatic Mark Boone Junior. Neighbour Will Forte is peripherally involved.
There are a couple of moments when you think - why's he doing that? But otherwise this is in the main a funny crime story with a real doozy of an ending!
Duty and Honour. Adrian Meade. Another beheaded body is found in the woods. It all links back to soldiers in Iraq. Some tasty co-stars: Jamie Sives, Holliday Grainger (two years before Any Human Heart), Nicholas Farrell, Rupert Graves; with Richard Riddell, Elliott Jordan.
Skin. Clive Bradley & Declan Croghan. This one has the neat resolution that a supposed neo-Nazi skinhead is in fact Jewish and has been tattooing the rest of the group with AIDS-infected ink! Philip Whitchurch is the main bastard and his daughter is Jo Woodcock (Collision). John Dougall is a right wing politician involved.
Boyd is a terrible father.
Anger Management. The flamenco one. And Boyd in therapy. John Milne, Andy Hay
Final Cut. The Performance one. Stephen Davis.
Cold Fusion. Ed Whitmore. S. 5 finale. Spence pursued by assassin.
Sins. Declan Croghan. The beheaded prison governor.
Sins. Declan Croghan. Who beheaded the prison governor? Halfway through, I think his daughter (Alexandra Moen) bashed his head in and her creepy psychiatrist boyfriend (Michael Maloney) did the decapitation. Though I suspect Ruth Gemmel of something too... Possible suspects include David Schofield and Tony Maudsley.
It turned out I was half right, which is pretty good for me - I'm usually wildly off. I thought Moen's performance was fantastic; and Gemmel's good too. So I have to rate the director Daniel Percival (he also directed Death Comes to Pemberley).
And in flashback - Boyd almost kills a man his son is with...
What's it all about, Freddie? A young woman restlessly tries to find happiness of some sort but doesn't, can't. Why? What in fact is she looking for? Is the old writer that Dirk Bogarde interviews a key here? She says she doesn't understand their conversation, is just happy to be accepted. Fred Raphael has a great way of writing empty headed conversation, the intelligentsia (with a barbed fork) and the muddles people make of their lives.
It has a great momentum, through the writing and Jim Clark's catch-me-if-you-can editing. Though it does go on a bit. There's a most peculiar moment where a couple make love in front of guests; then a bizarre party where it looks like everyone is on drugs (but isn't shown that way) - the empty trappings of the rich and infamous. In that 'Darling' achieves some sort of fame through doing nothing and being talentless, the film is actually even more relevant today than it was in the sixties.
I mean, you just know that things like the charity dinner, with black youths being used as colonial serving boys, is a very deliberate jibe which you'll find in Fred's original screenplay. (Plus talk of famine as some plump society dame chomps food.)
It's pretty clear she doesn't really enjoy sex. What does she enjoy? What's it all about, Freddie?
'I remember John calling me from New York after the premiere and saying, "Well, dear, it's a hit. Don't ask me why, but they love it." ' Jim Clark, Dream Repairman. (Which also answers Q's good question - was Schlesinger 'out'? Yes indeedy. Jim also thought it went on a bit.
Malcolm Cooke is the sound editor. Kenneth Higgins shot it
We were delighted to learn that season 2 has another 16 episodes; less delighted that Louisa's long lost brother Martin Shaw turns up for a job and begins to disrupt the entire staff; her mum is also taking the piss, outstaying her welcome at the hotel. Writer Julia Jones.
Then is Jeremy Paul's story, two undergraduates conspire to set up Louisa with their college professor Freddie Jones - he falls for her. Julian Fellowes is one of them!
A chauffeur inherits a fortune - £30,000. Louisa and his employer's nephew try and turn him into a gentleman - we know it isn't going to work. He is Kevin McNally.
We're on something of a Frederic Raphael retrospective. This was his Thomas Hardy adaptation. Why are they making this film at the height of the swinging sixties? I wondered. Well partly, I guess, because a strong and independent woman is the heart of the story. Julie Christie had just won the Oscar for Darling (as had Fred). I wonder whose idea it was. Alexander Walker claims that the plot reflected Darling too much and that Christie didn't have the presence to play Hardy's heroine. (I disagree with the first bit - it is her and three guys but the dynamic is totally different.) And it had a mixed response commercially and critically.
All I can say is we loved it. It's a seriously well made film. Nic Roeg's photography alone is wonderful: John Harris is the operator and Anthony Richmond the focus puller (later to win BAFTA for Don't Look Now).
Without knowing the original you can tell Fred's done a great job with the adaptation resulting in a 2 hour 40 film that never releases the attention. Its pull - that Bathsheba hopelessly falls for cad Troy but he has lost his heart to Fanny (Prunella Ransome); in fact the biggest surprise is that he ultimately does try and help her. With the added irony that both the other suitors Alan Bates and Peter Finch are much better suited - but love doesn't work that way.
It's a noticeably well edited film as well. Malcolm Cooke (who was the sound editor on Darling) is credited but actually fell way behind and Jim Clark was summoned to help. Jim was responsible for example for that brilliant opening with the mad dog killing the sheep, a sequence which builds beautifully and which he put together silent. He also cut the action sequences: fire, barn dance, storm, and the scene where Stamp woos the girl with his skills in swordsmanship; while Cooke managed the dialogue scenes. I noticed also some distinctive uses of sound anticipating the next scene - thus over the fire we hear the water running from the shot coming up. Clark thought it was Schlesinger's best film.
What else? A good cast, and we got to see Freddie Jones for the second time in one day (he was in The Duchess of Duke Street earlier). Alison Leggatt, Fiona Walker, Paul Dawkins, lots of unknowns but good.
Great score too by Richard Rodney Bennett. Very good production design, costumes, use of locations.
Written by Frederic Raphael, based on a short story by Stanley Ellin. In order to get on, Alan Bates enlists the help of fallen blue blood Denholm Elliott (along with Saint Jack one of his best performances) but ultimately succumbs to murder. The frequent uses of ' he/she'll have to go' don't prepare you for what actually ensues. It's thoroughly funny and properly bitter about upper class twattishness. The irony is that Bates cannot help but become one of the types he detests.
We noticed a moment when Bates and Millicent Martin are in bed and she says something that isn't in the audio. Martin also sings the theme song.
Some of Fergus McDonnell's editing is quite loose.
Photographed by Nic Roeg with some slightly ragged camera operating by Alex Thomson. I don't know if it's just me but there's something very modern about the way this is shot:
Commonplace now but not in 1963 when it was filmed?
Lovely cast: Harry Andrews, Pauline Delaney (the landlady, also Young Cassidy), Godfrey Quigley (property developer), Alison Leggatt, Nigel Stock, James Villiers, William Rushton.
Loved Elliott draining his hip flask with the line "We're all out of lighter fuel".
And "You seem a bit metholated".
Martin on seeing giant country pile "How did you know my size?"
And "Possibly the worst play I've seen since last Tuesday".
The BBFC required several cuts for it to receive its 'A' certificate, which were not restored for the DVD release:
Reel 1 Remove "You really do talk round objects."
Reel 5 Change "balls" to "Hunt ball" in "I am sorry about the balls".
Reel 6 The scene in Mrs. March's bedroom must end as soon as Brewster enters the room and shuts the door.
Reel 7 Stop the bedroom scene before Brewster puts Mrs. March on the bed.
Reel 9 Remove "brothel-weary".
Remove "Mon chauffage central" ('my central heating'??) and "You great bastard".
Remove "Encore une fois" and shot of couple sinking back on the bed. (That's the bit referred to above where her lips move but there's no audio.)
Reel 10 Alter the dialogue between Mrs. March and Brewster, so as to remove the idea that it is necessarily sexual.
Remove "odds and sods".
But somehow the mention of cocaine wasn't deemed objectionable!
Missing Persons. Declan Croghan.
A woman who powerfully protects her children in a mugging is found to have DNA links to a 15 year old cold case murder. International terrorism is at work. Beatriz Batarda, Justine Mitchell, Daniel Cerqueira (This City Is Ours, The A Word, Judy), Angus Wright, Gemma Lawrence (the daughter).
A curious film, really, considering its beloved reputation.. there’s a clue right at the beginning - these people may be able to keep escaping but they’ve all been recaptured - and that’s ultimately what happens here as the various types - tunneller Buchowski who’s afraid of tunnels, forger Pleasance who’s going blind, cool kid McQueen, dogged escape virtuoso Attenborough - don’t stay escaped. And in fact you wonder about the plan - wouldn’t it be better if a few people at a time had escaped.? (The Germans suddenly say “ ‘Ere , where is everyone?”) The Little Escapes. As it is, everyone’s on the lookout for them and one by one… I think Coburn is the only one who (may) get to safety.
I was looking at Dan Fapp’s lighting of the scenes in the tunnels thinking if this was filmed now it would all be so dark you could barely see anything
Ferris Webster is editing on the many performances. James Donald impresses once again as the sober camp leader. With James Garner, Hanes Messemer, David McCallum, Gordon Jackson, John Leyton, Angus Lennie (McQueen’s cell neighbour).
Still, it was quite enjoyable. Best bit - subtle signals that the coast is clear.
Another Luc Besson idea (script) involving Jean Reno and a young girl - this time, a suddenly discovered daughter in Japan, Riyoko Hirosue. It’s fairly comic book stuff e.g. Yakuza types all in shades, villain with scarred face, ‘comic’ action scenes involving funny-eared sidekick Michel Muller. Watched it in French (it was luckily set in Tokyo, Kyoto and other French speaking parts of Japan), but despite this I’m not sure we missed much.
Yang Hervin edited. Carole Bouquet is in it, though didn’t understand her role.
Yes, I think I pegged it quite well here
http://nicksfilmjottings.blogspot.com/2019/07/green-book-2018-peter-farrelly.html
Had a couple of screen shots in mind; can’t remember them now.
Disturbing racist behaviour in the lovely USA most unpleasant.
The trap the Ali character has fallen into: neither white nor black. I think he got it wrong - should have been performing for black audiences, both well off and poor.
Vigo Mortensen’s way of eating is disgusting.
Double Bind. Richard Warlow. The hippy trippy one. In the sixties a pioneering / deluded therapist helps patients by prescribing strong acid which leads to murder. But who did what? Miles Anderson is in a perpetual mania - we were quite relieved when it was over
Yahrzeit. Declan Croghan. And a chilling one about eugenics. It seems that before dying Mel started to investigate the murder of a Polish child in London in 1945. It leads back to the frightful experiments of Mengele and a contemporary German family with secrets.
Should definitely be required watching for anybody thinking of taking up acting as a career. It’s not for the faint hearted.
Moment where Kenneth More is in the theatre watching another actor audition and knows his lines better than he does is cool
