The Sorrow and the Pity / Le Chagrin et la Pitié (1969 Marcel Ophüls)

(The son of Max.) French experience of World War Two told in fascinating detail by cross-section of society, including farmer/resistance who wouldn't take revenge on traitor; endemic racism and anti-Britishness; French pilots who dangerously hedge-bombed close to target accurately; normal life in Paris; horrendous trials both before and after Liberation. The truly unpleasant stories are in the last of its four hours. Ophüls a quietly determined interviewer.

Anthony Eden surprising with fluent French and urbane non-judgmental attitude. Quietly gathers force through build-up of detail.

Watched on consecutive Sundays.

Thunderball (1965 Terence Young)

As Q was asleep. With Adolfo Celi, Claudine Auger, Luciana Paluzzi, even Philip Stone is in it!

Ph. Ted Moore, Panavision. Music John Barry.

'Sean was most relaxed when Terence directed him' (Ken Adam). Watched all the extras too. Sounds like filming was a lot of fun!

Hijacking of bomber still ace.

The wipe dissolves make it look really old-fashioned.

The Lives of Others / Das Lebender der Anderen (2006 Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)

Ulrich Mühe has one of those remarkable faces that changes in minute registers and manages to express some quiet, complex emotions. He lived to see the film win the Foreign Language BAFTA and Oscar, and to receive Best Actor at the German Film Awards, but died of stomach cancer aged 54. He also starred in several Michael Haneke films including Funny Games (1997).

Ulrich Tukur is also very good as his slimy boss. You can see that it is the kind of uplifting film that does seem to win foreign film awards,

Barry Lyndon (1975 Stanley Kubrick)

And so to the now rated BARRY LYNDON which was not at all boring, as I and the dogs found last time when Q. was in Tenegrief (actually the dogs were asleep, but this could have been down to boredom).

The cast is interesting, from the greatly undervalued Leonard Rossiter (a scared officer, below) to the familiar reliability of Hardy Krüger, with Murray Melvin slyly watchable as Rev. Runt. Philip Stone - The Shining's eternal barman - features briefly, and Barry's young stepson Dominic Savage wrote and directed TV's Freefall earlier this year.

Michael Hordern's ironic voiceover and the formal and deliberate structure of the film beautifully balance the 18th Century setting and wry turn of events.

(Kubrick) "I first came across the Handel theme [Sarabande] played on a guitar, and strangely enough it made me think of Ennio Morricone."

(It can't have been this rendition - it's too recent - but this is a beautiful version.) Leonard Rosenman at one point dramatically orchestrates it on timpani alone, and effectively uses other music like the Irish melodies early on.

Now the cinematography, at no. 16 in the ASC's Best Shot Films 1950 - 1997, as much I think for Kubrick's technical skills as to those of the photographer alone. (What is Psycho doing at no. 15, by the way? Apart from this, John L. Russell has no notable credits, just a welter of B movies. It wouldn't surprise me at all to hear that Hitch chose all the lenses and compositions. In fact my only complaint about Psycho is that it isn't shot by Hitch's regular Robert Burks.) This is I think one of the best shot films of all time. John Alcott took over from Unsworth after six months on 2001 (no. 3 in the list), then photographed A Clockwork Orange. For this film he

"studied the lighting effects achieved in the paintings of the Dutch masters but they seemed a bit flat [also not quite the right period?] so we decided to light more from the side... an awful lot of diffusion was being used in cinema at the time".

 (Kubrick again) "I have always tried to light my films to emulate natural light."

Thus daylight was used as much as possible, or diffused light (Alcott lighting through windows with mini Brutes through plastic material):

"If you shoot towards the window you get a very beautiful and realistic flare effect."

For the much discussed candlelit scenes, Kubrick found a 50mm Zeiss f. 0.7 lens, 100% faster than any other existing lens, developed by NASA. It was adapted by Cinema Products Corp, on an old Mitchell BNC with a projector lens adapter to give a 35.5mm length. President Ed Di Giuliu recalls:

"He wanted to preserve the natural patina and feeling of these old castles at night as they actually were. The addition of any fill light would have added an artificiality to the scene."

The equipment produced a very short depth of focus, no problem for NASA when shooting at infinity focus, but rather more problematic shooting candlelit actors. These scenes are still extraordinarily beautiful and haven't been surpassed. The slow 10-1 zooms out (on an Arriflex 35BL, whatever that is) are also most distinctive.

(Alcott) "That old bit that says you cut because the sun's gone in doesn't go any more." (Noticeable in scene where Barry buys son a horse.)

 More 4's print is correctly at the peculiar ratio of 1.59:1.

Smultrönstallet / Wild Strawberries (1957 Ingmar Bergman)

As engaging as the last time I saw it, and definitely one of the director's most accessible films, shot with hard light (particularly in that over-exposed opening dream) by Gunnar Fischer (singled out in 'Making Pictures: A Decade of European Cinematography').

Is there a twinkle in the housekeeper's eye when she asks "if there's anything you need..."

Silent legend Victor Sjöström, an influence on Bergman, is excellent as the aging doctor who feels he is already dead (and accordingly, so does his son).

I am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth (2005 Vincenta Ferraz)

And a documentary about Soy Cuba ('a Siberian mammoth found in the Caribbean sand') reveals the dominance of Urusevsky, who sounds like the driving force from many stories ("move this waterfall ... we'll wait three days until there are clouds in the sky") though as the film ultimately bombed* and disappeared, he and Kalatozov never recovered (Urusevsky shot only two more films and died at 66). Scorsese and Coppola rescued it in the nineties.

*The Cubans thought the tempo of the film was not Cuban; there was too much American decadence for the Soviets.

There's also a nice understatement about "we had to shoot some of the scenes more than once..." Indeed.

P.S. Infra red film used to get those incredible skies!

Bande a Part (1964 Jean-Luc Godard)

Godard's Jules et Jim is as light and funny as a souffle. For example, Odile's kiss "with tongue" (a diffident Anna Karina), and the mucking about of Arthur Clause Brasseur, diving through the back window of his car - later on we hear the roof doesn't work any longer) and Franz (Sami Frey, in gangster hat and raincoat). All three still going strong.

It's also innovative, the editing going on to the opening titles is amazing. There are experiments with sound, such as the minute's silence, and trademark moments where the music (Michel Legrand - why "For the last time"?) doesn't fit the scene properly.

And those throwaway touches of intrigue at the end (the aunt isb't dead; the money's in the kennel) and 'Franz and Odete's next adventure will be in Technicolor and CinemaScope'... delightful.

Doctor in Clover (1967 Ralph Thomas)

Leslie Phillips ('Ding dong!'), James Robertson Justice, Shirley Anne Field, Joan Sims, Arthur Haynes (funny as difficult patient), Elizabeth Ercy, usual people who turn up in films of this era.

Clever title you see, contains 'Love' or 'Lover', very clever?!? Poor even by Pinewood standards: they could have been doing something more interesting than fire extinguisher gags in 1967. Eric Steward's photography if anything is getting worse.

Soy Cuba saved my life! *

* Not actually true. Claims made on blog may be false as well as true.

Near the beginning of Mikhail Kalatozov's eye-popping SOY CUBA (1964), the camera watches models parade, glides Spider-man like down a wall, circulates a pool party and then, still in the same take, goes underwater swimming for Christ's sake!

Sergei Urusevsky's constantly moving (roving is possibly a better word) camera, steadier than a Steadicam, yet performing unbelieveable traverses of height and obstacle, is fascinating: in one almost throwaway shot he walks us through a top storey cigar factory (where the revolutionary flag is unfurled) and then blithely continues out of the window, and floats way out over a funeral procession from the air, making Luciano Tovoli's famous trick shot in The Passenger look positively insipid in comparison (indeed, in an online review of the same pair's The Letter Never Sent (1959) there's reference to another such brain-defying stunt; The Cranes Are Flying (1957), their initial collaboration, is also highly rated).

These long takes of constant movement, the very wide angles, black skies, sound effects and Carlos Fariñas' unfamiliar score give this an almost hallucinatory quality, but the combination of powerful cinematic technique and revolutionary propaganda make this distinctly Soviet.

See also review I am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth

Doctor in Distress (1963 Ralph Thomas)

Dirk Bogarde, James Robertson Justice, Samantha Eggar, Mylene Demongeot.
Briefly: Dennis Price, Leo McKern, Fenella Fielding, Frank Finlay, Reginald Beckwith, Richard Briers, Ronnie Corbett (one line).

YES, just goes to prove that '63 not a vintage year. Once we get over the shock of two leads calling each other Lancelot and Simon, there's nothing but unfunny and perplexing situations. Rank at its poorest.

Hot Enough for June (1964 Ralph Thomas)

Dirk Bogarde, Robert Morley, Leo McKern, the rather good-looking Sylva Koscina.

Terrible BBC2 print looks like video, 14x9. Pinewood-set Czechoslovakia.

Sylva's credits include the sexy L'Assoluto Naturale 1969, looks good but not on DVD (though is avilable through iOffer), with Laurence Harvey and music by Morricone.
Then Hornet's Nest (70) Rock Hudson Italy war film, A Lovely Way to Die (68) Kirk Douglas, Eli Wallach, Casanova & Co (77) Tony Curtis, Lisa and the Devil (74) Mario Bava, Boccaccio (72), Deadlier than the Male (67).

The Shooting Party (1985 Alan Bridges)

James Mason, Edward Fox, John Gielgud, Gordon Jackson, Cheryl Campbell (from Pennies from Heaven to Funland), Judi Bowker.

Ph. Fred Tammes

Since You Went Away (1944 John Cromwell)

Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Shirley Temple, Monty Woolley, Joseph Cotten, Robert Walker, Hattie McDaniel.

Despite length and subject matter doesn't hit the mark like Best Years.. Perhaps Selznick shouldn't have written it too. Gloriously dark photography from Lee Garmes and Stanley Cortez. Music Max Steiner.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975 Peter Weir)

Rachel Roberts, Helen Morse, Anne-Louise Lambert

Wonderful sun-drenched Eastmancolor photography by Russell Boyd: the interiors are great too.

Maurice (1987 James Ivory)

James Wilby, Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves, Denholm Elliott, Simon Callow, Billie Whitelaw, Barry Foster, Judy Parfitt, Phoebe Nicholls, Ben Kingsley.

Sadly not as great as the other Merchant Ivory E.M. Forsters, perhaps beacuse Ruth Prawer Jhabvala didn't write it.

Ph Pierre Lhomme.

The Black Swan (1942 Henry King)

This immediately set me on a tangent about the Spanish Main, which was the wealthy Spanish territories of Central America and included Mexico, Florida and northern South America (bearing in mind Mexico used to include California, until the Yanks nicked it in 1848), attracting pirates such as Henry Morgan, who really did become Governor of Jamaica (a colourful story worth reading up). He's Laird Cregar in Leon Shamroy's most colourful adventure, and George Sanders is most improbably in red wig and whiskers. Maureen O'Hara looks like she could have been a bit of a bitch. There's room for a proper pirate film, surely? (Polanski's looks worth checking.)

Fire Down Below (1957 Robert Parrish)

Jack Lemmon, Robert Mitchum (partnership doesn't work), Rita Hayworth, Edric Connor (was Trinidadian), Bernard Lee, Bonar Colleano

Ph. by Desmond Dickinson (shot mainly UK films since 1927 incl. Hamlet, Importance of Being Earnest) in CinemaScope, though BBC shows cropped print.

I was musing that the 'fire down below' was further south than the heart, as suggested by theme song, but then there's a real fire down below. Not wholly successful story but quite diverting, interesting cast.

The Round-Up / Szegénylegények / The Hopeless Ones (1966 Miklós Jancsó)

Photographed by Tamás Somló in Agascope.

A man tries to flee in a vast, open plain from where women bearing food have appeared. The soldiers don't race after him, but then horses appear from either side of the camera and round him up.

I always thought it was Janscó, so that's a salutary lesson. Also, after all these years, the scene with the naked woman isn't at all yummy, so that's another.

Solaris (1972 Andrei Tarkovsky)

His least favourite. I certainly was an avid film watcher at the age of 14. It's certainly a very interesting film. Is the planet representative of the brain, the sea the mind? It's certainly about memory. Those early shots of the scene around the lake are shot with his customary love of nature. the ending has a nice twist. And there's that great line about 'happy people don't ponder the big questions of life'.

Yadim Yuso shot his early films; Donatos Banionis and Jüri Jàrvet good as Kris kelvin and Dr. Snaut.

Little Caesar (1931 Mervyn LeRoy)

Edward G's self-confident villain fathers Warners' gangster cycle. Moves along pretty briskly for its age.

Bad Timing (1980 Nic Roeg)

I am now so used to Bad Timing's dazzling structure and jumpy cross-cutting (fantastic editing by Tony Lawson) that the sad truths about this couple's destructive relationship seemed clearer: she is trying to conform to win his acceptance, but is free-spirited; he wants to possess her totally, and is jealous (the final act of ravishment embodies this full possession). More generally it shows us fundamental male and female desires and natures through a kaleidoscope and is perhaps Roeg's most personal film.

In a curiously unenlightening interview with him and producer Jeremy Thomas, Roeg doesn't even allude to the beginning of his long relationship with wife Theresa Russell in this film. She is absolutely sensational in this performance of a lifetime, for which she was honoured with a total of zero awards.

Adding to the mosaic / kaleidoscope / puzzle are the numerous references to art and objets d'art, literature and a poignant assembly of diverse musical influences. Shot by Anthony Richmond in Panavision.

Screen shot courtesy http://www.dvdbeaver.com/

Afterword 16/7/15. Just saw that amazing University scene again in NR documentary. Tony Lawson (quoted in 'The Independent' 14 July 1988):

Nic was very worried about me cutting that, because of what it meant to him...'Cut it several ways'.. I arranged it arbitrarily into angles and sections. Vocals became thoughts and some very strange cuts appeared. We worked on retaining the haphazardness and atmospherics they inspired and, I think, made it into a pivotal scene.

After much research I tracked down the piano that backs it is Keith Jarrett's Köln Concert.

Theresa Russell shot by Anthony Richmond.

The Wild Bunch (1969 Sam Peckinpah): Kino für Kinder nicht - The Sunday Cinema

Having recently been reintroduced to Truffaut's children (see Les Quatres Cents Coups) we now meet Peckinpah's. From the beginning of THE WILD BUNCH (1969) they witness, then burn, ants killing a scorpion. They are caught in the crossfire, then play shooting games over the massacred bodies. One is a soldier in the Mexican army. Another jumps on the body of Angel, being dragged by the General's car, and rides him. And finally, one of the little bastards shoots Ernest Borgnine in the back. (Holden is also shot in the back, by a woman.) If this film is (evidently) about male camaraderie, loyalty, and the passing of the old West, it seems also to reflect on the lost innocence of the children.

Stills courtesey http://www.dvdbeaver.com/

William Holden has never been so tough and I'm reminded how much I like Ernest Borgnine, though Warren Oates' final pre-death cry leaps out at you (Peckinpah soon promoted him to lead). Emilio Fernandez (who's just taken me on a major tangent  in search of his Cannes-winning Maria Candelaria), a powerful revolutionary Mexican filmmaker and actor, must also have got on with Peck, as he appears in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and Bring Me the Head (as I watch this every 14 years I'm due a rewatch; in fact I'm a year late).

Written by Sam and Waldo Green. The old-timer Edmond O'Brien was in Liberty Vallance, coincidentally watched the same day. Lucien Ballard shot in Panavision and Jerry Fielding wrote the (Oscar-nominated) music. Editing of bloody action (by Lou Lombardo) still distinctive.

Like Guns in the Afternoon it's also about growing old in the Wild West. The old-timers are talking about retiring, but you get the feeling they'd rather go down in a hail of bullets, particularly when it comes from holding on to their old values like loyalty, that seem to be becoming lost.

Baisers Volés (1968 Truffaut)

scr. Truffaut & Claude de Givray & Bernard Revon

Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claude Jade (romantically involved with Truffaut, was in the other Antoine Donel films, Hitchcock's Topaz), Delphine Seyrig, Michel Lonsdale (Phantom of Liberty, Moonraker)

Mus. Antoine Duhamel (Weekend)
ph. Denys Clerval

Actually more enjoyable than the first one.

Catches the casual cruelty of young men, though it's no wonder AD has a tricky relationship with women. Some of that great rapid editing.

That travel poster from L'Argent de Poche can briefly be glimpsed!

Fitzcarraldo (1982 Werner Herzog & scr)

Opera and Amazon?? In common with other H films throws out intriging ideas and bewitching imagery such as 'the bit of creation God left unfinished' and the elder Indians for whom the everyday is an illusion and reality lies in dreams.

The steamer, halfway up the hill, and knowing we're really watching Indians do this.

Always the humour (the whole task seems pointless, as he sells her boat and invests in an opera; after the successful traverse, the Indians let the steamer go into the rapids; the pig.)

Great to see Claudia Cardinale. Miguel Angel Fuentes (as the engineer Cholo) and Huerequeque Enrique Bohorquez ('you are the cleverest drunkard who ever staggered across this earth') also memorable, as is Popol Vuh's music and Thomas Mauch's photography (also Aguirre, Stroszek and - oddly enough - ID).

Kinski kept making me think of Alistair Sim and Tom Barley.

Fitzcarraldo (1982 Werner Herzog)

Opera and Amazon?? In common with other H. films throws intriguing ideas and bewitching imagery, such as 'the bit of creation God left unfinished'. The elder Indians for whom the evryday is an illusion and reality lies in dreams. The steamer, halfway up the hill, and knowing we're really watching Indians do this. Always the humour (the whole task seems pointless, as he sells his boat and invests in a mobile opera; after the successful traverse, the Indians let the steamer go, into the rapids; the pig.)

Great to see Claudia Cardinale. Miguel Enrique Bohorquez ('you are the cleverest drunk who ever staggered across this earth') also memorable, as is Popul Vuh's music and Thomas Mauch's photography. Kinski kept making me think of Aistair Sim and Tom Barley! 

If ... (1969 Lindsay Anderson)

"Run in the corridors!"

A real pleasure to see this again. It made me probably as angry as I was on 8th April 1979 to see the behaviour of the prefects, who are to all intents running the school. (In the final massacre, the Establishment fights back.)

Despite watching a 4x3 TV print (the aspect ratio is supposed to be 1.66:1) it shows Miroslav Ondricek's brick-coloured hue; he's assisted by an 'A' team of Chris Menges and Michael Seresin!

Brideshead director Charles Sturridge is one of the odious oiks.

Malcolm McDowell, Arthur Lowe.

Written by David Sherwin.

Le Samourai (1967 Jean-Pierre Melville)

"Whereas the colours in L'aine des Ferchaux are very warm, I wanted very cold colours for le Samourai. With this in mind I carried out a series of conclusive experiments, which I carried even further in Army of Shadows, and further still in Le Cercle Rouge (1970). My dream is to make a colour film in black and white, in which there is only one tiny detail to remind us that we really are watching a film in colour [did Spielburg ever read this??]. I think we took a small step forward in a form of expression - cinema in colour - that has become dangerous." ["Melville on Melville", Rui Nogueira 1971.]

Not the monster that is L'Armée des Ombres, but satisfyingly Bressonian and beautifully lit on Melville's own sets that burned down during filming. Thematically closer to Bob le Flambeur (loyalty, police adversary, fatalism).

Presumably the influence on Ghost Dog, the Way of the Samurai; John Woo is a big fan also. Compares interestingly to This Gun for Hire (Alan Ladd 1942).

"I sometimes read (I am thinking of the reviews after le Samourai and L'Armée des Ombres came out) 'Melville is being Bressonian'. I'm sorry, but it is Bresson who has always been Melvillian." (Nogueira.)

So I stand corrected!

Beautifully photographed by Henri Decae: his first films were for Melville and he shot early Chabrol, Truffaut and Malle, and so is a hugely important figure in French cinema.

Alain Delon, François Perier, Nathalie Delon, Cathy Rosier (pianist)

Hanging Up (2000 Diane Keaton)

Meg Ryan, Walter Matthau, Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow, Adam Artkin (son of Alan)

scr Delia and Nora Ephron.
Ph. Howard Atherton

Walter great in last film, but Ryan stand-out as nervy, highly strung daughter / carer.

I'm not convinced that Diane's a good director

Dark Passage (1947 Delmer Daves)

Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett, Agnes Moorehead

Ph. Sid Hickox
Music Franz Waxman

Intriguing opening POV and camera in barrel. Might have been interesting to show different actor with Bogart's voice? (Would need excellent lip syncing.)

The Duchess (2008 Saul Dibb)

Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Charlotte Rampling, Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell (Fear of Fanny, Mansfield Park, Ruby in the Smoke), Simon McBurney (Prime Minister Fox), Aidan Mcardle (Sheridan) - the latter two parts are underwritten - they are her friends.

Ph Gyula Pados

Fiennes kept slightly reminding me of Leonard Rossiter and I wished it was him.
Film is OK but a bit 'so what?'
Photography is modern and flat.

Domestic Disturbance (2001 Harold Becker)

John Travlota, Vince Vaughan, Steve Buscemi
ph Michael Seresin

Unremarkable thriller in which T's son has witnessed V murdering B, but no one believes him.

L'Armée des Ombres (1969 Jean-Pierre Melville & scr)

I was completely blown away. How do the French manage to make these precise, economical films that without any sentimentality manage to be so moving? There's a highly cinematic use of dramatic irony and mournful Eastmancolor cinematography (Pierre Lhomme) that delivers the tough, brave exploits of Lino Ventura, Jean Pierre Cassel, Simone Signoret and the other Resistance members - the early execution scene is worthy of Hitchcock.

Amidst the cool development and performances it manages to be totally involving, exciting and heart-rending, marking Melville as a top-class and brutally honest auteur. It went straight into my Top 100 from this single viewing.

Afterthought: And what WW2 movie did Britain produce in this year? The Battle of Britain!

Also in cast: Paul Menrisse, Christian Barbier

Addtl. ph. Walter Wottitz
Music Eric Demarsan (wrote Belle and Sebastian in 1965!)

V For Vendetta (2005 James McTeigue)

Well. The problem here is you have a guy in a mask who can't emote (Hugo Weaving) and a girl who doesn't do much (Natalie Portman). Whose idea was it to muffle his voice realistically? Stupid. Very faithful to the graphic novel, lacks humour. Good supporting cast (John Hurt, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, Rupert Graves, Roger Allam, Eddie Marsan). Alan Moore's name completely absent, even as original author.

The Way to the Stars (1945 Anthony Asquith)

One of a number of terrific WW2 films we've steered through, and deserves immense praise for its proud, hard script (Rattigan; poems by John Pudney) and direction (Asquith), such as a camera finding a lighter that should have gone airborne with its owner, a pan up revealing that it isn't he. Trevor Howard in his 'debut' (actually the Way Ahead) and Michael Redgrave are so frightfully good that we rather miss them, though there's a bounteous supporting cast including Bonar Colleano (doing a Tarantino), Basil Radford (that handsome scar a WW1 trophy) and "I'll thank you" Joyce Carey as the wicked aunt. The scene where Johnny Mills kisses Renee Asherson goodbye through Rosamund John is delightful, particularly the look on the latter's face.

Derick Williams rather overlights the actors, but the second unit comprises not just Jack Hildyard but Guy Green as well.

A certain kind of quintessential British film: stiff upper-lipped, patriotic, unsentimental, cynical, witty and  off-handedly literate. Do we need the war to make films this good?

If.... (1969 Lindsay Anderson)

 A real pleasure to see this again. It made me probably just as angry as I was on the 8th April 1979 to see the behaviour of the prefects, who are to all intents running the school. (In the final massacre, the Establishment fights back.)

Despite watching a 4x3 print which doesn't seem cropped (the format is 1.66:1) Miroslav Ondricek gives things a brick-coloured hue, and he's assisted by Chris Menges and Michael Seresin! Brideshead director Charles Sturridge is one of the odious oiks.

Jeder Für Sich und Gott Gegen Alle / The Enigma of Kasper Hauser (1974 Werner Herzog)

Sweet, elemental, intelligent, mysterious, funny. Bruno S is unforgettable. You start wondering if everyone else is stupid. Both the scribe ('an excellent report!') and the foppish host look familiar.

After all, his answer to the logical problem is perfect.

There's a slight look of simple, scruffy cunning that Jack Nicholson might have borrowed.

The original title is better - "Every Man for Himself, and God Against them All" - having a cheerful ironic fatalism that's far more suitable.

Hopefully all you'd have to say to a fellow fan of the film would be 'escaping apples' for them to smile. Who says the Germans have no sense of humour?

It's now almost a week since I watched it, and it keeps on coming.

Cries and Whispers / Viskningar Och Rop (1972 Ingmar Bergman)

Hurry up and die, already! Fade to red. The images are a joy to behold.

Emotionally bleak, simple yet concentrated study of a family group of unsympathetic characters that seem specific to Bergman (or, perhaps, to Sweden?) Doesn't reverberate much beyond the viewing.