Scr Frank S Nugent, novel Alan le May
John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond ('Rev'), Natalie Wood, John Qualen, Henry Brandon (Scar), Hank Worden (Mose), Patrick Wayne (the young lieutenant).
Incredible photography Winton C. Hoch. You can tell Ford was a silent director - whole film works without dialogue. Simple filming. Wayne is starting to soften when he covers up dead squaw / wife. Picks Wood up like he did the child. Amusing letter sequence. Really good.
Saturday, 29 September 2012
Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo / The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966 Sergio Leone)
The Quantum Leap for Leone (seriousness, scale).
It seems only right to watch Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo while reading Christopher Frayling's excellent 'Once Upon a Time in Italy', which acknowledges the contribution of production designer Carlo Simi to the Leone classics. This is certainly an epic western, in the production of which the bridge was blown up twice (due to an Italian-Spanish misunderstanding).
Eli Wallach is the heart of the film (it's perhaps his best performance), chosen not on the back of The Magnificent Seven but because Leone saw him being playful with children in How the West Was Won, and in the train / handcuff scene it's not a double (the train comes close to taking his head off). And his growl at the spectators to his lynching is a genuine out-of-character response that Leone left in.
Leone, it seems, liked his duels in circles: Simi guessed at some psychological reasons but didn't ask. But Leone was very sensitive as well, it seems - he cut the ending of Giu La Testa because someone stood up before the film had ended - Sit Down You Sucker!
Damaged people (prison camp and bridge scene), emotional reunion of Tuco and his brother Luigi Pistilli (Illustrious Corpses ) (who didn't speak a word of English), the perfection of the shots in the final duel (he was very technical, and filmed many takes). The mocking Morricone.
"There are two types of people..."
"Every gun makes its own tune."
Footnote whilst cleaning, 12 October 2017:
"Leone was inspired in TGTB&TU by photographs of the horrible condition of Civil War camps like Andersonville but also had in mind Nazi concentration camps in the scene where the cries of tortured prisoners is drowned out by the orchestra. The scenes of prison camps have a double impact, both questioning America's official line on the Civil War (it is striking how few westerns emphasize Civil War prison camps) and commenting on the eternal recurrence of wartime atrocities by bringing twentieth century political touchstones into a nineteenth century story."
'The Art of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West: A Critical Appreciation' by John Fawell.
Not sure Frayling picked up on that specifically, and the above is unsubstantiated (though I'm sure I've heard of this elsewhere)... I guess I need to read his 'Something To Do With Death' next...
It seems only right to watch Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo while reading Christopher Frayling's excellent 'Once Upon a Time in Italy', which acknowledges the contribution of production designer Carlo Simi to the Leone classics. This is certainly an epic western, in the production of which the bridge was blown up twice (due to an Italian-Spanish misunderstanding).
Eli Wallach is the heart of the film (it's perhaps his best performance), chosen not on the back of The Magnificent Seven but because Leone saw him being playful with children in How the West Was Won, and in the train / handcuff scene it's not a double (the train comes close to taking his head off). And his growl at the spectators to his lynching is a genuine out-of-character response that Leone left in.
Leone, it seems, liked his duels in circles: Simi guessed at some psychological reasons but didn't ask. But Leone was very sensitive as well, it seems - he cut the ending of Giu La Testa because someone stood up before the film had ended - Sit Down You Sucker!
Damaged people (prison camp and bridge scene), emotional reunion of Tuco and his brother Luigi Pistilli (Illustrious Corpses ) (who didn't speak a word of English), the perfection of the shots in the final duel (he was very technical, and filmed many takes). The mocking Morricone.
"There are two types of people..."
"Every gun makes its own tune."
Footnote whilst cleaning, 12 October 2017:
"Leone was inspired in TGTB&TU by photographs of the horrible condition of Civil War camps like Andersonville but also had in mind Nazi concentration camps in the scene where the cries of tortured prisoners is drowned out by the orchestra. The scenes of prison camps have a double impact, both questioning America's official line on the Civil War (it is striking how few westerns emphasize Civil War prison camps) and commenting on the eternal recurrence of wartime atrocities by bringing twentieth century political touchstones into a nineteenth century story."
'The Art of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West: A Critical Appreciation' by John Fawell.
Not sure Frayling picked up on that specifically, and the above is unsubstantiated (though I'm sure I've heard of this elsewhere)... I guess I need to read his 'Something To Do With Death' next...
The Long Memory (1952 Robert Hamer)
Written by Hamer and Frank Hardy from a novel by Howard Clewes.
Tons of location atmosphere in moody Kent seafront and night silent towns, a revenge tale with a wonderfully (and uncharacteristically) terse John Mills seeking out Pimlico's John Slater and ex Elizabeth Sellars, whilst real culprit John Chandos and henchman John Horsely appear to be gay (Horsely is Doc Morrissey, no less!)
Eva Bergh (not much of a career) is the refugee, Geoffrey Keene a helpful journalist, John McCallum the investigator. Also, Thora Hird, Laurence Naismith, Peter Jones.
Shot by Harry Waxman, music William Alwyn.
Good framing, deep focus, moments cut to dramatic music like 'The Haunted Mirror' e.g. terse Mills seen through letterbox. Final hurrah to Michael Martin Harvey who I knew would save the day, though frankly film would have worked as well with a downbeat ending.
Top marks to Eagle Eye Qued who in one second identified 11 year old Christopher Beeny as Edward in Upstairs Downstairs.
A Europa film.
Also liked some of the angles, e.g. Mills and Bergh head to head. Two stars in Radio Times? Fuck off.
Johnny: "It would have been better if Hamer had laid off the sauce. He twice walked backwards into the Thames with viewfinder in eye!"
Tons of location atmosphere in moody Kent seafront and night silent towns, a revenge tale with a wonderfully (and uncharacteristically) terse John Mills seeking out Pimlico's John Slater and ex Elizabeth Sellars, whilst real culprit John Chandos and henchman John Horsely appear to be gay (Horsely is Doc Morrissey, no less!)
Eva Bergh (not much of a career) is the refugee, Geoffrey Keene a helpful journalist, John McCallum the investigator. Also, Thora Hird, Laurence Naismith, Peter Jones.
Shot by Harry Waxman, music William Alwyn.
Good framing, deep focus, moments cut to dramatic music like 'The Haunted Mirror' e.g. terse Mills seen through letterbox. Final hurrah to Michael Martin Harvey who I knew would save the day, though frankly film would have worked as well with a downbeat ending.
Top marks to Eagle Eye Qued who in one second identified 11 year old Christopher Beeny as Edward in Upstairs Downstairs.
A Europa film.
Also liked some of the angles, e.g. Mills and Bergh head to head. Two stars in Radio Times? Fuck off.
Johnny: "It would have been better if Hamer had laid off the sauce. He twice walked backwards into the Thames with viewfinder in eye!"
Sunday, 23 September 2012
Cavalcade (1933 Frank Lloyd)
Cavalcade is like an early version of This Happy Breed (Noel Coward was 33). Diana Wynyard (one of those stare into the distance breed), Clive Brook, Una O'Connor, Herbert Mundin, Beryl Mercer, Merle Tottenham, Ursula Jeans. Wynyard though Oscar nominated - and film, Lloyd and art direction won.
Directed by the unremarkable Lloyd, with a memorable war montage by (William) Cameron Menzies and shot by Ernest Palmer (it is actually a US production, for Fox, so that probably is the American Ernest Palmer not the British one).
The stripy seaside entertainer could be straight out of Family Guy.
Directed by the unremarkable Lloyd, with a memorable war montage by (William) Cameron Menzies and shot by Ernest Palmer (it is actually a US production, for Fox, so that probably is the American Ernest Palmer not the British one).
The stripy seaside entertainer could be straight out of Family Guy.
Saturday, 15 September 2012
The Woman in the Fifth (2011 Pawel Pawlikowski)
We were somewhat baffled and disappointed by Pawel Pawlikowski's treatment of Douglas Kennedy's The Woman in the Fifth. It was stunningly directed, but to no avail in audience-defying 'wh'appen?' plot.
Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas and Joanna Kulig, plus Samir Guesmi.
Why pick that book??
Ph. Ryszard Lenczewski, music Max de Wardener.
Shame, as it begins so well. Love the way he hangs on to certain shots a bit longer than you'd expect.
Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas and Joanna Kulig, plus Samir Guesmi.
Why pick that book??
Ph. Ryszard Lenczewski, music Max de Wardener.
Shame, as it begins so well. Love the way he hangs on to certain shots a bit longer than you'd expect.
Monday, 3 September 2012
My Summer of Love (2004 Pawel Pawlikowski)
I was wondering what happened to Pawel Pawlikowski after winning Newcomer BAFTA for The Last Resort (2001) and film BAFTA for My Summer of Love. He'd shot 60% of black comedy The Restraint of Beasts ('Looks great, like nothing I've ever done or seen before') when wife became seriously ill. He quit to look after her and kids but she died a few months later. Then he was supposed to be making a Stalin film for Film 4. Now at least has finished Douglas Kennedy adaptation.
Anyway My Summer was feature debut of Natalie Press (Wasp) and Emily Blunt, and the style is quite distinctive (our fave moments: the girls disappear into gorse, then a puff of smoke; Natalie showing how her ex made love).
Shot by Ryszard Lenczewski, music Will Gregory & Alison Goldfrapp.
Sweet and sour.
Paddy Considine was also in Last Resort. Both leads fab. Sense of summer and place well caught. Can't be England though as it doesn't rain once. Intimate close-ups.
Anyway My Summer was feature debut of Natalie Press (Wasp) and Emily Blunt, and the style is quite distinctive (our fave moments: the girls disappear into gorse, then a puff of smoke; Natalie showing how her ex made love).
Shot by Ryszard Lenczewski, music Will Gregory & Alison Goldfrapp.
Sweet and sour.
Paddy Considine was also in Last Resort. Both leads fab. Sense of summer and place well caught. Can't be England though as it doesn't rain once. Intimate close-ups.
Sunday, 2 September 2012
Young Victoria (2009 Jean-Marc Vallée)
An accidental double-bill of Jim Broadbent films. In Young Victoria he has a short but powerful part as King William. Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend are perfect as the young couple, great support from Mark Strong, Miranda Richardson, Paul Bettany and Harriet Walter as Queen Adelaide. Had forgotten Julian Fellowes wrote it and Scorsese co-produced.
The Director is a Canadian whose previous film C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) was very well received.
Hagen Bogdanski's lighting is very natural (The Lives of Others ), and apart from the totally inappropriate pop ballad that accompanies the end credits, my only critique is to say it's a bit like eating a fabulous meal but still feeling hungry afterwards.
The Director is a Canadian whose previous film C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) was very well received.
Hagen Bogdanski's lighting is very natural (The Lives of Others ), and apart from the totally inappropriate pop ballad that accompanies the end credits, my only critique is to say it's a bit like eating a fabulous meal but still feeling hungry afterwards.
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