It's Complicated (2009 Nancy Myers, & scr.)

Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin looking very odd, Mary Kay Place, John Krasinski (the son-in-law; Away We Go).



ph. John Toll

The kids are rather gooey. Good fun.
2 hours! See below.

How Do You Know (an oddly forgettable title) (2010 James L Brooks & scr)

Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson, Kathryn Hahn, Shelley Conn

ph. Janusz Kaminski
ed. & assoc prod. Richard Marks

Funny bits e.g. Rudd throwing chargrilled steak off balcony, just over 2 hours but seems far too long. What's wrong with 1:40 any more? Brooks doesn't seem to do the little touches any more.

Serpico (1973 Sidney Lumet)

I wasn't intending we should watch SERPICO at all, rather was pitching The New World as usual, with Charade or Casablanca on hand too, but it was one of those 'on the hard disc' moments. (Shortly after this I mentioned The New World once too often and am now forbidden to utter those words again.)

Peter Maas wrote the book, Waldo Salt (Midnight Cowboy, Coming Home) and Norman Wexler (Joe) the screen play. We seem to be watching a lot of New York films lately, which is fine. Unravelling of Serpico's life for being honest cop is Kafkaesque; at that time when American cinema was really doing something (can't imagine anything like this now).

Al Pacino (who actually starts to look like a pirate at one point), John Randolph, Tony Roberts, F Murray Abraham (uncred.) Thought I saw Ed O'Neill (Married with Children) as cop though apparently not.

ph. is Arthur J. Ornitz again, editing by Dede Allen, assisted by Richard Marks.

Sightseers (2012 Ben Wheatley)

Lead actors and writers Steve Oram and Alice Lowe (who's a picture of very slowly realising what's going on) took the Nuts in May characters and pushed them to murder. The victims (ley line walking author, flirty bride to be, dog shit policeman, rude litterer and camper in stupid pod) are fair game.

I'm sure at one point he says "I haven't killed anyone since I was made redundant".

ph. Laurie Rose, Pan., did same director's Kill List  & Down Terrace.

A Thousand Clowns (1965 Fred Coe)

I always thought it was one of those sixties compliations of silent movies.

"I realise you're in a difficult place in between closets."

"We communicate mainly by rumour."

Herb Gardner wrote a slightly Neil Simon-ish play then a screenplay called A THOUSAND CLOWNS (Fred Coe was mainly a TV producer) in which our misfit hero is forced to conform to save nephew.

Fab cast: Jason Robards, Barbara Harris, Martin Balsam (AA), Gene Saks, William Daniels and Barry Gordon as the kid.

Much use of wide angles, zoom and interesting cutting gives it a French New Wave feel.

ph. Arthur Ornitz
ed. Ralph Rosenblum - contribution of Gardner to editing / film (& Rosenblum's subsequent career) fascinating: told in When the Shooting Stops

Our Girl (2013 David Drury)

Our Lacey was as good as we knew she would be in BBC's TV movie, which Tony Grounds had as an idea which he pitched to the BBC when they were looking for a vehicle for our young star in the making.

Matthew McNulty (The Paradise, Room at the Top, The Syndicate I) is the corp.

Last Year at Marienbad (1961 Alain Resnais)

"...suggests that memory, if not a lie, is at best only a partial truth. The fascination of this film resides almost entirely in its form and structure; that is why it is a key work of modernist cinema.. The setting is a metaphor for the structure of memory. With its corridors, rooms, mirrors and formal gardens, it translates into spatial terms the action or possible inaction of memory... Resnais mobilizes all the facilities of the film medium to create visual analogies for the operation of memory..."

Martin Auty, The Movie, 1983.

An interesting assessment and probably partially true.

Q asked me what it was about once, so I described it thusly:
"Didn't I meet you last year in Marienbad?"
"No."

This is The Shining - think of the picture of the maze and work back.

When you know there's a cut-out of Hitch, it makes you more amused, if you need to be:

There's more in it every time.

That editing (particularly the force of the bar / bedroom black / white) is as powerful today as it must have seemed in 1961.

Here's my somewhat quirky review from a Sunday Cinema screening, 26 October 2008:

On a late Sunday night (18 September 2011) I watched it without bothering to read the subtitles (I couldn't disable them unfortunately), concentrating instead on the superb photography and breathtaking editing (Jasmine Chasney and Henri Colpi, who had both worked on the cinema-changing Hiroshima mon Amour for Resnais in 1959). It is one of the most beautiful black and white films ever made and reminds me of the brilliance (in the light sense) of Charles Lang. Sacha Vierny shot it and the operator is Philippe Brun, who worked on L'Armée des Ombres, Belle de Jour (also shot by Vierny) and French Connection II.

I think of this film every time I'm in a posh hotel.

The Pawnbroker (1964 Sidney Lumet)

The third recent film to show a concentration camp tatoo (the others being Harold and Maude and Marathon Man - a few days later another one popped up in Foyle's War). For some reason watching Rod Steiger made me think of Mr & Mrs Woolf thoroughly enjoying No Way To Treat a Lady all those years ago (so I immediately bought it). He's very good and not wholly unsympathetic as editor Ralph Rosenblum would have it in his book When the Shooting Stops.

Quincy Jones is using harpsichords etc. and I wonder if this influenced young John Barry?

The editing is extraordinary and isn't really done in this way any more and though it is clearly inspired by Resnais in fact it goes back to Abel Gance - the French forgot their own innovation.

In an in-reference to Brock Peters we walk past a cinema showing The L Shaped Room.
Also featuring Geraldine Fitzgerald, Jamie Sanchez (The Wild Bunch), Raymond St Jacques.

Classy ph. by Boris Kaufman.

Channel 4's 4x3 print is slightly cropped but I don't think it's as wide as 16x9.

Harrowing train scene / editing.
Ending is chaotic.

On Golden Pond (1981 Mark Rydell)

Also very well written, by Ernest Thompson (from his play) and gorgeously shot by Billy Williams.

Thompson, Fonda the elder and Hepburn all won Oscars and everyone else was nominated. The visit from the kid (played by Doug McKeon) makes the story.

Marathon Man (1976 John Schlesinger)

This is a class act all round from Hoffman, Roy Scheider (always great to see him), Olivier (& Marthe Keller) to Jim Clark's editing and Conrad Hall's photography (he manages to blow out his windows while keeping foregrounds perfectly lit; lovely little touches of light here and there) and all from William Goldman novel / script.

I liked Hoffman's "It isn't safe" and also the gang who he gets to burglarise his apartment.

Roy died in 2008 - one of his last jobs was in Family Guy episode "Three Kings".

"Die Weisse Engel"!

Hope Springs (2012 David Frankel)

Meryl Streey, Tommy Lee Jones (v.g.), Steve Carell (making too little of it)

It's like uncomfortably witnessing couple's therapy.

ph. Florian Ballhaus

Stalker (1979 Andrei Tarkovsky) Water, water everywhere - the Sunday Cinema

"You spend all this time in the Zone, you bring back a dog, the house needs decorating, your daughter's moving glasses again..."

Aleksandr Kaydanokvskiy, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Nikolay Grinko
ph. Aleksandr Knyazhinsky

During STALKER I kept getting the feeling I was watching three boys in a primary school play pretending to be intrepidly voyaging through the perils of a mysterious 'zone', perils which they keep making up on the spot. Looking at some of the director's rather serious interviews, I doubt this was intentional (on responding to official criticism, he reportedly commented that he was only interested in the opinions of two people: Bergman and Bresson). Also I found the philosophical discussions between the trio frankly boring to someone of my limited intellect. Of course, being Tarkovsky, we are treated to some splendid elemental stuff: mist and dust, rain, an Anubis-like dog and most importantly, long shots of objects just beneath the surface of water. There was a silvery image of a well which was just spellbinding.

Talking of water, the weird thing happened again that the weather outside (lots of rain and dripping guttering) seemed to emulate the film, and at one point I had to stop it to check whether the birdsong was ours or Tarkovsky's (it was his).

Remarkable photography by Aleksander Knyazhinsky replaced the destroyed 1977 footage; filmed in poisonous derelict Estonian factories which ultimately led to the deaths of Tarkovsky, his wife and one of their lead actors, giving the film a haunting resonance.

Artemyev's distinctive weird music mixes a familiar 70s synth string sound with a treated melody played on a Persian tar (a sort of ancient guitar) and a flute.

I was thinking this the least of my four Tarkovskys but find on reflection there was lots in it. It's also led me to Geoff Dyer's entertaining book "Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room".

Finally, an interesting word on style in the director's own words:

"If the regular length of a shot is increased, one becomes bored, but if you keep on making it longer, it piques your interest, and if you make it even longer a new quality emerges, a special intensity of attention."

A couple of P.S.s. Great directors and animals. If we take the triumvirate of Bresson, Bergman and Tarkovsky as the top of the heavyweights: well we know Bergman wasn't really interested in animals. Bresson clearly is. Dogs appear quite a bit in Tarkovsky: Nostalghia also. It's important; I don't know why.
And: water inside. The first thing (in T. documentary) that fascinated me, water running down the walls in Mirror - these seem to recur in all his films, meaning? And rain. That long shot at the end, then it rains. I love it! (Are we inside or outside?)

After-tangent. As Mark Cousins had kindly given away the endings of this and Nostalghia, I was alert to the opening where an object appears to move across a table, then we hear the train. The ending is an extension of this scene. Tarkovsky leaves absolutely everything open.

The Way to the Stars (1945, Anthony Asquith)

What a good war film this is, written by Terence Rattigan. Apart from a raid on an airfield there isn't a foot of conflict in it and not one shot from the inside of a plane: instead we're focussed purely on the flyers (who, like in Psycho, can get despatched ruthlessly) and the people back home.

Johnny doesn't want to risk getting involved with Renée Asherson

Michael Redgrave kept reminding me of Peter Cook, Rosamund John is the stiff upper-lipped widow Mrs Todd and it is Noel Coward's chum Joyce Carey who is summarily dismissed from the hotel. Jean Simmons debuts as a singer.

Also in great cast: John Mills, Douglass Montgomery (American pilot), Stanley Holloway, Renée Asherson, Basil Radford (scar on his cheek from WW1 trenches), Bonar Colleano (= Quentin Tarantino!). 'Introducing' Trevor Howard.

Michael Redgrave, co-writer Anatole de Grunwald, art director Paul Sherriff, Anthony Asquith, Mills, Rattigan, Basil Radford

It's zippily put together by Fergus McDonell (Unman Wittering and Zigo, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, What's New Pussycat, Odd Man Out, Nothing but the Best, The Way Ahead).

Ph. Derick Williams (overlit), but 2nd unit is Jack Hildyard and Guy Green!

Great scenes: the camera showing us the found lighter; John Mills kiss goodbye via Toddy, and her reaction.

There's another great poem before 'Johnny' (written during an air raid in 1941) which I guess is also John Pudney.

Also on 5 March 2009,  and originally on 13 April 1975 ("Not bad flying drama" - idiot!)

Dancing on the Edge (2013 Stephen Poliakoff & scr.)

Despite dialogue that occasionally sounds mannered we were reminded what a talent is Stephen Poliakoff, who wrote and sensibly directed, making good use of long shots.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is one of those thinking actors, Matthew Goode a revelation. Janet Montogmery (a photographer, a theme of SP like the war years is; Entourage, Black Swan, Spies of Warsaw), Jenna-Louise Coleman (the secretary; before she became simply Jenna Coleman; Room at the Top, Titanic, Waterloo Road) Joanna Vanderham (The Paradise), Wonmi Mosaku (Vera, The Body Farm, I Am Slave), Anthony Head, Mel Smith, John Goodman, Tom Hughes (Lady Vanishes, Silk, Cemetery Junction), Angel Coulby (the other singer), Jacqueline Bisset (a great part), Caroline Quentin, Sam Hoare (the other editor).

Rather nicely shot by Ashley Rowe (Alfie, Calendar Girls) and edited by Chris Wyatt (This is England, Dead Man's Shoes), noticeable in scene where Angel revives.

What a luxury to be able to make a six hour film. We were totally hooked.

  

Great music too.

The Quiller Memorandum (1966 Michael Anderson)

George Segal (weary; good), Alec Guinness, Max von Sydow, Senta Berger (shot v. diffused), George Sanders & Robert Flemyng (who have the funniest scenes), Peter Carsten.

ph. Erwin Hillier, Panavision.
mus. John Barry (based on European lullaby). One of his most haunting scores.

Harold Pinter's dialogue is dry and mundane in downbeat Cold War thriller.

The close ups are very centred as is much of action, which looks unusual.
Matt Monroe sings theme "Wednesday's Child".
Guinness explaining Cold War situation with the aid of two scones is hilarious.
Odd instrument we hear is a Flexatone.

Here come the explanatory scones

Argo (2012 Ben Affleck)

Finished JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME then watched ARGO (fuck yourselves).

scr. Chris Terrio (debut; AA)

Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman (wished latter two had been in it more)

ph. Rodrigo Prieto, mus. Alexandre Desplat
ed. William Goldenberg (AA) (terrific)

Clooney, Affleck and Grant Heslov took best film.
It was very exciting.

Jeff who lives at home (2011 Jay and Mark Duplass)

The next film to be interrupted (by Tom wanting a shower) was JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME which has an irritating over-use of the zoom.

Jason Segal, Ed Helms, Judy Greer, Susan Sarandon.

It's very short.

Blue Valentine (2010 Derek Cianfrance)

Then because of Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, who were very good, BLUE VALENTINE. Shot largely in close-up, film jumps in time like Bad Timing, but is severely tiresome. In fact we ended up playing football on our iPhones rather than watch the ending!

Arthur (2011 Jason Winer)

Watched most of ARTHUR which is reasonably faithful to the original and has some smart jokes in that same spirit. Russell Brand, however, does not carry the film and Jennifer Garner is vacuuous, and whilst Mirren is fun, she too makes one yearn for the original classic.

Writer Peter Baynham comes from Steve Coogan, Jam, Brass Eye and Sacha Baron Cohen.

Actually Greta Gerwig is the vacuuous one.

Finished it the next day. It wasn't very good.

Tiara Tahiti (1962 Ted Kotcheff)

A strange title not explained by writers. John Mills and James Mason duelled, Herbert Lom is a Chinaman. And Roy Kinnear's in it briefly. It was a surprise to see Rosenda Monteros in topless beach scene (film was originally classified 'A'). Claude Dauphin was in Two for the Road (as the architect) and the policeman is Jacques Marin (Charade / Marathon Man).

Otto Heller shot it in his unmistakable colours and Anthony Gibbs cut it (dancing sequence memorable).

Marple: Murder is Easy (2008)

With Benedict Cumberbatch and lots of other people.

Composer Dominik Scherrer from Zurich, who seems to have composed all of the Marples, must have been pleased his fine score was sliced by wrongly positioned advert breaks. (ITV3 I think it was.)

Juggernaut (1974 Richard Lester)

Brilliant, massively underrated thriller which I first saw on its release on 25 January 1975, aged 11 (my review was "Disaster movie with suspenseful defusing scenes"!)

Produced and written by Richard de Koker, a.k.a. Richard Alan Simmons (lots of unnotable Bs and American TV) and Alan Plater (the Beiderbecke series).

Richard Harris, Omar Sharif, David Hemmings, Anthony Hopkins, Shirley Knight, Ian Holm, Clifton James, Roy Kinnear (his attempts to entertain the despondent passengers memorable), Freddie Jones & Cyril Cusack (who seems to specialise in appearing in films for only seconds cf. Harold and Maude).

Very well written, shot (Gerry Fisher) and brilliantly edited by Antony Gibbs e.g. phone conversations over action.

Friends with Benefits (2011 Will Gluck)

Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis, Patricia Clarkson, Jenna Elfman, Richard Jenkins, Woody Harrelson.

Written by Gluck, Keith Merryman & David A Newman; latter two wrote story with Harley Peyton. Full of up-to-the-minute gags and sending up films and romcoms.

Missed that there are outtakes from the fake movie after (good) credits.

Ph. Michael Grady

(Also on 5 February 2012.)

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012 Benh Zeitlin)

Based on a play.

Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry.

Claustrophobic, hand held POV of filthy existence.

The girl is the whole show.

Mary and Martha (2013 Philip Noyce)

Richard Curtis' annual preach to us.

Hilary Swank, Brenda Blethyn, Sam Claflin