The Stag (2013 John Butler)

Not as bad as I was half expecting, feature debut for Butler and co-written with actor Peter McDonald. I prefer Andrew Scott in the sort of Moriarty role where he's charmingly dangerous, and feel 'The Machine' needed playing by a different actor to McDonald, someone who could really run away with the part. Hugh O'Conor is the weirdly named and pronounced Fionnan, who's getting married.

The April Fools (1969 Stuart Rosenberg)

Lemmon is terrific as usual as unhappily married man who finds himself drawn to unhappily married woman Catherine Deneuve, who is every bit as good as he is. They meet at a sort of pop art party given by her husband Peter Lawford, which is quite an eyeful, then move on to an even worse safari themed nightclub, finally ending the evening in the delightful company of Myrna Loy and fencing mad husband Charles Boyer.

 Jack Weston is in it again, Sally Kellerman plays Jack's wife.

Written by Hal Dresner, who also adapted a TV series of Catch-22 with Richard Dreyfuss...Apparently only one episode aired...

I was a little worried that the ending was going to reflect The Graduate - but then he takes her hand... These two will be OK...

Shot by Michel Hugo in Panavision; somewhat choppy editing by Bob Wyman.

The Notorious Landlady (1962 Richard Quine)

Lemmon moves into London home of suspected husband killer Kim Novak, and not unnaturally they fall for each other in Blake Edwards and Larry Gelbart (best known for TV's MASH, and Tootsie) adaptation of Margery Sharp's 'The Notorious Tenant'. Quine moves things along briskly with Arthur Arling on camera and some nimble operating (uncredited) cut together by Craig Nelson, evident in silent movie style finale involving Gilbert & Sullivan and a lady in a wheelchair (Estelle Winwood). (Cruelly, I would have liked to have seen the lady fly off the cliff edge, though as sagacious Q points out, the open end leaves anything possible.)

Again, vastly unknown / underrated Columbia Lemmon vehicle has much to recommend it. With Fred Astaire, Lionel Jeffries, Phillipa Bevans.

I liked the story of the woman who made her lover help her brick up her husband; then two weeks later leaves the lover for the brick salesman.

Strangers When We Meet (1960 Richard Quine)

An unexciting, uncinematic romantic tangle drama, but I like it a lot. Story of affair is given modern, adult feel as Kim Novak's husband doesn't seem very interested in her (we wonder if he is a closet gay) and Kirk Douglas's wife (Barbara Rush - Peyton Place, Bigger Than Life) is pushy. Story involves relationship between writer Ernie Kovacs and architect Douglas and the construction of a house, while innocent-seeming neighbour Walter Matthau starts behaving in a most unpleasant manner.

The always fabulous Novak is easy to understimate until you see her in a variety of different roles. Here she is, beautifully lit by Charles Lang in Eastmancolor:

 

Evan Hunter (The Birds) wrote it. Charles Duning's music is on the border of schmaltzy. Edited by that Charles Nelson again.

Shot it appears mainly on location.

"I get home from work angry" is a telling line....

Funny that film features Kim Novak, Nancy Kovack and Ernie Kovacs, making it I think the most Novak-Kovak film ever! Also led to this amusing exchange:

Q: Thanks for putting the pillow cases on.
Me: Stop talking about Kim Novak's bra.

Funny review from 26 May 2008: 'Mature and well-paced, like a stilton rolling down a hill'.

A New Leaf (1970, released 1971 Elaine May & scr)

Good title represents a literal new leaf (a frond, to be specific) as well, in story of penniless toff Walter Matthau who must marry disaster-prone Elaine May for her money, from the short story 'The Green Heart' by Jack Ritchie. Here's May in interesting conversation with Mike Nichols:

I started out with a short story in an Alfred Hitchcock omnibus. I liked it because I realized the guy, the hero, was going to kill this woman. And he actually kills somebody else. And I thought he’s going to kill her and he’s not going to realize that he likes her.

See Film Comment.

The studio (Robert Evans came to Paramount during production) cut her debut film down from three hours, removing a sub-plot in which Henrietta is being blackmailed by sleazy attorney Jack Weston and William Hickey, and Henry poisons them both - and gets away with it, a first which Elaine wanted in her film. Thus disappearance from plot of attorney is explained.

Film also began under a druggy editor whose first film this was - I presume May is referring to Don Guidice, who also cut Three Days of the Condor - who introduced a lot of flash forwards, which then had to be removed. (I bet he'd borrowed this from Easy Rider.) Suggests therefore that Frederic Steinkamp finished it.

George Rose, playing the butler Harold, was indeed British. Makes interesting double-header with How to Murder Your Wife. With James Coco, William Redfield.

Film is a terrific success even in its aborted version - May is great as timid biologist, Matthau as urbane waster. Hilarious proposal scene. Contains the great line: "Oh no. She's unscrewing my Montrazini."

Why, by the way, can't we get Secret Life of an American Wife and Harvey Middleman, Fireman  on DVD? And Marriage of a Young Stockbroker?

Annie Hall (1977 Woody Allen)

One of the most interesting things about Annie Hall is that it is not the film that Allen and Marshall Brickman devised, wrote and filmed. The original cut of 'Anhedonia' was two hours twenty, and according to Allen was "all about me, exclusively, not about a relationship". In the months of cutting Allen and editor Ralph Rosenblum took out "a lot of material that I thought was wonderfully funny" and although this print no longer exists, some of its hilarious content is described in Chapter 19 of Ralph's great book 'When the Shooting Stops' from which all this information is derived.

That we are left with a particularly sweet, romantic and insightful film about a relationship (which still has masses of great comedy left in it) pleases all of us - and the Award boards - but explains why Allen's always thought of it as a failure. It won best film, screenplay and director and Keaton took Best Actress (AA and BAFTA), and it marks the beginning of Allen's eight-picture collaboration with Prince of Darkness Gordon Willis.

Passport to Pimlico (1949 Henry Cornelius)

Easy Living (1937 Mitchell Leisen)

Also well overdue is this archetypal Paramount Preston Sturges comedy which is frequently so fast you don't take in all the gags. Jean Arthur accepts $58,000 fur coat from aggrieved businessman Edward Arnold, bumps into his son Ray Milland. Great support from the hilarious Luis Alberni as the hotel manager (almost a prototype for Wilder's in Avanti) plus others who we come to recognise from the Sturges stock company - Pangborn, Demarest, Greig.

Great jokes e.g. every girl needs a background.

Ph. Ted Tetzlaff, editor Doane Harrison.

Kotch (1971 Jack Lemmon)

Hilariously written (e.g. when Matthau compliments Winters on choice of phone I didn't know whether to laugh at 'Desert Gold' or 'high visibility') by John Paxton (source Katharine Topkins), it is no coincidence at all that Matthau gives perhaps his best performance (check out some of the most simple reaction shots) under the direction of frequent co-star Lemmon, his only film and a right success it is too. He zips the film along (editor Ralph E. Winters - The Boston Strangler -  at times with great subtlety) without waste. All the other casting is good too: Deborah Winters, Felicia Farr (Mrs Lemmon), Charles Aidman. Well, well overdue. Only complaint in fact is Marvin Hamlisch's syrupy music.

'Digitally remastered' Pearson Television release is not anamorphic.

The Kid (2010 Nick Moran)

Kevin Lewis wrote his own screenplay about his life, of which he'd already made a best-selling book (Moran did some work on it too).

Based on his 2003 autobiographical bestseller, much of its harrowing violence and extreme neglect has been toned down for the cinema....Today, Kevin Lewis is an acclaimed crime novelist. He laughs out loud. “My publishers have noted that my grammar is atrocious but I do have great story lines.”

 (express.co.uk)

The three Kevins are great: William Miller (the junior), Augustus Prew and finally Rupert Friend; Natasha McElhone is unrecognisable. With Ioan Gruffudd, Jodie Whittaker, David O'Hara, Bernard Hill, James Fox.

Staggering musical array goes one too far when it includes Greig's 'Morning'. The climactic fight scene is definitely set to a live version of 'The End' though why this isn't credited only Jim Morrison (now head of Sony Pictures) knows...

Trevor Waite is the useful editor (lots of TV background) and it's shot by Peter Wignall (lots of steadicam credits before this).

A polemical film, from which discussion ensued... (e.g. the mother is herself an abuse victim).

Day for Night / La Nuit Américaine (1973 François Truffaut)

A very clever film which as you're watching it starts making you think about how it's filmed... Watching Truffaut the director playing Truffaut the director directing actor Léaud playing Léaud the actor makes your head spin...

Last seen on 4 December 2010 'a well-overdue treat'.

Jacqueline Bisset (the one that got away), Valentina Cortese (the drunken Italian actress), Dani (new script girl), Alexandra Stewart, Jean-Pierre Aumont (actor who keeps making mysterious trips to the airport), Jean-Pierre Léaud, François Truffaut. Won the '74 foreign film Oscar then weirdly, Truffaut (as director), script and Cortese were nominated the next year also. All three won BAFTAs. Script is by Truffaut, our Suzanne Schiffman and Jean-Louis Richard, music by Georges Delerue

Constant smiling, seeing Léaud makes me happy (his face when watching his own rushes is priceless). Zippy editing (Yann Dedet). Tricks (cat; fake balcony / bedroom). Seems to accurately depict the process and kept making me think of State and Main.

Great photo from http://www.filmstarts.de

Truffaut also  name checks his favourite directors in the books he's ordered: Dreyer, Bresson, Godard (just before they fell out), Buñuel, Rossellini, Lubitsch, Hawks and of course Hitchcock.

Very pleased to realise it's set in Powell's training ground, Victorine Studios Nice. Still there. following chequered history, but now called "Studio Riviera".

Nemesis (2007 Nicolas Winding Refn)

Very well made adaptation of 1971 Agatha Christie novel by Stephen Churchett (who's written episodes of Lewis too), directed in a properly good old-time camera moving way by Refn, expertly cut by Matthew Newman (also the same director's Drive and Bronson) and nicely shot by Larry Smith (Bronson, The Guard, Calvary).

Richard E Grant supports Geraldine McEwan, with Dan Stevens, Ruth Wilson, Ronni Ancona, Lee Ingleby, the weird Amanda Burton (perfectly suited to a role like this), Anne Reid, Johnny Briggs, George Cole, Graeme Garden and Will Mellor.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967 Stanley Kramer)

Well this is no fun, I've already reviewed it.

A real treat to enjoy three awesome actors, particularly with the knowledge of the Tracy-Hepburn relationship..

Sabotage (1936 Alfred Hitchcock)

The young sixteen-year old Nick really liked this when he saw it at the Reading Film Theatre on January 24, 1979, from the light bulb on. The murder scene is just brilliantly done. Plus those almost subliminal flashes to the dead boy... (Hitch admitted killing him was a mistake - in fact as the boy is sat right next to a puppy, it contravenes two rules of popular cinema...) The cut from the bus explosion to the next scene is memorably incisive.

Sylvia Sidney and Oscar Homolka are both great, John Loder isn't.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014 Wes Anderson)

Inspired by novel by (Letter from an Unknown Woman) Stefan Zweig, written by Anderson and Hugo Guinness, startling-looking film is distinctively shot mainly in 4x3 and straight on and centred, like an old silent movie. Ralph Fiennes runs away with the film as the super-efficient, wrongly accused concierge, aided by bellboy Tony Revolori.

In style it seems directly descended from Fantastic Mr Fox, with miniatures and animation, and the same trick where characters in a foreground are suddenly in the background, and a toe-tapping final balalaika tune from Alexandre Desplat.

Absolutely amazing sets and decoration shot in gorgeous hues by Robert Yeoman.

With the Anderson regulars - Schwartzman, Wilson, Murray, Balaban, Brody, Defoe, Norton - plus Saiorse Ronan, F Murray Abraham, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Mathieu Amalric and Tom Wilkinson.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009 Wes Anderson)

Beautiful stop-motion animation kept making me think of Jan Svankmajer, though very funny: best moments are those of tunnelling to (what sounds like) a brisk Greek tune (Alexandre Desplat).

Good voice cast of usual Anderson stock company - Schwartzman, Murray, Wilson - plus Clooney, Streep, Michael Gambon. From Road Dahl's story, adapted by Anderson and Noah Baumbach, shot for a change by Tristan Oliver.

Secret Agent (1936 Alfred Hitchcock)

W. Somerest Maugham by way of Charles Bennett begins with a funeral for a man who isn't dead so he can be posted on a top secret mission by his boss 'R', i.e. the film version of You Only Live Twice. Starts in absolutely the right mood, with a one-armed man struggling with an empty coffin; then our hero Ashenden (John Gielgud. What? John Gielgud?) finds he is 'married' (the film version of Live and Let Die) to Madeleine Carroll (occasionally wooden) and accompanied by womanising killer 'The General' Peter Lorre. Classic touches include long-range murder, a significant jacket button, and a chocolate factory in which secret correspondence is hidden (leading to a suspenseful scene in silent mode).

Love the ultra-cynical climax in which R arranges to have our undercover heroes bombed on a train rather than risk letting the enemy (Robert Young) get away.

Bernard Knowles on camera, Charles Frend editing.

Story is somewhat overwhelmed by characters' morality problems, lacks the 'bounce' typical of the period. Hitchcock (in Truffaut): "the hero has an assignment.. but the job is distasteful.. Because it's a negative purpose the film is static - it doesn't move forward." (Gielgud is rather good though.)

I guess the reason Lorre is bumped off in a somewhat lapsadaisical (actually, lackadaisical) manner is because the killer in those days wasn't allowed to be seen to get away with it...

ITV Studios version on DVD suffers from sound problems. Sound problems, I said.

Dad (1989 Gary David Goldberg & scr)

Eighteen years after Jack directed Walter Matthau as an old man in Kotch (his only directorial work) he himself takes on the geriatric role, aged 64, in great makeup (coutesey Dick Smith). Ted Danson, sporting an unlikely hairdo, is his son, Ethan Hawke is his son, Olympia Dukakis the unsympathetic grandmother.

Feel story could have been better - not sure the stuff about invented / repressed memories is credible.

James Horner's music is overly sugary.

Mississippi Mermaid / La Sirène du Mississippi (1969 François Truffaut)

It is true that Truffaut - Chronicler of Love's Adventures - makes his first film which focuses solely on a one-to-one relationship (as observed in de Baecque & Toubiana's terrific book), albeit one that involves betrayal, murder, attempted murder, theft and lies, though ultimately, redemption. Let's have a look at how interesting it is.

Location. Who's even heard of La Réunion, a French colony off the eastern coast of Africa, an exotic place well caught by Denys Clerval (in widescreen Dyaliscope), often from the back seat of a convertible:

Action them moves to Nice, Aix-en-Provence, (not Paris, where our heroine really wants to end up) and finally Chartreuse (standing in for Switzerland), exactly where Truffaut shot Shoot the Pianist, even featuring the same cabin.

Casting: Belmondo against type (though featuring one of his typical acrobatic moments), Deneuve, because Truffaut thought she had a face which was mysterious, always hiding something (and perhaps why Buñuel cast her twice in two of his most successful pictures; Hitch also surely would have loved to get his 30mm lens on her*), Michel Piccoli as the dogged detective and Truffaut's accountant Marcel Berbert ('to save money'!)

Score: Antoine Duhamel. Not your average score (though quite distinctive of the composer of Weekend).

Really good with lots of enhancing details e.g. the voice recording she makes which is immediately smashed; the Snow White cartoon; the fact at the end where we're surprised to see her come back at all. You really don't get many films like this to the kilo.

*And I learned later that his last film project was to star Deneuve...

Jerry Maguire (1996 Cameron Crowe & scr)

What warmly written characters you'll find in a Crowe, more so than in his rather more hard-edged role model Billy Wilder's films. Superbly written film benefits also from Janusz Kaminski on camera and Joe Hutshing (who started working for Oliver Stone) cutting, and great performances from Tom Cruise and Renée Zellweger and the genuinely happy-looking Jonathan Lipnicki, though we musn't ignore Cuba Gooding Jr and his wife Regina King, baddy Jay Mohr, and sister Bonnie Hunt.

The philosophical agent and Jerry's mentor is played by Jared Jussim, who was Deputy General Counsel and Executive Vice President of the Intellectual Property Department of Sony Pictures. Cameron wanted Billy Wilder to play the part but was told by the legendary director to find a proper actor instead. Jared had no prior acting experience, and was cast for the role on the strength of reading one line after walking into a production meeting with Crowe and James L Brooks.

"Show me the Oscar!"

Harold and Maude (1971 Hal Ashby)

Well reviewed here, the amazing cemetery is at Sneath Lane:

Is Bud looking at us?

There's something quite weird about the way the scenes at the psychiatrist's are shot.

Young and Innocent (1937 Alfred Hitchcock)

Full of the master's bounce, typical of the period, featuring a suspenseful tea party (who else could do that?) with 'Beechcroft Manningtree', a punch-up at a café where the frames are full of energy, police in a cart of pigs (any opportunity to make them look stupid), and especially the joke of "we're combing the forest now" (shot of flashlights in dark wood). And, not just escaping from the police, but ending up in a collapsing mine...

OK, Derrick de Marney and Nova Pilbeam are not the most interesting couple but then we do have that amazing shot in the ballroom which goes in so close (Bernard Knowles on camera, operated by Stephen Dade - also Sabotage, Secret Agent and Rome Express), Edward Rigby as a tramp, and Uncle Alfred Junge's barn design:

Charles Bennett contributes to screenplay.