Effie Grey (2014 Richard Laxton)

This though felt less successful because:

We don't care about John Ruskin.
The actor playing him, Greg Wise, is too blank.
Dakota Fanning is too blank.
It needs seasoning.

Only comes to life in scenes with Emma Thompson, who wrote the screenplay. Laxton is largely a TV director, responsible for the likes of Burton and Taylor.

With Julie Walters, James Fox, David Suchet, Tom Sturridge (Millais), Robbie Coltrane, Linda Bassett and Russell Tovey.

Andrew Dunn shot it in a very diffused style.

The Greengage Summer (1961 Lewis Gilbert)

The Americans thought Greengages would be too tricky so gave the film the slammingly obvious title ' Loss of Innocence', which is the title on our DVD.

Another Rumer Godden story, adapted by herself and Howard Koch, with another really interesting dynamic going on between the kids Susannah York, Jane Asher, Richard Williams and Elizabeth Dear (in descending height order) as they are abandoned at an enormous French chateau run by bitter Danielle Darrieux, but where they find an endearing protector in the form of mysterious businessman Kenneth More.

Shot in Eastmancolor by Freddie Young (with lots of location work and very little back projection), cut by Peter Hunt and scored by Richard Adinsell.

According to the BBFC the original was cut to obtain its 'A' rating.

I thought it was highly successful, More being exactly the kind of actor / character you want at any given moment.

The Palm Beach Story (1942 Preston Sturges & scr)

The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014 Lasse Hallström)

Not sure that it's particularly well-written (for example, what's happening at the Indian restaurant - is anyone eating there?). Helen Mirren is great though would have been better without the French accent. Om Puri is in a familiar line of irascible fathers, Manish Dayal is the wannabe chef and Charlotte le Bon is his cute co-worker.

Quite fun though.

My Old Lady (2014 Israel Horovitz & scr)

Israel has not particularly opened up his play, set in the Marais in Paris*, very well acted by Maggie Smith, Kevin Kline and Kristin Scott Thomas and it's a melancholy affair, with at least a happy ending.

Dominique Pinon looked familiar because he's in films like Amelie, Micmacs and A Very Long Engagement.

* But actually shot in La Manufature.

Very Good Girls (2014 Naomi Foner & scr)

One of those films when you shout at the screen "Just tell her!" like one of those deluded fools on Gogglebox. Does, though, have genuine moments where you know a woman has directed the film - and so much the better for that.

Dakota Fanning is rather good by doing very little, and that's Elizabeth Olsen as her friend. Clark Gregg as the father smiles too much (it's rather off-putting) and Ellen Barkin is her mother. Mad Men's Kiernan Shipka doesn't have much of a part; neither does Richard Dreyfuss, though it's always nice to see him.

And So It Goes (2014 Rob Reiner)

Kirk Douglas is 98. Michael is 70.

Utterly predictable film. Enjoyable though. Diane Keaton is very natural, Douglas has to me always been slightly hammy.  I wonder if you can get that song Diane sings in Annie Hall without all the background din?

Brief Encounter (1945 David Lean)

The timing of that bell, the darkening of backgrounds for flashbacks, the tilt...

The moment when they're on the platform and Howard asks "Thursday?" and she doesn't even reply, just withdraws into the compartment, is stunning.

It's enormously good, time and time again.

Dutch Girls (1985 Giles Foster)

Problems: Firth's character's inertia. Would 'friendship' really prevent him from getting off with the delicious Gusta Gerritsen? What was the nature of his relationship with James Wilby? What's he thinking?

And Baines Lyndon. Timothy Spall.. Off-puttingly offensive at every turn. (OK there are people like this with no self-reflection but as a character...)*

Bill Patterson losing boys in Red Light District has a flavour of Les Quatre Cents Coups. Loved the hockey match where they're all chatting about the impending disco.

Good fun.

* Shortly after this we met William Boyd and he said that the film is very much what really happened on his school trip to Amsterdam in 1969 (including the dismal failures in hockey matches), and that the character really was that bad!

Sword of Honour (Bill Anderson 2001)

William Boyd has based the three-hour film on the Evelyn Waugh autobiographical war novels with tremendous success - and it's weirdly like watching one of Will's own stories, with its multiple characters, lunacy of war theme, unhappy relationships, luck (or lack of it) and changing identities. Indeed the author himself acknowledges the Helleresque Catch-22ness of Waugh which is well evidenced in the scenes in which the fearsome Brigadier Ritchie-Hook (an excellent performance from Robert Pugh) entreats the men to shoot at him, and where the equally insane and reclusive Ludovic (Guy Henry, also great) prevents his name from being on any official documentation.

Katrin Catrlidge we know from Mike Leigh (she's sadly no longer with us), Robert Daws as Maj. 'Fido' Hound has been one-offs in lots and lots of TV series though maybe is best known to us from Rock and Chips and as 'Tuppy Glossop' in Jeeves and Wooster and - if we saw it - TV's Take a Girl Like Me. Megan Dodds as Victoria has a similar background as indeed did Henry (best known for Rome and Criminal Justice) and Pugh (The Shadow Line and many other things), and that's why everyone looks so familiar, though our fellows Mangan and Rhind-Tutt, Simon Williams and Leslie Phillips need no introduction. And the opportunistic Trimmer / McTavish is played by Richard Coyle from - amongst many other things - Coupling.

It appears that almost every character experiences a leg injury!

Extremely successful, filmed in Mallorca. Music by Nina Humphreys, ph. Daf Hobson, editor Joe Walker (12 Years a Slave, Hunger, Shame, Brighton Rock, Harry Brown).

Oh yes. I forgot the glue: Daniel Craig. Wonderful. He'll go far, that lad.

Double Indemnity (1944 Billy Wilder & scr)

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (2005 Dan Ireland)

Ruth Sacks has adapted Elizabeth Taylor's novel, published in 1971 and televised in 1973 with Celia Johnson as a Play for Today. Joan Plowright and Rupert Friend are fantastic, with Anna Massey, Zoe Tapper (the girlfriend), Millicent Martin, Marcia Warren. The grandson Lorcan O'Toole is indeed Peter's son.

Delightful.

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008 Mike Leigh & scr)

Sally Hawkins is frankly astonishing in Mike Leigh's terrific film, which was completely overlooked by BAFTA. Her character is funny, sharp, brave, plucky and irrepressibly optimistic. Unexpectedly deep in its scenes with dispossessed and mentally problematic Stanley Townsend and in dealing with victimised kid with social worker Samuel Roukin (it's all in the eyes). Not to mention great long takes with Eddie Marsan. Alexis Zegerman is her best friend (and these two have really travelled), Sylvestra le Touzel the head, Sarah Niles a fellow teacher.

Karina Fernandez (also in Mr Turner and Another Year) is great as the flamenco teacher.

Shot by Dick Pope and edited by Jim Clark.

A real achievement.

This Happy Breed (1944 David Lean)

It's so well acted.

OK, OK, it's 'Chuck us the nutcrackers, Phil".

Blue Jasmine (2013 Woody Allen & scr)

Cate Blanchett (won Oscar) and Sally Hawkins (nominated) are fantastic in serious tale in which we learn the full story in flashbacks in a rather engaging way. Laced with Mr Allen's usual dark ironies the film has quite a pessimistic outcome. With Bobby Cavanale, Alec Baldwin (playing it commendably dead straight), Andrew Dice Clay, Louis C.K.

Shot by Javier Aguirresarobe in Panavision.

Gambit (2012 Michael Hoffman)

Always great to see Tom Courtenay (and Julian Rhind-Tutt). In art crime swindle, written by the Coens, there isn't the requisite chemistry between Colin Firth and the colourless Cameron Diaz - Alan Rickman is the baddie.

Shot by Florian Ballhaus (in Panavision) and edited by Paul Tothill.

Short.

The Man Behind the Mask (1936 Michael Powell)

Though the title card on our print of dubious quality is simply 'Behind the Mask'.

Quite bonkers little episode, fairly lively (not even making it to the full hour) involves stolen ornament and innocent couple on the run. Hugh Williams, Jane Baxter and Ronald Ward are top-billed though Donald Calthrop (early Hitches and Rome Express) makes the best impression. Also the uncredited Esma Cannon is familiar to us as the waitress.

Ernest Palmer is DP with Erwin Hillier (misspelled as 'Hiller') on camera, though until a clearer print becomes available we can only guess as to the quality. Some interesting angles and moments, however.

Oliver Twist (1948 David Lean & co-scr)

Tremendous assembly of talents interprets killer Dickens story:

Writers Lean, Stanley Haynes and providing (uncredited) the opening, Kay Walsh.

Ronnie Neame produced. John Bryan again using forced perspective sets with terrific effect.

Jack Harris is ostensibly the editor but you can be sure there's not a moment of it without Lean the editor. And those great scenes that happen without dialogue and you still understand everything.

That opening is one of cinema's best - a superb montage of rich and brilliant images and motion, photographed by Guy Green.

The use of the dog really makes the killing of Nancy effective. And then the shadows of the curtain on her dead arm, really lyrical.

Without realising, it was our second pairing today of Alec Guinness (extraordinary) and Kay Walsh (brilliant), and a reteaming of Walsh with Robert Newton, who's ever so slightly hammy, though still frightening. It was the debuts of John Howard Davies and Diana Dors. With Francis L Sullivan (reminding me of food critic Charles Campion), Henry Stephenson, Anthony Newley, Kathleen Harrison, Amy Veness.

Sunshine Cleaning (2008 Christine Jeffs)

Amy Adams, Emily Blunt (both great), Alan Arkin, Steve Zahn, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Jason Spevack, Clifton Collins Jr (with an arm tied behind his back!), Paul Dooley, Kevin Chapman (Person of Interest).

Written by Megan Holley - very different and quirkily enjoyable. Ph John Toon.

Last Holiday (1950 Henry Cass)

Beautifully ironic story from J.B. Priestley has you smiling throughout. Great cast includes Alec Guinness, Sid James, Kay Walsh, Wilfred Hyde White, Beatrice Campbell (Mrs Rockingham), 'Coco' Grégoire Aslan, Jean Colin (Daisy), Esma Cannon, Brian Worth and Bernard Lee.

The exchange between visiting Professor Lampington Ernest Thesiger and resident Muriel George is priceless, as is her previous telephone conversation.

Final twist also brilliantly ironic as is back-tracking of guests. Actually quite a big theme.

The hotel was the Rosetor in Torquay, demolished in 1979.

Cass a director of no distinction, Ray Elton hardly shot anything, memorable music by Francis Chagrin.

Associated British. Our Criterion print is very dark.

Intouchables / Untouchable (2011 Olivier Nakache Eric Toledano, both scr)

Brilliantly reviewed - if I may say so - here, film deserves elevation to pantheon of Top 200 and is utterly just what you need on your last holiday Saturday after a particularly thorough lunch with John and Beth.

Typically the French bastards have not bothered to subtitle the latest teaming of Sy with the writer/directors: Samba.

As Good As It Gets (1997 James L Brooks)

A few reservations have grown up over the years. One is Helen Hunt. Is there something rather artificial about her performance? She won against Kate Winslet (Titanic), Judi Dench (who probably should have won for Mrs Brown), Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove (needs a rewatch) and Julie Christie (Afterglow, looks like worth watching).

The other thing is that it feels curiously made so that almost every shot is a medium to close reaction and there's few scenes in which the principals appear together, almost like they all filmed their parts separately. I'm sure they didn't, it just feels like that.

The scene in which Harold Ramis comes to sort out her son though is still one of my favourites. Shirley Knight is the mother and Jack also won the Oscar.

Easy Living (1937 Mitchell Leisen)

Last seen here.

Really good, Sturges writes beautifully for butler Robert Greig, who he uses memorably in Sullivan's Travels.

No problem at all with Mitch Liesen's directing and handling of actors and material.

Love the great double joke voiced by Louis Alberni about every girl needing a background and "backgrounds don't go more back than this".

And Milland: "You slave for 20 years and you're still behind the nut salad."

Crown vs Stevens (1936 Michael Powell)

Made for WB in England, Powell's quota quickie isn't as stylish or as much fun as the previous year's Love Test. Patric Knowles gets caught up in a murder with his boss's wife Beatrix Thomson; though he really fancies interior designer Glennis Lorimer. Reginald Purdell is the worldly foreman, Googie Withers and Bernard Miles appear.

Basil Emmott shot it.

The Babadook (2014 Jennifer Kent & scr)

If read as a commentary on being a (single) parent going through a tough time, Jennifer Kent's film makes more sense, in other words Repulsion rather than The Evil Dead. And it's also quite funny seen in that context. It's a remodel of her own 2005 stylish B&W short Monster.

Still has some horror nonsense absurdities however.

Essie Davis is given the opportunity to really let go in a  creditable performance, Noah Wiseman is the kid.

I thought it was rather good.

Ocean's Eleven (2001 Steven Soderbergh)

Beautifully shot by Soderbergh himself ('Peter Andrews'), with the same rich oranges and blues as Out of Sight, which it resembles also in funky, cool way down to Stephen Mirrione's groovy cutting (though even he is not of course Anne Coates).

Rather disappointingly the team, led by Clooney and Pitt, don't appear to need any women, and instead comprises Matt Damon, Elliott Gould, Carl Reiner, Casey Affleck (brother of), Scott Caan (son of), Berni Mac and the appallingly bad cockney accent of Don Cheadle. Andy Garcia is far too colourless to be attractive to Julia Roberts - part should have been played by Mark Strong.

Good, entertaining and ingenious script by Ted Griffin, though the whole thing is all a bit pleased with itself.

Carry On Girls (1973 Gerald Thomas)

A shade better than Convenience, perhaps through Babs Windsor's plucky 'Miss Easy Rider'.

Paddington (2014 Paul King & co-scr)

Not a beggar nor burka in sight in glossy depiction of a mythical though real London.

Hugh Bonneville I think doesn't have as much to do as his acting ability allows.

Not particularly well written but enjoyable enough, with Julie Walters fun as nanny; Sally Hawkins, Nicole Kidman having fun as baddy. Erik Wilson (Submarine) shot it.

Performance (1969, rel 1970 Donald Cammell & scr, Nic Roeg)

Stunning collision of talents with atmosphere from Camell, technical skill from cameraman Roeg and dazzling experimental editing from Tony Gibbs (and Brian Smedley-Aston; and latterly Frank Mazzola), despite Warners' efforts to recut it and fuck with it. Gibbs was BAFTA nominated.

As well as some staggeringly beautiful imagery, Roeg and operator Mike Molloy also give broiling shooting e.g fantastic zoom / focus in a simple phone box shot.

Find it difficult to disagree with Bill Nighy, who thinks "James Fox's performance in it is one of my favourites by any actor in any medium" (quoted in 'Time Out 1000 Films to Change your Life').

With Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, Michele Breton, Johnny Shannon, John Bidon, Stanley Meadows, Anthony Valentine, Kenneth Colley and Laraine Wickens.

25 Powis Square. All flats now, of course.

Lucy (2014 Luc Besson)

Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Min-sik Choi, Amr Waked, Julian Rhind-Tutt.

Absolute nonsense, delivered with panache. Short, though actually could have done with some fun scenes e.g. Lucy interacting with normal people.

St Vincent (2014 Theodore Melfi & scr)

The terrific Bill Murray in grumpy form befriending son (Jaeden Leiberher) of neighbour Melissa McCarthy. Naomi Watts is his ex and Chris O'Dowd plays a refreshingly open-minded Catholic Priest.

Melfi's debut feature, his new one set to feature Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin!

If I Stay (2014 RJ Cutler)

I think it's difficult for an audience to connect with a film in which a disembodied spirit hangs around and gets frustrated no one can see it. Here it's played by Chloe Grace Moretz in quite a subdued fashion - we miss her persona from Kick Ass - as she's the victim of a car crash.

It didn't, I'm afraid, leave much of an impression.

Pretty Woman

http://nicksfilmjottings.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/pretty-woman-1990-garry-marshall.html

No argument from me.

For the record, Q is currently blocking Spring in a Small Town, O Lucky Man, Bande a Part, Don't Look Now and The Jokers.

Carry On At Your Convenience (1971 Gerald Thomas)

The Year of the Hot Pant, apparently.

Dreadful entry in series concerns lavatory factory and militantly striking union worker, who reckons without his feisty mother (Renee Houston, who had the distinction of being in both Cul-de-Sac and Repulsion). Scant plot also features budgie that can pick horse winners.

Usual outrageous performances from Kenneth Williams, Charlie Hawtrey, Sid James, the oddly endearing Joan Sims, Bernard Bresslaw (not sure what Babs was doing), Jacki Piper and the pleasant young man Richard O'Callaghan .

You have to admire the exuberance, though, of Eric Rogers' music.

'71 (2014 Yann Demange)

TV director (Top Boy, Criminal Justice) brings real energy to Gregory Burke's Belfast thriller, which could be in any war-torn city, and which echoes Carol Reed's Odd Man Out. Highlights are initial chase, sequence with super-confident boy, the moment he tenderly despatches his stalker, and the tense finale. Jack O'Connell's doing alright isn't he? Plus I thought I recognised Sean Harris.

Editor Chris Wyatt, camera Tat Radcliffe, music David Holmes.

The Odd Couple (1968 Gene Saks)

The film in which Matthau famously answers the phone 'Divorced, Broke and Sloppy', leading us to all sorts of silly answering names. This followed quite a debate about how recently we'd seen it, as it seems like we're always watching it, but aren't.

Submarine (2010 Richard Ayoade)

Richard Ayoade's debut is shot through with a healthy dose of his beloved New Wavers, especially Godard and Truffaut, though there are hints of Harold and Maude, Don't Look Now and others.

Craig Roberts and Yasmin Paige are fine as the young couple, Noah Taylor and the exceptional Sally Hawkins play his parents. With Paddy Considine

It's no surprise at all to see the name of Chris Dickens in the editor credits as this is packed with sensationally quick cutting; with Nick Fenton.

Shot in Panavision by Erik Wilson.

It perhaps does not equal the sum of its parts but is really enjoyable. Started making me think about the best film endings, of which Les 400 Coups  boasts one. (And Au Hasard Balthazar, which one day will actually come out on Blu-Ray).

Quite why Richard followed this with the dark and difficult The Double, we're not sure.

Only Two Can Play (1962 Sidney Gilliat)

Was it the glimpse of Mai Zetterling's bare bottom that earned this film the X certificate? How very much times have changed in a short period.

Peter Sellars is as good as ever in early role as Welsh librarian who becomes involved in the above lady and her bottom; wife Virginia Maskell cottons on quickly. Bryan Forbes has adapted Kingsley Amis' novel 'Only Two Can Play'.

With Kenneth Griffith, Richard Attenborough, Raymond Huntley, David Davies and John le Mesurier. Distinctive music by Richard Rodney Bennett, with a deal of drumming.

The Half Naked Truth (1932 Gregory La Cava)

Super-zippy pre-Code comedy about the world's most unscrupulous PR man (Lee Tracy) and his relationship with showgirl, the barely-clad Lupe Velez, and associate Eugene Pallette. With Franklin Pangborn, Frank Morgan.

Has hilarious episodes e.g. copies of incriminating photo, and fast and funny dialogue e.g.

Bates: "Yes, she bathes in champagne. If you don't believe me ask her plumber. (Hangs up.)
No one believes anything any more."
Secretary: "Who could doubt a man of your veracity?"
Bates: "There's no need to use bad language."

So old it's a Radio Picture (before the Keith and Orpheum kicked in.)

Shot by Bert Glennon.

The Love Test (1935 Michael Powell)

One of Powell's 'quota quickies', made at Wembley Studios and running a mere hour and a minute, most enjoyable tale (ostensibly about developing a fire-resistant celluloid) has what I call the early 30s British 'bounce' and is quite interestingly put together, e.g. the opening round bottle that turns into the pompous MD's face. Judy Gunn and Louis Hayward are the couple and amazingly that's Blimp's 'Hoppy' David Hutcheson as the rascal. With Googie Withers, displaying hardly any eyebrows, and Bernard Miles in his first (credited) screen role.

Whilst there's no credit for editor it seems quite likely it was John Seabourne who was working closely with Powell on these at the time (see 'A Life in Movies'), perhaps evident in a montage of shots of an air conditioning grille through which the hero is (rudely) demonstrating. And it's an early effort from cinematographer turned director Arthur Crabtree.