To Rome with Love (2012 Woody Allen & scr)

What did I tell you? We wanted to laugh. And it had been 18 months.

I think my favourite story is of the newly-weds: Alessandra Mastronardi is delightful as the wife who is propositioned first by a film star and then by an enterprising burglar, whilst Alessandro Tiberi is passing off Penelope Cruz as his wife! Begnini is so funny, great cast also includes Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page.

Small Time Crooks (2000 Woody Allen)

Well overdue, another uproarious story in which WA, Tony Darrow, Michael Rapaport and (latterly) Jon Lovitz plot to rob a bank under the cover of Tracey Ullman's cookie store, which becomes massively successful. That's just the first 30 minutes. Film turns into a sort of Born Yesterday with Ullman wanting to improve herself under the tutelage of untrustworthy Hugh Grant.

Considering the retrospective of hers we've been on recently we didn't even realise Elaine May is in it, and her scenes are hilarious.

Very funny and satisfying ending. Zhao Fei delivers a stunning rooftop dusk scene (then somewhat overlights a night river shot).

Ullman is absolutely fantastic in performance that was pretty much ignored by everybody (love the way she pronounces 'crudités'). Many, many very funny lines. And loved the way Woody tries to creep upstairs surreptitiously. And the video about the cookie company and their 'board meetings'.

Midnight in Paris (2011 Woody Allen & scr)

Reviewed here. Still love it.

Mighty Aphrodite (1995 Woody Allen & scr)

Last seen in January 2013. We should add that Michael Rapaport plays the thick boxer, who was not in Roxanne and thus the Q owes me £1 million.

We wanted to laugh and we did, raucously. The Greek chorus, headed by F Murray Abraham, and assorted Greek characters are hilarious (it was filmed in Taormina in February and was still hot, by Carlo di Palma. Almost inevitable then that he and Mr A stayed in the Hotel Timeo next door.) Mira Sorvino was one of his Oscar winners. Helena Bonham Carter is Woody's errant wife. With Tony Sirico.

My Blueberry Nights (2007 Wong Kar Wai & co-scr)

Norah Jones walks into Jude Law's café....

What would be annoying in most directors really works for Wai here - he's constantly shooting through something, textures, like Shangai Express... And his step printing is fantastic. Darius Khondji shot it, of course, and the editor William Chang worked on all the other Wais.

Story is deep and affecting, particularly in the episode with David Strathairn and Rachel Weisz, both of whom are just brilliant, and later with Natalie Portman (equally good). Jude is so charismatic that we just love him.

The music, by Ry Cooder. also features a great acoustic version of 'Yumeji's Theme'.

Ishtar (1987 Elaine May & scr)

Much-maligned film is tremendous fun, with Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman (excellent) as the worst singer-songwriters in history. Could have done with a bit more stupid Beatty - he underplays a lot considering he's the producer. And if Billy Wilder had been watching, he's have said 'They go through all that, and neither gets the girl?' (Isabelle Adjani, who I fell in crush with watching Herzog's Nosferatu).

Charles Grodin is the CIA operative; with Jack Weston, Carol Kane. Apart from a couple of stunning desert shots, you wouldn't know Vittorio Storaro was behind the camera.

Lots of very funny moments include a servant in a royal palace walking backwards quickly out of the room; their best ever gig; a blind camel etc And that great line 'I recognised your men from the Kalashnikovs we sold you'.

With theme of turbulent Middle East and technology it's actually very topical.

Wild (2014 Jean-Marc Vallée)

You never know whether a credited writer has actually written all of a screenplay, viz. Polanski's huge, uncredited involvement in Robert Towne's Chinatown screenplay. From this quote of Nick Hornby's from The Telegraph I think he did it himself:

"I decided that we had to create a kind of mystery in the story – what has messed this young woman up so badly? So we spool back from the divorce until we get to the wellspring of everything, Bobbi's death."

It beautifully constructs Reese Witherspoon's life story through artful time jumping. The editors are Vallée himself (under the pseudonym of John Mac McMurphy!) and Martin Pensa, and Yves Bélanger shot it (in Panavision) (so the same personnel as Dallas Buyers Club).

Both Reese and Laura Dern were nominated.

It's really good. Kept making me think of 'The Little Prince'.

Such Good Friends (1971 Otto Preminger)

Elaine May season continues with her adaptation of a novel by Lois Gould, which was based on her own true experience (her husband died in minor surgery and she found a diary containing all his love affairs). Funny and black e.g. scene where all the husband's 'friends' gather at the hospital like it's a social gathering.

Dyan Cannon is the Candide-like central figure (the nude photo of her is clearly faked - from her revealing top we can see she's no bikini shadow which the photo clearly has), James Coco is great as a doctor 'friend' (again), Laurence Luckinbill is the husband, Ken Howard and Jennifer O'Neill as more 'friends'.

Call this a 'review'?

Sweet Home Alabama (2002 Andy Tennant)

Reese Witherspoon returns home to finally divorce Josh Lucas - even though he has a nice dog - because she wishes to marry Patrick Dempsey, who has a horrid mother (Candice Bergen). Mary Kay Place (It's Complicated) and Fred Ward (The Player, Short Cuts) are her parents  and I thought Mary Louise Parker looked funny - it wasn't her. Though it is a young Dakota Fanning at the beginning.

I quite like this spunky girl who as the plot develops turns out has been up to all sorts of mischief in her past. How does it all turn out though, I wonder, with her as the new New York fashion darling whilst he has just opened his glass blown business down South? No matter. It may be quite shallow but it's a pleasant enough way to finish the evening, especially if you're a Reese fan.

Andrew Dunn shot it.

The Invisible Woman (2013 Ralph Fiennes)

Abi Morgan has 'dramatised' 1990 Claire Tomalin's no doubt interesting biography - through frankly if story wasn't about Dickens, it wouldn't be worth telling as it is a somewhat sombre, humourless affair which if anything plays down the drama (e.g. Dickens boarding the bedroom into two). I wouldn't have minded so much had we seen any evidence of this great passion to start with.

Well acted of course by Fiennes and Felicity Jones, who does though look grumpy for much of the time. And also by: Kristin Scott Thomas, Tom Hollander, John Kavanagh (the priest) and Joanna Scanlan.

Ilan Irshkeri's music is somewhat dissonant; Rob Hardy shoots in (low light and) what seems to be becoming a diffusion revival.

A bit dull, not sure about Ralph's direction.

Kings Row (1942 Sam Wood)

A bit. Kissing took over. Korngold's remarkable score. Betty Fields' remarkable performance. Nobly described here.

Love Hurts (2009 Barra Grant & scr)

Richard E Grant gives a fantastic comic performance as an uptight man separated from his long-time wife Carrie-Ann Moss and influenced by son Johnny Pacar in somewhat predictable story. He meet slots of women (that typo somehow works) including Jenna Elfman, Janeane Garofalo and Rita Rudner.

A film which we will watch time and again.

Northanger Abbey (2007 Jon Jones)

Jones made Titanic (not that one), The Great Fire etc. Andrew Davies has adapted Austen's novel for ITV and whilst Felicity Jones is gorgeous as the impressionable heroine, Carey Mulligan steals the film. JJ Feild is the good guy and Attachments' William Beck the baddie. That scandalous 'Udolpho' gets a lot of airtime (not to mention 'The Monk').

It moves along briskly enough and made us laugh about 13th century crenellations (the Abbey is Lismore Castle in Ireland and they are in fact 12th).

Like Crazy (2011 Drake Doremus & co-scr)

In a most elliptical style, Felicity Jones falls for Anton Yelchin but visa problems keep them apart. Meanwhile he embarks on an affair with Jennifer Lawrence, who has bravely accepted a small secondary part in which she barely speaks. Alex Kingston and Oliver Muirhead are the whisky-loving parents.

The fragmentary approach denies us some of the emotion, though is interesting, so overall we felt it wasn't a great success.

Garden State (2004 Zach Braff)

He wrote this one single-handed, his feature debut as director and writer - thematically it has much in the way of Wish I Was Here (dying, estranged father (Ian Holm), fear of swimming, protagonist as actor etc.). Lots of style e.g. the diploma that is hung on the ceiling as the wall's full. Natalie Portman is fantastically natural and charming as an epileptic liar, Peter Skarsgaard rather cool as low-achieving friend, Michael Weston, Jim Parsons again (moment he arrives in kitchen in suit of armour is hilarious), Ato Essandoh and Denis O'Haire, the Noah's Ark guy at the end (from The Good Wife, Dallas Buyers' Club, Changeling etc.).

A bright, sweet and tangy film shot again by Lawrence Sher. Also funny in encounters with former colleagues.

Liked the description of family as "other people that miss the same imaginary place".

Starter for 10 (2006 Tom Vaughan)

David Nicholls has adapted his own novel, under guidance of various seasoned producers like Sam Mendes and Tom Hanks.

Fabulous cast: a gawky James McEvoy, Dominic Cooper, Alice Eve (daughter of Trevor), Rebecca Hall, Benedict Cumberbatch, Catherine Tate, Guy Henry, Mark Gatiss, James Cordon, Charles Dance, Lindsay Duncan. That the name of Nina Gold is credited for casting is no surprise as she seems to be associated with every decent project. Ashley Rowe (Dancing on the Edge) shot it.

It's a slightly familiar tale but entertaining and well acted, filmed in Bristol and Jaywick, Clacton-on-Sea. There's perhaps too much 1980s music though the choices (lots of Cure, Psychedelic Furs etc) are good.

Wish I Was Here (2014 Zach Braff)

A family affair as much as the film, with Zach also starring in screenplay written by him and his brother Adam; they also co-produced.

Failed actor Zach is forced to home school children Joey King and Pierce Gagnon whilst mum Kate Hudson suffers in dull job which Zach has described to his hyper-critical father Mandy Patinkin as great. Zach's brother Josh Gad is a loser, Jim Parsons is a fellow failing actor.

Ph, Lawrence Sher, who also did Zach's Garden State. Nice montage ends film much as it did The Theory of Everything. Good morning.

Love Ranch (2010 Taylor Hackford)

Nasty, unnecessary violence and Pesci's too believable performance as a cunt undermine tale of whorehouse madame's fling with younger Argentinian boxer. Mirren is fab (accent too this time) and Sergio Peris-Mencheta winning as the doomed boxer - in fact you know it isn't going to end happily (in the end it defies expectation).

It's all a bit seedy. Gina Gershon makes impression as feisty prostitute; Bryan Cranston is in it for a full 60 seconds, The Wire's Wendell Pierce for a little longer.

Paul Hirsch edited.

The real Mustang Ranch apparently featured in Charley Varrick.

The Jokers (1967 Michael Winner)

Not the biggest fan of Mr Winner or his films but this one is written by the reliable and funny Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais whose career had only just begun with the previous year's Likely Lads.

Michael Crawford and Oliver Reed are quite unlikely as brothers (Reed was very cool in these days). Script suitably mocks establishment types and film acts like a travelogue of swinging sixties London, with editor Bernard Gribble having fun cutting in random shots of tourists etc.

Harry Andrews, Edward Fox, James Donald, Daniel Massey, Michael Hordern.

Carry on Loving (1970 Gerald Thomas)

Carry on Shagging more like is about as low and obvious as you can get, though in some ways still rather sweet. Sid and Hattie run the Bliss Wedded agency (she describing him as an 'ancient and dissipated walnut'), Kenneth Williams is a counsellor, Bernard Bresslaw a wrestler - you know the kind of thing. Skirts and dresses couldn't have gotten any shorter without becoming tops.

With Charlie Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Terry Scott, Richard O'Callaghan, Jacki Piper, Imogen Hassall, Patsy Rowlands. Weakness evident in final custard pie fight.

Q was right, most of the locations were Windsor, usefully detailed here.

The Year of Getting to Know Us (2008 Patrick Sisam)

Jimmy Fallon, Lucy Liu, Tom Arnold, Sharon Stone, Illeana Douglas.

Man gets in touch with himself, growing up a bit in the process, while visiting coma-ridden father.

The Theory of Everything (2014 James Marsh)

Eddie Redmayne's astonishing as Hawking, easily matched by Felicity Jones in Anthony McCarten's well-written adaptation of Jane Hawking's book. (It must be easier to give a better performance if the person you're opposite is fantastic.) Felicity's face - to steal Orson Welles - would make a stone cry.

With David Thewlis, Simon McBurney (who's getting around a lot these days), Emily Watson and Charlie Cox.

Shot in diffused manner by Benoit Delhomme and featuring a stunning closing montage - in which the film flies backwards - by Jinx Godfrey, who also cut Marsh's Man on Wire and that Red Riding episode.

That great line "I predict that I am wrong" sure sounds like one of Hawkings' own, but I can't corroborate that.

A Farewell to Arms (1932 Frank Borzage)

Eighteen times Oscar nominee Charles Lang's only win is moodily lit and boasts some good tracking shots, and an interesting subjective camera when Gary Cooper is in hospital being visited by Helen Hayes. Has some of that great montage work of war scenes, possibly Vorkapich? (though not credited as such).

Adolphe Menjou and especially Mary Philips are the meddling 'friends'. Still effective story, briskly told (especially compared to the two and a half hour 1957 remake).

Life of Pi (2012 Ang Lee)

Last seen two years ago.

Some of it has such a visceral power I found it hard to watch without clasping myself like a little girl.

At other times it's particularly dreamlike.

You can't help feeling sorry for Richard Parker.

The 'real' story is devastating.

Black Narcissus (1947 Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell)

For a long time one of my least favourite P&Ps, but its beauty, atmosphere, mood of hysteria and otherliness and customary wit get you in the end.

I love Alfred Junge's Blue Room and the whole castle; the paintings are stunning (both of the scenery and in the castle); Cardiff's photography gets better and better as the film progresses, becoming quite sensational as the mood darkens. Deborah Kerr and Kathleen Byron are quite magnificent, ably supported by Sabu, David Farrar, Flora Robson, Esmond Knight, Nancy Roberts, Judith Furse and Jean Simmons; with special mention to May Hallatt as the 'dirty old bird' and Eddie Whaley Jr, as the boy, who both bring humour.

In an interview before her death, Kathleen says of the above sequence "I didn't need to do anything - it was all in Jack's photography".

Editor Reginald Mills is the guy who never gets any credit - it's not so much rapid cutting as cutting on sudden movements or gestures of the actors. The suitably evocative score is Brian Easdale's.

In Which We Serve (1942 Noel Coward, David Lean)

As it was VE Day (weekend).

Enormously impressive collaboration, with very familiar dialogue and stiff upper lippery, at times resembles Russian-made propaganda documentary. Coward is in fact like the best headmaster ever.

Uncle Jeff once told me this film was used in officer training in the Royal Navy. And when I was talking about the despicable Nazis machine-gunning a defenceless lifeboat he said "Well we did it too" - a sobering comment indeed.

I love the moment when they've rescued the Army and everyone below deck flinches at the bomb but Johnny Mills. Also the scene where he has to break bad news to Bernard Miles (it's one of Johnny's best films). And the dinner where Celia Johnson talks about her implacable enemy and there's no cut away from her.

Kay Walsh is also in the huge cast and Kathleen Harrison as Johnny's mum is familiar. Plus Joyce Carey and a load of unknowns playing 'Flags', 'Guns', 'Torps' etc (in this respect it's a bit like Gosford Park.)

The structure is also very modern, jumping around in time like it does, and His Cowardship also wrote the (good) music, the big show-off.

Thelma Myers (later Connell) debuts as editor (she was David's assistant on One of Our Aircraft...) and has a notable list.

Shot by Ronnie Neame. The joke about the Daily Express was Anthony Havelock-Allen's.

Birdman (2014 Alejandro González Iñárritu)

This film, on the other hand, seems to have been showered with awards - namely best film, director, camera and script at the Oscars. OK, Emmanuel Lubezki is deserving for his invisible lighting and continuous (looking) takes, but we weren't sure about it. For one thing - like its antecedent Rope - it has the effect of leaving the audience a little cold - the technique is actually distracting. I'm not sure Howard Hawks would have liked it!

Still, well played by Michael Keaton. Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Andrea Riseborough, Merrit Wever and Lindsay Duncan. It's good to see actors who have the balls to appear in something like this.

Has a feeling of Soy Cuba and an echo of Stalker.

I think also that it's further evidence that Iñárritu's best films were with Arriaga, but let's say no more until Viewing #2.

Mr Turner (2014 Mike Leigh & scr)

Well Cannes got it right by awarding Timothy Spall best actor - the film was severely overlooked by the usual Academies. His grunts are tremendously expressive.

Dick Pope's cinematography is tremendous - and not just in the vistas (though in my mind John Alcott in Barry Lyndon has yet to be bettered for his candlelit scenes).

And of course it's marvellously written and acted. Lesley Manville has a terrific Scottish accent, Paul Jesson is his beloved dad, Dorothy Atkinson is the sore-ridden maid; with Ruth Sheen, Martin Savage, Peter Wight and Karl Johnson - and Marion Bailey (Mike Leigh's other half) pretty much steals the film as Turner's landlady / lover.

Pitch Perfect (2012 Jason Moore)

As a film it's quite, quite terrible, with a totally predictable set of characters and story, though somehow it manages to rise above this and be pretty entertaining. No doubt Anna Kendrick has something to do with it.

We're No Angels (1989 Neil Jordan)

Robert de Niro and Sean Penn are both terrific fun as a pair of hapless, gormless criminals mistaken for priests; indeed they seem to be riffing off each other. That's pretty much the whole show, though the 'miracles' (or Miracles, if you want it that way) are entertaining.

Shot by Philippe Rousselot. With Demi Moore, Wallace Shawn, Bruno Kirby.

Good Morning Vietnam (1987 Barry Levinson)

"This is the perfect role for Robin," says producer Mark Johnson, who also takes to the boards in "Good Morning, Vietnam" as Adrian Cronauer's compatriot Sloan. "Nobody else works with the inventiveness, the quickness and the zaniness of Robin Williams. When he sat down in the control booth to do the scenes involving Cronauer's broadcasts, we just let the cameras roll. He managed to create something new for every single take."

http://www.levinson.com/bl/gmvietnam/prod.htm

I particularly liked his news flash - "Ethel Merman being used to block Russian radar".

As a film it's not overall a success, though the character's absorption into Thai, sorry I mean Vietnamese, culture, and the way Forest Whitaker gets him to act for the troops who are stuck with them in traffic, work.

With Bruno Kirby, Robert Wuhl, Tung Thanh Tran, J.T. Walsh, Nobel Willingham.

Five Miles to Midnight (1962 Anatole Litvak)

'That's a good title' I thought initially. But on reflection, it isn't.

Film is not without its moments, such as Anthony Perkins being visited first by a cat (which amusingly then follows him onto a window ledge), the next day by a boy. You think of Maurice Sendak and wonder what bizarre thing will come in the window next.

Also, the overly dramatic music, especially in places where there isn't any drama (like Sophia Loren ascending in a lift) is funny.

Q thinks Perkins shouldn't have taken the part: certainly you think he's a nutter from the word go, and that hangover from Psycho isn't helping any.

It's a bit dull, I'm afraid, right up to the finale where it looks like Sophia's gone nuts and Gig Young's calling the docs on her.

The fact that it's actually filmed in Paris, by Henri Alékan, doesn't save it.

It did, though, make me wonder that if a legally dead man opens a letter addressed to himself, is he breaking the law?

Casablanca (1942 Michael Curtiz)

Ingrid Bergman is sensational, Bogart perhaps doesn't quite deliver in the emotional scenes (though as the urbane café owner he's perfect), and it's maybe Claude Rains' best performance.

Elizabethtown (2005 Cameron Crowe & scr)

Here you go.

"It's not goodbye, it's just goodbye."

The C Word (2015 Tim Kirkby)

Story of Lisa Lynch's bestselling blog and book, acted by Sheridan Smith and Paul Nicholls, adapted by Nicole Taylor.

My favourite moment comes at a wedding, when you expect some approaching guests to come up to Sheridan and say something inappropriate...

The Mind of Mr Soames (1969 Alan Cooke)

Interesting and engaging film, based on a novel by Charles Eric Maine, screenwritten by John Hale and Edward Simpson, about the attempts to educate a 30 year old who's been in a coma his whole life, touches on questions of freedom and choice. Terence Stamp is wonderful as the man-child, Robert Vaughn a sympathetic surgeon, Nigel Davenport a less so one. Donal Donnelly is indeed from The Knack, and despite my allegations that the TV producer's assistant was Judy Parfitt she wasn't: when the real Judy turns up (giving Terence the only kiss he's ever had), she's unmistakable. Christian Roberts, from To Sir With Love, is one of the irresponsible journalists, as is Christopher Timothy.

Shot by Billy Williams.

It's Frankenstein, I realised halfway through, right up to the point where he (almost) hears a violin playing (only in this version the girl screams and pulls the emergency cord).

Primary Colors (1998 Mike Nichols & prod)

Wittily written by Elaine May with a young Adrian Lester winningly holding the film together as principled assistant to presidential candidate John Travolta and wife Emma Thompson. I particularly liked the elliptical way in which the 'family' of staff - also comprising Billy Bob Thornton, Maura Tierney (from ER) and Kathy Bates - grow together. With: Larry Hagman, Rob Reiner and Allison Janney.

Shot by Michael Ballhaus in Panavision.

Political films can be a drag: this one isn't.

Rich and Strange (1931 Alfred Hitchcock)

It's a shame that only one in every two sentences in Canal Plus's release are audible, as the film is lively, enjoyable and extremely well put together, as evidenced in fast - almost Russian - montages, such as Paris scenes. Henry Kendall is the dope of a husband who goes travelling with his wife, the gorgeous Joan Barry, who is possibly the prototype for all of Hitch's blondes. Kendall falls for the far less lovely 'Princess' Betty Amman, she - rather reluctantly - with the much too old Percy Marmont, though the situation improves when the ship sinks and they are picked up by a sinister load of Chinese pirates.

Lots of very interesting visual stuff with leftover title cards (quite amusing) from the silent days.

Joan, the voice of Anny Ondra in Blackmail and also in Rome Express, retired in 1934.

John Cox and Charles Martin shot it, with both Hitch and Alma working on the story.

Crazy Stupid Love (2011 Glen Ficarra and John Requa)

Perfectly well described here.

Not a great title.

Jolene (2008 Dan Ireland)

We got onto this because Ireland made Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont  in which Rupert Friend also appeared, though here Jessica Chastain is the whole show giving a great performance as the Candide-like innocent who has trouble learning life's lessons, always ending up with the wrong man (or woman): namely first husband, damaged Zeb Newman and his randy dad Dermot Mulroney (Theresa Russell is tremendous as usual as the bitchy mother-in-law), prison guard Frances Farmer, mobster Chazz Palminteri and religious nutter Michael Vartan.

Another film which needed a Kenneth More, the story doesn't really include any happy episodes (for balance) and so ultimately is a bit of a downer, though succeeds in showing how a fucked up start in life will hold you back plenty.

I'm pretty sure it's the only time I've seen a couple have sex in a truckful of carrots.

Tomorrow Is Forever (1945, rel. 1946 Irving Pichel)

Orson Welles is fabulous as war damaged imposter sheltering Viennese refugee Natalie Wood, and becoming re-involved with wife Claudette Colbert, her new husband George Brent, and sons.

Good screen play by Lenore Coffee, from Gwen Bristow story, marvellously effective Max Steiner score, Joe Valentine on camera.

An International Picture picture, whoever they are.

The Riot Club (2014 Lone Scherfig)

Well, we weren't expecting how nasty this would turn out to be, though by the first half hour I was already wishing untimely ends on these twats, unfit for the term 'gentlemen'. And that I think was the point of Laura Wade's play (which she adapted), to demonstrate that the elite get away with stuff and the rest of us have to put up with it, but it's a rebarbative work, with the only humanity coming from girlfriend Holliday Grainger and publican Gordon Brown and his daughter Jessica Brown Findlay. The variously indistinguishable oiks include Freddie Fox, Sam Claflin, Max Irons, Sam Reid and Douglas Booth, with Samuel West and Tom Hollander.

There was no one to like, you see, and not much fun. Accordingly it is not a film I will be watching again often.