Distinctive, unusual Finnish drama featuring rapid cutting, moody lighting and weird angles tells of revolutionaries plotting rising against Russian oppressors (set therefore pre-1917). Interesting acting as well, with Tuulikki Paananen as the heroine, Ilmari Mänti as the leader, Santeri Karilo the blackmailing gun runner and Annie Mörk as an amusingly money-grabbing old lady, plus several other intriguing actors as fellow revolutionaries.
Scene with switched coffins, darkness, murder of bad guy, gallows humour, near miss chases, feeling of constant danger, all blend together to impressive effect.
Monday, 31 August 2015
One Day (2011 Lone Scherfig)
Novel and screenplay by David Nicholls, who just adapted Great Expectations and Far From the Madding Crowd. We catch up with the progress of friends every St Swithin's Day (and sometimes fill in the gaps in flashback). It's quite moving. Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, plus Patricia Clarkson, Ken Stott, Rafe Spall, Jodie Whittaker, Tom Mison.
Shot by Benoît Delhomme (The Theory of Everything, Breaking and Entering) in Panavision, edited by Barney Pilling (Grand Budapest Hotel).
Shot by Benoît Delhomme (The Theory of Everything, Breaking and Entering) in Panavision, edited by Barney Pilling (Grand Budapest Hotel).
Sunday, 30 August 2015
La Belle et la Bête (1946 Jean Cocteau & scr)
Utterly wonderful. Arms holding candelabras surely influence on Polanski's Repulsion - scene where Josette Day runs through the hall and up the stairs in slow motion, then seems to float, incredible, as are many other distinctive Cocteau moments. Loved the faces in the decor. And her bedroom, which seems to open out into an enchanted forest. And things smoking, like the Beast, and even the Magnificent horse, at one point? Cocteau's partner Jean Marais really good and oddly touching as the Beast.
Classy collaborators too: Henri Alékan, Georges Auric, René Clement (uncredited co-director).
Nimble, sensuous, dazzling.
Classy collaborators too: Henri Alékan, Georges Auric, René Clement (uncredited co-director).
Nimble, sensuous, dazzling.
Angel (1937 Ernst Lubitsch)
Uh oh. Can't believe I'd already bought this film once. At least realised we'd seen it before immediately. Not as funny as other Lubitsches but double romantic triangle and development of plot as characters do and don't find things out is wonderfully sophisticated (Samuel Raphaelson script, Melchior Lengyel play).
It's amusing to wonder whether Marlene told Charles Lang how she wanted to be lit - on this occasion I somehow doubt it.
It's amusing to wonder whether Marlene told Charles Lang how she wanted to be lit - on this occasion I somehow doubt it.
Woman in Gold (2015 Simon Curtis)
Helen Mirren good as always as Austrian refugee, Ryan Reynolds suitably restrained as her lawyer, Daniel Brühl is Viennese contact. Pleasingly, the Klimts do remain in Vienna.
And I had no idea that gold leaf was used in the portrait.
Based on the real story told by participants Maria Altmann and E Randol Schoenberg.
Inadvertently we can't seem to get away from war films, but this one is sensitively handled in flashback scenes.
And I had no idea that gold leaf was used in the portrait.
Based on the real story told by participants Maria Altmann and E Randol Schoenberg.
Inadvertently we can't seem to get away from war films, but this one is sensitively handled in flashback scenes.
Girls - Series 1 & 2 (2012 - 13 Lena Dunham)
Not at all sure what to make of this at first, finding Dunham and girlfriends Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke and Zosia Mamet and their respective boyfriends somewhat unsympathetic. Then of course we get to find out more about them...
Adam Driver's rebarbative behaviour definitely off-putting, though by the unexpectedly moving series two finale, we of course love him.
Adam Driver's rebarbative behaviour definitely off-putting, though by the unexpectedly moving series two finale, we of course love him.
Saturday, 29 August 2015
Sullivan's Travels (1941 Preston Sturges & scr)
Maybe his best film, thoroughly admired here. Some films you grow up with, some you grow up to (this being one of the latter).
Much quicker paced than the others.
This is the one where the photograph of the late husband keeps changing its expression.
And, Lubitsch gets a name check.
Much quicker paced than the others.
This is the one where the photograph of the late husband keeps changing its expression.
And, Lubitsch gets a name check.
Unbroken (2014 Angelina Jolie)
Jack O'Connell is the unbroken title character in wrong-footed war film which dwells endlessly on torture - the Coen brothers are associated with the script. Much CGI. Acting good: Domhnall Gleeson, Miyavi. That the bastard got away with war crimes and wouldn't face his former captive leaves a bitter taste, though final shots of the real 80 year old Luis Zamperini running at Tokyo Olympics is fine.
P.S. 29/2/16. Seem to have completely missed this was a Roger Deakins film, his 12th Oscar nomination.
P.S. 29/2/16. Seem to have completely missed this was a Roger Deakins film, his 12th Oscar nomination.
Friday, 28 August 2015
The Good Lie (2014 Philippe Falardeau)
Title derived from a classroom assessment of 'Huckleberry Finn' - if an African immigrant can read it, so should I (one day). Thoroughly charming film about - and acted by - Sudanese immigrants (two of which were boy soldiers), doesn't dwell on troublesome background, but opens our eyes to it all the same.. Their attitude - for example about cows, or to a police office - is completely beguiling.
Reece Witherspoon, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal, Corey Stoll (Woody Allen's Hemingway) and Kuoth Wiel. How Margaret Nagel came to write it is described here.
Director, cameraman Ronald Plante and editor Richard Comeau are Canadian.
Reece Witherspoon, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal, Corey Stoll (Woody Allen's Hemingway) and Kuoth Wiel. How Margaret Nagel came to write it is described here.
Director, cameraman Ronald Plante and editor Richard Comeau are Canadian.
Rear Window (1954 AH)
Well, we hadn't watched it since December. Missed the flash at the beginning, despite looking out for it. Same comments as before. The focus pulling is great throughout, almost magic, one of the finest examples of the craft. The background sound is extremely well thought out. There is for example a scene between Stewart and Corey backed by scales being practised - and the moment Stewart's argument is disproved it changes to singing. I wonder if Polanski was influenced by this for Repulsion? Probably.
Half the film is Stewart's reaction shots.
There seemed to me (through a fog of armagnac) that there is a direct correlation between the shot length (distance) and the emotional significance.
Could Cary Grant have played the lead? No. Could anyone else have played it better? It's a fun game, despite being totally pointless. Is it Thelma Ritter's best film? She was six times Oscar-nominated (once for the excellent Pickup on South Street), though not for this. Yes, it probably is.
So, the ending. In the final struggle, the cutaways are all speeded up, which looks quite funny. Why has he done this? I think it's to accelerate the climax, making it seem like a violent rush.
The purest of Hitch's 'pure cinema' and very possibly his best film (it's certainly more fun than Vertigo).
Half the film is Stewart's reaction shots.
There seemed to me (through a fog of armagnac) that there is a direct correlation between the shot length (distance) and the emotional significance.
Could Cary Grant have played the lead? No. Could anyone else have played it better? It's a fun game, despite being totally pointless. Is it Thelma Ritter's best film? She was six times Oscar-nominated (once for the excellent Pickup on South Street), though not for this. Yes, it probably is.
So, the ending. In the final struggle, the cutaways are all speeded up, which looks quite funny. Why has he done this? I think it's to accelerate the climax, making it seem like a violent rush.
The purest of Hitch's 'pure cinema' and very possibly his best film (it's certainly more fun than Vertigo).
Thursday, 27 August 2015
That Uncertain Feeling (1941 Ernst Lubitsch)
Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart and Walter Resich from the play 'Divorçons' by Victorien Sardou and Emile DeNajac, previously filmed by Lubitsch as Kiss Me Again (unfortunately no known prints exist) in 1925, with Marie Prevost, Monte Blue and Clara Bow.
Merle Oberon, Melvyn Douglas, Burgess Meredith, Alan Mowbray, Eve Arden, Harry Davenport, Sig Ruman.
Brilliant Lubitsch touch (on three) when he has to slap his wife. Notice shots of closed doors / action happening off-screen. Inspired use of "Keeks!" Many sour-faced photos of Meredith (one being put out of the bedroom like it's a cat). Douglas / Meredith funny. Witty. Photographed by George Barnes with a lovely rain pattern on a bed. Phooey!
P.s. "Keeks!" has since become a much used general purpose expression in this house.
Merle Oberon, Melvyn Douglas, Burgess Meredith, Alan Mowbray, Eve Arden, Harry Davenport, Sig Ruman.
Brilliant Lubitsch touch (on three) when he has to slap his wife. Notice shots of closed doors / action happening off-screen. Inspired use of "Keeks!" Many sour-faced photos of Meredith (one being put out of the bedroom like it's a cat). Douglas / Meredith funny. Witty. Photographed by George Barnes with a lovely rain pattern on a bed. Phooey!
P.s. "Keeks!" has since become a much used general purpose expression in this house.
Wednesday, 26 August 2015
Rocket Science (2007 Jeffrey Blitz & scr)
Film is half-asleep or I am. Don't understand or like the way high school debates work - speakingreallyquicklydoesn'tgetmessageacross. Kendrick's fluent delivery and somewhat baleful presence probably helped get her Up In The Air though. Korean friend funny. Lacks laughs and insight.
Reece Thompson (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Vincent Piazza (brother), Denis O'Hare (father), Nicholas D'Agosto (ex boyfriend), Margo Martindale, Aaron Yoo (also a cameraman).
Reece Thompson (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Vincent Piazza (brother), Denis O'Hare (father), Nicholas D'Agosto (ex boyfriend), Margo Martindale, Aaron Yoo (also a cameraman).
Tuesday, 25 August 2015
Hangover Square (1945 John Brahm)
The gentle-voiced madman Laird Cregar, Darnell shot by LaShelle, Herrmann score (clearly pre-shadowing Vertigo in a couple of passages) - what more could you want as your late night movie?
Brahm opens in a Hitchcockian manner sweeping his camera up from street into first floor window and a murder, and follows this with all manner of weird angles, distorted lenses, and textures up until fiery finale where Cregar so much wants to hear the end of his concerto he plays himself to a fiery death - in a scene which doesn't look tricked, and therefore must have been quite dangerous.
Barré Lyndon's screenplay (from Patrick Hamilton novel) has a few grim jokes.
Also stars George Sanders, Alan Napier, Faye Marlowe, Glenn Langan, for Fox.
Brahm opens in a Hitchcockian manner sweeping his camera up from street into first floor window and a murder, and follows this with all manner of weird angles, distorted lenses, and textures up until fiery finale where Cregar so much wants to hear the end of his concerto he plays himself to a fiery death - in a scene which doesn't look tricked, and therefore must have been quite dangerous.
Barré Lyndon's screenplay (from Patrick Hamilton novel) has a few grim jokes.
Also stars George Sanders, Alan Napier, Faye Marlowe, Glenn Langan, for Fox.
Another Country (1984 Marek Kanievska)
I haven't seen Julian Mitchell's play but it would seem he's opened it up nicely into real locations populated by the bunch of bastards that are / were Britain's elite. Not Eton - actually shot around Brasenose College and the Bodleian in Oxford, with interiors at Althorp in Northamptonshire, richly caught by Peter Biziou (though my usual complaint of overlit night scenes applies here in spades - the cuddled boat scenes between Rupert Everett and eyelash-flutterer Cary Elwes look positively floodlit - hardly a discreet setting for a late night tryst).
Somewhat confusingly, both Everett and Firth (and Daniel Day-Lewis) played the lead figure Bennett (clearly modelled on Guy Burgess) in the original play, with Branagh as Judd. The latter was unavailable (Henry V) when filming began, thus Firth got the job. It's a shame really that neither of them subsequently had much of a career.
Guy Henry as the head boy is familiar from all sorts of things such as the Harry Potters, and Adrian Ross Magenty is rather good as the junior 'fag' whose face captures the fear and reverence whilst the camera shows their slave-like service.
Just like in If.... the masters rarely get a look-in - the 'Gods' and fancy-waistcoated Prefects are in charge.
It was rather good.
Somewhat confusingly, both Everett and Firth (and Daniel Day-Lewis) played the lead figure Bennett (clearly modelled on Guy Burgess) in the original play, with Branagh as Judd. The latter was unavailable (Henry V) when filming began, thus Firth got the job. It's a shame really that neither of them subsequently had much of a career.
Guy Henry as the head boy is familiar from all sorts of things such as the Harry Potters, and Adrian Ross Magenty is rather good as the junior 'fag' whose face captures the fear and reverence whilst the camera shows their slave-like service.
Just like in If.... the masters rarely get a look-in - the 'Gods' and fancy-waistcoated Prefects are in charge.
It was rather good.
The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956 Richard Quine)
Warmly acted (by Judy Holliday and Paul Douglas) expansion of play (George Kaufman and Howard Teichmann) by Abe Burrows, with amusing scene-setting voiceover by George Burns. Able support from 'rotten to the core' Board led by John Williams and Fred Clark, with Ray Collins and Arthur O'Connell.
Peanut butter and smoked salmon sandwiches.... hmm.
Amusing pot-shots at corporate mis-governance are still just as relevant today. Shot by Charles Lang for Columbia (of course). Most enjoyable, with memorable Technicolor ending.
Peanut butter and smoked salmon sandwiches.... hmm.
Amusing pot-shots at corporate mis-governance are still just as relevant today. Shot by Charles Lang for Columbia (of course). Most enjoyable, with memorable Technicolor ending.
Monday, 24 August 2015
City of Fear (1958, rel 59 Irving Lerner)
Lots of great location photography in cars (Burnett Guffey) - one of the edits is almost Godard Bout de Souffle. Somewhat daft story of criminal on the run who has stolen a cannister of Cobalt-60, a highly radioactive substance which you get knocking around in prisons - it can endanger the whole city and starts leaking into the bodies of those near it.
Vince Edwards is the culprit, Patricia Blair his girlfriend.
Has an extraordinarily silly finale in which the police, knowing of the whereabouts of the man and the chemical, announce their arrival with sirens, thus giving him the chance to run again.
Vince Edwards is the culprit, Patricia Blair his girlfriend.
Has an extraordinarily silly finale in which the police, knowing of the whereabouts of the man and the chemical, announce their arrival with sirens, thus giving him the chance to run again.
The Ghosts of Berkeley Square (1947 Vernon Sewell)
Droll comedy (S.J.Simon and Caryl Barnes' novel 'No Nightingales' adapted by James Seymour) with neat visual and sound effects traces 'life' of ghosts over two centuries. Opens with a stunningly shot and lit track back over a dinner table with 100 or so diners, courtesy of Ernest Palmer (the British one). The complicated arranging then of the Great Exposition performers is another great one. Good music by Hans May.
Felix Aylmer and Robert Morley make winning ghosts. With Ernest Thesiger, Wilfred Hyde White.
A proper breakfast in 1900 is beer and chops, apparently.
Good.
Felix Aylmer and Robert Morley make winning ghosts. With Ernest Thesiger, Wilfred Hyde White.
A proper breakfast in 1900 is beer and chops, apparently.
Good.
Sunday, 23 August 2015
Due Date (2010 Todd Phillips)
Robert Downey Jr and Zach Galifianakis essentially reprise Planes Trains and Automobiles, and whilst fun is also at times just plain wrong - there's nothing funny about Downey's dad leaving him, being beaten up by a disabled war veteran or wanking next to your co-pilot.
There'a a good car crash, and ending song (Ice Cube, 'Check Yo Self').
Shot by Laurence Sher.
There'a a good car crash, and ending song (Ice Cube, 'Check Yo Self').
Shot by Laurence Sher.
Starred Up (2013 David Mackenzie)
It might have been helpful for the title to have been explained (moved to adult prison).
Searing drama in which you keep forgetting to breathe, so unpredictable is the behaviour of Eric Love and his actor Jack O'Connell. It's almost a scary question to ask where he draws his anger from to give a performance of this intensity. Was originally drawn to the film by this quote from Mark Kermode in 'The Guardian': "you half expect him to jump out of the screen and remonstrate forcibly with the audience" and indeed it is an amazing performance, ably supported by Rupert Friend, Ben Mendelsohn, David Ajala, Anthony Welsh, the fabulously named Gershwyn Eustache Jr etc. (Scenes in group do occasionally seem like an actors' workshop).
Jonathan Asser - debut screenwriter - was a prison therapist himself, told here, and the film has things to say. The ending is moving.
So, the best way to watch it is after you've been lulled by the St Trinian's films.
Searing drama in which you keep forgetting to breathe, so unpredictable is the behaviour of Eric Love and his actor Jack O'Connell. It's almost a scary question to ask where he draws his anger from to give a performance of this intensity. Was originally drawn to the film by this quote from Mark Kermode in 'The Guardian': "you half expect him to jump out of the screen and remonstrate forcibly with the audience" and indeed it is an amazing performance, ably supported by Rupert Friend, Ben Mendelsohn, David Ajala, Anthony Welsh, the fabulously named Gershwyn Eustache Jr etc. (Scenes in group do occasionally seem like an actors' workshop).
Jonathan Asser - debut screenwriter - was a prison therapist himself, told here, and the film has things to say. The ending is moving.
So, the best way to watch it is after you've been lulled by the St Trinian's films.
St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold (2009 Oliver Parker, Barnaby Thompson)
Despite some amusingness involving pirates and David Tennant, film is quite a lot worse then the original, with a downright silly plot. Jodie Whittaker has been reduced to a nonsense character. Some of the cooler girls (Cole, Faith) have been lost; even Gemma Arterton only has a (good) cameo. Scene where choirboys start rapping is just embarrassing. Still, at least we still have Firth, Riley etc newly joined by Zawe Ashton (Fresh Meat), an uncomfortable Sara Harding and Montserrat Lombard.
Also is nicely lit by David Higgs (Indian Summers) and edited by Emma Hickox.
Also is nicely lit by David Higgs (Indian Summers) and edited by Emma Hickox.
St Trinian's (2007 Barnaby Thompson and Oliver Parker)
Fab cast includes Rupert Everett (who's strangely moving), Colin Firth (it took me until the second film to realise that Firth's retort of 'Another Country' is doubly funny as they were both in it), Talulah Riley, Gemma Arterton, Jodie Whittaker, Juno Temple, Tamsin Egerton, Lily Cole, Paloma Faith, Celia Imrie, Fenella Woolgar, Toby Jones, Anna Chancellor, Lucy Punch, Stephen Fry and Mischa Barton.
Quite amusingly written (there are four credited writers, but in the 'special thanks' I noticed a certain Jennifer Saunders, who thus may also have contributed). Even references Ronald Searle's original drawings in its animated section. Reasonably progressive (more girl power than exploitation).
Quite amusingly written (there are four credited writers, but in the 'special thanks' I noticed a certain Jennifer Saunders, who thus may also have contributed). Even references Ronald Searle's original drawings in its animated section. Reasonably progressive (more girl power than exploitation).
Saturday, 22 August 2015
Un Flic (1972 Jean-Pierre Melville & scr)
Melville's final film, and the poster which is on the wall of the cops' office in Engrenages, another supercool, sparse, tightly-wound thriller, opening with a sensational bank robbery in the seaside rain (Saint-Jean-de-Monts). Walter Wottitz (also L'Armée des Ombres) strips the colour out of everything. There's a striking silent heist scene, slightly undermined by almost Wes Anderson-ish model work involving train and helicopter.
Alain Delon is the morally ambiguous Paris Flic; equally ambivalent is the murderer-lover Catherine Deneuve; not sure what Richard Crenna is doing in a French movie but he's absolutely right, as is fellow American Michael Conrad - inspired casting.
Melville clearly placed great importance on the sound as it's one of his opening credits (Jean Nény); equally important is Patricia Nény's editing of Melville's exceptional mise-en-scene e.g. opening robbery, train stakeout and moment of the three at the bar. Minimalist music also by Michel Colombier is another contributor to a moody, twilit Paris.
Alain Delon is the morally ambiguous Paris Flic; equally ambivalent is the murderer-lover Catherine Deneuve; not sure what Richard Crenna is doing in a French movie but he's absolutely right, as is fellow American Michael Conrad - inspired casting.
Melville clearly placed great importance on the sound as it's one of his opening credits (Jean Nény); equally important is Patricia Nény's editing of Melville's exceptional mise-en-scene e.g. opening robbery, train stakeout and moment of the three at the bar. Minimalist music also by Michel Colombier is another contributor to a moody, twilit Paris.
Friday, 21 August 2015
I Am Sam (2001 Jessie Nelson & co-scr, co-prod)
Perfectly good, decent, sweet film seemed to get unfairly critically hammered. To us, Penn is a great actor and this is one of his best performances (he was Oscar-nominated). Dakota Fanning, with those big baby blues, is perfect. And Michelle Pfeiffer also makes the eyes water in scene in which she confesses how less than perfect she is - oddly, though, her own eyes don't water.
With Dianne Weist, Richard Schiff again, Loretta Devine, Laura Dern. Brad Silverman and Joseph Rosenberg actually had mental difficulties, Stanley de Santis (the paranoid one) and Doug Hutchison (movie fan) are just good actors.
Suffers from the annoying device of having the camera constantly zoom in and out a bit, which is very distracting, and some overly blue shooting (I think Elliot Davis is trying to colour code scenes to the emotion but doesn't pull it off). Benefits though from a soundtrack comprising (not all familiar) Beatles covers and good incidental music from John Powell (who now seems to specialise in animated films). Nimbly edited by Richard Chew (Star Wars, Cuckoo's Nest, The Conversation, The New World).
We can only assume that the seven year old Dakota in her film debut got on famously with Sean Penn.
With Dianne Weist, Richard Schiff again, Loretta Devine, Laura Dern. Brad Silverman and Joseph Rosenberg actually had mental difficulties, Stanley de Santis (the paranoid one) and Doug Hutchison (movie fan) are just good actors.
Suffers from the annoying device of having the camera constantly zoom in and out a bit, which is very distracting, and some overly blue shooting (I think Elliot Davis is trying to colour code scenes to the emotion but doesn't pull it off). Benefits though from a soundtrack comprising (not all familiar) Beatles covers and good incidental music from John Powell (who now seems to specialise in animated films). Nimbly edited by Richard Chew (Star Wars, Cuckoo's Nest, The Conversation, The New World).
We can only assume that the seven year old Dakota in her film debut got on famously with Sean Penn.
Thursday, 20 August 2015
The Out-of-Towners (1970 Arthur Hiller)
It looks to me like Neil Simon's having a dig at his New York - pollution, muggers, overworked police, strikes... as well as the airline industry (anyone who's ever been rerouted on a plane will wince with empathy). Poor old Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis get unlucky at every turn and ultimately turn their back on the city. It's not and never has been actually that funny, and reminded me more than once of Scorsese's After Hours.
Man and Boy (2002 Simon Curtis)
BBC TV film of Tony Parsons' novel, adapted by Simon Hood (Becoming Jane and the new A Royal Night Out) - Curtis directed My Week with Marilyn. Unfortunately Ioan Gruffudd is not up to the task of the main role and his narration sounds flat. Natasha Little is the wife and Dominic Howell their son. With Ian McShane, Shelley Conn (somewhat typecast as an adulteress), Elizabeth Mitchell, Jack Shepherd and Pauline Collins.
Contraband (1940 Michael Powell)
Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson reunited again in another double-twist Pressburger screenplay. Plays very much like a Hitchcock with ingenious use of the London blackout, many great touches such as warehouse of plaster heads, Danish restaurant, the 'brothers Grimm' (one of whom is Peter Bull), dream sequence. Bernard Miles is uncredited again in amusing cameo, Hay Petrie performs the ship's first officer and his brother the restaurateur with aplomb. It's also the screen debut of Eric and Spangle. With Joss Ambler, Raymond Lovell, Esmond Knight. "I particularly remember... Denis Arundell as a creepy-crawly, inaudible and almost invisible German agent who acted everybody off the screen." (Powell. Have to look out for him next time - the character's called Lieman.)
The rather common sounding variety manager Mr Pigeon comes out with a Latin saying during his interview, and thinking back it's a telltale sign he's not who he says he is.
Freddie Young is lighting, he and Alfred Junge having fun with a lift; John Seabourne editing, music by Richard Addinsell and John Greenwood.
The rather common sounding variety manager Mr Pigeon comes out with a Latin saying during his interview, and thinking back it's a telltale sign he's not who he says he is.
Freddie Young is lighting, he and Alfred Junge having fun with a lift; John Seabourne editing, music by Richard Addinsell and John Greenwood.
Phffft! (1954 Mark Robson)
Judy Holliday and Jack Lemmon reunited immediately after It Should Happen to You, with Jack Carson and - despite top billing - Kim Novak for about 12 minutes (doing a sort of Marilyn). George Axelrod wrote it, and the title sound is that of the marriage being over, not the bed, which comes out of the wall with a trademark Axelrod "Shhhht"!
Not that funny, although it has its moments e.g. creep who acts on her TV show, French teacher trying to get her to say "eu", Judy growling at Jack.
Charles Lang shot it and it has the familiar Columbia credits. Like It Should Happen... features lots of on location NY footage.
Judy died most unfairly at age 43 (1965), from breast cancer.
Not that funny, although it has its moments e.g. creep who acts on her TV show, French teacher trying to get her to say "eu", Judy growling at Jack.
Charles Lang shot it and it has the familiar Columbia credits. Like It Should Happen... features lots of on location NY footage.
Judy died most unfairly at age 43 (1965), from breast cancer.
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 Alfred Hitchcock)
Bouncy beginning on Swiss slopes as parents Leslie Banks and Edna Best lose daughter Nova Pilbeam to foreign agents led by Peter Lorre.
Much wit and style in evidence: humour of early scenes; early POV stuff; dentist (and unfortunate sidekick); collecting guns on church plate; messy, casualty-ridden siege; early use of recurrent vertigo theme; crackshot wife; silent Albert Hall scene.
With Frank Vosper, Hugh Wakefield, Pierre Fresnay.
Written by Charles Bennett & D.B. Wyndham-Lewis, sets by Alfred Junge, shot by Curt Courant (father of Willy Kurant, shot 133 films from 1917).
Last seen almost exactly four years ago, 17 August 2011.
Much wit and style in evidence: humour of early scenes; early POV stuff; dentist (and unfortunate sidekick); collecting guns on church plate; messy, casualty-ridden siege; early use of recurrent vertigo theme; crackshot wife; silent Albert Hall scene.
With Frank Vosper, Hugh Wakefield, Pierre Fresnay.
Written by Charles Bennett & D.B. Wyndham-Lewis, sets by Alfred Junge, shot by Curt Courant (father of Willy Kurant, shot 133 films from 1917).
Last seen almost exactly four years ago, 17 August 2011.
Wednesday, 19 August 2015
Made in Dagenham (2010 Nigel Cole)
Cole also made Calendar Girls. Written by William Ivory (Burton & Taylor).
Sally Hawkins is fabulous (love the way her first public speeches are shakily voiced), so is Rosamund Pike, and so is Miranda Richardson as Barbara Castle.
Rest of cast not bad either - Daniel Mays, Bob Hoskins, Geraldine James, Andrea Riseborough, Jaime Winston, Richard Schiff, Rupert Graves (who I feel sorry for - his roles are almost always unsympathetic), Kenneth Cranham (trade unionist) and Roger Lloyd Pack (did wonder whether the latter's sub-plot was strictly necessary to the proceedings). Minor carp - they should have shown the archive footage in 4x3 rather than crop it so severely.
Ph. John de Borman, editor Michael Parker (Run Fat Boy Run, Wild Target, Calendar Girls, East is East).
Sally Hawkins is fabulous (love the way her first public speeches are shakily voiced), so is Rosamund Pike, and so is Miranda Richardson as Barbara Castle.
Rest of cast not bad either - Daniel Mays, Bob Hoskins, Geraldine James, Andrea Riseborough, Jaime Winston, Richard Schiff, Rupert Graves (who I feel sorry for - his roles are almost always unsympathetic), Kenneth Cranham (trade unionist) and Roger Lloyd Pack (did wonder whether the latter's sub-plot was strictly necessary to the proceedings). Minor carp - they should have shown the archive footage in 4x3 rather than crop it so severely.
Ph. John de Borman, editor Michael Parker (Run Fat Boy Run, Wild Target, Calendar Girls, East is East).
The Spy in Black (1939 Michael Powell)
His first collaboration with Pressburger is a lively spy thriller set in WW1 Western Isles Scotland. We empathise for the German spy Conrad Veidt, partly because in an amusing opening, his return to shore leave is troubled by a lack of any decent food or rest - scenes shared with Marius Goring and an uncredited Bernard Miles - and because he's a man of principle (though he's not above forcing himself later on Valerie Hobson). There's then a terrific scene in which schoolteacher June Duprez is kidnapped and murdered by an old lady and a chauffeuse (Helen Haye and Mary Morris).
Strong vein of humour continues through this wily, nimble, exciting film, such as the German sailors who have been captured because they blew up their submarine on one of their own mines, then are shelled by their own side.
With Sebastian Shaw, Athole Stewart as one vicar, Cyril Raymond (Brief Encounter) as the other, Esma Cannon, Agnes Lauchlan, Hay Petrie.
Characters are all really well rounded too, such as conniving Scottish couple, ship's captain and engineer, U-Boat commanders.
Music by Miklos Rosza, camera Bernard Browne, editor Hugh Stewart.
We watched a brand new episode of New Tricks afterwards and it seemed positively slow in comparison.
Strong vein of humour continues through this wily, nimble, exciting film, such as the German sailors who have been captured because they blew up their submarine on one of their own mines, then are shelled by their own side.
With Sebastian Shaw, Athole Stewart as one vicar, Cyril Raymond (Brief Encounter) as the other, Esma Cannon, Agnes Lauchlan, Hay Petrie.
Characters are all really well rounded too, such as conniving Scottish couple, ship's captain and engineer, U-Boat commanders.
Music by Miklos Rosza, camera Bernard Browne, editor Hugh Stewart.
We watched a brand new episode of New Tricks afterwards and it seemed positively slow in comparison.
Tuesday, 18 August 2015
Ruby Sparks (2012 Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris)
Zoe Kazan has written a challenging screen play which looks at how male writers write female characters, then goes bigger - how men think about and treat women. It's quite serious, and made us both think of Woody Allen (who would have handled it very differently) in its attempt to pull off a complete fantasy (as such the ending is somewhat contrived - there as a crowdpleaser). Last seen a couple of years ago.
Paul Dano commendably plays it completely straight - his face is often really funny. This is a good actor. With Chris Messina, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Elliott Gould and Steve Coogan.
Paul Dano commendably plays it completely straight - his face is often really funny. This is a good actor. With Chris Messina, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Elliott Gould and Steve Coogan.
Cassandra's Dream (2007 Woody Allen & scr)
In Greek myth, Cassandra had the gift of prophesy but was cursed by Apollo that no one would believe her. How that fits in, I'm not quite sure.
Not having seen or read a Greek tragedy (actually referenced in garden party scene - maybe a clue) I have no idea if this is like one, but it feels like it is in inexorable series of events which cause Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor to become murderers for uncle Tom Wilkinson (all fabulous, with Farrell perhaps the stand-out). You wouldn't know it was a Woody Allen, neither does it bear the marks of a Hitch or Chabrol - it's its own thing, with Philip Glass's composed score lending it a very different feel (and not a gag - though the ironies are fantastic, in particular the one you realise after the film's ended - that Wilkinson has got away with everything).
Tense. References to Bonnie and Clyde don't help!
With the fabulous Sally Hawkins, who Woody loved enough to cast her as a lead in Blue Jasmine, and Hayley Atwell. Some of the dialogue scenes between supporting characters like John Benfield and Clare Higgins feel a little stilted, like Woody was too keen to rush off and watch the Knicks. Also with Phil Davis, Jim Carter, Ashley Madekwe.
Funny to think of the London crew being run by septuagenarians Allen and Vilmos Zsigmond, who catch bits of the City in unfamiliar ways.
It's quite a mystery that Match Point did so well, and this didn't. It's a film that "for a number of reasons went directly into the Witness Protection Program" laughs Woody in the Eric Lax book.
Not having seen or read a Greek tragedy (actually referenced in garden party scene - maybe a clue) I have no idea if this is like one, but it feels like it is in inexorable series of events which cause Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor to become murderers for uncle Tom Wilkinson (all fabulous, with Farrell perhaps the stand-out). You wouldn't know it was a Woody Allen, neither does it bear the marks of a Hitch or Chabrol - it's its own thing, with Philip Glass's composed score lending it a very different feel (and not a gag - though the ironies are fantastic, in particular the one you realise after the film's ended - that Wilkinson has got away with everything).
Tense. References to Bonnie and Clyde don't help!
With the fabulous Sally Hawkins, who Woody loved enough to cast her as a lead in Blue Jasmine, and Hayley Atwell. Some of the dialogue scenes between supporting characters like John Benfield and Clare Higgins feel a little stilted, like Woody was too keen to rush off and watch the Knicks. Also with Phil Davis, Jim Carter, Ashley Madekwe.
Funny to think of the London crew being run by septuagenarians Allen and Vilmos Zsigmond, who catch bits of the City in unfamiliar ways.
It's quite a mystery that Match Point did so well, and this didn't. It's a film that "for a number of reasons went directly into the Witness Protection Program" laughs Woody in the Eric Lax book.
It Should happen To You (1954 George Cukor)
Simple filming, Judy Holliday caught in long takes - she's great but Jack Lemmon is very confident against her in his debut and it's no wonder he was an instant hit. Final film Jack's made to say goodbye is rather sweet. Peter Lawford is the love rival.
Shot by the great Charles Lang (not one of his 18 Oscar nominations) for Columbia. The Oscar nod in fact went to the stylish costume designs by Jean Louis. Written by Garson Kanin
Shot by the great Charles Lang (not one of his 18 Oscar nominations) for Columbia. The Oscar nod in fact went to the stylish costume designs by Jean Louis. Written by Garson Kanin
The 39 Steps (1935 Alfred Hitchcock)
Thoroughly enjoyable and sharp as a tack, film was interrupted by my several cries of "Brilliant!" like some over-enthused opera fan shouting "Brava!" throughout a Puccini. Based loosely on a John Buchan novel, written by Charles Bennett and Ian Hay, features characters who variously help (milkman, crofter's wife Peggy Ashcroft, couple who run hotel) and thwart (Madeline Carroll, John Laurie's crofter) our wrong man on the run.
The crofter's wife is lying saying her husband won't beat her - that's exactly what he does (offscreen).
Powell would have seen this before Edge of the World (just a thought), also cut by this editor D.N. Twist.
Much use of cocky audiences; film is packed full of highlights such as travelling underwear salesman, sound of sheep emanating through moors chase scene, lovely moment where wife of villain comes and says nothing about the gun he's holding, handcuffs (and in the final shot).
Photographed by Bernard Knowles.
The crofter's wife is lying saying her husband won't beat her - that's exactly what he does (offscreen).
Powell would have seen this before Edge of the World (just a thought), also cut by this editor D.N. Twist.
Much use of cocky audiences; film is packed full of highlights such as travelling underwear salesman, sound of sheep emanating through moors chase scene, lovely moment where wife of villain comes and says nothing about the gun he's holding, handcuffs (and in the final shot).
Photographed by Bernard Knowles.
Monday, 17 August 2015
Magic in the Moonlight (2014 Woody Allen & scr)
One of the director's lighter pieces, involving magic, but also faith and the afterlife. Fabulous he has employed a trio of British in cast comprising Colin Firth, Simon McBurney and Eileen Atkins opposite Emma Stone (Woody's new leading lady), Marcia Gay Harden, Erica Leerhsen, Jeremy Shamos (psychiatrist) and Hamish Linklater (ukulele-playing romeo).
Loved scene in which Firth and Atkins talk of his feelings for Stone, and clever twist in plot, and ending. All richly shot, in widescreen, against Côte d'Azur backgrounds by Darius Khondji.
Typically eclectic soundtrack includes Beethoven's 9th and Cole Porter 'You Do Something To Me'.
Does Soon-Yi read his scripts, we were wondering? She's a most important person, like Audrey Wilder. 'Give it a funny ending, Woody!' ...Maybe not.
Here's the couple on holiday in Orvieto this year. He was directing Puccini's 'Gianni Schicchi' in Madrid, with sets designed by Santo Loquasto.
Loved scene in which Firth and Atkins talk of his feelings for Stone, and clever twist in plot, and ending. All richly shot, in widescreen, against Côte d'Azur backgrounds by Darius Khondji.
Typically eclectic soundtrack includes Beethoven's 9th and Cole Porter 'You Do Something To Me'.
Does Soon-Yi read his scripts, we were wondering? She's a most important person, like Audrey Wilder. 'Give it a funny ending, Woody!' ...Maybe not.
 |
| Cassandra's Dream screening, Venice Film Festival 2007 |
" she’s never taken me seriously really. And to this day – you know I just left her now – she sees me as a complainer, a hypochondriac, a kind of idiot savant. She thinks that I’m very good at what I do and absolutely terrible at everything else. And she’s probably not far off. You know, it’s that kind of relationship. She’s not someone who sycophantically supports. You know, people thought when I first married her that, because of this big age difference, I’d married someone who’d idolise me. But that wasn’t the case at all. She hadn’t seen 90% of my movies, and to this day she hasn’t seen 60% of them. She’s just not that interested in them. And she’s a stern critic of my work. She unashamedly hates my clarinet playing. Can’t bear it. Can’t bear my practising. Never comes to a concert. Thinks it’s torture.." Guardian interview 2011.So, after Joaquin Phoenix in Irrational Man, there's a 30s mob film, shot by Vittorio Storaro, and a six-part TV series for Amazon (writing completed).
Here's the couple on holiday in Orvieto this year. He was directing Puccini's 'Gianni Schicchi' in Madrid, with sets designed by Santo Loquasto.
Captain Newman MD (1963 David Miller)
An interesting film as much for what it isn't as what it is. Not a romantic affair between Gregory Peckery and Angie Dickinson, not a story about how cheeky orderly Tony Curtis become a great psychotherapist. More a drama than a comedy (in fact you could excise all the Curtis story without hurting the film, helping it by reducing its overlength) focusing on the trauma of damaged servicemen, including Eddie Albert, Robert Duvall and Bobby Darin (Oscar nominated, I guess as much for painful sodium pentathol scene as anything). Duvall's wife is Bethal Leslie and the camp CO is James Gregory.
Shot by Russell Metty (thus giving it a superior patina) at Universal, when there still was one.
Shot by Russell Metty (thus giving it a superior patina) at Universal, when there still was one.
Sunday, 16 August 2015
Blonde Venus (1932 Joseph von Sternberg)
A real treat; not what I was expecting at all. Marlene is loving mother of Dickie Moore, married to Herbert Marshall who needs money for medical treatment necessitating her return to night club performances (memorably, as a gorilla), encountering a young Cary Grant (the earliest we've seen him - he was in Madame Butterfly the same year).
Bert Glennon is on camera but it's clear that the amazing visuals (light, textures) emanate from JVS as they're the same whoever's shooting it.
Written by Jules Furthman (The Big Sleep, To Have and Have Not, Rio Bravo) and SK Lauren.
Bizarrely (or not), Dietrich always looked the same age, however young or old she was. In fact she here was 31, for the record.
Bert Glennon is on camera but it's clear that the amazing visuals (light, textures) emanate from JVS as they're the same whoever's shooting it.
Written by Jules Furthman (The Big Sleep, To Have and Have Not, Rio Bravo) and SK Lauren.
Bizarrely (or not), Dietrich always looked the same age, however young or old she was. In fact she here was 31, for the record.
Robot and Frank (2012 Jake Schreier)
We were a bit disappointed by somewhat washy film which fails to ignite, written by Christopher D Ward. Frank Langella, James Marsden, Liv Tyler, Peter Sarsgaard (voice). Shame, as the title is great!
Broken (2012 Rufus Norris)
Norris's feature debut is nicely cinematic. From a novel by Daniel Clay, written by Mark O'Rowe.
Eloise Laurence is Skunk, Tim Roth, Cillian Murphy, Robert Emms, Rory Kinnear, Faye Daveney, Bill Milner (Son of Rambow), Denis Lawson.
Could have been very depressing but is nicely energetic and funny. Love the weird music that accompanies scenes at car dump, the shit-throwing kids, "what a weird kid you are", scene where she is laughing for real when brother (Milner) attaches clothes pegs. Car dropping out of sky. Skunk's boyfriend George Sargeant (how difficult was that to find?) crashing his bike into flowers.
Shot by Rob Hardy.
Eloise Laurence is Skunk, Tim Roth, Cillian Murphy, Robert Emms, Rory Kinnear, Faye Daveney, Bill Milner (Son of Rambow), Denis Lawson.
Could have been very depressing but is nicely energetic and funny. Love the weird music that accompanies scenes at car dump, the shit-throwing kids, "what a weird kid you are", scene where she is laughing for real when brother (Milner) attaches clothes pegs. Car dropping out of sky. Skunk's boyfriend George Sargeant (how difficult was that to find?) crashing his bike into flowers.
Shot by Rob Hardy.
Melinda and Melinda (2004 Woody Allen & scr)
As though to reflect the parallel stories that are about to take place, the credits music switches from classical to trad jazz - and continues to do so throughout, making great use of Bartok at one point. You have to pay attention as stories ingeniously intersect.
In Melinda #1: Radha Mitchell (a neurotic nightmare), Chloe Sevigny, Johnny Lee Miller, Chiwetel Ejiofor.
In Miranda #2: Radha Mitchell, Will Ferrell (doing Woody), Amanda Peet, David Aaron Baker, Josh Brolin, Steve Carell.
Typically eclectic music choice. I love Woody's plotting - nothing works out as you expect. Woody doesn't write parts for milkmen.
Loved Ferell's delight at finding Peet in bed with another man! Lovely ending ("I found some of your robe in my door".)
Framed by the discussion of tragedy vs. comedy by Wallace Shawn, Neil Pepe, Stephanie Roth Haberle and Larry Pine.
Shot by Vilmos Zsigmond.
Fabulous.
In Melinda #1: Radha Mitchell (a neurotic nightmare), Chloe Sevigny, Johnny Lee Miller, Chiwetel Ejiofor.
In Miranda #2: Radha Mitchell, Will Ferrell (doing Woody), Amanda Peet, David Aaron Baker, Josh Brolin, Steve Carell.
Typically eclectic music choice. I love Woody's plotting - nothing works out as you expect. Woody doesn't write parts for milkmen.
Loved Ferell's delight at finding Peet in bed with another man! Lovely ending ("I found some of your robe in my door".)
Framed by the discussion of tragedy vs. comedy by Wallace Shawn, Neil Pepe, Stephanie Roth Haberle and Larry Pine.
Shot by Vilmos Zsigmond.
Fabulous.
Spring in a Small Town / 小城之春 (1948 Mu Fei)
Chaoming Cui. Wei Li, Yu Shi, Wei Wei.
Because I heard some enthusiast talking about it twice on two different radio programmes on the same day, then waited ages for the BFI to release it. Became buried after the Communist revolution (1949) but has since resurfaced and is rated as being one of the best Chinese films made... in which case I think I'll stay away from China for a bit.
It's good though, but no Brief Encounter. Liked the ending - silhouettes on the City wall.
Because I heard some enthusiast talking about it twice on two different radio programmes on the same day, then waited ages for the BFI to release it. Became buried after the Communist revolution (1949) but has since resurfaced and is rated as being one of the best Chinese films made... in which case I think I'll stay away from China for a bit.
It's good though, but no Brief Encounter. Liked the ending - silhouettes on the City wall.
Saturday, 15 August 2015
To Be Or Not To Be (1942 Ernst Lubitsch)
Delicious, anti-Nazi comedy (never have 'Heil Hitlers' been so funny) - had to follow PB with Lubitsch really. Jack Benny is so funny, especially in 'To be or not to be' sequences. Episode with he, Sig Ruman and beards is priceless. Fantastic cast comprises Carole Lombard, Felix Bressart, Robert Stack, Lionel Atwill and Stanley Ridges (the real Prof. Siletsky).
From a story by Melchior Lengyel (also Ninotchka), written by Edwin Justus Mayer, photographed by Rudolph Maté, edited by the legendary Dorothy Spencer.
From a story by Melchior Lengyel (also Ninotchka), written by Edwin Justus Mayer, photographed by Rudolph Maté, edited by the legendary Dorothy Spencer.
Cake (2014 Daniel Barnz)
From funny Jen to serious Jen - addicted to painkillers and scarred and smashed to pieces, film doesn't dawdle in misery and is at times quite funny. She likes the gritty parts. Benefits enormously also from performance by Adriana Barazza (who was Oscar-nominated for Babel) as the maid.
We got another reference to Saint Jude (the last one was in Man on Fire).
With Felicity Huffman, Sam Worthington, Anna Kendrick, Lucy Punch, William H Macy. Written by Patrick Tobin (whose only other credit is HIV drama No Easy Way).
We got another reference to Saint Jude (the last one was in Man on Fire).
With Felicity Huffman, Sam Worthington, Anna Kendrick, Lucy Punch, William H Macy. Written by Patrick Tobin (whose only other credit is HIV drama No Easy Way).
She's Funny That Way (2014 Peter Bogdanovich)
Immediately felt it was the kind of film we really need, an old-fashioned comedy that only someone like Peter could bring off; interestingly, written when he and Louise Stratten were falling out of love; one of those very rare films which you want to watch again while it's still on. Made with the support of Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach.
A fabulous cast comprises PB alumni like Cybill Shepherd (hilariously loud), George Morfogen and Austin Pendleton (great to see him again) plus newcomers Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Rhys Ifans, Debi Mazar, Lucy Punch, Ileana Douglas, Will Forte, Kathryn Hahn and Richard Lewis (all great). But the show is stolen by a fantastic Imogen Poots as the heroine - her speech about Breakfast at Tiffany's and miracles made me want to cry.
Very simply made (and, it seems, quickly and efficiently shot), the film is every bit as much a pleasure to watch as it must have been to make. Loved the 'squirrel to the nuts' moments (not realising the Lubitsch reference), Wilson's predilection for helping hookers, taxi driver who deserts vehicle, bearded Morfogen in fake moustache, Aniston's forthright therapist, small dog chasing big dog, etc. etc.
Shot by Yaron Orbach. Edited by Nick Moore (Richard Curtis films) and Pax Wassermann (who's married to Peter's daughter Sashy. And her sister Antonia was co-exec producer.)
Mixed reviews. Robbie Collin, The Daily Telegraph ("cracking performances and great fun"), the Evening Standard ("an absolute riot"), Derek Malcolm ("good script, lively playing") and the New York Times got it. Variety, The Guardian, Empire, and The Independent didn't. Leading us to deduce that half the film critics in the world don't know what they're talking about.
A joyous thing that so cheered up the house even the pigeons were cooing in delight. My only criticism is that Peter, like Douglas Sirk, sometimes picks titles that aren't catchy or easy to remember (like this one).
A fabulous cast comprises PB alumni like Cybill Shepherd (hilariously loud), George Morfogen and Austin Pendleton (great to see him again) plus newcomers Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Rhys Ifans, Debi Mazar, Lucy Punch, Ileana Douglas, Will Forte, Kathryn Hahn and Richard Lewis (all great). But the show is stolen by a fantastic Imogen Poots as the heroine - her speech about Breakfast at Tiffany's and miracles made me want to cry.
Very simply made (and, it seems, quickly and efficiently shot), the film is every bit as much a pleasure to watch as it must have been to make. Loved the 'squirrel to the nuts' moments (not realising the Lubitsch reference), Wilson's predilection for helping hookers, taxi driver who deserts vehicle, bearded Morfogen in fake moustache, Aniston's forthright therapist, small dog chasing big dog, etc. etc.
Shot by Yaron Orbach. Edited by Nick Moore (Richard Curtis films) and Pax Wassermann (who's married to Peter's daughter Sashy. And her sister Antonia was co-exec producer.)
Mixed reviews. Robbie Collin, The Daily Telegraph ("cracking performances and great fun"), the Evening Standard ("an absolute riot"), Derek Malcolm ("good script, lively playing") and the New York Times got it. Variety, The Guardian, Empire, and The Independent didn't. Leading us to deduce that half the film critics in the world don't know what they're talking about.
A joyous thing that so cheered up the house even the pigeons were cooing in delight. My only criticism is that Peter, like Douglas Sirk, sometimes picks titles that aren't catchy or easy to remember (like this one).
Friday, 14 August 2015
The Invention of Lying (2009 Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson & scr)
Learning that Gervais had also written this made it even worse. Dumb premise is not just that no one can lie, but there's also no compassion, fun, tact, sensitivity or intelligence in this projected universe that might as well be modern USA - or is that a bit unfair? Film seems to be aimed at the 5 - 13 age group.
In 2010 I was in a more gullible mood, stating "Quite a neat idea proves difficult to pull off, though suggestion that the afterlife is The Big Lie is a good one." Clearly, I had no critical head on that day, Sunday 21 February (though I had preceded this by The Conformist in the morning, which perhaps absorbed all of my critical faculties.)
Anyway, it's pretty awful and Gervais is not a great leading man. Sorry. With Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Tina Fey, Rob Lowe, Jeffrey Tambor (boss). Shot by Tim Suhrstedt in Panavision.
In 2010 I was in a more gullible mood, stating "Quite a neat idea proves difficult to pull off, though suggestion that the afterlife is The Big Lie is a good one." Clearly, I had no critical head on that day, Sunday 21 February (though I had preceded this by The Conformist in the morning, which perhaps absorbed all of my critical faculties.)
Anyway, it's pretty awful and Gervais is not a great leading man. Sorry. With Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Tina Fey, Rob Lowe, Jeffrey Tambor (boss). Shot by Tim Suhrstedt in Panavision.
Dial M for Murder (1954 Alfred Hitchcock)
Hitch's most static film - or is it? For the main part shot from low down, lower than Ozu. Then has great scenes - long explanation of planned crime - all from way up high. Mr Scorsese is a fan of these different positions, best exemplified in the scene in which Grace Kelly sets herself up and both her and the reverse shot of John Williams and Ray Milland are shot straight on.
Frederick Knott's ingenious play has been adapted by the author. Milland is funny when he's being unsympathetic - when Kelly says she's been attacked by a strange man his initial question (hopefully) is "Did he get away?"
Typical of Hitchcock the athlete to be dabbling in 3D - end effect of this though is there are too many obtrusive lamps.
Loved the trial scene - shot completely abstractly against coloured backgrounds.
Shot by Robert Burks (is the terrible back projection some complication over 3D?) with score by Dmitri Tiomkin. Robert Cummings is the crime writer who slowly pieces it together. Is it John Williams' best film?
Frederick Knott's ingenious play has been adapted by the author. Milland is funny when he's being unsympathetic - when Kelly says she's been attacked by a strange man his initial question (hopefully) is "Did he get away?"
Typical of Hitchcock the athlete to be dabbling in 3D - end effect of this though is there are too many obtrusive lamps.
Loved the trial scene - shot completely abstractly against coloured backgrounds.
...this is one of the pictures I see over and over again...Basically it's a dialogue picture, but the cutting, the rhythm, and the direction of the players are so polished that one listens to each sentence religiously. It isn't all that easy to command the audience's undivided attention for a continuous dialogue. I suspect that here again the real achievement is that something very difficult has been carried out in a way that makes it seem very easy. (Truffaut: Hitchcock.)I think this is partly down to the easy-seeming, casual way in which Milland acts out his lines.
Shot by Robert Burks (is the terrible back projection some complication over 3D?) with score by Dmitri Tiomkin. Robert Cummings is the crime writer who slowly pieces it together. Is it John Williams' best film?
Thursday, 13 August 2015
Nightfall (1956 rel '57 Jacques Tourneur)
Not a noir - as the 'Columbia Film Noir' box set would have us believe - in fact there's a good argument that the genre was already over with The Big Heat in 1953.
More a straight thriller involving stolen loot left Fargo-like in the snows of Wyoming, and an innocent man and girl (Brain Keith and Anne Bancroft) pursued by psychotic killers (Aldo Ray and Rudy Bond), with sympathetic insurance man James Gregory hot in pursuit.
Interesting that its flashbacks are introduced by a straight cut rather than the sort of optical effect that old Hollywood was used to. Otherwise doesn't have the distinctive touches that Tourneur brought to the Lewton-RKO horrors.
Exciting climax with snow plough.
David Goodis (Dark Passage, Tirez sur le Pianiste) novel adapted by Stirling Silliphant. Shot by Burnett Guffey and scored by Charles Durning.
More a straight thriller involving stolen loot left Fargo-like in the snows of Wyoming, and an innocent man and girl (Brain Keith and Anne Bancroft) pursued by psychotic killers (Aldo Ray and Rudy Bond), with sympathetic insurance man James Gregory hot in pursuit.
Interesting that its flashbacks are introduced by a straight cut rather than the sort of optical effect that old Hollywood was used to. Otherwise doesn't have the distinctive touches that Tourneur brought to the Lewton-RKO horrors.
Exciting climax with snow plough.
David Goodis (Dark Passage, Tirez sur le Pianiste) novel adapted by Stirling Silliphant. Shot by Burnett Guffey and scored by Charles Durning.
Man on Fire (2004 Tony Scott)
Never been a big fan of either Scott. Distractingly directed and overlong film fails to engage the emotions, perhaps for this reason, though works best in relationship between burned out bodyguard Denzel Washington and ward Dakota Fanning. Otherwise lots of torture and killing ensue, with the dumb Americans deciding that dismemberment, bomb up the arse etc are fine for kids through its R rating. Not great screenplay either, though disappearance of Walken's character may have been down to post production mucking about. (I was hoping he'd suddenly appear at the end to save the day.)
Some of the in-out flicky camera (Paul Cameron), editing (Christian Wagner) and post processing made me laugh out loud.
With Radha Mitchell, Giancarlo Giannini, Marc Anthony, Rachel Ticotin and Mickey Rourke.
Remake of 1987 film based on novel by A.J. Quinnell, allegedly suggested by video store employee Quentin Tarantino.
Was wondering how it was received in Mexico...
Some of the in-out flicky camera (Paul Cameron), editing (Christian Wagner) and post processing made me laugh out loud.
With Radha Mitchell, Giancarlo Giannini, Marc Anthony, Rachel Ticotin and Mickey Rourke.
Remake of 1987 film based on novel by A.J. Quinnell, allegedly suggested by video store employee Quentin Tarantino.
Was wondering how it was received in Mexico...
Wednesday, 12 August 2015
The Brothers Rico (1957 Phil Karlson)
Most interesting film which with its specifically Italian / family / Mafia milieu kept making me think of Scorsese. It's also low on action, concentrating on the inexorable descent made by its hero Richard Conte (who's great) into tragedy, and thus really has an ending too happy for its material (it should have finished with the couple being watched by a sinister figure, showing that the 'Organisation' won't leave him behind....)
From a Georges Simenon story, screenwritten by Lewis Meltzer and Ben Perry. With Dianne Foster, James Darren (younger Rico), Kathryn Grant, Larry Gates, Argentina Brunetti (mama, has a small part in It's a Wonderful Life).
Shot by Burnett Guffey.
From a Georges Simenon story, screenwritten by Lewis Meltzer and Ben Perry. With Dianne Foster, James Darren (younger Rico), Kathryn Grant, Larry Gates, Argentina Brunetti (mama, has a small part in It's a Wonderful Life).
Shot by Burnett Guffey.
Letters to Juliet (2010 Gary Winick)
Wet and floppy film set in touristy northern Italy (not in itself a bad thing), where everyone fortunately speaks English - unlike our male protagonist Christopher Egan (a Home and Away alumni, not that that in itself isn't necessarily a badge of dishonour), who has an accent all his own.
That Oliver Platt had his name removed from the project perhaps is down to Egan sinking it, though he must have read the script...
Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, Gael Garcia Bernal, Luisa Ranieri (Mrs Luca Zingaretti), Milena Vukotic (the sex mad letter-answerer, a Buñuel regular and - I thought I recognised her name from somewhere - the other night's Arabella), Fabio Testi ('Count' Lorenzo) and Franco Nero (the real Lorenzo).
That Oliver Platt had his name removed from the project perhaps is down to Egan sinking it, though he must have read the script...
Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, Gael Garcia Bernal, Luisa Ranieri (Mrs Luca Zingaretti), Milena Vukotic (the sex mad letter-answerer, a Buñuel regular and - I thought I recognised her name from somewhere - the other night's Arabella), Fabio Testi ('Count' Lorenzo) and Franco Nero (the real Lorenzo).
Tuesday, 11 August 2015
Pushover (1954 Richard Quine)
Quine had made several features before he was introduced to Kim Novak, here in her debut (and very creditable it is too - Phffft was the same year). Made the same year as Rear Window this film also has fun with spying through windows, as Fred MacMurray and Philip Carey stake out Novak's apartment (though the latter evolves feelings for neighbour Dorothy Written on the Wind Malone) for arrival of bank robber and the inevitable dough. Perhaps an inspiration for the Dreyfuss film Stakeout. E.G. Marshall is their boss.
Neat opening with credits taking place over wordless bank heist. Screenplay by Roy Huggins from stories by Thomas Walsh and Bill Ballinger. Film is tight and springy.
Noticed plug for Columbia's It Should Happen to You outside cinema (Holliday / Lemmon).
Didn't know Lester White (camera) or Arthur Morton (score).
Neat opening with credits taking place over wordless bank heist. Screenplay by Roy Huggins from stories by Thomas Walsh and Bill Ballinger. Film is tight and springy.
Noticed plug for Columbia's It Should Happen to You outside cinema (Holliday / Lemmon).
Didn't know Lester White (camera) or Arthur Morton (score).
Barnacle Bill (1957 Charles Frend)
Purely because we couldn't find Man in the White Suit this unseen number presented itself and was the sort of funny Ealing film we needed, though it was a surprise to see an MGM logo at the beginning of it (the studios had by then been sold to the BBC). TEB Clarke's screenplay opens with the nautical history of seasick sailor's family, including two great gags - "the family has always moved in nautical circles" and a man being boiled by natives in a cauldron which is impossibly small (a neat trick shot).
Lacks the bite of Ealing's best films and is somewhat capsized by a particularly silly ending, but fun nonetheless. Loved the wonky house set. Crap title is what probably put us off watching it so long.
Photography by Douglas Slocombe, music John Addison.
Lacks the bite of Ealing's best films and is somewhat capsized by a particularly silly ending, but fun nonetheless. Loved the wonky house set. Crap title is what probably put us off watching it so long.
Photography by Douglas Slocombe, music John Addison.
Second Coming (2014 Debbie Tucker Green & scr)
SECOND COMING is not a bad film. It lets us make up our minds about uncommunicative but loving mother Nadine Marshall, who is suffering from depression (and hallucination) perhaps because of her four miscarriages. Story and detail emerge slowly, and there's a painful long scene where the camera stays on their son Kai Francis Lewis whilst mother and father Idris Elba argue. Also, her sister is horrible.
But painful is a key word here - it's not enjoyable and a bit dull. (Would have been funny if it had been written by someone called Charlie Chuckles.) Well acted, though 25% of the dialogue is inaudible due to mumbling (as opposed to sound recording), which I think is inexcusable and ultimately down to Green's direction - so marks off for that.
But painful is a key word here - it's not enjoyable and a bit dull. (Would have been funny if it had been written by someone called Charlie Chuckles.) Well acted, though 25% of the dialogue is inaudible due to mumbling (as opposed to sound recording), which I think is inexcusable and ultimately down to Green's direction - so marks off for that.
Monday, 10 August 2015
Human Desire (1954 Fritz Lang)
From Zola 'La Bête Humaine', by way of Renoir, though this has a dramatically different outcome.
Force of big trains, railways, momentum, well caught. Nasty.
Loved Peter B asking Lang why in the climactic scene where he's supposed to kill Crawford the camera is so high up. 'So you can see everything.'
Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame (always great), Broderick Crawford (always menacing).
Shot by Burnett Guffey and though it seems wrong for a film of this era it actually does seem to be in 1.85:1.
The ending of unpunished crimes seems shocking and against the code?
Force of big trains, railways, momentum, well caught. Nasty.
Loved Peter B asking Lang why in the climactic scene where he's supposed to kill Crawford the camera is so high up. 'So you can see everything.'
Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame (always great), Broderick Crawford (always menacing).
Shot by Burnett Guffey and though it seems wrong for a film of this era it actually does seem to be in 1.85:1.
The ending of unpunished crimes seems shocking and against the code?
The Maggie (1954 Alexander Mackendrick & story)
Wry, unsentimental story - 'the puffer is on the subway'. It's another William Rose screenplay! Gets about two lines in Perry's book.
Paul Douglas (Executive Suite, We're Not Married, A Letter to Three Wives) thaws after tangling with rapscallion Scottish cargo operators Alexander Mackenzie, Tommy Kearins ('the wee boy', who Q immediately recognises has the most sense of all of them), James Copeland, Abe Barker.
Shot on nice Western Isles locations by Gordon Dines, score by John Addison.
Paul Douglas (Executive Suite, We're Not Married, A Letter to Three Wives) thaws after tangling with rapscallion Scottish cargo operators Alexander Mackenzie, Tommy Kearins ('the wee boy', who Q immediately recognises has the most sense of all of them), James Copeland, Abe Barker.
Shot on nice Western Isles locations by Gordon Dines, score by John Addison.
Un Giorno Perfetto / A Perfect Day (2008 Ferzan Ozpetek & co-scr)
Isabellea Ferrari (mother; la Grande Bellezza), Valerio Mastandrea (ex), Nicole Murgia (daughter), Gabriele Paolino (son), Valerio Binasco (politician) Nicole Grimaudo (the new wife), Federico Constantini (troubled stepson), Monica Guerritore (the teacher, Tell No One), Angela Finocchiaro (medic, Benvenuti al Sud/Nord, My Brother is an Only Child), Stefania Sandrelli (grandmother, Divorzio all'Italiana).
Mainly unhappy characters lives intersect one 'perfect' day - heavy, but rich.
Liked the subtleties: why he has a gas tank in the back, that the tarot customer's husband is almost certainly gay, that we don't know what the teacher was told on the phone, the politician's daughter laughing at him while he cries, that the daughter may be OK.
Q had the plot well before me. Nicely shot by Fabio Zamarion in Panavision, though sadly our Vita release is not anamorphic and you can't zoom in without losing the subtitles.
Mainly unhappy characters lives intersect one 'perfect' day - heavy, but rich.
Liked the subtleties: why he has a gas tank in the back, that the tarot customer's husband is almost certainly gay, that we don't know what the teacher was told on the phone, the politician's daughter laughing at him while he cries, that the daughter may be OK.
Q had the plot well before me. Nicely shot by Fabio Zamarion in Panavision, though sadly our Vita release is not anamorphic and you can't zoom in without losing the subtitles.
Sunday, 9 August 2015
AMOLAD (1945 P&P)
"Shall we watch The Birds?" I queried.
"The Birds or Psycho?" Q retorted.
So we watched this.
If I had a criticism it would be that the heavenly trial goes on a bit.
"The Birds or Psycho?" Q retorted.
So we watched this.
If I had a criticism it would be that the heavenly trial goes on a bit.
Kotch (1971 Jack Lemmon)
Well reviewed here. The imaginative use of sound in the first 30 minutes sadly disappears.
Deborah Winters is the girl and Ralph Winters the editor (no relation).
Deborah Winters is the girl and Ralph Winters the editor (no relation).
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963 Stanley Kramer)
Considering that it's written by William Rose, of The Ladykillers and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?, it isn't that funny, though film does revel in destruction. I think without a few sherberts in you it would be hard going. And what's wrong with 'It's a Mad World'?
Spencer Tracy provides the film's best look (turning slowly to Buddy Hackett at unearthing scene), and Terry-Thomas the best lines (his rant about the state of America).
The fortune hunters are Milton Berle and Dorothy Provine, Sid Caesar, Edie Adams and Ethel Merman (as the worst mother-in-law in the world), Mickey Rooney, Hackett and Jonathan Winters, who are joined by Terry-Thomas, Phil Silvers, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson and Peter Falk (cab drivers).
And guest stars include William Demarest, Edward Everett Horton, Joe E Brown, Andy Devine, Norman Fell, Buster Keaton, Zasu Pitts, Jimmy Durante and Carl Reiner.
Great stunts.
Filmed by Ernest Laszlo (and. no doubt, a few other people). Weirdly, because it has so many people in it, they're almost always shot face on and there's very little of the standard shot-reverse shot stuff you see, giving the film quite a flat look.
Spencer Tracy provides the film's best look (turning slowly to Buddy Hackett at unearthing scene), and Terry-Thomas the best lines (his rant about the state of America).
The fortune hunters are Milton Berle and Dorothy Provine, Sid Caesar, Edie Adams and Ethel Merman (as the worst mother-in-law in the world), Mickey Rooney, Hackett and Jonathan Winters, who are joined by Terry-Thomas, Phil Silvers, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson and Peter Falk (cab drivers).
And guest stars include William Demarest, Edward Everett Horton, Joe E Brown, Andy Devine, Norman Fell, Buster Keaton, Zasu Pitts, Jimmy Durante and Carl Reiner.
Great stunts.
Filmed by Ernest Laszlo (and. no doubt, a few other people). Weirdly, because it has so many people in it, they're almost always shot face on and there's very little of the standard shot-reverse shot stuff you see, giving the film quite a flat look.
Opening Night (1977 John Cassavetes)
After 40 minutes, decided I wasn't in the mood for long film about actress, despite the clear talent of those involved.
Saturday, 8 August 2015
Hustle (1975 Robert Aldrich)
Deneuve leads us to seventies noir, shot in shadows by Joseph Biroc. Burt Reynolds was not the best actor but holds it together as detective in love with hooker, investigating death of young girl (who it turns out was no saint). Ben Johnson and Eileen Brennan, reteamed from Last Picture Show, are her parents, Paul Winfield the fellow cop. With Eddie Albert, Ernest Borgnine, Catherine Bach.
Rather successful. Written by Steve (Save the Tiger) Shagan.
Rather successful. Written by Steve (Save the Tiger) Shagan.
The April Fools (1969 Stuart Rosenberg)
Feeling in a seventies mood we then opted for this unfamiliar work, last seen a year ago.
Not much to add - Deneuve is just great, she has a sort of opaque quality (you never know what she's thinking) - no wonder I bought a boxed set of her films a year ago (none of which we have yet watched). Also I lit up every time Myrna Loy was on screen (she was still acting in the early eighties).
There's a good tension in the ending.
Not much to add - Deneuve is just great, she has a sort of opaque quality (you never know what she's thinking) - no wonder I bought a boxed set of her films a year ago (none of which we have yet watched). Also I lit up every time Myrna Loy was on screen (she was still acting in the early eighties).
There's a good tension in the ending.
California Suite (1978 Herbert Ross)
Would the behaviour of competitive doctors Bill Cosby (now looking seriously like a sex criminal) and Richard Pryor be as annoying as I remembered it? No, as it turns out, though film has some quite serious episodes, particularly the bitchy and brittle Jane Fonda who's battling over her daughter's custody with ex Alan Alda.
Maggie Smith and bi husband Michael Caine are both equally good (Maggie won Oscar but Caine wasn't even nominated), Walter Matthau as reliable as ever as a man who wakes up to find a naked Denise Galik in his bed (arranged by brother Herb Edelman) - will Elaine May forgive him?
There are of course some great funny one-liners but it has a gravity that underlines the comedy. More bitter than sweet, in fact.
Maggie Smith and bi husband Michael Caine are both equally good (Maggie won Oscar but Caine wasn't even nominated), Walter Matthau as reliable as ever as a man who wakes up to find a naked Denise Galik in his bed (arranged by brother Herb Edelman) - will Elaine May forgive him?
There are of course some great funny one-liners but it has a gravity that underlines the comedy. More bitter than sweet, in fact.
Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970 Frank Perry & prod)
Written by Frank's wife Eleanor (from Sue Kaufman's novel), obscure film has to be purchased as a VHS transfer. Richard Benjamin is horribly convincing as a controlling husband, Carrie Snodgress also good as lacking-in-confidence housewife and begins affair with young Frank Langella (who turns out to be another arsehole - though he does at least warn her). Her children are horrible and they have adopted Father's habit of using the 'bloody' adjective. Also, doesn't Langella say 'cunt' at the opening party scene? Scandal!
And ordering Lambrusco with lamb ('grey, the American way'): I ask you.
Funnily enough we ended up drinking a Romanée Sant-Vivant ourselves.
The film isn't that funny but seduction scene was convincingly sexy.
And ordering Lambrusco with lamb ('grey, the American way'): I ask you.
Funnily enough we ended up drinking a Romanée Sant-Vivant ourselves.
The film isn't that funny but seduction scene was convincingly sexy.
Friday, 7 August 2015
A New Leaf (1970 Elaine May & scr)
Even in its abridged form (described here), still very successful and funny with bloody marvellous performances from Walter Matthau and Elaine May. She acted also in Small Time Crooks (2000) and California Suite (1978) and also wrote:
(From our May 2015 retrospective)
Ishtar (1987, also directed)
Such Good Friends (1971)
Primary Colors (1998)
And:
Mikey and Nicky (1976 - Peter Falk and John Cassavetes gangster film, serious, also directed)
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
The Birdcage (1996 - adapted the French original)
(From our May 2015 retrospective)
Ishtar (1987, also directed)
Such Good Friends (1971)
Primary Colors (1998)
And:
Mikey and Nicky (1976 - Peter Falk and John Cassavetes gangster film, serious, also directed)
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
The Birdcage (1996 - adapted the French original)
Tuesday, 4 August 2015
Trouble in Paradise (1932 Ernst Lubitsch & prod)
Written by Samson Raphaelson, adapted (by Grover Jones) from play 'The Honest Finder' by Aladar Laszlo. Romantic triangle comprises Herbert Marshall, Miriam Hopkins and Kay Francis.
The Criterion edition is usefully introduced by Peter Bogdanovich, who argues that this film paved the way for the classic romantic comedies of the thirties (It Happened One Night), and that before Lubitsch, Hollywood films lacked sophistication. This one has it in spades making modern movies look terribly old-fashioned and crude, with gags and filming of the subtlest order (the film is about thieves, PB says, yet you don't see one thing being stolen).
Great supporting cast too of Charlie Ruggles, Edward Everett Horton, C Aubrey Smith and Robert Greig. Shot by Victor Milner.
The lines about 'suite 53, 5, 7 & 9' make me think of Billy Wilder particularly.
The Criterion edition is usefully introduced by Peter Bogdanovich, who argues that this film paved the way for the classic romantic comedies of the thirties (It Happened One Night), and that before Lubitsch, Hollywood films lacked sophistication. This one has it in spades making modern movies look terribly old-fashioned and crude, with gags and filming of the subtlest order (the film is about thieves, PB says, yet you don't see one thing being stolen).
Great supporting cast too of Charlie Ruggles, Edward Everett Horton, C Aubrey Smith and Robert Greig. Shot by Victor Milner.
The lines about 'suite 53, 5, 7 & 9' make me think of Billy Wilder particularly.
What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1965 Blake Edwards, & story)
Last seen October 2012, film is great fun and gets funnier as it proceeds. Edwards was a good director, packing frames with exuberant action (it's in Panavision) and using great visual gags such as a tank which suddenly disappears beneath the earth, and the way James Coburn quickly hides drunken Dick Shawn's bottle in a chest only to find someone else is hiding in it.
Presumably in this Spanish release we are losing the English subtitles which must have been present originally over Italian and German passages.
Filmed on a reasonably authentic (well, half of it is) set in Lake Sherwood California. Shot by Philip Lathrop, editor Ralph E. Winters (many Edwards films plus Avanti, The Front Page, The Thomas Crown Affair and Ben-Hur).
Dick Shawn was in The Producers, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Love at First Bite and lots of TV.
Presumably in this Spanish release we are losing the English subtitles which must have been present originally over Italian and German passages.
Filmed on a reasonably authentic (well, half of it is) set in Lake Sherwood California. Shot by Philip Lathrop, editor Ralph E. Winters (many Edwards films plus Avanti, The Front Page, The Thomas Crown Affair and Ben-Hur).
Dick Shawn was in The Producers, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Love at First Bite and lots of TV.
Monday, 3 August 2015
Return to Sender (2015 Fouad Mikati)
Initially murky film ends up just plain fishy: Hitch could have told the same story in 30 minutes, and it lacks credibility, in fact the ending is almost laughable.
Rosamund Pike is great, Shiloh Fernandez is mis-directed, Nick Nolte is bearded.
Daft title as well. And the device of obscuring the voices in the prison phone scenes is ridiculous and really annoying.
Rosamund Pike is great, Shiloh Fernandez is mis-directed, Nick Nolte is bearded.
Daft title as well. And the device of obscuring the voices in the prison phone scenes is ridiculous and really annoying.
If It's Tuesday, This Must be Belgium (1969 Mel Stuart)
Not the best film in the world, nevertheless sporadically amusing tale of whirlwind coach tour of 9 countries in 18 days during which Ian McShane attempts to woo Suzanne Pleshette. Passengers include Murray Hamilton, Norman Fell, Mildred Natwick and guest stars Robert Vaughan, Joan Collins (in long shot) and Virna Lisi (in two second cameo).
Moments include Sandy Baron escaping from Italian relatives.
Moments include Sandy Baron escaping from Italian relatives.
Sunday, 2 August 2015
Labor Day (2013 Jason Reitman)
What he said last time.
The ending is perhaps a bit too neat and Hollywoody.
But, terrifically well done.
The ending is perhaps a bit too neat and Hollywoody.
But, terrifically well done.
Kiss Me Stupid (1964 Billy Wilder & prod)
Not prime Wilder, somehow, but easily tops most people's films. The notion that the star (Dean Martin) can come in and take a wife and that she is treated purely as a sex object, is rather hard to take, (the objection finally voiced in protest by Ray Walston) though of course the path of Wilder and Diamond's screenplay is not straight and all wrongs are redressed. The source is a 1944 play 'L'Ora della Fantasia' by Anna Bonacci, also filmed as Wife for a Night with Gina Lollabrigida in 1952. The ending is a beaut, the beginning has a great visual joke, and there are some fabulous props such as a bottle of buttermilk in the piano, and a ridiculous chianti bottle. Plus a parrot that is a TV addict.
Ray Walston and Cliff Osmond are the budding playwrights, Mrs Lemmon Felicia Farr is superb as the wife and of course so is Kim Novak as 'Polly the Pistol' - it's her enjoyment at being Mrs Walston for the night that gives the film its heart. And the move in which she avoids having her bum slapped twice is beautifully choreographed.
Music Previn, art direction Trauner, photography La Shelle (Panavision). Funny songs from George and Ira Gershwin too.
Ray Walston and Cliff Osmond are the budding playwrights, Mrs Lemmon Felicia Farr is superb as the wife and of course so is Kim Novak as 'Polly the Pistol' - it's her enjoyment at being Mrs Walston for the night that gives the film its heart. And the move in which she avoids having her bum slapped twice is beautifully choreographed.
Music Previn, art direction Trauner, photography La Shelle (Panavision). Funny songs from George and Ira Gershwin too.
Mary and Max (2009 Adam Elliot & scr, designed)
Unique, dry and funny relationship drama animated in a totally endearing way (I love for example the way people's mouths move when they eat, and the looks of the various bug-eyed animals).
Unlikely friendship evolves over many years between pen pals friendless Mary (Bethany Whitmore growing up into Toni Collette) and friendless and Asberger's Max (Philip Seymour Hoffman), with dry narration by Barry Humphries.
Bottle of tears, five favourite words.
Unlikely friendship evolves over many years between pen pals friendless Mary (Bethany Whitmore growing up into Toni Collette) and friendless and Asberger's Max (Philip Seymour Hoffman), with dry narration by Barry Humphries.
Bottle of tears, five favourite words.
Une Femme est une Femme (1961 Jean-Luc Godard & scr)
Utterly distinctive and playful from the colours of the letters that introduce the participants (surnames only - including Lubitsch!) over what sounds like some on location audio; music and sound which suddenly appear and disappear; naturalistic lighting; in-jokes (references to Bout de Souffle; Jeanne Moreau at bar - "How's Jules et Jim going?"); looks to camera; slapstick editing.
Raoul Coutard is doing something very interesting with lenses. Features Anna Karina, Jean-Claude Brialy and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Absolutely outlandish score by Michel Legrand.
Often funny; very lively.
Shot around Rue du Faubourg St Denis:
http://www.l2tc.com/cherche.php?titre=Une+femme+est+une+femme&exact=oui&annee=1961
Raoul Coutard is doing something very interesting with lenses. Features Anna Karina, Jean-Claude Brialy and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Absolutely outlandish score by Michel Legrand.
Often funny; very lively.
Shot around Rue du Faubourg St Denis:
http://www.l2tc.com/cherche.php?titre=Une+femme+est+une+femme&exact=oui&annee=1961
Saturday, 1 August 2015
Funny People (2009 Judd Apatow & scr)
Can't argue with myself. Supporting characters good (Jason Schwartzman, Jonah Hill, Aubrey Plaza). Not convinced Leslie Mann is that good. Brilliant photography by Janusz Kaminski. Sandler is an acquired taste (haven't acquired it).
I Start Counting (1969 David Greene)
Our second Rare Film, finally an acceptable 14x9 print, from video, courtesy of My Rare Films. Last saw it on TV, aged 13 (6 June 1977).
Intimate portrait of 14 year old schoolgirl Jenny Agutter (actually 16) who has a crush on her adoptive older brother Bryan Marshall, who may be a murderer. Agutter is fantastically believable and natural - she's in every scene. This is the film before Railway Children and Walkabout. From novel by Audrey Erskine-Lindop, adapted by Richard Harris (not that one). Also with Simon Ward.
Shot by Alex Thomson, much in close-up, and filmed at a very familiar block of flats in Bracknell (Point Royal)!
Intimate portrait of 14 year old schoolgirl Jenny Agutter (actually 16) who has a crush on her adoptive older brother Bryan Marshall, who may be a murderer. Agutter is fantastically believable and natural - she's in every scene. This is the film before Railway Children and Walkabout. From novel by Audrey Erskine-Lindop, adapted by Richard Harris (not that one). Also with Simon Ward.
Shot by Alex Thomson, much in close-up, and filmed at a very familiar block of flats in Bracknell (Point Royal)!
Giu La Testa / Duck You Sucker / A Fistful of Dynamite (1971 Sergio Leone)
Restored version, with characteristically memorable Morricone score, and swearing. Music provides wonderfully ironic commentary to the action - Leone and Morricone are utterly inseparable.
Leone really plays us here. It's all very jolly, then unexpectedly Steiger's family is killed and there's Fascist-style executions. It's very much of the time, more overtly political than the other Leones (this written by he and Sergio Donati, and Luciano Vincenzoni).
Steiger is like the Eli Wallach character in TGTBTU, the honest bandit. He's extraordinary. Much close up of the fabulous twinkly eyed James Coburn. Romolo Valli also noteworthy as revolutionary doctor (he was also in The Leopard) and it was shot by Giuseppe Rozzelini in Techniscope. (The second unit photographer is Franco Delli Colli, I guess Tonino's brother.)
The extra story's in the flashbacks, apparently originally cut (great to hear Christopher Frayling about all of this). Many superb touches and scenes of pure cinema.
The 'shom shom shom' and the whole score is of course wonderful as is Leone's style and Nino Baragli's cutting (also Benigni's The Monster, Mediterraneo, Nest of Vipers - Ornella Muti and Senta Berger, Salo, Arabian Nights, My Name is Nobody, A Genius Two Friends and an Idiot, and most of the other Morricones - since 1950. Died 2013 aged 87).
Q loved it as well. Previously 17 June 2012.
Leone really plays us here. It's all very jolly, then unexpectedly Steiger's family is killed and there's Fascist-style executions. It's very much of the time, more overtly political than the other Leones (this written by he and Sergio Donati, and Luciano Vincenzoni).
Steiger is like the Eli Wallach character in TGTBTU, the honest bandit. He's extraordinary. Much close up of the fabulous twinkly eyed James Coburn. Romolo Valli also noteworthy as revolutionary doctor (he was also in The Leopard) and it was shot by Giuseppe Rozzelini in Techniscope. (The second unit photographer is Franco Delli Colli, I guess Tonino's brother.)
The extra story's in the flashbacks, apparently originally cut (great to hear Christopher Frayling about all of this). Many superb touches and scenes of pure cinema.
The 'shom shom shom' and the whole score is of course wonderful as is Leone's style and Nino Baragli's cutting (also Benigni's The Monster, Mediterraneo, Nest of Vipers - Ornella Muti and Senta Berger, Salo, Arabian Nights, My Name is Nobody, A Genius Two Friends and an Idiot, and most of the other Morricones - since 1950. Died 2013 aged 87).
Q loved it as well. Previously 17 June 2012.
Arabella (1967 Mauro Bolognini)
Rare Films Day, beginning with from-video dubbed Italian comedy, somewhat cropped unfortunately.
Minuses: Lack of plot and laughs. Thankless role for James Fox.
Pluses. Virna Lisi in an array of gorgeous 20s costumes. Four Terry-Thomases and a Margaret Rutherford. Giancarlo Giannini pretending to be gay. Funny, bizarre score from Morricone.
Minuses: Lack of plot and laughs. Thankless role for James Fox.
Pluses. Virna Lisi in an array of gorgeous 20s costumes. Four Terry-Thomases and a Margaret Rutherford. Giancarlo Giannini pretending to be gay. Funny, bizarre score from Morricone.