Prime Suspect 2 (1992 John Strickland)

Written by La Plante and Alan Cubitt, who wrote The Boys Are Back and The Fall. This one's about racism, and has a memorable scene (still done in the dry verité style) showing how a string of bad decisions, mistakes and personal feelings cause death of young (black) youth in custody. There are a couple of stand-out performances - his - James Fraser - and that of his sister Ashley James, who's hardly been in anything, but when she completes her long one take to camera confession to Mirren we expected to hear the cheers of all the cast and crew off camera.

Colin Salmon is the new DI who fucks up, Craig Fairbrass is initially hostile but ends up being one of several people who blatantly lie in court to cover up the death - another powerful statement. John Benfield is the frustrated Guv and the rest of the team are intact. Plus we have an early appearance of Nina Sosanya, who since then has been in everything.

Quite interesting watching a 'modern' film in 4x3 - it focuses the attention / action, but feels like it's been framed for 1.66:1 then cropped in camera - not like the old days.

All About Eve (1950 Joseph Mankiewicz & scr)

Enjoyed this more than before, ironic melodrama in  familiar style of writer-director of A Letter To Three Wives (it won best film, screenplay and director Oscars); also seems to go hand-in-hand with Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful. Anne Baxter great as passive-aggressor who is utterly ruthless, Better Davis as fading actress (both nominated), George Sanders in familiarly oily role (won Oscar), Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Gregory Ratoff, Thelma Ritter, Marilyn Monroe, Walter Hampden and Barbara Bates in brilliant conclusion where the new Challenger to the Throne arrives. (Reading up on Bates quickly, she had a tragic life.)

Not especially cinematic, quite talky, but a real drama classic, underscored by Tom's dad Alfred Newman (one of his staggering 44 Oscar nominations) and lit by Milton Krasner (one of his).

Long.

Prime Suspect (1991 Christopher Menaul)

Lynda la Plante's dry, almost documentary-like police procedural from feminist (let's say pro-female) aspect is subtle in the way the team's growing respect for DCI Tennyson (the fabulous Helen Mirren) is not overstated but just emerges from the story. Lots of familiar faces include Tom Bell, Jack Ellis, Craig Fairbrass, Zoe Wanamaker, Mossie Smith (the WPC who helps break the case), Tom Wilkinson, John Bowe (our suspect), Richard Hawley and young Ralph Fiennes.

Distinguished by hardly any music until later in the second half, overlapping conversations, interesting panning.

Shot in Super16, which has a 1.67:1 aspect ratio, but broadcast in 4x3.

Slums of Beverly Hills (1998 Tamara Jenkins & scr)

Her feature debut - apart from this she's only made Savages - feels autobiographical and honest in tone, dealing matter-of-factly with young girl's experiences with sex and family relationships. Not heavy, quite funny. Natasha Lyonne (also in American Pie), Marisa Tomei, David Krumholtz (perhaps familiar from The Good Wife) and Alan Arkin are commendable, and the scene where Arkin is confronted by arsehole brother Carl Reiner is painful.

Shot by Tom Richmond (not of the English Richmond clan).

Only Angels Have Wings (1939 Howard Hawks)

Sometimes you just need Hawks, one of those directors the more you watch, the more you get why they're so good. None of the dames have nicknames in this one.

Nothing to add to this.

A Fantastic Fear of Everything (2012 Crispian Mills & scr, Chris Hopewell)

Yes, that Crispian Mills (son of Hayley and singer of Kula Shaker), his debut, and a quirky one it is too, in a similarly dystopian world to Ayoade's The Double, evoking memories of Psycho, Repulsion, Don't Look Now and After Hours.

Simon Pegg, Alan Drake, Paul Freeman, Amara Karan.

Sinisterly shot by Simon Chaudoir with a neat hedgehog animation from Ashley Clarke and Joe Clarke. 'Chunky' Richmond is the camera operator.

Um.

Man Up (2015 Ben Palmer)

Tess Morris's script has a wonderful focus, so that we're almost living the date of Simon Pegg and Lake Bell (who we assumed was English - she's terrific).

Andrew Dunn pulls off some amazing long tracks using a Steadicam on a crane.

With Ophelia Lovibond, Olivia Williams, Stephen Campbell Moore (who we've just seen in TV's The Go-Between), the unpredictable Rory Kinnear and Ken Stott.

From the extras we surmise it was a most happy set, with mainly TV director Palmer giggling after every take (he made the Inbetweeners movie - the first one, fortunately).

Untitled (2000 Cameron Crowe & scr)

The real Penny Lane is interviewed here.

The reality of the rock and roll scenes bursts off the screen.

Great scene in plane they think's going to crash.

Lovely interplay between Billy Crudup and Frances McDormand.

Connection to The Apartment does not go unnoticed.

Noah Taylor - their manager - was also in Submarine, Terry Chen is the wonderfully-named Ben Fong-Torres.

Early on we see Stolen Kisses being advertised at a cinema, and it's no idle reference as we see from the director's list of must see films.

The Robert Plant line "Does anybody remember laughter?" quoted by one of the band aids is from the 1976 film and so to be picky wouldn't have been known in the early 70s when this film is set. Or maybe that's not true. It's a least 1973 as Dark Side is out...

What We Did On Our Holiday (2014 Andy Tennant, Guy Jenkin & scr)

David Tennant, Rosamund Pike, Billy Connolly, Ben Miller, Amelia Bulmore, Celia Imrie, Annette Crosbie.

Of the DVD extras, the most interesting comment is from Rosamund, who says the kids' acting inspired her to get rid of some of the artifice 'that we're all capable of'. David is beautiful about them, saying that Harriet Turnbull would give as much as she wanted, and who could blame her?, Bobby Smalldridge had great comic timing and a gift for improvisation and  Emilia Jones had wonderful poise and calm.

It's Q's film of the year.

They All Laughed (1981 Peter Bogdanovich & scr)

When you're feeling down, this film has the miraculous power of restoration. Not much to add to this, other than it definitely has the flavour of The Big Sleep.

And absolutely brilliantly directed film, also.

Dorothy Stratten is very funny - for example in the scene in the Algonquin where she sneaks a snack - it's so furtive...

Star of Midnight (1935 Stephen Roberts)

William Powell in familiar role as reluctant, sardonic sleuth, partnered by dogged accomplice Ginger Rogers, J Farrell MacDonald as benign detective with foot trouble. Somewhat set-bound. Fun. From Arthur Somers Roche novel, screenwritten by Howard Green, Anthony Veiller, Edward Kaufman. Music (though there isn't any) by Max Steiner, ph. J Roy Hunt, for RKO.

The Illustrated Mum (2003 Cilla Ware)

Jacqueline Wilson's book adapted by Debbie Isitt is not for kids (well, not young kids, anyway), though viewed through the eyes of young Alice Connor and her sister Holliday Grainger (not her debut - she's been on TV since 1994): bipolar mum Michelle Collins is more of a kid than they are. . Rather searing, really; well acted.

Lady Chatterley's Lover (2015 Jed Mercurio)

Or 'cocks mcboing'. Not bad entry in BBC's classics series has good performances from Holliday Grainger and James Norton; also with Richard Madden and Jodie Comer (Remember Me).

Clearly we watched this before realising it was the work of Line of Duty's writer and thus might need to rewatch, paying more attention....

Bachelor Mother (1939 Garson Kanin)

Kanin has left the characters' reaction shots too long, giving a slightly sludgy feel to fantastic (unbelievable) Hollywood fable in which basic baby practicalities are somewhat ignored, as Ginger Rogers and David Niven spar over identity of baby - whose birthright even then was surely easily proven - whilst kindly grandfather Charles Coburn gets sentimental over his cigar.

Note Rogers usual cameraman Robert de Graesse, Robert Wise an an editor, Roy Webb music. Norman Krasna wrote it. It's quite funny and brisk (when not sludgy).

The Prowler (1951 Joseph Losey)

What's Van Heflin up to? He seems a bit of a nutter. What's Evelyn Keyes up to? She seems somewhat nuts. Is she really married to a radio  broadcaster? And what's the prowler got to do with it?

Robert Thoeren and Hans Wilhelm provided the story which was screenwritten by Dalton Trumbo (then blacklisted, so not credited; also the voice of the DJ) and Hugo Butler.

Independent Horizon production (Sam Spiegel), shot by Arthur C Miller and scored by Lyn Murray, is intriguing and noirish enough to qualify for being one of Eddie Muller's Top 25, who adds this fascinating contextual detail:

Losey's political antagonists saw an insidious anti-American suggestion: pursuit of the perfect middle-class family could lead to derangement... its makers were trying to undermine American values. Screenwriter Hugo Butler and Losey were both named as Communist sympathisers and black-listed. Losey's incrimination oddly paralleled that of the Prowler: his career was derailed by an ass-covering informer who, Losey learned later, once had an affair with his wife...

('Dark City' Titan 1998.)

Memorable ending could be seen as delirious mix of lines, trajectory, angles and points of intersection.

Magnolia (1999 Paul Thomas Anderson)

Well. It has certainly been a long time. Recent interest in PTA pulled me to it. Tom Cruise, almost mad, almost but not quite over the top (like DDL in Blood, which is also on the rewatch list). Great scene in which he's pulled apart by April Grace (also excellent). Great scene after great scene, in fact. The music (Jon Brion) doesn't hardly let up for about two hours, pulls you into the film, which is often jaw-droppingly hypnotic. Marked by many long and complicated camera tracks (Robert Elswit of course) and nifty editing (Dylan Tichenor). You have to pick your moment to take a cake break carefully.

Perhaps the stand-out bits of acting are from Julianne Moore (who's so good e.g. in pharmacy scene you think she's going to emerge off the screen at you) and Jason Robards, who's (almost) last film this was. PTA / Tichenor often don't cut away from performances so that for example we don't see quite as much of Philip Seymour Hoffman as we'd like to (Paul wanted to work with Philip ever since seeing him in Scent of a Woman).

William H Macy, John C Reilly, Melora Walters (the aggressive daughter), Felicity Huffman, Michael Murphy, Luis Guzman, Philip Baker Hall (quiz show presenter). Everyone is so good there doesn't feel like any acting. Songs by Aimee Mann.

Prologue and rain of frogs amazing. Epic film requires much after-discussion. Key to the film is the opening song 'One is the loneliest number' - you yearn for people to connect, and eventually, they do.

McCabe and Mrs Miller (1971 Robert Altman)

Just sensational, film that has a look totally its own, thanks to Vilmos Zsigmond's ground-breaking, BAFTA-nominated photography, achieved (according to Blair Brown) through flashing (exposing the film to light before shooting), fog filters, under-exposure and push-processing (increasing contrast). Phew! What a clever bugger.

No Hollywood lab would flash the film for us. The labs said "Why do that? You're crazy; you're ruining the film." So we found a very small lab in Vancouver that didn't even have 35mm printing machines. But Altman told them they were going to develop the whole film there, 300,000 feet of film, so they invested the money.. and they did a brilliant job.. It took Hollywood another two years to accept the flashing technique.

Vilmos Zsigmond in 'Masters of Light', Dennis Schaefer & Larry Salvato, University of California Press 1984.

Town under construction (in British Columbia) adds tremendously to mood, Altman's trademark 'overheard' conversations, ensemble cast, Lou Lombardo's editing.

Gutsy, grim, lightly humorous, ultimately hard-edged film. (I love that McCabe actually does kill the killer with a derringer, making the 'legend' real.)

Perfect casting with Julie Christie, Warren Beatty, René Auberjonois, Michael Murphy, Shelley Duvall, Keith Carradine, William Devane, Corey Fischer (the reverend), John Schuk, Hugh Millas, Thomas Hill.

Deception (1946 Irving Rapper)

Scored by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (his cello concerto is dark and powerful) and shot by Ernie Haller, Bette Davis is caught between sugar daddy Claude Rains (in one of his best performances) and old lover Paul Henreid, who looks like he's actually playing the cello very convincingly. Some great cutting in orchestra scenes also (Alan Crosland Jr). Plot is very simple. Not one of the very best Warner Brothers films but interesting.

The Place Beyond the Pines (2012 Derek Cianfrance)

Part one is terrific - the chase scene in the woods between bikes is terrifically well shot (as are heist scenes) by Sean Bobbitt, edited by Jim Helton / Ron Patane.

Moves seamlessly into part two via introduction of Bradley Cooper's character.

Film is rather long (part three picks up with their respective sons 15 years later) and perhaps goes a bit flat. Well acted. Emory Cohen and Dane DeHaan are the sons.

Punch-Drunk Love (2002 Paul Thomas Anderson)

What put me off the film for years? Combination of title and Adam Sandler, who is rather good and suited to role of man who has difficulty communicating - perhaps as a result of seven overbearing sisters. Emily Watson is also fabulous as his girl. But what seriously marks this film out is the direction (some really long takes, for example) and Robert Elswit's wonderful camerawork (he has photographed all of Anderson's films) and a joyous riot of a score, by Jon Brion (also Magnolia) which shifts from insistent percussion to diddly and quirky synthesizer notes into harmonium, waltz, Hawaiian slide guitar and funny Nilsson number 'He Needs Me'.

The score itself provides much of the humour, but so do we love Sandler's way of sidling out of a room. Also the way he lies to Watson, then gradually unlies.

So we really need to rewatch There Will Be Blood and appreciate it as humorous, the way that New York audiences have reportedly begun to do.

If I Had a Million (1932 Various)

Wynne Gibson (uncredited) strips off with her million. Charles Laughton - in the recognisably Lubitsch short - is the raspberry blower. WC Fields and Alison Skipworth teach road hogs a lesson. And George Raft is the forger (H. Bruce Humberstone directed) who can't cash the cheque.

Three tough marines (Gary Cooper, Roscoe Karns and Jack Oakie) miss out (one of Joseph Manckiewicz screenplays). Acting honours though go to May Robson as resident at old ladies retirement home (which becomes a members only club!)

Assorted cameramen too, though not any of the well-known Paramount ones.

Well balanced collection is by no means all comic.

Hue and Cry (1946, released 1947 Charles Crichton)

With its gangs of boys fighting criminals, playing out against a post-Blitz bombed-out London, the film may have influenced C. Day Lewis' 'The Otterbury Incident', published the following year (though itself an adaptation of a French screenplay, Nous les gosses (Portrait of Innocence), that was filmed in 1941). What a merry circle... perhaps beginning at 'Emil and the Detectives' (1929). This ingenious tale was written by TEB Clarke.

Hue and Cry is very sprightly, for example in a nimbly executed department store heist full of interesting set-ups and lightning editing (Charles Hasse - also Dead of Night) - and featuring an amusing weighing machine. In its beautiful high contrast camera work (Douglas Slocombe), interesting compositions, run-down cityscape and especially a sewer scene it even slightly anticipates The Third Man. Refreshingly location set and featuring lots of London that has now disappeared, it doesn't pull its punches either, with boys being throttled and pushed about all over the place.

George Auric's music is absolutely wonderful. This guy was amazing. (You just know when you have a Slocombe / Auric combination you're in for a treat.)

Harry Fowler is the intrepid boys' leader, variously aided and abetted by a delightful Alistair Sim, Jack Warden, Alec Finter.

Marple: Murder Is Easy (2009 Hettie Macdonald)

What's pert-bottomed American Margo Stilley's English secret? Benedict Cumberbatch wants to know, aided by the later incarnation of Marple Julia McKenzie. Village should be renamed Misdomer as there are so many murders in it; this episode runs the risk of parodying the whole genre.

I agreed with the complaints about the direction from my former self.

Unable to confirm filming location, though church at least seems to be in Ascott-under Wychwood.

Kiss Me Deadly (1955 Robert Aldrich)

Stunning noir - somebody, I think it was either Scorsese or Mark Cousins, claimed that Noir began with Double Indemnity and ended with this. (It was Scorsese.)

Great opening in which Ralph Meeker barely stops to help damsel in distress - who then is tortured to death, naked... Ernest Laszlo is shooting the night exteriors from the back of the car, giving it a great look.

Meeker as Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer looks positively gleeful when he's sadistically hurting people. (The adaptation is A.I. Bezzerides.)

Aldrich shoots for the acting and uses impressive angles to provide tension - frequently from very high. And that ending - the Pandora's Box, the sound effects, the couple in the sea.. incredible.

An Inspector Calls (2015 Aisling Walsh)

David Thewlis supernaturally 'inspects' family headed by Ken Stott and Miranda Richardson, with Finn Cole, Chloe Pirrie and Kyle Soller, and Sophie Rundle as the young lady. Straight adaptations of stage plays can be uncinematic - this is no exception, though Dominik Scherrer's music does a wonderful job of propelling the scenes forward (this is a model in film scoring). (He is the Swiss-born composer of all the Marples.)

Marple: Sleeping Murder (2006 Edward Hall)

Another novel adapted by Eastenders regular actor Stephen Churchett, featuring Sophia Myles and Aidan McArdle as the fated couple. Subtitled 'Miss Marple's Last Case' it was published posthumously in 1976, though originally written during World War II. And it's certainly a crafty tale.

I would guess that is Sarah Parish singing - she has a nice voice.

Vredens Dag / Day of Wrath (1943 Carl Theodor Dreyer)

Not much evidence of Dreyer's famous white, in moody tale of 'witchcraft' in 1629, still powerful and upsetting. Intense performances from Lisbeth Movin, Sigrid Neiiendam (the horrible mother-in-law), Thorkild Roose (the husband); and Preben Lerdorff Rye (the son).

Very simply told tale takes place mainly in a single house interior.

The way the cross morphs into another symbol right at the end is mysterious. One reviewer claimed it was a symbol of witchcraft, but I found no evidence of that.

The Big Sleep

I know.

But: Bacall singing "Her Tears Flowed Like Wine", Steiner, cheap sets, sexy girls, the Bogart of cool.

Crazy Stupid Love (2011 Glenn Ficarra, John Requa)

Yes, again. Twice in four months, eh?

They wrote/directed I Love You Phillip Morris  (Jim Carey, Ewan MacGregor) and Bad Santa. The writer is Dan Fogelman who's written tons of animated features and The Guilt Trip.

Andrew Dunn's photography (in Panavision) is very classy - it was reminding me of Conrad Hall in the way the backgrounds seem very carefully lit.

This is the film Woody Allen first spotted Emma Stone in. And we agree that Ryan Gosling has star quality.

There's Always Tomorrow (1955, released 1956 Douglas Sirk)

Re-teaming of Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray - they couldn't be a more different couple to that in Double Indemnity - they're lovely, but Fred's family is selfish, grasping and uninterested in him - shots of house through windows and horizontal bars throughout (staircase, in the houses, even candles in one memorable dinner scene) portray prisons, beautifully shot by Russell Metty, who anticipates Conrad Hall by showing a rain pattern on Barbara's face emulating crying. Also I rather like the moment where Fred's talking about his marriage and as he steps out of shot we see a bride and groom toy behind him - such is the subtlety of Sirk - you have to pay attention.

Elegant camera moves rather than cutting. Why are Sirk titles so difficult to remember?

Story by Ursula Parrott, adapted by Bernard Schoenfeld. With Joan Bennett, William Reynolds, Pat Crowley, Gigi Perreau and Jane Darwell as the housekeeper.

The film rates only this from the director, quoted in Jon Halliday's fabulous book:

I can't remember it, but I don't have an entirely bad feeling about it... Both MacMurray and Stanwyck were excellent. But I think there was probably a flaw in the casting of the other woman, and in the writing. And the other thing was that the picture needed colour, which was planned.

Marple: The Sittaford Mystery (2006 Paul Unwin)

Didn't find the direction annoying this time, though the house in question seems to be CGI as it's always shot from the same angle. Uses a charming collection of old wipes, like iris and lap dissolves.That Agatha sure does tell a complicated tale.

Stephen Churchett adapted it. The always reliable music is by Dominik Scherrer, who scored the entire series.

Laurence Fox makes good impression as does Zoe Telford; haven't see James Murray in much else.

Psycho (1960 AH)

Age of Consent (1968 Michael Powell)

James Mason, a fabulously lively Helen Mirren (23), James MacGowran.

The scene-stealing dog is Lonsdale (e.g. when he slips his own lead back on!)

Shot in Queensland, and capturing a sort of magic. Shot by Austrian Hannes Staudinger (who was operator on Paths of Glory).

Based on life of painter Norman Lindsay.

It's still a treat, made with alacrity and finishing on a lovely freeze frame of a foot.

Lassie (2005 Charles Sturridge & scr)

Samantha Morton,  Peter O'Toole, Peter Dinklage, John Lynch (father),

Could write at length about why this isn't a patch on the original.

Hitchcock (2012 Sacha Gervasi)

The one thing the script and Hopkins' performance lack is Hitch's mischievous sense of humour. But I really like the focus on Alma's importance to his career.

Marple: The Moving Finger (2006 Tom Shankland)

Formerly reviewed here.

Of the acting, I find it difficult to take Harry Enfield seriously. But Jessica Stevenson, Frances de la Tour, Sean Pertwee, Kelly Brook, Ken Russell, John Sessions and Emilia Fox fine. Then James D'Arcy pointed us in the direction of Hitchcock. With Talulah Riley and Geraldine McEwan.

This is a most successful episode. Filmed in Chilham, one of the locations of A Canterbury Tale.

Death Proof (2007 Quentin Tarantino & scr)

A B-movie joy, though I notice the superbly funny scratches and jumps disappear in the second half (the real talent cannot remain hidden). In fact it must have been hard for Quent the cinematographer and Sally Menke to create the deliberately fucked up scenes and moments, such as a lap dance which abruptly concludes. It is extremely funny.

As I observed the first time (28/2/09) it is - quite surprisingly - a girls' picture with a most satisfying conclusion. The scenes with the girl on the car bonnet display absolutely amazing stunt work. There's even a reference to CGI in it, which the film clearly avoids. Also, many references to Vanishing Point.

The news that 87 year old Morricone had scored his latest - The Hateful Eight - is truly wonderful.

The girls are Zoe Bell, Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Sydney Poitier (not that one), Tracie Thoms, Rose McGowan, Jordan Ladd and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Kurt Russell is trying to kill them.

Hope Floats (1998 Forest Whitaker)

The 'executive soundtrack producer' credit is pretentious; film is flabby.

My problem with Sandra Bullock is she seems too tightly wound up. And I don't think much of Harry Connick Jr. Luckily Gena Rowlands has enough acting panache to carry any film.

It was shot by Caleb Deschanel and edited by Richard Chew.

How To Make It in America (2010 created by Ian Edelman)

Bryan Greenberg, Victor Rasuk, Lake Bell, Luis Guzman, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Scott Mescudi.

Hustling in NYC, another series backed by Mark Wahlberg is good entertainment.

The Boys are Back (2009 Scott Hicks)

Scr, Allan Cubitt based on the real life memoir of Parliamentary writer Simon Carr.

Clive Owen finds a novel way of rearing young son Nicholas McAnulty, whilst struggling to reconnect with estranged older son George MacKay (who he doesn't hug once).

Set in Southern Australia. With Emma Booth and Laura Fraser. Hicks directed Shine.

Morning Glory (2010 Roger Michell)

Not about erections or LSD; not up to Aline Brosh McKenna's other scripts.

Rachel McAdams is perhaps too nervy and Harrison Ford too one-note but Diane Keaton is good. Also with Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum and John Pankow (TV's Episodes).

It is of course quite predictable, though I was hoping the Ford-Keaton sniping to have become the reason everyone watched the show, and would have been more fun (maybe that was the writer's intention at one point?) Also suffers from too many songs imposed on scenes that don't need to be there, though it's quite stylishly made as you'd expect (shot by Alwin Küchler and edited by Dan Farrell, Nick Moore, Steven Weisberg).

Overall quite enjoyable especially in team scenes.

Criss Cross (1949 Robert Siodmak)

Burt Lancaster, Yvonne de Carlo, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally (detective), Alan Napier (Plan robbery), Tony Curtis (v briefly).  Universal.

Has that noir doomed inexorability and flashback. Only we don't quite see why Burt's mum and cop friend are so against this woman. Nice to see some real LA exteriors.

On first watching this I was expecting some quite different end scenarios. (1) Yvonne has set up the guy who picks him up from hospital (this is one of the film's great scenes as we become convinced he's a good guy - reminds me in fact of the hospital scene in The Godfather) to pretend she's frightened and flee with the money - she then double crosses - actually I'm transcribing this and it now doesn't make any sense. (2) The detective lets Burt get picked up, knowing it will draw out Duryea - now that one does.

Looking at it now of course I had no such fantasies. It's an incredibly bleak ending in which Yvonne is about to leave him anyway (it was all about the money) and the couple are then point blank murdered - and although we feel Duryea is about to be caught, he ends the film alive and well (with a slight limp).

From a Don Tracy novel (about a racetrack robbery) written by Daniel Fuchs. Really interesting line up of supporting cast too.

Interesting band featured - Esy Morales and his Jungle Band (where we spot Curtis) performing 'Jungle Fantasy'. Miklós Rózsa scored (though there's not much music), Franz Planer shot it.

No. 2 in 'Dark City' author Freddie Muller's Top 25 Noirs.

American Madness (1932 Frank Capra)

Rather enjoyed this tough early Capra more than the overly-sentimental stuff.

Walter Huston great as bank president. With Pat O'Brien, Kay Johnson, Constance Cummings, Gavin Gordon.

Loved the touch that the phone operator has caused the panic in the first place - written by Robert Riskin.

Very stylishly shot by Joseph Walker on Stephen Goosson's intricate sets.

The Indian Runner (1991 Sean Penn & scr)

I wasn't quite sure how the Indian Runner works its way into the story, but Penn's debut is remarkably assured in script and direction, particularly for the performances given. Viggo Mortensen and David Morse are both fab as the brothers; in support is Valeria Golino, Patricia Arquette, Charles Bronson, Dennis Hopper and Sandy Dennis.

Marked the beginning of his most profitable partnership with Jay Cassidy - cutting of chase through fields notable. Shot by Anthony Richmond (some of the night scenes a bit overlit I thought) and has music by Performance's Jack Nitzsche, giving the film an odd twang.

OK, is sad, but also has some lovely sweet touches.

The Water Diviner (2014 Russell Crowe)

Another film we weren't entirely looking forward to yet entirely enjoyed thanks to Andrew Anatasios and Andrew Knight's story, and the fact that it doesn't dwell on war scenes (though the sounds of the wounded brother are haunting). First timer Crowe has made the wise decision to use an expert cameraman (Andrew Lesnie of Lord of the Rings fame).

We liked Olga Kurylenko (who was the vampire in Paris Je T'Aime!), her son Dylan Georgiades and Yilmaz Erdogan as the Turkish officer. Welcomed the happy ending.

Арсенал / Arsenal (1929 Aleksandr Dovzhenko & scr, ed)

Remarkable scenes and montage, perhaps most effective in opening, showing war (with some extremely sarcastic titles) and effects on those at home - particularly the various women with babies who don't belong to the fathers. Wasn't quite sure what was going on - something about revolting Ukrainians - but tough and powerful (e.g. murders of revolutionaries). Notable in its use of fast edits which bring us nearer to a subject. Most interesting moments too, like characters which seem to be frozen.

Shot by Daniil Demutsky.

Made me think of Come and See.

Deadfall (1968 Bryan Forbes & scr)

John Barry fell for Mallorca (where the film was made) and built a mansion at Santa Margalida (near Alcudia) but it has since been abandoned. What a peculiar fellow. Here he writes a long piece for guitar and orchestra to back a long and silent robbery sequence, which is I guess the best thing about the film (although the cantata itself really isn't very good) apart from Michael Caine's incredibly cool performance. Otherwise two of the film's major assets - Leonard Rossiter and Vladek Sheybal - appear unfortunately only fleetingly.

Eric Portman good too. But the film disappears under itself. With Giovanna Ralli and the somewhat annoying Nanette Newman. Shot by Gerry Turpin and edited by John Jympson.

Somewhat shocking plot twist is kinda nuts. Novel - Desmond Cory.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008 Danny Boyle)

I'm sure someone could write a whole essay on why the tilted camera in The Third Man works, but doesn't here. Won Oscars for just about everything, including Anthony Dod Mantle's camera, Chris Dickens' editing and Simon Beaufoy's script (based on the novel 'Q&A' by Vikas Swarup).

A hard film, with Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor (good; quizmaster), Irrfan Khan (good; detective), Mahhur Mittel (Salim).

The ending (dying in bath full of money) seems a little silly, but the story is ingenious and gripping.

Far From the Madding Crowd (2015 Thomas Vinterberg)

Yes. Carey Mulligan as good as ever as determined heroine, adapted by David Nicholls from Thomas Hardy novel. With Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge, Juno Temple.

Shot - in Panavision, and fittingly enough - by a woman, Charlotte Bruus Christensen, who does a good job of the landscape and low light. She's worked on other Vinterberg films but not one of his earliest and best known - Festen. Edited By Claire Simpson (Platoon, The Reader, The Constant Gardener). Good score too by Craig Armstrong.

Sort of not really looking forward to watching it but really enjoyed it - not overlong either.

The Birds (1963 AH)

OK we only watched it in January.

It's a great performance from Jessica Tandy (who was married to Hume Cronyn for over 50 years).

I thought it more straightforward in the camera set-ups than say Vertigo, but then he goes really high, like scene in which Tandy expresses her concerns to surrogate daughter Tippi Hedren (same effect when the latter is imprisoned in phone box). There's also a lot of careful staging within the shot e.g. when Tandy first learns about the neighbour's chickens, and the diner scene (which builds up beautifully).

It is in fact Hitchcock's only horror film (the threat emanates not from man), written by Evan Hunter, from Daphne du Maurier short story.

The leads are fine, good acting too from Suzanne Pleshette and all the secondary characters.

You have to laugh, though, at some of the process shots of the 'peckers'.

Tiny Furniture (2010 Lena Dunham & scr)

She also stars, and emulates Woody Allen further by referencing his book 'Without Feathers' several times. Follows the same pattern as other indies, though freshening them by casting her real-life mother (Laurie Simmons, who really is such a photographer / artist) and sister Grace, who you can see plainly cracking up at her sister's blow-out at one point. Whether or not the sex scene in an aluminium pipe references Two For the Road, it is funny - almost reads like having sex in a vagina.

Features fellow Girls actors Alex Karpovsky (as a lying taker) and Jemima Kirke (in familiar role as nutty druggy).

Subtle. Ultimately pulls together through mother's diary. Dunham's shorts on DVD also funny.

Hidden Treasure / Buried Treasure (2001 Adrian Shergold)

In his final performance - of a grumpy parent substitute who turns out lovely, the sort of character he made beloved by the British public - John Thaw shouts a lot at newly-discovered granddaughter Dominique Jackson and her father Wil Johnson - but it all ends happily.

The title change is mysterious - our ITV3 copy definitely has the former title. And I don't know if it was a transmission problem but the framing seems odd, like everything's too close to the camera. It's not Shergold's regular Tony Slater-Ling but someone called Lawrence Jones. Peter Bowker wrote it (and the great Occupation).

Stage Fright (1950 Alfred Hitchcock)

So, the flashback lies. Who cares? The teller is the murderer. Isn't Rashomon all about lying flashbacks? In fact, there's a shot in this sequence of an interior with Marlene in the foreground and a clearly back-projected background of Richard Todd - which I thought might have been because a scene wasn't covered (unlikely) but is more likely a deliberate touch to show the artificiality of the lie. (There's another really subtle touch right near the end when Jane Wyman steps out of the theatre carriage prop in slight slow motion.)

Film has lots to recommend it including a great chase scene with Todd escaping from the police, Wyman in his arms realising (by combination of piano and piano theme) she's in love with Michael Wilding, enthusiasm of rogue uncle Alistair Sim, overheard chat in pubs, Wyman's common English accent (and the great moments of tension arising out of her double role), garden party, Marlene gorgeously lit (by herself) by Wilkie Cooper, Miles 'Mallison' as an extremely annoying drinker. London-set, though as most of the non-second unit stuff is back projected it could have been filmed anywhere.

With Kay Walsh, Joyce Grenfell, Sybill Thorndike.

Novel Selwyn Jepson, screenplay Whitfield Cook, adaptation Alma Reville.

Selma (2014 Ava DuVernay)

Incredibly, the director's first feature - it tells in odd framing and distracting set-ups. Very diffused, muddy cinematography also puzzling.

Painful, documentary type retelling of essential American history (1965 Edmund Pettus Bridge incident and attendant violence), should be shown in every school there. With David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson, Giovann Ribisi, Wendell Pierce, Oprah etc.

A Summer Place (1958 Delmer Daves)

Quite frank sex talk in long soaper, more realistic than most, well performed particularly by Dorothy McGuire, Arthur Kennedy (alky husband), Sandra Dee and Constance Ford (unspeakable), with solid husband Richard Egan and Troy Donahue. Beulah Bondi is the aunt and Martin Eric the sleazy handyman.

Handsomely shot on location by Harry Stradling (with lots of day for night). Another great incidental score by Max Steiner, though imaginative re-arrangements of hit theme tune become overbearing (possibly not his idea).

Director adapted Sloan Wilson novel. Wonderfully edited by Owen Marks - you can feel Casablanca in certain sequences.

The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970 Basil Dearden & co-scr)

Neither the film nor Roger Moore were nearly as bad as I was expecting. Story - which is arrant nonsense - is in a way quite playful on the alter ego subject, though should best have ended with the rogue Pelham taking control - he was clearly having much more fun than the straight version.

Some great stunt driving (mainly along the M4) is well edited (Teddy Darvas), good London location work, offset by terrible theme (and incidental) music.

With Hildegard Neil, Anton Rodgers, Olga Georges-Picot, Freddie Jones (in unfortunate dark glasses), and yes it was Carry On's Jacqui Piper in two second appearance as secretary.

Ride (2014 Helen Hunt & scr)

Hum. Not really a big fan of Hunt the actress, who's looking increasingly weird. Fairly predictable change your life / heal family wounds kind of thing has sympathetic driver (David Zayas), Brenton Thwaites, Luke Wilson as surfing instructor.

Hunt's story advice to son - "End with a surprise and inevitability" - is not only suspect, but ignored in its own ending.

Girls Season 3 (2014 Lena Dunham)

Our girls really don't come out of things too well in shaded, serio-comic episodes.

Love Adam's grunts of communication.