The opening synthesizer track which sounds so familiar is 'Figment' by Simon Park, used in Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978).
It's great fun.
Last seen two Halloweens ago.
One thing I didn't get is that when the two resistance groups meet they're actually pairings of comedy duos - thus Pegg and Jessica Stevenson (Hynes) from Spaced, Martin Freeman and Lucy Davis (The Office), Dylan Moran and Tamsin Greig (Black Books).. leaving Matt Lucas. Also Q points out that each character (as they pass each other) is mirroring their counterpart in attire.
David Dunlap is the cameraman behind those efficient tracking shots, though to be pernickety you can see the exposure change on one of the entrances into the supermarket.
Saturday, 31 October 2015
Mandy / The Crash of Silence (1952 Alexander Mackendrick)
Written by Nigel Balchin and Jack Whittingham, based on 'This Day is Ours' by Hilda Lewis (1946) which drew from her husband's experience as a deaf educator - thus he becomes Jack Hawkins.
Mandy Miller is beautifully expressive - and indeed well-directed - in tale of deaf girl. Behaviour of father is difficult to understand, even 60 years ago.
Phyllis Calvert, Terence Morgan, Nancy Price (the ageing and deaf governess, who was also in I Know Where I'm Going!)
Shot with customary care by Douglas Slocombe. Music by William Alwyn.
Can also be viewed as about the way parents pull their children about between them.
Mandy retired ten years later and was last seen in Aberdeenshire being rescued by a neighbour in his Capri! (Source)
Mandy Miller is beautifully expressive - and indeed well-directed - in tale of deaf girl. Behaviour of father is difficult to understand, even 60 years ago.
Phyllis Calvert, Terence Morgan, Nancy Price (the ageing and deaf governess, who was also in I Know Where I'm Going!)
Shot with customary care by Douglas Slocombe. Music by William Alwyn.
Can also be viewed as about the way parents pull their children about between them.
Mandy retired ten years later and was last seen in Aberdeenshire being rescued by a neighbour in his Capri! (Source)
Friday, 30 October 2015
Mr Holmes (2015 Bill Condon)
From the director of Gods and Monsters and the pilot of The Big C, Condon is thus reunited with Ian McKellan and Laura Linney, adding a confident Milo Parker as the boy (in interview, the 11-year old sounds twice his age). Jeffrey Hatcher's screenplay is stately (source novel Mitch Cullin) delivering a slow, subtle, satisfying whole.
Well acted. With Hattie Morahan (I guess known to us from The Bletchley Cirle and one-offs like Lewis and Marple), Hiroyuki Sanada, Roger Allum, Phil Davis, Frances de la Tour.
Music: Carter Burwell. Cinematography: Tobias Schliessler (who also shot Condon's Dreamgirls about a black soul group in the 60s). Editor: Virginia Katz (Dreamgirls, Gods and Monsters). Production design: Martin Childs (Parade's End, Quills).
There were one or two on location shots in Japan, but it's mainly Chatham Docks. Baker Street is Bedford Row, and those great cliffs (also in Atonement) are near Seaford.
Well acted. With Hattie Morahan (I guess known to us from The Bletchley Cirle and one-offs like Lewis and Marple), Hiroyuki Sanada, Roger Allum, Phil Davis, Frances de la Tour.
Music: Carter Burwell. Cinematography: Tobias Schliessler (who also shot Condon's Dreamgirls about a black soul group in the 60s). Editor: Virginia Katz (Dreamgirls, Gods and Monsters). Production design: Martin Childs (Parade's End, Quills).
There were one or two on location shots in Japan, but it's mainly Chatham Docks. Baker Street is Bedford Row, and those great cliffs (also in Atonement) are near Seaford.
Thursday, 29 October 2015
A Swingin' Summer (1965 Robert Sparr)
Film is awful - like Carry On Summer Holiday - and for that reason, rather enjoyable. The sixties hasn't really caught up with these kids yet - there's no sex, drugs or booze, just some pretty tame rock from Gary Lewis or someone. Has the most prurient of cameraman, who is absolutely fixated by endless shots of bikini clad bosoms and bottoms in tight pants. There's an astoundingly bad fight scene, very dodgy acting, and a risible script (as evidence, the best line in it is "OK, let's go!")
Of note as Raquel Welch's debut. Film really only comes vaguely to life in Righteous Brothers' finale.
Also filled with characters who seem really gay.
The fact we watched a 4x3 crop of a Techniscope print, replete with rolling frames and flashes of green, made it even funnier.
Of note as Raquel Welch's debut. Film really only comes vaguely to life in Righteous Brothers' finale.
Also filled with characters who seem really gay.
The fact we watched a 4x3 crop of a Techniscope print, replete with rolling frames and flashes of green, made it even funnier.
The Fire Raisers (1934 Michael Powell)
This one for Gaumont-British, based on a contemporary newspaper story, written by Powell and Jerome Jackson - when else (apart from Armadillo) do you get a story about loss adjusters and the murky world of insurance? Leslie Banks plays the opportunistic claims pursuer, Anne Grey the love interest, Frank Cellier her father, Lawrence Anderson a claims investigator and Francis L Sullivan as a rotten baddie. However of most interest in the cast is Carol Goodner, who has a genuine naturalness ahead of her time.
Edited by D.N. Twist who also cut The Phantom Light and Edge of the World for Powell, and 39 Steps for Hitch. Effective use of cutting and audio in interrogation scene. Also features early credit for Alfred Junge. There's no music in these cheap, short, energetic, imaginative films.
I thought one of the (non-speaking) baddies looked familiar - it's Danny Green, to be seen in The Ladykillers.
Edited by D.N. Twist who also cut The Phantom Light and Edge of the World for Powell, and 39 Steps for Hitch. Effective use of cutting and audio in interrogation scene. Also features early credit for Alfred Junge. There's no music in these cheap, short, energetic, imaginative films.
I thought one of the (non-speaking) baddies looked familiar - it's Danny Green, to be seen in The Ladykillers.
Something Always Happens (1934 Michael Powell)
One of our double bill of Michael Powell quota quickies, written by Brock Williams, both distinguished by interesting, original material.
This one immediately elicits our sympathies for orphan John Singer (who later appeared in In Which We Serve) whose experiences are cross-cut against down-on-luck chancer Ian Hunter (the screenplay continues to do this successfully throughout), who then picks up Nancy O'Neil under false pretences. That it then turns into a battle between two rival petrol station companies is not what we were expecting at all.
Muriel George (Last Holiday, Went the Day Well?) is the sympathetic landlady. It's quite charming, lively, winning and - of course - short. In fact it's amazing how much you can seem to pack into 60-odd minutes - a lesson in film story-telling.
Basil Emmott shot it. American Ralph Dawson (it's a Warner Bros Teddington film), who cut it, won three Oscars including one for The Adventures of Robin Hood, and also edited Kings Row.
This one immediately elicits our sympathies for orphan John Singer (who later appeared in In Which We Serve) whose experiences are cross-cut against down-on-luck chancer Ian Hunter (the screenplay continues to do this successfully throughout), who then picks up Nancy O'Neil under false pretences. That it then turns into a battle between two rival petrol station companies is not what we were expecting at all.
Muriel George (Last Holiday, Went the Day Well?) is the sympathetic landlady. It's quite charming, lively, winning and - of course - short. In fact it's amazing how much you can seem to pack into 60-odd minutes - a lesson in film story-telling.
Basil Emmott shot it. American Ralph Dawson (it's a Warner Bros Teddington film), who cut it, won three Oscars including one for The Adventures of Robin Hood, and also edited Kings Row.
Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Della (1964 Robert Gist)
Recluse Joan Crawford (heavily gauzed) won't sell her land to aggressive lawyer Paul Burke (who isn't going to win any awards). Daughter Diane Baker doesn't seem to like going out much, becomes infatuated with the hot-head.
Was originally a pilot for a series to be called 'Royal Bay', thus the 4x3 ratio, and the billing of Crawford as 'Special Guest Star'.
Short but inoffensive.
Was originally a pilot for a series to be called 'Royal Bay', thus the 4x3 ratio, and the billing of Crawford as 'Special Guest Star'.
Short but inoffensive.
Tuesday, 27 October 2015
The Man in the White Suit (1951 Alexander Mackendrick & co-scr)
Written with John Dighton and Roger Macdougall, from his play.
Guinness is terrific, displaying a weird mix of diffidence and confidence; Joan Greenwood is also wonderful.
Perry's unenlightening 'Forever Ealing' skips through it in a couple of paragraphs and doesn't even mention two of the most distinctive things about it - and of any British film come to that - the luminous suit and the extraordinary soundtrack to Guinness's chemical experiments. The latter was apparently created by sound editor Mary Habberfield using a tuba and a bassoon (unsubstantiated), mixed with bubbles. It was turned into 'White Suit Samba' performed by Jack Parnell and His Rhythm (and Mary's "Gurgle Glub Gurgle" is credited on the record).
But how Douglas Slocombe achieved that luminosity in night scenes without lighting everything else around him I've no idea. He's 102!
With Cecil Parker, Michael Gough, Ernest Thesiger, Howard Marion-Crawford (rather good as one of the industrialists), Vida Hope, Olaf Olsen, Judith Furse (nurse), Miles Malleson (tailor) and little Mandy Miller as a useful decoy.
It's not one of the Auric Ealings, but the score by Benjamin Frankel is good enough.
Guinness is terrific, displaying a weird mix of diffidence and confidence; Joan Greenwood is also wonderful.
Perry's unenlightening 'Forever Ealing' skips through it in a couple of paragraphs and doesn't even mention two of the most distinctive things about it - and of any British film come to that - the luminous suit and the extraordinary soundtrack to Guinness's chemical experiments. The latter was apparently created by sound editor Mary Habberfield using a tuba and a bassoon (unsubstantiated), mixed with bubbles. It was turned into 'White Suit Samba' performed by Jack Parnell and His Rhythm (and Mary's "Gurgle Glub Gurgle" is credited on the record).
But how Douglas Slocombe achieved that luminosity in night scenes without lighting everything else around him I've no idea. He's 102!
With Cecil Parker, Michael Gough, Ernest Thesiger, Howard Marion-Crawford (rather good as one of the industrialists), Vida Hope, Olaf Olsen, Judith Furse (nurse), Miles Malleson (tailor) and little Mandy Miller as a useful decoy.
It's not one of the Auric Ealings, but the score by Benjamin Frankel is good enough.
The Ghost Camera (1933 Bernard Vorhaus)
A somewhat schoolboy adventure script is enlivened by the quirky character played by Henry Kendall (one of ten features he appeared in that year; Rich and Strange was his Hitchcock in 1931), who talks like a thesaurus, sparking off cute Ida Lupino, with John Mills in early support. Vorhaus - in his first feature - sets up some interesting stuff such as subjective camera, and shots which allow David Lean to edit briskly (one character walking into camera becomes another walking out).
IMDB credits the American Ernest Palmer (Blood and Sand) as the cinematographer, but double-checking with the Internet Encyclopedia of Cinematographers confirms that it was the English one (who made the Ghosts of Berkeley Square).
Victor Stanley provides broad comic relief, Felix Aylmer is the judge, George Merritt the 'detective' (also in Young and Innocent and A Canterbury Tale).
IMDB credits the American Ernest Palmer (Blood and Sand) as the cinematographer, but double-checking with the Internet Encyclopedia of Cinematographers confirms that it was the English one (who made the Ghosts of Berkeley Square).
Victor Stanley provides broad comic relief, Felix Aylmer is the judge, George Merritt the 'detective' (also in Young and Innocent and A Canterbury Tale).
Monday, 26 October 2015
Back to the Future Part III (1990 Robert Zemeckis & co-scr)
Cast adds Mary Steenburgen. Marty borrows Fistful of Dollars trick a bit too obviously.
Even Marty says "Great Scott!" at one point.
Monument Valley? Sure looks like it.
Even Marty says "Great Scott!" at one point.
Monument Valley? Sure looks like it.
Back to the Future Part II (1989 Robert Zemeckis & co-scr)
So, four years after the original, neither Glover (who wanted too much money) nor girlfriend no. 1 Claudia Wells appear, making the recreations of Part I all the more crafty.
Liked the in-joke about Jaws 19 - "the shark still looks fake" (apparently provided by Spielberg himself).
And did a germ of this sink into JK Rowling's mind, becoming integral to the plot of the equally ingenious Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban?
Liked the in-joke about Jaws 19 - "the shark still looks fake" (apparently provided by Spielberg himself).
And did a germ of this sink into JK Rowling's mind, becoming integral to the plot of the equally ingenious Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban?
Sunday, 25 October 2015
Halloween (1978 John Carpenter & co-scr)
I was trying to delay the pleasure until next weekend, but Q said 'why don't we just watch it now?'
The second Dean Cundey film we saw in a row.
Rather like Psycho, nothing really happens for the first 50 minutes.
I could swear that music shifts up a fraction of a tone at one point.
The second Dean Cundey film we saw in a row.
Rather like Psycho, nothing really happens for the first 50 minutes.
I could swear that music shifts up a fraction of a tone at one point.
Back to the Future (1985 Robert Zemeckis & co-scr)
...with Bob Gale. It's the anniversary. Christopher Lloyd, and his Heath Robinson collection of toys, steals the film. Liked the touch that the 1955 car disappears into a cinema playing 'Atomic Boy'.
Michael J Fox, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover (not a fan), Thomas F. Wilson.
Shot in that very saturated colourful 80s style (by Dean Cundey) which I think the French might have introduced with the 'cinéma du look'. Music by Alan Silvestri.
It's an ingenious story, with a certain debt to It's a Wonderful Life.
The excessive product placements are funny - I can't tell you the number of times the JC Penney department store logo is in shot.
Michael J Fox, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover (not a fan), Thomas F. Wilson.
Shot in that very saturated colourful 80s style (by Dean Cundey) which I think the French might have introduced with the 'cinéma du look'. Music by Alan Silvestri.
It's an ingenious story, with a certain debt to It's a Wonderful Life.
The excessive product placements are funny - I can't tell you the number of times the JC Penney department store logo is in shot.
Saturday, 24 October 2015
Quantum of Solace (2008 Marc Forster)
Bond filtered through Bourne, film is over-edited to the point where you have to fight for a plot to materialise. (Not to mention that you just don't know where you are half the time.) Disappointing from the title sequence and theme song on, film is spectacularly well set up and edited, by Matt Chessé (Kite Runner, Finding Neverland) and Richard Pearson (Bourne Supremacy - see, told you so) and shot by Roberto Schaeffer. Olga Kurylenko is one good thing about it and although Mathieu Amalric is quietly sinister he doesn't have the presence for a Bond villain. With Judi Dench, Giancarlo Giannini, Rory Kinnear, Gemma Arterton, Jeffrey Wright. Paul Ritter's in it, but we didn't notice.
Good opening in Siena, then falls apart somewhat.
The quantum is the leap Skyfall made after it.
Paul Haggis (Crash) has been brought in to write, along with series regulars Rob Wade and Neal Purvis - but you wouldn't notice.
Good opening in Siena, then falls apart somewhat.
The quantum is the leap Skyfall made after it.
Paul Haggis (Crash) has been brought in to write, along with series regulars Rob Wade and Neal Purvis - but you wouldn't notice.
Singles (1992 Cameron Crowe & scr)
Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick, Sheila Kelly, Jim True, Bill Pullman, Matt Dillon, Eric Stoltz (mime), Jeremy Piven, Tom Skerritt, Paul Giamatti.
Loved the mime pretending to smoke - so how does he exhale a real puff of smoke?
Cameron's tribute to Manhattan, edited by Richard Chew, shot by Tak Fujimoto and Ueli Steiger.
Stuff about the supertrain reminds me of the failed sneakers in Elizabethtown. There's a poster advertising a band called 'Stillwater' (Almost Famous). The band is called 'Citizen Dick' - in Vanilla Sky his nickname is 'Citizen Dildo'.
Again you are reminded that Cameron has heart (Billy was a cynic).
Scene where Fonda goes to have her breasts enlarged is funny, as is car with new sound system.
Loved the mime pretending to smoke - so how does he exhale a real puff of smoke?
Cameron's tribute to Manhattan, edited by Richard Chew, shot by Tak Fujimoto and Ueli Steiger.
Stuff about the supertrain reminds me of the failed sneakers in Elizabethtown. There's a poster advertising a band called 'Stillwater' (Almost Famous). The band is called 'Citizen Dick' - in Vanilla Sky his nickname is 'Citizen Dildo'.
Again you are reminded that Cameron has heart (Billy was a cynic).
Scene where Fonda goes to have her breasts enlarged is funny, as is car with new sound system.
Friday, 23 October 2015
Vanilla Sky (2001 Cameron Crowe & scr)
We've avoided it for a long time, this most un-Cameron like project, based on Abre Los Ojos (written by Alejandro Amenábar and Mateo Gil; and you can hear Penelope Cruz speak these words right at the start, which is cool) - 'the Cameron that got away'. It was a most welcome re-acquaintanceship, though through much of the film we were admittedly puzzled (yet intrigued). Is the bar scene a mirror of the party? Is there a corporate conspiracy?
It sounds like a Cameron Crowe film, in places, and you notice the fake skies. And yes, you notice Noah Taylor ('tech support') was from the operation scene, though by now it's all gone a bit Last Year at Marienbad mixed up with The Manchurian Candidate - though the ultimate explanation for characters' origins is wholly unexpected and brilliant. Some of it's very funny, especially the Lucid Dream stuff, and the frozen dog business.
We liked Tom Cruise in those days, before he was an alien, though Penelope Cruz probably steals the acting honours - Cameron Diaz is good too though. With Jason Lee, Timothy Spall, Kurt Russell, Jonathan Galecki, Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon.
What's the lesson? "You need the sour to appreciate the sweet." Loved that elevator to heaven, which seems quite Powell & Pressburgerish. And the weirdness of Cruise with his mask on the back of his face.
Shot by John Toll. That final montage - edited by Joe Hutshing and Mark Livolsi - is so amazing we had to watch it first in slow mo (which was still too fast) then in the slowest mo - to really appreciate what went into it (some of Cameron's home movies, we guess).
If it doesn't have cult status it should have. Great soundtrack, of course, including one of Q's favourite Stones songs 'Heaven'.
Amenábar, quoted on 'The Uncool' website:
“When I learned, quite some time ago now, that Cameron Crowe was going to write and direct the film based on Open Your Eyes with Tom Cruise in the leading role, I felt honored. Now that I have seen Vanilla Sky, I couldn’t be more proud. Cameron has all my respect and admiration. Respect, for having plumbed the deepest meaning of the work. Admiration, for having sought new viewpoints and a fresh approach to the mise-en-scene, giving the film his own unmistakable touch. Vanilla Sky is as true the original spirit as it is irreverent towards its form, and that makes it a courageous, innovative work. I think I can say that, for me, the projects are like two very special brothers. They have the same concerns, but their personalities are quite different. In other words, they sing the same song but with quite different voices: one likes opera, and the other likes rock and roll.”
For a while, it's like watching a film on a slope, but it's absolutely stupendous.
It sounds like a Cameron Crowe film, in places, and you notice the fake skies. And yes, you notice Noah Taylor ('tech support') was from the operation scene, though by now it's all gone a bit Last Year at Marienbad mixed up with The Manchurian Candidate - though the ultimate explanation for characters' origins is wholly unexpected and brilliant. Some of it's very funny, especially the Lucid Dream stuff, and the frozen dog business.
We liked Tom Cruise in those days, before he was an alien, though Penelope Cruz probably steals the acting honours - Cameron Diaz is good too though. With Jason Lee, Timothy Spall, Kurt Russell, Jonathan Galecki, Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon.
What's the lesson? "You need the sour to appreciate the sweet." Loved that elevator to heaven, which seems quite Powell & Pressburgerish. And the weirdness of Cruise with his mask on the back of his face.
Shot by John Toll. That final montage - edited by Joe Hutshing and Mark Livolsi - is so amazing we had to watch it first in slow mo (which was still too fast) then in the slowest mo - to really appreciate what went into it (some of Cameron's home movies, we guess).
If it doesn't have cult status it should have. Great soundtrack, of course, including one of Q's favourite Stones songs 'Heaven'.
Amenábar, quoted on 'The Uncool' website:
“When I learned, quite some time ago now, that Cameron Crowe was going to write and direct the film based on Open Your Eyes with Tom Cruise in the leading role, I felt honored. Now that I have seen Vanilla Sky, I couldn’t be more proud. Cameron has all my respect and admiration. Respect, for having plumbed the deepest meaning of the work. Admiration, for having sought new viewpoints and a fresh approach to the mise-en-scene, giving the film his own unmistakable touch. Vanilla Sky is as true the original spirit as it is irreverent towards its form, and that makes it a courageous, innovative work. I think I can say that, for me, the projects are like two very special brothers. They have the same concerns, but their personalities are quite different. In other words, they sing the same song but with quite different voices: one likes opera, and the other likes rock and roll.”
For a while, it's like watching a film on a slope, but it's absolutely stupendous.
Thursday, 22 October 2015
Try and Get Me! / The Sound of Fury (1950 Cy Endfield)
A rare film noir - though of course it features in Eddie Muller's trove of that genre 'Dark City' - 'One of the most emotionally charged and bleakest of all noirs'. Film is unjustly forgotten and packs a punch in lynch mob finale. ("There are more films in this heaven and earth...")
Properly doomed, down on his luck anti-hero Frank Lovejoy (one of the ex-service / post-war depression / crime scenarios which it seems noir was capable of talking about) unluckily falls in with violent criminal Lloyd Bridges (who twirls things well) - a really nasty murder of a kidnap victim results and as Lovejoy falls apart with booze he accidentally confesses to Adele Jergens.
Meanwhile newspaperman Richard Carlson is getting a lesson in ethics from Renzo Cesana and Kathleen Ryan is left at home looking after the brat - I mean son.
Can't have been that low budget, with final mob scenes, really rather nicely put together throughout (OK too much camera tilt in nightclub scene, but you have to forgive these youngsters - actually he was 36 - their youthful excesses) and nicely shot by someone called Guy Roe (great shots from inside back of car oddly resemble similar material in same year's Gun Crazy). Jo Pagano adapted his own novel. Music Hugo Friedhofer.
Good print onto DVDR available from www.pressplayhouse.net. Try and find it elsewhere.
Once again this is an example of a film that enraged the HUAC for being 'un-American', causing Endfield (like Losey) to relocate to England, where his most famous film became Zulu.
Loved the waitress who gives the order for a steak sandwich as 'cow on a slab' and also has another such gem in her repertoire (which now I can't remember).
Properly doomed, down on his luck anti-hero Frank Lovejoy (one of the ex-service / post-war depression / crime scenarios which it seems noir was capable of talking about) unluckily falls in with violent criminal Lloyd Bridges (who twirls things well) - a really nasty murder of a kidnap victim results and as Lovejoy falls apart with booze he accidentally confesses to Adele Jergens.
Meanwhile newspaperman Richard Carlson is getting a lesson in ethics from Renzo Cesana and Kathleen Ryan is left at home looking after the brat - I mean son.
Can't have been that low budget, with final mob scenes, really rather nicely put together throughout (OK too much camera tilt in nightclub scene, but you have to forgive these youngsters - actually he was 36 - their youthful excesses) and nicely shot by someone called Guy Roe (great shots from inside back of car oddly resemble similar material in same year's Gun Crazy). Jo Pagano adapted his own novel. Music Hugo Friedhofer.
Good print onto DVDR available from www.pressplayhouse.net. Try and find it elsewhere.
Once again this is an example of a film that enraged the HUAC for being 'un-American', causing Endfield (like Losey) to relocate to England, where his most famous film became Zulu.
Loved the waitress who gives the order for a steak sandwich as 'cow on a slab' and also has another such gem in her repertoire (which now I can't remember).
Let's Live a Little (1948 Richard Wallace)
Independently-produced (by star Robert Cummings) fluff is quite fun as nervous ad man falls for psychiatrist Hedy Lamarr (who always reminds me of a beautiful dog). Anna Sten is the odious client and Robert Shayne the rival love interest, and I thought that was Robert Greig as the butler but in Talking Picture TV's print, like looking through a fog, it was difficult to make out anything of Ernest Laszlo's original photography (it turns out to have been Billy Bevan).
Looking at reviews though it seems the US DVD release was even worse.
Looking at reviews though it seems the US DVD release was even worse.
Wednesday, 21 October 2015
State of Play (2003 David Yates)
The original, six hour journalism/conspiracy thriller absolutely zips along without ever a single dull moment thanks to Paul Abbott's screenplay, Yates and editor Mark Day's presentation, and a fantastic ensemble cast. On the Herald we have John Simm, Kelly Macdonald, Bill Nighy (who provides most of the laughs), a young James McEvoy, Amelia Bullmore, Benedict Wong and Tom Burke.
David Morrissey is the PM, Polly Walker his wife. Philip Glenister and Sean Gilder represent the boys in blue and Marc Warren is way out of his depth (ultimately believably pathetic).
Day has accompanied Yates on everything and they're finishing Tarzan and the Harry Potter prequel.
David Morrissey is the PM, Polly Walker his wife. Philip Glenister and Sean Gilder represent the boys in blue and Marc Warren is way out of his depth (ultimately believably pathetic).
Day has accompanied Yates on everything and they're finishing Tarzan and the Harry Potter prequel.
Monday, 19 October 2015
Jigsaw (1962 Val Guest & scr)
Adaptation of Hillary Waugh's detective fiction 'Sleep Long My Love' (1959), which in turn had echoes of real life murder cases from Brighton involving disembodied murder victims. It's shot very dry, like a documentary in widescreen, with no music, and most of the members of the general public involved are bad-tempered and unhelpful. With Jack Warner, Roland Lewis and Yolande Donlan. Shot by Hammer's Arthur Grant (who appears to be playing with a new zoom lens).
Sunday, 18 October 2015
Vertigo (1958 AH)
Red, green.
High, low.
Red, green.
High, low.
Kim! Kim! Kim!
It's one of the most serious Hitchcocks, and that I think may be why we have the funny ending with the nun - it's his way of leaving you on a smile (or titter).
High, low.
Red, green.
High, low.
Kim! Kim! Kim!
It's one of the most serious Hitchcocks, and that I think may be why we have the funny ending with the nun - it's his way of leaving you on a smile (or titter).
Saturday, 17 October 2015
Scream (1996 Wes Craven)
What? Wes Craven has just died and it is that time of year. Besides Scream is written (by Kevin Williamson) with a lot of fondness for the movies that it sends up, to the delight of a knowing, horror-movie aware audience.
Neve Campbell is the heroine in danger, Courtney Cox a ruthless TV presenter, David Arquette (the deputy), Matthew Liddard (annoying), tum, tum.
Most horrific moment - group of friends are watching Halloween (the music from which creeps into the film) in 4x3. Shock! Horror!
Can't remember who the masked killer was now - does it matter?
Neve Campbell is the heroine in danger, Courtney Cox a ruthless TV presenter, David Arquette (the deputy), Matthew Liddard (annoying), tum, tum.
Most horrific moment - group of friends are watching Halloween (the music from which creeps into the film) in 4x3. Shock! Horror!
Can't remember who the masked killer was now - does it matter?
Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009 Marc Lawrence & scr)
To dilute the shock effect of Cracker and This Is England we turn to Queddy's second two-for-one bargain basement videos, probably written by the same computer as Wild Child. The laziest actor in the world Hugh Grant teams up with the least sympathetic, Sarah Jessica Parker, on the run from Changeling's Michael Kelly, aided by sweet, rifle-toting folks Sam Elliot and Mary Steenburgen. (The gun stuff, in light of recent events, is quite queasy.)
The notion of 'star chemistry' has eluded the computers - I mean producers - of this film.
The notion of 'star chemistry' has eluded the computers - I mean producers - of this film.
Wild Child (2008 Nick Moore)
It may have been written by Roald (and Patricia Neal's) daughter Lucy Dahl, but actually feels like it was constructed by a computer, so formulaic is it. (Loved the lame voiceover 'Stop her!' when she runs into blazing building.) Even the syrupy music is auto-generated.
Julia Robert's niece Emma is the wild child in question, Natasha Richardson (in her last role) is the (slightly lesbian?) head, and the best thing in the movie, which also features Cold Meat's Kimberley Nixon, as well as Juno Temple and other St Trinian's alumni (just made that up). Hopefully, Georgia King (the head girl) has given up acting.
P.S. Yes, this is editor Nick Moore.
Julia Robert's niece Emma is the wild child in question, Natasha Richardson (in her last role) is the (slightly lesbian?) head, and the best thing in the movie, which also features Cold Meat's Kimberley Nixon, as well as Juno Temple and other St Trinian's alumni (just made that up). Hopefully, Georgia King (the head girl) has given up acting.
P.S. Yes, this is editor Nick Moore.
Wednesday, 14 October 2015
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Perfect Crime (1957 AH)
'Great' detective Vincent Price unravels as James Gregory challenges his latest case
Unmistakeably one of Hitchcock's own - it's in the low camera angles and different setups. Also imaginative is the way one of the female flashback characters mouths the words of the male voiceover, and the artful way the murder moves into shot. Nice twist ending too, written by Stirling Silliphant from Ben Ray Redman story.
Unmistakeably one of Hitchcock's own - it's in the low camera angles and different setups. Also imaginative is the way one of the female flashback characters mouths the words of the male voiceover, and the artful way the murder moves into shot. Nice twist ending too, written by Stirling Silliphant from Ben Ray Redman story.
Monday, 12 October 2015
Cracker (1993 - 1996 Creator / writer Jimmy McGovern)
Series regulars: Robbie Coltrane, Geraldine Somerville, Chris Eccleston, Lorcan Cranitch, Kieran O'Brien and Tess Thomson (Fitz's kids), Barbara Flynn.
The Mad Woman in the Attic d. Michael Winterbottom
With Adrian Dunbar, David Haig, Kika Markham, John Grillo, Beryl Reid
Various reimaginings of 'Summertime' (when sang, performed by Carol Kidd) create soundtrack, a similar effect to Altman's The Long Goodbye, though in this case some of them are repeated a little too often.
Set in Manchester.
To Say I Love You d. Andy Wilson
Susan Lynch and Andrew Tiernan are particularly good as the violent Bonnie and Clyde couple.
One Day a Lemming Will Fly d. Simon Cellan Jones
It's while delivering this speech while atop a very high building we are astonished that Robbie and prime suspect Christopher Fulford appear to have no safety platforms and are literally on the edge - TV CGI wasn't that sophisticated so how the hell was that done? (Dave Holland is the credited stunt coordinator.)
Behaviour of paedo-hating crowd to unproven suspect is abominable.
To Be a Somebody 1994 season d. Tim Fywell
Was Jimmy McGovern in psychotherapy? He uses this episode also to vent feelings about Hillsborough (I reckon). Robert Carlyle is frighteningly good as nutter.
I remember seeing it for the first time and it being quite an effective shock to kill off a main character, thus auguring in Ricky Tomlinson.
The Big Crunch d. Julian Jarrold
In the nuttiest story so far, sectarian (but seemingly orthodox) middle class church group kills girl who head teacher / priest has made pregnant. No problem with the acting, though, of Jim Carter, Samantha Morton, Cheriuth Mellor, Maureen O'Brien, James Fleet and Darren Tighe.
Cinematographer Ivan Strasburg also shot Happy Valley, Treme, Generation Kill, The Corner, and Bloody Sunday, not a bad CV at all.
Men Should Weep d. Jean Stewart
Graham Aggery, Rachel Davies.
Brave episode (probably the best of the series) confronts all the rape issues most successfully, plus introduces a great emotional pull on Fitz, whose girlfriend had been raped, then his wife returns home, pregnant. Fitz's son makes up for all his lazy behaviour in one beautiful move.
Geraldine Somerville is so good in this - it's all in the eyes - particularly when she has to sit in on uncomfortable interview... She became Harry Potter's mum! Barbara Flynn is great also.
Brotherly Love d. Roy Battersby, opens 1995 season.
Directed far too much in close up, story finally reconciles Panhandle's rape by Beck in another high-rise finale, made effective by withdrawal of sound (same trick used in Bilborough's stabbing).
Mark Lambert is the prostitute visitor, Brid Brennan his wife. Fitz's brother is Clive Russell, Ruth Sheen has a small part as the first victim.
Best Boys d. Roy Battersby
A young John Simm gets into trouble with Liam Cunningham.
Fitz takes the baby to work and at one point we see even Ricky Tomlinson pushing the pram!
True Romance d. Tim Fywell
This one's written by Paul Abbott, and is slightly more humorous than the others. Emily Joyce is terrific as the psycho, better than her subsequent career suggests. Elizabeth Estensen is Fitz's psychologist mate.
White Ghost d. Richard Standeven (1996)
Michael Pennington's pregnant wife-to-be won't mind at all being imprisoned in a cargo container - why should she? - in pretty nuts Hong Kong set episode. Freda Foh Shen is the DCI who gradually warms up to Fitz, not leaving Ricky Tomlinson much to do. Paul Abbott wrote it.
The Mad Woman in the Attic d. Michael Winterbottom
With Adrian Dunbar, David Haig, Kika Markham, John Grillo, Beryl Reid
Various reimaginings of 'Summertime' (when sang, performed by Carol Kidd) create soundtrack, a similar effect to Altman's The Long Goodbye, though in this case some of them are repeated a little too often.
Set in Manchester.
To Say I Love You d. Andy Wilson
Susan Lynch and Andrew Tiernan are particularly good as the violent Bonnie and Clyde couple.
One Day a Lemming Will Fly d. Simon Cellan Jones
It's while delivering this speech while atop a very high building we are astonished that Robbie and prime suspect Christopher Fulford appear to have no safety platforms and are literally on the edge - TV CGI wasn't that sophisticated so how the hell was that done? (Dave Holland is the credited stunt coordinator.)
Behaviour of paedo-hating crowd to unproven suspect is abominable.
To Be a Somebody 1994 season d. Tim Fywell
Was Jimmy McGovern in psychotherapy? He uses this episode also to vent feelings about Hillsborough (I reckon). Robert Carlyle is frighteningly good as nutter.
I remember seeing it for the first time and it being quite an effective shock to kill off a main character, thus auguring in Ricky Tomlinson.
The Big Crunch d. Julian Jarrold
In the nuttiest story so far, sectarian (but seemingly orthodox) middle class church group kills girl who head teacher / priest has made pregnant. No problem with the acting, though, of Jim Carter, Samantha Morton, Cheriuth Mellor, Maureen O'Brien, James Fleet and Darren Tighe.
Cinematographer Ivan Strasburg also shot Happy Valley, Treme, Generation Kill, The Corner, and Bloody Sunday, not a bad CV at all.
Men Should Weep d. Jean Stewart
Graham Aggery, Rachel Davies.
Brave episode (probably the best of the series) confronts all the rape issues most successfully, plus introduces a great emotional pull on Fitz, whose girlfriend had been raped, then his wife returns home, pregnant. Fitz's son makes up for all his lazy behaviour in one beautiful move.
Geraldine Somerville is so good in this - it's all in the eyes - particularly when she has to sit in on uncomfortable interview... She became Harry Potter's mum! Barbara Flynn is great also.
Brotherly Love d. Roy Battersby, opens 1995 season.
Directed far too much in close up, story finally reconciles Panhandle's rape by Beck in another high-rise finale, made effective by withdrawal of sound (same trick used in Bilborough's stabbing).
Mark Lambert is the prostitute visitor, Brid Brennan his wife. Fitz's brother is Clive Russell, Ruth Sheen has a small part as the first victim.
Best Boys d. Roy Battersby
A young John Simm gets into trouble with Liam Cunningham.
Fitz takes the baby to work and at one point we see even Ricky Tomlinson pushing the pram!
True Romance d. Tim Fywell
This one's written by Paul Abbott, and is slightly more humorous than the others. Emily Joyce is terrific as the psycho, better than her subsequent career suggests. Elizabeth Estensen is Fitz's psychologist mate.
White Ghost d. Richard Standeven (1996)
Michael Pennington's pregnant wife-to-be won't mind at all being imprisoned in a cargo container - why should she? - in pretty nuts Hong Kong set episode. Freda Foh Shen is the DCI who gradually warms up to Fitz, not leaving Ricky Tomlinson much to do. Paul Abbott wrote it.
A Yank in Ermine (1955 Gordon Parry)
A John Paddy Carstairs novel / script, for Monarch Films, whoever they are.
Fluffy yank Peter Thompson inherits Dukedom (local village looks to us like Turville again), falls for adjacent Lady Noelle Middleton, accompanied by typical British faces such as Reginald Beckwith, Sid James, Richard Wattis and Guy Middleton (who wasn't in Dial M, that was Anthony Dawson).
Film is pretty pale really (especially in almost transluscent print broadcast by Talking Pictures TV) but not too bad.
A most interesting footnote is that one of his yank buddies is Jon Pertwee, sporting a somewhat variable accent, and the other Harold Lloyd Jr, son of the silent star, who had a tough time of things being gay and died soon after his dad aged 39.
Fluffy yank Peter Thompson inherits Dukedom (local village looks to us like Turville again), falls for adjacent Lady Noelle Middleton, accompanied by typical British faces such as Reginald Beckwith, Sid James, Richard Wattis and Guy Middleton (who wasn't in Dial M, that was Anthony Dawson).
Film is pretty pale really (especially in almost transluscent print broadcast by Talking Pictures TV) but not too bad.
A most interesting footnote is that one of his yank buddies is Jon Pertwee, sporting a somewhat variable accent, and the other Harold Lloyd Jr, son of the silent star, who had a tough time of things being gay and died soon after his dad aged 39.
Sunday, 11 October 2015
One Two Three (1961 Billy Wilder)
Much underrated classic, so clever, well assessed here.
One or two notes. 'Minsk is out, Pinsk is in' surely is a reference to Preston Sturges' classic line 'Get me Minsk, Minsk, Pinsk and Pinsk'. And knowing that a most important film in Billy's life was Battleship Potemkin it's no coincidence that the hotel goes under the same name.
The film has such a rushing momentum that you need to remember to take a breath of air after it's finished.
So stuffed with classic jokes that if you don't pay attention you'll miss half of them.
Also an interesting footnote that Pamela Tiffin was considered for The Birds next.
This is the film which features "Yes, We Have No bananas" (featured also in Sabrina) in German, which seems to have become stuck in my head.
One or two notes. 'Minsk is out, Pinsk is in' surely is a reference to Preston Sturges' classic line 'Get me Minsk, Minsk, Pinsk and Pinsk'. And knowing that a most important film in Billy's life was Battleship Potemkin it's no coincidence that the hotel goes under the same name.
The film has such a rushing momentum that you need to remember to take a breath of air after it's finished.
So stuffed with classic jokes that if you don't pay attention you'll miss half of them.
Also an interesting footnote that Pamela Tiffin was considered for The Birds next.
This is the film which features "Yes, We Have No bananas" (featured also in Sabrina) in German, which seems to have become stuck in my head.
This Is England '90 (2015 Shane Meadows & co-scr)
Naturalistic (improvised) scenes draw you in, then something happens right in front of your eyes that you can't quite believe - episode one has it in a sequence at a nightclub - it's like alchemy.
Then in two, there's a scene so upsetting it's like looking at the sun - though the point of this is about friends who are looking after each other. The moment where we find Jo Gilgun sleeping on Andrew Shim - with the latter's hand on his head - melts your heart.
Great cast: Thomas Turgoose, Andrew Ellis, Vicky Mclure, Chanel Cresswell, Jo Hartley, Michael Socha, Danielle Watson, Stephen Graham.
Stuart Bentley is on camera, Matthew Gray editing, Jack Thorne is the co-writer.
Third episode - featuring painful, extended and clearly improvised dinner table confrontation, just makes you weep, and is unlike anything else on television. (Tom Turgoose really looks like he wishes he were elsewhere.) Andrew Ellis - who clearly is in love with Chanel Cresswell - is as endearing as anything.
And then that ending. One of the most powerful things about it is the way characters suddenly explode. But it's also the combination of sweet and sour. Room for one more?
Then in two, there's a scene so upsetting it's like looking at the sun - though the point of this is about friends who are looking after each other. The moment where we find Jo Gilgun sleeping on Andrew Shim - with the latter's hand on his head - melts your heart.
Great cast: Thomas Turgoose, Andrew Ellis, Vicky Mclure, Chanel Cresswell, Jo Hartley, Michael Socha, Danielle Watson, Stephen Graham.
Stuart Bentley is on camera, Matthew Gray editing, Jack Thorne is the co-writer.
Third episode - featuring painful, extended and clearly improvised dinner table confrontation, just makes you weep, and is unlike anything else on television. (Tom Turgoose really looks like he wishes he were elsewhere.) Andrew Ellis - who clearly is in love with Chanel Cresswell - is as endearing as anything.
And then that ending. One of the most powerful things about it is the way characters suddenly explode. But it's also the combination of sweet and sour. Room for one more?
Saturday, 10 October 2015
Laura (1944 Otto Preminger)
OK, there's a debate / mystery about this film. According to Lucien Ballard, he and Rouben Mamoulian shot "75 percent of that together" when Otto Preminger came in with another cameraman, Joseph Lashelle, who then won the Oscar.
Preminger wrote the screenplay and lobbied hard for 'light on his feet' Clifton Webb. The film wasn't going well with Mamoulian and Zanuck replaced him with Preminger, who is quoted as saying "We threw out everything Mamoulian had directed and I finished the picture".
To be honest, it does look like Lashelle's lighting, and it's rather beautifully shot, but it's hard to tell.
With Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Vincent Price and Judith Anderson, accompanied by David Raksin's memorable theme, for 20th Century Fox. Has an interesting moment where Webb exposes himself to Andrews getting out of the bath.
(The sources here are Maltin's book on cinematographers and Bogdanovich's 'Who the Devil Made It?')
Preminger wrote the screenplay and lobbied hard for 'light on his feet' Clifton Webb. The film wasn't going well with Mamoulian and Zanuck replaced him with Preminger, who is quoted as saying "We threw out everything Mamoulian had directed and I finished the picture".
To be honest, it does look like Lashelle's lighting, and it's rather beautifully shot, but it's hard to tell.
With Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Vincent Price and Judith Anderson, accompanied by David Raksin's memorable theme, for 20th Century Fox. Has an interesting moment where Webb exposes himself to Andrews getting out of the bath.
(The sources here are Maltin's book on cinematographers and Bogdanovich's 'Who the Devil Made It?')
Say Anything (1989 Cameron Crowe & scr)
"I gave her my heart - she gave me a pen."
Rather well acted by John Cusack; with Ione Syke, John Mahoney, Lili Tayor, Joan Cusack, Eric Stoltz, Jeremy Piven.
Great screenplay, throwaway lines like "There's no food in your food" but has a mark of authenticity to it as well. He really is a very nice guy. Love the way it ends on board a plane.
Shot by Laszlo Kovacs, with a typically resonant pop music soundtrack.
Edited (and co-produced) by Richard Marks. Certain scenes are ballets of eyes, especially with Joan's little boy (Glenn Walker Harris), who John plays as a guitar at one point! (Cameron's good with kids.)
Rather well acted by John Cusack; with Ione Syke, John Mahoney, Lili Tayor, Joan Cusack, Eric Stoltz, Jeremy Piven.
Great screenplay, throwaway lines like "There's no food in your food" but has a mark of authenticity to it as well. He really is a very nice guy. Love the way it ends on board a plane.
Shot by Laszlo Kovacs, with a typically resonant pop music soundtrack.
Edited (and co-produced) by Richard Marks. Certain scenes are ballets of eyes, especially with Joan's little boy (Glenn Walker Harris), who John plays as a guitar at one point! (Cameron's good with kids.)
Friday, 9 October 2015
Aloha (2015 Cameron Crowe & scr, prod)
Cameron's done it again. You can't help thinking about Billy Wilder when you watch his films (the 'silent' sequences between Bradley Cooper and John Krasinski are beautifully set up) but he has a warmth that cynical Billy didn't have and - in this case - a clear love for the country and history of Hawaii, even casting Hawaiian king Bumpy Kanahele to play himself... He's also not so wedded to his script he won't allow improvisation.
From the opening montage of Hawaiian footage and early space stuff, you know it's going to be wonderful... The usual skilfully assembled soundtrack...
Emma Stone (who's wide-eyed look made me think of a manga character more than once) is just right as jet fighter / watchdog. Also features the unique talents of the always unpredictable Bill Murray, a shouty Alec Baldwin, Rachel McAdams, Danny McBride ('fingers') and the lovely Danielle Rose Russell in the film's most beautiful finale.
The critics don't get it, once again.
Amazing attention to detail in the scene where the satellite is being bombarded with library footage and audio. Plus you have to marvel at the comic timing when the thing destructs.
Shot by Eric Gautier (in sequence) and edited by Joe Hutshing. The way he makes scenes in which even the smallest reaction shot is perfect (in acting and editing and staging) shows just how good the boy has become.
Full of fabulous moments - the scene with the hat is perfect, because we can't see her face. I started to wonder if Cameron didn't keep writing variations of Miss Kubelik...
Was looking forward to watching it again while it was still on.
From the opening montage of Hawaiian footage and early space stuff, you know it's going to be wonderful... The usual skilfully assembled soundtrack...
Emma Stone (who's wide-eyed look made me think of a manga character more than once) is just right as jet fighter / watchdog. Also features the unique talents of the always unpredictable Bill Murray, a shouty Alec Baldwin, Rachel McAdams, Danny McBride ('fingers') and the lovely Danielle Rose Russell in the film's most beautiful finale.
The critics don't get it, once again.
Amazing attention to detail in the scene where the satellite is being bombarded with library footage and audio. Plus you have to marvel at the comic timing when the thing destructs.
Shot by Eric Gautier (in sequence) and edited by Joe Hutshing. The way he makes scenes in which even the smallest reaction shot is perfect (in acting and editing and staging) shows just how good the boy has become.
Full of fabulous moments - the scene with the hat is perfect, because we can't see her face. I started to wonder if Cameron didn't keep writing variations of Miss Kubelik...
Was looking forward to watching it again while it was still on.
Thursday, 8 October 2015
Prime Suspect: The Final Act (2006 Philip Martin)
Martin made Birdsong and the Murder on the Orient Express update; written by Frank Deasy.
Easily the most melancholy of the series, we find Tennison on her last case, burned out, alcoholic and utterly alone - to the extent that her 'heart falls' for 14 year old Laura Greenwood (another fantastic performance).
Mirren absolutely owns the character. It's an exceptional body of work, with top-notch acting from people who didn't necessarily make it big.
We get to hear the great repeated line (one that came from the show's inspiration, DCI Jackie Malton) "Don't call me ma'am - I'm not the queen" - which is especially funny as Mirren later became her.
With Steven Tomkinson, Frank Finlay, and dedicated to Tom Bell, who died just before the film was aired.
Interesting - watching a fabulous extras film - that she particularly enjoyed the level of involvement - in scripts, director and casting choices - she had in the series. Why was she not even BAFTA nominated for this (she won the Emmy)??
Easily the most melancholy of the series, we find Tennison on her last case, burned out, alcoholic and utterly alone - to the extent that her 'heart falls' for 14 year old Laura Greenwood (another fantastic performance).
Mirren absolutely owns the character. It's an exceptional body of work, with top-notch acting from people who didn't necessarily make it big.
We get to hear the great repeated line (one that came from the show's inspiration, DCI Jackie Malton) "Don't call me ma'am - I'm not the queen" - which is especially funny as Mirren later became her.
With Steven Tomkinson, Frank Finlay, and dedicated to Tom Bell, who died just before the film was aired.
Interesting - watching a fabulous extras film - that she particularly enjoyed the level of involvement - in scripts, director and casting choices - she had in the series. Why was she not even BAFTA nominated for this (she won the Emmy)??
Wednesday, 7 October 2015
Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness (2003 Tom Hooper)
Strong stuff about Bosnia-Serbia conflict in Peter Berry's story (another writer without much on his CV), which makes Jane - and thus us too - look at cleaners differently. The King's Speech Tom Hooper directs Mirren, Liam Cunningham, Velibor Topic (good), Oleg Menshikov (also good as the name-changing optician), Ben Miles, Mark Strong. I'm not quite sure who Olegar Fedoro played but he debuted in Stalker!
She always gets her man, and manages to upset Scotland yard into the bargain.
Helen was nominated for an Emmy for this (but won for the Scent of Darkness and the final film) and episodes 2, 3 and 5. The British Academy gave her the award three years running for the first three (you can imagine how the other nominees were feeling in the 1994 ceremony!) and she was nominated for The Lost Child, Errors of Judgement and this one.
After a seven year break we are finally in 16:9. Larry Smith (The Guard, Calvary, Nemesis) shot it with a somewhat distracting overuse of wide lenses.
We also learn conclusively how to pronounce Duscan Zigic (Duzhan Zhigich).
She always gets her man, and manages to upset Scotland yard into the bargain.
Helen was nominated for an Emmy for this (but won for the Scent of Darkness and the final film) and episodes 2, 3 and 5. The British Academy gave her the award three years running for the first three (you can imagine how the other nominees were feeling in the 1994 ceremony!) and she was nominated for The Lost Child, Errors of Judgement and this one.
After a seven year break we are finally in 16:9. Larry Smith (The Guard, Calvary, Nemesis) shot it with a somewhat distracting overuse of wide lenses.
We also learn conclusively how to pronounce Duscan Zigic (Duzhan Zhigich).
Tuesday, 6 October 2015
Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement (1996 Philip Davis)
Yes, that Phil Davis. We had been lulled into a false sense of security with the last two - this is another 200 minute epic, set in Manchester, written by Guy Andrews and dealing with the corrupt coalition between a senior policeman and a feared local criminal known as 'The Street', rather convincingly played by Stephen Mackintosh.
So we have a new team headed by John Mcardle, with Julia Lane, John Brobbery, and the measured Glasgow tones of David O'Hara.
Barry McCann shot this one, with really good black night scenes, but he wouldn't have liked our ITV DVD box set presentation which crops his (presumably) 14x9 image into 4x3 so that even main characters are often slightly out of frame.
The ending, in which the bent cop stands by his decision to ally with a psycho, seems slightly incredible, but there's the usual very tense finish in the kind of derelict industrial estate that Life on Mars then reclaimed for seventies locations.
So we have a new team headed by John Mcardle, with Julia Lane, John Brobbery, and the measured Glasgow tones of David O'Hara.
Barry McCann shot this one, with really good black night scenes, but he wouldn't have liked our ITV DVD box set presentation which crops his (presumably) 14x9 image into 4x3 so that even main characters are often slightly out of frame.
The ending, in which the bent cop stands by his decision to ally with a psycho, seems slightly incredible, but there's the usual very tense finish in the kind of derelict industrial estate that Life on Mars then reclaimed for seventies locations.
Monday, 5 October 2015
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: One More Mile to Go (1957 AH himself)
Begins as a silent film - husband and wife argues, he kills her. Then sets out in the car to dump the body. Until the end of part one there's no dialogue. Then a traffic cop gets involved, and we're suddenly in a trial run for Psycho (with John Russell on camera).
Simple, neat teleplay by James Cavanagh from a story by FJ Smith features the master's trademark view-POV sequences on a lonely highway.
Simple, neat teleplay by James Cavanagh from a story by FJ Smith features the master's trademark view-POV sequences on a lonely highway.
Prime Suspect: Inner Circles (1995 Sarah Pia Anderson)
Tennison has a female DS who doesn't get any favours - played with commitment by Sarah Stanton (who then became typecast as Eastenders' DCI!). Investigation of murder points to council corruption. Young Kelly Reilly makes an impression, other playing is efficient. Jane buys two bottles of scotch at the supermarket... So would Morse....
Screenwritten by Eric Deacon from a story by Meredith Oakes (no significant credits on either).
Screenwritten by Eric Deacon from a story by Meredith Oakes (no significant credits on either).
Sunday, 4 October 2015
London Road (2015 Rufus Norris)
We had to see this following Norris's film Broken (2012). Norris is an intense-looking theatre director - Q correctly identifies the film as having operatic roots (comparing it to Turandot at one point!). Having no idea what it was about we were initially intrigued by curiously worded singing by TV presenters, then realised that everything in it is real words spoken by residents of Ipswich road where murderer was caught. The effect is incredible. Often very funny e.g. the two girls who can't trust anyone, the TV presenters outside court. But also very impactful - in particular the song performed by the (remaining) prostitutes - we hear some of the real material in audio at the end - and this is the way all of writer Alecky Blythe's stuff is constructed. (This was originally a stage musical.)
Unfortunately for us, Norris is halfway through a year-long stint as resident director at the National, so no more films for the time being.
With the utterly fabulous as always Olivia Colman, Anita Dobson, Kate Fleetwood, Paul Thornley, Janet Henfrey and (briefly) Tom Hardy.
Music by Adam Cork, shot by Danny Cohen (with a noticeable shift from desaturated to full colour as the story progresses).
Unfortunately for us, Norris is halfway through a year-long stint as resident director at the National, so no more films for the time being.
With the utterly fabulous as always Olivia Colman, Anita Dobson, Kate Fleetwood, Paul Thornley, Janet Henfrey and (briefly) Tom Hardy.
Music by Adam Cork, shot by Danny Cohen (with a noticeable shift from desaturated to full colour as the story progresses).
Miss Marple: Nemesis (2007 Nicholas Winding Refn)
As previously described, one of the most stylish of the series.
Refn is Danish and lived in New York from eight. Only God Forgives (2013) was his second pairing with Ryan Gosling, a Bangkok-set thriller with mixed reviews.
Refn is Danish and lived in New York from eight. Only God Forgives (2013) was his second pairing with Ryan Gosling, a Bangkok-set thriller with mixed reviews.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967 Arthur Penn)
The film that jumped American film into modernity is claimed to be the first that really embraced the nouvelle vague - evident especially from Dede Allen's dancing editing - and indeed Truffaut initially was approached to direct - writers Robert Benton and David Newman loved A Bout de Souffle and Truffaut; Robert Towne then worked on it.
Truffaut finally rejected it after learning Beatty had bought the script and was producer.
Faye Dunaway is just great, for example in scene where she's scoffing a burger and Beatty tells her to change her hair. Also the vision of the blonde, stocking-wearing moll brandishing a tommy gun is memorable indeed.
I realised after that Michael J Pollard's character is the couple's adopted son. With Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons (AA), Gene Wilder. Burnett Guffey's photography is superb, memorably in shot which catches the sun going behind a cloud over a field, but also in the pastel scenes where Bonnie visits her family (amusingly he's reported to have hated the way he was made to shoot it).
The way they are executed at the end disgusts even the cops. It's still quite an ending.
Jack Warner hated it. The critics hated it, except a young Roger Ebert, who had just started working as a reviewer. And according to Newton, Pauline Kael attempted to rescue it in her fierce defence in the New York Times.
Fabulous, and still fresh.
Truffaut finally rejected it after learning Beatty had bought the script and was producer.
"Actually", he wrote to Elinor Jones, "I have no admiration for Warren Beatty and, moreover, he seems to me an extremely unpleasant person. As far as I'm concerned, he and Marlon Brando, and several others, are on a little list I have classified in my head as 'Better not to make films at all than to make films with these people'."'Truffaut', de Baeque & Toubiana (1999).
Faye Dunaway is just great, for example in scene where she's scoffing a burger and Beatty tells her to change her hair. Also the vision of the blonde, stocking-wearing moll brandishing a tommy gun is memorable indeed.
I realised after that Michael J Pollard's character is the couple's adopted son. With Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons (AA), Gene Wilder. Burnett Guffey's photography is superb, memorably in shot which catches the sun going behind a cloud over a field, but also in the pastel scenes where Bonnie visits her family (amusingly he's reported to have hated the way he was made to shoot it).
The way they are executed at the end disgusts even the cops. It's still quite an ending.
Jack Warner hated it. The critics hated it, except a young Roger Ebert, who had just started working as a reviewer. And according to Newton, Pauline Kael attempted to rescue it in her fierce defence in the New York Times.
Fabulous, and still fresh.
Saturday, 3 October 2015
What Women Want (2000 Nancy Meyers)
Written by Josh Goldsmith, Cathy Yuspa and Diane Drake. By and large a great story and in getting into the heads of women actually unique, refreshing, original.
Ph. Dean Cundey.
No conversations this time about whether Clooney would have been better, rather enjoying Mel's performance. With the questionable Helen Hunt, Alan Alda, Marisa Tomei, Ashley Johnson (the daughter), Delta Burke and Valerie Perrine (who amusingly don't seem to generate any thoughts at all) and Judy Greer as the quietly despairing filing girl (the film's most poignant moments).
Ph. Dean Cundey.
No conversations this time about whether Clooney would have been better, rather enjoying Mel's performance. With the questionable Helen Hunt, Alan Alda, Marisa Tomei, Ashley Johnson (the daughter), Delta Burke and Valerie Perrine (who amusingly don't seem to generate any thoughts at all) and Judy Greer as the quietly despairing filing girl (the film's most poignant moments).
Short Cuts (1993 Robert Altman Co-scr)
There's something distinctive about Altman - the slow zooms, overlapping dialogue, use of music, ensemble cast - that's unique and has been since MASH.
It's probably useful to group the cast together like the film does, despite the story overlaps.
So we have:
Andie MacDowell, Bruce Davison, Jack Lemmon and Zane Cassidy, crossing swords with revengeful baker Lyle Lovett.. (Has one of the best moments where MacDowell loses it, then he starts offering them cakes).
Julianne Moore, Matthew Modine. Anne Archer and Fred Ward as the quartet who have such a successful dinner party they're still hanging around the next day.
Then we have the rather good and understated Jennifer Jason Leigh who's with Chris Penn, plus Lili Taylor and Robert Downey Jr. in the most shocking story development.
Madeleine Stowe puts up with asshole cop Tim Robbins, having affair with Frances McDormand, which ex Peter Gallagher dislikes. 'Susie' is the male, motorbike travelling dog.
And don't forget the flaky relationship of Lily Tomlin and Tom Waits.
Finally singer Annie Ross and daughter (and actual cellist) Lori Singer.
Shot by Walt Lloyd in Panavision. Dylan Tichenor is an assistant editor and seeing he later cut Magnolia there's a definite link in the material and the way it's presented. (Also The Town, There Will be Blood, Zero Dark Thirty, Doubt, The Asassination of Jess James by the Coward Robert Ford, Brokeback Mountain, The Royal Tenenbaums, Unbreakable, Boogie Nights).
It's probably useful to group the cast together like the film does, despite the story overlaps.
So we have:
Andie MacDowell, Bruce Davison, Jack Lemmon and Zane Cassidy, crossing swords with revengeful baker Lyle Lovett.. (Has one of the best moments where MacDowell loses it, then he starts offering them cakes).
Julianne Moore, Matthew Modine. Anne Archer and Fred Ward as the quartet who have such a successful dinner party they're still hanging around the next day.
Then we have the rather good and understated Jennifer Jason Leigh who's with Chris Penn, plus Lili Taylor and Robert Downey Jr. in the most shocking story development.
Madeleine Stowe puts up with asshole cop Tim Robbins, having affair with Frances McDormand, which ex Peter Gallagher dislikes. 'Susie' is the male, motorbike travelling dog.
And don't forget the flaky relationship of Lily Tomlin and Tom Waits.
Finally singer Annie Ross and daughter (and actual cellist) Lori Singer.
Shot by Walt Lloyd in Panavision. Dylan Tichenor is an assistant editor and seeing he later cut Magnolia there's a definite link in the material and the way it's presented. (Also The Town, There Will be Blood, Zero Dark Thirty, Doubt, The Asassination of Jess James by the Coward Robert Ford, Brokeback Mountain, The Royal Tenenbaums, Unbreakable, Boogie Nights).
Friday, 2 October 2015
Detour (1945 Edgar G. Ulmer)
One of the tautest, shortest (68 minutes on DVD) films noir, snappily written by Martin Goldsmith and (according to the director*) made in six days (several of them in front of a back projection screen). Ann Savage is memorably nasty, Tom Neal is the voice-overed, doomed protagonist, who in real life did time for manslaughtering his own wife.
As fatalistic as the best of them, there isn't a well-known name in the credits (except for Bud Westmore) and the film only seems to exist in warped and jumpy form, like watching Tarantino's Death Proof. In fact, viewed with a sense of irony, the film is pretty funny and still effective - when he's tugging on the telephone cord, you know he's killing her...
Lighting of the flashback scenes is reminiscent of the same year's Brief Encounter.
Ulmer worked with Murnau ('the best') and co-directed People on Sunday, with Robert Siodmak, Eugene Schufftan, Fred Zinnemann and Billy Wilder. According to Eddie Muller (who includes this in his Top 25 noirs), Ulmer fell for Shirley Castle who divorced her husband, Carl Laemmle's cousin, who 'got even by blackballing Ulmer at all the major studios. Poverty Row became home, but Castle remained his devoted wife for the rest of his life'.
* In Peter Bogdanovich's 'Who the Devil Made It?' From the same source we know that Ulmer's favourites of his own films were this, The Black Cat and Naked Dawn.
As fatalistic as the best of them, there isn't a well-known name in the credits (except for Bud Westmore) and the film only seems to exist in warped and jumpy form, like watching Tarantino's Death Proof. In fact, viewed with a sense of irony, the film is pretty funny and still effective - when he's tugging on the telephone cord, you know he's killing her...
Lighting of the flashback scenes is reminiscent of the same year's Brief Encounter.
Ulmer worked with Murnau ('the best') and co-directed People on Sunday, with Robert Siodmak, Eugene Schufftan, Fred Zinnemann and Billy Wilder. According to Eddie Muller (who includes this in his Top 25 noirs), Ulmer fell for Shirley Castle who divorced her husband, Carl Laemmle's cousin, who 'got even by blackballing Ulmer at all the major studios. Poverty Row became home, but Castle remained his devoted wife for the rest of his life'.
* In Peter Bogdanovich's 'Who the Devil Made It?' From the same source we know that Ulmer's favourites of his own films were this, The Black Cat and Naked Dawn.
The Proposal (2009 Anne Fletcher)
I quite like seeing films directed by women, there can be something slightly different about them - this one isn't. It's written by a man - Pete Chiarelli - not too well I have to say.
Some films are like pebbles bouncing along the bottom of the sea, like this one. Some are happy dolphins swimming above, like a Crowe or Bogdanovich. (Very occasionally, like Tarkovsky, you get the whole ocean.)
Anyway, film is exceedingly dumb as hard-nosed boss Sandra Bullock (see earlier misgivings) forces (?) Ryan Reynolds (as bland as a teddy bear) to marry her. Naturally there is some confusion (though nowhere nearly as much as there should be) from parents Mary Steenburgen and Craig T Nelson and granny Betty White (who provides the film's only joke in a helicopter). Denis O'Hare is one of The Good Wife's judges.
Shot in Dulux tones by Oliver Stapleton.
Prime Suspect: The Lost Child (1995 John Madden)
We have become even more conventional in shorter TV film length episode written by Paul Billing (and shot by David Odd), though story of abducted baby and paedophile is gripping. Robert Glenister is the PS, Leslie Sharp his missus. Mossie Smith returns. Tennison is the Gov'nor now but is just as hands on as always.
Thursday, 1 October 2015
Prime Suspect 3 (1993 David Drury)
In true The Wire style we change subject matter again, this time focusing on paedophilia and high level corruption - a hot and timely topic indeed. Jane's moved to vice, reteaming with Tom Bell (who surprises us by being both compassionate and good with the kids) and Richard Hawley and encountering a new team including Mark Strong, shady Andrew Woodall, Philip Wright and out-of-the-closet Mark Drewry.
Most interesting cast also includes David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi in drag, Ciaran Hinds, Jonny Lee Miller and wee Danny Dyer.
Seems like the series might be the template for The Wire, The Killing etc. though this one is rather more conventional - more music, less docu-approach.
She ought to have made it clear that one of her officers was HIV suspected through. But the scene in which Mirren stands up to her superiors is wonderful indeed.
Most interesting cast also includes David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi in drag, Ciaran Hinds, Jonny Lee Miller and wee Danny Dyer.
Seems like the series might be the template for The Wire, The Killing etc. though this one is rather more conventional - more music, less docu-approach.
She ought to have made it clear that one of her officers was HIV suspected through. But the scene in which Mirren stands up to her superiors is wonderful indeed.
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