Chalet Girl (2011 Phil Traill)

Last seen in 2013, Chalet Girl wants to make up its mind whether it's a pop video or a film.

Felicity Jones is great, and we agree that even a sixty second appearance by Bill Nighy in anything will immediately elevate and enrich it. Ken Duken is good as her instructor buddy; with Tamsin Egerton, Bill Bailey, Ed Westwick, Brooke Shields.

Shot by someone called Ed Wild, it's not the best film in the world, though manages still to be rather enjoyable.

They Might Be Giants (1971 Anthony Harvey)

Often winning comedy about man who thinks he's Sherlock Holmes, treated by psychiatrist Dr Watson (George C Scott and Joanna Woodward, both delightful). Ending though is a scrambled egg; in its inconclusion, it's very much of its time. James Goldman (William's brother) adapted his own play, as he had The Lion in Winter - also directed by Harvey, also with a John Barry score.

Victor Kemper shot it, Jack Gilford, Rue McLanahan are in support.

My Voyage to Italy (2001 Martin Scorsese) - part 1

Quite glum these neo-realists. Marty shares whole great chunks of key Rossellinis, de Sicas etc, meaning you don't then actually have to watch Paisa, Europe 51, the delightful-looking The Flowers of St Francis, the depressing Umberto D... Nice to see a bit of Gold of Naples, not convinced it's a comedy classic. Reminded how good is the acting of father and son in Bicycle Thieves (why is it always translated into the singular?)

Four hour film needs to be split over two Sundays. No mention of who shot any of these classics.

Dirty Harry (1971 Don Siegel & prod)

Well, it's been a while - good to see in its proper Panavision ratio (unlike the ITV broadcasts).

I was surprised at how much Lethal Weapon takes after it.

The distinctive scene in which Harry tortures the psycho (Andy Robinson - rather good) and the camera pulls away and up into the sky (helicopter?) isn't nearly as powerful as it was, though the moment 'Scorpio' pays for himself to be beaten up is still quite nasty.

It was Bruce Surtees' third film - after The Beguiled and Play Misty - dad was busy with Bogdanovich on Last Picture Show. I always noticed his blue skies. There's some cool deep focus going on here in sniper scenes.

That jazzy score is by Lalo Schifrin.

The way John Vernon is credited as "the mayor" is really corny.

Straight Outta Compton (2015 F. Gary Gray)

Who - one wonders - is F. Gary Gray? And why is this film so long? An hour in, it already felt too long. It's one of those films - not like Any Human Heart...

And - to fuel the current Oscar/black debate - I'd have to say that Paul Giamatti is the best actor in this version of the NWA rap confluence, which features O'Shea Jackson Jr. (Cube), Corey Hawkins (Dre), Jason Mitchell (E).

The girls don't get much of a look-in, no-siree. (Unless you count the scanty clad type.)

Shot in drab tones by Matthew Libatique in widescreen.

The genuine response to the LA police harassment, early angry lyrics (when Q isn't talking over them), is there. Loved seeing the mini-Moog again.

Carnal Knowledge (1971 Mike Nichols)

You have to blame Jules Feiffer for this cynical and dull analysis of male shallowness, enacted by ascendant star Jack Nicholson and Graduate musician Art Garfunkel (let's not forget the director/actor collaboration on Catch-22 either), Candice Bergen and Ann-Margaret, but Mike Nichols has also given it a dry portrayal, at arm's length (even the music is all from natural sources).

Good, dark, rich (chocolate ad) lightning though, from Giueseppe Rotunno (in Panavision). Editor Sam O'Steen.

Drillbit Taylor (2008 Steven Brill)

However, if I thought the last film was merely incompetent, this one really sucks, handling its story about school bullying incredibly badly, with hardly a pretence towards reality and with barely a laugh. I can only assume that co-writer Seth Rogan was extremely stoned, as was Owen Wilson when he agreed to take the part.

To say that it actually would have been a relief to see Larry Clark's incendiary Bully instead is indicative of this film's epic failure.

Out of the Fog (1962 Montgomery Tully & scr)

Ex-con David Sumner is as sulky as a teenager - thus he gets no sympathy from either us or anyone else much in the film. And when he's suspected of being the blonde-murderer of 'the flats' ("I wouldn't go across the flats at this time of night" etc etc.), we don't really care. With Susan Travers, James Hayter, Michael Ripper, Renee Houston.

Very cheap British 'thriller' is also notable for its lesson in how not to score music for film.

Danny Collins (2015 Dan Fogelman & scr)

We really liked Crazy Stupid Love so it was good to see a new Fogelman, featuring one of Al Pacino's most winning performances in ages, with Jennifer Garner, Christopher Plummer (with good sarcastic stuff), Bobby Cannavale and Annette Bening in key support.

It was enjoyable and well-written, if anything a little predictable and more straightforward than the earlier film. Didn't think much of the new song Collins had written either!

Steve Yedlin shot it, Julie Monroe (Mud) edited.

Lost River (2014 Ryan Gosling & scr)

We didn't quite know what to make of Ryan's somewhat over-reaching debut on a film that's difficult to classify (or to like much, it must be added). Played out against a backdrop of over-sold repossessed sub-prime mortgaged properties, film seems set in a kind of Mad Max-like low tech, post apocalypse, but in score and dark lighting has a horror-film kind of thing going on, reinforced when mum Christina Hendricks walks literally through the jaws of the devil into a horror-show inspired freak club.

Meanwhile Gosling-like protagonist Iain de Caestecker befriends Saiorse Ronan (whose gran - to add to the resonance - is none other than former horror queen Barbara Steele) whilst trying to evade scissor-happy nasty Matt Smith.

To me though it ends up a kind of mythical tale of a knight who descends into the underwater city to rescue a magical object with which to slay the dragon and save the princess. This coupled with David Lynch moments (and scenes in a sex vault I was happy not to understand) leaves something of a confusion in the audience.

Stylish images from Benoit Debie, who shot the controversial Irreversible and the unmentionable Spring Breakers.

Lunch Hour (1962* James Hill)

John Mortimer has written (& co-produced) a most interesting, concise film in which delightful designer Shirley Ann Field has no problem at all agreeing to a daytime-only affair with married executive Robert Stephens (both good). Everyone's at it, all around them. Even in the Embankment gardens!

Then she adopts the role he has given about her being his wife from Scarborough (in order to appease annoying hotel manageress Kay Walsh) quite literally (the camera puts her in the family home with chores, kids, etc.) until she effectively bounces Stephens' own infidelity back on him.... And thus that's the end of that.

So quite modern in its editing (Ted Hooker) and treatment (Hill was of Born Free fame) - they would have had the chance to slightly absorb the nouvelle vague I suppose - professionally shot by Wolfgang Suschitzky.

*This is the date on the print we saw though film is always credited as being of 1961 provenance.

The Woman on the Beach (1947 Jean Renoir)

Joan Bennett, Robert Ryan, Charles Bickford (Mr Lucky, Duel in the Sun, Fallen Angel).

Will Ryan recover from PTSD? Will he marry long-time gal Nan Leslie? Is Bennett a manipulator? Is Bickford blind? All intriguing questions, in atypical Renoir material, derived from novel 'None So Blind' (Mitchell Wilson), adapted by Michael Hogan and written by Renoir and Frank Davis.

Displays some fine montage work, itself a lost art, by Harry Palmer. Shot by Leo Tover and Harry Wild for RKO. Well made and acted, there's something a bit different about it.

The Goodbye Girl (1977 Herbert Ross)

Ross allows terrific actors to really breathe through long takes.

Marsha Mason, Richard Dreyfuss, Quinn Cummings.

Neil Simon wrote it, was nominated by both BAFTA and Oscar (as was his wife Mason); Dreyfuss won.

Foxcatcher (2014 Bennett Miller)

Steve Carell (who kept reminding me of The Penguin), Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Vanessa Redgrave.

Really odd film is made almost like a Kubrick in its dry detached way - however it's not really funny. In fact it's a strange idea (based on a true story, but so what?) and resultant project is nonplussing.

Technically fine, but really quite dull.

重慶森林 / Chungking Express (1994 Wong Kar-Wai & scr)

Confusing film has 'What??' factor as first story abruptly stops and second takes over - very charming and quiddical (e.g. the cleaning cloth that cries).

Chris Doyle of course in charge of camera department, mainly responsible for second story, Tony Lau for the first. There's that same process from his other films - a sort of multiple frame printing effect that illustrates the first section.

Initially featuring Brigitte Lin and Takeshi Kaneshiro; then the utterly delightful Faye Wong and Tony Leung; with Jinquan Chen as the manager of the 'Midnight Express'. Indeed, film is reminiscent of an early, fun Godard.

Carry on Up the Khyber (1968 Gerald Thomas)

Very poor entry with nary a joke, save for the amusing gate that protects the pass, and the end dinner party scene. You have to admire Terry Scott's gusto.

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012 Marc Webb)

Fairly faithful to the Lee-Ditko original story, and proving that the wearing of a silly outfit does not stop you giving a great performance (Andrew Garfield). (Though the fact he has to overpower physically the bully Flash to make him respect him is not very helpful.) Good cast: Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Sally Field, Martin Sheen, Denis Leary, Irrfan Khan.

Rather too much giant Lizard stuff though. Written by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve (Harry Potter) Kloves. Webb made 500 Days of Summer.

Beat the Devil (1953 John Huston)

And finally for a bit of fine madness, extremely quirky story (apparently written during filming by Huston and Truman Capote, of all people) involves a typically Hustonian group of disparate characters involved in uranium exploitation in Africa, holed up in Italy (actually Ravello - a name given to one of the characters).

Full of lively characters, dialogue, incidents, cinematically told, a truly entertaining and offbeat yarn, shot with intelligence by Oswald Morris (they collaborated often) and operated by Freddie Francis. Ralph Kemplen edited.

From Claud Cockburn's novel. Featuring Bogie (a Santana co-production), Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollabrigida, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre, Edward Underdown (Chelm), Ivor Barnard (the major), Marco Tulli, Mario Perrone (on board ship), Bernard Lee, Saro Urzi (permanently pissed ship's captain) and Manuel Serano - uncredited as the arab who wants to meet Rita Hayworth. What would you call these characters now? - entrepreneurs!

Film has fallen out of copyright and thus exists in any number of abominable reproductions of which the DigicomTV release is by far the best. Looking forward to the day when it is remastered and rereleased on Blu-Ray (or whatever the next format to come along is called).

A Simple Plan (1998 Sam Raimi)

Played straight adaptation by author Scott B Smith in which Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton and Brent Briscoe cover up discovery of $4.4m, then start killing people without a moment's thought, egged on by seemingly placid housewife Bridget Fonda. Had it perhaps been presented as a black comedy we might have given this unbelievable turn of events less scrutiny - as it is the whole thing (including twist ending) could have been accommodated in one of Hitch's half hour shows.

The crow wrangler is good though, and the acting is fine. We recognise Gary Cole from The Good Wife.

The Lash (1934 Henry Edwards)

Really creaky, static, drawing room drama in which errant son Johnny Mills will not mend his ways - until daddy (Lyn Harding) whips him into shape. Really.

Amazing that such a lumpy thing could be made the same time as Vorhaus, Hitch and Powell were doing such zippy stuff in the UK - not to mention how Hollywood looked in comparison - nor how pale this looks against the late German silent period. Johnny I'm afraid acquits himself no better than anyone else, and there's not a familiar name behind the camera either.

Libeled Lady (1936 Jack Conway)

Starry MGM classic comedy, with William Powell unwittingly falling for millionairess Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow unwittingly falling for him, Spencer Tracy (the newbie in the group) trying not to get sued by Walter Connolly.

Written by Maurine Watkins, Howard Emmett Rogers and George Oppenheimer from a story by Wallace Sullivan.

Norbert Brodine is on camera.

There's a great tune - I presume a hit of the day - in background at 37 minutes in.

The Lady from Shanghai (1947 Orson Welles)

Based on Sherwood King's 'If I Die Before I Wake', adapted by Welles and uncredited others, and filmed on Errol Flynn's yacht Zaca (where allegedly Orson tried cocaine with the star - and decided he liked it too much*). Rita Hayworth and Orson had separated, yet during filming he lived back with her.

It's a bright, bonkers film (to paraphrase the original) with Welles' Irish sailor constantly berating himself for his stupidity as he tangles with 'frenzied sharks' Everett Sloane, Glenn Anders, Ted de Corsia and the elusive Rita Hayworth (great when she starts speaking Chinese in exotic Chinatown end section).

Shot by Charles Lawton, edited by Viola Lawrence, film was hacked about by Colombia, had inappropriate music added, yet survives as a distinctly Orwellian experience with a crafty and noiry plot and a terrific eye-teasing finale in the hall of mirrors.

Still love the single, stand-out shot where Anders tells him his plan high on the cliff of Acapulco and the camera suddenly is looking straight down on them (perhaps one of Welles' 'shock effects' which had to be toned down). And Rita in big close up singing 'Stormy Weather'. Oh yeah, and the aquarium scene. Oh, and also that very funny and distinctive courtroom scene with disturbing jurors, over-reacting spectators, Sloane cross-examining himself, etc.

*Barbara Leaming (1985)

This Means War (2012 McG)

Who's McG? I'm not sure I want to know. Supercops Chris Pine and Tom Hardy battle over Reese Witherspoon, who seems never to age.

It's quite fun.

Are You Here (2013 Matthew Weiner & scr)

Odd film about weatherman Owen Wilson, bipolar friend Zach Gallifianakis and girl Laura Ramsey. What's it about? I dunno, but ending (real horse contrasted against toy one) suggests Zach has gone the wrong (materialist) way.

Peter B has a good cameo as a sane judge, and Amy Poehler is in it (rather good as hard-faced sister); and Paul Schulze is probably familiar to us from Nurse Jackie. Mad Men's Christopher Manley shot it.

Love Letters (1945 William Dieterle)

Not the first teaming of Cotten with Jennifer Jones (that was Since You Went Away) isn't as good as Portrait of Jennie but is still enjoyable - he a disillusioned veteran and she an amnesiac. Good score by Victor Young; Lee Garmes shot it. It's a Paramount production with both stars out on loan from Selznick.

With Ann Richards, Cecil Kellaway (I Married a Witch, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?), Gladys Cooper. Written - somewhat obscurely - by philosopher Ayn Rand, adapted from Chris Massie's novel 'Pity My Simplicity' (he also wrote 'Corridor of Mirrors').

William Dee-terler.

Images (1972 Robert Altman & scr)

Not much different to when I first saw it thirty years ago, though it's interesting to note how much Graeme Clifford's editing makes it seem (at times ) like a Nic Roeg film, particularly The Man Who Fell to Earth. (This was his first film; he also edited FIST, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Don't Look Now; then directed Frances and unnotable others.)

Vilmos lights very realistically and captures some lovely (Ireland) locations (in Panavision). Loved also the scene in the car near the end comprising coloured lights

Susannah York is bloody marvellous (she won best actress at Cannes) as the mentally ill wife - both her husband René Auberjonois and especially friend Hugh Millais are horrible; fantasy man is Marcel Bozzuffi (The French Connection, Illustrious Corpses) and the girl (who almost is the young Suzannah character) is Cathryn Harrison.

Susannah's own story 'In Search of Unicorns' adds a haunting layer; Altman says the 'DNA' of his quite atypical film is Persona. Music and sound effects by John Williams and Stomu Yamash'ta add to overall creepiness, as does that jigsaw.

Nickelodeon (1976 Peter Bogdanovich)

It's been far too long. Film is as subtle as its photography (Laszlo Kovacs) in that it's both an affectionate parody of slapstick silent cinema as well as record of this anarchic period of film history, based on the memoirs of Alan Dwan and Raoul Walsh. Great stunts (team led by Hal Needham) and moments such as the hot air balloon sequence, fist fight between director and star, seeing their own films re-edited; long takes perfectly choreographed. Contains some beautiful framing in the style of Hawks (characters grouped into shot, such as where Tatum O'Neal comes up with their plot) and marvellous sequences, beautifully edited (attributed to William Carruth but I would guess largely coming from the director). Written by PB and W.D. Richter.

Ryan O'Neal in good diffident form, Burt Reynolds in good simpleton form, Jane Hitchcock (a model, one of only two films), Brian Keith good as bombastic producer, Stella Stevens, John Ritter.

As to the camerawork, it's very naturalistic, but just notice that scene near the end in the car where all the figures are beautifully etched out of the blackness.

The Nanny Diaries (2007 Shari Springer Bergman & Robert Pulcini)

These former documentarists are a husband and wife team; this is derived from a novel by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. Scarlett Johansson is the nanny, with Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti, Nicholas Art (the boy), Chris Evans, Nate Corddry and Alicia Keys (The Secret Life of Bees).

The angle of the nanny as anthropologist works.

Where's "Would you mind knocking?"

No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo and Vilmos (2008 James Chressanthis & scr)

Vilmos Zsigmond has died - January 1, aged 85 - a cameraman who I could recognise and love even as a teenager - outliving his friend Laszlo Kovacs by nine years - as Audrey Kovacs commented, they were about as close as two men could be - not surprisingly, after eluding death escaping from Hungary, supporting each other's careers.

It is quite something when you look at their collaborative body of work particularly in the 'American New Wave': Easy Rider, The Hired Hand, The Last Movie, McCabe and Mrs Miller, Deliverance, Five Easy Pieces, The King of Marvin Gardens, Images, Cinderella Liberty, The Long Goodbye, Scarecrow, Sugarland Express, What's Up Doc?, Paper Moon, New York, New York (marks off for showing these clips in the wrong ratio), Shampoo, Obsession, Close Encounters, The Deer Hunter and Heaven's Gate - and that's just the seventies.

Good contributions from Peter B, Graeme Clifford, Sharon Stone (who proves enlightened on the subjects of lighting and the contribution of the photography), Ellen Kuras and Bob Rafelson.

Good tips: Deliverance - long takes. Paper Moon - Orson Welles suggesting red filters. Long Goodbye - all on zoom. Five Easy Pieces - outside shots all static. Vilmos generally, having seen America by bus - how important are backgrounds to the story (the outsider sensibility). Vilmos being fired five times from Close Encounters (once by Spielberg, once by his gaffer!). Easy Rider - 'who needs another biker movie?'

As to the film itself, the tricksy moments during the interviews add nothing (in fact are distracting); but you have to praise Mr Chressanthis for getting the film made at all.

Clips from early no-budget sixties movies are hilarious.

Didn't mention the historic 1973 BAFTAs, at which Vilmos was nominated for three films (McCabe, Deliverance and Images) and still lost to Geoffrey Unsworth!

Raffles (1939 Sam Wood)

Positively skips along at outset due to very brisk direction and editing (Sherman Todd).

Detective Dudley Digges is on to our amateur cracksman David Niven rather quickly: wily cat and mouse ensues involving a somewhat underwritten Olivia de Havilland (her brother Douglas Walton even moreso). Dame May Whitty loses her jewels, Lionel Pape is her husband, E.E. Clive one in a long line of Hollywood butlers, Peter Godfrey the burglar who ends up respecting the gentleman thief.

Written by John van Druten  and Sidney Howard, based on E.W. Hornung's novel 'The Amateur Cracksman'. A Sam Goldwyn production, shot by Gregg Toland in a back-projected London.

On Dangerous Ground (1951 Nicholas Ray)

The Cahiers critics loved him - to Truffaut he was 'the passionate discovery of the 'young critics'.. an auteur in our sense of the word', to Godard 'If the cinema no longer existed, Nicholas Ray alone gives the impression of being capable of reinventing it, and what is more, of wanting to'. Certainly we seem on familiar ground of a man (a marginalised character from society, as his heroes are) struggling with his own violence (In a Lonely Place, Rebel without a Cause), here a burned out cop (Robert Ryan), a Dirty Harry prototype who beats confessions out of low-lives he finds disgusting. These New York scenes are made with a nimble energy achieved through fast camera moves and editing, and even at times what looks like a hand held camera in the car. There's sometimes a crudeness of the 'mise en scène or - if I were to be shocking about it - of framing or the way shots are put together ... far from wishing to excuse it, you must love this lack of artifice..you must recognise the youthful exaggeration of a cinema that is dear to us, where all is sacrificed to expression..to the sharpness of a reflex or a look' (Rivette).

The mood changes when Ryan is sent upstate to help track down the killer of a young girl, accompanied by her father (Ward Bond), finds empathy with killer's sister, blind Ida Lupino.
(Love the moment where the father is so intent on his prey he doesn't even stop to check Ryan is OK after car accident.) Lots of POV from car is welcome.

Written by A.I. Bezzerides (Kiss Me Deadly) and Ray, from Gerald Butler novel 'Mad with Much Heart', with a sensational score by Bernard Herrmann several years before the Hitchcocks; shot by George Diskant for RKO. A real discovery.

(Quotes from the Frenchmen - 'Cahiers du Cinéma, ed. Jim Hillier, 1985.)

Behind the Candelabra (2013 Steven Soderbergh)

Written by Richard LaGravenese for HBO, Michael Douglas and Matt Damon are good, Dan Aykroyd unrecognisable, Debbie Reynolds, Scott Bakula. Unfortunately, no interest at all in Liberace the performer or 'icon', or in the man: thus film somewhat boring, despite professional presentation by Soderbergh 'collaborators' Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard!

Good makeup.

The Big Street (1942 Irving Reis)

Successful translation of Damon Runyon story 'Little Pinks' (he produced) by Leonard Sigelgass, though Runyon's ex-WW1 buddies have been softened up for Hollywood. Henry Fonda good as dope (with great friends) who will do anything for broken good-time girl Lucille Ball (a tough role), supported by a great cast comprising Ray Collins, Sam Levene ('Horsethief'), Eugene Pallette ('Nicely Nicely Johnson'), Agnes Moorehead. Barton Mclane as the crime boss and William Orr, the playboy, plus (uncredited) Louise Beavers and that blonde guy with the glasses who's in that other old film - brain's kicked in, Sullivan's Travels - on the chain gang... y'know.

Apart from the versions of 'Little Miss Marker' it's a shame not more Runyons were adapted. This is shot by Russell Metty, for RKO, and the music is by the indefatigable Roy Webb.

Family Jewels (2010 Chris D'Arienzo & scr)

Um. An almost Pythonesque opening then leads to something quite different - a sort of Knocked Up without any jokes - thus unsettling in tone. Also introduces unploughed red herring (how can you plough a herring?) However the leads are good - Patrick Wilson (Fargo's latest series), Judy Greer (mainly on TV, plus The Descendants) and Chloe Sevigny.

Malcolm McDowell and Cybill Shepherd's parts are underwritten; Jean Smart's is better (thought she looked familiar - also from Fargo!)

One of the best scenes is an intervention by a group of men with genital peculiarities.

So, it was OK. Source: novel by Frank Turner Hollon 'Life Is a Strange Place'.

Oh yeah - the main titles proclaim this was shot in 'Panavision', but it isn't. What's that all about? Plus conception Feb 10, birth Dec 10 = 10 months?? I think this may be a subtle allusion to the fact it is not his child...

Definitely, Maybe (2008 Adam Brooks & scr)

Brooks' only major credit is the Bridget Jones sequel. This is not really a romcom, more of a romantic drama as Ryan Reynolds tells the story of his love life to daughter Abigail Breslin, which features Rachel Weisz, Elizabeth Banks and Isla Fisher (and Kevin Kline).

Introduced us to the 1943 Random House edition of Jane Eyre, with sensational (Nazi-inspired?) wood engravings by Fritz Eichenberg:

This is one of the story's best bits, though otherwise there's a lack of humour, surprise, tension, thrills, intelligence and warmth, making it a curiously flat undertaking.

Shot by Florian Ballhaus in Panavision.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011 Steven Spielberg)

In fact with a dose of Crab with the Golden Claws mixed in for good measure, courtesy of writers Steve Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish. (Rather than then going into Red Rackham's Treasure the next project announced is Prisoners of the Sun.) There's a most satisfying cameo of Hergé at the start but otherwise this is a straight re-telling, beautifully animated with some great sequences like Snowy's chasing of kidnapped Tintin, lovely forties design. The climactic battle between two cranes though is typically sledgehammer Hollywood, though at least they skilfully retold the scene where drunken Haddock relives his battle with the pirate - one of the original's better moments. And I wonder why Snowy isn't talking?

Featuring the voices of Jaime Bell, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg & Nick Frost, Daniel Mays, Toby Jones, Andy Serkis. With the usual team Spielberg collaborators of Williams and Khan.

Animated at Weta Digital, Peter Jackson's New Zealand studio

Scent of a Woman (1992 Martin Brest)

Based on Dino Risi's 1974 Profumo di Donna (reputedly a superior film), itself derived from Giovanni Arpino's novel 'Il buio e il miele' ('Darkness and honey'), Bo Goldman's adaptation involves dilemma of scholarship public schoolboy Chris O'Donnell and how he ends up being helped (rescued) by grizzled blind vet Al Pacino (who won the Oscar for his exquisite performance), and vice versa.

This is the film Paul Thomas Anderson spotted Philip Seymour Hoffman in, and said to himself 'I'm going to work with him'.

Very familiar and good score by Thomas Newman (reminded me a bit of that 1980 Eno album by Laraaji 'Day of Radiance'); shot by Donald Thorin in old master tones. With James Rebhorn as the headmaster, Gabrielle Anwar and a short appearance by Frances (Six Feet Under) Conroy.

Rather long at almost two and a half hours. Somewhat stretches credibility at points, but satisfying entertainment.

Bound for Glory (1976 Hal Ashby)

Haskell ("I'll never work with him again") Wexler has died (December 27) aged 93. (Despite my label, he worked four times with Ashby* - they would have met on In the Heat of the Night - and twice with Norman Jewison, and the poor deep South social background in that film is well caught by him.)

This is his extraordinary colour Oscar, a sublime pastel vision created through flashing the film (about which he sought Vilmos Zsigmond's advice) and by avoiding primary colours in any of the production design. There's also a lot of dirt and dust which helps evoke the times. It seems there's much use of natural light and near dusk, and no obvious lighting in the night scenes. (There's a wonderful close up of Carradine on a train with the setting sun right behind his head.) And according to 'Cinematography Screencraft' it was the first feature to use a Steadicam for the crowd scenes (Peter Ettedgui 1998).

Like Woody Guthrie himself (a splendid performance by David Carradine) Wexler was a wartime merchant seaman; they also shared an uncompromising political persuasion and would have been kindred spirits (as would Woody and Hal), Wexler having made documentaries about South America (such as Target Nicaragua) and Interviews with My Lai Veterans.

Depicting the Americans' barbarity to each other, film no doubt also reflects social issues in then contemporary seventies USA - though also shows the spirit of camaraderie that existed between the poor work-seekers.

Written by Robert Getchell from Guthrie's autobiography. With Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon, Gail Strickland, Randy Quaid, Ji-Tu Kumbuka.

Leonard Rosenman also received Oscar for his adapted score; film, screenplay, costume design and editing (Robert Jones (Shampoo, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?) and Pembroke Herring (Groundhog Day) - no doubt under the watchful eye of former editor Ashby) were also nominated.

* The others were:

Coming Home (1978)
Second Hand Hearts (1981)
Looking' To Get Out (1982)

The Long Kiss Goodnight (2006 Renny Harlin)

Shane Black's scenario is a load of nonsense of course, but great fun. Geena Davis seems to relish role of mother who regains memory as Government assassin, Samuel L Jackson fun in support. It's great actually to watch a super-woman kick the asses of the bad guys.

Guillermo Navarro lights the action richly - particularly a lovely explosion of a miniature truck and bridge (credits also include operator of mechanized deer!)

Has quite a few commonalities with Lethal Weapon, Christmas setting being just one of them.

The girl is Yvonne Zima. bad guys are Craig Bierko, Patrick Malahide, David Morse; with Brian Cox, Tom Amandes.

Edited by William Goldenberg (Argo, The Imitation Game, Seabiscuit, Pleasantville) in such a way that you don't notice its supreme efficiency.

Music by Alan Silvestri.

Shane's latest completed film is Iron Man 3, but soon to be released The Nice Guys - with Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe about 70s private eyes - is a must; also features Yvonne Zima..

The Family Stone (2005 Thomas Bezucha & scr)

Sarah Jessica Parker's character is annoyingly wound-up - without explanation - and Rachel McAdams' character is annoyingly hostile - also without explanation - so first half feels quite dissonant. Also, like the family - comprising Diane Keaton, Craig T Nelson, Luke Wilson, Ty Giordano and Elizabeth Reaser - we can't comprehend what Dermot Mulroney sees in her.

Settles down when Claire Danes arrives and Wrong Sister Syndrome ensues. Parker's character doesn't look much more fun when wasted.

Michael Giacchino composed the seasonally-referencing music.

A film which is both pale and prickly.

Force of Evil (1948 Abraham Polonsky)

Most interestingly written noir sounds almost poetic - difficult to describe, like a forerunner of Poliakoff?; scenario is organised numbers rackets with Cain and Abel (directly referenced) theme. 'Adapted from Ira Wolfert's keenly-researched journalistic novel' (Muller). Full of quotable and most interesting lyrics - I mean dialogue - between John Garfield and Thomas Gomez, Marie Windsor (boss's wife), Howland Chamberlain, Roy Roberts, Beatrice Pearson, Paul Fox etc. With arresting moments of action such as Chamberlain's murder, conclusion at bridge ("I kept on going down further") just before which I'd swear I saw a very early use of zoom lens.

Evocatively shot by George Barnes - see great compositions above, and who lights one particular staircase scene brilliantly - apparently guided by Polonsky towards Hopper - with music by David Raksin.

Doom, death, inexorability - loved also the symbolic moment where Garfield leaves Beatrice Pearson on a high-up fireplace. An independent (Enterprise) production

Dreamgirls (2006 Bill Condon & scr)

Bought this off the back of Condon's Mr Holmes but this Broadway adaptation is a curious choice as - for one thing - it pretends it isn't a full-on musical for the first third, and the story and contrivances are rather cheesy, despite the serious background (efforts of black R&B artists to get onto white playlists). Ultra clichéd really, e.g the very ending.

Good editing but too much of it - there's hardly a single song routine which isn't edited to shit (Virginia Katz). With all this live singing and people who can perform it would have been nice just to see it integrally. Lyrics leave something to be desired also. Nice photography by Tobias Schliessler.

Standout performance from Jennifer Hudson, who won Oscar, plus Beyoncé, Anika Noni Rose and Sharon Leal, who all do their own singing; and Jaime Foxx, Danny Glover, Keith Robinson, Eddie Murphy.

His Kind of Woman (1951 John Farrow)

Mexican-projection-set noir with Mitchum caught up in plot to impersonate criminal so he can re-enter USA, mixing with Jane Russell (it's a Howard Hughes production, who also used to lend Mitchum desk space in his office when the actor was still trying to be a writer).

Russell: "Why don't you drink?"
Mitchum: "I might forget what I'm doing."

Frank Fenton and Jack Leonard have written a great collection of characters displaying various shades of suspicion, acted by Tim Holt, Charles McGraw, Marjorie Reynolds, Raymond Burr, Leslie Banning, Jim Backus, Philip Van Zandt.

Unlikely hero comes in form of Hollywood acting dandy Vincent Price, who saves the day and steals the film. Odd mishmash of moods ensues: thus Mitchum's savage beating on board boat is followed by Price and his hastily assembled army sailing out.. then sinking in a lovely comic moment.

Unusual production for RKO in its length (two hours) and lack of familiar names behind camera (which is directed by Harry Wild).

Carry on Teacher (1959 Gerald Thomas)

Series regulars Williams, Jacques, Connor, Hawtrey and Sims are governed by headmaster Ted Ray, whilst school inspected by Leslie Phillips and Rosalind Knight. Pupils (led by Richard O'Sullivan) plan anarchy.

Very mild comedy, like an alcohol-free lager, provokes the odd titter as a result of extraordinary noises or gesticulations performed by cast. Plus usual double entendres:

Knight to gym teacher Sims: "Have you any complaints about your equipment?"
Sims: "Well I haven't had any so far."

Old-fashioned in that both Phillips and Connor want to marry the girls they've just met immediately.

Dark Passage (1947 Delmer Daves & scr)

Most intriguing beginning with escape from San Quentin shown almost entirely with a subjective camera (including a great shot with a camera mounted in a barrel which rolls down the hill). Then our escaped convict meets a most annoying man (well played by Bruce Bennett), shortly followed by Betty Bacall...

The device becomes a bit wearisome though, and halfway through this opening section I think it would have been a great trick to actually show our convict with Bogie's voice perfectly lip synced over it (being the pro he was I'm sure he could have pulled this off).

Most interesting plot from David Goodis novel, published the year before (his writings were the source for Shoot the Pianist) as convict meets extremely helpful cabbie (Tom D'Andrea) who just happens to know a backstreet plastic surgeon who's happy to start work at 3 a.m. (Houseley Stevenson). And Bogie keeps getting set up for crimes he didn't commit - including closest friend Clifton Young - in increasingly spirally nightmare which isn't in fact resolved (despite happy ending). Agnes Moorehead is the femme fatale, Douglas Kennedy the detective.

Really rather good, benefits from lots of interesting San Francisco locations, shot by Sid Hickox (who also lit Betty in The Big Sleep and To Have and Have Not) with music (though not much of it) by Franz Waxman - Warner Brothers.

Unlike our previous film, the kisses in this are guaranteed not screen kisses.

One Chance (2013 David Frankel)

Frankel made the Devil Wear Prada and Marley and Me, two films with great scripts - this one, by Justin Zackham (The Bucket List) less so. Not sure the charming, hard-working and professional James Corden can quite carry off the lead - maybe though under a different director? All the singing is of course dubbed over - not sure by who.

Alexandra Roach has more purchase on less demanding role as girlfriend (unless, of course, she's a right bitch - in which case it's a tour de force!  ...but I'm sure she isn't). With Julie Walters, Mackenzie Crook, Colm Meaney, Valeria Bilello and Stanley Townsend as Pavarotti.

Lovely to see some nice Venice footage (shot by Florian Ballhaus in what looks like quite a restrained pallette, at least via our Channel 5 transmission), no doubt filmed at five in the morning. Also interesting to see how industrial and grimy Port Talbot is. Nice to hear all the arias.

One thing though - at the Britain's Got Talent finale, all cut with the real footage, I'd like to have seen it change to the real Paul Potts winning, with him performing the final 'look what I've done' voiceover to real photos. He remains unglimpsed.

Also the rather obvious screen kisses don't help.

The Dark Mirror (1946 Robert Siodmak)

Continuing Hollywood's interest in that new-fangled psychiatry thing, in the shape of a thriller with the novelty twist that identical twins are both played by Olivia de Havilland - quite ingeniously done, and credit must go to Milton Krasner and the visual effects team, which (again according to IMDB) featured an uncredited Eugen Schüfftan.

I thought de Havilland was great because you can see right from the beginning the slight differences in their character, which get more pronounced as it goes on, but the Academy board didn't see it that way. Thomas Mitchell (always good) is the pursuing policeman and Lew Ayres the doctor.

Vladimir Pozner wrote the story, adapted by Nunnally Johnson.

One of the early witnesses is a Mrs Didriksen, which I wonder is Siodmak's salutation to his Berlin buddy Billy Wilder for Double Indemnity.

Great score by Dmitri Tiomkin.

Mr Lucky (1943 H.C. Potter)

Another interesting role for Cary Grant playing well a cold-hearted gambler out to rip off a war charity, Laraine Day and Gladys Cooper - well how could you, especially after they teach you to knit (amusing scenes with Alan Carney ensue).

George Barnes shoots docksides evocatively.

Story by Milton Holmes 'Bundles for Freedom' as adapted by himself and Adrian Scott, with another hundred writers uncredited - wonder which one wrote the (powerful) letter home from Greek mother? Exciting and satisfying ending.

Good cast also includes Charles Bickford as the boat's rugged skipper, Henry Stephenson (Oliver Twist), Paul Stewart (the weasel), Florence Bates.

Music by Roy Webb, wonderful set designs from William Cameron Menzies. RKO.

Человек с киноаппаратом / Man With a Movie Camera (1929 Dziga Vertov)

Astonishing film, not only a culturally fascinating documentary about life in Russian cities but a film about film-making, showing us Mikhail Kaufman filming in all sorts of perilous situations (whilst hand cranking) - though who I wonder is filming him? - and Dziga's wife Elizaveta Svilova at work editing it.

Has sequences of incredible speed and energy and uses a wide variety of other techniques to great effect, such as the superimpositions which show Kaufman towering huge above the city. It wasn't the first use of freeze frame - that honour apparently goes to Hitchcock in 1928's Champagne, which itself is amusing as he was so influenced by Soviet cinema. Vertov may not of course have caught up with this film then. And stop motion photography had been used since the very early days of cinema. But it's the way the sequences are intercut, the relationships between what's in the shot and the one following, the different speeds, that make it so dazzling.

Our version has the Michael Nyman score.

None But the Lonely Heart (1944 Clifford Odets & scr)

From a novel by Richard Llewelyn who like the Grant character had difficulties settling down (he also wrote How Green Was My Valley). Most unusual and interesting story and dialogue (Odets re-wrote The Sweet Smell of Success).

Odets was one who named names in the HUAC investigation. In fact they had already been given, by Elia Kazan, but he was still snubbed by many in the industry and found it increasingly difficult to write and get work thereafter.

Cary Grant, Ethel Barrymore (AA), Barry Fitzgerald, June Duprez, Jane Wyatt, George Coulouris, Dan Duryea, Konstantin Shayne.

Shot by George Barnes. Music by Bakaleinikoff (nom.), edited by Roland Gross (nom.). RKO.

Lease of Life (1954 Charles Frend)

Considering it's about the tribulations of a Yorkshire vicar, Eric Ambler's screenplay manages to be quite involving. Robert Donat had himself come out of convalescence. Kay Walsh, Denholm Elliott, Adrienne Corri, Reginald Beckwith, Cyril Raymond.

Lovely Eastmancolor photography by Douglas Slocombe.

Vida en Sombras / Life in Shadows (1949 Lorenzo Llobet Gracia & scr)

Has the same affection for cinema as Truffaut - indeed the moment the young husband Fernando Ferán Goméz (Spirit of the Beehive) races off to buy his wife Maria Dolores Pradera a melon could be straight out of an Antione Doinel episode. And the protagonist's claim - that unless the director is also the author, then he is nothing more then a foreman - is nothing short of the auteur theory itself, some years ahead of the French.

Very interesting angles (some of them so low as to be almost scary) and editing; great touches such as the end being the beginning.

Also loved the approval from his late wife as the expression in her photo changes.

With Isabel de Pomés and Alfonso Estela. The director's only film is now extremely rare, even in Spain; to be treasured.

The Big Clock (1948 John Farrow)

Searching for a noir I told Q I could offer her a Big Clock or a Dark Mirror. (I'd purchased the Spanish release of On Dangerous Ground for the second time in my life, forgetting you can't remove the subtitles. When I went to look on Amazon to see if any reviewer had pointed it out I realised I had.) But this isn't really a noir. It's kind of too classy (Paramount) and has a domestic sub-plot involving a guy trying to take a long-deserved vacation without being fired.

Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan, George Macready, Rita Johnson, Elsa Lanchester, Henry Morgan (as the heavy!)

Shot with customary skill by John Seitz, with some really clever tracking shots (this is a guy you want on your film), music Victor Young.

The Castle (1997 Rob Sitch)

Ultra low budget poor man's Ealing film with Michael Caton (aka John Bell) pitching his huge lack of intelligence against the Australian legislature in an attempt to save his family's home from being compulsorily purchased. Has a nice deadpan innocent stupidity.

With Anne Tenney, Stephen Curry, Anthony Simcoe, Sophie Lee, Wayne Hope, Eric Bana, Tiriel Mora, Charles Tingwell.

Murder by Death (1976 Robert Moore)

Written by Neil Simon as a sort of homage to great film sleuths - Peter Falk does a good Bogie (Eileen Brennan his gal), Peter Sellars is Charlie Chan, James Coco makes a splendid Poirot (with James Cromwell mugging along), Elsa Lanchester is Marple, David Niven doesn't make enough of the Nick Charles role, though Maggie Smith is fun as Nora. Alec Guinness didn't mind being a blind butler, and features Truman Capote of all people as the victim.

It's quite silly, but not silly enough - it almost needs to be less so or have the full Mel Brooks treatment. Moore is primarily a TV director, and not really up to the task.

Southpaw (2015 Antoine Fuqua)

Hardly a subtle film - Rocky meets Kramer vs Kramer - is well put together and acted, by Jake Gyllenhall, Rachel McAdams, Forrest Whittaker and young Oona Laurence (who's one to watch). Curtis Jackson should stick to being 50 Cent. With Naomie Harris, Skylan Brooks.

Dedicated to James Horner. Nice dark photography from Mauro Fiore, edited by John Refoua.

Sherlock: the Abominable Bride (2015 Douglas Mackinnon)

Beautifully written episode by Mark Gatiss (who's wonderful as fat Mycroft) and Steven Moffat, set in two time periods. Usual suspects of Cumberbatch, Freeman, Scott, Stubbs, Graves and Louise Brealey, plus Tim McInnerny.

Moodily lit by (gasp!) Suzie Lavelle, who has plenty of TV experience.

Mortdecai (2015 David Koepp)

Childish, silly film in which Johnny Depp (in childish, silly mode) ... you know what? Who cares about the plot. Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany, Ewan McGregor, Olivia Munn, Jeff Goldblum, Paul Whitehouse. One or two chuckles but mainly painful.

Portrait of Jennie (1948 William Dieterle)

Second in our double-bill of Jennifer Jones, she's reteamed here with Joseph Cotten (A Duel in the Sun) in a curious, moody, atmospheric tale, from a novel by Robert Nathan.

The moment where lightning flashes and it's green is a fabulous first time experience. Those boiling skies are amazing. (The film then shifts into tints of green and red and ends on a full colour portrait.) I also loved the way she always appeared coming out of the light (except at the end where in another audacious moment she seems to emerge from a wave).

It's fabulously directed and shot by Joseph August (and completed after his death by Lee Garmes, with whom it seemed like Selznick had a complex relationship), with Dimitri Tiomkin's score evoking Debussey.

At one point I almost expected the nice art dealer Ethel Barrymore to turn out to be Jennie. With Lillian Gish (the nun), Cecil Kellaway (dealer), David Wayne (an interesting performance) and cameos from Florence Bates, Felix Bressart and Weenie King Robert Dudley.

I thought it was fabulous and am now an official Jennifer Jones fan.

As another reviewer noticed, it sure has a lot in common with Vertigo. And, according to Time Out reviewer Tom Milne: 'Buñuel saw it and of course approved: 'It opened up a big window for me'. '

Cluny Brown (1946 Ernst Lubitsch)

Joyous late Lubitsch, written by Samuel Hoffenstein and Elizabeth Reinhardt from a novel by Margery Sharp. Jennifer Jones delightful as plumber's daughter who meets eccentric Czech Charles Boyer. Film has much fun sending up English class culture, populated by Peter Lawford, Helen Walker, Reginald Gardiner, Reginald Owen, C. Aubrey Smith, Richard Haydn, Sara Allgood, Ernest Cossart, Florence Bates and Una O'Connor, plus a short appearance from a collie which sure looks like Pal from Lassie.

Shot by Joseph LaShelle, edited by Dorothy Spencer.

The English Teacher (2013 Craig Zisk)

Julianne Moore, Michael Angarano, Greg Kinnear, Lily Collins (Phil's daughter, who we've seen in Love, Rosie, Stuck in Love and The Blind Side), Nathan Lane, Norbert Leo Butz and Jessica Hecht (principals), Charlie Saxton.

English teacher helps former student to produce his play for high school. We liked the ending where the action disobeys the narrator, written by Dan Chariton and Stacy Charlton, and the fact the young author is lying.