Lost in Translation (2003 Sofia Coppola & scr)

Clever, sweet, atmospheric, well-written film owes a certain something to Brief Encounter and catches the experience of both modern day hotel dwelling and modern day Japan brilliantly, and is frequently very funny and well observed. Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray are perfect. We had to stop the film at one point to talk about how some actors can do really funny stuff purely physically, Bill being one - Jack Lemmon being a great example. Murray is definitely in the same Club as Lemmon and Matthau, Scarlett perhaps needs more dramatic roles to really show off her stuff (though maybe I need to watch Under the Skin first).

Sofia is also doing interesting things with the soundtrack, not just the music choices, but stuff like the air conditioning noise in the corridors.

Scarlett's bum is the first image of this female director's film. Just saying...

The two ladies trying extremely hard not to laugh in the background make this hysterically funny

The Jury (2011 Michael Offer)

Julie Walters, Roger Allam, Steven Mackintosh, John Lynch, Jodhi May, Lisa Dillon, Anne Reid, Branka Katic, Aqib Khan, Natalie Press, Sarah Alexander, Ivanno Jeremiah (who we recognise from Humans), Ronald Pickup.

Written by Peter Morgan. Music by Rolfe Kent.

Directed entirely in close up (occasionally in extreme close up) by director-for-hire Offer, who began on Home and Away... This is not the way to direct. But it is well written - we don't categorically know whether Lynch's character is innocent or guilty - and we are always kept guessing throughout. I still don't really know what Katic was up to, but best sub story involved Pickup befriending Jeremiah.

The Secret Life of an American Wife (1968 George Axelrod & scr, prod)

Funnily enough we find ourselves back in High Fidelity territory with its central character - here Anne Jackson - telling us the audience about her love life and how husband Patrick O'Neal is too busy 'having lunch' to notice her. He's also an even heavier drinker ('I had somewhere between 12 and 20 drinks...') than film star Walter Matthau, for whom he works in PR.

Ultra rare film seems only to have been issued on VHS in the US*, which is a shame as the leads are in fine form and the film - though somewhat static in its second half - is a lot of fun, with amusing fantasty and flashback scenes.

Shot by Leon Shamroy (not that you'd notice through the haze).

Edy Williams, the sexy PTA member, later married and starred in Russ Meyer films, and was inevitably a Playboy model.

Love the way Matthau says things like 'lunchipoo'.

* P.S. On 4 January 2017, I received Fox's swift and helpful answer to this question:
'Many thanks for your recent [sic] email however, we are unable to help with your request at this time.'

Bell, Book and Candle (1958 Richard Quine)

Made right after Vertigo, written by Daniel Taradesh from John van Druten's 1950 play, which apparently used its 'other world' plot featuring alternative night clubs as an allusion to living as a gay (I think I read this somewhere).

Great cast of Kim Novak, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Elsa Lanchester, Ernie Kovacs, Hermione Gingold, Janice Rule and Bek Nelson (Stewart's secretary who looks quite like Grace Kelly).

Fabulous exotic 50s sets designed by Cary Odell and decorated by Louis Diage; luscious photography (James Wong Howe), gorgeous music (Charles Duning).

Lemmon is eccentric and plays part with gusto, Kovacs funny as heavy-drinking author, Novak particularly fabulous, Stewart great as ever (face when he drinks potion hilarious), Lanchester winning as naughty aunt. Loved the shot of the hat being thrown off the Flat Iron Building into the snow. Great cat too.

The Italian Job (1969 Peter Collinson)

Shot from the floor, classic is a dream for Brexiters, with a pre-European England getting away with it and proving to be superior drivers in quintessentially cool and British Mini Coopers, led by cocky Cockney Caine, providing them with the prophetic anthem 'Self Preservation Society'. Very entertaining, ironic script by Troy Kennedy Martin; acting is generally hilarious. (If you haven't been there recently you forget how funny the dialogue is.)

Forget the Mini Coopers, a fine collection of classic cars are about to get pulverized

Fine photography though from Douglas Slocombe, operated by Chic Waterson (and Norman Warwick heading the second unit), interesting compositions, shot almost entirely in deep focus and using the wide screen superbly. Good blocking of actors and driving stunts by Remy Julienne's team.

With a pleasurable cast including Noel Coward, Benny Hill, Raf Vallone, Rosanno Brazzi, Margaret Blye, Irene Handl, John le Mesurier, Fred Emney (the one who blocks all the cameras), John Clive (very funny as garage manager), Tony Beckley ('Camp Freddie'). Memorable music from Quincy Jones includes Matt Monroe 'On Days Like These'.

Under the Tuscan Sun (2003 Audrey Wells & scr, co-prod)

From Frances Mayes autobiography 'Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy' (1996) in which she really did relocate to Cortona and bought and renovated a villa called 'Bramasole'.

The situation Diane Lane finds herself in as a result of her unfaithful husband is shocking and shows California law to be stupid. I liked Lane's performance. She's with Sandra Oh, Lindsay Duncan, Raoul Bova, Pawel Sajda, Anita Zagaria (Queen of Hearts) and Giulia Steigerwalt and action also moves to Positano, and Rome. The old man with flowers is the reputed writer-director of such films as Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958).

Shot by Geoffrey Simpson.

High Fidelity (2000 Stephen Frears)

From Nick Hornby's novel, adapted by Steve Pink, John Cusack, Scott Rosenberg and DV DeVincentis, film tells of avid list-maker Cusack's previous relationships whilst managing indie record store, run - as one client puts it - by 'elitist snobs' - Jack Black making an early impression; with Tod Louiso (Thank You For Smoking, Jerry Maguire).

Girls are Iben Hjejle, Lisa Bonet, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Joan Cusack, Lili Taylor, Sara Gilbert. And Tim Robbins in film's funniest scene (confrontation in record store, which has been relocated to Chicago without fuss).

Strangely familiar like an old friend. Shot by Seamus McGarvey and edited by Mick Audsley.

十字路 / Jujiro / Crossways (1928 Teinosuke Kinugasa & scr)

Visually striking, with its whippy editing and pans, interesting dissolves (signifying movement, often) expressionists scenes, unusual angles (especially people coming up the stairs), montages etc.

Actors have been told to express inner anguish by wringing their chests but certainly the performance of Akiko Chihaya is memorable. Has a most bizarre ending in which the brother just ... dies (after having regained his sight).

Film looks cold and features terrible teeth,

Akiko Chihaya

Terrible subtitling made it quite fun. Took me a while to figure out that 'O-ume' was the name of the dame above.

Desire (1936 Frank Borzage)

Holidaying engineer Gary Cooper falls for pearl thief Marlene Dietrich in France / Spain. John Halliday, William Frawley, Akim Tamiroff and Alan Mowbray all get involved in one way or another.

Best line: "Take this plate to the kitchen, and disarm the fricassé".

Shot by Charles Lang. Paramount. Produced by Lubitsch.

China 9 Liberty 37 / Amore, piombo e furore (1978 Monte Hellman)

Or, 'Love, lead and fury'! Quirky western written by Ennio di Concini, Vincenta Escriva, Alberto Liberati, Jerry Harvey and Douglas Venturelli, made

by cult director Hellman, shot in Spain. With a pseudo Morricone score (not bad) by Pino Donaggio and shot realistically by Giuseppe Rotunno in widescreen.

Condemned Fabio Testi is paid to kill Warren Oates but falls for his wife, the exceptionally beautiful Jenny Agutter, who he first encounters nude in a lake (thus he doesn't have much of a chance). But this is an honourable gunslinger...

With a cameo from none other than Sam Peckinpah as a western novelist, a travelling circus, and a rifle that can shoot a mile.  This is the uncut 98 minute version, most enjoyable.

The Rose (1979 Mark Rydell)

Rydell is an actor's director - you can just tell. He also made Midler film For the Boys, The River, On Golden Pond, Cinderella Liberty and at the time controversial (1967) The Fox. Thought of Amy Winehouse more than once in story of singer who's can't get a rest - cuntish manager Alan Bates mainly responsible. She meets ex-army Frederic Forrest but can't hold on to him.

Seriously beautifully shot by Vilmos Zsigmond in a diffused style that you just don't get any more, great compositions too.

Bo Goldman and Bill Kirby screenwrote from the latter's story. She shouldn't have gone home...

With: Harry Dean Stanton, Barry Primus. Scene in club with female impersonators is great, preceded by the best moment: the Rose greeting the doorman and kissing the top of his head. Bette Midler's greatest performance.

Extraordinary lineup of additional cameras in concert scenes includes Laszlo Kovacs, Conrad Hall and Haskell Wexler!

Risky Business (1983 Paul Brickman & scr)

Altogether not entirely lacking in style, though pretty shallow - sex on train scene is utterly ridiculous. Why on earth is the film still 18 rated - it deserves to be a 12! (The Spanish advice on the disc recommends it for 'not below 13' - exactly.)

The one where Cruise dances in his underpants. Rebecca de Morney has the charisma of a turtleneck sweater. The initial sex scene between them is hilarious.

Liked the Tangerine Dream bits. Photography is by Reynaldo Villalobos (Blame it on Rio, Punchline, A Bronx Tale) and Bruce Surtees (not sure why they both were on it). Loved the extreme close up of eye through Ray Bans which begins and ends the movie.

With Joe Pantoliano (bearded friend), Richard Masur (Princeton interviewer), Bronson Pinchot (maybe we recognise him from After Hours?)

It Happened One Night (1934 Frank Capra)

The seed for Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Runaway Bride? Robert Riskin's Oscar winning screenplay is devoid of the sentimentality which streaks later Capra films. Instead rich spoiled brat Claudette Colbert mellows through interaction with gruff but nice newspaperman Clark Gable in cross-country (Miami to New York) journey.

Joe Walker's photography is particularly shimmery in night scenes and he catches Claudette's delicate tears beautifully. (He didn't even get nominated.)

Walter Connolly good as father (his face lights up when Gable says she's needs a 'sock' to be kept in order once a day), Roscoe Karns a sleazy fellow traveller, Jameson Thomas the totally unsuitable husband, Alan Hale the newspaper editor.

Columbia, based on Samuel Hopkins Adams' short story. There's one of those great montage sequences in it, no doubt done by someone other than Capra (not, I think, Vorkapic (MGM) or Don Siegel (Warners)).

Embraces new technology in its wiring of a photo and the use of an autogyro.

Famous Walls Of Jericho ending is still splendid. The film is somehow beautiful and magical with its feet firmly on the ground.

Trumbo (2015 Jay Roach)

Didn't recognise any of the names behind the camera - Roach directed the Austin Powers films and the Meet the Parents duet of horror, so an odd choice? Writer John McNamara wrote a bunch of various US TV - again odd. DP Jim Denault has shot loads of unfamiliar stuff, editor Alan Baumgarten at least has American Hustle to his credit, composer Theodore Shapiro writes mainly for second-rate comedies.

Quite a lot of unknowns in massive cast too, though clearly Oscar-nominee Bryan Cranston (great), Diane Lane (terrific), Elle Fanning (good as ever) and Helen Mirren (good, but slightly 'flexible' accent seems to wander between English, American and Scottish) need no introduction.

Those that do are Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G., David James Elliott (John Wayne), Louis C.K. (Arlen Hird), Roger Bart (Buddy Ross), Adewale Akkinuoye-Agbaje (prisoner with attitude), John Goodman, Stephen Root (his partner), Dean O'Gorman (Kirk Douglas) and Christian Berkel as Otto Preminger.

So, good biopic. I think I enjoyed the last half hour best, though scenes with John Goodman fun (noticed the Gun Crazy poster). Not sure the debate about moral imperatives vs earning a living come over that well. Trumbo sure wrote a lot of different kinds of stuff. Final real life interview, reflecting author's feelings about his eldest daughter, is a highlight.

Cast Away (2000 Robert Zemeckis)

William Broyles Jr also wrote Flags of Our Fathers, Jarhead, Apollo 13 and Unfaithful. Cast Away is a fabulous ad for FedEx. Hanks first put on weight, then filming (on the Fiji island of Monuriki) stopped for a year so he could lose it and grow hair (and develop a tan, which mysteriously and sloppily has disappeared at the end).

That moment which makes you think of 2001 (ape and obelisk) was put there deliberately - it's one of Hanks' favourites.

Loved the line at the end 'we must catch up on our fishing'...

Made me think I need to watch Un Condemné a mort est échappé again! Also that it would have been funny if a dog had been cast away as well and turned out to be so good at catching fish that the human became dejected and hungry.

Suffers from that familiar problem of going on too long at the end, but an enjoyable experience again.

A Month in the Country (1987 Pat O'Connor)

O'Connor had made an impression with early Film 4 production Cal in 1984 - after this he directed Stars and Bars. Quiet, reflective film stars Colin Firth, Kenneth Branagh and Natasha Richardson (Firth particularly good), plus Patrick Malahide, Jim Smith, Richard Vernon (Colonel).

Good screenplay by Simon Gray based on J.L. Carr's 1980 book. Terrific music by Howard Blake (another reason to watch The Riddle of the Sands). It's very good.

The Bank Dick (1940 Edward F Kline)

Made for Universal, Fields' film isn't nearly as funny as It's a Gift, despite memorable character names.

Milk leg = swelling after childbirth
Thrumps = think made up!
Theosophist = scholar of obscure philosophy

Due Date (2010 Todd Phillips)

Don't give up your day job. Completely stand by last review - writing is just stupid at times. Downey is brilliant e.g. when facing misbehaving kids, but why did he agree to be in the film? Zach isn't there yet. What happened to Juliette Lewis?

Vera Drake (2004 Mike Leigh & scr)

It had been a while, eight years to be precise. It's a fabulous cast: Imelda Staunton (won BAFTA), Phil Davies, Daniel Mays, Alex Kelly, Eddie Marsan, Adrian Scarborough and Heather Craney.

Plus: Lesley Manville, Sally Hawkins, Allan Corduner, Peter Wight, Liz White, Lesley Sharp, Jim Broadbent, Rosie Cavaleiro, Nicky Henson, Helen Coker, Paul Jesson, Elizabeth Berrington, Fenella Woolgar, Chris O'Dowd, Marion Bailey.

When you know the police are coming it's almost worse than when you see it for the first time.

Great attention to detail, production design, props, lighting (Dick Pope), music (Andrew Dickson), editing (Jim Clark).

When he won the Best Director BAFTA 'the only person more surprised than me was Scorsese himself'.

Lucky Jim (1957 John Boulting)

From Kingsley Amis novel, adapted by Patrick Campbell, film about life as history professor in university isn't that funny, but nevertheless enjoyable, though we wanted the dog to end up with Ian Carmichael. Hugh Griffith is great as the forgetting head of department. With Kenneth Griffith, Sharon Acker, a bearded Terry-Thomas, Maureen Connell, Reginald Beckwith, Clive Morton, Ronald Cardew.

A distinctive score by John Addison, shot by 'Max Greene'.

To Rome With Love (2012 Woody Allen & scr)

Again, again. It's a remarkable achievement from the dapper 76-year old.

What I hadn't really considered before is how great the Alec Baldwin - Jesse Eisenberg (thus stamped with approval) story is, in that Baldwin is the Greek Chorus, commenting on the action with the wisdom of age (not that it makes any difference).

If that isn't enough we have the whole famous for being famous scenario through Roberto Benigni - a fabulous and topical story involving Signor Pisanelli! - how did the two get on? Fabulously, I'll bet, and it looks that way from photos:

There's also another insanely catchy soundtrack.

Darius Khondji shot it in his distinctive pallette.

Judy Davis is Woody's wife, Flavio Parenti is the shower singer, Alison Pill Jesse's girlfriend, Alessandra Mastronardi (Italian The Fifth Wheel and up-coming Life (photographer shoots James Dean), Titanium White (thriller), The Tourist and Lost in Florence).

Robbie Collin of The Telegraph though it 'four of his worst films rolled into one'... What an arsehole!

The Shop Around the Corner (1940 Ernst Lubitsch)

From one filmmaker to another, this is what Peter Bogdanovich thinks:

1961: Excellent* (One of Lubitsch’s most touching, gently satiric, heartwarming and quietly delightful pictures: a beautifully acted, written and directed comedy-romance about a Budapest department store and a pair of employees who fall in love through anonymous correspondence but detest each other in the shop. Subtle, expert performances by James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Margaret Sullavan in a truly memorable, deeply human film.)

Added 2013: Exceptional* through the roof, please! This is one of the greatest of American films: an absolute masterpiece of wit, humanity understood and defined. Each character is vividly brought to life with compassion and love; it makes you laugh, and it can make you cry. It is essentially a celebration of “average” people.  If you haven’t experienced this movie, you haven’t seen the depth and breadth of Lubitsch at his finest.

Not a lot to add, other than William Tracy steals the film as Pepi, but all the acting is great. It isn't the funniest Lubitsch, but it's terrific. Shot by William H Daniels at MGM, the film is distinctive in that it features no music apart from that which naturally occurs (notably, music boxes).

Kings Row (1942 Sam Wood)

A melodrama of the highest order, scored by one of the few Hollywood composers Rozsa respected, you can draw a straight line from this film to David Lynch's Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks.

Features a host of fabulous girls - Ann Sheridan, Betty Field, Nancy Coleman, Kaaren Verne, Judith Anderson, Maria Ouspenskaya and Ilka Gruning - and Harry Davenport's ridiculous false beard, care of Perc Westmore!

The Odd Couple (1968 Gene Saks)

After All or Nothing, you can't help but look at the acting. Lemmon is again like poetry in motion ('haunting and cleaning, haunting and cleaning') whether serving a sandwich or cleaning a table; Matthau subtly running through a range of emotions. It's a dream team.

Saks sensibly films much of it in wide shots and long takes so we get the theatre experience, then he and editor Frank Bracht pick their close ups artfully.

All or Nothing (2002 Mike Leigh & scr)

Mike Leigh's Taxi Driver is so strong in the acting and state-of-the-nation observation that it's easy to forget there's a brilliant screenplay underneath, honed in months of improvisation and rehearsal. It should have won all sorts of awards, but didn't. It's somehow incredibly hypnotic. It's one of the best British films of all time, quite why I'm not sure, but it's in fact incredibly powerful and moving.

Timothy Spall, Leslie Manville, James Cordon and Alison Garland are the dysfunctional family - the father and daughter are like mirrors of each other. Everyone looks like they are weighed down by life.

Ruth Sheen is the only one who displays any positivism - she gives a remarkable performance and steals the film (with much competition). Helen Coker is their daughter, pregnant from abusive boyfriend Daniel Mays (scary).

The irresistible, irreplaceable Ruth Sheen (with Helen Coker)

Paul Jesson is married to the most pathetic drunk in film history, Marion Bailey; their aimless daughter is Sally Hawkins, fancied by Ben Crompton.

Many laughs amidst the misery. It's strangely not a depressing film at all (perhaps because it is so brilliant). Regular collaborators are Dick Pope on camera and Andrew Dickson composing.

Jonathan Ross famously urged people not to see it.

Mike says his separation from Alison Steadman is reflected in the central story. The opening shot of a corridor in an old people's home speaks volumes (as Amy Raphael points out, an Ozu shot). And what is Spall thinking as he stares out to sea in Dungeness? And the pivotal scene between Spall and Manville - one of cinema's finest - very slowly and subtly tracks (not zooms) in.

It made me want to watch every one of Mike's films again.

For some reason James Cordon's childish outbursts at his parents ("Fuck off. Leave me alone") really stuck in my head.

Ruthless People (1986 Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker)

How do three people direct a film? It's based on that O. Henry story 'The Ransom of Red Chief' which was previously filmed in O. Henry's Full House, written by Dale Launer, and relying heavily on coincidences, featuring two energetic, enjoyable performances from Bette Midler ("I've been kidnapped by K-Mart!") and Danny de Vito, plus Anita Morris. If you can believe winsome Helen Slater designed anything (let alone be a kidnapper) you'd believe anything. Judge Reinhold is the other, Bill Pullman the super-thick henchman in largely badly acted film.

Jan de Bont has colourfully filmed Donald Woodruff's grotesque eighties sets.

But the best bit remains when Bette realises how much weight she has lost.

The hideous Linn drum, programmed to one single beat, is omnipresent, and there's another of those funny cars:

Apparently a 1970 AMC Gremlin

A 1980 Excalibur Series IV Roadster

That Old Feeling (1997 Carl Reiner)

Leslie Dixon, best known in this house for Overboard, Outrageous Fortune and Mrs Doubtfire (all, if you ponder, films about people with double identities), has written a simple tale about a divorced couple (the effortlessly good Bette Midler and Dennis Farina) who can't stay away from one another, while their just-married daughter Paula Marshall experiences romantic fluctuations of her own, between uptight husband James Denton (who we recognise from Desperate Housewives) and paparazzo Danny Nucci, whilst current spouses David Rasche and Gail O'Grady provide annoying distractions.

New York's Majestic Hotel much in evidence. Amiable film is fun.

True Detective: Season 2 (2016 Nic Pizzolatto)

What's in a name? Consider Antigone Bezzarides. Antigone in Greek mythology is Oedipus's sister, her name meaning 'worthy of one's parents', who meets a tragic fate when attempting to secure a burial for her brother. Not quite sure what the relevance of that is. Any fan of film noir, though, will recognise that surname, which belongs to one of its key authors responsible for the novel of Desert Fury and the brilliant scenarios of Thieves' Highway, On Dangerous Ground and Kiss Me Deadly. Indeed this season of True Detective - quite different in flavour from the first - is like an epic, tragic (OK - got the Greek reference!) film noir, particularly in its old LA settings and themes of personal and civic corruption and its doomed antiheroes.

Also too though is that seventies' noir sensibility, that especially of Chinatown (the land deals and the extent of the complicity, which weaves and coils like those endless aerial shots of serpentine highways, and the 'Chinatown' of Vinci), plus the references to hippy communes and sects (quite Long Goodbye - a film which seems to be back in vogue in the reference department, viz. Inherent Vice etc.) Also a film in which you have to really pay attention (particularly through some of the mumbling).

Fabulous, convincing cast of Rachel McAdams, Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughan, Taylor Kitsch and Kelly Reilly in the primary roles. Of the support I'd single out Ritchie Coster as a particular odious and venal Mayor, the others too numerous to mention, but casting is definitely in the 'interesting faces' category.

My only complaint is that it would have been impossible for the Mexicans to have known where to find Vince, though his ending in the desert is worthy of von Stroheim's Greed, whilst Colin's fate lies in a forest of giant trees.

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer / Bachelor Knight (1947 Irving Reis)

I'm not sure that Myrna Loy (42) shouldn't have been written as Shirley Temple's (19) mother rather than sister - it wouldn't have affected the plot at all. It's well written by Sidney Sheldon and is a lot of fun. Last seen December 2014. Also think the alternative title rather better.

"Mellow greetings, yuki duki!" sounds like something Bill & Ted would say!

The Blue Dahlia (1945 George Marshall)

Airforce buddies Alan Ladd, William Bendix and Hugh Beaumont arrive in LA and are embroiled when Ladd's wife Doris Dowling is murdered. Was it creepy nightclub boss Howard da Silva, or sleazy hotel dick Will Wright? Raymond Chandler will explain all... Ladd's OK because he runs into Veronica Lake (although she is da Silva's ex).

Interesting in that PTSD is a plot feature, though not named as such. Film really is more of a whodunit than a noir, with exciting bits. Interesting assertion by Tom Milne (in Time Out) that the Navy wouldn't allow the Bendix character to actually be the killer.

Shot in an unspectacular manner by Lionel Linden, for Paramount.

Reg (2016 David Blair)

Written by Jimmy McGovern, Tim Roth and Anna Maxwell Martin give solid performances of couple whose son is killed in Iraq and they mount a campaign against Blair (whose scenes are cut in from TV footage). Certain pungent observations (Blair's guards are better armed than his son in a war zone; woman who says the only fair thing is that Iraq should bomb England).

All Of Me (1984 Carl Reiner)

Screenplay by Henry Olek and Phil Alden Robinson from the novel 'Me Two' by Edwin Davis, the film is also known as 'Back in Bowl' in this house and was a well overdue pleasure. Steve Martin gives a performance of fabulous physicality, Lily Tomlin is great, Richard Libertini makes as laugh as much as ever as 'Prakha' (he was mainly on TV though had a part in Nell, Bonfire of the Vanities and Awakenings). Dana Elcar is the boss, Jason Bernard the sax player.

Of Ms. Tennant's performance, it is perhaps most polite not to comment.

Not sure why our copy is in 4x3 - maybe it was shot open matte?

IKWIG (1945 Powell & Pressburger)

Part of the power of P&P is in the music, here composed by Allan Gray - none at all though you'll notice in the tense Korryvrecken scene. Talk about contradicting yourself!

Imitation of Life (1959 Douglas Sirk)

A film crammed with symbolism, from the opening falling diamonds (tears), through the bars and cages evident everywhere and the flowers ('like mausoleums'), all reflected artfully in mirrors by Russell Metty (in that unusual 2:1 ratio), who also lights his close-ups beautifully dark. Unbelievably, he wasn't Oscar nominated for any of the Sirk pictures.

Juanita Moore owns the film (after an Oscar nomination you'd think it changed her career, but didn't really) but Sandra Dee isn't bad at all, with credible performances from Lana Turner, John Gavin, Robert Alda and Dan O'Herlihy. Aged 99 when she died, Juanita had outlived both Turner and Dee, who sadly went young at 62 - an unhappy life, by the sounds of it.

You have to love that Annie is still in touch with their milkman from the poor days and bequeaths him $50 on her death bed.

A magnificent film.