Delicious (2016 Claire Kilner, John Hardwick)

Dawn French and Emilia Fox are fine, and some choice Italian food gets a look-in in Dan Sefton's drama, originally put out on Sky. Plot is fairly easy to guess, voiceovers are somewhat corny and add nothing, 'twist' end is wholly unbelievable.

With Iain Glen, Tanya Reynolds & Ruari O'Connor, Sheila Hancock, Kemi-Bo Jacobs. Designed, like everything, with a continuing series in mind.

American Friends (1991 Tristram Powell)

Fascinated by an incomplete memoir of his grandfather's, Michael Palin has fashioned a credible story about the meeting of a repressed Oxford don (well played by himself in dead serious mode) and a couple of Americans (Trini Alvarado and Connie Booth) in Switzerland in the 1860s, and what happens in Oxford later, involving caddish (but charismatic) Alfred Molina. It was screenwritten by Palin and Powell, and is very low-key.

With Bryan Pringle, David Calder (from Bramwell), Roger Lloyd Pack, Alun Armstrong.

It's sensitively shot by Helena's cousin Philip Bonham-Carter and great grandson of political speaker Violet B-C who I read in Palin's first diary had a deadly dull speaking voice. Georges Delerue provides respectful music, BBC DVD seems to be out of print, thus dodgy VHS grabs below.

Foreign Correspondent (1940 Alfred Hitchcock)

Well overdue, terrific writing by Charles Bennett and Joan Harrison, with dialogue by James Hilton (yes, Lost Horizon) and Robert Benchley (who also appears as milk-drinking correspondent), good acting even in small parts (becoming to me a Hitch trait).

Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall (terrifically subtle), George Sanders (bouncy), Albert Basserman, Edmund Gwenn, Eduardo Cianelli (Krug), Harry Davenport, Ian Wolfe (butler), Eddie Conrad (Latvian). Good team also behind camera, Rudolph Maté shooting Alexander Golitzen sets, Dorothy Spencer editing and Alfred Newman's music.

Great back-projected chase sequence, funny script based on misunderstandings between couple (Conrad acting as a kind of Cupid), throwaway tense moments (raincoat caught in windmill), incredible sequence with tortured Basserman (almost surreal), terrific effects in shipwreck sequence.

Gone Girl (2014 David Fincher)

Gillian Flynn adapted her own novel to produce a 2 hour 20 film - too long. Warners would have done it in 1, 40. Also, the ending is flummery, it really is.

Noticed the flashbacks are all underscored with music - maybe because they're sort of made up?

Shot in the familiar green-yellow hues of Jeff Cronenweth.

We watched it because I was trying to remember the name of our neighbour. Rosamund is great, so are Kim Dickens (as the detective) and Carrie Coon (the sister). Still not really sure about Ben Affleck. Good role for Patrick Fugit, Neil Patrick Harris has lost his nose. Tyler Perry good too as smiling attorney.

We disagreed over the cat.

Belle (2013 Amma Asante)

Misan Sagay, a former doctor, drafted a script in 2004 after seeing the painting, and is given sole credit for the screenplay, though Amma maintains that she substantially rewrote it - see Guardian article. Neither had much previous experience though Ms Asante did write her previous feature A Way of Life in 2004. I'd guess there's truth in her claim. The screenplay is good and cinematic and moves the story along with a clear (and enjoyable) step. This is not a heavy film, though it might have been. (All you would have needed, Spielberg-like, were some ghastly flashbacks of chained slaves drowning. Instead a map of the ship's voyage is all we need.) The main facts are in any event roughly true and the film very nicely balances the romantic with the political, the human moments (sympathetic coach driver, for example) and conflicts and the much wider social and cultural ones. ('Who let those bloody Quakers in!') As the Q summarised, it makes you proud to be British!

A good cast helps with Gugu Mbatha-Raw (who we would have seen in the Marple Ordeal by Innocence (2007), the rather silly Lost in Austen (2008) and Larry Crowne (2011)) carrying Dido perfectly; with Sarah Gadon (A Royal Night Out), Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson, Miranda Richardson, Penelope Wilton, Sam Reid, James Norton, Tom Felton and (fleetingly) Matthew Goode.

'Kenwood House' filmed at West Wycombe house (exteriors) and Syon House and Osterly Park House (interiors) by Ben Smithard in Panavision (The Trip, My Week with Marilyn, much TV).

After this, much looking forward to Asante's A United Kingdom, particularly in view of her own white mother-black father background.

And ends on a non-screen kiss, thank you Amma. We thought it was great - chalk up another success for the Brit Girls.

'The Lady Elizabeth Murray'. Artist Johann Zoffany, 1779.

Stormy Monday (1988 Mike Figgis & scr)

Modern film noir, transposed to Newcastle, featuring a Polish free form Jazz band! And why not? (Band is in fact resolutely English in cast names.)

Melanie Griffith is femme fatale, Sean Bean the underdog, Sting good as nightclub manager, Tommy Lee Jones, Alison Steadman.

Early Roger Deakins is suitably shot in pools of darkness, with noiry night scenes from car but with a touch of eighties neon gloss.

Reviewed 19th February 1994 as 'Moody successful blend of romantic thriller with bang powder. Tsh and tish, Mr Robinson'.

My Darling Clementine (1946 John Ford)

First, there was the shootout, on October 26 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona, then it was publicised by Stuart Lake's 1931 autobiography 'Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshall'. This was the basis of Sam Hellman's story, which was then screenwritten by Samuel G Engel & Winston Miller. Ford's simple direction is often silent.

Henry Fonda (good), Ward Bond (older brother), Tim Holt and Don Garner (uncredited) are the Earps - you wonder why the camera holds so long on the latter, until later. Victor Mature, Linda Darnell, Cathy Downs, Walter Brennan, Alan Mowbray (pissed actor), John Ireland.

Great photography by Joe MacDonald especially in night scenes, great Monument Valley landscapes. Gunfight is well coordinated, good rapport between Fonda and Mature, film amuses, fondly observes, drifts, leaps into action. What happened to the rustled cattle? "I sure do like that name Clementine."

First saw it on 27 January 1981 and liked it. 20th Century Fox. Edited by Dorothy Spencer. It's a classic.

The 14 (1972 David Hemmings)

True story about Birmingham kids who did relocate to a farm, written by Roland Starke, must have been hard to direct with so many (seemingly) non-professionals ad-libbing all over the place. The kids - led by Jack Wild (good) - do make an impression, though, as do gritty locations. Nice to see a caring and concerned social worker, too (John Bailey), but tough and never sentimental. With June Brown, Alun Armstrong. Luckily they also have Cheryl Hall, who 'likes kids'.

Whiplash (2014 Damian Chazelle & scr)

J.K. Simmons (won Oscar and BAFTA) is fearsome, manipulative music teacher who strives to get the best out of drummer Miles Teller - The Spectacular Now (both good). Chazelle's film is nicely cinematic (edited by Tom Cross, also winning BAFTA and Oscar, and shot by Sharone Meir in Panavision).

Duke Ellington's 'Caravan' pops up again, having featured both in Chocolat and Alice.

Midnight Special (2016 Jeff Nichols & scr)

We can only guess that Nichols' story is a sort of religious parable in which Michael Shannon and Kirsten Dunst are Joseph and Mary to son Jaeden Lieberher, who is some sort of super-being who belongs in the 'world above our world' - which when it appears looks super-dull. In the meantime some sort of militant cult folk are after him, as well as the police and investigator Adam Driver, who brings a certain lightness of touch the film needs. Has a whiff of Close Encounters.

Adam Stone gives us some more lovely low-light celluloid photography but overall we were distinctly underwhelmed. Nichols' Take Shelter had the same effect on me, leaving Mud  as his outstanding work. Loving - about an inter-racial couple - is his latest.

Edited by Julie Monrow. Also featuring Joel Edgerton as an insanely loyal friend and Sam Shepard again.

For some odd reason it made me want to listen to Pink Floyd's 'Echoes'.

Mud (2012 Jeff Nichols & scr)

Young Tye Sheridan learns something about women - but it doesn't put him off.

Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Jacob Lofland, Sam Shepherd, Sarah Paulson, Michael Shannon, Joe Don Baker.

Most satisfying tale. 'Revenge' bites father Baker in the ass.

Wonderful celluloid photography by Adam Stone (with who Nichols has now worked on five films) particularly in firelight scenes. Good editing by Julie Monroe.

Woman on the Run (1950 Norman Foster & co-scr)

Well, this is a most welcome debut for us. Foster's Hitchcock-like thriller starts with man-on-the-run story but immediately shifts the focus on to his wife Ann Sheridan and her gradual learning about her husband, who she's been neglecting, whilst revealing that her accomplice Dennis O'Keefe is none other than the murderer (equipped with the biggest lighter in film until La Femme Infidèle!) Story by Sylvia Tate.

Hal Mohr's largely on location (in this respect ahead of its day) deep focus San Francisco photography also a major asset. Score by Lionel Newman's brother Emil (with Arthur Lange). Lots of interesting moments with window dresser John Qualen, Chinese dance act led by Victor Sen Yung, sympathetic police officer Robert Keith, who enlists the help of their dog Rembrandt ('It was the only way he could afford to own one'). That quote also evidences good dialogue, co-written by Alan Campbell. Great use of fairground setting, and in particular those helter skelter shots, which give a fabulous energy and tense finale, making me think of Orson Welles - Foster directed Journey Into Fear, so that's hardly surprising. Really good.

I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007 Amy Heckerling & scr)

After making the Clueless series, which provided some inspiration for story of TV writer / producer Michelle Pfeiffer, this went straight to video: "It just represents a lot of unhappiness to me. I loved working with Paul Rudd and Michelle Pfeiffer and Saoirse Ronan and all the other people, and I got to make some friends in England, where it was shot. But I'm not happy about what happened."

It's refreshingly different in attitude, Rudd gives all stops out performance, Saiorse in debut is great (particularly liked her Britney pastiche), likeable and funny, punctuated by aptly chosen pop songs. A welcome rewatch after too many years.

So with Clueless (film) alumni Rudd and Stacey Dash we have Jon Lovitz, Wallace Shawn and Fred Willard (boss), then many Brits in supporting cast: Tracey Ullman, Sarah Alexander, Yasmin (Submarine) Paige, Graham Norton (his Show began that year on BBC2), David Mitchell, Steve Pemberton, Mackenzie Crook and we missed Olivia Colman and Archie Punjabi. But why was it shot in the UK?

It was filmed by Brian Tufano, 32 years after photographing Michael Palin in Three Men and a Boat for Stephen Frears at BBCTV. Edited by Kate Coggins.

Not a pairing you'd immediately think of

Death at Broadcasting House (1934 Reginald Denham)

Quite lively, witty whodunit with novelty of BBC setting, not too much theatrical acting and some zippy moments of editing (Reginald Beck: The Go-Between, Accident; his second film). In life-imitating art mode Val Gielgud (John's brother) actually was Head of Sound Drama at the BBC when he wrote the source novel, and appears as the programme's producer.

Ian Hunter is the detective, Austin Trevor and Lilian Oldland the married thesps, Henry Kendall (Rich and Strange), Peter Haddon (drunk), young Jack Hawkins, Donald Wolfit as the murderee (who I said 'he did it' as soon as the credits came on), Betty Davies ('a nice bit of alibi') and uncredited, Beat the Devil's Ivor Barnard as usher.

Serendipity (2001 Peter Chelsom)

Extremely fanciful romantic meditation on Fate, written by Marc Klein (not much else than Mirror Mirror and A Good Year) - it could only end one way. With John Cusack (looking slightly dog-eared) with his then buddy Jeremy Piven; Kate Beckinsale, Eugene Levy as annoying Bloomingdales clerk. (Actually there is another end where snow covered Beckinsale develops pneumonia and dies.)

High key photography in New York and SF by John de Borman. Quite nippy editing by Christopher Greenbury (mainly comedies, through assisted Tariq Anwar on American Beauty).

A meet cute in Bloomingdales

Chelsom best known in this house probably for Funny Bones with Jerry Lewis and Lee Evans.

Carnival of Souls (1962 Herk Harvey)

Ultra low-budget film amusingly has most of the cast also behind the camera! (Also hilariously bad pretend organ playing hands.) I like a low budget film though because you get some innovation, and as no Hollywood producer is telling you what you can and can't do, fresh stuff emerges.

Admittedly you could tell this story (by John Clifford) in half an hour, but it has engaging and effective scenes - for example where heroine Candace Hilligoss 'ceases to exist' and the sound goes (apart from very badly done Foley footsteps), and the ghostly high-speed dead souls dancing. This contrasted against a quite realistic portrayal of small town America, featuring homely landlady, overly zealous priest and randy neighbour. It gives it a welcome off kilter, like a fried egg on a plate without the plate (to borrow Dali).

I would say it clearly appeared in the wake of Psycho, and the constant strange organ music had me thinking more than once of Marienbad.

Why do people say 'a not unengaging film'? In theory it's the same as 'engaging' but it isn't - it has an air of  'could do better' - a negative connotation.

Six Days Seven Nights (1998 Ivan Reitman & co-prod)

A story (by Michael Browning) which could have been written over a decent lunch is carried along by Harrison Ford and Anne Heche, who are pleasing enough. Michael Chapman's lighting (of Kauai locations) is high key, as no doubt he was ordered. David Schwimmer is the typically spineless American who sleeps with Jacqueline Obradors the moment anyone's back is turned. It's quite pleasingly old-fashioned, but low on innovation.

Restless (2011 Gus Van Sant)

It's been a while and this review is a nice tribute to Harris Savides.

Did have a look at the silent version - typical Van Sant experimentation, but I think he fluffs it by leaving the soundtrack in, thus making it seem more artificially like it's a sound film in which no one's speaking. Also, if done properly, one strives to make the story visual and thus minimise the need for titles.

Good acting by Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper.

After five years Jason Lew did write another screenplay (well, get it made - he may have written tons) which he directed as well - The Free World.

Schuyler Fisk was in Orange County.

Good music throughout.

Chocolat (2000 Lasse Hallström)

Robert Nelson Jacobs (who had a minor career as a scriptwriter) adapted Joanna Harris's 1999 bestseller. Juliette Binoche is effortless in undemanding role for her. Carie-Anne Moss as daughter estranged from wayward mother Judi Dench should be familiar (Humans). Lena Olin is also fabulous as the battered wife of Peter Stomare. Alfred Molina is as good as always, but why put on a French accent? - this niggles me. Johnny Depp good in straight role as river rat. Also Victoire Thivisol as the daughter (she debuted in Ponette aged five!), Leslie Caron (yes) and John Wood as the elderly romantics and doe-eyed Hugh O'Conor as Elvis-loving priest.

Johnny plays lovely cover of Duke Ellington song 'Caravan', Django Rheinhardt's 'Minor Swing' and I loved that little passage he plays on slide to which Juliette says 'My mother used to sing that to me when I couldn't sleep' (which Q knows, but then she knows every song ever written. Annoyingly I couldn't track it down.) Rachel Portman's music riffs off the Satie Gnossienne which is used in a key scene (seem to be hearing Satie a lot at the moment), and there's even a Sidney Bechet in there somewhere.

The chocolate sculptures which Molina ruins look wonderful - this is not a film for those on stupid diets. This is a pleasing film, a chocolate variation on Babette's Feast, with its roots in Harris's French mother, her cooking and folk stories. Where does all the chocolate come from? -- shh!

Roger Pratt shot it.

Don't Look Now auditions this way

One of those films from the shelves we stupidly just haven't thought to rewatch for years. Still, fun though, like finding long-lost treasure.

Easy A (2010 Will Gluck)

Written by Bert V. Royal (his debut) film takes the unlikely premise of 'The Scarlet Letter' mixed with the notion that losing one's virginity in high school is somehow a big deal. Also, storyline involving hiding sexuality of gay guy is surely a retrograde step (though the Mark Twain joke that accompanies his outing is welcome). Perhaps most refreshing in its portrayal of sympathetic teacher Thomas Haden Church and super-cool parents Patrica Clarkson and Stanley Tucci (who delivers way the best line).

Emma Stone, though (here 22) is super-good fizzy. Gluck hasn't done much since Friends with Benefits. With Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes (the god-botherer), Lisa Kudrow, Malcom McDowell, Aly Michalka.

Titty City - Season 2

And other variations we are coming up with titles for Magic City*, which could have been a lot better. The nudity - in so much as it horribly objectifies women (even Olga has to get her kit off periodically)  -  and the man on woman violence are both things I would have steered away from for one thing. And we now hate characters so much (The Butcher, crooked vile senator and horrible FBI agent) that all we can think about is the hope they get their just desserts.

Also, one of the best moments of Season 1 was when Ike is arrested and as he is led out of the hotel in handcuffs his security guy drops a coat over the cuffs, his hotel photographer gets in the way of the press, and the new doorman 'accidentally' trips the arresting officer. I would have liked to have seen more hotely things going on, back stories, warmth, humour, how actually it was better done in the sixties in Hotel (and even that is not without its shortcomings), As it is it's all a bit seedy, really pervy and predictable, with so-so acting.

Ends openly - we won't be watching any more. (In fact no more series were commissioned.)

* Q came up with 'Midget City' and 'Magic Titty'.

Along Came Polly (2004 John Hamburg & scr)

A really lame film, unbelievable, gross, unfunny (wife screws scuba instructor on honeymoon, man uses beautiful towel as loo paper etc.) Jen is fine, benefits from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bryan Brown, and especially Hank Azaria as a Frenchman, so not a complete write-off for those reasons. With Ben Stiller, Debra Messing, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Hart, and Masi Oka way down the cast list. Shot by Seamus McGarvey.

The Hireling (1973 Alan Bridges)

Written by Wolf Mankowitz from L.P. Hartley novel.

Private hire chauffeur Robert Shaw helps to bring depressed Sarah Miles out of herself and forms attachment, which proves unwelcome, and their roles become reversed (echoes of The Servant).

Shots both in and from car (moving POVs of the estate workers) had me thinking of Taxi Driver more than once. Michael Reed (OHMSS, Press Gang) is on camera. Petra Markham (Ace of Wands) has a small part as a maid, and I wonder how much Alison Leggatt was paid for her 60 second appearance?

Ending creates a powerful symbol of Shaw stuck in post-war angst, societal division and loneliness.

Nice subtle stuff going on with reflections

No Minor Vices (1948 Lewis Milestone)

Odd, almost surrealist tomfoolery, featuring characters' thoughts as voiceover, a pixified score (Franz Waxman), a misbehaving painting and wayward lobsters (did Woody Allen see this?). Made with customary elegance for MGM (George Barnes on camera) though using a limited number of sets. Dana Andrews perhaps not right for the material, Lili Palmer fine, Louis Jourdan quirky, Norman Lloyd most watchable, and Jane Wyatt. Written by Arnold Manoff, directed with some flair by Milestone. Good (uncredited) sketches.

Magic Town - Season One (2012 Mitch Glazer)

Mitch - who wrote Cuaron's Great Expectations and co-wrote Scrooged) - was himself a cabana boy at a Miami Beach hotel (the Deauville), and the beautifully design Miramar (production designer Carlos Barbosa and set decoraor Scott Jacobson) is based on such real hotels as the Fontainebleu (seen in Goldfinger):

We think it might have been pitched as 'Mad Men + Hotel + GF 1&2 / Sopranos'. 

Not sure Jeffrey Dean Morgan with his three expressions is quite the man for the job. Olga Kurylenko (fine as usual) could play a young Audrey Hepburn. Danny Huston is meatily enjoyable, and Elena Satine is rather good as platinum hooker. With Steven Strait and Jessica Marais as the sex-addicted and suicidal lovers, Christian Cooke the other brother (one dodgy, one straight, you see?).

Certainly some dumb moments (you would catch a balcony-swinging thief by watching the outside of the building, wouldn't you? And leave town if told your life was in danger) and a certain predictability to some (not all) events, a visual fascination with (bodies in) water and 150% nudity guaranteed. Some rather ugly violence against women and pervy moments unpleasant. Still, as guiltily pleasurable as eating an entire box of chocolates, even the ones you don't like.

Lushly shot by Gabriel Beristain (whose most interesting credit is Derek Jarman's Caravaggio, though looking at the screen shots as a reminder, it looks like he didn't catch the artist's darkness well - how to go from 1959 Miami to Caravaggio's use of light in one review).

Pete 'n' Tillie (1972 Martin Ritt)

Great teaming of Walter Matthau and Carole Burnett, who star in Julius Epstein screenplay of Peter de Vries novella 'Witch's Milk'(1968) - he himself suffered the death of a child from leukaemia. This is not dwelt upon but (like in A Single Man) shows the quite ordinary reaction to bad news as not being histrionic but minimal (though Matthau's teary eyes speak volumes).

Good, often very funny writing, good acting all round includes Geraldine Page (classic scrap between her and Burnett), Barry Nelson, Rene Auberjonois and Henry Jones. Loved also the way Burnett dismissed Matthau's mistress.

Photographed by John A Alonzo in Panavision (though Spanish DVD is cropped). Everyone in 1972 SF seemed to like nude art.

Liked the visual reference to Lonely Are the Brave (earlier Matthau part).

Melvin and Howard (1980 Jonathan Demme)

One of his earlier works, lying between Last Embrace ('79) and Swing Shift ('84), written by Bo Goldberg, one of the screenwriters of Cuckoo's Nest and Scent of a Woman, The Rose and Shoot the Moon - this, though an original screenplay, is based on the true story of a claimed will of Howard Hughes which was dismissed by the court as a forgery... But we're not too involved in that, rather in the life of hard-working idiot Paul le Mat and his lurches from job to job and repossession to repossession, a nice guy who stops to help a tramp in the Nevada desert. This early sequence between he and Jason Robards is at the film's core, the two of them in the truck. Then we meet Mary Steenburgen and daughter Elizabeth Cheshire...

Some distinctive moments (e.g. le Mat's song at the Christmas party, filmed by a director of music videos, a 360-degree pan in a courthouse) and the inevitable background stuff (loved the big plastic cow being wheeled by). Didn't notice Gloria Grahame as Mary's mum...

Early collaboration with Craig MacKay and Tak Fujimoto (editor and cameraman).

Un Village Français - Season 1 (2009 Frédéric Krivine, Philippe Triboit)

Not too keen to research this yet for fear of finding out plot developments, early death of lead character etc. (You know that feeling when you're writing up a 20 episode series and you notice a lead character is only in it 18 episodes..) Being now in Season 7 it has undoubtedly been a success in France - has anything quite like it been done before? It's an obvious choice for BBC4.

Immediately gripping set of characters (Thierry Godard and Audrey Fleurot familiar to us from Engrenages, since 2005) and situation ('Now, they're gonna end up in the Resistance...He's gonna be the nice German soldier' etc.) very well told.

Krivine has been writing for television since the early nineties.

Patrick Descamps sure seems familiar, like he should be in a Buñuel, but he isn't.

Really well acted and delivered in that wonderfully undramatic yet tense way the French do so well (think L'Armee des Ombres or Au Revoir Les Enfants). With Robin Renucci (doctor), Nicolas Gob (Marchetti, police), Nade God (Godard's lover), Emanuelle Bach (his wife), Fabrizio Rongione (commie brother), Marie Kremer (school teacher), Francis Renaud,

Constance Dolle, Thierry Godard, Robin Renucci, Richard Sammel, Nicolas Gob, Audret Fleurot, Emmanuelle Bach, Marie Kremer and Francois Loriquet

Devastating ending in which debate about ethics of killing turns rapidly into execution.

Deadpool (2016 Tim Miller)

Another one of those incongruous meetings of ultra violence and self-aware comic book adaptations from the ubiquitous Marvel stable (how rich must Stan Lee be?) begins well with send up credits and a quippy action scene, Ryan Reynolds in good form, but becomes more tortury and later action scenes played more straight become dull (e.g. fight between big metal thing and somehow ultra-powerful woman). Also suggests having loads of sex is a good relationship. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick wrote it. Miller's debut.

Ed Skrein is the baddy, T.J. Miller the friend, Morena Vaccarin the girlfriend. Undoubtedly will please its target audience.

Remember the Night (1939, rel. 1940 Mitchell Leisen)

By then Preston Sturges was getting good money and recognised as a talent - he had changed the way the script-writing process had become a factory of writers, each re-writing a version before. This was an original, not as shiny as the later batch of superb comedies, more of a romance with comedy touches (great one liners here and there). A good alternative Christmas film. You might argue Barbara Stanwyck softens too quickly from serial thief in presence of noble Joel McCrea and then his mom Beulah Bondi, aunt Elizabeth Patterson and village idiot Sterling Holloway, though ending doesn't cop out.

Coincidentally another Ted Tezlaff film.

Gas, Food, Lodging (1992 Allison Anders & scr)

From Richard Peck's 1971 novel 'Don't Look And It Won't Hurt'. He is noted for young adult literature spawned by failed career as teacher at junior high. Allison herself apparently had a rough background - the film has a tough realistic edge on relationships between single mother (Brooke Adams) and two very different daughters (Ione Skye and Fiaruza Balk). Apart from some gang rapists most of the key males fortunately turn out OK (Robert Knepper, David Lansbury and Jacob Vargas) though James Brolin is the shiftless ex and Chris Mulkey a married lover.

Allison then worked mainly in TV. As to Ione, who we've seen more of than we bargained for twice this week (I think the only sex scene in a cave I've seen), she's been steadily working, but not really in anything you would have heard of. It's perhaps Fairuza whose performance is the most natural as the Spanish movie fan (though why? The Elvia Rivero pictures look awfully dull.) She didn't have the most glittery career either, though does appear in Almost Famous. Perhaps then  a career best for all the girls?

New Mexico setting well caught.

The Window (1949 Ted Tetzlaff)

Short, efficient thriller from Tetzlaff a couple of years after he shot Notorious for Hitchcock (his last as cinematographer). Bobby Driscoll is convincing as liar who is pursued by murderer Paul Stewart (a familiar face); parents Arthur Kennedy and Barbara Hale don't believe him.

Mel Dinelli adapted Cornell Woolrich story 'The Boy Cried Murder' which features fire escape sleeping, a heatwave and a witness to a murder, like 'Rear Window'.

Shot by William Steiner and Robert de Grasse, music by Roy Webb. RKO.

Nobody's Fool (1994 Robert Benton & scr)

Richard Russo write the book in 1993, a writer who based his novels on his own life in upstate New York, and as a college lecturer (both of which feature here). He adapted his own Empire Falls (great cast) and screenwrote The Ice Storm. Benton's probably best known for Kramer vs Kramer. Here we are in snowy and quiet North Bath, where a snow blower is important. This is a thoughtful, tangible, human story, engaging and funny.

Good story and cast: Paul Newman (69 playing 60), Jessica Tandy, Melanie Griffiths, Bruce Willis, Dylan Walsh (the son), Pruitt Taylor Vince (friend), Gene Saks (good as useless lawyer), Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco and Margo Martindale.

I don't know ... son was about to go back to his wife anyway. I would have taken at least a fortnight with Melanie in Hawaii...

It was dedicated to Jessica Tandy. Classy way to go out.

Very professional team behind John Bailey's camera: Howard Shore composing, John Bloom (Travels with My Aunt, Gandhi, Black Widow, Charlie Wilson's Way, many others since early sixties) editing.

East of Ipswich (1987 Tristram Powell)

Michael Palin's somewhat autobiographical story of teenager, dull parents and girl he meets and fancies on holiday. Gently observed and humorous in detail e.g. fellow hotel guests who always seem to be snooping, terrifying landlady. Acting generally good, story believable. John Nettleton (father), Pat Heywood (mother). Edward Rawle-Hicks, Oona Kirsch, Pippa Hinchley, Janine Duvitski, Graham Crowden.

"I do hate being filmed in 16mm, don't you?"

A Private Function (1984 Malcolm Mowbray)

Written by Alan Bennett, from a story by he and the director, well acted by a top British cast of Michael Palin, Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott (making the most of his venomous character), Richard Griffiths (endearing), Bill Paterson, Liz Smith, Alison Steadman, Jim Carter, Pete Postlethwaite, Rachel Davies (landlady).

Background of meat rationing / crime and local politics well caught. Features a cute pig. Shot by Tony Pierce-Roberts.

I thought I missed Bill, but he's still working steadily, most recently in Fleabag

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959 Terence Fisher)

A Time Out reviewer (David Pirie) described it - in the late eighties - as 'The best Sherlock Holmes film ever made, and one of Hammer's finest movies'. Hm. Good pairing though of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, with Andre Morell, Matla Landi, David Oxley, Miles Malleson, John Le Mesurier.

Shot at Bray and Surrey by Jack Asher.

It passes the time, and looks quite cool in its fifties colour (Eastman, of course).

The Rachel Papers (1989 Damian Harris & scr)

From Martin Amis's novel. Dexter Fletcher seeks to seduce American Ione Skye, though she's already going out with James Spader. With Jared Harris, Jonathan Pryce, Leslie Sharp, Bill Paterson, Michael Gambon (billed high though only in one scene), Claire Skinner, Gina McKee.

Alex Thomson shot it. Electronic score isn't bad.

Young men are arses, cf. Baisers Volés. Scene with used condom is out of sight.

Milk Money (1994 Richard Benjamin)

Melanie Griffith and Ed Harris are a winning combination (both are always worth watching in anything) in John Mattson's original screenplay, Michael Patrick Carter fine as the boy. With Anne Heche, Malcolm McDowell, Philip Bosco.

A Kennedy-Marshall production. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

Shot by David Watkin.

Love and Friendship (2016 Whit Stillman & scr)

From a Jane Austen novella 'Lady Susan'. Dry, with the usual amount of plot machinations. Kate Beckinsale, Morfydd Clark, Tom Bennett, Jenn Murray, James Fleet, Chloe Sevigny, Stephen Fry.

Filmed by Richard Van Oosterhout. It wasn't as funny as we were led to believe, and there was lots of paying attention to do.

Fabulous performance from Kate Beckinsale

The Birds (1963 Alfred Hitchcock)

Plenty of genius 'pure' cinema in this, though some of the bird attacks still make me laugh.
Suzanne Pleshette is fabulous. All the small parts are brilliantly cast. The scene in the diner is a writing / directing masterclass.

The Other Woman (2014 Nick Cassavetes)

Disappointing comedy written by Melissa Stack (her only film - how did she get the gig??) and featuring a clearly improvising Leslie Mann, who cannot carry the film, uncomfortably alongside Cameron Diaz (who just about holds her own), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Don Johnson and Kate Upton. Also doesn't exactly move female equality along at all. Giving a man estrogen as part of master plan? Come on!

V. odd choice for Cassavetes too.

Ethel and Ernest (2016 Roger Mainwood & scr)

Affectionate animation based on Raymond Briggs graphic novel, voiced by Jim Broadbent, Benda Blethyn, Pam Ferris, Roger Allam, June Brown and Luke Treadaway.

The Prince and Me (2004 Martha Coolidge)

By the numbers romcom with Julia Stiles and an unconvincing Luke Mably as Danish prince, particularly in the variable accent department. Supported by Ben Miller, Miranda Richardson and James Fox. Our afternoon broadcast had a bit of fooling around in a library removed.

Sherlock: The Six Thatchers (2017 Rachel Talalay)

Written solo by Mark Gatiss who has enormous fun showing Sherlock solving several nonsense cases 'for fun', but mood turns downright tragic...  Or does it?

P.S. Remaining episodes become increasingly bonkers - Scorseseitis has set in. Druggy, trippy storylines, pantomime villains - the early series were far better, even when  Gatiss and Moffat are writing together. Still enjoyable, though after the last one Q and I just looked at each other....

Though I would have to say that there is a moment in Episode 2 where Sherlock / Cumberbatch loses it, and suddenly you can see just how amazing he must be on stage in Shakespeare...

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016 Taika Waititi & scr)

Based on a book by Barry Crump. Sam Neill, Julian Dennison, Rima Te Wiata, Rachel House, Rhys Darby (who we happened to have just seen in Modern Family).

'Man, or bush?'
'Will you be running away today?'

The Love Bug (1969 Robert Stevenson)

Yes, the Jane Eyre / Hitchcock Presents director. Written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi from a story by Gordon Buford. Dean Jones, Michele Lee, David Tomlinson, Buddy Hackett and Benson Fong (many films since forties). Hippy jokes and crazy scenes with the little car make me think they were stoned then even over at Disney.