BlacKkKlansman (2018 Spike Lee)

A timely viewing of a true story, brilliantly written by Lee & Kevin Willmott, and David Rabinowitz and Charlie Wachtel (who originally optioned and adapted Ron Stallworth's book). Whilst brilliantly managing to present / argue various sides, it remains very funny.

John David Washington is just right, and Adam Driver adds a certain something to every film he's in. Laura Harrier then turned up in Hollywood.

With its horrific Jesse Armstrong lynching story related by Harry Belafonte, The Birth of a Nation and its ending on the Virginia killing it couldn't be more timely, yet as the George Floyd news shows us, nothing seems to have changed.

I would have finished Black Film Day with Blazing Saddles, but it was getting on. As it happened, it was Oscar Day as well (and Clint Eastwood's 90th birthday).

Funny to get a Cybill / Last Picture Show reference so coincidentally.

1917 (2019 Sam Mendes)

OK, there were no Black people in this one (well, one) but we had to experience this other Award winner. And what an incredible experience. Like Birdman it appears to be filmed in a single take, but because of the extremely artful way it's been composed and executed, it doesn't have the same feeling of claustrophobia - where the camera is positioned gives you different compositions and shot sizes, whilst the single take gives you the intensity of the story.

Roger Deakins won his second Oscar and fifth BAFTA for the way he has photographed this, using a variety of kits - Steadicam, Trinity (the three-axis hybrid stabilizer, operated by Charlie Rizek), a cable wire (remote-controlled from a vehicle), or hand-held with a stabilized camera, and the edits are very skilfully blended together by Lee Smith. There's lots of CGI, but it has all been extremely well planned, rehearsed and designed.

Love the way that George MacKay's mate Dean-Charles Chapman appears to have turned an unpleasant colour from his wound in that brief moment he's off camera.

My favourite sequence, lit by flares

Roger's favourite shot

Amidst all this cleverness we occasionally bump into the likes of Danny Mays, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Benedict Cumberbatch and Richard Madden.

Written by Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns, scored by Thomas Newman, production design by Dennis Gassner.

The film won the BAFTA for Best Film and Best British Film, Director, Cinematographer, Production Design, Sound and Special Visual Effects. (We were laughing about the way the sound guys must get annoyed when all their work is then covered over with the score.)

There is an alternative ending - the writing in the letter has been washed away in the river so the attack goes ahead and the brother dies.

No doubt someone's made a Paths of Glory comparison (the tracking shots around the trenches).

Moonlight (2016 Barry Jenkins & co-scr)

It was the year of La La Land - but this won Best Film and Screenplay (adapted, from story by Tarell Alvin McCraney), and Mahershala Ali (True Detective, Hidden Figures, Green Book, House of Cards, Treme, The Place Beyond the Pines, since 2001) won for Best Supporting Actor. His full name is the Biblical Mahershalalhashbaz!

We wanted a Black Film Day after the George Floyd killing.

Miami. 'Little' (Alex Hibbert) is being bullied - charismatic drug dealer Mahershala Ali and his girlfriend Janelle Monae (Hidden Figures) look out for him, but it turns out one of his clients is Little's mum, Naomie Harris, who's a nightmare.

'Chiron' (Ashton Sanders) is now a teenager, and he's still being bullied, though experiences a sexual encounter with his friend Kevin (Jharrel Jerome). Ali's gone (dead or in prison, we guess) and the mum is still a mess.

Then in 'Black' Chiron has essentially become the Ali dealer figure, having moved to Atlanta, where his mum is at least finally clean, but he seeks out his old beach buddy, now played by The Eddy's André Holland. It's in this episode we finally hear some rap, after refreshingly the soundtrack has been classical (Nicholas Britell).

We thought it was great.

Photographed by James Laxton. Half Nelson's Anna Boden gets a 'Thanks'.

The Last Picture Show (1971 Peter Bogdanovich & co-scr)

A lot has been said about Jeff Bridges' first star part, and Cybill Shepherd's debut, but what struck me on this viewing is how good Timothy Bottoms is - his face as he's struggling with inner conflicts and picking up on those around him. That last look between 'Sam the Lion' Ben Johnson and Bottoms and Bridges as they set off for Mexico... It's fatherly, man-to-man, still annoyed with them because of Billy (Sam Bottoms), the old to the new...

Considering it was Peter's only second film, made when he was in his early thirties, it's a really mature film, very melancholic, like the work of someone much older. The fact that his dad died during filming probably contributed. I feel its sadness more and more each time I see it. 

It's very well acted by everyone. Peter ends his film like Ambersons - a film with which it has a sense of melancholy and nostalgia in common - with each cast member receiving a solo credit at the film's conclusion. Cloris Leachman's impassioned outburst to Bottoms at the end - "You didn't even have to be careful of me" - she said after the first take she could do better - "No you can't" said Bogdanovich - she won the Oscar - but still maintained she could have done it better. 

"I'm round that corner now - you've ruined it."

Written by Peter and Larry McMurty and based on the latter's novel. With: Ellen Burstyn, Eileen Brennan, Clu Gulager, Sharon Ullrick, Randy Quaid. Photographed by Robert Surtees. I must go and sob into my cereal now.

Targets (1968 Peter Bogdanovich & scr)

Yes, it was originally that Karloff owed Roger Corman two days' work, which is how Peter got the gig - in fact, Karloff worked five days, and Peter had another eighteen, to make nevertheless a 'B' movie with class, one that could look down on 'A' pictures of the same time. Despite budget limitations it's very classily done, and seems to me to have little nods to people like Hitch (Rear Window) and Welles (that vertical tracking shot like Citizen Kane), and clearly Hawks, which Bogdanovich himself, playing the director, finds running on TV and immediately becomes hooked (it's Karloff again, in The Criminal Code).

Polly Platt's contribution to the story (revealed in the director's blog 'The Plot Thickens'), the apple pie serial killer, based on the 'Texas Tower Sniper' Charles Whitman, makes a chilling element much more scary than anything Karloff would appear in (thus underlining the irony of this film, in which Karloff ultimately dispatches the killer in an almost comical but stunning finale) - I've a feeling I've completely contradicted myself there. Anyway, uncredited, Sam Fuller also contributed many ideas to the screenplay. (Bogdanovich's character is called Samuel Michaels - Fuller's middle name).

Verna Fields has an early credit as a sound editor, and she does a good job (the car stereo gets louder the closer it is to the camera), and all the freeway shooting scene was shot silent, with twenty eight to thirty audio tracks added by her afterwards. And the cutting is great, for example in the scene that sniper Tim O'Kelly tries to shake off a following police car. The scenes with Peter and Karloff are great, and Nancy Hsueh acquits herself as the involved PA.

Laszlo Kovacs makes a good early impression in his night scenes, though the cigarette-in-the-dark Rear Window moment is amusingly cheesy - and some of the night exterior shots are funny in that you can hardly see anything - the ending is a beautiful, low budget mish-mash.

Overall it's very competent - you can see that Peter knows exactly what he's doing (long, slow track in on Karloff whilst he's going his 'appointment in Samarra' story) and had delivered his first and only thriller. That scene is preceded by a journalist asking Karloff the most mundane questions, which in itself is funny as Peter had already had years of experience talking to great directors, and you can be sure he didn't start by asking 'What's it feel like being in motion pictures?' (although while writing this I'm watching Peter's John Ford documentary and the scene where he interviews him in front of Monument Valley and Ford gives terse, one word answers, is hilarious). In fact this moment of Peter the director playing the film director protecting the star playing a star against the stupid journalist is very memorable and sweet.

Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were both murdered before the film's release and as such, Paramount became nervous and it played hardly at all. (That was a bad sentence.) Though the reviews were good, particularly that in the New York Times.

The nonchalant sandwich before the killing starts...

Love the clouds in this shot

After Life - Season 2 (2020 Ricky Gervais & scr)

Seems to be more off-puttingly crude than the last series - particularly in scenes involving 'therapist' Paul Kaye (who no one would ever return to visit for a second time) and disgusting David Earl. And postmen just don't come in to your house a take a bath.

However, when something sweet happens, like with colleague Mandeep Dhillon, or fellow mourner Penelope Wilton, it's really sweet.

Maybe that's the point.

Also rather successful in its evocation of grief, loss and depression. But after losing someone, "Life goes on" someone says, quoting Robert Frost at him. "It's not as good," he replies, "but there you go".

His episode four playout is David Bowie, 'Can You Hear Me?'

With Roisin Conaty, Kerry Godliman, Ashley Jensen, David Bradley, Diane Morgan. Tony Way, Tom Basden, Joe Wilkinson, Jo Hartley.

The Eddy (2020 Creator Jack Thorne)

Film 1. Elliot. Directed by Damian Chazelle in unsteadycam. It's like cinema verité. Thorne wrote or co-wrote them all. His contribution written up here.

2. Julie. Like those Edward Lear Cautionary Poems - Julie, Who Gets Herself into a Very Sticky Situation. Chazelle again, with his trademark long take through the Club as Elliot searches for her.

3. Ariana. Funeral, illustrated by jazz, and speeches. Good.

4. Jude. Our bass player's a junkie, and his ex turns up announcing she's to be married. He witnesses, then takes them to a wedding where the band's gigging. Annoying Julie has moved into Maja's. Co-written with Rachel De-Lahay, Rebecca Lanciewicz

5. Talking of who... Maja. Gets offered another gig by Tcheky Karyo, Elliott gets himself more and more in the shit by not simply telling the police what's going on. The band is finally offered a recording deal.

6. Sim. Tries to get money for gran to go to Mecca - fails. Ends up singing his own song at the club with Julie backing. Written with Hamid Hlioua

7. Katerina. Why has our drummer been so taciturn, so busy - why did she get involved with the crime gang? This explains all. Written with Phillip Howze, Rebecca Lanciewicz.

8. Untitled conclusion has Elliot finally going to the police, making it good with Julie, and finally performing again (but only with her support), before the club is fire-bombed.

André Holland (Moonlight, The Knick) is Elliot, Joanna Kulig the only name I knew. Amandla Stenberg is Julie, Tahat Rahim (Farid), Leila Behkti his wife. Randy Kerber is the composer. orchestrator and keyboard player who helped prepare Ryan Gosling for La La Land, and the rest of the band also comprises real life musicians Ludovic Louis (trumpet), Lada Obradovic (her solo drumming is amazing), Jowee Omicil (sax) and Damian Nueva Cortes (bass), with many of them never having been on screen before.

The whole thing came about on the back of  the Whiplash debut when Chazelle was approached (by Six Feet Under producer Alan Poul) to do something set in a jazz club in Paris - thereby foreshadowing La La Land in two ways. He's an exec producer. Poul in turn had been contacted by music producer Glen Ballard, who had already assembled the band.

This is the Paris on the wrong side of the péripherique, very multicultural, amplified with good background sound.

Photographed by Julien Poupard (four episodes), Eric Gautier (the first two).

James Baldwin's 'The Price of the Ticket' is a series of articles about the experience of being black in America - he had written some of them in Paris.

Loved Elliot's line: "One day I woke up and saw I had left myself behind."

The Wrong Box (1966 Bryan Forbes)

Messy, unsuccessful movie about brothers John Mills and Ralph Richardson and who will live longest and collect an inheritance. Much foolery ensues, with relative Michael Caine falling for 'cousin' next door, the anodyne Nanette Newman, whilst Peter Cook and Dudley Moore attempt to win the money, delivering bodies to the wrong house etc.

My favourite performance is of the butler Peacock by veteran Wilfred Lawson, who died the same year.

With guest stars at every turn - Leonard Rossiter, Tony Hancock, Irene Handl, Peter Sellers, John le Mesurier.

Written by the normally reliable Larry Gelbart, and Burt Shevelove, inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson, with pointless intertitles. (Though quite liked Richardson's factmeister, who won't stop talking.) Even John Barry's score is atypically twee. Photographed by Gerry Turpin. Not sure on reflection that Forbes has ever made a good film. Yes he has, Whistle Down the Wind (and, I think, though it's been a while, The L Shaped Room).

Violet and Daisy (2011 Geoffrey Fletcher & scr)

He's best known for having adapted Precious. Without any preamble we meet two nun - assassins (in a sort of Pulp Fiction opening), Saiorse Ronan and Alexis Bledel. Then they are tasked (by Danny Trejo) with bumping off James Gandolfini, but he proves too appealing a target... (It was nice to see him.) Marianne Jean Baptiste makes sure they do.

A short, simple film, slips down quite easily, though remains somewhat insubstantial, like a British Airways lunch.

Paul Cantelon's music adds a certain something.

Little Women (2019 Greta Gerwig & scr)

She's scrambled up the time line, but otherwise pretty much left it alone. Is there a bit more of an independent woman slant than other versions? You'd hope so, but I'm not sure, though I did like seeing the book being printed and her negotiations with the publisher.

Good acting from Saiorse Ronan, Florence Pugh and Timothée Chalamet, supported by Emma Watson and Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Chris Cooper, Bob Odenkirk, James Norton, Louis Garrel, Meryl Streep.

Saiorse won her fourth Oscar nomination, Florence her first. A refreshing number of Brits in the cast, and Frenchmen behind the camera - an international set. Good photography (Yorick Le Saux) and music (Alexandre Desplat) 

Louisa May Alcott's 1868 novel has been filmed several times - in 1918, 1933 (With Katherine Hepburn and Joan Bennett), 1949 (Elizabeth Taylor), 1994 (Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes), 2017 (TV series) and 2018 (a modernization).

The Merry Widow (1934 Ernst Lubitsch)

An unexpected delight, a treat. Lubitsch's 'musical' isn't especially, but delivers a lovely line in mad humour - it's as mad and fast as some of his silents. Having been in the garden all day until 8 PM it was difficult to know what to put on - this was the perfect thing. So funny - moreso when you picture Lubitsch himself acting out all the parts for everyone.

Maurice Chevalier is sent to Paris to retrieve Marshovian millionaire Jeanette MacDonald, falls in love with a girl called 'Frou-Frou' in Maxim's (which is her). Edward Everett Horton is supposedly there to help.

Tons of brisk funny stuff, often involving doorways (of course) - Lubitsch has a definite rhythm.

A favourite in the Bogdanovich family, and likely to become one of ours as well.

Glitteringly photographed by Oliver T. Marsh with sumptuous set designs by MGM resident Cedric Gibbons.

Written by Ernest Vajda and Samuel Raphaelson, based on the book and lyrics of Victor Leon and Leo Stein.

Una Merkel is delightful, George Barbier hilarious as the king - in one of many classic moments, he goes in to the royal chambers to retrieve his sword but realises it's too small - someone else's sword. Bursting in he finds Chevalier there with his girl  but so they don't alert the servants, they are forced to laugh and make pleasant conversation...

Chevalier isn't the only connection to Love in the Afternoon, which is also about a serial womaniser - there's a gypsy band too. Also features an incredible ballroom sequence dance in black and white.

Music by Franz Lehar.

"There they are - all your little tonights - and not a tomorrow among them."

Peter Bogdanovich 'Who the Devil Made It?'

Films that were so good I wanted to watch them again while they were still playing

Texasville
Petulia
Aloha
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

She's Funny That Way

Aloha (2015 Cameron Crowe & scr)

A Perfect Film, which on IMDB is awarded 5.4. (Can I just say, that turkey The Locket we watched the other night ... 7.2. Which proves the world's full of idiots.)

Full of wonderful unexpected moments, like Bradley suddenly howling in the car, out of the window (a dog howls back - 'see?' his look says). And a wonderful sense of the mystical...

"I'm just making sure we're still alive."
"Are we?"

Emma's shoe in the Christmas tree.

It's just brilliant. That loose hand held shot - no, even before that - we meet John Krasinski right up front. Then, as the camera circles, we have the triangle right there - Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone.

"The future is a brute force with a gentle sense of humour that will steamroller you if you don't pay attention."

When Emma says "I danced with the devil... and I liked it" - she's absolutely perfect.

"I may not be the original owner of your heart, but I am the better owner."

The ending would make a snake cry (to paraphrase Orson Welles). Danielle Rose Russell.

Great use of sound all the way through, inspired music choices, as usual. Not in the shadow of Wilder at all, Cameron's definitely his own man.

Led Kaapana is the legendary slack guitarist playing opposite Emma.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011 Glenn Ficcara, John Requa)

Written by Dan Fogelman - get the punctuation right. Isn't 'The Scarlet Letter' in that other Emma Stone film, Easy A?

Marisa Tomei is a bit OTT.

"I can imagine you suffocating under a pile of women."

The scene between Carrel and Gosling in the bar, when the truth about 'Nanna' has come out, is great.

It's a real treat.

The scene where Analeigh Tipton gives Jonah Bobo the photos is a priceless moment of lost for words...

To Have And Have Not (1944 Howard Hawks)

Earlier comments apply, from 2014, 2016, 2019.

'She's nineteen' Q kept remarking. The story behind it is remarkable - Bogie was 44, married to a violent drunk - she literally once stabbed him in the back - sweetly told in Betty's autobiography 'By Myself and Then Some'. (As a complete aside, Peter Lorre was a close friend of Bogie's, '..very, very intelligent, knew a great deal about medicine, a first-rate horseman, drank a good deal but it never got out of hand' and was married to Kings Row's Kaaren Verne.)

Hawks was jealous of the two - Betty thinks it's because he no longer had control over the situation. They didn't actually get together until The Big Sleep.

Love Hawks' framing. (Everything important in the same frame - multiple stories, in fact.)

Dolores Moran is the other gorgeous gal.

Hawks had challenged William Faulkner to write a film out of Hemingway's worst story. (He also told him to write about flyers - 'Pylon' - which became The Tarnished Angels - wasn't much good either, apparently.)

That's Sir Lancelot (from IWWAZ) on board the boat.

The Nice Guys (2016 Shane Black & co-scr)

People keep falling on to cars (shades of Lethal Weapon), though it isn't Christmas. Love the little tender touches.

With Gosling and Crowe are Angourie Rice, Margaret Qualley (the missing girl), Yaya Da Costa, Matt Bomer, Keith David, Kim Basinger, Lois Smith (Lady Bird, Hollywoodland, Fried Green Tomatoes, Black Widow, Five Easy Pieces).

In response to Russell's weight - “I did a movie called 'The Nice Guys,' so I wanted to be the physical juxtaposition of Ryan Gosling.” Crowe also spoke about working alongside Gosling, gushing about his co-star and calling it a "treat" to work with the 35-year-old actor. "That kid is a comic genius. He's great company," Crowe said. "He's really smart. He loves what he does and he asks all the right questions. The kid just knows how to make me laugh. He's very, very funny." (ABC News.)

Ruggles of Red Gap (1935 Leo McCarey)

From 1913 Harry Leon Wilson novel (he also wrote 'Merton of the Movies', filmed in 1924 and 1947) adapted by Humphrey Pearson, screenplay by Walter DeLeon and Harlan Thompson.

Charles Laughton is in fine comic mode, though in the beginning, he reminds me of a ventriloquists's dummy, or a teddy bear. Roland Young also good in very diffident manner (love the way some of his sentences collapse into yes mm). 

"I'm reluctant to leave that behind [his cocktail] but I'm sure we'll bump into another."

With Charles Ruggles  (appropriately enough), Zasu Pitts (once you've seen Greed, you never forget that face), Mary Boland (wife), Leila Hyams (the singer - Freaks, Island of Lost Souls), Maude Eburn ('Ma').

Liked the egalitarianism of it, underlined by the Gettysburg address (which, incidentally is played out almost totally in reaction shots to Laughton) - in that the butler becomes an independent restaurateur and the singer marries a Lord.

It's funny. Made for Paramount, with Alfred Gilks on camera. There's always one song at least in a McCarey - this one contains a comic one in which Young attempts to accompany Leila on the drums.

White Lines (2020 Creator / Writer Alex Pina)

Has a sort of built-in yawn factor, Laura Haddock with recapping and past mental breakdown. Anything you watch after Make Way for Tomorrow is likely to feel artificial - in one scene I could actually see the director saying 'Say your first line, then walk to the table and say your second line.'

Amidst raves, flashbacks, teeth pulling and orgies - and irrelevances, distractions, blind alleys, episodes that begin at the end - you struggle to find someone to like - though it emerges as the heavy 'Boxer' (Nuno Lopes), who Haddock shoots in the leg ('Cupid's Harpoon' is the line that wasn't actually said). And, I suppose, in the rather pathetic figure played by Daniel Mays.

The young Danny Mays is played by Cold Feet's Cel Spellman; Tom Rhys Harries is the charismatic DJ.

Angela Griffin, la la. Dysfunctional crime family blah. (Pedro Casablanc the father.) Anyone seen The Godfather lately? The trick there was we actually liked them. A lot of this is fill stuff - and that's maybe the problem of giving someone eight+ hours to fill. (That dinner party scene, for example - all talk, talk and doesn't advance the story one jot.)

The ending, the 'truth', absolutely beggars belief (almost might have had the black comedy value of the murder in Torn Curtain were it not so thoroughly implausible). The fact this is the most watched thing on Netflix demonstrates that people in lockdown are missing (1) raves and nightclubs (2) the attendant drugs (3) The Balearics (and other sunny destinations).

They Won't believe Me (1947 Irving Pichel)

Not bad twisty plot - Jonathan Latimer, story Gordon McDonell - has entirely compromised (and predictable) ending, and suffers from a lack of sympathetic characters.

Film opens with Robert Young and Jane Greer (Out of the Past) having innocent liaisons leaning towards affair - he agrees to run away with her to Montreal. But his wife Rita Johnson has other ideas and they ship off to LA, where Young starts another dalliance with good-time secretary Susan Hayward. The wife finds out again and they move to some solitary ranch, without a phone.

At this point, we sort of like Greer, though she's not been in it much, and don't like anyone else. When the plot starts kicking in, it's fun, but we can't overcome this problem. Young is in fact totally unlikable, and it's a mystery why his wife will stay with him.

A Shostakovich piano recital sounds like a divisive evening.

Photographed by Harry Wild and scored by Roy Webb for RKO.

The Locket (1946 John Brahm)

Rather bonkers tale starts with Gene Raymond about to marry Laraine Day, when psychiatrist Brian Aherne shows up and tells him he was married to her first, and she's bonkers. Cue Flashback #1, in which artist Robert Mitchum turns up and says he's been married to her before, and she stole a bracelet, in Flashback #2. In this, there's a third Flashback, let's call if Flashback #3, in which the little Laraine Day is given a locket, then had it taken away again, by the bitch Katherine Emery, thus setting up the woman's psychosis (there's only one bitch, really, so there's no point going as far as Bitch #1. That would be silly.) Anyway the doctor won't believe Mitchum (we're back to Flashback #1 now) so he jumps out of the window (and it's a High Window, though that sounds like a film noir title, so we mustn't confuse things.* This is no film noir).

Anyway, following the pattern of things, the present day fiance won't believe the doctor and goes ahead and marries the girl anyway, but she has a flashback - well it's sort of an impressionistic thing you get particularly in RKO films - I think I'd call it the suggestion of a Flashback, rather than Flashback #4 - about the stolen bracelet and goes nuts, so finally everyone believes all those flashback stories. Except Mitchum, who remains dead.

Luckily we have Nick Musuraca on camera and Roy Webb scoring to help us through.

Also in cast: Henry Stephenson again, Reginald Denny, Ricardo Cortez, and (uncredited) Grandma Walton Ellen Corby.

Brahm made that great Laird Cregar double bill Hangover Square and The Lodger, so clearly had a talent for something better. Day's only films of note were Foreign Correspondent and Mr. Lucky.

* It turns out High Window is not a film noir title, though it should be.

Picture Perfect (1997 Glenn Gordon Caron)

You know you're in trouble when a character says 'Excuse me, I'll be right back.' Written by Arleen Sorkin (no relation), Paul Slansky and Caron, from a story by Sorkin, Slansky and May Quigley. Though according to my own reaction at the time, it was written by 'dumb people on a plane'.

Transparent plot has Jen An pretending she's engaged to Jay Mohr to get ahead at work. This attracts bastard Kevin Bacon, who only fancies her when he thinks she's unavailable. I said it was dumb.

Olympia Dukakis and Illeana Douglas and Kevin Dunn cannot bring gravitas to the proceedings.

We had tried to watch A Rainy Day in New York but were thwarted again - as in the Polish version, you cannot disable German subtitles. The same applies to the French version - it's a case of industrial sabotage.

I guess it's Jerry Maguire we recognise Mohr from.

Oliver Twist (1948 David Lean)

A beautiful looking film - you could take screen shots all over the place. Guy Green's photography is sensational. (Ossie Morris is the operator.)

I was getting a strong feeling of Russian cinema, which I've had before with Lean. It's the striking editing that makes me feel that way. And the design, all chiaroscuro and weird sets (John Bryan) - is very Expressionist German. There you go - Dickens via Eistenstein and Lang.

It has a particularly beautiful opening (written by Kay Walsh).

I didn't find Robert Newton hammy this time, rather, he's genuinely creepy. Scenes with the bull terrier (nicknamed 'Sikes' by the crew) work brilliantly. Guinness gives quite a shaded performance, once you get past the ridiculous nose. But Walsh steals the acting honours in a fiery and passionate performance.

A very cinematic film, e.g. whole scene in the Three Cripples (where, incidentally, Hattie Jacques is one of the performers). Lean wrote it with Stanley Haynes.

Newton and Davies are both wearing safety harnesses

It was funny to realise, somewhat belatedly, that Oliver's nanny - the only person to show him any affection - is the granny from This Happy Breed (thus reuniting her with Newton and Walsh) - Amy Veness.

With Francis L Sullivan, Henry Stephenson, Mary Clare, Anthony Newley (Dodger), Kathleen Harrison, Ivor Barnard, John Howard Davies, Michael Ripper, Peter Bull, Diana Dors.

Music by Arnold Bax. Produced by Ronnie Neame.

The Awful Truth (1937 Leo McCarey)

Neither Cary Grant nor Irene Dunne trust one another (and with good reason) so they divorce, in Viña Delmar's comedy (McCarey of course also wrote on set) - ownership of Mr. Smith (Skippy) also a contentious subject. The dog cues one of the funniest scenes, where Dunne's hiding singing teacher Alexander D'Arcy in the spare room - Cary Grant then hides there also as Ralph Bellamy's come over - Grant gradually realising D'Arcy is there is like a sublime silent movie moment - then there's an offscreen fight, then Grant chases him out of the apartment...

Dunne is great again. Her killer moment is in performing an inappropriate dance to put off his fiancee's parents. McCarey has relaxed Grant into his first screwball performance. He's very cool.

McCarey's at Columbia this time - he does get about - so Joe Walker shot it, making Dunne's gowns sparkle with stars.

Cecil Cunningham is Aunt Patsy.

Whiplash (2014 Damian Chazelle & scr)

I think this says it all.

It's sort of like a thriller. The whole tone of the film is set in the very opening scene. It's a subtle screenplay too - notice how the father apologises in the cinema when someone knocks his head. And in one very short scene, we understand that Teller doesn't have any college friends. The last fifteen minutes barely features any dialogue.

Led to funny imaginary scenario where I'm mowing the lawn while Q reads the screenplay to me - and all passers-by can hear is 'Not my tempo', 'Are you ahead or behind?' and 'Faster!'

"We definitely have an out-of-tune player."

As for Tom Cross...

Jojo Rabbit (2019 Taika Waititi & scr)

Displaying the same deft, warm and quirky humour as Hunt for the Wilderpeople, only in the much darker milieu of Nazi Germany, Jojo Rabbit manages to pull off something exceptional (the screenplay, adapted from the novel 'Caging Skies' by Christine Leunens, won the Oscar and BAFTA).

From The Beatles version of 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' to Bowie's 'Heroes' ('Helden') at the end, both performed in German, we're in uncharted and exceptional waters. Roman Griffin Davis is the little Nazi, Waititi himself plays Hitler, and he really knows what to do with Scarlett, who's terrific as the resistance-member mother (she was also Oscar and BAFTA nominated). With Thomasin McKenzie (from Leave No Trace), Sam Rockwell as the sympathetic German (he continues to amaze me in everything), Rebel Wilson, Alfie Allen, and a splendidly sinister Gestapo member in the shape of Stephen Merchant. And of course Archie Yates as the young friend.

Clever visual writing (mother's shoes, shoe laces), humour and unexpectedly lyrical moments - the ragtag assembly of children, cripples and shepherds who attempt to defend the city, to the stirrings of Michael Giacchino, is profound and reminded me of a Leone / Morricone scene (e.g. from Giu La Testa).

Nicely photographed by Mihai Malimare, edited by Tom Eagles. Filmed in the Czech Republic.

The A Word (2020 Creator / Writer Peter Bowker)

Still one of the best things on TV - there's no murders or whodunit or ridiculous storylines, you see, just real people interacting, told with warmth and understanding.

The kid is great. 'Is Joe great?' Yes he is. Max Vento does not have autism, but you'd be forgiven for thinking he had. Ably acted by a most competent cast all round: Morvern Christie, Lee Ingelby, Chris Ecclestone, Pooky Quesnel, Greg McHugh, Molly Wright (super-empathetic sister), Matt Greenwood (gay friend), Vinette Robinson, Gemma Paige North (neurotic girlfriend), Julie Hesmondhalgh, David Gyasi (gardener love interest), Leon Harrop (Down's son) and Sarah Gordy (his wife) and Travis Smith (Lee's head waiter - his debut) who is actually on the autism spectrum.

Rough Night (2017 Lucia Aniello & co-scr)

Predictable, crude, relentlessly stupid film - we only put it on to drown out the noise of our neighbour, who was 'decorating'.

For the record, girls on Miami stag night accidentally kill stripper, who it turns out is a criminal.

We can only assume that Scarlett was offered a shit load of money, or that she went temporarily blind at the script stage. She'll be opening the new Primark next. One of the characters actually says 'This is so stupid' at one point.

Filmed in Moron-o-Vision.

Not as bad as that Sartana movie, but nevertheless, really, really bad.

Make Way for Tomorrow (1937 Leo McCarey)

There's another of McCarey's subversive kids here - the one in Maurice Moskovitch's store - he says to the kid "You'll be good to your mother when she gets old?" and he just stands there and says nothing. There's the same deft touches from McCarey at work here, such as the letter Beulah Bondi (49 playing seventies) notices has arrived from the old people's home - she then shuts her son up so she can pre-empt him having to tell her she's moving there in an act of beautiful selflessness (the like of which none of the kids display). PB observes that the old couple still display the same love for each other, towards the end, in the hotel sequence, in a youthful way, whilst none of the kids seem anywhere near as happily married themselves - it hasn't been passed down.

Is the Alfred Molina film Love Is Strange a sort of gay remake?

Victor Moore is the husband, Fay Bainter the bridge-teaching wife of Thomas Mitchell, Barbara Read their daughter. Minna Gombell is the horrible cow, married to Porter Hall. Ferike Boros is Maurice's uncredited wife (we just saw her in Love Affair as Irene Dunne's landlady).

McCarey would rewrite scenes on set with the actors to get these fresh scenes and performances. It's a very discreet film; none of the big emotional scenes of a Kings Row or Now Voyager, for example, but that doesn't dilute its power at all - as Peter says, it's more like a European film than a Hollywood one - cut to - Tokyo Story.

"Now they tell us!"

So neglected was the film it's not even featured in my old Time Out 1991 Film Guide. Made for Paramount - so McCarey was a wanderer, not tied to one studio, like Hawks...

Love Affair (1939 Leo McCarey)

"My father used to say in this life the best things are illegal, immoral or fattening." The original, and - as I predicted - almost half an hour shorter than his own remake An Affair to Remember. (There's a whole conversation there. Hitch also remade his own 30s film in the 50s and that's a lot longer too. Same applied to Imitation of Life. And A Farewell to Arms...)

Irene Dunne shines in this, Boyer supports charmingly. It's a very smooth film, e.g. closeup up of the couple's hand shaking good night - but they don't let go. When Dunne opens her balcony door and the reflection is the Empire State Building. Dunne running back up the stairs to kiss grandma goodbye; the closed lid of grandma's piano. Also, Dunne and Boyer silently pointing out their other halves to each other from the ship.

One of those films that has lapsed into the public domain and thus exists in a variety of shoddy copies, which is a shame as Rudolph Maté's cinematography looks suitably luminous. On the plus side it disguises the background paintings to some extent so that Madeira-on-Hollywood looks suitably realistic.

It's a classic. McCarey an underrated director who I'm trying to retrospect (if I may be allowed to use that as a verb). Made at RKO. With Maria Ouspenskaya, Lee Bowman, Astrid Allwyn, Maurice Moskovitch. Music by Roy Webb, who scored every film ever made at RKO.*

Of course Peter Bogdanovich discusses it with the director in 'Who the Devil Made It?' McCarey prefers Boyer's performance to Grant's, and worked out the story himself with Mildred Cram (the screenplay is credited to Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart). The scene with the little boy** was there for two reasons: with Dunne it displays a kind of turnaround humour, and with Boyer it underlines the character - "What do they say about me?" "I don't know. Whenever they start I have to leave the room." This is McCarey's 'ineluctability of elements' - events are linked together - one incident flows from another.

*Not actually true, just seems like it. (Though since writing this, every RKO film we've seen has been scored by Roy Webb.)
** Yes, we had seen him before - he's the young Parris Mitchell in Kings Row. His IMDB bio begins 'Scotty Beckett was one of the cutest, most successful child actors of the 1930s and 1940s. His descent into a life of alcoholism, drugs, and crime remains one of the most tragic of Hollywood stories...'

Chappaquiddick / The Senator (2017 John Curran)

A very straight re-telling - by Taylor Allen (an animatics* editor on The Simpsons) and Andrew Logan (mainly, a producer) - of a queasy moment in Teddy Kennedy's life when - let's face it - he could well have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne by not going straight to the police (and, frankly, by driving drunkly and badly). In fact the only interesting bit of the story - how the hell did he get out of the car, and then not be able to get in to save her - is unexplained.

I was going to joke that was Bruce Dern playing Kennedy the elder - I was most surprised when it turned out it was him. Jason Clarke is his son, Kate Mara the unfortunate victim, Ed Helms as the faithful cousin. With Jim Gaffigan, Olivia Thirlby, Clancy Brown.

As a film it's just a wee bit dull. I suppose we're supposed to be shocked that it was covered up as smoothly as it was, and that he retained the trust of the American people, but the problem is we're way beyond that now in the utter incredibility of world politics (Saudi Arabia, for one).

Didn't recognise any of the names behind the camera, except Curran, who made the better The Painted Veil and Tracks.

* An animatic is the first stage of the edit in an animation. It's the combination of the storyboards, audio (possibly with temp voice acting), and timing. It's used as the base for the animation: animators will take the shot angle, durations, certain actions, and timings as a starting point for their work on each shot. Definition from Judith Allen.

Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York (1975 Sidney J Furie)

Somewhat slow character drama doesn't really live up to the title. Arriving from Harrisburg, Pennsylania, Jeannie Berlin moves into NYC flat with ditsy actress Rebecca Diana Smith - a well caught character, one of those flaky types with no money and always in a hurry - and pretty much immediately bumps into doctor Roy Scheider. This triangular relationship, search for work and wedding of her younger sister are pretty much it.

Music budget seems small, as the one pop song is replayed endlessly; Michel Legrand's score seems syrupy. Unwisely filmed in Panavision by Donald M Morgan. Written by Gail Parent, from her own novel. Paramount.

Any Human Heart (2010 Michael Samuels)

As I told the author, "one of those rare cinematic occasions where everything blends together perfectly – acting, cinematography, production design, music, editing , direction – think I’ve remembered everybody – into one amazing whole".

Without doubt, William Boyd's most successful adaptation (Restless and Sword of Honour are other worthy contestants), a story of overwhelming brilliance, charting a fictional character through real characters and events (Will claims the Harry Oakes story as told is as he thinks it happened for real - was even going to publish a non-fiction book about it) - we did laugh indeed when 'Nat Tate' turned up at the art gallery!

It's almost Roegian in places, with its impressionistic sequences and flash forwards and backs. The montage about Logan's suicide attempt is out of this world, and the oddly filmed scene where he rushes up to find his son dead equally stunning.

What is remarkable is how little subsequent success the parties involved seem to have head - discounting the author. Samuels hasn't made anything else of note, nor has Dan Jones (won BAFTA) composed anything half as good - it's literally one of those film scores you could buy and listen to independently of the film. Wojciech Sepel's cinematography is outstanding, particularly when viewed on Blu-Ray - he, Jones and Samuels reunited on this year's The Windermere Children. Tim Murrell edited, Patrick Melrose his last good credit - he also cut the Endeavour episode 'Ride', and the author's Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth. Stevie Herbert is the production designer (many of the locations abroad were filmed near Barcelona).

Shall we mention the cast? It's Matthew Macfadyen's finest hour or five, and as I think I've mentioned before, I love the way Jim Broadbent 'becomes' him (Sam Claflin is the younger version). Will thinks people are more than one person through their lifetimes - that's (partly) why Logan is played by four different people (if you include Conor Nealon - and why shouldn't we?), though the others are simply aged. Hayley Attwell, Ed Stoppard (Ben), Samuel West (Peter), Julian Ovenden (Hemingway), Ken Bones and Flaminia Cinque (Logan's parents), Emerald Fennell (Lottie), Gillian Anderson and Tom Hollander, Kim Cattrall, Holliday Grainger, Hugh Skinner (from W1A), Stéphane Dausse (Cyprien), Yolanda Vazquez (Encarnacion), Rupert Vansittart (Earl), Freddie Fox and James Musgrave (younger Peter and Ben), Kulvinder Ghir (London neighbour), Tobias Menzies (Fleming), Richard Schiff (from The West Wing), Skye Bennett (Gail), Rosie Cavaliero (nurse), Charity Wakefield (Land), Julian Rhind-Tutt, Stuart McQuarrie, Lydia Wilson (Monday), MyAnna Buring (Ingeborg).

One of those films where at certain moments, the sound vanishes, for special effect. Also the moment Freya is bombed is terrifically well done.

It's just amazing. Also very moving and very funny. As you get older you appreciate it more and more.

Dad's Army (2016 Oliver Parker)

Started promisingly, fondly but knowingly. Went downhill, with the odd titter. Written by Hamish McColl. Couldn't be bothered to finish it.

Great cast, though: Toby Jones, Bill Nighy, Daniel Mays, Bill Paterson, Tom Courtenay, Blake Harrison, Michael Gambon, Alison Steadman, Sarah Lancashire, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mark Gatiss, Annette Crosbie, Ian Lavender.

Nicely photographed by Christopher Ross (Trust, Eden Lake, London to Brighton).

Isolation Stories (2020 Developed by Jeff Pope)

Remarkable achievement to film four fifteen-minute lockdown stories in stars' own homes, with family members operating professional equipment which had been sterilised and shipped in. (It was filmed on iPhones.)

'Mel.' Pregnant, single Sheridan Smith is having qualms about her forthcoming birth, receives a friendly call which puts everything into perspective. Written by Gaby Chiappe.

'Ron and Russell'. Robert Glenister likely has the virus, son Tom looks after him. Written by Jeff Pope.

'Mike and Rochelle.' Angela Barrett video counsels hypochondriac Darren Boyd. Written by William Ivory.

'Karen.' Eddie Marsan, David Threlfall. Man in lockdown with two kids, wife separated, her dad  keeps visiting, helps. Moving episode, written by Neil McKay.

Magic in the Moonlight (2014 Woody Allen & scr)

Reviewed many times before.

So, there's no hereafter, there's nothing but what you can see in front of you, when you die, you die -- which is why you need to believe in a little magic, allow some illusions, fall in love.

That long (almost) uninterrupted take between Firth and Eileen Atkins is the best scene in the film. Notice how Eileen seems to be really concentrating on her card game, whilst delivering her lines brilliantly. And the writing - what's actually going on is she's making her nephew wake up to the fact he's fallen for the faker.

Firth is one of those people who've jumped on the "I'll never work with him again" bandwagon (including, surprisingly, Greta Gerwig), whilst Alec Baldwin and Scarlett Johannson are publicly on his side. I was trying to find something about Firth's experience working on the film, but this is all I got...

Out To Sea (1997 Martha Coolidge)

Funny that Matthau is cast as an inveterate gambler, which I only recently learned he was in real life. Because of gambling debts he inveigles Lemmon onto a cruise ship, but rather than the luxury voyage he's been promised finds they are there to work as dance partners, under the strict eye of cruise director Brent Spiner, who ruins various songs. Also working there are Donald O'Connor and Hal Linden.

Matthau goes after Texas heiress Dyan Cannon, who you'd think would be far too young for him (her mother is Elaine Stritch), and who Edward Mulhare also covets, whilst widower Lemmon falls for widow Gloria DeHaven (who was in some second rate musicals*, The Thin Man Goes Home, then lots on TV). She's rather good.

It's fun, Matthau getting most of the laughs, e.g. learning how to dance. "There's no such thing as 'too late'. That's why they invented death." Written by Robert Nelson Jacobs.

"Madam. I would be honoured if you would take my last name and put it on your bank account."

Not their last teaming - 1998's The Odd Couple II took that ignominious credit

Photographed by Lajos Koltai, music by David Newman (brother of Thomas), edited by Anne Coates (particularly noticeable in carnival scene and end credits), using a variety of old-fashioned scene transitions.

* Sorry, I don't actually know Two Girls and a Sailor is second-rate. Could be the best goddam muscial in the world, for all I know.

Moonrise (1948 Frank Borzage)

Moonrise has a remarkable opening. In stark yet impressionistic chiaroscuro, a man in shadows is hanged, then an effigy is hanging over a crying baby's head - the son - who then is schoolboy aged and being bullied for having a father that was hanged. All shadowy impressionism. Then those steps to the gallows again.. and we're a few years later on, the boy being bullied again, the cycle repeating, dark, shadowy scenes. This all takes place in about ninety seconds. Then the adult, and he's fighting again, the same assailant...

Thus we understand the motivations driving our grown up protagonist, played by Dane Clark, but boldly, he's depicted as being extremely hostile to just about everyone, not at all sympathetically, almost killing his deaf and dumb friend (Harry Morgan) at one point; and thus when schoolteacher Gail Russell falls for him, we wonder why...

It has its shocking moments, but not in a blunt Sam Fuller way, well, sort of - but with camera moves that are more sophisticated, like Ophuls. This is particularly evident in a beautifully staged sequence on a carousel, and in the way the camera on a crane tracks the lovers in their ballroom dance. Borzage is often called 'lyrical'. I think I know what that means, as in 'expressing emotions in an imaginative and beautiful way', there's definitely something striking about him. Also, I wonder whether Laughton saw this before making his own, studio set, river-bound, lyrical masterpiece Night of the Hunter, which even shares Ethyl Barrymore in the cast. Certainly, Lionel Banks' art direction here on Republic sets is most accomplished, evoking not only the swamps but the run down look of the town and the dilapidated Southern mansion, William Lava's score is thunderous and pounding, John Russell's photography starkly effective and moody (Psycho was his most notable later achievement).

Rex Ingram is the noble recluse, the conscience, who starts singing a spiritual with words all about Clark's situation, like he's a Greek chorus (or indeed like Sir Lancelot in I Walked With a Zombie). Dogs are significant, particularly in a night raccoon hunt (why hunt raccoons? They look cute. To eat them?) Allan Joslyn is a sympathetic cop.

I was surprised it ended as happily as it did.

Borzage is not a well known name these days, but he definitely left his mark in dozens of silents, notably including 7th Heaven and Street Angel, then into sound with the original Farewell to Arms, Man's Castle, Little Man, What Now?, Three Comrades and The Shining Hour. There's a cracking good 1997 article about him and his work here at Filmcomment.com, by Kent Jones.

Good Girls - Seasons 1 & 2 (2018-9 Creator Jenna Bans)

Wasn't going to bother reviewing this, another Breaking Bad progeny, with a money laundering Ozark spin. It's pretty much totally unbelievable, plots don't make sense, characters do stupid things (that needn't be a bad thing - they often do in life)... but I have to agree with Q, it's quite fun in a bad way. The key is to not take it at all seriously.

Really not sure of the acting (which isn't a good sign) Christina Hendricks, Retta (who cries at everything) and Mae Whitman - their banter often feels forced, though attempting to use urban lingo has its moments of chuckles ('faded...lit'). Also has many moments where a character just ... looks...

Reno Wilson is the cop husband who starts helping them ridiculously easily, Matthew Liddard is the cheating husband who then says he has cancer (that, for some reason, isn't enough for Hendricks to kick him out - even after she finds out he's had four affairs), Manny Montana is the hood, who occasionally I can understand,  Allison Tolman the secret shopper who starts blackmailing them (full marks to Q who identified her from Fargo Season 2). Quite liked James Lesure as the dogged detective.

How did they get the cut up body out of a 30 square mile rubbish site which had 24 hour security and had police dogs all over it? By... yeah - I don't know. In this way, it flits from one far-fetched idea to another, dropping plots that aren't convenient (Whitman's drugs charge, for example) through seventeen hours, or however long it all is, often to completely irrelevant French songs (not that I have anything against French songs) until finally SPOILER the baddie gives Hendricks his gun for the second time to shoot someone and thankfully, she shoots him. I should think so. What an idiot. At least it finished, though.

Also with June Squibb.

That very familiar, mournful classical score that opens episode four is Beethoven's Seventh, Second Movement. Finale 'Love and War' by Fleurie sounds suspiciously like an Adele song. Liked Boards of Canada - 'Dawn Chorus'.

Love Serenade (1996 Shirley Barrett & scr)

Still no idea how I came across this distinct oddity now - a very low key, whimsical relationship comedy featuring two sisters - Miranda Otto (as 'Dimity') and Rebecca Frith ('Vicki-Ann') and a new-in-town DJ, George Shevtsov.

Has a quite unexpected and amusing ending. Good use of industrial soundscape.

With John Alansu in the Chinese restaurant. Features a good soundtrack of seventies numbers, principally Barry White (including the title song). Photographed by Mandy Walker (Baz Luhrman films) in Victoria.

Movie Movie (1978 Stanley Donen)

A pastiche of two Classic Hollywood genres - the boxing movie ('Dynamite Hands') and the putting-on-a-show musical ('Baxter's Beauties of 1933'), written by Larry Gelbart (MASH, Tootsie) and Sheldon Keller, sharing most of the same cast, which comprises George C Scott, Eli Wallach, Trish Van Devere, Jocelyn Brando, Red Buttons and Art Carney. The first features as the boxer Harry Hamlin, the second stars Barbara Harris and Barry Bostwick.

These are affectionate parodies with committed playing and a good line in absurd dialogue, e.g. "Your sister's eyes are below the belt" and "Now is a long time".

Photographed by Charles Rosher Jr (The Late Show, 3 Women, A Wedding.. but who spent most of his life getting married and divorced) and Bruce Surtees (in colour) who since his last Eastwood movies in the eighties dried up.

Some great stuff on bicycles in the musical, which was staged by Michael Kidd. The music's by Ralph Burns.