Empire Falls (2005 Fred Shepisi)

A most successful HBO mini series, written by Richard Russo (novel and screenplay), as enjoyable as his earlier Paul Newman collaboration Nobody's Fool. Maine. A diner owner (Ed Harris, great as always) wants to branch out and join forces with local bar owner (Estelle Parsons); has to overcome hurdles of town matriarch Joanne Woodward and ex-friend cop William Fichtner (perhaps familiar from Entourage).

Meanwhile he's also dealing with dad Paul Newman, who's a bum, brother Aidan Quinn, friendly waitress Theresa Russell, prickly ex-wife Helen Hunt (perfect casting) and her arsehole fiancé Dennis Farina and - most importantly - his fragile daughter Danielle Pannabaker, who befriends outcast Lou Taylor Pucci, with tragic results.

As though this wasn't enough Harris is dealing with past recollections involving his mother Robin Wright Penn and her lover Philip Seymour Hoffman.

There's a backdrop of a failed town with former industries deserted and gone, and a horrible cat.

It's tangy, bitter-sweet, funny, mournful, warm and shocking, and manages not to wrap things up too neatly.

Photographed by Ian Baker, music by Paul Grabowsky.

Strike: Lethal White (2020 Susan Tully)

Tom Edge adapted J.K. Rowling over four hours.

Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger return, drawn together because they're both damaged. Robin's marriage (to Kerr Logan) isn't going well, and Cormoran can't seem to commit to his new GF Natalie Gumede. (Is JK playing with birds' names here? She does have a propensity for using interesting names.)

Plot involves two brothers, Joseph Quinn & Nick Blood, one of whom claims to have seen a child being buried, and two feuding politicians, Robert Glenister and Robert Pugh.

With Sophie Winkleman, Lucy Briars (DCI), Adam Long.

Ph. Tomasz Naumiuk.

Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994 Mike Newell)

After I'm Thinking of Ending Things we needed - firstly, a period of recovery - then a comedy. And although this is go-to funny, it's almost sunk by the Andie Macdowell character, who's horrible. What does Hugh Grant see in her? The best ending would be he realises what a cow she is and goes off into the sunset with Kristin Scott Thomas (who steals the film).

Anyway luckily there's enough of the 'gang' to make it all thoroughly enjoyable, and John Hannah reading WH Auden would make a stone cry.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020 Charlie Kaufman & scr)

And so will you be after watching this interminable riddle - a sort of mix of Marienbad, 2001, The Red Shoes and an experimental play.

The credits are so small it's like they don't want you to read them. Not a good start.

Q said it was like it had been on for three days.

And yet... There were two moments in the first twenty minutes that stopped me from suggesting we end it all. One was a travelling shot straight up into the sky, through the snow and telephone cables. The other was one of Jessie Buckley through the car window - something about the patterns and light crossing her were absolutely beautiful. I thought I might be watching Robbie Ryan, but it turned out to be Lukasz Zal, from Pawlikowsi films, in 4x3.

And the cast - Jessie and the other Jesse, Plemons, and Toni Collette and David Thewlis - all very good. But what it's all about is fathomless. The film should come with its own scalpel so that on the endless drive back scene you can cut your own wrists. I loved Eternal Sunshine but this...

It's based on a novel by Iain Read, should anyone be interested.

Ralph Albert Blakelock though is a real American painter.

Jessie Buckley is in the fourth season of Fargo which premieres in the US on 27 September.

The Silver Fleet (1943 Vernon Sewell & Gordon Wellesley)

Written by these two as well, and (uncredited) by Emeric Pressburger (it's an Archers production - though not in their league).

Owner of Dutch shipyard Ralph Richardson agrees to work with Nazis building submarines, faces hostility from the locals - but he's secretly 'Piet Hein' and leads resistance to sabotage the subs. Emeric's original 12 page treatment had more persecution from the fellow Dutchmen but that was toned down, as well as the murder of innocent civilians 'and in came Esmond Knight playing the Nazi commander as a humorous buffoon. It was exactly the type of polite, anodyne war film which Emeric had been reacting against and he withdrew his name from the writing credits.' ('Emeric Pressburger and the Life and Death of a Screenwriter' by Kevin Macdonald. This book reveals Richardson and Pressbuger became firm friends; Emeric made a 45 minute film with Ralph as a clumsy theatre dresser who becomes an experienced pilot: The Volunteer. It's on the Criterion release of 49th Parallel.)

Richardson's great; rest of cast mixed. 

With Googie Withers, Beresford Egan, John Longden, Ivor Barnard, Kathleen Byron. Photographed by Erwin Hillier, production designed by Alfred Junge and music from Alan Gray.

No Escape (2015 John Erick Dowdle)

.. and written by he and his brother Drew. So in some fictitious country - clearly Thailand - the American company has taken over the water utility, and this causes the locals not only to kill any foreigner but also their own people, with slaughterous glee. Efficient in thriller scenes (with a hint of The Mercenaries), this makes no sense. What's worse is the Dowdle brothers sadistically put two young girls through this carnage - Wilder knows how many years of therapy they would have needed afterwards. 

Loved the ironies though. We recently saw footage of a protest in Thailand against the monarchy and it was the politest and calmest protest I think I've ever seen. The other lovely irony is the Americans are only safe when they reach Vietnam.

Good to see Owen Wilson and Lake Bell in a thriller. Pierce Brosnan you just know early on isn't going to make it to the end of the film.

It's exhausting.

Sterling Jerins, the older girl, we know from And So It Goes (Douglas / Keaton).

Enola Holmes (2020 Harry Bradbeer)

Based on Nancy Springer novels, adapted by Jack Thorne, Sherlock and Mycroft's 16 year old sister takes off in search of her missing, eccentric mother. Encounters London, CGI and danger. And a cute missing aristocrat. Looks like it could easily turn into a series. Not sure the to-audience bits are necessary, some uneven stuff (she can hold her own against a killer, but Mycroft can make her cry?) The plot really isn't credible - mother taking off without a word, not wishing to be found but leaving clues. What's she up to? What then is she up to? Millie Bobby Brown is the girl, Henry Cavill badly cast as Sherlock, Sam Claflin is Mycroft and Helena Bonham-Carter the mother. With Louis Partridge, Burn Gorman, Adeel Akhtar, Hattie Morahan, David Bamber, Frances de la Tour, Claire Rushbrook, Fiona Shaw.

Camera: Giles Nuttgens, ed. Adam Bosman. Netflix. 

Filmed at Hatfield House, Luton Hoo, Greenwich Old Royal Naval College

Us (2020 Geoffrey Sax, scr David Nicholls)

Based on his novel. Something painful set in lovely European locations. Saskia Reeves tells husband Tom Hollander she's had enough, but they go on their pre-booked holiday, and he manages to upset their son Tom Taylor enough that he takes off with busker Thaddea Graham (who annoyingly calls the father 'Mr. P'). There's something annoying too about the way he pursues his son. Flashbacks show us the couple when younger (and happier) - Iain De Caestecker and Gina Bramhill.

It was nice to be in the various cities, and to see Sofie Grabol again, and to see certain artworks.

Ed Rutherford shot it.

Que La Bête Meure (1969 Claude Chabrol & co-scr)

Gripping thriller, adapted from Cecil Day-Lewis novel 'The Beast Must Die', co-written by Paul Gégauff.

Michel Duchaussoy goes after the killer of his son - first finds and romances Caroline Cellier before she leads him to her brother-in-law Jean Yanne - who's one of the vilest people in film history. Tense, twisty and coolly observed, Chabrol has time to name check a couple of favourite restaurants - Chez Denis and Le Cheval Rouge - where a nice duck is served.

Good cast includes Anouk Ferjac (the wife), Marc Di Napoli (son), Louise Chevalier (horrible mother), Guy Marly, Lorraine Rainer, Maurice Pialat (detective). Photographed by Jean Rabier and set in Brittany. Some of the scenes, e.g. intervention of the son at the police station, play like Bresson or Melville; other moments (in yacht) are very thrilling.

Melinda and Melinda (2004 Woody Allen & scr)

A schizophrenic film, with scenes and situations recognisably Allenian, but set within a totally original framework, in which a group of writers debate drama vs. comedy by contrasting two totally different versions of the same story with Melinda - an awesome Radha Mitchell - common to both. For my money, both lead performance and screenplay were as award-worthy as Blue Jasmine, with which it has some similarities. Radha's in some incredible long takes.

Woody had wanted Robert Downey Jr and Winona Ryder but the insurers wouldn't back them (not the first time I've heard that in relation to Downey). He actually was more interested in the dramatic version of the story and came away wishing he'd just focused on that, as he did Crimes and Misdemeanours.

In support are: Chloe Sevigny, Jonny Lee Miller, Matt Servito (The Sopranos), Arija Bareikis, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin (drama); Will Ferrell, Amanda Peet, Steve Carrell (comedy). Stravinsky and Bartok play against jazz.

"Of course we communicate. Now can we not talk about it."

Vilmos Zsigmond shot it, effortlessly catching changing light in exterior walking / talking shots. Didn't really notice the way in which the two stories are filmed slightly differently.

Modern Family (2009 - 2020 Created by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd)

All 11 series - about 90 hours. Season three was a little silly; becomes increasingly clever, viz. season six episode which takes place entirely on Claire's laptop, Fawlty Towers-ish Christmas turkeys, Phil caught on plane between magician (Penn) and masseuse.

Phil trying to saw down a fir tree. It snaps the saw blade. 'What's this thing made of? They should make saws out of it.'

Interesting people appear throughout - a very young Kaitlyn Dever, Jesse Eisenberg, Steven Merchant (butler in hilarious Vegas episode), Rhys Derby, Steven Zahn, June Squibb, Adam Arkin, Chris Martin, Billy Crystal.

Think my favourite character might be Alex (Ariel Winter):

Hayley to Andy: "We even share the same brain!"

Alex: "Who's using it now?"

But they're all good. Sarah Hyland (Hayley), Ed O'Neill, Julie Bowen, Sofia Vergara, Ty Burrell, Jess Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, Rico Rodriguez, Nolan Gould, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons.

One of my favourite bits is Claire weirdly smiling when she says someone has died. Also loved Kelsey Grammer as 'ebutler', the 'orange juice' network for non-Pritchards, Gloria's eviction of the Russians using nanny language, and Valentines episode where Claire has learned magic (including getting changed in a shower of confetti). 'Jotham' one of the funnier mad names of the gay crowd.

"Didn't you sell my neighbour's house? White, mid-century, big back porch?"

"That's her."

"We only do one thing, and that's install gazebos and sheds... Look out for our new bird baths."

Niecy Nash is fun as parking attendant - we thought her character Joan could have her own show. And Andy Daly good as school principal.

"Sweet biscuits..." Q said to me the other day in Waitrose. "That sounds like one of Phil Dunphy's exclamations," was my reply.

There's no let-up in the quality of the final season, beginning intriguingly at a research station in Antarctica, though it does end up a bit mushy.

Phil: "Does this straightjacket look right on me?"
Alex: "More and more."

Hayley: "I've been going to that liquor store since I was 15.. minutes past 21."

"Oh my God - you knew you were going to die and you flew coach?"

Amusing digs at technology (talking fridge and closet).

Lovely to see a reprieve of Steven Merchant, as a super-concierge - "There is no greater joy than getting something I've never heard of for someone I've just met". And Phil's Psycho Halloween moment, and his car-jack invention which you know is going to go wrong - just unaware how spectacularly wrong!

Irrational Man (2015 Woody Allen & scr)

We know Woody likes to pay attention to when we first see his female star - our first glimpse of Emma Stone is from a high camera through a tree - it tracks through the tree so she's revealed bit by bit through the leaves, almost like we struggle to see her.

Q and I have been reading 'A Propos of Nothing' and it seems very likely this whole thing about murdering the judge who's unfairly ruining the married woman's life comes from Judge Wilk in Woody's own 1993 court custody case, who clearly and irrationally took against him from the outset.

Terrific cast. Emma and Joaquin no doubt helped each other - if you're in the moment with someone else fabulous it's only going to make you better. But also great are Parker Posey (Joaquin's other love interest; Dazed and Confused, Tales From the City, later in Cafe Society), Jamie Blackley (Slaughterhouse Rulez, the Endeavour pilot), Betsy Aidem & Nathan Phillips (parents), Paula Plum (president).

The ending isn't the only incredibly tense moment - in the Russian roulette scene he actually pulls the trigger three times consecutively.

The subject matter is serious but the tone of the film is not downbeat like Blue Jasmine.

Much use of 'The 'In' Crowd' by Billy Page, and the similar but slower 'Look a Here' by Ramsey Lewis, both performed by the Ramsey Lewis Quartet, and the Bach, Prelude and Fugue No. 2 (in C Minor) and 18 (C Sharp Minor) and Cello Suite No. 1 (G Major).

The screenplay's definitely award-worthy but was nominated for nothing.

Blue Jasmine (2013 Woody Allen & scr)

Woody in unexpectedly serious form - even the blues music is old and mournful. A dreadfully self-centred and spoiled but bankrupt woman (Cate Blanchett, winning Oscar) moves in with her step-sister Sally Hawkins in San Francisco, who she's never supported, but expects her to help. Her presence causes rupture between sister and working class boyfriend, Bobby Cannavale; she's also an alcoholic who lies at every turn, especially to wannabe husband Peter Sarsgaard.

It's only as the film progresses with flashbacks that we understand what has brought her to this place - involving fraudulent and cheating husband Alec Baldwin, son Alden Ehrenreich and Hawkins' ex Andrew Dice Clay. It ends really bleakly.

With Louis C.K. (hi fi guy), Michael Stuhlbarg (dentist), Annie McNamara (Jasmine's friend), Max Casella, Charlie Tahan.

Photographed in widescreen by Javier Aguirresarobe. Sally and Woody's screenplay were both Oscar and BAFTA nominated.

Postcards from the Edge (1990 Mike Nichols)

Adapted from her own semi-autobiographical novel by Carrie Fisher, based on the relationship with her mum Debbie Reynolds, and screenwritten by her too, this is a beautifully rendered film about such toxic relationships and the craziness of the motion picture business. Nichols really makes use of his long takes, not just in the astonishing one in the film-within-the film which opens, but in long scenes between Shirley Maclaine and Meryl Streep (both absolutely great) and also for example in the long street scene between Streep and Annette Bening (thought she looked familiar!) Fun trick shots too, superb musical performances from both leads. 

With Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss, CCH Pounder, Rob Reiner, Mary Wickes (only The Man Who Came to Dinner's nurse!), Simon Callow, Dana Ivey (wardrobe mistress).

Photographed by Michael Ballhaus (Florian first assistant), music by Carly Simon, editing by Sam O'Steen, production design Patrizia von Brandenstein.

The mother's shadow literally hangs over the daughter

The Quiet Man (1952 John Ford)

Painted (by Winton Hoch - his second for Ford) in that lovely old Technicolor stock like a series of old postcards, John Ford's celebration of his Irish roots is a typically warm and humorous affair. Written by Frank Nugent and Ford from Maurice Walsh's story.

Stirling (and huge) cast: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Victor McLaglen, Ward Bond (the father who fishes), Mildred Natwick, Francis Ford, Eileen Crowe, Arthur Shields (reverend), Charles Fitzsimons, Jack MacGowran, James O'Hara, Sean McGlory.

Full of lovely moments: debate about the best route to Inisfree, Catholic priests hiding their collars, sick old man in bed rejuvenated by fight, Wayne dragging O'Hara from the station (some of her balletic hops here are great), the old lady en route to the fight - "Here, sir, here's a good stick to beat the lovely lady", O'Hara embarrassed and having to speak to the vicar in Gaelic, Fitzgerald's horse who stops by the pub.

A delightful experience, directed with the director's usual simplicity.

Music by Victor Young, second unit photography Archie Stout.

Slaughterhouse-Five (1972 George Roy Hill)

Written by Stephen Geller, from Kurt Vonnegut's novel. Billy Pilgrim comes 'unstuck in time', flits from Dresden 1945, to suburban married life, and to 'bliss' trapped on the planet Tralfamadore with a movie star. Or, a young soldier is so traumatised by his war experiences and by a plane crash and the death of his wife that he goes a little nuts. Or, scenes from a life, with Tralfamadore as an allegorical death / rebirth message (that greeting - 'Hello Goodbye' - could be based on the Roman expression 'Ave Atque Vale').

Anyway, it's a tremendous experience, brilliantly photographed and edited (Miroslav Ondricek and Dede Allen), inventive, blackly humorous, compassionate, crazy. Benefits also from a range of classical Bach - Concerto #5 in F minor, (slow movement), Concerto #3 in D Major for harpsichord and the Brandenburg Concerto #4 in G Major.

An unfamiliar but good cast: Michael Sacks as Billy (his first of only 14 films, one of which was Sugarland Express), Ron Leibman (the army nutter Lazzaro), Eugene Roche, Sharon Gans (Billy's wife Val), Valerie Perrine, Friedrich von Ledebur.

The scene where his wife goes crazy in her Cadillac is just amazing, as are the frequent time jumps.

Production design Henry Bumstead, art direction Alexander Golitzen & George Webb.

When Billy first encounters Montana Wildhack on screen, it's no surprise she is later summoned / he summons her to Tralfamadore, topless (or 'Tralfamadore', depending on your reading)

Last word from Vonnegut, soon after its release, in his preface to 'Between Time and Timbuktu':

"I love George Roy Hill and Universal Pictures, who made a flawless translation of my novel Slaughterhouse-Five to the silver screen ... I drool and cackle every time I watch that film, because it is so harmonious with what I felt when I wrote the book."

(Interesting though that he didn't give any credit to the scriptwriter.)

Outrageous Fortune (1987 Arthur Hiller)

Written by the reliable Leslie Dixon (her debut).

Bette Midler isn't quite as settled as some of her other performances e.g. in Mark Rydell's films For the Boys and The Rose; but Shelley Long (who's top billed) does some great impressions - tough New York cop, southern teenage boy.

Shirley Valentine (1989 Lewis Gilbert)

Can't argue with this. Willy Russell also wrote the music, though Marvin Hamlisch wrote Patti Austin's title song (lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman), Stravinsky's 'Firebird' gets a look in, and there's some rather lovely (but out of place) flamenco (uncredited) and a dash of Greek music besides.

Should mention Gillian Kearney as the young Shirley (Sylvia Syms is the headmistress).

Like the rather open-ended ending.

Pauline Collins quite rightly won the BAFTA but lost the Oscar to Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy). Russell writes for / about women well.

Russell, originally a hairdresser, then a teacher, has lately written a novel ('The Wrong Boy' in 2000), had one of his plays adapted as a musical ('Our Day Out') and has had a couple of exhibitions of paintings.

I'm Not Rappaport (1996 Herb Gardner)

Despite the intriguing Central Park locations and some interesting visual stuff, this cannot disguise its theatrical origins (Herb's own play), and thus it suffers somewhat from simply too much talking. But it manages to paint its characters well, and is funny, sweet and unexpectedly hard-edged (the Matthau character manages to make everything he gets involved in worse). It's a great central performance, Ossie Davis good too. With Martha Plimpton, Amy Irving, Craig T Nelson, Boyd Gaines, Ranjit Chowdhry, Jake Gardner (kid who gets 'Rappaport').

With diagetic music written and performed by Gerry Mulligan (though not on-screen), DP Adam Holender.

Dedicated to Bob Fosse.

Barton Fink (1991 Joel and Ethan Coen)

Darkly satirical look at the movie business in the early forties, referring to the practice of bringing in famous authors to write scripts. Barton spends most of the film on the first paragraph, but he's distracted by eccentric neighbour John Goodman, and alcoholic writer's wife Judy Davis. A beautifully directed and shot film - by Roger Deakins, the first of their twelve collaborations - it's also full of atmosphere (invoking The Shining, Rosemary's Baby and Rear Window). Music by Carter Burwell, production design Dennis Gassner. Great use of sound too. Sound Editor Skip Lievsay reveals how he overdid the sound of air rushing in when Goodman's door opens and the Coens liked it so much they put it in every time it happens.

Good cast of John Turturro, John Goodman, Michael Lerner (studio boss), John Mahoney, Tony Shaloub, Jon Polito, Steve Buscemi.

Regarding Henry (1991 Mike Nichols)

I'd suggested this as the double bill to Working Girl without even thinking (a) Mike Nichols (b) Harrison Ford. Love the moment he is shot, and says 'Wait' - it seems very real. JJ Abrams' screenplay is great, and he has a cameo as a delivery boy. What?? He was 25. Ford's best performance. Photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno.

Nichols directs all the actors well. With Annette Bening, Donald Moffat, Elizabeth Wilson, Bruce Altman, Bill Nunn, Mikki Allen, Rebecca Miller.

"I can read!"

Warning: this film contains offensive eggs.

Working Girl (1988 Mike Nichols)

Couldn't help feeling Melanie Griffiths' body is being exploited in this film - like here:

Or here:

Oops. I'm doing it myself. I mean I'm not complaining - she looks great, photographed by Michael Ballhaus (and featuring one of his distinctive circling tracking shots with Griffith and Ford).

Great cast - Joan Cusack, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin, Olympia Dukakis, Kevin Spacey, Philip Bosco, Nora Dunn, Oliver Platt.

"I have a face for business and a bod for sin."

We only watched it because Claire in Modern Family (Julie Bowen) was dressed like her in one of the Halloween episodes and we were knackered beyond the point of thinking. And of course because it's a very smooth and enjoyable film.

It reminded me Griffiths was in a remake of Born Yesterday, with John Goodman and Don Johnson.

Smultronstället / Wild Strawberries (1957 Ingmar Bergman & scr)

Victor Sjöström sensitively plays an ageing medical man who gradually thaws en route to receive an award - partly down to his dreams of his past, and his encounters with his daughter-in-law Ingrid Thulin and a young hitchhiker, Bibi Andersson.

Some of the dreams - a clock with no hands, Sjöström seeing his own body in a coffin - are shot very high contrast by Gunnar Fischer, whilst the flashbacks have a grey softness.

A beautiful film, in image and theme.

Max von Sydow is a friendly petrol station owner.

A Far Off Place (1993 Mikael Salomon)

Disney film opens with machine gunning of elephants. When poachers kill her family, Reese Witherspoon heads off to the nearest town, which is 2000 kilometres across the Kalahari desert, accompanied by a tribal friend (Sarel Bok) and preppy kid (Ethan Embry, from Dutch) - a sort of Walkabout Plus One.

It's not bad, nicely photographed (Juan Ruiz Anchia), music James Horner, though marred by fluffed ending involving a mine full of tusks. From two Laurens van der Post novels, written by Robert Caswell and Jonathan Hensleigh and Sally Robinson. The baddie, Jack Thompson, is not too convincing. Also, the useful dog just disappears at the end - WTF??

Just Like Heaven (2005 Mark Waters)

Good fun romcom. Depressed Mark Ruffalo rents the best apartment in San Francisco, finds it's haunted by bossy ghost Reese Witherspoon. Turns out she isn't dead... yet.

Written by Peter Tolan and Leslie Dixon (Overboard) from novel by Mark Lévy.

With Rosalind (Joy Luck Club) Chao

Episode with randy neighbour is embarrassing.

Brideshead Revisited (2008 Julian Jarrold)

Dull adaptation of dull story. Good cast fails to ignite material. Even the house (Castle Howard, York) is dull. With Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Hayley Atwell, Patrick Malahide, Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Anna Madeley, Felicity Jones, Greta Scacchi.

Jess Hall shot it, Adrian Johnston provided the music, Chris Gill edited. It was written by Andrew Davies and Jeremy Brock.

I remember when William Boyd adapted 'Sword of Honour' he left out the Catholicism because it was 'boring'. The same problem affects this story, but it's so fundamental to it, you can't leave it out. I wonder why they remade it?

Interesting to read it was initially to be a David Yates film with Jude Law as Sebastian (can see that working better) with Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly.

Double Indemnity (1944 Billy Wilder)

He worked on the script with Raymond Chandler. 'He was a marvellous book writer, but he was strange, abrasive and unpredictable. He absolutely hated me because I knew more about the medium. I also was a lot younger, I knew many pretty girls, and I could drink without it ever getting in control of me. He had stopped drinking, but he hadn't got over it.

'One day he quit over a Venetian blind. He said "Wilder," in his rude way, "pull that shade down", without saying please.

'After three weeks, no Chandler, so Sistrom [producer] got in touch with Chandler, who says "I don't want to work with that son of a bitch any more. Wilder pulls up the Venetian blinds without asking. Broads are calling him, he uses three minutes here, six minutes there. He's not serious about writing. He has two drinks before lunchtime. He's scribbling notes all the time"...Chandler was a man full of talent, but we were not made for each other.'

(Wilder interviewed by Charlotte Chandler for 'Nobody's Perfect'.)

Based on James M Cain novel. It was actually Billy's third Oscar nomination (Ninotchka in 1940, Hold Back the Dawn and  Ball of Fire in 1942)... so Chandler should have cut him some slack (and fourth - he was nominated for Best Director as well).

A Single Man (2009 Tom Ford & co-scr, co-prod)

Firth is great - won the BAFTA, was Oscar nominated. It's a beautiful film, in spirit and appearance. Eduard Grau shot it. David Scearce co-wrote, from Christopher Isherwood novel. Ginnifer Goodwin is the neighbour. Abel Korzeniowski wrote the music.

Info from Variety.com: Colin Firth plays the professor, and as his feelings switch from depression to elation the colors turn from cold blues and grays to warm reds and oranges – and vice versa.

“Tom wanted the color to go according to the characters’ feelings and emotions at each point of the movie,” said Grau, “and we followed that all the way.”

To maximize this effect, Grau suggested using an older Kodak film stock, 5279, which is no longer generally available. “It has very beautiful grain, and in a way, is timeless,” Grau said. “It’s very saturated, beautiful and rich, especially the reds. We tested it along with other stocks, and Tom and I both decided this would be the one.”

The entire film was shot on 5279 35mm, including a black-and-white flashback scene in which Firth and his companion, played by Matthew Goode, sit on a dramatic rock formation. Like much of the movie, its color was altered — in this case removed — during the digital intermediate stage, when the film’s look was manipulated to Ford’s satisfaction.

“The color was taken out of the scene in DI because the image is more striking in black and white,” said Grau. “It’s an image of a memory, and there’s a black-and-white photo in the film that relates to the same memory.

“We shot various moments differently, and lit them differently as well, but then Tom changed color saturation,” said Grau, adding that Ford was a constant presence in the DI sessions. “The movie is very personal to Tom. The way it looks is the way he saw it from the beginning.”

Black Moon (1974 Louis Malle & co-scr)

Begins promisingly enough, silent, in Sven Nykvist's low light dawn. A young woman, Cathryn Harrison (in fact only just sixteen), driving a Honda, encounters a literal war between men and women. She escapes from soldiers into the Lot countryside (south-west France) eventually stumbling on to a farmhouse (Malle's own).

From there on it gets seriously strange as she encounters Joe Dallesandro, Therese Giehse, Alexandra Stewart (who we just saw in La Mariée était en Noir), a load of kids, a fat unicorn, and some talking flowers. There's a sort of Alice in Wonderland resonance to some of it, and a weird way in which animals sound vaguely human, but it's not very interesting, it's not surrealistic, it's not really dream-like (in the great way Valerie and Her Week of Wonders was). It's just a load of confusing crap. It was a critical and commercial flop, somewhat unsurprisingly.

Even his son Vincent didn't know what it was about or what his dad was going for!

Harrison was in Images two years earlier.