Desperate Measures (2022 Anthony Philipson, writer Michael Foott)

A dreaded four-parter from Channel 5 is quite watchable despite plot holes (e.g. gangster going after the money without bringing any of his gang with him?). Amanda Abbington's son Jesse Cescatti-McFarlane gets into trouble with gangster Gábor Nagypál (a Mackenzie Crookalike) so she's forced to rob the bank where she works. Only thing is, ex Warren Browne double-crosses her. Luckily once useless-now useful dad Francis Magee turns up to help, whilst Sunetra Sarker is another bank employee who is sucked in.

Interesting that the credited 'creators' Mike Benson and Tim Dynevor didn't write it. What did they do?

It was filmed in Hungary - why? - with a largely Hungarian crew. No wonder in one shot I joked that we were in Moscow - it's actually Budapest.

An actual former bank, somewhere in Budapest

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930 Lewis Milestone)

The first version of Erich Maria Remarque's novel is remarkably well done for such an early sound film, and the battle scenes in their own way are as effective as the 2022 version. It perhaps catches better the sheer terror of the young men plunged into war, and includes sequences (dalliance with French girls, argument over 150 rations for 80 men, return to village, that the friends are all at school at the opening) that add quite a lot to the story.

A Carl Laemmle production for Universal, it starred Lew Ayres and Louis Wolheim, with John Wray, Arnold Lucy, Ben Alexander, Scott Kolk, Owen Davis Jr. It was adapted by Maxwell Anderson and Del Andrews with George Abbott credited with the screenplay. It's very well photographed in a myriad of tracking shots by Arthur Edeson.

Despite some of its datedness, it is arguably better than the 2022 remake.

Endeavour: Prelude (2023 Shaun Evans; writer Russell Lewis)

Morse is sober (well, for much of the film). Q was right - Joan and Strange are to marry. (And in fact it's learning this that sends Morse back onto the beer.) Bright is thinking of retiring. Sam is home, but he's a deserter. Oh yes, there's a murder or two, but let's not let that get in the way of the story.

On Morse's West Country vacation:
Morse: "I was mainly following in Hardy's footsteps."
Strange: "Were you? 'That's another fine mess' eh?"

Plot mainly involves rivalry and murder in Oxford Concert Orchestra (the sub-text here suggests kids internet bullying is not new). But there's two other sneaky coils here. One is a murdered man, who's missing mother was last seen working at the dodgy construction company that was involved in the terrible Blenheim Vale children's home scandal (jump back to Season 2's Neverland, the darkest film of them all). And, some past secret's come back to haunt Thursday from the 'smoke' and his 'Cable Street days' involving tortured and crucified Micky Flood.

Apparently (according to IMDB) Max's line to Endeavour "I perceive you've been in Lyme Regis" is a paraphrase of the first line Sherlock says to Watson "You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive" in 'A Study in Scarlet'. The difference there is Holmes explains his deduction. Here the line is left wandering, but I guess that's Lewis challenging the audience - either 'I know this' or 'What's this refer to?'

With Nicholas Farrell (yes did get 'Lermontov' Red Shoes reference), Imogen Daines, Jane Lapotaire, Kirstin Louie (guest violinist), Tamsin Newlands, Leaphia Darko, Simon Harrison (Ronnie Box neatly worked back into things).

Good music from Matthew Slater, photographed by James Moss, edited by Naomi Smallwood.

That last lingering look of Thursday's: we know he's thinking 'Don't go down that slippery slope again' and 'Will he be OK without me?' and 'I've been telling people all day he's all right now, but is he?'; but we're also looking at him and thinking 'What is this stuff from the past?' and - more pertinently - 'Are you going to survive?'

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1981 Chris Petit & co-scr)

Chris Petit was a Time Out film critic who's debut was Radio On, a film I hated when I was about 16 (would love to see it again). This is a very well directed adaptation (with Elizabeth McKay and Brian Scobie) of P.D. James' source novel, in which a young woman investigates the suicide of a rich man's son. The sequence in the well is a standout, as is the accidental hanging.

Also a little bit Laura like, as she starts becoming obsessed by the dead man.

Particularly well photographed in painterly tones by Martin Schäfer (former camera operator for Robby Müller), an early editing assignment for Professor Mick Audsley.

Pippa Guard is good in the lead role as feisty investigator. With Billie Whitelaw, Paul Freeman, Dominic Guard, David Horovitch.

Harlem Series 1 & 2 (2021 Creator Tracy Oliver)

The lives of four friends in Harlem: a college lecturer Meagan Good, designer with rich parents Grace Byers, gay internet guru Jerrie Johnson and failing singer Shoniqua Shandai.

Made by Universal Television for Amazon.

Liked the episode where Johnson has to inject herself but can't, ex BF turns up. she bawls him out, then he injects her.

The Kindness of Strangers (2019 Lone Scherfig & scr)

A rather brilliant idea, in which several lost and lonely characters collide in a New York winter. Zoe Kazan is on the run with her two sons from violent and abusive cop husband. Nurse Andrea Riseborough also runs a 'forgiveness' group, attended by ex con / restaurant manager Tahar Rahim and lawyer Jay Baruchel. Caleb Landry Jones (Three Billboards) is a homeless man who's not very good at most things (love the way the chair turns up again in the story), Bill Nighy the restaurant owner. The way these stories intersect is wonderful.

With Andrew Lockington score, Sebastian Blenkov images.

A real gem from director of An Education, Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, One Day, Their Finest. Italian for Beginners sounds good too.

King and Country (1964 Joseph Losey)

Dirk Bogarde defends deserter Tom Courtenay in WWI. They're both brilliant.

There's a trial, involving a bad-tempered doctor, Leo McKern. Peter Copley is the colonel. Barry Foster for the defense, James Villiers.

Meanwhile Courtenay's platoon muck about with rats and get drunk.

I have to mention that Courtenay's 'cell' is some sort of storeroom with what looks like the end of a bed as the 'gate', so he could in theory have escaped pretty much any time.

Brilliantly blocked by Losey and shot in deep focus by Denys Coop. The music's from Larry Adler (not sure the harmonica is really right for this), with photos from the Imperial War Museum used meaningfully. Editor Reginald Mills gets a full screen title credit.

It's a bleak little film, written by Evan Jones, based on a play by John Wilson, itself based on the novel 'Return to the Wood' by WWII correspondent J.L. Hodson.

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022 Edward Berger & co-scr)

Adapted originally by Olympic athlete Lesley Paterson, with Ian Stokell, with input from the director; from Erich Maria Remarque novel, based on his own experiences (he also provided the source for Sirk's A Time to Love and a Time To Die and Borzage's Three Comrades; also The Other Love, Bobby Deerfield and Arch of Triumph.  And 1937 James Whale The Road Back, 1941 So Ends Our Night.)

Good cast: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Aaron Hilmer, Edin Hasanovic, Anton van Lucke, Daniel Bruhl, Devid Streisow.

Very timely, with the war in Ukraine just one year in.

A visceral experience. Right from the off, long takes put you in the midst of the action (the opening is a bravura single take sequence), very ably photographed by James Friend and his team. Most of the action takes place just before the end of the war. In fact it wasn't well received by critics in Germany, who objected to the way the novel has been adapted and in its historical inaccuracies - the 'last push' attack, for example, which was invented for the film. Perhaps most effective when he stabs a French soldier, then, disgusted, tries to help him. Other nice ironies (recycling of uniforms, where sewing machines sound like machine guns; farm where goose stolen) abound, though somehow doesn't quite deliver emotionally.

Technically it's very accomplished. Christian Goldbeck is the production designer. Filmed in the Czech Republic. Won many, many, many BAFTAs, though the one for Best Adapted Screenplay is something of a joke, when you consider how many crucial omissions were made and how much questionable additional material has been added.

L'Amica Geniale - Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (2022 Daniele Luchetti)

Written again by Elena Ferrante, Saverio Costanzo, Laura Paulucci and Franceso Piccolo, based on the third in Ferrante's quartet.

Understandably, Lenu's finding it hard to fit in back in Napoli - people treat her education as something suspicious, that she's now too good for them.

Lila's having a hard time at the meat factory, which the Communists have seized upon as Cause about worker oppression - she has a breakdown.

Then Lenu's married life in Firenze starts off badly - she says she cooks for him, cleans his clothes, raises their child, she can't write - he's just like any other man (Matteo Cecchi). When she finally gets her second novel done, nobody likes it - even Lila. Some of the writing here is good - the voiceover bits sounds like they're straight from the book - highly likely. Good music too by Max Richter (Taboo).

Have to mention Annarita Vitolo as Lenu's mum.

There follows two long key scenes in Italy's troubled seventies. One is where childhood friend Pasquale and Nino's ex Nadia come to visit Lenu in Firenze. They're so fucking rude, and have clearly gone to some Communist / activist dark side (I think he's become one of those hooded killers in Napoli). It's very unsettling. The other is Lenu and Pietro's visit to Napoli, and a majorly uncomfortable lunch with family and the Solaras. Lila's working for Michele - we hope Lila's going to turn the tables on Michele somehow.

But we don't know.. the ending is that Lenu finally gets it together with Nino (who's just great with the girls), and in a shock ending, the Solara matriarch is murdered, and everyone's in a tither.

Direttore della fotografia: Ivan Casalgrandi. Editori: Francesca Calvelli, Annalisa Forgione. Scenografo: Giancarlo Basili. Luchetti also directed Mi Fratello e unico figlio.

Young Sheldon - Seasons 1 & 2 (2017-18)

Created by Steven Molaro and Chuck Lorre (both BBT writers). Young Sheldon is Iain Armitage, his mum (great casting) is Zoe Perry, dad Lance Barber, brother Montana Jordan and sister Raegan Revord. A pleasant surprise to find that 'Meemaw' (Annie Potts, Pretty in Pink, Texasville, Ghostbusters, much on TV.. in fact her name is probably best known for me from Toy Story - she's Bo Peep) is not only lovely to Sheldon but a sassy grandmother with a past who won't take any shit.

Some familiar faces - although that isn't Jack McBrayer as the pastor but Matt Hobby - with Richard Kind, ed Begley Jr. and Wallace Shawn, the last man standing.*

There's a sweet moment at the conclusion of season two in which Sheldon imagines he's the only person who's up at 5AM listening to the Nobel Prize Awards - then we cut to some other young people who we recognise from the BBT...

* A Woody Allen reference.

Maternal (2023 Jacqui Honess-Martin)

Good six part medical / personal drama about women recently returned to hospital work. They are Parminder Nagra (who we just saw in Five Feet Apart), Lisa McGrillis (Last Night in Soho, Mum) and Lara Pulver (The Split, Sherlock). With Oliver Chris, Joe Thomas, Tina Louise Owens.

How these ladies are expected to be good doctors with all they have going on (mental breakdown, alcoholic doctor husband, new-born) is I suppose one of the points of this show.

Noticed some good editing from people like Quin Williams, Lucinda Carter and Agnieszka Liggett.

Aftersun (2022 Charlotte Wells & scr)

A sort of second rate attempt to do Andrea Arnold, this would have been just as effective as a short film - it doesn't have enough to it to sustain the interest. I get wandering cameras and holding on to your edit, but these are down in Arnold's case to intensify the story, in Tarkovsky too, but here it such seems like artifice. Am I being unfair? The film is ridiculously over-praised. It's so oblique it just sort of slips away. Frankie Corio is great as the girl but I'm still not really convinced by Paul Mescal. That it won the Outstanding Debut BAFTA is a symptom of something - this feels more like a film school project. Do we think he dies / commits suicide, and that's why the older version of the girl is sad?

The BAFTAs

Richard E Grant a capable host, Alison Hammond less so (nervous?)

Martin McDonagh did well - Banshees won him awards for screenplay and Best British film (''British' film?', he quipped), Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan won as Supporting Actors (the look of delight from Brendan Gleeson on hearing these wins is lovely). Seemed the Irish were everywhere. Martin praised Ben Davis's photography on the film as one of the best of the year (not nominated).

The big winner was All Quiet - Film, Foreign Film, Director, Adapted Screenplay (by Brits), Cinematography (another Brit, James Friend), Score, Sound. Production design for Babylon was its only win.

Emma Thompson and Michelle Yeoh seemed audience favourites for Actress, but the fact that Cate Blanchett won it seemed a foregone conclusion. Elvis won for his portrayal of Austin Butler, which was a shame as Colin Farrell and Bill Nighy were nominated.

Paul Rogers won Best Editor for Everything Everywhere and pleased us by proclaiming that all his favourite editors were women. Rather belatedly, Sex Ed's Emma Mackey won the ee Rising Star award.

And Sandy Powell made history as the first costume designer to win the Lifetime Achievement Award. Her credits include Far From Heaven and Carol for Todd Haynes, The Young Victoria, The Favourite, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Aviator, Hugo and other Scorsese's, Shakespeare in Love and Caravaggio.

News of the World (2020 Paul Greengrass & co-scr)

Yes. we seem to be running into lots of remakes of Paper Moon at the moment! (The last one was Gloria.)

Right at the start of the film we see Hanks' back is quite injured - he's had a tough war. Is this why he felt he couldn't go home to his wife after? I like the subtlety of that.  It's based on a 2016 novel by Paulette Jiles, a language scholar who later helped set up indigenous FM radio stations for native American Indians in Canada, whilst learning Ojibwe. After travelling through Mexico she eventually ended up settling on a ranch in Texas and it was there that the novel was written. The other screenwriter is Luke Davies (Lion, Catch-22).

Hanks and Helena Zengel make a great combo. (She didn't know who he was!)

Dariusz Wolski (House of Gucci, Sicario 2, The Martian, All the Money in the World, The Rum Diary) ran a two camera digital shoot, mainly handheld or Steadicam, with unobtrusive use of zoom lenses. There's a definite John Ford / Searchers shot in there, I guess as a reference. Greengrass is more of a documentary-approach filmmaker. This much better than his Bourne Identity and Captain Phillips.

The last embrace is wonderfully simple and not melodramatic.

More from Wolski, c/o Cinematography World:

Wolski says a great starting point was Pasolini’s classic Italian neorealist film, The Gospel According To St. Matthew (1964, DP Tonino Delli Colli AIC). “That’s a very interesting movie with its stylish handheld and very beautifully composed camerawork – cinema verité, documentary filmmaking with zoom lenses.”

Along with classic Westerns such as The Searchers (1956, dir. John ford, Winton C. Hoch ASC), Wolski also looked at more contemporary cowboy movies, including The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (2007, dir. Andrew Dominik, DP Roger Deakins) and The Sisters Brothers (2018, dir. Jacques Audiard, DP Benoît Debie).

“I like the way the more recent Westerns have been shot by modern cinematographers,” he remarks. “It was interesting to see how naturalistic Roger and Benoît went with things like lighting with candles, hurricane lamps and campfires, but to not take anything directly. Whilst you can load yourself up with images before you shoot, it is best then to do your own thing.”

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022 Sophie Hyde)

Written by Katy Brand as largely a two-hander between retired schoolteacher Emma Thompson and male escort Daryl McCormack (Bad Sisters, Pixie) in a hotel room. Is slightly opened out by a fourth act scene with a waitress, nicely played by Isabella Laughland (Slaughterhouse Rulez, Harry Potters). Worthy film is commendable for the issues it raises.

And very well acted. Thompson was BAFTA-nominated, (as was McCormack), lost to Cate Blanchett. I remember hearing Crazy Rich Asians' Constance Wu on 'Woman's Hour' (as you do) and she said that Thompson's performance was incredible and the type of great work she aspired to.

Gravity (2013 Alfonso Curaon & co-scr)

I can't believe I'd left it so long - Gravity is awesome, a breath-stealing marvel; ninety minutes of beautiful terror. The long takes draw you right in - the first one is thirteen minutes. Though other devices are used too - sometimes the camera is subjective. There's a whole lot of stuff going on here. Alfonso - who wrote the script with his son Jonas (who made interesting-looking Desierto and the stills-as-motion Año uña) - thought it would be quite quick to make it - it took FOUR YEARS. And when you start looking at the behind-the-scenes extras (which run longer than the film) you start to see why; for example, Chivo planning the lighting of shots as early as the initial modelling work by Framestore. This is a CGI film from  beginning to end, for sure, but there's also all sorts of ingenious human devices at work too, like cranes and variable lights and suspension and a light box in which the actors could see what we are seeing around them. In fact there's a really good argument for not watching any of these extras because it's better to maintain the suspension of belief that we are orbiting the earth. (Even the orbit was planned meticulously so we're over certain countries at certain times.) The Earth has never looked so beautiful. Chivo's work here is technically brilliant and so staggering.

Look at the graceful way it opens up:

00:41

02:16

02:48

03:07

I involuntarily rose to my feet on two separate occasions of extreme suspense.

Bullock and Clooney are great. He kept making me think of Buzz Lightyear!

In that great long take where Bullock thinks Clooney's next to him, he literally disappears from her side.

Soundtrack is a marvellous mixture of effects, silence and music. Skip Lievsay headed the sound team, Tim Webber the visual effects. Alfonso and Mark Sanger edited. He won Best Director Oscar and BAFTA, Best British Film, Chivo obviously won both too.

Did think after that NASA would have received large bills from both the Russians and Chinese after wrecking two of their space stations!

The 2001 moment. But also, the embryo moment.

Father and son set out to make a film that doesn't let up - they succeeded. But what the film's also about is life throwing things at you and how you deal with them... until the next thing is thrown at you. And about how the Bullock character through the film achieves a rebirth (or reboot, if you like).

Ms. Bullock's makeup is by Pamela Westmore, Wally's grand daughter, who was her prime makeup artist until 2015.

Alfonsito has written, edited and directed a seven episode series called Disclaimer, with Cate Blanchett, Leslie Manville, Sacha Baron Cohen, Kevin Kline and Kodi Smit-McPhee, photographed by Chivo and Bruno Delbonnel (?) for Apple TV.

Juggernaut (1974 Richard Lester)

A strangely neglected film now, released on DVD under the title Terror on the Britannic (and not in the correct aspect ratio, I fear). Tense, well-acted thriller with some nice comedy touches doubtless from 'additional dialogue' writer Alan Plater.

Good cast and well developed characters: Richard Harris, David Hemmings, Omar Sharif (jaded ship's captain), Roy Kinnear (jaded entertainer), Anthony Hopkins (good as weary detective), Kenneth Colley, Shirley Knight, Ian Holm (frustrated shipping line exec), Freddie Jones, Clifton James (no fool politician), Roshan Seth, Adam & Rebecca Bridge (" It is Action Man!" "No it isn't.")

Great scenes with bomber talking over action - Tony Gibbs. His cut of explosion to lighter flame - a nod to Anne Coates' match / desert cut (Lawrence of Arabia)? Great real stuff e.g. parachuting into sea sequence - looked dangerous.

Loved the fancy dress party where one of the passengers - they all know the situation by now - is carrying a 'bomb' - so British. David Pirie goes further, in his 'Time Out' review, calling it 'a penetrating and sardonic  commentary on a fading and troubled Britain, neatly characterized by the lumberingly chaotic ocean liner, 'The Britannic', in which everything is falling apart; newly fitted stabilizers rock the boat, the general facilities are shabby and run down, bombs keep exploding to the stoical dismay of the passengers.' And to make the bomber Irish is right on point.

This Is 40 (2012 Judd Apatow & scr)

A vanity project for Apatow's wife Leslie Mann and kids Maude and Iris. A collection of loosely improvised bits without much of a plot, it's a lazy, coarse and terrible film with scarcely a laugh in sight.

We seem to be seeing John Lithgow in everything at the moment. 

At one point Paul Rudd on a bicycle seems intent on fleeing from the film. 

The Criminal (1960 Joseph Losey)

Tough crime thriller anticipates Performance in portrayal of professional violence and the criminal high life, mixed with a realistic study of prison society. The writer's Alun Owen.

Stanley Baker's great and totally believable as the tough criminal (loved the scene where two heavies intent on roughing him up in cell end up severely battered). With Sam Wanamaker (double-crossing associate), Gregoire Aslan, Margit Saad, Jill Bennett, Rupert Davies, Laurence Naismith, the idiosyncratic Patrick Magee, John Van Eyssen, Noel Willman, Kenneth Warren, Kenneth Cope, Patrick Wymark, Paul Stassino, Tom Bell, Murray Melvin.

Interesting credits: Photographer Robert Krasker, editor Reginald Mills, composer John Dankworth (the first of their associations).

Great bandstand scene:

Has a particularly bleak ending, somewhat reminiscent of Fargo.

"Go away!"

Losey had a most interesting career, beginning in the US in theatre (working with Brecht amongst others), then with films like The Boy With Green Hair and the great film noir The Prowler, after which he was blacklisted and moved to England. His association with Dirk Bogarde goes as far back as the 1954 The Sleeping Tiger; they also made together The Servant, King and Country, Modesty Blaise, Accident; later films became increasingly pretentious.

Number Seventeen (1932 Alfred Hitchcock)

Leon M. Lion (the tramp with the sausage), Anne Grey, John Stuart (detective), Donald Calthrop, Barry Jones, Ann Casson (the neighbour), Henry Caine, and Garry Marsh all find themselves in the titular property, where there's been a murder (or has there?) and lots of very rum goings on involving a stolen diamond necklace and a train that goes abroad. Bizarre, almost trippy proceedings, shot very expressionistically, and played for laughs, ends in an exciting chase between a bus and a speeding train (cueing North by Northwest and Torn Curtain, amongst others).

Written by Alma, Hitch and Rodney Ackland from Joseph Jefferson Farjeon's play. Contains a very funny fight scene and various scares and double twists. Photographed by Jack Cox and Bryan Langley.

L'Amica Geniale - 'The Story of a New Name' - Season 2 (2020 Saverio Costanzo & co-scr)

Picks off straight after season one, with Lila (Gaia Girace) realising her marriage is a disaster, being raped on the wedding night (in the Grand Hotel Vittoria Excelsior, no less!). Loved the shot of monstrous husband Giovanni Amura through the frosted glass of the bathroom. Lenu (Margherita Mazzucco) seems to be engaged to the wrong man, should be with college left wing dissident Nino.

Don't understand Lila's behaviour at all e.g. after Lenu's teacher's party, when her behaviour is utterly vile. And did she really kiss Nino (Franceso Serpico) in the sea? Yes, she did, seems to have a self-destructive nature - not a nice character.

Whilst her life seems to unravel, Lenu finally starts making progress, attending University in Pisa and meeting the son of a publisher who wants to publish her book.

Other writers are Elena Ferrante, Francesco Piccolo and Laura Paolucci. Music Max Richter, photography Helene Louvart (Rocks, The Lost Daughter) & Fabio Cianchetti, editors Carlotta Cristiani, Francesca Calvelli.

Gloria (1980 John Cassavetes & scr)

Cassavetes wrote this as a screenplay for sale, offered it to Peter Bogdanovich to direct, but he said Cassavetes 'was the only one who could make its complicated dualities work'. (Do you think that was a nice way of saying 'Yeah, not really my cup of tea, thanks'? But in a way, it's a variation on Paper Moon.) Peter notes that it subverts the usual gangster genre picture in that the attractive woman is both the strongest and most compassionate person in it - certainly when she starts blasting away at hoods in a car, it's something of a (pleasant) shock.

Gena Rowlands is tough and occasionally tender, John Adames is fine as the kid. (When he says things like 'I don't know what's going on', or 'I want to play stickball', it breaks your heart.) It's a nightmare in a film - they are perpetually on the run, pursued. That's surely an early use of Steadicam in the (brilliant) subway scenes. New York then looks unfriendly. (It's funny to think how Peter and his crew would have been filming They All Laughed there at much the same time.)

Buck Henry is the only other actor I recognised.

Benefits from a good and melancholy score from Bill Conti. Photographed by Fred Schuler (Arthur, The King of Comedy), edited by George Villasenor.

That is the film noir actor tough-guy Lawrence Tierney as 'Broadway Bartender' (he is in Reservoir Dogs too). NO relative to Gene.

Gena's pronounced 'Jenna' apparently. She received an Oscar nomination for this (lost to Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter) and A Woman Under the Influence, also directed by Cassavetes.