The Tower 2: Death Message (2023 Faye Gilbert)

Returning cast: Gemma Whelan (initially being given a very hard time in Homicide), plucky young Tahirah Sharif and her boss / lover Emmett J Scanlan, and Jimmy Akingbola. With guest stars Niamh Cusack and Tamzin Outhwaite. With Charley Palmer Rothwell as the killer, Ella Smith as initially lazy detective, Tristan Sturrock as conductor.

Written by Patrick Harbinson from Kate London's novel, it involves a cold case missing teenager, and a wife abuser who goes on the run with his little girl, and features a suitably tense and satisfying ending.

The Gentlemen (2019 Guy Ritchie & scr)

From a story by Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. Begins in a somewhat clunky and expository way (which is maybe what put off Everything Everywhere editor Paul Rogers - he told us early this year it was a recent film he was unable to complete) with sleazy journalist Hugh Grant (the crusader for privacy must have relished the role) relating events to tough guy Charlie Hunnam (Children of Men, Cold Mountain), involving cannabis king Matthew McConaughey, wife Michelle Dockery and investor Jeremy Strong (Succession). Mix in a Colin Farrell, Lyne Renee, Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians), Tom Wu and Chidi Ajufo, plus some young thugs ('the toddlers') played by rappers (unless someone was actually christened Bugzy Malone) and you have lots of plot. (And Samuel West, Geraldine Somerville, briefly.)

Loved Michelle Dockery's accent.

Quite inventively made, constructed and told (with Grant's character often relaying the action as a screenplay; imagined scenes).

Photographed by Alan Stewart, editors James Herbert and Paul Machliss.

Tootsie (1982 Sydney Pollack)

Story by Larry Gelbart and Don McGuire, screenplay by Gelbart and Murray Schisgal, (and various uncredited writers, including Elaine May) a descendant of Some Like It Hot in the problems of a man passing as a woman.

The idea that the film was banned in certain US States is absolute bollocks. (Although having just read about states introducing bans on drag acts, I'd say in today's crazy age anything is possible in the USA.)

Hoffman sounds like a bit of a difficult customer to work with. Jessica Lange is sweet, Bill Murray suitably laconic, Pollack good as agent. With Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, Doris Belack, Geena Davis. It's well acted overall.

Photographed by Owen Roizman. Dave Grusin's music is not welcome - from it I would have guessed the date of the movie as 1982. It won 10 Oscar nominations, including for Fredric and son William Steinkamp as editors, but only Lange won.

This must have been deliberate...

Villa Santo-Sospir (1952 Jean Cocteau & scr)

A fascinating look round the Villa Santo-Sospir, Cap Ferrat, which Cocteau had 'tattooed', presented by the poet himself (with touches of his usual humour) on colour 16mm. (I'm pleased to say it's still standing, the art intact. See here.)

Two funny things happened while I was watching it. 1. A little bird flew into the room, which I assume was symbolic for some reason. 2. I had just published my short film about another Poet of the Cinema, Andrei Tarkovsky. 

It's somehow mesmerizing. I do love Cocteau.

Le Testament d'Orphée (1959, released 1960 Jean Cocteau & scr)

In which Cocteau himself wanders through a - shall we say in his terms - a half-asleep world, including characters from Orphée. Amazing moments, such as Cégeste emerging from the sea - but unfortunately gets bogged down in talky and boring 'trial'.

Fortunately, things pick up considerably in the last third with a welter of interesting ideas. In a funny scene, a woman also unstuck in time, is found with her 'dog' (two semi-naked men). Cocteau encounters himself, and Yul Brynner. He is killed and in a striking scene in colour we see the Blood of the Poet - thereby taking us full circle - and a flower. But of course he doesn't die, because Poets are Immortal.

"Intellectuals in  love."

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969 George Roy Hill)

"Don't hit your mother with a shovel
It leaves a dull impression on the mind."

I asked Q if she wanted to watch a film with Paul Newman and Robert Redford written by William Goldman. How could you not? She did. 'Oh,' I added, 'it's photographed by Conrad Hall'.

Having just watched The Road to Perdition, you can see how far photography had advanced in thirty years, but it's still a brilliantly shot film.

Some of the 'editing' is rather wonderfully in-camera - so the sheriff trying to muster a hunting party, and the camera tracks up to the hotel window where Butch is sat watching them.

I like the fact that Butch is 'a soft touch, takes too expensive holidays, and buys drinks for everybody'. And their real names. That Bolivia montage is an expert example of a montage moving the story forward.

Won Oscars for screenplay, cinematography, music and song, with Hill, Film and Sound nominated.

Tolkein (2019 Dome Karukoski)

Written by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford (Pride). Excellent look at early life of writer, essentially cross-cutting between WWI trenches and his time at school / Oxford with three like-minded artistic friends. It seems to me the poet is unspokenly in love with Tolkein. Enhanced by a remarkable score by Tom Newman (just a coincidence - I didn't realise he'd written it.) Check out this fabulous piece of music.

Karukoski went on to make The Beast Must Die. Great cinematography from Lasse Frank Johannessen and editing by Harri Ylonen (with Chris Gill).

Nicholas Hoult, Lily Collins, Colm Meaney, Patrick Gibson, Anthony Boyle, Tom Glynn-Carney, Derek Jacobi, Pam Ferris, Craig Roberts, Laura Donnelly, Genevieve O'Reilly (poet's mother).

Wasn't sure if I'd like it. Did.

The Wimbledon Poisoner (1994 Robert Young)

Originally broadcast over two parts running 2 1/2 hours - we must have some edited down version on TPTV which is about 2 hours. Written by Nigel Williams and based on his own novel, this is not very good, with suburban Robert Lindsay attempting to murder his wife, them imagining that he is the Wimbledon Poisoner - the outcome is predictable. Young directs his cast to behave very broadly, making scenes like the drunken cocktail party overripe and bawdy - everyone - even the normally reliable Alison Steadman, overacts terribly (except Lindsay). Might have been better under a different director.

Philip Jackson, Larry Lamb, Art Malik, Simon Chandler, Catherine Schell, Tim McMullan, Bill Stewart, Ian McNeice. Photographed by Norman Langley.

Goodbye.

Orphée (1950 Jean Cocteau & scr)

"Time is faster backwards. Repeat."

At its most brilliant at showing the trips into the Underworld, using tricks learned from Le Sang D'Un Poète but more restrained (also the mirrors, running film backwards, actors disappearing). It also features two poets, an intense Jean Marais and Roger Blin. I don't know why Marais would prefer Death (Maria Casares) to his lovely wife Marie Déa. François Périer is the faithful Heurtebise (love that name! - originally appearing in a Cocteau poem) who falls in love with her. Acting good.

Beautifully photographed by Nicolas Hayer, music by Georges Auric.

A bizarre, interesting - not to say unique - film, not without its moments of humour. You can see the influence it has had on people like David Lynch and Chris Nolan. Having seen La Belle et La Bête though, it was a bit disappointing that none of the statues came to life.

"There is nothing more vulgar than works that set out to prove something, Orphée, naturally, avoids even the appearance of trying to prove anything.

'What were you trying to say?' This is a fashionable question. I was trying to say what I said." (Cocteau, The Art of Cinema.)

So there.

"A single glass of water can illuminate the world. Repeat."

Thomas Newman interviewed by Rick Beato (2022 Uncredited)

 Really interesting on temp music - "It can really cripple you". Because the director and editor have approved the nature or idea of the music, and so you're somewhat boxed in in terms of what you can do.

Films to rewatch: The Shawshank Redemption, The Good German (Soderbergh asked for something 'like Max Steiner'), Finding Nemo.

Full of lines like "I don't know why I'm so triatic" and other technical stuff that goes over the head, Tom is nonetheless really enjoying himself talking about his music on a professional level. Hadn't heard of Ableton (software application designed for live performances), Pro Tools (seems the de rigeur choice, like Avid for editors) or Omnisphere (a software collection of multiple hardware synthesizers). I must say that Tom's admission that he has a great reverb unit that he's never used does make me feel (slightly) better about the Roland Gaia SH-01 that I have never played.

The Road to Perdition (2002 Sam Mendes)

"Why doesn't the boy drive the car up to the house?" Because it's not as dramatically interesting. It's the same with all those long corridors - they contain more drama than short ones.

Cannot ever tire of Conrad Hall's photography nor Thomas Newman's music, which imaginatively has an Irish feel. Newman goes out with one of his best, matched by a laconic Hanks. Jill Bilcock's editing also most welcome. A beautiful combination of talents.

'Every frame's a painting' - indeed.

Little Children (2006 Todd Field & co-scr)

Brilliant screenplay from Field and novelist Tom Perrotta with an authory narration (spoken by Will Lyman), concerns growing relationship between married Kate Winslet and married Patrick Wilson, as well as a sex offender Jackie Earle Haley and a former cop Noah Emmerich - great cast with Winslet and Haley Oscar nominated. Also with Jennifer Connelly, Gregg Edelman, Phyllis Somerville, Jane Adams, Mary McCann (critical one from playground).

Nicely sprinkled with bits of Thomas Newman. Photographed by someone called Antonio Calvache and edited  by Leo Trombetta.

The climax it reaches is really exceptional. It was well overdue.

Field made In The Bedroom with Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek, and more recently Tar with Cate Blanchett.

''That was gnarly!''

And there's a credit for 'Oddly familiar man' - Leon Vitali!

Atlanta - Season 3 (2022 Donald Glover, Stephen Glover)

Begins audaciously (though we're not at all surprised) with 'Three Slaps', a total left turn, a self-contained episode (credited to Stephen Glover) in which none of our main characters appear. No, it's a dream about a lake haunted by the flooded black township beneath it, then goes on to tear apart the American education / care system in story of disorderly young man who's inadvertently 'saved' from his family and thrust into care. In typically surreal tones, we find his new lesbian parents are psychotic and he and the other three foster kids are free labour. He manages to escape (just before they plunge into the aforementioned Haunted Lake) and ends up going back home - a beautifully circular storyline. (We think he will probably behave better this time around.)

That track - 'When It's Time To Go' Kui Lee, performed by Buddy Fo and his Group, 1967. Where do they find all this music?

Then we pick up on Paper Boi et al on European Tour, with usual array of mad episodes; particularly the one where Van and Darius attend what they think is a peaceful farewell to a dying man - it turns out to be an absurdist and horrible twist on euthanasia (I think).

A second, crazy stand-alone story features a world where families who have had slaves in the past are suddenly open to financial reparation, effectively destroying the life of Justin Bartha ('We were from Austria-Hungary. We were conquered by the Byzantine Empire. Should I ask them for reparation?') And a third tells of a white family who attend the funeral of their black maid, who's clearly been a much better mother to the young boy than his mother ever was.

Moment in Amsterdam episode where loutish British schoolboys steal a baby and then pass it, rugby-like, is absolutely gobsmacking, also hilarious; the sort of thing you don't see anywhere else. (The closest I can think of in sensibility is Christopher Morris's Jam.)

Appearance of Liam Neeson sending himself up is hilarious (discussed in Variety here). Playout song there is 'Stormy' by The Meters.

Donald Glover's had an amazing career, if you think about it, initially as a writer on 30 Rock, a rapper, an actor and now heading a farm / creative studio in California.

Atlanta is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable, distinctive and inventive (not to mention hilariously, blackly funny) things that's ever come out of US television.

Knock On Any Door (1949 Nicholas Ray)

Bogart holds together story (as defence attorney) of petty criminal Nick Romano, played by John Derek, on trial for cop murder, uses courtroom setting to flash back his life of crime and attempts to go straight with well meaning Allene Roberts. Just falls apart with preachy sermonizing at end but altogether another immediate, vibrant early film from Ray, from impactful beginning on. Derek is perhaps a shade too much at times; does succeed in his goal to "Live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse".

With: George Macready (DA), Candy Toxton (Mrs Bogart), Mickey Knox, Barry Kelley (Judge, The Manchurian Candidate, The Asphalt Jungle), Davis Roberts.

Shot with more contrast than Burnett Guffey would later use. Music by George Antheil. Written by Daniel Taradash and John Monks Jr from Willard Motley novel. Good production design Robert Peterson / William Kiernan. Columbia.

Some Crap

 Housewife / supply teacher in *Barcelona* is a kick-assing kick-asser in bonkers story for Netflix.

Actually it's called Who Is Erin Carter? should anyone care.

Does feature Denise Gough, a bit, which is something to write home about.

Columbus (2017 Kogonada & scr, ed)

A young, intelligent student of architecture feels she cannot leave her home town as her mother is a reformed meth addict. She meets the son of an architectural professor, who's there to visit his ailing dad in hospital, and they form a bond. A slow character study that seems to have much in common with Lost In Translation. Actually, it's not that slow. It's measured. And formally constructed.

John Cho (Star Trek as Sulu, Grandma), Hayley Lu Richardson (Five Feet Apart, The White Lotus, Support the Girls, The Edge of Seventeen), Parker Posey (Irrational Man, Hemingway and Gellhorn), Michelle Forbes, Rory Culkin (Lymelife).

Interesting that when she tells Cho why she really likes the former bank, we don't hear her explanation - it's not what she says but that she's opening up to him. Liked the hotel room scene in which Cho propositions Posey - it's not only one long take but the camera is stationary. Some of the architecture is weird indeed, but always interesting. Use of the width of the screen good too. And like the way we don't know what's going on. For example, we don't know what the relationship between Richardson and Forbes is. We think Cho's staying in a hotel, but there's no other guests or staff until much later on. Sometimes we're not even sure where we are, but it all pieces together like a great jigsaw.

DP: Elisha Christian. Music: Hammock. Sound: Mac Smith / Brandon Proctor. All good.

It's rather good.

Kogonada in not a Japanese brand of  computer game but originally a documentarist of film-makers, everyone from Bresson to Tarantino, Anderson to Godard,

Madame Bovary (1949 Vincente Minnelli)

Bookended by James Mason as Flaubert on morals trial, leading into the novel with Jennifer Jones perhaps not quite as good as I've seen her elsewhere as Madame B. Van Heflin is her husband, Louis Jourdan and Alf Kjellin (billed as Christopher Kent) are lovers (of her, not each other). Gene Lockhart as a garrulous chemist and Frank Allenby as the money-lender both stand out.

Minnelli's ballroom scene is memorable - the waltz between Jones and Jourdan is brilliant - and he also uses mirrors frequently as though to expose the flaws of the woman. (Didn't really know DP Robert Planck but it's a typically plush MGM production under the helm of Pandro S. Berman). Classy Miklos Rozsa score also most welcome. Novel adapted by Robert Ardrey.

Also with Gladys Cooper, John Abbott, Harry Morgan, George Zucco, Ellen Corby, Paul Cavanagh.

Lockhart's been in everything from Bringing Up Baby (sheriff) to Miracle on 34th Street (Judge). We've seen him in The Devil and Daniel Webster, Juke Girl, Leave Her to Heaven, A Scandal in Paris, The Strange Woman, Rhubarb and The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit.