Has a rather scrappy beginning involving Pride March, Marcel in a mood etc. perhaps showing us that the Palladinos are less comfortable in long form, but does settle down and becomes funnier. Lorelai and Emily are in counselling, Rory is having a tough time knowing where her career's going. Luke is being forced to expand and unwillingly accompanies Emily and realtor around various establishments.
Irish comedy that isn't funny. David Niven inherits estate, pisses off all the villagers. They want to kill him. Amazed it was filmed in precious and expensive colour. Even Barry Fitzgerald can't help it.
So, nine year later, they are back. And Amy is back as writer-director of hour-and-a half episodes (films). This seems better written than series 7 already.
Lorelai doesn't look much different; Rory looks identical. Paris is sporting a cool short hair look. Rory seems to have been dating some guy for two years that no one can remember. But - Richard has died, leaving Emily in a somewhat weird state - she's wearing jeans at one point, for goodness' sake! And Lorelai has managed to upset her by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time again.
I'm afraid I didn't find this very interesting, another of the 'will the underdog triumph?' in the sports genre. Apart from that, there's nothing at stake. The one thing I thought would happen - our protagonist would use his mechanical engineering to find an improvement to the rowing itself - didn't happen. So it's another of Mr Clooney's worthy films about real stories, and it's well enough made, but so what? (Now there's a fleeting reference to Jesse Owens, the black athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics, and actually that sounds like it would have made a much better story.)
Callum Turner (War & Peace, The Last Letter from Your Lover, Emma.), Joel Edgerton, Peter Guinness, Sam Strike, Robert Elms, Hadley Robinson. Photographed by Martin Ruhe (Catch-22, The American) and edited by Tanya Swerling (The Tender Bar, Catch-22, Six Feet Under).
I thought I knew this film so well I could have related it in detail - but there's more stuff in there than you remember.. it just sucks you in. A wonderful example of filmmaking, everything just works so well together. Nino Rota's score is rearranged in many different ways, the most interesting bit of music is the anticipation of the horse's head.
I like that two of the characters seeking a favour on the Don's daughter's wedding then reappear later. Also at the hospital - the baker is shaking but Michael's hands are steady - what did he do in the war, to qualify as a 'hero'? We don't know but he's clearly made of steely stuff, and the film is about him becoming corrupted by the mob and emerging as a dangerous Don.
The acting's fabulous. As is the editing - William Reynolds and Peter Zinner - often consisting of elegant dissolves. There's even an old Hollywood style montage with spinning newspapers! And who's left on - note at the end when his sister bursts in and the editing stays on Pacino.
It's a quite complicated story from Mario Puzo and he and Coppola won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. Brando and the film also won. The way all debts are scored at the end is fabulous.
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| Fabulous coat / cab combination |
Special mentions to Richard Castellano as Clemenza ('Leave the gun, take the cannoli') and Morgana King as Vito's wife.
It will be interesting to see the fictionalized account of the film's production in the Paramount+ series The Offer.
Glenn Ford is being blackmailed. Instead of telling his wife, Debbie Reynolds - and frankly, the blackmailing concerns her, so he should have done... what the fuck am I talking about? He should have told his wife regardless - he hatches a plan to kill and bury the blackmailer, which is where the titular construction comes in. Carl Reiner plays it straight as the annoying friend / detective, and John McGiver's presence is welcome, as the builder, though he's not given much to do. Oh yes, there's a trained pigeon, Herman, who very slightly figures in the action, and a Martin Landau. And Doro Merande as a shouty maid.
A whimsical black comedy, based on a play by Alec Coppel (who had worked on Vertigo). Not sure Ford's right for the role, somehow, which perhaps needs a Ray Walston or Tom Ewell instead.
We saw a slightly cropped version of Paul Vogel's original CinemaScope print, but it's a rareish film so that's OK. MGM.
File under 'slight nonsense'. Perfect for post-funeral.
This references the great sounding Twilight Zone episode, 'The Long Morrow' about an astronaut who falls in love just before a 40 year journey...
Lorelai has got back with Christopher - why oh why?
Danny Strong plays Paris's boyfriend and Luke's long-lost daughter April (who's just like a mini-version of Rory) is played by Vanessa Marano.
The quote was from W.C. Fields: "Here lies W.C. Fields. I would rather be living in Philadelphia."
Does feel a little less good without Amy and Dan writing, but nevertheless manages to conclude things well(ish). Warners Brothers television merged with UPN and in contract negotiations, Amy asked for more writers and 'a producer-director onstage' and they wouldn't go for it so she quit. She did nominate staff writer David Rosenthal to be the showrunner, and then the studio did exactly what she had asked for anyway - how maddening! But at least it's still recognisably the same show, with its quickfire dialogue and single take 'walk and talk' scenes.
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| A symbolic moment |
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| Liz Torres, Sean Gunn, Sally Struthers, Rini Bell |
The last shot is a wonderful variation on the opening.
It may be my imagination that when Q told Ella we had finished watching it all the reply was 'You can start again at the beginning now!' It somehow felt right to conclude it the evening of Margaret's funeral.
I'm intrigued there's a collection of critical studies published as 'Screwball Television: Critical Perspectives on Gilmore Girls' (2010).
I can't believe the lawyer, judge or father would agree to the idiotic decision to foster the child. What the fuck? The father had clearly proven that over seven years he was perfectly capable of raising the child. Tom Flynn wrote it - badger him.
Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace (I, Tonya - this 17 year old girl has 68 acting credits already!), Lindsay Duncan, Octavia Spencer, Jenny Slate, Glenn Plummer, Elizabeth Marvel.
Photographed by Stuart Dryburgh, edited by Bill Pankow, production design Laura Fox. Rob Simonsen shamelessly rips off Tom Newman.
Highlight: girl breaking bully's nose. I can't even begin to understand the Trachtenberg System.
Following the success of Great Expectations, Ealing jumped on the bandwagon with this. Dickens is such a great storyteller that unless you're stupid, you'll have an exciting and dramatic story on your hands - screenwriter John Dighton doesn't let the side down. This merry tale is full of hardship and bastards, so that when our heroes prevail, it's all the more satisfying.
Cedric Hardwicke is good as the monstrous Uncle Nickleby and Bernard Miles has a particularly relishable role as his drunken secretary who loathes him. With Derek Bond, Sally Anne Howes and Mary Merrall as the other Nicklebys, Alfred Drayton, Sybil Thorndyke and Vida Hope as the odious Squeers, Aubrey Woods the unfortunate Smike, plus Cathleen Nesbitt, Stanley Holloway, two James Hayters, an uncredited Hattie Jacques and an even more uncredited Jean Marsh (as 'sewing girl')!
The print we saw was dark and shaky and did not reflect Gordon Dines' usually good lighting. The editing, particularly in the striking storm scene as the end, is notable and by Leslie Norman. Lord Berners music is bombastic and Michael Relph is the art director.
I guess it was because Dickens' stories were published as serials that you get the page turning quality, like you get with Hergé and Will Eisner's Spirit.
George Perry found fault with it as usual (in 'Forever Ealing') that it condensed the story into 'a string of cameos' but I thought it worked rather well.
Cavalcanti left Ealing after this, thinking he could make more money as a freelancer. His next film was the excellent They Made Me a Fugitive but after that his films seemed - in various countries - to be unnotable.
'A comedy, caperish story' is how writer Jonny Sweet himself describes it, but in fact there's a nasty edge in Timothy Spall's abusive father. Based on real events that occurred in 1920, though whether the investigating copper was Asian and the Judge black, I'm a little doubtful. What's really mad is that the evidence of the handwriting wasn't enough to throw the case out.
Expert performances from Olivia Colman, Tim Spall, Jessie Buckley, Gemma Jones and Anjana Vasan (Killing Eve) as the persistent police officer. With good support from Hugh Skinner, Malachi Kirby, Alisha Weir (daughter), Lolly Adefope, Eileen Atkins, Joanna Scanlan, Tim McMullan, Jason Watkins.
Photographed by Ben Davis, edited by Melanie Ann Oliver, production designer Cristina Casali, it was better than I thought it was going to be.
Roberts was primarily a director of shorts, also made Star of Midnight with William Powell and Ginger Rogers (1936), which was also the year of his death aged 40, heart attack.
Ronald Colman represents White Russian restaurant staff, wins a ton of money for them all at Monte Carlo. Then is enticed back there by a beguiling Joan Bennett and her odious brother Colin Clive. Nigel Bruce is Colmans' taciturn valet. It's a multinational cast (French actor André Cheron plays the croupier).
Written by Nunnally Johnson and Howard Ellis Smith, from a play by Ilya Surgechev and Frederick Albert Swan. Photographed by Ernest Palmer.
A 20th Century Fox production. Reasonably good fun. Short. Colmans has an easy air to him. Bennett is a few years off from making a strong impression.
Written by Paul Attanasio (winning BAFTA), based on a book by Richard Goodwin, a presidential speechwriter who also investigated the 21 quiz show scandal of the 1950s. A film with verve and momentum, edited by Stu Linder (many Barry Levinson pictures). Great cast of John Turturro, Ralph Fiennes, Rob Morrow (perhaps best known for his lead role in TV series Northern Exposure), Paul Scofield, David Paymer, Hank Azaria, Elizabeth Wilson. Carole Shelley is an aunt. Martin Scorsese and Barry Levinson are in it, Richard Dreyfuss was an executive producer.
I knew just about none of the answers.
Photographed by Michael Ballhaus (with Florian as operator). Robert Redford is 87.
Or 'I remember' in the Roman dialect. Typically episodic and rambling, scenes from Fellini's childhood in Rimini presented with a touch of whimsy, broadly based around three generations of a family. Nino Rota's theme in its various arrangements adds to the vitality. It doesn't really touch on the darkness of Fascist Italy but presents Mussolini as farcical. A professor fill us in on history direct to camera, but he's surrounded by detractors; a young man has a sexual encounter with a large lady in a shop; a peacock appears; there's a glamorous hotel. You know, Fellini. Overlong.
It's very beautifully lit by Giuseppe Rotunno.
With Magali Noel (grand lady of the town), Bruno Zanin (oldest son), Pupella Maggio, Armando Bracia (dad), Ciccio Ingrasia, Written with Tonino Guerra - "If I'd wanted to be a widow, I would have killed you myself!" Edited by Ruggero Mastroianni. Production designer Danilo Donati. Believe it or not, Roger Corman distributed the US version!
I was checking out who Roger Corman plays - it's the FBI head - and was most surprised to find that the guy playing 'Buffalo Bill' is Monk's Capt. Stottlemeyer, Ted Levine! (And that there's a 2023 Monk movie - Mr Monk's Last Case, - to track down.) But amazingly coincidentally, we didn't realise that Roger Corman had in fact died two days earlier, aged 98!
Funnily enough, we had lamb earlier in the day.
It's a potent combination of Foster, Hopkins, Demme, Craig McKay and Tak Fujimoto.
Rory has given up journalism and quit Yale, and is living at her grandparents, and not talking to Lorelai. The way she gradually falls out with said grandparents, leading to a full telling off to Granny at a DAR event, is most satisfying, as is the way she then puts her own life back on course.
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| A small make-up meal |
Loved Mrs Kim insisting that Zack (Tom Lowe) has to have a hit single to marry Lane, and helping him write it!
A strange but enjoyable film, written by Herman Mankiewicz and DeWitt Bodeen from a later 1922 play by Arthur Wing Pinero (who also wrote the fabulously titled 'The Gay Lord Quex'!) It had been filmed before in 1924 with Richard Barthelmess.
The makeup is interesting - Maurice Selderman. I don't quite know what they've done to Dorothy Maguire but she certainly doesn't look unattractive to the point where no young men will approach her, so that's a bit strange. Robert Young looks more straightforwardly damaged. The fact their neighbour Herbert Marshall is blind adds a certain nuance. Mildred Natwick is the housekeeper ("I've always been here..." Oh no, that's another film.)
Well photographed by Ted Tetzlaff. One of Roy Webb's 267 composer credits - he really could score anything. RKO.
With Spring Byington, Hillary Brooke, Richard Gaines.
Set in 1940, but belatedly released until well after the USA had joined in the war. Lillian Hellman's play is sadly still much in evidence, as people talk and talk about Fascism and Hitler, until eventually things start happening in the third act.
And Dashiell Hammett, who's also credited on the screenplay, doesn't help matters. How it should have begun is with the scene that is only described later: Paul Lukas and his colleague breaking into a German HQ, stealing a list of names and then escaping across the Swiss border, pursued by Nazis. That way we would have had some excitement, plus we would get to know exactly who this fellow is rather than the vague 'I fight Fascism' blarney we have to sit through before getting to the facts. I don't even know what 'Watch on the Rhine' means.
It's not even a very successful or convincing Better Davis role, though George Coulouris as the Nazi in their midst is effectively creepy, and Lucile Watson and Beulah Bondi are fine as the mother / aunt. The kids provide a sort of comedy value I suppose, Lukas is good, and the romantic support comes from Geraldine Fitzgerald and Donald Woods. Plus: Henry Daniell, Kurt Katch, Clarence Muse.
Even Max Steiner's music (orchestrated by Hugo Friedhofer) lacks punch. Expertly photographed by Hal Mohr and Merrit Gerstad. I learn from Maltin's 'The Art of the Cinematographer' that Shumlin was a stage director who didn't know anything about making films. When it wasn't working out Warners called in Hal Mohr to take over the cinematography and after Shumlin had rehearsed a scene, it was Mohr who would 'plot out the mechanics of how we would shoot this sequence'. A rare Hal Wallis misfire. Rudi Fehr is the editor.
One good thing that was interesting is that Warner Bros understood early what was going on in Hitler's Germany and pulled out of distributing films there as early as 1934/5, whilst the others merrily went on selling them there right up until the war.
Fehr makes a more positive impact in Humoresque, particularly in musical performance scenes where we're watching the response of the audience to violin virtuoso John Garfield and to each other, the interested parties being his sponsor Joan Crawford, his previous (and much nicer) girlfriend Joan Chandler and his parents J. Caroll Naish and Ruth Nelson (good). Also good is his smart-talking pianist accompanist Oscar Levant. But here's the problem - actually way too many musical performance scenes. The film's two hours, and I would have cut fifteen minutes of performance footage.
The other main problem, especially for Q, is that the Crawford character gets a divorce, and her man, but realises she will never mean as much to him as the Music, so goes off into an alcoholic sulk before submitting to the waves - how very A Star Is Born.
So overall another disappointment, though I do have to mention an amazing, almost Man With A Movie Camera quality- montage, by James Leicester (though what part it plays in the film overall I'd have to question). And some of Negulesco's connecting shots are a bit cheesy.
Lovely cinematography by Ernie Haller, and Garfield is brilliant. (He's played as a child by In Cold Blood's Robert Blake). Paul Cavanagh is Crawford's husband. Written by Clifford Odets and Zachary Gold, from Fannie Hurst story.
Mongolia, the Gobi Desert. An extended family has to deal with a troublesome camel who rejects its newly born colt. Strangely fascinating, absorbing and entertaining film left me laughing.
Whether or not some of it is an artful editing construct is irrelevant.
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| No you can't have a TV! |
A German financed film.
The way the people - especially the mother - handle the animals is sweet, and the violin sequence, beginning with the wind playing the strings, like an Aeolian Harp, is far out.
