The Cops - Season 3

Mel is the baseline.

Shrinking - Season 2 (2024 Creators Brett Goldstein, Bill Lawrence, Jason Segel)

I didn't realise the one of the creators is of course Ted Lasso's Roy Kent, born in England but studied acting in New York. Here he also plays the man who accidentally killed Segel's wife.

Storylines from Season One continue, in particular the war veteran with anger issues and the lady with the abusive husband - and some of it is really emotional, not just snappy dialogue at all.

Jason Segel, Jessica Williams, Harrison Ford, Luke Tennie, Michael Urie, Lukita Maxwell, Ted McGinley, Christa Miller.

"Last night we ordered Taco Bell, hooked up, and then ordered again. We called it Booty Burrito Bang Bang."

Death Comes to Pemberley (2013 Daniel Percival)

I don't know why we hadn't watched it since it was first on - watching P.D. James's Dalgliesh reminded me. A ballsy thing, to write a sequel to 'Pride and Prejudice', let alone make it one of her beloved murder mysteries.

First things first - one of the other daughters is married, making it four in all, but we don't find out which one - think I might have to read the novel. This is a three hour adaptation - by Juliet Towhidi - for the BBC.

With Anna Maxwell Martin, Matthew Rhys, Matthew Goode, Jenna Coleman (who must get tired of always looking up to people), Trevor Eve, James Fleet, Joanna Scanlan, Tom Ward, Rebecca Front, Eleanor Tomlinson (pre-Poldark) , James Norton, Nichola Burley, Philip Martin Brown, Jennifer Hennessy, Kevin Eldon.

Music by The Insects, photographed by Steve Lawes, edited by David Thrasher, production design Grant Montgomery. Filmed at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, which was also used as Pemberley in Pride & Prejudice! (And Barry Lyndon, The Duchess, Lady Caroline Lamb, Peaky Blinders).

It's hugely successful, brilliantly written.

The Cops - Season 2 (1999 Harry Bradbeer)

The quality hasn't dropped, stories are still hard-hitting. An effort is being made in the direction of Community Policing. Particularly after a 13 year old smack addict we met in season one overdoses and dies.

You can't watch too many back to back because of the hand held camera and whip pans.

Unfortunately David Crellin (Wakefield) is still around - he's an unbelievable cunt.

Jack Marsden is declared unfit for duty - rather rough. (He's the one we thought was dead at the end of season one.)

You feel for poor Mel (who, you recall, we met at a party doing cocaine) as she keeps trying to make things better but they usually fuck up: never more so than in case of 14 year old girl in (thankfully positive) relationship with 20 year old. The parents are rarely shown in a good light.

Talking of light, it was shot on Digital Betacam to allow for the hand held low light filming. And you have to hand it to DP Mark Waters and his operator Richard Mahoney who are in so close they have to make decisions about who the camera should follow, and are never out of focus, and making those little push-ins to emphasize a moment - they're actually acting like editors in camera. They surely must have rehearsed each scene thoroughly.

Kenneth Glennan and Alrick Riley directed.

Pride and Prejudice (2005 Joe Wright)

Um. Spent the whole film trying to remember the name Talulah Riley - she has a thankless part as the more inward Bennet sister. You sense she would have been more than happy to go off with cousin vicar Tom Hollander, and spends the film in a sulk. I wonder what happened to the rest of the sisters and if there's a sequel there.. What am I talking about? We watched this deliberately as a prequel to today's Death Comes to Pemberley, so I daresay we might find out.

But still, there's a spin off opportunity I think. Jena Malone is the least recognisable sister - we saw her in Nocturnal Animals and Inherent Vice (she's American). Lovely to see Donald Sutherland again.

Lovely film. I think I would be intrigued to see the MGM Greer Garson / Laurence Olivier version.

Triangle of Sadness (2022 Ruben Östlund & scr)

OK - let's get the film references out of the way - Swept Away, The Admirable Crichton, Lord of the Flies - and in fact it's even my version of Stromboli! I didn't mean these are referenced in the film, just what came to mind watching it.

A barbed and funny look at the rich and 'influential', including a young couple of models Harris Dickinson and Charlbi Dean (sadly died after film's release) and a Russian fertilizer millionaire Zlatko Buric (good). Dolly De Leon is the resourceful maid who takes control. With Woody Harrelson, Vicki Berlin, Alicia Eriksson, Sunnyi Melles (who starts all the trouble), Henrik Dorsin, Jean-Christophe Folly, Iris Berben.

The stuff on the boat is quite difficult to stomach though funny - it was a relief when they got to the island. The political conversations are part of the overall satirical scheme of the screenplay. The moment where the old lady picks up a hand grenade and says "Oh - it's one of ours" is hilarious, as is the sudden appearance of a beach vendor.

Perhaps ends too openly - but I don't think it matters - it's not the point. Won the Palm D'Or at Cannes, Oscar nominated for film, direction and screenplay, BAFTA nominated for screenplay, casting and De Leon.

Fredrik Wenzel photographed (in Sweden and Greece), Mikel Cee Karlsson and the director edited.

Östlund made The Square which also won the Palm D'Or.

Last Christmas (2019 Paul Feig)

We rather enjoyed this. The story was written by Emma Thompson and Greg Wise, the screenplay by Thompson and Bryony Kimmings.

Emilia Clarke brings her usual effervescence to her role as a useless and clumsy nut who works as an elf in a Christmas store run by 'Santa' Michelle Yeoh. Parents are former Yugoslavian immigrants Emma Thompson and Boris Isakovic and Lydia Leonard is the aggressive sister. Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) is the elusive nice guy. Liked the two WPCs also, Laura Evelyn and Ingrid Oliver.

It's all threaded together with George Michael songs (and Emilia sings her own version of Jingle Bells). And there are some interesting London locations, such as 'Fat Man's Squeeze' - though this doesn't actually exist. Well, not in London, anyway. And Cheshire Street, East London (his flat). Some of the Christmas nick-nacks are funny.

Photographed by John Schwartzman.

I don't quite know why we hadn't made its acquaintance before.

The Holiday (2006 Nancy Meyers & scr)

Q wondered why I thought this had gone off. Here's why.

Die Hard (1988 John McTiernan)

"It's John."

Based on Roderick Thorp's 'Nothing Lasts Forever' (1979) a sequel to his 1966 'The Detective', filmed with Sinatra in 1968.

A year after Lethal Weapon, then. The reunion of Willis-Bedalia funnily enough isn't as emotional as the Willis-VelJohnson one! (Then they repeat the end of Lethal Weapon.)

You know what though, the big mistake John McClane makes is to send down the first dead bad guy. He  should have quietly snuck around bumping them off one by one.

What with this, Love Actually and the Harry Potters, Alan Rickman formed quite a Christmas association.

Q noticed (in the air conditioning scene) that Willis's white vest had mysteriously turned black!

A Holiday Affair (1948 Don Hartman & prod)

Isobel Lennart wrote it. Janet Leigh loved working with Mitchum. The scene where he kisses her by the sink was supposed to be a little kiss but he gave her a full on one. Her reaction was so surprised they kept it in.

A change of pace for Mitchum, not a noir or western. You can imagine him chatting through the scene with the boy in his bedroom before they did it, totally relaxed, so that when they did it, it's almost one single very natural take. Leigh also noticed that while he seemed totally relaxed he was absolutely concentrated. She also said that at the Christmas dinner scene both Bob and Wendell had a hand each on her thigh in an attempt to put her off - now, she didn't seem to mind in telling that story, but really! 

Swan?

Leigh also told Mitchum biographer Lee Scriver that Howard Hughes had been sex pesting her for months, so she was not at all looking forward to working at his studio. But apart from instructing her to wear a very tight sweater in one scene he thankfully left her - and the film - alone.

Kneecap (2024 Rich Peppiatt & co-scr)

Co-written and starring the actual Kneecap, Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí, this is at times funny story of a drug-dealing/taking hip hop act that sang in Irish and defended Irish roots, culminating in the language being officially recognised once again. (Though it should be noted they only rap in Irish some of the time.) The writing of the lyrics on screen isn't a good idea as they're too small and fast on the Panavision shape on a non-cinema screen. Politically, most of the film is in Irish, even though Northern Ireland only has 4% who read, write and speak it.

With Josie Walker, Fionnuala Flaherty, Jessica Reynolds, Michael Fassbender. Photographed by Ryan Kernaghan, edited by Chris Gil and Julian Ulrichs.

And remember, "Every word spoken in Irish is a bullet for liberation."

Elf (2003 Jon Favreau)

Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Bob Newhart, Edward Asner, Mary Steenburgen, Peter Dinklage, Faizon Love, Michael Lerner.

Filmed at various NYC monuments, and Vancouver.

Written by David Berenbaum. Most entertaining. Good music choices e.g. jazzy Nutcracker by the Brian Setzer Orchestra. (Originally done by Les Brown & His Band of Renown in 1958.) Zooey has nice voice.

Dalgliesh: Cover Her Face (2024 Kam Odedra, Helen Edmundson)

Another P.D. James novel. concerning the death of a young servant girl in a posh Asian home - good story. Must be difficult condensing a novel into an hour and a half. Bertie Carvel directs for the first time, with no problem.

With Sam Swainsbury (Mum, Fisherman's Friends), Parth Thackerar, Jack Myers, Ellora Torchia, Josie Walker, Soni Razdan, Andrew Tiernan, Anne Bird, Holly Castle.

Bertie does read the source novels - it's an added texture that he can bring to the story. P.D. James' first novel was 'Cover Her Face' in 1962, thus Edmundson has done some updating to bring it to 1979.

I thought it might have been the house at Binfield Park... but the series was filmed again in Northern Ireland.

Hot Fuzz (2007 Edgar Wright)

I noticed that the music supervisor is Nick Angel, who gave his name to Simon Pegg's character. (Who wrote it with Wright.)

The writing, direction and editing work so smoothly together. And it's an amazing cast.

We watched it as an antidote to The Cops!

The Wayfarers (1964 Paul Nickell)

Lassie's family recklessly decide to move to Australia, realise they can't take the dog without six months' hard labour in England, so leave her with neighbour Andy Clyde, who looks like the dog might outlive him. Sure enough he has a heart attack and for some reason his stupid little dog Silky goes off into the unknown and Lassie feels obliged to look out for it.

Robert Bray plays Ranger Cory, who comes to the rescue.

Edited by Monica Collingwood (The Bishop's Wife).

Weatherwax Trained Dogs is sadly no more. Rudd's son Bob is quoted on IMDB as saying "I worked with Dad from the early 1960s until his death in 1985. I carried on the Lassie legacy until 2002. Then, against my wishes, the Weatherwax family voted to sell the Lassie trademark." Bob died August 15th of this year and it was the end of an era. I didn't realise but Rudd trained Asta as well.

The Cops - Season 1 (1998 Harry Bradbeer)

Designed to look like cinéma verité, but cleverly written by Jimmy Gardner, Robert Jones and Anita Pandolfo, e.g. in episode where about-to-be married cop attends a domestic situation and it makes him reconsider.

These are real people - memorable opening where cop at party doing coke, then realises she's late for work - and the events are sometimes bizarrely funny. They are:

L to R. Paulette P Williams (so this is actually from season 2 publicity), Steve Jackson, Clare McGlinn, Danny Seward, Parvez Quadir, Rob Dixon, Caty Kavanagh, Steve Garti, John Henshaw. And, not pictured, Jack Marsden.

Margaret Blakemore is the flirty desk sergeant, Sue Cleaver the more no-nonsense one. Plus , David Prosho, Mark Chatterton (PC Inspector), Stuart Goodwin and David Crellin (I think) as the horrible detective - cast strangely difficult to track down.

Eight hard-hitting stories. Jackson getting dumped, assaulting his girlfriend, but his eye is off the ball and a mentally unhinged woman kills her child. Kavanagh trying to help 14 year old on the game, backfires. Memorable end credits - no music, just police radios. Memorable ending - savage assault in the rain.

Tony Garnett is an executive producer.

Lassie's Great Adventure (1963 William Beaudine)

The Lassie TV series had begun in 1954 - this was I guess a one-off TV movie, filmed on location and at Desilu (formerly the RKO Studios), written by Monroe Manning and Charles O'Neal from a story by Sumner Arthur Long, adapted by Maria Little. We figured this had to be Pal's grand-pup, under the tutelage of Rudd Weatherwax, who has taught the canine rafting through the rapids, descent from height and even travelling in a helicopter. But what's remarkable about this is the inventiveness of the boy, played by Jon Provost (actually 13), who manages to get them out of the balloon stuck high up in a fur tree, makes a fire, kills and cooks wild boar and fish, makes a stretcher for the (momentarily) injured canine and a raft, and had me thinking that this is the boy who grew up to be Matt Damon in The Martian. (And, hopefully, encouraged other boys - and girls - to learn this useful outdoor stuff.) Talking of girls, Q thinks after the movie came out all the girls would have been after him! Though he had already been in all 250 episodes of the series from 1954 - 1964 (therefore must have been through more than one incarnation of Lassie), was in one or two movies in the sixties and then returned for 48 episodes of The New Lassie, 1988-92.

The adults appearing are a footnote. Makes you think how many TV actors there have been.

Also proves that the Mounties always get their man... and dog!

Rich and Strange (1932 Alfred Hitchcock)

Q had to abandon ship as the picture was fuzzy and the dialogue often inaudible - the foley, she observed, was louder than the talking - weird, considering Hitch's attention to sound detail.

It's quite lively, cinematically, played much for laughs, partly inspired by a cruise the Hitchcocks had been on. Henry Kendall as the husband is wholly unsympathetic and a complete brute (and not much of an actor). Joan Barry and Percy Marmont are warmer figures but the 'Princess' Betty Amman is horrible! (And not much of an actress.)

The film was originally intended to end - so he told Peter Bogdanovich - with the couple arriving back and telling the story of Hitch himself, who responds 'No, I don't think it will make a movie'.

Uncle Buck (1989 John Hughes & scr)

Buck really is a great uncle.

But - who on earth are those people Culkin glimpses when he opens the letter box?

I don't think they were anyone famous, and online discussion concludes that it's just a moment of childhood imagination. But I did wonder if this somehow inspired Home Alone.

White Fang (1991 Randal Kleiser)

Jack London was born in 1876 and adopted; didn't know his father; as a young man he was a hobo and a sailor; when he was 21 he went to Alaska for the Klondike Gold Rush where he developed scurvy. So we can assume that the content of his most famous novels, 'The Call of the Wild' and 'White Fang' are autobiographical to some extent. He was an animal activist and the dog fighting is extant in the novel. 'White Fang' has had several film adaptations, the first in 1925.

This is a fine version from Disney and features the same dog Jed (trained by Clint Rowe) who was in The Journey of Natty Gann, also written by Jeanne Rosenberg, here with Nick Thiel. Ethan Hawke, Maria Klaus Brandauer and Seymour Cassel lead the cast.

Photographed by Tony Pierce-Roberts in Alaska; edited by Lisa Day, music by Basil Poledouris.

Bringing Up Baby (1938 Howard Hawks)

 "The love impulse in man reveals itself in conflict." Hmm. Isn't that every Howard Hawks comedy?

The Trouble With Harry (1954 Alfred Hitchcock)

"That was a two muffin rabbit."

I don't care what anyone says - I don't think Hitchcock is in this one. It was very closely based on a novella by Jack Trevor Story, even down to some of the dialogue.

I have to say that the art direction by John Goodman and Hal Pereira does a great job of matching the outdoor sets to the actual Vermont outdoors.

Some of Herrmann's music sounds like it's written for ducks or geese.

"He's in the bathtub playing with his frog."

Painted by American abstract artists John Ferren

That Christmas (2024 Simon Otto)

An enjoyable enough Richard Curtis / Peter Souter screenplay with a perfectly diverse and ethnically mixed cast of animated characters, aimed at the younger viewer.

With Brian Cox, Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittaker, Rhys Darby, Bill Nighy, Guz Khan, Lolly Adefope, Katherine Parkinson, bored of listing names now.

Dalgiesh: Death in Holy Orders (2024 Geoffrey Sax)

Written by Helen Edmundson and Colette Kane, from P.D. James' novel.

Bertie Carvel returns as Dalgiesh, investigating murder, putting Alistair Brammer in his place. Cast of suspects: Anton Lesser, Phoebe Nicholls, Richard Lintern, Lloyd Owen, Claire Goose, Charlie Cain, Michael Jenn.

I was intrigued to read that Carvel took the role after his mother died, and he wondered whether he was using it to channel his own grief, or whether the feelings he felt were helping him play the part.

Films of the Year 2024

The Holdovers. (US)

Past Lives. (US)

Decision to Leave. (S Korea)

The Girl Chewing Gum. (UK)

Letters From Iwo Jima. (US)

An Autumn Afternoon. (Japan)

American Fiction. (US)

The Fall Guy (US)

The Offer (US - OK it's a series but what the hell)

Hana-Bi (Japan)

Never thought I'd be doing this, but - Poor Things (US)

The Holdovers (2023 Alexander Payne)

Wonderfully acted by Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa and Da'vine Joy Randolph.

Q says she's in 'dissolve heaven' (courtesy Kevin Tent).

Great, subtle screenplay by David Hemingson, which was Oscar nominated, as was the Film, Tent and Giamatti, who lost to Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer. Randloph won the Oscar and BAFTA.

The Paradine Case (1947 Alfred Hitchcock)

In many ways an interesting film, well acted and photographed, but very atypical Hitchcock material - the courtroom drama particularly. (Compare for example how economically he treats the court case in Dial M For Murder). And as it was the last film he made for Selznick you sense it was a duty, a contractual requirement.

And I found out it was worse than that. Alma's revision of various scripts, plus the input of Scottish writer James McBride, and a final revision by Ben Hecht, were all thrown out as Selznick himself took it over, and reverted to much of the source novel, making it less cinematic and more wordy. He also rewrote every day and threw out much of Hitch's elegant camera work and British second unit. As McGilligan puts it, "he sabotaged his own film", and thanks to his endless interference, the film lost two million dollars.

Good cast comprises Valli (Alida Maria Laura von Altenburger, also Suspiria, The Spider's Stratagem, Senso), Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton (who's a horrible sex pest and wife abuser), Charles Coburn, Joan Tetzel (good as his daughter), Ethel Barrymore, Louis Jourdan and Leo G. Carroll (John Williams appears in a non-speaking role).

Made with care. Notice changing light in jail scene between Peck and Valli, (surviving) elegant camera moves in court.

Joan Tetzel, also The File on Thelma Jordan

What is it with Hitch and oversized lamps?

Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993 Woody Allen & co-scr)

A rare collaboration, with Marshall Brickman, who died 29 November aged 85.  "He's very companionable, witty and creative, wonderful to work with." They worked out the story between them, Woody did the writing. Actually our neighbour mentioned it as being the possible inspiration for Only Murders in the Building... don't think so, though it's definitely inspired by Rear Window. 

It rains again.

The setting up of the ending is brilliant. We know it's an old cinema, showing old movies, that has mirrors all over the place, and we see Adler's assistant walks with a stick...

Woody's funny rejecting the whole idea, then becoming more and more nervous of its implications.

I would have to say that Carlo di Palma's operator, Dick Mingalone, is not the steadiest in the world.

The Concierge / For Love or Money (1993 Barry Sonnenfeld)

'Dem tings'. The Apartment. Sonnenfeld's mobile camera. Udo Kier - 'Some sweet?'. 'The Doug'. Yeah yeah.

Giraffe: "The Bradbury, please."