The Seventh Victim (1943 Mark Robson)

Perhaps not quite as atmospheric as some of the Lewton pictures, this one nevertheless has an air quite of its own, as young Kim Hunter goes looking for her sister amongst satanists in Greenwich Village (I mean, that summary is surely enough for anyone to want to see it). Certainly has several highly memorable moments - seeing the dead investigator on the subway being one of them, and a creepy moment in a shower - and the ending really is remarkable. (That setup, the ill woman who lives near the sister's room, and the way she says she's finally going to go out and enjoy herself - there's something really weird and memorable about those scenes - DeWitt Bodeen and Charles O'Neal wrote it.)

Nick Musuraca's imagery looks wonderful in Criterion's newly restored release. Art direction by Albert S D'Agostino and Walter E Keller.

Michael Powell's book describes how in 1945 Hitchcock introduced him to Kim Hunter, who was running lines for an Ingrid Bergman screen test. This seems somewhat unlikely somehow, as she had already appeared in this and Tender Comrade, and was in the US version of A Canterbury Tale (OK that may have been released after AMOLAD).

With Tom Conway, Jean Brooks (who I must say is a bit of a disappointment after all the build up), Lou Lubin, Isabell Jewell, Mary Newton, Evelyn Brent, Erford Gage (poet), Hugh Beaumont, Chef Milani and Marguerita Sylva.

Ludwig (2024 Creator Mark Brotherhood)

Not sure this is much good really. David Mitchell doesn't have much range, the 'comedy' moments aren't funny, the whole premise is daft - people disappearing without a word is annoying and dramatically difficult to sustain. It's also rather gloomily photographed.

Did enjoy Derek Jacobi as an absent-minded teacher. With Anna Maxwell Martin, Dipo Ola (We Hunt Together, Landscapers), Sophie Willan, Gerran Howell (1917), Dorothy Atkinson, Ralph Ineson.

A six part BBC production.

The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee (2023 John Spira & scr)

Considering Spira isn't even a fan of Lee, he's done a good job, hosting the film with a marionette of Lee, voiced by Peter Serafinowicz, and using animations to flesh out some of the story.

Contributions from his niece Harriet Walter, and directors including John Landis, Peter Jackson and Joe Dante.

His Australian adventure from 1983, The Return of Captain Invincible, looks nuts, as were his heavy metal projects.

The Leopard Man (1943 Jacques Tourneur)

Another marvellously atmospheric and textured entry from the legendary Val Lewton cycle.

I was thinking watching this that they are almost like watching a dream - you can't quite accept that they're real, and yet you are so in it that you do accept everything that happens.

Contributions from Robert de Grasse and Mark Robson no doubt significant.

Stars Dennis O'Keefe, Margo, Jean Brooks, Isabell Jewell, James Bell. Written by Ardel Wray, with additional dialogue from Edward Dein, from a Cornell Woolrich novel 'Black Alibi'. Memorable scenes include vulnerable woman alone in a locked cemetery.

All Or Nothing (2002 Mike Leigh & scr)

Dick Pope died yesterday.

Danny Mays posted: "Deeply saddened and moved by the death of the great Dick Pope. A master cinematographer and Mike Leigh's long time collaborator. I had the profound joy of working with Dick on All or Nothing and Vera Drake. A lovely man whose passion for his craft and endeavour to find the truth in the scene was infectious. He was not only wonderful to work with but he also taught me a great lesson in filmmaking on All or Nothing. My first proper movie fresh out of drama school and I was shooting a highly explosive argument scene opposite the wonderful Helen Coker Wyatt. Filmed on a real sink estate in Greenwich, the scene took place on a small, tricky and narrow staircase inside one of the council flats. Finding the correct camera position was key and I remember offering to change the blocking to help capture the shot. Dick turned to me and said "Danny, always remember, we're here to accommodate you, not the other way around. Don't change a thing about the performance." It's a lesson I learned that day that I've carried with me ever since. Always the truth.

Oscar nominated for Mr Turner, I last saw Dick at the cast and crew of Mike's latest Hard Truths at the BFI. It was a joy to see him again and to congratulate him on yet another beautifully shot and exceptional piece of work, Make sure you flood to the cinemas when it's released next month A fitting tribute to one of the best and much missed cinematographers this country has ever produced."

A lovely testimonial, as it highlights the qualities of a good cameraman as not just being where to point the camera. An exceptional shot in this film is the single take scene between Tim Spall and Leslie Manville in which the camera tracks in so subtly on the couple - and Dick was operating too, so he's moving the camera himself.

And subtlety is key to the whole film, as it's the looks and expressions and lies and behaviour of the characters that makes it such a rich viewing experience. And it's not depressing - there's too much going on - in fact half the time you want to burst into tears, the other half into laughter. And it powerfully makes the case that lack of opportunity and education leads to poverty and depression.

And - what an incredible cast. 

A horizon that is through the middle of the image can work

Another most interesting composition

We're a bit behind with Mike, still not having seen 2018's Peterloo.

I still contend that this is one of the best British films of all time.

Christmas Films

Lethal Weapon
Black Christmas
Tales from the Crypt

What? Yes they are.
OK, we must have:

The Holdovers
The Holiday - yeah, finally going off this a bit
Love, Actually
It's a Wonderful Life
The Shop Around the Corner
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Bad Santa
The Man Who Came to Dinner
La Père Noël est Une Ordure
A Christmas Story
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (grudgingly - but NOT Home Alone)
Holiday Affair
Rear Window (it just is)

and

The Thin Man

The Long Kiss Goodnight and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Die Hard

We're No Angels (1954)

Three Godfathers

And - OK, then - Home Alone 1 & 2.

Sunday Night at the Movies

Ben Is Back. Truly devastating account of the chaos created by addiction. Great performance from Lucas Hedges.

It seemed oddly familiar, but in fact we had not seen The Accountant (2016), with Ben Affleck, Anne Hathaway, John Lithgow and J.K. Simmonds, a mix of financial hustling with shooty action. Quite enjoyable, in a loopy way - missed both beginning and end.

And then just because it was on, a terrible and enjoyably bad Steven Seagal movie, Belly of the Beast (2003), or Taken in Thailand.  He really is a terrible actor, and Chinese director Siu-Tung Ching doesn't help matters by filming him in far too many close ups. In fact he seems more concerned with Peckinpah-style slow motion violence than acting. The ending is wholly predictable (though missed much of the film).

Courtesy of Sky Cinema, Italy.

Saturday Night at the Movies

Supernova. Good honest brave acting.

Troppo Azzuro. Difficult to pick up what was going on, but a romantic triangle. It was apparently filmed in Rome and Rimini.

Unbroken. Pegged it last time. Half of it is Jack O'Connell putting up with more and more degradation and torture. Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson (early drafts) and The Coens (rewrites), are credited for the screenplay. Didn't realise again it was Deakins, influenced by The Hill. A shame as don't really want to watch this film again.

Thanks to Sky Movies, Italy.

Restless (2012 Edward Hall)

We needed something first class before our departure to Sicily.

Edward is the son of Peter Hall and the half-brother of Rebecca.

Knowing Will to be a fan of Three Days of the Condor, it's interesting to think about the parallels - an elite team being 'rolled up' and there being no one left you can trust.

Any other thoughts I had about it are lost in the Sicilian sun.

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017 Noah Baumbach & scr)

We didn't remember anything about it. See here.

Dustin Hoffman's character is incredibly annoying. And he's something of a shit.

About families, it's spot on.

And amongst many funny things is that none of the adults have the slightest problem with the daughter's semi-pornographic films she's been making.

The Triumph / The Ron Clark Story (2006 Randa Haines)

Neither title is any good; Rule Number 1?

Matthew Perry sorts out Harlem schoolkids.

Cary Grant Double Bill: In Name Only (1939 John Cromwell) / Once Upon A Honeymoon (1942 Leo McCarey)

November 2016:

My fascination with Carole Lombard continues - her face when attempting to fish, her cute scar, her graceful stoicism - in duet with Cary Grant's unhappily married neighbour. Indeed, they are matched by Kay Francis as the manipulative and utterly callous wife. Charles Coburn is the misunderstanding father, Maurice Moskowitz a useful 11th hour doctor. Peggy Ann Garner is Carole's cute daughter.

Roy Webb's music typically adept, J.Roy Hunt working in greys.

Now: Richard Sherman adapted Bessie Brewer's unremarkable novel 'Memory of Love'. Should mention Helen Vinson as the horribly flirtatious 'friend', Katharine Alexander as the sister.

Lombard's New York address is 5 West 10th Avenue - the Village - how cool.

As screen shots below testify, Cary Grant is as good as Lombard. But she's so natural...

OK, Once Upon A Honeymoon is a very interesting film, and thanks to Peter Bogdanovich for shining a light in this most interesting director who has been mentioned many times in these pages, for example for Make Way for Tomorrow and Love Affair.

This one is kind of weird, but I'd argue it still works. The director's deft touch is very much in evidence, for example in the splendidly funny and really quite erotic measuring scene, and in the playing of Grant with Ginger Rogers (complete with ridiculous accent), and the little touches of things all over the place. But this romantic comedy is supplanted on a story of the advancement of the Nazis - Rogers has married one for the money. He is Walter Slezak, who of course we knew from Lifeboat, and he's rather good again (poor guy getting typecast as the Nazi). So you also get savage moments, like the violent killings of good guys Albert Bassermann and Albert Dekker, or the awful moment that the couple are confused for Jews and about to face a terrible fate. It's slightly trippy. 

And I think this conflict makes the film less successful in people's minds - it only has a 6.4 IMDB rating, for example, and Maltin only awards it **1/2, commenting 'strange but intriguing curio.. some boring stretches do it in'. The RKO story wrote it off as 'singularly tasteless... the stupidity and callousness of this very expensive undertaking'. But Time Out finds it rather more interesting, noting the Baron cutting up a cake representing Czechoslovakia, or the clock with the swastika as hands.

No - I think it's terrific throughout. And probably way ahead of its time.

One of those great little McCarey touches

It was photographed by George Barnes. Written by Sheridan Gibney from McCarey's story. Both were RKO films.

Apples Never Fall (2024 Melanie Marnich)

A woman (Annette Bening) goes missing and her children are worried. We then cut back and forward in 'then' and 'now' titling to investigate. I think writers of this sort of multi part thing are now incapable of telling chronological stories. 

A seven part series based on a novel by Liane Moriarty.

The family comprises volatile tennis star Sam Neill, kids Jake Lacy (successful banker), Conor Merrigan Turner (likes boats), Essie Randles (physiotherapist) and Alison Brie (flake). Georgia Flood is the annoying non-existent person who comes to stay. Jeanine Serralles is the detective. Many of these are Australian, where the show was filmed.

It's implausible, red herringy and not worth the time it takes.

Rollerball (1975 Norman Jewison)

Came from a short story by William Harrison, evolved into a satire where corporations run everything and we've returned to the blood and circus of the Roman amphitheatre (literally).

The stunt work is brilliant, overseen by Kip Gowans, and the stunt men quite rightly all receive main title credits. John Box designed the rink and it was built in the Olympic basketball stadium in Germany.

In the special feature, Tony Gibbs tells us how he put together such a mass of material, realising that they needed to actually know the rules of the game to make it work. He was phoned by Technicolor at one point to say he had over 900 cuts in one reel of film. But it's not just the action scenes you watch out for - for example, he's doing some interesting stuff at a cocktail party, and where the guests take to shooting trees. (His mate Brian Smedley-Aston is doing the multivision scenes, which may look flashy, but are a dumb idea.)

There's not much about the photography, though you can see Dougie Slocombe has some vehicle going around the rink with a camera on it, pre-Steadicam. Also some Olympic cameramen are shooting some of the action hand held. But Dougie, and Chic and assistant Robin Vidgeon, are also doing a lot of complicated zoom stuff outside of the rink also.

So it's an interesting film technically (Tony and Dougie were BAFTA nominated, Box won), well received in Europe but not so much in the US. The only joke is that the master computer which contains all knowledge has 'lost' the 13th Century! (However this sequence, the journey to Geneva and interview with Ralph Richardson, is virtually pointless.)

With James Caan, John Houseman, Maud Adams, John Beck, Moses Gunn.

The privileged future looks really dull. Costumes and music are horrible. I take it they designed that 'futuristic' (very seventies) font for the film.

Funny Bones (1995 Peter Chelsom & co-scr)

I don't know how this got financed - it's such a mixed bag. The plot of Oliver Platt being in the shadow of his comedian father superstar and being connected to his lost other family in Blackpool is interesting, but the way he reconnects with them is annoyingly undeveloped. The insane brothers and their ghost train and house with its tilted camera angles is a bit much. Lee Evans... there's something both amazing and annoying about him, and I'm not sure being perched on top of a pole is funny - it's skilful and acrobatic like a monkey. The plot about the eggs containing rejuvenating powder (cocaine?), the Frenchman's feet and Oliver Reed is just a load of nonsense. (Though the scene in the mortuary is funny.) 

Blackpool locations used well. The acts they review are hilarious. That Evans has killed a performer on stage casts a weird and unpleasant shadow.

So yes, I can't really unscramble these eggs and conclude it's an interesting failure.

Good role for Leslie Caron as the mother. With Jerry Lewis, Freddie Davis and George Carl (brothers), Richard Griffiths, Ian McNeice, Christopher Greet good as booker, Ruta Lee.

Eduardo Serra on camera, Martin Walsh edited, John Altman music.

Chelsom (incidentally, was born in Blackpool) made the much better Hector and the Search for Happiness and the less successful Serendipity.

Play Dirty (1969 André de Toth)

Michael Caine is briefed to go behind Rommel's lines to destroy a fuel dump, accompanied by Nigels Green and Davenport. Nothing very interesting happens - there's no surprises, accidents, suspense, humour - so I gave up after 50 minutes.

Primary Colors (1998 Mike Nichols)

 2017 review worth repeating:

Still in Emma Thompson mood, here she plays (with a somewhat wavering accent) the First Lady to John Travolta's Governor in Elaine May's adaptation of a novel by 'Anonymous' - Joe Klein - based on Clinton's first candidacy. Adrian Lester (good) gets sucked into the tour - it sort of reminded me of Almost Famous in that regard. It's very well, subtly written e.g. how well-oiled Lester's amateur team of aides has become, how the relationships (Billy Bob Thornton, Maura Tierney (ER), Kathy Bates) develop. Indeed, in just two shots, we learn that Lester and Tierney are in a relationship, and that Bates and Stacy Edwards (that was a hard name to track down) are too.

And it's subtle in that we are presented with who this man is right from the off - a serial adulterer and maker up of convenient tales. In fact in a way it's odd how Lester is so sucked in knowing those things. Though the Governor is charismatic...

With Rob Reiner, and a good performance from Larry Hagman, Diane Ladd, Alison Janney, Caroline Aaron. Abd Tony Shaloub.

Photographed by Michael Ballhaus - the widescreen is well used. Music from Ry Cooder. Quite long, but good.

I wonder why Lester didn't stay in Hollywood...

“It was kind of hard to swallow, because surely if you executed a role like that to any degree of believability you were a shoo-in for major auditions for other major roles… But it didn’t happen. Costa-Gavras wanted me to play the lead role in a movie. And Sidney Lumet was doing an updated version of 12 Angry Men and offered me a choice of two roles, so I went home thinking, ‘Great!’ Then both films fell through – they couldn’t get the money – and I sat at home unemployed for a year.

'Radio Times' December 2011.

Today. I had forgotten Nichols made this when watching Regarding Henry yesterday. He's of course a great actor's director and likes leaving things in long takes.

There are a couple of outstanding zoom or track-ins - one is Lester looking at a donut shop out of his hotel window and the camera goes all the way in to it. There's another great one on  a balcony in which we go in close and Travolta and Thompson. Terrific work from Ballhaus and operator Peter Hutchison. It was edited by Arthur Schmidt.

It's a clever film because you are quite sucked in by the charisma of the candidate at the outset only to realise by the end that's he's a terrible shit and has built his campaign on lies - this demonstrated in the brilliant way we see him shake hands, something that's been identified at the outset. But the Lester character renounces his integrity and stays with the senator. An honest film about politics.

I love something about the colours and textures of this shot

Another amazing shot as the camera lifts off the highway and up...

My House in Umbria (2003 Richard Loncraine)

Hugh Whitemore adapted William Trevor, an Irish writer noted for Chekhovian short stories; as a novelist he wrote the books on which Fools of Fortune (1990) and Felicia's Journey (1999) were based; this was from a novella published in 'Two Lives'.

Maggie Smith plays a reclusive, rubbish romance writer and alcoholic in Umbria who looks after the survivors of a train explosion. And, as it turns out, has had something of a sordid and unhappy past, so it's not as straightforward as you might think. She's an excellent judge of character and situation.

The survivors are Ronnie Barker - so great to see him in his last and serious role - Benno Fürmann, and Emmy Clarke, who was also in Monk. Tim Spall is the loyal Oirish housekeeper, Giancarlo Giannini the detective and Chris Cooper the repressed uncle.

It was a TV movie made for HBO. Photographed by Marco Pontecorvo and edited by Humphrey Dixon (A Room with a View).

I was thinking about Giancarlo Giannini in Swept Away, and wondering whether that film inspired Overboard. Loncraine and Maggie had worked together before on The Missionary. According to The Guardian obituary, Ronnie "had been at architectural college with Smith’s two brothers and had left them to join her at the Oxford Playhouse".

The Internecine Project (1974 Ken Hughes)

I was going to say that I had long wondered what this film was about, but it turns out I'd already seen it, on 16 June 1980 (rating 5/10). It's a really stupid title because I can't be the only one that doesn't know what 'Internecine' means - it's an immediate put-off. ('Destructive to both sides in a conflict.')

Anyhow. For reasons I wasn't really paying attention to, 'economist' James Coburn has to wipe out a secret network he's created, comprising Michael Jayston, Harry Andrews, Ian Hendry and Christiane Krüger. How he achieves this is the main bit of the film and makes it worth watching. In parallel he's having an affair with ex Lee Grant. Other than that, Coburn spends his whole time walking in and out of various locations, pouring himself a Scotch (or Brandy, on one occasion) all the time.

It was shot by Geoffrey Unsworth but the print on Legend is not of good quality.

Stardust Memories (1980 Woody Allen & scr)

A stupidly neglected film. At the time it caused some confusion - the critics thought Woody was attacking them and his audience - he's having a dig, certainly, at over-critical thinking and crazy fan worship - not specifically his critics and fans. In fact Woody doesn't have the best opinion even of his own films or abilities as a film maker. Though this was one of his favourites at one point.

Whilst it certainly evokes 8 1/2, there's also a very strong Preston Sturges reference right from the off - Sullivan's Travels. It even begin in the same way - what we think we're seeing is the ending of a film which the execs then discuss as being terrible. But yes - the way scenes turn into flashbacks is definitely very much like the Fellini film. (That bit on the train - is this some reference to death camp trains from WWII?)

And about a man who cannot find the right path in love. That montage of the fucked up Charlotte Rampling, direct to camera, is still one of the director's most powerful moments.

The POV camera through the fans, and the 'interesting' faces, and Gordon Willis' beautiful darkness, all memorable. And, you know, a depressed man, who has that photo from Vietnam, massively blown up his wall - what do you expect?

Woody's useless agent is another good touch, as is the fact that it;s his first wife, Louise Lasser!

Good one for SSS

Woody likes long takes

Don't bother telling me how many awards Gordon Willis was not nominated for

The ending - the film is over and the cast swap notes - is a doozy.

Jessica Harper... I fell for her in Phantom of the Paradise, on the 10th of December 1977, aged 14. How many decades ago was that? She's still working...

With Marie-Christine Barrault, Tony Roberts, Daniel Stern, Woody's dentist and accountant, Sharon Stone as 'Pretty Girl on Train'...