As Time Goes By - Seasons 5 - 9 (1996 - 2002 Bob Larbey)

Our happy 'family' of Judi Dench, Geoffrey Palmer, Moira Brooker and Jenny Funnell now includes Frank Middlemiss and Joan Sims (who sadly died 2001), and even extends to Philip Bretherton... and almost to housekeeper Mrs Bale, Janet Henfrey. You note that both the Alistair and Sandy characters don't seem to have parents or families of their own and thus fit into the 'family' that much more easily.

It wasn't until Season Five that we finally took in that the house was four storeys. We thought at that time that the kitchen was in the sub-basement but that seems only if it serves that episode's purpose, same as the desk that magically converts to a dining table when needed.

Ruth Jones has a cameo. So does Mark Benton.

Did Larbey enjoy that Fawlty Towers episode where Palmer is the doctor who wants his sausages? He's often given the word 'sausages' in his lines and does say it so well. It wasn't until the last season that I realised that Larbey writes happy couples so well - The Good Life - but also does that counterpoint - the unhappy couple - in that it's the Jerry-Margo one, and here it's sister-in-law Penny and Steven (Moyra Fraser and Paul Chapman).

Will miss Alistair calling Lionel 'Li' and pulling strings to get last minute airline passage, Mrs Bale's shipping forecasts, Lionel and Jeans' sarcastic sniping at each other or her throwing carrots at him.

Heretic (2024 Scott Beck & Bryan Woods & scr)

Weirdly enough I was only thinking earlier in the day that I was sure the Abraham story features in both the Islamic and Christian religions and probably also the Jewish, and therefore all these three religions came from the same place and thus are essentially the same. And that's one of the thought provoking ideas that come about when nutter Hugh Grant tries to freak out young religious women Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East in this frankly ridiculous three-hander set in a creepy house on a rainy night.

The acting's fine, though the cinematography (Chung-hoon Chung) is rather grubby. I daresay we'll be seeing more of the two young women.

I doubt it would have been financed without Grant's involvement - either he or his agent have a screw loose. Whether or not I was supposed, to, I found it quite funny.

Zero Day (2025 Eric Newman Noah Oppenheimer, Michael Schmidt)

Lesli Linka Glatter directed all 6 episodes.

Following a nationwide tourist hack, ex President Robert de Niro is lured out of retirement to take the flak while they find the suspects. But either he's experiencing dementia or he's being hacked.

With Jesse Plemons, Lizzy Caplan, Connie Britton, Joan Allen, Angela Bassett.

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023 Martin Scorsese & co-scr)

Marty's latest challenge to the attention span - I watched the three and a half hour film in two instalments. It is indeed a true story, based on David Grann's non-fiction book - so well worth telling.

Leo and Bob are both great as very unlikeable characters but Lily Gladstone really steals it with her quiet, enigmatic presence.

Lots of good sequences of course, well photographed by Rodrigo Prieto. Music by Robbie Robertson, Production designer Jack Fisk, edited by Thelma. All Oscar nominated, as were Gladstone and de Niro, but won none.

I'm glad I watched it, but nothing really stands out - it was curiously uninvolving, and the exposition from time to time seemed muffled. You kind of suspect de Niro's up to no good early on. Didn't like Gladstone's descent into near death but did enjoy seeing Jesse Plemons, knowing (at two hours in) that the FBI were on the case - still no guarantee of a good outcome, but at least providing hope.

Generally I find that if a film relies on end text after the action has finished that it's lacking in some way.

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989 Woody Allen & scr)

A very clever contemplation on morality and faith, as Martin Landau decides to do away with his now inconvenient lover Angelica Huston - so A Place in the Sun again (and the post-murder guilt of course crops up in Cassandra's Dream). Confides to rabbi Sam Waterson, who's going blind under the eye of the "All Seeing God".

Woody handles murders so well. In this one it's just a knock on the door - "I got a delivery of flowers". That's it. His use of flashbacks is also quite distinctive.

Also, Woody and Mia on the trail of this great philosopher who despite years of positivism commits suicide! Whilst making a film about Alan Alda.

Lots of film references under the excuse of Woody taking his niece to the cinema - didn't get the Laid Cregar clip (it was This Gun For Hire) nor The Last Gangster (1937 Edward G. - I'd confidently predicted it was a Warner Bros film, but it was MGM!) nor Happy Go Lucky (Betty Hutton, not Grable).

Not the only time he got to work with Bergman's cinematographer Sven Nyvist. He'd also shot Another Woman and the Oedipus Wrecks section of New York Stories.

And yes - there is a scene in the rain!

The Clock / Under the Clock (1945 Vincente Minnelli)

Some of it is in New York - the establishing shots of Pennsylvania Station, for example, though they scene where they meet at the escalators was a set.

Lots of long takes are good. It's a very elegantly made film, with Minnelli also liking to be high up, looking down. The DP is George Folsey. Music: George Bassman. MGM.

It's a shame the leads were such unhappy people.

We thought this clock was upside down but in fact it's the 7 that looks so weird.

Woody Allen Double Bill: Cassandra's Dream (2007) / The Rainiest Film in the World (2019)

Let's deal with one thing straight away: it rains in both films. In the former, it's the  crucial scene where Tom Wilkinson tells his nephews that they have to kill someone for them. And in the latter, it just happens all the time, giving it its new title.

Cassandra's Dream is quite striking from the off - it has a composed music score, by Philip Glass, which makes a real difference. I was wondering about the casting - the Scottish Ewan McGregor and the Irish Colin Farrell playing Londoners? But they are both totally convincing as the brothers who find themselves in a right mess. It gets really tense, particularly the first murder attempt in the apartment and the victim has brought a woman back with him. 

Some of the less potent scenes seem a bit clunky in the acting or writing - I can't quite work it out. But the locations are interesting, and Vilmos Zsigmond is a great cinematographer.

Also you just know the relationship with Hayley Atwell is never going to work out.

Murder - and its ramifications - is of much interest to Mr. Allen, from Crimes and Misdemeanours through Irrational Man and Match Point up to Coup de Grace.

I enjoyed Rainy Day more than any other viewing, even though the plot is quite similar to the young marrieds in To Rome with Love, it goes its own merry way. And funnily enough, gambling links the two films. In the first Farrell has it bad, and in great writing it looks like he keeps losing, but doesn't... until he does, badly. In the latter, Timothée Chalamet does the opposite - wins big - uses the money to take a hooker to his mum's autumn bash (echoes here of To Paris...) but then learns something huge about his mom - played, incidentally, by Cherry Jones.

"I need to hide."
"Why don't you jump into this mummy case. I'll find some white tape."

It's gorgeously photographed by Vittorio Storaro. And benefits from great cast, especially Selena Gomez.

Two more examples of art as backgrounds:

SAS Rogue Heroes - Season 2 (2025 Steven Knight)

The problem here is that Knight wrote himself into a corner. He had three great anti-heroes in Season 1 in the shape of Jack O'Connell, Connor Swindells and Alfie Allen. Allen is dead and Swindells is barely seen, in prison, until finally being released at the end of episode five (scheduling clash meant he was time restricted, or was Knight just playing a black joke on the actor?) leaving too much of Jack waffling on about pretentious crap in Sicily (Croatia) and Italy.

Also the plot about not picking up drowning airman because it would delay their landing is nonsense. The series dwells on the psychological effects of war more than the first, and maybe for these reasons above isn't so good.

Does have good lines like "I have to retrieve a donkey and then have breakfast with the Mafia". And "Special Air Service? You deliver mail?"

With Sofia Boutella, Dominic West, Bobby Schofield (so good in The Suspect), Gwilym Lee (by-the-book commander), Corin Silva, Theo Barklem-Biggs, Jacob Ifan, Jack Barton, Con O'Neill.

Jack Barton

Series cinematographer: Stijn Van Der Veken

As Q observed, the archive footage is nicely cut into the action. And indeed some of this story is true, like the defense of Termoli. Ends on 6th June...

To Rome With Love (2012 Woody Allen & scr)

Some of Woody's own bits seem stilted. But Roberto Benigni is hilarious.

Woody twists the plot of The White Sheik beautifully into something his own.

Also the great twist at the end of the Eisenberg-Page story - the film invite. And Alec Baldwin's deadpan responses.

Fabulous atypical music tracks.

Beautifully photographed by Darius Khondji. (The other films he shot for Woody were Anything Else (2003), Midnight in Paris (2011), Magic in the Moonlight (2014) and Irrational Man (2015). I guess they filmed towards the beginning and end of the day to avoid the summer heat and to get that distinctive saturated look.

And - it rains again! Is there a Woody Allen where it doesn't rain? Probably.

Hacks - Season 2 (2022 Showrunners Lucy Aniello, Paul Downs)

So Ava has admitted blurting out horrible stories about Deborah and so her boss is suing her, and treating her like shit on the road.

Hilarious episode where Deborah wins over cruiser of lesbians, then manages to alienate them all.

Climaxes with Deborah returning to the Vegas hotel where she had her residency, putting on a one off hit show. It's so successful she fires Ava as she knows the young one is now hot and in demand.

It's too short! Eight half hour episodes.

Paul W. Downs, who is also the co-creator and a show-runner

Carl Clemons-Hopkins

As Time Goes By - Seasons 1 - 3 (1991-4 writer Bob Larbey)

In which Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer are reunited after thirty years and become friends again, and more. (They are wonderful together.) They are also being wooed by his most annoying agent Philip Bretherton and her daughter Moira Brooker. Also with Jenny Funnell.

The cover of the title song isn't the best. But the title 'A Drizzly Day in Holland Park' we thought quite good.

His flat is (was) Carlton Mansions, Maida Vale W9. Her house is 21 St James's Gardens, W11, near Holland Park Avenue. (No. 23 sold in January 2021 for five mil.)

Samuel West made an appearance in the Paris episode.

Muriel's Wedding (1994 P.J. Hogan & scr)

Another Billy Liar? Muriel hasn't much chance with terrible family, fathered by Bill Hunter, who's as corrupt as anything. Her mum, wonderfully performed by Jeanie Drynan, is in another world, though does know that her husband is up to something with Gennie Nevinson. Muriel escapes (with stolen money) to Sydney with Rachel Griffiths, who we know best from Six Feet Under. And marries South African swimmer Daniel Lapaine.

It's got its feet in real people and relationships, making it all the more successful.

Editor Jill Bilcock (who went on to work with Baz Luhrmann and Sam Mendes) gets a higher billing than the DP Martin McGrath.

It wasn't quite Toni's debut, and she didn't rocket to fame, but I'm sure it helped.

Blue Velvet (1986 David Lynch & scr)

After which I watched the Mark Cousins interview from 1999 and it's funny how shy and unsure and amused and friendly he is, yet he can create these absolute monsters like Frank (Dennis Hopper) - one of the vilest in film creation (who also ruins any good associations you might have with the songs 'Blue Velvet' and 'In Dreams'!) "There are good things in life and there are bad things," he offers by way of explanation, but clearly there's some horror deep down in the man that he was trying to get out. His time in  Philadelphia, of it having a sickness in the air, was also a big influence - you sense that's where the hideous industrial sounds and images in his films come from.

The dog trying to snap the water from the hose of the heart-attacked man is bizarrely funny.

This is about the disturbances that lie under the surface of 'normal' civilization. The Isabella Rossellini character is quite disturbed too, masochistic and not seeming to be too concerned about her missing husband. Some of Lynch's outstanding montages include the way Kyle MacLachlan hits her and his dream following the nightmarish apartment visit. It's quite a film, still, very disturbing and uncomfortable viewing... but at least it has a 'happy' ending.

Great sound (designer Alan Splet). And the decors of all the bad places are quite distinctive, like run down 1940s, designer Patricia Norris. Great cinematography and editing also - Frederick Elmes and Duwayne Dunham.

With Laura Dern, Hope Lange (her mom), Dean Stockwell, George Dickerson (detective). 

The other funny thing in the interview was Lynch talking about the 'speed' of things. An empty room is a 2, but people are more like 7s. Electricity and fire are 9. A very busy and highly decorated room will be fast.

The BAFTAs 2025

It certainly provided us with reminders to see:

The Brutalist (nominated for Film, Screenplay,  Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, cinematography, editing, production design. Director, Adrien Brody, and music won)
Sing Sing (nominated for screenplay, Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin)
A Complete Unknown (the Timothée Chalamet Dylan film, he and Edward Norton were nominated, as was Film, Screenplay, Casting and Costumes)
A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg film with he and Kieran Culkin - won Best Screenplay and Supporting Actor)
The Last Showgirl (Jamie Lee Curtis was nominated)
Lee (Kate Winslet as war correspondent, nominated for Best Film)
Hard Truths (Mike Leigh, nominated for Jean-Baptiste and British Film)
Conclave (Pope film, won BAFTAs for Best Film & Best British Film, the screenplay and editing, nominated for Fiennes, Rossellini, music, production and costume design)
Bird (Andrea Arnold, Best Film nominee).

The editor and cinematography awards were rushed through in the 'awarded earlier' section, which is disgraceful.

Cemetery Junction (2010 Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant & scr)

So, after Extras. The ending made me think of Billy Liar - it may have been a deliberate evocation. Ricky and Stephen's film is about growing up and moving on, and class. They picked a cinematographer who knew his shit in Remy Adefarasin, who films with a sort of seventies palette in widescreen.

Our trio of lads are Tom Hughes, Christian Cooke and Jack Doolan. With Ralph Fiennes, Matthew Goode, Steve Spiers, Emily Watson, Julia Davis, Ricky Gervais, Burn Gorman, Anne Reid.. and where are my manners? Felicity Jones, by no means her debut. That was in The Treasure Seekers in 1996, aged twelve. And what happened to Servants, a TV mini series set in the 1850s?

Ricky and Anne's characters are particularly well written as Cooke's father and grandmother.

Doesn't Reading look lovely! It's actually the market place in Woodstock

None of it's filmed in Reading. The railways station is actually in Loughborough!

Runaway Bride (1999 Garry Marshall)

Does not, unfortunately, manage to emulate Marshall's Pretty Woman, with same stars. It's not as funny. The writers were Josann McGibbon  and Sara Parriott (both Desperate Housewives producers). But it's quite entertaining.

With Joan Cusack, Hector Elizondo, Ruth Wilson, Paul Dooley, Christopher Meloni, Martin Braverman (T-shirt seller, a Marshall regular), Larry Miller (barman, uncredited, Julia Stiles' father in 10 Things I Hate About You).

Nicely photographed by Stuart Dryburgh.

Inland Empire (2006 David Lynch & scr)

David Lynch died on January 15th. Rather than doing what most sane people would do (watch Blue Velvet again) I went for his longest and least accessible work, Inland Empire. How can this film - which is impossible to interpret - have an IMDB rating of 6.8 when Aloha has 5.4? I'll tell you. It's because the majority of voters are pretentious arseholes who would rather praise a pretentious, indecipherable film  than a simply beautiful and wonderful film from a filmmaker at the top of his game (both as a writer and director).

Inland Empire doesn't follow any sort of logical narrative structure. Or to put it another way, it's batshit crazy. It starts plots that go nowhere, has scenes that make no sense. This is beyond Mulholland Drive, which seemed to me like a dream. This is .. Is it even deeper into the dream state? It doesn't feel like it. If that's what Lynch was going for, he went too far. the initial set up, people enacting a film, is quite fun because we're slipping between the filming and the film itself, but that is soon eschewed in favour of an explosion of meaninglessness. But I did appreciate the little touches - her collapsing in pain and her husband's T-shirt covered in ketchup both foreshadow her murder.

One thing I can tell you is that it has a committed performance from Laura Dern. She's an actress and her character, a hooker and / or a tough woman with a nasty background, and a suburban housewife.

And that it doesn't have much (any?) of those amazing Lynch moments where it feels like he's doing something incredibly advanced and serious in filmmaking, nor does it display almost anything of his black humour - the sole bizarrely funny moment is when Dern, stabbed and dying, falls next to some homeless people, who start discussing whether you can get a bus from there to Pamplona or somewhere.

It doesn't help that it has a weird look, like it was shot on video. Also often deliberately too close into people's faces. There's no credit but Lynch shot it himself, on digital, which isn't great. (He also edited it.) There's all sorts of music going on, including Penderecki, and Nina Simone behind the end credits performing 'Sinnerman'.

With Justin Theroux, Jeremy Irons, Harry Dean Stanton, some Polish people.

When I say David Lynch died on January 15, he may have simply shifted into another dimension.

The usual ominous soundtrack is present.

Aloha (2015 Cameron Crowe & scr)

And in introducing us to The Blue Nile's 'Hats' Cameron has done us even more of a favour than simply delivering a masterpiece of a movie.

Perfect description of Bradley Cooper's character as a 'sad city coyote'.

There are two romantic triangles at work, so accomplished is the writing. Note that IMDB with your 5.4 rating. 

27 Dresses (2008 Anne Fletcher)

Written by Aline Brosh McKenna. Somewhat formulaic but perfectly enjoyable. Katherine Heigl and James Marsden are well coupled.

Co-starring the Brooklyn Bridge

The Parent Trap (1998 Nancy Meyers)

I happened upon Patrick Tomasso's YouTube film Why Don't Movies Look Like *Movies* Anymore? and interestingly he cited this one, photographed by Dean Cundey, as a great example of when movies did look like *movies*, for a variety of reasons. One was that it was simply a great cinematographer who took the time to light it carefully - there's a couple of thoughts around this, that with green screen filming it's necessary to have the humans shot blandly as you don't know what the background will be. Also, to save time, the set is lit and then all scenes are covered by that lighting scheme so you don't have to keep relighting every shot - which even I know is not the way you do it. Also that digital is making things too detailed and cameramen are forgetting about things like contrast, and also that films are now shot 'raw' so they can be colorised later, which I have experience with and is a nightmare.

Anyway it made me want to rewatch this film for that reason, which is just as well, because The Parent Trap is arrant nonsense and always will be, and this version has particularly retchy moments, especially those involving butler Simon Kunz. Still, you can't help going 'Ahh' at times and it's mindlessly enjoyable.

It's also so smoothly edited by Steve Rotter, so that's another plus.

There seems to be bits of My Favourite Wife and some Hudson-Day movie in it too, And yes, it really suffers from too much music throughout. There's only about ten minutes of it in total that don't have any. The script also neglects to explain what drove Mr & Mrs apart. The special effects / post production process however is quite remarkable.

So, over to Mr Cundey: