Jerry Maguire (1996 Cameron Crowe & scr)

Early on when Jerry's being fired (it's a great scene - in that particular moment he notices what's around him) there's a track in to a glass of iced water - I wondered if it was in the same line of shots that Mark Cousins pointed out from Odd Man Out (glass of beer) to Jean-Luc Godard Two or Three Things I Know About Her to Scorsese in Taxi Driver.

Janusz Kaminski was on a rare break from Spielberg. Lovely sequence where camera circles Cruise and client, great cutting by Joe Hutshing. I enjoy this film more each time. Great scene where he first meets Renee and the kid wangles himself a swing between the couple's hands - thus linking them together. Only Cuba won the Oscar - Cruise, Crowe, Hutshing and Film nominated - BAFTA ignored it altogether.

Most interesting soundtrack of course - includes the Durutti Column. Great writing includes sequences with single women's group.

It was funny reading in assistant director Jerry Zeismer's book how Cameron was feeling at the beginning of the shoot - if he fucked up, he'd be the one walking, not Cruise.

To wake up, clap our hands and say 'This is going to be a great day' is not a bad way to go about things at all.

Scene where pissed Cruise and Jonathan Lipnicki bond further is memorable

'You had me at hello' is one of those great lines that only come around every ten years, and probably Cameron's most famous.

Hanging Up (2000 Diane Keaton)

Funny how time and perspective affect view - on 19 March 2009 (a Thursday), I found that 'Walter great in last film, but Ryan stand-out as nervy, highly-strung daughter / carer. I'm not sure that Diane's a good director'. No idea from where last thought emanates, she seems to handle the actors and material well enough - the other sisters being herself and Lisa Kudrow; with Adam Arkin.

You wouldn't have guessed that Walter was ill throughout the shoot - professional to the end. The 'extras' to this film don't refer to him once and thus are the worst ever made. 'Never sign a blank cheque or you'll end up in the old craperoonie'.

Howard Atherton's photography is quite diffused.

Written by Nora and Delia Ephron from the latter's novel. We liked the kid whose new laugh (as Q pointed out) was that of Pee Wee Herman.

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938 Ernst Lubitsch & prod)

Or 'Wilder, by Lubitsch' in my best perfume ad voice. With Brackett, it's quite a combination. (The source is a play by Alfred Savoir - a play, you notice. You wouldn't know.) Amongst many cherishable lines is "If it wasn't for those pants I'd never have bought a bathtub."

Here they're using the 'pantalons' to tell the story, and that is quite ingenious:

Gary Cooper is absolutely wonderful in this, suffering all sorts of shifts of mood, Colbert as reliable as ever. Plus you get Edward Everett Horton (whose appearances at the door with 'Nothing' are hilarious), David Niven (most amusing when typing letter), Elizabeth Patterson, Herman Bing (the private eye), Warren Hymer (boxer) and Franklin Pangborn.

Shot by Leo Tover, music by Frederick Hollander, for Paramount.

Several classic Lubitsch touches also make you want to watch this one again and again.

Scarecrow (1973 Jerry Schatzberg)

Sharing the Palme D'Or at Cannes with The Hireling this is another of those films you just don't seem to get anymore. Gene Hackman and particularly Al Pacino are wonderful as drifters who bond against a background of grimy industrial America, occasionally caught with some beauty by Vilmos Zsigmond, as evidenced in this shot:

One of several outstanding long takes

Garry Michael White doesn't perhaps quite know where to go at the open end, but its another of those films from that most interesting period of American cinema that no one seems to care about any more..

Not the best known name in film history, Schatzberg had directed Pacino in The Panic in Needle Park three years earlier.

The girls are good too: Dorothy Tristan, Ann Wedgeworth and a short but unforgettable scene from Penelope Allen as Al's ex. (She turns up in Pacino's Dog Day Afternoon). The range of emotion she displays in this very short scene is amazing. Plus (briefly) Eileen Brennan - 'Shut the door, you're letting the smoke out'.

I remembered the most unpleasant scene in prison from the first viewing. Funny how film has been reclassified from an 'X' to a '12'. Has great moments, like 'The crows are laughing', Al pottering about in a garden and Gene's bar room strip. The two of them in the film's crescendo at the fountain are incredible.

The Owl and the Pussycat, part 2

Um. Quite talky, in the way of a filmed play. Segal's behaviour becomes quite unspeakable. Ends well.

Leads are good. Barbra has to wear all sorts of late sixties finery.

Forrest Gump (1994 Robert Zemeckis)

It's been a while. Billy Wilder rated it. Adapted from Winston Groom's 1986 novel by Eric Roth (Munich, the odd Benjamin Button), it's a funny and sharp potted American history (particularly focussing on Presidential assassination attempts) and American music catalogue (through a classic soundtrack which includes five Doors songs). Moments incorporating real footage are - as Q pointed out - influenced by Zelig; favourite such item is young Elvis being inspired by the boy's gyrations. Lots of CGI used intelligently.

Film, Roth, Zemeckis and Tom Hanks won Oscars, Gary Sinise and cameraman Don Burgess were nominated. With Sally Field, Robin Wright, Mykelti Williamson.

"That boy sure is a runnin' fool." Like the old timer whose mouth is permanently open.

Wet Hot American Summer (2001 David Wain)

Shaky comedy attempts to parody 80s teen movies, ends up looking frequently silly. Mainly of interest for budding cast which include Janeane Garofolo, David Hyde Pearce, Paul Rudd, Christopher Meloni, Joe Lo Truglio, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper and Elizabeth Banks.

Midnight (1939 Mitchell Leisen)

Not since 14 June 2012, then, have we had a good laugh at this early Wilder-Brackett gem, starring Claudette Colbert (Cameron loves her performance and wishes she'd been in one of Billy's own films), Don Ameche, John Barrymore (good fun, may well have been pissed), Mary Astor (always good in snipy mode), Francis Lederer, Elaine Barrie, Hedda Hopper, Monte Woolley, Eddie Conrad (piano playing prince, almost a John Belushi forerunner).

Features people Billy picked up for later - Charles Lang on camera (shining away as usual), composer Frederick Hollander (Foreign Affair, Sabrina), Doane Harrison (editor).

Nicely constructed script in the style of German theatre, the closest the writers came to screwball with some of the funniest lines, particularly in fashion boutique:
"You look mouldy in that hat."
"I bought it from you three days ago."
"It's out of fashion."
And - "Where's that horrible thing with spinach on the front. I made it this morning."

In fact if you don't pay attention you miss half of the jokes.

Where's this shot taken from?

It's Notre Dame

Convenience (2015 Keri Collins)

Produced by its star Ray Pantahki (Marcella) for £80,000, natty crime comedy takes place mostly in a petrol station where he and Four Lions' Adeel Akhtar hold up a confident Vicky McLure and others. Simon Fantauzzo's script occasionally hits an odd note but is largely successful and funny.

"How fresh is your goose?"

Mississippi Grind (2015 Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck & scr)

They made Half Nelson and It's Kind of a Funny Story, which looks good. The leads Ryan Reynolds and especially Ben Mendelsohn are good; the title isn't. But it doesn't really get anywhere. It's a sort of Sideways for gambling (but not as funny or warm). We last saw Ben as Jack O'Connell's father in Starred Up!

Midnight Lace (1965 David Miller)

Unmistakeable Universal (Ross Hunter) London richly evoked by Russell Metty and featuring his own particular shade of blue. Poor old Doris Day - no one believes she's being persecuted by a man with a sing-song voice, not husband Rex Harrison, aunt Myrna Loy nor neighbour Natasha Perry. As for Roddy McDowell. he's just too creepy. And what are John Gavin and Herbert Marshall up to? Quite decently rendered version of Janet Green's play by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, to Frank Skinner's orchestra.

Film benefits from John Williams as a suspicious copper.

The Hateful Eight (2015 Quentin Tarantino & scr)

Unfortunately there wasn't much of the main (Oscar winning) attraction Ennio Morricone.

Filmed in 70mm Ultra Panavision 70 (not used since Khartoum in 1966), not a challenge to upset Robert Richardson, who gives us crisp images and strange views and all sorts of shot lengths. Challenging also in its one room setting.

Like Pulp Fiction, plays around with time to satisfying effect, gleefully killing off characters one by one till they're all dead.

Kurt Russell, Samuel L Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh ('I'm going to start you off looking terrible, then make you look worse and worse, is that OK?'), Walton Goggins (the new sheriff, also in Django Unchained), Demián Bichir (the Mexican), Tim Roth (an impish performance; loved it when his accent drops in flashback), Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, James Parks (Django, Kill Bill), Dana Gourrier, Zoë Bell, Channing Tatum.

Very long. Um... Ah... Lots of humour ('Well cut my legs off and call me shorty'), exploding heads, great dialogue. Some funny narration. It made me laugh indeed that QT set out to make an Agatha Christie thriller and referred to Sam's character as 'Hercule Negro'!

The Owl and the Pussycat (1970 Herbert Ross)

Sounds like a Neil Simon - isn't (Play Bill Manhoff, screenplay Buck Henry).

Barbra Streisand bouncy, George Segal unrecognisable.

Shot by both Harry Stradling and Ernest Laszlo.

Will let you know when we have a DVD that isn't fucked 40 minutes in.

The Apartment (1960 Billy Wilder)

Jack is so great - it may be his best performance - just watching him doing something simple like tidy up the apartment or make telephone calls is riveting. As is Shirley MacLaine. They lost the Oscars to Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry and Elizabeth Taylor in Butterfield 8 (Cameron Crowe: "There have been few greater Oscar injustices").

It's Calvin Clifford Baxter.

Some superb long takes, not a wasted shot in the whole film, only the essential material was shot (it was edited in a week and only three feet of film were left over, which makes Daniel Mandell's Oscar win quite funny).

It's a masterclass in superb writing (adding -wise to everything, use of 'ring-a-ding-ding', 'you'll end up with egg foo young on your face') and construction - the plotting is just brilliant and the set-ups are beautiful e.g. Shirley's 'I'm not very good at spelling'.

Shirley's coat is lime green, according to Cameron 'a great bit of casting' - it belonged to Audrey Wilder.

"I also knew that Shirley MacLaine was going to be fine - just leave her alone. And she was very good."

Not sure if this is genuine - no mention of it in McGilligan's exhaustive biog

A Tom & Jerry mix is a Christmastime cocktail, a variant of egg nog with added brandy or rum.

A film it's possible to enjoy over and over again - often finding something new - as evidenced by the fact it was only in March that we last watched it!

Flowers (2016 Will Sharpe & scr)

A five part mini-series, Flowers manages to deal with the tricky subject of depression in a bizarre, dark, funny, interesting way. Great cast comprises Olivia Colman, Julian Barratt (perfectly cast), Will Sharpe himself, Sophia Di Martino, Daniel Rigby, Leila Hoffman.

His brother Arthur Sharpe's music and Jamie Cairney's photography are both distinctive.

Sharpe also wrote and co-directed Black Pond, with Chris Langham. More about him and this show here.

Missing (1981 rel 1982 Costa-Gavras & scr)

The country is unnamed - does it matter? It's South America (actually Mexico). And we know nothing about Jack Lemmon's relationship with his vanished son John Shea, nor why he's so antipathetic towards his wife Sissy Spacek. In the way of a good movie (written by the director and Donald Stewart *), these things come out slowly, as does the father's ultimate respect for the boy and his plucky wife (scene in which she makes it alone through the night is wonderfully tense - the image of a white horse being pursued by soldiers memorable).

Jack lost the Oscar to Ben Kingsley but won at Cannes where the film shared Best Film. According to the author, published in 'Some Like It Cool' (Michael Freedland), Wilder said: 'Missing was a very, very good picture in which he himself was very good. But I thought that he was too serious in that picture. If a comedian gets into one of those serious things, and this was a thrilling picture, he can do too much. It was a performance drenched with heaviness, and too depressing".

I'm not sure I agree.

* Based on the non-fiction 'The Execution of Charles Horman: An American Sacrifice' by Thomas Hauser.

Baxter! (1972, rel 1973 Lionel Jeffries)

Long unavailable, Jeffries' follow up to The Railway Children is a much more serious affair, involving essentially the child abuse case of young Californian Scott Jacoby (also The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane), in London with his neglectful mother Lynn Carlin. The fact that he finds friends in fantasy parents Britt Ekland and Jean-Pierre Cassell, nutty neighbour Sally Thomsett and sympathetic therapist Patricia Neal sort of makes it worse.

All acting good, film is written by Michel Audiard and based on the novel 'The Boy Who Could Make Himself Disappear' by Kin Platt (1968) and displays fine camerawork by the great Geoffrey Unsworth (particularly in fevery night scenes). At once quirky and melancholy it's an affecting little number, and probably a flop.

Queen of Hearts (Jon Amiel 1990)

Grisoni's debut feature screenplay (he went on to write Red Riding and Southcliffe, Fear and Loathing and The Unloved) is not apparently autobiographical but was written because it was the sort of film he would have loved, and he found the Italian community in London interesting. There's not a familiar name in the cast which includes Joseph Long and Anita Zagaria, Vittorio Duse (Nonno), Eileen Way (Nonna), Ian Hawkes (The lad), Tat Whalley (his friend), Vittorio Amandola (the baddie).

It's a highly original, stylish, warm, romantic, magical, thrilling and uplifting tale which seems to have been largely forgotten and is only available on US DVD. Michael Convertino's music is suitably Italian, Mike Southon shot it, Peter Boyle edited.

I impressed myself by getting The Vikings from a split second off a TV screen.

Punchline (1988 David Seltzer & scr)

Seltzer - best known for Omen movies - captures well the terror and business of being a stand-up comedian and uses two directors in the cast, Mark Rydell and Paul Mazursky. Tom Hanks is in his first serious role, balanced by Sally Field, with John Goodman and a low-billed Damon Wayans. It was good.

Freaky Friday (1976 Gary Nelson)

One of four films Jodie Foster released in that incredibly productive year, and actually a year after Taxi Driver, film is great fun, with Barbara Harris enjoying acting 13 (to be fair she's not really doing Jodie, but who cares?)

Has a rather overlong and unnecessary police car chase (featuring, though, a cute red 1972 Type I Beetle) but some great stunt work going on here and at sea. Written by Mary Rodgers (and book).