Working Girl (1988 Mike Nichols)

Another film you can pretty accurately date from the music - Q also can do it by the hair, so big it's like Marie Antoinette. This review is fine, apart from getting the date wrong by ten years... Mike Nichols is an actor's director - he, Griffith, Weaver and Joan Cusack were all Oscar nominated. Kevin Wade's screenplay is nice and simple, straightforward, just has that one unexpected plot twist, lovely ending...

Michael Ballhaus shot it (Florian first assistant, Shaun of the Dead's David Dunlap the operator), Sam O'Steen edits, production design by Patrizia von Brandenstein.

This would make another in the obscure screen shots season:

I love the scene between Griffiths and Ford in the street for two reasons - she doesn't tell him he has mayonnaise on the side of his mouth, and he's clearly her subordinate.

Chef (2014 Jon Favreau & scr)

Yes, I clearly enjoyed it more than last time, though it's true there are two too many montages of cooking to music, and that plot hinge where he doesn't share the cooking he's just done with the critic is just silly (and annoying). Favreau has gone for something straight-forward and audience pleasing (nothing wrong with that), and the film is most successful in the latter scenes, where the food van takes to the road with Favreau's son Emjay Anthony and chef John Leguizamo (Kick Ass 2, The Lincoln Lawyer). I have to say though, the final scene should have shown the boy at work in the kitchen, not just passing a tray of what looks like bacon through a hatch. Also Scarlett's character simply disappears.

Favreau has attracted a good cast of Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman (billed in this order), Sofia Vergara, Oliver Platt, Robert Downey Jr.

A Royal Night Out (2015 Julian Jarrold)

I wasn't quite as keen on it this time around, particularly the character played by Jack Reynor, and I wasn't sure about his acting either (though I liked him as the brother in Sing Street). Let's blame Trevor de Silva and Kevin Hood, who wrote it (though liked the line 'I've been driving since I was 11. One of the advantages of owning half of Scotland.') The best scenes involve Roger Allum and Ruth Sheen, who aren't in it enough. With Sarah Gadon, Bel Powley, Emily Watson, Rupert Everett, Jack Laskey, Jack Gordon.

The Great Waldo Pepper (1975 George Roy Hill)

Mad about flying and planes, that Hill, wrote the story, Goldman screenwrote it. Loved the beginning: the kid, mad about planes (Hill?), fetches gas all day for the pilot in exchange for a ride, then when he comes to collect.. 'Sorry, I don't take up unaccompanied kids...' But Redford's just teasing, he takes him up. So he's a nice guy. Then he's having dinner with the whole family, tells the pivotal story about Kessler.. and this turns out to be made up! So he's not such a nice guy any more...

Goldman thinks it all went wrong with the (admittedly) sudden death of Susan Sarandon, but I'm not so sure. If anything, you could argue that it's having the two deaths in a row, and the way Bo Svenson goes is particularly shocking. But the aerial scenes are incredible, the flying and the photography and the stunts are fabulous - there's no back projection in this film.

It's shot in Todd AO-35 by Bruce Surtees with a lot of depth of field. Frank Tallman supervised the terrifying aerial scenes, William Reynolds edited, Mancini wrote a sort of brass band score.

These guys (and gals) were nuts... That's what we're left with. (I guess the modern equivalent is the stunt team involved.)

Rest of cast: Bo Brundin (Kessler), Geoffrey Lewis (Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and many others besides), Edward Herrmann, Kelly Jean Peters, Margot Kidder.

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976 John Carpenter & scr)

The girl / ice cream scene is a real classic - like chess moves, with van, girl, father, phone box, car of baddies, shockingly executed. Carpenter's own very simple synthesizer / drum machine / electric piano score is oddly memorable.

Cop Austin Stoker takes over closing LA police station, inherits Darwin Joston and Tony Burton. Laurie Zimmer is resilient heroine in Hawksian tale, good one-liners. Terrific direction overcomes no budget and B list actors.

Carpenter's co-producer to be Debra Hill is assistant editor. Carpenter via Douglas Knapp uses the Panavision frame pretty well, though Film 4 managed to find a particularly fuzzy print from somewhere...

But I'm a Cheerleader (1999 Jamie Babbit)

Q inadvertently picked another gay movie, which was difficult to get. Oddly pitched in broad comic tones, film is about a home for turning gay people straight - it seems to me to be a comedy aimed at pretty thick teenagers. Natasha Lyonne was in Slums of Beverley Hills, latterly in Orange is the New Black. Cathy Moriarty and RuPaul overact dreadfully. With Bud Cort, Clea DuVall, Mink Stole.

Crap title, you think?

Then we watched a Friends and it was the one where everyone thinks Chandler's gay.

Love Is Strange (2014 Ira Sachs)

Not the romcom we were expecting, quiet, thoughtful film concerns married couple John Lithgow and Alfred Molina's attempts to find a NY apartment, having to live separately, Alfred with some party-going cops and John with his nephew and niece and their son, none of whom are getting on very well. Then there's some Chopin... The film really works at the end, with the bar scene between the two, and the scene in which the kid Charlie Tahan has a moment on the stairs... Then there's some Chopin. I kept thinking certain shots would be the end of the film, but then there was more Chopin...

Marisa Tomei, Cheyenne Jackson, Christian Coulson.

Written by Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias.

Splash (1984 Ron Howard)

Brian Grazer - better known as an incredibly productive film producer - came up with the story, that was then written as a 'screen story' by Bruce Jay Friedman, and then the screenplay was written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel and Friedman. Sounds complicated, but actually only four writers.

Still don't love mermaid story which is one of Mark Kermode's favourite films - that tells you a lot about the man that wrote and presented a show about rom coms and chose to slag off just one film - Elizabethtown. I think both of these things tell us a lot about Mark Kermode, namely that he's not to be trusted.

However it was better than I remembered, particularly in the non mermaid stuff with Hanks and Candy (though story should have shown how Candy had become responsible and taken care of the business), and is quite funny the endless ways they have of disguising Daryl Hannah's breasts.

But what was really interesting about it was the thought that The Shape of Water is actually a remake of this! It is!

It's quite funny.

The latest in my series of extremely obscure screen shots

In Search of Fellini (2017 Taron Lexton)

Nancy Cartwight - the voice of Bart Simpson, here enacted by Ksenia Solo - did fall for La Strada  and approached the director to gain rights to turn it into a one-woman show...? Then travelled to Italy to try and meet him. 70% of what happened here is true, but I am reminded of the Great Goldman - just because a story is true doesn't necessarily make it a good film. And I'm not really sure about this one. The whole Venice section is somewhat questionable, and the imaginary meeting with Fellini pointless.

While this journey through Italy is going on, over-protective mom Maria Bello is dying, with support from sister Mary Lynn Rajskub.

Yes, some of the references are fun, and the stuff about the pebble is good, and there's some nice filming in Italy, but the whole story is mad as Fellini had already died when she appears to make contact with his office. So I don't really know what's going on. Enrico Oetiker is the Veronese boyfriend.

The Jane Austen Book Club (2007 Robin Swicord & scr)

Robin co-wrote Shag, adapted Little Women, some other things, rotten Benjamin Button story... But this is good, probably works better if you actually know the books in detail, but even if not you can still see the Austeny things that are happening in tale of match-maker Maria Bello trying to push younger Hugh Dancy on her recently separated friend Amy Brenneman, whose gay daughter Maggie Grace is also one of their book group. So is uptight French teacher Emily Blunt, and the unofficial leader seems to be Kathy Baker, who's rather good.

The other men are Jimmy Smits, Kevin Zegers and Marc Blucas, and Lynn Redgrave is a terrible mother.

Calvary (2014 John Michael McDonagh & scr)

Calvary is not as funny or entertaining as The Guard but boy oh boy, this is a serious and seriously impressive work, laced with laugh out loud moments of black humour, around the subject of a Good Priest in a time when such things don't seem to exist. And it's not just about religion either.

Brendan Gleeson's been sentenced to death ('How's Sunday week?) and it seems just about all the bastards in the village are potential suspects. These are Aiden Gillen, Chris O'Dowd, Dylan Moran, Isaach de Bankolé, Orla O'Rourke, Marie Josée Croze and Gary Lydon. Meanwhile Brendan's daughter Kelly Reilly has attempted suicide, writer M Emmett Walsh wants to go the same way, and Mícheál Óg Lane is a kid on the beach. David Wilmot is the crap priest.

And Domhnall Gleason has a key cameo as a murderer.

Larry Smith shoots interiors warmly and exteriors bleakly. Chris Gill edited, Patrick Cassidy composed.

Is this a deliberate Ryan's Daughter reference?

It's just awesome - the ending and that lateral tracking montage and the final act of virtue that's so important - forgiveness. Gleason is in awe of McDonagh's writing, which is 'so honest'. Interesting also to hear that McDonagh was at one point working the seven stages of grief into the script, and that he didn't himself know who the killer would be until the last 30 pages of the screenplay.

In one of the interviews, McDonagh refers to his next screenplay about an abusive paraplegic who solves the murder of one of his friends - sounds interesting, but that wasn't the next film made, so perhaps that one will see the light of day some time.

Marple: The Blue Geranium (2010 David Moore)

Originally a 1932 short story part of the collection The Thirteen Problems - the earliest Miss Marple stories. What can I say? She was a damned ingenious lady, here turning the flowers on the wallpaper a different colour (blue). Screenwriter Stewart Harcourt then responsible for all the other goings on, involving Julia Mackenzie, Sharon Small, Toby Stephens, Claudie Blakley, Joanna Page, Claire Rushbrook, Kevin McNally (the usual dismissive detective), Donald Sinden, David Calder.

Peter Greenhalgh shot it and there's another old Bedford bus which arrives in (some say) Hambleden village, where it was allegedly filmed. Indeed. Filming location bigger mystery than wallpaper.

IWWAZ (1943 Jacques Tourneur)

Christine Gordon - her only film

Those incessant drums - it's like the Reading Festival.

The Guard (2011 John Michael McDonagh & scr)

Brendan Gleason is utterly wonderful, e.g. in very subtle reaction to adjacent copper in Cheadle's briefing. Mark Strong too.

Great plotting e.g. Gleason's enthusiasm for drug smugglers with little home-made submarines, and the Olympic swimming. Also the appearances of the boy Mícháel Óg Lane and the significance of the cache of arms.

Gleason is watching The Shout at one point. Also swear there's a reference to Performance in the way a line is said and delivered (can't remember which one).

Don Cheadle, Liam Cunningham, Fionnula Flanagan, David Wilmot, Dominique McElligott (the taller prostitute), Sarah Greene, Rory Keenan, Katarina Cas.

Really fucking good. Funny spaghetti western music by Calexico. Shot in Panavision by Larry Smith, who shot Eyes Wide Shut after graduating from gaffer on Barry Lyndon and The Shining.

Grandma (2015 Paul Weitz & scr)

A deceptively simple premise - in one day, a grandmother (Lily Tomlin) has to help her grand-daughter (Julia Garner) get the money for an abortion, eventually having to resort to involving their daughter / mother (Marcia Gay Harden), which neither wants to do. Whilst taking us on this journey, via a knackered out old Dodge, Weitz tells us all about grandma's life and her involvement with her (unseen) ex-partner, current GF Judy Greer, friend Laverne Cox, ex Sam Elliott and Garner's no good boyfriend Nat Wolff. It's short and sweet.

Weitz co-wrote About a Boy, Being Flynn (de Niro and Dano), was one of the creators (along with Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Alex Timbers) of TV series Mozart in the Jungle, with Lola Kirke and Gael Garcia Bernal.

Garner was in Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

(500) Days of Summer (2009 Marc Webb)

A dissection of a relationship cunningly plotted so that certain scenes viewed early make more sense later, e.g. her hand with wedding ring on his. This is all set up with the opening title which refers to the 'Bitch Jenny Beckman', but leaves with the Hollywood meet cute of architectural interviewee Minka Kelly. We felt he was better off without her. Inventive production.

An original screenplay Neustadter & Weber. Our Souls at Night Fonda/Redford 2017 and The Disaster Artist need watching.

Only Angels Have Wings (1939 Howard Hawks)

There's one of those Hawks touches when Thomas Mitchell is about to attack Richard Barthelmess and Grant does an interrupting cigarette light - same thing happens in To Have and Have Not. Quintessential tough Hawks group led by tough Cary Grant isn't allowed to dwell on deceased colleagues - Jean Arthur quickly learns. Code of honour, though - they cover up what they know about Bartlemess from his wife Rita Hayworth. Jules Furthman's screenplay is punchy and sardonic. Quite long but exciting and satisfying.

Evocative filming by Joe Walker

84 Charing Cross Road (1987 David Jones)

Based on her own novel and its resultant theatrical production, Helene Hanff did write tons of TV movies and series in the fifties, later this novel (1970) and others less well known. It's a good screenplay - Hugh Whitemore.

The bus - for those bus enthusiasts amongst us - is apparently a 1949 Bedford OB, which also featured in Foyle's War and Marple: The Blue Geranium.

Hopkins and Bancroft are both marvellous - Hopkins being one of the most internal actors I think there's ever been. With Judi Dench, Jean de Baer, Maurice Denham, Eleanor David, Mercedes Ruehl, Ian McNeice, Connie Booth (spotted by Eagle-Eye Q). Bancroft's husband Mel Brooks was an exec producer.

I liked 'He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven':

"Had I the heaven's embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light;
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."

(W.B. Yeats.)

What About Bob? (1991 Frank Oz)

Tom Schulman's screenplay (of Alvin Sargent and Laura Ziskin's story) is pretty lame, really, and not overly blessed with laughs, but the opportunity to see Dreyfuss and Murray perform their shtick together is compelling.

Sargent also co-wrote You've Got Mail, as well as Paper Moon, Bobby Deerfield, Julia, Straight Time, Ordinary People, White Palace, Accidental Hero and several Spider Mans. He and Ziskin were briefly married.

The irony is that the psychiatrist is treating the patient successfully; the humour that the family and the patient bond.

Michael Ballhaus shot it (Florian 1st assistant) and Anne Coates cut it.

"Roses are red, violets are blue,
I'm a schizophrenic, and so am I."

You've Got Mail Again (1998 Nora Ephron)

A nice interpretation of the original by Nora and Delia, although also somewhat clunky e.g. what's the point of Grandpa having had a fling with Meg Ryan's mother if you're not going to use it somehow? Also I think I would have switched it so that it's she who knows the identities and not Tom Hanks (who's great when composing emails).

It's shinily shot by John Lindley, almost like a colour Charles Lang.

Jean Stapleton starred in hot seventies TV show All In the Family, which also featured Rob Reiner.... With Greg Kinnear, Parker Posey, Steve Zahn, Heather Burns, Dabney Coleman, John Randolph.

Did spot a Dr Zeuss and a Babar but definitely no Tintin or Alice in Wonderland in sight...