Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)

Here's my premiere review 26 July 2011.

Usual lot including Ralph Fiennes (managing the trick of looking scary and sad under all the make-up), Matthew Lewis (Neville), Tom Felton (Draco), Evanna Lynch (Luna), Kelly Macdonald (ghost of Ravenclaw), Ciaran Hinds (Dumbledore's brother), Nick Moran.

More beautiful dark photography by Eduardo Serrra (Panavision).
Music Alexandre Desplat. Editing Mark Day.
Absolutely sensational (use of) CGI.

I felt the ending lacked a big finish, something clever, a laugh, and the final duel is one fiery wand scene too many. Hardly anyone has any decent scenes. So I think Yates let us down a bit.

And today, after having watched the whole series and back to back with Part One:

Inflatus! Suffers from The Hobbit problem (why make a book into two or three films?) It's gone very Hollywoody (big Hollywoody music, OTT Gringotts sequence, big Lord of the Rings style battle). Where's Hagrid (in both parts)? Good writing though (Maggie: "I've always wanted to use that spell") and there's a couple of moments where there could have been a cheesy Hollywoody line, but they didn't, so maybe it wasn't too Hollywoody. Loved the moment where Mrs Weasley (does she have a first name?) despatches Bellatrix (we don't really see enough of HBC). Also thought Warwick Davies was a great goblin. Don't see enough of Ginny. (That's how you feel after too many Martinis.)

There is an Eduardo Serra moment in each film. This one is:

Alan (pause) Rickman (pause) is very funny again - almost like he's doing the piss-take version of himself with his very deliberate delivery.

Somebody says "Snape knows" and that made me laugh a lot because of 'Snapnose'.

Harry Potter really is the politest young man.

Q points out great sound design too.

Film music at the Proms

Actually beginning to tire of seeing the same bits of Psycho performed live, although the strings do look amazing in the shower scene. Why don't they ever perform Vertigo, arguably the greatest film soundtrack music?

Steiner's Casablanca medley enjoyable; The Big Country dispensable; Korngold's Robin Hood not nearly as good as his Kings Row theme. The star is David Raksin's sax led melody to Laura.

Forgot the Tom & Jerry music - were those guys on coke?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010 David Yates)

Eduardo Serra has taken over on camera - known for his historical, natural light films he seems an odd choice for a special effects movie - though we benefit from some refreshingly natural night lighting.

Of all the series this is the one with a saggy middle (Steve Kloves writing) after a spectacular aerial battle opening. If you apply the Man Who Came to Dinner rule it needs Jimmy Durante to turn up. Nevertheless we get wonderful turns from Bill Nighy, Ralph Fiennes, Imelda Staunton and Helena Bonham Carter, and I found myself shedding a tear over the death of an animation - quite how that happened I have no idea. If you look how the special effects have improved since the first episode it's quite amazing. This is unmistakably a Part One. Nick Moran is in it too.

But the outstanding moment in the film is Ben Hibon's Framestore animation which is fucking fantastic:

It's actually better then the whole film. You can watch it here. It was apparently inspired by Lotte Reniger, but transcends her animations by a thousandfold (note even the lighting that makes it appear we're watching something theatrical - genius Q thinks the inspiration more likely Sicilian puppet shows). We had to run it twice.

The Man Who Came to Dinner

It must be Christmas.

See here.

Monte you old devil, are you taking a sneaky peek at Ann Sheridan's CDNs?

Finally Sheri is beginning to regret what he's done to Maggie...

...then a rescue plan emerges!

Finding Neverland (2004 Marc Forster)

I like Johnny Depp when he's playing a human, non-pantomime character and here his Scottish accent is a top notch addition. Kate Winslet is as good as usual and great to see Julie Christie (as stern mother). The kid in crisis is Freddie Highmore ("It's just a bit of silliness"). With Radha Mitchell (Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda), Dustin Hoffman, Ian Hart, Kelly Macdonald, Mackenzie Crook, Toby Jones. Considering it's all about writing and performing plays it's interesting that the souce was one, written by Alan Knee, well opened up by David Magee and Forster with many striking cinematic moments, my favourite of which being the wooden seas of the pirate ship.

I was wondering how Forster got the Bond (Quantum of Solace) on the back of this, but in between he made The Kite Runner (and Stranger Than Fiction).

Photographed by Roberto Schaefer in Panavision (all Forster's films, including Monster's Ball).
Music by Jan Kaczmarek.

Lucan (2013 Adrian Shergold)

1. Who cares about Lucky Mad Lord Lucan Cuntington anyhow?
2. How did this get commissioned?
3. Who thought Chris Ecclestone was right for the part of Aspinall? (Would love to have seen Jude Law play him.)

Script lacks character empathy, an interesting story and a decent ending. Rory Kinnear so underperforms Lucan that he almost disappears into the background of the film: if that was the intention then it worked well, but was a foolish approach.

Shot by Tony-Slater Ling and written by Jeff Pope (Dirty Filthy Love, Appropriate Adult) so not without talent, but I rather felt it was the waste of an evening.

The Asphalt Jungle (1950 John Huston)

Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffee (for me the billing order here is correct), Louis Calhern, Marc Lawrence (the numbers man),  Jean Hagen, James Whitmore (bar owner), Anthony Caruso (who mixes his own 'soup'!), Barry Kelley ('You can never trust a bent cop - you never know when they're going to go straight'), Marilyn Monroe (looking very slender), Brad Dexter (private eye).

Adapted by Huston and Ben Maddow from novel by W.R. Burnett (career spans Scarface to the Great Escape), including great dialogue like the above examples, 'he boned me', 'behind the walls' etc. Also very well acted by all. Hayden unexpectedly turns out to be a character of integrity, which is why Jaffee's 'Doctor' enlists and trusts him in the first place, and the ending featuring horses is touching. (Would it be too pretentious to suggest it anticipates Au Hasard Balthazar? Probably.)

Marries the old familiar film noir creep with the Huston situation in which a group of disparate characters are brought together, only then to unravel.

Shot by Harold Rossen and scored by Miklós Rózsa (not that there is much music in it). The definitive heist movie: ironic, tragic, taut and tense.

One Two Three (1961 Billy Wilder)

Coke executive in Berlin has problems when boss's daughter comes to stay. Jimmy Cagney, Arlene Francis (very good - "Now that's a Scarlet Hazeltine if I ever saw one"), Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin, Lilo Pulver (a dishy and somewhat mercenary secretary, below).

Great supporting cast: Hanns Lothar as the energetic assistant (who always comes in when Cagney and Pulver are kissing), and the three trade commissars - who are no doubt based on the three Russians from Ninotchka (which Wilder cowrote):

Hanns Lothar

Leon Askin, Peter Capell, Ralf Wolter. "OK. Minsk is out, Pinsk is in."

Beautifully structured (note the way various objects are introduced which have a plot or joke purpose: balloon; brolly; cuckoo clock; polka dot dress; chewing gum) and peppered with great jokes and pot-shots (some of contemporary reference that we no longer understand) which build up a great momentum. Dialogue and film often moves in threes. Cagney's energy, particularly in long dialogue-heavy scenes, fantastic (he apparently rehearsed by dancing through the lines to get the right timing).

Doctor "What's wrong?" "I'm missing the first act of the Valkyrie" (then the Wagner makes it into the soundtrack). Also jokes about 'umlaut'.

Sign painter hanging out of the car is the climax of all the people brought in to quickly help Americanize Buchholz:

Ed. Daniel Mandell - amazing credits since 1924

Based on Austrian play by Ferenc Molnár

Music André Previn contributes to usual funny Wilder bar scene (the 'Hotel Potemkin' in another little joke).

Ph Daniel L Fapp
PD Trauner

Previously 24 July 2011. Like many Wilders it just keeps getting better.

Note: Safe combination 22-5-17 sure sounds like a date reference to me. Could be the Hungarian Prime Minister Istvan Tisza resigning (Billy would have been 10)? It's not Audrey's birthday...

The Shop Around the Corner (1940 Ernst Lubitsch)

Classic comedy romance from MGM featuring the great Felix Bressart, who had the distinction of acting in two of Lubitsch's other 40s classics Ninotchka and To Be or Not to Be. A Jewish emigré from Nazi Germany via Austria, he died sadly young of leukemia at 57. Whilst we are used to him with moustache it's good to see him also without:

scr, Samson Raphaelson
Ph William Daniels

Note great Lubitsch moments such as Bressart avoiding boss - "I just want an honest opinion." It happens three times, like many gags, and in the third all we need to see is his foot appearing on a staircase, then disappearing!

Also when Pepi rushes in to Matuschek's office, all we're allowed to see is a light shattering from a bullet.

Above, Frank Morgan with William Tracy (as Pepi he has many scene stealing moments). Joseph Schildkraut is the super-oily salesman Vardas and the lovelorn couple are of course James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.

The Big Sleep (1946 Howard Hawks)

Absolutely brilliant script - by novelist William Faulkner, and frequent Hawks collaborators Leigh Bracket and Jules Furthman - performed by a brilliant cast and brilliantly scored by Max Steiner.

Bogie's adventures in bookstores are most amusing. People keep calling him "soldier", which I find interesting.

Love Actually (2003 Richard Curtis & scr)

It is that time of year.

My favourite story involves the prime minister and his secretary. Martine McCutcheon is so winning and likeable it's amazing she wasn't snapped up for tons of hit movies.

Also love story with Colin Firth and Portuguese Lúcia Moniz (with lots of jokes in the subtitles), Martin Freeman and Joanna Page charming as sex stand-ins and Rowan Atkinson's funny in bit part.

And then some of it's rather mushy and - did I miss something? - Laura Linney's story doesn't seem to conclude.

Curtis's directorial debut is shot by regular partner Michael Coulter.

Bad Santa (2003 Terry Zwigoff)

Disgusting reprobate Billy Bob Thornton and Tony Cox (Me Myself and Irene) are posing as Santa and Elf so they can crack safes over holiday period. Uncared for kid Brett Kelly forms unswerving attachment to foul-mouthed Santa and appears immune to all curses and dissuasion. Bernie Mac and John Ritter are also involved, Lauren Graham is the love? sex interest.

It's actually rather good fun and likeable - the perfect antidote to the sort of tosh on Channel 5's Christmas schedule (recent offerings - in all seriousness - include Will You Merry Me, The Christmas Heart and Mistletoe Over Manhattan). Written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009 David Yates)

Dark drama with Amelie's Bruno Delbonnel a great choice for cameraman. Jim Broadbent is as good as always as the new Dark Arts master. The kids are falling in and out of love. Yates is using the edges of the frame well.

Was never entirely sure about Rowling's controversial ending.

 

Loved the moment of the power of the wizard:

Also Gambon's brilliantly timed line "Ah, to be young again and feel love's sting."

Also Ginny Weasley (Bonny Wright) is  following in Hermione's footsteps in being another great role model for girls. Amongst other feats she runs straight through a fence of fire that has repelled the adults.

It's just a bit disappointing though, when you watch other films with paintings in them and they don't move.

An Adventure in Space and Time (2013 Terry McDonagh)

David Bradley is great recreating William Hartnell in story of how Doctor Who got underway under producer Verity Lambert (Jessica Raine, who often looks like she's eaten something unpleasant) and director Waris Hussein (Sacha Dhawan).

Down and Out in Beverley Hills (1986 Paul Mazursky)

Adapted by Mazursky and Leon Capetanos from René Fauchois' play 'Boudu Sauvé des Eaux' previously filmed in 1932 by Jean Renoir.

Nick Nolte, Richard Dreyfuss, Better Midler, Elizabeth Pena, Mike the (extremely well-trained) Dog, who is perhaps over-directed at times.

Last seen 31 August 2010. This is the one where he gives the boy next door an apple. So what's the one with the triple stitched suits?

Obviously theme is Talking Heads, but other music is by Andy Summers (Police).

Ph. Donald McAlpine (Australian, then tons of comedies and things like Moulin Rouge (Oscar nom.)).

Still funny - "Call 911!" and Bette's orgasm.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007 David Yates)

Michael Goldenberg wrote this; and it's Yates' first. Nicholas Hooper wrote the music, Slawomir Idziak (Three Colours Blue) photographed it and long-time Yates collaborator Mark Day (also with a TV background) edited it - the result is a more straightforward telling with - well - less magic. The fire and lights stuff towards the end is truly spectacular.

New people in cast :Natalia Tena (Tonks), Robert Hardy, Imelda Staunton and Helena Bonham Carter, who makes an impression as Bellatrix Lestrange.

Barry Lyndon (1975 Stanley Kubrick)

Also reviewed here at some length, but I completely failed to catch the dry humour that Kubrick has written from William Makepeace Thackery's no doubt already funny novel, voiced sardonically by Michael Hordern.

Everyone always forgets that Kubrick was a funny guy.

Ryan O'Neal (really very good), Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Kruger, Steven Berkoff, Gay Hamilton, Marie Kean (Barry's mother), Murray Melvin, Frank Middlemass, André Morell, Leonard Rossiter, Philip Stone, Arthur O'Sullivan (highwayman), Leon Vitali (Lord Bullingdon).

Tony Lawson edited it, apparently, for two years. After the film's release and failure, Kubrick contacted Lawson with an idea that they joked about as they worked on it - let's cut it backwards, all in  flashback. Lawson said he was too busy!

Final dual scene is amazing. Film is hypnotic.

Last Year at Marienbad

At last without subtitles, and on Blu-Ray.

Utterly extraordinary.

Home Alone (1990 Chris Columbus)

Opinions are divided in this house. I contend that film comes with own bucket. John Hughes is three spoons of sugar too many.

Mix sugar with Swiss Family Robinson and a sprinkle of Warner Brothers.

Do not attempt to apply logic to this film.

The Tarnished Angels (1957 Douglas Sirk)

There's always more going on with Sirk than appears at face value. Here you start to wonder why he chooses shots of giant Mardi Gras puppets and masked faces - the moment where Hudson and Malone's kiss is interrupted by a partygoer masked as death is one of Sirk's most startling images and is there for a reason. Similarly the shot of the planes through the fairground flyers is similarly giving us a forward message. He was a clever guy.

Story of Depression-era troupe of flying gypsies 'from another world' - a moody Robert Stack (was he ever anything else?), wife Dorothy Malone, son Christopher Olsen and loyal mechanic Jack Carson - and their decisive encounter with sensitive newspaperman Rock Hudson. Based on the William Faulkner story Pylons (which Howard Hawks inspired him to write!*), around which the flyers race in scary flying sequences that probably now wouldn't be allowed.

Music by Frank Skinner. Metty is off filming in colour somewhere else and we are left in the reliable hands of lrving Glassberg, who shoots in black and white and CinemaScope.

* Source 'Who the Devil Made It?'