Melvin and Howard (1980 Jonathan Demme)

One of his earlier works, lying between Last Embrace ('79) and Swing Shift ('84), written by Bo Goldberg, one of the screenwriters of Cuckoo's Nest and Scent of a Woman, The Rose and Shoot the Moon - this, though an original screenplay, is based on the true story of a claimed will of Howard Hughes which was dismissed by the court as a forgery... But we're not too involved in that, rather in the life of hard-working idiot Paul le Mat and his lurches from job to job and repossession to repossession, a nice guy who stops to help a tramp in the Nevada desert. This early sequence between he and Jason Robards is at the film's core, the two of them in the truck. Then we meet Mary Steenburgen and daughter Elizabeth Cheshire...

Some distinctive moments (e.g. le Mat's song at the Christmas party, filmed by a director of music videos, a 360-degree pan in a courthouse) and the inevitable background stuff (loved the big plastic cow being wheeled by). Didn't notice Gloria Grahame as Mary's mum...

Early collaboration with Craig MacKay and Tak Fujimoto (editor and cameraman).

Un Village Français - Season 1 (2009 Frédéric Krivine, Philippe Triboit)

Not too keen to research this yet for fear of finding out plot developments, early death of lead character etc. (You know that feeling when you're writing up a 20 episode series and you notice a lead character is only in it 18 episodes..) Being now in Season 7 it has undoubtedly been a success in France - has anything quite like it been done before? It's an obvious choice for BBC4.

Immediately gripping set of characters (Thierry Godard and Audrey Fleurot familiar to us from Engrenages, since 2005) and situation ('Now, they're gonna end up in the Resistance...He's gonna be the nice German soldier' etc.) very well told.

Krivine has been writing for television since the early nineties.

Patrick Descamps sure seems familiar, like he should be in a Buñuel, but he isn't.

Really well acted and delivered in that wonderfully undramatic yet tense way the French do so well (think L'Armee des Ombres or Au Revoir Les Enfants). With Robin Renucci (doctor), Nicolas Gob (Marchetti, police), Nade God (Godard's lover), Emanuelle Bach (his wife), Fabrizio Rongione (commie brother), Marie Kremer (school teacher), Francis Renaud,

Constance Dolle, Thierry Godard, Robin Renucci, Richard Sammel, Nicolas Gob, Audret Fleurot, Emmanuelle Bach, Marie Kremer and Francois Loriquet

Devastating ending in which debate about ethics of killing turns rapidly into execution.

Deadpool (2016 Tim Miller)

Another one of those incongruous meetings of ultra violence and self-aware comic book adaptations from the ubiquitous Marvel stable (how rich must Stan Lee be?) begins well with send up credits and a quippy action scene, Ryan Reynolds in good form, but becomes more tortury and later action scenes played more straight become dull (e.g. fight between big metal thing and somehow ultra-powerful woman). Also suggests having loads of sex is a good relationship. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick wrote it. Miller's debut.

Ed Skrein is the baddy, T.J. Miller the friend, Morena Vaccarin the girlfriend. Undoubtedly will please its target audience.

Remember the Night (1939, rel. 1940 Mitchell Leisen)

By then Preston Sturges was getting good money and recognised as a talent - he had changed the way the script-writing process had become a factory of writers, each re-writing a version before. This was an original, not as shiny as the later batch of superb comedies, more of a romance with comedy touches (great one liners here and there). A good alternative Christmas film. You might argue Barbara Stanwyck softens too quickly from serial thief in presence of noble Joel McCrea and then his mom Beulah Bondi, aunt Elizabeth Patterson and village idiot Sterling Holloway, though ending doesn't cop out.

Coincidentally another Ted Tezlaff film.

Gas, Food, Lodging (1992 Allison Anders & scr)

From Richard Peck's 1971 novel 'Don't Look And It Won't Hurt'. He is noted for young adult literature spawned by failed career as teacher at junior high. Allison herself apparently had a rough background - the film has a tough realistic edge on relationships between single mother (Brooke Adams) and two very different daughters (Ione Skye and Fiaruza Balk). Apart from some gang rapists most of the key males fortunately turn out OK (Robert Knepper, David Lansbury and Jacob Vargas) though James Brolin is the shiftless ex and Chris Mulkey a married lover.

Allison then worked mainly in TV. As to Ione, who we've seen more of than we bargained for twice this week (I think the only sex scene in a cave I've seen), she's been steadily working, but not really in anything you would have heard of. It's perhaps Fairuza whose performance is the most natural as the Spanish movie fan (though why? The Elvia Rivero pictures look awfully dull.) She didn't have the most glittery career either, though does appear in Almost Famous. Perhaps then  a career best for all the girls?

New Mexico setting well caught.

The Window (1949 Ted Tetzlaff)

Short, efficient thriller from Tetzlaff a couple of years after he shot Notorious for Hitchcock (his last as cinematographer). Bobby Driscoll is convincing as liar who is pursued by murderer Paul Stewart (a familiar face); parents Arthur Kennedy and Barbara Hale don't believe him.

Mel Dinelli adapted Cornell Woolrich story 'The Boy Cried Murder' which features fire escape sleeping, a heatwave and a witness to a murder, like 'Rear Window'.

Shot by William Steiner and Robert de Grasse, music by Roy Webb. RKO.

Nobody's Fool (1994 Robert Benton & scr)

Richard Russo write the book in 1993, a writer who based his novels on his own life in upstate New York, and as a college lecturer (both of which feature here). He adapted his own Empire Falls (great cast) and screenwrote The Ice Storm. Benton's probably best known for Kramer vs Kramer. Here we are in snowy and quiet North Bath, where a snow blower is important. This is a thoughtful, tangible, human story, engaging and funny.

Good story and cast: Paul Newman (69 playing 60), Jessica Tandy, Melanie Griffiths, Bruce Willis, Dylan Walsh (the son), Pruitt Taylor Vince (friend), Gene Saks (good as useless lawyer), Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco and Margo Martindale.

I don't know ... son was about to go back to his wife anyway. I would have taken at least a fortnight with Melanie in Hawaii...

It was dedicated to Jessica Tandy. Classy way to go out.

Very professional team behind John Bailey's camera: Howard Shore composing, John Bloom (Travels with My Aunt, Gandhi, Black Widow, Charlie Wilson's Way, many others since early sixties) editing.

East of Ipswich (1987 Tristram Powell)

Michael Palin's somewhat autobiographical story of teenager, dull parents and girl he meets and fancies on holiday. Gently observed and humorous in detail e.g. fellow hotel guests who always seem to be snooping, terrifying landlady. Acting generally good, story believable. John Nettleton (father), Pat Heywood (mother). Edward Rawle-Hicks, Oona Kirsch, Pippa Hinchley, Janine Duvitski, Graham Crowden.

"I do hate being filmed in 16mm, don't you?"

A Private Function (1984 Malcolm Mowbray)

Written by Alan Bennett, from a story by he and the director, well acted by a top British cast of Michael Palin, Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott (making the most of his venomous character), Richard Griffiths (endearing), Bill Paterson, Liz Smith, Alison Steadman, Jim Carter, Pete Postlethwaite, Rachel Davies (landlady).

Background of meat rationing / crime and local politics well caught. Features a cute pig. Shot by Tony Pierce-Roberts.

I thought I missed Bill, but he's still working steadily, most recently in Fleabag

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959 Terence Fisher)

A Time Out reviewer (David Pirie) described it - in the late eighties - as 'The best Sherlock Holmes film ever made, and one of Hammer's finest movies'. Hm. Good pairing though of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, with Andre Morell, Matla Landi, David Oxley, Miles Malleson, John Le Mesurier.

Shot at Bray and Surrey by Jack Asher.

It passes the time, and looks quite cool in its fifties colour (Eastman, of course).

The Rachel Papers (1989 Damian Harris & scr)

From Martin Amis's novel. Dexter Fletcher seeks to seduce American Ione Skye, though she's already going out with James Spader. With Jared Harris, Jonathan Pryce, Leslie Sharp, Bill Paterson, Michael Gambon (billed high though only in one scene), Claire Skinner, Gina McKee.

Alex Thomson shot it. Electronic score isn't bad.

Young men are arses, cf. Baisers Volés. Scene with used condom is out of sight.

Milk Money (1994 Richard Benjamin)

Melanie Griffith and Ed Harris are a winning combination (both are always worth watching in anything) in John Mattson's original screenplay, Michael Patrick Carter fine as the boy. With Anne Heche, Malcolm McDowell, Philip Bosco.

A Kennedy-Marshall production. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

Shot by David Watkin.

Love and Friendship (2016 Whit Stillman & scr)

From a Jane Austen novella 'Lady Susan'. Dry, with the usual amount of plot machinations. Kate Beckinsale, Morfydd Clark, Tom Bennett, Jenn Murray, James Fleet, Chloe Sevigny, Stephen Fry.

Filmed by Richard Van Oosterhout. It wasn't as funny as we were led to believe, and there was lots of paying attention to do.

Fabulous performance from Kate Beckinsale

The Birds (1963 Alfred Hitchcock)

Plenty of genius 'pure' cinema in this, though some of the bird attacks still make me laugh.
Suzanne Pleshette is fabulous. All the small parts are brilliantly cast. The scene in the diner is a writing / directing masterclass.

The Other Woman (2014 Nick Cassavetes)

Disappointing comedy written by Melissa Stack (her only film - how did she get the gig??) and featuring a clearly improvising Leslie Mann, who cannot carry the film, uncomfortably alongside Cameron Diaz (who just about holds her own), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Don Johnson and Kate Upton. Also doesn't exactly move female equality along at all. Giving a man estrogen as part of master plan? Come on!

V. odd choice for Cassavetes too.

Ethel and Ernest (2016 Roger Mainwood & scr)

Affectionate animation based on Raymond Briggs graphic novel, voiced by Jim Broadbent, Benda Blethyn, Pam Ferris, Roger Allam, June Brown and Luke Treadaway.

The Prince and Me (2004 Martha Coolidge)

By the numbers romcom with Julia Stiles and an unconvincing Luke Mably as Danish prince, particularly in the variable accent department. Supported by Ben Miller, Miranda Richardson and James Fox. Our afternoon broadcast had a bit of fooling around in a library removed.

Sherlock: The Six Thatchers (2017 Rachel Talalay)

Written solo by Mark Gatiss who has enormous fun showing Sherlock solving several nonsense cases 'for fun', but mood turns downright tragic...  Or does it?

P.S. Remaining episodes become increasingly bonkers - Scorseseitis has set in. Druggy, trippy storylines, pantomime villains - the early series were far better, even when  Gatiss and Moffat are writing together. Still enjoyable, though after the last one Q and I just looked at each other....

Though I would have to say that there is a moment in Episode 2 where Sherlock / Cumberbatch loses it, and suddenly you can see just how amazing he must be on stage in Shakespeare...

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016 Taika Waititi & scr)

Based on a book by Barry Crump. Sam Neill, Julian Dennison, Rima Te Wiata, Rachel House, Rhys Darby (who we happened to have just seen in Modern Family).

'Man, or bush?'
'Will you be running away today?'

The Love Bug (1969 Robert Stevenson)

Yes, the Jane Eyre / Hitchcock Presents director. Written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi from a story by Gordon Buford. Dean Jones, Michele Lee, David Tomlinson, Buddy Hackett and Benson Fong (many films since forties). Hippy jokes and crazy scenes with the little car make me think they were stoned then even over at Disney.