Jonas Qui Aura 25 Ans en L'An 2000 (1976 Alain Tanner & co-scr)

In mood, music and vignetty treatment, and in left wing characters, plays a little like an early Mike Leigh, in Switzerland, with black and white fantasy scenes.  Interesting characters, well played.

Thief and teacher - Miou-Miou and Jacques Denis

Idealist - Rufus aka Jacques Narcy

Mystic and journalist - Myriam Mézières and Jean-Luc Bideau

And Myriam Boyer (pregnant), Roger Jendly (artist), Dominique Labourier, Raymond Bussières (old man).

Promised Land (2012 Gus Van Sant)

Both Matt Damon and John Krasinski have worked with Cameron Crowe. They wrote this. I think they may have been aspiring for something similar. There's also a whiff of Capra (and Local Hero, come to that) of small town selling out to frackers, though the latter part of the story really gets an unbalanced share of the attention, before the Right Ending (Damon is fired and stays on in hope of amorous connection with Rosemarie DeWitt). Frances MacDormand is good, Hal Holbrook the voice of reason. Still, pretty enjoyable, e.g. Gas, Guns, Guitars & Groceries, Danny Elfman music, Linus Sandgren photography nice and dark in places.

I'd watch it again, though. Kraskinski good too, plot has good twist.

Penny Serenade (1941 George Stevens)

Nothing wrong with the acting - Cary Grant was Oscar nominated*, Irene Dunne also good - in Morrie Ryskind's study of marriage and loss. Our GMVS copy was execrable - soft and noisy. A shame as you can't properly appreciate Joe Walker's handling of snow, rain etc. Shouldn't be allowed. (The Olive Films Blu-Ray is the one to get apparently.) However, film is really slackly directed / edited and thus its already too long run time of two hours feels like it's even longer... Needs zip.

Edgar Buchanan is 'Applejack', Beulah Bondi the slightly sinister adoption person.

Get off.

* Happened to see a really long take of Cary Grant pleading for the baby - amazing stuff. (10/24.) Perhaps his own lost childhood is coming into play here.

Table 19 (2017 Jeffrey Blitz)

Blitz write the screenplay from a story by himself and Mark and Jay Duplass.

Left to right: Anna Kendrick, Craig Robinson (This Is the End, Pineapple Express), Stephen Merchant (very funny), Tony Revolori (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Lisa Kudrow and June Squibb (Nebraska, About Schmidt).

Contains the memorable bittersweet line 'I'm due about the same time you are'.

Manages to engage and entertain whilst in its one location over an hour and twenty minutes.

Crisis (1950 Richard Brooks & scr)

A timely film, with Venezuela kicking off, depicting a dictator-led South American country where surgeon Cary Grant is kidnapped to save the brain of top bastard José Ferrer. Both are good - Cary in serious mode - another lesson to our neighbour who says he's the same in everything - and Peter's right - he looks totally convincing as doctor / surgeon. Miklos Rozsa gets in some music before some good flamenco takes over.

George Tabori came up with this good story, which opens exactly like Touch of Evil. Ray June shot it. With Paula Raymond, Signe Hasso, Leon Ames, Ramon Novarro. MGM. Very interesting, suspenseful drama.

Man Up (2015 Ben Palmer)

I identified the problem last time - it's way too heavily edited, a long take would have been lovely. I think it interrupts Lake Bell's performance particularly - notably in the shots to the bathroom mirror where you yearn for a few more seconds of each.

Also the Rory Kinnear character is just too weird, and would have worked better if dialled down a peg.

Otherwise, previous good things apply. Does it look more diffused than a normal Andrew Dunn film?

Double Bunk (1961 C.M. Pennington-Richards)

Liz Fraser, now a sprightly 87, asserts she really loved Sid James - you can see it in the scene where they drink too much 'Wodka'. Ian Carmichael and Janette Scott are the newly weds with a houseboat. All four are fine. Dennis Price is the scheming harbour master and there are fleeting appearances from Irene Handl, Miles Malleson, Terry Scott, Reginald Beckwith, Noel Purcell and Naunton Wayne.

Love the bubble car (in fact a Heinkel Kabine).

Manhattan Melodrama (1934 W.S. van Dyke)

Produced by David Selznick, though now I'm not sure it was his idea to pair Powell and Loy for the first time, though clearly it was a good idea. Typically of the speed studios could work at then that the first Thin Man film was out the same year.

In even then clichéd plot childhood friends confront tragedy on riverboat steamer (excitingly edited scenes, these, by Ben Lewis), then within a few minutes more tragedy strikes as their adoptive father dies. Anyway they grow up to be gambler Clark Gable and DA William Powell - Myrna Loy is of course the triangular woman. In somewhat unsatisfactory plotting, Gable kills a man in cold blood and ultimately Powell has him sent to the chair. It's a melodrama all right.

With Leo Carrillo (priest), Isabell Jewel, Muriel Evans, Nat Pendleton, George Sidney, Noel Madison, Mickey Rooney. Shot by James Wong Howe, effects by Vorkapich. MGM films of this period seem more grey than black and white.

Famously the last film John Dillinger saw before being gunned down by the police

Pride (2014 Matthew Warchus)

Review here. Directed in a dynamic style where the camera is often moving (tracking), this film has pace (Melanie Oliver edited). Stephen Beresford wrote nothing else (a play 'Last of the Haussmans') but won the BAFTA for Outstanding debut. Of the great cast, Ben Schnetzer is our charismatic leader, has several films in pipeline and some dark ones out there (e.g. The Riot Club). Faye Marsay is the lesbian (GOT, Love, Nina). And rest of cast: George Mackay, Nighy, Staunton, Gilpin, Scott, Dominic West (rather charismatic himself), Freddie Fox.

Tiny Furniture (2010 Lena Dunham & scr)

The film Judd Apatow saw and liked, approached Lena and Girls was born.

Reviewed here.

Once Upon a Time In the West / C'era Una Volta Il West (1969 Sergio Leone)

Filmed mainly in Almería, but with a memorable scene in John Ford's Monument Valley, a real big (it stays with you for days, months later you start singing Robards' signature theme...), emotional western, unique in Leone's work for the central character of the strong woman (something Bertolucci brought to the table) - Gina Lollabrigida is wonderful. Tonino Delli Colli's camera cranes and sweeps and the deep focus of his Techniscope lenses is remarkable.

The length Leone spends on some scenes is incredible from the opening onwards (the gunmen are Jack Elam, Woody Strode and Al Mulock) and indeed by the final showdown between Charles Bronson and the perfectly evil Henry Fonda I was laughing away at the over-the-topness of it - the film is knowingly funny. Here, there's three minutes of Bronson and Fonda just lining up in front of each other .. then, with the flashback, another three minutes before the shot is fired! But these's also very simple scenes like where Marco Zuanelli goes to the train and we have this lovely train come towards us and then out of frame leaving those tracks going back into infinity - lovely framing.

The soundtrack even without the music is amazing.

As Q observes, it's all in the eyes. And even in widescreen, Leone does get that intimacy through his huge close ups:

With Jason Robards, Gabriele Ferzetti, Lionel Stander, Paolo Stoppa (The Leopard) and Keenan Wynn. Fantastic production design from Carlo Simi and editing by Nino Baragli.

Compare to this GBU shot

The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947 Preston Sturges & scr)

Sadly only available in the awful print kindly made available by the bandits at Elstree Hill, this is not prime Sturges but recognisably his and a great entertainment - certainly more successful than the following year's Unfaithfully Yours. I wouldn't be surprised if he was pissed when he wrote it. Title is questionable (omit 'The Sin of'?)

Harold Lloyd is very successful in the lead, supported by a whole host of Sturges' favourite actors - Jimmy Conlin, Raymond Walburn (Christmas in July), Rudy Vallee, Franklin Pangborn, Robert Dudley and Robert Greig, plus Lionel Stander and Frances Ramsden (her only lead role). Full of cherishable lines and moments (e.g. Lloyd doing the nails of manicurist Arline Judge) and featuring the sensational Jackie the Lion, about whom I could find nothing - though it seems he was the MGM lion from 1926 - 1956. Scene with him on ledge is hilarious and terrifying.

Released by RKO after Howard Hughes recut as Mad Wednesday in 1950.

School for Scoundrels (1959, released 1960 Robert Hamer)

Based on Stephen Potter's novels, ostensibly (see below) screenwritten by Patricia Moyles and Hal Chester, film delivers a good story of oneupmanship usurped by decency and love - a cop out, then, though the end credits show Terry-Thomas is going to get his own back... Ian Carmichael is at his most sprightly (we loved his tennis racket twirling), Alastair Sim superbly shady, Janette Scott delectable. With Dennis Price and Peter Jones, Hattie Jacques, John Le Mesurier, Irene Handl, Kynaston Reeves.

Corus Hotel Edgware stands in for tennis club (and is also seen in Endless Night), Carmichael's flat is in Hendon, 'Yeovil' railway station is in Hertford. The cars - Thomas's 'Bellini' is a 1954 Aston Martin DB3S and Carmichael's new sports car is a 1958 Austin Healey 100/6:

Oh, hard cheese!

Erwin Hillier's photography is robust, though somewhat shadowy in interiors. Music - John Addison.

According to the BFI:

"Although credited to Patricia Moyes and producer Hal Chester, the screenplay was co-written by Peter Ustinov and Frank Tarloff, an American-born screenwriter who had been exiled to Britain after being blacklisted by the McCarthy hearings. Credited director Robert Hamer would suffer a blacklist of a different kind - a recovering alcoholic, he fell off the wagon during production, was sacked on the spot (Chester and the uncredited Cyril Frankel finished the film), and would never work in the industry again." Hamer died in 1963 of pneumonia, aged 52. A shame - I rather like his films.

Whistle Down the Wind (1961 Bryan Forbes)

Another enigmatic title from Hayley's mum, her novel being adapted by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall. Lives of rural children again observed so well - and the acting of Diane Holgate and Alan Barnes is every bit as good as Hayley's (Diane made no other films, Alan just the one - The Victors).

Bernard Lee also terrific in unusual role for him; Alan Bates good in debut.

Grey northern England nicely shot by Arthur Ibbetson. Music by Malcom Arnold.

Airplane 2: The Sequel (1982 Ken Finleman & scr)

Julie Hagerty, Robert Hays, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Robert Stack, Chuck Connors, William Shatner, Raymond Burr. Music: Bernstein. Photography: Biroc.

About one in every ten jokes works.

The Descendants (2011 Alexander Payne)

For some reason we kept picking films that made us cry. This is George's best performance but he's easily matched by Shailene Woodley - all the performances are great. The Hawaiian soundtrack gives it a unique flavour - especially 'Deep in an Ancient Hawaiian Forest' over the ashes at sea sequence (by Makana).

Phedon Papamichael shoots shallow focus but there's often some great detail in the background - great compositions.

Mask (1985 Peter Bogdanovich)

OK so this was not the reinstated Bruce Springsteen version - oops. Anna Hamilton Phelan wrote it (and also is the puppy lady), Laszlo Kovacs shot it quite diffused. It's again a model of how to edit, create scenes. Here's one of his Howard Hawks moments:

The make up is by Michael Westmore, son of Monte (died young at 37) and nephew of Perc and Wally - his name missing from IMDB for some reason...

Cher, Sam Elliott, Eric Stoltz, Estelle Getty, Richard Dysart, Laura Dern, Harry Carey Jr, Micole Mercurio, Dennis Burkley, Nick Cassavetes.

It's emotional. And very warm.

Vulture.com interview with PB, March 4 2019.

So who was the most difficult actor you’ve ever worked with?
Cher.

Tell me about your experience with her on Mask.
Well, she didn’t trust anybody, particularly men. She doesn’t like men. That’s why she’s named Cher: She dropped her father’s name. Sarkisian, it is. She can’t act. She won Best Actress at Cannes because I shot her very well.
And she can’t sustain a scene. She couldn’t do what Tatum [O’Neal] did in Paper Moon. She’d start off in the right direction, but she’d go off wrong somehow, very quickly. So I shot a lot of close-ups of her because she’s very good in close-ups. Her eyes have the sadness of the world. You get to know her, you find out it’s self-pity, but still, it translates well in movies.Roger Ebert loved Mask and Cher’s performance, writing, “Cher makes Rusty Dennis into one of the most interesting movie characters in a long time.”  I shot more close-ups of her than I think in any picture I ever made.

You can create an award-winning performance with close-ups?
Oh yes, you can. I did a number of times.

What did Cher think of you?
Cher doesn’t like me.

Why?
Well, because I didn’t like her. She was always looking like someone was cheating her. I came to the set one day; I said, “You depress me, you’re always so down and acting like somebody’s stealing from you or something.” But finally, after about seven weeks of this, we started getting to like each other. She said, you know, we don’t watch out, we might end up liking each other. I said that would be amazing. And we did end up liking each other, and then when I sued the studio, she sided with the studio, of course. That was that.

Stage Door (1937 Gregory la Cava)

A treat to have Kate Hepburn and Ginger Rogers together in fast talking RKO drama, written by Morrie Ryskind (Marx Bros. films, My Man Godfrey) and Anthony Veiller (The Stranger, The Killers, Night of the Iguana, Moulin Rouge), based on a play by Edna Ferber and George Kaufman (The Man Who Came to Dinner).  Adolphe Menjou is the producer. With Gail Patrick (the snooty one), Andrea Leeds (the starving one), Constance Collier (matron), Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, Phyllis Kennedy, Franklin Pangborn, Jack Carson.

Shot by Robert de Grasse, music by Roy Webb.

Good.

Ed Wood (1994 Tim Burton)

Had been wanting to rewatch it, then heard Martin Landau had died - it's a fitting tribute. It was an ironic shock to see how he is credited:

His performance as Lugosi is absolutely wonderful (he won the Golden Globe and Oscar) and with the benefit of Rick Baker's make-up (also won Oscar) you frequently forget it is he.

From a biography by Rudolph Grey ('Nightmare of Ecstasy'), written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. Film was nominated for the Palme d'Or and is beautifully made (continuous seeming track through credits, for example) and photographed (by Stefan Czapsky - also Vampire's Kiss and Edward Scissorhands) in pin sharp black and white, like a beautifully restored 50s film.

Johnny Depp, Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette, Jeffrey Jones, Bill Murray, Vincent D'Onofrio (Orson Welles), Lisa Marie (Vampira).

At an hour and 45 we found it was running out of steam - or we were. Two hours is too long?

'Give me a script in three days - we've got five days to film it.' It's that kind of joyous madness. 'A second take? What for?'

Bottle Rocket (1996 Wes Anderson)

Owen Wilson and Wes wrote a film in the warm influence of They All Laughed. It bombed.

It's a fun, delightful film, very quirky, filmed in a beautiful style in which characters are blocked in scenes in interesting ways (we often have one of them very near to the foreground), with great depth of field from Robert Yeoman, and good lighting in long tracking shots. There's also evidence of the way Wes likes characters to pop in to the frame.

With Luke Wilson, Robert Musgrave (who was not in Hard Times at Ridgemont High), Lumi Cavazos, James Caan and Kumar Pallana (who looks like he's been told nothing about the plot whatsoever). The bully is played by a Teddy Wilson, but despite my earlier claim he is not one of those Wilsons. And the uncredited cast includes Antonia Bogdanovich and Leslie Mann.

Dignan a hilarious name taken from one of their friends (as is 'Tennenbaum'), great little motorbike, scene with gun, housekeeping etc.