The Shining (1980 Stanley Kubrick)

I find it impossible now not to watch this and find it deeply amusing - it's the combination  of the music and the very deadpan style (of screenplay and acting and editing). And talking of that music - that's why it's so different to any other horror film, the existing and quite mad / peculiar scores from Bartok, Penderecki, Ligeti et al.

It reminded me of the first time I saw it (I think the cinema at Cemetery Junction), where some silly woman kept screaming all the way though it. But I was disappointed then - and still am - that the nice Scatman Crothers character comes all the way from Florida to help them, and is promptly despatched with an axe.

Barry Nelson is the hotel manager (the interview scene is really strange in that there's one cutaway to the other guy there but otherwise you wouldn't know he was there) and Joe Turkel the barman and Philip Stone the waiter.

You feel for Nicholson and Duvall, who both said it was the hardest film they'd ever worked on. 'Shelley seems much more tolerant of the ordeal [filming in 'rain' for Time Bandits] than any actress has a right to be. but, as she says in the car on the way home, it's better than having to cry every day for seven months with Kubrick! Nicholson had to take a six-month break after the movie was finished to get himself straight again.' Michael Palin 'Halfway to Hollywood' (2009).

Elstree Studios, Borehamwood

Production design: Roy Walker. Art direction: Les Tomkins

Joe Turkel

The somehow haunting outro music is Al Bowlly 'Midnight, the Stars and You'.

Yes, there is something distinctive about the lenses being used - primarily 18mm - which Shelley Duvall said made her and Jack look distorted - 'It's great for shooting furniture!'

P.S. July 2022. Amused on death of Jean-Louis Trintignant to learn that Kubrick had talked him out of retirement to voice the Jack Nicholson part for French audiences. His "Here's Johnny!" - "Coucou, cheri!" - is as famous in France as the original version is to us.

The Judge (2014 David Dobkin)

Good. Written by Nick Schenk (who wrote Gran Torino - no clue as to whether he's a descendant of MGM producer Nick Schenk) and Bill Dubuque, from a story by Schenk and Dobkin.

Why is Robert Duvall (great) so horrible to his middle son Robert Downey Jr (fantastic)? (Actually the only false note is when Duvall says goodbye to his other sons in the courtroom and says nothing to Downey. Which just seemed wrong.)

Everyone's good, including Vera Farmiga and Leighton Meester (her daughter), Vincent D'Onofrio and Jeremy Strong (brothers), Billy Bob Thornton, Emma Tremblay (Downey's daughter), David Krumholtz and Denis O'Hare.

Jamusz Kaminski's photography is splendid and contrasty; Thomas Newman's score recognisable; Mark Livolsi's editing superior.

Leap Year (2010 Anand Tucker)

Leap Year proves that there is an endless demand for romcoms which end exactly as the audience predicts. Frankly, we could have written a better screenplay than Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont's lame effort, which could easily have been ripped off from IKWIG (castle and folklore included).

Amy Adams is terrific, Matthew Goode OK. This particular representation of the Irish is frankly rubbish.

Shot by Newton Thomas Sigel (Drive, Leatherheads, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) and edited by Nick Moore (Burnt, She's Funny That Way, Love Actually, About a Boy, Notting Hill).

A Child in Time (2017 Julian Farino)

Stephen Butchard (Good Cop, Five Daughters) adapted Ian McEwan's 1987 novel. Benedict Cumberbatch and Kelly Macdonald are good as the couple who have lost their child, as is Stephen Campbell Moore as his old friend (the series of events leading to his suicide are a bit weak to me) and Saskia Reeves as his wife. It's consistently intriguing, and well put together.

The music is by Adrian Johnston and it was shot by David Odd.

Features a great speech delivered by Benedict in favour of child literacy.

The Spectacular Now (2013 James Ponsoldt)

This beautiful oner lasts three and a half minutes:

The 'Gleaming Planet' manga comic was invented for the film by Dream Sequence. I mention this because Neustadter and Weber's Fault in our Stars also features comic book references and their upcoming project is an X-Men movie (just in case we needed another).

This is a deep and tangy confection with good acting by Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller (Whiplash) as the leads, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brie Larson, Bob Odenkirk, Andre Royo.

The Steel Trap (1952 Andrew L Stone & scr)

Can Joseph Cotten get away to Brazil with $1 million in his suitcase and what will his wife Teresa Wright say about it? Stone manages to keep up the suspense all the way through though annoys Q because they wasted the weekend and a lot of money. There's a little bit of New Orleans locations en route and Dimitri Tiomkin stirs it all up with exciting music. Shot by Ernest Laszlo.

Middle of the Night (1959 Delbert Mann)

Kim Novak is great in nervy, neurotic role (we don't really know why she is that way) against Fredric March as a lovesick older man. All acting good: Glenda Farrell (Kim's mother), Albert Dekker (aging woman-chaser), Martin Balsam, Lee Grant, Edith Meiser (Fred's daughter).

But. Film is very talky, Paddy Chayefsky's material clearly has its source as a play (TV, then Broadway), it's not cinematic, and all the characters are in some way irritating (Q says it's like eating glass). And it's too long. And why do we care about these people? Contrary to our predictions, it does at least have a happy ending - but for how long? That couple are not going to last.

Trivia footnote: there is a scene in a bathroom where we can clearly see a toilet - so much for the claim that Psycho was the first mainstream film to do so.

The Fault in our Stars (2014 Josh Boone)

The trickily spelled Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber wrote this from John Green's 2012 book (the title is from 'Julius Caesar') and it kicks off by warning the viewer it isn't one of those Hollywood films which ends on an apology and a Peter Gabriel song - 'This is the truth'. I wonder if that's really true though because it sort of does go to a very well written but ultimately weepy and uplifting ending. They broke into writing with (500) Days of Summer and followed that with another adaptation - The Spectacular Now - which also features the talented Shailene Woodley. The scene in the restaurant in Amsterdam is straight out of a classic comedy. Anyway, I'm not complaining - I like their writing. A lot.

Ansel Elgort (oh - he's the lead in Baby Driver, which we were only talking about today!) is a confident lead opposite Shailene, with Laura Dern, Sam Trammell, Willem Dafoe, Lotte Verbeek and Nat Wolff.

Boone's first film was the Greg Kinnear / Lily Collins film Stuck in Love. The writers have completed Our Souls at Night (2017), an X-Men film and Where'd You Go Bernadette.

I like this, from Go Into the Story:

Scott N: "The false assumption I was under — that I think a lot of aspiring writers are under — is that most scripts in Hollywood are extremely good. Nothing like a few years reading unsolicited material to debunk that idea. But beyond that, even some of the scripts I was receiving from agents and managers, they weren’t exactly tremendous either. And they were getting bought and some of them were even getting made (12 years later, I still don’t entirely understand the getting made part of the equation but that’s a whole other story). Anyway, when the bar was set at Sorkin level, I was certainly not going to even attempt to write a screenplay. It was only when I realized there’s only one Sorkin, there’s only one Tarantino, there’s only one Cameron Crowe — it freed me up psychologically to give it a shot."

Léon / Léon The Professional (1994 Luc Besson & scr)

Besson imagines what would happen if Alain Delon from Le Samourai had to look after a teenage girl, and spawns a great couple of characters, charismatically played by Jean Reno and Natalie Portman (eleven when cast, her debut. Of working with Reno, all she says in interview is 'He was so kind').

The story emerged from a section of La Femme Nikita two years before in which Reno has a similar role. Leon was written in a month. (I was going to ask what happened to Reno since, but he's been steadily working away..)

Gary Oldman is perhaps a shade OTT as the villain but Danny Aiello is superbly oily as 'the banker' (one wonders if she will ever get her money).

Did Besson ever approach grown-up Portman to do a sequel (where she has herself become a 'cleaner')? In a later interview she claims she would do 'anything' he asked her to be in.

Feels a bit Leone. Music of course by Eric Serra, photography by Thierry Arbogast, edited by Sylvie Landra. Natalie Portman is incredible. It's emotional, and good. Though it's kind of funny the police are never summoned with all this shooting going on.

Little Voice (1998 Mark Herman & scr)

'The Rise and Fall of Little Voice' by Jim Cartwright was first performed in the West End in 1992, directed by Sam Mendes, with Jane Horrocks and Alison Steadman. Horrocks had had several years then to perfect her performance, in which she reproduces Monroe, Dietrich, Bassey and Garland perfectly. Brenda Blethyn good too as essentially unlikeable mother, Michael Caine brilliant as usual as more sympathetic (but essentially unlikeable) promoter. Thankfully there's a sensitive bird fancier (Ewan McGregor), otherwise the film would be a hard watch, and that's perhaps why we hadn't revisited it for so many years, despite good production.

Scarborough looks much nicer than it sounds.

Herman wrote and directed the Boy In The Striped Pyjamas (2008) - another broad comedy - and stuff like Brassed Off and the messy Hope Springs (Firth, Graham, Driver, 2003).

With Jim Broadbent, Philip Jackson, Annette Badland, Alex Norton (good as talent scout).

Didn't recognise names of Andy Collins (camera), Michael Ellis (Cross of Iron a notable early editing job), John Altman (music).

My Favorite Wife (1940 Garson Kanin)

Leo McCarey is involved as producer and co-author of the original story with Bella and Sam Spewak, who scripted it. Film has its comic moments but is dogged too often by the 'just tell them' contrivance - Grant won't tell Gail Patrick he's already married to Irene Dunne, she doesn't want to disclose she's been on an island with Randolph Scott for seven years, Dunne doesn't want to tell the kids she's their mother - then they don't want to tell her they know...

Grant and Dunne are good. With Ann Shoemaker, Donald MacBride (hotel receptionist) and Granville Bates (judge).  Rudolph Maté is on camera. Roy Webb provides the music and Robert Wise edits. Therefore, it's from RKO.

Strike (2017 JK Rowling)

Felt I should cover this good series based on JK's Strike novels, published under the name of Robert Galbraith, adapted by Ben Richards ('The Cuckoo's Calling') and Tom Edge ('The Silkworm'). Great chemistry between Tom Burke (War and Peace, The Hour) and Holliday Grainger, good use of London locations.

Rear Window (1954 AH)

And why not?

I like the final sting of the newly-weds - "Why didn't you tell me you lost your job two months ago?" The honeymoon's over...

L'Homme De Rio / That Man From Rio (1964 Philippe de Broca & co-scr)

It was such a pleasure to see this restored and on Blu-Ray instead of that terribly washed out print that's been doing the rounds.

It's incredibly lively from the moment Françoise Dorléac is kidnapped and Jean-Paul Belmondo springs into action (he's rarely doing anything else). They both have great vivacity and his Harold Lloyd-like stunts are jaw dropping (high rise clambering with no visible signs of safety). In fact the film often invokes the silent era, with sixties fixings. My last review was that it was like North By Northwest through nouvelle vague eyes, with definite Tintin and early Bond moments, with even a Popeye reference - this time I'm inclined to suggest it's 80% Tintin. Françoise Javet's editing though is very much of its time and in what I dubbed a 'Hergé edit' JP goes from swimming to suddenly accompanying a girl on water-skies.

The 'Hergé edit' in action: Cigars of the Pharoah

Great badinage between the couple ("I suppose you want a pink car with green stars" - a 1929 Chrysler 75, I am reliably informed), film perhaps drags a bit towards the end, involving Adolfo Celi and Jean Servais (though even here there is some astonishing scenes shot in a new bit of Rio or Brasilia or wherever they are), but the best bits involve whisky-drinking charming kid Ubiracy de Oliveira (only in one other film) - there's a lovely clip of him meeting JP in 2015 here.

Music Georges Delerue, photography Edmond Séchan.

The story / screenplay by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Arian Mnouchkine, Daniel Boulanger and de Broca was Oscar-nominated

Casanova Brown (1944 Sam Wood)

Quite an odd film, especially when Gary Cooper enters maternity hospital, then steals a baby. Yes. It was written by Nunnally Johnson from Floyd Dell's play. Teresa Wright isn't in it enough. With Frank Morgan (as the most enjoyable character, a sort of family-hating fraudster), Patricia Collinge, Anita Louise, Mary Treen, Emory Parnell, Halliwell Hobbes.

Shot by John Seitz. An Independent picture. Frankly, without the leads it would be a dud.

To Catch A Thief (1955 Alfred Hitchcock)

Begins as a model of silent story-telling, and concludes with the greenest nights on film. In fact those roof sets and the green on Blu-Ray makes it quite trippy.

Grant is at his most lithe and Bond-y, but you have to relish all the performances, especially that of Jessie Royce Landis. With Grace Kelly, John Williams (who I'd watch in anything), Charles Vanel. Brigitte Auber.

Halloween (1978 John Carpenter & co-scr)

Just picking up on my last review, if the budget was only $300k, and half went on the Panaglide cameras, that means the production budget for this very professional looking film was only $150k - I think credit must go principally to cameraman Dean Cundey, who makes it look great, and canny producer (and co-writer) Debra Hill, who died before her time in 2005 (obit). This puts it in sync with Psycho, which was also made on a very low budget, independently, and went on to become a massive grosser.

Debra Hill with Donald Pleasance

The Asphalt Jungle (1950 John Huston)

John also wrote this cracking tale with Ben Maddow, from W.R. Burnett's novel, and it's directed in characteristic style (low camera, interesting compositions), lovingly caught by Hal Rosson again. I don't know why I never think as this as a film noir but it clearly is (the heist section is actually over quite quickly). Of the cast this time I have to focus on Jean Hagen, who gives a memorably touching performance (everyone else is great).

Louis Calhern and Brad Dexter

The Professor is finally undone by his penchant for young girls

Penthouse (1933 W.S. Van Dyke)

Zippy concoction is sprinkled with good bits of everything, like sea salt, nuts and chocolate, competently written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett of The Thin Man fame, from a story by Arthur Somers Roche. Warner Baxter is defender of such low types as (basically nice) gangster Nat Pendleton, after half an hour gets involved with witness Myrna Loy in refreshingly direct pre-code style (she is surprised he doesn't sleep with her). Good comedy moments from Charles Butterworth. With Mae Clarke, Phillips Holmes.

Shot by Harold Rosson and Lucien Andriot for MGM.

Horrible dresses you got at MGM in 1933

This one isn't much better

The Doctor Takes a Wife (1940 Alexander Hall)

Loretta Young is extremely irritating in the beginning of this comedy, so it's a good job she mellows out, otherwise we both would have punched the TV. Ray Milland good as usual. He was Welsh, did you know? Came to Hollywood (permanently in 1934) with Paramount - thus must have been loaned out for this (Columbia) picture. He was married to Muriel (Mal) Frances Weber from 1932 until his death in 1986 and won his Oscar (and simultaneously Cannes Best Actor) for The Lost Weekend.

With Edmund Gwenn, Gail Patrick, Reginald Denny, Charles Halton.

Written by George Seaton and Ken Englund from a story by Aleen Leslie. "Spinsters Aren't Spinach".