Scr Frank S Nugent, novel Alan le May
John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond ('Rev'), Natalie Wood, John Qualen, Henry Brandon (Scar), Hank Worden (Mose), Patrick Wayne (the young lieutenant).
Incredible photography Winton C. Hoch. You can tell Ford was a silent director - whole film works without dialogue. Simple filming. Wayne is starting to soften when he covers up dead squaw / wife. Picks Wood up like he did the child. Amusing letter sequence. Really good.
Saturday, 29 September 2012
Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo / The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966 Sergio Leone)
The Quantum Leap for Leone (seriousness, scale).
It seems only right to watch Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo while reading Christopher Frayling's excellent 'Once Upon a Time in Italy', which acknowledges the contribution of production designer Carlo Simi to the Leone classics. This is certainly an epic western, in the production of which the bridge was blown up twice (due to an Italian-Spanish misunderstanding).
Eli Wallach is the heart of the film (it's perhaps his best performance), chosen not on the back of The Magnificent Seven but because Leone saw him being playful with children in How the West Was Won, and in the train / handcuff scene it's not a double (the train comes close to taking his head off). And his growl at the spectators to his lynching is a genuine out-of-character response that Leone left in.
Leone, it seems, liked his duels in circles: Simi guessed at some psychological reasons but didn't ask. But Leone was very sensitive as well, it seems - he cut the ending of Giu La Testa because someone stood up before the film had ended - Sit Down You Sucker!
Damaged people (prison camp and bridge scene), emotional reunion of Tuco and his brother Luigi Pistilli (Illustrious Corpses ) (who didn't speak a word of English), the perfection of the shots in the final duel (he was very technical, and filmed many takes). The mocking Morricone.
"There are two types of people..."
"Every gun makes its own tune."
Footnote whilst cleaning, 12 October 2017:
"Leone was inspired in TGTB&TU by photographs of the horrible condition of Civil War camps like Andersonville but also had in mind Nazi concentration camps in the scene where the cries of tortured prisoners is drowned out by the orchestra. The scenes of prison camps have a double impact, both questioning America's official line on the Civil War (it is striking how few westerns emphasize Civil War prison camps) and commenting on the eternal recurrence of wartime atrocities by bringing twentieth century political touchstones into a nineteenth century story."
'The Art of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West: A Critical Appreciation' by John Fawell.
Not sure Frayling picked up on that specifically, and the above is unsubstantiated (though I'm sure I've heard of this elsewhere)... I guess I need to read his 'Something To Do With Death' next...
It seems only right to watch Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo while reading Christopher Frayling's excellent 'Once Upon a Time in Italy', which acknowledges the contribution of production designer Carlo Simi to the Leone classics. This is certainly an epic western, in the production of which the bridge was blown up twice (due to an Italian-Spanish misunderstanding).
Eli Wallach is the heart of the film (it's perhaps his best performance), chosen not on the back of The Magnificent Seven but because Leone saw him being playful with children in How the West Was Won, and in the train / handcuff scene it's not a double (the train comes close to taking his head off). And his growl at the spectators to his lynching is a genuine out-of-character response that Leone left in.
Leone, it seems, liked his duels in circles: Simi guessed at some psychological reasons but didn't ask. But Leone was very sensitive as well, it seems - he cut the ending of Giu La Testa because someone stood up before the film had ended - Sit Down You Sucker!
Damaged people (prison camp and bridge scene), emotional reunion of Tuco and his brother Luigi Pistilli (Illustrious Corpses ) (who didn't speak a word of English), the perfection of the shots in the final duel (he was very technical, and filmed many takes). The mocking Morricone.
"There are two types of people..."
"Every gun makes its own tune."
Footnote whilst cleaning, 12 October 2017:
"Leone was inspired in TGTB&TU by photographs of the horrible condition of Civil War camps like Andersonville but also had in mind Nazi concentration camps in the scene where the cries of tortured prisoners is drowned out by the orchestra. The scenes of prison camps have a double impact, both questioning America's official line on the Civil War (it is striking how few westerns emphasize Civil War prison camps) and commenting on the eternal recurrence of wartime atrocities by bringing twentieth century political touchstones into a nineteenth century story."
'The Art of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West: A Critical Appreciation' by John Fawell.
Not sure Frayling picked up on that specifically, and the above is unsubstantiated (though I'm sure I've heard of this elsewhere)... I guess I need to read his 'Something To Do With Death' next...
The Long Memory (1952 Robert Hamer)
Written by Hamer and Frank Hardy from a novel by Howard Clewes.
Tons of location atmosphere in moody Kent seafront and night silent towns, a revenge tale with a wonderfully (and uncharacteristically) terse John Mills seeking out Pimlico's John Slater and ex Elizabeth Sellars, whilst real culprit John Chandos and henchman John Horsely appear to be gay (Horsely is Doc Morrissey, no less!)
Eva Bergh (not much of a career) is the refugee, Geoffrey Keene a helpful journalist, John McCallum the investigator. Also, Thora Hird, Laurence Naismith, Peter Jones.
Shot by Harry Waxman, music William Alwyn.
Good framing, deep focus, moments cut to dramatic music like 'The Haunted Mirror' e.g. terse Mills seen through letterbox. Final hurrah to Michael Martin Harvey who I knew would save the day, though frankly film would have worked as well with a downbeat ending.
Top marks to Eagle Eye Qued who in one second identified 11 year old Christopher Beeny as Edward in Upstairs Downstairs.
A Europa film.
Also liked some of the angles, e.g. Mills and Bergh head to head. Two stars in Radio Times? Fuck off.
Johnny: "It would have been better if Hamer had laid off the sauce. He twice walked backwards into the Thames with viewfinder in eye!"
Tons of location atmosphere in moody Kent seafront and night silent towns, a revenge tale with a wonderfully (and uncharacteristically) terse John Mills seeking out Pimlico's John Slater and ex Elizabeth Sellars, whilst real culprit John Chandos and henchman John Horsely appear to be gay (Horsely is Doc Morrissey, no less!)
Eva Bergh (not much of a career) is the refugee, Geoffrey Keene a helpful journalist, John McCallum the investigator. Also, Thora Hird, Laurence Naismith, Peter Jones.
Shot by Harry Waxman, music William Alwyn.
Good framing, deep focus, moments cut to dramatic music like 'The Haunted Mirror' e.g. terse Mills seen through letterbox. Final hurrah to Michael Martin Harvey who I knew would save the day, though frankly film would have worked as well with a downbeat ending.
Top marks to Eagle Eye Qued who in one second identified 11 year old Christopher Beeny as Edward in Upstairs Downstairs.
A Europa film.
Also liked some of the angles, e.g. Mills and Bergh head to head. Two stars in Radio Times? Fuck off.
Johnny: "It would have been better if Hamer had laid off the sauce. He twice walked backwards into the Thames with viewfinder in eye!"
Sunday, 23 September 2012
Cavalcade (1933 Frank Lloyd)
Cavalcade is like an early version of This Happy Breed (Noel Coward was 33). Diana Wynyard (one of those stare into the distance breed), Clive Brook, Una O'Connor, Herbert Mundin, Beryl Mercer, Merle Tottenham, Ursula Jeans. Wynyard though Oscar nominated - and film, Lloyd and art direction won.
Directed by the unremarkable Lloyd, with a memorable war montage by (William) Cameron Menzies and shot by Ernest Palmer (it is actually a US production, for Fox, so that probably is the American Ernest Palmer not the British one).
The stripy seaside entertainer could be straight out of Family Guy.
Directed by the unremarkable Lloyd, with a memorable war montage by (William) Cameron Menzies and shot by Ernest Palmer (it is actually a US production, for Fox, so that probably is the American Ernest Palmer not the British one).
The stripy seaside entertainer could be straight out of Family Guy.
Saturday, 15 September 2012
The Woman in the Fifth (2011 Pawel Pawlikowski)
We were somewhat baffled and disappointed by Pawel Pawlikowski's treatment of Douglas Kennedy's The Woman in the Fifth. It was stunningly directed, but to no avail in audience-defying 'wh'appen?' plot.
Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas and Joanna Kulig, plus Samir Guesmi.
Why pick that book??
Ph. Ryszard Lenczewski, music Max de Wardener.
Shame, as it begins so well. Love the way he hangs on to certain shots a bit longer than you'd expect.
Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas and Joanna Kulig, plus Samir Guesmi.
Why pick that book??
Ph. Ryszard Lenczewski, music Max de Wardener.
Shame, as it begins so well. Love the way he hangs on to certain shots a bit longer than you'd expect.
Monday, 3 September 2012
My Summer of Love (2004 Pawel Pawlikowski)
I was wondering what happened to Pawel Pawlikowski after winning Newcomer BAFTA for The Last Resort (2001) and film BAFTA for My Summer of Love. He'd shot 60% of black comedy The Restraint of Beasts ('Looks great, like nothing I've ever done or seen before') when wife became seriously ill. He quit to look after her and kids but she died a few months later. Then he was supposed to be making a Stalin film for Film 4. Now at least has finished Douglas Kennedy adaptation.
Anyway My Summer was feature debut of Natalie Press (Wasp) and Emily Blunt, and the style is quite distinctive (our fave moments: the girls disappear into gorse, then a puff of smoke; Natalie showing how her ex made love).
Shot by Ryszard Lenczewski, music Will Gregory & Alison Goldfrapp.
Sweet and sour.
Paddy Considine was also in Last Resort. Both leads fab. Sense of summer and place well caught. Can't be England though as it doesn't rain once. Intimate close-ups.
Anyway My Summer was feature debut of Natalie Press (Wasp) and Emily Blunt, and the style is quite distinctive (our fave moments: the girls disappear into gorse, then a puff of smoke; Natalie showing how her ex made love).
Shot by Ryszard Lenczewski, music Will Gregory & Alison Goldfrapp.
Sweet and sour.
Paddy Considine was also in Last Resort. Both leads fab. Sense of summer and place well caught. Can't be England though as it doesn't rain once. Intimate close-ups.
Sunday, 2 September 2012
Young Victoria (2009 Jean-Marc Vallée)
An accidental double-bill of Jim Broadbent films. In Young Victoria he has a short but powerful part as King William. Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend are perfect as the young couple, great support from Mark Strong, Miranda Richardson, Paul Bettany and Harriet Walter as Queen Adelaide. Had forgotten Julian Fellowes wrote it and Scorsese co-produced.
The Director is a Canadian whose previous film C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) was very well received.
Hagen Bogdanski's lighting is very natural (The Lives of Others ), and apart from the totally inappropriate pop ballad that accompanies the end credits, my only critique is to say it's a bit like eating a fabulous meal but still feeling hungry afterwards.
The Director is a Canadian whose previous film C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) was very well received.
Hagen Bogdanski's lighting is very natural (The Lives of Others ), and apart from the totally inappropriate pop ballad that accompanies the end credits, my only critique is to say it's a bit like eating a fabulous meal but still feeling hungry afterwards.
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
The Boys are Back (2009 Scott Hicks)
We watch an interesting double bill about men dealing with the loss of their wives!
Clive Owen does so by building relationships with his two sons, in somewhat unconventional ways, amongst South Australian scenery, directed by Shine's Scott Hicks. The boys younger and older are Nicholas McAnulty and George Mackay, with Emma Booth and Laura Fraser.
Written by Allan Cubitt from Simon Carr's novel.
Clive Owen does so by building relationships with his two sons, in somewhat unconventional ways, amongst South Australian scenery, directed by Shine's Scott Hicks. The boys younger and older are Nicholas McAnulty and George Mackay, with Emma Booth and Laura Fraser.
Written by Allan Cubitt from Simon Carr's novel.
The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971 Robert Fuest)
Taking a rather different approach to dealing with the loss of his wife (in our double bill), an almost silent Vincent Price takes grisly revenge on the doctors who he considered murdered her (Caroline Munro in stills only), with much humour ("I'm a headshrink!")
Is this the most elegant horror film ever? Former artist and art director Fuest and his a.d. Bernard Reeves cram every frame with beautiful art deco detail, even down to the cups, all handsomely lit by Norman Warwick.
AIP.
Is this the most elegant horror film ever? Former artist and art director Fuest and his a.d. Bernard Reeves cram every frame with beautiful art deco detail, even down to the cups, all handsomely lit by Norman Warwick.
AIP.
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
Avanti (1972 Billy Wilder)
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| Juliet Mills on the terrace of the Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria, Sorrento, doubling for Ischia |
Brilliantly written by Wilder and IAL Diamond - "The black socks... was it because you were in mourning?" From a play by Samuel A Taylor.
Carlo Rustichelli is only credited as music arranger leading me to infer that the properly catchy melodies are all Italian traditionals.
Notice the brilliant, silent movie opening. Plenty of jokes at the expense of America (and Italy and GB too, come to that). 'Will and Kate Carlucci'. Pippo Franco is Qued's wonderful mortuary guy. So well constructed. Use of 'avanti', three coffins, 'weight problem' etc.
Can't argue with Cameron Crowe: "The prize of Wilder's later-period work." This beautifully constructed, wonderfully written jewel of a film is unfairly undervalued and all but unknown.
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| The hotel set is very clearly modelled on the Excelsior's actual decor |
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| A view of the front of the hotel - still very much as it is today |
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| Only a few scenes were actually filmed on Ischia - for example, the morgue, harbour and burial scenes, Actually I don't know that! Does anyone? |
More Avanti
Monday, 28 May 2012
Chinatown (1974 Roman Polanski)
Just the one Oscar, for writer Robert Towne (though Polanski worked so extensively on the script that he reportedly could have claimed co-author credit), but the film was up against Godfather II, Lenny, Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More, Day for Night and The Conversation in all other categories.
Trademark skilful use of sound.
Also hadn't realised quite how good Faye Dunaway is.
Still there are mysteries - whose glasses are they?
Sam O'Steen is the editor and Jerry Goldsmith's memorable score was apparently written in 10 days.
Wide lenses put you right in the action, as does camera in back of car (John A Alonzo).
With Jack Nicholson, John Huston, Perry Lopez (cop).
Trademark skilful use of sound.
Also hadn't realised quite how good Faye Dunaway is.
Still there are mysteries - whose glasses are they?
Sam O'Steen is the editor and Jerry Goldsmith's memorable score was apparently written in 10 days.
Wide lenses put you right in the action, as does camera in back of car (John A Alonzo).
With Jack Nicholson, John Huston, Perry Lopez (cop).
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Fellini Roma (1972 Federico Fellini & co-scr)
Co-written with Bernardino Zapponi.
Peter Gonzales Falcon, Anna Magnani.
Music Nino Rota, ph. Giuseppe Rotunno.
Astonishing film with a lot of funny dialogue and a very disrespectful cabaret audience. Many amazing moments: religious fashion show, dissolving frescoes, final city tour on motorbikes. Shadows of dogs, couple reflected in tunnel...
It is brilliantly shot.
Could only be a Fellini.
Though we didn't love the English HOH subtitles e.g. 'dog barks'. Film though is supposed to be 128 mins and the DVD is 114.
Sunday, 15 April 2012
Rebecca (1940 Alfred Hitchcock)
A double bill of Hitchcocks. There's quite a bit to be said about REBECCA. For example, it contradicts the theory that Citizen Kane invented cinema. Like Kane, this begins with the camera gliding through Manderley's gates followed by some clever trick photography / model work.
The acting is great and quite rightly Olivier, Fontaine and Judith Anderson (who virtually steals the show) were nominated, along with Hitch, Franz Waxman (who appears to be using an organ at points and is thus being quite experimental: a great score), writers Robert E Sherwood and Joan Harrison ("I am Mrs. de Winter now!") and editor Hal Kern. George Barnes throws lovely shadows everywhere and there's a great curtain-drawing shot in Rebecca's bedroom. Does the second Mrs De W. have a first name?
Gladys Cooper and Nigel Bruce aren't in it enough, Leo G. Carroll just enough, George Sanders is beastly and Florence Bates ghastly. Reginald Denny as the estate manager is perhaps the weak link. C. Aubrey appears too.
Also, Bates to Fontaine:
"Have you been doing something you shouldn't?"
Oddly, it's not particularly Hitchcocky, as opposed to Q's choice:
The acting is great and quite rightly Olivier, Fontaine and Judith Anderson (who virtually steals the show) were nominated, along with Hitch, Franz Waxman (who appears to be using an organ at points and is thus being quite experimental: a great score), writers Robert E Sherwood and Joan Harrison ("I am Mrs. de Winter now!") and editor Hal Kern. George Barnes throws lovely shadows everywhere and there's a great curtain-drawing shot in Rebecca's bedroom. Does the second Mrs De W. have a first name?
Gladys Cooper and Nigel Bruce aren't in it enough, Leo G. Carroll just enough, George Sanders is beastly and Florence Bates ghastly. Reginald Denny as the estate manager is perhaps the weak link. C. Aubrey appears too.
Also, Bates to Fontaine:
"Have you been doing something you shouldn't?"
Oddly, it's not particularly Hitchcocky, as opposed to Q's choice:
Rear Window (1954 Alfred Hitchcock)
Despite its striking visual nature, John Michael Hayes' script should not be undervalued (e.g. Thelma Ritter predicting the Wall Street crash).
It's from his fade to black period.
Contains Hitch's grisliest murder, but there's no corpse nor drop of blood in sight (nor even a murder!)
Love that slow motion kiss, and the varying states of relationships through the windows.
Sunday, 1 January 2012
Queen of Spades (1948 Thorold Dickinson)
Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans, Yvonne Mitchell, Ronald Howard
Ph. Otto Heller
Music Georges Auric
Clock stops as she dies.
Ph. Otto Heller
Music Georges Auric
Clock stops as she dies.
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie (1972 Luis Buñuel)
Written by Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière, Oscar-nominated (won BAFTA), winner of the Best Foreign Film Oscar and BAFTA. Interestingly didn't pick up French Oscars or Cannes prizes.
Fabulous cast: Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Bulle Ogier, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Paul Frankeur, Julien Berthau (Monsignor).
Photographed by Edmond Richard.
Most enjoyed performances. Very funny. Dreams in dreams (soldier). Inspired The Meaning of Life? (Probably.)
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Taxi Driver (1976 Martin Scorsese)
Scorsese was so lucky to get Herrmann's last great score. According to Time Out his "remarkable score was completed hours before his death in December 1975".
The naturalistic sound effects are great - you often feel you are in the café etc.
Powell's red! Vertigo's green and red! French!
Probably Scorsese's best film - he needs to go back to this.
19 September 2010
Again. It seemed very French this time. A work of genius. He should have won the Oscar for this (not even nominated, naturally.)
Everyone's in it (Harvey Keitel, Albert Brooks, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle, Jodie Foster...)
19 June 2010
(While the Q sang to herself in the bar.)
It made me think of killers like Derek Bird (Cumbria shootist) - he even tries to shoot himself in the end.
It also made be think of influence on Tarantino, especially where Scorsese is in the back of the taxi.
The last shots of Shepherd in the rear view mirror in a sea of light are absolutely beautiful (Michael Chapman):
Scorsese's list of influences is remarkable: Godard, Fassbinder's Merchant of Four Seasons (for the blocking: arrangement of actors in the frame), Francesco Rosi's Salvatore Giuliano (1962), Louis Malle's Le Feu Follet (The Fire Within) (1963; to look like this but in colour), The Wrong Man (camera moves, guilt and paranoia) and Jack Hazan's A Bigger Splash (1973) with David Hockney for its square on framing. And film noir, which he expressly states runs from Double Indemnity to Kiss Me Deadly.
What's surprising is how little Jodie Foster is in it.
In Tarantino's Top 10. I wanted to watch it again the next night.
The naturalistic sound effects are great - you often feel you are in the café etc.
Powell's red! Vertigo's green and red! French!
Probably Scorsese's best film - he needs to go back to this.
19 September 2010
Again. It seemed very French this time. A work of genius. He should have won the Oscar for this (not even nominated, naturally.)
Everyone's in it (Harvey Keitel, Albert Brooks, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle, Jodie Foster...)
19 June 2010
(While the Q sang to herself in the bar.)
It made me think of killers like Derek Bird (Cumbria shootist) - he even tries to shoot himself in the end.
It also made be think of influence on Tarantino, especially where Scorsese is in the back of the taxi.
The last shots of Shepherd in the rear view mirror in a sea of light are absolutely beautiful (Michael Chapman):
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What's surprising is how little Jodie Foster is in it.
In Tarantino's Top 10. I wanted to watch it again the next night.
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| Scorsese driven by de Niro, shot by Steve Schapiro. |
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Top Boy (2011 Yann Demange, writer Ronan Bennett)
Demange had made Criminal Justice (2009), Dead Set, Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Bennett had written Hidden, Public Enemies (Johnny Depp, gangster), 10 Days to War, Face (1997).
With Malcolm Kumelete (the young RaNell), Sharon Duncan Brewster (mum), Kierston Wareing (Luther, The Shadow Line, 5 Daughters, Fish Tank), Ashely Walters (top dog) and Kane Robinson, Giacomo Mancini (RaNell's friend).
Photographed by Tat Radcliffe (My Family and Other Animals, Casanova, The Shadow Line) in a particularly green pallette. Very good music by Brian Eno.
More than an echo of Mean Streets (not, as some would have it, a British The Wire).
Saturday, 5 November 2011
Tree of Life (2011 Terence Malick & scr)
Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler.
Photographed by Emmanuel Lubezki. Music by Alexandre Desplat.
Hypnotic event, giant. How does Malick get the performances out of the boys? Utterly extraordinary and unlike anything else, though made me think of Tarkovsky a lot. Sean Penn's in this film. Also amazingly edited, plus roving Steadicam gives it intense momentum.
P.S. 3/11/23. Wonder how much I'd still like it after Song To Song...
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