Dream House (2011 Jim Sheridan)

Not, thankfully, one of those silly haunted house shocks and eerie children singing type numbers, plot throws a most confusing bowl a third through that then turns it into something entirely different. In fact I'd love to watch it from the beginning again, this time paying more attention to that odd opening scene at the publishers.

Daniel Craig is charming with real-life sisters Taylor and Claire Geare, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts are the women, and Elias Koteas and Martin Csokas are both familiar to us from here and there as bad guys.

The ending though is slightly loopy, as Craig runs back into burning house to recover his hair dryer (well, something like this, anyway).

East of Eden (1955 Elia Kazan)

Superb use of the CinemaScope frame from Kazan and/or Ted McCord, who lights sensationally - notable use of deep focus in exteriors and interiors; notice also how diffused is the scene where van Fleet and Dean meet properly. In fact it begins in an almost geometric fashion with legendary editor Owen Marks unobtrusively fitting the angles together.

Class act from Warners from Steinbeck's novel, a sort of twisted Cain and Abel story, with the sensational James Dean and Richard Davalos as Raymond Massey's sons, Julie Harris the girl in the middle, Jo Van Fleet the no-good mother and Burl Ives a friendly cop.

Notice also Kazan is doing something distinctive with the father - son scenes with a tilted camera.

Stills packs a bit of a wallop, particularly in scene where Dean loses it with brother.

Music Leonard Rosenman.

The Boat That Rocked (2009 Richard Curtis & scr)

Cut for the acting: look how many reaction shots there are of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Emma Hickox (Anne Coates' daughter) cut it, though arguably it's too edited (more likely Curtis's responsibility). Danny Cohen shot it and it didn't make Q feel sea-sick like last time.

Most enjoyable cast also includes the irrepressible Bill Nighy, Tom Sturridge, Nick Frost, Rhys Ifans, Katherine Parkinson, Chris O'Dowd, Tom Brooke ('thick Kevin', another recognisable Curtis 'type'), Gemma Arterton, Felicity Jones, Talulah Riley, January Jones (didn't notice her), Emma Thompson, Nigel Davenport and a simply sensational Kenneth Branagh.

The ending is a bit yucky in the goes-too-far Curtis way. But still, great fun. And where's Rowan Atkinson?

Mask (1985 Peter Bogdanovich)

Anna Hamilton Phelan has written a very warm script though I wonder if PB had any input - probably.  This - unlike the last one - is distinctly a Peter Bogdanovich Picture, complete with one of his trademark signature extremely long dissolves (this one beginning on a map of Europe).

Eric Stoltz and Cher are fine, Sam Elliott is an actor who does a lot by doing very little. And, when you want a Laura Dern, one comes along.

Quite emotional. And well overdue.

You wouldn't notice Laszlo Kovacs' photography.

A Saintly Switch (1999 Peter Bogdanovich)

Vivica Fox (Kill Bill) and David Alan Grier make a not bad job of being each other in Disney role-switch TV comedy, set in New Orleans and rather refreshingly scored with jazz (Louis Armstrong).

Film is efficient and fun enough, Peter I think enjoying himself with the football scenes.

The fact though that we don't go into the mother's life / career at all is kinda the sexism the film purports to challenge.

Buddy Buddy (1981 Billy Wilder)

Certainly not the turkey the director rated it, but so unloved it's still only available in (non-anamorphic) Spanish print.

Beautifully constructed as always, plenty of smart gags from Billy and Izzy Diamond. Shot by Harry Stradling Jr in Panavision. With Paula Prentiss, Klaus Kinski, Miles Chapin (bellhop) and Joan Shawlee, from Francis Verber play.

Rio Bravo (1959 Howard Hawks)

Previously 24/2/08. I managed to get this on by telling Q it's one of the most cheerful westerns ever made, and it is just great, though the opening moments are still quite shocking (and give the plot its bite). Apparently last time when I watched it on my own as a Sunday morning film, it went on so long 'Q got pissed off and we had a rar. Ended up eating apple turnover and carrot cake'. Well, there you are. It has a particularly friendly action climax.

Much enjoyed those moments that seem improvised, through the reactions of (a) John Wayne as he has kissed Walter Brennan's head (b) Dean Martin reacting again to one of Walter's jokes.

It's beautifully simply filmed - the camera hardly ever moves. And brilliantly written - Jules Furthman (The Big Sleep, To Have and have Not, Shanghai Express, Only Angels Have Wings) and Leigh Brackett (The Big Sleep, El Dorado).

Features John Wayne, Dean Martin (scarily good as alky), Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, Ward Bond, John Russell, Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez, Estelita Rodriguez, Claude Akins. Shot by Mockingbird's Russell Harlan.

Hawks - good old Hawks - was the pioneer of the buddy movie.

Together Again (1944 Charles Vidor)

A real treat to discover this for the first time. Irene Dunne in particular shines, with Charles Boyer, Charles Coburn (in possibly his funniest role), Mona Freeman and Jerome Courtland (great fun as laconic Texan beau; from the sixties was a TV director). And Charles Dingle (from The Little Foxes).

Written by Virginia Van Upp and F. Hugh Herbert, for Columbia; shot by Joe Walker (who nicely lights his rain).

Mother's being a bit 'leapy'.

Soulboy (2010 Shimmy Marcus)

Not terribly well directed or written account of young man (Martin Compston) who joins 1970s Wigan craze for soul music (where suspiciously there are no black people), falling for the wrong girl (Nichola Burley, Death Comes to Pemberley) instead of the right one (Felicity Jones). Also with Alfie Allen, Craig Parkinson (from Indian Summers etc.), Jo Hartley (The Mimic, This is England).

Sort of The Apartment. Very visible plot. Ends up a fifties teen movie, and the final dance-off somehow becomes Enter the Dragon (whether by chance or not).

Made me want to see a film about a northern Chinese takeaway, over the decades.

A Night to Remember (1942 Richard Wallace)

Bad. Feels like it's a kids' Saturday morning serial. Plummy goings-on in Greenwich Village.

Loretta Young, Brian Aherne. Shot by Joseph Walker at Columbia, but still....

The Doctor Takes a Wife (1940 Alexander Hall)

Confirmed spinster - the horse-faced Loretta Young - finds herself 'married' to research physician Ray Milland (who's bouncy in these early comedy roles). Rather interestingly cut for a film of its age (Viola Lawrence: Lady from Shanghai and Only Angels Have Wings) e.g. on dialogue.

Plenty of laughs e.g. scene involving neighbour's apartment. There sure are a lot of people knocking on this couple's door.

With Reginald Gardiner, Gail Patrick, Edmund Gwenn. Shot by Sid Hickox.

Town on Trial (1956 John Guillermin)

John Mills (looking over-tanned as usual for films of this period) in gruff turn as chip-on-shoulder Superintendent who despises small town tennis-club antics whilst trying to solve murder. With Charles Coburn, Barbara Bates, Derek Farr (the faux air force ace), young Alec McCowen (absolutely unrecognisable from Frenzy and Travels with My Aunt), Margaretta Scott (with the wild dancing, yeah?), Raymond Huntley.

Distinguished by lots of police cars pulling up too quickly in front of the camera.

John Jympson (also connected to Frenzy) was the assembly cutter (unusual to see that credit). His interesting credits include:

A French Mistress (1960), Zulu, A Hard Day's Night, The Bedford Incident, Kaleidascope, Where Eagles Dare, Kelly's Heroes, Deadfall and Frenzy and then runs into more disappointing material through the seventies and eighties

Hollywoodland (2006 Allen Coulter)

Paul Bernbaum has written the story of George Reeves' 1950s TV career as Superman, in parallel with Adrien Brody's private eye investigating his death. Has the feel of Chinatown (even down to Marcelo Darvos' music) with undercurrent of police corruption and Studio manipulation, though it presents different versions of events without resolution in a fairly low key style.

Brody is rather good; so is Diane Lane as his married lover. With Ben Affleck, Bob Hoskins, Robin Tunney and Caroline Dhavernas.

Coulter is largely a TV director, with many episodes of The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire to his credit.

Good quip ensues. Q: "You don't see enough of Adrien Brody."
Me: "Not even in his own films."
(A reference to The Thin Red Line from which he was almost completely excised.)

Now Is Good (2012 Ol Parker)

Something stilted about some of the early scenes made me wonder if it was the acting (Jeremy Irvine is questionable) or the dialogue (Parker has adapted Jenny Downham's novel 'Before I Die'). Also, does Dakota Fanning live in the UK now? Or am I thinking of some other American girl who was in that Up North film.... (Yes, you are. That was Elle Fanning, in Ginger and Rosa.)

Paddy Considine and Olivia Williams are the parents, Kaya Scodelario a friend. Olivia is terrific, especially in hospital scenes.

The boy (Edgar Canham) has some good lines e.g.
"When Tessa's dead, can we go on holiday?"

Shot by Erik Wilson.

OK to Good.

The River (1951 Jean Renoir)

Adapted from her somewhat autobiographical novel (1946) by Rumer Godden.

Nora Swinburn and Esmond Knight are the parents of Patricia Walters, Richard Foster etc. Next door lives Thomas Breen and nephew Arthur Shields, and daughter Radha. Adrienne Corri is a wilful friend.

Beautifully lit by Claude Renoir, film has a simple, gentle approach, punctuated by dissolves.

The boy's intense fascination with the cobra is transfixing, as is the story about Krishna / dance sequence. I love the scene where all three girls have received letters from the young man ... but as they hear the new born baby's cries, they all drop them...

Notice how in the scene where Walters and Corri 'grow up' the music changes to classical after being ethnic Indian all the way through.

One of those films that grows on you after you've seen them.

The Young in Heart (1938 Richard Wallace)

A David Selznick production, adapted from the serial 'The Gay Banditti' by Hitchcock regular Charles Bennett, featuring a family of con artists comprising Janet Gaynor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Beulah Bondi and Roland Young, who chance upon old lady Minnie Dupree (one of only two features). Paulette Goddard turns up also.

Quite fun, 'Flying Wombat' etc. Good hearted.

Shot by Leon Shamroy; music Franx Waxman.

The Descendants (2011 Alexander Payne)

Yes, again. It's become one of our favourites.

Interestingly in the extras there's no mention of Faxon and Rash at all, with all the script credit going to Payne.

All the compositions are very carefully worked out. There's a great moment with Krause and Miller dancing in a corridor which is just out of focus.

The Aviator (2004 Martin Scorsese)

Wonderfully recreates the two-strip / three-strip development of Technicolor, managed by Robert Legato as head of vfx on top of Robert Richardson's Oscar-winning Panavision photography (Thelma also won).

Too long, like most of Marty's films. Spectacular crash sequence. Inspired performance of Katharine Hepburn by Cate Blanchett (won Oscar). Investigation scene by Alan Alda (really great; nominated) is neatly turned on itself in writer John Logan's more successful moments (he wrote the equally long Skyfall and Gladiator). Otherwise problem is we don't know anything much about Hughes, or care.

Very interesting sound editing by Oscar-nominees Tom Fleischman and Petur Hiddal in which we're getting cross-dissolves of the (most interesting) music tracks.

Also with Alec Baldwin (who I now find difficult to take seriously, but is having a career renaissance since Woody's latest Blue Jasmine, the Alzheimer's pic Still Alice and Cameron Crowe's new one Aloha), John C Reilly, Jude Law, Kate Beckinsale, Ian Holm and Danny Huston.

Last Year at Marienbad (1961 Alain Resnais)

Some of it, anyway, but does that matter. View film from middle, backwards if you may, it will still work.

One of my favourite bits of editing EVER.

Noticed this time that people keep popping up in a scene where they couldn't possibly be - out of time, out of context....

Hollywood Ending (2002 Woody Allen & scr)

http://nicksfilmjottings.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/hollywood-ending-2002-woody-allen.html

It's very funny and totally underrated.