Reality Bites (1994 Ben Stiller)

There's lots of home video footage in this which later makes it into Winona Ryder's video - though not in the way she wants. She also has to make up her mind between Ben Stiller and Ethan Hawke, whilst friends Steve Zahn and Janeane Garofolo support; John Mahoney an irritating chat show host. Helen Childress's screenplay is only OK and film isn't even particularly distinguished by having Emmanuel Lubezki on camera.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger)

Last seen 12 October 2013 - after some persuasion my wife finally relented to watch it - then was immediately reminded how damn good it is. Halfway through I realised I was wearing Turnbull and Asser boxer shorts - an undergarment of a suitably high quality to match the film. Brilliantly written by Pressburger ("speaking fluent double German") subject matter on politics of war just as timely as ever, though in their case it was an extremely brave thing to pull off in the midst of one.

Scorsese is a big fan - "Every time I revisit the Life and Death of Colonel Blimp it becomes richer, bigger, more moving and more profound". I would add "funnier" as well.

Had to stop myself from repeatedly saying 'This is a brilliant scene' because it applied to every scene.

Evocative music (by Allan Gray) from big band army stuff to love theme (Deborah Kerr's theme). When you consider Gray aka Josef Zmigrod and Pressburger hailed from Austria-Hungary, Alfred Junge from Germany, Walbrook from Austria, and Périnal France, it's an international production indeed.

Douglas Slocombe is dead

Was on the point of being in touch with the 103 year old genius through his former assistant Robin Vidgeon - the trail went cold and now Dougie is also (22 February). Why the fuck don't these guys rate a mention, on the news, for example, or even in The Week?

Obit = http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/23/douglas-slocombe-obituary.

I think my favourites were The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea, Dead of Night, The Man in the White Suit, The Fearless Vampire Killers, The Servant.

Something's Gotta Give (2003 Nancy Meyers & scr)

"Ooo, what a lovely kitchen. How pastely everything is. Doesn't Diane look vanilla?" etc.

Perfectly good, enjoyable film, led to long and interesting discussion about what it must be like to work with an icon like Jack Nicholson, for Keanu Reeves for example, who's not the world's greatest. Actually I think Diane steals the film, Nicholson has gone slightly hammy by this point.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011 Tomas Alfredson)

Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan adapted John Le Carré's novel (he's an exec producer), but the result is rather slow in contrast to The Night Manager, though there's lots to admire. Gary Oldman is in very restrained mode, the lights always reflecting in his glasses. Great cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Ciaran Hinds, Kathy Burke, Stephen Graham, Simon McBurney, Roger Lloyd Pack, Philip Martin Brown.

Well done - music Alberto Iglesias, camera Hoyte van Hoytema, editor Dino Jonsäter. Lots of lateral tracking shots. moody lighting.

I'm normally a fan of jumbled up time, it often provides a richer experience. In this film though I wonder if a chronological approach might have worked better (film is slow and muddy).

I can't really buy Cumberbatch assaulting Hardy though!

The Two Faces of January (2014 Hossein Amini & scr)

It's a well written screenplay, from Patricia Highsmith novel. Like Ripley it suffers from the too early departure of the most likeable character, this time the underrated and fabulous Kirsten Dunst. Also I'm not sure it has the best ending.

Still, handsomely mounted production, set in Greece in 1962, is good and cinematic (quite Hitchcocky). Oscar Isaac and Viggo Mortensen are fine. Music is by Alberto Iglesias, Marcel Zyskind on camera. Nicolas Chaudeurge and Jon Harris editing. Has its own Zippo foley artist.
It was Iranian-born Amini's first feature - he also wrote Drive, Shanghai and The Wings of the Dove.

Features the old buses that Q so dearly loves.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008 Woody Allen & scr)

Fabulous cast comprises Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Patricia Clarkson. The director's use of dissolves - particularly when Rebecca and Javier get together - is inspired - where have we seen it before? I was going to say Godard, but actually I think it's in The Knack. Film is intimate for Woody (Scarlett and Javier, Scarlett and Penelope).

Made almost entirely with a Spanish Crew, led by Javier Aguirresarobe.

Whilst the conclusion tells us that neither of the girls are any different I'm not so sure that's true....

The people of Oviedo certainly loved the film as they commissioned a statue for Woody the year after.

Woody's typeface is "EF WINDSOR Elongated (later edit: or a heavier weight of EF WINDSOR Light Condensed, as some of the readers suggested) by Elsner+Flake foundry" from 1905.
(source: http://kitblog.com/2007/12/woody_allens_typography.html.)

Midnight in Paris (2011 Woody Allen & scr)

Still needing cheerfulness, Woody's love letter to Paris, despite our frequent visits, never tires and is all the more welcome with every passing act of terrorism.

Darius Khondji has his own very distinctive pallette - you could almost recognise his work from it - in this respect he reminds me of Otto Heller.

Rachel McAdams is the American girlfriend, Marion Cotillard the 1920s one, Léa Seydoux the antique dealer.

It's gorgeous.

The Pont Alexandre III

Features lovely track 'Si tu vois ma mère' by Woody's clarinet jazz hero Sidney Bechet; sensational guitar track 'Bistro Fada' by Stephane Wrembel; Cole Porter 'You Do Something' etc.

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (2005 Dan Ireland)

Adapted by him and Martin Donovan, Ireland has delivered a quite cinematic treatment of Elizabeth Taylor's novel - it's not all verbal. Look at the ending for example, when Ludo emerges from hospital to girlfriend Zoe Tapper - he doesn't even have to say anything, and nor does she.

I wanted to see a happier Rupert Friend (who Q describes in this as a 'beautiful horse') opposite a wonderful Joan Plowright in a film that is warm like a welcome hug. Honestly - these people with their own special types of marmalade - I don't know...

The song Rupert beautifully sings to Joan is 'For All We Know', originally performed by Rosemary Clooney (music J Fred Coots, lyrics Sam Lewis).

Homeland Season 5 (2015)

Happened to finish this drama, culminating in  attempted gas attack on Berlin Hauptbahnhof, the day after the bomb attacks on the Brussels airport and train stations - it's "the new normal", as one of the characters refers to it. Loved the way our expectations are challenged as it opens - we're sure the bearded easterner (Atheel Adel) is going to blow up something, but he turns out to be an anti-Islamist hacker, one of the 'good guys'.

Series makes an excellent job of situating the events directly in reality, commenting on many aspects such as the Israeli involvement, faith, freedom of information and so on.

Scenes where Rupert Friend acts as terrorist assassin are great - we love seeing one blown up by his own pipe bomb, for example.

Claire Danes is astounding, Miranda Otto though is also terrific as double-crossing station head. Q was worrying about Rupert Friend every episode. Mandy Patinkin, F Murray Abraham, Sebastian Koch, Sarah Sokolovic, Nina Hoss, Alireza Bayram.

To Catch a Thief (1954 Alfred Hitchcock)

There are many reports from on set that Hitch was barely paying attention during the shooting of several scenes - it was all in his head already. Though if you look at the note he's written to the second unit, published by Truffaut, you can see he's very much focusing on details.

To dismiss it as lightly entertaining fluff would ignore the great skill that has gone into it - there's for example all those great changes of shot set up in even the simplest scenes. Great cast too with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant, John Williams and Jesse Royce Landis; great Robert Burks photography.

Two For the Road (1967 Stanley Donen)

Most brilliantly presented study of marriage in jumbled up time is all the work of screenwriter Frederic Raphael. Chris Challis had adventures with the car in making the photography as real as possible. Henry Mancini underscores the bittersweet series of events perfectly.

Some of the fashions are hilarious.

Partly based on the real travels of Raphael and his wife Sylvia along Route Nationale 6, or as far as Rome, where this was written. He took all the plot elements and wrote them on the back of cards, shuffled them, then wrote the film in the random order of the cards. Donen approached him on the back of Nothing But the Best."I like surprises, and I like to surprise directors."

He doesn't believe in cause and effect but, in an echo of Pressburger "There are coincidences, oddities, contradictions. Everything contributes to the truth of one's life."

Not sure where the hotel is, will find out.

Since this viewing I keep hearing Audrey reciting that nursery rhyme which I think includes '..and didn't get home till early tea' - it's her voice...

Steve Jobs (2015 Danny Boyle)

What you get with an Aaron Sorkin film is lots of articulate conversation and some pithy lines. Enjoyable script is like watching a three act play with the same characters debating the same things at three crucial points in Jobs' career, and particularly how he gets on with his daughter. It's not especially cinematic.

Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet (great; BAFTA winning), Seth Rogan, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg.

Ph. Alwin Küchler, ed Eliot Graham.

The Optimists of Nine Elms (1973 Anthony Simmons)

Simmons also wrote the novel and adapted it with Tudor Gates, better known for Hammer films. He began making documentaries, then the odd feature such as Judi Dench Four in the Morning (1965), ended up directing TV episodes.

Two children, Donna Mullane and John Chaffey, in a grimy riverside Nine Elms, gradually befriend a street entertainer, Peter Sellars. There's something about the depressed setting and the girl's and Sellars' performances that make this so melancholic (she rarely smiles). A melancholy which I loved, I don't know why (like a grey day).

Shot by Ian Pizer with lots of footage put together well by John Jympson. The busker with the budgerigars (Don Crown) is amazing.

The music, fittingly enough, was by George Martin, who died on March 8.

The Lady Vanishes (1938 Alfred Hitchcock)

Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Dame May Whitty, Paul Lukas, Cecil Parker, Linden Travers, Naunton Wayne, Basil Radford, Googie Withers.

Nice to see on Blu-Ray but film hasn't actually been restored, as such.

It's very funny ("After all, people don't go around tying up nuns"). To begin with it could be a romantic comedy. Ethel Lina White wrote 'The Wheel Spins' and it's been adapted by Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder, Alma and Hitch. One of his most entertaining films doesn't actually have much 'Hitchcocky' stuff going on (no bravura camera moves, for example) but is briskly paced and thrilling.

Up (2009 Pete Docter, Bob Peterson)

The first eleven, silent minutes of this film - a life story - is absolutely wonderful, so cinematic, and so moving. In fact the whole film is very cinematic and behaves more like a live action film than an animation - much to its credit. It even looks properly lit.

Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai and Bob Peterson are the main voices.

It also seems to have a lot going on in the deceptively simple story, such as letting go and starting afresh.

The music by Michael Giacchino won Oscar and it was of course also the winner for best animated film. The screenplay and sound editing also were nominated. (The best sound effect is when the boy is dragged along the airship's window.)

On that opening:

Bob Peterson originally wrote a series of very short scenes, two or three on a page with dialogue, and the characters were completing each other's sentences and other snippets that showed how well matched they were. And as we went into storyboard, Ronnie Del Carmen, who was our head of story, took on that sequence at the beginning and said, "This would be really great if it was silent." We sort of resisted for a while, but it was a classic case of, as I believe Mark Twain said, "I didn't have time for a short letter, so I wrote you a long one." Over time, we were able to know what we absolutely needed to see in the scene, and what we could cut out.

Thanks to LA Times for the complete discussion

Run Fatboy Run (2007 David Schwimmer)

Michael Ian Black, Simon Pegg.

I think Hank Azaria is miscast and should have a good career playing bad guys. As it stands we don't really get why Thandie Newton would be interested in him. The character needs to be played by Jude Law or someone.

For me, Harish Patel steals the film as Mr Goshdashtidar. It's also nice to see Dylan Moran again. Peter Serafinowicz is the elusive newsreader.

We hear Bowie on the soundtrack and see him on Pegg's t-shirt. He's everywhere.

Adventureland (2009 Greg Mottola & scr)

Actually this all arose because I saw Richard Ayoade being very funny about Robert Redford, but the really funny thing was how much Jesse Eisenberg was cracking up:

Anyway, he's a great actor and his talents are well displayed here in unusual story about the most honest of young men and his tribulations with girlfriend Kristen Stewart, her lover Ryan Reynolds (it's reminiscent of The Apartment in plotting), 'other woman' Margarita Levieva, arsehole 'friend' Matt Bush etc. Familiar faces in Kristen Wiig (who's actually doing exactly the same bit of acting from Knocked Up), Bill Hader, Martin Starr.

Terry Stacey (50/50, Dear John, P.S. I Love You, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) on camera, Anne McCabe editing.

As Young As You Feel (1951 Harmon Jones)

Billed now as a Marilyn Monroe film (she's low billed - it was her seventh film, and after All About Eve - though she still makes an impression), Paddy Chayefsky's story (adapted by Lamar Trotti) tells of independent printer (Monty Wooley) and his battle to save from redundancy by impersonating the head of the corporation. Complications ensue, especially with boss's wife Constance Bennett.

With David Wayne and Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter and Allyn Joslyn (who kept sounding like Richard Dreyfuss), and featuring a young Russ Tamblyn. Shot by Joe MacDonald and scored by Cyril Mockridge, for Fox.

Well-meaning film messages 'value the old' - what were employment laws like for 65s then?

Film is OK and quite pleasing, like a cheese and tomato sandwich in white bread.

Serious Moonlight (2009 Cheryl Hinds)

Adrienne Shelly is even more down on her characters here than in Waitress - maybe she's punishing the stupid, unattractive romantic triangle of Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton and Kristen Bell (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) deliberately - a sort of anti-infidelity film? Though if so she leaves the film's most repellant character, a violent burglar who's inches from adding rape and murder to his repertoire, completely scott free - maybe this is the character who killed her in real life, shaped post-script?

I don't know, but while watching it I remember seeing Michael Haneke's disturbing and controversial Funny Games (1997) one Sunday morning and found it a walk in the park in contrast - maybe because you know Haneke is telling us something (even though he's a notoriously opaque lesson-giver). So if my assumption about the underlying message is right, maybe all this needs is a Haneke, not Hines, whose only film this was and who was also in Shelly's Waitress.

Tough going though; the only 'humour' comes from a man being scotch-taped to a toilet (where he's repeatedly assaulted); at least it's mercifully short.