On Approval (1944 Clive Brook and scr, prod)

We might start with Who is Clive Brook? (The actor in Frankenstein I was trying to remember is Colin Clive.) Well despite that slightly odd accent he was British. This was one of his last films, having started out on stage and in films since 1920 - von Sternberg's Underworld and Shanghai Express, The Four Feathers, Cavalcade and a 1929 incarnation  of Sherlock Holmes (The Return Of..) This was his only time as screen writer and director, adapting a play by Frederick Lonsdale. And he's done a good job of opening it out and making it breezy and cinematic. e.g. in playful opening which contrasts current fashion with Victorian culture, and in a bizarre dream sequence which is like something by Cocteau.

Brook's similarly impoverished friend Roland Culver fancies Beatrice Lillie (though it's hard to see why), whilst her 'American' friend Googie Withers (no accent at all) fancies Brook. In quite racy material for its time (it was 'Adult' rated!) the quartet end up on a Scottish castle on a remote island...

It's like a slightly below-par Lubitsch, good fun.

Photographed by Claude Friese-Greene, music by William Alwyn, editing by Fergus McDonell.

Arthur (1981 Steve Gordon & scr)

Have we really not seen this since 2012? I don't believe it. Dudley is fun clowning around - viz. scene where he balances glass on car bumper - and many of his scenes are improvised, such as the meeting with the scary Burt Johnson (Stephen Elliott - 'Where's the rest of this moose? This is a tough room') but actually he's rather good in sober moments - and indeed he seems too pissed for too long in places. But that is a cavil and let's face it, he's out-acted first by Liza Minnelli - who's great - and especially by John Gielgud - who's fantastic, and won an Oscar ('They smile at lunch time' is I think my favourite line).

Steve Gordon at least lived long enough to see his film become a huge success - he would not have liked the sequel (or the remake). Something reassuringly old-fashioned about it too, e.g. the florist's line 'She gave me a smile and by Baltimore I was a dead duck'. Also scene where Arthur goes to the wrong flat is almost like a W.C. Fields moment. (And, moment with horse - The Lady Eve?) Lovely, funny, insane writing - in a way it's the forerunner of Pretty Woman.

With Geraldine Fitzgerald as Aunt Martha, Ted Ross as Bitterman, Jill Eikenberry the unfortunate Susan Johnson, Barney Martin the useless father.

Shot in a diffused style by Fred Schuler. Burt Bacharach wrote the music including for the Oscar-winning theme song 'Best That You Can Do'.

Saint Jack (1979 Peter Bogdanovich & co-scr)

Funny that I first watched the film with my father (8th March 1983), who I spent much of the day retrieving from hospital. This is the glorious Blu-Ray version, of which Scorpion released only 1500 copies - why? It won the Critics' Prize at the Venice Film Festival but is another in the 'who the hell's seen it?' category with three reviews on Amazon (just 21 on IMDB). Now that we have a great copy no doubt we'll watch it over and over.

Ben Gazzara is the Saint of the title - what will become of him? And ex-pat Denholm Elliott (always great at lending seedy charm to things - only here he isn't at all seedy) takes to him at once - a cut above his horrendous countrymen James Villiers, Rodney Bewes and Joss Ackland. Apart from these (OK and Lazenby, and Peter himself) there isn't a professional in the cast, and many of the crew are clearly local.

In many ways a companion piece of They All Laughed - in that Robby Muller shot both in a sort of guerilla style, and that they are very much of a time and place (much of this Singapore is now gone, making the final shot all the more telling) and that the music is all naturally occurring. Only despite Jack seemingly knowing and liking everyone, unlike the later film there's no romance.

Based on Paul Theroux novel, originally screenwritten by Cybill Shepherd, then Howard Sackler (playwright) with Peter adding in local colour and on-the-spot ideas. It's consistently amusing and interesting and funny - origins of Singapore and Hooker, for example. And political (whorehouses for servicemen; blackmail plot).

We love the way that Peter does two things at once in a scene (or shot) - near the end with himself, Ben and Monica Subramanian it's actually three things at once.

A Roger Corman New World picture.

One Day Since Yesterday (2014 Bill Teck)

This was in a card Dorothy wrote to Peter just before she was killed.

So, Peter was a bit of a hot head and came over as arrogant. Dorothy would come up to him in meetings if he was being shouty and whisper in his ear 'Remember your heart' and that would make him laugh. Indeed it seemed she positively infected him with good humour and that's perhaps why the film is so fizzy. That he was able to complete it at all (sobbing during dailies) is a remarkable achievement and - as someone comments - you wouldn't know from the finished film.

In an emotional whirl he decided to buy the film back and release it. Here I didn't know, there were good reviews and strong runs, but he ran out of money. You have to have a marketing budget. And people just had it in for the boy wonder, even after Dorothy's murder. See the vile New York Times review for evidence.

Lots of interesting things are revealed. Peter and Patti had a little fling. Benny had clinical depression throughout filming. And he and Peter were estranged after filming. The secretary Linda McEwan was Peter's secretary. She and Sean had a fling (see - the title should have been Everybody's Bopping). The Bruce Springsteen song removed from Mask was emotionally significant to Peter (this is the only point in the film where he breaks up) and this is why he sued the studio - another not good move. What a fan Quentin is - he even knows trailers for God's sake ('Watch all of Peter's trailers' he says, 'They're like little 'Making of' films'). The great (long take) scene with Ben and Peter's daughters - they're basically talking about Peter and his relationships.

Useful contributions from most of the cast. The most significant omission is that co-writer Blaine is not in the film and not even referred to much, particularly in that role (the shots of the original screenplay show only Peter's name as author). And nice to conclude with She's Funny That Way on location scenes, which Wes and Noah like to think of as the film made straight after They All Laughed.

Blaine in 2011

But, at the time of writing, the Region 1 only DVD of the film has just six reviews on Amazon. Six. Including 'They All Laughed: You Won't' and 'Pretty Poor film'. Some people are fucking idiots - the comments on IMDB support this theory...

Also loved the thought of one of the critics that this was the last of the films of that incredible decade of personal expression in American cinema - the seventies.

Fargo - Season Three (2017 Noah Fawley)

Fargo has a style all its own. Episode 4's use of 'Peter and the Wolf', and the animation of the robot, are to relish. Writer: Monica Beletsky.

Super stylish, deadpan funny (e.g. all the music choices!) Great cast: Ewan McGregor, Carrie Coon (cop), Mary Elizabeth Winstead, David Thewlis (terrific), Michael Stulbarg (Ewan #1's partner of the unfinished sentences!)

Can't look up info mid-season for fear of learning something. But different writers and directors.

The Rest of They All Laughed

Even after a break, film concludes delightfully. It is so well shot and composed and edited that it should be taught in film school. And this is an even greater achievement when you consider the on-the-run way it was filmed. For instance, in the shot where we see Dorothy and Sean run up the City Hall steps and past the camera and at the minute they disappear, John's taxi appears in the background - all in the same shot. Also some of it is extremely thrillery - think Rear Window, for example where John's spying on the house and Dorothy's dog comes over.

An intimate moment for the real life ex-lovers

'They All Laughed' is a George and Ira Gershwin song. Colleen Camp's original songs are really catchy - 'Kentucky Nights' is by Eric Kaz, 'One Day Since Yesterday' by Earl Poole Ball & Peter. And they are also representative of the way all the music occurs naturally.

The Palm Beach Story (1942 Preston Sturges & scr)

It's those great little touches - where Colbert shows McCrea the diamond bracelet the chirping bird in the background changes to a whistle of appreciation.

After a dreadful and ugly TV show ('Paula', for the record) we needed something light and funny. This was our chosen soufflé.

The Rest of Roadies

What have we got? 'Carpet Season' (David Rosen). Retrieving stuff from Finger. 'The All Night Bus Ride' (Cameron) - Phil's story about Lynryd Skynyrd, opening for The Rolling Stones. 'The Corporate Gig' ('Unless you like failure, embrace selective truth' - and 'It's not the pencil, it's the eraser') and 'The Load Out' (both Cameron and Winnie) - Kelly Ann gets her nickname (Pistachio) and we see her movie that's been forming over all the episodes.

Talking of Winnie Holzman, this little Vogue snippet is interesting:

Cameron introduced me to a bunch of people early on. That made all the difference for me. He introduced me to a woman whose name is Kellianne Murphy. He took the name from her for our [character] Kelly Ann, but she’s a completely different person.

She ended up being somebody who I really listened to. She’s a second-generation roadie: Her dad was on a road crew for his whole career. She toured with Fleetwood Mac for, I think, 10 years. I needed to speak to people. All you can hope is that it’ll lend some specificity. It’s not like it’s a documentary about roadies.

Winnie created and wrote the successful teen drama My So-Called Life (Clare Danes) in 1994.

We were very impressed by the cast, especially rapper Machine Gun Kelly and stand up comedian Ron White... but Rafe Spall steals the show ('They Like It Hot was filmed over there').

Finesse Mitchell, Imogen Poots, Machine Gun Kelly, Keisha Castle-Hughes

You feel Cameron's been in this world, loves the music, has followed the bands. And it's also a neat parallel for the making of a film, the feeling of family, but then the wrap. In fact at the end you feel you've been on the road with them, and it makes it harder to leave them.

Thomas Yatsko shot (nine episodes of) it.

'Copy that'.

More Roadies

Great episodes: 'The City Whose Name Must Not be Spoken' - great idea - and how the curse is lifted. The Who concert story is of course true. Writer Hannah Friedman.

Then the super moon in Denver. (David Rosen)
'I'm 90% sure she asked me to see the super moon. Well, 80%.'
'How stoned are you?'
'70%.'

And Double D falling for Janine - but she's there with revenge on her mind. (Cameron and Tom Kapinos.) And Mike Finger.

'I'm not sitting in a tub of butter'.
'I operate very well in these post-coital waters.'

And - Dead Sex - TV show. You have to have sex in nine days otherwise...

Roadies (2016 Cameron Crowe)

We're hooked three episodes in through quintessential Cameron material - though 2 was written by Winnie Holzman it's got Cameron all over it. Luke Wilson has a half finished dream house and likes young women, Carla Gugino is married to another tour producer, Imogen Poots is our cool skateboarding rigger who we know isn't going to leave at the end of 1, Rafe Spall the money man with touch issues.

With Keisha Castle-Hughes (sound mixer - 'You don't know how many times I've been asked "Where's the sound guy?"'), Colson Baker aka Machine Gun Kelly (adopted as baby-sitter), Peter Cambor (pretends to have English accent), Branscombe Richmond (prophetic security guy) Finesse Mitchell and Ron White (Phil).

Three really gets into its stride with a classic Cameron line (forgotten it now), a tripped out Rainn Wilson and a kinetic performance from Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham.

Cluny Brown (1946 Ernst Lubitsch)

A delightful film, written by Samuel Hoffenstein and Elizabeth Reinhardt, from Margery Sharp's novel. Flavoursome Charles Boyer and delightful Jennifer Jones star, and your supporting cast includes Reginald Gardiner (The Man Who Came to Dinner) and Sara Allgood, Peter Lawford, Helen Walker (Brewster's Millions, Nightmare Alley), Reginald Owen, C Aubrey Smith, Richard Haydn, Una O'Conner (effectively playing his mother as a series of coughs), Ernest Cossart (butler), Billy Brown (plumber) and what looks like Pal as the collie.

There's some good, repeated, well timed jokes - one in true Lubitsch style revolving around doors. All shot with the shiny precision of Joe LaShelle.

It's a Fox picture and no Westmores were involved in the production.

The Wedding Planner (2001 Adam Shankman)

The Wedding Planner has a good twist a third through - otherwise it's not especially well written. Jennifer Lopez OK as titular character, Matthew McConaughey better as romantic lead, Judy Greer (Jeff Who Lives at Home, The Descendants, 27 Dresses, Elizabethtown, What Women Want) good as uptight planner, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras is fiancee and Justin Chambers an annoying Italian. (And it's not just his character that's annoying - his accent seems to be frequently located in the West German side of Israel. His father, played by Alex Rocco - GF's Moe Green of all people - has an even worse Italian accent.)

So the twist aside, it's frighteningly predictable. Shot in widescreen by Julio Macat.

20th Century Women (2016 Mike Mills & scr)

Mills made Beginners and this has some of the same visual flair, e.g. in the old photos (though there's no talking dog this time). Annette Bening is an annoying single mother who feels her son Lucas Jade Zumann isn't growing up properly balanced - the irony is that he is. His friend Elle Fanning keeps sneaking in to stay the night. Meanwhile the house is shared by two lodgers - Greta Gerwig as a nutty photographer (who turns him on to feminism) and Billy Crudup as a creative handyman.

There's some neat stuff going on in the music which regularly counterpoints old classics (Rudy Vallee's version of 'As Time Goes By', for example) against late seventies punk (recognised almost none of this). And a Voice of God type narration which knows how the future is going to pan out.

I wasn't sure about Bening's performance but she does come over as properly annoying. The kid is good. (I wish she's stop calling him 'kid'.)

Not sure, overall. Seemed a bit slow? Nevertheless, Oscar-nominated original screenplay (Manchester By the Sea won).

She's Funny That Way (2014 Peter B)

Essentially one of those French sex farces, written by Louise Stratten and Peter - and why not? We need more films that reference Lubitsch. It is very well acted all round and old-fashioned funny. Robbie Collin of the Telegraph liked it - he was about the only one.

"I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls." A true line that could have been written specifically for the delightful Imogen Poots.

Film boasts a ridiculous number of producers. Who needs that many? What did they all do - carry the shopping?

It was a bit of a  flop. Released in the US for three weeks it grossed $111k. Worldwide $5m - $1m of which was in Russia???

Pax Wassermann edited most of the film and Nick Moore did some additional work on it.

'You don't joke in therapy'

They All Laughed (1981 Peter Bogdanovich)

No, no - it wasn't at all annoying that the DVD wouldn't play the last quarter of the film that we really weren't enjoying much. In fact we'd have been better off watching Royal Ascot all day long.

If Q reads this please can she order another copy prontissimo.

Avanti (1972 Billy Wilder)

It was inevitable. In a great film you've seen over and over, and can quote and tell the background stories, it's always a pleasure when you spot something new. In the opening scene on the plane when the pilots are alerted that two men are in the toilet, one, then another, then another come out to have a look. Who's flying the plane?

Jack and Juliet are a dream team. I particularly like her reaction shots as they're driving through Ischia (or wherever they are).

Also should mention lower down the cast list Gianfranco Barra (as Bruno), Franco Angrisano (chief negotiating Trotta), Guidarino Guidi (Maitre d' - 'Can I have the apple peeled for you?'), Giacomo Rizzo (barman) and Harry Ray (Dr. Fleischmann - makeup artist on many things including The Odd Couple, How To Murder Your Wife, Kotch, The April Fools, The Apartment and this!)

It's also a text book example of how to choose shot sizes to great effect e.g. morgue scene.

Is this from the upper floor of the Grand Hotel Vittoria Exclesior?

My Week With Marilyn (2011 Simon Curtis)

Well written by Adrian Hodges and based on Colin Clark's actual memoir, the film is sadder and sweeter than I remembered. Michele Williams really is fantastic, and it exposes some of the truth behind the Marilyn myth ('Shall I give them her?' she whispers to Eddie before doing the MM bit to Windsor Palace staff - the scene here with Derek Jacobi is wonderful.)

Should it have been shot in widesceen (Ben Smithard)?

Michele and Kenneth were Oscar and BAFTA nominated and she won the Golden Globe.

With Julia Ormond, Judi Dench, Dominic Cooper, Michael Kitchen, Zoe Wanamaker, Philip Jackson, Emma Watson (perfect), Toby Jones, Jim Carter (I know - who's not in the film?), Geraldine Somerville (for two seconds), Pip Torrens. Good makeup and hair - Marc Pilchard - OK, Pilcher.

I would have loved to have written this - Clark himself died in 2002 at 70 and thus didn't live to see it.

Mona Lisa (1986 Neil Jordan)

Well written film by Jordan and David Leland often had me thinking of the prince in shining armour coming to rescue the damsel(s) in distress - only set in an ultra seedy world of prostitution, resided over by crime boss Michael Caine. All acting terrific and convincing - Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Robbie Coltrane, Zoe Nathanson (daughter), Clarke Peters, Kate Hardie. Noticed a few little digs at religion, too.

There are some terrific scenes which lurch into explosion, such as the opening (attempting to see daughter) or the bust up between Bob and Cathy where she starts hitting him. But there's also a welcome vein of humour throughout, particularly between author Coltrane and Hoskins ('How's your tall thin black story?')

It's all very stylishly shot by Roger Pratt and the reinvention of the theme music as it progresses is a good touch (reminds me of Altman's Long Goodbye) - Michael Kamen. Lesley Walker edited (Shadowlands, All Or Nothing, Gilliam films). Had me thinking of Taxi Driver more than once, particularly in ending.

Charlie Bartlett (2007 John Poll)

An exuberant performance by Anton Yelchin (perhaps not as effective when being winsome) carries well-written tale of popularity and family. Gustin Nash also wrote Youth In Revolt, then didn't.

Well played by Hope Davis, Robert Downey, Kat Dennings, Tyler Hilton (bully), Mark Rendall (suicide).

It's funny.

The Heat (2013 Paul Feig)

The crude female humour of Bridesmaids is channelled into cop story - it belongs better there - this film isn't as repellent, perhaps because this time Katie Dippold wrote it, a writer / editor for Parks and Recreation. Having said that, it's a formula plot in which the uptight cop Sandra Bullock is humanised by Melissa McCarthy, but quite fun in the dumb way of so many American comedies.

Marlon Wayans, Michael Rappaport, Demian Bichir are in it, Robert Yeoman shot it in Panavision.