These introductions were all written by the person who recommended the film to the group, from their memory of watching it before and liking it, plus some cursory research, but before watching it again or discussing it in the group. The recommender is usually myself. If it’s someone else I will nearly always have done some editing of what they wrote.
After each intro there are two ratings out of five stars. These are based on what we thought of the film after watching it for the discussion.
My rating is on the left. This closely corresponds to the film’s place in my constantly updated list of favourite films, as follows: 5 stars = position 1-100; 4.5 stars = 101-300; 4 stars = 301-700. Lower ratings = not amongst my favourites.
The other members’ aggregate rating is on the right. 5 stars means everyone liked or loved it. If everyone loved it except one strong dissenter that would be 4.5 stars. This could also be everyone liking it but only one or two praising it strongly. 4 stars is still preponderantly favourable opinion but somewhat more indifference or dislike balanced against the praise. 3.5 is just on the positive side overall, while 3 is middling and lower scores represent a negative balance of opinion. These ratings are all of course based on my interpretation of the discussion and any other feedback.
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom – 05/12/24
Bhutanese director Pawo Choyning Dorji’s first feature Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019) opened the season at my local film society the other year. I expected or hoped to be awed by the mountainous scenery and intrigued, perhaps charmed by the unfamiliar customs of a remote culture. All this promise was richly fulfilled. But I wasn’t expecting such a compelling cinematic achievement, demonstrating perfect judgement in the storytelling, and an expertise in the filming and editing to rival any top European or American film-maker and production team. Sherab Dorji plays a young teacher wanting to break away from his pre-ordained career path, but not in the manner that transpires. To accompany him on his journey of discovery to Lunana, a world unto itself where a yak in the classroom is par for the course, is an unmissable treat.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10189300/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lunana_a_yak_in_the_classroom
Six Degrees of Separation – 05/12/24
In Six Degrees of Separation (1993) a smart, highly educated young black man enters the lives of an equally sophisticated middle-aged couple in swanky Manhattan, dazzling them with an ingenious disquisition on J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye amongst other delightful patter. However, the charmed cocoon of Ouisa and Flan Kittredge is dangerously compromised by a subsequent incident. Star of the stage version Stockard Channing shines again in the central role, Will Smith is dynamite as the well-spoken interloper and Donald Sutherland, who sadly died earlier this year, plies his understated craft as the successful art dealer plucked out of his comfort zone. For me the director Fred Schepisi, the writer John Guare and a top-notch cast have transformed GuAre’s unsettling comedy of manners from a play that I felt ran out of steam when I saw it in the West End into an exhilarating film.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108149/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/six_degrees_of_separation
Unforgiven – 14/11/24
The poster for Unforgiven (1992) shows the names and faces of Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris framing a scene of three horse riders approaching a silhouetted figure with a pistol clasped behind his back. But this is a Western to challenge your expectations. The characters played by these rugged stars are no classic heroes or villains, but ordinary men of limited abilities aiming for heroics beyond their reach as the hostilities escalate. The Wyoming weather is harsh, the bullets fired by reclusive farmer Will Munny miss their target. As director and leading actor, winning the Oscar for both, Clint Eastwood evokes huge sympathy for this lonely character, a far cry from the infallible gunslinger of his earlier hits. The combination of gritty realism and gallows humour went down well with both critics and fans. I was one of the latter and appreciated the remark of a journalist some months later who reported on a rare conjunction: “This year at the Academy Awards the Oscar for Best Film went to … the year’s best film.”
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105695/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1041911-unforgiven
The Deep Blue Sea – 14/11/24
Like other plays by Terence Rattigan that have translated impressively to the screen The Deep Blue Sea (2011) explores the perennial conflicts of mid twentieth century middle class England, such as love versus duty and expression versus repression. The drama covers a period of only 24 hours but includes many flashbacks (which take a while to get used to). Hester (Rachel Weisz), has been in a passionless marriage with the drily rational lawyer Sir William (Simon Russell Beale), and tormented by an affair with the attractive but troubled Freddie (Tom Hiddleston). As in many of his notable films the director Terence Davies takes us back to a time of simple pleasures and private sufferings, guilty secrets and occasional revelatory moments. The atmosphere of post war London – with its ruined houses, brown interiors and crowded pubs – is expertly re-created. The script is consistently witty and telling, with the psychological scars of the Second World War illustrated strongly, especially in the character of Freddie. The costume and scene design, choices of external locations and music, and above all the performances, all contribute to an outstanding production and for me a deeply satisfying experience.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1700844/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_deep_blue_sea
Newsfront – 24/10/24
Newsfront (1978) swept the board with four of the top awards and a total of eight at the Australian Film Institute that year, and had a modest success on the arthouse circuit abroad. Thanks to a glowing review I went along to see it and was not disappointed. I’m impressed by the maturity of Philip Noyce’s second feature as director at twenty-eight and indeed my own positive response at twenty to a film in which solid realism is the guiding principle. It covers eight years of change, conflict and occasional crisis, both national and personal, centred on the work of an intrepid cinema newsreel team. The interspersed archive footage enhances the authenticity and historical interest of the narrative. The film itself transitions from black and white to colour in line with the advance of technology over the period. It’s now all but forgotten, and I’ve forgotten everything except the unshakeable integrity of the lead cameraman played by Bill Hunter and a hazardous assignment he undertook with his junior colleague to record the devastation in a flooded town. I think it’s high time for another viewing.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077986/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/newsfront
The Lady in the Van 24/10/24
The award-winning star of stage and screen Maggie Smith, who died last month, did not baulk at playing grungier roles, such as the rough-living Miss Shepherd in The Lady in the Van (2015). The opinionated old woman who camped in her dilapidated vehicle outside the front steps of Alan Bennett’s terraced house in Camden Town in 1974 was a thorn in his side for 16 years but a gift to his comic art. For three of those years I was living around the corner, unaware of these goings-on, but the story resonates with my perception of this neighbourhood where the successful literati lived cheek by jowl with the homeless and destitute. Bennett turned his memoir of the experience into a hit West End play in 1999, directed by Nicholas Hytner, with Smith in the title role. The film brought the winning combination back together with equally fine results. Alex Jennings has fun playing the two warring sides of the author’s personality, while the character of Miss Shepherd, who reveals glimpses of a fascinating hinterland before she ended up in the van, brings out a top-notch performance from a much-loved acting legend.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3722070/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_lady_in_the_van
The Truman Show – 10/10/24
Jim Carrey radiates a charming boyish enthusiasm as Truman Burbank, the unwitting subject of a long-running TV soap opera set in a small town which only he believes is real. Even his nearest and dearest are professional actors pulling the wool over his eyes under the overall direction of the broadcasting guru Christof, played with elegant conviction by Ed Harris. The skill of the media maestro in orchestrating this beautiful, shocking fiction is matched in our own real world by Peter Weir in directing Andrew Niccol’s conceit The Truman Show (1998). From the first seed of doubt in Truman’s mind his struggle to discover the truth in the face of a co-ordinated effort to keep him from puncturing the perfect bubble that attracts millions of viewers makes for a riveting drama.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/truman_show
Respect – 10/10/24
Fortunately Respect (2021) devotes a generous two and a quarter hours to the life and career of Aretha Franklin because it takes a while to get going. I found the childhood and teenage story somewhat underdeveloped, but I was quickly won over once the dazzling Jennifer Hudson stepped up to re-enact some of the legendary Soul Queen’s most memorable performances. The dramatic developments between the songs also gained momentum, with the inevitable personal traumas punctuating and threatening to derail the artistic journey. One particular scene of delicious irony, when the black girl from Detroit is living the high life in California, stuck in my mind, otherwise I just remember a warm glow of satisfaction at the end of this tantalising biopic with ravishing musical set pieces directed by Liesl Tommy.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2452150/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/respect_2021
Psycho – 19/09/24
Psycho (1960) is surely the darkest of all Alfred Hitchcock’s well-known films. Its pivotal shocking moment could be the most famous in all of cinema, and yet if you blink you miss it, as millions of scared viewers have deliberately done, their nerves already shredded by secretary Marion Crane’s clumsy, hectic bid to escape the scene of an earlier brazen crime. Nail-biting suspense becomes macabre mystery as the awkwardly decent manager of the Bates Motel and a mild-mannered but tenacious visitor prowl around the precincts of the gloomy establishment. The outstanding performances of Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins and Martin Balsam help raise this noir tour de force to the highest level. On my second viewing I joined the ranks of those who consider it the maestro’s masterpiece.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/psycho
Primary Colors – 19/09/24
A successful 1960s comedy duo were re-united in the making of Primary Colors (1998). Elaine May adapted the novel about a Southern state governor’s presidential campaign into a sharp script with plenty of humour, drama and political insight, and Mike Nichols directed with rediscovered flair. John Travolta’s portrayal of a Clintonesque charmer with a big ego and bigger sex drive is disconcertingly real. A roster of great character actors get their teeth into the thorny conflicts that play out over the hundred and thirty minutes’ screen time, with Kathy Bates singled out for special praise as the foul-mouthed fixer. The film did poorly at the box office partly because real-life White House shenanigans had recently eclipsed the fictional events, but to me that is a testament to its authenticity.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119942/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/primary_colors
Alice in the Cities – 22/08/24
A jaded German journalist abandons his assignment in the United States but inadvertently finds himself tasked with a more onerous mission, taking charge of a child separated from her family, with no idea where her home is. Alice in the Cities (Alice in den Städten) (1974) is a laid-back road movie that exhibits many of the trademarks of writer/director Wim Wenders, enhanced by the delightful central relationship between the troublesome young girl and her reluctant minder. The nine year-old Yella Rottländer and Wenders stalwart Rüdiger Vogler are superbly natural in their roles, and the scenario moves from one city to the next with a relaxed ease that suggests the director is enjoying every take of his own screenplay. I’m not surprised to learn that this crucial fourth feature by the now celebrated auteur was “a conscious attempt to make something only he could do”, and I don’t think there’s anything better in his oeuvre.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069687/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/alice_in_the_cities
Rear Window – 22/08/24
In this acclaimed classic directed by the master of suspense James Stewart plays L.B. Jefferies, known as “Jeff”, a photographer confined to his chair in a Greenwich Village flat after breaking his leg. Grace Kelly plays Lisa his girlfriend, a high flying woman about town who wears fantastic dresses throughout. Jeff spends a lot of time looking out of his window across a courtyard into the flats opposite. He makes up stories about the occupants, and becomes concerned about the behaviour of a couple whose level of conflict exceeds the norm. Hitchcock seduces the viewer into the cosy comfort of Jeff’s voyeurism, only to instil anxiety over his state of mind and fear for his safety as his obsession leads to reckless interference. In its crazy, narrow setting, Rear Window (1954) comes close to driving us all mad, in the most brilliant and enjoyable way.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047396/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1017289-rear_window
Tape – 01/08/24
Richard Linklater’s Tape (2001) is a real-time three-hander set entirely in one low-budget hotel room. Thanks to the twists and turns of the original play by Stephen Belber, the charisma of the three actors and the confident panache of a director who revels in this kind of self-imposed constraint I found it a thoroughly engrossing eighty-five minutes. Beneath the verbal and sometimes physical jousting in the enclosed, shabby space there seems to be some unresolved business between former high-school friends Vin, Jon and Amy, played with verve by Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard and Uma Thurman. As to what the issues are and who gets the last laugh I have long since forgotten and I look forward to this second viewing to find out.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275719/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tape
Rust and Bone – 01/08/24
Though set on the glamorous Côte d’Azur and billed as a romantic drama the atmosphere of Rust and Bone (De Rouille et d’Os) (2012), is one of gritty realism. Marion Cotillard has been highly praised for the naturalism of her performance as an ordinary girl with an unusual job as a whale trainer, who becomes involved with an unemployed single father, played by Matthias Schoenaerts. “Vibrant and messily unpredictable as life itself”, the film was very well received by critics and public alike, marking a highlight in the career of writer/director Jacques Audiard, as well as Cotillard, Schoenaerts and many others involved.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2053425/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/de_rouille_et_dos_2012
The Duke – 11/07/24
The subject of The Duke (2020) is a famous portrait of the Duke of Wellington that mysteriously disappeared one night in 1961 from the National Gallery in London. The protagonist is Kempton Bunton, a 60-year old Newcastle taxi driver who rails against the injustice of the BBC licence fee and seeks to avoid it, to the despair of his long-suffering wife Dorothy. Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren are a delight to watch as the impecunious northern couple in this poignant comedy directed by Roger Michell. There are some surprising twists and turns in the plot, as the family sink deeper into trouble, perhaps indicating that fact is indeed stranger than fiction. For me this is a rare recent addition to the glittering roster of light-hearted British gems about the foibles and ambitions of the underdog.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11204094/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_duke
Lust, Caution – 11/07/24
Lust, Caution (Se, Jie) (2007) is a haunting historical drama adapted for the screen by Taiwanese director Ang Lee from Eileen Chang’s novella, which combines a spy thriller with a tortuous romance. The film is beautifully shot, with a sumptuous score by French composer Alexandre Desplat. The period settings of Hong Kong in 1938 and Japanese-occupied Shanghai in 1942 seem to me as important as the characters and narrative. The complex plot is based on an actual attempt by a group of Hong Kong University students to assassinate a special agent working for Shanghai’s puppet government by luring him with a ‘honey trap’. As well as the BAFTA for ‘Best Film in a Foreign Language’ this two and a half hour long labour of love won Ang Lee his second Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, following on from Brokeback Mountain.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808357/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lust_caution
The King of Comedy – 20/06/24
Directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro … the artistic partnership that gave us an unsurpassed string of all-time hard-boiled classics was at the top of its game with a more off-beat drama The King of Comedy (1982), or so I maintain, despite its box office failure. For me the portrayal of Rupert Pupkin, an apparent loser with a huge ego, still living at home with his off-screen mom and convinced of his imminent triumph as a glittering showbiz comedian, is the ultimate De Niro masterclass. He only needs a bit of a helping hand from the successful celebrity comic Jerry Langford, played by the now stocky, phlegmatic Jerry Lewis, once the goofy star of fifties slapstick capers. How far will Pupkin go to secure the favour? I’d run a mile from him in person, but I’ll be fascinated to revisit his disturbing act and self-promotional antics after a gap of forty-two years.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085794/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1011623-king_of_comedy
The Killers – 20/06/24
If I had to choose the quintessential Hollywood gangster film of the classic era it might be The Killers (1946), directed by Robert Siodmak. The hard-bitten realism seems ahead of its time, while Burt Lancaster on his big screen debut shows glimpses of the memorable performances to come. As the criminal with a conscience, nicknamed “The Swede”, he clashes with other gang members while falling for the glamorous Kitty Collins, played by the premiere femme fatale of the era, Ava Gardner. Based on an Ernest Hemingway short story, this is one of the few adaptations of his work that the author admired, and the quality is evident in the menacing opening scene. I remember little of the plot, only the swirling sense of doom that hangs over those who choose to live outside the law.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038669/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1080205-killers
Sex, Lies, and Videotape – 30/05/24
Director Steven Soderbergh’s first feature Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) strikes me as a seminal film that spawned a school of quirky, intimate dramas in the nineties and early noughties, tackling adult relationships with honesty and wit. It also seems to have been the first major role on the big screen for all three leads. And what a trio – Andie McDowell and Peter Gallagher play the beautiful, outwardly successful Louisiana couple, Ann and John, who receive a visit from John’s less well-off but perhaps even more beautiful friend Graham, played by James Spader. The quiet young man rents an apartment nearby, where he conducts sex-based research, to the appalled fascination of straight-laced Ann. Other characters get a look-in but all I remember is the tantalising dance of attraction, repulsion, suspicion and revelation between these three. The boxes of videotapes hoarded by the enigmatic visitor may now appear absurdly quaint, but will his cat and mouse conversations with the married southern belle still hold me transfixed?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098724/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sex_lies_and_videotape
The Shop on the High Street – 30/05/24
The Shop on the High Street (Obchod na korze) (1965) is a Czechoslovak film set in the First Slovak Republic, the puppet government which ruled what is now Slovakia from 1939 to 1945. Under President Josef Tiso the property of the nation’s Jews was expropriated and handed to Aryan families, a prelude to the later deportation of the Jewish population to Nazi concentration camps, where the vast majority met their ends. This is the grim backdrop to the story of the haberdasher’s shop, written by Ladislav Grosman and directed by Ján Kadár and Elmar Kloswith with a daring mixture of black comedy and tragedy. A well-meaning if not very bright carpenter is made to take over the shop from the owner, an elderly Jewish woman who is generally oblivious to the outside world and doesn’t realise what is happening. The veteran Polish actress Ida Kamińska, who plays the elderly haberdasher, earned an Oscar nomination for best actress in this stunning film, one of the few in the Slovak language. It deservedly won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film that year.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059527/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_shop_on_main_street
Wadjda – 09/05/24
Wadjda (2012) was the first feature-length film made by a female Saudi director, and was the country’s first official submission to the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film. Apparently Haifaa Al-Masour was not allowed to interact with her mostly male crew, so she directed the street scenes from a nearby van, watching through a monitor and giving instructions via walkie-talkie. The result is a rare gem, and an eye-opener for Western viewers who have not lived in the Middle East. The title character is a 10-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Riyadh who wants to have the freedom to run about, sing and ride a bicycle, like boys her age. Her mother is struggling to deal with her own problems, so Wadjda is left to her own devices to overcome the obstacles in her way. The tone is humorous but at the same time unflinching in its portrayal of life as lived by women and girls in Saudi Arabia. The acting and scenarios come across as very authentic, and there is an exciting edginess to the exploits of this precocious child rebel.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2258858
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wadjda_2013
North By Northwest – 09/05/24
There is a small number of films that I am happy to watch almost annually. Two of these, The 39 Steps (1935) and North By Northwest (1959) are directed by Alfred Hitchcock and have some significant elements in common: jeopardy from a mysterious source aimed at an innocent victim, romance, comedy and a satisfying denouement. Cary Grant is perfectly cast in the later film, delivering his usual classy mixture of charm, flippancy and derring do. And the alluring Eva Marie Saint, no longer the innocent youngster of On the Waterfront (1954), is a well-matched co-star. Events unfold in a series of visually memorable set pieces, many of which you may be familiar with, even if you have not seen the whole film. It is sometimes highlighted as the precursor to the many cold war era thrillers that came after, including The Man from U.N.C.L.E and James Bond. There’s no need for in-depth analysis though to appreciate this immensely skilful piece of entertainment that delivers glamour, humour, menace, action and a bit of violence. Plus of course the obligatory Hitchcockian sexual innuendo!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053125
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/north-by-northwest
Here We Are – 18/04/24
Here We Are (Hine anachnu) (2020) is a marvellous recent example of the cinema verité technique, in which the camera and microphone seem to be recording the actual daily lives of their subjects rather than bringing a fictional narrative to the screen. During the opening sequence the odd behaviour of a young and an older man on a journey by train and bicycle becomes clear. The autistic Uri is under the protective wing of his father Aharon. Overly protective in the view of the mother Tamara. This parental disagreement is the kernel of all the subsequent drama that simmers and occasionally boils over during further trips by the inseparable pair to institutions, friends and family. A surprisingly serious crisis develops. The way that it builds up seamlessly out of the naturalistic scenes and dialogue is a testament to the skill of the writer and actors, and director Nir Bergman, whose other work over the course of twenty years must surely merit greater exposure.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8135564
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/here_we_are_2020
Pleasantville – 18/04/24
A particular cinematic sub-genre that holds great appeal for me – satire of comfortable, conformist American suburbia – seemed to reach its zenith in 1998, the year that Pleasantville came out. This first feature written and directed by Gary Ross sets out its stall in the very title, and whips up an entertaining mix of whimsy, fantasy, nostalgia and perceptive family drama along with the exuberant parody. A heated sibling conflict in the present day sparks a leap backwards in time to the heyday of the nuclear family in a pristine community where nothing bad ever happens. Until this untimely accident. Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon as the troublesome brother and sister, along with Joan Allen and William H. Macey as their increasingly troubled parents, live out their roles to the full in this smart comedy with a moral message or two to ponder.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120789
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pleasantville
Drifting Clouds – 28/03/24
I wonder if the Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki is a great admirer of the impressionist master Claude Monet, in particular his water lily series. He has the same love of bold, rich colours in his screen composition and he obsessively returns to the same place and subject with minor variations in film after film. In contrast to Giverny however modern day Helsinki is depicted as a harsh urban landscape where the inhabitants scratch a living in menial jobs, with only tawdry nightlife and drink for distraction. The glum-faced Kati Outinen often stars as a woman with a passive exterior that conceals an inner tenacity. In Drifting Clouds (Kauas Pilvet Karkaavat) (1996) she bravely sinks her hopes in a business venture with her out of work husband. The simple story of how they fare soon becomes utterly absorbing, full of excruciating moments until the very end. I’m always interested in Kaurismäki’s work but I still think this film is his very best.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116752
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/drifting_clouds
In the Name of the Father – 28/03/24
In choosing to turn the 1974 Guildford pub bombing and its fallout into a drama for the big screen the writer, director and producer Jim Sheridan took on a huge responsibility – to make a truthful film of course, but also a bloody good one that does justice to the seismic importance of the real-life events as they unfolded. I can safely say that In the Name of the Father (1993) passes the test with flying colours. The casting couldn’t be better, with Daniel-Day Lewis as the accused and convicted Gerry Conlon who proclaims his innocence, Pete Postlethwaite as his stoic father Giuseppe and Emma Thompson as the indefatigable campaigning lawyer Gareth Pierce. We follow Gerry from the riot-torn streets of Belfast to the bohemian squats of London, from police interrogation to the steel-lined corridors of a high-security prison in this powerful and intelligent dramatisation of an extraordinary and appalling episode in recent British history.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107207
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_the_name_of_the_father
About Schmidt – 07/03/24
In all four of the films directed by Alexander Payne that I’ve seen and thoroughly enjoyed there is a discernible common thread – a central character with a problem personality or beset with hang-ups goes on a journey, both literal and metaphorical. Retirement stretches ahead like a barren desert for Warren Schmidt on leaving his desk at the insurance office for the last time. For Jack Nicholson at 64 the invitation to portray the grumpy old protagonist of About Schmidt (2002) was a dream assignment, earning him an Oscar nomination, along with Kathy Bates in a supporting role as the bohemian prospective mother-in-law of Schmidt’s estranged daughter, played by Hope Davis. Watching these mismatched characters attempting to establish some connection after Schmidt’s uncharacteristically adventurous solo trip from his home town of Omaha, Nebraska to Denver is richly entertaining.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0257360/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/about_schmidt
Dead of Night – 07/03/24
Dead of Night (1945) is the only truly satisfying example of an anthology film that I can recall seeing. Keeping a routine appointment at a farmhouse, a middle-aged architect, played by stalwart character actor Mervyn Johns, stumbles upon a house party that has an eerie familiarity. He recognises everyone in the room and each of them has a disturbing story to tell. Directors Basil Dearden, Alberto Cavalcanti, Robert Hamer and Charles Crichton share between them this spooky framing narrative and the five supernatural tales, the mood of which ranges from a morbid melancholy to outrageous black humour and culminates in the chilling tragedy of the ventriloquist and his crowd-pleasing dummy. Michael Redgrave pulls out all the stops in this justly famous segment. The fate of the architect meanwhile is left hanging in the balance until the bitter end.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037635
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1005405-dead_of_night
The Winslow Boy – 15/02/24
In 1908 a 12 year old cadet turned up unexpectedly at home to face the undoubted wrath of his father after being expelled from the Royal Naval College for stealing a postal order. The Winslow Boy (1948) is a moving dramatisation of this incident and the tumultuous train of subsequent events that wrought havoc on a previously comfortable family. Anthony Asquith directs a fine cast headed by Robert Donat as the celebrated advocate Sir Robert Morton who gets involved as the case escalates to the highest court in the land. And what brilliant lines he is given by Terence Rattigan, who adapted his 1946 play for the screen. As testimony to his outstanding craft I’ve seen a stage production as well as a TV and two film versions including this one and I’m coming back for more. This time I must try and follow the exact train of argument in the crucial confrontation between Morton and the distraught young boy.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040970/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/winslow_boy
Maggie’s Plan – 15/02/24
From what seems a hackneyed premise – a young single woman with an established career deciding it’s time to have a baby – the writer/director Rebecca Miller developed a satirical off-beat romantic comedy that struck a chord with many critics but seemed to fare less well with the general public. I’m with the critics on this one. Greta Gerwig is sympathetic and amusing in the title role, while the older hands Ethan Hawke and Julianne Moore relish their parts as prickly academics in the love-hate triangle that takes some surprising twists. Equally good scenes with friends and colleagues round out the picture of this arty New York milieu. After thin pickings for almost a decade Maggie’s Plan (2015) reassured me that the occasional gem of a smart, quirky American comedy could still make the journey from the festival circuit to at least a limited cinema release.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3471098/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maggies_plan_2016
After the Thin Man – 25/01/24
The six film Thin Man series is a sumptuous binge for lovers of those traditional murder mysteries that culminate in a drawing-room gathering of all the suspects, at which the identity of the culprit is revealed. I think I’ve seen all of the first four, directed by W.S. Van Dyke, and on each occasion I revelled in the cleverness of the plot and the dénouement as well as the sparkling banter of the suave husband and wife sleuths Nick and Nora Charles, played by William Powell and Myrna Loy. Their second case, After the Thin Man (1936), is my favourite, with the investigative trail taking in smart social gatherings and swanky jazz clubs, while a young James Stewart lights up the screen with star quality in his supporting role. This comedy whodunnit maintains the suspense and sparkle throughout its unusually long running-time for the genre and period of 112 minutes.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027260/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/after_the_thin_man
McCabe & Mrs. Miller – 25/01/24
Writer/director Robert Altman’s offbeat, unsentimental foray into the Western genre got very mixed reviews on release but later on appeared in many lists of America’s greatest films. Pauline Kael called it a “beautiful pipedream of a movie”. Altman “has made many great films” wrote Roger Ebert “but only one [McCabe & Mrs Miller (1971)] is perfect”. A dissenting voice, which I will leave unidentified, objected to the “mumbling”, “scowling” and “droning on” of Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Leonard Cohen respectively. This is one of the earlier films where Altman plays extensively with overlapping dialogue. It can be quite difficult to hear what is being said and by whom. Added to which, Vilmos Zsigmond’s cinematography is deliberately murky, (as it often was). On my first viewing I was curious and somewhat moved. Each time I have seen it since it yields up a little more to me. This seems to reflect the pattern of critical assessments. On the basis of no knowledge whatsoever, I somehow respond to this bold “New Hollywood” take on the Wild West as the most faithful representation of frontier life that I’ve seen on screen.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067411/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mccabe_and_mrs_miller
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The Babbling Pond 