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.
The Marriage of Maria Braun – 18/12/25
In the German Film Awards for 1979 The Marriage of Maria Braun (Die Ehe der Maria Braun) won best film, best direction, best design and best performances by an actress in a leading and in a supporting role. Enfant terrible of the new wave Rainer Werner Fassbinder reached a pinnacle of commercial and critical success with this absorbing drama that charts the struggles of a young war widow (husband presumed killed in action) to make a life for herself among the ruins of a defeated nation. Fassbinder’s long-standing protegée Hanna Schygulla achieved worldwide adulation for her bravura central performance as Maria Braun, whose head and heart are severely tried and tested over the course of ten years. Fassbinder’s recognisably stylish handling of intimate relations, here developing over time against a shifting economic background, made this his biggest hit with me too (apart from the epic TV series Berlin Alexanderplatz). I look forward to renewing my acquaintance with his indefatigable heroine and her coping mechanisms in the dire straits of the immediate post-war period.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079095/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_marriage_of_maria_braun
Miracle on 34th Street – 18/12/25
Miracle on 34th Street (1947), directed by George Seaton, was one of the impending treats that I used to circle in childhood or even teenage years on its regular appearance in the double Christmas edition of the Radio Times. The actual viewing somehow stirred me with a frisson of anticipation for the big day more than any other offering. As the present-buying frenzy builds up in New York the Macy’s department store Santa comes out with the preposterous claim that he is the real McCoy. The ensuing drama, far from a frothy confection, is a conflict of ideas, and not black versus white but complex, with protagonists “Kris Kringle”, the child Susan, her mother Doris, their neighbour Fred, the store owners and the municipal authorities, all taking up and evolving their positions in a battle of words and tactics that becomes a serious matter for the kindly deluded old man. Half a century later I’m hungry to devour this surprisingly sophisticated seasonal fare again.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039628/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/miracle_on_34th_street
My Life as a Dog – 27/11/25
I found it disappointing to read in Wikipedia that My Life as a Dog (Mitt Liv som Hund) (1985) “was well-received by critics.” Well-received? It’s as if a sports commentator were to observe that Björn Borg “did well” to win five Wimbledon championships in a row. A no less spectacular achievement I think is that of his compatriot Lasse Hallström in directing this searing, startling, hilarious memoir of an extraordinarily eventful childhood. He was tremendously well-served of course by author Reidar Jönsson’s book and help in the adaptation, as well as by the phenomenal performance of Anton Glanzelius in the central role of 12-year-old Ingemar, amongst a wonderful cast encompassing all generations. Small-town Sweden in the late 50s seems to be populated by a host of surprisingly eccentric characters, not least Ingemar himself, who after a year of upheavals and adventures, pushes his adopted persona of a dog to an outrageous extreme. This episode is typical of a film in which almost everything that happens is both authentic and unexpected, often in a shocking or delightful way. To think that I only discovered this gem three years ago!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089606/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_life_as_a_dog
Gosford Park – 27/11/25
A murder mystery set against the backdrop of a 1930s English country estate, Gosford Park (2001) is an intricately crafted exploration of class and social hierarchy between the two world wars. Directed by Robert Altman from an Oscar-winning screenplay by Julian Fellowes, the film brings together a large and talented ensemble of actors to portray the wealthy guests upstairs and the servants downstairs. It slickly captures the invisible yet rigid boundaries between these two worlds. Every interaction—whether polite conversation or quiet act of service—reveals the deep-rooted power dynamics that define the characters’ often desperate lives. Through its sharp social and psychological observation, interlaced with humour and humanity, showing individuals on both sides of the class divide constrained by their roles, even as they depend on one another, this meticulous production becomes much more than a whodunnit or period piece. The themes of privilege, inequality, and the performances required to maintain them were subsequently picked up and integrated by Fellowes into the hugely successful television series Downton Abbey.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280707
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gosford_park
Fallen Leaves – 06/11/2025
Expatriate Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki is probably not a great favourite with the tourist board in his country of origin, returning frequently as he does to Helsinki for the backdrop of his quirky downbeat dramas about individuals teetering on the edge of the scrap-heap. Industrial premises, tatty cafés and supermarkets, meagre living quarters and tawdry nightspots predominate in the picture he paints of the capital, albeit in evocative rich colours. But for the aficionado there is a delicious pleasure in revisiting these familiar settings in which generally taciturn characters struggle with varying degrees of success and persistence to bond with each other or better themselves. We are soon deeply involved in the awkward budding romance of Ansa and Holappa in Fallen Leaves (Kuolleet Lehdet) (2023), sharing their desperate hopes and dreads. An advocate of short running times, Kaurismäki devotes a spare 76 minutes to this touching, comical, maddening human drama – a quintessential work that won wide critical acclaim including the Jury Prize at Cannes.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21027780/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fallen_leaves
Something’s Gotta Give – 06/11/25
I still can’t quite believe that Diane Keaton, the much-loved American actress and director, Oscar-winning star of Annie Hall (1977) and countless other movies right up until last year, has passed away, aged 79. Something’s Gotta Give (2004) is a quirky romantic comedy with Keaton especially chosen by director Nancy Meyers to play the 50-something divorcee Erica Barry. She gives a delightful performance as the neurotic playwright beset with unexpected entanglements, earning a nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the Oscars and winning the award at the Golden Globes. Also starring are the inimitable Nicholson as – surprise, surprise – a 60-something Lothario, alongside Keanu Reeves, Frances McDormand and Paul Michael Glaser. Keaton’s friend and contemporary Hollywood star Jane Fonda said after her death, “She was always a spark of life and light, constantly laughing at her own weaknesses, showing boundless creativity … in her acting, her wardrobe, her books, her friends, her homes, her library, her vision of the world.” Amongst her portfolio this effervescent romcom for grownups is a film that particularly showcases the endearing traits and comic talent she was known for.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337741/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/somethings_gotta_give
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – 16/10/25
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) is one of the great “family films” of my childhood – enjoyed by both parents and kids in equal measure and I think for much the same reasons – as well as the expected vistas and action set pieces of a big budget Western there was the illicit thrill of being in the outlaws’ camp, quickly won over by the charisma of Newman and Redford, the light-hearted tone and banter leavening but not undermining the essentially tough tale of criminals forever on the run, hold-ups their only reliable meal-ticket. The holiday interlude in New York with the Kid’s sweetheart Etta Place, played by Katharine Ross, and the subsequent attempt to go straight in Bolivia all added up to a film of epic proportions in my memory, so that I was amazed more recently to see it all packed into an hour and three quarters. I found the closing sequence a truly staggering piece of film-making by director George Roy Hill and his crew. The final exit of Butch and Sundance is how I like to remember Paul Newman and his perfectly matched screen buddy Robert Redford, who died last month.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064115/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1003318-butch_cassidy_and_the_sundance_kid
Black Narcissus – 16/10/25
The convent high on a cliff-top in the Indian Himalayas is a forlorn, precarious establishment. Deborah Kerr is the new Sister Superior aiming to be a rock of stability amid conflicting forces represented by Flora Robson as the conservative older Sister Phillipa, Kathleen Byron the barely trained, untamed Sister Ruth, David Farrar as the British agent, the nuns’ vital link to the outside world, offering his practical help with a mixture of charm and disparagement, and all around the indigenous, mysterious local community and culture. In Black Narcissus (1947) Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger ventured beyond familiar territory to paint their vivid scenes in a magnificent, exotic setting. The intriguing characters are closeted together, breeding conflict in this far-flung shaky outpost of the Anglican mission where institutional constraints are less effective than back home. The by now seasoned directing duo bring all the bold inventiveness of their original screenplays to this adaptation of a novel by Rumer Godden, while the drama reaches a new peak of intensity. I look forward to being captivated by it again.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039192/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/black_narcissus
The Rebel – 02/10/25
There are not many successful graduations of a British sitcom star to the big screen, but Tony Hancock’s outing in The Rebel (1961) is an absolute delight, all the more to be cherished since nothing comparable came after it. The comedy writing partnership of Galton and Simpson also scored a rare hit outside their TV and radio comfort zone. I happened to come across this pertinent yet amiable satire as an indolent youngster in the weekday matinee slot on the BBC and when I caught it for a second time as a perhaps still immature adult I relished the absurdity but also the poignant undertones once again. The unruly comic legend plays himself in name as well as character, an unappreciated artist forsaking philistine London for bohemian Paris, while a host of well-known faces play their parts with a panache and sincerity that makes this much more than the one-joke farce it might seem to be on paper. Arguably it is Hancock’s finest hour and three-quarters, and probably that of director Robert Day as well.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055361/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_rebel_1961
The Edge of Love – 02/10/25
A pop video veteran, director John Maybury’s primary concern in film-making is evidently with visual composition rather than narrative arc or dramatic impact. This is a stumbling block for many reviewers of The Edge of Love (2008). Surprisingly, I found the aesthetic artistry in the presentation of even the mundane domestic scenes more than made up for any sluggishness or indiscipline in the storyline that others bemoaned. In fact the somewhat eccentric relationships between the principles – the poet Dylan Thomas, his wife Caitlin, the other woman Vera and another man – were full of interest, especially once the setting shifted from the London blitz to an ostensibly simple life on the Welsh coast. Another surprise was the terrific performance of Sienna Miller as Caitlin, by no means a second fiddle to Keira Knightly’s Vera. The shifting sands of their rivalry as well as the poet’s ambiguous position within the local community held plenty to engage the attention beyond the period detail and virtuoso camerawork.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0819714/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/edge_of_love
Casablanca – 04/09/25
Is there another film of such quality in which so many different genres vie for supremacy as in Casablanca (1942)? The drama centred on Rick’s Café in the seedy Moroccan city on the periphery of World War II skips seamlessly between romance, comedy, thriller, war and psychodrama. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman were born to play Rick and Ilsa, riveting the attention whether suppressing or giving in to their emotions, as their past involvement rocks the present and imperils the future. I remember a televised masterclass by a Hollywood guru who plundered scene after scene from this movie to illustrate film-making craft. For director Michael Curtiz it was probably just another job in his 30 year career up until then, little expecting that this particular star vehicle would secure such a high place amongst the all-time classics. But it was no fluke. Amongst his huge portfolio all the twelve films that I’ve seen have a satisfying dramatic impulse, and five, including this one of course, are among my own official favourites.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1003707-casablanca
August: Osage County – 04/09/25
At the matriarchal home in Osage County, Oklahoma the disparate family members gather, some with trepidation, seeking just to survive and get away as soon as possible, others prepared to rattle skeletons in the cupboard. This stylish and hugely enjoyable stage play adaptation benefits from a pedigree cast headed by Meryl Streep as the domineering but brittle Violet Weston, with Julia Roberts, Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor and Benedict Cumberbatch playing some of her cowed or insubordinate relatives. Some reviewers have criticised August: Osage County (2013) for the unpleasantness of the family relations depicted, others for the excess of acting talent on show. I had no such qualms. This contemporary update by writer Tracy Letts and director John Wells on the southern gothic tradition of Tennessee Williams et al, shifted westwards across the Mississippi and injected with humour, was right up my street.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1322269/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/august_osage_county
Heat – 14/08/25
It could have been hubris on the part of writer/director Michael Mann to entitle his epic 1995 crime drama Heat, to cast Robert De Niro and Al Pacino as the chief protagonists on opposite sides of the law and to keep the audience in their seats for a running-time of two and three quarter hours, as if to say “this is the definitive cops and robbers cinema spectacle of our time”. In the event, the boldness pays off spectacularly. The two supreme icons of gangster movies over the previous 20 years are at their awesome best, incarnating the meticulous but ruthless professional criminal on the one hand, and the beleaguered but relentless law enforcer on the other. The script, no doubt honed over the 15 years that elapsed until the film could get made, and the choreography of the set pieces are of an equally high calibre. If you have any tolerance at all for the genre this is indeed a “must-see”.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113277/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/heat_1995
Frances Ha – 14/08/25
In Frances Ha (2012) director Noah Baumbach and leading actor Greta Gerwig, who wrote the script together, focus forensically on the milieu they know so well of the aspiring but impecunious young urbanite committed to the arts, a life of enviable coolness and fun, but possibly leading nowhere. Gerwig plays the twenty-something New Yorker Frances Halladay living the Bohemian lifestyle to the full and larking around with her best friend from college while nursing high ambitions in the world of dance. The delights of her offbeat personality outweighed the irritations and I found myself increasingly taking her side as she bumps up against the harsh realities of life. This is an original and amusing film which takes its protagonist on a surprisingly painful and poignant journey, all filmed in exquisitely arty black and white.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2347569/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/frances_ha
Roman Holiday – 24/07/25
Surprisingly I did not see Roman Holiday (1953) until I was about 50, imagining it to be slightly ponderous, so I had the extreme pleasure of belatedly uncovering a dazzling gem. In fact the ceremonious protocol that lingers in the background as the incognito princess and the American correspondent in Rome embark on a delicious and dangerous romance adds an extra piquancy to their escapades. For looks, personality and chemistry Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in the first full flush of their stardom are the all-time dream couple. There is a touching charm in their initial meetings and a genuine anguish in the threat of their separation. And what better backdrop for their antics and burgeoning affection than the sights and atmosphere of the ancient imperial capital overlaid with the bustling street life of the 1950s? My admiration for this perfectly achieved entertainment was underlined when I saw it was directed by William Wyler – the now relatively unheralded name that for me signals a touch of class, something richer, more fully rounded than the norm, and in the case of two other films that I’ve seen along with this one – a masterpiece.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046250/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/roman_holiday
Wildlife – 24/07/25
I remember seeing Wildlife in my local independent cinema when it came out in 2018. It was the actor Paul Dano’s directorial debut, with a screenplay by Dano and his partner Zoe Kazan, adapted from the 1990 novel by Richard Ford. Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal (who co-produced the movie) are the leading actors in this low-budget indie film that paints a memorable picture of small-town, working-class American life, warts and all. The brooding atmosphere and the theme of forest fires that has since become a scarily commonplace phenomenon in many countries, made a strong impression on me. I have almost completely forgotten the plot, but embedded in my memory is the sense of a relationship under threat of destruction by devastating external factors too strong to be overcome. The extremely sensitive acting and directing, cinematography and score all contribute to a very moving portrait of a dysfunctional family in Montana in 1960 that resonates beyond its time and place. This confident, mature work for a first-time director has received many prize nominations at film festivals around the world and was very popular with critics and arthouse cinema audiences.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5929754/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wildlife_2018
Falling Down – 19/06/25
A slightly flabby bespectacled fortyish man in a white shirt and tie, with a briefcase in one hand and an umbrella – no, some kind of rifle or machine gun in the other – stands half bemused, half poised for action. This is the evocative poster for Falling Down (1993) – “the adventures of an ordinary man at war with the everyday world”. As the irritations pile up on a sweltering day divorced unemployed engineer William “D-Fens” Foster reaches breaking point in a brilliant performance by Michael Douglas, which he rates as his own personal favourite. Barbara Hershey plays his ex-wife and Robert Duvall the police sergeant faced with an unusual crisis. Director Joel Schumacher and the cast make the most of an imaginative, plausible script by Ebbe Roe Smith in this hard to pigeonhole film – a psychological study, a social commentary, an off-beat thriller about a lone rebel at large in the urban jungle. It drew me in from the start and remained convincing and gripping to the end.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106856/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/falling_down
Pride and Prejudice – 19/06/25
The 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen seems like a good time to revisit Pride and Prejudice (2005), the second adaptation for the cinema of her most famous novel. I found it far more entertaining than the 1940 version starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier. Under Joe Wright’s direction the central relationship between Lizzie and Darcy, with its complex development from dislike to true love, is beautifully played out by Keira Knightly, who won a Best Actress Oscar nomination, and Matthew MacFadyen. All the main themes of the novel are there – snobbery, sexism, money and property, sexual escapades and religion. The fantastic cast is bursting with actors whom I admire and like to follow – Judi Dench, Carey Mulligan, Rosamund Pike, Donald Sutherland (miscast as Mr Bennett, I think) and my favourite, the brilliant Tom Hollander whose turn as the pompous young clergyman Mr. Collins, trying to ingratiate himself with the Bennett family, gives us the funniest scenes in the film. This sharply observed romantic comedy drama is faithful to the spirit rather than the letter of Austen’s classic and is highly successful in its own right.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0414387/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1153077-1153077-pride_and_prejudice
Kolya – 29/05/25
I have very vague but warm memories of Kolya (Kolja) (1996), which won the Oscar for Best Foreign language film that year. The central character is Louka, a musician with the Prague Philharmonic orchestra, enjoying a dream bachelor lifestyle based around music and assignations with girlfriends in his seductively arty apartment. Some errors of judgement however leave him short of funds and landed in charge of the five year old Kolya. Will he need to change his ways in order to cope with this unwanted responsibility? I look forward to finding out again. The son and father Sverák partnership – director Jan and leading actor Zdenek – take us on an engrossing personal journey, with a captivating performance by Andrey Khalimon as the boy, and an interesting array of characters amongst the supporting roles. This Czech production with British and French input has all the sophistication and entertaining emotional interplay of a smart American comedy drama, with the added interest of its Prague setting and insight into Czech society during the last months of Soviet rule.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116790/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kolya
Fish Tank – 29/05/25
Fish Tank (2009), written and directed by Andrea Arnold, is a film that caught me unawares. The story of a disaffected and rather aimless family living in the London/Essex borderlands is reminiscent of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, but it avoids Loach’s polemicism and the temptation to romanticise or cast its subjects as heroes or victims. Like the American hillbillies in the film Winter’s Bone (2010) which I saw recently, they are never patronised, and I found myself totally immersed in their lives, rooting for them to find or achieve something (redemption?). The lead character is played by Katie Jarvis, whose early years seem to have several parallels with Arnold’s own childhood. She was actually spotted by the casting agent having a row with her boyfriend on Tilbury Station! Jarvis won the BAFTA Most Promising Newcomer award for her stunning debut here as 15 year old Mia and had quite a successful mini career, but couldn’t hold it together. See Wikipedia for more details! My partner and I both think this is a strangely memorable film, well deserving of its tremendous reviews and many awards, including the Jury Prize at Cannes.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1232776/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fish_tank
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – 08/05/25
I imagine that up and down the country there were scenes similar to those in my local Odeon that Saturday night 50 years ago when a packed audience thrilled to the antics of Jack Nicholson in his career-defining role as inmate R.P. McMurphy, rebelling against the rigid protocols of the Oregon mental institution that seemed designed to keep the patients in their place rather than help them. His battles with Nurse Ratched and Co had us openly cheering him on at key moments of this classic struggle between arbitrary authority and the spontaneous individual who dares to not only question the rules but take subversive action when the answer is unsatisfactory. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) won best picture, best director for Milos Forman, best actor and actress for Nicholson and Louise Fletcher, and best screenplay. Only two other films in history have made a clean sweep of the five big Oscars. Needless to say, watching it in full in its fiftieth anniversary year for the first time since that memorable occasion as a teenager is quite a proposition to relish.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073486/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/one_flew_over_the_cuckoos_nest
One Fine Morning – 08/05/25
I would be hard pushed to name a more consistent 21st century film director than Mia Hansen-Løve, in terms of the quality, subject and style of her output – intimate dramas in the best French tradition, often set in Paris, focusing on the families and romantic relationships of generally sympathetic educated people. One Fine Morning (Un Beau Matin) (2022) is a further example of how a simple story line makes for compulsive viewing when the authenticity of character and situation shines through. Sandra Kienzler, a professional interpreter, widowed with a young child, daughter of a retired professor suffering a debilitating degenerative disease, seems to be trundling along okay amid these responsibilities when her equilibrium is challenged by the re-appearance of a married male friend, cosmochemist Clément, after a gap of several years. The remarkable Léa Seydoux excels in the central role, supported by a superb cast encompassing four generations.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13482828/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/one_fine_morning_2022
Compartment Number 6 – 17/04/25
If the “rail movie” were a recognized genre, as exemplified by Compartment Number 6 (Hytti Nro 6), I would contrast it sharply with its more widespread, free-wheeling road-based cousin. The would-be adventurer loses her autonomy as she steps on board into the narrow, confining world of her designated carriage, the dining car and the corridor in between. Grinding ever further northward at the mercy of the Russian railway network Finnish student Laura begins to regret her hasty decision to leave Moscow in pursuit of a snow-covered hieroglyphic legend when she finds herself sharing a compartment with the fellow passenger from hell. Director Juho Kuosmanen exacts superb performances from the leading actors in a terrific film that combines tense drama and surprising twists with wistfulness and subtle characterisation. This eventful journey to the frozen wastes of Murmansk Oblast in the arctic circle should top any list of cinematic train rides.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10262648/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/compartment_no_6
Shooting Dogs – 17/04/25
Rwanda 1994. There is a sense of authenticity in Shooting Dogs (2005) that comes from filming in the exact location that some horrific events of April that year took place, with survivors among the cast. Director Michael Caton-Jones sets the scene and conveys the growing menace with consummate skill. Every anguished moment of stark decision is etched on the face of John Hurt as the priest in charge of a Catholic school that becomes a fragile sanctuary. He and his recently arrived young assistant, together with an adventurous female reporter, the pupils and other Tutsis facing slaughter as well as a contingent of the UN peacekeeping force are all trapped inside the gates in this trenchant drama based on the experiences of BBC news producer David Belton.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420901/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beyond_the_gates
Elizabeth – 27/03/25
Forget the limp follow-up Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007). Director Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth (1998), concerning our first great female monarch’s fraught childhood and early years on the throne, is a masterly evocation of those torrid Tudor times. Cate Blanchett looks the part and plays it with her accustomed aplomb, maturing quickly amid the plotting and intrigue in which a wrong move can send the highest-ranking nobleman to the Tower and the executioner’s block. Amongst the acting nobility enlisted to play out this dangerous game are Joseph Fiennes, Christopher Eccleston and Geoffrey Rush, as well as Kathy Burke and Fanny Ardant, memorably malevolent in their portraits of Bloody Mary and Mary of Guise respectively. Whether historically accurate or not, it all adds up to a powerful brew, tempered by scenes in which the young Queen escapes the dark dealings and duties of state, spreading her wings as a woman and tasting romance. I welcomed those interludes of well-earned respite in this occasionally gruesome, always compelling historical biopic.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0127536/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1084153-elizabeth
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House – 27/03/25
Half a century before our British TV screens became saturated with shows about couples discovering a dilapidated country retreat with bags of potential and investing themselves up to the eyeballs in a massive renovation Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) had already covered every aspect of this theme to glorious comic effect. The reliable director of amiable comedies H.C.Potter made the most of two past masters in the art of witty domestic squabbling – Cary Grant as the jaded New York ad-man and Myrna Loy as the spouse with ideas of her own, while Melvyn Douglas was equally well-practised in his role as the suave, sceptical and potentially wife-stealing best friend. The Blandings’ ambitious project in the Connecticut hinterland becomes a distraction to the Madison Avenue career that’s bankrolling the dream, as things go increasingly pear-shaped in this salutary tale of city folks nurturing over-sized bucolic aspirations.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040613/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mr-blandings-builds-his-dream-house
Crimes and Misdemeanors – 06/03/25
By the mid-1980s the New York-based factory of exquisite romantic and satirical comedies that was Woody Allen had only to whistle, and a platoon of top-class actors would queue up for a juicy role in his latest inspired creation. Thus in Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) we have the pleasure of Martin Landau as an ophthalmologist whose public esteem is threatened by the mess he’s got into with his wife and his mistress, played by Claire Bloom and Anjelica Huston respectively, while Alan Alda dazzles and repels as a comedy superstar with dictatorial tendencies. While these performances and others keep us immensely entertained, Allen’s script explores the dark side more explicitly perhaps than ever before. The shadows of Hitchcock and Dostoevsky falling on the crystalline surface of urban high society make for an unsettling experience, and by that very token a richer film than many in the output of this prolific writer/director. I place it without hesitation in the top drawer.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097123/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/crimes_and_misdemeanors
The Elephant Man – 06/03/25
After shocking audiences with his early horror film Eraserhead (1977), the ground-breaking director David Lynch, who died this January, moved on to a milder but still disturbing project with The Elephant Man (1980). This atmospheric black and white film is based on the true story of Joseph Merrick, condemned by his gross disfigurement to a miserable existence as a Victorian “freak show” until discovered by the surgeon Frederick Treves. A cruel circus man called Bytes locks Merrick in a cage with apes and encourages the crowds to mock him. Even Treves has to overcome the crude assumptions and prejudices that Victorian society projects onto poor Merrick, who is strangely both kind-hearted and feared. Among a galaxy of much loved stars, John Hurt, wearing a horrendous proboscis on his face throughout, and Anthony Hopkins inhabit their respective lead characters spectacularly well. The poignancy and tenderness in this portrayal of the Elephant Man, together with the grotesque elements, makes for a viewing experience which is impossible to forget.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080678/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1006527-elephant_man
The Lives of Others – 13/02/25
A film of both style and substance, The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) (2006) played to full houses week after week on its release in London the following year. I know this because I was in two of those audiences, and I became even more wrapped up in the fate of the principal characters the second time around. Playwright Georg Dreyman, a leading light in a bohemian circle in 1980s East Berlin, is a key target of Stasi surveillance, along with Christa-Maria Sieland, his glamorous but unstable leading lady and girlfriend. The icily efficient Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler is assigned to their case by his disarmingly chummy superior Oberstleutnant Anton Grubitz. An intensive spying campaign begins, with unforeseeable consequences. The evocation of time and place seems authentic to the last detail, not least in the performances of Sebastian Koch, Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Mühe, Ulrich Tukur and indeed all the supporting cast. Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s political thriller of unusual psychological depth and emotional pull has rightly been showered with plaudits and praise.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_lives_of_others
Enchanted April – 13/02/25
Four English women of diverse ages, disenchanted with their lives after the First World War, grasp the prospect of a holiday together in a beautiful villa in Italy. National Treasure Dame Joan Plowright, who died last month, was nominated for an Oscar and won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Supporting Role as Mrs Fisher in Enchanted April (1991). Apparently about 20 years earlier she and her good friend and colleague, the late Dame Maggie Smith had planned to adapt the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim into a film in which they would play the roles of Lotty Wilkins and Rose Arbuthnot. By now they were too old for the parts, which went to Josie Lawrence and Miranda Richardson respectively. Under the direction of Mike Newell the star-studded cast, including Alfred Molina as Mellersh Wilkins and Jim Broadbent as Frederick Arbuthnot, could hardly be bettered, as the background shifts from dismal London to the ravishing Italian riviera. The latter scenes were reportedly filmed at Castello Brown in Portofino where von Arnim stayed in the 1920s. With a lovely score by Richard Rodney Bennett this is ideal midwinter escapism.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101811/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/enchanted_april
All About Eve – 23/01/25
All About Eve (1950), set in the theatre world of New York, is a supreme example of Hollywood cinema at its best. From the surface glitz to the sweaty underbelly of theatrical life our guide is the formidable critic Addison DeWitt, the maker or breaker of reputations, an Oscar-winning performance in a supporting role by George Sanders. His framing commentary lends an epic quality to the powerful passions, the loyalties and the betrayal involving the renowned but fragile star Margo Channing and her close circle, which the mysterious new arrival Eve Harrington so desires to be part of. The two lead actresses Bette Davis and Anne Baxter were both nominated for the Academy award, along with both the actresses in the major supporting roles. This gives some idea of the dramatic emphasis in this absorbing spectacle that won the Oscar for best film amongst six in total, including best director and best screenplay for Joseph L. Mankiewicz. After a gap of ten years or so I’m excited about watching it for a fourth time.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042192/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000626-all_about_eve
The Italian Job – 23/01/25
The Italian Job (1969) is an upbeat, fast-paced action movie that celebrates classic cars, especially the UK’s pride and joy, the Mini, against a backdrop of stunning Italian architecture and scenery. Michael Caine stars as a dashing young East End gangster in one of his most famous early roles, supported by a host of charismatic actors from the era including Noel Coward, Benny Hill, Rossano Brazzi and John Le Mesurier. There are some unforgettable scenes in this now nostalgic comic thriller, directed by Peter Collinson, like the car chase down the ancient stone steps in Turin. They don’t make movies like this anymore, as they couldn’t get away with it – the glorifying of the criminal underworld, the outdated attitudes towards women, the illegal driving! But it was fun while it lasted. Unbelievable, to see the tricks a stunt driver could do in the original Mini. And of course there are the two glorious moments for which this spectacular caper will always be remembered – Caine’s immortal line “You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!” and the literal cliff-hanger at the end.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064505/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1038613-italian_job
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