Strike a light, it’s a new feature. Inspired by the fact that I’ve already seen a few good films this year.
Somewhere – thankfully, not some heartwarming tale of an actor’s empty life being brought to fulfilment by an adorable moppet daughter. Nope, it stays empty, with the suggestion that he’s realised and may do something about it.
Lawrence of Arabia – bloody fantastic in all ways and I’m so glad I saw it on a Big Screen. May have developed a slight crush on Peter O’Toole.
Brighton Rock – screenplay by Graham Greene and Terence Rattigan? Bring it on. No wonder it was so bleak. Dickie Attenborough positively chilling as Pinkie (what, you didn’t think I meant the remake, did you? As if.)
The King’s Speech – Colin Firth terrific, Helena B-C could do that role standing on her head. All round charming stuff, dragged a bit in parts but you forgive and forget that for the uplifting ending. Oh for the days when politicians had to deliver actual speeches, not sound bites. Although perhaps, with the Athenians, we should then fear demagoguery.
Roman Holiday – it was the weekend of films about doing one’s duty. Audrey H and Gregory Peck not bad, but Rome is the real star, of course. Made me think it’s been too long.
Brief Encounter – Never was a railway station invested with such romance and tragedy. The absolute poignancy of Alec and Laura’s wrecked farewell delivers a fair old wallop to the emotions.
Secretary – Really wasn’t sure what to expect, but James Spader is reliably odd. And so it proved. Although, take away the sado-masochistic stuff and it’s just a film about two people recognising and accepting what is true about each other.
High Noon – Wow, so much better than I expected. Not only a tense Western, but a quick examination of where the responsibility for maintaining law and order falls, the nature of duty and personal moral obligation, scapegoating and even the reality of marriage. All packed into an hour and a half without much dialogue. Also, OMG the theme tune. I had no idea it was written for that film.
My Fair Lady – years since I’ve seen this, and now I find the ending unsatisfactory. Will have to read Pygmalion, I suppose.
Heavens Above! – An old Boulting brothers/Peter Sellers film, about a prison chaplain who is accidentally reassigned to a nice, middle class village where his genuine belief doesn’t play well at all amongst the hypocritical villagers. I didn’t find it rip roaringly funny, but I did find it interesting and relevant social commentary. The subject matter certainly stands today.
If – Disaffected youths at posh school gradually driven to running haywire. Or do they? Because there were certainly bits where you couldn’t tell if the narrative depicted what was really happening, or just a potential outcome. So, the scruffy, free thinking types who don’t toe the line get punished for their attitude problem. The authorities, in this case other boys as the school, are provoked by something they can’t quite put their finger on, and so are reduced to explaining it as ‘I don’t like the way you stand’. As is the way with oppressive regimes, of course, threatened by anyone different, with a view point that they are unable to grasp.
Water – Which is about a bunch of Indian widows living in a widow house around 1938, because all that they’re allowed to do is stay chaste and wait to die themselves. This is particularly unfair on Chuyia, who is 7. The film is beautifully shot, a true visual feast; but it is also hours of absolutely nothing happening.
Tamara Drewe – For some reason, I missed this at the pictures and so have been waiting ages for it to be available to stream. And after all that, it was – ok.
Rear Window – Which I haven’t seen for years. I will admit that I got distracted by Grace Kelly’s clothes, and by the fact that it was based on a short story by Cornell Woolrich. But great stuff, particularly because I really couldn’t remember the ending.
The Man Who Would be King – Must read the story this is based on. Hubris punished, in true tragic fashion. Michael Caine and Sean Connery were fab.
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec – So, I liked the beginning, with the introduction of all the characters and how they were linked; then I liked the Indiana Jones style bit. Then I began to feel sorry for the pterodactyl, and the old man controlling him, and didn’t care very much why Adele was trying to bring Patmosis back to life. But the whole thing looked lovely and I would like to go and live in early 20th century Paris.
The Fallen Idol – based on a short story by Graham Greene, beautifully shot by Carol Reed. If it weren’t for the fact that the child in this is one of the most horrible screen moppets I’ve ever seen, it would have been an unqualified thumbs up. But still, fab how the layers of deceit build up: tall stories, white lies, deceptions, it’s no wonder the unpleasant kid doesn’t know what to do for the best. In the end what is truth, and does it matter if the right outcome ensues? Must read the story.
Senna – When Senna crashed at Imola in 1994, I was in a car driving through the Peak District, and when the news came on the radio I had a moment of pure disbelief. This was back in the days when I followed F1, even to the extent of having my own, very badly performing, Fantasy Formula 1 team through Top Gear magazine. Even so, a film about Ayrton Senna seemed unlikely – are that many people still interested? Judging by the packed cinema, yes, they are. It’s difficult for me to judge if the film would be at all compelling if you weren’t interested in racing; but for me it had all the force of Greek tragedy. A mix of race footage, in car cameras, interviews, and family video, Senna is perhaps artfully hagiographic, but unavoidably sad. Senna seemed to have no impulse other than to race to win; and yet, despite multiple world championships, F1 never delivered the pure driving experience he enjoyed in his early karting career. He was the best, and still something was missing. That’s almost as tragic as his death.
The Princess of Montpensier – Um. Left after an hour, because even my interest in understanding precisely what made the film so, so bad had waned by then. Was it the fact that the actors all had modern haircuts and wore their costumes as though it was fancy dress? Was it that the battle scenes looked as though they were YouTube videos of re-enactors? Could it have been the unlikely plot developments and clunky dialogue? All this, and more. Tedious and overblown.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Ok, yes, I’ll grant you that much of what I said above about PoM also applies to HP. But it’s supposed to be candyfloss, it delivered some cracking action scenes and was altogether quite satisfactory. Well, alright, except for the final scene, but as that didn’t ever work in print either, what did you expect?
In the Loop - which would have been funnier if you didn’t suspect that’s pretty much how wars do get started. Some arse in power wants to kill people, and then bends reality to make it happen. Really good, and really alarming.
Rope – Based on the stage play by Patrick Hamilton, and still very much a distinctly three-act show. Nicely taught.
Midnight in Paris – Utterly charming, and that’s despite the fact that although Woody Allen wasn’t in it, Luke Wilson was playing Woody Allen playing Gil Spender. Argh. I thought this was very much one note piece, but since everyone was a caricature, that one note was sustained very well.
The Awakening – Could have been so good, and then – wasn’t. I was really willing it to turn up the suspense and it was sort of doing ok until halfway through, and then it went into free-fall. Very well shot and acted free-fall, but a collapse is a collapse. Imelda Staunton was clearly up to something from the start, the scary gamekeeper was obviously a red herring, Rebecca Hall and Dominic West were short changed by a script that gave them very little to do. The last trailing shot where you aren’t supposed to be able to tell if Florence is a ghost or not? Seriously? It wasn’t terrible but the worst thing was that I could see potential. Paging Guillermo del Toro…
Wuthering Heights – Never have I been so relieved that the film skipped the last third of the story. It was beautiful and raw and brutal, of course, but so slow I felt it was happening in real time and in the end I tried dozing off in the cinema.
The Browning Version – the b&w one with Michael Redgrave, not t’other one. A great film of a great play, but absolutely wrenching to watch people be so deliberately cruel to each other.
