Films you've seen lately

[LMcD]

Went to see 'Nae Pasaran' yesterday. Director Felipe Bustos Sierra's father was a journalist who went into exile after the brutal overthrow of the Chilean leader Salvador Allende in 1973. Sierra decided to go and find out about a story he had heard growing up about a group of workers in Scotland who had blacked Chilean plane engines in protest against the Junta's actions against the democratic will of Chilean people. He met some of the instigators in the Rolls Royce Factory in East Kilbride, one man, Bob Fulton, now in his 90s. He also interviewed people in Chile and investigated the impact that the boycott had made as well as exposing once again the brutality of the Pinochet regime. This was a very interesting and moving documentary about ordinary people taking a stand, and it was very well put together by Sierra.

'Nae pasaran ' is presumably the same as 'No pasarán', a phrase which I associate with the Spanish Civil War. Thank you for drawing our attention to what sounds like a very interesting film about an incident of which I was unaware.

[Tevot]

A tough watch is how I would describe 'First Reformed' which we saw last night. Ethan Hawke plays a pastor suffering a crisis of faith who ministers in a tourist church in Albany County, upstate New York, and who is asked to offer some counselling to an environmental activist suffering with depression. I was riveted to the screen throughout and it is of those films that has stayed with me all day - 'Taxi Driver' and 'Raging Bull' screenwriter, Paul Schrader, wrote and directed, and Ethan Hawke continues to astound me with his power as an actor with a magnificent performance. Great sets and a sort of David Lynch-ish 'Eraserhead' era soundtrack add to the atmosphere, and it certainly deals with some complex issues, not least American Evangelism and its links to corporate America, and environmental activism. Great film, I thought.

Hello there,

I'm a fan of Paul Schrader. I loved Mishima for example many moons ago. Agree with you John about "First Reformed" and the denouement - literally the reveal - is shocking. Hawke is very good - though I felt that he didn't quite nail the very ending.

Saw a couple of Ian McEwan adaptations recently. "The Children's Act" with Emma Thompson and an underused Stanley Tucci. The reliance on the device of "Down by The Salley Gardens" didn't work for me - although I found Thompson convincingly moving at the end. The other adaptation was "On Chesil Beach" which got fairly lukewarm reviews but aroused my curiosity as we'd driven past Chesil Beach in the summer. Some might consider the story slight - but there was a section of the film - the bit set in 1975 which I found moving. Lovely music and it features the Wigmore Hall too.

Another film I saw recently was Powell and Pressburger's "A Canterbury Tale" dating from I believe 1944. An interesting curio - more like a drama documentary in many respects and one might argue that the real star of the picture is The Cathedral itself. A fascinating glimpse into another time and world.

Finally - two films by Spike Lee. BlacKkKlansman and Chi-Raq. Both films boast very good ensemble casts. Klansman is the more conventional film with Chi-Raq taking the greater risks (a modern imagining of the Lysistrata) Very much curate's eggs perhaps - some applaud Lee's passion, directness and urgency whilst others decry what they see as an unsubtle scatter gun approach. I was impressed, however, by John Cusack's raw and emotional performance in Chi-Raq. He plays a Priest and his eulogy for a young girl killed in a drive-by shooting I found spellbinding. I wonder what Paul Schrader would have made of it.

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[richardfinegold]

We saw The Green Book, a Film by one of the Farrely Brothers about a Bromance between a black pianist and his Italian American bodyguard and the road trip that they take in the Deep American South in the early 1960s. Viggo Mortensen steals the show. Also saw The Old Man With A Gun, with Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek, about The Over The Hill Gang. Next up is The Favorite.

[Tevot]

Next up is The Favorite.

Very much looking forward to this one too. Was impressed by Yorgos Lanthimos' previous films "The Lobster" and "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" - the sheer oddity of them - mixing dark humour with a sense of foreboding menace. They're definitely not everybody's cup of tea - and the deliberately arch and mannered tone of the dialogue can be off-putting. I thought Barry Keoghan's performance as the boy Martin in "The Killing..." superb - truly frightening and chilling. The ending is memorable albeit requiring some suspension of disbelief.

Re Viggo Mortensen - I thought he was good in the relatively recent "The Two Faces of January" which is based on a Patricia Highsmith story.

[Nick Armstrong]

William Alwyn on Talking Pictures TV

Cracker from Talking Pictures TV which I'm currently watching in instalments having recorded it: She Played with Fire (aka Fortune is a Woman)... Jack Hawkins, Dennis Price, Christopher Lee (in a strange Welsh bit-part)... plus a score by William Alwyn.

...

A feast of William Alwyn on Talking Pictures TV lately....

Apart from the above, recently recorded and enjoyed are:


The Ship That Died of Shame (1955, Richard Attenborough, George Baker etc, dir: Basil Dearden)

The Running Man (1963, Laurence Harvey, Alan Bates etc, dir: Carol Reed)

Both worth a watch

[johncorrigan]

Until Mark Kermode took us on a reasonably entertaining dash through the array of Christmas movies last night on BBC 4 I had never encountered 'The Bishop's Wife', but Kermode mentioned it a few times. So when the film came on afterwards it seemed worthy of a watch...and what a fine seasonal film it was. A bit like Mary Poppins without the songs (including Elsa Lanchester, who played Katy Nanny in MP). Cary Grant was the angel who responded to a prayer from David Niven's troubled Bishop and created chaos in the household in the process. Cary Grant's performance also had resonance of 'Wings of Desire', Wim Wenders film. Lovely film...Mrs C reckoned she now had a new festive favourite. Well worth a watch if you haven't seen it before.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Until Mark Kermode took us on a reasonably entertaining dash through the array of Christmas movies last night on BBC 4

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0001ky5/mark-kermodes-secrets-of-cinema-mark-kermodes-christmas-cinema-secrets

I had never encountered 'The Bishop's Wife', but Kermode mentioned it a few times. So when the film came on afterwards it seemed worthy of a watch...and what a fine seasonal film it was. A bit like Mary Poppins without the songs (including Elsa Lanchester, who played Katy Nanny in MP). Cary Grant was the angel who responded to a prayer from David Niven's troubled Bishop and created chaos in the household in the process. Cary Grant's performance also had resonance of 'Wings of Desire', Wim Wenders film. Lovely film...Mrs C reckoned she now had a new festive favourite. Well worth a watch if you haven't seen it before.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03n2mdm/the-bishops-wife?suggid=b03n2mdm

[richardfinegold]

We watched Finale last night, the story of the abduction of Eichmann. Inevitably they played loose with some of the facts and condensed the time line but I thought the movie did a good job of maintaining tension when the action is static. Half the movie involves the timeline after he was abducted and in a safe house. Ben Kingsley portrayal of Eichmann during this time was not historically accurate. In the movie he is devious and manipulative, at first claiming that he was merely a bureaucrat following orders and at the end exulting in his importance and his perceived relative worth versus the nameless millions that he helped slaughter, and one can clearly perceive that Kingsley is trying to let his demon within be known to all. The reality as related by the Mossad agents involved was that he never dropped his faceless functionary pose. Any bravado that he may have demonstrated came later during the trial in Israel when his fate became clear. Kingsley also acts rings around the actor (Oscar Isaac) playing the lead Mossad agent Peter Malkin, and the imbalance there ultimately weighs down what could have been a great piece of Cinema

[gradus]

'Touch and Go' on Talking Pictures, as fifties a British movie as it is possible to get: Ealing Studios, Michael Balcon, Jack Hawkins and a John Addison score.
(Sorry for the rather abrupt change of tone from Richard's posting.)

[Conchis]

We watched Finale last night, the story of the abduction of Eichmann. Inevitably they played loose with some of the facts and condensed the time line but I thought the movie did a good job of maintaining tension when the action is static. Half the movie involves the timeline after he was abducted and in a safe house. Ben Kingsley portrayal of Eichmann during this time was not historically accurate. In the movie he is devious and manipulative, at first claiming that he was merely a bureaucrat following orders and at the end exulting in his importance and his perceived relative worth versus the nameless millions that he helped slaughter, and one can clearly perceive that Kingsley is trying to let his demon within be known to all. The reality as related by the Mossad agents involved was that he never dropped his faceless functionary pose. Any bravado that he may have demonstrated came later during the trial in Israel when his fate became clear. Kingsley also acts rings around the actor (Oscar Isaac) playing the lead Mossad agent Peter Malkin, and the imbalance there ultimately weighs down what could have been a great piece of Cinema

Mention of Eichmann always brings this to mind:https://readalittlepoetry.wordpress....leonard-cohen/

[LMcD]

'Scrooge: A Christmas Carol' (1951), on Channel 5 yesterday.
A veritable tour de force from Alastair Sim - arguably the definitive Screen Scrooge. Early appearances from Arthur Daley and John Steed. Unfortunately, Richard Addinsell's effective score is often mangled by a dodgy orchestral soundtrack and the Cratchits are suspiciously well-dressed, but these are minor blemishes in an entertaining and occasionally quite affecting version of Dickens's seasonal tale. I didn't realize that Jack Warner, who appeared by special arrangement with the Rank Organisation, was apparently such a big star in the 1950s - but, hey, I was only 8 when this was released!

[Nick Armstrong]

'Scrooge: A Christmas Carol' (1951), on Channel 5 yesterday.
A veritable tour de force from Alastair Sim - arguably the definitive Screen Scrooge. Early appearances from Arthur Daley and John Steed. Unfortunately, Richard Addinsell's effective score is often mangled by a dodgy orchestral soundtrack and the Cratchits are suspiciously well-dressed, but these are minor blemishes in an entertaining and occasionally quite affecting version of Dickens's seasonal tale. I didn't realize that Jack Warner, who appeared by special arrangement with the Rank Organisation, was apparently such a big star in the 1950s - but, hey, I was only 8 when this was released!

An annual watch in this house - unmatchable. Kathleen Harrison's performance in the scene where Scrooge comes to his senses (and Sim's own, of course) are utter delight - and conjure up the original illustrations, come to life....

[Bryn]

Last night, a couple of Greenaways (Peter, not Sydney): The Baby of Mâcon and Prospero's Books (both via imported DVDs, the former from Sweden, the latter from Spain). Why decent transfers of these two films have not seen UK issues is a mystery. Once past the menus, both DVDs play in their original English. Very poor alternative transfers have caused considerable confusion re. these two in terms of Amazon customer reviews. I am tempted by the Blu-ray of the Greenaway/Boddeke production of Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco. Has anyone here seen it?

[jayne lee wilson]

Saw Peter Rabbit... enjoyed the first and last thirds, but did it have to be ever so very violent? Culminating in: a dynamited burrow, a falling tree and shattered conservatory with destroyed artwork...in the Lakes.... My God, this is Peter Rabbit, Mr Director (Will Gluck)...

Lovely animals though - fluidly mobile, visually gorgeous, cute and endlessly expressive. The slightly mad Rooster, expressing loud amazement at each daily return of the sun, was very funny; and the exquisitely camp Pig who can't help his gobbling greed before any food...."oh, just the one" he says, before devouring the plateful...

Funny thing now: after rereading this post... I think I might like to see it again....

(What with Watership Down was well....I didn't plan on having Rabbit for Christmas...)

[jayne lee wilson]

Well I did see it again - and loved it even more!

It's those wonderful Rabbits! As wickedly funny, mischievous and amusing an anthropomorphised troop of CGI-cutesies as were ever on film, with wonderfully expressive faces and body language.......very sharply scripted too, with great oneliners and recurrent, very funny cameos from the fox, pig, rooster etc...
But the two human leads (Rose Byrne, Domnhall Gleeson) also do very well - pitching the light comedy/romance perfectly....