Films you've seen lately

[Serial_Apologist]

The Gene Krupa Story.

Lots of good things in the 100 minutes,and seems to be an honest attempt at a rounded picture of his character.
Available on Youtube, certainly worth a watch for the jazz beginner.

Funny to think that my first encounter with the name of Gene Krupa was through a spoof LP titled "JUNK - Jazz University's New Kicks", which came out in 1961 and had quite well-known West Coast musicians parodying even better known musicians, with names of participants spoonerised on the sleeve: Ruddy Bitch for Buddy Rich; Merry Julligan for Gerry Mulligan; Thelonious Monk presented as The Loneliest Plunk, Chet Baker listed as Bet Taker, etc etc. My 14-year old cousin who had bought the record from his meagre savings was very miffed, and took it back to the shop in hope of a refund on grounds the record was damaged, but to no avail...

[muzzer]

I’m watching Jesus of Nazareth. Hadn’t quite appreciated how much of its tone Python appropriated. As well as the sets.

[richardfinegold]

I’m watching Jesus of Nazareth. Hadn’t quite appreciated how much of its tone Python appropriated. As well as the sets.

I just watched Life of Bryan on Good Friday.
However, we watched Little Women on Saturday night. Very well acted and directed. Having tried to slog through that book a couple of times, I think this is one time the movie is better than the book...

[johncorrigan]

For those who like a bit of Beach Boys, BBC2 is showing the Brian Wilson biopic 'Love and Mercy' this evening. Young Brian is played by Paul Dano, and the older Brian by John Cussack. I thought the film worked really well when I saw it at the flicks a few years back.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hqt9

[muzzer]

Well to be fair, the original theme is heard on the piano above the conventional new theme music (which I think follows the harmonic pattern of the original).

Like johncorrigan, I’ve seen a few of the old Van der Valk episodes on Talking Pictures TV and the title sequence is generally the best bit - duff is the word, and Barry Foster’s acting was often terrible I thought.

Ample room for a new alternative and Marc Warren is no duffer.... but having only seen the first 30 minutes so far, the script is disappointingly uninspired with cliché piled on cliché...

(Ditto after an hour)

Yes, the thing about TPTV, if you’ll allow the abbreviation, is the risk of watching stuff and realising it’s not very good. VdV appears to be a case in point!

Happily, I’ve loaded up the digibox with plenty of TPTV and this evening have watched the film A Touch of Love (1969) about a grad student who keeps her unplanned baby. Plenty of Bloomsbury locations, superb acting and not a little social commentary. Based on The Millstone by Margaret Drabble. Yes, of its time, but that in itself is of note.

[LMcD]

Yes, the thing about TPTV, if you’ll allow the abbreviation, is the risk of watching stuff and realising it’s not very good. VdV appears to be a case in point!

Happily, I’ve loaded up the digibox with plenty of TPTV and this evening have watched the film A Touch of Love (1969) about a grad student who keeps her unplanned baby. Plenty of Bloomsbury locations, superb acting and not a little social commentary. Based on The Millstone by Margaret Drabble. Yes, of its time, but that in itself is of note.

I think that can be said about a lot of films from that period, such as 'The Servant' and 'A Taste of Honey', to name just two.

[Nick Armstrong]

Yes, the thing about TPTV, if you’ll allow the abbreviation, is the risk of watching stuff and realising it’s not very good. VdV appears to be a case in point!

Happily, I’ve loaded up the digibox with plenty of TPTV and this evening have watched the film A Touch of Love (1969) about a grad student who keeps her unplanned baby. Plenty of Bloomsbury locations, superb acting and not a little social commentary. Based on The Millstone by Margaret Drabble. Yes, of its time, but that in itself is of note.

Yes, I plan ahead too and try to record likely-looking numbers on their schedule, films mostly. There’s some pretty awful stuff from the 40s and 70s but the 50s and 60s produced some gems. The low-budget pictures from studios like Merton Park and Nettlefold often feature atmospheric London locations. On two occasions, I’ve jumped to see my road-end c.1959...!

The other day, I enjoyed a civil service satire called Dear Mr Prohack with the magnificent Cecil Parker as a draconian Treasury official who comes into a personal fortune, a youthful Dirk Bogarde playing his son

As noted elsewhere on this thread, TPTV also gives a great opportunity to hear the film work of William Alwyn, Georges Auric et al...

[LMcD]

Yes, I plan ahead too and try to record likely-looking numbers on their schedule, films mostly. There’s some pretty awful stuff from the 40s and 70s but the 50s and 60s produced some gems. The low-budget pictures from studios like Merton Park and Nettlefold often feature atmospheric London locations. On two occasions, I’ve jumped to see my road-end c.1959...!

The other day, I enjoyed a civil service satire called Dear Mr Prohack with the magnificent Cecil Parker as a draconian Treasury official who comes into a personal fortune, a youthful Dirk Bogarde playing his son

As noted elsewhere on this thread, TPTV also gives a great opportunity to hear the film work of William Alwyn, Georges Auric et al...

We recently enjoyed 'The Detective', based on the 'Father Brown' stories, with Alec Guinness as the crime-busting cleric and Peter Finch as the suave sinner.

I've lost count of the number of films that Dirk Bogarde made while under contract to Rank! I'd forgotten that he was one of the first British officers to enter Belsen. It's hard to believe that 21 years have passed since we lost him.

[LMcD]

'The Sea Shall Not Have Them' is one of TPTV's offerings today. It's by no means a great film, but there was some excitement at our school when those of us who wished were allowed to walk over to the railway station and watch, quietly and from a respectful distance ('socially distanced', you could say) the filming of a particular scene. In those days - 66 years ago - the station had 4 platforms, a ticket office, a buffet and a branch of W H Smith - now it has a single track, a single platform and a ticket machine.

[DracoM]

Guinness etc: BBC's Tinker, Tailor etc / Le Carre. Unrivalled.

[Nick Armstrong]

We recently enjoyed 'The Detective', based on the 'Father Brown' stories, with Alec Guinness as the crime-busting cleric and Peter Finch as the suave sinner.

I've lost count of the number of films that Dirk Bogarde made while under contract to Rank! I'd forgotten that he was one of the first British officers to enter Belsen. It's hard to believe that 21 years have passed since we lost him.

Copied these few posts from the TV thread, for completeness here.

And yes, The Detective is a terrific film, I think I wrote above it somewhere above.

Great example of Georges Auric’s work too, perfectly chosen given the Parisian locations too (if I remember correctly).

[LMcD]

Copied these few posts from the TV thread, for completeness here.

And yes, The Detective is a terrific film, I think I wrote above it somewhere above.

Great example of Georges Auric’s work too, perfectly chosen given the Parisian locations too (if I remember correctly).

You do indeed remember correctly!

[Serial_Apologist]

Copied these few posts from the TV thread, for completeness here.

And yes, The Detective is a terrific film, I think I wrote above it somewhere above.

Great example of Georges Auric’s work too, perfectly chosen given the Parisian locations too (if I remember correctly).

I've always been struck by the sheer Frenchness of Auric's music for those so utterly British in character films he composed. A French friend was agreeing on this a while back.

[pastoralguy]

I subscribed to The British Film Institute's website and now have access to some really weird and wonderful stuff. We watched Wim Wender's 'Kings of the Road' from 1976. A three hour film about a man who travels around Germany servicing cinema's projection equipment. He conducts his business from a converted furniture removal lorry.

One day, he's shaving at the side of the road when a Volkswagen Beetle drives into the river Elbe, driven buy a paediatrician who's gone through a difficult divorce. After said Dr. has bailed from his sinking Beetle, he's befriended by the cinema technician and they spend the rest of the movie developing a relationship whilst meeting various oddballs along the way.

My attraction was seeing the innards of various cinema projection rooms of picture palaces of the period but there were some interesting observations re the human condition. A bit long at three hours but I'm glad to have seen once.

[Nick Armstrong]

Having seen reference to it in Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema series about spy movies, and spotted it in the IPTV schedule, I’m currently attempting to get through Modesty Blaise, the 1966 attempt to capitalise (presumably) on the success of first few Bond movies, with Monica Vitti less than convincing as the sort of female 007 counterpart.... Even less convincing are the effortfully psychedelic ‘60s production style, supposedly equally stylish (but stilted) performances from Terence Stamp as the evva-so-cockney sidekick and Dirk Bogarde as the camp silver-haired villain, voiceovers by establishment handlers like Harry Andrews, and random appearances by magicians and Joe Melia as a mime artist...

An absolute dog’s breakfast which I was astonished to see was directed by Joseph Losey

Not sure how far I’ll make it through before deleting.

It has a cult following, apparently