Films you've seen lately

[gradus]

Excellent film. There was a letter in the Times today by someone who was involved in a later Sutton Hoo dig. Worth finding.

Mostly the film was accurate, though the photographs were taken by a pair of women. The odd situation of Peggy was somewhat inexplicable in the film, though simplified to give it sex interest. The ‘real’ history is/was also odd - shaped I think by customs of the time.

I believe that some of the mounds remain unexcavated.

[Bryn]

The Plank (though on Talking Pictures, rather than dailymotion).

[ardcarp]

L'Auberge Espagnol*

Absolutely brilliant! (Watched it on DVD)
It's a multi-lingual film, but mainly French and Spanish with a bit of English thrown in.

It's about a year in the life of Erasmus students crammed into an apartment in Barcelona. We watched it with one of our grand-daughters who did a year on Erasmus in 2018 (how SAD it's not available to us any more!!!) and she said how true to life it was. It's witty...sometimes laugh-out-loud...a bit rude, but also poignant.

* Known as Pot Luck in English and The Spanish Apartment in Australia.

[Nick Armstrong]

Re-watching Peter Weir’s Witness, a generally great film imho, I was struck again by the wordless scene where the boy identifies the photograph of the villain in the police station awards cabinet... His wide-eyed expression, Harrison Ford realising from the other side of the room, coming over, following with his eyes the boy’s pointed finger, covering the finger with his hand (such a potent sign of potential danger), nodding silently.... One of the best moments of cinema I know

[MickyD]

On Netflix - 'Handsome Devil', a lovely, heartwarming gay film from Ireland.

[johncorrigan]

Ever since I saw the trailer in the cinema (remember them?), I've been meaning to watch 'Leave No Trace' which stars Ben Foster and Thomasin Harcourt Mackenzie. It's set in Oregon and is about a young girl who lives with her father in the woods near Portland. He seems to be ex-military and perhaps has PTSD and they are running from society. A very melancholy film, but brilliantly acted by the two central characters. Well worth a watch if you come across it.

[eighthobstruction]

Re-watching Peter Weir’s Witness, a generally great film imho, I was struck again by the wordless scene where the boy identifies the photograph of the villain in the police station awards cabinet... His wide-eyed expression, Harrison Ford realising from the other side of the room, coming over, following with his eyes the boy’s pointed finger, covering the finger with his hand (such a potent sign of potential danger), nodding silently.... One of the best moments of cinema I know

....fab film that....

[MickyD]

'I Care For You' on Netflix...an unusual and gripping thriller but certainly alarming if you have any family members in care homes!

[Cockney Sparrow]

....fab film that....

Also the barn raising scene in Witness is very engaging - the frame all up in one day! I hankered for some years after a timber framed barn "kit" - you could buy them dissassembled from France - before I let the pipe dream of a new (but old) build house go....)

[Serial_Apologist]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but recently I've been watching several of the early 1960s B&W TV series Scotland Yard on Talking Pictures, rapidly becoming my favourite network. I often tend to watch these old TV series as a reminder of dress codes and street furniture from the time, which in turn trigger long-dormant memories, as much as for the amusement at the stiff upper lip attitudes and tendency to over play the obvious. However, I am now beginning to notice moment-to-moment inconsistencies - last night, for instance, wall maps on the Scotland yard office wall changing midway through conversations and then reverting back to the originals!

[Cockney Sparrow]

Almost "Acorn Antiques" then.....

[alywin]

Re-watching Peter Weir’s Witness, a generally great film imho, I was struck again by the wordless scene where the boy identifies the photograph of the villain in the police station awards cabinet... His wide-eyed expression, Harrison Ford realising from the other side of the room, coming over, following with his eyes the boy’s pointed finger, covering the finger with his hand (such a potent sign of potential danger), nodding silently.... One of the best moments of cinema I know

I really love that film. Can't believe how old it is now ... As others have said, the barn-raising scene is pretty magnificent - and I always enjoy the UST in the other barn scene, too.

[Nick Armstrong]

Re-watched another 80s film, Spielberg’s of JG Ballard’s Empire of the Sun.

I’d forgotten that when I saw it in the cinema having loved the book, I swore never to forgive Spielberg and John Williams for trivialising the key moment, for me, when Jim gets onto the Japanese airbase and lays hands on the warm fuselage of a parked fighter plane. Powerful in the book, it gets a ghastly sentimental swell of music and a shower of Disney sparks. Horrible. In fact Williams’s score is one of the worst I know (mercifully, many scenes have no music, which makes the film watchable) but every time the music cuts in, it ruins it for me.

.

I remember being incredulous when the score was nominated for an Oscar in 1987 Fortunately it didn’t win.

[PHS]

'Hollywood Boulevard'. I've seen this film at various intervals in my life but somehow it resonated more on this viewing. What's surprising to me is that Norma Desmond is portrayed as being an old woman when if fact she was only 50.

Marvellous to see that short scene from the doomed movie 'Queen Kelly' where Gloria Swanson watches herself from her glory days. Really very moving. This is a film that has so much story behind its creation it makes doing some research well worth while.

[johncorrigan]

Yesterday on Film 4 I chanced on 'Twelve Angry Men' - hadn't seen it in ages. Wonderfully claustrophobic with great performances, and the incessant rain. The close-up shots of the protagonists were stunning. Couldn't help but think that the director had been watching Kurosawa. So glad to have seen it again.