Films you've seen lately

[Leinster Lass]

Thanks for that. Very useful. I now know there are no films on Film Four in the near future that I want to watch (again).

I've just watched 'Lord Of The Flies' for the first time since .. Heavens knows when. I'd forgotten that the music was by Raymond Leppard.
Last night's 'in-house movie' was the 2015 version of 'Far From The Madding Crowd', which I felt was much better than the Christie/Bates/Finch/Stamp version precisely because the casting was more realistic. A fine subtle performance from Carey Mulligan - the pick of a uniformly fine cast. Visually stunning (the film) as well.

[Belgrove]

Last night's 'in-house movie' was the 2015 version of 'Far From The Madding Crowd', which I felt was much better than the Christie/Bates/Finch/Stamp version precisely because the casting was more realistic. A fine subtle performance from Carey Mulligan - the pick of a uniformly fine cast. Visually stunning (the film) as well.

See #194 and #207 for an alternative take.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks for that. Very useful. I now know there are no films on Film Four in the near future that I want to watch (again).

I've already earmarked Goodbye Christopher Robin for Xmas Day, not having seen it before.

[Pulcinella]

The Belles of St Trinian's, on BBC iPlayer.
Poor sound, but a joy to watch again.

[johncorrigan]

Watched Xmas gift DVD of whodunnit 'Knives Out' last night. Very entertaining indeed, and funny too, once you get used to mad accent from Daniel Craig...really enjoyed his performance. A good cast (Colette, Lee Curtis, Plummer, Captain America), so if you enjoy a good old Agatha Christie then you may well enjoy this.

[gurnemanz]

Whisky Galore. Classic comedy recorded from the day before. Followed appropriately by a nightcap of Tobermory 12 yo - a Christmas present from our daughter, bought on Mull. Lovely stuff. Definitely a favourite dram.

[Dave2002]

Well talk of coincidences! I just happened to be watching the French film "Le Ballon Rouge" (1956) earlier tonight.

Didn’t notice this earlier. The Red Balloon is one of my favourite films - or maybe I’ve just got a rose tinted memory. Bought the DVD to give away as a present.

[vinteuil]

Probably not, as this thread is about films and that’s a series. Shall I move series-related comments to the “TV programmes” thread (where folk in search of recommendations for series may reasonably look)?

... yes please!
.

[Nick Armstrong]

Watched Xmas gift DVD of whodunnit 'Knives Out' last night. Very entertaining indeed, and funny too, once you get used to mad accent from Daniel Craig...really enjoyed his performance. A good cast (Colette, Lee Curtis, Plummer, Captain America), so if you enjoy a good old Agatha Christie then you may well enjoy this.

Yes! Went to see this in the cinema (remember them? ) - a stylish and amusing romp!

[Nick Armstrong]

Two black & white classics recorded on BBC2* over the last few weeks, and never seen before...

Both with deft comedic elements blended with much darker, more bitter themes, plus genuine human pathos.

1. The Manchurian Candidate - humour mixed with surreal political satire (reminding me somewhat of Dr Strangelove). Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey giving the performances of their lives, including some amazing two-handed scenes together, and a tour-de-force performance from Angela Lansbury as the mother/political wife from Hell. Also, a haunting score by David Amram (fascinating figure, having looked him up)

2. The Apartment - very bitter-sweet romantic comedy, Jack Lemmon as good as ever and a young Shirley MacLaine completely enchanting, plus a Billy Wilder final line that’s right up there with the end of Some Like It Hot

Two brilliant movies.


*sadly neither film seems to be available on iPlayer (unlike many films broadcast recently).

[Dave2002]

The White Crow - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...the-white-crow

Very good film.

[LHC]

Two black & white classics recorded on BBC2* over the last few weeks, and never seen before...

Both with deft comedic elements blended with much darker, more bitter themes, plus genuine human pathos.

1. The Manchurian Candidate - humour mixed with surreal political satire (reminding me somewhat of Dr Strangelove). Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey giving the performances of their lives, including some amazing two-handed scenes together, and a tour-de-force performance from Angela Lansbury as the mother/political wife from Hell. Also, a haunting score by David Amram (fascinating figure, having looked him up)

2. The Apartment - very bitter-sweet romantic comedy, Jack Lemmon as good as ever and a young Shirley MacLaine completely enchanting, plus a Billy Wilder final line that’s right up there with the end of Some Like It Hot

Two brilliant movies.


*sadly neither film seems to be available on iPlayer (unlike many films broadcast recently).

The Manchurian Candidate is, I think, an astonishing film for its time. Its a classic cold-war thriller, but directed inwards towards the corruption at the heart of American politics, rather than outwards. The drunken senator who is married to Angela Lansbury, and who attempts to use the fear of communism as a route to the Whitehouse is very clearly based on McCarthy. The Director, John Frankenheimer, was particularly proud of his scathing portrait of McCarthy and McCarthyism. Sinatra was also proud of the film, and in later years recognised it as his finest performance. The film is also quite daring structurally, as Sinatra's memories of his time in captivity in Korea are introduced piecemeal into the narrative, with their meaning only becoming apparent later in the film. When it was first released in 1962, Pauline Kael called it "the most sophisticated satire ever made in Hollywood."

Incredibly, legal wrangles between Sinatra and the Studio prevented it from being shown between 1964 and 1988.

I first saw it when it was re-released in 1998 - I think at the Everyman Cinema in Hampstead and was bowled over by it.

[gradus]

The Dig, just released on Netflix and a fine lyrical piece of work with Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes as Edith Pretty, the land owner and Basil Brown the excavator and true discoverer of the Sutton Hoo Ship and treasure, uncovered just before the outbreak of war in 1939. Full marks too for excellent Suffolk dialect not the usual 'actors mummerset' that directors tolerate for productions set in this part of England.

[Dave2002]

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.

[Serial_Apologist]

Didn’t notice this earlier. The Red Balloon is one of my favourite films - or maybe I’ve just got a rose tinted memory. Bought the DVD to give away as a present.

Makes me wonder how on earth they managed to create the anthropomorphic balloon, decades before the invention of CGI; but what really helps "make" the film is Maurice Le Roux's charming musical backdrop to the action. Le Roux had been one of Messiaen's pupils in the mid-1940s, but thereafter seems to have otherwise been little interested in composition.