Films you've seen lately

[jayne lee wilson]

Recently had a good time with......

Dunkirk (visually stunning, all sea, sky, beach, wide open spaces with small vulnerable suffering humans but offset by intimate/spectacular Spitfire footage. Remarkable soundtrack & poetic ending).

Baby Driver (terrific if Romanticising successor to The Driver, Drive, Bullitt etc., never mind the spacey, feel the Soundtrack (come to think of it, Christopher Plummer would have been good in this as a spacey-sub too).

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (hated it first time, loved it tearfully the second, still looking for an accurate but affordable Rocket Racoon figure).

American Made (FAR better than expected - political critique lightly hidden inside a terrific 1970s CIA/drugrunning thrill-ride, stunning aerial sequences, Tom Cruise playing his usual self but brilliantly attractive voiceover/onscreen presence - want to see this again)

Less Happy with....
Beauty and the Beast (the recent musical one, just far too twee and formulaic for all its visual beauty, haven't even got to the end of it yet.... back to Cocteau, I'm afraid.)

[LHC]

Went to see the most recent episode of Star Wars over the holidays. It was better than I thought it was going to be. Mind you, they just change all the names around and do the same stuff and roll out the old guns to keep the aficionados happy. But I agree, Eine, there were points in the film where I found myself thinking, 'That is one fine theme tune they've got going there!'

They've got a rubbish baddie, mind you, like a very poor version of Snape...and the BIG BAD baddie kept reminding me of the BFG...but it kept me more entertained than a lot of other Lucas offerings over the years.

Possibly because Lucas had nothing to do with the latest Star Wars films, having sold his Lucasfilm to Disney (who it turn told him to get lost when he tried to get involved in the new trilogy and related films).

[vinteuil]

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... a wonderful film -

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

We saw it yesterday, and it is still reverberating (in a good way). Yes, I know the critics have raved over it, and given it five stars &c - for once I think they're right.

Stonking performance by Frances McDormand, and excellent Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell and others. Written, produced, and directed by Martin McDonagh, who did In Bruges and The Guard. Beautifully paced, literate script, which wrong-foots you again and again. The best thing in quite a time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Billboards_Outside_Ebbing,_Missouri

[ ... wiki entry contains spoilers ]





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[eighthobstruction]

....I'm looking forward to that one finding its way to terrestrial TV....

[LMcD]

Darkest Hour. Strongly recommended. See Dave 2002's thread on film aspect ratios for my brief review.

[Serial_Apologist]

Last night I watched the DVD of "Victim" I bought myself for Xmas. Unlike those who have expressed criticism at gay stereotyping, I've always considered this an extraordinarily brave film for its time (1961), and, in every *meaningful* way, one of the most telling pieces of acting of Dirk Bogarde's career. It would have been nice to have had imput from Sylvia Sims, whose portrayal of Bogarde's upper middle class wife is a tour de force of acting. There is an interview with the main character in the "Extras", taken at Bogarde's home just prior to the film's release: Bogart, though chain smoking, either manages to act over any insecurities he may have been feeling, or is totally at ease with a line of questioning that seemed commonplace back then in its unmannered, unfussed, non-fawning directness. Those were times when a famous actor could be totally undefensive in admitting his or her preference for doing non-commercial roles. Hollywood is presented as a very different community from how leading British actors today present it, though the fact that Bogarde didn't think much of the end product might have jeopardised future prospects of starring there again doesn't seem to have been part of any consideration in relating his experience there. Fascinating too to hear those upper class vowels that one just took for granted and didn't think of as snobby, back then.

[LMcD]

Last night I watched the DVD of "Victim" I bought myself for Xmas. Unlike those who have expressed criticism at gay stereotyping, I've always considered this an extraordinarily brave film for its time (1961), and, in every *meaningful* way, one of the most telling pieces of acting of Dirk Bogarde's career. It would have been nice to have had imput from Sylvia Sims, whose portrayal of Bogarde's upper middle class wife is a tour de force of acting. There is an interview with the main character in the "Extras", taken at Bogarde's home just prior to the film's release: Bogart, though chain smoking, either manages to act over any insecurities he may have been feeling, or is totally at ease with a line of questioning that seemed commonplace back then in its unmannered, unfussed, non-fawning directness. Those were times when a famous actor could be totally undefensive in admitting his or her preference for doing non-commercial roles. Hollywood is presented as a very different community from how leading British actors today present it, though the fact that Bogarde didn't think much of the end product might have jeopardised future prospects of starring there again doesn't seem to have been part of any consideration in relating his experience there. Fascinating too to hear those upper class vowels that one just took for granted and didn't think of as snobby, back then.

Thanks for the reminder - I intend to watch it on youtube! I recently watched 'The Servant' on the Talking Pictures channel and was amazed at how powerfully DB managed to project a sense of evil with apparently so little effort.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks for the reminder - I intend to watch it on youtube! I recently watched 'The Servant' on the Talking Pictures channel and was amazed at how powerfully DB managed to project a sense of evil with apparently so little effort.

Indeed - and comparable with what Richard Attenborough managed to achieve in "Brighton Rock", without any need to resort to foul langage. I don't go for the loud sledgehammer, gone-before-you-can-take-it-in approach to holding today's paucity of attention at all, and steer clear of cinemas. I also have "The Servant" in my now, I guess, near-complete collection, either on DVD or old VHS tapes, of great films of an era that holds so many strong memories for a now-72 year old!

[vinteuil]

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... and, to accompany the excellent Victim [1961] and The Servant [1963], the later Accident [1967]. All deeply uncomfortable films, the last with a distinctly unsavoury tone that leaves you feeling queasy.

Wonderful stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accident_(1967_film)

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[Serial_Apologist]

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... and, to accompany the excellent Victim[1961] and The Servant[1963], the later Accident[1967]. All deeply uncomfortable films, the last with a distinctly unsavoury tone that leaves you feeling queasy.

Wonderful stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accident_(1967_film)

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Yes, I have all three! - and "Blow-Up", also very uncomfortable watching, though intentionally so - and. obviously, timely in today's belatedly questioning climate. My favourite British film of that era is probably "The Go-Between". I can't help feeling that it must capture the nuances and manners of the era it depicts as perfectly as was still possible at the time of its making, 1971. Too much water has gone under too many bridges for the historical memories to be reproducible with equal fidelity to the era in the period dramas on TV that nonetheless remain so popular, for the simple reason that there's nobody around any more to recall what things were like, with the degree of detail there that is so telling.

[kernelbogey]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good supplier of film DVDs? A specialist in that genre, ideally, with the same service levels as (for example) Presto Classical. As a matter of principle, I do not patronise 'the river people'.

[teamsaint]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good supplier of film DVDs? A specialist in that genre, ideally, with the same service levels as (for example) Presto Classical. As a matter of principle, I do not patronise 'the river people'.

Tried this, KB?

https://www.hive.co.uk

[Nick Armstrong]

Thanks for the reminder - I intend to watch it on youtube! I recently watched 'The Servant' on the Talking Pictures channel and was amazed at how powerfully DB managed to project a sense of evil with apparently so little effort.

Yes I also watched The Servant on that channel - quite agree about DB's performance. Less sure about the film as a whole, particularly towards the end - some rather effortfully posed/styled scenes (of their period, I suspect), in contrast to DB's work...

[Nick Armstrong]

Two absolute classics on Talking Pictures TV (in addition to The Servant just mentioned) which I'd previously never seen:

Green for Danger, a Launder & Gilliat film with a terrific score by William Alwyn - whimsical and creepy in equal measure, with Alastair Sim as an eccentric police inspector who arrives at a sinister hospital during the war to enquire into a mysterious death or two

Wrong Arm of the Law, crime caper with a cast list of dreams including Peter Sellers (practising the Clouseau accent), Lionel Jeffries, Bernard Cribbins (great turn as Irish gang leader "Nervous" O'Toole ), John Le Mesurier, Dennis Price et al (great score by Richard Rodney Bennett).

[LMcD]

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... and, to accompany the excellent Victim [1961] and The Servant [1963], the later Accident [1967]. All deeply uncomfortable films, the last with a distinctly unsavoury tone that leaves you feeling queasy.

Wonderful stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accident_(1967_film)

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