Films you've seen lately

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yeterday I watched "The Knowledge" on a VHS tape I took from a broadcast of the 1979 TV movie and tongue-in cheek recruitment publiciser - a wonderful look at a group of disparate cockney types undertaking the well-known course to becoming a fully-fledged London cabbie, with a sadistic Nigel Hawthorne as the course inductioner and main tester brilliantly rehearsing the supercilious role to come a decade on in "Yes Minister", and several fresh faces also to become familiar in subsequent series.

Having now been living back in The Smoke for the past 15 years, I think I was able to spot all the locations.

I remember that - the Hawthorne character wasn't just sadistic, though, was he? As I rmember it, didn't he justify his behaviour by pointing out that the cabbies would have to deal with far worse behaviour than his, and that if they couldn't cope with what he was throwing at them, then that was a worse handicap to a career than not knowing the routes by heart?

Excellent film - wasn't Gillian Taylforth the lead character's girlfriend?

[Serial_Apologist]

I remember that - the Hawthorne character wasn't just sadistic, though, was he? As I rmember it, didn't he justify his behaviour by pointing out that the cabbies would have to deal with far worse behaviour than his, and that if they couldn't cope with what he was throwing at them, then that was a worse handicap to a career than not knowing the routes by heart?

Excellent film - wasn't Gillian Taylforth the lead character's girlfriend?

Kim Taylforth - Gillian's sister, with a strong resemblance. Michael Elphick put in a marvellous performance as no toss-giving leather-clad lothario, the big I Am among a pretty hapless bunch, whose unfortunate missus Brenda is Maureen Lipman, and whose one great line delivered to the Hawthorne character Burgess, when asked, "Do they still call me The Vampire", is something like "Mostly they do. But I would describe you as one small part of the vampire - a very small part".

At one point the Jackie Collins film "The Stud" is shown playing at a cinema, so we know "The Knowledge" was actually filmed in 1978, though the dress codes (box jackets with wide lapels, flares, floppy shirt collars, long mullet perms - and that's just on the males! - suggested to me that it was a year or two earlier.

Here's the Wiki entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Knowledge_(film)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

- that resume of the cast list (and some of the dialogue) brought back memories of the film. I must seek if it's available to watch in some format.

[Bryn]

Not strictly in line with the thread's title but having decided the Criterion Collection double-Blu-ray of Terry Gilliam's Brazil was just too pricey for me to 'upgrade' from my UK bog standard DVD version of the film, I have been watching "The Birth Of Brazil" and "The Battle for Brazil", the main 'extras' on the Criterion Collection discs via YouTube (I did not feel the need of the running commentary during the film, or the cut US version). I don't think I will stay up to watch the film itself again tonight.

Hmm. What I had not quite grasped was the Region A Criterion Collection Blu-ray was of not the 122-minute European version, but Gilliam's final 142-minute cut. Since I had forked out for the multi-region upgrade kit for the Oppo UDP-203, I caved in and ordered the decidedly pricey Blu-ray from over the Pond (there is, as yet, no Region B Blu-ray option for the final cut). It is quickly clear that the image quality of the original film was not to current standards, though the remastering does improve on the old DVD release. Gilliam's commentary is most illuminating, going some way beyond what is in the "What is Brazil?" and "The Battle of "Brazil"" documentaries.

[LMcD]

Last night we watched 'The Martian' which is arguably less pretentious and more entertaining than '2001 A Space Odyssey, and almost as spectacular.

[gurnemanz]

'Can You Ever Forgive Me?'...absolutely terrific entertainment. Great double act Melissa McCarthy and Richard E Grant and such a great tale brilliantly told.

Saw the other night and echo the above. Intelligent and funny with some great lines. Also poignant, moving and involving. Strange how dislikeable characters can be likeable.

[Bryn]

Hmm. What I had not quite grasped was the Region A Criterion Collection Blu-ray was of not the 122-minute European version, but Gilliam's final 142-minute cut. Since I had forked out for the multi-region upgrade kit for the Oppo UDP-203, I caved in and ordered the decidedly pricey Blu-ray from over the Pond (there is, as yet, no Region B Blu-ray option for the final cut). It is quickly clear that the image quality of the original film was not to current standards, though the remastering does improve on the old DVD release. Gilliam's commentary is most illuminating, going some way beyond what is in the "What is Brazil?" and "The Battle of "Brazil"" documentaries.

Just watched the 94-minute American cut "Love Conquers All" version of Brazil. What an abortion! Not only the 'alternative opening and close, but the ham-fisted dialogue insertions and lame-brained cuts. Still, the extra documentary material on the second Blu-ray is another matter entirely. I will never be able to go to concerts at Leighton House again without thinking of the film.

[MrGongGong]

Watched this last night
Some wonderful things and a great example of someone driven by curiosity
Sad to hear he isn't well (his cancer is in remission)

https://coda.mubi.com

[Nick Armstrong]

Another gem from Talking Pictures

.... Tomorrow at Ten, ideal for a rainy afternoon: an unusual police thriller from 1963 in which the culprit is known (to the audience and the police) from the start. The race-against-time plot includes a tense and compelling two-hand scene between two great actors I associate with wildly different kinds of film from one another: Robert Shaw as the villain and John Gregson (a long way from the light comedy of Genevieve...) trying to break him psychologically.

Martin Clunes's dad Alec takes a leading role too, and there's an interestingly modern, ambiguous role for Alan Wheatley (not a name I knew but a familiar face) as the dapper, publicity-conscious, social-climbing Assistant Commissioner.

Definitely worth a watch. I'm sure it'll pop up again in the Talking Pictures schedule soon.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Tomorrow at Ten also features William Hartnell - and he and Alan Wheatley would work together again the next year in the first Dalek adventure in Dr Who, Wheatley playing the first character ever to be exterminated.

[jayne lee wilson]

Last night we watched 'The Martian' which is arguably less pretentious and more entertaining than '2001 A Space Odyssey, and almost as spectacular.

That take-off from Mars is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in cinema...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OucsmOJK7qY

...the pale sand, the pink-orange flame, the white rocket and the dark Martian mountains beyond...
I do wish they stayed on it longer though - the middle-distance shot of rocket against landscape - I always have to rewind and pause to relish the spectacle...

[Nick Armstrong]

Tomorrow at Ten also features William Hartnell - and he and Alan Wheatley would work together again the next year in the first Dalek adventure in Dr Who, Wheatley playing the first character ever to be exterminated.

Good knowledge!

William Hartnell is in Tomorrow at Ten for all of three minutes, I'd guess...

[LMcD]

.... Tomorrow at Ten, ideal for a rainy afternoon: an unusual police thriller from 1963 in which the culprit is known (to the audience and the police) from the start. The race-against-time plot includes a tense and compelling two-hand scene between two great actors I associate with wildly different kinds of film from one another: Robert Shaw as the villain and John Gregson (a long way from the light comedy of Genevieve...) trying to break him psychologically.

Martin Clunes's dad Alec takes a leading role too, and there's an interestingly modern, ambiguous role for Alan Wheatley (not a name I knew but a familiar face) as the dapper, publicity-conscious, social-climbing Assistant Commissioner.

Definitely worth a watch. I'm sure it'll pop up again in the Talking Pictures schedule soon.

Alan Wheatley played the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham in The Adventures of Robin Hood in the 1950s.

[Nick Armstrong]

Alan Wheatley played the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham in The Adventures of Robin Hood in the 1950s.

THAT's where I'd seen him! Thanks LMcD

[gradus]

Alan Wheatley played the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham in The Adventures of Robin Hood in the 1950s.

As well as being the Sheriff of Nottingham he found time to buy classical records at The Gramophone Exchange in Wardour Street, Henry Staves too I expect sit was just round the corner.