What is your favourite film in this depressing weather?

[Serial_Apologist]

#102, JFLL, I well remember The Kinema, it certainly looked like the sort of place where you could catch fleas. I saw Polanski's 'Repulsion' there, that really was a shocker, several people in the audience had to be escorted out before the end, suffering from extreme fright. The thought of Catherine Deneuve and her nail clippers still makes me flinch.

Great film, Unstoppable, with a fantastic score by Chico Hamilton. I was then living just around the corner - I remember the camera crews; had I known Catherine Deneuve was on the set I'd have hung around!

[gamba]

Have just remembered a film just full of blue skies & sunshine, ' The Camels are Coming ' ( 1934 ) starring Jack Hulbert & Annabel Lee ( WHO ? ). Full of great songs, one especially about the weather " Who's Been Polishing the Sun, Rubbing up the Clouds all Day " or something like that ? Not sure of the words, although the Camels by the way were Sopwith Camels - very exciting.

You may now call the men in their white coats - I shall go quietly.

[vinteuil]

Full of great songs, one especially about the weather " Who's Been Polishing the Sun, Rubbing up the Clouds all Day " or something like that ? Not sure of the words,.

WHO’S BEEN POLISHING THE SUN ?
(Gay / Gaynor)
Leslie Holmes - 1934


The world’s becoming a gay one
I used to think it a grey one
But I discovered it’s A1, just now
It’s taken on a new meaning
It’s very nice to be seen in
There’s been a little spring-cleaning somehow

^Who’s been polishing the sun
Brightening the sky today?
They must have known just how I like it
Everything’s coming my way
Who’s been teaching all the birds
How to sing a roundelay?
They must have known just how I like it
Everything’s coming my way

*Yesterday everything looked anyhow
Then I met someone and look at it now
Who’s been polishing the sun
Rubbing out the clouds of grey?
They must have known just how I like it
Everything’s coming my way^^

Now the world was getting all rusted
And I was getting disgusted
But everything has been dusted today
The sky’s a little serener
The grass a little bit greener
There’s been a vacuum cleaner this way

[gamba]

WOW !! vinteuil, you really are a clever one !

The film appeared on TV a year or so ago - very nostalgic. ( another term for ' awful ' ) I would have been 11 in 1934, I expect my parents would have taken me to the local Gaumont. I seem to remember other films featuring Jack Hulbert - was he not a character known as ' Bulldog Drummond.' ? The 'enemy' were always Chinese, lived in London's East End & had a habit of disappearing down into the Underground when chased.
The books, if I remember rightly, were very popular & were written by a Mr. Edgar Wallace.

Anyway, thanks for helping me get the words right, I didn't think ' rubbing up the clouds ' sounded quite right.

gamba

[salymap]

interesting posts all round. Don't know about his films but my parents liked Cicely Courtnege and Jack Hulbert, who were often on the London stage, singing, I suppose,in the 1920s, before my time.

Afraid I didn't inherit their love of reviews and music hall. I was dragged to Ivor Novello's Perchance to Dreamsome time later too.

[Serial_Apologist]

in the 1920s, before my time.

Really?

[salymap]

Really?

Watch it sonny, I'll get gamba to talk to you

[Serial_Apologist]

Watch it sonny, I'll get gamba to talk to you

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The film appeared on TV a year or so ago - very nostalgic. ( another term for ' awful ' ) I would have been 11 in 1934, I expect my parents would have taken me to the local Gaumont. I seem to remember other films featuring Jack Hulbert - was he not a character known as ' Bulldog Drummond.' ? The 'enemy' were always Chinese, lived in London's East End & had a habit of disappearing down into the Underground when chased.
The books, if I remember rightly, were very popular & were written by a Mr. Edgar Wallace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulldog_Drummond

Edgar Wallace was responsible for Mr JG Reeder, and ... King Kong! (Now there's a film for a dull summer's afternoon!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Wallace

[Ferretfancy]

salymap,

I had a stage struck aunt who took my cousin Heather and I to see Cecily Courtnege in "Gay's the Word", Ivor Novello's last musical. I remember squirming with embarrassment as a fourteen year old watching Miss C in dance routines being flung about the stage by a bunch of muscle men singing " Vitality ! Vitality ! " It was truly terrible.

As a nice touch, the excellent gay bookshop of the same name in Marchmont Street has an original poster for the show on the wall, I could be the only customer to have seen the original

[groovydavidii]

Rainy day films? Any one of the following will do: "The Seventh Seal," "All Quiet on the Western Front," "Strangers on a Train," "Paths of Glory," "2001, A Space Odyssey," "Singin' in the Rain," "An American in Paris," "Jules et Jim," "Goldfinger," "I'm All Right Jack," "The Pink Panther", Woody Allen's–"Sleeper," "Annie Hall."

[Bryn]

Only just noticed this thread. I think Prospero's Books would fit the bill for me.

[Lateralthinking1]

I have come back to this thread a dozen times and find it really difficult to answer the question. I could probably reel off 50 to 100 films I have found enjoyable or even wonderful at the time. Would I choose to see them again? No - not most of them.

I am not sure quite how many films I have seen more than once. However, I could probably number them on two hands. If not, then certainly three hands. Unlike television and radio at their very best, I just don't seem to want to revisit them.

Not sure why this should be other than that they are associated closely in my mind with their eras. Possibly they seemed to be less a part of my life and the people I knew even then than music, broadcasting and other things.

I have in mind to learn a lot more about the films produced before my own life. I think I would find that more rewarding but it is an exercise that I never fully begin. Until then, I will have to say comedy but I doubt that I can be more specific.

[tantris]

It's a bit liked being asked your favourite piece of music for a rainy day - impossible. But at this moment my vote would be for Truffaut's Day for Night (la nuit americaine) - his witty tribute to the joys (and otherwise) of film-making.