My walk this week started at the Weston Turville Reservoir. It was nice to see the swans again who have been missing since the water froze in January (see post of 25th). We did worry for them. And three signets seem to have appeared from nowhere.
The canal footpath has reopened from Halton to Wendover following a big upgrade. The path is now so good I fear for bikes going too fast. What I liked about the photo above is the reflection of the trees in the water.
Great romantic novel adaptations is narrated by Mariella Frostrop, but this programme is not as good as those presented by Ian Nathan. It is still a 3DD Production but this time we only have a voice over the stills and clips from the chosen films. Mariella starts with "Heaven help anyone to take on a book loved by millions". Well a lot do. we hear that Romeo and Juliet paved the way, although this is a play and not a book? We see the 1936 version from George Cukor (director number 8 on my post of 2nd January 2020) from MGM. Thirty year olds playing teenagers! Franco Zeffirelli got the age about right and so did Baz Lurman. I preferred Some Things I Hate About You. Corny or what.
Onto Jane Austen, so many movies from her books including Clueless would you believe. Of course the Bronte sisters are a great source for movies. All those chosen are a bit predictable, but Orson Wells and Joan Fontaine in Jane Eyre seemed a good choice. Oh Dickens! Is Great Expectations a romance? Maybe only just. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina has been filmed over a dozen times but maybe the 1935 version is still the best?
Then a film I would really like to see. Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence directed by Martin Scorsese in 1993 and starring Daniel Day Lewis and Michelle Pfeifer. It must have looked great on the big screen. We are onto more modern movies with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Marilyn Monroe. I didnt know the book by Anita Loos. Is F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby a romance? Maybe that love triangle in the films of 1949, 1973 and 2013 (Baz Lurman's version (post of 12th June 2013). I have never been interested in watching gone with the Wind but Daphne de Maurier's Rebecca with Laurence Olivier in the 1940 version gained an Oscar best picture.
Passing over the predictable From Here to Eternity and Doctor Zhivago, the latter's review went on and on and on. But then we have Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffanies that I really want to see. Audrey Hepburn and a cat that looked remarkably like a young Archie. Apparently the book had a darker side to romance that had the ending changed for the movie. One of the only decent bits of information in the whole programme. 1970's Love Story is too melodramatic and then we hear a lot about recent films but these are all glossed over. except for If Beale Street Could Talk. Why?
The programme seemed to be just a list of films and not much more.
I didn't know the story of the rise and fall of Black Berry, so I thoroughly enjoyed hearing how it happened. I thought how it was presented was exceptional, the screenplay and direction by Matt Johnson promises great things to come. The hand held camera gave it a documentary feel. I liked how Douglas Fregin (also played by Johnson) was marginalised once the firm hits the stratosphere, but has the last laugh when he sells his shares at the top and is now extremely rich. Jay Baruchel draws the short straw in his portrayal of inventor Mike Lazaridis. I just wish the film had spent more time on it's inception than about it's marketing. However, Glen Howerton does give the film it's oomph playing Jim Balsillie. Adapted from the book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story behind the extraordinary rise and fall of Black Berry, you know already know the ending, but that doesn't matter. Good to hear songs from the time, however I wasn't sure about the end credits Waterloo Sunset until I realised the firm started in Waterloo, Ontario.
Visually stunning, it was just a pity that the story and screenplay were lacking. In fact director Gareth Edwards has spent most of the big budget for The Creator on special effects. There is too much time without any dialogue so all science and little fiction. So you spend your time gazing at the at every shot, not bothering to hear what is going on. The huge panoramas showed on the ultra wide screen, but leaving too much space top and bottom of the picture did no favours. The cast seem a little bored, John David Washington, Ken Watanbe and Allison Janney are very good actors, but struggle with the dialogue. Then there is the child Alphie whose origins seem to be ambiguous. I could say that about the plot. Funny how the film got mixed reviews from the critics. Peter Bradshaw gave it four stars but Roger Ebert only two. I go with the latter.
Now The Great Escaper is a completely different movie, and none the worse for it's small budget. It is so well written by William Ivory and well directed with much heart by Oliver Parker. We all know the story of Bernard Jordan leaving his wife and care home to attend the 70th Anniversary of D Day. Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson provide humour and pathos in spades in their swansong together. The former was OK, basically playing himself, but it was Jackson who I feel steals the movie with her performance. It just shows what a really special actress can do. The seaside resort of St Leonards looks great and there is a supporting role for the wonderful John Standing who lends Jordan a very big hand. Superb.
Maybe the movie that made a name for Kathryn Bigelow. I was less impressed with her Blue Steel but Point Break is outstanding. As are all her other films to come. I loved that early tracking shot through the detective's offices. Less impressive for me was the wooden Keanu Reeves. Patrick Swayze was a little better, but what makes the movie are the styles of 1991, the costumes, the hair, the cars, the violence. Not all good. It is a big budget blockbuster that seems very dated. Not surprising it doesn't make David Thomson's 1000, but worth for seeing one of the director's early films.
The first thing that struck me about The Maltese Falcon was how the black and white cinematography looked so sharp. A youngish Humphrey Bogart at 41 plays Sam Spade, helping out femme fatale Mary Astor as his client Ruth Wonderly. Then suddenly here is Peter Lorre who wants help finding the Golden Falcon from the Knights Templar of Malta. It's amazing how much dialogue there is compared with films of today. This looked like it was a very cheap film to make, mostly in the studio with few exterior shots. But director John Huston gives the story some pace. Later on there here is an English actor, Sydney Greenstreet who didn't start in films until he was 61. David Thomson says "It's the love story that is so riveting". Not sure about that.
I must have seen A History of Violence in the cinema on it's release in 2005. (Yes, there's my ticket from the 5th October). This is an exciting David Cronenberg movie coming after two of his best films Crash and eXistenZ. Hiding in plain sight is Viggo Mortensen (maybe his best performance ever) as Tom Stall. Although he's not. The past catches up with him in the shape of Ed Harris and William Hurt. Maria Bello plays Tom's wife. I preferred the first half of the film, an understated threat of something nasty, rather that the expected violent conclusion. David Thomson says "the precision and cold advance of this film are beautiful and enthralling". Well, those movies are the best.
It was over two years ago (5th March 2021) that I first posted a compilation of those films, tv programmes and books under a heading of Film Studies. Things have moved on since then and I now have a considerable amount of new material on this blog, together with a huge list of more sources that I have found. Let's start with updating those from that original list.
Mark Kermode
It started with Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema posted on 25th January 2021. This was followed by Mark Kermode's Christmas Cinema Secrets posted on 17th December 2021. I used to listen most Friday afternoons to "Kermode and Mayo Film Review" on BBC Radio. They have now left the BBC and have their own podcast "Kermode and Mayo's Take". Will try to find time to listen.
The Directors on Sky Arts
At the time of my previous post on Film Studies, we were up to Series 7 of these programmes on Sky Arts. All seventy episodes are summarised on this blog starting on the 17th August 2022. After a long break, I missed Series 8 after we changed from Sky TV to BT and NOW TV. So without Sky's catch up service, I will have to upgrade to NOW TV's Entertainment to find what is missing.
David Thomson
Previously I listed those four books on cinema by David Thomson and where they are reviewed on this blog. Since then I have reviewed How to Watch a Movie on 22nd March 2023 and his New Biographical Dictionary of Film on 20th October 2023.
There are four other books that I shall purchase at some point: The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood, Acting Naturally, Suspects and The Fatal Alliance.
In that last post, I had just acquired David Thomson's Have You Seen ...?, his compilation of 1000 films. I posted an introduction on 9th December 2002 and eight parts of three movies each on 9th and 23rd December 2022, and the 17th February, 16th March, 28th March, 9th June, 1st of August and 12th September of this year. Many more to see.
Inside Cinema Shorts
Last time I mentioned there were 53 episodes on BBC iPlayer. there are now 96. Each is only about 15 minutes long. I will start to watch them sometime.
Life Cinematic
Previously, I had just found this series on BBC4. These short programmes were then reviewed here 17th July 2021. Edith Bowman talked to Sam Mendes, Edgar Wright, Sam Taylor-Johnson and Sofia Coppola.
3DD PRODUCTIONS ON SKY ARTS
Discovering Film on Sky Arts
There are now so many series about movies from 3DD Productions. For example, there is a series called Discovering Film, most of which has a complete episode on one actor or actress. There is no way I can watch these as there are just so many. One hundred and sixty two so far!
There are also programmes I missed called Discovering Horror (2019) Discovering Dance (2018), Discovering Romance (2018), Discovering Royalty on Film (2022), Discovering Westerns on Film (2021), Discovering Christmas Film (2018). I will have to wait to see if they are shown again, or upgrade our NOW subscription to include Entertainment (£9.99 a month) where Sky Arts have a huge collection of these programmes on demand.
But I have seen Discovering Science Fiction on Film that I posted on 2nd May 2022. Then The Story of British Cinema: The Pioneer Years I did see and posted on 27th September 2023. I am recording The Art of Film with Ian Nathan and Dracula Unearthed. However, Sky Arts has already shown Stars of the Silver Screen (2019) and Icons of Our Time (2018).
Classic Movies on Sky Arts
I have watched and reviewed the first series. The Third Man (6th September 2023), The Lady-killers (17th September 2023), Brighton Rock (20th September 2023), The Graduate (4th October 2023), Ran (18th October 2023), and Terminator 2 (20th October 2023)
Great Film Composers: Music of the Movies on Sky Arts
These have been reviewed on this blog as follows. The Birth of the Film Score (28 January 2020), The 1930s and The Father of Film Music (30th January 202), The 1940s:The Golden Age (7th February 2020), The 1950s: A New Dawn (10th February 2020), The !960s Part1, The 1960s Part 2 (19th February 2020, The 1970s Part 1 (20March 2020), The 1970's Part 2 (8th May 2020), The !980s Part 1 (28th May 2020), The !980s Part 2 (3rd June 2020), The 1990s (10th June 2020) and The 2000s (22nd June 2020).
The following series have only been part recorded:
The Movies on Sky Arts
Three episodes of the twelve recorded. Not yet seen.
Film Noir on Sky Arts
Two of three episodes recorded. Not yet seen.
Classic Literature and Cinema
All three episodes recorded. Not yet seen.
The Story of British Cinema: The Pioneer Years
This seems to be the first in a new series about British Cinema. On this Blog 27th September 2023.
That's it for Sky Arts and 3DD productions.
ON THIS BLOG
Blog Postings
All the World's a Screen 12th April 2022
Anne Dudley: The Sound of Cinema 22nd April 2022
Songs from the Movies 9th February 2023
My Favourite Christmas Movies 17th December 2021
My First Movies 16th May 2021
Film Night
Films seen during the Covid pandemic and reviewed on 19th April 2020, 10th May 2020, 12th June 2020 and 24th August 2020.
Movies at Home
More films seen on DVD and reviewed on 1st August 2008, 14th August 2019, 3rd August 2020, 30th October 2020, 23rd November 2020, 1st January 2021, 2th January 2021, 24th February 2021, 18th March 2021, 7th April 2021, 13th April 2021, 12th May 2021 and 21st May 2021.
Foreign Movies and the Rex Cinema, Berkhamsted
Whether seen at the Rex, on DVD or on TV, I will be finding these reviews on this Blog.
Postings for the Rex I have found so far are on 31st March 2014, 17th April 2014, 1st April 2019, 29th June 2020, 3rd November 2020, 2nd September 2022, 14th September 2023.
There are lots of foreign films for sale on rarewaves.com.
The Films of Pedro Almodóvar
DVD's seen and posted on this blog on 8th July 2020, 24th July 2020, 26th August 2020, 31st August 2020. Then films seen at the cinema: Parallel Mothers (3rd February 2022, Pain and Glory (11th September 2019 and The Skin I Live In (13th September 2011).
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick at The Design Museum Posted 9th August 2019
The Directors on Sky Arts Posted 2nd April 2020
A Clockwork Orange seen again at the cinema - see post 23rd September 2021.
A DVD Collection: Barry Lyndon, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket, Lolita, Eyes Wide Shut, A Life in Pictures.
OTHER WORK IN PROGRESS
Films seen at the cinema on this blog
I will need to trawl through all my posts and list those films I have reviewed. They started on 30th January 2007 with Black Book and Babel, having made my way to Milton Keynes as the Odeon in Aylesbury has a very limited choice of movies. Hence my season ticket for Cineworld in Hemel Hempstead.
Films seen at the cinema before the start of this blog
I have saved nearly all my tickets for films at the cinema starting in May 1996. I have just started making a list.
I could also list those I can remember seeing before then.
Newspaper cuttings
Some while ago I started a file of cuttings from newspapers and magazines. All need to be indexed.
Films to see
Those from David Thomson's Have You Seen ...? (see above) and others including Bad Timing (1980), Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974), Contempt (1963), Mother (2009), Official Competition (2021) and Ran (1985), Three Colours Trilogy (found my DVD of this collection).
Scene by Scene on BBC iPlayer
There looks to be eight of this series on iPlayer starting with Donald Sutherland and then Janet Leigh.
So plenty to keep me occupied. Where to start is the only problem.
I must say I didn't know the name Jacqueline Wilson. But in this week's Sunday Times she tells us her favourite author is Anne Tyler and has read all her 24 novels. I have only seventeen on my bookshelves, so some way to go on a few of her early books. She says "I'm getting very old (is 77 very old?) and I like to read authors who are at the height of their powers when they're old too".
She also says she has discovered Katherine Heiny "who is very witty". I loved Early Morning Riser and Standard Deviation will be up next.
She also mentions Donna Tartt. I loved The Goldfinch and especially The Secret History and keep thinking shall I try The Little Friend, but keep resisting the 576 pages about twelve year old Harriet. I only started reading the article as it starts with the first book that Wilson loved. The Enchanted Wood has been on Alison's bookshelf for as long as I have known her.
This was the goal against Mexico in the 1966 World Cup. Matt Dickinson describes it in yesterday's Sunday Times.
Although it is my main memory of Bobby Charlton, it was the only England game I missed seeing live at the 1966 World Cup at Wembley. It was my friend Rowena's twenty first birthday party on that day at her parents' house in Wimbledon. So I only watched it on their television along with her father who worked for Reuters and was a Chelsea season ticket holder.
But I was back Wembley for the final to see him carry the trophy around the stadium.
I was thirteen when Charlton survived the Munich air disaster of 6th February 1958. I remember watching him in the FA Cup Final and thinking how amazing that he had actually played less than a month after being hauled from the wreckage by goalkeeper Harry Greg.
On Saturday it was a return visit to the Oakfield Surgery in Aylesbury for a Covid vaccine booster. This was my eighth vaccination against the virus. This is the information that appears on the little record cards I received at each visit.
3rd February 2021 Pfizer
9th April 2021 Pfizer
22nd October 2021 Pfizer Booster
29th January 2022 Pfizer Booster
10th June 2022 Moderna Booster
1st October 2022 Moderna Booster
30th April 2023 Pfizer Booster
There are still flowers blooming in October. The dwarf dahlias at the beginning of the month above and as they are today.
The main border has geraniums and Astrantia in flower.
Then these photos from the side patio.
Terminator 2 Judgement Day is the sixth and last in this first series of Classic Movies on Sky Arts, a 3DD production. Introduced as usual by Ian Nathan who says this is "the most revolutionary film since The Jazz Singer introduced sound". I had wanted to know why this film was chosen as a classic. It was the CGI and visual effects that had never been done like this before. Ian meets John Rowe, the VP lecturer from Buckinghamshire New University in High Wycombe. He takes us through the process of special effects created by the team at Industrial Light and Magic (15 Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects).
We see clips from the movie including the T-1000 melting through the bars of the cell with only his pistol banging on the metal frame, being hindered at first, to go through. It's Dennis Muren, Visual Effects Supervisor for Industrial Light and Magic who takes us through this, his favourite shot in the film. Then as we watch, John Rowe describes the way the T-1000 rises from what seems a normal floor. Neil Norman tells us what "an extraordinary concept was the T-1000". Steven Armstrong was impressed how different was this new Terminator, played by Robert Patrick ("an amazing performance"), in physicality to that of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Seemingly slim and harmless, becoming "not quite human". Christina Newland called him "one of the most unforgettable villains".
Neil Norman talks about Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. How she trained so hard for the role, "a survivalist commando". Steven Armstrong thought that her son John played by Edward Furlong was terrific, a boy who had not acted before. We hear a lot about director James Cameron's background, how a father as an engineer and a mother an artist was a perfect combination for a would be director. How his early movies including The Abyss and Aliens paved the way for this film. Ian Nathan talks about the locations in LA. How most were shot at night over many months. It had the same feel of old movies in a tech noir portrayal.
Christina explains how Carolco Pictures purchased the film rights from Hemdale Film Corporation on the advice of Schwarzenegger who had worked with them on Total Recall. In the end Terminator 2 became at the time the most expensive film ever made at a hundred million dollars. She talks about films that came after with these extraordinary effects. How the sharing of the technology became the norm. We see storyboards that are so impressive. The presenters thought the film worked better than the original with turning the original Terminator baddy to a good guy. Neil Norman said it was not just a sci fi movie but that it was "a genuine emotional experience" with "a human heart". Steven Armstrong thought it "conveyed the unimaginable" and Ian Nathan finished with telling us about "it's thunderous pace" but that "it never lost touch with the characters".
This is the Fourth Edition of David Thomson's huge reference book. Unlike his other publications that concentrate on actual movies, these are short pieces about people in film; actors, directors cinematographers, etc etc. For example, it starts with Abbott and Costello and then the art director and production designer Ken Adam. Famous for the Bond movies and winning an Oscar for Barry Lyndon. This book will be invaluable for my film studies.
My edition was published in 2002. There is now a 6th Edition published in 2014 at £31.60 on Amazon. My copy was just over £3.00!
First of all a note about the chapter of twenty odd pages that starts the book. It seems that it has been inserted from an entirely different work when you read most of the story. But no. I always wanted to go back and re-read this introduction if I knew at the end what it meant. And that re-read was something else. An Anne Tyler classic.
The author does dysfunctional families like no-one else. Although the more you read about the Garrett family the more you understand that we are all like that. Not dysfunctional exactly but all the trials and tribulations that families suffer or enjoy. The book jumps through the years, first when Robin and Mercy have their three children, Alice, Lily and David, and their first real holiday in 1959 at Deep Creek Lake. Then a shock fast forward to 1970. The girls are grown and gone, and David is at college. This part is mainly about Mercy and her rented room to do her painting.
The jewel for me was less than twenty pages in the summer of 2014. Lily is now mid fifties and a nephew Eddie arrives. Just a wonderful conversation. And lastly in 2020 during the pandemic when David, now retired, and his older wife, the wonderful Greta, have visitors. Superb. So a perfect family drama if not a perfect family. But where are those?
The other three books I have read by this author were all OK, but this was not. Predictable and boring. Just all about tennis. Did this, did that. Not sure what kept me going, I did skip the descriptions of each match she played. Would have been a much better book if it had actually looked back on Carrie's career but it just ploughs on forward. To the next match, and the next.
In my review of Susie Boyt's The Small Hours I wrote "Once in a while I find a book that just glows with superb writing and emotional insight". Her Love and Fame I described as "full of wit and clever and precise writing. The words just flow from the page". For The Normal Man I added that it was "so well written with great humour and wit". Reading Loved and Missed I noted that "this earlier novel is exceptional". Then Only Human was very readable and well written".
"The Last Hope of Girls" is Susie Boyt's third novel and equally good as all her others. Martha seems a little lost, but through her father, a famous and successful novelist, she is offered the job as resident caretaker of some top floor apartments being refurbished on Oxford Street. Hers has six rooms, mostly empty. Her father is famed in real life for giving nothing away: "Was writing about the ins and outs of unhappiness, with so much elegant relish, was it just a little bit cruel?"
Martha has a friend in Stella, their conversations are perfect. However, as the book progresses, we begin to hear more about Martha's brother Matt, a little older, but addicted to drugs. And all that entails. The author pulls no punches: "Almost anything you did for an addict just helped the illness along". Here are six terrific pages halfway through the book that prove how helpless they are. Martha's mother tries, but is that doing more harm than good? Fortunately, Martha does have her own relationships, there is still a lot of pleasure and laughter in her life. But what I liked more than anything was that the prose just glides off the page. Just like her other books. How is that? I have only one of Susie Boyt's novels left to read and I cannot wait.
I have never seen Ran, (the Japanese word for chaos, turmoil or revolt and pronounced "Rahn", the epic movie directed and co-written by Akira Kurosawa. For more about Kurosawa see post of 2nd January 2020 in the first series of The Directors, also Shakespeare on Film posted on 12th April 2022, a review of Living on my post of 17th November 2022, adapted from Kurosawa's Ikiru, (This is the first time I have decided to make as many cross references to my blog as possible as part of my new Film Studies exercise). There is a tiny part of an interview with the director at the very beginning of this episode.
Ran took ten years to make. He had made twelve movies between 1950 and 1965, all black and white, lots of Samurai stories including the influential "Seven Samurai". But then only four from 1970 onwards. Ran was very difficult to make and took ten years to it's release in 1985, but the use of colour was a great decision. This is a film on an epic scale with hundreds of extras. It was enormously hard for Kurosawa to find funding for such a hugely expensive picture.
Kurosawa's father wanted his children to be immersed in Western as well as Japanese culture. When we were shown the first clip from the film, I immediately thought: this is King Lear. Of course I was not the only one, as the presenters mention it many times. "Of course it's Lear" says Derek Malcolm. Neil Norman confirms this is an incredible epic about an old man. Kurosawa's Throne of Blood is straight from Macbeth. New presenter Christina Newland for this series tells us how his films went out of fashion in Japan, and even on it's release, Ran did far better in the West than in his home country. Until now.
Christina tells us about the warlords of the 15th and 16th century on which the film is based. Originally just a samurai story and then blended into a Shakespearean tragedy. There is even Lear's fool, a character totally absent from any Japanese history. Neil Norman tells us that Hidetora Ichimonji has spent fifty years at war (what for we may ask) and is dividing his kingdom between his three sons. Sounds familiar? This leads to the final battle and his demise. It takes place at the castle built from scratch at enormous cost on the slopes of Mt Fuji. We are told that one of the last scenes of the storming of the burning castle had to be filmed in one take as it could only burn once.
There is a part about the actor chosen to play Hidetora, Tatsuya Nakadai, and also Mieko Harada as Lady Kaede, the evil daughter in law bent on the King's destruction. Christina calls her " a force of nature". Then there is one part of the film where, as we are told by Steven Armstrong, "a warlord is reduced to just one other man as they are lost in the wilderness". Again that sounds familiar.
The cinematography is huge, there were four armies at the end. The presenters are amazed at the costumes, the 15th century armour, the sets, the make up, the extras. We are shown how Hidetora's facial make up changes through the film, something to look out for. Christina says this movie harnesses the director's whole body of work and is "a late career masterpiece". Kurosawa was presented with a lifetime achievement Oscar at the Academy Awards. It's left for Derek Malcolm to conclude that "this was an extraordinary film from an extraordinary director. We won't see his like again". Ran really needs to be seen on the big screen, but in the meantime I have ordered the DVD.
.jpg)
