World War 2 and Cinema on Sky Arts - Episode 3 - D-Day, The Holocaust and The Atomic Bomb

 

This is the final episode in the short series about how cinema has portrayed the second world war. Ian Nathan is back at RAF Duxford and talked about how the fighter command and bomber command became as an important factor at the final stages of the war as they had been at the beginning. Operation Overlord or D-Day is portrayed in 1962's The Longest Day. An all star cast includes John Wayne telling his subordinates that as Americans, they were "newcomers" to the action .Bonnie Greer explained how the film showed both sides with the Germans speaking their own language with subtitles. Simon Heffer said it was a film "full of integrity".

Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan in 1998 showed the brutality and death on the beaches. Derek Malcolm said those first 45 minutes were so realistic: "beautifully made and acted" and at the same time "terrifying". 

THE VI AND V2 ROCKETS

Operation Crossbow from 1965 showed Germany fighting back with flying bombs targeting London and the ports. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

A film I did not know was Is Paris Burning? from 1966. Simon told us that this was based on a book about the liberation of Paris in 1944. Charles de Gaulle insisted that the French army went in first to liberate the city. Hitler had wanted it to have been laid to waste but that did not happen. We then see  a clip from The Train, a 1964 film with Paul Schofield that I remember well.

   THE WAR IN GERMANY

In 1965 came Battle of the Bulge, which showed the retreating German army launching  counter offensive in The Ardennes. Ian Nathan calls this a "terrific war movie in terms of entertainment", if not fanciful in part. Patton from 1970 had George C Scott in the title role, Simon telling us that this is "a film about leadership". 

THE HOLOCAUST

The 1958 movie The Young Lions was an adaptation of the book of the same name from 1948. An all star cast included Marlon Brando, Dean Martin and Montgomery Clift. Americans and Germans meet outside a concentration camp at the end of the war. The Stranger from 1946 was directed by Orson Welles who starred alongside Edward G Robinson where a high ranking Nazi is tracked down in Connecticut. 1961's Judgement at Nuremberg included documentary footage shown at the trial. Derek Malcolm thought it was a pretty accurate picture of what happened there. Schindler's List from 1993 was Steven Spielberg's epic drama starring Liam Neeson. The Zone of Interest was too new to have been included.

THE END OF THE WAR IN EUROPE

In 2004 came Downfall, the final days of Hitler and the Third Reich starring Bruno Ganz. Despite much criticism, this for me is a masterpiece as it documents the end of the world's greatest tyranny. Simon agrees when he says it is "stunning... an utterly brilliant film" with Ganz giving a "tremendously effective representation". The clip shows Hitler furious with all his generals and everyone else. Superb.

THE END OF THE WAR IN ASIA

In 2006 came Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, based on the book and both directed by Clint Eastwood. He wanted to show the battle for the island shown from both sides, the first from the American and the second (in the language of) the Japanese. And last of all Empire of the Sun from 1987 directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Tom Stoppard from the book by J.G. Ballard, set i China at the end of the war with the Japanese surrender at the very end.

60 Songs: BBC Two at 60

 

With BBC Two turning sixty this week, they put together sixty songs from their archives. I recorded the whole four hour show. This meant I could just watch those songs that were of any interest to me. Such as that half way through from Dusty Springfield in January 1973 when she sang You Don't Have To Say You Love Me. The photo is actually from that performance. And what a singer she was. Next came Adele from November 2010 but whose vocal is nowhere near as good as Dusty. 

In no particular order, these were my highlights. The Rolling Stones at Glastonbury in 2013 featuring an extra slim Mick, Simple Minds with Don't You Forget About Me on the Old Grey Whistle Test, a very young Van Morrison with a 1970's Brown Eyed Girl, Chuck Berry's Roll Over Beethoven from a concert in 1972, (reminding me of seeing him live at the Odeon Hammersmith in May 1964), the superb Tina Turner in February 1984 and, would you believe, a young Taylor Swift from 2009's "Children in Need". Now I had never heard one of her songs so this was from fifteen years ago when, singing Love Story,  her country influences showed through. Back then, if I had known, I might have become a Swiftie. On YouTube's EAS Channel.

Then on to a young Billy Joel, Blondie from 1979, my very first song from Radiohead, headlining at 1997's Glastonbury with Street Spirit (Fade Out), U2's Pride (In the Name of Love) from 2011 at Glastonbury, Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline from 1971, Losing My Religion by REM on "Later....with Jools Holland" October 2003,  The Bee Gees from September 1998, David Bowie at Glastonbury in June 2000 singing Heroes (not a patch on his performance at Live Aid) and last of all, of course, Paul McCartney with Get Back on "Later...etc" in 2013.  A shame Jools is no Billy Preston from the much better Savile Row rooftop performance. 

Seize Them!, Back To Black and Civil War

 

Three completely different films starting with a historical comedy. Seize Them! is reasonably funny but far too much swearing. Is that supposed to make us laugh? Everything is all very silly. The cast at least look as if they are having fun. Aimee Lou Wood as Queen Dagan was fine and her stage acting credentials showed through, despite the uneven script by Andy Riley. Along for the ride are Nick Frost as Babik and Lolly Adefope (one of our favourites from Ghosts and also starring in Wicked Little Letters) as Shulmay. There are the odd familiar faces such as Jason Burnett as Thane Tostig (known in our house as DCI Wilkes in Agatha Raisin). Director Curtis Vowell has taken us on a road trip (or should that be cart track) along some lovely locations in Wales including Raglan Castle. So it did look good.

I did not find Back To Black an easy watch. Amy Winehouse is not a person you could warm to. Highly strung, over confident, fragile and at the same time quite naïve and childish. Wow! However, I was reminded about her love of jazz from Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington to Sarah Vaughn. The latter who I saw at The Odeon Hammersmith with Count Basie. Amy was not only a terrific singer but she wrote her songs from the heart. Not like those others who just sang standards. So Amy was definitely a one off. Fortunately the movie puts the music first. It's where Amy is at her happiest. So there are lots of songs and not all were Amy's. What she could have done when she matured is anyone's guess. 

She meets Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack O'Connell) and their relationship is basically her downfall if not his fault. She was very much against drugs before they met. But he drags her in. And he is charismatic character as when he dances to The Shangri-La's  Leader of the Pack on the juke box in the pub when they first meet. But I found the story quite uneven. Director Sam Taylor-Johnson was, perhaps, not the best choice. We see too much of the paparazzi in the second half and the staging of when she won her Grammy was too much. The cinematography by Polly Morgan was excellent as were the costumes and design. Marisa Abela is fine as Amy, but head and shoulders above the rest of the cast are Eddie Marsan as Amy's father and Leslie Manville as her Nan. Both were excellent. 

Oh Alex, what have you done? This is the writer for 28 Days Later, Sunshine, 28 Weeks Later and Never Let Me Go, and the writer and director for Ex Machina and Men. So what is he doing with this mess. A pretty stupid plot where we never learn one thing about what started the conflict. We are plunged right from the start into something very unpleasant. All to show this is a (story) about war photographers and correspondents. But they have nothing interesting to say, just there as excuse to watch the violence. So the dialogue is rubbish and the predictable road movie has the predictable set pieces. All with gratuitous violence and wooden characters. Garland was the only reason why I went to see this miserable excuse for a blockbuster movie which someone said "impressive acting and cinematography cannot make up for the lack of a compelling story beyond the words in the title". I guess this is what happens when a respected writer and director is given too high a budget to make an action film. Fortunately there was no extra cost for the IMAX screening as we were on an April freebie.  

Sight and Sound Weekly Film Bulletin

 

As a subscriber to the BFI's Sight and Sound Magazine, I receive by email their weekly film bulletin. This week there was an article called "From the Archive: Laughing Matters". It is all about the writer and director (and stand-up comic) Elaine May who was 92 on Sunday. 

No, I knew nothing about her. There is a link to the Sight and Sound Archive in October 2018 where a biography includes her work with Mike Nichols. Elaine received Oscar nominations for her screenplays for 1978's Heaven Can Wait and 1998's Primary Colours. Her script doctoring apparently saved Reds from 1981 and the following year's Tootsie.  

This week there is also a link to "The Magnificent '74: The Conversation" where Jessica Kiang looks back fifty years to American cinema's banner year. Then the director Paul Duane picks his top ten best films. The Watchlist talks about what to see this week including Daisy Ridley in Sometimes I Think About Dying, on at Cineworld now. "This Week's Classic Cover" is from March 2000 with Al Pacino but there is nothing interesting in Editor's Choice. Enough to keep me going to the next publication of Sight and Sound.   

A Walk up the Ridgeway from Wendover

 

On Sunday I was out in the hills for the first time this year. Apart that is for the paths in Wendover Woods. Yesterday I started at the sign for The Ridgway on Wendover High Street and soon was through the outskirts of the village and beginning the gradual slope up to Boswells Farm. In the fields on both sides of the track were lots of newly born lambs with their mothers. My phone is not great for photos, but here they are.

Just past the farm the track turns into a footpath that makes it way to the top of the ridge. All the way up the hill the beech trees were just coming into leaf.

Then along the ridge at the top, the bluebells were out in force.

Eventually the path crosses a road and I'm into Wendover Woods. The path leads eventually to the cafe and car park. Joining lots of visitors the main route reaches a steep downhill path with a handrail for the last section. The paths were still muddy in places but there were enough dry edges not to be any problem. Looking forward to another of my circular walks in the hills.

The Garden in April

 

Apart from the forget-me-nots, there is not a lot of colour in the garden at this time of year. Except, that is for the blossom. Above is the maypole cherry that has been at it's best this month. 

The dwarf crab apple is now recovering from the major prune a year ago.

Here it is towards the end of April with the Weigelia below just coming into flower.

The Clematis Montana is not as good as previous years, but I did cut it back last year when it collapsed in the wind.

I thought I had lost all the snake head fritillary, but this white one has survived.

All the daffodils are over, except for these late narcissus.

The forget-me-nots have spread all over the wildflower and long borders. I have to keep them trimmed around the edge of the lawn.

Last week I completed the jet washing to the side and rear paving. They do look a lot better. I like the pink and blue which still look good even though they were installed 25 years ago.

The side patio showing it's age.

The Hosta Fire and Ice are growing at last.

This was how much I had to brush afterwards, just in one corner.

A single iris flower in a pot at the back. Maybe more to come.

These are the laurels that flowered at the beginning of the month and are the same today.

I seemed to have lost all my Penstemon, so I have filled a gap in the main border with a new one. It is called "Pensham Arctic Fox" and yes, it is white.

The Tulips Spring Green are still doing well at the end of the month.

I think this new plant is a Hydrangea that was given to Alison for her help as a volunteer. 

And finally the lawn. With Green Thumb long gone, I have just spread the  Pro-Kleen Grass Green Lawn Fertilizer which should last three months. Looking better already.

World War 2 and Cinema on Sky Arts - Episode 2 - The World Is Now At War

 

After the first episode in this series, we are now into the 1940's with the Battle of Britain and The Blitz. Derek Malcolm tells us his story of being evacuated as a boy. Ian Nathan introduces the programme from the Imperial War Museum at Duxford.  First up is Angels One Five from 1952. Simon Heffer tells us this is a rare film from those early days of the war. Later came Battle of Britain from 1969 with an all star international cast. Then comes a strange choice. Malta Story from 1953 stars Jack Hawkins about how the island was protected.

AMERICA ENTERS THE WAR

That fateful day 7th December 1941 when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour. From Here To Eternity in 1953 starred Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr and newcomers Donna Reed and Frank Sinatra. Those last two both won supporting Oscars. Bonnie Greer said it was a great film, mainly showing the build up to that day.

A sudden turn to Alan Turing and the codebreakers at Bletchley Park. The Imitation Game from 2014 starred Benedict Cumberbatch and was about breaking the Enigma code. The first major film to tell the story of the genius who was Alan Turing. Then another turn to spies in Europe in the shape of Odette from 1950 starring Trevor Howard and Anna Neagle and also 1958's Carve Her Name With Pride with Virginia McKenna. Simon was very impressed with the latter. 

THE WAR IN AFRICA

We are in 1942 and the Western Desert Campaign in North Africa. Sea Of Sand from 1958 starred James Mason and Richard Attenborough. The same year saw Ice Cold In Alex with John Mills, Anthony Quinn and  Sylvia Simms. An ambulance crew in a road movie or, should I say, Sahara Desert movie. More familiar to me came 1953's The Cruel Sea with the impressive (Derek Malcolm says) Jack Hawkins. It is set on ships in the Atlantic fighting U-Boats. Then onto the Pacific and Run Silent, Run Deep from 1958. Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster are on a submarine. Bonnie Greer tells us this was the first film she saw at the cinema. 

Cary Grant starred in Destination Tokyo from 1943. Many would say that the greatest war film of all time was 1953's The Bridge on the River Kwai. Alec Guinness gives "one of his best performances" and the rest of the cast was excellent.  One of the great films about prison camps in World War 11. For 1953's  Stalag 17, William Holden won the Oscar. Billy Wilder directed. Then in 1963 came the blockbuster that was The Great Escape. Another all star cast headed by Steve McQueen. 

THE TURNING OF THE TIDE

I was ten when we went to see The Dam Busters in 1955. Richard Todd starred in a film where many crew from bomber command were lost. Overall, this service lost 55,000 lives during the war. The Dirty Dozen from 1967 was directed by Robert Aldrich. Again an all star cast playing prisoners who were given the chance to go behind enemy lines. The siege of Stalingrad has been brought to the screen many times. Enemy At The Gates from 2001 is quite familiar, but not the German movie Stalingrad from 1993 which showed the destruction of their own army. From the Eastern Front came Sam Peckinpah's 1977 film Cross of Iron starring Lee Marvin. It actually showed the fighting from the view of German soldiers so very unusual for an American film. But Ian Nathan called it "classic Peckinpah".  

Sight and Sound Magazine - May 2024

 

On the front cover is Hamaguchi Ryusuke, whose film Drive My Car was one of the best last year. See post 22nd December 2023.

The Editorial concerns that fictional character Tom Ripley. I would not have been interested in the Netflix version with Andrew Scott, but much more so for Mike Williams' discussion about Wim Wenders' The American Friend. 

Opening Scenes is all about the controversy surrounding Jonathon Glazer's acceptance speech at the Oscars.

Editor's Choice concerns a retrospective of the films of Chantal Akerman whose film Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels is many critics favourite film. But a three hour twenty one minute tedious documentary drama is not on my list to see. More interesting would be the BFI Southbank Events surrounding Lindsay Anderson  in "Dark British Cinema".

Preview discusses a new film Eno about Brian Eno's "musical" life. Not a review of this film, more the background to it's making. Seems a complicated movie about a complex individual conceiving "ambient" music.  I only know Eno from Roxy Music when he played synthesizer. 

Report looks at the Argentine film industry and the cutbacks by new President Javier Milei.

The Ballot Of .... looks at the favourite films of Spanish director Pablo Berger that include Hannah and Her Sisters.

The Long Take this month features Pamela Hutchinson talking about swearing in movies, including films such as the recent  Wicked Little Letters, The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947), Atonement ("one misplaced four letter word"), The King's Speech and of course Hugh Grants expletive ridden opening to Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Flick Lit has Nicole Flattery comparing Don DeLillo's essay about the Kennedy assassination with Oliver Stone's JFK.  She asks is DeLillo's 1988 novel Libra "time for it's adaptation?". 

TV Eye: Andrew Male on why Three Body Problem is so much better than post Game of Thrones series such as Shogun. It sounds wonderful, and so does the trailer. Shame that it's on Netflix so I will just have to wait.

"A Crack Where The Light Gets In" is the title of the headline piece about Hamaguchi Ryusuke. Eleven pages in all about his career with Adrian Martin reflecting on his early movies and influences. There is then an interview at the end about his latest film. I liked the snapshots of his eighteen films which include documentaries. Drive My Car was his "biggest international success". His Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is on my list to see. However his new film Evil Does Not Exist may not be so good. 

"The Dark Side Of The Tune" has five pages about Mika Levi, the "composer" for The Zone of Interest. More sound than music, she (sorry, "they") first worked with Jonathon Glazer on Under The Skin which I saw at the cinema. See my post of 31st March 2014, a very weird film. 

Skipping a couple of articles we arrive at the film reviews. That for Dune Part 2 seemed a little late, The Trouble with Jessica has been and gone in a week, Rose Glass's Love Lies Bleeding looks interesting. Monkey Man is too violent for me and the rest are mainly European films that will be hard to find. 

There were then quite a few pieces that were of no interest to me, nothing in DVD and Blue Ray reviews, or in Wider Screen, or in Books or Endings. From The Archive, however, is a 1973 interview with the director Richard Lester (The Beatles' films A Hard Day's Night and Help came about when John Lennon liked his The Running, Jumping and Standing Still film from 1959) and others including the three movies of The Musketeers, How I Won The War (1967), A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Forum (the 1966 Buster Keaton movie) and The Knack And How To Get It that won the 1965 Palme D'Or. Lester was actually born in Philadelphia but stayed in the UK. He won the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012 and is now 92! But best of all was from his 1968 film Petulia as we got a full page photo of Julie Christie.

Trailer for Love Lies Bleeding - Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat

 

Occasionally a trailer for a new film has a track that I haven't heard for years. And so on Tuesday when the music for Love Lies Bleeding starts I nearly jumped out of my seat. Bronski Beat's Smalltown Boy was just perfect for that clip. And, of course, it was so loud and clear. I had to stop myself from getting up to dance! I just hope the song makes it to the main feature.

Tulip Spring Green

 

This year I tried a new colour of tulips to go in pots. Tulip Spring Green are a delicate shade of cream combined with the green edge. I was impressed.

Here they are with the last of the daffodils in the border behind.

A little windswept today by the door into the conservatory.

Best of all in the two big pots by the front door.

I just have to decide where they can go in the garden later.

World War 2 and Cinema on Sky Arts - Episode 1 - Cinema, Sound and Nazism

 

I missed this series on Sky Arts when it was first shown in 2020. So I was grateful when the three episodes were recently repeated. Narrated again by Jonathon Kydd, he tells us that for the first time, films were being made at the same time as the conflict they represented. 

Ian Nathan talked about the background with references to World War 1 and 1930's All Quiet on the Western Front. Regular presenters Simon Heffer and Derek Malcolm made contributions, the latter about the age of the boys pitched into that awful war. 

Interestingly, we see the German (Nazi) film The Triumph of the Will from 1935 being used as a tool for power. The rallies shown on the film were from different cities, all edited together. So it was actually a documentary. Olympiad (or Olympia) was also a documentary filmed by Leni Riefenstahl in 1936. In France, Jean Renoir made La Grande Illusion in 1937. Bonnie Greer told us it was about World War 1 and how France was a tired nation in the 1930's after that war. 

THE PROPOGANDA WAR

At the outbreak of war, America was trying to stay neutral. Hollywood had "The Motion Picture Production Code" that was there to stop upsetting any nation. That was until came 1939's Confessions of a Nazi Spy starring Edward G Robinson. The film showed how the Nazi Party had infiltrated the country. Somehow Jack Warner got the picture made. Then Charlie Chaplin made The Great Dictator in 1940 which was an amazing Hitler satire. Derek Malcolm said this was a highly risky project.

The same year came Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent. The director filmed a different ending after the film was finished, to show the trauma of bombs falling on London. Carol Reed's Night Train to Munich also in 1940 showed two Englishmen on a train travelling through Germany in the early days of the war. 

DUNKIRK

At the outbreak of war, Alexander Corda promised Churchill that he would get a propaganda movie made as quickly as possible. The Lion has Wings was released in late 1939 and starred Merle Oberon and Ralph Richardson as a pilot. More like a documentary but now a historical piece. Leslie Howard starred in 1941's Pimpernel Smith. Howard was a huge star in America and came back to the UK to make British movies for far less money that he would get in Hollywood. Also in 1941 he made The 49th Parallel with Laurence Olivier and other big stars to persuade America to join the war. 

We then see a clip from a much more modern movie in 2017's The Darkest Hour with that amazing performance from Gary Oldman as Churchill. The programme then compares the 1958 version of Dunkirk (it took all that time for a film of that retreat to be made) and Christopher Nolan's 2017 film of the same name. Simon Heffer tells us it turns a defeat to "a tremendous victory for the British people". 

BRITAIN FIGHTS BACK

Leslie Howard was back in 1942, producing, directing and starring in The First of the Few. Released in America as Spitfire. Simon Heffer said "it was truly inspirational". The aircraft was a feat of British engineering. However, Howard was killed in 1943 when the plane he was travelling in was shot down. In 1942 came William Wyler's big Hollywood movie Mrs Miniver starring Greer Garson, that combined the war with romance. Derek Malcolm said it showed those who were not involved in the fighting, but who were affected by it. Ian Nathan said the country loved the film and no wonder. That last scene where the congregation sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" in a bombed out church is ended with "Land of Hope and Glory". Stirring stuff. 

Christine Falls, Learning to Swim and Reality and Dreams

 

The only reason I read the Quirke novels is because John Banville (or as Benjamin Black for these books) is such a good writer. So the mostly family drama at the beginning is fine. But at work (Quirke is a pathologist) there is a mystery about the death of one Christine Falls. He even has to have the body returned to his mortuary for closer inspection after it is moved. There is another story where a baby Christine is adopted by Andy Stafford and his wife Claire at St Mary's Convent. It is Quirke's unflagging attempts to uncover the mystery that leads him to a conspiracy between church and state. There are some unsatisfactory diversions all for the sake of nastiness. But it is Quirke's decision to accompany young Phoebe to Boston and the coastal home of the elderly Josh Crawford that finally brings the answers he was looking for. The book has pace which I thought was at the detriment of the author's usually superb prose. I guess you cannot have it both ways.

A mixed bag of short stories, most of which were published in different magazines at different times.
SERAGLIO
An unsettling story about a marriage hurt by a death in the family. The husband describes their anguish, told in the first person. Why do they stay together? They have all the money they need which enables their continental holidays. These seem to preserve their uneasy relationship.
THE TUNNEL
A young couple have just finished with school, leave home and start living together in a flat due for demolition. It's what they see from their window that gives us a horrible non-ending.
HOTEL
Our narrator leaves a type of mental hospital and after saving for many years, opens his own hotel. Successful at first but not until ...... Strange and surreal.
HOFFMEIER'S ANTELOPE
A kind of philosophical question about existence. A story about a zookeeper, as crazy as the title suggests.
THE SON
Some strange family history erupts for a man from Greece.
THE HYPOCHONDRIAC
A young GP ruminates on his marriage to a much younger wife. But more troublesome is a patient referred to as "M". who visits the surgery all the time complaining about various symptoms. The doctor has no explanation and believes there is nothing wrong. But this does not satisfy "M" until .....
GABOR
Perhaps the most memorable of these stories concerns Roger, looking back to his youth in 1957. Joining the family as a refugee is Gabor from Budapest. He's the same age as Roger, but how will he fit in?
THE WATCH
Another surreal piece about a family of clock and watch watch makers. But our narrator Adam Krepski tells us this is not a story about clock making. It is the day of his wedding anniversary, even though his wife left him thirty years before. Adam thinks about when they married in 1957. His grandfather is one hundred and fifty years old, continuing the extreme longevity of the male line. Is this all to do with the watch? Later, Adam's grandfather, now 161, accompanies him to the Sussex South Downs, leaving behind the failing shop. A fantasy that I just did not get. Such as "Our ancestors are our first and only Gods. It is from them we get our guilt, our duty, our sin - our destiny". Then " Time is circular. The longer you live, the more you long to go back, to go back". Maybe. But having toiled through this unusual story, the last ten pages are the best in the book.
CLIFFEDGE
A proper short story about a brother and a wife, and how both are lost. There are glimpses of the lives we all lead. Excellent.
CHEMISTRY
The narrator lives with his mother and grandfather in the later's house, his father having disappeared. Ralph is a friend of the mother and he eventually moves in. A cuckoo in the nest? Leading to the son and his grandfather taking up residence in the shed where they practice chemistry. Again, all very strange. Not a nice ending.
LEARNING TO SWIM
A story that lends the book it's title. Mrs Singleton is the central character, her marriage and an unexpected child. While Mr Singleton tries to teach the young boy to swim, his wife contemplates their early relationship and where that fell away. A tug of war between the two ends in neither winning.

I much prefer Graham Swift's novels so these stories were mainly a big disappointment.

I love Muriel Spark's writing. The dialogue (and there is loads of it) is just that tiny bit off kilter. Nothing is ever quite like it seems. A seemingly straightforward story of a film writer and director. Tom has fallen from a crane trying a fancy shot on his latest film. So he is recovering at home with visits from his vastly rich wife Claire, family (many spongers, redundancy in a theme that runs through the book) and friends. I enjoyed the stuff about the two daughters from different mothers. Marigold, especially, was a natural disaster. Everyone said she was difficult.

I enjoyed all the parts about Tom making pictures, especially when he goes back to the studio in a wheelchair. "The trouble with producers is that they want both an art film and a commercial success. They want sentimentality, emotion and higher moods of detachment. They want bloody everything".

Both Tom and Claire have affairs but stick together like glue. "What steadily drew him towards her was her loyalty to him which always predominated over her infidelities".

My copy of the book when it arrived was, unusually, a hardback. However, it said the cover picture was "Tours Sunset" by J.M.W. Turner. In fact it turned out to be "The Scarlet Sunset". My book was a 1996 Edition that seemed brand new. The quality of the pages and text was just superb, given it was twenty eight years old.

Dune: Part Two, Drive Away Dolls and Mother's Instinct

 

When I reviewed Dune Part 1, I mentioned the "impressive hardware and CGI" but that they "overwhelm the story". Dune Part 2 is much the same but longer. It could easily have lost an hour. I watched it in the IMAX screen as that was how it was filmed. I have to say that, for me, it was just not worth the extra price. The script is fine, such as it was. The acting is all OK except for Austin Butler who, I thought was totally miscast as the baddie. I'm not sure if I believed in Timothy Chamalet as a great leader? The story seemed to be as incoherent as ever, I guess if you had read the Frank Herbert novel a few times it might have made more sense. So what we have left is spectacle and the IMAX screen. But give me a proper story any time.

Whilst most of the critics advised us to steer clear, it was Tom Shone in the Sunday Times that gave Drive Away Dolls four stars. I thought it landed somewhere in the middle. Any Ethan Coen movie was going to get me there, despite his brother doing other things. Instead this film is co-written with his wife Tricia Cooke. Shone said "the complete lack of gravitas gives the film a terrific sense of lift".  At the front, back and sideways was Margaret Qualley, ramped up to eleven from her performance as Pussycat, one of Charles Manson's gang in Quentin Tarantino's brilliant Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. She's just right for the trademark Coen dialogue. Sharp, fast, modern and sometimes crude. She (Jamie) and her friend Mariam are lesbians but not lovers who hire a car for a road trip from Tallahassee to Florida. Little do they know that what is the boot (trunk) will lead them into all sorts of trouble. There is an exceptional supporting role from Beanie Feldstein (Lady Bird and Booksmart) as a cop. 

So far, so promising. Except the first half of this short (93 minute) film is predictable and unexceptional. Thank goodness the second made up for it. Tom Shone said it was a "zippy piece of trash cinema, so unencumbered with ambition or pretension". Maybe that's right.  I just liked it was a piece of original writing, there is so little in mainstream movies these days. There is a story and lots of dialogue. Good performances from all the cast and it didn't outstay it's welcome. The review in Sight and Sound magazine said "The film adopts a self-consciously trash aesthetic".  

I was amazed to find later that the producers were Working Title. I'm not sure what Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner  were doing with a film like this. Maybe they thought they ought to get out of their comfort zone. But they had supported the Coen Brothers on many films; Fargo, Oh Brother Where Art Though, A Serious Man, Burn Before Reading, and Hail Caesar.  These were the same producers for Mr Bean, Johnny English, Nanny McPhee and all the Richard Curtis movies. Now into lesbian culture. What next.

A family drama, turned on it's head in the final act, stars Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain as next door neighbours in a perfect neighbourhood of the early sixties. The two actresses really go for it, if not in a subtle way. I guess we are not to take the film too seriously, but somehow you get drawn into the drama of it all. Not a black comedy exactly, but the bonkers part comes at the end. A tragedy starts things off, and that is the start of the unravelling of what was harmonious neighbourliness. I didn't agree about the Hitchcock influences in some of the reviews, he never gave us this sort of ending. 

I wonder why they gave it to first time director Benoit Delhomme? Maybe because as a cinematographer he was perfect for those elements which stood out. The setting, the fancy house exteriors, the posh interiors, the wonderful decor, the gardens, the costumes (some dresses take your breath away), the make up and the bright colours. All too perfect for the time. Both sets of parents (and the children) are immaculately dressed and their cars so swish. These are wealthy people who would always find it difficult to cope if anything went wrong. And of course it does.

I found the second half actually quite scary, as the tension mounts, probably all down to the actresses as we wonder who is bad and who is not. The final act only works as we have to remind ourselves this is the sixties when forensic science was in it's infancy. But it's the chemistry between the two stars that we have gone to see, and they do take our breath away. The critics have given the movie a mixed reception. Barry Levitt in Empire Magazine gave it four stars . "Sophisticated, adult thrillers are few and far between". Exactly right.