Garden at the end of May

So much has changed in the garden over the last month so just a few photos from the end of May. The one above is one of my favourites. The roses are coming into flower at last.

I cannot remember the honeysuckle at the back of the main border having flowered so well.

The poppy in the round border is doing fine.

These are the two penstemon either side of the step into the lawn.

And finally, the lawn has survived the long spell of dry weather, mainly because of the Pro Kleen Grass Green that I applied in the Spring. The bedding border has now been cleared ready for the Dahlias. 

Have You Seen ...? by David Thomson: My List So Far

 

I started watching films recommended by David Thomson in his book Have You Seen ...? back in September 2022.  I actually listed seventy that I might like to see from the 1,000 movies he has reviewed in this huge volume. This is the list of my posts where I reviewed those I have watched so far:

Part 1   8th December 2022

Shadow of a Doubt, Don't Look Now and Blue Velvet

Part 2   23rd December 2022

Touch of Evil, Mulholland drive and All About Eve

Part 3   17th February 2023

Singing in the rain, M and To Live and Die in LA

Part 4   16th March 2023

Adaptation, Belle de Jour and The Third Man

Part 5   28th March 2023

Casino, The 39 Steps and The Equalizer

Part 6   9th June 2023

The Big Sleep, Blood Simple and Casablanca

Part 7   1st August 2023

Scarface, Vanishing Point and Blow Up

Part 8   12th September 2023

Anatomy of a Murder, The Piano and The Apartment

Part 9   25th October 2023

The Maltese Falcon, Point Break and A History of Violence

Part 10  18th January 2024

The Magnificent Ambersons, Double Indemnity and Chinatown

Part 11  24th March 2024

Dog Day Afternoon, Out of Africa and Brazil

Part 12  23rd August 2024

Night of the Demon, Sunset Boulevard and Five Easy Pieces

Part 13  7th October  2024

Death in Venice, Dial M for Murder and Strangers on a Train

Part 14  11th November 2024

Kind Hearts and Coronets, City of God and Taxi Driver

Part 15  17th January 2025

I'm Alright Jack, Move Over Darling and Whisky Galore

Part 16  3rd March 2025

A Shot in the Dark, Passport to Pimlico and The Outfit

There are some other films that  have been reviewed on this blog under the heading "Movies at Home" that could quite easily have been included here. 

Classic Movies on Sky Arts - Series 3 Episode 2 - The Story of Kind Hearts and Coronets

 

I included a  short review of the film on 11th November this year. Ian Nathan introduces this episode by saying this is "a pitch black comedy", followed by Stephen Armstrong who calls Kind Hearts and Coronets one of the top two British comedies of all time. (Not sure I would agree with that). Dennis Price plays Louis Mazzini who, at the beginning, is narrating his story from his prison cell. (Never happy with narrators, and this has it in spades). Louis believes he is the long lost heir to the D'Ascogne fortune. Unfortunately he has to get rid of the eight in line before him. All eight are played by Alec Guinness, all upper class though not all rich. Of course we get to see the murders as they happen. One, a young photographer, comes to an end in Marlow weir! 

Christina Newland was sure it was one of the greatest British comedies. Neil Norman agreed that it had a perfect structure, "exceptional" dialogue and a tremendous cast. Ian Nathan thought it demonstrated the fading aristocracy of 1949 but he added how bleak was the story. But Steven Armstrong thought the murders were so clever that Louis would not get caught. Neil Norman and Christina talk about the wealthy women in the cast and that it's all about class.

Ian Nathan goes on the talk about the novel Israel Rank by Roy Horniman and how it came to be adapted by Robert Hamer who also directed. Produced by Michael Balcon of Ealing Studios, it was so unlike anything that organisation had previously made. Dennis Price gives a deadpan performance, although Neil Norman says that this was not the launchpad for a stellar career. His Louis is found guilty for the one murder he did not commit. The presenters liked the mixture of sound stages and locations, and that the ending was ambiguous to a fault. It influenced many films to come.

Sight and Sound Magazine - June 2025

 

Editorial

Mike Williams is interested in audience reactions to some modern movies. A Minecraft Movie for instance. Bedlam, "but this is what the makers expected". However, Williams hates it when the audience still laugh at all those sensible movies: "films being ruined by their ironic laughter". But that is not my experience.

Opening Scenes

Pamela Hutchinson talks about BFI Film on Film Festival at the BFI Southbank and BFI Imax in June. Where everything is screened in their original format, whether 8mm, 16mm, 35mm and 70mm prints. These include an early Star Wars, Twin Peaks and 1969's Last Summer. She also includes a lot of technical stuff about the prints and the BFI Archive.

Editor's Choice

Some recommendations of what to see at the BFI Film Festival. The only one of interest to me is Get Shorty.

In Production

Thomas Fleur mentions Brad Pitt returning to the screen as Cliff Booth (One Upon a Time in Hollywood) in a David Fincher film only to be shown on Netflix.  

News

Edinburgh Film House is about to re-open after having closed for nearly three years with grants and funding an upgrade. Just "international and repertory cinema".

In Conversation

Thomas Fleur again, this time talking to German filmmaker Andres Veiel about his documentary Riefenstahl. (See a review from a previous issue). Was Leni a Nazi?

Festival

Denmark's film festival has nothing interesting.

Mean Sheets

Some posters of Charlie Chaplin.

Reader's Letters

Nothing exciting.

Flick Lit

Nicole Flattery tells us how Sofia Coppola's film The Bling Ring was based on Nancy Jo Sale's article in Vanity Fair "The Suspects Wore Louboutins".  We hear about the real life Bling Ring and the women in it. Nicole finds the film is better now than when it was first released.

The Long Take

Pamela Hutchinson in her regular feature and telling us about a new documentary "Seeking Mavis Beacon". No, I had never heard of her, but her touch typing tutorial was a "glorious programme". I wondered why this article also included an ordinary musical called The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947) with Betty Grable. It's the memoir by it's screen writer Frederica Sagor Maas that is "highly recommended". And then the 1910 one act play by J M Barrie The Twelve Pound Look that has a typist heroine who can be found in more recent films such as 9 to 5 and Working Girl. So the whole article is about women's empowerment on film.

TV Eye

Andrew Male talks about the series Black Mirror by Charlie Brooker that since 2014 (the last five series) has been just on Netflix. Something to look out for if it gets a free release in future.

Black Film Bulletin

I tried hard to find something of interest in the various articles over eight pages the but failed.

Mission Statement: The Tom Cruise Interview

Tom is on the cover and is soon to be awarded a BFI Fellowship. From Isabel Stevens, we first get a run down of his career so far. I had to check how many of his films I had seen. Thirty seven movies from Risky Business in 1983, many I have seen more than once, and there were others I did not see. I cannot think of any film star whose number of films top that list. Here Tom talks a lot about movie making, even experimenting with digital on Collateral with director Michael Mann. (It was great that he played the villain.) He always wants to make different kinds of films from, say, Legend to Top Gun. Tom talks about all the directors and producers with whom he has worked. He also mentions working with Val Kilmer, on Top Gun and then years later on Top Gun Maverick. And then with Jack Nicholson on A Few Good Men. 

As a producer on Mission Impossible Tom tells us it was his decision to bring in Brian de Palma to direct after his friend Sidney PoHe llack turned him down. There is then a lot about his collaboration with Stanley Kubrick on Eyes Wide Shut, especially the techniques that were employed in the filming, including the treadmill for those walking shots. Tom loves Pinewood Studios from the first time making Legend, through all the Mission Impossible films to his latest venture with Alejandro Iñárritu.  "Today back on the  Bond stage again".

Into the Lion's Den: Wes Anderson and The Phoenician Scheme

I think I must have seen nearly all of Wes Anderson's films, some more than once. From Moonrise Kingdom to The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch, The Darjeeling Limited and Asteroid City. So looking forward to this latest release. But I did not know anything about the director. Arjun Sajip's article includes a conversation with Anderson about his latest film The Phoenician Scheme that starts in 1950. Wes says he wanted to write a role for Benicio del Toro to play. But I skipped the part all about the plot. But as usual "the craftmanship and art direction on display .... are typically fastidious". However this article was mostly quite poor as I wanted to know much more about Anderson.

What do you want from me: The Many Faces of Mai Zetterling

This May there is a season of Mai's films at the BFI Southbank called "Passion and all that goes with it". Rachel Pronger tells us about her early career as an actress and then later as a director in the 1960's. I felt Mai felt so familiar, but none of her films stood out. Maybe it was just those plays on TV in the UK.

A Century of Cinephilia: The Legacy of the Film Society

Henry K Miller tells us about a monthly showing of international films in West End cinemas from 1925 to 1939. He looks at seven different ways it came to "define film as the seventh art". It was on Sunday 25th October 1925 that The New Gallery in London (the city's grandest cinema) first hosted "The Film Society" and for one hundred and seven further afternoons. Henry lists lots of European films such as The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922). But many other films "challenged the censor's regime" despite it being a club with membership. However, it inspired many British film makers, and encouraged more film societies to start. Film preservation became important as was the influence on the BFI.

Film Reviews

Most of these films will never see the light of day in the UK, the first ten reviews for instance. The Penguin Lessons only has a limited release in the UK. Based on Tom Michell's memoir, he was decades younger at the time than the star Steve Coogan. Sofie Monks Kaufman was uncomfortable with the politics of 1976 Argentina and the military dictatorship that followed the coup. But the penguin might save the film. 

Sinners is reviewed by Tom Seymour who concludes that it is "ambitious, sometimes inspired and occasionally brilliant - but ultimately undone by it's own excess". (Not for me). Then Kate Stables reviews The Salt Path, the adaptation of the book by Raynor Winn that we read for book club. (My review on this blog stars If it had not been a choice for book club, I would have abandoned it within the first twenty pages. It was all too annoying and depressing.) It might just be worth seeing for the two stars, Gillian Anderson and Jason Issacs, "despite the lovely scenery (the Cornwall Coastal Path ..... although a tad repetitive". Kate concludes "what felt charming in the book feels slighter on the screen".

DVD and Blu-Ray

Lost and Found

Wider Screen

Books

Nothing noteworthy in any of the above.

From the Archive

Japan's new wave! 

Obituary

Shinoda Masahiro?

This Month in ..... 1965

Reviews of Roman Polanski's Repulsion and the Palme d'Or winning The Knack .... and how to get it. Amazing it won. But of it's time  - a real sixties movie. Then a note about an interview with Bette Davis, over in the UK to shoot The Nanny. That was all.

The Garden in May

 

I thought I would start with the cornflowers or Centaurea montana to give it's full name. They normally need staking but at the moment they are being supported by other plants such as this geranium. 

The picture below is the Weigelia Red Prince that is the most dramatic of the shrubs at this time of year. All the better for a hard prune last year.

I'm amazed that the lilac has flowered again. It must be over twenty years since it was planted. I have previously tried to cut out some of the many parts of the trunk but it still looks a mess. Will try again after flowering is over. But it does smell wonderful. 

The low bushes below are Hypericum Calycinum or Rose of Sharon. For the first time I have pruned them before flowering (an early Chelsea Chop). It might keep them under control as they normally grow over the lawn. The larger shrub is Hypericum Hidcotense that nearly died a couple of years ago in the hot weather. 

The shrubs along the back fence next to the Leylandii had a major prune as they were overlapping the lawn. Quite a hard job so one for our tree man next time. 

The Clematis Montana has again had a hard prune as it was falling off the supports on the wall.

But it did look well in the spring.

Only just come into flower are the Dianthus White Flame in side patio containers.

There are flowers that seemed to flower quite early this year. This is the pink Astrantia.

Then the blue Iris.

The Aliums come up every year. 

The Campanula around the conservatory are gradually moving across the path.

The Salvia Friesland likes in the pot by the fence, but perhaps not the best place for it's display.

The sunflowers and cosmos that I grew from seed in a tray have been planted out in the long and round borders. We shall see how many survive.

The bees love these poppies.

The roses seem far behind in flowering compared with a lot of gardens I see on my walks. The Blue for You is always the first to flower, and the others are just on their way.

Today (the 26th May) I found the border near the conservatory looked great from the other side. Lots of flowers with the Campanula around the conservatory in the background.

And finally here are the Dahlia Figaro Mixed that arrived in tiny trays that have gone into pots in the conservatory before being planted out. Too much work so "this could be the last time. Maybe the last time, I don't ......).

The Robinia pseudoacacia over the years

 

I wanted to see how the far end of the garden had changed over the years. From how it looks today as the picture above, to the early spring of 1992 as the photo below, thirty three years ago. 

In this old photo, I was actually looking for the big tree at the end behind the back fence, the Robinia pseudoacacia. But the only trees there seemed to be the Aylesbury prune that eventually died and are no longer there. I think that I solved the mystery when I found this photo with what looks like the thin trunks of the tree in the background.

I also found the following photo from my post of 7th August 2009.

The Robinia was then only the same height as the old Aylesbury Prune trees and I can only assume that in 1992 it was not there. In that patch of ground that none of the houses own, the Robinia must have grown from seed and is therefore now thirty years old. Here is the Robinia as it is today, having flowered as well as it has over the last few years.

Apparently, this tree grows exceedingly fast in the first few years and then slows down. All that makes sense. Looking at other specimens on the net, the one above seems to have multi trunks as the photo below. That may be unusual?

However, the tree does provide a nice backdrop to the end of the garden. They are supposed to last 30 to 50 years, so maybe without any competition, it will last many years to come.

Mr Burton, Maria and Final Destination: Bloodlines

 

Richard Jenkins (Harry Lawtey) is seventeen years old in 1942, lazy in school despite the attentions of schoolteacher Philip Burton (Toby Jones). Mr Burton starts off fairly flat, This part of Wales is not a pleasant place before the war. I felt at first that Toby Jones was far too familiar in this role, but gradually he began to inhabit the part. Philip Burton's history would make a fine film on it's own. His landlady is played to perfection by Lesley Manville.

But the essence of the story is the development of Richard Jenkins to the actor we know as Richard Burton. The encouragement of his teacher pays off in spades. Although without someone like Mr Burton, we may never have known. Harry Lawtey was fine as was his married big sister Cis played by Aimee-Ffion Edwards. We see little of Richard's father, a drunk who takes money for his son to live with his teacher. 

There were other notable performances from Hannah New as agent Daphne Rye and Mali O'Donnell as Richard's first girlfriend. The screenplay was well written by Tom Bullough and Josh Hyams and director Mark Evans has made a memorable feature.

I thought Maria was all over the place. It seemed that the editing was a major distraction. There were scenes in black and white that were out of place. There was a kind of thread with Maria Callas being interviewed but that didn't work. I didn't agree with some others that the script was to blame. I thought that Steven Knight could not be held responsible for the mess. Just see the films he has written, but maybe the 36 episodes of Peaky Blinders have effected his style. I agreed with critic Mark Kermode that the film was in some way "ridiculous ....... pretty dull.......lumpen and ludicrous".  All down to director Pablo Larrain. A shame as his Jackie was fine. 

However we were there for the music, although Angelina Jolie mimed most of the songs. The upside was we did hear a lot of Callas singing. Screenrant.com has a good soundtrack guide. Vissi d'arte Maria and Puccini's Tosca were the stand out performances. The locations (all set in Paris} were excellent. The portrayal of Onassis was not. What a creep.  

There were two reasons why I went to see Final Destination: Bloodlines. The first was that I had seen all the previous five films over the years from the first in 2000. The other reason was the mostly positive reviews. This new film is the first for fourteen years? I liked the long 1960's introduction that we know will not end well, although predicably it was only a dream. The staging in the tower, the colour, the clothes, THE SONGS and  the set-up were all terrific. On to modern day and we actually have a decent story about one family. Kaitlin Santa Juana plays Stefani Lewis. Her grandmother is a recluse following the disaster, and her mother is also absent, trying to escape death. 

The other family members either know or do not know about the history that will eventually find them. So there is the normal bickering between members of the family before the predicable carnage ensues. The deaths are as creative as they always were. I particularly liked the scene in the hospital that involved an MRI scanner. Anyone who has seen this film might want to avoid this particular apparatus.

Stoner by John Williams

 

In this weeks Sunday Times in the regular article "Dead, alive and underrated", Taffy Brodesser-Akner chooses Stoner by John Williams for the first of these. This is one of my very favourite books. Here is my review from 28th January 2014.

The last in a trilogy of American University novels I have read recently, and equal to the wonderful The Art of Fielding and The Secret History. Recently rediscovered in the UK, John Williams' novel Stoner from 1965 is a beautiful, sad but at times uplifting story of William Stoner, a farm boy who finds literature during his time at the University of Missouri. There he stays to teach and we follow his quiet life through all it's ups and downs. But what propels this book to it's status as Waterstone's Book of the Year is the prose. Simple and clear, you are able to race through the sentences whilst at the same time absorbing everything on the page. The writing flows expertly and intelligently and keeps the reader involved despite the subject matter. A simple life, one mainly devoid of love and humour. Stoner has difficulty with relationships, although most are not of his own making. I was so angry at certain points in the story that I wanted to throw the book across the room. Chapter 8 is 14 pages of domestic horror. Is Stoner one of life's losers? We have to ask that question. I don't think so. He may have been if he stayed on his parent's farm. But he had choices. He married the wrong woman, and perhaps these days he would have left. But in the 1930's and 40's things were different. But he had his books and his teaching and for him, that was just enough.

I was going to read it again but cannot find it on my bookshelf. A new copy would be nice.