Sight and Sound Magazine - October 2025

 

Editorial 

Mike Williams asks if any novel is unfilmable. He gives lots of examples including Pynchon's Inherent Vice that Paul Thomas Anderson successfully adapted for the 2014 movie. But maybe not 1988's The Satanic Verses.

Opening Scenes - Preview of the BFI Film Festival

Isabel Stevens tells us about The Secret Agent that gained two awards at Cannes including one for Wagner Moura for best actor. None of the eight films selected for very short reviews will get a main cinema release.

Editor's Choice

Nothing of interest.

In Production

The "horror documentary" or "gothic noir" movie by Joseph Archer called Snapshot is reviewed by Hope Rangaswani. Sounds interesting but may again struggle for a main cinema release.

News

Terry Gillian is seeking funding for his projected film The Carnival at the End of Days as his last backer withdrew. Not surprised.

In Focus

Nothing.

Festival

Locarno on Lake Maggiore. Again nothing of interest, until at the very end comes their Great Expectations: British Post-War Cinema 1945-1960. A fifty film retrospective including It Always Rains on Sunday, a classic Ealing Studios noir. One to look out for. 

In Conversation

Ari Aster talks to Thomas Flew about his new film Eddington. I had seen this director's excellent Midsomer, but his new one may be not for me.

Mean Sheets

For once something interesting in this section. "Limbs led artwork" are this month's posters that include those for 42nd Street and Secretary. 

Reader's Letters

As usual, nothing of interest.

Talkies: The Long Take

Pamela Hutchinson discusses how to give a film introduction to an audience (and she has done quite a few). Nothing over ten minutes please, They should include " nuance of performance, a feat of camera work, a brief appearance of a future star and an unexpected innovation". Tips - do not get any names wrong.

Flick Lit

Nicole Flattery starts by talking about Sheila Liming's book "Hanging Out, The Radical Power of Killing Time". This is about how friendship has changed from the laid-back 1990's to today's "much more fraught, disquieting and a lot less fun". But the long review is quite boring.

TV Eye

The best part so far of this month's edition is Andrew Male's discussion about the rise of YouTube at the expense of traditional TV channels. Even the BBC has a YouTube channel with links to other sources. But it's content is only a few minutes of clips and highlights. But five newish ITV channels just seem to be "a dumping ground for old content" but with no advertising. 

But then Andrew thinks that OFCOM's annual report mistakes YouTube for a content provider instead of being just a platform for others. He also congratulates the BBC for not providing content and just using it as an "advertising platform".

Steve

Katie McCabe talks to Cillian Murphy, the star of a new film Steve based on the book Shy by Max Porter. (Only on Netflix!) And then a long discussion about his career. They talk about the first film of his production company Big Things Films based on the Clare Keegan book Small Things Like These. (See my book review). In Steve, Murphy is the headmaster of a reform school (sounds hard going). At the moment he's working with Danny Boyle on 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the next in what might be a trilogy. 

In a separate thread, Murphy summarises his participation in three major films: 28 Days Later (2002), The Wind That Shakes The Barley (2006), and of course Oppenheimer (2023). There is also a whole page devoted to the novelist Max Porter and that adaptation of his book Shy. 

Indie Empire

A David Lynch retrospective is planned for the BFI Southbank in January 2026. And the reason why there are four pages by his business partners devoted to his career. It starts with his 1984 version of Dune where he had allowed the final cut to be by his producer Dino de Laurentis. But he butchered the original three hour version and Lynch vowed this would never happen again. Then struggling for funding, we are told about how his Twin Peaks was made for TV. (He only directed season 1). Then his Lost Highway sounded interesting until critic Roger Ebert could make no sense of it after two viewings. So this film together with The Straight Story and Inland Empire I think I will miss. Obviously I have always liked Wild at Heart and Mulholland Drive. 

Some Kind of Art Monster - Klaus Kimski Revisited

Benjamin Myers unravels the German actor's history. All fairly boring except for his appearance in Werner Herzog's Aguire, Wrath of God. 

Heavenly Features

Ralph Jones looks at faith based films.

Gimme Shelter

A profile of the actor Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness) by Arjun Sajip. Harris has now turned writer/director for his first feature Urchin. There is a long discussion about the film and I now know this is one to avoid. Although the star, Frank Dillane, won best actor at Cannes. Then, typically, a page on the films that inspired Urchin. I had never heard of any of the four that had pictures or any of the others except Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch Drunk Love.

At the Movies with ...... Lucretia Martel

The Argentine director starts with "I'm not in love with cinema ..... but cinema chose me". How pretentious can you get. She is only here because of her film Landmarks being screened at the Venice Film Festival. Nothing about this film, only those that inspire her.

Read

An advertising feature for four new paperbacks from BFI Film Classics that include Billy Elliot and Die Hard.

Reviews - Films

Amazingly, the first twelve films reviewed are not for me. Then comes Islands, a German/USA/UK co-production with Sam Riley. Reviewer Tom Charity calls it "a missing person mystery".

Then Highest 2 Lowest, where Spike Lee directs Denzel Washington in a remake of Kurasawa Akira's 1963 High and Low. Reviewer Christina Newland called it "an exuberant, vivid, scalpel-sharp vision". A kidnapping and a ransom movie sounds interesting.

That was it. These two possibilities out of twenty films reviewed.  

DVD and Blu-Ray

Only Eleanor Coppola's 1991 famous feature Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse.  Her filming of the making of the movie, complete with diaries etc. Now a new "lavish package" with many new features.

Wider Screen

Gave it a miss.

Books

Nothing interesting. 

From the Archive: Night Fever

Six pages from January 1998's edition on the then new film Boogie Nights (1997) . Gavin Smith interviewed Paul Thomas Anderson on his breakthrough movie with Mark Wahlberg. Some great stills from the film including a full page of Heather Graham as Rollergirl. 

This Month in ...... 1978

On the cover of the magazine was a still from Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) which is a lead in to script advisor Beverly Walker's set report.

The Lawn in late September

 

It has taken all summer for the front lawn to recover. Then in the photo below, the back lawn at the very far end will never be as good until this time next year.

Cosmos and Dahlias in Autumn

 

Honey Don't, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale and A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

 

Honey Don't maybe the second of Ethan Coen's trilogy after Drive Away Dolls. Here is Margaret Qualley again, this time as a smart private investigator in Bakersfield, a small town in rural America. She must be doing well to afford all those change of clothes, lots of different white blouses paired with colourful slacks and dresses. A lightweight murder mystery, all a bit flimsy, lots of driving around Bakersfield looking for suspects and a missing friend. I did like the opening credits where they are plastered on all sorts of buildings. Chris Evans turns up as the Rev Drew Devlin, a typical small town evangelist and drug lord. The Guardian says that "Qualley  is such a commanding force" and she certainly holds the film together. A couple of great songs on a decent soundtrack including We Gotta Get Out Of  This Place (Brittany Howard's version not a patch on that of The Animals) and of course the title song.  

Having watched every episode of the TV series and the subsequent films, I had to see Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. I thought the story was OK but the screenplay was very patchy. I sometimes hoped we could just watch the cast, the costumes, the sets and listen to the music. There were the odd clever lines, but it seemed to me if the cast was not sold on the script. All the main characters were there, my favourite  being Raquel Cassidy as Phyliss Baxter, maid to Lady Mary and now married to Joseph Molesley. Such a warm personality despite her past. There is also a larger role for Daisy (Sophie McShera) now about to became head cook. But all a bit too corny for me. Including the introduction of an American, all because he has a horse running at Ascott that makes a pleasant diversion.

Despite Tom Shone in the Sunday Times giving this a begrudging two star review, I liked this fantasy drama where two mature single people are pushed together courtesy of a magical GPS on a rental car. Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie are the engaging stars in what is almost a two hander story. Two lonely fractured people get to know each other through scenes from their pasts. I thought this was a great idea and director Kogonada and writer Seth Reiss gave us a poignant and, only very occasionally, cringe worthy, script. Add in a tiny role at the beginning and end for Phoebe Waller Bridge, some good music and colourful scenery and we have a lovely picture. Tom Shone, though, pulls no punches with "here we get the whole pity party in surround sound, there's so much to make your toes curl". However, Peter Bradshaw called it a "giddy romantic fantasy" which is exactly right. Mark Kermode loved everything about the film except that "it didn't work". What was he expecting?

Lunchtime Concert at the Wigmore Hall

 

When Alison found that the Wigmore Hall did lunchtime concerts, we found one that we both might like. A piano recital by Simon Trpceski. Just £18 a ticket. I guess I was more interested in seeing the building, one that I never thought about before. We left at 10am on Monday morning for the Chiltern Railways train to Marylebone and the Underground to Bond Street. We had plenty of time for a wander down New Bond Street to see all those expensive shops. The home of luxury shopping in London. We arrived after midday at Wigmore Hall. An amazing hidden gem in West London.

We had time for tea and cake before the concert in their marvelous restaurant.

We found our reserved seats and had plenty of time to take in the wonderful surroundings of this 552 seat concert hall from 1901. 

The concert by Simon Trpceski was introduced by Petroc Trelawney who told us it was going out live on BBC Radio 3. Here is a clip from the Sunday Times.

This was the free programme. So two pieces by Tchaikovsky with a more modern section by Ravel in the middle. The highlight was the final Nutcracker Suite adapted for piano.  

We were very impressed with quality of the pianist, a top musician by all accounts, proving why the concert was a sell out. There were even two encores, Heitor Villa-Lobos' Sorrowful Waltz, and Edward Elgar's Adieu. It was also recorded for BBC Sounds as "Classical Live: Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker live from Wigmore Hall". Simon is on Facebook "getting ready for my recital at Wigmore Hall". The whole experience was exceptional. 

 Time to find a very late lunch, the underground back to Baker Street and Bill's. 

We were quite tired after lunch so opted for the return home. It turned out to be a great day. We have the programme (free 208 pages) for the remainder of 2025 as well as 2026 so we might find something for next year. 

Movies at Home - Gosford Park, Witness for the Prosecution and In the Mood for Love

 

We watched Gosford Park together as one of our Saturday night movies. Although there was hardly anything familiar, I find that I saw it at the cinema on 6th March 2002. Well, that was twenty three years ago. A Julian Fellows screenplay that was so successful that it paved the way for the TV series Downton Abbey. The most remarkable thing about this film was the starry cast. Eileen Atkins, Alan Bates, Derek Jacobi, Richard E Grant )wonderful), Emily Watson, Jeremy Northam (can he really play the piano), Helen Mirren, Christin Scott Thomas, Clive Owen (memorable) Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon, Kelly Fitzgerald, Charles Dance, Tom Hollander, Ryan Phillipe to mention just a few. Directed by Robert Altman (see post 1st September 2020 - "his final great triumph).

Oh dear! I was thinking about going to see the play at County Hall in London. (See their website). So I may have to wait some time while I forget the plot. Especially all those twists and turns at the end. Here is the black and white American version from 1957 starring Charles Laughton (excellent as the barrister). Directed by Billy Wilder and also starring Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich, it gained six Oscar nominations. Agatha Christie does it again. 

I made so many notes for this film, I'm not sure where to start. All because of the May 2025 edition of Sight and Sound magazine: In the Mood for Love at 25: The Making of a Modern Classic. We start in Hong Kong in 1962. Here is Mrs Chan played by Maggie Cheung, a masterpiece of acting. She looks wonderful and seems so happy despite her absent husband. Moving into her claustrophobic apartment block is Mr Chow, the equally brilliant Tony Leung. His wife seems to work alternate hours to him. Are their spouses actually having an affair. We never seem to see them. Mrs Chan and Mr Chow are always meeting on the landing or on the stairs. They seem to avoid each other or exchange just a few words.

Then suddenly they are in a cafe having coffee. Then next time they are having steaks. But always they have to leave separately as their neighbours on their floor are always watching and are far too inquisitive. So theirs is a platonic relationship, far from the words of the title. Even when Mr Chow takes on his new apartment, this is just to write, they hardly touch hands. "We wont be like them" says Mrs Chan, referring to their spouses. 

So a strange and sad but captivating relationship. Mrs Chan always looks fantastic, those clothes are incredible. Director Wong Kar Wai's cinematography is really something, but I was never quite sure about the strange editing. Some good songs: Dean Martin's Magic is the Moonlight and Quizas, Quaizas, Quizas. Then at the end we go forward to 1963 and then 1966. A very strange conclusion.

Pro-Kleen Grass Green - Lawn Fertilizer

 

On the 6th September I included a piece about how the lawn had revived after the long summer with hardly any rain. Above is the tub of granules that I spread on the 6th June. What is most interesting is that for nearly three months the granules just sat there waiting for some rain. Now that September has been very wet, the feed is now doing it's job, better late than never. So the grass has been growing madly for a few weeks and needs cutting in less than a week it's so long and lush.

Posti Segreti

 

It's Professor T (Ben Miller) who loves his Italian songs. My favourite so far is Posti Segreti, singer unknown. Series 2 Episode 3 of Professor T - The Family. Probably the strangest episode yet. Can be found on YouTube along with comments similar to mine.

Charles Haywood Hoyland - The Day I Met My Great Grandfather

 

It was probably when I was about eight or nine years old that, on a visit with my parents to see my grandmother Edith (my father's mother Gran) in Sheffield, that I was taken to see this very old gentleman who was lying in bed. I guess that this was Gran's father Charles Haywood Hoyland who died on the 15th December 1954 aged 89. Records show that this was at 22 Bannerdale Road, Sheffield. It seems that he wanted to see great grandchildren before he died. Charles was born on 21st September 1865 and for some reason he was always called Twig. 

We know that (according to the 1901 census) when Charles was 35 he had inherited the Queen's Brushworks from his father Charles Hoyland, then 71 years old and living with his wife Hannah, his daughters (Kate and Isabel now 33 and 26) and two servants in Norwood House, Dore New Road, Sheffield. Charles Haywood Hoyland lived in nearby Totley Brook Road with his wife Louisa and four children including my grandmother Edith. They have a governess and one servant.

My post of 23rd February says: The wealth created by the business (The Queen's Brushworks) meant that Kate and Isabel were able to live off private means for the rest of their lives. But I have a feeling that Charles Haywood Hoyand was not in the same class as a business man as his predecessors, and that the business finally folded. See post of 29th January 2020 about "The Queen's Brushworks", and on 23rd February 2009 about "Three Generations of Brush Manufacturers" and again "The Hoyland Inheritance" on 13th December 2013. 

Charles Haywood Hoyland is buried with other members of his family in Norton Cemetery in Sheffield in the Hoyland Family Monument. See post 22nd March 2013.

You may just be able to make out the name of Charles Haywood Hoyland at the top of the next to last base.

Pete Murray at One Hundred

 

The disc jockey Pete Murray will reach the grand old age of one hundred tomorrow. He was one of the very first disc jockeys in post war Britain. I remember him presenting shows on Radio Luxemburg in the late nineteen fifties and then on to Six Five Special on BBC TV. When Radio 1 started in 1967 he was one of the first DJ's selected to host their shows.

Again, one of the first presenters on Top of the Pops and a regular on Juke Box Jury. He was so much in demand that he co-hosted the NME poll winners concert at Wembley and presented the Eurovision Song Contest. He was never my favourite DJ, but in those days he had a strong and distinctive personality.  Congratulations Pete.

Three days in Harrogate

 

It was in June that we originally booked the hotel in Harrogate as a base for our nephew's wedding. We then  had to cancel when I developed those nasty hives. Fortunately the Crown Plaza Hotel allowed us to change the booking to this week. I guess because the hotel was very quiet with no conferences in the next door centre. 

So in Sunday morning we first headed for Hardwick Hall (free with our NT cards), our usual stop off on the way north. Just as we parked the car, the heavens opened, the only rain during our stay. We had brought lunch with us thinking that on a Sunday the cafe would be busy (it was). So we had our rolls in the car while it lashed down with rain. The heavy shower soon passed and headed for the hall.

The displays inside were better this year with lots more information.

However, much more interesting were the remains of Hardwick Old Hall. There was no access last time we were there, but now we were able to get close to the ruins.

We had a fairly trouble free journey and arrived at the Crowne Plaza around 5pm. Quite a new and smart hotel, we were on the tenth floor! Lovely and quiet. The footbridge is for access to Harrogate Conference Centre. 

We had dinner at Stephano's Pizzeria, a short walk from the hotel.

Monday was to be our big day in York. Just over ten minutes walk to the station for the 9.30am train to the centre of the city. (I remembered the station from the times I went to Shepherd's head office. A good few years ago. Over the bridge of the River Ouse and on the other side the Lendal Tower.

 But our first port of call was, of course ...... Betty's! 

We could live there! I was reminded that we actually visited Betty's many years ago when we last stayed in Harrogate. I found the photos labeled as 1993, (none of Betty's, it may have been their place in Ilkley?) so that's thirty two years ago. It didn't seem familiar at all. The photo below is from this week.  

We were there three quarters of an hour (no queue) and only had to rush off as our tickets for York Minster were for 11.30pm. It was a beautiful fresh sunny day, we were so lucky. We just made it in time for the start of a tour. Our guide was absolutely amazing. He took us all round the Minster with stops to talk about the history. Well over an hour that he made it so interesting. 

We were then able to wander around on our own and look at everything there. We bought the small essential guide and followed their tour.  The photo below from the Five Sisters Window.

To many more spectacular windows.

The Chapter House.

And The Quire.

We were pretty tired by the time we left, just to take in the views outside.

With last of all the new statue of Queen Elizabeth.

Time for a rest on a bench in Museum Gardens.

On our way back to the station, we stopped for tea and a toasty at Costa before a short walk by the river. Not a single bench was free. The train back to Harrogate to pick up some goodies for tea at a huge M&S Food store on the way back to the hotel. A long day as we left at 9am and back at 6pm. 

We were meeting up with Alison's sister and her husband on Tuesday afternoon, so a quiet morning. Starting with tea and buns at the Yellow Chair where we sat outside in the sunshine.

We then found the Royal Pump Room. 

Before heading into Valley Gardens and lots of benches.

We picked up Anne and Chas from their B&B and drove to the RHS Garden Harlow Carr just outside Harrogate. A quick cuppa before starting a full tour of the gardens.

Obviously taking lots of photos.

I particularly liked the Old Bath House with the grilles for the six wells that once provided restorative sulphur smells.

Only a short rest at the hotel before off to find the Mykonos Greek restaurant for dinner. Good food (kebabs of course) and great company.

On Wednesday morning we packed the car and vacated our room before finding Betty's (this time their Harrogate cafe) for breakfast.

Alison and her sister were bound for the shops so Chas and I walked down to Valley Gardens where we found a bench under a shelter as it looked like rain. Chas has now retired so we compared notes.

Met up with Alison at the hotel to find the car for our journey home. Three hours 45 minutes with lots of rain but no hold ups. Tired but having had a great few days.