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.
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