Front Cover
Here is Guillermo del Toro pictured for his new movie Frankenstein.
Editorial
Mike Williams talks about "the enduring appeal of Frankenstein as a source for a movie". He goes on "The Monster's horror stems from it's humanity". Giving a patched up human something of a brain is completely novel in movies. Mike goes back to Bernie Wrightson's illustrated Frankenstein (1983) as a source for del Toro's movie. But then why does Mike tell us about A.I. and chatbot?
Opening Scenes
Isabel Stevens looks at the climate change background to the latest film by Paul Greengrass The Lost Bus. A shame that its only on Netflix.
Editor's Choice
Here are recommendations for the BFI London Film Festival. The only one that caught my eye was The Mastermind from director Reichardt.
In Production
Hurrah! The creator of the brilliant animated film Flow (see my review) that won the Oscar, is working on his new movie Limbo where, apparently he has completed the first thirty eight minutes. Also a Sinead O'Connor biopic is underway.
News
Just about Sudanese cinema.
In Conversation
Hope Rangasuani talks to Derek Cianfrance about his new film Roofman with Channing Tatum that is due out this month. His previous films include Blue Valentine and the terrific The Place Beyond the Pines.
Report
Philip Concannon studies the return of VistaVision that was the 1950's inspiration for IMAX. Just because IMAX was used for One Battle After Another but only shown in this format in very few cinemas. Philip includes lots of technical stuff, all beyond me.
Mean Sheets
This is all about Graham Humphries whose hand drawn posters are quite startling. We see four of these.
Reader's Letters
Nothing of interest.
The Long Take
This month Pamela Hutchinson looks at the rise of audience numbers, especially those of young people.
TV Eye
Andrew Male looks at how the BBC (from 1970 - 1984) commissioned original drama for their series Play for Today. Channel 5 is actually reviving some of these productions. Most notable are the number of the then fairly unknown writers who today are household names. From Caryl Churchill (The After Dinner Joke), Mike Leigh (Abigail's Party) as well as Alan Bennett, Denis Potter, Alan Bleasedale, Willy Russell and others. Andrew talks about "the strange and wonderful diversity of the original Play for Today".
Flick Lit
Nicole Flattery explores the work of novelist Edith Wharton and the film Materialists' director Celine Song. How one of the films that inspired her was Edith's The Age of Innocence that she says "makes absolute sense". Then comparing the book with Dakota Johnson's (professional) matchmaker Lucy in Materialists. Nicole found "a totalising darkness" when I found the rich people and colour palette distracting.
Black Film Bulletin
Nothing familiar.
Bringing out the Dead
Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein gets a nine page feature for it's release on 17th October on ..... Netflix. A two and a half hour epic. Some great stills including Jacob Elordi as the Creature and Oscar Isaac as Frankenstein. Apparently the film is "authentically rooted in the structure of Shelley's novel". Shame I wont be able to see it.
The Art of the Steal
Beatrice Loaza tells us about Kelly Reichardt's movie The Mastermind about a snatch and grab raid on an art gallery in the 1970's. An unemployed family man J. B. Mahoney (played by Josh O'Connor) is not your normal thief and it sounds like his plan is doomed to fail. "A coming undone" film is a clue to how it pans out. And who should play the wife but Alana Haim. Kelly did huge research into 70's culture, and there is an interesting page on her inspirations for this story.
Cinema is breath to him
Rebecca Miller has made a five part documentary called Mr. Scorsese. On Apple TV+ so I will never get to see it. Philip Horne interviews the director.
Venice Film Festival: Portrait of a Lido on Fire
The festival seems more like a damp squid, nothing exciting except one film that was snubbed by the jury: No Other Choice is the latest from the brilliant director Park Chan-wook. A follow up to his superb Decision to Leave (2022) and a "blood and guts black comedy". Right up my street.
Reviews; Films
So many promising films this month after last times disappointing two. Bugonia stars Emma Stone. Is she an alien despite being the CEO of a biomedical company. Yorgos Lanthimos directs a Will Tracy screenplay. A long review from Travis Jeppesen concludes that it "adheres dangerously close to the cliches of horror schlock". But "it's played well" with the "depth brought by the performances of Stone and Jesse Plemons". It seems to be loosely based on the Korean movie Save the Green Planet (2003) and three more English language remakes of Korean films including the terrific Oldboy (2003) from Park Chan-wook that was remade by Spike Lee in 2013.
Next comes The Mastermind from Kelly Reichardt (see above) reviewed by Nicolas Rapolo. It stars Josh O'Connor, Alana Haim and Hope Davis. Set in the 1970's complete with documentary footage from the time. An art theft may not go well.
Then Hedda transports Ibsen's heroine to the mid 20th century and "preserves much of the original story". Kelli Weston describes the main characters (Tessa Thomson is Hedda) and Nia Dacosta has adapted the play and directed the movie. Imogen Poots plays Hedda's old classmate. All the old relationships are there, but Kelli thinks it is "bold and striking, but not wholly convincing".
It's Catherine Bray who reviews Frankenstein (see previous note). She sets out the background to the film and says that the early scenes have an "emotional heft". She added "Jacob Elordi is superb as the Creature" and that Oscar Isaac as Victor "does a fabulous job". It's a shame I won't see it as just on Netflix.
Steve is previewed by Philip Concannon. A star vehicle for Cillian Murphy who plays the head of a boarding school for last chance teenagers. Add in Roger Allam as the local MP and a visiting film crew. Although closure of the school maybe on the horizon.
One Battle After Another
This month the reviews of big films just keep on coming. (See my review of this movie). Nick Bradshaw tells us that after the long prologue, we get "two screen hours of pell-mell, crazy-quilt, cat-and-mice caper". And "there is so much to relish". Even a mention for Johnny Greenwood's score. He ends with the film being "a terrific ride".
The Smashing Machine
Reviewed by Jessica Kiang. I had not realised that this was a biopic of the real life wrestling MMA star Mark Kerr played by Dwayne Johnson, heavily in disguise. I'm not surprised it had a poor showing at the box office even with Emily Blunt playing his long suffering girl friend Dawn.
A House of Dynamite
John Bleasdale reviews this Kathryn Bigelow movie. I'm so disappointed that it's only on Netflix.
Then five more reviews of films that are of no interest before we get to .....
Spinal Tap 11: The End Continues
Even the title is one of the reasons I'm not into these movies. I never got the original though I did give it a go. Leigh Singer does his best to put us in the picture with his review. But as a non-devotee I will let others decide. Leigh says "the basic joke is their crudely overblown, if sometimes charmingly naive insanity".
Honey, Don't
Saffron Mave reviews the second in Ethan Coen's and Tricia Cooke's trilogy following their Drive Away Dolls (see my post). The film is also co-produced by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title. An absurd, brightly coloured thriller starring the striking Margaret Qualley as private eye Honey O'Donoghue. She is like a modern sharp talking Humphrey Bogart. See my review on this blog. The critics were mainly unimpressed, the audience was sparse, but I loved it. Bring on number three.
After the Hunt
The review sounded interesting, but cannot find it's release in cinemas. Julia Roberts stars in a Luca Guadagnino film.
Caught Stealing
This was being shown in local cinemas, but Matt Smith with his punk Mohican haircut put me off. Again reviewed by Philip Concannon, it's the latest from Darren Aronofsky but it sounded too violent for me. The director's films are "not light hearted affairs". Austin Butler stars in "a portrait of a sad and broken world".
DVD and BLU-RAY
Michael Haneke: A Curzon Collection
A box set of eighteen of his films, including those made for TV, are in a box set of 14 discs on Blu-Ray. Geoff Andrew describes them: "The TV films here may not be as immediately personal or brilliant as Haneke's later work".
The Graduate
A three disc box set on Blu-Ray is "a gorgeous transfer".
And lots more reviews.
Lost and Found
The films of Nick Zedd. Pass.
Wider Screen
Nothing.
Books
Darkness Visible: The Cinema of Jonathon Glazer
From Sexy Beast that starred Ray Winstone (with that iconic photo) to Under the Skin and Zone of Interest.
Also Mark Kermode's Surround Sound. The stories of movie music.
From the Archive
We have to be Intimate
At the BFI Southbank in October/November comes Love, Sex, Religion, Death: The Complete Films of Terrence Davies. An extended feature that includes a number of interviews he gave to this magazine over the years. The best part was his piece called On Acting which included a comparison of British and American.
This Month in ...... 1955
Here is Gavin Lambert's feature about Fritz Lang as well as a picture of the front cover which was a still from Jean Renoir's French Cancan. The only review of note from that edition was David Lean's Summer Madness that starred Katherine Hepburn.
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