Movies at Home: The Deadly Affair, Open Fire and Arabesque

 

The Deadly Affair is an adaptation of John Le Carre's first book Call for the Dead. Here George Smiley is called Charles Dodds as Paramount had gained copyright for Smiley's name when they released The Spy who came in from the cold. Dodds is played by James Mason, I thought an odd choice, especially as Alec Guines wonderfully restrained in Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy. Mason shouts far too much, especially when he talks to his wife Ann (her name the same as the book) played by Harriet Anderson. I felt there was far too much about their relationship and not enough about the story.

Dodds talks to Samuel, a member of his organisation, in a park, almost an interrogation. But later Samuel is found dead.  When Dodds visits the bereaved wife (Simone Signoret) he becomes suspicious. And so the plot thickens. I liked the London scenes of 1967, it looks pretty grimy down The Embankment and Battersea Power Station. I thought that Harry Andrews was best thing about the film as an MI5 operative called Mendel.

I was not sure why we see rehearsals for Macbeth, except that there was an early role for Lynne Redgrave as teenage dogsbody Virgin Bumpus. She was brilliant. Of course it's Dodds whose plan at the end comes to fruition and the spies are dealt with. This was not a great movie, but intereting all the same.

Open Fire is actually a 1994 made for TV film. I have included it here as it was one of the first directed by Paul Greengrass. Based on the true story about gay criminal and nasty transvestite David Martin played by Rupert Graves. We are the 1970's, it's seedy and violent and so are the police. We follow Martin and his robbery'sincluding where he is discovered and shoots a member of the constabulary. The film explores his sexuality and his relationship with Sue Stephens played by Kate Hardie.

I liked how Martin's escape from custody was so well filmed, and the subsequent police search and a chase on foot through Hampstead Underground Station. Leading the police was Jim Carter (from Downton Abbey) as Detective Chief Superintendant Young. He makes the arrest. This was after one of them shot Stephen Waldorf by mistake. The film looked as dirty as it's subject matter.

I may not have seen Arabesque since I saw it in the cinema in 1966. Based on the 19061 novel The Cipher, it stars Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren in a Stanley Donen movie. Typical of it's time (unfortunately) it did win a BAFTA for best cinematography. But the whole thing looked like a Bond rip off and other scenes straight from North by Northwest. We are never quite sure whose side anyone is on as poor hapless Peck struggles through, chasing a scrap of paper with some hyroglyphics. 

This was a follow up for director Stanley Donen following his far more successful Charade. (See my review 19th April 2020). However there is one interesting scene of a building site where the builder was Cubitts. A wonderful firm back then called Holland, Hannen and Cubitts. Taken over by Tarmac who went bust in 1976.

Mark Kermode's Surround Sound - Part 2

 

Chapter 3  The Director's Vision

Mark starts this long chapter with Jordan Peele's creepy debut film Get Out where composer Michael Abels also scored his first film. We hear lots about the relationship between the director and composer. As an example Mark talks about the composer Anne Dudley working with director Paul Verhoeven. Anne talks to Mark about how a director might have trouble with a piece of orchestration, whether too fast, not fast enough, too loud or too soft, or even the wrong instrument. 

Mark mentions one theme from Manchester by the Sea. Director Kenneth Lonergan won the Oscar for best original screenplay, but according to Mark, let everyone down by ignoring Lesley Barber's score for the movie's most dramatic sequence and instead the oh so familiar Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor. Mark says "the result is disastrous". (Yes it's familiar but not worth the criticism.)

There is a lot about a technique some directors use called "temp tracks". They lay down some pre-existing music over a rough cut of the movie to get the composer started. Some of them hate this. We hear some examples. Then with big studio films, the composer might not just be inconverstion with the director, but also the producers, music supervisors and the editor without even the director being there. (These people tell the director separately what they think of the music).

More interestingly, we hear about partnerships between director and composer such as Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone (A Fistfull of Dollars etc), and Christopher Nolan and Hans Zimmer (Interstellar etc) Paul Thomas Anderson and Johnny Greenwood (There will be Blood etc), David Cronenberg and Howard Shore (Cosmopolis etc) and Yorgos Lanthimos and Jerskin Fendrix (Poor Things).  I'm surprised I have seen all these. Mark says about the last of these "the most adventurously inventive scotre of 2023", and that the director had asked for ther score before the film was even shot and (miraculously, 95% ended up in the film. Mark ends this chapter with a favourite film of his called Out of Blue. (No, this is one film I have not seen, nor has hardly anyone else). Loosely based on the Martin Amis 1997 novel Night Train. Mark loves the score and the film that did rather badly at the box office.

Soundtrack Selection -  Under the Skin (2013)

Maybe I'm one of the few people who went to see this film. Scarlett Johanson is an alien finding her way on Earth. Mark loves the soundtrack by British composer Mica Levi. You can hardly call it music, more just sounds. Not easy l;istening to it on it's own, but somehow matches the movie for it's strangeness. Mark thinks it "lends cohesion to a film that occasionally threatens to fall apart". I can agree with that. We hear about Levi's  other scores for films like Zone of Interest. 

Chapter 4   How did we get here?

Part 2 - From Goldsmith to Gudnadottir

Despite Mark's accolades for composer John Williams, he tells us he just prefers the music of Jerry Goldsmith. We hear a lot about his soundtracks. As we do for his "challenging" music. Next comes a part about composer Anne Dudley. (See my posts of 22nd April 2022 where there is a huge amount about her scores for so many films. And then on 24th June 2022 about her work with ABC, next on 15th August 2018 and January 2019 about the souindtrack for Mama Mia and 6th May 2022 for her work on Benedetta). Mark reminds us that Anne actually won an Oscar for scoring The Full Monty and only the second woman to do so. I did not know that. We hear about her career with the Art of Noise and working with many icons in the pop music industry. She scored so many films of which I was not aware. 

Mark describes Hans Zimmer as "the current blockbuster composer of the day" with over 200 films in over 40m years and two Oscars. He also presents live shows. We hear all about all the big movies that he scored and his work with Christopher Nolan. The stories about Hannibal and Dune are amazing. I had not heard of the next composer Shirley Walker or why she "held the record for composing more original scores for major studio features than any other woman". She scored many super hero movies and three Final Destination films. Next is Rachel Portman whose score for Emma (1997) won the Oscar. Her work includes radio and TV s well as films like The Cider House Rules and Chocolat which was also Oscar nominated. 

Mark says that Enrico Morricone being prolific is not the word with over 500 film and TV scores. I'm just not sure Mark's listin of so many does the book any favours. I wanted more about the person or some anecdotes. Like the fact that he didn't win an Oscar until 2016 for Taratino's The Hateful Eight. Lists again for A R Rahman, his Oscar and nominations. Icelamdic composer Johann Johansson gets a mention for Arrival and Hildur Guonadottir for Joker.

Soundtrack Selection - Drive My Car (2021)

Drive My Car is a wonderful film, and saved on my TV recordings. Ryusuke Hamaguchi's film was the first Japanese film to be nominated for a best picture Oscar. (Should have won). It did win best International Feature and nominations for best doirector and best adapted screenplay. Mark tells us this was his favourite score for that year composed by Eiko Ishibashi and is now a favourite album. But he calls it a strange film (I don't know why, its perfect). Mark describes the instruments the composer used that "feels like scenery" just as the director wanted. (Eiko's favourite film composer is John Barry, as he is mine. So why is he hardly mentioned in the book!) Where is his score for Out of Africa not mentioned. Just because it is too popular does not mean it's great and so much better than lots of movies that are mentioned. And Mark, it won the Oscar! Anyway, Mark completes this part with "it defies clinical assessment" and "the music is the movie". How can he be so wrong.

Chapter 5   The Long and Winding Road

From Compostion to Orchestration (and occasionally rejection)

This section starts with Elmer Bernstien who scored more than 150 films. Why must Mark just list so many. Better is stuff about composers and their own techniques for the process, Some might go into the studio with just the story, others with the full screenplay. All sorts of differnet ways. Isabel Waller-Bridge wants to see the picture with all it's visuals. Michel Jarr researched everything about Laurence of Arabia before starting on his score. We hear lost od anecdotes about ridiculous deadlines for the music. And even a composer's score being ditched completely for someone new. There are instances when a film and it's score have been fully completed, only for the studio to cancel it's distribution. 

There is a great part about Abbey Road Studios. Who and what was recorded there. John Barrett, the studio engineer there, tells us about everything that goes into a recording session. From the musicians to instruments, orchestrators music editors and lots more. In the booth there might be producers and others connected to the film, all wanting their say. There is a huge amount here about the ways the soundtrack ncan be recorded, lots of anecdotes and technical stuff. Really amazing what goes on. All very interesting. Mark end this part with "watching an orchestra play note perfect a piece they are rfeading for the very first time always seems like an extraordinary magic trick". But that's what they do. 

Soundtrack Selection - Brazil (1985)

Is "Terry Gilliam's dystopian masterpiece" going toom far? Mark goes to the "devasating ending" which includes  Michael Kamen's Bachianos Brazil Samba. The composer remembers one time when he thought he was being ditched for another composer. But Gilliam stuck by him. The whole soundtrack is worked around that piece. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, this was the first their after it's major upgrade. For Mark, we have to "abandon reality and let our musical thoughts take flight". Well, I have not seen this film for a long time so I cannot comment. Maybe do some research.

Kingfisher at the Canal

I had just started on my way back home, walking down the Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal, when I saw a flash of blue in the trees. I only had my phone with me that has a very poor camera. But both these photos do have a speck of blue if you look hard enough. A beautiful kingfisher.

As I walked down the canal path, the bird flew from tree to tree just ahead. And I followed just behind. I stopped when the kingfisher stopped. Once near the end of this section of the canal path, a lady coming towards me from the opposite direction also stopped when I pointed out the bird, for which she was delighted. I just wish I had my camera.

 

28 Years Later : The Bone Temple, Hamnet and Mercy

 

I only went to see 28 Years Later : The Bone Temple as I had seen the previous three. See my posts of 20th June 2025 (28 Days Later), 4th June 2007 (28 Weeks Later) and 15th July 2025 (28 Years Later). The only good thing about the latest movie is Ralph Fiennes reprising his role from the previous film. This time a violent mob has been parachuted in from A Clockwork Orange but far less interesting. Actually, the second half is far better than the awful first with all it's gratuitous violnce. Surprisingly, we see little of the undead in this version. The ending is pretty spectacular as the ghastly leader of the mob gets his just deserts in the worst way imaginable. But I wish I hadn't bothered.

Let me start by saying the book by Maggie O'Farrell is a wonder. Less so is it's adaptation to a play at the RSC Stratford and here a similar disapointment. So much of the book is fabulous prose that is so hard to capture in a film. Director Chloe Zhao may have been selected after her superb Nomadland, but here she seems to have plumped for a kind of art house film. Visions of a tree at the very beginning is always a give away. A pastoral saga? Maybe I know the story too well, but the family drama that takes up most of the movie is not that interesting. Scenes of birth, for example, take up too much time. The film's success relies on the magical and very last act at the Globe Theatre. And although, like Mark Kermode, even though I was not moved to tears with the ending scored by Max Richter's obvious On the nature of daylight, it is still a very clever piece of theatre. The film almost topples those brilliant last dozen pages of the book. 

As for the cast, I must be in a minority thinking that the two Irish actors in the lead roles were right in your face, thinking look at me. There was no subtlety from Jessie Buckley as Agnes nor from Paul Mescal as William. Again except for the ending.  I wanted paired back performances. Fortunately those came from Joe Alwyn as Bartholamew and Emily Watson as the mother. Maybe I loved the book too much. The film itself may have been aimed at a young audience coming to the play for the first time with all that intensity. That's my only reason why it won best picture at the Golden Globes and with all those nominations for an Oscar.  Is this a mainly woman's film? The writer, director and lead actress tells us about falling in love, birthing children, and bringing them up with an absent father. That is ninety percent of the movie. 

The critic's reviews were mainly positive. Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian gave it five stars. Nicolas Rapolo in Sight and Sound magazine describes it as "an immersive account of the desire, grief, love and anger that that course between a woman and her playwright husband". I was more interested, as was someone on mumsnet, with the Echinacea next to where Agnes was working in the garden. Back to thje book, and will always remember meeting Maggie O'Farrell at the Hay Literary Festival where she signed her latest book. 

I was trying to think where I had seen something similar to Mercy. I find that might have been Searching (2018) where similar events are played out on a computer screen. Here it's Chris Pratt (I didn't think he could be this good) locked in a chair and given ninety minutes to give A I  interogator Rebecca Ferguson enough reason to exonerate him from the killing of his wife. Because we are way into the future, every event is held in banks of video that Chris can call on as evidence.

I liked the fact that early on he is full of anger that hinders this process. But of course in all these things, he gradually gets himself together and prove what a great investigator he rerally is. So we have stacks of video filling the screen with huge energy. The story is at first a slow burner that gradually gathers pace with a resulting last act that is fast, derivative, complicated and totally bonkers. But what went before was jolly interesting. It certainly had to be seen in the cinema. 

Mark Kermode's Surround Sound - Part 1

 

Opening Titles - "Just the Music"

Just a note before I start. There is quite a lot to write about from Mark Kermode's Surround Sound. So as I did for Greg Doran's My Shakespeare, I will give each chapter it's own post. Mark starts at the beginning with his early years when he became interested in the music in films. Starting with 2001 and Silent Running. He says that in the latter, Joan Baez had two songs of which Rejoice in the Sun is his favourite movie soundtrack song of all time. So we gather that from a young age, Mark has always loved music in movies. He runs through many of his fvourite soundtracks, too many to mention. 

Mark talks about his five years at Scala Radio and meeting Simon Mayo with whom he still works on their podcast. There is a section on female composers of film scores. One example is Eiko Ishibashi who scored the wonderful Drive my Car (2021). "My favourite soundtrack of that year, and one of the finest of the 21st century" says Mark. 

This first chapter seems to be, as Mark puts it, "a seemingly endless list of composers". As he says "my own personal experience of film music is both scattershot and shambolic". (I would not argue with that given the first sixteen pages of the book). Better is the description of the racks of vinyl records at 58 Dean Street where it was "an education" for all those film soundtracks. (This is well before the internet). He goes on to talk more about his five years with Jenny Nelson at Scala Radio. Jenny presented Classic FM's "Saturday Night at the Movies". 

But Mark's favoured brand of music was .... skiffle. (See posts of 28th February and 28th March 2018). He talks about Neil Brand and his "peerless ability" to perform improvised piano accompanyment for silent cinema, and who had joined Mark's skiffle group (The Dodge Brothers) to play for old movies at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Finland. The band also had a gig at Glasonbury playing to a silent movie.

Chapter 1 - Never Silent

This chapter is all about the days of silent movies and how the musical accompanyment grew to support them. Apparently that in the UK it was the old music halls that began to show these films and already had an established orchestra who could provide the music. There were musical directors who began organising the score to fit each scene. Sometimes the film would arrive with the score written specifically for that performance and others relied on classic choices.

Mark goes on to talk about the first film to have synchronised music in 1927's The Jazz Singer. It's success led to every film having a musical soundtrack. But even today, you can still find old silent movies being shown with live music.

See my post of 27th September 2023 : "The Story of British Cinema" on Sky Arts : "The Pioneer Years".

Soundtrack Selection - "It's a Wonderful Life"

Mark says this is "my favourite Christmas movie". (It's my least favourite.) Skipping the story and background to this oh so familiar film, we get to the composer of the score. Dimitri Tiomkin conducted an eighty piece orchestra and a choir of forty. Born in Russia, Dimitri became the "highest paid film composer in Hollywood". He gained twenty two oscar nominations and won four times. These imncluded The Ballad of High Noon which used to be played regularly on the radio.

Chapter 2 - "How did we get here?"

Part 1: From Korngold to Williams

Erich Wolfgang Korngold was an Austrian composer. There is an early mention of his score for the 1968 film Karakatoa, East of Java. (Full movie on YouTube). Mark goes on to list all the films he scored. Did he create the symphonic film score? I was amazed that his first two films won the oscar for best music. Although it was the studio's head of department who received the trophy. He had to wait until 1939 to win an oscar under his own name for The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Doreen Carwithen was the world's first female film composer. In 1941 she won the Aylesbury Music Scholarship. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music and went on to write the scores for over thirty films as well as other music. Mark tells us there was a "depth and complexityto her music as well as a spirited tunefullness". (See Men of Sherwood Forest (1954). There is in her honour, the Carwithen Music Festival at Haddenham in Buckinghamshire every July at St Mary's Church. There is a plaque at No 8 High Street where she was born. 

A long section follows about Usha Khanna and Bollywood in general. There is, of course, a part about A R Rhaman (Slumdog Millionaire). Then here comes Bernard Herrman who composed the music for over two hundred movies! A few are described here. Then on to John Williams and his fifty year collaboration with Stephen Spielberg. Mark is in awe of this peerless composer. Obviously, there is much more to come on these later in the book. 

Soundtrack Selection - Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Mark thinks that this film is "not universally one of his best". (I think it's one you can see time and again, don't know why). There is a lot of familiar background to the film before we get to the score by Jocelyn Pook. This British viola player toured with The Communards for many years.There is an interesting background to how and why director Stanley Kubrick found her. Mark explains how some of the music was composed and recorded before some scenes were shot so it could be played at the same time. Twenty five minutes of her score made it to the final film. Jocelyn talks about how she felt "out of her depth" and only knew for sure that her music was used was when she saw the final finished film. Mark concludes "It's a credit to Pook's genius that, whether one loves or hates Eyes Wide Shut, it is impossible to imagine the film without her music. It really is the very best thing about Kubrick's flawed swansong. Without it, the movie would simply fall apart".

Movies at Home: North by Northwest, Pixie and The Eternal Daughter

 

Despite seeing numerous extracts from North by Northwest, I don't think I had ever seen the full movie. This Alfred Hitchcock classic from 1959 did not disappoint. When David Thomson in his book Have You Seen ..... talks about the director's film Vertigo that he loves to death, but then now "realised, for the first time, that North by Northwest is better". I have to agree. Here "fears are rendered as comedy". The all star cast are superb, as is Bernard Herman's score.

Olivia Cooke is excellent as Pixie in this comedy thriller set in the west of Ireland. She is the stepdaughter of a small time gangster and teams up with a couple of useless young men when a bag of loot falls into their laps. Pixie is attractive and cunning in a film that is described as "Father Ted meets Tarantino". Yes, there is violence and the shoot out is straight from one of the latter's movies.

The real gangster is Father Hector played by Alec Baldwin as a rogue criminal with a gang of hoodlums. Directed with gusto by Barnaby Thomson and quite well written by his son Preston, Thank goodness for something original and witty. 

The Eternal Daughter is the first film I have seen by writer/director Joanna Hogg. (Her two films called The Souvenier are on BBC iPlayer). Tilda Swinton plays both filmaker Julie and her mother Rosalind who arrive at this isolated hotel in the dead of night. Rosalind remembers it as a mansion where she stayed as a young woman. But not everything seems right. Are there any other guests or is this all in someone's imagination. There seems to be just the receptionist, but who does the cooking? 

The film is very slow, but somehow has its' moments. When the mother and daughter talk it is much more interesting. The mother can be a little fractious and the daughter seems on edge. But the scenes with the two are fine. Julie is here to write her next film, but hardly gets a word down on her laptop. There are strange noises in the night that gets her out of bed.  Is this a kind of ghost story? The ending tells us all.

Oscar and Bafta nominations for Sentimental Value

 

My film of the year Sentimental Value earned nine nominations for a 2026 Oscar, (only two foreign language films gained more, ten for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Roma (2018),) and it should have been more. Here they are:

Best Picture
Best International Feature Film
Best Director
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Renate Reinsve
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Stellan Skarsgård
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Elle Fanning
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas
Best Writing (Original Screenplay)
Best Film Editing

How can a film earn nominations in all four acting categories and not earn a nomination for best casting beats me. There were also eight nominations for this film at the Baftas.

The film that beat it to the Palme d'Or at Cannes, It was just an accident only gained three Oscar nominations and just one for the Baftas.

Killing Time, Love, etc and The Life Impossible

 

Only 103 pages that could have been condensed to half that. But full of marvelous Alan Bennett wit. It all takes place at Hill Topp (two p's is important) House where elderly residents occupy a retirement home. It was probably a superior mansion in it's early days, but now showing it's age. Those residents are easily spotted by their Christian names: Audrey, Margaret (both names of my aunts), Elizabeth, Violet and Phyllis. The men are mostly referred to by their surnames.

It's when Violet (Mrs Vokes) dies that there is an outing to the crematorium that is strangely one of the funniest parts. It was Woodroof who, typically, had convinced Canon Lumley that he should be the one to press the button to send the coffin through the curtains. "Nor could he be prevented from pressing the one adjacent, which fetched it back before Canon Lumley ("It's not a toy") regained control of the proceedings and sent Mrs Vokes to her final rest".

When they had left, it was one of the management who said "Pensioners. They think they own the place". Don't we? It's when covid breaks out that things change dramatically. With Mrs McBride (the boss) and Zulema (who does everything else) both in hospital that things obviously go wrong. An excellent story despite it's brief length.

"Love, etc" is the sequel to "Talking it Over". At the end of my review of the latter I said: "It's when Oliver realises that he's in love with Gillian that the book takes a massive turn. The author cleverly describes his inner turmoil. For me, I loved the first half (of the book), but the second became a bit of a soap opera. Although the writing is top drawer as usual."

Once again we have joint narrators, mainly Stuart, Oliver and Gillian. They speak to us as if we were more than casual acquaintances. Ten years have passed since we last heard from them, Oliver and Gillian are now married and have two daughters. Stuart moved to America after his divorce to Gillian, where he met and married Terri but that did not last. Back home (after a successful business in the States) he becomes involved with the married couple.

Oliver has become even more verbose than he was last time: "If not quite so Olympian or Confucian a view, then at least have some perspective, some shading, some audacious juxtaposition of pigment, OK?". (Is this just the author showing off? Once I nearly threw the book across the room). Better are those parts that involve Ellie, an assistant to Gillian's business, who cannot understand why her boss puts up with her husband. (Oliver is typically a waster, still boring us to death: "At first I took it to be an ocular disturbance possibly occasioned by a gourmandising attitude to the dothiepin".)

However, I did like the ever growing relationship between Stuart and Gillian and her children, but as in these situations, nothing is resolved. The book is suddenly over, as if the author had many more chapters but ripped them up and let us decide where they go from here. Or another book?

Grace Winters is seventy two and telling her story to Maurice. It's his letter to her at the beginning that reminds her of his mother who has recently died. Grace has been left a villa on the island of Ibiza by Christina, a friend she hardly knew. It's a bit run down, small, on a busyroad and miles from anywhere. Christina has left her a letter describing all the places Grace shoulod visit. But is Christina actually dead, they never found a body.

She meets the elderly Alberto as the letter recomends and agrees to a midnight boat ride and to go diving. "Grappling into a wetsuit, by the way, is one of the all time challenges in life. It requires the strength of an ox and the limbs of a contornionist". (Don't I know - not easy in your sixties or seventies). It's the dive that changes everything for Grace and that is where the fantasy aspects of the novel start. The lights deep in the ocean, special powers, lots of introspection and philosophy. And that is where I nearly gace up. I am just not a fan of fantasy. Add in someone truly awful who has terrible plans for the island, and a fight is on the save the heritage of Ibiza. It was only because it is so well written that I made it to the end.

The Garden in January

 

Today was the first time since the very beginning of December that I ventured out into the garden. It was a nice bright and sunny day although it was pretty chilly. The bulbs in the bedding border are already in bud.

Apart from gathering all the twigs that I had piled up in the borders, the main job today was pruning the roses. I tried to cut them into a vase shape as recommended. Here are some below.

Some of the winter flowering shrubs look good.

This year I planted wallflowers instead of bulbs. Not great at the moment but will see in the spring.

I topped up the compost in a pot of iris. Those in the borders also look fine.

Some nice snowdrops.

I removed all the Asters from the border under the living room window that had struggled to flower last year. A nice space for something new in what looks like some decent soil between the Echinacea and the rose Blue for You.

Song Sung Blue, The Housemaid and Fackham Hall

 

Based on the real life Neil Diamond tribute act Lightning and Thunder, Song Sung Blue is saved by a great performance from Kate Hudson as Claire. She deserved being nominated for best actress at the Golden Globes. I remeber her vividly from the 2000 film Almost Famous so that was twenty five years ago! But Hugh Jackman is as wooden as ever, only there because he can actually sing. As he did in The Greatest Showman. The script of this latest film was also pretty poor, so I was glad we had so  many Neil Diamond songs to enjoy. And I did. Not forgetting a couple of barnstorming numbers from a Buddy Holly act.

The problem with a true story is that it can be sometimes quite boring. Here we have a recovering alchoholic, single parents and a horrific motor accident that so badly injured Claire. All too true. Why could we not just have had a fictional story about a tribute act. This film is written, co-produced and directed by Craig Brewer and based on the 2008 documentary by Greg Kohs. What was surprising were the performances from the two daughters, Ella Anderson and King Princess. Somehow their engaging personalities came over really well. especially when they first meet and discuss their similar backgrounds. There are also some other good supporting roles. 

As for the critics, the LA Times said "You wont see a movie with better music or worse dialogue ...... (but) bizarrely charming". Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian called it an "undeniably entertaining true life story" and Tome Shone in the Sunday Times "it just shows reality is a poor screenwriter".

The Housemaid was basically a three hander, so quite theatrical in that it was mostly dialogue, Lots of twists and turns along the way as in all these types of movies. It reminded me of those 70's and 80's thrillers such as Fatal Attraction or Jagged Edge. I thought Amanda Siegfried was great as the wife Nina who has her ups and downs. Sydney Sweeney as Millie is not the greatest actress but seems to get a lot of exposure. Brabdon Sklenar as the husband Andrew Winchester was always creepy.

So just the one set , that large mansion in Long Island. Directed by Paul Feig and adapted from Freida McFadden's 2022 bestseller by Rebecca Sonnenshire. There is little plausability to the plot, but this "pulpy thriller" doesn't care. Surprisingly Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian gave it four stars and called it "outrageously enjoyable". Wendy Ide said it was  "plausable and preposterous". I thought it was clever when during the first part of the film you wondered for a long time who these people were. Only later to have all their back story. Not really my kind of movie, but fun in it's way. 

Fackham Hall is a comedy Downton Abbey. I thought there was far too much swearing (although perhaps there wasn't). Co-written by director Jim O'Hanlon (he should stick to the latter) and Jimmy Carr. The screenplay was packed with innuendo and a real mixed bag. The cast did not seem to buy into the script, except that is for Tomasin McKenzie as Rose Davenport. She's a fine actress who I remember vividly from One Night in Soho as well as JoJo Rabbit and Old. Even Damian Lewis unsuccessfully played it for laughs as her father. Ben Radcliffe played the joint lead as Eric and is not great even though quite personable. He has not done his future prospects any favours. The rest of the cast seemed to be unknowns and it showed. I don't think it warranted a cinematic release, but a British comedy is not to be ignored. Thank goodness for Tomasin. Some of the critics were more impressed, some not. That mixed bad again.

Wake Up, Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery at The Rex Berkhamsted

 

Having enjoyed the first two Knives Out movies, I had to wait until Wake Up, Dead Man arrived for it's one day showing at the Rex, Berkhamsted. As it is a Netflix production, it failed to be shown in either Odeon or Cineworld cinemas, unlike the first two. See posts of 13th December 2019 and 1st December 2022. The latest story revolves around Josh O'Connor as the assistant pastor at the isolated church of Out Lady of Perpetual Fortitde. It's the pastor there Josh Brolin who provides the body for a typical locked room mystery. There are, as in all these things, an all star cast, any one of whom could or could not be the murderer. 

This, for me, this is so much like an Agatha Christie drama. Substitute private detective Benoit Blanc (played full titlt by Daniel Craig) for any Poirot or Miss Marple story. Christie paved the way for all those detective dramas with multiple suspects. But now, most of these were made for TV, so this felt different on the big screen. For once I'm going to avoid going through the whole cast, only to say that Andrew Scott was hilarious as a fauiling writer. I found the plot was a little convoluted and the explanation was done in a flash. But this is a terrific black comedy and I did laugh a lot. There is an excellent script and sharp and clever dialogue from writer and director Rian Johnson. As Mark Kermode said in his glowing review, no-one else is making these kind of films any more.

The Weston Turville Wassail

It was on Sunday afternoon that my usual route through Weston Turville Allotments was blocked by a large gathering of people and cars. It was only after I edged my way through on the public footpath that I found a man and his dog to ask about the event. 

The Weston Turville Wassail is a popular annual village tradition celebrating the the comimg apple harvest. Dancing with music provided by Cracklewick Morris (see their facebook page). Who would have thought.

Cygnets at Weston Turville Resrvoir

 

It's not often that I can get a close up picture of the cygnets, but at the weekend they were touring the reservoir. The bright sunshine meant there were nice shadows on the water.

Two of them stayed at the far end, dipping their heads in the water.

Coming into the last week in January, and I could only see three cygnets along with their parents as the photo below. This has been the same on my last two visits. Should I be concerned?

27th January

The general view is that the parents chase off their brood before they mate again. That must be why today there is just one lonely cygnet left. 

28th January

No sign of the last cygnet. Hope they are all OK. Maybe some more next year. These were the parents today.

Movies at Home - The Railway Children, The Undertaker and Sabrina

 

Here is a classic family drama from 1970. The Railway Children is based on the book by E Nesbitt and directed by Lionel Jeffries. The background to the film can be found on my post of 24th November 2025: Classic Movies on Sky Arts - Series 4 Episode 5 - The Story of the Railway Children. There is not much else to say except it is all told from the children's point of view, with our narrator being the eldest child played by Jenny Agutter. (Who I met at The Globe theatre). It was nice when at the beginning and it's Christmas, Peter gets a train for a present. I remember my own clockwork O gauge train set. 

I liked the contrast between their rich London life and the much more basic, but actually happier time in the country. The film includes all those great character actors and the exterior shots are so clear and bright. It certainly is a classic.

The Undertaker stars Paul McGann at his very best. The role suited him so well. A quiet morose bachelor, Arthur is meticulous in his work, having to cope on his own after his partner died. The film was released in 2023, but it looks like something from the sixties. It is set in Northern England sometime in that same decade. Most of the colour has been drained from the print. Nearly all of the film takes place in the shop where who should turn up but gangster Finlay Unsworth. He is played by Roger Barclay in one of the biggest casting errors I have ever seen. He would not have scared a young child. And his acting was awful. Maybe there as he was on of the producers. Fortunately there is the marvelous Tara Fitzgerald as the new assistant. She despairs when her boss agrees to arrange burials for Unsworth. And things spiral out of control. But the writing and direction by Michael Wright was top class.

The film reminded me of a similar story from the 2022 film called The Outfit that starred Mark Rylance who runs a tailor shop in Chicago. See my post 3rd March 2025.

The 1953 movie Sabrina is a Billy Wilder classic. Although I had never heard about it before it arrived on the BBC. A very clever comedy, it has an all star cast with Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and William Holden. Adapted from the stage play Sabrina's Fair by Samuel Taylor. There is not a lot of plot, it relies on the witty script to tell the story of the Larrabee brothers from a wealthy Long Island family and their chauffer's daughter Sabrina played by Hepburn. She is madly in love with David, the playboy of the two brothers who ignores her. Humphrey Bogart's Linus is only interested in the family business.

When Sabrina returns from two years at a finishing school in Paris, she is all grown up and suddenly the object of David's affection, although he is due to be soon married. This was all fine and quite enjoyable until the second half became quite tedious. Sabrina's relationship with Linus did not work at all. Bogart was far too old and grumpy for this role. He was obviously there for the name but was totally miscast. It need a Cary Grant type for Sabrina to change her affections. 

Some of the reviews were more positive: "fast paced, witty and engaging", "lightweight and frothy". Yes, the script was great, and I really liked Sabrina's father, the chauffer, played by John Williams, and some terrific tiny performances. The black and white cinematography by Charles Lang looked great and the dialogue first class.

My Shakespeare by Greg Doran - Parts 34 to 36

 

This is the last of the twelve posts on Greg Doran's marvelous book My Shakespeare - A Director's Journey through the First Folio. Not just a memoir but also remarkable insights into the process of staging these plays at the various theatres in Stratford. These are the final three.

34   Henry V1 Part Three (Wars of the Roses)

- 2022: Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.

- Broadcast to cinemas and released on DVD

In Greg's diary of 23rd April 2022: "Yesterday, I announced that I was stepping down as Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company after a decade in the job, and thirty five years after joining the company as an actor. This morning I scattered Tony's ashes in the Avon". There follows a long and poignant piece from his diary for that day.

This was the first mention of Tony's death and explains why there was the gap from June 2021 to April 2022 as mentioned before in Part 33. Greg had not directed these last two plays and that is why we only have two pages. But he's glad that they went so well under his watch. Mark Lawson in the Guardian gave the production five stars. In fact Erica Whyman had been Acting Artistic Director since Greg had taken compassionate leave to look after Tony. 

30th December 2000 - The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

35   Richard 111

- 2022: Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.

- Recorded live, broadcast to cinemas and released on DVD.

Greg is back in the director's chair and this will be his last play as Artistic Director. Arthur Hughes is the RSC's first disabled actor to play Richard. Greg shows him a cabin trunk where Tony kept everything including scripts of all his performances including that for Richard 111. We hear so many interesting facts about RSC productions of this play over the years. Such as when actor manager Frank Benson in 1911 made the first silent film of Richard 111 in what is now the Swan theatre. 

Greg reads Tyrant by Stephen Greenblatt that contains veiled refences to Trump and Putin. (See my review of the same book on this blog or on Goodreads). Then when the play was performed by the National Theatre of Budapest, how it had to close because of the audience's loud and long acclaim at the end; to the despair of the government.

Greg tells us that this is the longest play in the canon and that it is always cut. Greg takes out thirty percent which he hopes will come in just over two and a half hours. He describes in detail the scene that involves Arthur Hughes as Richard and Rosie Sheehy as Lady Anne (played with "ferocious fragility". And then on to other scenes described in depth and how they are worked through in rehearsal. They include when Richard is meeting Queen Elizabeth because he wants to marry her daughter, But she marries her off to Richmond instead.

Next up it's Richmond preparing for the Battle of Bosworth against the army of Richard. Greg is worried that they were in danger of over running the already long production. When he gathers the cast together before press night, he shows them a photo of himself at thirteen as Lady Anne in the Preston Catholic College production. But it's Tony who is never far away.

Note: I have seen Anthony Sher on stage three times: The Merchant of Venice at the Barbican Theatre on 28th May 1988 (see post of 21st August 2015, Greg Doran is Soliano), Travelling Light - a National Theatre production at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre (see post 30th March 2012 - gone are the days of decent plays here), and Death of a Salesman at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (see post of 4th May 2015). 

24th May 2001 - The Young Vic, London

36  Cymbeline: An Epilogue

Greg remembers when he was assistant director for Bill Alexander's 1989 RSC production that starred Harriet Walter and Nicholas Farrell at Stratford's The Other Place. And how it was so successful that it transferred from that tiny theatre to the main stage. 

Greg talks about handing over to the next Artistic Director and becoming the Artistic Director Emeritus. He leaves with some nice quotations from Washington Irving's visit to Stratford in 1815. We all have our own memories of that place.

27th July 2016 - The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

Rumpus at the Reservoir

 

Yesterday on my walk past the reservoir, three more swans had arrived. The parents of the five cygnets (now fully grown) were not impressed. There was lots of flying at the newcomers who seemed to be interested in the youngsters. (I found that they do not mate until they are three or four years old and they are not yet past their first birthday.) In the photo above the cygnets are in a group on the left with four swans that include the parents on the right. No idea why they have all dipped their heads underwater. The internet is not much help. 

However, the cygnets were fine and headed for the rushes at this end of the water. It's so nice that the five keep together.

The parents were keeping a look out. It was all quiet when I returned later.

My Shakespeare by Greg Doran - Parts 31 to 33

 

31 The Comedy of Errors: A Lockdown Chapter

- 2020: The two Shakespeare plays in rehearsal when we closed our theatres were The Winter's Tale and The Comedy of Errors.

It's March 2020 !!! Greg tells us what happened to the company through lockdown. The theatres in Stratford had not closed since 1879. Stayed open all through the Great War and only for a month during the Second World War. Even when the main theatre closed for it's major refurbishment,  The Other Place came into it's own. Or when it burned down in 1926 and plays were performed in an old cinema. 

Greg describes what other forms of communication took place including three series of twenty online interviews called "Talking Shakespeare". (See YouTube). He includes an extract from his diary as he tours the empty spaces of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The on 12th July 2021, (luckily "a balmy sunny evening") the company re-opened in the Swan Gardens next to the river with a live audience. They performed The Comedy of Errors that had been put on hold. 

Unfortunately, nothing about the cast or performance. Except Mark Lawson's five star review.

32  Henry V1, Part One

- 2021: Open rehearsal project.

- Filmed and broadcast live, and available on DVD.

"On Wednesday 23rd June 2021, in a first for the RSC, we live streamed an open rehearsal ..... of Henry V1, Part One". This is to be held in the Ashcroft Room that sits above the Swan Theatre. (See extracts on YouTube). We hear all about this space "the most beautiful rehearsal room in the world". Named after Dame Peggy Ashcroft.

What follows are Greg's meticulous entries in his diary such as:

Monday 31st May 2021: The company gather for the first time, including the video unit. First

Tuesday 1st June 2021: First live streaming with the actors in a circle reading their lines.

Wednesday 2nd June 2021: The first main rehearsal starts at the beginning. The floor is marked out for social distancing. There is an amazing piece about how two actors having to shake hands and having to sanitise before and after. 

And so on. A reception for the new costume workshop reminded me of a Behind the Scenes Tour that I described in my post of 29th July 2016. 

It was Tony's birthday on Monday 12th June and on the previous Saturday before they celebrate with soft boiled eggs. A long description about the best way to make them. But it's on the Monday Greg tests positive for Covid. Only to be followed by Tony's diagnosis of liver cancer on the Wednesday. 

Back to the production that has been exceptional and a big success. Greg goes to see Catherine Mallyon who has long been Executive Director of the RSC to tell her about Tony. 

33 Henry V1, Part Two (Henry V1: Rebellion)

-2022: The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.

- Broadcast live to cinemas and released on DVD.

It's significant that there is nothing in the book between June 2021 and April 2022. We can guess why. Too hard for Greg to write. Even this chapter is the shortest in the book of just five pages. Greg has to decide how to deal with the largest cast in the cannon, sixty plus characters. He sees the play as a series of pageants. The first is to be undertaken by the RSC's Next Generation group. These are young people from low income families. Oscar is sixteen and in awe of Greg's hair and wonders who does it. The reply is Sandra Smith who is head of wigs and make up and has cut it for the last thirty five years. 

Next we are told about Shakespeare Nation that is a community project with seventy four adults in six teams. Finally there are nine drama graduates and who they are. For the first time in it's history, the RSC has one hundred and twenty one actors: professional, amateur and young. At last we get a run down of the play itself. Again, there are bits on YouTube.

Swan Lake at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre

Alison found some late extraordinarily cheap tickets for Mergaliyev Classical Ballet's one night of Swan Lake. It meant that we were not seated together, but that was probably why. There was also a live orchestra which was why I decided to go. Now this is not to say that the performance and music were the best. But there was still so much to appreciate from this little known organisation.

By far my favourite part was when the sixteen swans glided across the stage. Not the twenty four we saw with English National Ballet at Milton Keynes, or the sixty with the same company at The Royal Albert Hall. But they were excellent, especially when, as I had not seen before, they gathered to dance in a close knit group.

Maybe the soloists cannot compare with those other companies (we saw Darcy Bussell with the Royal Ballet twice) and I feel that the middle section of individual demonstrations was the weakest. The orchestra seemed a little unfamiliar with the score, although there were times when loudness was called for, that they were far better. 

I was surprised that the theatre was packed, but for a provincial performance, this was fine. And we had a live orchestra, which I believe even Mathew Bourne does now on tour after that awful night of recorded music for his  Red Shoes in 2017.