Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema

BBC Four are running a series of Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema. The episodes so far are as follows:

The Rom-Com, The Heist, Coming of Age, Science Fiction, Horror, Oscar Winners, Superheroes, British History Movies, Spies, British Comedy, Pop Music Movies

All have been worth watching, but it is the latest episode that I thought was the best.

POP MUSIC MOVIES

The title sequence at the beginning included such 1950's classics as Blackboard Jungle (Cliff Richard)  Rock Around the Clock (Bill Hayley) and The Girl Can't Help It  and Twenty Flight Rock by Eddie Cochran, These were so popular with the youth of the day mainly because the cinema sound was far louder than hearing songs on the radio or record player. Going back in time, we heard Bessie Smith in 1929's St Louis Blues and Bing Crosby in Holiday Inn. 

 The Pop Star Vehicle

In this segment, Mark looked at such films as A Hard Day's Night (screenplay by Alan Owen, our old neighbour) as a vehicle for The Beatles first film. He compared this fun movie with Elvis in the wooden Viva Las Vegas, and more of his films such as Love Me Tender. 

Pop Biopics

There are a number to choose from, all the way from The Tommy Steele Story, Cliff in Espresso Bongo to Elton John's Rocketman.  They included Sid and Nancy, What's Love Got To Do With It and even Slade in Flame. But (having seen this programme again in June 2023) the best segment was about that superb film Love and Mercy where two actors play Brian Wilson. It is where they show the making of the music that is so superior.

The Rockumentary

Don't Look Back was the D A Pennebaker documentary on Bob Dylan's British tour of 1965. Gimme Shelter was that extraordinary film of The Rolling Stones 1969 US tour that finished at the Altamont Free Concert with all the violence and killing that took place. This Is Spinal Tap is one of Mark's favourite movies (definitely not mine) and although fictional, just had to be included. We see The Band's last gig in The Last Waltz and Anvil, The Story of Anvil. That I have never even heard of and will not rush to track it down. 

Finally the very sad Amy.

When Pop Stars Act

A Star Is Born was traced from Kris Kristopherson and Barbra Streisand to Lada Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Then Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard and Performance with Mick Jagger. There were a few of David Bowie's films discussed but the less said the better. (I preferred his song Cat People in Inglorious Basterds). 

Hits, Misses and Misfits

A very strange section. The Harder They Come is a Jamaican movie with singer Jimmy Cliff. Odd, but the rest were even weirder.

Here Comes The Future

A few word about pop songs in mainstream movies but ignoring such classic modern films such as Baby Driver. I could have suggested a lot more.

The  last in the series so far is:

CULT MOVIES

So Good It's Bad

It was Mark's choice of Cult Movies that made this episode interesting, not that I would ever watch any of them. How can a shoddy low budget movie by Ed Wood be a "watchable failure"? Well, Tim Burton made a biopic of the director with Johnny Depp. Ed Wood's Planet 9 - From Outer Space Mark called "oddly compelling"??? But he also mentions big budget failures such as Howard the Duck and Hudson Hawk. 

Weird World Cinema

Mark told us there were some "genuine masterpieces" among these, such as Federico Fellini's 1953 I Vitelloni. Then we were on to the French New Wave films and European "masterpieces" (my word not Mark's) such as The Seventh Seal, Breathless and Daisies. What was fascinating was a piece about Alexandro Jodorowsky's unmade Dune that had a fourteen hour running time! There is a documentary on it's failure. However some stills must have inspired Alien.

Cult Cult Movies

I really didn't want to know about experimental film maker Kenneth Anger and not sure why in this category came The Wicker Man, Midsommar, Suspiria, and Rosemary's Baby, all mainstream movies. But Mark particularly liked the black and white film The Seventh Victim and how one scene must have inspired the shower murder in Psycho. 

Shockers

There were tiny clips from lots and lots of scary movies. Nosferatu was called "the most influential horror of it's era". Mark was interested in all those films that were banned. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was described as the first slasher movie. Next we were treated to what were called Video Nasties. Again there were mainstream movies that fell into the category of shockers such as David Cronenberg's Scanners, Videodrome, and Crash that apparently still banned by Westminster City Council. I'm not sure why Mark didn't mention  Cronenberg's eXistenZ, a cult movie if there was one, especially if it's only me who likes it.

Cult of Camp

Not sure that many of these fell into this category. Joan Crawford winning the Oscar for best actress in Mildred Pierce. Then What Ever Happened To Baby Jane, Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar. I will quickly move on, ignoring Andy Warhol and John Waters.

Taboo Breakers

Mark introduced this segment with the words "Just how far can you go". The controversial casting of Freaks, Kubrick on the edge with A Clockwork Orange but why the mainstream Women in Love? Just the naked male wrestling? Ken Russell's Devils was apparently restored to it's uncut version for some limited viewings before it was withdrawn by Warners. But then La Grande Bouffe is definitely a real cult movie, not that I would ever want to watch it.

Future Cults

Mark said it was audiences not film makers who decide what is a cult movie. He does mention Blade Runner 2049 that lost a packet, although I liked it, Sorry To Bother You (not for me) and Parasite even though it won best picture. I would love to see that again on the big screen. 

COMING OF AGE MOVIES

The Soundtrack of Our Lives

This was part 4 of  Coming Of Age Movies and Mark told us how music plays such a big part in growing up. It included the following songs, although the clips were far too short:

From the film "Stand By Me" - Lollipop by The Chordettes. I knew the song so well from 1958,  but I had not known this was the artist.  

"The Blackboard Jungle" featured Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley and His Comets released in 1954. My uncles had the LP when we visited my grandmother in the summer holidays.

The clip from "Saturday Night Fever" showed a very young John Travolta dancing to The Bee Gees' Night Fever. They should have shown the full song, I didn't realise how amazing it was until I found the scene from the movie on YouTube: Bee Gees - Night Fever (John Travolta) [HD].

"American Graffiti" included a couple of songs: Surfin' Safari by The Beach Boys and Runaway by Dell Shannon. That 1961song played  regularly to my sixteen year old self.

Mark selected The Who's 1965 single Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere from the film Quadrophenia.

It was at  the very beginning of "Donny Darko" that Killing Moon by Echo and The Bunnymen plays. Also on YouTube.

The film "Moonlight" was represented by Hello Stranger by Barbara Lewis from 1963. It was shown alongside "American Graffiti's" Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by The Platters in 1959. Why do I  remember more their Only You (And You Alone). I have now ordered a DVD of the movie.

Not in this section, but two more songs were in this programme:

American Honey (from the film of the same name) by Lady Antebellum (the scene in the van).

Tiny Dancer by Elton John, on the bus from the film "Almost Famous"   ("I have to go home" ...."You are home").

Thanks to Mark Kermode for these choices, and for YouTube for the extended clips. Mark talks about the jukebox in Moonlight and it reminded me of the jukebox in the coffee bar (before they were called cafe's) in Braintree. Especially after delivering the Royal Mail's Christmas post in 1961, (we were let off school) listening to pre-Beatles records from Cliff, The Shadows, Bobby Vee and of course Lonnie Donegan: Have A Drink On Me and Seven Daffodils. These two songs have NOT stood the test of time!

HORROR

This was a repeat of the episode on Horror movies that I cannot remember from before.

The Long Journey

Mark explained now a horror movie can start with something as normal as a road trip. We saw clips from The Shining, Psycho, and even Angel Heart. As Mark put it ; "from a safe world to that which is unnerving". 

The Ominous Atmosphere

These are the warning signs of what might be coming. Friday 13th, Get Out (brilliant) Carnival of Souls and others that I could not watch such as Suspiria. 

The Scary Place

You just know they shouldn't be there, as in Don't and The Haunting.

Sound

We hear how sound has a big part to play in horror movies. This time we see how in Eraserhead and The Orphanage.

The Jump Scare

These are the worst for me. Avoid all these movies at all costs: Cat People, The Exorcist (Parts 1, 2 and 3), and Psycho. However, I can still watch An American Werewolf in Paris .... just.

The Monster

From Dracula to Lon Chaney and Freddie Kruger. We see the amazing body transformation from The Howling (loved that film) and a section on scary clowns. No!

The Savant

Or a sort of saviour, but not quite. The medium in Poltergeist and Van Helsing in Dracula.

The Chase

Excerpts for Night of the Living Dead and the great It Follows.

The Final Girl

 Lots of clips here from Friday 13th (again), the less obvious Red Riding Hood, Nosferatu, and typically Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween. Then in Alice Lowe's  Prevenge, it is the unborn baby who tells he to kill.

The Exorcism

Usually the defeat of the monster(s). But why The Wicker Man? Then the enduring "unresolved open ending". 

This was probably Mark Kermode's favourite genre and he was on top form for this episode.