Wendover Brook at Weston Turville Reservoir

 

On my village walk yesterday, I came back on the path from Halton that ends at Weston Turville Reservoir.  It had been extremely muddy, but the last couple of rain free weeks meant it was quite dry. I soon met six men from the Environment Agency's Contractors who were clearing the huge amount of growth along the banks of the Wendover Brook stream. They have yet to start clearing the bed. The following photo is at the entrance to the reservoir. 

Wendover Brook is a tributary of Bear Brook which itself joins the River Thame north of Aylesbury.

There is another map that better defines where Wendover Brook (that passes by Weston Turville) joins Bear Brook.

In the extract below, the section where the photos were taken is the straight route alongside Weston Turville Reservoir.

Who needs Green Thumb?

 

For treating our lawn, I had successfully used Green Thumb over the last thirteen years until their visits became increasingly haphazard. Over the last two years they consistently missed important treatments. Then they increased their prices by 94%. When they cancelled again in June last year, I terminated their services. I had no reply to a number of emails so I knew they were not interested.

So, what to do next. Their winter treatment was to apply a moss killer. I found Pro-Kleen's Iron Sulphate which not only kills the moss, but is a long lasting grass fertilizer. My initials impressions are that it works just fine. And I can use it when I want to, and even apply a repeat treatment in a couple of weeks if I need to. 

Pro-Kleen also do a Lawn Fertilizer to use in the spring and summer. These are granules, probably just like Green Thumb's looking at the contents. But for now, all that bright green moss has gone.

Garden in January 2024

 

A few milder days and the garden is just beginning to wake up from it's dormant winter. Starting with a few snowdrops where there are plenty more to come.

The bulbs in the bedding border are on the way.

The iris look pretty healthy after they were split last hear. Note the rhizomes, which are their roots, on the surface of the soil.

Yesterday I pruned all the roses and have added them here to compare with what they will look like in the summer.

The ones above in the old rose border and below at the edge of the wildflower border.

Next are two of the three in the long border that are being swamped by the forget me nots. 

And lastly the rose "Blue for You" in the side patio.

Under the leylandii there are three bushes next to each other and all have berries and flowers. These are a reminder that they need to be pruned after flowering as they encroach upon the lawn.

Similarly, I need to prune the dwarf crab apple where it overhangs the Weigela. 

The hyacinth are about to flower.

Finally, I wanted to include a photo of the large tree behind the fence at the far end of the garden. It is the tall  Robinia pseudoacacia or Black Locust. This is how it looks today before the leaves arrive. There are many photos of this tree on the net, but none look as asymmetrical or as good as this one.  

Art of Film with Ian Nathan on Sky Arts - Episode 6: The Many Faces of Biopics

 

Ian Nathan presents as usual and he talks to Stephen Wooley, Stephen Armstrong, producer Paul Webster and the film critic Christina Newland. Ian introduces this episode about famous people with telling us how "cinema has helped to make them legends". Mmm. The first part is about royalty on screen and I agreed that the royal houses had provided a great source for films. It starts with the 1934 film The Rise of Catherine the Great. We see a clip from 1937's Victoria the Great and told about other royal films. However we then jump forward to 2021 to see an extract from Spencer which I had avoided.

The next part was about politicians. But we start with 1900's Joan of Arc and 1928's The Passion of Joan of Arc. Again a huge jump forward to 1992 and Spike Lee's Malcolm X. Christina said that this was one of her favourite biopics and it certainly looks impressive. Fast forward to the Triumph and Tragedy section. Scott of the Antarctic from 1948 and then back to 1933's Queen Christina, a powerful Greta Garbo movie. Fast forward to 1980's The Elephant Man.

Lots to talk about in the part about music films. Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn in The Coal Miner's Daughter from 1980, Val Kilmer excelling as Jim Morrison in 1991's The Doors and Sammy Davis Jr as Miles Davis in A Man Called Adam from 1966. The film industry gets their own section at the end. The Magic Box from 1951 has Robert Donat in the audience watching silent movies. But it's Stephen Armstrong who says "Hollywood does love Hollywood and their film makers". We then have a brief look back at British cinema history and Laurence Olivier appears. And the British film A King in New York from 1957 starring Charlie Chaplin before the much better Chaplin in 1992 starring a brilliant Robert Downey Jr in "a superb performance". And finally we see Tommy Lee Jones in 1977's The Amazing Howard Hughes. Stephen Armstrong says the best actors just capture the character rather than doing an impression. How very true.

Tchaikovsky's Wife, Priscilla and Poor Things

 

A strange Russian biopic all about Antonina Tchaikovsky who married the famous composer. She is hardly ever off the screen. The subtitles were fine, but it was the Russian language that was so distracting at first. I was hoping for a lot more of the familiar music but there was hardly any. What I didn't know was that Pyotr Tchaikovsky was gay. And I think nor did his wife. She may have been warned but did not care. Maybe she thought she could change him as many before. He married her for her dowry as always short of money. It was quite interesting, not knowing he was gay and gradually realising the fact. Their photograph together that was staged in the film is straight from her Wikipedia page. So why did she not take the reasonable deal for a divorce when offered? She comes across as wilful, hysterical, bizarre and bonkers, just like the film itself. Tchaikovsky's Wife  tries to portray her growing insanity, especially that last part that is completely unnecessary. It is shot in a gloomy light, very unflattering to Russia. And too long.

There are so many similarities to the previous film though set over a century later. Priscilla is based on her memoir "Elvis and Me". This time it is her age that is unsettling, She is only fourteen when they first meet, so I found the first half quite creepy. One critic points out "We now have the word for the kind of relationship that is unfolding on screen and it's not a pretty one". Like before, the film concentrates on Priscilla, a terrific performance from Cailee Spaeny. We feel for her isolation and loneliness as a young woman without the intelligence to compensate not having any work or hobbies. She is not very bright as her schooling shows, waiting around at Graceland for Elvis to come back from his filming with those older, beautiful co-stars. Why does she not just leave! Married at twenty one, the later scenes are more interesting as she falls pregnant and has a child. Fortunately there is no role for the Colonel, one brief telephone call. Finally at the very end Priscilla does finally leave. She wears a gold colour that Elvis used to hate. In an interview with Lisa Marie Presley she complains that the film made her father look like "a predator and manipulative". Dead right. We never see the older Priscilla, now a business woman and actress. So different to the naïve child at the beginning.

The Elvis estate denied the use of any Elvis song, but we do see him singing "Guitar Man", a song originally written and performed by Jerry Reed. There!

Wow. What an amazing movie. There is no getting away from it, this is a horror story and at it's heart a very creepy one. Up close and very, very personal with Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, the "creation" of Willem Dafoe's horribly disfigured  Doctor Godwin Baxter (or as Bella calls him: God). Yes, Poor Things  has all the hallmarks of a huge twist on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein but one that works brilliantly. Based on the book by Alasdair Gray and adapted by Tony McNamara,  Yorgos Lanthimos has conjured up something highly original. It is stunning to look at, the sets have that strange surreal look of a fantasy land, courtesy of all sorts of visual  techniques of which CGI is only one. The women's costumes are outrageous, whilst the men's seemed oppositely formal. The colour is staggering, I'm glad I watched it one one of Cineworld's biggest screens. 

I have to mention Willem Dafoe's make up, you cannot take your eyes away from the horrible things his father did. I thought this was the best I had ever seen him. Mark Ruffalo's part is not sympathetic for an actor, however he throws himself into the role and succeeds because of that. But it is Emma Stone's performance that is a classic and will surely sweep the boards at award ceremonies. She captures her infant's brain as it develops quickly and surely. Wendy Ide in The Guardian says "Stone's virtuoso use of her body - the way it inhabits the space, the way she gradually masters her gangling, string-like limbs, the guilelessly open play of emotions on her face - is one of the most crucial elements of our experience of Bella's journey". 

The story may not have held up for well over the two hours, but who cares when there is so much to look at. This is where the director shines. All with that experimental score from Jerskin Fendrix. There are things in Wendy Ide's review that I had missed. Maybe a film to see more than once.

Have You Seen ..... by David Thomson Part 10 - The Magnificent Ambersons, Double Indemnity and Chinatown

 

I had never seen Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons and I'm still not sure whether it was a good idea. A 1942 black and white film that now seems quite dated. The scenes of the opening party were very well captured as various characters cut cross the camera. The lighting is exemplary, especially the shadows of the interiors. The camera work by the director is always interesting as it moves around the mansion. The dialogue is sharp and this is a solid period drama. Joseph Cotton is the best of the cast. But is this a case of style over substance? The adaptation of the book may have lost something in the script as it always felt awkward and strained. Maybe that is why it is one of Welles' least successful movies. David Thomson says "There is only one way to start - by saying this might have been the greatest of American pictures". But it was lost in the editing, Welles had disappeared and his version of 132 minutes ended at an 88 minute mess. 

, 

A Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder screenplay of Double Indemnity adapted from the book by James McCain. A stilted Fred MacMurray, a better Barbara Stanwyck and an absolutely marvellous Edward G Robinson. Partially narrated  (poorly) by MacMurray's Walter Neff he is captivated by Stanwyck's femme fatale Phillis Dietrich. So much so he is drawn into her plan to bump off her husband for the insurance money. And what job does Neff have? An insurance salesman!!! So far so implausible.  But Edward G, Walter's boss, works it out at the end, thank goodness. What holds the film together is the sharp dialogue, some of it so fast talking you have to concentrate to keep up. David Thomson in his book says "No-one any longer talks as fast as Stanwyck and MacMurray". Now the pay out is twice as much if the death is an accident. So the plot is fanciful if not stupid. What lets the film down for me is that you can feel absolutely zero sympathy for the two main characters. Phyliss is evil and Walter a fool. Here he is towards the end: "I couldn't hear my own footsteps. It was the walk of a dead man." 

Chinatown has been on my list from David Thomson's "Have You Seen....." for some time, so when it becomes the subject of the first chapter (The Gamble and the Lost Rights) in the same author's book "The Whole Equation", it had to be the next DVD I would watch. This chapter is all about the writer Robert Towne and the how, as was usual in those days, the screenplay became the property of Paramount Pictures when producer Robert Evans purchased it for 25,000 dollars. "Towne created it but Paramount owned it". Towne needed the money. But "the script for Chinatown .... perplexed it's best supporters." Then "scripts are not easily read, and possibly the richer the film, it is harder for outsiders to detect it's quality".

But along comes Roman Polanski, chosen to direct, and he and Towne convert it to a shooting script. But there is one huge difference of opinion, and that is the ending. Polanski wanted it changed to something much darker. "He believed that Evelyn (Faye Dunaway) should die". Towne was horrified and angry. But Evans backed Polanski and this is the crux about who owns the script. Evans and Paramount. David Thomson says "I suspect that Polanski's version is more effective and more successful as a movie". It was actually "an enormous success at the box office ...... nominated for  eleven Oscars and won just one". For Robert Towne and the screenplay. 

Now I have seen the ending, I have to side with Towne. It may have been fine for audiences in the 70's, but to my mind Evelyn should have got away and her shot at the bad Noah Cross would have him dead instead. But we will never see that. Paradoxically, Towne softened towards the ending when he won that Oscar. My guess (different to David Thomson's) is that his words were never really changed. Only the action at the end. 

So what did I think of the movie? It was straight out of the seventies. Wise cracking Jack Nicholson as private eye Jake Gittes, and a beautiful femme fatale in Faye Dunaway's Evelyn. But it's all about Los Angeles and it's thirst for water that leads the wealthy business men (no, crooks) to set up a corrupt scheme to make millions. It's Evelyn's husband who end up dead in a reservoir that leads Gittes getting deeper and deeper into this conspiracy. LA has never looked so great, the light, the colour, the costumes, the sets, the cars, the mansions, it's all there. The story is fine, the dialogue typically of it's time. I'm sure it would have been fabulous to see on a big screen at the time. Now, not so much.

Discovering Romance on Film

 

The series of  "Discovering" films was originally shown on Sky in 2018. A 3DD Production with presenters Ian Nathan, Stephen Armstrong, Neil Norman and Bonnie Greer. They countdown the twenty five best romantic movies.

No 25 The Proposal from 2009. Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds star.

No 24 The Big Sick from 2017. My review sad it was like an oasis in the desert of the cinema in the school holidays. But not enough of Zoe Kazan and too much of writer Kumail Nanjiani.

No 23 Serendipity from 2001. A John Cusack drama.

No 22 As Good as it Gets from 1997. Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt star in a James L Brooks movie.

No 21 La Cage Au Folles from 1978. A Golden Globe winner for best foreign film.

No 20 Sleepless in Seattle from 1993. The Nora Ephron tearjerker with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

No 19 Slumdog Millionaire from 2008. Hurrah! The Danny Boyle Oscar winning movie.

No 18 Pillow Talk from 1959. A classic starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson.

No 17 Breakfast at Tiffany's from 1961. Audrey Hepburn stars. We see her alongside George Peppard who I do not remember.

 No 16 Coming to America from 1988. Eddie Murphy.

No 15 City Lights from 1931. They had to get in a very old silent movie.

No 14 Notting Hill from 1999. Of course. Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts (didn't they look young) in the Richard Curtis classic.

No 13 Clueless from 1995. A modern adaptation of Emma with Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd.

No 12 Roman Holiday from 1953. Audrey Hepburn's breakthrough role alongside Cary Grant.

No 11 His Girl Friday from 1940. Him again, this time alongside Rosalind Russell.

No 10 Groundhog Day from 1993. Bill Murray on top form (has he ever been better?) with Andie MacDowell.

No 9 Jerry Maguire from 1996. Cameron Crowe wrote and directed Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger.

No 8 The Umbrellas of Cherbourg from 1964. All songs and music in this French  comedy starring Catherine Deneuve.

No 7 To Catch a Thief from 1955. A too old Cary Grant with a glorious Grace Kelly in an Alfred Hitchcock thriller.

No 6 Moonrise Kingdom from 2012. My review of the 29th May said "the wit and human feelings shine through. A lovely, cute movie". Wes Anderson had gathered an amazing cast. One to see again.

No 5 Something's Gotta Give from 2003. Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton star in this Nancy Meyer's classic.

No 4 Ninotchka from 1939. Written by Billy Wilder and others, directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Greta Garbot.

No 3 When Harry Met Sally from 1989. We see Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan finally get together at the top of the Empire State Building.

No 2 Casablanca from 1942. Predictably near the top.

No 1 It Happened One Night from 1934. A black and white film starring Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable and directed by Frank Capra. Robert Riskin adapted the book. They all won Oscars, only one of three films to do so. I'm not rushing to watch it. 

Silent Witness and The Secret in their Eyes

 

As it's January, here is a brand new series of Silent Witness. Episode one introduced John Hannah (in the picture above with Emelia Fox as Nikki Alexander) as ex detective inspector Charles Beck who, it turns out has a massive secret. One to rival the exact same finale as the brilliant Argentine film The Secret in their Eyes. My post of 25th August 2010 described how I had to go off to the Odeon, Muswell Hill to see this Oscar winning thriller. Picture below.

So when I watched the ending to Effective Range, episode one of the twenty seventh series of Silent Witness I thought I have seen this before somewhere. It took me some time to work out where. But eventually I found it. The ending to The Secret in their Eyes (and not the American remake) is right there on You Tube. Just compare that to Silent Witness.

Romola Garai (continued)

 

The last time I posted about Romola Garai was on 27th October 2009. Here I mention her title role in the BBC's Emma and then on stage in King Lear and The Seagull. Not forgetting the films I Capture the Castle, Atonement and Glorious 39. Then a small part in Suffragette and playing Mary 1 in Becoming Elizabeth.

More recently she played the part of Doreen Warriner in One Life (as picture below) and finally Eliza Russell in the second series of Vigil that we have just finished watching. She is in uniform above as Acting Squadron Leader Russell alongside Suranne Jones as Detective Inspector Amy Silva. Their double act was the best part of the programme. Up next in the BBC's Scoop. 

Classic Literature and Cinema on Sky Arts - Myths and Legends

 

Narrated as usual by Mariella Frostrup, this episode about myths and legends started with the fact that before CGI, many directors took the challenge of bringing these films to life. The great warriors of legend was typified by Hercules and the first film in 1958 that starred Steve Reeves. We then see 1963's Jason and the Argonauts with those amazing warrior skeletons. Ray Harryhausen led the way with special effects and 1981's Clash of the Titans, his last film. We were told about the Roman poet Ovid and his Metamorphoses that includes 250 myths, from which many of these films found the characters.

The section on legends starts with King Arthur with the film from 1953 Knights of the Round Table. We also see a clip from 1981's Excalibur. It was Alfred Lord Tennyson's nineteenth century poems Idylls of the King that formed the basis of these movies. Sir Walter Scott's historical novels Ivanhoe from 1819 were hugely popular as was the film version in 1952. But it was one of the characters who made the biggest impact. The Adventures of Robin Hood from 1938 (a big colour movie) was a remake of 1922's silent movie with Douglas Fairbanks. 

One Thousand and One Nights contains a number of folk tales from the Middle East. It was only much later that the most famous stories found their way into books and then films. First we see 1924's The Thief of Bagdad and then the 1940 remake. It is Scheherazade who tells the stories including Aladdin and Ali Baba, whose 1940 film is the last we see of these. It was Ray Harryhausen who conceptualised The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad in 1958 with pioneering special effects and using colour for the first time. 

Chinese folk tales include the stories of Mulan and we see a clip from 1939's Mulan Joins the Army. Then the Disney animation was followed in 2009's Mulan, Rise of the Warrior. (The whole film on YouTube). One of the Germanic heroic legends is that of Beowulf that became the computer generated film of 2007. It includes a fire breathing dragon! Another ancient hero was Siegfried that was brought to the big screen by Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen in 1924. Next up the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. We see a clip from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Disney animation.

The fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson include The Little Mermaid, Frozen and The Red Shoes. When L. Frank Baum published his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900, it was not until 1938 that Judy Garland appeared in the movie version, the highly successful The Wizard of Oz. The last part of this episode is devoted to the English writer JRR Tolkien. His The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings have become those blockbuster movies. More interesting were excerpts from an interview with the writer. Because this series is more about the literature that inspired film adaptations.

The Three Musketeers - Milady, Godzilla Minus One and One Life

 

I should have read my review of the first part of this trilogy when I said I would watch the second "only if it had Constance". Well she appeared briefly but no enough to save it. The first half was a complete mess, I had no idea what was going on. Fortunately the second half did have a proper story and some interesting twists and turns. The Three Musketeers - Milady does have dazzling photography, and superb costumes. But the stupid king and his obnoxious and evil brother are just pantomime villains. As is Milady. Indeed, the whole thing had an essence of stupidity. There is one late death that was appalling and totally spoilt the whole thing. The ending is all set up for the final instalment. The only reason I will go is having invested so much so far. 

I was surprised that there was a wonderful human story at the heart of Godzilla Minus One. So the monster is only used sparingly which was fine. There are impressive special effects and the sound design is terrific. The only downside was the hysterical Japanese acting that fortunately only surfaces now and then. But overall, a decent story, and some great characters, And "minus one"? Well, Japan thought it could not sink any lower after the devastation of the nuclear attack at the end of WW2 and what that did for the Japanese character. They were wrong, it did get worse when Godzilla rears his ugly head.

"Save one life, save the world". The story of Nicholas Winton organising the rescue of 669 predominately Jewish children from Prague in the weeks before the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia is told with unremitting tension right until the end. One Life is an extraordinary film, I guess almost totally true in every aspect. I thought the structure worked extremely well with Anthony Hopkins playing the elderly Winton in 1988 looking back to everything that was necessary for his plan to work. Johnny Flynn plays his younger self  determined to do something and save as many children as he could. The film pulls no punches with the final train holding the largest contingent being held and then emptied by the arriving Nazis. And that horror still felt by Winton through the decades. 

The acting is all top drawer with Helena Bonham Carter leading the way with Romola Garai,  Jonathon Pryce and other class British talent. The final scenes are almost an exact replica of the television programme "That's Life" from 1988 and they are completely emotional. The director James Hawes (mainly known for TV dramas) has made a marvellous movie, and a story that had to be told, There is an article in the Guardian by Mathew Reisz about his father, the film director Karel Reisz, who was one of those children who were saved. He refused to take part in Esther Ranzen's programme as Mathew says the film "betrays him". But he doesn't say exactly how. Maybe he wanted the limelight instead of Winton? I think he must have been alluding to missing subsequent events such as the 1988 Holocaust conference. Thank goodness it did. It might have spoilt an otherwise brilliant film.

Discovering Dance on Film

 

I'm starting to catch up with episodes about cinema on Sky Arts from 3DD Productions. This was originally shown in 2018 and may have been lost when we changed our TV box. All the presenters were here as shown in the photo below: Derek Malcolm, Ian Nathan, Steven Armstrong, Neil Norman and Bonnie Greer. As usual for this series, it is a countdown of the best films with dance.

No 25 Silver Linings Playbook from 2012. A young Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. 

No 24 Strictly Ballroom from 1992. Baz Lurmann's breakthrough movie should be number one. 

No 23 Dirty Dancing from 1987. Patrick Swayze showed how a hunk can still dance.

No 22 Bye Bye Birdie from 1963.  Ann-Margret starred in that tremendous finale.

No 21 And God Created Woman from 1956. I wondered how this was here until I watched Brigitte Bardot dance.

No 20 The Blues Brothers from 1980. In my top three. Ray Charles plays and sings to "Shake a Tail Feather" and  lots of other songs mixed in, with the boys and an amazing dance sequence. I think we see the whole 2 minutes 40 seconds. Watch on You Tube.

No 19 La La Land from 2016. We just had to see that tribute to old musicals as Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone take flight.

No 18 Grease from 1978. Of course, that High School Musical with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John's "You're the one That I Want".

No 17 Yankee Doodle Dandy from 1942. James Cagney, of all people, strutting across the stage, and tap dancing down the stairs of the White House.

No 16 Bande a Part from 1964. That very cool Jean Luc Goddard film and that "hypnotic" dance in the café that also inspired the one in Pulp Fiction.

No 15 Pulp Fiction from 1994. And there it is, John Travolta ( he's still got it) and Uma  Thurman dance to Chuck Berry's "You Never can Tell". Apparently filmed by Tarantino holding the camera and dancing with them.

No 14 Ziegfeld Follies from 1945. Lucille Ball in pink.

No 13 The Cotton Club from 1984. Proper tap dancing by two men in sync.

No 12 Gentleman Prefer Blondes from 1953. Just for Marilyn Monroe singing "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend". Ian Nathan said that this was the best she would get.

No 11 Madam Bovary from 1949. Jennifer Jones and Louis Jardin in a surreal ballroom dancing sequence.

No 10 Cabaret from 1972. Liza Minelli.

No 9 Sweet Charity from 1969. A very strange dance sequence.

No 8 An American in Paris from 1951. At last Gene Kelly. Leslie Carron and the girls dancing on points!

No 7 Gilda from 1946. Rita Hayworth in what Stephen Armstrong called a "very intimate dance".

No 6 The Red Shoes from 1948. Moira Shearer in a film about ballet.

No 5 West Side Story from 1961. The song picked to show us was "America". With that huge studio set.

No 4 The Band Wagon from 1953. Fred Astaire with a very modern dance. 

No 3 Stormy Weather from 1943. A combination of jazz and dance that Steven Armstrong said was "possibly the best dance scene I've ever seen". The Nicholas Brothers in that hugely athletic dance were also acrobats. Cab Calloway stars.

No 2 Singing in the Rain from 1952. Gene Kelly again, singing in the rain.

No 1 Swing Time from 1936. Ian Nathan called this a George Stevens masterpiece. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance a waltz but I found this very old fashioned.  I much preferred them dancing to "Lets Face the Music and Dance" from "Follow the Fleet" released in the same year. 

Classic Literature and Cinema on Sky Arts - War

 

Not my favourite genre. Mariella Frostrop started her narration with telling us we would be seeing "the great battlefields of the past". I have to remember that  it is the adaptation of great novels that is the basis of the following movies. Starting with The Iliad. The Trojan wars were portrayed in 1956's Helen of Troy with that "face that launched a thousand ships". More recent was Troy 2004. I'm not sure why we had Chinese literature, just to see John Woo's Red Cliff from 2004. Shakespeare makes an entrance with Laurence Olivier's Henry V from 1944 and the remake by Kenneth Branagh in 1989.

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper has seen over ten adaptations on film including in 1992 version with Daniel Day-Lewis. And Tolstoy's War and Peace brought the Napoleonic era to the screen with the 1956 movie. Alfred Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade portrayed  the Crimea war with the 1936 movie and Steven Crane's Red Badge of Courage was directed by John Huston in 1951. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque was filmed with "unflinching honesty" in 1930 and again in 1979 and 2022. 

Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms came to the screen with the 1957 film starring Gary Cooper and his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls came in 1943 with Cooper again. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller was filmed in 1970 following the novels release in 1961. Next The Guns of Navarone by Alastair Maclean became the big blockbuster of 1961 as was Where Eagles Dare in 1968. J G Ballard's Empire of the Sun was adapted by Tom Stoppard for the 1987 movie. 

From Here to Eternity by James Jones was the big movie of 1953 and his The Thin Red Line came in 1998. Richard Hooker's novel MASH about the Viet Nam war became a big hit movie in 1970. Graham Greene's The Quiet American goes to the background of the conflict with the 1958 film version with Audie Murphy. But we also see the 2002 version with Michael Caine. The former had critical success despite the changes to the story, while the latter stayed faithful to the book. I'm not sure why the last film is 1990's The Hunt for Red October from the book by Tom Clancy? Hardly a war film, only the threat.

Art of Film with Ian Nathan on Sky Arts: Episode 5 Comedy, Parody, Satire and Laughs

 

In his introduction, Ian Nathan talked about there being so many different categories of comedy in film. He talks to Steve Punt (a writer/comedian), Stephen Wooley, Paul Webster, a producer and Stephen Armstrong. We start with slapstick and the 1923 silent film Safety Last, and then The General from 1926. Stephen Wooley thought it was a classic. These  demonstrated how Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton took advantage of the new medium that was perfect for their brand of humour. 

With the arrival of sound, His Girl Friday from 1940 was one of many screwball comedies that used witty fast talking dialogue in character driven movies. Howard Hawks directed Cary Grant, but Paul Webster said it was all about the writing, adapted from the 1928 play. In 1941 came Sullivan's Travels directed by Preston Sturges that Stephen Armstrong called "a remarkable film". 

On to satire, and the 1933 Marx Brothers film Duck Soup was one of the films that confronts authority with political satire. Meet John Doe from 1941 was set in a newspaper office and I'm All Right Jack set unions against the management. Peter Sellers was perfect as the shop steward. The Producers from 1967 starred Mel Brooks in a classic. 

I wondered why we then jumped back to 1917's Easy Street. It's because we arrive at laughs. The section on romantic comedies starts with It Happened One Night from 1934 and directed by Frank Capra which Stephen Armstrong said that it set up all the rules for future rom coms. The odd couple formulae was shown in the Laurel and Hardy film The Flying Deuces from 1939 and later in 1952's Road to Bali and all those Road movies. 

British comedy came next with 1949's Passport to Pimlico amongst many others. We were told about the particular brand of comedy for British films, particularly Ealing Comedies and the Carry On films. We see a clip from Carry On Constable that would not be tolerated today. Another Peter Sellers film was Two Way Stretch from 1960. Finally, from the same year, the greasy Terry Thomas showed us all that was terrible about these movies with School for Scoundrels.