Inside Cinema - Shorts - 11 to 20

 

I posted about the first ten of the 96 ten minute short features on the BBC iPlayer's Inside Cinema on 7th February 2024. Here are the next ten.

Jessica King introduces Episode 11 Space Dads. When the episode is headed by Ad Astra and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, you know the search for astronauts and their children in movies is stretching things too far. I just didn't get why Solaris and Armageddon were included.

Episode 12 is The Wilhelm Scream narrated by Ali Plumb. Another weird idea, all about that sound effect, the high pitched wail that they found in some films. Apparently it all started in 1951's Distant Drums where Shad Wooley ("a voice extra") had his scream recorded and used many times in Westerns  to come. We also hear it in 1954's Them and all the Indiana Jones movies.

Episode 13 is all Trixie Mattel, she introduces Trixie Mattel's Guide to Drag Cinema. So we see Cabaret from 1972 and of course Priscilla, Queen of the Desert from 1994 and The Rocky Horror Picture Show from 1975. "But everything comes back to Paris is Burning darling". 

Something more to my liking was Episode 14's Two Wheeled Terrors. Michael Leader narrates from Charles Newland's script. Some iconic clips of bikers such as those from Laurence of Arabia from 1962, A Matter of Life and Death from 1946, and The Great Escape  (obviously). We see more of The Wild One (1953) with a young Marlon Brando and 1969's Easy Rider. Some others I did not recognise, although more familiar was Quadrophenia from 1979. Then something about kids on bikes such as E.T. from 1982. 

How strange that next up in Episode 15 was Busby Berkeley Land introduced by Robin Baker. In 1993 he (Busby Berkeley) made 42nd Street, Footlight Parade and Gold Diggers of 1933. All in one year! Cinema was transformed with these huge spectacular routines. If you like that sort of thing. The "topshots" (those filmed from above looking down) became a BB trademark. If only he had colour. 

The funniest episode was Guy Lodge's Episode 16 Cosy Cinema. Cosy as in jumpers. "There's something comforting about a man in a jumper". There are so many and the clips went so fast. Until here is Michael Douglas in Basic Instinct. We even see Locke (how was one of my favourites edging into this collection?) He is in his car in that chunky knitwear. Did he change before he left site? Then Ben Wishaw as Q in a James Bond movie. in a huge jumper. 

Episode 17 was titled Horror Homes and introduced by Mike Munger. It starts with lots of interior shots. "It's important to create a friendly atmosphere". Yes, before all the scares start. Get Out from 2017 features. TV's are always frightening. Then "lets take a look upstairs". Let's not. Oh, but those lovely sumptuous carpets. DON'T GO IN THE BEDROOM! Or the bathroom with it's stand up shower. Even a locked door will not stop an axe. And what are you doing going in the attic? Just stop before we get to the basement. 

Thank goodness next up is Episode's 18's  Disney Divas, care of Rhianna Dhillon. We see some early animation, Snow White etc. But what is this drag queen in 1989's The Little Mermaid. OK, we do get Sleeping Beauty and 101 Dalmatians. 

But we are back to scary stuff in Episode 19 with Steph Watts narrating Childhood Nightmares. It starts with Watership Down that should never be shown to young children, "it is completely traumatising". And what is this incinerator doing in 2010's Toy Story 3. Then 2001's Spirited Away is full of monsters. Pinocchio from 1940 is always scary. And Inside Out from 2015 is a disaster movie! Coraline (2009) has a nightmare climax. and 1984's The Never Ending Story "is terrifying". Who knew there were so many.

The last of these ten is Episode 20's Forever Young with Ali Plumb. We see a thirty six year old Arnie in 1984's The Terminator, and then his CGI re-creation in 2015's Terminator Genisys when the actor was sixty seven! In 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen actually look scary as their early created selves. Even more dramatic was the aging up and down of Brad Pitt in 2008's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. There are lots of Marvel films where similar ageing's are commonplace. But not for me.

Ducklings on the Wendover Arm

 

On my walk on Sunday along the Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal, on the stretch towards Halton, I came across some recently born ducklings. Their parents were ushering them alongside the far bank in a cluster, so I missed taking a photo. I thought I had counted eight.

So yesterday I found them again, this time on the stretch to Wendover. Talking to some people watching them, we only counted seven. This time they were already scattered around the waterway. But then bringing up the rear was this little fellow trying to catch up his father. So the same eight, already showing some independence. 

Perfect Days at the Rex Berkhamsted

 

His routine never changes. Hirayama is a single man in his sixties. We see his morning ablutions, dressing in his overalls, buying a coffee from a machine before setting off early to work in his van. He repeats these rituals every day (don't we all?). You would think these repetitive scenes would be so boring, but no. They are just so fascinating. Hirayama (a deservedly award winning performance from Koji  Yakusho) is the cleaner for Tokyo's municipal outside  toilets. And there are quite a few. Some gems of architecture. He is a fast meticulous operator, taking huge pride in his work, even using a mirror to check under the rim. There is hardly any dialogue in the opening scenes, just grunts to his useless co-worker. But smiles to the users. 

What is brilliant about this film is that there are so many things unexplained and unsaid. We have to fill in the gaps. Isn't that great? Like we gradually come to realise this is a highly intelligent and well educated man. His tiny, tidy  "apartment" has shelves of books. When he buys a new one from his usual bookshop, he scours the one dollar shelves of second hand paperbacks. Patricia Highsmith features. The fact that the owner always gives him a comment on each one is in itself a beautiful moment. There are these little glimpses of his weekends, So why, we ask ourselves, is he doing this job? The film never explains his past, until a tiny devastating offering near the end. But the past rears it's head when his young niece arrives unexpectedly having left home. So at last we have some conversations. But not about the past. Hirayama is estranged from his family and true to form, we have no idea why. Until those few words when the niece is collected to return home.  (Even some reviews missed the meaning of that short exchange). And even then we have to make up our own minds about what might have happened. 

One fabulous feature of the film is the music. The tracks are from Hirayama's cassette tapes. The young people in the film have no idea what they are and do not even know how they are inserted to the car's cassette player.  When his co-worker's girlfriend returns a cassette, she hesitates in his van. When she kisses his cheek and dashes off, she may be wishing Hirayama was thirty years younger. The opening track when Hirayama starts his van is House of the Rising Sun by The Animals. Both Mark Kermode and Wendy Ide in The Guardian fail to acknowledge this song even though they mention the others. And that the song is sung in Japanese later in the film. Here was I sitting down to watch this film and it starts with a song I loved from sixty years ago. Not only that, but I was in the audience of the Hammersmith Odeon in 1964 (the Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins tour) when The Animals played what they said was their brand new release. Little did we or they know it would reach number one a couple of weeks later. (My post of the 28th January 2015).

Somehow Hirayama is stuck in the sixties, not only for his choice of music (see list at the end) but with cassettes and his Olympus camera that takes film. So, I thought, only analogue for him, only to be surprised when later we find he does own a mobile phone. Those photographs he takes of the trees when he stops for lunch on a park bench have to be developed in a shop. Does he only photograph these trees? When he looks at the finished photos that is all we see. They go in meticulously stored and dated boxes. Years and years of just trees? This tiny fragment (only a few seconds) is typical of the movie asking us to think what is going on rather than telling us. There is so much we want to know but never will. We are left to make up our own minds about what might happen in the future. We know Hirayama has made a connection with his niece. The owner of the bar he has frequented over many years is about to lose her estranged husband. Who knows. At the end he has a brand new co-worker, a very attractive and confident young woman. Again we are only given seconds to think about that. 

Then the final shot is quite outstanding. Back in his van, Hirayama is torn between happiness and sadness. Listening to Nina Simone's Feeling Good. His past has made him what he is, as it is for us all. Director and writer Wim Wenders has given us something quite extraordinary. An unusual film but one that will linger in the mind for a long time. There will be moments from the film that will pop into your head without invitation. Two hours should have been a drag, but you did not want it to end. 

Soundtrack:

The House of the Rising Sun by The Animals

Pale Blue Eyes by The Velvet Underground

(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding

Redondo Beach by Patti Smith

(Walkin' Thru The) Sleepy City by The Rolling Stones

Aoi Sakana (Blue Fish) by Sachiko Kanenobu

Perfect Day by Lou Reed

Sunny Afternoon by The Kinks

The House of the Rising Sun (Japanese Version) by Maki Asakawa

Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison

Feeling Good by Nina Simone

It was strange at the beginning of the film that the screen was very narrow. This was the 1.33.1 aspect ratio that the director used. I got used to it very soon after the start. 

Nick James in Sight and Sound Magazine March2024: a delightful surprise 

Have You Seen ...... by David Thomson Part 11 - Dog Day Afternoon, Out of Africa and Brazil

 

Brooklyn,  22nd August 1972. Here is a young Al Pacino and a couple of associates robbing a bank in broad daylight. Amateurs, a real mess from the start. Sidney Lumet's 1975 Dog Day Afternoon is almost a satire if it had not been based on a true event. The police arrive to control the crowd who remain not that far away. Then the FBI and next all the reporters and TV crew. Just how many cops are stationed around the bank, up on rooftops, everywhere, all with guns trained on the front door. All so trigger happy. Even a helicopter. Negotiations ensue. A transition to night time. The bank staff are under pressure. But it is Pacino who carries the film, actually very physical in his performance. David Thomson thought it was "the most ribald and unexpected of (Sidney Lumet's) police procedurals". 

I selected 1985's Out of Africa mainly for John Barry's music. I had not seen the film before and was surprised it ended up sweeping the board with wins at the 1986 Oscars. There is not a lot of story. Obviously the locations, the light and cinematography makes the film visually stunning. Meryl Streep is great, Robert Redford less so. Director Sydney Pollack has tried to inject some drama and I guess it would have made a much bigger impact on a big screen. It seemed partly a tourist advertisement for Kenya. But that awful ending was perhaps disappointingly predictable. David Thomson said it was "a movie out of it's mind with excessive taste".

I already knew that this was a satire, what I had not bargained for was just how surreal this film turned out to be. Yes, the sets and imagery are spectacular, if you like that sort of thing. Director Terry Gilliam had some help on the screenplay, such as it was. But he is far more interested in the visuals he uses for all the fancy sets and hardware. All at the expense, unfortunately, of a decent script. It was called a "dystopian masterpiece" what ever that is. I was bored. The futuristic setting is offset by tiny TV screens. Is this meant to be funny? The huge cast included some fancy actors, Robert de Niro hamming it up, offset by Michael Palin's sensible Jack Lint. Ian Richardson, Jim Broadbent, Ian Holm all class. Then some actors i had not seen for years, well this is a 1985 movie. Peter Vaughn, Gordon Kaye, Nigel Planer and Bryan Pringle. Best of all was Bob Hoskins, because he gets all the good lines. We even see percussionist Ray Cooper. But as I say, totally bonkers, but not in a good way. David Thomson called it "a prototypical example of the tricky career of Terry Gilliam" and that "inventive exuberance is often at odds with the filmmaker's wish to make grave and tragic points". 

The Lawn in March

Yesterday I lowered the cut on the lawn mower to the usual setting.  Although there is still quite a lot of moss, it looks fine from a distance. And it does look better with a nice edge.

National Theatre Live - The Motive and the Cue

 

The National Theatre's production of The Motive and the Cue was shown at the Aylesbury Odeon on Thursday evening. It had been a while since I had last visited our local cinema. The story and the script by Jack Thorne (his film of Radioactive is on record) are excellent and the direction by Sam Mendes is first class. A large cast was necessary as we see rehearsals for "Uncle Will's" Hamlet. A knowledge of the play was quite useful. Head and shoulders above the other actors was Mark Gatiss as Sir John Gielgud who at sixty is now relegated to director. The trouble is he has the now the world renowned Richard Burton (a fine Johnny Flynn) as the star. He is recently married to Elizabeth Taylor (a terrific and funny  Tuppence Middleton) who is on number four. 

At the heart of the play is the tension created between the star and director, two very different people. There is one scene where the rest of the cast in rehearsal are banished and Gielgud and Burton are left alone. Sitting closely opposite one another they start to talk about their fathers and there is some sort of mutual understanding instead of confrontation. All this leads to Hamlet's big speech which echoes Shakespeare's own father. OK, Flynn is not the best actor to give us "To be or not to be ......." but it does reflect their conversation. 

I did like how some of Shakespeare's text is delivered in rehearsal in front of a dark stage with an ingenious device of how it opens up to the huge bright rehearsal room. Fortunately one of the extracts we see rehearsed is that for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Although those two actors were not a patch on Daniel Radcliffe and Joshua McGuire. (I must see this again - rent on Amazon). However, their are a few great supporting performances, notably the ever brilliant Janie Dee playing the actress Eileen Herlie who has the role of Queen Gertrude. 

I had hoped that the sound would have been louder given this was shown in the cinema as I could not hear everything. But that might have not been just me. There are also small titles at the start of each scene that were too dark to see properly. But these are small issues. I might like to see it live if it ever gets a national tour, or online if not. During the interval there is an interview with Sam Mendes and Jack Thorne that was well worth seeing.

The Garden in March

 

The daffodils have been wonderful this year. At the beginning of February the buds had appeared and by the middle of the month they were flowering. And only now, towards the end of March are some beginning to fade and need to be dead headed.

There are some late flowering narcissi that are just beginning to flower. 

The primroses are at their best this time of year.

The white hyacinth have just come into flower.

The Weigelia has sprouted most of it's leaves and is covered in tiny flower buds. Behind it the dwarf crab apple also has the first of it's leaves and in the distance is the Forsythia. 

The Viburnum is still in flower and although some are beginning to fade, there are others to replace them.

I thought I had lost all my snake head fritillary, but here is one survivor. 

And finally, the main border is beginning to wake up.

Sight and Sound Magazine - April 2024

 

I'm not sure why the April edition is published at the beginning of March? The following extracts are only those that caught my eye of numerous articles in the magazine. Every month someone chooses their ten favourite films and this month it was "The Ballot of ... Christine Molloy and Joe Lawler " Apparently they are Irish writer-directors who I have never heard of. Joe chose Barry Lyndon as his favourite Stanley Kubrick movie while I, like most people, think it's his worst. In "Editor's Choice" one book is called Death Lines: Walking London's Horror History". Might be interesting. At the Sundance Film festival, that happens every January, comes Steven Soderbergh's Presence, a film shot from the ghost's point of view. Also a film by Rose Glass (Saint Maud) called Love Lies Bleeding, an amped up romantic crime thriller. I wonder if these two get a general release.

Then the posters of Frank McCarthy include those iconic ones for The Great Escape and You Only Live Twice. "Opening Scenes" this month is all about trans films, but no mention of  the brilliant A Fantastic Woman the movie from Chile that won the Oscar for best foreign film. The big feature this month is, of course, Dune Part Two, over ten pages. It starts with a piece by Roger Luckhurst about how difficult it was to coherently adapt Frank Herbert's book and how those who failed included Ridley Scott and Roger Corman. David Lynch's version from 1984 was called a bit of a disaster. Eighty sets in the Mexican desert ran away with the budget. Then we have a long interview with director Denis Villeneuve who also wrote the screenplay with Jon Spaihts. 

A long article headed by Bradley Cooper's Maestro was just an excuse to look at films of great composers. From some early movies to the excellent Tar. I preferred the single page on "Kubrick's Classical Odyssey" with a selection of music in five of his movies. Of the twenty one film reviews I may be only going to see Ethan Coen's Drive Away Dolls. Although I will have to look out for the combination of eight countries who made The Delinquents.

Scituate, Mass and Peggoty Beach

 

One of the best locations in the film American Fiction is Scituate and particularly Sand Hills and Peggoty Beach. Scituate is called "The most Irish town in America". It was only when I got home after seeing the film that my searches revealed it's history. 

But the most amazing co-incidence came only an hour later when, reading my current novel Christine Falls, our hero Quirke travels with Phoebe from Ireland to Boston to stay with relatives at, yes Scituate. And they are all Irish. 

When we were on holiday some years ago, we travelled from Boston to Hyannis. If we had taken the back road instead of the main road we would have passed through Scituate. Small world.

American Fiction at The Rex Berkhamsted

 

I'm not sure if this Amazon MGM Studios production of American Fiction made it on general release? But when I found that it won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay (and four other nominations), I booked to see it when it arrived at the Rex cinema in Berkhamsted. And I'm so glad that I did. First time feature director Cord Jefferson has adapted the book "Erasure" by Percival Everett and his screenplay is witty, serious, intelligent and funny. It is very much a family drama but with a lot about writing, authorship and selling books woven in. 

Jeffrey Wright is superb as Thelonious "Monk" Ellison, a talented author whose books are not that popular. But when he writes a coarse "Black" book" under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh for a joke, his publisher sells it for a fortune, much to the disgust of Monk. But he needs the money as his mother is showing signs of Alzheimer's and needs constant care. 

The screenplay is one of the best I have encountered for a long time. There is a large cast, all of whom revel in their performances. They are a disorientated family of whom Monk is one of the worst. His lack of communication with them and a new woman friend is really upsetting. You want to shake him. But there are also plenty of laughs along the way. However, the best one for me was lost on the rest of the sizeable audience. When Monk has to impersonate the fictitious fugitive Stagg in a meeting with a top producer, he makes a quick escape when he sees and hears the siren of a passing police car. There are sort of alternate endings which have to be seen to be believed. I could go on and on.

Alex Ramon in Sight and Sound Magazine March 2024 - the film remains a creditable debut.

Cold War and Cinema on Sky Arts - Part 3 - Vietnam, Pershing and The Fall of the Soviet Empire

 

Ian Nathan started the episode telling us that "Vietnam was a great subject for cinema". One of the first films to look at conflicts in the far east was an adaptation of Graham Greene's The Quiet American released in 1958 in the " outposts of colonialism". Michael Redgrave as a journalist meets Audi Murphy's American. We were told the film is far too pro-American and critic John Aizlewood said that this upset Graham Greene. There is some documentary footage about the French leaving Vietnam. Simon Heffer gave us some background to the conflict and that it became "a truly terrible war". 

One of the first films to show troops in Vietnam was 1978's Go Tell The Spartans starring Burt Lancaster. Ian Nathan said how the war was filmed by news crews and shown on TV at home. Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now in 1979 was an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". It takes us right into the middle of the fighting but also how America got bogged down in the war. John tells us it showed the difference in commitment between the Viet Cong and American troops who were not sure what they were doing there.

The End of the Vietnam War

A film about deceit in American government about the war is told in 2017's The Post. Ben Bradlee is the editor of the Washington Post and the film tells the story of whistle-blowers. It ends with the break in at Watergate. But when Afghanistan rears it's ugly head, War Games in 1983 captured the danger of computer technology. A little like Dr Strangelove. Then in the same year, The Day After showed the heightening crisis between the super powers. Derek Malcolm told us that it was the "most successful television film ever made". A nuclear bomb drops on Kansas and obliterates the whole area. It terrified audiences at the time. The American and Russian governments don't know what to do next. John said that it was "a mini step forward in the cold war".

The Last Days of the Cold War

In 1987's thriller No Way Out, Ian Nathan tells us that Kevin Costner plays "the key suspect who is the guy investigating the murder". He adds "there is a mole in the navy" and that  "the spy thriller still works". Then in 2006 came one of my favourite films, The Lives of Others. The Stasi secret police in East Germany, but their days are numbered. Derek Malcolm also loved this Oscar winner and Simon said it was "a truly great film". One of the best German films ever made. I also liked 2007's Charlie Wilson's War about Afghanistan. Tom Hanks was never better and there was a terrific script from Aaron Sorkin. The Hunt for Red October based on the Tom Clancy novel and released in 1990 starred Sean Connery as a Soviet submarine commander who may or may not want to defect. 

The Fall of the Soviet Union

The John Le Carre novel The Russia House was adapted as movie in 1990 and is about the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ian said "it changes from a spy thriller to a love story" that is a metaphor for the thawing of the cold war. Sean Connery plays Barley from Britain and Michelle Pfeifer is a Russian called Katya. Then in 2003 came the German film Goodbye Lenin about the collapse of the Berlin Wall. All with documentary footage. Derek said that it was "the most cheerful of all the cold war films" and that it was very funny". The programme glossed over The Manchurian Candidate and Seven Days in May these had been in previous programmes. Finally, I had never heard of The Fourth War from 1990. Elderly army commanders Roy Schneider and Jurgen Prochnow both feel redundant and go into battle over a tiny incident. Just absurd. 

The Taste of Things, Wicked Little Letters and Lisa Frankenstein

 

In an 1880's country chateau, Juliette Binoche (Eugenie)  and Benoit Maginel (Dodin) spend their time cooking. But not just any old recipes but what we would now call cordon bleu. But they only seem to serve their friends? So it is not a restaurant. Where does all their money come from I asked myself. It turns out that Dodin has inherited wealth. So they even have assistants in the kitchen. So in The Taste of Things we watch the making of some wonderful delights, it's Eugenie who is the magician. There is no music as she prepares the food, the opening sequence of just that is a dizzying 35 minutes. For so little plot, I have never known a film go so quickly. The cinematography and editing are awesome. Tran Anh Hung has made a brilliant love story out of the love of food. I remember the turbot and the sauces. Do their wealthy friends contribute? We will never know, but that is not what the film wants us to remember.

Catherine Wheatley in Sight and Sound Magazine March 2024: a feast for the senses .... the food is the least interesting thing about it.

Here we are in Littlehampton in the 1020's. Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley lead a stellar cast in this adaptation of a true story. There is someone sending anonymous cruel filthy letters. So it is actually a whodunit. Here is the cream of British acting talent including Eileen Atkins at 89 years old, Gemma Jones, Timothy Spall, Jason Watkins, Joanna Scanlon, Hugh Skinner and Lolly Adefope, who we loved in Ghosts. But strangely, head and shoulders above them all comes young Anjana Vasan as Police Officer Gladys Moss. Critic Peter Bradshaw called it depressing, but I thought the whole cast was having fun, and it showed. All down to director Thea Sharrock. Wicked Little Letters a  serious story, but done for amusement. I enjoyed it. 

Caitlin Quentin in Sight and Sound Magazine March 2024 - eccentric characters fit together in entertaining daft ways.

Oh Diablo, what are you doing these days. Juno, Jennifer's Body, Young Adult were all great. I missed Paradise and thought that Ricki and The Flash was OK. Tully was back to form so I had high hopes for Lisa Frankenstein, especially as Diablo's name leads on the poster. Although Tom Shone in the Sunday Times only gave it one star and Mark Kermode thought very few would go to see it even though he thought it was OK. First of all this is not a horror movie. Yes, there were the odd gory bits but these were more amusing than anything else. Kathryn Newton as Lisa Swallows was actually really good and holds the film together even though at twenty seven she was playing someone nearly ten years younger! There were the odd references to Cody's previous films but mostly the story was all pretty obvious. It tried to be funny and occasionally it was. The soundtrack was one of the best things about the film. The one great moment was when the monster plays the piano and Lisa sings along to REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling".  It was interesting that the movie had a visual of Melies' "A Trip to the Moon" at the very beginning and end. Just for us film buffs.