Inside Cinema Shorts - Episodes 91 to 96

 

Here are the last six of the 96 episodes of Inside Cinema Shorts. Starting with No 91 Marilyn Monroe. Lucy Bolton looks at all the films made by this Hollywood icon. She calls her "a multi talented performer". It's true, you just cannot take your eyes off her. The clips of her films start with the films in black and white: Dangerous Years (1947) and As Young As You Feel (1951). Then in 1952 came Monkey Business, a major role for Marilyn starring alongside Cary Grant. Then Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) where she proved she could sing, and Some Like It Hot (1959). However, this episode just crams so much in it makes you dizzy. Just like Marilyn.

Episode 92 British Baddies is introduced by James King who asks why it is that so often in Hollywood movies the bad guy turns out to be British. Above is a case in point as Alan Rickman stars in Die Hard (1984), Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves (1991) and Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies. James asks "what makes Brits so brilliantly beastly". Well, it all started in 1931 with Colin Clyde in Frankenstein and then so many Boris Karloff films. This started a trend all the way to Kenneth Branagh in Tenet (2020). We see just how many classy award winning actors were the bad guys including Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs (1991). 

What happens when films turn the camera on film making itself. Jamie Maisner investigates in Episode 93 Making Movies. We see clips from so many of these from Ed Wood (1994) to Sunset Boulevard (1950), Hail, Caesar (2016), Adaptation (2002 and Once upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) and many more.

Episode 94 is called Breaking Up and it's Ann Lee who shows us those big screen break ups from the heartfelt Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) to the angry Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013) and the subtle Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Casablanca (1942). But why do we see so much of the very ordinary Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) and Swingers (1996)? But somehow I did like the very clever (500) Days of Summer (2009) and even Her (2013) and La La Land (2016).

We are nearly at the end with Episode 95 Jewels on Film. Nicole Davis asks "are diamonds truly a girl's best friend"? Maybe Kate Winslet above might not agree. Here she is in Titanic (1997). We start with jewels in black and white movies such as Gilda (1946) and work all the way to Kiera Knightley's Anna Karenina (2012) and, of course The Great Gatsby (2013) where the parties are crammed with women in jewels. Obviously we could not miss out on Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) as we rush through many more. That is until we suddenly alight on Emma Thomson finding that ring in Love Actually (2003).  Wow!

The very last of these shorts  concentrates (obviously) on Famous Last Words that is Episode 96. Michael Leader shows us those final lines from some iconic movies. Starting with "I think this is the beginning of a  beautiful friendship" from Casablanca (1942). My favourites of all those we see are "Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads" and "I've got a great idea". Guess the films.