Saturday, January 31, 2009

Jan 31st
Laurel & Hardy in
The Bohemian Girl* (U)
Manifest Theatre, Manningtree

US 1936. Hal Roach. 74m. bw

The daughter of Count Arnheim is abducted by gypsies, and is raised by two of them until she eventually finds her way back to her real family.
A lyrical operetta is rather roughly translated into a Laurel & Hardy comedy, and while the romance of the original is largely absent, the Boys' comic material is reasonable.

Written by: Alfred Bunn, from the operetta by Michael W. Balfe.
Producer: Hal Roach.
Directors: James Horne, Charles Rogers.
Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mae Busch, Antonio Moreno, Jacqueline Wells, William P. Carleton, Della Hood, James Finlayson, Thelma Todd (who died during filming but remains in the film for one song number).
Songs: Nathaniel Shilkret, Robert Shayon.
Photography: Art Lloyd, Francis Corby.

Preceded by:
Call of the Cuckoos**
(US 1927. 20m. bw. silent; A family move from next door to an asylum, to an even crazier house of their own!; w: H.M.Walker; d: Clyde Bruckman, Leo McCarey; s: Max Davidson, Lillian Elliott, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase, James Finlayson.)

One Good Turn**
(US 1931. 20m. bw; Two wanderers quarrel over an old lady whom they think has been robbed, but in fact was only rehearsing a play.; w: H.M. Walker; d: James Horne; s: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mary Carr, James Finlayson, Billy Gilbert.)

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Friday, January 30, 2009

Jan 28th
Fantastic Four*
US/Ger 2005. Twentieth Century Fox/Constantin Film/Marvel/1492 Pictures. 106m. Panavision

Four astronauts are affected by a cosmic storm which gives them various superpowers, which they have to use against their new nemesis, Victor Von Doom.
Wisecracking, largely expository first instalment of what is clearly hoping to become a series of Fantastic Four adventures based on the long running Marvel comic strip. The style hardly makes for great drama, but also remains refreshingly unpretentious and true to its comic book origins, and only drags in the latter third when the heroes briefly considered reversing their superpowers.

Written by: Mark Frost, Michael France, based on the comic strip by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby.
Producers: Bernd Eichinger, Avi Arad, Ralph Winter.
Director: Tim Story.
Starring: Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans, Julian McMahon, Kerry Washington.
Photography: Oliver Wood.
Music: John Ottman.
Production Design: Bill Boes.

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Jan 25th
Appointment with Death*
GB 1988. Cannon/Golan-Globus. 102m.

A widowed heiress is murdered on holiday after cheating the family out of her husband's will.
Scenically attractive but routine all-star Agatha Christie murder mystery, with one dimensional characters made to look even more so by their director.

Written by: Anthony Shaffer, Peter Buckman, Michael Winner, from the novel by Agatha Christie.
Producer/Director: Michael Winner.
Starring: Peter Ustinov, Lauren Bacall, Carrie Fisher, John Gielgud, Piper Laurie, Jenny Seagrove, Hayley Mills, David Soul, Michael Craig.
Photography: David Garfinkel.
Music: Pino Donaggio.
Production Design: John Blezard.

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Friday, January 23, 2009

Jan 20th
A Bunch of Amateurs** (15)
Hollywood Film Theatre, Ipswich

GB 2008. Cinemax/Isle of Man Film/Odyssey/Limelight/Lipsync/Trademark Films. 96m.

An ageing Hollywood action star is tricked into playing King Lear in a tiny Suffolk village local production.
Dryly amusing mixture of unlikely opposites, with certain plot elements that parallel (partly) Shakespeare's play, and in spite of occasional crass moments and inevitable sentiment, the whole thing has a general warmth about it that harks back to the days of Ealing comedy.

Written by: Jonathan Gershfield, John Ross, Ian Hislop, Nick Newman.
Producer: David Parfitt.
Director: Andy Cadiff.
Starring: Burt Reynolds, Samantha Bond, Imelda Staunton, Derek Jacobi, Camilla Arfwedson, Charles Durning, Lorraine Ashbourne, Peter Gunn, Tony Jayawardena, Gemma Lawrence.
Photography: Ashley Rowe.
Music: Christian Henson.
Production Design: Melanie Allen.

Preceded by:
Mind Games*(GB 2008. 2m.; d: Peter Bunzl.)
(Virgin Media Shorts)

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Friday, January 16, 2009

Jan 12th
The Hunchback of Notre Dame**
US 1923. Universal. 120m approx. bw. silent

A deformed bellringer saves a persecuted gypsy orphan from the gallows.
The first notable Hollywood adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel, and although the style of silent acting restrains the richness of the characters (the definitive version came along in 1939), this is nonetheless a brilliantly mounted and designed Gothic epic, a formative vehicle for the original "Man of a Thousand Faces", Lon Chaney.

Written by: Perley Paul Sheehan, Edward T. Lowe Jnr, from the novel "Notre Dame de Paris" by Victor Hugo.
Producer: Carl Laemmle.
Director: Wallace Worsley.
Starring: Lon Chaney, Patsy Ruth Miller, Norman Kerry, Kate Lester, Winifred Bryson, Nigel de Lister, Brandon Hurst, Ernest Torrance, Tully Marshall, Henry Van Meter, Raymond Hatton.
Photography: Robert S. Hewhard, Tony Kornman.
Art Direction: E.E. Sheeley, Sydney Ullman.

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Friday, January 02, 2009

Jan 1st
Che** (15)
Cineworld Ipswich

US/Spa/Fra 2008. Wild Bunch/Morena Films/Telecinco.
Part One 126m.
Part Two 131m.

Glamorised, long-winded biopic of Che Guevara, from his joining the Cuban Communist revolution (Part One), to his ill-fated attempts to spread the revolution through the rest of South America (Part Two), of which the second half is markedly different in style to the first. Soderbergh initially displays his usual interesting cross-time narrative editing technique, flowing back and forth from Guevera's appearance at the UN in 1965. The second half switches to a more conventional old-fashioned style of epic film making, somewhat akin to Lawrence of Arabia. An honourable effort, but on the whole the Cuban revolution here seems to resemble a few people hanging around the jungle rather than a major uprising.

Written by: Peter Buchman, Benjamin A. van der Veen, based on the books "Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War" and "Bolivian Diary" by Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
Producers: Laura Bickford, Steven Soderbergh, Benicio Del Toro.
Director: Steven Soderbergh.
Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Demian Bichir (as Fidel Castro), Catalina Sandino Moreno, Luis Alberto Garcia, Julia Ormond; Joaquim de Almeida, Franka Potente, Lous Diamond Phillips, Nestor Rodulfo, Cristian Mercado, Matt Damon, and others.
Photography: Peter Andrews (Steven Soderbergh).
Music: Alberto Iglesias.
Editing: Pablo Zumarraga.

+ the cinema version here was a rare joint screening (as screened at the Cannes Film Festival - with an intermission and no credits) at selected Cineworld cinemas, with both parts planned for separate release

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