Friday, August 31, 2012

Aug 30th 
Dead Calm**                                  

(Australia 1988)
Warner Bros/Kennedy Miller. 96m. Panavision

A couple on holiday recovering from the death of their son find their yacht boarded by a psychopath.
Well acted and well crafted Hitchcockian dead calm seas thriller, with basic but fairly clear characterisation and good use of the tranquil but ironically claustrophobic setting, and some star names in the making.

Written by: Terry Hayes, based on the novel by Charles Williams.
Producers: Terry Hayes, Doug Mitchell, George Miller.
Director: Philip Noyce.
Starring: Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman, Billy Zane.
Photography: Dean Semler.
Music: Graeme Revell.

+ previously also made (and uncompleted because of the death of Laurence Harvey) by Orson Welles



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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Aug 24th 
Two Days in Paris*                                 
(Fra/Ger 2006)
Polaris Films/Tempete Sous un Crane/3LFilmproduktion/Back Up Media/Rezo Films International. 96m.

A couple returning from Venice to spend two days with her parents and various acquaintances in Paris find the experience to be anything but romantic.
A refreshing antidote to the usual notion of Paris as a city of romance, from an actress/director who has clearly learned from hanging around with Richard Linklater (in films like Before Sunrise and others), quite of-the-moment with a funny and frank first hour, until the joke begins to wear thin and a lack of believability slips in by the end.

Written and Directed by: Julie Delpy.
Producers: Julie Delpy, Christopher Mazodier, Thierry Potok.
Starring: Adam Goldberg, Julie Delpy, Marie Pillet, Albert Delpy, Alexia Landeau, Adam Jodorowsky, Alex Nahon, Daniel Bruhl.
Photography: Lubomir Bakchev.
Music: Gustaf Heden, Julie Delpy.

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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Aug 13th 
Hell Drivers*                               
GB 1957. Rank/Aqua. 108m. bw Vistavision

An ex-convict tries to get work as a ballast truck driver with several shady rivals.
Deliberately unpleasant working class melodrama which tries hard to be a British On the Waterfront, but the story goes on a one-note course, the driving scenes become repetitious, and most of the acting is over the top. The actors themselves however, are an interesting collection of past and future talents.

Written by: John Kruse, Cy Endfield.
Producer: S. Benjamin Fisz.
Director: Cy Endfield.
Starring: Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, Patrick McGoohan, Peggy Cummins, William Hartnell, Wilfrid Lawson, Jill Ireland, Sidney James, Alfie Bass, Gordon Jackson, Sean Connery, David McCallum.
Photography: Geoffrey Unsworth.
Music: Hubert Clifford.

HELL DRIVERS. Stanley Baker looked as suave and determined as a potential James Bond in this tough lorry drivers melodrama, in between Sid James and a future James Bond in the making.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Aug 11th 
The Last Projectionist** (12A)                             
(Ipswich Film Theatre)
GB 2011. Electric Films. 82m.

The history of Birmingham's Electric cinema, as discussed by six former projectionists who chart the cinema's progress from early film to digital.
Beautifully and invaluably researched - most from the Electric's original archive - and enjoyably made, and though a safe bet for cinema buffs (like me), the film wallows a little in its love of Independent cinemas towards the end, when a little more about the development of cinema itself would have been helpful.

Produced and Directed by: Thomas Lawes.
featuring Thomas Lawes, John Brockington, Les Castree, Paul Curtin,Phil Fawke, Graham Lee, and others.

Aug 10th
H.M.S. Defiant**                                                  
aka: Damn the Defiant!
GB 1962. Columbia/GW.108m. Cinemascope

Mutiny on board a British Navy warship is superceded by the threat of invasion from the French.
Serviceable but not memorable Napoleonic wars navy yarn, movingly played but slow in parts, and losing its chief adversary just when things are getting interesting.

Written by: Edmund H.North, Nigel Kneale, based on the novel "Mutiny" by Frank Tilsley.
Producer: John Brabourne.
Director: Lewis Gilbert.
Starring: Alec Guinness, Dick Bogarde, Anthony Quayle, Tom Bell, Nigel Stock, Murray Melvin, Maurice Denham, Joy Shelton, David Robinson, Andre Maranne.
Photography: Christopher Challis.
Music: Clifton Parker.

Preceded by:
Tom & Jerry in
His Mouse Friday**
(US 1951. 7m; w, d: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera; p: Fred Quimby.)

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Jul 30th 
Sixty Six**                                                                       
(GB/Fra 2006)
Universal/Working Title Films/Studio Canal/WT2. 93m.

In 1966 a young Jewish boy fears that his bar mitzvah will be ruined by England reaching the World Cup Final on July 30th.
Nostalgically evoked childhood memoir, giving way increasingly to sentiment after an amusing start. Lots of good, authentic period detail.

Written by: Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan, from a story by Paul Weiland.
Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Elizabeth Karlsen.
Director: Paul Weiland.
Starring: Gregg Sulkin, Eddie Marsan, Helena Bonham Carter, Peter Serafinowicz, Catherine Tate, Stephen Rea, Richard Katz, Geraldine Somerville.
Photography: Daniel Landin.
Music: Joby Talbot.
Editing: Paul Tothill.
Production Design: Michael Howells.

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