Monday, July 29, 2013

Barbarella*

(Fra/Ita 1967)

Perils of a beautiful astronaut in the far future who searches across the galaxy in pursuit of a fellow Earthling  who has a powerful destructive ray.
Sexy sci-fi fantasy very much of its time, a little too tongue-in-cheek to be enjoyed as an adventure, hurtling its star (whose career survived this oddity to go on to more po-faced material) from one over-imaginative set piece to another. A cult kitsch classic.

Written by: Terry Southern, Roger Vadim, Vitorrio Bonicelli, Clement Biddle Wood, Brian Degas, Tudor Gates, Claude Brule, Jean-Claude Forest, based on his comic.
Producer: Dino De Laurentiis.
Director: Roger Vadim.
Starring: Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg (dubbed by Joan Greenwood), Milo O'Shea, Marcel Marceau, David Hemmings, Ugo Tognazzi, Claude Dauphin.
Photography: Claude Renoir.
Music/Lyrics: Bob Crewe, Charles Fox.
Production Design: Mario Garbuglia.
Titles: Maurice Binder.

BARBARELLA. Jane Fonda as the 41st Millennium title heroine, less of a crusader for love (as she may have intended) than more of a cross between Brigitte Bardot and Penelope Pitstop.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

One Day*

(GB 2011)

Focus Features/Random House/Film Four/Color Force. 107m. ws

University graduates get together on St. Swithin's Day and spend their subsequent years on that date hankering for each other.
Poignant but slushy romance, refreshingly unpredictable in its plot and quite skilfully conveying the succeeding years (1988-2011) in its period detail, but with frustratingly little of the supporting characters in a narrative that only focuses on the one day itself, making the central lovers resemble something out of a winsome Julia Roberts vehicle.

Written by: David Nicholls, from his novel.
Producer: Nina Jacobson.
Director: Lone Scherfig.
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess, Rafe Spall, Romola Garai, Patricia Clarkson, Ken Stott, Tom Misan, Jodie Whittaker.
Photography: Benoit Delhomme.
Music: Rachel Portman.
Production Design: Mark Tildesley.
Editing: Barney Pilling.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Before Midnight* (15)

(Ipswich Film Theatre)

(US/Greece 2012)

Continuing adventures of the engaging couple from Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, less romantic, more realistic (and effective only in its first hour) - now unmarried parents on holiday in the Peloponnese - who prove they can quarrel naturalistically too.

d: Richard Linklater
s: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Xenia Kaologeropoulou, Walter Lassally, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Panos Koronis, Ariane Labed, Yiannis Papadopoulos


+ the film is dedicated to Amy Lehrhaupt, whom the director met one night and on whose encounter Before Sunrise was based (but sadly died before its release.)

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Black Narcissus***

(GB 1947)                

A new convent in the Himalayas is threatened by the lofty atmosphere and rebelliousness among the nuns.
A cliched story of nuns tempted by local pleasures is turned into one of the most beautiful looking British films ever made - British in name, but only betraying its status in the accents, in what is a magnificent depiction of a fictional Indian mountain commune - all within the imaginative confines of Pinewood. Powell and Pressburger in their vintage era.

Written, Produced and Directed by: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, from the novel by Rumer Godden.
Starring: Deborah Kerr, David Farrar, Kathleen Byron, Sabu, Jean Simmons, Flora Robson, Jenny Laird, May Hallatt, Judith Furse, Esmond Knight.
Photography: Jack Cardiff.
Music: Brian Easdale.
Art Direction: Alfred Junge.

Preceded by:
Alice in Wonderland
(GB 1903. 8m. bw(colour inserts). First known film version of Lewis Carroll, functional as a film and pre-emptive as a narrative, but a priceless restoration of the remaining negative.; d: Cecil Hepworth, Percy Stow; s: May Clark.)

Friday, July 05, 2013

Orders are Orders


(GB 1954)    

An army barracks is invaded by a film unit making a science fiction cheapie.
Weak army comedy with little logic or sense, taking advantage of some familiar radio personalities of the time, some of whom became major stars - in better films than this one.

Written by: Geoffrey Orme, Donald Taylor, Eric Sykes, based on the play by Anthony Armstrong, Ian Hay.
Producer: Donald Taylor.
Director: David Paltenghi.
Starring: Brian Reece, Sidney James, Raymond Huntley, Margot Grahame, Tony Hancock, Clive Morton, Bill Fraser, Peter Sellers, June Thorburn, Maureen Swanson, Donald Pleasence, Eric Sykes.
Photography: Arthur Grant.
Music: Stanley Black.

ORDERS ARE ORDERS (1954). Before Carry On, Before Clouseau, Before even Hancock's Half Hour, Messrs. James, Sellers and Hancock were all in the same little film. No comedy classic, but an interesting item just for that.

Thursday, July 04, 2013

The Best Years of Our Lives***

(US 1946)

Returning US servicemen from the war adjust with varying degrees of difficulty to their old way of life.
Overlong and sometimes overscored family war melodrama, one of a pattern in the 40s, but with the benefit of topical post-war experience. Some of the darker elements of the story are sentimentalised, but there are lots of compelling, underplayed performances.

Written by: Robert Sherwood, from the novel "Glory for Me" by Mackinlay Kantor.
Producer: Samuel Goldwyn.
Director: William Wyler.
Starring: Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Harold Russell, Myrna Loy, Virginia Mayo, Teresa Wright, Cathy O'Donnell, Roman Bohnen, Gladys George, Hoagy Carmichael, Ray Collins, Walter Baldwin, Minna Gombell, Ray Teal.
Photography: Gregg Toland.
Music: Hugo Friedhofer.