Monday, May 30, 2016

May 29th
Last Days in Vietnam**

(US 2014)

Illuminating documentary covering the dramatic American evacuation from Saigon from the hands of the North Vietnamese in April 1975, excellently told as semi-drama using on-the-spot TV film cameras from the time. As a US-made film it carefully portrays American guilt rather than shame at their biggest military defeat, and the film absorbs but also drags for its length.

Written by: Mark Bailey, Keven McAlester.
Producers: Rory Kennedy, Keven McAlester.
Director: Rory Kennedy.
Contributions by: Henry Kissinger, Stuart Herrington, Frank Snepp, Jim Laurie, Juan Valdez.
Music: Gary Lionelli.

Preceded by:
The Great Train Robbery***
(US 1903. Edison Manufacturing Company/Kleine Optical Company. 12m. bw. silent; The first Western, of sorts, and also significantly the first narrative that looks remarkably modern by later standard, gathering together all the various techniques the medium had been developing for the last decade or so. For its time a breakthrough work, and the famous closing shot (below) of a gunman - intended as an instruction to projectionists to reinsert where relevant - serves instead to state that Motion Pictures had well and truly arrived.; w: Scott Marble, Edwin S. Porter; d: Edwin S. Porter; s: Justus D. Barnes, Bronco Billy Anderson, Alfred C. Abadie, and others; ph: Edwin S. Porter, Blair Smith.)




Thursday, May 26, 2016

May 25th  
Tales That Witness Madness

(GB 1973)                        

Series of flimsily linked stories of psychiatric cases who conjure up imaginary monsters, who become all too real.
Darkly comic might be the polite assessment, with some suspenseful style, but a million miles away from Dead of Night, and often just plain silly.

Written by: Jay Fairbank (Jennifer Jayne).
Producer: Norman Priggen.
Director: Freddie Francis.
Starring: Donald Pleasence, Jack Hawkins; Georgia Brown, Donald Houston, Russell Lewis, David Wood; Peter McEnery, Suzy Kendall, Frank Forsyth; Michael Jayson, Joan Collins; Kim Novak, Michael Petrovitch, Leon Lissek, Mary Tamm.
Photography: Norman Warwick.
Music: Bernard Ebbinghouse.

Sunday, May 22, 2016

May 21st   
Carousel*   

(US 1956)                                    

A fairground barker dies but tries to impart some otherworldly wisdom to the daughter he never knew.
Standard Cinemascope musical spectacular, sometimes cinematic and sometimes with good numbers.

Written by: Phoebe Ephron, Henry Ephron, based on the play "Liliom" by Ferenc Molnar.
Producer: Henry Ephron.
Director: Henry King.
Starring: Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones, Barbara Ruick, Cameron Mitchell, Susan Luckey, Robert Rounseville, John Dehner, Gene Lockhart.
Photography: Charles G. Clarke.
Music: Richard Rodgers.
Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein.
Choreography: Rod Alexander, Agnes de Mille.

+ songs include: "If I Loved You", "Soliloquy", "June is Bustin' Out All Over", "You'll Never Walk Alone"


CAROUSEL. Ghostly Gordon MacRae watches over his rebellious daughter (Susan Luckey), on what looks suspiciously like the same Malibu beach used in Planet of the Apes.

Monday, May 16, 2016

May 14th   
Florence Foster Jenkins** (PG)
(Palace Cinema, Felixstowe)

(GB/Fra 2016)

In 1944 an elderly wealthy socialite pursues of her dream of singing at Carnegie Hall, unaware of her own inferior voice.
An (only slightly) exaggerated true story, as was the director's Mrs. Henderson Presents, also set in WWII, but so movingly played in this case, with Ms. Streep necessarily exaggerating Mrs. Foster-Jenkins'  real-life voice - in order to emphasize the "badness" of it - whilst the film skilfully re-creates 40s New York on the streets of Liverpool and Glasgow with CGI backgrounds coming in where necessary.

Written by: Nicholas Martin.
Producers: Michael Kuhn, Tracey Seaward.
Director: Stephen Frears.
Starring: Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Simon Helberg, Rebecca Ferguson, Nina Arianda, David Haig, Allan Corduner, John Sessions, Thelma Barlow, Christian McKay.
Photography: Danny Cohen.
Music: Alexandre Desplat.
Production Design: Alan MacDonald.

+ FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS (Streep): "People may say I can't sing, but no-one can ever say I didn't sing."

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

May 8th
The Fast Lady**  

(GB 1962)                          

A Scotsman woos a ruthless motorist's daughter by buying a vintage car from his smooth-talking housemate.
Agreeable knockabout Rank comedy without descending too much into innuendo, with a lively cast including several guests in the chase climax. A blueprint of sorts for the later, more lucrative Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.

Written by: Henry Blyth, Jack Davies.
Producers: Leslie Parkyn, Julian Wintle.
Director: Ken Annakin.
Starring: Stanley Baxter, Leslie Phillips, James Robertson Justice, Julie Christie, Kathleen Harrison, Dick Emery, Eric Barker, Allan Cuthbertson, Oliver Johnston, Deryck Guyler, Terence Alexander, Clive Dunn, Frankie Howerd.
Photography: Reg Wyer.
Music: Norrie Paramor.

Preceded by:
Jack and the Beanstalk*
(US 1902. 10m. bw. silent; d: Edwin S. Porter; s: Thomas White (as Jack).)