Jan 27th   
A Tale of Love and Darkness**       
(Israel/US 2015)                      
Icon/Voltage. 98m. ws

Childhood experiences of Amos Oz in the early founding years of Israel after his young mother has fled Jewish persecution in Europe during WWII.
Marking Holocaust Memorial Day with this thoughtful biographical drama with some pretty moments of visual style, largely dominated on-screen by a glamorous looking star who also proves to be an accomplished director. Generally rather sombre, especially if viewed from outside its Israeli perspective, with just occasional brighter moments of hope.

Written and Directed by: Natalie Portman, from the book by Amos Oz.
Producers: Ram Bergman, David Mandil.
Starring: Natalie Portman, Amir Tessler, Gilad Kahana. Alexander Peleg, Nela Riskin, Dina Doran, Yannatan Shiray.
Photography: Slawomir Idziak.
Music: Nicholas Britell.


Preceded by:
Look at Life: The Cinema Steps Out**
(GB 1960. Rank.9.; Interesting brief study of early cinema as well as a stroll through the various London cinemas of the time, including those under redevelopment.; narr: Tim Turner; featuring Leslie Phillips, Juliet Mills.)

Jan 23rd
The Bowler and the Bunnet**  
(GB TVM 1967)   
Scottish TV. 36m. bw                    

Forthright TV documentary about the struggle of the Glasgow shipbuilders Fairfield to keep its workers by trying to form an uneasy alliance with its managers. Entertainingly stylish with Connery enjoying his own visual indulgences in his first (and only) attempt at directing.

w: Clifford Hanley
p: Bryan Izzard
d/s: Sean Connery
ph: Bill Scott, Mario Ford

+ with thanks to the BFI Mediatheque

++ Connery's opening narration: "Scotland, the country of the extremes. Love of life, hatred of life. Poets and murders, rigid temperance and savage drinking. John Knox and Johnnie Walker. England can lose 8,000 people by immigration in a year, Scotland, nearly 50,000. A nation of movers or stayers. Population 5 million, most important export: human beings. Prosperity and poverty. Vast empty landscapes, and the most congested slums in Europe. Warm hearts and idiot violence. A country of sturdy democracy and savage class hatred side-by-side. Always the division, the gulf between opposites. The bosses and the workers, Them and Us. The bowler, and the bunnet."

 Jan 16th
The 355* (12A) 
(Odeon Colchester)                      

(US/China 2021)
Universal/FilmNation/Huayi Brothers/Genre Films/Freckle Films. 124m. ws

Rival female Government agents compete to gain hold of a powerful computer drive, but they team up in pursuit of the real villains....
...who are of course, the men. Standard spy action fare for these days, where actions speak louder than words (almost identical in plot to The Spy Who Dumped Me), compensated by strong female characterisation and performances.

Written by: Theresa Rebeck, Simon Kinberg.
Producers: Jessica Chastain, Kelly Carmichael, Simon Kinberg.
Director: Simon Kinberg.
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong'o, Sebastian Stan, Edgar Ramirez, Fan Bingbing, Jason Flemyng.
Photography: Tim Maurice-Jones.
Music: Tom Holkenborg.
Editing: John Gilbert, Lee Smith.
Production Design: Simon Elliott.

THE 355. A slightly more intelligent variation of Charlie's Angels for the #MeToo era

Jan 11th
The Naked Truth*  
(GB 1957)                         
Rank. 92m. bw

Victims of a serial blackmailer contrive to team up against him.
Enjoyable British comedy not quite as effective or as convincing as Laughter in Paradise or Kind Hearts and Coronets which both featured some of these same talents, but the cast does what it can.

Written by: Michael Pertwee.
Producer/Director: Mario Zampi.
Starring: Dennis Price, Peter Sellers, Terry-Thomas, Peggy Mount, Shirley Eaton, Georgina Cookson, Joan Sims, Miles Malleson, Kenneth Griffith, Bill Edwards, David Lodge.
Photography: Stan Pavey.
Music: Stanley Black.

Preceded by:
Tom and Jerry in
Solid Serenade**
(US 1946. 7m.; w, d: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera; p: Fred Quimby.)

SOLID SERENADE. An enjoyably batty entry in the Tom and Jerry canon (the Hanna-Barbera shorts were rarely that logical in terms of plot anyway) where Jerry fights back against a serenading Tom out of irritation - even under the nose of Spike the dog. Great animation and musical and vocal interludes, including what sounds suspiciously like the voice of Charles Boyer (when Tom is romantically sweet-talking Spike by mistake!)

Jan 6th
Don't Look Up* (15)
(Curzon Colchester)

US 2021. Netflix/Hyper Object. 138m.

Two scientists discover a meteor is heading straight towards Earth, but the impending catastrophe is lost in the modern media circus.
Typically overblown American satire (intended as an allegory about climate ignorance), with its potent points about the Trump era and misinformation, although overlength and a closing element of pathos slightly undoes it.

Written by: Adam McKay, David Sirota.
Producers: Adam McKay, Kevin Messick.
Director: Adam McKay.
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Leonard DiCaprio, Rob Morgan, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Cate Blanchett, Mark Rylance, Himesh Patel, Ariana Grande, Timothee Chalamet, Melanie Lynskey.
Photography: Linus Sandgren.
Music: Nicholas Britell.

DON'T LOOK UP. Ironic casting to have the beautiful anti-Trump campaigner Meryl Streep play the most Trump-like of US Presidents (with added elements of Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton). Overloaded with stars including Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence (behind Streep and Jonah Hill), which threatened to blunt the message of the film, in a similar satirical vein to Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!