Jul 30th   
Captain Horatio Hornblower*    
aka. Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.
(GB 1950)
Warner Bros. 117m.

In Napoleonic times a young sea captain tussles with both factions of the Spanish fleet, nurses back to health and falls in love with the Duke of Wellington's sister, and then escapes French captivity to fight their fleet once again.
Grimly colourful and sometimes moving romantic semi-historical adventure, but also curiously lacking in tension or suspense. One misses the old Warner style with Errol Flynn and Michael Curtiz.

Written by: Ivan Goff, ben Roberts, Aeneas MacKenzie, C.S. Forester, based on his novels.
Producer: Gerry Mitchell.
Director: Raoul Walsh.
Starring: Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty, Terence Morgan, James Robertson Justice, Moultrie Kelsall, Denis O'Dea, Kynaston Reeves, James Kenney, Alec Mango, Christopher Lee, Stanley Baker.
Photography: Guy Green.
Music: Robert Farnan.

Preceded by:
East Anglian Holiday*     
(GB 1954. BTF. 18m.; w: Paul Le Saux; p: Edgar Anstey; d: Michael Clarke; voices of Frank Duncan, Richard George; ph: Bob Paynter; m: Doreen Carwithen.)

Jul 20th  
Freud's Last Session**  (12A)    
(King Street Cinema, Ipswich)
    
(Ire/GB 2023)
Sony Pictures Classics/Screen Ireland, and others. 109m. ws

At the onset of World War II, the dying Sigmund Freud has a discussion at home with a young noted Oxford don.
...whom for the purposes of this film is C.S. Lewis, at the early days of his writing prior to the Narnia series, and also the subject of Shadowlands, with Anthony Hopkins now switching over to the role of a slightly Welsh-accented Dr. Freud, but done with his usual dignity and power, in a generally thoughtful and moving talk piece about mortality and belief, with some minor probing into both characters' private lives, and a reasonably gloomy but correct depiction of the period.

Written by: Matthew Brown, Mark St. Germain, from his play.
Producers: Alan Greisman, Rick Nicita, Meg Thomson, Hannah Leader, Tristen Orpen Lynch, Robert Stillman, Matthew Brown.
Director: Matthew Brown.
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Goode, Liev Lisa Fries, Jodi Balfour, Jeremy Northam, Stephen Campbell Moore (as Tolkien), Orla Brady.
Photography: Ben Smithard.
Music: Coby Brown.

Jul 18th   
Les Enfants du Paradis**     
Part One: "Le Boulevard du Crime"
Part Two: "L'Homme Blanc" (The Man in White)

Fra 1945. Pathe. 190m. bw

In 19th century Paris, a woman falls in love with a mime artist, is seduced however by a philandering actor, and then comes into the custody of a possessive aristocrat, but all the time is being watched over by a sinister sociopath.   
Much heralded French epic romantic drama (made during and after the Occupation), set evocatively in the long gone ramshackle community of the Boulevard du Temple (aka. "Boulevard of Crime") in the manner of a French version of Dickens, with many colourful characters and settings for this most typically French of plotlines. The director deliberately avoids moments of action or sex, focusing more on the moods and repercussions for the characters, to make it a splendidly theatrical film, in the best sense of the word.

Written by: Jacques Prevert.
Producer: Fred Orain.
Director: Marcel Carne.
Starring: Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Marcel Herrand, Pierre Brasseur, Louis Salou, Maria Casares, Pierre Renoir, Jane Marken, Albert Remy.
Photography: Roger Hubert.
Music: Maurice Thiriet, Joseph Kosma.
Production Design: Alexandre Trauner.

Jul 17th   
Fly Me to the Moon* (12A)   
(Curzon Colchester)                         

(US 2024)           
Columbia/Apple/These Pictures. 131m. ws

An advertising expert promoting NASA is blackmailed into presenting a simultaneous staged version of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.   
Romantic comedy of fairly superficial content around a historical setting, partly also in tribute to the real Apollo missions as well as the popular conspiracy notion that it was a hoax, with sexy stars to remind discerning audiences that it is only a movie after all.

Written by: Rose Gilroy, from a story by Bill Kirstein, Keenan Flynn.
Producers: Keenan Flynn, Sarah Scheechter, Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Lia.
Director: Greg Berlanti.
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Woody Harrelson, Anna Garcia, Jim Rash, Ray Romano, Dariusz Wolski.
Photography: Dariusz Wolski.
Music: Daniel Pemberton.
Editing: Harry Jierjian.

Jul 10th  
What a Way to Go!**    
(US 1964)                                    
Twentieth Century Fox/Apjac-Orchard. 111m. Cinemascope

Confessions of a serial black widow who has unwittingly married a series of humble men who then become ultra-successful.
Lavishly presented black comedy with rather obvious jokes, including snappy spoofs of various film genres (such as the writers' own Singin' in the Rain), done in a generally pleasing manner, with MacLaine appealingly steering through the various starry ill-fated husbands.

Written by: Adolph Green, Betty Comden, from a story by Gwen Davis.
Producers: Arthur P. Jacobs.
Director: J. Lee Thompson.
Starring: Shirley MacLaine, Dean Martin, Dick Van Dyke, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Gene Kelly, Robert Cummings, Margaret Dumont.
Photography: Leon Shamroy.
Music: Nelson Riddle.

+ originally intended as a star vehicle for Marilyn Monroe

July 4th   
Joe Macbeth*   
(GB 1955)         
Columbia/Film Locations. 90m. bw

Shakespeare's tragedy transposed to the New York crimeworld (though mainly filmed in England), quite efficient and intact in spirit with only occasional compressions of characters, but becoming more melodramatic and shoutingly overplayed by the end.

Written by: Philip Yordan, Ken Hughes.
Producer: M.J. Frankovich.
Director: Ken Hughes.
Starring: Paul Douglas, Ruth Roman, Bonar Colleano, Sidney James (as Banquo), Gregoire Aslan, Harry Green, Kay Callard, Bill Nagy.
Photography: Basil Emmott.
Music: Trevor Duncan.