Gentlemen she would eat you all for breakfast and spit you all out :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
Regards Neil
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Gentlemen she would eat you all for breakfast and spit you all out :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
Regards Neil
Babylon 5 - The Gathering
The slightly clunky pilot for what would become one of the finest TV sci-fi series ever made. I recall watching this as a video I hired, and thinking once finished watching it that it would make a good series. I knew it was a pilot and as so many series never get beyond a first go didn't hold my breath re there ever being more and some time later that series I thought would not get made was shown on Channel 4 :cool: a very pleasant surprise.
If you have never watched B5 and like sci-fi then you are in my opinion missing out big time.
Regards Neil
Don't bet on that Neil :eyebrows: and anyhoo, what a way to go.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dalek Supreme D L
...now watching Red Dwarf 3
I watched Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll this evening and enjoyed it immensely, I rate Serkis highly and IMO he was Ian Drury personified. This film is classy, witty, hilarious, tragic, thought provoking and raw. 10/10Quote:
Originally Posted by Barry
Watched Ides of March last night.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1124035/
Great film, reminds me of Primary Colours, another Washington based political drama, but with a William Friedkin/ Frankenheimer 70's vibe to it.
Great acting, Phillip Hoffman was great but really surprised by Ryan Gosling.
Strong screen presence, reminded me of a young Steve McQueen in the film.
Amazing in Drive, this guys some actor.
Asks good questions about Politics, morality, loyalty and how far you will go, what bad things you will do to get a good job done.
Layered, complex and doesn't spoon feed you the answers, my kinda film.
Great direction by Clooney too.
Highly recommended.
Going to watch "Down Among the Big Boys " which came out in 1993, and starred Billy Connelly, Maggie Bell, Ashley Jensen and Alex Norton. Bill barclay also appears as a police Sergeant .....This was part of the "Screen One" series on the Beeb, and has Connelly as a top Glasgow Gangster and Thief robbing a bank while his daughter is about to marry a copper......A mix of drama with some excellent comedic moments make this a must see, especially for lovers of the Gallus.
Great show that. Love the bit when they blow the safety deposits while dancing to an Orange band playing in the street..
Now on to Red Dwarf series 4.....Love my Dwarf:eyebrows:
smeggin' great that.
Watched "The Strain" tv series last night. Very good.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2654620/
New take on the vampire story, set in modern day new york.
Really enjoyable, co-written and executive produced by Guillermo Del Toro.
Some genuinely creepy and horrific stuff in there.
Another Strain fan. I'm going to get the books.
Now watching BomberBoys on Yesterday
It Was the terror of Jazz Music
Tonight, is Leone night with "Giù la testa" (1971) being the film of choice. AKA "Duck You Sucker" , AKA "Once Upon A Time In The Revolution" , AKA A Fistful of Dynamite. Written by Luciano Vincenzoni, plus Sergio's, Donati and Leone, and starring Rod Steiger and James Coburn in the main roles.
When James Coburn (who had been offered roles in Sergio Leone's For a Fistful of Dollars (1964) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)) was offered the role of John(Sean) Mallory by Leone, he was initially reluctant. He had dinner with Henry Fonda (star of Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)) and asked him what he thought of Leone. Fonda told him that he considered Leone the greatest director he ever worked with. Coburn then took the part. (Similarly, Fonda himself had been reluctant to take the part Leone offered hims, but was persuaded by his friend, Eli Wallach.) The film was initially planned to have been directed by Leone's assistant Giancarlo Santi, but both Rod Steiger and James Coburn demanded that Sergio Leone direct the picture, so Santi was out.
A nice line or two on revolution; I know what I am talking about when I am talking about the revolutions. The people who read the books go to the people who can't read the books, the poor people, and say, "We have to have a change." So, the poor people make the change, ah? And then, the people who read the books, they all sit around the big polished tables, and they talk and talk and talk and eat and eat and eat, eh? But what has happened to the poor people? They're dead! That's your revolution. Shhh... So, please, don't tell me about revolutions! And what happens afterwards? The same fucking thing starts all over again!
My favourite line : As Sean opens his coat to reveal the explosives strapped to his body he says "If you shoot me, they will have to change all the maps" :rfl:
In Revolution-torn 1913 Mexico, Juan Miranda (Rod Steiger), a Mexican outlaw leading a bandit family, robs a coach of wealthy men and rapes a female passenger (Maria Monti) who insulted him. Passing by on a motorcycle is Seán (John) Mallory (James Coburn), an early Irish Republican explosives expert on the run from the British.
The inspiration for the firing squad scene came from Francisco Goya, and in particular from his set of prints The Disasters of War. Leone showed the prints to director of photography Giuseppe Ruzzolini in order to get the lighting and colour effects he wanted. The film is believed to have been influenced by Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, and it shares some plot elements with Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, a western also starring Coburn and released a year later.
Music as always is by Ennio Morricone.
Moving on to the mini series of Mary Wesley's book, "The Camomile Lawn" starring Felicity Kendal, Claire Bloom, Jennifer Ehle, Paul Eddington, Virginia McKenna, Tara Fitzgerald and Toby Stephens to name just a few..
Lush and totally engaging series with fabulous performances all round. Set during the war and then up to present day, and seen during flashbacks from the people involved at a funeral. Thought Paul Eddington was fantastic, as is Rebecca Hall(Iron Man 3) in the role of Sophy as a child (played by Claire Bloom as an adult
One of Channel 4's best productions, this follows the book pretty much to the letter. I'll be engrossed in this for quite some time as I can never stop once I start it. Probably the only program that really takes me to the place and time.
What a cast line up! Sad to think it was probably Paul Eddington's last appearance.Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
And with Claire Bloom (one of my first 'crushes'), and Tara Fitzgerald and Rebecca Hall (two of my later 'crushes' - Goodness, I'm too old for all this!), could one ask for more?
If you like The Camomile Lawn, you will probably like Brideshead Revisited. Also starring Claire Bloom and a rather young Jeremy Irons.
Got a Raoul Walsh cracker from 1949 for viewing tonight. White Heat starring James Cagney as Arthur "Cody" Jarrett, Virginia Mayo as Verna Jarrett, Edmond O'Brien as Hank Fallon AKA "Vic Pardo" and Margaret Wycherly as "Ma" Jarrett. Inspiration was said to have been Fred Barker and Arthur Barker, gangsters of the 1930s, famously devoted to their domineering mother Ma Barker.
White Heat was filmed between May 5 and mid-June 1949. Filming locations included the Southern Pacific railroad tunnel in the Santa Susana Mountains near Chatsworth, California, and the Shell Oil plant at 198th Street and Figueroa in Torrance, California, where the final climactic shoot-out was filmed. The outdoor theatre that Cody, Verna and Ma duck into is the now-demolished San Val Drive-In at 2720 Winona Avenue in Burbank, California - the second drive-in theatre to open in California, after the "Drive-In Theatre" on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. White Heat is ranked no 4 in the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest gangster films.
If the surprise expressed by James Cagney's fellow inmates during "the telephone game" scene in the prison dining room appears real, it's because it is. Director Raoul Walsh didn't tell the rest of the cast what was about to happen, so Cagney's outburst caught them by surprise. In fact, Walsh himself didn't know what Cagney had planned; the scene as written wasn't working, and Cagney had an idea. He told Walsh to put the two biggest extras playing cons in the mess-hall next to him on the bench (he used their shoulders to boost himself onto the table) and to keep the cameras rolling no matter what. At the time of filming of White Heat (1949), Special Effects were not yet using squibs (tiny explosives that simulate the effects of bullets). The producers employed skilled marksmen who used low velocity bullets to break windows or show bullets hitting near the characters. In the factory scene, James Cagney was missed by mere inches.
"TOP OF THE WORLD MA!"
James Cagney received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. Charlton Heston, in announcing that Cagney was to be honoured, called him one of the most significant figures of a generation when American film was dominant.
He received the Kennedy Centre Honours in 1980. In 1984, Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In 1999, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 33 cent stamp honouring Cagney.
Cagney was among the most favoured actors for the director Stanley Kubrick and the actor Marlon Brando, and was considered by Orson Welles to be maybe the greatest actor to ever appear in front of a camera. Warner Bros. would arrange private screenings of Cagney films for Winston Churchill.
Cody Jarrett was one stone cold fruit loop psycho.
Back now to the second disc of the Camomile Lawn
Tonight it is The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) Directed by Joseph Sargent (real Name Giuseppe Danielle Sorgente.), who was infamous for Jaws....the revenge :doh:
Stars Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam and Julius Harris who was in Cagney & Lacey seeing as we have been into cop series :eyebrows: Scored by David Shire, the soundtrack was rated one of the best in movie history.
From the Book by John Godey, who also did the book and screenplay for Never a Dull Moment starring Dick Van Dyke, Edward G. Robinson.
The Transit Authority (TA) of New York at first refused to allow the film to be shot on the actual New York subway. They feared it would lead to imitative crime (it didn't, but their position was shown to be reasonable when the later film Money Train (1995) apparently did). When they did the remake you can see why it was important as they didnt.
The meaning of "Pelham One Two Three" refers to the New York subway timetable terminus and time of departure schedule radio call sign. As explained in the movie, "Pelham" is the name of the station of origin where the subway train departs whereas "One Two Three" refers to the time of departure i.e. 1.23 pm. Ever since the release of the film, no6 train has never been scheduled to leave Pelham Station at either 13:23 or 01:23 by the New York City Transit Authority. This was the practice for many years until the policy was discontinued but generally as a kind of tradition and caution, trains are still not scheduled to leave the Pelham at either 1.23 am or pm although the ban was rescinded.
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three was released on October 2, 1974. It grossed $16,550,000 at the box office and was filmed with a $5,000,000 budget.
Now about to watch "Tomkinson's Schooldays"- A Ripping Yarn starring Michael Palin............
Dont think I've seen Brideshead funnily......might try it
If you like The Camomile Lawn, you will probably like Brideshead Revisited. Also starring Claire Bloom and a rather young Jeremy Irons.[/QUOTE]
"gesundheit..." :)Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
Jo Sargent also directed some of the best episodes of Star Trek's first Season, thought to be its best.
Live long n' prosper dudes.
on to The Testing of Eric Olthwaite now........Mum, I don't think I've seen black pudding as black as that......oh shut up you boring little tit:lol:
escape from Stalagluft 112b....... all the best British officers were there and there was a waiting list of several years to get in:lol:
Now on to Carry on Follow That Camel. Very underrated carry on this with Phil Silvers. Also Anita Harris displays her considerable charms. Always had a fancy for Anita.
Was that the one where his Dad pretended to be French so he didn't have to talk to him?Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
Oh, quelle journée au bas de la terre. Je suis très fatigué demain, Vera.Quote:
Originally Posted by Roy S
Von Ryan,s Express is just started on film four.A Frank Sinatra vehicle but well done and superbly supported by the able Trevor Howard.
I was just watching Frank last night in 'Never So Few' knocking about in the Burmese jungle with Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson. One problem with a lot of the Hollywood films from the Fifties and early Sixties was the pacing, especialy with the 'love interest' scenes which seem to drag on forever.
Quite a good one that. ..and yes producers know sex sells so they'll pop a bit of skirt in anywhere. Was surprised Tom Hanks didnae find a nice bit when he was a castaway :eyebrows:Quote:
Originally Posted by Macca
Tonight I'm going back to the great depression to watch John Ford's 1940 classic, The Grapes of Wrath, starring Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, Grant Mitchell, John Carradine and Ward Bond. Screen play by Nunnally Johnston(The Mudlark, Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation and the Dirty Dozen to name a few) from the superb book by John Steinbeck.
Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they were trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California. Along with thousands of other "Okies", they sought jobs, land, dignity, and a future.
Prior to filming, producer Darryl F. Zanuck sent undercover investigators out to the migrant camps to see if John Steinbeck had been exaggerating about the squalor and unfair treatment meted out there. He was horrified to discover that, if anything, Steinbeck had actually downplayed what went on in the camps. Banks and the large farming corporations that controlled most California farms were not keen on the original novel (it was banned in some states and in several counties in California, and the book was not carried in the municipal library of author John Steinbeck's home town of Salinas, California, until the 1990s) and were even less thrilled that a film was being made of it. The Associated Farmers of California called for a boycott of all 20th Century-Fox films, and Steinbeck himself received death threats. It was also banned in the Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin because the poorest of the poor in America were portrayed as having a car. Just shows that a great book and film can hit hard.
The original story called for the pregnant Rosasharn, the Joad's lass, having a still birth and then letting a starving man feed from her breast. This was way too much for a 1940 audience and was cut, but it really would have been a stunning and heart rendering scene.
Steinbeck scholar John Timmerman sums up the book's influence: "The Grapes of Wrath may well be the most thoroughly discussed novel – in criticism, reviews, and college classrooms – of 20th century American literature." The Grapes of Wrath is referred to as a Great American Novel.
At the time of publication, Steinbeck's novel "was a phenomenon on the scale of a national event. It was publicly burned by citizens, it was debated on national talk radio; but above all, it was read." According to The New York Times, it was the best-selling book of 1939 and 430,000 copies had been printed by February 1940. In that month it won the National Book Award, favourite fiction book of 1939, voted by members of the American Booksellers Association. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Does the film do it justice...YOU BET! Fonda gave Fox a 7 year exclusive on him just to play what he called "The Part of a Lifetime"
If you don't have this, GET IT!:eyebrows:
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Directed by Don Siegel and starring Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter and Larry Gates (watch out for a young Sam Peckinpah in a small role.
Based on the book The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, the screenplay is by Daniel Mainwaring who wrote the Big Steal screen play starring Bob Mitchum.
The story depicts an extraterrestrial invasion that begins in a small California town when alien plant spores grow into large seed pods, each one capable of reproducing internally a duplicate replacement copy of each human: As each pod reaches full development, it assimilates the physical characteristics, memories, and personalities of each sleeping person placed near it; these duplicates are devoid of all human emotion. Little by little, a local doctor uncovers what is occurring and tries to stop the invasion.
Although the studio constantly demanded cuts to the budget, it made several tmes its price in the us alone and in 1994 Invasion of the Body Snatchers was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
The BBFC insisted on several cuts here, just to get an X certificate which is hard to believe now.
Some extra shooting took lace to change the ending as Siegel had shot it as the finish being McCarthy shouting in vain warnings to the passing vehicles. The studio insisted in the one you now see. Gig Young, Dick Powell, Joseph Cotten and several others for the role of Miles. For Becky he considered casting Anne Bancroft, Donna Reed, Kim Hunter, Vera Miles and others. Due to budget constraints the cheaper option was to take Relative newcomers McCarthy and Wynter.(worked out pretty well though). Remade in 78(which is also excellent) this is still the daddy of the genre, and was scary to the public at the time.
Producer Walter Wanger saw the final cut in December 1955 and protested the use of the Superscope aspect ratio. Its use had been included in early plans for the film, but the first print was not made until December. Wanger felt that the film lost sharpness and detail. Siegel originally shot Invasion of the Body Snatchers in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Superscope was a post-production laboratory process designed to create an anamorphic print from non-anamorphic source material that would be projected at an aspect ratio of 2.00:1
Excellent film, shows exactly what can be done with a great story, good acting and clever use of lighting and mood - and special effects when and where needed - less is more.Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
The 1978 remake is very good too and one of the few times a remake offers more but differently.
Got hold of the book a few weeks ago :)
Regards Neil
Now onto Red Dwarf series 5.
The Abel Ferrara re-make set on a U.S Air Force base is pretty good too. There are at least 4 remakes of this film.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dalek Supreme D L
Good idea , I'll do that tonight when on the PC,and move these there if you want. Might do one for future DVD releases tooQuote:
Originally Posted by Marco
I'm away down the canal with Julia Bradbury. :lol:
She's up here in Scotland at the Caledonian Canal built by Thomas Telford
Excellent, please do :thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
Marco.
Watching Wild Columbia with Nigel Marven. He just had a large snake in his hands; a constrictor. It was huge, ans started to coil round him and knocked him down...:mad:
Tonight its Guy Hamilton's 1969 masterpiece, The Battle of Britain, with an all star cast including Michael Caine,Trevor Howard,Harry Andrews, Laurence Olivier, Robert Shaw, Ralph Richardson and the delectable Susannah York .
The script by James Kennaway and Wilfred Greatorex was based on the book*The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster .
The film required a large number of period aircraft. In September 1965 producers*Harry Saltzman*and S. Benjamin Fisz contacted former RAF Bomber Command Group Captain Hamish Mahaddie to find the aircraft and arrange their use. Eventually 100 aircraft were employed, called the "35th largest air force in the world". With Mahaddie's help, the producers located 109 Spitfires in the UK, of which 27 were available although only 12 could be made flyable. Mahaddie negotiated use of six Hawker Hurricanes, of which three were flying. The film helped preserve these aircraft, including a rare Spitfire Mk II which had been a gate guardian at RAF Colerne.
During the actual aerial conflict, all RAF Spitfires were*Spitfire Mk I and Mark II variants. However, only one Mk Ia and one Mk IIa (the latter with a Battle of Britain combat record) could be made airworthy, so the producers had to use seven other different marks, all of them built after the battle. To achieve commonality, the production made some modifications to "standardise" the Spitfires, including adding elliptical wingtips, period canopies and other changes. To classic aircraft fans, they became known as "Mark Haddies" (a play on Grp. Capt. Mahaddie's name). A pair of two-seat trainer Spitfires were camera platforms to achieve realistic aerial footage inside the battle scenes. A rare Hawker Hurricane XII had been restored by Canadian*Bob Diemert, who flew the aircraft in the film. Eight non-flying Spitfires and two Hurricanes were set dressing, with one Hurricane able to taxi.
Sir William Walton was first hired to write the score, which would have been his last. Because of his advanced age, he turned to friend Sir Malcolm Arnold for assistance with the orchestrations (which Arnold supplied, as well as writing additional cues). Producer Harry Saltzman rejected the score, stating it wasn't long enough. Ron Goodwin was hired to write a new score, but when told he would be replacing one of Walton's, his first reaction was, "Why?" Goodwin eventually wrote the replacement score, but Laurence Olivier threatened to have his name removed from the credits if none of Walton's original was used. For this reason, Walton's original music was kept for the "Battle in the Air" sequence towards the end of the film. In my film you can alternate between the soundtracks. Ron Goodwin's score opens with the "Luftwaffe March", later retitled "Aces High", in the style of a traditional German military march in 6/8 time. The march places heavy emphasis on the "oom-pah" sound of tubas and lower-pitched horns on the first and second beats and has the glockenspiel double the horns in the melody. Because of the great length of this sequence, which shows a Luftwaffe general's inspection of a Heinkel squadron in occupied France, the "Aces High" has three separate bridges between choruses of the main theme, one of which recurs several times in a gently sentimental variation. Despite its origin in a representation of a tyrannical threat to democracy, the march has become a popular British march tune, like the Dambusters March; an adaptation was first played by a British military band in 1974 by the Corps of Drums of the Royal Pioneer Corps
There were to have been scenes featuring Lord Beaverbrook. Alec Guinness was hired to play Lord Beaverbrook, but these scenes were cut from the script shortly before filming.
This film became regarded as a patriotic tribute to "the few," that many of those involved in the production, actors and technicians, reduced their normal fees to work on this film. Much of the large budget went toward the acquisition, restoration, modification, maintenance and operation of the vintage aircraft.Even so the film lost millions at the box Office, probably because Americans hate to see anyone winning the war but them.
At least two excerpts are used by Pink Floyd in their "The Wall" album: Audio from Stuka diving during the attack to the radio station is used at the end of the first track, "In the Flesh?". The scene in which Simon is shot can be heard at the transition between the songs "Nobody Home" to "Vera". The phrase "Where the hell are you, Simon?", for example, is clearly recognizable at this point.
My favourite part is when the Polish pilot parachutes down to a field after being shot down. He says "Good afternoon " The farmer replies " Good afternoon my arse, you boche bastard. Come on put your hands up." ....This is now cut from the film you see on tv, probably due to Political correctness....what the hell is the world coming to.
I still think that is an awesome film; you can understand why everyone wanted to be part of it.
......now on to Red Dwarf 10......The Jesus episode is a scream.
'I love you man' on BBC1, very 'easy watching' (& Rush are in it & one of the main characters has a McIntosh set up)
PASSPORT TO PIMLICO is just about to start on film four so gonna watch that
I have seen this and enjoyed it but I didn't think it brought a lot new to the party, slightly more sensual in places and the cold methodical way the Pod people disposed of their husks was quiet chilling particularly in the air base hospital.Quote:
Originally Posted by Macca
Regards Neil
Tonight I'm watching John Huston's film noir Heist drama, The Asphalt Jungle (1950). Starring a superb ensemble cast incluging Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore, Sam Jaffe and a young Mariyln Monroe (Brad Dexter also had his first role here. Brannom (Brad Dexter) is the first character to die in the film. Dexter later appeared as Harry Luck in The Magnificent Seven (1960). He was the first of the Seven to be killed. ).
Adaptated by director John Huston and screenwriter Ben Maddow of the 1949 novel by W. R. Burnett. It was backed by MGM, who allowed the production a relatively free hand. The Production Code Administration, who required all scripts to be passed by them before production, were disturbed by the detailed depiction of the heist and the fact that the character of the fence Emmerich seemed to cheat justice by killing himself. Neither the studio nor the censors interfered significantly with the script, however, and both the heist and the suicide featured in the final cut.
This is a pretty realistic, gritty and for the time slightly repulsive portrayal of real life crime and was possibly its downfall. It pretty much broke even at the box office, and it was both liked and hated at the same time by the critics at the time.
It won 3 award: Sam Jaffe for best actor at the Venice Film Festival; John Huston for best director by the National Board of Review and Ben Maddow and John Huston for Best Motion Picture Screenplay at the Edgar Allan Poe Awards. It also had 4 nominations at the Academy Awards.
The later posters showing Marilyn Monroe in a purple dress was created much later, after she became a household name. Marilyn Monroe was basically unknown when the film was made in 1950, and only has a very small role. She certainly wouldn't have been given top billing at the time. In fact, she wasn't named on the original posters at all.
Just finished watching Sophie Scholl for the 4th time.
Highly recommended if you've not seen it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by istari_knight
The White rose, I have not seen it but have read the book which was superb....another film on my list; thanks for reminding me
Been watching Battlestar Galactica recently after I retire to bed. The 70s series which in places is pretty good, certainly a very different beast to the more recent version but enjoyable none the less. The follow up Galactica 1980 is pretty poor imho and not worth watching.
Regards Neil
Up now is the directorial debut of Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder. The 1943 home front drama Millions Like Us starring Eric Portman, Patricia Roc, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Gordon Jackson, Megs Jenkins, Anne Crawford and Moore Marriott. Radford and Wayne again play Charters and Caldicott, the cricket obsessed pair who featured in many films, including The Lady Vanishes and Night Train to Munich. Lets face it, it always lifted the tone of a film with those two putting in an appearance. The characters Charters and Caldicott made a re-appearance in the Hammer films' 1979 remake of The Lady Vanishes, with Arthur Lowe as Charters and Ian Carmichael as Caldicott. In 1985 they were the main characters in a BBC television series, Charters and Caldicott set in the modern day, with Michael Aldridge playing Caldicott and Robin Bailey as Charters. They make you proud to be British...again:eyebrows:
At the factory dance, the men were in fact Servicemen, enrolled for the film(dunno what the pay was thou). This was Jackson's fourth film and probably his best roe in his early years..hs first was in 1942 as Alastair 'Jock' MacFarlan in The Foreman Went to France.
A good film this, and Megs Jenkins again holds things together (a grand actress she was)
The Great Beauty
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Bafta Winner: ‘Film not in the English Language’ category 2014. Oscar Winner: ‘Best Foreign Language film’ 2014
Jep Gambardello, a 65-year-old journalist and once promising novelist, lives his easy life among Rome’s decadent high society in a swirl of rooftop parties and late-night soirees. But when he learns of the death of his friend’s wife – a woman he once loved as a 18-year-old – his life is thrown into perspective and he begins to see the world through new eyes…
The Aviator
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Fine performances from Leonardo de Caprio, Cate Blanchett, and also from a mis-cast Kate Beckinsale.
Directed by Martin Scorsese.
Circle of Friends
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“The same year as the BBC's Pride and Prejudice (1995) writer Andrew Davies and star Colin Firth were also hard at work on Circle of Friends, an Irish romance brought to the big screen by director Pat O'Connor (Dancing at Lughnasa). It's 1957 and three small-town friends Benny (Minnie Driver), Eve (Geraldine O'Rawe) and Nan (Saffron Burrows) arrive at university in Dublin, the scene set for an entertaining obstacle course along the path to true love. Jack, an excellent Chris O'Donnell, is the object of Benny's affections, and as the still unsure young woman beginning to find her way Driver gives an extremely engaging performance. Alan Cummings has a rather stereotyped role, which involves him in an attempted rape scene, one not only out-of-character with the rest of the film, but not even in the original novel. The transfer of 1990s mores onto 1950s Catholic Ireland jars a little towards the end, but whereas the cinema usually portrays Ireland as either a backdrop to "The Troubles", or--Angela's Ashes-style--as a land of hard working-class struggle, it's appealing to see it taking a look at the adventures of decent, ordinary middle-class people. The plot never springs any serious surprises, but makes for beautifully photographed Sunday-night TV-style nostalgia.” --Gary S. Dalkin
The Aviator was a great picture, and Di Caprio was it superb form. This and Gangs are my 2 favourties of his
I wasn't keen on the Aviator at all. I can't believe Dicaprio playing any role other than as a young kid. He was even miscast in Titanic IMO. He is just too fresh-faced. Plus the film finishes just as things are getting interesting.