Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[walpurgis]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977

Still a great film. I've seen it loads of times, but always enjoy it.

[struth]

Blowup, 1966. stars David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Jane Birkin, Tsai Chin, Peter Bowles, and Gillian Hills, as well as 1960s model Veruschka.

It was directed by Michelangelo Antonioni.






MGM did not gain approval for the film under the MPAA Production Code in the United States. The film was condemned by the National Legion of Decency. The code's collapse and revision was foreshadowed when MGM released the film through a subsidiary distributor, Premier Productions, and Blowup was shown widely in North American cinemas.

Writing about Antonioni for Time in 2007, the film writer Richard Corliss states that the film grossed "$20 million (about $120 million today) on a $1.8 million budget and helped liberate Hollywood from its puritanical prurience".

The film earned $5.9 million in theatrical rentals in the United States and Canada in 1967.

The film's non-diegetic music was scored by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, while rock group the Yardbirds also feature. The film is set within the mod subculture of 1960s Swinging London.

[Barry]

Excellent film and one which captures the mood of the '60s in 'Swinging London' perfectly.

I wonder if 'Blow Up' was the inspiration for 'Blow Out': both films starting with the idea of an artist (photographer and sound recorder respectively) inadvertently stumbling on something odd and potentially risky as they went about their business.

Curiously I love 'Blow Up', but think little of 'Blow Out' (as I do of most of Brian de Palma's films).

[struth]

The Titfield Thunderbolt, 1953. British comedy film directed by Charles Crichton and starring Stanley Holloway, Naunton Wayne, George Relph and John Gregson. The screenplay concerns a group of villagers trying to keep their branch line operating after British Railways decided to close it. The film was written by TEB Clarke and was inspired by the restoration of the narrow gauge Talyllyn Railway in Wales, the world's first heritage railway run by volunteers. The name "Titfield" is an amalgamation of the villages of Limpsfield and Titsey in Surrey, near Clarke's home at Oxted.





There was considerable inspiration from the book Railway Adventure by established railway book author L.T.C. Rolt, published in 1952.[6] Rolt had acted as honorary manager for the volunteer enthusiasts running the Talyllyn Railway for the two years 1951–52. A number of scenes in the film, such as the emergency re-supply of water to the locomotive by buckets from an adjacent stream, or passengers being asked to assist in pushing the carriages, were taken from this book.

[struth]

Excellent film and one which captures the mood of the '60s in 'Swinging London' perfectly.

I wonder if 'Blow Up' was the inspiration for 'Blow Out': both films starting with the idea of an artist (photographer and sound recorder respectively) inadvertently stumbling on something odd and potentially risky as they went about their business.

Curiously I love 'Blow Up', but think little of 'Blow Out' (as I do of most of Brian de Palma's films).

blow out is one of my fav de palma films lol. travolta and nancy allen were a good pair together. both of course were in carrie too

[struth]

The Square Peg, 1959. Normn Wisdom takes on the third reich

[struth]

The Interrupted journey, 1949. Directed by Daniel Birt and starring Valerie Hobson, Richard Todd, Christine Norden and Tom Walls. A young Roger Moore plays an uncredited role as a soldier.







The film's ending is sometimes considered by critics to be contrived, as Todd realises that much of the plot has been a nightmare and awakens from this dream sequence shortly before the conclusion for a happy ending. However, it has been noted that the whole film "simulates the qualities of a nightmare" through its use of coincidences and the lighting. The Encyclopedia of Film Noir describes it as a "superior film noir" and compares its ending to the 1944 The Woman in the Window.

[struth]

Blue Murder at St Trinian's, 1957.... Directed by Frank Launder and written by him and Sidney Gilliat, it was the second of the series of four films. The film stars Terry-Thomas, George Cole, Joyce Grenfell, Lionel Jeffries and Richard Wattis.







Bosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times, "what is important and delightful is that the spirit of knockabout farce, evolved in "The Belles of St. Trinian's," is retained uninhibited in this film...it is wild but generally funny—explosively funny in spots, especially when that fellow Terry-Thomas, who was the mustachioed major in "Private's Progress," is dragooned as a bus driver to transport the girls to Rome. And since he has toothy Joyce Grenfell to accompany him on the trip—she's "a crazy, mixed-up police-woman," as she dubs herself—the fun is as much in their behavior as it is in that of the belles. None of the latter is notable as an actress; all are lissome and lively girls. They make for pleasant company on a mad excursion. It's only too bad that Mr. Sim had to languish in jail".

[struth]

Quatermass and the Pit, 1967. Directed by Roy Ward Baker and stars Andrew Keir, James Donald, Barbara Shelley and Julian Glover.
It was released in the USA as Five Million Years to Earth.

[Macca]

Forces TV - Blakes 7 followed by UFO - 2 hours of proper telly.