Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[struth]

PASSPORT TO PIMLICO is just about to start on film four so gonna watch that

[Spectral Morn]

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.

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.


Regards Neil

[struth]

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.

[istari_knight]

Just finished watching Sophie Scholl for the 4th time.

Highly recommended if you've not seen it.

[struth]

Just finished watching Sophie Scholl for the 4th time.

Highly recommended if you've not seen it.

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

[Spectral Morn]

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

[struth]

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

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)

[Barry]

The Great Beauty


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


Fine performances from Leonardo de Caprio, Cate Blanchett, and also from a mis-cast Kate Beckinsale.

Directed by Martin Scorsese.


Circle of Friends


“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

[struth]

The Aviator was a great picture, and Di Caprio was it superb form. This and Gangs are my 2 favourties of his

[Macca]

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.