1) Chariots of Fire (1981)
2) Escape from New York (1981)
3) Local Hero (1983)
4) Another Country (1984)
5) The Killing Fields (1984)
6) White Mischief (1987)
7) Dance with a Stranger (1985)
8) Absolute Beginners (1987)
9) Cal (1984)
10) The Ploughman's Lunch (1982)
On one hand I can see how this got greenlit - classy writer, interesting book, promising director. Julie Christie signed on.
But it's so dull. England in economic collapse but everything is messy and shabby rather than dramatic. Christie watches things. A young girl roots a guy. There's visions of a Victorian era house.
The movie went on and on. At first I was forgiving but then I became annoyed because it's so doggedly un commercial.
This should've been done for TV if that. I felt like I was in a festival audience watching it. Trying to stay awake.
George MacDonald Fraser gave this a dismissive review in his book on historical movies. It's got the costumes and sets but isn't very good - Matheson Lang is too old and laid back for Drake. The drama isn't personalised, not really.
Nice photography. Impressive production values. But dull
It's based on a historical pageant play and feels like it. There's scenes were people march though and music plays. It doesn't dramatise what's going on.
Lost money and no wonder. Dull. Goes through the greatest hits.
This would've had its place in 1987 with TV and Hollywood more conservative, so two acts of chat maybe weren't as draining. The chat is fine but the second act doesn't add to the first. Also he won't leave her house when she asks, and I know that was the time, but it's a drag.
A fine showpiece for actors.
I was in the mood for this. It's not very good but it's a big crap musical with Neil Diamond a warm presence with a wonderful voice who deserved a better film. Starts with a thumping song, shots of NYC and Diamond and Laurence Olivier being Jewish and you wonder what went wrong. Then Diamond's in blackface with some black musicians.
Franklin Ajaye and Luci Arnaz are perfect support. Script makes dumb decisions like not killing off Olivier (isn't that the point?). Apparently they were going to kill off Arnaz too that would've been ideal. And dumb to make him married that makes him an arsehole. Lean into the melodrama.
Great songs. Diamond doesn't disgrace himself. Olivier has a high old time. Campy fun when Diamond goes on the road.
Movie should have been book ended by a huge concert.
Phil Avalon surf melodrama with weirdly not that much surfing. Ryan Kwanten good value as a star. Simone Kessell uses a French accent. A lot going on. Drug smuggling. Woman struck by lightning. Brother overdosing with drugs. Kwanten going to prison. Embracing island style. Some Kessell nudity. Quite watchable.
Nothing wrong with elevated horror but sometimes it's so elevated you don't have the required sex, suspense, violence. This is a version of Bram Stoker's Jewel of the Seven Stars. It takes too long to get going - should have started with the birth, Stephanie Zimablist is too nice and polite in a role that needs someone exotic and strange (and her character is introduced far too late - the story should be about her being possessed). Charlton Heston is fine. Susannah York isn't bad just feels under-utilised.
The story hints at themes not developed - incest, death, so on. I can see why Orion asked for it to be recut. The writers Chris Bryant and Allan Scott adapted Don't Look Now and what this needed was Nic Roeg not Mike Newell at the start of his career.
Oh and you can tell moments where they've gone "make it more like The Omen."
Phil Avalon's sequel to Summer City is a bit of a mess and doesn't develop its relationships - Vince and Peter Phelps for instance, or Phelps and Abigail, Phelps and Abigail's daughter, Phelps and his gilfriend. The subplots aren't resolved.
But the film has its charms. A reminder of a time when living on the coast was cheap, and towns small and violent. Good surfing footage.
Charming. Has aged. But King has tremendous personality. Richard Armstrong should've been killed. Bruce Cabot lacks charm but is a believable sailor. Fay Wray lovely. Great action and adventure.
Not a lot of actual laughs but full of good cheer, atmosphere and superb acting. Michelle Pfeiffer is very likeable as the mafia widow who just wants to have an honest life, Dean Stockwell is excellent (scary but very human), ditto Mercedues Reuhl (whose love for and pain about her husband is very real and affecting), Matthew Modine is charming as an affable FBI man.
There's appearances from people like Oliver Platt, Lady Carol, oh so young Alec Baldwin, an achingly pretty Nancy Travis.
Lovely movie.
Classy Top Ten (features)
1) Married to the Mob (1988)
2) Full Metal Jacket (1987)
3) Birdy (1986)
4) Streamers (1984)
5) Short Cuts (1993)
6) And the Band Played On (1993)
7) Any Given Sunday (1999)
8) Memphis Belle (1990)
9) Mrs Soffel (1984)
10) Baby It's You (1983)
Craptacular top five
1) Private School (1983)
2) Vision Quest (1985)
3) Wind (1992)
4) Cutthroat Island (1995)
5) Gross Anatomy (1989)
Sweet, if over-familiar time loop comedy with Emily Browning taking shots that bring her back to the start of the night and it's New Year's Eve. Starts off a little wonkily and maybe doesn't develop all its subplots and support characters well (eg lesbian couple) but gets better as it goes along.
Robyn Hitchcock must be a sort of hipsters folk pop star, with his guitar and singing. He's not my cup of tea. Indeed, he's annoying, with his shirts- I missed David Byrne's flamboyance and autism.
I enjoyed the presentation - in a shop front, and it getting darker.
If you like singer you'll get into this.
A film best discovered without knowing too much about it. It ticked all of Jonathan Demme's boxes - love letter to a few actors, stylistic, American underbelly, opportunities for music. Melanie Griffith is wonderful, though in the second half she's very passive. Ray Liotta excellent - ditto Jeff Daniel (I miss those pre blowhard days). Fun cameos from John Sayles and John Waters. Full of quirk and tonal shifts. Like a very good Australian film. Like many of those probably half an hour too long.
Nineties cinema par excellance - hot director, social issue, Oscar bait, etc. It made a lot of money, got rewards, but after this the critics turned on Jonathan Demme - too establishment. The movie became a joke in a way - Tom Hanks seems to apologise for being so acclaimed playing gay and it led to In Out.
But the movie holds up well. Confidently made. Two great stars in flashy roles. Denzel is that 90s standby - a loveable ambulance chaser. Hanks is very affable - who was as affable, really? Classy support cast including Bradley Whitford, Antonio Banderas.
The film goes for very long. It's two hours. Thirty minutes could have been cut out. I understand they needed to give Hanks a big monologue in the second half because otherwise Denzel takes over. The powerful drama of the opening half an hour - Hanks discovering his illness, getting fired - is dissipated.
But the acting is lovely, the direction sensitive, it does have heft.
Roger Corman is used very well once again - Demme knew how to deploy his persona.
A magnificent combination of material, writer, director, approach, and stars. Joanthan Demme didn't always has the best scripts he wasn't great on story and sometimes his take on the material didn't match but it works beautifully here. Few movies better demonstrate the power of close ups.
Also he lucked out with casting. Jodie Foster was never better as the plucky, intimated Clarice, who is constantly shown surrounded by men, leering/dismissive. Even Jack Craword (Scott Glenn, very good) can be dismissive. Tony Hopkings is electric. Charming. Gene Hackman and even Sean Connery wouldn't have been as good.
Full of spectacular set pieces. Stunningly well made. Orion were a great studio. William Goldman advised a whole section be cut out apparently. Roger Corman has one of his best roles.
Jonathan Demme's last dramatic feature sent him out with a minor hit, helped by the casting of Meryl Streep as a rocker. She's estranged from her family - ex husband Kevin Kline.
Interesting double bill with Rachel Gets Married - that film needed this character.
Feels like an Australian film. I plotted this. Really poor script. From Diablo Cody! But things of great promise like Rick Springfield loving Streep - that's resolved in one scene! Endless music. Dull.
1) The Railway Children (1971)
2) Walkabout (1970)
3) Logan's Run (1976)
4) An American Werewolf in London (1981)
5) Equus (1976)
6) The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
7) The Riddle of the Sands (1979)
8) China 9 Liberty 37 (1978)
9) Sweet William (1980) - never seen it actually but it was a lead
10) the Snow Goose (1971)
Anne Hathaway is a proper film star and Jonathan Demme's direction is full of energy but it's not uch of a script it feels like an Australian movie with AH as a hot mess out of rehab for her sister's wedding. There's a lot of speeches and family stuff, and encounters. A romance with a fellow junkie is dispensed with very quickly - they root, that's it. There's a Past (Hathaway accidentally kileld her brother), some secrets (she's full of it), Rosemary de Witt is the sister gets upset. The cast includes Debra Winger and some vaguely familiar faces.
It's too long and too much of it is undercooked - the guy she hooks up with, the mother, the dad's girlfriend, the groom, the groom's family. There's so many speeches and music acts. I get that Demme loves his actors and extras but give them something to play.
Rewrite, please.
For the first half of this I found it annoying - there was no need to make it, really, and the story doens't really work outside the Cold War. I know big business is bad but they normally just buy off people instead of big conspiracies. It needed the religious fervour of the Cold War.
Meryl Streep has a high old time and Denzel Washington goes mad well - the second half where the movie forges more of its own identity is stronger.It beefs up the Janet Leigh part.
The TV pundit scenes annoyed me for some reason.
Roger Corman has a small role!
A delightful surprise - I'd dismissed this film without having seen it like many. I was offended, I guess, by the idea of remaking Charade and its junior grade stars. So I didn't bother. Maybe I wouldn't have liked it at the time but now I totally get it and really enjoyed the film. I understand why Demme wanted to make it, coming off Beloved, a heavy movie, and distracted by his production company and Good Works. He just wanted to have fun. So he look a terrific script, and an actress he wanted to work with and had fun in France.
It's a love letter to the French new wave, with cameos from Agnes Varda, Anna Karina, and Charles Azanvour, and New Wave techniques and lots of French dialogue. He made the film for Thandie Newton who is fine - not perfect in the way Audrey Hepburn was but she's having a good time and Demme adores her. And Wahlberg is giving it a good try, and it's fun now to see him in a beret and talking French. Will Smith would've been much, much better but Demme is having a great time and so are the cast. Demme was ahead of the curve on diverse casting, and there's quirky touches like the girl from Emmanuele with the magazine (you'll know the one if you've seen the film) playing a cop, Ted Levine as a baddy but a flawed one. Tim Robbins is a little annoying with his dumb voice - this was around the time in his career when I began to dread him in films because he was always Saying Something about American Foreign Policy.
Loved the music. Enjoyed the movie.
A film that kind of sank without a trace despite the star power of Oprah, writer Toni Morrison and her book, and director Jonathan Demme. This was in part due to an uninspiring release - I remember seeing this bland poster of Danny Glover and Oprah and the title and thinking "what is that about". I think it needed to lean into its ghost story background more.
It's a decent story though there's a lot of backstory. It's long - three hours long. Very well acted although Thandie Newton stumbles into Simple Jack territory.
It didn't work for me. There were good moments. It felt unfocused. Kept changing protagnists.
Just really loved this. Backlot Calcutta. Full of allusions to Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. There's even a Sydney Greensteet type - a woman. Gail Russell's sweet femme fetale grows on me every viewing. I didn't mind June Duprez. William Bendix great. Perfect Alan Ladd vehicle. Love how he assume's he'll investigate the murder of his friend and the boss of the airline shrugs it off.
Teaming of two legends - Claudia Cardinale and Brigitte Bardot - set in the old west. The two have different personas that don't actually really mesh, at least not here - Cardinale is cheery, Bardot seems distracted.
Something like Vera Cruz you get the conflict and the personals - it's not clear here. Michael J Pollard doesn't bring much to the party. There's a fight between Cardinale and Bardot but it doesn't feel that motivated.
I wanted to enjoy it. I didn't. The women look great. Cardinale is far more into it that Bardot.
I've got a theory that movies that are endlessly cut and recut have a basic story flaw. That's my take on this one where Jonathan Demme was famously sacked by Goldie Hawn.
It's got a great idea - women working in World War Two. Solid feminism - women working for the first time, being liberated financially and sexually.
But it's dragged down by being so fair and nice. Ed Harris is nice. Hawn's life before the war is quite pleasant. He joins up.
Kurt Russell wants Goldie. He asks her out a bunch of times which makes him an arsehole. I didn't like him and I didn't like her. Then he shags Christine Lahti and I didn't like them.
The problems are so easy to be fixed. Just make Hawn's husband horrible. Have her be liberated by the war. Discover the joys of decent sex, money, working. Priave Benjamin did it better.
The movie also is annoyingly expensive- huge sets, factories, ballrooms, extras. Not needed.
It's fun to see people like Holly Hunter, Roger Corman, Stephen Tobolowsy. But the film doesn't work. It's not enjoyable.
The film was heavily rewritten and changed from what Demme intended - see here.
Fantastic book. Big subject but superbly done, great research (access to archives) very thorough and fair. Deep dives on unmade films such as Napoleon and AI. Discusses Kubrick's interest in sex, often ignored by critics. Covers his arseholeness and eccentricities. The book is really fair.
Full of interesting stuff - his battles to make things, a daughter turning into anti-Semitic neo con, his dreams of moving to Australia, James Brolin was considered for The Shining.
Splendid.
Solid biography of the director - I'm surprised there hadn't been one before now. It packs a fair bit in - his publicist, flashy dad, who had progressive politics and was a bit of a sleaze, like his son, really, who didn't always treat women well. Like his Australian first wife who he refused to allow produce.
Demme broke in as a publicist, worked in New York, interned for Joe Levine, benefited from a wealthy background, move to London, did some work on Eyewitness, then hooked up with Roger Corman, stayed with Corman a few years. Obviously talented, so much so that people kept giving him work despite a lack of hits. Indeed, he only had a few hits throughout his career. Quality of his work seemed to slip after Philadelphia with too many remakes but in his defense his focus seems to have been split, doing a lot of producing and documentaries, being involved in Haiti. A heavy smoker which is why he died relatively young.
I'm not a huge Demme fan. Something slightly lacking in the book. Maybe a layer of depth or something.
Looking at Jonathan Demme's movies it's amazing how many of his early ones flopped - Crazy Mama, Fighting Mad, Citizens Band, Last Embrace and this. He kept getting chances because of strong reviews - this won a couple of Oscars.
It's a true life tale of an odd chap, played by Paul Le Mat, during that actor's star years, who gives Howard Hughes a lift and later inherits a fortune. That's the beginning and end. Most of the movie is Le Mat and wife Mary Steenburgen and him marrying Pamela Reed.
It's nicely made and acted and everything. I just didn't care. Sorry. Maybe I saw it in a bad mood.
Cameron Crowe's second film as a director is very sweet, ahead of the curve, full of nice things, though doesn't quite come together, as he himself realised. It's about friends who live in an apartment block though they pull away to Kyra Sedgwick who doesn't live in the house, it has Sheila Kelly and Bridget Fonda playing a similar type (looking for a man), doesn't give Fonda enough to do, defintely doesn't give enough to do to that friend with the hat who's in all these scenes (Jim True-Frost).
The support cast is full of future names like Ally Walker, Jeremy Piven, plus famous in other sphere names like Tim Burton and Peal Jam.
What changes could he have made? I think given it more center and focus - make it about people who live in the building properly. Move Segwick into the building. Have her share with Fonda. You'd have to lose some funny lines and moments but it would give a greater feeling of family.
1) Bugsy Malone (1976) - she'll take over Fat Sam's empire
2) Taxi Driver (1976)
3) Foxes (1980) - forgotten now but terrific
4) Silence of the Lambs (1991)
5) Freaky Friday (1976)
6) Hotel New Hampshire (1984) - film's not great but she is
7) Sommersby (1993) - does anyone remember this now?
8) Maverick (1994) - should do more comedies
9) The Accused (1988) - deserved the Oscar
10) A Very Long Engagement (2004) - in French! Good flex
Jonathan Demme did a series of flops for studios - he got chances though because he was clearly talented and the movies were interesting. This is an attempt at a Hitchcock type thing with Roy Scheider as a secret agent recovering from the death of his wife who is convinced people want to kill him.
Maybe it would've worked better if he hadn't been a secret agent. Maybe people didn't like Scheider as a stand alone star - or Janet Margolin had been a bigger name.
It's full of neat touches like the person playing guitar. The shift to Margolin being a hooker looks a little silly. The film is uncertain about its POV. It probably needed to be entirely Demme's POV.
Why does Chris Walken want Scheider dead? Charles Napier had enough motivation as the brother of Scheider's dead wife. Why did Demme have Scheider start to seduce Margolin and have her going "no no no" but still submit? Not very sexy. Why have the whole final chase with no stakes? He figured out she did it... she escapes... so what? Why not have someone try to kill her or him as well?
It doesn't get what Vertigo made clear - that the lying woman genuinely loves the new guy. It's not clear that Margolin has fallen in love with Scheider.
Also revenge for a grandmother's death seems so ancient. It's like two generations. If Scheider had been descended from Nazis maybe. Or He did it. Or if it was just her mother and dad.
The whole thing is silly but I kept watching and Demme kept trying different things.
Weird that this was a studio movie but I guess it was the 70s - Paramount but Paramount under Freddie Fields and Barry Diller. Shaggy dog tale of different people in a small town - Charles Napier has two women, Paul Le Mat is brother of Bruce McGill and loves Candy Clark. It's fine.
Ginger Rogers' popularity drove this unremarkable comedy to a decent box office gross. She's another of her ordinary girls who falls in with a millionaire, Walter Connolly and pretends to be his mistress, and that gives Connolly respect.
Connolly was a B list older actor - I wish there'd been a Charles Laughton or someone - but he's fine. He died not long after this - they didn't live long back in the day.
The family are boring - this was a versuon of My Man Godfrey. Son is a pompous twist as played by Tim Holt (whose non Westerns tended to be classics... not this one). Daughter dates a commie which has novelty. Wife flirts around. Family aren't interesting. Rogers seems bored.
There's a reason why no one remembers this much.
The success of Gregory's Girl made movies in Scotland, for a time, a thing - here is the star of that movie, playing another gormless type. He's a photographer who gets bored with his girlfriend, who is too hot for him, so they break up.
It's an impossible film to dislike. Even if very light.
Do people still watch this movie any more? It's fun. I mean, it's long, but it gave people their money's worth in 1956. Length! Colour! Widescreen! Stars!
David Niven is a lot of fun as Fogg (the film put him back on top) and Cantiflas engaging as Passporteu. The cameos range from fun - Noel Coward, John Gielgud - to "whatever" - Fernandel, Charles Boyer.
1) Perviness - lots and lots of vouyerism
2) Old Hollywood - famously Hitchcock but also gangster movies, broad comedies, musicals
3) Leftist politics - Greetings, Redcated, Casualties of War - soldiers are bad, it's a conspiracy, etc etc
4) Satire - of American politics but also business, gangsters
5) Wacky comedy - related to above - most notorious in Wise Guys but also in other films like Home Movies, Greetings
6) Genuine artist - when De Palma gets chits he blows them in interesting ways: anti-war movies, student films, video
John Sexton had success with the horsey Phar Lap but this didn't do so well despite a lot of good things - the beautiful photography, horses, locations, costumes. Imported star Jeff Fahey fits in fine. The problem is the story. The female lead Tuskha Bergen doesn't have anything to do except be passive- she should be galloping around being feisty.
Coward's adventures in the war makes compelling reason in part because he simply went so many places - Poland, Russia, Finland and Norway before the war, Paris after it started, Australia.
A movie that managed to unite hawks and doves with its blood and guts hero - isn't he great vs isn't it awful. Some terrific fresh bits like the opening with Patton talking to troops in front of the flag. Others are more conventional such as people going "tell me about Patton" and Germans giving exposition. Karl Malden's Bradley is dull.
There are fresh things, or at least fresh at the time - the more realistic depiction of how battles were fought in World War Two.
Whit Stillman is an idea adapter of Jane Austen. I'm not familiar with the novel but it's clear enough - Kate Beckinsale is a flirt with no money who wants to find a husband for herself and her daughter. Beckinsale plays the best character although there's a funny idiot aristocrat. Xavier Samuel suits this sort of story. The daughter is under cast. Chloe Svegniy feels underused as the best friend - it's good to see her but maybe she would've been better as the antaognist sister in law.
I like the use of titles. It skips emotion. This is my second time watching. It doesn't register for some reason. It's good though. I'm aware this is contradictory.
