Gloria Grahame

Gloria Graham (1923-1981) is being celebrated by a two-part season at London's BFI. 

The season will tie in with the release of FILM STARS DON'T DIE IN LIVERPOOL (Paul McGuigan, 2017), about the passionate relationship between British actor Peter Turner and the Academy Award-Winning actress, starring Annette Bening and Jamie Bell. (Bening should be ideal here - I read the book some time ago, so looking forward to seeing it).

As the perceptive notes by programmer Jo Botting, say:

Although Grahame never reached the heights of major stardom, she excelled at playing complex, damaged women. Her innate ability to tap into the psyche of troubled characters imbued them with an emotional depth that hinted at a troubled past, and a doomed future. Crossfire (Edward Dmytryk, 1947) offered Grahame one of her earliest substantial roles; her portrayal of a dance-hall girl who witnesses a murder earned her an Oscar®-nomination and set the mould for her screen persona. Nicholas Ray’s beguiling blend of murder mystery and love story In a Lonely Place (1950) is one of the finest American movies of the early 50s, which sees a Hollywood scriptwriter (played by Humphrey Bogart) become the prime suspect in the murder of a young woman, that is, until his neighbour played by Grahame provides him with a false alibi. As the pair embark on a romance, his volatile temper makes her wonder whether he might have been guilty. In a Lonely Place is rereleased by Park Circus on Friday 24 November, and plays on extended run; also re-released on the same day is The Big Heat (1953), Fritz Lang’s stark thriller about a cop fighting city-wide corruption. Lang’s film is pacy, unsentimental and to the point in exploring the thin line between the law and rough justice. The robust direction, terse script and unfussy performances ensure the movie feels strangely modern. Grahame read Macbeth in preparation for the role of Irene Neves in Sudden Fear (David Miller, 1952) – looking to Lady Macbeth to locate the emotional drive to manipulate a man to murder, as she does with actor-cum-fraudster Lester Blaine. Joan Crawford is at the film’s core and plays the melodramatic angle to perfection, but Grahame is compelling as the driving force behind the murderous plot. 

Alongside the noir titles, part one of the season in November will also include Vincente Minnelli’s classic Hollywood take on the movie business The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), which tells the tale of a ruthless producer and the effect his dealings have on his friends and colleagues. Grahame received the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the role despite being on screen for only nine minutes.

Part two of the season in December further explores Grahame’s femme fatale finesse, but also showcases some of her lighter roles including Vincente’s Minnelli’s lush melodrama The Cobweb (1955) in which she plays the neglected wife of a doctor, frustrated by his dedication to his work and stifled by the small-town mentality of those around her.  Although she was not a natural singer (her singing was dubbed in Naked Alibi) Grahame’s naïve, endearing vocal style in the classic Rogers and Hammerstein musical western Oklahoma! (Fred Zinnemann, 1955) brings genuine charm to her portrayal of the flirtatious The selection of films screening in the season illustrates Gloria Grahame’s great acting talent and reveals a scintillating screen presence and effortless glamour. Her scandalous and turbulent private life has intensified her legendary status, but this shouldn’t distract viewers from her most important legacy: her uniquely compelling performances.

"100 thrillers to see before you die"

Here's a doozy for lovers of lists and thrillers. The British Film Institute has come up with 100 listed alphabetically. See them all at the link:

 http://www.bfi.org.uk/thriller/100-thrillers-see-before-you-die?

But what really is a thriller? Is CHINATOWN a thriller or a deep romantic drama with thrills added? 

I am happy with 90% of this list, most of the obvious choices are here - from Chabrol's LE BOUCHER (right) to THE BIG HEAT (below), and pleased to see Moll's HARRY, HE'S HERE TO HELP included, but would have to fit in :

• OBSESSION - DePalma, 1976
• THE PARALLAX VIEW - Pakula, 1974
• LE SAMOURAI - Melville, 1967
• CHAIR DE POULE - Duvivier, 1963
• COMA - Crichton, 1978
• THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR - Pollock, 1975
• LES MAUDITS - Clement, 1948
• THE BIG COMBO - Lewis, 1955.

Next: Gloria Graham ...

New Goodfellas trailer

Personally approved by Scorsese, for its re-release, as we await the arrival of his lauded new film SILENCE. 

End of year ...

The new "award season" will soon be underway, with a lot of prestige titles jostling for inclusion. As ever we have to wait a while for the interesting new releases here .... at least Tom Ford's NOCTURNAL ANIMALS was well-received and should be a major contender.

We have to wait until January for LA LA LAND, February for MOONLIGHT, March for Verhoeven's ELLE with that stunning Isabelle Huppert performance ...

Meanwhile, I have LOVE & FRIENDSHIP, THE NEON DEMON, THEO & HUGO, and an interesting new Irish movie SING STREET to see and relish ... Bond and The Beatles too, as we have finally seen SKYFALL and SPECTRE, and EIGHT DAYS A WEEK. 

Reviews coming up, including another French rarity MALE HUNT (LA CHASSE A HOMME) an all-star 1964 item, with only Belmondo, Brialy, Deneuve & Dorleac, Laforet, Presle etc. 

Not bad for December, now for all those end-of-year reviews ... Of the Sight & Sound Top 20 of 2016, http://www.bfi.org.uk/best-films-2016
I have only heard of half of them, most of them have not opened here yet until next year, and Hollywood mainstream movies are mainly absent (apart from LA LA LAND and MOONLIGHT, if they are considered mainstream). 

La La Land, Tom & Isabelle at LFF ,,,

Another year, another bulky LFF (London Film Festival) brochure arrives for the October feast of new films, as another award season gets underway.

The Venice Film Festival is also in full swing, and initial reports on some of the films whet one's appetite. I particularly want to see LA LA LAND, David Chazelle's follow-up to WHIPLASH which is an out-and-out musical, a hymn to Hollywood and stardom and those who strive there. Ryan Gosling at his most appealing plays a jazz musician hoping to open his own club. Emma Stone is an aspiring actress but working as a barista. They get together and inspire each other to achieve their dreams, they sing and dance. The stunning opening sequence apparantly of mass happiness breaking out on a jammed freeway is eye-popping. Bring it on. Maybe a new hymn to Hollywood and music a la Scorsese's NEW YORK NEW YORK?  

Tom Ford, after the problematic version of Isherwood's A SINGLE MAN in 2009 (see Tom Ford label), also has a well received new film, that should generate a lot of interest: NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, showing the disintegration of crime victim Jake Gyllenhaal in rural Texas. Amy Adams and Michael Sheen also star. The Ford got the grand jury prize at Venice and LA LA LAND's Emma Stone best actress.

There are also two new Isabelle Huppert films, ELLE by maestro Paul Verhoeven, a rape revenge drama, and SOUVENIR. Ms Huppert keeps busy, there is also a new one just opened in London, THINGS TO COME, which my pal Martin liked a lot. 

We will have to go through the LFF listings in more detail for more items to look forward to. 

The night manager's pass, 2016

Should one rave about a new BBC serial after just one episode? I feel like doing so after catching the first episode of new Sunday night 6-part thriller THE NIGHT MANAGER, an updated version of a 1993 John Le Carre novel. Event television: great cast, great story, brilliantly directed and one can hear and understand every word - unlike in that other BBC highly regarded series HAPPY VALLEY * where the actors mumbling on location cannot have been recorded properly? 

A night manager of a European hotel is recruited by intelligence agents to infiltrate an international arms dealer's network.

Directed by Susanne Bier, this grabs one from the first moment. Tom Hiddleston is Jonathan Pine, the ex-army man now working as the night manager of a classy Cairo hotel, when he has his first encounter with the world of mega-rich Roper (Hugh Laurie), who is an arms dealer on the side ..... Tom Hollander plays his nasty henchman, Olivia Colman is the M16 operative on their trail, Russell Tovey pops up as an embassy man reluctant to get involved, and the large cast includes Douglas Hodge, Katharine Kelly, Neil Morrisey, David Harewood and more. After event get out of hand in Cairo and the death of the woman Pine was trying to help (after copying those documents which incriminate Roper) the action suddenly shifts to Switzerland 4 years later Pine is now the new night manager, and Roper and his cohorts arrive by helicopter and Pine has to provide the service they expect ..... We will be looking forward to more of this.

* Speaking of HAPPY VALLEY - sometimes an actor can astound one. We hardly noticed Kevin Doyle in DOWNTON ABBEY as mousey Mr Molesley, but he is riveting here as the Police detective who murders his difficult mistress - fabulous Amelia Bullmore, another Sally Wainwright regular. Doyle was also fantastic in SCOTT & BAILEY as that serial killer, over several episodes. Wainwright creates great moments for actors, like Joe Duttine (CORONATION STREET's resident window-cleaner) who has a great scene in SCOTT & BAILEY when he is revealed as a paedophile killer, and those great episodes with equally marvellous Nicola Walker. Of course Walker and HAPPY VALLEY's Sarah Lancashire were both stalwarts of Wainwright's terrific series LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX..). 

Busy boy Russell Tovey also stars in THE PASS, which he played on the stage here a year or two ago, and is now the opening night film of the new LGBT film festival at the BFI here next month. This should be an intriguing drama too .... mixing in the world of gays and football and sportsmen keeping secrets ....  Directed by Ben A. Williams and scripted by John Donnelly.

Nineteen-year-old Jason and Ade have been in the Academy of a famous London football club since they were eight years old. It's the night before their first-ever game for the first team - a Champions League match - and they're in a hotel room in Romania. They should be sleeping, but they're over-excited. They skip, fight, mock each other, prepare their kit, watch a teammate's sex tape. And then, out of nowhere, one of them kisses the other. The impact of this 'pass' reverberates through the next ten years of their lives - a decade of fame and failure, secrets and lies, in a sporting world where image is everything.

New Dr Zhivago trailer

A confession: I have never seen DR ZHIVAGO at the cinema, or all the way through on television - though I have the DVD for all those extras, including those interviews with Lean and Christie. I have though seen bits of it lots of times from various screenings 
The film has now been restored by the BFI (British Film Institute) and is the centrepiece of their latest big season, on Love. So perhaps its time to finally see it as Lean intended ...

Cate at the BFI

Cate Blanchett receives her BFI Fellowship from LOTR co-star Ian McKellen, marking the climax of the LFF London Film Festival junketing. Not too long now then before CAROL finally graces our screens as the next Awards Season hots up - we trust La Blanchett has some more splendid fashion creations lined up for those red carpets ...

Marilyn at the BFI ...

Marilyn Monroe finally gets a retrospective season in June at London's BFI Southbank cinema - viewing her, accordng to the programme notes, from a feminist slant, with practically all of her major films, including those interesting early ones CLASH BY NIGHT, MONKEY BUSINESS, DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK and the delicious WE'RE NOT MARRIED and from NIAGARA onwards. 
It shows what a sparking comedienne and singer she was as well as dramatic actress ....SOME LIKE IT HOT plays a few times too on Sky this week, I shall of course be loving it all over again. (Jack and Tony really should have shared Best Actor Oscar in 1959 - sorry, Charlton). 

Now, do I need to see THE MISFITS again on the big screen, its only getting an extended run of 34 screenings - yes, it might be nice, for old times sake - it was a movie I was obsessed about (like I was with James Dean's) and go to all the time, back in that pre-video/dvd/blu-ray age.  Lots more Marilyn of course at label. 

Dirk Bogarde: 10 essential films.

The BFI (British Film Institute) has an interesting selection of "10 Best Films of ...." on their website. Dirk Bogarde is the latest choice, as per this link to the list, with comments and illustrations. 

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/dirk-bogarde-10-essential-films

Dirk would have been 94 yesterday, 28 March. While it is an interesting list (HUNTED, THE SPANISH GARDENER, VICTIM, THE SERVANT, DARLING, ACCIDENT, THE DAMNED, DEATH IN VENICE, THE NIGHT PORTER, DESPAIR) I would have made some changes.

I would have included THE BLUE LAMP and maybe DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE (or AT SEA with B.B.), and swopped THE DAMNED (which is not a major role for him, much as I like Visconti's over-the-top operatic melodrama) for his blond arch-villain Gabriel in Losey's MODESTY BLAISE still a camp delight after all these years, one of my major cult movies, and we always like an excuse to print another picture of Monica Vitti in Losey's op-art spy spoof (see Modesty label). and I would rather Resnais's fascinating PROVIDENCE, 1977, than the mess that is DESPAIR (and I don't suppose we will ever see again his later television roles: THE VISION with Lee Remick, MAY WE BORROW YOUR HUSBAND which he adapted from Graham Green'e short story, or THE PATRICIA NEAL STORY where he is Roald Dahl to Glenda Jackson's Neal). 

Martin would say I am  name-dropping if I mention that I saw Bogarde's first appearance at the BFI in 1970 (I was 24) when he entertained the audience hugely, and got a chance to speak to him and he signed my programme - right, and as per Dirk label.

I also like his CAMPBELL'S KINGDOM, SONG WITHOUT END, I COULD GO ON SINGING and that lunatic farrago THE SINGER NOT THE SONG, he is terrific in JUSTINE too. As I have mentioned in posts on him before, 

Its a very long career from his early spivs and war heroes to those doctors and then those leading roles, he worked with all the new talent of the 50s and 60s as well as a lot of those European players, and his books are certainly readable as he certainly knew everyone! 

Dirk and Sophia Loren were my first movie crushes, I discovered them in the mid-50s when I about 10, so its been fun going back to their earlier stuff - a lot of Dirk's early films have been brought out of mothballs so its been fun catching THE BLUE LAMP, THE GENTLE GUNMAN, BOYS IN BROWN, HUNTED, APPOINTMENT IN LONDON, CAST A DARK SHADOW etc. as per reviews, and those later routine items like THE HIGH BRIGHT SUN or HOT ENOUGH FOR JUNE.

Other lists available at the BFI page, include 10 essential Cary Grant, 10 essential Katharine Hepburn,10 British gay films etc. 

Kate and Maggie at the BFI

The British Film Institute is now doing a two part retrospective on Katharine Hepburn during February and March, but in fact are showing about half of her output - 27 titles out of 52!  
The Maggie Smith two-parter was about similar, but included all her main items (apart from DEATH ON THE NILE), 
but then, apart from her acknowledged classics, Smith did a lot of lesser stuff one does not need to see now (KEEPING MUM anyone? or that feeble 2012 QUARTET). The BFI also showed the contents of that MAGGIE SMITH AT THE BBC boxset: their "Plays of the Month" THE MILLIONAIRESS, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (plus MEMENTO MORI) and those 1960s interviews with her and Kenneth Williams. Great to see again her sparring with Rex Harrison, Burton, Rod Taylor, and working for Susan Hayward (THE HONEYPOT, left) like she did with Bette, below, and her star turns in ROOM WITH A VIEW, THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE etc - as per reviews at Smith label. 

The Hepburn retro covers all the usual main titles, ignoring her lesser seen ones now - surely her 1944 DRAGON SEED where she plays an Eurasian is worth discovering now? (but as my pal Daryl says "There are movies that are better forgotten") - review of it at Hepburn label. But none of her offbeat choices in the '70s: the flop MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT, Cacoyannis's THE TROJAN WOMEN in 1971, or A DELICATE BALANCE where she is teamed with Scofield in Edward Albee in '73; and none of her later work after ON GOLDEN POND - do we really need to see that again or GUESS WHO'S .... I like some of her later TV films - that Cukor THE CORN IS GREEN set in Wales, in 1978 - or the amusing LAURA LANSING SLEPT HERE; still, it may be nice to go see SUMMERTIME and THE LION IN WINTER on the big screen again, and as for the extended run of THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, I just don't like it that much! 

2001 rides again

2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY: Kubrick's trippy 1968 space opera, spanning millions of years of human evolution and set to music by Strauss, Khachatrian and Ligeti, is a singularly awesome and mesmerising film, and one of the great cinema experiences. You owe it to yourself to see it at least once on the big screen. Thankfully, it gets revived every decade or so - the BFI in London currently have it a the centre-piece of their extended science fiction season, and in fact are bringing over the two stars: Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood for a discussion (happening tomorow 30 November, in point of fact) - though they also recorded a featurette for TCM a few years ago, used for screenings of the film then. 

Thankfully, my first exposure to the film was its original Cinerama release in 1968, when I was 22 - and saw it with my hippie friends and yes, we took acid. The spaceships floating in space to that music, the docking pad, the trip to Jupiter ..... it may have taken a long time cinemawise, but in real life nearly 50 years or so  has taken its toll on its human players - as below, taken last year.

It is of course a film of dazzling effects, and powerful use of music. Kubrick's opus proposed a new kind of pure cinema, and set the benchmark for sci-fi films as it challenged the audience to contemplate its meaning. It is the ultimate 'fear and wonder' film, which has influenced right up to Nolan's INTERSTELLAR. 
2001 of course was co-written by Arthur C Clarke (I had his novel of it), shot by Goffrey Unsworth, designed by Douglas Trumbull, and perfectly scored matching images to classical music which works perfectly, and all shot at Elstree here in England! It changed our concept of space and spaceships showing the vastness of space and the everyday nature of space travel. Of course for some it is a pain to decipher - one can make what one wants of that ending. Masterpieces are not meant to be easy ...

My pal Joe gave me a plastic advertising poster for 2001 which they used in the store he worked at - I kept it for decades and then it broke and crumbled into pieces ...... it would have been a collector's item if I had sold it at the right time!

BFI LFF 2014

It gets bigger every year: The London Film Festival, run by the BFI (British Film Institute). This year's brochure arrived on the doormat this morning, over a hundred pages of new films and events, to be held at various venues in London during October. 

There is no use trying to get tickets for the main opening or closing galas, but they are usually important films opening here soon anyway. This year's opening is THE IMITATION GAME, that new film about Alan Turing with another crop of British talent: Cumberbatch as Turning (above right), + Keira Knightley, with the likes of Mark Strong, Allen Leech, Matthew Goode, Charles Dance, Rory Kinnear etc. and the Closing Gala is the new Brad Pitt: FURY. Other gala events like MR TURNER and FOXCATCHER open here soon as well.

Other interesting items that caught my eye right away is a new documentary on David Hockney: HOCKNEY, A LIFE IN PICTURES, plus Catherine Denueve in 3 HEARTS and also in an interesting new Andre Techine: FRENCH RIVERA; Maggie Smith in MY OLD LADY, an Australian item THE TURNING with Cate Blanchett, Alfred Molina and John Lithgow as the older gay couple in LOVE IS STRANGE, as well as restorations of FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD, ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, TALES OF HOFFMAN,

COME BACK TO THE FIVE AND DIME JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN, and more, more, more .....  one will have to cherrypick the items to aim for, if a proper release is not imminent.
Left: Catherine Deneuve and daughter Chiara Mastroianni at the recent premiere of 3 HEARTS - she is wearing a most peculiar dress,even by red carpet standards! 

James Mason (and I) at the BFI, 1971

The BBC here occasionally show a series of interviews they did with various stars back in the '70s, titled TALKING PICTURES (previous subjects being Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Bergman et al). As I mentioned a while back I was suprised to see their recording of Bette Davis at the BFI National Film Theatre in 1972, and recognising the younger me (all of 26 at the time) in the audience, as I had been there with my Australian friend Gary Kendall. - see NFT label.

Now they have ran a series of interviews with James Mason, and included his BFI session from 1971. Yes I was at that too, and had remembered mainly his yellow socks and brown brogues, as I had been sitting right in front of him a few rows back. 
I had not realised these were recorded and had never seen them before, 
so again last Saturday afternoon I had to look in and yes, there I was again, with lots of hair! A nice memory of an agreeable afternoon with a great teller of stories. I wonder if they recorded the events I was at with Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury, Rex Harrison, David Niven, John Huston, Olivia de Havilland etc? 
We like James (who died aged 75 in 1984) a lot here, not only for his Norman Maine in A STAR IS BORN, but also in LOLITA and PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, and his great run from the '40s through to the '70s, as per my main piece on him a few years ago:

http://osullivan60.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/james-mason.html

Dirk, talking pictures ...

Unseen photo of Dirk in Paris

BBC here has been running an intriguing weekly series "Talking Pictures" featuring archive interviews with stars, which interviews have been long unseen here - like that recent one some weeks ago on old Bette Davis interviews and there was the 1972 lecture/discussion she gave at the National Film Theatre, which I had been at, in my 20s and there I was in the audience footage! - NFT label.
This last weekend they ran a Dirk Bogarde selection, fitting in extracts from 30 years of interviews with the BBC, starting in 1961. Fascinating stuff, then, as I had not seen most of these - it didn't though include his 1970 NFT appearance, which I was also at and where I met him afterwards and got that signed programme - Dirk label.

Dirk always gave good interview in print or on camera, and so it is here, starting with his lord of the manor act in 1961, above.
He makes interesting comments on his late pal Kay Kendall and praises Marilyn Monroe. Dirk always worked with the best - those '50s ladies like Muriel Pavlow, Virginia McKenna, Kay Kendall, the young Bardot, plus Jean Simmons, Leslie Caron, Olivia de Havilland, while being friends with the likes of Anouk Aimee, Judy Garland, Capucine, Ava Gardner, Ingrid Bergman, Simone Signoret, Yvonne Mitchell, Lauren Bacall (who visited him the day before he died in 1999).
In the '60s he worked with all the new talent: Christie, Courtenay, Stamp, the Yorks, Sarah Miles and James Fox, Bates and more European ladies: Vitti, Aimee, Thulin, Mangano, Lilli Palmer, and in the '70s he was good friends with co-stars Charlotte Rampling and Jane Birkin, as well as TV roles with Lee Remick, Glenda Jackson, Julie Harris, Eileen Atkins, who all spoke well of him. Pity my 2 favourites Bogarde and Vitti did not get on though ...

This series is narrated by Sylvia Syms, his co-star from VICTIM, so she had some comments on that too, including Dirk's relationship with 'Forwood' as described in his books. I fully understood Dirk's reluctance not to 'come out' in his  lifetime - that generation just did not discuss their private life in public, it would have been anathema to him, but as he said, its all there in the books. He also makes interesting comments on directors like Losey, Visconti, Fassbinder  ... Dirk has not only been a favourite of mine since I was about 10 or 11, but he also worked with so many I like. Below, Dirk at that South of France home for over 20 years, before increasing age and ill-health forced a return to London's Chelsea where he started out, in 1947.  The programme was followed by re-reruns of DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE, fun to see again, and HOT ENOUGH FOR JUNE, one of his throwaway '60s capers which I had not seen before ... There are 48 Bogarde posts here, with lots of pictures etc, as per Bogarde label, for those interested in this perenially fascinating actor.

The other interviewees in this BBC series will include Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall and Charlton Heston - ones to watch then. There was another fascinating one last week - on Tony Curtis. The 1972 one showed a still cocky Curtis, seemingly high as he could not stop talking - and also ageing as the interviews progressed ...