Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York ...

To the Almeida Theatre in London for their current production, The Bard's RICHARD III in a highly praised production by director Rupert Goold, with Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave.

Well, no, not to the theatre itself, but to my local multiplex where the live performance was being screened, as it was in cinemas around the world. This was actually the first of these popular live theatre screenings I had been to - and it was like having a seat in the stalls, well apart from the girl next to me with a tub of popcorn and bottle of cola - I hate the stench of popcorn! - and then two old dears arrived late after 15 minutes in, and yes, they had to sit next to me too, disturbing all of us as they got to their seat and settled themselves. But apart from that .... Lets see what the Almeida says:

The Almeida will broadcast Artistic Director Rupert Goold's production of RICHARD III, with Ralph Fiennes as Shakespeare's most notorious villain and Vanessa Redgrave as Queen Margaret, live to cinemas in the UK and around the world today 21 July.

Almeida Theatre Live will give worldwide audiences the opportunity to see plays from the stage at the Almeida's London home for the first time. The Almeida Theatre and distributor Picturehouse Entertainment are partnering to broadcast RICHARD III, produced by Illuminations.

The production will be filmed using multiple cameras around the stage and auditorium, with John Wyver as producer. 

Rupert Goold said: "The chance to take the work of the Almeida to international audiences via live cinema screening is a new and timely venture for us that I'm extremely excited about. Working with Picturehouse Entertainment and Illuminations on this broadcast I'm really looking forward to seeing how audiences around the world react to our Richard III on the big screen."

Vanessa had previously worked with Fiennes on CORIOLANUS and THE WHITE COUNTESS film with daughter Natasha and sister Lynn. Great to see her back on stage and in fine form at 79, after that heart attack last year - as per this illuminating interview with her from The Guardian newspaper: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/jun/13/vanessa-redgrave-interview-simon-hattenstone

Fiennes of course is on a roll at the moment, he was also recently in THE MASTER BUILDER this year, and stunning in A BIGGER SPLASH, did a neat cameo in HAIL, CAESAR and of course we loved THE GREAT BUDAPEST HOTEL.

He is of course electrifying as Richard and makes the lines sing, as does Vanessa as Queen Elizabeth, its a sort of modern dress production, complete with cell phones, but why is she dressed in a boiler suit and carrying a plastic doll? 

Anthony Sher was also a terrific Richard, almost playing him like a giant spider, and we love the Olivier 1955 version - see review, Olivier label. The one recent Richard we had not seen was the 1995 Ian McKellen one, unavailable for a long time - we finally got a German dvd recently, but I found it practically unbearable with that 1930s Fascist background and far too tricky and full of special effects, with tanks, and Battersea Power Station as the Tower of London just did not work for me at all - great supporting cast though, including Maggie Smith as Queen Elizabeth. 

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 ...

Magazines 1: 'Honey' 1971 hunks calendar

Thanks to Colin for sending me this spread from a vintage magazine - girls' magazine HONEY, popular in the 1970s. I have not seen any of these before, not being a "Honey" kind of guy - I was more TOWN and all those movie magazines.....

Here though is their ad/order form for their calendar for 1971 (click to enlarge) with a hunk a month - its interesting seeing who is on it, and who are still here and still working. 

The surprise here is the inclusion of the young Ian McKellen, who seems an odd choice here, was he on the "Honey" girl's radar then? as in 1970 he had only really done a small part in ALFRED THE GREAT (with my favourites David Hemmings and Michael York, neither chosen here), A TOUCH OF LOVE with Sandy Dennis, and several television roles including a David Copperfield and Hamlet. Not quite in the same league as Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Robert Redford, Terence Stamp, or the popular boys of the time like Leonard (ROMEO) Whiting, Martin (FELLINI SATYRICON) Potter, or Helmut Berger (Visconti's THE DAMNED and DORIAN GRAY)! Pop boys Marc Bolan, Mick Jagger, Tom Jones and Elvis also made the cut. 

Well, Sir Ian is probably the busiest name here now, Sir Tom now judges the BBC talent show "The Voice", Sir Mick does his thing, Terence looks great in the new VANITY FAIR Hollywood issue, and a weather-beaten Redford was terrific in ALL IS LOST last year. Leonard, Martin and Helmut are still here too having long shed their pretty boy images.... More hunks at Hunks label.

(I've been accused of name-dropping - thank you, Martin in Derry - when I mention I have met people, but I was chatting with Ian when out clubbing over a decade ago (at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern pub and Crash club in London); we used to see Terence around town a lot as his then apartment at The Albany in Piccadilly backed onto my office in Regent Street; Marc Bolan guested at one of the early Elton John shows I saw at Croydon in 1973, and Leonard relieved himself next to me at the Gents urinal at the BFI back in 1970, in a blue crushed velvet suit ... it didn't seem appropriate to speak though! - we were both attending a discussion on nudity in the movies (with Billie Whitelaw among others - oops there I go again), a hot topic then as actresses - and actors (as Leonard had to for Zeffirelli) - had to get their kit off for those daring new movies of the era.).

Popcorn movies: a top 6

We like a good popcorn movie too here at the Projector. Some we can tune into whenever they crop up and we sit there enraptured all over again. Here are just some we like:

Nothing can beat Indiana Jones - and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK is the classic one can happily watch anytime, all those priceless moments ...

Harrison is also terrific as the President in Wolfgang Petersen's 1997 AIR FORCE ONE, a terrific thriller, with Gary Oldman as the pitiless villain, and Glenn Close as the V.P. We love it when Harrison says "Get off my plane" to Oldman. 

Renny Harlin is another expert at high octane thrillers, we loved THE DEEP BLUE SEA at the cinema and enjoyed it yet again over the weekend on tv. Everything works here, the cast being picked off one by one, led by Saffron Burrows and Thomas Jane (in that wet suit) and that stunning storm at sea which wrecks the research facility containing the super sharks - then there is LL Cool J and his squawking parrot ..... 

Then there is the visual delights served up by Paul Verhoeven, What can one say about STARSHIP TROOPERS that has not been said before. We love every crazy minute of it - those beautiful people showering and those invading giant ants.    

I am not really one for CGI effects as such - I hated the shallow empty TROY and Scott's KINGDOM OF HEAVEN - but it all worked perfect for the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, particularly the first instalment with its perfect creation of  the hobbits' homes and Rivendell and all the characters we loved from Tolkien's books. 

The James Bond franchise got a stunning re-boot with the 2006 CASINO ROYALE. We can (and have) watched that a lot too ... the airport sequence being particularly edge of seat with a great pay-off. Great locations, great villain in Mads Mikkelsen, and a great Vesper with Eva Green ... SKYFALL was more of the same, and we await the next ...

We also go dizzy over Jan de Bont's SPEED with Keanu just perfect buffed up a treat, and of course Quentin's KILL BILL - particularly PART 1, where The Bride takes on everyone in the restaurant scene (where the violence is too stylised and comic to be taken seriously, its like a comic strip) and that delirious duel in the snow with the blue sky, between her and O-Ren Ishii - Lucy Liu in dynamic form!  Cinema doesn't get much better, and what a soundtrack to go with those images...and PART 2 is even better with the Bride buried alive, Daryl Hannah with an eyepatch and that black mambo!. INGLORIOUS BASTERDS is another we like a lot, and I will finally get around to DJANGO UNCHAINED this week ... 
Spielberg needless to say, scores too here with CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, JAWS, E.T., those Indiana Jones movies etc. 

Julie hits town

Like Sophia Loren at Cannes, below, another living legend has been doing the rounds. We have been following Dame Julie Andrews as she progressed from one talk show to another on her current visit to London - three shows so far. 

Pharrall, Julie, Jonah and Channing

She was amusing on both Graham Norton's show and Paul O'Grady's and she and Sir Ian McKellen made a great double act on the BBC flagship The One Show. Julie (a mere 78) has been here to promote her tour, where she talks about her career.

Back in the '70s we used to go almost every Sunday afternoon to our BFI's National Film Theatre where all the then great names were doing these personal appearances and Q&A's as a one-off and for no more than the price of the usual ticket - where we got to hear and meet the likes of Dirk Bogarde, Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury, Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, Olivia De Havilland, Rex Harrison, James Mason, David Niven, Charlton Heston, John Huston, Spielberg, Terence Rattigan and more. This was the first time Bette had done this and that was so popular - as per my post, NFT label - that she began touring with it. Recently Joan Collins had the same idea. Now its Dame Julie ... 

"In the Ritz elevator one just goes up and down"

Of course all the tv hosts wanted to talk about MARY POPPINS and THE SOUND OF MUSIC - cue obligatory clips from 50 years ago, and the whole BBC studio took part in a singalong to "Do Ray Me". Well I never thought POPPINS that wonderful, and resisted seeing SOM until the 1st of January 1996, when I quite liked it. In a way they must  have been millstones as nothing else could equal those early successes. The Julies I like are THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE and most of VICTOR/VICTORIA. 

Incidentally, Sir Ian disclosed that he and Julie could have worked together back in the Sixties - he spent a day testing for the role of Noel Coward in Julie's STAR! but the part went to Daniel Massey, who was Coward's godson. Its all made me realise I need to see Millie Dillmount and her pals again ....

Foyle's Vicious War

FOYLE'S WAR or new sitcom VICIOUS ? No contest ...

How pleasant to discover a drama series one did not bother with before, in a new series of British drama FOYLE'S WAR. A new series of 3 episodes set after the war gripped us from the start, as scripted by Anthony Horowitz and starring that under-stated actor Michael Kitchen as our detective, ably aided by his spunky girl friday Honeysuckle Weeks. In the new series she is newly married to a newly elected MP (Member of Parliament) and they live in a perfect pre-fab, one of those pre-fabricated homes built after the war, due to the housing shortage caused by bomb damage, and the then age of austerity.

It was with pleasure I discovered that box-sets of the previous 6 series were available, 22 episodes in all. I ration them out to Sunday night viewing, with a gin & tonic to hand ... 

It is 1940 and Britain stands almost alone against the might of Nazi Germany across the continent. The terrors of nightly bombing raids are only matched by the fear and hysteria of the population at the prospect of the seemingly inevitable German invasion. It is in this environment that Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle, of the Hastings Police on the south coast of England, works. Denied a transfer to the war effort, Foyle is nonetheless forced to confront the darkest acts of humanity on a daily basis. With his official driver, Sam, and his subordinate, Paul Milner, Foyle investigates murders, looting and theft, crimes of opportunism, crimes of war, crimes of passion and crimes of greed, because crime isn't stopped because of warfare.

Life during wartime is splendidly captured in these leisurely episodes with well-worked out stories and lots of period detail. Those cars, those clothes, how people lived then. But these are not done in a conscious way as in star-filled period dramas where the cars and clothes wear the characters ... Kitchen is the perfect actor here, underplaying nicely, a subtle mix of determination and humanity, as he gets to grips with each story, oftren being hindered by the officious secret services who operate as if they are above mere police detection, and lots of regular faces crop up: Rosamund Pike, Edward Fox, Sam West etc.  These are a world away from those for me unwatchable Miss Marple retreads stuffed with famous faces and updating and changing the classic stories. (Much as I like Julia McKenzie, the only Miss Marple for me is Joan Hickson in the 80s BBC versions). The cases involve murder, espionage and robbery on the south coast (the series was filmed, starting in 2002, around Hastings and Rye - also the setting of my beloved MAPP & LUCIA). The ideal series if you like you like well-crafted, intelligent drama. Watching it is like being back in the '40s or as we imagine what the '40s were like ...

Another new series too has caused a lot of consternation. VICIOUS (or VICIOUS OLD QUEENS as it was initially meant to be called) is a new, much publicised comedy series meant to be breaking ground showing the home life of two bickering old gay men, who have been together 48 years .... they bicker constantly but love each other dearly and their best friend Violet (Frances de la Tour) pops in a lot, and there is a gormless young man Ash who moves in to the apartment upstairs whom the older guys inexplicably fawn over .... This was also publicised a lot as it starred Sir Ian McKellen (whom I was chatting to 10 years ago, when out clubbing) and Sir Derek Jacobi - Gandalf and  Claudius, together at last .... but mere words cannot explain how dire and cringe-making it is, and totally dated as if stuck in some 70s timewarp. These two old queens are caricatures and stereo-types as much as Larry Grayson or John Inman ever were. The surprise is that the 2 knights go along with this charade, and that it was written of Mark Ravenhill and Gary Janetti, a writer from WILL & GRACE.  They are such an old fashioned couple - yet they live in Covent Garden. The fun part would have been if they were witty, modern, up-to-date eldergays - as a lot of older gay folk are, with say Joanna Lumley as their witty friend. But no, its painfully unfunny, abysmal and insultingly bad - the level of wit here is "Is Zac Efron a place or a person" which was said not once but several times in the opening episode. A missed opportunity then for showing how fabulous older gays can be .... sorry, Sirs, but I am heading back to the '40s with Inspector Foyle !

Days of future passed ...

..... no, not The Moody Blues - but musings on re-watching some sci-fi, fantasy and Roman history: 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY, LORD OF THE RINGS and I CLAUDIUS, all true epics - among the usual big movies on show over Easter - they always dig out LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, BEN-HUR and good to see BARABBAS on view again later today, its one I missed at the time and is surprisingly involving with a good De Laurentiis cast (Silvana Mangano naturally, but not for long) and that real eclipse of the sun ....

Back to outer space: coming across the brochure for the initial release of 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY the other day (left)  reminded me what an event this was, in Cinerama. My hippie pals of the time, 1968,  went to it repeatedly, and were on acid .... it seemed to be compulstory at the time ... I have of course seen it several times since. I even had a large plastic advertisement sheet (like right) which was used in a display at the WH Smith store in Kingsway, London at the time (as a friend of mine worked there at the time, thanks Joe) which would have been worth quite a bit if I had put it into one of those movie poster auctions Christies do, but when I unrolled it a few years ago it crumbled to pieces as the plastic had all cracked! The perils of keeping things too long ... ! 

The film is still magical to me (I am now going to get it in Blu-ray), I don't think any other space movie looks more believable, no other movie has such amazing visuals for its time, which is incredible when one realises it is almost 50 years old, and its 2001 date is already 12 years in the past .... so this is what the future looked like in 1968? Kubrick shot the moon scenes before the Apollo landing - It's pre-digital but has the most powerful imagery ever and has aged very little as we gaze at those space ships and modules docking and landing on distant planets, as the hostesses defy gravity.

and that amazing essential soundtrack. Kubrick succeeds in making us feel afraid by exploring the magnitude of space and the loneliness of it. Fascinating too is that voyage to Jupiter with Bowman (Dullea) and Poole (Lockwood), and the hibernating crew. One man alone in deep space, being so far away from home is a nightmare concept, especially when the controlling computer HAL reveals his own agenda ... No other movie leaves itself open to discussion like 2001. It is truly meant to be a surreal journey from that dawn of time to the magical cut of the bone and the spaceship ... It is a grand tale, that never dates, full of major human questions. I remember Arthur C Clarke's book was a stunning read too. Kubrick of course did the same with the 18th Century in the langours of BARRY LYNDON which seems a major achievement now too.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy is being repeated too, nice to return to them again, is it really a decade since they burst on the screen? I am not one for special effects or CGI movies - like TROY or KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, which like other CGI spectacles loook empty, fake and hollow. At least with the real epics like EL CID, CLEOPATRA, FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE etc - there may be some fakery and matt effects used, but mainly they look "real" - all those people and sets are usually there. The LOTR trio are an exception though, the special effects mesh seamlessly with the actors and the stunning scenery of New Zealand. It is just brilliantly done, like at the start Gandalf being so big in Bilbo Baggins' delighful home in that idealised Shire. Then there is Mount Doom and Mordar and Rivendell which all look so right. The aged Christopher Lee is amazing as Sauron taking on Gandalf. 

I remember seeing Ian McKellen being mobbed when out clubbing back around 2002 or 2003 - but he was very polite chatting to people, and I had a chat with him myself when I found myself next to him at the bar. As I said everyone wanted to talk about LOTR but I had got his GODS AND MONSTERS dvd that week, so we had a comment on that. He was at the Crash nightclub later that night too ... I can't though for the life of me see how that they (Peter Jackson) can make another trilogy from the 200 page THE HOBBIT ! That original hefty paperback tome of LOTR was an essential read during those late 60s years, when back with my hippie friends (Clive and others) - It took me months to read mine, on the train to and from work each day. This was the era of "International Times", the start of "Time Out", when Gandalf was popular in London with Gandalf's Garden, Middle Earth and other underground clubs, The Roundhouse (where we saw theThe Doors & Jefferson Airplane all-nighter, among others.... the films are a delicious wallow in all that once again. I find the second one rather a slog, with perhaps too much Gollum, but it all comes together perfectly in THE RETURN OF THE KING.

Back to Ancient Rome with the BBC '70s production of I, CLAUDIUS, being repeated once again, I have the dvd but would probably never watch it again, so ideal to record the weekly episodes and re-live it again that way. It has that overlit look of '70s television, unlike today's more natural lighting, but one can forgive it that, when the drama is this good. 

Once again we marvel at Derek Jacobi as Claudius, Sian Phillips as Livia ("don't eat the figs"), John Hurt's demonic Caligula, Margaret Tyzack, Brian Blessed, Patrick Stewart, Ian Ogilvy and so many others ...the sets may be small but it captures the Robert Graves story perfectly and takes its time ... bliss all round then.

Kids, Kinsey, Gods, Monsters, Love, Death, Long Island

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT - Finally I got around to Lisa Cholodenko's 2010 film which attracted a lot of attention, and one can see why. It is another of those oddball screwy comedy-dramas like CRAZY STUPID LOVE or FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, but its oddly engaging and keeps one involved, I liked it a lot but with reservations. 

Annette Bening is perfect as the controlling Nic - she deserved the Oscar for that Joni Mitchell song at the dinner table and then she finds out what is really going on, just as she is warming to Paul ... Julianne Moore though seems to be channelling Diane Keaton a lot here, its as if Keaton was playing the role of Jules who is a bit of a flake trying different businesses, currently she is trying landscape gardening, as Nic supports her. Some questions though: do lesbians really get off watching vintage gay male porn ? 

It is all set in motion by the two kids Joni (yes she is named after Ms Mitchell) and Laser - Mia Wasikowska and Josh  Hutcherson - decide to track down their sperm donor father (the girls must have used him twice then?). Mark Ruffalo is ideal here as the initially bemused Paul who finds himself attracted to the two kids he helped create and then to Jules, but she casts him  aside at the end as does Nic at the front door when he comes to make an apology. We end therefore with Nic and Jules together again with Laser, as they see daughter Joni off to college. Cholodenko though seems to have nothing to say about her characters or their lifestyle,  the plot is just propelled by absurd turns of events as absurdity piles upon absurdity, is it a comedy-drama or just a farce about different lifestyles. Paul though is left with the command to go and create his own family. Is Jules really attracted to him or just experimenting having sex with an attractive man ... ? and is Paul so hot that even the middle-aged lesbian just has to have him ?

I like Bill Condon's 2004 film KINSEY about the creation of those Kinsey Reports back in the repressive '40s and '50s. Liam Neeson has one of his key roles, like in SCHINDLER'S LIST, ably supported by Laura Linney as his wife. Peter Sarsgaard is amazing too, particularly in that scene where he strips and comes on to the Professor in their hotel room, it is so full-on without any coyness. Lynn Redgrave (the aunt of Neeson's wife Natasha Richardson) contributes a terrific little cameo too. The large cast includes Chris O'Donnell, Timothy Hutton, Tim Rice and John Lithgow, and the period detail is nicely conveyed without being trowelled on. Condon also scripted.

Though the film tries to depict Kinsey as a social pioneer, it doesn't shy away from (nor does it condemn) his dubious breaches of ethical standards, such as encouraging sexual activities among his staff and their wives. At one point, Kinsey interviews a creepy subject played by William Sadler who has maintained a detailed record of all of the thousands of people he has had sex with (including children) and the implication is clear that he and Kinsey are two sides of the same coin. (Neeson was a terrific Oscar Wilde too on stage in THE JUDAS KISS, a late '90s play by David Hare - Tom Hollander label).

Condon's GODS & MONSTERS, 1998, is another vastly enjoyable foray, this time into the final days of director James Whale (director of the original SHOWBOAT as well as those '30s  FRANKENSTEIN and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN classics) marooned in '50s Hollywood, with just his disapproving German housekeeper Hanna (another splendid turn by Lynn Redgrave) for company, until he takes on that hunky gardender played by Brendan Fraser. Ian McKellen has one of his best roles (before Gandalf came along) as Whale - there is a hilarious interlude at George Cukor's residence at one of his famous parties where Princess Margaret is in attendance.

Whale has had a stroke and is slowly dying. He is a lonely man in need of companionship and inner peace. He tries to find this solace in Clay Boone (Brendan Fraser, in a rare serious role). The blossoming relationship between the two is the plot focus of the film - but how true is it really, did Whale die in the swimming pool ? Was there really a Boone for Whale to project his fantasies onto? the film is more than just an homage to old Hollywood and echoes some of the themes of SUNSET BOULEVARD in its portrayal of a Hollywood veteran, who has been forgotten by the industry of the early '50s and has retreated into a private world of his own making where he still directs the scenes.

I had a pleasant conversation about it with Ian McKellan one evening (early morning actually) out in clubland, a decade or so ago, when everyone wanted to talk to him about the LOTR films, but I was able to tell him I had bought GODS & MONSTERS that week and how much I liked it. Condon has since done the so-so DREAMGIRLS and the TWILIGHT saga ...

Another nice comedy drama with an amusing gay angle is the film of Gilbert Adair's novel LOVE AND DEATH ON LONG ISLAND from 1999. Cirtic Adair died last year (RIP label) and the movie is a faithful visualisation of his novel, itself a hommage to DEATH IN VENICE (Thomas Mann's book and Visconti's film).  Giles De'Ath (John Hurt) is a widower and lofty intellectual who doesn't like anything modern. He goes to the cinema to see the latest E.M. Forster heritage movie but goes into the wrong cinema at the multiplex and falls in love with its teen star, Ronnie Bostock. He then investigates everything about the movie and Ronnie, and gets a machine to play Ronnie's movies; then he decides to track Ronnie down, so he travels to Long Island city where Ronnie lives and gets meets him, pretending that Ronnie is a great actor and that's why Giles admires him. Ronnie's girl friend (Fiona Loewi) though begins to see through Giles after she has brought him and Ronnie together ... this is delightfully orchestrated by director Richard Kwietnioswski, who does not seem to have done anything of note since.

The character of Giles could so easily have been a caricature, a bumbling old fogey; Hurt shows that, while he is indeed out of touch, he is also highly intelligent and unapologetic about his fusty ways. It is one of this very individual (and busy) actors best roles. Jason Priestley is rather good too as the slightly dim Ronnie, and Sheila Hancock is as splendid as ever even if she has nothing much to do as Giles' housekeeper.

There is a touch of Nabokov too as European high culture brushes with American teen culture. Hurt's performance is dignified, perplexed and slightly tragic; he makes Giles one of the most touching "stalkers" in film history. Much like James Mason's Humbert in LOLITA (or Dirk's Aschenbach in DEATH IN VENICE) Giles is a man of culture finding beauty in callow youth and being changed by it. McKellen and Hurt though have done some of their best work here as these older men obsessed with younger beauties ...

Before too long: another look at that BBC series THE LINE OF BEAUTY from Alan Hollinghurst's novel (an adaptation of his THE SPELL would be nice), along with those newies like SHAME, TINKER TAILOR..., TREE OF LIFE, that new MISSION IMPOSSIBLE which looks fun,  THE SKIN I LIVE IN and some other Almodovars.