Summer re-views: A Room With A View

Back to 1985 for this still charming treat, and perhaps the most popular Merchant-Ivory production till then, A ROOM WITH A VIEW from E.M. Forster, still delights now. Ok, its a perfect period costume drama, but its ideal for a warm Summer evening. The BFI in fact screened it in the open air, under the stars, projected on the wall of The British Museum in London a couple of summers ago (along with Hitch's BLACKMAIL, which actually used the Museum as a location for the climax back in 1929).

Here is what I said about ROOM a few years ago here:

A ROOM WITH A VIEW from 1985 - how we liked this at the time (one of my date movies in Brighton), one of their best films and the first of their E M Forster triple, followed by MAURICE (time for a re-view of that soon) in 1987 and then HOWARDS END - the definition of the much derided heritage cinema,
but they are all marvellous costume dramas with great performances, like their THE EUROPEANS (Lee Remick), THE BOSTONIANS (Vanessa Redgrave), HEAT AND DUST (Julie Christie, Greta Scacchi), QUARTET (as reviewed here, Maggie Smith label), as well as their earlier oddities like SHAKESPEARE WALLAH or SAVAGES. What a fascinating team they (director James Ivory & producer Ishmael Merchant, with scriptwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala ) were and the many stories of how they made those films and attracted all those casts, on meagre budgets ....

When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperone Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting the Emersons could change Lucy's life forever but, once back in England, how will her experiences in Tuscany affect her marriage plans?

Maggie Smith and Judi Dench are perfection of course as the spinster aunt and the novelist Miss Lavish, Florence looks marvellous, the period detail looks perfect, there's wonderful Fabia Drake, Daniel Day Lewis as the prissy Cecil Vyse, Rosemary Leach, Denholm Elliot and that amusing scene where the Reverend Beebe (portly Simon Callow - I almost said Cowell !) joins George and Freddy (Julian Sands and Rupert Graves) for a naked swim as the ladies walk by .....  England and Italy both look great and the soundtrack and music and captions are ideal, as of course is Helena Bonham-Carter as Lucy Honeychurch. It all ends very satisfyingly with our couple back at their room with a view and the spinster aunt happy for them in her single bed. It all though makes one want to run off to Florence right now ...

There was another ROOM WITH A VIEW, a tv version in 2007 right, scripted by costume veteran Andrew Davies (also responsible for the great BBC 1995 PRIDE & PREJUDICE and the filleted new version of BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, see Costume Drama label). There is no ambiguity about the Reverend Beebe (Mark Williams) in this one ("not the marrying kind" according to Forster), he chats up Italian youths and has a leer in his eye as joins the boys stripping off .... Cecil in this one is James Fox's son Laurence .... like the recent tv version of SENSE & SENSIBILITY it amuses but is not as good as the film. It did though tack on a meaningless coda showing Lucy back in Florence in the '20s, George having perished in WW1!

Jackie Trent "Where are you now my love" ....

Black and white mid-Sixties London. The song is Jackie Trent's "Where Are You Now My Love". The girl is Ann Lynn (England's Monica Vitti), with Brian Phelan - in a clip from FOUR IN THE MORNING, a downbeat 1965 British movie by Anthony Simmons, which also featured a young Judi Dench. We reviewed it before here at British/London/Dench labels. 

Jackie (1940-2015) was a great singer and song-writer with lots of hits, both singly and with husband composter Tony Hatch. 

Night music ....

Finally, the 1977 film of Stephen Sondheim's musical A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, and what a laughably awful film it is.- however, I saw three great stage productions of it.  The hit show of course was based on Ingmar Bergman's 1955 classic SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT, which is a delightful movie. The broadway show featured a favourite of ours, Glynis Johns (now in her 90s) for whom Sondheim wrote "Send In The Clowns" to suit her voice (I had the original cast album and have just re-ordered it on cd). 

I saw the London production in 1975 with Jean Simmons as Desiree and Hermione Gingold reprising her broadway role as her mother, with her great number "Liaisons". Then I saw a late 80s production with Dorothy Tutin, Peter McEnery, Susan Hampshire and Lila Kedrova as Madame Armfeldt - all people I like and it was a satisfactory version of the original. Then of course came the great National Theatre production in the 90s, with Judi Dench and Sian Phillips and Patrica Hodge. A friend had a friend working there and managed to get preview tickets - the great man, Sondheim, was sitting just one seat away from us, scribbling furiously throughout. 

There was also the 1977 film directed by theatre director Harold Prince, and no wonder it was little seen at the time and sank into well-deserved obscurity, as they absolutely ruined it, the film is a clunking piece, set (maybe for financial reasons) in Austria - not Sweden - so the references to long summer nights have no meaning. Two of the best numbers are gone: the lusty maid's song that she is going to marry "The Miller's Son" and Madame Armfeldt's lament "Liaisons", at least the film has Hermione Gingold in the role, but without her main number, precious little to do - though I did like her barbed comment to her daughter Desiree.

Elizabeth Taylor plays Desiree and by 1977 her bruised vulnerability should be ideal for the role of the actress tired of "the glamorous life" and wanting to settle down, but Taylor's looks and weight vary from scene to scene and the minnie mouse singing voice she is dubbed with, are all at sea here. 

Diana Rigg comes off best as Charlottle, while Lesley-Anne Down plays the vapid  virgin young bride vapidly. Len Cariou as Fredrik (he played it on Broadway) and Laurence Guittard as Count Carl-Magnus are equally unimpressive and almost interchangeable here - Guittard played Fredrik in the Old Vic Judi Dench production. 

Fredrik Egerman goes to see his old flame, touring actress Desiree Armfeldt, whose daughter stays with her mother, retired wealthy courtesan Madame Armfeldt. Complications arrive when her other love Count Carl-Magnus arrives. His wife, Charlotte, is trying to make their marriage work despite his indifference to her. Meanwhile Fredrik's young wife Anne is still a virgin and his son from a previous marriage is falling in love her. The mismatched lovers arrive for that "weekend in the country" at Madame Armfeldt's estate, which has been arranged by Desiree, trying to sort out these complications. The old courtesan surveys the tangled relationships and sings that song "Liaisons" about what affairs of the heart were like in her day, while Desiree muses "Send in the clowns" as the long summer night smiles ...

It all works on stage, but this version is a poor substitute. Taylor - so perfect in the 50s and 60s is past her best here and the film is clumsily directed. Prince's other film, the very gay 1970 black comedy SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE (also scripted by Hugh Wheeler) is a cult favourite which we liked at the time (well, there were not many gay black comedies then) with favourites Angela Lansbury and Michael York - see review at Lansbury/York/Gay Interest labels. 

A feast of Sondheim for 2015: INTO THE WOODS is just about to open, I saw the trailer and I am hearing good things about Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen,  and of course Meryl; I am also going to see the current production of ASSASSINS in Feburary when a friend who wants to see it is coming over from Ireland, and I have just got  a pair of tickets (very expensive, but it is a big show) for the highly praised new production of GYPSY coming into London from its initial run at Chichester in April, where Imelda Staunton got rave reviews for her Mamma Rose - I saw her in GUYS AND DOLLS at the National over a decade ago, so I know how great she will be.  So Sondheim continues to be in favour in his eighties, shame about the film of his NIGHT MUSIC ! 

Other Sondheims we loved are the 1962 film of GYPSY, FOLLIES (Eartha Kitt played Carlotta when I saw it, which also had Diana Rigg and Julia McKenzie), the 1985 FOLLIES CONCERT with Lee Remick, Elaine Stritch, Barbara Cook and more; the score for PACIFIC OVERTURES, and of course SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM which I saw twice,
 and I got taken backstage too to meet Julia McKenzie and Millient Martin in their dressing-gowns, by Pamela, a friend whose mother was Julia McKenzie's agent at the time. Then of course there's COMPANY, SWEENEY TODD in its many incarnations, and the short-lived but cult item ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, the 1964 cast  album with Remick and Lansbury is a must, etc. 

Final round-up of late summer repeats

That magic waterfall from UNCLE BOONMEE

A final look at some late summer/early autumn repeats from British television, before we go on to some new stuff ... there's been lots to look at again!

THE QUEEN. A  huge hit in 2006 and still great entertainment now. One just knew Helen Mirren was on course for that Oscar, while Michael Sheen and Helen McCrory are unnervingly right as Tony and Cherie Blair. The glimpses of the real Diana brings back memories of that crazy time in 1997 .....

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, 1998. S I L is a huge hit on the stage here in London now - the film though is the one for me, stupendous cast, great costumes and sets, and that endlessly witty script by Tom Stoppard. If Elizabethan life was not like this, it should have been. I particularly like one of Judi Dench's 8 minutes as Queen Elizabeth laughing at the dog.  Its a perfect romance too ....... Joseph Fiennes is one of the most attractive guys ever here. More on him at Fiennes label, and my long review of the film.

KHARTOUM, 1966. I had forgotten how good KHARTOUM is, directed by stalwart Basil Dearden, and 2nd Unit (presumably those battle scenes) by veteran Yakima Canutt (the chariot race in BEN-HUR etc). It has two towering performances - Charlton Heston, steadfast as usual, as General Gordon, and a mesmerising turn (in a handful of scenes, but dominating the film) by Laurence Olivier as The Madhi - 

he is almost unrecognisable, blacked up here. This was Olivier's great late period, running the National Theatre, films like TERM OF TRIAL and BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING (where he is almost ordindary) He was also playing OTHELLO to great acclaim at the time, also blacked up as the Moor, (it was also filmed, with Maggie Smith). 
His Madhi is a stunning creation.  The film is quite topical now, showing as it does the confrontation between Western imperialism and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism - this time in the Sudan of the 19th century. Add in Ralph Richardson as Gladstone, and familiar faces like Richard Johnson, Marne Maitland, Peter Arne, Nigel Green, Michael Hordern, Alexander Knox, Douglas Wilmer, Johnny Sekka. The fascinating story of how General Gordon (a fanatic to some) manages to hold Khartoum as the Madhi's forces attack is well told here and its totally engrossing. 

SPEED. Popcorn movie time: SPEED is 20 years old now, a hit from 1994 - we loved it at the time, and I still like it now. Maybe Keanu and Sandra's best moment - well, till GRAVITY for Sandra (though I like THE PROPOSAL too). Buffed up Keanu is ideal here and De Bont's film delivers stunt after stunt on that bus, the runaway underground train, and that plunging elevator at the start. Jeff Daniels is dependable as usual and Hopper is the ideal nasty villain. As a popcorn classic its up there with Petersen's AIR FORCE ONE and the Indiana Jones movies. 

UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES, 2010. If there is one director whose work is suffused with a contemporary kind of magic, something you can't quite put your finger on, its Thai art-house sensation Apichatpong Weerasethakul. This sometimes bizarre, always enchanting, film is his most accessible, telling the last days in the life of Uncle Boonmee and the importance of caring and of being cared for, as we roam over his past and maybe future lives.  

My full review (Boonmee label) goes into it in more detail. Its a meditation on death and re-birth as we see those various apparitions of his past lives as animals, perhaps that water buffalo in the moonlight at the start - the the mysterious catfish which makes love to the princess with that waterfall in the background. I like that long scene with when Huay, Boonmee's wife who has been dead for 19 years, reappears at the dinner table and they all talk to her as though she only left yesterday. 

Mother and child reunion ....

PHILOMENA certainly ticks all the boxes, and director Stephen Frears does it again, after THE GRIFTERS, PRICK UP YOUR EARS, MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE, DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, THE QUEEN etc. Judi Dench too tops her career so far, it may be her last leading role, but hopefully there will be more. Here we forget we are watching a famous actress, as she totally becomes that Irish woman looking for her son, taken away from her 50 years earlier.

Former journalist Martin Sixsmith is at a loss as to what do next. That changes when a young Irish woman approaches him about a story of her mother, Philomena, who had her son taken away when she was a teenage inmate of an Irish Catholic convent. Martin does not want to do a 'human interest' story but arranges a magazine assignment about her search for him that eventually leads to America. Along the way, Martin and Philomena discover as much about each other as about her son's fate. Furthermore, both find their basic beliefs challenged. 

SPOILERS ahead ...

I grew up in Catholic Ireland in the '50s/early '60s so am well aware of those convents where "fallen women" toiled, but this story, based on the true events regarding Philomena Lee's search for her lost son, as documented by journalist Martin Sixsmith, covers new territory. It is a road movie too, (as engaging as CLOUDBURST, review below, gay interest label) as Philomena and the journalist go searching first to Ireland and then to America and we follow their up and down relationship, with funny moments as the homely Irish woman first annoys the priggish and rude journalist - whom Steve Coogan captures perfectly, in his best screen work (we loved his Paul and Pauline Calf and concert tour dvds, as well as Alan Partridge of course); he is co-scriptwriter with Jeff Pope. It has manipulative and maudlin moments to be sure, as Philiomena adjusts to American life, and it seems surprisingly easy for the journalist to discover her son and the life he led. This leads to home videos of his childhood and his surprising career and how the story ends - back where it began at the convent in Ireland, as it turns out he had been looking for his mother while she was looking for him. The nuns and the church are cast as the villains here, particularly that nun, Sister Hildegarde, who kept them apart, even after the son had died and was buried at the convent.

Both Philomenas

We see how unwed teenage girls who became pregnant and then worked at this nunnery under terrible work conditions. The sisters would then force these girls to give up their newborns and sign away their rights while their children were adopted by well-to-do families who paid the Church for them. We wonder why there is a photo of Jane Russell on the convent wall - she also came and bought an Irish baby. The girls were not even provided with proper medication during their labour, as their "pain was penance for their sin".

Philomena still has her faith and is able to forgive, which the journalist, and perhaps us the audience, cannot. Why though would Michael, the son, want to be buried at such a place, when he had built a whole different life with a partner in America?  The nuns weren't going to tell her he was there ...

As my friend Leon put it: 

Incredibly the real Philomena is still alive and remains so brainwashed by Rome that she actually publicly forgave the nun mostly responsible for ruining her life, a nun, moreover, who shows not a scintilla of remorse.

Dench, like her friend Maggie Smith (what a pair of Dames), has been terrific over the years, from that early FOUR IN THE MORNING (Dench label), and BBC plays like LANGRISHE GO DOWN, ABSOLUTE HELL, LAST OF THE BLOND BOMBSHELLS, and on stage in that comedy LONDON ASSURANCE in the 70s, and her marvellous Desiree in the National's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC over a decade ago (which I saw in preview, with Sondheim sitting a seat away furiously writing notes). Then there was her stunning few moments as Elizabeth I in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, and of course her 'M' in the Bond films, particularly SKYFALL. Even is something disposable like LADIES IN LAVENDER she totally commands the screen, doing it all with her eyes and expressions. But to PHILOMENA .... it seemed ordained at the time that Cate Blanchett (her co-star in NOTES ON A SCANDAL, one of her best later roles, like IRIS), would get the academy award for her head-turning turn in BLUE JASMINE, but I think now it should have been Dame Judi who took the award. The only Dench film I absolutely hated was that MARIGOLD HOTEL, as discussed at gay interest label!

Soon: Coogan again as Soho pornographer Paul Raymond in THE LOOK OF LOVE (2013) and we get his new travels in Italy programmes on tv this week,with Rob Brydon. 

Award season, James Fox in DOWNTON, Dot & Gaga

Winter sets in, and award season begins .... after that summer of under-performing so-called blockbusters - come on, be honest, how many of them did you want to see? - finally good movies are back and the good ones are better than ever. Woody's BLUE JASMINE is still around (see my recent review below), and GRAVITY and PHILOMENA (right) are doing well too - I plan to see them by next week. Some of the main contenders have not opened here in the UK yet, so we await 12 YEARS A SLAVE and THE BUTLER, which should also get lots of nominations. 

Oscar predictions - maybe too early to say, but I would say Cuaron and GRAVITY for best director and film; Best actor has to include Tom Hanks back on a roll again after several years of films one did not want to see with not only CAPTAIN PHILIPS but also his turn as Walt Disney; Jude Law exposing a lot of himself and putting on weight (looking rather like a young Bob Hoskins!) for DOM HEMINGWAY, Chiwetel Ejiofor (who has been consistently brilliant for years) for 12 YEARS A SLAVE - a very likey bet - and Robert Redford alone at sea at 77! 

I thought Cate Blanchett had it in the bag for BLUE JASMINE but she may have peaked too early, I can picture Dame Judi getting the sentimental vote for the popular PHILOMENA and that story of the Catholic church in Ireland is so resonant; then one has to include Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, and of course Sandra Bullock. These last three though are previous Oscar Best Actress winners, Cate and Judi are both Best Supporting wins and the Academy may feel its time they got a main award .... they are both terrific in NOTES ON A SCANDAL (above), on tv again this week .... we will be having another look at that. Its certainly one of Judi's best roles.  

On the TV front, the fourth season of DOWNTON ABBEY finished on a low note, but there is the new Christmas Special to look forward to next month, which sees the return of Shirley McLaine with Paul Giamatti and I am pleased to see our English veteran actor James Fox included too, obviously not playing a servant downstairs! Now if they could include an upstairs role for Sarah Miles too - she would be ideal as a disreputable grande dame acquaintance of Dame Maggie's Dowager ! (I saw James and Sarah with co-star Wendy Craig at that screening of Losey's THE SERVANT back in March, to launch its Blu-ray release - which was fascinating (as I had also seen Bogarde and Losey back in the 70s) - how often do you get the stars of a film present to talk about it, 50 years later! (Fox, Miles, Bogarde, Losey labels). 

For viewers in the UK, an amusing story about the popular BBC series LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX, back for a second series next week. It features those two golden oldies Sir Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid as the two old folk who fall in love and decide to get married, to the consternation of their offspring who have their own problems. An interview in "Radio Times" is amusing on how they have both had sex scenes with James Bond - Daniel Craig. Derek in LOVE IS THE DEVIL where he is painter Francis Bacon and Craig his lover (we will be watching and reviewing this soon) and Anne in that 2003 BBC film THE MOTHER where she is the older woman having a fling with the handyman. Derek pointed out that he had slept with Craig twice, whereas Anne had only once - but as she said, she is working on that\!  

Lady Gaga was fabulous and oddly endearing on last week's UK GRAHAM NORTON SHOW, which just gets better and better. After the dull Robert De Niro & Michelle Pfeiffer & Cher last week - this week's sizzled with Lady Gaga wearing that head-dress which kept hitting an amused Jude Law and then veteran English soap actress June Brown came on - and she and Gaga hit it off. June (85 at least) plays the chain-smoking Dot Cotton on UK soap EASTENDERS and is a UK institution. Gaga is lovely with her.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylqQCwvC6Bw

A freezing afternoon double bill .....

Ideal viewing for our continuing big freeze here - it will be a wintery Easter too.

THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES - another one I had not seen since its release in 1965, though its always on tv here especially around holiday time. I thought nothing of it at the time, being a teenager - but its a delight now, Ken Annakin's comedy of the London to Paris plane race in the early 1900s. All the funny little planes and all that stunt work looks great now, as is that cast - another of those star-filled films of the time (like THE VIPS, THE LOVED ONE, OPERATION CROSSBOW, AMOROUS ADVENTURES OF MOLL FLANDERS etc).

James Fox and Sarah Miles are re-united from THE SERVANT, see below, she plays her usual saucy minx in period clothes, he is the upright English chap, Stuart Whitman the brash American, Alberto Sordi the Italian, Jean-Pierre Cassel the amorous Frenchman, Gert Frobe the German, Robert Morley the newspaper owner, Terry-Thomas is the rotter, with lots of cameos from the likes of Flora Robson as a resourceful nun, Fred Emney, Cecily Courtneidge, etc.

This was followed by the Merchant-Ivory A ROOM WITH A VIEW from 1985 - how we liked this at the time (one of my date movies in Brighton), one of their best films and the first of their E M Forster triple, followed by MAURICE (time for a re-view of that soon) in 1987 and then HOWARDS END - the definition of the much derided heritage cinema,
but they are all marvellous costume dramas, like their THE EUROPEANS (Lee Remick), THE BOSTONIANS (Vanessa Redgrave), HEAT AND DUST (Julie Christie, Greta Scacchi), QUARTET (as reviewed here, Maggie Smith label), as well as their earlier oddities like SHAKESPEARE WALLAH or SAVAGES. What a fascinating team they (director James Ivory & producer Ishmael Merchant, with scriptwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala ) were and the many stories of how they made those films and attracted all those casts, on meagre budgets ....

When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperone Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting the Emersons could change Lucy's life forever but, once back in England, how will her experiences in Tuscany affect her marriage plans?

Maggie Smith and Judi Dench are perfection of course as the spinster aunt and the novelist Miss Lavish, Florence looks marvellous, the period detail looks perfect, there's wonderful Fabia Drake, Daniel Day Lewis as the prissy Cecil Vyse, Rosemary Leach, Denholm Elliot and that amusing scene where the Reverend Beebe (portly Simon Callow - I almost said Cowell !) joins George and Freddy (Julian Sands and Rupert Graves) for a naked swim as the ladies walk by .....  England and Italy both look great and the soundtrack and music and captions are ideal, as of course is Helena Bonham-Carter as Lucy Honeychurch. It all ends very satisfyingly with our couple back at their room with a view and the spinster aunt happy for them in her single bed. It all though makes one want to run off to Florence right now ...

There was another ROOM WITH A VIEW, a tv version in 2007 right, scripted by costume veteran Andrew Davies (also responsible for the great BBC 1995 PRIDE & PREJUDICE and the filleted new version of BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, see Costume Drama label). There is no ambiguity about the Reverend Beebe (Mark Williams) in this one ("not the marrying kind" according to Forster), he chats up Italian youths and has a leer in his eye as joins the boys stripping off .... Cecil in this one is James Fox's son Laurence .... like the recent tv version of SENSE & SENSIBILITY it amuses but is not as good as the film. It did though tack on a meaningless coda showing Lucy back in Florence in the '20s, George having perished in WW1!

THE SERVANT (see below) bandwagon rolls on - Wendy Craig is now on morning television tomorrow discussing the movie and its revival ..... will Miles and Fox also be seen more drumming up publicity ... ?