Gracie! (2009)

Recommended

UK

Television Film

Series Title: Women We Loved (2009)

Director: Brian Percival

Writer: Nick Vivian

Cinematographer: David Katznelson

Composer: Rob Lane

Cast: Jane Horrocks, Tom Hollander, David Dawson, Ellie Haddington

Filmed as part of the BBC’s Women We Loved season, featuring a trio of excellent performances from Horrocks, Hollander, and Dawson, this excellent television film – which would have been better titled Gracie and Monty; gently portraying the oft troubled marriage and courtship of singing superstar Gracie Fields and Italian film-maker Monty Banks – proves to be a thoroughly entertaining, quietly eye-opening, and really rather moving work. Iain.Stott

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Sight & Sound's Films of 2009

1. A Prophet (2009)
2. 35 Shots of Rum (2008)
3. The Hurt Locker (2008)
   The White Ribbon (2009)
4. Let the Right One In (2008)
5. Antichrist (2009)
   Bright Star (2009)
   Up (2009)
   White Material (2009)
6. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
7. Wild Grass (2009)
8. Fish Tank (2009)
   Sleep Furiously (2008)
9. Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008)
   Synecdoche, New York (2008)
   Vincere (2009)
10. The Beaches of Agnès (2008)
    Broken Embraces (2009)
    La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet (2009)
    Il Divo (2008)
    Dogtooth (2009)
    Everyone Else (2009)
    Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
    The Headless Woman (2008)
    I Am Love (2009)
    In the City of Sylvia (2007)
    Katalin Varga (2009)
    The Maid (2009)
    Mother (2009)
    Police, Adjective (2009)
    Public Enemies (2009)
    A Serious Man (2009)
    Shirin (2008)

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Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Jill Sprecher

Writers: Jill Sprecher, Karen Sprecher

Cinematographer: Dick Pope

Composer: Alex Wurman

Cast: Alan Arkin, Matthew McConaughey, John Turturro, Clea DuVall, Tia Texada, Frankie Faison, William Wise, Shawn Elliott, Amy Irving, Alex Burns

The intertwining lives of four disparate people undergo traumatic change, leaving them to question the nature of happiness, chance, and luck, in this thoughtful and thought provoking, slightly dour, beautifully acted (Arkin, in particular, is excellent), and distinctively constructed film. Iain.Stott

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Enid (2009)

Recommended

UK

Television Film

Series Title: Women We Loved (2009)

Director: James Hawes

Writer: Lindsay Shapero

Cinematographer: Matt Gray

Composer: Nicholas Hooper

Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Matthew Macfadyen, Denis Lawson, Claire Rushbrook, Joseph Millson, Ramona Marquez, Sinead Michael

Filmed as part of the BBC’s Women We Loved season, featuring an excellent performance from Helena Bonham Carter as the famed and prolific children’s author Enid Blyton, this lovingly crafted television film proves to be a thoroughly compelling and insightful work, as it paints a credible and painfully human portrait of a woman who was a wonderful artist but a terrible wife, mother, daughter, and sister. Iain.Stott

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BURN-E (2008)

Recommended

USA

DTV Animated Short Film

Director: Angus MacLane

Writers: Angus MacLane, Andrew Stanton, Derek Thompson

Composer: J.A.C. Redford

Cast: Angus MacLane, Tessa Swigart

BURN-E, a service robot, finds the task of carrying out simple repairs to an exterior light near impossible when a garbage disposal robot from Earth continually and inadvertently disrupts his progress, in this thoroughly entertaining, surprisingly perceptive, and quite hilarious spin-off from WALL·E (2008). Iain.Stott

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Presto (2008)

Recommended

USA

Animated Short Film

Director: Doug Sweetland

Writers: Doug Sweetland, Valerie LaPointe, Ted Mathot, Justin Wright

Composer: Scot Stafford

A magician attempts to pull a rabbit out of a hat during a stage performance, but the rabbit, who wants nothing more than a nice fresh carrot, has other ideas, in this hilarious and inventive short, which manages to cram almost every facet of human nature into its brief running time. Iain.Stott

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An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Recommended

USA

Feature Documentary

Director: Davis Guggenheim

Cinematographers: Davis Guggenheim, Bob Richman

Composer: Michael Brook

Featuring: Al Gore

The charismatic Al Gore presents his warm, witty, and accessible lecture on the dangers of global warming, captured by the unobtrusive camera of Guggenheim, scored portentously by Brook; with the result being thoroughly compelling, informative, and decidedly worrying. Iain.Stott

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TIFF Cinematheque presents The Best of the Decade: An Alternative View (2009)

1. Syndromes and a Century (2006)
2. Platform (2000)
3. Still Life (2006)
4. Beau Travail (1999)
5. In the Mood for Love (2000)
6. Tropical Malady (2004)
7. The Death of Mister Lazarescu (2005)
   Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
8. Eloge de l'Amour (2001)
9. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)
10. Silent Light (2007)
11. Russian Ark (2002)
12. The New World (2005)
13. Blissfully Yours (2002)
14. The Son (2002)
15. Colossal Youth (2006)
16. The Gleaners and I (2000)
    In Vanda's Room (2000)
    Songs from the Second Floor (2000)
17. Hidden (2005)
    A History of Violence (2005)
    Mulholland Dr. (2001)
    Three Times (2005)
18. Kings & Queen (2004)
19. Elephant (2003)
20. Talk to Her (2002)
21. The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
    A One and a Two... (2000)
22. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
23. The Child (2005)
    The Heart of the World (2000)
    I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006)
    Star Spangled to Death (2004)
24. The World (2004)
25. Café Lumière (2003)
    The Headless Woman (2008)
    The Intruder (2004)
    Millennium Mambo (2001)
    My Winnipeg (2007)
    Saraband (2003)
    Spirited Away (2001)
    I'm Not There. (2007)
26. Gerry (2002)
27. Uzak (2002)
28. Dogville (2003)
    The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
29. Alexandra (2007)
    Demonlover (2002)
30. Atanarjuat - The Fast Runner (2001)
    Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003)
31. Longing (2006)
    Secret Sunshine (2007)
    Come and Go (2003)
    Far from Heaven (2002)

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Mischief Night (2006)

Recommended

UK

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Penny Woolcock

Cinematography: Robbie Ryan

Composer: Murray Gold

Cast: Kelli Hollis, James Foster, Michael Taylor, Holly Kenny, Jake Hayward, Ramon Tikaram, Qasim Akhtar, Sarah Byrne, Shobu Kapoor, Gwyn Hollis, Christopher Simpson, Skint Eastwood, Mark Hargrave, Spencer Wild, Alexander Popplewell, Arron Thompson

Detailing the social problems that are rampant on the segregated council estates of northern England (crime, drug-abuse, casual racism,) this third Woolcock/Hollis “Tina” film – in which the lives of two Leeds families, the Crabtrees and the Khans, comically, violently, and romantically intertwine in the build up to the titular night – gets across its points about modern apartheid with humour rather than preachiness, teasing out an empathetic response from within its outlandishness. Iain.Stott

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Brute Force (1947)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Jules Dassin

Writers: Richard Brooks, Robert Patterson

Cinematographer: William Daniels

Composer: Miklós Rózsa

Cast: Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Sam Levene, Jeff Corey, John Hoyt, Jack Overman, Roman Bohnen

The inmates of cell R17 at Westgate Penitentiary – ruled over by a benevolent warden and a sadistic head guard – fed-up with their ill-treatment, begin to concoct escape plans, in this excellently acted and constructed film, which takes an unflinching look at prison justice, both guard and inmate administered, expertly painting a portrait of a hellish and desperate life. Iain.Stott

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My House in Umbria (2003)

Not Recommended

UK/Italy

Television Film

Director: Richard Loncraine

Writers: Hugh Whitemore, William Trevor

Cinematographer: Marco Pontecorvo

Composer: Claudio Capponi

Cast: Maggie Smith, Ronnie Barker, Chris Cooper, Benno Fürmann, Giancarlo Giannini, Timothy Spall, Libero De Rienzo, Emmy Clarke

Although some of the performances (not to mention the plot) are less than convincing, and visually, despite its locale, it is often a tad bland, this tale of unlikely friendships formed under tragic circumstances – in which the survivors of a terrorist attack take comfort in each others’ company at an idyllic country retreat – just about manages to hold the attention throughout. Iain.Stott

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Kamikaze Girls (2004)

Cautiously Recommended

Japan

Feature Film

Original Title: 下妻物語

Director: Nakashima Tetsuya

Writers: Takemoto Nobara, Nakashima Tetsuya

Cinematographer: Ato Masakazu

Composer: Kanno Yōko

Cast: Fukada Kyōko, Anna Tsuchiya, Miyasako Hiroyuki, Kiki Kirin, Okada Yoshinori

Nakashima’s highly stylised confection – all bright colours, quirky edits, and showy camera movements; relating the story of a rather unlikely friendship between a pair of 17-year-old girls, one a vapid loner who’s obsessed with bizarre and kinky Little Bo Peep-like outfits, and the other a member of a violent all-girl biker gang – proves to be a guilty pleasure whilst its images flicker before us, but is decidedly forgettable once they stop. Iain.Stott

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Alain Resnais

• Van Gogh (1948)
• Guernica (1950)
• Gauguin (1950)
• Statues Also Die (1953)
• Toute la Mémoire du Monde (1956)
• Le Chant du Styrène (1958)
• Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
• Night and Fog (1960)
• Last Year in Marienbad (1961)
• Muriel ou Le Temps d'un Retour (1963)
• La Guerre Est Finie (1966)
• Claude Ridder (1967)
• Je t'aime, je t'aime (1968)
• Wall Street (1973)
• Stavisky... (1974)
• Providence (1977)
• My American Uncle (1980)
• Life Is a Bed of Roses (1983)
• L'Amour à Mort (1984)
• Mélo (1986)
• I Want to Go Home (1989)
• Pour Esteban Gonzalez Gonzalez, Cuba (1991)
• Smoking/No Smoking (1993)
• On Connaît la Chanson (1997)
• Pas sur la Bouche (2003)
• Private Fears in Public Places (2006)
• Wild Grass (2009)

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Mister Lonely (2007)

Cautiously Recommended

UK/USA/France/Japan

Feature Film

Director: Harmony Korine

Writers: Avi Korine, Harmony Korine

Cinematographer: Marcel Zyskind

Cast: Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Denis Lavant, James Fox, Werner Herzog, Leos Carax, Richard Strange

A lonely Michael Jackson impersonator, barely scratching a living in Paris, meets a friendly Marilyn Monroe impersonator, who convinces him to join her at an impersonators' commune in the Highlands of Scotland; whilst at the same time in Panama, a mission of nuns learn to fly, in this by turns entertaining, infuriating, beautiful, ugly, and provocative curio from Harmony Korine. Iain.Stott

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Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006)

Not Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Steven Shainberg

Writers: Erin Cressida Wilson, Patricia Bosworth

Cinematographer: Bill Pope

Composer: Carter Burwell

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Robert Downey Jr., Ty Burrell, Harris Yulin, Jane Alexander, Emmy Clarke

The wife of a successful commercial photographer becomes intrigued by her new neighbour Lionel, who suffers from Hypertrichosis, which leaves his entire body covered in hair; they meet, become friends, and he introduces her to similarly afflicted people, whilst her home life begins to disintegrate, in this diverting if forgettable and often quite silly, fantasised portrait of the titular photographer. Iain.Stott

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Of Freaks and Men (1998)

Recommended

Russia

Feature Film

Original Title: Про уродов и людей

Writer/Director: Aleksei Balabanov

Cinematographer: Sergei Astakhov

Cast: Sergei Makovetsky, Dinara Drukarova, Lika Nevolina, Viktor Sukhorukov, Dyo Alyosha, Chingiz Tsydendambayev, Vadim Prokhorov, Aleksandr Mezentsev, Igor Shibanov, Dariya Lesnikova

Balabanov’s sepia-toned, (presumably) allegorical curio – in which two wealthy families become infiltrated and corrupted by pornographers, emasculating the haves and empowering the have-nots – teases and titillates its way towards its surprisingly moving finale, with some evocative imagery and an excellent performance from Mandy Patinkin look-alike Makovetsky. Iain.Stott

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Watership Down (1978)

Recommended

UK

Animated Feature Film

Director: Martin Rosen

Writers: Martin Rosen, Richard Adams

Animation Director: Tony Guy

Composer: Angela Morley

Cast: John Hurt, Richard Briers, Michael Graham-Cox, John Bennett, Ralph Richardson, Simon Cadell, Harry Andrews, Hannah Gordon, Nigel Hawthorne

After one of their number has a premonition of impending doom, a group of rabbits leave their warren and go in search of a new home; along the way, they face numerous dangers (men, birds, cats, dogs, foxes, and their fellow rabbits), in this surprisingly violent, sensitively voiced, and expressionistically animated allegorical gem. Iain.Stott

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Jessica Hausner

• Flora (1995)
• Inter-View (1999)
• Lovely Rita (2001)
• Hotel (2004)
• Toast (2006)
• Lourdes (2009)

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Dual Alibi (1946)

Recommended

UK

Feature Film

Director: Alfred Travers

Writers: Vivienne Adès, Renalt Capes, Stephen Clarkson, Alfred Travers

Cinematographer: James Wilson

Composer: Stanley Black

Cast: Herbert Lom, Phyllis Dixey, Terence de Marney, Ronald Frankau

Herbert Lom is outstanding as twin acrobats, wooed from France to appear for a British circus, who are conned out of their lottery winnings by a weaselly press agent and his comely girlfriend; but ingeniously they gain their revenge, in this well acted and constructed, low-budget British noir. Iain.Stott

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Gomorrah (2008)

Recommended

Italy

Feature Film

Original Title: Gomorra

Director: Matteo Garrone

Writers: Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni Di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso, Roberto Saviano

Cinematographer: Marco Onorato

Cast: Toni Servillo, Gianfelice Imparato, Maria Nazionale, Salvatore Cantalupo, Gigio Morra, Salvatore Abruzzese, Marco Macor, Ciro Petrone, Carmine Paternoster

Interweaving five stories of figures on the periphery of Camorra life – from teenage Tony Montana wannabes to timid middle-men – this pleasingly low-key gangland anti-drama, which never feels any less than thoroughly authentic, takes its viewers on a painfully eye-opening journey into a violent world populated by grotesques and hopeless innocents. Iain.Stott

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The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)

Cautiously Recommended

Germany/France/Czech Republic/Morocco

Feature Film

Original Title: Der Baader Meinhof Komplex

Director: Uli Edel

Writers: Stefan Aust, Uli Edel, Bernd Eichinger

Cinematographer: Rainer Klausmann

Composer: Peter Hinderthür, Florian Tessloff

Cast: Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek, Nadja Uhl, Stipe Erceg, Niels-Bruno Schmidt, Vinzenz Kiefer

Ethical concerns aside (should real killings be recreated in a thriller format?), this epic, fact-based story – relating the events that led to the downfall of the founder members of the West German far-left terrorist group the Red Army Faction, during the 1970s – proves to be a tad too slick for its own good, with more attention reserved for the events than for the people themselves; but it is generally well made and acted, non the less, and holds the attention. Iain.Stott

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April (1961)

Recommended

Soviet Union

Short Feature Film

Original Title: აპრილი

Director: Otar Iosseliani

Writers: Erlom Akhvlediani, Otar Iosseliani

Cinematographer: Yuri Fednev

Composer: Sulkhan Nasidze

Cast: T. Chanturia, Gia Chiraqadze, A. Chikvaidze, V. Maisuradze, A. Jorbenadze

A young couple, deeply in love, move into an empty flat and gradually fill it with furniture and ornaments, transferring their love from one another onto their new possessions, in this light and slight though compelling early short from Georgian film-maker Iosseliani, which takes a well-aimed pop-shot at materialism. Iain.Stott

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Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Essential Viewing

USA

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Charlie Kaufman

Cinematographer: Fred Elmes

Composer: Jon Brion

Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Emily Watson, Tom Noonan, Dianne Wiest, Hope Davis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Robin Weigert

Brilliant screenwriter Kaufman’s haunting, hugely ambitious directorial debut – an enigmatic, nightmare-like portrait of an emotionally and physically ailing playwright, following his attempts to put on a painfully autobiographical play in a massive warehouse with a cast of thousands – proves to be a rather bleak yet sombrely funny and strangely moving film about the nature of existence, which boasts (unsurprisingly, considering its stellar cast) several excellent performances. Iain.Stott

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Ghost Town (2008)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: David Koepp

Writers: David Koepp, John Kamps

Cinematographer: Fred Murphy

Composer: Geoff Zanelli

Cast: Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, Téa Leoni, Bill Campbell, Aasif Mandvi, Kristen Wiig, Michael-Leon Wooley, Dana Ivey

After dying for nearly seven minutes during routine bowel surgery, a curmudgeonly English dentist (an excellent Gervais) begins seeing dead people, who precede to pester him relentlessly for his help in settling their affairs, in this well acted fantasy film, which – as long as it sticks to tickling the funny bone, which it does well – is thoroughly entertaining, but when it attempts to engage other emotions it proves much less effective. Iain.Stott

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Miracle in Milan (1951)

Essential Viewing

Italy

Feature Film

Original Title: Miracolo a Milano

Director: Vittorio De Sica

Writers: Mario Chiari, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Vittorio De Sica, Adolfo Franci, Cesare Zavattini

Cinematographer: Aldo Graziati

Composer: Alessandro Cicognini

Cast: Francesco Golisano, Paolo Stoppa, Guglielmo Barnabò, Emma Gramatica, Brunella Bovo, Anna Carena, Alba Arnova, Flora Cambi

Much like Capra’s It’s a Wonderful life (1946), De Sica’s fantasy comedy – following the ups and downs of the residents of a shanty town on the outskirts of Rome – is a much misunderstood film, with irony and social comment often being mistaken for sentiment and whimsy, feel-bad for feel-good, as it posits the distinctly bleak theory that the only way for the little man to defeat the nefarious capitalist is with divine intervention. Iain.Stott

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A Foreign Field (1993)

Recommended

UK

Television Film

Series Title: Screen One (1989-1994)

Director: Charles Sturridge

Writer: Roy Clarke

Cinematographer: Richard Greatrex

Composer: Geoffrey Burgon

Cast: Alec Guinness, Leo McKern, Edward Herrmann, John Randolph, Geraldine Chaplin, Lauren Bacall, Jeanne Moreau

A number of Brits and Americans travel to Normandy in order to pay their respects to family, friends, and colleagues who lost their lives there during The Second World War, as well as, perhaps, to look up an old girlfriend or two, in this gently humorous and tremendously moving gem, featuring a cast of greats, who all give excellent performances, with McKern's being the pick of the bunch. Iain.Stott

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It's in the Bag! (1945)

Highly Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Richard Wallace

Writers: Jay Dratler, Alma Reville, Fred Allen, Lewis R. Foster

Cinematographer: Russell Metty

Composer: Werner Heymann

Cast: Fred Allen, Jack Benny, William Bendix, Binnie Barnes, Robert Benchley, Jerry Colonna, John Carradine, Gloria Pope, William Terry, Minerva Pious, Dickie Tyler, Sidney Toler

An eccentric former-millionaire, just before being murdered, hides his final $300,000 and evidence pointing towards his killers in one of five identical chairs, which his grand nephew and heir (a flea circus ringmaster) precedes to desperately search for, whilst doing his best to evade the attentions of the police and his great uncle’s killers, in this brilliantly written, deftly performed, and expertly timed and paced comedy, which proves to be, with its cast to die for, an impeccably crafted, near-perfect piece of entertainment. Iain.Stott

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Three Little Beers (1935)

Recommended

USA

Short Film

Director: Del Lord

Writer: Clyde Bruckman

Cinematographer: Benjamin Kline

Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard

After finding out about the $100 first prize for the brewery employees’ golf tournament, three newly hired draymen take to “the golf place” with a “bag of bats” in order to get in some practice, much to the chagrin of the greenkeepers and other golfers, in this entertaining, action-packed Three Stooges short. Iain.Stott

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Restless Knights (1935)

Best Avoided

USA

Short Film

Director: Charles Lamont

Writer: Felix Adler

Cinematographer: Benjamin Kline

Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Geneva Mitchell

When their father tells them of their noble heritage on his deathbed, the Count of Fife, the Duke of Durham, and the Baron of Graymatter set off for their homeland Anesthesia, in order to protect their under-threat queen, in this rather inept Three Stooges short, which barely raises a smile and is filled with numerous interminably long and dull slapstick sequences. Iain.Stott

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Pop Goes the Easel (1935)

Recommended

USA

Short Film

Director: Del Lord

Writer: Felix Adler

Cinematographer: Henry Freulich

Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Louis Mason, Phyllis Crane, Leo White

Three down-on-their-luck jobseekers, who are (sort-of-)wrongly accused of theft and pursued by a plainclothes policeman, take shelter in an art school, where they are mistaken for new students, and precede to cause havoc, in this thoroughly entertaining Three Stooges short, which can boast of numerous memorable sequences. Iain.Stott

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The Tortoise and the Hare (1935)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Animated Short Film

Director: Wilfred Jackson

Writers: Larry Clemmons, Aesop

Max Hare (a great but arrogant, bunnyising athlete) and Toby Tortoise (a decidedly dozy, but endearingly earnest participant) take part in a one-on-one cross-country race, but the result proves not to be the formality that one would assume, in this mildly entertaining animated re-telling of Aesop’s fable. Iain.Stott

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CFB's Top 20 Obscure Films of 1987 (2009)

1. Yeelen (1987)
2. Talking Heads (1987)
3. My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend (1987)
4. The Year My Voice Broke (1987)
5. The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987)
6. Damnation (1987)
7. Pack of Lies (1987)
8. King Lear (1987)
9. 4 Adventures of Reinette & Mirabelle (1987)
10. Dark Eyes (1987)
11. Orphans (1987)
12. The Lonely Voice of Man (1987)
13. Shy People (1987)
14. A Perfect Spy (1987)
15. Ten Little Indians (1987)
16. The Camp at Thiaroye (1987)
17. How Wang-Fo Was Saved (1987)
18. Murder Ordained (1987)
19. Consent (1987)
20. Le Grand Chemin (1987)

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CFB's Top 25 Films of 1987 (2009)

1. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
2. Radio Days (1987)
3. Au Revoir les Enfants (1987)
4. Wings of Desire (1987)
5. The Last Emperor (1987)
6. Hope and Glory (1987)
7. Withnail & I (1987)
8. The Untouchables (1987)
9. Matewan (1987)
10. Where Is My Friend's House? (1987)
11. The Dead (1987)
12. Babette's Feast (1987)
13. House of Games (1987)
14. Empire of the Sun (1987)
15. Raising Arizona (1987)
16. The Princess Bride (1987)
17. Moonstruck (1987)
18. The Man Who Planted Trees (1987)
19. Maurice (1987)
20. Broadcast News (1987)
21. Robocop (1987)
22. Pelle the Conqueror (1987)
23. Evil Dead II (1987)
24. Prick Up Your Ears (1987)
25. Wall Street (1987)

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The Lady of Musashino (1951)

Cautiously Recommended

Japan

Feature Film

Original Title: 武蔵野夫人

Director: Mizoguchi Kenji

Writers: Yoda Yoshikata, Ooka Shohei

Cinematographer: Tamai Masao

Composer: Hayasaka Fumio

Cast: Tanaka Kinuyo, Todoroki Yukiko, Mori Masayuki, Katayama Akihiko, Yamamura Sō, Shindō Eitarō, Hirai Kiyoko, Nakamura Minako

With its rather insistent score and generally melodramatic tone, this exploration of (or perhaps lamentation about) the loosening of post-war Japanese morals – depicting a series of extra-marital affairs (both consummated and unconsummated) in the small hamlet of Musashino – proves to be, despite excellent performances and a quite breathtaking, symbolically rich final scene, a decidedly minor Mizoguchi. Iain.Stott

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Only Yesterday (1991)

Highly Recommended

Japan

Animated Feature Film

Original Title: おもひでぽろぽろ

Writer/Director: Takahata Isao

Composer: Hoshi Masaru

Cast: Imai Miki, Yanagiba Toshirō, Honna Youko, Ito Masahiro, Terada Michie, Masuda Yuuki, Minowa Yuki, Yamashita Yorie

Nostalgic without being sentimental, and winsome but not wincingly so, Takahata’s gentle film – in which a 27-year-old unmarried office worker from Tokyo spends a ten day holiday in the countryside, working on a farm and reminiscing about her childhood – proves to be, as it paints a rather moving portrait of the inconsequentiality of adulthood and the monumentality of youth, a film of great beauty. Iain.Stott

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Il Divo (2008)

Not Recommended

Italy/France

Feature Film

Original Title: Il divo: La straordinaria vita di Giulio Andreotti

Writer/Director: Paolo Sorrentino

Cinematographer: Luca Bigazzi

Composer: Teho Teardo

Cast: Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto, Giulio Bosetti, Flavio Bucci, Carlo Buccirosso, Giorgio Colangeli, Alberto Cracco

Breathlessly paced and as slick as pomaded hair, Sorrentino’s portrait of the downfall of seven times Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti – which could prove rather confusing for those not schooled in 20th century Italian politics – proves to be of only mild interest, with no real human core to gather us in, as most of the characters are drawn ever-so-sketchily and then disposed of without giving us sufficient time to get to know them. Iain.Stott

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The Fly (1958)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Kurt Neumann

Writers: James Clavell, George Langelaan

Cinematographer: Karl Struss

Composer: Paul Sawtell

Cast: David Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price, Herbert Marshall, Kathleen Freeman, Betty Lou Gerson, Charles Herbert

A woman, who admits to the killing of her scientist husband, relates a fantastic tale to a police inspector in order to justify her actions, telling of incredible scientific experiments with matter transference and an unfortunate incident with a fly, but will he believe her…. in this distinctively garish yet thoughtful(ish) and thoroughly entertaining sci-fi horror flick. Iain.Stott

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Pardon My Scotch (1935)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Short Film

Director: Del Lord

Writer: Andrew Bennison

Cinematographer: George Meehan

Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Nat Carr, James C. Morton

When Larry, Curley, and Moe – who are working as handymen – are left in charge of a drug store, a request from a customer leads them to concoct a potion which is mistaken for Scotch, and before you can say “It's a braw bricht moonlicht nicht the nicht” they are being passed off, in high society, as kilt-wearing Scotsmen, in this mildly diverting Three Stooges short. Iain.Stott

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Sprucin' Up (1935)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Short Film

Director: Gus Meins

Cinematographer: Art Lloyd

Cast: Our Gang, Marianne Edwards, Dick Elliott

When a truant officer moves in across the street with his young daughter, Spanky and Alfalfa, who have never been known to pay all that much attention to their personal hygiene, tidy themselves up and go a-courting, in this entertaining if mildly disturbing Our Gang short. Iain.Stott

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