The One-Line Review: April 2010

The Milky Way (1969)

Highly Recommended

France/Italy

Feature Film

Original Title: La voie lactée

Director: Luis Buñuel

Writers: Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière

Cinematographer: Christian Matras

Composer: Luis Buñuel

Cast: Paul Frankeur, Laurent Terzieff, Edith Scob, Bernard Verley, Denis Manuel, Daniel Pilon

Two Frenchmen set off on foot on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, meeting various religiously significant figures from across time and space along the way, in Buñuel’s sardonically funny exploration of the good, the bad, and the ugly (emphasis on the latter two) of the thoroughly complicated and generally contradictory nature of Christian dogma. Iain.Stott

Humpday (2009)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Lynn Shelton

Cinematographer: Benjamin Kasulke

Composer: Vinny Smith

Cast: Mark Duplass, Alycia Delmore, Joshua Leonard, Lynn Shelton, Trina Willard

Under the influence of drink and drugs, two recently reunited friends decide, despite both of them being heterosexual, to have sex with each other on camera for Humpfest – a distinctly arty, alternative porn festival; but once sober, and in the light of the reaction of one of their wives, they find themselves questioning their motives for the impending act, in Shelton’s funny, likable, and thoroughly authentic feeling talkfest. Iain.Stott

District 9 (2009)

Recommended

USA/New Zealand

Feature Film

Director: Neill Blomkamp

Writers: Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell

Cinematographer: Trent Opaloch

Composer: Clinton Shorter

Cast: Sharlto Copley, David James, Louis Minnaar, Vanessa Haywood, Eugene Khumbanyiwa, Kenneth Nkosi, Mandla Gaduka, Jason Cope

After being exposed to an alien fuel source whilst issuing eviction notices to the residents of District 9 (a slum housing 1.8 million stranded extra-terrestrials), a newly promoted MNU agent becomes genetically modified, slowly turning into a “prawn”, and finds his friends becoming his enemies, and his enemies becoming his friends, as he races in search of a cure, in Blomkamp’s fun, imaginative, and (relatively) intelligent sci-fi thriller. Iain.Stott

An Englishman Abroad (1983)

Essential Viewing

Television Film

Director: John Schlesinger

Writer: Alan Bennett

Cinematographer: Nat Crosby

Composer: George Fenton

Cast: Alan Bates, Coral Browne, Denys Hawthorne, Trevor Baxter, Roger Hammond

Coral Browne (played by herself), in Moscow performing Hamlet in 1958, spends an afternoon in the decidedly grotty flat of the infamous traitor Guy Burgess (Bates, wonderful) – a member of The Cambridge Five spy ring, who had defected to the USSR in 1951 – making promises to visit his old tailor on her return to London with instructions for a new set of suits, in Bennett’s hilarious, pathos-laden, and terribly human dramatisation of an actual (decidedly bizarre) encounter. Iain.Stott

Winter Light (1962)

Recommended

Sweden

Feature Film

Original Title: Nattvardsgästerna

Writer/Director: Ingmar Bergman

Cinematographer: Sven Nykvist

Cast: Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand, Gunnel Lindblom, Max von Sydow, Allan Edwall, Kolbjörn Knudsen, Olof Thunberg, Elsa Ebbesen

In light of God’s continuing silence and his and his dwindling parishioners’ fears, pains, crises, and losses, a middle-aged pastor begins to question his faith, in Bergman’s pessimistic, talky, and humourless yet beautifully acted and painfully compelling portrait of broken men living in a broken world. Iain.Stott

Five Daughters (2010)

Recommended

Television Mini-Series

Director: Philippa Lowthorpe

Writer: Stephen Butchard

Cinematographer: Chris Seager

Composer: Peter Salem

Cast: Sarah Lancashire, Ian Hart, Jaime Winstone, Juliet Aubrey, Al Weaver, Eva Birthistle, Aisling Loftus, Martin Compston, Natalie Press, Sean Harris, David Bradley, Joseph Mawle, Adam Kotz, Kierston Wareing, Ruth Negga, Christopher Fairbank, Vicky McClure, Lisa Millett

This sensitive, respectful, and very human BBC mini-series dramatises the events that took place in Ipswich in December 2006, when five young, drug-addicted prostitutes were murdered in a short space of time, concentrating on the day-to-day lives of the girls and the police investigation, with (thankfully) no time at all given to the actual killings themselves. Iain.Stott

Last Resort (2000)

Highly Recommended

Feature Film

Director: Pawel Pawlikowski

Writers: Rowan Joffe, Pawel Pawlikowski

Cinematographer: Ryszard Lenczewski

Composer: Max de Wardener

Cast: Dina Korzun, Artiom Strelnikov, Paddy Considine, Steve Perry

Pawlikowski’s delicately shot, sensitively written, and beautifully acted film takes a terribly moving look at the plight of a young Russian woman and her son, who have misguidedly, in the absence of her English fiancé, managed to get themselves classified as refugees and shipped off to a miserable seaside town, where they meet a kindly bingo-caller from the midlands, who does his best to ease their plight. Iain.Stott

Cashback (2004)

Recommended

Short Film

Writer/Director: Sean Ellis

Cinematographer: Alex Barber

Composer: Rick Astley

Cast: Sean Biggerstaff, Emilia Fox, Stuart Goodwin, Michael Dixon, Michael Lambourne

An art student with a particular penchant for the female form guides us through the art of passing the hours whilst working the nightshift at a supermarket, with emphasis given to his own peculiar technique, which involves the freezing of time so that he can strip attractive female shoppers and sketch them, in Ellis’s light-hearted, fun, and alluring short film. Iain.Stott

Afterschool (2008)

Highly Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Antonio Campos

Cinematographer: Jody Lee Lipes

Composer: Rakotondrabe Gaël

Cast: Ezra Miller, Jeremy White, Emory Cohen, Michael Stuhlbarg, Addison Timlin, Rosemarie Dewitt, LeeWilkof, Paul Sparks, Bill Raymond, Gary Wilmes, Christopher Mccann

A lonely teenaged boy, who has just started at a new co-ed boarding school, witnesses, whilst filming B-roll footage for the AV club, the drug related deaths of a pair of popular, 18-year-old twins, and is subsequently tasked with making their memorial video, in Campos’s sharply and uncompromisingly drawn examination of angst and alienation in the YouTube generation, which all serves – although I may be alone here – as a 9/11 allegory (fallen twins, loss of freedoms, casual accusations of guilt, and all). Iain.Stott

The Virgin Spring (1960)

Essential Viewing

Sweden

Feature Film

Original Title: Jungfrukällan

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Writer: Ulla Isaksson

Cinematographer: Sven Nykvist

Composer: Erik Nordgren

Cast: Max von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom, Birgitta Pettersson, Axel Düberg, Tor Isedal, Allan Edwall, Ove Porath

Based on legend, and featuring perhaps von Sydow’s greatest performance, Bergman’s masterful, visceral, beautifully photographed middle-ages set gut punch of a film – a tale of faith, rape, murder, and revenge – grabs the viewer by the testicles early on, and doesn’t let go until its shocking, emotionally exhausting climax. Iain.Stott

Stuck (2007)

Recommended

USA/Canada/Germany

Feature Film

Director: Stuart Gordon

Writers: John Strysik, Stuart Gordon

Cinematographer: Denis Maloney

Composer: Bobby Johnston

Cast: Mena Suvari, Stephen Rea, Russell Hornsby, Rukiya Bernard

Based upon a actual event from 2001, Stuart Gordon’s guilt-inducingly entertaining black comedy sees a young woman, driving whilst under the influence, hitting a homeless man, who subsequently becomes (whilst still alive) lodged in her windscreen; but instead of contacting the emergency services, she instead drives home to the safety of her garage, enlisting the help of her drug dealing boyfriend to aid in the clean-up of her liberty-threatening mess. Iain.Stott

A Long Weekend with The Son of God (2010)

Recommended

Television Documentary

Writer/Director/Cinematographer: George Carey

Composer: Arban, Steven Severin

George Carey travels to Russia to meet with Soviet-era police officer turned artist turned messiah Jesus Vissarion (formerly Sergei Torop), who claims to be the son of God, and who has managed to accrue several thousand followers, many of whom live in a self-built and self-run community deep in the Siberian wilderness, in this fascinating and thoroughly compelling portrait of a seemingly harmless community, which feels more like an idealistic hippy commune than a religious cult. Iain.Stott

Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (2007)

Recommended

Iran/France

Feature Film

Original Title: مر ضیه مشکینی

Director: Hana Makhmalbaf

Writer: Marzieh Makhmalbaf

Cinematographer: Ostad Ali

Composer: Tolibhon Shakhidi

Cast: Nikbakht Noruz, Abbas Alijome, Abdolali Hoseinali

19-year-old Hana Makhmalbaf’s second film – following the acclaimed Joy of Madness (2003), which she made when she was just 14 – is an unsubtle yet thoroughly compelling and viscerally affecting allegorical tale of Taliban and post-Taliban era Afghan life, following a 6-year-old girl’s frustrating and oft perilous attempts to go to school. Iain.Stott

Love Exposure (2008)

Recommended

Japan

Feature Film

Original Title: 愛のむきだし

Writer/Director: Sono Shion

Cinematographer: Tanigawa Souhei

Composer: Harada Tomohide

Cast: Nishijima Takahiro, Mitsushima Hikari, Ando Sakura, Watanabe Makiko, Watabe Atsuro, Genkaku Yūko, Itao Itsuji, Kuramoto Mitsuru, Miyadai Shinji, Nagao Nana, Nakamura Mami, Ohguchi Koji, Onoue Hiroyuki, Jai West

Coming across like an adaptation of Doctor Zhivago (1957), only with perverts and cultists instead of revolutionaries, Sono’s funny, bizarre, violent, and strangely affecting epic four hour romance depicts the interconnecting lives of three emotionally crippled teenagers as they look for love in the strangest of places. Iain.Stott

The Girlfriend Experience (2009)

Highly Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Writers: David Levien, Brian Koppelman

Cinematographer: Steven Soderbergh (as Peter Andrews)

Composer: Ross Godfrey

Cast: Sasha Grey, Chris Santos, David Levien, Mark Jacobson, Glenn Kenny, Christina Nadeau, Steve Klapper

Filled with beautifully composed, long taken wide shots, and featuring some surprisingly convincing, naturalistic performances from its non-professional cast, Soderbergh’s small scale, non-linear portrait, set against the world-wide financial crisis, of a young, high-end call girl (played by porn actress Sasha Grey) and her personal trainer boyfriend – both of whom provide both a physical and an emotional service to their clients – is perhaps the prolific independent film-maker’s finest film to date. Iain.Stott

London Orbital (2002)

Recommended

Feature Documentary

Writer/Director/Cinematographers: Chris Petit, Iain Sinclair

Featuring: JG Ballard, Renchi Bicknell, Nicki Ferrari, Rachel Lichtenstein, Jock McFadyen, Bernard O’Mahoney, Effie Paleologou, John Sergeant, Anna Sinclair, Liat Uziel, John Whomes

Petit and Sinclair’s hypnotically haunting and depressingly incisive cine-poem-cum-video essay takes as its starting point the M25, a 117-miles-long orbital motorway encircling London, and from it paints a damning portrait of 21st century British life (and beyond). Iain.Stott

Canoe Man (2010)

Cautiously Recommended

Short Television Film

Writer/Director: Norman Hull

Cinematographer: Don Freeman

Composer: Neil Barclay

Cast: Bernard Hill, Saskia Reeves, Jeremy Swift, Philip Correia, Jeremy Legat, Kate Ambler, Pepe Balderrama, Philip McGough

Hull’s competent if rather uninspired BBC production just about captures the incredulity of the real life incident that it dramatises – John Darwin, with the aid of his wife Anne, unbeknownst to their two adult sons, faked his own death in 2002 in order to get the insurance money, and lived under a new identity for five years, before being uncovered – but it is not nearly as entertaining or incisive as it should have been. Iain.Stott

An Education (2009)

Cautiously Recommended

UK/USA

Feature Film

Director: Lone Scherfig

Writers: Nick Hornby, Lynn Barber

Cinematographer: John de Borman

Composer: Paul Englishby

Cast: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Cara Seymour, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, Olivia Williams, Emma Thompson

On the cusp of adulthood, Jenny, an Oxbridge candidate with a pushy father, meets a dashing older man, who proceeds to seduce her with his romantic, adventurous lifestyle, but as time passes and numerous hidden truths are uncovered she begins to question the life path that she is about to set out on, in Scherfig’s generally entertaining and well acted (by Mulligan, at least) if rather hastily and (vaguely) shoddily concluded 1960s set film. Iain.Stott

Scum (1979)

Highly Recommended

Feature Film

Director: Alan Clarke

Writer: Roy Minton

Cinematographer: Phil Meheux

Cast: Ray Winstone, Mick Ford, Julian Firth, John Blundell, Phil Daniels, John Judd, Philip Jackson, Peter Howell, John Grillo, Ray Burdis, Alan Igbon, John Fowler, Bill Dean

Clarke’s remake of his own television film, which the BBC refused to show after getting cold feet over its strong violence, painting a bloody portrait of hellish borstal life, is a more polished work than its predecessor, which both adds to and detracts from its overall effect, but it is, never the less, still a work of great power. Iain.Stott

Scum (1977)

Highly Recommended

Television Film

Series Title: Play for Today (1970-1984)

Director: Alan Clarke

Writer: Roy Minton

Cinematographer: John Wyatt

Cast: Ray Winstone, David Threlfall, Martin Phillips, Davidson Knight, John Blundell, Phil Daniels, Ray Burdis, Richard Butler, John Judd, Bay White, Peter Gordon

Originally commissioned by the BBC for their Play for Today series, but not shown until 1991 due to executive cold feet over its strong violence (and consequently remade two years later for a cinema release), Alan Clarke’s visceral film – an unflinching portrait of dehumanising borstal life (rape, bullying, intimidation, racism, and all) – is rightly revered for its painful credibility and wonderfully raw performances. Iain.Stott

Giliap (1975)

Cautiously Recommended

Sweden

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Roy Andersson

Cinematographer: John Olsson

Composer: Björn Isfält

Cast: Thommy Berggren, Mona Seilitz, Willie Andréason, Lars-Levi Læstadius, Henry Olhans, Rainer Mieth, Pernilla Wallgren

Dour, humourless, and wilfully oblique, Giliap, Andersson’s follow-up to his 1970 magnum opus A Swedish Love Story, was a critical failure and a commercial disaster on its initial release and almost put paid to his promising film-making career – he wouldn’t make another feature until Songs from the Second Floor (2000) – but it has since received something of a critical reappraisal; that said, it still pales in comparison to the rest of his oeuvre. Iain.Stott

Yes Minister: Series 1 (1980)

Television Series

Director: Sydney Lotterby

Writers: Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn

Cinematographer: Peter Winn

Composer: Ronnie Hazlehurst

Cast: Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne, Derek Fowlds, Neil Fitzwiliam, John Savident, Diana Hoddinott

When James Hacker is appointed as the Minister for Administrative Affairs by the new Prime Minister, he soon discovers that his aim to implement open, slim-lined government won’t be as easy as he had thought, as he finds his every move blocked by the bureaucratic guile of Sir Humphrey Appleby, his department’s Permanent Secretary, in this hilarious, sharply drawn political satire. Iain.Stott

Miradas de cine: Votaciones los años 2000

Miradas de cine

I, along with numerous (mostly) Spanish critics and bloggers, recently took part in the above poll, selecting our top 15 films of the decade. My personal ballot can be found here.

Results:

25 votes
In the Mood for Love (2000)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)

20 votes
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

19 votes
AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001)

17 votes
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

15 votes
There Will Be Blood (2007)

14 votes
Inland Empire (2006)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Saraband (2003)
Spirited Away (2001)

13 votes
Zodiac (2007)

12 votes
Mystic River (2003)
The New World (2005)

11 votes
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
WALL·E (2008)

10 votes
Children of Men (2006)
Colossal Youth (2006)
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Match Point (2005)
Oldboy (2003)

9 votes
Dogville (2003)
Elephant (2003)
Femme Fatale (2002)
Unbreakable (2000)

8 votes
Before Sunset (2004)
Gerry (2002)
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Shara (2003)

7 votes
Grizzly Man (2005)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
The Lives of Others (2006)
The Man Without a Past (2002)
Regular Lovers (2005)
2046 (2004)
The World (2004)

6 votes
Café Lumière (2003)
The Death of Mister Lazarescu (2005)
Kings & Queen (2004)
Lost in Translation (2003)
The Piano Teacher (2001)
Talk to Her (2002)
Tropical Malady (2004)
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
The Wrestler (2008)

5 votes
Amelie (2001)
Apocalypto (2006)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
A Christmas Tale (2008)
Code Unknown (2000)
Demonlover (2002)
Donnie Darko (2001)
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)
Heartbeat Detector (2007)
A History of Violence (2005)
The Incredibles (2004)
The Intruder (2004)
Last Days (2005)
Let the Right One In (2008)
Memento (2000)
A One and a Two (2000)
Paranoid Park (2007)
A Prophet (2009)
3-Iron (2004)
The White Ribbon (2009)

Faintheart (2008)

Not Recommended

UK/USA

Feature Film

Director: Vito Rocco

Writers: David Lemon, Vito Rocco

Cinematographer: David Katznelson

Composer: Mike Batt

Cast: Eddie Marsan, Ewen Bremner, Jessica Hynes, Bronagh Gallagher, Tim Healy, Paul Nicholls, Anne Reid, Joseph Hamilton, Chloe Hesar

Recently separated from his wife, Richard, a battle re-enactment enthusiast (complete with distinctly unfashionable hairstyle and moustache), determines to both win her back and regain the respect of his perma-embarrassed teenaged son, in this sweet and likeable if rather sentimental and decidedly predictable comedy. Iain.Stott

Takeshis' (2005)

Recommended

Japan

Feature Film

Original Title: タケシズ

Writer/Director: Kitano Takeshi

Cinematographer: Yanagijima Katsumi

Composer: Nagi

Cast: Beat Takeshi, Kyōno Kotomi, Kishimoto Kayoko, Osugi Ren, Terajima Susumu, Watanabe Tetsu

Beat Takeshi, a successful actor, and Mr. Kitano, a struggling one, find their lives bleeding in and out of each other, as dreams, dreams within dreams, scenes of fiction, and passages of reality interconnect, intertwine, reproduce, and repeat themselves and each other (????), in Kitano’s knowing, reflexive, and generally hilarious self portrait cum career retrospective. Iain.Stott

Your Father's Murderer: A Letter to Zachary (2008)

Recommended

USA

Feature Documentary

Original Title: Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father

Writer/Director/Cinematographer/Composer/Narrator: Kurt Kuenne

Featuring: David Bagby, Kate Bagby

Despite its slightly (and needlessly) manipulative score, Kuenne’s very, very upsetting film, which documents the epic road trip that he made in order to pay tribute to his recently murdered best friend, is both a beautifully constructed, heartfelt memorial to a lost loved one and a devastating document of how one tragedy needlessly led to another. Iain.Stott

Flickering Lights (2000)

Cautiously Recommended

Denmark/Sweden

Feature Film

Original Title: Blinkende lygter

Writer/Director: Anders Thomas Jensen

Cinematographer: Eric Kress

Composers: Bent Fabricius-Bjerre, Jeppe Kaas

Cast: Søren Pilmark, Ulrich Thomsen, Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Sofie Gråbøl, Iben Hjejle, Frits Helmuth, Ole Thestrup, Peter Andersson

Four childhood friends – small time gangsters – in debt to the local bigwig, go on the run, deciding to run a dilapidated and decidedly isolated restaurant in some far-flung backwater that they chance upon, in prolific screenwriter Jensen’s diverting feature directorial debut, a strange mix of sentimentality, brutal violence, and adolescent humour, which is perhaps most notable for featuring an uncharacteristically subtle performance from Thomsen. Iain.Stott

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1963)

USA

Novel

Author: Walter Tevis

A tall, slender extraterrestrial lands on Earth and, exploiting his planet's vastly superior technology, forms World Enterprises Corporation, quickly building-up an immense fortune in order to build a space craft large enough to save the few remaining inhabitants of his war-scarred home world, but alcoholism and television-induced naivety ensure that his plan does not run smoothly, in Tevis’s gently satirical, pathos-laden novel. Iain.Stott

Adoration (2008)

Recommended

Canada

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Atom Egoyan

Cinematographer: Paul Sarossy

Composer: Mychael Danna

Cast: Devon Bostick, Scott Speedman, Arsinée Khanjian, Rachel Blanchard, Noam Jenkins, Kenneth Welsh

At the urging of his Lebanese French teacher, a Torontan teenager confesses to his classmates that his Palestinian father attempted to make martyrs of him and his mother on a flight to Israel before his birth, bringing to the fore questions of right and wrong, truth and fiction, in Egoyan’s affecting, intelligent, and provocative exploration of difficult subject matter. Iain.Stott

Anchoress (1993)

Recommended

UK/Belgium

Feature Film

Director: Chris Newby

Writers: Judith Stanley-Smith, Christine Watkins

Cinematographer: Michel Baudour

Cast: Natalie Morse, Eugene Bervoets, Toyah Willcox, Pete Postlethwaite, Christopher Eccleston, Michael Pas, Brenda Bertin

Set in the 14th century and based on an actual incident, Chris Newby’s sensual, gorgeously photographed curio depicts the strange tale of Christine Carpenter – a puzzling, ethereal young woman – who claimed to have sighted the Virgin, and volunteered to become an anchoress, walling herself off (literally) from the outside world, much to the delight of the pious local priest and the chagrin of her decidedly earthy mother. Iain.Stott

Berlin, 2010

Golden Bear
Honey (2010)

Jury Grand Prix - Silver Bear
If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle (2010)

Silver Bear for Best Director
Roman Polanski, The Ghost (2010)

Silver Bear for Best Actress
Terajima Shinobu, Caterpillar (2010)

Silver Bear for Best Actor
Grigori Dobrygin & Sergei Puskepalis, How I Ended This Summer (2010)

Silver Bear for an Outstanding Artistic Contribution (Camera)
Pavel Kostomarov, How I Ended This Summer (2010)

Silver Bear for Best Script
Wang Quan'an and Na Jin, Apart Together (2010)

Alfred-Bauer Prize
If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle (2010)

In Competition

Apart Together (2010)
Caterpillar (2010)
A Family (2010)
The Ghost (2010)
Greenberg (2010)
Honey (2010)
How I Ended This Summer (2010)
Howl (2010)
The Hunter (2010)
If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle (2010)
Jew Suss: Rise and Fall (2010)
The Killer Inside Me (2010)
Mammuth (2010)
Puzzle (2009)
The Robber (2010)
Shahada (2010)
A Simple Noodle Story (2009)
A Somewhat Gentle Man (2010)
Submarino (2010)

The Firm (1989)

Recommended

Television Film

Series Title: Screen Two (1985-1994)

Director: Alan Clarke

Writer: Al Ashton

Cinematographers: Ben Philpott, Richard Philpott, John Ward

Cast: Gary Oldman, Lesley Manville, Philip Davis, Andrew Wilde, Charles Lawson, William Vanderpuye, Jay Simpson, Patrick Murray, Robbie Gee, Terry Sue Patt, Nick Dunning, Nicholas Hewetson

Bexy – a besuited estate agent from a working class background, who looks every bit the fascist with his black shirts, slicked back hair, and thin moustache – leads his band of football hooligans (The Inner City Crew) in a series of unflinchingly violent battles with rival crews, in a bid to become The Firm to represent England at the 1988 European Championships in West Germany, in Alan Clarke’s final film before he succumbed to cancer; a Powerful, responsible, essential, and generally credible if vaguely camp examination of hooliganism. Iain.Stott

Four Days in July (1985)

Highly Recommended

Television Film

Writer/Director:Mike Leigh

Cinematographer: Remi Adefarasin

Composer: Rachel Portman

Cast: Brid Brennan, Des McAleer, Paula Hamilton, Charles Lawson, B.J. Hogg, Adrian Gordon, Shane Connaughton, Eileen Pollock, Stephen Rea, David Coyle, John Keegan, John Hewitt, Ann Hasson

Set against the festivities of The Twelth, Mike Leigh’s gently funny, excellently acted (particularly by the exceptional McAleer), and reasonably even handed slice-of-life drama presents a portrait of two Northern Irish families – one catholic, one protestant – over the period of four days, as they prepare for the arrival of their first children, highlighting the similarities and differences between their segregated lives. Iain.Stott

Home Sweet Home (1982)

Highly Recommended

Television Film

Series Title: Play for Today (1970-1984)

Writer/Director: Mike Leigh

Cinematographer: Remi Adefarasin

Composer: Carl Davis

Cast: Timothy Spall, Eric Richard, Tim Barker, Kay Stonham, Su Elliot, Frances Barber, Sheila Kelley, Lorraine Brunning

With an agreeably sombre score from Davis and a number of excellent performances, Mike Leigh presents a pathos-laden, beautifully observed, and decidedly haunting portrait of a somewhat jaded postman – whose cheating wife is long gone, and whose daughter has been taken into care – spending a couple of days in his company, as he sniffs around his workmates’ wives, and does his best to avoid the inane chatter of patronising social workers. Iain.Stott

Angels in Fast Motion (2005)

Recommended

Denmark

Feature Film

Original Title: Nordkraft

Director: Ole Christian Madsen

Writers: Bo Hr. Hansen, Ole Christian Madsen, Jakob Ejersbo

Cinematographer: Jørgen Johansson

Composer: Frithjof Toksvig

Cast: Signe Egholm Olsen, Claus Riis Østergaard, Thure Lindhardt, Farshad Kholghi, Thomas L. Corneliussen, Pernille Vallentin, Signe Vaupel, Rudi Køhnke

Although its incongruently flashy visuals detract somewhat from its overall effect, Madsen’s weaving together of three related but barely connected narratives – each dealing with love and drugs and the way that they effect each other – results in a nevertheless affecting work, which can boast of a number of excellent performances. Iain.Stott

Edge of Darkness (1985)

Recommended

Television Mini-Series

Director: Martin Campbell

Writer: Troy Kennedy-Martin

Cinematographer: Andrew Dunn

Composers: Eric Clapton, Michael Kamen

Cast: Bob Peck, Joe Don Baker, Charles Kay, Ian McNeice, Joanne Whalley, Hugh Fraser, John Woodvine, Jack Watson, Allan Cuthbertson, Kenneth Nelson, David Fleeshman, Zoë Wanamaker, Bill Stewart, T.R. Bowen, Imogen Staley

Following the murder of his 21-year-old political activist daughter, presumably committed in revenge for his time spent in Northern Ireland, Ronald Craven, a high ranking Yorkshire police officer, sets out to find the truth, uncovering secrets, lies, and conspiracies as he does, in this intriguing, beautifully paced, and frequently brilliant (particularly in the exceptional first episode) six part BBC thriller, which features an outstanding central performance from Peck. Iain.Stott

The Hangover (2009)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Todd Phillips

Writers: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore

Cinematographer: Lawrence Sher

Composer: Christophe Beck

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Heather Graham, Sasha Barrese, Jeffrey Tambor, Ken Jeong, Rachael Harris, Mike Tyson

Three fiends wake-up in their swanky Las Vegas hotel room after a seemingly wild bachelor party (stag night) with very few memories of the night before and a missing groom; if they are to get to the church on time, they must quickly work-out what happened to bring them to this anamnesis-challenged point, in this generally silly and oft childish yet frequently trouser-soilingly funny comedy, which is thankfully free of the sentimentality that taints so much of today’s Hollywood output. Iain.Stott

Wallander: Season 1 (2005-2006)

Sweden

Television Series

Creator: Henning Mankell

Cast: Krister Henriksson, Johanna Sällström, Ola Rapace, Angela Kovacs, Douglas Johansson, Mats Bergman, Fredrik Gunnarsson

Written to follow-on from Mankell’s series of popular novels, this first season, comprising of thirteen 90 minute instalments, awkwardly mixes a refined, sober aesthetic with generally outlandish, button-pushing plots, with the resultant episodes being a decidedly mixed bunch and only sporadically satisfying. Iain.Stott

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939)

Highly Recommended

Japan

Feature Film

Original Title: 残菊物語

Director: Mizoguchi Kenji

Writers: Kawaguchi Matsutarō, Yoda Yoshikata, Muramatsu Shōfū

Cinematographers: Fuji Yozō, Miki Shigeto

Composers: Fukai Shirō, Itō Senji

Cast: Hanayagi Shōtarō, Takada Kōkichi, Kawarazaki Gonjurō, Mori Kakuko, Arashi Tokusaburo, Umemura Yōko

At the end of the 19th century, Kikunosuke, an entertainer of some popularity but only moderate talent, determines to leave Tokyo and the influence of his revered actor father in order to both refine his thespian talents and pursue Otoku, his baby brother’s recently fired nanny, in Mizoguchi’s beautifully elegant and desperately moving epic romantic tragedy. Iain.Stott

CFB's Top 20 Obscure Films of 1927 (2010)

The Town Rat and the Country Rat (1927)
Hindle Wakes (1927)
West Point (1927)
Spiritual Constructions (1927)
The Chess Player (1927)
Twelve Miles Out (1927)
Love (1927)
The Gaucho (1927)
Women of Ryazan (1927)
Long Pants (1927)
Spring Fever (1927)
The Three-Sided Mirror (1927)
Charleston Parade (1927)
Stark Love (1927)
The Battle of the Century (1927)
Hotel Imperial (1927)
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927)
Downhill (1927)
The Fair Co-ed (1927)
Convoy (1927)

CFB's Top 25 Films of 1927 (2010)

Sunrise (1927)
Metropolis (1927)
The Unknown (1927)
The Lodger (1927)
Napoleon (1927)
7th Heaven (1927)
The Kid Brother (1927)
The Cat and the Canary (1927)
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927)
Berlin: Symphony of a City (1927)
College (1927)
The King of Kings (1927)
Wings (1927)
The Jazz Singer (1927)
Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927)
My Best Girl (1927)
The Girl with the Hat Box (1927)
Bed and Sofa (1927)
It (1927)
The Beloved Rogue (1927)
The Ring (1927)
Underworld (1927)
The End of St Petersburg (1927)
The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927)
Two Arabian Knights (1927)