JFK elicits a range of feelings in me not all of which have an awful lot to do with the movie itself. I was 13 at the time of its release and it was among the first “serious” films that I got to see at the cinema. In hindsight, I feel quite fortunate, but it didn't seem that way to me at the time: film was very much part of the national conversation back then and – at least in…
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Caught 1949
Caught is a noirish Woman’s Film revolving around the romantic misfortunes of finishing school alumnus Leonora Eames, played by Barbara Bel Geddes, best known to me as Midge in Vertigo. Having married into money by wedding business magnate Smith Ohlrig (Robert Ryan), she quickly comes to regret it. Yet she should not have been surprised to discover that her husband is bad news. Indeed, that was her impression when she is forced to rebuff his indelicate sexual advances during a…
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Nomadland 2020
I’m in two minds about Nomadland. On one hand it is an undeniably very positive thing that such a sad and non-sensationalist film should turn out to be so hugely profitable. On the other hand I found it tonally confusing and rather minor key, especially in its scoring. Those two complaints are related since the pall of melancholy cloaking the film is emphasized somewhat insistently by music which closes down the range of responses to what is shown. Although the…
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Tokyo Story 1953
It was funny watching Tokyo Story just a couple of days after receiving older family members at my home. As nice as it is to see relatives, there is no denying the strain it puts on family life having to entertain people over the weekend when you are busy with work and dealing with the myriad pressures of being a parent yourself. Ozu’s classic film distils something of this tension, but was made at a time when the intergenerational bonds…
