TRANCE

2013; directed by Danny Boyle; adapted by Joe Ahearne and John Hodge; 97 mins

When Trance came out, it seemed to garner mediocre reviews, which was a surprise in light of the ongoing Danny Boyle love tsunami that had started with Slumdog Millionaire and continued on through 127 Hours and that incredible Olympic opening ceremony. I love this movie! Not only that but this is my favourite of Boyle’s movies from the last decade*, alongside T2 Trainspotting. It’s just enormous fun! It’s proper, naughty, violent, sexy, twisty, turn-y entertainment for grown-ups and what’s wrong with that?

THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

1934; directed by Alfred Hitchcock; written by Charles Bennett & D.B. Wyndham-Lewis and Edwin Greenwood & A.R. Rawlinson and Emlyn Williams; 75 mins

Well, here’s one motion picture which just goes to show that you can’t trust old Johnny Foreigner! Got to keep an eye on the perishing scoundrels, eh? A good old British film from Alfred Hitchcock in which emotions are kept to a minimum and one’s upper lip is favoured in any crisis.

DIAL M FOR MURDER

1954; directed by Alfred Hitchcock; adapted by Frederick Knott; 105 mins

This is another one of those films you hear about rather in the negative. Apparently Hitchcock knocked this one off having wanted to get out of his contract with Warner but still tied to directing something. For all the director’s disinterest, Dial M for Murder is still a hugely entertaining confection of commodified spousal murder. It’ll never be considered one of his greatest but for a film set almost entirely within one apartment and featuring more chat than should be legal for a feature film, it’s still head and shoulders over the average episode of cut-and-dried detective drama.

TRANSIT

2018; adapted and directed by Christian Petzold; 101 mins

Now that’s wot I call a head scratcher! Writer/director Christian Petzold seems to be enamoured with these noir-ish narratives of shifting identities and fractured relationships but here, he’s gone one step – maybe two steps – further. In noir, you’re usually trying to keep up with the small group of desperate souls and nasty bastards all vying for one selfish goal through the medium of someone who’s mostly ahead of the game. In Transit, an update of Anna Segher’s 1942 novel about Jews escaping France, you have a small group of desperate souls and nasty bastards all vying for a common goal, to get out of the country and nobody knows what the Hell is going on.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

2007; adapted and directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen; 122 mins

“… then I woke up.” The End. Having finally watched this again for the first time in a decade, it strikes me that retired sheriff Ed Tom Bell’s dream is window dressing to that final line. The dream is immaterial. The point is, no matter what happens in our dreams, we always wake up to reality. I remember the first reviews, whilst positive, all forewarned that No Country For Old Men was not a film you’d come out of feeling positive about humanity.

TOUCH OF EVIL

1958; adapted and directed by Orson Welles; 95 mins

Touch of Evil has been on my “Ooh-I-really-must-get-round-to-watching-that-someday” list for about 15 years and finally someday came around and in anticipation of the new Welles movie, I got to see it. Whilst not without a large problematic element which will be discussed at length in this review, what a treat it was! A latecomer in the original film noir movement, Orson Welles’ loose adaptation of the Whit Masterson novel, Badge of Evil, is a sweaty, dangerous delight. A genuinely entertaining, politically charged film noir which was flagrantly mistreated by the studio but thankfully it’s brilliance shines through regardless!

THE STRANGER

1946; directed by Orson Welles; adapted by Anthony Veiller; 94 mins

As The Other Side of the Wind approaches it’s Netflix premiere, the streaming service has been good enough to start releasing some Orson Welles films and here’s one I’d never even heard of. Apparently, Welles said this was his least favourite of his movies and that’s a shame because what we have here is a terrific film noir with late-in-the-day issue-tainment that really strikes a chord, even now. Also, The Trial looks amazing but is fucking annoying!

OSSESSIONE

1943; directed by Luchino Visconti; adapted by Mario Alicata, Giuseppe De Santis, Alberto Moravia, Alberto Pietrangeli, Gianni Puccini and Luchino Visconti; 140 mins

Down and out, Gino (Massimo Girotti), gets dragged off the back of a lorry and finds himself at a rural inn belonging to the boorish, abusive Giuseppe Bragana (Juan de Landa) and his much younger wife, Giovanna (Clara Calamai). Gino and Giovanna immediately fall for each other and as soon as Giuseppe is away for an afternoon, they are in bed together and plotting how to get him out of the picture. After an aborted escape together, Giovanna refuses to go because her husband is still around and she seems to love the inn itself. Temporarily, they split and Gino heads off to find work in a nearby port town.