CRUMBLIES… (…so nearly a on grounds of taste in the plotting…) Okay. After the tension of Another Mother’s Son (2017), we all sat down to try out the next film in the Channel-Islands-at-War … Continue Reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)
CRUMBLIES… Oh, now this is gorgeous. Young Steve brought it in. He can talk again these days and rasped out the excellence of this comic-Gallic insight into one man’s journey … Continue Reading The Sweet Escape /Comme un avion (2015)
CRUMBLIES… Okay, I sat through these two minutes of obscure pantomimic pantomiming, so you do too. Silent Steve dared me to eat a cupcake quicker than Pierrette’s Escapades, plainly expecting … Continue Reading Pierrette’s Escapades / Le départ d’Arlequin et de Pierrette (1900)
CRUMBLIES… Mad Maud had been waxing critical on the weakness of men. An extra shot in her morning caffeine intake and she’d got on to worrisome prostates and erectile dysfunction … Continue Reading I Got Life! / Aurore (2017)
CRUMBLIES… Silent Steve stared at me. I stared at Silent Steve. “Cabbages?” I said. “Yup,” he replied. And so I’m going to share this with you. First, a history lesson. … Continue Reading La Fée aux Choux / The Fairy of the Cabbages (1900)
CRUMBLIES… It’s a simple fact that old Jack here is really not qualified to review this film. It looked like the powerful story of a woman recovering from her divorce … Continue Reading Let the Sunshine In (2017)
CRUMBLIES… Way back in the dawn of cinema (second decade), Georges Méliès had competition from the Pathé Frères across town in Paris. Segundo de Chomón was one of their team; … Continue Reading La Fée Printemps / The Spring Fairy (1902)
CRUMBLIES… Okay, I thought Silent Steve had gone mad. One cold, dull Sunday, when sugar was low and my nerves were on edge, he suggested the tragic tale of a … Continue Reading Ménilmontant (1926)
CRUMBLIES… Sigh. Okay. Deep breath. Late Bloomers. Old Jack, your trusty guide to movies for the old and fading, watched this after young Steve had a go, passed out from … Continue Reading Late Bloomers (2011)
CRUMBLIES… Fuck me, there’s another film with ‘quantum’ in the title! Here old Jack was wandering through life thinking Quantum of Solace was it, a title that probably tripled the … Continue Reading Quantum Love / Une Rencontre (2014)
CRUMBLIES… Okay, this is a Western. One of the modern ones. And by that I mean the non-violent, shit it was tough out there, drive you nuts with its cruelty. And … Continue Reading The Homesman (2014)
CRUMBLIES… The whole corridor watched this. It was a warm June morning. The visitors had gone, and just as well. The doors and windows were open, the gardens full down … Continue Reading Summer Hours / L’heure d’été (2008)
CRUMBLIES… Okay. Deep breath. This one’s a mix of modern and wartime, petty and intolerably deep, dark and, well, wartime-brutal. It stars Kristin Scott Thomas on a mission to resolve … Continue Reading Sarah’s Key / Elle s’appelait Sarah (2010)
CRUMBLIES… Now, here’s an odd film. It has a brutal message for those marching through their middle years, not least the inevitability of replacement and the unremitting nature of time. … Continue Reading Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)
CRUMBLIES… Oh yes. Silent Steve makes old Jack discover the silents again. No – stay! This is rather fun. A 1908 tale of a man, abandoned for being a dick … Continue Reading Troubles of a Grass Widower / Vive la Vie de Garçon (1908)
CRUMBLIES… I know, I know, 1901, but it only lasts 9 minutes, so try watching Barbe-bleue – a cinematic silent of a four hundred year-old fairy-tale-nasty. The hero? Bluebeard, a man … Continue Reading Barbe-bleue / Bluebeard (1901)