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Reviews
Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? (1964)
Bradbury or Kubrick?
Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? Was made at a time of rapid change in Britain. The old, post Victorian world was fading under the assault from the 'demob' generation, now free to build their lives and apply what they had learned from overseas postings and contact with US culture. This is exemplified by Ottilie Patterson, who wrote and performed the powerful title and credits song. She was born in Norther Ireland to an Irish father and a Latvian mother, who had met in Georgia during the war.
Watching this film on Talking Pictures, I was struck by the visual, as well as textural, resemblance to A Clockwork Orange. In particular, Mick himself, with his signature hat and pointy nose, looks so much like Alex, and acts so much like him I can't believe it is a coincidence. The book had been published two years before Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? Came out, so it is quite possible that it was inspired by, if not based on, Bradbury's novel. Stanley Kubrick's film was a decade in the future, but the parallels are such that there must have been an influence. I never rely on "must have", but it would be worth pursuing for a film academic.
The Directors: Mervyn LeRoy (2020)
Interesting, but poor research
I have enjoyed these Directors: documentaries. Many of them I have never heard of, though I may have seen some of their films. It gives me an idea of wnhat to look out for.
Mervyn LeRoy is one of the directors I had not heard of, though I have seen a few of his films, in particular the evocative but irritatingly irrational Waterloo Bridge.
In this documentary, the discussion of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo states that the Doolittle raid bombers were launched from "battleships". This is, briefly, not possible. A minute's research told me that they were launched from aircraft carriers. If such an elementary and glaring error can get through, how much else is wrong? I shall keep watching though, and hope that the Carol Red episode, that I missed, comes round again some day.
The Madame Blanc Mysteries (2021)
Midsomer Murders meets Death in Paradise
Nice scenery. Shame about the script and the acting. I've seen better, far better, on suburban amateur stages.
The episode I have just watched, series 2 episode 6, hinges on a contention that might have held up three decades ago, but is today utterly absurd. Possibly a very old script, with mobile phones added to make it seem current.
Another cheap genre copy. Which is a pity, the concept is good, I think the actors could be good, but it needs decent scripts and more rehearsal time.
This scenario has been tried before, expats in, was it France? Similar crimes, I forget the pretext for the similar married couple having to solve them. Equally uninspired, feeble jokes, and a general sense of lethargy about the production.
There is a principle in entertainment, it only needs to be cheap enough and good enough to pay a return on investment. A feeble copy is a safer bet than a brilliant original.
Ne le dis à personne (2006)
A triumph of direction over script
Visually this film is a delight, the set pieces are marvellously realistic, and the cinematography manages to be both unobtrusive and impressive. The editing is tight, or as tight as the script will allow, and every opportunity has been taken to lend visual interest and substance to scenes that would otherwise be bland. The actors work hard to inject life into underdeveloped characters, but they are given little opportunity by the script to rise above the formulaic. Tight editing and fluid direction keep the ball rolling although we are as much in the dark as to what is going on as is Beck, the paediatrician hero. Eight years ago Beck survived an attack in which his wife was killed, or so he thought, but now he is receiving emails from her, and other peculiar things are happening. He, and we, would like to know what is going on. We do find out, in the end. But it is as if the writers were so carried away writing action that they forgot that there has to be a story, and that the story has to have a back-story, there has to be a scenario under which all this frenetic and random seeming activity can be seen as serving some dramatic and structural purpose. So they tacked on a lengthy, tedious, and confusing sequence of intercut scenes in which All Is Revealed. Now we know Who, and How, but Why is never convincingly conveyed. Beck is well portrayed by François Cluzet, and Kristin Scott Thomas gives the secondary character of his lawyer the kind of dimensionality that a lead role would warrant. Most of the characters are not really that interesting, and the only one who is becomes collateral damage, to no great dramatic purpose, as an obvious plot mechanism. For this viewer, at least, the film began to go downhill from this point, I no longer cared all that much about the outcome. I made two guesses as to what lay behind the mystery, both wrong. What emerges is in the event, not trivial, but banal. There are holes in the plot, but those I can work with. What in the end I came away with was a sense of hollowness, of waste. The film left me depressed, and I had bad dreams that night. A lot of people will like this film. There is a lot to admire about that way it was made. I just wish they had used a better, properly developed script.