Day 7: My favourite black and white film

Standard
agwhaan2

Image via thegirlinrowk.wordpress.com

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

There are so many B&W films that I love but this Iranian feminist vampire Western is pitch perfect for me. The debut of British-born Ana Lily Amirpour, it has a killer soundtrack, haunting visuals and an understated narrative of love and redemption in an Iranian ghost town. The soundtrack is perfect for late night long distance driving.

Read about it here on IMDb and, if you have a Kanopy account, it’s currently available to stream.

What’s your favourite black and white film? Is it a classic like The Philadelphia Story (1940) or something more contemporary?

Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.

Coming Next: Day 8: Your favourite animation feature film

Day 6: A sequel that’s as good as the original

Standard
aliens-1986-ripley

Image via ianfarrington.wordpress.com

Aliens (1986)

No surprises with this one, although it was a toss up with Terminator 2 and Mad Max 2. All three were successful first films, improved by a higher budget for their sequel and let down by each next film as a revolving door of directors tried in vain to capture what made them great.

I love the original Alien (1979) with all its low-budget suspense and scares. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is a strong heroine in a world of men although it was the 70s so director Ridley Scott had to have her menaced whilst wearing skimpy underwear. With Aliens, James Cameron allowed her to unapologetically take charge and, although it was as the ferocious mother trope, it was (and still is) exhilarating for this twenty-something year old to watch.

Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.

Coming Next: Day 7: Your favourite black and white film

Day 5: The first film I saw at a cinema

Standard
lostinthedesert

Image via tv24.co.uk

Lost in the Desert (1969)

Also known as Dirkie, this South African film scarred me for months afterwards. I remember being cradled in my mother’s lap in a packed out cinema, aged 5 (what were my parents thinking!) and crying hysterically as a little boy and his dog tried to find their way across the Kalahari Desert. There were scorpions and hyenas and my nightmares only stopped when we moved house and my mum convinced me that hyenas couldn’t climb into second storey bedroom windows.

You can read about it here on IMDb. It was filmed in both Afrikaans and English and writer/director/star Jamie Uys (Hayes) went on to make the hugely successful The Gods Must Be Crazy films.

What is the first film you remember seeing at the cinema?

Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.

Coming Next: Day 6: A sequel that you think is as good as the original

Day 4: My favourite book to film adaptation

Standard
film-32-clueless

Image via movielottery.wordpress.som

Clueless (1995)

I didn’t know that I’d end up with two Austen adaptations from 1995 in a row. This sublime comedy by the under-rated Amy Heckerling takes Austen’s novel Emma and deposits it in 1990s Hollywood. The dialogue is sharp and funny and regularly quoted in my household – “She could be a farmer in those clothes.” It’s the only Emma version I have seen where I thoroughly like the heroine and Alicia Silverstone is at her best as spoiled but well-meaning rich girl Cher. I feel sad every time I watch it at the loss at the young age of 32 of Brittany Murphy, who plays Tai.

What’s your favourite book to film adaptation? Is it a book you loved first or one you’ve never read?

Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.

Coming Next: Day 5: The first film you saw at a cinema

Day 3: A film I never get bored watching

Standard

Persuasion (1995)

The films I’m most likely to watch over and over again are comfort films, perfect for a rainy day or when you’re ill in bed. I love a Jane Austen adaptation and regularly rewatch the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice (not the awkwardly awful 2005 remake with Keira Knightley) but my favourite is this much less famous 1995 adaptation of Persuasion.

It is quiet and understated and Amanda Root is a calm and capable Anne Elliot (unlike Sally Hawkins breathless and dizzy characterisation in the 2007 remake). Ciarán Hinds does a good job as the stalwart but bitter Captain Wentworth and Samuel West is convincingly handsome and odious as Mr Eliott. It’s the secondary characters that I love best, though – Fiona Shaw as Mrs Croft, Phoebe Nicholls as the ghastly Elizabeth Elliot and Sophie Thompson as narcissistic Mary Musgrove.

Find it here on IMDb.

What film do you never get bored of?

Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.

Coming Next: Day 4: Your favourite book to film adaptation

Day 2: My favourite film with a name in the title

Standard

for-sama-004689_676

For Sama (2019)

This was a difficult choice and I nearly picked Toni Erdmann (2016) or About Elly (2009) but this searing documentary by journalist Waad Al-Kateab, trapped in Aleppo, Syria during the uprising and titled as a message to her daughter, Sama, is impossible to forget. It opens your eyes to the real impact of political discord and the tragedy behind the headlines we scroll past. You can read my review here and see details on IMDb here.

What’s your favourite film that has a name in the title? I’m betting at least one person chooses Shrek (2001).

Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.

Coming Next: Day 3: A film you never get bored watching

Hustlers (2019)

Standard

3.5_orange_sm

It’s a rare treat to see a mainstream Hollywood film where so many of the leads are women of colour. Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers takes a true story of a group of women in the late 2000s, who survive the financial crash by fleecing businessman, and turns it into a warm and vibrant story of female friendship. Continue reading →