The Bridges of Madison County (1995)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Clint Eastwood

Writers: Richard LaGravenese, Robert James Waller

Cinematographer: Jack N. Green

Composer: Lennie Niehaus

Cast: Clint Eastwood, Meryl Streep, Annie Corley, Victor Slezak

When their mother dies, Carolyn and Michael discover that she wasn’t merely the quiet little housewife that they had thought, uncovering a tender but all too brief affair that she had had with a travelling photographer in 1965, in Eastwood’s for the most part well made film, which is let down somewhat by the jarring contemporary framing story and the increasingly sentimental and obtrusive score. Iain.Stott

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A Hard Day's Night (1964)

Recommended

UK/USA

Feature Film

Director: Richard Lester

Writer: Alun Owen

Cinematographer: Gilbert Taylor

Cast: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Wilfrid Brambell, Norman Rossington, John Junkin, Victor Spinetti

John, Paul, George, and Ringo travel down to London with Paul’s grandfather, a very clean but decidedly mischievous old man, to appear on a television show, and get into various scrapes along the way, in Richard Lester’s thoroughly entertaining look at a day in the life of The Beatles, filled with a wealth of memorable visual and verbal gags and, of course, songs. Iain.Stott

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Moonfleet (1955)

Not Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Fritz Lang

Writers: Margaret Fitts, Jan Lustig, J. Meade Falkner

Cinematographer: Robert Planck

Composer: Miklós Rózsa

Cast: Stewart Granger, Jon Whiteley, George Sanders, Joan Greenwood, Viveca Lindfors, Liliane Montevecchi, Melville Cooper, Sean McClory, Alan Napier, John Hoyt

After the death of his mother, John Mohune, a 10-year-old Scots boy, who is descended from the pirate Redbeard, goes to live in his ancestral home with his mother’s old flame, who has become a gentleman smuggler, and finds himself at the centre of a dangerously thrilling adventure, in Lang’s highly stylish though only mildly diverting film, which is marred by a number of risible action sequences. Iain.Stott

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Seven Chances (1925)

Recommended

USA

Short Feature Film

Director: Buster Keaton

Writers: Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez, Joseph Mitchell, Roi Cooper Megrue, David Belasco

Cinematographers: Byron Houck, Elgin Lessley

Composer: Robert Israel (1995)

Cast: Buster Keaton, T. Roy Barnes, Snitz Edwards, Ruth Dwyer, Frankie Raymond, Erwin Connelly, Jules Cowles

With his business in severe financial trouble, the news of a seven million dollar inheritance couldn’t come at a better time for Jimmie, unfortunately a clause put in the will by his grandfather means that he must be married by seven p.m. on his twenty seventh birthday or forfeit the money, which just so happens to be today – cue a mad search for a willing bride, in Keaton’s for the most part only moderately entertaining comedy, which is enlivened considerably by a wonderful chase sequence towards the end, featuring some of his most thrilling stunt work. Iain.Stott

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The Matrix (1999)

Not Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Writer/Directors: The Wachowski Brothers

Cinematographer: Bill Pope

Composer: Don Davis

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Gloria Foster, Joe Pantoliano, Marcus Chong, Julian Arahanga, Matt Doran

A computer hacker learns that his life and those of everyone around him is a sham, with the world merely a computer simulation, set-up to keep human bodies, which are now little more than living batteries, in working condition, in this popular piece of science-fiction, which is at its best when inventively blowing shit up, but in its more po-faced moments, despite some interesting ideas, is almost laugh-out-loud funny in its camp silliness. Iain.Stott

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The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)

Recommended

Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle

Writer/Director: Werner Herzog

Cinematographer: Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein

Cast: Bruno S., Walter Ladengast, Brigitte Mira, Willy Semmelrogge, Michael Kroecher, Hans Musäus, Marcus Weller, Gloria Doer, Volker Prechtel

Based on a true story, Herzog’s socially satirical film paints a vivid portrait of Kaspar Hauser, a man raised in isolation, who is suddenly thrust into the world, barely able to walk and unable to talk, and passed from one benefactor to the next, who each struggle to come to terms with his innate logic in the wake of their own religion-tainted, bourgeois outlooks. Iain.Stott

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