Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

For anyone with even a passing interest in Powell and Pressburger I wholeheartedly recommend a visit to The Powell and Pressburger pages. The site is run as a labour of love by Steve Crook for it's members i.e the community to promote Powell and Pressburger screenings, DVD and book releases, they've also organised events, not just the location walk for 'A Canterbury Tale' which I attended last Sunday but they've also been to the Scottish Island of Mull where 'I Know Where I'm Going' was filmed.

Link
The Powell and Pressburger Appreciation society - The Powell and Pressburger pages, link.

Coming attraction: Jack Cardiff in conversation

Top; Jack Cardiff, Middle and bottom 2 images from 'Black Narcissus' (1947).

Thanks to my new friends at the Powell and Pressburger appreciation society for the heads up on this one. Ian Christie will be in conversation with Jack Cardiff, Wednesday 20th September 2006 at the National Gallery, Sainsbury Wing.

Links
The National Gallery site, with online booking, link.
Details of other forthcoming attractions on the Powell and Pressburger pages, link.
Jack Cardiff on IMDB, link.

Real Location # 3 - Peeping Tom

Michael Powell's 'Peeping Tom' has several London based locations.

The first few scenes are filmed around Rathbone Place, off Oxford Street. The film opens with Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) and a prositute at Newman Passage at the Rathbone Street entrance. The doorway can be seen today.
The newsagent's Mark visits to photograph model's is at the corner of Percy Street and Rathbone Place, suprisingly there is a lot less signage than there was over thirty years ago when the film was shot.

Links
IMDB entry for 'Peeping Tom', link.
Map of Rathbone Place area, link.

Entrance to Newman Passage.

Corner of Percy Street and Rathbone Place.

Time Out - London On Screen season

Showing at 25 cinemas all over the capital.

Link
Time Out London On Screen season, link.

A visit to Chillingbourne, Kent

Chilham aka Chillingbourne in Kent (pictured) is one of the locations for Powell and Pressburger's 'A Canterbury Tale'.

Yesterday I joined Paul Tritton author of 'A Canterbury Tale - Memories of a Classic Wartime Movie', Steve Crook from the Powell and Pressburger Appreciation Society, at least one cast member, several people from the surrounding area that remember the film being made and approximately sixty other enthusiasts of the film for the annual 'A Canterbury Tale' Location Walk.

Once I have some photos developed I will post them here. In the meantime, I understand from Paul that the building to the left of this image (in the tudor style) which is in the square in Chilham was where the bus comes to collect Alison Smith (Sheila Sim) in the film.

Friz Freleng

Meanwhile on the film blogosphere several film bloggers celebrate the birthday of Friz Freleng. Go to Hell on Frisco Bay for a full list of contributors.

Being completely ignorant to Friz Freleng I had not planned to contribute to this blog a thon. That was until I heard on Radio 4 this evening that here in the UK Tom & Jerry cartoons are about to be censored. I dashed home to see if Tom & Jerry were one of Freleng's creations. They weren't...

Links
Read the full Tom & Jerry censure story on BBC News, link.
See the film blogosphere's Friz Freleng blog a thon at Hell on Frisco Bay, link.
IMDB entry for Friz Freleng, link.
Wikipedia entry for Tom & Jerry, link.
Wikipedia entry for Friz Freleng, link.

Alan Bell, RIP

Alan Bell



Thanks to my friend Ken of The Rehearsal Rooms for making me aware of Alan Bell's passing. I hadn't heard of him before but it seems he'd worked with Jospeh Losey (picture above from 'Accident') Nicolas Roeg and Lindsay Anderson amongst several others.

Links
Obituary in today's Independent of Alan Bell, link.
IMDB entry for Alan Bell, link.

Gene Tierney

Film and stage beauties # 11: Dorothy Mitchell - Hedges

Reverse reads:

A series of 54, No. 30, Dorothy Mitchell-Hedges.

A series of real photographs now being issued with Black Cat Medium Cigarettes. Carreras Ltd (ESTD 1788) Arcadia Works, London, England.

Coming attraction: Portrait of an Artist

Links
The National Gallery main site, link.
Portrait of an Artist microsite, including film listings, link.

Anna Magnani

Photograph by Larry Shaw.

Coming attraction: The Edinburgh International Film Festival

Jack Lemmon in Save the Tiger (1973).

The Edinburgh International Film Festival starts tomorrow. An article in this months Sight and Sound caught my eye. As part of the festival they have a season called 'Other Voices from The New American Cinema'.
The programme includes; Across 110th Street, Busting, Cockfighter, Dark Star, Electra Glide in Blue, God Told Me To, Head Over Heals, Little Murders, Loving, Mickey and Nicky, Night Moves, Save the Tiger, Scarecrow, Smile, Taking Off, The Crazies, The Driver, The Gambler, The Hired Hand, The Last Detail, The Laughing Policeman, The Spook Who Sat by The Door, Where's Poppa? and the headliner They Might Be Giants.

Links
The Edinburgh International Film Festival, link.
Sight and Sound magazine, link.

Born on this day: Samuel Fuller

"When you're in the battlefield, survival is all there is. Death is the only great emotion." - Samuel Fuller, The Guardian, 26th February 1991.

Links
IMDB entry for Samuel Fuller, link.
Wikipedia entry for Samuel Fuller, link.

The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera

I re-watched this documentary from 1996 earlier today; Fuller's answers to the questions posed by Tim Robbins (the interviewer) offer us some insight to this film maker, who lived an extraordinary life and as the documentary points out had already had two career’s before he even made his first film.
The main theme, for me was that Fuller was a superb story teller, and the quotes below re-enforce this:

Robbins “Your first experience in battle where you actually shot someone. What went through your mind?”
Fuller “Well the thing that went through my mind was that I was alive and he was dead, that’s number one…”
Although Fuller's response might read like flippant wise crack he goes on to tell Robbins how its the face of "number one" that haunts you the more you kill, he is deadly serious and we believe him, he was in battle and brought this authenticity to his war films.

Tim Robbins “What makes a good film?”
Samuel Fuller “Story!”
Robbins “What makes a good story?”
Fuller “A story!”

Links
IMDB entry for ‘The Typewriter, the Rifle and the Movie Camera', link.
Peter Tonguette's review of 'The Typewriter, the Rifle and the Movie Camera' on Senses of Cinema, link.

Dream double bill # 17 'Shock Corridor' and 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'

This week's double bill couples Samuel Fuller's 1963 film 'Shock Corridor' with 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' (1975) directed by Milos Forman. Both films take place inside psychiatric hospitals and give us an insight to what life might be like on the inside and to a certain extent the outside.

Links
IMDB entry for 'Shock Corridor', link.
IMDD entry for 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', link.
Rick McGrath article on 'Shock Corridor', link.

The pre-title quote from 'Shock Corridor' (1963).