Oranges and Sunshine

dir. Jim Loach

UK/Australia, 2011

A bit over-written/expository, but an important story told.

Source Code

dir. Duncan Jones

USA, 2011

Like a much much better version of Inception. Made me comment on the preoccupations of a lot of American cinema and TV at the moment - hard to pin down ideas about time travel, control over time, terrorism, heroism, the organisation of memory, the role of the armed forces, a low-level constant murmur of suspicion. This is a fascinating film that I think I should see again to write about properly.

Repo Man

dir. Alex Cox

USA, 1984

Great B-movie-punk-sci-fi-slacker something-film. Endlessly well-written, great performances, a brilliant soundtrack, and heavy heavy heavy with revealing stuff about American culture - the food and drink packaging an eerily similar design to Tesco's value range (plain white packets, blue writing - "FOOD", "DRINK"), chasing money, the weird cult-like spirituality, strange observing government agencies, street-corner philosophers. This is a brilliant film.

Seconds

dir. John Frankenheimer

USA, 1966

Another dark Cold War-era paranoia picture from the director of The Manchurian Candidate, again focussing on singular identity in a world where no-one quite knows who is who. The cinematography by James Wong Howe is absolutely superb, especially the camera attached to the actor to give a sort of "floating head" effect, and the masterly use (and non-use) of music - the opening sequence of a man being followed is conducted entirely without music, or dialogue, with the floating head camera the only overtly "expressive" aspect. Here it is, with opening titles by the master, Saul Bass:

There is something in it too about image and self-image, about the relationship between identity and image, between inside and outside, surface and depth, all wrapped up in a hair-raising, skin-tingling air of suspicion and vaguely-defined menace.

This is a fantastic film, certainly one of the best I've seen for a long time.

Danger: Diabolique

dir. Mario Bava

Italy, 1968

Ridiculously camp 60s cops-and-robbers film, with a terrible actor in the lead role. Basically Austin Powers without the irony.