Have you seen the Italian-Soviet 1969 movie "The Red Tent" where Connery plays Amundsen? I haven't, but I plan to.
I also look forward to the upcoming animated movie "Titina" about Umberto Nobile's airship expedition to the North Pole seen through the eyes of his beloved dog. Amundsen is a character in the movie.
Annie Hall holds up very well, certainly one of the most entertaining Best Picture movies ever. One of the rare Woody Allen films that get shown on telly these days, perhaps because of recent allegations. Manhattan is another classic but even less viable due to its theme of a 40 something Allen falling for a teenager. There are numerous other Allen films that are really not bad at all and well worth a re-watch but just don't get shown now, understandable but a shame really. That Owen Wilson set in Paris, or the one with Robin Williams, Allen and Kirstie Allen of Cheers... Or the one with Cate Blanchett.
@Napoleon Plural I don't know which of Allen's movies you mean. Midnight in Paris?
I find many of his movies are phenomenally well-observed [Deconstructing Harry, Husbands and Wives, Sweet and Lowdown], some pure fantasy [Midnight in Paris, Sleeper, Purple Rose of Cairo, Zelig] others simply fun [Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Melinda and Melinda, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex]. He has been more miss than hit, chiefly because his career has been long enough for him to dip in and out of favour. Currently he's out and, for better or worse, I suspect he'll stay out of vogue.
ANNIE HALL (1977)
Woody Allen’s career is looking more chequered with every passing year. His latest wasn’t even given a cinema release and was universally panned. His classic period started with Annie Hall a movie fostered on the back of a run of light, fertile comedies which occasionally dropped hints toward Bergmanesque fatalism or Daliesque surrealism. He never quite forgets these tropes even as his career dips and rises. Here Allen encapsulates both these monikers in a delightful Oscar-winner, where his neurotic commitment-phobe Alvy Singer attempts to make sense of his relationship with trendy, scatter-headed Annie Hall, played with great naturalism by Diane Keaton. It helps the two stars were in a relationship at the time and the on screen chemistry, whether they bicker, ruminate or love, is palpably real.
It’s a short film. Allen doesn’t waste any minutes introducing his characters. He kick starts the narrative with a monologue to the audience and continues to address us at optimal moments in the narrative. You sense all along his two characters are not destined for a happy end, but when it comes, it feels more real than anything you’d normally encounter in a 'Hollywood' comedy. As if to prove Alvy’s oft repeated point – that New York is the city he loves best, where all good things happen – the pair’s break up finally occurs on the west coast, in sunny Beverly Hills.
Many great lines of dialogue pepper the screenplay, too many to recount. It isn’t Allen’s best movie, that would come two years later with Manhattan, but the actors hold our interest and you can’t fault the romantic intent, confused as it is by Freudian psychoanalysis and a desperate yearning from both partners to discover something of themselves not visible when with the other.
Excellent.
[Note: Christopher Walken plays Keaton’s [Hall’s] brother with a chilling, bizarre intensity, almost a dry run for his turn in The Deer Hunter. Paul Simon is seriously creepy as the music mogul Tony Lacey. Blink and you miss them turns come from Jeff Goldblum on a telephone, Beverly D’Angelo in a TV sitcom and Sigourney Weaver as Alvy’s cinema date.]
Sleeper and Everything You Wanted to Know... especially. remember that chapter where Burt Reynolds is on a date and inside his brain looks like the bridge of the Enterprise (if youve never seen it I cant explain better than that, so just watch this one)
Annie Hall's good too, but less zany. the Marshall McLuhan gag I think of often whenever I hear pretentious people arguing, thats the very best bit.
Manhattan has a stunning opening sequence with the Gershwin rhapsody and the montage and monolog, and I think Michael O'Donoghue actually has a straight acting role in that one, but otherwise Woody's taking himself too seriously.
after that there lots of good stuff, some of it very clever and high concept like Zelig or the one with the movie actor who steps off the screen into a poor woman's life, but mostly never so memorable as the early zany stuff.
Because of your recomendation I watched "Shoot to kill" tonight. It must be at least tirthy years since last time back when it was on VHS and called "Dødsjakten" (The Death Hunt). It's a good thriller with good leads. I think the humour in this serious thriller is well judged. They use humor that's organic to the story and often deadpan. I live the moose scene! I agree that the only major misstep is the score. It would fit someting like Streets of San Fransico, but the jazz score sounds wrong here. Still a thriller that's very watchable. Can you belive such a relatively new movie is available for free on Youtube? Shoot to Kill (1988) - YouTube
This turned up on one of the streaming sites that I subscribe to and I have never heard of it before. A stellar British cast of Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings, Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone and Helen Mirren are all on good form as they travel to Margate to scatter the ashes of lifelong friend Caine (seen in flashbacks). I found the flashbacks with them as young adults to be really good (and the substitute actors were believably recognisable) but the flashbacks with the main cast being made up to look younger was far less convincing and I never bought into Caine being a butcher, this is one of those times when he hasn’t been able to get into the character he was playing. It’s a good study of lifelong friendships and relationships and it ends on a suitably poignant note.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Is Favour spelt that way in the US? I thought it was like colour, missing a 'u'. Anyway, this is a funny thriller with always cute Anna Kendrick playing off against Blake Lively (who is hot and frightening), as two American moms, the former a single widowed mother with no societal backup to speak of, who encounters the somewhat wild, wealthy, glam and dangerous Ms Lively, whose husband is played by Bond candidate Henry Golding.
Based on his performance here, I'd like to see Golding as Bond, he has the right voice, the right looks, he has a subversive angle about him. He has something of the young James Mason about him and he may have some ethnic ancestry about him you see in his eyes, but culturally and everything he just seems British. That said, his is not quite a lead role.
The two women leads carry the film. Kendrick is the nerdy, well intentioned mom involved in a car crash friendship with her new glam friend, but is she being exploited? We know at the outset her friend has gone missing. A twist in the narrative has Kendrick's character addressing the camera via her cooking vlog.
Latterly the film becomes more implausible - more forgivable on the TV, less so at the cinema where everything is meant to be taken more seriously and you're more invested in it. If you've seen a few movies before you might guess the upshot and how it pans out. The soundtrack of quirky French songs assists the film too, though a couple you'll have heard before.
Anyway, I enjoyed this film a lot and wonder if Blake Lively - who I'd not seen before - got Oscar attention for it.
I suppose Chris No 1 will be along with his review shortly... 😀
I find it strange that "Shoot to kill" is available on Youtube while the 21 years older "In the heat of the night" isn't! I had planned to watch the 1967 classic next, but it looks like I can't.
A slick piece of quickie horror funded by American International Pictures and hailing from the team of director Roger Corman and star Vincent Price. They made seven of these tense psychological Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, all set in a strange, whispering 16th Century world of gothic horror, and all relying more on the unhinged madness of its main protagonist to supply the interest than any shock and gore. This pulsating melodrama has a few too many flashbacks, a few genuinely starling moments and a climax which makes you suck in your stomach with fear. Overall though, it isn’t as immediate as the type of product Hammer was churning out. Nonetheless a surprisingly literate script lends a heavy, fatalistic tone. Vincent Price is exceptional as the Nicolas Medina, being driven mad by the ghost of his wife, the reputation of his Inquisition-famed father and the torture of his unfaithful mother. Britain’s Barbara Steele, who had already made a name for herself in European horror films, plays the ghost. Very good sound effects, which kick start the movie, a creeping, scything, screeching cry as a pool of bubbling blood ripples across the screen. Floyd Crosby’s photography is darkly atmospheric; the wide scope shots of the matte castle are very realistic. The interiors were cobbled together from bits and pieces off the AIP backlot, which seems remarkable. Les Baxter provides a warm, lush, romantic score which verges on the overwrought. The closing shot is one to remember, the most classic moment of an otherwise merely competent film. Not the best of the collaborations, but memorable anyway and remarkably easy on the mind and eye.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,761Chief of Staff
The Beatles: Get Back - The Rooftop Concert
Taken from Peter Jackson’s remastered Get Back series…only 65 mins but what a 65 mins 🙌🏻
I’ve watched the nearly 8 hours of restored and re-edited footage already but to see this concert on the big screen is amazing…it’s exactly as it is in the documentary - I was hoping for it to be just the rooftop concert without the cut-aways to the gathering crowds and police…
It’s great seeing this as you can see the little looks between Macca & Lennon clearer…the nervousness of them all to start with, and then the growing confidence as they do what they do best - play music together !! You can especially see Lennon grow in confidence as they just play.
I always thought Meyer was a softporn director, but this is a proper film with plot and is really good! Never heard of any of the actors, but they all put in classic performances.
The story is a hillbilly gothic, set during the Great Depression. So a bit like Steinbeck or James Cain.
Calef McKinney is a hardluck drifter, an ex-con found guilty of manslaughter but a genuinely nice guy, wandering through the countryside looking for work. He first arrives at the local bordello run by a toothless loudmouthed madame who also brews moonshine, and has two daughters "bwahahah! I havent turned a trick in thirteen year but ya can has either of m'daughters bwahahah! here have s'more of m'moonshine" etc. The younger daughter is deaf and dumb, and the most saint-like character in the story, oblivious to the twisted meanings of the words spoken by the other characters she offers to all pure unconditional love.
The next house Calef arrives at is where he finds work, and is centre of the drama. The farm is owned by the elderly Lute, a hardworking farmer whose days are numbered. Lute lives with his niece Hannah, who offers Calef room and board to help her uncle. First day he is left alone in the fields, Calef feels a knife at his throat and meets Sidney, Hannah's creepy husband who threatens Calef, drinks and fornicates at the bordello, and beats Hannah whenever he chooses to come home. When Calef stands up to Sidney's bullying one day in town, he then meets the local preacher, a fire and brimstone type who assures all Sidney is the real victim, who must suffer the shame of adultery being committed by wife and farmhand right in his own home. No wonder it is better to be deaf and dumb when people speak words like that!
the only other Meyer film I've seen is Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill! (report filed here) which shares similar imagery but rather less plot. I recommend both, and am going to seek out more from his mid60s run of films at very least.
The creepy hillbillies and dreamlike vibe remind me of David Lynch, and I wonder if Lynch is a Russ Meyer fan.
There was a long gestation period for this movie, which was floated as a film, then a TV show, then a film once more. In fact there’s a long gestation for everything on show, period. A half-decent idea is spoilt by over enthusiastic special effects from John Dykstra and Douglas Trumbull which over power almost every scene. Robert Wise didn’t know a thing about Star Trek, although he had science fiction pedigree with The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Andromeda Strain. He creates a workmanlike piece which aches to be important but merely looks elaborate. At 132 minutes the adventure is too long to hold our interest without any of the expected phaser battles and fist fights. I enjoyed the psychological dilemma which plays out as Kirk and Spock begin to realise they are dealing with a sentient logic computer whose journey in the universe began three-hundred years ago. Its origin proves to be a worthwhile revelation. The familiar faces acquit themselves adequately, but no more than that. I missed the funky sixties fashions. Persis Khambatta, a model turned actress who quite possibly has the best legs I’ve ever seen in a movie – and wears one of the very shortest mini-dresses – is probably the most watchable component of a block-by-block building narrative. When her navigator Illa is taken over by the alien machine V’Ger, things momentarily get interesting, but Wise hasn’t got a firm hand on this space ship’s steering column and he becomes beholden to the effects maestros. The end is an ethereal mess and the whole has something of 2001 about it. They did all this sort of thing much better in the sixties, on telly and in fifty minutes. Not truly as terrible as many fans and casual viewers would have you believe, but it is very slow and would struggle to interest the uninitiated.
Persis Khambatta auditioned for the lead role in Octopussy. Maud Adams is okay in that, and it was nice to see Sir Roger flirting with an older woman, but Persis would have made a great alternative, and as she was Indian, would also have created a strong cultural dynamic for a Bond Girl.
I think it would take a lot to make the film truly gripping entertaining. Some of the effects were a bit shoddy TBH, but I went with it because it seems churlish to criticise what was state of the art at the time. Frankly the meticulously edited overlays in Moonraker look better than the optical effects which Trumbull fosters on us. Everything's very OTT. I could have moaned on for ages, but really, what would be the point?
I’m puzzled how a compliment to @Gymkata could possibly be construed as a criticism of your own reviews @chrisno1 ?
Just to set your mind at rest: I enjoy all reviews on this site, there are many times that I don’t agree with the sentiments written, but I respect them, sometimes I will reply with my own differing view but that is purely to put my own slant on things, not to denigrate someone else’s opinion. In the case above, about Uncharted, I thought @Gymkata‘s review was clever and funny, in three short words, henceforth my comment. I can remember complimenting your reviews on this site, and by PM in the past, so I think you’re being a bit over sensitive…and now before I’m struck down with a case of Cherry Blossom poisoning…
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (2022)
Yet another entry in this series, this time from Netflix, which is a direct sequel to the original 1974 movie, forgetting all the others made since. A group of people congregate in Harlow (close to where the original was set) for an auctioning of abandoned properties. Leatherface returns to wreak carnage on them in a orgy of gore. Nothing new here in a ponderous slasher. The original character of the only survivor of the original film, Sally Hardesty, returns (played by a different actress as Marilyn Burns has sadly passed away).
I saw the original in 1978 at a London screening when it was banned from the rest of the country, I thought it was a brilliant, tense movie, almost bloodless, which made it more tense because I kept thinking that the blood was going to flow at any minute. It was the power of the storytelling and the constant sense of terror that made it the classic it is. Forget all the sequels, just see the original.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I’m puzzled how a compliment to @Gymkata could possibly be construed as a criticism of your own reviews @chrisno1 ?
Because my reviews are almost always over 500 words ! Ahhhh, I was attempting to be off beat and flippant, you know like a little wink to the camera. Perhaps I used the wrong emoji 🤔 instead of 🤐 or 😉 or something. That's the trouble with forums, you can't catch the tone of my voice, only the form of my words. Just to say, I'm not remotely offended and always appreciate your compliments.
This is all happening because of the rubbish state of the current emoticons. I hold @SiCo responsible for this.
On another thread, Sir Miles suggested we 'take it outside'....
All the stuff going on between Ukraine and Russia currently could be solved by better emoticons...
Actually Chris No 1's posts do make me feel a bit inadequate. They're probably too good for this website, like turning to McDonalds in a tux.
Lest I wind up in the sin bin, I should say all the above is in jest, except for what's going on in Europe, which would not have happened under the old website, I'm sure.
"This is where we leave you Mr Bond."
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,761Chief of Staff
Well, I'm using a Apple MacBook so it's not too shabby. It's the same when I log in on a Dell at the local library.
Anyway, to calm my nerves today I went to see Belfast.
Now, some have said this sugarcoats the Troubles and maybe it does, but you wouldn't get that from the opening scenes. Or a few others in it. I found it impressive, perhaps more at the time than looking back. It's mainly black and white, slightly soft focus almost, but with some highly imaginative use of colour from time to time.
I can recommend Bond fans of a certain vintage see this, there are some nice pop cultural references that stand out, I won't spoil them. Of course, our own Dame Judi plays the grandmother in this and is talked up for an Oscar. I don't know why, she only appears in the opening scene as things kick off, wielding a sub machine gun like the grey haired woman in Goldfinger: 'Letsbe Having You Yer Fekkin...' before a terrorist dressed as a milkman hurls a bottle at her, which explodes and she's gone, okay, okay, just kidding. Dame Judi is very good in this and I didn't recognise the actor who plays her husband.
Never cared for Jamie Dornan in what little I saw of 50 Shades - he's very good in this as the father. The young kid who sees the events unfolding is tops too. Nothing to dislike really but it's still a love letter to the city, nothing wrong in that per se.
The thing I do get, as with from the trailers for other films - an awful-looking Downton Abbey sequel, for instance - is a certain mawkishness that seems to be a tad pervasive in today's movies. This can lead to a moving, stirring movie experience but it's at the expense of real wit or maybe emotion at times. It's bubbling under subtly in Belfast. It shows up in trailers a lot. It's odd, you don't seem to get those old style movies any more, like a sexy, blokey thriller. I can't put my finger on it quite. It's like every movie has to be done with CGI even if it's not needed.
Denis Villenueve delivers his vision of Frank Herbert's seminal sci-fi novel about ecology, politics and religion.
In the far flung year 10191, the noble House Atreides is given stewarship of the planet Arrakis, home to the Spice, the most valuable commodity in the universe. House Harkonnen, the treacherous previous rulers of the planet have been removed by decree of the Emperor. Inhabiting Arrakis are the mysterious Fremen, who live in the endless desert with the giant sand worms that roam the planet. In the midst of all this, young Paul Atreides is beginning to exhibit strange abilities which have come to the attention of various factions. Of course, not all is as clear cut as it first seems. Plans within plans are hatched, betrayals are in the making and Paul quickly becomes the fulcrum from which events will spin out.
The cast is quite good if somewhat underused in some cases. Timothy Chalamet's Paul is very introspective and shows believable concern with his burgeoning powers and his disturbing visions. Oscar Issac makes for a sympathetic Duke Leto who comes across as much more openly aware of transpiring events than his literary counterpart. Rebecca Ferguson's Lady Jessica is presented quite faithfully to the novel. Stellan Skarsgard channels more than a bit of Brando's Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse now as Baron Harkonnen. Josh Brolin, Stephen McKinley, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem and the rest of the cast make the best of their all too brief parts.
Like many of Villenueve's other movies, Dune is beautifully shot with great compositions often showing humans in the foreground dwarfed by machines or planetary vistas in the background. WB Home Video actually released a BluRay 3D version of the movie and while there are no popouts, the added depth that 3D provides really complements the photography.
This is the third iteration of Dune and it's interesting to see what each one focused on and how they differ. David Lynch really favored internal monologues to advance the story, changing Paul's arc in a fundamental way by making him a legitimate messiah where one of the main themes of the novel was to be wary in manufactured saviors. He also wallowed a bit too much in gore and just gross-out scenes. The Sci-Fi Channel mini-series was largely faithful to the events of the text but also kind of dry and bland in its presentation, glossing over the themes of the story in favor of simply advancing the plot. It also had a few oddly placed nude scenes and even an orgy in the international version. Villenueve presents a much slower, more contemplative version that touches more on the socio-political-religious underpinnings of the book's society and how various factions manipulate populations to serve their ends. The action is competent but minimal and not really the focus here. Also interesting is what is left out. We never see the guild navigators, who have been mutated from excessive spice use to facilitate space travel or the actual trip to Arrakis where space is folded to make the journey last only seconds. We don't see Feyd, Baron Harkonnen's psychotic nephew. The centuries long blood feud between the Atreides and Harkonnens (called Kanly in the novel) is only glossed over via a single line of dialog. The arcs of certain characters such as Yueh and Thufir are drastically reduced. On the other hand Villenueve really nails certain aspects of the book. The look feels authentic, from the costumes to the architecture to the firefly-like Ornithopters. Key scenes like Paul's encounter with the Reverend Mother and her Gom Jabbar, the poison tooth scene, Paul and Jessica's escape from the city and his fight with the Fremen Jamis are all well staged.
The movie covers the first half of the first book, ending just as Paul starts to accept his destiny which is probably a good move as trying to fit the entire story in one movie would have made for either an overly long movie or a badly condensed version that would not have been able to really dig into the themes. It appears that it did well enough to greenlight the second half and I look forward to seeing how Villenueve finishes the story.
Shown on Talking Pictures TV last night, they're showing the sequel next week.
It's the missing link between Diamonds are Forever and Live and Let Die, based on smuggling and New York City. Stars an approaching middle-aged receding leading man in Gene Hackman, who has the same knowing, slightly seedy air of Connery in his last official Bond film. I reckon Hackman had the sort of career Connery was angling for in the 1970s - a leading man who is also a sort of character actor. You know it's Hackman in French Connection, as he is in The Conversation, yet at the same time playing wholly different characters.
That said, I think Hackman was better at the long-distance running in this film that the overweight Connery would have been around this time, you never see him running in DAF do you (though Moore couldn't be shown running at all, he looked rubbish). It would have been a case of Connery's Malone in The Untouchables going 'Enough of this running s*it!'
It seems the trailing part around New York was borrowed or rather nicked for Live and Let Die.
This is a downbeat, uncheery sort of film enlivened by excellent acting and some stand out scenes, most famously the car-metro chase. It gets better and more exciting as it goes on.
It is somewhat let down by the fact that Hackman is meant to be in narcotics, trailing suspected high-end drug dealers, yet he goes around with a highly recognisable hat that marks him out from a mile off. I guess it's like Bond's highly distinctive Aston Martin DB5 - you could justify it for Goldfinger where he is impersonating a playboy on the make who might attract Mr Goldinger's eye as a potential recruit, and in Thunderball where at Shrublands he is there in personal, leisure capacity, but not really after that.
It's said to have toned down the racist elements of his character for the movie, but much of the early stuff doesn't sit well.
Jean Dejardain (The OSS movies, The Artist) made La French (The Connection) in 2014. It's a good movie showing what happened in France when they were fighting the heroin ring seen in "The French connection". Den franske forbindelsen (2014) - IMDb
I only found out recently that there was a third Jean Dujardain OSS movie, maybe I'll check it out.
Around the World in 80 Days
For an epic film with so many stars there are few Bond connections aside from David 'Casino Royale' Niven of course and Peter Lore, also of Casino Royale, but the TV one with Barry Nelson. Lots of cameos from famous names but I only noticed most of these in the end credits, I didn't spot Buster Keaton and a good many others.
Hard to justify Shirley Maclaine as an Indian princess, it's from the Dr No school of casting.
It struck me that Roger Moore's Bonds have that kind of flavour to them, the Grand Tour, all quite leisurely and Octopussy is perhaps the one that has it most. The film would be a decent watch along due to the Bond links one notices in themes and settings, even The Reform Club showing up in Die Another Day of course.
"This is where we leave you Mr Bond."
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,761Chief of Staff
The Duke.
A film that only the British seem to make…I’m sure that’s not true, but we do seem to make these types of films quite often.
Starring Jim Broadbent as Kempton Bunton & Helen Mirren as his wife, Dorothy….Kempton is after free tv licences for OAP’s and war veterans, and will - apparently - stop at nothing to achieve this. He’s very outspoken and quite happy to demonstrate in public….much to his wife’s chagrin. He’s jailed several times for failing to have a tv licence ( he removes the coil from his TV set so he can’t receive BBC), he loses his job as a taxi driver for, not only constantly chatting to his passengers, but refusing to charge the people that can’t afford the fare. In fact he loses several jobs for standing up for his fellow man.
Kempton is incensed that the Government pays £140,000 (over £3m today) to keep the titular portrait by Goya in the UK. He’s so incensed that he steals the painting, well he ‘borrows’ it - or does he?
The court scenes use the words Kempton actually spoke at the time, not only was he genuinely funny but he was perfectly happy to stand up for what he believed in - and damn the consequences.
Jim Broadbent delivers his usual brilliant performance (truly and underrated actor) and Helen Mirren matches him all the way.
I saw Guillermo del Toro's latest, NIGHTMARE ALLEY, this weekend, and I have to say I was disappointed. I'm a big Del Toro fan, and I think what's great about him is he can make freaks and monsters--even Hellboy--sympathetic and moving. Alas, he can't find the human dimension in Bradley Cooper's soulless grifter--as a result we watch a lousy man coldly manipulating and using people until he gets his well-deserved comeuppance. It's as visually powerful as all GdT movies, but it's a long and dreary journey.
Vox clamantis in deserto
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,761Chief of Staff
I saw this at the weekend as well…I thought it was poor at best…you keep waiting for the movie to get going and it just flounders about…the ending was SO obvious too 😟
Not last film seem, but 'The Offence' starring Sean Connery will be on Talking Pictures TV this week. I have not seen this film but have read that it is one of Connery's best performances. I am not sure when it is on so, if you are in the UK, you can look at the TV guide to find out.
The Offence is on Talking Pictures TV on Saturday at 9.05pm, followed by an interesting looking film Blood & Wine with Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine.
Comments
Have you seen the Italian-Soviet 1969 movie "The Red Tent" where Connery plays Amundsen? I haven't, but I plan to.
I also look forward to the upcoming animated movie "Titina" about Umberto Nobile's airship expedition to the North Pole seen through the eyes of his beloved dog. Amundsen is a character in the movie.
'Titina': first trailer for Norwegian feature animation (exclusive) - YouTube
Annie Hall holds up very well, certainly one of the most entertaining Best Picture movies ever. One of the rare Woody Allen films that get shown on telly these days, perhaps because of recent allegations. Manhattan is another classic but even less viable due to its theme of a 40 something Allen falling for a teenager. There are numerous other Allen films that are really not bad at all and well worth a re-watch but just don't get shown now, understandable but a shame really. That Owen Wilson set in Paris, or the one with Robin Williams, Allen and Kirstie Allen of Cheers... Or the one with Cate Blanchett.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
@Napoleon Plural I don't know which of Allen's movies you mean. Midnight in Paris?
I find many of his movies are phenomenally well-observed [Deconstructing Harry, Husbands and Wives, Sweet and Lowdown], some pure fantasy [Midnight in Paris, Sleeper, Purple Rose of Cairo, Zelig] others simply fun [Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Melinda and Melinda, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex]. He has been more miss than hit, chiefly because his career has been long enough for him to dip in and out of favour. Currently he's out and, for better or worse, I suspect he'll stay out of vogue.
ANNIE HALL (1977)
Woody Allen’s career is looking more chequered with every passing year. His latest wasn’t even given a cinema release and was universally panned. His classic period started with Annie Hall a movie fostered on the back of a run of light, fertile comedies which occasionally dropped hints toward Bergmanesque fatalism or Daliesque surrealism. He never quite forgets these tropes even as his career dips and rises. Here Allen encapsulates both these monikers in a delightful Oscar-winner, where his neurotic commitment-phobe Alvy Singer attempts to make sense of his relationship with trendy, scatter-headed Annie Hall, played with great naturalism by Diane Keaton. It helps the two stars were in a relationship at the time and the on screen chemistry, whether they bicker, ruminate or love, is palpably real.
It’s a short film. Allen doesn’t waste any minutes introducing his characters. He kick starts the narrative with a monologue to the audience and continues to address us at optimal moments in the narrative. You sense all along his two characters are not destined for a happy end, but when it comes, it feels more real than anything you’d normally encounter in a 'Hollywood' comedy. As if to prove Alvy’s oft repeated point – that New York is the city he loves best, where all good things happen – the pair’s break up finally occurs on the west coast, in sunny Beverly Hills.
Many great lines of dialogue pepper the screenplay, too many to recount. It isn’t Allen’s best movie, that would come two years later with Manhattan, but the actors hold our interest and you can’t fault the romantic intent, confused as it is by Freudian psychoanalysis and a desperate yearning from both partners to discover something of themselves not visible when with the other.
Excellent.
[Note: Christopher Walken plays Keaton’s [Hall’s] brother with a chilling, bizarre intensity, almost a dry run for his turn in The Deer Hunter. Paul Simon is seriously creepy as the music mogul Tony Lacey. Blink and you miss them turns come from Jeff Goldblum on a telephone, Beverly D’Angelo in a TV sitcom and Sigourney Weaver as Alvy’s cinema date.]
I like all Woody Allens movies up til Annie Hall
Sleeper and Everything You Wanted to Know... especially. remember that chapter where Burt Reynolds is on a date and inside his brain looks like the bridge of the Enterprise (if youve never seen it I cant explain better than that, so just watch this one)
Annie Hall's good too, but less zany. the Marshall McLuhan gag I think of often whenever I hear pretentious people arguing, thats the very best bit.
Manhattan has a stunning opening sequence with the Gershwin rhapsody and the montage and monolog, and I think Michael O'Donoghue actually has a straight acting role in that one, but otherwise Woody's taking himself too seriously.
after that there lots of good stuff, some of it very clever and high concept like Zelig or the one with the movie actor who steps off the screen into a poor woman's life, but mostly never so memorable as the early zany stuff.
Because of your recomendation I watched "Shoot to kill" tonight. It must be at least tirthy years since last time back when it was on VHS and called "Dødsjakten" (The Death Hunt). It's a good thriller with good leads. I think the humour in this serious thriller is well judged. They use humor that's organic to the story and often deadpan. I live the moose scene! I agree that the only major misstep is the score. It would fit someting like Streets of San Fransico, but the jazz score sounds wrong here. Still a thriller that's very watchable. Can you belive such a relatively new movie is available for free on Youtube? Shoot to Kill (1988) - YouTube
LAST ORDERS (2001)
This turned up on one of the streaming sites that I subscribe to and I have never heard of it before. A stellar British cast of Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings, Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone and Helen Mirren are all on good form as they travel to Margate to scatter the ashes of lifelong friend Caine (seen in flashbacks). I found the flashbacks with them as young adults to be really good (and the substitute actors were believably recognisable) but the flashbacks with the main cast being made up to look younger was far less convincing and I never bought into Caine being a butcher, this is one of those times when he hasn’t been able to get into the character he was playing. It’s a good study of lifelong friendships and relationships and it ends on a suitably poignant note.
A Simple Favour
Is Favour spelt that way in the US? I thought it was like colour, missing a 'u'. Anyway, this is a funny thriller with always cute Anna Kendrick playing off against Blake Lively (who is hot and frightening), as two American moms, the former a single widowed mother with no societal backup to speak of, who encounters the somewhat wild, wealthy, glam and dangerous Ms Lively, whose husband is played by Bond candidate Henry Golding.
Based on his performance here, I'd like to see Golding as Bond, he has the right voice, the right looks, he has a subversive angle about him. He has something of the young James Mason about him and he may have some ethnic ancestry about him you see in his eyes, but culturally and everything he just seems British. That said, his is not quite a lead role.
The two women leads carry the film. Kendrick is the nerdy, well intentioned mom involved in a car crash friendship with her new glam friend, but is she being exploited? We know at the outset her friend has gone missing. A twist in the narrative has Kendrick's character addressing the camera via her cooking vlog.
Latterly the film becomes more implausible - more forgivable on the TV, less so at the cinema where everything is meant to be taken more seriously and you're more invested in it. If you've seen a few movies before you might guess the upshot and how it pans out. The soundtrack of quirky French songs assists the film too, though a couple you'll have heard before.
Anyway, I enjoyed this film a lot and wonder if Blake Lively - who I'd not seen before - got Oscar attention for it.
I suppose Chris No 1 will be along with his review shortly... 😀
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Sorry to disappoint you Nap, it's already been done.
https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/comment/1021225#Comment_1021225
I find it strange that "Shoot to kill" is available on Youtube while the 21 years older "In the heat of the night" isn't! I had planned to watch the 1967 classic next, but it looks like I can't.
PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961)
A slick piece of quickie horror funded by American International Pictures and hailing from the team of director Roger Corman and star Vincent Price. They made seven of these tense psychological Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, all set in a strange, whispering 16th Century world of gothic horror, and all relying more on the unhinged madness of its main protagonist to supply the interest than any shock and gore. This pulsating melodrama has a few too many flashbacks, a few genuinely starling moments and a climax which makes you suck in your stomach with fear. Overall though, it isn’t as immediate as the type of product Hammer was churning out. Nonetheless a surprisingly literate script lends a heavy, fatalistic tone. Vincent Price is exceptional as the Nicolas Medina, being driven mad by the ghost of his wife, the reputation of his Inquisition-famed father and the torture of his unfaithful mother. Britain’s Barbara Steele, who had already made a name for herself in European horror films, plays the ghost. Very good sound effects, which kick start the movie, a creeping, scything, screeching cry as a pool of bubbling blood ripples across the screen. Floyd Crosby’s photography is darkly atmospheric; the wide scope shots of the matte castle are very realistic. The interiors were cobbled together from bits and pieces off the AIP backlot, which seems remarkable. Les Baxter provides a warm, lush, romantic score which verges on the overwrought. The closing shot is one to remember, the most classic moment of an otherwise merely competent film. Not the best of the collaborations, but memorable anyway and remarkably easy on the mind and eye.
😂😂😂 Tells me more in three words than a 500 word essay would…and advice taken 😁
Is that a hint ? 🤔
The Beatles: Get Back - The Rooftop Concert
Taken from Peter Jackson’s remastered Get Back series…only 65 mins but what a 65 mins 🙌🏻
I’ve watched the nearly 8 hours of restored and re-edited footage already but to see this concert on the big screen is amazing…it’s exactly as it is in the documentary - I was hoping for it to be just the rooftop concert without the cut-aways to the gathering crowds and police…
It’s great seeing this as you can see the little looks between Macca & Lennon clearer…the nervousness of them all to start with, and then the growing confidence as they do what they do best - play music together !! You can especially see Lennon grow in confidence as they just play.
Magical 🍸
MudHoney
directed by Russ Meyer, 1965
I always thought Meyer was a softporn director, but this is a proper film with plot and is really good! Never heard of any of the actors, but they all put in classic performances.
The story is a hillbilly gothic, set during the Great Depression. So a bit like Steinbeck or James Cain.
Calef McKinney is a hardluck drifter, an ex-con found guilty of manslaughter but a genuinely nice guy, wandering through the countryside looking for work. He first arrives at the local bordello run by a toothless loudmouthed madame who also brews moonshine, and has two daughters "bwahahah! I havent turned a trick in thirteen year but ya can has either of m'daughters bwahahah! here have s'more of m'moonshine" etc. The younger daughter is deaf and dumb, and the most saint-like character in the story, oblivious to the twisted meanings of the words spoken by the other characters she offers to all pure unconditional love.
The next house Calef arrives at is where he finds work, and is centre of the drama. The farm is owned by the elderly Lute, a hardworking farmer whose days are numbered. Lute lives with his niece Hannah, who offers Calef room and board to help her uncle. First day he is left alone in the fields, Calef feels a knife at his throat and meets Sidney, Hannah's creepy husband who threatens Calef, drinks and fornicates at the bordello, and beats Hannah whenever he chooses to come home. When Calef stands up to Sidney's bullying one day in town, he then meets the local preacher, a fire and brimstone type who assures all Sidney is the real victim, who must suffer the shame of adultery being committed by wife and farmhand right in his own home. No wonder it is better to be deaf and dumb when people speak words like that!
the only other Meyer film I've seen is Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill! (report filed here) which shares similar imagery but rather less plot. I recommend both, and am going to seek out more from his mid60s run of films at very least.
The creepy hillbillies and dreamlike vibe remind me of David Lynch, and I wonder if Lynch is a Russ Meyer fan.
STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (1979)
There was a long gestation period for this movie, which was floated as a film, then a TV show, then a film once more. In fact there’s a long gestation for everything on show, period. A half-decent idea is spoilt by over enthusiastic special effects from John Dykstra and Douglas Trumbull which over power almost every scene. Robert Wise didn’t know a thing about Star Trek, although he had science fiction pedigree with The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Andromeda Strain. He creates a workmanlike piece which aches to be important but merely looks elaborate. At 132 minutes the adventure is too long to hold our interest without any of the expected phaser battles and fist fights. I enjoyed the psychological dilemma which plays out as Kirk and Spock begin to realise they are dealing with a sentient logic computer whose journey in the universe began three-hundred years ago. Its origin proves to be a worthwhile revelation. The familiar faces acquit themselves adequately, but no more than that. I missed the funky sixties fashions. Persis Khambatta, a model turned actress who quite possibly has the best legs I’ve ever seen in a movie – and wears one of the very shortest mini-dresses – is probably the most watchable component of a block-by-block building narrative. When her navigator Illa is taken over by the alien machine V’Ger, things momentarily get interesting, but Wise hasn’t got a firm hand on this space ship’s steering column and he becomes beholden to the effects maestros. The end is an ethereal mess and the whole has something of 2001 about it. They did all this sort of thing much better in the sixties, on telly and in fifty minutes. Not truly as terrible as many fans and casual viewers would have you believe, but it is very slow and would struggle to interest the uninitiated.
Persis Khambatta auditioned for the lead role in Octopussy. Maud Adams is okay in that, and it was nice to see Sir Roger flirting with an older woman, but Persis would have made a great alternative, and as she was Indian, would also have created a strong cultural dynamic for a Bond Girl.
I think it would take a lot to make the film truly gripping entertaining. Some of the effects were a bit shoddy TBH, but I went with it because it seems churlish to criticise what was state of the art at the time. Frankly the meticulously edited overlays in Moonraker look better than the optical effects which Trumbull fosters on us. Everything's very OTT. I could have moaned on for ages, but really, what would be the point?
I’m puzzled how a compliment to @Gymkata could possibly be construed as a criticism of your own reviews @chrisno1 ?
Just to set your mind at rest: I enjoy all reviews on this site, there are many times that I don’t agree with the sentiments written, but I respect them, sometimes I will reply with my own differing view but that is purely to put my own slant on things, not to denigrate someone else’s opinion. In the case above, about Uncharted, I thought @Gymkata‘s review was clever and funny, in three short words, henceforth my comment. I can remember complimenting your reviews on this site, and by PM in the past, so I think you’re being a bit over sensitive…and now before I’m struck down with a case of Cherry Blossom poisoning…
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (2022)
Yet another entry in this series, this time from Netflix, which is a direct sequel to the original 1974 movie, forgetting all the others made since. A group of people congregate in Harlow (close to where the original was set) for an auctioning of abandoned properties. Leatherface returns to wreak carnage on them in a orgy of gore. Nothing new here in a ponderous slasher. The original character of the only survivor of the original film, Sally Hardesty, returns (played by a different actress as Marilyn Burns has sadly passed away).
I saw the original in 1978 at a London screening when it was banned from the rest of the country, I thought it was a brilliant, tense movie, almost bloodless, which made it more tense because I kept thinking that the blood was going to flow at any minute. It was the power of the storytelling and the constant sense of terror that made it the classic it is. Forget all the sequels, just see the original.
I’m puzzled how a compliment to @Gymkata could possibly be construed as a criticism of your own reviews @chrisno1 ?
Because my reviews are almost always over 500 words ! Ahhhh, I was attempting to be off beat and flippant, you know like a little wink to the camera. Perhaps I used the wrong emoji 🤔 instead of 🤐 or 😉 or something. That's the trouble with forums, you can't catch the tone of my voice, only the form of my words. Just to say, I'm not remotely offended and always appreciate your compliments.
This is all happening because of the rubbish state of the current emoticons. I hold @SiCo responsible for this.
On another thread, Sir Miles suggested we 'take it outside'....
All the stuff going on between Ukraine and Russia currently could be solved by better emoticons...
Actually Chris No 1's posts do make me feel a bit inadequate. They're probably too good for this website, like turning to McDonalds in a tux.
Lest I wind up in the sin bin, I should say all the above is in jest, except for what's going on in Europe, which would not have happened under the old website, I'm sure.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
You can use EVERY emotion your device of choice has - @SiCo is responsible for a lot of things, but not which device you use to access AJB 😏😘🤣
Well, I'm using a Apple MacBook so it's not too shabby. It's the same when I log in on a Dell at the local library.
Anyway, to calm my nerves today I went to see Belfast.
Now, some have said this sugarcoats the Troubles and maybe it does, but you wouldn't get that from the opening scenes. Or a few others in it. I found it impressive, perhaps more at the time than looking back. It's mainly black and white, slightly soft focus almost, but with some highly imaginative use of colour from time to time.
I can recommend Bond fans of a certain vintage see this, there are some nice pop cultural references that stand out, I won't spoil them. Of course, our own Dame Judi plays the grandmother in this and is talked up for an Oscar. I don't know why, she only appears in the opening scene as things kick off, wielding a sub machine gun like the grey haired woman in Goldfinger: 'Letsbe Having You Yer Fekkin...' before a terrorist dressed as a milkman hurls a bottle at her, which explodes and she's gone, okay, okay, just kidding. Dame Judi is very good in this and I didn't recognise the actor who plays her husband.
Never cared for Jamie Dornan in what little I saw of 50 Shades - he's very good in this as the father. The young kid who sees the events unfolding is tops too. Nothing to dislike really but it's still a love letter to the city, nothing wrong in that per se.
The thing I do get, as with from the trailers for other films - an awful-looking Downton Abbey sequel, for instance - is a certain mawkishness that seems to be a tad pervasive in today's movies. This can lead to a moving, stirring movie experience but it's at the expense of real wit or maybe emotion at times. It's bubbling under subtly in Belfast. It shows up in trailers a lot. It's odd, you don't seem to get those old style movies any more, like a sexy, blokey thriller. I can't put my finger on it quite. It's like every movie has to be done with CGI even if it's not needed.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Dune on 3D BluRay
Denis Villenueve delivers his vision of Frank Herbert's seminal sci-fi novel about ecology, politics and religion.
In the far flung year 10191, the noble House Atreides is given stewarship of the planet Arrakis, home to the Spice, the most valuable commodity in the universe. House Harkonnen, the treacherous previous rulers of the planet have been removed by decree of the Emperor. Inhabiting Arrakis are the mysterious Fremen, who live in the endless desert with the giant sand worms that roam the planet. In the midst of all this, young Paul Atreides is beginning to exhibit strange abilities which have come to the attention of various factions. Of course, not all is as clear cut as it first seems. Plans within plans are hatched, betrayals are in the making and Paul quickly becomes the fulcrum from which events will spin out.
The cast is quite good if somewhat underused in some cases. Timothy Chalamet's Paul is very introspective and shows believable concern with his burgeoning powers and his disturbing visions. Oscar Issac makes for a sympathetic Duke Leto who comes across as much more openly aware of transpiring events than his literary counterpart. Rebecca Ferguson's Lady Jessica is presented quite faithfully to the novel. Stellan Skarsgard channels more than a bit of Brando's Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse now as Baron Harkonnen. Josh Brolin, Stephen McKinley, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem and the rest of the cast make the best of their all too brief parts.
Like many of Villenueve's other movies, Dune is beautifully shot with great compositions often showing humans in the foreground dwarfed by machines or planetary vistas in the background. WB Home Video actually released a BluRay 3D version of the movie and while there are no popouts, the added depth that 3D provides really complements the photography.
This is the third iteration of Dune and it's interesting to see what each one focused on and how they differ. David Lynch really favored internal monologues to advance the story, changing Paul's arc in a fundamental way by making him a legitimate messiah where one of the main themes of the novel was to be wary in manufactured saviors. He also wallowed a bit too much in gore and just gross-out scenes. The Sci-Fi Channel mini-series was largely faithful to the events of the text but also kind of dry and bland in its presentation, glossing over the themes of the story in favor of simply advancing the plot. It also had a few oddly placed nude scenes and even an orgy in the international version. Villenueve presents a much slower, more contemplative version that touches more on the socio-political-religious underpinnings of the book's society and how various factions manipulate populations to serve their ends. The action is competent but minimal and not really the focus here. Also interesting is what is left out. We never see the guild navigators, who have been mutated from excessive spice use to facilitate space travel or the actual trip to Arrakis where space is folded to make the journey last only seconds. We don't see Feyd, Baron Harkonnen's psychotic nephew. The centuries long blood feud between the Atreides and Harkonnens (called Kanly in the novel) is only glossed over via a single line of dialog. The arcs of certain characters such as Yueh and Thufir are drastically reduced. On the other hand Villenueve really nails certain aspects of the book. The look feels authentic, from the costumes to the architecture to the firefly-like Ornithopters. Key scenes like Paul's encounter with the Reverend Mother and her Gom Jabbar, the poison tooth scene, Paul and Jessica's escape from the city and his fight with the Fremen Jamis are all well staged.
The movie covers the first half of the first book, ending just as Paul starts to accept his destiny which is probably a good move as trying to fit the entire story in one movie would have made for either an overly long movie or a badly condensed version that would not have been able to really dig into the themes. It appears that it did well enough to greenlight the second half and I look forward to seeing how Villenueve finishes the story.
The French Connection
Shown on Talking Pictures TV last night, they're showing the sequel next week.
It's the missing link between Diamonds are Forever and Live and Let Die, based on smuggling and New York City. Stars an approaching middle-aged receding leading man in Gene Hackman, who has the same knowing, slightly seedy air of Connery in his last official Bond film. I reckon Hackman had the sort of career Connery was angling for in the 1970s - a leading man who is also a sort of character actor. You know it's Hackman in French Connection, as he is in The Conversation, yet at the same time playing wholly different characters.
That said, I think Hackman was better at the long-distance running in this film that the overweight Connery would have been around this time, you never see him running in DAF do you (though Moore couldn't be shown running at all, he looked rubbish). It would have been a case of Connery's Malone in The Untouchables going 'Enough of this running s*it!'
It seems the trailing part around New York was borrowed or rather nicked for Live and Let Die.
This is a downbeat, uncheery sort of film enlivened by excellent acting and some stand out scenes, most famously the car-metro chase. It gets better and more exciting as it goes on.
It is somewhat let down by the fact that Hackman is meant to be in narcotics, trailing suspected high-end drug dealers, yet he goes around with a highly recognisable hat that marks him out from a mile off. I guess it's like Bond's highly distinctive Aston Martin DB5 - you could justify it for Goldfinger where he is impersonating a playboy on the make who might attract Mr Goldinger's eye as a potential recruit, and in Thunderball where at Shrublands he is there in personal, leisure capacity, but not really after that.
It's said to have toned down the racist elements of his character for the movie, but much of the early stuff doesn't sit well.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Jean Dejardain (The OSS movies, The Artist) made La French (The Connection) in 2014. It's a good movie showing what happened in France when they were fighting the heroin ring seen in "The French connection". Den franske forbindelsen (2014) - IMDb
I only found out recently that there was a third Jean Dujardain OSS movie, maybe I'll check it out.
Around the World in 80 Days
For an epic film with so many stars there are few Bond connections aside from David 'Casino Royale' Niven of course and Peter Lore, also of Casino Royale, but the TV one with Barry Nelson. Lots of cameos from famous names but I only noticed most of these in the end credits, I didn't spot Buster Keaton and a good many others.
Hard to justify Shirley Maclaine as an Indian princess, it's from the Dr No school of casting.
It struck me that Roger Moore's Bonds have that kind of flavour to them, the Grand Tour, all quite leisurely and Octopussy is perhaps the one that has it most. The film would be a decent watch along due to the Bond links one notices in themes and settings, even The Reform Club showing up in Die Another Day of course.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
The Duke.
A film that only the British seem to make…I’m sure that’s not true, but we do seem to make these types of films quite often.
Starring Jim Broadbent as Kempton Bunton & Helen Mirren as his wife, Dorothy….Kempton is after free tv licences for OAP’s and war veterans, and will - apparently - stop at nothing to achieve this. He’s very outspoken and quite happy to demonstrate in public….much to his wife’s chagrin. He’s jailed several times for failing to have a tv licence ( he removes the coil from his TV set so he can’t receive BBC), he loses his job as a taxi driver for, not only constantly chatting to his passengers, but refusing to charge the people that can’t afford the fare. In fact he loses several jobs for standing up for his fellow man.
Kempton is incensed that the Government pays £140,000 (over £3m today) to keep the titular portrait by Goya in the UK. He’s so incensed that he steals the painting, well he ‘borrows’ it - or does he?
The court scenes use the words Kempton actually spoke at the time, not only was he genuinely funny but he was perfectly happy to stand up for what he believed in - and damn the consequences.
Jim Broadbent delivers his usual brilliant performance (truly and underrated actor) and Helen Mirren matches him all the way.
This film deserves to be a success - go see it 🍸
I saw Guillermo del Toro's latest, NIGHTMARE ALLEY, this weekend, and I have to say I was disappointed. I'm a big Del Toro fan, and I think what's great about him is he can make freaks and monsters--even Hellboy--sympathetic and moving. Alas, he can't find the human dimension in Bradley Cooper's soulless grifter--as a result we watch a lousy man coldly manipulating and using people until he gets his well-deserved comeuppance. It's as visually powerful as all GdT movies, but it's a long and dreary journey.
I saw this at the weekend as well…I thought it was poor at best…you keep waiting for the movie to get going and it just flounders about…the ending was SO obvious too 😟
Not last film seem, but 'The Offence' starring Sean Connery will be on Talking Pictures TV this week. I have not seen this film but have read that it is one of Connery's best performances. I am not sure when it is on so, if you are in the UK, you can look at the TV guide to find out.
The Offence is on Talking Pictures TV on Saturday at 9.05pm, followed by an interesting looking film Blood & Wine with Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine.
Roger Moore 1927-2017