Ingmar Bergman directs Pernilla Allwin, Kristina Adolphson and Börje Ahlstedt in this period drama where two children experience the ups and downs of their extended family in well-to-do Uppsala.

We watched the five hour mini series edit over a long weekend. I’m not going to say this finally unlocked Bergman for me. My resistance to his pretensions and obtuseness are still there. Yet at a more leisurely pace and with a more joyous ensemble coddling the misery there were few scenes I didn’t enjoy. There’s a lot of oppression, mythology and meta going on here. But you can approach it as a big Christmas movie that doesn’t know when to quit. I was never lost by Bergman’s intentions. There were three or four characters I genuinely cared about. The lurches into horror and broad comedy were effective. The ultimate point that the connection people make with us shapes us long after their deaths was felt. Perspective is very important. Beautiful compositions, overpopulated and sparse. Every type of Swedish honey too.

8

Perfect Double Bill: … Plenty!

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Fred Walton directs Charles Durning, Carol Kane and Tony Beckley in this thriller where a babysitter begins receiving calls from a killer.

The opening 25 minutes of When A Stranger Calls are seminal. You can see their clear influence on Scream’s game changing prologue with Drew Barrymore. A lone teen keeps getting unwelcome phone calls. Each time the phone rings it disrupts the tension yet amps up the peril with perfect manipulative timing. We begin to share the hopeless fear of her situation. Kane sells the vulnerability of her character and carries the movie solo for the entire first act. She should be talked about in the same breath as Jamie Lee Curtis when ranking the best acting amongst Scream Queens. Then, after a shock, the movie tags out. We follow Durning’s retired detective as he hunts a just released psycho seven years later. What was intimate and claustrophobic becomes expansive and labyrinthine. Tony Beckley plays our monster. He’s no mastermind or relentless killing machine. He’s a bottom rung strange wimp. Too weird to socialise, homeless and just as vulnerable as any of his prey. Over this unexpected sequence we get a real sense of urban alienation. A city where nobody cares if you live or die even in a populated bar or the full mission bunkhouse. The set pieces have a grim real world grain and grit to them. And then the misanthropic movie returns full circle and starts to deliver the slasher horror we’ve been promised all along. I can see why this cult item is a bit of a Marmite experience for many. It takes the sleazy road less travelled. I kinda loved that about it. Imperfect but always fascinating.

7

Perfect Double Bill: When A Stranger Calls Back (1993)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

David Butler directs Doris Day, Howard Keel and Allyn Ann McLerie in this musical that proves a heavily sanitised take on the story of Calamity Jane, her saloon, and her romance with Wild Bill Hickok.

Technicolor cartoon-ish fun. A million miles from Deadwood.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Cat Ballou (1965)

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Carl Franklin directs Denzel Washington, Jennifer Beals and Don Cheadle in this detective thriller where a black war hero is hired to find a mysterious woman and gets mixed up in a murderous political scandal in 1948 Los Angeles.

I have always wanted to read one of Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins mystery novels. I haven’t yet so I couldn’t tell you if Denzel is perfect casting for the role. It is Denzel though so you go find anyone better. He’s pretty relaxed here. Looking hot in a vest and terrified in a shoot out. The corkscrew plot is garbage though. Hard to care about and ends exactly where you’d expect it to after much misdirection. More focus should be put on Rawlins and the psychopathic Mouse’s risky friendship. Looks good. Wish they got a second shot at this world.

6

Perfect Double Bill: No Sudden Move (2021)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Peter Weir directs Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard and Ethan Hawke in this period boarding school drama where an inspiring teacher faces down conformity with his mad improv skills.

Dead Poets Society is a handsome little flick from one of my favourite directors. The reputation and box office success of the thing would have you think it is a modern classic. Weir adds a sense of the timeless mythic to the visuals. Caves. Mists. Hooded midnight meetings. There’s no arguing with that iconic ending. “O Captain! My Captain!” Williams is boss if a little incongruous. His funniest moments are also the most wildly anachronistic. Yet there’s a problem of POV here. Too much focus is on the interchangeable lacklustre milk boys. If you are into preppy teen honkies then this is damn near pornography. Yet the minor rebellions and mercilessly repressive villainy of the older generation just don’t click for me. As an adult, DPS is pure of heart and hopeful yet no longer all that impactful.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Good Will Hunting (1997)

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Roberto Rossellini directs Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders and Maria Mauban in this Italian drama where a married couple visit a villa in Naples they have inherited.

Culture clash, languid loneliness, the end of a marriage. A fish-out-of-water couple separate over their holiday. They bicker, they tour, he tries to cheat, she feels the overbearing crush of history on her soul. They watch a man be rebuilt from a hole in a volcano. Then a miracle…Journey To Italy was a failure on release. Butchered and stitched back together in various forms by various distributors to try and turn a profit from its bankable stars. Saunders is his trademark attractive brute, Bergman vulnerable yet misanthropic. I like the cynical poetry of this, it feels game changing even now.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Stromboli (1950)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Tim Sullivan directs Richard E. Grant, Samantha Mathis and Ian McKellen in this London romantic comedy about a grieving father who employs a hot young American nanny to look after his newborn cutie.

I feel it in my fingers I feel it in my toes except with a baby. Standard operating procedure yet both the wonderful Grant and sexy Mathis deserved more starring vehicles whether apart or together. Solid, sweet.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Fever Pitch (1997)

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Franco Zeffirelli directs Martin Hewitt, Brooke Shields and Shirley Knight in this teen melodrama where an intense first sexual relationship spirals out of control when a parent tries to break things up.

Absolutely bonker, camp one-of-a-kind soap. Thank goodness John Hughes was preparing to give the sub genre a good, hard, modernising shake-up. Troughs of incoherent depression give way to bursts of manic plot twist. Mad that pre-dental work Tom Cruise rocks up for a cackling one minute monologue that acts as a complete catalyst for the rest of the narrative.

3

Perfect Double Bill: The Blue Lagoon (1980)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Andrew Haigh directs Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal and Jamie Bell in this supernatural drama where a lonely gay man starts a new relationship but also starts revisiting his dead parents in his childhood home.

Surprised I liked this quite so much. By it’s very nature All Of Us Strangers is a bit of a middle class coffee table book of a movie. I was put off by Claire Foy‘s sequences as she often feels like she is going through an acting exercise. And I was a little bit ahead of later twists. Having said that, Haigh represents the modern British experience better than any director currently working. Mescal and Scott have heat in their scenes together. And I’m not entirely sure why Jamie Bell isn’t part of the awards conversation at the moment. His characterisation has the most nuance and compassion.

7

Perfect Double Bill: 3-Iron (2004)

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W. S. Van Dyke directs William Powell, Myrna Loy and Maureen O’Sullivan in this comedy mystery where a married couple of sleuths take on the case of a missing scientist accused of murder.

Listen now kids, the creaky mystery farce around them is pretty mid. Old Hollywood doing what it does whether you like it or not. Nick and Nora Charles though are so money, baby. Drunk, in love, cute dog, still drinking, living out of hotels. Why let a little private detecting get in the way of the second most perfect couple I’ve ever encountered? Powell and Loy are a dynamo of chemistry and timing. I really should track down those sequels. Glamorous gal-wise there are at least two hard smashes burning up the screen here and pre-code jokes-wise there are three risqué corkers that stand the test of time.

9

Perfect Double Bill: After The Thin Man (1936)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/