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I just watched The Innocents for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I'd have to say it's probably the best movie of it's kind. Nice review
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The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) directed by Val Guest
This film is an early Sci-Fi ecological thriller that echoes the concerns of the Cold War absolutly perfectly as well as being an excellent newspaper story.
The US and Russia have both detonated nuclear test bombs that have thrown the earth off it's axis. The melting Artic is causing worldwide flooding and temperatures are soaring.
The film is set in the contemporary London of the very early 60s, and uses the device of the newspaper office to give the film the excitement of facts being rooted out by investigation and leaks, then being published in that days edition. The newspapermen are hacks, prone to dropping by the next door pub at any provocation which gives the film a lovely air of authenticity with the moaning landlord and motherly landlady. Nice touches are actual footage of CND demos in Trafalgar Square segued into scenes of the film. There's lots of shots of London, some real, some obvious painted backdrops but such is the story that they don't pull you away.
Our hero is Peter Stenning, a disillusioned jack the lad (of course) journo who manages to have an affair (of course) with the lovely Jeannie who happens to work for the Met Office. As the heat turns up in the city, tempers fray and riots break out over water rationing.
Tempers also flare in the newspaper office which is named as the Daily Express, a real paper and the office is a mock up of the real Daily Express. In fact the guy who plays the editor Arthur Christiansen had actually just retired as the real editor of the Express. Lots of outside scenes were played in Fleet Street , then the hive of activity for all the London newspapers till Murdoch came along
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More terrible facts are admitted by the Government and the wordwide implications of global warming become horrifyingly apparent. The storytelling is so effective that you're thinking well what would I do? How would I feel ?
Val Guest directed a few more sci-fi films like the Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass 2 as well as The Abominable Snowman and the first Confessions film - Confessions of a Window Cleaner
28 Days Later but 40 years apart!
I'm a sucker for disaster films and this one is great
4.5/5
This film is an early Sci-Fi ecological thriller that echoes the concerns of the Cold War absolutly perfectly as well as being an excellent newspaper story.
The US and Russia have both detonated nuclear test bombs that have thrown the earth off it's axis. The melting Artic is causing worldwide flooding and temperatures are soaring.
The film is set in the contemporary London of the very early 60s, and uses the device of the newspaper office to give the film the excitement of facts being rooted out by investigation and leaks, then being published in that days edition. The newspapermen are hacks, prone to dropping by the next door pub at any provocation which gives the film a lovely air of authenticity with the moaning landlord and motherly landlady. Nice touches are actual footage of CND demos in Trafalgar Square segued into scenes of the film. There's lots of shots of London, some real, some obvious painted backdrops but such is the story that they don't pull you away.
Our hero is Peter Stenning, a disillusioned jack the lad (of course) journo who manages to have an affair (of course) with the lovely Jeannie who happens to work for the Met Office. As the heat turns up in the city, tempers fray and riots break out over water rationing.
Tempers also flare in the newspaper office which is named as the Daily Express, a real paper and the office is a mock up of the real Daily Express. In fact the guy who plays the editor Arthur Christiansen had actually just retired as the real editor of the Express. Lots of outside scenes were played in Fleet Street , then the hive of activity for all the London newspapers till Murdoch came along
More terrible facts are admitted by the Government and the wordwide implications of global warming become horrifyingly apparent. The storytelling is so effective that you're thinking well what would I do? How would I feel ?
Val Guest directed a few more sci-fi films like the Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass 2 as well as The Abominable Snowman and the first Confessions film - Confessions of a Window Cleaner
28 Days Later but 40 years apart!
I'm a sucker for disaster films and this one is great
4.5/5
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I like The Day the Earth Caught Fire, but The Innocents is one of my favorite films of any kind - it's close to perfection. I love your enthusiastic, informative reviews, so keep them coming.
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I have never heard of The Day the Earth Caught Fire before, but I'm focusing on 1961 for the next couple weeks so I think I'll try to squeeze it in. Maybe tonight even.
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Great reviews as always Christine 
Thanks
Thanks
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Thanks Nebbs
I'd be interested in what you think of it Cricket. I've got a few more 1961 films to rewatch too
I have never heard of The Day the Earth Caught Fire before, but I'm focusing on 1961 for the next couple weeks so I think I'll try to squeeze it in. Maybe tonight even.
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I gave it trying to be strict. I thought it was good all around right up to the end, but it never wowed me in any way. I thought it was a solid, enjoyable movie.
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Great reviews Christine, not bad for an Everton supporter. Love almost everything Kitano is in and I thought The Innocents was superb, I think it was Mark f and HK who introduced me to it in fact.
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The Lunchbox (2013) directed by Ritesh Batra
Amongst the usual glamour, noise and colour of Bollywood The Lunchbox appears unusually muted and thoughtful. This is Ritesh Batra's first feature film, and is an accomplished gem in which the always dependable Irrfan Khan plays the lead Sagaan.
The widowed Saagan is a clerk in a Mumbai insurance office, processing claims day after day - no computers here. As he approaches old age his mundane existence is leading to a quiet retirement in the country. One day at lunch he's delivered a lunchbox with a delicious content, very different from his usual standard fare. A mix up has occurred with the delivery service.
Meantime Ila (Nimrat Kaur), in a marriage where all the romance has died, is trying to tempt her husband through his stomach, but his lunchbox never gets to him....
I have to digress here to tell you about the daabawallas. Founded in Mumbai 125 years ago, the 5000 daabawallas load up their bikes and pick up lunches from people's homes packed in tiffin boxes (the daaba) in the mornings and deliver them to workers at lunchtime. Then after lunch they pick up the empty boxes and deliver them back home in the afternoon. This low tech lunch routine runs like clockwork and is reported to deliver some 200,000 meals a day with a tiny margin of error - one meal in 16 million is misdelivered.
daabawallas of Mumbai
Back to the film, due to this happy misdelivery, the usually prickly Saagan embarks on a out of character series of messages back and forth with the unhappy Ila, messages hidden inside the tiffin box. Saagan's trainee replacement at work provides the comic relief, but ultimately he too has his own story.
Don't expect big things of this film, it packs no punches but it's contemplative, it's focussed on what it means to be thinking about getting older, but it's charming and it's wistful and I liked it a lot.
...and through the daabawallas there's even a ray of hope for some street kids
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EZC1czZofyY
7/10
Amongst the usual glamour, noise and colour of Bollywood The Lunchbox appears unusually muted and thoughtful. This is Ritesh Batra's first feature film, and is an accomplished gem in which the always dependable Irrfan Khan plays the lead Sagaan.
The widowed Saagan is a clerk in a Mumbai insurance office, processing claims day after day - no computers here. As he approaches old age his mundane existence is leading to a quiet retirement in the country. One day at lunch he's delivered a lunchbox with a delicious content, very different from his usual standard fare. A mix up has occurred with the delivery service.
Meantime Ila (Nimrat Kaur), in a marriage where all the romance has died, is trying to tempt her husband through his stomach, but his lunchbox never gets to him....
I have to digress here to tell you about the daabawallas. Founded in Mumbai 125 years ago, the 5000 daabawallas load up their bikes and pick up lunches from people's homes packed in tiffin boxes (the daaba) in the mornings and deliver them to workers at lunchtime. Then after lunch they pick up the empty boxes and deliver them back home in the afternoon. This low tech lunch routine runs like clockwork and is reported to deliver some 200,000 meals a day with a tiny margin of error - one meal in 16 million is misdelivered.
daabawallas of Mumbai
Back to the film, due to this happy misdelivery, the usually prickly Saagan embarks on a out of character series of messages back and forth with the unhappy Ila, messages hidden inside the tiffin box. Saagan's trainee replacement at work provides the comic relief, but ultimately he too has his own story.
Don't expect big things of this film, it packs no punches but it's contemplative, it's focussed on what it means to be thinking about getting older, but it's charming and it's wistful and I liked it a lot.
...and through the daabawallas there's even a ray of hope for some street kids
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EZC1czZofyY
7/10
Last edited by christine; 01-07-15 at 03:13 AM.
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Glad you decided to post reviews again. Nice comeback review.
You're not a fan of popcorn I guess?
You're not a fan of popcorn I guess?
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I think you'd like it Nebbs
Gatsby, I always forget how to do the popcorn, but I like doing marks out of 10 anyway
Sean - thanks . I've been very neglectful recently. I'll try and buck up my ideas in 2015!
Gatsby, I always forget how to do the popcorn, but I like doing marks out of 10 anyway
Sean - thanks . I've been very neglectful recently. I'll try and buck up my ideas in 2015!
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I really enjoyed The Lunchbox! I got to see it in the adorable Tin Pan Theater in Bend, Oregon- it is a tiny place with one screen and seats maybe 20 people? I also ran out to buy a tiffin shortly afterwards and think of the movie when I use it. Love movies with food!
Yes! I love food...maybe a little too much! The audience was laughing so hard whenever upstairs Auntie would give her suggestions- especially when she gave her the hot peppers! The more I cook, I like to look at it as an act of love for whoever I'm cooking for. It was nice to see the movie really highlight how food has the power to really connect people and bring them together.
