All-Time Favourite Films: 12 angry men

Members of  #30plus MIRC channel were asked for their all-time favourite films and to submit a list of 10, in order of enjoyment. Thanks to the 31 people who spent many hours jotting notes, the process provoked amazing discussions on line, and around peoples' kitchen tables. The final list shows films that were mentioned over & over again, with the most frequently nominated films showing an asterisk.

This list does not seem to hang together cohesively. As some resp­ond­ents noted, there might have been a gender thing going on and perhaps an age thing as well. Since many of the respondents were North American, the preference for Hollywood might well have been a factor.

In the end people could use the list as a reference (both positive and negative) for their own film selections, and perhaps for some analysis as well.

Theatrical release poster, by William Rose, 1941

wiki

*2001 A Space Odyssey
12 Angry Men (my favourite)
Amadeus
American Graffiti
African Queen
Angel Heart
Bull Durham
Casablanca
Citizen Kane
Chronicles Of Riddick
Dr Zhivago
Field of Dreams
Full Metal Jacket
*Gone With the Wind
Goodfellas
Good Will Hunting
Good, The Bad and the Ugly
It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World
LA Confidential
Last of the Mohicans
Lion in Winter
Lord of the Rings
*Matrix
Notebook
On Golden Pond
Pitch Black
Pulp Fiction
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler's List
Shawshank Redemption
Sixth Sense Sound of Music
*Star Wars
Steel Magnolias
*To Kill a Mockingbird
West Side Story
*Wizard of Oz

Years later I created a list of my personal favourites:
Tea With Mussolini
Ladies in Lavender
Late Bloomers
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Howard's End
Room with a View

12 Angry Men, 1957

Sidney Lumet already an experienced theatre and television director, rehearsed his cast for two weeks and then confined them in an actual jury room where virtually the entire film was shot. The claustrophobic setting combined with the combustible personalities of a dynamic cast, incl Lee J Cobb, Henry Fonda and E.G Marshall, to create a riveting drama. Although a critical success, the film performed poorly at the box office.

Although I was in high school when I saw the film, I had zero idea that jurors didn't recognise the importance of reasonable doubt and that jurors had a moral obligation to vote not guilty if was any doubt. Worse still, I didn't know that prejudices, class differences, racism and unresolved personal trauma could have slipped out, without the juror noticing it. So might viewers conclude that the jury started with false certainty and deliberated until they uncovered the certain truth. but the jury wasn’t able to establish whether or not the defendant was innocent. Rather than uncovering certainty, their deliberations uncover doubt. And I had never been out of Australia yet, so it was important for me to grasp the main message of 12 Angry Men. And that was that justice required critical thinking, open-mindedness and the strict application of reasonable doubt, free from personal bias, prejudice and rushing to judgment. But no women in the jury was beyond my grasp :(

12 Angry Men, TCM

Cocodile Dundee, Outback Steakhouse, shark attack cocktails

Crocodile Dundee was the second-highest-grossing film in the U.S in 1986, and stood as the highest-grossing non-U.S. film ever at the American box office. There is a strong consensus that the film relied heavily on outback stereotypes that do not represent most modern Australians, who largely live in coastal cities. Contemporary critical commentaries pointed out that the movie featured out of date social dynamics regarding gender, race, foods, drinks and clothes that many modern Australians would not have recognised. Principal photography for Crocodile Dundee began in 1985, starting with the scenes filmed at the Federal Hotel renamed the Walkabout Creek Hotel in McKinlay, Queensland

 Nonetheless it is the American home of juicy steaks, spirited drinks and Aussie hospitality.

Outback steakhouse shark attack cocktail called Aussie JAWSsie

The ocean blue has clouds of red blood. Etsy

Outback Steakhouse didn't copy Walkabout Creek Hotel, but its vibe was generated by Crocodile Dundee which featured the iconic pub. Compare the two photos below.

The first Outback Steakhouse location was opened in Mar 1988 in Tampa Florida, and now there are 660 Outback Steakhouse locations in the U.S. Despite its Down Under branding and Aussie-themed slang eg three Australian appertizers (Bloomin onion, Aussie Cheese fries, Coconut shrimp), the chain was inspired by the popularity of the film Crocodile Dundee and served American-style cuisine rather than authentic Australian food. Outback Steakhouse operates a small number of locations (c8) in Australia but only in NSW and QLD; so I have never seen any in my state, Victoria.

Outback Steakhouse, Randolf MA 

Trip Advisor

Walkabout Creek Hotel, Qld

delicious

Outback Steakhouse is touted as an Australian-themed restaurant but focuses on American-style grilled steaks, seafood, chicken and ribs; big portions at moderate prices. The menu’s famous items are the fresh seafoods, wedge salad, mashed potato and cocktails - the Wallaby Darned is a signature, frosty frozen peach cocktail. The Outback Steakhouses targets itself between casual dining and classic steakhouses, hearty food without fine-dining prices.

Shark Week has been an annual week-long summer programme at the Discovery Channel focusing on shark-themed programming since 1988. Originally devoted to conservation efforts and correcting fallacies about sharks, Shark Week is marked at the Outback Steakhouse chain each year. It offers $8 drinks and 50% off appetizers for Shark Week. The shark-attack drink, named the Aussie JAWSsie is made with New Amsterdam Raspberry Vodka, Blue Curaçao, a trio of citrus juices and grenadine. Directions for making the shark-attack drink are as follows.

Step 1. Pour spiced rum, club soda, vodka, blue Curaçao and lime juice together in a pitcher.
Step 2. Gently mix with a long spoon. Pour Shark Bite cocktail into ice-filled individual glasses.
Step 3. Drizzle 1 1/4 ounces of grenadine into each glass to create a blooming effect that resembles blood in ocean water. Strain cocktail over ice in the glass. Add drops of grenadine to cocktail.
Step 4 Garnish with a blue gummy shark in each glass.

The Aussie JAWSsie: a blue tropical alcoholic cocktail crafted with New Amsterdam Raspberry Vodka, Blue Curaçao, a citrus juice blend, and topped off by squeezing red grenadine i.e shark blood from a keepsake plastic shark toy into the drink. This is the jaws-themed cocktail!

Outback also has a new mocktail - Sharky Temple: a child-friendly, alcohol-free version made with a base of Sprite and grenadine, also served with an interactive shark toy. These 2 drinks became popular to Outback Steakhouse for the 2026 summer and Shark Week promotions.

Walkabout Creek Hotel

Queensland

Mick Dundee & crocodile in Walkabout Creek Hotel.

ABC News, 1985

Has anyone ever visited a Outback Steakhouse? Did you try a shark attack cocktail? 

Kroyer's loveliest art in France & Denmark

Kroyer, Hip, Hip, Hurrah! 1888, 
Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sweden

Impressionism was at first a French art movement, starting in the second half of the C19th. Impressionist techniques included visible, thick brush strokes of pure colour, creating a vibrant effect, and capturing the essence of the subject matter rather than focusing on minute details. Impressionists often painted outdoors to capture the effects of sunlight on their subjects, favouring natural poses and domestic scenes, creating a sense of freshness and normalcy. Even after thousands of artists from other nations flooded into France to learn from the Impressionists, these artists took French Impressionist techniques back home with them.

Peder Krøyer (1851-1909) was a Norwegian born lad who moved to Copenhagen for school and then studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Art. In his 20s, Krøyer travelled widely in Europe. While  in Paris, Kroyer was particularly impressed by the Impressionists who were already making a name for themselves - Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas and Sisley. Kroyer spent his formative years travellng in France from 1877-81 but then he had to go back to Denmark in 1882, where his taste for Impressionism stayed with him.

Kroyer, Artists' Luncheon at Skagen, 1883,
Granger Collection, New York

The group of Scandinavian artists formed an art group in Skagen at the tip of Denmark’s Jutland in the 1880s-early 1890s. I wonder what the rather conservative fishermen of this remote fishing village thought about the big city artists, with their alcohol and their women. Anyhow, because of Kroyer’s experience as a well travelled, well trained artist in French taste, he became leader of the Skagen community. His work during the 1880s was fresh, often showing a peaceful life on the beach, often celebrating art with all his artist friends, usually with food and drink at hand. Consider for example The Artists' Luncheon 1883. Here you can see the Skagen artists eating a convivial, boozy lunch at Brøndum's Hotel. His art was also influential.

Denmark does not have a hot climate, so I wondered why so many paintings had summer picnics, summer outdoor lunches and summer walks on the beach. The answer was that Kroyer divided his time between a holiday home in Skagen each shortish summer and his flat in Copenhagen where he worked on his large commissions each longish winter.  So see his famous works depicting local fishermen working along Skagen beach, including Men of Skagen setting out for night fishing (1884) and Fishermen hauling nets North Beach, Skagen (1883), which highlighted the tough Danish conditions and physical labour of coastal life.

Fishermen hauling nets North Beach Skagen, 1883

Wiki

Anna Ancher and Marie Krøyer on Skagen beach, 1890s,

Private collection. Wikimedia

I am very loyal to my favourite artists. And now another Kroyer painting has grabbed my attention and I need to annouce my newest Favourite Painting Of All Times. At least for now! Hip, Hip, Hurrah! 1888 is a large work that is in the Gothenburg Museum of Art in Sweden. The painting shows members of the guild of Skagen Painters, socialising as they were wont to do, in the open gardens. For me, Hip, Hip, Hurrah! is typical of the work produced by the Skagen Painters, focusing as it does on the play of light in the rather limited landscape. Gothenburg Museum asks people to compare Hip, Hip, Hurrah! with Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, and in both composition and subject matter. And another comparison. Hip, Hip, Hurrah! had many of the same people we saw in Artists' Luncheon at Skagen 1883.

Summer evening at Skagen - painter and wife,1899

Artvee

Because the 1888 work took some years to paint, Swedish art collector Pontus Fürstenberg bought the painting before it was completed. Fürstenberg later donated his treasure to the Gothenburg Museum of Art, where it remains today.

The film PS Krøyer - What A Life! was made in Denmark in 2008. I have not seen the documentary so my summary comes from MUBI. Krøyer was the undisputed centre of the Skagen painters. He was famous; lionised and married to the most beautiful woman in Copenhagen. The film was a tribute to an artistic prodigy whose excellence brought Danish art to an international level. Krøyer brought a whole new way of life to Skagen; as the artists’ colony was created, so the party could begin. Everybody wanted to go there. Hip Hip Hurrah! became the symbol of the two decades of happiness and unity in the 1880s-90s.

Only when his mother’s insanity started to manifest itself did Krøyer's beautiful life start to unravel. His wife left him and with her, the foundation of his idyllic existence disappeared. But he had to live on. Fortunately he had steady, loving support until the very end. Kroyer died in 1909.

**

I went on a history cruise in the past and loved it. Avalon Cruises’ special interest trips have lectures and cultural activities on board that relate to the towns that art buffs love. In deference to Kroyer I would most like to spend time on the “Seine River Cruise” that leaves Paris, sailing to Vernon, for a guided visits to Claude Monet’s gardens at Giverny. On to Joan of Arc’s historic Rouen, where the excursion is to the Normandy land­ing beaches. There is an optional excursion to the Impres­sion­ists’ coastal town of Honfleur. In the medieval town of Conflans, visit  Vincent van Gogh’s gateway to Auvers-sur-Oise. In Paris see Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Opéra, Madeleine, Champs Elysées and the Eiffel Tower.  Enjoy a cabaret show at Toulouse Lautrec’s Moulin Rouge. The 8-day cruise leaves Paris regularly throughout April-August.

Old Harbour, Honfleur

Honfleur was where Monet, Courbet, Dubourg, Boudin, Bazille, Corot, Sisley and others painted. It was also the home of Musée Eugène Boudin.

Map of France and Denmark

note Honfleur to Skagen to Copenhagen 

Sam Neill, brilliant films & tv series

Born Nigel Neill in 1947 in Omagh, Nth Ireland to an English mother and a New Zealand father serving in the British army. His family moved to Christchurch N.Z in 1954 where Sam went to school. He became Sam because there were several Nigels at school, saying “I moved more easily as a Sam”.

Sam Neill and Meryl Streep as Michael & Lindy Chamberlain,

Evil Angels, 1988

Sam Neill went on to study English literature and acting at Canterbury Uni. He began acting in Canberbury Uni productions, then moved to Wellington to the Downstage Theatre as a professional actor, being paid $35 a week. Neill acted in some tv films and shorts for New Zealand in the 70s before winning his first lead role in the locally produced thriller Sleeping Dogs 1977, receiving inter-national acclaim in the first New Zealand film to open in the US. Soon after that he landed a leading role in My Brilliant Career 1979 directed by Gillian Armstrong; played the son of the devil in Omen III 1981; in the  1988 biopic Evil Angels, as Lindy Chamberlain’s husband Michael with Meryl Streep; and in The Hunt for Red October 1990. His role in Ivanhoe 1982 boosted Neill in Sweden where the film’s on TV every New Year’s Day for 40 years. In fact he built his career as dashing romantic leads and magnetic villains. He truly arrived on the international film stage as Damien Thorn in Omen III.

 

Sam Neill & Judy Davis on My Brilliant Career, 1979 

Michael Ochs Archives

He soon moved to Australia, landing another internationally lauded role with My Brilliant Career 1979. He was one of the leading candidates to succeed Roger Moore as James Bond and screen-tested in 1986, but lost out to Timothy Dalton. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his spy role in the 1983 miniseries Reilly, Ace of Spies.

He went on to star in some films of varying success for the following 45 years, incl Dead Calm, Hunt for Red October and The Piano 1993. Neill came to widespread international attention in 1993 with his role as the New Zealand settler Alisdair Stewart in Jane Campion’s Oscar-winner The Piano. Neill, well known for his role as palaeontologist Dr Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park 1993, a role originally offered to Harrison Ford. Neill played Alan Grant again in two Jurassic Park sequels. 

My favourite was The Piano. In mid-C19th a mute woman went along with her young daughter and prized piano for an arranged marriage to a farmer in New Zealand, but was soon lusted after by a farmworker. Jane Campion was the director and it starred Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel & Sam Neill.

Dr Alan Grant and Tyrannosaurus Rex, Jurassic Park,1993, 

by Murray Close 

Neill shaped a career playing memorable romantic leads & captivating villains with 150+ credits in 50 years, incl Dead Calm 1989, Jungle Book 1994, In the Mouth of Madness 1995, Event Horizon 1997, Bicentennial Man 1999, The Dish 2000 and Peter Rabbit 2018. Neill also worked on tv, incl miniseries Merlin 1998. The Tudors mini-series 2007, as the corrupt Maj Chester Campbell in Peaky Blinders tv drama 2013 and The Twelve miniseries 2022.

Sam Neil and Holly Hunter, The Piano

Sam Neill was the New Zealand actor whose career spanned Oscar winners and famous films, so he dreaded any prospect of retirement. He won Officer of the Order of the British Empire 1991 for his services to acting and a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2007. Years later, the New Zealand’s honours system allowed recipients to convert his Order of Merit into a knighthood, Sir Sam accepted a knighthood in 2022.

Actor Rachel Griffiths, who cast Neill as Michelle Payne’s horse trainer father in her directorial debut Ride Like A Girl, also commented on social media. Two Paddocks is the label under which Neill has been making wine for decades, a pursuit he took as seriously as acting. When not working, Neill split his later years between his Surry Hills home and his farm in New Zealand, where he kept rescue animals and produced wine from his vineyard. Based in Central Otago Sth Island, it created classy pinot noirs and average Picnic range.

Aust Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on X mourned Neill’s passing. “Sam starred in so many beloved Australian stories and he earned a special place in Australian hearts. Wry and thoughtful, Sam fought illness with the same dignity, humour & conviction that gave strength to his performances.

New Zealand prime minister Christopher Luxon said “Sam started out when there was barely a film industry in this country to speak of. For 50+ years he took New Zealand stories to the world and his talents helped make our film industry into what it is today, one of our greatest cultural exports. His work will be watched and loved long after us.” NZ’s foreign affairs minister Winston Peters said Neill was a Kiwi icon whose work in both local & Hollywood films entertained people globally for decades.

In 2023 Neill’s memoir, Did I Ever Tell You About This? revealed he'd been undergoing chemo-therapy for a year after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma blood cancer. By the time his Memoirs were published in March 2023 his cancer was in remission, but he underwent monthly chemotherapy for the rest of his life; he signed a contract with the drug company that if he was alive in 4 months, the treatment was free. Neill explained it was an aggressive form of blood cancer with fewer than half of those diagnosed surviving 5+ years. But it this was not the cause of death.

He wrote that he later went into remission after undergoing a trial with a new chemotherapy drug. In 2023 he wrote “I’m not afraid to die, but it would annoy me. Because I’d really like another decade or two. We’ve built all these lovely terraces, we’ve got these olive trees and cypresses, and I want to be around to see it all mature. And I’ve got my 6 lovely little grandchildren. I want to see them get big.”

The extended family group shared the tragic news of Sam’s passing in July in Sydney. Surrounded by family and passing with dignity, Sam was survived by 4 children & 8 grandchildren.

Martin Ferrero, Sir Richard Attenborough, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, Laura Dernin Jurassic Park,

Yahoo Life

"The Stamp Thief" a good documentary

The Stamp Thief was a documentary investigating a Holocaust event: that some unknown Nazi stole priceless stamp collections from concentration camp victims and buried the stolen stamps in a small town in Poland. Producer Gary Gilbert set out to confirm the story and recover the stamps. His approach: do a fake film shoot. His goal: to deliver justice by returning the stamps to their rightful owners or community.

The Stamp Thief documentary was written by Gary Gilbert, 2025

Reddit

The film chased the story of a rogue Nazi officer tasked with cataloguing the valuables of Jews sent to concentration camps. Apparently he seized the chance to steal millions of dollars worth of rare stamps and buried them in his home, now in Poland. In a real-life mission, Gilbert embarked on a daring quest to uncover the truth and recover the stamps. Disguising his investigation, Gilbert sought to return the stamps to their rightful heirs or to a museum, delivering a small yet powerful act of justice 75+ years post-Holocaust. This true tale unfolded in the suspenseful documentary.

Director Dan Sturman was an investigative journalist and is now noted L.A-based director, writer and producer who created Academy Award-winning documentaries. Sturman has since filmed many subjects, his works including quality documentaries shown at classy festivals eg Twin Towers.

Sturman and Gilbert debated about finding stamps stolen by the Nazi officer and buried in a basement in Legnica Poland. Stamp Thief set out to find the stamps after hearing the story from his fellow screen writer, David Weisberg. Who could invent a more intriguing premise? David's father, psychiatrist   Paul Weisberg treated a fireman married to the daughter of the Nazi who allegedly stole the stamps from a concentration camp. 

Nazi Trio, found by producer Dylan Nelson

Film Freeway

Stamp Thief was a probing search: while the Nazis occupied Poland in WW2, the Nazi officer whose job was to catalogue valuables belonging to Jews sent to camps saw his chance. Sadly this was not the case of a hero who disobeyed orders and tried to help the victims of the Holocaust. The Nazi officer, who decided to pocket millions of dollars worth of stamps stolen from the victims, buried them in the basement of his home. Thanks to the discovery of a detailed map showing the approximate location of the stamps, a group of Americans flew to Poland.

 When the L.A television writer-producer learned that an SS officer probably stole stamps from Jewish concentration camp prisoners and hidden them in a Polish basement, the American launched a long quest to find the rumoured box of treasures, despite the minimal chance of locating them.

Sample of stamps from pre-WW2

JIFF

How Gilbert found about the stamps was an unlikely tale. It began with a psychiatrist who happened to have a patient in the 1970s. The patient told the story of the missing stamps, and the psychiatrist became so intrigued, he helped devise an elaborate retrieval plan to dig them up behind the Iron Curtain. He never followed through, but he shared the plan with his son, who happened to be an avid stamp collector. As the film unfolded, the pieces fell into place and the story became increasingly engrossing. The team that went to Poland in 2015 grew more invested in returning the stamps to their rightful owners. So does the audience!

The mission was steeped in symbolism. For Gilbert, a single stamp not only represented the many thousands of stamps stolen from Jews, but the 6 million who’d never reclaim their personal treasures. Gilbert knew the second he heard the story that he was going to go, because the only thing crazier than going would be to not go. What’s craziest was how Gilbert tried to retrieve the stamps. The more he talked to lawyers, the more he realised how difficult it was to get seized Jewish property out of Poland. So he planned to access the basement by pretending to use it as a film set for a fake historical drama. [It was hard labour, digging 4+’ into the basement ground that had been solid since WW2]. The Poland expedition meant deceiving the Polish building manager, residents and film crew, and members of the U.S team had to grapple with the ethics of their dishonesty!

The team included Sturman as well as Gilbert’s personal contractor who posed as the set designer. But Sturman really came to supervise the surreptitious dig for the stamps during fake rehearsals in the basement. Those involved all hoped that once the truth emerged, the misled people would see that the deceit happened to right a greater wrong.

Instead Polish reactions to discovering the truth were largely scary, but an unknown hero emerged in Polish crew member, Sylvia. She chose to fully support the Americans and their mission. Her decision as a Polish person was that each Polish person should have been self-responsible.

There were no criticisms in the on-line reviews, but here's my own feedback. I didn’t know the film was going to be about research and although that was my own fault, it was occasionally annoying. I wasn’t fascinated in their endless interviews, phone calls, meetings and letters. It might have been a fictional adaptation of the normal story of Nazis taking gold wedding rings & gold dental crowns from victims before they went into the gas chambers. And although I knew exactly why the team acted secretly and illegally as they did, the immorality of Lying for a Good Cause was barely tackled. 

I already knew that many modern Poles were still denying their nation’s part in the Holocaust. But the intractable mistrust between some Poles and Jewish Polish survivor families was not really challenged in the film.

Gary Gilbert, Judy Kirshner Gilbert, Elizabeth Malloy, Dan Sturman

in Hollywood, April 2025, 

Larchmontbuzz

 

Elmer Bernstein: #1 film music composer?

Elmer Bernstein (1922-2004) was born in New York, son of a Jewish dad who was a high-school music teacher in the Austrian Empire and mum was Jewish Ukrainian. He was educated at the Walden School NY and at New York Uni. He then went to Juilliard School of Music due to America's C20th great composer, Aaron Copland, wanting his protege Bernstein to go there. Elmer was no relative of Leonard Bernstein (1918-90), but they were friends & colleagues.

Elmer Bernstein Collection, 2010,

Amazon

Yet it was as a dancer that Bernstein began his working life, doubling as a concert pianist when the opportunities arose. At the same time he tried to earn a living as a painter and was also a small-time actor.

In WW2 he served in the U.S Army Air Force with Major Glenn Miller, arranging for Miller's famous Army Air Force Band and composing scores for military radio broadcasts. Luckily this led to the first serious compositions of his career.

In 1950 he began writing film music, and in 1952, he was demonstrating the drama and originality that later marked his works. These early works had included scores for new, growing United Nations radio programmes, tv and industrial documentaries. In Hollywood his first film was Saturday's Hero (1951), a university football film. After completing his film assignments, the composer became another in a long list of liberal professionals who Senator Joseph McCarthy saw a threat to the American way of life due to alleged Communist leanings. It was the time of the Red Scare and Bernstein's important thinking threatened his career activities in the mid 1950s. His scores then were for largely unremarkable films, and only one tv series was famous: Gunsmoke (1955)!

But he re-established his reputation with the very jazzy score for The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). The Frank Sinatra movie came that year as the rather less notable The View From Pompey's Head (1955), yet that film was just as significant in Elmer’s career. And he proved his versatility with his stir-ring music for The Ten Commandments (1956), one of the films where the music was more thrilling than the action. The album was an outstanding success, and his favourite project ever. Bernstein’s other notable scores included those for the Tony Curtis classic Sweet Smell of Success (1957) with Burt Lancaster, Some Came Running (1958) and Walk on the Wild Side (1962). The 1962-3 period was particularly notable and appropriately, in 1963-9 Bernstein worked as vice president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

The composer created these scores during a career that produced some of Hollywood’s most memorable film music. His original scores for films ranged over a wide variety of styles, with jazz, light musical comedies and especially westerns. He had such skill for the Western genre that over 15 years he wrote 6 scores starring John Wayne eg True Grit (1969) and The Shootist (1976).

violinist Isaac Stern, conductor Henri Temianka, composer Johnny Green 

with Elmer Bernstein, 1980

Bernstein adapted the style of his music to mirror the action of each particular film, and his scores were often seen as more notable than the films themselves. His works were viewed by many critics as great examples of contemporary music which was why Hollywood nominated him for an Oscar 14 times!! Yet he won only one Oscar for the sound-track score of Julie Andrews film Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Nominations included the scores for Sinatra’s film The Man With The Golden Arm (1955), Summer and Smoke (1961), the film of Harper Lee's novel To Kill A Mockingbird (1966), Hawaii (1966) and Return of the Seven (1966). That the 12 months included not just To Kill a Mockingbird, but also Hud (1963) starring Paul Newman, the film that consolidated Steve McQueen's stardom.

The Chosen (1981), which could have become as a concert work, blended into the music style of the Hassidic tradition, presumably for Bernstein’s Brooklyn audience’s sake. Elmer's score was matched by great performances by Robby Benson, Barry Miller, Maximillian Schell and Rod Steiger.

I didn’t know the scores Bernstein wrote for two Broadway musicals, How Now, Dow Jones 1967 and Merlin (1983). Nor did I know his later films including Cape Fear (1991), The Grifters (1990) and Devil in a Blue Dress (1995). Readers should be able to check these out, if interested.

Bernstein was married twice, first to Pearl Glusman 1965, then to Eve Adamson; there were 4 children and 5 grandchildren. Elmer's son Peter Bernstein wrote Elmer Bernstein, Film Composer, revealing dad’s life from an intimate, behind-the-scenes perspective. Elmer had the drive needed to succeed in the very competitive Hollywood industry. In a busy career in 54 years, his many landmark scores were recognisable and loved everywhere.

He composed works for symphony orchestras, scores for tv programmes and the documentary The Making of the President 1960 won an Emmy Award. In 1974 he published Elmer Bernstein Film Music Collection, Animal House in 1978, Airplane! in 1980, box-office smash Ghostbusters 1984 and My Left Foot 1989.

Later in life, Elmer gained cult status among British football fans when his familiar old theme for The Great Escape (1963) was adopted by them and shared at matches. It became a symbol of unity and defiance, for me as well as for the soccer fans. Having written the scores for 200+ films, Elmer Bernstein was one of Hollywood's most prolific composers. He was also one of the small group of outstanding musicians who devoted their careers to the cinema. His roster included some of the most memorable film themes ever written, particularly scores for The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Great Escape. Both have been reworked into concert suites. He passed in 2004 at 82.

Some movie scores that Bernstein wrote

hamlette

The American Film Industry ranked Elmer Bernstein's score for The Magnificent Seven (1960) as the 8th greatest US film score and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) as the 17th greatest US score for all time.

Fred Astaire, sister Adele & Ginger Rogers

Adele (1896-1981) and Frederick Austerlitz (1899–1987) were born in Nebraska, children of Johanna and Fritz Aust­er­litz. Johanna was born in the U.S to Lutheran Ger­man imm­igrants from East Prussia and Al­sace. Dad was born in Linz Austria to Jewish parents, and later the whole family converted to Cath­ol­icism - he arrived in New York in 1893, then found brewery work in Omaha.

Adele became a dancer-singer, and alth­ough Fred refused dance lessons, he eas­ily copied his sister's dancing and learned 3 musical instruments. So mum started a brother-sister act, common in vaudeville then, for her children.

When Fritz suddenly lost his job, the family moved to New York in 1905 to launch the child­ren’s show business careers. Adele and Fred began train­ing at the Alviene Master School of the Theat­re and Acad­emy of Cult­ural Arts. Their mother suggested they change their name to Astaire, as Austerlitz sounded too German. Did Fred mind that he was a] Germanic on both parents’ sides and b] Jewish on one side? Did he know that Fritz’s brothers Otto and Ernst remained in Austria and were soldiers during WWI? Apparently there was a tacit family agreement to mention neither.

Fred and Adele Astaire in 1921 

Adele and Fred were taught dance, speaking and singing, prepar­ing to develop an act. Their first act was Juvenile Artists Presenting an Electric Musical Toe-Dancing Novelty. In Nov 1905 their act debuted in Key­port New Jersey.

Their father's salesmanship rapidly landed Fred and Adele a major contract, playing the Orpheum Circuit of vaude­ville and cinemas in cities across the U.S. Even though Adele was older and taller, Fred wore a top hat (to appear taller) and the team was billed with Fred’s name first (to make him seem old­er). But eventually they decided to take a break from show business.

The career of the Astaire teens restarted with more polish, as they began to incorporate tap dancing into their routines. And they learned the tango, waltz and other popular ball­room dances from vaude­ville dancers. Then they appeared in Mary Pickford’s 1915 film, Fanchon, the Crick­et.

Young Fred was directing their music in 1916, just at the time he met George Gershwin who was working for the music pub­lisher Jerome Remick. Fred had been hunting for new music and dance ideas, so their meeting was a blessing to both their careers.

The Astaires had their first Broadway success with Over the Top (1917), a revue created for U.S and Allied troops. They did more shows eg The Passing Show of 1918 where fans loved Ad­el­e, owing in part to Fred's good choreo­graphy. But by this time, Fred's dancing was beginning to sparkle as well.

In the 1920s, they appeared on both Broadway and the Lon­don stage. And whilst in London, Fred was keen to study piano at Guild­hall School of Music. As Astaire's tap dancing was recognised by then as among the best in the world, he was certainly multi-talented.

Eventually Fred and Adele enjoyed stage succes­s­es. In fact, London gave them a bigger welcome than New York, but it was in Lon­d­on in 1924 that they heard of their father’s illness. Their mother ret­urned to America and soon, during the London run of Stop Flirting, their father died.

They won popular acclaim in theatres on both sides of the At­l­antic for Jerome Kern's The Bunch and Judy (1922), George & Ira Gersh­win's Lady, Be Good (1924) and Funny Face (1927) and later in The Band Wagon (1931). Fred went on to star in 10+ Broad­way and West End mus­ic­als, making 31 musical films and recordings.

The siblings split in 1932 when Adele married Lord Charles Cav­en­d­ish, 9th Duke of Devonshire’s son. Fred achieved suc­cess on Broad­way and in London with The Gay Divorcee, while consid­er­ing a Holly­wood future. But the end of the long family part­ner­ship was difficult for Fred.

His greatest dancing par­t­nership was with Virginia Ginger Rogers (1911-95), with whom he co-starred in ten Hollywood musicals! Among their most not­able films, where As­taire took the genre of tap danc­ing to a new lev­el, were Top Hat (1935) and Shall we dance? (1937). Their final film together was The Barkleys of Broadway, released by MGM in 1949.

Astaire was reluctant to become part of another team! How­ever RKO noted the public appeal of Fred’s choreography and of Astaire-Rogers dancing, which helped make dancing a key element of the film musical. Rogers maintained a busy theatre schedule, performing the title role in Hello Dolly! from 1965 on and took Mame to London audiences in 1969.

Now working with Claire Luce, Fred created a dance duo for Cole Por­ter's Night and Day. Luce stated that she had to help him to take a more romantic approach. The success of the stage play, and the film version, The Gay Div­or­cee, ushered in a new era in dance. Recently found footage of Astaire per­form­ing in Gay Divorce in 1933 survives!

RKO lent him to MGM in 1933 for his Hollywood debut in the succ­essful musical film Dancing Lady, dancing with Joan Craw­ford. On his return to RKO, he was with Ginger Rogers in Dolores del Río’s Flying Down to Rio (1933). Ginger and Fred were so thrilling toget­her, they made 9 films at RKO, including The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937) and Care­free (1938). Most Astaire–Rogers musicals became subs­t­antial money-makers for RKO.

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Top Hat (1935)

Fred in Top Hat, 1935

Instead of using dance as a mere spec­tacle as others had done, Astaire was determined that all song and dance routines in a film be integral to the plotline. Ast­aire films usually included a solo performance by Astaire; a comedy dance routine for two; and a romantic dance duo.

In 1933 Fred married Phyllis Livingston Potter, after Phyl­l­is’ div­orce; they went to Hollywood tog­ether, had 2 children and lived happily until Phyllis’ death from lung cancer. Ginger Rogers married 5 times, but never had any children.
 
I am very grateful to The German Way & More.

Maria Anna & Wolfgang Mozart: 2 geniuses?

Until she was 16, Maria Anna Mozart (1751-1829) shared equal billing with her brother Wolfgang Mozart (1756-91), 5 years younger. Musical partners and collaborators, Wolfgang and Maria Anna played music together before royalty, and were the talk of Europe. So what happened to her?

Wolfgang (L) and sister Maria Anna (R) were devoted to each other and ?co-writers of Wolfgang’s earliest work. 
FrontRowCentre

Maria Anna was the first child of Leopold Mozart, a musician and composer who had his daughter musically educated from a young age. Maria showed great talent, a child prodigy in both composing and playing. When Wolfgang was young, he was quickly engrossed in playing music with his sister. The film featured emotional images of this childhood bond, emphasising the siblings’ cooperation with music. Leopold recognised his children’s unusual talents; he soon had them travelling and playing concerts to the European aristocracy.

According to a new film Mozart’s Sister (2012), imagined the Mozart family's tiring life on the road from 1763 on, travelling by coach from one royal court to another. Together the wonder-children toured most of Europe. Contemporary reviews praised Maria, and she was even billed first on promotional posters. As a child, there was no issue with performing for an audience. But skilled singer, harpsichord player and violinist nicknamed Nannerl, was first seen as the family's infant prodigy. In the film, she was still performing, though increasingly side-lined by Wolfgang's growing fame. Her father bowed to social strictures for women, refusing to let her continue with violin or composing, while privately conceding Nannerl's talent to his wife. The teen fretted about her career prospects, but was forced to retire at age 17, was left at home, and was never to play in public again.

Having been forced to withdraw from public life because she was now a woman, the film explored how she was retired by dad Leopold and what happened to her music. She had been a musical prodigy just like her younger brother Wolfgang, so naturally she retained her love of music.

The two Mozart siblings, 

The Conversation

An amazing new discovery of her creative work is being uncovered through historians, musicologists, letters between siblings and other evidence. If confirmed, this new evidence suggests she may have contributed to her brother’s earliest works; a global search for her own works continues. The musical-mystery story unfolded around the world with historians following why her lost talent may have been hidden all this time.

This film came at a time, 2012, when many people were reassessing the nature of female authorship in the arts. The Mozart case was not an oddity. There were many other examples of women whose talent was obscured OR completely lost. Many people analysed the less well-known female creators of today, composers, musicians and conductors, as well as the very low rates of female participation in classical music today. In 2020-21 season a survey of the top 100 global orchestras found 5% of works were composed by women!

Writer René Féret's film was partly a feminist reclaiming of one of history's lost women, plus a revisionist version of Mozart's early life. The issues commanded attention, including a clear sense of the hardship and bitterness Mozart Sr put his family through. Marc Barbé and Delphine Chuillot were Léopold and Anna-Maria Mozart, the parents who put their children through a gruelling continental tour. Their 10-year-old Wolfgang/David Moreau was remarkable.

The person who felt all this most keenly was Mozart's elder sister, Nannerl, played by the writer’s daughter Marie Féret. She was reduced to the status of Wolfgang's accompanist, despite being a talented musician and having, she claimed, contributed to her brother's compositions. Then a quirk of fate led to her friendship with the King's younger daughter Louise, played by another Féret daughter, Lisa Féret. The exchanges between Louise and Nannerl were sometimes tough. But the two sisters’ performances had a kind of rugged authenticity that attracted.

Maria Anna and Wolfgang at piano, and parents Leopold and Anna Maria;

by Austrian artist Johann Nepomuk della Croce,
c1780; Mozart House, Salzburg. Wiki 

Maria Anna and Wolfgang were inseparable and often composed together. But this ended when Maria Anna turned 17. For women musicians in C18th, it was thought unseemly for a girl to perform in public, likening this public performance to that of a prostitute. Regardless of their skill, these women wouldn’t have any career prospects. They were even banned from playing musical instruments deemed unseemly eg violin and cello. Even though this was during the Enlightenment, any enlightenment was reserved for white men only. Definitely not to women! Yet Wolfgang continued pursuing music at will. Maria Anna’s musical talents weren’t even encouraged at home. Her life was only illustrated through her diary entries, which ware mainly filled with ordinary family events.

Maria Anna married Johann Baptist von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg in 1783 and had 3 children . They moved to St Gilgen in Austria near the Mozart family home in Salzburg, and continued to practise music daily. On her husband’s death in 1801, and now with an income and a title (baroness) in her 50s, she returned to solo concerts.

Mozart’s Sister was a documentary that functioned on several levels. A] It was a biopic that portrayed Maria Anna’s story by recreating her childhood. The narration and interviews highlighted her relationship with her brother. It was filmed in Austria and framed by present-day museum curators and experts. B] The film was a broader statement on the non-appearance of female composers.

Director Madeleine Hetherton-Miau’s created a hard-hitting documentary. The film offered a well-researched investigation into Maria Anna’s life, showing how the draconian attitudes that prevailed in her time condemned her to a lesser life than Wolfgang, even though she was equally talented. It also reminded of the importance of championing women musicians today, to avoid discrimination being repeated. The director was excellent in portraying this duality via the contrast of Maria Anna’s path with the brilliant young British composer Alma Deustger (b2005). Deustger has great skills in composing and conducting, but she was able to pursue her passion and make it her career. The film used a recent literary trend i.e discussions of how talented women in history were overshadowed by their more famous male equals, then overlooked totally.

"Wonder Wheel" - a great Woody Allen film?

I chose Wonder Wheel 2017, by director-writer Woody Allen, because a] Coney Island in its heyday was a fun holiday site and b] Kate Winslet is a fine British actress.

In 1950s Coney Island in Brooklyn NY, the sad wife Ginny (Kate Win­s­let) lived in a flat that looked directly onto the park’s looming Ferris wheel. The attraction blocked her view of the oc­ean and threw deep, ex­pressionistic light on the flat’s dilap­id­ated interior and its shabby inhabitants. The Wonder Wheel behind the flat relentlessly turned, even while going nowhere.

 

The Wonder Wheel, Coney Island, 1950s

Reviews of the Arts

She was a miserably married woman whose af­f­air with a local man was disrupted when he accidentally met up with a young woman. Ginny frown­ed often, shuddered with sorrow and had a sweaty, oiliness on her skin. Alas for her, she worked in a clam house on the board­walk, a crappy job for someone who had originally wanted to be an actress. Fortunately Ms Winslet filled her shabby character with activity, not loud screaming.

Ginny’s cute son, Richie (Jack Gore) had a tough home life as well, with a miserable mot­her and an alcoholic step-father. He avoided school whenever possible, snuck into cinemas as often as he could and lit random fires.

Husband Humpty (Jim Belushi) was a hard working carn­ival man who showered infrequently. As long as he was sober, Humpty seemed to provide a stable home for the family. Yet even when the characters used often blunt language and dis­played raw emotions, I knew that Belushi was acting well. The ch­aract­eristics I couldn't cope with in men were violence and al­coholism, so I was cringing in parts of this film.

When Mickey (Justin Timberlake), a lifeguard and romantic, eyed Ginny off, she fell for it. The film became Gin­ny’s story, but she never sounded con­fident. He was an aspiring play­wright and while he was still holding on to his literary ambit­ions, he maintained a flat in Greenwich Village.

The film was narrat­ed by Mickey in a voice-over, sometimes speaking directly into the camera. But why was Mickey chosen? Wonder Wheel was def­initely one of Allen’s stagiest films, but I didn’t like the staginess and I didn’t like Timberlake’s acting. Never mind; for a while Mickey offered Ginny a respite from her everyday grind.

Then we noted Carolina (Juno Temple)'s arrival, Humpty’s estranged daughter from an earlier marriage. She was on the run from her gangster husband, a very bizarre situation as it turned out. When Carolina showed up at their door, their little home be­came uncom­fort­ably cramped, both physically and emotion­ally. Into this volatile mix, Carolina caught Mickey’s eye and an awkward love triangle of sorts start to form, a triangle Car­olina had no clue she was part of.

Justin Timberlake, Kate Winslet (centre) and Juno Temple meeting together.

IndieWire  

I don’t know anything about cinematography so read New York Times. Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro enjoyed the use of moving colour; his cinema­tog­raphy lit up the frames with saturated hues. The camera gave the story visual flow, but the characters seemed to move very slowly. As has always been the case with Woodie Allen films, the actors were uneven. The strong Ms Winslet stayed strong, while the rest of the cast members did what they could with varying degrees of success. Ginny, who yearned for something better than clam houses and brutality, could easily have appeared over the top. Stilted, overly bright and over­written acting!

It was all leading to the film’s piece-de-resistance, a short, one-shot take of Ginny’s breakdown. It was a remarkable perform­ance by Winslet but it was also deliberately over-the-top. In any case, none of the char­acters, ex­cept for Ginny, was well developed.

When the film was written, few knew that Harvey Weinstein and ot­h­er powerful males would shock the entertainment industry. But Woody Allen’s name was also mentioned in the press releases! In 1993, he was sus­pect­ed of touching up his adopted daughter and actually DID marry his very young step-daughter in 1997. Critics have of­ten uneas­ily ignored his history, but why would he want to raise the topic himself? Yet even without Woody Allen’s creep­in­ess, Wonder Wheel was seen by many an exaggerated, artificial jumble.

For decades director Woody Allen managed a relatively easy sep­ar­ation between his work and his questionable private tastes with succ­ess­ful films like Vicky Cristina Barcelona. In this post-Weinstein era, critics have suggested films will be viewed through a diff­erent, sharper lens.

carousel operator Jim Belushi and his aggrieved wife Kate Winslet

The Spokesman

Dargis wrote that this film was one of Allen’s more unfortunate contributions to cinema, however I disagree. Admittedly I am not an American, not working class, not married to an alcoholic and have never seen husbandly viol­ence in friends' or family homes. Instead I would argue that the film was the ironic result of Allen’s very dark sense of humour and perhaps personal bitterness about life.