Tag: 1975

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Features Live Action Movies

Saturday Night

Director – Jason Reitman – 2024 – US – Cert. 15 – 109m

***

A journey through the behind the scenes chaos of the 90 minutes prior to the broadcast of NBC’s first ever Saturday Night Live show – out in UK cinemas on Friday, January 31st

In the mid-1970s, US TV network NBC made a monumental change to its scheduled programming. For the best part of a decade, it had broadcast reruns of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on Saturdays and Sundays, and wanted something new which would capture the 19-34-year-old audience demographic, developing a replacement show with young, independent producer Lorne Michaels, the first episode of which was broadcast live on October 11, 1975. The show, which is still running on NBC today, became something of an institution in the US, kickstarting the careers of numerous comedy stars and writers who would go on to achieve considerable success in US film and TV.

Saturday Night is an attempt to put on the screen the chaos of that first night’s preparation, in which no-one quite knows if the show’s broadcast is going to go ahead, or whether the network will flip a switch and play the Carson rerun tape it has lined up in case Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) can’t get his show together.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

The Goldman Case
(Le Procès Goldman)

Director – Cédric Kahn – 2023 – France – Cert. 12a – 115m

****

An acerbic, left-wing revolutionary in the dock protests his innocence on counts of murder he claims he did not commit – true life, courtroom drama is out in UK and Ireland cinemas on Friday, September 20th

Before this courtroom drama, which is based on an actual trial in 1975 concerning incidents in 1969 and 1970, gets fully under way, and after a brief title card explaining that left wing Jew Pierre Goldman (Arieh Worthalter from Girl, Lukas Dhont, 2018) was imprisoned on four counts of robbery, but insists that he’s not guilty of causing the two deaths in the pharmacy incident, and that a retrial is pending, two of his defence lawyers meet in an office to discuss his decision to drop one of them, M. Kiejman (Arthur Harari from Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet, 2023; Onoda: 10, 000 Nights in the Jungle, Arthur Harari, 2021), something neither of the defence lawyers want. Clearly, M. Goldman is a difficult client.

After people arrive in a courtroom thronging with photographers, Goldman is led into the dock, and is immediately met with shouts of “Goldman, innocent” from his supporters.… Read the rest

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Documentary Features Live Action Movies

Big Banana Feet

Director – Murray Grigor – 1976 – UK – Cert. 12 – 77m

****1/2

The camera follows comedian Billy Connolly to Dublin and Belfast for the final dates of his 1975 tour – 2K restoration is out in UK cinemas on Friday, May 10th, and on BFI Blu-ray/DVD (Dual Format Edition) and digital from Monday, May 20th

This played the Scala Cinema a few times back in the day. I always thought there must be a reason why, and now, with its release in a restored form by the BFI, I get to find out. I must admit to mixed feelings prior to viewing – I’m not someone who particularly enjoys stand-up comedy; indeed, watching videos of comedians doing their material onstage has been known to bore me to tears, even as it enthralls fans.

Although this has clips of Billy Connolly performing on stage – comic routines, songs with banjo and guitar – it’s essentially a fly-on-the-wall piece that captures his personality as he, with the help of his seemingly tireless road manager Billy Johnson, plays dates in Dublin and Belfast on the final leg of his 1975 tour. Watching it, you feel you get to know Connolly well, at least at the period of his career being filmed.… Read the rest