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Features Live Action Movies

The Misfits

Director – John Huston – 1961 – UK – Cert. – 125m

****

As the Old West fades, a woman tries to navigate the men who appear to be dying with it in the final film of both Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable – back out in UK cinemas on Friday, June 5th; the season Marilyn Monroe: Self Made Star plays BFI Southbank throughout June and July

Reno, Nevada. Local resident Isabelle (Thelma Ritter from Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock, 1954; Pickup on South Street, Sam Fuller, 1953; All About Eve, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950) meets garage tow truck driver Guido (Eli Wallach from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Sergio Leone, 1966; The Magnificent Seven, John Sturges, 1961; Baby Doll, Elia Kazan, 1956) as he inspects the damage to the car of Roslyn (Marilyn Monroe) who claims, from an upstairs window, that it was caused by men bumping into her vehicle to get her attention.

The worldly Isabelle attempts to coach the hapless Roslyn as to what to say in the divorce court, a service Isabelle would appear to have performed for previous house guests. Following the hearing, and a brief encounter with Roslyn’s ex Raymond (Kevin McCarthy from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Don Siegel, 1956), the two women head out to a cocktail lounge to celebrate.… Read the rest

Categories
Animation Features Live Action Movies

Where Is Anne Frank

Director – Ari Folman – 2021 – Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Israel – Cert. PG – 99m

*****

In Amsterdam, a year from now, her imaginary friend Kitty sets out to discover what happened to Anne Frank – out in cinemas on Friday, August 12th

Amsterdam, Holland, about a year from now. Early in the morning, the usual tourist queues are assembling outside the Anne Frank House, passing a tent housing refugees on the pavement. Inside, something strange happens as a glass case shatters and the original copy of Anne’s diary is exposed to ink from a pen, affecting the ink writing on the pages and materialising Kitty (voice: Ruby Stokes), the imaginary pen-friend to whom Anne addressed her diary.

The materialised Kitty is perplexed. Where is Anne Frank? What has happened to her, to the house? The staff, too, are perplexed. They can’t let the waiting crowds in with the case broken, but those people have been queueing for hours and it seems wrong not to open up for them. After a brief debate a solution is found and the diary moved to Anne’s room where it is placed on the desk where it naturally sits. The concerns of the house staff seem trivial compared to those of Kitty.… Read the rest