The sporting moment, in a film that isn’t about sport, is a hard trick to pull off.
Category: moments
Film moments: Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
Unfaithfully Yours is not one of Preston Sturges’ great movies. But it uses music in a clever and formally interesting way. And, being a Sturges’ script, there is some fine writing.
Film moments #29: The Guard (2011)
When the fish out of water meets the stranger comes to town, you get the odd couple. The pleasures of The Guard come from the knowing way the writer-director plays with genre.
Film moments #28: Skyfall (2012)
In another universe Skyfall would have been the final Bond film. The villain is the security services, seen in the shadows in a darkened mirror.
Film moments #27: It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ is thought of as a Christmas film about virtue being recognised. But Capra’s movie is also about the ties that bind communities together.
Film moments #26: Silk Stockings (1957)
‘Silk Stockings’ is one of the last musicals from MGM producer Arthur Freed. It can be read as a commentary on the whole genre, as it’s made obsolete by rock ‘n’ roll.
Film moments #25: My Favorite Wife (1940)
My Favorite Wife reunited Cary Grant and Irene Dunne for a quirky comedy. It doesn’t quite work, but it has some fine comic moments.
Film moments #23: Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942)
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon is one of 14 Holmes films pumped out during and after World War II, updated to the time. This is Holmes as propaganda.
Film Moments #22: Love Affair (1939)
Director Leo McCarey remade Love Affair almost two decades later as An Affair to Remember, with almost the same script. This version has a lighter touch.
Film moment #23: Dunkirk (2017)
If you’re making a film about taking 350,000 men off a beach, you need more extras–or CGI.