The Hitchcocks were devout Catholics. ibid.
By the end of the 1930s he was ready for the biggest move of his career: Hollywood. ibid.
Under Capricorn … died at the box office and Transatlantic died with it driven into bankruptcy. ibid.
Fresh from the triumph of Psycho, nothing seems impossible. Reputations s6e5: Hitch: Alfred the Auteur
The successes of the past would prove elusive, and the man who valued order above all else would court chaos in his emotional life … The storm clouds were gathering. ibid.
Rear Window [1954] managed to be both experimental and crowd-pleasing. ibid.
Vertigo received a mauling. ibid.
Marnie bombed at the box office. His next film, Torn Curtain, his 50th feature, fared even worse. ibid.
This Sunday the 90th Academy Awards will take place. For the first time in many years one power-figure will not be welcome. More than 100 women have now come forward with stories of sexual harassment, assault and rape going back decades. Panorama: Weinstein: The Inside Story, BBC 2018
This is the inside story of how one of Hollywood’s most powerful men suppressed allegations of sexual abuse for decades. ibid.
‘Will you at least lift up your shirt and show me your tits … You know in that moment you may not make it.’ ibid. Katherine Kendall, victim
In 1980 he made his first film. ibid.
Harvey Weinstein has admitted that over the last 30 years he has settled up to nine claims of harassment against him. ibid.
The New York Times published allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein; more serious allegations would follow in The New Yorker magazine. ibid.
Two friends stumble upon a unique and valuable piece of Motion Picture history in Omaha, Nebraska. The Collection, short of the week online review, short 11.13 2017
In 2015 the collection was appraised at between $8-10 million. ibid.
Across two decades Paul Getty donated over £15 to the BFI. The film and television heritage of Britain received a new lease of life. Gettys: The World’s Richest Art Dynasty, BBC 2018
She’s a girl dreaming of escape; he’s a boy too wild to be tamed. They were horribly alone until their worlds collided and they fell in love. We’ve seen this all before but all around the world we keep returning to watch them laugh and despair before running across town and into each other’s arms to live happily ever after. Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema I: The Romcom, BBC 2018
Perhaps the best-loved genre of all: Romantic Comedy, or the Rom-Com. ibid.
It’s the sheer simplicity of this formula that makes it so endlessly reinterpretable. ibid.
Splash: A man falls in love with a mermaid … cf. Miranda … cf. The Shape of Water … 14 Oscar nominations … cf. Splash picked up just one Oscar nomination. ibid.
When Harry Met Sally … Four Weddings and a Funeral … Love Actually … Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs … Letter to Brezhnev … Follow the Fleet … This Kiss (1896) … It (1927) … 3 Idiots … The Naked Gun … Notting Hill …. 500 Days of Summer … La La Land … The Philadelphia Story … Pretty Woman … His Girl Friday … The Lady Eve … Bringing Up Baby … Bridget Jones’s Diary … Christmas in Connecticut … How Stella Got Her Groove Back … Elizabethtown … The Big Sick … Annie Hall … Top Hat … My Best Friend’s Wedding … But I’m a Cheerleader … Love is Strange … Love, Simon … The Truth About Cats and Dogs … Sleepless in Seattle … Groundhog Day … Something’s Gotta Give … The Fly … Audition … Manhattan Murder Mystery … Punch-Drunk Love … Superman. ibid.
In a rom-com we allow ourselves to leave the real world behind. ibid.
It was the bank that couldn’t be robbed, the vault that couldn’t be opened, the security system that couldn’t be hacked. Until they came on to the scene: a crack team assembled by a mastermind, each one a specialist in the field, a master of their chosen art. Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema II: The Heist
Getting away with it was only half the job; keeping it together was something else. ibid.
The Asphalt Jungle … Dead Presidents … The League of Gentlemen … Ocean’s Eleven … Rififi … Reservoir Dogs … Sexy Beast … Quick Change … Double Indemnity … Bound … Angel Face … Set It Off … Ocean’s Eight … The Italian Job … Inception … That Sinking Feeling … The Big Short … The Wolf of Wall Street … Point Break … Heat … Infernal Affairs … Mission Impossible … The Wrong Trousers … Entrapment … The Great Train Robbery … The Killing … Baby Driver … Good Time … Dog Day Afternoon … The Driver … The French Connection … Night Moves … ibid.
Remember when we were young: that summer, that one last dance, that one last day of childhood before we had to grow up. How do you capture that moment for ever? Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema III: Coming of Age
The perfect coming of age movie … the best of them capture the authentic feeling of growing up … a distinctive time and setting; a young hero trying to find his place in the world; a father figure; a first crush; a gang of buddies; moment of fun and the music to go along with it; and lost innocence. ibid.
The Wild One … Jeremy … Boyz n the Hood … The 400 Blows … Rebel Without a Cause … Lady Bird … The Breakfast Club … Moonlight … Gregory’s Girl … The Graduate … Kes … Persepolis … Saturday Night Fever … American Graffiti … Pretty in Pink … Boyhood … This is England … Fish Tank … American Honey … The Florida Project … Ratcatcher … Stand By Me … Blackboard Jungle … Quadrophenia … Donnie Darko … Bend It Like Beckham … Let Me In … Dead Poets Society … Billy Elliott … The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie … Mustang … Romeo & Juliet … A Clockwork Orange … Girlhood … Almost Famous … Clueless … Mean Girls … Heathers … Ginger Snaps … Raw … Submarine … The Virgin Suicides … Call Me By Your Name … Girls Lost … ibid.
The year is 2019. Or maybe it’s 2049. We’re on a post-apocalyptic Earth ravaged by nuclear war or in a galaxy far far away. I’ll be travelling across Time and Space to discover what makes the perfect Science Fiction movie. Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema IV: Science Fiction
Science fiction: where the future is whatever we make it. ibid.
The Time Machine … 2001: A Space Odyssey … Vertigo … Twelve Monkeys … La Jetee … The Terminator … Back to the Future … Arrival … Interstellar … Le Voyage Dans La Lune … Interplanetary Revolution (USSR) … Woman in the Moon … Sunshine … Close Encounters of a Third Kind … Star Wars … Conquest of Space … Alien … The Ninth Configuration … Silent Running … Gravity … Robinson Crusoe on Mars … The Martian … Solaris … Pitch Black … Independence Day … The Thing … Mars Attacks! … The Day the Earth Stood Still … Invasion of the Body Snatchers … Planet of the Apes … War of the Worlds … The Brother from Another Planet … District 9 … Alive in Joburg … The War Game … Under the Skin … The Man Who Fell to Earth … Wall-E … Forbidden Planet … Silent Running … Metropolis … Ex Machina … Blade Runner … Ghost in the Shell (Jap) … The Matrix … AI Artificial Intelligence … Marjorie Prime … Her … Just Imagine … Alphaville … Akira (Jap) … Blade Runner 49 … Born in Flames … Robocop … The Hunger Games … The Maze Runner … A Wrinkle in Time … First Spaceship on Venus … Project Moonbase … Space is the Place … Black Panther … ibid.
No other kind of film deploys images and sounds to such powerful primal effect as the horror movie. Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema s1e5: Horror
Insidious … Get Out … Shivers … The Exorcist … Dawn of the Dead … The Blair Witch Project … It Follows … Manhunter … The Silence of the Lambs … Psycho … Angel Heart … Dracula … The Wicker Man … The Shining … The Evil Dead … Salem’s Lot … Friday the 13th … Carnival of Souls …The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari … Monster … The Haunting … Suspiria … Don’t … The Texas Chain Saw Massacre … The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water … The Exorcist … Paranormal Activity … Eraserhead … The Orphanage … The Devil’s Backbone … Cat People … An American Werewolf in London … Phantom of the Opera … The Bride of Frankenstein … The Wolf Man … The Howling … The Brood … The Fear of God … Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer … Deranged … Eyes Without a Face … Onibaba (Jap) … He Who Gets Slapped … Night of the Demon … It … Poltergeist … Last House on the Left … It Comes at Night … Halloween … Witchfinder General … Jaws … Night of the Living Dead … Cockneys vs Zombies … Alien … Red Riding Hood … Nosferatu … The Spiral Staircase … The Babadook … Prevenge … A Nightmare on Elm Street … Carrie … ibid.
It’s the treatment of the subject and our reaction to it. ibid.
Film-makers love awards … Over the course of nine decades patterns have emerged in Oscar’s tastes. Mark Kermode’s Oscar Winners: A Secrets of Cinema Special, BBC 2019
All awards are essentially foolish … Consider this: In 1942 Citizen Kane didn’t win the Oscar for best picture, but in 1990 Driving Miss Daisy did. ibid.
Award winners have to deliver more than men-on-a-mission thrills; they have to say something about the human condition. ibid.
All singing, all dancing … Stars playing other stars … [Stars playing …] … Ordinary people … Actors behind the camera … The Champ [Rocky cf. Million Dollar Baby] … Body & Soul [Rain Man cf. Forrest Gump] … Extraordinary People [King’s Speech cf. The Queen cf. The Favourite] … And the winner is [spectacular epics]. ibid.