Have you ever tried... not being a mutant?

No 432 - X-Men 2

Director - Bryan Singer

So, for the first time in this little blog, I jump straight into the middle of a trilogy as the original X-Men isn't deemed up to scratch. The only shame is we miss out on the wonderful little introduction to Magneto which I love because it sets a wonderfully bleak tone to the entire trilogy.

Instead, however, we get a truly epic assassination attempt in the White House as Nightcrawler whooshes in and attempts a presidential attack. The pace is super fast as clouds of blue smoke show the mutant getting ever closer to its prey. What is impressive about these opening scenes is that they really play with the idea of teleporting, the way that he can vanish mid kick and appear else where. It is an exciting dynamic which would be exhausting for a whole film, but for a few frantic scene setting minutes - it is brilliant.

Bryan Singer's X-Films have excellent introductions. And it is very pleasant indeed to actually see Alan Cumming in a good film (which seems to happen less and less often).

So, why is this superhero film in the top 500? It couldn't be just down to the excellent set pieces. And there are some truly amazing set pieces.

Lets look at what happens when Magneto manages to rip the iron from a prison guard's blood stream.

....Ow...

Moments in which Magneto manipulates the metal to create a travelling disc and two mental bouncing bullets'o'doom show the phenomenal powers these mutants can have and how dangerous a foe someone like Eric is. It also allows for some cool whizzing destruction within a beautifully minimalist perspex prison. Where everything is made of perspex, regardless of whether its needed or not. The serene minimalism of the environs just amplify the destruction. KABLAMMO

But mere set pieces alone won't be enough. What seems to be the real triumph for the X-Men trilogy are the villains. The X-Men themselves tend to be quite dull (even Wolverine, although that may be because the franchise is near enough DEMANDING I love him) but Magneto is a fascinating bad guy, and Mystique is also wonderful (and - in those few moments in the films where you see her out of the epic make up - Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is very pretty). However, there is one role in particular which shines like a beacon of mad and evil genius. May I introduce you to Stryker.

Brian Cox's secret military unit chief is so evil he becomes almost a cartoon. He is much more of a comic book villain than any of the mutants, regardless that he is the one without super powers. This is a man who lobotomises his own son to milk him for his mutation (a hallucinatory drug which makes people super obedient and which is the useful weapon of this film), this is a man who kidnaps the little mutant children just so he can watch the mutants die. He is a properly evil man because he is unscrupulous, bigoted and callous. You have to love a villain that embraces their villainy. There is no attempt in the film to humanise Stryker. There is no attempt to understand his motives. He just hates mutants and wants to rid them. His plot (which is cunning) to destroy the mutants is the central thread of the film, but there are at least three more littered throughout.

Firstly.... the plot which appears in every X-Movie, Wolverine wanting to discover his identity and his past. In this search we learn a little bit more about Adamantium (alas it has nothing to with this) and we meet Lady Deathstrike - who comes off looking like 'Lady Wolverine', in that she also has those claw hands - only she has catlike agility, rather than beserker rage. To be honest, her character is kind of dull and nondescript until the very end, where Kelly Hu manages to show a tragically beautiful resigned sadness - made all the more tragic by her little metal 'tears'.

The second plot is the teenager plot. With Rogue, Iceman and Pyro being whizzed about with the pivotal X-men in order for them to have that choice.... do they want to be goodies or baddies? To be honest, their little plight is boring in comparison with the maliciously campy villainy of Stryker.... None of the subplots ever feel as exciting as the film's villain. You want to be watching Brian Cox.

Probably the most exciting subplot is the Dark Phoenix subplot. It is mostly hinted at throughout the film, we see flashes of Jean Gray's power... we see some truly immense acts of telekinesis and even I, with my very limited comic book knowledge, was getting super excited about what was being promised for the third film.

It is just a shame that the third film is really rather pants. Besides the introduction of Ellen Page in that other X-Men subplot.... the changing faces of Kitty Pryde.

Have you got any plans, Jim? Do you want us to find a cure and save the world or just fall in love and fuck? Plans are pointless.

No 454 - 28 Days Later
Director - Danny Boyle

So, somewhere in the cruel laboratories of Cambridge Sylvester Stuart is Clockwork Orange-ing chimps for some reason (seriously... what is the experiment?) and the activists are not happy. Thusly they release the rage infected monkeys and all the shit goes down.

So begins this amazing little apocalypto-drama. For all the visceral introduction, cut editing, strobey lights and salivating primates, the post title moments are wonderfully still and quiet. Cillian Murphy (beautiful face wild wild eyes) plays Jim who wakes up naked in an isolated hospital. Looking at his hair he either had some kind of head surgery or he is a trendy Shoreditch wanker.
What appears to have happened is that Jim has woken up in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse (even though they're Rage infected.... and not zombies) - this fact is beautifully portrayed by shots of Jim walking through abandoned London. I know this has been done in America with I Am Legend and Vanilla Sky - but I'm a Londoner, and there is something truly haunting in seeing my local landmarks empty. It is haunting. It is unnatural. The scene in which Eros has been turned into a noticeboard is particularly gut wrenching. With no words and only one person, Danny Boyle has shown true despair.

Jim's confused questions are answered as he joins a rag tag group of survivors including Tia Dalma and Mad Eye Moody and the film, for a brief middle moment, becomes a bit Standard Zombie Survival film. Complete with all the cliches of driving into tunnels and splitting up and shit.
Where the film really picks up is when our protagonists meet up with Christopher Eccleston military gang. Featuring such luminaries as The Sweaty Suiter from Alice in Wonderland and Ronny From Eastenders. Here we face the truth that actually, the depths people are willing to go for survival can be just as scary, if not more scary, than the slathering disease riddled hordes. It is either that or the military are cunts. That could be the moral.

So a series of events occur within the human camp which feature murders and threats and lots of implied rape... this makes Jim go mad. You might say he gets in a bit of a Rage.
In fact, what is so great about this is that in those final scenes there really isn't much difference between the film's hero and the monsters which have been the scary villains. Cillian Murphy already has scarily wild eyes, and he can really portrayed the desperate man who's sanity has pretty much cracked. his actions are questionable and extreme - but he has been pushed to breaking point over a traumatic few days and left to die several times. You can kind of understand why he has decided to lay some serious smack down.
Cue some violent vigilante action as the military are taken down by a lone topless man with nothing to lose. The sequence is tense, at times horrific and frequently, oddly, beautiful (in how it is shot and that) - mainly down to the score.

In the House, In a Heartbeat by John Murphy is a masterful piece of music - it manages to take the intensity of the scene and build on the tension, layering the musical parts until it is almost unbearable, before finally dropping into a wild and distorted cacophony.
It is one of the best pieces of modern scoring and it is only a shame that John Murphy seems so content to whore it out on every film he scores.

What I love about this film is that it changes enough to keep you from getting bored... and that it does tell you a truly bleak story in which no one is really a nice person. There is even a little happy ending to try and cancel out the visceral intensity of the previous scenes.

It kind of works.

But I prefer the bleak ending of 28 Weeks Later (even though it is a weaker film)

Please wait outside. The council will now meet in secret, debate your personality flaws, and come to a final decision.

No 444 - Hairspray
Director - John Waters

At long fucking last! I had vague memories of a film in which a bomb was hidden in a wig. I watched it when very young and that moment was all I remembered. I should have realised it would be Hairspray.... John Waters is, after all, the batshit crazy king of very dark and filthy humour.
Before we go on. Can I just say how much I love John Waters. I mean, with his slicked back hair and his tiny thin moustache he kinda looks like a dapper paedophile from the 20's. But he is so sleazily cool.

Considering I can't think of John Waters without thinking of Pink Flamingos (or Selma Blair with insane breasts) I'm surprised by quite how sweet this film is. I think the main thing is that this is set in the early 60's - before Beatlemania and when we still enjoying the early days of Rock and Roll and riding the wave of the 50's. This means we get some excellent music, clothes and cars in bubblegum vibrant colour. It is Americana.
However, the film also conveys the darker message of the time... the message of segregation. What is great is that it uses the story of Tracy Turnblad and the story of racial inequality to put a wonderful spin on a really old moral. That it doesn't matter what you look like, it is what is inside that counts.
So the issues of racial segregation is a more heightened example of the bullying Tracy gets for being 'pleasantly plump' - and the film is about overcoming that negative attitude and loving people for who they are.

Now I love the remake - because, shame facedly, I love musicals.... but, good as Nikki Blonsky is, she isn't a patch on Ricki Lake who owns the part. She is absolutely spot on perfect and exudes a body confidence throughout that makes her eminently watchable. It also means that the 'pretty boy falls for overweight girl' aspect to the story isn't at all unbelievable. Tracy is cool - she could have any man she wanted, and she knows that. Incidentally - I think Michael St Gerard got the Link Larkin role because he looks like a pretty famous pin up of the time.

The crux of the film is a TV show called The Corny Collins Show - which is a dance show and which Tracy manages to become their newest dancing star, thus angering her rival the blonde and vacuous Amber Von Tussle.
However, the show's real issue is that it is a segregated show - and so the film's real story is how a small bunch of teenagers manage to change the structure of an institutional TV Show.

The ending is insanely uplifting. Just watching all those people dancing and being happy because of the actions of some children.
Whilst the kids are the stars (and also show some really impressive dance moves) the scene stealers are the parents.

Lets begin with Divine... who plays two roles. Firstly the wonderfully innocent and old fashioned Edna Turnblad (who John Travolta was never going to emulate as well) and then the fabulously cruel Les Patterson-esque TV Station owner, Arvin Hodgepile. It must be great fun to play two characters so diametrically opposed to one another. And while Divine is the scene stealing triumph of the adults (apart from John Water's insane cameo) the others are still excellent. Especially the wonderful Jerry Stiller as Tracy's superkind father and Debbie Harry in the most bonkers wigs as Amanda's Queen-Bitch mother.

Good, silly, campy fun. But hiding an important message about equality and tolerance. Great film.

Richard, I cannot go with you or ever see you again. You must not ask why. Just believe that I love you. Go, my darling, and God bless you.

No 18 - Casablanca
Director - Michael Curtiz

Another massive classic film that - for reasons unknown - I had never watched until now. I think I thought it would always be very schmaltzy and had therefore avoided it.

I love to be proven wrong. Which is good, because it happens a lot.

We find ourselves in Casablanca, the cultural melting pot and pretty corrupt town occupied by those wishing to leave Europe and those rotten Nazis. At the centre of it all - the place to be - is Rick's bar where everyone comes to have a jolly wonderful time and drink away their troubles. And there are a lot of troubles. It is a kind of 'limbo' town in that everyone there is just waiting to leave... and it creates a wonderfully strange atmosphere.
Into this limbo town come two people Laszlo - a concentration camp escapee - and Ilsa, his wife. Only.... Ilsa and Rick have a shared past.
Thus we have our story, a love triangle in a seedy lawless town.

But, this is a film where the characters draw you in and where the timelessness and beauty of the mood transport you. Bogart is amazing as Rick, dry, sardonic and cruel. He is selfish enough to be a really flawed human being without coming across as a bastard. Those initial moments where he first sees Elsa in his bar are wonderful. Little looks and notable tension manages to say more than any amount of exposition ever could. The fact that we manage to get it all condensed into one perfect miserable whiskey soaked line is even better, you can see the pain on Rick's face, and you know you'll eventually find out the whole story, but already you have an idea. The script for Casablanca is not only perfect, it has melded into the public subconscious. Whole lines of it are quoted wholesale. Like Shakespeare. I'm not really going to focus on Ilsa and Rick's relationship as it is the crux of the story and I'm making a new effort to avoid spoilers. It is however an excellent example of a holiday romance that burns too intensely for too short an amount of time. And at least the film acknowledges the age gap between Bogart (43) and Bergman (27) - that is all I ask.

Instead of this I wish to talk about some of the characters that crop up. Every character is stacked with back story. Just by being at the bar you know they are escaping the Germans and they all carry this hopeless desperation which is beautiful. There are some wonderful moments, some of them genuinely moving. This musical stand against the Germans had my hair on end (though it may have been my patriotic French side finally shining through) - I think it is the woman crying as she sings and the fact that Liberté, égalité, fraternité is the direct opposite of so many of the Nazi party's policies.
The big contradiction to this hopelessness is Captain Renault (Claude Rains) - the sleaziest, seediest, most corrupt bastard who has ever walked the streets and who ends that little emotional video with a classic bit of humour. He is a classic example of everything that could be wrong with law enforcement, but by God he is amazing. He is basically the film's comic relief as his shifting loyalties and caustic one liners help keep the mood light.... even when he essentially admits to forcing women to sleep with him for visas he seems to do so in a way that seems jolly and caddish - rather than rape. Rains' timing is impeccable and his facial expressions are divine. He is a masterclass in comic acting.

The other character I wish to discuss only appears briefly at the start, but is the reason that Laszlo comes to Casablanca and is therefore the film's catalyst. Ugarte may come off looking like a horrible bug eyed disloyal creep - but that is because he is. But the reason he is brilliant is that he is played by Peter Lorre... and we all love Peter Lorre (thank you The Incredible Suit for finding the video).
Even the Genie does a bit of a Peter Lorre impression when he is playing a zombie. How random.

So, we move to the ending and through glorious levels of double crossing, Rick says good bye to Ilsa in one of the most iconic and quote-worthy speeches ever. It is a wonderful little moment, and it is so emotionally intense.

Just a fabulous film...


SHIT! I forgot to mention Sam (Dooley Wilson), who is not only utterly awesome but he is the keeper of the film's most important memory jogger. That delightful tune - the love theme between M and Admiral Roebuck.... Play it Sam.

Martin, it's all psychological. You yell 'barracuda', everybody says 'Huh? What?' You yell 'shark', we've got a panic on our hands...

No 5 - Jaws
Director - Steven Spielberg

I recently went to see the marvellously stupid Piranha 3D (well worth a trip to the cinema, even if you will be shafted by 3D ticket prices for a film that is barely 3D) and I thought that there was only one film that you can really watch after a pretty stupid Jaws homage.

That film is Jaws.

I think, sometimes, I overlook Spielberg and forget that he is an amazing director. He just becomes one of these names, one of the 'brand' directors and you forget that his films are massive, fabulous and really very influential. Sometimes in less than obvious ways.
You also forget just how much violence (and nudity) Spielberg seems to be able to squeeze into his films without the ratings going up - and how many genuine scares there are (Ben Gardner's boat being the big classic example). But yet there are two aspects to this film which will remain Spielberg's triumphs (even though one of them isn't really his).
Firstly the dolly zoom. Yes it had been done by many other people before, but mainly to show vertigo (distances seeming longer) - Spielberg's shot focuses on Brody and thereafter became a massively influential camera flourish.
However, Jaws' real success story comes from the most glorious piece of minimalism. John Williams' beautiful theme. A wonderful lesson in how to layer in a truly horrific level of ominous dread. And remember, that is is mostly down to that 2 note central construct. Derr Dum. It is just chilling.

So we come to the film... and despite how it may have been advertised, this is not a film about a Shark terrorising a town. There are only a couple of short scenes in which the shark attacks, and even those scenes are mostly implied. Besides the occasional fleeting shot, we don't really see the shark until 80 minutes into the film. What we have are three men on a boat together who are out to catch a shark.
The film is as much about their male bonding (mainly through scar comparison) as it is about the shark. And the team dynamic works really well - with Hooper, the Shark expert, analytical and scientific; Quint, the Shark hunter, bat shit insane; and Brody, the city cop, practical and focused but scared of the sea. AND I AM SORRY, BUT... you wouldn't become the sheriff of a small island who's primary source of income is the beach if you were terrified of the sea. It makes no sense, and Brody's excuse of 'It's only an island if you look at it from the water' is frankly weak.

So after an introduction which sets the scene for an hour and then a lot of male bonding and firing harpoons with barrels attached we stumble into the film's final 15 minutes which is where the shit goes down.
It is also where we get the wonderful crossover - for when Hooper is put into the diving cage we are graced with footage of an actual shark. You can tell. It moves so much more naturally than the rigid beast of a shark which is used for the rest of the film. However the problems with the mechanical shark are well documented and it doesn't stop the film being amazing.

It is one of the perfect examples of the pulpy monster genre. Jaws (or whatever the shark's name is) is a fabulous 'villain', because Sharks are fucking creepy looking beasts.

Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!

No 350 – Planet of the Apes
Director – Franklin J Schaffner

The 70’s had a really set view as to what spaceships looked like (with the exception of Alien) – white and clean. If you set a film in a clean white ship, it looks 70s. Check the last few scenes of Revenge of the Sith where George Lucas finally remembers that the film has to lead chronologically into A New Hope and starts creating a 70’s sci-fi vibe.

So we’re looking at Charlton Heston, smoking a cigar in space (as one does) as he finalises his preparations for an auto-pilot journey home. There is also some mumbo jumbo about how time on Earth has travelled much further than time on the ship.
So the crew are in 'hyper sleep' and time passes... But it goes wrong and the ship crashes – the only female astronaut dies (bye bye pesky woman, don’t think you’re getting a line, or even particularly mourned by the characters), and the three remaining men find themselves on a mysterious planet about 2,000 years in the future. Whoops.

The vast deserts of this mysterious planet are really impressive, and Jerry Goldsmith’s sparse plinky plonky score makes it all feel even more empty and alien. I’d love to know where they filmed it – I’m sure Google knows but I can’t be bothered to check…

So let's cut to the chase. First, there's some wandering around during which the two other astronauts come off as soulless cut-outs, and Charlton Heston comes off sounding like an egocentric bastard. But what we want is the Apes.

I love the Apes in this film, and I think I like them because they are so rubbish. They walk and behave like humans, and the masks are essentially static. Meaning we have an army of identical apes with their mouths slightly open, making them all look gormless.
Yes, Tim Burton’s remake is awful – but the apes in it are brilliant. They move like apes and the advances in make-up create some realistic ape-men.

We don’t have this luxury here though: we have humans with monkey heads. But the film is brilliant so all is forgiven.

This film is a culture clash story. It is about Charlton Heston’s clash with the mute and unintelligent human race and his clash with the dominant Ape race. In order to do this we have to dispatch of the rest of the crew.
This film seems to hate diversity, so if you’re not a white man you will be killed (and left as either a mummy or a museum exhibit) – otherwise, if you’re Landon (the poor man’s Sean Connery) you can be lobotomised and gormless. This is necessary (if untactfully done) as it means Charlton Heston is the only human character able to talk (and what a marvellous moment when he first talks “Take your stinking paws off me you damned dirty apes!”) and he can rail against the system which is totally against him.

You see the real culture clash is the clash of scientific progress VS the views of religion. Look at the film as a criticism of views which refuse to change when facing the evidence of science. It is played very well, with the chiefs of science (led by Dr Zaius – Defender of the Faith) being suitably belligerent and infuriating as they persecute Charlton Heston for being an abomination. His ‘mutation’, his ape like behaviour, shows that there might be a link between man and ape… and that would be heresy.
It is played brilliantly in the court scene where Heston tries to make his case and the three judges are locked in the classic ‘hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil’ tableaux.
The main chunk of the film is the events leading up to the court case, and then Charlton Heston is rescued by his two ape ‘friends’, Cornelius and Dr Zira. Rescued alongside him is Nova, another human prisoner and Charlton Heston’s mate. Linda Harrison’s Nova is basically there to be pretty, wide eyed and innocent. The humans in this film are mute, so she gets no lines, and her actions do nothing to really move the plot along in any way. However, the relationship seems so weird to me - what with Heston looking quite ravaged and world weary (he was around 45 at this point, and the fact that he isn’t the young action hero is evident) whilst Harrison looks really quite young (she was only 23 after all) - that it makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable that the film doesn’t even question the age gap…
So, our ragtag band of apes and mismatched humans come to the beach, pursued by Zaius and a shocking twist is revealed.

I’m guessing you all know the twist. After all, nobody seems to think it is worth hiding any more – just look at the bloody artwork on the DVD – but it is a marvellous reveal.
Heston’s overacting in those final moments are funny more than anything else, but the twist itself is perfect. A massive step better than whatever the fuck was going on in Tim Burton’s parallel universe.

It is a different knowledge they need now, Clive. The enemy is different, so you have to be different, too

No 80 – The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Directors – Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

I really love Powell and Pressburger. Another great things to come out of this little film challenge is that I have discovered so much of their back catalogue (and Billy Wilder’s – also excellent).

I went in to The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp with high expectations, and I wasn’t let down – from the beginning the film has a wonderful sense of class. The film begins with a tapestry, into which are weaved the names of the principal cast, followed by the rest of the credits - which are presented in a way which was very much of its time and which makes me think of that wonderful period of cinema – of Errol Flyn and Arthurian legends. Of a time when everything was less gritty and a bit more fantastical. This vibe is also (though to a lesser degree) prevalent throughout the film, solely due to the stylistic touches of the age. I love films which are almost entirely shot on sound stages. They give the outdoor shots a wonderful artificial feel, like it's an escapist fantasy…

We crash straight from this air of nostalgia into something a bit more savage. There is a war on.

The troops are ordered to play some war games and attack London. War starts at midnight. Though they decide (rather arrogantly) that those darned deceptive Nazis would never wait until formally invited to attack. So, they arrive in London 6 hours early, ready to surprise the military top brass who issued the command and who are all preparing by having a relaxing lie down in the Turkish baths.

An argument breaks out between the soldier who has ordered this advanced attack and General Wynne-Candy, who had planned the simulations. Oddly, despite the fact that Candy is a high ranking officer, and despite the fact that he has clearly broken the rules, the soldier continues to attack and belittle Wynne-Candy, mocking him for his gut and his moustache (both of which are mighty fine things to own) and so Wynne Candy pins down this young upstart and tells him his life story.

And so – Wibble Wobble Wibble Wobble – welcome to the flashback which makes up most of the film, starting 40 years ago in 1903.

Once we get to flashback and meet the young Clive Candy, it finally becomes clear that it is the fabulous actor Roger Livesey, best known (to me, at least) as Dr Frank Reeves in A Matter of Life and Death: as the film – and the ageing make-up - progresses, he remains recognisable, but when you face him as an old man, he isn’t recognisable straight away… a sign of good make-up.

It is in these flashbacks that we find out that Powell and Pressburger have managed to sneak a really bizarre love story into this film. In fact a two-pronged love story, as it is both a story of romantic love (which borders on the creepy and stalkerish) and a story of companionship, of love of friends.

Clive Candy is a Boer war hero, but he is also brash and impulsive and he goes to Berlin on the invitation of a Miss Hunter in order to correct some of the anti-British rumours which are being spread. Whilst there he manages to insult the entire German military and is challenged to a duel.

Whilst I’m aware I have massively paraphrased a fairly lengthy series of events, none of this build up is important. There are two things that I want to point out:

1. How bloody awesome a time it must have been when arguments could legitimately be resolved with a duel.

2. As the film progresses through World Wars 1 and 2, it becomes clear that the Boer War was the best time to be in the British military. Yes, the uniform isn’t a touch as practical as camouflage and khakis, but bloody hell all that red and polished brass looks pretty damned cool.

So, in the aforementioned duel, we meet his opponent - a randomly elected member of the German Military with the wonderful name of Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (played by another P&P regular, Anton Walbrook). Both are injured and the pair develop a friendship as they recover in their hospital. It is this friendship which is pivotal for the film. Well, that and the fact that both Theo and Clive fall for Miss Hunter (played by Deborah Kerr).

The film underplays Clive’s love for Miss Hunter - mainly because he himself doesn’t realise it exists until it is too late and she has married Theo. what I love is that in modern romances, this love triangle would have been really played up, and could have really threatened their friendship. However, this is set in the times of The British Stiff Upper Lip, and of toning down personal emotions for the greater good - Candy realises that his friendship with Theo is stronger than his affections.

But... trouble is ahead, for whilst their friendship survives the romantic entanglements, there are much bigger challenges in store.

Clive Candy is a Brit but Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff is German, so come 1914 the two men find themselves on opposite sides of a fairly massive war. It is a really interesting conundrum, and one which I had never really considered before until it was raised in Jules et Jim… what do you do when your friend becomes your military opponent?

However, this question is another which isn’t raised until later, because Candy, our protagonist, is such a chipper man that it seems he hasn’t even considered it. He spends the whole time wandering around battle grounds and looking for his good friend Theo, making sure (one supposes) that he is still alive.

This is a film of sections, and the World War one section is a mixed blessing where we get one genuine delight and one big disappointment. Let's begin with the delight.

A Scottish soldier called Murdoch. Who is that wide-eyed Scot assisting Clive Candy on his misadventures? Why it's only bloody John Laurie! As the film moves from World War 1 to 2 - and subsequently the Home Guard - I like to think that The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is really an epic prequel to Dad’s Army. The Life and Times of Private James Frazer. This thought makes me happy.

However, all the Murdoch joy is dampened by a properly racist ‘Yessir massah, oh Lawdy’ caricatured black solider in the American military.

I suppose it is a victim of its time but it seems a completely unnecessary and disappointing decision. At least the rest of the American military are also clichés, brash and cocky (a re-occurring theme as they also appear as such in A Matter of Life and Death’s heaven scenes).

During the war, Candy meets a nurse called Barbara Wynne and it is here that the slightly odder part of the film plays out - as Miss Wynne looks EXACTLY like Miss Hunter (well they would do, Deborah Kerr plays them both). Part of me thinks that this isn’t really healthy. It feels like Vertigo, it feels like a creepy obsession. He spends the whole time telling Theo that he’d love her… but I’m glad that the two never meet, as I reckon Theo would be pretty weirded out about how his friend married his wife’s IDENTICAL CLONE.

This obsession plays out even more, and even more creepily because when Barbara dies, Candy gets a chauffeur… a soldier called Angela 'Johnny' Cannon. A proper gutsy feminist tomboy soldier who happens to look EXACTLY LIKE MISS HUNTER. Again! Naturally Theo is a bit shocked by this but then, he comes to accept it fairly quickly.

If this obsession got any worse it would get to the point where Candy might peel Deborah Kerr’s face off and wear it as a mask!

Creepy.

Whilst the film does play with this idea of friendship on rival sides of the war, you have to remember that the film was made in 1943 and we can’t have a likeable major character (which Theo definitely is) be a Nazi.

So, World War 1 sort of strains Theo and Clive’s friendship – but Theo escapes Nazi Germany and goes to England where the two old men regain their friendship. It is here that the film covers some really bold and evocative points. In both of these we see the full acting prowess of Anton Walbrook, and he is really excellent. Firstly he delivers a wonderfully tragic and moving speech about why he wants to be allowed into England and then he speaks to Clive (who is still wonderfully arrogant) about how war has changed. It is a speech to Clive but it is also a speech to the audience of 1943 – it is saying that everything we, as a country, had experienced before paled in comparison to the Nazi threat. It is moving, it is passionate and it is a wonderful piece of acting.

It's these moments that really shine. The film doesn’t really have a story as we’re just following a life. We see how the characters and relationships blossom and develop but we don’t have the standard three arc structure. Yet the film remains fascinating and fresh through both the marvellous characters and the wonderful style of Powell and Pressburger. They really are great directors and have the most wonderful touches (see, for example, the taxidermy heads springing up around Clive’s den to show the passing of time). They invent fascinating characters and they tell very daring and complicated stories.

So by the end of the film, when we revisit the opening scenes through the eyes of Johnny and Clive we have a completely different alliance – we no longer want the cocky soldier to trick the pompous bloated aristocracy, we want him to have respect for the work that Candy has done. We also get to see the same scenes from different angles, telling the whole story of what has happened… it makes me think of the genius 50’s bit in Back to the Future 2 – only it was made 45 years before…

Powell and Pressburger really were ahead of their time.