North by Northwest - Station Screening

North by Northwest (1959, Alfred Hitchcock)

Introduced by Allan Hunter

“Goodbye Mr Thornhill, wherever you are.”

  A man wrongly accused of committing a serious crime and struggling to prove his innocence is a recurring figure in the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Suave advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) raises his hand at the wrong moment in a restaurant and is mistaken for a spy named George Kaplan. Thornhill is then pursued across the country by foreign spies and the police who believe him to be a murderer. Worse still, his mother wants him home for dinner. Thornhill hooks up with a stranger on a train, the achingly lovely Eve (Eva Marie Saint) and the two try to prove his innocence but can she be trusted? Everybody involved in the production brings their A-game. Ernest Lehman’s witty screenplay plays around with notions of identity and truth as well as being daringly suggestive for the times. Bernard Hermann’s score mixes suspense with romanticism. Hitchcock’s stunning use of set-pieces and spectacular locations lays down the template for the modern action movie blockbuster. For a film in which deception features so strongly there is nothing fake about Grant’s effortless charm or his onscreen chemistry with Marie Saint. North by Northwest is an action thriller with plenty of depth.

Allan Hunter

Film journalist for the Daily Express and Screen Daily, Allan Hunter is also the co-director of the Glasgow Film Festival, an event growing in stature every year. In 2010 Mr Hunter oversaw a retrospective of Cary Grant’s career at the GFF. An admirer of Grant’s work, Mr Hunter will introduce tonight’s screening and afterwards talk about the film.

Cast

Cary Grant – Roger O. Thornhill

Eva Marie Saint – Eve Kendall

James Mason – Philip Vanda

Jessie Reynolds – Clara Thornhill

Leo G. Carroll – The Professor

Martin Landau – Leonard

Screenplay by Ernest Lehman

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Running time 2 hrs 16 mins

The Angel's Share (2012, Ken Loach) - Station Screening Notes

Only wrote a brief introduction for this screening as a guest speaker was due to make an appearance. If you'd told me when The Station started screening movies that one night there would have been a full house laughing uproariously at a Ken Loach movie I would have thought you were mental. 

‘malt whisky epitomises the inherent dichotomy of the Scottish psyche – at once passionate and rational, romantic and ironic, mystical and sceptical, heroic and craven, full of laughter and despair.’

Charles Maclean, Malt Whisky (1998)

 Scottish cinema can generally be divided into two categories – gritty urban dramas (Trainspotting, Neds) or charming escapism (Local Hero). Ken Loach’s The Angel’s Share manages to cover both territories with this tale of a young tearaway who finds redemption through a developing interest in Malt whisky. Robbie (Paul Brannigan) is a bright lad but never far away from trouble. Unable to extricate himself from a long-time feud with a local gang and hated by his pregnant girlfriend’s family he is running out of chances until kindly community services leader Harry (John Henshaw) takes him under his wing and introduces him to the pleasures of malt whisky. Loach and Glaswegian writer Paul Laverty have collaborated on fourteen other films several of which have been set in Scotland including Carla’s Song (1994), My Name is Joe (98), and Ae Fond Kiss (2004). Always sympathetic to the plight of the underprivileged their work together particularly when dealing with Scots working class life has a great deal of humour present. The Angel’s Share is one of Loach’s warmest films, avoiding his tendency for didacticism but still managing to pass social commentary while being extremely entertaining. 

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - Screening Notes

Photo by Laurie Sparham courtesy of Yemen Distributions, BBC, & the BFI

Film screenings at The Station Restaurant began again tonight with Lasse Hallstrom's Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. The facilities have been upgraded to surround-sound by The Station's partners at Film Mobile Scotland. Here are my programme notes. They are fairly perfunctory. While I liked Salmon Fishing in the Yemen fine enough it strikes me as another example of a popular and smart bestseller being distilled into a conventional British rom-com. Still it does have a certain charm and Kristin Scott Thomas is always fun in upper-class bitch mode. 

Cast

Dr Alfred Jones – Ewan McGregor

Harriet – Emily Blunt

Patricia Maxwell – Kristin Scott Thomas

Sheik Muhammed – Amr Waked

Mary Jones – Rachel Stirling

Capt. Robert Mayers – Tom Mison

Written by Simon Beaufoy, based on the novel by Paul Torday

Directed by Lasse Hallstrom

Running time 1 hr 47 mins

Fisheries expert Dr. Alfred Jones (McGregor) is left bemused after being approached by Harriet (Blunt), the representative for an Arab sheik with a crazy plan to introduce salmon fishing in the Middle East. Initially sceptical Dr. Jones is pressured by the PM’s aide (Kristin Scott Thomas) into working on the project. Paul Torday’s acclaimed 2007 novel Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is satirical in tone and an attack on the political machinations of New Labour but still held a hopeful belief in the power of human beings to transform themselves and the world around them. This charming film adaptation adds a touch of the British rom-com archetype patented by Richard Curtis in which an awkward but loveable man falls for an easygoing beauty.

Profile – Lasse Hallstrom (1946-)

Lasse Hallstrom started out making music videos for Abba. Nearly all of the band’s promos were directed by Hallstrom so perhaps he learnt to master heartfelt sentimentality from working with the Swedish supergroup. Hallstrom’s films are invariably sweet natured dramas with an uplifting feel. After directing Abba: The Movie! In 1977 Hallstrom moved onto features and in 1985 won huge acclaim with a wickedly funny coming of age story My Life as a Dog. In the early 90’s Hallstrom made the move to America. The quirky and moving What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993) stars Johnny Depp as a sensitive outsider in a small town trying to cope with his needy family. An adaptation of John Irvin’s novel The Cider House Rules (1998) picked up two Oscars and since then Hallstrom has specialised in intelligent star-studded productions. Chocolat (2000) and The Shipping News (2001) are both literary adaptations of works by Joanne Harris and E. Annie Prouix respectively. Casanova (2005) starred the late Heath Ledger as the legendary lover. The Hoax (2006) is a terrific drama about a true life million dollar con involving a fake biography of Howard Hughes. Hallstrom is currently working on an adaptation of Nicholas Sparks novel Safe Haven due out next year.