Travels With My Film Life: Ireland, 1930s - Ken Loach's "Jimmy's Hall"

.... County Leitrim during the 1930s ...and Ken Loach's latest,  and perhaps last, feature film. (He says you need a lot of energy to make a film... and as he is nearly 80....)

A right blood-boiler is "Jimmy's Hall"  too... based on the true story of Irish exile-returned Jimmy Gralton who rebuilds the local "hall" as a place to learn, dance (jazz even), meet and so on. But it is shortly after the Irish War of Independence and such socialist goings on were not to be countenanced.
The film tells the story of Jimmy and his friends' struggle to keep the Hall going against strong opposition from the Church and local Law and Order....

Beautifully shot and filmed...
You know how you can see a scene in a film and know what time of day it is by the light and the quality of the sound? Well that's just what happens with some of the exteriors around the "Hall" ....And... veteran Irish actor Jim Norton gives a splendidly chilling performance as the local Priest.

Travels With My Film-Life: Berlin, 1931 - "Emil & The Detectives"

Ah! You do think I may be deep in the rise of Hitler and such, here in 1930s Berlin.... But no....
I am enjoying the innocence of a ragamuffin childhood as I join village boy Emil, robbed of his money by a bowler-hatted villain who do drug poor Emil as he travels by train to Berlin to stay with his grandmother. (Moral: Do not accept sweets from dodgy strangers, children!) In Berlin Emil is helped by a friendly gang of children (aka "The Detectives") to track down the bowler-hatted villain and find a way to get Emil's money back. Watch out for the car-horn tooting gang leader. Toot-toot!

Based on the famous children's book  "Emil & The Detectives", written by Erich Kastner, this 1931 German version is by Gerhard Lamprecht and has a script written by a pre-Hollywood Billy Wilder.

This is the kind of kids story that makes me feel good. Not sure why. But I remember my favourite children's book was "A Hundred Million Francs" by Paul Berna... which is set in postwar France but in many ways is a very similar story... a gang of ragamuffins track down the villains that steal something precious from them.

On the same DVD as this German 1931 film is the BFI restored 1935 English version...
Here's an extract for you.

Travels With My Film-Life: Algiers, 1937

Vraiment mes amis. Here we be.... hiding in the courtyards and alleyways of the old Casbah.

It's the French classic crime thriller "Pepe le Moko" directed by Julien Duvivier and starring the wonderful Jean Gabin.

Pepe is the gangster thief supreme, pursued by the police and beautiful women alike. All life is here in The Casbah - turncoats, snitches, fences, molls... loyalty and treachery. Les Flics pile out of charabancs with guns blazing to shoot Pepe. They try to trick him out. But Pepe is smart and he has his loyal crew. Then a beautiful woman appears....

Aah Pepe! Watch out!

This film is a treat and bits of it make me think... "Ah. So that's where Orson Welles got that look and sound for "Touch of Evil"...Mmmn..."

Do you ever experience double nostalgia?

Cos I see this film and I's feelin nostalgia for a time I've never lived in.... and then I's feelin nostalgia for my youthy days in London.... French films at the NFT and The Academy, Oxford St.

Oh ce qu'est un film merveilleux! Watch the trailer here over at YouTube.