Belgium have been fucking awful. And it is now 2-2!

How funny do you find Charles Grodin? Ultimately, that is what your enjoyment of 11 Harrowhouse is going to depend on. I find Grodin quite funny. He stars in this, he wrote the adaptation, and he does a voiceover that covers almost everh scene. So your tolerance has to be astronomical.

Tonight's film

A blast from my past - my now 20 year old thoughts on a John Ford film I'm itching to re-evaluate, on Letterboxd... #FilmSky boxd.it/f0QRJH

What an absolute load of bollocks. Certainly in the conversation for the worst film I have seen this year. It is endlessly irritating, impossibly self-regarding, and so very boring. It stinks from moment one to the very end.

I have been to the cinema 25 times this year and managed see only one of these. I seem to be seeing the wrong films!

Tonight's film

Or, possibly, I just fancy Louise Bourgoin. I have given more stars for worse reasons.

I was quite taken with the quiet regret and loneliness of Miss and the Doctors. An understated love triangle that deliberately avoids conflict. A romantic comedy that avoids comedy. A romance that has its most romantic moments in a Chinese restaurant at 6am eating soup.

Now I know how Gerry Butler looks in In the Hand of Dante, it goes straight to the top of my list to watch tomorrow night.

I was quite taken with the quiet regret and loneliness of Miss and the Doctors. An understated love triangle that deliberately avoids conflict. A romantic comedy that avoids comedy. A romance that has its most romantic moments in a Chinese restaurant at 6am eating soup.

Now I know how Gerry Butler looks in In the Hand of Dante, it goes straight to the top of my list to watch tomorrow night.

I watched this a couple of years ago. Penelope Keith's performance as Clarissa Hailsham-Brown is deeply funny. It is a great watch and every scene is funnier than think it is going to be when it is initially set-up.

Tonight's film

Away with the fairies.

It was so lovely to chat to Mathew about my favourite books. Featuring Vonnegut, the two Fitzgeralds, Edith Wharton, Enid Blyton and all sorts…

1/2 I watched Barabbas last night HT @wilsonjettone.bsky.social. Things I remembered from childhood experience of it: Barabbas released by Pilate; he becomes a gladiator; his cropped grey hair; his link-up with Christians post Christ's crucifixion. No memory of the middle or the nature of the end...

A John Travolta sense memory. Utterly self-indulgent, with many of his family in key roles, opening credits that are self-aggrandising, and closing credits that would look unprofessional in a home video. But its intensely personal nature, and accumulation of detail, works in a sub-sub-sub Capote way

Just watched: Louis Malle's Damage (1993). I've certainly seen some of this before. Perhaps I didn't make it to the second half, which is a shame because it improves appreciably as it goes on. Jeremy Irons does the kind of role he does best: a sexually incontinent silver fox. 1/5

Ida is an indescribably moving film. It is haunted and haunting. Haunted in its mystery, a search through the sins of the past, discovering almost nothing but more pain. Haunting in its ghost-like presentation, the deep whites, the missed connections, the total sadness.

Revisited the '74 adaptation of Muriel Spark's THE DRIVER'S SEAT. Elizabeth Taylor drifts around Rome encountering lecherous men, political violence and uncanny retail rituals (I bet Peter Strickland is a fan). Woozy amber hues shot by the great Vittorio Storaro. Big camp dreamy delirium, love it...

Jump scare

This, from 1981, is quite something. I think it will be one of my books of the year. An angry young man novel with elements of fantasy?

Sunday afternoon movie

I look forward to the Ben Stokes and Keir Starmer podcast

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Ida is an indescribably moving film. It is haunted and haunting. Haunted in its mystery, a search through the sins of the past, discovering almost nothing but more pain. Haunting in its ghost-like presentation, the deep whites, the missed connections, the total sadness.

Today's film

Saving Shooting the Past for after the England game. Clearly, a mistake. It is dross.

Jump scare

Watching: I promise you, if your wife never wakes up, I’ll take you to any restaurant you want.

A magnificent title that disguises what is a rather good paranoia horror. Invasion of the Body Snatchers as a tense domestic drama. The film is more about marriage and fear of women than the traditional 50s anti-Communist sci-fi, and that gives it an extra frisson. The film looks great as well:

Tonight's "film"

A magnificent title that disguises what is a rather good paranoia horror. Invasion of the Body Snatchers as a tense domestic drama. The film is more about marriage and fear of women than the traditional 50s anti-Communist sci-fi, and that gives it an extra frisson. The film looks great as well:

This afternoon's film

Currently listening to

Barabbas is a genuine epic. I didn't know the story at all, and every time it ranged further forward I was surprised. Sulfur mines and gladiatorial arena are just two of the shifts in the film. But it starts with the Crucifixion, and ends with the difficult question of faith.

Norway v France is a very silly game of football.

Dembele going for Just Fontaine's 13 goals in one game.

Paused to watch the football. The Norwegians might prefer the sulphur mines to facing this French front line.

My favourite moment in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Superman is the worst film I've seen at the cinema in the last decade, I am not surprised at the atrocious reviews of Supergirl.

Had to put a jumper on to leave the house. The heatwave faltered in face of the Edinburgh breeze.

Tonight's film

Two definite purchases for me - Little Odessa and Days and Nights in the Forest.

The @criterion.bsky.social UK releases for September have been announced as James Gray's LITTLE ODESSA, Sidney Lumet's 12 ANGRY MEN and Satyajit Ray’s DAYS AND NIGHTS IN THE FOREST and on UHD + Blu-ray, and Barbara Kopple’s HARLAN COUNTY USA on Blu-ray. tinyurl.com/2f4pumvh

Andy Serkis's accent in this should have ended his career.

I also like sleeping during work.

#LastFourWatched #LetterboxdFriday Heatwave viewing: Friedkin's Sorcerer for ravers; archetypal holiday drama from Éric Rohmer; South Korean monster movie; and a rewatch of a timeless (pun intended etc.) western