THE SHAMELESS OLD LADY

 One of the least known films of the French New Wave perhaps because the subject matter is so old-fashioned like something you might have seen in the French cinema of the thirties or forties, (even the setting, Marseille, is the same as in Pagnol's famous trilogy). Berthe, (Sylvie, a lovely performance), has been widowed in her eighties and, for the first time in her life, begins to live much to the consternation of her family.

Not a great deal happens; its dramas are fairly small-scale but it's definitely a charmer and there's not a jot of sentimentality on view. Sylvie underplays beautifully and she's backed by an excellent cast while director Rene Allio films it with a documentary-like attention to detail. OK, it was never going to light up the cinema in the way that the films of Godard or Truffaut did but there is so much here to like and to discover.

MOFFIE

 One of the best films to show the horrors of military training although the setting, (White South Africa during apartheid), is perhaps an extreme example. The raw recruits being turned from 'scabs' into 'men' in "Moffie", (the title is a South African slur for a gay man), are essentially being turned into homophobes and racists if they weren't already. The film's central character is neither homophobic nor racist but a young closeted gay man and he must hide it from those around him.

Directed with documentary-like realism by Oliver Hermanus and very well played by its mostly young cast this is a more subtle and understated LGBTQ+ film than many and a pretty horrifying reminder of what life was like in South Africa at the time and of just how toxic and destructive racism and homophobia can be and of how easily evil can flourish if we treat our fellow human beings this way. Although it ends on a positive note of sorts the horrors depicted here make those in Lumet's "The Hill" seem like a teddy-bear's picnic.

MURDER, MY SWEET.

 Dick Powell may not have had Bogart's insouciance but he was just as good with the one-liners, maybe better, of which there are many in John Paxton's superb adaptation of Raymond Chandler's "Farewell, My Lovely" which, if it's not the best film Edward Dmytryk ever directed, is almost certainly the most enjoyable. It is, of course, classic Film Noir with just enough of a convoluted plot to please the most ardent of mystery fans as Powell's Philip Marlowe is hired by Mike Mazurki's 'Moose' Malloy to find his old girlfriend Velma. Meanwhile, he's also asked to act as bodyguard to Douglas Walton's gigolo in a deal involving stolen jewels, a deal that brings him into the orbit of Claire Trevor, (they were her jewels), and some suitably shady characters. When 'Moose' turns up in the same orbit it isn't hard to put two and two together.

Bogart's  Marlowe was undoubtedly a tough guy, (Bogie's snarl counted for a lot); Powell
is clearly softer and more cynical along the lines of Elliot Gould's later personification and there were times when I was sure Dick was going to burst into song. Mazurki is the surprise here giving what is probably his most finely modulated and memorable performance while Trevor positively sizzles with duplicity. Beautifully shot by Harry J. Wild and with Dmytryk for once displaying the lightest of touches, what's not to love.