Omar (2013) 8.5/10
I resaw Pinocchio (1940) on DVD, some 50 years since I saw it at the cinema as a child. Still as enchanting as ever.
The most effective scenes are where Lampwick turns into a donkey and the whale scenes at the end of the film. It's also has some little songs which are as memorable as the film.
Ilo Ilo (2013) 8/10
Blue Valentine (2010) 6/10
All The King's Men (1949) 8.5/10
I watched Bachelor Knight (1947) which starred Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple in one of the handful of films she made as a young adult at the end of her film career. The film is also known as The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, but Bachelor Knight is a much better title.
Pleasant simple comedy. If Shirley Temple hadn't retired from films she might have been a rival to Debbie Reynolds.
I saw Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010). It's not meant to be a film of the book as the Alice character returns to the land as a 19 year old on the verge of being married off. The film uses characters from both Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and there are references to events in the books.
The land is called Underland. Lewis Carroll wrote a draft of Alice in Wonderland which he called Alice's Adventures Under Ground so Underland may be a combination of the two names.
The film has none of the magic of the books but it is quite fascinating and is very stylish.
The film Tim Burton is currently making is very different from most of his other films. It's called Big Eyes and is a biopic of the artist Margaret Keane starring Amy Adams. And for once neither Johnny Depp or Helena Bonham Carter is in it.
The picture shown on IMDB site is of a typical painting of hers:
There's a gothic look about that painting and I think that could be what drew Burton to this project.
If you watched the 118 minute version, I'm sure you will be eager to watch the longer 143 minute version.
(Or may be not )