Lots of reasons why I haven't written recently, way too much to do so I'll keep it incredibly brief for everything.
Caught Two for the Road on sky - good film, both leads are charming and while I don't think the structure works it's very watchable. Saw the new Indy film, Cate steals it, it's quite good but nothing more than National Treasure if you're not a fan of the franchise. Another Audrey Hepburn film I saw (after Two for the Road) was Robin and Marian which was entertaining but nothing to take too seriously. Also saw The Brothers Karamazov on tv which had an excellent cast and was an interesting, if over-long film.
Following on from the Dostoyevsky nicely is Cassandra's Dream as just like Match Point it covers very similar ground of crime and guilt. The accents are poor, the narrative sloppy at the beginning and the score doesn't quite fit, but Allen creates some very good moments and crafts a nicely arced tragedy (in the classical sense) by the end. Doesn't deserve the slating it got and I hate Woody Allen.
Since that I've got seriously into a classics mood. It started with my wanting to see Wife vs. Secretary purely for the title and the cast. Wasn't a flat out comedy as I expected, but a gentle drama which was well done all round with Myrna Loy standing out over Jean Harlow. That was reversed though in Libeled Lady which was a delightful screwball comedy with everyone acquitting themselves nicely. Staying with Loy and her main leading man William Powell (also in Libeled Lady) I saw Love Crazy, which got a little too silly for my liking in the second half, but I really enjoyed the beginning as Loy and Powell have such unparalleled natural chemistry together.
I saw Garbo's first American silent film, Torrent and had to improvise as there was no score (Alexandre Desplat's score to The Painted Veil came in very handy as a substitute) and it was very worth doing so. Garbo her usual excellent silent self, so expressive. Less excellent was Rob Roy which I watched for Tim Roth's acclaimed limp-wristed performance and came away from this decidedly trashy baggage far more impressed with John Hurt and laughing at the fact that Jessica Lange will seemingly never miss a chance to overact when given the opportunity.
Biggest disappointment of all was L'Atalante, which some claim to be one of the finest films ever made. Maybe if it were Insomniacs Anonymous doing the claiming they might begin to have a point. Thinly drawn characters, annoying performances, turgid direction, scant plot, my copy died with 20 mins to go and I was nothing other than relieved at the blessing to end this snooze-fest. Also found Made For Each Other, which is a Jimmy Stewart/Carole Lombard film from David O. Selznick. Another gentle drama, but Lombard doesn' have the dramatic acting chops to jerk the tears the way Irene Dunne or Barbara Stanwyck have proved themselves capable of doing. Sub-par all round.
Finally, someone put The Constant Nymph on youtube (it's been unavailable for years due to a rights problem) and I checked it out for Joan Fontaine's oscar nominated turn. More than worthy, it's a very nice melodrama, her performance is rather similar to that of hers in Letter From an Unknown Woman in terms of character and also body language (all that running around to appear childish seemed much more natural here than when she tried it when she was past 30 in that other film). Charles Boyer is fine and Charles Coburn an absolute hoot in support, well worth digging up.