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A Hard Day's Night
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British New Wave X 2
Séance on a Wet Afternoon
Unrated
1964, Home Vision Entertainment
A Hard Day's Night
1964
Rated G, Miramax
The heyday of British Cinema remains the British New Wave, a series of films produced from the late 1950s through the 1960s, about working class people and youthful frustrations with class-conscious English society. Inspired by Britain's Free Cinema documentary movement and a string of social realism plays and literature, films like Darling, starring Julie Christie as an aimless model in swinging London, and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, with Albert Finney as a young factory worker whose life revolves around booze, sex and bar fights, were international hits.
Two standout entries in the British New Wave are director Bryan Forbes' gripping thriller Séance on a Wet Afternoon and director Richard Lester's classic Beatles comedy A Hard Day's Night.
In Séance, Kim Stanley received the lion's share of acclaim for her vicious, larger-than-life performance of Myra Savage, a medium who convinces her cuckold husband, Billy (Richard Attenborough), to kidnap a rich girl so that she can solve the case and boost her profile.
Séance is one of only four film roles that Stanley performed in her acting career, and it's an unforgettable performance. As Myra, she is believably unhinged, and much of the film's suspense revolves around her unpredictability. Attenborough is just as gripping as the meek husband who can't say no to his wife's insane demands. In his round face and downcast eyes, one senses a mix of fear and love for his unbalanced wife. Just as much as the kidnapped girl, Billy is a victim of Myra's insane plot.
Forbes films Myra and Billy's large house in atmospheric black-and-white photography. The bedroom where they hide the girl is stark and eerie. An unused dog-racing track near their house symbolizes the despair in their lives. Story wise, Séance on a Wet Afternoon is as suspenseful as any Hitchcock thriller. Yet its powerful lead performances are what make the film a classic thriller.
Few films celebrate swinging London and its hip '60s subculture as much as the madcap Beatles comedy, A Hard Day's Night. Its story is joyfully simple. The film follows a day in the life of the world's most popular Rock & Roll band as they prepare for a TV appearance and try to avoid mobs of screaming fans. Lester maintains a manic pace with jokey dialogue, visual gags, biting satire, clever photography and moments of inspired surrealism. Actor Wilfrid Brambell enjoys the film's biggest laughs as Paul McCartney's troublesome grandfather. Whenever the film begins to slacken, Lester boosts the energy with a catchy Beatles song.
Lester would make other movies set around London's trendy youth subculture, most notably 1965's The Knack ... And How To Get It. Still, A Hard Day's Night remains his best comedy, as hip and stylish as ever. DVD bonus features, including an interview with Lester and musical director George Martin, celebrate the film's timeless status. When it comes to capturing the spirit of swinging London and Rock & Roll, no film is as successful as A Hard Day's Night.
Séance on a Wet Afternoon grade: A.
A Hard Day's Night grade: A.
And the rest
Shannyn Sossamon's spirited performance as the would-be girlfriend determined to break heartthrob Josh Hartnett's 40-day vow of celibacy is the only thing worthwhile in director Michael Lehman's laughless, sex comedy 40 Days And 40 Nights (Miramax). For Sossamon, last seen in A Knight's Tale, her challenge is to create a spark with a leading man with no sense of comedy. Unfortunately, Hartnett's vacant personality makes that impossible.
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