Home Film, or as the Americans Might Say, Movie, Sites

The Curzon Cinema in Wimbledon was the last cinema mrs maytrees and I visited before the UK pandemic lock down in March 2020. The experience was slightly eerie as the Covid-19 national lock down  was due to start  a day or so later. The cinema bar was almost empty and the theatre itself was also sparsely attended although I do not recall the name of the film we watched

The Curzon has reopened but we have not yet attended a film in a cinema since March. However the annual Curzon membership card, renewed in March (inexpensive for an OAP) provides the facility of viewing Curzon films  on one's TV at home. 12 films monthly are free to watch with other up to date films available for less than the price of cinema tickets.

There are now many  film providers on one's TV including Curzon. My analysis of them is that:

Curzon Cinema is the best for those seeking adult or  I  should best say grown up films. Yesterday  evening at home for example we watched on Curzon the French film called "The Midwife".  

The film starred Catherine Deneuve and Catherine Frot. The midwife having been contacted by her late father's mistress the film engrossingly depicted how the ladies eventually overcame the midwife's mistrust of the mistress, then her abstinence and vegetarianism and ultimately the two became firm friends at a time when the mistress was suffering from cancer.

Amazon has some good movies which may viewed for no extra charge though it does have a long list of decent pay to view  films. The huge for us anyway benefit of the Amazon film site is that it has that robotised assistant  called "Alexa". One can call out the name of a film and Alexa will bring its header  on-screen with details of the plot as well as clarifying whether the film is free to view. 

"1917" The true story of courage during  the dreadful times in the  trenches of the First World War comes to mind as good, absorbing film to view.

Netflix has some good movies which are free beyond any subscription one pays for the Netflix service. Recently we watched the film, "Rebecca". The film made this year was based on Dame Daphne Du Maurier's  book of the same name written in the 1930's. Again the film was excellent.

BT  too has   a  film service but its home screen is too clunk click for me and seems to plug its pay to view films although some free films can with difficulty be found.

Film 4 on TV really only has films for grown ups during the day time or after midnight with main viewing hours being reserved for either horror movies or teenagers or perhaps both. Still, recording the watchable films during their anti social viewing hours and seeing them at say a respectable 8pm, provides a solution.

The BBC has some good films on its BBC 4 channel but given that the BBC is now so woke, most of the good films  there are from abroad often from Scandinavia or more surprisingly its  enjoyable Inspector Montalbano series is from Italy. 

David Hare's "Roadkill" however, was recently on BBC 1 spread over four viewing sessions. Too predictably the villains were all white Conservative party men, with the good people being black, women etc. This politicised broadcasting agenda is so off putting. The USA seems to encourage the best actors and actresses without regard to ethnicity gender or political viewpoint; why cannot the BBC  do the same?