I am sorry to inform everyone that alas I was unable to get to the cinema this week due to illness (vomiting in an office is never a good option to be honest) so for this weeks instalment I decided to take a pick from my lovefilm selection instead. So for your consideration this week is Stephen Daldry's The Reader. So it's still quite recent so I feel I can get away with it...and there's nothing you can do about it.
So what do we have here. holocaust drama. Kate Winslet (getting an Oscar AND bafta...fancy). reading? that's about as much as I knew before seeing this. Well in essence that's what I got. There is young Michael, good German boy in the late 1950's, something which I always like to see...the 1950's not the German boy...anyway...at the same time we are shown older Michael (Ralf Fiennes) in 1995. But let's forget old Mike for the time being more exciting things are happening in the 50's. Michael is ill, and someone who has just vomited myself I sympathised, and there to help the stumbling lad off home is stern Hanna, the rather blunt tram conductor. And naturally he had to thank her when he was better, I mean that's only polite. Well, while giving the unsuspecting lad a bath...he was sooty, fair enough...everything turns rather amorous. Now I know what your thinking, 15 year old boy, woman in her 30's...errrr no? but hang on a second give them a chance. The scenes to follow are very tastefully and sensitively handled. There was a genuine passion and care between the two and the relationship doesn't seem sleazy but heartfelt. They developed a routine to there affair...Michael would cycle after school to Hanna's, read to her whether it be The Odyssey or Chekhov's Lady with a Small Dog. I have to point out here how excellent David Kross was in the Young Michael role, he bought a real sense of maturity here to scene's which could quite easily become crude and tasteless.
However things cannot continue surely? and surely Michael is tempted to stay and have fun with his fiends and peers rather then read to Hanna. Another factor is that Hanna is approached by her boss and told she has a promotion, moved to do office work...this seems like a good thing right? then why does Hanna look so concerned? and when Michael comes to see her she has disappeared. hmmm the plot thickens...
Now I know what your thinking this can't be it for Han and Mike? no no. Michael is introduced again now he's at university in the swinging 60's, studying law. He seems quite cool and sophisticated and intellectual and stuff. Now, part of their course is to study the war trials from WW2 and the question of German guilt. And presented at the trial is his old love Hanna. Well Michael's appalled shock seems quite justified. An ex lover on trail for the murder of hundred's of Jewish women when she was working at Auschwitz... can't really get much worse? As things progress the case really hangs on one report on women being locked in a burning building and no guards released them. But wait a minute Hanna writing a report? Didn't she love people to read TO her...and Micheal and the audience deduce here she is illiterate (remember that whole promotion thing!) but rather then lose her pride she admits to the writing and it's a life sentence for Hanna. The question of morals and ethics is something that is a natural part of any holocaust film and this is no exception. How guilty is Hanna, she was only following orders after all? Well these are of course Micheal's thoughts. More time travel and there is Ralf's Michael, 1976, who takes a further interest in aging locked away Hanna. and as my motto is never to spoil plots I will leave things there...safe to say a surprisingly uplifting ending.
So what about this film. Like any holocaust film the problem I have is that the events are so terrible it's hard to believe and hard to relate to them. And I fell this happened here. I totally related to the first half. The tender relationship between two, in their own way, innocents. but when the film entered it's second half I felt my interest waining. It felt like we've seen it all before in various guises. And the message will always remain the same. Another problem I have (and this is very personal) whenever the actors in films set in Germany speak English but have German accents, it never quite seems right and can at times be comedic. Having said this many things are to be commended, the acting all round was superb. Kate certainly deserved all the acclaim she got. And David Klass is certainly one to watch in my opinion, and when is Ralf Fiennes bad? The holocaust topic was sensitively handled by Daldry without imposing opinions on the audience.
So a film that is certainly worth a look in my opinion. If you don't mind being slightly depressed...
So it gets a deserving 7/10.
Next week I promise to be on my feet and attend the cinema to review a new release!
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Thursday, 20 May 2010
Revache, a dish best served...austrian?
well I'm sorry to say that it's another art house foreign film this week. this is in the most part due to the fact that looking through the cinema listings in main stream cinemas (not naming any names...ODEON!!) I felt incredibly disheartened. Is Furry Vengeance really the best Hollywood can offer me at the moment? so I decided to return to the comforting bosom of the Curzon (Renoir this time...get me!) and my choice was the Oscar nominated Revanche by Austrian director Gotz Spielman.
Just think of it as a modern day (Austrian) Romeo and Juliet...if Romeo was an ex con working part time in a brothel and Juliet a Ukrainian prostitute trying to evade the advances of her charming pimp...on second thoughts forget the Shakespeare thing.
So we have our tragic hero Alex, and his girlfriend, Tamara. Some fairly graphic scenes take place in the first part of the film and gives as an insight into the underworld of Vienna. The cinematography here is vital also to creating this gritty atmosphere, the audience being confronted with a sea of greys, the only splash of colour coming from the red lights of the brothel...nice, Gotz, nice. As you may expect trouble crops up along the way...Tamara wants to escape, and who can really blame her, poor misguided prostitute/stripper!
and of course Alex will come to the rescue with his beyond brilliant plan...rob a bank! why didn't I think of that? and as is the nature with these kind of things things don't go quite to his fantastic scheme. A friendly police man stumbles upon the scene and whoops Tamara is dead.
so now what is poor Alex to do? of course, go stay will his aged grandfather on a farm in the countryside.
The film takes a strange turn here, as it enters is second half. the lighting lifts, colours are back it's all very rural and lovely. quite a change. and our friend Alex appears to have gotten away with it...and then uh oh his grandads only real friend out here is a charming young woman and her husband...who is a police man....yes that police man!!!
well, well the story is coming together. he must get his Revenche! not so fast. no one can just shoot a police man...can they?? or perhaps his wife? who takes a special interest in Alex, it's all that wood chopping he does you see. and they are having trouble conceiving.
Well in the interest of not giving too much away I'll leave the synopsis there...safe to say the ending is very unsatisfactory.
Well it cannot be argued that this is an intelligently crafted beautiful film with strong acting performances all round. Credit to Alex, his grandfather and the police man's wife. And a strong storyline of Greek Tragedy proportions. However I feel it gets sucked into the trap so many modern European films do of just being too slow. Each shot lingers that little bit too long and with absolutely NO MUSIC it also felt slightly arduous. Another point to consider is how contrasting the two halves of the film are. when Alex flees to the countryside the city is never seen or mentioned again. All the characters are forgotten about including the pimp who is looking for her? very odd.
so in conclusion a very intelligent but flawed film which I did genuinely enjoy sitting through. And in my humble decision 6 1/2 out of 10 will suffice. keep reading as next week I think i will be taking a closer look at Bad Lieutenant. let's hope it's not a Bad Film.
Just think of it as a modern day (Austrian) Romeo and Juliet...if Romeo was an ex con working part time in a brothel and Juliet a Ukrainian prostitute trying to evade the advances of her charming pimp...on second thoughts forget the Shakespeare thing.
So we have our tragic hero Alex, and his girlfriend, Tamara. Some fairly graphic scenes take place in the first part of the film and gives as an insight into the underworld of Vienna. The cinematography here is vital also to creating this gritty atmosphere, the audience being confronted with a sea of greys, the only splash of colour coming from the red lights of the brothel...nice, Gotz, nice. As you may expect trouble crops up along the way...Tamara wants to escape, and who can really blame her, poor misguided prostitute/stripper!
and of course Alex will come to the rescue with his beyond brilliant plan...rob a bank! why didn't I think of that? and as is the nature with these kind of things things don't go quite to his fantastic scheme. A friendly police man stumbles upon the scene and whoops Tamara is dead.
so now what is poor Alex to do? of course, go stay will his aged grandfather on a farm in the countryside.
The film takes a strange turn here, as it enters is second half. the lighting lifts, colours are back it's all very rural and lovely. quite a change. and our friend Alex appears to have gotten away with it...and then uh oh his grandads only real friend out here is a charming young woman and her husband...who is a police man....yes that police man!!!
well, well the story is coming together. he must get his Revenche! not so fast. no one can just shoot a police man...can they?? or perhaps his wife? who takes a special interest in Alex, it's all that wood chopping he does you see. and they are having trouble conceiving.
Well in the interest of not giving too much away I'll leave the synopsis there...safe to say the ending is very unsatisfactory.
Well it cannot be argued that this is an intelligently crafted beautiful film with strong acting performances all round. Credit to Alex, his grandfather and the police man's wife. And a strong storyline of Greek Tragedy proportions. However I feel it gets sucked into the trap so many modern European films do of just being too slow. Each shot lingers that little bit too long and with absolutely NO MUSIC it also felt slightly arduous. Another point to consider is how contrasting the two halves of the film are. when Alex flees to the countryside the city is never seen or mentioned again. All the characters are forgotten about including the pimp who is looking for her? very odd.
so in conclusion a very intelligent but flawed film which I did genuinely enjoy sitting through. And in my humble decision 6 1/2 out of 10 will suffice. keep reading as next week I think i will be taking a closer look at Bad Lieutenant. let's hope it's not a Bad Film.
Thursday, 13 May 2010
numero uno
well i haven't given up so far. film number one seen. done. finished. well maybe not quite now i have to write about the darn thing.
first things first. the film. it was the Italian family drama 'i am love' starring the ice queen, beach lover herself Tilda Swinton as family matriarch, Russian born, Emma. (i hope you noticed the name of this blog...it's in Italian...like the film...geddit???)
in the first few moments of the film we are hurled into the politics of this upper class family. the family home is intimidating in it's grandeur and at the same time seems synthetic and artificial, nicely linking to the artificial nature of the families interactions with each other. we meet the charming son, Edo, the strong willed daughter, Betta, and the steadfast maid to all, Ida. as well as many others in the family i can no longer really remember. the exquisite cinematography leads us through their everyday lives, the equilibrium of the house hold, extravagant parties, designer clothes etc.
as the story progresses we see that perhaps all is not as good as it seems, as anyone who knows a story is aware the structure of this family will surely be thrown off balance in some way. and lo and behold the daughter's a lesbian! (who, may i say cuts her hair very short, as one who has done this personally i do not appreciate this stereotype...) but perhaps more interesting then this little development is Emma's increasing fascination with Edo's new best bud, Antonio, the rather dashing yet sensitive chef. we see Emms become quite overwhelmed with his prawns in ratatouille...if you know what i mean? Emma then goes all rural on us as the new lovers spend some time in his countryside kitchen retreat. we see her casually discard the designer labels in favour of this more rewarding way of life. i should point out at this point there is perhaps too much Tilda Swinton boob on show in this scene. not to give too much away, as perhaps expected crisis ensues as the family try to regain normality and the event which follows is genuinely shocking, there were audible gasps in the soho curzon! the final scene is fairly bizarre with very loud Italian opera blasted over a sequence of people looking at each other suspiciously but there is a positive message to be had...i think?
Tilda here is to be commended highly. she commands the screen and the two languages (Russian and Italian) will ease and elegance. and I'm someone who has always been unsure of here. fair to say her dresses are slightly more becoming then the dress she wore when she collected her Oscar for Michael Clayton (the words potato and sack come to mind) but in all fairness a job well done!
the direction i feel needs to be commended also, Luca Guadagnino does a excellent job. at first i felt the film lacked any heart or passion but as things progressed i realised this was a very conscious decision. it created a sense of no feeling within the family itself and as the film grew in heart so did the characters.the film was accompanied with a very intelligently selected musical score which also added to the constricting atmosphere. i do feel however that perhaps the style was a little too self indulgent with lingering shots of a marble pillar which don't really progress the story in anyway.
all in all and intelligent and interesting film and one i would recommend to anyone with an appreciation for the finer things in life.
my opinion is a solid 7/10
keep reading for my take of another film coming to a computer screen near you shortly!
lily x
first things first. the film. it was the Italian family drama 'i am love' starring the ice queen, beach lover herself Tilda Swinton as family matriarch, Russian born, Emma. (i hope you noticed the name of this blog...it's in Italian...like the film...geddit???)
in the first few moments of the film we are hurled into the politics of this upper class family. the family home is intimidating in it's grandeur and at the same time seems synthetic and artificial, nicely linking to the artificial nature of the families interactions with each other. we meet the charming son, Edo, the strong willed daughter, Betta, and the steadfast maid to all, Ida. as well as many others in the family i can no longer really remember. the exquisite cinematography leads us through their everyday lives, the equilibrium of the house hold, extravagant parties, designer clothes etc.
as the story progresses we see that perhaps all is not as good as it seems, as anyone who knows a story is aware the structure of this family will surely be thrown off balance in some way. and lo and behold the daughter's a lesbian! (who, may i say cuts her hair very short, as one who has done this personally i do not appreciate this stereotype...) but perhaps more interesting then this little development is Emma's increasing fascination with Edo's new best bud, Antonio, the rather dashing yet sensitive chef. we see Emms become quite overwhelmed with his prawns in ratatouille...if you know what i mean? Emma then goes all rural on us as the new lovers spend some time in his countryside kitchen retreat. we see her casually discard the designer labels in favour of this more rewarding way of life. i should point out at this point there is perhaps too much Tilda Swinton boob on show in this scene. not to give too much away, as perhaps expected crisis ensues as the family try to regain normality and the event which follows is genuinely shocking, there were audible gasps in the soho curzon! the final scene is fairly bizarre with very loud Italian opera blasted over a sequence of people looking at each other suspiciously but there is a positive message to be had...i think?
Tilda here is to be commended highly. she commands the screen and the two languages (Russian and Italian) will ease and elegance. and I'm someone who has always been unsure of here. fair to say her dresses are slightly more becoming then the dress she wore when she collected her Oscar for Michael Clayton (the words potato and sack come to mind) but in all fairness a job well done!
the direction i feel needs to be commended also, Luca Guadagnino does a excellent job. at first i felt the film lacked any heart or passion but as things progressed i realised this was a very conscious decision. it created a sense of no feeling within the family itself and as the film grew in heart so did the characters.the film was accompanied with a very intelligently selected musical score which also added to the constricting atmosphere. i do feel however that perhaps the style was a little too self indulgent with lingering shots of a marble pillar which don't really progress the story in anyway.
all in all and intelligent and interesting film and one i would recommend to anyone with an appreciation for the finer things in life.
my opinion is a solid 7/10
keep reading for my take of another film coming to a computer screen near you shortly!
lily x
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
my manifesto
my name is Lily Beck. I am the tender age of 19. I would legally label myself as a student when in reality I am an ex drama school student working 3 menial jobs (3!!) awaiting university life in September when normal student duties will begin. In the mean time I have set myself the task of keeping this blog which will focus on film. As this is the only area I feel I have a vague authority. Not to say I am an expert by any means but that this is the area of my passion and interest.
now onto the challenge: to watch and review at least one film every week. With preference to cinema releases but as I may not always have the time for this (remember the fore mentioned triple job situation) then these will be films recently rented from my lovefilm collection. this is an attempt to keep me busy and also strengthen both my knowledge on film and my ability to comment and criticise while keeping personal preference aside (in my humble opinion and film starring Johnny Depp is automatically Oscar worthy...but as i said that's just me)
i will also try to see a wide variety of things, ranging from the emotional depths of the Hollywood 'bromance' to any number of independent cinema about war or death or something equally uplifting.
so there we have it. the question remains will i ever stick to this...i have tendencies for laziness. i blame society...
so watch this space for the latest review coming shortly!
lily x
god i hope its the new nightmare on elm street...
now onto the challenge: to watch and review at least one film every week. With preference to cinema releases but as I may not always have the time for this (remember the fore mentioned triple job situation) then these will be films recently rented from my lovefilm collection. this is an attempt to keep me busy and also strengthen both my knowledge on film and my ability to comment and criticise while keeping personal preference aside (in my humble opinion and film starring Johnny Depp is automatically Oscar worthy...but as i said that's just me)
i will also try to see a wide variety of things, ranging from the emotional depths of the Hollywood 'bromance' to any number of independent cinema about war or death or something equally uplifting.
so there we have it. the question remains will i ever stick to this...i have tendencies for laziness. i blame society...
so watch this space for the latest review coming shortly!
lily x
god i hope its the new nightmare on elm street...
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