During this year’s BFI London Film Festival our resident opinionated grumpy old man Janus Avivson, will be reviewing (in brief) some of the films featured. Be prepared for spoilers, controversy, but above all a voice who speaks from his heart!
(We would like to point out that these are the opinions of Janus and they don’t necessarily reflect those of Cannes in a Van)
Thursday the 27th of October
THE DEEP BLUE SEA
(UK 2011, 98 min, directed and screenplay Terence Davies)
This year is a hundred years anniversary of Terence Rattigan’s birthday. He was probably the most popular English playwriter and also a pretty popular screenplay writer. He became quite famous after The Winslow Boy (1946) and Deep Blue Sea followed in 1952. This was adapted for the screen once before, in 1955, with Vivian Leigh in lead role of Hester. Rachel Weisz steps into her shoes superbly, she is one of my favourite actors and I really enjoyed her performance.
This is the love story taking place in London about 1950. Hester, wife of a High Court judge, stuck in a conventional asexual marriage with an older and conservative man, falls in love with a glamorous former RAF pilot Freddie. Freddie loves her but not as much as she loves him, he, for change, is stuck in a RAF mind set, this was the time of his life and he cannot adapt to postwar situation of looking for work and being financially miserable. Obviously Hester attempts suicide, but not very much, just the middle class one, and is saved. Husband shows up and offers help, but this is something Hester has to handle on her own. Love stories are like flying, Take off is easy, flying is fun, but it is the landing that counts, and Rattigan, who was a tail gunner in RAF during the war and had his share of flying, knows the issue well. The dialogue is crisp and witty, despite the tragedy, and supported strongly by climatic string music of Samuel Barber, an American composer contemporary of Rattigan. Camerawork is excellent, London ruins and war memories are well pictured, supporting cast of not really famous actors do their job well, a lovely film, really.
It was rumoured that the script was originally written for male lovers, and Rattigan, who was gay, did not protest against it too dramatically. The film’s director, Terence Davies, is also gay, and is known for exploring expertly themes of emotional endurance. I was surprised to learn that this was his sixth feature, for it was really good.
THIS MUST BE THE PLACE
(Italy/France/Ireland/USA 2011, 118 min, dir. Paolo Sorrentino)
Thanks God that so often excellent Penn found some time away from his noble social and political activities. It seems that he, being Jewish on his father’s side, at the ripe age of 50, discovered his Jewish roots, and decided to do something about it. In this lovely film he is Cheyenne, rich and retired rock star, with a huge hairdo, and settled in Ireland. He learns about his father’s imminent death and promptly takes a boat to New York.
Obviously he is late. But then he finds out about his father’s past and long time adversary, a horrible SSman Aloise Muller, and as his late reconciliation attempt decides to trace the German, who is still alive but nobody knows where. And here is where a road movie starts, from Brooklyn through Michigan to Utah. A $28 million budget film and an English speaking debut of Italian Sorrentino is full of good music and is well paced, and Penn’s performance is one to remember and definitely worth seeing.
Saturday the 22nd of October
LAWRENCE OF BELGRAVIA
(UK 2011, 90 min, directed by Paul Kelly)
A tragic-comedic biopic of a forgotten musician who did not make it, even if he tried, one Lawrence Hayward, now fifty years old and bitterly optimistic (or optimistically bitter if one prefers). Filmed over eight years, lots of work for its director, a serious length of time for such a film, I think. Do you remember Lawrence? – cause I don’t.
Lawrence tried his best to be quite an exception in a world of pop stars, who has manage to continually let his fans down. He was an oddball and he played the role, but maybe he should not? Maybe it was better to make music first? In the end one can only feel sorry for the miserable character and enjoy a few of good lines, like “I prefer to be famous than to have friends”.
OK then.
Friday the 21st of October
HORS SATAN
(France 2011, 109 min, director and screenplay Bruno Dumont)
Amazing! The first feature film I saw which has no music! Not a single sound of an instrument, zilch, zero. Only heavy breathing and stomping of feet, and indeed a lot of it. A desolate landscape next to dunes on the “Opal” Coast, near Boulogne-sur-Mer. The Guy (he has no name), played sparingly by David Dewaele, is impressive. The Girl, played by Alexandra Lematre, feeds him, but he helps her too, I will not tell you how. There is no sex between them, but something more than that. The Guy has a presence and is decisive, he is a healer/killer type, beware to cross his kind, they can also be extremely useful in need.
This is an excellent and well-balanced film by director of “Flandres”(2006 and praised in Cannes) and “Hadewijch” (2009). Countryside faces, very little dialogue, woods, sand and marshes speak more than humans. I can understand how one can became a part of such a scenery, and get an inner strength from it. An unforgettable film, try to see it if you can.
LAST WINTER
(Belgium/France 2011, 103 min, directed by John Shank)
A farmland in the middle of France, the cow country. Johann, who inherited the farm from his father, tries to live life as it was, feeding his flock, sleeping by the fire overlooking the animals, but this is not enough. The times are changing and now one needs a valid inspection certificate in order to get an insurance money after the fire. Because it is after the fire that things start going badly downhill and it does not end well for Johann, which is a pity, for he is played by such a nice actor!
An American director, with capable hands and a simple script, people and land, and the end of the line, for the farm – but both for him and Vincent Rottiers as Johann it is only the beginning, we will see them again soon, I am sure of that.
Thursday the 20th of October
THE DESCENDANTS
(USA 2011, 117 min, directed by Alexander Payne)
Just at the beginning of the film we see a pretty blond woman riding on some water motor vessel, zooming into the wind and splashed waves. Something is going to happen and indeed, after the credits roll, we learn that she had an accident and is in a hopeless coma. Her husband, poor George Clooney, has to cope with two adolescent daughters, not an easy task even for a famous actor like himself.
Pretty soon a rebellious seventeen, Alexandra, played well by Shailene Woodley, tells Clooney that his beloved wife has been cheating on him with a local estate agent. This does not look like a good beginning of a wonderful friendship, but actually it is. Father and daughter grow together pretty nice during the film, bad guys are punished, additionally a fabulously beautiful plot of land is saved from awful developers, it is Hawaii, great place to film, eat and surf, sun, palms and aloha. It is an enjoyable little film, if a little flat. Not unlike the ocean surrounding the islands. Big deal.
CHICKEN WITH PLUMES
(France/Germany/Belgium 2011, 91 min, directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud)
France has a long tradition of involvement with Muslim nations, for good and bad. Once they had offered a sanctuary to Khomeini, expelled from Iraq, who then took off to Teheran, with obvious consequences. Supporting the Iranian culture is a kind of pay back, and justly so.
Adapting the graphic novel of Satrapi “Persepolis” into an animated feature by the directors’ couple met with a greta success at 2007 Oscars and more. Now they came with a live action film, with an impressive and beautiful cast, with my favourite actor Mathieu Amalric in lead.
It is a fairy tale which is taking place mainly during the last days of life of the hero, once a famous violinist, now a frustrated husband, a victim of a broken heart and, eight days before his death, a broken violin. It is wonderfully done, with all elements of magic realism, one needs in a film, Garcia Marquez-like, and extremely cinematic. It was reported that during the last Venice Festival members of the audience were brought to tears, and I believe it. A must see of this season and long live French-Iranian co-operation in the future.
Tuesday the 18th of October
CARNAGE
(France/Germany/Spain/Poland 2011, 79 min, directed by Roman Polanski)
Well, it could definitely be a kind of carnage if the projection would take a little longer. People would crowd the exits and reviews would be derogatory. With 79 minutes of screen time the director, who, by sheer coincidence of numbers, will be 79 next year, did the timing right. He also managed to employ his own son, Elvis. And this is about all good I have to say about this small and forgettable event.
A rather accurate adaptation of a play by Yasmina Reza, this film is an excellent example how to use a theatrical situation to cinematic benefit. You put four good but not great actors in one room and lock it, opening the door infrequently in order to raise tension (about which later).
A satire on middle classes it is supposed to be, but, except for several funny moments (watch out for a rather unfortunate reference to Jane Fonda), for most of the time it is simply boring. And I tell you why: because middle classes are not really funny anymore. OK, they can be serious or tragic - but a state to which most of people in the world aspire, cannot be funny because of this very aspiration. Most people do not either plan or wish to be funny. And so the play and the film turns to an old hat tricks by making one of the culprits to throw up profusely on the coffee table covered with art books. Ha ha ha.
Bored to death I followed the money trail: the budget was $25 mil. Recent fee of Jodie Foster is $15 mil. The fee of Kate Winslet is $6mil, so we are up to $21 mil already. Fees of Christopher Waltz and John C. Reilly are much lower. There are three minutes of film taking place in Brooklyn Bridge Park, with a group of youngsters. So the plan is to recover the monies based on the name of Jodie Foster on the billboards. I wish them luck.
Oh, I almost forgot: during the film a half of the cast leaves the room a couple of times, in order to end the meeting, and the tensions rise – and the reason is that the audience gets ready to go as well. Thanks gods in the end it really works…
Monday the 17th of October
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
(UK-USA 2011, 112 min, directed by Lynne Ramsay)
A family is in crisis. Younger child is sweet and beautiful but her teenage brother bored and brainless monster. Mother constantly with a glass of wine, seems like a habit she obviously cannot drop. Father, laid back idiot, buys his son a spectacular present, super quality bow and an ample supply of arrows. A recipe for a disaster? You have guessed right.
The first scene of the film is from the world famous La Tomatina, The Tomatoe Festival, which takes place each year, last Wednesday of August, in a village of Bunyol near Velencia in Spanish East Coast. Excellent Tilda Swinton is there, rolling in tomatoes, imagine the coloristic effect, quite a mess, and this is only the beginning…or a premonition?
Lynne Ramsay, who trained as a camera operator and debuted in 1999 with a memorable Ratcatcher, demonstrated a surprising use of colour and editing, as crisp and swift as a flight of an arrow. An exemplary UK-US co-product, helped by our Lottery money, well, why not, the result is worth it.
This is a shocking film and I am not going to tell the story and spoil the fun of watching and waiting for the development. An adaptation, praised by the author, of a popular book from 2003, a post-Columbine High School Massacre (1999) stuff, in form of letters, here changed completely and for the better. I liked the film very much but I am not going to see it again. No way Jose! Unless it wins a well deserved Oscar for Swinton, and maybe Ramsay. And it was sadly overlooked in Cannes, strange…
Sunday the 16th of October
HUT IN THE WOODS
(Germany 2011, 109 min, directed and screenplay by Hans Weingartner)
It is not often that we see German films in our cinemas, and this is one more reason why the HUT IN THE WOODS is worth seeing. Hans Weingartner is a forty years old Austrian who, before turning his attention to moviemaking, studied physics and brain research in Wien. This shows in his choice of subjects – hero of his first feature The White Sound (2001) is Lucas, one of three young people who eat magic mushrooms, but the only one who does not return from his trip. Second feature, much better known Educators (2004), is about a group of losers, who mismanage the kidnapping of a businessman, a former hippie, and gets caught.
The hero of HUT IN THE WOODS, Martin, played convincingly by an excellent Peter Schneider, is a mathematician, obsessively seeking correlation between casual numbers he sees everywhere, but it is not a healthy activity. The poor man is kind of cured and makes an unsuccessful attempt to get his previous job as well as to maintain an apartment, this does not end well and he is evicted. He ends in the woods building a hut, with a younger friend, Viktor, played extremely well by Timur Massold, and the problem is that we are never sure what is real or not, as great parts of the film are projections of Martin’s imagination.
What is most real of all is the way he was mistreated by his sadistic father. I read it as an ambiguous attempt for an explanation of mental disease: ones mental strength, parental upbringing and treatment by soulless administrative kind of society, and most likely a combination of the three. Whatever – the film is great and made a very strong impression on me, and I look forward to the next production of its director. Austrians, ha!
Friday the 14th of October
SHAME
(UK 2011, 99 min, directed by Steve McQueen)
I am absolutely sure that my little scribbling here will not unhinge a starry flight to fame and more fame of our wonderful artist/filmmaker Steve McQueen, and I am not reluctant to write what I think. And I think that I would very much prefer it to be the other way around. That a budding young filmmaker makes a well filmed but feeble tale of an oversexed intellectual Manhattan based zero, who, at the end of the film, may even change his obnoxious habits and became a kind of a normal person. And then the director makes an excellent and truly amazing work about a shameful period of British history, which was 1981 hunger strike in Maze prison by Irish patriots. And then he makes good artworks and gets a Turner prize.
But it is exactly the opposite, and I wonder why.
I quote from IMDb plot summary of SHAME, written by Momentum Pictures – “Brandon is a 30-something man living in New York who is unable to manage his sex life. After his wayward sister moves into his apartment, Brandon’s world spirals out of control. From director Steve McQueen (Hunger), Shame is a compelling and timely examination of the nature of need, how we live our lives and the experiences that shape us”.
No it is not. Nature of need, of what? To be an obsessive sex maniac? And an Irish one on the top of it? Are we told why he is like that? Was he abused by a priest during his career as an altar boy? Had he sex with his mother? We do not know.
And is it really about how we live our lives? Like being a guy who is so surprisingly brainless that he cannot get his act together for an hour and a half of the film and becomes slightly normal during the last two minutes of it, and we still have not a single guarantee that he will improve, because he does not go to a therapy. And how a recent example of French politician DSK shows, one needs a therapy for this kind of problem, full stop.
Manhattan scenery plays well and so do the actors, but I am not sure what happens and why. Is Brendon a bad guy because he is not gay, even if he tries? And is he impotent with a beautiful African-American actress because of the film director ethnic origin? These and other politically incorrect questions came to my mind already during the film, and after the screening ended, another question came: what a waste, of talent, time, money ($6.5 mil) and expectations. Shame, as in the title.
Wednesday the 12th of October
HARA-KIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI
(Japan 2011, 126 min, directed by Takashi Miike.)
This is undoubtedly the most prolific, dynamic and interesting Japanese director (remember “Audition”?). For most of the time he was concerned with crime and punishment, now he graduated to breaking taboos, which his country has a few. Nothing is more potent and damaging to national cultural tradition than ritual suicide. Many Japanese teenagers, boys and girls alike, imitate this distressing and barbaric habit, preferring gentle slopes of Mount Fuji, for its views or isolation, I wonder? Or because of its proximity to large urban centres?
There is something horribly honourable to kill oneself following loss of honour or just anything what may qualify as such. I consider it a weakness of character, but in Japan it is more than that.
The film, the first 3D title ever to be shown in the official selection at the last Cannes Film Festival, is a strange – I would like to say typical Japanese – mixture of beauty and horror. Amazingly esthetical photography is cut quickly with garish and gruesome, almost surgical scenes of hara-kiri (in Japanese sepuko). A man comes to the court asking for permission to sepuko himself – the story evolves from there, and things are not what they seam to be.
I wonder how this film is received in Japan? Anybody knows? Are there any Japanese members of SP in the UK?
THE KID WITH A BIKE
(Belgium/France/Italy 2011, 87 min, directed and screenplay Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
Maybe the best film I saw until now during the festival. Crisp, believable and relatively simple script and what a story it is! Great execution by two major actors, 11-year-old Thomas Doret and reliable Cecile de France as his new foster parent. Every shot is economical and to the point. The only critique I have about the music, which for the first time they use, Hollywood style, to put us in the mood when something dramatic happens – completely unnecessary in this intelligent film. Go and see it please !!!
WE HAVE A POPE
(Italy/France 2011, 104 min, directed by Nanni Moretti)
A witty film but, as often happens with screenwriters who direct and act in their film, too long and slightly lost towards the end, which is unfortunate, because the concept is “genial”, as the French say. The new Pope is elected by the funny old guys in red cloaks, however he does not feel worth the honour and the few days it takes him to make a speech telling the impatient world about it is filled by Mr. Moretti, wandering about the screen and enjoying his voice. Which is OK for a 40 minutes film, I think. However, once you got the money for one hundred minutes and 40 min. format is not popular anymore – the filmmaker continues…Anyway who cares about the Pope except the Swiss Guards?
ALSO:
It is hard to participate in the festival and not be tempted by seeing the large new show at Hayward Gallery devoted entirely to a filmmaker,
PIPILOTTI RIST
Almost 50 year old Swiss once enfant terrible, she is still around and actually got Cutting the Edge Award at last year’s Miami Film Festival for her first feature “Pepperminta”. She is her usual I, me and myself, and “not the girl who misses much” (from her song), but then what do you expect from a mother who names her son Himalaya! There is not much content in her films and the largest triptych screen is dominated by visage of her wet crotch in wet pants, however she is technically interesting and if anyone has a spare tenner the show is worth seeing – and actually works surprisingly well in the bunkerish space of Hayward, which so many of us love to hate.
Monday the 10th of October
GUILTY
(France 2011, 101 min, directed and screenplay by Vincent Garenq)
An excellent reconstruction of an infamous miscarriage of justice, with impressive Philippe Torreton in title role. We in Britain had a serious number of people accused by children and their malicious parents or social workers, but there is no film about it and these sordid affairs were swept under the carpet. However this North of France story is quite recent, and it is amazing to watch, step by step, the total helplessness of an innocent person who has this extreme bad luck to find him- or herself in such a situation. A very good film indeed !
SHOCK HEAD SOUL
(UK/Netherlands 2011, 86 min, directed by Simon Pummell)
Filmmakers who apply for funding from generous Wellcome Trust are obliged to use advice and help from science experts. In this case the director did a very clever thing by filming several such scientists giving their opinions on camera. Which made the film somehow too educational. Nevertheless the story of Daniel Paul Schreber, German end of 19th century judge, who became delusional and even started to worry what will God do after he, Schreber, dies. This is quite high for a human, and it was before LSD was in vogue.
What was remarkable about this ordinary story, was that Schreber managed to publish rather detailed memoirs, which met with interest from Freud and Jung, among others. I like the film even if I find the effort to explain this madness and, by extension, educational methods prevalent in Germany during the first half of the 20th century (introduced and promoted by Schreber’s excessively controlling and sadistic father) – rather naïve. Or piggy-backing on Haneke’s White Ribbon. But maybe they are right?
Friday the 7th of October
CORPO CELESTE
(Italy/Switzerland/France 2011, 100 min, directed by Alice Rohrwacher)
Calabria, the Southern tip of the Italian boot, poor and remote, backward and dominated by religion. Young children are being prepared for confirmation, which is like a catholic bar mitzvah, except worse. Local priest goes around households collecting signatures for the next election and telling for which candidate to vote, obviously quite a usual stuff in Italy or Poland. Young Marta does not fit this crowd and her gradual development into a thinking person is shown with great delicacy and talent. A subtle and minimal acting of Yle Vianello as Marta will be remembered, as I am sure we will see her again.
FREE RADICALS: A HISTORY OF EXPERIMENTAL FILM
(France 2010, 80 min, directed by Pip Chodorov)
Rather feeble but nevertheless quite educational little film with good archival footage of Hans Richter, Nam June Paik and Stan Vanderbeek plus interviews with Robert Breer, Ken Jacobs, Peter Kudelka, Jonas Mekas and M.M.Serra. Most of them freely admitted that they were crazy and it is worth seeing the film to see why they said so.
Thursday the 6th of October
Only one film today, no time for more, for family reasons:
AMERICANO
(France 2011, 105 min directed (and acted) by Mathieu Demy)
Uff, so nice to criticize rich, famous and beautiful, in only just because of who they are. But in the case of AMERICANO it was easy. What will you think of a film starting with a lovemaking scene, of Mathieu Demy with daughter of a screen legend, Mastroianni, and just when they laboriously finish, the phone rings and poor Mathieu is told that his mother just died. Well, not pretty, for she could have died while he was having fun, so guilt etc, but then you realize that Mathieu’s real mum, a film icon Agnes Varda, is alive and well, and it is not a documentary after all. So far so good. Soon Mathieu flies to LA where his (fictional) mum had an apartment, which he intends to sell. At the airport he is being picked up by, guess who? The daughter of a super-hyper film persona Charlie Chaplin, Geraldine, who is lovely except looks like is 160 years old. And the car she rides is a classic Red Mustang!
They drive and drive and this is when I realized that someone’s fantastic brainstorming session has ended with a coffee break and other people took over. And the rest is an example of piling up banalities with the most ridiculous ending (knowing a few French people one realizes that the hero would never do a thing like he did, except in a bad movie). A shiny beacon somewhere in the middle of Tijuana and this miserable film is an excellent singing performance of still beautiful and leggy former screen icon Selma Hayek-Pinault, presently wife of a sonof the 3rd richest person in France and 67th in the World. True, I have just checked. That’s a shame.
Original footage of eight years old Mathieu with his (real) mum on the beach and so forth is neatly incorporated in the action. And a Greek tragedy modified, he kills his mum on the screen in order to be his own man. Does he? This is only a fiction.
After this huge and unprecedented name dropping we got a film which is utterly forgettable after about two minutes after the credits end their run. Why? Maybe because of the above. However, I do not feel sorry for Mathieu Demy, for surely everybody who knows him will congratulate him, how great it was – and that he should try to make another one – what about Hayek’s father-in-law marrying Mrs Chaplin and saving private Ryan?
Wednesday 5th October
FOOTNOTE
(Israel 2011, 105 min. Directed and written by Joseph Cedar)
Watch this name! The film is about a father and a son, both Talmudic scholars in Jerusalem, both tough cookies, which helps the action, which flows briskly full of witty dialogues and I felt like watching more and more. I happen to know some of these characters, in Israel and New York, and, by Moses, they are portrayed well, I tell you that. Definitely worth seeing and keep laughing most of the time, and forced to think a little too, which as we know is rather unusual in the cinema nowadays.
Then we saw an excellent film, which is curfewed for press until the 16th so you have to wait, and it is worth the wait, trust me…
And then the total waste of time:
DARWIN
(Switzerland/USA 2011, 88 min, directed by Nick Brandestini)
A feeble documentary about a ghost town in Death Valley, presently inhabited by some 35 people, of whom only seven or eight are interviewed. And they are all very ugly and silly and have nothing to say and say it much too often. Why making such a film? I have travelled Death Valley up and down and its neighbourhood as well and there are at least twenty places much more interesting than the bloody Darwin.
But no – actually it is worth seeing it, and back to back, compare it with a truly great doc made by Jeff Springer and Chris Metzler and narrated by John Waters “Plaques and Pleasures on the Salton Sea”, USA 2004. And this will be a valuable educational experience, I promise.
Tuesday 4th October
HEADHUNTERS
(Norway 2011, 101 minutes. Directed by Morten Tyldum)
A slick and well oiled piece of work, typical Scandinavian production, completely surreal but believable, well timed story of two baddies, one of whom wins (can’t tell you which one, see it for yourself. Definitely worth seeing. A few visual surprises, and watch out for twin policemen please…
LIKE CRAZY
(USA 2011, 89 min, directed by Drake Doremus)
Rather disappointing mainly because of a traditional approach to the story: a transatlantic love tale, well filmed but soapy and cheesy, with an obvious happy ending. My observation: when I got married to my American wife in Camden Town Hall we were officiated by a Big Black Mama type, really sweet – in the film she is replaced by a bland Caucasian type. Why? Filmed in LA and London and not a single non-white person in view. Just did not look real to me.
PARIAH
(USA 2011, 86 min, directed by Dee Rees)
And the opposite here – in this lovely story of a frustrated young poetic lesbian I did not see a single white person. Strange. Heroine’s father, a policeman (of course!) treats his daughter as a boy – and why? For his wife gave him daughters only – so it is her fault and she deserves the shame, and as she says “God makes no mistakes” anyway. Convincing acting and excellent cinematography. Worth seeing if you like black lesbians. I do.
On Monday the 3rd of October press screenings started. The first to watch was…
LET THE BULLETS FLY
Made in China and released in 2010, 132 minutes of action and only 18 mil. Dollars in production costs it is already allegedly China’s highest grossing film. I am not going to bore you with the story because it is really boring. I did not like the film and I consider it a waste of time. It is interesting , however, how three screenwriters and the director managed to smuggle some contemporary relevant comments, under the disguise of an eastern western, a sad reminder of creators working in ancient and not really missed USSR or DDR. But, as according to Chairman Mao Little Red Book, the present day China is an excellent example of a pre-revolutionary situation (see for yourself) – maybe the title is somehow prophetic. Wait and see.
Second was absolutely superb and unforgettable…
MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
(USA 2011, 101 min, dir. Sean Durkin, title role Elizabeth Olsen)
Haunted by painful memories and growing paranoia, young and damaged woman flees an abusive rural cult and then struggles to assimilate with her estranged sister. Sounds banal, but the way this is shown is just great, delicate and balanced and melodic and so well edited ,that you can almost see a overprotective Sundance hand above it. A MUST SEE !!!
One sentence from this film stuck with me – “Does it happen to you to have a dream and not be sure if it was a dream or reality?” Where do we know it from, ha!
Third was a waste of time, or worse…
THE AWAKENING
(UK 2011, 106 in, dir Nick Murphy, main role Rebecca Hall)
A directing debut and well produced boring and schematic ghost tale from 1921with a predictable script, well done but so what? On my way home, on the Northern Line, I read a free Evening Standard, articles about a second generation of inner cities gangs and of dramatic financial situation of half of Europe, caused by Goldman Saks lending zillions to Greece. We all need movies about ghosts in Cumbria but, as I saw a BBC FILMS label at the beginning of this film, why with my money? I would ask a refund for a ticket but I did not purchase it, so I couldn’t.
To be continued, hopefully ever day for most of October.
