UK film releases May 28th

Friday 28th May

Fish Story

Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura
Writer: Tamio Hayashi
Japan 2009 112 mins Cert TBC
Cast: Atsushi Ito, Kengo Kora, Mikako Tabe, Gaku Hamada, Mirai Moriyama



The film is set in Tokyo in 2012, a disabled man (we learn he is suffering from terminal stomach cancer) in a motorized buggy negotiates his way through the litter strewn in the deserted and silent streets, until he is attracted by the sound of music coming from a record shop, the only sign of life we see or hear. There we learn that a comet (a characters on its own right in the background, although with no name) is heading towards Earth, only five hours away. Its impact will generate a tidal wave taller than Mount Fuji, the mother of all tsunamis, that will drown not only Japan but the whole of the world as well. It does not matter if it crashes in Argentina, its devastating effect will still be the same. The population had already fled into higher grounds, where they will probably be killed by volcanic eruptions or the apocalyptic eternal winter that will ensue. There is no escape, the end is nigh.

Distributor: Third Window Films

Venue: ICA


The Time That Remains (15) (D)

Written and Directed by Elia Suleiman
Cast: Saleh Bakri, Elia Suleiman

Palestine/France/Belgium/Italy/UK/2009/109 min  
In Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles
Official Selection – CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2009



The third part of a trilogy from the internationally acclaimed director (Chronicle of a Disappearance, Divine Intervention), The Time That Remains was the key political film at last year’s Cannes film festival – a beautiful, unique and deeply personal depiction of Palestine in the 60 years since 1948  as seen by Suleiman and his parents.

“The Time That Remains is a semi-autobiographical film in four episodes, about a family, my family, from 1948 until recent times. The film is inspired by my father’s private diaries, starting from when he was a resistance fighter in 1948, and by my mother’s letters to family members who were forced to leave the country. Combined with my intimate memories of them and with them, the film attempts to portray the daily life of those Palestinians who remained and were labelled “Israeli-Arabs”, living as a minority in their own homeland.” – Elia Suleiman

In Cannes, Suleiman’s film was seen by some film critics as the possible winner of the Palme d’Or and the film was also one of the highlights of last year’s London Film Festival.

The Time That Remains covers the story of Palestinian dispossession and displacement over 60 years. It is the director’s most ambitious work yet.  It begins in 1948 on the day that the director’s hometown of Nazareth is officially surrendered to the Israeli army and interweaves the personal and the political in brilliant and blackly comic vignettes with Suleiman playing himself as a silent Keatonesque deadpan observer. The resulting film is a heart-breaking testament to his parents, a reminder of history, and a poignant, subversively funny delight.

“I don’t think it is a film you have to understand but one you have to feel.”  – Elia Suleiman (from an interview)
Distributor: New Wave Films


The Happiest Girl In The World (15) (D)

Director: Radu Jude Romania 100 mins
Cast: Andreea Bosneag, Andi Vasluianu

Delia Fratila (18) comes from a poor family living in a small Romanian town. Her fortunes change when she becomes the lucky winner of a luxury car through sending off bottle labels in an advertising competition. Delia and her parents, arrive in Bucharest for the promotion testimonial – a nationwide video campaign depicting Delia’s success as an example of the drinks manufacturer granting happiness. After a long journey to Bucharest, the family finally arrives at the film location, where Delia spends the day shooting, a seemingly non-demanding task. All she needs to do is sit in the car, drink the product and thank the drinks company. Of course, any thing that could go wrong does go wrong and this is just the beginning of Delia’s woes. During the shooting breaks, Delia and her parents discuss what they plan to do with the car; Delia wants to keep it for herself, while her parents wish to sell it, thinking that this their chance to escape poverty. These arguments intensify, while the shooting becomes more and more absurd. And what had initially seemed to be a change in Delia’s fortunes manifests in to a troubling emotional experience that sees her questioning her relationship with her family.

Distributor: Soda Pictures

Venue: BFI Southbank & selected Key Cities


Kites: The Remix (12A) (D)

Distributor: Reliance Big Entertainment

Venue: Nationwide


The Losers (12A) (D)

Directed by: Sylvain White
Cast: Idris Elba, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans

The long-awaited big-screen adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name follows a former Special Forces team in the 90s, 'The Losers'. Betrayed by their handler, Max, and left for dead following the conclusion of their operation the team are intent on revenge.

Eager for the opportunity to remove their names from a secret CIA death list, the Losers regroup and conduct covert operations against the CIA and its interests, uncovering startling operations spearheaded by the enigmatic Max, whose influence within the CIA and US government is unparalleled.

Starring Idris Elba (THE WIRE), Zoe Saldana (AVATAR, STAR TREK), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (WATCHMEN, GREY'S ANATOMY) and Chris Evans (FANTASTIC FOUR, SUNSHINE) 'The Losers' is an action-packed adventure that will leave you on the edge of your seat!

Venue: Cineworld Wandsworth, Clapham Picturehouse & Nationwide


Rec 2 (18) (D)

Picking the story up just minutes after the first film ended, Rec 2 (above) pitches audiences right back into the horror of an apartment block gripped by an unknown but deadly force.

A SWAT team is sent in to sort things out, but this is only the signal for more sustained terror, neatly conveyed by directors Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza who take a real delight in shredding the nerves of their audience.

Distributor: E1 Entertainment

Venue: Cineworld Shaftesbury Ave., Empire Leicester Square & Nationwide


Space Chimps 2 (U)(3D) (D)

A 3D animation sequel to the 2008 hit, Space Chimps 2 (above) picks up the story of Comet (voiced by Zack Shada), a chimp-astronaut keen to prove his mettle who finds himself bonding with the inhabitants of Planet Malgor. When the time comes for him to face up to the powerful enemy Zartog who threatens his new friends Comet is forced to save the day.

Distributor: Entertainment

Venue: Empire Leicester Square & Nationwide


Sex And The City 2 (D)

Fans of the long running television series, and audiences who enjoyed the first movie, will need no further encouragement to see Sex & the City 2 (below),which catches up with the larger than life romantic travails of Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte. This time around they find themselves far from their New York home, exploring Morocco and looking – as ever – for love. Along with a host of familiar faces there are guaranteed to be one or two star cameos in an eagerly awaited film.

Website: http://www.sexandthecitymovie.com/

Distributor: Warner Bros.

Venue: Vue West End & Nationwide


Tooth Fairy (PG) (D)

Dwayne Johnson (below) is “The Tooth Fairy,” also known as Derek Thompson, a hardcharging minor league hockey player whose nickname comes from his habit of separating opposing players from their bicuspids. When Derek discourages a youngster’s dreams, he’s sentenced to one week’s hard labour as a real tooth fairy, complete with the requisite tutu, wings and magic wand. At first, Derek “can’t handle the tooth” – bumbling and stumbling as he tries to furtively wing his way through strangers’ homes…doing what tooth fairies do. But as Derek slowly adapts to his new position, he begins to rediscover his own forgotten dreams.

Distributor: 20th Century Fox

Venue: Empire Leicester Square & Nationwide

Phantom Punch DVD reviewed

Director: Robert Townsend
Writer: Ryan Combs
Cast: Ving Rhames, Stacey Dash, Nicholas Turturro,  Bridgette Wilson, David Proval, Rick Roberts, Alan Van Sprang, Egidio Tari, Andrew Hinkson, Troy Amos-Ross .

Phantom Punch, a flawed but fascinating film about a flawed and controversial legend of boxing, Sonny Liston, a film that explores the underbelly of American heavy weight championships.

Phantom punch was the controversial punch inflicted in 1964 by Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali when he converted to Islam, on the former heavy weight boxing champion Sonny Liston attempt to regain the title, a man known for his “killer” fists. That punch, for those of you old enough to have watched the fight, most probably in a black and white television set, knocked Sonny Liston out of his chances to that crown on the first round. Judging from the release of this DVD, the controversy continue to rage on, 46 years later.

Phantom Punch is primarily aimed at a niche audience, although it is fascinating to follow the life and tribulations of Liston. It is a flawed film about a flawed man who rose to the top of his sport from the dungeon of an American penal institution. It is a tough look at a tough man. It is also a biased movie, as the depiction of his greatest rival, Cassius Clay, by Andrew Hinkson is a caricature of the man. However, its subject is not only about Sonny Liston or boxing, it is also about racism that permeated America in the 50s and 60s and, to a lesser extent, even nowadays. Yes, people such as Liston were respected, but only in the ring, only as money making machines; in daily life, the “n” or “b” words were still being regularly thrown at them, or they were routinely being abused by the police, authorities and the press. It tackles the involvement of the mafia in organized sport, particularly boxing, when many boxers were “own” by particular families, used as cash cows and dispensed with when they became surplus to requirement, or attempted to fly with their own colours. Liston’s involvement with organized crime is hinted at, although it does not go beyond that as it seems that there is no enough evidence to prove it either way. Phantom Punch touches the traps posed by sudden riches and fame for celebrities when the term had not even been coined in its current usage or, if it had, it was not widely used.

While the portrayal of the environment where these events unfolded all those years ago gives its flavour, some of the details (such as the type of microphone that the singer was using) were not of its time. I found the use of the change of the cinematography from black and white to colour between chapters very annoying and distracting, particularly when those chapters are rather short. A gimnmck which I did not appreciate at all, as well as the rather anaemic and farsical sex scenes which could very well a good contender for the worst portrayal of sex in cinema. The special features are quite poor: certainly, I would have liked to have seen the footage of the actual fight between Liston and Clay.

Ving Rhames measured but powerful performance is a very convincing Sonny Liston, while Nicolas Turturro is brilliant as his manager. David Proval’s depiction of the family boss is chilling in his business like approach to crime and Andrew Hinkson portrayal of Cassius Clay was, frankly, ridiculous.

The film was originally released in the USA in 2008.

DVD Release date: 24th May 2010
Running time: 100 minutes
DVD RRP: £15.99

Distributor: Metrodome Distribution

All images © Metrodome Distribution

This week UK film releases

Wednesday 19th May

Paradise (D)

Director Michael Almereyda (Another Girl, Another Planet, Nadja, William Eggleston in the Real World) turns his camera on the everyday world to create a heartfelt ‘home movie’, a cinematic collage that he describes as “a description of the world we inherit, fumble around in, and grow into.”

Distributor: ICA Cinema

Venue: ICA Cinema


Friday 21st May

Bad Lieutenant (18) (D)

Director: Werner Herzog
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Alivin "Xzibit" Joiner.

In Werner Herzog’s new film The Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans, Nicolas Cage plays a rogue detective who is as devoted to his job as he is at scoring drugs -- while playing fast and loose with the law. He wields his badge as often as he wields his gun in order to get his way. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina he becomes a high-functioning addict who is a deeply intuitive, fearless detective reigning over the beautiful ruins of New Orleans with authority and abandon. Complicating his tumultuous life is the prostitute he loves (played by Eva Mendes). Together they descend into their own world marked by desire, compulsion, and conscience. The result is a singular masterpiece of filmmaking: equally sad and manically humorous.



Website: http://badlmovie.co.uk/

Distributor: Lionsgate UK

Venue: Curzon Soho, Empire Leicester Square & Nationwide


Cop Out (15) (D)

Bruce Willis is back in Cop Out, playing a detective with a very personal reason for cracking his latest case – the theft of a mint condition, vintage baseball card worth a small fortune, that he intended to sell to pay for his daughter’s wedding. Kevin Smith directs this edgy comic tale which pairs Willis with fast talking Saturday Night Live comedian Tracy Morgan, and sets both men on the trail of a deadly, memorabilia obsessed gangster.

Website and trailer: http://copoutmovie.warnerbros.com/

Distributor: Warner Bros.

Venue: Nationwide


Heartless (18) (D)

Director/writer: Philip Ridley
Cast: Jim Sturgess, Clémence Poésy, Noel Clarke, Joseph Mawle, Luke Treadaway, Eddie Marshall, Timothy Spall.

The story follows Jamie, a troubled young man with a birthmark on his face, which has left him feeling isolated and fearful, hiding from the world outside. He lives in the East End of London, an area notorious for its violent hooded gangs. According to news reports, the gangs are now wearing demon masks. But, one night, Jamie discovers the terrifying truth: the gangs are not wearing masks. They are real demons. And when Jamie's mother is killed by them in a brutal attack, he realizes he can no longer hide away. Jamie vows vengeance and turns vigilante. But the world outside is more of a nightmare than he ever imagined. As Jamie himself says:  "I open up the window and madness flies in.”



Distributor: Lionsgate UK

Venue: Apollo Piccadilly Circus, Genesis & Key Cities


Kites (D)

Director: Anurag Basu
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori

Romance drives the story of Kites, which opens with a man left for dead in the Mexican desert. J (Hrithik Roshan) had once been streetwise and in control, but now finds himself a marked man. The only concern he has is for Natasha (Barbara Mori), the woman he is convinced he was meant to be with, whose hand he will surely win again.

Website and trailer: http://www.kites-thefilm.com/

Distributor: Reliance Big Entertainment

Venue: C\"Worlds Feltham, Haymarket, Shaftesbury Ave., Ilford, Wandsworth, Wood Green & N\"wide (Previews 20 May)


Pimp (18) (D)

Director: Robert Cavanah
Starring: Robert Cavanah, Danny Dyer, Billy Boyd.

Working for Stanley (Danny Dyer), Woody (Robert Cavanah) is a pimp, hustler and fixer in Soho's sex industry who agrees to be followed and filmed by a documentary camera crew for one week. However, it soon turns out to be no ordinary week; one of his porn directors is behind schedule, he’s kicked out of his apartment for not paying his rent and he’s beaten up by his landlord and by Chinese thugs who are encroaching onto Stanley’s territory.

These are the least of his problems, though, as he finds out when one of his girls, Petra, goes missing. During his frantic search for her throughout the seductive Soho underworld, Woody soon finds himself starting to question his whole life – a life he now finds is spiralling brutally out of control…

Website: http://www.pimpthemovie.com/

Distributor: Revolver Entertainment

Venue: Key Cities


Prince Of Persia (12A) (D)

Director: Mike Newell
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer turns his attentions from the maritime setting of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies to the sun baked exoticism of the ancient world in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Expect more larger than life adventure as an errant prince (Jake Gyllenhaal) must embrace his destiny, join forces with a mysterious princess (Gemma Arterton) and keep a mystical dagger from falling into the possession of malign forces that threaten mankind. Mike Newell, whose CV includes popular hits such as Four Weddings and A Funeral and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, expertly marshals the key elements in a vividly realised story shot in majestic international locations and at the UK’s own Pinewood Studios. Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina round out the cast.

Website: http://www2.disney.co.uk/prince-of-persia/index.jsp

Distributor: Walt Disney

Venue: Odeon Leicester Square & Nationwide


Streetdance (3D) (PG) (D)

Director: Dania Pasquini, Max Giwa
Starring: Diversity, George Sampson, Flawless.

Sparks fly as the worlds of street dance and ballet collide in StreetDance 3D, the vibrant, uplifting and ground breaking movie from Vertigo Films.

Whilst training for the UK Championships, a street dance crew are forced to work with ballet dancers in return for free rehearsal space. With no common ground and passions riding high, the two groups of dancers realize they need to find a way of working together to compete in the Championships.

Website: http://www.streetdancethemovie.co.uk/

Distributor: Vertigo Films

Venue: C\"World Shaftesbury Ave., Odeon Tottenham Ct. Rd., Vue West End & N\"wide

Jane Eyre

I am re-reading Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, as Cary Fukunaga's take on it should be released sometime in 2011. Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Alice in Wonderland) as Jane, with some fantastic actors such as Jamie Bell, Judi Dench, Michael Fassbender, Sophie Ward, and many others. Is Mia too pretty to play the part of plain Jane? Some people would say, yes. I think that Mia has a kind of flexible beauty, she can still be beautiful and plain.

Re-reading the book, it is clear to me that, whilst  Charlotte Brontë defines Jane as "... you were no beauty as a child", that is not the same that saying she was ugly. The regime of the educational establishment were she grew up meant that her manner, appearance and clothing were worked out to be plain. However, I disagree with the common assumption that she was 'plain Jane', she was not. Canons of beauty change over time, indeed in the past few years they have moved here in Britain. The book was written in the first half of the 19th century, Jane's plainness was defined within the idea of beauty of that time. Would she be considered plain nowadays?

I originally read the book in a Spanish translation some forty years ago. I understand that filming has just finished, or nearly, in Yorkshire. I am looking forward to it. Fukunaga's Sin Nombre was a brilliant film.

For a  just released still from the film please follow the link:

http://mia-wasikowska.net/2010-05-14/update_ID=428

See also USA TODAY for more information:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2010-05-14-brontes14_ST_N.htm

Post updated on May 16th, 2010.

UK Film releases May 12th/14th

Wednesday 12th May 2010

Robin Hood (12A) (D)

Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong

The untold story of how the man became the legend.

The first time Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott collaborated they brought us the Oscar winning smash Gladiator. The venue might have changed, the period come forward and the weather worsened, but Robin Hood promises just as much gutsy action along with a similar theme of a man stirred into action by the injustice he witnesses. Robin (Crowe) returns from serving his king in wars against the French and is shocked by what he sees, with corruption rife and the people subjugated. So, assembling a band of determined souls, he fashions a gang to strike fear into the heart of the cruel Sheriff of Nottingham and sets about this new battle with gusto. Fellow Oscar winner Cate Blanchett plays Lady Marion, and a fine cast also includes Mark Strong, William Hurt and Matthew Macfadyen.

Distributor: Universal
Website: www.robinhoodthemovie.co.uk
Website/trailer: http://www.robinhoodthemovie.com/

Venue: Empire Leicester Square & Nationwide


Friday 14th May 2010

American: The Bill Hicks Story (15) (D)

Produced and directed by: Matt Harlock & Paul Thomas
Featuring: Bill Hicks, Dwight Slade, James Ladmirault, Mary Hicks, Steve Hicks, Lynn Hicks, Kevin Booth, John Farneti, David Johndrow, Andy Huggins, Steve Epstein

15 years after his death (16/12/61 – 26/2/94), Bill Hicks is now more popular than ever, and is widely seen as one of the best comedian of the modern era. However, in America, where he challenged institutions and accepted ways of thinking, he suffered censorship and was never truly recognised by a wide audience. In the country which enshrines freedom of speech in its constitution his story is truly about what it means to be an American.

Now Bill’s remarkable story is brought to life in AMERICAN: THE BILL HICKS STORY, a feature-length documentary which combines live action with a stunning new animation technique manipulating 1,000s of photographs to uniquely immerse the audiences in his world, which is re-told from the point-of-view of the people who shared it with him.

Distributor: Verve Pictures

Venue: Curzon Soho, Greenwich P\"House, Odeon Covent Gdn., Ritzy & Key Cities


Lebanon (15) (D)

An absorbing account of men in war, and a fitting companion piece to Waltz With Bashir, Lebanon takes a similar view of the young Israeli conscripts who take part in the invasion of their Middle Eastern neighbour in 1982.

Director Samuel Moaz was actually there and expertly recreates the intensely human story of four young men desperate to return home safely from a coflict they have
little understanding of or sympathy for.



Distributor: Metrodome Distribution
Website: www.metrodomegroup.com/films/LEBANON

Venue: Coronet, Curzon Soho, Everyman, Ritzy & Key Cities


Eyes Wide Open (12A) (D)

Directed by Haim Tabakman
Cast: Zohar Strauss and Ran Danker

After the death of his father, Aaron, a respectably married butcher working in Jerusalem's Orthodox community, hires a nomadic young student to assist with his business. Aaron teaches the handsome Ezri the rules of his trade, and lets him stay in the empty room at the back of his shop, but it is not long before the pair recognise that their relationship is much more than simply master and apprentice, and they cautiously embark on a love affair which must be kept hidden at all costs. Delicately handled by first time director Haim Tabakman, Eyes Wide Open is at heart a beautifully affecting love story, which, despite the emotional intensity of the subject matter, remains impeccably restrained throughout. The hesitancy of the central relationship, and Aaron's repeated refusal to fully submit to his feelings, create an atmosphere of often suffocating tension, with the threat of the disapproving townspeople looming large in the background. Aaron and Ezri's unspoken love affair is effectively juxtaposed with the plight of a local woman whose attempts to have a relationship with a man to whom she is not betrothed cause uproar within the community. Together these stories serve to highlight the contradictions and personal restrictions that exist within this world of organised religion and fiercely revered tradition. - Michael Blyth (BFI)



Distributor: Peccadillo Pictures
Trailer: http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/385

Venue: Apollo Piccadilly Circus, Odeon Panton Street & Key Cities

Petropolis (D)

Director: Peter Mettler Canada 45 mins

Shot primarily from a helicopter, filmmaker Peter Mettler’s “Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands” offers an unparalleled view of the world’s largest industrial, capital and energy project.
Canada’s tar sands are an oil reserve the size of England. Extracting the crude oil called bitumen from underneath unspoiled wilderness requires a massive industrialized effort with far-reaching impacts on the land, air, water, and climate.

It’s an extraordinary spectacle, whose scope can only be understood from far above. In a hypnotic flight of image and sound, one machine’s perspective upon the choreography of others, suggests a dehumanized world where petroleum’s power is supreme.



Distributor: Dogwoof
Website: http://toxicfuels.com
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJI4voG0w1I

Venue: ICA Cinema

Pandora And The Flying Dutchman (PG) (R/I) (D)

Director: Albert Lewin USA 1951 126 mins
Cast: James Mason, Ava Gardner, Nigel Patrick

Albert Lewin’s lushly romantic Pandora and the Flying Dutchman – originally released in 1950 – hits cinema screens once more and gives audiences a chance to experience the lustre of stars from an earlier generation. In a Spanish village in the 1930s Pandora (Ava Gardner) is an American woman who attracts many potential suitors. That is until the arrival of a suave and mysterious stranger (James Mason) who appears to embody the ancient legend of a sailor doomed to travel the seas until he can find a woman who will sacrifice her life for his.

Distributor: Park Circus
Website: http://www.parkcircus.com/catalogue/show.php?id=104834

Venue: BFI Southbank & Key Cities


Triomf (D)

Director/writer: Michael Raeburn
Cast: Lionel Newton, Obed Baloyi, Eduan Van Jaarsveldt.

March 1994 South Africa. On the day of the first free election Lambert Benade will turn 21, and Uncle Treppie promises him the girl of his dreams. But, in this hilariously tragi-comedy, as a new world is born, two mebers of the white trash family are destined to die.

Distributor: Contemporary Films
Website: http://www.triomf-movie.com/

Venue: Curzon Wimbledon & Ritzy Picturehouse (Previews 12 May)


Vincere (15) (D)

Director/writer: Marco Bellocchio
Cast: Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Filippo Timi, Fausto Russo Alesi, Michela Cescon, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio.

There is a secret in the life of Mussolini: a wife and a son, Benito Albino, who was born, acknowledged and then denied.

The secret bears a name: Ida Dalser. It is a dark page in history, one ignored in the official biography of the Duce. When Ida meets Mussolini in Milan, he is the editor of 'Avanti!' and an ardent Socialist who intends to guide the masses towards an anti-clerical, anti-monarchical, socially emancipated future. Ida already had a fleeting encounter with him in Trento and remained thunderstruck. Ida truly believes in him and his ideas. In order to finance 'Il Popolo d’Italia', a newspaper he has founded and the nucleus of the forthcoming Fascist Party, Ida sells everything she has.

When the First World War erupts, Benito Mussolini enrolls in the Army and disappears. When Ida finds him again in a military hospital, he is tended to by Rachele whom he has just married. Ida lashes out at her rival furiously, demanding her rights as Mussolini’s true wife and the mother of his first-born son. She is led away by force. For more than eleven years, she is locked away in an insane asylum (and her son in an institute) where she is put under physical restraint and tortured, never to see her son again.

But Ida will not give up without a fight...



Distributor: Artificial Eye
Trailer: http://www.artificial-eye.com/film.php?cinema=vincere&trailer

Venue: Chelsea Cinema, Curzons Mayfair, Wimbledon, Renoir & Key Cities


All images © Film Producers & Distributors.

Japanese film Fish Story reviewed

“The Beatles had broken up and The Velvet Underground had gone weird...”

Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura
Writer: Tamio Hayashi
Japan 2009 112 mins Cert TBC
Cast: Atsushi Ito, Kengo Kora, Mikako Tabe, Gaku Hamada, Mirai Moriyama

Fish Story is a witty concoction of disparate aleatoric stories and a bewildering set of characters, mostly briskly paced, carefully knitted together by the mainly solid acting and the alchemy shown by the director in the treatment of the story both in its direction and editing, the scenes ending in cliff hangers which are not resolved until the very end. In less capable hands, it is likely that the film would have ended as an almighty mess. It requires intense concentration as the details and elliptic twists of the plot and the actual resolution of the characters by the performance of the cast are essential for its comprehension. If no attention is taken when watching it, it will end up as an incongruent collection of scenes with no threads to glue them together, as the complexity of its structure has qualities which come straight out of quantum mechanics.

Fish Story shifts its tone from being a disaster movie – the initial scene of a deserted Tokyo street with rubbish strewn everywhere and traffic lights still working for no-one is a brilliantly economic depiction of the impending catastrophe to befall on the planet, to being a romance (a key ingredient in the mix, although not obvious at first), a comedy, a tragedy, and a punk musical, with ironic takes on the music industry, on Far East martial arts films and on the cult of the superhero, so popular in some recent blockbusters. There are also oblique references to the economic uncertainties of post war Japanese history woven somewhat hesitantly into the story. It kept me most of the time at the edge of my seat with a half drunk cup of tea in my hand hanging in mid air.

The film is set in Tokyo in 2012, a disabled man (we learn he is suffering from terminal stomach cancer) in a motorized buggy negotiates his way through the litter strewn in the deserted and silent streets, until he is attracted by the sound of music coming from a record shop, the only sign of life we see or hear. There we learn that a comet (a characters on its own right in the background, although with no name) is heading towards Earth, only five hours away. Its impact will generate a tidal wave taller than Mount Fuji, the mother of all tsunamis, that will drown not only Japan but the whole of the world as well. It does not matter if it crashes in Argentina, its devastating effect will still be the same. The population had already fled into higher grounds, where they will probably be killed by volcanic eruptions or the apocalyptic eternal winter that will ensue. There is no escape, the end is nigh.

There we also learn of a 1970s record which did not sell as the shop owner and a solitary customer have decided to spend their last hours of their lives listening to music. The song being played, Fish Story, was the swansong recorded by Gekirin (the Wrath), a Japanese punk band performing before punk existed, before the Sex Pistols formed, a band that failed to make a career in the music industry, a band whose music was too far ahead of its time. There is a hilariously riotous scene of the band playing in a night club, ending in a most undignified melee that would have made any hard punk proud of.

Will the world be saved? Who will save it? How will it be saved? Flashbacks are introduced as the characters in the record shop argue about their possibilities of survival, flashbacks which gradually build up the story that leads to the completely surprising resolution of the film. We also learn that the fate of the world hinges not on a song, but on a mistranslation.

Some of the special effects are unreal, such as the depiction of the comet remaining the same size and position in the sky throughout the film, although by the end of it the moment of impact was very close. I am not going into further details as to do so will be to spoil the plot.

The cinematography adds to the sense of impending disaster not only for the fate of Earth, but also for the fate of the characters, being particularly poignant in its rendition of the last performance by the band recording the Fish Story song. There is a Manga feel that particularly suits the film. The performance of the cast is, overall, solid, although in some points is all over the place.

The sad thing in this era of blockbuster domination of cinema is that if this striking although at times somewhat rambling film were to be made by one of the Hollywood studios, with all their marketing and distribution power and weight at their disposal, it would probably be a box office hit. A very intelligent, witty and and entertaining film that demands the viewer's full concentration to be enjoyed.

Fish story will be released at the ICA Cinema, London, on May 28th, 2010.




Distributor: Third Window Films
Website: http://thirdwindowfilms.com/films/fish-story
Film website: http://fishstory-movie.jp/

All images  © Third Window Films.

Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop reviewed

Once upon a time a video camera fell into the hands of a Frenchman living in Los Angeles. The result of that otherwise entirely forgettable  incident is Exit Through the Gift Shop, or stopping Mr Thierry Guetta stupidly playing with that camera and do something useful instead, as playing at being Mr Brainwash the showman and con the art connoisseurs both in Los Angeles and New York out of their pocket money. Or is it the whole thing a big con? If it is, who is conning whom in here? Are we, the viewers of this film, being conned about the very existence of Mr Brainwash? We know that Thierry Guetta does exist, unless Banksy has also being able to convince the Los Angeles Times and the BBC that a construct has a real existence. We also know that Mr Brainwash mounted those exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York. However, who is Mr Brainwash really? Banksy? Thierry Guetta?

What makes Exit Through the Gift Shop so unforgettable, apart of being a superb documentary on the street art scene of the past decade, depicting the works not only by the still secretive Banksy – we see his shadowy figure and hear his electronically distorted voice, but also by many other famous and infamous graffiti artists, a film that does justice to the guerrilla filming approach, both Guetta and Banksy seem to have spent an inordinate amount of time escaping the clutches of police officers and security personnel. This is an irreverent look into the art world, into the shallowness of the art market. It also documents very closely what entailed for Banksy and other street artists to produce their works, as the camera follow their preparations and raids in the middle of the night into some of the most unlikely locations, high up on walls above the roofs of adjacent buildings, the camera pointing anywhere and everywhere as Thierry climbs behind them, crossing fences to get into restricted access areas in Disneyland, or filming Banksy as he surreptitiously hangs some of his own paintings in the National Gallery, where it remained undetected for several hours. The camera even follows him in his incursion onto the most notorious and infamous wall of our contemporary world, the wall separating Israel from the Palestinian territories.

Banksy finally managed to shake Guetta off his back by challenging him to produce the goods, the resulting 90 minutes long film would have been much more intelligible if it had been edited by a toddler. So, Mr Brainwash the artist was born, storming Los Angeles in a big way with Life is Beautiful, and another show following in New York shortly afterwards. However, at this point, none of the questions raised at the beginning of this review have been answered, and probably they will remain as such.

Exit Through the Gift Shop is an irreverent and humorous film which documents Banksy and the street art scene commendably well, a very anarchic affair in a British way. I intensely enjoyed it. My only regret is that I would have liked to see more of Banksy’s works, as they are very witty, inquisitive, anarchic and subversive.

UK Film releases May 7th

The Back Up Plan (12A) (D)

Hard as it may be to think of Jennifer Lopez (left with Alex O’Loughlin) as a broody spinster, The Back-Up Plan casts her as such and finds her pregnancy arranged in a fertility clinic at the very moment she meets the man of her dreams. This is high concept stuff, expertly handled by all concerned and buoyed along on the charm of Lopez and Australian star O’Loughlin, to deliver a
romantic comedy with a winning twist.

Distributor: Sony Pictures

Website/trailer: http://www.theback-upplan.com/

Venue: Nationwide

Cameraman: The Life & Work Of Jack Cardiff (D)

Director: Craig McCall

Jack Cardiff was lauded by the Hollywood greats he photographed films for — John Huston, Sophia Loren, Alfred Hitchcock, Marilyn Monroe — and described by Michael Powell as “A genius, a daydreamer, a baby. He should have been a painter instead of being the best colour cameraman in the world.” Yet he has remained largely unknown to the general public until now.

Cameraman celebrates the life and work of this unique figure in British and international cinema, a man whose career spans an incredible nine decades of cinema history. “Legend” is a word all too frequently used in Hollywood, yet Jack Cardiff’s story surely proves him worthy of that title.

Director Craig McCall avoids the use of voiceover in the film, relying on those who made the movies to tell Jack’s story. Featuring unique interviews with over twenty of the world’s greatest actors, directors and technicians, Cameraman is not only a valuable testimony to British and international cinema history; it’s an informative and sometimes humorous one too — an amazing story about an exceptional life.

Jack Cardiff died in April 2009 aged 94, leaving behind a wealth of work which will live on for generations to come.

Distributor: Optimum Releasing

Website/trailer: http://www.jackcardiff.com/the-film/

Venue: BFI Southbank and selected Key Cities

Four Lions (15)

Chris Morris’ Four Lions is a funny, thrilling comedy that illuminates modern jihadism through the prism of farce. It understands jihadists as human beings. And it understands human beings as innately ridiculous. What This Is Spinal Tap did for heavy metal and Dr Strangelove the Cold War, Four Lions does for the modern face of terrorism.

In a British city, four men have a secret plan. Omar (Riz Ahmed) is disillusioned about the treatment of Muslims around the world and is determined to become a soldier. This is the most exciting idea Waj (Kayvan Novak) has ever heard. Better still it’s a no brainer because Omar does his thinking for him. Opposed to Omar and everyone else on earth is the white Islamic convert Barry (Nigel Lindsay). He’drealise he joined the cell to channel his nihilism - if he had half the self knowledge ofa duck. Faisal (Adeel Akhtar) is the odd man out. He can make a bomb – but he can’t blow himself up just now coz his sick dad has “started eating newspaper”. Instead he’s training crows to fly bombs through windows. This is what Omar has to deal with.

They must strike a decisive blow on their own turf but can any of them strike a match without punching himself in the face? Four Lions plunges us beyond seeing these young men as unfathomably alien. It undermines the folly of just wishing them away or, even worse, alienating the entire culture from which they emerge. The film is neither pro nor anti religious. The jokes fly out of the characters’ conflicts, excesses and mistakes. Crackling with wit and tension, Four Lions is the essential response to our failure to engage with reality and a high toast to the idea that laughter is better than killing.

Distributor: Optimum Releasing

Website: http://www.optimumreleasing.com/press/?id=1261

Venue: Clapham Picturehouse, Curzon Soho, Odeon Covent Garden & Nationwide

Furry Vengeance (PG) (D)

A hilarious live-action comedy for the whole family. The fur will fly this Spring as an army of woodland creatures enter into a battle of epic proportions to defend their home. Masterminded by an incredibly clever raccoon, the animals must join forces to save their beloved forest from Dan Sanders (Brendan Fraser) and his latest real estate project, which threatens their peaceful Oregon wilderness.

The animals aren’t afraid to get their paws dirty and seek their revenge with hilarious consequences. The developers soon realise that you can run but you can’t hide….

Starring Brendan Fraser (GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE), Brooke Shields (HANNAH MONTANA), Matt Prokop (HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3) and Ken Jeong (THE HANGOVER).

Distributor: E1 Entertainment

Website: http://www.e1entertainmentuk.com/index.php?category_id=6

Venue: Empire Leicester Square & Nationwide (Previews 1 May)

Hot Tub Time Machine (15) (D)

Hot Tub Time Machine follows a group of best friends who’ve become bored with their adult lives. After a crazy night of drinking in a ski resort hot tub, the men wake up, heads pounding, in the year 1986.

Distributor: 20th Century Fox

Website/trailer: http://www.hottubtimemachine.co.uk/

Venue: Vue West End & Nationwide

A Nightmare On Elm Street (18) (D)

The 1984 original stands as a classic, but now A Nightmare On Elm Street is re-imagined for a new generation with Watchmen star Jackie Earle Haley (above right) donning the razor gloves to play Freddy Krueger. He’s the caretaker murdered by a vigilante mob who returns from the dead to haunt their dreams and, more importantly, those of their impressionable offspring. So watch and enjoy but, whatever else you do, don’t even think of falling asleep.

Distributor: Warner Bros.

Website/trailer: http://www.nightmareonelmstreet.com/

Venue: Nationwide

Psych 9 (15)

Un unstable young woman secures a job working night at a recently closed hospital to collate all the hardcopy patient records. Working alone in the building after dark, she experiences a series of unsettling events that lead her to believe the hospital may be connected to a number of recent murders. To uncover the truth, she has to solve the mystery of her own disturbing past.

Distributor: Galaxy

Website/trailer: http://www.psych9.com/

One Night In Turin (15) (D)

Director/writer: James Erskine

Cast: Elliot Francis UK 2010 90 mins

Before the Premier League and multi-million pound salaries, in England ‘football’ was a dirty word. The game was in disgrace, the fans, hooligans, the nation, it seemed, were all played out. Then there was Italia '90 - The World Cup - a shot at redemption.

But this was no ordinary World Cup and no ordinary time. The manager, Sir Bobby Robson, was under intense media scrutiny, and his team described as ‘donkeys’. Yet over six short weeks, through their heroic exploits they united a nation, coming within a heart beat of reaching the World Cup Final

Distributor: Kaleidoscope Entertainment

Website/trailer: http://www.onenightinturin.co.uk/

Venue: Empire Leicester Square & Nationwide

A Room And A Half  (12A)(D)

Director: Andrey Khrzhanovskiy Russia 2009 130 mins

Cast: Aleksandr Bargman, Sergei Barkovsky, Aleksei Devotchenko, Grigoriy Dityatkovskiy

A semi-fictional account of Russian poets Josef Brodsky, who was forced into American exile in 1972

Distributor: Yume Pictures

Venue: Cine Lumiere, Curzon Mayfair, Everyman, Ritzy & Key Cities (Scotland 21 May)

Just For The Record (18) (D)

Director: Steve Lawson

Cast: Danny Dyer, Steven Berkoff, Lisa McAllister.

Danny Dyer (‘The Football Factory’, ‘The Business’),  Craig Fairbrass (‘Rise Of The Footsoldier’, ‘The Bank Job’),  Sean Pertwee (‘Dog Soldiers’, ‘Doomsday’), Phil Davis (‘Dead Man Running’), Steven Berkoff (‘The Krays’) and Billy Murray (‘Rise Of The Footsoldier’) come together as one of the greatest British casts in recent memory.

Dirty dealings, back-stabbing, insults, threats, blackmail and deception – it’s all in a days work for this motley crew who have been assembled for a business venture more treacherous than any kind of criminal endeavour! 

As sparks fly, it’s everyman for himself, take no prisoners and, hopefully, get out in one piece with reputation still in one mangled piece!

Distributor: Metrodome Distribution

Venue: Key Cities

DVD release date: 17th May 2010

Sus (15) (D)

Director:  Robert Heath

Cast:  Ralph Brown, Clint Dyer, Rafe Spall

1979: Election Night – A police interview room. Delroy's pregnant wife has been found dead in a pool of blood and he is brought in as the chief suspect. He is interrogated by D.S. Karn, a witty, psychotic racist and his violent sidekick D.C. Wilby. Both high on the prospect of a Conservative landslide victory they try to lure him into a quick confession. Callous humiliation gives way to a barrage of sinister violence, leading to a devastating conclusion.

From Barrie Keeffe, the writer of the British classic ’The Long Good Friday’ and based on a true story, SUS is a gripping and emotionally fuelled drama, with dialogue crackling in humour and insight. It is also a powerful outcry against institutional racism and of course the ever controversial SUS laws. It pulls no punches in its depiction of a corrupt system that fails the very people it should protect.

In Britain, the Sus law was the informal name for a stop-and-search law that permitted a police officer to act on suspicion, or 'sus', alone.

It was based upon Sections 4 and 6 of the Vagrancy Act 1824 which made it "illegal for a suspected person or reputed thief to frequent or loiter in a public place with intent to commit an arrestable offence" and effectively permitted the police to stop and search and even arrest anyone they chose, purely on the basis of suspicion as a crime-prevention tactic.

Distributor: Independent

Website/trailer: http://www.menschfilms.com/sussite/

Venue: Apollo Piccadilly Circus, Genesis Cinema & selected Key Cities

Au Hasard Balthazar

Director/writer: Robert Bresson France/Sweden 1966 95 mins

Cast: Anne Wiazemsky, Walter Green, François Lafarge, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Philippe Asselin, Pierre Klossowski, Nathalie Jogaut.

If there is one sentence that could define Robert Bresson’s approach to cinema making, I think that would be on the lines of: The complexity of simplicity.

Au Hasard Balthazar falls clearly under this category. At first glance, it sounds simple, too simple for sophisticated tastes, awaking attitudes such as Oh no, I’ll fall asleep with this film. This is not the case at all. As with other Bresson’s works, it held my undiminished attention from the first frame of a stone wall until the last shot. It is the life story of a donkey, since he was a foal until his death as an abused old animal, downtrodden with smuggled goods and shot after his handlers abandoned him. The foal was formally baptized Balthazar, with a proper Catholic ritual, by and surrounded by adorable and loving children. However, this picture was not to be. It is also a story of betrayal and redemption, a story of fate. One of those children, Marie (Anne Wiazemsky) loved him dearly since she was a little girl, but also betrays him as she grew up and got mixed with a gang of youths in the village, shadowy young people inhabiting in that land located between society and complete amorality.

The film follows the parallel lives of Marie and Balthazar with stark camera work, black and white photography streamlined down to the minimum, the language being sparse like biblical sentences. However, while the donkey accepts mostly with grace and humility the cruelties and brutalities inflicted upon him as he was passed from owner to owner like a yo-yo, with flashes of rebellion here and there, but always with s flourish of his long ears; Marie betrays him and goes on in doing so not only him, but also her childhood sweet heart, Jacques. Balthazar’s life tragically ends, in a twist of fate, just when he had a chance to live his last few years in peace, after having worked all his life as, well, a donkey. His reward being kick after kick. He accepts his death with saintly tranquillity and dignity, his eyes open until the last moment taking in the world around him, Marie having disappeared in despair.

Au Hasard Balthazar has been interpreted as a Christian parable, an exemplary life led by the donkey, taking everything that came onto him, the kicks and the kisses, with humility and grace until his death. Marie, to some extent, leads a similar life, in sharp contrast with the lives of most of the surrounding humans around them, following a complete different path, a path of cruelty, selfishness and brutality.

Bresson’s eye is always sharp as steel in its dissection of human frailties; however, it is never unkind. Au Hasard Balthazar is no different in this respect as we despair watching Marie’s attitude when she sees Balthazar being beaten by her lover, but we learn the conflict in her hearth when she failed to intervene; we vent our anger to Gerard and his gang, but we also learn to see the world through their eyes.

Au Hasard Balthazar, a classic of cinema by one of its masters.

A search through the IMDb website revealed a few interesting facts. Anne Wiazemsky, the lead actress, the daughter of a Russian count and granddaughter of the French writer François Mauriac, did pursue, unusually for Bresson’s actors, a career in cinema and TV until 1988, having worked under Jean-Luc Godard – to whom she married, and Pier-Paolo Pasolini, and others. She is also a writer, having collaborated in L’Irreguliere, on which the film Coco Before Chanel was based. Pierre Klossowski, the miller in the film, was the painter Balthus older brother, himself being an artist and writer. He also appeared in Raoul Ruiz' films.

Record audiences for UK cinemas this Bank Holiday weekend

In a press release the Film Distributors’ Association has just announced that this weekend holiday had a record 3.25 million cinema goers in Britain, a figure equivalent to a typical week. The top choices were Iron Man 2, How to Train  Your Dragon, Date Night, The Last Song and Clash of the Titans, revealing a demand for so-called family adventure films and romantic comedies. It is a shame that arthouse and world cinema films does not get much of this audience, the public is missing some real gems out there.

President of Film Distributors’ Association, Lord Puttnam CBE, said:  “It’s encouraging as well as exciting to see that the cinema was such a popular destination for family audiences seeking state-of-the-art entertainment over the bank holiday. I hope that combination of the latest releases and the uniquely immersive cinema experience continues to captivate audiences throughout the summer, whatever the weather!”

Instant Swamp reviewed

Instant Swamp is a roller coaster hilarious comedy, riotously acted, which kept me laughing almost non stop all the way through. Kumiko Aso, bringing a gloriously feisty performance as Haname, the protagonist, and Morio Kazama as a rogue trader, glue the film together. It was a pleasure to watch this marvellous pair of actors. The “sunny” feel of the cinematography adds to the festive atmosphere of Instant Swamp.

Before I continue with this review, I have a confession to make: I shared, as a kid, a common liking with Haname for Milo sludge. Luckily, you cannot see me now as I am embarrassed.

The film is a parody on the beliefs in the supernatural, it lingers on the amulets and superstitions that sustain the underbelly of our daily lives, at times subconsciously, with fantastical overtones, which could have benefited from a tighter screenplay as, after a while, the gags become repetitive throughout its nearly two hours length.

Instant Swamp, or the curse of the black cat talisman that Haname Jinchoge, the protagonist, buried in anger when she was a little girl in a swamp near her home when her father left, as he could not cope with the oddities, eccentricities and beliefs in the supernatural that his wife had. The film is told from Haname’s point of view, it begins as a video diary with grainy footage that turns into the action in a seamless transition (I nearly did not notice that her voice over was no longer there), as she is in almost every frame. Indeed, Kumiko Aso carries the film onto her slender shoulders.

Haname’s key characteristic is that she absolutely does not believe in superstitions, ghosts, curses, fairies or water sprites, which puts her at odds with not only her colleagues in the no longer ‘fashionable’ fashion magazine where she works, but also with her mother. Yet, she is still convinced that her life is going downhill because of the black cat talisman buried in that now dry swamp. She soon loses her job as, finally, the magazine collapses under the weight of the tons of unsold copies, burying in the process her dreams of founding a fashion magazine in her dreamland of Italy with her idol, a trendy photographer much in demand.

When her mother is rescued by the police after she fell into a pond, chasing water sprites, an old post box was also found. A letter which was posted by her mother, but never delivered, to a charming man with dubious morals nicknamed Light Bulb Co. reveals her that he is her real father, a drifter who has settled down with a fake antiques shop. She meets and befriends him, gradually growing close to him, although doubtful at the beginning of their relationship and his personality. There she meets some odd characters, including a punk rocker called Gas, although he actually is an electrician.

Finally, due to the miraculous transformation of the contents of a warehouse that her father, Light Bulb Co. (she never told him that she was his daughter), sold the key to her for a million yen, the curse of the black cat talisman was finally lifted.

Objects, as symbols of beliefs in the supernatural and superstitions, talismans which usually bring bad luck when they are supposed to do just the opposite, not only anchor the narrative continuity of the film, but become characters in their own right together with Haname, Light Bulb Co., Gas, and the others.

The apparently worthless content of that warehouse (leading to some more hilarious scenes), ultimately may have not contained the gold or riches she was led to believe, but it contained something even better than those: it lifted the curse that afflicted her life (cursing her father’s life instead), defeating the gradual slow grinding down built into our lives (which reminded me of Peter Greenaway’s recent comment that there are only two certain facts in life: sex and death). If there is a moral to the film, here is where to find it.

The image quality of the DVD is excellent in its sharpness and colour, the transfer maintaining its original aspect ratio.

Instant Swamp (Insutanto Numa)

Director/writer: Miki Satoshi Japan 2009 120 mins Cert TBC
Cast:Kumiko Aso, Ryo Kase, Morio Kazama, Eri Fuse, Kankuro Kudo

Production Company: Kadokawa 

DVD UK release date: 24th May, 2010

Third Window Films Website: http://thirdwindowfilms.com/films/instant-swamp
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLs8hXTJx3U

The Limits of Control reviewed

Director: Jim Jarmusch USA 2009 116 mins Cert 15

Cast: Descas, Bill Murray, Gael García Bernal, Isaach de Bankolé, John Hurt, Paz de la Huerta, Tilda Swinton

Some critics seem to be recurring to the parameters set by the big Hollywood studios as their criteria to review, and judge, movies. So, when a film such as Jim Jarmusch’ The Limits of Control appears in the horizon, they get shot down very quickly from the cinematic sky by these critics, as their structure and treatment do not fit with the conventionality of studio made films. What sets Avatar apart is the technical wizardry that allowed for the digital construction of its world. In terms of its structure and plot treatment, it is no different from Aliens, an earlier Cameron’s blockbuster.

The counter argument to this line of thought is that, while The Limits of Control is different, if not original and certainly beautifully crafted, from your average studio production in the cinematic treatment of its subject matter; it does not need any critics to be shot down.  It does it all on its own. The following question has to be asked: What is its subject matter? Or, to use different words: What was the point of making it?

The very beginning sets the cinematic treatment for the rest of the film: a scene, filmed in what seems to be a changing cubicle, carefully constructed in such a manner that pushes the viewer out of balance. From that point on clues are constantly being thrown at us to be taken away a minute or so afterwards in a series of ritualistic shots that, after a while, stop in getting my subconscious mind to lay a smile across my lips because of their repetitiveness. Every scene has been beautifully composed and photographed – the film is set in Spain, with a painterly quality in their treatment, acting as a continuous visual bass to the incongruous figure of the stranger (Isaach de Bankolé), The Man With No Name who denies to be an American gangster when asked by some children following him in a street in Seville, in spite of looking and acting as one (his manner of walking, his gaze, his suit, being reminiscent of Lee Marvin in Point Blank). If he was or not a gangster you will have to make up your mind after the last scene – or, should I say, black out? Others could interpret it as an homage to such films. Jarmusch delights in superimposing such dissonant images on his carefully constructed scenes.

The premise on which The Limits of Control is based upon is a riddle, as the nameless Man in a kind of ritual journey through Spain with hardly a smile posed on his lips solving one riddle after the other, many set in such presumptuous language that made my hair stand up in horror. This character also reminded me of the contract killer played by a young Alain Delon in that classic 1967 French film noir, Le Samouraï, by Jean-Pierre Melville, but without the canary. However, for riddles to work they need to be short, sharp and with underlying humour. None of these characteristics are present in The Limits of Control (apart of some brief humorous flashes): it just goes on and on, becoming more and more intellectually presumptuous and vacuous with every frame projected on the screen, ending in a frankly disappointingly prosaic and well trodden formula.

If it did try to be a thriller, it fails to work as such as it is too repetitive and no dramatic tension is built. If it did try to be a film asking existential questions about how our world actually works, it fails because it is too hermetic in its plot and cinematic treatment. If it did try to be a big joke at the expenses of art house audiences, it fails as it is too obscure. I found it to be a very infuriating film as I still enjoyed it, in spite of feeling that I was cheated at the end. It is beautifully photographed, staged and acted, but it felt like attempting to see the whole of the contents of the Louvre or the National Gallery in just one visit: its very beauty becomes unbearable, the eyes and the mind drift away.

On the positive side, it has a good cast of actors, Isaach de Bankolé giving the right tone to the character of The Man, while Tilda Swinton and John Hurt have brief but brilliant appearances. Gael García Bernal just plays himself, as usual I am afraid to say – I really would like to see him actually acting, for a change. The film is also visually stunning, with the caveats already mentioned, and we got to travel through Spain in its excellent rail network (I know, I have used it).

Spring Symphony

Director/writer: Peter Schamoni
West Germany 1983 103 mins
Cast: Nastassja Kinski, Rolf Hoppe, Herbert Grönemeyer, Anja-Christine Preussler.

Peter Schamoni’s 1983 film Spring Symphony (Frühlingssinfonie) should clearly fall into the category of Masters and Classics of Cinema, although I believe that it passed largely unnoticed in Britain. A young Nastassja Kinski plays the part of teenager Clara Wieck, brilliantly conveying the childishness and coquetry of a 15 year old girl, whilst expressing the strength of character and resolution of a young woman aware of her talent and sure of her path; while Anja-Christine Preussler  is excellent as the bossy child that Clara (it drew a laugh from me) must have been, yet still demanding to be told a bedtime story as any other little girl would have done.

The film charts the story of the talented young pianist Clara Wieck, nurtured from a very early age by her stern father Friedrich Wieck - impeccably played by Rolf Hoppe, a piano dealer and teacher, to storm the stages of Europe at practically any cost during the early part of the 19th century, following the revolution in music brought by Beethoven, Schubert, and many other musicians. Regrettably for him, the Romantic composer Robert Schumann (a plausible Herbert Grönemeyer) enters into the picture, dislocating the inexorable path he had traced for Clara to follow, and breaking the very close relationship between daughter and father had – some people would argue to have been too close for comfort, although no sexual abuse is hinted at.

Spring Symphony explores the tormented romance between the brilliant Robert Schumann and the equally brilliant Clara, a relationship that finally led to the rupture of the filial bonds between her and her father, a disappointed and stubborn man who refused to give ground to the love between the two young people, a man who had spent most of his financial and emotional resources on furthering her career. On this respect, whatever his motives were, it could be said that he actually financially and emotionally exploited her.

The film also hints at the clash which was to come between two talented and strong willed musicians, particularly in the last scene when Schumann’s gorgeous Spring Symphony was premiered under the conduction of Felix Mendelssohn.

The Leipzig of the early 19th century has been convincingly portrayed, while the camera work stunningly conveys not only the beauty of Nastassja Kinski, but also her very European sensuality.

Spring Symphony is a must to be seen by all lovers of classical music. It certainly reconnected me with Schumann’s works, a composed who I have, somewhat, neglected. Paganini is another composer that was brought back into the forefront of my mind.

Notes on the Mitchell-McKeown house, London, 2010

I am writing this on the understanding that I have not seen the actual house, as reported in The Guardian on May 1st, 2010, but only the piece in the Weekend magazine. I am also fulfilling the second part of the name of this blog.

Frankly, the current trend in domestic architecture for a clean lines modernist approach, as it is being repeated ad nauseam, is becoming sterile and boring. What Patrick Mitchell and Claire McKeown, two young London based architects, have done in converting the shell of a semi-derelict terraced house into a contemporary home is very interesting indeed, the rescuing of back end spaces from its long standing servant role into part of the living area of the house is admirable. That window seat at the back is gorgeous.

However, it is those clean sheets of glass, stainless steel everywhere and recessed lights that I am starting to look at them with a slightly bored expression on my face. I cannot depict any of my cats climbing onto that roof and exposing their bottoms and all to anybody below. The interiors in the photographs look stunning... I would like to see them in about a year time. What I object most of all is the clean sheet of glass in the roof. Ghastly.

To see photographs of the house click the link below:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/may/01/crack-house-modern-house