The Road (2009)

Synopsis: Post apocalyptic ash covered nightmare from Cormac McCarthy brought to life by The Proposition director John Hilcoat.

I'd read the book of this film last year and really enjoyed it. Well, I say enjoyed, but you can't really enjoy the book, so bleak is its outlook and so desperate is its message. But it is written with such a strong voice that it hooks you in and drags you along on the journey.

I then read that the film version had been successful in rendering the spirit of the book, its bleakness and 'look'. Sounds odd for a book to have a certain look, but if you read The Road you'll know what this means. McCarthy's vivid description creates a very powerful overall image of the post apocalyptic world that the father and son inhabit.

So, to the film. It's good. It does transfer the look of the story that I had in my head when reading to the screen pretty successfully. It also mainly manages to recreate the deep sense of loss and despair that permeate the pages of McCarthy's book. However, there are some downsides.

The flashbacks. Totally unnecessary in my opinion, they only served to break up the monotony of the father/son journey and give it some sort of context. In the book, all we know is that there once was a mother, but that she left (and died presumably) leaving the father and son to fend for themselves. That the film keeps returning to this previous life somehow dilutes the present situation and weaken the anger and despair of the book.

As I was watching I realised that this wasn't the first film version of a beloved book in which I'd seen this happen. John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is possibly the angriest book I've ever read. Full of beautiful language, description and dialogue, the book also conveys a deep sense of injustice and open, white-hot rage directed at what the author sees as a man made economic and social disaster. The film, from John Ford (no stranger to passion himself), does go some way to keep that anger but it is definitely lessened. Presumably, this was partly because of screen censorship/sensibilities of the time (I can't imagine many directors in the 1940s getting away with showing a woman having just lost a baby in childbirth suckling a starving adult man) and partly because I think once you have someone else making a version of anothers work, whatever the original intentions behind it are going to be lost somewhat as the personal feelings are going to be difficult to recreate.

John Ford allegedly didn't quite believe Steinbeck's vision of the Californian work camps (a bit over the top and depressing thought Ford) until he visited them himself as part of location scouting. It was only upon seeing the hellish conditions first hand that he understood the full ferocity of Steinbeck's work.

Even though I felt that The Road suffered a little from this same sense, it doesn't really pull any punches and doesn't miss out any crucial events (apart from the father's visit to the ship). It is pretty much as grim as the book.

Viggo Mortensen is really well cast in the role of the father but even though he gives a decent performance, I reckon Kodi Smit-McPhee is still a bit too cute to pull off the son's character. The inclusion of Charlize Theron as the mother just goes to strengthen the argument for scrapping the flashback sequences altogether. They strike such a false note, I do wonder why they included them. Surely it would be too cynical to think they were added in to get a big 'star' name.

If you need actual visual representations of stories, then The Road is worth watching. But, if your imagination is as vivid as mine and you enjoy creating the world of a story in your head, then skip straight past the film and go for McCarthy's book. You will have a far more interesting, if far more depressing, journey.

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/

Don't Worry About Me (2009)

Synopsis: London bloke David has one night stand and follows her back to Liverpool. Doesn't work out with her, and he ends up hanging out with a lass from a betting shop, Tina, for the day and night. Goes back to London having learnt some important lessons.

This directorial debut from actor David Morrissey wasn't quite the gem I was expecting, but there are still bags of affection up on screen.

The story (fish out of water gets shown round Liverpool and also goes on an emotional journey) offers plenty of opportunity for insights for both characters. There are clues all along the way that make us think there's more to David than meets the eye and Tina also gets the chance to reveal a big secret.

Although it's difficult to explain exactly why, the fine detail of the writing (the script was written by the two leads) and characterisation isn't as nuanced as it could have been. Some of the acting (mainly with David's character) is a bit heavy handed. The scene on the beach with David on his mobile sounds and feels as if it was designed more for a stage play than a film as he repeats his offensive remark several times until Tina hears it. Surely with film this can be done more subtly?

The photography and set up of the frames feels very definitely like an amateur's debut or film school graduation film. Unfair maybe, but if you compare this to Samantha Morton's debut, The Unloved, you will see what I mean. I suppose with many actors' directorial debuts, you're never sure how much is their work and how much slack is taken up by DoPs etc. but The Unloved is really something quite remarkable.

Don't Worry About Me feels more like a starting point, a first go at making a film. Nothing wrong with that at all, except perhaps I was expecting something more.

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1120920/

Cloud 9 (2008)

Synopsis: Golden aged infidelity in this poignant tale of forbidden love between German OAPs.

I'd seen a trailer for this when on holiday in Germany in 2008 and it looked like a thoughtful essay on an age old story: falling in love with someone you shouldn't fall in love with (cue Buzzcocks). It was a bit different to what I expected but it is an interesting take on the subject.

German pensioner Inge is married to Werner and lives in a flat, doing sewing and alterations. One day, she delivers a pair of trousers to a handsome gentleman named Kurt and before you can say 'shall I just take your inside leg measurement?' they are undressing and making love on his living room carpet. And there's no holds barred in what the film shows. For those of you with a queasy disposition when it comes to watching the older generation engage in adult fun, this won't be an easy watch. But, I found it just as erotic as many other well executed love scenes in European films and it's kind of reassuring to see that sex doesn't stop even when you're drawing your pension.

The illicit relationship gets off to a shaky start and Inge is plagued by guilt and her strong love for her husband. But she cannot deny her feelings for Kurt and tells her daughter (Werner's step daughter) what has happened. The daughter encourages Mum to continue the affair and to keep it quiet (huh?) but she can't hide it much longer and tells Werner. This sets off a chain of events that ends sadly but also hopefully.

I found Inge's character a bit irritating and frustrating. At one point in an argument Werner tells her that she only lives for the moment and doesn't know what she wants and you can see that about her. She's not a defiant, strong willed adulterer. She's confused, ashamed and yet still confident enough in her new found feelings to know that she wants Kurt more than Werner.

There are many scenes which will feel familiar to anyone in a long term relationship: Inge and Werner spending evenings in near silence, watching TV, listening to Werner's train records (!) and generally behaving like a couple that have got used to each other's company rather than really relishing it.

One thing I found particularly interesting was Inge's desire for her husband even after she begins the affair with Kurt. It's fascinating how someone can continue to conduct a sex life with one person whilst embarking on a new sex life with someone else. Somehow, this didn't seem odd but only added to the character's sense of confusion and trying to come to terms with such a seismic shift in her life.

After watching the film I read Roger Ebert's review and he mentions a similar film called Innocence (2000), which he reckons is even better. Cloud 9 does have its flaws - Werner's ending (without giving too much away) was particularly troublesome for me. I plan on seeking out Innocence to compare and contrast.

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037228/

The Last Detail (1973)

Synopsis: Two US Navy lifers (Jack Nicholson and Otis Young) accompany a young seaman (Randy Quaid) to jail after he is convicted of petty theft. Much adventurous drunken hilarity ensues.

A funny, warm, profanity laden and intelligent film from one of Hollywood's golden ages. The 1970s saw a celluloid smorgasbord of incredible films come out of Hollywood and The Last Detail is firmly part of that creative period.

Based on a novel, the story is a classic 'journey' tale, with all three characters going through emotional catharsis alongside the geographical journey. We also see Jack Nicholson and Otis Young act as parents to young Quaid, with each respectively slipping easily into the Mom (Young) and Dad (Nicholson) roles. A bit like good cop/bad cop, the twosome display traits to emphasise their own growing emotional attachment to Quaid's character.

This angle of it reminded me of In Bruges (older know it all looking after a younger version of himself, and with a tonne of swearing).

With a feeling of a stage play, there's some great dialogue between the characters. There's a great scene on the train in which they discuss Quaid's crime in a laid back way. There's such a lovely naturalness to this scene it almost feels like improv.

Also reminded me how sexy US sailors can be, with their bell bottoms and flat hats. If you need any further reminding, take a look at Marie Cosindas' beautiful and iconic photograph.

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070290/

The Idiots (1998)

Synopsis: A bunch of neo, proto, ersatz anarcho hippies in Denmark spend their time pretending to be mentally handicapped, which they do in order to question social morality and values. Or something. A new recruit gets sucked into this world and eventually releases "her inner spass" before a truly emotional and shocking denouement.

This was one of those films that I'd meant to watch for years, ever since Lars Von Trier and the Dogme '95 lot from Denmark released their manifesto. I had very set preconceptions about what the film would be like - pretentious, boring, pointless, badly made. So, I was slightly trepidatious when putting it in the DVD player. I was, very happily, proved wrong on all counts.

Whilst the idea of a manifesto to make films without using artificial light or using much post production etc. sounds wanky, it is a very interesting experiment. What can you achieve if you strip away the well accepted touch ups and techniques used in film making? After watching the film, I don't think that it detracts from the story or feel of the film. Some have described The Idiots as having a documentary feel, but I didn't see that at all. The way it is constructed by including interviews with members of the group could be seen as documentary style, but the intervening action is very different, being so intimate and delicate as to contrast very strongly with a non-fiction tale. We aren't watching characters who are being self-consciously watched.

The film is also far from boring. Each vignette or episode is really nicely put together and keeps your interest. You can never quite believe what you're watching (the group at a swimming pool, hanging out with some Hell's Angels and scaring off a potential house buyer) but rather than giving you that cringeworthy embarrassment associated with Sasha Baron Cohen's Borat or Ali G's exploits, the idiots in The Idiots are so in character and are so vulnerable in those characters, that you feel an empathy and an anger, but not embarrassment.

Now, the accusation of the film being pointless is a bit more difficult to defend. As you get to know the group of middle class dropouts we realise that it's a game to them, a game that they try to justify but you never really understand. Ultimately, as the group disintegrates and the heroine reveals her own, very real, tragedy, you do wonder what any of them has achieved through their messing about. However, I think it is some what successful in highlighting how society reacts to the handicapped (we see a local council representative trying to bribe the 'handicapped' home to move to a neighbouring borough).

It was the technical and aesthetic aspects of the film that really had my preconceptions turned around. I expected handheld camerawork and natural lighting, which there is, complete with getting shots of the mic boom and second camera on film. But, the quality of the framing and the structure of the shots is so good that whilst we're dealing with some amateurish techniques, we do not get amateurish results. I just kept thinking, 'wow, these guys really know what they're doing'. The acting, which is first rate, also keeps the quality threshold pretty high, belying the overall feel of the film.

There are a few sequences that really stood out for me as particularly excellent. The first scene that has stayed with me is towards the end of the story as the group throw a party in the house that ends in an orgy (including an infamous shot of penetration). Two of the more delicate characters, Jeppe and Josephine (pictured above) go off on their own to another room. Whilst still in 'spass' character they very slowly and tenderly embrace and proclaim their love to each other. It's such an intimate moment and so beautifully played.

The other scene that really blew me away was the heroine, Karen, returning home with another member of the group, Susanne, to visit her family. We're not quite sure what is going on as Karen is effectively blanked by her mother as she re enters the family home. However, fairly quickly we become aware that Karen joined the group just after her baby son had died, missing his funeral. To make things even worse, Karen has agreed to 'spass' in front of her family to prove to the group the importance of their 'work'. As Karen's family sits quietly pouring coffee and eating cake we see her gradually begin to display mentally handicapped traits (not being able to eat properly). The actress playing Karen, Bodil Jorgensen, has a wonderfully expressive face, with downcast eyes, emphasising her pathetic nature. The scene is played so well, leaving you feeling shocked, devastated and that everything suddenly falls into place. Here is a very damaged woman in need of care and love, who has been hanging around with a group in which, on the face of it, sympathy is scarce. But, actually the group do give love and a sense of family on some odd level. It doesn't last, but clearly has a somewhat positive impact on each member.

So, it is definitely worth watching. An engaging, intriguing, interesting film with brilliant acting and a refreshing approach to film making.

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0154421/

The Damned United (2009)

Synopsis: Based on the David Peace novel of the same name, this is the story of the 44 days that Brian Clough lasted as manager of Leeds Utd. Ups, downs and an ultimately warm tale of one man and his assistant coach.

Initially attracted to this film both for Sheen's impersonation of Clough and to listen to some of my favourite Clough-isms, I really enjoyed Tom Hooper's comedy drama. What's so good about it, is the relationship between Clough and Peter Taylor and how, without Taylor to assist at Leeds (and many other problems to boot), Clough comes unstuck. We see the tough talking, the hilarious one liners, the drinking and the ego. However, Michael Sheen still manages to create a warm, lively, honest character, one whose achievements can't be overstated and whose humanity can't be ignored.

Visually, the film is nicely photographed by Ben Smithard, with a nice '70s colour pallette but use of quite a few wide shots (many on wide angle lenses) for a reason I couldn't quite figure out. It gave the film a slightly gritty feel (maybe trying too hard to chime in with the feel of other film adaptations of David Peace works) that I don't think it really needed, as the story isn't about Clough's downfall as such, and includes much humour.

After watching the film, I sought out some of Brian Clough's TV appearances. Two of these appearances really stand out. The first is an almost 10 minute extract of an interview with John Motson. The interview is very uncomfortable, as Clough lays into Motson and what he sees as the problem with modern football analysis and TV punditry. He even namechecks Shirley Williams. Just brilliant.

The second video is of Brian Clough's meeting with Don Revie, the man that he had taken over from at Leeds Utd. The interview is portrayed in the film and I assumed it was not based on a real event, as it seems so set up. The TV meeting of these two men is fascinating, as it shows two rivals having an open, honest and electric debate. You just would not see anything like this on TV now. Incredible.

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226271/

Tony Manero (2008)

Synopsis: Pinochet era, Chilean disco dancing serial killing impotent nutbag goes up in a Tony Manero looky likey TV competition.

I was very intrigued by the premise of this film (serial killer obsessed with Saturday Night Fever, what's not to like??) and even though the first act was kind of slow-ish, the second and third act more than make up for it with some bloody brilliant touches.

We are introduced to Raul and his odd living/family arrangements. There is a mother, a girlfriend and her daughter and then her boyfriend ?! all living above some sort of cafe/restaurant/social club in Pinochet's Chile. The political situation is ever present (mentions of curfew, charges of Communism etc., tanks on the streets).

Raul and his odd bod dance troupe rehearse dance routines around his own version of Travolta's central dance in Saturday Night Fever. Watching Raul et al practice those well known dance steps is properly tragic, as they are about as good as you or I dancing in front of the mirror in our bedroom.

In between rehearsals, we get a glimpse into Raul's psychopathic activities. And they are properly psychopathic. He kills an old lady for her colour telly, a wood/glass merchant to get hold of his glass bricks (to build the coloured lit dance floor of course!), the cinema owners to get hold of the Saturday Night Fever film reels. Although the most disturbing episode is late on in the film, when it's revealed that the daughter's boyfriend will also be trying out for the Tony Manero competition. Raul finds out that the boyfriend has a better white suit than he has, so he ruins in the worst way he knows how. By defecating all over it.

By the end of film, we're witness to his performance at the looky likey show. He actually turns out to be the best impersonator with the best moves but...BUT he's not young and attractive enough to be allowed to win and even though audience applause tells us that he's won, the presenter gives the prize to another contestant. We follow Raul to the bus stop as he watches and follows the winner and his wife on to a bus. The film ends as they ride the bus, leaving us to assume that Raul will kill the guy at some point just out of spite.

Raul as an anti hero is pretty awful. We don't get any sense of him being human at all, with very little given away in his facial expressions or dialogue. At times the film reminded me of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and Killing of a Chinese Bookie, with beautiful '70s colour tones and handheld camera work. (The dance sequences also took me back to one of my favourite dance scenes of all time, in the closing credits of Claire Denis' Beau Travail as Denis Lavant lets himself go in a Djibouti nightclub). Some of the out of focus shots didn't quite work for me, not sure what they were really for, but some of the group scenes used the handheld shooting really well. The camera moves about from character to character, focusing our attention first on Raul's slow dance with his girlfriend's daughter, then shifts to his girlfriend staring at them both, then follows them as they move upstairs and Raul fails miserably at seducing the girl.

Raul is almost like a child. He reacts remarkably simply to events around him, mostly through anger. At one point as the rotting floorboards on the cafe stage start to disintegrate beneath his dancing feet, he just starts to smash them up in a fit of rage, like a 5-year old child. Basically, he will kill to get his own way and has an unbelievable ability to delude himself.

The director has said that this film was a way of discussing the effect of living under a dictatorship; that in violent times people begin to behave with no morality and bascially only act for themselves. Pretty brilliant film.

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1223975/

Up in the Air (2009)

Synopsis: George Clooney plays a cynical singleton, hired to travel across the US to fire people. He meets an equally cynical business woman, Alex, and they indulge in some no strings sex. As Clooney mentors a colleague in how they do things, the three of them learn lots of life lessons from one another.

Still not quite sure what the massive fuss was about with this film. It is funny but loses its edge about half way through, when it becomes predictable and slightly schmaltzy.

The comic acting from Clooney and Anna Kendrick is pretty darn good, both having to cope with treading the line between tragedy (they fire people for a living) and comedy. Poor old Vera Farmiga gets the sort of baddie role that was a bit easy to spot coming.

Worth watching but not as edgy as it promises to be.

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193138/

The Man From Laramie (1955)

Man from Laramie. Alternative title: King Steer (d'you see what I've done there?)

Synopsis: James Stewart is the titular hero who delivers goods and some ol' fashioned revenge on some baddies who have done 'im wrong. He gets involved in some complicated King Lear nonsense with local cattle baron Alec Waggoman (Donald Crisp - last seen by me as the lovely Dad in National Velvet). Ends sort of well for Jimmy and very mixed for all the others.

A few scenes into this brilliant psychological Western from Anthony Mann and James Stewart (see Naked Spur below), we see the hand of a Native American on a stair rail (in the trading post where Stewart is delivering goods) in sharp left of frame. The camera pans out to reveal the character but the camera moves in such a way that the hand ends up in the dead centre of the frame. This hand is a huge clue to as why Stewart is here and how the denoument will play out.

Our Jimmy makes his deliveries but insists on taking some goods back with him to stop it being a wasted journey. When he is sent out to some local salt flats, little does he realise that they are on the land of local cattle baron Crisp. His son Dave plus sidekicks turn up, burn Stewart's wagons and shoot his mules. Oh dear. Jimmy himself also gets a whooping and dragged through a fire on a rope. The scenes at the salt flats had a touch of the Lawrence of Arabia's about them. We first see Dave's gang from a really wide shot that with their approach on horseback becomes closer and closer until the camera has swung around to focus on Dave and Jimmy.

So, Jimmy's been done wrong and keeps hinting that something else is keeping him in town, so he sets about getting even with the Waggoman's. He soon gets imbroiled with the father, son, stepson/cattlehand Vic and Vic's girlfriend, Waggoman cousin and trading post manager Barbara. Stewart has the help of grizzled old guy Charlie (taking the place of fool/conscience if we're taking the Shakespeare analogy to the extreme).

It all turns a bit prophetic when Donald Crisp says he's been expecting Stewart, and starts to get really interesting when we realise that ol' Donald's eyesight is faltering (blindness and "seeing" being another Shakespearean theme). There's also power relationships aplenty between Alec, Dave and Vic and it all gets a bit King Lear/The Big Country. Themes of destiny, death foretold. Dave is a hot-headed, jealous, paranoid, power-hungry psychopath but the real culprit is kept pretty well hidden until the scene between Dave and Vic. The scene when Alec comes to kill Will (shooting blindly at a stock still Stewart) reminded me a little of Cronenberg's History of Violence, another film about father/son/boss relationships.

As the climax builds Vic's paranoia just gets worse - it's played to absolute perfection by Arthur Kennedy. As the final scenes roll around, it all kicks off big time with Stewart revealing the real reason for his revenge and leaving Vic to his fate at the hands of some really quite cross Apache.

A real blinder from Mann/Stewart. (Ha! D'you see what I did there?)

Four Lions (2010)

Synopsis: Five hapless Islamic jihadists plot to blow themselves up in the north of England. Sadly, they succeed but with hilarious results along the way.

Chris Morris' satire on British suicide bombers is a very funny and very sad tale. I found myself laughing out loud one minute and then gasping with shock and disbelief the next.

I reckon Morris and his team got the tone just about right, with excellent characterisation from straight man Omar and his goonish team mates. They all play off against each other really well, with some brilliant comic touches (I never thought I'd be in a cimema laughing at jokes spoken in Urdu). The comic/tragic acting is pretty great actually, especially from Riz Ahmed as Omar. The real struggle for us viewers is in seeing him as a 'normal' family man with a lovely wife and son. He's not a fanatic and we don't get any scenes of him praying with all Eastern-Gladiator music in the background. Chris Morris has really done his homework on this one. They're just ordinary guys who are doing something absolutely extraordinary.

There is some biting commentary on the role of the police, with Kevin Eldon as a sniper taking out an incorrect target. As he argues with his handlers he exclaims "He must have been the right target, he's the one I shot!" echoing what we've heard about the absolute bloody awful cock up (putting it mildly) of the Menezes shooting at Stockwell Tube station.

As we've come to expect from Chris Morris, we don't get trashy sentiment (the short scene in which Omar says a coded goodbye to his wife is genuinely heartbreaking) or glib, patronising sermons. What we do get is a sharp, intelligent, funny, angry and sad story.

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1341167/

The Browning Version (1951)

Synopsis: Old school teacher leaves his school due to ill health and comes to terms with what he sees as his failures as a classics master (and husband).

Adapted from the play by Terence Rattigan, this film is fairly sparse and lean, and doesn't pull any emotional punches. The story focuses on the teacher, Andrew Crocker-Harris, his wife Millie, her lover Frank and one of Crocker-Harris' pupils, Taplow. It takes place over the final two days of his tenure at an English public school as the classics master.

We quickly come to realise, through some neat shots of the wife and her lover at morning prayers, that this teacher is not only unpopular amongst the student body but also with his nearest and, supposedly, dearest. She's embittered at years of being with someone whom she describes as already dead (at least emotionally) and is furious when she discovers that he's not to be given a pension.

The scenes between Frank and Millie are first rate, with Jean Kent giving a desperate performance of a woman with nothing left and nothing gained in her life. Her pathetic attempts to cling to Frank (in private and in public) are almost embarrassing to watch - we are watching her failures as a wife too. Frank turns out to be somewhat of a good guy and attempts a reconciliation with Crocker-Harris. He, along with Taplow, also spurs him on to his final act of redemption.

Taplow, for his part, innocently inspires Crocker-Harris to see that he has not been a total failure as a teacher. He has lit a fire in Taplow, and Taplow in turn responds with kindness and pity on his master. It is the giving of the titular gift that is the dramatic turning point for Crocker-Harris, it is the catalyst for the actions that will partly save him.

There's a great juxtaposition with another teacher, Fletcher, the school hero, leaving to play cricket for England. We see how much he is loved by the boys but when he gives his farewell speech we realise that he's a dumb lunk with no real substance. Funnily enough, his empty speech talking of the school sports achievements reminded me of this gem from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

His farewell speech to the school had me blubbing. It's not completely sentimental and strikes just the right chord, with the camera focusing on Taplow and Frank urging him on. Never has the phrase 'I am sorry' sounded so deeply felt and tragic. I dare you to watch it and not cry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q3nKi-PEBE

We will all experience failure in our lives and it is only with sympathy and encouragement (ironically what Crocker-Harris thinks a teacher should provide) from those around that can set us right again. Even though there are some cruel lessons in this story (especially with Millie, Frank and the treatment of Crocker-Harris at the hands of his employer) this is a gentle, kind film that gives courage and inspiration to us all, as our lives may not always be turning out how we had hoped.

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043362/

Cleo 5 a 7 (1962)

Synopsis: French pop princess kills two hours whilst waiting for medical test results. She wanders around Paris, bumping into friends, strangers, kittens and frogs.

I saw this on the big screen as part of a re-issue of Queen of the Nouvelle Vague Agnes Varda's films. I was intrigued by the premise and the idea of the film running in (almost) real time and following someone through the streets of Paris. Visually, this film is lovely - swooshing, sympathetic, humorous and intimate camera work gives us a sense of a young, spoilt woman but still a real woman, with anxieties and emotions that we can all can relate to.

The picture above is taken from a wonderful scene when both Cleo and her assistant are swinging/rocking in their seats. The camera's POV (one moment looking at Cleo straight on, then swapping to focus on the assistant from behind Cleo) is so delightful, so playful. I got the feeling the whole film was a real celebration of life and unstoppable energy.

We follow Cleo having her Tarot cards read, buying a hat, taking taxis, playing with kittens in her bright loft apartment, recieving her older lover, rehearsing with her band, wandering along boulevards to see a frog swallower (make sure you're not eating when watching this scene), driving round with a friend and finally getting chatted up in a park by an off duty soldier. The soldier becomes Cleo's companion for the final act of the film, accompanying her to find out her fate.

What I really loved about this film was how light and airy it is even though the underlying narrative (Cleo is waiting to hear if she has cancer) is dark as anything.

There's also a lovely little film within a film featuring Jean-Luc Godard as a silent film character contemplating life and death of his girlfriend.

The ending is great - Cleo and the soldier end up a l'hopital to get the test results. As they sit on a bench in the grounds, Cleo's doctor drives past in his sports car and delivers her positive result in the same flippant manner as she lives her life. Then the film just ends. FIN. A bit like life, non?

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055852/

L'Avventura (1960)

Synopsis: Rich but bored group of friends sail out to a rocky island off Sicily. One of them, Anna, goes missing. In the search for Anna, her lover Sandro and best friend Claudia become attracted to one another. The group eventually return to their empty parties and ennui, with Claudia and Sandro going through the motions as a couple.

This film was part of the 50th anniversary of Psycho season at the BFI Southbank. I didn't watch it there though. After watching Antonioni's La Notte not so long ago I ordered L'Avventura on DVD immediately. Both films are part of a loose trilogy on Italian upper class ennui.

The interesting thing about this film is that the critics (Ebert, Kael) talk up the existential themes (boredom, discontent) but my immediate response was that the relationship between Sandro and Claudia highlights the difficulties of new romantic attachments. So, I was slightly confused at my total misreading of the film until I re-read a book on Antonioni in which he says himself that the film is also about the terror of a difficult new relationship.

The two most violent (and by violent I don't mean blood and guts but something out of character and shocking) scenes in the film were when Sandro first kisses Claudia and when he knocks over the ink on the drawing. Both actions display an unrepentant and almost psychopathic arrogance and are both terrifying in their own ways.

First, the kiss. Remember, this is the day after Anna has gone missing. We have had no indication that Claudia and Sandro had feelings for each other previously or that Sandro is taking 'comfort' in Claudia. During the search for Anna on the island (which is a character in itself - rocks falling, rough waves, wind and rain) we see them both passing glances at each other and we start to see what might be happening. But you keep thinking 'his fiancee and her best friend is missing, possibly dead, and he's giving her the eye??, this cannot be!'. It's almost as if throughout the search when we, the viewer, get a really strong sense of Anna's presence (through certain camera POVs being hers etc.), their memories of her are slipping away.

We then realise that Claudia is becoming distressed at the thought of her friend being missing/dead. She makes her way back to the boat and Sandro follows. We know that he is feeling something toward her and he is insistent, even when it is totally inappropriate (Anna's disappearance is the elephant in the room).

A bit like Dangerous Liaisons - you've got that tragic game playing. Sandro chases and chases poor Claudia until she's exhausted and gives in. From that moment onward, you get a really threatening sense in his treatment of her. He doesn't love or care for her, but sees her as another piece in his game playing. Their exchanges become pure wordplay, his attempted seductions are tense and uncomfortable and then flippant and his climactic treatment of her (when she catches him with a prostitute) is disgusting and tragic. The final scene of the film, in which a distraught Claudia comforts a sobbing Sandro shows a real truth; that relationships are messy and with the best will in the world, once you are attached to someone it can be difficult to judge even their worst actions. Claudia accepts her place with Sandro (although we'll never know for how long), holding a mirror up to every dysfunctional relationship out there.

The other violent scene involves the ink drawing. With Claudia back in their hotel room, Sandro is wandering the streets. He comes across a couple of young men, one of whom is sketching with ink. He is a trainee architect (Sandro has sold out as a designer and no longer creates anything of worth) drawing details of a building. Sandro approaches, swinging his watch on a chain/key ring (?) and as he gets nearer to the work we foresee what is about to happen. Sandro 'accidentally' knocks the ink bottle on to the drawing, ruining it. Impudent, childish and spiteful.

This film may concentrate on boredom and how despondent the upper classes can be, but this manifests itself in a very sad relationship. Claudia is the only real conscience and even she is getting off with her best mate's boyfriend about three days after she's gone.

As this was part of the Psycho season, I was looking out for parallels with Hitchcock and once you start spotting them, you can't stop. Here are a few of my faves:

- Immaculate, beautiful, blonde heroine in Monica Vitti (Psycho, Vertigo, The Birds, To Catch a Thief etc.)
- Crowd of rough looking men surrounding Claudia like the rooks on the climbing frame in The Birds
- Sandro and Claudia go up in a nunnery clock tower a la Vertigo


More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053619/

8 and 1/2 (1963)

Synopsis: Italian film director Guido (meant to be Fellini) gets writer's block, thinks about how complicated his love life is, remembers some stuff from his childhood. His wife (Anouk Aimee) and conscience (Claudia Cardinale) turn up and all turns out well. A much more fun take on writer's block than, say, The Shining.

I'd read lots about this film and its theme of times remembered and our relationship with our childhood memories. The film starts off with Guido in a near silent traffic jam in a tunnel (a symbol of his birth?). Suffocating in his car, and surrounded on all sides by other cars, he eventually escapes through the sunroof and floats off into the sky. As we look about at the other cars there are several freeze frames on other motorists faces as they gaze upon Guido in his car.

Move on a couple of scenes and he's staying in a fancy resort hotel, getting 'cured' for writer's block and attempting to get a film started surrounded by producers, writers and his mistress.

We follow him to a formal park, full of old ladies (BIG theme), a band (cf. I Vitelloni) and many of his friends. There are several similar scenes in which he's in this or similar park. There's a lovely energy to these sequences, full of life in all its mixed up glory.

At one point, during a meal in the park, a telepathic old lady attempts to read his mind and gets a message from his childhood. We are then taken back with his memories, which are now heavily intruding on his present. His memory is of grape pressing as a young boy, Bacchus always a strong impetus in his indulgent life. The women involved, including his mother and sisters are fighting over him, which becomes a recurrent theme. This culminates in a virtuoso sequence in which he is confronted by all the women in his life, including an aging dancer whom he has cruelly relegated to 'upstairs' due to her advancing years.

Eventually, Claudia Cardinale (beautiful, divine Claudia) appears playing an actress but more of a muse/conscience to Guido, to help him get his (ahem, creative) juices flowing again.

As part of his remembering his childhood in relation to the script he is writing, we are taken back to a joyous scene on the beach. Young Guido and his mates pay a local enormous bosomed dancer (prostitute?) to dance the rumba for them. As she dances with Guido, priests emerge and chase and catch him (this is great as the film speeds up for a bit of slapstick at this point, it's very funny). This beach dance scene reminded a little of another film with themes of strong childhood memories influencing a man's adult relationships with women, Le Mari de la Coiffeuse (The Hairdresser's Husband). It's almost as if Guido can never approach women as an adult man, but will always be the little boy, fascinated and tempted by every woman he meets.

The scenes with his exasperated wife are kind of sad. She knows all about his infidelities but chooses to stay with him. His odd view of her is that she's all wise and knowing and can put up with him. However, that we see her puffing fags and quaffing Valium tells a different story.

We then move into the Catholic guilt and penance for his temptation, with confession booths looking like winged angels of death. There's a religious repetition of smoke/steam from the start of film - this original sin is what he emerged from at birth...

The climax is at the building of an enormous spaceship (part of the planned set of the yet to start film), we also get a repeat of the start with a huge queue of cars travelling towards the set, bringing everyone (including the lots and lots of old ladies) to judge him. He then realises that he doesn't need to worry about creative criticism and should just be as honest as he can with his film making.

The film then draws to a close with all the characters dancing a sort of conga around the set on the beach. 3...2...1...lift off!!

8 and a 1/2 is full on self-indulgent existential and egotistical masturbation, but when it's this fabulous, you can't help but get swept along. Absolutely joyous.

See also: The Shining, Hairdresser's Husband, Nine

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056801/

Rome, Open City (1946)

***WARNING: Spoilers below***

***WARNING: This is a long one, so get comfy.***

Synopsis: World War Two. Italian resistance fighters hide out then get caught in occupied Rome. It ends badly.

One of Rossellini's (and cinema's) most important and influential films and rightly so. This visually and thematically gritty post-war war film sees a group of resistance fighters hiding out before being sprung by the Nazis and tortured under questioning. There are so many great things about this film that it's difficult to know where to begin.

I'll start with the visuals. Apparently filmed with scavenged bits of celluloid, the overall look of the film (especially the opening scene) is dark and grubby and shabby black and white, giving the film a really filthy, documentary, rough and ready feel. Purely visually speaking, you can see how neo-realism became the engine of postwar Italian cinema, and eventually paved the way for the French New Wave. So many scenes reminded me of Truffaut's 400 Blows, as well as (more obviously) De Sica's The Bicycle Thieves.

Like these other films, we quite often feel as if we're watching the director just following the characters around (quite a different feel to his Journey to Italy) like a photojournalist. This is low-key but masterful film making, with a cast of (mainly) non-professionals giving quite astonishing performances.

Some of the cross fades between scenes are sharp and beautifully constructed. One has a the cross fade from right to left just as the character of ??? walks through a door from the right, walking towards frame left. This to me symbolised how this character is the one who will move the action forward, who will (through her actions) force her agenda on the 'goodies' and bring about the dramatic conclusion. Here she is, literally bursting through the screen and ruining everything.

The film also has some ace characterisation. Don Pietro Pellegrini (played brilliantly by Aldo Fabrizi) is a fabulous character. A Catholic priest (with a socialist streak a mile wide) helping out the resistance, his bullish frame set off nicely by his calm and sometimes comical persona. This character is reminiscent of a Graham Greene whiskey priest (cf. The Power and the Glory), predicting South American liberation theology. He balances grace, humility and tenacity with an everyday humour. There's a lovely moment in which he's in a shop with some small statues. He notices that one of the statues (a saint) is 'looking' at the nude torso of another statue. He turns around the nude statue but realises that the saint is now staring at the statue's rear end, so he turns the saint too. A lovely, light little moment. Even though in the midst of moral panic, he's still got time to restore dignity to statues.

Incidentally, this scene also reminded me of that pivotal moment in The Goonies when Chunk breaks the statue of Michaelangelo's David.

The Holy Family of Pina (the fantastic Anna Magnani), Francesco and Marcello. We are introduced to these key characters early on and we soon realise how important Pina is to the resistance, almost a Virgin Mary, Mother of God to all of them. When we find out that she's both pregnant and already mother to Marcello (pint sized resistance fighter) this confirms her role as the all encompassing Mother to resistance. This religious theme surrounding Pina then evolves and gathers momentum in two devastating scenes.

Death is a very real and everyday occurrence for the characters but still the killings that we do see shock us terribly. The most incredible scene in this film is the one in which Francesco and other fighters are being taken away. Pina is then shot and killed as she's running after the truck that's holding him. The action here happens so quickly, that we just don't have time to really process what's going on and when we do, it's just appalling. The horror of what happens to her casts a dark cloud over the rest of the action. Later on, we see two sheep delivered to a bar (black market meat) and subsequently shot in the back yard. We immediately think back to Pina's murder - she is the innocent lamb to the slaughter, dispatched in cold blood.

Another key female character is Marina, the ex-lover of the leader of the resistance, Giorgio. She's a beautiful but drug addicted actress (the profession should be a clue) in thrall to the Nazis and their stolen goodies and access to drugs. It's Marina who is the catalyst for the final, violent scenes in which Don Pietro and Giorgio are tortured and then killed. Maria Michi's performance is quite something; she veers from desperate for attention from Giorgio to desperate for attention (and narcotics and fur coats) from a female Nazi (suggestions of lesbianism pretty strong here) to desperate at the thought of betraying her countrymen. It's exhausting just watching her. A real twist-the-knife-in moment comes after Marina has fainted at the site of the tortured Giorgio. Female Nazi No.1 walks calmly up to her, takes off the fur coat she'd just given her (her 30 pieces of silver) and proclaims 'for the next time'.

The Children of Rome as a group are almost a whole character in themselves. They're a great model for the typical gang-of-kids-as-adults and a mirror of the adult resistance fighters (the adults are really just as vulnerable as children in the end). The kids in this film are fantastic; energetic, as angry as the adults but amazingly organized and strategic in their cunning, this bunch of little urchins are a force to be reckoned with. Emulating their older role models, the kids get together to blow up a petrol tanker (?). They then scramble back into their apartment block through a side alley hidey hole (later used by the men themselves to escape - what a parallel) a la the kids in The Goonies.

Their powerlessness is shown along side that of the adults in the final scenes in which they witness the execution by firing squad of Don Pietro. This scene reminded me of Elie Weisel's Night - a partly fictional account of Weisel's time in a concentration camp as a child. The key moment in the book comes as another child is being executed by hanging for being 'exposed' as a thief. As the camp inmates are forced to trudge past his lifeless body, a man asks "Where is God?", the response "He's up there on those gallows". Maybe one of the messages of the film is that God is in amongst the horror and suffering of the Italian people, through the actions of the heroic few. It's only as we follow them from this scene back to their neighbourhood (with St. Peter's in the background, standing proudly as testament to the pride and strength of the city, and religion?) that we see that they are the ones to pick up the baton and re-take Rome.

Theme of resistance, political injustice and the decisions we make in extreme circumstances
Having recently watched Ken Loach's IRA film The Wind That Shakes The Barley, I was struck by some similarities in overall tone. Both films focus their attention on occupying armed forces (the baddies) and a resistance movement (the goodies). It's difficult to compare the films in an unbiased way as I have no 'real' connection to WWII occupied Rome, whereas the decades long fighting between the British Army and the IRA did affect my life directly (growing up in London in the '80s I knew only too well the impact of living with constant terrorist threat, albeit mostly in the form of there being no litter bins in central London and on the Tube at the time). This was 'normal' life and never turned me into a rabid anti-Republican.

However, what I am sure of is that Loach's socialist credentials are writ large in The Wind That Shakes The Barley. As we watch beating after humiliating beating we are in no doubt at all as to how evil the Black and Tans and the British Army were with several scenes of violence against the poor, beautiful Irish peasants. I found it a bit heavy handed and patronising in its message (Look. They were baaaad. Er, yes, I think we already knew that.), which is a huge contrast to the gut reaction that is Rome, Open City. Ken Loach decides on the subject matter of each film he makes, you get the feeling that Rossellini had no choice but to make a film about what the Romans had just experienced. A better companion piece would almost be Picasso's Guernica - another black and white masterpiece depicting the skewed and twisted ravages of war. I haven't felt an author's palpable anger and hatred as strong as this since reading John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

This film could almost be a reflection/bookend/second part to Renoir's Regle Du Jeu, both depicting the impact of WWII in Europe, although on two very different classes of society. They both show us how individual decisions can drastically alter a larger narrative (mostly for the worse). One positive difference is how Rossellini's film is, unsurprisingly, chock full of heroes whereas Regle Du Jeu is pretty thin on the ground when it comes to heroes. Those that we do meet come off pretty badly. Or dead.

Anyway, I've rambled on for FAR too long. Just watch the film. It's awesome.

See also: The Bicycle Thieves, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Battleship Potemkin, Regle Du Jeu and, er, The Goonies.

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038890/

In the Realm of the Senses (Ai no corrida) (1976)

***WARNING: lots of spoilers. Don't read if you want a surprise***

Synopsis: Japanese erotic art-house film about a man and one of his employees having an obsessive sexual relationship ending in a Bobbitt style crescendo.

Another one that I missed at BFI Southbank, I finally caught up with this controversial classic, based on a real life case. This is a fairly claustrophobic film in that you really are focusing on just the two leads and their strange relationship.

We start off in 1930's Japan, in a hotel owned by a man (Kichizo) and his family, and meet their female employees, one of whom, Sada, is an ex-prostitute trying to earn a respectable living. They soon start an all-consuming affair which sees them locking themselves away in their room and having non-stop sex.

No wonder it caused controversy on release, this film is properly pornographic with close-ups of the male lead and his tumescent member throughout. We also get to see what looks like actual penetration and what definitely is actual fellatio. In some ways this sort of distracts from the 'action' and in others, well, this is the action, so why not.

The other thing that probably pushed the censors over the edge is the couple's S&M antics. Their obsession with each other, (more hers than his) ends in Sada experimenting with strangulation at point of climax. As you can probably imagine this doesn't end well...

Even though the film is based on a real life case, it's not treated as a straight-to-TV movie a la The Amy Fisher Story. This is your proper art-house take on things (i.e. a lot more nudity). The film looks lovely, with many scenes almost completely symmetrical in composition. The characters' kimonos are beautiful - vividly patterned (contrasting with very dim and bland rooms) and in several shots the swishing of skirts etc. is used to great effect. The lifting of a kimono here, the parting of swathes of scarlet fabric there, all signalling the unveiling of hidden, forbidden flesh.

At one point bright red fabric (I think of another woman's kimono) fills the entire frame, symbolising vividly both sex and the (eventual) violent, bloody death of Kichizo. I suppose there is something to be said for the eastern take on sex and its obsessive link with violence and death. This film certainly reminded me a little of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution in which a torrid affair is somewhat characterised by sadism.

What both films do have in common is that the sexual relationship is also a power relationship. In Senses, Sada is wildly jealous of Kichizo and his wife's relationship (even though she too is married). She makes him swear allegiance to her and promises revenge if Kichizo should ever sleep with his wife again. The phrase 'possession is nine tenths of the law' kept springing to mind. It's almost as if Sada wants to devour and be devoured by her lover; she wants him almost constantly, even suggesting that he urinate whilst making love so that they won't let even basic bodily functions come (no pun intended) between them.

In the end, she claims possession in the most mind-boggling, psychopathically logical way by strangling him as he ejaculates and then cutting off his genitals (come on, we've all done it...). As you got used to her threats all the way through the film, you think by the end, well, she did warn him. For Kichizo's part, he goes along with Sada's demands (even the strangulation). He is completely submissive to her every whim, but does throw in a few of his own odd requests along the way.

In the end you're left wondering - who really had the upper hand? Sada certainly wins on points by killing then castrating her lover, but she does this out of a desperate belief that she will never fully own/possess him. All in all a very sorry tale.

See also: Lust, Caution.

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074102/

La Regle du Jeu (1939)

Synopsis: A load of French poshos get together to go huntin', shootin' and lovin' in pre-war France. Their maids and butlers join in the upstairs/downstairs farce. Alternative title: Whoops, There Goes my Manservant!

My first Renoir and what a great introduction. A film in which the director/camera is the only moral centre. The film places a rather damning magnifying glass on the pre-war French upper classes and their completely amoral behaviour. Rather neatly, their servants reflect their actions and also provide a parallel to the main story.

The structure of the film is such that for the first two acts we are given a fairly fast paced tale of husbands, wives and lovers all mixing it up in Paris. Renoir goes from scene to scene masterfully, with one particular scene melding into the next via a radio broadcast (the airfield to Christine's bedroom) showing how fresh and innovative the director was. This is all to set up a few days shooting in the country, to which all the players are invited.

When we reach the chateau we have the Marquis and his wife Christine, her 'friend' and social sponger/misfit Octave (played by Jean Renoir himself), we have Chrisine's assumed lover (airman Andre), the Marquis' lover Genevieve, Christine's maid Lisette and her husband Schumacher. There are other bit players along the way. The frenetic and jolly atmosphere Renoir creates is brilliant, you really get swept along with the busyness of the scenes, the camera swooping to follow one character out of a room and then going all the way back to focus on some other part of the story. It really never stops.

I realised how many other films that I know of have been influenced by the scenes in the country house, including Louis Malle's Milou en Mai (so many similarities that I will come back to), Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources, Dangerous Liaisons, Gosford Park, White Ribbon and Remains of the Day. All these films have a few central themes in commmon: class warfare and changes in the world order, the relationship between servants and their masters, upper class ennui and lively, chaotic scenes full of energy.

The similarities with Milou en Mai are palpable as soon as you realise you're dealing with a story about major world events affecting the state of society with the parallel of the upper and lower classes, all set in a big French country house. Whereas I think Milou's setting of May '68 has a bit more humour and a few sympathetic characters, La Regle du Jeu has not one character with any moral weight and has the spectre of World War Two hanging over every scene and embuing so many images and story developments with menace.

One of the early scenes in Milou tells us everything. The upper class matriarch is seen in the kitchen listening to the broadcast about the riots in Paris and how many people have been injured or killed. She is crying but as the camera pulls back we see she is chopping onions. She doesn't care a hoot for the revolution but only cares to keep in her cocoon of bourgeois safety in the country.

In parallel, Regle du Jeu has a very strong sense running all the way through of an entire portion of society that only cares about its own petty squabblings and infidelities, completely ignoring the world outside.

The similarities with White Ribbon have to be viewed carefully as Renoir made this film before the Second World War and cannot have foreseen what was to happen. On the other hand, Michael Haneke's visceral White Ribbon, made in 2008, is quite forceful in highlighting how pre First World War German society paved the way for fascism. There's one really telling scene in White Ribbon when the Baroness implores her husband to move from their home in the village (their son has been subjected to torture at the hands of unknown assailants). She has just returned from a restorative holiday with the children and met another man. Her husband asks if she's in love. At that moment, both the Baroness and the viewer realise that the Baron (any many other characters) just DO NOT GET IT. It's their ignorance of how cruel life is for everyone else that is setting up these atrocious events.

When we move on to the shooting scenes, Renoir really steps up a gear to highlight this amorality. The guests all take great pleasure in killing the defenceless animals, with the camera not letting us off by showing several rabbits getting shot and dying horribly. Of course, the whole time we're watching we think of how this slaughter not only echoes that of the First World War but how it is foretelling the bloodshed that's to come. The camera practically flies about during these scenes, dashing after rabbits and pheasant, following the hunting dogs and beaters through the woods. It's an orgy of panic and death and really strips away any niceties and shows these people for what they are - cold blooded sadists.

With the use of the servants, Renoir is able to really bring home the meaning of the title. At so many moments in the film we see servants expressing their wish to be servants or their loyality to their masters - they understand the 'rules of the game' better than anyone - better the devil you know and don't ever question your place in the world - the exact sentiments that allowed the Nazis to rise to power.

The final act, the post shoot party, goes bonkers. The pace and structure goes out the window and rushes us through in real(ish) time the climax to all the games the protagonists have been playing with each other. Each menage a trois ends in violence - the fight between the servants begins downstairs then moves upstairs - an analogy perhaps for how world events will eventually come crashing into every European drawing room.

The dramatic climax of the film has probably the least reprehensible character (the airman) being shot and killed (he is mistaken for the lover of the gamekeeper's wife). As the film ties up here, I was quite shocked at how the other characters just sort of got on with everything as if nothing that important had just happened. These are a bunch of truly disgusting people, who don't even care when a true hero is dispatched.

The only hope in the entire mental clan is a young niece of the Marquis, who we discover has been studying art and civilisation and when questioned by an older relative, is knowledgeable about the world (unlike the rest of them). She falls in love with the airman and is upset when he is killed. So, the only faint ray of hope is the youngest character and she actually is aware of a world outside her window. Probably says a lot about Renoir's view of the world.

Having said all of that, this is actually feels like a 'light' film, which I suppose is where Renoir's genius lies. It is the skill of a great artist to make you enjoy and appreciate something beautiful that also has great intellectual power.

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031885/

Babette's Feast (1987 )

Synopsis: 19th century Denmark. A couple of old sisters recall how a life-changing female French chef came to live with them. Like a Scandie-visual version of the Larousse Gastronomique in cordon bleu food porn mode.

I'd first seen this film years ago, when BBC2 showed proper decent European films, at a proper, decent hour. Then a friend's Dad recently gave him a copy so I got to re-visit it.

It's always interesting watching films that you haven't seen for years, as I remembered it as being a lot darker (in terms of lighting rather than mood) than it actually is. There was also a bittersweet love story which has a rather poignant and delicate conclusion.

We start off with two elderly sisters, spinsters, living a spartan, Puritanical life in rural, seaside Denmark. Thinking about their lot in life, they look back at their younger days and how through a series of interesting episodes involving suitors for both women being eventually rejected, a female French chef comes to live with them.

Due to needing a 'holiday' for 'over exhaustion' a French opera singer comes to stay in the Danish village where the sisters live. After attending church one Sunday and hearing one of the sister's singing, he offers her free singing lessons. After a few lessons, it's obvious that she has both an outstanding voice and a romantic hold over her teacher. Her father, the stern village preacher, rejects the idea of his daughter flouncing off to Paris to sing in the opera and the singer leaves the village all the sadder. Years later, during the Franco-Prussian war, the singer sends a friend (Babette), whose son and husband have been killed, to the safety of the far flung Danish village. The sisters take in Babette as their cook, not knowing that she had been a famous chef in Paris.

We also see the other sister wooed by a soldier, again ended by her stern father. The soldier goes on to become a general in the Swedish army and marries into a good family.

We then move on slowly, Babette has been with the sisters for over ten years, fitted in with their way of life and cooking the grimmest looking food. The narrative takes a turn when she learns that she has won a huge amount in the French lottery. The sisters worry that this means her return to Paris, but instead she insists on holding a lavish dinner party in honour of their dear departed father.

This is where the film really comes into its own. Babette visits a larger town to contact her cousin to order some key ingredients, wine etc. from Paris. All sorts of strange things start arriving in town (cow's heads, enormous blocks of ice, a turtle, cages of quails etc.). The day of the dinner arrives and we watch (drooling) as Babette prepares the feast. We see her unwrap expensive, vintage wine and brandy, boil stock for soup and prepare pastry.

Out in the parlour and dining room something else is happening. The uptight, Puritan pensioners that have up to this point been mealy mouthed and grumpy, with much in fighting, start very slowly to loosen up, relax and re-strengthen bonds. We see the beautiful dinner table, complete with crystal water, wine (both white and red) and brandy glasses and a range of cutlery. These simple Danish folk have never seen the like of it. They are being opened up to a different way of eating - they will, for the first time in their lives, enjoy a meal and get drunk.

As we see Babette working her way through the cooking in the kitchen, we see the parallel in the dining room of the diners enjoying new sights, tastes and smells.

Crucially, one of the key diners is the soldier who had once come a-wooing one of the sisters (along with his aunt, a local bigwig). He has risen through the ranks and enjoyed the finer things in life, including food, in Paris. One of the real joys of the film is watching the general enjoy his food, recognising the vintage of the red wine and the particular recipes/versions of dishes that he is served. He knows his stuff and knows that the only person who could possibly be cooking this meal, can be the chef from the Cafe de Paris.

It's really lovely seeing the different reactions of the general and the older guests. He knows what he's eating and drinking and is enthralled; they don't know what they're eating or drinking and are also enthralled. There's a really lovely moment where an old harridan picks up her water glass thinking that it holds some other liquor. When she realises it's water, she quickly puts it down and goes for the red again - absolutely relishing it.

In the kitchen, I loved watching Babette making the little quail pies, reducing a stock that looks so rich you can smell and taste it. I loved seeing her prepare her dessert, a cake covered in angelica, dried fruit and liquor and I loved seeing the general's driver sampling each wine and getting tipsy.

We go through several courses and eventually coffee and as we move through we see the guests make friends again, forgive previous differences and re-kindle romances.

At the end of the evening the general gets a chance to say goodnight to the sister whom he had previously romanced. This is such an unexpected moment of delight - he says to her that she is with him everyday and that she will continue to be so. He says that he hopes that she knows it and kisses her hand. This delicate emotional climax sums up this film so nicely. This is not an extravagant foodie blow out like La Grande Bouffe. This is one woman's way of expressing her gratitude and love for a quiet community that saved her life and the delicate but incredibly generous way in which she does this. This is a film about subtle joys and bittersweet regrets.

The final scene of the film has the sisters thanking Babette for her feast and acknowledging that she will now return to Paris with her lottery winnings. But Babette has a surprise - she is not leaving, she has spent all her winnings on the meal. When the sisters confront her spending so lavishly and going to so much trouble, she sums everything up by saying that the sisters have allowed her to be the best artist that she could be and that that is the real zenith of existence for her.

I loved it that although this film is about the domineering father and lost loves of the sisters, it is the relationship between them both and Babette that is at the emotional core of the film.

See also: Big Night, Milou en Mai, La Grand Bouffe

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092603/

Psycho (1960)

Synopsis: Are you kidding?

Just saw this at the NFT as part of the 50th anniversary season. It was my first (and probably only) time seeing it on the big screen and it was well worth it. Ever since the first time I saw it many years ago, Psycho has been one of my desert island films. It is utterly perfect, without flaws of any kind (in my opinion).

The best thing about seeing Psycho on the big screen was that I noticed so many more nuances than I had previously remembered.

Both murder scenes are nowhere near as long as I remember either - such is their power that in my mind, poor old Arbogast is falling backwards down the stairs forever, but it's really over in a flash.

There is so much use of close up in Psycho. Especially the scenes when Marion is driving to Fairvale, we get her face and almost nothing else. When we see Norman and Marion dining together in his parlour, I don't think we get any medium or wide shots at all, it's all tightly packed close-ups. Our view of Norman is very interesting as we sometimes view him from a low angle to take in one of his stuffed birds up high on the wall, poised to swoop down on him or Marion or both of them. Of course the best close ups in the film are in the scenes with Marion and the highway patrolman. She's all starey-eyed guilty panic (especially when she's first awoken in her car - ace), he's all stoney-faced calm behind the shades. I suppose this is really well juxtaposed with Norman's initial conviviality and kindness. We are more frightened of the cop until 'you know what' happens.

However, the most terrifying close up I know of, perhaps only rival to Ben Gardner's head in Jaws, is that of 'Mother' at the end of the film. I still cannot watch the scene in the fruit cellar to its full conclusion, the bare light bulb swinging to alter the shadows across her face still frightens me.

As Hitchcock used each scene so sparingly (and only to drive the plot forward), it's interesting that we still manage to get insight into Marion's motivations, her fears and her morals (or lack thereof). One moment that leapt out to me for the first time ever was in one of these driving scenes.

It's night and Marion is driving along the highway imagining the conversation between the man she stole the money from and her boss. Playing this over in her mind she finally allows herself the faintest of smiles, so different to her previous anxiety and panic. It's just as this smile starts to show on her face, and it's a smug, devilish smile full of self-satisfaction, that it also starts to rain. This, we've no need to remind ourselves, is the heavy rain that eventually takes Marion off the highway and towards the Bates Motel. I sat there, looking up at Janet Leigh's face, knowing full well what was in store for her and thought, yes - the gods are angry with you and you are about to be punished. Incredible and terrifying. Compare this smile with the final shot of Norman at the end, as he lowers his head and stares straight at us, 'Mother' faintly coming through, it is Marion's earlier smile echoed perfectly.

Another very unusual shot that I'd previously missed is later on when Arbogast is pointing out Marion's fake name in the hotel register. As Norman keeps slipping up and eventually confesses that Marion did stay in the motel, he leans over to view the name. He twists his neck around and we get a screen full of his stretched, exposed throat (busy chewing nervously on Kandy Korn). What is Hitch telling us here? That with these small but important cock-ups Norman is making himself vulnerable? Here is his neck, ready for the chopping block or noose? It's certainly a very unusual angle.

This viewing was also the first time that I'd really understood how Marion disturbs the balance of her own world, but more importantly sets off an imbalance that will destroy Norman's world too. For the first time I saw Marion as the destructive force and Norman as the defendant of his private universe, so desperate to keep the bizarre status quo that he will stop at nothing to do so - a pure psychopath. I think it was Roger Ebert who wrote about how Hitchcock does an amazing switcheroo with our loyalties, and that as soon as Marion is dead, it's Norman that we feel for. I would love to have seen Psycho not knowing the story at all, as this would have strengthened this sense. All we would know is that poor Norman is under Mother's thumb and is acting for her. It makes more sense that way.

No doubt I've always 'got' the message that Marion turns into a bad, or at best a morally ambiguous person (we get that much from her clothing and underwear especially changing from white to black after the theft of the money) but what really came across this time was how her actions (lead on by her love for Sam) set off the chain of events that eventually lead to her death.

The other thing I really enjoyed (yes, enjoyed) about the cinema size Psycho, was the photography. The use of black and white strips away frivolity and diversion and gets us almost to look more directly. There are a couple of really cracking shots after Marion's death, when Norman is in cleaning mode - we see him in the bathroom with the bright white bath tiles behind him. He is in the far left of the frame, the other two thirds empty but with Marion's body just below the shot. This emptiness emphasises so succinctly the horror of what is just out of sight, and the juxtaposition of the shiny white tiles with the bloody mess below is left largely to our already overworked imagination.

Arbogast's death also has some ace camera angles. The bird's eye view of him coming up to the landing echoing the stuffed birds of earlier on. This shot (utilizing the whole frame) also allows us to see both Arbogast climbing the stairs (top left) and Mother's bedroom door opening (bottom right), with the centre of the screen as the obvious meeting place and starting point of the murder. The tension that this creates is almost unbearable.

So much has been written about Psycho, how it was made for so little money just after the success of North by Northwest, how shocking it was to kill off the leading lady so quickly, the incredible Bernard Herrmann score...it really is a proper masterpiece and seeing it on the big screen made it even more important for me.

See also: You know, that other one, what Gus Van Sant did.

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/

Vendredi Soir (2002)

Synopsis: A Parisian woman, just about to move in with her boyfriend, gets stuck in a traffic jam, meets a stranger and has a one night stand.

I've slowly been working my way through Clare Denis' back catalogue, so came upon this one after seeing Beau Travail and 35 Rhums. All totally out of sequence, but hey, who cares?

You can definitely see a thread running through Denis' films (of those that I have seen). She is very much interested in human relationships, both on the micro, one on one, level and those within family (35 Rhums) or more formal groups (Beau Travail). In Vendredi Soir, we follow Laure (Valerie Lemercier - last seen by me in Louis Malle's joyous Milou en Mai) on one Friday evening as she packs boxes to prepare for moving house. She attempts to meet friends for dinner but gets stuck in a huge traffic jam (transport strike, innit). The travel announcer on the car radio suggests giving strangers lifts, an act of kindness in extraordinary circumstances. We see Laure try to give Denis regular Gregoire Colin a lift but he refuses in favour of walking.

Eventually, we see a man, Jean (the gorgeous, rugged and incredibly sexy Vincent Lindon), appearing to check out Laure and perhaps another female driver, choosing which one to ask for a lift. He taps on Laure's window and gets in. Thereafter, we see them chat a little, Laure fantasises about asking him to come to dinner, all the while she is in control of the wheel. At one point she leaves the car to make a phone call (to cancel dinner with the friends), when she returns to where she thinks she's left the car (and Jean), it's gone. She wanders around for a few minutes and then Jean comes running after her. He now takes control of the vehicle (metaphor anyone?) and drives off erratically down a side street and away from the jam.

All of the subtle suggestion (lots of close-ups of both Laure and Jean's hands, faces, limbs) then leads to the couple making the decision to spend the night together. There's a great scene in a tabac, when Jean asks the waitress for 10 franc coins. We (and more importantly Laure) assume he's making a phone call, but when Laure herself ventures to the phone, we see it only accepts cards - it's the condom machine next to it that takes the 10 franc coins. So, she knows his intentions and only has to go along with him.

Outside they embrace and kiss passionately in the quiet street that leads them to a hotel. After finding their room they quickly make love, almost fully clothed. This is dimly-lit, close-up, uncoreographed sex, not stagey and self-conscious but almost episodic or dreamy. The way it looked reminded me a little of one or two of Thomas Ruff, Guy Bourdin or Antoine D'Agata's photos (out of focus, deep, dark colours). There's none of the base, cold shagging as in a film like Intimacy either - these are two people genuinely attracted (and attractive) to each other who have found themselves in an unusual chance encounter. Without becoming gratuitous the camera focuses on their bodies to highlight form and muscle tone, making this film genuinely erotic.

Speaking of which, this is a film quite definitely about the senses, it is truly sensual:

Smell
We see Laure enjoying the smell of Jean's cigarette smoke (she has given up smoking) inside the car and during their love-making Jean tells Laure that her hand smells of rubber.

Touch
We see Laure's hands/fingers gripping the steering wheel and her feet and legs stretching out in the foot well, we see her bathing early on in the film with the camera concentrating on her back and hair. We also see Laure's hand touching the bedclothes in the hotel. Of course, we also get the caresses between the couple - so many moments reminded me of Hiroshima Mon Amour, arms entwining, backs arching and some very tight shots on abstract flesh.

Sight
Of course being a film it should look good and interesting, so there is much visual stimuli. The dusk of a Paris evening followed by the the rainy bright lights of the traffic jam is very vibrant. Some of the close ups of rain drops on cars, neon lights reflecting on chrome reminded me of the opening scenes from Taxi Driver too.

Sound
This is also a film about sounds - music from the radio (from what I'd previously seen Clare Denis uses music brilliantly in her films), but we also have the sound of the car heater and the gas heater in the hotel room. We have the car horns constantly going off, signifying boredom and frustration but also urging the couple on in their actions...

Taste
Jean always has a fag on the go, and they enjoy a coffee together in the tabac, so the classic French combo is there. There is also, of course, the taste of each other - this is not a couple that talk and shag, they kiss. A lot. There is so little dialogue but they do use their mouths. Maybe I've read far too much into this, I don't know...

Was it all a crazy dream?
There's a very short episode when Laure first gets in the traffic jam. A man attempts to enter her car and she locks the door and drives off. She soon realises (after hearing the radio announcement) that she needn't have been scared. But is there more to this? Is the following all in her imagination? Is she sitting, bored, in a jam, fantasising about what could have happened had she let a strange man in her car? We see her alone several times when she is 'with' Jean - at the restaurant table, in the other hotel rooms that she noses around.

Another reason we have for thinking this - she is just about to move in with her boyfriend. A pretty momentous event, perhaps she's having second thoughts or at least fantasising about continuing her single, carefree life. Interestingly, the film was written by Emmanuele Bernheim, who also wrote Francois Ozon's Swimming Pool, a film also about one woman's erotic experience/imagination. These films are very different but they do both end on an ambiguous/mysterious note.

So, in the end we are left wondering whether this sexy female fantasy figure was ever real or the product of Laure's vivid imagination.

See also: Swimming Pool, Hiroshima Mon Amour

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295743/