Disgrace

Last week, silkscreen showed Disgrace, the film of the J M Coetzee novel. We read this in our book group a few years ago - I can't find any mention of it on this blog. A study of shame, forgiveness and the new South Africa. It's very true to the novel (as far as I can remember!) as it confronts a nation in a state of change. Watching the film will probably lead - for me - to a re-read of the book!

Machuca - 2 bike rides

Trailer Machuca from Wood Producciones on Vimeo.

Last night we saw Machuca at Macc college, it's a film set in the dying days of Allende's Chile before the military coup. It tells of a friendship between 2 boys one privileged the other from a shanty town. The second is one of a number of boys put in the private school by the Roman Catholic headmaster much to the horror of the parents. It's a growing up story beautifully acted by the young characters, harrowing at times but a real understanding of living it difficult times. I thought the sports field scene was rather lifted from Kes but the scenes on the bike had real power particularly the concentration on the face of Matías Quer (Gonzalo) as he grows up. The film is dedicated to Gerardo Whelan the real life headmaster of a school in Santiago who taught Andrés Wood (the director), here's an interview with him.
I'm afraid the trailer doesn't have subtitles - the initial snippet has Pedro Machuca - the shanty town lad asking Gonzalo if all those shirts are his, the collisions between the cultures are very well done.

Revenge!

The last film at Silkscreen was Susanne Bier's In a Better World, here's the trailer:

As the introducer said the Danish title is revenge and that's probably a better title as it is a study of revenge and bullying and the effect of violence on both sides. Very powerful and thought provoking with its two stories running alongside each other of family and school tensions and those in an African refugee camp. Not a comfortable watch but well worth it!

Cloud Atlas

I seem to be on a run of David Mitchell at the moment, here's the trailer for the forthcoming Cloud Atlas movie:

.. to be released in October! (h/t bookriot and twitter's suzyklein)

Politics and the Family - ii

Last week I saw Mio Fratello è Figlio Unico (My Brother is an Only Child) at Macc College, like the week before's film a study of the effect of politics on childhood - though in this case the children are rather older though the period is identical (the early 1970's) but in this case the background is Italy where things became a lot more unpleasant. In this case most of the political pressure comes from outside the family but the fraternal struggle is involving.

The shadow of Mussolini still had a powerful effect on Italy as the brothers go their separate ways. A very moving film but earthed in what felt to be real family situations

Branches..and birds

Last night was the first evening of the Silk Screen's new season which opened with Xavier Beauvois' Of Gods and Men (Des Hommes et des Dieux - Of Men and Gods - the director isn't happy at the transposition!).
An intense, slow moving film, it tells the true story of a small Cistercian (I think that's right rather than Trappist which some reviews have) monastery in Algeria and the monks struggle of faith and commitment to their community and to the local community in the face of a corrupt government and on the other hand of local Islamic extremists who see them as Western interlopers. The film gets inside the interior life of the monastery showing the liturgical life of faith as well as the interior struggle of the monks - being offered an easy exit by the government - but there is their long history of being there for their Muslim neighbours.I'd guess that being familiar with both faiths helps in understanding the film's journey. There's many very moving moments both in dialogue and in silence, a scene herding sheep comes to my mind, as well as the set-piece towards the end of the monks listening to Swan Lake and drinking wine together - I was reminded of Jean Renoir's film Au Revoir les Enfants - and it's use of Schubert - another example of a religious community under attack. This review is worth a read:

These Christians mean different things to people near them. To Algerian neighbors in their small town, they’re a source of free medicine and advice, not to mention homemade jam (looked like honey to me! (ed)) sold at a local market. To a government official who’s supposed to protect them, they’re a headache.
To the local army captain, who knows they succour anyone in need, they’re an aid to terrorism. And to the fundamentalist jihadists, these monks become many things: a willing or unwilling source of supplies, a mysterious force to be respected, a bargaining tool in times of war.

The above is a clip of the first contact between the monks and the jihadists - you'll find a link to the trailer for the film on the Silk Screen site (link at top of this posting - but not any more!) - I thought that trailer gave meaning to my title but it only includes fragments of the exchange so here's the full (but very short!) clip!
Here's a link to the Guardian review.

An Education

The final film of Silk Screen's 2010-2011 season was Nick Hornby's adaption of Lynn Barber's book 'An Education', here's the trailer:

some wonderful scenes and details, funny and yet there's the emotional punch hiding in the background of a 16 year old being seduced (in many ways) by an older man. Carey Mulligan is wonderful as the youngster, but Molina is excellent as the father also seduced by Peter Sarsgaard's winning ways. I intend to read the book and here's the Guardian review and here's another which is worth the read:

An Education plays out rather like a diary read. When you write of exciting moments in your life, you don’t need to elaborate on certain things, like best friends’ names or schoolwork, and this film doesn’t bother to either.

The showing was followed by the society's AGM - the most highly rated - by the audiences - film of the season was In the Valley of Elah, which, alas, we didn't see with the events of last year. Before it I was educated in the ways of projecting the films - so future reviews here maybe less impartial!
Back on 'An Education' both of us bridled at the letter from Oxford University - obviously the college system was thought to be too complicated for viewers - I also spotted a cup design in one of the scenes of which I still have a piece (I bought mine in the 70's).

Samson & Delilah

Last night's film said very little but it said an awful lot. What happens when the language you have belongs to the community which cages and keeps you in check. A film of the aboriginal community in Australia. The images and sounds will live with you. A review here

Chancing your luck

This evening at the SilkScreen was Jessica Hausner's film Lourdes, starting off with a documentary feel it tells the tale of a group visit to the pilgrimage centre. Gradually you are drawn in - I felt very disengaged until well into the film but Sylvie Testud's performance as a woman with MS is mesmeric. Questions are raised as to the nature of miracle what if the miracle doesn't last and of healing in all ways. Hausner stands back and lets you see what's going on - the Guardian review refers to the miracle thus:

It is a moment of astonishment that punctures the rational fabric of the film – there is no clearly comparable sense here, but certainly a batsqueak of anxiety that the miraculous might be real, and that it is therefore just as alarming, unsettling and threatening – and perhaps, also, just as absurd and banal – as everything else in the real world.

That review also suggests irritation with the final scene - I found myself more absorbed by the tension at that moment.
Here's the trailer:

yes it's the Spanish version of the trailer, I can't find a French one or the English at the moment...if I do I'll replace it! This mini-documentary also looks worth a watch.

Fifteen films meme

Via Elizaphanian, "The rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen films you’ve seen that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen films you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes."
In no particular order (except that of recall

• A Prophet (Audiard)
• The Sound of Music (must be Christmas)
• The Lion in Winter
• Un Coeur en Hiver (for that Ravel)
• Belleville Rendezvous
• Some Like it Hot (quick change from winter here)
• Manhattan
• Mars Attacks (via New York link I think!)
• Delicatessen
• Ratatouille (link there!)
• The Producers
• Goodbye Lenin (Hitler, dictators/ Germany..)
• Kramer vs Kramer
• Au revoir les Enfants
• Io non ho Paura (I'm not afraid)

Wanted to quote the film about the boys finding a pile of cash but couldn't remember the title, oh and The Closet (Le Placard) but this is cheating. Consider yourself tagged!

A Prophet

We saw Jacques Audiard's A Prophet at the SilkScreen on Wednesday. I was prepared not to like it, billed as violent..., but I really enjoyed it (if that's the right word!). Summoning up the claustrophobia of prison from the start it tells of vulnerable young man 'graduating' from a juvenile offenders to an adult prison and his struggle for safety and an education. Yes there's pretty up-front violence but what I will remember are the silences, the points where the sound track virtually disappeared, the moments when you see through Malik's eyes.

And then there's the playing out to Mack the Knife, maybe open ended but, to my mind the intent is clear. Recommended!

Still Walking (Aruitemo aruitemo)

The Silkscreen showed Hirokazu Koreeda's film Still Walking last night, here's a clip:

A very gentle film, no great drama but the undercurrents of what isn't said in family relationships are always there. It tells of a family reunion to mark the anniversary of the death of the sons, the individuals have changed aged since then and the extent to which they are willing to recognise that, is the plot. There's the trailer on youtube too but I liked these two scenes!

You probably need to be brave to watch!

No Silk Screen this week, and so..

as ever this blog is an advertising free zone.

Quatre cents coups

Last night we went to the Silk Screen to see Truffaut's Quatre cents coups.

I'd not seen this film for many years and for some reason it was the memory of the humourous scenes which stuck in the mind from then, but it's a tragic story from a lonely childhood lit by wonderful sometimes funny observation. The above clip is the final scene, audaciously daring, and unforgettable (though my mind was playing tricks!).

El Orfanato

A trip last night to the Silk Screen in Macclesfield to see Juan Antonio Bayona's El Orfanato (The Orphanage). A Spanish gothic horror which draws one into a world where children are simultaneously innocent and unknown. I found myself thinking of James' Turn of the Screw. There was a lot of involuntary audience participation last night! Wonderfully acted by Belén Rueda in the main role. Here's the trailer - in Spanish, I'm afraid I couldn't find a version with sub-titles and I really didn't want the dubbed version!

L'heure d'été

Just back from Olivier Assayas' L'heure d'été:

Tinged with a very French sentimentality with heart-breaking moments an interesting study of what use is art if it isn't experienced and part of everyday life. I even enjoyed the seeming vandalism of the film by the young people in the last scenes. I loved it but I think I was one of the few at the screening - or maybe I sat in the wrong part of the theatre?

Caramel!

Back from a trip to see Caramel at the Silk Screen in Macc:

A wonderfully observed film, nothing much happens but wonderful images, the play of characters and some pretty raw emotion make this a film to be seen! It portrays the lives of five women working in a beauty salon in Beirut being asked some thought provoking questions.

Teaser Tuesday - 25 August

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Those who follow me on Facebook will have seen this one already, it's not random but I can't resist re-quoting it (in full this time!)

Lately she had noticed that joints, instead of making her giggly as they used to, turned her paranoid. To keep this effect under control Fabiana had drunk half a bottle of limoncello.

and here's a real random quote from the same book:

He started searching for the keys on the bed of the torrent. He let go with one hand and the river pushed him under.
He drank a lot of water which tasted of earth.

These two are from Ammaniti's The Crossroads (in Italian Come dio comanda - what God commands) - by the author of 'I'm not Scared. Yes it is sordid and you probably wouldn't want to lend it to a maiden aunt but it is funny, absorbing and totally gripping. As the review I've linked to says:

a deal of sex and a vast amount of violence

very, very visual but I'm not sure that it could be made into a film - well, not one that shows in mainstream cinemas. I've just finished (the section of this book) called 'The Night' - reading it as I walked out of the station towards home(!) and about to start 'After'

A crying shame

(not reall!) A French morning - seeing (again) The Class (Entre Les Murs). This is the trailer - unfortunately no subtitles - but it's worth watching - there are trailers with subtitles on youtube but with less good extracts!

It is very much a reflection on communication, the different ways the adults and 14 year-olds (from particular cultures) interpret various words - shame, respect,'petasse' - divided by a - more of less common - language. Definitely worth re-watching!

Wonderful anarchaic fun

Spent an evening (re-) watching Malle/Queneau's Zazie dans le métro, the book was published 50 years ago this year and the film followed it a year later. Zazie is well into bus-pass territory.
Dangerous, edgy, non-PC, fun, with, in the film, Philippe Noiret (a breakthrough role for him) and Catherine Demongeot (her first and practically only role) giving it verve and off-the wall lunacy. Vittorio Caprioli does a wonderful prophecy of Berlusconi in the final scene...
I don't think the Pythons and the Goodies would have happened without the powerful influence of the film.
I've not read the Queneau book but it is downstairs and I think the challenge will be worth it!
Don't watch the clip if you're scared of heights.