Le Havre (Finland-Fr-Ger-Nor, 2011)

The best way of understanding (sort of) writer-producer-director Aki Kaurismaki’s universe might be through the answer he gave to a question, in May’s Sight & Sound, about whether he was his dogs’ agent: ‘No, my wife is. So it’s tough negotiation. When I start to write the screenplay, always on the third day my wife [...]

Son of Babylon (Iraq-UK-Fra-NL-Palestine-UAE-Egypt, 2009)

This is a devastating film following the search, by grandmother and grandson, for the boy’s father who’s been missing for over 10 years in Iraq. It’s set in the weeks after the fall of Saddam, in 2003, when the country was recovering from war but before the sectarian violence flared. It’s a major achievement, by [...]

Ashes and Diamonds (Popiól i diament, Poland, 1958)

 Jonathan Rosenbaum makes the point that while this film is about the forties, it’s set on the day of the Nazi surrender, it’s overlayed by a fifties’ sensibility. This is evident through the James Dean-like Zbigniew Cybulski (though Rosenbaum cites Brando) but also in the European Art cinema style in which its shot. The ‘heavy’ [...]

Tyrannosaur (UK, 2010)

Peter Mullan + council estate = it’s bloody grim. This is in the tradition of realist British cinema but I wonder if there’s a tendency to try and make the slice of working class life even grimmer than the last one we’ve seen. To be fair the writer-director Paddy Considine balances the portrayal of class [...]

Carnage (Fr-Ger-Pol-Sp, 2011)

What’s the point in filming a play? Shakespeare’s robust enough to take virtually anything but a one-set, four-hander…? Well, you get to cast Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet; not to mention John C Reilly. And they are a treat; particularly Winslet: an arched eyebrow is enough to convey her annoyance at her husband’s use of [...]

The Descendants (US, 2011)

Trailer are often extremely poor as they show far too much of the narrative; despite this are probably the most effective form of marketing as, in cinemas, they show to a captive, target audience. Typically The Descendants‘ trailer (see here) gave far too much away but, it transpired, was also entirely misleading about the tone of [...]

It’s a Wonderful Life (US, 1946)

It’s ten years since I’ve seen this classic and, in the aftermath of the banks-inspired economic crash, the evil capitalist of the film, played with wonderful malevolence by Lionel Barrymore, takes on added resonance. Whilst the hero, played by the wonderful (if we ignore his private politics) Jimmy Stewart, stands for the people with his [...]

The Deep Blue Sea (US-UK, 2011)

Melodrama originally meant ‘drama with music’ or, more accurately, ‘music with drama’ as it developed in response to censorship of theatre in 18th century England. Dialogue, in ‘unofficial’ theatres, was banned and so music was used to convey the narrative. Terence Davies is a consummate melodramatist (some critics use the term as one of abuse [...]

Strawberry and Chocolate (Fresa y chocolate, Cuba-Mexico-Spain-USA, 1994)

This is Tomás Gutiérrez Alea‘s penultimate film (co-directed with Juan Carlos Tabío); he’s famous for Memories of Underdevelopment (Cuba, 1968). Strawberry and Chocolate focuses on the relationship between the gay Diego and straight, and staunch ‘communist’, David who’s initially spying on him. It’s a marvellously engaging drama, primarily because of Jorge Perugorría‘s superb performance as [...]

Wuthering Heights (UK, 2011)

If there was danger of another version of Wuthering Heights becoming hackneyed then the casting of black actors as young and older Heathcliffe immediately averted the possibility. Bronte describes Heathcliffe (as I remember) as ‘swarthy’ and so it’s entirely fitting, as are the racist expletives which Bronte couldn’t have used in her novel. Race is [...]