Author: Jason Day

Sherlock Jr. (1924) / Seven Chances (1925)

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Director: Clyde Bruckman. Metro/Buster Keaton Productions.

COMEDY

Cast & Credits

Producers: Buster Keaton, Nicholas Schenck.
Writers: Jean Havez, Joe Mitchell, Clyde Bruckman.
Camera: Elgin Lessley, Byron Houck.
Sets: Fred Gabourie.

Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Jo Keaton, Erwin Connelly, Ward Crane.

SYNOPSIS

A movie projectionist (Keaton) who is also studying to be a detective in his part-time, finds himself wrongly accused of stealing a watch. Returning to his full-time job, he falls asleep during the latest romantic blockbuster and imagines himself and the girl he loves (McGuire) are transported into the movie to play the characters on the silver screen. Comic mayhem ensues.

In Seven Chances, a lawyer (Keaton) finds he has been left a large amount of money in a distant relative’s will – payable on condition he marries, by 7pm that evening. Easier said than done when none of the society girls he approaches do anything other than laugh at him.

REVIEW

I would never usually combine two film reviews into one, preferring to let every individual movie stand on its own. But it seems appropriate here. Not to diminish the quality of Keaton’s comedies as stand alone pieces, but as both here cover similar ground thematically, comically and in terms of construction, this seems a neat and tidy approach.

Of the two film’s recently shown at Stratford Picturehouse courtesy of The London Screenstudy, Sherlock Jr. is the more famous and certainly the funniest. Seven Chances suffers from a protracted and dull opening that includes a disposable, two-tone technicolour sequence chronicling how Keaton, as every season of the year approaches, cannot profess love for his woman. It doesn’t help that the colour is of the poorest quality, almost as if it was hand-tinted by employees of the Georges Melies’ movie factory back in the very early days of cinema. The crudely drawn black characters (sometimes portrayed by white actors in black face) are more disturbing. Once comfortable in your seat, you will find yourself cringing and shifting from side to side to shrug off such sensibilities.

But back to Sherlock and Arthur Conan-Doyle himself may have giggled with delight in the cinema at the delightful and raucous send-up Keaton and co. made. Sherlock shows how sophisticated Keaton’s films had become in the short-time he progressed from two-reel comedies (a reel relates to approximately 10 minutes of film, the amount of stock in a film reel at this time) to feature films, the last of his series of short films being only one year previous (he would make one more silent short in 1925).

The use of the framing device (the ‘film within a film’), which can be a clunky addition if handled by a director merely seeking artistic kudos, is ingeniously utilised in a short segment when Keaton jumps into the screen. Initially, he is booted out again by the film’s leading man, but he perseveres and we are treated to a segment that contains some of the smartest trick editing on the silent screen. Caught between cuts to different locations, he is allowed no rest by the medium he is trying to hijack and is thrust into arctic tundra, rocky outcrops and manicured gardens. Cinema has no respect for this man who toils for it.

The framing device also allows Keaton to satirically explore the beauty and unpredictability of the cinematic medium, playing with the notion of what is real and what is illusion (he replaces the film’s leading actors with people in his ‘real life’ and as he swims to freedom in the film, we then cut seamlessly to him as the sleepy projectionist sat on a stool, ‘swimming’ whilst seated).

Sweetly, the projectionist even needs tips from his on-screen peers for help with wooing and kissing his girl. Sherlock Jr. may be a comedy, but it is an ideological and technical stride ahead of the smartest films being made in France or the esoteric Russian montage school.

But let’s not forget the jewel in this little crown that is the comedy – both film’s culminate in the most extraordinary manner, a crescendo of increasingly dangerous and clever stunts. Keaton’s background working with circus performer parents is clearly in evidence here as well as his athleticism at, for instance, dodging falling boulders as well as hundreds of eager spinsters (the ‘all the single harridans’ number in Seven Chances). The staging of these scenes, particularly in Seven Chances, is eye-poppingly impressive but given how you almost need to catch your breath as each moment passes to the next, it also shows how he his talent could run away with itself if left unchecked.

Keaton is undergoing a mini-renaissance at present, with the BFI holding a season of his films. Clearly there is no need for reappraisal, but to give modern audiences the chance to enjoy his artistry again.

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013)

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Director: Justin Chadwick. Videovision/Distant Horizon/Origin Pictures/Pathe/Weinstein (12A)

DRAMA

Cast & Credits

Producer:  Anant Singh.
Writer: William Nicholson.
Camera: Lol Crawley.
Music: Alex Heffes.
Sets: Johnny Breedt.

Idris Elba, Naomie Harris, Tony Kgoroge, Riaad Moosa, Zolani Mkiva, Simon Mgowaza, Thapelo Mokoena, Jamie Bartlett, Deon Lotz, Terry Pheto, Carl Buekes, Andre Jacobs.

SYNOPSIS

Based on former South African President Nelson Mandela’s autobiography of the same name, this biopic chronicles the anti-apartheid campaigner’s life from his early days in a traditional African community in what was then part of Cape Province, to his emergence as an impassioned human rights activist and his imprisonment following this. Only during his later years, does he finally see black and white segregation abolished.

REVIEW

Much has been written recently about how black, British actors and directors are increasingly looking abroad to find work, due to the paucity of good, non-stereotypical roles and projects here (think about the glut of council estate ‘gangsta’ thrillers that creep onto UK screens). The Guardian’s Tom Seymour is one such journalist who has looked at this. And many of our best talent are now finding their feet squarely on American soil.

Idris Elba, who has starred in British TV productions such Luther but is more famous for his American work in dramas such as The Wire and films like Prometheus (2012) is one such actor who has decamped abroad with much success. Here, in a film blessed with the most fortuitous of release dates (Mandela’s death was announced during the film’s world premiere in London last year) he grabs what might be the role he will be remembered for (ironically, this is a co-British/South African production).

It is an Oscar worthy performance  and Elba cannot fail to come out of this anything other than wholly magisterial as an almost saintly Mandela. He nails Mandela’s very unique accent whilst never once looking anything like the man he is playing. Only once, when berating his first wife, does he wobble (and you can almost see his tongue working over time to get the glottal African pronunciation out).

This probably explains why Nelson in this film is muscular and throbbingly, naughtily sexual – we are under no illusions about his sex life. Mandela was obviously a good and frequent lay, if the smiles on his female co-stars faces are anything to go by. We are told at the start of the film that his given name as a child can be translated as ‘trouble-maker’, obvious considering the raucous glint in Elba’s eyes throughout.

The women in his life do manage to get something of a look in too – Harris is a mighty, warrior like Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, his second and most famous (some would say controversial) wife. She comes to life in direct counterpoint to the patient and martyr-like suffering of her on-screen husband, a firebrand activist who would not be cowed by the abuse meted out by the South African regime of the day.

Pheto, as his first wife Evelyn, is not on screen long enough but manages to convey the poignancy of a politican’s wife sidelined to historical ignominy with the kids as her husband’s public profile sky-rockets.

What is a crying shame about Chadwick’s high profile movie is it never comes across as anything more than a slickly produced film version of a Wikipedia page. Indeed, we can learn more about what motivated the man internally and politically from that erstwhile, default information portal (the link is here for anyone who fancies a read through). Criticisms of the man, during and after his anti-apartheid fight, are kept largely at bay, presenting  a hagiographic, one-sided depiction of one of this and the last century’s most famous men. Of course, it is difficult for a film-maker to be too critical or even questioning when the subject and his close relatives are still active during the production.

The film is not with0ut merit – aside from the solid acting all round, the scenes that concentrate on the violence that was everyday life in the Soweto district and the start of what could have been civil war in South Africa are staged with an ‘up in your grill’ ferocity. There is some playful visual comparison too – from the teenage Mandela, freely running naked and painted white during a tribal ceremony to the imprisoned man clothed as a convict doing hard time, coated in the chalky dust of a quarry. But too often Chadwick and writer Nicholson hurtle us from one event to another, despite the luxurious running time (2 hours and 26 minutes) that would allow them the opportunity to slow down and let us catch our breath as they look into the bigger moments.

As if this isn’t enough, any celebratory atmosphere created by the film is completely obliterated by having Bono singing on the closing credits, when a joyous, traditional African song from Mandela’s home tribe would have been much more appropriate (and welcome).

 

Future movie releases…w/e Friday 3 January 2014

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Age of Uprising

Mads Mikkelsen stars as a farmer in 16th Century France who takes violent revenge against the local M’Lord steals two of his horses. The official Music Box Film’s web page is here; use this link on Find Any Film to see where it is showing.

La Belle et la Bete

Jean Cocteau’s achingly beautiful telling of the Beauty and the Beast fairytale stars his off-screen lover, the achingly beautiful Jean Marais as the beast and Josette Day as beauty. Re-released as part of the BFI’s ‘Gothic’ season, movie’s don’t come more ravishing than this. The BFI’s web page with screening locations is here.

Last Vegas

On the cusp of turning into OAP’s, Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline revisit their youth in Las Vegas to celebrate bachelor Douglas finally getting married to his much younger girlfriend. Sounds like The Hangover with a bus pass. The official Universal website is here and you can book tickets/get screening locations from the home page. It even takes you direct to your nearest cinema – bonus!

Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom

This isn’t the first biopic of Nelson Mandela (for instance, Freeman played in him in the sports drama Invictus, 2009) but this has an added piquancy as Mandela passed away as the film was premiered in London a few weeks ago. Idris Elba grabs an opportunity for a unique headline role in mainstream cinema therefore to play the man from his youth, through his struggle to end Apartheid in South Africa and his latter days as the first black President of South Africa. Noemie Harris plays his controversial second wife Winnie. The film will be screened across almost all UK cinemas and the official website is here.

The Missing Picture

One man’s search for a photo of a war crime in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge ruled becomes a quest for the nature of reality and representation in this Cannes Film Festival winning film with plasticine dolls as the characters. The official New Wave Films site is here; the film will show at key cities only.

 

UK movie releases…w/e Friday 13 December 2013

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Unlucky for some today, but not if you are planning a visit to the cinema over the next few days, you lucky, lucky things you!

Here are the main UK releases for this week:

The Christmas Candle

Santa Clause is a-coming and you can instantly tell by the titles of the festive season’s movie offerings. This fable sees Hans Matheson as a vicar who arrives in a village steeped in magic and miracles, but teetering on the edge of modernity thanks to his new fangled ideas. Sounds cute and loads of good online stuff: official website here, Facebook page here and full list of cinema’s screening it with booking info here.

Cinema Paradiso

A classic of world cinema; film-maker Philippe Noiret visits his home town and recalls how the local cinema’s projectionist fired his enthusiasm for making movies. Re-released as part of the film’s 25th anniversary; no details about screenings other than it will show in key cities only so keep ’em peeled on your local art-house or big multiplex screens.

Fill the Void

Life in an orthodox Jewish community as a young woman is pressurised by her family to marry the widower of her recently deceased sister. Official Artificial Eye pictures page is here; the film will show at key cities only.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Ridiculously titled second instalment in the forever-to-conclude Peter Jackson sextet of Tolkein epics. Hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) continues his journey to reclaim the dwarf kingdom of Erebor. Ian McKellan co-stars as the wizard Gandalf. The immaculate official website is here and the film will be showing at just about every cinema up and down and across the land.

The Innocents

A chilling Christmas ghost story showing as part of the BFI’s ‘Gothic’ season. Deborah Kerr stars as the Victorian governess who becomes convinced her charges have been possessed following the death of her predecessor. Think The Others but minus Nicole Kidman’s ‘gerbil in the headlights’ ™ acting and buoyed up by the fantastical Kerr, almost possessed herself. The BFI site gives you screening locations here as this is will be at key cities only.

Tamla Rose

A Scouse Dreamgirls (2006) about a Motown-esque girl group pursuing stardom. The official Facebook page is here, official website is here and the film will show at key cities only.

And on Wednesday 18 December…

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

Will Ferrel returns as news anchor Ron Burgundy as prepares to head up America’s first ever 24 hours news station. It won’t be easy when his old colleagues Steve Carrel (weatherman), Paul Rudd (the ‘man on the street’) and David Koechner (sports desk) also join him. The official site is here and the film will be playing all across the UK.

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

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Film review, by Jason Day, of the whodunnit starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, who must solve the murder of a pushy, rich American businessman during a voyage on the Orient Express. Richard Widmark plays the victim.

Thriller

 

Continue reading

Nebraska (2013)

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Director: Alexander Payne. Paramount/Blue Lake Media/Bone Fide Productions/Echo Lake (15)

DRAMA

Cast & Crew

Producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa.
Writer: Bob Nelson.
Camera: Phedon Papamichael.
Music: Mark Orton.
Sets: J. Dennis Washington.

Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, Stacy Keach, Mary Louise Wilson, Rance Howard, Tim Driscoll, Devin Ratray, Angela McEwan.

SYNOPSIS

Old, infirm and fond of a drink, Woody Grant (Dern) is sent a form by a magazine company telling him he has won $1 million. Ignoring his families please that it is a ruse to get him to stump up for an expensive subscription, he insists on walking across several states to collect his winnings. His estranged son David (Forte) decides to drive him, ostensibly so the two can spend time with each other and meet up with their grasping relatives.

REVIEW

Slow-burning is the watch phrase here as Payne continues to dissect and examine the psyche of the male menopausal (About Schmidt, 2002 and Sideways, 2004). Here, it is Dern’s opportunity to shine in a rare leading man role as an old man searching for meaning and something to aspire to in an otherwise torpid, dull life.

Slow is perhaps the wrong word to attach to this film. The opening 15 minutes certainly amble along, as if it has taken on the shuffling gait of its lead character, but the whole atmosphere of the film and the world it chronicles runs at a different pace to the world outside it.

Payne has deliberately reduced the action to a crawl; purposeful and calm, he concentrates his story with long, lingering shots of the scenery and buildings of these almost desolate northern and mid-west states, focusing his attention on the mundane, where nothing seems to happen.

Contemplative is a better description but the almost relaxing state that Nebraska instills is as big a red herring as Woody’s unquestioning belief in the veracity of his fortune. Nebraska works by stealth and has a few quiet punches up its sleeve. The salty, coarse frankness of the dialogue complements this.

The excellence of the playing stems from the brutally honest way this family interacts with each other and the riotously funny way they express themselves. Dern’s taciturn lead is wonderfully nuanced and observed, a half crippled walk, inquisitive eyes and restless, agitated demeanour. When Forte questions him about his past and how he came to marry his mother and have children, his response is hilarious: “I wanted to screw. She’s Catholic, I figured we’d at least bang a couple of you out”. The film is full of these laugh out loud moments of deadpan revelation and discovery as an essentially barren family existence is slowly blown apart and discussed.

Incredibly, Dern has received only one Oscar nod before (Best Supporting Actor for Coming Home, 1978) but given the current buzz around this performance, he might grab another one and this time for the leading category.

Despite the alzheimic charm he imbues, he is outclassed by the delightfully named Squibb as his vituperative, brutally-honest-and-then-some, but ultimately loving and devoted wife. She is nothing less than a gem as a woman who says exactly what is on her mind, usually as she is thinking it and leaves a few images in the memory long after the film has finished (lifting up her skirt at a relative’s grave to “show him what he’s been missing” being one highlight).

Forte manages to keep his above the parapet of these two to avoid being completely neglected as the supposedly world-wise and intelligent son whose eyes are opened wide by the revelations that come out as his road-trip progresses. There is a wonderful gallery of grotesque relatives and locals in support, including Howard (movie mogul Ron’s dad) as Dern’s monosyllabic brother who suddenly jolts into life when he hears of the windfall about to land in his sibling’s lap. Several other residents of the town where Payne filmed are used to help keep a more realistic, local flavour to the performances.

Keach is slimily opportunistic as Dern’s former business partner, a man who literally smells money in the air whenever Dern is present.

The Butler (2013)

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Director: Lee Daniels. Follow Through/Weinstein/Salamander et al (12A)

DRAMA

Cast & Credits

Producers: Lee Daniels, Cassian Elwes, Buddy Patrick.
Writer: Danny Strong.
Camera: Andrew Dunn.
Music: Rodrigo Leao.
Sets: Tim Galvin.

Forrest Whittaker, Oprah Winfrey, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding Jnr., Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, David Oyelewo, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Rickman, Liev Schrieber, Robin Williams, Clarence Williams III, Mariah Carey, Alex Pettyfer.

SYNOPSIS

Seen through the eyes of butler Cecil Gaines (Whittaker) who serves five US Presidents from Eisenhower to Ronald Regan, the Civil Rights movement impacts on America, from the peaceful minded sit-ins that garner initial headlines to the more confrontational actions of the Black Panthers. Cecil maintains a dignified, apolitical stance throughout, despite the involvement of his troubled son (Oyelewo).

REVIEW

American cinema, like American society, has a chequered past in terms of confronting race relations. From the vast, blockbuster epics that romanticised slavery and the ‘Old South’, the antebellum genre of The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Gone With the Wind (1939), the vague, fluffy apologia of Intruder in the Dust (1949), Pinky (also 1949 – clearly  year for it) through to the likes of In the Heat of the Night (1967) to the rare, hard-hitting likes of Mississppi Burning (1988) and Spike Lee’s output after this, there has been a fitful desire to look deep into the issues at hand on screen.

We are now four years in to the tenure of the U.S.A.’s first ever African-American President (he gets name-checked toward the end too) and new political eras tend to usher in artists who wish to reflect the societal changes this can bring.

With this in mind, a brace of films are being released into the mainstream that are tackling/talking about racism and its invidious effects head on, such as the soon to be released 12 Years a Slave as well as the much anticipated biography of Nelson Mandela. They look to be more hard-hitting than this slightly reserved offering from Daniels (The Paperboy, 2012).

Reserved in that there is a certain sugar-coated casing to the messages being propagated.  The annoying use of soft-focus photography during the early scenes making one blink as if watching the film through saccharine contact lenses. The photography is glisteningly well utilised throughout, like that of Gone With the Wind, but in this case frustratingly detracts from the very serious events chronicled. There was a concern in this reviewer that we may be subject to the type of broken-backed Hollywood-ised exploration of racism that American cinema has veered toward so often in the past.

The characters too seem to be holding themselves back somewhat – Carey’s characters is raped by her ‘owner’ Pettyfer, an act not seen and which leaves her so emotionally unbalanced that she never vocalises a word again, but here is represented only by the swiftest of screams. Her husband does nothing, not even a grimace at what he cannot prevent. Whittaker has enormous dignity in the title role, but perhaps too much – what does it take for him to scream the house down after hearing umpteen racist viccistiudes at work? Surely no one can be this saintly?

But there is grit in amongst the candy-floss visuals and Daniels lets his camera interrogate some harrowing scenes in looming close-up, the restaurant sit-in and the preceding racism training sequences; a terrifying bus ride hijacked by the Ku Klux Klan and, even more horrific, President Lyndon B. Johnson (Schrieber) taking a dump and asking for prune juice as he tries to pass a motion.

The last point also highlights the smart humour that peppers the script. Lines such as “We have no tolerance for politics at the White House” raise a good few laughs. The frequent use of the ‘N-word’ is enough to pull you up out of your seats, it’s prevalence, never over done, is slightly depressing when one considers that co-star Winfrey has been largely instrumental in eradicating this ghastly word from polite conversation. Writer Strong, however, needed a script editor with more balls to rein in the Presidents-as-narrative-structure approach as he hurtles through the premiers at an alarming and panic attack-inducing rate.

Of the performances, Winfrey reminds those of us who do not recall or who haven’t seen her in films such as The Colour Purple (1985 and for which she was Oscar nominated as Best Supporting Actress) just how much of a powerful actress she can be. As Whittaker’s alcoholic, adulteress wife, she is gregarious, voluptuous and fragile as the wife neglected by her advancement oriented spouse. Oyelewo complements this with an impressively rebellious turn as her revolutionary son. There are telling, fun turns from Gooding Jnr., Kravitz and particularly Howard as Winfrey’s lover. Redgrave has a small but punchy cameo at the beginning as Pettyfer’s chillingly practical mother who does the kindest thing for the young Cecil and makes him a house servant after his family is destroyed.

Only Whittaker could have played this role bringing, as he does to every part he plays, the right mix of gravitas, humour and sense of moral purpose to his character. Cecil is, as Martin Luther King notes toward the end of the film, no servile man but one who has in his own small way helped pave the way for African Americans to achieve equality by breaking down certain stereotypes that white Americans hold about them. He is a joy to watch and the ending, as someone attempts to direct him to the President’s office, is a smasher.

Future movie releases…w/e Friday 6 December 2013

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Big Bad Wolves

This violent Israeli thriller has been acclaimed by no-less an authority on such movies than Quentin Tarantino as the best film this year.

A vigilante cop, sure he knows the identity of a child killer, beats the suspect half to death. But this is filmed and goes viral, leading to an escalation of his problems. No official site, but Wikipedia has the low-down here. The film will be on a limited showing only so keep your peepers out for it.

Black Nativity

Teenager Jacob Latimore moves in with strict religious relatives (Forrest Whittaker, Angela Bassett) but embarks on a journey of faith himself when he tries to return home to mom Jennifer Hudson. The official Fox Searchlight page is here; the film will be showing across most of the UK.

Floating Skyscrapers

Polish gay drama about an athlete’s developing sexual curiosity for a man he meets at a gallery opening. Apparently one of Polish cinema’s only queer offerings, the film will be showing at these limited locations and the official Facebook page is here.

Frozen (3D)

Disney animated adventure about a spirited girl who sets out to rescue her sister, whose magical powers have frozen the kingdom of Arendelle in perpetual winter. The official site is here and the film will be playing all over the show.

Getaway

Former race car driver Ethan Hawke steals “international music sensation” (if you believe the website’s blurb) Selena Gomez’s car, with the girl still in it, as a means to save his wife. You might have to bear with this plot. The official site is here; the film will show at most UK cinemas.

Homefront

Coming in the wake of the much lauded American drama Breaking Bad this action thriller sees Jason Statham as a former Drug Enforcement Agency man moving to a small town with his family but finding himself entangled with the local Crystal Meth lord (James Franco). Winona Ryder and Kate Bosworth round out the star cast; Sylvester Stallone is the credited scribe. The official Facebook page is here; the film should be playing at all cinemas with enough screens.

Kill Your Darlings

Director John Krokidas’ feature film debut looks at what happened when a murder happened that brought together leading beat generation poets Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe), Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston) and William S. Burroughs (Ben Foster). The film will show at key cities only, but Facebook lists the locations here.

Klown

Slightly bonkers and certainly outrageous, this sex-fuelled Danish comedy follows two men as they plough through Denmark and unmentionable debaucheries as they join their friend on a secret, sex-fuelled canoeing weekend. Comedians Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen play the two leads and the film will be showing at key cities only. Official site is here.

A Long Way From Home

James Fox goes for his ‘Bogart/Death in Venice’ slot as a retired Brit lusting after Natalie Dormer’s younger woman while he takes it easy in France with wife Brenda Fricker. The film will show at key cities only and the official Soda Pictures is here.

Nebraska

Bruce Dern could well be a shoe-in for an Oscar next year if the buzz around his performance here is anything to go by. He receives a sweepstake letter and, thinking he’s won it big, ropes in son Will Forte to take him on a road trip across four states to collect his prize. Alexander Payne (Abouth Schmidt, Sideways) directs. The official website is here and the film will be showing across the whole of the UK at most cinemas.

Oldboy

American remake, surprisingly directed by Spike Lee, of the decidedly weird 2003 Park Chan-Wook thriller. Josh Brolin stars as a man who is imprisoned and framed for the rape and murder of his ex-wixe, his daughter having been taken away and adopted by another family. He spends the next 20 years training as a boxer to take revenge on the men who did this to him. But there is a lot more to this story than meets the eye as one can see from the official Tumblr site here. The film should be playing at most places.

The Patience Stone

Afghani film, based on the novel by Atiq Rahimi tells one woman’s story to break away from silence and oppression. The stills of the film alone look heart-achingly beautiful. The film will show at key cities only and the official webpage is here.

The Powder Room

Brit actress of the moment Sheridan Smith leads a largely female cast of girls in this raucous ‘girls on the piss’ comedy as they face up to where their lives are as they paint the town red. Jaime Winstone co-stars. The film will be showing at key cities only and the official Vertigo Films page is here.

Rough Cut

Director James Shovlin explores and pays homage to the slasher genre with this film-within-a-film, following a remake of an old classic of the genre. The official website is here and it will show at key cities only.

Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s

Matthew Miele’s documentary peeks behind the scenes at the legendary American department store. Contributors include Joan Rivers and Karl Lagerfeld. The official website is here and the film show at key cities only. If you want the lowdown on the store itself, click here.

This Ain’t California

Drama-documentary following the hitherto neglected 80’s skateboarding scene in the East Berlin of the 1980’s. Now there can’t be many of these films, so knock yourselves out skater boyz and girls! The official Facebook page is here and the film will show at key cities only.

 

The White Shadow (1924)

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Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Woolf & Freedman/Selznick.

SILENT

Cast and Crew

Producers: Michael Balcon/Victor Saville.
Writers: Michael Morton, Alfred Hitchcock.
Camera: Claude L. McDonald.
Sets: Alfred Hitchcock.

Betty Compson, Clive Brook, A.B. Imeson, Daisy Campbell, Henry Victor.

Synopsis

A tale of two polar opposite twin sisters, Georgina and Nancy (Compson) – one craves the party life in Paris, the other is a good girl with a ‘soul’ (the shadow of the film’s title). Mixed in with this is a gentlemanly American (Brook) who ends up romancing both following a joke played by one of the girls.

Review

One of the ‘Hitchcock five’, a number of previously lost or rarely seen movies made in the silent era by the director Alfred Hitchcock because the copy of the film had degraded to such a degree they were deemed unwatchable. The films were released in 2013 by the BFI to much fanfare following the committed efforts of film restorers.

The White Shadow is not one of the better films and this isn’t just because a third of the film is lost forever. Co-producer Balcon said in 1969 that the film was rushed into at the time as they were desperate to retain Compson, a popular actress at this time in Britain and then later in Hollywood, as a leading lady (she had just helmed their hit Woman to Woman) before she returned to the states.

Big mistake as this film tanked at the box office and the results show with a thin and frustratingly dull plot. Think of one of the most boring story-lines in Downton Abbey without the words. It doesn’t help that a segment of the film is missing entirely leading to a shocking jump in the story where several characters have either died or changed beyond recognition; the script was obviously silly but this is compounded further at this point.

Amongst the amusing silent movie period discrepancies are the tourists who change their travel plans so they can hook up with a total stranger on a boat and the sensitively worded police communications (which thankfully have improved since 1924) on missing person letters, explaining to frantic loved ones that “thousands go missing and are never seen again”.

The restorers are to be praised whole heartedly for their own masterful cinematic wizardry. International teams must have been run ragged cleaning and re-framing this little batch and richly deserve the plaudits heaped on them. Although there a few brief moments during the film when the original film stock’s disintegration was too much to overcome, it never detracts from watching the film and reminds us again of the quality work that has gone in here.

 

Future movie releases…w/e Friday 22 November 2013

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Blue is the Warmest Colour – some controversy around this tale of a lesbian teenager (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and her affair with her blue-haired teacher (Léa Seydoux), some accusing it of perving a little longer than necessary on the characters (see Metro  interview with Seydoux here). Either way, this seems brave and frank and will be showing at many UK cinemas, so check out your art house places or bigger multiplexes. Official Artificial Eye site is here.

Breakfast With Jonny Wilkinson – as you might predict, this comedy takes place during the Rugby World Cup as a local team are set to lose their beloved chairman. The official Facebook page is here and the film will be playing at key cities only.

Computer Chess – it’s not often that chess forms part of a film. And even rarer for that film to be a comedy. Computer developers pit their intelligence against that of chess masters during a weekend of software development craziness. Hilair! Thankfully, it will only be showing at key cities so easy to miss. The official Flickr site is here.

The Family – Luc Besson is probably the last director one would associate with the crime genre. But here he is helping this darkly funny ‘mafia fish out of water’ thriller with Robert De Niro as the crime boss relocated under the witness protection scheme with his family to a small town in France after snitching on the mob. Trouble is, they find it hard to shed their old way of life and, of course, are soon tracked down. The official Tumblr site is here; the film will be showing at most UK cinemas.

Flu – Korean pandemic disaster film. The official website is in Korean, as is the Facebook page, so if you don’t speak the dialect, better check out IMDb here. The film will be showing at key cities only.

Gone With the Wind – aaaaah. There can be no better word for this, possibly the most famous of Hollywood films, than perfection. And by perfection we are of course bypassing the rampant racism, wild histrionics, Vivien Leigh’s continent jumping accent (and most of said histrionics) and the longuers after the Civil War has finished. Classic American film-making like this will never be seen again. Clark Gable, Leslie Howard and (the only remaining principal cast member still alive, at the grand old age of 97) Olivia de Havilland round out some of the massive cast list. Re-released in a tarted up edit, it is being presented by the BFI at these cinemas to coincide with what have been Leigh’s 100th birthday.

Killing Oswald – 50 years ago this week JFK was assassinated so there has been a glut of TV documentaries to chronicle this seismic historical event. This docu looks into the mystery of why the President and his killer Lee Harvey Oswald were both murdered that year. The official website is here and the film will be playing at key cities only.

Parkland – and here is the second big screen JFK offering this week, purporting to be the ‘true’ telling of that fateful day in Dallas. The disparate stories of various people closely involved in the tragedy, including duty doctor Zac Efron are woven together, a la Robert Altman. The official site is here; the film will be showing all over.

Vendetta – ‘Danny Dyer back doing what he does best!’ scream the slogans for this crime thriller, not leaving us many entertaining options to contemplate. He kills someone trying to break into his shop and the man’s gang return to beat him and rape his wife leading to a sub-Death Wish on a council estate. The film will be showing at key cities only and the official website is here.

Vivan las Antipodas! – beautiful sounding documentary as filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky takes us to several antipodes on the planet (antipodes being places that are diametrically opposed to one another) to show us the different people who live there. The official website contains a little more here; the film will show at key cities only.