Displaying items by tag: Jonathan Pryce

THE PENGUIN LESSONS

UK/Spain, 2024, 111 minutes, Colour.

Steve Coogan, Jonathan Pryce, Julia Fossi, David Herrero, Bjorn Gustafsson, Alfonsina Carroccio.

Directed by Peter Cattaneo.

Films about penguins are always interesting, intriguing, often delightful. 2024 saw the release of My Penguin Friend as well as the Penguin Lessons. Both are set in South America, the former in Brazil, the latter in Argentina. The former is set in the present, the concern for penguins and the environment. The latter is set in 1976.

1976 was a significant year in Argentinian history, civil unrest, the coup by the generals and their continued military dictatorship for the next eight years (including the Falklands War). This is very much the atmosphere of this story. However, the focus is on an Englishman, Tom Michell, the screenplay a fictional adaptation of his memoir (and, as often the case these days, some footage of himself and the penguin during the final credits).

Tom is a teacher, has been drifting for years through the US and Latin America, saddened, isolated, sardonic, not coping with the death of his daughter. He is welcomed by the principal of a privileged high school for the sons of wealthy Argentinians (including generals). The principal is played in a very proper English manner by Jonathan Pryce.

And Tom is played by Steve Coogan, an actor comfortable in both drama and comedy, seen to advantage in the National Theatre Live version of Dr Strangelove where he plays four satiric characters). Here he is rather world-weary, trying to teach his class English language and literature, forced to coach Rugby  which he dislikes, intending to coast along in his life and work.

As with any visitor to Buenos Aires, he decides to catch the ferry across the Plata, a visit to Uruguay for some kind of relaxation. Instead, he and a companion from the nightclub, find a penguin covered in oil from a slick. He is happy to abandon it. She wants to clean it, care for it. And, long story short, the penguin becomes his responsibility, getting it through police checks and Customs, concealing it, trying to get rid of it, bringing it back to the school and ensconce it in his apartment.

And, there are many penguin lessons, the penguin becoming in the words of one of the alert students in the class, a metaphor. The penguin, now named, is a hit with the boys, uniting them from their mischief and bullying, paying attention, eager to feed the penguin, its becoming a football mascot.

Interestingly, everybody talks to the penguin, now named Juan Salvador, especially Tom. His rather demanding landlady and her daughter are charmed. His co-teacher from Finland is able to pour out all his personal troubles to the penguin. And, after being initially taken aback, of course, even the principal talks to the penguin. So, happy penguin lessons at the school.

But, this is the year of the coup, the cleaner’s daughter involved in protests, snatched by the police in the street in front of Tom, his not venturing to help, then the disappearance of the shopkeeper who supplied fish to the school, and an episode where Tom with the penguin sees the police chief who headed the abduction, sitting in a cafe, his little daughter patting the penguin, but a severe reprimand for Tom and then his being arrested, interrogated, tortured and released. This atmosphere pervades the latter part of the film.

While there is a happy ending at the school, the boys the better for Tom’s classes and his advocating of social equality and care, and the presence of Juan Salvador, all graduating. And the headmaster decides to use his influence with the parents to obtain the release of the imprisoned cleaner’s daughter.

This is a British film, an adaptation of the memoir, directed by Peter Cataneo (famous for his direction of The Full Monty), some British reserve and reticence as wellais sarcasm and sardonic remarks, which avoids an over-sentimental appeal, but nevertheless has its moments of laughter – and, perhaps to the surprise of some audiences, some tears.

1. The title, memoir of the author, based on a true story, fictionalised, the home movie of the penguin during the final credits?
2. Argentina, 1976, civil unrest, secret police and arrests, disappearances, the generals, the coup? And its continuing into the mid-1980s? Memories of the Falklands war?
3. The city awareness of areas, the school and its interiors, grounds, the city streets, shops, the visit to Uruguay, the countryside, the city? The beaches, the oil slick? The musical score?
4. Tom Michel, his story, arriving in Argentina, employed by the school, relationships with the headmaster, various schools in the US and Latin America, age, gradual revelation of the hit run death of his daughter and its effect on him, his wife, loneliness, sarcasm and sardonic, his room in the school, the encounter with the tough housekeeper, meeting Tapio from Finland, his conversations, serious minded, his sad story about his friend and ex-wife?
5. The classes, the wealthy students, the fascist backgrounds, taunting the Socialist boy? Disturbances in class? Tom and his classes, sarcasm, Hamlet, literature, John Masefield’s poem, Shelley? Boys and their personalities, presumptions, bullying and targets? The football game, Tom going to lie down, overhearing the conversation between the shopkeeper with the fish and Sofia, reassuring her?
6. The decision to go to Uruguay, motives, the trip with Tapio, the bar, the encounter with the women, the dancing, on the beach, finding the penguin, the woman and her compassion, Tom not wanting involvement, back to the hotel, secretly, washing and cleaning it, the kiss, and the woman leaving? The complications with the police and Customs about the penguin, the interrogations, the police threats? Tom bringing the penguin back to the school, in his room, trying to feed it, keeping it on the balcony?
7. Audience response to the penguin, the name from Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Tom bringing it to class, the response of the boys, feeding the penguin, behaving better in class, Tom and his getting the boys to lie down, reflect, commentary on the poems, Diego and the focus on metaphor?
8. The penguin, in the room, the balcony, with Sofia and her mother, the meal, Tapio and his conversation and revelation to the penguin? And later the headmaster doing the same? Tom and his conversations with the penguin?
9. The political situation, lack of freedom, brutality, Sofia’s arrest, the closing down of the fish shop? Tom and Sofia’s arrest, not doing anything, excusing himself to the school, the later confession to Sofia’s mother, with the penguin and seeing the chief of police, his daughter patting the penguin, Tom asking for the release of Sofia, his arrest, torture, release? The reaction of people at the school? The headmaster and his intervention for Sofia? Successful?
10. The headmaster, his personality, British, style, colonial? The patronage of the wealthy parents? Closing the school for a week? Suggesting that Tom move on? Talking to the penguin? Change of heart? The boys improving with their studies? The graduation ceremony and the applause for the students?
11. Tom, his sad life, the possibility for change, the penguin as reality and metaphor, his staying at the school? And the happiness of Sofia’s release?
12. The final information about his staying at the school, return to Wales, finding the old footage?
13. The very British sensibility of the characters? Transported from Britain to the uncertainties of the oppression of the generals in Argentina, 1970s-1980s?