LE CONCERT

France, 2009, 119 minutes, Colour.
Aleksei Guskov, Dimitri Nazarov, Melanie Laurent, Francois Berleand, Miou- Miou, Valeri Barinov.
Directed by Radu Mihaileanu.

A very entertaining film, especially with audiences who have a love for classical music. Radu Milheanu is a Jewish Romanian director who has lived in Paris since his student days. He has made a number of socially conscious films like Va, Viens, Deviens about the Ethiopian Jews and their migrating to Israel. Here he combines some familiar themes of the experience of Communism, especially for Russian Jews. His story enables him to tell part of it in Moscow and the other part in Paris (and filming in Bucharest).

There is an amusing sleight of vision in the opening where we see a conductor passionately working with an orchestra and then finding that this is not quite the case. We then learn about a Bolshoi orchestra that was shut down in mid-performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major in 1980 and the Jewish musicians have not been able to play since and have menial jobs. An opportunity arises for them (or is surreptitiously set up for them) to play at Le Chatelet in Paris. The conductor chooses to play the Tchaikovsky concerto and wants a young French violinist (Inglourious Basterds’ Melanie Laurent compelling in this role) to be the soloist. So far, so lucky.

What follows is comedy, comedy of errors, comedy of apprehension, comedy of exploitation, the kind of scenario that the Ealing Studios comedies of the 1950s might have loved. Can the conductor (Aleksei Guskov) and his best friend (a celloist, now an ambulance driver, the genial Dmitri Nazarov) find enough musicians to play? Can they be trusted (not entirely!)? What about passports and visas?

There are also plenty of absurd moments when they get to Paris and we wonder whether the concert will ever go ahead – and even whether the musicians will turn up.

There is a sub-plot about the conductor and his collaboration with a young Russian violinst who was playing when the 1980 concert was interrupted. The screenplay seems to be leading us in one direction about the young violinist in the present time for us only to find that we had allowed ourselves to be misled (and to have made rash judgments).

We know that the concert will go ahead. Audiences will not be disappointed with the performance. It is very moving with the Tchaikovsky music and the violin artistry.

So, we have plenty of comedy and plenty of serious moments, plenty of pathos and the delight of the music.

1. The appeal of the film? Acclaim? The European audiences? Beyond?

2. The film anchored in Soviet history, the Soviet Union, communism, ideology, repression? Anti-Semitic? stances? Change, the Russian tradition, meeting French culture?

3. The handling of the Jewish issues, at the time of Brezhnev, the Jewish members of the orchestra, sent to the gulags?

4. The music, Tchaikovsky, Russian musical traditions, the comments about harmony? The love of music, the obsession, in Filipov, in Lea? The visuals of the gulag and her imaginary plane? The achievement for Anne- Marie in the concert? The audiences, weeping, Anne-Marie? weeping, Filipov and his achievement?

5. Moscow in the 21st century, homes, the Bolshoi Orchestra, Red Square, offices? The musical score?

6. Paris, the chatelet, the streets, the restaurants, hotels? The communist hall?

7. The opening joke, the musical score, the editing, Filipov conducting, discovering that he is a cleaner, his boss? The chance cleaning and the fax arriving, the beginnings of the plan?

8. Filipov and his wife, thirty years, her support? Sasha, his friend, driving the ambulance, losing his wife and children? Confronting Gavrilov? Sasha’s hostility? Filipov knowing that he was the best manager? The phone call to Paris, the agreements, the contacts, the contracts and conditions, Duplessis and his discussions in Paris, the condition of the restaurant, the per diem, the ride on the Seine, the hotel accommodation? Filipov and his beginning to recruit the players, the memories of the past, the range of players, his visits around Moscow? The Jewish father and son? The gypsies?

9. 1980, the flashbacks, the visual style, black and white? The ideology, the Jews, patriotism? Brezhnev? Gavrilov and his halting the concert? Lea and her husband, playing, Lea’s annotated score, their love for each other, the concert and Lea’s obsession, Lea and her husband giving interviews, arrested, going to the gulag, playing in imagination, her death, her husband’s death six months later from grief?

10. The comedy concerning contemporary Russia, organising the crowds for political rallies, getting guests for the weddings, the rivalries for having more guests than others, the gangster shootouts at the wedding? The entrepreneur – and his mother suggesting he buy a football team rather than support an orchestra?

11. Paris, Duplessis and his assistant, the boss, the Los Angeles orchestra pulling out, the phone calls, the contracts, the deals? The phone call in the middle of the wedding reception? The bluff about negotiations?

12. The passports, the forgeries, no bus, their walking to the airport?

13. At the airport, the man to meet them? Paris, their demands, going to the hotel, the riot for the per diem? The Frenchman and his credit card, the phone to the boss, paying the money? The orchestra disappearing, on the town, not going to the restaurant? Gavrilov and his losing control? Going to find the old restaurant – and the arrangement for it being redone and disguised? Sasha and Filipov eating the burgers?

14. The request for Anne- Marie, her being guided by Guylene? Guylene as her manager, control, the negotiation for her performance? Anne- Marie and her fear of Tchaikovsky? Her decision? Wanting to play with Filipov? The background of her origins, Guylene and her fear? The secret? Anne- Marie going to the rehearsal, the failure, the tantrum? The gypsy playing and her change of heart? Going to dinner with Filipov, the talk, the drinking, the story of Lea? Guylene and giving Anne- Marie Lea’s score? Anne- Marie going to the concert?

15. The orchestra’s behaviour in Paris, wandering, the Jewish father and son and their sales? Wanting to get back the mobile phones? The irresponsibility of the orchestra? Not turning up for the rehearsal? Filipov covering, Duplessis and his comments on the Russians?

16. The issue of television rights, the conditions – and using the satellites?

17. The fax back to Russia, the minister going on holidays, his assistant reading the fax? The minister, the family, tourism? Meeting Gavrilov? Gavrilov locking him in the room?

18. Gavrilov and his communist affiliations, packing the flag, going to the headquarters in Paris, meeting and discussing the issues? Going to the hall? His change of heart, going to the concert – and praying to God, if he exists, for the success of the performance?

19. The waiting, the Jewish father and son arriving late? The initial bad playing, seeming failure?

20. Anne- Marie and her beautiful playing, the response of the orchestra, improving, the success of the performance?

21. The final recital, the screenplay inserting narrative aspects within the performance, Filipov’s wife listening in Moscow, Sasha’s family seeing their father on television, the story about Lea and her husband told in flashbacks, the transporting of the baby from Russia to Paris, Guylene’s role? The success of the performances, the extra concerts, the collage of the favourable reviews in the papers?

22. The achievement, the reparation of thirty years? The ecstasy of their music, the applause?

23. A serious story but told with the light touch, comic and satiric aspects?

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU

US, 2011, 106 minutes, Colour.
Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Michael Kelly, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery.
Directed by George Nolfi.

When the credit for this film being based on a story by Philip K. Dick, The Adjustment Team, then the tone of the film fell into place. However, it was not quite doing it while the plot was unfolding. Dick is famous for being the author of Blade Runner, Total Recall and other stories on which films have been based like Minority Report and Paycheck. The world of Philip K. Dick had many dimensions, explored the reality of human nature (both of humans and replicants) and took its fans into different futuristic worlds and different moral choices.

The world of The Adjustment Bureau does not look like a different futuristic place at all, even despite mysterious doors which open directly into locations some distance away in terms of realism. This is New York as we have come to know it, American politics, campaigns and dirty tricks as we have come to take them for granted, romance as we might expect it in the movies. Then strange men wearing hats appear and start to control the protagonists’ lives, even with digi-books. But, this seems so casual that we don’t realise that we are in a Philip K. Dick world and are forced to juggle the realism with the fantasy.

Not that the theme is not interesting in itself: the nature and exercise of free will. This takes the audience out of its comfort zone (although we are lagging a bit in appreciating where and how we are being taken) and raises questions of transcendence in terms of destiny, fate and free choices. There is talk of the chairman, who seems to run a bureau which determines people’s lives. But, there are some rebels even amongst his guardians (angels?) with their electronic books of life, everything mapped out for all of us. But, many science fiction films have reminded us that love can overcome everything. And this is the key here. Is that what the chairman hopes we all will do, move out of the seemingly predestined plan, discover love and make free choices?

I am not so sure that many audiences leaving The Adjustment Bureau will want to spend this kind of time musing over what they have seen. They might simply say it was interesting enough, that the actors were good, but it was a bit of a misfire.

The actors are good. Matt Damon, rather ubiquitous at the moment, is a genial politician with a quick temper who falls in love with a dancer, played by Emily Blunt. And Terence Stamp, brooding looks and diction, is one of the chief underlings of the Chairman.
A science fiction romantic oddity.

1. The title? The questions and answers? Reality and fantasy? Based on a book by Philip K. Dick – and his interest in science fiction, science fantasy?

2. The film as a piece of Americana, American politics, the media, the world of dance, relationships and love?

3. The basic premise: human life, fate, destiny, maps, possibilities for change? The question of who is in charge and control? The opening of doors, moving into another world, swift connections?

4. The city settings, the apartments, offices, campaigns, dance studios, theatre, the streets, transport? The reality aspects?

5. The other world, the bureau, the personnel, their clothes and hats, guides, equivalents of angels, the authority figures? Thompson and his role in the bureau? The hierarchy, the supreme controller? The doors and openings?

6. David’s story, his life, campaign, full of promise, the media, the article against him, the critique – and the slight case of mooning? His defeat? His relationship with his campaign people and managers? The result and his acceptance?

7. Elise, going into the men’s washroom, the discussions with David, recognising him? The attraction? Her departure, the chance meeting on the bus? The reality of the meeting? Their pasts? Her relationships, dancing, training, performing? The injury? Her other life?

8. David and his rediscovering Elise, the love, the pursuit, the authority figures after them, the doors and their moving through the city?

9. Harry Mitchell, his role as a guide, the maps, his explanations to the authorities, his sympathy for David? Helping him? Breaking the rules? The other agents, their appearances, the decisions?

10. Thompson and his role, the explanations, the pursuit, altering fate?

11. Politics, Charlie Traynor and his role with David? The possibilities of politics for the future?

12. The themes of control, fate, free will, possibilities? The story serving as a moral fable?

THE LOST FUTURE

US, 2010, 95 minutes, Colour.
Sean Bean, Corey Sevier, Sam Claflin, Annabelle Wallis.
Directed by Mikael Salomon.

The Lost Future is an above average science fiction, futuristic film. However, with its contents it seems more like some of those Land That Time Forgot or 10,000 BC films. The setting is post-apocalyptic, only a few human survivors. There are many mutants who prey, like beasts, on the humans. Only a special powder can keep people immune from the infection of the mutants.

The film focuses on a small community, with Corey Sevier as the leader, going in search of the yellow powder with his friend, played by Sam Claflin, whose father created the powder and has taught his son to read, something everybody else cannot do (echoes of The Book of Eli).

The adventures are fairly conventional, the pursuit by the beasts, finding the human community whose tyrannical leader is opposed to sharing the powder. There are also a number of battles.

Sean Bean appears as a leader of older warriors – giving some gravitas to the whole film.

1. An entertaining futuristic film? Echoes of prehistoric stories? The cycle of history and prehistory?

2. The South African settings? The forests, the villages, the river, the destroyed metropolis? Special effects, action sequences? Musical score?

3. The title and its provocative look at the past and the future?

4. The picture of the community, menaced by the beasts? Small in number? The leadership? Not going beyond the boundaries, venturing out, killing the beast, taking its heart, bringing it back? The elders and their condemnation? The beasts invading the village, the people hiding in the cave? The leader and his being infected, killed?

5. Savan, the leader, the warrior type? The contrast with Kaleb, wanting to be leader? But the scholar? His ability to read? Dorel and her relationship with Savan?

6. The decision to go to find the powder, the encounter with Amal? His wise advice, leadership? His men? The raft, going to the city? The confrontation with Gagen? His daughter? His refusal to give the powder? The three being infected and in need?

7. The daughter, her change of heart, the truth about her father? Helping the three, their survival? Their return to take the powder to save their village?

8. The pursuit by Gagan, rope bridge cut, Savan and arrows for others, Kalen and Dorel saving the clan with the powder, Gagan’a arrival, shoot and Amal save Kaleb, reading, return the powder.

QUELQUES CHOSES A TE DIRE (BLAME IT ON MUM)

France, 2009, 99 minutes, Colour.
Mathilde Seigner, Pascal Elbe, Olivier Marchal, Charlotte Rampling, Patrick Chesnais, Sophie Cattani, Jerome Soubeyrand.
Directed by Cecile Telerman.

Quelques Choses a te Dire is one of those stories of French families that the French film-makers do so well.

Patrick Chesnais and Charlotte Rampling portray a couple who have been married for forty-five years. Their eldest son is in business, importing rice from Asia, but as fallen on hard times, is lacking business management. The next child is a daughter, Alice (Mathilde Seigner) who is an artist but is drug-dependent and promiscuous. The third child, Annabelle (Sophie Cattani) is a nurse.

While all seems normal enough, Alice becomes involved with a policeman who wants to leave his pregnant wife. He has a story about his father having an affair and having another son. The father was an artist – and he shows Alice the pictures of the mother of the son, and it is her mother. This opens all kinds of complications, possibilities of revenge, issues of inheritance, issues of truth and lies.

While the film moves to a difficult ending, it changes gear, having some hope, everybody coming together in some kind of support and love.

The French title, Something to Say to You, is much more effective than the pseudo-jocose title, Blame it on Mum.

1. The blend of the comic and the serious? A family portrait? Complications?

2. The French title? The English title? The French title – and who is the speaker and who is the listener?

3. The French settings, the middle class, wealth, conservative? The mother and her life, comforts? The children and their relationships? Family meals? Her husband, his prestige, retiring? Forty-five years married, the preparations for the celebration? Yet the brittleness of the marriage?

4. The children and their problems, the tangles, the intersecting of the stories, the revelations, the satisfactory resolution?

5. Alice, her age, her art, drug-dependent, her abortions, relying on Annabelle in the hospital? Her being set up with the drugs, the arrest, the police brutality, Jacques and his interrogation, kind, throwing the drugs away? His following up contact, meeting with Alice, the ticket for the exhibition, his being outside, knowing the paintings? Alice and her bond with Jacques, the relationship, his wife and her pregnancy? The visits, her tantrums? The issue of the rice? Her father paying for the exhibition and buying some of the paintings?

6. Annabelle, at the hospital, her support for Alice, her relationship with the doctor, the operations, his being married, her pregnancy?

7. Nicolas, his age, marriage, children? The grandparents doting on the children? His rice business, the failure? His going to court, the lawyer and her assistance, the three months to pay his debts? His inability? His morose nature? His not relying on his father for financial help, the visits of his father to the office? Jacques and his visit, their talking, the bond, Nicolas finding Jacques sympathetic, pouring out his story? The underlying theme the audience knew of brother talking to brother? Jacques telling him the truth, the effect? The plan? His relationship with his mother? Talking to his father, his father’s continued support and love?

8. Jacques, his age, twenty years of marriage, tired, at work, his wife and the discussions? His two lives, with Alice? Discussions, telling her his story about his father? Alice not telling him what she discovered? His anger with her, the reconciliation?

9. The father, his work, success, retirement? Wanting to help Nicolas? The forty-five years celebration, weary, talking to Madeleine about her son, the truth, his support? Wanting a break? Leaving?

10. Madeleine, her breezy style, the revelation of her story, the art student, the encounter with the artist, her pregnancy? Her going to her husband, his accepting the paternity? Forty-five years of a comfortable life, breezing through life, controlling people? Her seeing the pictures? Admitting the truth?

11. The build-up to the crisis, the revelations, the explanations?

12. Yet the hopeful ending, the opening of the exhibition building and the studio? Everybody happy – and the group photo?

THE WARRIOR’S WAY

New Zealand, 2010, 100 minutes, Colour.
Dong-gun Jang, Geoffrey Rush, Kate Bosworth, Danny Huston, Tony Cox.
Directed by Sngmoo Lee.

The Warrior’s Way is a strange mixture of martial arts films in the Asian tradition with spaghetti westerns. And it was filmed in New Zealand.

It is the first work of the director but uses a Korean star, well established, as well as an American leading lady, an American villain, and an Australian narrator.

One of the most striking things about the film is its stylised use of locations, colours, compositions. We are taken into an unreal world, both in Asia and in the American desert. In the American desert is the abandoned town of Lode, the alleged Paris of the West. A group of circus people is stranded there, caravans and the huge ferris wheel and carousel crumbling.

The film focuses on Yang, a hero who wants to be the greatest swordsman on earth – and achieves this ambition. His family has been feuding with a rival family and he has destroyed all of them except a baby. Urged to kill the baby, he does not, taking it with him to America. He finds the town where a friend lived, only to find that he has died. With the help of Lynne (Kate Bosworth) he sets up a laundry. Lynne has her own story – told in flashbacks – where a ruthless colonel has killed her family and raped her. She is planning revenge on him. Also in the town is an alcoholic, a sharpshooter whose wife has been killed. He has taken refuge in drink. He is played by Geoffrey Rush – a strange presence in this kind of film.

The film’s score echoes both the martial arts films but, especially in America, the Ennio Morricone scores for spaghetti westerns.

The film is full of special effects, especially for the swordsman and his activities, the appearance of a myriad of Ninja fighters, an attack by the colonel and his men, a shootout.

The film is fascinating for the eye and the ear, fascinating for the imagination – especially those who are fond of the genres which the film combines.

1. Martial arts? Spaghetti western? The blend?

2. New Zealand production, Korean director, the international cast?

3. The visuals, the artificial sets, the palette of colours, the artificiality? Stylised? Mountains and sky, desert, the town? Audiences accepting this world as real? The musical score, the martial arts, spaghetti western style?

4. The influence of the martial arts films, Kurosawa and the eastern masters? Of Sergio Leone and the spaghetti westerns? Of experimental westerns like The Good, the Bad and the Weird?

5. The title, Yang wanting to be the greatest swordsman on earth, showing him in his battles, defeating the master? The family feud? The flashbacks to his training, the master, trained to kill, to kill the dog, to be an assassin? Sword and action?

6. Yang and his decision not to kill the baby, the baby’s response, the petal on his face and laughing? Going to America?

7. In the desert, walking, the town of Lode, its look, the confrontation with the inhabitants? The circus people and the variety? Ronald? The tough kids and the dwarf controlling them? Lynne’s presence in the town?

8. The spaghetti western, the town, its look, the laundry, the ruins, the washing, inside, on the line? The saloon? The circus ruins and the visual impact? The possibilities of surviving in this town?

9. Lynne’s flashback, the colonel, his ruthlessness, his troops, shooting her parents, pursuing her, the sexual assault, her escape, throwing the liquid on his face and burning it? His being bent on revenge?

10. Lynne, throwing the knives, Yang teaching her to focus, throwing blindfold? His outline on the board? Giving her the knives for her fatal meeting with the colonel? The colonel’s arrival, the martial arts fight with him? Yang stepping back?

11. The circus people, the range of items, their life in the town, the dwarf? The colonel’s attack, putting on their circus clothes, preparing to fight, their deaths?

12. Yang as laconic, his character, in the West, his decisions?

13. The master and the Ninjas, their appearance, the battles, the visuals of these fights?

14. Ronald, telling his story, the sharpshooter, his wife, his alcoholism, digging up the weapons in the cemetery? His taking the gun, his accurate shooting? Preparing for the attack?

15. Yang’s sword, its being sheathed, no enemy Ninjas appearing? The posse’s approach, his getting out the sword?

16. The posse, the swordsman, Yang and his sword, the destruction of the horses, the advancing men, Ronald in the tower, shooting? The colonel’s men and the decimation, his determination to keep advancing, the deaths on the tower?

17. The colonel, the confrontation with Yang, Yang stepping aside, Lynne and her fight, the colonel’s death?

18. The master, the Ninja, the speech to Yang, the master’s death?

19. Yang and his leaving, going to the Arctic, the fish, the attack of the Eskimo, his death? Walking on into the future?

20. The overall effect of this kind of mixture of genres and mixture of visual styles and music?

TOUCH OF PINK

UK/Canada, 2004, 91 minutes, Colour.
Jimi Mistry, Kyle Mac Lachlan, Suleka Mathew, Kris Holden- Ried, Veena Sood, Linda Thorson.
Directed by Ian Iqbal Rashid.

Touch of Pink as a title is a play on Cary Grant and Doris Day’s A Touch of Mink.

This is a very pink film, camp in style, focusing on gay relationships, homophobia, people in the closet, uncomprehending parents.

Jimi Mistry seems somewhat miscast in the central role and gives an erratic, moody performance which is not always persuasive. By contrast Kris Holden Ried as his partner is far more convincing. The strong personality in the film is Alim’s mother, played by Suleka Mathew, a forceful woman, a widow, plans for her son, dismayed to learn the truth, but learning to stand up for herself and for her son.

The different aspect of the film is that Cary Grant’s ghost, an alter-ego of Alim, his imaginary friend, appears throughout the film with Kyle Mac Lachlan imitating Cary Grant’s accent, referring to a variety of Cary Grant films, serving as the test for what Alim does in real life.

Part of the film is set in London, ordinary life in London as well as the touristic aspects. The rest of the film takes place in Toronto – focusing very much on the Subcontinent migrants to North America and reproducing their lifestyle, clothes, meals, religious ceremonies, marriages.

The film offers a light look at homosexual relationships, aspects of homophobia, coming out of the closet and acceptance. It was made in 2003 – reflecting attitudes at that time.

1. The title, That Touch of Mink, the film as pink, gay, camp?

2. The London settings, the tourist sights, the ordinary life in London, homes and work?

3. The contrast with Toronto?

4. The Subcontinent migrants, their world transferred to North America?

5. The comedy of both worlds, the visuals, the customs, traditions, keeping them and rejecting them?

6. Alim’s story: his past, his father dying when he was young, in Kenya? His mother leaving for London, his sense of abandonment? His going to Canada with his aunt? Being part of that family? His leaving, work in London, photography, on the film sets? His relationship with Giles, his orientation, his life, in the closet? His outings, going to the gay clubs? The birthday celebration, meeting Giles’s parents? His dancing? Sharing the flat? Relationship with his family and his mother?

7. The spirit of Cary Grant? Kyle Mac Lachlan’s interpretation? Alim’s imaginary friend, his alter-ego, conscience, the critical look at what he was doing in reality? Cary Grant’s accent, Cary Grant as a gay icon, the movie references, watching videos: Philadelphia Story, Suspicion, Gunga Din, That Touch of Mink, Charade? Entertainment for movie buffs? The references to actors that Cary Grant performed with? Grant’s attitudes, control, Alim’s inner desires and perspectives? In London, the crises, Grant going to Canada, his advice, bored in Toronto – and Alim finally sending him away?

8. Giles, his family at the club, his sister, his way of life, economics, UNICEF? His past, his love for Alim? Not wanting to be in the closet? Nuru and her coming, his moving room, the impression of being just a flatmate? Nuru’s attacks on him, the breakfast etc? Wanting him away? His taking her out, her transformation, buying the suit, dancing, drinking? Alim blurting out the truth? His animosity towards Giles, Giles being upset? The meetings with Alisdair, his discussions with his sister, the phone call from Alim, his going to Canada?

9. The family in Toronto, their clothes, food, the engagement, the celebration? Dolly and her husband, her snobbishness? Wealth? The genial husband? The prospect of their son marrying? The in-laws and the rivalry and gossip? The lies about Alim and his girlfriend?

10. Nuru in herself, her life, compulsion to eat, with her sister, the lies? Going to London? Dominating Alim, issues of food, making the sandwiches, language, the issue of the rooms, her reaction to Giles, the day with Giles, her being transformed, her hearing the truth, deciding to leave?

11. The background of her life, in Kenya, the death of her husband, going to London, wanting to be Doris Day – and Alim seeing all the films in Mombasa when he was young? The Cary Grant influence? Her expectations, religious issues, Islam, homosexual orientation and her having to deal with it?

12. Alim and his moods, dithering, going to Canada, the family and their reactions, questioning him? The in-laws and their curiosity?

13. His looking at the women and the preparation for the marriage? The party, the men, Karim and the past, Karim drunk, the sexual approach, Nuru overhearing it, her reaction? Talking with Dolly, the issue of arranged marriage – and whatever happens after that and grandchildren does not matter? Double standards?

14. Giles, his arrival, kissing Alim, everybody’s reaction, Nuru and her support?

15. The issues of gay acceptance, the sequences after Nuru accepted her son, the change in him, with Giles?

16. The treatment of serious themes with a comic touch, camp style?

LOVE RANCH

US, 2010, 117 minutes, Colour.
Helen Mirren, Joe Pesci, Sergio Peris- Mencheta, Gina Gershon, Taryn Manning, Scout Taylor- Compton, Bai Ling, Elise Neal, Bryan Cranston, Melora Walters, Harve Presnell.
Directed by Taylor Hackford.

Love Ranch is loosely based on the real story of the Confortes who opened The Mustang Ranch in Nevada, a legal brothel. There are quite some parallels with the fictional characters of this film and the Confortes and their attempts to promote a boxer.

The Love Ranch is owned by Joe Pesci as Charlie Bontempo (Goodtimes) with his wife, Grace (Helen Mirren). They are directed by Helen Mirren’s husband, Taylor Hackford (White Nights, Blood In, Blood Out, Ray). Sergio Peris- Mencheta plays the boxer from Brazil.

The film shows the workings of the brothel – but with an M-rating tone rather than anything beyond. The women who service the clients are played by Gina Gershon, the adviser to Grace, Taryn Manning, Scout Taylor- Compton, Bai Ling, Elise Neal.

Joe Pesci reprises the familiar persona that he has portrayed on screen, especially in Goodfellas. A small man, puffed up, moving around the ranch as if he was God’s gift to humanity. However, he has served a prison sentence, cannot register as the manager of the boxer that he wants to take on, persuading his wife to do so. He also is in relationships with various of the women at the Love Ranch. Ultimately, he is a selfish man, unable to hear that his wife has terminal cancer. He finishes up shooting the boxer that he promoted.

Helen Mirren moves through the film with her customary aplomb – with Pesci at one stage asking whether she thinks she is the queen of England! (Remembering The Queen and her role as Elizabeth I in the miniseries.

The film has a strong boxing sequence – which is complicated by the story of the boxer and his previous injuries. The main impetus of the second part of the film is Helen Mirren falling in love with the boxer, exasperated with him at times, being advised to go into the affair – and its changing her attitude, especially towards her husband.

1. The title, the euphemism? The fact of the Mustang Ranch and the Confortes?

2. Taylor Hackford and his work, working with Helen Mirren? Joe Pesci and his screen persona? The Latin American boxer?

3. The visuals of the ranch, the interiors, the exteriors, the detail? The Nevada countryside? The boxing atmosphere and bout? The musical score?

4. The focus on Grace, her mother’s attitude towards life, the prostitute, accepting her background? The setting up of the Love Ranch? Marrying Charlie? Twenty years, her life, managing and controlling the brothel? With the women? The clashes with Charlie? Her realistic attitude towards life, the law, the clients? Coping?

5. Her visit to the doctor, the diagnosis, the cancer? Her difficulty in telling Charlie? His not believing it?

6. The women who worked at the Love Ranch, Irene and her advice for Grace? Mallory and the others and their jealousies? With Charlie? Rivalry? The brothel atmosphere, the range of clients? The Nevada legal situation?

7. Charlie and his character, style, philandering, the girls and their rivalry, catty and jealous? Grace condoning his behaviour?

8. Charlie’s interest in boxing, the champion from Brazil, his hopes, the interviews, press conferences, the setup for the fights? The entrepreneur style? Having to have Grace as the official manager? The deals, the hopes, Grace going to see Armando and his training?

9. Armando, the training sequence, his reputation, the fights, the arrangements, his looks, the publicity?

10. Armando and his relationships, his family in Brazil, with Grace, talking, the attraction, the effect? Grace and her being confused? The drive, letting Armando off in the desert?

11. The fight, the hard bout, the difficulties, the opponent? Armando and his comeback, the knockout? The news about the plate, dangers if he were to box again?

12. Grace, allowing herself to be seduced by Armando? The affair, the change in her life, her decisions?

13. Talking with Charlie, his reactions, disbelief – and his shooting Armando?

14. Grace, her health, the future? Leaving Charlie? Leaving the Love Ranch? A new, if limited, life?

REYKJAVIK-ROTTERDAM

Iceland, 2008, 88 minutes, Colour.
Baltasar Kormakur, Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson, Lilja Nott Borarinsdottir.
Directed by Oskar Jonasson.

Reykjavik - Rotterdam won a number of awards in Iceland. It is a gritty short drama focusing on smuggling rackets between Holland and Iceland.

Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur (Reykjavik 101, Jar City, White Wedding) is very good as the smuggler who has spent time in jail, attends AA meetings, has married and has a family, but is trapped into doing one more voyage. His wife’s brother is caught up in a racket and Kristofer, the Kormakur character, is forced into going to Holland, smuggling the alcohol that he was used to doing, but gets caught up in drug trafficking as well. His friend, Steingrimur, exercises pressure on him – and is then betrayed, Steingrimur having moved into drug trafficking as well as having designs on his former girlfriend who is now Kristofer’s wife. The film shows the central character, his friends on the ship helping him with the smuggling, his interactions with the hostile captain, his involvement in a robbery in Rotterdam and his escape back to the boat, his shrewdness in covering all his tracks and surviving to the end.

Actor-director Kormakur was chosen to be the director of the American remake, Contraband with Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale and Ben Foster. The remake follows the original fairly closely in plot outline while having a bigger budget to elaborate the characters as well as the situations and have quite a number of special effects and action sequences. The new locations were New Orleans to Panama. The ending of the Icelandic film is reproduced quite effectively in Contraband, the villain attacking Kristofer’s wife, wrapping her in plastic and intending her to be buried under cement, only for Kristofer to ring her and her mobile phone indicating where she had been buried.

An interesting film in its own right – and interesting in comparison with the remake.

1. An Icelandic film? Thriller? Grounded in the life of Reykjavik? Smuggling? Family?

2. The Reykjavik settings, the bleakness of the Arctic Circle? The town, homes? The wharves, ships and containers? An authentic feel? The musical score?

3. Kristofer and his history, his working as a security guard, the time spent in prison, his attending AA meetings? His love for Iris, their children? Making ends meet, pressures with rent, the sale of their house? His friendship with Steingrimur? The proposal to do another trip? His conflict with Iris’s brother and his making a mistake? His decision to go, Iris’s reaction, her farewell? The interaction with the captain, Steingrimur ringing him and ensuring Kristofer go on board? To work in the galley and the kitchen? Kristofer meeting his old friends again, setting up the smuggling – alcohol? The arrival in Rotterdam, the experience of the robbery and the contacts, the police, escaping with the van and the Jackson Pollock picture? Being back on the boat on time, the captain finding him in the galley? The van in the container? His covering his tracks? His arrival home, the phone calls, realising that Steingrimur had betrayed him? The interactions with Iris’s brother, the discovery of the drugs? His taking the gang to the captain’s house, ringing the police? His evading them? Confronting Steingrimur on the building site, phoning Iris, hearing the mobile phone ring, rescuing her? In hospital? Painting the house at the end – surviving?

4. Steingrimur, his role in smuggling in the past? His building? His past relationship with Iris? His friendship with Kristofer, the visit, offering him the old fridge, taking away the former fridge? His being a good friend? The irony of his drug dealings? His thugs? Their threatening Iris and the children? His phone calls, to the captain? The final confrontation with Kristofer, his injuring Iris, putting her in the plastic, putting her on the building site? His fear of Kristofer? His arrest?

5. The captain of the ship, hostile to Kristofer because of the past smuggling? Checking on him? The irony of Kristofer sending the thugs to his house? He and his wife being taken in?

6. Iris’s brother, the opening sequence, the thugs pursuing him and his friend? Their throwing the drugs overboard, having to repay? The smuggling of the drugs on the ship? Kristofer discovering this? The end, the thugs confronting Kristofer and the brother in the car, his running away, the pursuit, his falling down the cliff?

7. The reality of the situation, smuggling, the pressure on Kristofer, his techniques? His friends and their participation?

8. Iris, with the children, the threats, the advances of Steingrimur, her being injured, buried, rescued?

9. The grittiness of this film, down-to-earth? The comparisons with the American remake – the work of the actor-director?

NORMA JEAN AND MARILYN

US, 1996, 108 minutes, Colour.
Ashley Judd, Mira Sorvino, Josh Charles, Ron Rifkin, David Dukes, Peter Dobson, John Rubinstein, Allan Corduner, Micole Mercurio, Lindsay Crouse.
Directed by Tim Fywell.

Norma Jean and Marilyn does not purport to be a biography of Marilyn Monroe. Rather, it is a psychological portrait of Marilyn Monroe and her alter-ego, the young Norma Jean Dougherty who grew up to become Marilyn Monroe.

Many people are very critical of the playing with events in Marilyn Monroe’s life, criticising the film for not being accurate. While aspects may be true, the film tries to show what happened in the transformation of Norma Jean into Marilyn, the influences, the personalities involved, the ambition, the insecurities leading to drug-taking and promiscuity.

Ashley Judd is very effective as Norma Jean, showing her early life, with flashbacks to her childhood and unhappiness in family and institution, abuse from her foster father. It shows her ambitions to be a model, failing at being an actress, yet attracting men, using her best friend to get access to his show business uncle, meeting Johnny Hyde and breaking up his marriage, acting in films, especially in All About Eve (with a lookalike Bette Davis being very effective). With the transition at 20th Century Fox, Mira Sorvino takes over the role and becomes Marilyn Monroe, doing an impersonation of her look, her manner, her voice and accent.

There are focuses on some films of Marilyn Monroe including All About Eve, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the famous scene in The Seven Year Itch and Billy Wilder with her again in Some Like it Hot. There is talk about her failure with Something’s Got to Give as well as some scenes with Montgomery Clift for The Misfits.

The film also focuses on her relationship with Johnny Hyde, the almost arranged marriage with Joe Di Maggio in the public eye but failing domestically, her encounter with Arthur Miller and his influence on her.

Marilyn Monroe has appeared as a character as well as with people impersonating her. Interesting films are Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980) where she is played by Catherine Hicks. Samantha Morton did an impersonation in Mr Lonely (2007). Michelle Williams got an Oscar nomination for her performance in My Week with Marilyn (2011).

1. Continued interest in Marilyn Monroe? As a person, her background, her career? American, Californian? An icon and sex symbol?

2. The title of this film, the Norma Jean phase, the Marilyn phase? Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino and the interactions? The transition from one to the other? Look, manner, accent? Marilyn Monroe’s image and playing to it? Norma Jean intervening and criticising Marilyn Monroe? The effect on Marilyn Monroe? Their coming together as she died?

3. The background of the 1930s to the 1960s? Recreation of period, look, costumes, decor, atmosphere? Hollywood?

4. Norma Jean and her life, her mother and her contact with her, her mother in the institution, her father and his absence? Her grandmother? In care, the kindly foster mother, the abuse by the foster father? As a girl, in the institution, asserting herself? Emotions, needs?

5. Norma Jean and the institution, her age, foster care? Going out on her own?

6. Norma Jean wanting to be an actress and a model? Her various attempts? Her being attractive for photography, pushing herself forward, displays, advertisements? Her poor performance, people wanting to move her on in terms of acting?

7. Her friendship with Eddie, ordinary, his love for her, the tensions, his studies, support, her ambitions? His acting? Her trying to act – breaking the bond? His later reappearance and support of her?

8. The visuals of the modelling, the portfolio, the famous nude photographs? Encountering Johnny Hyde, his attraction, taking her on, his devotion to her? Johnny Hyde’s wife, her reading the situation? Her antagonism? Hyde and his leaving his wife, staying with Marilyn, promoting her, with Darryl Zanuck, urging the screen test? His illness and death? The effect on Marilyn?

9. The screen test, the studio chiefs and their response? Her small parts in films? In All About Eve, praising Bette Davis and being told to move out of the picture? The result of fans praising Marilyn in their feedback?

10. The transition to Marilyn Monroe, her name? Her public life? The issue of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, her lateness, the antagonism of Howard Hawks? Darryl Zanuck with the situation? Natasha as her coach, advising her? The performance – and the success on screen, despite her difficulties? Her singing voice, coaching? Her career moving on?

11. Natasha, the encounter, the relationship, the hard work, Natasha protecting Marilyn, always present, the emotional clashes, Natasha in love with Marilyn, the break?

12. The meeting with Joe Di Maggio, the restaurant, the glamour, Marilyn’s ignorance about baseball? The public marriage? Their life together, at home, her inability to cook, Joe and his friends watching games on television, the break?

13. The chance with Billy Wilder, the recreation of The Seven Year Itch? His later dealing with her in Some Like It Hot, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, exasperation?

14. Marilyn Monroe leaving Norma Jean behind? The public image, playing up to it? Her ambitions, the public responding? Yet her pills, her needs?

15. Arthur Miller, his status, their meeting, the marriage, sharing ideas, talking, the break? Marilyn and her inability to keep pace with Miller? His writing The Misfits for her?

16. The scenes of The Misfits, her talking with Montgomery Clift, the pessimistic outlook for them both?

17. Going down, being fired from Something’s Got To Give? Her reactions? Abusive?

18. The relationship with John F. Kennedy, the singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him – and her nerves, the dress, the famous scene? Robert Kennedy warning her off, not answering the phone?

19. Her loneliness, her reliance on pills, the overdose, the credibility of her death?

20. The film acknowledging her achievement, people’s response to her? An American icon – a mixture of sex appeal, insecurity, playing to the camera, getting so many fans, yet ultimately seeing herself as a failure?

CREEPSHOW

US, 1982, 115 minutes, Colour.
Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Fritz Weaver, Leslie Nielsen, E.G. Marshall, Ed Harris, Ted Danson, Stephen King.
Directed by George A. Romero.

Creepshow is a series of five short stories written by horror writer Stephen King (Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining). The film is directed by George A. Romero who achieved fame with his small-budget horror The Night of the Living Dead. He has made a number of other films including The Crazies, Martin, Dawn of the Dead.

The group of stories is very reminiscent of a group of British films written by such experts as Robert Bloch and directed by Freddie Francis and Roy Ward-Baker: Torture Garden, Tales from the Crypt, The House That Dripped Blood. This American collection does not have quite the impact of the English films although it has good technical production values and interesting performances. Reference is made to horror comics. They are condemned in the opening but have their revenge all the way through and at the end as a young boy pins the voodoo doll of his father, causing him agony in revenge.

Of interest is the second story about Jordy Verrill, which is performed (strangely) by Stephen King himself. A mixed horror creepshow.

1. The popularity of horror stories? People enjoying frights, nightmares? Shadow side of personality? Scare, shock, what if...? The title of this film and its invitation to scare and shock?

2. Stephen King and his reputation? His penning of these stories for fun? The work of George A. Romero - serious horror, comic horror? The quality of the blend of the talents? B-budget production, stars?

3. Production value: sets, locations, special effects, musical score?

4. The opening and the introduction to horror comics, their condemnation? The ironic use of their being in the garbage tin and collected by the rubbish collectors? The revenge of the comic strip? How seriously were the comics meant to be taken, how seriously the film? The animated interludes indicating the atmosphere of the comic strip and the invitation for us to enjoy the stories? The editing devices indicating parallels with comic strips, the variety of framings for various stories, time captions etc.? The beginning and ending of each story with the comic strip sketch? Comic strip images, acting and writing? The cinema equivalent of comic strips?

5. The atmosphere of the Halloween opening, the storm, the cranky father, the compliant mother? The boy and his horror comics, the paraphernalia of horror in his room? The morning after and the ridding of the comic strips? The ending with the garbage collectors, reading the comics, the voodoo doll and the agony of the father and the vindictiveness of the boy? The film's attack on those who disapprove of comics? Sticking pins in them!

6. Happy Father's Day: the briefest story. the effectiveness of its brevity, the introduction -to the family and its various types, callow and callous? The pseudo-refined Aunt Sylvia and her telling of the story, her aloofness, disapproval of the manners of the younger generation - yet her later letting her hair down? The young types and their dancing, listening to the story about the money, their fears? The story of Aunt Bedelia and its being told in flashbacks? Viveca Lindfors' appearance, style, driving, drinking, memories, abusing her father? Her meditation in the cemetery? The parody of Stephen King's cemetery sequence in Carrie? The father and his hand coming from the grave, frightening and throttling Bedelia to death? The gross monster? His murdering the young man and burying him? The death of the housekeeper, the twisting of Aunt Sylvia's head - and its becoming the birthday cake! The final terrorising of the brother and sister? The irony of passion, murder? Grim and gory humour? An exercise in style rather than content?

7. The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill: Stephen King's writing, the quality of his acting? Jordy Verrill as the simply eye-rolling slow type? His monologues? His imagining going to the professor, to the doctor? The TV continually playing - A Star Is Born and its hopes for America (Janet Gaynor version), the priest with his meditation? The boxing? The film as a piece of Americana? The satire on such stories as Close Encounters, The Day of the Triffids? The effect of the meteor on Jordy? Fingers, fear of them being cut off, not getting his money from the university? The gradual process of the growth all over him? His reaction to it? His father speaking to him from the mirror? The house and himself being overwhelmed during the night? His death? The ironic weather-forecaster's comment about the greening of America?

8. Something To Tide You Over: A story of revenge and menace? The irony of the title? The basic infidelity and vengeance story? Atmosphere of affluence, homes, beach properties, surveillance hardware, television and video? Richard confronting Harry and making him the victim? Playing Rebecca's voice? Taking him to the beach, threatening to shoot, putting him in the hole? The television of Rebecca and the tide? Harry and the tide and his trying to survive - holding his breath? The visuals of his drowning? Richard's madness, return home. surveillance? Growing edginess and fear? The ghosts and their having held their breath? The Creature from the Black Lagoon-style make-up? Their hounding Richard, burying him? Madness and guilt?

9. The Crate: The conventions of the university campus story, professors, socials, young students and their wives? Wilma and her caricature of the harridan professor's wife? Loudmouth? The parallel with the discovery of the crate? Dex and his helping Mike with opening the crate? Mike's being devoured? Dex's hysteric reaction? Charlie's disbelief, curiosity, his being devoured? The consultation with Henry? The discussion and Henry's decision? Drugging Dex, writing the note for Wilma? The anticipation of his action by his imagining shooting and strangling Wilma? Her accepting the story and coming while he cleaned up the blood? Their confrontation and the monster devouring Wilma (and the audience being glad!). Henry's calm return and telling the story to Dex, his packaging the crate, putting on the lock, getting rid of the monster? His hold over Dex and their quiet chess games for the future? The eyes of the monster as it got out of the trunk in the lake? An exercise in horror wishful thinking?

10. They're Creeping Up On You: A one-man performance by E.G.Marshall? The satire on the self-centred ruthless businessman? The irony of the morbid fear of cockroaches. obsessive cleanliness, washing, sprays etc.? The abuse of the black handyman (the irony of his name, Mr. White), and his reaction to Mr. Pratt)? The phone call to the manager in Florida? The phone calls - the news about the suicide, the suicide's wife and her abuse? The decor of the penthouse, surveillance, technology, the juke box? The exteriors of the city, culminating in the blackout? The continued intrusion of the cockroaches? Their invasion? Mr. Pratt isolating himself - and his discovery of them in the inner sanctum? Their bursting from him? The use of (and parody of) the animal menace disaster film?

11. The overall entertainment effect of these horror stories? Comic strip cinema?