HELEN

Ireland, 2008, 79 minutes, Colour.
Annie Townsend.
Directed by Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy.

Words that come to mind in association with watching Helen are 'contemplative', 'evocative', 'reflective' – and anomalous. It is anomalous because the initial subject is the abduction of a young woman, her disappearance, the police search and investigation and the preparation for a reconstruction of the disappearance for the media. But, really, the film is not about that at all. The abduction is the occasion for a portrait of Helen.

Helen is the fellow student who is picked for the re-enactment. She is just 18, an orphan who knows nothing about her parents, seems more passive than active, a very emotionally needy girl. The prospect of the end of school, exams, the re-enactment have an influence on how she acts – she also works as a maid in a hotel – but it is the attention, the empathy she tries to feel for the missing girl, meeting her parents, wanting the girl's boyfriend to love her that stir some emotions in her. She says that she has never heard anyone say that they love her. There is also the process of looking at the documents about her past and her parents.

But, this kind of noting the themes and action do not help to describe the effect of Helen. It is the visual style and cinematic art that make it different. The film opens with slow, long, tracking shots of a group in the woods and continues with this style throughout. While there are a number of medium shots and some rare close-ups, so much of the film is in this slow distant camera mode. So often, the frame of the screen acts like a proscenium and the action takes place at some distance as if the audience were in a live theatre. This is why the film is evocative and calls for reflection on what is going on as much as an emotional response.

1.The acclaim for the film? Critical praise? Audience response? A difficult film?

2.The Irish setting? Not explicitly Irish? Universal?

3.The importance of the visual style? The use of the wide screen? The use of slow tracking shots? Lengthy shots? The few close-ups? The use of the screen as a proscenium – and performance in many of the scenes and sequences like theatre? The cumulative effect? Slow, contemplative, evocative? The musical score?

4.The opening, the slow-motion people walking in the woods? The girl going by herself? Filmed from the back? The implications that she had been abducted? The later explanations, the police search of the woods, the tableau of the police in-line searching? The officer and his taking the call on the mobile phone – in close-up? The clothes and other material scattered throughout the woods? The crime site? The parents and the police discussion, offering them all the clothes and the diary and what was found? Their response?

5.The transition to the young people in the school, the music, the rehearsals for Brigadoon? The later use of Brigadoon and its theme for the theme of this film? Coming alive for a day, going to sleep for a hundred years? Trying to find out identity during the waking hours – otherwise one would be lost?

6.The policewoman and her discussion with the students? The close-ups of each of them? The line-up? The choice of the two for the re-enactment for television? The discussions with Helen, her response, willingness to do the re-enactment? Going to the park, following the signs – and the camera following the twelve-plus markers?

7.The film focusing on Helen? Her lack of identity? In the school, in the institution? Orphaned? Her work in the hotel, the discussion with Maria, the refugee from eastern Europe? Her change of name, language, a new beginning? Helen’s response – and the challenge for her own new beginning?

8.Helen in herself, her age? Her need to be loved, to hear somebody express this love? Her meeting with Joy’s boyfriend, their discussions, her wanting him to kiss her, to go to the hotel? Their sitting in the hotel and talking? Her never having been kissed, the kiss itself? Her neediness?

9.Helen with Sheila, her supervisor, the discussions about the documents, her being able to look at them because of her age? Her seeming unwillingness? Lack of interest? Fear? Sheila persuading her that she needed to confront her past? Her decision to do this? Going to the woman with the documents, the explanation about her parents, the separation, the disappearance of her father, the mental decline of her mother, her death? Her birth certificate? Her trying to deal with this – that being sufficient information for the time being?

10.Her visit with Joy’s parents, the meal, their discussions about school, the father breaking down and weeping? The mother’s support? Her later talking in her imagination to Joy, taking the photo from the family room?

11.The Brigadoon sequence, the children, their rehearsal? The teacher and the meaning of Brigadoon? Its relevance to Helen’s life?

12.Helen, the film ending with her being on the verge of finding out more? What might happen to her?

GHANI

Bangladesh, 2007, 109 minutes, Colour.
Raisul Islam Asad, Dolly Jahur, Pavez Murad, Rani Sharkar, Najneen Chumkee.
Directed by Kazi Morshed.

Ghani is an interesting social drama from Bangladesh. It won the main prize at the Interfaith Signis Jury in Dakar 2008.

Filmed in the countryside of Bangladesh, in the language of the area, the film focuses on families in a village. They eke out a livelihood by extracting oil from mustard seeds. They use oxen to turn the cycle (the ghani of the title). When the oxen are stolen, the people find it impossible to extract the oil unless people do the turning of the wheel.

The film also focuses on a young man who has gone to Dakar to try to send back money to the family. He falls in love with a young woman, marries her despite the family suspicions. When he is killed, the parents force the woman to turn the wheel.

The film has a great deal of social comment about the realities of life in Bangladesh as well as a criticism of the patriarchal attitudes, the domination of the parents – and the humiliation of women.

The film is well acted - and well worth seeing as an introduction to rural life in the country.

1.The Bangladeshi film industry? Local stories? The countryside? The disappearing tribes? Growing commerce and industrialisation?

2.The location photography, the isolated homes, the village? The countryside, the rivers? Authentic atmosphere? Local musical score?

3.The title, the hand mill, its place in the livelihood of the family? The threats, the loss of the bull? Nobody to turn the wheel? The second meeting of the Cycle of Life, a vicious cycle and people trapped in it?

4.The presentation of the family? The home, the livelihood with the mustard oil? The parents? The other parents? The grandmother? The old patriarch? The woman who lived with the household? The son in Dakar? The extended family and their life?

5.The old man, his growing senility? His visions and prayers? The Islamic background, the faith in God, the quotations from Allah? His love for his son? His inability to face the reality of the son’s death? His grief?

6.The focus on Bazlu? An agreeable young man? Work, fairly carefree? His attraction towards Moina? His relationship with his parents? His father and his criticisms? His mother and her severity? His work, the mustard oil? His courting of Moina? The family not having enough money? The father finding the money? The celebration of the wedding? His love for Moina? Her playing the joke on him with the makeup and everybody laughing? The bond between them? The importance of the wheel, his work in the fields? The mustard seeds? The death of his cousin? The ailments of his father? The bull, its being stolen? His being blamed? His search, his decision to steal the bull? His being brought in by the villagers? The accusations, his parents’ shame, Moina and her puzzle? His being humiliated? His discovery of what had happened to Moina? The confrontation with his parents? His injuries and his finally turning the wheel himself, caught in the cycle?

7.Moina, her background, family, the background of the song about Moina? Courting, marriage, her happiness? Her husband and the family, their demands, forcing her to turn the wheel, the humiliation of her being made to do the work of a bull? Her bruises, Bazlu’s discovery, his shaming his parents?

8.The parents, the hard work, the background to their marriage and courting, love, quarrels? Trying to survive, the need for money, the need for food? The bull being stolen? The demands of the entrepreneur, the need for the mustard oil, the debts? The decision to force Moina to turn the hand mill? Bazlu and the theft, his father’s attack on him? The attack by Bazlu and his turning the wheel?

9.The old woman as part of the family, her support of Bazlu, the parents turning on her?

10.The people in the village, the accusations? The old grandmother and her chat, passing by? The celebration in the village? Village life?

11.The boss, wealth, severity, loans, his making demands? The growing industrialisation and mechanisation of the trade?

12.A portrait of a tribal area of Bangladesh, the traditions of the past? Religious traditions, family? The role of men and women? Change?

THE DEAD GIRL

US, 2006, 92 minutes, Colour.
Toni Collette, Piper Laurie, Giovanni Ribisi, Rose Byrne, Mary Steenburgen, Bruce Davison, James Franco, Mary Beth Hurt, Nick Searcy, Marcia Gaye Hardin, Kerry Washington, Brittany Murphy, Josh Brolin.
Directed by Karen Moncrieff.

The Dead Girl is a very interesting drama, a film that did not receive wide release. This is a pity, because some of the performances are effectively master classes. This is particularly true of the first of the five stories which involves Toni Collette, Piper Laurie as her mother and Giovanni Ribisi. It is she who discovers the body of the dead girl. The following stories are all linked with the girl, who appears in the final film, portrayed by Brittany Murphy. The other stories involve the woman who did the autopsy, the parents, the mother (played excellently by Marcia Gaye Hardin).

Each of the stories is to some extent self-contained. However, by the end of the film we have built up the story of the dead girl. The performances are particularly good from a wide group of character actors.

The film was directed by actress Karen Moncrieff who also directed some television episodes as well as a few feature films including The Blue Car.

1.The title, indication of theme, the death and its consequences?

2.The California settings, the open countryside, the towns, Los Angeles? Authentic? The score?

3.The effect of the structure: the glimpse of the death of the girl, the variety of characters, the generic names, the revelation of characters and the consequences of their contact with the dead girl, the final story of the girl herself?

4.The cumulative effect, emotion and understanding?

5.The stranger: Arden, her age, experience, alone, loneliness, finding the body, taking the necklace? Her relationship with her mother, her dead sister, the mother in bed, abusive and humiliating, her needs? Arden calling the police, the examination of the body, the questions? Her mother’s reaction, wanting to keep the police out? Arden in the supermarket, people looking at her? The young man, talking with her, her celebrity, wanting the date? Her apprehensiveness? The makeup and her mother’s reaction? Her mother’s final humiliation, Arden leaving the house, meeting the boy, the tentative sexual encounter, her wanting to run away? Finding the dead girl, becoming a TV celebrity for a moment, that bringing the boy to her – and a future?

6.The Sister: the mother and father, their grief at the missing girl, planning the photos for the notices, their desperately continuing the search? Emma, her work, the morgue, relationship with the staff, caring for the young woman, the birthmark, thinking it was her sister? Her communicating this with her parents, her mother refusing, the issue of the girl’s eyes? Her friend, confiding in him, his support, bringing him home, the sexual encounter? Her breaking free from her parents, accepting that her sister was missing and dead?

7.The Wife: a hard woman, the difficult marriage, at home, her complaining, her husband and his being non-committal, wanting to go for drives, not being pinned down? The work, the husband leaving, the substitute not coming in, the wife doing the work, the men with the storage, discovering the boxes, the contents, the revelation of the killer? The wife in herself, character, her sadness, her husband’s return, feeding him, the confrontation and her leaving? Her burning the evidence?

8.The Mother: being notified about her daughter, the discussions with the police, information about the motel, the registrar at the motel, her going to the apartment after paying? Meeting the prostitute, their discussions, the mother’s grief, wandering the motel, the photos? The prostitute and her harsh descriptions of the dead girl, the background of the stepfather’s abuse, the mother not knowing, the mother and her saying she did not know? Taking the girl out for the meal, the explanations, the photos? The bond? Finding the daughter, giving the money, taking the child away, the bath, the little girl wanting her mother, the care for her? The character of the prostitute, becoming warmer with the mother, a friendship? The future and the invitation of the mother to contact her?

9.The Dead Girl: in herself, her character, her lifestyle, the birth of the child, the interactions with her boyfriend, his character, work, using the girl, love, arguments? The girl sharing the apartment with the prostitute, the prostitute’s work, the photos, the clashes? Her sadness, her decision to visit her daughter for her birthday, taking a taxi, the taxi driver’s willingness – and driving her to her death?

10.The overall effect of putting the jigsaw together? The overall picture? And the significance and importance of all the details?

AWAYDAYS

UK, 2008, 106 minutes, Colour.
Nicki Bell, Liam Boyle, Stephen Graham, Holiday Granger, Oliver Lee.
Directed by Pat Holden.

A visually murkey look at a murkey football hooligan group in Liverpool.

You probably need to be a strong fan of this kind of football film (although there are no visuals of any match, only the fans and their shouting in support during play and their brawling with opposition thugs) to be interested in Awaydays.

The central character seems to be miscast or the writer has given him contradictory things to do. At some stages he seems withdrawn and quiet with a potential for doing something worthwhile with is life. At other times, he is unelievably brutal and sexually aggressive. His close friend (whom he can drop without much compunction) is also contradictory, an addict, tagging along with the local gang but then a seemingly closet romantic.

This is offered as a slice of Liverpool life but the characters do not really engage our attention as they might and the string of episodes (with their contradictions) don't quite gel as a satisfying plot.

1.A particularly United Kingdom story? Liverpool-based? How universal?

2.The world of laddish behaviour, the culture of the 1970s? Parallels with other cultures?

3.The city of Liverpool, homes, pubs, the trains, the football matches (with no action seen)? Grey and colourless world? The contrast with the sea and the ships?

4.The musical score, the range of songs from such groups as Joy Division, Ultravox, The Cure etc?

5.The opening in the cemetery, the going back three months?

6.Carty: his age, in himself, at his mother’s grave, with his sister and father, changing, running to the train, with the group, the behaviour on the train? The issue of what he wanted? His dull work life? His sketching? His friend at the office? The group, wanting to belong, some kind of self-affirmation, masculinity? Some acknowledgment of himself?

7.The group, the range of types, their ethos, behaviour, on the train? Godden as the leader? The comment about how he hadn’t grown up? His being in control, initiating the brawls? The card games on the train? Drinking in the pubs? His initial disapproval of Carty, Carty slashing a throat and getting Godden’s approval? The role of Elvis in the group? Carty and his refusal to do drugs, Elvis and the drugs? The pub behaviour, sexual attitudes, humiliating people? The violence? Godden being stabbed by Baby, Baby and the drugs? The funeral?

8.Carty and his violence, the performance of the actor seeming to be unemotional, the eruptions of anger? The fight with the thugs, drawing blood? His bashing people? His sister injured by the rugby club member, his being bashed, getting his revenge? Sexual attitudes, the girl at the pub? Going to Elvis’s house with the two girls, his behaviour? His care of his sister? His friendship with the girl from the pub, leaving her at home looking after his sister?

9.Elvis in himself, his being part of the group yet despising him, his home, the posters, the noose to remind him of mortality, his drugs, living at the edge? The alienation from Carty? His being hurt? His sexual orientation? Carty’s return, their going to bash the rugby man? The funeral, wanting to make his confession to Carty, in the confessional, declaring his love, asking Carty to come with him, his wanting to go to Berlin? Carty rushing for the train, waiting for Elvis, Elvis sitting, disappearing into the smoke?

10.Carty as a credible character, within this culture, his strengths and weaknesses, a lost man?

11.The author of the original novel, the screenplay? His memories – and the purpose for making this film?

FIGHTING

US, 2009, 105 minutes, Colour.
Channing Tatum, Terrence Howard, Luis Guzman, Zulay Henao, Brian White.
Directed by Dito Montiel.

The title tells it. The fighting is bareknuckle confrontations that draw city crowds to clandestine locations with huge bets made. There is some background story but it is familiar material: the young man who is down on his luck, the promotor who becomes an alternate father-figure, the chance encounter with a girl (a single mother) who has some secrets, the rivalry with an opponent from college days, home resentments, build-up to a tough bout and some twists about money. If that appeals, then Fighting is your film. If not, not.

Writer Dito Monteil made an autobiographical film about growing up in Queens, New York City in the 1980s, A Guide to Recognising Your Saints. He obviously knows the tougher sides of the city. He makes Manhattan something of a character in this film. The performers are Channing Tatum who makes the central character credible enough as a person and as a fighter. The promoter is played by Terrence Howard in a typical performance. There are assorted bookmakers, gangsters and a scene stealing Hispanic grandmother who has definite ideas about everything.

More moderate than it might have been.

1.The title? The fights? The background of fighting, bare-knuckle, the audience, the bets, big business?

2.The New York settings, the city streets, the sense of realism? Radio City Music Hall, the buildings? The apartments? The clubs? The locations for the fights? The musical score?

3.The sense of realism with the characters, their behaviour, the fighting, the dialogue? How strong – and involving the audience or the audience just being observers?

4.Shawn, his arrival on Fifth Avenue, the sales, the Harry Potter fake? The people taking the goods and not paying properly? Harvey observing him? The other people watching? His exasperation, chasing the robbers? Going to the subway, people streaming through the exit gate as he held it open? His going to the Asian cellar, buying the umbrellas, the rain? The later information about his background, from Alabama, the clashes with his father, the coach? His fight with his father – and the information on the internet?

5.Harvey, selling theatre tickets? Observing Shawn? The later encounter, his discussions with him, offering him the money? His impression of the fights in the street that Shawn had with the thieves?

6.His making an offer to Shawn, Harvey taking him to the entrepreneurs? The set-up, the first fight, the Russian, the crowd, Shawn being beaten, his forcing the opponent into the basin, knocking him out? The money?

7.The celebration at the club, the chance meeting with Zulay, her having tried to buy the Harry Potter book? His talking with her in the club? Following her, paying the taxi? Their later meetings, going to her home, the humorous encounters with her Hispanic grandmother, the strong-minded talk? Her daughter? The relationship? The irony that she worked for Harvey, placing his bets, Shawn being upset? Her collecting the money, placing the bets?

8.The entrepreneurs, Jack, his associates? Martinez and his connections? Their attitude towards Harvey? Harvey, the coat, making sure that Shawn was well dressed?

9.The second fight, the Asian, the Asian audience? Shawn losing, then winning? His tactics?

10.The final offer for the big fight, his clashes with Evan Hailey? Meeting at the club, Hailey’s condescension towards Shawn? The background, their both being on the college team, Shawn’s father and his favouring Evan? The fight?

11.The build-up to the final fight, Shawn and his training in the subway? Harvey and his wanting Shawn to lose? Betting against him? Shawn’s agreement? Jack and the other entrepreneurs, their huge bets? Zulay and her placing the bet for Harvey?

12.The fight itself, the animosity of the two, the fight around the building, the audience watching? Shawn’s winning?

13.The collection of the money? Martinez telling Harvey he was a dead man? The irony of Shawn and Zulay betting that he would win? The million dollars? Harvey’s decision? Their driving away to California?

14.Familiar theme? The underdog and winning? Betting? The possibilities for a new life?

ENTER THE VOID

France, 2009, 165 minutes, Colour.
Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy, Emily Alyn Lind, Jesse Kuhn, Masato Tanno, Ollie Alexander, Sarah Stockbridge.
Directed by Gaspar Noe.

The Void, for Gaspar Noe, who experienced quite some controversy over frank, violence and sexual films as Seul Contre Tous and Irrrreversible, is life itself. Noe has talked about his atheist upbringing and his drug experiences. He says he started to ask questions about significant issues of life, life after death and considered reincarnation, influenced by The Tibetan Book of the Dead (which influenced the LSD experiments of Timothy Leary), floating outside oneself and looking out and down on the world. Noe calls Enter the Void a psychological melodrama. It is.

At over 160 minutes, it is a long, long (very long) experience. Minimal classic film-making here. This occurs in some flashbacks to the US childhood of Oscar and Linda, the brother and sister , who are central to the plot. The first part of the film is subjective camera, all from Oscar's point of view (though we do see his face in a mirror). After 30 minutes, he dies but does not disappear from the film. Most of the rest of the film is still Oscar's point of view, but flying, floating, peering, observing, hallucinatory swooping over the lives of others, prying on sexual and drug activity, gliding the night skies over neon-lit Tokyo. This point of view often plunges down on and into circles (of which there are so many images through the whole film) which become fire and light and move the audience to the next episode.

Early in the film there is a long psychedelic sequence, emulating in colour and design the experience of drug consciousness.

Which means that, technically, the film is often a tour-de-force of camera work for the subjective point of view and the floating as well as special effects for psychedelia.

Thematically, the film is very pessimistic, veering towards nihilism: the devastating accident killing their parents, the brother and sister (twin souls) separated as orphans, the descent into the Tokyo drug scene and the strip clubs and Love Hotels. While the film ends with conception, gestation and birth, this might indicate that there is another chance, but for Oscar and Linda, they have been swallowed up and destroyed in in the void.

Grim films which still call for redemption can be De Profundis films ('Out of the Depths, I cry to you, O Lord). But, with films like those of Noe, is there any possibility for redemption apart from reincarnation since he does not believe in afterlife? There seems to be little or no redemption, 'Out of the Void'.

1.The work of Noe, frank, violent, sexual, blunt, hard? Controversies?

2.The use of Japan and Tokyo? Interiors and exteriors, the lights, aerial views, the hotels? Seeing the model for the city, the hotel – used as the reality? The ethos of Japan? Characters, the drug culture, the strip clubs, the sex hotels, the police, the streets? The musical score? The effect of the Japanese atmosphere – different had it been filmed elsewhere?

3.The technical aspects of the film: the point of view for Oscar, the subjective camera, fluid movement, seeing him in the mirror? The classic style for the flashbacks, the US, the childhood experiences? The shock of the accident scene, the editing – and its being repeated? Oscar’s death, the subjective camera as his soul leaving the body, his floating over the action, soaring, swooping, gliding? Observing, prying? His presence for his sister? Watching the sexuality and sensuality? The symbolic circles, their frequency, light and fire, the audience entering with Oscar into these circles for a new sequence?

4.The special effects for the psychedelic experience, the drugs, the length of the experience, the brightness of the colours, designs? The special effects for the finale and sexual activity, conception, birth? The hovering over the aborted foetus?

5.The cumulative effect of this technical bravura, the visuals?

6.The stolid performances by the cast? The dialogue, stilted delivery, banal? The reliance on four-letter anger for emotional experiences?

7.The narrative, the children, their love for each other, twin souls, the effect of the accident, the shock? The memories of their mother, her fondness for them, the bath sequences, the pain of separation?

8.Oscar going to Japan, Linda criticising him as a junkie? His taking another fix, the DMT (and the explanation of its effect on the brain, the release of the drug, the psychedelic experiences)? Alex as the contact? Victor as the customer, Bruno as the supplier? Oscar telling in the voice-over that he wasn’t a junkie? His going to the club, in the toilet, the police raid, saying he had a gun, his being shot, his death?

9.The use of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, issues of reincarnation, a second chance, the descriptions of the soul floating, the nature of reincarnation?

10.Linda, in the US, Oscar getting the ticket for her to go the Japan, the meeting at the airport, going out to the clubs, her sexual encounter, with Mario? Getting the job, the girls working as strippers, with their clients? The girls amongst themselves, especially for Linda? The effect on her, Oscar’s reaction? Her pregnancy test, asking her friend for the translation? Going for the abortion, the clinical intensity of the abortion sequence, the hovering over the foetus? Her regrets? Her life in chaos, did she find the right man, with Mario? Or not? Her future?

11.Victor, addict, his relationship with his parents, the story of his mother, the stripper, the father and the drugs? The affair with Oscar? Victor confronting his mother? Her clash with her husband? His phoning the police, the reason behind the raid?

12.Alex, his art and paintings, drugs, friendship with Oscar, Linda, his trying to help after Oscar’s death, his roommate and the construction of the models of Japan?

13.Bruno, drug dealer, sexual orientation and behaviour, talk, supplier, his companions, his fear after the police raid?

14.Oscar, and his circling Tokyo, the title Enter the Void, the club as the void? Oscar and his perceptions of life in Tokyo, Linda and her behaviour, relationships? His looking at the sexual activity? The circles, the bright lights?

15.The visualising of conception, incarnation, the baby crying? The child entering the void by entering into life? The possibility of a better life than Oscar’s and Linda’s? Was the film completely pessimistic or not?

COCO CHANEL AND IGOR STRAVINSKY

France, 2009, 118 minutes, Colour.
Mads Mikkelsen, Anna Mouglalis, Yelena Morozova.
Directed by Jan Kounen.

According to the novelist and screenwriter, Christopher Greenhalgh, there is evidence of the relationship between the designer and composer as portrayed in this film. Chanel was born the year after Stravinsky, in 1883. They both died in 1971. However, the action of this film begins with the Paris premiere of The Rite of Spring in 1913, a theatrical disaster causing a riot, and focuses on the period 1920-1921, when The Rite of Spring was performed again and a success and Coco Chanel launched No. 5.

This is one of those biopics which highlights the main successes of the leads and concentrates on their relationship. Actually, neither Chanel nor Stravinsky seem to have been strong or really controversial characters for biopics. It is all quite low key despite the importance of their achievements. (And this film anticipates Coco Before Chanel with Audrey Tautou.) An audience wanting sparks flying will be disappointed.

That is not to say the story is without drama. The re-creation of Paris 1913, the performance of The Rite of Spring, the costumes and choreography (researched from the original staging), Nijinsky rushing on stage to keep the dancers in rhythm as the din of protesting audience drowned the music, with Diaghalev turning the lights on and off and the police arriving, is arrestingly shown.

However, most of the film has Chanel inviting Stravinsky, his wife and four children to her villa so that he can compose. They have an affair, he losing control, she always in control. At the same time that he is revising The Rite, she is searching for a perfume that will be distinctive. After many tests, she chooses the sample in the fifth bottle, her No 5.

Mads Mikkelson is an intense performer, especially of villains (the Pusher series, Le Chiffre in Casino Royale) and makes Stravinsky a serious, sometimes tormented Russian. Anna Magloulis is striking and majestic as Coco Chanel (with a stylish black and white wardrobe of costumes to match).

This is a decorative biopic for entertainment and information rather than a study of its characters and their relationship.

1.An entertaining biopic? Interest in the characters, themes? Enjoyment, history, fiction or fact?

2.The production values, Paris 1913, the collage of World War One, 1920-21, Coco Chanel’s villa, the interiors and the gardens? Her shop? The perfume laboratories at Grasse? The Champs Elysees theatre?

3.Stravinsky and the score, The Rite of Spring, selection of his other work? The score by Gabriel Yared?

4.The performance of The Rite of Spring: the research on the score, the costumes, the choreography? The orchestra and the supervision of the dancers? The conductor, the staging? The pagan rituals? Nijinsky and his supervision of the choreography? Diagelev as the producer?

5.The audience in 1913, fashionable, costumes? The response, bewilderment, the catcalls, people leaving? The brawls, those in favour, those against? The performers continuing? Diaghelev turning the lights on and off? The police arriving?

6.The producers analysing what had happened, Diaghelev’s judgment, Nijinsky being upset with Stravinsky criticising the rhythms of the dances, walking out? The insults and tension?

7.The introduction to Stravinsky, his Russian background, the tradition of ballet and Tchaikovsky, his doing something new, his wife as an assistant, her critique of the music, his reputation?

8.Coco Chanel, her relationship with Boy Capel? Going to the theatre, with her friend, socialite, the response to the situation?

9.The overview of World War One, the collage of images?

10.Stravinsky after the Russian Revolution, the émigrés in Paris, his work as a composer, needy?

11.Chanel and her success, the world of costume design, her shop and clients, her perfectionism with the staff, with the clients? Her search for a perfume, her going to the laboratories? The invitation to Stravinsky, his hesitant reply? Acceptance?

12.The mansion, the rooms, the black and white design (as with her fashions)? The meals, the servants? Chanel and her work? Stravinsky and his composing? Katia and her illness, the children enjoying the house, Chanel’s gifts to them?

13.Chanel and her advances on Stravinsky, her initiative, his response, the affair, her being in control, his not? The deceit? The older boy and his sense of what was going on? Katia and her awareness, asking her husband for the truth, the effect?

14.Stravinsky and his passion, desire, love for his wife, the quality of his work, playing with his children?

15.The confrontation, the family leaving? Chanel and the clash with Stravinsky, his calling her a shopkeeper? Her looking at his manuscript, her desire to support him?

16.Chanel and the meeting with Diaghelev, financing the season? The meetings? The meal, Stravinsky and his drinking, his mood, his tantrum and playing the piano?

17.Chanel going to Grasse, the scientists, the various combinations, the background of making perfume, flowers and chemicals? Her smelling the variety of samples, choosing Number 5?

18.The new performance of The Rite of Spring, success?

19.The sequences anticipating the old age of each of them? Their subsequent careers, dying the same year?

20.A film about personalities, achievements? The issues about the impact of the affair on each of them?

VISAGE (FACE)

France, 2009, 138 minutes, Colour.
Fanny Ardant, Jean- Pierre Leaud, Laetitia Casta, Kang- Sheng Lee, Mathieu Amalric, Nathalie Baye, Jeanne Moreau.
Directed by Tsai Ming- Liang.

Tsai Ming- Liang is a great favourite with critics and festivals. He has won many prizes. His style often comprises long takes and intensely serious and silent interactions. One of his constant themes is sexuality.

Commissioned by the Louvre to make an art film, he has gone to France and constructed a work that would be seen to more advantage by an audience taking its time, re-viewing certain sequences, stopping to reflect, then moving on, were it an installation in a gallery. Each sequence is a single fixed camera take, a succession of moving image panels.

Plot is not important at all. Basically, a director (Tsai Ming- Liang's protege in all his films, Kang Sheng- Lee) is making a drama of Salome, Herod and the death of John the Baptist, emulating the art styles of how this Gospel sequence has been portrayed over the ages. Some panels focus on the director, his mother and his work for the film. Others focus on his actor for Herod, Jean- Pierre Leaud, a fragile character who needs communication and support. In the meantime, Fanny Ardant is acting as a producer. The model chosen to play Salome (Leetitia Casta) is getting into her role and cavorting provocatively.

This is a film for patience and surrender (which at the press screening at Cannes many refused to contemplate and made for the Exit). The scenes are composed, as one would expect, meticulously and artfully. Some of them, especially with Leaud, are quite moving and powerful, especially one of the longest takes where Fanny Ardant cares for him and a scar on his nose and Leaud finally speaks the words of Herod to Salome.

For an acquired and artistic taste.

1.The acclaim for Ming- Liang’s films? Expectations?

2.The impact, critical praise, audience tedium and walkouts? The film as an installation series? Needing a different kind of response from a film?

3.The title, the use of faces? The single takes, the length of the takes, the close-ups?

4.The Louvre commissioning the film, the artworks in the museum, the homage to the art? The scenes in the Louvre itself?

5.The musical score, the songs, those sung by Laetitia Casta as Salome?

6.The effect of 138 minutes of single takes, fixed camera, the compositions? The length, the effect on audiences watching, the detail, characters, language, silences, body language, movements, songs, the chorus, editing and pace?

7.A French production, the French cast?

8.Kang- Sheng Lee and his presence in Ming- Liang’s films? As a director, going to France, the scenes with his mother, her cooking, the flooding of the bathroom and the house, his mother’s illness, tending her, her portrait, mourning? His scenes with Antoine, with the producer, with Salome? The sexual encounter in the dark? Appearing naked? Carrying Salome’s dress? The deer, the finale and his trying to coax it back? In the bath, the covering, the tomato sauce, being John the Baptist? An Asian in Europe?

9.The sets, the Louvre itself, the apartment, the open squares, the interiors? The set with the snow and mirrors? The deer on the set? The sudden appearance of the dancers? The banquet hall? The rooms? The book about Francois Truffaut? The images of Jean- Pierre Leaud? The pipes, the elevator, the bath? The sewer pool?

10.Salome, the adaptation of the story? The intention of the director, the text, the dance, Herod and his speech, John the Baptist and his death?

11.Antoine as fragile, Jean- Pierre Leaud’s presence? The producer phoning to find him? His sitting in the snow, the injury to his nose, his playing with the bird, giving it to the director, with the deer? His moods, with the producer? Her tending his nose, his declaiming his speech as Herod? His costume, coming out of the crawlspace? Sketch of an eccentric character?

12.Fanny Ardant as the producer, busy, concerns about the personnel, in the snow, the loss of her shoe, her concern about the deer, carrying the deer head? The meal and meeting Jeanne Moreau and Nathalie Baye? Eating the apple, the book on Truffaut? Searching for the deer? Her caring for Antoine?

13.Laetitia Casta, the model, her clothes, body and sensual, the naked man in the pool, the death scene for John the Baptist?

14.The audience experience of sense impact, imagination, reflection?

MAP OF THE SOUNDS OF TOKYO

Spain, 2009, 109 minutes, Colour.
Rinko Kikuchi, Sergi Lopez, Min Tanaka.
Directed by Isabel Croixet.

The sound of noodles.

As David (Sergi Lopez) remarks to Ryu (Rinko Kikuchi), who shows her relish by loudly slurping her noodles, that this would be impolite in Spain but essential in Japan. The noodle sound is one of the ingredients for the title of this film.

Isabel Coixet has made films in Spanish and in English. Here she opts for a Japanese production and the use of Japanese and English.

The film can be called an erotic thriller. It opens with Japanese and foreign businessmen exploiting women by eating sushi laid out on their bodies. However, by the end of the film, Coixet is prepared to sacrifice (in a lower key than, say, Lars Von Trier in Breaking the Waves) the woman for the sake of the man.

After the business meal, an elderly sound recordist begins to narrate the story of Ryu, an enigmatic young woman whom he befriends. She works in the fish market. However, she becomes entangled with David who runs a wine shop in Tokyo. While their encounters become more and more erotic (he is grieving the suicide death of his girlfriend), the issue is whether she will kill him as she has been hired by the dead girl's father.

What is it about Tokyo for foreign film-makers, relationships, being lost, sex and the love hotels? Gaspar Noe offers a far more pessimistic outlook on these issues in Enter the Void. This is a slight Last Tango in Tokyo with a semi-happy ending.

1.An erotic thriller? The Japanese and Tokyo settings? The focus on the Japanese? On the European man?

2.The title, the sounds and sights, the aerial shots of Tokyo, the business world, the fish market and its detail, the wine shop, the Love Hotel? Its elaborate French style? The film’s feel for Tokyo? The musical score?

3.The introduction and the tone, the businessmen, the deal, the Japanese on one side, the foreigners on the other, their drinking, the sushi spread out on the girls on the table? Nagari and his hostile reaction? The foreigners drunk, Nagari getting the news, his collapse, the businessmen taking it as a sign for humorous riot? The reason for Nagari’s upset, his daughter’s suicide, his bond with her, her scrawling in blood on the mirror, her not experiencing her father’s love for her? His collapse? His watching the videos? Wanting vengeance, allowing his assistant to hire the killer? Going to the board meeting, his being abstracted, looking out the window, his adviser helping him?

4.The old man and his narration, the introduction to Ryu, her many names, her work at the market, her slurping sound with the noodles, their bickering friends, her not revealing any secrets, just good company, his recording the sounds? Going to visit the cemetery with her – and her flashbacks to the killings and her victims? Her tending their graves?

5.Ryu as enigmatic, seemingly ordinary, at the market, in her uniform? Nagari’s adviser and his hiring her, the contract? The photo? Going to the shop, looking at David?

6.David, coming from Spain, three years in Japan, trying to learn Japanese but not successfully? His shop, his efficient assistant? In love with Nagari’s daughter, the effect of her suicide, his sympathy at the hospital and Nagari rejecting him? Ryu coming into the shop?

7.His response to Ryu, her choice of wine, their talking, her interest, going to the meal, the sound of the noodles, his comments, their drinking, walking in the city, going to the hotel, his honesty? The erotic meetings, the effect? She with the gun, the silencer, not killing him? Their going out, her feelings, laughing, her phone call to cancel the contract?

8.David and his desperation, grief, going to the hotel, the erotic experiences with Ryu? Talking with his assistant, thinking of selling the shop? His going to the market? Wanting to leave, not wanting to leave? The shooting and Ryu’s death?

9.Nagari and his assistant, his thwarted love for the girl? The market returning to normal, hosing down the blood? The old man and his comments, going to the cemetery to Ryu’s grave? David, back in Barcelona, watching the Japanese film, his wife calling him, the beginning of a new life?

10.Insights into character, relationships, violence, Japanese ways? David’s comments that the Japanese ways were distinctive but yet universal?

WIT LICHT (THE SILENT ARMY)

Holland, 2009, 92 minutes, Colour.
Marco Borsato, Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga, Andrew Kintu, Thekla Reuten.
Directed by Jean Van de Velde.

Director Jean van der Velde was born in the Congo and educated in Rwanda and Burundi. He clearly has deep feelings about Africa today, its independence and prosperity, the rebel movements with armies of children who have cause massacres and migrations.

A film can be cinema, judged by the highest artistic standards. Or a film can be a movie, an entertainment made for a mass audience and to be commercially successful. With its straightforward plotting and practical craft as well as its earnest message for the widest audience, The Silent Army is a movie.

Filmed in South Africa but, particularly in Uganda, a country notorious for its abduction of children to fight, the film wears its heart on its sleeve. It opens with bonds of friendship between a black boy, Abu, and a white boy, Thomas, everything normal in a 21st century African town until the rebels raid and Abu is taken in a sequence that is shocking and makes the point about this use of children as appalling. When the rebel leader appears with his genial but deadly speech to the children, already brainwashing them to call him (and shout), 'Daddy', the children's cause is lost.

The film combines scenes of the children trained in weapons and killing as well as a raid on a church in a village, with the search by Tom's father for Abu.

Perhaps the plotting is too simplistic and the ending a bit too heroic for strict analysis, but the film is intended to rouse the reactions of a public who may not be familiar with these issues.

1.A serious film with a message? Using a popular genre for communicating the message to the wide public?

2.The final Bonhoffer statement about people’s silence and not acting? The consequences?

3.The location photography in Uganda and South Africa? Standing in for African countries in general? The town, the mountains, the countryside? The musical score?

4.The African experience of rebels, child armies, the experience of Uganda and Congo?

5.The opening, the human feeling, Abu and his father, the gift of the wooden video control? His friendship with Thomas, black and white? Sharing in the computer games? Abu’s mother and her work? Racial friendliness? His going home, the poverty, his playing soccer? His father’s support?

6.Edward and his restaurant, Thomas and his place there, the mother? The Christmas dinner and the guests, the generator, singing Silent Night? The need for more deserts? The mother, her impatience, driving, hitting the animal, the crash and her death? The funeral, Thomas and his drawing on the coffin, the rain? Abu embracing him?

7.The shock of the rebel attack on the village, its brutality, the fires, stealing the sneakers, the little girl with the sneaker, going into the tent, the grenade explosion? Abu and his playing soccer, the torch in his face, the command that he kill his father, his father permitting him to do this?

8.The aftermath, the photographer, Edward on the scene? Thomas upset, the authorities, checking on the arms dealer and his visiting the restaurant?

9.Obeke, the towering presence, his speech to the children, wanting them to call him Daddy, getting them to shout it louder? Telling them that he could read their minds? The little girl wanting to go home, the boy frightened, his asking them to kill each other? The children descending on their victims? The killing, the training, the tests with guns, the blindfold? The young men as officers?

10.Abu, changing, the brainwashing? The boy urging him to phone – and the call to the video store and the succession of numbers? Their being caught, the boy denying it, blindfold assembly of the guns, Abu shooting?

11.The attack on the village, the people in the church, the laying of the mines, the explosion, the young man and the injury to his leg, his being left for dead, Abu taking the sneaker?

12.Edward and Thomas, their drive, the night and the fright with the man wanting the light for the cigarette? The roadblock, their being turned back? Going to the refugee camp? The encounter with Valerie? The photographer being there? Clashes? The fact that Edward had known Obeke as a customer? The young girls who ran away, the supplying of information? Edward taking the jeep, going? Val and Bosco and their reaching the village, the victims in the church, saving the children hidden in the pipe?

13.Edward going to the bush, Valerie bringing him the water? The map? The boy injured from the mine, Edward finding him, Val and Edward burying him with branches? Edward being taken prisoner?

14.Obeke Ama and her tongue cut out, her being Obeke’s servant? The irony of the photographer, the smuggling of the gold to pay for the arms? The arrival of the plane? Obeke and his external courtesy, talking with Edward, yet having Ama poison the tea? The irony of Ama drinking it? Obeke letting Edward go, Abu not acknowledging Edward, defiant? Accompanying Edward and his leaving?

15.The plane, the arms dealers, Ama and her pregnancy, Obeke realising what had happened, his speech to Ama? The explosion?

16.The escape, the plane, Edward taking Abu? Based on true stories of refugees? The film and its story told as a movie rather than cinema art?