AVRIL

France, 2006, 96 minutes, Colour.
Sophie Quinton, Miou- Miou, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Clement Sibony, Richaud Vass Genevieve Casile.
Directed by Gerald Hustache- Mathieu.

Avril is the name of a 20 year old French girl, born in 1968, an orphan left at an enclosed convent where she has been brought up and is now a novice about to take her vows. She is also a painter. One of the sisters questions her about her maturity and her experience before making her vows but, in her innocent, naïve and ingenuous way, she sees everything clearly. However, the sister reveals to her that she has a twin brother and tells her where she can go to find him, slipping away during her fortnight’s solitude retreat. She does.

The convent is an old style French convent reminiscent of those 19th century communities where the superior’s will was everything and mortification predominant. We are told that the order was disbanded but that the superior has gone on her own way and kept the convent running. And, of course, Avril is the daughter that none of the sisters had.

Avril’s odyssey takes her into a world she is quite unfamiliar with but her simplicity initially lets her glide through this without any harmful effect, including getting a lift from an elaborately tattooed worker in a paint shop, discovering that her brother is gay and deciding to stay in the lighthouse where he is on holidays.

We know that Avril is going to discover the world, relationships, the less ascetical delights of good food and cooking, music, dance, teaching children art and play and learning to swim as well as to come to consciousness about her bodiliness.

It is to the credit of the screenplay that this is done in a quite credible way – except, perhaps, for the actual ending which moves into a fey atmosphere of fantasy and art. It is also to the credit of Sophie Quinton that Avril is a believable and dignified character. It is a subtle performance, completely convincing in its innocence and leading us along with Avril in her discoveries and her personal awakening.

For a Catholic audience, it may come as something of a surprise and, yet, it makes the valid point that most Vocation Directors have had to learn, as have so many religious who stayed in their congregations or who left, that one cannot live in a spiritual vacuum and that vocation is to be discerned and tested by reality rather than simply accepted.

1.A human and humane story? Religious and secular?

2.The convent, the grounds, the chapel, the atmosphere? The religious chants and the Kyrie?

3.The contrast with the road, the mountains, the coast, the beach, the lighthouse? The songs, the popular songs of the 60s, the Twist?

4.Sophie Quinton's performance as Avril, persuasive, credible? The introduction, the painting during the credits, the flowers? Her talent? Her waking, praying, putting on her veil, going to the chapel, the superior promising her final vows? Sister Bernadette asking questions and challenging her? Her burying the goods in the grounds? Going to the chapel, the task to paint the chapel, silence, the two weeks? The blend of the good, the naive, the ingenuous? Her inexperience because of growing up in the convent?

5.The superior, her waking, looking at the photo, her motherly attitude towards Avril? The ceremonies in the chapel? Avril burying her box in the grounds, her relationship with the other nuns, the procession, Avril going to the chapel?

6.Bernadette, her stern face, with the other members of the community, challenging Avril? Going to the chapel, the message about her brother, leaving the key? Digging up her own box and opening it? The information from the newspaper about the accidental death of her fiancé? Her tension, the reason for her being in the convent? Twenty-two years of reparation? Her still feeling guilty? Her relating to the superior, the older sister, the truth that everybody knew? Her decision?

7.Avril deciding to leave, going on the bike, stranded, the encounter with Pierre, riding with him, the silence, no music, stopping to pray? Visiting the Jesuit at the orphanage, his giving her the information about her brother and making the telephone call? The background comment he made on the superior, the convent, the religious congregation having been disbanded, the religious superior making her own order? Pierre's driving her to the sea? The initial encounter with David and Jim? Accepting the sexual relationship? The discussions with Pierre, changing clothes, drawing David? Her return, telling him the truth? The decision to stay, going to the lighthouse, the room made ready for her, wanting to be alone and in silence? The two hours of recreation, meals with them, enjoyment, the Grace before meals, Jim teaching her how to swim, her painting, Jim taking her to coach the children, her joy? Pierre and his making the canvas for her? Her discovery of herself, wearing the swimming costume, a sense of her own body, swimming naked in the sea? Going back to the lighthouse after drinking, the first alcohol? The night with Pierre in the room? Watching the home movies and her yearning for family after watching David with his adoptive parents? Her going back to David, the clash, sorry? Her decision to return - for what?

8.Pierre, genial, giving the lift, his working in the paint shop, playing the radio, his large tattoo, meeting with Jim and David, accepting them, the mixing of the paints and using the yolk, the linseed, the paint and the stirring, the colour? Making the canvas for Avril? The return with the group? Her making love to him?

9.David and Jim, their relationship, David and his story, adopted, the quality of the home movies, the relationship with his adoptive parents, joy, his work as an ethologist and the monkeys? His reaction to the news, his relationship with Jim? His being upset, changing, staying with Avril, getting to know her, sharing? His return, hesitation, the meeting with Bernadette, her giving him the letters?

10.Jim, his partnership with David, agreeable, sharing in the meal, cooking, teaching Avril to swim, taking her to the children for the painting? His support?

11.The return, meeting Bernadette on the road, going to the chapel, the group painting it, the body images, Avril, the three men? The sisters arriving for the ceremony? Everyone dressed in white?

12.The nuns, Bernadette, the reaction of the superior to the painting, trying to white it out, her hostility towards Bernadette, Avril standing in the way, her being stabbed?

13.In the hospital, the group waiting, David staying with his mother, reading the letters, holding her hand? The process of healing, Avril and the difficulty in breathing? Nature and its breathing - and her waking? An open end?

14.Themes of vocation, the presence of God, prayer, experience and commitment, joy, nature, friendship, delight? The grounds for making one's decision in life?

NIGHT AND DAY

Korea, 2008, 145 minutes, Colour.
Kim Yong Ho.
Directed by Hong Sang Soo.

This is a very long film, almost two and a half hours. It is well-acted, well-crafted and has some interesting themes. However, to be sharing the questions of the central character, who is a rather ordinary man and not portrayed particularly empathetically, is something of a hard slog. It is not that he is unlikeable. It is just that his quest is haphazardly presented and not always so compelling.

The structure is that of A Korean In Paris or glimpses over a seven weeks period (September-October, 2007) of the intermittent diary of a painter. He has fled Korea and his wife after being reported for smoking marijuana at a party. He phones his wife from Paris every day (his night, her day). He meets a former girlfriend by chance and toys with renewing the friendship though she is married. His kindly landlord introduces him to a young cousin, an art student. He is then smitten by her room-mate. He wanders Paris. He visits the beach at Deauville with the two art students and has to mediate their dislike of each other. He reads the Bible, tries oysters… and then goes home when his wife tells him she is pregnant.

The film uses a Beethoven sonata throughout which, beautiful as it is, has a life of its own and seems a presumption on the part of the director to use it to support the quest of a semi-interesting man in search of himself. A long two months’ journey through night and day.

1.A portrait, a diary?

2.Paris, the airport, the Fourteenth Arondissement? The apartment, the streets, cafés, bridges, the world of art? The seasons, the rain? The sunshine? Parisian atmosphere? The trip to Deauville, the beach?

3.The musical score, the use of Beethoven?

4.The title, Paris and Korea, the time differences?

5.The diary, the device of having the dates, the period of two months?

6.The voice-over, descriptive of what was happening, of the character himself, what insights?

7.The information about the party, his taking the drugs for the first time, his fears, decision to go to Paris, leaving his wife? The man at the airport, the cigarettes, the warning to be careful? The apartment, crowded, the smell, the bunks, smoking? Mr Jang and his friendship? Reading the Bible, the man and his seeming to want to convert the hero, not coming to his party? His being sick? The phone calls to his wife? Home, homesick?

8.Mr Jang and his help, talking, the introduction to his cousin, advice?

9.Kim in Paris, wandering, observing, aimless, buying the cigarettes, seeing the couple in love, the chance meeting with his old girlfriend, her hostility, changing, the cups of coffee, her being married, the visit, the possibility of a sexual encounter, his quoting the Bible? The news of her suicide?

10.Mr Jang’s cousin, art student, their talk, his being a painter, the discussion about clouds, the visuals of clouds, her attitude towards her roommate, the trip to Deauville, the angry women, the later visits?

11.The art student, the ex-girlfriend’s criticism of her selfishness, the roommate and her anger with her, accusations of being stingy? The issue of payment on the trip to Deauville? The student whose portfolio she took? Her character, pouting, the hero and his admiration of her beauty, her foot, her being cautious, the hug, deciding to allow herself to love Kim, the sexual encounter?

12.The effect on him, his loneliness, sexual needs, talking with his wife, the Bible, the sense of betrayal?

13.His wife, the news of her pregnancy, his return, their encounter, the fact that she had lied to trick him to come home?

14.At home, the bond, his wife, the baths, weeping, money, the anger, the outburst against his wife? The dream? His issues of whom he loved? Reconciliation with his wife?

15.The ending, the focus on clouds?

3 ZAN (THREE WOMEN)

Iran, 2008, 94 minutes, Colour.
Niki Karimi.
Directed by Manijeh Hekmat.

A vigorous film about women from the director of Women’s Prison.

While staying within the bounds of the restrictions of dress, position and influence of women in contemporary Iran, this is a glimpse of three generations of women, women who are becoming stronger and more independent in each generation. It is a dramatic view of tradition, of current enterprise and of the possible future.

The action takes place over only a few days. The focus is on the busy woman, Minou (Niki Karimi), involved in carpet making and an expert in authenticity verification to detect illegal sales out of the country. Her mother is senile, due to go for a doctor’s appointment but, when her daughter is caught up in stopping a sale, she wanders off with a carpet. She takes a bus back to her village. She represents the traditional past.

Minou has also lost her daughter, Pegah, and discovers to her dismay that Pegah had been failing courses at university for several terms and had dropped out, that she has an apartment as well as a job as an industrial photography. As Minou goes to visit friends and her daughter’s associates, she discovers more about herself and her attitudes than about her daughter.

Meanwhile Pegah has driven on an impulse out into the countryside, gives a lift to a young archaeologist, discusses serious matters with him. They also take care of a woman who is ill after an illegal abortion and carry her back to her village where the elders discuss stoning her because of her sin. Freer in spirit than her mother, she has a sense of responsibility which ensures a stronger future.

Then the film stops. It is not as if we cannot appreciate what has happened and what will happen to the three women. But, the film just stops.

1.A woman director? Women’s themes? In contemporary Iran?

2.The Teheran settings, the streets and the traffic, the offices, museums? The contrast with the open spaces, the desert, the mountains, the villages? The musical score?

3.The title, the three generations of women? The central focus on Minou? The older generation, the younger generation?

4.Minou’s story: caring for her mother, caring for her daughter? Her being a weaver, her expertise in carpets? Her repairing carpets? Not wanting them to be sold illegally? The discussions with the minister, with the museum managers? Taking her own initiatives? The urgency of time – and the possibility of carpets being smuggled out of the country? The reaction of the authorities, their caution, wanting her to take time?

5.Minou’s busy life, taking her mother to the doctor, the phone calls, the carpets, leaving her mother? Her mother’s disappearance?

6.Her search for her mother, discovering her daughter was missing? Her range of friends and contacts? Going to see them, the discussions, trying to work out where her mother had gone? Where her daughter could be?

7.The old woman, senility, eighty-one, with the carpet, leaving the vehicle, going to get the bus, travelling, sleeping, going back to the village, her going to sleep? The possibility of her being found? Her having a carpet?

8.Pegah, as daughter, not telling her mother about her studies and failing, nor her job? Her mother going to see her friends, going to the university, finding out that her daughter had dropped out? Going to see the musicians? Her finding out about her job, industrial photographer? Her finding out about her apartment, going to visit it?

9.Minou, her trying to understand her mother, concern about her and her old age? Concern about her daughter, realising she knew very little about her daughter? Her mission to find out the truth and reconcile?

10.The journey of the daughter, driving aimlessly, picking up the archaeologist, their discussions about the meaning of life, going to the dig, his showing her the bowl, people eating from it five thousand years earlier, her sardonic reactions? Her taking photographs? Going to the village, staying? Going back to the dig? Discovering the woman who had had the abortion, taking her to her village, observing what happened, the elders meeting, the discussion, wanting to stone her because of her crime? Attending the funeral of the woman? Her sense of responsibility? Her friendship with the archaeologist, talking with him? Some kind of answer to her quest?

11.The archaeologist, young, his being a dentist, Pegah and her toothache and their discussions, his love for archaeology, examining the past, trying to understand, his own sense of responsibility?

12.The range of people that Minou visited, the old friend, the old women, the students? A cross-section of the population?

13.The film stopping, leaving the audience to effect the reconciliation – and anticipate some kind of future for the three women?

TATIL KITABI (SUMMER BOOK)

Turkey, 2008, 92 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Seyfi Teoman.

A pleasing glimpse of provincial Turkish life in a town that has its own style and is not dependent on tourists. The film begins and ends with school children. While a little boy is central, the film quickly introduces a wide range of local characters. They go about their daily routines, picking lemons in a grove, buying and selling in the shops as well as welcoming home an older son from military service. He creates some tension in his home, especially with his father, when he wants to go to university instead of continuing in the army.

There are many familiar family themes and tensions but we see them in a Turkish setting with Turkish sensibilities and pace. This makes it an interesting first film by.

1.The impact? The director’s first film? Semi-autobiographical? Turkish provincial?

2.The small city, a city not for tourists, ordinary homes, streets, shops, school, the countryside, the orchards? The lack of a musical score? Ordinary sounds?

3.The opening, the long shot, the children, the focus on the boy? The return to the boy at the end, at the window, the slow tracking back from the school windows, the school, the playground? The end of summer?

4.The introduction to the range of characters, the truck picking up the men and women, dawn, going to the orchards, seeing their work in detail?

5.The shopkeepers, greeting the boy, the uncle and his status in the town, with the family, his shop, influence?

6.The brother, military service, return, the dominant father, the supportive mother, his father wanting him to be in the military, his wanting to go to university? The issue of money?

7.The children in class, the issue of the summer book, its aims, emphasis on reading, the bully taking the young boy’s book, his wanting to borrow the money from his uncle, the book not on sale?

8.The brother and his military service, back in the town, relationships, his father, sick, the visits?

9.The uncle, his role, control? The father, his illness, death? The different family reactions, needing time, life gradually getting back to normal?

10.The details of life in the city, the shops, the public announcements?

11.The resolution, the behaviour of the father, the impact of his death, the mother and her friends, coping with the children? The relations? The brother leaving for the university? The young boy going to school – and the repetition of the opening?

12.The impact of the final tracking back from the school – and the audience experiencing the summer with the characters?

LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA

UK, 2007, 139 minutes, Colour.
Javier Badim, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Benjamin Bratt, Catalina Sandina Moreno, John Leguizamo, Liev Schreiber, Hector Elizondo, Fernanda Montenegro.
Directed by Mike Newell.

This is a sweeping film, ranging from 1879 to the 1930s. It is based on a novel by Nobel Prize winner for literature, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and has been adapted by prolific playwright and screenwriter, Ronald Harwood (whose work included an Oscar for The Pianist and the adaptation of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). It has been directed by Mike Newell who has made films in all genres including Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire).

Garcia Marquez was born in Colombia, in the city of Cartegena where this story is set. The film was made on location there and captures the atmosphere of the Latin American city, its history and culture and the rivers and countryside.

The title is arresting (and, maybe, for some, offputting). The film is certainly about love, about unrequited love with its obsession and passion. There are also outbreaks of the cholera epidemic. How is this a metaphor? That love is like an outbreak of infection, making the patient suffer, difficult to heal and to recuperate from…?

Because the time span of the action is so long and the film runs almost two and a half hours, one expects to settle into the film and absorb atmosphere at something of a leisurely pace, with space to contemplate and reflect. However, the way the screenplay is written does not lead to this pace. Rather, there are many episodes, some of them very brief, so that the film is like a patchwork at times, moving from one event quickly to another. So many of the episodes seem like snippets. And, in some of the snippets there are moments which may have been in the novel but suddenly appear and seem disconnected from the flow of the film. It is the same with some characters (like the Chinese who suddenly wins a poetry prize and is booed by the citizens – and that is all).

That said, there is a lot to enjoy in the film, watching how the metaphor works itself out. The weight of the film is carried by Javier Bardem as Florentino, the young telegram clerk who falls in love at first sight with Ermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and she with him. But, her rough and ambitious father (John Lequizamo) intervenes and exiles her. By the time she returns it is too late and she tells Florentino that their love was an illusion. She marries the doctor who treats her (Benjamin Bratt) and moves into another sphere in the city. In the meantime, Florentino pines for her but also becomes highly promiscuous as a way of assuaging his sorrow and loss. He also becomes rich, inheriting a river boat company from his uncle (Hector Elizondo).

And 51 years pass and the doctor dies (he dies in the opening scene of the film and most of the film is flashback). What can now happen between Florentino and Ermina?

The film is full of many more characters and incidents. It does not all quite ‘click’ but there are a number of pleasures in watching it.

1.The status of Gabriel Garcia Marquez as a writer, literature, the Nobel Prize, from Colombia?

2.Ronald Harewood’s adaptation of the novel, compression, a version of the novel? An interpretation?

3.The use of Colombia locations, the city of Cartagena, the 19th century, the early 20th century, the changes over fifty years? The homes, church, cemetery, the homes of the wealthy, of the poor, the lavish theatre, the boat company, the countryside, the boat and the river? Authentic? Beautiful? The atmospheric score?

4.Latin-American history in the 19th century, settlement, the Spanish tradition, local traditions, civil wars, cholera epidemics, their effect?

5.The imagery of love and cholera (and the Spanish word for anger: colera)? Both infections, consuming diseases, their effect?

6.The opening, the doctor, the beauty, the parrot, his death, his wife and her concern? Florentino Ariza with the woman, hearing the bell toll, his hurrying to Fermina, his proposal, waiting the fifty-one years, her angry outburst and banishing him?

7.The flashbacks, the fifty-one years, Florentino and his delivering telegrams, earnest, living with his mother, his absent father, his uncle? His seeing Fermina and her aunt, writing the long letters, following Fermina, the delivery, the rendezvous for collecting the letters, the aunt coming to the telegram office, their talking, his proposal, the aunt urging Fermina to accept? The development of the young people? Characters?

8.Love, love at first sight, all-consuming, Florentino keeping himself for Fermina, passion, obsession?

9.Fermina’s father, ambitious, rough, hostile to Florentino, forbidding her to see him, his treatment, banishing the aunt, Fermina sent into exile, working in the country and her happiness? Her return, her illness, Doctor Urbino coming to see her? His asking permission to court her? The father being happy with the proposal?

10.Fermina over the years, her love, being away, telling Florentino that love was an illusion, her coldness? Her persuading herself that this was true? The illness, the doctor, his attentions, her not being willing, her eventually marrying him? The honeymoon in Paris, the return, her pregnancy? Her life with Doctor Urbino? Her coldness and resistance to him, his infidelity, her demanding the truth, his honesty and directness, her reaction, going to see the woman and watching the separation? Her ageing?

11.Florentino, older (and the change of actors)? His relationship with his mother, his work for telegrams, on the boat, the sexual encounter and his naivety, the effect on him, his keeping a diary of his sexual encounters, making notes, the over six hundred, assuaging his feelings but not extinguishing his love for Fermina, the poetry competition, the encounter with the buxom woman, the young wife – and her husband killing her? The young girl, his continuing to see the women over the decades? The reaction of his mother, her losing her memory, her death and the funeral?

12.His work, going up-country, the return, talking with his uncle, his uncle explaining his father’s behaviour, the jobs, inheriting the company, his aims, to be rich and in society, poetry competitions? (And the interlude with the Chinese doctor winning the competition and the hostility of the audience?)

13.The passing of time, the changes, into the 21st century?

14.Coming again to the death of Doctor Urbino, Florentino’s proposal? The aftermath?

15.The letters, the poems, Florentino and Fermina’s gradual reluctance? Their meeting?

16.The discussions, coming together, the ride on the boat, the sexual fulfilment? The regrets from the past, the hopes for the future?

THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES

US, 2008, 107 minutes, Colour.
Freddie Highmore, Sarah Bolger, Mary Louise Parker, Joan Plowright, David Strathairn, Nick Nolte, Andrew Mc Carthy.
Voices of: Seth Rogen, Martin Short.
Directed by Mark Waters.

This is a very satisfying magical adventure for all except the very young and the very impressionable – it has the elements of fairy tales and nightmares.

The prologue introduces the plot, the atmosphere and the mystery very well. Arthur Spiderwick (in the 1920s) is completely absorbed in examining all kinds of mysterious creatures and writes a manuscript, a Field Book, explaining the ‘other world’ around him.

80 years later, along comes a ‘typical’ broken family, separated mother with three children who are poor and need to live in the Spiderwick mansion that they have inherited. The screenplay and the performances quickly establish the characters and their interactions (initially a lot of bickering), something a bit difficult to achieve because Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland, Charley and the Chocolate Factory, August Rush) is playing twins. But he is a young actor of great presence and skill and shows the angry and cantankerous Jared as quite different from the calmer and reasonable Simon. Sarah Bolger is Mallory, their older sister. Mary Louise Parker is their harassed mother.

It is not too long before Jared hears noises in the walls, travels up to his grand-uncle’s secret room via a dumbwaiter and has discovered not only the manuscript but an elfish creature, Thimblestack (voiced by Martin Short). Out in the woods is another friendly creature, Hogsqueal (voiced comically by Seth Rogen). What Jared discovers is that the Goblins, led by Magarath (Nick Nolte) want to get the book in order to have absolute power, even if it means getting rid of everyone else.

The adventure begins and soon involves the three children. There are fights and chases and, ultimately, a siege of the house but not before Jared is able to summon up a wonderful flying griffin who takes them to see their grand uncle (David Strathairn). They also find his daughter (Joan Plowright) in an institution where she gives them good advice.

Well, maybe this is not entirely new in the era of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. But this film, based on five novels by, Tony DiTelizzi? and Holly Black, is full of energy, races right along, has excellent effects and creatures and is carried well by Freddie Highmore in his two roles. The director has moved along from family and teen comedies, Freaky Friday and Mean Girls. Very entertaining – though, of course, not for ‘realists’.

1.A successful fantasy? A magic world? Adventure?

2.The house, old, the town, the woods, the real world?

3.Seeing the goblins, the variety of creatures, their ugliness, a different world? The effects of their being present but invisible? Their movements? Protection within the circle? The visuals, their ugliness? The gryphon, the monsters, the transformations? The beauty and the fairies? The special effects, the house and its destruction, the goblins and their force, the flying gryphon?

4.A successful blend of reality and fantasy? The atmospheric score?

5.The prologue, Arthur Spiderwick and the credits, his investigations, insects and creatures, annotations, writing the book, folding up the book, hiding it, ominous?

6.Eighty years later, the Grace family (significant name?)? 21st century, their bickering in the car, the parents’ separation, Jared’s anger, frustration, the mother’s frustration? The interactions between the three children? The twins? The house, the situation, their needs, setting up, Jared and his surliness, Simon and his calm? Their not believing Jared and his being assumed to be behind all the pranks?

7.Jared and his love for his father, his anger, silent, saying he hated his mother, his partnership with his twin, interactions with his sister, tricks, tantrums? Settling in?

8.Mallory and her age, her knowing about the separation, her fencing, support of her mother, with Simon, with Jared? Simon and his avoiding of conflict?

9.Jared hearing the sounds behind the walls, the holes in the wall, the dumbwaiter, his going into the secret room, searching, finding the book, the encounter with Thimbletack? Thimbletack and the honey and biscuits? His warnings, changing size? The book, taking it into the trunk, reading it? Mallory’s hair and the assumption that Jared had tied it to the bed?

10.The book, the circle, protection, Simon and the goblins, his being taken off, the glass to see them, Jared following? The encounter with Hogsqueal? Hogsqueal spitting, enabling Jared to see? Simon in the cage? The presence of Mulgarath? Monstrous? The goblins, Mulgarath’s threats, promises, discovering there were two boys, the pursuit, scratching Simon’s leg, the attack on Mallory, the sword, the scratches on her leg?

11.The mother, her exasperation, going to work, seeing the children in town, driving, Jared saying he hated her, her not believing their stories?

12.The three and the work to combat Mulgarath? Simon, practical, with the tomatoes in the kitchen, making the paste, the explosive paste? Jared and Mallory going into the secret passage, Thumbletack’s help? The chase through the tunnels, the monsters, into the streets? The car and its crash?

13.The story of Lucinda, eighty-six years old, at the home, with the fairies, her experience when she was six, outside the circle, her father trying to save her, the attack and the scratches, the assumption that she was mad? Her advice?

14.Hogsqueal and his behaviour, Thumbletack and his advice? The summoning of the gryphon, flying and finding Arthur, his age, the protection, the substitute book, his urging their escape?

15.The confrontation with Mulgarath and the goblins, the mother being able to see, in the house, the destruction? The explosions? The tomato as ammunition? Jared on the roof, the fall? Hogsqueal and his devouring Mulgarath? Mulgarath’s false appearance as the father and his attempt at reconciliation, Jared perceiving he had the wrong answer?

16.Peace in the house, Lucy coming home, her father appearing, her being transformed into a girl again, going off with him?

17.A fascinating world of magic, make-believe, what if …?

STEP UP 2: THE STREETS

US, 2008, 98 minutes, Colour.
Brianna Evigan, Robert Hoffman, Adam G. Servani, Will Kemp.
Directed by Jon Chu.

It’s certainly exuberant and the cast are certainly agile – and even that is too simple a word to describe their dance acrobatics.

It’s certainly much the same as 2006’s Step Up. It has a Baltimore setting, dancing in the subway to the shock of commuters, dancing in the rough neighbourhoods (where the losing dancers take to graffiti vandalism and bashing instead of sublimating their anger in their dance as they usually do), dancing at the School of the Arts and, finally something that the athletic dancer and choreographer Gene Kelly would approve of: dancin’ in the rain.

The dialogue runs very much to formula and practically all of what happens is quite predictable, but that will not deter fans who don’t go to hear dialogue but to identify with the characters, their problems, what they do, what they wear and how they dance.

1.The audience for this film? Young, old? Dance audience? The streets and neighbourhoods?

2.The film as a sequel, the pattern of the first film, the focus on dance?

3.Baltimore, the city as a character, the art school, the streets, homes?

4.The musical score, the choreography and its agility? The design of the performances?

5.The initial performance in the train? Skill, people’s reactions? News on television? The police?

6.Andi as the central character, her voice-over, the death of her mother, her guardian and her strictness, the group on the streets, their performance, the leader, rehearsals, the train, photos? The dancing and its style? Tyler and his meeting her, talking about her future? At the dance? Chase? The ultimatum, her accepting it? Going to the audition, Chase’s presence, her getting in, Blake and his hostility? Her friends, meeting Moose, the poor dancing at the lesson, her trying, Chase and the interactions, her coldness towards him? His suggestion that they form a crew?

7.The crew, the group, the collage of the range of talented people but misfits? Rehearsals? Missy going to the group, joining? The performance, the Internet introduction, the group in the street spurning them? The meeting? Sophia, the relationship with Chase, everybody going to the barbeque, the Puerto Rican dancing, the spirit of dance?

8.Chase’s story, the ballet, the rich family, finding ballet boring, his interest in Andi, his pursuing her, her putting him off, his persistence, the break with Sophia?

9.The gang in the street, their skill in dancing, fighting, the attack on the group, the vandalism of the school, the bashing of Chase, the challenge? The final losing? Bad losers?

10.Blake, his ambitions for the school, the board, the auditions, his snobbery, the fundraiser, expelling Andi? Going to the street dance?

11.Andi and the crisis, taking the blame, her being expelled, her guardian’s reaction, the group coming to the door, the change of heart?

12.The climax, everybody going, Blake and his presence, Andi and her challenging speech, the rain, the performance, winning?

13.Everybody’s change of heart at the end?

MURDER IN NEW HAMPSHIRE: THE PAMELA WOJAS SMART STORY

US, 1991, 100 minutes, Colour.
Helen Hunt, Chad Allen, Larry Drake, Riff Regan, Hank Stratton, Howard Hesserman, Ken Howard, Michael Learned.
Directed by Joyce Chopra.

Murder in New Hampshire came out five years before the Nicole Kidman film of Gus Van Sant, To Die For. They are the same story. While To Die For takes a very satirical tone, Murder in New Hampshire is much more straightforward in its narrative of a true story.

Helen Hunt is strong as a young schoolteacher, who manoeuvres herself into a marriage, falls out of love with her husband, is infatuated with a sixteen-year-old school student, is able to persuade him and his friends to kill her husband. However, she underestimates their immaturity and members of the group talk about it and she is arrested and tried.

Helen Hunt had been in a number of films during the 1980s as well as Mad About You on television. She would emerge in the late 1980s as a strong cinema actress with an Oscar for As Good As It Gets. Chad Allen is the young student and was to be successful in Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman as well as such films as The End of the Spear.

The film shows the murder at the beginning, goes back to tell the story of Pamela Smart and her husband, her work in the school, the murder. However, interwoven are scenes of the court case. Ken Howard and Michael Learned bring some dignity to the film as the parents of the dead man (Hank Stratton).

1.A film based on characters and actual events? Knowledge at the time? The influence on the film To Die For and the different treatment?

2.The New Hampshire settings, the town, homes, school? The media department? Authentic? Musical score?

3.The opening with the murder and the indecision of the students, with Billy Flynn praying for God’s forgiveness, the group in the car? The structure of showing Pamela Smart, her marriage, life, the work at school, the relationship with Billy Flynn, the build-up to the murder? The scenes of the trial intercut?

4.Pamela Smart, her age, tough, her relationship with her mother? Wanting to be married, Greg Smart and her love for him? Her being welcomed into his parents’ home? The wedding? Her listing all the gifts and their worth and making comparisons between families? Her expectations of her husband? Their not being satisfied? His drinking, her reaction to his pushing her out of the way, going to his parents’ house? Falling out of love with him? His absences? Her work at school, the media, Cecelia and her crush, making her her assistant for credits? Billy Flynn and the other students? Her talk, seductive manner, asking him questions? The media project, the orange juice and the Stone Age style? Going to Billy’s house? Questions, advances? His response? The affair, at home, at his home? Her domination of him? Taking him up on his word, the possibility of murdering Greg? The two false alarms, losing their way? The final and the achievement? Her manipulation of Billy Flynn? Her grief, being interviewed by the police, warning her against the media, her strong media interview, her dress and attributing everything to Greg living within her? Her relationship with Greg’s parents? Her thinking that everything would be well?

5.Billy Flynn, his age, living with his mother, his assertiveness? Infatuation with Pam, listening to her, seduced by her, the affair, his dependence on her, his willingness to kill? His relationship with the other members of the group? The double attempts and their failure? Pam and her condemnation, manipulation, making him walk home? Her taking him back? His being willing to do anything? The actual murder, his hesitation, the shooting? His being arrested, his not wanting to betray Pam, the lawyer persuading him? His testifying against her?

6.The other members of the group, their motivation, lack of moral standing, agreeing to murder, their greed? Friendship with Billy? Their being suspicious of Pam? In prison, in court? The deal? Their discussions with their mate who was not in on the killing, the gun, his telling the boss, going to the police?

7.Greg Smart, a good man, in love with Pam, his work, drinking at Christmas, the wedding, his exasperation with Pam? He and his father winning the company prize? His return home and his being murdered?

8.His parents, good people, love for Pam, support of their son? Their grief? In court, the final rest at the cemetery?

9.The presentation of the court scenes, the lawyers, the interrogation? Pam on the stand and her lies?

10.The popularity of this kind of telemovie based on actual characters? Audience appetite for these scenes of crime?

THE COTTAGE

UK, 2008, 92 minutes, Colour.
Andy Serkis, Reece Shearsmith, Steve O’ Donnell, Jennifer Ellison.
Directed by Paul Andrew Williams.

An innocuous title for what is certainly not an innocuous entertainment.

Paul Andrew Williams received quite some critic acclaim for his debut film, the small-budget drama, London to Brighton. What to do for a second film which many warn will not live up to the first film? The answer with The Cottage seems to be to go for broke – or beyond!

It begins semi-quietly enough with an abduction and a ransom demand. David and his timid brother, Peter (Andy Serkis and Reece Shearsmith) seem to have it all covered. However, our potential criminals are not the best planners in the world and become the victims of Murphy’s law. Everything goes wrong and more wrong than they could imagine.

Then it gets worse.

The gangster boss whose daughter they have taken is alert to what is going on and has sent two Korean goons to dispatch them and his stepson (who is even more accident-prone). That doesn’t happen. Worse – and the eerie villagers do warn David but who listens to such eccentrics out in their dressing-gowns around a public telephone?

When they move out of the cottage where their abductee has now vanished from with Peter, the film becomes creepy with scary happenings and death in the woods. It is night, of course!

When the girl and Peter ignore trespasser warnings and go into a cottage with lights ablaze, we know that something is afoot (well, not exactly because Peter loses half one of his). It looks like a haunted cottage – but there is a trapdoor and a cellar and the director wants to prove that the UK can do an equivalent of Texas chainsaw massacring kind of terror show. And, then, it becomes a ‘gasp-they-couldn’t-go-any-further’ gorefest. If that appeals (and there are a lot of laughter-inducing moments despite oneself and a lot of tiresome, witless swearing), then go ahead. If it doesn’t, you might not last all through the final section. And, if you have gone to see it – but, if you are one of those who as soon as writing appears at the end and credits roll compulsively leave the cinema, you will have missed some final minutes and the whole of Steven Berkoff’s performance apart from a few words he spoke on the phone earlier!

1.The impact of the film? Audience response to the gore fest? To the comedy?

2.The screenplay: events overnight, an eventful night? The various strands and developments of the screenplay from kidnapping, to eerie, to horror, to blood and gore. The musical score?

3.The title, the cottage for the kidnapping? The cottage for the mad farmer? The night, the environment, the houses, the woods?

4.David and Peter, arriving, their bickering, brothers, the issue of the family home? The discovery of Tracy in the boot of the car? Keeping her? The ransom demand? Their awkwardness? Peter and his giving away the name, the phone call? Andrew’s arrival? His being followed? Tracy seeing his face? Her head-butting and escape? David and his exasperation, going to the village to phone? The elderly people around him, their warning?

5.The comedy, the two brothers, the contrast, David and his comments on Peter’s wife and family? The photos in the wallet?

6.Tracy and Peter, going through the woods? Discovering the dead Korean? The Korean stalking them? The other Korean dead in the house? Their going to the cottage, ignoring the warning against trespassers? Searching the house, the smell? The editorial shocks for audience-jumping? The cellar?

7.The emergence of the mad farmer, the information about him, the photos? The pursuit of Peter and Tracy, Peter’s foot? Tracy, her fighting back, decapitated?

8.David and Andrew, going to the cottage, Andrew and the pursuit, his head and spine?

9.David, the pick in his leg, finding Peter hanging? Their struggle, the confrontation with the farmer? Deaths?

10.The farmer, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre overtones? The brutality? The blend of comedy and gore?

11.The boss arriving after the credits, his comments about what went on – and the reappearance of the farmer?

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN

US, 1981, 103 minutes, Colour.
Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Walken, Vernel Bagneris, Jessica Harper, John Mc Martin.
Directed by Herbert Ross.

Pennies from Heaven was an impressive American musical when it was released in 1981. However, despite some critical acclaim, it was not popular, even though it had a very big budget for a very impressive-looking and sounding film.

The original was written by Dennis Potter (Brimstone and Treacle, The Singing Detective amongst other series and stories). It was a series on British television in the 1970s with Bob Hoskins in the central role. The screenplay has been transferred to America during the Depression with Steve Martin playing the central role. Bernadette Peters is the schoolteacher and Jessica Harper is Steve Martin’s wife.

What was distinctive about Pennies from Heaven, as with The Singing Detective, is the lip-synching of the main characters to songs to create mood as well as to give insights into character. This film is set in the 1930s, the story of Arthur who travels trying to sell sheet music. The film is rueful, especially in its presentation of optimism.

Steve Martin was at the beginning of his screen career at this time and had just appeared in The Jerk with Bernadette Peters. Perhaps audiences at the time expected him only to be funny. Later in the 80s he was to show that he could do serious and funny with Roxanne.

The supporting cast includes Vernel Bagneris who does a shuffling dance in the rain to the title song, ‘Pennies from Heaven’. Christopher Walken has an opportunity to display his considerable talent as a dancer, to ‘Let’s Misbehave’.

The film is an interesting piece of Americana, a story of the Depression, a story of ordinary human beings. However, it is a tribute to the role of the musicals as well as the lyrics and melodies of so many songs from the 1930s.

1 . A creative and enjoyable musical? The impact of the original television series? The British origins of the film? The adaptation to the cinema screen? The compression of material for movie length? The transition to the United States?

2. The importance of style for the film: the re-creation of the Depression in America, the use of bleached colours, light and darkness, the atmosphere of Chicago, the flat open spaces of Illinois, the small American towns: shops, homes, schools, diners? The importance of the sets and decor? The transitions from drab reality to Hollywood style fantasy: sets, decor, costumes. choreography, elaborate staging in the style of the movies?

3. The creativity of the basic device: the insertion of the songs into the screenplay, the cues from the films of the past and their conventions (especially of the '30s in writing, feel, visual style)? Audience expectations for the cues? The importance of the film style e.g. Follow the Fleet and Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire? The voices and the synchronising of the cast singing? The irony of the interchange between men and women and voices? The selection of the songs?

4. The importance of the popular songs of the '30s and the Depression? Arthur Parker's knowledge of them? His expertise? His feel for the songs? As a music seller ? believing in his product? The music of the times, the style of performance? Later audiences' nostalgia for the songs? Lyrics and dreams? The importance of the interplay between reality and fantasy? The effect of the irony of the present and the comment of the lyrics? The use of the songs throughout the film, their comment on social situations, characters and attitudes? The grimness of the execution? The insertion of the happy ending with the comment on dream having such happy endings?

5. The impact of the film as grim conventional Depression story: the average young nun with ambitions and frustrations; the frigid marriage leading to hatred and neglect; the salesman on the road with his sales tactics and techniques; the infatuation and the ruin of a woman's life;. the repressed teacher and her going down the primrose path to city ruin; the accordion man and his starvation, madness, murder; justice and vindictiveness? The drab atmosphere of the Depression for such a grim story? So many victims? The expectations of unhappiness, struggle? The easiness in facing death?

6. What might have been: hopes, fantasy., glamour? Relationship and fulfilment? The songs expressing what was really felt by the characters ?hopes. lust. hatred? The realism giving edge to the romantic lyrics?

7. Arthur as an everyman character ? 'I'll never have to dream again'? The ordinariness of his life. humdrum daily work, his being a salesman, his hopes? The opening and his frustration with Joan? Blaming her? His kindness especially in giving the lift to the accordion player? His infatuation with Eileen? Romanticising her. using her, abandoning her? The encounter with the blind girl and his kindness. even after her rejection? The encounter with the police. the horror of her death, striking the accordion man and experiencing a message for change? His response to Joan's attempts to please him? Persuading her to lend the money, the buying of the shop and its failure? His decision to run away. the encounter with Eileen? Their drudgery., poverty? His fears? Arrest and facing death? The simplicity of the basic plot and characterisation? The insight via the conventions and the songs? The quality of Steve Martin's performance in acting. singing, dancing?

8. Joan as the frigid wife, her prim behaviour, her being hurt by Arthur's language? Her disregard for her husband? Disgust with sexuality.? the story about the elevator and the encounter between floors? Her not wanting to lend the money? Her changing and the use of the lipstick. giving Arthur the money? Her hatred fantasy ? to killing Arthur? The discussion with the police? Her hatred and condemning Arthur? ? Her fantasy "It's a sin to tell a lie" and her singing as in a radio programme with Arthur and Eileen?

9. Eileen by contrast with Joan? Her appearance in the shop? The prim schoolteacher? Her being idealised by Arthur: "Did you ever see a dream walking?"? Her work as a teacher., the drabness of her home? Her teaching and the transition to the glamorous song-and-dance routine with the children? The encounter with Arthur and her seeming fear? Her giving herself to him deliberately? Her pregnancy and her being sacked? The discussion with the teacher ? his concern, giving her the money? Her going on the road? Starving? The encounter with Tom at the bar ? and her imagining him as "Let's misbehave"? The gin, her working for Tom? Her being on the streets, despised? The chance meeting with Arthur? The abortion? Accepting her fate? telling the truth about wanting to get out of the town? Leaving with Arthur? Drabness, poverty? The chance stopping under the bridge? Her despising Arthur's fear? The Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers fantasy ? "Let's face the music and dance"? Her participation in the happy ending? The songs characterising her fantasy ?"Love is good for anything that ails you", "I want to be bad"? The contrast with Joan in relationship to Arthur? Her reaction to Arthur's story about the elevator? The complexity of the repressed American woman? The film's showing her fantasies as well as those of Arthur?

10. The accordion man, his being given a lift, his stammer. his enjoyment of the meal? His playing the hymn and receiving a coin from Eileen? His singing the fantasy of Pennies from Heaven? Kissing Arthur's hand and the irony of his being the cause of Arthur's death? The encounter with the blind girl and the grossness of the murder? Arthur's hitting him with the car? A puzzling character ? the madness, violence and oppression of the Depression?

11. Tom and the gangster style? Giving Eileen the gin, threatening to cut her face if she was a tease? His being fantasised by Eileen ? "Let's misbehave" the dance routines, the striptease? Tom's owning Eileen?

12. The teacher and his concern for Eileen., giving her the sack, giving her the money? The children in the class ? realism, fantasy with singing and dance routines?

13. Eileen’s unseen family and her responsibilities? The stifling house? Her breaking out?

14. The picture of the police. their inquiries, Arthur's arrest?

15. The background of people of the times: the banker and the dance routine of "Yes. yes, my baby said yes"? A1 and Ed and the burlesque routine of "It's the girl"? The elevator man. the paper boy? The blind girl and the pathos of Arthur's approach. her death? The bartender. the fat prostitute? An atmosphere for the period?

16. The style of the films of the '30s, their importance during the Depression? Arthur and Eileen and the echoes of Bonnie and Clyde? Enjoyment of the movies ? reality and fantasy and helping to cope with life? The social situation? The pessimistic outlook? Who was to blame?

17. The happy ending and the reprise of "Pennies from Heaven" and "The glory of love"? The appropriateness of the happy ending after Arthur's speech at the gallows?

18. The importance of the songs, staging, chorography, special effects? The film as enlarging the range for the musical?