DREAM BOY

US, 2008, 90 minutes, Colour.
Stephan Bender, Max Roeg, Thomas Jay Ryan, Diana Scarward, Ricki Lee Jones, Randy Wayne, Owen Beckman.
Directed by James Bolton.

Based on an autobiographical novel by James Glimsley, this is a story of sexual awakening and dependence. Glimsley grew up in the American south as did the director, James Bolton, and their memories of growing up as homosexual boys are a mixture of secrecy and feeling repressed.

This film opens with a 15 year old coming to a small Louisiana town with his oppressive father and his timid mother. It emerges that the family has secrets. However, the first part of the film reflects the adolescent wondering as the introverted boy is attracted to the farm boy next door and they begin a secret relationship.

Half way through the film, there are some dramatic changes and the film builds up to a climax that is both violent as well as literally haunting.

Stephan Bender (the young Clark Kent in Superman Returns) and Max Roeg (son of director Nicolas Roeg and Theresa Russell) are the two boys who do quite well in creating characters who are uncertain about themselves and struggle with their feelings and their families.

1.The impact of the film? Adolescence? Love? Sexual orientation? Violence?

2.The Louisiana settings, the houses, the town, school? The woods, the lakes? Authentic atmosphere? Musical score? Atmospheric themes for particular moments?

3.The title? Roy as Nathan’s dream? Nathan as Roy’s dream? The ending? Nathan as a ghost?

4.The issue of homosexuality, adolescent boys, crushes, sexuality, sensuality, relationships? Secrecy?

5.The family moving to the town, Nathan looking through the car window? Introspective? His father saying he lived in his head? At home, the tension with his father? His mother unable to communicate well with him? His going to school, Roy driving the bus? Watching Roy through the window, Roy doing his chores? His being invited to come closer? Meeting the friends at school? Mealtime, Nathan being drawn into the group? Helping Roy with his homework, Roy coming to the room, their going to the graveyard, the touch? The physical communication? In the bus, sexuality, sensuality? Going for the swim, Nathan unable to swim? Willing to learn? In the car with Roy, Roy’s reaction to the encounter, blaming Nathan, Nathan and his declaration that he had been with no-one else? Nathan’s return home, his relationship with his father, his father wanting him to watch television with him? It emerging that the father had assaulted his son? Roy setting up the rope in the room, sleeping on the floor, going to the cemetery? Roy finding him, offering him hospitality in the barn? Talking with Roy’s mother? The plan for going camping, the trip, in the tents, gathering the wood, Roy telling the ghost stories? Walking to the plantation, the atmosphere of ghosts, Nathan and his premonition, hearing his father speak? The encounter with Roy, Randy finding them, Randy’s assault, killing Nathan? His rising, watching his funeral, his going to meet Roy? The ghostly future?

6.Roy, on the farm, his relationship with his parents, doing the chores, driving the school bus, older than Nathan? His girlfriend and their encounters? His friendship with Randy and Burke? The swimming? Diving from the rope? Help with his homework, the English essay, helping with the algebra? The attraction, in the graveyard, the touch, the encounters, Roy and his needs? The bus, the outings, his mistrust of Nathan? Finding him in the graveyard, taking him to the barn? The reconciliation? Going on the camping trip, in the tent, in the house, his surrendering himself to Nathan? Being caught? Nathan’s death? His going to the service, his grief? Seeing Nathan again?

7.Nathan’s father, his job, sales, drinking, going to church, his relationship with his wife, her tension, wariness? His wanting to relate to Nathan? The secret of the past, his pursuit of his son? His humiliation? His wife leaving him? The sketch of his wife, her tension, scared for her son, trying to protect him, demanding that the father come downstairs? Her finally leaving?

8.Randy and Burke, the swimming, at school, drinking, camping? The discovery of Roy and Nathan, Randy and his anger, homophobia, the sexual assault, killing Nathan?

9.The religious background, the chapel, Roy’s family, the prayer groups? Nathan and his family going to the services, to the dinners, to prayer meetings? The final service for Nathan?

10.How credible the characters, needs, relationships? Adolescent boys? The lack of experience? Nathan as victim, of his father, of circumstances, of fate?

CAOS CALMO (QUIET CHAOS)

Italy, 2008, 112 minutes, Colour.
Nanni Moretti, Valeria Golino, Isabella Ferrari, Alessandro Gassman, Blu Yoshimi, Hyppolyte Girardot, Denis Podalydes, Charles Burling, Sylvia Orlando.
Directed by Antonello Grimaldi.

Quiet Chaos seems a highly unlikely title for an Italian film! However, it begins vigorously with two women saved from drowning at the beach followed by the accidental death of another woman. The result is a quiet chaos for her husband and her young daughter – and the puzzle of the father about his grieving or not grieving, whether he really loved his wife, and the effect that this all could have on his daughter as she keeps going to school and acting as if nothing had happened.

The father, played by Nino Moretti, who showed audiences what grief was in his La Stanza del Figlio (The Son’s Room), is a high-powered executive involved in talks about international mergers, firings, competitiveness for chairmanships, with resignations in the background. There is also his carefree brother (Alessandro Gassman), a jeans model, and his neurotic sister-in-law (Valeria Golino).

The father opts to wait outside his daughter’s school and continues to do this every day (with business associates and family coming to him much to the astonishment and the suspicions of a young woman who walks her dog there every day). He becomes a fixture in the life of the park and the piazza.

There are touches of humour (a pleasant daily game with a Downs syndrome boy), touches of intrigue as his associates (and the boss, Roman Polanski) negotiate with him, and a change of pace for him and his daughter. There is a bizarre scene where one of the drowning women comes to him – is it real or a sexual dream?

The film dramatises grief and emotion in a more quiet Italian way.

1.An Italian story, Italian style? Characters? Issues?

2.The credibility of the characters and the plot? The beach, the house, home, school, offices, the piazza?

3.The musical score, the moods, the songs throughout the film, the ending?

4.The title – and the possibility of quiet Italian chaos?

5.The opening, the brothers, playing on the beach, the rescue, not being thanked? The women rescued, the later meal, Carlo and his talk at the meal, the motivations, the embarrassment of the woman? The repercussions?

6.The brothers returning to the house, Lara’s accidental death, the effect, Claudia and asking why her father had not come earlier, the funeral? Father and daughter, grieving or not?

7.The business background, the discussions, the merger, the deals? The personalities involved, Jean-Claude? and his friendship with Pietro, Samuele and his advice, going to Pietro? The French interests? The issue of Catholics and Jews? Samuele and his analogy of the Trinity to explain the power struggles? Steiner and his arrival to discuss with Pietro (and Roman Polanski’s cameo)? The deals, the secrecy?

8.Pietro as a character, as played by Nanni Moretti, his reaction to his wife’s death, the question whether he loved her or not, the twelve years together? His device of making up lists in his mind of airways that he had been with, of Lara’s secrets? Marta and her arrival, the past, the relationship? His relationship with Carlo? With the parents of the children at the school? Going to the school, promising Claudia to stay all day – and the credibility of his continuing to stay, day by day?

9.The impact of his staying, in the park, the boy with Down Syndrome and the daily game with the car locking and the boy waving? His being absent one day and the boy waiting for him? The girl walking her dog and her impression of the range of people that he met and who were affectionate to him? Discussion with Benedetta’s mother, with the various parents, with the teachers and how Claudia was going, the café and the meals, the old widower and making pasta for him? The range of visitors?

10.Marta, love for her sister, her sister confiding in her, her own life as chaos, theatrical, her coming to visit Pietro, her tantrums? Urging the holiday – and then unable to come?

11.Carlo, carefree, model for jeans, the opium and getting Pietro to try it out, the gifts for Claudia, her love for him?

12.Eleanora, almost drowning, Steiner’s mistress, at the meal, hearing Carlo’s version of what happened, her fainting, her going to visit Pietro, talking with him? The motivation? Her presence in his sexual encounter (or dream)?

13.Pietro, going to the group, the support, his not wanting to stay, fainting?

14.The focus on Claudia, her age, experience, love for her mother, coping with her death, going back to school, her school friends, the class, waving from the window, Carlo and his gifts, the outings, Pietro’s taking her to the beach?

15.Pietro sexual experience, real or dream?

16.Father and daughter, the effect on each other, coping, the realism of the experience of the mother’s death, decisions, getting some order out of chaos?

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE

US, 2008, 118 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Errol Morris.

It didn’t happen while the Vietnam War was going on: big name directors making feature films or documentaries about the war and its consequences. But, it is happening on a significant scale with American films, many with mainstream stars, with films not just about the invasion and occupation of Iraq or the bombing of Afghanistan, but critical of these events and of American behaviour at political and military level (Redacted, Rendition, Lions for Lambs, In the Valley of Elah, Battle for Haditha (from the UK)).

Now Oscar-winning documentarist, Errol Morris, brings a detailed consideration of what happened in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, especially after the publication of the notorious, humiliating photos around the world and the trials where US military personnel were found guilty and imprisoned – though, as so often noted, no higher official was held to account.

Morris is able to show not only the photos on the big screen but has drawn together a cast to re-enact aspects of the scenes, not in a melodramatic way but with staging, light and shadow, in a style that takes its cue from the photos with the audience feeling that they have seen the actual events. Occasionally, this is heightened with the extreme close-ups of the toothy maws of the snapping guard dogs.

The basic situation of Abu Ghraib is introduced, especially through a 2003 visit of Donald Rumsfeld and the concern of American authorities to capture and imprison Saddam Hussein. (In one of the interviews, it is pointed out that the military found Saddam not through any information gained from torture.)

The bulk of the film, however, consists of interviews (intercut with the photos and re-enactments) conducted by Morris over several years with key personnel responsible for the prison, with participants in the action photographed, especially the now well-known Lyndde England, with Sabrina, one of the key photographers with quotations from her letters of the time, with an American interrogator and with an expert on photography who prepared the data for the prosecution.

One of the guards remarks that the situation must have been grave if it led to the US President apologising to the world.

So, the film is a questioning and an indictment of American policy (and lack of it), unpreparedness to deal with the post-invasion situation, especially in terms of personnel training – and the critique of a tradition that has accepted torture. It is hoped that we are becoming more sensitive to these brutal and humiliating realities.

1.The impact of the invasion of Iraq? On world opinion? The US and public opinion? In the US, in the world?

2.The film’s being made in the immediate aftermath of the invasion and occupation? The rapidity for making these films? This documentary?

3.The significance of the photos of Abu Ghraib, on the news, television, throughout the world, the critique of the US, the investigation into what happened, the trials and the sentences?

4.Errol Morris and his work, his status as a documentarist, careful research, interviews, the importance of the editing?

5.Audience response to the photos from Abu Ghraib, as filmed and seen on the big screen, the re-enactments? The significance and impact of the interviews?

6.The Iraqi situation, the invasion, seeing Donald Rumsfeld going to visit, the quest at the time for Saddam Hussein, its being an overriding factor after the capture and death of his sons? Having a prison for him? Abu Ghraib, the vastness, the regime, the guards, their lack of training? The officers responsible?

7.The prisoners in Abu Ghraib, the reasons for their arrest, terrorists, simple criminals, drunkard beggars …? The treatment, their behaviour, the humiliation, their being naked, the poses, the human pyramids, the hanging of people, the sexual activity?

8.The cross-section of guards, their motivation, exercise of power, humiliation, sexual preoccupation, the poses, the taking of the photos? The psychological background of these guards?

9.The personalities of the guards, as described by the others, as seen by the photos, the commanders?

10.The range of interviews, especially Linddie England, her role, the photographers? The interviewees and their talking, explaining their lives, age? Linddie England, twenty, in love, pregnant? Her being caught, her reassessment of her life? Her child?

11.Davis, the black guard, his comments, perspectives?

12.The main perpetrator, his long sentence, unable to be interviewed? His wife, her presence, her observations, the photos, her being cut out of some of the photos?

13.The officer in charge, her orders, her objections, her being dismissed, the long delay in the letter of dismissal? Her comments and charges against the superior authorities?

14.The interrogator, his explaining the nature of interrogation, his change of attitude – especially about the possibility of success in Iraq?

15.The investigator, his skill in analysing the photos, the time lines, the technology? His attitude towards what was standard operating procedure and what was crime? The device of showing the stamp on the photos?

16.The cumulative effect of looking at the photos, the re-enactments, the way that they were edited, the interviews? And Danny Elfman’s atmospheric score?

17.Abu Ghraib getting world attention, the apology from President Bush? The effect on contemporary thinking about imprisonment, Guantanamo Bay, the nature of interrogation, Geneva Conventions, the role of torture, human rights? The importance of society and its moral sense, its attitude towards cruelty and pain, its greater understanding of standard operating procedures?

SLEEP DEALER

US, 2008, 88 minutes, Colour.
Luis Fernando Pena, Leonor Varela.
Directed by Alex Rivera.

First-time writer director, Alex Rivera, says that his father migrated to the US from Peru looking for work and his experience made his son realise that America wants the work but not the workers. This notion led him to some key ideas for a (slightly?) futuristic drama that blends social realism in the backblocks of Mexico and the squalor of the outskirts of Tijuana with a special effects world and action.

This is a world where individuals can be processed, inserted with nodes (like Johnny Mnemonic) and can be tuned into a global network where memories (visual and verbal) can be stored and accessed on a site, Trunode. But the nodes are also a means for transferring energy. Hispanic workers living behind a separating wall from the US can be linked electronically to working robots in the US on building sites and other workplaces. The military can do the same thing with drone planes used to bomb suspicious sites and kill enemies. The Hispanic workers gyrate and do the work motions while the skyscrapers are built in the American cities.

Topical in its themes of third world poverty and deprivation in the Mexican provinces (where rivers are dammed and local farmers have to go to collect and carry water and pay a price for it for their fields and groves) as well as themes of migration for work and the exploitation of labour in the towns, the film also contains a romance as well as defiant protest. (For these reasons, Amnesty International gave it its award in Berlin.)

1.The near future? The contemporary tone? Science fiction?

2.Mexico, the small village, isolated, the mountains, the desert, the dam, the cornfields, the contrast with Tijuana? The sophisticated aspects, the streets, the contrast with the outskirts, the shacks? The contrast with the United States, the building sites? The wall between Mexico and US?

3.The introduction, the robotics, audience fascination with robotics?

4.Memo, at home, his relationship with his family, parents, brother? His electronic skills, fixing up his satellite, listening in to the conversations from all over the world? Called to the meal? Going with his father to buy the water, the surveillance at the dam, the peasants being charged for the water? The cornfield, his father’s words about it being his heritage? His going to the city, watching the television, the irony of the information about the drone (*Drone?) program, the site of his surveillance, its being targeted? Hurrying with his brother, the bomber, the drone, the father and his seeing the attack, the bombing? The death of the father, Memo going to Tijuana, his brother and mother staying at home, his sending the money, the continued support?

5.The background of the Nodes, the network? The military and the drones – and the television programs and the news? The control, the precious water, the dams, the Aqua terrorists, the global interests of the companies?

6.Memo on the bus, the encounter with Luz, his story? Her going home, connected with the Nodes, her access to the computer, to her accounts, telling her stories, verbalising them on the Net? Selling them? The threats for her account? Her decision to search for Memo, finding him, offering him the Nodes, her conducting the procedure? The attraction? Her telling the stories, the voice on the computer questioning her truth?

7.Memo, in the city, fascinated by the Nodes, wanting to be transformed, the man offering to help, robbing him? Going to the outskirts, the shack, the old men and their welcome? Luz finding him? His being connected? His going to work in the factory, in construction, the money, the extra hours, sending the money home and seeing his family on the television screen? The relationship with Luz?

8.Rudy and his background, making good, the pilot, his first mission, his bombing Memo’s machine, shooting his father? Seeing the news? His conscience, seeking out Memo, the stories from Luz, talking with him?

9.The plan, Rudy and his ability as a drone pilot, going into the machine, the destruction of the dam, the water flowing free, hopes? Rudy and his hopes for restitution? His visits to his family – and their being proud of him, especially in his killing the enemy?

10.Memo, the family, the water available, his decision to stay in the city? His relationship with Luz?

11.The impact of the workers, their being behind the wall in Tijuana, the robotics, conducting the work in the United States? The special effects for this, their credibility?

12.The theme of Americans wanting the energy and the work done in the US – but the workers not in the US, behind the wall in Mexico?

13.The themes of global control, surveillance, networks? Information? The importance of rebellion and fighting back for individual and family rights?

KABEI – OUR MOTHER

Japan, 2008, 133 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Yoji Yamada.

A very genteel film about a very different period in Japanese history. Director Yoji Yamada brings a delicacy of touch to the characters, not just the patient and loving mother but to her two daughters, her sister-in-law, to a sketch of her professor husband and the gentle kindly scholar who supports the family in trying times.

These trying times are the years 1939-1941 during which there was the Japanese ‘crusade’ in Manchuria, ‘the China incident’, meaning the invasion of Manchuria and the signalling of Japan’s ambitions for world domination. Then comes Pearl Harbor and war is declared with immediate joy for victories like the fall of Singapore. However, it becomes a period of hardship, especially at the end of the war amid the ruins and the hunger and the American presence.

Most of the action takes place in a simple Tokyo house, in the streets, a restaurant and the police precincts and gaol, although there is a cheerfully sunny beach holiday in 1941. The director keeps some grim moments of war action until the last minutes of the film.

The gentility of the film is reinforced by dignified performances by the adults and the constant courtesy, bows, tea drinking, which characterise the politeness inherent in the Japanese tradition.

What makes the film more interesting is the professor who is arrested, separated from his family and kept in squalid prison conditions because he is a dissident, calling the China incident a war and being guilty of what are designated as ‘thought crimes’. The repercussions of these crimes are devastating for the family, his wife having to teach in a primary school and being cut off by her pompous police chief father because of gossip about her husband’s fate.

The two daughters are 12 and 9 at the start, the younger speaking the voiceover memoir. The friendly scholar, accident prone and almost drowning during their holiday, shows a devotion beyond duty into love.

The film is very emotional in its ending – continuing the tribute to the mother during the final credits in a letter form her husband. The style is in the classical Japanese tradition.

1.A Japanese memoir? A different perspective on the 1930s and World War Two? On family?

2.The action generally confined to the house, to the school, the streets, the excursion to the restaurant? The police precincts and prison? The musical score?

3.The focus on the mother, a memoir, a portrait, a tribute? The voice-over of the younger daughter and her adult perspective and memory?

4.The re-creation of the period, the late 1930s, the period of World War Two? The house, costumes, Japanese styles, the beach holidays of 1941, the prison, the war, the aftermath, the city in ruins?

5.The title, affectionate, the nickname for the mother, for the father? The introduction to the family? To each character, the mother washing and hanging clothes on the line, the professor coming home, the children, the meal? His academic background? Love for his wife and children? The ages of the children?

6.The noise in the night, the suddenness of the arrest, the treatment of the professor, the ransacking of the house? The issue of thought crimes? No handcuffs but being tied by rope? Hustled into the cell, with the other prisoners, its squalor, the prisoner inviting the professor to sit next to him, the communist? The visit of his wife, his smell, the change of clothes and his modestly doing this, the prisoners being hungry and the wife bringing food? The hold-up with the visits, the authorities’ attitudes? The later visits? Yamasaki his weeping, the time passing and his not being able to give his message? The prosecution, the prosecutor being a former student, his harsh attitudes, ideology? The professor and his stances, not wanting Manchuria to be called an incident, a war? His death, the final letter and his words to his family?

7.The nature of dissidents, the China incident, the Crusade? The nature of 1930s Japanese patriotism? The worship of the emperor, the singing of the songs? The anthems? The war plans, allying with Germany, antagonism towards the US and Britain, conquering Germany and conquering the world? Pearl Harbour, the outbreak of war, the children going from school to pray for victory at the shrine? The extra saki given to the population for the fall of Singapore? The passing of the war, the bombings, the ignominy of defeat?

8.The mother in herself, a strong and loving woman, loyal to her husband, her father’s visit, the disapproval of the marriage, his status as a policeman, wanting to influence, giving his daughter some money? Later with the meal, the new wife, the restaurant, his disowning his daughter? The grossness of his slurping the eggs from the table? Aunt Hisako, art student, her presence, support, not such a good cook, but keeping the household going? The two girls, their different approaches to life, the little girl and her inexperience? At home, their squabbles? The disowning scene – and the little girl wanting to have eaten beef? Her breaking the egg? The joy of the holiday, the beach? Yamasaki and his presence, his support, mother having to get a job, going to teach? Her illness, the fever, the family looking after her, better? Coping? A good woman? Yamasaki’s love for her, her not recognising it, Hisako’s explanation? The pathos of his going to war and her not seeing him again?

9.The younger daughter, age, nine, weeping, not wanting to apologise about her father in the police precinct, hungry, the visits to her father? The older girl, more settled? The later jobs, the younger as an art teacher and her urging the students? The older daughter as a doctor?

10.Yamasaki, his arrival, hitting his head, talking, the holes in his socks, awkwardness on the bike, deaf in one ear and unable to be a soldier? His work with the publishing firm? His visiting, supporting the family, admiring the professor, and his love for the mother? The preparation for the visit to the professor, his weeping and wasting the opportunity? Devotion? His not being able to swim, the awkwardness at the beach? His finally being called up, the stoic farewell, the message sent to the family, his drowning?

11.The soldier coming to the family after the war, his explanation of Yamasaki’s death? The film waiting until this moment for a visualising of any war action, the soldiers, the boat, the torpedo, the water, the sinking of the boat, Yamasaki and his drowning?

12.The younger daughter and her perspective, the art teacher? The older daughter as the doctor, their mother’s illness, the whole family gathering at the hospital, her final words of wanting her husband in this world rather than the next? Grief?

13.The tribute to the mother in the sequences shown during the final credits?

MAN JEUK (SPARROW)

Hong Kong, 2008, 87 minutes, Colour.
Simon Yan, Kelly Lyn.
Directed by Johnny To.

Probably every review of Sparrow will start with a question concerning the way Johnnie To’s many action fans will react to his different kind of film, one that (one might say) eschews his customary excitement and violence. Then they will probably comment on his ‘change of pace’, his change of genre from police and gangster thrillers to comic petty thieves who work in public places and in sunny daylight. Some of the reviewers will probably see the film buff references to Hollywood light caper films, plenty of charades, arabesques and mirages. But, there will be more references to a hero who takes photos (and whose arm goes into plaster) and who looks out rear windows, how it takes a thief to catch a thief, as well as vertiginous stairwells and rooftops. There is no Hitchcock blonde but an Audrey Hepburn style brunette. And there are enough Mc Guffins to fill several Masters theses.

Some reviewers will comment on To’s new vision of Hong Kong, the cityscapes, the cars and buses-filled streets, the fine black and white photos our hero takes.

The four comic thieves (with some indulgence in slapstick) are what Mario Monicelli called long ago ‘I Soliti Ignoti (the usual unknown suspects).

I may be wrong in suggesting that reviewers will note these things. If not, I have.

1.Johnny To’s career, the focus on action films, corruption in Hong Kong, police work? The change of tone?

2.A more playful film? Petty thieves, operating in daylight? The lack of action sequences?

3.The focus on Hong Kong, a city of light, during the day, the city as a character, buildings, the water …? The musical score?

4.The title, the focus on the sparrow at the beginning, coming into Kei’s apartment? His treatment? The later visit of Chun Lei and her response to the sparrow? The symbolism of the sparrow?

5.The introduction to Kei, his apartment, getting up in the morning, dapper, going for his coffee? Surveying the scene, seeing the marks, his allies, the smooth robbing of wallets, passing them to other people, choreographed and orchestrated?

6.Kei’s character, his way of life, relationship with the other thieves? The old man, the man on the cycle, the friend? How well did the film delineate their characters? Show them as an ensemble?

7.Kei, his hobby, photography? The black and white photos of characters all throughout Hong Kong (and their use during the final credits)? His seeing Chun Lei, photographing her?

8.Chun Lei as the enigmatic woman, pursued, seemingly seductive? Her entanglement with the thieves? The boss and his control over her, gifts? Her mysterious character, the bodyguards? Her plans?

9.The four men and their infatuation with her, following her? The irony of their all being bashed and injured by the bodyguards? The repercussions?

10.The pursuit of Chun Lei, her going to the boss? The four men and the final confrontation?

11.The experimental nature of the film, light on intense characterisation, relying on lightness of touch, suggestions of character? Enigmatic plot? The overtones of American thrillers – and all the Hitchcock touches? A playful Johnny To film?

TIRADOR (SLINGSHOT)

Philippines, 2007, 80 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Brillante Mendoza.

Tirador is Tagalog slang for thief. It literally means a slingshot. Director, Brillante Mendoza, says that his very low budget video film, made with the assistance of friends, is ‘guerilla filming’. While it looks as if the director and crew came straight in from the streets and started filming for the long opening sequence, in fact, actors and crew went into this impoverished and squalid area of Manila, made friends with the locals and gained their trust and co-operation. They rehearsed, choreographed and blocked this sequence (a police night raid on some very unsavoury premises) with chaos, noise, fights, as the (mainly) men try to escape. Three cameras were filming in the middle of the action. It is a tour-de-force.

For the rest of this comparatively brief (80 minutes) film, we take up with a variety of characters, glimpsing part of their stories which are mainly to do with thieving. They offer a brief but compelling picture of a cross-section of the inhabitants: a middle-aged man and his gang who are pickpockets (and who gives his mother medication for a sick child); a young man who snatches a purse to pay for his pedicab debt instalments; a womanising young husband who is more interested in drugs; a woman with new dentures who drops and loses them lamenting how she had stolen money to get them; a couple who steal DVD players from shops; a young boy whose father is crushed to death during a Palm Sunday procession; a group of students who bully and rob a timid boy – and one is arrested and beaten but who then puts it over the corrupt cop who has interrogated him.

In many of the socially-minded Tagalog films, there is a preoccupation with sexual behaviour. This is not the case here. The poverty, the needs of the people, the preoccupation with money are the central focus. Again, in many Tagalog films, the Church is conspicuously absent except for devotional pictures. However, here the Palm Sunday liturgy and an afternoon procession are featured. The film was made during Holy Week, 2007.

Political favour forms part of the background, local members bailing out prisoners, handouts to the poor for votes, personal influence in difficult circumstances. The film (made during the last days of the 2007 election campaign) culminates at the mass religious rally of the charismatic El Shaddai movement which proclaims several of the senatorial candidates (ensuring them a million votes, it is said) who are shown in some clips making speeches and promises.

But the film ends with a tirador pickpocketing a wallet at the rally.

1.The impact of the film? Mendoza’s career? Observation of Philippine life?

2.His guerrilla filming, the handheld cameras, video, accessibility to characters, to action? Intensity of filming? From the streets? Yet the preparations, rehearsals, blocking? The blending of actors with local amateurs? The overall impact of this kind of filming? The use of the Palm Sunday liturgy, procession? The El Shaddai rally? The insertion of the actual speeches of political candidates?

3.The title, the slang for petty thief? The characters and their all depending on money, stealing?

4.The opening, the tour-de-force, rehearsed and blocked, choreographed – yet looking spontaneous? The police raid, the squalid building, people trying to escape? The various activities, drugs, money, sex? The attitude of the police? The round-up of the people? Their going to jail? The appeal to the local politician? His bailing people out?

5.Life in the district, the city of Manila, the squalid slums, ordinary houses, the students, schools and cafeterias? The range of poverty and affluence?

6.The ordinary streets, the shops, the homes, people’s ordinary lives, trying to cope?

7.The political background, the elections, the advertising, the local politician and his helping people? Giving out money to voters? The elections, the rallies?

8.The religious background, the Catholic church, the film made during Holy Week? The church, Palm Sunday, the Gospel readings about Jesus going into Jerusalem? The crowds at mass, the devotions, the piety? The procession in the afternoon? The crowds, the man falling, being crushed? Having to get him out from the procession?

9.The El Shaddai rally, the popularity of El Shaddai in fact, the hundreds of thousands, charismatic, the leader, the promotion of particular politicians? Their endorsement – and getting a million votes? The director’s attitude towards El Shaddai and its political behaviour?

10.The range of episodes, characters, the cross-section of the inhabitants? The middle-aged man, his gang and their being pickpockets; the young man who snatches the purse, wanting to pay for his pedi-cab, the instalments, the owners and their pressure on him; the womanising young husband, more interested in drugs; the woman, her new dentures, at home, arguing, cleaning them, dropping them, people trying to help her find them? Her lament that she had robbed someone to get the money to pay for them; the young boy, his father being crushed to death, the funeral? The focus on the group of students who bullied the young man, robbed the timid student? The police chase, the boy who was arrested, beaten – his tricking the policeman? The corrupt policeman? The thieves and the money for themselves? The young couple and the stealing of the DVD machine, their being caught – but the woman still getting away with a machine? The money used for support of families? Or selfishly?

11.The cumulative effect of this kind of experience of the cross-section of Manila, poverty and wealth, politics and religion, morality? And the postscript of a Tirador stealing a wallet at the El Shaddai rally?

FIREFLIES IN THE GARDEN

US, 2008, 98 minutes, Colour.
Ryan Reynolds, Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, Carrie Ann Moss, Julia Roberts, Johann Gruffudd, Hayden Panettiere, Shannon Lucio, Cayden Boyd, George Newbern, Chase Ellison.
Directed by Dennis Eldon Lee.

The advertising tagline for this film is: a family has to break apart before it comes together. This is a smart saying but not entirely accurate for this hard-edged American dysfunctional family drama.

Told in flashbacks (or flashforwards from the starting point), it begins with a young boy, Michael (Cayden Boyd) and centres on him as an adult (Ryan Reynolds). Typically, perhaps, or typically enough, the opening scene sets the tone quite powerfully: the awkward boy with the thick glasses (deliberately not using them), his domineering and exacting father complaining about him and ridiculing him, the mother supportive but acquiescent. The boy is ousted from the family car into a cornfield in the rain and has to walk home. How will this family turn out, especially as the mother is pregnant and her younger sister comes to spend the summer with them?

There is a shock plot development that brings the adult family together – a time for tensions, a time for flashbacks to more hurtful experiences, with an even greater pressure how the academic father humiliates his son and physically punishes him.

There are a number of parallels in the contemporary story between Michael and his nephew. The screenplay does not pull its punches as the characters interact and the harshness of family life is on display.

While these are the themes, it is the performances which bring them to life in unexpected ways. Ryan Reynolds shows an adult, now competent, but who is emotionally hamstrung by the traumatic experiences of his childhood and who still finds himself the butt of his father’s contempt. As Willem Dafoe plays the father, his portrait is of an arrogant man with high expectations for all of his family, even details of written rules for behaviour in the house. Michael is his great disappointment. Julia Roberts has more of a cameo role as Michael’s mother but more is revealed in the flashbacks about her relationship with her husband and some more secrets than we might have expected. Others in the cast include Emily Watson as the grown-up sister (Hayden Pannettiere as the younger woman), and Carrie Ann Moss.

There are a number of happy moments (even with actual fireflies in the garden) but there is a pervading unhappiness – until there is some emotional relenting on all sides so that happiness might be possible.

1.A piece of Americana? American families, tensions?

2.The grim aspect of the screenplay, performances? Harshness, trauma, secrets, relenting, reconciliation and hope?

3.The Texas settings, the town, the countryside, the river? An authentic feel? Musical score?

4.The title, Michael’s book, its tone and contents, the actual scene of the fireflies in the garden?

5.The structure: Michael as a boy, his relationship with his parents, the treatment by his father, the tension in the car, being put out in the field, the rain, not having a key, waiting for his family, the issue of his glasses?

6.Moving forward to Michael as an adult, Michael and Ryne, the meeting, for their mother’s graduation, the two as adults and their relationship?

7.Michael’s father and mother, driving to the ceremony, late, arguing, his mother not having a seatbelt, Christopher and his sister playing baseball, the extra hit, the mother allowing it, running out onto the road? The swerve, the crash, death?

8.The impact of the accident, the father surviving, the mother dying, Ryne and her weeping, at the hospital, the father’s talk about the perfect funeral and Michael hearing it? At the funeral, his father’s criticisms of his coat, Christopher sitting in the car?

9.The gathering, Kelly’s arrival, Michael on the roof, the tension between the two, the sexual encounter, the noise during the speech, Ryne and the others laughing? The father irate? His behaviour during the meal, later with Lesley, apologising?

10.Christopher and Lesley, playing, their banter, the accident and its effect? His behaviour with the therapist? Michael and his taking the children out fishing, exploding the fish, their lying to Jane, Jane and her angry reaction, the funeral, the meals? Christopher and his disappearance, throwing away the mobile phone, in the cemetery, Michael as a help?

11.Michael, his age, author, the new manuscript, his relationship with the kids, with Jane and the memories of the past, her not wanting the manuscript published? With Kelly, the news that she was pregnant, his response? A future with her? His coming to terms with his father, the possibilities of reaching out, his father’s presence, ignoring him, his asking his father about their relationship? The father and his gradual relenting?

12.Ryne, her mother pregnant with her during the scenes with Michael as a child, the birth, the issue of a name? Her growing up, studies, relationship with her father, with her brother?

13.Kelly, alcoholism, being dry, coming to the funeral, the tentativeness of her entry, her relationship with the rest of the family, tentative with Michael, the sexual encounter, the pregnancy, her support, supporting Jane in the search for Christopher?

14.Jane, her background, coming to stay with the family during the summer, precocious, the father and his rules, Michael writing them out, Jane and her reaction? The grown-up Jane, her relationship with her husband, his going away to work, supportive? With her children? Handling the situation of her sister’s death?

15.The father, his anger, perfectionism, ridiculing his son, the rules, his relationship with his wife, the later revelation of the affair, the tension, Michael discovering the documents for the divorce, his burning them?

16.Michael’s mother, as played by Julia Roberts, love for her son, acquiescing to her husband’s wishes? Her anger with him? The birth of Ryne? Later, studies, the affair with the lecturer? The character of the lecturer, talking with Michael, Michael confronting him with the documents, his telling the truth?

17.The effect of this on Michael, coming to terms with his mother, his father, Kelly and the pregnancy? Hope for the future? Calling the child Max?

18.A portrait of an American family, some members close, other members antagonistic, trauma, upsets, the possibilities of reconciliation?

ELEGY

US/Spain, 2008, 108 minutes, Colour.
Ben Kingsley, Penelope Cruz, Dennis Hopper, Patricia Clarkson, Peter Sarsgaard, Deborah Harry.
Directed by Isabel Coixet.

While watching Elegy, for some reason The Human Stain by Philip Roth came to mind so it was not a great surprise during the end credits to find that this film is based on Roth’s The Dying Animal. It is set in one of those Roth worlds, New York academia, and has, again, the intelligent professor who can lecture on literary critique but who has skimmed through life, leaving wife and son, seeing marriage as a high security prison, engaged in seductive sexual relationships with undergraduate students while in a spasmodic relationship with a friend for twenty years. His closest ally and confidant is a Pulitzer Prize winning poet who sometimes offers sound advice, sometimes sardonic advice but who serves as his sounding board.

The story is about a man ageing. At first David (Ben Kingsley) is more an emotional and commitment failure. With a questioning and quizzical voiceover commentary by David, we review his life, watch his sometimes inept behaviour and become almost complicit in his seduction of an attractive Cuban student (Penelope Cruz). She touches him as no one has before which ultimately leads to his jealousy and a separation. He has ignored his rather righteous doctor son in the past but who now confesses to him that he is having an affair and reaches out to his father.

At the end, we are faced with themes of illness and dying and, perhaps, a modicum of hope, eliciting some sympathy if not empathy for David.

There is a strangely eclectic cast. Besides Kingsley and Cruz, there are Dennis Hopper in good form as the poet, Patricia Clarkson as the longtime companion and Peter Sarsgaard as the son.

The screenplay has been written by Nicholas Meyer (Time after Time, The Seven Percent Solution) and direction is by Spanish Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me).

1.The work of Philip Roth? His literature? Themes? His focus on males, on females, interactions, sexuality?

2.The title, the original novella called The Dying Animal? The different tones and meanings?

3.A New York story, the city as a character, apartments, university, hospital, the beaches?

4.The voice-over, David and his tone, his self-knowledge, describing himself, his self-deception?

5.His character, age, the quotations from Bette Davis and Tolstoy about age? His saying he was not old in his head? His life, marriage, seeing it as a prison, leaving his wife and son? The relationship with his son, his son’s phone calls? His lectures, skill in literary criticism? His radio programs, television interviews? Something of a literary celebrity? His comments about art, the changing perspectives in the viewer over a period of ten years, changing the work of art or not? His descriptions of Consuela, talking with her, meeting, the party, the play, going home with her, the relationship, sexuality, beauty, the Goya picture and substituting her eyes? Company, the bond, his jealousy, going to the club, her reaction? Her graduation party? Wondering whether to break with her or not, the advice from George? Her disappearance from his life? What he wanted and what he didn’t want? The relationship with Carolyn, the twenty years, sexuality, the friendship with George, their meetings, coffee, talking, squash games, sharing, advice? The issue of whether he was having a crisis or not? His life seemingly empty, his loneliness, search for meaning?

6.Penelope Cruz as Consuela, her beauty, the Cuban background, doing the course, his urging her not to take notes, the meeting, the party, going to the theatre, the relationship, talking, sharing, walking on the beach, her going out with her brother (and David imagining this as sexual)? Her reaction to his jealousy in the club, her staying away?

7.George, talk, poet, Pulitzer Prize winner, his life experience, advice, the squash games? His wanting David to do the introduction to his poetry recital? Appreciating it, collapsing, his wife, kissing her, kissing David, his death?

8.Carolyn, her relationship with David, the twenty years, his student, her success in business, coming in and out of New York, her stress, sexuality, George’s death, the more real talk – and the future of their relationship?

9.Kenny, his age, anger, visiting his father, sense of frustration, his own affair and his ideals and failing them, his love for his wife and children, his descriptions of Dana, his lunch with his father, his father going to see him in the hospital, his giving help and advice about Consuela? Their coming together?

10.Consuela ringing after the years, the phone call, David listening to it repeatedly? Her explanation about her cancer? The talk, the effect, in hospital, the surgery, her losing her breasts? Her limited time? Reminiscences, the cities not visited, Goya …?

11.David, his response to her illness and death? The final walking on the beach?

12.David, a man of imagination, people as dying animals, the tone of elegy, hope, transformation?

JERUSALEMA

South Africa, 2008, 120 minutes, Colour.
Rapulana Seiphemo, Ronny Nyakale, Daniel Buckland, Robert Hobbes.
Directed by Ralph Ziman.

Jerusalema is a traditional African song played and sung several times throughout this contemporary South African gangster story. There are references to the Psalms, especially Psalm 137, a lament for those who have forgotten the true meaning of Jerusalem. And Johannesburg, which is the setting, should have been, especially in the post-apartheid era, a new Jerusalem.

At one stage, a master gangster who trained in Russia before the fall of Communism watches a scene on TV of Michael Mann’s Heat, a truck crashing into a security van so that thieves could more easily make off with the money. The Johannesburg criminals imitate the movie, successfully but brutally and bloodily.

So, it is no surprise that the avowed intentions of the film-makers here are to construct their South African film along the lines of the Hollywood models – and show they have learned their lessons well – in staging, editing, pacing. This means that this is an effective example of the genre.

But, of course, beyond the genre and its conventions, the film is most interesting because it is based on actual characters and events. The device of a journalist interviewing the central character is familiar but it allows the story to go back to 1994, to elections, Nelson Mandela and the hope for a new beginning. But, in Soweto and the townships, despite improvements, much has not changed and the new generation of South African youth does not have as many opportunities as hoped for.

The plot focuses on Lucky Kunene who receives a University entrance but no scholarship. He starts to steal cars with a friend to help feed his family and then they are recruited to participate in that particular crime of Johannesburg, carjacking.

After ten years, Lucky is a crime boss. This time he is taking over squalid buildings from care-less owners. He settles poorer families in them and takes the rent, amassing a fortune. He also falls for a white woman. Drug deals are out for him but the police are intent on capturing him.

There is a sense of realism about the film but also, especially at the end, more than a touch of cynical observation.

1.South African history? Apartheid, whites, blacks, Afrikaaners? The history of the townships, opportunities and lack of opportunities, the heritage for black Africans?

2.The 1994 setting, the new beginnings, Mandela, the end of apartheid, freedoms, politics, opportunity? The cynical ending about the new South Africa?

3.Johannesburg, the setting, the city, the business district, Hillbrow, the slag heaps, Soweto, the life in the townships, the transition from 20th century poverty to the 21st century? The musical score?

4.The use of the film Heat, model for the film itself, acknowledging the Hollywood genre and conventions?

5.The journalist device, the range of interviews, especially with Lucky?

6.The framework: Lucky, wounded, Swart, leading the attack, the number of men involved on the attack, the number of arrests, the television and the information, weapons, cash, drugs? The end and Lucky in prison, Leah not coming to visit, the bank manager, the lawyer, the gift, the means for his getting out, the pressure on the racist guard, the feigning of the illness, getting out, well dressed, walking the streets? The cynical comment about Marx and all property being theft and Al Capone and exploitation?

7.1994, Lucky and his friend, life in Soweto, the hungry family, the girlfriend, school, university applications, his not getting a scholarship, snatching bags, getting money, feeding the family? Nazareth and his coming from Russia, recruiting the young men, the comic sequence of the awkward carjacking, getting the driver to help after counting to a hundred, their not being able to drive, their growing success, getting the credit card, getting the cash, the change in their lives, food and clothing and gifts for the family? Television etc? His relationship with the girl, kissing her, her hostile brother (and later bailing her out of jail and leaving the brother in)? Not going into school? The dangers, watching the clip from Heat, the successful robbery, the last job, Lucky and his selling petrol, Nazareth putting the pressure on him, the police arrival, Lucky being wounded, escaping?

8.The ten years passing, the Hillbrow developments, the squalid buildings, Lucky and his team, putting pressure on the white owners, doing everything legally, setting up the bank accident, a charitable fund, taking over the buildings, putting in the tenants, the growing wealth, his lifestyle?

9.The encounter with Lean, going in the car, helping her, her brother and the drugs, his clashes with the drug dealers, going to Leah’s family, the Jewish prayer, meal? His inability to go to the funeral? Lean and the sexual relationship? Hopes? The final watching of the television and her disillusionment?

10.The lawyer, his methods, confidence, his friend, working with him over the years, Nazareth, older man, his past in Russia, his killing the two men brutally?

11.Swart, character, the police, trying to get Lucky, the law and getting him off, the intensity of the confrontation, the final arrest?

12.Lucky, the interview, being autobiographical, wanting to tell the truth, telling lies – and his walking free at the end?

13.The title, Jerusalem, Israel, the new Jerusalem, Johannesburg? The traditional chant, the way that the song was used throughout the film?