DALVA

US, 1996, 96 minutes, Colour.
Farrah Fawcett, Peter Coyote, Powers Boothe, Carroll Baker, Rod Steiger.
Directed by Ken Cameron.

Dalva is based on a novel by Jim Harrison (Legends of the Fall) but this film has very little in common except the western landscapes and an interest in history. The ingredients are interesting but, somehow or other, in being geared for the popular television audience, it does not quite jell.

Farrah Fawcett plays Dalva Northridge, the granddaughter of Rod Steiger who has the secrets of the family’s history in Nebraska and the encounters with the native Americans, especially in journals that historian Peter Coyote, who teams up with Dalva, wants to study. However, Dalva gives the voice-over (with Shawn Cady portraying her as a young girl) and tells the story of her love for Duane Stonehorse and her grandfather’s preventing their being married – the audience knowing that they were half-brother and sister. However, she has a child, Duane has a serious illness and rides into the sea to his death. The baby is sent out for adoption and for the next decades Dalva pines for the baby. She does social work in San Francisco. On her return home, she encounters an entrepreneur played by Powers Boothe and falls in love with him. Carroll Baker plays her mother.

There is a lot of dialogue about native Americans. There is also some revelation at the end about atrocities and the stances taken by the great-grandfather for the Indians. There is also mixed drama about relationships – and Peter Coyote’s character is eccentrically non-credible and the relationship between Powers Boothe and Farrah Fawcett lacks some credibility.

Interesting ingredients but not successful as a film. It was directed by Australian Ken Cameron (Brides of Christ, The Umbrella Woman).

1.The impact of the film? For a television audience? American heritage? A contemporary romantic story?

2.The Nebraska settings, the farmlands, their beauty, vastness? The contrast with San Francisco? The musical score?

3.The structure of the film: the introduction to Dalva, the voice-over, visualising Dalva as a young girl, her love for Duane, the birth of the child, the adoption, Duane’s death and its effect on her? Her moving away from home? Her relationship with her mother, her mother supportive? Her relationship with her grandfather and his sternness? The issue of native Americans?

4.Dalva in San Francisco, the example of her social work, looking after children? Her journals, writing letters to her son, wanting to know where he was? Her relationship with Michael, on and off? Her comments on her relationships? His wanting the journals from her? The difficulty in her being persuaded?

5.Her return home, to her grandfather, her mother? Meeting Sam? Discussions with him, going out? The affair? Michael and his arriving, being picked up, wandering in the fields? His quest for the journals?

6.The grandfather and his decision to give the journals to Michael? Naomi’s persuasion? Michael and his reading them, exhilarated?

7.Michael, the oddities of his character, scholar, on sabbatical, suicidal if he didn’t get the journals? At the dance, meeting Lundquist, talking with Karen? His relationship with Dalva? His drinking?

8.Sam and Dalva, the relationship, a future or not?

9.The grandfather, his talking with Dalva, his having given money to his grandson and not telling Dalva? His death? The voice-over about his own father, with the Indians, the fights, the bodies buried, Sam and Dalva discovering them and unearthing them?

10.Sam and his promise to find out where Dalva’s son was? Her meeting with the mother? The son’s history, troubled? The finale with Sam bringing the son and the reunion with his mother?

11.How interesting and persuasive the characters, the situations, the themes?

A VIEW TO A KILL

US, 1985, 131 minutes, Colour.
Roger Moore, Christopher Walken, Tanya Roberts, Grace Jones, Patrick Macnee, Patrick Bauchau, David Yip, Fiona Fullerton, Alison Doody, Desmond Llewellyn, Lois Maxwell, Walter Gotell, Geoffrey Keen.
Directed by John Glen.

A View to a Kill is the last of Roger Moore’s seven James Bond films. He had taken over from Sean Connery in 1974 with Live and Let Die and was to keep the role for just over a decade. He was directed in his last three films by John Glen. Glen also directed the next two James Bond films, the two films with Timothy Dalton.

This film has a less spectacular international political flavour. Rather, some commentaters say it is a remake of Goldfinger. A younger Christopher Walken portrays Max Zorin, the result of a Nazi-like Russian experiment in genetics. He is a psychopath – with external charm. His henchwoman is Grace Jones as May Day.

Zorin has a monopoly on microchips for computers and intends to destroy Silicon Valley by explosions and thus take over the world market. He also is a racehorse breeder – and his doctor does experiments on computer-controlled drug enhancement for racing wins.

The locations are quite spectacular: Iceland standing in for Siberia for the opening sequence, beautiful palaces in France, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge…

The song is by Duran Duran and Maurice Binder continues with his idiosyncratic credits sequences. This was to be the last film for Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny who had begun with Dr No in the early 60s. Desmond Llewellyn continues as Q. Walter Gotel was General Gogol – who is more on-side with the British in the Timothy Dalton films.

1.The long life of the James Bond films? Roger Moore’s contribution? His age, his wooden manner in performance, his serious quizzical expression? His droll delivery of innuendo? The action sequences – credible for his actual age or not?

2.The tradition of the James Bond film, the opening action? The introduction of Bond? His attitude towards authority, M, Miss Monepenny?, Q? His missions? Suave manner? Womanising? Debonair, action sequences? Using his wits? How well did James Bond seem in this film?

3.The locations: Iceland, San Francisco, France? The beauty of the locations? Especially the mansions and palaces in France? The racecourses? The theme music? The theme song?

4.The title, the play on the phrase? As applied to the film?

5.The situation in 1985, Soviet- Western détente, the West’s suspicions of the Soviet Union? Microchips? The death of 00 agents? The agents in London, Pola and her ballet dancing, secret agent, wanting to rob Bond in San Francisco? The other agents and General Gogol? Trying to control Max Zorin? His KGB background?

6.Max Zorin and Christopher Walken as the blond-haired villain? The explanation of his background, the doctor and his experiments? Zorin as psychopath? Accompanied by May Day? His executioner? Zorin and his power, his wealth, in France? No information available? In London and his visit? At the Eiffel Tower? His racing interests, his win in England? The sale in France? Suspicions of Bond, the computer to find out who he was? The confrontations? San Francisco, his plan for Silicon Valley? His cartel – and the dissenter being dropped from his balloon? The Silicon Valley explosions, experiments? Taking over Stacey and killing the official? The final confrontation – and his laugh before his death?

7.May Day, Grace Jones and her appearance, the executions, the butterfly in the Eiffel Tower, her leap from the Eiffel Tower? In France, suspicions? Her obeying Zorin’s orders? Her change at the end, collaboration with Bond to stop the explosion?

8.Scarpine, his second-in-charge with Zorin? Meeting Bond, the host? Doing his dirty work in San Francisco?

9.The British authorities, M and his control, Q and the non-magnetic microchip? Miss Moneypenny and her flirting? The minister?

10.The Americans, Chuck Lee and his cover in San Francisco, the meetings, information from Washington?

11.Patrick Macnee, Sir Godfrey Tibbett, at the races, the invitation to France? Posing as the chauffeur, having to carry the cases, the cover for secret microphones? His investigations of the horse? His death?

12.The doctor, his work on the horses, surgery, the insertion of the chips? The former experiments with humans? His collaboration with Zorin for the explosions?

13.The racecourse sequence? The riding sequence with Bond defeating Zorin? The car chases? The Golden Gate Bridge? The planned explosions? The action sequences?

14.Audience expectations of a James Bond film? Its action? Spying? War? Moral perspective on Bond himself?

GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN’

US, 2005, 117 minutes, Colour.
Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson, Adewale Akinnuoye -Agbaje, Joy Bryant, Terrence Howard, Ashley Walters, Viola Davis, Bill Duke.
Directed by Jim Sheridan.

The title comes from the very successful hip hop album by rapper 50 Cents (aka Curtis Jackson). It has sold 12,000,000 copes. 50 Cents has had enormous subsequent success in the record world. For potential audiences who did not know these facts, it might be an indication that this film is not for them. It is for the fans, for those who know something about the world that Curtis Jackson emerged from, who know the black ghettoes, the drug-dealing and the guns, the violence and killings. It is also the world of gangsters who operate in the world of song and records (which came to the surface in the mid-1990s with the killing of singer-actor, Tupac Shakur). This has been documented in the arresting and alarming documentary which had worldwide release, Biggie and Tupac, which highlighted the hip-hop/rap rivalry between gangsters on the East coast and the west and the murder of Tupac and Biggie Smalls.

One might ask what Irish director Jim Sheridan is doing, making a film on this theme and with this style. After all, he directed My Left Foot, The Field, In the Name of the Father and In America. Sheridan claims that he is a fan of hip hop and is intrigued by this world. As a chronicler of groups on the margin, he is ready for this film and brings some flash and fire to it.

This is the world of Boyz ‘n the Hood only more so. This is the South Bronx from the 80s to the present. And it is the world that Curtis Jackson grew up in. He says that many of the incidents in the narrative are similar enough to what he experienced. (Screenwriter Tim Winter was hired to create the screenplay because he was, amongst other shows, a writer for The Sopranos.)

For many outsiders, this is an alien world. On the one hand, it can be a world of despair. Young African Americans absorb the ethos and are trapped. They have their moments of swagger. They can have a time of power and of easy money with drug deals. But, while they can live by gang codes, there are always power struggles and betrayals which lead to prison or death (or both). This is not a nice world – it would be comfortable to ignore it, even deny that it exists but it is a challenge to American society and to the African American neighbourhoods.

The film opens with a robbery, blacks trying to rip off Colombians, and Marcus (50 Cent’s character) being shot to death. His life passes before his and our eyes – back to his mother, the mystery of his father’s identity, his loving grandparents, his love for music, his love for Charlene, his mother’s brutal murder, his decision to be a dealer, the gang rivalry, vengeance killings, his imprisonment and befriending of Bama (Terrence Howard) who becomes his manager.

Interestingly the tagline is “Inside every man is the power to choose”. This means that the stance of the film is that, despite the harsh world, its brutality and exploitation, redemption is possible.

1.The American record industry and rap in the 1980s and 90s? The link with gangster life in the capital cities?

2.The tradition of films about the neighbourhoods, crime, African American families? New York, Los Angeles? This film within that tradition?

3.The Irish director, his perspective on rap, on gangsters? On New York?

4.The title, summing up the theme? Curtis Jackson and his own life and career, the screenplay based on incidents in his life?

5.The criticism of the film, accused of glorifying gangsters, the emphasis on drugs? The presentation of rap and the industry? The rivalries? The critique of the writing and acting?

6.Rap, the musical score? The emerging style of music, the lyrics, the ambitions of the artists? The achievers? The studios? Records? The gangs and their power to create or destroy careers?

7.The opening robbery, the Colombian drug dealers and their money? The taking of the money, the threatening of the staff, the mother with her son as hostage? The guns? Bama and his holding the gun to the boy’s head? Marcus and his difference of opinion? Bama and his speech about having no respect, being a killer? Marcus and his decisions, their leaving? The masked confrontation in the street? His being shot? The suspense for the audience knowing that he was shot and seemingly dead at the opening of the film?

8.Marcus and the voice-over, the explanation of his life, his bond with his mother, singing in the car, staying with his grandparents, their ordinary life, the crowded house, meals? His mother going out, onto the streets? In the car with her, her confrontation of the drug dealers? His not staying in the car and wanting to protect his mother? Her death, the funeral? His talk about searching for his father, watching the men at the funeral? With his grandparents, the cousins and kicking him out of bed, throwing the water on them? Having his own room and bed – but not satisfied and criticising his grandfather?

9.His age, going to school? Charlene and the friendship, her going away? His clear decision about drugs, being a gangster? Selling on the streets, intruding on other territories? The school and the discovery, the police, the five hundred dollars fine? Buying the gun? His grandfather discovering this? Buying the car and moving out?

10.The authorities within the drug world, the African American drugs? Levar as the boss, his style, rich, well dressed, dominant? At the funeral? His meeting with Marcus, Marcus admiring him? His ability to reconcile the blacks with the Colombians? Majestic as his assistant, the set-ups, Levar going to jail? The rivalries, the renewed fight with the Colombians? The collage of the shootings?

11.Charlene’s return, meeting Marcus, love, their being together, her pregnancy, giving birth? Majestic coming to the hospital and the threats to the baby? Warnings for Marcus?

12.Marcus and his ability to rap, as a boy, singing along with the music? Writing lyrics? Dangerous and his being a celebrity, the photos with him? The inter-gang rivalries? The gangsters ousting Majestic? Marcus and the threats? The studio recording – and the Colombians coming and shooting those in the studio?

13.Marcus, his going to jail, the brutality of the fight in the shower? Bama saving him? Their talking, becoming friends? Bama’s anger, getting out of the car, touchy, from the south? The arguments with Marcus? The threats to Bama, his being in the diner, using his wits and outwitting those who came to kill him?

14.The suggestion of the robbery? Re-seeing the robbery sequence, the money? Bama and wanting to shoot? Marcus shot, surviving?

15.The importance of turning points, Marcus and the possibilities for a different kind of life? Suggestions of possible redemption?

SHOOT ON SIGHT

UK, 2007, 112 minutes, Colour.
Naseeruddin Shah, Greta Scacchi, Brian Cox, Alex Mc Sweeney, Om Puri, Laila Rouass, Mikaal Zulfikar, Sadie Frost.
Directed by Jag Mundhra.

A topical drama about the war on terrorism and how drastic laws and regulations and procedures can have disastrous side effects. It is also a topical drama about being Muslim in the Western world and being under suspicion.

This film is based on the case of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian victim of the pursuit of the terrorists in the London bombings of July 22nd 2005 where an address under surveillance was a wrong one and de Menezes was wrongly followed and shot at Stockwell Underground station by police assuming his guilt and his response to their attempts to stop him – in fact, he was afraid of the police because of visa difficulties.

Writer-director, Jag Mundhra (who directed the topical film about Asian men’s violence towards their wives, Provoked, has taken the outline of the story (with acknowledgement) but changed the victim to a Pakistani student who does not hear the police challenge because of his I-Pod?, goes to turn it off and is shot by police thinking he was going for a weapon. Again, there is an issue of a mistaken address, grieving family and a British lawyer who takes on the case for compensation.

However, the bulk of the film is about a senior Asian (Pakistan origin) police officer who is put in charge of the internal investigation. He experiences suspicion, envy from another officer who is a rival for promotion, racial and religious hostility (and sensationalist media coverage) and is victimised by the racism inherent in the police force. Brian Cox appears as his commanding officer who has to deal with the Police Commissioner, the investigations and the potential for cover-ups. All these issues will resonate strongly with a British audience, especially a London audience. With much location photography, the film has a realistic feel about it.

The officer is played with great dignity (with sympathy but also with personal shortcomings) by prolific and award-winning Indian actor, Naseeruddin Shah. Further plot complexity is introduced by having him married to an Englishwoman (Greta Scacchi) which means he can move comfortably in both Asian and British worlds. Because he is a practising Muslim (and is seen at prayer and at the mosque), he can also be condemned by both worlds. (There is also a complication when his teenage daughter is picked up by police for drugs during a party.)

While the victim is innocent, the film does show a group of rabid extremists, their rallies, their converts, their arguments that, although the Koran is against killing, dominance, persecution and invasions by the West, especially the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, mean that there is a war going on which justifies suicide missions. Much of the dialogue offers counterbalancing arguments.

Om Puri is persuasive as an Imam who preaches violence (with rising rhetorical questions about who is innocent) and encourages bomb massacres in a rabble-rousing style. He is a schooldays friend of the police officer and the rival police and the media make hay of a photo of the two shaking hands (which belies the actual situation completely). He is also a strong influence on the officer’s nephew who has come to study in the UK.

The drama moves into thriller mode with the threat of a suicide bombing in a crowded shopping mall on a Saturday. This leads to a moving and complicated emotional ending to an interesting and topical film.

1.How well did the film work as drama? As topical theme? As a plausible re-creation of events? As police investigation?

2.The Indian director, his perspective? The Asian cast, the British cast? Racial interaction in family, in police work? Symbolic of the UK?

3.The London settings, the sense of realism? The various districts, Charing Cross station? Homes, workplaces? Credible?

4.The theme of terrorism, 2005 in London, the role of the police, the shooting of the suspect who was innocent? The continued possibility of bombs, terrorism? The imams and their preaching jihad in the mosques?

5.Audience presumptions about terror? The role of Pakistanis, terrorists? Muslims? The background of the terrorists, the brainwashing, the training, making of the bombs, suicide bombers?

6.The parallel with the realities in Stockwell station? This fictional student, Muslim background, at Charing Cross station, the orders to shoot on sight, his not having any explosives?

7.The nature of the inquiry, required by the police? Tennant and his administration, personality, shrewd? His choosing Tariq Ali to head it? A Muslim taking responsibility? His motivations, the other members of the police squad, the inquiry investigation? The interrogations? The police who shot the suspect? The re-enactment, the fear of people on the station? The issue of ability to hear, the orders, the sight(**OR SITE?), having to act quickly? Guns and bullets?

8.Tariq, his hopes, ambitions, the deal for his promotion? A good man but ambitious? Pakistani and Muslim in the British police context? His marriage, interracial? His wife not being a Muslim? The years of marriage, the children, the details of home life? The typical youngsters, his daughter, son? Their behaviour and attitudes? His nephew visiting, from Pakistan, studying to be an engineer?

9.The mosque, Junaid and his aggression? The role of the imams? Preaching jihad? His sermons, rabble-rousing, hatred? His influence? His picking out Zaheer, the meetings with him, at the cafés, talking? Inviting him into the inner circle? The clash with Tariq, their past friendship, knowing each other for years? Outside the mosque?

10.The journalist taking the photo, printing it in the paper? Tariq embracing Junaid? The reaction of Tennant, of Marber and the other police? Marber and his enviousness? Police politics? Leading to the suspension of Tariq?

11.The effect of coming to England on Zaheer, of Junaid’s friendship with him, singling him out, in the mosque, going to the meetings, the lectures? With the others fixing the bombs, the explosives? His being brainwashed? Enough enthusiasm to become a suicide bomber? The plan to bomb the shopping mall, a busy morning? Susan and Tariq, taking their son to the book-signing? Tariq and the investigation? Susan finding the T-shirt, Tariq disbelieving, discovering the truth?

12.The action drama in the mall, the family, the book-signing, a normal day for patrons of the mall? The potential destruction and massacre?

13.Tariq, Marber, the investigation, the tension in the mall, the search, the chase? The effect on people? Zaheer, the confrontation, Tariq shooting him?

14.Tariq and the praise, the offer of promotion? His decision to resign? Taking the package of evidence to the family of the victim student? The final information about the out-of-court settlement? Justice?

15.The topicality of this film? It throwing light on actual events?

SEVEN POUNDS

US, 2008, 123 minutes, Colour.
Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, Barry Pepper, Elpidia Camilo, Bill Smitrovich.
Directed by Gabriele Muccino.

Mysterious title. Mysterious stranger. Mysterious behaviour.

Well, after a while audiences may realise that the weight of a human heart is seven pounds, so the title makes sense. Rosario Dawson sympathetically plays a young woman with a terminal heart disease waiting for a transplant. She is mysteriously befriended by an internal tax revenue officer who helps her in hospital and at home. As played by Will Smith, he is niceness personified – although he does break into some angry outbursts, especially near the beginning of the film where he is particularly and unnecessarily rude to a blind telephone service operator played by Woody Harrelson. He is also evasive with his brother and mysteriously puts pressure on his friend from school days played by Barry Pepper.

He also becomes involved with a social welfare worker and a Hispanic battered mother with two children.

This is one of those humane films that seems to irk reviewers who prefer cerebral activity to heart activity but appeals to audiences, especially if they know relatives or other people in similar plights. Will Smith appeared in the previous film by Italian director, Gabriele Muccino, The Pursuit of Happyness, which also dealt with suffering and possibilities for hope.

However, this time our hero remains tense and rather unhappy most of the time which means that the film is sometimes a bit 'miserabilist'.

The opening is emotionally arresting but the screenplay takes a while to unwind its plot and we need to be particularly alert to what is flashback and what is real time. The clues are all there and, by the end (or a bit before) we are able to piece it all together, a suicide attempt, a car crash, a jellyfish, space engineering, tax forms...

The ending (which publicists have specifically asked reviewers not to reveal) will raise quite a number of emotional and moral questions.

1.A Will Smith film? Serious? Ethical issues?

2.The Los Angeles settings, Ben as an IRS agent, his contact with people at work, the visualising of the workplaces, homes, hospital? The atmosphere? The atmospheric score?

3.The title, Ben’s life, the accident and its revelation at the end, the death of his family, his fault, the people in the van? His choice for people for restitution?

4.The opening, the focus on Ben, the phone call, the suicide attempt? Seeing this again at the end? His death? The morality of suicide for others?

5.Ben, his personality, the phone calls, his work as an IRS agent, his visits and phone calls, the flashbacks to his life as an engineer, the happy family? Ben as character, the revelation that he was taking his brother’s identity? His card? His guilt, self-loathing?

6.Dan as his friend, as a character, helping, collaborating and challenging?

7.Ben and his manner, alienating? His phoning Ezra, quizzing him, Ezra’s sight, vegan, meat company? Ezra trying to be courteous? Ben’s reaction? The audience upset – but later realising how Ben was testing Ezra and his being authentic? Ezra’s character, the build-up to the operation, his sight, meeting Emily?

8.Connie, the past encounter, Ben and his friendship, Connie and her children, domestic violence, the absent boyfriend? Her concern about her son? Ben’s visits, her suspicions? His relocating her to his mansion? The beauty of the house, the beach, the joy for the mother and the safety for her children?

9.The boy, needing a bone marrow transplant? Ben’s help? George, the coach, his dying, the good that he did for others and Ben’s wanting to help?

10.Emily, her heart condition, her work with her cards, unable to print? Meeting Ben, her suspicions? The puzzle, the hospital, her feeling that he was stalking her? Her dog and walking the dog? The dinner, the relationship, his fixing the printer, the sexual encounter and its effect on Ben?

11.The jellyfish, the puzzle, symbol?

12.Ben’s brother, finding him, the revelation of what was happening?

13.Ben’s death, the bath, the jellyfish, the phone call? The ambulance – and the organs for transplants?

14.The heart transplant, the arrangements, Emily and her recovery? The eye transplant for Ezra?

15.Ezra and Emily meeting, the memories of Ben?

16.The theme of reparation for the carelessness with the accident, the moral choice to help others, involving his killing himself? The emotional response of the audience by the end of the film?

THE MOURNING FOREST

Japan, 2007, 97minutes, Colour.
Directed by Naomi Kawase

The Mourning Forest is a quiet, meditative film that has some lively sequences and some comedy, but is, finally, a contemplation of love, memory and death. This is the mark of many of Naomi Kawase’s films. Early in this film, a distinction is made by a Buddhist teacher between ordinary living and the meaning of being alive.

When a young woman who has lost her child in an accident goes to work in a home for the elderly situated near a beautiful forest, she becomes the target of an old resident who interprets her actions as trying to be like his late wife. However, with the help of the head caregiver who tells her that there are no rules in the running of the home, she befriends the old man with whom she plays games (including hiding in the rows of hillside greenery).

The film then becomes a two-hander as the young woman takes the old man for a drive. When they are stranded, he runs off into the forest and she has to run hard to keep up. They stay in the forest (and her mobile phone can get no signal) until the old man reaches his goal, his wife’s grave. There is great pathos in this experience of the old man and of the woman who has become attached to him. She is left reflecting on what has happened and what it means to him and to her as she listens to the melody from his music box.

A gentle and genteel focus on life and death.

1. The director and the delicacy of her work? Her themes? The meaning of life? Poetic?

2. The Japanese religious background, the reflections, the sayings, the Buddhist teachings?

3. Life, its meaning, life as lived, philosophical aspects of life? Real life? For the beauty of the visuals, the credits in the forest, the title, the forests and the trees, the water, the musical score, the piano?

5. Nachico and her arrival, her work, the advisor and her encouragement, there being no rules, Nachico looking, listening, with the old man – and his attack on her, thinking that she was substituting for his wife?

6. Nachico’s husband, their talk, the death of their child, her letting the hand go, their grief, her husband’s stern stand?

7. The group work, play, the view of the other guests, the instructor?

8. Nachico and the old man, the game of hiding in the fields?

9. The drive, his being content, the disabling of the car, her search for the old man, running, out of breath? The old man running, the pursuit?

10. The sheer delight in the walk?

11. The rain, the flood, Nachico’s fear of losing the old man, her anxiety? His not being drowned?

12. The old man and his search, finding his wife’s grave, the documents and his burying them? Imagining dancing with his wife?

13. Nachico watching him, the old man and his death, the music box, the long finale of Nachico listening to the music and raising her eyes to heaven?

14.The meaning of the title, mourning, the period of mourning, grief and the end of the period of mourning?

DELIVER US FROM EVA

US, 2003, 105 minutes, Colour.
L L Cooljay, Gabriel Union, Duane Martin, Mel Jackson, Dartanyan Edmonds.
Directed by Gary Hardwick

Deliver Us From Eva is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. It is an African- American comedy – with Gabriel Union as the Catherine character, harder in her judgements and remarks than Shakespeare’s heroine. LL Cooljay is the man hired by the three brothers-in-law of Eva so that he will date her and get her out of their hair because she interferes in all of their lives. The three brothers are played by Duane Martin, Mel Jackson and Dartanyan Edmonds.

1. An African- American comedy drama? The appeal for its target audience? Wider audiences?

2. The American setting, affluent families, the city, jobs, the inspector, meat carrier, restaurants and premises? The hairdressing salon? Authentic atmosphere? The musical score?

3. The blend of fantasy and reality? The realism of the treatment? The fantasy aspects of the romance, the clashes?

4. The basis in the Taming of the Shrew? Eva as the Shrew? Parallel to Catherine? The three sisters instead of one? Their suitors and husbands? Ray and Petrucchio? The wager that he tamed the Shrew?

5. The opening, the voice-over, the funeral? Gray’s comments about the men, the women, Eva? The irony that audiences knew that he was not dead? The final revelation, the abduction, the three men keeping him away, his becoming free, going to the church, the funeral?

6. Eva, her personality, strong, demanding, principled? Her caring for her three sisters and their reliance on her? Her intervening in their lives, her comments on their husbands and boyfriends? The possibility of a promotion? The treatment of the man at the restaurant, the kitchen? The irony that he was a supervisor? Her glimmer about the job? Asking the preacher after the service? To follow her heart? Her relationship with her three sisters?

7. Ray, prison, his charm, the two women and his handling the situation? The three men in admiration? Making their advances, the explanation, the $5,000, the expenses?

8. The three men, their relationship with the sisters? Issues of pregnancy, spouse, boyfriend? Prospects of marriage? The sisters taking notice of Eva, dropping everything to go to her? Sexual frustration for the men? The alcohol issue? The reasons for their determination to get Eva out of their lives?

9. Ray, his method, charm, meeting Eva, playing hard-to-get, the girlfriend? Eva’s reaction, interested? The second time, the girlfriend being disposed of? The outings, the dates, their talking? Falling in love? Eva and her mellowing, calling him Ray instead of Raymond? The horse riding and the difficulty for Ray? The playing pool, the intrusion and the issue of the bet?

10. The revelation of the truth? Eva’s reaction, saying that that was her initial judgement? Yet her behaviour with the sisters, falling in love with Ray, going out with him?

11. Ray, the effect of the break-up? His wanting to do the right thing? Pleading with her? The abduction, her grieving? The reaction that he was still alive? Her taking the job, the separation? Her previously not wanting to go to Chicago?

12. The beauty parlour, the proprietor, her gossip, her flirtation? The gay hairdresser and the jokes? The three sisters gossiping, Eva part of the gossip? Their supporting her? Ray coming to the barbeque, the further development of the relationship?

13. The Taming of the Shrew? Eva and her mellowing? Her change in becoming disillusioned with Raymond?

14. In Chicago, the job, the acclaim from her peers? Ray turning up with the horse? The police, asking whether it was her horse? Her saying that it was? The couple riding up the Chicago street?

15. Themes of love, friendship, relationships, sexuality? The prim woman and her principles, unbending and feeling free? The charming man and the taming of the shrew?

SON OF RAMBOW

UK, 2008, 96 minutes, Colour.
Bill Millner, Will Poulter, Jules Sitruk, Erik Sykes, Zophia Brooks, Neil Dudgen.
Directed by Garth Jennings.

This is a very entertaining story of two young boys and their friendship – though it raises the perennial questions of how much movies influence behaviour, attitudes and desensitising because of violence.

This is the 1980s when First Blood was released, the first of the Stallone Rambo films. Lee Carter (Will Poulter) lives with his brother in a care home for the elderly. He has a video camera and we first see him pirating First Blood at the cinema. Meanwhile, Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) stands outside the cinema to read the Bible with other members of the Plymouth Brethren. A series of accidents and misbehaviour (not on Will’s part) brings the two boys together, Lee being something of a con man, a shoplifter and a bully. Will is not even allowed to watch TV documentaries in class so, when he happens to see the pirated First Blood and learns that Lee is making his own film to enter in a BBC competition, his horizons open up considerably.

He is an imaginative sketcher and making a film about Rambow (he gets the spelling wrong) and a growing friendship with Lee becomes his preoccupation. In his imagination and in their film he becomes Son of Rambow with one of the elderly acting as his father (Eric Sykes in an enjoyable cameo). He has to escape his mother’s vigilance and that of Brother Joshua of the Brethren. Complications arise when a group of French exchange students come to the school and a flamboyant boy, Didier (Jules Sitruk) who has everyone doing his beck and call wants to star in the film. Then everyone wants to be in it. Will becomes the celebrity and it goes to his head. Lee is on the outer.

Plenty of emotional complications for Will (whose father is dead) with warnings to his mother from the Brethren to correct him. He clashes with Lee. You know it is going to have a happy ending – but it is a nice one as well. The boys act very well indeed and, though you keep wondering about their aping of Rambo and Colonel Trautman and the action scenes, the stronger themes are those of honesty and friendship.

1. Entertaining? Acclaim? Portrait of childhood? Imagination?

2. The movie background, action films, heroics, violence, the emulating of violence and its effect? The pros and cons of films like Rambo? Healthy to see them? Surfacing aggressions? Not?

3. The title, Will’s mistake in spelling, the student film?

4. UK settings, the 1980’s, the town, the cinema, school, homes and institutions, the countryside? The musical score? The score for the movies – especially the use of Wagner and the Valkyries?

5. The introduction to the 80’s, the clips from First Blood, Stallone and his Rambo character, Brian Dennehy and Richard Crenna in the film? The talk, heroics, confrontations, the jungle? Lee, in the cinema, his recording the film, the audience, smoking (and the No Smoking sign)? Running from the theatre?

6. The contrast with the Capital Brethren outside the cinema. Will and his reading the scriptures? At home, his father, sister, mother, their style, proper, the regulations of the Brethren? Not wearing watches, no television? The influence of Brother Joshua and the household?

7. School, British style, the classes, corridors, the teachers, classes being boring? The French exchange students and Didier? The welcome, the guardians for the French students? Will and Lee in the corridor? Will not able to watch television and so being outside, Lee with the ball, Ed hitting Will? The explanation of going away, waiting at the Principle’s door, Lee’s spiel? Will believing it? Meeting Lee later, his limp, talk about torture? The issue of the watch?

8. The camera, Lee’s house, the institution, Laurence and his bullying, the wealthy-looking house, Lee and the pirated Rambo, Will seeing it, his amazement, the effect, in the field, the scarecrow and the fight, his dreams?

9. The action, the plot, Will and his ability at drawing, the comic style drawings, the blood pact between the two, no swimming, the trees, Will doing everything?

10. At home, Lee’s home, the residence, Eric Sykes as the old man, the nurses?

11. Didier and his imperious style, wanting to be a star, approaching Will, the other students also coming in, the filming, Lee and his being on the outer, Will and his vanity? The humour of the film making?

12. Lee, on-side, at the building, the crash, the rescue? Lee and the rescue? The hospital, unhappy? Laurence coming to see Lee?

13. Brother Joshua, the reprimands, Will’s mother and her reaction, seeing so many lies, the warning, the meeting and the condemnation? The meal, the mother taking off her scarf? The daughter, the grandmother’s presence? The ousting of Brother Joshua?

14. The build-up to the film, the screening, everybody there, the enjoyment of the film? A satisfying ending?

AWAKE

US, 2007, 84 minutes, Colour. Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba, Terrence Howard, Lena Olin, Christopher Mc Donald, Sam Robards, Arliss Howard, Fisher Stevens, Georgina Chapman.
Directed by Joby Harrold.

The publicity for Awake recommends that those who are to undergo surgery would be wiser not to see this film. They are right. Not because it is not an entertaining thriller, but there are some scenes of surgery which may be offputting (to say it mildly) and the opening gives a range of statistics about the use of anaesthesia – and how about 30,000 people a year stay awake, paralysed during their operation!

This is enough to give qualms to anyone, even those not due to go to hospital.

This is a film with heart – and without heart – in the sense that the operation concerned is a heart transplant. The subject is a very rich young New York financial entrepreneur, Clay Beresford, played convincingly enough by Hayden Christianson, who is looking much older than in his Star Wars days. He has a dominating mother, Lena Olin, who wants the best (and most boastfully arrogant) surgeon in the city (Arliss Howard) to perform the operation. Instead he wants his friend Jack (Terrence Howard) who has already saved him during a heart attack. In the meantime, he has secretly married his fiancée (Jessica Alba who does get the chance to develop her character) – just before the news comes through that a heart is available.

As we expect from the title, Clay stays awake during the operation. His voiceover is often alarming and, at one stage, like a near death experience, he exits from his body, watches the operation and re-lives key moments of his life.

Then there is a twist in the plot which makes it even more interesting, enough to make the audience even more edgy. But, you need to see it to find out what happens.

1. A satisfying drama? Horror? Romance? The blend for a crime thriller?

2. The New York settings, the city of New York, landscapes, skyscrapers … ? The wealth, the fishing spots, the hospital? Authentic atmosphere? The musical score?

3. The initial information about operations, anaesthetics, people awake during operations?

4. The introduction, Jack Harper and his saying he killed his friend? The flashbacks? The return to the sequence – the irony of it being true? The image of Clay?

5. Clay, the introduction, his age, wealth, living up to the reputation of his father, successful in business, the mergers, the Japanese interviews, speaking Japanese? The television comments about him and his watching them from his room? John his friend, the heart attack, helping him, bringing him back to life, their fishing together, Clay relying on him? His name on the list for heart transplants? His blood type colon O negative? His relationship with his mother, her intensity? With Sam, the relationship, living together, the announcement of the engagement, her being an assistant to Lilith? The rain, the hurt? His decision to tell his mother? Her reaction? The news about the operation?

6. Clay as a character, a good man, hopes, physically weak, love for Sam, the preparation for the operation, his reading in preparation, the anaesthetics, his counting down and his not becoming unconscious? His voice-over as the audience watched his image? Awake?

7. The details of the operation, Clay’s reaction, the voice-over, pain, his focussing, the near-death experience, reviewing his life?

8. His coming out of himself, watching the operation, discovering what was happening, the range of clues, the plan against him, the injections, discovering Sam’s betrayal?

9. Dr Lupin and his being a substitute for the operation, his background of drinking, talk, the phone calls, giving the news about the death, his observing what was happening, his giving information for the arrests?

10. Sam and Lilith, waiting for the operation, talking, Sam playing it smoothly, the bonding?

11. The twist of the plan, it’s success, Jack and his feelings, Sam and her hard attitude, the contribution of Dr Puttnam, of Penny Carver? The conspiracy? The detail of the planning, the information, getting to work as a team, Dr Lupin as an extra?

12. Lilith, her wondering about what was happening, noticing the details and the clues, the mail, the drink machine, etc?

13. Lilith’s decision to save her son, killing herself? Her meeting Clay in the after-life? Shadows and the images of life?

14. The success of the operation, Clay living?

15. Sam, her being trapped by the fingerprints on the syringe, Jack locking the door, the others trying to flee?

16. A satisfying blend of a romance, a hospital drama, a crime, the twists?

FLOWER IN THE POCKET

Malaysia, 2007, 97 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Singh Tat Lieu

Flower in the Pocket is set amongst the Chinese Malay families – with some reference to the Muslim Malays in school and in neighbourhoods.

The film focuses on two little boys, misfits in school, who bond with each other, who manage at home – with their father working at a factory making mannequins for stores.

The film offers a series of detailed vignettes about their life, their interactions, being misunderstood at school, their friendship with a Muslim girl, their illness, their love for a dog, their father taking the dog away from them.

The two boys are full of vitality and bring an energy to this often very engaging story of children and their perspectives.

1. A Malaysia film, life in Malaysia, in the cities, the suburbs, the Chinese Malay, the Muslim Malays?

2. The focus on children, school, family, friendships?

3. The title – and the children and their poverty, not knowing how to manage?

4. Language and barriers, Mandarin, Malay, the teachers and their misunderstandings, translations?

5. The brothers and the introduction to each of them, the older, finding the money, caught by the teacher, his being punished? The younger brother and his drawing, the children explaining their drawings, the Muslim teacher not understanding the language, translations for the boy, misunderstanding the nature of his drawing? The bonds between the brothers, the father at work, at home, the toilet scene on the way home, finding the little child and taking him off, eating icypoles? Their room at home, making the food, finding the dog, the pet, the father taking it away, their crying in the night, getting a fever, the treatment? The friendship with the little girl, the fish, talking to her about the Mosque, sharing with her? The father and his visit to the school? Going to the hospital? A glimpse of the children and their life?

6. The teachers, their manner, stern?

7. The Muslim friend, her mother, sewing at home, the bicycle, the fish, sharing experiences and talking?

8. The boys’ father, the shops, the mannequins, in the truck, at the factory, his assistant, at home, going to the doctor and the doctor with his mistaken x-ray and the comedy of the lock, the food, the father buying the food, taking the dog to the garbage pile? His concern about their health?

9. His getting swimming instructions from his assistant at the factory? In the park teaching his children to swim?

10. A patchwork picture of life in suburban Malaysia, the life of children?