DABAREYE ELLY (ABOUT ELLY)

Iran, 2009, 119 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Asghar Farhadi.

A fresh and invigorating Iranian drama, with a universal plot that is accessible to all audiences.

The film opens with some speeding through a tunnel and some adolescent screaming, some letting off steam as a group of well-off families set off for a picnic and then some days away at a holiday villa. When booking complications arise, they rent a run-down house by the sea. For fifty minutes, the busy camera and quick edit cuts mean that the audience is right there in the middle of things, participating in the clean-up, the banter and chatter, the meals, dancing, charades and, it seems, the organiser's plan to matchmake: her daughter's nursery teacher, Elly, with a divorced friend visiting from Germany for ten days.

These fifty minutes are so exuberant that we get to know the personalities, three husbands and wives, three children, Elly and Ahmed from Germany. The only tension is when Elly phones her mother, who has a heart condition, and promisers her to return to Tehran. Sepide, who has organised the holiday more than we even thought tries all means to keep Elly there.

It is all too good to last. There is an accident and the group does not handle the crisis at all well so that the second part of the film is tension, anger, recriminations, home truths surfacing, and bickering, fear and anxiety. When Elly's alleged brother turns up, matters become even worse.

The social observation is acute, especially the roles and expectations of men and women (who plunge into the sea search, scarves and all). But the focus of the story is truth and lies, initially not giving total information but then the consequences when disasters occur, lies leading to entanglements and cover-ups and the final need to tell the truth. Well worthwhile.

1.The title, the focus on Elly, the information about her, insight into her, about the others?

2.An Iranian film, contemporary, Iranian society, wealth, the families, the roles of women and men, children?

3.Themes of manipulation, planning and control, secrecy?

4.Themes of lies, their consequences, cover-up, false scenarios, the issues of society and truth?

5.The range of moods in the film: the exuberant opening, the enjoyment of the picnic, the holiday atmosphere, going to the beach, cleaning the house, the entertainment up to the accident? The accident and the puzzle, concern, emotions, lies and tangles?

6.The car and the initial screaming, the adults being uninhibited, the picnic and the enjoyment, Elly’s role?

7.The issue of the villa and the booking, Sepide and her arrangements, concealing what she had done, getting the beach house, everybody settling in, cleaning up, joyful, the music and the dancing? The work of the parents? The children playing? The chatter and the banter?

8.The meals, entertainment, the focus on the charades and everybody participating?

9.Sepide and Amir, their family, their daughter, Elly as the nursery teacher, the friendship with the family? Amir and his age, severity with Sepide?

10.Peyman and Shaohreh and their children, the children playing, discipline, the children going into the sea, obeying or not?

11.Nasi and her husband? Their friendship with the group? Not having children?

12.Ahmad, his Iranian background, in Germany, marrying a German, his wife leaving him, the divorce, visiting for ten days, looking for a wife, Sepide trying to help him, deciding that Elly would be a good match? In himself, a genial friend?

13.Elly, her age, pleasant, nursery teacher, her doing the work for the families, her enjoying their company, yet wanting to leave, the phone call to her mother, the various phone calls and her concealing the truth, her decision to leave, the bag and her being persuaded to stay, the calls? the children? Sepide hiding her bag? Playing with the kite, her disappearance? Whether she drowned or not? The revelation about her engagement, her fiancé, their thinking he was her brother, the phone calls and the mobile phones? Ahmad and his plan? The fact that she drowned?

14.The little girl, coming to the group playing volleyball, the change of mood, the boy in the water, their trying to rescue him, the success? The different reactions to the accident?

15.Elly and her disappearance, the search, the coast guard, contact with her mother, the phone calls, finding the bag, her brother – and his being the fiancé, the truth?

16.Her arrival, the group presuming that he was the brother, getting more information, discussions and strategies?

17.The owner of the villas, the boy, their work, the story about the newlyweds, the boy doing the messages, the owner giving the information to the fiancé? The consequences?

18.The various slips in explaining to the fiancé, the tense interactions, angers, his leaving, blurting out the truth, Amir and his reaction to Sepide? Shaohreh and the children, her wanting to go?

19.The final confrontation between Sepide and the fiancé, the truth, the final truth or not?

20.Themes of happiness, interventions, crises and truth, collapse?

ALLE ANDEREN (EVERYONE ELSE)

Germany, 2009, 119 minutes, Colour.
Birgit Minichmayr, Lars Eidinger.
Directed by Maren Ade.

Would you like to spend a holiday in the company of the central characters? No.

Would you like to spend 2 edited hours with them in close-up? Not particularly, although critics and the Berlinale jury, giving the Best Actress award to Birgit Minichmayr, thought yes.

Director, Maren Ade, offers a female and German perspective on two people like and unlike everyone else. He is an architect with high hopes and some disappointments in a competition. She works PR for bands. They are in Sardegna. They talk. He is serious and wants time with his friend and his friend's pregnant wife. She is flighty and quirky, a touch unconventional and wants him to change and be stronger. She is extraverted, he less so.

There are some dramatic conflicts but it might be better for them to go off in private to resolve these rather than our having to hang about, a touch voyeuristically, and more than a touch impatiently and irritated with them.

1.A film about young people, relationships, careers, values, commitment and love?

2.The German perspective? The director’s female perspective?

3.The title, individuals, like others, unlike others? Especially Gitti and her uniqueness, Chris and his gifts?

4.The Sardinia locations, the island and its beauty, the villas, the town?

5.The songs, as background to the plot and characters? Relationships?

6.Gitti, her interaction with Rebecca, the discussions about hatred, shooting, her falling into the pool as if dead? Chris and his fondness for the baby? Indications of what was to come, about relationships, family? Chris’s sister and her reaction?

7.The holiday villa, the background of the mother and the decorations, the pool, the beach, the town?

8.Gitti and Chris, age, being together, love, the critique? Gitti and her work, PR, flighty? Idiosyncratic? Games? Chris by contrast as serious, introverted? Discussions about what it was to be manly? His work, the competition, the failure? Seeing the client about redecorating the villa? Telling and not telling? With each of his friends, being exclusive, the games?

9.The arrival of Hans and Sana, her pregnancy, talk, the visit, Gitti and her wilfulness, Sana’s dream and the interpretation, Hans being acerbic, Chris and his embarrassment?

10.Petersen, the meeting, the talk, the boat – their not going, seeing them later and apologising?

11.Gitti, the makeup, the dress, meeting Chris, the talk, wanting to go to the disco and dancing?

12.Her night alone, Chris’s return?

13.Gitti trying, cooking, the meal with Hans and Sana, the reactions, the taunt, the pool?

14.Gitti deciding to separate, Chris and his reaction, her collapse – and the uncertainty of the ending?

15.Insightful into the behaviour of twenty- and thirty-year-olds? Issues of love and commitment? Work? Personalities? Difficulties in commitment?

EL NINO PEZ (THE FISH CHILD)

Argentina, 2009, 96 minutes, Colour.
Ines Efron, Mariela Vitale.
Directed by Lucia Puenzo.

Lucia Puenzo wrote and directed the interesting drama about gender and identity, XXY. She is again focusing on gender and identity but this time in the context of class, race and same sex love.

The structure of the film makes its concentration demands as it opens with one girl waking and being attended by her servant, followed by the discovery of a dead body – the girl's father. Then the film veers between present and past, between the girl making a bus trip to Paraguay to her servant's town and the past where the father was having an affair with the servant while the two girls were in love with each other.

The title refers to a mythic story about a child who could direct people to the bottom of a river or lake, somehow deriving from the legends of the region.

Ines Efron from XXY is the girl and Mariela Vitale is the servant.

While there is a great deal of emotion on screen, audience response will depend on how sympathetic it finds the two girls and that is not always easy.

1.An Argentinian story? Argentina in the present, society? The contrast with the descendants of the Indians of Paraguay? Myths?

2.Wealthy Buenos Aires, the homes, the countryside? The contrast with Paraguay and the villages? The open road? The lake? The musical score?

3.The title, the myth, the images and statues of the child, the explanation of the myth, the underwater sequences?

4.The structure: the introduction, the present and the past, interlocking?

5.The girl, her maid, the dog, the household? Discovering her dead father?

6.The focus on Lala, her journey, the bus, remembering, the insertion of the flashbacks? Her life? Her father? The maid, the dog? In love with the maid? Her father and his attitude, her brother and his drugs, the absent mother? Her return? The dreams? Her trip, the stealing, the necklace, the painting, the fences and their dealings, the money? The meals at home, the farewell to Nacho? Her seeing her father with the maid, her upset? The bell, father, the jealousies? Her leaving, going to the village, her search for her servant’s father? The discovery that the maid had been pregnant, the story of the fish child? Her going back to Buenos Aires, the discussions with her mother, the police and their investigations, her cutting her hair, the dog seller, the visit, the break-in, discovering the house with the prostitutes? The shooting? Going to visit the maid in jail, their discussions, the escape, the future?

7.The maid, her Guarani background, going into service young, working as a maid, with the family, the love affair, her dreams, the journey? The death? Her accepting the blame? Going to prison? Lala’s visit to the prison, her not wanting her to come back? The self-sacrifice, leaving, the final shootout, the future?

8.The father, his writing skills, his prestige, his children, the affair with the maid, his death?

9.The glimpse of the brother, his attitude towards his family, his father, drug-taking, rehabilitation, going to the farm?

10.The maid’s father, as an actor, the soap operas, his story, not seeking out his daughter? Her disappointment?

11.The other maid, her giving evidence, her fears?

12.The men, fencing the stolen goods, the painting, in the house, the shootout?

13.Issues of gender, identity, love and relationships? The future?

JOHN RABE

Germany, 2008, 140 minutes, Colour.
Ulrich Tukur, Steve Buscemi, Anne Consigny, Daniel Bruehl.
Directed by Florian Gelberger.

Definitely for the list for those who appreciate 20th century historical dramas with solid plot, fine characterisations, a sense of period and a focus on social issues and the human spirit.

A postscript to the film tells us 'based on true events' and the sad note that after the war John Rabe did not receive 'denazification' and died impoverished in Berlin in 1950. Not a worthy end for a man who rose to practical heroism during the 1937 Japanese siege and rape of Nanking.

John Rabe and his wife Dora arrived in China in 1910, an employee of the German firm, Siemens, for the Chinese branch. A bureaucrat with a talent for management, despite an inbuilt Germanic arrogance that made him think less of the Chinese, their abilities and their intelligence. Yet, he was a firm but benign employer. He was also loyal to Germany, a member of the National Socialist Party – though the meetings we see in Nanking were rather enjoyable, relaxed affairs much to the disgust of Rabe's replacement, the Nazi Herr Fleiss.

During his speech at a farewell dinner where he was given a 'Friend of the Chinese' award, the Japanese began to bomb Nanking. We see the fright of the people and Rabe's innate humanity as he opens the Siemens gates and hides the workers under a huge swastika flag.

His dilemma is whether to stay or return to Germany, when a young diplomat (Daniel Bruehl) proposes a Safe Zone and Rabe is elected to head the Committee, supported by Miss Dupre (Anne Consigny), the head of the girls' high school and opposed by the sardonic US Dr Wilson (Steve Buscemi who blends seriousness with his particular comic touches).

The screenplay's presentation of the Japanese aggression, their ruthless superiority over the Chinese and the brutality of their massacres is particularly disturbing.

The setting up of the Safe Zone and the maintenance of order, food and security for 200,000 refugees is shown in detail and the hardships after the fall of the city and the cruel Japanese occupation. Some sequences lead us to think that the expected will happen – especially when two Japanese officers begin to rape a student who brings food to her family but there are unanticipated consequences for all involved.

Clearly, this is a worthily-motivated film but it is persuasive for all but the most cynical. As is said of fine performances and very true here, Ulrich Tukur inhabits his role completely.

The film notes that the Japanese government has never acknowledged the rape of Nanking, a truly atrocious episode prior to the outbreak of World War II.

1.20th century history, its complexity, the roles of Japan and Germany? China?

2.Audience knowledge of the China in the 20th century? The Japanese invasion, 1937, the siege of Nanking? The Japanese government not acknowledging these events?

3.The German perspective, memories of Nazism? Heroism from a National Socialist Party member?

4.The theme of human nature, goodness, despite Nazi philosophies? Heroism?

5.John Rabe in himself, his working for Siemens, twenty-seven years, being in China all that time, being with Dora? His plans for the company, for China, the development of the plant, supplying electricity, the building of the dam? The German attitudes towards China, changing in the 1930s? His being asked to return, to close down the plant? His being kicked upstairs? His National Socialist membership? His regard for Hitler, appealing to him to intervene on behalf of the Chinese? His decision to stay, the safety zone, collaboration with the group to administer the zone? The Chinese, his love for them? Getting Dora on the boat? The aftermath, his not being de-Nazified? His death in poverty? The film showing him writing in his diary, the voice-over? The later discovery of the diary? His rehabilitation? The foundation for his work?

6.Siemens and the German companies, their domination, the arrogant Germans, efficiency, condescending attitudes towards the Chinese? As less intelligent? Correcting the Chinese, reprimanding? Rabe’s choice of officials? The Berlin orders? The arrival of Fleiss and his mission, his Nazi attitude, to close down the factory, to dismiss the workers? The issues of the workers sheltering in the Siemens plant?

7.Rabe and his age, his attitude towards the Chinese, his second-in-charge? His unconscious arrogance? Fleiss and his reaction? Going to the club, the sense of fellowship despite the national socialism? Fleiss and his condemnation? Rabe and his reflecting with his wife? Preparing to leave, his prospects in Germany? The party, the award of the medal, the Japanese official walkout? His speech, the bombs? The next day Miss Dupre and her girls singing in his honour?

8.The hospital, the difficulties? Doctor Wilson and his presence, his role? The meetings, Wilson and his anti-Rabe stances, criticisms of his Chinese medal? Seeing him as a fascist? His friendship with Miss Dupre, going to the function, his cynicism, her criticism?

9.The Japanese bombings, the close-up of the planes, the bombs falling, the factory, the closed gates, Rabe opening them? Fleiss and his refusal? The issue of the German flag at the club, opening it, providing a warning shelter against the Japanese bombs?

10.Rosen, his arrival, the girl taking photographs, his interest? His story and the background from Shanghai? His Jewish ancestry?

11.The meeting, the US representatives, the Anglican clergy, Miss Dupre, Doctor Wilson, Rabe, Rosen? The discussions about the situation in Nanking, the threats? Rosen and his proposal of the safe area like Shanghai? The suggestions, the elections, Wilson and his opposition, Rabe accepting, Wilson accepting?

12.The meeting the next day, Rabe not present, Wilson’s suspicions? Going to the wharf, seeing Rabe with Dora, his putting her on the boat, his not going – and the immediate sinking of the ship and his grief?

13.The Japanese headquarters, the plans, the prince and his haughty attitude, the sergeant following orders? The varying strategies, the prince and his dominating attack, the strength of the Japanese, their arrogance, invincibility? The bombings and the planes? The sequences of the convoys moving through the snow? The large number of Chinese prisoners, the lies about the soup, their being mown down? The entry into Nanking? The agreement about the safe area? The soldiers, the killing of the Chinese soldiers?

14.Miss Dupre and the school, the girls, the young girl taking photographs, her interest in Rosen? Going out at night, Miss Dupre’s forbidding it? Food for her brother? Her cruel father? The soldiers following, the attempted rape, her brother shooting the soldiers, their putting on the uniforms, the disguise, escape through the streets, the pursuit by the Japanese, going into the school, Rosen and Miss Dupre, the girls and the search, their being stripped, the Japanese frustrated at not finding the officers?

15.The organisation of the safe area, the map, including Siemens’ factory and the school? The rules, no weapons? The hospital, Doctor Wilson and his breaking his rule with the plea of the father to save his son? The shooting of the doctors and nurses? The soldiers sheltering in the school? The issue of rations?

16.Rosen, using his ingenuity, getting the hospital needs fulfilled?

17.The rice, the payment, the money, Rosen’s money? Rabe giving his savings? The visit of the Japanese, the harshness? Finding the soldiers? Reprisals?

18.The growing desperation, Wilson and Rabe and their drinking together, the singing the song insulting Hitler, yet not able to shake hands?

19.The pre-Christmas desperation, the Japanese takeover of the safe area, the introduction of the troops? Rabe being unwell, his insulin supply dwindling? The celebration of Christmas? Receiving Dora’s cake, the delight that she was alive?

20.The decision to stop the massacre, the group in charge standing in front of the safe area, the challenge to the Japanese, the taunt about the media arriving, the Japanese backing down?

21.Rabe, personality, achievement, heroism – and only recognised much later? The film as a tribute to him?

FOREVER ENTHRALLED

Leon Lai, Zhang Ziyi.
China, 2009, 147 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Chen Kaige.

The Peking Opera is highly valued by the Chinese, mysterious and fascinating to those who do not understand it.

In 1993, Chen Kaige won many awards for his film, Farewell My Concubine, for the film itself and its luminous cinematography, a drama about the Opera in the early years of the 20th century. He has now returned to this era but moves his action into the 1920s and 1930s, including a visit by the Opera to New York in 1930 and the Japanese occupation of Peking, Shanghai and Nanking in 1937.

The plot is based on the story of a star of the Opera who, from his teenage years, charmed and delighted the public. His more expressive movements changed audience perceptions from the rigid traditions and their less emotive gestures and movements. This is well illustrated in a sequence where Mr Qui, who advocates change, criticises the past – which leads to a competition staged between a traditional opera and a modern one.

By 1930, Mei (played effectively by Yu Shaoqun when young and Leon Lai when more mature) is China's most celebrated singer. Despite the American Depression, he goes on tour of the US trying to overcome his fears.

Other melodramatic incidents complicate his life and self-image: his marriage to a controlling wife (and the later unexpected appearance of four children), his love for fellow actress (Zhang Ziyi) who is told that Mei's artistry comes from his inner loneliness and she is told to move away from him, an occasion for a bizarre shooting incident at a party.

The film becomes political with the Japanese occupation and Mei's dilemma whether to sing and support Chinese morale or not sing and avoid any Japanese propagandising. This takes its toll, especially with the underhand actions of his mentor, Mr Qui.

After the war, Mei had 60,000 people meet him at the station when he returned to the Opera in 1950. He died in 1961.

A stately, beautiful and reflective tribute to a star and re-creation of several eras in Chinese 20th century history.

1.The traditions of Chinese cinema, Chen Kaige and his reputation? The world of Chinese opera and his films?

2.Based on a true story, a portrait of Mei, of the period, changes, the development of the opera?

3.The luminous photography, the capturing of the different atmospheres of the periods, China, New York? The musical score, the orchestration?

4.Chinese opera, its conventions, men playing the roles of women, the change and women acting and singing? Costumes, movement, the instruments, the music, the songs, the voices, the drama, the characters and situations? Operatic? The film communicating all these aspects?

5.Mei when young, his uncle’s letter, the visualising of his uncle’s humiliation, the dowager empress’s soldiers, the yoke around his neck? The issue of breaking the yoke? His advice to his nephew to give up the opera?

6.The boy, his decision? His memories, the flashbacks, quoting from the letter? Qui and his seeing the letters, finally reading it?

7.Mei as a young man, the performances, the crowds, the impatient crowds wanting their money back unless he came, his stepping on the nail, his performing despite the disability, the people’s acclamation? The veteran manager? The old singer? The competitiveness? His respect? His hurrying to the lecture?

8.The lecture, Qui, offering debate, the rigid regulations of opera, his consequence, the responses from the audience, defending the old? The discussions with Mei, his giving him tickets? Qui going to the opera, being moved, giving up his job, managing Mei?

9.The old master, his being put off in performance by Mei’s variations, the clash? Feng, the managers, the entrepreneurs? The challenge for the competition, the old master and his performance, Mei and the new opera and his success, the old man and the empty theatre, conceding defeat? His dying – and asking Mei to preserve the reputation of opera and improve it?

10.Mei and his skills, movements, conveying passion, interpretation of character and situations, the exhilarating responses, happiness, joy, sadness?

11.The passing of ten years, Mei and his success, his marriage, children? The severity of his wife and her strictness? His encounter with the actress, their discussions about performance, the bond, her suggesting the possibilities of more freedom for him, going to the cinema with her, talking about his fears? His loneliness?

12.Qui and Feng, their support of Mei, his wife and the actress, the clash, going to see the actress, persuading her to leave? Qui and his reaction, her rejection? The party, the transvestite assassin, the shooting? The actress facing the assassin? The later revelation that Qui engineered the scene? His being unrepentant, even about the death of the assassin?

13.Qui, his life, artistic taste, commitment to Mei? Affection for him, art, the set-up for the assassin, his not having regrets? To New York, his moods in New York, reading the critics, not hearing any applause, going out? His joy at the success? Later, Mei’s rejection of him? His trying to persuade Mei to sing for the Japanese? The phone-in and his betrayal? The confrontation with Mei’s wife? Asking forgiveness?

14.New York, Mei’s fears, motivations, the harshness of the New York critics, sight unseen? The performance, the standing applause? The actress and her letter, his reading it?

15.1937, the Japanese occupation, the military, his admirer? The Japanese trying to persuade him to sing, his refusal? The arrest, interrogation, the concern of his wife? The young Japanese, the officers’ angers? The occupation of Nanjing? His being considered a traitor by the public?

16.His being maligned, the press conference, the typhoid injection, his collapse, his stance against the Japanese?

17.After the war, his return to the theatre, the crowds? The information about sixty thousand at the station in 1950? The information about his life, death?

18.The changes in Chinese history and the first half of the 20th century? Warlords, the republic, the Japanese invasion, World War Two, the communist revolution? This film as a tribute to the singer?

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WINTERSTILTE (WINTER SILENCE)

Holland, 2009, 70 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Sonja Wyss.

It is somewhat odd that a director from the flattest of lands, Holland, should make a film about life in remote, wintry German mountains.

This is a 70 minute docudrama, virtually no dialogue, though Ave Maria is sung and one daughter murmurs the rosary.

The beautiful cinematography is poetic: mountains, clouds, sky, sun emerging, night... The moods of the day and night reflect the grief at the father's death in a mountain fall but the main focus is on a mother and her four adult daughters. Life seems ordinary (details of washing and hanging it out to dry, dough kneading...) but when mysterious men visit the village there is a night of release of repression. Sounds in one sequence indicate that the mother is involved in miscarriage activity and she tosses a bundle from the bridge, finishing with putting some shavings from the base of a statue of Mary in water for one of the daughters to drink.

No explanations. The director relies on audience knowledge and interpretation.

1.A poetic glimpse of an isolated community and their way of life?

2.A Dutch director, and her working in mountain territory?

3.The cinematography: mountains, snow, sky, the angles for the views? The village, the interiors of the homes, the streets, light and dark?

4.The editing and pace, slow and contemplative?

5.The musical score, orchestrated? The playing of ‘Ave Maria’?

6.The father and daughter and their climb, his fall, her going for help, the town rallying, the funeral, grief?

7.The mother as a matriarch, grief at her husband’s death, the final remembering of the wedding and the joy? Her daughters, severity? Issues of sexuality? Abortion, miscarriage? The bridge and throwing over the package? The shavings of the statue of the Madonna in the water?

8.The girls in themselves, their way of life, the home, room, seeing them at work, kneading the bread, washing and cleaning?

9.The men, hooded, mysterious? The girl showing the leg? The night and the sexuality, the consequences? The effect on each of the women?

10.The Catholic background, icons, the crucifix, the fresco of the Pieta, the statue of Mary, the singing of ‘Ave Maria’, the girl praying the Rosary at night? The influence of these Catholic traditions? Their meaning?

11.The mother seeing the flowers in the snow, the coming of spring and new life?

12.The 21st century and an isolated community? The old ways? Cut off? The limits? Behaviour and attitudes? Possibilities of change?

AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK

UK, 2009, 75 minutes, Colour.
John Hurt, Denis O’ Hare, Swoosie Kurtz, Cynthia Nixon, Jonathan Tucker.
Directed by Richard Laxton.

Well worth seeing for John Hurt's performance alone.

In 1975, Hurt appeared as Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant, broadcast on UK television and on American cable. Crisp (actual name, Denis Charles Pratt) became something of an overnight celebrity in his mid-60s, an Englishman who was not ordinary, had publicly worn make-up in the streets in the 1930s and had been bashed for it but had supreme self-confidence in his person, his gender orientation and sexual identity. He also had an aphoristic wit in the tradition of Oscar Wilde (and hat and clothes and affectations) and Noel Coward.

The US success of The Naked Civil Servant led to American invitations for Crisp to speak. He acquired an agent (Swoosie Kurtz at her sharpest), an editor friend for decades (Denis O' Hare), radio interviews, theatre and television appearances in one man Q and A sessions (which enable Hurt to deliver answers with relish). He also wrote film reviews and finally is accepted by bemused authorities as a 'resident alien' (which was the title of a 1990 documentary about him in which Hurt also appeared). His justification for residency was that, in accordance with the US Constitution, he was contributing something unique to the nation – himself!

He felt at home in Manhattan and in multicultural New York. However, a comment he made about AIDS during a show, that it be treated as a 'fad disease', lost him many of his gay following.

This brief film shows him befriending and supporting a young artist (Jonathan Tucker) and, in the 1990s, some performance art with Penny Arcade (Cynthia Nixon, offering opinions on Clinton and Bush. He accepted the role of Queen Elizabeth in Sally Potter's Orlando (Hurt re-enacting a scene).

Quentin Crisp died in England at almost 91 in 1999, a full life, meeting people, going to socials, self-assured, kind and truthful with a malicious twinkle. If he really was anything like John Hurt's portrayal, he would have been fascinating, if offbeat, to meet and to listen to.

1.Quentin Crisp, the film of The Naked Civil Servant, the documentary Resident Alien? Crisp as a 20th century character, eccentric, an icon in the tradition of Oscar Wilde?

2.The screenplay, his American story? His wit, one-man show, aphorisms, opinions, his facing the truth, his influence?

3.The screening of The Naked Civil Servant as the starting-off point, the broadcast and comments in London? The effect? Crisp becoming a personality, television, interviews? The invitation to the United States? His talks, radio answers and his pithy comments on listeners’ opinions?

4.John Hurt in the role, playing Crisp in 1975, 1990, 2008? The impersonation, the appearance, the voice, British precision, costumes, hair, hat, scarves, makeup? His ageing?

5.Crisp and the 1930s, not using his real name, the makeup, going down the street, the beatings? His droll observations about freedoms and not knowing anything in the 1930s? Work as a civil servant, the passing decades, reaching his sixties and becoming famous, his self-sufficiency, discovery, his philosophy of unpacking the uniqueness within one’s own personality?

6.Going to New York, his appreciation of Manhattan, the skyline, feeling at home? The performance, meeting his agent and her work for him, her demands? The introduction to Philip Steele, Steele as a friend, editor, the film reviews and the discussions about Tootsie and ET, the audiences, his comment about AIDS and people’s reaction? Being accosted in the street? The impossibility of recanting, doubts about his opinions, the challenges? His opinions about the gay clubs as ghettos?

7.Patrick Angus coming to see him, the discussion in the diner, quoting him, his art, the visuals in his art, gay art? Crisp sitting for a portrait? Patrick’s self-doubts, going to the backrooms of clubs, the search for the ‘dark man’? Crisp and his support, their discussions for an exhibition, the gallery owners mocking him, the exhibition, David Hockney buying some of the paintings, Philip Steele printing some of them? Patrick’s death and AIDS-related?

8.Philip Steele, a good friend, the critique for Crisp, his explanations, his partner leaving, Crisp on happiness? Village Voice, Christopher Street? AIDS and television, the issue of screening and the response? President Reagan’s aides and their television comments? Helping people, the domestic aspects of Steele’s helping Crisp in his apartment, with his health? Steele telling Quentin his Kentucky story and the influence of The Naked Civil Servant?

9.Crisp and his age, more illness, concealing his illness, the dirty apartment? Penny Arcade and her knowing the truth?

10.Penny Arcade, in herself, her explanations, performance, the comments on Clinton, on Bush and his being elected? Her persuading Quentin to perform with her?

11.Sally Potter using Crisp in Orlando, going to the UK, the glimpse of the performance as Queen Elizabeth? His being invited to the UK to talk, his decision to go, dying there, aged ninety-one?

12.The life in New York, the feel, at home, exhilaration, accepted with his eccentricities?

13.Issues of homosexuality, the UK, the 30s, the law, changes, freedoms? Yet homosexuals still ghettoising themselves, especially in clubs? Change in confidence, camp people and the alienation, Crisp’s theory of everyone searching for the ideal dark man? His comments on giving love rather than receiving love, being able to live without love, his death, dignity, his comments on the afterlife?

14.Crisp as a celebrity, enjoying it, the role of celebrities in a media age? His contribution? The final speech in the club in Tampa and his applause? His achievement?

KATALINA VARGA

Hungary/Romania, 2009, 84 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Peter Strickland.

A small-budget vengeance drama, filmed in Romania with Hungarian support by a British-born director.

Post-credits information indicates that this film took two years from shooting to transfer from digital to film. It is an unpolished film, ragged often in look and in narrative drive. There are often varied colour gradings, bright for herds and farm sequences, dark for much of the rest of the film.

Audiences, drawn in by the plot and the acting, will allow for the limitations of style so that they can can concentrate on characters and motivation. While the setting is contemporary (mobile phones, cars), the actions seems timeless as a mother and son travel old roads, mountains and forests in a horse-drawn cart.

It quickly emerges that Katalin (Hilda Peter), up till now happily married, is upset when her husband learns that her son was conceived in rape ten years earlier. She takes her son through the old towns and rugged country to find her assailants and wreak vengeance.

When she finally finds the rapist, the situation is not as she imagined and there are dire consequences for innocent others as well as herself. The director noted that there is dramatic ambiguity as we see a good character go bad and a bad character change to good.

1.Small-budget, the camerawork, the editing over several years? Transference of digital film to film stock? Ragged in look and screenplay?

2.Yet the effect, the familiar plot, a vengeance story, the consequences of vengeance? Somebody good becoming bad, somebody bad becoming good?

3.The digital camerawork, the clarity and lack of clarity, the gradings of the colour, the darkness, the beauty of the countryside, the flocks and the herds? The close-ups and intimate portraits of characters?

4.The musical score, the moods?

5.The tense opening, the police, Katalina and her son fleeing? The return to this scene and the interrogation, the beating of the farmer?

6.Katalina, first seen picking the flowers, the little girl and her running away? Her friend and the discussion, the information that her husband knew the truth? The slap, her reputation? The boy, telling the story of going to see his grandmother, leaving the father behind? His being unwilling to go? The later phone calls?

7.The wagon, mother and son, the lies, travelling – and the old-fashioned 19th century look of the cart and horse? The contrast with the mobile phones?

8.The night, the dance, Katalina’s encounter with the man, confronting him, the truth, his saying that he was a father, pleading for mercy, giving him Antal’s name, her killing him?

9.The police, the interrogation – their not being the police, interrogating the man who gave them shelter? The search, getting more information, ultimate vengeance?

10.The fields, the shelter, the meals, Orban and his wandering, his mother’s anger?

11.Asking directions, the girls and their advising not to go to the town? Arriving at the farm, seeing the work, singling out Antal?

12.Antal and his hospitality, his wife, love for his wife, talking, the meal?

13.Antal and the truth, Katalina telling the story while they were rowing, the wife listening, Antal and his knowing the truth? The long narrative of her hitchhiking, the rape, the effect? Antal asking forgiveness?

14.The wife, loving her husband, not suspecting anything, overhearing the story, hanging herself?

15.The boy, playing with Antal, the bond between them, running away, Antal and Katalina searching?

16.Katalina, being found by the men, her death?

17.Antal and Orban being left, their grief, their future together?

18.The consequences of evil, evil and corruption, the possibility of forgiveness and redemption?

RUCKENWIND (LIGHT GRADIENT)

Germany, 2009, 75 minutes, Colour.

A brief, sometimes lyrical, tale of two young men on a cycling trip into a forest. While much of the narrative is filmed in realistic style, much of it is poetic, lingering on leaves, trees, water, light in pretty, even beautiful compositions.

Director, cast and crew went for two weeks into an autumn forest, improvising, letting the cast imagine what could happen in these circumstances. The two young men react off each other then, when lost, come upon an isolated farm, the mother who runs it, genial, and her adolescent son, initially hostile.

Some episodes ring true, others seem contrived.

The main contrivance is a fable at the beginning and end about the possible friendship between a fox and a rabbit – open for interpretation or symbolism – and an 18th century legend about a lost count.

The two young men are in a relationship but this is shown more naturalistically than pruriently.

1.An experiment in style, content, drama?

2.The forest, lakes, the farm? And the realism of the freeway?

3.The range of music, chorale, modern?

4.The title, the rise in slope for bike riding? The reference to the light and shades of light?

5.The framework, Johann in the institution? The parable of the fox and the rabbit? Its applications?

6.Count Witzlow and the search for the child? The dead swan? The symbol of death?

7.The narrative, Robyn and Johann, together for two months, whose idea for the trip? The train ride, the photos? Bike riding, the roads, the map, the tent poles not in the bag, their standing on the bridge, looking at the cars, the embrace? The swimming? The bikes being robbed? Their stealing the food from the tourists? The tent in the trees? The relationship?

8.Blame, the quarrel between the two, arriving at the farm, being locked in the barn, the boy with the gun, his mother’s arrival, the welcome? The meal, talk, the boy and his isolation, reading? Work on the farm? The mother hosing them down? The talking about the legends? Going out fishing, rowing? Johann eating the berries, the effect, his illness?

9.Johann and his jealousy, suspicions of Robyn, the boy? The mother and her care for him?

10.The decision to leave, setting up the trap in the forest, wrestling with the unseen presence, being caught in the trap?

11.The overall effect, the relationship, each of the boys, the experience of the forest? A modernisation of old German fairy tales?

RICKY

France, 2009, 96 minutes, Colour.
Alexandra Lamy, Sergei Lopez, Melusine Mayance.
Directed by Francois Ozon.

Wasn't there a popular aviation movie 70 years ago, Only Angels Have Wings? Francois Ozon's variation on this theme, babies can have wings, is open-ended. Baby Ricky must be the cutest, strange little screen creature since ET!

Ozon has 'freely adapted' a short story by Rose Tremain (Restoration), 'Moth'. It has the audience laughing in disbelief, gasping with some delight and, ultimately, asking, 'what really happened?'.

A pre-credits prologue has a long, close-up interview with Katie (a fine performance from Alexandra Lamy), a distraught mother of two, whose Spanish husband has abandoned them and who now tearfully pleads with the social worker because she cannot cope and needs to foster the baby child who cries a lot

We then are taken back three months but this does not quite add up and Ozon has made a number of time lapses (Katie's new pregnancy and seemingly sudden birth, her quick falling out with the Spanish, Paco (Sergi Lopez)).

During the first half of the film, we have entered French social realism territory (with an overt nod by Ozon to the films of the Belgian Dardenne Brothers), council flats, single mothers, detailed factory work (bottling poisonous materials), affair with a charming Spaniard at the factory, birth. So far, so normal (or not).

Then, off we go to fantasy land with baby Ricky and his emerging wings. There are absurd touches as mother and daughter, Lisa ( Melusine Mayance as an intelligent 7 year-old), help Ricky and conceal his secret. The doctors are serious and the media becomes seriously intrusive. A spectacle unfolds in the Christmas-decorated supermarket and cooing Ricky takes to the air.

The film becomes more and more fantastical (which is not Ozon's forte) and we are given time enough to wonder about Ricky's angelic nature and his mother's sublime happiness.

Then, the final credits. We come down to earth. Who has been dreaming, Katie and/or Lisa?

So, a brief, sad, cute, social realist fantasy.

1.A social realistic portrait turning into a fantasy comedy?

2.How well did the two parts fit together, the serious opening, the funny touches, the realism, the change to magic realism, a dream – whose?

3.The locations, authentic, the flats, the building, the riverside, the apartment, schools, factory, the factory floor, the canteen, the toilets, restaurant? Audiences accepting the realism?

4.The time lapses, Katie’s pregnancy, the short time to the birth, the building-up of the family? Her irritation with Paco and his leaving?

5.Katie and the initial interview, her story, sad, her waking up in the morning, her feelings, her bond with Lisa, the bike, taking Lisa to school, going to work, the poisons in the factory, seeing Paco, the attraction, the shared cigarette, the sexual encounter in the toilet, her collapse? Her coming home late? Going to the restaurant with Paco, their discussions, his coming home, the night, breakfast, Lisa’s reaction, her questions, Katie happy, pregnant?

6.Lisa and her age, experience, the father absent, his not wanting her to be born, not wanting to see her? Her wisdom, looking after her mother? At home, going to school? Her not accepting Paco immediately, finally accepting him? A substitute father, her comments? Her mother’s pregnancy, the birth of Ricky, her wanting to call the baby Ricky? Accepting the child, the questions of Katie’s attention for her? The gifts for Ricky? The meal, the toast to the new baby? Gradually accepting Paco, helping with the homework?

7.Paco, Spanish charm, the attraction in the factory, the cigarette, the sexual encounters, the restaurant, his story, going home, building a relationship with Lisa, moving in, the birth of Ricky, joy?

8.Katie at home, Ricky crying, Katie finally going to work, Paco at home looking after Ricky, preparing the bottle, cuddling him? The discovery of the bruises? The argument, Katie’s not believing him, his storming out, later coming back after the TV items, the reconciliation?

9.Ricky, the development of his wings, Katie and Lisa keeping it secret, their reactions, Ricky flying, on the top of the wardrobe? Katie measuring the wings? Going to the supermarket and measuring the chicken wings? Developing the feathers? Making the cage for Ricky? Lisa and her care for her brother?

10.Ricky as cute, his pumping his legs, crying, his face, the changing of the dirty napkin, loving his bottle, purring and content, suddenly flying?

11.The lottery, winning the two thousand euros, Christmas, going to the supermarket, buying the Santa Claus, Ricky flying, people’s amazement, people taking video with the mobile phones?

12.The discussions with the doctor, Katie upset that she was not a fit mother? Going home, the media camped out, chasing her, the TV interviews?

13.Paco’s return, his motivation, Katie glad to have him back but not believing him, arranging the media interview?

14.The press conference outside the building, Ricky and Katie with the string, enraptured by the wonder, Ricky flying away, the effect on everyone?

15.Katie and her search, going into the water, Ricky reappearing, grown so much, comforting his mother, disappearing? Her being comforted?

16.Audiences suspending disbelief, accepting the realism, the serious tones, the change to delight? The focus on family, love and bonds?