GARDENS OF THE NIGHT

US, 2008, 110 minutes, Colour.
Gillian Jacobs, Evan Ross, Tom Arnold, Ryan Simkins, John Malkovich, Jeremy Sisto, Harold Perinneau, Kevin Zegers.
Directed by Damien Harris.

Gardens of the Night is a frightening, even harrowing film written and directed by Damien Harris (The Rachel Papers). It is a film about child abduction, the world of paedophilia, the consequences for the children, their moving into lives of prostitution.

Ryan Simkins portrays a little girl in Pennsylvania who is abducted by a smooth-talking Tom Arnold and his sidekick, played by Kevin Zegers. Arnold’s performance makes the abduction only too plausible, offering an eight-year-old girl reasonable explanations for what was happening and the absence of her parents. However, she is a strong little girl and comes to disbelieve him. However, as time goes by, she is brainwashed and becomes the victim of abuse by Arnold, by an arranger (played by Jeremy Sisto), tormented in a performance by Harold Perrino as an accomplice.

The film is not particularly explicit in showing the behaviour of the abusers (especially when she is taken to the home of a respectable judge). However, the implications are very clear.

Along with Lesley, the little girl, there is a young African American boy, Donnie. Gradually they form a friendship, using the words of Kipling’s The Jungle Book for their imaginations as well as communicating some of their story and their being lost in the jungle.

The film makes a transition to Lesley and Donnie at age seventeen. There is no explanation of how they got away from their abductors. However, the effect has been traumatic and they now work as prostitutes in San Diego. The film focuses on their life, their peers, the pressures, the squalor.

John Malkovich portrays a social worker in San Diego who takes on Lesley’s case. However, she is using it as a cover to groom a young girl for prostitution – even using the same words and situations that her abductors used for her. However, she comes to her senses and rescues the girl. The possibility of finding her family, even though she thought they had rejected her, becomes a possibility. However, Donnie has disappeared. They had agreed if ever there was a difficulty and they were separated, they would meet in Florida.

The film ends – open-endedly but with some promise of hope.

Gillian Jacobs is very good as the surly young woman. Ryan Simkins is particularly good as Lesley as the little girl. Tom Arnold is frighteningly persuasive, playing good guy to Kevin Zeger’s bad guy.

The film does not have such a visual flair – which means that the treatment is very much a focus on characters, even the kind of film style for television movies.

1.The film’s exploration of trafficking, paedophilia? The end of the 20th century, beginning of the 21st century and the prevalence, the public knowledge of cases, media awareness? Child abduction? Grooming?

2.The difficulties of making a film on this topic, questions of how to present this material, how explicitly, implicitly, suggestion? How successful was this film in portraying terrible situations, crises, but in an accessible way for a wide audience?

3.The opening, Lesley in San Diego, the house, the children, her smoking, going across the street to the shelter, the encounter with Michael Evans, his questions? The tone? Commenting on her parents’ death, her brother and living with an uncle?

4.The flashback to Pennsylvania, the ordinary suburban street, Lesley going to school as normal, Alex and his story about searching for Trixie, his dog, her response, their going back to the house, finding her dog, not finding Trixie? Alex as friendly, the lift, her believing him, dropping her at school? His return, the story about her parents, making it credible, trust, the phone calls and her hearing him talk, the drink and the drug? The contrast with Frank and his surliness? Going to the house, the good guy/bad guy routine? Donnie present in the house, quiet? Their bath, the new clothes, the locked door?

5.Audience response to the situation, the children as victims, innocents, the listening to the grooming, the watching of the trafficking? The African American in the motel, his threats to Lesley, the assault, Alex and Frank and their shooting him? Their protecting Lesley – and her later finding that the African American was alive? Alex and his sweet talk, the bath, his story about the larva having to suffer and change into a butterfly and be beautiful? Lesley and her using this image later for grooming the young girl? The damage done to Lesley’s psyche?

6.The use of Kipling’s Jungle Book to illustrate their experience, reading it aloud, ways of coping?

7.Lesley, hearing Alex on the phone to her parents, finally crushing the paper with the phone number? Yet the audience seeing the public phone and its ringing, seeing the notice about her being lost? Her being resigned to her fate, the perspective of an eight-year-old?

8.The sequence with the arranger of taking children to clients? The talk, the bargains, Alex and the deals, the manager, smooth and calm, smiling at the children? Taking Lesley to the judge, his giving her the new dress, putting her with his daughters, his wife and meeting Lesley and suspecting nothing?

9.The ice cream, Frank and his surliness, Alex taking them to the shop? The Asian owners, seeing the notice, recognising Lesley? The police coming to the house, their escaping by the back? Taking the children to a new house? The years passing? The promise if they ever separated they would go to Florida?

10.San Diego, the beach, the streets, the laundries, the years having passed? No explanation? The audience supplying it?

11.Donnie and Lesley and their prostitution, in the streets, the cars, pimps, the young prostitutes, the gay young men and their talk, drugs, the rehearsal of dealing with clients and the crassness?

12.Lesley at seventeen, the effect on her life, an intelligent young woman, low self-image? Her friendship with Donnie? The pimp and his proposal that she groom the twelve-year-old girl, rescue her from the shelter? Going to the shelter, the questions with Michael Evans, the rules of the house, the young girl, talking with her? Lesley giving the girl the bath, talking with her, grooming her? Going to the diner, the sale? Her decision to get her out, the escape to the shelter? The danger to Lesley?

13.Donnie, his character, friendship, the tricks, the clients, talking to Lesley, love for her, the fight and the bashing, his leaving?

14.Lesley and Michael Evans, his showing her the notice when she was abducted, her feeling dead, the dialogue about her going home, unwilling, thinking her parents wouldn’t want her?

15.The return, the social worker with her, her parents and their welcome, love, relief, the discussions, telling her about the brother and sister, their coming home, having the cake, the ingenuous questions by the children, Lesley’s answer that she was lost in a forest? Her watching her parents care for her brother and sister?

16.The decision to leave, to hitchhike to Florida, the credits with the lights of the fairground where Donnie and Lesley had arranged to meet?

17.The open ending, the hope for each of the two?

18.The effect of watching this kind of story, understanding the situation, the feelings of the parents, the feelings of the victims? Disgust with the perpetrators?

THE FALL

US, 2006, 118 minutes, Colour.
Lee Pace, Justine Waddell, Catinca.
Directed by Tarsem.

Writer-director Tarsem was born and educated in India and then moved to the US in his 20s. He directed The Cell with Jennifer Lopez and has directed a range of music videos. Clearly, he is a film-maker who is fascinated with striking and colourful (extremely colourful) images. This means that, above all, The Fall is a visual and aural experience (with many musical styles as background).

Looking at the final credits, most will be amazed (and wondering about the air fares, let alone the budget) at the many, many locations used, from the US and India to South America and Fiji, Bali and the Pacific and Indian Oceans. They are exotic but have been enhanced (and re-created with buildings and sets) by computergraphic effects.

It seems best in a review of The Fall to mention this first because this is where the main impact occurs. There is a plot, several plots that audiences may well find difficult to keep in focus and follow. Thoughts of Terry Gilliam come to mind with Baron Munchhausen or Time Bandits… This is especially true of the opening sequence on a railway bridge over a river and the lifting of a horse to the top. In fact, this is an adaptation of a Bulgarian film.

And the plot? Los Angeles in the early 20th century. A hospital. A small girl, Alexandria (played by a Romanian, Catinca) has lost her parents, employed for seasonal fruit-picking, in a fire started by bigots. She visits an actor, stuntman, who has been injured but is also pining his lost love. The two begin to talk. He tells a story about Alexander the Great (with vivid re-enactment in a bright orange desert) which Alexandria does not really like. He then begins an epic story which is visualised for us, from Alexandria’s point of view not his, because she begins to include him in the story as a gallant bandit, the nurse as an oriental princess, and her parents as well. Eventually, she is in the story with the bandit.

There are four characters stranded on a tropical sand bar, all the victims of a Count Odious. There is an Italian explosives expert, a slave, an Indian who has lost his wife and there is Charles Darwin. Each of their background stories is visualised, quite elaborately. So are their adventures and the pursuit by Odious. The bandit joins them and, eventually, Alexandria.

The film keeps coming back to the hospital where the storyteller, Roy (an unexciting Lee Pace) wants to die. On the wards is Nurse Evelyn who becomes the Princess (Justine Waddell is less than exciting). The wards and the X Ray rooms are a touch eerie as is life in the hospital.

Finally, everyone sits watching films (silent films) and, especially the children in the hospital, enjoying them.

Exotically esoteric.

1.The film as a visual experience? Audio experience? Emotions, the imagination?

2.The director, his Indian background, work in the United States, music video director? The influence on the visual and aural style of the film?

3.The huge range of locations, their use, the effect, computer graphics to create new worlds within these locations?

4.The background of film, film-making in the US, silent films, the cameras, stunts, their screenings, the injuries? The audience, children? Westerns?

5.Los Angeles at the beginning of the 20th century, the hospital, the grounds, the wards? The staff and their uniforms? The x-ray room seeming sinister? Injuries, treatment, illnesses?

6.Alexandria, the injury to her arm, the story of the fire, the flashbacks, her parents, the enemies, the racial hatreds, the destruction, the crops? The hospital? Her life there? The other children?

7.The opening, the scene at the bridge, the dive, the fall and the film’s title? The horse being lifted? The irony of its being cut from the film?

8.Roy, in hospital, in his ward, the other patients there, especially the anxious man wanting the doctor? Alexandria and her visits, talking with Roy, their friendship? The significance of Nurse Evelyn? In the stories, for Roy? His stories, his talking about Indians and squaws and Alexandria mentioning India? The relationship of the narrative and her seeing a different picture? The comment about audiences and using their imagination despite what is offered to them in word and image?

9.The story of Alexander the Great, the settings, the desert, vast and orange, his horse, the men and the lack of water, the messenger, bringing some water, Alexander pouring it out so that nobody would have the advantage? Alexandria not liking the story?

10.Roy talking, Alexandria incorporating him and Evelyn as characters in the story? Her parents? The counterpoint of imagination and reality?

11.Roy’s narrative, the four prisoners, the Italian, the Indian, Charles Darwin, the slave? The natives swimming to the isolated island, the message? Their wanting to escape? Prisoners of Count Odious? The strong visualising of each story in location: the Italian and the explosions, the slave and his experience, Darwin and his expeditions, the Indian and his wife and her death, the interventions of Odious? The stories developing as Roy told them and Alexandria imagined them?

12.The settings, exotic, the introduction of the bandit, Roy as the bandit, the young woman, Evelyn as the woman?

13.Roy and his health, his dreams, medication? Alexandria getting the pills for him? His wanting to die? The pills as sugar and placebos?

14.The fatalistic direction of the story, the battles, the deaths of each of the individuals? Alexandria’s sadness?

15.The bandit and Evelyn, the intervention of Odious, love, the bandit and his reaction, shooting the girl? Her explaining that it was a test of his love?

16.Odious himself, his attendants, the pool, the confrontation?

17.The stuntman in the hospital, the visits, discussions with Roy?

18.The doctors, the nurses, the x-ray room?

19.Roy, living, love, friendship?

20.The audience watching the movies, the children and their delight?

BREAKFAST ON PLUTO

Ireland/UK, 2005, 129 minutes, Colour.
Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea, Brendan Gleeson, Liam Cunningham, Eva Birthwistle, Ruth Mc Cabe, Dominic Cooper, Ian Hart, Stephen Waddington, Gavin Friday, Ruth Negga.
Directed by Neil Jordan.

This is as unpredictable film as you will find for a long time. It means that you are not quite sure of whether you are enjoying it or not because you don’t recognise too many signposts along the way to indicate what the film is doing or where it is going. Which, of course, is all to the good – and means that you have to give some more thought to what you have seen than what you might normally do.

One signpost, however, is that the film is based on a novel by Patrick Mc Cabe who has co-written the screenplay. His Butcher Boy took us into some weird realms: both ordinary life in a village but also violence and apparitions of the Virgin Mary. In Ireland. That’s another signpost. This is an Irish story with a sense of the fantastic, the offbeat comedy and a touch of blarney, the Catholic church and moral teaching and sex.

But the main signpost is that the film has been co-written and directed by Neil Jordan. For over twenty years, Jordan has offered many very different portraits of Irish life (Angel, The Miracle, Butcher Boy) as well as delving into the world of fantasy and mythologies (Company of Wolves, Interview with the Vampire, In Dreams). His versatility can be seen from the fact that he made Michael Collins, Mona Lisa, The End of the Affair. But, reviewers will point to his Oscar-winning (for screenplay) The Crying Game for a reference here with its story of a transvestite.

First of all, the film is comic in tone. The hero (who might preferred to be referred to as heroine) narrates the story in a broguishly roguish kind of way. Then there are the two robins who feature early in the film, pecking into the tops of milk bottles and making chirpy comments along the way (with sub-titles!!). The narrative is also split up into almost forty mini-chapters with humorous and ironic titles coming up on screen.

This the story of Patrick, abandoned by his mother at the presbytery door in 1956, who is fostered by a demanding mother, finds that he prefers dressing and acting like a girl and takes the name Kitten, and embarks on the life of a transvestite in London in the 1970s. That plot outline should be enough to raise curiosity.

But, there is so much more than that. Not only is it a humane story of a very confused young man who feels alienated from family and community, it moves into the area of Irish troubles and terrorism and brutal police interrogations.

When a policeman takes an interest in Kitten, he helps her/him to move into a Soho prostitute co-op where he appears in peep-show booths – which offers a telling sequence where, in a parallel to the confessional, his father tells him how to find his mother. The film ends with strong feeling but avoiding sentimentality.

Cameos from Brendan Gleeson, Ian Hart and Stephen Rea and the earnest presence of Liam Neeson as the parish priest. But it is Cillian Murphy (Girl With a Pearl Earring, Red Eye, Batman Begins) who sustains the film with a fully committed performance as Patrick.

1.The impact of the film? Awards?

2.The adaptation of a novel, the collaboration with the novel writer? The devices from literature, especially the chapters, for a film?

3.The Irish settings, the town, Dublin, the contrast with London, the details of London regions?

4.The musical score, the range of songs, adapted for each chapter, the lyrics illustrating themes?

5.The strength of the cast, the work of Neil Jordan and his films?

6.A portrait of Ireland in the 1970s, the country, the Troubles, the church, morals?

7.A film of characters, and a portrait of Kitten?

8.‘In Which I Am Abandoned’: the priest, the young Patrick in a dress, going to confession, his foster mother, the football, wanting him to be masculine and to repeat, ‘I am a boy and not a girl’?

‘My Foster Mother’s Shoes’: Mrs Braden, her harshness, taking in Patrick? His background? The absence of his mother? The priest father?

‘My Friends: An Introduction’: Laurence, Down Syndrome, Patrick and his kindness, Charlie, her friendship with Irwin? The robot, the playing the games, the guns? The music and ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’?

‘My Mother: An Introduction’: Mr Patrick and his explanation about Patrick’s origins? The flashbacks and seeing his mother on the bus? His mother being swallowed up by London? The questions about his father?

‘My Father: An Introduction’: The comparison of his mother to Mitzi Gaynor, the scene from Les Girls, the cheque, Patrick going to confession, his talking with Father Liam, Father Liam’s reaction to him?

‘In Which I Am Mis- Conceived’: The essay, the breakfast scene, his mother and ‘breakfast is served’, the priest and seeing her as a woman, Eily and her language, chatter, sex talk, the sexual relationship with the priest? The anger of the teacher about the essay? Patrick’s imagining his origins? Taking him to the priest headmaster? His requesting to do home economics instead of sport? The discussions about St Patrick, St Kitten as being one of his acolytes?

‘The Price of the Dance’: Kitten and his feminine manner, the dress? The song of ‘God Created a Woman’? The bus, his clothes, the bouncers refusing the group entry into the club? The reasons?

‘The Astral Highway’: Laurence, with the group, the bikies, Laurence smoking, the drinking? The Border Knights? The song: ‘Stars … Journey to Mars and Breakfast on Pluto’? The talk about the planets?

‘Changes’: The priest, announcing the retreat, the priest talk about bodily changes, no problems too difficult, the problem box near the altar rails? His reaction to Kitten, turning the retreat into disrepute? His foster mother being upset? Getting a lift on the bus? Leaving home? The cumulative effect of this kind of background, growing up, education, treatment on Kitten, his sexual perspective, transgender?

‘The Mohawks: An Introduction’: The discussion with the group about the Troubles, torture? In the bar, performing? Billie Hatchet and the group, the Mohawks? Talking with Kitten, the kiss, dancing? The song, ‘Honey’? The group at the window watching? The effect on Kitten, on Billie?

‘My Showbiz Career’: Kitten as a squaw in the Mohawks’ performance, in the bars? The booing and the reaction, throwing things? The soldiers and the search?

‘Secret Place’: The song, ‘Me and Mrs Jones’? Billie taking Kitten to the house, the lake, Kitten becoming domestic, cleaning up, discovering the cache of arms?

‘Very, Very Serious’: The march in the town, Irwin’s involvement? Charlie and Irwin arguing? The police, the crowds, the explosion, Laurence’s death, the grief at the funeral? The introduction of the theme of the Troubles? The IRA, arms caches? The reactions to the British soldiers? The film’s comment on these social issues?

‘Deep Water’: Kitten throwing the guns into the lake, Billie’s reaction, fleeing? The argument about the Republicans?

‘In Which I Get Out of My League’: The members of the paramilitary, the search of the house, the discussion about guns, digging the grave, putting Kitten in the grave, not wanting to kill nancy boys, his pleading for being killed, their leaving him?

‘Revenge’: The shooting, the getaway, Irwin in the car, wetting himself?

‘In Which I Leave the Strife- Filled Hamlet and Cross the Ocean Wild and Wide’: London, going to the office, the search for his mother, the assurance of the woman and her urging him to take care of himself?

‘On the Street Where You Live’: The song, ‘Where’s Your Momma Gone’? His searching, going to the houses, the black person answering the door?

‘A Fairy Tale’: Seeing the small house, going in, the children’s playground, the atmosphere of the fairy tale, Jo- Jo and ‘Wombling Free’? Jo- Jo’s anger, in the bar, meeting the girls, Jo- Jo going with one of them? Jo- Jo and the brawl in the park with the children? The Wombles?

‘Perfume’: The prostitutes, the street, the pickups, the discussions about true love? The man in the car, the song, ‘Feelings’? The client attacking him, using force, Kitten using the perfume as a spray and getting away?

‘In Which Kitten Finds Hope’: Meeting Albert, the magician, the song, ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’? The attraction, walking and talking?

‘My Showtime Career Part 2’: The song, ‘Windmills of Your Mind’? The Amazing Albert, the act and hypnotising Kitten, searching for his mother, hugging the audience? His being sawn in half and the blood everywhere? Throwing the knives at the wheel, the heart, Albert wringing it out? The effect of these people on Kitten, self-esteem, friendship and love, identity?

‘Phantom Ladies’: Talk, the travel, at the pier, declaration of love, the act, Charlie arriving in London, taking Kitten away from Albert? The close-up of Albert’s sad face?

‘Revolutions’: Song, ‘Children of the Revolution’? Jo- Jo in the bar, offering the job at the Tower of London? Irwin and his connections, smuggling weapons into London? Charlie and Kitten and their discussion, her worry about Irwin, her pregnancy, the issue of abortion?

‘The Abortion’: Going to the clinic, Kitten talking about himself, not being aborted? Charlie and the official, deciding to go? Song, ‘Lay Your Head Upon My Pillow’? The perspective of the film on abortion, pregnancy, the value of life?

‘My Tights, They’re in Ribbons’: Kitten at the club, dressed as a woman, seeing the engineer, his offering her a drink, their dancing, his talk about Ulster? The dance, the song ‘Honey’? The explosion, the debris, the dead? Kitten’s reaction, the tights in ribbons? Being carried away, the photographers and his posing?

‘The Smile of a Cross- Dressing Killer’: Kitten arrested, the interrogation, the bashing?

‘Kitten Saves the World’: Song, ‘Stop, What’s That Sound’? Kitten and his fantasy, infiltrating the Republican group, the perfume? Kitten singing, spraying? Memories of Laurence, song, ‘Honey’? His being held six days? The two officials and the interrogation, presuming that he was a criminal, the bomb? Carrying him away to the cell?

‘My Sweet Little Cell’: The issue of holding Kitten too long, his arguments about wanting to stay, trying to persuade them to stay in his cell? Their letting him go? More benevolent towards him?

‘Love is a Many- Splendoured Thing’: The rain, the old man with his proposal? On the streets, the cars and the clients? On the escalator, thinking he saw his mother, missing the train in the underground? The interrogator picking him up, trying to help, taking him to Soho, the co-op of the women?

‘Five Good Girls – A Co- Op’: The letter to Charlie, his performance in the peepshow? Arguing about his figure, a svelte gamin? Father Liam and his arrival, watching the peepshow, the equivalent of a confessional? His telling the story, confessing that he was Kitten’s father, could never tell the boy how much he loved him, didn’t know how? Kitten saying it required only three words? Father Liam and his comment about the boy’s growing up, laughter disguising his tears? A way to deal with his situation? Father Liam giving him the address of his mother?

‘On the Street Where You Really Live’: Dressed as a woman, the BT survey, encountering Patrick, their discussions, going into the house, seeing his mother, fainting? The questions about the phones? His mother’s hospitality? His not revealing the truth? The discussions with the young Patrick? The glimpse of Irwin being shot?

‘Be Still My Heart’: Kitten going to Ireland, talking to Father Liam, his asking him to call him Father? His being taken into the church? Finding Charlie, consoling her? Sharing the room? The breakfast talk with Father Liam? Talking about looking for his mother? Finding his father?

‘Lollipop Ladies’: Song, ‘How Much Is That Doggie in the Window’? Kitten and Charlie shopping, his foster mother’s reaction? The argument about the waggedy tail? The women reporting Father Liam to the bishop: ‘He isn’t worth a damn’? The bishop wishing he was a bus conductor?

‘Christmas Eve’: The fire bomb, the destruction of the church, the presbytery, Father Liam and the rescue, standing amidst the ruins? Finding the ciborium and the consecrated Hosts? The congregation?

‘Tearing Me Apart’: Kitten leaving again for the UK, Charlie and the birth, the hospital sequence? Meeting the young Patrick? Seeing his mother pregnant again, hoping it was a girl?

‘The Device of Having the Birds Chatter at the Beginning, at the End’: Loving to talk about nothing, quoting Oscar Wilde that nothing was the only thing he could talk about that he knew anything about? Song, love, ‘Your Baby Love’?

9.The cumulative effect of the insights into Ireland, the Catholic church, clergy, misconduct of clergy? The consequences? The issues of gender, transgender? Acceptance or not? The difference between Ireland and England? The range of people in Kitten’s life, negative effects, a more positive outlook? A portrait of a different young man?

MRS RATCLIFFE’S REVOLUTION

UK, 2007, 102 minutes, Colour.
Catherine Tait, Iain Glen, Brittany Ashworth, Heike Makatsch, Jessica Barden, Christian Brassington, Nigel Betts.
Directed by Bille Eltringham.

Mrs Ratcliffe’s Revolution is a comic look at England in the 1960s and 70s and a comparison with East Germany.

Iain Glen portrays Frank Ratcliffe, an enthusiastic communist who gets the opportunity to go to teach English Literature in East Germany. His younger daughter Mary (Jessica Barden) is always enthusiastic about her father and his causes. However, the teenager Alex (Brittany Ashworth) is very much anchored to her hedonistic lifestyle in England. Catherine Tait is Dorothy, the daughter of a man who fought in the Spanish civil war for the communists. His mythology influences the family and herself and her rather simple brother, Uncle Philip (Nigel Betts) who lives with the family. Reluctantly, Dorothy agrees to go to East Germany.

While the film has a broad look at England at the time, it is also satirical of the drabness of life in Germany. The buildings, the streets, the spies and reporting, the bureaucracies, the hard censorship all take their toll on Dorothy. Feeling that she has simply been a housewife and mother, she starts to help people, get a better awareness, assists a young man to escape by crashing through the barriers between East and West Germany. Finally, she takes it into her hands to take her family back to England.

There is a comic-dramatic climax for the whole film – with some comic touches as the family escapes in a balloon.

Catherine Tait has a strong reputation for television comedy and acquits herself very well as Dorothy Ratcliffe. Other films about East Germany include Regis Wagnier’s East West, Goodbye Lenin and The Lives of Others.

1.British comedy? Characters, satire? The 60s and its atmosphere? Communism and capitalism?

2.England, the family home, school, demonstrations? The contrast with East Germany, its dinginess, dilapidated buildings, the school, warehouses? The musical score?

3.The film’s attitude towards communism, towards capitalism? Strengths and weaknesses?

4.Mary’s voice-over, her age, her essay about her family, her condemnation of her sister, admiration for her father, no mention of her mother? Ideology? Supporting her father? At home? Uncle Philip?

5.Dorothy, as a person, the memories of her father and his fighting in the Spanish civil war, her love for Philip? Housewife? Her children ignoring her? Her love for Frank? Alex and boys? In the house? Subservient? Dominated by her father’s reputation?

6.Frank and his enthusiasm, his place in the family, his taking Dorothy for granted, ideology, demonstrations? Slogans? At school? The move, making the family vote?

7.The animation to illustrate the journey during the credits and during the film?

8.East Germany, the guards, their laughing at anybody wanting to come into the country? The building for their home, the toilet, the manager and her using the toilet? The school? The workplace? Clubs, sport, activities? The warehouse, for Alex and the young people?

9.The people in East Germany, the guards, Anna and her gruffness? The people arrested? The spies? Ingrid and her place in the school, as a spy, recruiting Mary? The information given to the authorities, the interrogations?

10.Frank and his classes, trying to teach English, Shelley and his being censored? Ingrid and her infatuation, the kiss, Alex’s reaction? His liking East Germany? With Dorothy, with the children?

11.Alex and her rebellion, smoking, the music, clothes, boys?

12.Philip, taking photos, his job and liking it, the arrest, the interrogation with Dorothy, her putting her foot down? The manager, his taking photos of her, her anger, understanding, in love, deciding to stay?

13.Thomas, arts, football? The severity of his father, the principal, (**right one?) with Dorothy, driving, crashing through the fence and his escape?

14.The interrogation, the officer, his wanting to escape, contacting Dorothy, the manager and the deals, the money, getting the documents, their fear, their falling into the river? His leaving by himself?

15.Dorothy and her decision, her experience? The documents? The means of escape? The parade, Frank’s speech? Mary and her running? Mary finally agreeing to go? The government representatives, the parade? The balloon, the family getting into it? The applause for the escape?

16.The blend of the serious and the comic? Its memories of communism and East Germany – especially in the light of the end of the Soviet Union and the unification of Germany?

MAGNOLIA

US, 1999, 188 minutes, Colour.
Julianne Moore, Jason Robards, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Philip Baker Hall, Melora Waters, John C.Reilly, William H.Macy, Henry Gibson, Alfred Molina, Felicity Huffman
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Magnolia is an ambitious movie. Like the multi-plotted movies of Robert Altman, it focuses on a central location and weaves the stories of a wide range of characters. The premise of Magnolia concerns chance, coincidence and purpose in what seem to be random connections and accidents. Anderson seems to subscribe to the six degrees of separation theory as he brings his characters into contact with one another.

The setting is Los Angeles. The period is only a couple of hours. After a prologue illustrating his theory – focussing especially on what seem to be random deaths – he introduces his cross-section of Los Angeles residents. One of the central motifs is communication and its lack. Most of the characters have some link to television, especially a quiz show with adults and kids competing. Two of the main characters are older dying men. Two of the younger women are drug addicts. There are several children.

Magnolia can sometimes be tough going. Most of the characters are angry, many raging in a torrent of curses and abuse. However, most of them also undergo, if not a conversion experience, then a felt need to confess and be forgiven. This ties in with the weather motif where forecasts appear on screen: there is rain, strong showers and, unexpectedly a modern Egyptian plague as frogs fall from the sky. This plague symbolism suggests that this Los Angeles society is sinful and in need of some kind of redemption.

Performances are impressive. Tom Cruise’s offensive macho men’s instructor shows an acting versatility he does not often reveal. His performance here was Oscar-nominated. More gentle performances, no less persuasive, come from Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly (the principal ‘good’ characters). Jason Robards and Philip Baker Hall are the dying men while William H. Macy gives another different performance as a former child quiz star.

Paul Thomas Anderson has not made many films but all of them are both striking and challenging: Hard Eight, Boogie Nights and Punchdrunk Love. He had great critical succes with There will be Blood (2007),

1.Acclaim for the film? Awards? The career of the director? A perspective on American life at the end of the 20th century?

2.The title, the street in Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley? The focus?

3.The prologue and the silent film style of Green, Berry and Hill doing the robbery at Greenberry Hill? Coincidence and chance? The story of the fire, Darren and his being in the tree? The background of the casino, his dealing, his hobby, deep sea, the plane taking up the water, sprinkling it on the fire and putting him in the tree? The suicide of the pilot, the irony that he had played in the casino and that Darren had dealt him the cards? The story of Sidney, his suicide, his fall, his parents quarrelling, the firing of the gun, his being shot, a net to stop his fall but his being dead? The arrest of his mother and father? The loaded gun, Sidney loading the gun for their fight with each other? The irony of all these stories? As a prologue to Magnolia? The recapitulation of the chance theme and the visuals of the Sidney story at the end?

4.The length of the film, the range of characters, their stories, editing and intercut, the links between them? Thematic: children and parents, the young and adult celebrities, fake identities, deaths, confessions, addictions?

5.One day and its events? The culmination in the plague of frogs falling from the sky? The weather notices throughout the film? Weather as a symbol, the plague symbol?

6.The cast and its strength, the range of the musical score, the thematic songs, each of the characters singing during the film? The collage of them singing the same song? Popular songs, opera and Carmen? The music and the mood and atmosphere?

7.The television world: Frank Mackey and his courses, his promotion videos, interviews for television? The quizzes, Donny as the child star, Stanley as the contemporary star? Jimmy Gator and his thirty years as compering the show? Earl and his ownership of the show? Characters watching films, videos and TV throughout?

8.The dramatic effect of coincidences, the plague, each of the characters experiencing the frogs? The effect? Jimmy having the last good word, Claudia’s being the last face, and her smile?

9.Earl’s story: the verbal information about his relationship with Lily, her illness, his walking out, Jack being young and taking care of his mother, no word from his father, wanting a phone call? His marrying Linda, his infidelities? His final illness, the pain, the morphine, the tablets and injections? The experience of dying? His dependency on Phil, wanting to see Jack? His confession about his life to Phil? Jack coming, pouring out his anger towards his father, his father opening his eyes before dying? A reconciliation or not?

10.Phil’s story: a good man, middle age, a carer, his gentle manner? The interactions with Linda and the care for Earl? His gentleness with Earl, the medication, spilling the tablets, the dogs in the house? Earl wanting to see his son? Phil and his ordering the groceries as well as the sex magazines, the suspicion of the person on the phone? His awkwardness? His wanting the magazines to find Jack’s number? Phoning the agent, nervous, the conversation about his situation, wanting help? The people on the phone, putting him through to others who could help? His finding the information? Jack coming, his being present at the death scene?

11.Jack’s story: the introduction, his new name, his macho appearance, style, extreme masculinity? The look, the language, sex and his crass language, virility, self-absorbed? His explanation of his course? The language about women? The men at the course, their questions? His books, the Power Point presentation? Jack as a character? Audiences knowing the truth about him? His assistants, his being bossy towards them? The interview for television, his smarmy behaviour, telling lies, his being challenged? His change of attitude, aggression talking about time, being obnoxious? The phone call from Phil? His decision to go, sitting with his father, saying he wouldn’t weep, weeping, accusing his father? A confession?

12.The interviewer, her background, a woman interviewing Frank? Her research, her questions, her continued probing, the jokes, her being serious, his aggression towards her as she probed and commented on his lies?

13.Linda’s story: her background, marrying Earl, not loving him, neurotic, her infidelities, her going to Doctor Diane for prescriptions, driving, at the pharmacy, the people at the pharmacy giving advice, talking, her anger, calling out “Shame” to them? In the car, the exhaust, her wanting to kill herself? Phil and his rescue? The collapse in the car, going to hospital? Jack visiting her?

14.Donny’s story: the child star, the pressure on him as a quiz answerer, his parents taking his money? At work, not being able to handle money, spending all the money on his teeth and braces? The encounter with Solomon and his brother? The discussion about his work, payments, borrowings? Their threats? Going to the bar, the elder gay man and the conversation? His infatuation with Brad, declaring his love, the motivation for his teeth? Getting into the store, the burglary? The encounter with Jimmy, the frogs, Jimmy helping him, returning the money? A future?

15.Jimmy’s story: as a policeman, his life, his simple manner, the experience of the divorce? At home, by himself, earnest and upright? Kneeling for his prayers? A good man? Called to the disturbance made by Marcie, her continued abuse of him, swearing? His replies, arguments, the letter of the law, searching the house? Going to the closet, finding the body? Being called to Claudia’s house, the disturbance, her loud music, talking with her, liking her, at ease, the bad coffee, going out, the restaurant, their pledging to tell the truth to each other? Her leaving? Her breaking with him? The end, his helping Donny, his return to Claudia, the final words and the end?

16.Claudia’s story: the relationship with her father, moving out, her addictions, drugs, sexuality? Her father’s visit and her anger? Being disturbed? The revelation of the past abuse? Jimmy and the talk, taking drugs while she chatted with him, at the restaurant? Her fears, her mother’s arrival, the comfort? The end and her smile?

17.Jimmy Gator’s story: on air, the flashbacks and his sexual misbehaviour, his devotion to his wife yet betraying her, Rose as a character, long-suffering, watching him on television, alone? His relationship with his daughter, dying of cancer, going to visit her, wanting to talk? Her putting him off? On air, the thirty years, his patter, the program? His relationship with his staff, the boss? His assistants? His collapse on air, his going through the routines again? Being confronted by Stanley? His confession to his wife, her leaving him, his being upset, asking about forgetting? His killing himself? His wife in the car, the frogs, going to Claudia?

18.Stanley’s story: the long shot of him studying and the reverse camera? Knowing his answers for the quiz? As a personality, with the other kids and their arrogance? Their agents and their financial deals? His father and his pushiness? Cynthia and her being the manager, not taking any notice of what he wanted? The three adults in the quiz, their ability to answer, insults to the children? The studio, wanting to go to the toilet, wetting his pants? His not wanting to go to the microphone for the one-on-one? The other two and their reactions, language? His father desperately watching? His standing his ground? His telling his father to be kind to him?

19.The effect of all these characters and their interactions coming together? The effect of the audience watching them and experiencing their lives for three hours?

UNRELATED

UK, 2007, 100 minutes, Colour.
Kathryn Worth, Mary Roscoe, David Rintoul, Tom Hiddleston, Harry Kershaw.
Directed by Joanna Hogg.

Divided critics, divided audiences.

Winner of several critical prizes, Unrelated is the story of a middle-aged woman (Anna, played by Kathryn Worth) facing menopause who decides to get away from her husband and join friends on holiday in Tuscany.

Those who admire the film mention its not being predictable, the performances and the quality of the talk (of which there is a great deal). They find the film full of insight.

Those who find the film something of an ordeal (or, rather, quite an ordeal) know that they themselves could never go on a holiday like this with these people, could never enjoy it let alone find it the occasion of re-discovering one’s self. And the talk seems not particularly fresh or insightful.

There is a lot of extraverted stuff going on, lots of drinking, chatting, arguing and angst discussions. Interestingly, the screenplay does not present any overt sexual activity. The younger generation is rowdy, the older generation more staid. Anna veers towards the younger but that might be compensation.

While the same screenplay could have been used had the characters all remained in the UK, there is some local Tuscan scenery and a visit to Siena, some wines and some Italian meals.

Reading between the lines, you might guess that this reviewer, while not disliking the film, still found it an ordeal.

1.The impact of the film? The very mixed reviews? Audience and critics’ acclaim? Criticism that the film was tedious?

2.A small-budget production, cast, locations?

3.Tuscany, the house, the countryside, the roads, Sienna? Would it have been different had it been set in the United Kingdom?

4.A dialogue film, expressing character? The quality of the dialogue, idle chat, raucous enjoyment, feelings, issues?

5.The opening, Anna arriving, the road and the lights, the party, her friendship with Verena and George? Her being tired, the aim of the holiday, her age, issues of menopause, self-image? Her continued phone calls to Alex? Her talking with the family, with the young people, drinking, swimming? Relationships? (And not an emphasis on sexual activity?) The music, the visit to Sienna, the tourism, her shopping? Her moving away to the hotel, Verena’s coming, the discussions with her? The return? With the younger people, the attraction to Oakley? With Jack and his wife? The older visitors? The family leaving? The tension with Oakley, friendship with the younger people and the couple? Her staying? Her future?

6.Verena and George, their age, marriage, their children, the holiday, life in Italy, the maid, visit to Sienna, the visitors, the meals, the tastes of the older generation, compared with the younger? Verena and Anna and their friendship?

7.Oakley and his family, his character, life, ambitions, the relationship with Anna?

8.Harry and the younger group? Raucous, Anna asking them to be quiet?

9.The married couple, the car accident, their anxieties?

10.The older visitors, the outing for the meal?

11.The film as a low-budget psychodrama?

NIGHT TIDE

US, 1961, 84 minutes, Black and white.
Dennis Hopper, Linda Lawson, Gavin Muir, Luana Anders, Marjorie Eaton.
Directed by Curtis Harrington.

Night Tide is a surprisingly interesting small-budget film from 1961. Its writer-director, Curtis Harrington, spent most of his career in television but at the end of the 60s and into the early 70s made several horror films for the big screen which have some classic status: Games, What’s the Matter with Helen.

Dennis Hopper, twenty-five at the time, plays a rather diffident clean-cut American sailor (very different from his later roles). On leave, he is attracted to a young woman (Linda Lawson) who plays a mermaid in a pier carnival. She believes that she is a siren and this is confirmed by the English captain who found her and brought her to America as a child. (Gavin Muir portrays the English captain but was American-born, educated in England.) Luana Anders is the sympathetic daughter of the merry-go-round proprietor on the pier. Marjorie Eaton is effective, especially in a tarot cards reading, as a fortune teller.

The film is based on some lines from Edgar Allen Poe from Annabelle Lee. It takes the story of the sirens and puts it in a colourful new context. The film is atmospheric and moody rather than having any horror. However, as the young sailor becomes more and more infatuated with the mermaid and she becomes more and more concerned with her being drawn back into the sea, it culminates in a sad conclusion – although the explanation given at the end comes very quickly and perhaps too easily.

1.An interesting drama of the 1960s? The early career of Dennis Hopper? Curtis Harrington?

2.The California locations, Venice Beach, Santa Monica and Ocean Pier? The apartments, the carnival, the sea? The atmospheric score (by David Raksin)?

3.The credits, the water, the tides? The explanation, the full moon? The fatal diving episode at high tide?

4.Johnny Drake, from Colorado, joining the navy to see the world? On leave? Going to the club, listening to the combo, attracted towards Maura? Following her? Her being haunted by the old woman? Going to her apartment, the next day, the breakfast? With the sea birds? The other visits, the attraction? Her work in the carnival, Captain Murdoch and his bringing her to America? Her costume as the mermaid? The later meetings, the information about the boyfriends who died? Her fears, in the water, Johnny rescuing her from the water? Fearing she had sleepwalked? The full moon, going diving, her cutting herself loose? Surrendering to the sea? Seeing her dead at the carnival?

5.Maura as a character, her background, Greek, the little girl, in America? With Captain Murdoch, wanting her freedom? The boyfriends and their deaths? Murdoch filling her mind with the siren legends? Her friendship with Johnny, falling in love, the breakfast, the sleepwalking? Her fears? Her sinister appearances in his dreams? Her decision to die?

6.Captain Murdoch, his story, his drinking, his warnings to Johnny? Reminding him when Johnny got the massage? His final explanations of what he had done?

7.The carnival people, Ellen and her father, Ellen as sympathetic, coming to the police station at the end? Madame Romanovich, the gossip, her reading the tealeaves? Johnny’s session with her, her explanation of the tarot cards and their revelation of the world?

8.The police investigation, the finale with Johnny and with the captain?

9.The musical background, the combo in the club?

10.A reliance on performance, photography, music, atmosphere to create a mystique?

A BUG’S LIFE

US, 1998, 96 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis -Dreyfus, Hayden Pannetier, Phyllis Diller, Richard Kind, David Hyde -Pierce, Joe Ranft, Dennis Leary, Madeleine Kahn, Bonnie Hunt, John Ratzenberger, Brad Garrett.
Directed by John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton.

It has been done before, but why should the animal world be the multi-million dollar Hollywood symbol for contemporary allegories of human life? What was it in the American psyche that Pixar Studios and Dreamworks Studios recognised that persuaded them to spend years computer-animating the movies A Bug's Life and Antz and unleash them on willing and, as it turned out, eager audiences? I am not sure that many humans have a passion for ants, but we are certainly far more sympathetic after these movies than we were before.

The 'done-before' refers to Mr Bug Goes to Town, directed by Dave Fleischer in 1941 which, after not too successful a box-office response, was given a zippier title, Hoppity Goes to Town. It was the struggle between insects and humans (probably relevant in the atmosphere of World War II and the imminent attack on Pearl Harbour).

The 'done before' also refers to 1984's George Orwell's allegory of half a century ago, Animal Farm, which was filmed in animation in Britain and released in 1955, an allegory of tyranny amongst the animal themselves and reflecting Western attitudes towards the dominating socialism of Stalinist Russia.

Maybe animals are what T.S.Eliot calls 'objective correlatives', poetic and symbolic equivalents of human experience. But, it is A Bug's Life, lighter to look at and lighter to feel (despite the genuine menace of the grasshoppers and their attempts to mimic the pigs of Animal Farm - some insects, the grasshoppers, are more equal than others). A Bug's Life has more 'international policy' undertones, the defence of the smaller and poorer against the invaders and the exploiters. The musical score of A Bug's Life is often reminiscent of those British movies of the 40s and 50s where the gallant forces prepare to ward of the attacking Luftwaffe. If you see the film again, listen to the score when the insects are constructing the bird which will frighten away the grasshoppers.

A Bug's Life very quickly made more than a million dollars at the American box-office and was just as successful elsewhere. What was it awakening in us about ourselves?

Our hero ant (well, not initially), voiced by comedian Dave Foley, is called Flik. He is an extravert. In fact, it is difficult to find any introverts in the colony. It is ruled over by Phyllis Diller as queen! He is a dreamer, full of ideas and imagining possibilities. He has invented a harvester, which not only does not go down too well with the ultra-traditional and unimaginative colony and its leaders, it also helps accidentally lose and destroy all the food the colony has been collecting as tribute for the grasshoppers. Flik gets the flick.

Only Flik could see the possibilities in the dead-end flea circus characters as defending the colony. And it is Flik who invents the giant bird to defend the colony. And it is Flik who takes the blame when things go wrong. But, the experience of exile gives him time for himself, to be a bit more introspective, to examine himself, to discover a touch of introversion. Nor can he just simply dream or 'perceive'. It is time for action, for judgment, to defend the colony. He loves the colony - and, rather unawares, he is in love with Princess Atta. Values are looming. And he has to be practical. The bird he builds is not just an invention. It has to work in the here and now.

Flik has had an 'Inner Awakening' experience.

The point about Flik's inner awakening is that it is not just for himself but for the colony. After all, when he is disheartened, it is Dot who offers him a rock and asks him to imagine. And the point is not lost on Hopper. He terrorises his brother and the revelling grasshoppers and insists they go back to Ant Island just to get revenge on Flik. One ant with an idea can change a colony. And Flik does, telling Hopper straight about how the grasshoppers are bullies, are afraid of the ants who are, at least, their equals.

Francis, the male ladybug (voiced by Denis Leary) gets angry at being mistaken for a female ladybug. His time in the colony leads him to the children and to play with them. But Francis also discovers, as Slim the sticklike praying mantis (voiced prissily by Frasier's David Hyde Pierce), that he has been able to get in touch with his feminine side.

These ant colonies are ruled by queens, tough queens, the bugs by Phyllis Diller and the antz by Anne Bancroft. Both colonies have queens-in-waiting in Princess Sharon Stone and Princess Julia Louis -Dreyfuss, neither of them shrinking violets. But each of them has to be rescued by the heroes. It was Julia Roberts at the end of Pretty Woman who replies to Richard Gere's question about the prince rescuing the princess, 'She rescues him right back'. The inner awakening that both movies illustrate is that the women are supported by their animus figures and the men get in touch with their anima figures.

I'm not sure how many of these thoughts were in the minds of the screenwriters - although the pressbook for A Bug's Life describes Flik as 'an original thinker out of step with the rest of the more traditionally minded colony - but their ants have turned out to be fine symbolic psychological types.

1.The impact of the film? Entertaining? The Pixar tradition? (Comparison with Antz which was released at the same time?)

2.The quality of the animation: the layouts, the detail, the anthill, the creatures, the range of bugs in the circus? The grasshoppers? The action? The comedy sequences? The musical score?

3.The cast: the range of voices, the comic qualities? Kevin Spacey’s sense of menace?

4.The allegory for human experience? Commentators saying that it was a version of The Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven? The plot? The themes? The social concern?

5.Audience response to ants, grasshoppers, bugs? Serious and comic?

6.The opening, the ants, their characters? Collecting food? The leaf and their fear?

7.The line, the guide, the gap in the line? The princess and her training? The role of the queen (and Phyllis Diller’s voice)?

8.Dot, the princess’s younger sister, her trying to fly? Flik, his inventions, collecting the food, creating mayhem? His telescope? The reaction of the traditionalists?

9.The lecture on the seed? The use? The imagination? Dot and her comment that it was a rock?

10.The grasshoppers, their menace, the demands on the ants? The food, the pile? Tipping the food into the pool? Flik waiting in the cave?

11.The grasshoppers, the invasion, Hopper and his character, the brother and the story? The rules of leadership and the response?

12.Flik, arguing all aspects of the case, leaving the island, wanting the ants to fight back?

13.Flik’s journey, his character in himself, good-hearted, awkward? Inventive and imaginative?

14.The circus, the range of bugs? Francis as the male ladybug? Slim? Stick? The humour of the bugs and their performance?

15.The machine to help with the collecting? The invention of the flying bird? Building it, manoeuvring it?

16.The grasshoppers, Mexico? The ants and the grasshoppers keeping them in line?

17.Playing with the bird, the attack, battle stations?

18.The arrival of the bugs, the warriors, the ants believing them? The preparation for the combat?

19.Dot, her being pursued, flying? The telling of the seed story?

20.The circus performances, Hopper’s gross response?

21.The bird, the fire? Flik and his defying of Hopper?

22.The rain, the real bird?

23.Flik, reinstated, the princess and her appreciation of him? Dot and her soft spot? The queen and her reaction?

24.The happy conclusion, ‘The Time of Your Life’? The humour of the outtakes during the final credits?

88 MINUTES

US, 2007, 108 minutes, Colour.
Al Pacino, Alicia Witt, Lelee Sobieski, Amy Brenneman, William Forsythe, Deborah Kara Unger, Neal Mc Donough.
Directed by Jon Avnet.

Well, yes, it is far, far-fetched (we hope) and aspects of the plot and the murders seem to defy ordinary logistics and, yes, it is melodramatic and has more than a couple of lurid aspects, but this is what we might expect from this kind of heightened crime thriller rather than detailed and credible realism. To see it as the equivalent of an hour's episode of a police thriller which goes for realism is to misjudge the intentions of the film-makers. That said, this is one of those breathless thrillers where someone is threatened with death in 88 minutes and he has to track down the killer and save himself.

It has been directed by Jon Avnet who went on to make Righteous Kill with Al Pacino and Robert de Niro. Both are extremely melodramatic but this one has the edge over Righteous Kill.

The film opens with a gruesome killing, the arrest of the perpetrator, a court case and his being found guilty, especially because of the testimony of the victim's twin sister who glimpsed him as he tried to kill her and, especially, the expert witness, Jack Gramm, a psychiatrist who assists the police in their work. Al Pacino is Jack Gramm.

The rest of the action takes place nine years later as the murderer is about to be executed. A similar murder is discovered and Jack Gramm is implicated. He also receives a series of phone calls threatening him with death in 88 minutes (a sadistic touch as Gramm's little sister had been murdered years earlier and tortured for 88 minutes and he had been haunted by guilt since). Gramm believes that the murder has been orchestrated by the condemned man and tries to find out who, especially among his university students, had visited him and could be the accomplice.

There is a lot of breathless running, driving and constant mobile phone calls which speeds up the research as well as the ease of contact from the killer. There is, naturally, a great deal of misdirection but, on the whole, the screenplay plays fair with clues and indications which means that suspicions become more focused because of a suspicious incident about half way through.

Alicia Witt and Lelee Sobieski appear as two of the psychiatrist's students. Amy Brenneman is his loyal assistant and Deborah Kara Unger is the faculty principal. Neal Mc Donagh is the eerily charming murderer, appearing on national television hours before his execution.

Not a Pacino must but geared to the thriller audience.

1.A psychological thriller? Serial killer thriller?

2.The Seattle settings, the city as a character, the streets, university, apartments, the weather? The atmospheric score?

3.The structure of the film: the initial murder, the trial? Nine years passing? The action in one day? The eighty-eight minutes? The dynamic of detecting, chasing and discovering?

4.The title, the experience of Jack’s sister, Katie? The callousness and brutality? The phone calls to Jack, the repeating of the number of minutes left for him, written indications?

5.The impact on the audience of the crimes, the twin sisters, the intruder, the murder, the rape? The other twin and her scream? The killer fleeing? The sister identifying the killer in court? Jack’s testimony, the questions of the prosecutor? The reactions of the defence? The guilty verdict? The killer and his look at Jack, “Tick-tock”?

6.The nine years passing, the day of the killer’s execution? The appeals, not granted, his appearing on television, the interview, Jack phoning in and confronting him, protesting his innocence? The phone call to Lauren – and the failure of his plan?

7.Al Pacino as Jack, in himself, age, the guilt from his sister’s death, his explanation later to Kim about what had happened, his being young, leaving his sister alone, her death? The madman, his being caught, his imprisonment? The eighty-eight minutes? The new beginning in Seattle, the psychiatric work, working for the police, the contact with Frank? His clients? His lectures? Kim as his assistant? The students and his attitude towards them in class? His lecture? His relationships, womanising?

8.His being with the escort woman, leaving, the phone call? The beginning of the day? His working with Shelley, her character, his assistant, her handling the calls, getting the information? Lauren and the documents? Shelley’s confession, wanting to help?

9.Frank, friendship, a solid policeman? The district attorney, his youthfulness, the cookie and the milk? The interview? The murder, the mode of murder, copycat, another killer? The death of the student? The death of the escort?

10.Jack, going to his lecture, his manner, discussing the killer? Michael and his comments, the visits to the killer in prison, smart, the final confrontation, Jack firing the gun?

11.Kim, as assistant, giving the lecture until Jack arrived? Going with Jack, suspicions, her story, her marriage, her husband, the pursuit? Driving with him, going to the escort’s apartment, finding her dead? Her fears? Her being abducted?

12.Lauren, smart? Her being hurt, the encounter with Shelley? The revelation of the truth? The documents, her being the killer’s lawyer, charmed by him, doing his work, the imitation deaths, the indications to Jack, the disguised phone calls? How credible?

13.The fire at the university, the different messages, Carol as the head, her past relationship with Jack? Her being abducted and used by Lauren?

14.Frank, the second murder, his wariness about Jack? Straight up and down? His believing Jack’s arguments? His being present at the building, firing the shot, killing Lauren?

15.The flashbacks, the people at the bar, Lauren and her being unobtrusive, the escort, the murdered girl? Guy and his presence, his being at the university, on the bike, at the door, his being shot? The relationship with Kim?

16.The elaborate plan? Using the escort, Lauren and her setting Jack up, the evidence?

17.Jack, the anxieties of the day, driving, the phone calls, the information, the threats? The car exploding? In his apartment, Lauren, Kim, the shootings, getting out?

18.The final confrontation, Lauren and her confidence, Carol and Kim and their being helpless? Jack using his psychiatry, Lauren and her growing assurance, explaining herself? Frank shooting her? Rescuing Kim and Carol? The killer’s final phone call? The resolution of the mystery?

GOOD DICK

US, 2008, 84 minutes, Colour.
Marianna Palka, Jason Ritter, Charles Durning, Bryce Dallas Howard, Tom Arnold, Mark Webber.
Directed by Marianna Palka.

A brief, small-budget character study, something like a psychodrama.

Marianna Palka grew up in Glasgow but moved to the United States at the age of seventeen. In Los Angeles she partnered Jason Ritter in creating the company Morning Knight Inc. They work together here, she as writer, director and star, he has a producer and co-star.

Ritter plays the unnamed young man who works in a video/DVD store, with a group of friends who sit round and talk about relationships and about movies (as if they were akin to Kevin Smith's Clerks). One of the customers is an unnamed young woman whom we first see nervously driving to the store and renting erotic films. The young man is attracted, intrigued and follows her, trying to get up the nerve to speak to her. He has a telephone-dominating mother and has had to move out of his apartment and is living in his car and refers to himself, as he gives the gift of a cross, as a lifelong Catholic though this seems to have nothing to do, really, with what goes on. She seems quite neurotic.

Eventually, he infiltrates himself into her almost-confidence and into her apartment though she is very strong in exercising control over him. He is a genial and patient type. What follows is the sexual part of the psychodrama, with not a great deal of visual explicitness. This is more in the topics of discussion and the dialogue. He is fairly ordinary in his outlook and behaviour. She has been compensating with the DVDs and has to come to terms with moving away from the merely physical to the emotional and the relational.

Towards the end, she visits her father (Tom Arnold) at work and the audience learns quite a deal about her and what has stunted her emotional maturity.

1.A psychodrama? Two-hander drama? The effect, insight?

2.The work of Marianna Palka, writing, directing, performing?

3.The Los Angeles settings, the dingier touch, apartments, the video shop, the streets, bars? Offices and central Los Angeles? Realism? The musical score?

4.The title, overtones, sexuality, physical, emotional, relational, perverted?

5.The woman: seeing her driving, haggard, smoking, the video shop, the DVDs, the man giving advice, at home, isolated, mysterious, watching the DVDs, her reaction, her preoccupations?

6.The man: his age, in the store, giving advice, his pride in his knowledge about movies, his interest in the woman, his house being destroyed, living in his car, being moved along, reading his books? His mother, Polish, her demanding phone calls? His comment that he was Catholic? His following the woman, getting into the building, looking through the window? His meeting her, the elevator, her fear?

7.His story about his aunt, the woman believing it, sympathy, talking, letting him in? The meals, her being in control, her rules, he obeying them?

8.Watching the DVDs, discussions, the discussions about erotica, relationships? Her control, the bet and the measurement, in the bed, warmth? His reassurances?

9.Their discussions, changes, more intimate, her ousting him? Her fears?

10.The woman at work, the customers in the restaurant?

11.The store, the men, their chat, the meals, their discussions about relationships, the couple getting the DVD and their kissing?

12.The woman and changing her dress, going to see her father, asserting her independence, a new apartment, not giving him information, the car, his character, discussions, the revelation about the past and his molesting her? As an adequate explanation of her character and her behaviour?

13.Her move to self-assertion, the possibilities of change, relationships – especially with the man?