BONNEVILLE

 

US, 2007, 93 minutes, Colour.
Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen, Christine Baranski, Tom Selleck, Victor Rasuk.
Directed by Christopher N. Rowley.

 

A Bonneville (for those who, like this reviewer, do not know) is a vintage American car. So, this is an American road movie – with a difference. The passengers in the car are three woman of more mature age. The journey takes them from Idaho to Utah, to Arizona and Nevada (and Las Vegas) to California and Santa Barbara – with a postscript in Mexico. The vintage car serves them well.

 

The reason for the journey is a funeral service.

 

Jessica Lange plays Arvilla, the wife of an anthropologist who has died in Borneo. She has returned to their home in Pocatello, Idaho, with his ashes. The difficulty is that his adult daughter from his first marriage wants to bury the ashes in the family plot. Clash. The daughter, Francine, is played with haughty assumptions by Christine Baranski. She threatens to evict Arvilla if she does not comply with the funeral arrangements because no new will can be found leaving the house to Arvilla.

 

When Arvilla decides to give in, she persuades her two friends, the bumptious extraverted Margean (Kathy Bates) and the prim Morman wife and mother, Carol, who has never travelled (Joan Allen) to accompany her. She revisits the special places in her life with her husband, the salt lakes, the canyons and the lakes, Las Vegas... and, on their arrival in Santa Barbara, the urn is considerably lighter.

 

Along the way, there is lots of girl talk, camaraderie, some fights, drawing Carol out of her careful reserve. She is thunderstruck when she wins the jackpot in Las Vegas with a dollar from a woman whose hotel profession she misunderstood. They encounter a genial young man (Victor Rasuk) who helps them with their flat tyre. They meet a friendly truckie (Tom Selleck) who is a godsend for Margean.

 

The locations are attractive, the dialogue has pep but it is the strength of the four actresses who make the film.

 

1.A piece of Americana? Women’s stories? Age stories?

 

2.America: the Idaho locations, Utah and the salt lakes, Nevada and the canyons, Las Vegas, California, the beaches, Mexico? The scenery, the roads, the lakes, the mountains, the desert, the sea?

 

3.The title, the old car, the classic, its past, ownership, driving, experience?

 

4.The cast, their status? The musical score and moods? The songs – on the radio?

 

5.The situation, the death, Arvilla as a widow? Francine and her motivation, wanting to bury her father? The different experiences of grief? The clash, the challenge, the urn with the ashes, the planning of the service, the issue of the ownership of the house?

 

6.Jessica Lang as Arvilla, her age, living in Idaho, not having travelled, her marriage, going around the world, Papua New Guinea and the mementos, her husband dying in Borneo? His manuscript and her intending to finish it? Bringing home the urn, wanting to scatter the ashes? Francine’s visit, her husband, the clash, the issue of the will? Arvilla and her searching? Francine owning the house? Arvilla as a character, her friendship with Margean, Carol?

 

7.The house, Arvilla at home, sharing it with her husband? His moving from Santa Barbara to Idaho? The arguments, Arvilla’s search for the will, her decision about the house, to go, buying the plane tickets?

 

8.Margean and her background, widow, extroverted and lively? Earthy? The contrast with Carol, her devotion to her husband, never travelling, the Mormon background, the Book of Mormon? Her puritanical attitudes? Finding it difficult to relax and enjoy issues?

 

9.Setting out, the car, their discussions, the urn, their discussions, the decision to go by car?

 

10.The interactions, Carol and her concerns, Arvilla saying she was always right? Margean and her sense of freedom? Arvilla and the arguments with Carol?

 

11.Going to the lake, the expanses, Arvilla’s memories? Meeting Bo, the flat tyre, waiting, his help, changing the tyre? Carol and her fear? The drive, his story, searching for his father? Cleaning the car, the meal? His being an inspiration because of fulfilling his dream?

 

12.Eamon, in the truck, the girls passing him? The later meeting, Margean being cold, Carol and her reaction, wary? Arvilla and the plan to meet in Las Vegas? Meeting him there, his buying a suit? The meal, Margean and her flirting, going dancing? The later meetings, in the desert, a future?

 

13.The motels, the women sharing, arguing, the waterbed and Carol relaxing? The boat, running aground, Margean and the spoilt meal? Carol and her making sandwiches?

 

14.Arvilla, scattering the ashes in the various places, the salt lake, from the boat, in the canyon?

 

15.Carol, at the casino, the prostitute and her misinterpretation, giving her the dollar, winning the jackpot, the consequences, wondering what she would do?

 

16.Francine, her worry, the phone (and her eccentric call sound)?

 

17.Carol and the change, her getting the ashes in the desert, putting them in the urn?

 

18.The drive, held up by the police, arriving late, Francine and her good manners, the group gathered, her speech, thanking Arvilla, tripping, the urn breaking, the ashes scattering, the discovery of the truth?

 

19.Going to Mexico, enjoying the beach?

 

20.Arvilla, writing the letter to Francine – and the possibilities for a satisfying future?

 

 

 

 

 

UN POCO DE CHOCOLADE

Spain, 2008, 93 minutes, Colour.
Hector Alterio, Daniel Bruhl.
Directed by Aitzol Aramaio.

A light, very sweetly flavoured story of friendship.

An old man (Hector Alterio), cantankerous in his ways, goes home from hospital, to the relief of the staff, to the care of his sister. He is already mixing memories, moving easily back into his past as if it were the present. In the meantime, a young man (Daniel Bruehl) has come to Barcelona from the country and, finding the empty house, has squatted there. A young woman has seen him in the square and is attracted.

The old man and his sister accept the presence of the young man who shows himself concerned and attentive, caring for the old man (and preparing sushi which the old couple are to polite to tell him that they dislike). The old man glides in and out of memories of his long-dead wife and the scenes of their young days on the streetcars of the city.

Not all that much happens in terms of plot: meals at home, illness alarms, a picnic in the country, flashbacks of memories, the young man and woman in love and marrying. Rather, it is the atmosphere, of warmth and human kindness on the part of all the characters that make the film a pleasant experience. It is of interest to see as part of the career of Daniel Bruehl. (The American dubbed version is to be avoided – it makes it sound American slangy and a very badly performed soap.)

1.A slight Spanish confection? Characters? Situations? Magic realism?

2.The city setting, the hospital, the homes, the landmarks? Authentic feel? The musical score?

3.Lukas and his dying at the opening, his reminiscences, returning to his death at the end, the falling snow?

4.Lukas’s character, old, fighting in the war, his woodwork after the war, his love for Rosa, marriage? In the hospital, his reminiscences, Rosa present to him, his friends and Matteus, playing ball, the streetcar? Rosa on the streetcar? Her coming into his life, coming into the picnic lunch, the friends coming? The ghosts and memories of his past?

5.Lukas as cantankerous, the hospital wanting him home, Maria taking him home? Finding Marcos? Allowing him to stay, the music, the meal – but not wanting to eat the sushi? Maria and Lukas and their pretence? Relying on Marcos, his kindness, spending time with Lukas? Helping him when ill?

6.Marcos, coming to the city, begging, playing the accordion? The pervasive music? Roma seeing him, following him? Their meeting, falling in love? Marcos going to his parents, returning, with Roma, helping Lukas and Maria? The meals, the time spent together? The picnic, Marcos’s aunt? The gathering – the meal, the ghosts arriving? The dancing and the pairing?

7.The return home, Marcos and Roma marrying? A future? The parallel with Lukas and Rosa? Maria and her happiness with her brother?

8.The magic touches, the characters? The little bit of chocolate and Lukas’s final comment?

IL VENTO VA IL SUO GIRO (THE WIND GOES ROUND ABOUT)

Italy, 2008, 120 minutes, Colour.
Thierry Toscan.
Directed by Giorgio Diritti.

A particularly local Italian story set in a remote northern valley, in a village which has lost most of its inhabitants to the cities. The experience is narrowly focused but the message about human nature is universal.

The valley is beautiful, outside Turin. However, the weather and snow are severe and opportunities are limited. When a Frenchman and his family, originally from the Pyrenees but moving because of the building of a nuclear power plant, ask to come in to herd goats and make cheese, there is a mixture of help and reluctance to allow strangers into the village which has had its own language for more than 900 years.

At first all seems to go well. There are memories and celebrations of how the locals hid the hay from the Germans during the war and then everyone joined in to distribute the hay. But human nature being what it is (or the unpleasant sides of human nature, like xenophobia, being what they are), the locals become discontented, jealous, mean-spirited group, believing unfounded gossip. The farmer himself can be abrasive, which does not help.

The film pays great attention to detail of farming, herding and country living. It also intersperses the working scenes with discussions about language, identity and culture. The film is similar in many ways to Raymond Depardon's documentary portrait of changing farm life in France, La Vie Moderne.

It would be pleasing to finish the review by saying that this is an optimistic film about human friendship and collaboration. While there are good moments, people can be harsh and hostile.

1.An Italian story, the contrast between city and country, a film of friendship, enmity? Universal application?

2.The beauty of the location, the Italian valley, the mountains, the small town, the pastures? The contrast with Turin?

3.The atmosphere, the countryside, the changing seasons, the score?

4.The long culture, nine hundred years, Occipitan, the culture and language, people living together, community, the preservation of the culture, losing the culture?

5.Rueldo: the hay, the experience during World War Two, taking the hay to the church, deceiving the Germans, delivering the hay to the needy farmers, everybody joining in to help, the work of the contemporary farmer’s parents? The later harshness?

6.Village life, the bar, people leaving the town, the musician and his tours? The farms, the herds of cattle, the holiday apartments? The mayor, his absence, his deputy, the parish priest, the traditions, the council? Religious processions, house blessings? Change?

7.Philippe and his story, living in the Pyrenees, giving up his work as a teacher, opting out, herding the goats, the nuclear threat in the Pyrenees, his wife and family, the visit, his quest, Fausto and Costanzo and their help, the mayor and the people? Wary, suspicions? Renting huts, homes? The decision about the house? The barn, the kitchen? The goats, the quality of his cheese? Settling in, the pastures – and the goats wandering into other pastures? Progress in his cheese industry? The family, the welcome, his not wanting the house blessed? At home, at work?

8.Friends, discussions about culture, language and community?

9.The seasons, the growing tension, the pastures, their son working with Philippe against his father’s will, the simple man?

10.The herds, the cattle and the goats, growing hostility, accusations, the wood, chopping down the trees?

11.The death of the pig, the authorities, checking out everybody’s farm, the stories going round, the gossip, the lies?

12.Philippe’s wife, the effect, her children?

13.Philippe and his search for the goats, finding them dead, not going to the meeting, his decision to pack up and leave?

14.The television interviewers, Costanzo, the comments, the death of the man, the funeral? The quotation at his funeral – and the allegory about dying?

15.The sadness of the story, the malevolence of human nature, possibilities of community, work, living together? Suspicions? Hopes and defeat?

 

 

 

THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX

 

 

 

Germany, 2008, 144 minutes, Colour.
Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu.
Directed by Uli Edel.

 

In the aftermath of the upheavals of the 1960s, the student protests, the Vietnam War, the undermining of governments and authority, the 1970s saw a number of revolutionary groups who took to terrorism and thuggery for their alleged social and reformist ideologies. The Italian Red Brigade was one. But, probably, the best known was the Baader Meinhof Gang who called themselves the Red Army Faction.

 

Producer Bernd Eichenger (who wrote the film about the last days of Hitler, Downfall) has based his screenplay on the 1980s (revised in the 1990s) book by journalist Stephen Aust who followed the activities at the time. The film has been directed by Uli Edel who made such tough films as Christiane F and Last Exit from Brooklyn as well as some far more commercials films in the US like Body of Evidence with Madonna. Here, he and Eichenger are back with their German roots when they were young film-makers in the 1970s, initially impressed by the causes of the RAF but then disgusted by their ruthlessness and the killing of civilians. This is evident from the film.

 

The Baader Meinhof Complex is certainly not simple. It is a chronicle of the activities from the late 1960s to the deaths by suicide of the main protagonists ten years later. Events follow events. Characters come and go and we are not sure who they are except that they belong to the RAF. Nevertheless, the film holds the attention as it recreates the period and shows us the RAF in action as well as the members with their interactions and tensions.

 

Initially, the film concentrates on the wife and mother, leftist journalist, Ulrike Meinhof. She is stirred by the protests of the 1960s. Her husband betrays her and she leaves with her children, only to become involved with giving shelter to Andreas Baader. Eventually, she makes an ideological choice and abandons her children for the RAF causes, wanting to be a voice of reason but caught up in the violent activities. Baader is presented as a narcissistic rabble rouser without too much political savvy but a knack for enthusing followers, especially his girlfriend, Gudrun Ensslin (daughter of a religious minister) who becomes one of the leaders.

 

Martina Gedeck and Moritz Bleibtreu are strong presences as Meinhoff and Baader. Johanna Wokalek is striking as Ensslin.

 

The bulk of the film shows the hardening of the group's determination, their training with the PLO (and Baader's arrogant superiority, racism and anti-authority stances), their robbing of banks, their increasing terrorist activities as well as the hard line taken by the police (who don't emerge with much credit with their brutality) and the shrewd chief of police (Bruno Ganz).

 

Eventually, the heads of the gang are arrested and spend years in gaol and in the courts. Young Germans who do not know the leaders personally join the ranks of the RAF and finally hijack a plane to demand the release of the prisoners. Ulrike Meinhof becomes more depressed and hangs herself. Another leader dies in a hunger strike. After the failure of the hijacking Baader and Ensslin kill themselves in prison.

 

The film offers little sympathy for the gang's actions and their setting themselves up as saviours and martyrs. But it does remind audiences that waves of protest and violent action have continually occurred and history can teach us what happens and why.

 

1.A 21st century look at the 60s and 70s? The past, the 20th century protest and terrorism? From the perspective of thirty years later?

 

2.Audience knowledge of the Baader Meinhoff gang? The film giving information? Germany in the 1960s, the government, the twenty years after World War Two? Rebuilding Germany? Capitalism, socialism, divided Germany, communism? The personalities, their reputation, action, ideology? The movement? Their deaths?

 

3.The documentary style, pace, accumulation of events, characters, a portrayal not analysis? The causes, behaviour, terrorist activity, crime? The victims? The police, the chief, the arrests, prison and trials?

 

4.The strong cast, well known? Sympathy for the terrorists? Glamorising them or not?

 

5.The 60s and 70s, the songs from Janis Joplin, the end with Bob Dylan? Hair, clothes, the hippie style? The influence of the 60s?

 

6.The focus on Ulrike Meinhof? The tone of the opening beach sequence, the nudism, uninhibited, the children, their playing? Her husband? Her work as a journalist, the protest on the visit of the shah and the visualising of this visit, the protests, the brutality of the police, killing the student? Her article, husband reading it aloud to the group, her involvement?

 

7.Gudrun Ensslin, her father, revealed as a minister, her arguments with him? The relationship with Andreas Baader? His type, swagger, having a cause or not? Being able to sway people? The relationship with Gudrun? The decision to bomb the department store? The arrest, waiting, the escape?

 

8.Baader and his sympathetic friends, the lawyers, academics? The attitude of the public? The student body? Ulrike Meinhof and her helping and sheltering him?

 

9.Ulrike Meinhof and her decision, the advice and the issues, the discussions, her motivation, ideas and ideals, the voice of reason? Discovering her husband’s infidelity, taking her children, leaving him? Going to the Mediterranean?

 

10.The forming of the cells, the getting of the recruits, the protest ideas, life on the run, hiding, going into action, terrorism?

 

11.Rudi Deutsche and his speech, the attack on him, the assassin and his ideology, clean-cut young man, his fanaticism, injuring Rudi, the police pursuing the killer, his suicide?

 

12.The young man from prison, meeting Gudrun? In the car ride with Baader, shooting at passersby? Baader in Rome, making his lawyer steal the woman’s purse? Upset about his own car being stolen?

 

13.The group going to Jordan, the PLO, taking fighting and training seriously? Baader and his arrogance, clashing with the PLO, issues of sexuality? No deserts in Germany …?

 

14.The return, the robbing of the banks, the coordination of the many banks at the same time? The motivation against the banks, the use of the money?

 

15.The police, coordinating against the group, trying to understand the mind of the terrorists? The chief, calm, the discussions, the lobster soup? The government and the bringing in of computers? Strategies, ultimate arrests? Bringing some drama to the film with the confrontation between the police chief and the terrorists?

 

16.The action sequences, the pursuits, the arrests, the shootouts? The effect on the group?

 

17.Ulrike Meinhof in her house, the arrest? Baader and Gudrun going to prison?

 

18.The variety of prisons, Baader becoming more serious, getting some ideas? In court, the judge, their insulting him, their becoming more involved, the insolence, the sunglasses, the interruptions?

 

19.The background of the journalists and the write-ups? The journalist interviewing Gudrun’s parents and their reaction?

 

20.Ulrike and Gudrun, in prison, their clashes, Ulrike writing, Gudrun criticising, the falling out, the angers? The consequences in court?

 

21.The ultimate effect on Ulrike, depression, her killing herself? The background of the hunger strike and the member of the gang dying from hunger?

 

22.The various high-flying victims, the abductions, the union leaders, bankers, the ruthless killings?

 

23.The new cells, recruitment, ambitions, wanting to free Baader, the plan for the hijacking, Baader not approving, the progress, the taking of the plane, the death of the pilot, the armed forces moving in, the release of the hostages?

 

24.The decision to commit suicide, Baader, Gudrun and the others killing themselves?

 

25.An episode in German history, European history? Its meaning? The legacy?

 

 

 

Z

France/Algeria, 1969, 128 minutes, Colour.
Yves Montand, Irene Papas, Jean- Louis Trintignant.
Directed by Costa- Gavras.

Z is a political thriller from a novel based on incidents in Greece. In fact the film is an attack on the right-wing government and its repression in Greece, While the film takes a left-wing stand on politics and behaviour, it is presented as a reasonable left against dogmatic, self-righteous, right-wing stances. Extremists in the left are criticised as are extremists in the right. The extremists of the right appear as the worst because they base their plots and manoeuvres on their sense of God being on their side and their mission of cleansing and purifying.

A synopsis might make Z sound like a boring piece of propaganda cinema. On the contrary, Z is engrossing and exciting. The central figure of the Professor holds the film together - in the harassed preparation for his address, in his assault and death and in the investigations into his death. Yves Montand invests the character of the Professor with a fine dignity and this helps audience sympathy and concern.

The second part of the film has much of the interest of a court drama as the objective and somewhat anonymous investigator, played by Jean- Louis Trintignant, probes the witnesses and the generals. The screenplay was written by Jorge Semprun, who also wrote Alain Resnais' La Guerre Est Finie with Montand. Costa- Gavras, Semprun and Montand worked after Z on The Confession, this time a critical look at the double-think of Communist countries.

Z is a very fine piece of film-making. It won the Oscar for best foreign film for 1969. It also won the Best Film Award from the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures in the United States.

1. An engrossing film? Why?

2. Was its political bent the reason for its success or its thriller technique - or both?

3. On which side of the political spectrum did the film come down? Was it in favour of extremes or did it stay nearer the centre?

4. Why was reference to living people and situations intentional? What did the filmmakers hope to prove by this? What did they expect to achieve? (This applies also to the end of the film with the narrating of the punishments and the list of things banned from Greece.)

5. How was the Deputy presented? Was he sympathetic as a person, as a politician, what he said, as a martyr?

6. Do you agree with the C.E.O.C. lecturer's analogy of the virus of mildew with 'left-wing' civil liberties' moves? Why?

7. Do organisations, such as C.R.O.C., have the right to exist, even secretly? Do they have the right to protest against the policies of the left? Do they-have the right to use violence? In the name of God, the nation and morality?

8. What impression did the riot scenes have? Why?

9. How do you explain the logo and Vago and C.R.O.C. 's and the police's hiring of them for the assassination?

10. What examples of 'double-think' from the film, especially concerning Russia and America, Communism and Capitalism, the nature of freedom?

11. How convincing was the structure of the film as it showed bashings and the Deputy's speech? (the Deputy's question of why the moderate left's ideas always provoke violence)?

12. How did the Army and the police emerge from the film? Why?

13. What dramatic role did the Deputy's wife play in the film? Was her appearance necessary?

14. What was the significance of the sequence with the poor witness, his family's fear and the attacks on him?

15. What role did the Investigator play in the film? Why was he presented as neutral in manner and vocabulary and in dark glasses? Did he conduct the enquiry properly? when his career was placed as the alternative to his conscience? Was he right to proceed with the investigation?

16. Shock at the widespread membership of the conspiracy? At the planning and the story prepared? Are such conspiracies possible? Are they entered into in good faith?

17. What emotional impact did the investigation of the generals have on you - and the symbolism of their trying to get out the locked doors?

18. Shock at the persecution of the group after the military coup?

19. Was the film pessimistic at the end?

20. What political attitudes would the film form in audiences? C.R.O.C. was for authority, a nation where the pillars were Monarchy and Religion, national, united, clean, anti-intellectual, making war not love, on corruption and liberalism and too many liberties.

21. Must there be continual change in society? Or no change at all?

22. Why did the U.S. National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures gave it its Best Film Award in 1970 in conjunction with the National Council of Churches?

THE GODFATHER

US, 1971, 175 minutes, Colour.
Marlon Brando, AI Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Richard Conte, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Alex Rocco, Al Martino.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

The Godfather provides three hours of absorbing drama, horrifying in its comment on American life and the impact of organised crime, illustrating the abuse of power and its capacity for corrupting. The Italian/Sicilian atmosphere in its emigrated (as well as original) forms is convincingly communicated and the hold "family" loyalty has on the next generation is powerfully shown in the presentation of Michael (AI Pacino). Marlon Brando is an authentic Don Corleone whose influence pervades the whole film. The supporting cast makes the frightening proceedings credible. The film is to be recommended to thoughtful audiences - with an advance caution about some violent blood-letting.

1. Did this film deserve all the praise it received, to become the biggest box office success of its time? Why? What was great about the film?

2. Did the film give insight into the mentality of the Mafia? Their code, beliefs, ambitions, lust for power?

3. Comment on the contribution of the colour, decor (New York, the homes, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, the hospitals, cafes, Sicily), the musical themes, the tracking styles of camera work, the editing, eg. for the initial wedding, the final baptism. Comment on the quality and the convincing nature of the acting?

4. The Mafia had its own code of morality, unacceptable to outsiders. How was the moral attitude of the audience guided to assist the behaviour of the Corleone family and others: by comment, by violent statement, irony etc.? By introducing Kay as an outsider (as the audience is introduced)?

5. The significance of the title 'God/father' and the Godfather's role? As God? As the puppet-master, as the credits indicate? The influence of the Godfather and his role in the family? The nature of family and family bonds? Questions of loyalty and love as applied to ambitions and business?

6. Comment on the morality of the film. The rationalisation of immorality in the family? The family code and its logical application? Virtues for ordinary people within the framework of an amoral code? Audience response to this morality?

7. The members of the Corleone family appeared as respectable citizens, not obviously like the gangsters of the 30s. Was this a gangster film? Or, because of the respectability of the characters, was it more a film about capitalists and business? An insight into America? The themes of greed, power, exploiters, corruption?

8. Comment on the human feeling within the film? From the family loyalties, to dependents on the Godfather, to the Godfather's ambitions and feelings for his family, power and love, death and sorrow etc?

9. How important was the theme of the contrast of the old world and the new world? In the life of Don Vito himself The transition from the 30s to the 40s2 The introduction of drugs etc.? The opening up of Las Vegas? Sonny and Tom Hagen and their new ideas compared with the Don? The transition as embodied within Michael?

10. How well did the film portray Italian and Sicilian background? Did this explain the code and the attitudes of the Italian Americans? The influence of the Italian migrants in America?

11. The impact of the violence on the film? The visualisation of such violence? The murders, the horse's head, the mental and psychological violence? The Godfather as an echo of the violent America of the 70s?

12. How vital was the portrayal of Marlon Brando as the Godfather? His submerging of himself and his personality in the physical and mental attitudes of the Godfather? The initial presentation, the opening sequences and interviews, Don Vito with his family, his hold over his sons, trying to persuade Michael, his relationship with his wife? His not wanting to change because of the drugs? The impact of his being shot and his hospitalisation? His continued hold over the family? His old age? The importance of the sequence with the children in the garden, the humour, the emotional impact of his death? Audience response to this?

13 How well portrayed were the other characters?
- Michael: the youngest son, that he was not subdued by the Mafia, his army service, his independence, the choices open to him, his loyalty to his father, the hospitalisation as influencing him, his willingness to be the assassin, the Sicilian experience, his happiness and marriage, the attempted murder, his return and control, what had changed within him, his mercilessness, his deceiving of Kay, the final irony of the Baptism and the assassinations, finally assuming the role of the Godfather? How skilful were the details of AI Pacino's performance?
- Sonny: the contrast with Michael and Tom Hagen, the carefree attitude, boisterous, sexuality, willing to do deals, his role in the family and influence, differences with his father, the irony of his assassination?
- The contrast again with Tom Hagen? The non-Italian? Yet being absorbed into the family, the quality of his advice, the hold over the others, his ability to efface himself, the continued influence with Michael? How dangerous a man? The insight into his character?
- Clemenza, the fat ordinary Italian, loyal, but finally a traitor? Tessia and the comparison with Clemenza, his role at the end with the final meeting? The insight into the ordinary Mafia men via these characters?
- Barzini: the rival chief, the skill and deadliness, the ruthlessness, the suave dealings at the meetings, the grief at the funeral, but he was a loser?
- Kay: a non-Italian American, her love for Michael, her trying to under stand his work, her horror at the Mafia way of life, her asking the truth and being told
a lie? The comparison for Michael's character with the presentation of Kay?
- Connie and Carlos: their role in the family, Carlo being used by the brothers, his infidelity to Connie, the fights, the hysterical attitudes between them, the insight into the effect of the pressures of Mafia life?
- Johnnie: his role as a singer, the influence of the Godfather to Los Angeles, Tom Hagen helping him, his career based on such violence as with the horse's head?
- Sollazzo: the new man, the go-between, trying to do deals with drugs etc.?
- The Tataglia family - the rivalry with the Corleones, their powerlessness to succeed?

14. How impressive was it that the first 27 minutes were concerned with the wedding sequence and the Don's interviews? The revelation of power, the talks with the dependent people, the arrangements and favours, and the contrast with the festivities of the wedding, feast, dancing, religious overtones? How skilful a beginning of the film was this?

15. How important was it that the next immediate contrast was Hollywood? The interview with Woltz? The picture of Hollywood and the pressures by the Mafia? The dramatic impact of the horse's head sequence: the gradual tracking down the bed and the gradual discovery and the horror? The impact on audiences and its influence within the film?

16. The encounters between Sollazzo and the Don and the moral implications of drug-pushing? The implications for business, the changing ways?

17. The reason for shooting the Don, the making the path clear for Sonny's acceptance of drugs? The way that the shooting was filmed, the ordinariness of the Don in the markets with the fruit, the violence of the shooting?
18 The impact of the hospital sequence: the atmosphere of fear? The Don not being guarded? The possibilities of assassination? The impact on Michael?

19 How was Michael's changing of character worked dramatically and credibly into the details of the plot? How well was he introduced? The indications for gradual change? What motivated his change?

20. The portrayal of Mc Clusky and the implications of corrupt police? The worker's bodyguard? The dramatic build-up to the assassination of Sollazzo and Mc Clusky in the restaurant? The skill of Michael's planning? The drama of the actual assassination?

21. The impact of the shooting on Michael? The effect on his conscience? Its logic within the framework of law and loyalty within the family?

22. The importance of the Sicilian sequences? The change of tone and pace from America? The old world background and the way it was portrayed? Yet the similarities with bodyguards, assassination attempts? The importance of Michael's marriage and happiness? The sequences of happy Italian life and customs? The sinister undertones of all this with the Mafia?

23. The dramatic impact of the assassination of Luca Brazzi and his being strangled in the bar?

24. The recovery of Don Vito and his influence within the family? The strength and resilience of the man?

25. The relationship between Sonny and Carlo? The inevitability of Sonny's assassination? The dramatic impact of the visualisation of this? The effect on the audience?

26. Comment on the board meetings and the presentation of the bureaucracy of the families? The interactions between the men? Their ambitions and their style? The paralleling of ordinary legitimate meetings? The sinister amorality underneath the picture of normality?

27. The romantic touch between Michael and Kay? Did it come too late? Kay as an attractive girl? Her patience in waiting for Michael? His deceiving of her? Audience reaction to this?

28. How important were the final sequences with Don Vito? His advice to Michael, the experience of his age, the tranquillity of his death?

29. How did the sequences in Nevada show the changing world in which the Mafia worked? The work of Fredo in [as Vegas? The style of Moe Green? The Jewish conflict with the Italian Mafia? The business deals and the exploitation in Las Vegas?

30. How well did the film use the funeral not only as epitaph to the Don but also to further the dramatic impact of the film? Rivalries at the funeral? The codes and betrayals? The consequences of this?

31. How impressive was the filming of the Baptism and the assassinations? The dramatic impact? Was it too facile? Or was it most effective, a culmination for this film?

32. The significance of Carlo's death and the effect on Connie?

33. The finale with Kay? The audience being left with this?

34. How did audiences feel after three hours of film, the transition in Michael, and the final kissing the hand of the new Don?

THE READER

UK, 2009, 123 minutes, Colour.
Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross, Lena Olin, Bruno Gantz, Alexandra Maria Lara.
Directed by Stephen Daldry.

Given the controversy about the themes and the treatment of these themes in this film, which has been written and designed for a mature and reflective audience, not everybody will find it as moving as this reviewer did, one of the best films of 2008.

It is a film where any judgement (moral or aesthetic) made before the final credits is in danger of being peremptory and wrong. This could be the case for some audiences who might find the nudity and sexuality of the first half (in fact, more than is normally seen in a mainstream film) too much to watch. However, this contributes to the meaning of the themes when the second part of the film is seen.

Playwright David Hare, whose films often have political perspectives (Via Dolorosa, Gethsemane), has adapted the very popular (even extending to Oprah Winfrey's TV Book Club) short novel by German lawyer and writer, Bernhard Schlink. The film has been directed by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Hours). It has a very strong cast with Kate Winslet giving one of her best performances. David Kross is effective as the 15 year old Michael Berg. Ralph Fiennes is the older Michael. (Though the make-up for Kate Winslet as she grows older is convincing, it is hard to accept the transition from Kross to Fiennes in the plot short span from 1966 to 1976.)

The first half almost immediately plunges the audience into an affair between a schoolboy and a 36 year old Berlin tram conductor and the effect on each of them of the attraction, the sexual awakening and experience and the unusual feature of the relationship that the conductor wants the boy to read to her, his choice including Homer, Twain and Chekhov.
The narrative and Daldry's direction and the performances enable the audience to understand the behaviour as psychologically credible whether they approve of what is happening or not.

The second half of the film changes tone completely and the book and the film raise uneasy questions about the Holocaust and the guilt of Germans who were adults during the Nazi period and the war as well as how the children of those adults dealt with the memories (and suppression of memories) and the inherited guilt. There are several memorable and disquieting court room sequences which also raise the question of responsibility for the atrocities, the choices made by, for instance, security guards at concentration camps and the consequences – and the prison sentences they received. By focusing on 'ordinary' Germans instead of the authority figures, the film is a reminder of the 'banality of evil' embodied in people who seemed to live by ordinary moral standards but who were capable of alarming evil, of physical and psychological brutality.

Another question the film raises is that of judging and understanding, some commentators emotionally criticising book and film for being too understanding of and, therefore, too lenient on the war criminals. In a late scene with Lena Olin as an Auschwitz survivor and the older Michael Berg, the objectivity of judgement and the subjectivity of experience are well dramatised and seem to remain irreconcilable, a mystery of human nature and human behaviour.

Underlying this is the theme of illiteracy and the limiting of life choices for the uneducated. Books which tell stories or offer poetic insight into the nobility of human nature are offered as a symbol of what might have been, of what could be.
Since we have only one life to lead, then choices mean honour or dishonour, savagery or nobility. And the book and the screenplay do not offer any easy thoughts or ways of redemption, reconciliation or healing.

The Reader might be seen in retrospect as an archetypal story of 20th century Europe, the tragedy and horror of what was, with deepest regrets for what might have been.

1.The impact of the film, its acclaim? The status of the novel? The accompanying controversies? The screenwriter as a dramatist, adaptation of the novel for the screen?

2.The title, the reference to Michael, to reading, to literacy, illiteracy and the consequences for life choices? Books and themes, the range of books quoted? The impact of reading, the imagination? Spoken novels, recordings? The books and reading as a symbol for culture a human spirit?

3.The structure of the film: the opening in the 90s, the main action taking place in the 50s, the reversions to the 90s, the court case of the 60s, the imprisonment and contact of the 70s, prison and the 1980s? The effect of this time-shifting? Hannah’s ageing? The two actors for Michael?

4.The setting of the scene, Michael and the young woman, his casual attitudes and relationships, his preparing to meet Julia, going to the court, his marriage history, his daughter finding him distant, his taking responsibility for this?

5.The 1950s, Michael, his age, on the tram, in the rain, being sick? The encounter with Hannah, her cleaning up? The scarlet fever, with his family, his sister, isolated in the room, his reading? His devoted mother? His demanding father? The later sequences of meals, his birthday absence? The revelation that he did not come back for his father’s funeral? Visiting his mother, bringing the young Julia, telling her about the divorce?

6.The credibility of the affair, the 1950s, Germans, Michael and his age, his recovering from the illness, taking the flowers to thank Hannah, meeting her, walking with her, seeing her change, the touch of the voyeur? His embarrassment? His returning, shovelling the coal, covered in the dust, the bath, both being naked? The affair, the sexuality, the sensuality? The effect on each of them? The awakening? The amount of time the film gave to the sexual and sensual scenes? Michael and his love, Hannah and her love? The scenes of the baths, the washing – before Hannah left? Michael and his family and the lies?

7.Michael and the reading, the range of books, Hannah unable to read? The visit to the country, bike-riding, the meal and Hannah not being able to read the menu, the comment about Michael’s mother enjoying the meal and the subsequent kiss? Hannah unable to read the map? Listening to the choir, Hannah’s tears – and Michael later burying Hannah in the churchyard?

8.Hannah as illiterate, the joy of listening to reading, her work on the trams, her severity about Michael in the other carriage, his apology, the discussions about apology? Love? Her severity, the promotion, her having to leave because she would have to work in an office, and read, her disappearance?

9.Michael at school, his friends, the girlfriend, the class, going swimming in the summer, his birthday and going to Hannah, the absence from the family, his return? The effect of Hannah’s disappearance?

10.The older Michael, his memories, the photos, the catalogue of the records, the different places? His divorce from his wife, his love for his daughter?

11.The eight years passing and his going to law school, the role of the professor, the discussions about law? The small group of students? Philosophical issues, legal issues, moral issues? Their going to the courts to observe the trial? The professor aware of what was happening to Michael, being tough and objective? The puzzle about Michael and Hannah?

12.The courts, the group on trial, the nature of the case, Hannah and the interrogations? The effect on her, Michael watching? The horror of the truth, a sense of pity, the illiteracy issues, the women lying about Hannah and writing the confession, Hannah as a scapegoat, her being ashamed of not being able to read, her accepting the guilt? The long sentence? Michael going to the prison, getting permission, his turning back, Hannah waiting?

13.Michael and his life, study, the discussions of law, the girl, the abrupt sexual encounter, wanting to sleep alone, the clashes with the professor, the arguments about guilt and the Nazis, the parent generation, knowledge about the concentration camps?

14.The case, the accused women, their seeming indifference, one of the accused knitting? The contrast with Hannah as straightforward, telling the truth, the others lying? The behaviour of the judge, his questions? The story of Auschwitz, the guards choosing the victims to go to the ovens? The testimony of the mother and daughter, the daughter surviving, writing the book? The story of the march, the endurance? The prisoners being locked in the church, the bombing, the fire, the women not unlocking the church, the prisoners dying? Hannah and her explanations, not allowing the prisoners to escape, that being her job? The horror of the deaths?

15.Hannah and her story, her work, volunteering for being a security guard? The training, the regime? Her having favourites, people reading to her? The reaction of the people in the court, their abuse? The scapegoating of Hannah? Michael and his knowing the truth about the confession, his inability to explain this to the professor, his keeping quiet? His motives?

16.Hannah in prison, Michael weeping, going on with his life, marriage, daughter, taking his daughter to see his mother, the divorce? Hannah and the years passing, her age?

17.Michael and his deciding to send Hannah the tapes, the memories, the list, recording The Odyssey and the other books? The effect on Hannah? The letters? Hannah and her decision to learn to read, the letters over the years to Michael, his not replying?

18.The years passing, the 1980s, the governor, phoning Michael when Hannah was to be released, his visit, talking with her, the plan, his questions about what she felt, her seeming indifference, the dead remaining dead?

19.Hannah’s final days, packing the books, hanging herself? Leaving the message for Michael? The money in the tin to the Auschwitz survivor?

20.The Auschwitz survivor, as a little girl in the camp, her book, testifying with her mother? Her receiving Michael? The severity of her talk, on the issues of guilt, forgiveness? Her attitude towards the money? To a charity for literacy? Her keeping the tin?

21.Michael and Julia, her coming back from travels, their going out to the meal, his dropping her, the trip, the surprises, the church, Hannah’s graveyard? His beginning to be honest and tell his story to her?

22.A film of the 20th century? The horrors, the tragedies? Guilt, possibilities for healing – or not?

LOVE AND HONOUR

Japan, 2006, 118 minutes, Colour.
Takuya Kimura, Rei Dan, Takashi Sasano.
Directed by Yoji Yamada.

Prolific Japanese director, Yojo Yamada, completes his Samurai trilogy with Love and Honour. The first in the series, Twilight Samurai (2004 and the Japanese entry for that year's Oscar for Foreign Film) and the second, The Hidden Blade (2005) received critical and popular acclaim. They were not the typical martial arts or Samurai adventures. They looked behind the action and dramatise the characters and their personal interactions as well as the repercussions of Samurai codes on their lives.

This film is moving in its portrait of a callow young Samurai (played by Japanese heart throb, Takuya Kimura, who shows a depth of acting skill as his character matures) who is one of the Lord's food-tasters. He has a young wife but is both dominating and flippant in his relationship with her. When he suffers a bout of food poisoning and loses his sight, his whole demeanour changes, far more serious and depressed. He clashes with his wife and divorces her. Finally, the action builds to a duel between himself and one of the Lord's important officials who has lied to him.

The other two characters are also well delineated, the Samurai's wife and his old servant.

The film is elegant, beautiful to look at. While there is the final duel, this is not an action film but a humane drama.

1.The end of a trilogy? A stand-alone film? The samurai background? The focus on character rather than action?

2.The setting, the samurai’s home, the surroundings? The Mansion of the Lord? The beauty of the colour photography, compositions, seasons? The beauty of the film? The musical score?

3.Audience knowledge of Samurai history? The background of Samurai training, their work for the Lord? Warriors as well as servants?

4.Mimura and his place as a Samurai in the clan? His role as a poison taster? His relationship with his wife? Their poverty? The happiness – but his offhand manner, especially with his wife and her innocence and ignorance? Their servant? Seeing him in action, the formalities of the food tasting? The officer taking the food, its being carried to the Lord, his eating? The episode with the test, Mimora and his becoming ill, collapsing? The stopping of the dinner for the Lord? The investigation, the fact that it was seasonal shelfish and not a deliberate plot? Yet the official, his being summoned, his committing Hara Kari?

5.Mimora, at home, ill? The work of the doctor? His wife and her care for him, transferring the medicine to him? His opening his eyes, his being blind? His having to accept this? The doctor and his pessimistic outlook?

6.Mimora, blind, dependent, helpless? The scenes of his trying to eat a meal, move around his room? His wanting to end his life? His wife and the servant saving him? His accepting this, living in the darkness?

7.The wife, her devotion? The family and the discussion about finances and means? The invitation for her to go to Shimada? Their urging her to go? Shimada and his proposition, wanting to advance Mimora’s salary? His forcing Kayo to have an affair? Mimora and learning of the truth and her story of what had happened? His divorcing her?

8.The revelation that the Lord himself was actually supporting Mimora for life? Shimada interested only in his own affairs?

9.Mimorak his decision to train with the sword, the master swordsman? The training, his ability with the sword? Sending the servant with the message to Shimada? The duel, Shimada and his tactics, Mimora and his slicing his arm?

10.The servant, ever faithful? The meals? Mimora’s complaints, the servant offering to bring in a cooking girl? Bringing in Kayo? Mimora recognising the meal, the reconciliation with his wife?

11.Mimora’s journey, from a callow young man to a more mature man, blind, loving his wife? The wife and the sadness of her journalist? The servant and his great fidelity?

THE LADY VANISHES

UK, 1938, 97 minutes, Black and white.
Michael Redgrave, Margaret Lockwood, Googie Withers, Dame May Whitty, Paul Lukas, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Cecil Parker, Linden Travers, Catherine Lacey.
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

One of Alfred Hitchcock's most famous films.

It was very popular in its time and has lasted well. However, the fact that it was made in England in the thirties is quite evident, especially in the use of studio sets and backdrops. They look particularly artificial.

However, the screenplay by prominent writers-directors, Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, keeps the action and the humour moving. The novel was by Ethel Lena White, The Wheel Spins. There are excellent performances especially by Michael Redgrave in one of his earliest roles. Dame May Whitty was the famous vanishing lady and Paul Lukas an expert villain. Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne made a very good comic appearance as the two Englishmen abroad preoccupied with cricket - and they made a career together of playing eccentric English gentlemen.

There are many Hitchcock touches in this story of a train trip. Hitchcock was very fond of journeys and trains. It also is in his particular area of espionage and captured the atmosphere of pre-war Europe. Hitchcock was to make only one more film in England, the unsuccessful Jamaica Run and then moved to his Hollywood career beginning with Rebecca, which won the best film of 1940 at the Academy Awards. There was an elaborate and colourful re-make by director Anthony Page and writer George Axelrod in the late seventies. It was an international co-production starring Elliot Gould and Cybil Shepherd. Angela Lansbury was the vanishing lady and Arthur Love and Ian Carmichael took up where Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford left off. Herbert Lom exerted his usual style as the villain.

1. The film in considered classic Hitchcock. His British phase? Audience expectations from a Hitchcock thriller?

2. The quality of enjoyment of this film in terms of plot, the drama, the mystery, the comedy overtones, thriller aspects? How well worn?

3. The cinema techniques and the artificiality? The use of studies and artificial nets? Do these detract from the impact of the film? Those in comparison with the implausibilities and the tricks of the plot?

4. How plausible was the plot? On analysis most people find it impossible and some of the incidents, for example Miss Froy being a spy and the message communicated in a tune impossible? Did this matter while the film was in progress? The film's capacity for engaging audience involvement?

5. The importance of the European setting? The contrast with England? English people on the Continent and the spy atmosphere? The hero and the heroine and their comic meeting? The importance of the comedy about the rooms? Gilbert's recording the folk dancing? Iris and her spoilt society attitude? The build-up of the atmosphere of the hotel and the delay? The night, the sinister aspects of the hotel? Preparing the audience for the plot?

6. The introduction of Miss Froy as a genial old lady, her connection with the sudden death of the musician? Her reality and the questions about her existence? Her name on the window and its inappropriate disappearance? As a character? Her running off to get the message to England? How plausible while she was on the screen?

7. The creation of a sinister atmosphere at the station and Iris's collapse, the sinister aspects of the train, the carriage, and the passengers and their look?

8. Audience response to Dr Hartz, the revelation then that he was the villain? The introduction of the nun and her high heels? The nun changing sides?

9. Iris and her relationship with the people in the carriage? The truth and nobody believe her? The later influence of the characters in the carriage especially the conjurer in the freight carriage?

10. The sub-plot of the Todhunters and their own melodramatic atmosphere? Their telling lies, the truth, and lies again? Todhunter's fear, the stupidity of his death?

11. How enjoyable were the characters Caldicott and Charters? Their chatter about the cricket? The supposedly typical English tourists? The irony of their worrying about the cricket, arrival back for play being washed out?

12. The atmosphere of suspense and the search of the train? The lies and the truth?

13. The growing atmosphere of trust in Dr Hartz? His poisoning them, and their trick response? The gradual growing pace of the suspense and the plot?

14. The final melodrama of finding Miss Froy, the nun, her help, the train on the side track, the siege, Miss Froy to escape?

15. The humour of the ending, Gilbert's inability to remember the tune, finding Miss Froy had delivered the message?

16. How enjoyable a piece of classic thriller escapism?

TRADE

Germany/US, 2007, 118 minutes, Colour.
Kevin Kline, Cesar Ramos, Alicja Bachleda-Curus?, Paulina Gaitan, Marco Perez, Linda Emond.
Directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner.

With its subject of sex trafficking, especially from Mexico to the United States, Trade can never be less than harrowing. At times, dramatic, with some melodramatic moments, it offers a personalised story of what is one of the ugliest trades in the world today.

It has been the subject of a number of films from different countries. One of the most challenging is Amos Gitai's Promised Land (trade from Eastern Europe into Israel). And Your Name is Justine is a sobering film about Polish women being tricked into believing that they are going on holidays in Germany only to be trapped. Lucas Moodysson's Lilya 4 Ever had a similar theme for Russia and Finland. The action drama, Taken, showed scams at Paris airport tricking American tourists, imprisoning them, drugging them and auctioning them.

Trade is based on award-winning articles by American Peter Landesman who spent months in Mexico researching this shadow world. The film has been scripted by Jose Rivera who wrote The Motorcycle Diaries and directed by a young German, Marco Kreuzpaintner (Summer Storm). The cast is mainly Mexican, led by two young amateurs (Cesar Ramos and Paulina Gaitan) who are believable as brother and sister, the 13 year old girl abducted in daylight from the neighbourhood street, the brother, a petty thief and con man, desperate to save his sister and finding his life turned round. He encounters an insurance investigator (Kevin Kline) who is still searching for a long lost daughter who was sold into prostitution and, together, they cross the US to find the girl. This leads them to quiet suburban New Jersey and an online auction crime gang.

Location photography in Mexico City, especially the poorer streets and homes, on the US/Mexican border and Juarez where illegals try to cross, give the film a realistic tone.

While the film is based on research, the film-makers have decided to emphasise the narrative drive and urgency of the search as well as the plight of several abducted women, one of whom is Polish and who is held because of threats to her family and son back in Poland, another of whom is a young boy brought in from Thailand.

While this 'trade' is shocking and upsetting, the film tries to show that effort, personal and by the police, can confront the lowlife criminals and customers (many of whom are wealthy and high-life sleazy individuals) and do something about the trade.

1.The theme? The importance of the theme? The treatment? The effect?

2.Mexico City, its atmosphere, the credits and the aerial shots, the overview of Mexico City, the streets, homes, poverty? The contrast with Juarez, the town, the stash house? The Mexican-American? border, the river? Texas? The contrast with New Jersey, suburbia? The musical score?

3.The focus on the United States, Mexico and illegal immigration, the exploitation by Mexicans, by Americans? The Americans and their using the illegal sex trade? The title?

4.The basis in research, realism, the story created from articles? Audiences identifying with characters, emotions, the journey, the search? The experience of the girls? Watching the traffickers and their behaviour, characters, methods? The transformation in Jorge and Ray in their search?

5.The opening in Mexico, Adriana’s party, aged thirteen, Jorge and his gift of the bike, the mother’s reaction and forbidding the bike, the absent father, Jorge and his rebellious attitude towards his mother yet loving her? His devotion to Adriana? His saying he was a tour guide, in the square, using English, the photos of the girls, trying to trap the American tourists, his friends surrounding the tourist, robbing him, firing the water pistol and laughing?

6.Adriana, her getting up early, riding the bike, her mother asleep, the card for Jorge, her being abducted in broad daylight?

7.The streets, the boys and their life, with the girls, going to the place where Adriana was abducted, the boy who had stolen the bike? Jorge and his searching for information, the boss telling him about the Russians, his friends being too frightened to help, seeing the street parade of the prostitutes?

8.Jorge, his character, age, experience, place in the family, seeing the truck, taking his friend’s car, following the truck on the highway, the breakdown in the desert? The house, knowing that his sister had been there? His watching, his seeing Ray, hiding in the boot of the car, revealing himself, the confrontation?

9.The young women on the plane, the chaperone, learning English, the promises? The passports being taken, the rough behaviour, the girl running away and being run over? Mario and Vadim? Their brutality? The house, Veronika and her attitude, meeting Adriana? The threats, the rape? The tearing of the photo, Adriana giving it to Veronika?

10.The Russian and his brutality, the end, Jorge stabbing him – and his child coming out and calling for ‘father’? The freeze-frame at the end of the film?

11.Mario, his brutality, moments of humanity? The driving, the border crossing, his hitting the girls, the harshness, their being rounded up by the police, escaping, return to Mexico, the attempt again, the safe crossing? The brutal American, his leering attitudes? Marion and his brutality towards Veronika? Her escaping when they stopped for a drink, her ringing her family, the sad news of her child’s being taken? Standing on the cliff, threatening Mario, killing herself? Mario’s behaviour in New Jersey, brutalising Adriana, Jorge hitting him – and the appeal to let them go? His letting them go?

12.Ray, age and experience, his work in insurance fraud, the phone calls to his wife? Getting the large amount of money, finding Jorge in the boot, getting him clothes, showered, the meal? Jorge seeing the abducted Thai boy? Ray following, confronting the paedophile? Getting the password, going on-line, discovering the auction? Ray and his own story, his wife, his infidelity, his daughter, the drug addict girlfriend, her selling her daughter, his search for the daughter?

13.The girls, the travel, Adriana and her fear, her being strong? New Jersey, suburbia, the woman and her running of the house, the auction? The police later discovering a house full of victims?

14.Travelling to New Jersey, going to see the detective, the interview with the DA, his concern about broader issues and not wanting to help? Ray’s confronting him?

15.Ray, the story, the auction, on-line, the plan, using the money, Ray and his advising to click ‘enter’ at the last two seconds and win the auction? His experience with the authorities? His going to New Jersey, meeting Laura and Mario, meeting Adriana, her manner of dress, being presented to the buyer? His talking, the demands by Laura that he take Adriana to the room, the demand for blood on the sheets? Laura getting Mario to check, her suspicions of Ray? Mario catching Adriana, their persuading Mario to let them go?

16.Jorge, in the car, hitting Mario, Laura with the gun, the danger, the arrival of the police?

17.Adriana saved, reunited with Jorge, going to the church and seeing her mother? Jorge and his friendship with Ray, their together, Ray as a father figure, wanting Jorge to keep the money, Jorge putting it in Ray’s car? The promise for the future? Ray and his final phone call to his wife? The background of the story of the ill cat, the cat being put down, Jorge and his not understanding pets compared with his extended family? Ray bringing home another cat?

18.The scene in the street, Jorge and Vadim, the stabbing, the freeze frame, the effect on the audience?

19.How well did the film work as drama, the melodramatic touches, the harrowing experience – and an indication that authorities can achieve some kind of breakthrough and arrest offenders?