DESPICABLE ME 2

US, 2013,
Voices of: Steve Carrell, Kristin Wiig, Russell Brand, Steve Coogan, Benjamin Bratt, Sean Hayes, Miranda Cosgrove.
Directed by Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud.

Despicable was certainly not the word that fans used for the original Despicable me. Everybody liked it, even with its sinister hero, the despicable Gru, who was working on a scheme to steal the moon – well, somebody thought they should do it!

But, at the end, Gru succumbed to the charm of three little orphan girls and reformed.

At the beginning of Despicable Me 2, Gru is maintaining his reputation for honesty, and is employed in making jams and jellies. However, there is a little deception for one of the little girls who was counting on the fairy princess coming to her birthday party – when she doesn’t turn up, Gru dons the costume and saves the day. The little girl reassures him she knows what he did but she won’t say anything to spoil the pleasure of the other children. So, all seems sweetness and light. And Steve Carrell offers his highly entertaining voice for Gru.

But, his ally, Dr Nefario (Russell Brand) decides that the honest life is too dull and goes off to work for another villain (Benjamin Bratt) wanting to transform the world into evil. The authorities of the Anti-Villain? League approach Gru to work on the side of good and bring the villain to justice. So, lots of funny adventures, Gru with his special weapons and skills – and the help of agent, Lucy (Kristen Wiig) who is wary of Gru but falls in love with him. The little girls all approve.

The creatures from the original films, the minions, who look like roly poly balls, whose voices are like kiddy mumbles, with silly giggles and naughty sniggers often steal the show. But… the villain is able to transform them into slimeballs who do his will. Gru has to combat them. But, there is a way for them to be changed back into their old selves. Plenty of jokey action here. And Dr Nefario has a crisis of conscience.

Undemanding, with some visual inventiveness, and some funny sequences – for children and even for adults.

1. The popularity of the series? The character of Gru? Of Lucy? The children? And, of course, the Minions?

2. The animation style, the look, the characters and their appearances, clothes? The action situations? The voices? The musical score?

3. The title, the focus on Gru? His evil past, his change, the relationship with Lucy, with the children? His activities for the anti-villain organisation? The range of adventures?

4. The plot development, the situations, the Arctic, the Mutagen?

5. Eduardo Peres, the legend, El Macho, the story the shark, the volcano? The Mall, the restaurant? The break in?

6. The Mall, the kids, Lucy, Gru and his date with Shannon, the humiliation? The kids enthusiastic about Lucy?

7. Floyd Eagle- Sam, the wig shop? Antonio?

8. Gru, His character, past activity? With the Minions? The closing of the case? Lucy going to Australia? The Taser gift?

9. The party, the elevator, the truth? Lucy and her hang gliding?

10. The Minions, the background of evil? The rockets, the mutations, being sent to all the cities? Gru refusing?

11. Lucy, El Macho, the badge? The role of Dr Nefario? The fake? The capture, the fight, the changing of the Minions?

12. El Macho, taking the Mutagen, the giant, purple, hit by the Taser?

13. Lucy, the rocket? The proposal, the escape – the wedding and the prospect of the happy family?

ATOMIC BLONDE

US, 2017, 115 minutes, Colour.
Charlize Theron, James Mc Avoy, John Goodman, Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan, Till Schweiger, Sofia Boutella, Barbara Sukova, James Faulkner,
Directed by David Leitch.

Cold War espionage. The ending of the Cold War. Coming down of the Berlin Wall… It sounds as if we are in John Le Carre territory. But, John Le Carre it ain’!. This is a film based on a graphic novel rather than a novel written graphically. The central characters are of the superhero, super-heroine, villain variety, sharply drawn, tough language, and fighting capacity in the kick-ass (or kick-front) school of combat.

Not that the situation doesn’t remind us of a Le Carre novel. It is 1989, Berlin. There are demonstrations in the East, protests, clambering on to the wall, support from the West. November – and by the end of the month the wall was down.

There is a particular crisis because a former Stasi official (Eddie Marsan) is about to defect, has a complete list of agents and counter-agents which all the powers are eager to get their hands on. The other valuable thing is that the agent has memorised the list completely.

In London, the espionage chiefs along with a CIA representative fear the list becoming available, endangering a great number of agents. They summon one of their best agents, Lorraine Broughton. She is played by Charlize Theron. And, with her bleached hair, she is the Atomic Blonde. Blondes can also be blonde bombshells and an atomic blonde bombshell is explosive. After her being Furiousa in Mad Max Fury Road, and after being the arch-villain in The Fate of the Furious, Charlize Theron is at home with tough roles, especially when they ensure that she is a star with graphic novel glamour, poise and sensibilities.

In Berlin she is to rendezvous with the local area chief, David Perceval, played with intensity by James Mc Avoy, also a graphic novel type, infiltrating in East Berlin, skinhead look, rough and ready, but an exceedingly shrewd operator.

Berlin isn’t exactly the city that one would have liked to have visited in November 1989. And this, especially so, if one knew just how many agents and double agents were prowling the streets, ready with weapons, brutal Russians, seductive French, self-confident Americans, and so many Germans themselves.

Actually, the film is shown in flashback, and seeing Lorraine at the end of her mission in Berlin looking very much the worse for wear, immersing herself in a bath of ice cubes, summoned to report to the British authorities for a debriefing, all taped. The preceding action is told in the flashbacks.

Needless to say, there are traitors, double agents, murders in the street, escape in joining the protesters (who all raise umbrellas at crucial moment to stop the snipers shooting). And, of course, there are suspicions all round. What about David Perceval? What about Lorraine herself? What about the authorities in London (James Faulkner and Toby Jones)? What about the CIA emissary (John Goodman)? What about the young contact in the east? What about the watchmaker in the West? And, after all that, it gets even more complicated in the last 10 minutes! And, of course, a twist.

The film was made in Budapest but has enough scenes of Berlin itself that tourists would recognise and be comfortable with. However, depending on one’s interest, whether one remembers the fall of the Berlin Wall or younger audiences wanting to know more about it, or whether one just wants action and plenty of kick-ass with Charlize Theron showing she is as good as any male counterpart, the film will be an entertaining, violent, sometimes kinky, immersion in the world of doubledealing espionage.


1. A popular action film? The blend of historical realism? The basis in the graphic novel, the characters, action? The tone?

2. The 1980s, Germany, East and West, Berlin divided? The late 1980s, unrest in East Germany, in East Berlin, the presence for so long of the Wall? Espionage, agents, the variety of governments and their spies?

3. The cast, their style? The leads as characters from Graphic Novels? The series’ supporting cast? The musical score? The songs of the time?

4. Location photography, in Berlin, the landmarks, the churches in West Berlin? Alexanderplatz? The wall at the Brandenburg Gate? The streets of East Berlin? The contrast with the West? Filming in Budadpest?

5. The action sequences, the stunt work?

6. The situation, the times, Lorraine arriving in London, her experience in Berlin, bruised, the ice cube bath, the summons to the authorities, C, the interrogator, the American presence, recording the debriefing? Her offhand attitude? A top agent, her story, reactions, her under-breath insult of the American – and the later irony of her having performed this?

7. The flashbacks, the situation, the fall of the wall, the role of the Stasi, the end of the period, Spyglass, his wanting to defect, the list, the film, all the names in his memory, his fears, wanting his family to escape? The Russian, the driver, obtaining the film and killing the man, the body in the river? The Russian wanting to sell to the highest bidder, his approach to the watchmaker?

8. David Perceval, the head of the bureau in Berlin, his cover, with the Russians, going to East Berlin, his apartment, his equipment, his skinhead disguise?

9. Lorraine, going to Berlin, the KGB making the immediate connection, the questions, the pursuit, realising the truth, the vicious fighting, the crash and the car? David, his late arrival, with her shoe? The clashes, the timing and her being able to ambush people? His apartment? Going to the hotel? Going to the East, special contact, the watchmaker? The issue of the undercover agent, playing both sides? Satchel?

10. David, with the punks in the East, their arrest, the KGB officer and his brutal interrogation and bashing? David getting out of the East, in the West, using tunnels, his various covers?

11. Lorraine, the hotel, the visit of the American interrogator, the tensions? The plan to take Spyglass out of East Berlin and to the UK?

12. The French spy, following Lorraine, Lorraine picking her? Going to the bar, the approach? Going to the next bar, the kiss, the sexual attraction, the French spy saying she was naive, the sexual encounter? The clash with David, her death? Lorraine and her motivations for revenge with the death of the girl?

13. The watchmaker, giving the codes, the KGB man going to him for selling the information? His later appearance at the end as an ally of Lorraine?

14. The contact in East Germany, the cover, Lorraine going in for the day, her documents?

15. Spyglass, the plan to get him out, his family, his memory? The protests, David shooting him in the street? The cover of the umbrellas and snipers unable to shoot?

16. Going into the house, the thugs, the shops, the fights, Lorraine and her fighting abilities? Spyglass being shot? Getting into the car, his death, Lorraine getting him out, the contact and getting back into the West?

17. Confronting David, his accusing her of being Satchel, her shooting him, the motivation of the death of the French spy?

18. The return to the briefing, the characters of the interrogators, C, the British, the American?

19. Lorraine going to France, with the KGB, the contacts, as a brunette, the fashionable setting, the turning on the KGB, her skill and shooting everybody?

20. The final escape, the American connection, and her being an American double agent?

ESCAPE

UK, 1948, 74 minutes, Black and white.
Rex Harrison, Peggy Cummins, William Hartnell, Norman Wooland, Jill Esmond, Marjorie Rhodes, Betty Ann Davies, Cyril Cusack, John Slater, Maurice Denham.
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.


Escape is a small film based on a play by John Galsworthy, best known for The Forsyte Saga. It was written by American Philip Dunne, and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz who was emerging as a significant writer and director, Letter to 3 Wives, All About Eve, Julius Caesar – and was to go on to make films like Suddenly Last Summer and the notorious Cleopatra.

Rex Harrison who had been in British films since the 1930s but had begun to make films in Hollywood is an ordinary Englishman who stops to talk to a woman in Hyde Park, the police suspecting she was a prostitute and trying to arrest her. There is a struggle between the man and the policeman who falls and hits his head, dying. The Englishman is arrested, tried, explanations given in court about his not being responsible for the death, but his being found guilty and sentenced to 3 years in prison.

During hard labour and in the fog, he escapes, encounters a young woman played by Peggy Cummins who helps him. The film follows the details of his escape, the young woman giving him clothes, his making a phone call as a policeman in a store, the woman being suspicious when he cannot pay his sixpence, his attempts to get to the airport to fly to France.

William Hartnell is the inspector who pursues him. Cyril Cusack has a small role working at the aerodrome.

There is a very sympathetic parson at the end of the film played by Norman Wooland, at a church where the Englishman asks for sanctuary, finds that this does not apply, but the clergyman is concerned, the discussion about what Jesus would have said, the man giving himself up and asking the clergyman if he would have given him up, the clergyman not sure.

The film is something of a footnote in the careers of Rex Harrison and of Joseph L. Mankiewicz.


1. The work of the director? His career? This film at the beginning?

2. The novels of John Galsworthy, in their time, later, film and television versions? His perspective on UK society?

3. British locations, and the aerodrome, the surrounding countryside, London and Hyde Park, the courts, prison? The locations for the escape, the open spaces, the fog, the village, the streets, the open roads, the old huts? The musical score?

4. The introduction to Matthew Dennant, a Rex Harrison character, in the plane, thinking of buying the plane? His associates at the aerodrome? The request to put on the bet, and to the races, the horse losing? His going to London?

5. In Hyde Park, walking, the woman talking to him, leading conversations, his response, talk about original sin? Her criticisms of the police, presuming she was a prostitute, the prosecutions? The arrival of the policeman, the fight with Matthew, the detective hitting his head? Matthew urging the woman to go? His staying by the body (later seeing her upset at his sentence)?

6. The issue of his responsibility? To the woman, to the detective, the detective accosting him, the punching, before and the death? The arresting police, the charge?

7. In court, the headlines, people talking about Matthew’s guilt or not? The plea by the defence and the explanation of the hit and the consequences? The prosecution? The jury, the guilty verdict, the judge and his speaking of lenient sentences? Three years?

8. The title of the film, Matthew seen in prison, the flashbacks and the explanation of the case? Life in prison, the hard labour, the fog, his friend, possibilities for escape, the surrounding countryside? The friend and his putting off the police?

9. The chase, the fog, the dangers, the dogs? The irony of the dogs and the hunt, the well-to-do chasing the fox? The image of the fox and the hunting for Matthew?

10. Dora and her falling, her background, her fiance, poor, wanting to marry money, tired of being poor, the relationship with her sister? At home, Matthew coming to the window, eating her breakfast, the decision to help him, her desire to break over the traces? The cover-up with the police inspector, her muddy boots and the footprints?

11. Matthew, the continued escape, the clothes from Dora, going to the village, the phone call pretending he was the police, not having sixpence, the manage demanding money, Matt to borrow it from the police and, his going to the car dealer, the dealer and his explanations of the car, the drive, Matthew explaining the fraud, ousting the man? The petrol blocked?

12. Dora, her sister, their passing, discussions, taking the roof off the car, driving through the village and being interpreted as Americans? The level crossing, the train breaking down? Matthew hurrying to the aerodrome?

13. The assistant, the phone call, the possibilities for a reward – but his urging Matthew to get in the plane?

14. The takeoff, clipping the car, crashing, Matthew and his shoulder? Sleeping on the farm, Mr Browning and his attack, the punch, the village people in pursuit? Dora and her going to the hut and finding Matthew? Her breaking off her engagement, her love for Matthew? Bringing the police to the hut?

15. Matthew taking refuge in the church, asking for sanctuary, the parson and his benevolence, not wanting to turn Matthew out, talking about the old law of sanctuary and contemporary law, the justice of Matthew’s trial and condemnation? The discussion about the church, the Gospel, what Jesus would do, whether Christians took this into perspective? Allowing Matthew to stay till the end of the service, the interrogation by the inspector, Matthew coming out? The parson not knowing what he might have done?

16. The inspector, doing his duty, thorough, with the other police, with Mr Browning and the people from the village, the parson turning them away?

17. Matthew in the car, going back to the prison?

18. The repetition of the theme of original sin?

THE SPACE BETWEEN

Australia/Italy, 2016, 105 minutes, Colour.
Flavio Parenti, Maeve Dermody.
Directed by Ruth Borgobello.


This is a film for middle-aged audiences and older who enjoy something of a light and unusual romance film.

The film is an Australian-Italian? production, with Australian finance and production support and an Australian star, Maeve Dermody. However, it also has a great deal of Italian finance, an Italian cast led by Flavio Parenti and Italian settings which are very attractive – and could entice audiences to visit north-eastern Italy, and the city of Udine and its surroundings.

The film opens with a quotation from the poet Rilke – suggestions of deeper meanings of love and relationships, and people’s place in the universe. The Rilke theme continues with one of the central characters carrying around the poems that Rilke wrote and the screenplay taking the central characters and the audience to a coastal and cliff walk, the locations where he conceived the poems.

This is the story of Marco, Flavio Parenti, who grew up in Udine, training to be a chef, moving to New York City where he had jobs which he liked but, his mother had some strokes and he returned home and has stayed in the town to care for his father. His father is laconic, as his son says, preferring watching television rather than have conversation. He also now has a dreary job at the same factory where his father worked, being retrenched and then re-hired. He has a close friend, Claudio, who runs a bookshop and does some catering which Marco enjoys helping with.

Then tragedy strikes and there is a space between ordinary life and resuming life, living through grief which affects Marco deeply.

He encounters Olivia, Maeve Dermody, who lives in Melbourne but has come back to the home of her ancestors to sort out property matters and visit cousins. In many ways it is a chance encounter but each is attracted to the other, Marco helping Olivia, going on outings, including the Rilke walk, with her.

And here a complication arises which leads to the possibilities of a different kind of space between…

Marco, while concerned about his father, is being headhunted to work in restaurants in Melbourne. He is at first reluctant but agrees to sign a contract and go to Australia.

And, while his falling in love with Olivia, he persuade her to pursue her desires to be a furniture designer rather than the quite successful banker she gives. She wins an internship which would require her to stay in Italy.

This is one of those films where we can’t even say spoiler alert – the ending is left for the characters to make decisions, for the audience to observe them, have an emotional response to what they want to do and leaving the cinema trying to predict what might happen.

1. An Italian- Australian film? The production? Themes?

2. Udine and its surroundings, the city, the memories of Rilke, the walk? Homes, the shop, factory, the streets? The mountains, the fields, the sea? The lookouts? The musical score?

3. The title, Rilke and his poems, those composed in Udine, Marco and Olivia on the walk? Claudio’s favourite poet, the book, and the memento on the tree? The themes, space, grief, love?

4. Marco’s story, the initial walk, seeing the woman at the water? His dreams and Claudio’s presence? Drawing the aqueduct? Later seeing it? His imagination? His age, training as a chef, leaving Italy, going to New York, his success, his mother’s illness, his late return, her death, his staying to care for his father, getting the job in a factory where his father worked? The friendship with Claudio, the socials, helping with the cooking? His lack of prospects? His relationship with the flight attendant? Visiting his father, his father and the television, his health?

5. Claudio, his friendship, Claudio and his relationship with Emma, happy life? The suddenness of his death? Marco’s career, the phone call at the factory, going to the hospital? The funeral, Marco late, not carrying the coffin? The wake, his group, going to the treaty, his weeping? The cemetery and his memories of his mother?

6. Claudio and the shop, the books, Marco helping, Emma trying to help, Claudio’s father, the meeting with Marco, the toast? Marco managing, not?

7. Olivia;s coming, the books, carrying the chair in the street, the policeman holding her up, Marco’s intervention, their talking, carrying the chair? His situation, her ancestors, migrants? Driving to see her relatives, the car breaching down? The relatives and their friendship? The bus, the opposite direction, the ride? Claudio’s record player in the street, Marco’s outburst, his later apology? Olivia, her interest in design, the story, working in the bank, to go to Geneva for the meeting, coming to the party, the furniture, her drawings and design, the submission, anxious about the interview, Marco’s help, her success, the internship?

8. Marco, the selling of the shop, his relationship with Olivia? Audrey and the discussions about his cooking? The party, his anger at the chefs, his intervening and cooking? The manager, hard conditions, tasting food, visiting the restaurant, offering the deal, the contract? Marco and his discussions with his father, his father’s health, at the doctors, his reconsidering his work, walking out of the factory? Signing the contract?

9. The film, the importance of food, the variety of food and the preparation of it?

10. The dilemma, Marco going to Melbourne? Olivia staying in Udine? The audience having to speculate about the decision and predict the future?

THE MASTER PLAN

UK, 1954, 64 minutes, Black and white.
Norman Wooland, Tilda Thamar, Wayne Morris, Mary Mackenzie, Arnold Bell, Marjorie Stewart.
Directed by Hugh Raker (Cy Endfield).


The Master Plan is a small British drama of the first half of the 50s, supporting feature and, as popular at the time, with an American leading man from the past, Wayne Morris. It also reflects the atmosphere of the Cold War, espionage in plans, devices to detect traitors.

Norman Wooland is Mark Cleaver, the commander of a secret strategy, inviting his old war friend, Brent (Wayne Morris), to help him uncover a traitor. There is an office which can be locked, a secret room and a strong safe, a special plan that even Brent is not allowed to look at.

The setting is Germany.

There is a range of supporting characters, each bringing their suspicious behaviour to the case. There is a commanding general and his wife who is very sympathetic to Brent. There is Mark Cleaver’s girlfriend, Helen, whose name is used for the secret code. There is also his severe secretary, Miss Gray. There is talk of espionage because, as the film opens, we see Brent being set up by an attractive woman who was later revealed to be a spy as well is as a doctor who treats Brent and who is in league with foreign powers.

The film spends some time on each of these characters offering the audiences the possibility of making up their own minds. This includes their going to a symphony concert which bores the general. It involves Helen making a date with Brent to meet him at a restaurant but he fails to turn up.

In fact, Brent has Being unwell, having moments of catatonia, becoming completely immobile but not remembering what has happened. The enemy takes advantage of this, takes into a laboratory, injects him with serums and hypnotises him so that he returns to his work but is under the command of a voice on the phone whom he addresses as The Chief.

In the meantime, Cleaver returns from talks and discovers what has happened, not believing that Brent could be a traitor.

There are quite some complications, involving a cigarette lighter where some microfilm is stored – with various people turning up, including Cleaver’s secretary, including the PR man for the military. As might be guessed, it is Helen who is the spy and takes the set up cigarette lighter and substitutes another. There is also some gun action with Brent.

Then it is all revealed that there was no secret plan but word that had got around so that it would flash out the traitors.

A much better contemporary film from the UK with American stars, Joel McCrea? and Evelyn Keyes, takes up some of these issues, Rough Shoot

THE ARGYLE SECRETS


US, 1948, 64 minutes, Black and white.
William Gargan, Marjorie Lord, Ralph Byrd, Barbara Billingsley.
Directed by Cy Endfield.

This is a small thriller, the touch of the film noir with a femme fatale. It is based on a radio play by the director, Cy Endfield, an American who left the United States at the time of suspicions of people belonging to the Communist Party. He made a number of films in the United Kingdom, forming a company with Stanley Baker – and his main cinema claim to fame was Zulu.


This film focuses on a newspaper reporter who has the opportunity to interview a dying man about a document, The Argyle Secrets, which turns out to be a list of names of people who were involved in collaboration with the enemy in World War II.

The plot becomes more complicated when the man with the information about the file is found with a scalpel in him in his hospital room and the newspaper photographer dead behind the curtain.

Many people are after the document and presume that the journalist has it and various people try to buy him off, beat him up, he is question by the police on suspicion of the deaths in the hospital.

The main antagonists are a mixed group, each blackmailing the other for possession of the document and its potential for further blackmail. There is also a woman, Marla, Marjorie Lord, who is in league with the antagonists but uses her charms after the violence – she even seems to be convincing right at the end when she does pull a gun on the journalist who outwits her, calling an airport assistant to take the document to a waiting policeman.

Also involved are bookseller who has come into possession of the document but is also beaten and killed. There is a rather suave large man, Panama, with the great Southern drawl, who is deadly on the one hand with the gun but also is absolutely afraid of being hurt. Neither the bookseller nor Panama survive.

In retrospect, the film is not particularly interesting but is useful in looking at the career of the writer-director.

VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS


France, 2017, 137 minutes, Colour.
Dane De Haan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, Herbie Hancock, Kris Wu, Sam Spruell, Rutger Hauer.
Directed by Luc Besson.


Quite a title. This film was based on a series of comics from the 1960s, French comic books, stories of the future and space named after the two central characters Valerian and Laureline.


The writer-director is the Frenchman, Luc Besson, who has made a range of films dating back to the 1980s, a number of successful thrillers like Subway, Point of No Return, and his classic gangster film, Leon. While he made a film about Joan of Arc, The Messenger in 1999, his work in more recent years has been to direct and, especially, to produce, a whole range of hard-boiled action films like the Transporter series.

But, he is very popular, with his science-fiction film of the 1990s with Bruce Willis, The Fifth Element. In fact, this film is enjoying re-release to accompany Valerian.

It is difficult to determine just who is the intended audience for Valerian. There is plenty to entertain younger audiences but might be a bit too much for a children’s audience. On the other hand, the two central characters seem particularly young, Dane De Haan as Valerian (30 in real life but looking much younger) and actress-model, Cara Delevingne.

The film has a certain French sensibility which may be appeal more to the European audience than English-speaking language audience (although the film is in English).

To set the tone: the film introduces space exploration in 1975, widening the screen to show developments by 2020, then going to the future, the development of space stations, settling of the galaxies, and all the time peace agreements between all the races, all represented in handshake encounters, courtesy encounters, races as well as different religions – and, then more improbably but in futuristic fantasy style, a whole range of strange creatures (reminiscent of those found in Star Wars galaxies). And finally, there is a speech by the world leader, a cameo by Rutger Hauer, willing peace and goodwill for the future of the universe.

And, for some moments, we see an extraordinarily placid planet, strange hand-drawn characters who resemble humans, their peaceful society, their harvesting pearls from strange transformer creatures, getting energy for their survival – when, suddenly, bombs and explosives start to fall and the creatures hiding in bewilderment, one Princess unable to get into the secure area and who has to take possession of some other body and soul to survive.

Actually, there is no peace in the galaxies. There is a huge floating city, the city of 1000 planets, with military chiefs, commanders – and special government agents, which is where Valerian and Laureline come in, young tough, expert agents, banter between them, his male superiority, more than a touch of romance but her despising his playlist of girlfriends.

They go into action, quite effective, trying to sabotage a meeting where one of the strange creatures is doing deals about pearls with two of the earlier survivors by the peaceful planet in disguise. The point is in getting the transformers who are able to generate the pearls and energy.

Needless to say Valerian and Laureline are very successful – but not all the time. They are contacted by one of the government ministers by hologram and sent on missions. They have interviews with the commander (Clive Owen) who seems just a bit sinister and proves himself so.

Then, something like an intermission, Valerian goes rather sleazy part of town, full of clubbers, and finds himself approached by Jolly the Pimp, played by Ethan Hawke in manic overdrive, and Valerian and the audience spend some time watching an elaborate performance by Rihanna, gymnastics, contortions, dance, transforming into different characters. After this interlude, the action gets going again, Rihanna helping Valerian and Laureline to escape some pursuers.

All this is seen in a variety of sometimes spectacular contexts, special design, always something to delight the eye.

So, by the end of the film, the audience is ready for some action, split-second timing, betrayals of trust, declarations of love, hopes for a happy future.

1. The film based on French comic books? The French sensibility? Storytelling, characters? Science fiction? Simon’s fantasy? The future?

2. The work of the director, his career, The Fifth Element, expectations?

3. The transition from comic book to the fantasy world, space, the planets, the future? The vast city in space? Characters, humans, hybrid creatures? The kind of Star Wars galaxy collection of creatures?

4. The beauty of space, the idyllic planet? The way of life, characters and backgrounds like comic sketches? The attacks, the war, the devastation? The government, the agents at work, rules, missions, infiltration? The government powers, the military, ruthless?

5. The various regions of the city, clubs, performance? The battles, stunt work, effects? The musical score?

6. The review of the past, 1975, 2020, the continual expansion of space, the planets, the international collaborations, the variety of races, national dress? The introduction of the creatures, the variety of creatures? Peace? The world president and his declaration of peace?

7. The introduction to the idyllic planet, the creatures, communication, families, the sea, the transformers, the pearls and production, the energy?

8. The attack, the destruction, fear, refuge in the cave, the princess being locked out, the family watching in grief, her transformation and death? The revelation that she occupied Valerian?

9. The transition to the ordinary, Valerian and Laureline, their role as government agents, their military rank? Issues of romance, love? His playlist of girlfriends – and her wishing this to be destroyed and his later complying? The banter, her resistance to him, his macho attitudes, the fact that they were space heroes, at their age?

10. The American style of the dialogue, language and idioms?

11. The defence chief, his hologram appearance, description of missions, getting the transformer, Valerian and Lauraline working together, travelling together, breaking through the different barriers, the soldier and his control of the sentry, action, infiltration through the wall? The creature, the visitors from the idyllic planet? The transformer, the pearls? Their bargaining? The creature and greed? Warriors? The attack, the battle? Laureline and the vehicle, the deaths of the backup troop, the achievement in getting back the transformer? Valerian keeping the pearl?

12. The role of the defence chief, his appearances, commands? The role of the general, his assistant Sergeant, their working together, concerned?

13. The role of the commander, his strong presence, the mission, his double dealings, the background of his destroying the planet, his reasons, the inhabitants being savages? Extending his power? His confronting Valerian and Laureline? His being taken by the creatures? His commanding an attack to destroy them? Better death than humiliation? Valerian and Laureline surrendering him? His being left hanging in space? The general having to make decisions?

14. The puzzle for the general, the sympathetic creatures being seen as the enemy? The role of the transformer?

15. Valerian wandering through the city, the unsavoury areas, the clubs and all the people present? The encounter with Jolly the Pimp? Bubble, her performance, athletic, transformations, disguises? Her background, explanation of the story? Helping Valerian to escape, consuming him? Laureline arriving, suspicions, her being helped? Their arriving in the garbage tip?

16. The barrier, finding the group of creatures, the dialogue, the discussion about the transformer, Valerian and Laureline and the discussions about rules, love, sympathy? The giving back the transformer? The hostility of the commander?

17. The contacting the general, his taking control, not attacking the creatures in their ship, his arresting the commander?

18. The escape and re-creation of the planet, the transformer and the pearls, Valerian and Laureline on the beach?

MAJOR PAYNE


US, 1996, 95 minutes, Colour.
Damon Wayans, Karyn Parsons, Michael Ironside, Steven Martini, Orlando Brown, William Hickey.
Directed by Nick Castle.

This is a 1990s comedy for a family audience. And enjoyment will depend on how the audience responds to the comic antics, manner of speaking, facial tics of comedian, Damon Wayans.

With its military title, the film begins with Major Payne in action in drug wars in Central America, the absolute textbook – and beyond – of an American Marine, inflicting pain, even on his own side. He has a squeaky voice, however, and is a bit more sinister because of his couple of gold teeth.

However, in reporting in after so many missions, he is found to be redundant but pleads to remain in the military. He gets his wish – but, it is not a mission that he would have chosen.

There have been any number of American films about somebody put in charge of training the least likely collection of youngsters to achieve anything. There are baseballers in The Mighty Ducks…

Payne is assigned to a school and especially to a group of more than most unlikely recruits for military training. They are slovenly. They laugh at him. But he soon puts a stop to that, getting them to do push-ups and situps, even having all their heads shaved. Major Payne is a by the book kind of person, no personal life, his main enjoyment being reassembling his rifle, no personal relationships, very demanding on others and with something of a sadistic mean streak.

The motley crowd of kids defies any belief in the first place because of their inadequacies and limitations – including a very short six-year-old – but that they should become a successful military squad and win a trophy! It has to be seen to be believed.

There is a teacher at the school who momentarily stops Major Payne in his tracks and his discovering some emotions. She is played by Karyn Parsons. She gives him a book to read about sensitivity, but his interpretation is fairly outlandish, especially telling the six-year-old a restructured version of the little engine who could, action in an explosive war situation.

The kids try all kinds of tricks on him to get rid of him, the cake that should cause diarrhoea but didn’t, a set up with one of the boys dress up as a girl and their taking photos in compromising positions but it resulting in their having to do a parade all dressed in dresses. Major Payne challenges them to go on a raid to rob the trophy that they want to win, leading to a brawl and their being bashed.

Payne takes the opportunity to give them a morale boosting talk, challenge them to want to win, they agree to go through all the discipline and, in contrast to their awkwardness in the initial training, they become very efficient.

Complications. Obviously Payne is attracted to the teacher, going out to dinner with her (and his demolishing food in rapid rate which his recruits also imitate), enjoying dancing with her. Then he gets an answer to his request to rejoin the marinies and be sent on a mission. Obviously, it will clash with the final parade and the winning of the trophy. The youngsters are dismayed at his absence, but, of course, he turns up and everything turns out very, very well.

Wayans was one of the sons of a very successful entertainment family of directors and actors who made their mark on television in In Living Colour.

THE LADY IN THE CAR WITH GLASSES AND GUN. LA DAME DANS L'AUTO AVEC LES LUNETTES ET LE FUSIL


France, 2015, 93 minutes, Colour.
Freya Mavor, Benjamin Biolay, Elio Germano, Stacy Martin.
Directed by Joann Sfar.

This film is based on a popular novel by Sebastien Japrisot. It was filmed in 1970, the British production directed by Anatole Litvak, with Samantha Eggar and Oliver Reed.

It is something of a film noir in rather bright sunlight of the 21st-century.

The central character is Dany, played by Scottish actress Freya Mavor, who seems mousey at first although we see her literally letting her hair down and being carefree. She belongs to a typing pool and gets a job of typing a manuscript for her boss who has married a friend from years past.

When the couple go to Switzerland, she is to take their car back home but she decides that she wants to see the sea and drive south. What follows is a series of strange episodes where people continually tell her what she has done, that they have seen her, all of which she denies. She also gets caught up with a stranger, sexually involved with him, a reckless driver.

Then she finds a body in the trunk of the car and is further mystified, wondering whether all this is reality or that it is happening in her mind.

The explanation does seem more than a touch far-fetched. She has been set up by her boss and his wife, covering up an affair and the death of the lover, wanting to get rid of the body undetected. They have gone ahead of Dany, making sure that she has been seen and identified so that when she comes through by herself, she has all this testimony and becomes more bewildered.

Rather glossy – and, perhaps, more than implausible.


1. Romantic thriller and mystery? The novel? The 1970s British version?

2. Paris, the business world, homes, airports, offices? The open road to the south? The landscapes, diners, service stations, truckies, the scenery, the sea? The musical score?

3. The complexity of the plot, audience identification with Dany and her situation, her work, the desire to see the sea, her taking the car? The drive, the various events, people talking about meeting her, identifying her, her denials? The personal involvement, the sexual relationship? Driving, the body in the trunk of the car? Getting rid of it? The journey towards the sea?

4. Dany thinking that this was happening in her mind and imagination? The audience unsure? Thinking it was reality? Or thinking it was her fantasy?

5. The situation with her boss, the job, Anita, memories of the past, the typing pool? The task typing, her going to the house, meeting Anita again? The couple going to Switzerland? Her taking the car and to return it? The decision to go to see the sea?

6. Dany, her personality, carefree, yet with the other girls, spectacles and prim? Taking the car, driving, the touch of recklessness?

7. The beginning of the encounters with people who knew her, had remembered seeing her, the woman at the diner, the issues with the car, the truck and the flowers, the men at the service station?

8. The car, the mysterious driver, the liaison with him, sexual? The aftermath? The body, the picnic site, getting rid of the body?

9. Encountering her boss, his recounting the story about his wife, the affair, death, concealing the truth, the plan, getting rid of the body?

10. The plausibility of the explanation, the couple not going to Switzerland, their going in advance of Dany, setting up situations where she would be remembered, her confusion, getting rid of the body, but becoming a target?

11. Characters, the situations, the shifting times? The plausibility of the plot and its execution?

THE WALL

US, 2017, 88 minutes, Colour.
Aaron Taylor Johnson, John Cena, Laith Nakli.
Directed by Doug Liman.

To describe The Wall as a war film does not quite do it justice. It is, but it is not an action show that many audiences were expecting.

The date is 2007. Information is given that the war in Iraq is winding down, that George Bush had declared victory. An explanation is given that outside companies have been brought in to reconstruct Iraq but that they are set upon and personnel and security killed by insurgents, with the need for the American military to remain present in the country.

The film is of interest with the 2017 perspective on 2007 given the subsequent history of Iraq, conflict in Middle Eastern countries.

The film has a very short running time, 88 minutes. It has two American soldiers as characters and one insurgent sniper who is not seen but whose voice is heard.

The film action takes place over two days, the two Americans with camouflage in scrub in the desert, observing the aftermath of a massacre of security and working personnel, the bodies still lying in the sun, the vehicles abandoned. We know practically nothing about the two Americans – although, the central character, Isaac (Aaron Taylor Johnson) does have some moments in a verbal flashback which has its tragic revelations and consequences.

The two Americans compare notes, one deciding to go out and check what has happened – with dire results.

The Wall of the title has been built of local bricks, part of it has been demolished by gunfire, and the rest is in a fairly dilapidated state, yet providing some shelter for Isaac, though a target for further demolition by the unseen but heard Juba, who fires at the wall making it more difficult for Isaac to shelter.

Isaac is stranded, night and another day, Isaac trying to use his wits to survive, trying to communicate to headquarters but finding that Juba is on the other end of the line, leading to interactions, discussions, taunts, psychological pressure, and quotations from Edgar Alan Poe.

In watching the film, the audience, uncertain as to how it will eventuate, on side with the stranded American, wondering whether there will be a final charge by the cavalry to rescue him, it is something of an endurance despite its short running time.

The audience will leave the theatre in something of a grim mood, much more conscious in 2017 of the complexities of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the lack of traditional warfare as might be remembered or is in the movies from World War II, questioning the involvement of American overseas troops and yet the continued puzzles of how situations can be bettered.


1. A war film? Focus on one situation? Two American soldiers? The Iraqi sharpshooter? More a psychological study rather than an action show?

2. Iraq, 2007, the war winding down, Bush’s declaration of victory? The reconstruction of the country? The outside companies coming in for reconstruction? The attacks by local insurgents? The role of the US military?

3. The location, the desert, the sun and the wind, the snipers hiding in the scrub, the sniper hiding in the rubbish tip, the pipe, the dead men and their vehicles?

4. The focus on the two characters? Matthews, his strong presence, being wounded? Isaac, the experience, the drama resting on him? The discovery of the sniper, his action, the deaths? The communication with Isaac? The buildup to a culmination, Matthew’s attempt to shoot, his death? Isaac surviving, talking, the arrival of the helicopters?

5. Matthews, strong character, the surveillance, not seeing anything, communication with Isaac? His going down to inspect, the dead men, bullets to the head? His suspicions? Being wounded? Lying in the dust, bleeding, talking with Isaac, Isaac urging the use of the tourniquet? Bleeding, presumed dead? His later coming to consciousness, the mirror, Isaac communicating, his slowly reaching out for the rifle, his shot, his being killed?

6. Isaac, no major background, talk about Dean’s rifle? And the later verbal flashback of why Isaac did not want to return, the blunder, the killing of Dean? His lies in exonerating himself?

7. Isaac, undercover, coming into the open, checking on Matthews, Isaac being shot, his leg wound, treating it? The radio failing? Taking cover with the wall? Making the hole, using his sights? The realisation that the shooter was in the rubbish dump? Communication, giving information, suspicions, detecting the accent? The talk with Juba, the psychological interaction, Juba quoting Edgar Allan Poe? The effect on Isaac? Juba shooting of the wall, its partial collapse?

8. Isaac, the effect of the isolation, the sun, getting his kit, the water, the chocolate? Going to sleep? Juba firing at the wall and its partial collapse? Juba’s understanding of Isaac, that he did not want to return home, his motives and sense of guilt?

9. The psychological tension between the two, Isaac encouraged by Matthews being alive, his death, his throwing the cord to get the rifle? His attempt to shoot Juba?

10. The helicopters, getting the bodies, rescuing Isaac, taking off, Juba shooting at the helicopters, the crashing?

11. A grim ending, no glorification of war? The presence of the Americans in Iraq? The response of the locals, welcoming them, insurgents and attack? The perspective of 2017 on a decade earlier, in view of crises in the Middle East?