11 MINUTES

Poland, 2015, 81 minutes, Colour.
Richard Dormer, Paulina Chapko, Woiciech Mecwaldowski.
Directed by Jerzy Skolomowski.

11 minutes is a rare film from Polish writer-director Jerzy Skolimoswski who had a significant career over many decades, in his native Poland, making films outside Poland like Deep End in the 1970s and his portrait of Solidarity, Moonlighting in 1980s.

The 11 minutes of the film take place around 5 o’clock in afternoon in busy Warsaw, the film introducing a range of characters, brief sketches, then intercutting them as time moves forward, as they have chance encounters with one another or simply pass one another in the streets.

Thus, the film is able to show a jealous husband and his actress wife and her visit to a sleazy film director, men and women having affairs including a window cleaner, a courier dealing in drugs and his ex-con father selling hotdogs in the street to passers-by including a woman who has custody of a pet dog and four nuns on a day out. There is also a paramedic team trying to get people to hospital on time.

The film and the characters stay in the memory, quite significant for such a brief running time for the film.

1. The title, the 11 minutes around 5 o'clock in the afternoon, for a range of people in Warsaw, ordinary people, cross-section?

2. The climax of the 11 minutes, disaster, deaths? Drama and melodrama?

3. The Warsaw settings, the streets, homes, hotels and corridors, the vendor and the park, building cleaners…? The musical score?

4. The structure of the film, the introduction to each of the characters – as if being filmed on video? The development of their stories? The intercutting of the stories, time going backwards and forwards, characters passing on the streets, coincidences?

5. 11 minutes and fate, interconnections, incidents and accidents?

6. Audience interest in the characters, their stories, sympathies – within the space of 11 minutes of their lives?

7. The jealous husband, the attack on the man who touched his wife, the injury to his eye, the police, the interrogation, his being free? The approach to his wife, her staying with him? Love? His wife’s appointment, the audition and the film? His going to the hotel, kept waiting, going upstairs, in the corridor, the various guests and their trays, the security? His patience, impatience, bashing in the door, seeing his wife, grabbing the director, trying to hold his wife, the security holding him, his having to let go, watching her fall?

8. The director, in the hotel, pretence, phone calls, sleazy, the no disturb sign, receiving the woman, his approach, personal, discussions about the film, the role, prostitution, nudity, the woman’s response, her caution, wariness, needing air, her collapse, the director holding her, the husband barging in, falling out the window, the director falling to his death, hitting the stand with the cleaner, their both falling? The wife, holding on, her husband having to let go, her fall and her expression?

9. The window cleaner, his time off, the sexual encounter with the woman, waving at the bus stop? Being hit by the director and falling to his death?

10. The vendor, formerly in prison, selling hotdogs, the nuns buying them, chatting, his serving them up, other customers, the woman with the dog? Talking about his son’s marriage? Wanting to meet his son? The son, the affair with a woman, getting out before the husband returned? His courier work? Drug deliveries? Going into the building, upstairs? Meeting his father? The bus, the accident and his death?

11. The young man, the note for his mother, going for the robbery, getting into the store, seeing the man hanging, his backing out? At the river, the painter and his work and the blot? In the bus, communicating? The bus accident and their deaths?

12. The woman with the dog, the breakup with her partner, her wandering the streets, the hotdogs? Her death?

13. The nuns, the outing, the hotdogs, in the bus, accident victims?

14. The paramedic team, the doctor, her arrival, the assistants, the man obstructing them, having to clear away the doors on the staircase, getting into the room, the pregnant woman, the old man, the ambulance hurrying, involved in the crash?

15. The amount of characterisation and meaning in just 80 minutes?

OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY

US, 2016, 105 minutes, Colour.
Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, T.J.Miller, Jennifer Aniston, Kate Mc Kinnon, Courtney B. Vance, Jillian Bell, Rob Cordrry, Vanessa Bayer, Karan Soni, Abbey Lee.
Directed by Josh Gordon, Will Speck.

Just before the release of this film, Radio National’s Law Report featured a discussion about office Christmas parties, the behaviour at the parties, the drinking, possible drugtaking, the ever present possibilities for sexual harassment – and various participants ending up in the courts.

While there is this kind of behaviour apparent in the film, it is not quite the crass and raucous comedy that the trailer would lead audiences to believe. Yes, it is raucous and crass at times and no credit to a lot of the participants in this kind of let-things-go party. However, for those who want something a little more serious with the raucous, there is actually something of a plot and characters responding to the plot. Bloggers who just wanted the raucous and crass objected to the plot, finding it unfunny. For those who have been overwhelmed and, at the same time, underwhelmed, by films like Dirty Grandpa, Bad Neighbours and silly and sorted hijinks, the plot is needed.

The film is set just before Christmas, of course, and introduces us to a range of people who work in an IT company, the very serious Josh (Jason Bateman), just getting a divorce, trying to be supportive of the CEO, Clay, (T. J .Miller), with plenty of money, and a mixture of good sense and bad sense, attracted to Tracy (Olivia Munn) who is working on a breakthrough project.

Then Carol turns up, Clay’s martinet sister (Jennifer Aniston doing a severer audition piece for a new Horrible Bosses), no humour, more than a little jealous of her brother, wanting to be CEO of the whole company, threatening closure, cutbacks… She is momentarily tempted by the fact that they want to do a deal with an executive played by Courtney B. Vance. The solution: a Christmas party to end all parties, expensive, alcohol, and DJ…

Also in the picture is Mary, Kate Mc Kinnon, the Human Resources officer, more than than a little prim (on the surface) and Rob Cordrry, doing his familiar style, in no way prim.

What happens is a mixture of the earnest, trying to do a deal with the executive and a lot of things getting out of hand, getting more out of hand, getting most out of hand. and, of course, Carol’s flight is delayed by a snowstorm and she turns up disapprovingly.

One of the complications is that a nice young department chief boasts of having a girlfriend but actually phones for an escort, Savannah (Abbey Lee) who comes along with her pimp, Jillian Bell, who gives quite funny variation on this kind of character. By accident, the executive gets a face full of cocaine rather than snow from the snow machine and lets loose.

With the climax, Savannah taking Clay to her pimp’s club, the rest of the main cast in pursuit through the snowy streets of Chicago, building up to a confrontation with Jennifer Aniston showing some martial arts moves, and clay attempting to drive over one of those Chicago bridges as it opens.

Since this is a Christmas story, there are moments of disaster when the lights of Chicago and all Internet connection go out, and then the fairy tale with Tracy’s invention getting everybody back online, the future of the company saved, no jobs lost – but, on their return to the office, wastefully trashed, there is a big cleanup job in store…

What might have been just another of those Bad… Comedies, is somewhat better because of some plot and themes and professional performances.

DR SEUSS’ HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS

US, 2000, 104 minutes, Colour.
Jim Carrey, Taylor Momsen, Jeffrey Tambor, Christine Baranski, Bill Irwin, Molly Shannon, Clint Howard, Mindi Sterling.
Directed by Ron Howard.



Dr Seuss wrote a children's story about a hairy green creature, The Grinch, who lived in a cave outside Whoville. The inhabitants of Whoville were a happy lot, especially at Christmas time, where gifts meant a lot. The Grinch had been spurned by the inhabitants, especially the ambitious mayor, ever since he was a child. Embittered, he wants to spoil Christmas. But a sweet little girl (future singer Taylor Momsen) keeps trying to draw him into the festivities and... Well, you have to see the rest.

Whoville is a self-contained sweet land, a bit like a section of a theme park. The inhabitants all have snub noses and wear eccentric clothes. Ron Howard's film creates this world and makes us believe in it. But it is Jim Carrey, hidden behind the Grinch make-up, who remembers that he was The Mask and Ace Ventura and so lets rip with his versatile mugging, clowning and face-pulling plus a range of anti-Christmas sayings.

The moral of the story is, of course, that goodness comes from within and that is a gift in itself. Who could argue with that?


1. The popularity of Dr Seuss stories? The story of the Grinch? The poem, the verse? Screen animated versions?

2. The visualising of Whoville, in the icicle, the star, through the clouds, the snow in the mountains, the small village? The buildings, colour? People, the snub noses? People in their work, the postman? The sales for Christmas, the crushes in the shop, hurrying to the post office, sending the goods, the wrapping area? The square, the Christmas tree, the presents?

3. The contrast with the Grinch, on top of the mountain, his cave, the company of his dog? His appearance, green and furry?

4. The story told about his origin, all the babies arriving, the old ladies receiving the Grinch, his appearance, ugly, yet their doting on him? At school? The children and their taunts, his hairiness, the attempted shave? Martha May and her liking him? His fleeing the town, growing up in the mountain?

5. The atmosphere of Christmas, the spirit of Christmas? For the ordinary people, the postman and his wife? For Cindy Lou? The ambitious mayor, wanting control, re-election? The attraction to Martha May, the ring and the proposal? His yes-man assistant?

6. The Grinch and his malevolence, the boys climbing the mountain and his frightening them, the Mayor keeping quiet so there would be no story of the Grinch for Christmas? His breathing green breath on people? The encounter with Cindy Lou and wrapping her up like a present? His sayings – anti-Christmas, anti-human, anti-sentiment? His behaviour, with his dog, tormenting the people, frightening them?

7. Cindy Lou, with her parents, her kindness, the meeting with the Grinch, his rejecting her, trying to frighten her? Her continuing to appeal to him? Her nominating him for the award? The people’s reaction? The Mayor?

8. The Grinch, hearing the news, debating, deciding to accept? His delay, the arrival, wanting a cheque? The award? The reaction of the people? The burning of the Christmas tree and the gifts? The alternate tree?

9. The Grinch and his attitude towards presents, his various devices for swooping them up, the huge bundle, at the top of the mountain? Cindy Lou on the bundle, the Grinch pulling it back to safety, holding it aloft?

10. The reaction of the mayor, the gift of the clippers – and the Grinch clipping the Mayor’s hair? The postman and his pride in his daughter, her mother?

11. The Grinch, the decision to return the gifts, everybody happy, the spirit of Christmas?

12. Martha May, involvement of the goings-on, the sexy touch, refusing the Mayor, kissing the Grinch?

13. A Christmas story for children, entertainment for adults?

DUMB AND DUMBERER: WHEN HARRY MET LLOYD

US, 2003, 85 minutes, Colour.
Derek Richardson, Eric Christian Olsen, Mimi Rogers, Lewis Guzman, Rachel Nichols, Eldon Henson, Eugene Levy.
Directed by Troy Miller.

It's not a lot of people who will be immediately attracted by this title. Yes, it is a fairly dumb film. No, it is not quite as dumb as so many others in this seemingly proliferating genre. For example, My Boss's Daughter is dumberer.

What is of movie lore interest is that this is a prequel to the Farrelly Brothers' 1994 hit, Dumb and Dumber, a star vehicle for Jim Carrey in his early days and for Jeff Daniels. The challenge for this film was to find young lookalikes for Carrey and Daniels and coax them to act in ways that the stars did. On the whole, they have succeeded with Eric Christian Olsen the Carrey character and Derek Richardson for Jeff Daniels.

There are some funny moments among the silly ones, bodily function jokes and lots of slapstick (after all the classic movie diarrhoea involved Jeff Daniels in Dumb and Dumber; this time the joke is on chocolate). When Harry and Lloyd go to school, they become friends although jealousy arises when they are both attracted to the school's most glamorous student who just happens to be the paper's investigator researching some dishonest goings on with the school principal (Eugene Levy skilfully funny as usual). Of course, it will be funny only if you feel in a dumb

KAWASAKI’S ROSE

Czech Republic, 2009, 100 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Jan Hrebejk.

The title comes from an origami design introduced at the end of the film, indicating the various layers in the design. There is also character, a Japanese artist who suffered grief has been taken in by a cheque sculptor living in Gothenburg, Sweden. However, the film is mainly about a family coming to terms with an award being made to a famous psychiatrist, the Memory of the Nation award.

A documentary is being made about him and his wife. His son-in-law is one of the filmmakers, as is the girlfriend, with whom he has taken on an affair while his wife is in hospital, suffering from cancer. She is released from hospital. The husband wants to make a break and be with his girlfriend. The couple also have a teenage daughter, with dyed red hair, who has her own teenage problems.

When the filmmaker gets some secret information and files, the filmmaking crew go to interview a man who was in the police, an interrogator and a torturer. He reveals truths about the professor – as well as the relationship between the professor and his wife before his daughter was born. This involves the radical sculptor, who spoke out against the Communist regime, who was exiled after torture. It emerges that the professor had supplied information and questions for the interrogation.

The action moves from Prague to Gothenburg, a much sunnier place, cheerful with the robust sculptor. It emerges then that he is the father of the woman with cancer and she and her daughter visit him. Eventually the action is back to Prague where there is confession and reconciliation.

The film won many awards including the Ecumenical Award for the Panorama section in the Berlin film Festival, 2011.

1. An award-winning drama? Questions about Czech history?

2. The history of Czech people in the 20th century, the Communist era, the Velvet Revolution? The Russian suppression? Collaborating with the Communist authorities? The reassessment? The attitude of the new generation who had not experienced this directly? The transformation of the Czech Republic after the fall of communism?

3. The contract with Sweden, the beauty of the city, the water, light and colour?

4. The title, Kawasaki being introduced at the end of the film, his personal suffering, his stopping his art, eventually starting again, the origami, the design of the rose – the gift? And his accompanying the group for the reconciliation in Prague?

5. The narrative about the medal of honour for the nation? The flashbacks? The television program, the making, the setting up scenes? Going beyond the documentary?

6. Pavel Josek and his status, his being a famous psychiatrist, the announcing of the award, the decision to make the television program, the scenes at home, the artificial acting of the scenes, the dialogue? Pavel’s wife? The beginnings of the back story and the revelation?

7. Ludek, Lucy and her time in hospital, the good prognosis from the cancer? Their daughter at home? Her return home, Ludek receiving her at home? Yet his relationship with the television assistant? His promises to her? Her expectations? Interactions at home, his wanting to move out, Lucy and her reactions, ousting him? Her dependence on her parents? Her mother’s observation on Ludek?

8. The documentary making, the girlfriend, the investigation, Ludek getting the documents, examining them, giving them to his wife?

9. The flashbacks, dramatising the truth, Pavel’s wife and her relationship with Borek? His work as a sculptor? Dissident? The arrests, the interrogations, the woman pregnant? Suspicions, the role of the psychiatrist, preparing the questions for the interrogation? Borek, his not knowing the woman was pregnant, going to exile? The woman and her engagement with the psychiatrist, marriage, the birth of her daughter? The psychiatrist tanding by his wife over the decades? The explanations to the television crew?

10. Borek, character, sculptor, heart, his spheres? The group looking at his sculptures? His life in Sweden, for many decades, family? Extrovert type? With the television crew? His discovering the truth, not knowing that the woman’s child was his? His meeting with his daughter, granddaughter? Showing them around? Exuberance, return to Prague?

11. Lucy, with her daughter, issues of discipline at home? The decision to go to Sweden, meeting Borek, discussions, learning the truth, the effect?

12. The television team tracking down the interrogator from the past, the interview with him, his really revealing the truth about the professor, about his wife, about Borek? His sinister character?

13. The group returning to Prague from Sweden, meeting with the professor and his wife, the resolution? The ceremony and the professor receiving his medal?

14. The times, the powerful hold on people, psychological pressure (and suggesting the refusal of medication for family friends)? Intellectual torture? The overcoming of this past – an acknowledgement, and learning to live with it, and confession and repentance?

THE DUST FACTORY

Ryan Kelley, Hayden Panettiere, Armin Mueller- Stahl, Kim Myers, George De La Pena, Michael Angarno, Peter Horton.
Directed by Eric Small.

This fantasy is for a teenage audience, boys and girls, and was written and directed by Eric Small.

The focus of the story is on Ryan, played by Ryan Kelley, a teenager who is still grieving the death of his father (and later flashback indicates that the father had died, hit by an oncoming train, after he had pushed the car with his wife and son to safety). Ryan is very reticent, does not speak, taunted by his friends, worried about by his mother and his stepfather. The old grandfather, played by Amin Mueller- Stahl, is silent with Alzheimer’s. Michael Angarano is Ryan’s good friend.

After Ryan falls into the river and re-emerges, the situation has changed. The house is empty, his grandfather is alive and well and takes him on an exploratory journey which includes discovering a young girl, Melanie (Hayden Panettiere) who is able to skate on top of the water of the lake, a strange circus and ringmaster, trapeze acts, the dust on the floor of the circus which is called a dust factory, which people can fall through and go into other worlds, discover strange people, strange clothes, in a semi-comatose life. This is all a matter for a kind of limbo experience, a transition from one world to the next, the possibility of discovering oneself, making options to come to life again. This is what happens, advised by his grandfather, challenged by the ringmaster, with Melanie as accompanying him.

The film is rather serious in its tone, complex in its plot – but a moralising story for its intended audience.

1. A fantasy film? Serious fantasy? For the audiences? Their imagination? The reflection?

2. The American town, home, the countryside? The circus? The big top, trapeze, the dust factory? The inner realms of fantasy? The lake, the bridge? The musical score?

3. Ryan’s story, his age? At home? With his mother, with Lionel? The skating, with Rocky? With the friends, their taunting him about not speaking? Rocky accepting this and living with it? His bond with his grandfather, Alzheimer’s? The memory of his father, sketching the moon, the telescope? The later flashback, in the car with his mother, caught on the rail tracks, his father pushing them to safety, his father struck by the train?

4. Ryan, the outing with Rocky, on the bridge, the dangers, slipping? Ryan later falling from the bridge? Coming up from the water, Rocky disappeared? A new world?

5. Going home, his grandfather well, leading him, giving him good advice? The countryside, the circus? Seeing Melanie skating on the lake?

6. Melanie, her age, personality, her experiences, loss of memory, her friendship with Ryan, sharing with him?

7. The grandfather and his guidance, explanations, his mother and father? Choices?
8. Going to the big top, the trapeze artists, the ringmaster, his expression, both sinister and challenging? Their being caught? The dust, going into the other space, the range of people met, their appearances, costumes, their loss of memory?

9. The Dust Factory, disturbing the dust? The challenge to Melanie? The challenge to Ryan? His going on the trapeze, holding on by one arm?

10. The personality of the ringmaster, communicated with facial expression and action? The baseball, Ryan’s ability, the challenge, succeeding?

11. The moral of making choices, hanging on, opting out or facing the future?

12. His return to normal, after the appearance of his father, drawing the moon, the bond with his father? His beginning to speak, his mother’s delight, the support of Lionel? Rocky and his support? And the appearance of Melanie?

13. The appeal of the film – to what age group?

THE WYVERN MYSTERY

UK, 2000, 120 minutes, Colour.
Naomi Watts, Derek Jacobi, Iain Glen, Jack Davenport, Aisling O' Sullivan.
Directed by Alex Pillai.

The Wyvern Mystery is based on the novel by Irish poet, novelist, newspaper editor, Sheridan le Fanu, who is, perhaps, most famous for his lesbian vampire story, filmed many times and with many variations, Carmilla. He also wrote the Gothic story, Uncle Silas.

This film is very much a story of the mid-19th century, the Victorian era, with the traditions of Gothic storytelling.

With a mad woman in the attic, there are echoes of Jane Eyre (and comment that Charlotte Brontë was influenced by him), of rural scenes reminiscent of Hardy and a number of coincidences in Dickens’ vein.

There are dastardly deeds by the squire of the Manor, played with some force by Derek Jacobi. There are orphans, especially the young Alice who has lived in the custody of the squire and who wants to marry her. This was an early role from Naomi Watts after her career in Australia and making some films in the United States. Her breakthrough role in Mulholland Drive came immediately after this film. The two sons of the squire are played by Iain Glen and Jack Davenport. Aisling O’ Sullivan is the mad woman. The film was directed by Alex Pillai who had an extensive career in television series.

This production is in the vein of British historical dramas with a strong emphasis on costumes and decor, locations – with touches of mental deterioration, deaths, mysteries, betrayals.

The novel and this film are not as widely known as other stories and films from these eras.

1. The writings of Sheridan le Fanu? His Irish origins? Stories about England? The Gothic tradition? The British film tradition of historical dramas?

2. The period, the mansions, the countryside, costumes and decor? Sense of period? Musical score?

3. The title, expectations?

4. The opening, Alice’s father, separated from his family, the role of the squire, the death? The squire taking Alice into his care?

5. Alice, the child, growing up, the attentions of the squire, his proposal? Alice and her relationship to his two sons? Her love for Charles, his coming to visit, his father spurning him? Harry, devoted, at home? The planned elopement, Harry and his help, Charles and Alice leaving?

6. The journey, Alice and her expectations, the mystery about Wyvern?

7. The mysterious mansion, the rooms, vast? Secret rooms? Locked?

8. The gradual revelation of the woman, her madness, her screams, her breaking through the wall, the physical attack on Alice? Her meals, Mrs Tarnley taking care of her? The revelation
that she was Charles’s wife?

9. The buildup to the melodramatic climax? The woman, the knife, her stabbing Charles, his death? The infectious disease, taking the baby into care, Alice and her having met Claire, the story of her child and Harry’s support?

10. The collapse of Alice’s world, the death of Charles, the death of her son, the passing of five years, her work in the fields, a strong woman? Going to the grave of her child each year? Going to the house, the encounter with the squire, his physical and mental collapse?

11. Wyvern, Harry as the heir, his taking over?

12. Alice, the discussions with the doctor? Mrs Tarnley and her compassion, deciding to help? Alice’s chance encounter with Claire, Claire and her denials about having a child?

13. Alice getting the information, the background of the old soldier and his story, Charles and Harry with him?

14. Alice going to the house, sinister, the readings from the Bible, the housekeeper, the children and the Bible readings, Alice recognising her son? The drama of her taking her son to safety? Her dreams and fears about him?

15. Alice and her visiting the mad woman, getting the keys, the information, freeing her, her death?

16. Confrontation with Harry, Harry as scheming all the time, his wanting to inherit, the death of his brother, the mad wife, Alice’s son disappearing, the final revelation of him as a villain?

17. The popularity of Gothic melodrama, sinister characters, betrayals, disasters – but a final happy ending?

THE BRAND NEW TESTAMENT

Belgium, 2016, 118 minutes, Colour.
Pili Groyne, Benoit Poelvoorde, Catherine Deneuve, François Damiens, Yolande Moreau, Laura Verlinden, Serge Lariviere, Didier de Neck, Marco Lorenzini.
Directed by Jaco van Dormael.

Jaco van Dormael is a Belgian director with a wry sense of humour. His films include Eighth Day, Toto los Heros and the very eccentric Mr Nobody. The Brand New Testament is eccentric indeed. It plays with biblical ideas and images, has its own Genesis and Exodus as well is its own God, in the form of comedian Benoit Poelvoorde, a mean-minded creator living in a house in Brussels with his housekeeper Goddess wife and his precocious daughter. There are references to Jesus himself, images of Jesus on the cross, of a statue who dialogues with his sister, urging her to greater things.

God has spent a lot of time making mischief for humans. His wife, Yolande Moreau, is busy tidying up and causes a problem when she disconnects God’s computer in order to plug in her cleaner – and he had sent out messages to all people about the date they were to die. This causes some kind of panic as well as people planning the rest of their lives, for a short time or a long time.

God’s daughter, Ea, escapes through a laundry vent, befriends a homeless man who becomes her scribe for a new Testament, and spends her time finding six apostles – quite a range of people in ordinary and extraordinary situations (including Catherine deneuve falling in love with a gorilla). By the end of this experience, Ea has new sayings for a new gospel. God has followed her down to earth but is arrested because he has no papers and is to be transported to prison in Uzbekistan. God’s wife then reconnects the computer, starts it again and people’s time limits for life on earth are no longer part of their information…

1. The title, the tone, expectations? Religious antireligious? Reverent and irreverent? Whimsical?

2. The audience and ideas of God, the Biblical background and traditions, faith and stances for God, stances anti-God? Images of God as Creator, controller? The sketches of Adam and Eve and their multiplying generations? The joke of Adam with the black bar across his genitals and trying to get rid of it? The images of a vengeful and tormenting God? Issues of human decision and free will?

3. God in the 21st century, living in Brussels, in the apartment? His 21st-century Genesis? Modern, his goddess wife, his clothes and appearance, the comic touches, the wife and her cleaning? The da Vinci picture? God and his computers? His composing all the petty and malicious laws for people to be hurt? Programs and control? The memories of Jesus, his critique of Jesus? His being on hard on his daughter?

4. Ea, the daughter, her age, home life, love for her mother, her mother’s love of baseball and wanting eighteen disciples like a team? Her opinions and wanting to change the world? Her talking to the statue of Jesus, his coming alive, his memories, experiences, a device? The later joke about JC and van Damme? Ea and her Exodus, wanting to escape, the advice to go through the washing machine? Her tampering with the computer, sending out all the text messages about how long everybody had to live?

5. Her getting out, the real world, eating a hamburger at the dump, the people she met, the puzzles, meeting Victor, the discussions, becoming friends? Aims, to find the six apostles? A brand new Testament and Victor writing it down?

6. People receiving the text messages, the information about their deaths, the range of individuals, the different times, the reactions, the sudden deaths, the carefree attitude, people pursuing hobbies, ease? The role of the media? The comedy with Kevin - he knew that he couldn’t die and his various attempts and his being saved?

7. Ea and Victor, his being homeless but bonding with Ea, the quest of finding the apostles? The six different types, their circumstances, men and women, some hard lives, others and their eccentricities? And Ea listening to the music inside each of them?

8. The first disciple: Aurelie, young woman, ill, her face, loneliness, her loss of her arm?

9. The second apostle: Jean-Claude?, his dreams, remaining on the park bench, birds, his wonder at the formations, arriving the Arctic?

10. The third decide apostle: the sex addict? Lonely, his memories of the German girl, voicing porn movies, meeting the right woman?

11. The fourth apostle: the assassin, flashbacks to his childhood, deadly, aims, his hobbies, his wife and child, seeing the girl in the elevator, following her, the declaration of love, the guns, shooting Aurelie and hitting her artificial arm? with her, the change of heart?

12. The fifth apostle, Catherine Deneuve, life, luxury, glamour, shopping, her home, her unfaithful husband? The affair with the young prostitute? Ea taking her to the circus, the encounter with the gorilla, the gorilla going home, the relationship? A variation on Beauty and the Beast?

13. The six apostle: the young boy, terminally ill, deciding what he wanted, the reaction of his parents, wanting to be a girl, wearing the dress, going to school? The fish – and returning it to the sea?

14. God, coming out through the washing machine, the suds, eating the hamburger, attacked as a vagrant, his malevolent responses, wandering, his arrest, not having any documents, being transported to Uzbekistan, the plane and its being about to crash? His working in the factory in Usbekistan and making washing machines (and a possible escape)?

15. The wife, cleaning the office, using the socket for the vacuum cleaner, turning the computer on, the request to reboot, her accepting – and people getting the texts that their deaths were not planned? The wife and her looking at the da Vinci picture with the increasing number of apostles? Her picking the floral colour of the sky?

16. Everyone on the beach, the threat of the plane crash?

17. The change, everybody becoming normal, happy? Ea and Victor and the writing down of the new precepts? The gathering with all the apostles and their new lives?

18. The epilogue, the tone – and Kevin challenging death again – and failing?

JINGLE ALL THE WAY

US, 1996, 89 minutes, Colour.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sinbad, Phil Hartman, Rita Wilson, Robert Conrad, Martin Mull, Jake Lloyd, Jim Belushi, Lorraine Newman, Harvey Korman.
Directed by Brian Levant.

According to all theory, Jingle All the Way, should be a children's holiday movie - and it is, but it is also a film for parents. The plot has its funny moments, with busy dad, Arnold Schwarzenegger being a good sport in another comedy role after Twins and Junior as well as Kindergarten Cop, failing to buy his son the latest hero toy.

So, Arnold and other parents, including a comic turn by Sinbad as Arnold’s nemesis, indulge in battling behaviour to get the last toy, behaviour that parents would be horrified to see in their children. It's supposed to be a satire on the commercialisation of Christmas but, rather, it seems to reinforce it. However, by a series of chances, Arnold is involved in the Christmas parade and becomes, literally, Turbo Man, to the delight of his son Phil Hartman has a role as a sleazy neighbour who charms all the women. Rita Wilson plays the mother of the young boy. Men behaving badly.

Larry, the Cable Guy, starred in the raucous Jingle all the Way 2.

1. A Christmas story, a Christmas rush story, the spirit of Christmas, Santa Claus, gifts? Popular gifts, the pressure on parents? The hold the children have over parents?

2. The title, the song, as an image of the feuding parents trying to buy toys?

3. The setting in Minnesota, Minneapolis- St Paul, busy offices and Christmas parties, homes, children and their watching TV and super heroes, neighbours, the folksiness of neighbours helping neighbours? The musical score?

4. Howard, his situation at the office, all the clients, saying they were his number one clients, even saying this to his wife? The son, his karate class and belt? The wife phoning, the secretary urging? The traffic jam? His being late, the reaction of his son, of his wife? His promise to do something better? His son wanting Turbo Man doll, his having promised to get it but forgotten?

5. The background of Turbo Man, the television programs, the doll, the heroism, the villains, the sayings, fulfilling promises, defeating the enemy? The president and his wife? This all being taken up in the parade, Howard as Turbo Man, Myron as the villain, the float, the action, the boy involved, the villain taking the boy to the Christmas tree on the roof, Howard and finding that Turbo Man could fly, the mayhem in the procession, the rescue, getting the doll – and the son willing to give the doll away to Myron for his son?

6. The scenes in the shop, the crowds, the savage parents, trampling the manager as the doors opened, shelves tumbling, chases, fights, Howard chasing the boy with the ball, the mothers bashing him? Meeting Myron, their discussions, Myron as the postman, stories about his father and his disappointment? Confiding in Howard, yet their continued rivalry, the chases, the fights?

7. The episode with the Santa and the elves, the factory, the con, the fight, the police, Howard pretending that he was police?

8. The humorous interludes with the stern policeman, on the highway as Howard cheated to avoid the traffic, knocking down his bike, the coffee all over him, at the false factory, the end…?

9. Howard, desperate, escaping the policeman, finding himself in the preparation for the parade, the spiel by the manager, the suit, on the float, Myron, the escapades?

10. Happy ending, the son doing the nice thing with the gift, proud of his father – and the postscript with his wife wondering what Howard, after all that trouble, had as a gift for her!

LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET

UK, 2000, 95 minutes, Colour.
Neve Mc Intosh, Steven Mackintosh, Juliet Caton, Kenneth Cranham, Jamie Bamber, Melanie Clark Pullen.
Directed by Betsan Morris Evans.

This melodramatic film is based on a very popular, even notorious, novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915). it was filmed several times in the silent era.

The setting is England, 1868, a country mansion where Lucy is governess to Sir Michael’s daughter, Alicia. Sir Michael proposes and Lucy accepts. There are various secrets including the fact that Lucy had been married to George Talboys who had gone to Australia for gold leaving behind his wife and newly born child. She arranged a deception to indicate that she and the child had died, leaving the child care of her father. When her husband returns, he receives the news that she has died but then discovers that she is alive, who she is, and he falls down a well as they clash, she leaving him. His friend, Robert, orphaned nephew of Sir Michael is attracted to Lucy but then decides to investigate her past.

There are complications with a loyal maid, her fickle fiance who discovers the secret and blackmails Lucy.

The story comes from the Gothic tradition of British novels and is set in Victorian times.

Neve McIntosh? (Gypsy Woman) is Lady Audley, Kenneth Cranham is quietly effectivene as Michael, Steven Macintosh rather conflicted as Robert.

1. The reputation of the novel? In the 19th century? Based on the author’s own experience? Intimations of stories like Jane Eyre?

2. Adaptation for the screen, for television, the British tradition of period films, costumes and decor, estates, houses and lands, interiors? Musical score?

3. The introduction to Lucy, as governess, with other servants, her role in Sir Michael’s household, with Alicia? Sir Michael and his proposal, her consideration, acceptance? The marriage? Her becoming the lady of the estate? Her relationship with Alicia? With Phoebe and the servants? Sir Michael and his devotion?

4. Robert, returning from Australia, the goldfields, his friendship with George? Searching the papers, the news of the death of George’s wife and child?

5. Robert, the intended married marriage to Alicia? His immediate attraction to Lucy? Her realising this, her disdain? With George, loyalty? His curiosity, probing, the information, following it through, the threats to Lucy? Going to see her father, finding out the truth? The revelation to Sir Michael? His health? Alicia and her reaction? The impact of the tour of the house, finding the portrait?

6. George, his reaction to Lucy, the discovery of the truth? The confrontation, the clash, falling down the well? The later information that he had survived, recovered, had found a new partner? His vindictive attitude towards Lucy? Robert, the shock of learning about George?

7. Phoebe, relationship with Luke, looking at the jewels, finding the baby shoe, Luke and his blackmailing Lucy, her payments, Robert observing this? Luke abandoning Phoebe, Phoebe and her helping Lucy?

8. Lucy, the opportunity to tell her story, her poverty, her mother in a mental institution, her father, the marriage, George abandoning her, the plan for her death and the child? The marriage, her devotion to Sir Michael?

9. Robert, antagonistic, his mixed motivation, the truth, rejected by Lucy? His relationship with Alicia, the engagement, putting it off? His continued investigations, going to Yorkshire, the information? Engaging the doctor, his stating that madness was not hereditary? But his disapproval of Lucy, saying she was not mad but dangerous in society? Her being taken to the French institution? Her feeling that she was imprisoned?

10. Alicia, compassion, taking the money, Lucy being freed?

11. Robert, pursuit, the railway station, Lucy dying her hair, Robert and his reading defeated?

12. The popular ingredients of Victorian melodrama?