AMERICAN MARY

US, 2012, 103 minutes, Colouor.
Katharine Isabelle, Antonio Cupo
Directed by Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska.

Sounds innocent but beware. This is one of those popular torture horror films, better made than usual (and dedicated to Eli Roth, specialist in horror like Hostel). It may be difficult to watch because it is to do with surgical modification of people and not just hospital surgery.

Katharine Isabelle plays a precocious medical student specializing in surgery. She comes to the attention of some of her teachers whose motivations are not in accordance with medical ethics. She is struggling with debt problems. She finds herself in a situation, using her talents to help a victim surgically. She attracts the attention of a club owner and some of his staff and clientele and she is faced with a moral (and financial) dilemma: whether to accept the highly-paid but illegal and unethical jobs of modification she is offered – or not. No guessing what she decides. She does.

This leads to a number of surgical scenes, some quite explicit, others where the modifications are suggested (effectively). Because of the criminal connections of the club (which never seems to have many clients) and the malevolent intentions of the lustful doctors, she is assaulted and abducted. What is a girl to do? Abduct the lascivious doctor and submit him to gross surgery and abhorrent modifications.

So, many commentators have referred to this kind of film as ‘torture porn’. Defence is that it is telling a story vividly. Prosecution is whether this leads to indulgence in graphic mutilating violence.

Not a mainstream film but one which raises issues, for those who would wish to venture into this world, of themes and treatment and sensibilities.

SUSPECT ZERO

US, 2004, 99 minutes, Colour.
Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, Carrie- Anne Moss, Harry Lennix, Keith Campbell.
Directed by E. Elias Merhige.

Suspect Zero is a police thriller, an FBI agent tracking down a serial killer across the United States but finding that on technicalities he was set free. The agent is played by Aaron Eckhart. Carrie- Anne Moss is his associate.

The agent has a capacity for looking into the future but there is another agent, in an institution, played by Ben Kingsley who also has the gift and continues to communicate messages to the agent, especially when there are further killings and the agent is trying to make connections to see whether a serial killer is at work.

The film has some suspense in its action, although audiences may work out what is happening before the final twist is revealed.

The film was directed by E. Elias Merhige who directed the offbeat story of the making of the silent German film, Nosferatu, Shadow of a Vampire, with John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe.

1. A serial killer film? Themes and vengeance? FBI agents? Powers out of the ordinary? The toll?

2. The title, the theory about the killer, going across the United States undetected? In fact in the plot of this film?

3. The New Mexico setting, the towns and the diners, homes, FBI Office, doctor’s surgery, institutes and rooms? The countryside, the roads, the isolated house? The musical score?

4. The visual style, the blend of the wheel and the surreal, the raid sequences and O’ Ryan’s seeing situations? Thomas seeing situations? The lectures? Work at home? Words and codes and close-ups? The exercise of the special powers? The consequences?

5. The effect on O’ Ryan, institutionalized, sending messages to Tom, his attending the religious service in the church and his tears? Tired, wanting to die?

6. The introduction, the sinister atmosphere, Harold as an ordinary travelling salesman, eating, the diner, getting a fright with a person at the window, O’ Ryan accosting him, showing him the pictures? Harold going to his car, O’ Ryan in the car, the crash, Harold’s death, the wreckage, Tom on the scene, lifting of the car and his commanding the worker to stop, the examination of the crime scene?

7. O’ Ryan, seeing his room, the maps, sending the messages, the teacher, the circle and the zero, the meaning, eyes being plucked from the victims, enlarged? Starkey, the rape attempt, his death?

8. Tom, his character, his arrival, his history, his mistakes, explaining his history, O’ Ryan’s room and all the documentation about Tom and his failure? Transferring to Albuquerque, the boss and his reaction, letter of the law and investigation? Bill and his help? His character, his pain, aches, ESP powers?

9. Fran, her arrival, the past relationship with Tom? The boss and his reaction? Talking to them both, their relationship, Fran wanting to be equal partner? Tom and his tendency to take over? The car, Harold’s death, the later visit to his wife, her not suspecting anything, the search and the discovery? The teacher, the photos, the boys, uncovering his crimes?

10. The effect on Tom, the puzzle, Fran and her help, visiting the rooms, the manager of the home, the other inmates, the bizarre experiences, O’ Ryan and his FBI claim, his name not being on the books?

11. What if… O’ Ryan was an agent and an avenger? O’ Ryan as a helper rather than a killer? The truck, the police pursuit, stopping O’ Ryan?

12. The meeting, the image of the mesa, the reality, the handcuffs? Audience judgment on O’ Ryan? The truck, the house, the chase, the crash? Tom, the cuffs, unsure? O’ Ryan explaining the selection of the agents, tests, their training, action in the field, breakdown and mental disorder?

13. The final confrontation between Tom and O’ Ryan, calling Fran, the other forces, O’ Ryan and his plea to die, seeing the future, his being shot?

14. Tom, his capacities, having seen O’ Ryan, his powers and their toll, his destiny?

THE STORY OF US

US, 1999, 97 minutes, Colour.
Bruce Willis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tim Matheson,
Directed by Rob Reiner.

As might be derived from the title, this is the story of a marriage. This is the perspective of the end of the 20th century, a century which has encouraged people to reflect on themselves, on love, on commitment and marriage – as well as highlighting the failures of so many marriages and consequent divorce with repercussions on the husbands and wives themselves, as well as on the children.

The film was directed by actor, Rob Reiner, best known for the son in All in the Family. He had an extensive career as a director, with a number of hits including When Harry Met Sally as well as the Stephen King thriller, Misery.

At this stage of their lives and careers, the two stars were 40 plus or minus, Bruce Willis having made an impact on television and made an extraordinary transition to the movies, becoming something of a superstar. Michelle Pfeiffer was almost 40 and also had strong status at this time as a movie star.

This means the performances are interesting but also the impact of the screen presence of the stars, audiences identifying with the performers and therefore being drawn into the action of the film itself, Bruce Willis and his laid-back approach, Michelle Pfeiffer a touch more intense – which means then that this is a film of interest about commitment and the breakdown of marriage.


1. The tone of the title? We and us? Marriage, love, sharing, breakdown?

2. The strength of the cast? Their reputations at the time of the film’s release? The career of Rob Reiner and his films?

3. The structure, the different times, the screenplay moving backwards and forwards? The present and the breakup, the memories and the cumulative effect of Ben and Katie’s life together, inter-cutting the episodes? The comment on each other?

4. The two at work, the jokes, the attraction, falling in love, going out, sharing, the excitement, an exuberant love?

5. The children, their birth, happy family, the glimpses, the children growing up?

6. The present, audiences observing the couple’s behaviour, at home, in front of the children, school, the celebration of the anniversary and its failure?

7. Ben, his love for Katie, becoming neglectful, insensitive over the years, his devotion to the family, his work, listening Katie or not?

8. Katie, her life, becoming hard, feeling alone, Ben’s sensitivity, falling out of love, covering for the sake of the family?

9. Her decision to oust Ben, his reaction, his living alone, the various phone calls, seeing the loneliness of each, the visits?

10. The comic theme of the parents, their influence, the surreal scene of both sets of parents in bed, the jokes, Katie’s mother and her being serious? Ben saying she was becoming like her mother?

11. Katie, her friends, the meals together, chatter, talking about sexuality, about divorce, their own experiences?

12. The separation but the visits, talking, concerned about the children and camp, the meals, his visit, Ben’s negative reaction?

13. The kids going to camp, taking them to the bus, Ben driving slowly behind the truck, Katie’s tension? The phone contact with children, their pride in the children?

14. Going to meet them, coming back, the reconciliation between the two, credible? Seeming easy after the separation? The importance of couples trying to reconcile?

ALVIN THE CHIPMUNKS: THE ROAD CHIP

US, 2015, 93 minutes, Colour.
Jason Lee, Kimberly Williams- Paisley, Josh Green, Tony Hale, Bella Thorne.
Voices of: Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse Mc Cartney, Christina Applegate, Kaley Cuoco, Anna Faris.
Directed by Walt Becker.

The Alvin and the Chipmunks films are definitely for younger audiences – and it is somewhat surprising to find reviewers and bloggers, for instance on the IMDb site, berating the film for not being more adult, sensible, deriding it as silly. Other bloggers, especially parents, say that this is the choice of film that their little children enjoy. (It is as if reviewers were considering dolls and other children’s toys and condemning them from an adult perspective.)

This is not to exclude the fact that many adults probably find the chipmunks quite irritating, their voices, their behaviour, but would be prepared to put up with this for the sake of the children.

Jason Lee, as Dave, is somewhat heroic as having appeared in all the Chipmunk films, being a great buddy with them, often finding them exasperating, as he does in this one, but eventually going to officialdom to properly adopt them! Kimberly Williams-Paisley? is a pleasant presence, although the chipmunks are not very happy with her and the prospect of David marrying. Her son Miles, Josh Green, is particularly obnoxious to the chipmunks, but, they save him when he is absent-minded in the street and almost knocked down by a car and gradually, they all bond in a common cause.

The chipmunks misbehave at the opening of the film, throwing a party with the Chippettes and trashing Dave’s house. Well, not all of them, Simon is much better behaved than Alvin! Dave takes them to minigolf to meet Samantha and they later find a ring. He reprimands and goes off to Miami to launch a singer and her recording. The chipmunks assume that he is going to get married and, having encountered air martial, Tony Hale, Theodore petting animals loose on the plane and so clashes with them, they are ordered off planes and therefore have to go by road. There is quite some slapstick comedy with the air marshal.

In the meantime, they have drugged three squirrels and dressed them up as the chipmunks to deceive the shortsighted neighbour, an amusing cameo by Jennifer Coolidge, to think they are still at home and to reassure Dave by phone when he rings.

There is another amusing cameo with the director, John Waters, with some adult references to his films and filmmaking, like Pink Flamingos.
As they go along the road, with Miles, they get to New Orleans and perform some songs there. Dave eventually catches up with them, they realise what is really happening, they return to Los Angeles for their adoption and there is happy ever after – at least until the next Chipmunks film.

MAN OF THE HOUSE

US, 1995, 96 minutes, Colour.
Chevy Chase, Farrah Fawcett, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, George Wendt, Art La Fleur, Richard Portnow, Chief Leonard George.
Directed by James Orr.

Man of the House is a Disney comedy featuring popular stars of the time, especially Jonathan Taylor Thomas who starred in Home Improvement. Chevy Chase had been around for many decades in comedies. Farrah Fawcett had been a star with Charlie’s Angels.

The theme is a familiar one, a father walking out on his family with his secretary, mother and son bonding over the years, the mother eventually wanting to remarry but the son fearful that he will lose his mother.

The serious aspect and comic aspects of the film concern the boy and his antagonism towards his possible stepfather, a serious lawyer, Jack, who had gained the conviction of a drug dealer who then threatened him with death. The boy gets the idea of getting Jack into the Indian Guides, making it awkward for him and humiliating him. Nevertheless, Jack perseveres – but all comes to a head when the thugs pursue Jack in the forest and the boy has to help him to survive.

The film was very popular at the time, family audiences liking it and finding it very funny.

1. A Disney comedy about family? The background of divorce and remarriage, children and their fears? Possibilities for bonding?

2. The Seattle setting, the home, the law firm, the courts, the forests, action in the forest? The musical score? The range of songs?

3. The cast, Chevy Chase and his popularity, Farrah Fawcett from Charlie’s Angels? Jonathan Taylor Thomas from Home Improvement?

4. The opening situation, Sandy and Ben, the father and his girlfriend leaving, waving, disappearing? Ben at six? The next five years? In Seattle, the bond between mother and son?

5. Sandy, character, love for her son, deciding to remarry, the meeting with Jack, falling in love? His moving into the loft? trying to bond with Ben? Sandy fostering the relationship?

6. Ben, a touch precocious, memories of his father leaving, not wanting to lose his mother, antagonism towards Jack? His behaviour towards him, manner of speaking? At school, his plotting, the YMCA and the Indian Guides? Forcing Jack to become part of the group? The outings, in the forest, Jack and his awkwardness, being humiliated? Jack persevering? Camp storytelling?

7. Ben, his friends at school, Jack overhearing Ben boasting about what he had done?

8. Jack, continuing to go along with things, his hopes, outreach? His work in the court, Frank Renda, drug dealing, found guilty, and his threats, his son and his threats, his gangster associates? Plotting against Jack?

9. Jack and his discussions with Chet? Chet and his stepson, the same problems as Jack had, giving advice?

10. In the forest, Jack, the brakes on his car, going into Puget Sound, the thugs pursuing Jack in the forest, Ben and his realisation of the truth, collaboration with Jack, the other boys and the other fathers?

11. The farcical confrontation with the gangsters? But the happy ending – and everyone reconciled, the wedding, The Indian Guides present?

REMEMBERING THE MAN

Australia, 2015, 86 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Nickolas Bird, Eleanor Sharpe.

The title of this documentary is a variation on Holding the Man, the memoir written by Tim Conigrave, published posthumously in 1995, about his relationship with John Caleo from their time at Xavier College in 1976 to John Caleo’s death from AIDS in 1992. Tim Conigrave himself died from AIDS in 1994. His memoir was soon adapted for the stage and, in 2015, the film version, directed by Neil Armfield was released to critical acclaim.

The emphasis in the first half of the film is on the relationship between the two boys at school, its development over the years, the change in relationship of each boy in his early 20s, and their initial careers. While this story continues, in the second half of the film the focus shifts to the AIDS epidemic. In fact, at the end of the film, there is a statement that Holding the Man is a key contribution to the history of the pandemic in the 1980s and into the early 1990s.

Those who have read the book, or seen the play, or seen the film, we will be familiar with most of the events which are portrayed here. Of course, the Holding the Man screenplay amplified many of the events noted here – but this film gives far more attention to the acting career of Tim Conigrave and his play and its performance, Soft Targets.

The film makers have been able to assemble a great number of photographs of the two boys, of the two men, as well as quite some video footage. They are incorporated into the narrative of this film. When photographs or video material is not available, some actors portray the two men, their parents, and some others associated with them in dramatic portrayals.

As with most documentaries, there are many interviews and talking heads, from school friends from Xavier days, both men and women, from friends who shared houses with them, with many who studied at NIDA with Tim Conigrave, and the number of men and women who were involved in social work and hospital care. The impression that they all give is that John Caleo was a quiet young man, a talented sportsman, and effective chiropractor, the more stable of the two, while Tim Conigrave was quite flamboyant from his earliest years, something which developed in his theatrical interests, his theatrical training and performances.

One of the values of this film is that there are considerable excerpts from three audiotapes of interviews which Tim Conigrave made in 1993 for a National Library project of witnesses to the experience in Australia of AIDS. It is interesting to listen to the tone of voice, generally quite sober, and, Conig recollections – much more serious than many of the photos and video excerpts that are shown. He was only a year or so away from his own death.

There is a lot of historical footage from the 1970s, especially with public opinion against homosexuals, scenes from Gay Mardi Gras as well as scenes of protest, especially some led by the Rev Fred Nile, quotations from the book of Leviticus, and other denunciations and, in more secular sequences, for example from Australian television in 1976, Monday Conference, a great deal of poofter-bashing. This gives the context of the relationship – something which has changed fairly extensively in the subsequent 40 years.

Tim Conigrave is supportive in his opinions of the Jesuits who ran Xavier College, a re-enacted scene with a priest at a holiday house and finding the two young men together and leaving them be. The understanding of the Jesuits is named explicitly Conigrave.

As regards the funeral Mass for John Caleo Kelly (somewhat contentious in Holding The Man), at which Father Peter Wood MSC, the AIDS Chaplain in Melbourne at the time, presided (who is credited as one of those interviewed for the film), it is mentioned that there were six priests present – although, as in the movie, but much more explicit here which does explain the funeral sequences in the movie, John Caleo’s father was quite clear to Tim Conigrave that there was to be no mention of homosexuality or AIDS and that Tim Conigrave was not to sit with the family. There is a very disappointing priest postscript when one of the friends explains how Tim Conigrave had asked these friends to light candles for him in the church (St Patrick’s Cathedral), but a priest tells them to go away and is seen locking the iron gates against them and walking away. However , there is religious feeling as the camera goes inside a church, a Catholic Church, and tracks up to the altar where there is a photo of the two men (and a Mickey Mouse doll which Tim Conigrave used as a symbol of himself).

Some of the images in Fairfield Hospital and St Vincent’s Hospital of AIDS sufferers are quite graphic and bring home to audiences just how surprising, shocking and disturbing this new epidemic was and the toll that it took on those who were positive and who died of AIDS .

A significant film for going back into Australian gay history as well as the Australian experience of the beginning of AIDS and the development in the 1980s and 1990s.

SUNRISE

Indian/France, 2014, 85 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Partho Sen- Gupta.

Sunrise is a police thriller set in the city of Mumbai, highlighting its darker side and police work. It is an Indian film with French financial backing.

While the film has an atmosphere of realism, with its moving into different time periods and with dreams and hallucinations, it is also quite surreal. It is also surreal in its style of photography, light and darkness, especially darkness.

From a linear point of view, the film concerns a police inspector whose six-year-old daughter was to be picked up from school but is abducted. The film goes back to the days of the wife’s pregnancy and her relationship with her husband. However, the abduction has had a physical and mental toll on the wife.

There are scenes of the police Inspector at work, seemingly a loner, often driving alone in his car, sitting at his desk, the little boy in the office bringing tea around to the other officers, one reading poetry, the other on the phone and compiling files.

There is also a little boy who hangs around the police station, with the other police wanting to be rid of him, explaining that his father is violent towards him – then the police are called out to the house, finding the father dead, stabbed, the wife grieving, the children upstairs playing, and the young boy covered in blood with a knife.

In the boy’s hand is a card with the name of the nightclub on the back, Paradise. In reality and in dream, the police Inspector has visited the Paradise, sitting amongst the audience, seeing a group of rowdy men harassing the girls dancing on the stage, one showering them with money – and, in one of the sequences, real or imaginary, the inspector punches one of the men.

In the meantime, the film shows the background, extremely seedy, of sex slavery in the city, a matronly woman being in charge, dressed beautifully in a sari, easily lying to the police as she conceals the girls in the roof when the premises are inspected. The girls are young, having been abducted, forced into prostitution and dancing in the club. The film shows a young girl has been abducted, is taken in charge by a sympathetic dancer who then goes out and is bashed.

When the Inspector goes to the Paradise, he imagines going behind the stage into a long tunnel, finding the girls, seeking out his daughter, her appearing and calling out to him.

The film is atmospheric, inviting audiences into the underworld of Mumbai, of the pressures on police work, on the sleazy cruelty of the sex trade, and the personal anguish of the family whose daughter has been abducted.

A POET IN NEW YORK

UK, 2014, 72 minutes, Colour.
Tom Hollander, Essie Davies, Phoebe Fox, Ewen Bremner.
Directed by Aisling Walsh.

The poet of the title was the Welsh Dylan Thomas, celebrated in his lifetime for his distinct, use of language and rhythms, his down-to-earth themes as well as his imagination and fantasy, and his achievement in his play, Under Milkwood.

This film is very brief yet covers a lot of Dylan Thomas’s life, the framework being his last visit to New York, under the auspices of his agent Brinnin (Ewan Bremner) and his associate Liz, (Phoebe Fox). Dylan Thomas is played by Tom Hollander, in the last weeks of his life in New York, aged 39, drinking, with cirrhosis of the liver, unfaithful to his wife at home, being sick, having blackouts, cortisone injections, giving readings of his poetry as well as a reading performance of Under Milkwood.

There are quite a few flashbacks to his life back in Wales, his marriage to the fiery dancer, Caitlin (Essie Davis), their children, the detail of the home life, his difficulties in writing at home, his passionate love for Caitlin despite his infidelities. At the end, she is called to visit him in the hospital in New York, still passionate for him, a tantrum of clinging to him as he died.

While the film celebrates his achievement, there is great regret at his ruining his life, at his early death. It was written by the celebrated adapter of so many novels on Jane Austen, Dickens, Tolstoy, Andrew Davies.The film was directed for television by Irish director, Aisliing Walsh, a prolific director of television films but also of other films including two on sexual abuse in Ireland, Sinners and Song For a Raggy Boy.

1. A film about Dylan Thomas, his poetry, love of language, reputation? his drinking, his infidelity, his death at 39? Audience knowledge of Dylan Thomas and his work?

2. A brief telling of his story, the focus on Dylan Thomas in New York, the friendship with Brinnin and with Liz, the New York sequences, performance, Society gatherings, after-performance parties, the bars? The contrast with Wales, the coast, the beaches, the house? The musical score?

3. The inclusion of recitations of Thomas’s poems throughout the film? The verbal power? Tom Hollander’s recitation? The poem of going into the dark good night, his father’s illness and death? The rehearsals and performance of Under Milkwood?

4. The flashbacks, Thomas as a little boy, the children chasing and persecuting him, his difficulty in breathing, the effect on him? Growing up, his relationship with his mother and father, his father stern and not wanting to give him any money, especially for drinking, talking about his reputation? His intimations of regret about his marriage? His bequest to his son and admiration for his skills? His mother, indulgent, winking at him?

5. Caitlin, his story of falling in love with her, the marriage, her pregnancy, the children? On the beach, showing her the house, having the key? The donation from an admirer? Her background in dancing, her moodiness, her domination of her husband, his trying to write, her tidying the house? Her tantrums, with Brinnin and the visitors? His trying to persuade her that he should go to New York? Her visit and disliking it? Her coming to him when he was ill, her behaviour at the hospital, her desperate love, clinging to him?

6. Brinnin, as an agent, meeting Thomas, supporting him, and admiring the performances, and announcing him even as he had been vomiting? Applause? Arranging the tours? Dylan and his insulting him, saying that Brinnin had him on a leash? Liz reprimanding him? The embrace and his apology? His going to the rival agent? Brinnin and his visits to Wales and meeting Caitlin and trying to persuade Dylan to go to America? The promise of meeting Stravinsky? The collaboration? Liz remarking that Brinnin was in love with Thomas?

7. Liz, devotion to Dylan, the sexual relationship, her being a mother, pharmacist, nanny? The continued support? The disappointment at his rudeness to Brinnin? His carrying on with other women? Meeting them at parties, seductive invitations, especially the sequence with the Countess?

8. Brinnin and Liz at the hospital, mourning his death?

9. The doctor and his pharmaceutical support, cortisone injections? The other admirers, fawning on Thomas, suggesting available women?

10. A portrait and a glimpse of a significant poet, his talent, yet his drinking himself to illness and death?

ELSTREE 1976

UK, 2015, 90 minutes, Colour.
Paul Blake, Jeremy Bullock, John Chapman, Pam Rose, David Prowse.
Directed by Jon Spira.

This is a documentary particularly interesting for cinema buffs but, especially, for the Star Wars Fans. It was released at the time of the new Star Wars film, 2015, The Force Awakens.

The director has gone back to Elstree studios in London in 1976, George Lucas coming from the United States to make a science fiction film, which nobody knew much about – nor so much about George Lucas himself, though he had just directed American Graffiti which the studios were puzzled as to how to promote.

Elstree provided vast sets and this film takes us onto the sets, some glimpses of the main stars, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and sequences from the film along with some of John Williams’ music.

The bulk of the film is interviews with nine men and one woman who had bit parts or brief characterisations in the film. There are glimpses of at the time and long interviews with each of them almost 40 years later. Most of them are interesting personalities, communicating well to camera, indicating their situation at the time they were auditioned and cast in Star Wars, appearing in small roles, having other jobs, doing technical work around the studios, as was Pam Rose, the only woman interviewed.

It is interesting to hear these characters reflect on their experience, the importance of the long retrospect, their subsequent careers, appearing in films, or moving away from show business, even to writing and publishing books.

Those who know Star Wars in detail will recognise the people being interviewed.

Of major interest is David Prowse, who was the figure of Darth Vader, interviewed 40 years later, reminiscing, having fallen out with George Lucas, but giving an insight into his career of a weakly boy becoming a bodybuilder, appearing in Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, carrying Patrick Magee in the home sequence, and his subsequent work.

Many of these actors go to the conventions where the fans thronged, dressed up, sought the memorabilia, and wanted autographs – enabling these characters to be celebrities for those moments.

1. A film for film buffs in general, for fans of Star Wars?

2. The film produced in 2015, for the new Star Wars Film, The Force Awakens?

3. The retrospect of Elstree in 1976, the British film industry, the studios, the filming of Star Wars, the presence of George Lucas, sets, cast, action? The musical score and use of John Williams score?

4. The inclusion of actual sequences? The title, the focus on 1976, the beginning of the new Star Wars era?

5. The audiences, memories of Star Wars, after 40 years, the age of people at its first release, the subsequent 20 years, the next trilogy, audience knowledge, able to repeat lines and scenes, the merchandise and souvenirs, the science-fiction conventions and meeting the actors, dressing up as characters? The influence of Star Wars on the imagination?

6. Going back into the past, the young men and Pam Rose and their being cast? The scenes of them at the time? Hopes, ambitions, acting, non-actors? The interviews almost 4 decades later? Seeing some of them at the conventions?

7. Their contribution to understanding the myths of Star Wars from their own experience, the background of making the film, discovering George Lucas and his imagination? Wars, myths, heroism, characters, chivalry, in space, conflicts of good and evil, the importance of The Force? And the presence of a Guinness?

8. The world not prepared for Star Wars? George Lucas and his career, imagination? His plans, the interviews, his interviewing the cast, the presence of the stars, the details of the production, the sets? The personality of George Lucas?

9. The range of interviewees, men and one woman, their careers, subsequently, bit players, character actors, their life stories, their roles and the effect on them, the impact of the experience, the later careers, film careers and other careers?

10. The focus on David Prowse, his being Darth Vader, young, weak and ill, strengthening his body, the bodybuilding, his work Stanley Kubrick and the scenes from A Clockwork Orange? Overcoming illness, a stronger man, in the film? Yet his observations on his clash with George Lucas and the falling out with him?

11. The conventions, the actors and their presence, the admiration of the fans, the memorabilia, the costumes, the autographs, their becoming celebrities for the moment?

12. Insights into show business and filmmaking and the impact of Star Wars?

SILENT HILL

Canada/France, 2006, 120 minutes, Colour.
Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Laurie Holden, Jodelle Ferland, Deborah Kara Unger, Kim Coates, Tanya Allen, Alice Krige, Robert Campanella.
Directed by Christophe Gans.

This is quite an exotic horror tale (though it was only at the end that I discovered it is based on a computer game). Written by Roger Avary (Kill Zoe and co-writer with Tarantino on Pulp Fiction) and directed by Christophe Gans (The Brotherhood of the Wolf) and a Canadian/French co-production, it is actually set in the US, in the forests of West Virginia.

A very intelligent reviewer remarked at the end that he could not follow it at all. This may be the case for many viewers – although it is designed only for horror fans and computer game players and they are very much ‘in’ on the conventions, the influences and the horror logic of this kind of thing.

It is given very stylish treatment and many companies contributed to the considerable special effects – involving mime artists, barbed wire and the creation of a kind of inferno, as well as a spacious church and the streets of a modern city simply left in the middle of things as a ghost town in the 1970s. The widescreen format is both attractive and overwhelming.

At first look, the plot is fairly straightforward: strange adopted girl has nightmares and sleepwalks; mother avoids psychiatrists and takes her to the town she mentions in her dreams. Wrong move! It is a coalmining town, Silent Hill, where a fire disaster occurred in the mine and it was hurriedly evacuated. Pursued by an earnest motorcycle cop, she finds herself in an ashen-grey Silent Hill, ash still falling. She searches for her daughter but suddenly sirens go off, darkness descends and all kinds of monstrosities appear. Needless to say, she perseveres and wins over the cop. What they also discover is a strange apocalyptic and puritanical, witch-hunting sect who have killed a little girl and exiled her mother (not hesitating to literally cast the first stone).

This is where it does become complicated, but viewers will realise that the film is showing two concurrent worlds, the world of ghosts where the mother is, and the brightly coloured actual world where the father is searching for his family. And, if you pay attention, especially to the words of the sect leader (an icily frightening Alice Krige), you will work out what happened back then and what is happening now and what is happening in the hell or limbo where most of the action takes place.

It is definitely a women’s film. The men are merely supporting cast. Radha Mitchell as a strong personality and is able to carry the film with her anxiety, being terrorised but becoming more determined. Laurie Holden is the policewoman.

There are a few lines that have a touch of bathos but that does not undermine the film, but it is definitely one for horror fans.

1. The impact of the film? Horror? Thriller? Based on computer games? Survivor games?

2. Canadian production, the setting of West Virginia? Locations, the recreation of Silent Hill, normal, pervaded by fog and the darkness? The atmospheric musical score?

3. The introduction to Rose and Christopher, travelling, Sharon as their adopted daughter? Sharon, at the gas station, the drawings? The disappearance?

4. Rose, the accident, the role of Sharon? Sharon’s nightmares, Silent Hill? Sleepwalking and calling out?

5. Rose, Cybil, the encounter, possible arrest, their combining together to search?

6. Rose, wandering, Silent Hill, the transformation, the darkness, the creation of the monsters? The encounter with Dahlia? The story about Alessa and the people attacking her?

7. Rose, the locket, Dahlia seeing it, the resemblance between Sharon and Alessa, stealing it? Rose arrested, the huge crevice? The continued search?

8. The character of Pyramid Head, monster, vicious, his destruction of people?

9. The contrast with Christopher, his search, the encounter with Thomas Gucci? The documents? The history of Silent Hill, the coal seam fire, its spread, the church? Witches?

10. Anna, the darkness, fire and the destruction of the church?

11. Christabella, the leader of the cult, the photo, the background of witches?

12. Rose in the basement, the two Alessas, Sharon and Alessa, the witchcraft?

13. Alessa, catching fire, the two Alessas? The plot and the confrontation?

14. Christabella and Rose, stabbing, the blood, Alessa coming out, the darkness, the wire, bisecting Christabella? Fear?

15. Rose leaving, Dahlia staying, Christopher in the ordinary world , Rose and the two girls trapped in Silent Hill?