March 16th 2023

Living

Portrait of the Queen

The Elephant Whisperers (streaming on Netflix) 

More from Alliance Francaise French Film Festival

This week is very British, plus a bit French and a little Indian. From the Queen, to bowler hats, to elephants to cathedrals on fire - there are some super films to be had. 

Living

Dir: Oliver Hermanus

Length: 102 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVo5kLt_-BU

© Transmission - Nighy brings a career-best
perf to Mr Williams

London 1953: Mr Williams (Bill Nighy) is doing a bureaucratic desk job at the Public Works Department. He's a pretty dull guy - reserved, unsmiling, efficient, chained to his dull life and dull routine. But then the doctor diagnoses terminal cancer and gives him six months to live. He plans to take his life, but instead decides to live little. He meets a writer Mr Sutherland (Tom Burke) who takes him for a night on the town. Returning to London he runs into co-worker Miss Harris (Aimee Lou Wood), and begins to spend time with her, delighting in her youth and cheery disposition. Meanwhile at the Public Works department, a petition by local women for a playground has been shelved for months, and Williams decides to make it his mission to push for it to go through. If this sounds too low-key for you, think again. It is dealing with life's most vital issues, life and death, how to leave a mark on the world and how to spend your remaining days. And it is all done is such a quiet unostentatious way. What a shame Nighy didn't win best actor for his sublimely delicate and understated performance. Based upon the Japanese film Ikuru (directed by Kurosawa), this British version of the story with its bowler-hatted public servants and beautiful soundtrack will haunt you long after it is over. (Take plenty of tissues!) 

4 - highly recommended

Portrait of the Queen

Dir: Fabrizio Ferri

Length: 95 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v9-saDVpSI&t=6s

© Transmission - not your average Royal film -
a great window into the world of photography and 
how it portrayed Queen Elizabeth

Charles Dance narrates this wonderful documentary, in which renowned photographers who have been tasked with shooting the Royal Family, especially Queen Elizabeth II, discuss what it meant to them, how they did it, and what is takes to get a great image. On one level this is an outline of the Queen's life as seen through decades of world famous, iconic and well recognised photographs, but it is something deeper - those candid and intimate moments that the world's best photographers managed to capture show another side of a woman much loved, but often at a distance. Technical revelations are important too; discussions of lighting and anecdotes of how certain shots were got. And then there are the many people, from famous faces to folks in the street, who also talk about how they perceive (and love) Her Majesty. Royal buffs and photography buffs should definitely catch this one.

4 - highly recommended

Alliance Francaise French Film Festival ...more

Continuing until April 5

Melbourne Palace cinemas

For all information on films, times, tickets, visit affrenchfilmfestival.org

Notre Dame on Fire (Notre Dame Brule)

Much-awarded director Jean Jacques Annaud (Name of the Rose, Seven Years in Tibet, The Bear to name a few) helms this thrilling retelling of the blaze that we all watched in shock on TV in 2019, when the iconic cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris caught fire. Testament to how well this film is done is that, even though we know the outcome, Annaud makes it gripping from go to whoa. Cleverly he opens with a standard day: the tourists are there en masse, folks from all around the world. After what is interpreted as a false alarm for fire, suddenly it is tourists who spot smoke and alert the world via social media, then it is panic stations and a race against time.Trying to get fire trucks and teams through the gridlocked streets, then having water pressure problems, makes it hell for the fire department. The bravery of the fire-fighting personnel is front and centre. The race to save the cathedral's art  treasures is heart-stopping. The clever intercutting of real footage with the reenactments of nightmarish conditions up in the heights of the cathedral is breathtakingly tense. There is a surprising hit of emotion too, as Parisians gather in the streets to sing hymns and support the fire-fighting effort. Real life turned into a gripping thriller. 

Another of my faves so far in the Festival

The Elephant Whisperers

Dir: Kartiki Gonsalves

Length: 41 mins

Streaming on Netflix

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0J0b_OVa9w&t=3s

© Netflix - a story to melt your heart

This small gem has just won the Academy Award for Short 

Documentary. It is sweet and cute - so sweet and cute it makes you cry. Filmed in the south of India it deals with Bomman and his wife Bellie who are tasked with caring for an orphaned sick elephant, Raghu. They nurse the calf back to health and raise it almost as their child. Then baby elephant Ammu joins the family. As an insight into the nature of elephants this is eye-opening, and as a homage to people's love and care for animals it is inspirational. Cinematographically speaking, it is beautifully shot, with a lovely window into that part of India.

4 - wholeheartedly recommended