Wednesday 6 March 2024

March 7th 2024

The Great Escaper
Vanya
Cabrini
How to Have Sex
Alliance Francaise French Film Festival

It's another great week for strong cinematic offerings. And the much-loved French Film Festival hits the Palace Cinemas - always looked forward to and enjoyed by audiences. 
 
The Great Escaper
Dir: Oliver Parker
Length: 96 mins
© Transmission - two of Britain's finest actors
in a heart-warming true story 
Ex-World War II soldier Bernie Jordan (Michael Caine), now 90 years old, lives with his wife Irene (Glenda Jackson) in a retirement home. When the 70-year commemoration of the D-Day landings rolls around, and he misses out on a place in the organised tour, he does a runner from the home, crosses the channel and joins in the memorial ceremonies. Difficult memories come flooding back, along with his awareness of the waste of young lives, and the importance of what time is left to him with his beloved wife. Bernie's true story made headlines around the world. I feared this film could be formulaic and overly sentimental, but somehow the fine acting of two of Britain's top actors elevates the tale to another level.  Jackson (who died last year aged 87) delivers a sharp-tongued, witty performance as Irene, who, like her husband, reflects upon their past, their first love and their 70 happy years together. Caine, himself 90, delivers a heartfelt and deeply emotional performance, with Bernie's rheumy aging eyes a window to a life well-lived. Flashbacks to the wartime scenes are well done, as is the lovely short friendship Bernie forms with fellow veteran Arthur (John Standing). But it is the portrayal of old age (along with older love), done with dignity and respect, that is so lovely to watch.
4 - highly recommended

Vanya
Dir: Sam Yates
Length: 107 mins
© Sharmill -  I've never seen a stage 
performance this amazing! 
I'm usually the last person to watch theatrical productions put onto film. Let alone a reimagined version of a Chekov play (which I have never seen). But this is something else - something amazing to be enjoyed in its own right. Irish actor Andrew Scott takes to the stage solo to play eight different characters: the house staff Liam and Maureen, visiting (drunken) doctor Michael, ageing filmmaker Alexander and his much younger wife Helena, Alexander's former mother-in-law Elizabeth, the titular Vanya, (brother to Anna, deceased first wife of Alexander) and his niece Sonya, Alexander's daughter. The stage is set for a heartbreaking story (with amusing moments) of unrequited love, misplaced passions, resentments and life regrets. What could have been a jumble of confusing characters and scenes, is simply brilliant and awe-inspiring in the hands of Scott, who uses slight accent variations, and mannerisms to differentiate which character he is inhabiting with each line. It's like nothing I've ever seen, and the beautiful close-ups of Scott's face, as emotion pours from him, make this tour-de-force of acting even more impactful. This is the best acting master-class you could have. 
5 - unmissable!

Cabrini
Dir: Alejandro Monteverde
Length: 145 mins
© Rialto - inspiring story of the determination of
one woman to change the world
New York, 1889, sees large numbers of Italian immigrants hoping for a better life, but living in squalor. Enter a group of nuns, led by Mother Francesca Cabrini (Cristiana Dell'Anna) who has a burning desire and a mission to improve the lives of those she encounters, especially children. But New Yorkers are deeply prejudiced against Italians, and Cabrini encounters resistance at every step of the way. She decides to set up an orphanage, and with support of Archbishop Corrigan (David Morse) is successful. But the local community, especially patriarchal men like the Mayor (John Lithgow), are fervently against her. She hopes to expand her mission to building a hospital for the underpriveleged and takes her plea all the way to Rome to entreat the Pope himself (Giancarlo Giannini). The downside of this film is the very traditional manner of telling the narrative. At times one can almost predict what the next spoken line will be. But the story itself is absolutely inspirational and Dell'Anna is quite mesmerising as the dogged woman, who, despite her ailing health since childhood, is a true entrepreneur. Production values are also superb with great period re-enactment, and wide angle cinematography that lends almost a majestic feel to the squalor. Overall it's a wonderful story of a brave woman who gave her name to a worldwide chain of hospitals.
3.5 - well recommended

How to Have Sex
Dir: Molly Manning Walker
Length: 98 mins
© AHI - teens celebrating - at what
emotional cost?
Three close friends Tara (Mia McKenna Bruce), Em (Enva Lewis) and Skye (Lara Peake) have finished their exams and head to a resort in Greece for a hedonistic celebration, with plenty of sun, boozing, dancing, and, for Tara, the hope of losing her virginity. They hook up with two guys and a girl in the apartment next door, and the revelry begins. But for Tara things do not turn out as she hopes. Full disclosure: this film has won the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes last year, along with many other accolades. But I have to side with the 3% of Rotten Tomato critics who have issues with this film, and it is one of the rare times I find it hard to relate to a film because of its content. I've always despised the culture of Schoolies' Week in Australia, and much of this film centres around this sort of mindless, booze and lust-driven teenage activity.  It is only near the end, when Tara finds herself in situations she doesn't know how to handle, that things have the potential to become thought-provoking, but even there the director fails to examine more deeply the implications of  barely-consensual sex. The performances of the teens are powerfully compelling, particularly McKenna Bruce, whose face expresses in the close-ups all the feelings she is too young to be able to articulate. And the way the director and cinematographer portray the sweaty frenetic partying with its vomitous aftermath, along with the disturbingly sexist demeaning games, is also impressive - it's just that, for me, there is too much of it. (Is this a sign I'm showing my age!?)
2.5 - maybe

Alliance Francaise French Film Festival

Until April 2
Palace Cinemas
For all information on venues, films, synopses, bookings visit https://www.affrenchfilmfestival.org/
No point in my ranting about how good this festival is each year. You know that already. Suffice to recommend you a number of films I've been lucky enough to preview, and over the next week or so I will  add a couple more I catch up with. 

© Sharmill 
Sidonie in Japan
The always wonderful Isabelle Huppert plays author Sidonie Perceval, a widowed author who heads to Japan where her last novel is being re-released. She meets with her publisher Kenzo (Tsuyoshi Ihara) who will be her compantion for her six-day tour. To her amazement, Sidonie finds  that the ghost of her husband (August Diehl) turns up in each hotel where she stays. If she is to ever move on with her life she will need to dispel this apparition. This is such a sweet, poignant and romantic film, not without its humour, mostly derived from the differences between the formality of Japanese culture and the French style of doing things. There's a lovely chemistry between the two leads, and somehow the supernatural element blends seamlessly and almost believably into the overall plot. For me, loving all things French and Japanese, this film is a sweet and uplifting treat.
    

© Studio Canal 
All Your Faces
Imagine victims of crime meeting up with their perpetrators. This is precisely the notion of restorative justice which has been a feature of French society for about 10 years now. Taking this social reality, director Jeanne Herry crafts a fictional story that feels about as real as things can get, all helped by such notable French actors as Jean Pierre Daroussin, Gilles Lelouche and Adele Exarchopoulos. (Every cast member is superb!) This is intelligently scripted, emotionally powerful film-making that interweaves two distinct narrative threads: one is the group meeting of victims and perpetrators, the other is a lawyer facilitating a meeting between a now-adult woman who seeks to ensure she never runs into the recently-released brother who raped her as a child. The facilitators of the group carry no judgment, while all parties learn to talk, to listen and to get an understanding of where the other is coming from, plus the impact the crime has had on lives. The emphasis throughout the film is upon reconciliation, but not at the expense of showing the deep emotions carried by all. It is a worthy model of how negotiations could be conducted in a world where anger and revenge too often hold sway.
 
© Potential
Last Summer
Anne (Lea Drucker) is a brilliant lawyer married to older, respectable Pierre (Olivier Rabourdin). They have two adorable adopted twin girls. All seems idyllic until Pierre's estranged and surly seventeen-year-old son Theo (Samuel Kircher) comes to live with them. Theo looks like a young Adonis, and it's not long before Anne is knee-deep in a lustful affair with her stepson. Director Catherine Breillat loves to shock, and thematically this film may shock some viewers, while inviting audiences to ask where they stand morally on this issue, and just who seduced whom! The plot keeps us in plenty of suspense as we eagerly and anxiously await to see whether the couple will be sprung.  Performances are strong, especially Drucker who embodies hypocrisy and self-preservation to the max. The ambivalent ending has me intrigued and I enjoy the way one can never totally demonise one party or the other. 

© Potential
Divertimento
Two sisters, Zahia (Oulaya Amamra) and Fettouma  Ziouani (Lina el Arabi) have big dreams. At only 17, Zahia hopes to becomes one of very few female orchestra conductors and her sister wants to become a professional cellist. Being of Algerian descent and living in the "burbs" of Paris, they will need to overcome many hurdles, both societal and patriarchal. While following a reasonably predictable narrative arc, this true story is both uplifting and inspiring, and features lovely performances by the two lead actors. Augmenting the cast is Neils Arestrup as famed conductor Sergiu Celibidache, who sees the potential in Zahia and takes her under his wing. Take a few tissues for the very emotional conclusion! 

© 
The Book of Solutions
The delightful Pierre Niney plays Marc, a filmmaker struggling to complete his latest work. Taking his producer and editors with him, he leaves the bustling city and heads to a village in the Cevennes to see if he can reawaken the creative spark he seems to have lost. This is an amusing comedy, in which Niney shines in the lead role of a guy who is sweet, aggressive, vaguely disturbed, but who definitely knows the meaning of thinking laterally. Apparently the story is semi-autobographical, and for those who remember Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, you'll know you have a whimsical, creative and occasionally zany director in the form of Michel Gondry.  

The President's Wife
Catherine Deneuve plays Bernadette Chirac, wife to the French President from 1995 to 2007. The film plays for a low-key comedic approach and Deneuve plays her character with aplomb and plenty of haute couture. Not being very au fait with French politics, I'm sure quite a lot of the subtleties were lost on me. But it's good to see Deneuve, now 81 years old and going strong, strutting her stuff. 


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