FFF 2011

This festival got underway this week and my first choice screens this evening at my beloved Verona. I have 6 films on my schedule this year:

The Arrivals
Love Crime
Beautiful Lies
Round-up
Just a beginning, and
Fair is fair.

My first review later this evening.

Cinema: The Class

This film was very disappointing: we both nodded off in the first third! Not a patch on "To be and to have" that Lesley and I saw back in 2003. This one was overwhelmingly in the classroom and gave very little background to each of the teenagers. It was emotionally detached and yet word of mouth was good and the theatre was full.

Rating: *
Cinema: Verona
With: Christine

Cinema: The Reader

This is an extraordinary film: directing, screenplay and acting. Not easy to watch, but extraordinary to experience.

My biggest worry was that the screenplay could not live up to the Schlink's exquisite book; that, it would make the spring/summer aspect of the relationship too central, or that it would make the illiteracy aspect the crux, or that it would not do justice to Schlink's intellectual provocation on responsibility.

Hare's screenplay is magnifient: the emphasis is squarely on the responsibility for one's actions. To the point where the fact that Hanna couldn't possibly have written the white-wash report was down-played as was Middle-Michael's ethical lack-of-balls in not informing the presiding judge. Daldry's directing is lingering: he gives both the characters and the viewers time to think: and the editor does not speed it up so that your brain is on auto. Screenplay = tick. Director = tick. Editor = tick. Makes this a pretty good film in my books.

Now to actors. Winslet is terrific: just mesmerising. There are three distinct phases: the early love affaire; the middle trial; and, the later acceptance of responsibility through personal growth. The haunted anguish in those eyes is so affecting, and nowhere more so than during the trial where she is unwittingly self-incriminating where she thinks she is simply being truthful; where she is confused through lack of brain-power and lack of emotional intelligence. As she listens to the tapes in her gaol cell, the sheer pleasure and awakening of moral responsibility is overwhelming for the viewer. This is good acting.

The young Michael is very winning. At first I thought him too mature to be 17 or indeed 15. But if he had been a weedy 15 year old, it would have been an uncomfortable set of love-making scenes. David Kross, whom I do not know, does a believable job.

And so on to Ralph Fiennes: I wish he had not been cast in the role of the mature Michael. You know he is a big name and was paid squillions to do the film therefore I was always waiting for him to come back into the story. He is a distraction. I think a noname actor would have been more appropriate. Not that Fiennes does a bad job. I just found him irritating.

Now, to reread the book before I see the film again.

Rating: *****
Cinema: Roseville
With: Shirley

Cinema: Changeling

This is a long, engrossing but not totally together film. I saw the film, discussed it with Shirley and then read the usual reviews. I beg to differ.

Eastwood tries too hard to set the patina of the era: old shoes, cloche hats, old trolley, old cars parked everywhere ... okay okay ... I got that! But he does tell a spare tale: insisting that we run with it if it irks us. The tone and the palette are both wonderfully restrained.

The script was cloying to begin with: the baddies too black; the goodie too white. It was only with the introduction of the "nutter" that the script was of sufficient quality not to interrupt my enjoyment. However, the hanging scene was gratuitous. Was Eastwood trying to say that the gathered parents were seeking revenge? They weren't. Was he trying to say that state-sanctioned murder does not salve? The parents just wanted to know what happened to their boys. They wanted closure.

Now ... Jolie. I had to talk Shirley into going to see this: Jolie has been nominated; Eastwood made M$B. Sure, the Brangelina stuff makes me spew; but Jolie's craft is separate from that. Firstly, she was too gorgeous: the lips and the eyes really pop out. Secondly, she was too strong: there was no fragility, no vulnerability. Thirdly, the mothering was formulaic.

Some of the other acting was brittle, too: especially the young boys, but also the bad-cop. I felt anguish for Malkovich: what a waste of a massive talent, that alone a wavey wig.

So ... disappointing ...

Rating: ***
Cinema: Roseville
With: Shirley

Cinema: Milk

The screening we attended of this film delivered more than just excellent acting and excellent screenplay: from a full house it also delivered very short queues for the women's loo!

Although a serious storyline, the characterisation by Sean Penn was conveyed with such a light touch that the film felt upbeat. Penn is improving with each film - I think the last one I saw him in was Mystic River. Here, he balances the light flirtatious side of Milk with the fervent politicisation that occurred during those few short years in San Francisco - from about 1970 until his death in 1978 - after barely a year of trying to implement his aims. The supporting characters were allowed to breathe, too, which is a relief in such a biopic. Scotty was appealing from the outset, as was Cleve, the smart-arse with the large glasses. Jack was a good characterisation but I found it hard to respond to his extreme neediness and desperation.

The drawback that occurred to me was the revisionism that crept into the screenplay. Milk's death was forseen - by him and by others - on just too many occasions. The final phone call with Scotty was embarrassingly twee as was the attendance at Tosca on the night before his death. Add to this the note on the fridge, and the threatened bullet if he stepped up to a microphone, and I swear the storytelling was structured with dollops of hindsight!

The mix of RL footage and recreation, made the narrative engrossing. As it was set in the 70s, both the hairstyles and the clothing brought a grin to my face on many an occasion. I had forgotten that Anita Bryant was such a bad guy.

Rating: ****
Cinema: Academy
With: Kirsten