I've come to Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell after hearing about how great it is for over a year now. I had no idea what it was about and I feel it's best not to know what it's about before viewing it. That said, this review will spoil the revelations that sprout up throughout this documentary so if you wish to remain in the dark before seeing it for yourself you may not want to read any further. Directing her first documentary after two narrative films, Polley sets about this latest feature as she sits down with members of her family, friends and others to explore the secrets of her family's past. That, however, is a rather cold description of what is really a film filled with familial warmth. The facts of the matter are Sarah was born in January 1979 and for the better part of her life grew...
- 10/9/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
I've come to Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell after hearing about how great it is for over a year now. I had no idea what it was about and I feel it's best not to know what it's about before viewing it. That said, this review will spoil the revelations that sprout up throughout this documentary so if you wish to remain in the dark before seeing it for yourself you may not want to read any further. Directing her first documentary after two narrative films, Polley sets about this latest feature as she sits down with members of her family, friends and others to explore the secrets of her family's past. That, however, is a rather cold description of what is really a film filled with familial warmth. The facts of the matter are Sarah was born in January 1979 and for the better part of her life grew...
- 10/9/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Sarah Polley reveals more about herself than she may have realised in this complex documentary love-letter to her parents
This tender, painful, intimate film is the work of Canadian actor and director Sarah Polley. It is a portrait of her troubled parents, a complex labour of love – part of what is fascinating and even thrilling about this movie is that Polley may not be aware of what it reveals about her personally. This is the second time I have watched it since last year's premiere at Venice, savouring its humour, its heartbreak and its unintentional disclosures, revealing the director's vulnerability and her formidable composure.
Polley has been an object of fascination for me since I saw her charismatic, icily assured performance in Doug Liman's 1999 thriller Go!, and assured everyone that she was going to be bigger than that year's other up-and-comer Angelina Jolie; I still think I may have been right.
This tender, painful, intimate film is the work of Canadian actor and director Sarah Polley. It is a portrait of her troubled parents, a complex labour of love – part of what is fascinating and even thrilling about this movie is that Polley may not be aware of what it reveals about her personally. This is the second time I have watched it since last year's premiere at Venice, savouring its humour, its heartbreak and its unintentional disclosures, revealing the director's vulnerability and her formidable composure.
Polley has been an object of fascination for me since I saw her charismatic, icily assured performance in Doug Liman's 1999 thriller Go!, and assured everyone that she was going to be bigger than that year's other up-and-comer Angelina Jolie; I still think I may have been right.
- 6/28/2013
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Sarah Polley's brilliant, award-winning documentary about her family and their complex inter-relations is our latest film on demand offering
We've given the Guardian Screening Room a bit of a break for the last couple of months as Cannes fever swept everything before it, but now it's roaring back with a fantastic new release: Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell, the complex, disturbing study of her own family.
In what must be some kind of record, our critic Peter Bradshaw has given it a five-star review – twice. Here's what he wrote when he saw it at its world premiere at the Venice film festival:
Stories We Tell is a cine-memoir of Polley's parents, the British-born actor Michael Polley and Canadian actor and casting director Diane Polley. Using Super-8 home-movie footage, faux Super-8 reconstructions, interviews with siblings and, crucially, a memoir written by Michael, Polley has created a portrait of a...
We've given the Guardian Screening Room a bit of a break for the last couple of months as Cannes fever swept everything before it, but now it's roaring back with a fantastic new release: Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell, the complex, disturbing study of her own family.
In what must be some kind of record, our critic Peter Bradshaw has given it a five-star review – twice. Here's what he wrote when he saw it at its world premiere at the Venice film festival:
Stories We Tell is a cine-memoir of Polley's parents, the British-born actor Michael Polley and Canadian actor and casting director Diane Polley. Using Super-8 home-movie footage, faux Super-8 reconstructions, interviews with siblings and, crucially, a memoir written by Michael, Polley has created a portrait of a...
- 6/28/2013
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
When Sarah Polley decided to make a documentary about the mother she lost as a girl of 11, she had no idea of the extraordinary family secret she would unearth. The acclaimed Canadian film-maker talks about the often painful burden of exploring the lives of loved ones – and why she thinks marriage is a 'crazy and optimistic' institution
As I fly to Canada to meet Sarah Polley, I think about the glimpses of her in Stories We Tell – her first full-length documentary feature, which bowled over critics at Sundance and the Venice film festival and has won Canada's Film of the Year award. She looks like a contemplative Madonna on screen, with long, fair hair. She listens more than she talks. She encourages her family to speak. Her film may be her story – but she gets others to tell it. Michael Polley, her British-born father – an actor who worked for an...
As I fly to Canada to meet Sarah Polley, I think about the glimpses of her in Stories We Tell – her first full-length documentary feature, which bowled over critics at Sundance and the Venice film festival and has won Canada's Film of the Year award. She looks like a contemplative Madonna on screen, with long, fair hair. She listens more than she talks. She encourages her family to speak. Her film may be her story – but she gets others to tell it. Michael Polley, her British-born father – an actor who worked for an...
- 6/23/2013
- by Kate Kellaway
- The Guardian - Film News
Smoking comes under fire in France, and Shane Meadows is back in the saddle for a biopic of 60s cyclist Tommy Simpson
Up in smoke
Are even the French finally coming round to the idea that smoking in movies is a dying trend? In last week's release Populaire, the suave Romain Duris character is asked to stop smoking in the office by the new secretary, played by Déborah François. Although the film is set in the Gauloise-tinted 1950s, Duris's character knowingly remarks he'd only ever stop smoking if they introduced a law to ban it. Now, this week, we have the gamine Audrey Tautou, one of the most popular international symbols of Frenchness in years. She's playing Mauriac's doomed heroine Thérèse Desqueyroux, and fairly chainsmokes through her ordeal of being married to a lump. "She smokes too much," remarks a disapproving mother-in-law. What can it mean for, say, the new...
Up in smoke
Are even the French finally coming round to the idea that smoking in movies is a dying trend? In last week's release Populaire, the suave Romain Duris character is asked to stop smoking in the office by the new secretary, played by Déborah François. Although the film is set in the Gauloise-tinted 1950s, Duris's character knowingly remarks he'd only ever stop smoking if they introduced a law to ban it. Now, this week, we have the gamine Audrey Tautou, one of the most popular international symbols of Frenchness in years. She's playing Mauriac's doomed heroine Thérèse Desqueyroux, and fairly chainsmokes through her ordeal of being married to a lump. "She smokes too much," remarks a disapproving mother-in-law. What can it mean for, say, the new...
- 6/8/2013
- by Jason Solomons
- The Guardian - Film News
Michael Douglas steps into Liberace's shoes, the Man of Steel returns, and Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright complete their Britcom trilogy
★ Critic's Choice Behind the Candelabra
(dir. Steven Soderbergh)
An outrageous, florid study of one of the most over-the-top people in showbusiness history. Michael Douglas plays the preening, pompadoured piano king Liberace, and Matt Damon is Scott Thorson, his chauffeur and lover. The affair curdles and ends in a nightmarish sanity contest. A fascinating study of a dysfunctional relationship and a brilliant black comedy. 7 June
Man of Steel 3D
(dir. Zack Snyder)
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No – it's a journalist of pre-Leveson integrity who also has another vocation. Henry Cavill plays the Man of Steel, who escaped from planet Krypton as a child after calamity hit and now has to embrace his destiny, and his Lycra, when Earth is threatened by a marauding power. Hopes...
★ Critic's Choice Behind the Candelabra
(dir. Steven Soderbergh)
An outrageous, florid study of one of the most over-the-top people in showbusiness history. Michael Douglas plays the preening, pompadoured piano king Liberace, and Matt Damon is Scott Thorson, his chauffeur and lover. The affair curdles and ends in a nightmarish sanity contest. A fascinating study of a dysfunctional relationship and a brilliant black comedy. 7 June
Man of Steel 3D
(dir. Zack Snyder)
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No – it's a journalist of pre-Leveson integrity who also has another vocation. Henry Cavill plays the Man of Steel, who escaped from planet Krypton as a child after calamity hit and now has to embrace his destiny, and his Lycra, when Earth is threatened by a marauding power. Hopes...
- 5/26/2013
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Stories We Tell
Directed by: Sarah Polley
Documentary
Running Time: 1 hr 48 mins
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: May 17, 2013
Plot: Filmmaker Sarah Polley interviews her family members to discuss a secret that changed her life forever.
Who’S It For? Stories We Tell goes beyond a demographic that enjoys a great documentary. If you simply like good narratives, don’t miss out on this film. And if you liked Polley’s previous Take This Waltz, Stories We Tell will be yet another gift.
Read our interview with Director Sarah Polley
Overall
Half of the journey in telling a great story is finding the right subject. For this endeavor in documentary, the highly honest Polley goes inward, into a secret that remained uncovered in the past years, but with truths that would eternally change its witnesses. Using her brothers, sisters, family friends, and father as documentary subjects, Polley shares with audiences the tale...
Directed by: Sarah Polley
Documentary
Running Time: 1 hr 48 mins
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: May 17, 2013
Plot: Filmmaker Sarah Polley interviews her family members to discuss a secret that changed her life forever.
Who’S It For? Stories We Tell goes beyond a demographic that enjoys a great documentary. If you simply like good narratives, don’t miss out on this film. And if you liked Polley’s previous Take This Waltz, Stories We Tell will be yet another gift.
Read our interview with Director Sarah Polley
Overall
Half of the journey in telling a great story is finding the right subject. For this endeavor in documentary, the highly honest Polley goes inward, into a secret that remained uncovered in the past years, but with truths that would eternally change its witnesses. Using her brothers, sisters, family friends, and father as documentary subjects, Polley shares with audiences the tale...
- 5/17/2013
- by Nick Allen
- The Scorecard Review
Chicago – Sarah Polley’s “Stories We Tell” may seem deceptively simple or even boring in concept. At its core, it’s a film about a talented filmmaker and actress investigating her family’s past and her own lineage. Where Polley’s work goes from mere family movie to something much greater is in how she uses her own quest for answers to illuminate why & how we tell stories in the first place, especially in the form of film. The ripple effect of memory, the way stories reveal personality, nature vs. nurture, and the idea that it not just action but how we share, the stories we tell, that impact future generations. This is the best film to be released in Chicago so far this year.
Rating: 5.0/5.0
From the beginning, Polley is playing with the form of the family biographical documentary. The subject is her mother, Diane. She passed away when...
Rating: 5.0/5.0
From the beginning, Polley is playing with the form of the family biographical documentary. The subject is her mother, Diane. She passed away when...
- 5/16/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Canadian actress ("Splice") turned director ("Away From Her") Sarah Polley engages in a bout of navel gazing with her new documentary, "Stories We Tell." It's about her late mother, and she assembles her siblings and other relatives and family friends for "an interrogation," as they recollect their memories of her in building a sometimes contradictory portrait of a woman who died when Sarah was a child.
When a sister blurts out, "Who cares about our family?" she might be speaking for the audience. All these interviews, all these conflicting accounts, all this insistence that each speaker tell "the whole story" just so an actress can indulge herself in knowing the mother she never really knew?
But Polley is getting at something deeper, at who "owns" a story, at the impact of point of view, editing and biases. And as "Stories We Tell" get deeper into this saga, the jaw-dropping revelations aren't just ours,...
When a sister blurts out, "Who cares about our family?" she might be speaking for the audience. All these interviews, all these conflicting accounts, all this insistence that each speaker tell "the whole story" just so an actress can indulge herself in knowing the mother she never really knew?
But Polley is getting at something deeper, at who "owns" a story, at the impact of point of view, editing and biases. And as "Stories We Tell" get deeper into this saga, the jaw-dropping revelations aren't just ours,...
- 5/16/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Memories have a way of perverting the truth. Over time, we idealize past events to better suit our present and recount them to so many others that the memories become altered, like in a game of telephone. Each person can interpret the same event differently, thus begging the question: what is the real truth? Sarah Polley makes a thoughtful examination of memory and interpretation in her film Stories We Tell, a masterfully constructed documentary through which she looks for answers to an important part of her own life: her true parentage. Polley weaves together interviews with her family members, as well as intimidate narrations and Super 8 footage in attempt to piece together the intricate “whole story” of the past. Though that past that is admittedly shaped by it’s director and therefore not as objective as it may seem. Polley is the daughter of famed Canadian stage actors Diane and Michael Polley. Her...
- 5/10/2013
- by Caitlin Hughes
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
I have a soft spot for Sarah Polley, as I’ve watched her grow up onscreen; my daughter and I used to watch her on TV as Ramona when she was 9 years old. She has blossomed as an actress and, more recently, as a daring and original filmmaker with an Oscar nomination to her credit (for the screenplay of Away From Her). But nothing could prepare us for her latest endeavor. Stories We Tell is a remarkable, and moving, exploration of Polley’s family, focusing largely on the story of her mother, who died when she was young. An outgoing actress who had a bad first marriage (resulting in two older siblings), she then married Sarah’s father, Michael Polley, a British-born actor who reads...
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- 5/10/2013
- by Leonard Maltin
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
One of our 15 Most Anticipated Indie Films Of The Summer, we guarantee there are few movies coming in the next few months -- or even the rest of year -- that will offer as many genuine twists and turns as Sarah Polley's excellent documentary "Stories We Tell." They say truth is stranger than fiction, and while the story that unspools here isn't quite strange, it's certainly something that no writer could have dreamed up. On the surface, Polley's film is an investigation into her own family secrets (to say any more would ruin things a bit), but "Stories We Tell" also dips into the fictions and non-fictions that tie the bonds between parents, siblings and more. It's also about the nature of storytelling itself, and how one tale can be told many different ways, depending on who is sharing it. "...it’s a film that tickles both the brain...
- 5/9/2013
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Halfway into Sarah Polley's genre-swapping documentary, “Stories We Tell,” the actor/director takes a break from shooting “Mr. Nobody” with Jared Leto to take a phone call. Still dressed in Neanderthal costume and make-up from the scene, she walks outside, sits on a bench, and reads an email on her Blackberry. Its contents are the makings of a news story -- one that Polley had just intimately lived herself and one that comprises the focus of her stunning, humanistic look at family and memory. The film begins as a tribute of sorts to Polley's mother Diane, as Sarah interviews many of her family members, including her father Michael Polley (who provides narration) and other tertiary characters, about their remembrances of her. But as the storytellers' accounts grow more candid yet contradictory, a greater question of narrative and subjective truth is revealed. It's an astonishing piece of work, an exploration of family,...
- 5/6/2013
- by Charlie Schmidlin
- The Playlist
Sarah Polley's portrait of her parents' marriage is a gripping tale, full of richness, tenderness and emotional complexity
After the disappointment of Sarah Polley's recent feature Take This Waltz – a treacly, implausible and bafflingly inert love triangle – it is a relief, and in fact a thrill, to report that her new film is a joy.
Stories We Tell is a cine-memoir of Polley's parents, the British-born actor Michael Polley and Canadian actor and casting director Diane Polley. Using Super-8 home-movie footage, faux Super-8 reconstructions, interviews with siblings and, crucially, a memoir written by Michael, Polley has created a portrait of a marriage that is full of enormous richness, tenderness and emotional complexity.
Polley tackles painful issues with candour and tact. She has a gripping tale to tell. It's a film that raises questions about the ownership of memory and ownership of narrative. On this point, and perhaps without fully realising it,...
After the disappointment of Sarah Polley's recent feature Take This Waltz – a treacly, implausible and bafflingly inert love triangle – it is a relief, and in fact a thrill, to report that her new film is a joy.
Stories We Tell is a cine-memoir of Polley's parents, the British-born actor Michael Polley and Canadian actor and casting director Diane Polley. Using Super-8 home-movie footage, faux Super-8 reconstructions, interviews with siblings and, crucially, a memoir written by Michael, Polley has created a portrait of a marriage that is full of enormous richness, tenderness and emotional complexity.
Polley tackles painful issues with candour and tact. She has a gripping tale to tell. It's a film that raises questions about the ownership of memory and ownership of narrative. On this point, and perhaps without fully realising it,...
- 8/29/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
We all know that all the three seasons of the Canadian TV series Slings and Arrows have been on DVD for quite a while. Now, Acorn Media, a film and TV series distributor, has announced that the complete series will come on High Definition Blu-Ray in North America on October 26.
This dark comedy from The Movie Network, a Canadian premium cable network, talks about a theatre festival.
In the fictional town of New Burbage, legendary theatrical madman Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross) returns to the New Burbage Theatre Festival, the site of his greatest triumph and most humiliating failure, to assume the artistic directorship after the sudden death of his mentor, Oliver Welles (Stephen Ouimette). When Geoffrey arrives he finds that Oliver is still there, in spirit anyway, and with his guidance (and often in spite of it) Geoffrey attempts to reconcile with his past while wrestling the festival back from the marketing department.
This dark comedy from The Movie Network, a Canadian premium cable network, talks about a theatre festival.
In the fictional town of New Burbage, legendary theatrical madman Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross) returns to the New Burbage Theatre Festival, the site of his greatest triumph and most humiliating failure, to assume the artistic directorship after the sudden death of his mentor, Oliver Welles (Stephen Ouimette). When Geoffrey arrives he finds that Oliver is still there, in spirit anyway, and with his guidance (and often in spite of it) Geoffrey attempts to reconcile with his past while wrestling the festival back from the marketing department.
- 8/9/2010
- by anhkhoido@hotmail.com (Anh Khoi Do)
- The Cultural Post
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