For me the film had several parallel threads. On one level it's a coming-of-age drama, depicting a boy's precipitate journey into manhood. He's too young for what befalls him and is forced into actions and decisions beyond his age. On another level, it describes an integrated and successful culture, one so well-suited to its environment that it has survived for millenia, on the cusp of being overtaken by technology. It's also an epic, in the true sense of the word: a quest in which the hero will find within himself unsuspected inner resources or will perish. The British, the Turks, the war, all are little more than an irrelevant backdrop to these themes: the real enemy is the railway. SPOILER ALERT. Not being of Arabic background myself, I was somewhat puzzled as to why the boy shot his bandit companion at the end. I'm guessing it was because the latter, in order to allay the suspicions of the Turkish officer, referred to him as his son; and that this statement might have reflected dishonour upon his real father - not to mention his mother. But the story, the photography, the music, the scenery, all combine to make this a wonderful, wonderful piece of cinematic art. My main thought as the closing credits scrolled was "When can I see this again!" Absolutely top drawer.
Reviews
4 Reviews
Blue Jasmine
(2013)
Streetcar revisited
12 November 2015
As I got into it, I couldn't avoid the feeling that I'd seen it before. I had, but first time around it was called 'A Streetcar named Desire,' and it was not written by Woody Allen. Other reviewers have pointed this out and it is not difficult to map the characters from Williams' work to the present one. Now, where exactly one draws the line between 'variations on a theme' and outright plagiarism I hesitate to say, but this one sails pretty close to the wind. That said, though, it's an exquisite film, and captures with great poignancy, and accuracy, a personality in the process of disintegration. And the music! I've watched it twice, and will be going back.
The Bachelor Weekend
(2013)
Great entertainment!
18 April 2014
A frothy romp, encompassing all those aspects of the human condition designed by a bored deity for the amusement of pilgrims trudging the road to happy destiny: nudity, the institution of marriage, and the question that has bedevilled the Boy Scout movement since Baden Powell's day: whether to jerk off inside or outside the communal tent. But for this critic the film was lifted out of the ordinary by the virtuoso performance of B. McCaughley (as B. McCaughly) as father of the bride. I thought he brought to the role a perfect balance between the gravitas, the graceful aplomb, of a James Robertson Justice and the elfin charm of an arthritic David Norris. His performance will come as no surprise to stage cognoscenti, who will not easily forget Honey, Well I shrunk the Kids (1980), or the hilarious frilly-knickers tour-de-force Under the Boardwalk (1991). And breathes there a cinema buff who has not gripped the edge of his tip-up seat throughout the thrilling 2002 suspense drama The Smoking Hoover? But it is a sad measure of the parochialism of the Irish cinema scene that this splendid thespian is nowadays better known among the tattooed and bearded roughnecks of the Oakland chapter than among the Great Unwashed in the one-and-thruppenies here at home.
Intimate Stories
(2002)
Great, great cinema.
23 January 2008
Three simple stories, a simple film, and it's wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Apart from the scenery, so reminiscent of the flat boglands of Mayo, the three lightly-connected stories are just perfect. The scene (Cuentame. Cuentame, abuelo) between Don Justo and Fermin is a delicate and touching depiction of confession, understanding and absolution. It is truly sacramental. Roberto's constant anxiety about his gift has the quality of a dream. Each of his clever solutions produces a new problem, and he is doomed always to be frustrated. I could go on and on. This is what cinema was invented for, it's a work of art; and one viewing will not be enough. Don't miss it.
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