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Apostasy (2017)
A decision no mother should have to make
"Life For Ruth" made back in 1972, was one of the first films to tackle the subject of Jehovah's Witnesses' belief that a transfusion of blood, even if it means that, without such a procedure, the patient would die, was against their religious beliefs.
"Apostasy" is the newest film to tackle such a sensitive subject. What differentiates this film from the earlier version, is that in "Life For Ruth" much of the film is devoted to the tussle between the doctor who insists a blood transfusion is the only hope a child has to live, and the intransigency of the father, who refuses point blank to give his permission, while "Apostasy" doesn't labor the point, instead, the film portrays, in a matter-of-fact way, what life must be like for a mother with two daughters, who steadfastly follows the Church's teachings even if, the death of a daughter could have been prevented if a transfusion of blood is allowed to take place.
One of the strongest scenes is when the mother leaves the hospital, a look of utter devastation on her face; we know what has occurred, without delving into the details. Even so, it's a decision the mother is prepared to live with, whatever the cost in her relationship with her other daughter: the Church's teachings are paramount.
The aura of authenticity of "Apostasy" throughout this film is due in no part to the director, Daniel Kokotajlo, who was once a Jehovah's Witnesses himself.
Anyone thinking f becoming a Jehovah's Witness, should see this film first.
The Wife (2017)
Behind every Great Man...
There is nothing new about writing partnerships. They can work well, as just as easily as they can fail. "The Wife" is about such a situation.
When Professor Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) is woken in the middle of the night by a phone call from Sweden to inform him he has won the Nobel Prize for literature, he thinks it's a prank. It soon transpires that it is genuine.
Joe's immediate reaction is one of self vindication. It's as if at long last, his reputation as the brilliant author he no doubt thinks he is, is finally being acknowledged, by winning the Nobel Prize, no less.
As Joe and his wife Joan (Glenn Close) make preparations to fly to Stockholm, she recalls meeting Joe at a writing class when Joe was still married to his first wife, with a young baby. Eventually, Joan plucks up the courage to show Joe a story she's written: "The Faculty Wife." Joe tells her she shows promise, which she accepts with grace. When Joan is less than complimentary about Joe's new novel, he flies into a rage. Joe accusers her of disloyalty, of ingratitude: her criticism is an affront to his ego, perilously fragile at the best of times. Grudgingly, Joe relents and lets Joan have ago at re-writing his novel.
After decades of ensuring that her husband remains a world famous author, with a steady stream of best sellers to his credit, as well as putting up with such a cantankerous and conceited man who is about to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Finally, it all becomes too much for Joan, and she lets Joe know exactly what she thinks of him on the night of the Award Ceremony.
They finally reach a compromise, with Joan forbidding her husband to mention her name in his acceptance speech.
While Jane Alexander's script is excellent (from a novel by Meg Wolitzer), it's the acting talents of the two leads that ensure "The Wife" is not another exercise in pathos.
Special mention must be made about Glenn Close's performance, the most notable in my opinion, while she seethes with barely contained fury in a hall full of dignitaries where Joe ignores her plea, and specifically mentions her contribution.
All in all, "The Wife" is the kind of story that could, in the wrong hands, be just another film about how rocky a road marriage can be. Nine stars out of ten.
End Play (1976)
When Will It End?
Tim Burstall's film "End Play" has a running time of just eighty minutes.
Watching it on DVD, this film seemed to last twice as long. It was slow, ponderous, and in no way did this film live up to the blurb on the back cover which stated, and I quote: "End Play" is a gripping, Hitchcockian-style thriller about a serial killer." end quote.
Nothing could be further from the truth. "End Play" is far from being 'gripping' Nor I might add, was it 'thrilling' at least as most people understand the word.
However, it is a film about a serial killer.
The plot has more red herrings than a fish shop. The acting is either wooden (John Waters), or over the top (George Mallaby), depending on who was on screen. The dialogue was often ludicrous. The music was insignificant. And the ending was straight out of an episode of "Murder, She Wrote."
All in all, "End Play" was the longest eighty-minute film I've ever watched.
Caravaggio: The Soul and the Blood (2018)
A great artist trivialised.
"Caravaggio: The Soul & The Blood is the latest film about one of the greatest painters who ever lived.
In his short and often violent life, Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio, or Caravaggio as he was commonly known, produced some of the most powerful religious images ever put on canvas.
To be brutally honest, this film was a major disappointment. For a start, the photography in no way did Caravaggio's paintings justice; the film, after all, is about his art and life, not about the outside of churches, as beautiful as many of the churches no doubt are.
The musical score is overwhelmingly loud, and pompous. Why the views and opinions of 'Caravaggio experts' were not sub-titled, is beyond me; having the dialogue in Italian, then to be overdubbed in English, makes for confusion.
To cap it all, we are treated to an actor trying to portray (I assume), what a tormented soul Caravaggio was, by wrapping his face in cellophane, submerging himself in water, or smearing himself with tar. If that was the director's intention, then it didn't work: in fact, it was totally unnecessary.
Having said that, the film is worth a look, if only to see Caravaggio's paintings up there on the big screen.
Canyon Passage (1946)
Better Than Your Average 'Horse Opera' Just.
While at RKO Pictures, French expatriate Jacques Tourneur directed three low budget horror films for producer Val Lewton: "Cat People" (1942), "I Walked With A Zombie" and "The Leopard Man." (1943). All three are still considered to be classics of their kind. In 1947, he directed "Out Of The Past" starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas.
So by rights, "Canyon Passage" should have been a superior Western. It had everything in its favour, a very good director, a top-notch crew and a script based on a novel by Ernest Haycox which was adapted for the screen by Ernest Pascal. The photography was by veteran Hollywood cameraman Edward Cronjager. Frank Skinner wrote the music. Singer songwriter and sometime actor, Hoagy Carmichael performed "Ole Buttermilk Sky" in the film that he composed with Jack Brooks and was a big hit in its day.
Sadly I found the film a distinct disappointment, let down in great part by the wooden performances of the two male leads: Dana Andrews as Logan Stuart, a merchant cum entrepreneur, and Brian Donlevy as George Camrose, his gambling addicted erstwhile business partner. It's a moot point whether this is the fault of a weak script, an inattentive director or bad acting,but the fact remains "Canyon Passage" is a lesser film because of it.
Thankfully, the film manages to rise somewhat above your average 'horse opera' thanks, in no small part to Susan Hayward as Lucy Overmire, George Camrose's fiancee, British emigre, Patricia Roc as Logan's girlfriend, Caroline Marsh, and a strong performance by a stalwart of John Ford's films, Ward Bond. Such solid actors as Lloyd Bridges, Rose Hobart, Stanley Ridges and Halliwell Hobbes, in turn ably supported them.
"Canyon Passage" is a modest attempt to portray what life was like on the Oregon Frontier, and is still worth watching.
Meantime (1983)
What was it like living in the U.K. under Margaret Thatcher?
I saw Mike Leigh's film "Meantime" when it came out in 1983. It was disturbing then, just as it is now, 35 years later. If anyone would like to know what it was like to live in the U.K. when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, then watching Mike Leigh's film "Meantime" will give them some idea of how bad it was.
It's 1983, Margaret Thatcher has been in power for four years. The country is in recession. Unemployment is endemic. The miners are out on strike, protesting about the government's plan to shut down Unprofitable mines, thereby putting countless miners out of work. A resurgent IRA makes an attempt on Thatcher's life by blowing up the hotel where she was staying for the Conservative Party's Annual Conference. She Survived the bombing and eventually, crushes the miner's union.
It's against this background that the film is set. For the Pollock family, who are unwilling victims of what came to be known as "Thatcherism" and life was tough. They barely scrape by, living in a small, cramped flat in a tower block in London's East End. The Wife, Mavis (Pam Ferris) her husband, Frank (Jeffrey Robert) and their two sons: Colin (Tim Roth) and Mark (Phil Daniels) are all on the dole. They constantly get on each other's nerves, and feet. Mavis continually nags her husband Frank to get a job; Frank in turn, harasses his sons to find work, even though he doesn't seem to be making any effort himself. Colin is rather slow and quiet. His older brother is the total opposite: loud mouthed, self-opinionated and posses a cruel streak, often calling Colin "Kermit" and "Muppet"
Looking for a job is is too hard: so they don't try. This that kind of self-defeatist logic, both Colin and mark are lucky to have a roof over their head and three square meals a day, even though their parents drive them demented. To relieve the boredom, Colin makes friends with an obnoxious skinhead named Coxy (Gary Oldman's first starring role). This gets up his brother's nose. Mark spends his time cadging money from friends or visiting the unemployment office. Their aunt Barbara (Marion Bailey) offers Colin a chance to earn some cash by helping her redecorate her home, but a jealous Mark, when he finds out, goes round to the house and begins to taunt Colin mercilessly before storming out. When Colin arrives back home his had his head shaved. He looks like a skinhead, but does not act like one.
Note: "Meantime" was made at a time when the British Film Industry was under threat from funding cuts by the Thatcher government. Thatcher had little interest in the arts or in cinema, so it's a tribute to the tenacity of directors like Mike Leigh, who, in common with his fellow filmmakers, refused to be intimidated by the likes of Margaret Thatcher.
Une histoire de fou (2015)
Not just another film on the subject of revenge.
In 1915, on the eve of the First World War there were two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. On April 24, 1915, the Turkish government began deporting one million Armenians, and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of others outright, in what is now considered to be a deliberate act of ethnic cleansing.
Six years later, on April 24, 1921, Soghomon Tehlirian, a member of the Armenian Liberation Army, assassinates Talaat Pasha, in Berlin, the man thought to have orchestrated the wholesale massacre of Armenians.
At his subsequent trial, Soghomon Tehlirian rejects the charge of murder, claiming that killing Talaat Pasha was justified retribution for Turkish atrocities committed against Armenians, including every ember of his family. A jury of solid German burghers, agreed, and he is acquitted of all charges.
From 1920s Berlin, the film moves to 1970s France, in particular the port city of Marseille. An Armenian family consisting of the husband, the wife, their son and the wife's aged mother, live under the one roof. Much to the annoyance of the parents, the grandmother spends her day singing to her grandchildren about the Turks who are a race of brutes.
One day, the son, Aram, disappears and joins a group of Armenian patriots intent on wreaking havoc on Turks by killing as many as possible. The carefully laid plan backfires: the target, the Turkish ambassador is killed along with an innocent civilian who suffers horrendous injuries.
Adam goes on the run to Lebanon, eventually joining the Armenian Liberation Army.
"Don't Tell Me The Boy Was Mad" is not your usual film about revenge by one group, Armenians, and the enemy, Turks in general. In fact it explores the problem that, in pursuing revenge, innocent women and children will be caught in the crossfire: 'collateral damage' as it's charmingly called; in other words, the oft-quoted euphemism excuse for not allowing sentiment get in the way of the "Cause", that the ends always justifies the means.
Meanwhile, Aram's mother is desperate to apologise to the victim of her son's bomb attack. When she finally asks him what she can do to help, he screams at her: "I'm in my twenties! Can you give me back my legs?"
Gradually, Aram becomes more and more disillusioned with his comrades.
In the end, he leaves.
Director Robert Guediguian's film "Don't Tell Me The Boy Was Mad" shines a much-needed light on this terrible tragedy that, to this day, the Turkish government refuses to admit ever happened.