Before I Forget
Features
This is an insight into a subculture that, it's fair to say, doesn't get a decent crack of the cinematic whip: the demi-monde of the ageing, former-gigolo, gay Frenchman. The first few minutes - an unhurried inspection of an unpleasant coughing fit of someone we can only assume is seriously ill - doesn't promise much fun.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
DVD review: Mike Leigh at the BBC
Features
For anyone who has come to the Salford director's oeuvre late, this is a wonderful six-disc look at the early days. Abigail's Party - as toe-curlingly embarrassing as anything from Larry David or Ricky Gervais - is the famous one, but Nuts in May and Grown-Ups run it very close in sharp, observational comedy. Alison Steadman and Roger Sloman's veggie duo in the former are as indelible as Steadman's famous monster, Beverly. A reminder, too, how many of these gems arrived via Play for Today or BBC2 Playhouse series. Nothing remotely like them exists in today's BBC.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
DVD review: The Baader Meinhof Complex
Features
A very lengthy history of the far-left terrorist group that shocked Germany from 1968 onwards. It is written by director Uli Edel and Bernd Eichinger, who also did the screenplay for the impressive Downfall; its Hitler, Bruno Ganz, is present here again as the voice of reason and boss of the federal police. The kicking-off point for this group's radicalisation is seen as the brutality of the police reaction to a protest at the visit of the shah of Iran. Like most of the violence and explosions in the film's 145-minute running time, it is convincingly real. Featuring more smoking than you'll ever see in an episode of Mad Men, even when its antiheroes are in prison, it is an interesting re-enactment of a startling historical period often overlooked today.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
Good
Features
Here is the latest furrowed-brow drama examining the moral dilemmas faced by ordinary people in Germany's turbulent 20th-century history, one of a flood that shows no sign of abating. As in The Reader, the necessity to have all the dialogue in English means that there's something inescapably inauthentic about the film from the start; everyone talks in that careful stilted voice to ram home the fact they are not using a pantomime Chermin ecksent. And it takes a long, long time to get going; the ponderous, stagey feel is no doubt down to the fact it is adapted from a play by Scottish writer CP Taylor. But, to its credit, Good is at least a piece with something serious to say, with little of the meretricious responsibility-deflecting that The Reader dealt in.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
I Love You, Man
Features
Jerry Seinfeld once had a routine about how making friends was something that children can do, but not adults: when you're a kid, and another kid walks past your house, you can invite them in to jump up and down on your parents' bed and that means they're your friend. But once you're through college, making friends from scratch is a nightmare, and you can't seek them out the way you can spouses.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
In Search of Beethoven
Features
A exhaustive - and to be honest, exhausting - trawl through the life and works of Ludwig Van, as Alex from A Clockwork Orange liked to call him. Director Phil Grabsky relies rather too much on vacuous sonorities from the collection of distinguished musicians and musicologists he has assembled, so that any excitement he may want to generate about Beethoven's musical achievements is largely dissipated. At such length and in such detail, there are certainly dramas to describe and insights to be had, but a film this static and self-important doesn't really do them justice. But Grabsky has got good access to a wide variety of performances and rehearsals; watching virtuosos at work is never dull.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
In the Loop
Features
Armando Iannucci's icily brilliant satire on the bumbling, mendacity and self-hating subservience which formed the basis of Britain's military adventure in Iraq was recently the subject of a remarkable article in this paper - by Alastair Campbell. The former prime ministerial press chief appeared to attempt an elaborate pre-buttal both of the movie itself, and the way he personally expected to be portrayed on BBC TV's The Culture Show, for which he had recorded an interview about the film. His article displayed a weird sort of prickly insouciance, particularly on the subject of the character based partly on Campbell, or at any rate his reputation: the ferocious PR attack dog and all-round sociopath Malcolm Tucker, memorably played by Peter Capaldi.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009
