What Richard Did (movie review)

What Richard Did (2013) (1hr 28 mins)

This gripping Irish drama from director Lenny Abrahamson (Garage, Adam and Paul) is built around an interesting study of its main character. We first see Richard (Jack Renyor) joking around with his mates. He appears to be popular and carefree, the good looking star of the school rugby team relaxing in the summer holidays before starting university. Our first impression is of a young man who has everything he could want, especially when he entices the attractive Roisin to leave her boyfriend Connor and pair up with him.

But it’s not long before we realise that first appearances are deceptive. We begin to see another side of Richard, someone who can be a loner, insecure, brooding, melancholy. When Roisin talks to her ex, he is immediately jealous and on guard. He expresses his hurt by criticising her for not talking enough to his father. We learn that Richard’s father has suffered from depression and seems anxious that his son doesn’t wrestle with similar problems. It seems his family have high expectations of him.

When Richard and Roisin attend a party, Richard is troubled that she doesn’t spend any time with him. He goes outside to smoke and his mood is not improved when Connor arrives. Then Richard is stopped from rejoining the party and has to wait outside, knowing Roisin and Connor may be together. When Roisin finally appears, Connor is with her and starts a fight with Richard. In one moment of violence, Richard releases his pent-up anger, with tragic consequences. Although when Richard leaves, Connor seems to be okay, there’s a report on  the radio the next morning that he has been found dead at the scene of the fight.

The second half of the film shows us how Richard struggles to come to terms with what has happened. His first instinct is to deny any involvement but the guilt proves difficult to live with, and he receives scant support from Roisin or from his father, who sends him away as if wanting to be rid of the problem.

What makes the film fascinating for the viewer is that Richard has many facets and we are unsure how to react to him. He can be witty and warm-hearted but also selfish and manipulative. Is he to blame for what happened? Or is he a victim of a tragic accident and of Roisin’s apparent willingness to spend more time with Connor than with him.

Abrahamson wisely gives us plenty of space to observe Richard as he struggles to make sense of his situation and decide whether or not to hand himself in to the police. But at the end of the film you might still be undecided quite what to think about him.

 Rating: 8/10

The Hunt (movie review)

The Hunt (drama) (2012) (1 hr 46 mins)

In a village in Denmark, a nursery teacher named Lucas is popular with the children, and particularly liked by a girl named Klara. When she kisses him on the lips, he points out that such affection is not appropriate and she takes it as a rejection. She then makes comments to the nursery manager, Grethe, that lead her to think that Lucas has sexually abused Klara. From this moment on, Lucas becomes the subject of a witchhunt as he is rejected by most of his friends, suspended from his job and interrogated by the police.

It is made clear to the viewer that Lucas is innocent so that we experience with him the injustice of his treatment. He is initially too shocked to defend himself properly, and the manager at the nursery mishandles the investigation, too readily assuming that he is guilty and giving the impression to all the parents of children at the school that there is little doubt about his guilt.

To make matters worse, Klara is the daughter of Lucas’ best friend, Theo, which makes the apparent betrayal of trust all the more upsetting. Like almost everyone in the town, Theo assumes that Klara is telling the truth and therefore Lucas must be guilty. In fact the only people who are sure he is innocent are his teenage son and the boy’s godfather, .

It’s not long before Lucas is forcibly confronted with the judgment of his community. A brick is thrown through his window, his dog is murdered and he is violently thrown out of the local supermarket. But he stubbornly and courageously refuses to leave the town and instead confronts his persecutors.

In a scene of almost unbearable poignancy, Lucas goes to the Christmas church service and sits alone in a pew while the congregation stare at him with grim fascination. When the nursery children are brought out to perform a song, Lucas snaps and confronts Theo. In fact it is the strength of his anger that makes Theo wonder if Lucas is innocent after all. Only then does he coax out of Klara the confession that she told a lie.

The emotions portrayed in the film are painfully raw and director Thomas Vinterberg manages to capture an almost primeval struggle for justice. It’s impossible not to identify with Lucas’ pain and his powerlessness in the face of a situation that is threatening to ruin his life.

Mads Mikkelson, winner of the best actor award at Cannes, gives an outstanding performance as the distraught Lucas, having to be strong for the sake of his son but clearly in great emotional turmoil. Annika Wedderkopp is haunting as Klara, bewildered and unnerved by the power she has discovered she can wield in the complicated world of adults. The script by Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm is superbly constructed, with no extraneous scenes or dialogue.

This is a film that will move you deeply and that you won’t forget in a hurry.

 

Rating: 10/10

Monsieur Lazhar (movie review)

Monsieur Lazhar (drama) (2011) (1 hr 34 mins)

The hardest thing for a film to do is to make the viewer care about its characters. This tender and moving Canadian French-language film directed and written by Philippe Falardeau makes you feel deeply for all of the characters.

At a Montreal school, Simon and his friend Alice go to collect the class supply of milk and find that their teacher, Martine, has hung herself from the classroom ceiling. The school is assigned a psychologist to help children and staff cope with their grief while the headteacher sets about the task of finding a new teacher. An Algerian immigrant, Bashir Lazhar, turns up the school and offers to do the job. Unable to find anyone else at short notice, the headteacher hires him.

What then unfolds is a fascinating story of how the new teacher gradually helps his class of 11 year-olds to work through their grief at the loss of a much-loved teacher. There is no magical transformation. At first, as Bashir struggles to get to know his class, to adjust to cultural differences and to the way things are done at the school, it seems he is doing very little at all. But slowly it becomes evident that he is allowing the children space – space to talk, to argue, to discuss. He takes what they say seriously and treats them as equals.

Alice uses an exercise about the pupils’ feelings about school to express her grief at Martine’s death. Bashir asks the headteacher if he can distribute her composition among the school to help people talk more freely about their feelings but he is refused. It is deemed too risky. He gets the caretaker to show him the possessions left in Martine’s desk, including a book of fables which he uses in class to encourage discussion.

As the process of healing in the school begins, we learn that there is a healing process going on for Bashir too. It transpires that he has applied for political asylum after escaping from Algeria. His wife and children were killed when their apartment building burnt down in an arson attack. In a moving scene, he collects a parcel of his family’s belongings – all he has left of his old life.

As Bashir and his class undertake this journey of healing together, a real warmth develops between teacher and pupils, and the broken friendship between Simon and Alice is restored. An interesting friendship also begins to develop between Bashir and Claire, one of the other teachers who knew Martine well. When she invites him round to dinner, they are both awkwardly trying to discern the other’s feelings. For Bashir it is too early to begin a new relationship but too painful to explain why.

The film is based on a play by Evelyne de la Cheneliere and has been beautifully adapted by Falardeau. It received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and won numerous film awards around the world. The acting is outstanding, particularly from the children and from Mohamed Fellag in the lead role. Above all, it is a film that will move you deeply.

Rating: 10/10

Gainsbourg (movie review)

Gainsbourg (2010) (drama) (2 hrs 10 mins)

 

Serge Gainsbourg was a successful French singer-songwriter, at the height of his popularity in the 1960s and 70s and best known for his hit single Je T’aime (with partner Jane Birkin). This unusual biopic from first-time director Joann Star focuses more on Gainsbourg’s personality than on his music and is highly engaging, particularly in the first half.

 
We first see Gainsbourg as a precocious boy in Nazi-occupied Paris. His father forces him to play the piano but he only enjoys playing when allowed the freedom to play in his own style. The pressures he faces in childhood (living in an occupied country, resisting his father’s ambitions for him to become a classical pianist, his Jewishness) appear to have a deep impact on the boy, leading him to rebel and seek artistic freedom.

He shows an early gift for art and after the war finds work as a music and art teacher in a school outside Paris. Then he finds he can make a living playing piano in bars. It is at this point that he makes a big decision: to give up art in order to concentrate on his music. He starts writing songs, performing them at a music hall and developing a following, particularly among young women. He becomes a womaniser and heavy drinker and has affairs with Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin.

Laetitia Casta gives a stunning performance as Bardot, cavorting around his apartment wrapped in a sheet. It’s his time with Bardot that seems the happiest of his life and it’s for Bardot that he writes Je T’aime, though it’s with Birkin that he later records the song. It becomes a hit single around the world. Success appears to go to his head, he starts drinking too much and getting into scrapes.

The most interesting scenes in the film are the many appearances of The Face, a grotesque alter ego who represents Gainsbourg’s darker side. The Face constantly tempts him to drink, hang out in bars, have affairs with young women and neglect his family. Director Joann Star draws upon his background as an artist (he first drew the story in comic book form) to create several surreal scenes, such as when the Face flies at night above the Paris rooftops like a giant bird, carrying Gainsbourg off into the night.

Eric Elmosino gives an outstanding performance in the central role, portraying Gainsbourg as mysterious, restless, witty, outspoken. We don’t learn that much about his musical career, just seeing glimpses of his various musical styles: playing jazz in nightclubs, disco in concerts and reggae in a Jamaican recording studio. It’s hard to tell how he built such a following in France and whether his musical legacy will endure.

The film won 3 Cesar Awards in France in 2011 but received mixed reviews world-wide. It was praised for its imaginative approach but also criticised for lacking drama and emotional depth. I recommend it as a genuine curio that may leave you wanting to find out more about a fascinating man.

 Rating: 7/10

Breathing (movie review)

Breathing (drama) (2011) (1 hr 30 mins)

This Austrian film written and directed by first-time film-maker Karl Markovics is a very assured debut. It reminded me of films like The Son by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne in its understated approach and its depiction of ordinary routines that gradually reveal deeper emotions felt by the main characters.

The film tells the story of Roman Kogler (played by Thomas Schubert), a young man at a youth detention centre on the outskirts of Vienna, awaiting parole after serving time for killing a man. He’s uncommunicative and sullen, appears to have no family or friends and faces the prospect of a bleak future. To improve his chances of parole, he’s urged to show he can hold down a job. He chooses work experience at a morgue, collecting and transporting dead bodies. Perhaps he feels more of a connection with the dead than with the living.

 

One day a woman is brought to the morgue who shares his surname.  Kogler decides to track down his mother and find out why she surrendered him to the care of social services when he was a young child. Their meeting provides the emotional crux of the film.

The director apparently spent many weeks accompanying the morgue workers and attending a detention centre to research the script. The attention to detail pays off as the film has a very authentic feel throughout. It doesn’t offer any easy answers to Kogler’s plight but there are moments of hope: a friendly encounter with a young woman backpacker on the train; his work colleagues gradually accepting him as one of the team; and a stirring of remorse for his crime. The crime is never really explained but remains there as a shadow, a constant reminder of the personal demons he struggles with.

The director, an actor himself, extracts a wonderfully natural performance from Schubert in his very first acting role. Schubert manages to convey both Kogler’s detachment and his longing to connect, his toughness and his vulnerability.

There are poignant moments throughout the film: the humiliation of being strip-searched every time Kogler returns to the detention centre; Kogler and his work colleagues weighing one another up and not quite knowing what to make of the other; Kogler being shown by a work colleague how to tie his tie. There is a moving scene where Kogler and his colleagues go to collect a woman’s body in her home. Kogler sees the photographs and mementos decorating her room and telling of a family life and history that he has never had.

There is some inventive use of the camera: Kogler underwater seeing the legs of other boys as they dangle in the swimming pool; and the final scene as the camera rises above a graveyard and turns slowly to the majestic sky above. The title Breathing refers to Kogler’s solitary swimming sessions at the detention centre where he is learning how to breathe underwater, a symbol perhaps of a rebirth which Kogler may be undergoing as he edges towards some kind of future. This is a thoughtful, moving film that will stay with you afterwards.

 
Rating: 8/10  

About Elly (movie review)

About Elly (drama) (2009) (1 hr 59 mins)

With A Separation (2011), Asghar Farhadi became the first Iranian director to win an Oscar for best foreign film. Now his previous film, About Elly (2009), has been given a limited UK cinema release. Catch it if you can because it is an outstanding film, exploring personal relationships, moral dilemmas and the dangers of deception.

Three married couples, old friends from university, set out on a weekend trip to the Caspian Sea. Elly, a young nursery school teacher, is invited along by Sepideh, the mother of one of her pupils. Sepideh is trying to match-make, hoping Elly will hit it off with the recently divorced Ahmad. The party is due to stay in a comfortable villa but the woman in charge tells them they can only stay one night. To get the woman to let them stay the whole weekend in another villa, Sepideh tells her that Elly and Ahmad are on honeymoon.

After some initial game-playing and banter, during which the friends are appraising Elly and deciding whether she would make a suitable wife for Ahmad, Elly reminds Sepideh that she can only stay one night. Sepideh presses her to stay longer and hides her luggage and mobile phone to stop her phoning for a taxi.

Matters take a sudden turn for the worse when Elly is left on her own at the beach to look after the children and promptly disappears, feared drowned. This leads to recriminations among the adults, and matters become complicated when they find Elly’s mobile phone and realise they have to notify her family. What seems like a simple task turns into a series of moral dilemmas as they discover that Sepideh has omitted to share with them some pertinent information about Elly’s personal life. Should they tell more lies to spare her family further pain or tell the truth?

After the opening ten minutes or so, when the characters are being introduced, the film becomes utterly gripping, initially as we wonder what the mysterious Elly makes of the others and particularly of Ahmad, who is trying to take things slowly but is clearly smitten with her. When Elly disappears, it dawns on the others that they actually know very little about her or her family, which soon leads to complications they could not have envisaged. Subtle plot twists ramp up the emotional tension as the characters argue, cajole and harangue one another. What starts as a simple tragedy threatens to escalate into a situation none of them can control.

The script, written by Farhadi, is outstanding. Just when you think the film is about to reach a resolution, it takes off in another direction, creating more dilemmas for the characters to wrestle with. It touches on interesting questions such as the power relationships between men and women in Iranian society, whether it is right to tell lies to try to avoid causing pain to others, and the way people try to control others in subtle ways. The acting and direction are excellent throughout.

The final scene shows the characters trying to push a car out of the wet sand as the tide comes in. Try as they might, they cannot shift it. It is a fitting image for a film in which ordinary people wrestle to cope with an extraordinary situation.

The film won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival and was Iran’s submission for an Oscar for best foreign film. It was voted by Iranian critics the fourth best Iranian film of all time. Look out for the DVD release of Farhadi’s earlier film, Fireworks Wednesday (2006), which came out in Autumn 2012.

  

Rating: 10/10

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (drama) (2011) (2 hrs 37 mins)

The first thing you need to know about this film is that it’s slow. There are a lot of long takes and passages when nothing much appears to happen. But it’s worth persevering with because there is much to admire in this Turkish drama from director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. The critics thought so too. It was co-winner of the Grand Prix at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

The film is based on the experience of one of the film’s screenwriters. It follows a long night spent by the police looking for a dead body in the Turkish countryside. Three cars transport a group of men (police officers, a doctor, a prosecutor, gravediggers, army officers and two murder suspects) from location to location in what seems like a fruitless search for a body that the suspects have confessed to burying. The trouble is they were drunk at the time and can’t remember clearly where the body was left.

The opening scenes are shown in long shot. We hear the characters’ conversation during their car journey but at first we only see the cars from a distance. We don’t even know who is speaking. But then we are inside the car with the characters and they gradually reveal themselves through conversation on a number of subjects, including yoghurt, health problems, work, family and death.

The search seems to be getting nowhere and the leading police officer is growing more and more frustrated. The prosecutor who is in charge of the search decides to go to a village so that they can have a break and eat a meal. The mayor of the village extends hospitality and the chief suspect eventually tells the police where the body can be found. Once the body is found and taken to a hospital for an autopsy, the pace picks up as the film focuses on the uneasy relationship between the doctor and the prosecutor, which leads to a revelation about the prosecutor’s personal life.

The richness of the film lies in the subtle characterisation and the visual details. There are several moving moments: the doctor, exhausted and downcast, looking at photographs of his ex-wife and of himself as a boy, the men captivated by the beauty of the mayor’s daughter as she serves them drinks, the prosecutor’s facial expressions as he slowly moves towards making a confession to the doctor.

The characters spend a lot of the film waiting for things to happen, growing bored and drifting into philosophical musings. The film reminded me of Tarkovsky films such as Stalker and Mirror, while the bleak landscapes put me in mind of Antonioni.  What action there is happens slowly but is beautifully filmed.  The film is maybe half an hour too long but if you have the patience to let the film unfold, you will find it offers much to ponder.

Rating: 8/10