Black Coal

Seen at Les 3 Luxembourg in Paris.

Cecil says: We joined ten or so people on a wet Monday afternoon for this first taste of Chinese cinema on the big screen; a chance to have a bit of an insight into a country we’ll be visiting before we know it, and a chance to see just how much Mandarin I’ve learnt in the last 12 months…

Black Coal was labelled as a ‘policier’ film by the local magazine Pariscope, so we figured this could be the kind of plot we could follow in spite of any language issues. I’ll let Bea say how she got on with the plot in the absence of Mandarin and limited French.

It’s a bit of a grim film, showing the rough side of urban China, but it’s a gripping story and with the kind of plot we THINK we worked out between us at the end. No spoilers here, though.

The ‘hero’ is a kind of Chinese version of McNulty (for anyone who’s a fan of The Wire), a divorced cop who turns to drink and gets himself shot in an early scene as he tries to arrest some young gangsters, but who perseveres in trying to solve the mystery of the body parts that turned up all over China hidden among coal trucks off the back of goods trains.

The plot centres around a dry cleaners, where a young woman appears to be connected to virtually all the men who die through the film, and a skating rink (significant also because half the bodies seemed to have ice skates on them still…).

There’s lots of apparently gratuitous violence (police slapping the face of suspects; murderers hacking victims to death – JUST off camera, though); and a couple of sex scenes, the first of which is quite disturbing and involves our hero’s soon-to-be ex; and the second a steamy affair in a big wheel, which evoked memories of both The Third Man (no sex there of course, though) and Titanic.

I enjoyed this film, though, and the two hours flew by, even though I only recognised two or three lines of Mandarin and was alarmed at how little Pinyin (or Roman alphabet) appears on Chinese streets.

One funny observation: whereas in the UK we are often the only people to stay behind for the full credit roll at the end, for this film the credits were all in Chinese script and we left the room fairly quickly, but this Parisian audience stayed faithfully in its seats as the credits rolled at the end. How different is the cinema-going habit between Britain and France

***

Bea says:  I like detective films and books, and when Cecil suggested this one I thought I might be able to manage despite having no Mandarin and limited French – and I was right.  Although I didn’t entirely follow every twist and turn in the plot, I did get enough contextual and visual information to combine with the bits of French subtitling I could read to work out what was going on, and who the killer (or killers) might be. 

The film is mostly set in northern China during the winter of 2005, and everything is covered in snow – but not that magical Christmas movie-type snow, this is the long, frozen haul of January or February when everyone is cold and sick of it.  Quite a lot of the action takes place around bleak housing estates, back alleys, the Chinese equivalent of cheap working men’s cafés in Britain, and run down shops, railways lines and fairgrounds.  As such, it’s also an interesting insight into ordinary Chinese life – how people live and work.  It’s gritty, but recognisable, and rather reminded me of Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie books actually.

Highly recommended for something different – particularly if you are a Mandarin speaker or it is subtitled into a language you are confident in!

***

Hector and the Search for Happiness

Seen at Stockton Teesside Odeon

Bea says:  Of those that I have read or seen, the reviews for this film have been mixed – but I loved it.  Perhaps it is because Hector reminded me of Cecil, but it was definitely also the key theme of the relationship of change to happiness in life – something that really spoke to me.

This film – not particularly originally - tells the story of two successful, but rather stuck and bored/boring people; the male in the couple (who is a surprisingly believable psychiatrist) decides to research the secret of happiness and travels the world to find it – I won’t tell you where he does find it, but it’s not hard to guess! 

Despite this rather hackneyed storyline Simon Pegg puts in a charming performance as the eccentric but very likeable Hector and his wife, played by Rosamund Pike, partners him well.

It does have some weaknesses in the writing – the sequence involving Hector being kidnapped and imprisoned was too OTT for my taste; what that was trying to show could have been done with a lighter touch, but overall a lot was made out of a story that in the wrong hands (writers and actors both) could have been really cheesy.  The drawing and portraying of the characters as rather cold and stiff – but not too much (Pike) and eccentric and bumbling – but not too much (Pegg) saved it from that actually.

This film made me feel happy for about a week afterwards – it worked for me!

***

Cecil says: Part of me is worried that this rather geeky intellectual type reminded Bea of me, but there is, I guess, something endearing about him, too.

This is a fun film, with some almost Mr Bean touches as Hector sets off on his first flight, sitting next to the rather uptight businessman heading for China. As Bea says, there are some weaknesses to the plot – surely even someone as geeky as Hector wouldn’t be THAT gullible? And the whole section of the film in ‘Africa’ (big place, that) was rather unbelievable.

But as Bea also says, there were many chords struck for our own experiences and our own journeys through life, though thankfully I don’t hold a candle for any old flames myself (the right thing to say, says Bea behind me as I type… but it’s true, honest)

Simon Pegg carries off the role of Hector really well. He’s got one of those faces you think you’ve seen in lots of films or TV, but when I checked his career the only thing I’d definitely seen him in was Hot Fuzz.

A really nice feel-good film, definitely recommended, and I can’t believe more people weren’t in the cinema in Stockton on that Saturday afternoon.

****

Grace of Monaco

Seen at Northallerton Forum

Bea says: Princess Grace died when I was about 12 or so – not long after another glamorous young woman had married a prince and I was rather enamoured with the idea of princesses at the time.  My mother was probably about 12, or even younger, when Grace got married so she had always been interested in her life.  As a child and teenager, there were always old movies on at our home, so I have seen some of Grace’s films too.  This film was poorly reviewed, but that never puts Cecil and me off, so we popped over to a nearby town to see it recently.

It tells the story of a brief period of Grace’s life when - after 3 children and the romance of marrying a prince has well and truly turned into a gilded cage – she is offered the lead role in Marnie.  There are major political issues in Monaco at the time; she doesn’t really feel part of Monaco anyway, and (like many mothers of small children I suspect) feels distant from her husband, and very hemmed in by court life in the location and era.  Tradition dictates that it is out of the question that she take the film; but she thinks about it while Monaco lurches into crisis – and then she plays a key role in resolving that crisis, and her decision is made.

It is a rather sobering story though – in some ways the person of Grace disappears as the princess evolves; and of course she dies young; just like that other princess I was so enchanted with back in 1982.  Like all films about living, or relatively recently departed royals, it had that rather staid feel of things and events left unsaid and unexplored (The Queen, Diana) as protocol and security stop fuller portrayals. 

Nicole Kidman is an accomplished actress who is sound in the role (and can at least raise her eyebrows now although her face is still a bit too frozen for my liking – I so wish these Hollywood actresses would leave their faces alone, although I understand why they don’t) but I did think that someone more suited to the role might have been January Jones; perhaps that’s because I am used to seeing her in 1950s period costume. 

I also appreciated a bit of a history lesson in the politics of Monaco of the 1950s and 60s which I knew nothing about.  As a film, perhaps one for fans of the era (I am), but interesting nonetheless.

**1/2

Cecil says: When a film gets almost universally bad reviews and I still go and see it, but find it’s not that bad after all, the conspiracy theorist in me begins to wonder why the avalanche of negativity began?

Even if people were bothered about historical inaccuracies, there are enough biopics out there which have had a generous dose of dramatic licence. And who are the people out there in a position to know it is historically inaccurate? Presumably those with a bit of a vested interest in keeping Monaco, the principality and its privileged position intact…

Personally I was fascinated by the context: France in the 1950s/60s, with de Gaulle back in power trying to make his nationalistic mark and the Algerian War in full swing.

I really enjoyed this film, though I didn’t warm to many of the key characters portrayed: the Prince himself, Onassis, even Grace. As Bea says, Kidman does a pretty good job, though I agree that January Jones had more of a resemblance from her portrayal of Betty Draper in Mad Men.

The film also made me regret there aren’t more old black and white movies shown on British TV these days. The UK really needs an equivalent to the US Turner Movie Classics, though whether we’d get to see any more old Grace Kelly movies that way, I’m not sure. Some people say the Crown Prince wouldn’t allow it…But surely they’re the conspiracy theorists too?

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