Seen at the Electric Cinema in Birmingham
Cecil says: We saw this film quite by chance as it was the cinema we were keen to visit, the Electric being the oldest working cinema in the UK, having first shown films in 1909.
We happened to be free for the Thursday matinée, so we decided to see whatever was on; always a risky business to do that, and I wasn't sure we'd enjoy what was described as a 'one man film' as the lone actor drives his car and deals with life on the journey.
It sounded somewhat similar to the notion of Redford's All is Lost, with not much potential for interaction and a focus on survival. I enjoyed Redford's film but didn't feel ready for any road version of the same.
In actual fact there were hardly any similarities.
Locke was thoroughly engaging right from the start, and there's quite a cast - of voices, at least - as Ivan Locke drives his car from somewhere north of Birmingham (felt very appropriate for this cinema) down to London and takes phone call after phone call to try to deal with the string of crises that have suddenly hit his life.
It's only as the film develops and you realise more about Ivan's life that the opening scene becomes significant. Keep an eye out for the moment when he sits at the red light with the big lorry behind him and clearly makes his decision.
On one level we see how resolute Ivan is: once he has taken this Decision, he will follow it through no matter what the consequences, and there are potentially dire consequences for both his personal and professional life.
But he is also basically a good man, who wants to do the right thing by the people he interacts with. The trouble is that his very linear logical approach to things works well in dealing with a major building project at work, but is less useful when it comes to emotional issues.
I loved Ivan's resourcefulness at solving the work issues, and learnt a fair bit about cement in the process (!), though I'm not sure I'd have taken the same decisions or said the same things as he did in the emotional situations. In fact, I don't think I'd have made that car journey at all if I'd been him, but I don't want to say too much for fear of plot-spoiling...
Tom Hardy was brilliant as Ivan Locke; I loved the character of Donal (voiced by Andrew Scott); and I could feel empathy for all his family back at home (Eddie, Sean and wife Katrina).
And thanks also to the Electric's manager for the day who chatted to us at the end about how Director Steven Knight had done a Q&A on the opening night, and revealed that they had sat Hardy in a car 16 days in a row, with the actors sitting on phones in hotel rooms making the calls; they ran through the script 16 times straight and then edited the final cut from those 16 takes.
Brilliant! And loved the result. Oh, and great cinema too (though fewer old fittings in the room we saw it in than in Thirsk's Ritz Cinema - 1912 - for example...)
****
Bea says:
When Cecil outlined the plot for this film I didn't feel a great desire to see it, as I was worried it would be too "male" - about one man driving - and I would be bored.
As Cecil says above though, nothing was further from the truth and in fact this is an engaging, narrative-led film about marriage, mistakes, mid life, parenthood, and work. These are themes that most of us can relate to, and in fact the way they are presented and portrayed means that there is significant space to think about other options and ways of doing things - this is something I really liked about the film. As Ivan speaks on the phone, and occasionally to himself, the very lack of action on screen means that there is time to think "would I say that?", "would I decide to do that?".
Ivan's character is quite likeable, and in fact I recognised in the desperate unravelling of his life moments when my life has felt like that - suddenly everything sliding out of reach. Really well-written. Sterling job from Tom Hardy. Highly recommended.
***
Sunday 27 April 2014
Thursday 3 April 2014
The Book Thief (Die Buecherdiebin)
Seen at the Northallerton Forum
Bea says: From the opening scenes of this film I was entranced and spellbound. It is beautifully shot throughout, and as a steam train puffs its way through a snow-bound landscape we begin to follow the story of Liesl (Sophie Nelisse) - at the time about 12 years old - and the people who experience WW2 with her in a German town.
I related strongly to this film, as my own German grandmother was probably only slightly older than Liesl when war broke out, and the details in the film (the kitchens, the laundry work, the food, or lack of it) were all very reminiscent of the stories she used to tell me. And my family were, like these people, in the most part ordinary Germans who got through the war by keeping their heads down. They neither spoke out (and I am not excusing that) nor absolutely supported what was going on, except by silence.
Like the family in the film they - until the horrors of WW2 began - lived alongside Jewish people, had them as friends and neighbours, used the shops and services they ran. But the family in the film do more than this - they take in a Jewish man (Max, played by Ben Schnetzer) and hide him in their house for two years. Hans Hubermann, Liesl's adopted father (ably played by Geoffrey Rush) speaks out when a Jewish neighbour is arrested - and the crippling fear that results after his name is taken by the Nazi officer is a terrible reminder of what those times were like.
This is a film adaptation from a novel, and all the characters are well developed. When Liesl goes to live with her new family, my heart sank as Rosa Hubermann, her new "mother" (brilliantly played by Emily Watson) initially seemed to be a cliched wicked stepmother type. However, we see many sides to Rosa's character as the film progresses, and come to understand her more deeply.
There is a great deal of sorrow and death in this film, as befits the times it is set in, sadly. But it is a film about the things that connect people beyond race and religion - a love of books, and a promise made in the trenches of WW1, and it does have some hope. Absolutely wonderful. Not quite perfect - as sad as it is to say, it is very unlikely indeed that Max would have survived after leaving the Hubermann's house. While that reunion scene was very lovely after all Liesl had lost, it was the only bit of the film that did not quite ring true for me. There were a few other points, but I know that Cecil will mention them so I will not.
****
Cecil says: There isn't much I can add to Bea's thoughts this time. This was a totally absorbing film, which made me realise how few films we see - at least in the English-speaking world - dealing with World War Two from behind a German family's front door. We've seen films about French and Danish resistance lately but never much to look at how it was to be an ordinary German family through those years.
I was just not sure about the accents.
I mean, why cast a film full of Aussies, Brits and other English speakers if you are then going to get them to speak in a strong German accent and throw in the odd fragment of German language?
I can almost picture the auditions now, with Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson (both brilliant, as Bea says) struggling to master their comic-book caricature of zee cherman aksent vee orll used to mimic at school.
There must have been some logic for it, but I couldn't fathom it. Having said that, it did kind of work, though I wonder how a German audience would react to it (except that they won't hear it because in Germany they dub nearly all their films).
And there were smatterings of German dialogue through the film, along with the opening credits referring to the film in both its English and German title.
I also wasn't sure about the Voice of God (or the Grim Reaper), who introduces the film and draws it to a close. There's a little bit of Wenders (Himmel ueber Berlin) or Von Trier (Europa) here, but I preferred those and again wondered what the narrative voice added.
Liesl was great, though, and enchantingly played throughout.
****
Bea says: From the opening scenes of this film I was entranced and spellbound. It is beautifully shot throughout, and as a steam train puffs its way through a snow-bound landscape we begin to follow the story of Liesl (Sophie Nelisse) - at the time about 12 years old - and the people who experience WW2 with her in a German town.
I related strongly to this film, as my own German grandmother was probably only slightly older than Liesl when war broke out, and the details in the film (the kitchens, the laundry work, the food, or lack of it) were all very reminiscent of the stories she used to tell me. And my family were, like these people, in the most part ordinary Germans who got through the war by keeping their heads down. They neither spoke out (and I am not excusing that) nor absolutely supported what was going on, except by silence.
Like the family in the film they - until the horrors of WW2 began - lived alongside Jewish people, had them as friends and neighbours, used the shops and services they ran. But the family in the film do more than this - they take in a Jewish man (Max, played by Ben Schnetzer) and hide him in their house for two years. Hans Hubermann, Liesl's adopted father (ably played by Geoffrey Rush) speaks out when a Jewish neighbour is arrested - and the crippling fear that results after his name is taken by the Nazi officer is a terrible reminder of what those times were like.
This is a film adaptation from a novel, and all the characters are well developed. When Liesl goes to live with her new family, my heart sank as Rosa Hubermann, her new "mother" (brilliantly played by Emily Watson) initially seemed to be a cliched wicked stepmother type. However, we see many sides to Rosa's character as the film progresses, and come to understand her more deeply.
There is a great deal of sorrow and death in this film, as befits the times it is set in, sadly. But it is a film about the things that connect people beyond race and religion - a love of books, and a promise made in the trenches of WW1, and it does have some hope. Absolutely wonderful. Not quite perfect - as sad as it is to say, it is very unlikely indeed that Max would have survived after leaving the Hubermann's house. While that reunion scene was very lovely after all Liesl had lost, it was the only bit of the film that did not quite ring true for me. There were a few other points, but I know that Cecil will mention them so I will not.
****
Cecil says: There isn't much I can add to Bea's thoughts this time. This was a totally absorbing film, which made me realise how few films we see - at least in the English-speaking world - dealing with World War Two from behind a German family's front door. We've seen films about French and Danish resistance lately but never much to look at how it was to be an ordinary German family through those years.
I was just not sure about the accents.
I mean, why cast a film full of Aussies, Brits and other English speakers if you are then going to get them to speak in a strong German accent and throw in the odd fragment of German language?
I can almost picture the auditions now, with Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson (both brilliant, as Bea says) struggling to master their comic-book caricature of zee cherman aksent vee orll used to mimic at school.
There must have been some logic for it, but I couldn't fathom it. Having said that, it did kind of work, though I wonder how a German audience would react to it (except that they won't hear it because in Germany they dub nearly all their films).
And there were smatterings of German dialogue through the film, along with the opening credits referring to the film in both its English and German title.
I also wasn't sure about the Voice of God (or the Grim Reaper), who introduces the film and draws it to a close. There's a little bit of Wenders (Himmel ueber Berlin) or Von Trier (Europa) here, but I preferred those and again wondered what the narrative voice added.
Liesl was great, though, and enchantingly played throughout.
****
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