The Dressmaker

Seen at the beautiful old movie theatre in Roseville on Sydney's North Shore

Cecil says: Great opening shot, looking down on a coach heading straight up a dry road alongside the striated lines of dry fields. You can tell a film’s going to be good when it catches the attention so immediately. And don’t miss Kate Winslet’s fantastic opening line about a minute in…

I loved this film, which we saw in the wonderful old Roseville Cinema on Sydney’s North Shore. I want to see it again, it was that good and had so many layers to it. One person we went with thought it reminded her of Unforgiven, but for me it was more Strictly Ballroom, with its period piece setting and its tragi-comic story.

The audience was 95% women, which rather surprised me. Sure the costumes were mostly aimed at making the women in small country town Australia look glamorous, and dress-making was a major theme of the film, but there was so much more to it than that.

I loved some of the icons of 1950s Australia. The Golden Fleece petrol sign was still a feature on Australian roads when I was a little kid here in 1967 so that was a nice memory jolt for me (when did Golden Fleece disappear?); the ‘elixirs’ people used to consume were still around too when I was small, though they were on their last legs in the way Almanacs and hand wringers were.

Kate Winslet is brilliant in the main role. The ever-present Hugo Weaving looked to be enjoying himself as the cross-dressing copper, though maybe taken a little bit OTT by Jocelyn Moorhouse, who wrote the screenplay and directed.

Sarah Snook was wonderfully disguised as Gertrude Pratt at first and it took me a few scenes to realise she was the same actress as the one playing Anna in the excellent ABC drama on TV at the moment The Beautiful Lie.

Schools are probably just as cruel places today to be different from the crowd as they were back then, and the film does a good job with black & white to take us back to Tilly’s school days 25 years earlier. But the film shows how school playground cruelty extends out into the community too, so the people of Dungatar are an evil bunch, upon whom Tilly slowly takes out her revenge.

****.5

Bea says:  

I went in expecting a gentle period drama, and was very surprised to find myself watching a quirky, rather dark, fairytale-style story of revenge, sorrow, laughs, and laying the past to rest. 

Kate Winslett as Tilly (with an excellent Australian accent) returns to the home town in the country she left years before under a cloud, moving back in with her elderly, feisty mother (fantastic to see Judy Davis in fine form again), who at first appears to be demented but as the film develops shows herself to be in full possession of her faculties.  

As the story unravels in layers we meet the characters of the town, and find out what really happened to send Tilly away all those years ago.  A romance is kindled, but ends tragically, and Tilly's return acts as something of a catalyst in the lives of many of the women and men of the town with all sorts of unexpected consequences.  Once all the ghosts are laid to rest, Tilly leaves again in spectacular fashion.  

This is a great Australian film in the tradition of Baz Luhrmann and all those quirky, slightly dark tales (like Cecil I was reminded of Strictly Ballroom and Muriel's Wedding) - and like Luhrmann and those films, it won't be for everyone (there were definitely mixed views in our group!.  It was perhaps in danger of  being too lurid at times, and the town definitely looked like a set to me, which rather detracted from entering into the suspension of belief.  Still if you like dark and interesting, it's a great watch.

***1/2

Everest

Seen at the Roxy Cinema, Nowra, NSW

Cecil says: I saw a TV documentary of this story a year or so ago, though it took me a few minutes into the film to realise that this film was based on the same ‘true-story’.

I have always held a fascination for Everest climbers, though actually less so since the whole experience became so commercialised and opened up to every Jack or Jill who fancies doing it. And that is really what this film is all about: the disaster struck because there were just too many organised groups attempting to reach the summit at the same time.

We focus mainly on the group led by experienced New Zealander Rob, who has climbed Everest lots of times and earns a living from taking groups up every year.

He is portrayed as the most professional of the group leaders on the mountain that year, and yet as the group hits bad weather and disaster strikes, he makes decisions that are based on emotion and sentimentality rather than professionalism. That is what is left over for me at the end of the film – sure, in many ways the group was unlucky, but – without wanting to do a spoiler on the film – why did Rob make one decision in particular that would cost him so fundamentally?

What I didn’t like about the film was the boring formulaic way all American films of this type – see Apollo 13, for example – have to go domestic, and while our heroes are in difficulty up in space or up a mountain, we are shown the everyday life (why does it always involve pouring cereal???) of his (always he, isn’t it?) family back home. It’s no doubt supposed to trigger the emotional empathy in us, but it’s just such a cliché now, it simply annoyed me.

Emily Watson was good in a very Emily-Watson-style (I really must one day go to see Wish You Were Here, the film in the 1980s that launched her – surely there she can’t have played the same sort of Mumsy character); Keira Knightly had a relatively small role for Keira Knightly.

I did enjoy the mountain scenes. They seem to have been filmed partly in Nepal and partly in Italy (too dangerous and costly to go up Everest to film, though the mountaineer friends we went with did say there were genuine images of Everest in the film).

But, actually, I’d far rather see a film about the two climbers who first got me interested in Everest: Murray and Irvine. These are the guys who got way up high in 1924 without oxygen and may even have made it to the summit, but died on their way down. Now that would make a great film, and I’m sure we’d get no kids back home eating cereal with them! But because it’s not a story in the public eye nowadays, nobody would put the money up to make it. Such a shame.

***

Bea says: :  I also enjoyed the mountain scenes, and the fleeting views of Kathmandu, and I enjoyed watching the struggle for survival – in terms of enjoying the drama, and imagining myself in that situation and what I would have done.  Like Cecil, I hope I would have stuck much more strongly to the time schedule, and paid attention to weather reports.

In reality although I don’t mind either cold or altitude, I have a horror of heights so I don’t think I’d be ideally suited to go up Everest, and what the film of course brings home is that actually, very few people are really experienced enough to climb the mountain, and all they do is endanger everyone else of they do, experienced guide or no.

I did however say to Cecil that if he had been stuck above the ice flow, I also would have sent in a helicopter for him… so he could come home and pour his cereal in the morning with me.

Action packed, might be a bit of an emotional one if you’ve lost anyone climbing.

*** 

Last Cab to Darwin

Seen at the Roxy Cinema, Nowra NSW

Bea says: I knew very little about this one except that it was a current Australian film, which I always like to support, and that it had a good soundtrack (a recommendation from a friend) - thanks to Ed Kuepper, who did the music.  I had no idea that the film was about euthanasia.

It is also about ageing, loneliness, friendship and partnership, death and journeying through life - all themes I am interested in and relate to, so I enjoyed it.  Without giving too much away, Michael Caton plays Rex, an ageing cab driver from Broken Hill, who is diagnosed with cancer, in an advanced stage.  Rex lives alone, but has an enduring relationship with his neighbour Polly, played by Ningali Lawford, which the diagnosis makes him both explore more and run away from simultaneously, as he drives his cab to Darwin to seek out a doctor who is looking for people to pilot her new euthanasia mechanism.  I won't say any more except that the issue is presented in a relatively balanced way, and Rex is able to complete his journey fully.

I am a fan of the road trip genre, and loved this journey into the interior of Australia, quite a lot of it through my own home state of South Australia.  Rex picks up some companions on the way, and although they are rather stereotypical, in the case of Tilly, played by Mark Coles Smith, and convenient, in the case of Julie, played by Emma Hamilton, they do add interest to that section of film.  Later, Jacki Weaver's portrayal of Dr Farmer was interesting - it was difficult to entirely understand the character's motivations.

This screenplay was adapted from a stage play and it certainly had that depth to it, and left us needing to talk, and so we did, sitting on the riverside in Nowra.  It is a good film that makes that happen afterwards. The only things that did slightly clang for me were the music - I related to it, but I thought it was too young for Rex, and the rather poorly developed attempt to address race relations - Polly's character was better developed but Tilly's was very stereotypical indeed, although did enable the film to point out a number of issues in Australian society.

Recommended.
***1/2

Cecil says: Actually Bea has said it all, really. It was a very engrossing film, yet again a film about a long journey both metaphorically and physically, and those sorts of films usually set us up for a pensive and reflective conversation afterwards.

Death is really hard to deal with, both as the one involved personally (what a great line from Rex, when he says: 'It's really hard to kill yourself') and the loved ones who are about to lose somebody precious. The film really gets inside this topic that just won't go away, ever, in anyone's life.

Also a great portrayal of travelling in Australia's deepest interior. The roads I took in 1986 are all covered now, but I can well remember how hair-raising it was to travel, even in a big Greyhound bus, up the road from Adelaide to Darwin on uncovered roads, and one of the most alarming moments is when old Rex's car has its windscreen blown out by a passing truck.

I felt very moved by this film and give it a resounding ****

Keeper of the Flame

Seen at the Roxy Cinema, Nowra NSW as part of their Tuesday morning vintage series

Cecil says: I went alone to this one.

A rare chance to see a movie classic from 1942 starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey thank to the Roxy Cinema in Nowra's weekly 'seniors' classic double-bill on a Tuesday morning.

They don't make films like this anymore! Not just because it's in black and white, but also because the film gains its strength from plot, script, lighting and great acting. No sound effects, no noise, no guns until very late on in this one, but drama and tension builds as the plot develops and we gain more and more insight into the main characters.

The plot: national political hero dies in car accident (almost Chappaquiddick, though that Kennedy escaped unharmed); journalists swarm over the area to get the 'story' but feature writer Tracey wants the real story of political hero's life. 

Trouble is, when he gets to meet hero's wife (Hepburn) and talks to some of the peripheral characters round the house, he starts to build a completely different picture of the guy who died.

There's a moment when the dialogue suddenly switches to talk of Hitler and Fascism, and it slightly jars at that point, making me wonder if the WW2 censors got involved in the screenplay at that point.

And there's something in the RP accents and stentorious tones that reminded me in some horrific nightmare way of Margaret Thatcher at her worst ('There is no Alternative'; 'No, no, no'; 'The lady's not for turning'). Almost made me wonder if he she studied the sinister tones of the more threatening actresses of her childhood to develop her voice when she became Prime Minister.

There are some great reminders of daily life in the 1940s: those were the days when men all wore hats and would stand in the pouring rain with the hat and their raincoat keeping them dry underneath (ladies had brollies, but only a few men); when journalists would bash out their copy on portable typewriters, tearing the page out when that opening line didn't read right; when television didn't yet exist so you'd sit by the fire and read a book or knit; and when telephones came in two bits, and you'd ring the operator to get a call through to New York - or wherever, and there were party lines (ah who remembers them, when you'd be frustrated by those talkative neighbours who'd never free up the line). Ah, when did operators and party lines take their final bow??

I loved this film and so wish there were more opportunities to see films of that era. Nice that there were about 25 of us in there, and a big queue to get in for the second movie (which I didn't have time to stay and watch). 

The Roxy Cinema in Nowra is doing great things here. It's a model other cinemas could usefully follow. 

****

Orry-Kelly - Women He's Undressed

Seen at the Palace Nova cinema in Adelaide CBD

Bea says: We had been wanting to see this film, about a local hero from our current home town of Kiama, and had been hoping to see it there too.  But alas, we have no cinema here and vague plans to put on a screening seemed to be coming to nothing.

So on a chilly, grey afternoon, when we had time to kill after lunch with friends and before a flight home from Adelaide, we headed down to the East End to see it.

Done in a very sub-Baz Luhrmann style, this docu-drama won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it does entertainingly relate the colourful and largely unknown (to us at least) life of Orry Kelly, boy from Kiama, who became costume designer to the stars during the real Hollywood heyday of the 30s until about the 70s or so.  Every leading lady, and many supporting actresses you can think of were dressed by him at one time or another and as a sewing enthusiast myself I loved the focus on how he worked with their individual faces and shapes, and also emphasised the stories they were portraying.

Like most of us, Kelly's life had ups and downs - he was gay during a period when it was illegal and in conservative Hollywood (as opposed to the stage theatre world he had begun in) kept very much in the closet.  Relationships foundered under the strict management of the studios, and Kelly, like many of the era, used drink, probably drugs, and gambled excessively, losing his fortune, getting sacked, getting hired again, but pretty much maintaining his unique and brilliant work throughout with a few lulls for time in rehab.

Rather a lot was made by the film of his relationship as a young man with a big Hollywood star, firmly in the closet; and I also felt the film's title was rather oddly, and inappropriately, titillating - surely it should more accurately be "women he's dressed"?  The story was strong enough, and interesting enough, not really to need these two elements played upon quite so much.

A very interesting watch - highly recommended, an interesting alternative Australian hero to the usual suspects.
***1/2

Cecil says: What I did like about this film was the reminder of how many great films are never shown anymore. All those wonderful black and white movies with great storylines and classic actors of their day just never get shown anymore. There's no TV channel showing Turner Classics as in the USA and the old Saturday afternoon matinees on UK TV - which I never wanted to watch when Grandstand was my preference - are long consigned to history.

This film made me want to get to see all the old movies from the time when Orry Kelly was designing clothes. And fortunately our local cinema in Nowra does do a weekly double bill of oldies, so I must start going.

I also learnt something about the old film studios of those early days of cinema. I hadn't realised that Warner Brothers' early films focused on grittier, more day-to-day characters, whereas Paramount and MGM (?) went for the more glamorous, high-society settings. Makes me want to get hold of a list of those Warner Brothers films and try to see them all.

What I didn't like was the very staged start and end of the film, with Orry-Kelly rowing his boat on placid seas. It felt too much like a set designed for stage rather than screen and just didn't work for me. Why couldn't they have filmed that on real water in Kiama Harbour, or even Wollongong?

The story was captivating, though, and the time passed very quickly.

***

Far From The Madding Crowd

Seen at the Roxy Cinema in Nowra, NSW

Cecil says: I read this book for English 'O' Level some 40 years ago, so I have to say I forgot the plot and have no idea how closely this film version of Thomas Hardy's novel stays to the original text.

But I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Carey Mulligan was excellent in the role of Bathsheba, though I couldn't help feeling her portrayal was a bit too modern and her accent surely a little too Received Pronunciation even for a middle class girl if she lived down in Dorset.

Mulligan is an actress I am enjoying more and more since she first broke into the big time with An Education. She's become a great character actress and this role was ideal for her. Interestingly, both Bea and I noticed her profile, which for some reason was filmed almost as much as her face, though some would argue it is her most beautiful aspect.

Michael Sheen was also brilliant as Boldwood. Some of his mannerisms and the way he speaks reminds me increasingly of Anthony Hopkins, and in a sense this is the kind of role that would have suited Hopkins perfectly some 30 years ago.

As always with Hardy, this was a heart-rending tale of love spurned and lovelorn characters; of fortunes made and lost, sometimes through inheritance and sometimes through misdeeds like gambling or plain bad luck, as with a flock of sheep going over a cliff.

I can't help wondering if the move through the social classes was really quite as fluid as this storyline makes out, though I can imagine that farming in those days was very vulnerable to the physical dangers and the weather events that came up in this film.

Interesting also to see all the work going on in the fields without machinery. This was set in 1870, before the mechanical engine was invented. Funnily enough, we saw very similar farming scenes when travelling through Romania and Vietnam in 2014!

One final note of pedantry: shame they had to begin the film with the words 'Dorset, England'. I know Americans like to be sure it's not some county in some mid-west state, but really. Was that necessary? And why then also add '200 miles outside London'. Hardy would not have approved, I'm sure.

****

Bea says:  Hardy is one of my favourite authors, but like Cecil I read this one many, many years ago so my hazy memory of it wasn't at risk from a bad adaptation - although I plan to read it now to see how true to the novel they were.

What more can I add to Cecil's thoughts?  It was well acted and obviously well directed from that, beautifully filmed and costumed, all the things I love about historical drama.  I became nostalgic for my adopted country of England while watching the Christmas scenes in church, and also nostalgic for a time long gone (that I have never known), a time when people sang folk songs around a harvest feast table...

But this is Hardy, so no twee nostalgia-fest for us viewers.  The darker themes of love lost, bad timing, grave life choices poorly made, crime, and of the plight of women in Victorian times (owned by men, no rights to property, ruined if they engaged in pre-marital sex or conceived a child out of wedlock) were as usual the backbone of the story, and although this one ended well, they don't always.  I am always amazed by how well Hardy portrays the issues of women in his novels.

Cary Mulligan was very good indeed as the lead, although she looked rather slight (and often very lightly dressed) to be hauling hay and dipping sheep on a Dorset farm - I also want to re-read the novel to see what kind of description Hardy gives her.  Her acting skills quickly made me forget my initial doubts.  I am rather glad the movie world has moved on from casting Keira Knightly in all these roles.

A perfect Sunday morning film.
****

Paper Towns

Seen at the 1930s Majestic Cinema in The Entrance, Central Coast, NSW

Bea says: I was interested in seeing this as I had read and heard that the screen versions of John Green's books were attracting a new, young audience into cinema (The Fault in our Stars), and indeed, of the numbers making up the audience on a chilly off-season weeknight in The Entrance, many were young people in their teens and early twenties.

I wasn't overly impressed with the film however,  The story was rather weak overall I thought, although it did have some nice moments (the road trip sequence is probably the best); the early girl-next-door dynamic is pretty hackneyed, and the "rebellious" teenager the girl next door (Margo Spiegelman, played rather averagely I thought by Carla Delevingne) grows up into is frankly unbelievable.  I did have a moment of feeling rather old when I basically agreed with Margo's mother's assessment of her actions (she's attention seeking and will come back when she runs out of money, or people stop talking about her). Her character is not particularly likeable - the night of taking revenge on people who were in her view somehow involved in her teenage boyfriend's betrayal of her made me feel uneasy actually.  I did not at all like how Margo was being portrayed in the film at that stage, and only began to feel more comfortable when her friends began to develop a more realistic and rounded view of her.

The film is really a coming-of-age tale, mostly of Q, a swotty, earnest young man trying to get into university to study medicine.  I related much more to him than to Margo.  The story's hook or device is to use Margo to introduce Q to a wilder side of his nature, and in searching for her, he finds parts of himself he was previously not aware of, and ultimately comes to value his friendships with other ordinary people all the more.  Other characters in the film go on similar journeys - Radar learns to be open about himself rather than hide, and Lacey finds that who people really are matters much more than how popular they are, or how they look.  These are quite nice messages, and I was much more interested in these characters' developments than I was in the wooden and two-dimensional Margo.

I am aware that the Margo character is basically a device, and is not "real"; but I still felt that the film was trying to focus on her a little too much, particularly as its bankable star, to the detriment of the other characters and storylines.  I may give the book a read...
**1/2

Cecil says: None of the characters really spoke to me, to be honest; not even the straight and boring Q, particularly once he went on that voyage of discovery. Life was really much more ordinary and banal as I reached the end of my school days than anything going on in Paper Towns.

Actually the whole notion of parting from long-held friends and starting new journeys only really kicked in for me as I left university, not school. And of course in 1970s Britain, there was no end-of-school Prom (whereas we did organise a big End of Uni party). That's all changed now and the notion of 'Prom' has made its way across the Atlantic into most UK schools these days to an extent I could never have imagined in my day.

Of course the best ever coming-of-age movie was American Graffiti, made in the 1970s and set in the 1950s. But that had plot, music and cars. It was a fantastic film I could see over and over again.

There was a very middle-American car moment in Paper Towns, when the three boys part and go back to their (very safe and conventional) cars before driving off in different directions. But it had none of the impact of those 1950s car scenes.

Like Bea, I found Margo rather tiresome, and very far from the Robin Williams Dead Poets Society type of character coaxing teenagers out of their shells. She did indeed come across as very egotistical and not someone I'd chase after, however long I'd admired her.

And those last scenes, as Q catches the bus back from New York State to Florida... really! Anybody who has ever taken long-distance buses in the US knows that that would require two or three changes of coach and there is absolutely no way he'd make it back in time to join the Prom fun for the final scenes.

Having said all that, I did enjoy the film and would give it a slightly higher rating than Bea.

***

Love & Mercy

Seen at the Roxy Cinema in Nowra, NSW

Bea says: A fantastic film which I really enjoyed - this tells the story of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys through the making of Pet Sounds and afterwards and then again in the 1990s when, after years of drink, drugs and medication for supposed schizophrenia, he meets his second wife-to-be and slowly breaks free of the grip of his "doctor", who has come to control all aspects of his life.

John Cusack plays Wilson well.  This is a packed storyline which doesn't drag at all - we see aspects of Wilson's childhood with his critical and sometimes brutal father, the difficulties he experienced with his fellow Beach Boys as he tried to carve out a creative musical direction for himself and them, and the extreme difficulty he had in breaking free of the people controlling him later on, as well as how all these experiences may have related to each other.  The story is open about Wilson's experiences hearing voices throughout his life, and is an interesting, and at times quite positive, exploration of mental illness, with good portrayal of the crude and often over-used medications of the 1980s and early 90s.  It is pointed out in the closing credits that Wilson's diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia was overturned, and there is some great, relatively contemporary footage of Wilson performing his solo work at the end too.

A definite must-see for fans, this is also a really interesting bio for those who are not fans, or weren't aware of the back story behind this interesting musician.
****

Cecil says:  A very enjoyable way to spend a Sunday morning. I always liked the Beach Boys' music anyway (though funnily enough I've never bought any of their records - something I might change having seen this film).

As someone who sings but actually has no musical background or training, I was fascinated also by how Wilson worked to put together some of his best work in the studios. And it was great to see some of the backing musicians they used, who were mostly blokes much older than Wilson and, as one of them said, had worked already with all the greats: Sinatra, Martin, Spector etc, and Wilson was something else!

The film  misses out key moments in his life: what happened to him (and to the whole Beach Boys thing) in the 70s and 80s? How did he get involved at all with the quack psychologist? How on earth did the psychologist get himself so tied up in Wilson's affairs that he had a new will made out leaving everything over to him (and what on earth can a psychologist have been thinking to go down that path)?

I guess Wilson had some say in what sections of his life were revealed, and that's fair enough. The story they put across is compelling and very engaging.

The horrendous father reminds me of other celeb fathers who influence their offspring in such negative ways (I'm thinking Michael Jackson, and a certain tennis player in the news at the moment over here). But as Wilson himself says, there's something about his father's violence that led him to the creative heights he reached.

Elizabeth Banks is very believable, as the car saleswoman who falls for him and eventually helps him escape.

****

Strangerland

Seen at Roxy Cinema in Nowra, NSW

Bea says:  I was keen to see this little known (to me anyway) Australian film starring Nicole Kidman and Hugo Weaving.  The action takes place in small outback town in what is presumably western NSW, and centres on a family who have recently moved there, as the husband/father has just taken up a position as a pharmacist.  The family have recently arrived, a heatwave is underway, and before long the reasons behind the move and the cracks in family relationships become apparent.  Both teenage children go missing, and a dust storm rolls in.  A search takes place and yet more mystery is revealed, both in family relationships and in the local indigenous mythology.

Kidman plays her role as somewhat purposeless and slightly driven mad mother and wife well, and there are also good performances from Hugo Weaving as the very convincing town sheriff.  Kidman's character is the centre of the film, in a fruitless search for her lost youth (perhaps symbolising her search for her daughter), although some of the subplots and storylines would have benefited from fuller exploration rather than hints.

Ultimately the film leaves the plot partially unresolved, but the complex relationships are interesting to watch and it is nicely shot so quite a feast for the eyes - the dust storm itself particularly.

Worth a watch.
***

Cecil says: Actually, Bea has said all it's possible to say without spoiling the plot.

As a non-Aussie, I was struck by how well the film portrayed the feel of small town outback Australia, though I have only ever really experienced it from the safety of the long-distance bus, with my nearest contact being those roadside stop-offs you get in the middle of nowhere.

Kidman is fantastic in this role; she really is the incarnation of woman settler in Australia (coming after her role in the wonderful Australia five years ago). Who else can possibly play these sorts of roles? And how long can she go on playing them herself?

Her character is slightly disturbing, as in fact are all the characters portrayed, in particular within the family who take centre stage. Hugo Weaving's sheriff is probably the most likeable of the characters.

I've never actually been in a sandstorm like that, and am thankful having seen how it was portrayed in the film. But I can really imagine the Wild West feel that followed in this small country town, with teenagers on the rampage making it very unsettling for an urban-type like the family in this piece.

The uncertainty over the ending leaves you, well, uncertain, but I guess that is the point the director was trying to get across. In families such as this, are things ever fully resolved? Do they need to be?

***.5

The Devil's Violinist

Seen at the wonderful Roxy Cinema in Nowra, NSW, Australia

Bea says: Cecil and I both like classical music so we thought this film, about Paganini - who neither of us knew very well - would be a good Sunday afternoon diversion.

The film's title and one its storylines focuses on the fact that Paganini was reputed to be in some kind of contract with the devil in order to play the violin and compose as he did (his music and playing were way ahead of his time, although the information on Wikipedia was better on this than that contained in the film actually!)

Enter the dark, cloaked and bearded figure of Urbani, who "manages" Paganini, and in fact reminded me a lot of the stories of Elvis' manager "The Colonel", with addictions to drugs (opium), gambling and women blighting Paganini's life until he meets the daughter of an English musician and tries to clean up his act. Urbani foils the plot, and the two go their separate ways, and (spoiler alert), Paganini dies young from illness and addiction, and Urbani confusingly states that he is not the devil, just one of his workers....

A diverting enough story indeed, but I rather felt the film couldn't quite decide whether it was going to focus on the devil's contract part of the story, or the love story, and ended up doing neither particularly well.  It might have been better if there had been some stronger performances, and a better script, or if perhaps less had ended up on the cutting room floor (although it certainly did not need to be any longer).

Best part of it?  Fantastic costumes and beautiful music!
**

Cecil says: The trouble I had with this film was that I didn't really warm to or relate to any of the characters in it, and as Bea suggests, the plot and script were not strong enough to draw me in.

I was convinced throughout that two of the main actors, playing Urbani and the Times journalist, were familiar to me and that I'd seen them in some TV soap like Eastenders. It took s a search of their respective careers to reveal that Jared Harris was of course the English partner in Mad Men, so an interesting previous role, whereas Joely Richardson has been in a lot of things, but none of them appears to have been starring in Eastenders.

But there's something about the fact that this distracted me through the film that goes to show how little I was involved with what was going on. Sure, the music was beautiful, but the Paganini character far from attractive and basically a pain in the bum; his own attraction for the young English daughter of his host was also a mystery: she was pleasant enough but didn't come across as someone you'd fall madly, deeply in love with.

**.5

The Theory of Everything

Seen at the wonderful Roxy Cinema in Nowra, New South Wales

Bea says: I was keen to see this as I have a professional interest in people living with long term conditions, and enjoyed the Brief History of Time television series in the ?late 90s/early 2000s.  Stephen Hawking's long survival with MND, and his work, are often both discussed in the media, but his early life is not so much.

This was a great story of a marriage - in many ways the challenges that Stephen's condition presented were just part and parcel of the challenges that come with marriage, and particularly marriage in the late 60s/early 70s for women.  The film is an adaptation of the book of the same name by Jane Wilde, Stephen Hawking's first wife, and covers their courtship, early married life and the birth of their children, all while Stephen's physical condition declines, his fame increases and the pressures on Jane increase leaving her little, if no, space for being her own self as well.  Unsurprisingly, the marriage cracks under the strain, and the break up scenes are very well done, as are the amicable later years meetings.  The early involvement of the people that both Stephen and Jane move on with is very interestingly and well done too.

Stephen's poor prognosis and worsening condition is well drawn - particularly the scene where he has come round after having a tracheotomy and the realisation that he will never speak again dawns on him.  From this scene, and a few others, the film also documents the advancements in technology that have helped him so much.

A good portrayal of relationships beginning, during and ending, with the added complications of a long term condition, and genius thrown in, all with a middle-class Cambridge backdrop.  Essential viewing and excellent performances from the cast.

***

Cecil says: I was very moved by this film, more than I had expected actually. I guess this maybe because really until this film, I knew little about Hawking, except that he was that clever bloke in a wheelchair with the electronic voice. I'd read none of his books, seen no TV series about him, so really knew nothing about the guy.

But this is a wonderful portrayal of his life, or as Bea says, his marriage and relationships above all.

It's hard to add much to what Bea said on this one. But I guess my own perception of degenerative diseases has been shaped by living for a while with someone who had MS, and reading the extraordinary autobiography by Jill Tweedie, who also had MND, but did not survive as long as Hawking. And I think there's something overwhelmingly powerful about how people deal with the slow progression of such illnesses (though quite how Hawking has managed just to go on and on is in itself an example to us all).

Bit of a cliché really, but it's the kind of film that makes me appreciate what I have in life.

Beautifully acted also by Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones (was trying to remember where else I've seen her, but looking back through her filmography, can only see 'Like Crazy', a 2011 movie that I don't think I rated as highly as this one).

****

Pride

Seen at the Gerringong Pics & Flicks, Town Hall Gerringong, New South Wales

Cecil says: I'm not normally that keen on films that remind me of the 1980s, which was perhaps my least favourite decade politically. And in a sense what happened during the miners' strike hardened me in my hatred of all things Thatcherite, but also made me weary of the antics of the far left. Now a mellow, vaguely moderate leftie, I'm not keen on reminders of that divisive period of our recent history.

But Pride is fun. It's the story of a London-based lesbian and gay group numbering half a dozen or so who wanted to do their bit for the miners, but were struggling to find any miners wanting their help.

It's an interesting portrayal of the gap between traditional working class communities and the more middle class movements that grew up around single issues, and how certain individuals in those groups enabled the gap to be bridged, if very very slowly.

Sitting there in 21st century Australia (especially so close to Australia's gay capital, Sydney) it's hard to remember a time when attitudes were so entrenched that a gay person walked into a bar and half the drinkers walked out. But I guess that's how it must have been in the mid 1980s, even though it isn't THAT long ago.

Since I worked in an office that was only a few yards from Gay's the Word bookshop a few years after the miners' strike, the story felt very resonant for me, as did all the bitchy back-biting as different sections of the group broke off because the action wasn't happening the way they wanted it to.

Great performances yet again from Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton, though the whole cast seemed well suited for their roles and pulled it all off well. This was an enjoyable evening and the film well worth seeing.

I had mixed feelings, though, about the round of applause at the end from the Gerringong audience. Is it a positive sign that Thatcher's legacy is clearly one of how awful she was (even though she doesn't appear more than once in the film); or is it just easy in 2015 to clap the well-meaning losers, and just how much connection do the people of Gerringong have with miners from Wales, Yorkshire or any other community that suffered so badly during and after the strike?

Nice film, though. I'd recommend it, whether or not you have memories from the period.

****

Bea says: 
I was a bit younger than Cecil during the miners' strike - at school - and Thatcher and the grey, grim streets of the UK's industrial villages, towns and cities were something I saw only on the evening news.  But I was, like many people my age, surrounded by the UK music scene of that time, and everything from there seemed so, so much cooler than suburban Adelaide...

I loved the nostalgia of this film, and the bittersweet part of the story that is about young people finding out who they are and pursuing that.  But it also made me feel - not in a bad way - quite old, that this time was so different to now, that young people's lives are so different now, and when the young woman in the Welsh mining town stood up to sing a traditional song, I thought "that was the last of that, that time has now passed forever" and felt so old, a different generation entirely to the young people of today.

I hope it is easier for young people today to be gay, or just "different", than it was for "Bromley" and his acquired friends.  I hope there are still causes that make people want to group together, take risks and try to make the world a better place.

I felt uplifted by this film, but sweetly sad too.  Bill Nighy is fantastic in everything, and this is no exception.
***