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 ****
Saturday 29 August 2015
Friday 21 August 2015
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.
****
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.
****
Sunday 2 August 2015
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.
***
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.
***
Saturday 1 August 2015
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.
****
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.
****
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