The Bookshop

Seen at the Theatre Royal, Castlemaine, VIC

Cecil says: I had no idea what to expect from The Bookshop, except that I – correctly – assumed it would revolve around a book shop…

Funnily enough I realised as the voiceover began that I had been expecting a quaint American small town book shop and some story built around that. Just shows how ingrained our expectation of American culture is on our screens. But, no, The Bookshop is filmed mostly on location in Northern Ireland (we recognised some of the coastal scenes), and I was interested in how many of the credits rolling by at the end of the film seemed to be of Catalan origin (and sure enough, the film was written and directed by Isabel Coixet from Barcelona, and she involved lots of Catalan folk in the production – good for her, I say).

However, this says nothing about the film itself. The voiceover runs right through the film and I won’t do a spoiler on who the character turns out to be whose voice it is, but another surprise only a few seconds in was the appearance strolling into sight over the horizon of Bill Nighy. I had no idea he was in the film at all, but I knew Bea would be pleased, and if I was a betting man, I’d have a good chance of winnings if I bet on Bill Nighy appearing in pretty well every film we see these days.

The premise of the film: outsider comes into small village in (not totally clear what era – but since Lolita has just been published, it suggests 1950s) England with a desire to convert on old house into a bookshop. Against her is one of the local dignitaries, who has aspirations to have a local arts centre housed there; and at the first party the prospective bookshop owner attends, she gets fairly short shrift from most locals, who are either definitely in the Duchess’s camp or are clearly not interested in books.

So far it smacks a little of Vicar of Dibley. But there isn’t much humour here, and the pace is fairly slow. But the plot does develop nicely and relationship between Emily Mortimer (Florence Green) and Bill Nighy (Edmund Brundish) is rather nice to watch as it slowly develops, though never quite materialises, rather like in Remains of the Day.

Looking at the book industry today (not that I know much about it), it’s gratifying that there are still independent book shops doted around the place, and we always try to drop by on our travels. It can’t have been easy even in the 1950s to make a bookshop in a small village profitable, but it’s unimaginable now that such a bookshop – in a village that can’t have had that many inhabitants altogether – would take a gamble and order 200 copies of a new release like Lolita. Is there any book today which might sell like that?

***

Bea says: I am a life long book lover, and hence a bookshop lover, so any film that purports to be about either is onto a winner with me, and if it also has Bill Nighy in it – well even better.  You would think that would mean I would give this a 5 star rating, but actually the plot is a little slow, even for me and I am pretty tolerant of that, and I just didn’t feel I got enough inside the head of the main character to really embody the film – I watched the “action” (such as there was), rather than embodying it, so I felt a sense of distance.  I noted in the credits that it is adapted from a novel and I would now like to read the novel, to see if the sense of distance is the same.  I did like the neat ending, where we see the legacy of children being around books, bookshops and book lovers, and it did let me dream a little about running a small bookshop in a small town….

Overall recommended for book lovers everywhere, for a Sunday afternoon or cozy winters evening.

***1/2

Their Finest

Seen at the wonderful Theatre Royal in Castlemaine, Vic

Cecil says: I saw this alone as I had the chance to stay a bit longer than Bea in Castlemaine, and this was on as a matinée, which was kind of appropriate for a movie depicting life in wartime Britain, and it was all about the making of a wartime propaganda film based on Dunkirk.

Now, I'm not normally a fan of films about making a film - they are usually too introspective, playing to a film-making audience and just a bit too self-absorbed.

Their Finest could not be further from that description. It laughed at itself, showed the real challenges of creating 'authenticity with optimism' when things don't go to plan, and even the need to create an American hero at Dunkirk as a sub-plot to try to get the American people behind the war worked precisely because it showed the plot acrobatics the writers had to go through to manage this.

It's great that the main character is a woman. Catrin Cole is well played by Gemma Arterton. We see her go through the difficulties of a relationship break-up, falling for her colleague, dealing with cantankerous actor Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy type-cast again but brilliant as ever), and slowly getting recognition for her work, as she pushes to have a stronger role for the women characters in her script.

There are fantastic comic moments, like the filming on the 'Dunkirk' beaches and the drama coaching by Hilliard of the awkward American fighter pilot pushed into the plot with no plausible role. There's the drama of the backdrop of bombings and death around (and among) them, and the terribly moving scene late on in the film when disaster hits the studio where they are filming (I'll say no more to avoid a spoiler moment).

But there's also the wonderfully satisfying moment towards the end when Catrin finally watches the film she helped to write and it plays to a packed audience who hang on every line.

It's not an emotional rollercoaster because of its almost Brechtian way of constantly switching between reality and drama. That somehow stops a complete involvement in the characters, but it is a wonderfully gripping film, with some waves of emotion.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and would happily go to see it again with Bea. Seeing it at the vintage cinema that is Castlemain's Theatre Royal made it even more memorable, though.

****

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.
***

About Time

Cecil says: If you like a story that entertains you while making you reflect on life, then About Time might be just the film for you. Surely Richard Curtis’s best film since Four Weddings and a Funeral.

We saw it at the wonderful Palace Cinema in Malton, North Yorkshire, one of those fantastic old cinemas that somehow survived the ravages of World War 2 and the 1960s/70s bingo boom.

It’s really a film about father/son relationships, with Bill Nighy fantastic as ever alongside Domhnall Gleeson (probably best-known for playing Bill Weasley in Harry Potter films, though I saw him last in Anna Karenina – which I hadn’t much liked...).

In the opening scenes I wasn’t sure I was going to relate to much of this: as in most of Curtis’s films, this is a fairly affluent middle-class English family, not as posh as most Hugh Grant characters, but just a bit comfortable, the English equivalent of those glamorous families that feature in most US TV movies.

But within a few minutes I was won over. Partly it’s Nighy’s acting and just his presence on the screen; partly the engaging storyline. I don’t want to do a plot-spoiler here, but its premise is that you can time travel back through your own life and have another go at doing things you thought didn’t quite work the first time.

Curtis clearly likes a good wedding and funeral, hence his earlier classic. And in About Time, his best moments also probably come at Tim’s wedding and the funeral of his Dad (a particularly moving scene, suggesting Curtis may well have been through that himself).

And the overall message of this feel-good film: Enjoy it while you can. Given the short release time of most film these days, I’d say the say about this film: Go and see it while you can.

****

Bea says: We dashed into the cinema to see this after running late and bolting down a plateful of noodles at the local Thai restaurant before the screening. Running in, I wondered if it would be worth it or if we should have just lingered over dinner and skipped the movie. Well, contrary to my expectations, it was so worth it.

Now, I like Richard Curtis's films. Like everyone else, I loved 4 Weddings and I've kept up with his output and seen, and enjoyed, what followed, although I don't think anything has been quite as standout as the original and first. I expected this to be enjoyable, but not particularly earth-shattering or memorable.

But actually, it either caught me in a nostalgic, reflective mood, or it is particularly well drafted and written. I found myself close to (pleasant but rather sad) tears of nostalgia during the first part of the film, as I remembered my own young days in London - restaurants, rain, parties, rain, being walked home by someone you might just fancy, more rain...

And I was thoughtfully introspective during the second part, as the young couple we follow through the story have children and cope with life, and death, and family. There is a wedding, a funeral, at least one Christmas, and a few births, and then the charming quirk of the film: some time travel, all accompanied by a well-chosen soundtrack and great performances by all, but particularly the wonderful Bill Nighy.

We had a long drive home from the Palace Cinema in Malton which was quietly and mistily atmospheric after the show, and the mist rolled in and out as we drove over the North York Moors , talking about the film and our lives before we met.

This morning I rang my Dad and we talked, and he and Mum shared a joke and a laugh while we talked. It's good to have family. Even though, I mused last night, no one in my close circle of friends has really had the kind of longevity the couple in the film had - for those who had it, the whole babies/perfect life thing didn't happen, and for those for whom it did, the relationships didn't necessarily last But - families we all still are, nevertheless.

See this if you would like a poignant reminder of years gone by, or need to be reminded that life is good, sometimes.

***.5