Cecil says: At last a feel-good film. This 1939 classic was showing at the NFT to a packed audience. Average age in the room must have been 70 and I couldn't help wondering how many were watching the film for the 10th or 12th time. For Bea and me, it was our first, but may well not be our last!
Set in Hungary, in a small, family-run leather goods store. James Stewart is the lead salesman (or clerk, as the Americans obviously called them then). Stewart the actor is already 31 when this film was made (his first film was at what would now be considered the ancient age of 28), but he is probably supposed to be quite a bit younger in role (and the programme notes suggested that he was chosen over other Hollywood greats of the time as he was thought to be relatively 'ugly', which seems a bit unfair).
The most charming character is Pirovitch, the Groucho Marx lookalike whose comic value early in the film (he does an about-turn every time the shop owner asks for an 'honest opinion') slowly changes into compassion and warmth: he is the one who is always there to support Kralik (Stewart) through thick and thin.
The plot centres around an early-day Lonely Hearts correspondence. Remember those days when a hand-written letter could be eagerly awaited in the poste restante? The ending is predictable but warm and delightful; the kind of boost to the spirit everyone needs around Christmas. A film to rival 'It's a Wonderful Life' for cosy charm on a winter's night.
Just not sure about the garters in the last scene...
***
Bea says: The garter scene was completely lost on me - too young I guess to remember men wearing garters with socks! Yes this film was a tonic after our recent overwhelmingly gloomy choices. Lovely Christmas-y snow scenes, and a certainty that it was all going to turn out alright in the end - Stewart was going to get the girl. The best scene for me was Matuschek describing their shared Christmas dinner to the young messenger lad - roast goose, red cabbage, potatoes, cucumber salad, stewed apple, and apple strudel to follow. Exactly as my own (German) grandmother would have made for Christmas. It made my mouth water just to think of it, and a trip to Cafe Daquise wouldn't have been out of order afterwards. However, we were on the South Bank, so Wagamamas had to do.
***
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Nowhere Boy
Bea says: As the daughter of a Liverpudlian, the niece of a major Beatles fan, and as they were the soundtrack to much of my childhood and adolescence, I felt I had to see this film about John Lennon's early life. I knew bits and pieces of it - that he was brought up by Aunt Mimi because his mother couldn't look after him, and about Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane as they were places my family talked about too. As I grew up in South Australia - about as far from Liverpool as you can get, geographically - these places seemed like something out of a storybook. I knew that John Lennon lived near - or in - the area my grandmother grew up in, and that my mother was born in the same hospital, as this was the kind of thing my family talked about.
So it was with pleasant anticipation that I settled down in the Vue cinema in Hull to see this film, and it didn't disappoint. Two hours flew by as the film focussed on a year or so of Lennon's life - trouble at school, the forming of the skiffle band The Quarrymen, the fated meeting with McCartney, and most importantly being reunited with his mother Julia, and his subsequent relationship building with her, and Mimi, under these changed circumstances. I think the film presented a fair and even-handed view of Lennon from what I know of him, and Julia and Mimi were sensitively handled. McCartney was extremely baby-faced and rather goody-two-shoes, but as he is still a bit like that now I expect that was the truth. I did wonder however whether the writers/directors were going easy on McCartney as the only Beatles member from that era (Ringo was not part of this film) still alive.
I must say that this film showed a side of 1960s sex I hadn't seen before - when Lennon nips off to the woods with a pretty female school friend I expected the usual wham, bam, thank you ma'am (and we do get this later), but much to my surprise the scene showed Lennon pleasuring the young woman before anything happens to him at all. A very considerate lover for those times, I would have thought.
***
Cecil says: I thought this film would be packed-out in Hull, a Northern city with a tradition of spawning young musical talent. The queue was certainly long to get tickets, but with only a dozen or so others in the room with us, I guess they were all heading to watch Avatar or Sherlock Holmes. Sad.
This was a delightful film. The music was fab. None of the major Beatles hits (and somehow they contrived never to utter the word 'Beatles' even when it was specifically mentioned that the band had changed name), but some great rock 'n' roll classics, which made me want to go straight out and buy the film soundtrack.
As Bea said, the film focused on the family triangle of Lennon, his Mum and his Aunt Mimi. Mimi the solid support, who bought his first guitar, but also confiscated it when he misbehaved; his Mum the creative and musical influence, teaching him to play banjo and encouraging his musical talent.
You get a hint of Lennon's short temper and tendency to violence, especially after the death of his mother. But above all, you feel the straitjacket of late 50s/early 60s caution and constraints working against anyone trying to do something out of the ordinary. This is the second film we have seen in recent weeks dealing with this period (see An Education) and how tough it was to defy the norms of the period. I can remember schools career sessions in an early 1970s Hull comprehensive, where I was being advised to look at banking as a career even though I had 'university' written all over my school reports. Banking was safe (!!) and ten years earlier, when this film was set, safety and security seemed far more appealing to struggling adults than a career in music...So much easier these days to follow your instinct and take risks, even in a recession.
Highly recommended.
***
So it was with pleasant anticipation that I settled down in the Vue cinema in Hull to see this film, and it didn't disappoint. Two hours flew by as the film focussed on a year or so of Lennon's life - trouble at school, the forming of the skiffle band The Quarrymen, the fated meeting with McCartney, and most importantly being reunited with his mother Julia, and his subsequent relationship building with her, and Mimi, under these changed circumstances. I think the film presented a fair and even-handed view of Lennon from what I know of him, and Julia and Mimi were sensitively handled. McCartney was extremely baby-faced and rather goody-two-shoes, but as he is still a bit like that now I expect that was the truth. I did wonder however whether the writers/directors were going easy on McCartney as the only Beatles member from that era (Ringo was not part of this film) still alive.
I must say that this film showed a side of 1960s sex I hadn't seen before - when Lennon nips off to the woods with a pretty female school friend I expected the usual wham, bam, thank you ma'am (and we do get this later), but much to my surprise the scene showed Lennon pleasuring the young woman before anything happens to him at all. A very considerate lover for those times, I would have thought.
***
Cecil says: I thought this film would be packed-out in Hull, a Northern city with a tradition of spawning young musical talent. The queue was certainly long to get tickets, but with only a dozen or so others in the room with us, I guess they were all heading to watch Avatar or Sherlock Holmes. Sad.
This was a delightful film. The music was fab. None of the major Beatles hits (and somehow they contrived never to utter the word 'Beatles' even when it was specifically mentioned that the band had changed name), but some great rock 'n' roll classics, which made me want to go straight out and buy the film soundtrack.
As Bea said, the film focused on the family triangle of Lennon, his Mum and his Aunt Mimi. Mimi the solid support, who bought his first guitar, but also confiscated it when he misbehaved; his Mum the creative and musical influence, teaching him to play banjo and encouraging his musical talent.
You get a hint of Lennon's short temper and tendency to violence, especially after the death of his mother. But above all, you feel the straitjacket of late 50s/early 60s caution and constraints working against anyone trying to do something out of the ordinary. This is the second film we have seen in recent weeks dealing with this period (see An Education) and how tough it was to defy the norms of the period. I can remember schools career sessions in an early 1970s Hull comprehensive, where I was being advised to look at banking as a career even though I had 'university' written all over my school reports. Banking was safe (!!) and ten years earlier, when this film was set, safety and security seemed far more appealing to struggling adults than a career in music...So much easier these days to follow your instinct and take risks, even in a recession.
Highly recommended.
***
Bright Star
Bea says: It's some time since I've seen a film by Jane Campion, and I had loved The Piano, so I was very amenable to Cecil's suggestion that we go along and see this, her latest offering. It was...okay. Neither particularly gripping, nor memorable, it did however pass a couple of hours fairly pleasantly. What seemed to be missing from it was the raw emotion of The Piano, although this was perhaps deliberate as the plot dealt with the English middle classes, rather than New Zealand immigrants.
Bright Star's apparently true story centres on Keats' time living in with a friend and fellow poet (Brown) in the village of Hampstead, near London (how quaint). A family live next door, and soon the eldest daughter of the household is enamoured with Mr Keats - cue much sobbing and some self harm whenever he has to go away. Keats is the archetypal penniless poet, and also rather delicate of constitution - before too long he has consumption and is clearly not long for this world, as those of us who know the Romantic poets knew anyway. He leaves for the improving climate of Rome, but as any visitor to the Spanish Steps knows, he dies there, leaving Fanny Brawn to walk the Heath alone until her own death years later.
Although I found Fanny's character a little tiresome and felt like telling her to pull herself together at times, I did enjoy her dressmaking, and the fabulous costumes, and cinematography, of this costume drama. I am not sure if I was supposed to be, but I wasn't convinced of Keats feelings for Fanny - it seemed he was more in love with the idea of love, rather than with her which fits, I suppose, with the Romantic poets. Cecil and I wondered afterwards if there was a hint of homosexuality in his relationship with the friend he lived with (Mr Brown - best performance in the film, I think).
Not highly recommended, and a sad end, but not a bad DVD film perhaps. It made me want to read a biography of Keats, which is no bad thing I guess.
**1/2
Cecil says: I don't have much to say about this film. Indeed, I don't remember much about it, even though we only saw it about a week ago. It was midday on a Saturday before Christmas, but perhaps the fact that we were the only people in the cinema when the lights went down should have been a clue about its popularity. At first, I was slightly miffed when a third person came in late and ruined our private viewing. But half an hour in, I had an inkling of why everyone was out Christmas shopping instead.
"Bright Star" sounds so optimistic, such a positive-sounding film, after our gloom-fest with the "White Ribbon" a few weeks ago. I had been warned by someone who knows a fair bit about Keats' life that it was likely to be a sad ending, given his early demise, but honestly there was not a lot to be positive about through the whole film.
Relationships not quite fitting; his work not quite selling; his health on a slow but steady downhill path. Yep, gloom and doom again. How do I pick these films?
And now, two weeks later, I am struggling to remember anything about the film. Is that not the worst indictment of a film: that it is utterly forgettable?
*.5
Bright Star's apparently true story centres on Keats' time living in with a friend and fellow poet (Brown) in the village of Hampstead, near London (how quaint). A family live next door, and soon the eldest daughter of the household is enamoured with Mr Keats - cue much sobbing and some self harm whenever he has to go away. Keats is the archetypal penniless poet, and also rather delicate of constitution - before too long he has consumption and is clearly not long for this world, as those of us who know the Romantic poets knew anyway. He leaves for the improving climate of Rome, but as any visitor to the Spanish Steps knows, he dies there, leaving Fanny Brawn to walk the Heath alone until her own death years later.
Although I found Fanny's character a little tiresome and felt like telling her to pull herself together at times, I did enjoy her dressmaking, and the fabulous costumes, and cinematography, of this costume drama. I am not sure if I was supposed to be, but I wasn't convinced of Keats feelings for Fanny - it seemed he was more in love with the idea of love, rather than with her which fits, I suppose, with the Romantic poets. Cecil and I wondered afterwards if there was a hint of homosexuality in his relationship with the friend he lived with (Mr Brown - best performance in the film, I think).
Not highly recommended, and a sad end, but not a bad DVD film perhaps. It made me want to read a biography of Keats, which is no bad thing I guess.
**1/2
Cecil says: I don't have much to say about this film. Indeed, I don't remember much about it, even though we only saw it about a week ago. It was midday on a Saturday before Christmas, but perhaps the fact that we were the only people in the cinema when the lights went down should have been a clue about its popularity. At first, I was slightly miffed when a third person came in late and ruined our private viewing. But half an hour in, I had an inkling of why everyone was out Christmas shopping instead.
"Bright Star" sounds so optimistic, such a positive-sounding film, after our gloom-fest with the "White Ribbon" a few weeks ago. I had been warned by someone who knows a fair bit about Keats' life that it was likely to be a sad ending, given his early demise, but honestly there was not a lot to be positive about through the whole film.
Relationships not quite fitting; his work not quite selling; his health on a slow but steady downhill path. Yep, gloom and doom again. How do I pick these films?
And now, two weeks later, I am struggling to remember anything about the film. Is that not the worst indictment of a film: that it is utterly forgettable?
*.5
Sunday, 6 December 2009
The White Ribbon (Das weisse Band)
Bea says: If you've ever watched an episode of Lark Rise to Candelford and found its tweeness just too sickly sweet for words - then this is the film for you!
Das weisse Band, shot entirely in black and white, and with absolutely no soundtrack at all, other than the singing of Protestant hymns in church and a bit of fiddling and dancing at the Harvest festival, begins in a beautful and peaceful north German village in 1913. However, over the two and half hours that we watch the film, the rural idyll is completely shattered by revelations of grinding poverty, murder, accidents, suicide, child abuse, incest, paedophilia and possible child killers.
It is certainly gripping stuff, and well acted and shot, but very, very grim - Cecil and I saw this late last Wednesday evening after a quick meal, feeling all was well with the world. We didn't feel that way when we came out. The story is narrated by one of the key characters - the village schoolmaster, who begins to investigate some of the strange accidents, abductions, beatings and murders that take place. We also follow his bumbling romance with the local laird's nanny, conducted in the shadow of WW1. However, by the film's end we are none the wiser as to the reason for, or perpetrators of, the incidents, nor are we given any information as to whether the schoolmaster and nanny every married - all we discover is that he survived WW1.
The best and most memorable scene for me - the church choir singing Bach. That is one moment in the film I did enjoy - but probably the only one.
It is not a bad film - just so depressing.
**
Cecil says: If you fancy a good belly laugh or some quick-witted dialogue, or a mystery with a quirky twist to the plot, this film is definitely not for you. I'm not one of those film reviewers who likes to search for 'meaning' or 'purpose' in a film. But I left the cinema after this one thinking: but, why? Why did this guy make this film? What was the point he was making? And why have I spent over two hours of my life watching a film where we don't even know at the end 'whodunnit'...
There was something hypnotic about the German in the film - very clear, very slow, very...rural. I did find myself listening rather than reading the subtitles, whereas in most subtitled films I try to taking in the action AND reading the subtitles, even if I follow the dialogue perfectly.
The complete lack of soundtrack also felt significant. Village life in 1913 after all must have been pretty quiet: no cars, no police sirens, no radios blaring out music. And the silence certainly added to the starkness of the atmosphere.
What was odd, though, was that the lack of theme music took away all desire to stay and read the credits, whereas I am usually one of those film geeks who stays to the bitter end to see every detail of what was filmed where, what music was used, who the gaffer was etc. But then maybe it was just the utter bleakness of the film that made me just want to get out of there.
The German title of the film is actually: Das weisse Band. Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte. This was no children's story in the usual sense of the word, but it did tend to see life from a child's perspective (the bullying, the punishments, the permissions sought or denied, the pet animals, the rivalries, the pecking order) and I guess when you are a child, the world can seem as sinister as this film made it appear.
**
Das weisse Band, shot entirely in black and white, and with absolutely no soundtrack at all, other than the singing of Protestant hymns in church and a bit of fiddling and dancing at the Harvest festival, begins in a beautful and peaceful north German village in 1913. However, over the two and half hours that we watch the film, the rural idyll is completely shattered by revelations of grinding poverty, murder, accidents, suicide, child abuse, incest, paedophilia and possible child killers.
It is certainly gripping stuff, and well acted and shot, but very, very grim - Cecil and I saw this late last Wednesday evening after a quick meal, feeling all was well with the world. We didn't feel that way when we came out. The story is narrated by one of the key characters - the village schoolmaster, who begins to investigate some of the strange accidents, abductions, beatings and murders that take place. We also follow his bumbling romance with the local laird's nanny, conducted in the shadow of WW1. However, by the film's end we are none the wiser as to the reason for, or perpetrators of, the incidents, nor are we given any information as to whether the schoolmaster and nanny every married - all we discover is that he survived WW1.
The best and most memorable scene for me - the church choir singing Bach. That is one moment in the film I did enjoy - but probably the only one.
It is not a bad film - just so depressing.
**
Cecil says: If you fancy a good belly laugh or some quick-witted dialogue, or a mystery with a quirky twist to the plot, this film is definitely not for you. I'm not one of those film reviewers who likes to search for 'meaning' or 'purpose' in a film. But I left the cinema after this one thinking: but, why? Why did this guy make this film? What was the point he was making? And why have I spent over two hours of my life watching a film where we don't even know at the end 'whodunnit'...
There was something hypnotic about the German in the film - very clear, very slow, very...rural. I did find myself listening rather than reading the subtitles, whereas in most subtitled films I try to taking in the action AND reading the subtitles, even if I follow the dialogue perfectly.
The complete lack of soundtrack also felt significant. Village life in 1913 after all must have been pretty quiet: no cars, no police sirens, no radios blaring out music. And the silence certainly added to the starkness of the atmosphere.
What was odd, though, was that the lack of theme music took away all desire to stay and read the credits, whereas I am usually one of those film geeks who stays to the bitter end to see every detail of what was filmed where, what music was used, who the gaffer was etc. But then maybe it was just the utter bleakness of the film that made me just want to get out of there.
The German title of the film is actually: Das weisse Band. Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte. This was no children's story in the usual sense of the word, but it did tend to see life from a child's perspective (the bullying, the punishments, the permissions sought or denied, the pet animals, the rivalries, the pecking order) and I guess when you are a child, the world can seem as sinister as this film made it appear.
**
Sunday, 15 November 2009
An Education
Bea says: I knew very little about this film before seeing it, except that Nick Hornby wrote the screenplay so I was kind of thinking - "blokey". Well, nothing could be further from the truth, and I was gripped by this early 1960s story of a bright young middle class woman, about to sit her 'A' levels and apply to Oxford, and her affair with an older man. Discussing it with Cecil on the way home I was amazed at how much still resonated with my own 1980s high school days - going out to clubs and bars with older friends and acquaintances and beginning to realise that older men found me interesting; a dread of getting pregnant; and the casual comment I remember a university lecturer making on discovering one of the honours students in my class had got married and pregnant in her final year of study - "well, that was a waste of our time, then".
The affair ends but not in the ways I thought it might as I watched the film, and Hornby's script is well written, although it would seem he had a good piece to work with in his adaptation. It was a great treat to see and hear a woman's story of that beatnik era, as often pieces from that time solely chart the lives and experiences of men, and although the themes (women's experiences of love, sex, marriage, and career choices) are familiar (Revolutionary Road for instance) this exploration offers a somewhat less harrowing portrayal, that gave me a lot to think about, about my own youth, and my life now.
****
Cecil says: Thoroughly good way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Good story, interesting characters and excellent script: an example of how this is all you need to be caught up in the plot of a film.
Funnily enough, the only character I really identified with was the clumsy school boy Graham, who gets nowhere with Jenny. His nervous dropping of the Battenberg cake reminded me of the time I turned up at Louise's house in Sixth Form to ask her out, only to find her older boyfriend (who I had thought was an ex by now) standing behind her at the fron door; I knocked over the milk bottles as I made my exit, humbled and embarrassed...
If I had any criticism of the film, I would say that the actress who played Jenny was a touch too posh in her accent, and a little too at ease with herself for a real 16-17 year old (but maybe some girls at that age just ARE!!). And, although amusing to watch, the parents were taken in a little too easily by the con-artist older boyfriend. AND, surely in 1961 EVERYONE would have been smoking upstairs on the bus...
But these are small nit-pickings of a thoroughly enjoyable film. "An Education" also makes some fascinating observations on a period which is even before my earliest memories. I loved the fact that Walthamstow dog track used to host glamorous jazz nights; the notion of a 'year-off to travel' (good old geeky Graham) after school was a mite too forward-thinking for an age when university was seen as the way to secure employment or marriage, though I have the feeling it was only seen as route to marriage for women in those days - and, as Bea says, this was really a film about young women finding their way in the world
***.5
The affair ends but not in the ways I thought it might as I watched the film, and Hornby's script is well written, although it would seem he had a good piece to work with in his adaptation. It was a great treat to see and hear a woman's story of that beatnik era, as often pieces from that time solely chart the lives and experiences of men, and although the themes (women's experiences of love, sex, marriage, and career choices) are familiar (Revolutionary Road for instance) this exploration offers a somewhat less harrowing portrayal, that gave me a lot to think about, about my own youth, and my life now.
****
Cecil says: Thoroughly good way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Good story, interesting characters and excellent script: an example of how this is all you need to be caught up in the plot of a film.
Funnily enough, the only character I really identified with was the clumsy school boy Graham, who gets nowhere with Jenny. His nervous dropping of the Battenberg cake reminded me of the time I turned up at Louise's house in Sixth Form to ask her out, only to find her older boyfriend (who I had thought was an ex by now) standing behind her at the fron door; I knocked over the milk bottles as I made my exit, humbled and embarrassed...
If I had any criticism of the film, I would say that the actress who played Jenny was a touch too posh in her accent, and a little too at ease with herself for a real 16-17 year old (but maybe some girls at that age just ARE!!). And, although amusing to watch, the parents were taken in a little too easily by the con-artist older boyfriend. AND, surely in 1961 EVERYONE would have been smoking upstairs on the bus...
But these are small nit-pickings of a thoroughly enjoyable film. "An Education" also makes some fascinating observations on a period which is even before my earliest memories. I loved the fact that Walthamstow dog track used to host glamorous jazz nights; the notion of a 'year-off to travel' (good old geeky Graham) after school was a mite too forward-thinking for an age when university was seen as the way to secure employment or marriage, though I have the feeling it was only seen as route to marriage for women in those days - and, as Bea says, this was really a film about young women finding their way in the world
***.5
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Death in Venice
Bea says: I had never seen this, so Cecil insisted we go - we were in Paris, not Venice, but nevertheless. I was immediately struck by how attitudes have changed over the past 30-40 years; nowadays only a very brave (or foolish) producer would contemplate making a film about a middle aged man lusting after a young male teenager on a Venice beach, or if they did, they would handle the subject matter very differently. However, the claustrophobic filming and sense of impending terror drew me in and I was gripped as Venice burned with fever (and desire) under a hot sun. I could sit down right now and watch it all over again, and, I am sure, see many different things in it if I did. There are few films one can say that about - truly a classic.
****
Cecil says: This is a classic, Bea is right. Probably 25 years since I last saw this film, but still as gripping as ever. My memory is of a film dominated by homo-erotic scenes, but actually, while Bea is right that the storyline would be treated differently today, remarkably little actually happens and some of the poses by the teenage boy are camp to the point of ridicule.
When I first saw the film I had never even been to Italy, let alone Venice. But I can remember being determined to go to the Lido when I did finally go there in October 1990 and being struck by its emptiness but with echoes of former glories and crowds which probably only go there during peak holiday period or the Venice Film Festival.
Dirk Bogarde is fantastic, though I am struck now by the fact that he is probably portraying a man who is little older than I now am, which makes for a rather different perspective on the film from when I was just 25. Visconti tries hard to get across the complexity of this personality, who has lost his wife and daughter apparently to tragic illness some years earlier, and who engages in heated philosophical discussions with his friend back home, who challenges the very essence of his being on matters of music, beauty and truth.
It's easy to get carried away by the storyline as the main character slips deeper and deeper into trouble, and the musical score just carries you away with the enfolding plot. But, as Bea says, there is so much more to read into this film, and I feel I would need at least one more viewing to come anywhere near understanding the significance of those fiery debates with Bogarde's closest friend.
Oh and one last comment on those opening scenes again: this time a ship arriving silently in a fog-laden Venice: fantastically evocative opening to a great film.
****
****
Cecil says: This is a classic, Bea is right. Probably 25 years since I last saw this film, but still as gripping as ever. My memory is of a film dominated by homo-erotic scenes, but actually, while Bea is right that the storyline would be treated differently today, remarkably little actually happens and some of the poses by the teenage boy are camp to the point of ridicule.
When I first saw the film I had never even been to Italy, let alone Venice. But I can remember being determined to go to the Lido when I did finally go there in October 1990 and being struck by its emptiness but with echoes of former glories and crowds which probably only go there during peak holiday period or the Venice Film Festival.
Dirk Bogarde is fantastic, though I am struck now by the fact that he is probably portraying a man who is little older than I now am, which makes for a rather different perspective on the film from when I was just 25. Visconti tries hard to get across the complexity of this personality, who has lost his wife and daughter apparently to tragic illness some years earlier, and who engages in heated philosophical discussions with his friend back home, who challenges the very essence of his being on matters of music, beauty and truth.
It's easy to get carried away by the storyline as the main character slips deeper and deeper into trouble, and the musical score just carries you away with the enfolding plot. But, as Bea says, there is so much more to read into this film, and I feel I would need at least one more viewing to come anywhere near understanding the significance of those fiery debates with Bogarde's closest friend.
Oh and one last comment on those opening scenes again: this time a ship arriving silently in a fog-laden Venice: fantastically evocative opening to a great film.
****
Clara
Cecil says: Regular readers know how I love the opening scenes of a film, and this was another great scene-setter: 1850, we are told, and a wonderful opening of the coal being shovelled into the engine of a steam train.
Interesting biopic focusing on Clara Schumann, wife of Robert Schumann, lover (muse, says the film preview) of Johannes Brahms and composer in her own right. The film follows the course of Schumann's career from Bonn to Hamburg and Dusseldorf as he gradually succombs to arthritis and (probably) a similar disease to the one that afflicted George III (if we are to believe The Madness of King George); Clara takes over as conductor of the Dusseldorf orchestra as Schumann himself becomes less and less able to work. Brahms meanwhile is the budding talent who is infatuated with Clara.
I love any story linking famous composers as it gives a great sense of context and continuity in the music world (the best choir masters we sing with are the ones who tell stories of who was doing what to who while such-and-such a work was being written). And the jealousies and rivalries between great musicians are very contemporary (Lennon/MacCartney; Oasis/Take That).
Bea and I are both intrigued by Brahms, though, more than the Schumanns. When we were trying to find an appropriate Brahms song to have sung at our wedding, we struggled to find anything uplifting and his songs give the impression of a man who was perpetually unhappy in love. The song we chose in the end is called "Your blue eye", so either this was not about Clara Schumann or the actress Martina Gedeck was badly cast as she definitely had two eyes and they appeared to be brown.
In spite of the excellent story-line, this was a difficult film to watch. In part this was because Martina Gedeck is the spitting image of Davina McCall and you kept wondering if there might suddenly be a Big Brother cameo piece about to take off; it was also annoying because, in spite of its billing as an 'original version' French-German-Hungarian film, the version we saw was dubbed into French and it reminded me just how hard it is to watch dubbed films, when the lips are out of synch with the sound.
Final observation: how primitive neuro-surgery was at the time. Cringe-worthy to watch how the Bonn-based 'surgeon' gets his drill out to get through the skull of Schumann in an effort to release whatever pressures there were building up next to his brain. Turn away at that point if you're squeamish.
***
Bea says: I had some reservations about seeing this film when Cecil suggested it; not because of the subject matter which was entirely up my street, but because many years ago when I was a university student studying German I wrote an essay on Helma Sanders-Brahms' 1980s film Deutschland, Bleiche Mutter which is without doubt the most depressing film ever to have been released. I made it all the way through Deutschland, Bleiche Mutter twice in the interests of writing the essay - Cecil told me he left the cinema half way through when he saw it, as it was just too unbearable to watch.
Clara was, in comparison, much more uplifting, beautifully costumed and shot, and with a particularly fine performance turned in by the actor playing Schumann, his excellent skills all the more noticable to me as I do not speak or understand a lot of French, so I was totally reliant on facial expression and context to follow the plot, which I managed to do. The story was fascinating; despite being interested in classical music I had not known of Clara Schumann's key role in both of these composers' lives.
Highly recommended.
***
Interesting biopic focusing on Clara Schumann, wife of Robert Schumann, lover (muse, says the film preview) of Johannes Brahms and composer in her own right. The film follows the course of Schumann's career from Bonn to Hamburg and Dusseldorf as he gradually succombs to arthritis and (probably) a similar disease to the one that afflicted George III (if we are to believe The Madness of King George); Clara takes over as conductor of the Dusseldorf orchestra as Schumann himself becomes less and less able to work. Brahms meanwhile is the budding talent who is infatuated with Clara.
I love any story linking famous composers as it gives a great sense of context and continuity in the music world (the best choir masters we sing with are the ones who tell stories of who was doing what to who while such-and-such a work was being written). And the jealousies and rivalries between great musicians are very contemporary (Lennon/MacCartney; Oasis/Take That).
Bea and I are both intrigued by Brahms, though, more than the Schumanns. When we were trying to find an appropriate Brahms song to have sung at our wedding, we struggled to find anything uplifting and his songs give the impression of a man who was perpetually unhappy in love. The song we chose in the end is called "Your blue eye", so either this was not about Clara Schumann or the actress Martina Gedeck was badly cast as she definitely had two eyes and they appeared to be brown.
In spite of the excellent story-line, this was a difficult film to watch. In part this was because Martina Gedeck is the spitting image of Davina McCall and you kept wondering if there might suddenly be a Big Brother cameo piece about to take off; it was also annoying because, in spite of its billing as an 'original version' French-German-Hungarian film, the version we saw was dubbed into French and it reminded me just how hard it is to watch dubbed films, when the lips are out of synch with the sound.
Final observation: how primitive neuro-surgery was at the time. Cringe-worthy to watch how the Bonn-based 'surgeon' gets his drill out to get through the skull of Schumann in an effort to release whatever pressures there were building up next to his brain. Turn away at that point if you're squeamish.
***
Bea says: I had some reservations about seeing this film when Cecil suggested it; not because of the subject matter which was entirely up my street, but because many years ago when I was a university student studying German I wrote an essay on Helma Sanders-Brahms' 1980s film Deutschland, Bleiche Mutter which is without doubt the most depressing film ever to have been released. I made it all the way through Deutschland, Bleiche Mutter twice in the interests of writing the essay - Cecil told me he left the cinema half way through when he saw it, as it was just too unbearable to watch.
Clara was, in comparison, much more uplifting, beautifully costumed and shot, and with a particularly fine performance turned in by the actor playing Schumann, his excellent skills all the more noticable to me as I do not speak or understand a lot of French, so I was totally reliant on facial expression and context to follow the plot, which I managed to do. The story was fascinating; despite being interested in classical music I had not known of Clara Schumann's key role in both of these composers' lives.
Highly recommended.
***
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