[Film] Film 2015

[big nuts]

Sometimes, of course, trailers to films sell them incorrectly. And, of course again, a number of very good films struggle to have the meat and meaning of them shrunk into the briefest highlights. I recall seeing the trailer for 45 Years a few weeks ago and thinking 'no, not for me', pulling a slight face at my girlfriend sat next to me - i do that a lot with her, meanly. I was most wrong. Or my predictions were. What an excellent film. Such a slowly tense affair with some real sort of spinetingling moments of realisation that take one aback far more than most horrors would have me reel. It's basically the tale of a single letter that changes the entire feel to a marriage lasting almost half a century. We know of it merely moments in, when the husband, played excellently by Tom Courtenay, receives correspondence in German that the body of his first love has been found, frozen as it was when it fell, in the Alps. What follows then in the week to their 45th wedding anniversary is a growing rupture of their bond, their making, all thanks to the fact that Courtenay never fully spoke of this pre-marriage love and all it did to him. Charlotte Rampling is the wife and we concentrate mostly on her increasingly angst-ridden realisation that history is not what she thought it was. Little is spoken out loud but the subtle signs of stresses building on Rampling's face, and the background noises of clocks ticking and their alsatian yelping and whimpering, make it a growingly tense drama.
I really liked it, for all its heartbreakingness. I felt, though, that Rampling's deep suspicions were in part a lack of understanding of how one can romanticise times before a tragedy. I also think there is a sometime confusion from one partner to another of loves of different people being the same. Anywho, that's just me rambling. The film was tender and striking and i felt refreshed to see something well-made, especially on the day that the London Film Festival reveals its line-up and my love for film and all that that 10 tiring days of 30 films or so will bring excited me.

45 Years. Meade likey.

Thanks for the review Meade's Ball - Me and the missus are planning our first cinema trip since becoming parents over a year ago. We used to be Duke of York's members but now rarely get an opportunity to get out. It's a toss up between this film and Dope at Komedia's Saturday, both have had good reviews so hopefully which ever one we make is a good watch.

Red wine, comfy seat hopefully we both stay awake through to the end.

 

[Bozza]

Capital C - A documentary that follows the stories of a brave new breed of pioneers - those who take to crowd-funding to seek validation of, and funding for, a new business or product.

It's fascinating to watch those braving the Kickstarter waters and the many resultant twists and turns. There are some genuinely heart-warming stories which are captured wonderfully. If you have any interest at all in entrepreneurial spirit and, more specifically, crowd-funding, you won't be disappointed.

Netflix link: http://www.netflix.com/title/80044823
Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/capital_c/
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3984320/

 

[Meade's Ball]

So i went for a sort of double today. First up was a film in which, again, the trailer had me nothing but feel dread over the full-length version of. The trailer was half-wrong this time, making it very much a film of two halves. The film's title, Me and Earl and Dying Girl, put me off also, but a review i'd seen yesterday gave it maximum points, so i thought i might as well. The first half, the good bits, are a funny enough set of scenes narrated by this mature-looking teen, Greg, who'd been raised watching classic movies from around the world and now remakes cheap short comedy-named versions of them with his friend Earl, who's from the other side of the Pittsburgh tracks. Greg is forced to visit the daughter of a friend of his mother, a girl from his high school, who is the dying girl from the title, and suffering from leukemia. Greg is an awkward and engaging teen determined to remain anonymous and unhurt through high school, being a passing and friendly bit-part in so many cliques lives, whilst secretly making his films with Earl. He reminded me of me a bit when i was at school and just didn't want to be either noticed or bullied and be the slightly wacky weird one when people came a-calling. Whilst Greg has his films and a set of strange little relationships with his out-there day and the dying girl's mum trying to seduce him on too many occasions it's funny and inventive with strange camera angles and bits of animation. It changes, though, when moving into the formula it promises to not be, with some flat and maudlin wetness to it that somewhat drained the mirth i'd grown used to of it. A shame that. Still, it was quite entertaining and far better than i expected.

Second up was a film i, financially, had to download. The two venues now showing it, Marshland, each charge £15 a pop, and whilst the film might be of that value, no premises are, in my view - although i am about to pay that much quite a lot for festival films, but that is sort of an event 10 days for me and worth the experience. Anywho, so i got the film Marshland, a Spanish film set in Andalucia and the time a little after Franco had fallen, but his legacy was still darkly rich. Two cops are called down south to investigate the disappearance of two 16 year old girls, and there they stumble through a twisted little lawless world, beautiful in its own way, to solve the case. One cop is ambitious but strictly anti-Franco, whilst the other is a little more old school. They are clearly and quietly at odds, and their relationship, or anti-friendship, works well, as loyalty and duty is tested. I thought it very suspenseful and it had me think of both Mississippi Burning and also The Mean Season. A couple of matters seemed to end without really being finished, but overall it was a good politically-under-currented crime drama in which no one seems to be fully on the side of good. I'll watch out for the director's next film as some of the shots in this were excellent.

 

[Meade's Ball]

Most films tell me of the person i'm not rather than the person i am. If i jotted the keys characteristics of those on screen that i am nothing like then perhaps i'd have a clearer image of self, but it doesn't like the most interesting of games to play, or likely outcomes. Today, i realised for the 800th time that i wasn't in the slightest a daredevil or chap desperate for adventure at any point during life. And shan't be from now on either. I suppose the film i saw, Everest, went out of its way to inform me of the risks and draining difficulty, and stupidity, of the life of someone determined to live to the extreme. As a film it had me groaning at its clunkiness and corniness, but gripped enough and, sometimes, just enthralled by the majesty of the mountain itself. I wondered as it went whether really the director should have gone more to an extreme in style, visually and musically, to give more class to this disaster movie.

Anywho, a lot of star faces appear, from Gyllenhaal, Brolin, Jason Clarke, John Hawkes as the guys looking to climb the impossible, and the gurning Keira Knightley and Robin Wright play small roles as wives from a distance that our limping ascenders need to phone to pretty much say farewell to. The script was painfully corny at times, but i suppose was necessarily so here and there to fit in with the disaster movie formula. There were moments which lightly thrilled as our middle-aged regular joes scramble over a crevice or two, but mostly it felt swamped under the whole feeling that their end was coming.
It was ok, but disappointing, musically in particular. The monstrousness of the mountain itself, i would say, doesn't require such standard musical backing to create its sense of beautiful ghastliness.

 

[Meade's Ball]

I had the strange experience today of, for the second time, being in Hackney Picturehouse's Screen Lounge and pretty much fully lying down to watch a film. The added oddness of it this time was in the screen being quite full, so the available spot i found not in the front row was right alongside a very gangly man in his 70s with a nasty wheeze and, about 3 quarters of the way through, a fulsome and dream-infested snore. I feared for a while that i was to be held by him, quietly guiding him from nightmares for the remaining 25 minutes.

The film itself wasn't bad, if a discomfortingly tense affair without heroes. Name of said film was 99 Homes and has Michael Shannon putting on a good devilish show as the satanic real estate agent feeding off of the financial crisis, gladly turfing people from their homes to make an ever-growing buck. One of those he uncaringly, with his team of cops and brutish heavers, acts as representative of banker and evil toward is Andrew Garfield, who i try to remember not being on the endless verge of tears in a film. Garfield, an unemployed construction worker and picture of decency in caring for his mother and son, suddenly has nowhere to live but the rougher side of town, with other families losing their home and struggling to find their way back out. It's 2010, and America is a dark and unloving place. Garfield gets offered 50 dollars, by the deeply nefarious Shannon, to clean the inches of sh*t out of a house left empty by a family about to be evicted, and has little option but to bring home the bacon, after probably puking home a few chunks after getting a whiff of the sewage. From then on, we have Garfield largely signing a contract with the devil himself to rescue his family, whilst being increasingly party to the destruction of the lives of so many others. As i said, no one is the hero in this.
It wasn't fun, apart from the odd fiendish line by Shannon, but the swiveling moral compass of it all was quite gripping, in a raw and recent past we're aware of. Shannon was good and Garfield did his troubled everyman routine to standard. The director did a good job and leads us into dark waters.

 

[JC Footy Genius]

Everest

Well worth a viewing, based on real events, plot moves at a good pace, stunning atmospheric scenery as you'd expect, pretty grim and nerve jangling at times, the odd tear may be shed if your that way inclined. Overall 7/10

(PS Have now cancelled my holiday in the lake district)

 

[AZ Gull]

Everest

Well worth a viewing, based on real events, plot moves at a good pace, stunning atmospheric scenery as you'd expect, pretty grim and nerve jangling at times, the odd tear may be shed if your that way inclined. Overall 7/10

(PS Have now cancelled my holiday in the lake district)

I saw this at the IMAX the other day. The Beck Weathers part of the story is astonishing, not least because it is completely true.

 

[JC Footy Genius]

I saw this at the IMAX the other day. The Beck Weathers part of the story is astonishing, not least because it is completely true.

Astonishing and awe inspiring , (Spoiler alert) how he could survive in those conditions and find the will to make it back to the camp is beyond me.

 

[Acker79]

The Martian
A cross between castaway and Apollo 13, Matt Damon isn't Tom Hanks, but otherwise this was very good. There were a couple of parts that felt like concessions to please the Chinese market (which seems to be of increasing importance to Hollywood) and NASA.

 

[Barry Izbak]

Legend

My brother is a crime "fan" - see www.totalcrime.co.uk - and said he didn't fancy seeing this film because we already know everything there is to know about The Krays.
Fair point. But I'm glad I didn't take his advice because I saw this Tuesday and thought it was excellent.
Yes, we know the basic story, but using the same actor to play both roles was a brilliant idea, and his depiction of the different characteristics of each was brilliant. Leading actor BAFTA nomination at least. The story wasn't more gory and violent than it needed to be and the setting in the East End of the 1960s was superb too. I always wonder when films and TV are set in this area at this time like the Ford women's stike film Dagenham, whether the streets really were so deserted back then, or are there only so many vintage Ford Anglias available for movies.

Anyway well worth 8/10 from me and not sorry I chose this over Roger Water's The Wall that was attracting most of the punters at the Vue Cinema Norwich on Tuesday night.

 

[Meade's Ball]

The girlfriend is Spanish and has been living in London for more than 6 years now. She bemoans at times how long it takes to have English as close enough to her first language not to worry about it. Today she spent two hours with in the cinema and didn't understand a word of it. She might've considered me more caring than i really am by pretending that i also struggled with the dialogue in Macbeth, but it was no heartfelt ruse. There were often times i hadn't a clue, if it weren't for the acting, the look and music, and probably remembering a snippet or two of my studies so many years back. I thought a few times that i should've chosen a screening for the hard of hearing and the helpful subtitles, but even then in reading and thinking over i would've likely missed the next 3 or 4 lines. The more it went along the less i needed to understand the every word spat from the lips of Fassbender and Cotillard and the more i was swept along by the mood and the tenseness and the shockingly burning look of it all. It was gruesome, it was loveless, but quite beautiful to watch and listen to as the mist and rainstorms tumbled viciously over the scottish vales, usually hiding a greater evil beneath them. The cinematography was stunning and the performances physically telling and i am glad i went to be reminded of such a powerful tale.

 

[herecomesaregular]

Caught SICARIO on a free preview- met the hype, a great film. I would recommend not reading much about it beforehand - I didn't but did google reviews afterwards and most of them give much too much away. Of note, an impressive, claustrophobic soundtrack, very oppressive, very LOUD. Not a fan of Emily Blunt before this film but I thought she a great central pivot. Benicio does what he does, only Javier does it aswell. What I liked was that it placed the audience alongside Blunt's character: all the other characters seemed to know what's what and it is for her/the audience to then catch on. 9 /10 from me.

 

[Birdie Boy]

Caught SICARIO on a free preview- met the hype, a great film. I would recommend not reading much about it beforehand - I didn't but did google reviews afterwards and most of them give much too much away. Of note, an impressive, claustrophobic soundtrack, very oppressive, very LOUD. Not a fan of Emily Blunt before this film but I thought she a great central pivot. Benicio does what he does, only Javier does it aswell. What I liked was that it placed the audience alongside Blunt's character: all the other characters seemed to know what's what and it is for her/the audience to then catch on. 9 /10 from me.

Interesting. I fancied seeing this tomorrow night but can't make it now. Another day.

 

[Meade's Ball]

Caught SICARIO on a free preview- met the hype, a great film. I would recommend not reading much about it beforehand - I didn't but did google reviews afterwards and most of them give much too much away. Of note, an impressive, claustrophobic soundtrack, very oppressive, very LOUD. Not a fan of Emily Blunt before this film but I thought she a great central pivot. Benicio does what he does, only Javier does it aswell. What I liked was that it placed the audience alongside Blunt's character: all the other characters seemed to know what's what and it is for her/the audience to then catch on. 9 /10 from me.

Sounds good. I was a big fan of the director doing Incendies a few years back.
I have plans for it in my gap hours in the festival. The earliest possible is Sunday afternoon.

 

[Meade's Ball]

So I went to what the presenter said was the first film to be shown at the festival this year. I was eager, if somewhat tired after a day at work, and expected something rather interesting at the least. Sadly, it wasn't in its entirety. Some shots were good and it was interesting how in the 3 eras the film is set in how the director shoots in the style and film type of each era, but, just like his other Cannes success of a couple of years ago A Touch of Sin, I didn't really feel it. A Touch of Sin had more to it too. This one, A Mountain May Depart, was a bit corny here and there. The Q&A afterwards was interesting enough. A pint of booze, home, not enough sleep, and now building up to 3 films I expect a bit more from today.

 

[Meade's Ball]

Quite a good day of it really. Got me in to the spirit of the festival again.
First up was Taxi Tehran made by Jafar Panahi, a filmmaker banned from making films by the Iranian government and therefore on each occasion having to do so secretly, with the secretiveness of it being part of the story each time. This time it was all set in a taxi in Tehran, as the title suggests, and has a few cameras within catching the drama of the passengers that the driver, Panahi, playing himself, has in a day. A lot of them are quite amusing, and all of them demanding, whilst Panahi remains endlessly warm and unshaken. It's a good blend of reality and the process of making a film so that you drift between watching a docu-comedy of the taxi driver and the array of characters he'll deal with and Panahi's bravery and refusal to give up needing to tell stories on film. Twas a good watch and the more i think about it the more potential layers it has.

Second was James White. Now this is an American film made by Josh Mond who is part of a triumvirate of directors who, when not directing themselves, at the least executive produce their friends/cohorts work, if not edit and help rewrite. Borderline Films has put together quality fare like Martha Marcy May Marlene and Southcliffe and has the promising wish to remain independent and out of Hollywood. This one, James White, was a quite intense character study of a twenty-something in New York who for quite a spell seems a slightly out-of-control f*ckhead, living on his mother's couch and taking what he can, which is usually drugs - there is a quite funny part in which he and few friends are on acid and strolling proudly and fascinatedly a vast Mexican shoe shop with the most colourful sandals. His mother, though, is suffering from cancer and it's getting worse. I suppose we see him go to various extremes, whilst still looking to care for his mother, and we see him grow. The film is generally shot in extreme close-up, and Christopher Abbot as the lead gives a stunning performance that you don't mind being fully in the face of. Upsetting topics at the root for much of it, but powerfully absorbing, and i hope that his team keep making independent films with storytelling and character at their centre. The Q&A after had the director as a generally warm and decent guy.

Now, warm and decent guys don't come any more warm and decent than the third film of the day, The Measure of a Man. By jingo what a guy. And what he has to cruelly go through. Thierry is an out of work factory worker who is determined to get back into work and keep his family going. The processes of finding a job and being rejected indecently and having to sit through a workshop in which others on benefits sit and nastily assess Thierry's filmed interview techniques are all shown as a heartbreaking dark comedy of the mean truth of struggle. How he doesn't crack is remarkable, and the performance by Vincent Lindon was amazing as he speaks up for himself when necessary, but has in his heart a pure goodness and a wish to keep his family safe and with a future. The film turns as Thierry's fortunes almost turn about an hour in, and it turns a little for the worse, but it had to go somewhere. A rather good film that reminded me a bit in essence of Force Majeure, which i loved, and for all the wincing i felt whilst watching it, marvelled at the goodness of Thierry and Lindon's performance.

4 films today now. Hope it stays good.

 

[Meade's Ball]

So, not an ace day, but some good enough bits and nothing without any interest to it.
It began with Trumbo, the, for the most part, incredibly unchallenging biopic of Dalton Trumbo, a great writer shunned from Hollywood both professionally and personally for holding left-wing views and having joined the communist party. The tale itself was interesting, although overlong, and the performance of Bryan Cranston was witty and heartfelt, but how it was unsubtley told, particularly in the dialogue, was a little painful and dreary. I somewhat wish i'd done for something else a little more festivally, and therefore dark and dour.

Well hello dark and dour, it's The Club. The last film by its director, Pablo Larrain, called No, i saw earlier this year and by jingo what a cracker. I had high expectations, and some were met. This is the story of a house in a small seaside town in Chile, that keeps and hides away some rotten priests, who are forbidden from speaking to anyone outside of fellow holy sinners. We see them at the beginning go on a jaunt to watch from a distance their greyhound in a local race on muddy track, wondering what to do with their winnings. A new member of the stained community arrives and something bloody unfolds, causing the church to send in one of their priests/psychologists to assess the hideaway and decide whether it should continue. His drilling of each twisted holyman to at first unveil their wrongdoings and recognise the badness of them is an absorbing watch. You can feel throughout the film that it is a place that cannot be cleansed. It is beautifully shot at times and a bruising exposé of church "law". The performances were great too. The only thing that bothered me, apart from the general disgust i felt, was that the score became overbearing by the end. I am a bad and untalented piano player, but since i started learning a couple of years ago, the music in film strikes me harder. This seemed too much. Still, a good film and a good Q&A afterwards.

High-Rise is the new film by Ben Wheatley. I spent £28 to see it because the repeat showing was at the same time of another film i had to see. I'm a fan of Wheatley and in spite of the bad reviews of this new flick in the Guardian, i felt i should go along and see what his dark imaginings come up with. The Guardian were right. This is a hotchpotch of hysterical scenes which doesn't capture the decay and cracks in a quickly-built society that apparently the book it's based on spells out. This was mirthful and farcical and self-applauding. I didn't like it. I did like, though, the brief after-film tale of how the budget, despite being much bigger than those of his other films, could only stretch to the modelling of half of an afghan hound. Wheatley said something like: you might thought we placed a blanket over the pretend cadaver artistically, but that of course wasn't so.
I hope Wheatley comes back with a better film next time.

Last of the day was a Swedish film 6 years in the making called The Hereafter. Tis one of those music-free - i felt it could have done with the very occasional tinkles here and there - films which begin slowly and hope you hang on in there for what it builds up to. I did and i was glad to. It's basically the return home of a teenage lad from prison - in Sweden the maximum sentence for any juvenile is 4 years with most being released in 2 - and how the rural town, and his family, accept him back. Or in this case, very much not. It takes a while to know of what he was jailed for - some ideas go around your head as he is stared at hatefully - but it is no great surprise. The tension cannot stay as it is though, and the eruptions in the school, and within the boy, who is played apparently by a Swedish teen popstar, are bound to bring about brutal clashes. I quite liked it. The performances were good and the feel of it haunting. The Q&A was amusing at stages thanks to the questioning by idiots with microphones, but the director felt a lot for his film and said a lot of what he was trying to say about Sweden, his homeland, and how it refused to develop itself.

Right, off to a couple of flicks now.

 

[Meade's Ball]

A brief brief synopsis now for 6 films:

Aferim! - a black and white Romanian western (oh no, not one of those again) in which a father and son constable pairing in 19th century Romania are sent on a mission to track down a thieving gypsy. The shots were sometimes most pretty and the language interesting to read - and even sometimes quite comical - but it didn't have a hold of me as i had hoped. Still, not bad.

Flocking - another Swedish film of bleakness and social brutishness. This time a 15 year girl claims to be raped by a popular boy at school, and the small rural town turns against her completely. The girlfriend liked it a bit more than me, but she hadn't seen the brilliant The Hunt a couple of years ago, which i'd been reminded of - as had someone else in the q&a afterwards - when watching. Unpleasant viewing but reasonably well made.

Son of Saul - now this is a film. A stunning watch in this concentration camp drama in which the camera is almost always hanging off of the back of Hungarian Saul, as he scurries and scuttles to keep his place as one of the workers and survivors in the Auschwitz crematorium cleaning crew. One boy survives the gas chamber briefly and Saul decides to capture the body and find a rabbi in amongst those about to go into the chamber to carry out a suitable burial. Tis an amazing trip as he goes from crowd to crowd whilst trying not to upset the nazis or get noticed. Amazing choreography as the shots are lengthy and Saul has to twist and turn and be knocked over and have blurred images surrounding him of piles of bodies and other bodies dragged to be added. Sound also plays a huge part in the chaos and breathless threat as the clatter and scrape of shovels and gunfire in and around the camp create this unholy sense of horror and impending action. What a debut. I highly recommend - although so did Cannes, so not really a secret i have slyly uncovered.

Today was:

Arabian Nights - Volume 1 - a great film. I had to book just part 1 today so that i could then see a good film on Monday and then Volume 2 and Volume 3 on Tuesday and Wednesday. It's a brilliant and sometimes darkly amusing mixture of fact and fiction that demonstrates the struggles in Portugal over 2013 largely thanks to austerity measures. The opening segment shows the director thinking through how he must include in his film news of the port of Viana closing and so many jobs being lost, whilst at the same time talking about a swarm of hornets that killed so many bees nests in a similar part of Portugal. He says that thoughts of abstraction and to be able to combine the two causes him vertigo, so he flees. What you then have is a spell of the hunt for him by his film crew whilst commentary and footage of those now out of work in the port and a man whose job it is to burn offending wasps nests. Its a weird but transfixing as they all blend. When the crew catch the director, he says his only way to survive is to tell a series of stories, and uses Arabian Nights as a template for various tales that tell of this struggle and both european and local political hypocrisy. Some bits are very moving whilst others are just amusing. I can't wait for volumes 1 and 2. So imaginative and striking.

Sicario - managed to squeeze this one inbetween festival shows. Was good - although the viewing was tainted by a pair of absolute chatterboxes behind me who i asked repeatedly to have the good grace to silence themselves. Will watch it on telly when it comes on in year or two to try and get the feeling of tenseness that it looked to build. Well made and Benicio Del Toro steals the show. Made me think at times of the superior Zero Dark Thirty, and not just for the night vision mission. Good heartbeat pounding music throughout.

From Afar - back with the festival for this disturbing Venezuelan feature about dentist in his 50s in Caracas who lures young chaps from the poorer areas back to his den to strip for cash. His plans alter when one young fellow strikes him unconscious and flees with his cash. What then follows is a bond growing between the two, and a twisted one at that. A mature obsessive who sends all his time being left alone whilst persuading those he fancies with his wealth, and a young gang member hungry for a father figure and at that stage of life of out and out uncertainty. It's an eerie watch and not piled with dialogue. The creepiness makes it watchable though and a twist or two bring about the thrills. Brilliant camerawork and feel to this closed off world of the dentist, and a great performance by both of them. Some of the story took turns that i didn't have a full belief in though, so it was good, but not quite as good as i had hoped. A good debut feature again though and the director was brilliant in the q&a.

Sorry to bore.
G'night.

 

[Meade's Ball]

Butt-based doctors ahoy. My arse really aches. Today i'm walking to town rather than cycling to give my cheeks a rest from excessive resting.

I began yesterday with Black Mass. My friend wanted to see it, having been interested in the general story of Whitey Bulger himself and his life of crime in Boston and knowing this basedonatruestoryness would be more shocking. Depp plays Bulger and is meant to be "right back in form". If right back in form really means "not as bad as usual" then they're right. He's ok as the receding-haired, creepy-eyed bad guy, but doesn't possess the film as much as Joel Edgerton does as Bulger's childhood friend and FBI agent who does a deal with Bulger to largely leave him to do what he wishes for such a long time. Edgerton, though, does become ludicrously cartoonish, like the film does in ways, the more it goes on - and i did chuckle quite often at Benedict Cumberbatch's Boston accent. You know, it was ok at best. Oh, i am sure i heard some Bourne music during it too.

Next up was A Bigger Splash, About an hour and a bit in, a buzzing and roaring snore began to be released for about 20 minutes by an old chap in the audience that it seemed no one could locate to kick the back of the seat of or nudge to give this accompaniment a rest. I had thought it might be a film that causes me to also snooze, but it was quite good. At the start, with Tilda Swinton as the rock and roll star lazing on a beautiful Italian isle with her lover Mattias Schoenarts being bothered by nattering "friend"/producer Ralph Fiennes, i thought it might be a draining affair. But the longer it went on and the more that Fiennes, in amongst the vicious and self-regarding chatter, put in another of his performances it made it an intriguing drama of memory and love and authority. The music in it all is striking too. Not bad.

Last of the day was Our Little Sister. I love some of the films of Hirokazu Koreeda, and i was very excited to be quietly moved by this. I was in places, but this wasn't his finest. Still very good though. It still had its moments in which certain lines, responded to with such gentle decency, or a complete inability to know what to say so it's best to just politely nod and say i understand. Tis the story of 3 sisters, who have been left on their lonesome for another of years, and quite happy enough with it, going to their distant father's funeral and meeting their half-sister for the first time there. She's around 14 and they invite her to join the sisterhood, effectively. There is no vast upheaval, but emotions and largely unspoken moral conflicts then bubble through. Moving, but i preferred Like Father Like Son, Koreeda's last. The acting is good and it's amusing at times - particular the 6-toed boyfriend of one of the sisters whose general look is just hilarious - and the new sister is pretty good at football. A good watch.

*butt-stretch*

 

[piersa]

So I went to what the presenter said was the first film to be shown at the festival this year. I was eager, if somewhat tired after a day at work, and expected something rather interesting at the least. Sadly, it wasn't in its entirety. Some shots were good and it was interesting how in the 3 eras the film is set in how the director shoots in the style and film type of each era, but, just like his other Cannes success of a couple of years ago A Touch of Sin, I didn't really feel it. A Touch of Sin had more to it too. This one, A Mountain May Depart, was a bit corny here and there. The Q&A afterwards was interesting enough. A pint of booze, home, not enough sleep, and now building up to 3 films I expect a bit more from today.

I really appreciate the time you give to this thread, so thanks. But is there any way you could give each film a score /10 for each film?