EDITORIAL Mike Williams

@itsmikelike

The future of the BBC is too important to

be just another front in the culture wars

We saw it with The first episode of filmmaker and journalist Jon And if a lot of people believed in flat Earth we’d
Ronson’s latest podcast series, Things Fell Apart, con- need to address it more.” What a ridiculous thing to
Brexit, we see it cerns Frank Schaeffer, an ambitious young Ameri- say. The BBC exists, as per Reith’s original values,
in the pandemic can who dreams of making movies in the early 70s. to Inform, Educate, Entertain. Where does giving
response, and we He’s desperate to impress people (mainly his dad airtime to a flat-earther fit into that? Are we being
and Hollywood execs) and make his mark. And so Informed that flat-earthers exist? Educated that
can see it here. while making a showreel documentary about reli- what they believe is nonsense? Entertained by snig-
Who cares if it gion and the arts, he includes images of anti-abor- gering at them? I can’t think of any reason why the
damages you, as tion propaganda. His intention is to grab attention. BBC would ever need to interview a flat-earther
The result is the kickstarting of one of the most about their belief that the earth is flat, because we
long as it damages polarising fronts in the modern culture wars. know that it isn’t. It’s not up for debate.
your enemy more? What the series does across its eight episodes is It all acts as a distraction from the value we get
knit together seemingly disparate narratives that from the immense infrastructure that the BBC has
show how innocuous decisions or misreadings created and the huge body of work it produces each
have kettled us into the narrow space we find our- year. We see comparisons on social media between
selves in today, where arguments are binary and what the BBC does and Netflix. That’s where the
sides must always be taken. The series was com- pro-BBC lobby should begin – not with the cost of
missioned and broadcast by the BBC, appearing the licence, but with the output and how to protect
both on Radio 4 and on the BBC Sounds app. it. To measure the BBC’s output you need to com-
I thought about Things Fell Apart as I read the pare it with Netflix, the Times, Spotify, Sky Sports,
news about the potential defunding of the BBC, Audible, National Geographic and countless other
which was floated by the culture secretary, Nadine subscription services, all rolled into one. BBC
Dorries, in mid-January. The future of the BBC Sounds is a remarkable resource, full of podcasts
and the compulsory licence fee have long been and audiobooks. BBC Food is an immense library
debated, but the timing and tone of this latest of recipes. BBC Bitesize has been an incredible
threat, and the reaction that followed, made it feel educational tool for years, but came into its own
like the continued existence of Britain’s public ser- during the pandemic. And, of course, on iPlayer
vice broadcaster was the latest thing to be co-opted there’s a library of films and box-sets to rival any
into the culture war. Perhaps a reasonable discus- streamer. Right now you can watch anything from
sion is warranted about the BBC’s cost and merits The Babadook (20014) to Citizen Kane (1941) to new
in the age of multinational streamers, but instead series Toast of Tinseltown. BBC Film produces land-
the familiar battlelines are drawn. To be pro-BBC mark work, including Steve McQueen’s Small Axe
means that not only must you be pro- the manda- (2020). The BBC’s Natural History Unit produces
tory licence fee (which not every BBC believer the world’s best nature documentaries. BBC Stu-
is), but also that you must be pro- elderly people dios, the commercial arm which makes and distrib-
being marched out of their warden-controlled utes a lot of the Corporation’s content, both on its
flats at dawn and arrested for choosing to pay for own channels and to others, brings in about £200
their heating over paying for BBC3. To be against million a year. The BBC costs about £3.7 billion to
it makes you a navel-gazing nationalist, so twisted run each year. It needs funding to operate as it does,
by bigotry that you believe the most patriotic thing and that should be the conversation. It’s not about
you can do is to dismantle a British institution. turning off the tap, but rather which tap to use, and
When it comes to culture wars, it’s not about which buckets to fill.
reason, it’s about being right. Or even better, giving In my view, the idea that it’s mandatory to pay is
the finger to your opponent, and revelling in the what lies at the heart of things now, and why the
things that upset them the most. We saw it with debate has been hijacked by the culture warriors.
Brexit, we see it in the pandemic response, and we Despite the cries of ‘state control’ that have come
can see it here. Who cares if it damages you, as long with lockdowns and restrictions, ultimately Britain
as it damages your enemy more? has become more of a libertarian land than a con-
The BBC looks liberal or conservative depend- servative one. Not allowing anyone to tell you what
ing on your political skew. It’s drowning in a quag- to do has become the British way more than a stiff
mire of balance and political bias. But it has exacer- upper lip or the Dunkirk spirit.
bated its problems by being particularly inept with Public outcry saved 6Music when it was threat-
regards to impartiality. David Jordan, the BBC’s ened with closure, but it couldn’t do the same for
ILLUSTRATION: BETH WALROND

director of editorial policy, said recently that in the The Film Programme on Radio 4. What will public
spirit of impartiality over identity, “Flat-earthers outcry do for the BBC as a whole, and will it just
are not going to get as much space as people who be weaponised by the field marshals of the culture
believe the Earth is round, but very occasionally wars, directing proceedings from miles behind the
it might be appropriate to interview a flat-earther. front line?
 Available December 2021
Limited Edition Blu-ray box set

Full details of this and our 2022 USA & Canada

launch titles are at our website powerhousefilms.co.uk
 OPENING SCENES
9

‘Peter was our

moviegoer,
and we are
not making
them like
him anymore’

A tribute to director, film

historian, actor and writer
Peter Bogdanovich, who
has died at the age of 82
BY DAVID THOMSON

It was nothing I wanted to see in the New

York Times, where the news has been get-
ting so bad you would cancel your sub-
scription if it didn’t seem disloyal. So I
hated to see Peter there on the obituary
page. But there was some oblique bless-
ing: because it was the whole page, with
respect and a sense of history, along with
a lovely picture of what could be the
saddest face you’d ever seen. He’d have
warmed up reading his obituary.
That full page made it clear: in a way
that lived in loss and humour as much as
achievement, Peter mattered. He would
tell you calmly and without boasting how
foolishly he had behaved and you knew
him well enough to understand that he
was seeing that whole thing, the swift
rise and the prolonged fall, as an arc for a
movie. But you honoured him because he
had always respected sadness in his work.
He was of a generation that came upon
the banquet table of the movies after the
PHOTO BY MARK MAINZ/GET TY IMAGES FOR AFI

business had moved away in dismay. The

novices were a band of brats and begging
geniuses, crying out, “Look what we can
do.” But Peter had a heritage. It wasn’t
just Slav; it wasn’t simply understanding
the ironies in The Shop Around the Corner
(1940) or Bringing Up Baby (1938). His
 10

air included Anton Chekhov and Jean several years and pictures she did produc-
Renoir. It was a knowledge, ignored in tion design, critiqued scripts, gave tactful
many films by his contemporaries, that advice on actresses and was a steadfast
life was damn sad. And if we doubted lovemate, wife and mother.
that, he would show us. All too soon, Peter was a celebrity
I mean us, or you. There must be because of his astonishing three in a row:
Sight and Sounders who over the years The Last Picture Show, What’s Up, Doc?
have kept lists of films they have seen, and Paper Moon (1971-73). It’s not just that
when and where, with some brief coded those films were unexpected and effort-
assessment. So many would-be filmmak- less; they are such fun. And Polly was on
ers began as clerks in that filing system. all of them, even after it was clear that
Peter Bogdanovich would know old Peter was helplessly smitten with Cybill
films inside out, yet he would make new Shepherd, his discovery for The Last Pic-
ones too. Is there a conflict in those ambi- ture Show. The “helplessly” there is impor-
tions? Maybe it is where he went astray. tant. You may have heard that some direc-
He was born in Kingston, New York tors fall into love or sex with actresses. So
(91 miles north of Manhattan), in July they do, but the careerists know when to
1939. His father was Serbian, a painter, play the necessary unkind break-up scene.
his mother was Austrian Jewish; they Peter kindly fell in love with Cybill, and
had just come to America, hurried along the inclination to fall for people can be a ABOVE out his most lavish reviews. He didn’t
Ryan and Tatum O’Neal,
by you know what. Peter grew up speak- career-blocker in movies. As Peter knew in Paper Moon (1973)
know to shut up. He was on television
ing Serbian as well as English, and he was from Renoir and La Règle du jeu (1939), a lot showing how smart he was. Many
BELOW
the more exemplary because his older you had to make sure Cupid had wings, Ryan O’Neal, Polly Platt
people flinched as his authentic irony was
brother had died in a domestic accident. so the urge could get away again. and Bogdanovich on the turned into scathing treatment of others
set of Paper Moon
He did well in high school but in 1958 he Admiration for the great trio has led with no modesty for himself. That’s when
was making lists of Touch of Evil, Vertigo, to Targets (1968) being neglected, when it Billy Wilder offered his line about how
Bonjour tristesse and Man of the West, so he may be the most telling of Peter’s movies. one thing could unite the warring self-
went to study acting with Stella Adler. It is what an ambitious film critic-his- interests in Hollywood: if Peter Bogda-
She was so high on a crowded tree that torian should have made, scrambling novich had a flop.
you know Peter was good. To the end, he together some Roger Corman footage, He obliged: Daisy Miller (1974) (with
loved and guarded actors. He believed standing sets and a few days with Boris Cybill – a disastrous love letter), At Long
that pretending was the heaven of inven- Karloff for a slick essay on violence and Last Love (1975), Nickelodeon (1976), Saint
tion. There are problems in that passion the movies in America. It is one of those Jack (1979), They All Laughed (1981). In
OPENING SCENES

and he ran into most of them. rich debut films and its instinct for the hindsight, it seemed perverse that he had
Peter was articulate, if not glib, and meaning of Charles Whitman climbing run off with Cybill, a very funny actress,
could persuade a Hawks or a Hitchcock up a tower on the University of Texas and never got close to recreating her as
that he knew their films better than they at Austin campus in 1966, and shooting another Carole Lombard, when this was
remembered. So he interviewed them people, was ridiculously prescient. pretty much what she managed in the
and did monographs to go with seasons So Peter made four knockout features 80s, with Bruce Willis in the TV show
at MoMA. The first time I encountered in a row. You cannot feel the downfall Moonlighting (1985-89). That was a throw-
him was his Hawks interview in one of without that set-up. Platt still did produc- back to the styles of the 40s and it could
the earliest editions of Movie. I don’t recall tion design and costumes for him after the have been a natural fit for Peter.
him in Sight and Sound, but he must have break-up, and later she would be an inval- But he had left Cybill and fallen in love
subscribed to it, while sharing the French uable support for Louis Malle and James with Dorothy Stratten, a 20-year-old Play-
view that S&S was archaic and in love L. Brooks. A couple of years ago, Peter boy Playmate. She was a beautiful blonde,
with the wrong pictures. told me that he was coming round to the to be sure, and photogenic, but being
He never showed more taste than in notion that Polly had been vital to his friends with Peter then came under the
1962 by marrying Polly Platt. They had great years. He pretended to be surprised. To the end, strain that he felt she was a comic genius
met in summer theatre in the East when Peter left Polly and their two daugh- he loved and such as movies had been waiting for. She
she was studying design. They were a tidy ters to be with Shepherd, and that sharp- is in They All Laughed and most people did
match and in 1966 drove west (with their ened the hostility building in Hollywood guarded actors. not see the genius. Going off the deep
clothes and his files) to Los Angeles. For towards a young maestro who was acting He believed end is one thing, but it turned to horror
that pretending when Dorothy was brutally murdered by
her abandoned husband. All of a sudden,
was the heaven Peter was caught up in a tragedy and a
of invention scandal, with no smart lines to utter
beyond having lost the love of his life.
He wrote a book about Dorothy, The
Killing of the Unicorn (1984), and then he
took up with her sister, Louise. He mar-
ried her in 1988 (he was 49, she 20) and
had her jawline altered, and then scolded
critics who felt this was too close to Vertigo
for comfort – witty remarks he might have
made himself a few years earlier. This was
beyond comedy and it was easy to ask
whether the sane, shrewd Peter had gone
PHOTOS: PHOTOFEST NYC; BFI NATIONAL ARCHIVE

a little crazy. You will realise, as a Sight and

Sounder, that possibility lurks in living
through the screen. For Peter, this was a
time of sadness in which his face changed
too: the old smile gave way to impassiv-
ity not so far from that of Keaton, a man
Peter revered in The Great Buster (2018), a
wonderful documentary he made.
 11

All too soon,

Peter was a
celebrity because
of his astonishing
three in a row:
The Last Picture
Show, What’s Up,
Doc? and Paper
Moon. It’s not just
that those films
were unexpected
and effortless;
they are such fun

He had bankruptcies to deal with, until they had a falling out. But the book, ABOVE scripting his novel for The Last Picture
Bogdanovich directing
too, and he scrambled for income. He edited by Jonathan Rosenbaum, was a Cybill Shepherd in The Last
Show. That is the only one of his four first
would teach a little and trade on his gift to the master and it changed the way Picture Show (1971) films that owes more to life than to movie
skill as a mimic. He did a few books of people regarded Welles. Later still, when BELOW
history, though the focus of its action

OPENING SCENES
movie anecdotage and made more films. The Other Side of the Wind (2018) got out Ryan O’Neal, Barbra Streisand is the small theatre in a desolate Texas
in What’s Up, Doc? (1972)
I cannot say he came close to the quality at last, there were scenes where you felt town that will play Red River (1948) as its
of the first four and he knew that as well the love that had joined them for so long. last show. Peter did another McMurtry
as anyone. But by then Peter was work- There are shots of Peter, looking at the novel, Texasville (1990), a sequel to the
ing with too little time and money, and elderly director in that film (played by first book, but McMurtry did not work
with far from the best players. Still, Noises John Huston), that are heartbreakers. on its script.
Off (1992), from the Michael Frayn play, So much of this sounds like a tale of If The Last Picture Show has a tradition
is a brilliantly managed comedy that you woe, or a long, slow falling-off. There’s no behind it, it is more Renoir than Hawks
always knew three people would get, and escaping that – and every reason to recall or Ford. It is the film in which Peter
one of those was out of town. the humour and the courage with which showed how tender he was to acting.
He had small acting gigs, includ- Peter went along for the giddy ride. Wherever you look in that picture, you’re
ing the shrink’s shrink on The Sopranos Could it have worked out differently? seeing desperate people trying to keep
(1999-2007), but he did not get a role Could he have gone into rewrite? up appearances, but afraid life is passing
that explored him as an actor. Still, you I think he was asking himself that all them by. It’s not just Cybill, Jeff Bridges,
never knew what he might do, and in the the time. The bitter pill is that he had Timothy and Sam Bottoms, and Randy
chaotic years he published This is Orson gathered the painful experience to feed Quaid. They are all fine, but the heart of
Welles (1992), a book of conversations a masterpiece. If he erred, it was in not the film is Ellen Burstyn, Eileen Bren-
with Orson collected over the years. grasping the power of the original mate- nan, Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman,
The two of them had been very fond, rial Larry McMurtry had brought to the people who know their mounting age
is a metaphor for being trapped.
The latter pair won supporting acting
Oscars. Without much dispute. And
they were two players who had reason to
wonder whether anyone was ever going
to come along and realise what they could
do and give them 20 minutes. A lot of life
works out along those wistful, disap-
pointed lines and that is what makes The
Last Picture Show very touching.
So there is Peter in the Times, with his
parched face, the perpetual ascot and a
very hesitant smile. That’s why the full
page was a mark of triumph, a final reck-
oning on how terrific he was: lucky and
unlucky, arrogant yet gentle. But most of
PHOTOS: BFI NATIONAL ARCHIVE; GET TY IMAGES

all someone who mattered. Ask anyone

who kept lists of all the films they had
seen like leaves from one tree. He was our
moviegoer, and we are not making them
like him anymore.
Targets will be released on Blu-ray
by the BFI later this year
 12

EDITORS’ CHOICE Recommendations from the Sight and Sound team

THE FILMS OF ASTA NIELSEN ACCIDENTAL LUXURIANCE OF THE

3 February -15 March, BFI Southbank TRANSLUCENT WATERY REBUS
Cinema’s first one-name diva gets a Mubi.com
BFI retrospective – courtesy of curator I first saw this fascinating Croatian
Pamela Hutchinson – for the first time film at 2020’s Annecy International
since 1973. Google ‘rope dance’ and ‘The Animation Film Festival, where its
Abyss (1910)’ to see why her break- idiosyncratic and innovative style made
through role caused such a stir – and it a highlight in an excellent compe-
why her films were often censored in tition. Dalibor Barić, who wrote, HOMELAND: FILMS BY AUSTRALIAN FIRST NATIONS DIRECTORS
the US. ‘Die Asta’, as the androgynous directed, animated and edited the film, 2-23 February, Barbican Cinema, London
Danish star was nicknamed in Germany, has crafted something unique; Accidental
is seen as a pioneer of modern screen- There’s been something of an explosion of fascinating films made by Indig-
Luxuriance has hints of noir and sci-fi in
acting; she brought a more naturalistic enous Australian directors in recent times, across a range of genres and styles,
a narrative that never quite congeals
style to everything from transgressive but apart from Rachel Perkins, Wayne Blair and the uniquely gifted Warwick
into a story, allowing the formal ex-
comedies to melodrama and tragedies. Thornton, few have made it into cinemas outside Australia. For that reason
perimentation to take centre stage. Any
this month-long season of films from the last three decades provides a wel-
OPENING SCENES

Don’t miss her with a 19-year-old Greta attempts at further explanation would
Garbo in G.W. Pabst’s The Joyless Street come opportunity to explore work by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
be futile, but kudos to Mubi for releas-
(1925). Garbo called Asta “The woman peoples, including Larissa Behrendt, Tracey Moffatt and Leah Purcell.
ing an animation of the sort that rarely
who taught me everything I know.” makes it outside the festival circuit. Kieron Corless, associate editor
Isabel Stevens, managing editor Thomas Flew, editorial assistant

SELF-STYLED SIREN GIRLS IN FILM

selfstyledsiren.substack.com girlsinfilm.net
If you love classic film and you’re online I was first introduced to Girls in Film
you will have spent a few enlightening as an Instagram account, a place to find
hours on the Self-Styled Siren blog, all intriguing stills, article screenshots and
the lovingly researched and irresistibly wry memes. It is all of those things, but
argued work of estimable critic and so much more. It’s also a video plat-
BFI FUTURE FILM FESTIVAL 2022 expert Farran Smith Nehme. While form, a space where female, non-binary
17-20 February, BFI Southbank and online Nehme is still writing for outlets includ- and trans filmmakers can show their
ing Film Comment, Criterion and these work and viewers can discover it – for
The 15th edition of the Future Film Festival is taking hybrid form: expect industry
very pages, the Siren has taken pos- free. You’ll lose hours watching experi-
events, screenings and workshops, all aimed at aspiring filmmakers and cinephiles
session of a new home on the web, at mental fashion films, music videos and
aged between 16 and 25. My highlight is the awards ceremony, where the best
Substack. Subscribe to the newsletter narrative shorts. Among them is Jeru-
work across a number of categories is recognised for its quality and potential.
for free or spring for the paywall to find sha West’s Solidago (2021), a woman’s
I’ve been lucky enough to judge the Best Writer category for the past two years,
out how the Siren truly feels about sub- fictionalised account of being sent to a
and I’ve been really impressed, especially by 2021 winner Laura Marcus and her
jects as diverse as Bertrand Tavernier, rural British commune in the 1960s to
funny ten-minute trip into the misadventures of a drunken teenager, The Massive
Sammy Davis Jr and Christmas movies. give birth. That’s just one of around 500
F*cking Bender. This year’s films will be available to watch free on BFI Player from
Pamela Hutchinson, ‘Weekly Film available in this rotating movie potluck.
Thursday 17 February until Thursday 3 March, and are well worth checking out.
Bulletin’ editor Katie McCabe, reviews editor
Mike Williams, editor-in-chief
F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N
I N A L L C AT E G O R I E S I N C L U D I N G

Best Picture
Todd Black, p.g.a.
Jason Blumenthal
Steve Tisch

amazonstudiosguilds.com In Select Theaters DECEMBER 10

 14

IN PRODUCTION
Power on

NEWS
BY ISABEL STEVENS
The oldest working cinema in the UK
was set to reopen just as this issue went
to press. The Electric, in the heart of
Birmingham, first entranced audiences
in 1909 but closed at the start of the pan-
demic. In November 2021 it was bought
by Kevin Markwick, no stranger to the
business of running old independent cin-
emas. Markwick is the long-time owner
of another of the nation’s venerable movie
theatres – the 104-year-old Uckfield Pic-
ture House in East Sussex.
“It’s an iconic venue,” Markwick says
of the two-screen Electric, but admits it
needed more work than he anticipated –
he was hoping to reopen before Christ-
mas, but renovation work, rather than
the omicron variant, held things up. The
projection equipment proved the big-
gest challenge: “Digital projectors don’t
like being switched off for over a year,” he
explains, “but I was able to get the film
ABOVE Agnès Godard, Carol Morley projector going in no time at all.”
The Electric is the only full-time
cinema in the West Midlands with a
film projector. “There’s a big appetite for
Morley goes Amiss watching films on film; we will show as
much we can,” Markwick says. The venue
will be showing classics on 35mm every
week; the first is one of his favourites –
Billy Wilder’s The Apartment (1960). He
OPENING SCENES

BY THOMAS FLEW
In 2016, filmmaker Carol Morley was used the car like a travelling gallery, so also looks forward to being able to pro-
given the opportunity to rummage Audrey puts her artwork up in the car,” gramme more adventurously in a city than
through the archives of the Wellcome she says, “and then there will be places is possible in a cinema in a small town like
Trust. There, she discovered a lifetime of where you see the work in a much more Uckfield, and promises a cross-section of
diaries, artworks and miscellany belong- full-frontal way.” Typist Artist Pirate King cinema, from arthouse and mainstream
ing to the painter Audrey Amiss – not that itself will be a travelling gallery of Audrey films to more cult choices.
she was ever acclaimed as such during her Amiss’s art, presented to audiences at the Markwick is relatively unfazed by the
lifetime – and the seed of a future film pro- end of 2022 or start of 2023, Morley hopes. prospect of opening a cinema during a
ject was planted. pandemic, convinced that there is a con-
More than five years on, filming has THE GOLDEN RAGE tinuing appetite for the big screen – as
wrapped on Typist Artist Pirate King Classic Hollywood is all the rage this evidence, he points to sold-out shows
(named from the occupations that Amiss month, it seems. Rooney Mara will be for the Electric’s opening weekend. “The
listed in her passport), an invented road- playing Audrey Hepburn in a new biopic goal is to make it a go-to place for film
movie story constructed from events and directed by Luca Guadagnino, while lovers,” he says, but adds: “It has to be
characters in Amiss’s life. Monica Dolan Chris Evans will become Gene Kelly for a carefully programmed. Birmingham’s
and Kelly Macdonald star as Amiss and film set on the MGM lot in 1952, and Tom not short of cinemas. But they are short
her community psychiatric nurse Sandra Holland and Jamie Bell will both slip of cinemas like this – and not to dismiss
Panza, respectively; Macdonald’s char- into Fred Astaire’s tap shoes in compet- any of the other cinemas, they do a per-
acter is another invention of Morley’s, a ing biopics. To make matters worse, Gal fectly good job, but we can offer some-
composite named in playful homage to Gadot will be emulating Grace Kelly in a thing more personal.”
Don Quixote’s sidekick. remake of Hitchcock’s Riviera classic To
The Electric, Station Street, Birmingham B5 4DY
Morley spoke to Sight and Sound over Catch a Thief (1955). We at S&S are unsure
the phone, during a break from edit- what we’ve done to deserve all this…
ing. “[Amiss] is obviously an unknown
artist, and so I’m building her myth in a THE WONDERFUL STORY OF WES
way. Audrey really, really wanted people Hot on the heels of The French Dispatch
to know who she was, so I’m glad to (2021) and the upcoming Asteroid City,
be taking that battle on,” she explains. Wes Anderson’s latest project has been
Amiss’s archive is foundational to the announced. Adapted from Roald Dahl’s
construction of this myth on film, right 1977 collection The Wonderful Story of Henry
down to the colour palette. “[We took] Sugar, the Netflix film will star Benedict
the colours of the film from Audrey’s art Cumberbatch and feature Dev Patel,
and her sense of colour. Working with the Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley.
great Agnès Godard [who is cinematog-
rapher on the film], we talked a lot about CLEAN LIVING
the colour yellow. So the whole film, Cate Blanchett will star in Pedro Almo-
whether people know it or not, will be a dóvar’s first English-language feature,
tribute to her work.” And Amiss’s work A Manual for Cleaning Women, based on
will be literally present on screen, too, as Lucia Berlin’s 2015 short-story collection
Morley made the decision to pepper her of the same name. The project is in the
art throughout the world of the film: “I’ve early stages of development. ABOVE The revived Electric cinema
 15

SPOTLIGHT

IN PRODUCTION

MONEY MADE
SIMPLE
SOLDO AT RAINDANCE

In 2021, the Raindance Film Festival

used Soldo to manage its finances for
the first time, and the festival production
team was delighted by the transforma-
tion. Soldo allowed Raindance to
quickly create departmental accounts
Prepaid company cards by Soldo give you effortless and see a detailed record of all spending,
control over your film – and life’s – finances showing exactly where its money went.
Says David Martinez, festival producer:
“It was so easy to send the specific budg-
Receipts may seem like insignificant is required to confirm each transaction. BELOW Carlo Gualandri (centre),
ets to each department and for them to

ADVERTISING FEATURE
CEO of Soldo, at the Raindance
details while you’re in the whirlwind of Soldo offers account management flex- Film Festival in November 2021 use their cards; we were able to track
a film production, but lose enough of ibility in seconds, with daily spend and every single expense on the platform.”
them and suddenly a huge chunk of your maximum transaction limits which can Elliot Grove, Raindance founder,
budget has disappeared in lost VAT be set individually for each card. Want to enthused about the time and effort that
claims. If you’re working on a small pro- give talent their per diem allowances with- Soldo saved him: “Every year during
duction, it may be down to a producer out a run to the cashpoint each morn- Raindance, at accounts time, I used
to keep track of spending, which is easier ing? Simply deposit their full allowance to have a nightmare, tearing my hair
said than done with hundreds of other onto their Soldo card and cap their daily out over boxes and piles of receipts.
urgent tasks keeping them on their toes. spend, or just as easily make a daily trans- Before Soldo, we spent two days
This can lead to the all-too-common fer from your main Soldo account. per quarter going through receipts;
dilemma of either spending time on Soldo has saved hours and hours every
accounting that is needed elsewhere, or AT ANY SCALE
single month. And if anything gets
not giving finances the attention they Cool things can happen on any scale, your creativity going, it’s not having to
need and losing crucial money as a result. even within your own home. Gualandri worry about where the money went.”
Sometimes it’s hard to tell what the best spoke about how his own family oper- For the rest of the Raindance team,
plan of action is. ated as a testing ground during the early Soldo made sorting their expenses fast
days of Soldo, with his children’s pocket and straightforward. Gone was the
THE ENABLING FACTOR money topped up each month on their need to use money out of their own
Speaking at Raindance Film Festival last individual prepaid cards: “The concept accounts, fill out an expenses form and
November, Carlo Gualandri, CEO of is the same regardless of scale; small or wait for reimbursement; no longer
Soldo, acknowledged that accounting large, you can put money in the place it did they have to worry about having
may not be the most glamorous aspect needs to be spent and then track every- to carry around wads of cash. If they
of the film industry, but that it’s certainly thing that is happening.” Appropriately, needed money for an urgent purchase,
one of the most essential. “Money is the given his film festival audience, Gua- it was as simple as the click of a button
enabling and the limiting factor in most landri went on to compare the banking to have the money transferred to their
things – it needs to be in the right place world to Mike Myers’ comedy character Soldo card, with no stress at all.
to make things happen,” he explained. Austin Powers, frozen in time, existing
“We at Soldo aren’t trying to be in any today with the same outdated attitudes
way as cool as the movies and premieres to technology. But with Soldo, he’s
[that we’ve seen at the festival], but we bringing it right up to date.
recognise the fact that behind every cool As Austin would say:
thing, you need to move money to enable “Yeah, baby!”
it to happen.”
TAKE CONTROL
With Soldo, you can assign budgets to
different departments using prepaid com-
pany cards. Simply hand the cards to the
relevant teams and the accounting starts
PHOTOGRAPHY: PAOLA VIVAS

as soon as the spending does: records

are automatically stored for each pay-
ment, showing when, where and how the
money was spent, and a photo of a receipt
 16

Q When young girls are in school in

IN CONVERSATION
Lingui they look as though they are in
a sacred space. Why is that?
A I think Maria’s right to be educated
is key. Whenever she is in school I
wanted to show that in every sense,
with the music, with the light, that
she is in the right place. Educa-
tion for women is where you can
open wider the window of young
girls’ futures, particularly in Africa.
It’s the key to all of our futures.

Q How did you cast for such a strong

mother/daughter bond?
A I first found Rihane Khalil Alio
to be Maria and then Achouackh
Abakar Souleymane came later.
Achouackh has two kids and I asked
whether Rihane could move in
with them. For three months she
Q In Lingui, abortion access and FGM was like her third child. Then they
MAHAMAT-SALEH HAROUN DIRECTOR seem to be two sides of the same coin. could just do it, it was really easy.
INTERVIEW BY LEILA LATIF Is that your view?
A Absolutely, and it affects everyone. Q What is the state of the film industry
Even the women in the film of a higher in Chad?
The director talks about his social class are not able to make A There’s almost nothing. Our cinema,
new drama, Lingui, changing choices for their daughters. When Le Normandie, which we opened in
patriarchal systems and I was investigating this subject, I’d 2011 [in N’Djamena, Chad’s capital],
meet women who were teachers and just closed. This year it’s not only
filmmaking in his native Chad doctors but at home they had to say me but two new filmmakers releas-
‘yes’ to their husbands. There is actually ing films, which is very important. If
Ever since directing Bye Bye Africa (1999), no emancipation from these things not, you feel you are a single gust of
OPENING SCENES

Chad’s first feature film, Mahamat-Saleh unless all these women find solidarity wind and when you disappear there’s
Haroun has challenged the perception of together. That’s what I wanted to nothing. But you need a constant
Africa and its cinema. His body of work is show in the film. wind to make the flowers dance.
explicitly political and frequently devastat-
ing, tackling the dehumanisation of asylum Q Despite the difficult subject matter, Q Is it an entirely different experience
seekers in A Season in France (2017) and the would it be it fair to say that this is an making a film in Chad as opposed
lingering trauma of Chad’s long civil war optimistic film? to France?
in Dry Season (2006). Though he has been A Yes, because it’s not just a question of A If I can alternate a film in Chad then
based in France since the 1980s, many of his the particular subjects of the film, but one in France that gives me a very
films, including his latest, Lingui, the Sacred of an entire movement of women in good balance. It’s good to return back
Bonds, are set in his home country. Lingui Africa. They are inventing new ways home, and there are so many stories
tells the story of Amina, who seeks a clan- to exist outside of the domination of to tell there. I find it very touching
destine abortion for her teenage daughter, the patriarchy. During my research because when I’m in Chad people tell
Maria, and tries to save her niece from being I met a woman in Chad who was me I seem like a person who never left.
forced to suffer female genital mutilation. married when she was 13, had kids and My father used to tell me that in life
then got her PhD. She now works you need a rear-view mirror, to always
with the World Health Organisation. look back at where you came from.
ABOVE
We have a lot of women in Chad like Technically, there is more expertise
Rihane Khalil Alio as Maria in Lingui, the Sacred Bonds her, who struggle but are working in France, but in Chad you have so
BELOW
step by step to improve life for one much more spontaneity to do things
Director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun another. I’m convinced they will do just because you feel it. In France it’s
it. So, it’s optimistic because of them. almost too professional for me; every-
where you look there are assistants and
Q Why do you not depict the violence people executing a plan. It’s rigid. I like
towards your female characters? to move around a set with freedom.
A It’s really a moral question: to show or
to not show a rape? When you show Q When you are telling uniquely African
violence you need to think of the stories, do you keep in mind the way
impact it will have on the audience, they’ll be seen in America and Europe?
how it could traumatise people. It A Sometimes there are small private
felt like the most intelligent way was jokes that belong just to Chad and
to not show it at all. I showed the I’m aware they aren’t going to un-
girl’s trauma afterwards, and that derstand it, but I don’t think it’s a
was enough. I don’t think that in problem. I try to tell stories about
order to make a film about racism human problems, and I think there’s
you need to show a Black guy being no difference where the viewer is from.
beaten to death. I also think that On social media I’ve been able to see
is asking for pity. I’m not search- more of the reaction to Lingui and it
ing for pity for my characters, I’m feels like many people from all over
asking for something more. the world were waiting for this story.
Lingui, the Sacred Bonds is in UK cinemas
now and is reviewed on page 77
 17

UNDER MITCH KALISA DIRECTOR

RISING STAR
JOANNA HOGG

THE
PROFILE BY THOMAS FLEW

The British director divulges the

Who is he?
literary inspirations behind her
INFLUENCE
The London-based director has re-
latest film, The Souvenir Part II – ceived a BIFA nomination for Play It
Safe, his breakthrough short film about
based on her own early years as a a Black student actor dealing with
filmmaker – which has just topped the microaggressions of his peers.

S&S’s Films of the Year poll His background

Kalisa was born in Rwanda and came to the
UK as a child. His childhood love of film
INTERVIEW BY PAMELA HUTCHINSON
developed into an interest in acting, before
his attention turned to directing.
When I’m working on a new project I find reading
about film really inspiring. It gives me freedom to His film
explore ideas without being influenced too directly Play It Safe, Kalisa’s impactful 13-minute
by the film itself. It becomes a springboard for my short – shot beautifully on 16mm film – is
own imagination. The subject of The Souvenir Part II set during a drama class, where students
are given the task of mimicking an animal,
is filmmaking and there were three books on films
selected at random. During a break,
about films [in the BFI Film Classics series] that Jonathan (Jonathan Ajayi) chats with his
connected to the themes I was exploring. I’m always white classmates, whose interactions are full
looking for new editions in the series. They are small of racist assumptions about his perceived
books and but incredibly dense and insightful, and interests (including drill music and weed),
each film is approached from the viewpoint of a dif- and is then presented with a script that
ferent writer. includes a deeply racist caricature, which
he is asked to perform in. Back in class,
Jonathan’s turn comes to perform

1.
I referred to 8 1/2 (Otto e mezzo) [by D.A. Miller] a the task; his given animal
lot as I was preparing to make The Souvenir Part II. is an ape. His teacher and
classmates, mortified, ask
Ideas Fellini was exploring, via Miller’s interpreta-
him to pick a new animal, but
tion, found their way into Part II and allowed me to Jonathan seizes power over the
imagine what was in Fellini’s mind, and even imagine situation and gives a startlingly
his film, which I hadn’t seen for a few years. A sen- committed and confron-

OPENING SCENES
tence like the following (for example) gave me inspi- tational performance.
ration and freed my mind to make associations that Where to watch
are personal to me: “8 1/2 famously blends together Play It Safe played at
the remembered past, the experienced present and London Short Film
the fantasised future. Even today, these temporali- Festival in January
ties are somewhat confusing to distinguish at first; and will continue
they all seem so equally present, so equally in relief.” to tour festivals.

2. Another book in the series, on Truffaut’s La Nuit amé-

ricaine (Day for Night) was written by one of my tutors I’M THE BATMAN
SPOTLIGHT
at the National Film and Television School, Roger Robert Pattison appeared a
Crittenden, who I still keep in touch with. La Nuit risky hire when his casting
américaine (1973) is possibly the most well-known film as Batman was announced,
about filmmaking ever made, so I couldn’t ignore it. but his box-office pedigree
Yet I didn’t want to watch it again before my shoot. must have allayed producers’
fears. Here’s how much all
Reading Roger’s interpretation was a perfect
six modern-day Batmen had
way to explore Truffaut’s masterpiece and the sto- achieved at the box office
ries behind it. Roger quoting Truffaut in his book: before donning the vigilante
“Already I had decided that if my story could take superhero’s famous cape
place entirely within this studio, I would have ‘unity – not exactly a guarantee
of place’ without even half trying.” of success, it appears.

3.
Then Peter Wollen’s book in the same series on Singin’
in the Rain (1952). I decided that all the influences for
the Souvenir films would be films I was inspired by
at film school. Singin’ in the Rain was also much on
my mind when I was writing Part II. Wollen unpacks
Singin’ in the Rain in fascinating detail, making his
own connections to the themes and ideas, which may
or may not have been in the minds of the filmmakers,
but gave me plenty to think about, especially when
we were developing Julie’s dream film within a film.
He writes: “The dream ballet became the favoured
form for integrating ballet numbers into stage musi-
cals, both by relating them to the plot situation and
the psychology of the dreamer and, at the same time,
ROBERT PAT TINSON
$269 MILLION
GEORGE CLOONEY

MICHAEL KEATON

$616 MILLION

CHRISTIAN BALE

$5.7 BILLION
$3.7 BILLION
$73 MILLION

moving out of the diegetic world of the drama into

BEN AFFLECK
$1 BILLION
VAL KILMER

another and totally fantastic realm.”

The Souvenir Part II is in UK cinemas now and is reviewed on page 75

 18

OBITUARY

Sidney Poitier
20 FEBRUARY 1927 – 6 JANUARY 2022

BY LEILA LATIF
There are few honours an actor can over content, no creative leverage except
receive that weren’t bestowed upon to refuse to do a film, which I often did.
Sidney Poitier. The first Black man to I had to satisfy the action fans, the roman-
receive an Academy Award for Best tic fans, the intellectual fans. It was a ter-
Actor, he was also the recipient of a rific burden.”
knighthood, a Kennedy Center Honor, a His acting career hit its peak with
Grammy, a Bafta, the Presidential Medal three films released in 1967. In To Sir, with
of Freedom and a further Academy Love he plays an immigrant teacher in a
Award for ifetime achievement. But his rundown east London school, draw-
awards pale in comparison to his cultural ing on his innate charisma to create an
significance: he forever shifted Black rep- inspiring educator without slipping into
resentation on screen, opening doors for sentimentality. In Norman Jewison’s
countless people who came after him and Oscar-winning In the Heat of the Night, he
changing the perception of what African- brings a steely core to his role as a bril-
OPENING SCENES

American men were and could be. liant big-city detective solving a murder
The son of Bahamian tomato farmers, in Mississippi. Famously, Poitier insisted
Poitier was born two months prema- on his character slapping back a racist
turely while his parents were on a trip to white man, feeling it was important to
Miami. He spent his childhood on Cat see Black characters not turning the other
Island in the Bahamas, left school at 12 cheek. Equally significant was Guess Who’s
and moved to Harlem as a teenager, lying Coming to Dinner, a romantic drama about
on his forms to enlist in the US Army at an interracial couple, released while inter-
the age of 16. Overwhelmed by the cru- racial marriage was still illegal in 17 states.
elty he saw at an army hospital, he quickly A scene in which Poitier’s character refers
escaped by feigning insanity and returned to his partner’s belief that “every single
to Harlem. He auditioned for the Ameri- one of our children will be president of
can Negro Theater, but was marched out the United States” seemed to nod to a
of the door because of his poor literacy brighter future: 42 years later, Barack
and thick Bahamian accent. Obama, the son of a Black man and a
Undeterred, he spent months work- white woman, would be hanging the
ing on both, practising his reading every Presidential Medal of Freedom around
night with an elderly Jewish waiter at the ability to fill the screen with an inviting but ABOVE Poitier’s neck.
Sidney Poitier in Lilies
restaurant where he washed dishes. He regal presence that became his signature. of the Field (1963)
As a director, Poitier created oppor-
got his break in 1946, filling in for Harry He won the Silver Bear at the Berli- tunities for other Black actors. He cast
Belafonte at a preview performance of nale for The Defiant Ones (1958), for which long-term friends Harry Belafonte and
Lysistrata, and impressing a Broadway he and Tony Curtis both received their Ruby Dee in his 1972 western Buck and
producer in the audience; that led to a first Oscar nominations, playing con- the Preacher and reunited Richard Pryor
steady stream of work. Despite his self- victs chained together and on the run. with Gene Wilder for Stir Crazy (1980),
proclaimed musical ‘tone deafness’, which The co-stars had tangible chemistry, but the first film by a Black director to gross
drastically limited the roles he could take, Poitier’s role only scratched the surface of more than $100 million. Poitier may be
he won plaudits on the stage, getting a his abilities. He won his Oscar, more fit- remembered by the number of ‘firsts’
Tony nomination for creating the role tingly, for Lilies of the Field (1963), playing a he achieved as a Black man, but he
of Walter in Lorraine Hansberry’s A handyman building a chapel for a group was always conscious of improving the
Raisin in the Sun (1959). Two years later he of nuns. The role of Homer Smith drew world for those who came after him. He
starred in the acclaimed film adaptation. on Poitier’s own strength of personality: marched on Washington with Martin
On screen, he established himself talented, generous and refusing to let Luther King (who called Poitier a “man
as a captivating presence throughout societal expectations get in his way. of great depth, a soul brother”) and risked
the 50s. He was the talented but rebel- Poitier was now established as not just his life to take vital aid to civil rights
lious high-school student Gregory in a Black movie star but the Black movie activists in Mississippi. But his greatest
Blackboard Jungle (1955), layering in the star; something that weighed heavily impact was undoubtedly as a cultural
character’s untapped potential even upon him. “During the period when I figure. Belafonte would reflect on his
when Gregory can’t see it himself. And was the only person here – no Bill Cosby, friend’s legacy: “I don’t think anyone [else]
he devastated audiences as tragic steve- no Eddie Murphy, no Denzel Washing- in the world could have been anointed
PHOTO: GET TY IMAGES

dore Tommy in the 1957 film noir Edge of ton – I was carrying the hopes and aspi- with the responsibility of creating a
the City. Poitier brought a warm magnet- rations of an entire people,” he told the whole new image of Black people, and
ism and poise to both roles, showing the New York Times in 1989. “I had no control especially Black men.”
 19

DREAM PALACES
NATURAL HISTORY
Pepper the cat
BY ISABEL STEVENS
Aloof, elegant and convinced of their own
God-like superiority: of course cats are natu-
ral stars. Why did it take so long for Hol-
lywood to realise it? In cinema’s first decade
or so, canines, not cats, were the favoured
animal actors. It was the master comedian
Mack Sennett who, in 1912, discovered that
mogs could rival dogs on screen.
Enter Pepper – from underneath a Key-
stone soundstage if you believe the legend.
She was oblivious to the filming hullabaloo
around her and so it was lights, camera,
action for the small blue-grey ball of fur. Test
footage of a kitten showing her tail whose
boss has been located to prove this origin
story might not be just a publicist’s fantasy.
Stray cats would have been a common sight
in early Hollywood. As Will Sharpe’s recent

ILLUSTRATION BY PEICHI WU
biopic of the Victorian artist and feline
disciple Louis Wain reminds us, actual
ownership and appreciation of cats was
only really getting going at the start of the
20th century – prompted in part by Wain’s
charming paintings of psychedelic anthro-
pomorphised moggies (Did Wain ever see METROPOLIS LOCATION
OPENED
SOFIL , BEIRUT
2006
TRIVIA THE ONLY CINEMA IN BEIRUT
THAT SHOWED NON-MAINSTREAM,
Pepper on a cinema screen, I wonder? We CINEMA CLOSED 2019 INTERNATIONAL AND ARCHIVE FILMS,
SCREENS 2 IT SADLY CLOSED IN LATE 2019
don’t know if he was a movie-head, though
he tried his hand at animation at Shepper-
ton Studio, finding the process of making Lebanese filmmakers Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige,
cats move too arduous.) whose latest film Memory Box competed at the Berlinale, talk

OPENING SCENES
Sennett understood cats’ standing in soci- about special moments and the sad closure of a local gem
ety. In her first leading role, in The Little Hero
(1913), Pepper vengefully stalks a bird who
has stolen her mistress’s attention. From The Metropolis is an association run by Hania Frodon, for example, came to give several lec-
then on she was typecast as the villain foil Mroué. She’s the director and we are on the tures, and through this you realise that great
to Teddy, her heroic Great Dane co-star, board, and we are very involved in this associa- critics are not just analysing films; they are pre-
regularly demonstrating a cat’s cunning and tion because it’s the only organisation showing senting a way to use films to think about life
self-centredness, whether it was stealing a arthouse films in the region. Beirut used to and philosophy. It’s a way of seeing, and some-
pie or playing draughts. For Sennett recog- have many cinemas and they were still run- times this would generate great discussions.
nised that cats more truly resemble humans: ning during the civil war, but after the war the We try to show films to an audience that can’t
dogs are the romanticised version. situation changed. Some were converted into afford to come to the cinema. Seeing films is
“The most remarkable animal ever seen commercial shops and malls and things like expensive and now Lebanon is totally collaps-
on screen” was Sennett’s assessment of his that, and some just closed because multiplexes ing it is not affordable for many, many families,
star (insured for $5000) in 1919, due to her started to open and people would go to those so we run programmes with schools and we
ability to follow direction and not be cowed. places instead. go to refugee camps to show films. It is really
Pepper, like many animal stars, probably The first Metropolis Cinema was born in a important to us to give them the possibility of
had to endure a fair amount of maltreat- small theatre of 120 seats in [the Beirut neigh- seeing images.
ment – articles mention flypaper being bourhood] Hamra. Then we moved to Sofil, Unfortunately, we had to close our cinema
stuck to her feet and guns discharged close where we had two screens, each one with 250 in 2019, following the collapse and the revolu-
enough to singe her hair. seats, which was great, and we managed to tion. It was owned by a bank and they sold it
After 17 credited roles and countless develop a real cinephilia and a real audience. without asking us. Hania and others are work-
other cameos Pepper retired in 1928, sup- We multiplied the audience by ten in less ing to open another venue, but there are a lot
posedly from a broken heart after Teddy than five years. We developed this notion of a of challenges because you don’t have electric-
died. But perhaps she saw sound on the common space, a place of encounters. Maybe ity in Lebanon, the power comes for like one
horizon, realised the movies were getting people could see the film in better condition hour per day now. Imagine that your cinema is
small and sussed a cushier meal ticket. somewhere else, if they had a big screen or connected to the whole district, so you have to
whatever, but they enjoyed the fact that we had run a generator for the whole district to open
lots of debate and positive encounters, plus your cinema. This is why we are trying to find a
filmmakers who came for Q&As. space that is self-sufficient and sustainable and
There are special moments we could talk will have a certain continuity.
about. We remember showing La Maman et After the pandemic and after the blast that
la Putain (1973) in the Metropolis, because that occurred in Lebanon in August 2020, we
film doesn’t travel easily, and the silent moment wondered what we were going to do. Shall
of suspension when the projectionist was we continue? Is it important to continue? We
changing the reel to the other part of the film really feel that even if it’s very difficult, and it
was fantastic. We did a retrospective of Leba- won’t be easy to get people to come back to
nese film from the 60s and 70s, which was an cinemas, we are going to do it. This space
opportunity for people to engage with films was very important and we must continue.
that they hadn’t seen before. We also had ret- Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige were talking to
rospectives of many directors like Fellini, Ozu, Philip Concannon.
ABOVE
Tati and Dreyer, and we would bring special-
Pepper ists to talk about these filmmakers. Jean-Michel Memory Box is in UK cinemas now
 20

BY THOMAS FLEW
Depicting von Sternberg’s Shanghai Express, Roger Soubie’s

MEAN SHEETS
Shanghai Express, the fourth of Josef von
Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich’s seven poster has a seductive Marlene Dietrich – as if there was
collaborations, was released 90 years ago any other kind – taking the slow train through China
this February. Starring Dietrich as the
beguiling and seductive Shanghai Lily, the
film draws out striking compositions from
the confines of its eponymous train, where
old romantic tensions are rekindled. The
film was categorised as “first class” by critic
Walter Ashley – no pun intended, I’m sure.
Roger Soubie designed the French poster
(right) near the start of a lengthy career
during which he created more than 2,000
posters. He was a favourite when it came to
advertising American films in France – his
painted designs added a touch of class to
genre posters including Forbidden Planet
(1956) and The War of the Worlds (1953).
Before moving to cinema, Soubie did
French travel posters, including one for the
1924 Winter Olympics.
Shanghai Express – and Dietrich – provided
inspiration for other art, including a dazzling
version from Sweden (below, artist unknown)
which takes an almost Cubist approach
to depicting the star’s face, complement-
ing the angular (if racialised) font above.

BELOW AND RIGHT

The anonymous Swedish poster
for Shanghai Express and Roger
Soubie’s French version
OPENING SCENES

FRANCIS AND THE FILMS THAT NEVER HAPPENED

WHAT IF?

francis ford coppola has never been one a few years earlier, Coppola had set “the world was suddenly rich with
to let sleeping films lie – see multiple recuts his sights on adapting Carlo Collodi’s The possibility,” wrote Jack Kerouac in his seminal
of Apocalypse Now (1979) and, released on 11 Adventures of Pinocchio – versions of which are Beat novel On the Road (1957). If he was talking
March for The Godfather’s 50th anniversary, the coming soon to Netflix, directed by Guillermo about film adaptations of his book, he was
unwieldily titled Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, del Toro, and Disney, directed by Robert right. In 1978, Coppola bought the rights to
Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, a new Zemeckis. Coppola was lined up to produce the novel and began a journey filled with
edit of The Godfather Part III (1990, pictured and direct a live-action film for Warner Bros possibilities – and a few dead ends. These
below), itself a belated epilogue to the saga. but the project folded when he and Warners included a script by the author Barry Gifford
There could have been even fell out over financial compensation. That (best known for adapting his own novel into
more Godfathers: in the late didn’t stop it from becoming a huge payday David Lynch’s Wild at Heart, 1990); a black-
90s Coppola and Mario for the director, however, at least for a while. and-white 16mm film planned in the 90s; a
Puzo were working on A lawsuit ended in 1998 with Coppola version starring Ethan Hawke and Brad Pitt,
a fourth instalment set getting $80 million in damages – the larg- and even an opportunity for Gus Van Sant to
during Michael, Sonny est ever sum awarded against a Hollywood take on directorial duties. All of these hit
and Fredo’s childhoods; studio. On appeal, though, successive judges roadblocks, and the film we ended up with was
Puzo’s death in 1999 reduced then dismissed the award, leav- 2012’s On the Road, directed by Walter Salles,
killed the project. ing the director with $0 for his trouble. which Coppola co-produced.
 “An unashamed celebration of cinema as an art-form”
Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN

presents

Written & Directed by Mark Cousins

I N CI N EM A S & ON DEM A N D 17 DECEM BER
www.the-story-of-film.com #TheStoryOfFilm
 22

READERS’ LETTERS
Get in touch
Email: s&[email protected]
Twitter: @sightsoundmag
By post: Sight and Sound, BFI, 21 Stephen
Street, London, W1T 1LN

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWELL

Peter Bogdanovich’s plaintive
letter is a reminder that quite a bit
of the time archival reviews of films
aren’t necessarily about the ver-
sions that are available to us today,
or indeed about the versions that Why were so many
HEEEEEERE’S STANLEY! Jack Nicholson in The Shining subsequently opened to the gen- ALL THE RIGHT MOVES West Side Story 2021 style
eral public. films in Sight and
KING TUTTED THE GLORY THAT WAS JEROME
A much more recent letter to Sight Sound’s top 10 ones
I liked Kjetil Jansen’s letter about and Sound (April 2019) complained I really enjoyed the remake of West
Kubrick’s The Shining (Sight and that have yet to
about the Indicator Blu-ray edition Side Story, but I agree with your
Sound, Winter 2021-22), its focus on of Michael Powell’s Age of Consent be released in the review. I just watched the 1961 origi-
that film’s minutiae being the stuff (1969) including the inferior Colum- UK? Alexandre nal yesterday and found it more emo-
cinephilia is made of. I confess to bia studio cut (shorter, with a differ- tional, more moving, more focused
having never really ‘got’ the film. I Koberidze’s What
ent title sequence and a completely on the tragic lovers and generally
regard it, merely, as an interesting different score) alongside Powell’s Do We See When more electric.
curio from the tail-end of the Ameri- own preferred Australian cut. Since We Look at the Sky? Justin Peck is a major talent, but
can New Wave the author of the letter was the the Jerome Robbins dances in the
It’s worth noting that in the may be a great film,
editor of the latter, I can understand original are breathtaking. I also
decade of its release it wasn’t where he’s coming from. but it has yet to be prefer the stylised quality of the orig-
widely regarded as particularly But the fact is that outside Aus- given a release date inal compared to the grittier quality
scary or among Kubrick ’s best tralia and very, very occasional spe- of the new version. I find both films
work. Time Out’s Fiona Ferguson cial screenings, the studio cut was to have great merit; but yesterday’s
wrote, “If you go to this adaptation the only version people would have viewing tilted me in favour of the
of Stephen King’s novel expecting been able to see for something like original.
to see a horror movie, you’ll be three-and-a-half decades, and we (I Peter Amendola, via Facebook, in response
OPENING SCENES

disappointed.” King is said to have co-produced this release) felt very to Guy Lodge’s review of ‘West Side Story’
hated it. strongly that, although obviously (see page 71)
Among its near-contemporaries, the Australian cut should be the
The Omen (1976) and the TV minise- first-choice viewing option (and we
ries Salem’s Lot (1979) are far scarier, made this very clear throughout the
containing superb studies in evil – menus and other supplements), it
Billie Whitelaw in The Omen, James was nonetheless important to give
Mason in Salem’s Lot. One wonders an insight into what people watched
what their respective directors, and wrote about in the past.
Richard Donner and Tobe Hooper, Michael Brooke, via Facebook, in response
would have done with The Shining (I to ‘Hitchcockery’ (Penelope Houston,
concede that Kubrick is the supe- ‘S&S’ Autumn 1968) and a letter by Peter
rior filmmaker). Bogdanovich (‘S&S’ Winter 1969-70),
This subjective viewpoint is republished at bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound
echoed by Todd McCarthy in The
Film Yearbook: Volume 6 (1988), who
writes that The Shining is “scariest Archival reviews of films
and most interesting when viewed aren’t necessarily about
as autobiography, as a veiled self- the versions we see today
portrait of a man whose wilful isola- LET THE WRIGHT ONE IN Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith in Last Night in Soho
tion from the real world threatened
to serve the dubious purpose of SCORE-SETTLING CRIMES OF THE CHART top 20 then this is it. The film deals
painting him into an artistic corner”. In his review of Early Universal On reading this year’s list of Sight with such themes as identity, desires
Will Goble, Rayleigh, Essex Vol. 1 (S&S , December 2021), Phil- and Sound’s Films of the Year (S&S, and false memories, and in a manner
lip Kemp doesn’t mention the new Winter 2021-22), a couple of things that keeps the viewer guessing
The Shining wasn’t scores. Particularly for Skinner’s Dress hit me. First, why were so many where it is going until the very end
Suit (1926) – a comedy full of eccen- films in the top 10 ones that have yet – it is quite possibly Edgar Wright’s
widely regarded as tric dancing – it is absolutely vital to to be released in the UK? Alexandre masterpiece.
particularly scary match the action on screen. I was Koberidze’s What Do We See When I appreciate that with so many films
lucky enough to hear John Sweeney We Look at the Sky? may be a great being released throughout the year,
accompany the film unseen at the film, but it has yet to be given a UK and on so many platforms, choosing
PAIR REVIEW Kennington Bioscope (Cinema release date – surely that should be a few to feature in your annual poll is
The last time Claire Denis paired Museum) in London. He brought a candidate for the year when it is tough, to say the least; but to ignore a
up with Juliette Binoche was not, as it beautifully to life. finally released. The same applies to film like Last Night... and choose films
Guy Lodge suggests (Preview 2022, William A. Seiter, the director, what was rated the film of 2021, The that have yet to be released is a little,
S&S, Winter 2021-22), Let the Sun- may not have been an auteur but he Souvenir Part II, which is not due for shall we say, odd.
shine In (2017), but the science-fiction was an expert at providing sparkling release until February this year. Regarding the TV selection – no
film High Life (2018). There are many entertainment – witness Diploma- Secondly, and possibly more problems here! Every one was worth-
words to describe the more recent niacs, Sons of the Desert (both 1933), importantly, why was there no men- while, and It’s a Sin is a worthy winner,
film. “Lovely” and “sweet-natured” Roberta (1935) and Lover Come Back tion of Edgar Wright’s masterful a work of art that will be discussed
are, surely, not among them. (1946). thriller/horror film Last Night in Soho? and debated for years to come.
Daniel Whiting, Bournemouth, Dorset Mark Newell, Surbiton If any film is worthy of a place in the Kevin Rawlings, Clevedon
24 TALKIES

THE LONG TAKE Pamela Hutchinson

@PamHutch

How long is a piece of film? We can measure in

feet, reels and the next four editions of Avatar

How do you measure a movie? The feature king, the length of a movie show, or a
film is fighting for our lucrative attention tale on film, was elastic. A reel unspooled
spans, again, and James Cameron has a at around 10-15 minutes, but exhibitors
solution. The blockbuster director, who is would show them in mixed programmes
sitting on a daunting plan to deliver a new of an hour or more and there were always
Avatar sequel every two years until 2028, filmmakers determined to tell lengthy
has taken time into account. He is hoping stories, such as on religious subjects in a
he can edit his films into both binge-able series of single-reelers. Popular serials also
six-hour versions for the streaming plat- built short films into much longer, if loosely
forms, for the audiences who prefer to stay organised, narratives. The first truly fea-
at home and fill their evenings on their own ture-length film was appropriately enough
schedule, and snappy two-hour versions something of an outlier, the Australian
for cinemas, which have a little more toler- bushranger epic The Story of the Kelly Gang
ance for human weakness. After all, Hitch- (1906). The original 4,000ft release ran for
cock once said, paraphrasing George Ber- more than an hour, but only a tantalising 17
nard Shaw, that the length of a film should minutes survives today.
be commensurate to the capacity of the Europe first popularised the longer
human bladder, and that remains as good film, turning historical and literary sources
a rule of thumb as any. into multiple-reel movies that screamed
The f ilm industry has long been for attention, epics such as an eight-reel
obsessed with length and current debates Quo Vadis? (1913), a 12-reel Les Misérables
about the threat posed by streaming ser- (1913) and the 13-reel Cabiria (1914). These
vices to the bricks-and-mortar box office imported films were worryingly popular
only stoke the f ire. In the 1950s, Hol- in the States (Cabiria was projected on the
lywood studios reacted to the growing White House lawn) so American studios
popularity of TV by making films bigger followed suit, but with reservations. They
both widthways and longways, sinking liked the idea of booking single prints into
sizeable budgets into epic stories shot in long runs in select cinemas, but the risks
CinemaScope. Recent blockbusters have were higher too: studios had to spend big
followed suit, with 2021’s No Time to Die at on one film rather than spread budgets,
two hours 43 minutes and Dune (the first and bets. By the middle of 1914, feature-
of a two-parter) clocking in at two hours film production was in full swing, but an
35 minutes. Cameron aims to reverse that editorial in trade journal The Moving Pic-
strategy. Doubtless we’ll have to wait until ture World concluded that it would only
the pandemic is over before we can tell result in a revival of the single-reel. Carl
whether the streaming services have inher- Laemmle, then-president of Independent
ited the Earth, but we should be wary of Moving Pictures, also railed against the
assuming that the current situation has time is not the measure of a movie. Ask any idea, saying “the long feature is doomed
significantly muddied the waters. We can audiovisual archivist and they will tell you and its death-knell will sound shortly”.
all tell the difference between watching that films exist in multiple lengths anyway. This, despite the fact that his company
four episodes of Succession (2018-) and the The limits of variation expand vastly if we had released Traffic in Souls (1913), notable
entirety of The Irishman (2019), however The first feature consider a trailer to be an edit of the film, among the earliest American feature films
big or small the screen, and both are an and any subsequent sequels, prequels or for not being a literary adaptation. It was
excellent use of nearly four hours. And films were sold on franchise spin-offs to be extensions of the a sensationalist film, but also one that pri-
ILLUSTRATION: MARC DAVID • BYLINE ILLUSTRATIONS: PETER ARKLE

there are many aspects to Jane Campion’s distance rather original work. How long is a feature film? oritised street-level realism and emotional
The Power of the Dog (2021) that mark it as than duration. How long have you got? investment over spectacle and grand
truly cinematic – surely the two-hour run- It’s easy to lose track of time, which themes. One of the first features to insist
ning time is incidental. Hence the word isn’t even how the first feature films were that the extended length of a film was less
Still, many of us are sentimentally ‘footage’ measured – they were sold on distance about dazzling the eyes and more about
attached to the idea that a film should rather than duration. Hence the word engaging hearts and minds. The yardstick
be 90 minutes long, just as a pop song ‘footage’ and the now-quaint terminology for cinema is not length, but depth.
should not exceed three minutes, even that divides movies into single-reel films,
though both rules are more honoured in two-reelers and multiple-reel extravagan- Pamela Hutchinson is a freelance critic and film
the breach than the observance. Running zas. Even when the single-reel film was historian.
 25

THIS ISSUE
Kieron Corless POLL POSITION
In 2012, our Greatest Films poll broke the
internet. What will happen this time?

‘Kaned!’ that’s the best film ever?” – she positively

That thumpingly comical coinage may shuddered as she uttered those words.
well be my most abiding memory of 2012, Next day in the office things went bal-
the year Sight and Sound last did its once-a- listic. Sky, the BBC and other TV chan-
decade Greatest Films of All Time poll. If nels wanted to interview Nick James. The
you didn’t already know you might guess BFI’s head of press, Nick Mason Pearson,
that it headlined a news story about Vertigo stuck his head round the door to tell us we
(1958) displacing Citizen Kane (1941) to take were trending on Twitter. An hour later
the number one spot; but it appeared in – he did the same again; this time we were
of all places – the Sun, and not even online the top-trending topic on Twitter. People
but in the actual newspaper! from all the over the word were emailing
I still shake my head incredulously when us about it. A friend in Israel told me it
I cast my mind back to that moment. How had just been on the TV there. Another
did a poll in a supposedly elitist film maga- in Buenos Aires had heard it on the radio
zine, sounding out a bunch of nerdy list- news in Argentina. We were speechless,
obsessed critics, end up being covered in not to say euphoric. We’d hoped to make a
a mass-market tabloid read by millions in bit of a splash but this had exceeded all our
the UK? As the S&S team gathers itself expectations. We were literally at the centre
for this summer’s next iteration of said of an international media storm.
poll, it seems apt to glance back to the 2012 So how do you top that? More of the
editorial process which brought us to that DIZZY WITH VERTIGO In particular, we all recognised that the same essentially, but even bigger. We
strange but exciting pass. Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane invitee list had to be much more diverse invited more than a thousand people last
(1941) was pushed into
Over the years, Sight and Sound had second place in Sight and and as inclusive as possible. As well as time; the ambition is to at least double
clearly been more instrumental than any Sound ’s 2012 poll after 50 years a comprehensive geographical spread, that number in 2022. The authority of the
at the top
other outlet in naturalising Citizen Kane as we ideally wanted a 50/50 male/female S&S poll has always been underpinned
the greatest film ever made. The S&S poll split and strong coverage of all ethnici- by its longevity and deep roots. Our belief
started in 1952, with Bicycle Thieves (1948) in ties and identity categories. In addition, is that authority will be enhanced, rather
the top spot; that time round Citizen Kane we decided to expand the term ‘critic’ to than diminished, by a judiciously curated
narrowly missed making the top ten. It include a range of cinema workers – cura- expansion of our invitee list. Of course all
was voted best film ever for the first time tors, programmers, archivists, festival the same principles apply in terms of diver-
in 1962 and then held that position for the directors etc. To enable all this we needed sity and inclusion, but we’ll have to work
next 50 years. As we began work in early There was a worldwide team of advisers to help us hard to make that apparent in the final
2012 on planning and putting together the with contacts, not to mention an Excel analysis. I’ve been approached by a dozen
invitation list, we were all determined on a current of spreadsheet. The process of gathering people so far who’d like to be included.
some changes; that this time around the genuine shock names took several months. It was a lot of That’s the good news. The bad news –
poll should be much bigger and more and perplexity fun but exhausting. What I imagined had they’re all male and all white!
fully international than ever, which clearly once entailed phoning round a bunch of All this may stir things up consider-
meant that the critical consensus might be when Citizen Kane your film-festival mates to solicit their top-ably. We could also see more 21st-century
subject to alteration – whether major or was announced ten lists had now become akin to planning films given that we’re almost a quarter of
minor, it was impossible to say. as number two; the Normandy landings. the way into it by now. Could there be
Apart from the then-editor, Nick James, The result came in and, blimey, did we more films by women directors, more
and the features editor, James Bell, none then a furore of have a story; but one we all had to keep by Black directors? It would be good to
of us on the 2012 editorial team had been excited chatter secret for several weeks until we went see the white male hegemony shaken up
at the magazine when the 2002 poll was after Vertigo’s public. The launch event at the BFI a bit. But perhaps it’s wise not to make
held. But we all felt that, given the ongoing Southbank in London was packed, with too many assumptions about voting pat-
expansion and democratisation of film crit- enthronement Nick James doing a countdown of the top terns. Do LGBTQ+ cinephiles vote for
icism on the internet and elsewhere in the ten. There was a current of genuine shock more LGBTQ+ films, for example? I’m
intervening decade, and given the social and perplexity when Citizen Kane was not sure. We’ll know more in the summer,
media and other communication tools announced as number two; then a furore of then: let the debate begin. The results will
now at our disposal, we could and should excited chatter after Vertigo’s enthronement. be unveiled later this year. Now, where did
be reaching out to a lot more critics than I was introduced to Penelope Houston, I put that spreadsheet?
previously. Any lingering whiff of insidery the legendary former editor of S&S, in the
cliquishness would be dispelled; the mood hubbub afterwards, who was airily, fabu- Kieron Corless is the associate editor of Sight
in the office was quietly iconoclastic. lously dismissive. “How could anyone think and Sound
26 TALKIES

CINE WANDERER Phuong Le

@phuonghhle

Hou Hsiao-hsien’s fluorescent Taipei tale takes

a look at history and youthful temptation

In Hou Hsiao-hsien’s underseen Daughter Japanese goods and passing mentions of

of the Nile (1987), one of the director’s first relatives exiled in Japan, the title of Hou’s
Taipei-set films, a melancholic listlessness film is also lifted from the popular manga
permeates every frame. The city appears Crest of the Royal Family. In the graphic
to toil leisurely, drifting in an indetermi- novel, Carol, a blue-eyed, blonde-haired
nate space between sleeping and waking. American girl, time-travels from the 20th
During the opening scene, the camera century to ancient Egypt, finding herself
gazes on Hsiao-yang, played by Taiwanese in the throes of palace intrigue.
pop singer Lin Yang. Her impenetrable The same confluence of cultural ico-
expressions are wrapped in the soft, diffuse nographies can be found in Hsiao-yang’s
light of dawn filtering through the window daily life. Serving as a sonic counterpart
panes of the cramped apartment she shares to The Bangles’ ‘Walk Like an Egyptian,’
with her family. which is played over a midsummer seaside
Half talking to herself and half confid- romp, is the forlorn titular theme recorded
ing in an unseen audience, Hsiao-yang by Lin Yang. All the roads evidently lead
recalls a gift from her older brother Hsiao- to the banks of the mystical Nile. More
fang (Hou’s raffish regular Jack Kao): a red than a simplistic dichotomy between the
Walkman whose crimson gloss embod- East and the West, Hou’s film offers a
ies the rapid and enticing urbanisation own life direction, and that of her younger NIGHT RIDER complex understanding of globalisation.
Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Daughter of
of Taipei during the late 1980s. In a film sister, who is already shoplifting and failing the Nile (1987) Hsiao-yang’s day job at a KFC branch
that sprawls from one static composition at school. might come off as monotonous, yet the
to another, Hsiao-yang’s voice becomes When night falls in Taipei, time seems to proliferation of fast-food franchises in
the guiding hand that pieces together the stretch to an unknowable infinity. Soaked Taiwan is also closely associated with
threads of a fragmented and troubled inner in fluorescent hues of blues and oranges, Taipei youth culture. In his chapter on the
life. Her mother has died from cancer and, the Pink House Café, a bar frequented legacy of McDonald’s in Taiwan, in Golden
with her father working in another prov- by Hsiao-fang, replays the same well-worn Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia (2006),
ince, her brother Hsiao-fang has turned tape of Western mid-century standards historian David Y. H. Wu observes that,
to a precarious life of petty crime. The punctuated by the voice of an unknown during the 1980s, American fast-food res-
desirable Walkman is the spoils from one radio broadcaster announcing that the taurants were a favourite hangout for the
of his many nocturnal outings where he year is 1949. Far from an idiosyncratic More than young Taiwanese crowd, thus incorporat-
leaves with a fearsome wrench and returns embellishment, in Taiwanese history this ing these spaces into the sphere of national
gashed and bloodied. temporal marker is loaded with poign- a simplistic identity. Indeed, in Daughter of the Nile,
In Daughter of the Nile, nighttime in ancy. Four years after the ending of Japan’s dichotomy young people study, gossip and even flirt at
Taipei has a languid allure that belies wist- decades-long annexation of Taiwan, in between the their local KFC.
ful and perilous depths. After dusk, the 1949, the Chinese Civil War between the Hsiao-yang’s growing alienation addi-
cityscapes sparkle with neon-lit panels nationalist Republic of China and the Chi- East and the tionally hints at the subtle shifting of
of all colours, like glittering rainbow nese Communist Party ended, forcing the West, Hou’s gender roles that parallels the industri-
sequins gleaming on black velvet. Taipei Kuomintang-led government of the former film offers alisation of 1980s Taiwan. Without giving
nights are for the young and the restless. to withdraw to Taiwan. Ruling the islands too much away, the already distant men
After her evening classes, Hsiao-yang tags as a single-party state, the Kuomintang a complex in Hsiao-yang’s life slowly vanish, their
along with her friends to jam-packed clubs also deployed a forbidding martial law in understanding absence acknowledged by the film’s visu-
where the dance floors quake with the the territory in 1949, which lasted until of globalisation als in a staggeringly matter-of-fact fashion.
latest Western hits put on full blast. Still, 1987, the year of Daughter of the Nile’s release. As the film closes with a dissolve of Tai-
amid the endless flow of cars – the traffic Hsiao-yang and her friends are too pei’s skyline into a scroll of the Egyptian
congestion in 1980s Taipei was the focus young to have experienced these traumatic Book of the Dead, Hsiao-yang’s voiceover
of many environmental protests – and post-war events, yet their surroundings are solemnly speaks of the Fall of Babylon,
the swaying bodies at the discotheque, tightly gripped by the ligatures of the past. which gestures to the unknowable future
the camera finds a distracted Hsiao-yang, While much extant writing on Daughter of Taiwan as well as her own. Carol’s return
lost and stilted in her own thoughts. Per- of the Nile has rightly considered the film’s to modern life in Crest of the Royal Family is
haps she is pondering her silent crush on numerous Western pop culture references, eagerly awaited by her brother, but Hsiao-
Ah-san (Fan Yang), Hsiao-fang’s gangster the economic and cultural influences from yang is tragically all on her own.
friend who is having an illicit affair with the Japan are also conspicuously present in
wife of a triad member. Or maybe her mind the metropolis. In addition to Hsiao- Phuong Le is a Vietnamese film critic based
is clouded by the uncertainties about her yang’s Walkman, advertising billboards for in Paris
 B F B
29

BLACK FILM BULLETIN

B
L
A
C
K

F
I
L
M

B
U
L
L

MENELIK SHABAZZ: 1954–2021

E
T
I
N

A PIONEER REMEMBERED
We explore the profound proximity to the passing of fellow Black cinematic repertoire – Shabazz’s founding
Film Workshop-era contemporary, the of Black Filmmaker Magazine (bfm) and bfm
contribution to film culture of writer and producer Mahmood Jamal – a International Film Festival – Nadia Denton,
the great artist and innovator, member of the Retake collective. writer, producer and the f ilmmaker’s
who died last summer Over the following pages, Shabazz’s daughter, offers memories of her time as
legacy as a filmmaker and cultural activ- festival director, while Shabazz’s lifelong
ist is reflected in the recollections of close US-based collaborator, filmmaker and
THE BFB EDITORS: DR JUNE GIVANNI, colleagues and collaborators in f ilm. bfm co-founder Floyd Webb offers a his-
JAN ASANTE, MELANIE HOYES Among them is his Kuumba Productions tory of the publication. Exploring the last-
@BLKFILMBULLETIN
co-founder Imruh Bakari, and his Ceddo ing influence of Shabazz’s creative vision
Film Workshop partners – all spanning on Black British and pan-African film-
In this edition, we pay tribute to Menelik the era of Channel 4 television, the GLC, making today, Dr Clive Nwonka offers
Shabazz; the Barbados-born, UK-based London’s Third Eye Film Festival and the further reflection.
filmmaker with a passion and purpose for Black Film Workshop Movement, and Shabazz the artist, innovator and entre-
pan-African cinema that endured from bearing witness to a critical age of Black preneur was so much more than an activist
his teens until his untimely death in the cultural creative dynamism and activism, in film. His work gave voice to a new dawn
summer of 2021, while in production on both in the UK and in pan-African film in British filmmaking and his 1981 feature
IMAGE: ALAMY

his last, unf inished feature, The Spirits movements internationally. debut Burning an Illusion is an enduring gift
Return. The loss of Shabazz comes in close Revisiting two key creations in a diverse to the canon of Black and British cinema.
30

THE BFM
films in London (and also later Birming- Spike Lee style, he did not say a great deal,
ham) at a number of venues, including the but obligingly posed for the festival bro-
ICA, Prince Charles Cinema, Odeon West chure, surrounded by an esteemed array
End, Rich Mix, BFI Southbank and the of Black British talent, including Ové,

EMPIRE:
Rio Cinema. Introducing UK audiences to playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah and
film content that had never been seen, bfm actors Dona Kroll, Cathy Tyson, Tameka
importantly brought new demographics to Empson and Ellen Thomas.
these venues and was a forerunner in driv- In 2009, the festival opened at the BFI
ing mainstream venues to actively welcome Southbank with my father’s film The Story of

A SHOWCASE
more diverse audiences. Lover’s Rock. The screening was a night to
The roll-call of filmmakers whose works remember as audiences sang along to their
were profiled at the bfm festival during its British reggae favourites, with the legend-
ascendancy reads as a who’s who of the ary Janet Kay and Victor Romero Evans
Black indie film world. Among the featured (star of Shabazz’s 1981 feature debut Burn-

OF BLACK
directors were Sir Horace Ové (Playing ing an Illusion) gracing the event for a Q&A.
Away), Kolton Lee (Cherps), Ishmahil Bla-
grove Jr (Hasta Siempre, Roaring Lion), Julius PAN-AFRICANIST VISION
Amedume (A Goat’s Tail), Owen Alik Sha- For Menelik Shabazz, the bfm empire was
hadah (500 Years Later, Motherland), Clint the ultimate expression of his pan-African

WORLD
Dyer (Pukka), Q (Deadmeat) and Wayne G. ideals. It became a platform on which he
Saunders (Perfect Girl, The System). The late could centrally place himself as an authen-
Earl Cameron, one of the first Black actors tic voice of Black British filmmaking; a man
in the British film industry, was one of bfm’s of Caribbean (Barbadian) descent who saw

CINEMA
longstanding patrons. himself as a son of Africa. Not only was he
While Menelik Shabazz was its principal able to showcase the work of friends and
B figurehead, the festival was also directed by contemporaries across the Black Atlantic,
notable industry figures, including Charles who included Haile Gerima, Julie Dash
L Thompson (Screen Nation Film and TV and Ousmane Sembène, it also allowed
A Awards), Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe him more actively to advocate for the vis-
C (British Urban Film Festival) and Priscilla ibility of the Black image both in front of
Nadia Denton, film curator, Igwe (New Black Film Collective). Other and behind the camera, with heightened
K individuals who made significant contribu- international relevance. Shabazz’s notable
producer and former tions to bfm and who went on to create their film works prior to bfm – Burning an Illusion,
F director of Black Filmmaker own similarly inspired platforms include Blood Ah Go Run and Time and Judgement:
Magazine International Joy Coker (Alt Africa) and Marlon Palmer A Diary of a 400 Year Exile – were primarily
I (Kush Film Boutique). located within the UK film landscape. Via
L Film Festival, reflects on the bfm, Shabazz and his many collaborators
M legacy of the world-renowned BFM: THE HIGHLIGHTS presented a pan-African world vision with-
festival founded by her late The 2007 edition of bfm International Film out alienation. Audiences could immerse
Festival opened with Idris Elba in the star- themselves in the perspectives they saw
B father, Menelik Shabazz ring role of Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls. in print and on screen. It was these keen
U Elba, at the time, was one of an increas- audiences who in a sense gave bfm events
L ing crop of Black British actors finding a distinct flavour as an intergenerational
My entry into the film industry started unin- The bfm immense fame in the American market, gathering of Black world culture.
L tentionally. In 2003 Jane Giles, then pro- and bfm was the first outlet in the UK to
E gramme manager at the Institute of Con- International spotlight the work of the commercially suc- bfm: A LEGACY
T temporary Arts, invited Black Filmmaker Film Festival cessful Perry. Both bfm International Film Festival and
Magazine, known by many simply as bfm, to A memorable moment during my tenure bfm Film Club sprang from the bfm maga-
I curate a film club at the ICA, as a method
was a dynamic as festival director was Spike Lee’s surprise zine, Shabazz’s brain child. It reflected his
N of building audiences for the annual film showcase of attendance at the October 2008 launch, reverence for the written word and love of
festival. I was tasked with coordinating the genre-crossing hosted by the Mayor of London at City literature. A bi-monthly publication, it cele-
monthly event by my father. At that point Hall. Lee appeared to be as stunned by this brated Black film stars, while critiquing the
I could never have imagined that it would cinema from the British gathering of Black folk as we were industry both in the UK and abroad. Lead-
result in a personal dedication to cinema Black world by having him in our midst. In characteristic ing figures such as Melvin and Mario Van
that has spanned nearly two decades. Peebles, Pam Grier and Sophie Okonedo
were featured on its covers. Ultimately, the
BFM FESTIVAL 1999-2010 costs of print publishing led the magazine
The bfm International Film Festival was to morph into a blog.
a dynamic showcase of genre-crossing Reflecting on my father’s legacy, it is
cinema from the Black world. Narratives without question that he was a trailblazer
from the UK, Caribbean, Africa, Europe in the development of audience appetites
and the US all sat neatly next to one for cinema, and bfm’s unique multi-platform
another. It was ahead of its time in how it approach across the magazine, film club
uniquely presented the Black experience and festival allowed it to appeal broadly
to audiences. The bfm strapline at the time to different tastes and habits. Our events
was: “Bringing the unseen to light.” Simply enhanced the audience’s film literacy and
put, it was accessible and engaging for the gave hope to emerging Black British film-
curious who wanted to see more culturally makers who eagerly sought validation from
nuanced, less commercial depictions. In homemade audiences, while challenging
a short space of time, it quickly became a the dominance of film content churned out
hub for international talent who recognised by the American studio system. In my own
the value of showing their work to under- career, bfm has influenced my willingness to
served UK audiences. embrace the niche, while always affirming
From its inception in 1999 and in the ABOVE
the audience with an insatiable appetite for
years to follow, bfm screened hundreds of Menelik Shabazz (left) with Spike Lee Black world cinema.
 31

When Menelik Shabazz decided to create major financing for the work he wanted to
Black Filmmaker Magazine in 1998, it reflected do. Instead of griping, he said: “In the end,
his whole creative life and work as an activ- it was not so much about us as individuals,
ist in the Black London community. When I but about what we could do to energise,
met him in 1974, before he had become a film- empower, sustain and support a Black film
maker, he was part of the Black Liberation movement.” Black Filmmaker Magazine cov-
Front and the Grassroots Storefront activist ered every aspect of filmmaking, especially
bookshop. From 1971, he was the publisher the emerging digital tools for production,
and editor of Grassroots newspaper, provid- animation and special effects.
ing an alternative news source for a Black The market for bfm was people interested
community clearly under racist attack. His in cinema and television from the African
first two films, Step Forward Youth (1977) and and global diaspora. It was aimed at people
Breaking Point (1978), grew directly out of that who wanted to read Black cinema news,
community activism with a clear anti-racist interviews with established and emerging
agenda. Breaking Point won a political victory, talents, new media developments, equip-

BLACK
playing a part in repealing the outdated ‘sus’ ment and reports on upcoming produc-
laws (born of the Vagrancy Act of 1824) that tions; featuring content created by and about
were used to criminalise Black youth. people of African descent. The last conver-
Shabazz’s Burning an Illusion (1981) was sation we had was about assembling more
enthusiastically greeted by Black communi- accurate demographics, doing surveys and

FILMMAKER
ties wherever it was screened in the UK and starting to develop quantifiable information
the US, yet received quite a few lukewarm about the website.
reviews from critics. It was not the critics’ One of the key things the magazine did was
reviews he was concerned about; his mission build the idea of a global Black film commu-
was to redress the lack of a Black voice and nity, leading to the creation of the bfm Inter- B
a Black lens. There were few community- national Film Festival, out of which came L

MAGAZINE,
based film writers and a dearth of Black- lots of new content, providing inspiration to
produced vehicles to support and encourage new filmmakers. It also birthed the bfm Film A
the work of the Black filmmaker. Hence, the and Television Awards and strengthened C
title became the focus. The vision he and his its foundations with robust fundraising and K
co-founders had with the Ceddo Black Film tight organisation – all essential to long-range

REVISITED...
Workshop – “to empower Black film pro- efforts. We also created the blackfilmaker.
duction, training and film screenings” – was com website and the bfm Actor’s Showcase, F
pretty much the same for the magazine. expanding into animation too. It was a chal- I
There had been periodic publications lenge to sustain this level of work!
addressing Black film culture, like St Clair The bfm was an embodiment of Menelik’s
L
Bourne’s long-running newsletter Chamba pan-African passion. Fespaco, the biggest M
Notes, started in 1972; David Nicholson’s film festival in Africa and a showcase for the
Floyd Webb, who recently relaunched bfm Black Film Review in 1984; and of course the best African-focused cinema from Europe,
online with Menelik Shabazz, recalls the Black Film Bulletin in 1993. We talked about the Caribbean and the Americas, provided
B
birth of the original mag in the 1980s and these a lot and shared the vision of creating an opportunity for conversations with – and U
a new Black film movement, referencing the features about – filmmakers from across L
reminisces about its inspirational founder French New Wave, looking at the lessons the diaspora. People were always contrib- L
of Cahiers du cinéma and how a progressive uting stories to the magazine and Menelik
Black film magazine could set the tone for a and I travelled to festivals from Chicago to E
new Black film movement. London to Burkina Faso, Kenya, Japan and T
Menelik had come to the Blacklight Film beyond, building an inexhaustible network. I
Festival in Chicago to screen Burning an Illu- In 2020, Menelik decided to relaunch the
sion in 1982. In his time in the city, the home bfm. I was chief technical officer, designer
N
of US publishing, we talked about the idea and programmer of the site itself and co-
of doing a globally based glossy colour Black publisher with Menelik. Moving forward
filmmakers’ magazine. We had ongoing is going to require some good funding,
transatlantic conversations about how desk- proposal writers, social media energy and
top publishing was impacting big publisher more on both sides of the ocean, and hope-
workflows. A lot of what we did and contin- fully the dedicated ones will step forward.
ued to do was based on our backgrounds in Menelik believed there was still a need for an
the Black liberation struggles, and as part of independent voice – one that spoke outside
the Black Arts Movement. It was only natu- the mainstream and reflected the realities of
ral to try to create vehicles to build and sup- Black filmmakers’ journeys; creating a space
port a Black film movement that was truly where a filmmaker did not have to be a Hol-
independent and self-defined. lywood success story to be noticed. There’s
Menelik had come to rely on me for infor- a large pool of developing and experienced
mation and passionate debate about build- filmmakers who need an outlet to talk about
ing this publication because I was working and expose people to their work. Bfmmag.
freelance for ad agencies and in desktop pub- com can be a resource beyond the main-
lishing for commercial magazines. I had also stream. The internet has opened doors for
done work for a Black filmmakers’ newspa- independent distribution and there are suc-
per in Los Angeles called In the Frame, which cessful models that have made it.
made its way to London for a few issues.
Floyd Webb is a member of the board of directors of Chicago
I think for Menelik, the magazine was an Filmmakers and founder of the Blacklight Film Festival. He
organising tool. Its presence momentarily is a programming consultant to the Raindance Film Festival,
worked with bfm Film Festival in London and has taught at
crystallised the focus on the existence of an Zanzibar Film Festival in East Africa. He curates Black World
active Black international filmmaking com- Cinema and heads the annual Afrofuturism Film Competition.
His production credits include Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust
munity. With regards to his film work, he had (1992), The World of Nat King Cole (2006) the FutureMag series
become a bit despondent, unable to get any for France Arté, and the forthcoming documentary Yasuke.
32

MENELIK:
Black Film BulletinImruh Bakari, you is where we end. Personally, Menelik’s
and director Henry Martin [Big George legacy starts with Burning an Illusion
Is Dead, 1987] set up Kuumba Produc- [1981] and ends with Looking for Love
tions [1982-87] and Ceddo Workshop [2015] – two films focusing on the

THE
with Menelik Shabazz. What were your emotions of personal relationships. Yet
ambitions, biggest challenges and most his films between these two produc-
significant achievements for Kuumba? tions brought into perspective the
politics of race and identity surround-
Imruh Bak ari As a group of filmmakers ing the Black diaspora experience
emerging from the 1970s and deter- of living in post-colonial Britain.

COLLECTIVE
mined to make films against the odds,
setting up Kuumba Productions seemed Glenn Ujebe Masokoane It is not easy to
to be a way of pooling our strengths simply paraphrase Menelik’s contri-
and establishing our presence. How- bution to Black British cinema and
ever, truthfully, the new opportunity pan-African cinematic cultural expres-

SPIRIT
that Channel 4 seemed to offer proved sion in a single straight line, without
elusive, as the ‘gatekeeper’ designated understanding the complexities of these
to deal with ‘Black’ filmmakers found tendencies. He was at the centre of these
our presence threatening, and we were movements as a practitioner, but also
not willing to play a subservient role as a thought leader with a pioneering
in the fulfilment of the approach to spirit and desire for higher articulation
commissioning that was presented to of the aesthetics of Black representation.
Menelik Shabazz’s career, from us. The company lasted for five years.
his early years as a co-founder Dada Imarogbe In the late 1970s Menelik
BFBHow would you summarise reignited a flame and began creating a
of Kuumba Productions, and
B Shabazz’s legacy in British body of work and activism rooted in the
of Ceddo Film and Video and pan-African cinema? African experience. He was a visionary
L collaborator – drama, documentary,
Workshop in the 1980s, was
A IB Menelik was able to produce a exhibiting films and the printed word –
characterised by collective
C number of films, of various genres who documented British African life and
K working, community activism and across a spectrum of creativity, related it to the pan-African world for
and a passion for using the that could point future generations of more than 40 years. He related the past
filmmakers to potential possibilities. to the present and the future – in an early
F power of the moving image form of African futurism, as exemplified
I in the service of articulating Lazell DaleyIt could be said that our in his film Time and Judgement [1988] and
pan-African history and culture. lives work in circles – where we begin in his unfinished work The Spirits Return.
L
M Black Film Bulletin spoke to
five of his colleagues about
B their collaborative memories
U
L
L
E THE COLLABORATORS
T
I IMRUH BAKARI, UK
N Kuumba Productions and Ceddo
co-founder; film studies lecturer
at the University of Winchester

LAZELL DALEY, UK
Ceddo member; founder of Black
Coral Productions and Blaze the Trail

GLENN UJEBE MASOKOANE,

SOUTH AFRICA
Ceddo member; founder of the
People’s Experimental Theatre

JUNE REID, UK
Ceddo member; co-owner of the all-
female sound system Nzinga Soundz

DADA IMAROGBE, UK
Ceddo training officer; researcher,
Newcastle University

RIGHT
Menelik Shabazz’s Time and Judgement (1988)
 33

june reidMenelik’s legacy is unique

and outstanding. No British Black
filmmaker has produced work with the
same level of authenticity and perspec-
tive, addressing themes of Black love
and relationships, in Burning an Illusion;
the collective memories of young Black
people in the 70s, in The Story of Lover’s
Rock [2011]; or the futurist Time and
Judgement, described as a production
that “combines biblical prophecy with
events across the African diaspora”.

BFB How would you say two of the

original members who are no longer
with us – Menelik and Sister D.
Elmina Davis – will be remembered
for their most distinctive contribu-
tions to Ceddo’s ambitions?

IB Inspired by the Black struggles in

Britain for social justice, particularly in
film and television media, the principal
motivation for setting up Ceddo was
to claim an independent space within B
the film industry. Unlike most other L
workshops, Ceddo Film and Video
Workshop was set up as a cooperative A
by six founding members in 1982. The C
office of Kuumba Productions was used K
as its first base, before expanding the
cooperative membership and moving to
a location in Tottenham in 1983. Here, F
Ceddo’s work was developed principally I
around community access, training was the common link between all 11 LD To produce film in a time when there
and documentation, and production.
ABOVE
Menelik Shabazz
Ceddo members from 1989 – each of was no social media accessible via your
L
Much of this work involved the African- whom evolved through recording for phone, filmmakers had to belong to a M
Caribbean community in Tottenham. archives, curating screenings, providing union. The collective working practices
This work was, to a great degree, production skills training and making of the Black Film Workshops revealed B
defined and enabled by D. Elmina broadcast-quality programmes. that it was possible to break down
Davis, a youth worker who became a the control of British cinema produc- U
filmmaker. This work, as The People’s JR Sister D. will be remembered as the tion, targeting an audience hungry L
Account proved, challenged the media fearless Rasta woman with the video for images that reflected their lives. L
establishment in unprecedented ways. camera as the tool of her trade. The foot- Working collectively by sharing skills
age she captured of the 1985 uprisings on and ideas meant that feature-length E
GUM The common bond of our African Broadwater for The People’s Account was projects could and were produced. T
heritage was not a mere statement also used by Black Audio Film Collec- I
and a superficial ideological position- tive in Handsworth Songs [1986]. Omega GUM The business and independent
ing without substance. Ceddo was an ‘In the late Rising: Women of Rastafari was one of the cultural practice model of the Black N
enclave and a voice for the narratives of 1970s Menelik first films profiling Rastafari women Film Workshops of the 1980s forever
‘Afrikan’ peoples – no matter where they articulating their own livity [lives]. remains an ideal, even in this current
came from. We knew we were Afrikan reignited a Its power has stood the test of time. ecology driven by digital economics
and the ties that bound us were far flame and Menelik was a driving force within and scale. Collective common owner-
greater than what we could imagine. began creating Ceddo; a visionary. He saw the potential ship and intellectual property control
Thus it was symbolic that Sister Dennis in people and instinctively knew how provides a sustainable viable model
Elmina Davis passed away in Ghana – a body of work gifts and skills could advance them and for production outside of the hege-
she was named Elmina after the slave and activism Ceddo simultaneously. I am a case in monic dominant mainstream of the
castle and port in Ghana; her soul stayed rooted in point. With a business studies degree, global Eurocentric corporations.
in ancestral terrains. Together, Sister I was appointed as the Workshop’s
Elmina and Menelik Shabazz were my the African coordinator to develop administra- DI Making films is always an intra and in-
close comrades and fellow combatants experience’ tive and financial structures within ter-collaboration behind and in front of
for Afrikan cultural and visual libera- the workshop whilst learning about the camera, which requires calmness and
tion. Little wonder that their spirits film- and video-making, the work- demonstrable listening skills. It’s a con-
now reside in Ghana and Zimbabwe. shop sector and the wider industry. tinuous learning process – how a scene is
shot and performed will depend on loca-
DIWe have a “passionate desire to see BFB What advice would you give tion, set design, set dressing. Never be
ourselves as we are”… “Our common to the young filmmakers of today afraid to say, “That’s a good idea, we will
bond is our African heritage”. These seeking inspiration about collec- use it.” But remember that spontaneous
sentiments anchor Sister Dennis Elmina tive working practices from the era decisions have major implications for
Davis’s footage of the night of upris- of the Black Film Workshops? schedule and budget. Production should
ings in Tottenham, which seeded The not become a debate and creativity is
People’s Account, produced by Menelik. IB Not advice, but a note: that the saviour with very limited budgets.
Sister Dennis would go on to direct history, its context and its di-
Omega Rising [1988], illuminating the versity needs to be studied. JR My advice is that collective work-
thoughts of Rastafari women. Menelik ing requires suspension of ego,
34

transparency, integrity and honesty with RIGHT

A screening poster for
oneself and others. Collective goals and Menelik Shabazz’s Step
common benefit need to be put above Forward Youth (1977)
individual pursuits and intentions, BELOW
so in that way what is invested on an Shabazz’s documentary The
Story of Lovers Rock (2011)
individual basis will be reaped by all.

BFB What was your collaborative

role with Menelik over the many
years you worked together?

IB During the 1970s and 80s, my col-

laboration with Menelik involved
work on Step Forward Youth [1977],
Burning an Illusion [1981] and Blood Ah
Goh Run [1982]. Along with Henry
Martin, we set up Kuumba Produc-
tions. Together we shared a motivation
to claim an independent space within
the film industry, without apology.

LD It’s said that still waters run deep, and

in Menelik Shabazz that’s exactly what
you got. We first worked together on I
Am Not Two Islands [1984] for Kuumba
B Productions. Our collective collabo-
ration continued with further works
L produced through Ceddo: We Are the
A Elephant [1987], Omega Rising and Time
C and Judgement. The time spent on I Am
Not Two Islands, with weeks travelling
K through Jamaica with Menelik’s quiet
yet powerful persona, was memorable.
F
GUM Ceddo had an active documenta-
I tion programme to interview important
L individuals in Black communities, so we
M were able to trace elders from the 1919
race riots, in Cardiff and Liverpool for
example – via the story of Papa John-
B son in Birmingham – living heritage of
U the time, intended for Time and Judge- ‘The first time Ceddo’s studio Year Exile, consisting of myriad global
L ment. We produced We Are the Elephant was used with a set built in, newsreels, significant world events,
– a film on the liberation struggle of Black revolutions and prophecies.
L Azania; and made the most complex Menelik’s face beamed when
E and compelling Menelik Shabazz film he saw it lit by trainees’ DI Menelik and I met in the Black Liber-
T Time and Judgement: A Diary of a 400 ation Front, a revolutionary pan-African
organisation. In that environment Mene-
I lik made his first four films, beginning
N with Step Forward Youth. In the mid-1980s
Menelik persuaded me to join Ceddo
to develop its film and video production
training ambitions on various projects,
including opportunities at major events
such as Fespaco [in Burkina Faso]. A
significant moment was the first time
Ceddo’s studio was used with a set
built in. Menelik’s face beamed when
he saw the set lit by trainees with the
performers on their mark and train-
ees setting up to begin recording.

JR As the Workshop’s coordinator, I

played a pivotal role in ensuring that its
funding was sustained. Ceddo Work-
shop took its actual name from the
classic 1977 film Ceddo [aka The Outsid-
ers], directed by the Senegalese doyen
of African cinema, Ousmane Sembène.
Ceddo’s work was explicitly concerned
with reflecting stories and images of
Afrikan Caribbean peoples; drawing on
our history, culture and politics, thus
countering dominant, negative stereo-
types and giving voice to our people.
 35

BURNING
AN
ILLUSION:
LANDMARK
AND B

LEGACY
Last summer, I worked through a body of Burning an Illusion provoked a deeper explo- L
Black critical writings that would in various ration of the films that had helped to inform
ways come to inform my forthcoming book the aesthetic modes and themes encountered A
on the emergence of Black British urban in his debut feature, which were to be located C
film. Just days before the death of Menelik within Shabazz’s early documentary film prac- K
Shabazz in June 2021, I re-engaged with the tice. Films such as Step Forward Youth (1977),
landmark 1988 essay ‘New Ethnicities’ by the his counter-hegemonic challenge to the super-
Film scholar Dr Clive late British Jamaican cultural theorist Stuart ficial framing of Black youths in London, F
Nwonka explores the visual Hall, from which so much of our understand- presented the unfiltered perspectives of first- I
politics of Black British ing of Black cinematic imagery, and Black generation Black British youths on questions
culture and its accompanying politics, has of cultural identity, national belonging and
L
cinema and the enduring been drawn. Hall’s central proposition, in the police harassment. The role of police brutality M
impact of Menelik Shabazz’s context of the mainstream media’s continued would also be central to Breaking Point (1978),
seminal feature debut denial of Black people’s rights to cultural rep- which features Hall throughout in its explo- B
resentation, was that the challenge – or to use ration of the impact of the discriminatory sus
a Hall(ian) phrase, the ‘contestation’ – over laws, a practice of official neo-segregation U
both access to the means of film production under the synthetic veil of crime prevention L
and the fetishised nature of Black images on and law and order within London. Blood Ah L
screen, embodied a new phase of cultural Go Run (1982) captured the collective raw
politics he termed the “relations of representa- emotion and political energy displayed during E
tion”. It is an essay I had always felt I had an the Black People’s Day of Action, the mass T
accomplished understanding of but it seemed mobilisation of Britain’s Black communities I
that Shabazz’s death, as well as the recircula- in response to the death of 13 young Black
tion and appreciation of his work in countless people in the New Cross Fire in 1981. N
obituaries and the sense of lamentation about Burning an Illusion displayed an interaction
his underappreciation within the mainstream with the questions of access and Black cin-
of the film industry, prompted a further revisit- ematic image construction and meaning, the
ing of Hall’s paper as a means of reflecting on primary challenges within a phase of Black
my own engagement with Shabazz’s oeuvre. cultural politics that would constitute Hall’s
My introduction to Shabazz’s films, like so relations of representation. It offered an exam-
many of us who sought out the study of Black ination of the impacts of racist Britain in a way
cinema (however one may choose to define that draws the film into dialogue with Horace
this) as a means of identification, recognition Ové’s Pressure (1975) and Franco Rosso’s Baby-
and emotional sustenance, was through its lon (1980). The film also contested the idea
visible absence at university. Black cultural of ‘Black Britishness’ as a cohesive term that
studies, via Hall, Kobena Mercer, Paul Gilroy, could capture the divergent experiences and
Lola Young, Jim Pines and many other Black sensibilities of second-generation West Indi-
scholars, had established a critical framework ans. The three films present a more expansive
for the multi-dimensional analysis of Black representation of Black women than was
film and its embedding within the relations common for the era, while also engaging with
of representation. Shabazz would assert his questions of Black relationality, love, family
own reflections on the influence of writing and the development of a critical Black con-
on Black Power, pan-Africanism and the sciousness against the thrust of racist police
sociology of race that would inform his most violence and the absurdities of the criminal
notable work. Burning an Illusion (1981) was justice system.
an engagement with the key writings on the While Shabazz would go on to direct
cultural and institutional dimension of Black and produce a number of films through the
IMAGE: THINK CINEMATIC

ABOVE
Cassie McFarlane and image-making, through which I was able to decade, the relations of representation also
Victor Romero Evans
in Menelik Shabazz’s
situate Shabazz’s film within the context of a encourage us to reflect on the conditions of
Burning an Illusion (1981) reimagined idea of Black Britishness. production for Black creatives during the
36

period. This aspect of the relations of repre- forms of Black cultural struggle, that has often A glimpse at essential events,

RADAR
sentation is evident through Shabazz’s own been forgotten through the fragile but highly
reflections on the struggle to secure sustained marketised climate of inclusivity within white festivals, film and TV releases
funding for his film practice throughout the cultural institutions, of which our film indus- across the diaspora
80s and 90s. Indeed, it is precisely these vicis- try is central to, in the immediate post-George
situdes that would lead him to launch Black Floyd period. EDRIC CONNOR FILMS
Filmmaker Magazine, which created an affin- Thus, if we are to think of Shabazz, Burn- 6 MARCH, BFI SOUTHBANK, LONDON
ity space for the sharing of experiences and ing an Illusion and the politics his films embody The African Odysseys programming strand at
modes of production that spoke directly to as a barometer for where and who we are, as BFI Southbank presents a screening of Edric
the Black and Asian independent film sector. the prism through which we think about then Connor’s film work, tying in with the BFI’s
I spoke with Shabazz just once, during and now, it may mean that we must actually digitally restored BFI Player collection of his
the early stages of my PhD research in 2011 think beyond the identification of themes that Caribbean travelogues. The screening will be
that led me to the study of Black British film speak immediately to us within his cinematic followed by a panel discussion exploring Con-
as a powerful form of Black political resist- language. In Shabazz’s work is the spirit of nor’s talents across film, poetry and folk song
ance. Like so many who have spoken of their collectivism – the possibility of Black film in history, through the lens of fellow Trinidadian
encounters with him, I found him to be highly Britain representing something beyond the Sir Horace Ové – both cultural ambassadors
generous with both his time and his ideas; he commodifiable space of ‘diversity politics’ and who made landmark interventions to embed
was just as comfortable in reflecting on the signifying a genuine community practice. It’s a Caribbean culture within the UK arts.
making of Burning an Illusion as he was in legacy we need now more than ever.
offering insights on how Black filmmakers MOMENTUM 2022
could navigate a new cultural and industrial Dr Clive Nwonka is a lecturer in film, culture and society (MARCH-JULY)
at University College London. He is the co-editor of the
terrain. And it is perhaps this extensivity, book Black Film/British Cinema II and is the author of the Black cinema events company We Are Par-
forthcoming book Black Boys: The Social Aesthetics of British
so reflective of the integrated filmmaking Urban Film. Nwonka is the principal investigator on the Arts
able have teamed up with Channel 4 to offer
practice he pursued throughout his career, and Humanities Research Council-funded project The Colour mentoring, masterclasses and mental health
of Diversity: A Longitudinal Analysis of the BFI Diversity
that should be central to our remembrance. Standards Data and Racial Inequality in the UK Film Industry
sessions from 60 Black filmmakers and content
B Shabazz advocated a participatory and politi- (2021-2024), a major study of race and racism in the UK
film sector and of the efficacy of cultural diversity policy.
creators in six cities across the UK. For details,
cally charged practice, constructed upon older see www.weareparable.com/momentum-2022
L
A
C New and forthcoming releases

RECOMMEND
K LOVE JONES
29 MARCH 2022
F (dir: Theodore Witcher)
I Criterion Collection
L ATLANTA (FX)
M MARCH 2022
The award-winning irreverent Black
B comedy drama from writer-actor Donald
Glover returns with Season 3, this time
U with its sights set on Europe.
L
L
E
T
IN DEVELOPMENT

RICHES (ITV / AMAZON STUDIOS)

I Tipped to be the UK’s answer to hit HBO series
Succession, this Black Atlantic-centred drama from
N UK producer Nadine Marsh-Edwards’ Greenacre
Films (featured in BFB’s 2021 editions) explores
what lies beneath the extraordinary lavish lives of
a wealthy Black British family business empire.
WAHALA (FIREBIRD / BBC)
This adaptation of Nikki May’s debut novel is
set in London and follows three thirtysomething
Anglo-Nigerian friends disrupted by newcomer
Isobel. Directed by Shane Meadows (This Is
England) and written by Theresa Ikoko (who
also scripted Rocks), the series is a celebration
of Nigerian British culture that’s described
by Ikoko as “Big Little Lies meets Girlfriends”.

NEXT EDITION
THE NEXT BLACK FILM BULLETIN WILL APPEAR
IN THE JUNE ISSUE OF SIGHT AND SOUND
Thank you to Khemi Shabazz for her support in this issue
ABOVE Cassie McFarlane in Burning an Illusion
School of Film
& Television
38
 39

‘UNTIL WE RESOLVE THE

ISSUE OF THE COUNTRY’S
MASS GRAVES, WE
WON’T BE ABLE TO CLOSE
THE CHAPTER OF THE
SPANISH CIVIL WAR.
IT’S AS SERIOUS AND
AS SIMPLE AS THAT’
With his 23rd feature, Parallel Mothers, in cinemas, Pedro Almodóvar talks about
Spain’s unresolved relationship with its bloody 20th-century history, the way women’s
lives and the shape of the family are changing, and what connects those themes
WORDS BY MARIA DELGADO
 S
40

cratch the glossy, during our interview, on the day after the of the past.” Parallel Mothers feels like an eth-
colourful veneer of funeral of his close friend, the novelist ical mission for Almodóvar: “I had wanted
an Almodóvar film Almudena Grandes, his most overtly polit- to tackle the issue of the mass graves in a
and you’ll always ical film to date: “Almudena was a repub- film for some time but hadn’t found the
f ind a political lican. She gave voice in her novels to the right script until Parallel Mothers.”
standpoint. Social Spain that couldn’t speak or was silenced In conceiving a forensic archaeologist,
unrest rumbles in for decades. Numerous government repre- Arturo (Israel Elejalde), as one of the film’s
t h e b a ck g ro u n d sentatives were there, but no one was there core characters, Almodóvar recognises the
of The Flower of My from Madrid’s [right-wing] regional gov- efforts made by local historical memory
Secret (1995), as Leo ernment or city council, because of who associations, funded through ad hoc
observes that Spain she was and what she wrote about.” grants and on-the-ground fundraising, to
is “on the point of Parallel Mothers deals with a part of his- oversee the disinterment of the country’s
exploding”. The pre- tory that has been kept out of sight: the mass graves. We first meet Arturo as pho-
credit sequence in 114,000 civilians killed by General Fran- tographer Janis (Penélope Cruz) captures
Live Flesh (1997), set cisco Franco’s rebel forces during the his portrait for a magazine feature. Like
in 1970, harks back Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and its imme- Janis, who doesn’t want Arturo appear-
to a pre-democratic diate aftermath, who lie in unmarked ing with a Hamlet-esque skull in hand –
Madrid about to graves across the length and breadth of the “It’s too obvious” – Almodóvar avoids the
enter a state of emergency – slyly aligning nation. Amnesty International ranks Spain expected in his 23rd feature. The subject
the right of Spain’s centre-right Popular second only to Cambodia in terms of the of the disappeared of the Civil War has
Party, which had come to power in 1996, number of forcibly disappeared persons. already been tackled by two documenta-
with the curtailment of freedom perpe- “People don’t know this,” the director says. ries produced by El Deseo, the company
trated during Franco’s fascist dictator- “Remembering our past and remembering he co-founded with his brother Agustín in
ship. Broken Embraces (2009), Julieta (2016) especially the darkest parts of our past… 1986, Cultura contra la impunidad (‘Culture
and Pain and Glory (2019) all allude to the this is our present, because a hundred Against Impunity’, 2010) and El silencio de
failure(s) of the left and articulate Spain’s thousand disappeared persons are still in los otros (‘The Silence of Others’, 2018). But
problematic transition to democracy in the mass graves – it’s important for every gen- in this latest film historical memory inter-
years after Franco’s death in 1975. But Paral- eration in Spain, but especially the younger sects with motifs of surrogate motherhood
lel Mothers is, as Almodóvar acknowledges ones who are not haunted by the phantoms – Almodóvar identifies “unresolved issues”
as a theme that runs through the different
LEFT narrative strands.
Pedro Almodóvar
The result is a complex melodrama
OPPOSITE revolving around a chance encounter
Workers and members of
victims’ families lie in the
between two single women, the 40-year-
newly excavated Franco-era old Janis and teenage Ana (Milena Smit),
mass grave in Parallel Mothers
who are about to give birth in a Madrid
hospital; the meeting has far-reaching con-
sequences for both the women and their
offspring. Janis describes her pregnancy
as an accident – one of many that drive
the plot of the film (accidents of fate are as
central to Almodóvar’s films as letters are
to Ibsen plays: mechanisms through which
characters are tested). Janis and Ana both
give birth to the fast and furious strings of
Alberto Iglesias’s score, the coordinated
yellow, green and purple decor lending a
particular synergy to their meeting. “These
unreal colours, you’d never find them in a
Spanish hospital. I just don’t like white
walls,” Almodóvar delights in telling me:
“They could appear aggressive but I think
they are calming colours. I wanted the
[hospital] room to have the same colour
scheme as the rest of the film.”
BURIED HISTORIES
The 200,000 executions that took place
in Spain from 1936-45, largely extra-
judicial or conducted after dubious legal
processes, are part of what the British his-
torian Paul Preston has termed “the Span-
ish Holocaust”: a systematic annihilation
of the left who had supported Spain’s
Second Republic (1931-39). When I share
with Almodóvar Churchill’s reported
view of Franco as “a gallant Christian gen-
tleman”, he is appalled. “I can’t believe it.
But then, our dictatorship was also made
possible because we were abandoned
here in Spain.”
Forced disappearance was a feature of
the early Franco years, part of a limpieza
social (social cleansing) aimed at eradicating
those viewed as enemies of the state. “The
 PEDRO ALMODÓVAR 41

silence of the Franco era was a silence born Viéitez (1930-2008) to give form to the dis-

‘We were too of fear, a fear that families – parents and

grandparents – had of speaking out, and it
became a pathological fear. In our houses
appeared. These are the photographs that
Janis shows Arturo in an early sequence;
in the film’s narrative, they are attributed

busy celebrating
nobody spoke of the war. A number of to her great-grandfather: the names of the
generations have therefore grown up with- dead are spoken by Janis as she clicks her
out even a minimal understanding of the mouse to bring up each image on her com-
realities of the war and the post-war years. puter, each life corresponding to a missing

our new freedom

When UN rapporteurs arrived in 2014 to past. A photograph, as the philosopher
survey what was happening in relation to Walter Benjamin observed, is a way of
Francoist crimes, they were surprised by opening history up – an arrested past
the fact that it was the great-grandchil- that can be viewed repeatedly and refuses

to think about dren’s generation who were demanding

the excavation of these unmarked graves.
They thought too much time had elapsed.
erasure. “The photograph,” Almodóvar
acknowledges, “can capture something
the eye doesn’t see. I also felt it was very

the mass graves.

There is an explanation for what surprised powerful, dramatically, that Janis’s great-
them: Spanish society had been rendered grandfather had photographed the people
mute and terrified for many decades, for he would end up dying alongside.
longer than the regime itself.” “The idea of the photograph as witness

In 1978, I wanted
While Almodóvar recognises that there not only to what happened but to what
have been films on the Spanish Civil War, was hidden. [Argentinian author Julio]
Parallel Mothers differs in its focus on the Cortázar, of course, captured this bril-
conflict’s mass graves, here presented liantly in the story that Antonioni brought

to have fun
through the perspective of a generation to the cinema: ‘Blow-Up’. I personally use
born, like Janis, in democracy and now the camera much more than video in my
campaigning for justice: “Once the great- own prep, and I trust what I see in photo-
grandchildren’s generation disappear, I’m

and speak in my
graphs much more than video materials,
not sure the great-great-grandchildren will even as regards lighting, weather, perfor-
have the same interest in disinterring the mances, decor.”
graves – that’s why it’s such an urgent issue.” Allusions to Spain’s disappeared have

films about a
Janis’s fortuitous encounter with Arturo featured in Almodóvar’s work since Volver
in the film’s opening sequence provides (2006), but in Parallel Mothers the refer-
an opportunity for the viewer to find out ences are open and unequivocal. Janis and
about the forced disappearance of her own Arturo candidly discuss the limitations of

new Spain that

great-grandfather, Antonio, one of ten men the Law of Historical Memory introduced
from her village brutally abducted in the by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s social-
chaotic early days of the Civil War. In shar- ist government in 2007, while they vilify
ing with Arturo the precise circumstances Spain’s former prime minister Mariano

was nothing like of his disappearance, she gives voice to the

testimony of her grandmother and great-
grandmother, who witnessed the disap-
Rajoy for his obstinate refusal to allow a
single euro of state funding for the exhu-
mations from mass graves.

the old one’

pearance – testimony that could not be In the early 1980s, as the structures of a
uttered for fear of reprisals. new democracy were taking shape, Almo-
Almodóvar deploys black-and-white por- dóvar was part of la movida Madrileña (liter-
traits by the Spanish photographer Virxilio ally, the Madrid scene), a countercultural
42

movement that attempted to banish the Forty years on, with what the Spanish
grey years of the Franco regime by look-
ing to the future, promoting a new artistic
freedom. “We were too busy celebrating
call ‘sociological Francoism’ not entirely
dislodged, Almodóvar has taken a more
forensic approach to narrating the state of ‘PenÉlope needs
to feel what she
our new freedom to think about the mass the nation. During our interview he charts
graves. In 1978, I wanted to have fun and the research underlying the film: press
speak in my films about a new Spain that reports of excavations, experts consulted,
was nothing like the old one. La movida listening to testimonials from family mem-

is saying… When
wasn’t a movement, it was a generation, bers presenting evidence at the 2012 trial
a group of people who found each other, of the judge Baltasar Garzón, who had
discovering who they were without fear; sought to investigate these crimes against
a number of us weren’t that young and humanity in 2008, as well as the recourse
remembered what fascism had been like.
And while Pepi, Luci, Bom [1980] and
Labyrinth of Passions [1982] were pop films,
to a wide range of photographic evidence.
“All of the documentation I had con-
sulted about the war, the post-war period
she gets a grip
on the character,
they were also my way of avenging myself and the mass graves was photographic.
against Franco – refusing to acknowledge Photography will always exist as the best
not only his existence but even the shadow testimony to the era in which one hap-
of his existence.” pened to live. The approach in the film’s
At the time, Almodóvar says, he didn’t
think about the reach of the 1977 amnesty
law, which granted amnesty to political
final 15 minutes is like a documentary. The
narration softens and the film has a certain
stillness in this epilogue. It’s as if the sub- she’s incredible.
she takes risks
prisoners convicted by Francoist laws and ject matter calls for this shift.” The families
immunity to those who had perpetrated of the disappeared describe in detail the
crimes in the name of his regime. “The law final moments before their loved ones were
and the first steps towards democracy con- taken away – Julieta Serrano here excelling

with me that she

demned those who had been condemned as the elderly Brígida, one of the relatives
to non-existence by the regime to be for- of the disappeared whom Arturo and Janis
gotten for a second time. It’s sad to think visit – or the camera silently observing the
about it, but that is effectively what hap- forensic archaeological team at work in the
pened. The left [at the time] was a prag-
matic left and did what it could, but they
were also afraid, which wasn’t unfounded.
grave as they gently dust the remains and
identify personal possessions and clothes
that assist identification.
won’t take with
other directors’
Three years later, there was an attempted “I had consulted the forensic anthro-
military coup. The UCD, the first demo- pologist Francisco Etxeberria, the leading
cratic government, had Francoists and specialist in this area of excavating mass
there were still Francoists in institutions. graves, who shared many details with me.
“But it’s also true that Spain lived and And as a result, I then followed up on this
took its first steps in a bloodless transition by reading extensively around what had
to democracy, and that’s unusual. My frus- been in the press. So pretty much all the
BELOW
tration is that when the left had an absolute elements in this final section are based on Ana (Milena Smit) and Janis
majority, in the mid-1980s, and should have reality: a rattle was found in a grave; there’s (Penélope Cruz) meet against
the background of Pedro
dealt with the issue of the mass graves, the a photograph I looked at where you can Almodóvar’s unrealistic hospital
Socialist Party didn’t do it.” see the corpse of the victim with a glass colour scheme in Parallel Mothers
 PEDRO ALMODÓVAR 43

All
PENÉLOPE CRUZ MILENA SMIT ISRAEL ELEJALDE ALMODÓVAR ON
AS JANIS AS ANA AS ARTURO WORKING WITH STAGE ACTORS
“I love challenges, and I love difficult “Pedro works from a deep sensitivity “Pedro likes to rehearse, to test out “I go to the theatre a lot and when I

about
characters, and I think as actors and towards the story and the characters. his own intuitions and to discover see actors I like, I try to find a role
actresses that’s what we want. But He has everything very clear in his new things by watching what he for them. Marisa Paredes, when she
Pedro every time has given me a new mind and knows how the characters has written come to life. He is as began working with me, had only

My
challenge. All the characters that I’ve are, how they feel or how they would meticulous with the visual plane, as really worked as a stage actress.
played with him are complex and express themselves. I loved witness- a way of representing emotions, as Aitana Sánchez-Gijón [who plays
have so many layers, and I cannot ing how he allowed himself to be with the sound world. He brings a Teresa] has spent the past 15 years
say any of them are easy, but they are surprised with the twists and turns highly prepared text, which for me, without really working in cinema.

actors
very well written, so that makes it that everything took as we rehearsed coming from the theatre, is an abso- Israel [Elejalde, who plays Arturo] is
easier. With him, the more intense, or the filming began… to see how lute treat, but he is always receptive one of our best-known stage actors.
the more challenging [the role], the a director takes responsibility with to listening to others. He presents It was really easy working with them
happier I am on the set, because he you for the weight of the character, a very clear aesthetic and emotional both. Israel has a great voice for the
will do it with me. He will give me so how he accompanies you and brings landscape, while provoking you into theatre – he only has to sigh and you
An intense collabora- much time in rehearsals and finding out the best in you every time. exploring it and making it your own. can hear him in the back row – so
tion with actors has things together with no rush. And it was about softening the sound
Above all [with Ana], we focused For Pedro it was very important
always been central not a lot of people work that way. We
on the character’s arc, how she that I developed my most likeable
and lowering the tone of the voice.
to Pedro Almodóvar’s had, like, five months of rehearsals. With Aitana, she connected with
goes from being an innocent girl side. That had to do not only with
what the role needed immediately,
methods. Here, three [Janis] is a difficult character because to a person capable of making her my own appearance, which I trans-
so many challenging things happen own decisions and assuming the she was the actor who needed least
of the cast of Parallel formed, but above all with my way of
to her, because she suffers a lot. I consequences that they entail. We work, and I realised the extraordi-
being. He insisted that I search for
Mothers reflect on the nary technique she has developed.”
love that Pedro, especially in this talked a lot about the expressions a calmer form of expression, seeking
process of crafting movie, he talks about… a lot of differ- that she would use, being so young, serenity even in the tensest moments
their roles, and the ent ways of confronting motherhood. and with Penélope’s help we deep- – creating a character who wants to ALMODÓVAR ON
director himself talks One of [the central characters] is ened a lot into the feeling that Ana be understood, looking for a point of WORKING WITH CRUZ
about how he works very passionate about it, because had towards motherhood and the engagement, despite the existence of “Penélope is a film actress and the
she never had it. The other one is feeling of loss or abandonment that conflict. Pedro gave me a lot of mate-
stage actors and what camera loves her – the film actress
not ready for it, but becomes very she carries on her shoulders, from rial about René, the anthropologist
makes Penélope Cruz needs to be photogenic. She doesn’t
passionate immediately when she her parents, throughout her life.” from The Silence of Others, a documen-
give the impression of utilising a
such a special actress sees the baby. It’s wonderful that tary produced by El Deseo about
particular technique. She needs to
he can talk about all these different the exhumation of a mass grave from
rehearse a lot and she needs – and
BELOW ways of seeing life and feeling life the Francoist period. In addition,
(From left) Milena Smit, Israel this is very visceral – to feel what she
without any judgement… As the René himself was present to advise
Elejalde, Pedro Almodóvar, is saying. She does this in front of the
audience, we cannot judge any of his on set during location filming.”
Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, camera and the camera adores her.
and Penélope Cruz characters because he doesn’t when
he’s writing; and it seems like an ob- Although she has played many moth-
vious thing, but not all writers have ers in my films there are two new
that. He has so much freedom and elements here: lies and concealment,
so much compassion and empathy concealing something every day from
for different ways of experiencing the very person she should not be
life. It’s one of the things that hiding things from. This is the film
I love most about Pedro’s we have rehearsed the most and
mind and everything this was the hardest thing to nail.
that he has given us.” Janis needs to disguise the impact
that the information Ana shares
has on her. We had to reshoot the
scene where Ana tells Janis her
daughter has died because Pené-
lope started weeping uncontrol-
lably and hugging Ana. At that
moment, Janis’s world falls
apart, but she has to conceal it,
‘Penélope, you can’t,’ I said, ‘be-
cause Ana will think, why is this
woman crying so much when
it’s my daughter who’s died?’ I
worked with her on restraint –
holding back the tears. When
Penélope gets a grip on the
character, she’s incredible.
she takes risks with me
that she won’t take with
other directors.”
44

Pedro
FURROWS
JOSÉ ANTONIO NIEVES CONDE, 1951
The Pérez family leave farming behind

Almodóvar
for Madrid, but the struggle with life in a
city where the black market holds sway:
the film resonates with Almodóvar’s own

picks
What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984)
Almodóvar: “There’s a legend among Span-
ish cinephiles that Visconti was inspired by
Furrows to make Rocco and His Brothers (1960) –

five key
both deal with a rural family moving to the city
in search of a better life, which is something
many families did not just in the 1950s but in

Spanish
the 60s, as in my case. It’s a classic of the time,
showing how the city leaves a mark on the
lives of each of the family’s children as well as
the hardship of the post-Civil War years.”

films MAIN STREET

JUAN ANTONIO BARDEM, 1956
A group of male friends decide to play a
Pinning Almodóvar down to five trick on thirtysomething Isabel, with one of
key Spanish films is an exhilarating them pretending to fall in love with her.
journey. The discussion begins Almodóvar: “I adore films that take place
with films relating to the Spanish in small towns, rural films so to speak, and
this is one. I am fascinated by the figure of
Civil War – “Spaniards don’t like to the solterona [spinster or old maid]. It’s one
be reminded of what happened” – of those films, alongside Miguel Picazo’s
before moving on to Icíar Bollaín’s Aunt Tula [1964], José Luis Borau’s Poach-
2021 feature Maixabel, which ers [1975] and Fernando Fernán-Gómez’s
deals with restorative justice. Strange Voyage [1964] that I include when
I’m invited to programme films.”
The film engages with the issue
of arrepentidos – members of the
Basque terrorist group Eta who THE EXECUTIONER
have repented of past atrocities LUIS GARCÍA BERLANGA, 1963
while in prison, and the com- A caustic dark comedy about a young
undertaker who reluctantly takes on his
munication they undertake with father-in-law’s job as a state executioner to
the victims of their crimes: “It’s an keep the family’s government apartment.
important film for the times we Almodóvar: “Berlanga is up there with
are living in.” A championing of Buñuel in our film culture, but he isn’t well
Carlos Vermut’s Magical Girl – “a known outside Spain. Made with the veneer
really original film from a director of a comedy of manners, The Executioner is
forging his own path in Spanish the greatest indictment of the death penalty
ever committed to film. I can think of no
cinema” – leads to reflections on more terrifying sight than being witness
three “essential” directors, Juan to the Civil Guards dragging the reluc-
Antonio Bardem, Luis García tant executioner to assume his duties.”
Berlanga and Fernando Fernán-
Gómez, all born in the early 1920s, SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE
and an identification of five key VÍCTOR ERICE, 1973
films that continue to resonate. Set in 1940, when a seven-year-old girl –
the wide-eyed Ana Torrent – discovers a
fleeing Republican fugitive and believes
him to be an incarnation of the monster
seen in James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931).
Almodóvar: “Erice made two masterworks
about the culture of utter silence surround-
ing the Spanish Civil War. As with his later
El sur [1983], there is no battlefield here,
just the overwhelming silence of the couple
played by Teresa Gimpera and Fernando
Fernán-Gómez, capturing the grey sad-
ness and trauma of the post-war years.”

RAPTURE
IVÁN ZULUETA, 1979
A horror director is sent a tape in the post from
an old acquaintance who achieves a trance-like
rapture when filming the world around him.
Almodóvar: “A film that emerges from Ma-
drid’s new modernity by a filmmaker who was,
as Carlos Vermut is today, a rara avis in Span-
ish cinema. The film revolves around a Super 8
camera and the heroin that the film’s protago-
nist consumes. Both engulf the character, but
they don’t destroy him. Rather, he decides on
his own terms to give in to the unknown which
the camera and heroin represent. It isn’t so
much about self-destruction but the libertine
decision to control your own demise. The
film reminds me of [Michael Powell’s 1960]
Peeping Tom – a film I love – in that the camera
captures the face of fear, the face of death.”
 PEDRO ALMODÓVAR 45

ABOVE eye, so I also integrated this.” In the clos- lived experience – she proudly locates her- rich women characters and Lorca’s female-
Ana (Milena Smit), Janis
(Penélope Cruz) and Janis’s
ing moments, we observe the contents of self as part of a lineage of women for whom centred dramaturgy in our first conversa-
friend Elena (Rossy de Palma) the mass grave from above – one of Almo- single parenting has proved empowering. tion in 2006: “Perhaps it’s because they
lead a procession of women
remembering the disappeared
dóvar’s most distinctive camera positions. Teresa rehearses one of Rosita’s most [women] were condemned to be silent
of the Spanish Civil War After the human remains have been taken famous speeches on the sombre stage of for centuries, so they create inside them a
BELOW RIGHT
to the laboratory for DNA testing, the Madrid’s iconic Abadía theatre, longing to much richer world.”
Milena Smit as Ana, film shows family members and those who escape as she is designated an ‘old maid’ by Parallel Mothers celebrates the tenacity,
Penélope Cruz as Janis
have excavated the grave assuming the polite Granada society. It’s a monologue adaptability and enterprise of these female
position in which they found the victims: “on the passing of time”, which Almodóvar characters. The fact that Janis sports a ‘We
this is, Almodóvar explains, based on what confesses, “I strongly identify with.” should all be feminist’ T-shirt as she peels
has really happened after exhumations. Lorca may have centred his plays on potatoes in her bright kitchen speaks to the
“When Etxeberria showed me the photos, women who see no possibility of emo- welcome visibility of gender politics since
I thought: ‘ This a beautiful cinematic tional fulfilment outside the framework the case of la manada (the wolfpack) – the
image.’ It’s a homage to the dead who had of heterosexual love and marriage but, five friends who brutally raped a young
lain in this place until then.” 86 years on, Almodóvar presents a very woman at the San Fermín celebrations
different picture and one which chal- in Pamplona in 2016, filming the act on a
MODERN FAMILY lenges “the macho discourses of Franco- mobile phone. The case, which sparked
In August 1936, Federico García Lorca, ism”: Teresa left her husband to pursue a national debate on Spain’s antiquated
arguably Spain’s most important 20th-cen- an acting career, Janis’s close friend Elena rape laws, is alluded to both in Pain and
tury playwright and poet, was murdered edits a successful women’s magazine, and Glory and through the details Ana shares
by Franco’s forces on the outskirts of Gra- Janis and Ana both pursue single mother- with Janis of a sexual assault. Almodóvar
nada, the city of his birth. In Parallel Moth- hood, albeit with the benefits of economic has referred to the case and its implica-
ers, Almodóvar in effect harnesses Lorca’s security. I recall the director’s comments tions as “an important moment for Spain”.
ongoing status as the symbol of Spain’s on my drawing parallels between his own “When we were searching for locations
Civil War disappeared – “the most famous,
the most universal disappeared person in
the world” – to potent effect. “That was my
main reason [for drawing on Lorca] but
I was always surprised that at the height
of the dictatorship, Francoist artists con-
tinued staging works by this disappeared
person. I have always wondered what such
right-wing artists must have felt doing this.”
Lorca’s 1935 drama, Doña Rosita the Spin-
ster – the role that brings Teresa, Ana’s
mother, the success she craves – is signifi-
cant here. “The conservative mother says
that she is apolitical – in Spain it means
that you are conservative – but she finds
success and the turning point of her career
in this Lorca play.” Doña Rosita was the last
play Lorca premiered in Spain before the
outbreak of the Civil War and it revolves
around the stigmatisation of unmarried
women. This is a clear contrast with Janis’s
46

[for Pain and Glory], I found the graffiti as Teresa was in Ana’s childhood. Rossy de
mural in Vallecas [southern Madrid] that
referred to the case of la manada and when
we went back to shoot three months later
Palma’s warm, welcoming Elena, editor of
the magazine Mujer ahora (‘Woman Now’),
is a further motherly figure – a nurturing
‘Women have choices
now; they don’t need
it was gone, so we created it as it was.” He role highlighted as she bathes baby Cecilia
concurs that in Parallel Mothers too, the ref- and offers to ferry water and coffee to the
erences to the case position the film at a team excavating the mass grave in which
particular moment in time [2016-19], with Janis’s great-grandfather is buried. There

to marry to have
Janis’s T-shirt affirming her commitment are clear parallels here with characters
to that cause. in All About My Mother (1999): Janis is in
The film also offers a space for remem- many ways an extension of Manuela, while
brance. Janis’s mother died – like Janis

a family, they don’t

Teresa is as wedded to her craft as are
Joplin, for whom Janis is named – of an Rosa’s art-forging mother and the actress
overdose; this was in the early 1980s, the Huma Rojo.
years when Almodóvar was forging a Janis’s patio – a nod to Carmen Maura’s

have to have a man

countercultural cinema of brash colours rooftop terrace in Women on the Verge of a
and hedonistic role play. The bold colours Nervous Breakdown (1988) – boasts a lemon
are still in play here – from his beloved red tree and plants that evoke those in the
on the kitchen cabinets and photo frames village where she grew up, to which she
of Janis’s bright apartment, to items of
clothing that bind Ana, Elena, Cecilia and
Janis together; but now there is room for
returns in the film’s final section. Ana may
accuse Janis of obsession with her great-
grandfather’s grave, but Janis’s cultural her- as a sexual partner
to be a mother’
a sombre quality that was absent from the itage is as much rooted in music – sharing
filmmaker’s early work. “My films are more Janis Joplin’s ‘Summertime’ with Ana in an
austere from Julieta on. There’s more focus intimate moment – and food as in her fam-
on character, on the psychology of charac- ily’s lived history.
ter and on the word. But there’s still a love “We have fantastic cheeses and wines in
of colour, and of the baroque.” Spain. They deserve to be better known.
Indeed, the fusion of colours in Janis’s Maybe we are not so good at selling our
home, from the aqua walls to the burned products. I don’t know.” Recently, Almodó-
orange sheets and fruit bowls, presents an var reflected for the website Thrillist on the
easy coexistence of different traditions and tortilla de patatas or Spanish omelette: “In
aesthetics. This contrasts with Teresa’s Spanish culinary culture [it] is equivalent
antiseptic apartment and further high- to pizza or hamburgers in American food
lights the contrasting versions of moth- culture. It’s a delicious, popular and afford-
erhood these women represent. “Teresa able dish. In fact, if a Spaniard decided
confesses to Janis that she doesn’t have to bring it to the American market – I
maternal instinct, which is a very hard don’t understand why no one has yet, the
thing to say.” After events take a tragic turn, ingredients are very basic – I am sure that
Teresa abandons Ana to play junkie mother it would triumph.” Will Parallel Mothers
Mary Tyrone on tour in Long Day’s Journey give the same marketing boost to Spanish
into Night. Janis, a surrogate mother to Ana, omelette that Women on the Verge provided
ABOVE
herself had a surrogate mother – her grand- for gazpacho? The recipe for Spanish ome- The team digging up the unmarked
mother Cecilia – her own mother as absent lette that Janis shares with Ana observes mass grave in Parallel Mothers
 PEDRO ALMODÓVAR 47

the importance of cutting the potatoes to RIGHT

Ana (Milena Smit) and
a certain thickness; Almodóvar’s camera Janis (Penélope Cruz) settle
looking down at the potatoes sizzling into a shared domestic
life in Parallel Mothers
in the pan of hot oil. Early in the film, as
Arturo and Janis converse about Janis’s BELOW
Aitana Sánchez-Gijón as Ana’s
family history, they share a glass of wine actress mother, Teresa
with jamón serrano – a ham leg rests on the
kitchen counter alongside a Manchego
cheese, from Almodóvar’s home region of
La Mancha.
Janis’s kitchen – which Almodóvar
designed after researching the homes of
women artists who live alone – is a space
of nourishment. Janis is shown chopping
vegetables and enjoying a breakfast of pan
con tomate (fresh tomato on bread). Recur-
ring fish motifs feature on artworks and a
framed painting by the early 20th-century
artist Julio Romero de Torres shows one
woman holding out a bowl of fruit to
another. a Madrid cemetery from the Valley of the two mothers (Ana and Janis) and a bio-
While Janis’s kitchen is positioned as Fallen, the Catholic basilica and monu- logical father (Arturo). Fathers in Paral-
a space of domesticity and of mother- ment constructed between 1940 and lel Mothers remain largely absent figures.
hood, it equally operates as the space for 1958, in part by republican prisoners of Ana’s father is heard only through bully-
the film’s most traumatic confrontations. war; under Spain’s Democratic Memory ing phone calls – suggesting a link with
Over dinner, Ana articulates the position bill, approved by the Spanish cabinet in the missing lover in Almodóvar’s short
of the right when she accuses Janis of September 2021, this controversial site film The Human Voice (2020). This void
being “obsessed with the grave”, advocat- will be repurposed as a memorial to the creates a further association with other
ing instead a position of “looking to the dead of both sides in the Civil War. For deficient or distant fathers in Almodó-
future; the rest is there just to open old Almodóvar, the bill represents “a huge var’s oeuvre. Ana’s father, associated
wounds”. Janis angrily challenges her: “It’s development, with the state taking legal with the provincial conservative Gra-
about time you knew what country you’re responsibility for the exhumation of nada bourgeoisie denounced in Lor-
living in.” unmarked graves”. ca’s writings, is more concerned with
“All countries have their issues but the Just as decades of living with the fear keeping up appearances than with his
relationship Spain has to the Civil War of reprisals inhibited Janis’s grandmoth- daughter’s welfare – dispatching Ana to
and its own past is absolutely anomalous,” er’s generation from speaking out about Madrid when she becomes pregnant,
Almodóvar elucidates: “ The Spanish the abuses suffered by Antonio, so Janis and blocking her return for fear she will
don’t like to be reminded of the worst part lives with the guilt of a secret she her- “stir things up”. The ideological curbing
of our past. We don’t have a good relation- self holds. “Janis realises,” Almodóvar of freedom is never far from the film’s
ship to the past, and that isn’t good. Until explains, “that she doesn’t live accord- surface. Teresa lost custody of Ana to
we resolve the issue of the country’s mass ing to her own truth, and she can’t stand her ex-husband, confessing to Janis that
graves, we won’t be able to close the chap- it any longer and decides to share her divorce came with “horrendous humili-
ter of the Spanish Civil War. It’s as serious secret with Ana.” Only through the rev- ation” through the Catholic Church’s
and as simple as that.” elations are Arturo, Ana, and Janis able highest judicial court, the Roman Rota:
Almodóvar elaborates on how Janis to move forward across the film’s parallel “You practically had to admit you were
and Ana represent the polarised posi- narratives. It becomes clear that burying a prostitute for them to annul your mar-
tions of the two Spains: one calling for the an uncomfortable past offers no solace in riage,” Teresa says.
state to take responsibility for exhuma- Parallel Mothers. Confronting the injus- While Teresa tells Janis that “my work is
tions of bodies from the mass graves, so tices of history – at a micro- and macro- to be liked by everyone”, Almodóvar’s own
that loved ones can bury their dead with level – Janis finds a way of living with her- position, arguing for the need to counter
dignity and respect; the other promoting self and forging a new family structure. the right’s rewriting of history, has met
continued amnesia, a refusal to engage The debates and dilemmas of con- significant criticism on social media since
with the complexities and injustices of temporary Spain are at the core of Paral- the Spanish release of Parallel Mothers in
a history that has been problematically lel Mothers – whether it’s the Vox party’s October 2021. “It’s good [to remember],
written to erase the inequalities of the nostalgia for Francoism or the struggles especially at this time when a far-right
post-Civil War years. It was only in 2019 for reparative justice in what remains a party [Vox] is trying to tell a different his-
that Franco’s remains were transferred to divided nation. “ The government are tory. They are lying about our history. We
having huge problems with the right are talking about a party that still hasn’t
in introducing the Law of Democratic rejected Franco and actively promote
Memory, which seeks a real reconciliation themselves as his followers. Shamelessly,
in our country, based on the truth rather they don’t even try to hide it, spreading
than lies.” hoax stories that the origin of the conflict
Ultimately, it is perhaps in queer kin- lies with the [Second] Republic and deny-
ship – allowing for the construction of ing the military coup that launched the
families across multiple configurations – Civil War. So, of course, we have to tell
that the greatest hope for the future lies. young people that this is all a lie, an abso-
“Women have choices now,” Almodóvar lute lie.” If Almodóvar saw his early films
affirms, “They don’t need to marry to have as “stories of the birth of the new Spain
a family, they don’t have to be with a man that no one else was telling”, 40 years on,
or have a man as a sexual partner to be a as Parallel Mothers defiantly shows, he is
mother. The family is no longer what the still singularly exploring the faultiness of
Catholic Church defines as a family; it is this relatively young democracy.
now a very open entity.”
The film’s end alludes to a fluid family Parallel Mothers is out now in UK cinemas
structure allowing for the possibility of and is reviewed on page 85
48
 BRANAGH PORTRAIT BY JOHAN PERRSON;
COUSINS PORTRAIT BY PAUL GRANDSARD/INSTITUT LUMIÈRE / GET TY IMAGES

interviewed by

MARK COUSINS
KENNETH BRANAGH
49
50

As Belfast, Kenneth Branagh’s warmly nostalgic, semi-autobiographical portrait of life in Northern

Ireland in the late 1960s, hits UK screens, he talks to director Mark Cousins about their shared
memories of growing up in the city, the impact of the Troubles and the magic of old Hollywood

H
ow do you make something cinematic out MC Your film made me cry a lot.
of a conflict? The best of the movies about I’d like to talk about emo-
Belfast and the north of Ireland, where I tion a little bit later, if that’s
grew up, had distinct tones and imagina- OK? Is the film optimistic?
tions: Carol Reed’s Odd Man Out (1947) KB I think the film is compassionate.
saw the city as a film noir; Alan Clarke’s Very much like your film I Am Belfast.
Elephant (1989) made killing numbing and You do a great job in there of point-
trance-like; Pat Murphy and John Davies’ ing out the sort of yin and yang of
Maeve (1981) held a defiant hand up against Belfast. I think compassion involves
male platitudes; Neil Jordan’s Angel (1982) or can include optimism, but you
used blank verse; Steve McQueen’s Hunger feel like it could be too dangerously
(2008) started with bodies; my film I Am light for the situation over there.
Belfast (2015) pictured the city as a 10,000- I always quote this line, which I’ll
year old-woman, a flâneuse who walked paraphrase, from Cervantes from
the streets, looked at life and told us her Don Quixote: “Who knows where
thoughts; and Graham Reid and Richard madness lies? Perhaps in too much
Spence’s You, Me and Marley (1992) was sanity lies madness – and perhaps
vivid commedia dell’arte. maddest of all: to see the world as
Reid’s three TV dramas in the 1980s – it is and not as it could be.” And
the Billy plays – grabbed and excited those so dispositionally I like to see the
of us who came from Belfast. They starred world as it could be. So I would say
Kenneth Branagh, who has now arced that I am naturally an optimist. But
back to his hometown with his new film being from where we are from can
Belfast. Covid meant I missed its massive knock that out of you sometimes.
premiere in the city – standing ovation and
tears – but instead saw it on my own in a MC Is Shakespeare an optimist?
huge cinema in Edinburgh. As the lights KB A pragmatist, I think. A realist with
went down I thought of his films – Hamlet a very sort of inbuilt monitor to resist
(1996), the stylised opening of The Magic his capacity for any dangerous sen-
Flute (2006), the femininity of Cinderella timentality. It’s always interesting to
(2015), the swagger of Thor (2011). me with Shakespeare that in the last
Then Belfast started. An opening colour plays where, putting aside any issues
montage of familiar shots, but then a about authorship, they decided, at a
plunge into – what? John Boorman’s Hope creative zenith in their life, to write
and Glory (1987)? No, I was watching some- in the form of fables, of fairy stories.
thing more stylised than that. A boy, his So The Tempest, and Cymbeline, Pericles
parents and grandparents. Three layers and The Winter’s Tale are very simple.
and interacting loves, but with angles and They offer magic as the way of
diagonals that you’d see in Orson Welles or bringing peace and redemption, but
Reed. And references to escape, to Shan- it’s transmuted through a lot of be-
gri La and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). haviour as well. So I think that those
A child’s point of voice, but very adult plays are immensely compassionate.
framings. What’s the word? Expression- They’re immensely understanding of
ism. And the feeling of a coiled spring, the all the follies and foibles and flaws.
compression of Belfast in the Troubles, and They take a very panoramic view of
the compression of a movie ready to release. human nature. Not daring to sug-
Branagh’s film released a lot in me, so gest that optimism or certain kinds
I jumped on a train to London to talk to of people are heroes, that everybody
him, to find out why. is a mixture of imperfect qualities.
 BELFAST 51

mean by politics? Or if you mean

explaining the philosophical differ-
ences, that’s a 50-part TV series.”

MC And before it is a problem, it is

a place, isn’t it? And I think you
captured that sense of the place-
ness of a place. That’s why the Billy
plays [for the BBC’s Play for Today
series] were so important, that’s
why Graham Reid was so impor-
tant. And You, Me and Marley.
That was a big thing for me to
see the Billy plays and to think,
“Oh, wow, this isn’t starting with
a headline and working down.”
KB Yeah, I was really struck being
here [in England] when that went
out, to feel the way in which a lot
of people felt that they’d seen the
place for the first time. So not lead-
ing with a headline was critical.

MC I’d like to talk to you about your

style as a filmmaker. If I spoke to
your collaborators, would they say,
But I’m inspired by the simplicity does it start with character and ‘At the start, I “OK, there’s a Ken way of shoot-
of the form. And to some extent grow out, or a sense of emo- ing this,” or, “There’s a certain
with Belfast, if there’s any kind of tion and grow out, or individual spent a lot of time scene that he always likes to do.”
influence from working with that details – tripe and onions, and writing on index KB Because of where I come from
man’s work a lot, it was to trust in [the Northern Irish football cards. I tried to creatively as an actor, I think that
taking the boy’s point of view. The legend] Danny Blanchflower – and there’s an influence on what I think
simpler point of view. The more grow out? How does it build? connect as directly the scene requires from a perfor-
fairytale point of view. The point KB In this case I spent a lot of time with my instinct mance point of view. To give you an
of view that sees a wake and turns just writing on index cards – in- as I could. I tried example, in the movie of Thor, there’s
it into a musical extravaganza. cidents. But it could be a specific a page-long scene where Chris
incident, or it could be tripe. I’m to be uncensored. Hemsworth and Natalie Portman
MC We talked briefly earlier about The sure there’s a card that just says I wanted healthy talk in a car. And it’s a little bit of
Power of the Dog, Jane Campion’s ‘tripe’. Then it would be a line, or imperfection in it’ opening up. He’s a fish out of water,
film, which is obviously very much it would be a sort of plot point. I there’s a bit of romance brewing, a
tried to connect as directly with KENNETH BRANAGH
about masculinity. I’m thinking little confessional for each of them.
about Belfast, and for me, it was my instinct as I could. I tried to be And I remember with that scene,
quite a female place. The women uncensored. I tried to write swiftly. feeling that you needed to take some
did the talking, and the singing, I wanted healthy imperfection in it. time to try and allow for some depth.
and the controlling. And the men I felt this is a memory piece. It So I remember allowing a day, or
would often sit quiet until they needs the kind of fractured nature even a day and a half, for a scene that
had about four pints in them and of memory, in as far as it impacted I might have shot in half a morning
of course, I want to talk to you a nine-year-old. So it didn’t matter, in another kind of movie, but I felt
about Judi Dench’s face in that small or large, a matchbox car or a I wanted them to have all the time
ending, but that’s why I put a riot. They sort of held equal space to do it in as many different ways.
woman at the centre of my film I in the DNA. And so I gathered That it could be funny, it could be
Am Belfast. Do you have a sense those, and then I arranged them in quick, it could be sad... So we had
of it being a gendered place? what felt like they might be act form. a ‘Russian arm’ above it [a camera
KB Well, I feel the same way as you do And then it became clear that the on a robotic arm mounted on the
about it, and I felt that the women plot was the leaving of Belfast, from vehicle]. We had coverage from the
were deeply, and massively, and the moment when the disruption back, we had bonnet mats, we did
scarily in control. I mean, formidable. of the settled life occurred to the more coverage on that than you
One of the reasons I was so thrilled moment when economic opportu- could shake a stick at. And that was
to cast Caitríona Balfe as the mother nity and intensified violence made based on being performance led.
was that, in a very good scene in the question very compelling: what In this, in the same way, I suppose,
Ford v Ferrari [2019], she takes on was this ordinary family going to do? trying to work out how to get the
Christian Bale, about his latest fib I wanted it to have a kind of best out of Jude Hill as a ten-year-old
about going back to race-car driving, adrenalised rhythm as well. So that often meant not rehearsing. A sense
which he promised he wouldn’t it was not too over-considered. I of wanting to observe, again, it was
do as they committed to a sort of wasn’t ever going to take on the Irish performance led, but it was also
new life together. And in that scene problem, as it were. What I really about trying to get effortless depth.
this lioness roars out of her. And I like about what you did with I Am So, outside, the sisters have a
remember thinking, “Wow, that’s an Belfast is just the sort of Joycean scene. “The Irish were born for
Irish mother right there.” And as I stream of consciousness, and that leaving,” she says, at one point. We
wrote in the screenplay, when she gets a lot done. Somebody said to have the camera on the netball court.
picks him up in the riot, and lifts the me once, “There should be more We have people immediately in
dustbin lid up, she storms through politics in the film.” I said, “Well, foreground, where we had some-
the crowd like an urban Boudica. what do you mean exactly? You ABOVE thing like a 300mm lens. They’re
MC I’d love to know how your imagi- mean there should be more men Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds as
Granny and Pop, with Jude Hill’s
playing basketball. Then there’s a
nation works. A film like this, in suits talking? Is that what you Buddy, in Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast barbed-wire fence. Then there’s the
52

two women. There’s action happen- MC The spittle scene from the vicar: BELOW grandmother talks about that film
An emotionally fraught wake
ing in front of them, there’s action that feels like something in The is transformed into a life-
[Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon, 1937],
behind. There’s a field behind, and Night of the Hunter [1955]. affirming celebration with and says, “There are no roads to
music and dancing, in Belfast
there are trees in the background. An KB I love that film, as so many people Shangri-La.” What does that mean?
enormously deep thing, but we don’t do. It’s bold and gothic in its fram- KB It was almost as if she was aware
cut. Many times in this we don’t cut. ing, isn’t it? And it often also looks that there was a choice. Buddy
at a child’s point of view. Sometimes asked, “When Pop went to
MC That scene where Pa [played by it’s above, but the arrival of Robert England, did you go with him?”
Jamie Dornan] says to Ma, “What Mitchum in the night, which the kids “No, I didn’t go with him.”
you did with those two boys is see from the window, is very scary I think she understood – she had
phenomenal.” And the fact that – like Bergman-esque – against the a lot of kids – that travelling with
she’s on the left, and he’s away in hill. In this case, there was a kind of the father was not practical, but it
the background, and the boys are melodramatic gothic flare. I mean, didn’t mean you couldn’t look at
on the right. That really works. it’s weird to put that scene in the those stories [or] a film like Lost
KB I like that a lot because you’re in same picture as Chitty Chitty Bang Horizon, and see what you were
focus, on a massive foreground Bang, which had the child catcher. missing. On the whole, it’s inspired,
image of the boy with his chocolate The two things had the same at least by my grandmother, she
around his mouth. It was a scene imprint on my imagination: Robert knew, and to some extent chose,
where at the end of it, Jamie Dornan, Helpmann as the child catcher what her limitations were.
we did the take on the long shot, and the visiting ministers at our
and he said, “And how are you going local church, which we’d go to on a MC Do you think the Troubles
to cover this?” I said, “That’s it.” He Sunday night. It was the atmosphere maybe made a lot of us blink-
said, “But that’s my big scene over of Sunday night. Grey, school to ered, or narrow-minded? Obvi-
there.” I said, “You’re absolutely fan- come in the morning, the end of ously you left, and I left – although
tastic. And honestly, you’re talking the weekend, the end of joy, and I didn’t leave until ’83 – but did
about what we know to be the soft then this penance to be paid. it make us timid in some way?
focus of the boy in the foreground. KB You couldn’t help but experience
And you’re the smallest thing in the MC Could I ask you about Shangri- a period where the intensity of the
frame with the biggest impact.” La? It so touched me when the internal discussion within Belfast
 BELFAST 53

– with the eyes of the world, or MC It’s a real coup de cinéma when ‘Do ‘Belfast, for And I knew that our plot was slen-
at least the UK media, on it – led Not Forsake Me, Oh My Dar- der in terms of: something happens,
things to be mono-focused. There ling’ plays several times in your me, was quite a will we stay, will we go? And High
was nothing else to discuss because film. When did High Noon [1952] female place. The Noon is similar in the sense of, it was
it was a kind of survival thing. enter the story? Was that one of women did the characters reacting to a ticking clock
Everything was new. And people those cards you wrote early on? across this 90-minute period, with
were alive with the sometimes KB Well, yeah. It was a number of talking, and the so-called decent man in the middle.
hysterical, adrenalised gossip of it. things. That song had a success in singing, and the So the lyrics for ‘Do Not Forsake
the 60s as well as when it came out controlling. And Me, Oh My Darling’ had this kind
MC I remember a lot of the women with the movie. So as I was going of mythic quality that we’re about.
were on Valium. And I remem- through 60s songs, that came up. I the men would sit There’s something refined and es-
ber hearing “Do you want a wee had this sentimental attachment to quiet until they sential about that movie. It was what
half?” a lot. There was a lot of a miniature brief meeting with [High had about four partly led me to call the characters
that, just to try and dial down the Noon director] Fred Zinnemann, on Ma and Pa and Buddy, and stay
adrenaline. And then thankfully the set of Henry V [which Branagh pints in them’ away from anything more naturalisti-
the Good Friday Agreement came. directed in 1989]. Paul Scofield, MARK COUSINS cally available as names. And there
It’s a masterpiece of the imagina- who himself was a hero to me, one was also something about the sort
tion, the Good Friday Agreement. day said, “Do you mind if I bring a of impossible beauty of those two
It’s almost like, “OK, we’ve been friend to set tomorrow?” And then people in the middle of it. Grace
held down for so long, like a he introduced me and I couldn’t Kelly was always someone who
spring. How do we bounce up?” speak. Well, I didn’t speak, I just made my knees tremble. It’s hard to
KB It is amazing though, isn’t it? In the listened to the pair of them. speak about how beautiful she is.
journey of a lifetime, my lifetime When I’m making a film, I try And Gary Cooper, in his way, also.
anyway, those 30 years are followed and watch in the evenings a 90- These galvanic sort of movie stars.
by these 25 years in which, by con- minute movie, usually classics.
trast with what was going on, the High Noon is certainly one of them. MC What does galvanic mean?
change, however flawed and how- Its economy has been a regular KB Well, I mean, in this sense: they
ever imperfect, however danger- reminder to me of how you can tell shook me. They charged me. They
ously unstable, is still miraculous. a simple story and make it epic. galvanised me. Jean Simmons did
54

the same thing in Guys and Dolls differently? I’d noticed their beauty ‘I’m thinking, if somehow he’s on a classic car or
[1955], and Brando. You think, before, but I felt that it was kind of something. And then we wanted to
“Christ, they’re so impossibly suddenly a Stanley Donen moment. have I got be inspired a bit by The Commitments
beautiful” – your breath quickens to KB Well, Noël Coward, I think, referred another 20 years [1991], give the family members
be around them. And in the end, I maybe condescendingly to the of filmmaking? those trumpets and put everybody
felt as though we managed to cast potency of cheap music. ‘Everlasting in sunglasses and say that, you
two movie stars in our film as well – Love’ is a fantastically catchy hit from And you wonder, know what, they’ll go to that extent
Caitríona Balfe and Jamie Dornan 1969 that has the driving base in it, what was John because the emotional release after a
– who, in black and white, did this and it’s got brass in it, and it’s got an Huston doing loss like that needs to be met with an
thing of sort of breaking into some anthemic quality, and the lyrics are equal intensity of drive towards joy.
other territory that people like Grace unusual. They’re rather like the spirit in later years… My father, he slept in the same
Kelly and Gary Cooper occupied. of the scene you mentioned earlier Hitchcock, room as my grandfather’s open coffin
on, where he says, “You brought Varda? And if for five nights. And he said, “Not a
MC So you mentioned there, movie star- them up, I didn’t.” In as much as it’s pleasant experience.” After that they
dom and beauty and this nice word sort of a mea culpa: “I don’t deserve you’ve, what, 20 were wild. That lust for life that
‘galvanic’. And it reminds us of the you, but I want you back and I can years in you?’ needed to be expressed having paid
‘Everlasting Love’ wake scene [after do better,” as it were. And I remem- MARK COUSINS
appropriate homage to the departed.
the death of a major character]. ber my wife saying, when she saw So a wildness was what I was after.
What happens in your film at that that shot of Jamie Dornan from the I think Caitríona does a beautifully
moment? That’s the moment I start- front, “There’s something about the responsive job in it. I said to her,
ed to cry. Suddenly these people way the light catches his eye, the relative to the intent of these lyrics
from the street had become movie anthemic lift of the song, and that of ‘Everlasting Love’, I said, “Look,
stars in some way. Did you shoot it period microphone.” It’s almost as when D.H. Lawrence eloped with
Frieda Weekley, she left her three
children. And at the end of it, he
wrote a simple volume of poetry
called, Look! We Have Come Through!”
And I remember saying to her,
“Bear in mind this thought as he
sings this to you. Look, we have
come through.” And it did some-
thing to her, to the concentration of
her look, which was very beautiful,
I think… large-souled, I would say.

MC And Pop says to Granny,

“Your heart has to explode?”
What’s that about?
KB I think it’s one of those rare mo-
ments, which an older character from
that part of the world, and a male,
ABOVE
can come out with. Instead of set-
Buddy with his grandparents tling into some unhurried, unrippled
LEFT
sort of sunset cruise, you are remind-
A family trip to the cinema in Belfast ed of that which you can still feel.
 BELFAST 55

At the end of a life that is coming Doyle is about the wildest artist
to a close, you start to be more I’ve met actually [he shot 2002’s
open about the wildness of your Rabbit-Proof Fence with Branagh].
heart, the wildness of your soul. That’s somebody who, it feels like
And what I think Ciarán Hinds you’re watching a jazz musician,
does, and Judi does, in those or Jackson Pollock, or just a sort
scenes is just indicate that all pas- of artist to their fingertips. And I
sion is not spent. And I think an used to wonder how he, given as
exploding heart is to do with that he’s a lover of life, as they say, quite
beautiful enslavement to love. how he’s managed to keep going.

MC What’s wild about you? MC You and I are close in age, and
KB I think sometimes my comic imagi- I’m thinking, have I got another
nation, not necessarily shared with 20 years of filmmaking? And
many. One of the sadnesses of the then you wonder, what was John
film was that it was the last appear- made together, I Am Belfast, it’s a ‘We are at a Huston doing in later years?
ance of John Sessions who was a lot about an older lady’s face. And I What were Hitchcock, Varda,
great friend of mine. And one of just wonder about that ending. It’s moment in the all these people doing? And if
the things that bonded John and I like a grace note, isn’t it? The obvi- life of film that is you’ve, what, 20 years in you?
was that he knew, and few did, that ous thing is to crane up. But you go so critical – and KB When you reach 60, you think,
certain kind of wildness of comedic in, it’s such a small ending. Was that “Well, if I’m lucky, this is the
imagination. We did a few things the ending from the start, or was quite how the beginning of the last third here.
where we improvised together, and that a decision made in the edit? existential threat I’m going to be a little bit more
people could see that the kind of KB No, it was the intention, but it was will work itself ruthless about what I’ve got time
free association that we could get improvised a lot. I had written for – if I have health and all the rest
involved with was fairly anarchic. something, and then on the day I out, I don’t know’ of it.” So yes, I do think about it,
But I believe it was there when I said to Judi, “Do you mind improvis- KENNETH BRANAGH and I have things that I’d like to
was in Belfast when I was nine years ing?” And so she was always very write. And I think I will be headed
old, and I think that, frankly, it got game for that kind of thing. I always more into that world of the more
squeezed out of me across the rest felt like I was making a western personal expression, if I’m allowed
of my life. I got much more careful, and part of what made it epic was to do it – I never assume that. I
much more protected. And it’s sort actually the human face. I always also know that we are at a moment
of swinging back into being now. felt this about John Ford’s films. in the life of film that is so critical
That occasionally when he did go in and quite how the existential threat
MC Why did you get much more careful? a close-up, it was significant. This will work itself out, I don’t know.
KB I think there was some innate feel- one, obviously, is a massive close- I’m an optimist about film. I think
ing that life could explode again, up, but it was so interesting. She’s it’ll always be there, but it is fairly
as it had done that day, and that it become this consummate screen challenged. It was interesting this
happens quickly and you get caught presence. So in that case she could last weekend: [Steven Spielberg’s]
up in it. So you protect yourself. You listen to all this stuff I was throw- West Side Story had a very disap-
get ready for a shock, you get ready ing in and remain rock still, Mount pointing box-office time. And, well,
to be tackled. I think the under- Rushmore kind of still, and process there are lots of analyses about
neath of that was a vulnerability it, and then do her own spin on it. why that happened, and maybe
and fear. It wasn’t so much to do And once she got this and I said, it’s all mainly Covid, but it was
with joylessness, it was to do with “Cut” I went straight to the monitor concerning, I must say, because
just concern for what the universe and had a look. I put the headphones every time, since the pandemic
was going to do to you, which on, and then went, “Oh, no, there’s finished, I managed to get back into
would be unexpected and savage. a sound. What is that sound on a cinema, every time I’ve just loved
there, because that last take was it. I’ve loved it more and more. I
MC I was texting [the cinematographer] beautiful.” And the sound recorder love it more than I ever have.
Christopher Doyle about your film, said, “That was your intake of
Belfast is out now in UK cinemas and was
and that you end on the face of breath, sir, when she did it.” And I reviewed in our Winter 2021-22 issue. I Am
Judi Dench. And our film he and I had literally been caught like that. Belfast is available to stream on BFI Player

ABOVE
Mark Cousins’ I Am Belfast

LEFT
The close-up of Judi Dench’s
Granny, which ends Belfast
56

I’ve heard it argued, even by some in the part. “When I did the first interview, he
animation industry, that animation is the said, ‘This is going to be therapeutical to
art of embellished movement, wild trans- me,’” recalls Poher Rasmussen. “And that’s
formations and fantastical scenarios, and when I realised, ‘This is a lot bigger than
that any film that doesn’t channel its imagi- I’d thought.’ Even though I’d known him
nation in these directions is somehow for so many years, I didn’t understand
deficient. It might as well have been live at the beginning how much he carried
action, the thinking goes. This has always around with him.”
struck me as a case of double standards – The set-up in the room wasn’t inspired
how many people criticise E.T. the Extra- by psychotherapy so much as Poher Ras-
Terrestrial (1982) for not being animated? mussen’s experience in radio, where he
– and also as an oddly limited view of what approaches interviews in the same way:
animation can do. There are so many uses “When you don’t have an image, you
the medium can be put to, as a growing really need the subject to be very descrip-
number of films are showing us. tive about what happened. So by having
Take Flee. The documentary is about [Amin] laying down, having his eyes closed
Amin (a pseudonym), an Afghan who and talking in the present tense, it’s really
fled his country’s civil war in the 1980s and a way of having him relive things instead
ended up in Denmark, where he now lives of just retelling things.” Poher Rasmussen
as an openly gay man burdened by trauma asked Amin to evoke the plants, houses
and secrets. The story, in all its details, and colours of Kabul: all the visual details
is sombre, nuanced and focused on his he could remember.
personal experience of actual events. On Flee has images, of course, but as most
paper, it’s a candidate for a gritty live-action scenes are recreations of Amin’s memo-
treatment, yet it has become one of the ries, his descriptions served as invaluable
most acclaimed animated features of the reference points for the artists, who also
past year. In fact, were it not for animation, made extensive use of archive materi-
the story might never have been told at all. als. These flashback sequences form the

A Sketch
Flee was born from the friendship film’s narrative core, tracing Amin’s flight
between Amin and its director Jonas to Moscow, his abortive first attempt to
Poher Rasmussen, whom Amin met at cross into Scandinavia and his eventual
school after being granted asylum in Den- arrival in Denmark. Animation presents
mark. As Poher Rasmussen established obvious advantages here. The character

Odyssey
himself as a maker of radio documentaries, designs ensure continuity between the
he suggested making one in which Amin young and present-day Amins; there is
recounted his life story, about which the no jarring sense of watching an actor in
director still knew little. But Amin wasn’t the dramatised sections. A live-action
ready to tell it. It was only when, almost a production, especially one with a modest
decade later, Poher Rasmussen proposed budget, would struggle to stage scenes
an animated documentary that Amin con- like the storm-battered crossing of a refu-
Animated documentary Flee, sented. Crucially, his anonymity would be gee boat, or to portray bygone Afghanistan
protected through the use of animation. and Russia so convincingly. Realist stories
Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s film about The project was a novelty for them set in countries where a live-action shoot
a gay Afghan refugee in Denmark both: Poher Rasmussen, who has also would prove dangerous, if not impossible,
coming to terms with his past, is directed live-action documentaries have been told in animated form before –
(including 2012’s Searching for Bill, which Tehran Taboo (2017), which explores the Ira-
a masterclass in the intelligent, won an award at CPH:DOX), had never nian capital’s clandestine demi-monde, is
unshowy use of its medium worked in the medium. “I’d seen a lot of just one example. Flee also deploys silence
animation beforehand,” he tells me at the to build suspense or heighten the lyricism
WORDS BY ALEX DUDOK DE WIT
BFI London Film Festival, while Flee of a shot: say, the beautiful freedom of a
plays to a packed house at the BFI South- plane painting its contrail across the sky.
bank. “I’d never thought it was something These wouldn’t have been possible in a
I would do myself.” The clincher was a radio production.
call from ANIDOX, a pioneering Danish Flee is a masterclass in the intelligent,
initiative which has done much to fund unshowy use of its medium. The anima-
animated documentaries and develop a tion itself (directed by Kenneth Ladekjær
conceptual framework around the bur- at the young Danish studio Sun Creature)
geoning genre. Asked to pitch an idea, is limited – there are relatively few origi-
Poher Rasmussen reimagined the Amin nal frames per second – but naturalistic,
project for animation, and ANIDOX as the story requires, and well observed.
supported its early development. The character designs (by Ladekjær and
Poher Rasmussen’s research centred on Mikkel Sommer) are simple but appeal-
intimate, detailed conversations he had ing; they started out quite cartoonish in
with Amin, which are depicted in the film; early development and were later tweaked
the voices we hear are theirs. The director to be more realistic. The designers had
calls these “interviews”, but they are staged to ensure Amin looked Afghan but not
like therapy sessions: we see Amin lying on too much like his real self. “We did a lot of
a bed, eyes closed, while Poher Rasmus- research on Afghans, we google-searched
sen sits in a chair beside him and prompts ‘Afghan man’,” says Poher Rasmussen, who
ABOVE
A preliminary sketch for the film
him gently with questions. The pair held 15 also looks different in the film: he is made
showing life in Afghanistan, to 20 such sessions at the director’s home blond, not dark-haired as in reality.
where Amin grew up
over three or four years, Amin gradually The production design, overseen by
OPPOSITE, FROM TOP revealing the details of his tortuous jour- art director Jess Nicholls, broadly dis-
Amin; Amin crossing the
Russian border; and Amin
ney. Often he would stop the process and tinguishes three types of scene. The past
and his boyfriend Kasper wait until he felt ready to divulge the next narrative feels classically cinematic, with
 57

‘When he started
to talk about
something that
was traumatic, you
could sense in his
voice that the tone
changed, and I
thought, “We need
to feel this in the
visuals as well”’
58

‘I really like
the precision
of storytelling
in animation.
It’s difficult
in live-action
documentaries,
because there’s so
much disturbance
in reality’
 FLEE 59

War drama Waltz with Bashir (2008), THREE ANIMATED

which Poher Rasmussen cites as a major DOCUMENTARIES TO WATCH
influence. Another example is Another Day
of Life (2018), an adaptation of journalist
Ryszard Kapuściński’s account of the
Angolan Civil War. But Poher Rasmus-
sen was concerned that his approach to
Amin’s story might untether it from its
historical context, so he also wove copi-
ous archive footage into his film: “Even
though you hear [Amin’s] real voice, you EGG (2018)
can forget that this is not a fiction. So
Director Martina Scarpelli channels
[this was] just to remind people that the her experiences of anorexia into this
reason he’s pushed out of [Afghanistan] is short film, in which a woman obsesses
because of historical events that actually over whether to eat an egg. The char-
happened in our world.” The footage also acter’s fixation on the form of things
– her body, her food, everything – is
helped with the film’s budget, as it was
mirrored in the film’s stark geometric
cheaper than animation. design, all ovoids and angular lines.
So Flee speaks to us in four different visual Although Egg is described by its film-
‘I’d seen a lot bold horizontal compositions and rich registers, which reflect the different layers makers as a documentary (it was sup-
use of light and shadow. Kabul is recre- of truth it seeks to reveal: this is at once a ported by the animated doc platform
of animation ated in detail: “ The art director and I film about Afghanistan’s conflict, one man’s ANIDOX), it challenges the definition
of the term. The film doesn’t explicitly
beforehand. I’d spent tons of time finding archival foot- flight from it, his effort to remember his link itself to Scarpelli’s life (although
never thought it age from the time to really be sure that it experiences, and their enduring effect on she narrates it), but as a portrait of
felt right. We also had a group of Danish his life – including his identity as a gay man. the lived reality of an eating disorder,
was something I Afghans look through things to make It is a strikingly sophisticated work from a it is as true and vivid as they come.
would do myself ’ sure that they felt precise.” newcomer to animation. This is a medium
This design contrasts with the mod- that, in theory, lets you show anything in
ern-day segments, in which we see Amin any way. Many animated works suffer from
being interviewed or spending time with this freedom, for example by indulging in
his partner, Kasper. These scenes, which unnecessarily dynamic camerawork. But
are based on footage shot by Poher Ras- Flee feels very disciplined.
mussen, consist of a kind of simulation “It took me time to realise how many
of cinéma vérité, complete with handheld decisions you have to make all the time,”
‘camerawork’ and jump cuts. The direc- Poher Rasmussen says of the production CHRIS THE SWISS (2018)
tor’s team “thought it was quite funny to process. At times he questioned whether Anja Kofmel’s investigation into the
have me, as a documentary filmmaker, animation was right for him, or for the moral murk of the Yugoslav Wars is
coming in and saying, ‘Just do jump cuts story. But he came to value the level of one of the many – and one of the best
– animated documentaries about war
– it doesn’t matter’. They weren’t used to control he had: “You can be so precise
to follow in the slipstream of Waltz with
that at all. And also we talked about how, with animation, down to: what does the Bashir. More accurately, it’s a hybrid
when you’re out shooting a scene for a doc- couch need to feel like that he’s sitting on? film: stylishly greyscale animated seg-
umentary, you always shoot something like The important things you can keep in the ments evoke the life of Kofmel’s cousin
leaves on the trees. So if you need to cut, image, and everything else you can take Christian Würtenberg, a reporter who
died in mysterious circumstances in the
you can cut somewhere else, then back to out. I really like the precision of storytelling
conflict, while live-action scenes follow
what’s going on. So we were really trying to in animation. It’s difficult in [live-action] Kofmel as she tries to understand
use the techniques I normally use when I’m documentaries, because there’s so much what drove Chris to the Balkans and
out shooting, in animation.” disturbance in reality.” Animation pre- what happened to him there. Crucial
Then there are shots that reach for production typically involves an animatic: facts about him remain obscure to
the end. What the film does reveal is
the opposite effect. Flee opens with the the preliminary form of the film, consist-
how Chris’s life and death affected
hallucinatory vision of a crowd of face- ing mostly of storyboards, which serves Kofmel, and others around him.
less, sketchily drawn f igures dashing as a detailed blueprint for the final scenes
through a spare monochrome landscape. and their order. Poher Rasmussen, who
This semi-abstract style is used at points involved Amin at this stage, “really enjoyed
throughout the film to depict events Amin that you edit before you shoot” in anima-
didn’t witness or only dimly remembers. tion. He is returning to the medium for his
Amin’s manner of speaking informed this next project, an adaptation of Halfdan Pis-
approach: “When he started to talk about ket’s Dane trilogy of graphic novels, which
something that was traumatic, or some- retell the experiences of Pisket’s father as a
thing he had a hard time remembering, Turkish immigrant in Denmark.
WONDERLAND: THE TROUBLE
you could sense in his voice that the tone Animated features take ages to make
WITH LOVE AND SEX (2011)
changed, and I thought, ‘We need to feel – development on Flee began in 2013 – so
Billed as “the first full-length
this in the visuals as well.’” it’s rare for them to feel very topical when
animated documentary made for
they come out. But Flee lands in the wake British television”, this 50-minute
TALES DRAWN FROM LIFE of last summer’s events in Afghanistan, and film incorporates audio recordings
Animated documentaries have existed at in the midst of renewed discussion about of people undergoing relationship
least since Winsor McCay’s The Sinking of refugee crossings in Europe. The film has therapy with the charity Relate. We’re
made privy to confessions of infidelity,
the Lusitania (1918) recreated the notorious a chance of shaping public discourse on
suicidal thoughts and fantasies about
ABOVE
torpedoing of a British liner in World War these issues, not least in Denmark. Hope- unattainable colleagues. The anima-
Flee director Jonas I. But Flee is the latest in a string of recent fully it will also leave a legacy in animation, tion, which is directed by veteran
Poher Rasmussen
documentaries that see in animation, with reminding us that the medium can help us indie filmmaker Jonathan Hodgson,
OPPOSITE, FROM TOP its capacity to distort and subvert the rep- not just to escape reality, but also to probe serves to tell deeply intimate stories
Amin clubbing; his early life while hiding the subjects’ identities,
in Afghanistan; Amin with a
resentation of things, an opportunity to it and reveal its depths.
as it does in Flee. By assigning them
boy he develops a crush on try to convey the subjective experiences cartoon avatars, the film also helps
as they are smuggled out of
Russia; Amin with director
of memory and trauma. This genre has Flee is released in UK cinemas on us to tell the many participants apart,
Jonas Poher Rasmussen flourished since the success of Lebanon 11 February and is reviewed on page 70 which would be harder on the radio.
60
Reality
61

Bites
With its stunningly rendered online worlds, Hosoda Mamoru’s
Belle, a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast, underscores
the allure of the metaverse – and hints at its dangers
WORDS BY MICHAEL LEADER

The roots of Belle, Hosoda Mamoru’s elec- and the Beast. Finally, 30 years on, inspiration
trifying tale of human connection in an struck. “My original idea was: what would
increasingly online world, can be traced happen if I would try and tell this story of
back almost 30 years. Animation can be a Beauty and the Beast in an online world?
punishing profession, and a young Hosoda, The Beast has this duality, or two sides
a year or two into his tenure as an animator of himself, and it’s the same when you go
for Japanese studio Toei, was struggling online. You have yourself, and your online
with the long hours and low pay that plague self. And you discover yourself through this
the anime industry. “I was really wondering process – you might not even have realised
if I could stick with it,” Hosoda recalls, talk- that there is another you inside.”
ing to me the day after Belle’s UK premiere at As with Mirai and The Boy and the Beast,
the BFI London Film Festival last October. the young character at the heart of Belle
But then a transformative trip to the cinema was informed by the everyday experiences
changed the course of his career. of Hosoda’s children, in this case his five-
The year was 1992, when the latest opus year-old daughter. “When my daughter is
from the so-called Disney renaissance had at home she’s really lively,” he explains. “She
just reached Japanese shores: Beauty and does whatever she likes. But at nursery she’s
the Beast. “I was so impressed by it, and by very shy and very timid. She’s only got one
what animation could do, that it inspired friend. And I started to worry: how will
me to keep going,” Hosoda says. Specifi- she survive when she grows up and she’s
cally, he was inspired by the work of Glen got a phone and she’s got to navigate social
Keane, one of Disney’s leading animators media? What will other people think of her?
of the time, who brought to life many of the How will she manage? I wanted to tell a
period’s most enduring characters: Ariel (in story of how someone like that can find their
The Little Mermaid, 1989), Aladdin and, most own identity and grow in this new world.”
importantly to Hosoda, the Beast. “I had The film’s protagonist, Suzu, isn’t five:
such great respect for him and I thought, ‘I she’s a troubled teenager mourning for a lost
want to be like him one day.’” parent. She is desperately searching for self-
That drive has served Hosoda well. Over hood in the high-stakes social world of high
the following years, he would rise through school, until she logs on to the vibrant, vir-
the ranks at Toei to the role of director, move tual world of ‘U’ – an app that scans a user’s
into feature film work, win international biometric data to create an avatar that best
acclaim and box-office success back home expresses their inner spirit. Hosoda con-
with The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) trasts the humdrum real world, rendered
and Summer Wars (2009), before eventually in a familiar, grounded ‘slice of life’ anime
going independent and setting up his own style, with the slick, brightly coloured, sen-
company, Studio Chizu, in 2011. Films such sory-overload CG wonderland of U, where
as Wolf Children (2012), The Boy and the Beast characters congregate in their billions amid
(2015) and Mirai (2018) solidified Hosoda’s impossible architecture that juxtaposes
reputation as a popular filmmaker adept at densely packed banks of servers and sky-
combining resonant personal themes, often scrapers. The internet serves as an exagger-
inspired by his own family life, with complex ated virtual stage for our heroine’s personal
metaphorical storytelling devices. journey. Online, Suzu is transformed into a
Hosoda grappled for decades with how glamorous, graceful pop diva, Belle, whose
to create his response to Disney’s Beauty songs touch the hearts of her fellow U users.
OPPOSITE Suzu and the Dragon, aka ‘Beast’, in Belle
62

An overnight sensation, she soon becomes how it provides a space for young people
the community’s most beloved charac- to express themselves outside of the pres-
ter, contrasting with its most reviled: the sures of everyday life. Yet he is clear-eyed
mysterious, grotesque Dragon, known as about its problems, and the role played by
‘Beast’, who is being hunted by the corpo- the companies that control so many of the
rate-sponsored online cops, the Justices. platforms and services we use on a daily
Awkward teen melodrama, animalistic basis, many of which are now embracing
outsiders, the internet: all of this may be the concept of an always-online metaverse
familiar territory for Hosoda, but he is not too dissimilar from the one depicted in
as ever engaged with the current cultural Belle: “All of the issues that we have with
moment. Ever since the short spin-off film the internet – the trolling, the fake news,
Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! in 2000, the loss of political neutrality – they’re all
he has been responding to the develop- linked to Facebook. The metaverse is a
ing role that the internet plays in our eve- global trend right now, but we’ve always
ryday lives and in society at large. “I have had two worlds: the real world and the
been making films about the internet for online world. It’s no longer the case that
20 years now, even though the internet’s the online world is a fictional, made-up
really only been around for 25 years. Back fantasy world – the online world is just as
then, it was full of hope: it was a tool that real as the real world, it’s a second reality.”
young people were going to use to change It’s telling, then, that Belle’s powerful con-
the world. Now, it seems like the internet clusion sees Suzu reaching outside of the
is no longer as full of hope as it used to be.” virtual world to make a real-world human
That ambivalence is hinted at through connection. Belle is ultimately a story of
Belle’s personal experience, as she receives empathy in the face of prejudice, much like
her fair share of thoughtless negative the film that inspired Hosoda back in 1992:
comments from other users, but it is also “What I like about the story of Beauty and
evident throughout the world of U. A con- the Beast is the reversal of values, and how
troversial figure like the Beast fuels fierce our expectations are overturned,” Hosoda
debate and rampant speculation among says. “The Beast has this violent exterior,
the user community, a discourse fed by this horrible temper, but that’s not all there
the Justices even though his actual misde- is to him. There’s a different person inside.
meanours remain unclear: a diversionary And I’ve always thought about how to
spectacle that helps maintain the status depict that.”
quo for an online empire.
Hosoda still claims to be an idealist Belle is released in UK cinemas on
about the potential of the internet, and 4 February and is reviewed on page 80

‘It’s no longer the case that the

online world is a fictional, made-
up fantasy world – the online
world is just as real as the real
world, it’s a second reality’

TOP
Director Hosoda Mamoru

ABOVE
Troubled teen Suzu, who is
mourning the death of her mother

LEFT
Suzu is reborn online as
the pop sensation Belle
 BELLE 63

Behind JIN KIM To provide the look for Belle, the with him.” And yet, a connection was
heroine of his retelling of Beauty and the made when Hosoda paid a visit to one of
Beast for the social media generation, his idols, the renowned animator Glen
Hosoda collaborated with a Disney Keane, who was deep in production

the
veteran: South Korean artist Jin Kim, on his directorial debut, Over the Moon
whose expressive, elegant character (2020). Already overwhelmed, Hosoda
design work proved to be critical to was doubly so when he was introduced
many of Disney’s recent hits, includ- to Keane’s character designer for the
ing The Princess and the Frog (2009), project: Jin Kim himself. Hosoda seized

scenes
Tangled (2010) and Frozen (2013). the moment: “I was starstruck, and just
“Everyone in animation knows Jin very honest. I said, ‘I would love to work
Kim’s work,” Hosoda says. “He is a with you one day,’ and he said, ‘Yeah,
legend. He basically created modern-day OK, that sounds good.’ I thought he was
Disney. I never thought I’d get to work being polite, but he actually meant it.”

on
belle
‘I don’t want to
be restricted to
just working with
Japanese people,’
says Hosoda. ‘I want
to look around the
world to find the
people that I need
to make my films
and to broaden
the possibilities of
TOMM MOORE, As Belle nears the Beast’s domain, the
sharp-edged digital landscape of U gives
WolfWalkers (2020). It was WolfWalkers
that brought the two filmmakers
filmmaking.’ Fittingly CARTOON way to more organic backgrounds filled
with gentle curves and clear lines – the
together: Hosoda’s daughter provided

SALOON
the voice for one of the film’s protagonists
for a tale about the contribution of Irish animation studio in its Japanese-language version, and
internet, Belle is a Cartoon Saloon. Hosoda and Cartoon Hosoda himself hosted remote discus-
Saloon co-founder Tomm Moore are sions with Moore to mark the film’s
unique, international mutual admirers and share several Japanese release. It was then that Hosoda
collaboration recurring motifs and thematic preoccupa- mentioned his new project Belle: “I asked
between Hosoda’s tions, not least the image of beast-like him what he was up to after WolfWalkers
creatures forsaken by polite society, as and he said he was having a break. And I
Tokyo-based Studio seen in Hosoda’s Wolf Children (2012) and said, ‘Well, that’s a waste, why don’t you
Chizu and key Moore and co-director Ross Stewart’s come and help me with my film?’” →
contributors from
around the world
ALL IMAGES (C) 2021 STUDIO CHIZU

TOP
One of Jin Kim’s sketches for
the character of Belle

RIGHT
A landscape in the film, created by
Tomm Moore’s Cartoon Saloon
64

ERIC WONG “On the internet, it doesn’t matter if

you’re famous, or if you’re unknown,
Belle’s virtual world, as well as the app
design and interface through which
cover Midtown Manhattan, as a similar
exercise in “architectural speculation”:
as long as you’re good,” Hosoda says. its 5 billion users engage with it. a way of questioning and reshaping
“It’s a very fair platform.” This theme Working from suggestions in Belle’s our built environment that has often
runs central to Belle’s narrative and even script of “a floating mysterious metropo- inspired artists, writers and filmmak-
informed its production. When looking lis... [with] geometrical illumination ers, like Hosoda, who work in the not
for potential designers to create concept and sparkling lights from skyscrapers”, entirely unrelated field of science fiction.
artwork for the dense online world of Wong tells me by email that he ulti- This being a production in the age of
U, none of the traditional candidates mately landed on a conception of U as “a the pandemic, the collaboration was con-
satisfied Hosoda’s vision. “So I had a modulated system made up of skyscrap- ducted entirely remotely: Hosoda and
look for myself, and I was online, and ers and parks to form a linear city that Wong only met for the first time in person
I found Eric Wong’s work. I didn’t continuously expands as the user base as Belle premiered at the BFI London Film
know who he was, or where he was, or grows”, using this impossibly vast virtual Festival last year. “The internet is a place
how old he was, or anything about his space to offer commentary on “both the that allows these encounters, these global
profile – but I got in touch.” Wong, a precariousness and wonders of the digital meetings,” Hosoda says. “Whether you’re
London-based architect and lecturer at world”. Wong cites Buckminster Fuller world-famous, or completely unknown,
the University of Greenwich’s School and Sadao Shoji’s radical architecture, it doesn’t matter online. Both are equally
of Design, had never worked in film such as the 1960 proposal for a two- valid, and that was something I wanted to
before, but was tasked with designing mile-wide geodesic dome that would put into practice in the film.”

RIGHT
Eric Wong’s sketches for
Belle’s virtual worlds

BELOW RIGHT
Wong’s concept art design
for the world of U

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FEATURES 16 RARE AND REMARKABLE ARCHIVE TITLES INCLUDING SOUTH ,

WITH A NEWLY RECORDED SCORE BY NEIL BRAND
 68
R E 86
FILMS TELEVISION
Taming the Garden; Flee; Petrov’s Flu; The Afterparty, Landscapers,
The Souvenir Part II; La Mif; The Real The Beatles: Get Back,
Charlie Chaplin; Lingui, the Sacred Yellowjackets, A Very British
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W S
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A screening of Ballet Black, An engaging exploration of the life
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about the Ballets Nègres, plus of David Lynch’s Inland Empire and a
a new streaming service for counterfactual history of the cinema
classic films from Russia, the
Caucasus and Central Asia
 68
FILMS

Taming the Garden mirage, washes over the viewer like visual
poetry, until the sheer unnaturalness of it
If witnessing liberal use of wide shots, keeping every-
thing in focus so that each worker can
all tips us into the realm of the grotesque. a sailing tree take his place within the frame. Through
SWITZERLAND/GERMANY/GEORGIA/
THE NETHERLANDS/FINLAND 2021
When the picture first went viral, it felt unnatural, the sounds of snapped twigs and whir-
was called ‘the swimming tree’, some- it’s nothing ring chainsaws, we hear snippets of
DIRECTOR SALOMÉ JASHI thing of a misnomer, suggesting free- bickering between the workmen as they
WRIT TEN BY SALOMÉ JASHI
dom for the floating magnolia. Majestic compared to prep a tree for transport (“Move your
CINEMATOGRAPHY GOGA DEVDARIANI
SALOMÉ JASHI though it might be, this century-old tree seeing one ass, will you!”). Industrial smoke billows
EDITOR CHRIS WRIGHT
had been uprooted and displaced, trans- separated from through the thicket, giving the brief illu-
ported by barge to the privately owned sion of an artificial film set. Jashi plays
SYNOPSIS
garden of billionaire and former prime the ground, masterfully with scale, moving between
The wealthy former prime minister of
Georgia has developed a taste for trees,
minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili roots swaddled muddy close-ups and landscape shots of
purchasing them from various locations (a garden that, admittedly, is open to the in a white sheet heavy machinery, gradually revealing the
public – within limits). Director Salomé lengths to which these workmen must go
on the Georgian coast to be uprooted
and transported by land and sea to his Jashi was one of many Georgians who like a baby to move this hefty specimen. If witness-
own garden. Salomé Jashi documents this found herself transfixed by the photo- ing a sailing tree felt unnatural, it’s noth-
process and the people it affects, showing graph, and a moment of piqued interest ing compared to seeing one separated
the disruption and destruction created as he would eventually evolve into her medita- from the ground, its roots swaddled in a
grows his collection.
tive documentary, Taming the Garden. white sheet like a baby.
As it turned out, one ‘swimming tree’ Jashi filmed in multiple locations to
BY K ATIE MCCABE
was not enough – at the behest of the capture the taking of individual trees.
billionaire, almost 200 were bought, Despite the shifting of time and place,
A colossal tulip tree drifting, swan-like, excavated and moved to his garden, a she shows a remarkable ability to home
through the teal waters of Georgia’s complex process of local manpower and in on extraordinary moments between
Black Sea is not a sight our eyes were ever engineering which Jashi’s film documents ordinary people. Chatter among work-
meant to perceive. But that is the image in artful detail. Construction scenes are ers and villagers often feels closer to
that made its way across thousands of composed like Flemish landscape paint- spoken parable than conversation (“Do
Georgian computer screens in 2016. At ings (Jashi has named Pieter Bruegel TREE DIMENSIONS
you know the story of the old woman and
first look, the surreal image, an apparent the Elder as an inspiration) as she makes Taming the Garden the tree?”). Co-cinematographer Goga
 69

too, with prolonged shots of priapic rusty

metal pipes being drilled into the earth.
This contrasts with the film’s brief turns
of tenderness: in a composition straight
out of Bruegel’s The Harvesters, we find a
man fast asleep at the base of a tree, cra-
dled by its gnarled roots.
Taming the Garden’s finest scenes come
in the form of tense conversations (and
arguments) between locals. Some are
more than happy to turn their trees into
cash, others wonder what all the fuss and
gossip is about (“They never gave a shit
about the trees before”), while one wily
older woman warns her family not to get
ripped off: “I’ll get my good stick made Q&A
of acacia wood, I’ll bash their heads
until they bleed.” At one point, a proces- SALOMÉ JASHI, DIRECTOR
sion forms behind a tree as it begins its
journey, looking messianic in its wooden Q What was your relationship like with
cage. One follower blesses herself and the workers and communities you
begins to weep amid shouts of: “Come were filming for Taming the Garden?
on, what is there to cry about?” A There were stories that I thought
It’s hard to say anyone here is abso- were really important, but there were
lutely in the wrong. Money is needed, many people who did not really want
money is being paid, and the trees are to share their stories on camera,
being moved, not killed, so what’s the because this man [buying the trees] is
harm? But there is always a cost to com- the former prime minister. It’s not that
promise. To get a particular tree for one he personally would do something
billionaire’s playground, three or more bad to these people. But people were
around it have to be removed, so it can reluctant to speak because they would
be extracted from the earth. Generations be kind of afraid of their local governor,
grew up beneath them, played beneath or maybe their son was employed in
them. Without the trees to anchor those Ivanishvili’s company and they were
communal memories, they begin to afraid that he might lose his job. I
fade. One older woman complains to don’t know, it’s a bit of a post-Soviet

FILMS
the workers that she was just 25 when inheritance of not really being free to
she planted the very trees they are chop- express, even if nothing might happen,
ping down. Whacking the ground with after all, but still there is this fear.
a loose branch, she issues a quiet word
of warning: “Everything we do in this life Q It doesn’t really feel like the film is
will be weighed up in the next...” passing judgement on anyone in
You could argue this man has the right the community, because you can
to spend his money as he pleases, if the see multiple points of view…
seller is willing, but should he have the A In the beginning, to be honest, when
power to do so? It smacks of the 18th-cen- I went to film there, I went with a bit
Devdariani choreographs one exchange tury fashion for follies and menageries, of this arrogance, like saying, “Oh,
like a baroque tableau, in which two men when aristocrats would fill their gardens how can you sell your ancestral tree?”,
discuss the ethics of this tree-collecting with architectural oddities and collect you know, this moralistic approach.
habit in dramatic chiaroscuro; one exotic animals as a means of parading And very soon I realised I was being
smokes at an open window, inviting in their wealth. stupid, because here it’s a matter of life
just enough light to make the pair vis- Like that first viral image from 2016, and death, basically. The tree can be
ible as they wonder out loud, “Why is he the penultimate moments of Jashi’s film converted to cash, which is really, really
doing this? Who is he doing it for?” focus on a tree’s maritime journey to important. It’s a matter of survival for
With no explanatory narration, such this ‘magic’ private garden. On arrival, somebody. And I have seen families
scenes allow Taming the Garden’s charac- she captures the splendour of Ivanish- who were desperate to sell their trees.
ters to emerge organically – the absentee, vili’s park, while drawing attention to its
godlike moneyman, the construction artifice. Jashi makes us see the strings, Q How has creating the film changed
workers employed to serve his whim, and sometimes literally: newly replanted trees your own relationship to trees?
the villagers, who remain divided about appear bolted to the earth with wire. A Well, I think it has become more
the billionaire’s intentions. A less obvi- Flashes of these ancestral plants taking articulable. Before it was more
ous character group comes in the form of root in their new ‘home’ play out to a 16th- subconscious, my passion for trees.
the construction equipment. Jashi’s long century chanson by Clément Janequin, The first time I saw a tree move when
shots have an anthropomorphising effect, remixed and blended with bird sounds we were filming, I felt dizzy. And I
allowing us to drink in their mechani- to form a kind of Arcadian symphony. felt sick. It was really like something
cal aesthetics to the point where they After all we have witnessed, it’s hard to fundamental was taken from my
start to feel like lovable creatures. Here, see it as anything more than an encaged physical body. And that’s when I
the machines move with heads bowed forest, manufactured to suit one man’s started to think that the tree is really an
as they prepare to hack at the earth, as desire. What will happen next, we access. You know how to stand when
if ashamed of the sins they are about wonder, when he has had his fill of trees? you have a tree. And when it moves
to commit. In one memorable shot, we “Then,” as one villager drily puts it, “he’ll away, you lose the ground. So that’s
watch as a digger comically dunks its go after the birds.” what the trees became to me, a kind of
bucket into the sea like a gannet diving stability and access, the feeling of being
for cod. Jashi leaves plenty of room for In UK cinemas and streaming via rooted and belonging somewhere.
Dogwoof on Demand now
some on-the-nose masculine symbolism,
 70

The Matrix:
Resurrections
CERTIFICATE 15 148M

DIRECTOR LANA WACHOWSKI

SCREENPLAY LANA WACHOWSKI
DAVID MITCHELL
ALEKSANDER HEMON
BASED ON CHARACTERS BY THE WACHOWSKIS
CINEMATOGRAPHY DANIELE MASSACCESI
JOHN TOLL
EDITOR JOSEPH JET T SALLY
PRODUCTION DESIGN HUGH BATEUP
PETER WALPOLE
MUSIC JOHNNY KLIMEK
TOM TYKWER
COSTUME DESIGN LINDSAY PUGH
CAST KEANU REEVES
CARRIE-ANNE MOSS
YAHYA ABDUL-MATEEN II
HOUNDED AFGHAN Amin in Flee
SYNOPSIS

Flee The mujahideen are rarely seen in Flee, although

the impact of their rule, including the disappear-
Now believing himself to be a video-game designer
whose memories of a double life as Neo are just
ance of Amin’s father, is felt. They are far from psychic residue from his creations, Thomas Anderson
is reabsorbed into the Matrix by a gang of hacker
DENMARK/FRANCE/SWEDEN/NORWAY/THE NETHERLANDS/
the only villains here. Like Ben Sharrock’s Limbo
USA/UK/FINLAND/ITALY/SPAIN/SLOVENIA 2021 revolutionaries who believe that he is, once again,
(2020), Flee furiously criticises the hostile treat- the key to winning the war against Earth’s reigning
DIRECTOR JONAS POHER RASMUSSEN ment of refugees. While the traffickers’ brutal- artificial intelligence.
SCREENPLAY JONAS POHER RASMUSSEN ity disgusts Amin, even greater rage is reserved
AMIN
EDITOR JANUS BILLESKOV JANSEN for the Moscow police, “the worst people in the BY ADAM NAYMAN
ART DIRECTOR JESS NICHOLLS world”, shown throughout as corrupt, bullying
MUSIC UNO HELMERSSON
ANIMATION DIRECTOR KENNETH LADEKJÆR and violent. We catch a glimpse of their behaviour
VOICE CAST DANILE K ARIMYAR at the opening of Russia’s first McDonald’s, which Death is a prerequisite for resurrection, and the
FARDIN MIJDZADEH
MILAD ESK ANDARI is swiftly interrupted by the arrest and abuse of thesis of Lana Wachowski’s fourth Matrix movie
young refugees. Little wonder that Amin’s family seems to be that the franchise expired due to a
SYNOPSIS
seeks escapism in the campy melodramas of the peculiar form of over-exposure, a victim of its
Amin is a gay man living in Copenhagen who was Mexican soaps – crudely dubbed into Russian – own paradigm-shifting commercial success. That
forced to flee Afghanistan as a child. As his wedding that dominate the TV schedules. Resurrections not so subtly implies that the culprit
draws near, he looks back on his traumatic journeys, Amin’s early realisation of his sexuality, from was its own parent company Warner Bros – who,
his attempts to claim asylum and his changing
FILMS

childhood crushes on Hollywood and Bollywood in Wachowski’s wryly torqued version of reality,
relationship with his own sexuality in this animated
documentary.
stars to a beautiful connection he forges with released her and her sibling Lily’s 1999 hit as a
another young refugee on their journey to differ- first-person simulation video-game – heralds a
BY ALEX DAVIDSON
ent destinations in Europe, is addressed with real uniquely ambivalent exercise in brand extension,
warmth. Flee smartly focuses on moments of inti- undertaken by a director with simultaneously a
macy other films ignore – Amin taste-testing his chip on her shoulder and her heart on her sleeve.
We meet Amin as an adult living in Copenhagen. partner’s cooking, bonding with the filmmaker In plot terms, The Matrix: Resurrections is struc-
He lies down, faces the ceiling and, in what at first over their love of Jean-Claude Van Damme films, tured – self-consciously, and at first very effectively
resembles a meeting with a psychiatrist, reveals his sharing headphones with a cute boy to listen to – as a replay of its source material, with Keanu
earliest memory. In fact, he is being interviewed Roxette’s ‘Joyride’. Amin’s teenage reaction when Reeves’s Thomas Anderson again coming to
for what will become Flee, Jonas Poher Rasmus- he learns that his homosexuality is not something terms with his entrapment in an immersive vir-
sen’s astonishing animated documentary. The film that can be, in his word, “cured” will be both heart- tual world. The self-actualisation is complicated
explores Amin’s journey from a childhood in Kabul breaking and perhaps even humorously relatable this time by the fact that our erstwhile Neo also
that is changed forever when insurgent mujahi- to many gay viewers: “OK, fuck… It’s something I believes himself to be the engineer of the afore-
deen force his family to escape the country – first to have to live with.” As it turns out, Amin will learn mentioned – and fictional – Matrix series, a detail
adolescence in a hostile Moscow, where they seek to embrace his sexuality once free of the shame spun by Anderson’s therapist (a coy Neil Patrick
asylum, then to his current life in Denmark, where that has plagued him. Harris) as the blurring of a line between creative
he is soon to marry his partner, Kasper. The decision to tell Amin’s tale through anima- genius and paranoid delusions, a technocratic
While Amin’s tale is often traumatic, it is filled tion recalls Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir (2008), form of gaslighting. (Harris’s dry line-readings
with great love and humour. Watching the film in although unlike that grim depiction of war crimes, as the Machines’ resident mind-fucker are funny,
late 2021, when Taliban militants in Afghanistan Flee has moments of great joy. It’s exhilarating to although he’s outshone by a suave Jonathan Groff
had reclaimed power and the media was once see a young Amin dashing through the streets as the latest iteration of Hugo Weaving’s villainous
again filled with harrowing images of citizens of Kabul to A-ha’s ‘Take on Me’, with a whirl of Agent Smith).
piling into military cargo planes, the film’s scenes energy that recalls the kinetic animation of the It’s not until he is liberated from the seductive
of migration – often under extremely dangerous song’s video. A trip to a gay bar offers a tremen- notion that the Matrix and all its slick tropes –
conditions – hit particularly hard. The most pow- dous moment of liberation. Animation also pro- leather jackets, sunglasses, automatic weaponry
erful, unforgettable sequence in Flee shows Amin’s tects anonymity; an opening intertitle clarifies – have been spun from his subconscious that
family embarking on a terrifying passage towards that this is a true story but that “some names and Anderson can perceive the terms of his enslave-
Scandinavia led by a gang of vicious people-traf- locations have been altered in order to protect the ment and potential emancipation. But his sense
fickers. Animation does full justice to the trau- members of the cast”. The devastating ending of purpose, and the movie’s sense of passion, don’t
matic crossing in a dark, leaky freight container, as of Waltz with Bashir uses archive footage of the become properly inflamed until he realises that to
frightened men and women appear in a frenzy of Sabra and Shatila massacre. Flee, too, uses real-life fix things he must extricate Tiffany – the memory-
anguished silhouettes. Another memorable scene footage, including news reports about refugees wiped alter ego of his lover Trinity (Carrie-Anne
depicts a refugees’ vessel dwarfed by a massive marooned in Estonia and a near-fatal boat cross- Moss) – from her deadening suburban-mom
ferry packed with snap-happy tourists, underlin- ing that almost claims the lives of his sisters. The programming. Sadly, the action isn’t a patch on
ing the vulnerability of their status. While others final image, though, ends the film on a deserved its predecessors, even when it mimics their cho-
are jubilant at the presence of the ship, Amin is and overwhelmingly moving note of optimism. reography; the only indelible images this time
humiliated: “I’m embarrassed… embarrassed and involve plugged-in civilians repurposed by the
ashamed of our situation”. In UK cinemas and on Curzon Home Cinema from 11 February Matrix as suicide dive-bombers, a conceit that
 71

West Side Story

USA 2021 CERTIFICATE 12A 156M

DIRECTOR STEVEN SPIELBERG

SCREENPLAY TONY KUSHNER
BASED ON THE STAGE PLAY:
BOOK BY ARTHUR LAURENTS
MUSIC BY LEONARD BERNSTEIN
LYRICS BY STEPHEN SONDHEIM
PLAY CONCEIVED, DIRECTED JEROME ROBBINS
AND CHOREOGRAPHED BY
CINEMATOGRAPHY JANUSZ K AMINSKI
FILM EDITORS MICHAEL K AHN
SARAH BROSHAR
PRODUCTION DESIGN ADAM STOCKHAUSEN
COSTUME DESIGN PAUL TAZEWELL
CAST ANSEL ELGORT
ARIANA DEBOSE
DAVID ALVAREZ
MIKE FAIST
BRIAN D’ARCY JAMES
COREY STOLL
JOSH ANDRÉS RIVERA
GENERATION PILL Keanu Reeves as Neo RITA MORENO DANCE OF A LIFETIME Ariana DeBose as Anita
RACHEL ZEGLER
almost exceeds its sci-fi pulpiness to become another way around the Maria-Tony problem,
truly disturbing. SYNOPSIS
most frequently by taking the focus away from
What made The Matrix such a revelation twenty- In late 1950s Manhattan, a turf war between two them altogether, and beefing up the presence
plus years ago wasn’t just its wire-fu-meets-Xbox gangs – the white Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks of assorted secondary players. Anita, formerly
aesthetics but the spaciousness of its cultural – is further aggravated by the blossoming romance played to Oscar-winning effect by Rita Moreno,
between ex-con Tony, a reformed Jet, and Maria, the
and technological allegory. In imagining a sinis- remains the show’s spiciest role, done justice by a
teenage sister of Shark leader Bernardo. The ensuing
ter MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online conflict leads to tragedy on both sides.
whirling, righteous Ariana DeBose, but Kushner
Role-Playing Game) as vast and complex as the injects more blatantly articulated social unrest
world itself, the Wachowskis gave academics and BY GUY LODGE
into her anger. Leading the barnstorming ‘Amer-
fandoms alike plenty of room to pick and choose ica’ number, here staged as a street-dance duel
their own interpretative rubrics: satire, caution- between progressive and conservatively home-
ary tale, prophecy, style book, whatever. The true The first thing you hear in Steven Spielberg’s West sick immigrant factions, she makes a keen feminist
twist of Resurrections isn’t the gag of a sequel set in Side Story is expected: that famous, eerie off-screen case for struggling in poverty in the bigger pond.
a world where The Matrix already exists as valuable whistle, lifted directly from earlier incarnations Tony’s violently dysfunctional best friend Riff
intellectual property, or a nicely layered revelation of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s grows here from common punk to a strange,
about Neo’s divinity, but rather Wachowski’s musical, sounding an opening note to anxious singular presence, given a vivid reading – with
urgent attempt to reclaim her work’s imperilled traditionalists that at least some of this big-screen faint hints of queer defensiveness – by Mike Faist.

FILMS
ideological meanings. The online terminology revival will be business as usual. The first thing you Queerer still is the minor character of Anybodys
of ‘redpilling’, a term eagerly adopted by certain see, however, is a less auspicious image to those (Iris Menas), here evolved from spunky tomboy
reactionary, conspiratorially minded Internet fac- protective of Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’s to anxious, yearning transgender man: an intelli-
tions to describe a break with woke orthodoxy treasured 1961 film version: a literal wrecking-ball, gent update that perhaps merited more extended
or ‘fake news’, is duly deconstructed here, while its menacing curve at first consuming the frame, integration into the overall narrative. Most boldly
Wachowski’s increasing interest and insistence on before Janusz Kaminski’s gliding, terpsichorean of all, the character of white Friar Laurence proxy
transgender politics (and poetics) is placed front camera swoops over it, tumbling down into the Doc has been replaced with his Latina widow
and centre. rubble of a Manhattan demolition site. Brown- Valentina, nervously straddling the same cultural
In truth, not everything in The Matrix: Resur- stones lie in pieces or stand in half-shattered divide that stymies Tony and Maria, and played
rections is so stirring or effective: the solidity of cross-sections, soon to be supplanted by the glassy with equal parts diva regality and tenderness by
the bookending sections means the movie holds apartment towers that were the future in 1958. Moreno herself. The veteran has even been gifted
together, but it sags in the middle beneath the In stark contrast to the dazzlingly pristine, even the show’s signature ballad ‘Somewhere’, here
weight of its own elaborate mythology, as well as futuristic aerial views of the city that opened the reassigned and rearranged from a belting lovers’
a Hollywood gigantism that Wachowski critiques earlier film, Spielberg and screenwriter Tony declaration to a frail, mournful prayer for better
without necessarily fully subverting. It’s also tell- Kushner’s opening salvo carries the weary wisdom times ahead.
ing that Reeves, who was genuinely great in the granted by six ensuing decades, a glum warning of These are thoughtful adjustments, but
original as a character awakening to a new and things to come. The gang war between the white they come at some cost to the show’s raptur-
unfathomable knowledge of the world, is a bit Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks may play out as ous romantic heart. Stripped even of their
draggy and uninspired this time out; even as the it has done a thousand times before, the new film def ining song from the 1961 version, Ansel
character feels inflected by extra-textual business says, but New York’s inexorable gentrification will Elgort’s Tony and newcomer Rachel Zegler’s
like the ‘sad Keanu’ memes, the actor is cut off from defeat them both. Maria – both appealing enough individually
the sloe-eyed beguilement that marks his best per- It’s this strain of melancholy that defines the new – never convince as besotted, do-or-die soul-
formances. The standout in the supporting cast West Side Story, even as its most elaborate set pieces mates; their love story depends on our collec-
is Jessica Henwick’s blue-eyed, steely-cool Resist- re-conjure the predominant ebullience of the ear- tive memory of the material to stir any feeling.
ance hacker Bugs (the Looney Tunes reference is lier film – a duly tragic spin on Romeo and Juliet, of And there’s the rub: for all the politically conscious
intentional), whose ardent, near-religious faith in course, but one that felt even its pain in brash, gran- 21st-century strides made by this handsome, lov-
Neo – and idolisation of Trinity – marks her as an diose Technicolor strokes. There, as in umpteen ingly staged version, they belie an essentially
empathetic stand-in for the core, adoring fanbase versions past, any heartache was almost entirely nostalgic undertow, nostalgia not for a rosier
Resurrections means to honour. It may be that by given over to its doomed, beautiful young lovers: past, exactly, but for West Side Story itself. Though
selectively narrowing her material’s appeal and bad-Jet-turned-good Tony and virginal Shark sister coated in the varnish of studio prestige cinema, the
address without reducing its scale, Wachowski Maria, whose culture-crossing soul connection 1961 film was a struttingly contemporary, youthful
is fighting a knowingly losing battle against an should be so intense as to cancel out any implau- work; remade as a period piece, burdened with
industry that ultimately values the bottom line sibility inherent in their day-long arc from love at backward-glancing sorrow, the new film feels set
(and the assembly line); but in a moment when first sight to last breath. Russian-American star in amber. It may come as a relief to many that
most blockbusters are designed to be swallowed Natalie Wood may not have been ideally cast as Spielberg never fully delivers on the radical, mod-
whole (and with habit-forming side effects), her Maria, and dreamboat-of-the-day Richard Beymer ernising threat of that hanging wrecking-ball, but
jagged (not so) little pill is a welcome antidote. not an especially vital Tony, but the film made us perhaps he should have swung it.
believe in them by dint of sheer swooning volume.
In UK cinemas now Kushner’s bracingly liberal adaptation f inds In UK cinemas now
 72

Petrov’s Flu election campaigns). It’s the holiday season, and across the
city celebrations unfold with a desperate, nothing-left-to-
MORE FILMS BY KIRILL
SEREBRENNIKOV
lose abandon. As Petrov’s high temperature hijacks his fac- BY CARMEN GRAY
RUSSIA/FRANCE/GERMANY/SWITZERLAND/UK 2020 CERTIFICATE 18 146M ulties, borders blur between his daily grind and delirium.
An FSB stake-out deposits him in the ranks of a firing
DIRECTOR KIRILL SEREBRENNIKOV
SCREENPLAY KIRILL SEREBRENNIKOV squad; a writer acquaintance requests his trigger-pulling
BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PETROVY V GRIPPE’ BY ALEKSEY SALNIKOV assistance for suicide; he’s hauled into a boozy practical
CINEMATOGRAPHY VLADISLAV OPELYANTS
EDITOR YURIY K ARIH joke in the back of a funeral wagon, which causes confu-
PRODUCTION DESIGN VLADISLAV OGAY sion over the whereabouts of a corpse.
MUSIC AYDAR SALAHOV
DMITRIY ZHUK Petrov’s estranged wife (Chulpan Khamatova) is a librar-
ANDREY POLYAKOV ian, who – in a tongue-in-cheek nod to popular cinema –also YURI’S DAY (2008)
COSTUME DESIGN TATYANA DOLMATOVSK AYA
CAST SEMYON SERZIN leads a double life. By night she is a killer with superhuman Scripted by Yuri Arabov,
CHULPAN KHAMATOVA combat abilities, her eyes flashing black as she bloodily dis- a frequent collaborator of
YULIA PERESILD
patches suspicious men. A gathering of poets descends Alexander Sokurov, this is
SYNOPSIS into frenzied sex among the bookshelves and a bedlam of a surreal, enigmatic take on
fighting, after the length of a recital is disputed. When their identity in a Russia one can
Present-day Russia. Petrov, his estranged wife and their son never really leave. An opera
are gripped by the influenza that has swept Yekaterinburg, and son also comes down with a fever, the parents wonder if an
singer returns with her
the strange hallucinations it occasions, in the season of New aspirin left over from 1977 can offer any respite – a feeble, adult son to pay her rough
Year parties. The living and the dead are mixed up in a funeral even risky, possibility, just like the city’s few remaining pos- hometown a visit in the
wagon, as the border between the two worlds grows hazy. sibilities for regeneration. The baroque ghoulishness of dead of winter, before they
this depiction of modern-day Russia, haunted and morally move to Germany. After his
BY CARMEN GRAY decayed, is reminiscent of Sergei Loznitsa’s fiction feature strange disappearance, she
My Joy (2010), though Serebrennikov’s cynicism is punctu- waits, and begins to blend in
ated by more soft-hued tenderness, especially as the film with the locals.
Petrov’s Flu is a chaotic, phantasmagoric career through swerves into a long 70s New Year’s Eve reminiscence.
the minds of a family fevered by a raging flu epidemic, and There is violent destruction aplenty in Petrov’s Flu, but
unsure whether they’re in Yekaterinburg or Hades. As also a punk-edged folk lyricism that transmutes the pain
unmoored from reality as they are, it’s a film very much of into something darkly energised. A prominent soundtrack
its place, immersing us in a contemporary Russia mired in carries us along through surreal fantasies of escape (“Oh,
dead-end nostalgia, whose inhabitants are condemned to blue trolleybus! Take me to space, before it’s too late,” peti-
swill around in a brutal madhouse of hatred and apathy, tions a guitar-player at a gathering), and snarling harbin- THE STUDENT (2016)
with no way out. Director Kirill Serebrennikov’s wild gers of black-cloud doom (in Nick Cave’s ‘Tupelo’). Music Based on a play by the
vision gains in gravitas in the context of his punishment as a is as key as it was in Leto (2018), Serebrennikov’s unusual German playwright Marius
dissenter under the watch of Vladimir Putin’s government. and inventive tribute to the underground rock scene of von Mayenburg, this is a
As director of The Gogol Centre, an avant-garde theatre Leningrad in the 1980s. Especially noteworthy is the cautionary satire about the
in Moscow he was a public face of progressive tendencies appearance of the Siberian rapper Husky, who was also overreach of the Russian
Orthodox Church into
FILMS

in the arts, until in 2017 he was placed under house arrest heavily targeted under Putin’s culture crackdown. He is
public life, made as Putin
for fraud – a charge many deemed politically motivated – the man who rises from the coffin in the funeral wagon and was backing mandatory
during a nationwide crackdown on free expression. Based staggers off, accompanied by his track ‘Revansh’, about a religious education in
on a prescient novel by Aleksey Salnikov which predates corpse emerging into a wintry night. The living dead schools. Amid family
the coronavirus pandemic, Serebrennikov’s first feature occupy a long, radically subversive tradition as a motif in upheaval, brooding student
since his release is ambitiously sprawling; a morphing mel- Russian underground art. Serebrennikov’s rambunctiously Venya becomes fanatical.
ange of outlandish episodes and formal shifts in framing, macabre touches recall the so-called Necrorealists of 80s He preaches from his pocket
which never allows us comfortable certainty about what in Leningrad, such as Yevgeny Yufit, who made anarchic films Bible, calling for a bikini ban
this world (or the next) is going on. and objecting to a female
of grotesque slapstick and violent absurdity where zombie-
biology teacher’s lessons on
Petrov (Semyon Serzin), a car mechanic moonlighting like hooligans brawl and hurl themselves from apartment evolutionary theory.
as a comic-book artist, has a nasty cough. He takes it with balconies and trees to rebut the lies of eternal progress
the same resignation that permeates the city’s battered trumpeted by Soviet propaganda. Death is omnipresent in
façades, lensed in a murky, sickly green. On the crammed this kind of Russian work, but with a defiant, carnivalesque
trolleybus and below-zero, dimly lit streets, his fellow citi- energy that breaks free from the grey stasis of oppression
zens complain about immigrants and a post-Soviet era in and state-sanctioned lies with the uncontainable force of a
which free sanatorium tickets no longer exist, and faith in million drunken Houdinis.
power structures is low (even a lottery to choose a random
citizen as president is preferable to democracy’s deceptive In UK cinemas from 11 February LETO (2018)
A warm, wistful tribute
to 80s Leningrad and the
underground music scene
from which counter-culture
icon Viktor Tsoi sprang,
high on smuggled bootlegs
of David Bowie and Lou
Reed. The charismatic
19-year-old complicates the
bond between rocker Mike
Naumenko and his girlfriend
Natalia in this sprawling,
idiosyncratic vision. In
chimerical, animation-
scrawled flights of musical
fancy, the vigour of
rebellious creativity bursts
through stifling Soviet
realities.

SPIRIT WORSHIP Nikolai Kolyada, Yuri Kolokolnikov, Semyon Serzin

 73

Swan Song Benjamin Cleary’s Swan Song follows

in the footsteps of Ghost in the Shell, The
procedure, then with plain and simple
jealousy on seeing this other man talk to
Matrix and the Philip K. Dick adapta- his wife Poppy (Naomie Harris) the way
USA 2021 CERTIFICATE 15 1 12M
tions Blade Runner (1982) and A Scanner he usually does. But it is the idea of not
DIRECTOR BENJAMIN CLEARY Darkly (2006) and in probing the idea of a being unique that affects Cameron most.
WRIT TEN BY BENJAMIN CLEARY unique, unrepeatable identity. Swan Song, Deliberate pacing, textured cinematogra-
CINEMATOGRAPHY TAK AYANAGI MASANOBU
EDITOR NATHAN NUGENT however, is almost defiantly subtle, its phy and thoughtful compositions – the
PRODUCTION DESIGN ANNIE BEAUCHAMP focus deliberately narrow, homing in on film lingers on close-ups and medium
MUSIC JAY WADLEY
COSTUME DESIGN CYNTHIA ANN SUMMERS the effects of its futuristic premise at an shots – sustain a feeling of reality that
CAST MAHERSHALA ALI individual level. helps the viewer move beyond a knee-jerk
NAOMIE HARRIS
AWKWAFINA Cleary, who also scripted, carefully reaction and into a genuine consideration
establishes a futuristic world where such of the value of what Cameron is doing. If
SYNOPSIS a sensitive approach may feel appro- the copy is indistinguishable from the
In the near future, we meet husband and father Cameron, priate. In this future, technology has original, possessing all Cameron’s memo-
who is dying. No amount of treatment will save his life, but evolved to provide ever greater comfort: ries, values and characteristics save for his
there is a procedure to protect his loved ones from grief. we first see Cameron (Mahershala Ali) illness, wouldn’t it be selfish of the dying
Cameron plans to transfer his memories into an identical on a train buying a chocolate bar from a man not to give his family an improved
clone, leaving his family unaware that he has passed at all. sentient refreshments cabinet which rolls version of himself? The real problem is
of its own volition from carriage to car- ego, and its solution is love.
BY ELENA LAZIC riage, greeting passengers like a friendly Swan Song is a film of deep and striking
barista. The gadgets and the soft furnish- ideas; it is just a shame that its characters
ings of all interior spaces suggest a world so rarely break out of their fear, love or
of ease and relaxation, in cruel contrast grief-induced solemnity to appear fully
to Cameron’s situation: he is dying, and human. The opening scene (beautifully
technology cannot save him. But it can adapted from an anecdote in Douglas
do what, in this world, it does best: pro- Adams’s So Long, and Thanks for All the
vide a form of consolation. Cameron is Fish), as well as those featuring Awk-
considering having a clone made of him- wafina, are welcome bursts of humour
self, to protect his family from inevitable and playfulness in an otherwise almost
grief and heartbreak. too tightly woven film, and give Ali a
The f ilm elegantly peels away the chance to show another facet of his talent.
implications, as Cameron struggles
A CLONE AT LAST Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris
first with the ‘unnatural’ aspect of the On Apple TV+ now

In a sense, the survivors become co-authors – indeed, the film couldn’t be made any other way

FILMS
PROCESSION

Procession Robert Greene’s new nonfiction film

Procession is driven by complex, shifting
the cinematic lens. Ed’s visual acumen
around montage is powered by Michael’s
emotions, but utterly lucid in its central attention to stage design and Ryan’s skill
CERTIFICATE 15 118M
insight that trauma and cinema share as a commercial filmmaker. Together
DIRECTOR ROBERT GREENE
an obsession with detail. In the film, six they recreate the circumstances of their
CINEMATOGRAPHY ROBERT KOLODNY middle-aged men – Ed Gavagan, Mike traumas by scripting scenes, recreating
EDITOR ROBERT GREENE Foreman, Michael Sandridge, Ryan Tro- dialogues, looking for the locations where
MUSIC KEEGAN DEWIT T
DABNEY MORRIS bough, Tom Viviano, Joe Eldred – who the abuse took place, acting different
as young boys were assaulted by priests, roles (including the abusing priests), cast-
SYNOPSIS
gather at a non-denominational congre- ing and, finally, filming and editing. In a
Six survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests bond gation in Kansas City, Missouri, to start sense, the survivors become co-authors
as they undergo drama therapy, during which they recall drama therapy. The darkly witty Ed of Procession – indeed, the film couldn’t be
and re-enact their traumatic past. The process of turning utters his wish to be like a Marvel super- made any other way, since authorship, as
tormenting moments into short movies then takes them
hero “vanquishing the fucking forces of Greene poignantly demonstrates, lies at
back to the original locations of the assaults, this time as
potential means of closure.
darkness”, but his shattered voice tells of the root of healing.
a chasm between reality and superheroes’ In this quest for self-knowledge,
BY ELA BIT TENCOURT
awe-inspiring revenge. cinema furnishes the metaphor and the
With the help of a lawyer, Rebecca tools. Dramatic effects, zooms, props
Randles, Greene chose survivors who and parallel editing let the survivors re-
were outspoken about their abusers – for enact their vulnerability and confusion
example, Mike, allegations dismissed by while assuming an extraordinary degree
an independent review board. One scene of control. Details that once loomed
shows Mike protesting with a sign: “It diminish, perspectives shift, triggers are
is an absolute poverty that the statute of elucidated. “I want this,” Tom says in a
limitations is the crown jewel of the Cath- particularly draining scene in which he
olic Church.” Too often justice is denied, plays the abuser. Trembling and speech-
because the abuser has died or simply less, Joe feeds him excruciating lines on
because too much time has passed. a piece of paper. In the end, if they are
The idea of play as a method for put- healed by art, it’s because Greene cap-
ting the unspeakable out in the open tures with uncanny attentiveness the cre-
and then processing it through concep- ative potency that helps these survivors
tual channels – introduced in the first push on courageously towards closure.
session by a drama therapist – becomes
ONCE MORE WITH HEALING The cast of Procession more powerful when filtered through On Netflix now
ACCESS
THE
ARCHIVE
89 YEARS OF SIGHT AND SOUND

AND MONTHLY FILM BULLETIN

FULL ONLINE ACCESS

WITH ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS

S I G H TA N D S O U N D D I G I TA L . B F I . O R G . U K
Image: Anna May Wong in Piccadilly | Photography: BFI National Archive
 75

The Souvenir Part II The making of the film-within-the-film gives rise to

excruciating moments that show Hogg’s lacerating
self-awareness and lack of vanity. Harris Dickinson,
UK/USA/IRELAND 2020 CERTIFICATE 15 107M
playing ‘Anthony’ opposite Ariane Labed’s ‘Julie’,
DIRECTOR JOANNA HOGG
winces with the pained confusion of a well-meaning
WRIT TEN BY JOANNA HOGG actor confronted with a director who has not given
CINEMATOGRAPHY DAVID RAEDEKER him a solid character. In questioning the material,
EDITOR HELLE LE FEVRE
PRODUCTION DESIGN STÉPHANE COLLONGE he is also questioning whether Julie really knew
COSTUME DESIGN GRACE SNELL Anthony. The film illustrates the awkward truth
CAST HONOR SWINTON BYRNE
JOE ALW YN that creating something out of raw emotion involves
JAYGANN AYEH exposure to collaborators who may not be in tune
RICHARD AYOADE
TILDA SWINTON with the artistic enterprise.
Hogg relishes drawing a range of unsentimental
SYNOPSIS
peers, each with their own desires and impulses, no
Julie is at her parents’ country house dealing with the one reduced to a supporting act in Julie’s emotional SPOTLIGHT
death of her first love, Anthony. She returns to London drama. Swinton Byrne brings a new poise to her
to complete her filmmaking degree, where she has casual
sex and struggles to communicate with her cast and
crew. Aided by a few supportive peers, Julie’s deeply
role, marking her progression from doe-eyed naïf to
determined young artist capable of taking routine Harris Dickinson
personal thesis film begins to take shape.
blows to her self-esteem while moving forward. One
man was once her world, but now there is a mini- PROFILE BY PHILIP CONCANNON

BY SOPHIE MONKS K AUFMAN

carousel of men, in the form of casual relationships.
These do not touch her core of solitude, an interior- Harris Dickinson seemed to come out of
ity expressed talking to a therapist, implied as she nowhere with his commanding lead per-
How do you follow a film like The Souvenir (2019)? sits in the stillness of a home previously shared with formance as a closeted Brooklyn teen in
Joanna Hogg’s unsparing portrait of the relationship Anthony. The men in her life, whether for sexual or Eliza Hittman’s Beach Rats (2017), which
between a student filmmaker, Julie (Honor Swinton creative or friendship reasons, are each given a gen- earned the then 21-year-old nominations
Byrne) and Anthony (Tom Burke), who dies from a erous dollop of humanity, whether it’s Jim (Charlie at the Gotham and Independent Spirit
heroin overdose, was loaded with metatextual emo- Heaton), showing up to fuck the pain away, Mar- Awards. In fact, the Walthamstow-born
tion by its nakedly autobiographical nature. Hogg land (Jaygann Ayeh), sticking up for Julie in front of actor had been honing his craft on the
recycled personal mementos, using photographs of a mutinous crew, or her editor (Joe Alwyn), whose London stage and making his own short
the view from her own apartment in 1980s Knights- kindness belies his own world of suffering. The big- films since he was a teenager, although
bridge to show Julie’s view of the same and bringing gest scene-stealer is the returning Richard Ayoade he briefly considered giving it all up
her own gold-framed bed on set for Julie to sleep in. as an arthouse filmmaker with a delightful combi- to join the Marines, until his acting
These details blurred the line between truth and art, nation of flamboyant outfits (pink jacket, fur coat, coach persuaded him to reconsider.
a line that’s muddied further and with playful sophis- gold-flecked tie) and withering lines, who conducts The tall and muscular Dickinson was
tication in this transfixing sequel. himself with the petulant grandiosity of a baby king. initially cast in roles that made much of

FILMS
The first shot in The Souvenir Part II is of white Costume designer Grace Snell does excellent work his physical attributes. Hélène Louvart’s
flowers in the idyllic garden of Julie’s parents’ country throughout, marking Julie’s growth with a more camera lingered on his frequently
pile. Next, we see mum Rosalind (Tilda Swinton) sophisticated wardrobe than in Part I. unclothed body in Beach Rats, and he was
carefully carrying a breakfast tray, decorated with a The film could have easily displayed the solipsism presented as a figure of sexual desire and
flower, to the room where a grieving Julie has come to of grief, but it goes the opposite way. Julie – suddenly fantasy in Postcards from London (2018).
convalesce. The relationship, played by a real mother and shockingly single – navigates the world and In both of these films, Dickinson plays a
and daughter, is an essential part of the film’s central meets people on their own terms, at the distance of young man questioning his sexuality, and
tenderness. Ever the queen of understated emotion, a creative person figuring out how to channel grief. his performances have a guarded, watch-
Hogg fills scenes with stilted chit-chat, every so often Hogg brings to life John Koenig’s concept of ‘sonder’ ful quality. He channelled this quality
feeding in the most devastating line of dialogue. (the realisation that everyone else has as rich and in a more disturbing way in County Lines
When Julie presses her mother to reveal how she felt complex a life as you) by characterising supporting (2019), where he is casually terrifying as
when she took the call informing her of Anthony’s players in a way that Julie, as her youthful avatar, will a drug dealer grooming troubled kids
death, Rosalind replies, “I felt through you.” eventually adopt. Evidence of her intention to own to be his runners. It’s a relatively limited
If the first film was about Julie losing herself in this portrait of the artist as a young, bereaved woman performance in terms of screen time, but
romance, Part II is about Julie finding herself in grief, arrives in a perfectly judged finale, where Hogg has it casts a shadow over the whole film.
as she tries to process what happened with Anthony the final word, in her own voice. Dickinson’s ability to make small sup-
through the making of her thesis film, itself as trans- porting roles resonate and feel authentic
parently autobiographical as The Souvenir is for Hogg. In UK cinemas from 4 February is also on display in The Souvenir Part II
(2021) and Matthias & Maxime (2019)
– his cameo as an amusingly boorish
lawyer in Xavier Dolan’s film displays
a comic sensibility that one hopes we
see more of. A leading role in the long-
delayed action blockbuster The King’s
Man may not have been the launching-
pad to wider recognition that one might
have hoped, given its disappointing
box-office performance; but upcom-
ing projects include Ruben Östlund’s
satire Triangle of Sadness and Olivia
Newman’s adaptation of Delia Owens’
bestseller Where the Crawdads Sing.

FINDING DIRECTION Honor Swinton Byrne as Julie

 76

La Mif Fred Baillif describes his Berlinale award-

winning docudrama as “a hyperlink film”.
with an ‘I Don’t Give a F***’ logo – or in
the hair-trigger physicality of combative
The term may sound clinical and imper- Brazilian Novinha (Kassia Da Costa),
SWITZERLAND 2021
sonal, and it belies the turbulent intimacy ground us in the veracity of the world
DIRECTOR FRED BAILLIF
he and the young cast of La Mif – resi- depicted.
SCREENPLAY FRED BAILLIF dents and staff of a Swiss children’s home The film doesn’t shy away from its
IN COLLABORATION WITH STÉPHANE MITCHELL – bring to the material. He’s actually refer- residents’ more problematic behaviour.
CINEMATOGRAPHY JOSEPH AREDDY
EDITOR FRED BAILLIF ring to how the film’s action is replayed When 16-year-old Audrey (Anaïs Uldry)
PRODUCTION DESIGN MARY VILLARS across its individual sections, spooling initiates sex with a 14-year-old boy one
COSTUME DESIGN LUCY MANN
CAST CLAUDIA GROB consecutively through seven girls, with night, the fallout not only removes any
ANAÏS ULDRY their specific traumas and troubles, and young males from the home, but also
K ASSIA DA COSTA
finally Lora (Claudia Grob), the home’s lands Lora in trouble with her unim-
SYNOPSIS director, battling her own demons. Events pressed superiors. Lora is adamant that
An incident involving underage sex at a residential care gradually reveal different perspectives and the home is not a prison, that teen sex is
home for at-risk teenagers in Geneva forces it to change to motivations. But this is no puzzle to solve; not a crime. We later learn that Audrey
a single-sex establishment. As the young girls try to deal there is no ultimate truth around which to is reeling from the sudden deaths of her
with their various troubles, the home’s director, Lora, and coalesce. It’s a mosaic whose pieces only parents, “trying to fill a hole since they
her staff also struggle with their own relationships with the reveal how fractured and fragile is the died”. And given that the spectre of sexual
residents and each other. system within which they all exist. abuse by adults haunts several of the girls,
Baillif, himself a former social worker, it shows up the inadequacies of the care
BY LEIGH SINGER collaborated with his non-professional system’s handling of cause and effect.
cast over two years, encouraging dis- Ultimately, though, this is no mere
cussions about their lives, facilitating hand-wringing exercise but an ebullient,
improvisations and then designing an creative, often very funny and tender
outline (alongside co-writer Stéphane slice of life. Baillif ’s elegant linking of
Mitchell) from which they can extrapolate his raw vignettes by excerpts from Bach
on camera. It’s a bold, patient approach and Mozart points towards an empha-
that pays off handsomely. None of these sis on drama as much as documentary,
young women play themselves – each invested as much in its vibrant young
uses a fictional name. But the nuances in performances as in its indignant exposé
slang dialogue (la mif is a quasi-reversal of of social care.
famille), in rough-hewn attire – spiky, love-
TO SŒURS, WITH LOVE The cast of La Mif lorn Alison (Amélie Tonsi) sports socks In UK cinemas from 25 February

The film uses split screen to chart an unscientific comparison between the actor and Adolf Hitler
FILMS

THE REAL CHARLIE CHAPLIN

The Real Charlie Chaplin The story that Charlie Chaplin once
entered a Charlie Chaplin look-alike con-
married and divorced, as well as his inhu-
mane working practices on City Lights
test and came 20th is well travelled. It goes (1931). During production, he made the
DIRECTORS PETER MIDDLETON some way to illustrating just how well imi- actress Virginia Cherrill a scapegoat for
JAMES SPINNEY
WRIT TEN BY OLIVER KINDEBERG tated (and yet elusive) he really was. Chap- his creative block, callously firing her
PETER MIDDLETON lin’s screen persona, The Tramp, wasn’t before eventually begging her to return,
JAMES SPINNEY
CINEMATOGRAPHY JAMES BLANN just recognisable, he was adored, induc- in an infamous example of perfectionism
EDITOR JULIAN QUANTRILL ing what the papers called, ‘Chaplin-oia’, gone wrong. Cherrill’s recorded voice
PRODUCTION DESIGN NEIL ALLUM
MUSIC ROBERT HONSTEIN ‘Charlie-mania’ and ‘Chaplin-itis’. wearily recalls what it was like working
COSTUME DESIGN NATALIE MARIE WILLIS In the grip of their own Chaplin fever, with an artist who didn’t use a script,
NARRATOR PEARL MACKIE
directors Pete Middleton and James and who insisted on directing, editing,
SYNOPSIS Spinney (Notes on Blindness, 2016) use split producing and scoring as well as starring
Narrated by the actress Pearl Mackie, this documentary screen to chart a wholly unscientific and in all his films – his assistants said that if
uses archive footage, film clips, audio interviews, dramatic clumsy comparison between the actor he could, he would do every job himself.
re-enactments, newspaper articles and photographs to and Adolf Hitler, two men who have a But is the film right to suggest that the art
reveal the man beneath the bowler hat and toothbrush handful of incidental similarities: born of Charlie Chaplin, comically waddling
moustache. four days apart, both loved their moth- across screen and wriggling his nose,
ers and had alcoholic fathers, and both can be separated from the once poor boy
BY TARA JUDAH wore toothbrush moustaches. The thesis who literally turned his rags to riches, Sir
is that of these two “mesmeric perform- Charles Spencer Chaplin?
ers”, one used his attributes to entertain Looking for the man beneath the
the masses, while the other used them to make-up, the documentary is well-
oppress and eradicate as one of history’s researched and playful in tone. There’s
most abhorrent dictators. plenty of impressive archive footage, and
But Chaplin didn’t only make people the re-enactments set to audio interviews
laugh. He also made them cry; indeed, feel apt if uncanny, echoing the imperme-
he made some of them downright miser- able layers of performativity the filmmak-
able. But The Real Charlie Chaplin, though ers are up against in their own pursuit.
it acknowledges his less palatable charac- Actress Pearl Mackie’s narration gives the
ter traits, ultimately lets him off the hook footage its much-needed anchor, but in
for his bad behaviour – which includes the end, we’re no closer to the real Charlie
emotional cruelty to and psychological Chaplin than we were at the start.
abuse of Mildred Harris and Lita Grey,
THE HOLLOW CLOWN? Charlie Chaplin the teenage actresses he impregnated, In UK cinemas from 18 February
 77

MORE FILMS BY
MAHAMAT-SALEH HAROUN
BY K AMBOLE CAMPBELL

ABOUNA (2002)
Two young boys, Tahir
and Amine, wake up one
morning to discover that
their father has abandoned
them and their family. They
search for him to no avail,
finding out that he has lied
about his job for more than
two years. Abouna becomes
more about optimism in the
face of cruelty, concerned
with the children’s
adjustment to the change in
their circumstances, their
fraternity changing in the
wake of parental absence.

Lingui, the missing calls to prayer that they’re not

even able to sit in on, single motherhood
BOND MOVIE
Rihane Khalil Alio as Maria, Achouackh

Sacred Bonds
Abakar Souleymane as Amina
is condemned (although Maria’s father,
like many other fathers in the film, remains
FRANCE/CHAD/GERMANY/BELGIUM 2021
absent) and, with disturbing frequency,
children are born from sexual assault
DIRECTOR MAHAMAT-SALEH HAROUN because abortions are illegal. DRY SEASON (2006)
WRIT TEN BY MAHAMAT-SALEH HAROUN
CINEMATOGRAPHY MATHIEU GIOMBINI Haroun’s direction is economical and In Chad in the immediate
EDITOR MARIE-HÉLÈNE DOZO matter-of-fact, establishing most of the aftermath of civil war, Atim
PRODUCTION DESIGN PATRICK DECHESNE
MUSIC WASIS DIOP character relationships in the opening min- is sent on a mission by his
COSTUME DESIGN JÉRÉMIE NGARBEY MIANRABEL utes before quickly moving on to the main grandfather to find and
HAROUN DOGO BAROUA kill the man who killed

FILMS
CAST ACHOUACKH story arc. Maria is having nightmares, and
ABAK AR SOULEMANE it’s soon revealed that she is pregnant after Atim’s father. Haroun puts a
RIHANE KHALIL ALIO quieter, more contemplative
YOUSSOUF DJAORO being raped by a man whose identity she spin on the revenge
fears to reveal. She wants an abortion, film, highly interested
SYNOPSIS which is condemned by the theological in presenting the visual
Chad, the present day. Thirty-year-old Amina, and legal authorities in Chad. (This isn’t, details and textures of the
a practising Muslim, lives alone with her only of course, all that distant from how the US city as well as the nuances
child, 15-year-old Maria. Amina learns that establishment operates, Christian taboos of his actors’ physical
not only is Maria pregnant but she wants to holding more sway than anyone cares to performances.
have an abortion, both forbidden by their admit.) Amina and Maria journey through
religion and illegal in their country. their area to find someone who will help
them, finding salvation in exchanging
BY K AMBOLE CAMPBELL
assistance with other women, similarly
oppressed by husbands and fathers.
The title Lingui is an acknowledgement Lingui ’s matter-of-factness is also evi-
of the profound connections of sister- dent in its visuals: rich splashes of colour
hood, the Chadian word ‘lingui’ meaning emerge from its simple approach to pro- A SCREAMING MAN (2010)
‘a precious bond’. Director Mahamat- duction design (even piles of rusty barrels Also set in present-day
Saleh Haroun clearly sees such bonds in present a vivid spectrum) and gorgeous, Chad, A Screaming Man
terms of moments of solidarity between vibrant costuming. The camerawork is follows the middle-aged
women found in a country dominated by still and observant, director of photogra- Adam, a former swimming
patriarchal structures both in law and in phy Mathieu Giombini keeping the cast champion who is now the
religion. Haroun once again returns to his at arm’s length in a way that would appear pool attendant at a hotel,
and forced to give up his
native Chad, continuing to interrogate his mystifying and obtuse if not for the script, job to his son Abdel when
nation’s ills through small-scale personal which for the most part allows characters the hotel is taken over
dramas, here tackling topics like female to say exactly what’s on their mind, the by new Chinese owners.
circumcision and the problems caused by dialogue frequently instructive and didac- Haroun explores father-son
abortion being criminalised. tic. There’s no real use for obfuscation in relationships in this subtle
In Lingui, Haroun shows through his Lingui: Haroun makes proceedings sur- and soft-spoken drama set in
protagonist, Amina (Achouackh Abakar prisingly frictionless. As soon as Amina the context of civil war.
Souleymane), the cruel patriarchal traps runs into a problem or is forced to revisit
leveraged by religion and government. a fraught family relationship, it’s resolved.
She’s already a pariah because of her This feels like part of the point of Lingui,
status as a single mother, a fact that a an ultimately optimistic film that seeks to
potential suitor, Brahim, weaponises emphasise a quiet unity among women.
when attempting to wear her down into But despite the film’s simplicity, it does
accepting his marriage proposal. Amina make the journey feel rather inelegant.
and her daughter Maria are caught in
various loops: women are chastised for In UK cinemas from 4 February
 78

Cyrano Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play Cyrano de

Bergerac has been well served by cinema.
theatre, Cyrano responds to an insult
with a deliriously entertaining rap battle/
There was a silent version as early as duel. As the film goes on, however, the
USA/UK 2021 CERTIFICATE 12A 123M
1900; a hand-tinted adaptation from 1925 doomed nature of his love sends the story
DIRECTOR JOE WRIGHT
has been restored; and add to those a down dark paths.
SCREENPLAY ERICA SCHMIDT 1945 effort scripted by Ayn Rand, the Adapting her own play, Schmidt val-
BASED ON THE STAGE MUSICAL ADAPTED BY ERICA SCHMIDT 1987 Steve Martin comedy Roxanne, and iantly tries to accommodate the story’s
FROM ‘CYRANO DE BERGERAC’ BY EDMOND ROSTAND
MUSIC BY A ARON DESSNER Gérard Depardieu’s definitive perfor- iffier parts. After all, Cyrano’s plan is
BRYCE DESSNER mance in Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s 1990 essentially to dupe Roxanne into sex with
LYRICS BY MAT T BERNINGER
CARIN BESSER film, among others. Joe Wright’s latest a handsome idiot (though the sugges-
CINEMATOGRAPHY SEAMUS MCGARVEY iteration is a musical, starring Peter Din- tion that her and Christian’s love is never
EDITOR VALERIO BONELLI
PRODUCTION DESIGN SARAH GREENWOOD klage as the poet/warrior who believes consummated softens this somewhat).
COSTUME DESIGN MASSIMO CANTINI PARRINI that being a dwarf – rather than having A starker example of the old-time sexual
CAST PETER DINKLAGE
HALEY BENNET T a big nose, as he does in the original – politics is presented by Ben Mendelsohn’s
KELVIN HARRISON JR makes his love for Roxanne (played with sexually aggressive noble De Guiche, who
BEN MENDELSOHN
fresh-faced delight by Haley Bennett) sings his intentions all too bluntly.
SYNOPSIS impossible. Most will know what hap- That said, Cyrano – like its main charac-
Cyrano is a warrior-poet, who happens to be a dwarf, and who pens next, as Cyrano acts as ghostwriter ter – has charm, humour and soulfulness.
nurses a secret passion for his cousin, Roxanne. Fearing rejection for Kelvin Harrison Jr’s more convention- The Sicilian locations, photographed
and humiliation, he decides to woo the woman by proxy, serving ally handsome Christian, with whom beautifully by Seamus McGarvey, have
as go-between and muse for the handsome Christian, to whom Roxanne has become smitten. – a stark wintry battlefield aside – a rich
Roxanne has taken a fancy. Jealousy, rivalry and warfare will further Having played the characters on stage Ferrero Rocher glow. Dinklage is superb,
bend the course of true love. in Erica Schmidt’s version, the two leads face flickering with repressed passion and
take on their parts with swagger and a voice dripping with defensive wit born of
BY JOHN BLEASDALE sense of ownership. Bennett sings with fierce pride. Bennett’s Roxanne is a smart
a pure and high Kate Bush-like soprano, woman, bucking against the constraints
playing well off Dinklage’s gruffer, more of her world even when thirsting after a
meditative delivery. The music by The man she doesn’t really know. Her roman-
National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner ticism blinds her to Cyrano’s true feelings,
delivers mumblecore melancholy and even as Cyrano’s insecurity blinds him to
under-your-skin catchiness rather than her true nature.
show-stopping tunes. The big exception
is near the beginning when, in a packed In UK cinemas now

Jim Broadbent’s pleasure becomes the driving-force of the movie

FILMS

THE DUKE

The Duke In Dr. No (1962), the first of the Bond

movies, Sean Connery does a double-take
It’s Maxwell Martin’s Mrs Gowling
who, at a key moment in Bunton’s trial,
UK 2020 CERTIFICATE 12A 95M
when he spots a painting hanging in the rises to her feet in the packed public gal-
urbane villain’s lair: it’s Francisco Goya’s lery and leads a spontaneous chorus of
DIRECTOR ROGER MICHELL 1808 portrait of the Duke of Wellington, ‘Jerusalem’. Sentimental? Oh yes. But as
SCREENPLAY RICHARD BEAN notoriously stolen from the National his filmography shows (Notting Hill, 1999;
CLIVE COLEMAN
CINEMATOGRAPHY MIKE ELEY Gallery the previous year. The late Roger Venus, 2006), Michell did not shy away
EDITOR KRISTINA HETHERINGTON Michell’s film tells the story of how and by from sentimentality, even corniness, if it
PRODUCTION DESIGN KRISTIAN MILSTED
MUSIC GEORGE FENTON whom the picture was really taken. For all was called for. All the more so here, since
COSTUME DESIGN DINAH COLLIN that it’s true – or near enough – it’s a tale he and screenwriters Richard Bean and
CAST JIM BROADBENT
HELEN MIRREN scarcely less hard to credit than that of the Clive Coleman have given us a throw-
FIONN WHITEHEAD 007 romp. It also looks likely to be one of back, not just in terms of the period it’s
ANNA MA X WELL MARTIN
MAT THEW GOODE the most charming films of the year – or set in, but to the UK cinema of that era.
indeed of any year. Storyline, attitudes, visuals, score – all
SYNOPSIS
Jim Broadbent, on top form, gives nostalgically chosen to evoke Ealing
An outspoken Newcastle taxi-driver, Kempton Bunton, disgusted by us the improbably named Kempton comedy and the British New Wave.
the money spent on Goya’s painting of the Duke of Wellington for the Bunton, the man who confessed to More than once we get a shot along a ter-
National Gallery, mounts a protest in London in 1961. The painting stealing the picture. An unstoppably raced street, cobbled and sloping down
is stolen; Bunton hides it, but surrenders himself to police after being
garrulous autodidact, both lovable and towards smoking factory chimneys with
blackmailed by his son’s girlfriend, only to be arrested and put on trial.
infuriating, Bunton subjects a passenger dated ads painted on end walls (“Bee-
in his taxi to an unwanted lecture on the cham’s Pills Make Life Worth Living”).
BY PHILIP KEMP
origins of Esperanto and then declines The film reaches its peak with Bunton’s
to charge the man because he’s a war trial, where he wins over the jury with a
veteran, which gets him sacked from the display of plain-spoken social-minded-
cab company. Broadbent is paired with ness and self-deprecating humour (“This
a cast-against-type Helen Mirren as Bun- is not an audition for a music hall,” huffs
ton’s long-suffering wife Dorothy, torn the judge). Broadbent, with a fair Geor-
between stubborn love for her husband die accent and clearly in tune with the
and exasperation at his relentless grand- character, throws himself into the role.
standing. Since, thanks to his staunch His pleasure becomes the driving-force of
principles, he rarely keeps a job, Doro- the movie – a suitably warm-hearted final
thy shores up the household income by feature from its fondly-missed director.
cleaning for the sympathetic wife (Anna
PEER REVIEW Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent Maxwell Martin) of a local councillor. In UK cinemas from 25 February
 79

SPOTLIGHT

Romola Garai
PROFILE BY ANTON BITEL

In 2000, Romola Garai had her

first professional acting role in the
BBC-HBO telemovie The Last of
the Blonde Bombshells – an auspicious
beginning, given that she was cast
as the younger version of a lead
character, Elizabeth, played by none
other than the mighty Judi Dench.
Ever since, Garai has often been seen
in lead roles herself, both on stage
and screen. She has taken principal
parts in the TV series The Incredible
Journey of Mary Bryant (2005), Emma
(2009), The Hour (2011-12) and The
Miniaturist (2017), and starred in
features like Tim Fywell’s I Capture
The Castle (2003), Mira Nair’s Vanity
Fair (2004), François Ozon’s Angel
(2007), Michael Apted’s Amazing
Grace (2008), Ruairí Robinson’s The
Last Days on Mars (2013) and most
Amulet flight from the squat after a fire breaks
out, leading him to be found, collapsed
CLAIRE AND PRESENT DANGER
Imelda Staunton as Sister
recently, Lucile Hadžihalilović’s first
English-language film, Earwig (2021),
Claire, Carla Juri as Magda
UK 2019 CERTIFICATE 15 99M
in the street, by the local nun Sister a uniquely peculiar story about a
Claire (Imelda Staunton). young girl with teeth made of ice.
DIRECTOR ROMOLA GARAI “Forward is not the only way, Tomas,” After heading to the Syrian-
WRIT TEN BY ROMOLA GARAI Claire will tell this man who is trying to Iraqi border in 2009 to helm the
CINEMATOGRAPHY LAURA BELLINGHAM
EDITOR ALASTAIR REID move on from the burden of his memo- documentary short No Man’s Land
FRANCESCA MASSARIOL

FILMS
PRODUCTION DESIGN
MUSIC SARAH ANGLISS
ries. As the film keeps switching between for the UNHCR, Garai turned
COSTUME DESIGN HOLLY SMART Tomas’s unfolding present and the past her hand in 2012 to writing and
CAST CARLA JURI that so haunts him, Claire suggests he directing her own short film Scrubber,
ALEC SECAREANU
ANGELIKI PAPOULIA move in and help maintain the dilapi- about a young mother having to
IMELDA STAUNTON dated old suburban house where Magda choose between reality and flights
SYNOPSIS
(Carla Juri) – also a foreigner – has of fancy. She followed this more
become prisoner to her self-sacrificing recently with her directorial feature
England, present day. Living illegally, in
care for a moribund mother. In pious debut, the highly accomplished
flight from his guilty past, Tomas, a veteran
of a Balkan civil war, takes a handyman job Magda, Tomas sees the possibility of an horror Amulet (2020), working
in an old house where Magda is nursing escape from his history to a better life from her own original screenplay.
her invalid mother. Even as Tomas starts ruled by devotion, service and perhaps
imagining a new life with Magda, he might even the desire that he has for so long
be falling into a sinister, supernatural trap. been holding in. But in this creaking,
mouldy house, with bats in the pipes and
BY ANTON BITEL mystic carvings in the masonry, Tomas’s
desperate attempt to find forgiveness
As a soldier digs a latrine in the woods and acceptance might just be initiating
near his remote border post in an him into the mother of all purging rituals,
unnamed, war-torn Balkan country, he where the particularly feminine pangs of
unearths a small statuette of a pagan childbirth are both monstrous miracle
mother goddess, the ‘amulet’ of the and primal punishment.
title. This prologue to actress Romola Rich in its gothic atmosphere and
Garai’s feature debut as writer/director ambitious in its transnational, time-leap-
introduces an irrational juxtaposition of ing scope, Amulet is a slippery film: part
the primordial, folkloric forest and the psychodrama of guilt and (self-)torment,
modern world, of primitive religion and part saga of elaborate rape-revenge by
contemporary realism, of the sacrosanct proxy, part grotesque body-horror, part
and the sordid. maternal mystery play and, if not a cult
Amulet then cuts to sometime later, film, certainly a film about a cult, in which
as that soldier, the philosophy student from the start Tomas seems bound by his
Tomas (Alec Secareanu), now lives own divided nature to a rite of painful,
and labours illegally in England. In a cyclical renewal. Refusing to oversim-
crowded squat, he sleeps with his wrists plify, Garai gives good qualities to people
bound, a sign that this quiet, consider- who do bad things, and so confounds the
ate mama’s boy has become arrested by viewer’s sense of moral sympathy, while
knowledge of his own capacities, as he finding internalised – and maternalised –
tries to restrain something bestial gestat- expression for the conflicts of man.
ing within himself. Thanks to a peculiar
chain of events, his bonds will slow his In UK cinemas now
 80

Belle Since losing her mother as a child she

has struggled to process her grief, and
Belle captures a paradox at the heart of
social media: it gives anonymity but can
A WORLD APART
Belle in the U universe

recoils from emotional contact with also leave users frighteningly exposed.
DIRECTOR HOSODA MAMORU others. The prospect of retreating fur- As Belle, Suzu learns not only to sing
WRIT TEN BY HOSODA MAMORU
EDITOR NISHIYAMA SHIGERU ther, signing up to U, which promises again but also to open herself to others.
PRODUCTION DESIGN JōJō ANRI its users the chance to “start over” with a Hosoda (who wrote the script) suggests
ERIC WONG
MUSIC LUDVIG FORSSELL new life, appeals to her. her disguise is crucial to this process.
FILMS

YŪTA BANDO Start over, indee d: meek Suzu Yet even as Belle, she is vulnerable: she’s
ANIMATION DIRECTOR AOYAMA HIROYUKI
VOICE CAST NAK AMURA K AHO emerges swan-like into this world, beset by trolls, as is the Dragon. Deni-
SATOH TAKERU where her avatar has the voice of an zens of U resolve, with mob ferocity, to
YAKUSHO KōJI
ENGLISH-LANGUAGE VERSION: CHACE CRAWFORD angel and the face of a Disney princess unveil the Dragon’s true identity – to
MANNY JACINTO (she was designed by veteran Disney dox him, basically. But the overstuffed
KYLIE MCNEILL
artist Jin Kim). Rediscovering her love third act confuses the message, suggest-
SYNOPSIS of singing, which atrophied after her ing that hostility in this world doesn’t
Shy teenager Suzu joins the vast virtual mother’s death, Suzu – or rather her run deep.
community U and adopts the persona of virtual self – becomes the pop sensation In any case, whatever the film says
a pop star named Belle. Her newfound Belle. She soon encounters the Dragon, about the effects of social media is
popularity gives her confidence. She grows a renowned martial artist in this virtual skewed by the fact that the two pro-
close to the Dragon, a reclusive avatar realm who is dubbed ‘Beast’ for his fight- tagonists are celebrities in U. The world
renowned as a fighter. With others bent on ing tactics and monstrous appearance. plays a highly unusual role in their lives,
harming him, Suzu resolves to discover his His solitude fascinates her. and by the end we sense they don’t need
true identity and save him.
Hosoda is skilled at orienting view- it anymore. But what of the other five
ers within complex environments. So billion, whose online lives are more hum-
BY ALEX DUDOK DE WIT
it is with U, which was designed by drum? Whereas Summer Wars, along
London-based architect Eric Wong. with also Hosoda’s Digimon Adventure:
Hosoda Mamoru opens his new film The world looks like a cross between Our War Game! (2000), tackles the wide-
much as he did his 2009 feature Summer a computer mainframe and a high-rise reaching dangers of cyber-attacks and
Wars: with a narrated tour of the teeming district of Tokyo, suspended in a twilit runaway AI, Belle doesn’t show us how
virtual realm in which most of the story sky, a pleasing counterpoint to the sleepy the existence of such a vast, radically
will unfold. That world here is U, an neighbourhood so richly portrayed in immersive virtual community affects
immersive social platform inhabited by the rest of the film. Whereas real-world society at large. When other real-world
some five billion users’ avatars. Summer scenes are animated in 2D, with people characters talk about U at all, it is to
Wars was prescient in its vision of a soci- mostly confined to a flat plane across the gossip about Belle and the Dragon.
ety that has chosen to replicate itself screen, U is a computer-generated space Their avatars comment on the action
online. Belle seems equally timely, landing in which the camera is free to roam and like a Greek chorus.
just as corporate giants like Facebook – characters can move into depth. We feel Belle is a story of voyage and return, in
sorry, Meta – and Nvidia trumpet the the sense of freedom it affords. It is a pro- which two troubled individuals acquire
coming of the metaverse. ‘U’ could stand tean realm governed by magical laws that self-understanding through a visit to the
for ‘utopia’: it is suffused with a romantic often have little to do with technology as enchanted realm of U. It isn’t too con-
sense of possibility. Parts of it would slot we know it. Through a fanciful twist, cerned with the idea of social and virtual
right into a Zuckerberg promo video. Belle reaches a hidden castle inhabited media as a permanent fixture in our lives.
Belle is less satire than fairytale: the by the Dragon. Its hodgepodge con- This is why it feels so quaint, even as the
Japanese title, which translates as ‘The struction resembles a Miyazaki inven- notion of a world like U becomes more
Dragon and the Freckled Princess’, is tion, but inside, it is pure Disney: there’s plausible by the day.
apt. Our princess-to-be is Suzu, a teen- even a nod to the ballroom scene from
age wallflower living in rural Japan. Beauty and the Beast (1991). In UK cinemas from 4 February
 81

Minyan oppression and trauma as well as mean-

ing, belonging and hope.
traditions or his grandfather’s scavenger
methodology (lacking formal instruc-
Steel’s background includes studio tion, he recalls, “I listened to the old
USA 2020 CERTIFICATE 15 1 19M production work and documentary men”). As a gay man, David explores
features: he has described his films other potential avenues. Early cruising
DIRECTOR ERIC STEEL
WRIT TEN BY ERIC STEEL The Bridge (2006), about deaths by sui- experiences seem not to go well but he
DANIEL PEARLE cide, and Kiss the Water (2013), about a finds a perch at a bar (where one regu-
BASED ON THE SHORT
STORY BY DAVID BEZMOZGIS maker of fishing flies, as accounts of lar notes that “he drinks like one of us,”
CINEMATOGRAPHY OLE BRAT T BIRKELAND the unknowability of others. Minyan vodka-based self-medication linking
EDITOR RAY HUBLEY
PRODUCTION DESIGN LUCIO SEIX AS establishes a withdrawn, watchful tone Russian and gay experience), as well as
MUSIC DAVID KRAK AUER suggestive of continence and caution dancefloor euphoria and an electric con-
K ATHLEEN TAGG
COSTUME DESIGN ANNIE SIMON in line with its characters’ experiences nection with Bruno. Their pheromonal
CAST SAMUEL H. LEVINE of religion, ethnicity, sexuality and flirtation and courtship is a highlight:
RON RIFKIN
CHRISTOPHER MCCANN nationality (David’s family migrated in a revelatory sex scene, coyness gives
from Russia when he was a child). This way to hard action then bright-eyed,
SYNOPSIS is bolstered by Ole Bratt Birkeland’s toe-curling wonder at the joy of being
Brooklyn, 1986. David, teenage son of muted, calmly controlled photogra- fucked. Then this is complicated by
a migrant Russian Jewish family, moves phy of Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach in Aids – David’s ignorance and Bruno’s
into an Orthodox apartment block with winter, all bright, low sun and bundled trauma. Comparably, David’s gradual
his widowed grandfather. On difficult layers, and through David Krakauer connection to his gay Jewish elders,
terms with his parents, David explores his
and Kathleen Tagg’s score, riffing on Herschel and Itzik, opens up a window
gay identity through interactions with a
neighbouring elderly closeted couple and a klezmer forms. But the performances to a caring, validating precedent while
tentative relationship with a barman. are key. Levine’s David is for a long time also revealing the potential for new
quiet, downcast, hanging back from forms of exclusion and complication.
BY BEN WALTERS friends and parents, a little lighter with The uses and limits of spoken testimony
his grandfather and other elders. (The are explored too.
short story’s character describes his Minyan attends to other lines of com-
Set in the 1980s, David Bezmozgis’s “nostalgia for old Jews”.) He has careful, munication, as well as the interpersonal.
2004 short story ‘Minyan’ gives a instructive interactions with others: his There’s a telling instance of that intimate
young Jewish man’s perspective on his pragmatic grandfather (Ron Rifkin); queer archival form, the box under the
recently widowed grandfather’s move the taciturn barman Bruno (Alex Hurt) bed, its contents – folded letters, phy-
into an Orthodox apartment complex. with whom he connects; and the older sique photos, matchbooks with scrawled
Their arrival ensures the formation of a couple, intellectual Herschel and gruff phone numbers – fragments of a less doc-
minyan, the group of 10 men required to Itzik (Christopher McCann and Mark umented life. And the power of books
sanctify certain forms of prayer, which Margolis), to whom he becomes close. is foregrounded, whether the Talmud
includes another duo, elderly cohab- David’s working through of these con- or Giovanni’s Room. Even here, though,

FILMS
itees whose status as a closeted couple nections into forms of confidence is the connection to the flesh persists: it’s
becomes clear. Eric Steel’s under- the film’s subtle core, shown through no accident that for David the library
stated, slow-burning feature adapta- slightly raised chin, straightened back, becomes a site of clandestine exploration
tion remains true to the story as far as it held gaze. for the body as well as the mind. All these
goes, while adding potent new dimen- It’s a story about identification and investigations are linked by the desire to
sions. The location shifts from Toronto disidentification, the parsing of poten- belong – or, if that seems a big ask in the
to New York and, echoing Steel’s own tial lineages, vehicles of transmission face of trauma and extinction, at least the
experiences, the teenage David (Samuel each with its own benefits and draw- need to be with and act with others, to
H. Levine) is himself gay, his tenta- backs. The contexts vary. Generally show solidarity even or especially if it
tive steps toward self-recognition and available models of masculinity in the feels as if, in one character’s words, “the
expression conditioned by the HIV/ home or school tend to the forceful; good ones are gone”. As its title suggests,
Aids crisis devastating the community boxing is a running motif, hinting at Minyan proposes collective agency as a
ORTHODOX APPROACH at the time. Through these intersect- both the need for self-defence and the version of hope.
Ron Rifkin as Josef, Samuel H.
Levine as David, and Christopher ing lenses, the film sensitively explores cop-out of brutalisation. In religion,
McCann as Herschel variations on themes of alienation, David can look to Orthodox liturgical In UK cinemas now
 82

The Eyes of and self-interest is best understood as Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield, PREACHER FEATURE
Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield as
a function of naivety or calculation, or a it provides a dizzying account of a long,
Tammy Faye
Tammy Faye Bakker and Jim Bakker
dissonant jumble of the two. strange trip that ultimately leaves us on
The hyperglamorous and emotive the outside looking in.
USA 2021
complement to her more buttoned-up It’s impressive as a recreation of the
husband Jim, Tammy Faye Bakker was an Bakkers’ life less ordinary, capturing the
DIRECTOR MICHAEL SHOWALTER iconic – and iconically made-up – face of crescendos of chintz and mascara that
SCREENPLAY ABE SYLVIA
BASED ON THE
the American televangelist movement of marked their ascent. Fans of the documen-
DOCUMENTARY the 1970s and 80s. The Bakkers’ upbeat, tary will recognise painstakingly repro-
‘THE EYES OF
TAMMY FAYE’ [2000] BY FENTON BAILEY entertaining and inclusive-ish mode duced on-air vignettes, including Tammy
RANDY BARBATO endeared them to many, which helped Faye’s surreal interaction with a boat while
CINEMATOGRAPHY MICHAEL GIOULAKIS
EDITORS MARY JO MARKEY their unending appeals for contributions under the influence and extraordinary
FILMS

ANDREW WEISBLUM to fund their charitable works, grandiose interviews the couple gave as their world
PRODUCTION DESIGN LAURA FOX
MUSIC THEODORE SHAPIRO development schemes and, as it turned came crashing down. Chastain and Gar-
COSTUME DESIGN MITCHELL TRAVERS out, lavish lifestyle. Their apparent rela- field endearingly convey the young Bak-
CAST JESSICA CHASTAIN
ANDREW GARFIELD tive softness also left them vulnerable kers’ chipmunk charm, rapport and belief
CHERRY JONES to the predations of more rapaciously that “God doesn’t want us to be poor”. As
VINCENT D’ONOFRIO
conservative televangelists such as Pat things change, he gets more judgemental
SYNOPSIS
Robertson and Jerry Falwell, both early and self-pitying while her brand of seem-
on in the Bakkers’ career and at the time ingly guileless excess grows more outré.
This biopic, based on a 2000 documentary,
of their downfall, which involved Jim’s Tammy Faye’s journey is one of maquill-
sympathetically traces the life of flamboyant
American televangelist and singer Tammy investigation and conviction for fraud age as much as anything, her naturalistic
Faye, depicting her modest childhood and and the couple’s widely aired infidelities youthful look moving through bold, high-
30-year marriage to Jim Bakker. The couple’s and divorce. 80s glam to something akin to kabuki, tat-
pioneering success in religious broadcasting A leading figure in the Reaganite reli- tooed liplines and all.
supported a lavish lifestyle before ending in gious right, Tammy Faye was also atypi- Chastain potently anchors the film,
Jim’s conviction for fraud and their divorce. cal of that culture in certain ways. She was belting out devotional songs with raptur-
a woman who asserted her own profes- ous zeal and embodying a figure of self-
BY BEN WALTERS sional agency, not to mention her spec- determination and self-delusion, without
tacular and emotional femininity, and she quite capturing the earthy twinkle of
Early on in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, nine- went out on a limb to engage sympatheti- the real Tammy Faye’s weird charisma.
year-old Tammy Faye hits on something. cally with groups demonised by others The feature isn’t shy about sexual wants
She’s the black sheep of her devout Min- in the movement, including people with and needs but Chastain remains rather
nesota family, on the one hand chastised Aids and ‘unwed’ mothers. Throw in her ethereal, even infantilised; where the
for an incipient interest in glamour, on public struggles with prescription drug documentary emphasised Tammy Faye’s
the other barred from attending the addiction, marital strife and cancer and flirtatious relationship with her second
Pentecostal church where her mother it’s unsurprising that she emerged as a husband, equivalent room here is given
Rachel plays piano, because she’s a living gay icon. This status was cemented by the instead to her troubled bond with her
reminder of Rachel’s divorce and remar- documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye, nar- mother (played with flinty reserve by
riage. Nevertheless, Tammy Faye sneaks rated by RuPaul and directed by Fenton Cherry Jones). A comeback performance
into a service, drinks from the chalice Bailey and Randy Barbato, who went on at a religious university, seen in the docu-
and collapses to the ground, writhing to produce RuPaul’s Drag Race as well as mentary as a site of surprisingly uncon-
and speaking in tongues, to delighted this feature – broadly adapted from the ditional reassurance for a self-fashioned
acclaim. Here, it seems, is a lesson for life documentary by Abe Sylvia and directed woman, emerges in the feature as an echo
in how the charismatic, expressive display by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick, 2017). of nine-year-old Tammy Faye, back in
of wide-eyed devotion might also serve as Following the overall contours of the church, trying to win another welcome
a vehicle to access attention, belonging documentary, while introducing some through charismatic self-display. We
and status. As throughout this broadly notable shifts in emphasis, the feature might have seen a little more growth, and
sympathetic, not-quite-hagiographic presents a gripping if uneven blend of some accountability.
film, no firm view is offered on whether histrionic and the banal. Rooted in atten-
this convenient alignment between piety tion-grabbing central performances by In UK cinemas from 4 February
 83

Licorice Pizza prickly central relationship. The younger

Gary’s precocious business acumen and
The wider adult world often serves
to ramp up the freewheeling energy of
VALLEY SERVICE
Alana Haim as Alana, Cooper
Hoffman as Gary (below)
the older Alana’s arrested development the film, as it introduces its minor peril-
USA/CANADA 2021 CERTIFICATE 15 134M
create persistent friction regarding who ous elements. Sean Penn and Bradley
DIRECTOR PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON
is the senior party in this partnership. Cooper excel in brief roles in bizarre,
WRIT TEN BY PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON Despite Gary’s entrepreneurial endeav- brilliant interludes that nod towards the
CINEMATOGRAPHY MICHAEL BAUMAN our – at 15 he somehow owns a PR firm, glamour and danger of the looming Tin-
PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON
EDITOR ANDY JURGENSEN starts a waterbed company, and later seltown. There’s always a risk with such
PRODUCTION DESIGN FLORENCIA MARTIN
MUSIC JONNY GREENWOOD
opens a pinball arcade – he’s also a goofy attention-grabbing cameos – Cooper and
COSTUME DESIGN MARK BRIDGES kid who can only order a coke when he Penn are joined by Maya Rudolph, Har-
CAST ALANA HAIM takes Alana out for a drink. She, mean- riet Sansom Harris, Benny Safdie, Tom
COOPER HOFFMAN
SEAN PENN while, may begin the film feeling direc- Waits and John Michael Higgins – that
tionless but increasingly strains against the audience will leave wishing they’d
SYNOPSIS
her situation, desiring a seriousness spent more time with the peripheral char-
The San Fernando Valley, California, 1973: of purpose. acters, but in this instance, they comple-
15-year-old child actor Gary Valentine strikes In an essay in the New York Review ment the leads perfectly. At points, they
up a friendship with 25-year-old Alana of Books about Anderson’s The Master trigger protective responses in Alana
Kane. While Alana rebuffs Gary’s romantic
(2012), Geoffrey O’Brien reflected on and Gary, bringing them closer together,
overtures and tries to forge her own path,
she becomes involved in his various money-
the director’s preoccupation with a par- sometimes literally via a recurring run-
making ventures, through which they ticular American disconnectedness that ning motif.
encounter a menagerie of colourful local manifests as hyperactivity, “as if keeping This elevates, rather than distracts
characters. frantically busy could stave off a lurking from, the central pair, and it helps that
sense of emptiness”. While Licorice Pizza newcomers Haim and Hoffman both
BY BEN NICHOLSON could quite rightly be described as the revel in the limelight. Able to range from
director’s sweetest and most upbeat film, gawky to sexy, confident to confused,
this notion of staving off the emptiness worldly-wise to wide-eyed in a heartbeat,
To call Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest seems to remain just as pertinent. An they’re charismatic, and each maintains
film meandering could be considered an early scene with a casting agency suggests their own idiosyncratic authenticity.
understatement: it feels like a river run- Gary’s days of minor stardom are over, While Anderson deftly balances pace,
ning lazy and low beneath the golden giving to his otherwise delightful wheel- tone and style, it’s the charm of this duo
light of the California sun. But at the ing and dealing an added layer of poign- that makes the film so easy and joyous.
same time, it has a hustler’s energy, and ancy. Equally, Alana’s own forays into the It’s perhaps a rare thing to say nowadays,
there’s a sense that anything could drift professional world – through an acting but Licorice Pizza could stand to meander
into view around the next bend. Licorice gig and then as a volunteer for a political even more if it meant spending a little
Pizza is a yarn spun to occupy a space campaign – leave her feeling just as lonely, longer in its company.
somewhere in the vicinity of the shaggy- bereft or unsure, in a way Gary, even at his

FILMS
dog story or the picaresque, though nei- most exasperating, doesn’t seem to. In UK cinemas now
ther category quite fits it nor conveys the
film’s underlying intricacy. Forgoing any
specific narrative thrust, it luxuriates in
the drawing of vivid characters and a nos-
talgic, illusory and multifaceted portrait
of a recurring Anderson locale, the San
Fernando Valley in California.
This is an almost folkloric evocation
of the Valley in 1973, cobbled together
from Anderson’s own experiences, local
legends, tall tales, and the reminiscences
of producer Gary Goetzman, upon
whom one of the central characters is
partly based. It is a place where post-war
prosperity is surging, bona fide movie
stars rub shoulders with misty-eyed
dreamers, and where a 15-year-old child
actor, Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoff-
man) has the gumption to chat up the
25-year-old Alana Kane (Alana Haim)
who works for the company taking his
school photos. She is initially dismissive
but eventually disarmed by his cocksure
insistence and performed maturity, and
ends up accepting his invitation for a
drink, apparently despite herself. There
is an inherent tension that comes with
their age difference and while Alana
won’t countenance a romantic liaison
with Gary, even with his vocal interest,
they have an immediate connection that
develops into a deeper affection.
While Licorice Pizza couldn’t feel more
distinct from Anderson’s previous feature,
Phantom Thread, the two have a structural
similarity, in that their drama is driven
less by external plot and more by the
constantly shifting dynamics of the often
 84

Wheel of Fortune Watching one scene, we might ask ourselves,

what if a door had remained shut and a professor’s Nightmare Alley
and Fantasy former student seduced him? Watching another,
what if two women had not crossed paths on a pair CERTIFICATE 15 150M

JAPAN 2021 CERTIFICATE 15 121M

of escalators? Or what if they could meet again? The DIRECTOR GUILLERMO DEL TORO
film invites such musings. What if you could pretend SCREENPLAY GUILLERMO DEL TORO
DIRECTOR HAMAGUCHI RYÛSUKE to feel something? What if you could play at being KIM MORGAN
SCREENPLAY HAMAGUCHI RYÛSUKE CINEMATOGRAPHY DAN LAUSTSEN
CINEMATOGRAPHY IIOK A YUKIKO someone you’re not? EDITOR CAMERON MCLAUCHLIN
PRODUCTION DESIGN TAMARA DEVERELL
EDITOR HAMAGUCHI RYÛSUKE The f ilm’s Japanese title, Coincidence and MUSIC NATHAN JOHNSON
PRODUCTION DESIGN NUNOBE MASATO
SEO HYEON-SEON Imagination, encourages such speculation. Char- COSTUME DESIGN LUIS SEQUEIRA
COSTUME DESIGN USUI FUMINORI acters are contingencies, scenarios are mine- CAST BRADLEY COOPER
CAST FURUK AWA KOTONE CATE BLANCHET T
SHIBUK AWA KIYOHIKO fields of politeness and distress. Every pause is TONI COLLET TE
URABE FUSAKO flammable and held back, pressing in the way
Cassavetes holds characters until they snap. SYNOPSIS
SYNOPSIS
Hamaguchi’s method of improvisatory workshop- The American mid-west, 1939. Drifter Stanton
Japanese filmmaker Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s playful ping (sometimes with non-professional actors, Carlisle learns a mind-reading act from alcoholic
drama combines stories of a hurtful love triangle, often working in pairs) facilitates these taut, even Pete Krumbein. He leaves a carnival to establish
a botched seduction trap between a student and himself as a night-club performer, then segues from
tortured, exchanges. He often has actors read
a professor, and an encounter based on mistaken entertainer to grifter. As a bogus medium, Stan
identity. In each narrative, women navigate
scripts aloud, with no inflection, until “something gets mixed up with manipulative psychiatrist Lilith
challenges of imagination, coincidence and the happens” (he struggles to explain quite what). Ritter and dangerous client Ezra Grindle.
deceptions of memory. Something happens that feels real, has a certain
weight or thickness – and that is when the director BY KIM NEWMAN
BY BECCA VOELCKER starts filming.
Something like this does indeed happen in an
extended scene where the student tries to trap William Lindsay Gresham’s novel Nightmare
“Excuse me, can you go back the same way?” her professor. She reads aloud from his recent Alley (1946) is in a tradition that feels like the
The taxi turns around. This is the first manoeu- novel (an explicit section, as awkwardly prosaic deformed twin of Horatio Alger’s American
vre in a film whose English title anticipates as Haruki Murakami’s sex writing). Her delivery stories of hard-working, self-made men. Stan-
its narrative twists. Except this isn’t the same is flat, her face unmoving. The professor’s scalp ton Carlisle, Gresham’s protagonist, is a self-
way, and this isn’t quite repetition. The film twitches – in discomfort? In arousal? acknowledged heel who’ll use any trick, betray
is slippery with such divergences. Hama- Moving around these characters and their nerv- any friend, and resort to murder to rise from
guchi Ryusuke’s Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy ous dynamic, Hamaguchi’s cameras palpate pre- poverty. It’s the arc of the classic gangster movie,
continues the director’s interest in doublings, cisely that weight and thickness he talks about. It but also of such cynical, state-of-the-nation tales
coincidences and duplicity that has earned is the weight of desire and discomfort. The pro- as Budd Schulberg’s novel What Makes Sammy
him comparisons with Rivette and Rohmer fessor inches towards the student, lowering him- Run (1941) and Billy Wilder’s film Ace in the Hole
since his debut melodrama, Passion, in 2008. self as he nears her. To reach for…? The door. He (1951). Just as the gangster must end up dead
FILMS

The film’s three episodes focus on female charac- pushes the door wide open now. in the gutter, the hustler must suffer a ghastly,
ters, as did Hamaguchi’s (over five-hour) Happy What if things were different? Although this ironic fate. Stan is doomed to become the most
Hour (2015) and Asako I & II (2018). Its tripartite film’s charm is in its resolutely domestic, romantic despised performer in the carnival – the geek,
structure frames stories of a complex love triangle, subject-matter, it inevitably presents an allegory who squats in a pit and bites off chicken heads.
a seduction trap, and an encounter based on mis- for larger forms of speculation. When Hamagu- Though Guillermo del Toro has played vari-
taken identity. The sections are labelled ‘Magic’, chi zooms in on someone only to pan out again, ations on classic horror and fantasy cinema or
‘Door Wide Open’ and ‘Once Again,’ but might restarting the scene and giving her a chance to do comic-book properties, Nightmare Alley is his
equally be called ‘Taxi’, ‘Door’ and ‘Escalator’, for things over, it made me think. I watched Wheel of first film based on a novel. It feels unlikely
the narrative vehicles that transport protagonists Fortune and Fantasy and imagined what the entirety the material would have appealed to his very
on fateful journeys through the neatly functional, of last year might look like, if it too could start over. cinematic sensibilities if it hadn’t been filmed
Muji-middle-class spaces so characteristic of before. The book is full of the sort of details that
Hamaguchi’s Japan. In UK cinemas from 11 February affronted the censors of the time, but Edmund
Goulding’s Nightmare Alley (1947) is a remark-
ably faithful, aptly nightmarish adaptation.
Reputedly, 20th Century Fox made it because
star Tyrone Power insisted on the occasional
challenging role amid his usual swashbuckling
fare, and the troubled matinee idol gave his best
screen performance as Carlisle. Decades on,
the studio – now absorbed into Disney, who
represent a very different brand of carny spirit
– has its Fox Searchlight subdivision to mount
such prestige, favour-to-the-talent properties.
Del Toro, following up the Oscar-winning The
Shape of Water (2017), gives the book another
going over – though, to be on the safe side, he’s
also delivering a more appealing self-improve-
ment fable in his next picture, Pinocchio.
For Gresham, psychoanalysis is as much
witchcraft as mentalism, Tarot reading or
table-rapping, and Cate Blanchett is splendidly
fiendish as the besuited, incarnadine-lipped Dr
Lilith Ritter. She assists Bradley Cooper’s Stan
Carlisle in conning the gloomy, guilty marks
of high society in a snowy city (Buffalo, New
York), but insists, a little like Hannibal Lecter,
on revelations as a quid pro quo. Underlining
themes already written in bold, the sessions on
GHOST OF A CHANCE Furukawa Kotone as Meiko, Nakajima Ayumu as Kazuaki her office couch – in which Stan confesses to a
 85

Parallel Mothers both are utterly convincing, even in the face of

narrative farce, but Cruz in particular is dazzling,
conveying pleasure and despair, breakdown and
SPAIN/FRANCE/USA 2021 CERTIFICATE 15 123M
even a hint of relief as her attachments shift.
DIRECTOR PEDRO ALMODÓVAR Janis is immersed in her photography career
SCREENPLAY PEDRO ALMODÓVAR but committed to the futures and pasts of family
CINEMATOGRAPHY JOSÉ LUIS ALCAINE
EDITOR TERESA FONT life, her duty not only to her daughter but to her
PRODUCTION DESIGN ANTXON GÓMEZ mother and grandmother. Her mission – which
MUSIC ALBERTO IGLESIAS
COSTUME DESIGN PAOLA TORRES initiates her collision with archaeologist Arturo
CAST PENÉLOPE CRUZ (Israel Elejalde), soon to be her lover – is to get
MILENA SMIT
ISRAEL ELEJALDE permission to dig up a mass grave in her home
AITANA SÁNCHEZ GIJÓN town, and with it the bodies of men ‘disappeared’
by fascists during the Spanish civil war. (This is
SYNOPSIS
the subject of the 2018 documentary The Silence of
Two women of different generations meet in a Others, co-produced by Almodóvar.) The violence
maternity ward in Madrid and discover that their
is left to the imagination here, but this story of
lives will become intertwined in ways they hadn’t
imagined. In parallel, a village community makes
burial and recovery turns out to be the framing
plans to honour a generation of men lost to the device of the whole film. Janis and Arturo’s affair
fascist violence of the Spanish Civil War. makes the point clear: no story of Spanish moth-
CHILLY CARNY CON ARTIST Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett erhood can ignore Spain’s dark recent past.
BY CLARA BRADBURY-RANCE Along with narrative twists and turns comes a
literally oedipal murder, repeated several times slow attention to the beauty of the everyday – a
over – take away from rather than enhance plate of food, a photo frame. José Luis Alcaine’s
Cooper’s clammy, quease-making performance. Once again, Pedro Almodóvar has made a film cinematography sizzles with the colours and
Del Toro adds what Orson Welles – who gets not all about his mother, but about the cultural rel- flavours of Madrid. Domestic space bears the
a nod when Stan ends up at the Amberson evance of motherhood in general and Spanish burden of the characters. Maternal absence and
Carnival – called “dollar-book Freud”, as we motherhood in particular. Over the course of his presence weigh on every room. In one supremely
frequently revisit a primal scene of slain father career, the director has found multiple muses to stylised frame, the two women stand in a kitchen
and burned-down homestead, whereas ‘you’re perform the multiple faces of motherhood: duty, preparing food; back to back, they are about to
no good and neither am I’ is diagnosis enough joy, ambivalence, disappointment, pride and suffer the film’s fraught emotional climax.
for Lilith and Stan’s partnership. redemption. In her 2018 book Mothers: An Essay Almodóvar is beloved for his attention to
Gresham was a serious student of carny lore on Love and Cruelty, Jacqueline Rose argues that women and their impossible tussles among the
– he authored the nonfiction Monster Midway: mothers are called on to perform the “unrealis- personal, political and professional. But in Parallel
An Uninhibited Look at the Glittering World of the able” task of repairing “everything that is wrong Mothers there is a fixation on the idea that biology
Carny (1954) – but del Toro sees Nightmare Alley with the world”. Almodóvar’s mothers are never is destiny. The motif of the DNA test-tube con-
as an add-on to the grotesque yet fanciful film quite up to the task but are asked, again and nects two storylines, one about birth, the other

FILMS
tradition of Tod Browning and Lon Chaney. again, to try just one more time. about death. But this image of genetic evidence
He includes a lookalike for the bird-woman of In Parallel Mothers, we watch two women signalled to me a surprising ambivalence about
Browning’s Freaks (1932), but also the spider girl coming to motherhood at the same time: queerness, which has often de-centred biological
from his much less-known The Show (1927). A Penélope Cruz’s Janis and Milena Smit’s Ana. ties in favour of other forms of kinship. Lesbian-
passage taken straight from the novel, in which Sharing a room in the labour ward, we witness ism is used as an erotic twist to stage curiosities
a barker (Willem Dafoe) explains the appall- two births side by side and are set up for a par- around sameness and difference ( just as ethnic
ing process whereby a homeless alcoholic is allelling of experiences of motherhood. The title difference becomes an unspoken punchline). A
transformed into a geek, is perfectly ruthless, implies horizontality, but the film is in fact deeply flash-forward at the end gestures to the possibili-
suggesting that Carlisle is exactly suited to concerned with vertical through-lines of genera- ties of non-traditional families, but the longevity
this infernal milieu (one of the sideshow attrac- tion, lineage and inheritance. Cruz has worked of erotic desire remains beyond reach. In high-
tions is a funhouse representing Hell). But – with Almodóvar on eight films; Elena Smit lighting generational legacies of love and loss, the
with the warm presence of del Toro regular appears in only the second feature of her career. film risks a kind of biological essentialism that
Ron Perlman and sweet eccentricity from Toni The characters also meet across a generational as a queer viewer I found jarring. By fixating on
Collette as a seer and Rooney Mara as Molly divide. The teenage Ana waits for her life to begin genetics as motivation, Almodóvar has missed a
the electrical girl – this tent-show turns out in the aftermath of trauma; Janis, reaching 40 – chance to explore the myriad ways mothers arrive
to be a haven for the oddballs, eccentrics and and named for Joplin, whom the young Ana has at motherhood – in all its love and cruelty.
dreamers del Toro favours. never heard of – wants to anticipate a new begin-
As in many del Toro films, the obvious mon- ning. Both women give weighty performances; In UK cinemas now
sters – like Enoch, the pickled Frankensteinian
baby with an enlarged, perhaps inauthentic
third eye – are innocents and the smoothly
attractive characters are prodigies of cruelty.
Freaks show their deformities openly; Lilith
has to unbutton her tailored suit to show an ill-
healed scar that suggests she’s survived being
disembowelled by the brutal plutocrat (Rich-
ard Jenkins) Stan is out to rook. Straddling two
worlds is the bloody-handed apparition of the
mark’s long-dead lost love, which allows Mara
a secondary role as the sort of snowbound spec-
tre who haunted del Toro’s previous gothic noir
pastiche Crimson Peak (2015). Cooper’s Stan, of
course, is a vile individual whose only redemp-
tion is in accepting that geekdom is his just fate
– but the carnival world he passes through is
almost an idyll in the hands of del Toro, a direc-
tor unable to resist more than a touch of magic.

In UK cinemas now MATERNAL VERITIES Milena Smit as Ana, Penélope Cruz as Janis
 86

thriller tale told by trainwreck Chelsea

(Ilana Glazer). And naturally, the broad-
est targets yield the biggest yucks: Ike
Barinholtz’s all-out macho ineptitude as
Brett fuels a brawling, tyre-screeching
deadpan actioner. Composer Daniel
Pemberton, required to furnish ten dif-
ferent atmospheric shades of film score,
acquits himself well. Characterisation is
also framed for comedy here, most of it
two-note at best, with the exception of
a fine, freewheeling animated episode
exploring Zoe’s internal conflicts, the
kind of heart-and-humour stuff at which
Lord and Miller have excelled since
their animated comedy Cloudy with a
Chance of Meatballs (2009).
The show is a servant with two
masters, however, and satisfying the
demands of both comedy and mystery
sometimes defeats it. Miller’s smorgas-
bord of pop-culture spoofing (it makes
space to mock Xavier’s fictional Hall and
Oates biopic, Private Eyes) is so crammed
with comic sequences and wisecrack-
laden bickering that it often overpow-
The Afterparty reflect their own perspectives on the
night, a kind of Rashomon-and-on, over
CLASS MENAGERIE
Ben Schwartz as Yasper, Sam
Richardson as Aniq (above);
ers the narrative drive of the murder
mystery. Hulu’s charming, cosy mystery
eight 35-minute stories. Richardson as Aniq (below) series Only Murders in the Building had
DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER MILLER What unrolls is a cheerful genre jam- a similar imbalance, but compensated
WRIT TEN BY CHRISTOPHER MILLER
K ASSIA MILLER boree, as high-school reunion tropes pin- with darkly suspenseful late episodes.
ANTHONY KING ball off one another, everyone seeking a However, The Afterparty – expanded
JACK DOLGEN
BRIDGER WINEGAR second chance at something. Adork- from a 2013 film script by Miller – is keen
NICOLE DELANEY able puzzle-designer Aniq (Sam Rich- to use the increased story space for high-
PHIL LORD
RACHEL SMITH ardson), pursuing his near-miss school jinks rather than jeopardy.
TELEVISION

CINEMATOGRAPHY CARL HERSE romance with lately divorced Zoe, is the Not that it’s without whodunnit ambi-
EDITOR JOEL NEGRON
ART DIRECTOR GARY WARSHAW prime suspect, thanks to his declared tion (in the seven episodes that were
MUSIC DANIEL PEMBERTON grudge against Xavier. Miller uses Aniq’s available for preview, at least). A 2006
COSTUME DESIGN TRAYCE GIGI FIELD
CAST TIFFANY HADDISH increasingly desperate covert attempts flashback wigfest of an episode narrated
SAM RICHARDSON to solve the mystery himself – aided by by the class’s ‘invisible man’ (a sweetly
ZOË CHAO
friend Yasper (an enjoyably zany Ben slapsticking Jamie Demetriou) bris-
SYNOPSIS Schwartz) – as a bumbling comic plot tles with peekaboo clues and motives.
When pop star Xavier is murdered at a high- which winds around Danner’s night of Still, it’s first and foremost an ensem-
school reunion afterparty, disgruntled Aniq questioning. Nevertheless, the show’s ble comedy, revelling in the number of
is the prime suspect. But Detective Danner real meat is in the delicious spoofy solip- ways Dave Franco’s preening, Bieberish
demands that all of Xavier’s ex-classmates sism of the tales told, a change of angle Xavier pushes his old classmates’ but-
relate their version of the evening to her. transforming, say, Aniq’s flirty romcom tons. Gleeful parody and likeability carry
Each episode of the comedy murder-mystery into Zoe’s ex-husband Brett’s muscular the show a long way, along with Rich-
uses a different film genre, all matched to
operation to deflect potential suitors. ardson’s anxious amiability as Aniq and
the guests’ diverse perspectives.
The show’s team of screenwriters Haddish’s mouthy Danner, as much the
strip-mines the classmates’ ubiqui- audience’s gossip-hungry proxy as she is
BY K ATE STABLES
tously unreliable narration for comedy, police pro. But without the benefit of
a car chase shifting between episodes taut, twisty plotting or ingenious puzzle-
High-school comedy is the gift that has from scary to Fast and Furious exhilara- solving, Miller’s genial genre takedowns
kept on giving to Phil Lord and Chris- tion, spiteful threats to a klutzy plea feel like a missed opportunity.
topher Miller, from the merciless teen for closure. By the time we’ve had five
drama parodies of their TV debut Clone admittedly witty retellings of the night’s Eight weekly episodes on
Apple TV+ from 28 January
High (2002-03), to the brain-and-brawn events, though, a certain repetitiveness
undercover-cop seniors of 21 Jump Street sets in, familiar to anyone who expe-
(2012). Grown-up jocks, geeks and rienced the multiple murder re-enact-
mean girls clash once more in this smart ments that used to be a feature of plush
comedy murder-mystery TV series, Poirot film adaptations.
which propels a conflict-ridden Bay Area Astute about how high school’s emo-
class of 2006 back to school for a 15-year tional hangovers (rivalries, crushes,
reunion. The first we see of it, however, betrayals, thwarted ambitions) moti-
is smirking pop star Xavier taking a fatal vate actions, a few skilful episodes do
header off his cliffside balcony at the cha- dig a little deeper. Would-be music star
otic afterparty. Like Tiffany Haddish’s Yasper’s song-and-dance account of his
clue-hungry Detective Danner (who pursuit of Xavier’s imprimatur gives off
demands statements that then turn into longing as well as laughs, Crazy Ex-Girl-
‘mind movies’), we have no idea of what friend style. For all that, the series’ direc-
went down before Xavier did. But lead tion is heavily comedy-first, tonal shifts
writer Christopher Miller’s cute gambit signalled by OTT shooting styles, like
is to tell each of the guests’ conflict- the whirling camera, expressionist shad-
ing accounts in separate episodes that ows and jump-scares of the paranoid
 87

works brilliantly in the police interro- THREE FILMS BY

gations: as the Edwardses give their WILL SHARPE
version of events, we see them walking BY PHILIP CONCANNON
through the flashbacks accompanied by
their interrogators, who sometimes take
control of the scene, offering specula-
tive alternative takes on what happened.
They even leave the interrogation-room
set and go to the crime-scene set on
another part of the soundstage, where GOKIBURI (2009)
the actors playing the murdered couple “The only way to learn how
get up off the floor after playing out to make a film is to make
Chris and Susan’s statements, only to a film,” Sharpe said of this
re-enact the scene under direction from short, which he co-directed
the police. at the age of 23 with Tom
Aside from elevating the interrogation Kingsley. Sharpe plays a
Japanese pest-control man
scenes that are de rigueur for this kind of sent on an increasingly
drama, these moments allow Sharpe to surreal journey after finding
play with the notion of unreliable nar- a mysterious note from
rators and explore the shifting power his dead grandfather. The
dynamics central to any interrogation. low-grade digital video is a
Such flourishes are particularly welcome little muddy, but the clever
because the police scenes are otherwise a framing, effective use of
drag, the officers’ constant foul-mouthed jump cuts and unnerving
sound design demonstrate
BUFFS TERMINAL Olivia Colman, David Thewlis as Susan and Chris Edwards bickering coming off as boorish and one- the pair’s knack for quirky
note rather than comical, although Kate comedy and unexpected
parents, the Edwardses stole hundreds O’Flynn impresses, as the sharpest and
Landscapers of thousands of pounds from their bank most dogged investigator on the case.
flights of fancy.

accounts, but blew most of it on movie Perhaps the scenes following the
DIRECTOR WILL SHARPE memorabilia, particularly items related police investigation are underwhelm-
WRIT TEN BY ED SINCLAIR
WILL SHARPE to her favourite star Gary Cooper. In one ing because that’s not where the writers’
CINEMATOGRAPHY ERIK ALEXANDER WILSON corner of the dreary flat where we meet interest lies. They empathise with Susan
EDITOR ELEN PIERCE LEWIS
PRODUCTION DESIGN CRISTINA CASALI them at the start of the series is a shrine and Chris more than you might expect,
MUSIC ARTHUR SHARPE to him, and when we see Susan lying in placing their love story at the centre of BLACK POND (2011)
COSTUME DESIGN CHARLOT TE WALTER
CAST OLIVIA COLMAN bed watching High Noon (1952), the light the narrative. This creates problems – do Much of the press sur-

TELEVISION
DAVID THEWLIS from her small television set is exagger- these killers deserve any kind of happy
K ATE O’FLYNN rounding the release of
ated to fill the room, with shadows danc- ending, even a fantastical one? – but it’s Sharpe and Kingsley’s
SYNOPSIS ing across her enchanted face. hard not to be moved by the way these accomplished debut feature
Sharpe ultimately takes the conceit great actors play it. focused on the presence of
Having been on the run in France, Chris
Chris Langham, making
and Susan Edwards return to the UK to a little too far, with the final episode “My husband and I have got ourselves
his first screen appear-
face police interrogation for the murder of unbalanced by an overlong western pas- into a bit of a pickle,” Colman tells a ance since his release from
Susan’s parents, who were buried in the tiche, but for the most part the way he solicitor in her familiar chirpy tone in prison. He leads an
back garden of their Mansfield home 15 folds cinematic allusions into the story is the first episode, and her bright-eyed, exceptional ensemble in
years earlier. imaginative and charming. Flashbacks slightly oblivious demeanour perfectly this cutting and frequently
to Chris and Susan’s f irst dates are complements Thewlis’s dour and prag- hilarious black comedy
BY PHILIP CONCANNON shot in glowing black and white, with matic characterisation. There’s a real about an ordinary suburban
Susan framed like a silent film heroine; poignancy in the way the Edwardses family accused of murder
Landscapers begins with a shot of people when a stranger dies in their
after they attend a screening of Truf- react to being separated by the police
home. Made on a meagre
standing motionless in a town square, faut’s The Last Metro (1980), a conversa- for the first time in their marriage, with budget of £25,000, the film
like actors awaiting their cue. In fact, tion between Susan and Chris unfolds Colman’s performance in particular earned its creators a Bafta
that’s exactly what they are. We hear an in romantic French dialogue. (Gérard coming into its own as Susan begins to nomination.
offscreen voice cue the rain and shout Depardieu is a surprisingly prominent crumble. Landscapers may leave us won-
“Action!” to set them in motion, and presence in this series, figuring bizarrely dering where the truth ends and fiction
then we’re right into the story. By open- in the Edwardses’ real-life story.) begins, but Colman and Thewlis ensure
ing in this way, director Will Sharpe Enjoyable as these stylistic riffs are, it always feels rooted in something real.
and co-writer Ed Sinclair, who cre- Sharpe’s most potent weapon is his
ated Landscapers as a vehicle for his wife facility for deconstructing scenes. This Four episodes on Sky and NOW TV now
Olivia Colman, immediately establish THE DARKEST UNIVERSE (2016)
the sense of artifice that pervades this Sharpe and Kingsley’s third
strange true crime tale. Their four- – and to date final – col-
part series is about Susan and Chris laboration was their most
Edwards (played by Colman and David adventurous. It’s the story
Thewlis), who were convicted in 2014 of a London banker search-
of murdering Susan’s elderly parents in ing the canal network for
his missing sister (Tiani
1998 and burying their bodies, but they Ghosh, who co-wrote),
have approached the story with a fair with the fractured, non-
bit of creative licence. When the phrase chronological structure
“This is a true story” appears on screen reflecting his unravelling
in the opening credits, the word “true” is mental state. The Darkest
the first to dissolve. Universe is unevenly paced
The justification for all the metafic- and tonally erratic but
tional trickery is that Susan Edwards admirably ambitious, and
conjures up some touching
appears happier to live in the fantasy moments of truth and raw
world of her mind than to engage emotion.
with grim reality. After burying her IN A META WORLD Thewlis with Samuel Anderson as DC Wilkie, Kate O’Flynn as DC Lancing
 88

ahead in songs that would flourish on

their post-split solo albums – like Len-
non’s angry ‘Gimme Some Truth’, here
partly sung by McCartney.
At nearly eight hours – culled from
over 60 hours of original footage and
150 hours of audio – Jackson’s three-
parter, with its extended stretches
of observation, at times resembles a
Frederick Wiseman film, but it doesn’t
aspire to the uninflected detachment
that would suggest. It is larded with
rhetorical touches. A caption primes
us to watch for the miracle moment, as
it were, when McCartney, tentatively
strumming his bass, hits on the pattern
that, within minutes, will become the
basis of ‘Get Back’.
One suspects that Jackson’s film has
been shaped to maximise the celebra-
tory aspect and omit harsher material:
after all, McCartney and Starr are cred-
ited as producers, along with George’s
widow Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono
Lennon (often seen on screen perched
very close to John). For some viewers,
the cinéma vérité aspects will be a turn-
off – not everyone will want to hear this
The Beatles: visible here, would soon fall out bitterly.
Still, what emerges from these ses-
GIFT OF THE FAB
The Beatles in rehearsal
many takes of ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ –
but the carving out of musical form is
Get Back sions is a sense of hope, and of resilience
in the face of absurd circumstances. The
at Twickenham Studios
(above) and playing the
rooftop concert (below)
partly what makes Get Back compelling.
Songs that begin as desultory sketches
DIRECTOR PETER JACKSON band had agreed to be filmed writing, later catch fire – especially when the
EDITOR JABEZ OLSSEN rehearsing and recording in prepara- keyboard player Billy Preston turns up
WITH JOHN LENNON
tion for a live performance three weeks to provide a galvanising spark.
TELEVISION

PAUL MCCARTNEY
GEORGE HARRISON ahead, location still undecided. Lind- The film’s great value to fans will be
RINGO STARR
say-Hogg, a somewhat abrasive pres- its depiction of the Beatles’ dynamics at
SYNOPSIS
ence often visible here, is convinced it this stage – not just the story of Har-
should take place in Libya; McCartney rison’s frustration, but the real tender-
January 1969. The Beatles are filmed at
Twickenham Studios by director Michael
suggests somewhere forbidden they ness (its days poignantly numbered)
Lindsay-Hogg, rehearsing for an LP and can get thrown out of, like the Houses between Lennon and McCartney. At
planned concert. George Harrison leaves of Parliament; Harrison doesn’t want one point, McCartney comments that
the band but returns when they move to to play live at all. That the performance he has detected a hidden narrative in
their Apple HQ in London, joined by finally happened on the roof of their the material the band is working on,
keyboard player Billy Preston; after three Apple building is both anti-climactic the songs seeming to respond to each
weeks, they perform on the Apple rooftop. and a triumph of sanity. What’s remark- other. “It’s like you and me are lovers,”
able is that a band this prominent could replies Lennon. Neither could know
BY JONATHAN ROMNEY go about things in such an ad hoc fash- then how star-crossed they were.
ion: the resulting desperation suggests
When Peter Jackson restored and col- anything-goes 60s spontaneity seriously On Disney+ now
ourised World War I footage for his running out of puff.
documentary They Shall Not Grow Old A central idea of Get Back – heavily
(2018), the effect was strangely morbid, a promoted in pre-publicity – is that the
digital summoning of the long dead. He notorious group tensions of this period
has used a similar approach in Get Back, are refuted by the footage, which shows
giving an absolutely grainless sheen to them having a pretty convivial time.
Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 16mm footage Yes and no: Ringo Starr often seems
of the Beatles in 1969. Here, though, the disengaged and bored, while Harrison
effect is different: it creates a sense, how- is understandably tired of being junior
ever artificial, of transparency, making partner to the main writing duo. After
us feel as if we were not gazing into the he walks out in the quietest of huffs,
past, but immersed in the present of a we hear Lennon and McCartney, both
process whose outcome is uncertain. ruefully aware of how off-handedly they
In reality, we know the outcome, have treated him, wondering whether
which is what makes Get Back so affect- they can heal the “festering wound” of his
ing. We know that these laborious ses- discontent (this conversation, conveyed
sions would result in the Let It Be album in captions, was recorded on a micro-
and film, and that a band seemingly low phone hidden in a flowerpot).
on inspiration and patience would then This is a band caught between past
produce the sublime Abbey Road. We and future. They constantly hark back to
know that, just when they seem to have early days playing in Hamburg (although
regained unity – with a restless George McCartney cautions against nostalgia:
Harrison leaving, then rejoining – they “We’re like fucking old-age pensioners”)
would split, and that John Lennon and and burst into songs from their pre-fame
Paul McCartney, despite the closeness repertoire. Meanwhile, the future lies
 90

Yellowjackets Yellowjackets opens with a familiar sce-

nario: a woman racing breathlessly
of Easttown, it examines these women’s
motivations, traits and intellect while a
through a snowy wilderness in terror. mystery unravels in the present.
DIRECTORS K ARYN KUSAMA Who is she running from? The answer With cannibalism on the menu, it’s
JAMIE TRAVIS
EVA SØRHAUG is gleefully teased across the first few unsurprising that Jennifer’s Body (2009)
DEEPA MEHTA episodes of this series as it switches director Karyn Kusama is involved.
BILLE WOODRUFF
ARIEL KLEIMAN between the 1990s and 2021, flashbacks She’s joined by a mix of established TV
DAISY VON SCHERLER MAYER filling in the gory details of how a few and f ilm directors, including Deepa
EDUARDO SÁNCHEZ
WRIT TEN BY ASHLEY LYLE members of a high-school female soccer Mehta (who worked on the TV series
BART NICKERSON team survived a crash landing that left Leila, 2016) and Daisy von Scherler
JONATHAN LISCO
SARAH L. THOMPSON them stranded in the Ontario wilder- Mayer (The Walking Dead and last year’s
LIZ PHANG ness for 19 months. The rocky terrain of Y: The Last Man). Kusama directs the
AMENI ROZSA
CHANTELLE M. WELLS human mortality is explored with skin- first episode, right from the start raising
K ATHERINE KEARNS crawling psychological horror. a middle finger at wholesome depic-
CAMERON BRENT JOHNSON
CINEMATOGRAPHY JULIE KIRKWOOD In the early episodes, all that’s dis- tions of female sexuality, showing Lyn-
C. KIM MILES closed is that four team members defi- skey’s bored housewife masturbating
TREVOR FORREST
EDITORS DAMIEN SMITH nitely survived: Melanie Lynskey stars to a photo of her teenage daughter’s
PLUMMY TUCKER as a bored housewife, Christina Ricci is boyfriend. As flashbacks slowly coax out
KEVIN D. ROSS
JEFF ISRAEL a manipulative care-home nurse, Juliette shocking secrets, underlying themes of
KINDRA MARR Lewis plays to type as a punk fresh out desire, compromise and competitiveness
MUSIC ANNA WARONKER
CRAIG WEDREN of rehab, while Tawny Cypress is a politi- bob to the surface.
CAST MELANIE LYNSKEY cian running for local office, dubbed the The soundtrack is as you might expect
CHRISTINA RICCI
JULIET TE LEWIS ‘queer Kamala’. in a show where Kurt Cobain posters
The series blends elements of the adorn teenage girls’ bedroom walls:
SYNOPSIS
Andes plane-crash drama Alive (1993) a heady rock and rap mix-tape featur-
In 1996, a high-school female soccer team crashlands in the with a pulpy Stephen King-type concept. ing Hole and Salt-N-Pepa. The needle
Ontario wilderness. When a mysterious figure threatens 25 It is fleshed out with rounded character drops aren’t subtle; neither is Yellowjack-
years later to reveal what really went on in the woods, the portraits of women who came of age in ets. But the cast is to die for, and each
women reunite to find out who is behind the scheme.
the 90s and still live with the effects of episode is deliciously dark.
growing up in an era that undervalued
BY K ATHERINE MCLAUGHLIN
their achievements. Rather like Mare Eleven episodes on Sky and NOW TV now

The show wants us to admire her guts, her appetites, her proto-feminist determination not to go quietly
TELEVISION

A VERY BRITISH SCANDAL

A Very British Scandal British TV drama’s appetite for the tiffs

of the 20th century’s troubled toffs seems
finds a volatile self-loathing in Ian, a fail-
ure-haunted fortune hunter determined
unshakeable, surfacing again in this to secure his inheritance. Foy finds the
DIRECTOR ANNE SEWITSKY handsomely played and prettily prurient steely liar and selfish plotter behind Mar-
WRIT TEN BY SARAH PHELPS
CINEMATOGRAPHY SI BELL three-part dramatisation of the Duch- garet’s gracious party-girl façade, notori-
EDITOR DOMINIC STREVENS ess of Argyll’s lurid 1963 divorce case. ous since P.G. Wodehouse’s 1935 London
ART DIRECTOR ROSALIND GRÉGOIRE
COSTUME DESIGN IAN FULCHER Sleekly shot and lavishly mounted, its version of Cole Porter’s song ‘You’re the
CAST CLAIRE FOY glossy 50s recreations of glistening balls Top’ put her in infamous company (“You’re
PAUL BET TANY
JULIA DAVIS and quarrelling aristos in castle cor- Mussolini, / You’re Mrs Sweeney”).
ridors are strongly reminiscent of The But the drama lacks the sharp jeopardy
SYNOPSIS Crown, not just because of Claire Foy’s and nimble comic insights into Establish-
Set in the UK, 1951-63, this new miniseries offers a fiction- brittle, stiff-upper-lipped portrayal of ment hypocrisy that Davies found in the
alised account of how famous socialite Margaret Sweeney Margaret Argyll, but also in the supple Thorpe affair. Thickly underlining every
was swept into marriage by the Duke of Argyll, using her way it turns historical fact into herit- theme, it has Julia Davis’s bitchy mar-
family money to renovate his castle. When the marriage age melodrama. It’s a partner of sorts chioness clumsily berate Margaret over
soured, the Duke used compromising papers and photos to to Russell T. Davies’ A Very English the way the divorce case exposes upper-
destroy her reputation in their Scottish divorce case, and in
Scandal (2018), but where that examina- class bed-hopping: “Our private lives stay
the national press.
tion of the downfall of Liberal leader behind closed doors. People look up to
Jeremy Thorpe was a winking tragicom- us. You’re dragging us all down.”
BY K ATE STABLES
edy, this is very high-class soap opera. The show makes much of Margaret’s
Sarah Phelps’s script is at its best in the pillorying by the press (the ‘dirty duch-
Argylls’ glamorous courtship, smartly ess’ may have been the first slut-shamed
spotting the similarities between the British celebrity of the modern era), and
reckless, much-married Ian (Paul Bet- her status as a revenge-porn victim, her
tany, emanating ‘My Last Duchess’ wolf- diaries and explicit Polaroids of a ‘head-
ishness) and the ambitious, sensual Mar- less man’ weaponised in court to vilify
garet. Once she’s become his trophy wife her active sexuality. It wants us to admire
and cash cow (her family money renovat- her guts, her appetites, her proto-femi-
ing the crumbling Inveraray Castle and nist determination not to go quietly. But
funding a doomed expedition diving as the camera lingers on her pearls-only
for an Armada wreck’s treasure), the trysts and shameless falsehoods, it’s hard
repeated cycles of rows and retaliations not to feel that ‘Marg of Arg’ is again sup-
feel a tad predictable. plying the media with the titillating true-
What elevates the drama is its delicate life aristo content we can’t stop craving.
unravelling of the couple’s damaged and
EYE OF THE STORM Claire Foy equally ruthless personalities. Bettany Three episodes on BBC iPlayer now
 91

Ragdoll Nathan’s colleagues on the case are the highly

competent DI Emily Baxter (Thalissa Teix-
eira), and a progressive young American, DC
DIRECTOR TOBY MACDONALD Lake Edmunds (Lucy Hale), newly arrived
WRIT TEN BY FREDDY SYBORN
FLORENCE KEITH-ROACH from Los Angeles. At first the series looks like
K ARA SMITH business as usual, a dysfunctional investigative
BASED ON THE NOVEL BY DANIEL COLE
CINEMATOGRAPHY PHIL WOOD family taking on a brutal serial killer with some
EDITORS DAN CRINNION impressive creative flair –nothing we haven’t
PAUL DINGWALL
GALINA CHAK AROVA seen in any season of Luther. True to the over-
ART DIRECTOR STEVEN GRANGER whelmingly masculine tradition of TV police
CAST HENRY LLOYD-HUGHES
THALISSA TEIXEIRA procedurals, Nathan’s gut instincts somehow
LUCY HALE prove more accurate than his female partners’
ALI COOK
methodical detective work. The series regu-
SYNOPSIS larly pokes fun at Lake’s political correctness
DS Nathan Rose returns from disgrace to try and and implies that Emily Baxter, who is Black, SPOTLIGHT
solve the mystery of the ‘ragdoll killer’ who stitches
together his victims. The team includes DC Lake
is treated far better and is more protected
than her white male counterparts. Apparently, Thalissa Teixeira
Edmunds and DI Emily Baxter who become in- there’s nothing better than the ‘optics’ of having PROFILE BY LEILA LATIF
creasingly suspicious of one another as the murders a woman of colour as your spokesperson, a
continue. Public pressure mounts, and Nathan statement which feels truly insidious. Thalissa Teixeira has such a chamele-
becomes the prime suspect.
But as the series goes on, Ragdoll flips those onic quality, it is possible to have seen
initial impressions upside down. Many of the many of her roles across stage, film,
BY LEILA LATIF
characters are not what they first seem, and and television and not recognise her
the power structures – from police to politics as DI Emily Baxter in Ragdoll. Born in
In light of recent calls to defund the police and to press – turn out to be far more satirically Bradford and raised between Brazil
crack down on racism and corruption within grotesque. The show is determined to keep us and Buckinghamshire, she studied
the criminal justice system, stories of detectives guessing as to everyone’s true motives, which at the Royal Welsh College of Music
willing to do ‘whatever it takes’ in order to catch can make it hard to follow, but for the most and Drama. She started out with
the killer land a little differently. What previ- part works to its advantage, keeping the action small but engrossing parts, in the 2016
ously felt like noble, even wholesome, stop- moving even when it falls into an episodic rou- thriller Takedown; the BBC series The
at-nothing quests for justice are now labelled tine. The violence is also unexpectedly artful, Musketeers and the National Theatre’s
‘copaganda’ – a harmful part of a larger, struc- with the ragdoll killer providing spectacularly celebrated production of Yerma.
tural rot. gory portmanteaux which at times almost reach In 2020, Teixeira brought nuance
On the surface, Ragdoll follows a familiar the heights of Bryan Fuller’s exceptional series to a leading role in Athina Rachel
pattern. The series, based on a popular 2017 Hannibal (2013-15). Tsangari’s BBC drama Trigonom-

TELEVISION
novel by Daniel Cole, focuses on a troubled Unfortunately, the most interesting horror etry, playing Gemma, who alongside
police officer, DS Nathan Rose (Henry Lloyd- visuals seem to be used up by the halfway mark, boyfriend Kieran (Gary Carr) starts a
Hughes), who returns to the force after botch- and the latter part of the series resorts more to romantic relationship with their lodger
ing the evidence on the ‘cremation killer’ case: telling than showing of the killer’s creations. Ray (Ariane Labed). More recently,
when the killer is acquitted, Nathan loses his More consistent is the gallows humour of the she held her own against Emily Watson
temper and beats him to a pulp in the court- police. Creator Freddy Syborn’s background in and Denise Gough in the ITV mini-
room. Two years later, after a stint in a psychiat- comedy – he was one of the main writers on Bad series Too Close, playing the traitorous
ric hospital with PTSD, he’s back on the force in Education (2012-14) – is used to full effect, but best friend of a woman on the edge
pursuit of the ‘ragdoll killer’, so called because a rather than jarring, it feels like an apt coping of a breakdown, and brought regal
body is found constructed from parts of six dif- mechanism for characters worn down by living poise to Henry VIII’s mistress Madge
ferent people sewn together, including the head in a world of intense violence. Shelton in Channel 5’s three-part series
of the ‘cremation killer’ himself; and the ‘corpse’ The performances run the full gamut of Anne Boleyn. She finished 2021 by taking
is suspended in a pose that points accusingly at acting styles, which can be unsettling. In sup- on one of the three lead characters
Nathan’s flat. It comes with a new list: six more porting roles, Samantha Spiro and Kobna in Ragdoll – Emily Baxter, a detective
names of people who will be murdered, with the Holdbrook-Smith lean into the high camp of contending with being used as a politi-
last name on the list Nathan himself, set to be it all while Lloyd-Hughes and Teixeira attempt cal tool by a police force that wishes
the crowning glory on Ragdoll 2.0. to bring a little weight. Their characters, bur- to appear progressive, while also on
dened by horror, tend to hiss out their comic the hunt for a sadistic killer. Teixeira
lines, making the story feel all the bleaker. The proved a highlight of the show: swal-
usually excellent Michael Smiley seems to do lowed up by a masculine environment
the bare minimum in a thankless role, making and personal disillusionment, she
his presence puzzling. embodies a complex character unable
The plot requires that a certain number of to interact with the world without
limbs must to be collected before things come having her race or gender weapon-
to a head, literally as well as in terms of narra- ised against her. A second season of
tive. Episode by episode, we are introduced to Ragdoll has yet to be announced.
people who will only add to the body-count,
so that some of the middle episodes feel like
filler. But overall the series effectively brings
together the melodrama of police procedurals,
the grotesque sensibilities of elevated horror
and the complex anti-heroes of prestige televi-
sion. The highbrow and the trashy are stitched
together into a rag doll of fun, eminently
watchable television which is more than the
sum of its parts.

Six episodes on Sky TV now and on

Apple+ TV from 22 February

STITCHED UP Henry Lloyd-Hughes as DS Nathan Rose

 92
DVD & BLU-RAY

Mae West in Hollywood, 1932-1943

Welcome to Westworld, where the flesh is raw and
real, even if the sexuality and the puns are overcooked
No matter which variation on her theme her economic value and her capacity to they communicated when their bosses
Mae West is playing – businesswoman or provoke. If sexuality was key to her screen NIGHT AFTER NIGHT and betters weren’t around to hear them.
pickpocket; music hall turn or movie star persona, first glimpsed in a show-stealing SHE DONE HIM WRONG They loved her. Promoted to top bill-
– the walk remains the same. In Go West, supporting role Night After Night (1932), it I’M NO ANGEL ing in 1933 for She Done Him Wrong and
Young Man (1936) – a high point of this wasn’t exactly her sexuality, but one she BELLE OF THE NINETIES I’m No Angel – both opposite a budding
beautifully produced and consistently put on and manoeuvred around, like the GOIN’ TO TOWN Cary Grant – West saved Paramount
diverting box-set – co-star Elizabeth Pat- robot exoskeleton Ellen Ripley operates KLONDIKE ANNIE from looming bankruptcy and became a
terson spoofs West’s gait behind her back in Aliens (1986). West is invariably spec- GO WEST YOUNG MAN giant box-office draw. As Sight and Sound
as a preposterously seductive catwalk tacularly decorated, and the process of EVERY DAY’S A HOLIDAY contributor Pamela Hutchinson explains
strut, but the fact is, it’s weirder than that. decoration often seen on screen; we’re MY LITTLE CHICKADEE in her superb new commentary for She
The West walk is stiff, rather than loose; left in no doubt that her impact on men THE HEAT’S ON Done Him Wrong, the press of the time
with pelvis pushed forth and hand glued is at least as much the result of graft and was quick to note the directness of West’s
to the hip, it’s a stride much more than a ingenuity as nature’s gifts. Her mode of Archie Mayo/ Lowell Sherman/ appeal, and its particular lure for audi-
Wesley Ruggles/ Leo McCarey/
sashay, conveying a sort of parodic level flirtation, too, is studied, inorganic, carni- Alexander Hall/ Raoul Walsh/ ences wearied by the Depression. Motion
of self-confidence rather than anything valesque. Always on the alert for what sex Henry Hathaway/ Edward Picture Magazine aligned her “warm,
Sutherland/ Edward F. Kline;
as passive as mere erotic availability. she might get or what sex might get her, 1932-43; Powerhouse Indicator; human, earthy” qualities with those of
What the late fashion critic André Leon she deals in double entendres and upfront Region B Blu-ray, 6 discs; b&w; Franklin Roosevelt; the New York Daily
English SDH; Certificate 12;
Talley called West’s “power walk” was, as come-ons, snaky side-eyes and actual 783 minutes; 1.33:1/1.37:1. Extras: News allowed more grudgingly that “Mae,
he noted in the PBS documentary por- growls – a madly heightened gamut of audio commentaries; image right or wrong, has started something
galleries; original theatrical
trait American Masters – Mae West: Dirty sex signals which, rather than operating trailers; animated short films; new in movies”.
Blonde (2020), undoubtedly influenced by chiefly as a turn-on, draws attention to archival audio recordings; critical The sense of accessible, touchable
appreciations; 120-page book
what she was almost invariably wearing: the sheer strangeness of human mating humanity that served West so well at the
restrictive corsetry plus high platform behaviour, rather as a clown’s routine REVIEWED BY HANNAH MCGILL time is replicated to extraordinary effect
shoes. But in its deeply unspontaneous spoofs our wider vulnerabilities. “I kid by the quality of the restorations offered
parody of sexualised body language, the sex,” was how West herself liked to put it. in this set, all UK premieres on Blu-ray
power walk also captures something Counterintuitively perhaps, but unde- and, in the case of The Heat’s On (1943),
essential about the image West honed niably, this unambiguous constructed- a world premiere. Famously fleshy and
over her slight but impactful film career. ness formed part of a persona that was flagrant she may have been, but it’s still a
Forty years old before she signed also adored for its apparent realness. By rather touching shock for West to seem
her first screen contract, West wasn’t a relentlessly ‘kidding’ about matters often so physically close at hand – her frank,
creation of Hollywood, and was never approached with breathy reverence both mobile face that of a breathing woman,
going to play an ingénue: she entered the off and on screen – money, morality, chas- not a petrified icon; her body raw and real
PURE ACE CAPE-ISM
movies as a veteran writer and actress for tity, reputation – West placed herself on Mae West in Belle of the
even as it’s constantly pulled and primped
the Broadway stage, fully aware of both the level of her audience, and the way Nineties (1934), above into glamorous outfits. The textures of
 93

fabrics, too, are replicated with extraordi-

nary immediacy – no small consideration
for stories to which female self-presenta-
tion is so key.
Supporting materials are of impressive
abundance and standard, and include
further commentaries for I’m No Angel
by Farran Smith Nehme, Klondike Annie
(1936) by Eloise Ross and Go West, Young
Man by Nora Fiore; image galleries, origi-
nal trailers, original mono soundtracks L’ÉTRANGE MONSIEUR VICTOR
and Super-8 versions; and new subtitles.
A couple of new essays, by Christina Jean Grémillon; Germany/France 1938; Pathé
(France); dual format all-region Blu-ray/Region 2
Newland and Lucy Bolton, assess West’s DVD, 2 discs; b&w; English subtitles; 98 minutes;
reputation and impact, while dustier 1.33:1. Extras: audio commentary by Philippe Roger;
interviews with French critics and director Paul
visual extras include the campy 1982 TV Vecchiali; archival interview with producer Raoul
biopic Mae West, with Anne Jillian in the to admire about her presence, was never We’re left in Ploquin; 1937 newsreel on closure of penal colonies.
leading role; and Mae West at UCL A, a an actress of much subtlety or range. Yet
1971 audio recording in which the legend much of the comedy here still sparkles as
no doubt that REVIEWED BY TONY RAYNS

speaks for herself. brightly as West’s ill-gotten diamonds, and West’s impact
The last of three features made by Grémil-
Completists and newcomers alike will the musical performances, by the luminous on men is at lon in Berlin between 1936 and 1938, this
find a wealth of context, information and likes of Hazel Scott, Duke Ellington and
analysis in this lovingly prepared pack- Louis Armstrong as well as West herself,
least as much proto-noir vehicle for the great stage and
screen actor Raimu seamlessly blends
age. The main draw, however, really is the are frequently wonderful. And if West the result location shots of Toulon harbour with
films themselves. West is a familiar name wasn’t always beloved by her co-stars, as of graft and convincing studio sets. The German major
but, these days, an unfamiliar presence the commentary material details, she was Ufa largely succeeded in keeping Nazi
onscreen; if some of the often self-penned adept both at lending them her limelight
ingenuity as propaganda at bay between 1933 and 1938 by
one-liners she utters in these films are the and bringing out the best in them. The nature’s gifts offering other European filmmakers both
creative freedoms that Hollywood couldn’t
stuff of movie history, the films themselves women West plays are very often allies and match and exemplary technical facilities,
are in large part unremembered. None supporters of other women, so it’s not only THE ENTENDRE TRAP
and Grémillon was one of several important
West with Philip Reed in
might break the ranks of masterpieces; love interests like Grant who get to shine, Klondike Annie (1936), above French directors drawn to Germany by
many show signs, despite the astonish- but female co-stars like Alison Skipworth émigré producer Raoul Ploquin, who called
CARY ON A BROAD
ing technical clean-up jobs, of ideological in Night After Night and Louise Beavers in West with Cary Grant in She
his productions “100 per cent French”.
wear and tear; and West, for all there was She Done Him Wrong. Done Him Wrong (1933), below Raimu plays Victor Agardanne, ‘strange’

DVD & BLU-RAY

because he leads a double life: outwardly re-
spectable bourgeois shopkeeper and family
man, but also a fence for valuables stolen
from wealthy houses in the region by a crimi-
nal gang. When the gang-leader threatens
blackmail, Victor stabs him to death in an
alley and has no compunction about letting
an innocent neighbour, the cobbler Bastien
(Pierre Blanchar), be sentenced to nine
years of hard labour for the killing. But Bas-
tien escapes after seven years and returns
to Toulon to see his son – who turns out to
have become a spoiled brat. Terrified that
his crime will be uncovered, Victor hides
the fugitive in his home and plots to spirit
him away to anonymised safety. Grémillon
effectively conceals the melodrama under a
palpable sense of daily routines.
There’s a mismatch between director and
star: Raimu is too actorish – too busy, too
reliant on gesticulation and bits of business
with props, too much a French Laurence
Olivier – to fit comfortably into Grémillon’s
poetic realist idiom, which is devoted to
teasing out the hidden relationships be-
tween people and between people and ob-
jects. So it’s hard to say why the film works
so strongly. Maybe the dialogue by Grémil-
lon’s regular collaborator, the Belgian writer
Charles Spaak, here co-adapting an original
screenplay by Albert Valentin, helped to
forge a unified whole. Another Grémillon
regular, Madeleine Renaud, is brilliantly
controlled as Victor’s wife, self-effacing
until she isn’t. And Roland Manuel’s jaunty/
sombre score is a minor classic.

DISCPathé’s 2020 4K restoration from

original elements is flawless. The feature
has optional English subtitles, but the
supplementary material doesn’t. For French
speakers, the most interesting insights can
be gleaned not from the over-written, tries-
too-hard commentary track but from the
collage of interviews and clips edited into
an hour-long featurette.
 94

CRAZY THUNDER ROAD right-wing demagogue, transparently SESSION 9 outfit Climax Golden Twins. Taken as
based on the writer Mishima Yukio, is a whole, it’s mysteriously intriguing,
Ishii Sogo; Japan 1980; Third Window Films;
trying to coerce feuding bike gangs into Brad Anderson; US 2001; Second Sight; Region
quietly terrifying in the moment, and in-
Region B Blu-ray; Certificate 15; 97 minutes; joining his private army to “defend the B Blu-ray, 2 discs; Certificate 15; 100 minutes; sidiously haunting over time. A modern
16:9. Extras: audio commentary by Tom Mes; country and become real men”. Ishii was 2.35:1. Extras: commentaries by Anderson with genre milestone.
interview with Ishii; video talk by Jasper Sharp. co-writer Stephen Gevedon, and podcaster
a not-very-mature 23 when he made it, Mike White with Jed Ayres; deleted scenes/
which explains its gleeful excesses. But alternative ending with commentary by Anderson Disc:The vintage digital camerawork re-
REVIEWED BY TONY RAYNS and Gevedon; interviews Anderson and crew;
its plea for a break with Japan’s stifling tains its upfront documentary feel in this
introduction by Alexander Heller-Nicholas;
conformity is heartfelt, it’s neither making-of documentaries; Horror’s Hallowed
expert transfer. The useful Anderson/
The single most important develop-
sexist nor misogynist, and its regular Grounds TV locations feature; trailer; booklet Gevedon commentary is ported over
ment in modern Japanese film history,
forays into avant-garde visuals and film from previous US releases, along with
after the slow collapse of the old studio TREVOR JOHNSTON
language remain potent. Good to have it REVIEWED BY making-of and deleted scenes; they are
system, was the surprisingly rapid rise
available at last. augmented by a raft of newly shot inter-
of self-taught independent filmmak-
Barely seen in cinemas back in 2001, this view material and a second engaging,
ers. Avant-gardists like Matsumoto
DISC A fine, clean transfer. Tom Mes’s startlingly effective take on the haunted- suitably impressed commentary by the
Toshio and Terayama Shuji had been
informative audio commentary is good house chiller has since gathered a word- Projection Booth podcast team. Astute
making fully independent short films for
on who’s who on both sides of the thoughts from the insightful critic Alex-
DVD & BLU-RAY

of-mouth reputation and now emerges in

many years already, but the explosion
camera but shies away from discussion a loaded double-disc Blu-ray set which andra Heller-Nicholas add to a textbook
occurred in the mid-1970s when college
of the film’s themes and handles the does ample justice to its crafted delivery overall package.
kids, many of them in film clubs, began
political and sexual elements with a of palpable dread.
picking up Super 8 and 16mm cameras
kind of halting embarrassment. His old At the time, Brad Anderson was a
and making their own films. The major
cohort on the Midnight Eye website Sundance darling known for quirky
companies were no longer training new
Jasper Sharp contributes a laid-back romcoms (Next Stop Wonderland, 1998;
talents through their exam-and-appren-
talk on the phenomenon of jishu eiga Happy Accidents, 2000), but this marked a
ticeship schemes, so Japan’s movie brats
(‘autonomous films’), but oddly doesn’t definite stylistic swerve – he went on to
simply took matters into their own
mention key figure Yamakawa Naoto, direct psychological thrillers such as The
hands. The result was arguably Japan’s
whose New Morning of Billy the Kid (1986) Machinist (2004) and Stonehearst Asylum
real ‘new wave’, superseding the short-
has just been released online in the UK (2014). Session 9 showcases a scarily real
lived hope that directors like Oshima
by Matchbox Cine. location, the Danvers State Hospital, a
and Imamura had shaken up the film
hugely imposing gothic insane asylum
industry in the early 1960s.
closed in the 1980s. Situated near
The surprise was that the upstarts
Anderson’s Boston base, it inspired the
had such immediate impact. For
screenplay by him and actor Stephen
example: Ishii Sogo made his first Super
Gevedon, about an asbestos abatement
8 short in 1976, just before he entered
crew who come under the malign influ-
Nihon University, and the studio Nik-
ence of decades of psychic pain emanat-
katsu remade it as a feature only two
ing from the place’s decaying rooms and
years later – although they tried to keep
corridors. The pioneering 24p high-
Ishii’s anarchic tendencies in check by
definition digital cameras capture all its
assigning him a co-director. A couple
spectacular dereliction, so that we can
of powerful shorts later, he made Crazy
smell the mould and feel the chill as we
Thunder Road (1980) on 16mm as a gradu-
negotiate the labyrinthine site; but while
ation project – and Toei bought it and
the building itself to some extent makes
blew it up to 35mm for national distribu-
the movie, Anderson’s astute treatment
tion. It wasn’t really seen internationally
brings a lot to this cumulatively unset-
until the Japan Foundation accepted it
tling viewing experience.
into its film library in 1996 (full disclo-
The Shining (1980) is an acknowledged
sure: Ishii and his then-sales agent asked
influence, but the ghosts here are less
me to work on the English subtitles for
visible than intuited by hard-pressed,
that print, and those subtitles are used
company boss Peter Mullan (impres-
on this disc), and the Third Window
sive in an early US role). His subtle
release marks its first appearance on
psychological unravelling plays against
home video outside Japan.
the vividly realised audio counterpoint
It’s a gung-ho crazy-biker movie,
of tapes of clinical sessions discovered
lavishly inspired by foreign and local
among the office detritus, unspooling
models, crammed with young men
the horrifying case history of a schizo-
acting tough and behaving badly. Set
phrenic patient who met a tragic end.
in a notional near future, it escalates
Deliberately paced, the film tightens
its macho fantasies by imagining that
its grip inexorably, helped by a dark am-
drugs of all kinds, plus machine guns
bient soundscape (one hesitates to call
and bazookas, are readily available in
it a traditional score) of found samples,
Japan’s underground (far from the truth,
doomy sub-bass and distressed piano,
even now); it also imagines that a gay,
layered in by the avant-garde Seattle
 95

The prose-poetry cinema

REDISCOVERY of Ebrahim Golestan
Would Iranian arthouse cinema exist without his
elementally beautiful documentaries and fiction?

“And the earth is a woman, with rever- In 1958, Golestan founded his own without communicating, the dialogue
BY EHSAN KHOSHBAKHT
ies and roots,” says the Iranian filmmaker studio and directed a dozen now classic becoming a series of soliloquies that echo
IN A PERSIAN MARKET
Ebrahim Golestan, narrating over the documentaries and two celebrated fiction in empty spaces.
Brick and Mirror (1964), below image of a 3,000-year old skeleton as it is films. His filmmaking style was informed Golestan evokes this world not only by
unearthed, in his short documentary The by Persian poetry as much as by modern means of his extraordinary writing and
Hills of Marlik (1964). This is where the cinema. He insists that his use of jump- direction, but also with his own voice,
heart of the filmmaker, who will soon turn cuts has nothing to do with the nouvelle heard twice through the radio: first as
100, lies: in the earth, to which he returns vague – he took the idea from the work a poet, cautioning about the dangers
repeatedly in his films. of the 13th-century poet Sa’di. His docu- of the night, and then later reciting the
The same scene appears in Mitra mentaries, poetic and subversive, give an words of God from the Koran. Divin-
Farahani’s Berlinale-selected See You equal weight to eloquent and intensely ity and poetry meet in the most unlikely
Friday, Robinson (2022), an epistolary allegorical imagery and words. Even his places in Tehran: a smoky café, an empty
film featuring Golestan and Jean-Luc way of cutting is allegorical, as Persian bazaar, and an orphanage in which the
Godard, in which the two directors poetry is. In his first documentary, Wave, film reaches its emotional climax.
reflect on the meaning of creativity in the Coral and Rock (1962), there are striking Though he was close to the centres of
twilight of life through a series of email and humorous match cuts from a gun to power in Iran, Golestan was still subject
and video exchanges. Farahani’s film is a match; from the match’s tiny flame, to a to censorship. The biting voiceover of his
one of the finest portraits we have of an burning oil well. His ‘oil films’, which also most beautiful documentary, the dazzling
Iranian intellectual (and also the most include A Fire (1961), are more essays on Crown Jewels of Iran (1965), was censored
intimate film portrait of Godard that I the human soul than industrial reportage. and remixed, and his second fiction film,
have seen). Even if it only briefly touches Golestan uses classical elements (earth, the political satire Secret Treasures of Jinn

DVD & BLU-RAY

upon Golestan’s cinema, it reveals the fire, water), but he points the camera at Valley (1974), was banned shortly after
complexities of the man behind the birth the people who tame them. The past and release. Both films are about treasures
of modern cinema in Iran, serving as a present live side by side, often overlook- hidden deep in the earth (a cave, the base-
window into his world, which encom- ing each other’s presence until the cam- ment of the National Bank) but Golestan
passes not only cinema but also literature, era’s observant eye reconciles them by looks at them and sees decadence instead
theatre and politics. means of poetic inspiration. of wealth.
Ebrahim Golestan was born in 1922 Brick and Mirror (1964) alone is enough Golestan also produced films by other
in Shiraz. From an early age he practised to give Golestan a claim to be the godfa- directors, including the only film directed
filmmaking by producing news footage ther of what was to be dubbed the Iranian by the poet Forough Farrokhzad, The
for western TV networks, including, in New Wave. This first true masterpiece of House Is Black (1962). This haunting
1953, the trial of the recently overthrown Iranian cinema wasn’t fully understood film about a leper colony shows traces
prime minister Mosaddegh, whose integ- at the time of its release but its reputa- of Golestan’s artistry as much as Far-
rity made a lasting impact on him. In par- tion grew over the years. Brick and Mirror rokhzad: it’s Golestan’s words and voice
allel with filmmaking, he pursued a life in responds to a society paralysed by fear that are heard in the opening moments of
literature and politics. He translated the and corruption in all walks of life. Made the film, talking about leprosy. His voice
works of Lenin and joined the Commu- with a small crew of five in widescreen of reason contrasts with Farrokhzad’s
nist Party of Iran, becoming party treas- and using direct sound (both rare in Ira- anguished empathy. The film ends with
urer. Disillusioned with its treatment nian films of the day), it establishes a uni- Farrokhzad’s voice and a blank screen;
of contemporary issues, however, he versal image of failing morals and aliena- no image could match the words – the
retreated into literature, writing novels tion through the story of a taxi driver and film’s submission to the sublime is total –
and essays and translating Hemingway, his girlfriend’s search for the mother of and there’s a sense of imminent tragedy.
Faulkner and Dostoevsky into Persian. an abandoned baby. Characters speak In 1967, Farrokhzad, by then Golestan’s
lover, died in a car accident aged 34.
Golestan was never the same.
After this loss there was very little for
him to do in Iran. He moved to England,
where he has lived since. At 99, he is still
busy producing work from his gothic
mansion in Surrey. His latest book was
published last year. Golestan’s belief in
words and in beauty remains as firm as
a prophet’s. His films, which range freely
between prose, poetry and anthropology,
from political metaphor to philosophi-
cal allegory, are now either restored or
preserved by Cineteca di Bologna and
beg to be rediscovered. Along with the
repeated acts of excavation and digging
– for oil, objects and history – seen in his
films, the works are themselves a search
for the roots of an old tree called Iran.
 96

Gideon’s Way: The Complete Series

ARCHIVE TV John Creasey’s thoughtful policeman may not have
been quite the crimefighter the 1960s demanded,
but he wasn’t quite the relic he might seem either

It’s always easy to reduce the gale of comic elements, and in Jack Hawkins had or a diamond necklace is stolen, heiresses
UK 1964-66; Network; Region B
Blu-ray, 6 discs; b&w; English SDH; change that tore through British society a Gideon who was evidently officer class. are seduced by wrong ’uns, company
Certificate 12; 1350 minutes; 4:3. in the 1960s to The Beatles, drugs and For the TV version, produced by Lew directors plot fraud. The picture of the
Extras: interview with actor Giles
Watling; US titles; clean titles; ad mini-skirts, but there was far more to it Grade’s ITC, the somewhat more relat- criminal classes can verge on caricature:
bumper; textless episode openings; than that: there was also Z Cars. Before able John Gregson was cast. To fit inside the crooks are often saddled with lazy
short ending for episode ‘To Catch
a Tiger’; image gallery; book. Troy Kennedy Martin’s series arrived on an hour – more precisely, 49 minutes plus nicknames: Shorty, Happy, Fingers; in
the BBC in 1962, TV series about the ad breaks – the multi-stranded format of the episode ‘The Big Fix’, about a horse-
BY ROBERT HANKS British police had tended towards the the novels was abandoned (which also nobbling racket, Gideon gets a tip-off
reassuring: crimes happened and were meant that each novel could be stripped from a racecourse acquaintance whose
sorted out by efficient, patrician detec- for enough parts for up to three epi- nickname is Bookie, which is either
tives or genial local bobbies. Z Cars was sodes). The interplay of work and home supremely unimaginative or highly mis-
less about tidily packaged crimes, more life continued, though again streamlined, leading. The plotting is sometimes per-
about crime as a messy aspect of soci- with Gideon and his wife Kate (Daphne functory; Gideon vaults to conclusions
ety, with policemen up to their necks Anderson) having only the three children: that allow him to arrive in the very nick,
in the mess. Coming two years after Z daughter Pru, a music student, and sons at the moment the villain’s hands tighten
Cars, Gideon’s Way looks and feels dated, Matthew, a teenager whose succession around an innocent throat.
a hangover from the old way of doing of crushes provides a running gag, and But the programme is a bit more Z
things; but on further acquaintance, it’s young Malcolm (played by Giles Watling, Cars than all this sounds. Even when the
clear that it’s a hybrid, clinging to an old- in the 80s the vicar son-in-law in Carla crooks aren’t convincing, their surround-
fashioned notion of policing while trying Lane’s sitcom Bread, and since 2017 Con- ings are: produced by Monty Berman and
hard to grapple with the wider world and servative MP for Clacton). Gideon’s side- Robert S. Baker (The Saint) with an eye
DVD & BLU-RAY

all the changes that are going on. kick at the Yard is Chief Inspector Keen, on the American market, it was filmed
Commander George Gideon of Scot- played by Alexander Davion – rather rather than taped, with a healthy budget
land Yard was created by the phenome- blandly dashing, and a good deal posher for location shooting, and the extensive
nally prolific author John Creasey, writing than Gideon’s subordinates in the books. tours of a visibly post-war London are a
as J.J. Marric (one of almost 30 pseudo- Keen is a ‘ladies’ man’, which means that major attraction. Most criminals are given
nyms he used over his career): in a series his behaviour at times strays into what personal lives and reasons for crime. It’s
of novels beginning with Gideon’s Day would now be seen as harassment, but his interest in these that distinguishes
(1955), Creasey had tried to give a more allows for a stream of female guest stars, Gideon from other TV detectives: a
realistic impression of police work than among them Sue Lloyd (Michael Caine’s family man, he notices families, and pre-
the traditional British detective novel, romantic interest in The Ipcress File, 1965) fers warnings and second chances to cuffs
showing Gideon dealing with multiple and Jean Marsh, who a few years later cre- and cells – Gregson has an underlying
cases at the same time and struggling to ated the phenomenally successful proto- gentleness and anxiety that suit the part.
play his part at home (Creasey burdened Downton TV show Upstairs, Downstairs. At times the scripts tackle topical, politi-
FAMILY PLOD him with six children). A 1958 film ver- It feels, some of the time, terribly cal themes: in ‘The V Men’, Gideon deals
Alexander Davion as Inspector
Keen, John Gregson as sion – directed, a little incongruously, by cosy: crimes take place in nice middle- or with a Mosleyesque fascist (authenticity
Commander Gideon John Ford – played up the domestic and upper-class environments – a Modigliani aided by newsreel footage of an actual
fascist meeting in Dalston – as portrayed
in the recent BBC drama Ridley Road);
in ‘State Visit’, an elderly German-Jewish
chemist plans to throw a bomb at the vis-
iting West German ambassador, unable
to forgive genocide and enraged that
it is being forgotten; ‘The Nightlifers’
tackles the new youth culture of drugs
and hedonism, though with a panicked
air – what if these deracinated kids start
murdering us all?
The other big draw is the glorious
parade of character actors: always good to
see Beckett’s long-time collaborator Jack
MacGowran, and Keith Baxter turns up
immediately before playing Prince Hal
in Welles’s Chimes at Midnight (1965). The
series has been available on DVD for
some time; this (limited edition) upgrade
is worth noticing for Network’s new res-
toration, with its crisp picture and sound,
and the exhaustively detailed accompany-
ing book, written – like the one with Net-
work’s outstanding release of the BBC
Maigret last year – by Andrew Pixley.
 97

THE SUN SHINES BRIGHT

John Ford; US 1953; Eureka/Masters of

Cinema; Region B Blu-ray; b&w; English
SDH; Certificate PG; 101 minutes; 1.37:1.
Extras: commentary by Joseph McBride;
video essay by Tag Gallagher; booklet.

REVIEWED BY RUAIRÍ MCCANN

By all accounts The Sun Shines Bright was

a passion project that John Ford cher-
ished till the end. Like his earlier film
Judge Priest (1934), it’s taken from Irvin
S. Cobb’s stories about Billy Priest,
a slightly soused and facetious but
ultimately judicious county judge who
presides over a turn-of-the-century Ken-
tucky town. The movie tracks the run-up
to an important election, with Priest
(Charles Winninger) intervening on
behalf of two pariahs: a young woman
(Arleen Whelan) scorned because of
her ‘disreputable’ mother – who has just
In the Shadow of of necessity – low-rent or found sets, returned to the town at death’s door –
and a Black teenager (Elzie Emanuel)
simple blocking, brisk, dialogue-driven
Hollywood: Highlights

DVD & BLU-RAY

stories, B-list actors taking leads, etc, as wrongfully accused of sexual assault
from Poverty Row well as, for a few years, an opportunity to with a lynch mob out to claim him. In
each instance, the community’s moral
indulge in Pre-Code salaciousness. Here,
the transient outfits include Pyramid fibre and Priest’s chances for re-election
MIDNIGHT (CALL IT MURDER) Productions (Back Page was one of only are tested.
BACK PAGE two releases), JHA Pictures (John H. Winninger is not as idiosyncratic a
WOMAN IN THE DARK Auer’s The Crime of Dr. Crespi was its only performer as Will Rogers in the earlier
film, but he achieves a moving rendition
THE CRIME OF DR. CRESPI production), and All Star Productions
(which made only the Humphrey Bogart- of this combination of shrewd showman
starring Midnight). and fatherly moral arbiter. The movie is
Chester Erskine/Anton Lorenze/Phil Rosen/
John H. Auer; US 1934-35; Flicker Alley; all-region The films have various struggles shot with a classical clarity, and moves
Blu-ray, 2 discs; b&w; English SDH; 270 minutes; with their lowly circumstances; Crespi unhurriedly thanks to its loose, episodic
1.37:1. Extras: new audio commentaries; booklet.
modernises Poe’s story ‘The Premature structure; but beneath this simplicity,
Burial’, with the usual supporting cast Ford arranges a precise syncopation of
REVIEWED BY MICHAEL ATKINSON different modes, deftly shifting back and
of lightly experienced stage actors who
still, in 1935, didn’t get the speed and forth between morality play and broad,
The biosphere of Golden Age Hol- satirical pantomime.
reserve that movie-acting required. Erich
lywood is usually thought of today as The result is a vision of America both
von Stroheim (pictured above) as an
being a bustle of large studio factories, rose-tinted and critical that feels true
egomaniacal experimenter and Dwight
with a handful of smaller houses, like to Ford, with his range of sentiments
Frye as his underling/nemesis don’t quite
Republic, on the fringe churning out that seemed contradictory in life but, on
get it either, but their scenes together
inexpensive genre fodder. But the econo- screen, alchemised powerfully. Priest’s
are a wild mash-up of conflicting styles.
cultural reality of the era, as this motley ideal is Fordian; a communitarian
Woman in the Dark, shot like Auer’s film
set attests, is far more complicated. utopia, with his inner circle of good ol’
in the old Biograph studios in the Bronx
‘Poverty Row’, though initially a Hol- boys, Uncle Toms, mountain men and
(with the same painted view of an art
lywood neighbourhood around Gower immigrants bound by bright memo-
deco skyscraper), is a stagy pre-noir,
Street, was the catch-all term for the food ries of the Confederacy. Yet inequity
with boy-toy Fay Wray getting bounced
chain’s myriad of less charismatic fauna, pervades, between the lines of Priest’s
between ex-con Ralph Bellamy and
pop-up production firms and investment relations and starkly elsewhere. For all
gangster Melvyn Douglas. Back Page has
companies dedicated to the manufacture its pageantry and chivalry, this town
the ill-fated Peggy Shannon (dead by 1940
of fast-and-cheap product, intended to fill vents its bigotries by means of hypocrisy,
from drink) fast-talking her way through
out the new programming concept of ‘the exclusion, the whip and the gun, with
save-the-smalltown-newspaper saga made
double bill.’ only Priest’s paternalism as safeguard.
up predominantly of flat mid-shots. Mid-
In the first Depression years, the In the end, however, he cleanses the
night rocks the best, tensely sketching the
Industry faced crippling losses, and town’s sins in a grand collective act that
swarm of publicity around a jury foreman
studio bankruptcy was a common resort, stands as one of Ford’s most powerful
(O.P. Heggie) who sent a woman to the
opening doors for cut-rate entrepreneurs. final scenes.
electric chair. Rich with crosscut POVs,
As Jan-Christopher Horak’s bread-and-
attention to emotional ellipses, and moral
butter booklet essay tells it, other forgot- Disc:Ford’s 101-minute director’s cut is
ambiguity, Chester Erskine’s film also lets
ten factors contributed to the profusion presented in a clean, HD transfer. The
the actors defy stereotypes, with Heggie,
of production modes, including the feature is supplemented with words and
Henry Hull, Moffat Johnston and, par-
Row companies often selling their films images from some of his greatest schol-
ticularly, Lynne Overman playing oddly
to ‘States’ Rights’ distributors, which ars, including a commentary by Joseph
unpredictable characters.
targeted one rural area at a time and paid McBride, and an incisive video essay
a flat fee. The landscape teemed with by Tag Gallagher. The booklet includes
Spiffy restorations, and moderately
Discs:
one-offs and semi-professionals, and so a Cobb story and interesting pieces by
informative commentaries.
naturally Poverty Row had an aesthetic James Oliver and Jonathan Rosenbaum.
 98

RED ANGEL CHAMPION LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES BLEAK MOMENTS

Masumura Yasuzo; Japan 1966; Arrow Video; Region Mark Robson; US 1949; Eureka/Masters of Jean-Pierre Melville; France 1950; BFI; Mike Leigh; UK 1971; BFI; Region B Blu-ray;
B Blu-ray; b&w; English subtitles; Certificate 15; 94 Cinema; Region B Blu-ray; b&w; English SDH; Region B Blu-ray/Region 2 DVD (separate English SDH; Certificate PG; 111 minutes; 1.66:1.
minutes; 2.35:1. Extras: audio commentary by David Certificate PG; 99 minutes; 1.37:1. Extras: releases); b&w; English subtitles; Certificate Extras: commentary by Mike Leigh (2015); new Mike
Desser; introduction by Tony Rayns; appreciation commentary by Jason A. Ney; stills gallery; booklet. 12; 106 minutes; 1.37:1. Extras: commentaries by Leigh interview; 1972 interview with Mike Leigh
by Jonathan Rosenbaum; gallery; trailer; booklet. Gilbert Adair and Adrian Martin; interviews and producer/editor Les Blair; 2019 Mike Leigh
about Melville with Ginette Vincendeau and interview on his early career; image gallery; booklet.
REVIEWED BY PHILIP KEMP Volker Schlöndorff; trailer; gallery; booklet.
REVIEWED BY TREVOR JOHNSTON
REVIEWED BY K ATE STABLES
The third and by some way the most REVIEWED BY PHILIP KEMP
The prolific director Masumura Yasuzo brutal of Hollywood’s three classic
made 20 films with leading lady Wakao “If we could ever get around to touching
post-war boxing dramas – the other two It wasn’t, on the face of it, an equal
Ayako: this is the 15th, a corrosive one another, it wouldn’t be a bad thing,”
being Robert Rossen’s Body and Soul contest. Jean Cocteau, scripting from
wartime drama generally ranked as one ventures the gently frustrated Sylvia to
(1947) and Robert Wise’s The Set-Up his own novel, was internationally
of the peaks of their collaboration. It’s her inept suitor. It’s a sublimely English
(1949) – Mark Robson’s Champion owes celebrated as poet, playwright, artist,
1939 and she’s a working-class Tokyo attempt at seduction, typical of the
its uncompromising snarl largely to its film-maker and overall polymath.
girl serving as a military nurse in the poignantly misfiring attempts at human
star, Kirk Douglas, grabbing the first Jean-Pierre Melville, directing, had
Japanese army’s imperialist campaign connection that make up Mike Leigh’s
lead role of his career with both hands completed just one mini-budgeted fea-
in China, where heavy casualties and debut film. Adapted from his 1970 fringe
(and all his teeth). Besides winning him ture (Le Silence de la mer, 1949). Things
limited medical resources leave a play, and shot on a tiny budget provided
the first of his three Best Actor Oscar between them, according to Melville,
disillusioned surgeon with little option by Albert Finney and the BFI, this
nominations, it firmly established the were “very, very good as long as I hadn’t
but to amputate limbs to save soldiers’ almost plotless study of a lonely London
ruthless grinning bastard screen persona begun shooting; very, very bad as soon
lives. It’s a grisly spectacle, calculated typist’s interactions is oddly gripping.
that would reach its apogee two years as I did begin”. They disagreed about
to evoke sympathy for the resilient Japa- Keen to make films that he identifies
later with his scruple-free newsman in the casting, the scoring and much else.
nese troops even though, historically in his commentary as “Like real life –
Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole (1951). But right from the outset of his career
speaking, they were the aggressors, and with its misses and false starts”, Leigh
Credit also to cinematographer Melville was stubbornly single-minded,
DVD & BLU-RAY

had been guilty of numerous atrocities patiently unrolls Sylvia’s exquisitely

Franz Planer, whose camera establishes determined to fight his corner; and from
as they left behind millions of Chinese uncomfortable encounters with diffident
right from the opening shot – Doug- their clashes there emerged a chillingly
dead. The film is somewhat evasive teacher Peter (Eric Allan) and shy
las’s ‘Midge’ Kelly seen from the back, atmospheric film, as true to Cocteau’s
about Japan’s culpability for this bloody hippie Norman (Mike Bradwell). His
escorted ringwards along a pitch-black charged vision as to Melville’s.
conflict, Masumura turning the atten- trademark ability to retain a scene past
corridor punctuated by dramatic Forced to cede to Cocteau’s insis-
tion to sexually charged melodrama the point of embarrassment, Abigail’s
downward pools of light – the contrasty tence on casting his latest protégé, the
instead, where Wakao’s physical avail- Party-style, surfaces in an excruciating
noir mood of the whole film, from the 25-year-old Edouard Dermith, as sickly
ability affects the fortunes of several tea party where a sudden room-wide
glare of the spotlights as Midge basks in adolescent Paul, Melville more than
serving men, not least Ashida Shin- silence is prolonged to an artful point
glory in the ring to a long flashback into compensated with his choice of Nicole
suke’s morphine-addicted sawbones. by mortified close-ups. A fondness
the dark, threatening world he emerged Stéphane as Paul’s sister Elisabeth.
Characteristically, Masumura seems for the Pinteresque pause deployed in
from. This visual treatment also evokes It’s she who dominates the film: fierce,
to be casting Wakao as a voluptuous tense, dialogue-light scenes, is waived
the shadowy underside of the Mob- watchful, fascinating, she manipulates
plaything offered up to the male gaze; for Joolia Cappleman’s squawking Pat,
riddled fight game – since boxing, as her brother along with all the other char-
but his formal approach is to promise a workmate whose clumsy interjections
Jason Ney notes in his commentary, acters, as her quasi-incestuous obsession
then withhold such visual pleasures. provide the film’s broader comedy. Yet
“offers the perfect match for f ilm noir”. with Paul pushes her towards a final
Thematically meanwhile, there’s Leigh creates empathy for her, finding
As does the character of Midge, increas- climax of lacerating cruelty.
arthouse provocation galore, as the film pathos in her fussily elaborate help with
ingly repellent as he exploits people It was also Melville who won out on
highlights Wakao’s weaponisation of her Sylvia’s intellectually disabled sister,
before tossing them aside in his drive the film’s score, making audaciously
own power over men, exploding her sup- Hilda. Cappleman is a fine foil for Anne
for money and prestige. original use of Bach and Vivaldi in place
posedly subordinate role in the stratified Raitt’s reserved, sad-eyed heroine,
Drawn from a Ring Lardner short of the jazz-based music Cocteau had
military surroundings where Japanese whose left-field witticisms are fuelled
story, and the first major success of wanted. And he brought in from Silence
power structures are even more rigidly by copious sherry and longing for a life
the Stanley Kramer/Carl Foreman his DP Henri Decaë, who would go on
defined than usual. With her steely, self- outside her Bisto-hued suburban semi.
producer-screenwriter partnership, to become his favourite cinematogra-
contained screen presence, the actress DP Bahram Manocheri frames her in
Champion deploys a strong supporting pher and whose idiosyncratic framing
is in her element here, grounding the her kitchen hatch like an oil painting,
cast, in particular Arthur Kennedy as and mobile camera would attract the
film in seriousness, no matter how much making sudden moments of unlikely
Midge’s crippled brother, Paul Stewart attention of the nouvelle vague.
the kinky sexuality and prosthetic-heavy beauty in the otherwise dreary interiors.
as the manager who trains him and Ruth Given his usual stamping-ground of
operating-room carnage draw it towards Raitt, whose face can flicker through
Roman as the wife he abandons. Reject- policiers and the Occupation, a claus-
lurid excess. An alternately gruelling desire, shame and pity within seconds,
ing the use of stunt doubles, Douglas trophobic domestic drama might seem
and fascinating set of contradictions. is heartbreaking in the film’s famous
took on weeks of boxing lessons, lend- uncharacteristic territory for Melville. botched seduction, a tragicomic
ing the fight scenes a harsh, immediate But the intensity of his gaze, and his dis-
Disc:Solid transfer of the high-contrast triumph of suburban repression over
energy. “I didn’t know you in that ring,” illusioned take on human relationships,
Daieiscope print, though the selling- youthful appetite. Eric Allen matches
Midge’s brother tells him. “You were hit- fitted him well for Cocteau’s vision of a
point is the critical personnel giving the her beautifully, beat for beat, Peter’s ago-
ting a lot of guys – all the guys that ever lethal brother-sister relationship whose
film an appreciative going-over. David nising self-consciousness derailing every
hurt you.” The sense of banked-up anger pathological closeness, “like two limbs
Desser’s commentary expertly addresses attempt at communication. Creating a
is scarily convincing. of a single body”, impels them both
the film’s skewed sexual politics and soft piercing study of female loneliness, Bleak
towards destruction. Moments cuts just as deeply as Another
attitude to Japan’s wartime excesses, Disc: Eureka’s restoration does Planer’s
as well as Masumura’s sharp formal Year (2010) would, nearly 40 years on.
crisp noir cinematography full justice, Disc:4K restoration of the print and
economy. Tony Rayns, meanwhile, puts and Ney’s commentary fills in informa- remastering of the sound bring an aptly DISC:A fine-looking transfer, but the
the film in context with other Japanese tive background – especially on the cool sharpness to this release. Interest- dodgy original sound recording still
films treating World War II, while changes made from Lardner’s original. ingly, in their informative conversations leaves something to be desired. Mike
Jonathan Rosenbaum looks at its place
about Melville, included in the extras, Leigh’s proud, mischievous commentary
in the Masumura filmography. All first-
neither Ginette Vincendeau nor Volker is the ace in the extras pack.
rate stuff.
Schlöndorff mention the present movie.
 99

Porte des Lilas

LOST AND FOUND Though he is known for his light comedies, with
this late film René Clair showed an unexpected
affinity for darkness. Why has it been so little seen?

knowing that happiness doesn’t exist”).

Clair’s script tempers the bitterness of
the original a little, but not much.
Unusually for Clair, who generally
favoured summertime settings, Porte
des Lilas takes place in a cold cheerless
season: a damp grey winter in the epony-
mous working-class quartier of north-
east Paris. La ville lumière this decidedly
isn’t. Juju (Pierre Brasseur, cast against
type) is the lumbering neighbourhood
drunk, paunchy and unshaven, berated
by his shrewish mother and sister and
mocked by his drinking companions. His
only real friend is L’Artiste (the singer
Georges Brassens in his sole feature-film
role), in whose house he spends most of
his time – when he’s not in the local bar
pilfering drinks and yearning hopelessly
after the bar-owner’s pretty daughter
Maria (Dany Carrel).

DVD & BLU-RAY

In the late 1920s and early 30s, René Clair after the war, the world had changed and The relationship between Juju, garru-
René Clair, France 1957
was rated one of the world’s finest direc- so had he. The light-footed fantasy of his lous and self-pitying, and L’Artiste, gruff
BY PHILIP KEMP tors. His silent comedy Un chapeau de earlier films was no longer in demand – and taciturn, feels relaxed and uncondi-
paille d’Italie (The Italian Straw Hat, 1927), even had he felt able to provide it. tional, a habit accreted over the years.
A MIDNIGHT CLAIR based on a 19th-century boulevard farce The seven features he directed after his (Brassens, a close friend of Fallet’s, fills
Pierre Brasseur as Juju,
Dany Carrel as Maria
by Labiche, delighted the critics with its return to France are (with the possible his undemanding role admirably, and also
technical precision, satirical wit and bal- exception of Les Grandes Manoeuvres, 1955) furnishes the score.) Excitement enters
letic high spirits; the philosopher Henri rarely shown or even mentioned. Like Juju’s drab life in the form of Pierre Bar-
Bergson, high priest of the theory of the post-Prévert films of Marcel Carné, bier (Henri Vidal), a gunman on the run
comedy, reckoned it “a near-perfect film”. they seem to have dropped out of gen- after a bank heist. Hiding him from the
With the coming of sound, Clair was eral awareness. It didn’t help that Clair police in L’Artiste’s cellar, Juju becomes
one of the first to recognise the creative, was targeted by the gleeful iconoclasts of fascinated by the crook’s specious glam-
non-realistic potential of the soundtrack. Cahiers du cinéma as a prime representative our – the silk scarves, the slick suits, the
Sound effects, music, dialogue could be of the despised cinéma de papa. cork-tipped English cigarettes – and even
used to counterpoint and comment on Yet as David Thomson, overall no wistfully abets his affair with Maria, until
the image, rather than slavishly dupli- great fan of the director, has observed, he realises Barbier is using her simply to
cating information; dialogue need not “The post-war Clair is perhaps the most steal cash from her father’s bar and plans
always be audible, and silence could claim interesting.” These late films hardly recap- to dump her once he’s got it.
a validity of its own. ture the carefree gaiety of his early work; The ending is bleakly downbeat. Juju,
These insights inspired a quartet of but in its place they exhibit a new-found repelled by Barbier’s duplicity, kills him on
films inhabiting their own distinctive cin- maturity and emotional depth. The pre- a piece of waste-ground as jaunty accor-
ematic world, a blend of fantasy, romance, vailing mood is an autumnal melancholy dion music spills from a nearby estaminet,
social satire and operetta: Sous les toits de that at times slips over into tragedy; never then returns to L’Artiste’s house to tell him
Paris (1930), Le Million (1931), À nous la lib- more so than in the darkest of all his films, what’s happened. L’Artiste pours him the
erté (1931) and Quatorze juillet (1932). They Porte des Lilas. last drop of eau de vie – “You need it more
earned Clair international accolades: Writing of this, the most personal and than I do.” Juju gazes desolately out of the
James Agee, comparing him to Mozart, unexpected of Clair’s late films, Louis window as an ancient couple, accompa-
called him “one of the few great artists of Marcorelles suggested “we can… sense nied by their dog, painfully pull a handcart
this century” and considered these early the dilemma of a creator imprisoned along the drab wintry street. End.
sound films “among the most inspired in his own legend and so far unable to Porte des Lilas was screened at the
screen comedies ever made”. come to terms with an age in which he Venice Film Festival and nominated for
Things started to slip in the mid-30s. feels himself a stranger,” adding that Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. On
Clair’s films, though hugely popular, were Clair had “encountered a world which the strength of it Clair could conceiv-
criticised for lack of social relevance. An he no longer finds sympathetic”. One ably have struck out into new territory.
ill-advised response to such comments, Le of only two of Clair’s French movies Instead, as if now resigned to his superan-
Dernier Milliardaire (1934), flopped badly. adapted from a novel (the other being nuated status, he directed only two more
It was the last film Clair would complete the rarely seen 1926 silent, La Proie du features, both comedies and both feeling
in France for 13 years. He directed two vent), it’s based on La Grande Ceinture disengaged. The unlooked-for noirceur of
films in Britain and four (during the war (1956) by René Fallet, poet and novel- Porte des Lilas suggests a potentially fruit-
years) in Hollywood, all well short of his ist, ironic chronicler of dead-end lives ful new direction for his work that, for
best. By the time he returned to France (“I’ve learnt that happiness consists of whatever reason, he chose not to take.
 100

Prime movers
Stephen Dwoskin’s little-
known 1986 film Ballet Black
recaptures the magic and
spontaneity of one of Europe’s
first Black dance companies
BY HENRY K. MILLER

There is still no book about the Ballets

Nègres. Stephen Dwoskin heard its story
from his friend Astley Harvey, who he
learned had joined the troupe “when he
was young and freshly arrived in England”
from Jamaica. It had been founded in 1946
by Berto Pasuka, a Jamaican dancer who
had come to London before World War
II. The dancers and musicians, almost all
Black, were from across the Empire – two
years before Windrush – with about a third
of them born in Britain. From a first season
in a Notting Hill theatre, they performed all
over Europe over the next half-dozen years,
but by the time of Pasuka’s early death in 1963
the Ballets Nègres was all but forgotten.
Dwoskin had arrived in London from
New York in 1964, and made his name as an
underground filmmaker, an emissary from
the milieu of Andy Warhol. He settled in
Notting Hill, by then a centre of the West
WIDER SCREEN

Indian community, and had his first public

screening as part of the first Notting Hill
Festival in 1966. Harvey, whom Dwoskin
first met as a house painter, had had occa-
sional acting work after the Ballets Nègres
years, and began appearing in Dwoskin’s
films, many of them shot in his home, in the
early 1970s. Later, notably, Harvey was cast
in Horace Ové’s A Hole in Babylon (1979).
When circumstances dictated that Dwo-
skin turn pro and start a production com-
pany, Urbane, Harvey was co-director.
Their second production, devised as a
film that would bring the Ballets Nègres
out of obscurity, was Ballet Black (1986),
commissioned by the Arts Council after
Channel 4 turned it down. With his pro-
duction manager Trish Thomas, Dwoskin
interviewed numerous original members,
including John Lagey, latterly famous as
the wrestler Johnny Kwango, and trawled
the personal archive of Pasuka’s friend and
principal dancer Richie Riley, who served as
a consultant on the film along with Harvey
and composer Leonard Salzedo.
There were affinities between Pasuka
and Dwoskin. “Most of Berto’s work was
spontaneous,” one of the original dancers,
Pamela Johnson, recalled, “but he gave us
the strong basic steps and the mime.” No
two nights were the same: “If he felt the audi-
ence with him, you knew the ballet would
© UNIVERSITY OF READING SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

go on.” Likewise, most of Dwoskin’s early

films were improvised, product of an in-the-
moment collaboration between filmmaker
and – almost always female – subject, start-
ing from a simple premise. Though Ballet
Black is a documentary, with a story to tell,
it tries to be similarly spontaneous. Instead
of unfolding the Ballets Nègres story as
something already known, it simulates the BEST FEET FORWARD Ballet Black
 101

process of discovery, with the archive material

presented raw, not as windows on to the past,
but as fragments from it.
Curtain raisers Brief Encounters (1967), with the director herself
playing a lovelorn Odessa bureaucrat who’s
fallen for a charismatic but wilfully non-com-
In place of an overarching voiceover, there is Streaming service Klassiki offers mittal geologist. It’s an extraordinarily sensitive
a mosaic of voices on the soundtrack. The first rendering of female experience caught between
is Harvey’s, reading in full a letter that Pasuka a tantalising opportunity to resilience and yearning. Muratova went on to a
wrote to Riley in Jamaica in 1945, six years after discover an array of lesser known varied, decades-long career, but the fact this was
their last meeting, primarily to encourage him classics from behind the Iron shelved – for being too self-aware? – was one indi-
to come to London. Details that a more con- cation of the ideological tightrope even finished
ventional documentary would cut or annotate Curtain as well as modern Russia films faced from the mid-1960s, when the more
here suggest a history that is otherwise not culturally liberal Khrushchev era ended, through
spelled out, as well as giving the texture of one BY TREVOR JOHNSTON to the loosening of restrictions during pere-
of the troupe’s central relationships directly, stroika. Also from 1967, Aleksandr Askoldov’s
rather than through narration. We’ve all found ourselves scrolling listlessly outright masterpiece Commissar wasn’t just
The Ballets Nègres’ repertoire itself is through the endless wares available on this or banned, it was ordered to be destroyed; happily,
brought into the present. Dwoskin engaged that streaming service, and getting precisely some brave soul squirrelled a print away and this
a group of dancers to reconstruct it, and made nowhere. Might a little limitation, or even a emotive parable of religious tolerance, set during
the crucial decision to film them rehearsing stronger curatorial hand, have its advantages? the Civil War (1917-23), resurfaced in 1988. Gleb
the big number, ‘They Came’– as it happened, That notion was strongly reaffirmed by a recent Panfilov’s No Path Through Fire (1967), meanwhile,
at the Mercury Theatre, site of Dwoskin’s first dip into the London-based streaming service somehow escaped unscathed, despite its severe
screening two decades earlier – with Riley Klassiki, whose select catalogue majors on scrutiny of the survival of revolutionary ideals in
advising on the choreography. What the film Soviet-era cinema, from the silent screen to the a mobile hospital unit during the same conflict.
shows is a company coming into being, learn- perestroika era of the 1980s, while also encom- Outstanding stuff, which you may not find
ing how to work together – and meeting its passing titles from the Caucasus, Central Asia elsewhere – something that can certainly be
forebears, in sequences filmed at a pub reun- and modern-day Russia. Compared to Netflix, said of Klassiki’s focus on films from the former
ion, where the veterans are still dancing. Mubi or BFI Player, that’s a pretty narrow focus, Soviet republics. From Georgia, I’d highlight
“To be in a company where the majority yet its scale makes it a bit more manageable. And, Tengiz Abuladze’s 1976 stunner The Wishing Tree,
of people were Black was quite astonishing, of course, the prime selling point is a lot of great, an eye-popping pre-revolutionary tale of love and
because normally I would be in a show where if relatively unfamiliar, films. dishonour, and Otar Iosseliani’s charming There
I was the only Black person,” recalls Joy Rich- Founded by actor and producer Justine Wad- Once Was a Singing Blackbird (1970), a witty slice
ardson, then at the start of an acting career that dell, and named after the Russian word for hop- of life about a Tbilisi flâneur. From Uzbekistan, I
has recently included Small Axe: Red, White and scotch, Klassiki has been running in the UK and caught Ali Khamraev’s unclassifiably wonderful I
Blue (2020). Ballet Black was her first film role US since February last year. A free subscriber Remember You (1985), a tribute to the father he lost
– though she had shot a scene for Menelik offer gives access to a handful of taster titles, in the war, which is also a heartfelt documentary

WIDER SCREEN
Shabazz’s Burning an Illusion (1981) that ended while paid membership, at £9.99 a month, about nationhood and a madcap romance set on
up on the cutting-room floor. “The dance world unlocks the full library of 60-odd films, plus a the Moscow-Tashkent sleeper. Trust me, you’ve
was not my world,” she says, but recalls Dwo- Pick of the Week selection available for 14 days, never seen anything like it.
skin saying to dancers, “Be yourself, rather than which may often be a recent Russian title other- Sign up and you’ll soon find yourself unexpect-
a dancer. Some of you are just being dancers,” wise not in distribution. At the time of writing, edly under Klassiki’s spell, intoxicated by the
and to actors “Be in your body and connect. it was Renata Litvinova’s The North Wind (2021), thrill of discovery that vinyl crate-diggers know
You are telling a story.” As a result of this, she an opulent theatrical affair following an endless only too well. Two final tips: don’t miss Marlen
says, “We had to find a different language.” New Year party, which definitely was not for me. Khutsiev’s jaw-dropping 1965 fresco of Moscow
In another dance, ‘Blood’, she performs Thankfully, the library choices more than made youth I Am Twenty, which outdoes the French
opposite Harvey, who reads out the dance’s amends, with useful guidance in the site’s journal nouvelle vague for sheer formal chutzpah, or Alek-
synopsis to camera even while performing it. section and very decent pdf notes for every film. sei German’s visionary World War II drama,
As with the rehearsal sequences, what might Although there’s no work by, for instance, Twenty Days Without War (1976), not so much a
in other hands be called a distancing effect is Andrei Tarkovsky or Alexander Sokurov, you’re movie as an immersive exercise in you-are-there
not there to lay bare the artifice, but to flaunt pointed instead towards other major Soviet lived experience. Wow and wow again.
it. Pasuka, who drew on disparate sources, directors who haven’t always had their due in the
For details, visit klassiki.online
West African, Caribbean, Black American, West. I started with Kira Muratova’s first feature,
and European, often using highly stereotypical
imagery, was not aiming for authenticity, but to
forge a new kind of dramatic dance, and it’s this
that Ballet Black celebrates.
Ballet Black was a personal film for Dwoskin
beyond Harvey’s involvement. He had begun
to learn to dance during childhood, but at the
age of nine contracted polio and lost the use
of his legs. He remained fascinated by danc-
ers – one of his very first films, made in 1962,
never exhibited, features Yvonne Rainer, then
at the start of her career, rehearsing in a studio
in the East Village. Over the course of nearly
40 years, from Trixi (1971) to his late work The
Sun and the Moon (2008), one of his most impor-
tant collaborators was the ballerina Beatrice
‘Trixie’ Cordua. But Ballet Black was his only
fully fledged dance film. A salute to artists of a
previous generation who had ended up on the
margins, Ballet Black was itself given a perfunc-
tory release, and was not shown on television;
but now, another generation on, it can be seen.

Ballet Black screens at BFI Southbank on 15 February as

part of a short season of Dwoskin films. It is also available
THE SORROW AND THE PITY Aleksei German’s Twenty Days Without War
on BFI Player. The book DWOSKINO is out now
102

Camera Man:
Buster Keaton,
the Dawn of
Cinema, and the
Invention of the
Twentieth Century
AUTHOR DANA STEVENS
PUBLISHER ATRIA BOOKS
PAGES 432
ISBN 9781501 134197

REVIEWED BY NICOLE DAVIS

“Who was this solemn, beautiful, per-

petually airborne man?” asks Dana Ste-
vens in the introduction to Camera Man,
a biography-meets-wider-cultural-history
ostensibly about Buster Keaton. “And
what became of him after he sailed out of
the frame?” These questions spearhead
Stevens’ narrative quest as she investi-
gates how a tempestuous era catapulted
Keaton to its fore – the parts are fittingly
named for a performer in continuous
motion, ‘Thrown’, ‘Flying’, ‘Falling’ and
‘Landing’ – and why he was lucky to land
at all. for games of cards or an inning or two Comparable to Peter Biskind’s history
Aptly named after The Cameraman of idea-generating baseball”. More har- of New Hollywood, Easy Riders, Raging
(1928), “the first and best film of Keaton’s rowing passages on his spiralling alco- Bulls (1998), in scope and sometimes
MGM period”, Stevens attempts “to hol dependency, his failing marriage to scandal (addiction, child abuse, violence
understand not just the work and life of Natalie Talmadge and a strained stint at and divorce are common threads), some
Buster Keaton but the world into which MGM, where the stranglehold on stars of the most dazzling chapters centre on
BOOKS

he was born – to understand him through chafed against Keaton’s loose, independ- Hollywood’s highest-paid stars: Marion
that world, and that world through him”. ent style of production, tell the story of a Davies, Lucille Ball, Jean Harlow, Clark
And yet it’s also a text written in the preternaturally gifted performer who ulti- Gable and, of course, Charlie Chaplin
wake of #MeToo and to understand Kea- mately got in his own way. are all evoked alongside Keaton. But Ste-
ton’s world is to acknowledge how times Stevens’ nimble prose feels very alive to vens wilfully resists romanticism, offering
have changed. Stevens knows you cannot Keaton and is full of astute speculations instead a cautionary tale: eventually, the
write about a man and his death-defying as to what he might have ingested cultur- bacchanalia must become a hangover.
feats without also considering the women ally – “If Buster did see Méliès’s A Trip to Only occasionally does that caution lean
he (or rather the patriarchal society he the Moon, it was likely in a pirated Ameri- too heavily into correction, feeling punc-
benefited from) left in his wake. There is can copy” – or been thinking about at the tilious in its invocation of the #MeToo
a whole chapter devoted to Mabel Nor- time of creating classics like Sherlock Jr. era or its discussion of Arbuckle, which
mand, who was, Stevens writes, “cred- (1924) and Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928). There Stevens underscores as behaviours that
ited as sole director on around sixteen is a risk of flat reverence when announc- should make us “flinch”.
titles” but never got the creative freedom ing at the beginning of a book that you Camera Man is clearly aimed at a gen-
granted to her male counterparts. For are infatuated with its subject, but Ste- eration for whom technology is a given
every Buster encouraged to soar, there is vens, a discerning critic for Slate, allows and Stevens does well to reinvigorate
a Mabel denied the chance to do so. The nimble space for reflection and re-evaluation. this period with a sense of awe and
The early chapters of the book are prose feels very When she acknowledges weaknesses in acceleration, noting the emergence of
devoted to that encouragement, or rather alive to Buster Keaton’s oeuvre, as with 1927’s College – in flash photography, the automobile, tel-
obligation, to soar, during which Buster which he appears in blackface make-up – ephone and wireless radio. It is a work
became a vaudeville child star alongside Keaton and is there is a generous inquiry into the cause of immense research, invoking a wide
his parents, Joe and Myra. They demon- full of astute of this misstep. range of historical writing and ephem-
strate an early appetite for daredevilling speculations Where the book really takes off is in era, including Myra Keaton’s scrapbook,
whatever the cost, as when “Joe mis- Stevens’ departure from chronology and to evidence a gripping story of hubris
judged the height of a kick to his preteen as to what he film criticism, providing historical segues and humanity.
son’s head, knocking him out cold for might have on subjects such as the Childs restaurant It wasn’t just a camera that Keaton
eighteen hours”, which Stevens contex- ingested chain, kit homes, Alcoholics Anonymous figured out how to put back together.
tualises against the backdrop of the child and the increasing prevalence of the tel- Having transported us through the
welfare movement and ponders whether culturally evision set. For every close-up on Keaton, turbulence of the 20th century, Stevens
nowadays we would be quite so amused we are then offered a wide shot – rich depicts a Keaton who never stopped
by seeing “that rubber-bodied little boy in texture and insight – that establishes working and found relative stability,
get hurled around the stage”. how certain trends or technological both in his professional and personal life.
There are also entertaining episodes innovations might have informed the Camera Man feels refreshing in its consid-
on Keaton’s years at Comique – the stories he was interested in, the type of eration of an artistic genius as a person
IMAGE: BFI NATIONAL ARCHIVE

studio launched to rival Mack Sennett’s star he became and how he was received. capable of magnificence and mediocrity,
Keystone – alongside Roscoe Arbuckle, Indeed, Stevens makes the case “that the and in viewing Keaton through the lens
contemporary criticism’s disdain for The birth of film criticism as we know it coin- of the world into which he was born, Ste-
ABOVE
General (1926) and how he ran his sets Buster Keaton and Kathryn
cided more or less exactly with the start of vens depicts a figure who was both of his
“with breaks between afternoon setups McGuire in Sherlock Jr. (1924) his solo filmmaking career”. time and yet remains timeless.
 103

Laura Dern’s crying mouth made me into a a term borrowed from critic Dave Kehr)
cinephile. The moment, a cinematic primal and the “wild atavistic refractions” of Dern’s
scene, as teenage Sandy’s singing robins fan- earlier roles and Hollywood’s mythos of the
tasy cracks apart in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet “woman in trouble”.
(1986), contaminated by the sight of Doro- Anderson refreshingly brings to Lynch’s
thy’s (Isabella Rossellini) violated naked- oeuvre a queer feminist critical inflection
ness. Dern’s pained, plasmatic grimace inherited from a genealogy of writing on the
grotesquely encapsulates the figure of the frisson of star bodies from Parker Tyler to
suffering blonde, innocence besmirched. Boyd McDonald to Patricia White. In the
Her mouth was a gateway into Lynch’s per- process, she reflects on the task of film writ-
verse netherworld of submerged sex and
Inland Empire
ing: how can the critic provide an account
all-American cruelty. adequate to an “insoluble, labyrinthine”
Reading Melissa Anderson’s thrillingly filmic object? Anderson gestures to that
AUTHOR MELISSA ANDERSON associative and brilliantly evocative book which remains beyond the grasp of words
PUBLISHER FIREFLIES PRESS Inland Empire, the third in Fireflies Press’s
PAGES 128 when confronting Inland Empire’s incendiary
ISBN 9783981918694 Decadent series (which will cover ten sig- images. Adroitly grappling with how Dern’s
nificant films of the 2000s), reminds us that performance enacts a dynamic of voyeuris-
REVIEWED BY ELENA GORFINKEL in the cinema, in our screen obsessions, we tic pleasure and performed pain, Anderson
are never alone. Examining the mesmeris- cuts to the core of Hollywood’s founding
ing Dern as avatar and axiomatic figure of fictions and a collective cathexis on imper-
Lynch’s cinema, Anderson writes that her illed starlets and broken women, from the
“corporeality functions as [Inland Empire’s] Arbuckle scandal and the Black Dahlia on
irreducible reality”. Dern’s shapeshifting to recent reckonings with misogyny and
turn as the actress Nikki Grace and her vari- sexual violence après Weinstein.
ous alter-egos is central to Lynch’s terrifying Anderson provocatively conjures the
funhouse-mirror homage to moviemaking. electrifying nature of Dern’s performance,
Anderson incisively analyses the fascina- that dexterous brew of incarnated artifice,
tions of performance, specifically women’s elasticated expressivity and shattered hurt,
enactments of existential breakdown and finally imagining her “pliant mouth devour-
psychosexual damage. Decentring the ing” Lynch’s infernal fictions in their totality.
directorial grip on filmic meaning, Ander- Here the star becomes both wilful instru-
son develops an “acteurist” method to exam- ment of the director’s imaginary and the
ABOVE Laura Dern in David Lynch’s Inland Empire (2006) ine Dern’s paroxysmal stardom (drawing on chthonic presence that exceeds it.

BOOKS
Doug Dibbern’s counterfactual history is a skeleton key for our own world
CINEMA’S DOPPELGÄNGERS

Few books on cinema in recent memory at all. In 1994, “the Socialists swept elections
have started from as audacious a premise as across Western Europe,” Dibbern writes in
Cinema’s Doppelgängers by Doug Dibbern, a a text on Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Gangster Film’
“counterfactual history” of the cinema; fewer (2002), establishing a funding structure
still have doggedly followed a wild premise that enabled “Godard’s former colleagues
to such rich extremes as the author has Jacques Rivette and Luc Moullet to direct
here. His 386-page book is a straight-faced their first films, despite their advanced age”.
accounting of movies that never were, told Silent movies were here phased out in 1936,
in character as alternate-reality Doug Dib- and alongside a cast of real historical charac-
bern, scholar and historian. ters (Stan Laurel, César Vallejo, Guru Dutt,
He begins with a long “Prolegom- etc) are reconfigured names and fantasti-
enon on the Aesthetics of Non-linearity”, cal inventions – Randall Jennings, Marcel
Cinema’s weaves a 100-movie Greatest Films guide L’Enfant, Arsenii Beyakov, Orson Welles’s

Doppelgängers
through this invented history of cinema ‘The United Nations’, Gerhard Mannheim’s
and concludes with seven essays on trans- ‘The Rhineland’, and so on.
formational moments in this same timeline, Dibbern’s Hollywood Riots (2015), an
AUTHOR DOUG DIBBERN such as the “Democratic Revolutions” in underappreciated book on the progres-
PUBLISHER PUNCTUM BOOKS
PAGES 386 Germany and Japan in 1965 and their con- sive Hollywood cinema snuffed out by the
ISBN 9781953035622 sequences for the artform. How to chart anti-communist blacklist, suggested his
a map through cinema history without capability and range as a writer and thinker
REVIEWED BY CHRISTOPHER SMALL
recourse to key historical details that the on film; Cinema’s Doppelgängers goes several
theoretical audience for this book would steps further in creating not only an imag-
already know? Hitler and the Bolsheviks ined cinema history but a dazzling histo-
never came to power – and thus, with no riographical approach to making sense of it.
war, Hitchcock remained in Great Britain Dibbern’s book is a skeleton key for our own
and all the great German émigré filmmak- world, one few would have been as capable
ers, like Fritz Lang, stayed in Germany (his of imagining and bringing to life so inven-
film ‘Wet Pavement’, 1946, was lauded on tively and with such wit. By concocting
release as “a fresh dose of lucid sophistica- this alternate universe, Dibbern has armed
tion” and the film that inspired the move- us with a sharp set of tools for burrowing
ment “dubbed ‘Street Realism’”). through our own cinema history, for spot-
IMAGE: SHUT TERSTOCK

No war meant no resulting post-war shift ting in it the invisible threads that connect
in aesthetics, and thus the French nouvelle the most microscopic of aesthetic shifts to
ABOVE Ozu Yasujirō’s Late Spring (1949) vague critics became filmmakers belatedly, if the most epic transformations in technology.
104
FROM THE ARCHIVE

As thoughts turn to Sight and Sound’s poll of the Greatest Films of All Time in just a matter of
months, what better moment to resurrect this illuminating interview with French heavyweight
Jean Renoir, whose 1939 masterpiece La Règle du jeu featured at No 4 last time round

INTERVIEWED IN SIGHT AND SOUND, SPRING 1962 BY LOUIS MARCORELLES

I’ve heard some English people say other people. Lately, though, in they attach to the idea of commit-
that The River is one of the most one hot summer I’ve seen English ment – the feeling that cinema and
authentically English films ever journalists behaving more like theatre ought to reflect and criticise
made. So you must have a certain Neapolitans than the Neapolitans the society around them. Last
fellow-feeling with the English. themselves. I remember one session Sunday, for instance, I was talking
A Oh, really it’s very simple. My sister- at the Savoy Hotel in London, where to an English critic who’d just seen
in-law is English, so I do know a bit in five minutes we were all drinking, Truffaut’s Jules et Jim [1962], and
about English family life. I adore shouting, bullying each other. It was who said that he found it quite
England and I’d like to live there: a lot of fun, and it wasn’t at all like unimportant because “it’s not a
people live there very agreeably. the conventional image of England. committed film”. This seems to me
a bit ridiculous, because from Truf-
Q What about the English cinema? Q It seems to me a pity that there isn’t faut’s point of view of course the film
The English have no equivalent, more of this freedom, this letting does have a commitment. I’d like to
for instance, to the New Wave, rip, in English films. The English know what the word means to you.
the breakthrough of young direc- cinema is so very respectable. A Well, of course it has a meaning.
tors filming independently. A It’s very, very respectable, but But I feel about this word ‘commit-
A Yes, but things don’t happen simul- sometimes there’s found in that ment’ or ‘engagement’ as I do about
taneously in all countries. After all, respectability a kind of genius… The most general ideas: they take on
the game was really opened by the terrible thing about the cinema is value only when they move to the
neorealists in Italy, and it wouldn’t the way it uses up everything. It particular. You’re driving along, and
surprise me a bit if the English were exhausts ideas, stories, brands of you see a very poorly dressed man
to come in and give us something stories, and suddenly it finds itself limping down the street: do you take
absolutely unexpected… Look, for faced with a kind of gulf, a ditch him into your car or don’t you? This
instance, at the way English life and across which it must leap to capture is a commitment, isn’t it, of a very
habits are changing. I can’t stand some new and absolutely unforeseen precise kind? But as to commitment
the kind of literature which likes to territory. We’re not talking, obviously, in a general sense… You know I can’t
over-simplify national differences about eternal masterpieces: clearly believe in the general ideas, really I
– you know, the English are so cold, Shakespeare always had something can’t believe in them at all. I try too
the Italians are warm, the Germans to say, and he didn’t have to jump any hard to respect human personality
are heavy. But of course there are ditch. But it’s a situation ordinary not to feel that, at bottom, there must
national characteristics: the climate, film production is likely to run into be a grain of truth in every idea. I
the way one eats, the way people every five years or so. In France the can even believe that all the ideas are
move about the streets, the fact that New Wave has been lucky enough true in themselves, and that it’s the
traffic goes on the left – all this does to jump the ditch. In England application of them which gives them
ALL IMAGES: BFI NATIONAL ARCHIVE

add up to something. A few years the same thing could happen. value or not in particular circum-
ago, English manners depended on stances… No, I don’t believe there are
tremendous restraint; they didn’t Q You probably know about the such things as absolute truths; but I
break the ice themselves, and they group who’ve been called the Angry do believe in absolute human quali-
respected the ice that formed around Young Men, and the importance ties – generosity, for instance, which
‘ONE SO-CALLED
QUALITY
IS MORE
OVERRATED
THAN ANY
OTHER:
IMAGINATION’
106 FROM THE ARCHIVE
LEFT
Jean Renoir’s The Diary of
a Chambermaid (1946)

RIGHT
Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932)

BELOW
Le Caporal Épinglé (1962)

‘Everyone really only makes one film in his life, and

then he breaks it up into fragments and makes it again,
with just a few little variations each time’
108 FROM THE ARCHIVE

is one of the basic ones. Truffaut’s Q Did you work on it alone?

film is a good one, in my opinion, A No, because with this kind of sub-
because it has this generosity. Of ject… Isn’t there always this old prob-
course it has its faults, but these are lem of external reality? Of course
failings with which I sympathise. I I’d like to be someone like Chaplin
sympathise egotistically, because and get away from it completely, but
they are exactly the failings of my I’m not strong enough for that. I try,
own last films, exactly the same… quite often, and the attempts usually
go adrift; and I know really that if I
Q I seem to remember that about have some slight contact with exter-
three or four years ago you were nal appearances, this helps me to
quoted as saying: “I’ve said almost penetrate more deeply to the interior
everything in the cinema: I find a of the characters. I knew something
kind of freedom in the theatre...” about the lives of prisoners of war,
A In the theatre there is greater free- but not directly, not first-hand. It
dom because there is discipline. The happens that there’s a very talented
awful thing about the cinema is the director, Guy Lefranc, who was a
possibility of moving about exactly prisoner himself and for whom the
as one wants. You say, ‘’Well, I must subject means something very special
explain this emotion, and I’ll do it – like the Bible for a believer. I asked
by going into flashback and showing him to help me, and he’s given me ABOVE relationship with an audience if I
you what happened to this man when this sense of first-hand knowledge. Jean Renoir’s La Grande
Illusion (1937)
don’t manage to give it continuity
he was two.” It’s very convenient, but of emotion through a character.
it’s also enfeebling. If you have to Q In À bout de souffle [1960] Jean- BELOW
La Règle du jeu (1939)
make the emotion understood simply Luc Godard is trying to get Q Throughout your career, I suppose,
through his behaviour, then the dis- away from the standard editing OPPOSITE
Partie de campagne (1936)
you’ve always referred back to real-
cipline brings a kind of freedom with devices, the artificial linking shots ism, however many forms it’s taken.
it. There’s really no freedom without and so on, to use a much more A With constant efforts to escape, since
discipline, because without it one fragmentary kind of montage. realism annoys me. But it does help
falls back on the disciplines one con- What do you feel about this? me to divine just a little of the interior
structs for oneself, and they are really A Yes, yes, it’s excellent… But I must truth, which is the one vital thing. In
formidable. It’s much better if the tell you that I don’t really bother effect it has to do with knowing what
restraints are imposed from outside. much about linking shots, physical someone is really like, what stuff he
devices to link action. The thing has in him. Then, once one has got
Q I believe you’ve worked with a that counts as far as I’m concerned at him, one has to make the audience
good deal of freedom on your is the emotional link. I feel that the see it too… But, you know, everyone
own new film Le Caporal Épinglé development of thought and feeling really only makes one film in his life,
[The Elusive Corporal]. Was it in an actor is indispensable – at and then he breaks it up into frag-
shot in a studio or on location? least to my kind of film. I don’t see ments and makes it again, with just a
A Mostly on location. Very little studio. how I can expect to establish a few little variations each time. There’s
one so-called quality that’s more over-
rated than almost any other: imagina-
tion. I’ve just been writing a book
about my father [the impressionist
painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir], and
I’m delighted to find that he felt this
too. He really detested imagina-
tion: he thought it was the greatest
possible hazard for the artist.

Q Because it’s too capricious…

A No, not that. It’s simply that my
father was a modest man who didn’t
believe that his inventions were
important enough or varied enough
to concern the public. He thought
that the artist’s proper function
was to absorb material, to digest it
and to pass it on. The form didn’t
matter: it could be Picasso’s cubist
form, or Mondrian’s abstracts, or his
own figurative technique. But he
didn’t believe in the idea of man as
God, able to create out of noth-
ing. He really subscribed to that
text by Lavoisier which you must
know: “In nature nothing is cre-
ated, nothing is lost, everything is
transformed…” Well, there you are.

Q I’d like to ask you about one last sub-

ject: critics. It seems to me that in a
sense criticism is an impossible job.
A It’s a very difficult one. I try to put
myself in the place of the critic. And
 109

being a critic makes you want to Q Today we’re experiencing a ‘THE FOUNDATION OF ALL
make films yourself, because the certain reaction after the first CIVILISATION IS LOITERING’:
more you put the questions, the enthusiastic response to the new THE CAREER OF JEAN RENOIR
less clearly you see the answers. You cinema. What do you think about Jean Renoir was born in Paris in 1894,
want to take a hand in the thing that – is it an unfair reaction? the second child of leading impression-
yourself. That was my father’s idea. A It’s all extremely unimportant. The ist artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Jean
Given that painting isn’t, as Truf- New Wave came, and after it there credited his nanny Gabrielle Renard,
faut says of the cinema, a mass art, was bound to be a counter-reaction. who would often take him to puppet
shows and film screenings, for bringing
my father insisted that finally one It was inevitable. But it’s absurd
cinema into his consciousness. His true
was painting for other painters. to suggest the New Wave doesn’t fascination with the medium began
represent the cinema of our time: during World War I. While recover-
Q But what do you expect your- of course it does. One can say that ing from injury in combat, Renoir
self from a critic? Is there very good films are being made watched films, including those by
anything he can give you? outside the New Wave, but these D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin.
A That depends on the critic. A man good films don’t give cinematic Renoir made a number of silent films,
like André Bazin, for instance, gave expression to this world of 1962. In many of which starred Catherine
a lot, but probably this was not only a few years there will be another Hessling, his first wife and a model
through his criticism but through movement, with another name, for his father’s paintings. These silents
what emerged from his writing as or no name, bringing something weren’t financially successful, and were
funded through the sale of his father’s
a whole. He had a kind of vision of else with it: so much the better.
paintings. In the 1930s, a move to
the world shaped by the cinema, and sound brought Renoir greater success
what he wrote went beyond criticism. Q I read recently something you and renown. His early sound features
In fact the criticism was secondary, were reported as saying… I can’t sent up the French bourgeoisie, and
and I think this is true of most really quote it exactly, but it seemed to as the decade went on Renoir became
good critics. When a critic simply me marvellous. You said some- increasingly associated with the left-
writes that a film is good or bad… thing like this: “I’m not ashamed wing Popular Front, his films reflecting
well, anyone can make mistakes. of changing my mind, at least his politics. La Grande Illusion (1937),
which shows French prisoners of war
I’m not afraid of setting out,
attempting an escape during WWI, was
Q Do you think criticism can play looking for something, without a breakout success, earning an award
a really constructive part? Do knowing where I’m going…” at the Venice Film Festival and the first
you feel, for instance, that the A Well, what matters is the action, Best Picture Academy Award nomina-
influence of Cahiers du cinéma not the target. Of course one needs tion for a foreign-language film. Renoir
has been a constructive one? general ideas, but they must be so made two final films in France before
A I believe that modern critics have deep-rooted, so profound, that one fleeing to the US during WWII: La
helped towards the formation of hardly knows one has them. You Bête humaine (1938) and La Règle du jeu
(1939). While the former was a commer-
certain trends, certain groups in the have to start out in a certain direc-
cial success, the latter was Renoir’s big-
cinema. The cinema today isn’t the tion, and keep to it, but in the way gest flop, but has since been lauded by
creation of Cahiers, but obviously that migratory birds follow a line critics – it was No 4 in Sight and Sound ’s
Cahiers has done quite a bit towards instinctively, without knowledge. I 2012 Greatest Films of All Time Poll.
it. And that’s all to the good. believe the artist ought to be like that. During the 1940s Renoir’s cinematic
output reduced significantly, Of
his American films, the most suc-
cessful was The Southerner (1945), for
which he received an Oscar nomina-
tion. His final American film, The
River (1951), was shot in India and
is perhaps the most highly regarded
of this period of his career. Return-
ing to Europe in the 1950s, Renoir’s
output included a trilogy of musicals:
Le Carrosse d’or (1952), French Cancan
(1955) and Elena et les Hommes (1956).
Le Petit Théâtre de Jean Renoir, his
final work, premiered on French
television in 1970. He died in 1979.

THE ORIGINAL ISSUE

PUBLISHED IN
SPRING 1962

INTERVIEW BY
LOUIS MARCORELLES
THE
AUTEURS
SERIES
LIMITED EDITION
ARCHIVE SPECIALS
AVAILABLE NOW
SHOP.BFI.ORG.UK
Image: Spike Lee | Photography: Nicolas Guerin
 2013
111

THIS MONTH IN...

To mark the centenary of the birth of Pier Paolo IN REVIEW
Pasolini (pictured below), we look back at the last The recent films of Terrence Malick
haven’t been as critically well received
time we undertook a reassessment of the Italian as his earlier works, but for Nick
maestro’s career (see Inside Story, below right); it’s Pinkerton the director’s To The Wonder is
a thing to marvel at.
timely too given that a few Pasolini works will surely
rank in the Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All “ There are few working artists with
such a generous and infectious curios-
Time poll later this year. In addition, this cursory ity about the variety of life on this
glance at March 2013 might begin to concentrate planet, the variety of human forms, of
objects manmade and natural… and as
our minds on which films from this century could ever Malick’s goal is to drop the scales
figure in our poll of polls – a common criticism of from ours and let us see things afresh.”

it, particularly from younger readers, has centred

on the paucity of titles of recent vintage, some
of which were every bit as crucial as canonical
20th-century classics in developing their cinephilia. INSIDE STORY
In her reading of Pasolini’s rereleased
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964,
pictured above), Hannah McGill
explored the numerous misunder-
standings and misrepresentations this CAESAR MUST DIE
director was subject to, which seemed
to crystallise around this film. The release of Caesar Must Die (pictured
above) marked a welcome return to
“ To contend that Pasolini’s Marxism form by the Taviani brothers, and
and rejection of religious practice Philip Kemp was duly impressed.
made this a rebellious or provocative
choice [of subject-matter] is to ignore “ The film introduces something rela-
both the curious, respectful tone of tively new in their oeuvre – a teasing
the movie and its director’s lifelong, penchant for blurring the line between
unambiguous fascination with matters artifice and reality. At first sight, we
of faith.” seem to be watching a documentary
about a production of Shakespeare’s
Mark Cousins, meanwhile, looked at Julius Caesar, its text somewhat adapt-
the constituent elements of the Pasolini ed, recently staged by the inmates of
sensibility, one of which was his rage Rome’s high-security Rebibbia jail.
ON THE COVER against consumerism. But early on there’s a hint that things
aren’t quite so straightforward.”
Mexican actor Gael García Bernal was “He doesn’t so much argue a political
featured for his role as the protagonist case against the consumerism that he CHAINED
of Pablo Larraín’s No, the final entry in saw taking over Italy as decry it as the
end of civilisation and call forth the Although she’s often had a rough ride
the Chilean director’s Pinochet trilogy from critics, Jennifer (daughter of
(following Tony Manero 2008; and Post apocalypse with an Old Testament
rage that led to the uniquely bleak David) Lynch impressed Anton Bitel
Mortem, 2010). It’s a fascinating portrait with her latest film, Chained.
of an adman who sold rejection of the tone of his last film Salò, or The 120
Pinochet dictatorship to the Chilean Days of Sodom.” “Lynch’s film is concerned with the
electorate the way he would any product. damage done to children by the adults
Bernal has been instrumental in the who have power over them, perhaps
resurgence of Latin America cinema this reflecting contemporary anxieties
century, his own career taking off right about the economically and ecologi-
at the start of it with two critically and cally ravaged world we’re bequeathing
commercially successful breakout films, to the next generation… File it under
Amores perros (2000) and Y tu mamá tam- bleak, disturbing and claustrophobic,
bién (2001). Could either of those make but do not dismiss it as ‘torture porn’.”
some small impression in the S&S poll?

ELSEWHERE IN THE ISSUE

· An interview with the internationally
ACTOR PROFILE DOCUMENTARY acclaimed cinematographer Chris
Menges, who shot Kes, The Killing
In a piece entitled ‘American tragedy’, Olaf Möller celebrates the great Indian
Fields and The Three Burials of Melquia-
Eric Hynes argues that Hollywood documentarian Anand Patwardhan, the
des Estrada, among numerous others.
idol Montgomery Clift’s subtle acting maker of Jai Bhim Comrade (2011, above).
· Tony Rayns pays tribute to the
alongside Liz Taylor in George Stevens’ “One work begets another: once money recently deceased Japanese
A Place in the Sun (1951, pictured left) is comes in from one film, Patwardhan director Ōshima Nagisa.
the finest of his career, partly because starts shooting the next. He’s as inde- · Sam Dunn ponders why so
of the overlap between art and life. pendent as it gets, his life’s work con- much interesting British cinema
“[It] goes from almost unbearable stituting a self-contained production is missing from DVD.
magnetism to slack-jawed resignation, and distribution system. Patwardhan · Philip Kemp gives a close reading of
IMAGES: BFI NATIONAL ARCHIVE

as complex and troubling as anything makes his films for the locals, for use the ending of Satyajit Ray’s Charulata.
he would ever do… he’s ambiguity and in educational work at home. Millions · Eric Kohn reports from a tech-
irresolution incarnate, simultaneously whose attendance is not recorded in nology-inspired Sundance.
an object, a conduit and a sacrifice – a box-office charts see his films, even · Tom Charity reassesses Michael Cim-
moving target even to himself.” know his name.” ino’s magnificent folly Heaven’s Gate.
 EDITORIAL

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1 14

ENDINGS The enigmatic montage that closes Michelangelo

Antonioni’s 1962 portrait of jaded lovers sees the director

L’eclisse abandon his protagonists to let the camera drift through

the streets, hinting at other stories that might be told

BY PAUL TICKELL
Michelangelo Antonioni’s last film in RIGHT
One of the unnamed
black and white, L’eclisse (1962) completes characters we observe, waiting
the unofficial trilogy formed along with at the side of the road, in
L’eclisse’s final montage
L’avventura (1960) and La notte (1961). In
them, the psychological disturbance BELOW RIGHT
Monica Vitti’s Vittoria
beneath the gloss of the good life of early
60s Italy is rendered with glacial unease.
They are also enigmatic – films defying
meaning. Yet Antonioni does provide
clues as to why his middle-class char-
acters are so adrift and troubled – and
never more so than in the precise, almost
documentary images of the seven-minute
montage that brings L’eclisse to an end in a
way almost unique for narrative cinema.
After almost two hours, all the sound
drains away and is completely mute for a
few seconds, signalling that this is now
another register, a different plane of cin-
ematic reality. Vittoria (Monica Vitti), a
young translator, is looking at some trees
beyond a wall in her neighbourhood,
the Esposizione universale, a develop- The montage of
ment begun in Rome in the 1930s. The precise, almost
housing is modernist, overshadowed documentary
by a space-age water tower, its phallic
elongation capped by a huge concrete images brings
mushroom ready for take-off – for a trip. L’eclisse to an
Yet it’s a soulless landscape – little here to end in a way
quench spiritual thirst, only an uninviting
water barrel, more like an oil-drum. It is almost unique
just one of a series of images which we for narrative
have seen earlier in the film and which are cinema
reprised here, often from different angles.
Throughout the film Vittoria’s expres- opened that we realise it is morning. Vit- What has happened to an older, more
sive though sometimes hermetic face toria and her soon-to-be ex-lover have clannish and religiously observant Italy?
has revealed the inner drama of her con- been up all night trying to save their rela- Are we seeing the Death of the Family?
sciousness, as she ends an affair with tionship. The very last shot in the clos- This is the story behind the newspaper
writer Riccardo (Francisco Rabal) only ing montage is also of artificial light, the headline in the montage: ‘The Atomic
to begin another with stockbroker Piero substitute sun of a street-lamp at night. It Age’. Enter the nuclear family, splitting
(Alain Delon) – which might already be could easily be the prelude to the couple’s off and off until there are only couples left
over. In the closing montage, is Vittoria very long night of emotional eclipse. arguing, their offspring – if they ever get
reliving her recent past and so reconjur- If Antonioni is playing with the idea of that far – outsourced to other people, like
ing up the body of the film? It certainly the cyclical, of circularity, it is not glibly. It that perambulating nanny who is the first
feels more than a walk down recent is not so much that history repeats itself person we see after Vitti in the montage.
memory lane. The camera leaves Vittoria as that there are also those other stories. Even if life in the fast lane is symbolised
behind and takes off to lead a life of its The tale we’ve been watching is just one by Piero’s stolen Alfa Romeo ending up
own. People other than Vitti inhabit the of them, and one that’s determined by in a canal with the thief drowned inside,
montage and we cannot help but wonder factors beyond the immediately personal. Antonioni’s positioning of an older Italy
what their story is – like the man driving Through Vittoria we are made aware of against a shiny new one never feels like
a pony and trap, and the uniformed nanny the wider, more political world – as when he is taking sides. But we know where
with her little charge. We have seen them her mother (Lilla Brignone) complains his sympathies lie in the raucous, even
earlier but we also see ‘new’ people, like that socialists are ruining things. Rabelaisian, depiction of the Rome stock
the dark-haired woman waiting in day- The modern high design of Vittoria’s exchange. The Borsa trading floor is
light by the kerb for a date or a more dubi- and her discarded lover’s apartments smelly and likened by turns to a boxing
ous assignment, and the couples arm in contrast with that of the parental home ring and a brothel. So Piero the trader
arm later on at dusk. The city, though as – dark, claustrophobic spaces even in the refers to himself as a “call-girl”, and Vit-
IMAGES: BFI NATIONAL ARCHIVE

depopulated as a Hopper or de Chirico case of the more opulent one owned by toria as a “real number” compared to the
painting, still has many tales to tell. Piero’s parents. Apart from Vittoria’s market figures. The montage, then, can
The very first shot in the film is of a mother, who with her gambling on the be interpreted as a kind of countdown,
lamp, artificial light in a darkened apart- stock market is no traditional matriarch, even an occult numerology – but para-
ment. It is only when the curtains are the parents themselves are absent. doxically ending the film, not launching it.
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