Review: Ida, all perfectly black and white

Ida

Starring: Agata Trzebuchowska and Agata Kulesza
Directed by: Pawel Palikowski

Written by: Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Pawel Pawlikowski

82 Minutes   Rated M

I don’t dream in black and white (seriously, does anyone? Come on…) I don’t often take photos in black and white and my TV gives me beautiful color, even HD programs. Occasionally though some arty could will make a movie in black and white, aren’t they clever little things?

One thing a black and white film can suggest very well though is austerity and this is certainly true of the Polish movie ‘Ida’ beautifully directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. You could be forgiven for thinking it is a film made in another era altogether with a boxy aspect ratio added to the monochromatic film stock.

Anna is a young novitiate in a rural convent where she grew up as an orphan. One day in 1962 her Mother Superior lets her know she has an Aunt Wanda living in Gdansk and orders Anna to make contact with her aunt before she takes her vows. Obediently Anna hops off to Gdansk and is greeted by Wanda who answers the door puffing on a cigarette in the afterglow of a one night stand (he’s quickly dressing in the bedroom).

We find out that Wanda is a formerly highly respected jurist who takes an interest in Anna leading them to spend a few days together, travelling to their family’s former home and retracing footsteps and unpacking dramas and events that were Poland’s (and the family’s) lot during the second World War. The village and the family’s home are wonderfully rendered, you’ll be reaching for the shawl or jacket to fight the chill and the bleakness so permeating is the atmosphere. Post war and post communism, the twin curses of Poland combine with a family weighed down with personal and political histories, crushing and oppressive to fill out this tale. Here we have a soon to be nun seeking out the stories where Catholics turned in or saved Jews, their neighbours and where citizens collaborated or resisted the Stalinists in their purges. The populace doesn’t yield but presents its face in the face of Wanda, unbending and hard bitten but tenacious and tough yet is there culpability somewhere under all that? Whichever, she will not tailor her behaviour to suit the prim Anna, a façade also and one that is challenged as the story develops. Without giving anything away, there is an eventual meeting of minds (fusing even), beautiful and a touch shocking.

Agata Trzebuchowska makes her debut as Anna; fresh faced and innocent she is captivating and frankly surprisingly accomplished and assured, a joy to watch. She is ably matched by the more experienced and riveting Agata Kulesza as Aunt Wanda.

This ‘kind of’ road film poses some tough questions about morality and all the contradictions inherent in them.  There is the inevitable Protestant fantasy that dictates that every nun will have a conflict with their vocation and their ‘bodily desires’ (good grief) but also much more realistic and important issues. Temper this with the cool and silky soundtrack featuring John Coltrane (much more successful than the grating, whiny soundtrack of ‘Birdman’), which feels it’s as grey in tone as the film’s palette, and you have a delicious, disturbing and masterly film

Ida deservedly won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. As more films emerge from the former Eastern Bloc to tell us the ordinary stories as well as the epic, who knows what other masters, poetic and sensitive, smart and brave will join Pawlikowski as Directors and storytellers to follow. Let’s just look forward to it.

4 out of 5

This review is dedicated to ‘my’ Ida – my Aunt Ida May Margetts who passed away last year.

Review: Selma - Impressive and Inspiring

Selma

Starring: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson

Directed by: Ava DuVernay
Screenplay: Paul Webb
128 minutes   Rated M

It is fifty years since Martin Luther King led a momentous march from Selma to Montgomery Alabama which made a significant impact on the American people and their leaders and was a pivotal, influential moment in the Civil Rights Movement and American history. In 1965 in Australia Charlie Perkins led many people on the Freedom Right to alert his fellow Australians to search for decency and dignity in the way our First Australians were treated.

It is fitting then that this anniversary brings us a film to recount such a historic moment, to remind those of us who were alive at the time, maybe fill in the blanks or give us (particularly in Australia in the days before the internet or twitter where we were given ‘news’ on international matters which may not have been anywhere near the full story) a few ‘I didn’t know that’ moments. Of course for those of us not around at the time it’s also a good history lesson of a story not known or fully understood.  Not to mention that events such as Ferguson today give us cause to reflect on whether many achievements end up being more surface than substance.

The movie opens with a shocking slow motion recreation of the 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four African-American schoolgirls. The slow-mo was a bit twee but the scene certainly carried a punch. But the scene sets us up for the film to follow.

In Selma, the director Ava DuVernay tells the story of Dr Martin Luther King's battle to pass the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In the role of King we are treated to a stunning performance by David Oyelowo who convincingly captures that distinctive speech pattern but also his spirit, gravitas and moral authority. It is interesting to ponder of how young Dr King was and yet seemed to have such an ‘older’ air about him. This comes through in the film as some of the younger characters who seem a bit bemused by his (passive) tactics while others are in awe. It could probably have afforded to be a little more critical of the man, he had flaws afterall (his marriage infidelities hinted at briefly), but seriously this is an exceptional performance.

It’s interesting to see four of the leads (and a few smaller roles) are in the capable hands of Brits – David Oyelowo (King), Carmen Ejogo (Coretta King), Tom Wilkinson (LBJ) and Tim Roth (splendidly horrid George Wallace). Perfect actors all but I wonder how all those unemployed and equally competent American actors feel.

As Coretta, Carmen Ejogo gives a winning, sharp and moving performance. This stoic and faithful woman inspired many in the years following her husband’s death and Carmen’s performance gives us real insight into where that figure was being formed and why that was.

Fire and fury, passion and conviction (ish) underline Tom Wilkinson’s performance as President Johnson. There is much tut tutting about how LBJ is represented in the movie, insiders say there was no ‘arguing’ between King and LBJ – that they were more than restrained and civil with each other and that LBJ had a great respect for King’s arguments but not necessarily high regard for the man. King’s autobiography doesn’t indicate any confrontational tone but does acknowledge Dr King was unhappy that the President had ‘other priorities’ or significant barriers from the South and he started the Selma campaign despite Johnson’s cold feet. It looks to me that the words are fairly accurate in the dialogue with some dramatic effect added to give color to the film. Every film has to have a villain, even if it’s a de facto one and LBJ serves that purpose here so drama has to have a home. You might argue Wallace, Hoover and the Cops would have done the job just as well but there is more of a pivot having the villainy in the White House I think. And as the film progresses there is redemption and a change to a softer more ‘agreeable’ President as the pay off for his intransigence.

There is real verve and evident passion in this movie that carries the story and the drama along with the right degree of tension and apprehension (especially if you know the horrors coming). This could have been merely a didactic, preachy and button pressing film constantly asking ‘how could this happen’. Instead it is a tight story about the struggle, the moment when a leader is required to ‘step up’ and maybe ponder on where our passions for ideals have gone – would Selma happen today?

Whilst dramatic and sometimes mawkish (every marcher is hit not just with a truncheon but a bass beat on the soundtrack) Selma is also ultimately upbeat and heart lifting as a celebration of what was achieved and the civil rights movement. A documentary might have been more even handed, possibly even more subtle which might have meant less passion and intensity (even heart) but this movie suited me just fine.

The placing of that excellent part rap, part anthem song ‘Glory’ under the credits was a perfect end piece to a slightly flawed but mostly superb movie.

I look forward to a similar movie about Perkins and the Freedom Riders one day.

4 out of 5

Review: Big Eyes All That It Appears?

Big Eyes

Starring: Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Jason Schwartzman, Terence Stamp, Madeleine Arthur
Director: Tim Burton
Written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski

106 minutes     Rated M

I think I like Tim Burton, there is something about his style that is compelling. I think. There’s ‘Sweeney Todd’, ‘Edward Scissorhands’, ‘Big Fish’ and ‘Ed Wood’, what’s not to like? Then I remember ‘Dark Shadows’ and ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and I remember. I guess not every gothic angst piece of kitsch maketh a good movie nor be a crowd pleaser which I suspect motivates Tim more often than not.

Big Eyes returns Tim Burton the personal story maker, the brilliant director who made ‘Ed Wood’ and I’m glad of that. Ironically it’s the story of a producer of crowd pleasing Kitsch which might even have a shade or two of the Gothic about it. Witness the tale of Margaret Keane (Amy Adams), a San Francisco-based artist whose portraits of children with glistening, saucer-sized eyes were the in thing to own and turned out to be a gold mine for Margaret and her conman husband Walter (Christoph Waltz). She locked herself away painting for 16 hours a day browbeaten, maybe even in thrall to Walter who convinced her to churn out the popular waif paintings.  Not only that, BUT Walter took the credit for being the artist too. It’s a good story and an interesting one.

As with ‘Ed Wood’ Burton appears to posit the artistic success of the Keanes has more to do with the ‘peculiarity’ or notoriety of the art rather than the merit of it. Again of course the film itself might have to bear that petard for the oddness of the subject matter; the queerness of the story might deny it great commercial success. Maybe, too, in the current climate of a seeming increase in male disrespect and abuse towards women, a film about male dominance and female submissiveness albeit a half-century ago, it’s a hard sell.

Amy Adams as Margaret was a bit whiney at times but DID show us her reticent and compulsive natures. The whininess is an Adams motif though and something I would like to think will decrease as she gains more experience. She is a terrific actor but is still developing. A significant fault in the script about Margaret’s character is that we don’t know where the compulsiveness which drove her (compelled her?) to paint almost the same picture over and over for eight years. And was it simply a philosophy of ‘don’t mess with success’ that prevented her from standing up to Walter earlier to change the style from banal and unremittingly repetitive paintings of, mostly, women and children staring straight out with those huge black eyes?

Walter as played by Christoph Waltz was a charming and loathsome character. You despise the control he exudes and cringe at the winning smile, his exuberance is delightful while at the same time awful. BUT it is too often over the top and it’s in his scenes more often than not that the film slips, almost trips over itself. Also I did find essentially that Waltz was reminiscent of Woody Allen in the voice he chose, maybe that’s because Waltz still carries his Austrian accent off screen and Woody seemed to fit how he wanted his character to sound. I was not as comfortable with his acting as I was with most of the rest of the cast.

There are a couple of fine ‘cameo’ moments too. Jason Schwartzman is compelling and convincing as the doubting gallery owner while Terrance Stamp does a fine turn as the critic John Canaday who might have been a rad harsh when he suggested "It's synthetic hack work,” but onto something when he also called the works, “An infinity of kitsch.”  Danny Huston as columnist Dick Nolan does a fine turn when he appears on screen but the voiceover by Nolan is a bit naff and unnecessary.

San Francisco just before everyone was wearing ‘flowers in their hair’ looked fantastic and totally convincing thanks to the splendid photography of Bruno Delbonnel.

This is a film that mostly satisfies even though it is wholly disturbing, much like those paintings and much like the odd, quirky, manipulative and destructive relationship at the centre of the story.

I think this is the sort of film Burton does well but I suspect he’ll still make the oddball, sometimes creepy but sometimes clever stuff again. Some will be great and some will be ho hum but the main thing is that he is prepared to ‘have a go’.

I think.

3 ½ out of 4

Review: A Most Violent Year - Packs a Punch

A Most Violent Year  - auteur auteur

Directed and written by:  J.C. Chandor

Starring: Oscar Isaacs, Jessica Chastain, Albert Brooks
125 minutes   Rated  MA15+

Focus for a minute, concentrate and remember the following words:  Oscar Isaacs will be the next big thing in American movies. You read it here first!

The title of the film comes from 1981 in New York considered as (yep) the most violent year there, muggings, gang violence etc. at their height. Oscar Isaacs plays an ambitious but decent, if ambitious Columbian immigrant fighting to protect his heating - oil business and his family from financial and competitor pressures.  He has a great love and respect for his family and the friends in not just his company but those who might be rivals in the oil business, they are after all immigrants also mostly and simply making a living. How do you rise in a business though without bending towards the encroaching influence of the Mob as their control grows?

J C Chandor directed and wrote this fine film showing us the age of the film auteur is alive and well. I didn’t see his previous film ‘All is Lost’ but did see his other film ‘Margin Call’. I thought the story of the making the film and its eventual production was infinitely more interesting than the film itself (look it up on the net). I found it too talky and much of the talkiness (?) was incomprehensible to this black duck. He has won me back with Violent Year though.

A Most Violent Year's visual style is detailed and sharp with a great rhythm that almost sings to the audience to complement the beautiful cinematography of Bradford Young. The pre-Giuliani New York looks bleak and run down thanks to Detroit today standing in for many shots. The framing and sweep of some shots is breathtaking but never detracts from what’s going on but forms part of it. Chandor often favours shooting from behind the characters when they are talking which is an interesting touch. When you imagine a conversation you ‘see’ it from your POV looking ‘at’ the other person rather than the back of their head so this really does shake up the POV conventions. There is a sense of listening in rather than looking at the dialogue. It works for me.

The story is exciting and well told, a little reminiscent of that other terrific film ‘The Drop’ but resolves itself quite differently (and ironically a lot less violently).

Oscar is sublime and riveting in the role of Abel (pronounced annoyingly as Ah-Bell) with a more than equal performance of Jessica Chastain as his wife and the almost unrecognisable Albert Brooks practically perfect as Andrew Walsh.

This is a masterful piece of filmmaking, beautifully directed and expertly acted with a strong script. It is far from a violent film and the title comes from history rather than much reference in the movie itself – maybe a bit odd on reflection. Then again violence lies in strange places and forms so perhaps a business that is your heartbeat being threatened and a good man having to make moral decisions with the immoral are all a type of violence.

This is in many ways a ‘quiet’ film, no bam bam (or even bang bang) about it. It has a story and strong characters and just gets on with it, lets the narrative drive it and very stylishly (oh those suits Oscar wears)lets us sit back for 100 minutes and enjoy.

Find your way to this very satisfying example of fine film-making.

4 ½ out of 5

Review: Second Best in Name But Not in Fact

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Directed by:  John Madden

Written By:   Ol Parker

Rated:  PG      122 minutes

I really enjoyed the ‘Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ back in 2012. It made me laugh and gave me a lump in the throat at times plus it made me want to get me over to India. The rapport between the actors, especially between Maggie Smith and Judi Dench along with Celia Imrie, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton and Ronald Pickup, was luscious. Throw into that the talented Dev Patel and you had magic.

Three years later along comes the sequel and not a lot has changed, it’s really just a variation on the theme with a bit of extra spice thrown in thanks to the marriage collapse between Nighy and Wilton and the tasty Richard Gere adding a certain ‘frisson’. Of the originals only Tom Wilkinson is missing lest they resurrect his dead character. The grey brigade has zing and uses smart lines, knowing looks and a bit of old fashioned acting talent to deliver what the young things might need CGI and stunts to deliver. It’s an old fashioned concept called damned good entertainment.

Briefly the residents of the Marigold Hotel are getting on with the daily doings while Sonny (Patel) is sussing out another property for his vision of a second Marigold. Concurrently he and his gorgeous fiancée Sunaina (Tena Desai) are in the final stages of their wedding preparations. Of course it won’t go smoothly on either front.

Richard Gere plays Guy an American writer (or is he?) and checks in at the same time as Lavinia (Tamsin Grieg) who provide the nits in the mattresses (fly in the ointment – get it?). I’m not sure Gere was right for the role, he seemed to me to stand out too much, his presence was too large for the rest of the film. I’m not sure if it was just his acting style (there were a few mannered facial expressions), perhaps he tried too hard but it jarred for me. Tamsin Grieg on the other hand slipped in amongst it all and worked well. Alright I have to profess my adoration for the divine Ms G, she can do no wrong but I honestly think she did very well. I am a fan of Mr Gere as well mind, he is one of the better film actors of his generation. I just didn’t like him in this.

All the returning actors were terrific, the script was tight and funny as well as moving when required (I think at times it tended to heavy handedness but managed to pull back enough). The direction was particularly accomplished and finely tuned; nothing was missed or lost here. A comedy such as this could have easily been left to tell itself but director John Madden kept a firm hold on it all. The cinematography was breathtakingly good and the ending hand me wanting to dance, dance dance.

There is a danger in having the words ‘second best’ in the title of a sequel. There will naturally be disappointments in any sequel and maybe human nature has us looking for the shortcomings. I might quibble over the length of the story and the stretches in logic and the occasional missing ‘truths’. In the end this film made me laugh a lot and I needed that on that day; it lifted my spirits and made me very happy that I live at the same time as the actors in it and the makers of it.

And yep, I still want to go to India.

3 ½ out of 4

Book Review - Please Sir Roger May I Have More?

Last Man Standing – Tales From Tinseltown
Roger Moore
Hardie Grant   262 pages.   RRP $39.95

A couple of years back Roger Moore released a terrific autobiography called 'My Word Is My Bond'. It was with great anticipation that I picked up a copy of his memoir ‘Last Man Standing’. My anticipation was rewarded with delight and joy at the most entertaining content of the book.

Sir Roger is the man who played James Bond as many times as Sean Connery, although over a longer period (seven times), but he also held audiences enthralled in ‘The Saint’ and ‘The Persuaders’ on the tele. He has it down pat when it comes to playing urbane and charming, sophisticated and suave. Some might say he is a bit wooden but I think it’s simply contained and refined.

The joy of the book is the stories that are full of name dropping, a bit of wink wink, the odd naughty revelation and the shameless stolen anecdote. Sir Roger has known the film ‘blokes’ such as Niven, Flynn, O’Toole, Burton and Caine as well as the women from Liz and Lana to Grace and Shelley. There’s even some Swedish royalty complemented with some nods to the British Royals. Almost every story is a beauty and I wanted to climb inside the book and be read to preferably by the characters themselves. This is an insider’s book and you know almost all of them are true. This is David Niven territory although we now know most of his stories were made up, I am more confident Sir Roger might exaggerate or embellish but not fib. He sends himself up a bit and is not averse to pricking the bubble of pretention although I was over him referring to Bond as ‘Jimmy Bond’ after the third or fourth time.

Divided nicely and sensibly into sections such as ‘The fun and feisty – Leading Ladies’, ‘Stage Struck’, ‘Creative Geniuses’ and ‘The Good Guys’ each of which is very nicely edited and kept in the context of the section titles. Plus there are many great photos sprinkled throughout.

Although this book is discreet and tasteful (a couple of language spikes but you know…)I was troubled by the treatment of his unnamed third wife. I can’t remember if she was treated better in his previous book but I was disappointed that she was referred to by her nationality (Italian) or ‘second wife’ etc. His second wife, Dorothy Squires was certainly given a good run in the first book and is warmly remembered in this book but there is obvious bitterness towards number three and I think that’s beneath Sir Roger. I know the divorce was nasty and there was some unpleasantness between Dad and the kids over the split and his former wife’s subsequent book but really adults play better surely.  For the record Sir Roger Moore’s third wife was Luisa Mattioli and they were married from 1969 (having lived together since 1961) until 2000 and had three children.

If you like your showbiz tales, especially of old Hollywood and Pinewood as well as a bit of hot goss then this well written and beautifully paced book is the one for you.

This year he is 88 not out and an ambassador for UNICEF this remarkable man and entertaining writer has given many of us much joy over the years and this book is another gift to us. Thanks Sir Roger and I wouldn’t mind another thanks….