15th Mar2015

Suite Francaise – Film

by timbaros

images-345In the early 1940’s a young woman wrote a novel about the romance between a young French Jewish woman and a German soldier. The writings were found 50 years later and was then published as a very successful book. Now Suite Francaise is a movie.

In the German occupied French town of Bussy during World War II, each house was expected to house a German soldier. Lucille Angellier (played by Michelle Williams) lives in a large house with her mother-in-law Madame Angellier (Kristin Scott Thomas) and their housekeeper. Of course the locals aren’t happy about this, they’re downright scared. It gets even more serious when soldier Bruno van Falk (Matthias Schoenaerts) is placed in the Angellier household in their upstairs room. Lucille’s husband is off fighting in the war and it’s been a long time since there has been any news about him. Lucille continues to receive conflicting reports as to whether he is on the battlefield or in a camp. Meanwhile, one of Madame Angelliers tenants is extremely jealous that the German soldier who is staying with them has started making advances on his wife.

Back at the Angellier home, Lucille slowly starts to have feelings for Bruno, especially after she discovers he, like her, loves to play the piano. Slowly they fall in love with each other, it’s of course a forbidden love, but they can’t hold back the feelings they have for each other. Things come to a blow when the tenant kills the German soldier and goes on the run (hiding in Lucille’s home), and the German Commander holds the towns’ Viscount responsible, and if not found in a few days, the Viscount will be killed. It’s up to the brave Lucille to ask for Bruno’s help, and in turn they risk not just their relationship but their lives as well.

What could’ve been a beautifully-told film from an amazing novel is turned, by director Saul Dibb, into a less than believable romance movie that seems to be missing the sum of it’s parts. Lucille and Bruno’s relationship starts all too quick, it feels like some scenes have been edited out for time, leaving gaps in the story. Some of the characters actions are left unexplained, and the ending is not as dramatic and emotional as it should be. American Williams looks every bit like a young French woman falling in love and Schoenaerts looks every bit a German soldier falling in love, and they have great on screen chemistry. Meanwhile Scott Thomas never fails to impress. Costumes, art direction, sound, music, cinematography and all the supporting actors are all top notch. But Suite Francaise is not as good as one would’ve hoped in light of the the fascinating background to the book. In 1942 Irène Némirovsky had finished writing two novels when she was arrested and eventually was murdered at Auschwitz. The notebook containing the two novels was eventually read by her daughters in 1998 and went on to become a best selling book in 2004.

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15th Mar2015

The Imitation Game – DVD

by timbaros

THE IMITATION GAMEThe life of famous WWII codebreaker Alan Turing is told in the new film The Imitation Game. The movie flips back and forth between Turing’s life as a young boy in boarding school, to his days as part of the team hired by MI6 to crack the German Enigma Codes, to the time of his arrest for Gross Indecency (basically for being gay). Sliced in between this is footage of WWII; bombings, sea battles, air raid shelters and bombed out London which gives the film a true feeling of being there at that time in those places.

Turing is the man credited with inventing the Enigma machine. It translated German codes into English which helped the Allies defeat the Nazi’s in several crucial battles by finding out the German army’s positions and plans. Turing’s contribution is said to have saved many lives and shaved at least two year off WW2. And Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing is a revelation.

Alan Turing was a prodigy, but according to the movie he was also an outcast. He was taunted and teased while he was in boarding school, including at one point having food thrown all over him. His classmates regularly beat him up, and one time they shoved him under the floor boards in school, trapping him under a piece of furniture. We are also told that Turing had a close friendship with a fellow classmate whose name was Christopher. They were inseparable, and the film leads us to believe that love was blossoming between the two. Whether this is factual or not is the question.

The film begins in 1951 when Turing’s Manchester flat has been burgled, burgled by a friend of a young man who Turing was having a relationship with. During the investigation Turing admits to having a sexual relationship with the young man, and they both are charged with gross indecency.

In his 20’s, Turing is portrayed as a loner. He enjoys running in the countryside, and when he’s hired by MI6 at the age of 27 to work at ‘The Betchley Radio Manufacturing Company,’ it’s a time when he excels and blossoms, but when he’s assigned to work with a group of men, he is uncomfortable and doesn’t quite fit in. These men include ladies man Hugh (Matthew Goode) and Scottish John (Allen Leech). One woman does join their ranks, Joan Clarke (played by Keira Knightley), and we are led to believe that Turing emotionally fell in love with her and even asked her to marry him. At first Turing’s male co-workers don’t like him – they find him different, so Joan suggests Turing to do something nice for them, so he brings them apples, and then they all bond. Was life so simple back then?

Turing creates his machine, at great expense, much to the dismay of his commanding officer Stewart Menzies (Mark Strong). Disarmingly, Turing names his Enigma machine Christopher, in honor of his school boy crush, who Turing is told has simply disappeared from school. So history shows that Turing and his team were instrumental in helping to end WW2. But unfortunately later in Turing’s life it would all come to naught after he was convicted for having committed acts of homosexuality.

The title of The Imitation Game comes from a paper that Turing wrote in 1950 which jump-started the new realm of artificial intelligence (though Turing called it mechanical intelligence). And we are told that this film is based on a true story. But how much of the film is true and how much was made up turns the movie not into a true life account of a genius and a true account of Turing’s life but a film that is entertaining, well made – an excellent achievement, which, however, leaves the viewer to be skeptical of the story.

Cumberbatch is superb. He perfectly plays Turing in all stages of his adult life. We see through him the pain of being an outsider as well as the joy of cracking the code. It’s a performance worthy of an Oscar. Knightley is surprisingly good as Turings ‘love interest.’ Knightley is tasked with bringing emotion and femininity into the film. She succeeds. The standout in Turing’s team is Goode. But is he who he says he is?

Director Morten Tydlum (Headhunters) has beautifully crafted a movie that plays as a history lesson. And all technical aspects of the film are outstanding; from the costumes to the luscious cinematography, to the sets. But it’s the script that most people will have a problem with. Screenwriter Graham Moore, in writing his first film script and who is credited as an Executive Producer, took many liberties in writing this film. Whether this was done to make it more commercial and exciting, it has succeeded. But it’s not a 100% portrayal of the life of Alan Turing, it plays out just like any other film. Perhaps someone in the future will make a definitive documentary on the life of Alan Turing. Two attempts to tell his story – the 1996 television movie ‘Breaking the Code’, and 2011’s ‘Codebreaker’ – were just that, attempts, and it was hoped that The Imitation Game would be the definitive story of Turing’s life, but alas it is not. But Turings life, and legacy, live on.

Turing eventually committed suicide one year after his arrest (1952). In 2013, Queen Elizabeth pardoned him. What took so long.

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15th Mar2015

Pride – DVD

by timbaros

PRIDEIn 1984 a group of gay activists decided to raise money for striking mineworkers, and this is the subject of the new film Pride.

The UK miners strike, which lasted for one year from March 1984, took place after Margaret Thatcher’s government announced its intention to close 20 coal mines and more at a later date, severely financially affecting the workers and their families. Pride tells the story of a group of young gay activists – who called themselves ‘Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM)’ – and their enthusiasm and motivation to raise money for the miners and their families in a small community called Onllym in South Wales, which resulted in a strange and unusual relationship between both groups.

The rag tag group of LGSM activists include George MacKay as Joe, not yet out to his parents and barely just out to himself; Ben Schnetzer as Mark, the leader of the group but also the most passionate; Andrew Scott plays Gethin – the owner of Gay’s The Word bookshop who has not set foot in his native Wales or spoken to his mother in 16 years; Dominic West as Jonathan – Gethin’s actor boyfriend; Faye Marsay as Steph – the Lesbian in Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners; and Joe Gilgin who plays Mike Jackson – the co-founder of LGSM. Members of the mining community include Bill Nighy as Cliff – the mining club secretary who also happens to be gay; Imelda Staunton as Hefina – a resident of Onllym and a member of the mining committee who gets on fabulously with the LGSM members; and Paddy Considine as Dai Donnvan – a miner who eventually comes around and accepts LGSM’s support.

Pride begins at the June 1984 gay pride parade, with a relatively small group of people marching through central London, and it’s where Joe, watching the parade from the sidelines, decides that this is the group that he belongs to, so he joins the parade. One of the activists carries a sign which reads ‘Queers, better blatant than latent.’ Anti-gay activists line the street with their own signs – one reading ‘Burn in Hell.’ Such was the sentiment in 1984.

The group of people that Joe attaches himself to has an office at a gay bookstore called ‘Gay’s the Word’ which is an actual gay bookstore in central London. Upstairs is their war room, where they come up with the idea to raise money to support the mineworkers. They call several mineworker unions around the country saying that they want to raise money for the strikers, but once they mention that they are Lesbian and Gay, they get hung up on. But there is one small mining village in Wales that doesn’t hang up on them, they in fact welcome the group, and the money they have raised.

So outside of the bookshop the activists stand, asking for passersby to donate money for the striking mineworkers. Some people put money into their buckets, while others spit on them as they walk by. After having raised a large bit of money, the group head to Onllym and give the mining committee the money they raised. They drive up in a van that has ‘Out Loud Theatre Group’ written on it’s doors. One of the women in the committee hall yells ‘Guys – your gays have arrived.’ They are met with resistance by most of the men, one of them commenting ‘bring gays into a Working Men’s Group, you have problems.’ It’s the women, and especially Hefina, who welcome the group, and it’s up to Mark to, reluctantly, give a speech about who they are and how they plan to help.

So Pride gets itself in gear to bring us the actual true story of how LGSM won over the community of Onllym. It isn’t easy at first – there’s lots of strong opposition, especially by a local woman with two teenage sons who doesn’t want the gays to be anywhere near their village. But there is also one of the LGSM members who has doubts, saying ‘the miners don’t care about us so why should we care about the miners.’ But Pride is an extraordinary tale of friendship and solidarity, between two totally opposite groups, over the course of 12 months during which LGSM become one of the biggest fundraising groups in the UK.

Playing itself as a Comedy/drama – a comedic film infused with bits and pieces of drama – Pride works only when you realize that it is not 100% the actual story. Writer Stephen Beresford admits that some of the screenplay had to be fictionalized in order for the film to work from a viewer’s perspective – that he had to take artistic license. Beresford adds that Pride is more than 80% true. Two of the scenes which take place in the film are memorable but one has to question whether or not they actually happened. In one of them, the Onllym women go to London to visit the LGSM group and to attend a ‘Pits and Perverts’ fundraising concert for them. During their visit they walk straight into a rubber club asking the men, who are in various states of undress, what they do and how they do it. Hmmmm.
The two gay pride parade scenes that bookend the film look a bit too staged, though it is nice to see the town of Onllym arrive in buses at the last minute to take part in the parade to support the gays, which actually did happen. A scene which takes place right after the Onllym woman leave the rubber club is perhaps the most pivotal scene in the film. Russell Tovey makes a too brief cameo appearance as Mark’s ex-boyfriend, and on the way into the club which Mark is just exiting, Tovey’s character tells Mark that that specific night is his last hurrah, the final party, and then he gives Mark a kiss and heads into the club. We know that this being 1984 AIDS is rearing it’s ugly head. It’s a brief haunting moment, and one that will stick with you long after you’ve seen the film. And at the end of the film we learn that in 1986 the miners had enshrined Gay & Lesbian rights into their constitution. Bless them.

Director Stephen Beresford has crafted a film that has feel good factor written all over it. It’s a film that should be successful at the box office, and rightly so, and should be enjoyed at the cinema by everyone – gay and straight. And the acting is top notch. Newcomer American Schnetzer is perfect as Mark, while Mackay brings a sense of innocence and vulnerability (and believability) in his portrayal of Joe. Nighy, Staunton, West and Scott all also shine. It’s a film with a huge cast that works very well together, with an excellent soundtrack (Bronski Beat, Pet Shop Boys, Culture Club, Joy Division, Billy Bragg). Pride is a must-see film even if it is a bit too sugar and spice and everything nice.

Pride recently won the Best British Film at the BAFTA’s, surprisingly winning over The Theory of Everything.

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