It may have something to do with the fact that I, for once, guessed the main twist but I really quite enjoyed Polanski's The Ghost.
Ewan McGregor has not had a particularly good track record of late in choosing good film projects (Incendiary????) but I was reminded of how good he can be watching Shallow Grave on the telly and decided to give him another chance.
The Ghost is a suspense thriller based on the novel and adapted by Robert Harris about former British Prime minister Adam Lang, played excellently by Pierce Brosnan, who is having his memoirs written by a ghost writer played by McGregor. The ghost writer - the character is never named - is asked to take over the project from the previous writer who is found washed up on the beach dead.
As always with these sorts of things, all is not what it seems and the Ghost Writer begins to suspect the ex-PM is not all he appears to be as he digs deeper into his past the what has already been written.
The scale of Ricky Gervais's success and how many A-list actors he seems to have clambering over themselves to get into whatever project he is working on never ceases to amaze me, as I'm sure it doesn't him.
The Office was genius. Extras had its moments but quickly became formulaic. And then he started appearing in big Hollywood films - most of which I've managed to avoid.
But Cemetery Junction sees him back on home turf with buddy Stephen Merchant albeit with the sort of actors that wouldn't normally touch what is essentially a rom-com with a barge-pole - last time I saw Ralph Fiennes he was playing Oedipus on stage at the National.
The film is set in a 1970's dead end town where a group of three friends seem to have their lives mapped out for them. For all their talk of escape none seem capable of actually cutting loose and seeing a bit more of the world.
The problem with Cemetery Junction is firstly that it isn't that funny. Yes I did laugh out loud about three times but that was pretty much it. And secondly the 'Rom' is so predictable that you can pretty much write the story from 10 minutes in.
I think it was Mark Kermode who said that if you have to say a film was beautifully shot then it wasn't very good. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I Am Love is an achingly beautiful film and it is a very good film but not quite a great film.
And the reason? It is just too beautiful for it's own good.
Tilday Swinton's character Emma takes centre stage as the Russian wife in a powerful and rich Italian family, the Recchi's. There home is all elegance and sophistication with family dinner celebrations run with the sort of precision and food you'd expect in a Michelin starred restaurant.
But so much of the family life, like Emma's perfect attire, coiffed and manicured appearance is all surface. Underneath there is a love rebellion going on. Daughter Elizabeth ditches her perfect upper class boyfriend to secretly date her female tutor. Son Edoardo marries beneath him and hangs out with Antonio a chef with whom he may or may not have feelings for (there are undertones of a devotion and jealousy in Edoardo's friendship that I didn't feel were wholly hetrosexual). And Emma, well Emma and Antonio fall in love and embark on a passionate affair.
Having a real cultural splurge at the cinema at the moment, Lourdes is the second foreign film in a week (a review of the third, I Am Love, coming soon). This French offering is by Austrian director Jessica Hausner who was one time assistant of the fabulous Michael Haneke.
Warning: Potential plot spoilers. The story follows quadriplegic Christine played marvelously by Sylvie Testud (Piaf best friend in La Vie En Rose) who is part of a mixed group visiting the town on pilgrimage cum holiday. Christine is quiet, patient and sweet-natured only once succumbing to self-pity about her disability.
Christine is quickly taken under the wing of an older group member who pushes her to the front of the church to stand a better chance of being blessed by the priest and for extra sessions of bathing in holy water. She starts to get some feeling back into her limbs and after a couple of days can stand and walk.
Continue reading "Lourdes (not Madonna's daughter, the film)" »
I'm drawn to films that win gongs at film festivals like Leonardo diCaprio to a Martin Scorsese film and this one from Australian cinematographer turned director Warwick Thornton picked up the Camera d'Or at Cannes last year.
The last outstanding Australian film I saw was The Proposition but Samson & Delilah was always going to be a completely different kettle of fish sharing only a tough, grimey, outback setting with the John Hillcoat film.
It is an unconventional love story about two aboriginal teens living in an impoverished backwater where bed is a foam mattress under an awning and life is anaesthetised by sniffing chemicals. I say it is unconventional because the two central characters never actually speak to each other. Indeed Samson says only his name once in the entire film.
Now I'm not adverse to films with little dialogue, quite the contrary. Handled correctly, and with the right actors, the effect can be extremely atmospheric. I proffer The White Ribbon by way of an example.
And I think it worked for the characters of Samson & Delilah, played by newcomers Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson. When there is a lack of dialogue there has to be something else to fill the gaps - some sort of drama, tension or deep emotion for example and so much was conveyed with a look.
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