Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

This is our last screening before Christmas.  I've not had a chance to read the book or to see the film so my notes - of necessity - are somewhat briefer than usual.  Hopefully they will provide enough of an incentive to bring in an audience.

 

Here are my notes:

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

UK 2011                      112minutes

Director:                      Lasse Halstrom

Starring:                        Amr Waked, Emily Blunt, Ewan McGregor, Kristin Scott Thomas and Rachael Stirling

 

“Salmon Fishing in the Yemen has a similarly soft-tummied feel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel; it’s perhaps best described as a second-tier Ealing Comedy shot by the Boden catalogue.”

Robbie Collins

 

Dr Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor), a salmon expert in the British fisheries is engaged by Sheikh Muhammed (Amr Waked) to introduce 10,000 salmon into a river in the Yemen so that he can go fly fishing in his own country.  Jones sets to work with Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt) a management consultant employed by the Sheikh, and as the project progresses they become emotionally entangled.

The screenplay by Simon Beaufoy is based on the debut novel by Paul Torday which was an unexpected best-seller in the UK.  However Beaufoy, who also wrote the scripts for The Full Monty (1997) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008) loses the eccentricity of the source novel and refashions the central relationship into one familiar from other romantic comedies: it is clear from their first meeting what is destined to happen between Jones and Chetwode-Talbot.

Director Lasse Halstrom made his international name with My Life as a Dog (1985), made in his native Sweden, although prior to that he had directed more than 30 music videos for the pop group ABBA.  Following the success of My Life as a Dog Halstrom has worked in the US where his films have included The Cider House Rules (1999), from the novel by John Irving and Chocolat (2000) from the novel by Joanne Harris; both of these films received Oscar nominations for Best Film.  His next film is a thriller called The Hypnotist which is to be made in Sweden.

 

Here's the trailer:

 

 

Fargo

Apparently it is mandatory for every film society to show Fargo.  We fulfilled this obligation several years ago, and when I was researching for my notes I found the wonderful extract from a piece by David Thomson which I was able to quote in full:

 

Fargo

USA 1996       (98 minutes)

Director:          Joel Cohen

Starring:          Frances McDormand, William H. Macy and Steve Buscemi

 Awards and Nominations

Won                Oscar for Best Original Screenplay

                        Oscar for Leading Actress (Frances McDormand)

Nominated for five further Oscars

Won                BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay

Won                Best Director (Joel Coen)

Nominated for a further five baftas

Won                Best Director (Joel Coen) at Cannes Film Festival

Nominated for Golden Palm

An overall total of 49 wins and 19 nominations

In Minnesota a small-time business man with severe financial problems hires two inept hoodlums to kidnap his wife in an attempt to obtain ransom from his father-in-law.  However the plot goes murderously wrong and a heavily-pregnant sheriff arrives from Minneapolis to solve the string of unexpected deaths in her jurisdiction.

The film claims to be based on a true story, but in his introduction to the published screenplay Ethan Coen undermines this:

“The story that follows is about Minnesota.  It evokes the abstract landscape of our childhood – a bleak, windswept tundra, resembling Siberia except for its Ford dealerships and Hardee’s restaurants.  It aims to be homey and exotic, and pretends to be true.”

Subsequently it emerged that the Coens’ inspiration was a 1986 murder in Connecticut where a husband used a wood chipper to dispose of his wife’s body – the Coens moved the location to Minnesota because they had been born and brought up on the outskirts of Minneapolis. 
 
The film was launched to universal acclaim and secured many awards.  It has secured its place in cinema history and recently David Thompson included it as one of only three films released in 1996 in his book “Have You Seen?” A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films where he summarised its appeal as follows:

“Fargo is just 97 minutes long, compact and efficient (cost $7 million; earnings $24.5 million), a sort of “the gang’s all here” of American independent film, and a quiet knockout.  When the snow is that thick, you won’t hear a body or a Douglas fir fall, just the hush being underlined.  But the tonal range of the film is what is leaving puffs of breath in the air.  From one moment to the next this film is gruesome, bloody and “Oh no!” as well as so funny you wish those starchy voices would stop talking for a second.”

In a career of nearly 25 years the Coen brothers have produced a series of brilliant films that have been successful with both festival and multiplex audiences.  Fargo is arguably their greatest film and until No Country For Old Men (2007) it was their most successful in terms of nominations and awards.

 

In case you need any more encouragement, here's the trailer: