Never Let Me Go

Here are my notes for this week's film:

Never Let Me Go

UK 2010                      103 minutes

Director:                      Mark Romanek

Starring:                        Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield, Charlotte Rampling and Sally Hawkins

Nominations and Awards

• Won Best Actress Award (Carey Mulligan) at the British Independent Film Awards
• Won Best Actor Award (Andrew Garfield) at the Evening Standard British Film Awards
• A further three wins and 20 nominations.

“This is a good movie, from a masterful novel...  What is happening is implied not spelled out.  We are required to observe.  Even the events themselves are amenable to different interpretations.  The characters may not know what they are revealing about themselves.  They certainly don’t know the whole truth of their existence.  We do, because we are free human beings.  It is sometimes not easy to extend such stature to those we value because they support our comfort.”

Roger Ebert

Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Ruth (Keira Knightley) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield) are all pupils at a boarding school who become entangled in a love triangle.  As their relationship develops they gradually learn why they are at the school and what their fate will be.   

The film is based on the 2005 novel by Kazou Ishiguro who won the Booker Prize in 1989 for The Remains of the Day (memorably filmed by James Ivory with brilliant performances by Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins in the lead roles).  The screenplay for Never Let Me Go was written by Alex Garland, a friend of Ishiguro who had purchased the film rights before the novel was published.  Garland is an established novelist in his own right (his novels include The Beach and The Tesseract) as well as a screenwriter whose work includes the scripts for 28 Days Later (2002) and Sunshine (2007) both directed by Danny Boyle, who had previously directed a film based on The Beach (2000).

Carey Mulligan was cast in the key role of Kathy on the advice of one of the producers who had just seen her performance in An Education (2009) and Keira Knightley agreed to join the cast after a request from Carey Mulligan (they had both appeared in the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice where Knightley played Elizabeth Bennet and Mulligan, in her first film role, played Kitty Bennet. 

Mark Romanek began his career as a director of music videos where he worked with musicians of the calibre of k d lang, David Bowie, Madonna, Michel Jackson and Johnny Cash.  He made his name with the psychological thriller One Hour Photo (2002) for which he also wrote the screenplay, and Never Let Me Go appeared in many critics’ lists of the best films of 2010. 

Here's the trailer:

Made in Dagenham

Another week and another screening.  Here are my notes:

Made in Dagenham

UK 2010                      113 minutes

Director:                      Nigel Cole

Starring:                        Sally Hawkins, Rosamund Pike, Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson and Geraldine James

Nominations and Awards

• Nominated for 4 BAFTAs including Outstanding British Film and Best Supporting Actress (Miranda Richardson)
• Another 8 nominations including nominations for Best Actress (Sally Hawkins), Best Supporting Actress (Rosamund Pike) and Best Supporting Actor (Bob Hoskins) at the British Independent Film Awards

“The unexpected thing about Made in Dagenham is how entertaining it is. That's largely due to director Nigel Cole's choice of Sally Hawkins for his lead. In Mike Leigh's Happy Go Lucky (2009) and again here, she shows an effortless lightness of being. If she has a limitation, it may be that she's constitutionally ill-adapted for playing a bad person”

Roger Ebert

Rita O’Grady (Sally Hawkins) unwillingly becomes shop steward at Ford’s Dagenham plant and then leads a strike of the 187 women sewing machinists, when they walk out against sexual discrimination and claim equal pay. The strike is successful and Barbara Castle (Miranda Richardson), as Secretary of State for Labour in Harold Wilson’s government uses it to promote what was to become the 1970 Equal Pay Act.

The inspiration for the film was a radio programme which reunited personnel from both sides of the strike many years later.  Steven Wooley as producer heard the programme and realised its potential as a subject for a film: the key historical events of the story are true, some individual elements of the original characters reappear in some of the strikers, while other characters are entirely fictional.

In the central role of Rita Sally Hawkins is superb: she made her name in a series of films with Mike Leigh, but the tone of this film, despite the potentially grim nature of the subject, is closer to Calendar Girls (also directed by Nigel Cole).  Philip French also suggests a comparison with a naughty Carry On film rather than to Ken Loach’s Bread and Roses, another film about a strike by women, this time by Latino office cleaners in Los Angeles.  

However the film is far more than a vehicle for Sally Hawkins: the cast includes established actresses like Geraldine James and Miranda Richardson as well as rising stars like Andrea Riseborough (Brighton Rock and Never Let Me Go) and Rosamund Pike (Pride and Prejudice and An Education).  Bob Hoskins earned good reviews for his role as a minor union official who is both mentor and friend to Rita and there is a superb cameo from John Sessions as a pipe-smoking Harold Wilson.

Despite the good reviews and numerous nominations for awards, Made in Dagenham had the misfortune to be released in the same year as The King’s Speech which in total won more than 60 major awards.

Here's the trailer:

The King's Speech

We start our new season with a somewhat inevitible choice next week.  These are my notes:

The King’s Speech

UK 2010                      119 minutes

Director:                      Tom Hooper

Screenplay:                   David Seidler

Starring:                        Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter

Nominations and Awards

• Won four Oscars (Best Picture, Director, Actor and Original Screenplay) plus eight nominations (including Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Cinematography).
• Won seven BAFTAs (including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Music) plus seven further nominations.
• A further 56 wins and 75 nominations

“Although the film involves a man overcoming a serious disability, it is neither triumphalist nor sentimental.  Its themes are courage (where it comes from, how it is used), responsibility, and the necessity to place duty above personal pleasure or contentment – the subjects, in fact, of such enduringly popular movies as Casablanca and High Noon.  In this sense, The King's Speech is an altogether more significant and ambitious work than Stephen Frears's admirable The Queen of 2006 and far transcends any political arguments about royalty and republicanism.”

Philip French

In the early1930s the Duke of York (Colin Firth), the younger son of George V (Michael Gambon), was struggling to overcome a speech impediment with help from Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian speech therapist.  George V died in 1936, and his death was followed by one of those incidents when, in Alan Bennett’s memorable phrase “history rattled over the points”: Edward VIII (Guy Pearce) abdicated in order to marry the divorced Wallis Simpson (Eve Best) and the Duke of York, who had never even seen any state papers was crowned King just as Fascism was on the rise across Europe and Churchill was beginning to warn of the dangers of German rearmament.  Logue continued to work with George V and with his help the King was able to face the challenges of both his Coronation and the public speeches his position demanded of him, including a live broadcast in September 1939 on the outbreak of war.

David Seidler had lived in London during the Second World War and had subsequently developed a stammer from the stress that he had endured.  He had been inspired by the example of George VI’s struggles with his speech impediment and, having moved to the US where he became a scriptwriter in Hollywood, he decided to write about the King.  Lionel Logue’s son committed to give him access to his father’s notes, but only if the Queen Mother consented: she gave her permission, but asked him not to do so in her lifetime.  Seidler subsequently discovered that Logue had treated one of his own uncles, and from him learnt about the techniques that Logue used in his treatment.  From this original source material Seidler produced an initial screenplay that he subsequently turned into a play script, and it was after attending a reading of this that Tom Hooper’s mother called him with a simple message: “I’ve found your next project”.

Although depicting the key historical events of the period, the film makes some changes to enhance the dramatic nature of the story: the Duke of York started working with Logue ten years before the Abdication and the improvement in his speech was noticeable within months rather than years; during the Abdication Crisis Churchill had been a staunch supporter of Edward VIII; and far from distancing themselves from Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement George VI and Chamberlain appeared together on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, an act of endorsement by the King described as “the biggest constitutional blunder that has been made by any sovereign this century”.

The film received rave reviews for its acting, screenplay and direction. Colin Firth received his first Oscar and both Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter received Oscar nominations for their supporting roles.  David Seidler won his first Oscar in his mid-70s, and after a long and successful career as a director on TV and having only directed one other feature film Tom Hooper won Oscars for both Best Director and Best Film.

Here's the trailer:

Kevin Spacey in Richard III

We bought our tickets the day booking opened but last Saturday was the earliest we could get tickets to see Spacey in Richard III.

Having seen him in both Speed the Plow (excellent) and Inherit the Wind (outstanding) and then having seen the reviews we knew we were in for a treat - and we were not disappointed.

I've never studied the play, although I've seen it twice before (with Anthony Sher and Ian McKellan in case you're interested) and apart from the outstanding performances by both actors and very interesting productions my main recollection is a complex plot governed by by a mass of intertwined dynastic relationships.

The Old Vic chose the "information light" route for the programme: as a standalone production there was more focus on the psychology of tyranny rather than the history of the War of the Roses, and as I watched it I realised that this silo approach worked and kept me focussed on the play.  The only element which I found slightly disconcerting was the Anglo American cast: the colour blind casting worked well - as it always does - but to me, with the sole and honourable exception of Spacey who gave a towering performance, the American cast members seemed to struggle with the text.

Spacey won the acting honours, but I'd also award prizes to Gemma Jones (as a witch-like Queen Margaret who haunted many of the scenes) and Haydn Gwynne (as the Duchess of York) who was more than capable to standing up to Spacey's elemental force.

As we drove home from the Old Vic we heard the sound of many police sirens, and as country bumpkins we thought this was standard for a Staurday night in Londeon; it was only when we checked the headlines on Sunday morning that we realised that there had been riots.  The play includes scenes where the citizens of London are persuaded to call for the Duke of Gloucester to assume the crown as Richard III; on Saturday evening their descendants clearly had other priorities.

Doctor Who About Nothing

We booked our tickets the day after we saw David Tennant and Katherine Tate announcing their production of Much Ado About Nothing on TV, but could only manage to book tickets for a Friday: the journey to London was difficult and very long, but it was worth it for the play.

Josie Rourke had set the action in Gibraltar in the 1980s, which allowed for some brillaint pastiches of typical music for the period.  The set itself was a circle surrounded by louvred doors and windows and with large pillars set across the circle.  This allowed the productionto keep up a fast pace and - more importantly - allowed the stage to revolve during ceertain scenes so that the shifting view that the audience received gave an almost cimematic fluidity to the action.

The gulling scene, complete with a team of painters and decorators, built to a wonderful slapstick crescendo with a paint-spattered Tennant reducing Tate to a fit of the giggles.  The chemistry between them that had been so evident in Doctor Who transferred unaltered to the stage, and just like Miichael Billington in his review on The Guardian, I'd love to see them work together again in something like Private Lives.

Avatar

We had our last screening after our AGM earlier this month.  Here are my notes:

Avatar


USA 2009 161 minutes

Director: James Cameron

Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and Zoe Saldana

Nominations and Awards

• Won three Oscars (Art Direction, Special Effects and Cinematography)

• A further 41 wins an 63 nominations

“Avatar is not simply a sensational entertainment, although it is that. It’s a technological breakthrough. It has a flat-out Green and anti-war message. It is predestined to launch a cult. It contains such visual detailing that it would reward repeat viewings... It is an Event, one of those films you must see to keep up with the conversation.”

Roger Ebert

When his brother is killed, paraplegic Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) decides to take his place in a mission on the distant world of Pandora where he learns of to drive off the native humanoid Na'vi in order to mine for the precious material scattered throughout their rich woodland. Sully infiltrates the Na'vi people with the use of an "avatar" identity where he bond with the native tribe and falls in love with the beautiful alien Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). When Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) launches his plan to exterminate the Na'vi Sully has to take a stand and fight back in an epic battle for the fate of Pandora.

James Cameron began development of Avatar in 1994 and has planned to start filming after the completion of Titanic in 1997 but the necessary technology was not available for him to achieve his vision. He finally started developing is screenplay in 2006 and the film was released in December 2009. The official budget was $237 million, but other estimated have placed this as high as $310 million, with a further $150 million for promotion.

Avatar is the most expensive film made to date: Cameron deliberately cast relatively unknown actors in leading roles to reduce costs but needed a massive budget for special effects as he had developed new camera systems both to film in 3D and to allow motion-capture film making. The lead company for visual effects was Weta Digital in New Zealand who had been responsible for the special effects in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but in order to complete the film on schedule Cameron also had to involve a number of other special effects companies, including George Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic. Both Jackson and Lucas visited the set of Avatar to watch Cameron at work with his new technology.

The story includes a familiar mix of myths and archetypes and in essence transposes the themes of the traditional Western, especially those like A Man Called Horse and Dances with Wolves where the white hero takes the side of the locals against the supposedly civilised invaders, into outer space. In Aliens Cameron’s heroes were Marines fighting a war against vicious extra-terrestrials, but in Avatar, with deliberate echoes of both Iraq and Afghanistan, the Marines are the enemy and the aliens are the good guys.

Following the worldwide success of Avatar Cameron has signed with 20th Century Fox to produce two sequels.

Some Thoughts on Doctor Who and Gardeners' World

I have been  a lifelong fan of Doctor Who - I am old enough to have vague memories of the first episode - although it is only more recently that I have watched Gardeners' World with any degree of regularity as it is my wife who is the gardener in our relationship.

Fortunately we are both Doctor Who fans, although in her case I think it was more David Tennant as an actor rather than the character.  Hence there was some concern on her part when Tennant departed and Matt Smith took over the TARDIS.  This more or less coincided with the unexpected handover of the Gardeners' World baton from Monty Don to Toby Buckland where a quick and strictly non-scinetific poll, ie chats with a view close freinds over dinner, revealed an immediate loss of direction of the programme and lack of interest in the charisma free presenter.  Thus it was not entirely unexpected when Gardeners' World returned with Monty Don once more in charge. 

Could the same thing happen with Doctor Who?  I hope not: RTD is an impossible act to follow, and the way I look at it is that if we had not had the four series plus specials with RTD in charge then we would welcome the new incarnation with open arms.  It's not wrong: it's just gone off in another direction, just like Doctor Who has done throughout its history.

I love the steam-punk look of the series and from all the clips I've seeen so far the next story, from a script by Neil Gaiman, should be asbolutely magificent.

Any if you want advice on celery, then talk to the fifth Doctor