An Angel At My Table - Jane Campion

An Angel At My Table is a film that allows you to write a lot about it. I won't. I will just say it's a great film.

How can a film last nearly three hours (it was originally done as episodes for television) and still keep you there watching, even when the main character is suffering terrible things? Jane Campion is a great storyteller, she treats her characters tenderly and makes you feel that compassion and love for them too. She makes it look simple too, easy.... when it really isn't!

I want to remember I saw this film, I enjoyed it, I thought I was in for a major depressing film... well it's certainly not cheerful but her story engaged me, her humanity and a certain awkwardness that feels so familiar.

There's a very interesting article written by the director herself on her encounters with Janet Frame: In search of Janet Frame

An Angel at My Table

35 Rhums - Claire Denis (2008)

Let's agree it's not my kind of film. But if you read anything about this film, you're most likely to be expecting a masterpiece, I thought it might be more interesting when I rent it and everyone says great things about Claire Denis (and yes, I do have a soft spot for French films).

35 Rhums is the story of the relationship between a widowed father and his university student daughter, they share a flat and have a very close bond, almost too close bond. Almost. It's all father-daughter love.

That's it. That's all there is. I've mentioned before films that don't follow the traditional structure but might rely on the characters. Here, you know this father and daughter are very close but you don't get to know a lot of them. As if the director wanted to protect their privacy (which we can say is a bit silly). So you don't really engage on whatever is going on, you don't find that humanity, that something that makes you feel something for them and keeps you hooked to the drama. It's a bit disappointing. Something didn't work. I'll mention Mike Leigh again. In Another Year you witness these people's lives but they also touch your heart... these father and daughter aren't touching, you observe them without participating and that's not what I want from a film.

The camera work and cinematography are very nice. The pensive moments. But is that enough? Not for me anyway.


35 Shots of Rum

Walk The Line - James Mangold (2005)

Biopics can be tricky, especially when it's a very popular figure. You can say Walk The Line gets away with it successfully, it leaves everyone happy, Jonny Cash fans and film fans alike.

One thing about biopics is that usually characters aren't portrayed in all their humanity. I think this script was very well constructed around Johnny Cash's weaknesses and strengths. June Carter is the perfect woman with strong charming personality who can't do anything wrong, but she's also complemented well with Vivian, the annoying first wife we all want him to leave and get away from. They work well together but aren't as strong as Johnny. The best thing about this film is how well structured around the father-son relationship it is. It's not enough to have an interesting character like Johnny Cash, you also need him to have something that's universal and common to everyone. Starting the film with a memory and then going back to it, is a common resource... but here it works very well and makes perfect sense.

Would non-country fans like the film? I don't know. The music is contagious, well chosen and keeps the narrative going, without it being a video-clip. I had no problem with country... I think it's so well done that you might not even notice what it is.

The actors' work is impressive. Just like George Clooney, Reese Witherspoon seems to not always get characters where she can show she's a good actress too. In this case she's surprisingly good because we are just not used to seeing her doing several things (although she is still the nice woman, she couldn't play anything else because we wouldn't believe it!). Their singing is just amazing, you wouldn't believe they aren't professional singers. Joaquin Phoenix is great too, doesn't over do the drama (which could be the case).

The production design is perfect, everything is well chosen and it's really another time in the film. Commercial films always have the best resources when it comes to technical aspects, but in this case it's also a film that deals with feelings (without moral judgements). All in all it's a stylish and emotional feel-good film.

Walk the Line is a film that needs to be experienced, writing about it might make it sound boring... I wanted to include a nice clip, but sadly (I assume for copyright reasons) found mostly trailers.

Walk the Line

The Descendants - Alexander Payne (2011)

How can one write about a human drama after just writing about a human drama by Mike Leigh ? I saw The Descendants before, so I'll be considerate and remember the things I liked about it, because in all I liked it. After all, there are many many reviews praising The Descendants (I guess they didn't see it together with Another Year).

Surprise! George Cloonney can act! I think that's the first thing people who've seen the film thought. And yes, he can act (I am tempted but I will not compare him to Jim Broadbent). I think he's got a good role in this film (different from most parts he gets): father of two daughters who discovers his wife, who is dying, has cheated on him. Good place to start for any actor, he really makes the best of it. Most reviews want to make you think it's about him having to bond with the girls... I disagree. That isn't the problem. If he was an absent father before, it's not in the film. They have a hard time but their relationship isn't the problem, their relationship with the mother's action might be. One thing that is quite weak is how they cope with the feeling of actually losing her (it seems that's more important to find this person she's cheated with, rather than face the fact that she'll die). It makes me think of Genova... there's a real sense of loss and pain in Colin Firth and his girls, there isn't in George Clooney and his girls.*


Surprise! It's an adaptation! Yes, well, I didn't know it was a best-seller. Often I have problems with adaptations. They tend to want to include everything a reader of the book would like to see, when a film should be for a different audience entirely. I won't get into that now, because I will have a chance when I have time for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Back to The Descendants, yes, it works very well as a film. I thought it had weak things (like I mentioned the real grief of losing a mother/wife) but in all it was well structured. The fact that there's a dying wife situation and there's also the dying heritage situation helps it a lot. The heritage situation is clearly set and perfectly settled, it makes sense. Part of me would have been happy with just that conflict in a shorter film, but that's just me and my love for small films.

The rest is okay, the cinematography is nice, lovely Hawaiian landscapes, the music is Hawaiian... does everyone in Hawaii dress colourfully? If they do follow the Hollywood cliché, then it's fair enough. Nothing is extrodinary. Entertaining film.

*When did leading men started playing fathers?!

The Descendants

Another Year - Mike Leigh (2010)

Mike Leigh is an actors' director. Gary Oldman (again) worked with him in Meantime (1983) and it seems as if his way of directing and working with actors influenced him in the making of Nil by Mouth : rehearsing until actors become their character and bond in a natural way.

I have to say I was a little scared when I read reviews of Another Year: "the life of a middle-aged middle-class couple and their friends and family through four seasons". Part of me thought: typical middle-class family drama. It is.. and it isn't.

Tom and Gerri are the happy middle-aged couple are who we all would like to be when we grow up: living a comfortable life, having a succesful professional life, extremely tranquil marriage with a loving grown-up professional son. The film isn't about them though, it's about the others, the people whose lives are closer to what real life is about.

There's this character... Mary. She is the main story in the film: single fourty-something who is very unhappy but wants to tell herself she isn't, so she can't really improve her life is she can't face it. She is so pathetic we hate her at times... but she's so human that we end up feeling sorry for her. If Tom an Gerri are our ideal selves, Mary is our worst nightmare.

One major achievement in this film is that it's full of dialogue, people talk all the time, but nobody says a line regarding what's really happening. That's not how the story is told. There's thinking and feeling involved in understanding and reconstructing the storyline. There's traditional narrative storytelling, there's "independent" non-narrative storytelling... and there's Mike Leigh.

The visual aspects of the film are all very stylish and well achieved. Tom and Gerri's house represents not just them, but their happiness and that ideal world. Still, the main strength are the actors. There's not one of them who gives a bad performance (I thought the son's new girlfriend was a bit over the top, she wants to be charming but she ends up being a bit annoying... I didn't really like her). Leslie Malville who plays Mary is  great, so is Ruth Sheen who plays Gerri... but my favourite was Jim Broadbent, maybe because he plays an ideal man. Imelda Stauton is in two scenes... but she never leaves. I think you might forget her at first, but she when you think back she represents Mary and us, finally looking for a way out. We would like a new life, but the only thing we have is try to begin sorting out the one we have.

Another Year is a human drama, but is also a performing lesson and a storytelling master class.

Another Year

Nil by Mouth - Gary Oldman (1997)

I am not sure many people are aware that Gary Oldman has directed a film. A good one too.

Actors directing isn't always a good idea, especially because they often try to act in their own films. (I can't help thinking of Clint Eastwood). But in this case, it works very well, mainly because the story is very personal to Oldman: he wrote the film inspired in his own life and experiences living in South London. It is truly one of those films born from the exorcism of someone's demons - might explain why he didn't direct anything else again. There's also a compasionate, loving, way of seeing the story, Oldman isn't judgemental about violence, drug addiction, alcoholism... that's how the lives of these people are, it just happens like that even if they don't want to do it.

The story in Nil by Mouth is built through the characters, a very clever way to face a film if you're an actor directing for the first time. It seems most dialogues and situations were discovered during rehearsals, also the strong bond between characters and how familiar they are with each other can only be built this way. Even though the narrative doesn't develop like the usual storyline, there are key moments and there is what most people would call a conflict.

Of course the performances are the main strength of this film. They are all excellent and well chosen for their roles. But the cinematrography is very interesting too. It was made in 1997 so it has that Dogma influence, in this case it goes very well with the story, the restless camera, the raw use of light... it's not as stylish as bigger films but I think it's very well done. Mike Leigh meets Dogma 95.

Nil by Mouth

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Tomas Alfredson (2011)

Where to begin with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy?

Gary Oldman. Who doesn't love Gary Oldman? Is there a film where his presence doesn't own everything?! Such a great actor, he can play Dracula, Beethoven or George Smiley and be each one of those and at the same time still be Gary Oldman. In this film he plays someone older than he is... and manages to get away with the ageing make-up (I think this is tricky for most actors). He carries the drama on his shoulder mostly because his character isn't just looking for a mole, he is also human and has weaknesses of his own.

(I don't believe in spoilers, but if anyone who does is reading this, perhaps skipping the following paragraph is a good idea)

Colin Firth. I have said this before, but he's too strong of a presence in any film to just play a supporting role. So from the moment he appears, I knew who he was and what was going to happen. He plays it well though... I think we get distracted until at a certain point we say "Aha! I knew it!". He's an actor who doesn't over do it, he's always in control of his character and all of himself.

/ end of "spoilers"

The Screenplay. How do you judge a good adaptation of a book? By not even noticing it was originally a book, especially if it is a famous book (and it had been done for television too). Tinker Tailor... doesn't really need any other explanation... nor gets into obsessive details the book reader will be waiting to find there. You just understand the rules of the world from the beginning and follow the story, because you engage with these characters who all have a story behind them. It's a thriller all along and it works wonderfully: well paced, the information is well administered.... unlike other adaptations like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

The visuals. The cinematography and art design are amazing. The camera is used to see through things, it's a spy story after all. It's a clever trick and it looks great too. The seventies are always classically stylish and the films looks just like that, everything is shiny and elegant (I've yet to see a dirty car from the seventies... dust just didn't exist back then). The only problem is the lovely Tom Hardy's hair. Something there didn't quite work, unlike Gary Oldman's ageing effect.

The music. I like the idea that Alberto Iglesias has an international career. He's done extensive work in Spanish cinema (mainly writing for Almodóvar) and I think he deserves to compose for all sorts of films. I like the work he did for Tinker Tailor... it's subtle, it goes well with the drama. At times, it's a bit too much music, but that's because I would have liked to listen to more of those lovely sounds.

The Sound. It is so good it made me want to cry. Little details, lots of clear crisp sounds that just set you in the drama and together with the characters. It's such a good film visually that I'm glad they made the effort to also take that level of work to the sound, it makes it a much better film.

Something strange. The lack of women characters. There's the Russian wife who suffers so she has an affair with a British spy. There's the cheating spy's wife (whose face we don't really see!). There's this lady who used to know too much but now is retired... So yes, it's mainly a boys film, perhaps the world of spies was all about boys? Anyway, it is still a good film.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy