September 2014 book and film review

BOOKS


BERLIN NOIR, by Philip Kerr:
1. MARCH VIOLETS
2. THE PALE CRIMINAL
3. A GERMAN REQUIEM
In pre-war Germany and later in the ruins of post-war Vienna, an ex- cop turned private eye takes on cases that bring him very close to the centre of power in Nazi Germany. He has a set of moral values; they may not be much like ours but they're a big improvement on what he finds around him. And with wit, pace and verve, Philip Kerr brings Bernie Gunther to life in a way we haven't seen since Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett. These immortals of noir must be mentioned, as Kerr owes so much to them, but he has refined the technique to a new level. All the books have been carefully enough researched to plunge us deep into the dark and dangerous underworld of Germany under the Nazis and, in the third book, the aftermath.


I loved these three books, loved their style, loved the atmosphere of menace combined with a sultry eroticism- there's nothing quite like making love to a beautiful woman when your life is in imminent jeopardy. Excellent stuff.


THE JEWEL THAT WAS OURS, by Colin Dexter.
An American tour party is visiting Oxford, but no sooner than they arrive one of them dies of a heart attack. Or is it? Also, examination of her purse reveals a priceless Saxon artefact she was going to present to the Ashmolean is missing. Curiouser and curiouser... False trails lead Morse everywhere but the truth, but he is not one to be put off the scent once he's caught a whiff of it.


One of the now famous Inspector Morse series of books, which must by now have made Colin Dexter only marginally poorer than God. This is my first excursion into the oeuvre; indeed I hadn't even watched any of the highly successful television adaptations with the late great John Thaw in the eponymous role. Why are they so successful? The fact is they are tightly written yet delightfully easy to read.  We can't get enough of our hero's labyrinthine thought processes as he wrestles with the evidence trail. And perhaps key is the interplay between him and his faithful Sergeant Lewis, his linear thinking providing a perfect foil for Morse's lateral twist...  Perfect airport reading.


FILMS


IDA (2014) (Polish) D- Pawel Pawlikoski. In post Soviet Poland, A teenaged novitiate nun goes to spend time with an aunt before she goes to the convent to take her lifetime vows. Her aunt turns out to be quite a player: a hard-drinking local judge, a big wheel back in the Soviet day and still much admired. She urges her niece to live a little before she gives everything up forever, and there's a few boys knocking around who wholeheartedly concur.


A superb film, a tip for best foreign film Oscar next year, which would be well deserved. Beautifully shot in terse monochrome, and directed with great sensitivity and insight. We are totally with Ida as she journeys through those last, fateful days as the time for her vows approaches.


HOME FROM HOME (2014) (Germany) D- Edgar Reitz. In mid 19th century Germany, the villagers aren't happy. They are all subjects of the local Baron, and just to remind them of their place, he publishes an edict emphasising the fact he not only owns the forest, he owns everything in the forest: all the game, all the trees, even all the berries and fruits and nuts. Then one young man, Herr Simon, hears people are being encouraged to emigrate to Brazil: there's even a promise of 200 acres of land to every man- his own land! Trouble is, there are family ties at home he cannot ignore..


In three glorious series on TV, Edgar Reitz showed that in Heimat he had created one of the greatest pieces of drama ever seen. What we have here is the prequel to Heimat, set two generations earlier, still in that familiar rolling country west of the Rhine. I can announce that he has maintained the superlative standard he set with his television magnum opus, and quite magnificently. Once again we are quickly immersed in the hearts and minds of the protagonists: we know them, we love them even, and therefore we are desperate to find out what happens to them. This is filmed story telling at its very best. Put another way, Reitz is the Tolstoy of the screen..


PARADISE: LOVE
PARADISE: FAITH
PARADISE: HOPE
(2012) (Austria)) D- Ulrich Seidl. Three films exploring the Heavenly virtues through the lives of three women in modern Austria. Apparently Seidl was going to make it a single movie, with interweaving plots a la Intolerance, but decided to make three separate, if linked, stories instead.
In Love, a middle-aged single mum, rather dumpy but still with certain needs, leaves her fourteen-year old daughter in the charge of an aunt and travels to Kenya in search of some brown sugar. Turns out it's easy enough to find, but she soon notices that somehow their hearts aren't in it. Was the whole thing a mistake?
In Faith, we focus on the aunt, a passionately committed Catholic, whose faith extends all the way to calling door to door and telling people how to live their lives. But beneath her piety lies a cyclone of turbulent emotions: fear, longing and deep, deep anger.
Finally in Hope, we follow the story of the fourteen-year-old daughter of the lady who went to Kenya as she is dispatched to a fat camp for the summer. Here she develops a crush on the dishy doctor, and it seems at first that the doctor is interested himself. For our inexperienced teen, this is almost too good to be true...


Here again we have three films of great skill and subtlety. I particularly liked the cinematography: the camera likes to remain still and calm, observing  the action as it moves in and out of its ken. There are only a few exceptions to this technique, and even then it seems the camera is almost being made to move against its will. The films were "devised", Mike Leigh style, rather than strictly scripted: the actors (often people with no previous acting experience) are given a scenario and allowed to play with it organically. The final result works brilliantly, and very movingly.


BROADWAY MEDODY (1929) D- Henry Beaumont. Two pretty young chorus girls arrive in New York intent on making it big on the Great White Way. One of them is dating an aspiring singer/songwriter, so that's a possible in. Thing is, when he sees his GF's sister he starts wondering if he's picked the right sibling. But then they start getting invited to exclusive parties, and one of the upper-crust partygoers has less than gentlemanly designs on one of them.


Hollywood's first excursion into the big production musical turned out to have unexpected bite. The plot is grown up and the musical numbers extremely well done. So well done in fact it became the first musical to win the best picture Oscar, one of a very select list of musicals that achieved this highest honour. I can almost imagine Busby Berkely looking at some of the musical extravaganzas and thinking: "Not bad, but with a big enough budget I could make this look like a school play". Within a couple of years they gave him the money and the rest is history.


CAVALCADE (1933) D- Frank Lloyd. A journey through the lives of a well-to-do English family, beginning with the relief of Mafeking through to the early 1930s. I tell you, stiff upper lip isn't in it. These wealthy, privileged people lead (relatively) hard lives, especially when their sons go away to war. Will they ever come back? And if they do, will they make suitable marriages or become besotted with some music hall tart?
Americans wanted to find out in their millions; it was the second biggest film at the box office in 1933, also scooping Oscars for best picture and best director. As so often, the key to its success was the writing. It was based on a play by Noel Coward, and of course the master had a knack or tapping into the zeitgeist that could transcend oceans. It seems very stagey and stilted now, but as an historical document it remains important in the canon of American cinema.


THE HARRY HILL MOVIE (2014) D- Steve Benderlakt. Harry goes on a wild anarchic ride on the way to fulfilling his teddy-bear's final wish. Along with him trail the cream of British acting and comedic talent. Shame then, that it simply doesn't work. Speaking of zeitgeist, you'd think Harry had his finger on the pulse of British humour like almost no one else. I love his Harry Hill's TV Burp which rips she shite out of the soaps and a whole range of popular TV programming, but here Harry seems out of his depth. Some gags work, but actually time drags and my attention was often found wandering. Maybe they'll give him another chance; personally I doubt it.


ANCHORMAN II (2013) D- Adam McKay. TV anchorman Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell), now married to his nemesis in the first film, Veronica Cornerstone (Christina Applegate), has now gone national, but as co-anchor with his wife. And when he is told that they want her for sole anchor and give him the hard word, his life falls apart.


I kind of enjoyed the first Anchorman  movie. America will never match us in crazy, zany movies, but this, like the Airplane  movies came as close as they get. But here the format is becoming tired, the jokes not as funny, despite the fine performance of Steve Carrell as the autistic weather man. Will Ferrell should resist the siren calls of the money men and refuse to do a third Anchorman movie. He's a talented guy; he just needs a couple of fresh ideas.


PHILOMENA (2014) D- Stephen Frears. Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), having been stitched up by New Labour spin doctors and now unemployed, is looking for a project to work on. He doesn't usually do "human interest" stories, but then he hears a tale of a woman (Judi Dench) who had her child taken away from her by nuns when she was a teenager in Ireland 40 years before. He decides to look into the story, and  becomes increasingly horrified as he learns the truth. Maybe there is a story in this after all...


It's hard to watch Steve Coogan without thinking of Alan Partridge, but that's our problem, not his. In this film he turns in a highly effective performance as the uptight journalist/academic who becomes absorbed into Philomena's life story. And Judi Dench? Well she's Judi Dench, and she can act a good show in her sleep. Like the great Olivier, she just knows acting inside out. Highly creditable