August 2015 book and film review

BOOKS

BUDDENBROOKS, by Thomas Mann
It is 1825, and the Buddenbrook family is carrying all before it. Not actually noble, but wealthy, respected and influential in the northern German city that has been their home for 200 years, their grain trading firm seems to turn a healthy profit with a minimum of effort. But slowly, very slowly, cracks begin to appear in their facade of respectability. They want to marry off their daughter to a man of apparently unimpeachable credentials and despite her objections they have their way. It is the first in a series of small, but important mistakes which, a couple of generations down the line, will threaten to tear the family apart.

Thomas Mann's debut novel is based in part on his own family, who lived in the city of Lubeck where the book is based, and even though this is never made specific, some family members raised furious objections when the book was published.  Nobody else did. It was quickly hailed as a masterpiece of characterisation and plot construction and now, nearly one hundred years later, is among the pantheon of great novels written in the 20th century. We find ourselves deep inside this family, with its traditions of restraint and piety conflicting with other strains of licentiousness and excess. We could label this hypocrisy, or accept the less comfortable thought that this is the nature of all families, distinguished or not. We find ourselves in these pages, and this is sometimes uncomfortable. But it is what makes this novel great, that and the fact that despite its length (nearly 800 pages) it is delightfully easy to read. To summarise, sheer genius.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUPER-TRAMP, by W.H. Davies.
At the close of the 19th century, a young man from Newport, South Wales decides there must be more to life than this provincial backwater and sets sail for America for a life of adventure, and along the way maybe collect material for the book he senses is in him. He leads the life of a hobo, riding the rails and learning the subtle art of begging. After a couple of years bumming around the US and Canada he returns home, not to Newport (wise move), but London, where he continues to lead the life of a homeless man, peddling pins, darning needles and boot-laces, "gridling" which is singing in the street (not too well, as he learns, otherwise people will not take pity on him), or "downrighting"- actually stopping people in the street or on their doorsteps and asking for a copper or two, this last behaviour being particularly distasteful to him, but needs must when you are destitute.

He also starts sending samples of his writing, poems, essays, to various publishers. Ar first he has no luck and is about to abandon the whole project when a handwritten copy of his autobiography finds itself in the hands of no less a figure than George Bernard Shaw. GBS is so taken with the content and style of what he has before him that he recommends it to a publisher. The rest is history. Since the book's publication in 1907 it has never been out of print and is now recognised as one of the most original and skilled autobiographies ever written. And it's true: Davies covers the extraordinary exploits of survival under the most difficult circumstances with an unaffected, matter-of-fact style which is highly alluring, even to our modern, sophisticated tastes, such as when in Canada he falls from a train he is trying to mount and falls under it, losing a foot. As GBS points out in his introduction, most people would put special emphasis on this life-changing event, but Davies simply chronicles the facts in his usual, imperturbable style before moving on to his next adventure.

One point. This book has two introductions, one by GBS himself, and the other by the eminent Welsh man of letters Trevor Fishlock. But neither of these figures seems troubled by the pretty overt racism expressed in its pages. Davies, doubtless conveying views that were standard for his time, describes black people as lazy, shiftless, dishonest brutes who would as soon murder you as give you a light for your cigarette. I can see why GBS might have forborne to mention this in 1907, but Trevor? I think you should at least have given us the heads up...

FILMS

INTO THE STORM (2014) D- Steven Quale. A bunch of high school kids try to get the ultimate footage of an approaching tornado but get caught up in its vortex and vanish into the storm. Meanwhile a professional crew of storm chasers see that a tornado swarm is on the way and, again, place themselves in harm's way to get the definitive "inside a tornado" shot. What follows is a visually stunning roller-coaster of a film which is unfortunately spoiled by instantly forgettable characters and a lack-lustre screenplay. I understand there is a new term describing this sort of film: "disaster porn", and in a way it's hard to argue the aptness of this as far as this movie is concerned. The only character I can easily call to mind a week after watching it is Pete, an unscrupulous film maker (played by Matt Walsh, who is so good as Mike in Veep) who is quite happy to risk his own life and other's to get the footage he wants.

One can't help comparing it with the 1995 movie Twister, which follows a similar path, but whose characters played by Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt and others are so much more authentic. Whatever. If you're into disaster porn, this movie is definitely for you

THE JUDGE (2014) D- David Dobkin. A slick lawyer (Robert Downey Jr) is used to helping mobsters beat the rap when he is called to his family home where his father, a respected jurist, is himself on trial for murder. Bob would be just as happy to leave his defence to a local defender until he realises he simply isn't up to the job. He fires the lawyer and does the job himself. Only problem? The judge (Robert Duvall) fell out with his son years ago and won't give him the time of day. With a ferocious prosecutor (Billy Bob Thornton) determined to go for the death penalty, something's got to give. But as Bob learns more about the case he discovers two crucial facts: one, that his dad may be developing Alzheimer'a and two, maybe he really did do it...

With a stellar cast which includes Vera Farmiga and the excellent Vince D'Onofrio and a solid, if somewhat predictable script this film does grab the attention and hold it, and does demonstrate, inter alia,  that Robert Downey Jr doesn't necessarily need a suit offering him super powers to turn in a good screen performance.

GONE TOO FAR! (2013) D- Destiny Ekaragha. A teenage lad born in the UK but with Nigerian antecedants has his well-sorted life turned upside down when his brother travels from the old country to live with him on an outer London estate. When cultures collide...
Based on a play, this film has more cliches than a sack of Mills and Boon novels, which spoil what is essentially a very good idea. It does, however, highlight a strange form of racism of which I was not previously aware: the hatred shown by some members of the Jamaican community towards African natives, who they blame for colluding in the slave trade. Talk about finding it difficult to let go of the past...

WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS (1960) D- Mikio Naruse. Keiko (a wonderful Hideko Takamine) is a widow approaching 30 who keeps the wolf from the door by working as a hostess in Tokyo's Ginza. Then she decides she can do better by opening her own bar, but for that she needs money, and so she must butter up some of her better-off customers to finance her project. But she soon discovers that these clients want rather more return on their investment than a healthy dividend...

Japanese culture is impenetrable to people not from there, and there are few opportunities for us to get a genuine insight. One is the famous novel The Makioka Sisters (see my media review for June), another is by watching Japanese films. Tokyo Story and Tampopo are great examples, and this is another. Told with great delicacy and sensitivity, this a wonderful story of a woman's struggle in a man's world, a film about strength and weakness, despair and hope. Brilliant.

TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT (2014) D- Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. A young French woman ( Marion Cotillard) returns to work after a breakdown to find her boss has organised a ballot among her co-workers: they must choose: receive a 1000 euro bonus or reinstate her and lose the bonus. Perhaps understandably they vote with their pockets, but then she collars her boss who reluctantly agrees to hold a new ballot, this time a secret one, when the weekend is over.

She is now faced with the daunting task of tracking down all 14 of her colleagues over the course of a weekend and trying persuade them to change their minds and vote for her reinstatement, even though this will mean they will have to wave good-bye to a substantial lump of badly needed cash.
One can only imagine the scale of her task, exposing herself to the risk of shame, rejection and humiliation. Yet Cotillard portrays magnificently the complex range of emotions necessary to bring this dramatic story to life.
A truly insightful modern fable.