June 2018 film review part 2

VICTORIA AND ABDUL (2017) D- Stephen Frears
England, 1887. The Queen’s golden jubilee. She tries to put on a brave face, but inside she’s still mourning her beloved Albert, who died over 20 years ago. Then a Muslim man is brought over as part of the celebrations, and when Victoria sees him finds herself strangely drawn to his unassuming ways. He finds himself being made part of her household, even coming to occupy a role as unofficial, though highly influential personal advisor. Too far-fetched? Maybe, but it really happened, and Frears, with all his customary skill and subtlety, brings the story to life in a way it seems only he can.

There’s a lot to admire about this film, from the performances to the production values, which are stupendous, but one is left with an uneasy feeling that somehow we, and indeed the Indians themselves, are being slightly patronised. I can’t believe Victoria had so enlightened a view of the subjects of her empire that this movie suggests; if she did she certainly didn’t do a lot about it. But the fact remains, the bare bones of this strange tale are in fact true...

GUN CRAZY (1949) D- Joseph H. Lewis
A young man (John Dall) who fancies himself something of a marksman goes to a travelling show where he sees a pretty girl doing all the trick-shots he can do, and more. Love at first shot, you might say. They get together and soon find an anarchic strain runs through them both. Why not use their skills in gunplay to rob a few banks? Not that they’ll shoot anybody, just scare ‘em to death. That would be OK, until someone is killed. Then everything gets a lot darker. You see, the girl doesn’t just kill someone: she enjoys it. This cannot end well...

The producers apparently had to soft-peddle on the fact that its 2 leads were turned on, almost to a sexual degree, by guns and what they can do, though to me it’s hard to miss. The censors had problems with this, but didn’t quite know what to do about it. I mean, you can’t criticise guns in America, right? So the film got its release, and is now hailed as a classic of film noir. Unmissable.

DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES (1988) D- Terence Davies
Being an everyday story of working class Liverpudlians, first in the late 40s, and then, with the same cast of characters, ten years on, with all the added complications 10 years can bring: children, divorce, bereavement and the rest.
             Headed up by a splendid Pete Postlethwaite leading a cast of unknown, but very strong actors and actresses, we see a couple of families at notable occasions in their lives; weddings, funerals, their first date and so on, all told with a delightful lightness of touch which is so skilled it often seems we are watching a documentary film and not a drama at all. I don’t know if you’ve seen Pasolini’s Gospel According to St Matthew, but if you have you will recall how that film comes over as if a documentary film crew had simply followed Christ around on his travels in the Holy Land. Same here.
              Many film scholars have given this relatively unknown film their highest rating, suggesting it is one of the best films to come out of Britain in the last 50 years. I concur.