A dedicated cinephile- given me an aisle seat, a big screen, surround sound and an anticipatory hush and I am transported for nearly two hours into another world. If it’s a Good film and I’ve seen so many Good films this summer…. there is no other reality, other than which appears before you. Wars, floods, fires, money worries, health worries- they are all suspended for that moment in time when the lights go down.
I love to see the reaction of audiences when the film ends. Spontaneous applause. A standing ovation. Or the comments. On Hamnet (Hamlet) ” That was all a bit dramatic for me.” ” It was Shakespeare you nerd!” Or overheard at the end of Nuremburg with Russell Crowe ” Geez Rusty must have been in the make-up chair for hours.”
Martin Scorsese said, ” Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.”
Jean Cocteau is a little more inspiring, ” A film is a Petrified Fountain of Thought.”
But its Quentin Tarantino who really brings it home.
” If a million people see my movie, I hope they see a million different movies.”
The richness of stories, the subtext and what is not said, the complexity of characters, the confidence of the Director and each actor’s freedom to make the role authentic, all allow the film goer a unique experience.
So here goes……..in no particular order……
The Choral
Ralph Fiennes is a choral master who spent many years in Germany refining his talents. But it’s the start of the first world war and he finds himself in a Yorkshire village conducting a choral group who are either too young or too old to fight in the war. It’s warm, funny, has softly crayoned characters and a sadness about the impact of war. But rising above this is the stunning music and its power to exalt the soul and the human condition. A gentle beauty.
Nuremburg
Evil on display in this film about the Nuremburg War trials after WW2. Russell Crowe plays Hermann Goring while Rami Malek plays the army psychiatrist sent to evaluate the man who sent millions of Jewish people to the gas chambers. Crowe shows his dramatic talent at finding the path between charming manipulation and pure evil in this psychopathic character. His German accent is appalling- and distracting! In a high budget film, where Crowe absolutely nailed the complexity of his character, why did they not craft his accent. It’s fundamental to his character!
Rami Malek as the psychiatrist is also bumbling around and he becomes completely under the spell of Goring, which is a classic case of transference. But I still see this actor as a brilliant Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury. He’s the weak link in Nuremburg. But still a film worth seeing.
History of Sound
Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor star in this love story of two folk song historians who travel the country recording the sung folklore of early America. Comparisons to Brokeback Mountain are obvious and endless. The Guardian called it “ An anaemic, laborious, achingly tasteful film.”
I absolutely loved its slow deliberate development of character. I loved the music and the folk roots of the Appalachian Mountains. I loved this film because you soak in its understated humanity. This film has no big marketing budget, no roadshows, no big Hoo- Ha. Compared to Hamnet, in which Paul Mescal also stars, this film will flit by largely unnoticed, which is sad because it’s a gentle beauty.
Hamnet
If you are an Instagram user you will have seen the flood of promos, interviews, quizzes and marketing fluff to promote this very good film. What a marketing budget! It helps that Jessie Buckley, the main woman actor and Chloe Zhao, the Director, have already won Golden Globes for this film. The Guardian calls it ” Grief porn.” Yes, it’s about overwhelming grief at the loss of a child. Overworked or voyeuristic it is not. Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley are outstanding and the child actors in this wonderful film are simply extraordinary. Watch the Oscar count for this one!
Too hot to go to the beach? Feeling cabin fever sitting at home? Head to the cinema…you’ll find stories that inspire, intrigue and confront…. and you can share the experience with others!