Film Reviews by PV

I have not read this novel - I did try a couple of others by Camus when younger, but gave up. They, like many French films, are dripping with philosophical wisdom and existentialism - I may try to read L’Etranger now as an older reader.

Anyway, I really liked this film. The cinematography is perfectly monochrome, which paradoxically makes the dripping heat and humidity of sun-drenched Algeria even more real (watch the DVD extras to learn from director and stars' interviews that it was filmed in Spring, so not so hot, and filming in colour would have shown north Africa as cooler!). Perfect for the courtroom and prison cell shots too, all those German expressionist shadows a la Nosferatu and M.

I have not watched other versions of this novel so cannot compare. All I can say is that the actors are perfectly cast, with Benjamin Voisin perhaps too prettily magnetic for a role meant to represent a blank man unmoved by existential forces - and it is very VERY French on the philosophy as one would expect. Voisin is like the Alain Delon of now - watch his interview in the extras on the DVD. The character here is SO philosophically French, all casual shrugs, that at times I was almost yelling at him on the screen stuff like LISTEN TO YOUR LAWYER and JUST SAY WHAT YOUR LAWYER TELLS YOU TO SAY! (no spoilers). or even SAY YOUR THOUGHT THE ARAB WAS GONNA GO FOR YOU WITH THE KNIFE. But no, that's be far to pragmatically British LOL!

Some may be confused by time shifts and ambiguity of dreams/reality so do not look away or lose concentration - but for me, it was a mesmerising experience. I am unsure if the novel concludes things more solidly but do know it has a close first person point of view. Perhaps the story loses its power a bit by the director here using multiple points of view? I'd also say there could be pointers on screen as to the date - which is 1938/9 as the DVD extra interviews reveal.

AND I was not a fan of the glib using of The Cure's Killing an Arab over the end credits, despite knowing the song and having watched the band like at Glastonbury many moons ago. It jarred badly IMHO with the overall feel of the film.

Do watch the DVD extras, two early 1990s short films by the director and illuminating interviews with the director and the two main stars including Voisin.

Also, for those who want to know more about the French-Algerian relationship, watch DAYS OF GLORY (2006) a great French film about north African Arabs/natives and the 'Pieds-Noirs', white French of European descent who were born in Algeria during the period of France colonial rule from 1830 to 1962. Most departed for mainland France during and after the Algerian War of Independence). Britain GAVE up its empire; France did not - it fought for it, causing the Viet Nam war in French Indo-China and that Algerian War.

One line in the film made me laugh. The dead Arab's sister says his killer should 'go home' so the hero's girlfriend says 'this is his home' at which the Arab sister laughs. Hmmm I wonder if you told all the north African heritage folk in France to go home (to Algeria etc) what you'd get called. BUT this does raise issues of nationhood, loyalty etc.

Watch THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1966) and often cited amongst the best films ever made anywhere to see the later events that happened post WWII in Algeria.

Not perfect, but I was enthralled, so 4 stars.

For me, this is probably the weakest of the films with wonderful stop-motion effects by American-British Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013). Watch the 1958 Seventh Voyage of Sinbad film and the rest in that series, Jack the Giant Slayer (1962) or classic Jason and the Argonauts (1963) to see his best work.

This is passable, and Herbert Lom (1917-2012 Czech-British) is always wonderful. He looks older than 43 here and nicely underplays the role. Watch him excel in so many films, The Lady Killers (1955) as the villain is perfection. Lom spoke many languages and was, bizarrely, the first actor to play the King of Siam in the King and I on stage; he was replaced by the Russian Yul Brynner! No Thais, nowhere, mister! The authentic casting demands of now would never permit either to play that role. Pity.

This film just lacks a certain something for me. The acting and plot are fine, and one can imagine the eyerolls of the sisters at the two women doing the cooking and housework LOL (to be fair as someone said, most of these old adventure novels had no women in that AT ALL, so this was progressive for 1961!)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1955) also features a Captain Nemo and stars Peter Lorre.

Not bad and worth a watch, just for the Ray Harryhausen special effects, Herbert Lom, and the gender politics comedy! Interesting start too in the US Civil War (and based on truth and balloons were used during it, though not for travel, but to see across the landscape to enemy positions).

3 stars.

I enjoyed this. Not a brilliant film, or profound, but just roll with it and go with the flow, breathing in the lavish costumes, sparkling jewels and lovely countryside and castles/mansions with your eyes, and you'll enjoy it.

I knew about Paget, partly from antiques shows, and he's quite the most famous person connected with the Welsh island of Anglesey (Ynys Môn in the Welsh language commonly spoken in rural and north Wales) - Lemmy from Motorhead is maybe the 2nd most famous as his preacher dad moved there with young Ian who must have stood out with his English accent in what is now a very monocultural Welsh-speaking rural place, reliant on tourism (often from nearby north-west England, Liverpool etc).

Biopics need a focus, a structure - so they need 3 acts, plot points, jeopardy/dramatic tension, and a baddie to fight. All this is here, some more effective than others.

What grates and really annoys is the parachuting of a black girl into this story. There was not one. Even now, Wales is 94% white and Anglesey almost 100%. BUT to get FFILM CYMRU funding and BFI options, they now demand (blackmail...) film producers into focusing on certain themes (race, gender etc) and all productions MUST have X% of BAME faces and women. Fine, in theory, In practice, it spoils things. Only one colourblind casting face parachuted in from the woke skies here. BUT WHY? No reason for it APART from getting state funding and being able to get nominated for BAFTAs. Not as bad as LADY MACBETH (2016) but... Predictably the baddies are all white males...

Having read up on Paget's life, I also realise the stuff with his ally cousin wife in nonsense too. In reality she left him after 6 months. BUT to get funding, films now must have 'strong women' characters. It's forced and wrong and silly.

So, apart from that eye-rolling wokery, is it a good film? Yes, overall. Not brilliant, though and not profound, despite claims of making Paget a transgender hero for our times. However, possibly the strongest thing is the lavish costumes and jewels, though the actors in main roles do well too, esp the one who plays the entitled pampered aristocrat himself. Not sure if I can quite believe how tolerant the locals were too him - he had power and wealth, and spent his cash in their shops, so... no wonder they were friendly to him.

Almost 3 stars but 3.5 rounded up. The landscape is lovely in Wales too - all filmed in the north of the nation, produced in the south.

I REALLY liked this. A wild ride, with a large cast of characters - each with a different director (watch the MAKING OF extra) woven together as a tapestry in the edit suite after shooting. I liked some more than others, loved the backstory of the 2 former East German (GDP) soldiers from 58 years before. Others worked less well.

For those expecting a huge CGI-fest of end-of-days burning hell, this will be a disappointment. It's character-based, all about these people's lives in the days before the meteor hits and their backstories.

The 1979 film METEOR comes to mind, of course, but also all end-of-days movies from 28 DAYS LATER (and the less good 28 YEARS LATER and the truly awful BONE TEMPLE) though that has zombies, as does the wonderful GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS. The 1970s BBC TV plague drama SURVIVORS was terrifying at the time; the pc tickbox 2008 remake not so much. Thankfully this German TV drama is not woke, as a UK version would be. A Turkish cop backstory works. Nothing is grafted on to tick boxes though, as UK TV does as standard.

This is basically a disaster movie, so such 1970s classics as THE TOWERING INFERNO or THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE come to mind - a group of characters who have to make moral decisions, to stay or leave, to be selfish or not. The theme of the selfish gene v altruism is what it is all about.

What I did not like about this: 1) the agenda that it's Europeans seeking to leave Europe as refugees rather than people trying to come to Europe from the rest of the world. It's eyerollingly obvious BUT not hammered home - this is no preachy woke lecture sermonising at us like some finger-wagging nanny as so much UK TV drama is.
2) the nudity and sex scenes. Now, I am no prude - when nudity/sex is necessary then fine. However, here it was gratuitous at times - would the drama suffer if some party scenes were cut out. No. So why include them? To shock? The EXTRAS filmlet has the showrunner admitting as much. Also, I have no problem with full frontal male nudity, but why was it not balanced with full frontal female nudity? Gender equality, purlease!

So, one star taken off for the abuse. Otherwise, I seriously enjoyed this wile ride, and the deep digs into character the plot allows, however unlikely and conveniently neat some bits are. And it helped me improve my German!

The music of the opening credits is superb, original score BUT clearly based on Handel and maybe Purcell, very English then, possibly Bach. The graphics also fit so well. I usually fastforward through credits. I watched this every time, for 8 episodes. It is truly beautiful. One of the best since TV drama VIKINGS.

So 4 stars. 4.5 almost.

There COULD be a sequel, the aftermath....

At one stage in this film a character says "I'm lost." You and me both, pal!

This is a confusing film, ,maybe purposefully so. It's post-modern. Do you see? Ha ha.

The wafer-thin plot is tacked on to give it some structure at least, but much is unexplained. That makes it baffling and all very MEH.

One problem here is the viewer does not care about the characters - a problem if one goes missing or worse. WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

The tacked-on ending (NO SPOILERS) seems an excuse to indulge in exotic dancing. The scenery looks great - mostly it takes place in a very Germanic forest.

Messy post-modern slop then. Enjoyable? Me. Good for those who're trying to learn or improve foreign languages as there are several spoken here - German, French, Spanish.

1.5 stars rounded up.

I actually really enjoyed this - it made me laugh out loud several times. Some cracking lines in it.

It's all played deadpan, and yes, it has cartoon character goodies and baddies. BUT WHY NOT? It is what it is, and has no pretentions otherwise.

Some classic scenes although I was sad they did not reference somehow the Jon Voigt scene from the 1997 Anaconda movie where he's in the snake's mouth slowly getting digested and gets thrown a gun with just one bullet in it.

All very silly and hammy, but great fun and hugely enjoyable and entertaining. The story works re pace and character arcs and the self-referential bits about lots dreams gives it some emotion at least. Tbh the most disappointing bit was the CGI snake - somehow I expected more. That Jon Voigt scene...

Watch until the very end to see updates on all characters. Huge fun!

Hence 4 stars.

I enjoyed this. More that the famous weepy OUT OF AFRICA from memory, though that's from 1985, so...

It's a fascinating tale, how Britain let Jewish refugees escape Germany to go to its colonies. This happened with some going to Singapore and India too, as Tom Stoppard and his family did after they fled Czechoslovakia. Of course, Germans and Italians too had to be interned - we were at war, and alone (USSR was friends of Nazi Germany until May 1941 and the USA only entered WWII when bombed at Pearl Harbour December 1941. The UK only ended paying back the USA for its war loan in2006, so if you paid any tax before that, you helped repay it!)

The BIG plus with this film is that this all looks and feels authentic, perhaps because it's a fictionalised autobiographical novel from Stefanie Zweig (1932-2014), who grew up JUST like the girl here in Kenya. It's basically her life story.

What I did not like about this film was the very romantacised view of the native Kenyans - which sugar-coats what could be a brutal culture, and often with intra-tribal fighting. Some references here to polygamy and how they treat old, ill people. But... I always argue romanticising such people of colour is as bad as demonising them. Anyhow, the portrayal of white Brits is often negative here, though it was Brits who saved this family. I'm sure some farm owners were nasty brutal racists but no more than native landowners of those of other nationalities. Interestingly, Kenya now is very corrupt, with a hereditary elite in charge. Progress?

To watch a great film about how brutal African cultures can be, watch THE WOUND (2017) a South African film about native cultures.

Interestingly, there were 25000 black people in Nazi Germany even during WWII, compared to just 6000 in the UK in 1939 (8000 in 1945 due to GI babies...) Not a lot of people know that!

An interesting addition to films about Jews fleeing Nazi-ism before, during and after WWII.

4 stars

I did not expect much from this film but actually really enjoyed it and was so hooked I did not notice time passing - the magnificent scenery and colonial-style weirdness was visually impressive, and the dialogue is crackling and cutting at times. I already knew about the fossils trade in that part of the world courtesy of David Attenborough haggling for a trilobite on some TV show years back, but it was interesting to see it explored as a backdrop to the story nonetheless.

I guessed it was from a novel instantly - by Lawrence Osborne (b1958), a poshboy upper class British writer who';s lived a nomadic life in many countries incl Morocco (a bit like posho rich kid William Burroughs and other 20th C GRAND TOUR of sex n drugs types).

One point I think is missed by some is that this is a satire of upper-class privileged types - and as the author is from that set himself, he can accurately satirise them albeit in an OTT way. The City traders, ladies and gentlemen of leisure, the hippychick greenieweenie posh totty, the druggies, the camp ruling class establishment queens living spoilt silly lives,they all ring true. The ONLY thing that is not realistic is the complete lack of black/brown characters in that set - go to ANY famous public school like Eton and you'll see 25%+ faces are not 'white' now.

Some dialogue is memorable, probably taken word for word from the novel. The acting is believable, and the characters. Matt Smith does well and Ralph Fiennes is perfectly cast as the cynical world-weary alcoholic. I guessed the ending at the start, but so what? The ride was enjoyable if not joyful.

I'd advise everyone to watch the excellent 2023 Moroccan movie HOUNDS which depicts city life, complete with drinking alcohol, Western clothes, sex, which many wrongly assume do not exist in Muslim countries as they're so used to seeing hardcore Pakistani Muslims praying 5 times a day now in the UK and promoting the sort of ascetic miserabilist devout Islam that exists in villages and rural areas only in many Muslim countries really.

4 stars

This starts and develops well, and pay attention to events replayed from various points of view with no signposting. I liked that. Some movies do that and baffle the viewer - it's skillful to do it well as here.

However, the third act is silly, I thought, and the character arcs of some vanished too! NO SPOILERS but the end is too neat for me.

This is NOT a horror film or even a thriller. More a social drama. A subtle one, which touches on some taboo subjects such as sexuality.

THE TEACHERS' LOUNGE is a 2023 German film with similar issues BUT of course the culture there is more similar to ours in the UK. Japan has its own traditions and behaviours - very quiet students in my experience, obedient, so this surprises at times.

I did chortle at the way a kid from a single parent family is unusual in Japan. Having 2 birth parents nis almost a novelty in such British schools, as is an all-white class. No ethnic diversity in Japan yet then...

3.5 stars rounded down as that third act let the story sag and meander too much for my tastes.

I LOVED the Norwegian film SICK OF MYSELF by the same writer/director, by far the best satire on the pill-popping age of now (whether it's anxiety or weight loss pills). It's like a DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS for our age - a cautionary tale. I loved DREAM SCENARIO too despite the fact I usually hate Nicholas Cage.

This bears the hallmark of sly intelligence in all the films of Kristoffer Borgli. However, it does not reach their heights of his previous two films. I think that is because, for me anyway, this is all very American & New-York-based, with 2 lead actors chosen for their fame perhaps - though they act fine - to attract a younger audience. Not sure.

I did not quite believe the relationship somehow. Perhaps because I doubt an art gallery curator would behave as he does or fall for this mixed race girl - who imho is actually not that attractive. Anyway, that's just me.

I have zero interest in wedding movies either. I mean, why should I care?

Not sure I believed all the plot developments, the first which leads to the wedding going off the rails. Hated the ending (no spoilers). I could not believe that or some events.

Some decent jokes re Brits/Americans, though it never quite rings true for me as a story, or perhaps I did not believe the way characters reacted to events and news (no spoilers). This is the USA, where you can but guns in Walmart, remember! Not sure. Some clever imagined scenes and quick-edit cuts n fun too, which lifted the film from a rather pedestrian wedding-themed TWENTY-SOMETHING soap.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Slowbeat says it all. I stuck with it, enjoyed the beautiful Greek island scenery and was interested to read in the end credits that some of it was filmed at Ostia Antica, the former Roman port (now 2 miles inland) half an hour by train from Rome. Great place to visit, more compact than Pompeii.

Definitely not a film for kids of those lacking patience - put on the subline JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963) or a SINBAD film for that.

I did enjoy it, with reservations. All a bit soapy for me, family relationships. Reminded me a bit of TV drama VIKINGS and Ragnar's journey. probably a good add-on film to the major big budget Odyssey movie.

The latter's caused controversy by casting a black woman as Helen of Troy (absurd for an age that valued very white fair blonde blue-eyes girls most of all), and this also parachuted those with sub-Saharan African features into this Ithaca, an island to the west of Greece near Corfu. WOULD there be so many black African-origin faces there 3000 years ago? No. Maybe the odd one. For those who defend this colourblind casting, fine, but be consistent - so let's see black Chinese emperors and Indian sultans then, and white ones, and maybe white ginger Zulu warriors and Chinese ones, with ed Sheeran playing Nelson Mandela and Lenny Henry and Idris Elba playing Samurai. OK? I hate this colourblind casting cult, makes me wince ESPECIALLY as the baddie is, yep, you guessed it, a very Nordic white blond man. Sigh...

The director seems to make very stagey films, which perhaps should be drama-documentaries on BBC2 or Channel 4. I half expect some TV presenter in a sunhat to pop up between scenes explaining the historical context, arms flailing as they do that slow walk to camera they learnt at TV presenter college...

to me, it felt like an Italian film - I see it's a UK/France/Greece/Italy coproduction but most cast and crew are Italian, from the names.

I enjoyed the climax. But even I, with my well-trained attention-span, found the prelude wearing at times... and I do confess to clock-watching! The third act is great though.

3 stars.

This is a nice, rather nasty, subtle but snide little stab at a film with is all about secrets in a small town - and very VERY French. You couldn't get more French than the death of a baker who mentored a man returning to the village for his funeral after a decade away, meaning deep resentments and jealousies bubble to the surface of a society humming with secrets and illicit sexual desires. Envy, hatred, love, sex of all kinds - it's all here, yet hardly expressed.

A word about the title: "mis·eri·cord' is either 1) ledge projecting from the underside of a hinged seat in a choir stall which, when the seat is turned up, gives support to someone standing. Many ancient ones carved of wood in British churches; 2) an apartment in a monastery in which some relaxations of the monastic rule were permitted. 3) a small dagger used to deliver a death stroke to a wounded enemy.

Well this French film could tick all three of them.

A nice deceptively quiet and gentle story that is anything but. Be sure to concentrate because some of the undercurrents raging quietly here are subtle, the petty jealousies and hatreds of closed communities and village life, the resentment, the disappointment, the misery...

It has a few bumps, some unbelievable plot developments esp re gendarmes (SO SPOILERS). It had to end somewhere, but not sure if this was the ending I'd have chosen.

4 solid stars

This film is from a novel, though the odd disclaimer at the start that the characters are fictitious is fooling no-one, not when one is even called Vladimir Putin. Boris

Yes , it's bitty. But Jude Law is great as Putin and Paul Dano is always worth a watch.

Reminds of me other shy dramas, THE AMERICANS TV series, also DEUSTCHLAND 83, with its depiction of the communist regime. A great but forgotten UK TV drama RED MONARCH from 1983 is way superior to the later The Death of Stalin (2017) which I found annoying. McMafia a UK TV drama from 2018 nails the Russians in London mired in corruption and with enemies angle well. Boris Berezovsky's life and dodgy death could provide more than enough material for a feature film in itself!

I visited the USSR during communism so know a lot of the places featured in Moscow and Leningrad, as was. They use real documentary/news footage here for various events, sometimes altered by AI to add Jude Law's face. I expect we'll be seeing a lot more of that kind of thing, and have, in fake news online, which means people believe nothing any more.

Anyway, I enjoyed it, though I'd say that if you lack knowledge of the news esp re Russia n 1980s/90s/2000s and Putin, you may find it confusing at times. For those who know about recent Russian history, this is a useful addition to the genre. 4 stars

I suspect this would have been better off as a 1 hour of 48 minute TV drama, or even drama-documentary. There is just not enough here to pad out a whole film, and this did drag at times, esp the second half. This is one of many misery memoir films - too many to list here really. Some are better than others.

Based on a real life City trader who now campaigns for the NSPCC, I was a tad concerned at the misandry here, where all white adult males are portrayed as child sex abusers or just amoral greedy capitalists in the City (the real life David, focus of this biopic, was one himself, made his fortune there). It just gets tiresome, in a cartoon character way, though I have seen quite a few films like this now - it's quite the thing, hating on white men and boys!

And the 1 in 20 stat at the end needs analysis - for 'children' the NSPCC counts anyone under 18, I think, so most claims are by teenagers. There is a danger of overusing claims of abuse, automatically believing claims and demonising all men and boys. We see the effects in the permanent suspicion in which all men are now treated, guilty as accused. That is very dangerous as lies are then weaponised for revenge.

It's not explicit in its depiction of child abuse so not sure why any gets triggered at things like this.

It's a so-so film BUT I'd recommend WAH-WAH (2015) by Richard E Grant more and a south African film MOFFIE (2019).

2 stars

This is so French - sexy woman, a model, spends all day obsessing re the trial of a serial killer for reasons unknown.

The first half ratchets up the tension nicely. Then the subplot re the fellow obsessive and unlikely court scenes go OTT, rather, and I sensed the second act of the film was trying to waffle somewhat, to time-fill, stretch it all out a bit. The ending remedies that well with dramatic tension.

The techie plot re Red Rooms reminds me of several other internert-based films, and we're likely to see more of course. 8MM (1999) is one; PEEPING TOM (1960) always an influence though via the camera-age of film and projectors. Best internet film of recent years is the shoe-string budget horror HOST (2020).

3 stars overall