Film Reviews by CH

Hugh Grant can only ever be himself, (not a great actor) a floppy haired charmer playing a grumpy Chopin being Hugh Grant . When I listen to Chopin preludes, mazurkas, impromptus  etc I now see Hugh Grant irritating the ivories. Never mind, I actually enjoyed the film, but this is not one for classical music diehards. Julian Sands might have been a better Chopin….we’ll never know.

A gorgeously observed black and white German film set in early 20century. Shabbach is still an isolated peasant farming and artisan community that is struggling to keep families together. The young and able bodied are leaving for the cities and the siren call of a new life in the Americas.

Having previously reviewed The Italians (a very skilfully observed Russian film, following the lives of parentless children, seeking some sort of meaning to their lives in a bleak orphanage) the film Libero poses another question……how do children respond when forced to witness the claustrophobia and confusion of a violent and tempestuous marriage. In both films, happiness is only ever an anxious fleeting moment, like a passing shadow. I would pair these two films, The Italians and Libero together as a dark duo of the pains of childhood that both strike and illuminate the tragedy of the human condition.

Much to admire in this claustrophobic film……not least the importance of a solitary and clothed philosopher on the beach, (a Gerard Depardieu lookalike…)(presumably he wasn’t available). The calm idyllic waters of the lake are disturbed by what looks like the rough play of boys but turns sinister…..an unspeakable act. A classy French film that might have wider appeal were it not for the 18 certificate for the overtly homoerotic scenes.

I watched this film on Paradiso a while back but felt unable to commit to a review,  to shoulder the vacuum of indecision with the weight of commitment to one cause or another. Having since read more about the Israeli/Palestinian land grab it seems that this modern biblical conflict has no simple or reasonable answer to the many infinitely complex questions…the deeper you dig the worse it gets. The Lemon Tree in itself an innocent and beautiful thing, but the film puts faces to an otherwise faceless conflict, the faces of those who dare to stand in the way of the steamrollers of politics and progress and the architects of the maps of casual destruction. This was a hard review to write.

 quasi scientific Greek medical myth, merges with French Freudian, erotically charged anecdotal noir nonsense from Francois Ozon. Some slick camera angles with mirroirs and spiral staircases. Do yourself a favour here, go for a run, read a book, rewatch a favourite film, clean your windows, start your tax returns…….

Very much in the tradition of the darkest of dark Grimms fairy stories, here is a Korean tale woven with betrayal, deception, lies, love, lust and revenge. Certainly not for the young, prurient or faint hearted.  Villainy seems to be inextricably linked to an unhealthy interest in grand Victorian Gothic architecture concealing (what else) but dusty ‘gentlemen’s’ libraries and torture chamber…….slightly overlong but otherwise a classy, restrained film given the malicious subject matter.

A young Jewish boy, separated from his family and brother whilst fleeing his aggressors, now finds himself precariously hiding from them in plain sight. 

Fabulous……..a true French existential crisis of a film. Think of a Parisian bourgeois lifestyle with all the attendant trimmings and trappings. Then make one or two false moves and kaboom, the  edifice crashes down and buries our now hapless antihero under the rubble and roulette game that is another life. Call me heartless………but this was an unexpectedly thrilling film.

Iran is back in the news in 2022……young women demanding that their voices be heard. The message of this film was a stark reminder of the oppression girls and women still suffer under these self serving medieval monsters and their lackey puppets of power.

Crimes without punishment. Can each new generation create his own destiny without fear of retribution, or are we forever condemned to live persecuted by echoes of the crimes and complicities of our fathers? And who shall cast the first stone upon them? A thoughtful film that mirrors modern society still writhing and seething with the heritage of WW2.

A fairly harrowing account of the author’s  youthful years and the mental breakdown that incarcerated her in an antipodean asylum. Whether these institutions were any worse than those anywhere else, it is hard to say. Electro convulsive treatment was routinely used (and still is , though not as routinely) and the pharmaceuticals may have been harsher and more primitive than those prescribed today. Quite how Janet Frame managed to emerge from this 8 year institutional psychiatric torpor with her writer’s spirit undefeated is the miracle of the film.

There was a touch of Klaus Kinski and Fitzcarraldo in this film (which I think was made before Harrison Ford starred in Mosquito coast) Trying to build the impossible in the inhospitable was the theme of both films with Harrison Ford’s descent into (and almost matching Kinski’s) terrifying psychotic paranoia in the jungle 

Excellent and understated Korean film, that despite an adult certification restrains itself from any gratuitous imagery with an opening scene of suicide and subsequent themes of a cold revenge for the cold seduction of a housemaid.

Over here (in Western Europe,) the success of a child at school can be manipulated (to some extent) by attending fee paying schools, living in the right house for a good school allocation, carefully choosing your highflying friends children for play dates, paying for extra curricular activities, ballet, skiing, chess club, piano/violin, extra maths tutoring etc. But it’s still no guarantee that a potential young doctor will be the net result of these parental financial exertions. We all know that. This is a Romanian story of similar parental exertions, the difference is 1950’s crumbling tower block background and the sphere of influence is now a chain of easily corrupted officials within the system. Over here it’s a game called conscious (and lately) unconscious bias at work. In Romania it is called doing what needs to be done to get ahead and get out.