Film No. 34 (2015) The Clouds of Sils Maria May 25th.

Film No. 34 (2015) May 25th. 6:20 PM PARADISO Northbridge.

 

"The play tells a simple story. An older woman falls in love with a scheming girl who has her wrapped around her little finger" (Maria listens to a brief synopsis of the play she is contemplating performing and knows so well).

The Clouds of Sils Maria

I watched a short exerpt of an interview with Binoche and Stewart with Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers, post Sils. The interview summed up for me why this film has such charisma. These two actors have a real chemistry in each others company. I now understand why I found this film so unique even though I was slightly confused with the ending. 

In general terms I felt I was watching a play within a play within a film. I can't recall experiencing a film then describing it in these terms before but watching Maria (Juliette Binoche) and Val (Kristen Stewart) relax in each others company while carrying out their working lives was refreshing. Maria is coaxed by Val into playing a role in a play she starred in 20 years prior. Because of her age, the role she made famous is not on the agenda. Maria's scenes with Val as they run dialogue together in a French Alps setting, overlaps brilliantly between script and everyday life as Maria adapts emotionally to her new professional circumstance.

The film unfolds like a play. There are 3 Acts as we watch Maria deal with a divorce, a death and the choice of her next assignment in act 1. She and Val flesh out their commitment to one another while preparing for the play in act 2. Then there is an epilogue which left me a little flat but maybe that was the point. actor Moving on and adapting to rapid change in her world as she ages is very deflating for Maria.

This is a film for purists who love a new cinematic adventure. The acting is of the highest quality. Quantitatively, women rule but there are a couple of excellent male turns. Klaus Diesterweg is excellent as Maria's confident director Lars Eidinger. Their scenes are underplayed and riveting. However, Kristen Stewart is stunningly good as Val. She is the only US performer ever to win a Cesar (best female performer, Cannes 2014). Her performance alone is worth the price of a ticket.  10GUMS

Film No. 32 (2015) Mad Max: Fury Road May 17th.

Film No. 32 (2015) May 17th. 1:00 PM VMAX Innaloo.

"My world is reduced to a single instinct, survive. So I exist in this wasteland". (Mad Max's voiceover prelude). 

Mad Max: Fury Road

Barton Fink, for me was a head f*ck of a film because of its overly indulgent script. Mad Max played with my head in the same way but definitely not because the dialogue was too deep. Watching two hours of non stop mayhem in a hot desert wasteland, while wearing 3D glasses certainly snapped me out of any lethargy I was feeling this day.

This is the 4th chapter in the Mad Max stable. The original Mad Max was made for under $1M but took many more millions. Accountants were queuing up to franchise George Miller's Road Warrior to bigger and better things. It was a look that it had the potential to be a money making machine. The idea of a lone indestructible warrior wandering a post atomic wasteland, embittered by the deaths of his wife and child and fighting for the causes of the downtrodden can be duplicated many times over.

Then there is Mad Max: Fury Road, a special effects feast told in the same way a comic strip might depict an unbelievable world supporting a super hero. The effects are amazing and even more so in 3D glasses but I would have liked to have been more emotionally invested. Here's why. 

Max remains a lone warrior. Trouble finds him, it always does. He's taken captor by some wild tribe of misfits who rule some kingdom where water, fuel,white faced mutants and beautiful angelic women exist. Furiosa (Charlize Theron) wants out and she smuggles the women and fuel out of the kingdom in a tanker to find  more serene pastures. The baddies give chase with their new prisoner Mad Max; he's strapped to the front of the vehicle. Max does what Max does to get out of his predicament and wins over Furiosa using eye contact and grunts. The chase across the desert is frenetic and unending. See I told you it was a head f*ck. And yes, he does survive. 7GUMS  

Film No. 31 (2015) Partisan 16th May.

Film No. 31 (2015) May 16th.  10.45 AM LUNA Leederville. 

"It's important to cherish the things you love while you have them, protect them". (Gregori (Vincent Cassel) impressing upon Alexander another of his many philosophical notions).

 

Partisan

Remember the name Ariel Kleiman. This young man has a grasp of a type of film making which has a unique quality. Partisan is his first feature film. At the preview I attended we were treated to a viewing of his most recent short film Deeper Than Yesterday (Sundance Jury winner for short film). This 7 minute film gripped me from the first frame and held me in the same way Partisan did. 

In Partisan, Kleiman continues with the bleak but thoughtful ideas he has pursued in his short films. So far his films centre on one or two characters who have a strong sense of themselves. We meet Gregori (Vincent Cassel) as he gives young, desperate mothers hope in some form of post European apocalyptic city. In this case it's Susanna (Florence Mezzara) immediately after the birth of Alexander (later played by Jeremy Chabriel). Gregori takes them into his seemingly self sufficient world. A world he has meticulously created.

We skip forward 10 years to get to know the angelic Alexander who has learnt the ways of life in this safe but unnerving commune. I say unnerving because the mothers who abide in every way with Gregori's commands never seem totally relaxed in doing so. Gradually Kleinman expertly reveals the underbelly of the world they and their children live in. It is in Alexander however that we invest most of our emotional currency. We watch him come of age when a new inductee, a boy of his own age, arrives and rebels against the only world Alexander knows.

I've said too much already. I'm rejoicing in the fact a new young film maker has arrived who, like Gregori, has a clear view about what he aims to achieve. Every shot has a purpose and he captures his actors in such a way that we are riveted to their every glance, reaction and movement. I can't wait for his next effort. At age 30, his future in a fickle business looks bright. 10GUMS  

Film No. 33 (2015) Gemma Bovery May 20th.

Film No. 33 (2015) May 20th. 6:30 PM PARADISO Northbridge.

"In the depths of her soul she was waiting for something to happen" (The voice over of baker Fabrice Luchini (Martin Joubert)as he reflects on his new neighbour)

Gemma Bovery

This light and extremely enjoyable French / English production reimagines a story by Anne Fontaine of the same name. Martin Joubert (Fabrice Luchini) plays a likable baker in a village in Normandy. He is bored with life,a life he shares with wife Valerie (Isabelle Candelier)and son. So while his boredom might seem insignificant and perhaps a motivation for some typically off beat comedy there is a surprise twist. There are flashes of Midsomer Murders about the last 20 minutes; an off shoot of the cultural production bond perhaps.

Our baker relieves his boredom by reading the classics, then melding the narrative with the lives of people around him. This chapter of his humdrum life takes us to a time when new neighbors move in. Gemma (Gemma Arterton) and Charlie Bovery(Jason Flemyng) are English and have come to Normandy to escape London life. We never really get an insight into their relationship thus gaining an understanding of why Gemma does the things she does but like an episode of Midsomer most things happen for convenience sake.

Joubert is the clown like character who guides us through this whimsical tale. The film starts at the end like so many films do these days. We witness Joubert underhandedly take the diary of Gemma. It is then, through the diary and the musings of Joubert, that we have this light, tender and somewhat surprising cinema experience. Readers of Madam Bovery, of which I'm not one, will certainly get another dimension to Fontaine's work.

Luchini is excellent as the meddling baker. The closeups of his bewildered face as he follows Gemma's every move give us a better understanding of what's happening than what he's actually viewing. Arterton  has the look for the part but I wasn't convinced of her every move. I know the film had to suspend some of my belief but for me, her ability to act didn't meet her physical presence. Never the less this original little mysterious fairytale has a charm most will enjoy. Bring on more French / English productions …. this melding worked.  9GUMS

  

Film No. 30 (2015) A Royal Night Out May 7th.

Film No. 30 (2015) May 7th. 6:30 PM THE WINDSOR Nedlands.

"What if the real me wants something else" (Elizabeth responding to Jacks statement that she has a life where she can have anything she wants).

A Royal Night Out

A Royal Night Out is a hoot. I'm always pleased to report on a film where the slick trailer does the film justice. The U.K. film industry cut its teeth on light, silly comedies. So, just as a Noel Coward play gets re-staged with skill via repertory the farcical comedy gets a rebirth through independent cinema. 

This silly story is based on an urban legend and liberties are take on a grand scale in this version of supposed events. 
In the firm knowledge that Elizabeth would be the next queen of England (with next to no childhood experiences with the common folk), that WWII was over and with the feisty Margaret hankering  for a party, a tired old King George VI gives permission for his girls to go forth and enjoy themselves (the ages of Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon) and Margaret (Bel Powley) are 19 and 14 respectively at the time of V.E. Day). The high farce comes in the form of the bumbling minders Capt. Price (Jack Laskey) and Lt Price (Jack Gordon). That along with the champagne glass extravaganza had a touch of the Keystone Cops about it.

But I digress. Elizabeth is the one in our hearts as we think about the lovely, gentle lady we have grown up with. In the film she experiences a chaste teenage fling with Jack (Jack Reynor) a brooding airman who, by default, becomes her minder for the night. I've not seen Roman Holiday (1953) but the word is that,in it, Gregory Peck  played a similar role for Audrey Hepburn as they made their way through the streets of Rome.

The freshness of the performances of Gadon and Powley make the film the joy director Jarrold set out to achieve. Writers De Silva and Hood depend on their leads to deliver silly lines with exquisite innocence and timing and they would surely have been pleased. I'm predicting that A Royal Night Out is about to experience great success in cinemas in leafy suburbs throughout the western world. It's light, it's entertaining but most of all it's fresh, even if it's all been done before in a bygone era. 9GUMS.   

      

Film No. 29 (2015) Spy May 5th.

Film No. 29 (2015) May 5th. 7:00 PM VMAX Innaloo.

"Give up on your dreams Susan, that was my mum, she used to write it on my lunchbox". Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) describing an aspect of her childhood.

Spy

There were so many Bridesmaids like lines in Spy I was surprised to see Kirsten Wigg was not responsible for the script. There is something unoriginal about Paul Feig's film but I can understand why he chose to make it the way he did.

Melissa McCarthy has become a phenomenon. Thinking of her as secret agent, Susan Cooper, conjures up so many comic images that, there lies the foundation for a blockbuster movie. While the whole premise would seem from the outside to be ridiculous, she retains some credibility because we first meet her as an analyst for her James Bond like hero, Bradley Fine (Jude Law). She's Fine's eyes and ears via advanced technological techniques as he fights evil out in the field.

Yes, you guessed it, Cooper is transported to the field when the circumstances of Fine change. Cooper must finish what Fine started. The actual premise for the mission in Spy is not clever, it's the odd characters which weave their way through the farce which raise the level of Spy. Jason Statham (yes Statham of The Mechanic fame) is hilarious while taking the "mickey" out of himself. Miranda Hart as Nancy, Susan's confidant has good chemistry with McCarthy and Rose Byrne does another comic turn as Raina in a similar vain to her Bridesmaid role.

So what did I make of it? It seems James Bond parodies are in vogue and this is another contribution. Kingsman: The Secret Service is far cleverer than Spy but won't necessarily be as popular. If one liners of a reasonably original type are your thing, and you loved McCarthy in Bridesmaids then don't miss Spy. If you appreciate spoofs done cleverly then Spy falls short, you'll get better value from its download release in a couple of months.  6GUMS