Oh yes, the University of Leicester are pissed off 
https://le.ac.uk/richard-iii/record
Second edit….casting wasn’t heavy on stereotypes as the real people were themselves stereotypes 
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The Banshees of Inisherin finally got to us - which might make it into my top film category once I’ve emerged from the deep depression it caused.
Set on an Aran Island during Irish Civil war, which is not a direct part of the film apart from a few explosions across the water, but is very much present metaphorically in the fracturing relationships between two previously close friends.
Such beautiful landscape (it didn’t rain), soft irish accents, melodic folk music and rural life all beguiles you at first. But bit by bit, and slowly and gently you descend with them into a dark and miserable place. It’s a remarkably gentle film for one where most of the characters end up dead, disfigured, sexually abused or seek exile.
So it’s only when you get to the end when you realise how totally and utterly depressing it was. And rush home to hug your dog ( don’t go see it if you have a pet donkey).
But absorbing, and beautifully filmed. Wouldn’t be surprised if it wins things.
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022, 9 oscar nominations)
Best picture: Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh
Best actor: Colin Farrell
Best supporting actor: Brendan Gleeson
Best supporting actor: Barry Keoghan
Best supporting actress: Kerry Condon
Best directing: Martin McDonagh
Best original screenplay: Martin McDonagh
Best film editing: Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
Best original score: Carter Burwell
Notes: Everything Everywhere All at Once beat The Banshees of Inisherin in six categories, including best picture*.* McDonagh received three nominations for his work on the film.
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From your description, I’d have thought that inevitable!
We missed The Quiet Girl last year, but having been nominated for an Oscar it’s back on the cinema circuit again.
So glad finally got to see it as this is a top 10 film. The Quiet Girl is definitely quiet as you could probably fit her part onto a page of A4, and the other characters aren’t exactly voluble either. But completely absorbing, with so many undercurrents to hook you in. What is not said is more important that what is said.
A very sad tale of family troubles impacting on a young and withdrawn girl. Who gets a chance for a different sort of life, for a summer. And at the same time helps the adults that take her in. It stops at the point where you can decide if it is happy ever after ending, or not.
And a film where every frame is meaningful, so you have to pay attention. It’s about 100 minutes of carefully edited and slowly unfurling storyline - which so much better than a sloppily edited 150 minute film that makes you itch to shorten it.
Very Irish (it is mainly in Gaelic) and full of detail of irish rural life so feels accurate to the period (1980’s) and complete . Filmed on a narrow ratio film stock adds to the impression of so much happening outside what you see and hear - as if you are peeking into her life in a very intimate way.
Definitely one to see!
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Recent films have been so unmemorable that not worthy of even a sentence. However saw the Ken Loach “The Old Oak” this weekend.
Basic story line is Syrians being dumped in Durham ex-mining community with all the incomprehension and racism that one would image. Failing pub owner befriends them against active opposition from locals.
Very Ken Loach, and good on him yet again for tackling stories that should be told. But light of hand it was not, and extremely clunky. Not helped by him deciding to use a mainly non-professional cast. Laudable but doesn’t make for smoothest cinema experience. However good on developing characters, including a cute dog (who has a pivotal but very cushion grabbing scene).
However overall a feel good film and some sweet bits - Durham cathedral with choir singing Thomas Tallis, the Durham Gala, an oud player (although not listed in credits).
I think it could relate well in French coal field areas.
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Our Greek friend (formerly of Co Durham) loved it.
I lived in Durham City for five years in the early Eighties, but every day commuted across Co Durham to Teesside via the bleak, devastated mining villages. Two very, very different worlds that only met one day a year on the day of the Big Meet (the Miners’ Gala). Will have to see the film.
Thanks
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Last night was L’enlèvement (kidnapped) an Italian film in all senses of the word! The friends we were with loved it but I was a touch more lukewarm as ended up feeling a bit battered around the head by its brilliance. It was a bit like a spoilt child saying “look at me”, “look at me”, “aren’t I just wonderful”.
Having said that the film was fascinating. Set in 1850’s - 1870’s and revolves around a true story of a young jewish child being removed from his family by decree of Pope Pious IX. A seriously nasty piece of work. This real event was a major scandal the time, and the film brings in the political aspects so the unification of Italy and the downfall of the papal states is intertwined with this story of tyranny and anti- semitism. Which makes for a full-on film packed with real historical detail and very gripping.
The cinematography was also remarkable. A bit like being plunged into Caravaggio’s world as each scene was so perfectly put together with interplay of light and shade. I think you could take any still from the film and hang it on a wall. One remarkable scene was when the Italian army broke into the Papal Palace, and black clad soldiers with dramatic helmets were chasing the young priests in their black soutanes hither and thither in a back-lit palace corridor. It could have been a Matthew Borne ballet!
And the casting! Even though edged towards caricature at times there were some stunning faces. You would not willingly be alone in a room with the Papal inquisitor Father Felleti, who just exuded evil.
I’m sure it will win things and, to me, is one of the best of Marco Bellocchio’s films.
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Our latest was Wim Wenders’ new film Perfect Days. We loved it, although some critics were a bit lukewarm.
A film to settle back in your comfy seat, let your blood pressure drop, and become absorbed in the daily life of a Tokyo toilet cleaner for a couple of hours. Beautifully detailed, carefully filmed, and the fact that the music was late 70’s/early 80’s worked for us! The cinema was quite full, but was totally silent as everyone seemed captivated so not a crunch of popcorn to be annoyed about.
Nothing much happened, but at the same time one was so absorbed into his slow paced and quite small world that lots happened! In fact possibly too much drama, as I didn’t really need the final twist.
The actor playing the toilet cleaner was great, and the final very long take focused on his face and subtle changes of emotion was impressive. You get his whole philosophy over the course of the film, but for those who want a spolier it’s komorebi…. Love it!
It’s in Japanese with French subtitles but since you could probably fit the script onto one page A4 this should be accessible to all.
(Apparently Wim Wenders was invited to Japan with the aim of getting him to make some shorts about some new toilets. He decided to do a feature length film. For which I am pleased.)
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He’s one of my favourite directors, but the one I want to see is Anselm. I’ve seen all the previous Kiefer films and TV progs. We have artist friends whom we visit every other year that live about 20kms from Barjac. Unfortunately the tour of the site lasts several hours and our host isn’t physically up to that. Also they don’t allow dogs and my wife doesn’t feel confident about leaving her precious Gigi in our friends’ care for a few hours.
Other friends in Eindhoven saw the movie in 3D last night and thought it was wonderful (if that’s the right word for a vision that’s fairly bleak)…
I have a 1990s/80s video tape of Kiefer sowing teeth in the Iraqi desert; the scene closes with possibly the longest pull-back I’ve ever seen and of course viewed retrospectively is a harbinger of what was to come.
Today Kiefer’s Barjac ‘ruins’ appear harbingers of what we see every day on TV, in Kviv, Gaza and too many other places around the world
Anselm is on our list. We missed it in local cinema but hope it will return nearby in new year. Since ours are small art house cinemas there is often only one showing.
I want to see Past Lives and l’Arbre aux Cocons d’Or.
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La Zone d’interêt is just out. Jonathan Glazer’s take on Martin Amis’s book.
It centres on the Höss (the commandant of Auschwitz) family and their day to day life in their house which is on the other side of the wall round the camp. It is chilling in its normality. You never see anything of the camp itself, but the sound is ever present. And this disjunct between the sounds of gunshots, screams, dogs barking, and the blond Ayran children playing in a beautiful garden 20metres away which their hausfrau mother describes to her family as a paradise is deeply disturbing.
One scene which got to me is Höss’s wife twirling in front of a mirror with evident pleasure about wearing a new fur coat, just like any ordinary woman. The coat, just like one my Nana wore, is of course stolen from aJewish woman who has been gassed. As she maintains the pretence that nothing odd is happening, even as she turns away from the smoke billowing from crematorium chimneys. But reflecting on this scene there is the intimation that she did know, as she felt the hem of the coat, and later commented it needed repair (clothes taken from the victims were checked for hidden gold and jewellery).
Everything in the film is understated, unsaid. Which makes it quite a powerful commentary on how evil can spread through routine and banality. And by avoiding all the images of the horror makes you think in a different way about how these people managed to do what they did.
Disturbing, but absorbing.
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Some further background for anyone interested
The actor playing Hedwig was very good and, despite knowing full well the characterisation was fictional, I really did want her to come to a nasty end like her husband. But the kids were all far too young to have any culpability so must have been difficult for them
German film festival at our cinema so went to see Anselm today, even tho’ 2 films in a week is a bit greedy.
Very much a Wim Wenders’ film. So a very creative take on a great artist, with lovely mix of material and historic clips. They didn’t show it in 3D, but despite that I found it visually very strong. In fact it might have made me a bit queasy to see it in 3D. But essential to see on a big screen as anything smaller wouldn’t capture his work well at all. The images of the Venice Biennale were wonderful, I feel sad I never saw it.
Packed a massive amount into the film, spanning a lot of his work, his influences and career. But not a plodding chronological exposé by any means! And charmingly Anselm’s son played him as a young man, and Wim Wender’s son played him as a boy.
Having seen a film on Nazi Germany yesterday I found the contrast with Anselm Kiefer’s approach to myth, memory, German culture, and the aftermath of World War II quite thought provoking, Even if not convinced I agree with him that the taboo of nazi’ism should be confronted,
Worth seeing!
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My daughter went to see ISS. Psychological thriller set on the space station who witness nuclear destruction down on earth and each side are instructed to take over the station leading to some thought provoking problems. She said it was very good and chilling too.
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In the Kiefer film I mentioned earlier in this thread, Melvyn Bragg asked him, if he was a Nazi or and anti-Nazi (after US critics like Crimp had slated his early paintings). Kiefer replied that he was neither because to call himself an ‘anti-Nazi’ would be an insult to those who had bravely opposed Nazism at the time. He then courageously added that he had no idea what he would have been if he’d been born twenty years earlier (and of course his mentor, Beuys had been a Luftwaffe pilot).
I found this non-judgemental way of thinking very helpful when I moved to S Africa just after the end of Apartheid and had some staff in my department who had served in the SA Defence Force and others who had emigrated to avoid conscription. You can’t choose your parents, nor where, or when you are born .
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Forgot to add this link to a very good English video about Kiefer that was made a few years ago
Oh yes and I’m jealous of all the people I know around Europe who’ve already seen the new Kiefer movie - and I’m worried it won’t come our way out in the sticks…