HITLER'S CHILDREN

As I left the movie house somewhat dazed I simply couldn't get the phrase out of my head about 'sons bearing the guilt of their fathers'. Google tells me  this originated from the Old Testament where it is paraphrased quite a few times. The trouble is as so often, the Bible is confusion personified and sometimes it says they should bare the guilt, and other times they need not. Shakespeare on the other hand was very clear as he wrote that 'sons should suffer' for the sins. 

I however adamantly believe that we are not responsible for our parents actions, as they are not accountable for ours. So wanting to see this intriguing look at the 2nd and 3rd generation of some of the most despicable Nazi hierarchy in World War 2 is not about apportioning blame in anyway, but just seeing how they have dealt with the stigma of their own families brutal pasts.

Bettina Goering the great niece of Hermann Goering (Hitler's Deputy) toyed with the idea of taking her husband's surname,  and has deliberately chosen to stay as far away from Germany as possible and lives in a remote ranch house in the back and beyonds of Sante Fe. She and her brother both made the conscious decision to be sterilized so that the family name and any bad genes they may have, would die out with them.  Monika Hertwig on the other hand, knew very little about the truth of Amon Goeth her father's role during in the war beyond the greatly altered story she had been fed, so when she saw Ralph Fiennes portraying him in 'Schindlers List' she suddenly realised what a monster he had been.

Israeli filmmaker Chanoch Ze’evi evidently met with over 60 descendants of the Nazi elite but only 5 of them agreed to participate in this very public examination of what life has been like for them growing up in the dark shadows of their families past. Each of their stories are fascinating, but it did however seem a wasted opportunity that Mr Ze'evi showed their testimonies without comment, and more importantly without asking them any questions.  There is one scene where Rudolf Hoess's grandson Rainer is visiting Auschwitz Concentration Camp for the first time and sees where his family lived in obscene comfort and undisturbed by the huge gas chambers just the other side of a high wall that his grandfather had created and ran. Rainer is asked to spontaneously talk to some Israeli students also visiting which visibly upsets him and provokes a rather tearful  apology for his grandfather's actions, and its left to his travelling companion , an Israeli journalist to comment that as heartfelt it appeared, it seemed both too little and too sudden.

Of all of the descendants featured, it was Niklas Frank, the son of Hans Frank who was Hitler's Governor General of Poland, who had made the most effort to confront his demons of the parents he had come to hate. He wrote two no-holds barred books about his father's exploits and has subsequently spent a great deal of time talking to schoolchildren about Frank Snr's role in the Holocaust.  Hans's own daughter acknowledges how successful her father's efforts have been to expunge the past, and as such she no longer feels the need to have to confront the issue itself.

The movie serves as an important part of the record of how we .... the world  .... are still dealing with the legacy of that horrendous period.  One pointed comment came from Katlin Himmler, Heinrich's great niece, who mentioned that whilst no-one inside Germany raises an eyebrow at the mention of her infamous family name, it always causes controversy and problems when she visits any other country.

If you missed it, the movie is now out on DVD so hopefully will be available 'streaming' too soon.

Available at Amazon

★★★★★★★★

LES MISERABLES

I dreamed a dream in times gone by that Les Miz would be a much better movie than it is.  And although I wouldn't go as far as to quote the last line from the main dramatic ballad 'now life has killed the dream I dreamed,' but I would say that it did rather dent it.

The long-awaited movie version of the hit-stage musical that has been circumventing the world since 1985 (it's in its 27th year in London's West End) is Claude-Michel Schönberg's take on Victor Hugo's classic novel on the last few decades in Paris leading up the the French Revolution.  And if in case you missed it, then should know its all about what happened to a man after he stole a loaf of bread.  Literally.  The stubborn peasant Jean Valjean served 19 years for his 'crime' and on his release from prison he was determined to ignore the strictures of his parole and become a God-fearing honest and up-right citizen.  And he was, but every time he seemed to succeed, the Law caught up with him in the shape of Javest his sworn enemy who had vowed to pursue him for rest of his life.

It's a story of epic dimensions and even though the movie is a hefty 157 minutes long director Tom Hooper makes the going maddeningly frenetic at times trying to pack in as much as possible. Its action filled scenes with the cameras whirling around however are an odd sharp contrast with the tight close ups of the slow paced big ballads that were stretched out to show that yes, the actors really were singing. And despite some very strong on-screen performances, there was more than one occasion when what you actually see is a very talented actor playing a part and singing his/her heart out but not actually becoming the character itself.

Hugh Jackman does a sterling job holding the piece together in a career-best turn that will deservedly earn him a Best Actor Nomination (though not the Oscar itself), and if you have seen the preview than you will have seen almost all of Anne Hathaway's small but crucial role of Fantine the good girl who's forced into prostitution. Ms Hathaway determinedly squeezes every ounce of emotion out of her big show stopping number that should (!) have you reaching for your Kleenex.

For me the actors who really gave some zest (alongside Mr Jackman) and some much needed comic relief and were a sheer joy were Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the hilarious thieving innkeepers.  Eddie Redmayne was very surprisingly impressive as Marius the 'love' interest, as was newcomer Samantha Barkes as Epononie (Marius's stalker), and the wonderful young Daniel Huttlestone as Gavroche steal every scene he is in.   

Transferring a successful stage musical to the big screen very rarely succeeds, and there are countless more flops than hits over the years. This is neither, but nevertheless it is a disappointment that it failed to live up to its expectations especially as it had all the right ingredients to make it really something more than just OK, but maybe it had the wrong choice of chef

Hugh Jackman is worth the price of the ticket alone, but if you were one of those people that actually bought Susan Boyle's CD (!) then you'll be heading to the theater regardless of any review anyway. 

Available at  Amazon
★★★★★★★

CHASING MADOFF

It's just a sheer co-incidence that I sat and watched this documentary about the uncovering of the Bernie Madoff's audacious Ponzi fraud scheme the day before that Peter his son is sentenced to 10 years in jail for his part in the conspiracy. A reminder nevertheless that even though Mr Madoff Snr. is already behind bars and has started his 150 year prison sentence, this affair will not disappear from the public gaze for many more years to come.

You would have to have been living on a remote planet in 2008 if you haven't heard of the massive swindle that the Madoffs perpetrated on the public in several countries stealing billions of dollars over the years. The scheme named after Charles Ponzi, a Banker in the 1920's, is simply that they create the illusion that a Fund is earning higher returns than the norm when the reality is that they are doing the opposite, but are providing them with their own personal kitty to fund their extravagant lifestyles.  The prospect of high dividends attracts more investors monies and the new income is used to pay the interest to the existing clients.  To keep this all going they need a constantly source of new investors with more money, something that both Mr. Ponzi and Mr Madoff excelled at until their respective bubbles burst.

This version of the scandal focused on the four Brokers in Boston who back in 1999 studied a Madoff prospectus and report and spotted the fraud within minutes, and so immediately alerted the S.E.C. (Securites Exchange Commission) and several important financial journals, but all to no avail. These brave souls risked their reputations, their jobs and even their own lives by trying to make anyone in authority sit up and notice that this powerful man, once the Chairman of the NASDAQ Exchange, was probably the biggest crook in the history of Wall Street.  When the story actually broke some NINE years later, Harry Markopolos the main whistleblower was desperately worried for his own safety thinking that the SEC would take revenge on him for revealing their sheer incompetence, but once again, they did nothing.

The complete and utter failure of the SEC to investigate any of the detailed evidence that was presented to them over the years should have warranted criminal charges being brought against the organisation's management who were instead, simply allowed to resign their positions.  The documentary highlighted that here can be no question that the failure of the very Authority that exists for the sole purpose to regulate such financial matters on our behalf, brings into question the very need for such a grossly mismanaged Body in the first place.

Two other major points that I discovered during the film. Firstly, was the whole extent of Madoff's rather vast reach that seemed to extend into even deeper pockets all across Europe, including several Royal Families.  The second fact was the realisation that asides from the (once) wealthy clients Madoff milked dry, he also robbed the desperately needed funds of many Charities and Non-profit organisations.  This was unquestionably the most despicable of all his crimes, and the ones that really showed how evil the man was.

Filmmaker Jeff Prosserman's approach with the telling of the story is a little uneven at times, but the facts as he reveals them are compelling enough to make this a very watchable expose of this contemptuous crook, with the hope that his type will never be seen again.  But we know they will. 

Available at Amazon 

★★★★★★★

(A)SEXUAL

I guess the byline of this movie could be 'Everything You Need To Know About Not Having Sex' , but unlike Woody Allen's movie that I paraphrased this from, this documentary is no laughing matter.  It focuses on David Jay a very earnest handsome young man in his 20's  who after he 'came out' to his parents established a whole network of support and information about other people like him.

An 'asexual' is a person who is not sexually attracted to either the opposite sex or their same gender.  Most of the people who express themselves as such have no desire to go along with society's expectations of them and have any sexual intercourse at all.  This informative wee film dealt with and dismissed all the usual assumptions that are bandied around about this group of people i.e. were abused as children,  they are impotent, inexperienced, scared, just out of a bad relationship or just physically incapable.  As Mr Jay asserted asexuality is not a choice one makes as it is in one's make up just like being gay is.

I have to say that I did set aside my normal cynicism about all things that I find hard to get to grips with as I was actually very interested to see if this really is a valid 'condition'.  Jay's group AVEN (Asexual Visibility Education Network) met up in his home town San Francisco specifically to give the group some visibility, and they chose to participate in the Gay Pride March.  At this point I was very much in tune with the observations of Dan Savage the renowned sharp-tongue and witty Sex Therapist. 'Welcome to Alphabet City : its now Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual, Transgendered, Genderqueer, Questioning Women, etc etc and now they want to add Asexual!' But as Savage added, there is something rather incongruous that a March to celebrate all the freedom that gay people have fought hard just to be able to have the sex they want, should now be joined by a group that want the right not to have any sex at all.

My bigger objection however throughout the entire film was the constant comparison of asexuality with homosexuality as I can see no link at all whatsoever beyond the fact that they are both considered deviant from what  society considers as its  norm.

I also had as much trouble understanding the whole notion of romance without sexual contact as young Mr Jay did explaining it. He has devised a strategy for evaluating and building relationships known as 'the three Ts': time (the amount of time you dedicate to a person), touch (physical or verbal expressions of feelings) and talk (clearly communicating expectations for the relationship). Was I slowly getting convinced that maybe he is onto something here?  An asexual can date, fall in love and even marry (as they did during this film), they simply do not want to have sex with their partner.

Then at the end of the film they go back to interview David two years later.  AVEN is still growing strong, but David has had a major re-think.  It's not that he wants to have sex BUT now aged 29 he has come to the conclusion that the fulfilling relationship that he so craves with one person can only be complete and reach intimacy if he has sex.  Reluctantly?

Including this last interview and seeing this very earnest young man struggle with reality of his beliefs didn't make he doubt his sincerity, but it certainly left me more than confused than him.  Now I am not eure what I think.  I know that the fine line between being celibate and being asexual is too blurred for me, and the film brought up a theory that there is a link between people with Aspergers Syndrom and asexual, but that surely cannot apply to everyone in this group?

If this is a subject that interests you, or you are just damn nosey about sexual matters like me, then you can find this intriguing wee film online as it is available streaming from several different sources.

P.S. And I will reveal  the answer David gives to one of the most frequently asked questions ....... yes, they do have 'sex with themselves' but its evidently not any fun for them 'just a matter of clearing out the pipes'. 

Available from Amazon 

★★★★★★★

SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA & AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE

I have always had a bucket list of movies that for some reason or enough I have never got around too yet but am determined to watch before I leave this earth.  Swimming to Cambodia has been on that list for far too long, and when I finally saw it tonight with an over-excited Spalding Gray tumultuously exploding on the screen in front of me, I knew then that the wait had been so well worth it.

Just in case you are reading in this in some far flung place (evidently this Blog has been read in some 96 countries to date) and have never heard of actor/author Spalding Gray then you should he is a (even The?) master at the art of monologues whose stories come alive on the page, and he also performs them on stage and enthralls audience everywhere with his highly personalized slant on life as it happened to him.  In 1984 he had a small supporting role in the movie Roland Joffe's 'The Killing Fields' and the monologue he wrote about his experiences there in Southeast Asia both won him awards and became his major breakthrough.   Filmed in 1986 by Jonathan Demme as a raw performance of Gray on a tiny stage at a desk with the exercise book that he wrote the script in,  and just two maps and a pointer for props. It is totally riveting from his first rapid fire outpouring until the final closing anecdotes.

As an actor Gray had difficulty with other peoples words (there is one scene in 'The Killing Fields' they had to do 66 takes before he got it right) but his own flowed like liquid gold from his mouth with barely time to pause between the different incidents. Its easy to see that with his razor sharp analytical eye no single detail escapes him and he deconstructs each one to try to make some sense of everything.  We the audience act as his therapists (he already has a professional one) and he pours out his seemingly uncensored thoughts as nothing is deemed off limits even if it means revealing the inner most personal facts/feelings/confidences of the people in his life.  The fact that they continue to live with him after these performances is still somewhat of a mystery.

Another mystery (to me) is how this immensely articulate man so obviously so self absorbed, can yet somehow draw us all in and become so totally likable against all our natural instincts.  The fact that there is a prevailing sense of sadness throughout the whole piece .... even in the funny stories ..... is another hook.  He is unquestionably the most neurotic and hilarious storyteller that I have ever had the joy of listening too and watching.

Even back then, death was never far from his thoughts and a constance presence in his writing. His mother had committed suicide in 1967 after having a couple of nervous breakdowns, and Gray struggled with his own mental state his entire adult life.  Somewhat obsessed with his sexuality, he had major relationships with three very strong woman  ... each one overlapped the previous  one  ... and it looked like when he reluctantly became a father with Kathleen Russo his last amour, that he have found a stabling influence and a real shot at some normalcy and even happiness. But they were involved in a serious car accident whilst on vacation  in Ireland from which he never completely recovered physically.

In 2004 after several aborted attempts Gray finally took his own life allegedly by jumping off the Staten Island Ferry. The tortured genus was just 62 years old.

In 2010 director Steven Soderbergh with his editor Susan Littenberg used the wealth of archive of Spalding Gray's work and performances to make a very intimate and highly personal portrait of this rather remarkable man 'And Everything Is Going Fine'.  It was always Spalding Gray playing Spalding Gray : he made himself the art piece, the performance : warts and all.  As we watch him age on screen,  he makes no attempt to hide his severe bouts of depression that are now a major fixation. It somehow seems unnerving that as this tormented soul taps into this for his monologues that we should derive even the slightest sense at all of being anything else but disturbed by such public revelations.

I watched these movies (courtesy of Netflix) back to back because I very quickly became totally transfixed by the man and his words and in a matter of hours turned into a Spalding Gray junkie. As a passionate cinephile I am more than aware of the power of the silver screen, and in this case if it hadn't been for me finally starting to work through my  'bucket list'  I would have never ever got to experience this  rather magnificent sad man.  

Next up it will be his  books, and then I'll re-watch the films.  If you havent seen either of these movies, than I urge you too.  They are far too wonderful to be sitting on anyone's bucket lists.

★★★★★★★★★★

SIGHTSEERS

Sometimes I can be a real glutton for pain (the cinematic kind I should quickly add).  As I state at the top of this Blog one of my big no-no's are horror flicks, and yet hear I am again in a cinema (I'm back in London) to see yet another one from Brit Director Ben Wheatley just a few months after I sat through (and enjoyed?) Kill List.  I remember that movie well as it is one of the rare times that I was so utterly confused on my judgement that I avoided to even attempt to give it a rating.  (Check my review here).

The movie did remain bubbling in my mind somewhere and the moment this new one was released I was right there at the Box Office clutching both my ticket and my eye mask.  ( You really didn't think I was going to watch all that blood and gore especially during an afternoon matinee.)

This one is a black comedy ... not the laugh out type ... more the tittering kind.  Chris is a demented working class man who is going to take Tina his very new girlfriend on a caravan (RV) holiday touring the North of England.  Tina is keen to escape the clutches of her demanding and domineering hypochondriac mother who hates Chris on sight, and as they pull out of the driveway, Tina  says 'Show me your world Chris!'  Little does she know then what a really grisly adventure this will entail.

At the very first stop on their journey Tina is horrified when Chris has a sudden temper tantrum when he confronts a big bearded man who is a persistent litterer and he resolves the argument by reversing the Caravan over the man and killing him.   This is just the start of the people that they come across in the coming week that upset Chris for one reason or another and that he ends up killing them. Like a pompous middle class man who gets his head beaten in because he simply asked Chris to pick his dog's poo up.

Once the initial shock that the new love of her life is a psychotic killer wears off, Tina who obviously has a few loose screws too to say the least, pitches in and helps the death toll creep up as their Tour continues. 

All this murder and mayhem by these deranged serial killers is set  in the tranquil and peaceful landscape of the idyllic English countryside and includes such scenic beauties as the ruins of Fountains Abbey, the somewhat perculiar Pencil Museum in Keswick, and ending at the imposing Ribblehead viaduct. And at night they stop in different Caravan Sites (very British versions of a Trailer Park) where there are more people to piss them off.

The whole affair is not unlike a Mike Leigh Film, especially the detailed relationship between Chris & Tina (minus the killing of course), and if you are familiar with classic Brit TV then you will appreciate the fact that the whole film starts off just like a Victoria Wood comic sketch.   This 3rd feature from Mr Wheatley ....who is possibly a tad over-hyped as 'the bright future of Brit Indie Cinema' .... was for once from someone else's script.  Written by Steve Oram and Alice Lowe who also played the main leads, and although it kicked off so well at the beginning, it was starting to run out of steam by the end.  I really loved the actual ending, but I think I may be one of the few people that did.  It was the one time I really burst out laughing loud.

As horrors go, I'm guessing it was not that bloody, and as comedies go, it was not that funny, but as a wee edgy indie I think it worked fine.  I would happily recommend it to anyone who goes through life wanting to take out anyone and every one that so annoys them. You know who you are.

Available from Amazon
★★★★★★★

NOBODY ELSE BUT YOU

Being a big-city boy I always think that any movie set in the midst of desolate windswept landscape must be in the middle of nowhere. This one is literally. The body in this murder mystery is found in a small stretch of 'No Mans Land' between the borders of Switzerland and France.  The nearest small town on the French side is Mouthe, reputed to be the coldest place in France. The people are none to warm either.

Our hero/amateur sleuth is David a successful author of crime novels who had been visiting town just for the hearing of the Will of his recently departed Aunt.  Even though he is her only remaining relative, all he inherits is Toby her dog, which he immediately throws into the dumpster before he starts to leave.  (Maybe I should have mentioned Toby was long gone from this world and had been stuffed).

David is suffering from writers block so when he hears about the discovery of the body of an attractive blond local beauty queen he decides to hang around and see if there is a story/book in it.  The local police are stubbornly refusing to investigate as she didn't technically die on their territory, but David soon suspects they have other reasons for not wanting to cooperate with him at all.

Candace the poor dead woman was the nearest thing this sleepy backwater had for a celebrity.  Her break came when she was discovered working the Gas Station pumps and was offered a saucy photography session which led to a contract advertising cheese on TV and then eventually to becoming the Weather Girl on a local TV station. Along the way she went from brunette to blond and was convinced that she was in fact Marilyn Monroe re-incarnated.  

The 'Monroe' obsession eventually turns out to be a big clue for like her heroine/namesake Candice was having an illicit affair with the President (of the Region in this case) which ended after Candace had publicly serenaded him with 'Happy Birthday Mr President' when and her dress fell down!

The plot has enough twists and turns to make it an interesting wee movie as thrillers go, and David's deadpan humor is a real plus. Although there is more than nod to the Coen Brothers 'Fargo', it certainly isn't up in their league at all.

A great movie to watch this winter as no matter how cold you feel, you will thank God that you don't however live in Mouthe.

P.S. Candace is not the only one naked when she makes a video with all the local firemen.  Thank goodness they had the heating on at full blast.

Available from Amazon 

 ★★★★★★

HITCHCOCK

In this year that Hollywood is becoming increasingly fixated about retelling some historical biographical lives, I guess it's no surprise to see Alfred Hitchcock  on the list.  Not once however, but twice.  Although technically HBO's 'That Girl' about Hitchcock's obsession with Tippi Hedren starring Toby Jones and Sienna Miller was a Brit made-for -TV film.

This new one starring Antony Hopkins sweltering in his 'fat suit' was ostensibly based on Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book 'Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho' but somehow along the way it got turned into a fluffy drama that focused much more on the his marriage to his scriptwriter wife Alma Reveille.

Hitch as he likes to be called, (THE worse line in the movie is when he tells Janet Leigh to do just this and adds 'just hold the cock'), has just had a big success with 'North by Northwest' and is looking for his next project to film.  Goaded by some critics who have questioned if he is not too old to still be making movies, he looks for something really extraordinary just to prove that he is still at the top of his game.

He chooses 'Psycho' a novel based on the macabre crimes of a particularly nasty serial killer, but Alma is against the idea, and more importantly, so are the Studio Heads who refuse to finance it. So Hitch digs his heals in and still goes ahead by mortgaging his own house to underwrite the film.

I guess we will never know how much of this story is true, particularly when it comes to how he actually got on with his female stars as there were so many extreme rumours at the time.  The Hitch we see portrayed here is a cultivated and successful director who is also just a dirty old man who lusted after his blond leading ladies by a spy hole he had made secreted into their dressing room walls.

Although they had a sexless marriage Hitch was paranoid about Alma having an affair, or even a man showing her too much attention. Apart from one solitary scene where Alma flares up at Hitch, she is remarkably complicit in going along with all of his excessive and selfish demands that simply was totally unconvincing given the fact that this elegant attractive woman had been clever enough to be his boss when they had first met.

The whole movie was lightweight but likable.  Mr Hopkins gave an uncomfortable caricature for his performance, and I couldn't decide if Helen Mirren was just totally miscast as Alma or that she just doesn't play wives well in general.  Especially obedient ones like this. And I am aghast to see that such a middling performance as this is actually collecting nominations for her acting! Maybe its part of the 'Anybody But Keira Campaign'.

Scarlet Johansen was sweet and smiley as Janet Leigh. although she looked nothing like her.... but the three actors that really caught my eye were Jessica Biel who was an excellent Vera Miles, Michael Stuhlberg as Hitch's persuasive agent Lee Wasserman, and James D'Arcy who was an uncanny Tony Perkins to a T.

For me there are two mysteries about this movie that I am really curious about.  Firstly, why was it just an 'ok' movie when it had so much potential, and secondly how come Sacha Gervais an unknown director whose one claim to fame was the doc 'The Story of Anvil' was at the helm of such a big movie?  He was clearly out of his depth here, but I guess IF it had been a success we would be applauding him, but as it is not, we can at least indulge in some finger pointing.  Cant we?

So if there is nothing better at the Multiplex and you have a secret craving to see Anthony Hopkins in a fat suit, and Helen Mirren in a swim suit, then go look.

Available from Amazon 

  ★★★★★★

LAY THE FAVORITE

There are usually two reasons why big-name directors like Academy Award Nominee Stephen Frears (‘THE QUEEN’, ‘GRIFTERS' etc) return to Sundance Film Festival with new work after some years absence,  a) to garner more press coverage,  or b) despite the star wattage of their product they still haven't managed to sell the movie. His 'LAY THE FAVORITE' was evidently based on a true story of Beth an ex-stripper who moved to Las Vegas with the lofty ambition of being a Cocktail Waitress but instead fell in with Dink a professional gambler who gave her a job running numbers instead. The gambler had a hard-bitten wife called Tulip who had Beth fired when she could see Beth trying to steal Dink (inexplicable when you see the movie), but later when Beth is working for a NY Bookie and gets in trouble, its Tulip that pushes Dink to come to her rescue.

Like the last two Frears movies ('Tamara Drew'  & 'Cheri') this was really lame and very flat.  Rebecca Hall played bubbly Beth to the hilt but after a time what I had initially thought was a wonderful portrayal, really started to irritate me.  Bruce Willis was an uninspiring Dink and had zero chemistry with either Ms Hall or my beta noir (a really skinny) Catherine Zeta Jones playing Tulip.  Without a doubt, Mr Frears was there to get a Distribution Deal on this one which, now I have sat through it, I know will be no easy task, and its not surprising to me that this has not yet shown up in the slew of daily announcements of movies that have been 'picked up' here.

This is reprinted from my SUNDANCE 2012 BLOG as the movie was picked up by The Weinstein Company who opened it in NY last week to reviews far more scathing than mine, and to empty theaters.  Dont hold your breath waiting for it to come to a Multiplex near you in the near (or far) future.  The Mister Weinsteins could have have got so much more for the $2 million they laid out on this very definite unfavorite!

SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN

Back in 1969 an unknown singer-songwriter called Rodriguez was discovered performing in a dive bar in Detroit and was immediately offered a deal to record two albums. His music bore more than a passing resemblance to that of Bob Dylan, but his first album 'Cold Fact' received  critical acclaim but only zero sales, and when the second one did exactly the same, the Record Company fired him and that was the end of his musical career.  Or was it?

For some unexplained reason a few copies managed to find their way to South Africa, which in the early '80s was suffering from the rigid censorship of its heavy handed apartheid government.  They had even banned television in the entire country on the grounds that it was 'just full of communist propaganda.'  So mainly through bootlegged copies suddenly Rodriguez's music about freedom became an anti-establishment inspiration to all the youth who were desperate for political change.  His success spread like wildfire, and before long he was bigger in South Africa than Elvis.  However because all news in and out of the country was so strictly censored, the locals had no idea that Rodriquez was actually a flop in his own country, and likewise Rodriquez never ever knew he was a superstar in another continent.

As the South Africans could find nothing out about their new hero other than the few sparse facts on the albums cover, Rodriguez's existence/life was rife with outlandish rumours many of which focused on how depressed he was on stage one night that he actually killed himself in front of the whole audience.

Fast forward to 1996 and a  devoted fan 'Sugar' Segerman was asked to write the notes for the re-issue of Rodriguez's second album on DVD in South Africa and he included a plea for any information on the late musician's life.  This attracted the notice of journalist Craig Bartholomew-Strydom and he took this up as a challenge and started digging as hard as he could.

For some time he couldn't get beyond the wild stories but to his great surprise he eventually found Rodriguez alive and well and still living in the same house in Detroit where he had been for the past 40 years. Now having given up making music and he is actually happily working as a full time demolition contractor. He was as shocked about being 'found' as the South Africans were about discovering he wasnt dead.  The sheer delight on his face, and that of his three grown up daughters, and the thousands of fans who packed out Stadiums when he went to play in South Africa at last was totally delightful.

This unraveling of this rather wonderful tale of mystery came to the notice of Swedish documentarian Malik Bendjelloul who was in Cape Town scouting for stories to film for his TV programme.  After coming across Sugar Segerman, he was soon hooked on finding out more about the Rodriquez phenomena little knowing it would end up with this rather heartwarming and improbable tale and a full length movie.  Full credit to Bendejelloul for the way that he told the tale carefully in chronological order slowly building up to the suspense to this very happy ending. For a newbie filmmaker, his camerawork and the editing  really quite superb and made it a whole visual delight too. 

Despite the insightful and rather intense lyrics of his songs, Rodriguez turned out to be a man of few words and it was left to his articulate daughters to express his thoughts.  There was no hint of regret of what he missed out on, and no wistful mention at all of the fortune he never received (and on which all the Record Companies to a man denied they had made a cent). He was simply happy to know that his music had found an audience at last.

Its a extraordinary remarkable story about an exceptional talented musician who turned out to be really nice man too.  Both the movie and the music ( that I am listening too as I write) are an absolute treat and totally unmissable.

P.S. It won the Best Doc Oscar.

Available from Amazon

★★★★★★★★★★

HOLY MOTORS

There is always a trigger point as to why I select the movies that I go see. Either a favorite actor, or its the work of a revered auteur, or simply a recommendation from another cinephile.  When it comes to Leo Carax's latest movie it was simply a critic's review in the final clip of its manic trailer which declared the movie 'completely bonkers'  and I was immediately hooked. I simply had to see it.

I should tell you straight away that particular critic nailed it on the head perfectly BUT I should also quickly add that I loved every single frame of it even though some 24 hours later I am still struggling to make any sense of what I saw.

Essentially a white stretch limo driven by Celine a white haired chic elderly woman ferries Monsieur Oscar around the streets of Paris on his different assignments known as his 'appointments'.  Before each stop M. Oscar has a Briefing Dossier which sets out who he is to be and what he has to do.  The inside of the limo is one massive dressing room as M. Oscar gets to play men and women, young and old, the living, the dying and the dead.  

There is no link to any of the nine  'appointments' of the day and all of them are both nigh on impossible to fathom out and beyond bizarre. For example one has him dressed as barefooted glass-eyed madman running amok through Pere Lachaise Cemetery where he kidnaps  a fashion model from a photo shoot and drags her into the underground sewers and transforms her into a Muslim before stripping himself naked to show off his erect penis. The model sits there just smoking a cigarette calmly taking this all in as if was all totally normal.

On another 'appointment' where he kills and is killed, once Celine drags his body back into the car, he's alive again and ready to start all over again.  And he does for the rest of the day and night.

Why he does all these things and who is arranging all the meticulous details of the plans is a total mystery (to me) and by the end of the 115 minutes I'd given up trying to work it out and just enjoyed the total weirdness of it all.  Manohla Dhargis in the 'NY Times' summed it up beautifully with 'it's not about the destination, but its about the dizzying ride'.  And dizzy, it certainly is.

And suddenly towards the latter end Kylie Minogue pops up as another operative who does 'appointments' too. She and M. Oscar had a 'thing' together some 20 years ago, and because this is a French Movie she sings a sappy song about it before killing her character (or herself?) whilst M. Oscar is driven to his 'home' for the night where he is met by his 'wife' and 'child' who are both apes. Literally.

In Denis Lavant, M. Carax found himself the most perfect chameleon of an actor who transformed himself so fantastically for the whole journey.

Since the movie was premiered at Cannes Film Festival reaction has being either of sheer horror or joy ... everyone has very strong views on this one.  It is the work of a total genius filmmaker who is obviously totally barking mad.  But that's not such a bad thing when it results in such an glorious anarchic piece of magical nonsense that is so far out there you feel all the same effects as if you had taken some hallucinatory drugs 

This is unquestionably the most bizarre film I have seen this year ( maybe for several years?).  If you share my taste in totally weird movies, then go see this extraordinary one.  It will thrill you and antagonize you, but do not take any recreational drugs before you watch it, as the combination could be far too serious to even contemplate.

★★★★★★★★★