SLEEPLESS IN NEW YORK

Swiss Oscar-Nominated Director Christian  Frei's new documentary is his well-meaning attempt to investigate the power of love and how to survive once you lose it.  With the involvement of Dr Helen Fisher PhD a Biological Anthropologist and Professor at Rutgers (and the author of 5 books on 'romantic love') Frei follows three love-lorn people as they attempt to put their lives together after being un-ceremoniously dumped.

He plastered New York with flyers about this project asking for volunteers and Alley Scott one of the people, literally called him on the third night after her boyfriend of three years walked out on her. Another broken heart was Michael Hariton a freelance Translator who fell apart after his girlfriend told him she wanted out. The third participant that Frei chose was Rosey La Rouge a burlesque dancer who had put her life on hold waiting for her 'One Night Stand' to come back after he had declared his undying love during their quickie behind the Shark Tank during the annual Mermaids Parade (and believe me, I did not make that last part up).

It was fine to hear Dr Fisher's well researched theories on the power of love which for the whole made a great deal of sense, it was therefore rather disappointing that Frei had chosen as his subjects three whiny pathetic and morose self-absorbed individuals who stretched one's patience way too far. Your sympathies totally lay with their lucky ex partners who got away.

I can only assume that their decision to participate in this film showing them in such a poor light was part of their desire to be able to continue to indulge in self pity as they were running out of willing listeners. This is 'sharing' way too much that none of us needs. Hariton in fact spent most of his cello lesson carping on to his teacher about how bad his ex treated him (although he still craved her back). Luckily for him as this is NY, even music teachers can pontificate like a therapist.

Dr Fisher declared that we often love someone more after been rejected and this she termed as 'frustration attraction.'  None of them however heeded a single one of Dr Fisher's theories like that love was an addiction like alcohol and in the same way if you were recovering from the latter you would not keep a bottle of liquor in the house, then you should throw out all your exes photos and letters. Frei allowed his three subjects  to narrate their own scenes as they sat around their apartments cyber stalking their exes and spouting out such mots of wisdom like (Hareton) 'Why won't she call me to tell me not to call?'   Exactly. 

I do subscribe to a theory that a reaction to any movie we view is subjective to the mood we feel at that time.  On that basis maybe to really 'enjoy' all this wallowing in self-pity, one should watch this movie the moment your present/next lover leaves. That is instead of getting drunk and laid which was the sound advice given to these three by their friends and which they sadly chose to ignore. 

★★★★

TWICE BORN

This mini-epic war melodrama starts when all the action is over and middle-aged Gemma is having breakfast with her husband in their rather comfortable home in Italy when the phone rings. It's an old friend who is inviting her to a special Photography Exhibit in Sarajevo.  Not much is spoken between the couple after she puts the phone down, but when she says that she will take Pietro their 16 year old son with her, the anguished look on his face shows he is clearly not happy.

Neither is Pietro who would rather be hanging out with his friends at home than return to the country he left whilst still a baby.  Why this journey is important enough for Gemma that she rides roughshod  over both her husband and son's wishes becomes clear in a series of flashbacks that take us back to the start of the story.

As a mature college student Gemma was in Sarajevo just before the 1984 Olympic Games and to help do research for her thesis she hired Gojko a local charismatic bohemian as a driver and guide. One of his hippy friends was a much younger American war- photographer who impossibly falls in love with her at first sight and then wears down all her objections with his relentless and overly enthusiastic pursuit. So much so that she eventually agrees to marry him which makes him abundantly happy.  Well, that is until after a couple of miscarriages and they discover that Gemma is incapable of having a baby.

Talk of adoption for the child that Diego is a little too keen to have marks the start of him getting less ardent about what he had constantly being declaring was his undying love for Gemma up to now.   And this is the point where the story lines start to get less clear, as we know that Gemma does become a 'mother' at the height of the war's escalation, but it's not until the final moments of the movie do we really learn how that happened.

Meanwhile back in the present Pietro constantly fights with his mother as he is bright enough to know that she has only given him the brief edited highlights of how he came to be born, and as such he carries a major resentment for both her and this country that he despises.

Helmed by Italian actor turned director Sergio Castelitto (who also plays Gemma's husband) from a script based in his wife Margaret Mazzantini's best selling novel.  It is the presence of Penelope Cruz as Gemma that is responsible for making this so watchable even when the plot lines start losing their focus.  She does as always with all her European movies really shine like an old-fashioned movie stars.  Sad then that the usually reliable and talented actor Emile Hirsch was so badly miscast as the young Diego who was overly enthusiastic to the point of being almost annoying. And they had the most un-sensual naked lovemaking scenes that showed the total lack of chemistry between the two of them.

Beautifully shot, and the depiction of the tragedies of the war were a poignant reminder of that recent painful period in Sarajevo's history.

If you are a fan of Ms Cruz then you still want to see this one (despite Mr Hirsch).

★★★★★★

Available from Amazon

THE JEWISH CARDINAL aka Le métis de Dieu

The film opens in 1969 and we see a young priest precariously careering through heavy traffic   the streets of Paris as he is late for a meeting with his Bishop. Instead of receiving news about his expected move to Jerusalem he is told instead that the Pope has appointed him Bishop of Orleans. Totally unexpected and something that the young Vicar had never expected due to the fact that he was born a Jew.

Jean-Marie Lustiger had been born into a Polish Jewish family who escaped to Orleans when World War 2 broke up. Whilst they remained in Unoccupied France, his mother insisted on going to Paris which led to her deportment to Auschwitz where she lost her life.  In 1940 at the age of 13 instead of having his Bar mitzvah Lustiger chose to get baptised instead and became a catholic.

From seminarian to chaplain to priest and now to Bishop.  The last movie being at the personal behest of the Polish Pop John Paul II who wanted to shake the church's establishment by making this controversial appointment which immediately got the other Bishop's wrath when Lustiger insisted he is both a Jew and a Christian.  A statement that was also met with an outcry from the Jewish Community.

The Pope befriended and mentored his new Bishop as he wanted him to reform the France's Roman Catholic Church which he believed had strayed too far from the direction that the Vatican wanted them to take. Within 15 months Lustiger was elevated again to the top job as Archbishop of Paris making him de facto head of French catholics.     

Meanwhile his elderly father who had never reconciled with his son's chosen path (initially he had even tried to have the Baptism annulled) died and despite his promises, Lustiger scared of public reactions and media exposure, chose not to honor the promise he had made, and refused to say Kadish at his graveside.

Always outspoken the opinionated Lustiger often crossed swords with the Pope who once berated him with 'you're like a Jewish mother to me', but they had a major falling out when they disagreed how to handle the group of nuns who were determined toe establish a Convent in the grounds of Auschwitz. This scenario which took up most of the final part of the film covered what would end up being Lustiger;s finest career achievements but not before, in one of the most memorable parts of the film, he breaks down and cries praying to his dead parents whilst on the railway tracks leading to the Camp.

This made for French TV movie is completely based on a true story .... and although Lustiger wasn't the only Jewish Catholic Prelate at the time (the Bishop of Jerusalem ) he was certainly the most famous one. Brilliantly portrayed on screen by Laurent Lucas, he was one of the most conservative priests that the Pope used as a close adviser even though he seemed to barely tolerate him as a Catholic in the same way the Chief Rabbi of France felt about Lustiger being a Jew.

Fascinating story told in a very compelling manner, even though I still neither understand Lustiger's faith or the reasoning behind his choices.

★★★★★★★

Available from  Amazon

BELLE

This extraordinary tale from 1789 of the daughter of a West Indian Slave and an aristocrat British Navy Captain was so far fetched that it had to be true.  Like something out of the pages of a Jane Austen novel, it is the tale of Sir John Lindsay taking charge of his illegitimate daughter after the sudden death of her mother, but as he has just been commissioned to undertake a long sea voyage that could take years, he hands the scared young child over to the care of his uncle, Lord Mansfield.

Lord Mansfield who resides in glorious Kenwood House on the outskirts of London happens to be the Lord Chief Justice for England and as such is a stickler for 'doing the right thing'. Which in this case includes the motherless child's right to an upbringing in her ancestral home.  The Mansfields are already raising a another young niece after her mother died, so Lady Mansfield agrees that Dido Belle will a suitable companion for Lady Elizabeth who is about the same age.

Whilst the Mansfield's wholeheartedly adapt to the notion of raising this negro child as part of their family they lay down some odd ground rules so as not to offend the sensibility of any guests. Dido therefore is considered not good enough to dine with the family, but also too superior to eat with the servants, so she takes her meals on her own when Company visits.

Just before the two young ladies become marriageable age news comes that Dido's father has died, and that as he has left her a annuity of £2000 she can now be considered an heiress.  Lady Elizabeth on the other hand who has her title but she has practically been written off by her father who has re-married and is intent on leaving all his monies to his new children. So it is imperative that they 'do the London Season' so that they can make an advantageous match for penniless Elizabeth, whilst Dido who will be her companion is warned as that no respectable gentleman could possible marry her that when they come back to Kenwood, she will take over the duty of running the House from elderly spinster spinster Aunt Mary.

In London they re-connect with the pushy Lady Ashford who assumes that young Elizabeth is the heir to Kenwood and all but pushes her eldest son James on her. Meanwhile her second son Oliver who under British tradition stands to inherit nothing, is soon infatuated with pretty Dido much to the undisguised horror of his mother.  She however does a 360 degree turn the moment she learns of Dido's fortune and encourages Oliver to propose to her.  Its about the same time that she also discovers that Elizabeth has no inheritance and so hence as Dido surprisingly gets engaged, her cousin who was expecting to be able to make her own announcement is quickly and coldly dumped.

Meanwhile the penniless son of the local Church Minister who has become Lord Mansfield's legal pupil stirs a passion in Dido for the difficult case the Chief Justice must rule on, and also for his own heart too. The infamous case involves the cold-hearted murder of a cargo of slaves being transported from the Colonies and much to the wrath of Lord Mansfield, Dido sides with John Daviner as they are both desperate to insure that the Ruling goes in the slaves favor.

In the course of the two young ladies growing up Lord Mansfield commissions an artist to paint their portrait to be hung in the family gallery. It's this picture that controversially shows the two girls as social equals that exists in real life (and was hanging in Kenwood up till 1922) that is the basis of the story that this movie was built upon. That, and the fact that Sir (later Admiral) John Lindsay did in fact have his half-negro child brought up by the Mansfields is on the record  .... as to is the Zong Case on which Lord Mansfield's ruling help signal the early death knoll for slavery in the UK. However the rest of it, including Dido rejecting her aristocrat fiance to marry the poor man she loved is the work of the vivid imagination of screenwriter Misan Sagay and director Amma Asante. 

This very charming period costume has a deeper message than most of this genre with the heads on way it tackles racism in 18th Century Britain and its political content of something a great deal weightier than usual.  Asante made the whole concept of having a black member of an landed aristocratic family very convincingly real no matter how bizarre it seemed at first. She was helped too by the fact that Dido was played so superbly by the stunningly beautiful Gugu Mbatha-Raw, a actress who has up to now worked mainly British TV. The Mansfields were competently played by Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson,  and Sam Reid put in a good performance as John Davenier.  The two stand out performances besides there were the irrepressible Miranda Richardson perfectly hilarious as the two faced pushy Lady Ashford, and Penelope Wilton (Downtown Abbey) as old Aunt Mary who's ultra-dry wit had all the best put downs in the film.  

Beautifully to look at with its very lush sets .... and Kenwood House itself .... this is the stylish stuff that Brits still excel at, and the added edge to this story made it just that more entertaining  

★★★★★★★★

HERE

When Will, an American satellite mapping-engineer working for Google struggles to order breakfast in a small cafe in a  remote comer of Armenia he is rescued by Gadarine who translates his request for an omelet. She is a local photographer and like Will is constantly on the move searching. Whilst he is looking to help shape the future she is looking to record the past. Both of them are loners .... he reminisces about growing up in Northern California and taking long walks in his family's vineyard trying to get lost... whilst she is trying to escape the conventional life pattern that an Armenian woman from a poor family is expected to follow.

They become traveling companions which inevitable leads them into being lovers too. However this debut movie from filmmaker Braden King with its very sparse narrative is much more a love affair with the sweeping vistas of the Armenian landscape rather than about these two lonely souls who get thrown together almost by accident. Having said that, the two actors Ben Foster ('The Messenger') and Klubna Azabal ('Incendies') give excellent low-key yet thought-provoking performances that resonate that you (almost) forgive the fact that at 121 minutes running time, it is a good 30 minutes too long.

King embellished the piece with some intermittent poetic narration (relayed in the God-like tones of Peter Coyote) which threw me completely as it implied that there was possible a whole other layer to the movie that I wasn't getting!

One to watch when you feel like being quiet and reflective......

Available via Amazon

★★★★★★

THE WEDDING VIDEO

Raif has returned home to England from his world travels to be the Best Man at his brother's impending nuptials. The siblings are total opposites.  Whilst Raif has been partying non-stop these past few years, his uptight older brother Tim has a very responsible job in merchant banking and is now anxious to settle down and start a family of his own.  To Raif's utter surprise he discovers that his brother's fiance is none other than Saskia who used to the wildest good-time girl at the high school they all went too. She has evidently become 'respectable' since her once common mother snagged herself a millionaire to marry and not only provide her with a rather grand new lifestyle but is also now bank-rolling the extravagant wedding that is being planned.

Raif announces to his brother that in the way of a gift he is going to make a video of the entire wedding starting with the six weeks of preparations that are just about to begin.  And as the fun commences so does all the drama as Saskia's status obsessed mother is determined that regardless of what the 'happy couple' think/want that this is the going to be the Wedding of The Year in the whole County. This is England after all (Cheshire in fact) where the nouveau riche still attempt to jump start their elevation in what is still very much a class obsessed society obsessed. It does in fact give the mother the best part in this very light but likable comedy as her pretentious attempts to go 'posh' are both wonderfully hilarious and sad.  And the only one in this unfolding drama that can ever get close to matching her is her own elderly mother who has the sharpest and wittiest ripostes in the whole piece.

There is nothing extraordinary about the plot as the moment that Saskia realizes that she is still very much a party girl at heart then it's kind of obvious that she has picked the wrong brother.  The question is, will there be ever be a time when the video camera is not recording that she can face up to reality amongst all the silliness of this overblown wedding ?

This is the type of easy-on-eye gentle romantic comedies that Brits do well.  Helmed by Nigel Cole whose resume includes 'The Calendar Girls', 'Saving Grace' and 'Made in Dagenham' and written by local Cheshire man Tim Firth who penned 'Kinky Boots' as well as 'Calendar Girls'.  This may not be very best of its genre, but it's unquestionably very entertaining, thanks mainly to some great performances from this talented Brit cast.  Harriet Walter is pitch perfect as the Mother, and Miriam Margolyes (who could never put a foot wring in my book) plays the grandmother superbly. Lucy Punch was really funny as Saskia, as was stand up comedian Rufus Hound playing Raif ... and credit too for Scottish actress Michelle Gomez for her wonderful turn as the ex Flight Attendant who was the crazy Wedding Planner.

A perfect date night movie for all anglophiles, especially the ones who are not considering getting married.

Available at Amazon

★★★★★★★

MARDIK : FROM BAGHDAD TO HOLLYWOOD

Mardik Martin, an Armenian living in Iraq with his wealthy parents, was shipped over to NY in the 1950's to avoid being conscripted in the Army.  Ostensibly he was to go to University here to learn business studies but soon after his arrival there was a Revolution back home and his father was no longer able to send your Mardik any funds. School by day to learn English then any jobs he could find in a restaurant ranging from dishwasher to waiter to pay by his studies and keep a roof over his head.

Now independent he decided to forsake his father's choice of studies and enroll to learn about the one thing he was passionate about i.e. Movies.  As a student at New York University's Tisch school he met fellow classmate Martin Scorsese and the two very quickly became fast friends.  The fact that they were both from different cultures was part of the bond, and Martin was soon 'adopted' by the Scorsese family as another son.

The collaboration between these two film school students started on a modest documentary called 'Italianamerican' about the Scorsese family but what set the partnership alight was then they both worked on the script of 'Mean Script' together.  When the Scorsese directed movie was released in 1973 it was universally hailed as 'one of the most original American movies of all time' it also touch-lit the careers of all those involved.

For Martin it meant co-writing the script for more of Scorsese's major hits such as 'New York New York' in 1977 and then being the author of the first three drafts of 'Raging Bull' in 1980 which earned him a Golden Globe nomination.  By the Martin had moved to Hollywood and had become a Studio staff writer, and also in 1977 he wrote the Ken Russell movie 'Valentino' which fizzled at the Box Office.  His last project with Scorsese was the treatment he wrote for the music movie 'The Last Waltz'.

And then as quick as his success had arrived, so too did it leave him. With his pal Scorsese working in NY far away Martin looked for other projects to do and which none of them ever  seemed to get green-lit. With the arrival of big blockbuster movies in Hollywood such as 'Star Wars' with all its high ended technology, Martin's writing style seemed out of place. And with gigs that he did get .... such as writing 'Carlito's Way' for Al Pacino .... he blew it away by insensitively criticizing the great star's other movies.

Martin had always moved with a fast crowd that worked and partied for days at a stretch without an ounce of sleep.  Now with work out of the frame, there was only partying left, and his love of that and an addiction to cocaine in the 1980's saw him lose his grand house in the Hollywood Hills and the life that went with it too.

This enlightening documentary of a very affable and charming man doesn't shirk from glossing over the lows of Martin's story, although luckily for us .... and more so for Martin .... there is a very happy ending to this tale. When he had first earned his Masters Degree in Screenwriting all those years ago in New York he immediately went back the University to teach.  Now having reinvented himself again, he has been teaching as USC Film School for the past 20 years with some considerable success.

What makes this such a good view is the genuine love and respect that Martin and Scorsese have for each other to this very day.  In their conversations on screen there is only talk about the exciting time in movie making when they were both big players, and there is little want for either of then to be circumspect as say 'if only'....  Martin comes across as an articulate and rather funny man who has no time for bullshit but relishes in the fact that he is a master storyteller.  It is what he strives to imbue in his students, and it seems to be working.

I will confess that although I have seen all of Scorsese's work I had never been aware even on the existence of this other very talented man. It's quite a delight to be able to say that thanks to this wee documentary that I will not forget him now.

★★★★★★★★

Available from Amazon

CYBER-SENIORS

For the past couple of years as the clock seems to ticking faster than ever, one of Bette Davis's more famous quotes has been ringing in my ears.  It's her declaration that 'old age is not for sissies'.   It's a notable sentiment that has been flourishing in the cinema too with movies such as 'Young @ Heart' with its wonderful choir of seniors who with enormous zest and unceasing passion thrilled  the world with their renditions of punk and rock songs.

This new movie from Canadian filmmaker Saffron  Cassaday follows her two younger sisters efforts to bring the wonders of the world wide web to a group of Seniors living in assisted care homes in Toronto.  This group (the youngest is 77 years old) vaguely know that computers can link you to the outside world but beyond that they no very little indeed. Learning to turn the machines on is their very first lesson.

The wary high school kids who have been roped in as tutors show the utmost patience with their new pupils who, due to their age, tend to forget things that they are taught very quickly so its often a case of going over some of the basic information time and time again. Nearly all of them are thrilled to learn that this thing called Facebook can link them with their own family who are very infrequent visitors to this slightly abandoned group. One wants to rekindle with the daughter he hasn't seen for years, whilst another would like to maybe meet a man her age to 'do activities' with. When one of the musically bent old ladies expresses an interest in hearing the Hallelujah Chorus, her face is a picture of sheer joy as listens to it after finding it online.

The liveliest of the group is Schura who has an eccentric approach to cooking (she makes toasted sandwiches with her iron) and she is inveigled into making a YouTube video demonstrating how she makes lunch. It's a instant success so it is decided to encourage more of them to make their own videos on whatever hobbies and interests they have and award a prize to the person who gets the most 'likes' on YouTube.

The first thing that Marion a 92 year old tells anyone is that she still has all her own teeth (and NO, I am not jealous) so her young teacher devises a rap song just about that for her to perform wearing the obligatory baseball cap backwards. Some of the residents are taking this new activity very seriously and as the competition heats up Schura is seen on the phone trying to drum up more 'hits' to insure first place.

It's a touching endeavour and linking these two groups of people at the beginning and at the ending of their own lives seems to be a rewarding experience for them all.  The fact that the disabled minister now doesn't have to spend the best part of a day going to his Bank as he can now do it all online, is just one of the many ways the kids have helped improve the seniors lives. Most importantly they have helped them re-connect to the families and friends that so many felt were slipping away from them.

If I have one 'but' about Cassaday's film is that I wish she had focused less on the lessons themselves and gave us more footage of this rather wonderful bunch of old people who were so desperate to share their stories.  That said, I would so heartily recommend this heartwarming and very touching film that successfully demonstrated how wonderful life is when we bridge the generation gap like this so successfully. And for showing us that Bette Davis was so right too.

★★★★★★★★

LABOR DAY

Adele has barely left her old rambling house since her husband left her to marry his secretary. Living on the edge of her nerves she cautiously ventures out just once a month accompanied by Henry her 13 year old son to stock up on provisions. Even then she will avoid any personal contact with other people and insists that he is the one that goes into the Bank to cash checks. On one such trip to the Supermarket, Henry is accosted by Frank who is trying to cover up a bleeding wound, and who insists in a quietly assertive manner that Adele gives him a lift home.

The three of them ride back in Adele's old station wagon, and once home Frank tells them that he is on the run having escaped from prison and that he wants to stay there for the night.  The year is 1987 and the only way that news travels in this sleepy New Hampshire town is via the television news bulletins which are soon full of warnings that Frank is loose somewhere in the neighborhood.  He very politely insists on tying Adele to a chair just so that she can later truthfully tell the police she was held captive. And whilst she is immobile he sets about cooking the three of them dinner.  He is obviously an accomplished cook, and both Adele and Henry react as if its the best meal they have ever had for years.

The one night stay turns into 4 days and when a neighbor turns up on the door with a basket full of peaches, the three of them bake a pie together. Its not just about food now, as this is the point when Adele really opens up and starts falling for Frank. He is after all not the dangerous criminal the TV insists he is, but a very nice man.  And he is very hot too. And so with the tension disposed off, Adele teaches Frank how to rumba and in return he teaches her how to welcome a man back into her bed.

Their plan to run off to Canada together as a family and life happily ever after is thwarted, and things are then forced right back to square one.  Fast forward a few years and Henry is now running a successful Pie Shop business (really!) and then all the ends of the story get tied up far too neatly and thus dispense with any remaining credibility this story once harbored.

This is the fourth feature directed by Jason Reitman ('Juno', 'Up In The Air') who also wrote the script from Joyce Maynard's best selling novel, and he obviously couldn't quite decide what genre this movie should be.  It is for the most part an old fashioned melodrama that decades ago would be called a 'women's picture' and if Reitman had kept just to that, the end result would have been more enjoyable.  What makes it work as well as it does are the performances of two world class actors : Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin who soar above even this weak script to make it as watchable as it is.  Credit too for young Gattlin Griffith a veteran actor at the tender age of 13 for his impressive turn as Henry.

The movie was in theaters for a blink of a minute .... long enough for Miss Winslet to pick up a Golden Globe Best Actress Nomination... and can now be found on  Amazon.  Best watched whilst eating pie.

★★★★★★

GRISGRIS

You can be forgiven for thinking that you are watching an African version of Saturday Night Fever in the opening sequences of this movie which captures an energetic man whirling around at full speed on the dance floor in his bright shiny white dress shirt.  The excited audience are enthralled with this man's gymnastic dancing and are screaming out his name and filling his hat with money. The man is Souleymane, known to the crowd as Gris Gris, and what's most remarkable about his spectacular dance routine is that he has one paralysed leg that he drags behind him when he walks but somehow seems not to restrict his dancing at all.

The setting is N'Djamena the capital of Chad one of the poorest countries in the continent, and Souleymane dances just to get by. He also works with his stepfather taking photographs in their rather decrepit shack where the only source of power is via a small generator but there are few and far between customers these days. When his stepfather is hospitalised with serious illness, and his mother is facing a very steep bill for his care, Souleymane realises that he needs to find work that pays some serious money.

He persuades a local crime lord to give him some work in his gas-smuggling operation, but on one of the runs double crosses by selling off the hauls himself and keeps the proceeds to pay the hospital. Moussa the boss and his henchman are soon on to him and after beating up the helpless dancer threaten to kill him if he doesn't repay the money within 24 hours.

The only friend that Soulelamyne has is Mimi a local whore who he had originally met when she came to him asking for some photographs to kickstart a modelling career.  She takes a shine to this shy deformed man who not only comes alive when the dance floor lights are turned on, but more importantly he is one of the few men in the community who treats her with respect.    The two of them escape back to her village and where they both eventually find some peace.

In other words far from simply being another John Travolta homage this movie ..... the first ever to be funded by the Chadian Government.... really covers the waterfront. Violence, sex, robbery, sickness, poverty, disability and even a very strong feminist message at the end. Written and directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (who in 2010 made the excellent 'A Screaming Man' also set in Chad) , this is also the first film that Chad has ever submitted  for Best Foreign Picture Oscar Nomination.  Startling for a country that just re-opened its only movie theater in 2011 after being shuttered for 20 years. And impressive for the fact that Souleymane Démé whose disability is very real and puts in a powerful performance, has never ever acted before.

It's a very dynamic movie to watch, and even more compelling when you realise that although this particular story may be fictional, the circumstances it is set in, are very real.

Highly recommended.

P.S. 'grisgris' is actually the name of an African good luck charm, so I still cannot fathom out why people should call poor luckless Souleymane that.

★★★★★★★★

ILO ILO

The Leng family are an upwardly mobile middle-class family in Singapore who are striving for a better life. Hwee the mother is expecting her second child and works full time as a secretary where she is being constantly interrupted at her office by phone calls from the school where Jiale her neglected 10 year old son is always in trouble. Teck the father, a mild mannered man, is a rather incompetent salesman who is hoping to secure the family's future by secretly investing in the stock market.  The arrival of Theresa the maid they have paid to come over from the Philippines is meant to answer all their problems, but it actually heralds the start of the crisis that threatens to engulf the entire family.

Hwee is the tough one in this family and it is she that lays out the very strict rules that Theresa must follow as she is to effectively do all the household work and cook etc. for slave wages. She is less successful controlling her son who resents that he is so neglected by her and his father, and so she is happy to hand over responsibility for him to the maid. Jiale takes an instant dislike to this stranger who he is expected to share his bedroom with, and so strives hard to make mischief that will get the poor woman in trouble. Teck is so absorbed in the potential losses he is now facing with his bad investments, he is barely aware of what is happening in his own home.

The year is 1997 and Singapore's economy is about to go into a steep decline which will have deep repercussions throughout the whole region. Heck spends her days typing out letters of dismissal to halve the work force at her office, and Teck is actually fired from his job, a fact that he keeps secret from his wife.  Theresa, who is aways completely subservient and never even raises her voice no matter how harshly she is treated by the family, has her own worries too. She is expected to send money back home to care for her baby son that she left behind, so she starts to sneak out of the house, and do hairdressing jobs on the side.

When someone in their apartment building becomes the latest suicide victim as a result of worsening economy, the Lengs .... particularly the mother .... do their best to ignore the reality that the recession is deepening. They attend a family celebration and give generously as always even though Teck is now working secretly as an hourly paid security guard and their old car is about to give up on them too.  The only bright side is that Theresa and Jiale have bonded so well. although his oft-absent mother is starting to get jealous of his relationship.

Despite her harsh manner dealing with them all, there is actually a very compassionate side to Hwee, and it shows once that it is clear that she must be the one to make the tough calls when Teck finally confesses about losing their savings and his job.  They may end up losing all that they have striven for, but in an adverse way, it seems to bring the family closer together.

This movie, the first ever written and directed by Anthony Chen is evidently semi-autobiographical, a fact that contributes into making the harsh reality of the family seem even more poignant.  It's a tight, tense story that unravels without a pause and its telling has the benefit of some first class and very compelling performances from the small cast.

This multi-award winning movie is highly recommended.

Available at Amazon 

★★★★★★★★

FADING GIGOLO

Murray is about to close down his rare book store in New York that has been in his family for three generations. It will mean that he and his 50-something-year old assistant and life long friend Fiorovante will be unemployed and strapped for cash. Murray however tells his pal that his wealthy female dermatologist had mentioned that she and a girl friend of hers had always fantasized about having a menage a trois.  Not that she expected Murray... somewhere in his 70's ..... to do this but she asked if he knew of a suitable candidate, and so he had suggested Fiorovante for the job.  Not that he was particularly handsome or even muscular, but as the ladies were looking for a 'real man' Murray thought that he would be the perfect candidate.  That, and the fact the Doctor had offered a fee of $1000.

The reluctant Fioravante accepts the challenge as the other part time job he has in a florist shop barely keeps him in orchids.  To his surprise he likes the trial run with the Doctor, and so with Murray acting as his 'pimp', starts hooking up with other older women who are not getting any action from their husbands in the bedroom.

Meanwhile Murray lives with a much younger black woman and acts as a surrogate step-dad for her four young kids.  When one of them contracts lice at school, he drags the kid off to see a head lice expert in Willamsburg.  She is the widow of an Hasidic rabbi and the mother of five young children that she is bringing up on her own.  Murray sensing her loneliness and the lack of any adult companionship, suggests to her that he knows a 'therapist' who could help.  The initial encounters between her and Fiorovante are awkward to say the least, but for some weird reason this very odd and ill-matched pair start to fall in love.

The Widow also has a fervent admirer in the shape of a neighborhood Hasidic cop who has been waiting for for two years for the right moment to make his move. Now as he notices her leaving the house regularly and going into the City, he follows her to find out what she is up too. Fearing the worse but really not knowing what exactly is going on he and his fellow Cops abduct Murray and take him to an Orthodox Court to face charges that he is ruining the Widow's reputation in the hope that all will be revealed and/or she will be saved.

It is one of the oddest plots for a comedy, which for reasons that I am still not totally clear about, actually works rather well. Even the far fetch concept of offering a young religious Widow a roll in the hay was convincing, although the slapstick routine of the Courtroom was an uneasy fit in this otherwise gentle drama. The fact that writer/director/star John Turturro has his old chum Woody Allen playing Murray as Woody Allen is a major contributor to the success of the piece.  Allen is perfect as the wisecracking opportunistic peddler who has no morals at all about making a quick buck especially when he doesn't have to do much work for it at all. And Turturro with his sad soulful eyes and his gentle manner makes Fiorovanti the most perfect reluctant hooker.

They are joined by Sharon Stone as the very sexy frustrated dermatologist,  Sofia Vergara as her friend (and for once there is no trace of her 'Modern Family' character Gloria), Liev Schrieber is the sulky cop, and with a beautifully understated performance as the widow by Vanessa Paradis who is really not on our screens nearly enough.

Turturro makes New York look so inviting and he greatly enhances the visuals with a beautifully scored soundtrack of vintage jazz ....maybe a touch of Allen's influence too. 

A sweet and funny movie.

★★★★★★★★