Aujourd'hui

Aujourd’hui

• Director: Alain Gomis
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Saul Williams, Djolof Mbengue, Anisia Uzeyman, Aïssa Maïga
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• None of them, although Saul Williams seems very familiar. I must have seen him somewhere.
• Why? Sounded good
• Seen:  26 April 2020      

       Satché (Williams) returns to Senegal after a year in America. For reasons not given he has been chosen to die. This is his last day. Everyone knows it. He is celebrated, embraced, applauded.

       There are glimpses of city life, of politics, of protest and unrest. But there is no real depth that I can see. Satché just wanders around waiting for the day to end, waiting to die.

       Why?

       Maybe this is profoundly symbolic and existential, but I don’t get it. The acting is good, especially Williams, and it’s well done but it’s not as gripping as it should be.

2* of 5

I Give It a Year

I Give It a Year 2012

• Director: Dan Mazer
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Rose Byrne, Rafe Spall, Stephen Merchant, Jane Asher, Minnie Driver, Jason Flemyng, Anna Faris, Olivia Colman, Simon Baker
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Rose Byrne – X-Men Apocalypse, X-Men First Class, 28 Weeks Later, Sunshine, The Dead Girl, Troy
• Rafe Spall – What If, The World’s End, The Life of Pi, Prometheus, Hot Fuzz, A Good Year, Shaun of the Dead
• Stephen Merchant – Fighting with My Family, Life’s Too Short, The Invention of Lying, Extras, Hot Fuzz, The Office
• Jane Asher – Dancing on the Edge, Alfie, The Masque of the Red Death
• Minnie Driver – Ella Enchanted, Good Will Hunting, Circle of Friends
• Jason Flemyng – Sunshine on Leith, Great Expectations, X-Men First Class, Hanna, Primeval, the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Star Dust, From Hell, The Red Violin, Rob Roy
• Anna Faris – Brokeback Mountain, Friends, Lost in Translation
• Olivia Colman – Murder on the Orient Express, Broadchurch, The Night Manager, The Thirteenth Tale, Tyrannosaur, Doctor Who, Hot Fuzz, Much Ado about Nothing Re-Told
• Why? A British comedy
• Seen:  25 April 2020

       Marriage, betrayal, threesomes, a marriage counsellor who scream abuse at her husband, an obnoxious friend, exes, good friends, cynics, romantics, petty rows, awkward social encounters. What a mishmash.

       The acting is great. Olivia Colman as the dreadful marriage counsellor and Stephen Merchant as the thoroughly disgusting racist misogynist idiot are both unbeatable.

3 ½ * of 5

Fighting with My Family

Fighting with My Family 2019

• Director: Stephen Merchant
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Florence Pugh, Lena Headey, Nick Frost, Jack Lowden, Dwayne Johnson, Vincent Vaughn
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Lena Headey – Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Brothers Grimm, The Remains of the Day, Spender
• Nick Frost – Doctor Who, The World’s End, Attack the Block, The Boat that Rocked, Hot Fuzz, Kinky Boots, Shaun of the Dead, Black Books
• Jack Lowden – Dunkirk, England Is Mine, A United Kingdom, Wolf Hall
• Vincent Vaughn – Into the Wild, Thumbsucker, Pauli Shore Is Dead
• Why? A British comedy (I thought)
• Seen:  18 April 2020

             They actually mean fighting. As in wrestling. Mum (Headey), Dad (Frost), daughter Raya (Pugh) and son Zak (Lowden). A wrestling family in Norwich. People think they’re weird.

       They struggle to make ends meet in their unusual profession. Then Raya gets a big break.

       It’s not a comedy at all. There’s a lot of heartache in it. It’s a true story and there’s a tear in my eye at the end. Me, and wrestling really, really is not my thing.

4* of 5

The Winter Guest

The Winter Guest (1997)

• Director: Alan Rickman
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Phyllida Law, Emma Thompson, Sheila Reid, Sandra Voe, Arlene Cockburn, Gary Hollywood, Sean Biggerstaff, Douglas Murphy
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Phyllida Law – Copying Beethoven, Milk, Hamish Macbeth, Before the Rain Falls, Much Ado about Nothing, The Life and Death of King John, Upstairs Downstairs
• Emma Thompson – Alone in Berlin, The Love Punch, Beautiful Creatures, Brave, Harry Potter, The Boat that Rocked, An Education, Last Chance Harvey, Brideshead Revisited, Stranger than Fiction, Nannie McPhee, Angels in America, Love Actually, Wit, Sense and Sensibility, In the Name of the Father, The Remains of the Day, Much Ado about Nothing, Peter’s Friends, Howards End, Dead Again, Impromptu, Henry V, Fortunes of War, Tutti Frutti
• Sheila Reid – Humans, Doctor Who, Case Studies, Felicia’s Journey, Still Crazy, Brazil, The Dresser
• Sandra Voe – Wallander, Vera Drake, Felicia’s Journey, Breaking the Waves, Immortal Beloved, Takin’ over the Asylum, Naked, Local Hero
• Sean Biggerstaff – Harry Potter
• Why? Emma Thompson. Good film.
• Seen:  Once before. Now 12 April 2020

             Photographer Frances (Thompson) is grieving for her dead husband. Her mother Elsbeth (Law), old and ailing, comes to help her, talking almost incessantly about old times. Frances’s teenaged son Alex (Hollywood) is pursued by the cheeky Nita (Cockburn). Two old women Chloe (Voe) and Lily (Reid) wait for the bus, gossip and go to a funeral. Two young boys Tom (Biggerstaff) and Sam (Murphy) play hooky, talk about sex and walk on the ice.

       It’s a cold bleak February in a small coastal Scottish town. The harsh landscape and monochromatic village are stunningly beautiful.

       It’s a lovely, quiet, slow-moving film. Law and Thompson – mother and daughter in real life – are brilliant in their love-hate bickering. The whole cast is wonderful.

5* of 5, maybe even 5 ½

Galaxy Quest

Galaxy Quest (1999)

• Director: Dean Parisot
• Based on the story by David Howard
• Cast: Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, Daryl Mitchell, Enrico Colantoni, Patrick Breen, Missi Pyle, Jed Reese, Justin Long
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Sigourney Weaver – Avatar, Be Kind Rewind, Infamous, Snow Cake, A Map of the World, Alien 1-4, Death and the Maiden, Dave, Working Girl, Ghostbusters, The Year of Living Dangerously
• Alan Rickman – Eye in the Sky, The Butler, Harry Potter 1-8, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd, Snow Cake, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Love Actually, Dogma, The Winter Guest, Michael Collins, Sense and Sensibility, Robin Hood, The January Man, Die Hard, Romeo and Juliet
• Tony Shalhoub – 1408, The Siege, A Life Less Ordinary, X Files, Barton Fink
• Sam Rockwell – Three Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri, Moon, Frost/Nixon, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Green Mile, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Daryl Mitchell – 10 Things I Hate about You
• Enrico Colantoni – Veronica Mars, Contagion, Full Frontal, The Third Rock from the Sun
• Why? Alan Rickman. Sci-fi
• Seen:  11 April 2020

       Think Star Trek, Doctor Who, disgruntled has-been actors and real aliens.

       You might then think that this is a spoof and you wouldn’t be wrong. For a spoof it’s appropriately very funny but also exciting and moving.

       You might also wonder what Rickman is doing in a film like this. Having the time of his life, I’d say.

4* of 5

Late Night Shopping

Late Night Shopping (2001)

• Director: Saul Metzstein
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Luke de Woolfson, James Lance, Kate Ashfield, Enzo Cilenti, Heike Makatsch, Shauna MacDonald
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Luke de Woolfson – Pirates of the Caribbean
• James Lance – Absolutely Fabulous
• Kate Ashfield – United, Shaun of the Dead
• Enzo Cilenti – The Man Who Knew Infinity, High-Rise, The Martian, Wolf Hall, The Theory of Everything, The Rum Diary, Nine, In the Loop, Colour Me Kubrick, 24 Hour Party People
• Heike Makatsch – The Book Thief, Tara Road, Love Actually
• Shauna MacDonald – Star War the Last Jedi, Filth, Case Histories, Bone Kickers
• Why? Liked it the first time.
• Seen:  5 April 2020

             Three young men and a young woman in Glasgow work the night shift in dead-end jobs. Sean (de Woolfson), lovelorn, presently estranged from his girlfriend Madeline (Makatsch), is a porter in a hospital. Lecherous sex addict Vincent (Lance) stacks shelves in a supermarket. Sharp and cynical Jody (Ashfield) works on an assembly line. Nerdy socially inept Lenny (Cilenti) is a telephone directory operator. They meet at an all-night café on their breaks. Life is dreary and boring. Their conversations are mostly about love and/or sex.

       That’s about it really. The film meanders around these loser characters. In a most enjoyable and bittersweet way. A little gem of a film. Don’t miss this one.

5* of 5

La fille sur le pont

La fille sur le pont (1999)

• Director: Patrice Leconte
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Vanessa Paradis, Daniel Auteuil
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Vanessa Paradis – ‘Joe le taxi’ video
• Daniel Auteuil – Caché, La Reine Margot, Jean de Florette 1&2
• Why? Mixed it up with another film, but which one I have no idea.
• Seen:  4 April 2020

             Adele (Paradis) is an unhappy young woman with a lifetime of bad luck and a persistent inability to say no to men. She decides to jump off a bridge but she fails even that because she’s fished out by the eccentric and cynical knife-thrower Gabor (Auteuil) who needs someone to throw knives at. She goes along with it because he convinces her she’s lucky.

       It’s an utterly charming fable with adorable (I’m sorry, that’s the only appropriate word) performances by Paradis and Auteuil, all the better for being in black and white.

       What a happy mistake, buying this film instead of whatever I thought it was.

5 * of 5

The Man Who Fell to Earth

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)

• Director: Nicolas Roeg
• Based on the book: Walter Tevis
• Cast: David Bowie, Rip Torn, Candy Clark, Bernie Casey
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• David Bowie – The Prestige, Extras, The Last Temptation of Christ, Labyrinth, Absolute Beginners
• Rip Torn – Men in Black, Canadian Bacon, Robocop 3, various TV series
• Candy Clark – Buffy the Vampire Slayer, American Graffiti
• Bernie Casey – Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Fugitive, Never Say Never Again
• Why? Bowie. Sci-fi.
• Seen:  Once before. Now 3 April 2020

             An alien lands on Earth and takes the shape of David Bowie. That alone is enough to remind us that this is a weird film.

       The story is that his planet needs water and he needs to get back to his planet. For this he needs loads – LOADS – of money. So, he becomes a big-time operator.

       It takes an awful lot of complicated twists and turns, some more interesting than others. Best is enjoying Bowie’s beauty. And all those 70’s clothes.

       For a long time, it’s just intellectually interesting and then suddenly I find myself feeling for the alien who misses his wife and children.

       A most unusual film, radically innovative when it was made, and still unique after nearly fifty years.

4 ½ * of 5