The Roses

He meets she. They fall in love immediately and have sex in the cold store.  Ten years on they are over the pond in California, he is hugely successful, she's bringing up the kids.  A thing happens, roles are reversed, resentment builds, marriage steadily disintegrates.

A simple enough premise.  And a thin plot that can be taken in a number of different directions, depending on how the writer and director see it, depending on the casting and acting.  I've seen some very negative reviews of this film, and that seems to come down to expectations, and sometimes ciritcising something for what it's not, rather than what it actually tries to be.  Based on a novel by Warren Adler, The War of the Roses was a hit film version in 1989.  It was a black comedy, bitter and biting in it's treatment of the fight between the couple.  And if that's what you were expecting this time around then I can understand the disappointment.

But I came to this with no knowledge of the novel or first film version,  I came from seeing a trailer that made it look a lot of fun, and the reputations of the two leads, Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman.  I cam seeing something much lighter and funnier than those other critics came to see.  And I got what I hoped for.

There's not much in the way of drama here. although it has it's moments.  There are no real life lessons to be learned, other than maybe being thankful that you and your partner are relative 'failures' in the rat race side of life.  There are, however, a lot of laughs, a lot of great scenes, a lot of brilliant smaller parts (allison Janney's shark of a divorce lawyer ebing patiruclarly fun).  This is light entertainment, but with great acting and a sharp and witty script.  I loved it.

The Life of Chuck

Based on a Stephen King story (so you know there'll be something creepy...), this is a story told in three parts, in reverse chronology.  

Part one sees society falling apart due to a (largely unexplained) apocalypse.  As the lights go out all that remains is an enigmatic viral marketing campaign thanking Chuck Krantz for 39 wonderful years.

In part two, set a few months earlier, we get to meet Chuck, a boring accountant who suddenly launches into a street dance inspired by a busker, and hints at the disappointments of his past.

The meat of the tale, such as there is, lies in the final, and longest, segment, when we see Chuck's childhood.  Brought up by his grandparents, given a love of dance, he is surely going to be a star...

In the end there's a message.  Or you can take one if you choose to.  Individuals are special and should feel so.  Something like that.  Carpe Diem.  Something like that. It's not really clear.  This confusion, a heavy handed narration, and overuse of coincidence to link the 3 segments, leave an unstaisfactory feeling.

Which is a shame, as there are some great individual performances, notably Chiwetel Ejiofor in part 1, as the man confused by rapidly unfolding events, a man we can all identify with.  And there are some very entertaining scenes, like the adult Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) dancing to a street drummer.  But the whole is so much less htan the parts.  

From Hilde, With Love

Low key, but all the more powerful for it, this is the mostly true story of Hilde Coppi, a young woman in Nazi Germany who finds herself falling into a small resistance group.  Their resistance isn't dramatic, more the kind of amateurish effort that concerned citizens feel obliged to take part in when face with the horror of a dictatorship.  Sticking up slogans, making radio calls to Moscow, listening in to banned radio stations.  Low level bravery, doing the best they can rather than passive acceptance.  They might not achieve much, but they take up the regime's resources, and every small sting counts.

The film begins with the arrest of Hilde and boyfriend Hans, and follows the by-then-pregnant young woman through her questioning, imprisonment, giving birth, and the end that we know from the start will be inevitable.Flashbacks show her falling in love with Hans, falling into the group he was a part of, not as an ideologue, but as someone persauded to do her bit to fight back.  The group are ordinary young people, aware that their government is evil.

Yet the functionaries they encounter in the system are not, by and large, the monsters we like to imagine, but ordinary people, trying to go about their jons.  Showing an human side at times.  Not fanatics, but full of the gullibility that comes with the urge to fit in with the system.

The acting is excellent, especially Live Lisa Fries as the scared but stoic heroine.  It's an impressive film, a hard watch at times, but for all the right reasons.  And a reminder that we must not be won over by fascism, but resist in whatever way we can.  Reform must not win here.

Four Letters of Love

 An Irish love story.  

When career civil servant William Coghlan (Pierce Brosnan in brooding mode) finds the sudden inspriation to leave the boring work on his desk in Dublin, and head to the west coast to paint, he leaves his wife (Imelda May) and teenage son Nicholas (Fionn O'Shea) confused, angry and bereft.  His landscapes and seascapes take in the wildness and beauty of the area, including a small island where teenager Isabel Gore (Ann Skelly) is being sent off to convent school on the mainland by parents Muiris (Gabriel Byrne) and Margaret (Helena Bonhan Carter).  

It takes a few deaths, and crossed pathways, but eventually the youngsters will fall in love, after life has erected fences to keep them apart.  So is there forever love or are they doomed to stay apart?

The cinematography is as lush as you'd expect given the wonderful landscapes.  The acting is excellent, notably from Byrne and Carter.  There's a strong 70s period feel, with some great cars of the time making an appearance.  Overall the film has a wonderful ambience.

But the plot is strained, convoluted, confusing.  It relies too heavily on unfounded assupmtions, unlikely coincidences and ridiculous events (including a miracle cure!).  Plus a haeavy dose of sentimentality and schmaltz.

Beautiful, but unsatisfying.

Superman

 "Let's try something different" we said. "It might be fun." And this was certainly different to anything I've been to see for, well, maybe decades. As for the fun... it turns out there was a good reason why I hadn't revisited superheroes for so long.

I grew up as a kid aware of Superman, and something of his story. I enjoyed all the Christopher Reeve film versions of the character. So what could possibly go wrong? As long as the cast and director recognised the inherent silliness of the concept, it should provide that fun we were looking for.

This 2025 version casts David Corenswet as the Man of Steel. He's got the looks, he acts well, and displays a vulnerability and a soft side to the character that this storyline tries to show. But there is something missing.

The plot, such as it is, has Superman being the good guy, everybody's hero, then the bad guy, framed by the evil Lex Luthor, and then, of course, the good guy at the end. He gets beaten at times, but ultimately wins. He works with other superheroes to defeat the baddies. He has his romance with Lois Lane, and a bit of father and son bonding. All within a framework of an evil billionaire influencing the US government (complete fantasy of course...?), a war between a big tech state and one that appears to only have farm implements to defend themselves with (complete fantasy of course...?), and something called a 'pocket universe' in some different dimension. Or something like that. It was all so daft and so messy that I found myself not really caring.

The Reeve versions were probably just as daft. But they had 2 huge advantages. There was no CGI back then. And they had Christopher Reeve. Whereas now we have something that looks like a bunch of nerdy kids have been given every CGI tool of their dreams, and told to go wild. Plot? Don't bother. So the hugely overlong fight sequences seemed utterly confusing - or maybe I really couldn't be bothered by then. Good cinema is about storytelling. If you want to understand how CGI can be a filmmaking boon, then see Life of Pi.

And then there was Reeve. As with the likes of Harrison Ford and Roger Moore, he had that ability to play these daft action hero roles straight, whilst also showing that he didn't take it all that seriously, that he recognised the inherent puerility of the character's concept. Corenswet is good, and manages some comedy, but he lacks that indefinable talent which is essential to avoiding these kind of roles looking ridiculous to all but the most ardent of fans.

It wasn't all bad. The dog was fun. And the best line was "So is Gary". But I'm grasping at straws. This was an experiment I don't see myself every repeating again.

Cinema Paradiso, Filmhouse

In a small Sicilian town an elderly woman is calling her son, who she hasn't seen for 30 years.  In Rome a successful film director returns home late to find a message from his mother - Alfredo is dead.  He is unable to sleep as he returns to his childhood and remembers what Alfredo meant to his life.

A few years after the end of the war, Italy is still recovering from the damage.  In the village the cinema is a vital community asset, albeit dictated to by the censorius local priest.  Projectionist Alfredo walks the line between religious complaince and cummunity approval.  He is also the hero of mischevious 8 year old Toto, and an unlikekly friendship forms between the pair that will seal the bond between the child and the film industry he will make his life.  In time they will each find the other owing them a huge debt, but when the time comes for Toto to leave in search of a new life, it is Alfredo who gives him the impetus to go, and the advice never to return.

So Toto, once again known by his given name of Salvatore, only returns to see his mentor buried, and is caught up in the memories it forces upon him.  Not just of his roots in film, but of his first love affair, which has similarly dominated his life.  

CP is recognised as a classic, and rightly so.  The script is frequently hilarious, but there is genine emotion and pathos in the relationship between the pair behind the projector, and so much life in a community that is full of characters.  It has been criticised as being overly sentimental and schmaltzy, and that's true.  Yet it feels appropriate for a film that plays so heavily on the golden age of schmaltz from Hollywood, and is as much a tribute to that period of cinema as it is about the vivid relationships.  It was a delight to see again.

Final word must go to the venue, as it too was a delight to see again.  After several years boarded up the Filmhouse is back.  The foyer and cafe still look a bit bare, but that will change.  There's a fourth screen now.  And Screen 1, where CP was showing, has much imporved seating and comfort.  The Filmhouse is returning as one of the most important cultural centres in the city.

The Last Journey

 Heartwarming and enjoyable.  But also disturbing and worrying.

Filip Hammar is worried about his 80 year old father, Lars, who seems to have almost given up on life.  He is, his son says, rotting away in an old armchair.  So, with the agreement of his mother, he plans a road trip to France with his dad.  Lars, once a French language teacher, was always a Francophile, and many of Filip’s happiest memories with him are centre on holidays in a seaside town on the Riviera.  

So he buys a lovely old orange Renault 4, like the one dad used to drive, ropes in best friend Fredrik, and the 3 of them set off.  Plans are disrupted when Lars ends up in hospital just as they are about to leave Sweden, but eventually the trip continues.  Along the way, and at their destination, Filip arranges for his father to see old places, old friends, and some carefully staged incidents, all designed to bring back memories and rekindle Lars’ feeling for life.

There are some genuinely moving moments, where the old Lars almost resurfaces, and sadness at seeing Filip come to some acceptance that things can never be as they were.  There is a sweet scene near the end where some of the teacher’s ex-pupils pay tribute to their mentor.  Cue tears all round.

But.  This is filmed as a fly on the wall documentary, meaning there is some sort of film crew present for some intimate moments.  I read the Filip and (the very likeable and funny) Fredrik are a bit like Sweden’s Ant & Dec, famous presenters who always come as a pair.  Obviously wealthy, and obviously well connected with the TV world.  Which begs some questions…

What came first?  Filip’s desire to help his father, or the idea for the film?  Because the filming took place from an early stage of the process (I did not get the impression they could have gone back and asked Lars to act some of the early stages…).  There’s also a queasy sense that Filip, for all that his love for his parent shows as genuine, was at times bullying and manipulative.  It can come across as a rich man spending money to show off his love, whilst producing something box-office-worthy.  

Call me cynical, but for all it’s virtues, there are some worrying undercurrents to this film.

The Ballad of Wallis Island

Charles (Tim Key) lives a lonely life on the remote and sparsely inhabited Wallis Island.  A double lottery winner, he is also an obsessive superfan of long defunct folk duo McGwyer Mortimer.  Two further facts about Charles - he’s extremely irritating, in a can’t-shut-up-or-stop-telling-shit-jokes kind of a way, and he’s really rather sad and lonely, for reasons that become apparent as the plot unfolds.  To mark a special occasion he’s invited both halves of the duo to the island to give a one-off concert, to a one person audience.

First to arrive is Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden), wet and grumpy, and surprised at what he finds.  But his biggest surprise is the arrival of ex musical partner, and lover, Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan), with American husband in tow.  Their being thrust together rekindles musical, and other, memories, but also reminds them of why they split.  Charles has started more than he realised, and his dream, and memories it conjures up for him, is not turning out to be what he expected.

The screenplay comes from Key and Basden, both former writers on the Alan Partridge shows, and that background shines through strongly.  If you loved Partridge you’ll probably enjoy this.  Charles is a sub-Partridgesque character, often with a similar inability to read the room, but he has redeeming qualities that make him much more than a figure of fun, and Key does a wonderful job of making him a figure of sympathy.  Basden is similarly able to give the grumpy Herb a human side, and these performances dominate.  In a good way.  Mulligan is excellent support, along with a couple of other minor characters, but it’s the Tim/Tom duo that give this film it’s charm, laughs and pathos.  And a dose of romance.

Basden also wrote and performed the songs, and shows himself competent in both roles.  And Key squeezes in a rarely seen romantic side to his acting.

While it does have things to say about revisiting memories, relationships and grief, this is a film to enjoy for the performances and the snappy script.  Whilst it’s no classic, it is very enjoyable.  More so if you’re a fan of awkward.

Hard Truths

 Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is angry.  And anxious.  She’s angry with her plumber husband Curtley (David Webber).  With 22 year old layabout son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett).  With her younger sister Chantelle (Michelle Austin).  With pretty much everyone she meets - in car parks, supermarkets, her doctor and dentist, the list of targets for her anger never ends.  And her anxiety makes her fearful of the world, where there is no safety.

Chantelle is a hairdresser, charming and confidence inspiring with her clients, fun and happy with her two daughters.  She wants Pansy to come with her to their mother’s grave, for the anniversary of her death.  Pansy even gets angry with that.

But she will eventually go, and the two families get together.  But even there the contrast between the two trios is stark.  While the shadow of Pansy’s anger hangs over everyone.  

So what will she do with faced with a situation that requires her to act with love?

Jean-Baptiste is superb, a tightly strung band always on the verge of unwinding dramatically.  Her rants are epic, her disdain apocalyptic.  But the vulnerability is never far away.  The reasons behind her behaviour leak out gradually.

.If this all sounds a bit grim you’d be wrong.  Pansy’s ire is hilarious viewing (although you wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end) because it has no rationale.  We’ve all known someone like her, someone whose grumpiness and resentment is unending.  

The filming is up close and personal, filled with delightfully awkward silences and mumbled excuses, while the Chantelle aspect gives off vibes of real joy.  This is ordinary life in spades, the inconsequential gossip, the families that barely co-exist, the people who tolerate and those who don’t.

Another Mike Leigh masterclass in the everyday.

September 5

Anyone my age or older will probably remember the event, and how horrific it was at the time.  One of those world events you never completely forget.  It's all well documented now, so it's easy to read up on what happened to the terrorists and their victims.

But this film takes a new slant on what happened.  This was the first time that a terrorist event was able to be covered live on satellite TV, meaning the events in Munich found their way around the world immediately.  A team of sports broadcasters, from the American ABC network, suddenly found themselves in groundbreaking broadcast territory, and a sudden deluge of unfamiliar moral decisions to make.  If a hostage was murdered live on camera, should that be broadcast or not?

While the politics of the situation are touched on, it's largely in the context of how it determines the team's decisions.  This is about the human beings behind the cameras, and the strains it put on them.  The filming is claustrophobic, largely confined to the control studio, and using contemporary (grainy!) footage to show the unfolding drama being covered.  The tech is very much from the pre-digital era, and there's a lot of improvisation required.  Younger viewers will be shocked at how primitive it will all seem, but this was the cutting edge of TV sports broadcasting in 1972.

The focus is on the moral and emotional issues.  The mistakes made in a situation where the world is watcvhing through their lens.  The instincts of journalists wanting to pursue the story (and having to fight off the views of their own management who wanted a news team to take over - but the sports guys were the only ones actually there, on the scene).  Versus the moral responsibilities of playing their part in trying to achieve a safe ensding for all involved.  They even find themselves being invaded by German police at one pojnt, for hampering the efforts fo the authorities.  Are they reporters or voyeurs or accomplices.  The lines are sometimes blurred.

The style is often cinema verite, following characters rushing from one moment to another.  The messiness and confusion and need to make decisions comes across well.  There are some excellent performances, notably from John Magara as Geoff, the studio dierctor trying to hold it all together, and Leonie Benesch as Marianne, a (fictional) young German assistant, reflecting the mortification of her generation at the sins of their elders.

It's a strong drama, worth watching for the tension alone.  But the film also provides useful insights into the moral demands on journalists in life or death situations, and a the sesne of global trauma that came with those terrible events.

A Complete Unknown

This is the young early 60s Dylan (Timothee Chalamet), from his arrival in New York until the storm of controversy that erupted in Americn Folk Music after his famous/infamous electrified set at Newport Festival.  A formative period not just for the man who would become one of the greats, but for the future direction of US music and beyond.  

Seeking out the legendary Woody Guthrie, now in hospital, he also meets Pete Seeger, who takes the young Bobby under his wing, and into his family.  With that lift, and lyrical quality of his songs, Dylan will take the folk world by storm, but wants to be more, wants to explore different directions and fusions.  Along the way relationships will be made and broken, fans won and lost, and our=trage generated.

The movie has a wonderful period feel, conveying the state of the US folk world of the time.  Plenty great music too, noit just Dylan songs, but Guthrie, Seeger, Baez, Cash...  The quality is impressive, the more so when you learn that the actors performed the voals themselves.  If you get Dylan's voice and phrasing right he's not too hard to impersonate, as his strengths do not lie in the techincal quality of his vocals.  But all credit to Monica Barbaro for doing such a great job in capturing the purity of Joan Baez.

Chalamet's also hit Dylan's mumbled speaking voice, which can be an issue, and there were times when subtitles would have helped!

It would be easy to pick up the few flaws in the movie, and the only one that irked was a lack of editing.  The movie felt overlong, and the final scene with Guthrie unnecessarily loaded with symbolism.  But the overall impression is triumphant.  A celebration of the times, a warts and all portrait (Dylan isn't always the best of human beings in his realtions with others), and a striking impression of just how big an impact his decsion to go electic was at the time.  

Well worth seeing.

Conclave

The Pope dies and the College of Cardinals must go into conclave to choose his successor.  The task of heading up the process falls to Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), who is on the more liberal wing of the church, and favours Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) to get the job, however reluctant he may appear to be to put his name forward.  There are other contenders of course, either slightly less liber, or far further to the right, and Lawrence and Bellini are joined in opposing the possibility of that backward-looking arch conservative Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) becoming their boss.

Preventing that, and navigating all the other challenges involved, requires a lot of backroom negotiating, skullduggery, and a few dirty tricks.  Added into the mix is a mystery cardinal who none of the others were aware of, Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz) from Afghanistan.  Why had the Pope kept him hidden away, and what views does he adhere to?  Who will win through in the end, and how many will be disgraced along the way.

An excellent cast, a reasonably gripping plot and some excellent cinematography.  Fiennes is at his best, despite one hammy moment of 'looking shady' as he investigates the secrets of the dead man's bedroom.  There are even a few laughs along the way, and it certainly has a surprise twist to the ending.  So it's not as dull as the subject matter might suggest.

But.  I found myself lacking any empathy for, or emotional engagelemnt with, any of the characters.  A bunch of old men choosing another old man to issue diktats to millions of people?  It's hard to sympathise with any of them, even those who are protrayed as more 'liberal'.  Maybe it was because the last film I went to see was Small Things Like These , but have any positive feelings for officials of the Catholic church were impossible to dredge up!

One element did make me laugh though, and I am still wondering if the image was coincidental or deliberate.  There were several visual references to The Handmaid's Tale, with the mass of Cardinals often looking like so many Offreds.  It certainly helped to poke fun at some of the more sinister aspects of the closeted plotters.

Small Things Like These

Based on the book by Claire Keegan, the setting is the small Irish town of New Ross in 1985. The title sequence immediately gives us the theme of the story - a rotating skyline of the town, dominated by one point, the local church.

Bill Furlong (Cilliam Murphy) runs a coal merchants, drive the lorry round the town to make deliveries, before returning to his wife and five daughters.  He's a well known, well respected member of the community, treats his staff well, although his wife reckons he's a bit "too soft".  One morning he goes to make his delivery at the convent and finds, locked in the coal shed, a terrified young woman, begging him to take her with him.  He takes her in to the sisters, who fuss over and take her quickly away, then leaves.  But her fear remains in his mind.

Furlong has to decide.  Between the safety of acquiesence, as advocated by his wife (and given added persuasion by the Mother Superior).  Or the risk of becoming a social pariah, if he follows his conscience.  More information about the convent becomes obvious.  It is one of the infamous 'Magdalen Laundaries', where young women, pregnant and unmarried, are used as slave labout before thier babies are sold to childless families.  A practice that continued well into the nineties.  

These are the kind of nuns that give penguins a bad name.  This a society still in the grip of the church, which nefoces social convention and dictates who is unacceptable within the town.  The tension, the sense of oppression, is well conveyed, even as the town celebrates Christmas.  Murphy is excellent as the quiet man wrestling with the biggest decision he has ever faced, knowing that if he does the 'right thing' it will go badly for him and his family.  Knowing that standing up to this kind of evil has consequences well beyond himself.

It might be set in the past, but it feels so recent, with TV programmes and cars that many of us can still easily recall.  It is still very relevant, for that kind of oppression has many forms, and the fascist verion is looming over us so much nowadays.  A poerful reminder of the need to stand up to evil.

The Outrun

I always dread seeing a film version of book I loved, but having heard Liptrot speak about it beforehand reassured me. That the character is Rona, not Amy, and is based on , but is not quite, her.  That cinematic necessity meant rewriting parts of her life, but to a positive end.

Rona (Saoirse Ronan) grew up on Orkney, with a wildly bipolar father and a mother who could barely cope.  When the chance arises, Rona escapes to London, where a promising career lies ahead.  As does a social life, and the discovery that she has an addictive personality.  The descent into alcoholism destroys career, relationships and health.  She begins her recovery, but needs to get away, and finds herself back on Orkney.

Where she battles through her recovery, with help, and conflict, and a brief relapse, and the power of nature.  She must still contend with her ever-variable father, and her mother who has not just found a god, but has become the happy-clappiest of christians.  But mostly she has to contend with the wild landscape and weather, and, strongest of all, her inner conflicts.

Like Rona’s mind, the film skips about, between present, childhood, and the London days, of addiction and realisation.  This highlightsthe contrasts between the bleak existence she led as an addict, and bleak existence the land forces upon her.  And it’s the latter which wins out, and heals.

A memorable performance from Ronan, vulnerable, scared, wild and unpredictable.  

Prima Facie, NT Live

 What a performance! A feat of memory, of emotion, of power, and of physical coordination and sequence, and Comer never lets up.

She plays Tessa, an up and coming defence barrister. She sees herself as an integral and essential element of the legal system, believes in that system and that the defence barrister has their role in testing out the work of the police and CPS.

But when she finds herself the victim of a sexual assault the system suddenly looks very, very different. Gone are the checks and balances she put her faith in, now it's weighted against her, against women, against victims. And very much against those who find themselves challenging the legal establishment (her rapist is a colleague). From this perspective the concept of 'reasonable doubt' takes on new meaning.

While the performance is always strong, the script gets a little lost. It works well in the initial part, where she is the confident lawyer, but loses the sense of drama, and turns into clunky polemic to get it's message across at the end. It's a shame, for the set and effects are superb, the story being told an important one. Not just for sexual assault, but with wider implications for our society. So it's a shame that some of that impact, that communication, is dissipated by the ending. An important work to see nonetheless.

Nye, NT Live

 

An NT Live show, live theatre beamed into the cinema.  A focus on the great Nye Bevan.

But what sort of beast was this play?  Biography? Social History? Political Polemic? Entertainment? A bit of everything, including a full blown song and dance routine.

Social History - Events around one of the most important events in UK history, from the perspective of a leading member it's most important government. Showing socialism can work. Showing the huge improvements it brought.

Political polemic - very much so, and necessarily so, at a time when the NHS, as a principle, is under attack more than ever. When the need, and underlying principle, remain as much as ever. It may have gone a bit wayward, but that's the nature of all big beasts over time.

Entertainment - definitely. Funny, warm, human, with great performances.

Structure has Nye dying, and dreaming of past life. Childhood, union leader, councillor, backbench MP and maverick, Churchill opponent, Minister and pioneer. Lover too. But always clear what period he's in, be it with his dying dad, or Clem as PM.

And Biography?  Partly so.  It does tend to hagiography at times, but still gives some of Nye's imperfections as a human being. Getting women to look after him. His inability to compromise (up to a point). But the passion for socialism is there, the things that made him a great man are very much there.

The performances are strong, with Sheen magnificent and at his passionate best.  If anything grated it was have Clem Attlee played by a woman.  Nothing wrong with that in itself - but the voice made hom sound too much like the Wicked Witch of Grantham at times, a later, lesser, PM who was not fit to lick Attlee's boots, and did so much to detroy his achievements.

The play is structured around Bevan slowly dying in his bed.  In an NHS hospital of course (which does not reflect the actual event).  In dreams and conversations and rants he takes us through tyhe events and struggles that brough about the dream of free health care for all, for a service that did as much for the poor as for the rich.  Of course the story is romatnticised, but it was, in many ways, a romantic ideal in itself.  Most of all it feels ocntemporary, necessary.

How we need his likes again.  But what chance, when a good man like Corbyn is charater assassinated into oblivion by the right wing media?

The Zone of Interest

An idyllic setting. A large family laughing and having fun in the sun, a picnic and swimming in the lake, then home in the cars to their big comfortable house. Where they have a perfect garden, and servants aplenty. Daddy reads bedtime stories to the kids, and makes his wife laugh. He plays with the dog. In the morning he's given his birthday present, a canoe, and sets off to work. He's good at his job, respected by his staff, admired by his peers, valued and trusted by his superiors, a byword for efficiency and organisation, an innovator who brings new ideas and improvements to the business. A model tale of middle class success.

Like living near to a railway, or under a flight path, where you soon learn to ignore, even forget, the noises of trains and planes, the noises from Daddy's workplace, next door to home, are background only, and no disturbance to the perfection. The barbed wire atop the tall wall at the foot of the garden, the sounds of shouting and screaming and shooting, the sight of the smoke and flames from the incinerators, are all part of the accustomed landscape. Just like Daddy's SS uniform, and his job.

Daddy is Rudolf Hoss, the commandant of the Auschwitz death camp. His job is to maximise throughput of Jewish 'untermenschen' into those incinerators, to be turned into smoke ands ash. Like any successful businessman, he takes pride in his work, and attention to detail. He knows he is a valued member of  his community.

The historian Hannah Arendt is famed for the phrase "the banality of evil", which she used it during the trial of Eichmann, who merits a mention in the film as Hoss' boss. This movie is the perfect depiction of that. It doesn't always work, for there are some strange moments that jar, but overall the slow, quiet pace, the sheer ordinariness of the characters, is as great a horror as seeing inside the camp (which we never do, except a modern day sequence in what is now the Auschwitz museum).  Because it is possible to see how this could be anyone. Any one of us. And that is terrifying.

Great performances from Christian Friedel as Hoss and Sandra Huller as his wife Hedwig. One the confident manager, the other a happy beneficiary of her husband's success story. She's fully aware, and approving, of what he does, and has no desire to give up the fruits of his labours. Should be compulsory viewing, because this will remain within you for a long time after.

All of Us Strangers

 Adam (Andrew Scott) is a lonely screen writer who works from home in his flat, which is in a high rise block with seemingly no other occupants. He is trying to write something based on his own childhood, and goes through a box of old photos which trigger mixed memories. But then he meets Harry (Paul Mescal), who seems to be the only other resident of the block, and they end up having a passionate love affair.

But Adam is too troubled by the ghosts of his past, which his writing efforts have stirred into life. What follows is a portrait of a disturbed man held in the grip of unresolved grief and love. While the plot is often confusing, and the red herrings swim in shoals, that's an accurate reflection of Adam's state of mind, which increasingly leads him down paths that seem destined to lead to crisis.

It's a powerful evocation of the power of grief to determine our entire life if we allow it to, and the need to share if we are to deal with those issues. The idealised dialogues we allow ourselves to build internally have the ability to take over from reality. In Adam's case the two become increasingly one, and it will take something drastic to bring him out of it.

The performances are strong, and intense, with all four actors (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell have the only other speaking parts) delivering excellent performances. But the film revolves around Scott's troubled Adam, and his portrayal of a man in turmoil, using the past to try and understand himself, is masterful.

This is a movie, and character, that leaves you with questions and stays in the mind for a long while after viewing. Not to be missed.

Fremont, Edinburgh International Film Festival

 It's in black and white, slow paced, nothing much happens. But that won't stop you enjoying Fremont.

Donya is a twenty-something Afghan, once a translator for the US Army, who manged to escape from her country, and the likely revenge of the Taliban, on one of the evacuation flights that left before Kabul fell. Now she's living in Fremont, California, in a tiny apartment, with largely Afghan neighbours, and working in a boring job in a Fortune Cookie factory. She can't sleep, she spends her evening watching TV with an old man, and life doesn't appear to hold out much home.

But then she starts to have sessions with Dr Anthony, a psychiatrist who's weirdly obsessed with White Fang, and gets a promotion at the factory so that now she's writing the fortunes to put in the cookies, life hints at the possibility of change. She tries to take some control for herself, but events dictate otherwise, and take her in an unexpected direction.

Anaita Wali Zada plays Donya as the calm, repressed centre of range of characters also trying to find their own answers. She holds in the traumas she has experienced in the war, and holds out this new world that she finds hard to navigate. The filming is intimate, lingering, allowing Zada time to give us hints of Donya's emotions behind the impassivity. The character has a deep strength that has survived much and will find her way to deal with this new environment.

As said above, nothing much happens. Yet the movie manages to give the audience themes of loneliness, displacement, women's right, culture clash, racism and, ultimately, love. The slow pace is a strength in getting to know Donya and understand her situation, and that she will find her own way to a better future.

Very satisfying, and definitely worth a watch.

Return to Seoul

Freddie likes to sight read, to take a quick look at a piece of musical notation, then dive straight in and play it. Which sets the theme for her character, apt to jump in suddenly, take the risk and see what happens.

Aged 25, she returns to Korea from where, as a baby, she was adopted by her French parents. Despite saying it's something she wouldn't do, she goes to the adoption agency and asks if she can be put in touch with her biological parents. Her father responds and, accompanied by the hotel receptionist she's made friends with, she sets off to meet him and his family. It's a tense affair, requiring her friend and her aunt to translate to the father, with cultural differences piled on top of what was always going to be an emotional and hard-to-handle life event. When she returns to Europe it's with mixed emotions about her experience.

She'll be back 2 years later, and a further 5 after that. Each time she finds out, and grasps, more about her own background, and the culture of the country she originates from. There are powerful emotional moments as she navigates a present built on a past she doesn't fully understand. But, even though she picks up some of the language, she remains very much French. When she is finally able to connect with her mother it's a powerful bridging moment.

A powerful, pensive story about how we see ourselves as individuals, and as part of a wider society and culture. The emotional encounters, miscommunications and misunderstandings, and culture clashes, all feel grounded in real experiences. Ji-Min park is excellent as an impulsive yet withdrawn Freddie, trying to navigate environments and feelings that are alien to her, and the risks of upsetting everyone around her.

Highly recommended.