Film

By Linda Marric Daphne du Maurier's timeless classic My Cousin Rachel gets a timely adaptation in this dark and beautifully atmospheric production from legendary British director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, The Buddha of Suburbia). First adapted to the screen in the 1950s and staring Olivia de Havilland in the central role, My Cousin Rachel remains to this day one of the writer’s most cherished novels, so it is a great relief to be able to finally say that this recent...

By Stephen Mayne Political campaigns are about expressing the ideas, and the way in which a person/party plans to govern, aiming to buy trust in the process. They’re also about winning. The two are closely linked but come with a fair degree of tension, as 1972 political satire The Candidate so ably demonstrates. If you’re wondering what a four-and-a-half-decade old American film that sees Robert Redford’s political ingenue running for senate in California has to do with the UK election, the...

Clare (Teresa Palmer) travelled to Berlin in search of an unforgettable life experience, but one suspects that such plans didn’t involve being held captive in an airless apartment by a mentally unhinged local (played here with a sinister twitch by German actor Max Riemelt). Unfortunately for her, that’s exactly the situation she finds herself in during Berlin Syndrome, Aussie director Cate Shortland’s effectively chilly psycho-thriller. When Clare first meets Andi (Riemelt), however, she can’t help but be seduced by his...

By Wyndham Hacket Pain Chile had already had 15 years of military dictatorship when in 1988 Augusto Pinochet asked the public to vote on whether he should stay in power or whether there should be a general election the following year. In an unprecedented move the No campaign, which wanted to rid Chile of Pinochet, approached advertiser René Saavedra (Gael García Bernal) to consult them on the direction of the campaign. Much to the dismay of the campaign’s political leaders, Saavedra...

Cathy Come Home wasn’t made to inform, it was made to confront. When it premiered as part of the BBC’s Wednesday Play series back in November ‘66, 12 million people – a quarter of the British population at that time – tuned in to see Ken Loach’s seminal social-realist masterwork. The reaction from audiences was remarkable, provoking public outrage and prompting major discussions within the political sphere: donations to the charity Shelter surged in the days that followed the transmission...

By Michael McNulty Jack Clayton’s horror classic The Innocents, released in 1961 and based on (by way of William Archibald’s play) Henry James’ 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw, is a mysterious and haunting classic Victorian ghost story. The script, which passed through a number of hands, finally ended up in those of Truman Capote who helped to deliver it in its final form. Miss Giddens, played with a subtle restraint that belies an underlying sexual repression by an...

By Michael McNulty Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist - 2008 Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist may rub many the wrong way, primarily because seeing Michael Cera play yet another straight edge, hipster, sad-sack geekily fumbling through adolescence is a test of patience. But, let it test you. Nick (Michael Cera), bassist and only straight member of all gay rock band, The Jerk Offs, pining after evil ex-girlfriend Triss, spends a Manhattan night chasing elusive, super-cool, secret gig playing band, Where’s...

After The Storm is a moving, yet unsentimental portrayal of inter-generational relationships, fraught family dynamics, and the fragility of the human condition. Part time father Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) spends his limited income on gambling, instead of child maintenance, and longs to rekindle the love lost when his ex-wife (Yoko Make) divorced him. His tiny one-room apartment wall may be filled with post-it notes of ideas, but his glory days as a successful author are long gone, and his job as...

Setting a film in an orphanage, one expects a tale filled with suffering. My Life As A Courgette is a creative accomplishment, managing to be heartwarming and light, even when it’s touching upon the dark subject matter of childhood pain and abandonment. This beautifully animated film is based on a novel by French writer Gilles Paris, and director Claude Barras and screenwriter Céline Sciamma have skilfully managed to create a tender coming of age story, where the loss and abuse...