Films July 2016

Bright Night

Director: Florian Gottschick

A fascinating film, full of psychological interest. After an absence of many years Anna, the central character, returns to her childhood home in Kerkwitz, east Germany for a weekend, with her much younger lover. Also staying the weekend is her old lover Bernd and his partner Marc. During the weekend secrets are spilled which have threatening repercussions for the couples. Relationships are pushed to the limits as the old dynamics and new possibilities are explored.  Rising sexual tension between both couples offer new possibilities of sexual exploration or threaten to undermine the psychological security of individual characters. There are discussions about free love and jealousy.

The backdrop is the encroachment on this idyllic but abandoned village in rural east Germany of mining of the soft coal for which the region is famous. Hundreds of such picturesque communities and villages have been swept away in the quest for fuel in a modern economy. The ever closer invasion of the vast mining machines on this green landscape with its stunning wetlands and quaint wooden houses stands as a metaphor for the dark psychological forces which threaten the relationships under scrutiny. The landscape is evocative and haunting, encouraging a wistful nostalgia for a way of life that is ending, replaced by a new one without a soul.

Lovely cinematography. One of my favourite films of the year.


My Afternoons with Margueritte



A 2010 French film starring Gerard Depardieu, directed by Jean Becker.

Depardieu plays an uneducated character called Germain who befriends an elderly lady in the park. Margueritte comes to the park each day to read books. She catches Germain's attention with a sentiment from Albert Camus. Gradually she introduces him to a world of books and ideas. It's a simple idea, that literature has the power to touch the heart and change the world. It is unashamedly sentimental and touching in its depiction of an intergenerational, non-physical, love affair. I enjoyed it.

The Man in the Wall

The Man in the Wall

Written by Evgeny Ruman

Directed by Evgeny Ruman

Israel, 2015

Set in Tel Aviv, the action stays in one apartment and takes place over the course of one night, Shir's husband goes out for a walk with the dog and doesn't come back. After his disappearance a succession of visitors come to the apartment. A series of revelations are made about the missing husband. However as the night progresses the balance of sympathies between husband and wife goes back and forth as Shir's secrets also start to emerge. You never get to liking the pair: Their dysfunctional behaviour, the lies and deceit on both sides of the relationship alienate sympathy for them. It is an interesting psychological drama. Events and people are not always as they seem and our perspective changes. It obliquely raises the question, is anyone what they seem?


Delhi in a Day



2011 film directed by Prashant Nair

Jasper arrives in Delhi to begin a tour of India. The action all takes place in one day as Jasper meets the Bhatia family in their lavish home as he's about to begin his tour. The young English man's money is stolen and the servants are blamed for it. They are given 24 hours to replace the money before the police are called. Victor Banerjee who starred in A Passage to India also features. There is a nod to David Lean's epic film with its theme of the clash of cultures and class as a young person fresh from England arrives in the hope of seeing "the real India." E M Forster had time in his novel, A Passage to India, to delve into the mysterious fascination that Indian culture holds for western visitors. It's a difficult theme to pull off in a film without caricaturing either culture. We are left wondering whether Jasper saw anything of the "real" India during his day in Delhi and mulling on the thought that even though the white colonials are gone, they have been replaced as a class by Indian "haves" with too much power over their fellow Indian "have nots."