If you want to discover the provenance of this unusual headline, you will have to go and see Terence Davies' Of Time and the City, a wonderful combination of film, music and poetry now on general release.
As Peter Bradshaw, who gave it five stars, says in his review:
Here's the trailer:
A good time to take our minds off the turmoil outside, I think. Happy to be able to report a wonderful cinema going experience this week. I've loved you so long (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime) has to be one of the finest films in a very long time.
Kristin Scott Thomas is unbelievably good in the lead role. Even if the part was written for her, as Peter Bradshaw suggest in his excellent review, her performance was still breathtaking. I have always thought her to be a very fine actress, but this is the first role to make the most of her unparalleled abilities.
Having awarded last year's best actress Oscar to Marion Cotillard for her portrayal of Edith Piaf, it seems unlikely that Scott Thomas will be in the frame this year; not only is the film French, it will doubtless be considered too art-house, and its subject matter too uncomfortable. But if there were any justice in Hollywood, she would walk it.
Special mention also must go to her co-star, Elsa Zylberstein, who was almost as good. Go see the film at least twice. In the meantime, here's the trailer:
I didn't really enjoy this film, indeed if it hadn't been based on a true story, I would have thought it rather a poor effort despite good performances from Julianne Moore and, particularly, Stephen Dillane, as well as some excellent period design.
If it is a true account - and there is some cause for doubt as one of the surviving characters has gone on record as saying several of the more extreme events depicted have no basis in reality - then it's a shocking portrait of the one of the most dysfunctional society families I have come across.
I think the film probably tells us more about the corrupting influence of wealth and privilege than the causes and consequences of family dysfunction. Frustratingly, it says nothing at all about the links between privilege and social pathology.
Phillip French though it good, while Peter Bradshaw called it "gripping, coldly brilliant and tremendously acted movie". For me, it's just about worth seeing. Unusually, for a film depicting dreadful trauma and psychological anguish, it left me feeling weirdly unemotional.
Fred Harrison, whose recent book, Ricardo's Law, I reviewed on comment is free last year, has now made a short film in which he outlines the book's central message: that our failure to address poverty is a direct result of a tax system which favours the better off, and discriminates against the poorest; a tax system which taxes the wrong thing: people's labour, while leaving the unearned wealth that accrues to landowners largely untaxed.
He makes a persuasive argument, and it's a rather good film. You can watch it in high definition via the producer's website, here, or on YouTube here:
Fred's book is available here, and other books on land value taxation are available through his (and my) publisher, Shepheard-Walwyn.
Well, my Oscar predictions proved typically wide of the mark. Daniel Day-Lewis was a deserved winner for his role in There will be Blood. Although I thought it a poor film in many ways, his performance was remarkable. Tilda Swinton was also a good pick for her role in Michael Clayton, but I'm disappointed for Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, the best performance I've seen anywhere in a long time, and for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, my favourite film of the year.
Full list of winners here.
There is probably no better example of the consequences of our failing and morally bankrupt economic system, and the way it has infected every corner of the planet, than Brazil, the most unequal country in the world.
When I visited back in 1994, I was struck not only by the physical beauty of the place, but, in cities like Rio de Janeiro, the visible sores of a society being torn apart by growing inequality. By all reports, things have got markedly worse since I was there, with rocketing crime, desperate poverty and little hope for those who inhabit the favelas, some of which overlook the glitzy suburbs which are home to their more fortunate compatriots, from less than a mile away.
Brazil is the perfect example of how the standard measure of economic success (GDP growth) is pretty useless as a measure of positive changes in wellbeing across populations. Brazil's economy has grown 3.4 per cent on average since the millennium, but few of the benefits have been felt in the hills around Rio. The only growth areas in the favelas is drug related crime and murder.
Conor Foley touches on this issue in a piece over at comment is free, where he reviews the film Tropa de Elite, which, he suggests, has completely missed the point of what is going on in Brazil. As he concludes:
Brazil's violence is a symptom for a wider set of social problems, for which Brazilians need to take responsibility. Most middle-class Brazilians have never set foot in a favela and talk about them as if they are another country. Films like Tropa de Elite are helping to keep them in denial.
It’s not often you watch a film that lasts more than two hours and, when the credits roll, you wish it wasn't over. But that’s what happened last night when I saw Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
In the week in which the BAFTAs were announced and with less than a fortnight until the Oscars, I'm scratching my head as to what criteria are applied in drawing up the nominations. At least the British Academy saw fit to nominate the film in the best foreign language film category; the American academy failed, inexplicably, even to do that. And Ronald Harwood collected the BAFTA last Sunday for his excellent screenplay.
I can't improve on Peter Bradshaw's review in The Guardian. Suffice to say there can have been few films that have captured so beautifully the wonder of the human spirit and the all too frequent pain of human existence. The film is funny, inspiring and heart-wrenchingly sad, but is determinedly unsentimental throughout.
In case you've missed the publicity, it tells the story of Jean-Dominqiue Bauby, who, in 1995 when editor of the fashion magazine Elle, suffered a stroke which destroyed his brain stem and left him a victim of locked-in syndrome. He could hear, think and see perfectly but neither speak nor move except to blink. Nonetheless, through a painfully slow process of dictation, he was able to produce an astonishing memoir, upon which the film is based.
The film is up for four Oscars including Best Director, so if anyone from the Academy is reading, please think long and hard before casting your votes. Everyone else: If you only see one film this year, make it this one.
The Oscar nominations were announced today, and on the whole I think they are pretty good bunch. As usual, a relatively small number of pictures are the focus of nominations in the main categories, but they include some good films and performances.
Michael Clayton, one of the best American thrillers for several years earns nominations for George Clooney as best actor, Tilda Swinton as best supporting actress, and our own Tom Wilkinson as best supporting actor, as well as being nominated for best picture. Both Wilkinson and Swinton have tough competition (in Casey Affleck and Cate Blanchett respectively) but I wouldn't be surprised if Clooney snuck up on the inside rail, even though the great Tommy Lee Jones would be my pick for his performance in In the Valley of Elah.
Best supporting actor must go to Casey Affleck for his stunning portrayal of Robert Ford in the sublime The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford. While Julie Christie could be in line for best actress for Away from her, 32 years since she last won for Darling.
I've not seen the Coen brother's No Country for Old Men yet, but I still fancy Atonement for best film. Despite several shortcomings, it was an epic tale, very well told. James McEvoy misses out on a nomination for his role in that film, though his time will surely come.
Whether we get an awards ceremony remains to be seen, but to be honest I thought the Golden Globes press conference to be a far more civilised affair than the glitzy red-carpet rigmarole which is now de rigeur for these ocassions.
I have long thought that Tommy Lee Jones to be one of the most underrated actors of recent times. Notwthstanding a brief dabble in Hollywood blockbusters, he has acted in and directed some of the best films of the last few decades.
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is one of my all time favourites. It resonates with questions that are relevant to the general theme of this blog: Why are we struggling to build a better world? How many of us realise just how miserable life is for those who, for one reason or another, have their life-chances limited? And how is one to behave in a world which encourages selfish behaviour and makes life too comfortable for those who disregard the interests of others?
I'm pleased to say that this critical oversight has been remedied, in part at least, by David Thomson, who shares my admiration for Jones and his work, in today's Guardian. Thomson's excellent piece is here.
