Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Don’t be. Just enjoy the experience. And watch Orlando, which is so beautiful!

Hundreds of years of walking on this earth. Never fade, never grow old. As a man Orlando can’t get in touch with his feminine side. Can’t dabble in poetry, can’t trust the woman he loves, can’t feel sorry for the enemy dying in front of him. So Orlando becomes a woman. Literally overnight. And finds she can’t think, she can’t have opinions, have a character even. Can’t keep the property she owned for centuries, can’t even trust the more liberal adventurers of the 19th century. So is it possible to live an unfettered life? Are men and women not just exactly the same, with only a difference in sex?

Even if you don’t want to contemplate these existential questions. Even if you don’t know how the book was one long love letter to Vita Sackville-West and her beloved Knole. Even if you don’t care about all that, just watch the film and enjoy the wonderful tableaus, the cinematography, the skating on the ice, the negotiating six feet wide dresses, and the perfect performance of Tilda Swinton. You won’t be disappointed!

Adrian

Lunch letters

Sometimes the wrong train can get you to the right station.

That is most definitely the theme of this lovely movie. Shot in Mumbai where so-called dabbawalas deliver some 130,000 lunch boxes everyday, this film tracks the lives of two people who are inadvertently thrown together, albeit at a distance. A love story of sorts, but far more a gentle, quiet portrait of ordinary lives, and how they may sometimes intertwine, but how dreams or ideals never come to fruition and people continue to live their ordinary lives.

But, as the saying goes, even the wrong train may get you to the right station and in this case both main characters make decisions to alter their lives, after having been on the wrong track for a bit. So yes, they may be heading towards their own right station, although we’ll never know because the ending is open and will leave you pondering the rights or wrongs of their (in-)actions.

Absolutely loved this film and if you’re looking for a genteel way to spend an hour and a half, go and watch this movie!

Adrian

Oslo Trilogy

Right, so that’s the Cannes Film Festival over and done with for another year. Not that I’ve been, mind you, but thankfully such events always yield a flurry of movie reviews on Youtube, and I gladly devour all of those to make up my own mind. One of my favourites reviewers is ‘Like Stories of Old’. He always manages to review films that have a certain dreaminess and sensitivity that I like very much.

So I was watching his Cannes review and made notes of all the films he enjoyed seeing when there, among which was Sentimental Value, the latest film by Norwegian director Joachim Trier. The reviewer Tom van der Linden (I believe he is a fellow Dutchman but that’s beside the point) then said that The Worst Person in the World, also by Trier, was one of his favourite films of all time.

Naturally I had to see this film, so I did and am blown away by it. It’s such a beautiful portrait of a young woman finding her way in the world, trying to find her way in life. Beautifully played by Renate Reinsve, especially in her scenes with Anders Danielsen Lee. Beautiful cinematography, especially that sunrise scene somewhere near the end. The film takes it time, it’s over two hours long, so too long for our film nights unfortunately, but it’s gripping so you just settle in and enjoy the slower pace. It makes you contemplate your own path in life, the decisions we made when we were younger, the wrong ones, the right ones, most of them necessary to end up where we are now.

Does that make us the worst person in the world? Or is it just part of life? An absolutely amazing film.

And on top of that I’ve since found out that it is the final part of what is now known as Trier’s Oslo Trilogy. They’re all stand-alone films, so you don’t need to see them all together, but I now most certainly will and I hope to start soon with the first one, Reprise, to be followed by Oslo August 31st.

So watch this space!

Adrian

Hard watch

I’ve just joined Mubi (and can heartily recommend it!) which is why I’m now able to try and see so many films that I would never have thought of seeing before. So when we just had that wonderful Irish film with Barry Keoghan in (The Banshees of Inisherin), I thought I’d watch some more films he acts in. So I saw Bring Them Down the other day. And I must say, it was a hard watch.

I read somewhere that the film depicts paternalism, heritage and generational trauma cycles in Ireland. And boy, did it deliver. Gritty, rather violent, though just about watchable, it is classed as a revenge film, which would normally not be something I’d like to watch. But it was beautifully shot and most graphic stuff sort of happens out of sight, so the film kept me intrigued and I managed to finish it without looking away.

There’s not really that much of a story, and there’s not really that much of dialogue, but the emotional tension is palpable and you sort of get why people are struggling they way they are. And that is definitely the strong point of this film.

Which is why I think you may have a go, if you’re stomach is up for it, because it may be more rewarding than you would at first expect. The whole feel of the film surely stayed with me for a couple of days, which is another strong point.

So yes, I think I’ve got to give it a 4 out of 5 after all.

Adrian