Many a familiar spot in this old footage. London looks even more like an ant heap than it does now. Look out for Pears Soap, Kodak and Hovis on the omnibus as it whizzes past.
From the same writing team who hit the big time with Sexy Beast, we have a more theatrical, darker piece. At first glance, it strikes on as something like a RESEVOIR DOGS set in London, but actually the themes, infidelity, vulnerability and forgiveness are remarkably congruent with Sexy Beast. Once again, there’s an all star cast led by Ray Winstone. John Hurt does some scene stealing Frankie Fraser schtick – a very long way from Winston Smith in 1984 or THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT. Bravo.
Witty dialogue, good pace and an interesting enough journey for the protagonist Colin Newman (Ray Winstone) make this well worth watching.
It’s a far cry from LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS and all the better for it.
The year in review: ‘How should we rate 2008?’ by | Prospect Magazine January 2009 issue 154
Overrated Happy-Go-Lucky by Mike Leigh. This multiple-award winning film left me not just cold, but irritated. The central character Poppy (Sally Hawkins) was insufferably annoying and the whole film was infused with cod psychology. A little Freud is a dangerous thing.
Amen. The adulation this man gets from most commentators is dumbfounding. It’s good to see an exception.
‘Disgrace’: A disquieting lens on South African brutality – International Herald Tribune
Coetzee has praised the film, saying, “Steve Jacobs has succeeded beautifully in integrating the story into the grand landscape of South Africa. The leading actors give strong and thoughtful performances.”
The uncanny Michael Sheen plays the unique Kenneth Williams. Memories of ‘Just a Minute” – entertaining banter with Derek Nimmo, Clement Freud and Nicholoas Parsons.
A repeat viewing of Robert Bresson’s Dostoievskian tale of inflated anomie coming acropper in post-war Paris. The object relations school would approve of the means of his salvation – a comination of hitting rock bottom and finding someone to love.
I like tales of ego-shrunk salvation: DISGRACE and FALCONER spring to mind.
Despite his reputation, there isn’t an especially Christian flavour to what happens to Michel, although there are allusions lurking in the background. There’s something very Madonna-like in the young girl whose openness of heart comes to mean so much to Michel; we, in turn, come to see him as a prodigal returned by the end of the film.