EIFF 2008 – Summer – Review

 

I was given these tickets by Sarah who couldn’t make it.  It was at the Filmhouse rather than Cineworld.  Summer was another premiere – and a lot of the cast members as well as the director and writer were in attendance.

 

This was another great film.  About main character, Shaun (Robert Carlisle) and his reflection on things of the past while in the present he is caring for his best friend Daz, who is in a wheelchair and dying of liver failure.

 

I really enjoyed it – what I noted most was this was a film with hardly any dialogue but so much being said.  There were lots and lots of silences but none of them awkward.  There were also well structured flashbacks to particular events in both lives which help the audience appreciate how Shaun and Daz have ended up where they are.

 

It has moments of pure comedy and also tragedy.  Shaun as a child struggled with the frustration of a learning disability, and the teenage Shaun (I think played by Sean Kelly) was amazing in portraying this – apparently this was his first time acting but I would have never guessed!

 

What was really liked was at the end of the film there was hope.  Shaun has spent this period of time looking back at events that have led with him where he is but at the end of the film you really feel that he has finished his reminiscing and is now ready to move forward with a more positive future with renewed purpose and direction.

 

The questions and answers at the end were really interesting – Robert Carlisle demonstrated a real understanding of his character which was impressive and having the writer and director on stage discussing their use of silence as it’s own kind of dialogue was fascinating.

 

Great stuff!

EIFF 2008 – Before the Rains – Review

 

 

 

I saw this with Sarah last Thursday.  As it was another premiere, the Director, Santosh Sivan and one of the main actors, Linus Roache were there to introduce and then take questions afterwards.

 

I really enjoyed this film.  It was a tragic story of greed, passion, betrayal set in a remote village in Kerala.

 

On the surface it is about a plantation owner, Moores (played by Linus Roache) and his affair with housekeeper, Sajani (Nandita Das).  It is also about the plantation Moores is developing to increase not just his prosperity but to the whole area around him by creating jobs, building hospitals and schools etc.  What I really felt it was about was the development of the character TK, the right-hand man of Moores.  He at first works loyally with Moores as he develops his plantation and then slowly but surely realises he cannot balance his modern and traditional life.  Throughout the film he is seen as looking up to and even idealising the character of Moores and then as the film and story develops realising that he does in fact embody everything that he should hate about the British Empire.  The idealism Moores is aspiring to goes out the window as he reveals his true nature under pressure and this is a great disappointment to TK and rightly so!

 

It was beautifully filmed and in the interview Sivan commented that he wanted the location to be considered a character in the film – this I believe was successfully achieved.  The scenery and countryside was truly breath-taking.  You also got a real sense of what it might have been like to live in India as a Brit and even as an Indian in that time.  The story was relatively simple but very well executed.  It has a very real message and was really quite tragic but I did not leave the theatre depressed or heavy hearted.

 

Also – very pleased that at the end I got a chance to meeting Santosh Sivan – if briefly – and say thank you and that I enjoyed the film very much.

EIFF 2008 – The Edge of Love – Review

 

 

 

I have seen a number of films in the Edinburgh International Film Festival (http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/) this year so thought I would use my blog to write some reviews.

 

The first film I saw was the Premiere and opening film “The Edge of Love” with Keira Knightly, Matthew Rhys, Cillian Murphy and Sienna Miller.  I should mention thanks to the Apex Hotels for the invite!

 

The showing was the 1830 showing with the stars in attendance (sort of!) and a chance to walk down the *red carpet*.  Have to say I LOVED walking down the red carpet – once in a life time experience and was both nerve-wracking and thrilling.

 

The film itself was just OK.  It centred largely the relationships between the four main (and pretty much only) characters – Dylan Thomas, his wife Caitlin Macnamara, his childhood friend Vera Killick (nee Phillips) and her husband William Killick.  It was set in both London and West Wales.

 

It was a quite interesting storyline – a lot of conjecture mixed with some actual events.  For example the incident where the incident where William Killick shoots at the Thomas’ household and threatens them with a grenade was a true occurrence – even if the events surrounding it were not.  It follows the period of time when the three main characters, Thomas, Caitlin and Vera were extremely close both during their time in London and later in West Wales.

 

I found the first part of the film, tighter and more together and than the second part which was shot in Wales.  The film seems to go down hill when Vera’s husband, William goes away to war – this may be to help represent the unravelling of his character on return from the Second World War.  However, my personal opinion is that as this is the part where the most imagination is required – as to what actually happened during this time – the writing is what is at fault.

 

I felt the acting was good – on all parts – even if Knightley’s accent could have been a little less exaggerated.  I was particularly impressed with Sienna Miller as I had not actually seen her act in a film before.

 

In conclusion I did enjoy the film even if it may have been down to the *event* of attending the premiere and after show party rather than the actual film!