54th BFI London Film Festival: 2010 Award Winners

The 54th BFI London Film Festival drew to a close yesterday with the announcement of the festival's award winners at a star-studded ceremony in London's LSO St Luke's.

The festival jury - chaired by Patricia Clarkson and including Gabriel Byrne, Sandy Powell and Shekhar Kapur - presented Russian director Aleksei Popogrebsky with the Best Film award for his psychological drama How I Ended This Summer, while British filmmaker Danny Boyle was presented with the prestigious BFI Fellowship for his outstanding contribution to film.

Also in attendance was Martin Scorsese, who delivered a special tribute to the work of the BFI National Archive for its 75th anniversary.


A full rundown of the award winners...

BFI Fellowship: Danny Boyle

Best Film: How I Ended This Summer (dir. Aleksei Popogrebsky)

"Tense, moving and universal in its scope, this is a cinematic tour de force." - Patricia Clarkson

Special commendation to Archipelago (dir. Joanna Hogg)

Best British Newcomer: Clio Barnard, director of The Arbor

"Clio Barnard’s genre-busting film The Arbor is innovative, eloquent and emotionally resonant... a stunning debut" - Tony Grisoni

Sutherland Award: Clio Barnard (The Arbor)

"This is a challenging, moving and utterly memorable film and a deserving winner of the Sutherland Award" - Sandra Hebron

Grierson Award for Best Documentary: Armadillo (dir. Janus Metz)

"Armadillo is a touchstone film that will be watched for years to come.” - Kevin Macdonald

We'll be finishing up our coverage of the London Film Festival here at Flickering Myth over the next few days, while highlights of the awards ceremony will be broadcast on Sky Arts 2 HD on November 7th.

Monsters regional tour and 'Monster Making Masterclass' with filmmaker Gareth Edwards

We're still over a month away from the release of British sci-fi flick Monsters but UK audiences can get an early look at the film courtesy of BAFTA with three regional screenings taking place next week in Bristol (Monday 1st at Watershed Cinema), Newcastle (Tuesday 2nd at Tyneside Cinema) and Glasgow (Wednesday 3rd at Glasgow Film Theatre). Each screening is followed by a Q&A with writer-director Gareth Edwards, who makes his feature debut with Monsters after building a name for himself as a visual effects artist.

Meanwhile for those interested in gaining a better insight into the filmmaking process, both the Bristol and Newcastle screenings are preceded by a special free event hosted by Gareth Edwards, "A Master Class in Making Monsters", in which he discusses his experiences of getting his debut feature made and the challenges of creating visually compelling aliens on an incredibly low budget.

To apply for tickets to the screenings / masterclasses, email regions@bafta.org.

"Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear there and half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures". Monsters begins when a US journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border."


Monsters is set for a nationwide release on December 3rd.

54th BFI London Film Festival: West is West Q&A

Coverage of the West is West Q&A from the London Film Festival...

In attendance:

• Ayub Khan-Din (Writer)
• Lesley Nicol (Anne)
• Ila Arun (Basheera)
• Aquib Khan (Sajid)
• Emil Marwa (Maneer)
• Om Puri (George)

It’s been eleven years since the first film (East is East) which was very successful. It seems an extraordinary long time for a sequel when in general sequels tend to get rushed out. Explain a little why it’s taken so long.

Ayub: Before I was writing I was an actor and writing was just something I did as a hobby between jobs. I had written East is East in around ’82/’83 when I was at drama school and again much later, I think it was ’89/’90, I wrote a film called Riffle Was Here which was basically West is West. It was the follow on from East is East. After East is East came out I didn’t think about writing a sequel to it. Riffle Was Here was around. The “huge-ness” of the success of East is East was off putting. Also, having seen lots of other sequels that didn’t quite capture the original of that author was a stumbling block for me. But then a couple of years ago I stared looking a the script for Riffle Was Here and I just kind of thought what was important was to create a film that was a story in itself. You wouldn’t have to refer back to East is East, it had to be a stand alone story for me. And also for me, the worst thing about sequels is they do try to go back and do the same kind of gags and things that the earlier film did. So for me this film had to move forward, both emotionally and with the comic stance as well.

The film started off very light hearted and then developed well into a deeper area. When is the next part of the trilogy going to be?

Ayub: The thing about trilogies is that people always look at the first and second films. I don’t know probably this year or next year. I’m thinking about it now.


Three of our guests here are returning from the first film. Om, you return as the fearsome George. It must be strange coming back to a character after so long. How did it feel?

Om: It feels normal to me. The way George Khan gradually develops in East is East, I look at him at the end of the film as a mellowed person. When he’s about to hit his wife, Emil (Mandeer) grabs his hand and looks straight into his eyes and that’s where I tried to interpret that in George Khan’s eyes, the feeling is that his empire is over. He can’t take the children for granted any more and therefore he has to change his perspective and he has to behave himself. He spends the entire night in the chip shop. In the morning when Ella finds him sitting there on a chair and she asks him if he wants a cup of tea he says “I’ll have half a cup”. In this film he’s a much mellowed George Khan who’s matured, who’s full of guilt, embarrassment, awkwardness, especially when his British wife, without announcing it, lands in Pakistan and he’s totally dumbfounded. He doesn’t know how to react and how to handle this enourmous situation.

How much research did you have to put in for the script [for growing up in a mixed race household]?

Ayub: East is East is pretty autobiographical. The parents were directly drawn from my own parents. In my family there were ten kids, but unfortunately with the play [East is East was originally a stage play], and also with the film, we couldn’t afford to have a bigger cast so it was all kind of condensed down. All the arguments, like the children arguing in East is East, I formed in my own head over a period of time. it’s not something you think about when you’re a kid, you just duck. With my Dad basically you just ducked down quick and let the next one get it! So you don’t really think in those kind of terms about the wider argument, it’s only later on when I started writing East is East that I tried to understand his perspective on life, who he was, how he thought our lives should be. It was only at that time, much later, that those arguments kind of formed, and I automatically started drawing on experiences and situations that happened to me. West is West again is based on my experience. I got sent to Pakistan when I was twelve years old. I was wagging school, doing a bit of shop lifting, just being a horrible teenager. My brother was already out there and my parents thought it might be a good idea to get rid of me for a year for me to look at a different life outside of Salford. I did go there and I ran riot for a year. My Dad’s first wife and family weren’t keen on me, I wasn’t keen on them and we were just kind of knocking heads all the time. But again much later when I came to start writing West is West, after East is East there were a lot of unanswered questions. People wanted to know more, people wanted to specifically know more about that woman in Pakistan and about the daughters and about the children. For me I thought I want to know more. All I knew was the antagonism that we had, but I really wanted to explore how that woman felt. After thirty five years suddenly he [George] sends two boys who turn up on her doorstep. It enabled me to try and get into her skin and to try and tell her story.

Emil: Well I was first part of the stage play and being mixed race myself I drew from my own experience. What was nice was reading West is West and actually seeing that my character had a nicer journey if you like, a more mature journey. He becomes a man, he is standing up to his father which he doesn’t have the opportunity to do in East is East. It was great for me as an actor to take that character on further and develop him in such a way. Ayub wrote it in such a way that it gives Maneer [his character] a chance to sort of develop out of this religious zone where he’s desperately trying to please his father. He goes to Pakistan in order to find a wife but at the same time he learns that things aren’t the way his father told him they were, and that’s what gives him the strength to stand up to him. And eventually, luckily enough, he finds himself a wife.


Aquib, this is your first acting experience and you’re taking over, if you like, a character [Sajid] that was rather well loved first time around. That must have been quite a challenge?

Aquib: Yeah, nearly everyone I know has seen East is East so I knew it would be pretty challenging but I thought I’d relate myself towards him because I am an annoying little teenager! So actually it was pretty easy!

So some experiences you have in the film, are they from real life too?

Aquib: Yeah there were some experiences from real life. I have lived in some areas around where I live, in Bradford, which were pretty racist and me being British Pakistani I could draw from those experiences and add it towards this film. He [Sajid] experiences racism from both sides not just from the white culture but the Pakistani culture as well. When he goes there they say “who’s this little English boy?”

What were the challenges, if any, when scripting this film to make it appear as a stand alone film?

Ayub: I think the major challenge for me, even before I started writing it, was thinking about Ella and the first wife in Pakistan. It was one of the most important issues in the film, that these two people have to communicate in some way. Every time I started thinking about it I was coming up against a brick wall because technically one spoke English and one spoke Punjabi so to have a third party in that scene that they have together in the film would have been taking away from it. And then it suddenly dawned on me that it didn’t matter that they didn’t speak the same language because they were talking about the one person they both loved, in a different way, but it was the one person they were both focusing on at that point. They communicate through the gestures they make. I wanted to be really clear when I was writing about that, about the way they both touched things and touched each other. Until I got that, that was the most difficult part of the project for me. Once that had happened so many different things started falling into place. I wanted to tell Basheera’s story well, without just being about this angry woman who had been abandoned thirty five years before. I wanted to make her a rounded character so you could understand exactly who she was and the decisions that she was going to make about this relationship and this man. A lot of the groundwork had gone in when I wrote Riffle Was Here so it wasn’t just jumping in to something that was completely new. I had a rough outline from the original script I started to write that I could follow. I was also trying to follow on from East is East so I had to decide to take only two of the boys. It was hard to discard those other characters because they were fantastic and needed to have a voice as well but I thought at this point the two most important were Sajid, the youngest boy, an Maneer the religious boy. Both those characters had to have a Road to Damascus moment.

Ila, you are new cast member is this potential saga. When you read the script how truthful did you feel it was from when you first saw it?

Ila: Like Ayub said, my character was genuinely a very well written role, and I can see thousands of such women who are forced to be silent. I could see their pain, so for me to get into that role it’s emotional, for any woman not just Pakistani. So for this fantastic role I can give what a woman can give, all the emotions. I [as the character] was told be silent for all those years, I don’t just want to speak for two minutes now.

Ila and Aquib, what was it like joining an already established cast, and also for everyone, what challenges did you face shooting in India?

Aquib: At first I found it pretty hard to blend in to the family, but I just thought ‘I am Sajid’, he is me now, and pretended the character hasn’t changed. Going to India was fantastic, it was the first time I’ve been there, I love the climate obviously, coming from rainy Britain! I stayed there for six or seven weeks. I’ve been to Pakistan before so it’s a lot like that, I could speak the language so it was great.

Ila: I always felt I was part of the family as Mrs Khan number one! So I’m shocked when [speaking in character] my husband comes back with these two sons who will take their own time to adjust. I felt absolutely at home. I think it was a difficult job for George (Om Puri) who ignored me, left and created his own world. I was waiting for them to come back and for me it wasn’t a problem.


Lesley you are another returning character [as Auntie Annie]. What were the challenges you faced in India?

Lesley: To be honest there weren’t really any challenges. It was one of those dream jobs. I’ve been a part of this whole East is East project, and West is West, for fourteen years. We did the stage play together, it’s been a family affair for a very long time. Weirdly Ayub [writer] and I had been working together in a television drama when he handed me the script and said ‘do you want to have a look at this?’ It’s been a project very close to our hearts, still is. India is beyond wonderful and I can’t wait to go back. All the crew their, the Indian crew, and to have Ila there was a great privilege and everyone was wonderful as always. It was a very very happy job and I feel lucky to have been there.

Ayub, were you conscious to portray a more positive image of Pakistan than we often see in the media over here , and were would you take the trilogy in the third part? Would we be following them once they [the Khan family] got back to the UK?

Ayub: So many things happened after East is East, like the bombings in London. No matter what I did people were going to refer back to that. I was writing about the Pakistan I saw in 1974 when I was there. You can’t make references to what’s going on today and what’s happening in Pakistan now. I didn’t attempt that, I just wanted to portray what I saw at the time and put my characters into that period. In terms of what’s going to happen next I can’t really say yet! George has got an understanding with his younger son and at the end of East is East there was a kind of ‘live and let live’ situation that was going on with the older sons. He hasn’t really come to turn with his older sons and his older sons haven’t really come to terms with him yet. There has to be a situation that brings those people together. Even being brought together by an emotional situation, whether or not they’ll walk away with any further understanding of each other I’ve yet to kind of develop.

Om, if you could chose what Ayub wrote about you [as George] for the third film what would you like him to do with your character?

Om: I want to live with both the women!

Aquib, this is your first film, and a major role, how did that feel? And on the subject of this being a trilogy is it going to be set in the 70’s/80’s again or are you going to bring it to 2010/2011?

Ayub: No it’s going to be around the time I left school so ’77, ’78, late seventies, early eighties.

Lesley: Well the clothes are fabulous!

And Aquib, how did this first major role feel and did anything go wrong at all?

Aquib: I wouldn’t say anything went wrong, it was all smooth. I just tried not to think about it because I knew if I thought about it there’d be pressure and I might break down! I just thought ‘this is my new family for six weeks’ and to just blend in. I just thought ‘I’m Sajid now’, it’s pretty easy to play, that’s it!

It’s been eleven years now, and I remember when East is East came out and it felt like a landmark, a chance to see Asians in a great British film. There have been more representations since so I wondered what the panel thought of the intervening years, whether we’ve [Asians] been represented more on screen.

Om: I’m not really familiar because I don’t live here.

Emil: I’m thinking off the top of my head, Slumdog Millionaire. Well actually that’s set in India isn’t it. We’re talking Bend It Like Beckham, It’s A Wonderful Afterlife, Gurinder [Chadha]’s films. Basically I can only think of Gurinder’s films, so in answer to that I would have to say not really.

Ayub let me just come to you with this. I remember talking to you a few years ago and you saying that there had been a very limited representation, an almost patronising wave of Asian characters. I think you yourself were in something like London Bridge, a television series, then things perked up a bit. What’s your observation?

Ayub: It changes. When I came out of drama school, the only representation we [Asians] had in the media was we either played shopkeepers or were beaten up by skinheads, or we were just being allowed to be doctors. But it gets better. Without My Beautiful Laundrette [a British film from 1985] there wouldn’t have been Brothers in Trouble [another British Asian film from 1995, also starring Om Puri], without those two there wouldn’t have been East is East. Every generation moves it on a little step more. It’s hard enough getting films made whether you’re Asian or not, the money isn’t there. There’s even less money there now because of the cut to the UK Film Council, which was a major mistake. They kind of supported young black filmmakers, and I include everyone in that [Asian, Indian, Pakistani filmmakers]. It was a place where young black filmmakers were helped, were encouraged. We’ve still got Channel 4, Film 4 and the BBC but it much smaller ways. But it helps every time a film like East is East or Bend It like Beckham comes out, it just pushed to the fore that black stories are mainstream, it doesn’t just have to be specifically about black problems. Emotions are universal. Every film that comes along helps that.

Read our review of West is West here.

Jon Dudley is a freelance film and television journalist and his 17-minute short film Justification was shown at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

54th BFI London Film Festival: The King's Speech (2010)

The King's Speech, 2010.

Directed by Tom Hooper.
Starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Jennifer Ehle, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Guy Pearce and Timothy Spall.


SYNOPSIS:

The story of the relationship between King George VI and an unconventional Australian speech therapist.


The first thing I’d like to say about The King’s Speech is I’m not usually a fan of historical dramas (the occasional war epic aside) but there is a lot of buzz surrounding this film. Even on my way to the screening I couldn’t escape it: I was reading Shortlist magazine on the tube and on the fifth page is an article touting Colin Firth for Oscar glory for his performance. Having now seen the film I can see what the fuss is all about.

Firth plays Prince Albert, Duke of York (known as Bertie to his relatives and who later becomes King George VI). Albert suffers from a debilitating stutter that often cripples him when he is required to take part in any form of public speaking. Having tried several remedies his wife Queen Elizabeth (that’s the Queen Mother, played by Helena Bonham Carter) has a doctor recommended to her - Lionel Logue (brilliantly played by Geoffrey Rush). Logue has some very unorthodox methods to combat Albert’s speech problem, something that causes him to lose faith in the doctor and end their consultations. But when he is asked to read Shakespeare whilst listening to music so as not to focus on his speaking his stammer is gone and Logue is required once more.

The consultations between the future king and his speech therapist gradually transform into meetings between friends, but not without the two characters having their differences. The first time they meet for example gives us one of the funniest scenes in the film, a scene that sums up the characters perfectly. Firth’s Albert is pessimistic whilst Rush’s Logue does not seem to care for Royal formalities. When Logue asks Albert what he likes to be called he responds “Your majesty is fine”, to which Logue nonchalantly replies “I prefer Bertie.”

But it’s not all laughs. The seriousness of Albert’s speech impediment is displayed delicately and gracefully throughout to highlight the problem. There is a scene with his brother David (who becomes King but later abdicates to marry Wallis Simpson) where he mocks him which causes his confidence to plummet and takes him back to square one with his progress. Lionel Logue is unfamiliar with defeat and continues to help his royal patient. One technique he employs is to get Albert to swear and sing between words so that he doesn’t hesitate. Although a lot of the scenes including this technique provide humour, it was a genuine tool used by the writer of the film, David Seidler, when he too suffered from speech problems in his younger days.

As the film progresses Logue and Albert become closer, their friendship being confirmed in an emotional scene where Albert confesses to his doctor that he is very lonely and the member of his family that he was closest too growing up was his nanny. This gives a sort of back story and explanation to Albert’s lack of self confidence which is summed up one night at home by Logue’s wife - “Perhaps he doesn’t want to be great. Perhaps that’s what you want.” But the King is determined to overcome his problem and aims to deliver his first major speech as monarch that leads the country into the second world war.

The pre-war context in very interesting, with Winston Churchill (Timothy Spall) making several appearances following King George V’s death. Churchill tells Albert the country needs a strong King which makes him doubt if he can deliver.

The story is played out with a elegant pace and smooth transitions between historical changes allow the narrative to simply flow on screen. That is ultimately due to Firth’s strong performance leading the way. The film is shot within crisp and beautiful royal settings that as well as looking immaculate also bring the audience further in to the royal family and highlight the magnitude of Albert’s problems. Other strong performances by Rush and Bonham Carter help tie everything else together to form a powerful package of a film that is sure to be one of the hits of the festival. And judging by the reception it’s had before it’s theatrical release (January 2011) I’m sure it will be a box office success too.

Jon Dudley is a freelance film and television journalist and his 17 minute short film Justification was shown at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

Movie Review Archive

Frustrated Ramblings: My Guilty Pleasure #1 - Alfie (2004)

DJ Haza reveals his guilty pleasures in more "Frustrated Ramblings Of An Aspiring Filmmaker"...

We all have our guilty pleasures when it comes to film and television. That one film or television show that you know deep down is absolute tripe and you shouldn’t be watching it. But you do. It may be something that makes you laugh, but your friends don’t see the humor. It could even be a cheesy drama that strikes a chord with you and pulls at your heart-strings. Maybe even a certain film that reminds you of a certain time, person or place in your past and brings back happy memories. For me one of those guilty pleasures is Charles Shyer’s 2004 remake of Alfie. I know!

The original Alfie (1966) is a gem of British cinema and starred the similarly gem-like Micheal Caine. To some it may seem as a travesty to remake such as classic. To others maybe even a crime against cinema. Lewis Gilbert’s 1966 classic was nominated for five Oscars, so how could the remake better the original? It doesn’t really. It’s not a stitch on the original in terms of cinematic importance or stature. Shyer’s Alfie cost a whopping $60,000,000 and only grossed $35,000,000 worldwide. Rotten Tomatoes gives it an average rating of 5.6/10. Evidence that not everyone shares my fondness of the modern incarnation. But I still enjoy it.

If the modern version of Alfie is on I can’t help but watch it through to the very end. For me it’s slick, stylish and has a great soundtrack. When I’m watching it I can’t help but smile. Every inch of the integral filmmaker inside me screams that I should not like this film. I cannot like this film. But I do. It isn’t really a film I would have liked to have made myself and I’m sure that when I first heard the original was being remade I probably made an internal protest within my own head. But… it entertains me. This is why….

Jude Law is perfect for the sly and seductive lothario in the remake. Despite having a distinct lack of acting talent Law doesn’t need to do much more than act natural if half of the tabloid rumors about his personal life are true. He fits the bill of charming and selfish down to a tee. Alfie’s wardrobe is immense. From his range of exquisite suits, shirts and ties down to his Prada lace-ups it is a wardrobe that is stuffed full of high end named labels. He always looks sharp even when dressed down and I for one would kill for a wardrobe like that.

New York City is a stunning setting with its bohemian coffee shops, towering sky scrapers and trendy bars. Plus it looks even better at Christmas. Since I visited the city for a week around New Year's 2005 I’ve always wanted to go back. The city was then, as it is in parts of the film, blanketed with white snow and lit up like the proverbial Christmas tree with all the trimmings. With other shots like the ones set beside the Brooklyn Bridge as it lights up the East River at night it looks simply stunning.

The soundtrack is pure audio bliss with a collection of 13 original songs, and a rewrite of the 1966 original title song, written by Dave Stewart and Mick Jagger. A beautiful fusion of rock and blues give the film another edge of class. I have even gone as far as to buy the soundtrack and I am indeed listening to it this very second as I electronically scribble way.

Perhaps the icing on the cake is the inspired casting of Sienna Miller. Not because she makes the part her own or nails the American accent perfectly. Who cares about that? The scene in which Alfie shows his unhappiness at his current girlfriend Nikki painting in his favourite shirt is one of my most enjoyed. Not because it has any real story telling merit, but because Nikki, played by Miller, precedes to take the shirt off and continue painting in her pants and boots whilst sucking on a cigarette. What more could you want?

Like I’ve said – it’s not from some sort of filmmaking appreciation I enjoy the film. It’s just nice to watch. I know that some of the exterior shots of New York City were shot in Manchester, Liverpool and the Port of Tilbury and when intercut with cityscape shots of Manhattan make it look like New York. I know that Jude Law is a shit actor, but he doesn’t have to do much acting. I also know that the clothes in Alfie’s wardrobe wouldn’t fit over my writer’s stomach, but I’d squeeze them on somehow.

What people have to remember about the latest incarnation of Alfie is that it is of a different time. The original was making an abrasive statement of London in the swinging 60’s where as this one is more about having fun. Alfie proves that you don’t need big money or a flash job to enjoy life. Even those with humble surroundings can get our kicks. He’s got a roof over his head, some nice threads and a beautiful city to play in so why not go out and enjoy life. There is also of course the obligatory closing moral about being careful of burning too many bridges in life.

At this point I must admit that I am uncertain as to whether I am trying to justify my fondness of Alfie to you the reader or myself. All I know is that Alfie himself leads a pretty decent life and he lives in a world where all you need is nice clothes and a city to play in for one to be happy. The film’s offering of escapism to a world where your only concern is who’s bed your going to be sleeping in tonight seems pretty good to me. You may, and probably do, disagree. You know what? I may just stick the DVD on this evening, kick back and enjoy. Excuse me whilst I go and wash hands. I’m feeling very dirty right now.

D.J. Haza

Follow my blog at http://djhaza.blogspot.com/
Follow me at http://www.facebook.com/djhaza

How to get funding for your independent film? Simple, get the fans involved!

Anthony Lane is a British filmmaker who has been passionately working on his first feature, a zombie film called The Invasion of the Not Quite Dead, for a number of years. In the UK film industry funding is very hard to come by so Lane is taking his own innovative approach to raise the money - donations from horror fans.

Wednesday saw the start of his latest stunt - a 72 Hour ‘Tweetathon’. Anthony (on Twitter he goes by @indywoodFILMS) is staying awake for three straight days to encourage fans to donate money for the film to go into production. £20,000 has already been raised and Lane is hoping to boost that amount by a further £5,000.

You can follow his progress and keep up to date with the money raised at http://www.indywood.co.uk/.

On offer to fans is the chance to receive a producer credit and various other opportunities relating to the film depending on how much you can donate. Even just a tenner will get you a downloadable copy of the finished film, access to the Producers Lounge on the website, your photo on the webpage and a Special Thanks credit at the end of the movie.

So go ahead and get involved to support a dedicated indie film maker who is making a film not only for but with the people who matter most - the fans.

54th BFI London Film Festival: West is West (2010)

West is West, 2010.

Directed by Andy DeEmmony.
Starring Aqib Khan, Om Puri, Linda Bassett, Robert Pugh, Emil Marwa and Jimi Mistry.


SYNOPSIS:

The dysfunctional Khan family continues to struggle for survival in the North of England during the 1970s. Under heavy assault from his father’s tyrannical insistence on Pakistani tradition, 15-year-old Sajid is packed off to the Punjab to stay with the wife and daughters George abandoned 30 years earlier.


West is West is the follow up to the critically acclaimed British success East is East (1999). And as the title of the film suggests it takes a look at the Khan family in a different setting from their last outing in Salford. This film follows George Khan (Om Puri) and his youngest son Sajid (Aquib Khan) when they go to Pakistan to visit the religious son from the first film Mandeer (Emil Marwa) and the family George left behind when he moved to England thirty years ago.

Right from the off we are introduced to George the way most people remember him - dominating and the head of his family. In the opening scene he is marching Sajid to school (he has been bunking off as he is being racially bullied) and telling his highly tolerant wife Ella (Linda Bassett) what food to buy from the shop. At the end of East is East there is a subtle sign that George has changed his ways slightly, but will the same happen in this film?

Mandeer is struggling to find a wife out in Pakistan due to his father’s reputation. When George returns to his homeland he struggles to accept the fact he is not respected and welcomed as much as he would have liked. After being caught skipping school and being arrested for shop lifting George drags Sajid along with him to teach him some respect. George says of Sajid “He [does] not know who he is.” The same can be said about George.

What made the first film interestingly funny was the Khan family dynamic: George wanted his children to be raised as traditional Pakistani muslims in England but they wanted to live freely and do what they wanted. This time around they have all flown the nest, although we see a brief glimpse of rebellious son Tariq (Jimi Mistry) who is now working in a hippy boutique. In the first forty minutes or so I couldn’t help but feel like the humour was forced somewhat. Now that the dysfunctional family dynamic was not there, or at least not on the same level, the laughs felt like they were thrown in as an attempt just to entertain. However having said that when Ella and her sister Anne (Lesley Nicol) arrive without warning in Pakistan to see why George hasn’t come home, their whole ‘fish out of water’ situation is genuinely funny. There is a great scene when Anne is telling George’s first wife Basheera (Ila Arun), who doesn’t speak a word of English, how much she likes her kebabs, “and I know kebabs” she says of herself. In a later scene Anne has to go to the toilet outside, to which Ella gives her advice to “just let it go and think of Salford.”

The language barrier also plays a huge part in one of the most poignant scenes I have scene in a British film for a long while. Basheera and Ella have an altercation when they first cross paths, however during a sand storm they are alone in a room and instead of tempers flaring Basheera tries to explain that she knows that George is no longer in her heart, he is now part of Ella’s. The writer of both films, Ayub Khan-Din, said the scene where Basheera and Ella communicate with each other was very hard to write because of the language barrier, but after several drafts he realised that language wasn’t needed to give the scene relevance and purpose.

But it is arguable that this film is a coming of age tale about Sajid, the youngest member of the Khan clan. The divide between the Western and Eastern cultures is kept at the front of people’s minds due to Sajid’s behaviour. He arrives in Pakistan not wanting to learn about the culture or meet his distant relatives. He insists on wearing a suit George bought him and is reluctant to wear traditional Pakistani attire. When Sajid feels more settled, which is mainly down to his blossoming friendship with a local Sufi (holy man) and a goat herder called Zaid, he gets fitted with more suitable clothing and declares “comfortable, I feel comfortable,” both in the clothes and in his heritage.

And it is not just Sajid who has a change of heart whilst in Pakistan. Basheera says of George “I don’t know who he is, George or Jahangir (his traditional name)”. By the end of the film he finds out.

In the production notes producer Leslee Udwin says “the most unique and valuable gift we can give to our fellow beings is the freedom to be different from us and the understanding of what it is that makes them different.” And that is what the characters, especially George, learn over the course of the film.

Although many people will have seen East is East, those who haven’t will still be able to enjoy this film on its own level as a stand-alone movie. On the relevance of the story of West is West writer Khan-Din says “There are a lot of people who understand what it means to come back home and rediscover roots, and to trace the fact that in this process of leaving and coming back, you also become a bit of both.” This analyses can be adapted for many situations, for example moving from your hometown to live in an unfamiliar city, however throw it in a cultural context and it’s meaning becomes all the more powerful.

West is West is a beautiful film that, like its characters, is more mature than East is East. There is a lot of growing up in this film and that is something audiences will find interesting to watch and emotionally engaging. Whether you have seen the first film or not I highly recommend you catch this one.

Jon Dudley is a freelance film and television journalist and his 17 minute short film Justification was shown at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

Movie Review Archive

Forthcoming Attractions - Desperate Measures

If you're familiar with our regular "Short Film Showcase" you may remember a John Carpenter-inspired slasher by the name of Cold Blood that featured on the site earlier this year. Well, Cold Blood director Steve Looker recently dropped us an email to give us the heads up on his latest project, a feature-length thriller entitled Desperate Measures. Here's the synopsis...

"Ross Hadley has been kidnapped and held on a remote farmhouse. A drink and drug addict, his two captors put him through a brutal regime to get him clean. But when he gets clean, Ross finds out the shocking real reasons behind his incarceration."

Currently in post-production, Desperate Measures stars Stephen Lord (EastEnders), Ricci Harnett (Rise of the Footsoldier) and Max Beesley Snr. (Looking for Eric) and is written and produced by Chris Green. If the trailer is anything to go by this could be one to watch out for when it's released next year. Take a look...


Be sure to head on over to the website for more about the film.

54th BFI London Film Festival: Africa United (2010)

Africa United, 2010.

Directed by Debs Gardner-Paterson.
Starring Eriya Ndayambaje, Roger Nsengiyumva and Sanyu Joanita Kintu.


SYNOPSIS:

Three Rwandan children set out on an extraordinary journey across seven countries to achieve their ultimate dream of taking part in the 2010 Football World Cup opening ceremony.


Africa United has been dubbed this year’s Slumdog Millionaire and the hype around this feel-good movie set amongst third world scenery was certainly sufficient to cause me some logistical problems at my first ever press screening. A last minute venue change meant that for a while my attendance was touch and go, but given the plot of the movie this was perhaps appropriate.

Essentially a road movie, Africa United follows three Rwandan children, talented footballer Fabrice from a privileged world of exams and plasma screens, his “manager” Dudu and his sister Beatrice, who dreams of becoming a doctor and finding the cure to HIV. So far so generic. The three plucky adventurers gradually acquire friends, forming the “team for the dream” that aims to accompany Fabrice all the way to Soccer City in Johannesburg in time for the World Cup’s opening ceremony, where he was promised a place by a scout back in his village. Inevitably the journey does not run smoothly and the young friends must overcome many hurdles, some specific to the troubled continent of the title and others typical to the human condition. Despite this predictable format Africa United is far from being an ordinary film. Like Slumdog Millionaire it is distributed by Pathe and deserves recognition and success, but for different and in my view more persuasive reasons.

Unlike Slumdog Millionaire, which was based upon a successful novel, Africa United was built upon far slimmer foundations; a chance remark in January 2009. Unlike Slumdog Millionaire, which was helmed by the respected Danny Boyle and marked the culmination of that respect with global recognition, Africa United was the directorial debut of Debs Gardner- Patterson, who explained the origins of the story and the difficulties of casting with a few words before my screening of the movie began. I watched a nervous unknown make an uncertain speech but knew 90 minutes or so later that I had been in the presence of at the very least an accomplished filmmaker, and at best this country’s next big thing. She has crafted, created and steered a project from the inspiration of just a few words into a must-see movie experience, talked of in the same breath as an Oscar winner. It lacks the epic scope and romantic intrigue of Slumdog and is at its heart a simple tale of friendship, but feels better formed and is much, much funnier throughout than 2008’s Indian set smash-hit.

The key to this humour and indeed the crucial factor elevating Africa United from the good to the excellent is the performance of young Eriya Ndayambaje as lead character Dudu. To use one of the many football metaphors ever present in the film, director Gardner-Patterson is an excellent manager, for acknowledging the importance of playing her star player from the start. The film opens with Dudu charmingly explaining, in almost Blue Peter style, how to construct the perfect football from condoms. It took just seconds for his infectious smile to have the audience giggling and cooing at his cuteness and in the rare moments that his sheer charm wears off, the script by Silent Witness writer Rhidian Brook provides him with killer lines. Often the gags are football based, such as when Dudu and Fabrice discuss which animals their heroes would be, with Dudu correcting Fabrice that Ronaldo is not a lively baboon but an arrogant peacock. But there are also laughs galore for the whole family, football fans or not, certainly too many for me to remember here. Although one of the more obvious, simple messages of the film is that “impossible is nothing” when people come together in teams, it is an inescapable fact that Africa United would lose much of its power without Dudu; he is the authentic magnet at the core of the story, the star striker, or perhaps kingpin playmaker pulling the strings.

That is not to say there are not other important elements to the story and the film’s authenticity. It was shot in real locations in Burundi, Rwanda and South Africa and the scenery is suitably stunning and colourful. There are actions sequences with rolling cars and firing guns as well as gags, innocence and friendship. The entertainment covers a broad range from childish humour to grand themes of dreams and emotion, often all skilfully related linked back the central idea of the power of sport. For example the scene where Dudu chooses to leave his sister at a school so she can get the education she craves is not only incredibly emotional but again links back to the idea of management, as the others praise Dudu’s skills. Africa United also perhaps understandably owes a lot to the continent of the title and paints a refreshingly honest portrait of modern African life; one in which some, like Fabrice’s family, are well off and football shirts, cars and mobile phones are the norm, as much as HIV, AIDS and child soldiers are. By showing African life realistically and making it accessible it is impossible not to root for the likeable main characters and thus Africa United becomes the perfect advert for the continent, far more effective than appeals for aid crammed with images of drought and famine. Who would not want to support this ambitious team for the dream, with ambitions not so unlike yours or mine, but smiles and charm that are a whole lot cuter?

Africa United then will find it hard to escape the same old labels of “feel-good” and “family friendly” in the coming weeks before its release, but through the hype remember that this film has far more to offer beneath the surface and do your best to support it. It has been lovingly nurtured by British debutants in the film world, shot and edited with a distinctive, fun style, suitably scored and dotted with original, heart warming and amusing African animations that add another notch to its originality. Most of all watch out for Dudu, and Eriya Ndayambaje who plays him, as his performance alone makes Africa United unmissable.

Watch the trailer for Africa United here.

Liam Trim (follow me on Twitter)

Movie Review Archive

54th BFI London Film Festival: Another Year (2010)

Another Year, 2010.

Directed by Mike Leigh.
Starring Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wright, Oliver Maltman and Imelda Staunton.


SYNOPSIS:

An intimate portrait of a year in the lives of an aging but happily-married couple and their dysfunctional friends.


Another Year is Mike Leigh’s eleventh feature film, an interesting multi character drama doused with humourous moments though out.

The story follows the lives and emotions of Gerri and her husband Tom, their son Joe, Gerri’s work colleague Mary and several other friends and relatives over the course of a year. The film is split into the four season - spring, summer, autumn, winter - to represent the relationships of everyone involved; in the spring everyone is happy and getting along with one another, but come winter certain friendships and relationships turn as frosty as the weather.

Gerri (Ruth Sheen) spends most of her time keeping her colleague Mary’s spirits up. Mary (Lesley Manville) is growing old, but she is also increasing in loneliness. She is jealous of Gerri and Tom’s (Jim Broadbent) relationship and has a very big soft spot for their son Joe (Oliver Maltman). Later in the year Joe introduces his girlfriend Katie (Karina Fernandez) to his parents - and Mary, who is hostile towards Katie which upsets everyone and ultimately damages her friendship with Gerri.

On some occasions films with multiple protagonists have strong and weak characters - this is not the case with Another Year. Every character, their importance in the story irrelevant, is a believable, likable person who does not fail to entertain. Although Mary is a growing burden on Gerri and Tom she steals many of her early scenes with drunken humour and her need to find a man who loves her. Another delightfully entertaining character is introduced in the Summer; Ken (Peter Wight). Ken is another fan of alcohol, which is both his charm and his downfall. The development of the character’s relationships is interesting to see, with only Gerri and Tom feeling comfortable at their stations in life to start with. Mary has a crush on Joe, who innocently flirts with her which leads her on and is the catalyst of her emotional stability going into decline. Joe confesses to her in a very sweet scene that a lot of his friends are now married and he is still single. When autumn comes around he brings his new girlfriend Katie into everyone’s life and Mary is out in the cold.

The film’s running time is a little over two hours. Although laced with comedic moments, after the first hour and fifteen minutes the pace begins to slow down - in some scenes coming to an abrupt halt all together. There is a scene where Mary is left alone with Tom’s brother Ronnie (David Bradley), who is staying with his brother and Gerri for a few days after his wife’s funeral. The situation is uncomfortable and Mary and Ronnie, having never met before, step outside for a cigarette. Mary’s personality and emotions have been firmly established at this point however her scene with Ronnie seems very unnecessary. Apart from a few cheap laughs there is no real point to it. The scene is under ten minutes long but if feels a lot longer. The first 75 - 90 minutes show that Mike Leigh has made a genuinely interesting and entertaining film, however it starts to sag towards the end.

The target audience is also very clear. Unless you are under the age of forty you are unlikely to find this film entertaining. The issues dealt with - growing old, finding love, making new relationships later in life - are things most cinema goers will not be too familiar with. Some exceptions aside (I’m well under forty years of age but I enjoyed it!) I can’t see many youngsters choosing to see this film on a night at the cinema if it has to contend with the razzle dazzle of a high profile Hollywood movie. Anyone outside Another Year’s target demographic will face a battle with their concentration span.

Mike Leigh’s newest offering gives us humour, emotion, empathy and disgust in places. It is very well acted and the narrative is told in a delicate way. However it is a little longer than it needs to be and wanes off towards the end, but ultimately it has the potentially to be one of the British gems of this year’s festival.

Jon Dudley is a freelance film and television journalist and his 17 minute short film Justification was shown at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

Movie Review Archive

British Cinema: The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2010)

The Disappearance of Alice Creed, 2010.

Written and Directed by J Blakeson.
Starring Gemma Arterton, Martin Compston and Eddie Marsan.


SYNOPSIS:

Two guys kidnap Alice Creed (Gemma Arterton) and demand two million dollars from her father. However things aren’t quite what they seem and everything starts to fall apart.


In essence this is a fairly gimmicky film, a cast considering of three actors (Gemma Arterton, Martin Compston and Eddie Marsan) and only a few sets, mostly set in a small apartment. However this is a finely made and very well acted thriller, even if it does get a tad overblown by the end.

The opening sequence shows the two kidnappers preparing the room, which will hold their captive, in meticulous detail. The room is soundproofed, the bed bolted to the floor and chains bolted to the bed. They proceed to dig a hole in the woods, marking the area with a brightly coloured cloth attached to a nearby tree. Everything about this is fairly un-nerving, with no dialogue, showing the cold, clinical precision involved in the early stages of the kidnapping. It’s clear from the outset that these guys are professionals and have been planning this for quite some time.

The actual kidnapping is even more disturbing, as they pull her into the back of their van, gag her, pull a bag over her head and take her to the room. She is then tied up, stripped, photographed and forced to piss in a bottle. This is very uncomfortable viewing and surprisingly to see such a mainstream actress go from Bond Girl to a role where she isn’t afraid to look unattractive. Marsan and Compston may get the bulk of the dialogue and screen time but it’s Arterton who really impresses.

However the real key to the film’s brilliance is the directing of J Blakeson, which switches from horror to some fairly humorous moments such as Danny (Martin Compston) trying to flush a bullet casing down the toilet. The shift in tone doesn’t feel jarring but instead offers moments of light relief for what is a pretty unrelenting couple of hours. These moments are few and far between though and Blakeson’s ability to ratchet up the tension in a matter of seconds, and then build it up to breaking point is mesmerising.

The actors also rise up the challenge of the material superbly, Eddie Marsan switches between cold and calculated to outright panic brilliantly and his double act with Compston is both believable and surprising in its development. Arterton also brings so much more to the role than helpless victim, supported by a script which gives her a lot more to do that you would expect, and proving more than capable of portraying the shifts in her character.

There is the odd occasion where the script gets overly fussy and starts to lay on twist after twist, most of which are fairly easy to predict, but the quality of the direction and the acting rise above it and produce a finely crafted thriller. It may be a film to admire rather than love but it is quality filmmaking nonetheless.

David Bishop

Movie Review Archive

Miss Zombie Queen 2010 Pageant to promote Zombie Women of Satan

To promote the release of upcoming Brit horror-comedy Zombie Women of Satan on DVD on June 21st, Revolver Entertainment are hosting the 'Miss Zombie Queen 2010' beauty pageant at The Cobden Club in London on June 16th, 2010.

If you fancy yourself as a Zombie Queen and would like to enter the contest email your details and a photo of yourself to info@growlingclown.com and mike@revolvergroup.com (closing date June 9th) - the top 10 submissions will be invited to take part in the finals, with the winner receiving a cash prize, the Miss Zombie Queen crown and sash and a chance to feature in Zombie Women of Satan 2!

Alternatively, if you'd prefer just to ogle the entrants, tickets for the evening are available from Ticketweb priced £8, which includes fetish and burlesque performances, DJs and live music from the band Killer B-Movie.

Zombie Women of Satan centres on a group of nightclub performers including Pervo the Clown (Warren Speed - also writer and co-director), flatulent dwarf Zeus (Peter Bonner) and feisty rock chick Skye (Victoria Hopkins), who arrive on a remote farm for a TV interview and soon discover that the occupants hold a dark secret - they have been kidnapping and torturing young women as part of a perverted cult. However, the family's experiments have gone dangerously wrong and turned the victims into ravenous, stocking-clad Zombies, leaving the ragtag group of visitors fighting for survival.

Zombie Women of Satan (cert.18) is released June 21st. Visit the official site here.

British Cinema: The One That Got Away (1957)

The One That Got Away, 1957.

Directed by Roy Ward Baker.
Starring Hardy Krüger, Colin Gordon, Michael Goodliffe and Terence Alexander.


SYNOPSIS:

During the Battle of Britain a Luftwaffe plane is hit and plunges down into the British countryside. Although the pilot is captured, he is extremely confident and focussed on his plan: to escape and return home against all odds.


Directed by Roy Ward Baker (A Night to Remember) and based upon the book of the same name by Kendal Burt and James Leasor, The One That Got Away is a dramatic retelling of the exploits of Oberleutnant Franz Von Werra, the only German prisoner-of-war in Britain to escape capture and return to his homeland.

Shot down during the Battle of Britain, Von Werra (Krüger) is sent to a POW camp in Northern England where he sets about plotting to break free of his captors and return home to warn the Reich of Britain’s interrogation methods. Embarking on a number of audacious escape attempts which are ultimately foiled (including an attempt to pass himself off as a Dutch pilot and steal a Hurricane in one of the film’s most suspenseful sections), Von Werra is eventually transported to Canada where he leaps from a train and manages to cross the frozen St. Lawrence River to seek asylum in the neutral United States.

Made just twelve years after the end of World War II, the greatest success of The One That Got Away is the way in which the film defies convention and inverts the typical notion of the Nazi as an evil monster. Credit must be given to Hardy Krüger (himself a former German soldier who experienced life as a POW when captured by the Americans near the conclusion of the war), who delivers a charming and charismatic performance as the cocky and resourceful Von Werra in his first international role.

Situated firmly as the hero of the piece, Von Werra comes across as a sympathetic character with the audience rooting for him to succeed in his efforts to escape. This is no doubt aided by a lack of references towards the Nazi regime while Von Werra’s own background and wartime successes are largely ignored, although the character remains fiercely loyal to his country and devoted to his duty as an officer. This could be considered manipulative, but it certainly makes for refreshing storytelling and allows the film to stand out from other popular POW movies such as The Wooden Horse (1950) and The Colditz Story (1955).

A fast-paced, tense and original thriller, The One That Got Away is a fine example of its genre and one that manages - for the most part, at least - to avoid the "stiff-upper-lip" Britishness common to many films of the period.

Gary Collinson

Silent Master: The Early Films of Alfred Hitchcock

Gary Collinson examines the silent film career of Alfred Hitchcock...

"In many of the films now being made, there is very little cinema: they are mostly what I call 'photographs of people talking'. When we tell a story in the cinema, we should resort to dialogue only when it's impossible to do otherwise." - Alfred Hitchcock. "

Legendary British filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was one of only a handful of directors able to make the successful transition from the silent era of cinema. After graduating from the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation, the teenage Hitchcock began studying art at the University of London while gaining employment as a designer with the Henley Telegraph Company. “From the age of sixteen on I read film journals,” Hitchcock said of his early interest in the cinema. “And since I was studying art at the University of London, Henley’s transferred me to the advertising department where I was given a chance to draw.”

In 1920 Hitchcock left Henley’s to work as an illustrator at the London branch of Famous Players-Laskey (which would later become Paramount Pictures), where he was responsible for producing the caption cards on a number of films, the majority of which are now lost to history. However, this experience certainly proved invaluable to the aspiring artist and when British company Gainsborough Pictures took over the studio Hitchcock landed a job as an assistant director under producer Michael Balcon.

In 1922 Hitchcock impressed Balcon with his screenplay for the stage adaptation Woman to Woman (1923) and the film went into production under director Graham Cutts, with Hitchcock serving as assistant director (during the production he also met his future wife Alma Reville, who was working on the film as an editor). In the same year Hitchcock was also given his first shot at directing, although the resulting picture Number Thirteen was left unfinished after it was unable to secure financing. He also stepped in to assist popular actor Seymour Hicks in completing the 1923 comedy short Always Tell Your Wife, after Hicks had fallen out with original director Hugh Croise.

From 1923–1925 Hitchcock continued to work as an assistant director with credits on The White Shadow (1923), The Prude’s Fall (1924), The Passionate Adventure (1924) and German production The Blackguard (1925), before Balcon approached Hitchcock with the offer of directing a picture himself. “Balcon told me that there was a proposal for an Anglo-German picture – another writer was assigned to the script and I left for Munich. My wife, Alma, was to be my assistant.”

The film in question was The Pleasure Garden, based on a novel by Oliver Sandys and featuring Hollywood actresses Virginia Valli and Carmelita Geraghty as a pair of London chorus girls whose husbands have departed for the colonies. Shot in Italy and Germany, the production encountered a number of misfortunes including problems with customs officials and transport, in addition to a severely tight budget. Although the film was completed in 1925 it did not receive an official release for two years, at which time the Daily Express described Hitchcock as a “young man with a master mind.” He then followed up his debut with The Mountain Eagle (1927), a melodrama centred on a young schoolteacher (Nita Naldi) who retreats to the mountains to escape the advances of her boyfriend’s father. Hitchcock himself described his sophomore effort as “a very bad movie”, although it did prove popular when released in the UK. Sadly, there are no surviving prints of The Mountain Eagle.

“The whole approach to this film was instinctive with me. It was the first time I exercised my style” Hitchcock said of his third feature. “In truth, you might almost say that The Lodger was my first picture”. Based on Marie Belloc Lowndes’ 1913 novel of the same name, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog centres on the hunt for a serial killer not dissimilar to Jack the Ripper, known as ‘The Avenger’ [watch online here].

The film is set primarily in the boarding house of Mr. and Mrs. Bunting (Marie Ault and Arthur Chesney), where a mysterious stranger (Ivor Novello) arrives and rents a room. The couple soon come to suspect Novello may in fact be responsible for the murders and begin to fear for the safety of their daughter Daisy (June Tripp) after she becomes romantically involved with the lodger. In addition to being described as the first true Hitchcock, The Lodger also marks the beginning of the director’s trademark cameo appearances and introduces many themes common to his work including the innocent man on the run.

The completed film was initially met with much resistance by the distribution company and producer Michael Balcon, who brought in Ivor Montagu to suggest changes. After sitting on the shelf for a number of months The Lodger was finally released in February 1927, with the resulting critical and commercial success helping to launch Hitchcock into the British film spotlight.

Following the success of The Lodger, 1927 would see the release of two further Hitchcock films. Firstly, he would reunite with Ivor Novello for Downhill (based upon a play the Welsh actor had written with the actress Constance Collier and edited by Ivor Montagu), which continued to demonstrate the director's emerging visual style when it was released in October of that year. Also opening that same month was The Ring, Hitchcock's first feature for British International Pictures and the only film in his back catalogue where he would receive the sole writing credit.

In March 1928 the up-and-coming filmmaker released a further two pictures: Easy Virtue, which was loosely adapted from the Noël Coward play and would prove to be the final collaboration between Hitchcock and Montagu in the silent era (Montagu would go on to serve as producer on Hitchcock's early British classics The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, Secret Agent and Sabotage); and comedy The Farmer's Wife, based on a play by Eden Phillpotts.

Hitchcock would release another comedy in August 1928 entitled Champagne, which he would later describe as "probably the lowest ebb in my output". This was followed by the romance The Manxman, which he began just after the birth of his daughter Patricia and once again, felt disappointed with the final result: "The only point of interest about that movie is that it was my last silent one."

With the success of 1927's The Jazz Singer heralding the decline of the silent art form, Hitchcock's tenth film was designed to introduce sound to the director's arsenal. "What happened was that after a good deal of hesitation, the producers decided it would be silent except for the last reel," he said of 1929's Blackmail. "But since I suspected the producers might change their minds and eventually want an all-sound picture, I worked it out that way".

Hitchcock's hunch would prove correct, while measures taken to incorporate 'that way' included having English actress Joan Barry stand off-camera to read dialogue on behalf of German Anny Ondra, who would simply mime the words with her mouth. Blackmail was eventually released in both formats, simultaneously marking the end of his silent career and introduction to the 'talkies'...

"The silent pictures were the purest form of cinema; the only thing they lacked was the sound of people talking and the noises. But this slight imperfection did not warrant the major changes that sound brought in. In other words, since all that was missing was simply natural sound, there was no need to go to the other extreme and completely abandon the technique of the pure motion picture, the way they did when sound came in." - Alfred Hitchcock.

Quotations from Hitchcock: A Definitive Study of Alfred Hitchcock- a truly fascinating read and highly recommended.

Related:

Five Essential... Films of Alfred Hitchcock
Classic Movies: Psycho (1960)
Movies... For Free! The Lodger (1927)
Movies... For Free! The 39 Steps (1935)
Movies... For Free! The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Gary Collinson

Short Film Showcase: Cold Blood (2009)

Presenting short films from independent filmmakers...

Cold Blood, 2009.

Written and Directed by Steve Looker.
Music by Philip Curran.
Actors Chris Green, Alison Bell.
Produced by Reel Vision Films.

"A girl awakes to find herself covered in blood and trapped in a warehouse. She hears someone being tortured next door! She is now in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a crazed killer".


A homage to Halloween (1978), Manchester filmmaker Steve Looker's Cold Blood is an atmospheric slasher, aided by its impressive visual style and accompanying musical score by Philip Curran, and has enjoyed a number of successful festival screenings including Grimm Up North, Mayhem Horror Fest and Phantasma-Goria.

For more on the film and its director (currently in pre-production on a feature length thriller, The Darkest Hour), visit Steve's site here.

If you've made a short and would like to feature on the site, please get in touch via email.

Click here to view more short films and public domain features.

Forthcoming Attractions: 44 Inch Chest

Trailer released for new Brit gangster movie...

From the writers of Sexy Beast (Louis Mellis and David Scinto) comes 44 Inch Chest, a powerful and explosive drama of retribution and featuring a stellar British cast that includes Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Dillane and Joanne Whalley.

The feature film debut of renowned photographer and commercial director Malcolm Venville, 44 Inch Chest centres on Colin Diamond (Winstone), a man shattered by his wife's (Whalley) infidelity with a young French waiter, Loverboy (Melvil Poupaud). With the aid of his crew - Old Man Peanut (Hurt), Meredith (Lovejo- sorry, McShane), Archie (Wilkinson) and Mal (Dillane), Colin assembles a kangaroo court to restore his manhood with revenge.

44 Inch Chest trailer:


44 Inch Chest is released in UK cinemas on 15th January 2010.

British Cinema - Dead Man's Shoes (2004)

Dead Man’s Shoes, 2004.

Directed by Shane Meadows.
Starring Paddy Considine, Gary Stretch and Toby Kebbel.

SYNOPSIS:

Richard, an intense loner and former soldier, returns to his native Midlands village seeking vengeance against the small-time drug dealers who cruelly bullied his mentally disabled brother Anthony while he was away on duty. Richard’s determination to achieve a full and brutal revenge results in an ominous conclusion to the street criminals who toil unsuccessfully to avoid his wrath.

Shane Meadows secured his position as Britain’s brightest new director with this haunting revenge tale which enthrals the viewer from beginning to end, using severe violence and disgustingly inhumane behaviour from characters each side of the conflict. Co-written by director Meadows and lead actor Considine, the opening line from Richard (Considine) reads “God will forgive them. He'll forgive them and allow them into Heaven. I can't live with that." This sets the scene for the entire film, a simple but compelling story of revenge in which the viewer finds himself sympathising with a seemingly psychotic serial killer as his mental state deteriorates in front of our eyes.

Released a year after Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and the same year as Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Dead Man’s Shoes incorporates many of the same themes and the plot develops similarly. The avenger as our lead protagonist - intent on revenge and mass-murdering their former wrongdoers - is common across these films, with the viewer somehow finding themselves sympathising with the brutality. There are however stark contrasts between the films, differences which ensure that to my mind, Dead Man’s Shoes must be considered a superior film. Tarantino’s style-over-substance, enormous-budget melodrama is in direct opposition to Meadows’ low-budget kitchen-sink thriller, which focuses on character relationships over stylistic content. These complicated relationships include Richard’s love and care for his younger, mentally disabled brother Anthony, an innocent but kind simpleton, as well as flashback scenes which demonstrate Anthony’s prior involvement with the local petty crooks.

Although Dead Man’s Shoes may be considered a melodrama, this does not detract from the intelligence of Meadows’ work. A film which demonstrates several gruesome murders as acceptable must be considered advanced, with the movie exuding a constant haunting nature, from the black and white flashback scenes (a technique often used by Meadows) to Richard’s now seemingly extinct army gas mask. Considine’s performance as the lead character Richard is as strong as it can be and Toby Kebbell gives a superb performance as the mentally challenged Anthony, unfathomably in his first film role. His performance might not equal the world-class depictions of a mentally challenged character such as Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man (1988) or Sean Penn in I am Sam (2001), but nonetheless is still extremely touching, vulnerable and most importantly, believable (with Kebbell recognised as Most Promising Newcomer at the British Independent Film Awards).

Overall this film is a stunning achievement by Meadows; an underrated thriller which deserves its place among the best of contemporary British cinema. It is a must see for all Brits with a love for film but still transcends to a wider audience because of its easily communicated themes. It is low-budget British filmmaking through and through with a gritty, realistic style that leaves audiences hoping Meadows stays this side of the Atlantic for many years to come.

Rory Barker

Related:

British Cinema: Somers Town (2008)
British Cinema: Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee (2009)
A Time to Belong - This is England and the subversion of the skinhead