Big Brown Horse.

My father is a cavalry man. I was raised with horses and learnt to ride in a rigorous school which had us jumping over obstacles with our hands held out horizontally. It taught you balance - it taught you how to get off too when you found yourself going round the arena underneath the horse. I will never forget the wonder I felt when he got on my unruly pony and took her round the field jumping jumps perfectly...with no stirrups or reins.

 I saw the trailer for this film and loved the look of it. The lead horse is a big animal, with a bit of Percheron or cart horse in him...the sort that carried the knights of old. Not that I think he was the only horse because he seemed to have shrunk at times but he is an attractive type to me. 'Warhorse' is a beautiful film made more so by Steven Spielberg's great animal direction and graced throughout by a marvelous English cast. The wonderful Benedict Cumberbatch of Sherlock Holmes fame - who says you can't have a name like Cumberbatch or Hackforth-Jones as an actor? is a convincing cavalry man who leads a charge so beautifully shot you feel the officers of the day would have approved.

 And yet, and yet it's sad. So many of my relatives were there and so many of their friends. The terrible charnel house of WW1 France is a horribly familiar thing. There are rays of light and wonderfully comic interludes and 'Warhorse' leaves you on an upswing but so much died on those battle fields and so many that it is hard to feel this arena of blood and terror is safely in the past. So as a baby boomer I told my father of the film and as a cavalry man he said."There were no black horses". Yes there were I said, there was a brown one and a black. "No" he said "There was no such thing as a black horse in the cavalry". They were there all right but they called them 'brown'. So now you know.

A Blast from the Past

This is a case where the trailer for BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK gives you the insight you need to wet your appetite for it. Still, I was initially worried that the doco would skate along the surface of the fashion world in way that would not be very satisfying but when I realised that Bill Cunningham was in his eighties and following his obsession and profession on a BICYCLE, I began to focus.

The film shows us a day in the life of this remarkably likeable old man but then manages to get so close to his centre that its almost too much. After decades in the scene in New York, Bill knows just about everyone in the arts world and caps it off with a thorough knowledge of the rich and powerful - its a heady blend of tinsel and tough blended together by a magnificent being. Cunningham we find had started out as a hat maker but closed his shop when he was called up,entering his military career with the same amiable dedication he uses to run his whole life.

Bill Cunningham is the type of character I feel is dissapearing. Despite one moment of almost unbearable insight, I do thank the director Richard Press  for bringing us Bill Cunningham who is, in effect Decency on Wheels. The world needs you Bill.

Tiger Burning Bright

Again with the sorrowful footage. Once more we see the sad film of the last Tasmanian Tiger in captivity, pacing its lonely cell and trying to escape the fate we had brought it to. The animal is so familiar to us, half dingo, half devil. What went wrong?

Well nothing, for Willem Dafoe who slips as naturally into this role as a second skin. What isn't there to like for him? He is a sure thing for the lean man who tracks through the unkind beauty of the Tasmanian outback and sets meticulous traps for the unseen and unwary fauna. He cradles his complex weaponry like a lover and is alert to the sounds of the wilderness and the prospect of treachery. Around him the vast splendour of Tasmania spreads out in all its glory. As scary as the moon and as intoxicating.

In his search for the Tiger with its haunting bark, he is billeted with a mother and her two children, Morgana Davies and Finn Woodlock. The relationship he forms with these two is enchanting and subtly varied. Of course, having worked with Morgana, you would expect nothing less from her but it is wonderful to watch. And she is only a little girl at the beginning of her climb. But there is also a little boy and his ride to escort Dafoe off the property is one of the most truly moving scenes I have ever seen. Enchanting without that layer of cuteness that seems to be thickly applied wherever children appear in movies. Morgana works well with other children. I have seen her helping her 'younger' brother in The Tree through his first interview and she uses that same care here with her new 'brother'.

The Hunter is half in love with the children's mother (Frances O'Connor) who is jealously guarded by a wary neighbour, (Sam Neill) but the real star of this tale is The Tiger. Can they make him return and make him as beautiful as once he was?

Black and White

I first saw the trailer for 'The Help' waiting for another movie to start... of course. It immediately woke me up to the sixties again and the incredible neatness and weirdness of that world. Who would have thought you could 'back comb' your hair to a 'bee hive', spray it into submission and walk around like that?

Well, here it is again. Not as bouncy as 'Happy Days' but initially, clean cut and orderly and round and about this sanitised post war dream, The Help moves silently, cleaning and correcting the mess left by their employers. Heaven help them.

The idle wives of busy men 'gang aft awry' and this lot do. What could you expect from women who were cossetted and protected with little to do but invent the sins of others and the inadequacies of their own lives?

The highlights of this for me were the wonderful black cast and the 'outlaw' white women. Viola Davis as Aibileen Clark and Octavia Spencer as Minny Jackson play the two main black characters and they are beyond compare. Jessica Chastain as Celia Foote was a standout. Cicely Tyson as Constantine Bates plucked at the heartstrings as the older black woman but it saddened me to see her aging - I have missed out on her work for all those intervening years.

You get a glimpse of the mad underwear in another of Allison Janney's great performances as Charlotte Phelan, the heroine's mother. And yes, we did wear those ridiculous but strangely comforting undergarments.

Director Tate Taylor really does bring back that time and thank God we have the actors to bring it ALL back, in black and white.

Cloud High

There is of course one leading lady in Jane Eyre and Oh boy, does she do just that. Mia Wasikowska is a young Australian who began her acting career after an initial ballet fascination waned.

When she first appears, it seems as if this creature from the New World has been an inhabitant of the old for centuries. Her face is very like Vermeer's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' or any number of classic female portraits from another era. After a while you realise the casting director and director Cary Fukunaga have chosen all their actors with this delicacy and precision.

The voice of Charlotte Brontë longing for broader horizons, for potency, money and love is very clear and all these thoughts flying through Jane's mind are writ large as they emerge in the seemingly effortless performance.

The camera work, music, costuming and makeup are also superb but in case you are tempted to wallow in the luxury of it, beware. Take care not to miss the dialogue...the scene where Jane jousts with her employer for the first time, her yearning for the wide world near a great mullioned window, her declaration of full sensibility in the face of Rochester's teasing arrogance.

It is every young girls dream and the gaggle of young women I saw it with could barely contain themselves so tightly is the sexuality wound but it also holds the dream of fulfilment and that is never out of date.

HerStory

We have a lot to be grateful to Robert Redford for. In setting up Sundance Film Festival, he gave Indie movies a launching point in America which set a fire under the audience that first watched 'Shine'. It led to world wide success and an Oscar for Geoffrey Rush.

'The Conspirator' has the most come hither poster with its title over the poignant face of Abraham Lincoln. It opens with his shooting and the labyrinthine events that lead to the capture and conviction of some of the plotters as well as the trial of the only woman thought to be involved - Mary Surrat played by Robin Wright.

This actress has the sort of sombre appearance we would like to think The Founding Mothers had but her performance is graced by a sort of physical and spiritual loveliness that is hard to describe. Suffice to say that she is beguiling for every minute she has on screen. And if you think for a moment that is her persona, just look her up on wikipedia.

Redford has used a variety of UK actors including James McAvoy as Mary's attorney and Tom Wilkinson as his employer. It's a fine cast which is enhanced by the sets and costuming. I am not sure why the fashions of 1864 were so repulsive but the hoop skirt and greasy looking looped hair are beautifully reproduced.

The landscapes of the time are also breathtaking but if you think Redford thinks this film is just history, think again.

Now and Again

After the phenomenal numbers that watched 'Downton Abbey' it was wonderful to see a new Julian Fellowes work, 'From Time to Time' come on at my local. He has adapted and directed this WW2 ghost story but, as my father dryly pointed out, its territory that has been gone over before and to great effect.

Of course, in such hands it doesn't let you down. The stunning cast includes Maggie Smith and Hugh Bonneville but most importantly for me, the wonderful Alex Etel, of 'Cranford' fame. Older and taller now but with all the leading man appeal he showed as a very young boy.

The movie is full of well known English actors all directed with great delicacy. The sudden appearance of the visitors from another world is quite shocking after Fellowes has lulled us in to a cup of tea and cardigan mood.

There is a real twist in the telling of this tale and several scenes of such beauty that I had to stop myself snivelling. This is a water proof mascara movie but take the kiddies.

Keeping it Premium

I know the 'Mao's Last Dancer' producers spent a great deal of money getting the best person available to make their trailer. Its a good investment but I am not sure what I would have done to change the trailer for 'Get Low'. Suffice to say that I did not want to see the movie. Looking back on it, I am not sure what they COULD have done but once I got there, all was well.

It was one of those times when two people don't have a film in common to see and I went with a suggestion. What I found was a gracious and sensitive film about a painful tragedy playing its poisonous legacy out through a lifetime.

I have to say that I was taken aback by Duvall. His sensitive performance of a real life character 'Felix Bush' is enhanced by the careful direction of Aaron Schneider in his first full length feature film. There are unending ways in which this film could have wandered off track but Schneider keeps his seasoned cast well in line - not always an easy job for anyone.

Bill Cobbs - a riveting addition to the cast, is a theatrical actor whose face and character lend gravitas to this production. Bruce Beresford once told me they used to get Morgan Freeman to mend things on the set of 'Driving Miss Daisy' as he had spent so many years augmenting his income being an odd job man. So has Cobbs but it must do something to the psyche. I loved seeing a new older black actor pulling such weight in a good film.

If you are interested in how plots are drawn in to a conclusion - see this film. Just when you think 'and NOW what?' they do it. With the same sparse elegance they use throughout the movie.

Blue Skies and Sorrow

Turning up late to see a preview of 'Sunshine and Oranges', I found I could only get a seat a row from the screen. Urged on by a friend, I took it and sat through the movie with the action going on right up my nose so to speak. But I did it and I would do it again.

This is a film you SHOULD see, not only because it will give you insight into a sorrowful time in our history but because you will meet extraordinary actors and the wonderful heroine of this movie.'Should See' usually means boring and didactic but not here. The story is told with such finesse that the unrolling of events comes creeping up on you quietly and stealthily as it does in real life.

Two of the best performances are from Hugo Weaving and David Wenham. They both play walking wounded of the type I have never seen either play before. To see Hugo Weaving as a sun burnt Aussie is a revelation and David Wenham's return to his homeland is about as close as you want to get to sobbing in a theatre. They revolve around English actress Emily Watson who according to director Jim Loach, had been stung by criticism of her portrayal of Jacqueline du Pré and refused to meet Margaret Humphreys, the social worker from Nottingham who uncovered the terrible truth about child migration.

There are few people who can convey passionate integrity without being off putting. Emily Watson does and she has a good model, even if she didn't meet her. Margaret Humphreys was at the screening and she has a sort of Madonna quality - radiant humanity mixed with great good sense.

If you have a piece of music you think of as expressing beauty, then have a look at the faces of the children who were sent over the oceans and try to reconcile yourself to the truth of what happened to them once they got to their destination. Pharaoh in his rage could not have invented anything more awful.

St Trinian's Strings

Last night I dreamt I went to school again. Not a very good idea at the best of times but it is one of the fascinations of this beautiful documentary that you can compare schoolgirls now and then. There is probably not much to choose between us but it did surprise me how unkempt 'Mrs Carey's' lot were considering the amount of money their parents must be paying and the loving attention of the teachers.

Not that we cared a jot for loving attention. We were rude and arrogant and short on sympathy as some of these students are... but not all. I had a few moments when I wanted to jump into the film and tell some to listen, LISTEN because you may not get another chance...'Carpe Diem'. Its not necessary because the film will say it for me and it is incisive in its observation. It is a constant surprise how many people forget that a camera is on them and oh what material it provides for us.

You get to know the wonderful Mrs Carey and see her discussions of the students and various crises as they appear. You get to love her as her face is literally illuminated with joy as she sits under the stage at the Opera House listening to her concert.

And you do draw close to the fabulously talented students. Out of the work of babes come sounds you would be pleased to pay folding money for anywhere in the world.

Watch for Mrs Carey as she approaches her performance and the worst miss hap that can befall a performer happens to her. Then be amazed. Be very amazed.

The Lady Vanishes / Classics

I saw this film in boarding school, projected on to a canvas screen decades after it was made. It had me from the title and still does. Looking at it now with its evocative music and astonishing opening scene shot in what appears to be Lilliput but is in effect an 'aerial' shot of a model village...and a pretty creaky one at that, I feel again the sense of pride and anticipation I always feel at the opening credits.

Set in a fictional European country with Gobbledegook language, its only problem is a brittle and high powered romance between the two leading characters which is dated but the extraordinary pre War moral convictions are fascinating. For years I thought it was shot during the War but this is 1938 Europe and nothing is ever going to be the same again.

Hitchcock is at his best here and you will see Googie Withers as a vivacious friend of the bride before the real intrigue begins and the hair on the back of your neck starts to prickle. And if you think the film is too neatly divided into popular opinions of the War represented by various figures, remember that this was a year before the actual fighting began and no one had any idea what the outcome would be.

Dame May Witty plays 'The Lady'and I will introduces her only as an elderly woman on her way home to England. She proves to be a person of unimagined resourses. I grew up with women who had done dangerous and strenuous work during World War 11 who wore their accomplishments with the same everyday good humour that Dame May Witty does in this surprising portait. Oh tell me if there would ever be a film written about intrigue and physical courage today - with a stout elderly woman at its core?

Living Large

Gérard Depardieu is one of my favourite actors and I always thought it was because he was so attractive. Well, he is but there is a lot more of him than there was in say 'Cyrano de Bergerac', and still he shines. For one thing, he allows his ample person to be put into overalls which for a large man is a bit of a sretch. Another thing...he fills the screen. He is on for the entire movie and he never fails.

With him is fabulous prime age star Gisèle Casadesus who is charm itself. Delicate and restrained she tiptoes into his life with the precision of a cat. Talking of which this film has the best cat acting I have ever seen. Depardieu has a two hander with this feline and they work well together. Its' tail is suspiciously whipping about with annoyance but it does what is needed. Merde, is nothing impossible for french filmmakers?

I must say that Camus' prose left me unimpressed when it is received with such
rapture by Depardieu. Later when they pass on to 'Howling at your mother's grave' I am right with them.

This is a film for families, baby boomers and men who don't have time for older women. If you would like to see how beautiful french women, I mean typical french women can be, give this a go. Depardieu's mother, lover and old friend are all gorgeous including the barmaid. The men less so but of course the animal acting is superb. Especially the rats. And if you have a man you wish you had treated more harshly, comfort yourself with the mothers' reaction when her light'o love slaps Gérard. Then put down that pitchfork and say OMMMMMMM to yourself.

Elizabeth the Great

Well, she's gone. She had been ill so long that we were used to hearing almost weekly about her trials but she seemed immortal and I will miss her. In the last years of her life she did not present a great or a very admirable figure but the sum of her achievements is huge.

Many images of her near perfection bombarded us through the sixties and seventies. Her private life, fabulous jewels and love affairs filled magazines and she seemed preened for the most casual interviews in the manner of royalty, as Sophia Loren often was. It was beguiling and heady to watch and of course she was, as Paul Newman put it "a practicing voluptuary." If only more men would remember their favourite sirens so graciously.

Looking back on 'Cleopatra' it is in many ways silly and wayward but it was spectacular at the time and she certainly came off as a mighty woman of the world and a convincing conqueror of conquerors. She was paid a million dollars for her role and it propelled her into the headlines for life.

Despite this she raised a family successfully and carved a career for herself which gained the respect of the world and on top of it all she was one of the great beauties of all time. We had Taylor and Loren, Bardot and Monroe and many others. Never say there is no beauty in the world.

In the latter part of her life, she sustained her self with business enterprises which succeeded and a dedication to Aids Charities well before it was accepted or acceptable. In this short video covering her performance in her first feature film as an adult albeit only seventeen, you get an impression of the grace of the girl and the steel of the woman.

Intestinal Fortitude

I met a man who stonewalled me about 'True Grit'. He refused to think that the latest Coen Brothers movie was better than the John Wayne original. Oh Lord, where to start?

First, the introduction we get to the American West through the marvelous set direction and costuming of this latest Jeff Bridges version, is stunning. The bleakness of the local town,with its no frills living and basic justice where the young heroine meets her unlikely hero, is a pared down less than marvelous spot. You know lean persons live here, living lean and mostly mean themselves. No place for a lady and no place for a child.

The Coens have coaxed a performance out of the young actress that winds us up and sets us off on a wild adventure and if you doubt her acting cred or the Coens ability to direct, have a look at her negotiating scene with the Stock and Station Agent. She whirls Jeff Bridges as U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn onto a mission that he regrets very quickly but not quickly enough to avoid it.

This 'True Grit' gives you an idea of the hardships and loneliness of that life and the ending is the most exhilarating I have seen for a long time. The film follows the characters through relentlessly and, knowing as we mostly do our own frailties, it is moving to see the natural consequences of their acts several decades later. They never get past what happened to them neither do they deviate from the paths their personalities set them on.

If you really want to see the difference between the two films, have a look at the trailers. One is lean and crisp and the other, well... not. And then just ask yourself whether a law man on a horse would really wear a hat several sizes too small to go about his business.


Click here to see the two 'True Grit' trailers:

Sad Birds

Every time I ask people about this film they start gabbling. Its either 'great' or 'unspeakably great' or 'so true' etc etc. It made it a Must See but troubling afterward.

I have seen a little of the Ballet world and, while the discipline is greater for dancing, there are similarities with Performance. The exploitation and obvious sexual predation seem less now but this is a whole new era where these things are less acceptable. It was not so thirty years ago. If this film is so true then the Ballet world is stuck back there.

It's not appealing. The self harm and body focus are real and made alarmingly more likely when model ages seem to be going down catastrophically. But the infantilasation and exploitation of the dancers goes right back to Vaslav Nijinsky whose huge talent (which so often goes with great unworldliness) was so used by ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, he was driven mad. Nijinsky lives in my imagination as the greatest dancer of all time whose skill flickers out dimly from the superb photos taken of him.

We are lucky to have such a high level of this demanding art available in Australia. It treats its adherents with great cruelty but in every audience there is a sprinkling of young girls...really young, all dressed up in tutus sitting by their mothers. Take care, take care. I wanted to dance and the small amount I did was as close to heaven on earth as I have ever felt.


Click here for a trailer of 'Black Swan':

Talk to Me

My family had problems of the kind this beautiful film depicts. Stammering or stuttering is an insidious and devastating affliction - you never know how much you can feel for someone until you find you can not help them through a horrible ordeal. There are few public troubles worse than willing someone you love through a speech they seem unable to begin. God bless the ones who guide people out of it.

And what a job they do of it in this movie. I have always wondered at actors who learn speech defects because they are so difficult to lose. Same with weight gains and losses - any sort of affliction which will take a deal of unlearning. Apparently this was excruciatingly tough for Colin Firth and I believe it. It is completely convincing and that must have been hell.

Geoffrey Rush is wonderful and having just seen him in 'The Diary of a Madman' perhaps we should all be grateful for the training in mime he did in France earlier on in his career. He uses movement like a dancer and it never fails. He is unpredictable, irreverent and irresistible as speech therapist Lionel Logue. Nice to think that the Logue family wanted to make the story public earlier but deferred to the wishes of the Queen Mother who could not bear to rake through the memories again.

Good to remember also that because of this remarkable Australian's work with the king the monarch was able to open the first Australian Government in the new capitol: Australia's Federal Parliament.

I knew King George VI had no wish to be crowned but I did not know how extreme his speech problems were. However it does now make sense of a strange event in history which has always puzzled me. Churchill attached a note to his wreath at the King's funeral which said simply 'For Courage'. Now we know why.


To see a trailer of 'The King's Speech, Click here:

Small Arms Fire

I saw the trailer for 'Life during Wartime' and immediately wanted to see it. The images of clean cut, sorrowful beings and their quirky cracks was compelling and not full of the leaden misery so many other tales of urban angst have. The poster was better and even the failure of the projector at the first screening could not stop me.

Shirley Henderson is luminous and her spare figure is as close to a Dickensian waif as you could get in a modern film. She is a Scottish actress whose face you would have seen in Bridget Jones 'the Edge of Reason' and in a Harry Potter film playing, of all things, Moaning Myrtle ! She fits seamlessly into this intensely Jewish movie. Joining her as her brother in law with a dark past is Ciarán Hinds - an Irish actor whose brooding good looks may bring back memories of 'Munich'. He never seems to stop working and has a list of completed films ready for release stretching into 2012.

Charlotte Rampling is another thing altogether. Despite her growling you are on her side and her sadness echoes the base notes of the movie. It observes the dance but is neither judgmental or grim. There is an elegant empathy here which saves it and relieves the stylish shooting with a warm, if distant humour.

The actors are beautifully cast - Aly Sheedy,Allison Janney, Paul Reubens and Michael Kenneth Williams from The Wire are marvellous but where does that title come from? There are so many references to it on search engines for books, comics etc you wonder what else they are going to do under it? Which reminds me - I looked it up to see if it was about 'military' war, saw Allison Janney's name and decided to go. Her wonderful obfuscation when asked the facts of life is as funny as it is sad and dangerous. How DO you tell children about the birds and bees - especially the bad bees?


Click here to see a trailer of 'Life During War'.