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The Last Film You Saw - 2019


Athena

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Currently enjoying the Leeds International Film Festival. So far, have enjoyed to varying degrees:

 

Ghost Tropic

Cleaner Khadija falls asleep on the last train home in Brussels. Insufficient money and unfortunate events means that it's quite a long and adventurous journey home.  Gently enjoyable if not particularly memorable.  2+/5

 

The Kingmaker

Documentary about the return of the Marcos family to Philippines politics.  One I was uncertain about going to, but found it absorbing and quite disturbing - particularly some of the parallels with the move to the right in Britain. 4/5

 

Days of the Bagnold Summer

Heavy metal loving teenager Daniel, looking forward to a summer with his father's new family in Florida, is let down at the last minute and has to get along with his retiring, librarian, mother Sue for the next six weeks. Some beautifully observed touches in this fairly gentle (a good thing!) coming of age comedy. 3/5

 

Fire Will Come

Set in the beautiful mountains of Galicia, convicted arsonist Amador returns home having served his sentence and, tries to settle back into the rhythm of rural life with his elderly mother Benedicta, but simmering tensions threaten.  Moves from the elegiac to the dramatic.  Worth seeing for the scenery alone, and the poetic nature of the narrative.  4/5

 

Judy and Punch

Black comedy based on (surprise, surprise) the story of Punch and Judy, with a strong feminist twist, a lot to say on some less savoury aspects of human nature and some real bite.  Loved it. 4+/5

 

The Report

Dramatised telling of the story behind the  Senate investigation into the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program that was created after 9/11.  Almost, if not quite, a modern day version of All The President's Men.  Riveting watching.  4+/5

 

The Fading Village

A year in the life of a small, slowly diminishing, Chinese village, where only one inhabitant is under the age of 60, and the big city looms. This may be almost 3 hours long, but it's so beautifully filmed, people so sensitively portrayed, and the narrative so absorbing, that the time slipped past (felt a lot less than the next film anyway!). 5/5

 

The Cordillera of Dreams

This film had some really important things to say, not only about the state of politics in Chile, but about broader political issues, but for me, whilst it superficially looked good, it failed to 'cut the mustard'.  It appeared to start off as a film about the influence of the Andes in Chilean psyche, but then moved to focus on the Pinochet era and its effect on modern day Chile.  Unfortunately, it relied primarily on just two 'witnesses' offering their own individual critiques, through extensive talk to the camera and archive footage shot by one of the witnesses (a professional  film camerman and long term recorder of civil events), but little else.  The issues were, and are, very important, but I found the arguments heavy on rhetoric (and some blindingly obvious truisms - 'the mountains have not moved') but with virtually nothing of any depth, however meaty they are in reality.  Judging from the audience reaction at the end, I was in a distinct minority - most seemed to say how powerful they found the film-  but for me this was all touchy-feely and no substance, in massive contrast to The Kingmaker, which was convincing as this one was not. 2-/5

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

I saw Little Women on Sunday - I enjoyed it, but thought there was too much jumping back and forth between childhood and adulthood, I think anyone who doesn't know the story would be completely confused!  Beautifully filmed and acted though.

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