Christine's reviews

Thanks Christine I have put London River on my must see list

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Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
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We have similar tastes, I think you'd like that one

thanks
I've not seen Dancer in the Dark. although it's been on my Lovefilm list for ages.

Kamikaze Girls directed by Tetsuya Nakashima

An earlier film by the same director as Memories of Matzuko.

Momoko is a child with an indifferent outlook. Her mother's a silly airhead who leaves when Momoko is six with the parting words of her precocious daughter in her ears " humans are cowards in the face of happiness". Her father's a wastrel who ran away from the yakuza in the big city to deal very successfully in fake 'Versach' goods (much to Momoko's disgust) in Shimotsuma a small sleepy town
Momoko is an independant minded solitary girl who revels in herself as a 'Lolita' - one of the famous Japanese fashion sub cultures.



She's happy imagining herself most at home in Versailles during the Rococo period, which as you can imagine might be ok in Tokyo but is a little strange in small town Shimotsuma where also to Momoko's disgust people buy their clothes in the local supermarket.

Into her life comes roaring, well maybe a high pitched roar on her customised scooter, Ichigo, a rough tough member of a girl biker gang, a 'yanki' - a delinquent gang of kids who see themselves as outsiders. Ichigo loves Momoko's father's line of fake clothes and although she and Momoko eye each other with suspicion a tentative friendship builds up which forms the storyline of the film.



Dayglo films seem to be the order of the week for me as this one is just as bright as Mazuko, however the colours are more subdued when looking at the delightful Momoko in her frills of lace, rosebuds and broderie anglaise. Interestingly when looking for pictures I found out that the boutique where she buys these outfit confections in Tokyo, Baby The Stars Shine Bright, is actually real...

Like Momoko's outfits, this film is a frothy mixture of sweet fantasy, adolescent angst and swaggering gang culture. What lies underneath is a charming story of two youngsters who don't fit in, not only in their own lives but also in the cultures they've chosen to attach themselves to. Two kids who are attracted as friends who have more in common than first glance would expect.

A candy coated, engaging film with the director's signature flights of whimsy might leave you with toothache, but will also make you smile

4/5

Thanks for this, Christine. I've recorded it twice, but deleted it both times before watching it as I needed the space and couldn't be bothered to 'get into' this. However, next time I record it, I'll make more of an effort to see it.

You've been to Tokyo? Luckyyyyyyy.
It's good for a laugh, but I'd hardly give this one a 4/5 (equates to 8/10). Nakashima tries to be WAY too crazy in the end with the character's personalities and the whole style of the film. I know exactly what you mean by toothache as I was basically turned off to it halfway through. Though... I watched it on a negative rec from a person I respect, but it seemed "interesting" enough. I dunno. I'll have to watch Memories of Matzuko and some of this guy's other films.

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I've not been to Tokyo! I should be so lucky If you mean about the boutique, I meant I was looking online. I don't think I'd be caught dead in a place like that, mind I don't think I'd be allowed through the door..hahaaa

I liked Kamikaze Girls enough for a 4/5, but then I do think you have to be in the mood to see a flamboyant confection like that. I go through phases of it and watch a bunch at a time then go all cold turkey for a while !

Kitchen Stories directed by Bent Hamer

Set in the early 1950s when kitchen gadgets were becoming mass produced, the Swedish set up the Home Research Institute to simplify the kitchen for the lives of housewives. So begins Kitchen Stories with a series of shots of housewives kitted up with Heath Robinson like contraptions measuring their physical exertions while performing everyday tasks



A new area of research is taken on, that of single men and to this end a group of bachelors are asked to volunteer for observation in their own kitchens. This group lives in a small town over the border into Norway, and a set of Home Research Institute observers sets off to link up with the men. Each tows a green one man caravan which is to be their home for the next few weeks. One of the observers is Folke, who ends up being paired with the reluctant old man Isak who's regretting taking part, so much so that for two days he refuses to open his front door. Folke waits patiently in his caravan parked next to Isak's house.
When Isak finally relents and lets Folke in, a beautifully constructed series of confrontations happens where of course the men are at odds, but inevitably the ice slowly thaws. The observers are warned they may not affect the lives of the experimentees but Folke's curiousity gets the better of him, and Isak's constant grouchiness is pierced by an act of manly kindness.



Visually, Kitchen Stories is wonderful with it's background of snowy landscapes and 1950s clothes. There's big luxurious 1950s Volvos and dinky little caravans complete with patterned wallpaper and dollshouse sized cupboards. The film has some great shots too like this one of the observers making their way over the border



This is one of those little feelgood gems of films that has more depth than it's stillness and quiet dialogue at first seems. There's one or two pointed reminders of recent (for the 1950s) tensions between Sweden and Norway the two men are happy to let slide, and several touching exchanges that reveal past hardships.

Throughout the film Folke and his colleagues speak Swedish and Isak and friends speak Norwegian with no referral to this. I guess this must add a deadpan angle if you were listening in those languages, but I still think you can take enough from Kitchen Stories to enjoy the gentle absurdity of life in the world of kitchen research.

4/5

Kitchen Stories.. thanks for the review. I want to watch it..

First of all, OUTSTANDING reviews Christine!! I need to go back and several pages and catch the others, though. I quite liked Triangle. It's a pretty decent horror and deals with themes I am particularly interested in. There are a lot of flaws to it, though and with a slightly bigger budget a slightly larger sense of threat, the film could have been great. Solid 3 stars though.

I NEED to see Le Donk and Scor-say-zee. Sounds like a right laugh what with Paddy and Meadows running tings. I have been somewhat hesitant to see it though, to be honest. It's a bit of a mockumentary it would seem, and that's often not my thing. Plus i'm Shane Meadows fan like yourself and am a bit scared that I will be disappointed by it.

Thanks luv
Don't be scared of being disappointed! I'd say that just witnessing more of the Meadows/Considine relationship is only for the good. People were likening it to that Steve Coogan thing Saxondale which I watched once, but Paddy and Shane have had characters like that around for a long time haven't they? It's only a bit of a pisstake and quite short anyway so I still think you'd like it from a fan point of view

Noi Albinoi (Noi the Albino) directed by Dagur Kari


A small Icelandic fishing village in the Western fjords is home to teenager Noi who lives with his otherworldly grandma. His life is confined and bound up in this isolated place. His father is a taxi driver partial to a few drinks who lives apart from Noi, his grandma's mind is starting to fade, he seems to have no friends of his own age and school is offering him no challenge. His only friend is a cantankerous bookseller whose chaotic shop Noi can slope off to when he's had enough of moping around town.

Noi's not much of a school attender and when he gets one of the other pupils to take a dictaphone into school instead of attending himself, the teacher announces that either Noi is expelled or he's leaving. Given this ultimatum the Head teacher has no choice.

When the bookseller's daughter comes to live with her father to get away from the 'influences of the big city', she seems to offer a peek into a big wide world that Noi's life so far has denied.


There is no story as such here, it's a series of scenes from Noi's existence in this freezing environment. The feeling of claustrophobia is very well portrayed for in spite of being set in such a remote place, the village is in the shadow of an enormous mountain that looms over all the outside shots. This theme is carried on inside the wooden houses with their densely patterned 60s wallpaper. Kari has filmed the inside shots with a green/yellow filter which makes the outside snowy scenes contrast with huge brightness.



Noi's unusual looks and obvious intelligence mark him out amongst his classmates and can only further contribute to his alienation from his peers. He has the classic insoucient attitude to authority that comes from being intellectually superior which in turn aggravates his teachers and creates more friction. A couple of deadpan classroom scenes illustrate nicely why Noi's lost interest in school.



When a disaster strikes that affects Noi's whole world, instead of casting him into depression the director shares with us the suspicion that Noi has now been allowed the freedom to shake off everything that constrained him and make his own way in the world.

By making Noi such an unusual figure, Kari has succeeded in making this more than a teenage angst film. The feeling of otherworldliness is not only in chilly landscape but in the curious characters that inhabit the village, who are played by either non actors or part time actors.

If you like offbeat films that make you happy that we're not all the same then have a try of this

4/5

The screenshots you pick make me want to watch the movies..

Great reviews, Christine.

I forget to say on that Noi Albinoi review that Planet News might like the old bookseller in that one.

Unfortunately, I haven't read Either/Or, nor do I have any idea how this applies to the film. I almost want to agree with the bookseller here, because I've recently read some rehabilitations of Hegel where existentialist themes can actually be incorporated quite neatly. I haven't read much primary Hegel or Kierkegaard's later stuff, so I'm already not really in league with this bookseller.

This sounds amazing though: I will have to watch this 4/5 soon! Thanks a bunch, Christine!

Conversations with my Gardener (Dialogue avec mon Jardinier) directed by Jean Becker

This film is a gentle pastoral story that tells a simple tale of middle aged friendship. Daniel Auteuil plays a Parisian artist who moves back to his childhood home deep in the French countryside to get away from the stress of breaking up with his wife. The empty house needs some work on it and someone to create a kitchen garden out of the overgrown wilderness outside. The gardener, Jean-Pierre Daroussin, turns up one day in reply to an advert and both men are surprised to remember they were pals at school together when they were in primary school.

Throughout the spring and summer, the painter paints and the gardener gardens while each man realises how far apart their lives have become. The painter, the son of the local chemist, rejected the family business and became a moderately successful artist in Paris while the gardener has spent his life working as a labourer on the railways. The artists sees how taking the path he has done has brought him into contact with the kind of pretensions the gardener will never know.



The rekindling of the mens friendship allows the artist to appreciate what's missing in his life through the down to earth philosophy of the gardener. It's an old motif but it's not done in a cloyingly sentimental way, here it's more a development of their relationship which the director handles with sensitivity.

A sweet natured piece set in a beautiful part of the world, with a slightly melodramatic ending.

3.25/5

I've seen another Jean Becker film called Les Enfants du Marais (Children of the Marshland) which I remember to be a similar pastoral piece set in the 1920s which was lovely, and also starred Eric Cantona as a boxer!

Quite right, brilliant review.

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Great reviews Chrissy Thanks

Diary of a Country Priest (Le Journal d'un Cure de Campagne) by Robert Bresson

A young priest comes to minister to a small French village parish. His health is already very fragile, and the circumstances he lives in don't make it look like he's going to improve. He's convinced his diet - wine soaked stale bread - will make him feel better, but instead he continues to suffer.
Along with a physical suffering, his mental state is unbalanced and his spiritual faith is going through a terrible crisis. Thus we meet this poor man and follow his daily life through witnessing him writing his diaries, although we never learn how or why his troubles began.

The priest's parishioners are an aloof bunch who coldly ignore him with some taking delight in tormenting him. His sole worshipper at daily mass is the governess at the local Count's household. When the young priest becomes entangled in the Count's family affairs he enflames a situation that leads to a death, and he ends up being misunderstood even more.



I read a post saying this film was Tarkovsky's favourite film, then I realised we're staying soon very near the place where the original novel was written, so decided to see it for the first time. I don't think I've ever seen a film that's so melancholic, really very sad and depressing.

There's a long French tradition of the poverty striken country priest in his mildewed, patched vestments which match the austerity of his surroundings - French people would recognise him immediately. You don't expect there to be a happy ending and indeed there isn't but there is one beautifully shot scene where your heart goes out to this man who is riven by sorrow but at the end of the day is still young enough to enjoy a tiny simple pleasure.



This is a slow, ultimately dispiriting film which is very well told but maybe too gloomy for most. The torments of the soul that the young man is going through may be best understood by old school Catholics. He may try to help the Count's wife understand God's love, but the opressive untold secrets of the confessional weigh to heavy for him to bear alone.

4/5 but don't watch it if you're feeling down!

Good film, innit? Lovely review, Chris.

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