All My Friends Hate Me - DVD review

 

Released on DVD via BFI on 29th August

This original movie from writing partnership Tom Palmer and Tom Stourton, is set about a weekend from hell for the lead character Pete (Stourton).

Pete is ready to celebrate his birthday with his old university friends, who invite him to a country house for the weekend. Upon arrival, Pete is alone though other cars are around. He sits alone awaiting their arrival, when they have invited a feral stranger from the local pub. As the weekend unfurls, old truths rise to the surface and Pete fears he is being persecuted and picked on.

Directed by Andrew Gaynord, who along with the writing tandem, has cut his teeth on the Channel 4 sitcom Stath Lets Flats, the film shares the DNA of cringe comedy and social anxiety with that BAFTA winning series.

Pete and his friends are all aspirational and would be fair to categorise them as middle-to-upper class, working in the public sector and yet able to have fun in each other's circles. Yet the introduction of Harry (Dustin Demri-Burns who is brilliant) opens up old wounds about Pete's personal demeanour and makes him very much the posh twat he tries not to be. Pete has recently done some work in a refugee camp in Africa, and now turning 30 he is ready to settle down with his long-term girlfriend Sophie who is working class and very much the chalk to his privileged cheese.

Throughout the film, Pete is an embodiment of a man who finds any situation awkward and ultimately makes that engagement more awkward than it needs to be, overthinking matters too much and questions everything asked of him by his friends. Sometimes you can be yourself the most in front of those who have seen you at your best and worst; in this weekend Pete is struggling to find a sure footing when his hang ups and esteemed nature comes to the fore too often.

A mixture of part social comedy, country house horror the film delicately walks the fine line of making the viewer as uneasy as Pete is, you come away not enjoying yourself but that is the point the film is trying to be made. So often we as a society are trying to be perfect and enjoy life that sometimes any action's consequence is forgotten about for the zest of exciement.

Credit should go to Stourton who takes on the role of Pete with aplomb and showcases an emotional thrust by the film's conclusion when he finally breaks down and ably supported by the ensemble especially Burns who relishes the role of provocative Harry. 

All My Friends Hate Me is a socially awkward comedy that is very much of this social media driven, image first culture we are living in nowadays; it is the sort of cringe inducing comedy the British are especially adept at

All My Friends Hate Me is out on Blu-Ray/DVD from the BFI now

Extras on the disc include and audio commentary by Gaynord, Palmer and Stourton. A Q&A with journalist Leigh Singer, 7mins of deleted scenes, a short film by the trio The Soho Diaries from 2013 and a gallery.

My thanks to BFI for the review opportunity.

Cries and Whispers

The 50th Anniversary of the classic Ingmar Bergman film is being given a new 4K restoration piece in honour of the season of work to mark Liv Ullmann's Honorary Oscar award last weekend. Cries and Whispers was one of ten collaborations between the actress and director.

Released in 1972, the film depicts the relationship between three sisters - Agnes (Harriet Andersson)  is slowly dying, and the other two Maria (Ullmann) and Karin (Ingrid Thulin) whom have to deal with her impending death while dealing with their own problems such as infidelity. While the two sisters cope with their own trauma, they seemingly cannot handle the impending grief, leaving life-long maid Anna (Kari Sylwan) is seemingly the only individual capable of giving the chronically depressed Agnes, the comfort she requires.

While repression and troubling memories resurface for all involved, Bergman paints the picture of grief and bubbling resentment with his heavy use of red in the mise-en-scene and explosion of colour on the screen to startling effect, in this haunting examination of the soul.

A showcase for three Scandinavian actresses and the master director at the height of his powers, the film is a great gateway for new cineastes of Bergman's work and a reminder to familiar fans of the power of his craft, and how he frequently could draw from the power of theatre into his best filmic work, this chamber piece is beautifully captured by Sven Nykvist.

Cries and Whispers will have a UK wide release on screens from 1st April via BFI Distribution, follow the link to find a screening near you.

Liv Ullmann Season at the BFI in April 2022

The BFI Southbank season ‘LIV ULLMANN: FACE TO FACE’, will showcase her acting work, not only with Ingmar Bergman, but also with fellow Norwegian pioneer Edith Carlmar and with Jan Troell. As a director, her films showing in the season include FAITHLESS (2000) (also released on Blu-ray by the BFI on 11 April) and MISS JULIE (2014). A special event, Liv Ullmann In Conversation, takes place at BFI Southbank on 8 April. Selected films will be on BFI Player for one month from 11 April. In addition to in person appearances from Ullmann, the season will also feature introductions and Q&As with film programmers, journalists and curators including season programmer Sarah Lutton, BFI Festivals Director Tricia Tuttle, T A P E Collective’s Nellie Alston and film journalist Christina Newland.

Ali & Ava

The fourth feature from writer-director Clio Barnard has finished principal photography.

Ali & Ava is the fourth feature by Clio Barnard (Dark River, The Selfish Giant, The Arbor) starring Adeel Akhtar (Four Lions) and Claire Rushbrook (Secret and Lies)

Produced by long-term partner Tracy O'Riordan of Moonspun Films; the film is financed by BBC Films, BFI and Screen Yorkshire, with Altitude handing world sales and UK/Irish distribution. Principal photography and shooting recently took place on location in Bradford.

AVA (Rushbrook) is a devoted mother and from an Irish-Catholic background in a predominantly white Bradford estate; a teaching assistant who fills her time looking after others and listening to country and folk music, masking an abusive marriage with her ex-husband.

ALI (Akhtar) is a charismatic son, brother, boss and landlord, a music fan and book lover he is devoted to his family and Asian community in Bradford. Still living in an estranged marriage, he hides the estrangement from wider family, and carries on the charade because he is still in love with her.

Both lonely for different reasons, Ava and Ali find each other and sparks fly despite fears about the coupling within their respective family and communities.

Producer O'Riordan says of the film;

'It was wonderful to be back in Bradford shooting Clio’s fourth feature; a love story, based on people we have met whilst making our previous films there. Inspired by Fassbinder’s ‘Fear Eats the Soul’, ALI & AVA is a film about fear and courage, loneliness and belonging, time and love’.

The critical acclaim given and the funding bodies behind this project bodes well for a film that follows in the footsteps of unlikely love pairing - think Harold and Maude, Last Tango in Halifax, Kelly + Victor - hopefully this will have as much to say about love in general as it does about the fraught racial tensions within the Yorkshire borders.

ALI & AVA will be released in cinemas later in 2020.

My thanks to Emfoundation for the review opportunity.

Gilda

Gilda is Rita Hayworth. Rita Hayworth is Gilda. 

You can imagine that resembling the actual tagline when the film was first released in 1946.  Primarily created as a vehicle for Hayworth, following the end of the Second World War in the previous summer.

However, the film does not start with Gilda, it starts with the chance meeting between Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford), a down and out gambler and Ballin Mundson (George Macready), a crooked German casino owner, on the docks of Buenos Aires where Ballin saves Johnny from a robbery attempt.  Farrell is then employed by Ballin in his casino and business is very good until Ballin leaves on holiday and leaves Johnny in charge. 

After agreeing that gambling and women are not a good mix, Ballin comes back married to a beautiful sensuous wife named Gilda (Hayworth).  It soon becomes clear that Johnny and Gilda know each other and were an item before something led to a break up and Johnny ending up in Argentina.

Much has been made of the psychological and Freudian undercurrent taking place in the film - the constant referral of Ballin's little friend (an actual knife that erects from the bottom of his walking cane) and how he now has Johnny as his new little friend.  The Freudian interpretation is that Ballin is actually a closeted homosexual, but an impotent one who in Johnny sees a younger version of himself - but virile and powerful.  After Ballin and Gilda return, it never becomes clear if they have consumated their union, yet Johnny most like can do.  Hence forth, we have an unusual love triangle taking place prompting jealousy and bitterness, ending with fatal results.

The new digital print does brilliant justice to Rudolph Mate's luscious black and white cinematography, and whilst a lot is focused on the luminous Hayworth, Charles Vidor does create some brilliant shots of film noir such as when Johnny and Ballin watch Gilda go up the prominent staircase - Johnny is in the light, whilst Ballin is in permanent silhouette, it is a shot of sheer beauty and yet terror at the same time.

Hayworth practically glows throughout the entire film, the first time we see her she throws her head back with a full head of hair getting ready for a night out - and yet the full object of desire not just for Johnny but any returning GI Joe from the war; she is beautiful, strong and made desirable by the fact that no man in the picture can truly attain her.  It is also helped by the presence of Hayworth's memorable performances of on 'Put the Blame on Mame' with arm length gloves and 'Amado Mio' (dubbed by Anita Ellis).

The script by Marion Parsonnet does whip along beautifully, yet I feel it does suffer somewhat by the third act troubles once a major player in proceedings is killed off, the narrative seems to get lost in its own labyrinthe and the not knowing if Johnny and Gilda will be reunited, and the comic relief of Uncle Pio (Steven Geray), who mocks Johnny as a peasant, is much missed.

Hayworth who is the centre of attention, is helped by Ford then a young buck who plays Johnny as a chancer but also with a fierce vulnerability at how Gilda treated him previously, making him wary of returning to her affections again.

Nevertheless, this is one of the more memorable film noir movies of the post WW2 eras and highly deserving of a re-release on the big screen, and can be seen at the BFI from Friday 22 July for an extended two-week period, as well as Filmhouse Edinburgh and Irish Film Insitute in Dublin.

http://www.parkcircus.com/
www.bfi.org.uk/southbank

Deep End - DVD review

Released by the BFI Flipside strand, Jerry Skolimowski's 1970 film is ripe for reappraisal.

Although released in 1970, Deep End can be considered the last great British film of the swinging 1960s - which tells the unrequited love story of naive teenager Mike (John Moulder-Brown) and Susan (Jane Asher), after Mike takes a job at a rundown public baths where Susan is the female attendant.

Skolimowski's foriegn eye and view as an outsider pays credence here, as he has no objective viewpoint of public culture in London or is not making a comment about Englishness.  The Polish filmmaker is more concerned about his characters, their hopes and dreams, fears and aspirations.  He is very much linked to Mike and how his desire for Susan can be both uncertain and both definite in its totality.

Mike first makes physical contact with Susan by rubbing her up in a porn theatre whilst she is on a date with her fiance (a scene that might have been lightly plagarised by Taxi Driver for awkwardness sake), and it is a wonderfully handled scene where the camera is predominantly fixed on Asher in the middle gaze and Brown swaying in the background.  After her initial compliant, Susan kisses Mike fully on the lips and she turns back and smiles lightly - but you can tell she is happy she has done it.  Mike is needless to say delirious.  But a scene that could have been farcical is instead handled maturely.

Like a lot of swinging 60s cinema, there are moments of submissiveness (Diana Dors' cameo as a woman getting off on the name Georgie Best), permissiveness (the idea of a 15 year old engaging in a physical relationship - but this is no rites of passage story) and anti-authority (all the suits are stuffy and has beens).

Much like his compatriot Polanski's own London set film (Repulsion, 1967), the film follows a luminous lead female but on this occasion Jane Asher is not the one driven to distraction.  Moulder-Brown's engaging lead performance as Mike holds the film together.

The film though can be held up as an example of sexual politics as Susan, mainly due to her age, manipulates the emotions of Mike leading to the bewildering conclusion. 

Yet what remains true is the brilliant direction of Skolimowski - who handles Mike like a barometer for the temperature of a changing London, and uses fantasy sequences to his advantage to develop Mike more as an individual and utilise the fine camerawork of Charly Steinberger.  The film also had a brilliant soundtrack by then up and coming Cat Stevens and French rock band, Can.

The DVD is released by the BFI Flipside on Monday 18th July. Special features include a Skolimowski's documentary (74mins), Deep End:Deleted scenes (12mins), Original theatrical trailer, a Jane Asher short from 1977, Careless Love (10mins) and essays from David Thompson, Yvonee Tasker and Skolimowski's expert Ewa Mazierska.

www.bfi.org.uk/theflipside

BUG: Moby Special - review

Wednesday 1st June, first day of a new month, my first time at BUG! a bi-monthly showcase for new music videos of both mainstream and indie acts and shown on a big screen at the BFI Southbank.  Tonight in a special edition, hosted by Adam Buxton (of Adam & Joe fame and 6Music DJ), is a retrospective of one of the most iconic and noticeable music video artists over the last 20 years.

Moby, who rose to prominence with his second single, Go (Ondrej Rudavsky) in 1991 with a video that was hypnotic and a hallucinatory fit set to three minutes.  Moby was marked as an artist who knew what he wanted to do with his videos, and how they were an important outlet for his artistic and polemical outlet.

Moby will forever be remembered for the 1999 album Play, one of the biggest selling albums of that decade and a seminal work, which thanks to every track being available for licensed use in advertising, TV or films made the album ubiquitous and landed Moby some notierity for his wish to make as much money as possible.  In the interview with Buxton, Moby quoted that the reason he did that was because the album was initially not a success and landed him some awful reviews, his only regret was he wish he did not allow the licensing in the UK and left it only to non-English speaking territories like Japan and Portugal, for example.

Watching the music videos there is a recurring theme of morose mortality, death is a common thread in certain videos; the allure of celebrity and the use of famous actresses (Christina Ricci in Natural Blues (David La Chappelle, 2000) and Heather Graham in The Day (Evan Bernard, 2011) are most memorable, and now even Moby himself or thelittleidiot character of his is itself a character.

In the interview with the ever entertaining Buxton, who bought a lightness and touch to proceedings making an audience laugh when commentating on the comments left on YouTube for three videos, Moby touched upon his collaborations with David Lynch, his input into the videos - stating that he leaves the creative process to the creative minds, except for In This World, which was his idea initially and the work of mobygratis.com; a new venture that allows non-profit organisations and independent filmmakers to use his exclusive work and tracks for use in their films.  Another capitalist venture? Moby stated that if profit was made, a portion of profits must be paid to the Humane Society, so he cannot make money even if he tried.

The other excellent venture of the evening was the opportunity to focus on new videos for new Moby material from the new album Destroyed; sanctioned by Moby, BUG, Saatchi & Saatchi and Vimeo to search for new directorial talent - the 'Hello, Future' Music Video Challenge showed three videos selected for the final. The winner to be selected at the New Director Showcase at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity on June 23rd. 

Two videos for Be The One were shown, the better being the animated version by Roland Wittl of Germany, incorporating the littleidiot character in an animation video that was indicative of past work and recurring themes.  However, the best one in my opinion, was After directed by Alberto Gomez of Mexico; an intoxicating and mysterious and at times terrifying video that was spellbinding in its editing and getting great performances from a young cast.  Again, this showed the global reach of Moby as an artist whose work can reach all corners of the globe without pandering to different nationalities; the work can speak for itself.

For more on BUG at the BFI go to http://www.bugmusicvideos.com/ for details the next night is on July 13th/14th at the BFISouthbank. Or follow on twitter @BUGmusicvideos or on Facebook; bugvideos.
For more on Moby go to http://www.moby.com/ and http://www.mobygratis.com/

SMALL TIME - THE MAKING OF A MEADOWS

'This ain't London, it's not even f***ing Nottingham. It is Sneanton.'

A voiceover from Shane Meadows that serves as a statement of intent and purpose.  A voiceover to rival Ewan McGregor's in 'Trainspotting' - Meadows first feature film 'Small Time' gets a DVD release from the BFI today and following on from the success of his television debut, 'This is England '86' it serves as a timely reminder of how a young talent was cultivated and developed.

Full of humour, sight gags, funny characters but with an underlying dark context it reminds of what is achievable when you mix talent with patience and with proper financial backing.

With more than a touch of naturalism or 'fly-on-the-wall' about it due to the energetic handheld camerawork and location shooting, Meadows is able to weave in his typical inclination for eccentric characters; the movie also serves as a time capsule for the moment (the women dropping in Power Rangers and Nintendo into a conversation) and the dress code of shellsuits and mad hair from the BritPop era.

The accomplishment of the film must be admired as it does smack of improvisation coupled with a sheer frenzy of guerilla movie-making but something that is better than it appears; it looks cheap in its production but the riches are in the layers; the ingenious comic dialogue, the acting (from professionals and unknown actors) and the direction.

Meadows has always been his own voice, never leaving his East Midlands homestead for the money and comfort of London; he is his own director and along with Danny Boyle the closest thing Britain has to an auteur from their generation.  His authorial fingerprint of gritty realism with a flash of whimsical sensibilites are heralded here and serve notice of what else was to come from his formidable filmography.

The DVD includes the extras of 'Where's the Money Ronnie!' Meadows short film homage to Akira Kursosawa's 'Rashomon', where four suspects give differing versions of a robbery
Also film notes and credits for both films.

SMALL TIME is released by BFI on DVD from 11 October for £12.99 RRP. Available from www.bfi.org.uk/filmstore