Criss Cross

One of the more underrated film noir movies is released by Eureka Entertainment as part of the Masters of Cinema series

Criss Cross was made in 1949 and marked the reunion of sorts of the creative team that had made the 1946 classic The Killers. This is also directed by Robert Siodmak, stars Burt Lancaster with music orchestration by Miklos Rosza.

Criss Cross tells the story of Steve (Lancaster) a man who has moved back to Los Angeles, hoping to move on from a disillusioned marriage to Anna (Yvonne De Carlo) and get back to normality. However, it does not take long for Steve to reconnect with Anna at a former hang out and upon realising she is now the partner of local hoodlum Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea), Steve and Anna begun a torrid affair that may be the end of them.

To cover up the affair, Steve lays a bank heist pan on Dundee where they split the loot 50-50, but the hope being that Steve will double cross Dundee and take all the money and his woman for himself.

Siodmak paints Criss Cross in this familiar battle of light and dark, but also reality and dream like state; Lancaster's drawl of voiceover narration making the audience feel that what they are watching is not merely a tale but unreality - you are never far away from being reminded that this is a film you are watching.  The combative nature of dark trying to ingress upon the natural light spaces is perfectly captured by cinematographer Franz Planer.

Rosza's score is understated also, with dips and troughs of high emotion to subtle sweeps of romance where love can be deadly.

As always in film noir, there is a cynical edge to the narrative and a fatalistic streak to the action; nobody in a true noir can ever be happy and nobody gets away with it.  For all the glamourisation of violence and the appeal of crime, the come uppance is not far away for our protagonists.

Lancaster's screen charm, this coming just three years after his debut in The Killers, shows how quickly he became a star his natural charisma sitting perfectly within the mayhem around him, De Carlo does very well as the femme fatale and she is granted the key speech at the denouement and Duryea is key as the slimy Slim. 

This is such a gripping watch by the film's conclusion culminating in a tense stand-off helped by Siodmak's ability to cast the perfect face to fit the role required.

Criss Cross is out now from Eureka Video.

Live By Night

Released to much critical derision the fourth film directed by Ben Affleck, Live By Night is adapted for the screen by the leading actor from a novel by Dennis Lehane, tells a fictional story of booze running during prohibition era America which starts in Boston (Affleck's home town) and ends in Tampa, Florida following Joe Coughlin who works for an Irish firm but after falling for the boss' girl he ends up in prison before turning to the Italian mafia which leads him to the South.

Following the lambasting aimed at Ben Affleck for taking on the role of Batman in the much reviled Dawn of Justice directed by Zach Snyder, there has been a slow step of backlash at Affleck who had become a darling after winning an Oscar for Argo.

Affleck does not do many favours with this adaptation, which could have done with perhaps a co-writer to help shape the script better and not have it become the Affleck show has he ticks off ladies man, charmer, good in a fight, good with a gun; he ends up as the gentleman who has to raise his son and will not kill someone who needs to be killed for his job because he all of a sudden grows a moral fibre.  Either Affleck had to give his character a little bit of nastiness or conflict instead of being able to leave the gang at film's end or he should have asked another actor to play the leading role.

It is a shame because the film is a victory as a production itself with gorgeous photography by Robert Richardson, vintage costumes and note perfect set design. This is married with some fine supporting work by Chris Messina as Dago and Elle Fanning who instills some real layers in her born again Christian envangelist Loretta Figgis becoming the performer her innocent self wanted to be.

Based on Dennis Lehane's novel

Running at close to two hours there is a sharper more efficient film somewhere here if Affleck had not been given the world to act, write, produce and direct, much like Orson Welles, Affleck has been given the world's biggest train set to play with but has failed to build up a significant head of steam on this occasion.

You cannot fault his ambition when movie making sometimes falls prey to remakes, rehashes and retreads in this age of instant gratification. Affleck aimed to make a film about failed ambition and belonging, following the box office failure of the film he finds himself ironically producing his own failure, which is a shame.

Live By Night is released on DVD and Blu-Ray from Warner Bros. on Monday 22nd May

12 Angry Men

In recent years, there has been a fascination in my household with crime, justice and the legal process. Since we moved into our flat in May of last year we binged on Breaking Bad, and following that we struggled to find something to match the salivation we had for watching episodes at a continual pace.

I will always remember how me and my girlfriend watched the final four episodes up to the very last episode of Breaking Bad culminating in a 1am bedtime. The next night we finished the series and then we wandered the Netflix gallery looking for something.

Then late in the year we watched Making A Murderer, the fascinating documentary on Stephen Avery's cruel miscarriages of justice in Wisconsin. Following on from that we have watched Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line amongst other crime stories. It culminated with the viewing of Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men from 1957.

Based on the teleplay by Reginald Rose, and co-produced by Rose himself along with lead actor Henry Fonda. Lumet tells the story of a jury made of 12 men as they deliberate the guilt or acquittal of a defendant on the basis of reasonable doubt.

Fonda plays Juror No.8, the one man who suggests the young defendant is not guilty of murdering his father with a knife. Fonda, I shall refer to him as that as he is given no name, takes it upon himself to convince all the others that the facts they have been given are in fact false and not legitimate, ergo there is enough reasonable doubt to not send the boy to the electric chair.

On a hot day in New York, Fonda is the only one dressed in white, like an angel of Liberty placed in this room to tell the others that they are wrong to think the case is as open and shut as they believe. Fonda has to contend with racial bigotry from a number of the jury specifically Lee J. Cobb and Ed Begley, class prejudice from E. G. Marshall and ignorance by Jack Warden, a salesman who would dearly like to get to Yankees Stadium and is indifferent to the whole process.

The original armchair detective

Fonda plays the role as an armchair detective, a man who gives convincing arguments but would prefer the mixed bag of men just take the time to consider that the fate of one mans life is in their hands and they should give it due consideration.

Lumet who would go on to direct such legendary films as Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Network, found this as his directorial debut and it marked him as a sure hand with actors able to garner strong performances from many an ensemble. 12 Angry Men is no different, as he gains a real mix of empathy and credibility from all the players.

Lumet tellingly puts his camera at a distance and as the film draws closer to a conclusion only then does he decide to use close ups and extreme close ups such as when Fonda asks Marshall to recall what he did a few nights previously. Marshall sits in his chair sweat running down his face, a depiction of pressure and the climate.

Lumet found solace in the role of Fonda, a harbinger of justice and truth beyond doubt. The film helped pave the way for a global fascination with true crime and how any story has many sides. From the prosecutors to the defence to the victim to the jury, you need only look at the current series of The People vs OJ Simpson to see how a television series goes about showing differing viewpoints of a huge case.

The magic of the film comes from forgetting you are watching twelve strangers deliberating a young man's future. You forget you are watching a film, helped by the claustrophobic nature of Lumet's camera which builds up the tension in the room.  You also forget you are watching a black and white picture, so much colour and life is injected into the piece by the ensemble that 12 Angry Men has essentially become timeless, and that is beyond reasonable doubt.

Making A Murderer

This original Netflix documentary series has been getting great reviews of late on social media, and with the need to save money in the new year and stay indoors, this series looking into the many miscarriages of justice that went against Steven Avery, a small town simpleton from Mantiwoc, Wisconsin who got convicted of a rape he did not commit and spent 18 years in prison. And that was who his problems began.

The series is a labour of love for the co-creators Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos (Demos serves as cinematographer and editor also), who delve deeply into the story of Avery who has to overcome small town prejudice to clear his name once he is out of prison.  Having been freed following his wrongful imprisonment, he set about suing the county court, district attorney and sheriff for their errors.  However, two years after being freed for rape Avery is charged for murder by the same town and district court of Wisconsin.

The story is hard hitting, full of moments that will have you aghast at the seemingly unbelievable behaviour of law enforcement officials and agencies who believed a hunch and set about to systematically destroy the livelihood and well being of one man and his family, because of a petty row from years before.

Steven Avery has an IQ of 70, he is not capable of crimes that are heinously thought through, he is a child and thinks accordingly. He loves his family and they love him, they all admit he could not be capable of such acts. The lengths the police went to to get the guy they wanted is an edictment of the police department which is corrupt and full of discrimination across class as well as race borders.

Following recent events in America over the last two years leading yo race riots when white police officers have not had a case to answer for their illegal actions, it is quite haunting to realise that the police force was doing this back in more innocent times of 1985. But is there really any innocent times when you have a police force protecting you as bad as this?

After one episode (out of 10) you wonder how deep and how shocking can this for Avery as he tries to get off with a murder charge.

The film is an amazing odyssey through the traps and machinations of the judicial process in Wisconsin. And while the story is primarily focused on Steve Avery with obvious reason, as his face adorns all the publicity material, the more shocking thread of the ten part series is the parallel narrative of Steve's nephew, Brandan Dassey, who as a young 16 year old of limited mental capacity is bullied by interrogators to confess to his being at the crime scene thus incriminating himself in the process all without a parent or legal representation present to prevent him from doin just that. The police are shown to be just as manipulative as they claim Avery to be in taking advantage of a young mentally handicapped individual; it also shows their desperation to build up a prosecution against Avery in the worst way by attempting to rip the family apart.

Dean Strang and Jerry Buling

Special mention should go to Avery's two defence attorneys, Dean Strang and Jerry Buling, two men who did not have to take the case but do in the interests of fairness, justice and humility. They try their best to convince the jury to no avail, but the narrative they build up to us the audience witnessing all this information for the first time, leaves you shaking your head as to how anyone can think Avery could or would even do this crime.

The documentary also critiques the way the media mostly the television media helped create this tale in their news reports, making it impossible for Avery to get a fair trial in his hometown as the media and police painted a guilty verdict before a trial began. To think this all occurred in 2005 to 2007 before the existence of Twitter and the age of immediacy, where instant judgment is all around us and offered without thought or reflection.

All in all though, an old bit of wisdom comes to mind, the truth is stranger than fiction.

Focus

Will Smith returns to the big screen for the first time since the abysmal After Earth which was an excruciating episode of vanity and nepotism.  Smith's comeback is in a film written and directed by the pair of Glenn Ficarra and John Fuqua, who have directed I Love You Philip Morris.

Much like that film which was primarily about a con-man, the pair have form and continue the trend with this film about Nicky Spurgeon (Smith) a con man who is looking for that one last job to retire on, yet his head is turned by the new rookie for his crew, Jess (Margot Robbie).  Jess is a small time hustler who works for cash and watches from businessmen in hotels.

The first encounter between the pair is when Jess tries to play Nicky, leading to Nicky being held at gunpoint by Jess' partner where Nicky does not blink at the threat of being shot. Nicky tracks down Jess and she asks to be tutored by Nicky, leading to her following him down to New Orleans and a huge American football match where Nicky's crew hopes to fleece millions from tourists for the big event.

Ficarra and Fuqua are extremely confident in their visual style, the scene in the French Quarter which serves as Jess' initiation to the group is shot with panache and creates a laidback temp to the film. Yet when it needs to be slowed down with the key scene in a luxury suite opposite Chinese gambler, Liyuan (a scene stealing B.D. Wong) is efficient in not showing its hand too soon and leads the audience on convincingly.

The fallout leads to a separation between Nicky and Jess, leading to the second act in Buenos Aires and a scam involving technology and Formula One race teams.  The film does get drawn into an inevitable resolution of conscience for the criminal wanting to go clean and straight, leading to a change of heart.  There is a shock twist that leads to you being embedded in the character.  This is in part down to the telling performance of Smith, who plays Nicky with a little less charisma than his usual self.

All huge movie stars at one time or another play a con man in their career - think of Robert Redford and Paul Newman in The Sting (still the epitome of con men movie), George Clooney and Brad Pitt in Oceans 11 and even Hugh Jackman in The Prestige (yes, they were magicians but aren't all magicians confidence tricksters). Smith is seemingly playing this role so he can slow his body down, he has to carry the film purely on the strength of acting and playing it cool; yet there are moments when Smith is seen being contemplative and still, in all essence he is trying to maintain focus.

Is the Fresh Prince finally worrying about ageing and the onrushing of time to his body and persona?  Perhaps that is why he plays the scene when he and Jess separates in New Orleans so solemnly and devoid of emotion, maybe Smith does not like being cruel or distant as it is so against his public persona both on-screen and off.

All in all though, the film is brilliantly entertaining and gives credence to supporting characters such as Farhad, a sexually starved pest played delightfully by Adrian Martinez and the driver of Garriga as we follow him on his lifestyle before he does his handiwork is the sort of scene not normally allowed in Hollywood film, but give the henchmen his due sometimes. Funny, entertaining and worth your attention, sorry focus.

Focus is out now in all cinemas

John Wick - Preview

Following on from the recent release of the trailer from Warner Bros. for John Wick , NTTA is back with the poster poser of the week for the new one sheet of John Wick before its scheduled release on April 10th in the UK.

 

The new one sheet is not cryptic or as mysterious as others, instead it puts all the eggs in one basket of the prospective audience member being a big Keanu Reeves fan.  Reeves has had more hot and cold hits than many Hollywood stars and yet he still remains an enigma partly due to his zen like modesty and his very shrouded style of acting which can appear to be one tone, yet carries weight in reserve.

In that sense, he is much like those famous Hollywood actors Gary Cooper and Charles Bronson.  Men who had a presence in their build, yet a magnetism that would have the camera in thrall to them.

The reason I bring up Cooper and Bronson, is that John Wick is the kind of role that those two legends would portray.  Individualistic and yet trying to get away from the past life they left behind; devoid of a partner they only have themselves as company and walk alone in search of redemption by putting the law in their own hands.  Think of Cooper in High Noon and Bronson in Michael Winner's series of Death Wish films; are they vigilantes or just men out to serve justice.

The poster has Reeves in brooding form, besuited as he is throughout the majority of the trailer, striding towards the camera confident and brazen in his ability. Unlike the trailer though, which shows plenty of carnage and gunplay you only have in the poster Wick on a street with only an overturned car.  For taste purposes, no poster can really have dead bodies lying around and because of the dark tones used in the blues and blacks any fires would be distracting, as Keanu is put front and centre. 

However, compare it to the poster or US poster below, and you can see a stark difference in the tone of the film.  Keanu holding a gun which he does throughout most of the film, with the barrel of the gun forming the 'O' in John, perhaps a nod to James Bond in terms of adulation but the need to thrust the gun into the face of the audience looking at the poster speaks more about the relationship American viewers have with guns than the UK audience who have stricter gun control policy.

 

The trailer is dynamite and it shows what Reeves does well, actions speak louder than his words although it has two good points - one where he says, 'Am I back? Yeah I'm back' perhaps speaking for himself as well as his character and a piece of dialogue with a concierge about laundry, he has always been under-rated with his timing and delivery.

Directed by Chad Stahelski (a stunt co-ordinater on The Matrix and The Wolverine), the film has done well in America garnering positive reviews for Reeves in particular with a sequel already touted following the $42m gross in the three months since release in October 2014. 

Whilst the avenging hitman and grieving husband is nothing new, it is positive to see Reeves up his action star potential again in a vehicle suited to his range of acting ability. When harnessed properly as in The Matrix and Point Break it can be golden, and John Wick promises to not disappoint on this occasion.

John Wick is released by Warner Bros. in the UK on April 10th

The Doom Generation

Released today on DVD is Gregg Araki's 1995 teenage road movie The Doom Generation starring Rose McGowan, James Duval and Jonathon Schaech.

Following in the footsteps of Natural Born Killers and Kalifornia, the film follows would be femme fatale Amy Blue (McGowan) with her doe-eyed boyfriend Jordan White (Duval), who get wound up with a psychopath Xavier Red (Schaech), who kills people and end up as accomplices on a road trip from hell across the Californian state highways.

Araki, is a huge film fan, but a director who in spite of his ability has never had the huge crossover hit, and watching this film you can see why.  Araki sometimes has too many ideas going on at one time, or he has too many influences running through his head and the wish to embrace and appraise said influences sometimes does a disservice to the film as a whole.

Not to say it is bad for end of the millenium directors to have influences, yet Araki does join Tarantino and Eli Roth as directors who cut and paste films based on their film viewing without having a distinctive authorial voice.  Whilst Tarantino has the uncanny ability to whip out five pages of memorable dialogue, this foregoes the lack of visual flair; and Roth falls back on the ability of shock and awe to enhance his failure to write good dialogue.

Araki has the ability to have his finger on the pulse of an ever-changing youth culture; when we first encounter Jordan and Amy it is whilst Jordan is in a moshpit and Amy is telling some guy to f off who asks her for some drugs. 

Yet you never get the impression that these drifters are apparently drifting, or they will eventually drift back to normality once Xavier is out of their lives.  Araki's penchant for a mixture of sexual exploration for the characters, combined with a healthy dose of gore does go hand in hand - in recent films post-Millenium, Araki has explored the notion of sexual politics in the youth culture from both hetero- and homosexual stances, as he did in Kaboom (2010).

This does not make the film Doom Generation, a bad one there are enough to keep you interested and it does have some great set pieces of violence in the vein of Stone's masterpiece, Natural Born Killers, yet it is very much a case of a director trying to do too much in a very short space of time.  Whereas those killers were very violent and knew that they were inherently evil, these ones are a little too reflexive and unaware of their actions.

The Doom Generation is out today from Second Sight Films courtesy of Aim Publicity

The Yellow Sea

Starring and directed by the same two behind the success of The Chaser, Kim Yun-seok is reunited with Na Hong-jin for The Yellow Sea, a film that featured as part of the Un Certain Regard in Cannes this year.

The film follows the story of Gu-nam (Ha Jung-woo), a Korean living in Yaniban, China who loses his job after being crushed by gambling debts.  We first meet him losing another game of mah-jong, but he ends up sleeping odd hours and being threatened by debt collectors.  We see him working hard as a cabbie, earning money but he cannot resist the urge of immediate cash of mah-jong.  He loses more money and ends up being beaten up also.

One day he meets a hitman Myun-ga (Yun-seok) and Gu-nam agrees to cross the Yellow sea (by train - allowing for some beautiful landscape photography) to kill a businessman in Seoul, in turn the hitman will help pay off his debt.  Gu-nam also hopes to be reunited with his estranged wife, who left for Seoul in search of work six monts ago and has not contacted him.

Gu-nam tracks down the target and just as he is about to make his move, his target is murdered in front of him and he gets framed for the murder.  Soon the police are on his tail and the man who did the crime is hoping to eliminate both Gu-nam and Myun-ga.

The film is moodily shot and darkly photographed, you get a real sense of the nocturnal air of Seoul - the dinginess, the squalor of the city as Gu-nam attempts to clear his name.  A stranger in his own homeland almost, Gu-nam plays the immigrant rather well, giving him an animalistic quality the role deserves.

Shot enthusiastically and acted impeccably the film fails in its execution only by giving us too much of a good thing; the film has a very simple noir storyline but unfortunately it goes on for nearly 30-40 minutes too long.  It should have a punchy feel, and yet you feel you are being punched too much and if not punched then stabbed.  A lot of the violence takes place clearly for the sake of violence and also because this is a crime movie.

Yet for that fault, the film remains a roller coaster ride with enough action to maintain interest and a chase sequence to rival anything that comes out of Hollywood.

The Yellow Sea is a Bounty Films release in association with Eureka Entertainment Ltd. and will be released in the UK on Friday 21st October.

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.

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Animal Kingdom DVD Preview

Hey all, just to let you know that the critically lauded Animal Kingdom will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray from Optimum Releasing and ThinkJam on Monday 11th July

ANIMAL KINGDOM tells the gripping tale of seventeen year-old J (James Frecheville), as he fights for survival in a vicious criminal family and the detective (Guy Pearce, The King’s Speech and Memento) who tries to save him. Pope Cody (Ben Mendelsohn), an armed robber on the run from a gang of renegade detectives, is in hiding, surrounded by roughneck friends and family. Soon, Pope’s nephew, J, arrives and moves in, but when tensions between the family and corrupt cops reach breaking point, J finds himself at the centre of a cold-blooded revenge attack that turns the family upside down. 

Writer and director David Michôd’s brutal and captivating depiction of Melbourne’s criminal underbelly heralds the arrival of an intense new voice to contemporary Australian Cinema.

The film has received awards and nominations worldwide, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Jacki Weaver, and Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival.

My review will follow in due course, but giving you a heads up, as the check disc arrived this morning and I am watching the film now - looking forward to it

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Twenty8k - a bold future for British filmmaking

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending in Newham the set of a new and exciting British production, Twenty8k. Co-directed by David Kew and Neil Thompson, produced by Martin Carr and starring Parminder Nagra, Stephen Dillane, Jonas Armstrong and Kierson Wareing; in a script written by Jimmy Dowdall and Paul Abbott. It tells the story of a young woman, Deeva, a fashion executive in Paris who returns home to East London to defend the name of her brother who has been arrested for murder, but as she seeks to uncover the truth, lies and conspiracy come to the fore with twists aplenty.

Firstly, upon my arrival on set I was allowed an in-depth sit down with Martin Carr, a passionate man who described the film as a 'woman in peril thriller', a rare beast for these times and one for which they always had the acclaimed Nagra in mind for. As we arrive on set, they are in the last week or so of major shooting, due to Parminder's busy schedule in line with her work on J.J.Abram's new TV pilot Alcatraz; this has been a busy five weeks and hectic for the still young actress - who is back in England for the first time in years.

Nagra, is the cornerstone of the film, and in some exclusive reel footage we were shown; we see a scene of her crying in her brother's bedroom as she sees the only contact with which she had with him; a postcard from her home in Paris where she was working as a fashion executive, she breaks down in tears as this postcard is the only link she had with her brother, the tears expressing guilt and regret over the greater distance she had withdrawn from family life.

Mr.Carr went on about the gruelling schedule of shooting, days shoots running from 7am to 5pm, and then sometimes a night shoots going from 5pm to 7am, sometimes straight after, which has been hard on the 40 strong crew, but the professionalism on display has been all apparent.

As the money man, he was not shy to state how the budget at £1.4m is very good for a British film of this stature - but with its presence as the marquee British release of the early spring after the Oscar rush of films, the film could be the first thing of London in 2012 before 'the big sporting event' appears on the horizon in late July. Yet Mr.Carr made the point, 'that filmgoers pay £8 or whatever it is, for a big Hollywood blockbuster and the same for a small British film, so why can we not offer the British film fan the same sort of sheen and look as a Hollywood film.'

Asking about the script, a first draft was written in 2008 but following a creative difference with the original author, mostly about the omnipresent c-word in British pictures; Carr approached Paul Abbott (Shameless, State of Play) who said no but came back and did a draft and the beauty of Abbott's work, 'is that in two lines he gets the audience to ask 30 questions'.

Carr hopes that along with such films like Enemy of the State and the Bourne franchise, 'there will be a sense of immediacy with the work and that the preparation will pay off. And that there will be an international reach for this film even though it has a low budget, but this has class and we are using London as an asset and character in proceedings. And in Deeva (Nagra), we have a character who is a strong yet vulnerable girl, using her skill set and intelligence - allowing us a greater demographic due to her everyman quality.'