A review of the new film “Munich: The Edge Of War”
February 9th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Before I saw this film, I had read the novel by Robert Harris on which it is based [for review click here] and I had read (twice) a detailed examination of the Munich Agreement of September 1938 by Robert Kee [for review click here], so I was very familiar with the subject material. Nevertheless, I found it an entertainingly enough film which is very faithful to the novel (Harris was an executive producer) and near enough to the actual history.
It posits a scenario in which British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain – an excellent performance by Jeremy Irons – might have been persuaded not to sign the Munich document through the concerted actions of two one-time university friends: Hugh Legat (George MacKay), a member of the British Diplomatic Service, and Paul von Hartmann (Jannis Niewöhner), an official in the German Foreign Ministry.
It looks as if the film is pitched as much to the German/Austrian market as that of Britain & the USA, since this is an Anglo-German production in which all the German characters are played by German actors who actually speak German (so lots of sub-titles) and shooting was in Germany (Munich & Potsdam) as well as Britain (Liverpool).
This competent work has two flaws, one general to much of Harris’s work and one particular to this film. The general problem is that, in most of the historical novels by Harris, we know how it all ends so there is no real sense of excitement (the exception was “Fatherland” ).
The particular objection is the statement at the end: “The extra time bought by the Munich Agreement enabled Britain and her Allies to prepare for war and ultimately led to Germany’s defeat”.
As Kee writes: “The argument often subsequently put forward in justification for Munich, to the effect that it gained time, was not immediately widely used and only really began to take shape retrospectively after Hitler’s entry into Prague and the eventual outbreak of war itself”.
If Munich gave Britain and France extra time to prepare for war, why was the Nazi blitzkrieg of 1940 so outstandingly successful?
Posted in Cultural issues, History | Comments (0)
The 10 Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and my reviews of six of them
February 8th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
- “The Power Of The Dog” – my review here
- “West Side Story”
- “Belfast” – my review here
- “Dune” – my review here
- “Licorice Pizza” – my review here
- “King Richard” – my review here
- “CODA”
- “Don’t Look Up” – my review here
- “Drive My Car”
- “Nightmare Alley”
My main disappointment? Only one nomination for “House Of Gucci” – my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the new film “The Power Of The Dog”
February 6th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
In a career of 30 odd years, New Zealander Jane Campion has only directed eight feature films and one of them was the wonderful “The Piano”. There has been a period of 12 years between “Bright Star” and “The Power Of The Dog”. This latest work, which she both wrote and directed, is a kind of western set in Montana in 1925 but it is really a tale of repressed sexuality based on a cult novel and therefore can be compared to “Brokeback Mountain”.
The archetypal art house movie is one with slowness and opacity and this film is very slow (indeed glacial) and very opaque (starting with the title itself). Furthermore I found the the sudden transformation of the central wounded character unconvincing. However, the acting, most notably by the English Benedict Cumberbatch, is distinguished and the cinematography – it was actually shot in New Zealand – is wonderful. Whatever I think, the critics have lauded this film and it is set to win many awards.
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Word of the day: diegesis
February 1st, 2022 by Roger Darlington
This is a narrative or plot, typically in a film.
The only place that I’ve heard the word is on my film course.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the new film “Belfast”
January 31st, 2022 by Roger Darlington
My first visit to Belfast was the week after the troops were put on the streets in August 1969. Subsequently my work in the House of Commons and the Northern Ireland Office took me there some 30 times and I met all the leading local politicians from Ian Paisley to John Hume.
As a result, I’ve tended to stay away from films about the Troubles, but writer and director Kenneth Branagh’s black & white homage to the city of his childhood is more a coming-of-age story rather than an examination of the conflict itself, so it bears comparison with “Hope And Glory” and “Empire Of The Sun”.
The casting of the Protestant family is wonderful. Jude Hill as the nine year old Billy – the personification of Branagh himself in this semi-autobiographical tale – is an absolute delight. His parents are played by Jamie Dornan (himself from Belfast) and Caitriona Balfe (best known as a model), while his grandparents are portrayed by veteran actors Ciarán Hinds (another Belfaster) and Judi Dench.
In spite of the discrimination and violence on display, the story is told with compassion and humour and the evocation of period and setting is well-done. However, the messaging is not exactly subtle: for instance, the minister’s sermon comes over as a parody and the visual and aural references to the film “High Noon” are overdone.
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A review of the film “Personal Shopper”
January 30th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
I much admired “Clouds Of Sils Maria” which was both written and directed by the French Olivier Assayas with the American Kristen Stewart in an important support role. In “Personal Shopper”, again Assayas is both writer and director and this time Stewart is the leading actress.
The story is set largely in Paris although, in the main, the dialogue is in English. In this supernatural psychological thriller, Stewart takes the eponymous role as both aide to a supermodel and a psychic seeking to make contact with her recently deceased twin brother.
The film divided the 2016 Cannes Film Festival: on its initial screening, it was booed but, at its official premiere, it received a long standing ovation and won the Best Director prize. Generally I don’t like movies featuring the supernatural, but here Stewart – who is rarely off the screen – gives an impressive ethereal performance.
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A review of the important book “Seven Ways To Change The World” by Gordon Brown
January 29th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
In these troubled times when so many are depressed and even in despair about our world, it is a rare pleasure to read a book that addresses head-on most of the major problems that we face, that describes the challenges so eloquently and offers solutions that are so practical, and that is imbued with such optimism and hope.
The author spent 13 years as Chancellor of the Exchequer and then Prime Minister in the United Kingdom and is now something of an elder statesman and the timing of his work could not be better coming in the middle of the most severe global pandemic for a century.
What are the seven problems that Brown addresses in a series of individual chapters?
- How can we combat global pandemics like Covid-19 and transform global health through a more equably-funded World Health Organisation?
- How can we revive the global economy in a way that achieves greater growth, addresses poverty, and avoids recessions?
- How can we resolve the climate emergency and achieve a zero-carbon future through measures like carbon pricing?
- How can we unlock the potential of the world’s billions through a revolution in education at each stage of childhood and adulthood?
- How can we achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals of 2015 by reducing both absolute poverty and relative inequality?
- How can we abolish tax havens so that corporations and the rich pay fair taxes that enable governments to fund much-needed public services?
- How can we prevent nuclear proliferation and reduce the existential risk of nuclear war?
For all the merits of Gordon Brown’s tome of almost 500 pages, he needed a good editor or, if he had one, he needed to have listened to that editor. Too often, he is repetitive and meandering and every chapter could have been shorter and should have ended with a summary of his actual proposals.
The last two chapters – on the conflict between the USA and China and on the the need to turn nationalism to patriotism – are worthy but could have been saved for a different book.
However, the central message of the work – global problems need global solutions – may seem self-evident but his arguments are compelling and his proposals are both radical and realistic.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the 1944 classic “Double Indemnity”
January 25th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Based on James Cain’s novel of the same name, this classic film noir was written by Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder and directed by Wilder. The term ‘double indemnity’ refers to a clause in certain life insurance policies that doubles the payout when the death is accidental.
This invitation to murder is seized upon by a femme fatale played by Barbara Stanwyck, who was nominated for an Academy Award, and an insurance salesman portrayed by Fred MacMurray, who took on a rare serious role, while Edward G Robinson was the claims adjuster at the salesman’s company.
A memorable leitmotif in the action is the lighting of cigarettes and cigars. This is a wonderfully plotted movie with shifting interactions between the three main players and the production received no less than seven Academy Award nominations (but won none).
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Have you ever heard of Mardin in Turkey?
January 24th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
I hadn’t until last night when I had dinner in a Turkish restaurant called “Sumak” (the name of a spice) in the Crouch End district of north London.
The walls of the restaurant are adorned with four large pictures of different cities: Paris, Rome, London, and one I did not recognise.
I was told that it is Mardin, a city in the south-east of Turkey close to the border with Syria. It has a majority Kurdish population and special architectural features.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of the 2016 film “The Take”
January 22nd, 2022 by Roger Darlington
This heist movie looks a bit like a French film: it is set in Paris with some great shooting of the city, many of the subsidiary characters are French actors playing French characters, and there is even a fair bit of French spoken – all of which won it French funding.
Or it might be taken for an American film because the two leading roles are American: a maverick member of the CIA with the skills of a Jason Bourne and an accomplished pickpocket who finds himself an unlikely partner of the action hero.
But, in fact, it’s a British work: the director and co-writer James Watkins and the two lead actors Idris Elba and Richard Madden are all British. The plotting is pretty ridiculous but the action sequences are well-done and it’s all watchable enough.
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