richardkassir Reviews

The Revolt of Job (1983)

A GOOD JOB TOO

[8/10 · 24 March 2021]

Before1990 when Hungary and Yugoslavia were under communist control (of one sort or another) they made some extraordinary movies about the 2nd World War and its aftermath. 'The Revolt of Job' is one such film from Hungary.

Other reviewers have eulogised about this movie, in particular its take on the plight of the Hungarian Jews during WW2. I don't disagree, but I think 'Elysium' (1986) also from Hungary presents the same subject matter, i.e. the personalised story of a European Jewish family during the war, but views it from a different and (in my view) more realistic perspective which outshines 'The Revolt of Job' at every level. Having said that this is still a great film and I don't want to take away from its impact as it has a strong story that's well told. Cinematography and acting are also of a high quality.

Middle aged Job and Roza are Jewish farmers in a rural farming community. Job obtains by barter a young boy from an orphanage. Their seven children all died young and Job and Roza want to be able to pass the farm on even if it is to an adopted son. They are aware of the dangers facing the Jews in a country under Nazi control, so they deliberately choose a gentile child to be their heir. The film follows their lives and blossoming relationships as the boy becomes used to Roza and Job and accepts them as his parents. Unfortunately, anyone with even a slight knowledge of 20th Century history will have some idea about whether Job and Roza's fears for their future would come true.

Thalassa, Thalassa! Return to the Sea (1994)

'LORD OF THE FLIES' TAKES A ROAD TRIP

[7/10 · 24 March 2021]

This is an excellent film that has a wonderfully original take on the 'Road Movie' genre. I believe, this film's concept and realisation could only have been made in Europe. The movie gives the appearance that it works outside of the confines of a set script, because its construct is to simply follow and observe a group of young children on a road trip to see the sea. I say simple, of course it's really the opposite as their reactions to situations and their changing relationships with each other are full of detailed nuances.

This is the story of a group of young kids of varying ages from around 7 to 13 who live in poverty in the dusty Romanian countryside. One day they explore a large metal container that has been dumped on waste ground and find a car inside which is in full working order. It becomes clear when the kids explore the contents of the boot that the car must have belonged to some sort of gangster caught trying to make his/her escape. The children decide on the spur of the moment to use this car to take a drive to see the sea. What follows is an extraordinary film that observes these kids as they slowly make their way across dirt roads in the rough direction of the coast.

IMDB describes 'Thalassa Thalassa' as a 'family drama comedy'. I can only agree with the 'drama' tag. There are amusing moments in the way the children behave towards each other and their circumstances, but the humour is outweighed by the drama of their situation which is more desperate than they have the ability to realise. similarly, there is no way it could be described as a family film as, along the way, two of the children go missing presumed dead and the fate of all of them is unsure. It is, however an absorbing clever and gripping film that should not be missed.

The Four Sisters (2018– )

SHOAH: THE BEST EVER FIRST PERSON INTERVIEW DOCUMENTARIES

[10/10 · 12 February 2021]

Claude Lanzmann's lifelong work receives its final outing by bearing witness to four Jewish women who survived the Holocaust. These are the last extracts that Lanzmann edited from the 360 hours of Shoah interviews he conducted from the late 1970's to the early 1980's. The film was released the day before he died at the age of 92 in 2018. Lanzmann's documentaries taken from his extensive resource of interviews are in my view the best eye witness Holocaust testimony in existence.

1. Ruth Elias. Ruth was a 17 year old Czechoslovak girl in 1939 when the Nazis overran the country. She and her family hid and lived as farm workers until they were betrayed to the authorities and deported to Theresienstadt in 1942. Thereseinstadt served first as a Ghetto, then as a Concentration Camp and finally had a Death Camp added. Through the years of WW2 Ruth had many deadly adventures and close calls, but she also met, fell in love, married and becoming pregnant by a fellow inmate. Ruth kept her pregnancy a secret and was nearly full term when she was sent to Auschwitz. Attempting to get moved to another camp her pregnancy was finally discovered and reported to Dr Mengele. What happened next is too awful to describe here and should only be told in her own voice. Of her family and husband only Ruth survived. She remarried after the war and had two sons.

This is the third of Lanzmann's films to include the Theresienstadt Camp. The first is 'A visitor From The Living' (1999) an interview with Maurice Rossel, an international red cross official who, after the Nazi's revamped one small part of the camp for inspection, gave Theresienstadt a glowing report. The second is 'The Last Of The Unjust' (2013) a 220 minute interview with the unique and remarkable realist Benjamin Murmelstein, the last and only surviving president of the Theresienstadt Jewish Council. In the context of the Holocaust Murmelstein's immortal statements, 'you can condemn me but you can't judge me' and 'they were martyrs not saints' will stay with me forever. Though exonerated of collaboration he was forced to live in exile and was buried in un-consecrated ground.

2. Ada Lichtman. The day the Germans invaded Poland all the men in Ada's village, including her father, were taken into the forest and shot dead. Her life was then a catalogue terrifying events, leading in the end to Sobibor Concentration and Death Camp. Ada was part of the uprising on October 14th 1943 and along with 50 others she escaped and survived the war.

The Sobibor uprising is described in chilling detail by Yehuda Lerna in 'Sobibor, October 14, 1943 4pm' (2001). His remarkable account, which is part of Lanzmann's series of films of which The Four Sisters is the final part, is incredibly gripping from start to finish.

3. Paula Biren. Paula spent most of the war in the Lodz ghetto. She survived by volunteering for education and then being selected for the women's police force. 45,000 people died in Lodz from starvation, exhaustion and disease. The longest lasting of all the Ghetto's, Lodz was finally emptied when all that was left of the Jewish prisoners were put into the last train to go to Auschwitz. On arrival Paula's mother and sister were immediately taken away, gassed and burnt. Her father only survived a few days of hard labour. Paula survived and went to America after liberation.

4. Hanna Marton. One of the strangest stories of the Holocaust concerns the 1,680 Hungarian Jews that were given safe passage, by train, through Germany and eventually to Switzerland. Hungary was an ally of the Nazi regime and it wasn't until 1944 with the Russian army advancing towards the border that the Jews started to be deported to the Death Camps. Rudolf Kastner a leading Zionist negotiated with Eichmann to secure (at some considerable cost) a train to take a defined and listed number of people to a neutral country. These people were selected, apart from wealth, as an 'elite'. There were times when the train didn't look as though it would make it through, but it did and Hanna was among them. The aftermath became highly contentious with Kastner accused of collaborating with the Nazis and, as part of the train deal, of not forewarning the 450,000 Jews who went to the gas chambers.

Loveless (2017)

THE SHAPE OF MENTAL CRUELTY WHEN CRAFTED BY EXPERTS

[8/10 · 12 January 2021]

What a great movie. Well written, excellent dialogue, superb acting complimented by assured directing. It's like 'The Third Man' in reverse. In 'The Third Man' the main character only appears towards the end of the film. In 'Loveless' the boy (Alyosha) only appears for a few minutes, mostly at the start. In both films, the third man and Alyosha are the stars by virtue of their absence. The director is right when he said the whole of the film rests on Alyosha's distress at the start.

Belonging to the newly created Russian middle class, the casual mental cruelty of both parents, the vacuity of their self-absorption and the lack of demonstrative love or affection can clearly be seen in Alyosha's face in his photographs. The malicious, poisonous, point scoring barbs of vitriol his parents exchange one evening, has a special horror because Alyosha overhears them.

The rest of the film is a controlled and slow unravelling of the pretentions and stories people tell themselves to justify their behaviour. Zhenya, Alyosha's mother complains about her own mother, but is clearly worse than her. I could particularly relate to Alyosha and that is why a part of me didn't want him to be found, because there was never going to be a happy ending with his awful parents. Alyosha's actions, however desperate, meant he was able to take control of what happened next.

Acne (2008)

A STUDY OF COLD POVERTY WRAPPED IN ICY GOLD

[7/10 · 11 January 2021]

Acne is a remarkably clever and subtle film about poverty. On the surface it looks like the opposite, but the impoverishment conveyed in this movie is not easily visible to the naked eye, or at least, this film explores a common type of poverty we would not normally recognise.

The central character is Rafa, a middle class teen with severe acne which is a nuisance to him and for which he receives medical attention, but it does not affect his confidence. He is softly spoken, his voice is childlike and he never shouts or displays bad temper, but he is clearly spoilt and has everything he wants including money whenever he asks for it. None of Rafa's many privileges which he uses to the full and which he takes for granted seems able to raise him out of a monotonous, disconnecting lack of engagement (this could be an early manifestation of depression). His only fixation and his search throughout the film is for the closeness contained in a proper kiss.

This film was, I first thought, an interesting observation on the malaise of privilege, but it is more than that. Rafa is a victim of middle class poverty, a sufferer from a fairly frequent form of abuse; that of middle class deprivation. He is a casualty of emotional abandonment by his divorcing parents who think the comfortable life style and freedoms they provide for him are enough. Rafa's parents only understand monetary value, they seem unable to provide the time and love all children need. When Rafa goes to help his dad at his business, he spends his time working alone in a warehouse, while his dad works in the office.

The emptiness of his life is brought into sharp focus when the closest Rafa comes to sharing something with his father is when he goes into the same brothel he has just seen his dad has come out of. This flips the whole film from the two dimensional surface story depicting the overindulged restlessness of Rafa, to the deeper narrative depicting the tragedy, loss and neglect of the teen by his egocentric, self-centred and self-absorbed parents.

Auschwitz (2011)

REAL, NOT REAL OR LEARNING AID?

[7/10 · 30 November 2020]

The main problem with this film was calling it 'Auschwitz'. When Uwe Boll decided a specific place name he was inviting an inevitable slew of comparisons between what did and didn't happen at that particular location. He should have called it 'Death Camp' in keeping with the loose collection of events illustrated in his film. The movie 'Auschwitz' is not exploitative, or Euro Trash, nor is it a drama. It's more of a docudrama or re-enactment, the sort of historic story-telling that TV has been flooded with for many years. The idea behind re-enactment is to give a visual aid, or impression to the viewer, not an explicit replication of the often bloody detail of the actual historical event. In this way the film does exactly what the director said it would by making a bold attempt to explain what should have been beyond possible. Uwe Boll has created a documentary designed to give today's teenagers the hint of an idea of what happened to the Jews, Gypsies and others under Nazi rule. It is the briefest of glimpses into what happened in the Death Camps. If you are looking for something more than that which Uwe Boll said he was offering, then the list of what is missing is a long one. However, you need to consider the challenges Uwe Boll faced in making this movie. To start with it is impossible for actors, no matter how many or few take part, to even begin to genuinely portray what took place inside a Death Camp Gas Chamber. Only CGI could scratch the surface of that reality and it would be beyond awful to try to create or watch such terror. No more than an impression should ever be committed to film, the authentic truth can be openly researched from the evidence of Death Camp survivors. Another complaint about this film is the depiction of what happens to the babies. It may not have happened in Auschwitz (although I understand that if there was an overflow at Auschwitz they were taken to an area behind the crematorium where they were shot and thrown into a fire pit), but it was common for guards to separate the disembarked survivors of the train journeys at the point of entry to the camps; the babies, the very old, the infirm, the very sick and the disabled. This was done in order to kill them away from the others, because those who couldn't move quickly would hold up the speed of the general slaughter and any inefficiency could cause a (log/human) jam. If you think it couldn't be worse than I have described, I suggest you watch the filmed testimony of Ruth Elias, a Death Camp survivor who gave birth to her baby girl in Auschwitz (The Four Sisters - Claude Lanzmann 2018). Everything by Claude Lanzmann is an amazing and devastating insight into the hell suffered by ordinary Jewish Citizens as they describe to him their personal experiences of the Holocaust or Shoah. I have been unusually grave in my review of this film, but the subject matter is too serious for it to be treated in any other way. When all is said and done 'Auschwitz' is not a great film, but it is a good one and it ought to be seen, in the form it was designed to be, as a documentary for teenagers. They should watch this film to start them on the road to understanding the barbaric horror of systematic and industrialised genocide.

Our Lady of the Assassins (2000)

THE REAL BAD GUY IS FERNANDO

[4/10 · 17 November 2020]

Beautifully filmed, well acted, but it fails on storytelling, construction and believability. It's a shame as I really wanted to like this film because of the director.

A middle aged gay man (Fernando) returns after 30 years to his hometown of Medellin, Columbia. He is a writer who keeps declaring he's fed up with life. The first thing Fernando does is attend a party/hook-up joint and is introduced to 16 year old Alexis. Alexis is a street gang killer who shoots dead at least seven people whilst in Fernando's company before eventually getting gunned down himself after Fernando causes Alexis to lose his gun. Fernando soon meets another young man who is an Alexis look-a-like, Wilmar. He falls for Wilmar, but then finds out it was Wilmar who killed Alexis; and so the farce continues. There are more story and characterisation failings which lead to a predictable conclusion and raises the questions - what was the film about, for whom and why?

The one thing I can be sure about, and I don't believe it was the films intention to portray this, is that Fernando (the intellectual writer) hasn't got a decent bone in his body. He is the most repellent, self-pitying, selfish, un-empathic, uncaring, self-unaware, lying sociopath that I've seen for a long time in a movie. If Columbia is in a dreadful and lawless state it is because of people like Fernando, who returns home after 30 years with nothing more on his over-privileged mind than to pick up some fresh young boys and pretend to fall in lust...I mean love. The kids with guns who join gangs and deal in drugs are the end result of a society broken by people like Fernando.

The Republic of ShKID (1966)

CARRY ON COMMUNISM

[5/10 · 3 November 2020]

This film is a fascinating allegory of communist Russia. Set in the 1920's, the action takes place in the Dostoevsky school for street kids. Thanks to the forward thinking headmaster, the unruly kids are allowed to create their own self-determining soviet within the school emulating the Communist ideal. In this way they slowly take responsibility for their actions. There is even a new boy who represents capitalism. By using bread as currency the new boy makes slaves out of the younger kids whilst bribing the oldest ones to turn a blind eye. This is a comedy with a message.

Pain of Love (1992)

A BEAUTIFUL BUT SAD STORY

[7/10 · 3 November 2020]

An interesting take on mental illness. Kirsten's life is seen in chronological moments of her life from a young child. They show the signs of her mental illness from an early age, but at that time it seemed so slight that they are only detectable to us, the viewer, because of their selection. Her deteriorating illness is progressive and all the help and support of those who love her cannot change that. One of her last statements in the film is to the effect that she doesn't cope well with being loved. Filmed with a detached observational style, it made me feel as though I was watching a life unfold rather than artifice drama.

Tomorrow Will Be Better (2010)

FREEDOM IS A DELICATE FLOWER

[7/10 · 3 November 2020]

Wonderful and superb movie beautifully filmed with excellent story telling and great acting. Three boys, Pietia 5, Waska 10 and Liapa 11 go on a journey to escape their homeless, street life of poverty in Russia by crossing the border into Poland. Liapa the oldest has planned their journey and keeps them on track. Their journey is fraught with mishaps, but their innocent, irrepressible childish good humour helps them to overcome their problems. Crossing the border, the most dangerous part of their adventure is shot in real time and is edge of your seat drama.

Sanctuary (2015)

THERE'S ABUSE AND THEN THERE'S RELIGION BASED ABUSE

[8/10 · 3 November 2020]

A powerful story of cruelty that takes place in a type of privately run and religion based 'borstal'. These places existed in Germany in the 1960's where 'difficult' kids were sent and their placements were paid for by their middle-class parents - no crime necessary. The bullying, violence and lack of accountability became a national scandal. Superb acting by everyone.

Fog in August (2016)

A DIFFICULT SUBJECT RARELY TACKLED

[8/10 · 3 November 2020]

A powerful and emotionally demanding film about the less talked about Nazi practice of disabled euthanasia. 'Life not worthy of life' they called it and it became the testing ground for the 'final solution'. This film shows how it was done and exposes the stories that those responsible told themselves to make it acceptable. An unruly gipsy boy is put into a children's mental hospital and works out that when children are given the treat of a fruit drink, it's laced with barbiturates. He tries to scupper the hospitals plan, but the might of the Nazi regime is too great for one small boy to take on. A rare drama on this harrowing subject.

Guigo Offline (2017 TV Movie)

ABSORBING, WELL WRITTEN AND ACTED.

[6/10 · 4 October 2020]

Good short movie about a boy coming to terms with his father being gay and his own obsessive teenage selfishness, which is brought to a head when he and a friend go camping with his dad and his dads boyfriend.

Two Queens and One Consort (1981)

GREAT ACTING AND EXCELLENT FEMALE CHARACTERS

[6/10 · 3 October 2020]

An ageing business man (Levien) visits his dying mother and remembers his poor childhood in the early part of the 20th Century. His mother, a massive and difficult personality, ruled the household with outrageous and anarchistic behaviour that occasionally caused her to end up in prison. Levien's quiet father keeps the family together by holding down a factory job. Levien adores his mother and doesn't object to being pulled out of bed in the middle of the night to assist her on some anarchist act of destruction or other. But when he starts a relationship with his estranged aunt in secret, he begins to doubt his mother's actions. This film has faults, but its saving grace is the strong central anti-hero female roles of Levian's mother and aunt, particularly unusual considering when this movie was made.

Akrovates tou kipou (2001)

GOOD FILM, BUT WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

[6/10 · 3 October 2020]

This film looks wonderful with the sun splashed Mediterranean colours beautifully reproduced. I'm not so sure about the editing as the deeper message is pretty much lost on me. In many ways a movie of childhood fun dotted with amusing moments, it quickly becomes, for brief moments, very dark indeed. Five eleven year old boys call themselves 'The Acrobats' and are teaching themselves different Circus skills during the summer holidays. Most of the action takes place around a deep cistern with a large propeller pump at the bottom of one end. The boys swim, play and practice their circus skills in and around this cistern. One of the boys is beaten (along with his mother) on a regular basis by his father. One day the boy shoots his dad and he and his mum leave the area. At least one other boy is caught and chopped up by the propeller in the cistern. The remaining boys aren't forbidden and do continue to play there. All this and a thread that runs through the movie of an old woman's curse, low level magic and a 150 year old man (at least) who is allergic to vanilla. What any of this means in terms of the story, the boys or the cistern is a mystery to me. An interesting film that's worth watching and if you 'get' the meaning please explain.

A Ciambra (2017)

ITALIAN NEO-REALISM AT ITS BEST

[9/10 · 3 October 2020]

Absorbing, Gripping, dark. Over 70 years since Italian Neo-Realism began, here is as fine an example of the genre as you could find. Nonprofessional actors creating a believable reality. This is the world of the poverty struck Italian Roma seen through the eyes of chain smoking, 14 year old Pio as he tries to establish himself in the world of Roma men.

Jesus (2016)

GREAT IDEA. SHAME ABOUT THE RESULT.

[6/10 · 3 October 2020]

A strong story poorly delivered. Jesus is a teen going off the rails since the loss of his mother and his with his dad spending too much time away from home for his work and leaving Jesus alone. He hangs out with some friends (a gang) getting high, getting drunk and having sex. One boozy and druggy night after they've broken into a park Jesus and his friends find a young guy (Gonzales) who's also off his face. One of the group (Beto the oldest) starts treating Gonzales badly, getting more and more violent with the others half-heartedly joining in. Later the next day it's on the news because Gonzales made it to a hospital, but is in a coma. Jesus, who hadn't given it another thought, is in shock. His friends desert him and Beto threatens him to keep his mouth shut. When his dad comes home Jesus tells him and his dad takes him to a shack in the countryside telling him it will be ok and he will sort it out. Gonzales dies. Jesus is unaware but his dad hears it on his car radio and he tricks Jesus into a police trap. A very moving final scene. Great story, good acting, reasonable script, but poorly realised. The film lacks tension and tends to drift. Also there are two short sex scenes which are fine in showing the confidence Jesus has in his sexuality. But we know what sex is, it didn't assist the plot by being explicit.

Die letzten Jahre der Kindheit (1979)

41 YEARS LATER AND HAS ANYTHING CHANGED?

[9/10 · 2 October 2020]

A remarkable and excellent film. This movie visualises and exposes the gap between a child's needs and the state's ability and/or desire to provide for those needs. West Germany in 1979 is an advanced society that provides many different options for wayward kids to get back onto the path of normalised behaviour. These options are provided by different institutions and thereby lies the problem exposed by this film, that the institutions lack flexibility. It becomes clear that a child's recovery relies on bespoke processes being put in place, not the child having to fit into one unyielding programme after another. No amount of meetings about what to do with troubled teens like Martin (brilliantly played by Gerhard Gundel) can improve his experience of incarceration in these institutions whilst the bullying and rigidity of the process isn't tackled. Martin Sonntag is a wayward 14 year old brought up in poverty. School absence and petty crime cause him to end up in several institutions. The inability of those in charge to understand Martin's needs and the failure of the very few who recognise the problem to be able change anything, lead slowly and inexorably to Martin's increased internalisation and a tragic conclusion.

Cartouches gauloises (2007)

BRAVO! MEHDI CHAREF

[8/10 · 2 October 2020]

A marvellous film. It's visually captivating with superb framing and every performance is beautifully observed. Who could have thought a film about the violent and murderous ending of the colonial French rule of Algeria could be so life affirming? The answer is because children abide and this film is seen mostly through the eyes of Ali, a young Algerian boy who earns money by delivering newspapers to both Algerian and French customers via businesses, barracks and a brothel. Ali reacts to the public atrocities with a detachment that suggests he expects nothing less from the adults around him even though his job means he hears and sees more than any child his age should. The murders and acts of terrorism affect everyone as a community and therefore the shared horror and grief ultimately make the crimes, though unacceptable, more bearable to the community. His friends are a mixture of French and Algerian children. His best friend is Nicolas, a French kid whose middle class life does not affect their friendship. Their disagreements and interactions are without personal judgment or animosity, but reflect the opposing views of their families and lifestyles. A great movie where actions often speak louder than words and no foreknowledge of Algerian history is required to understand the narrative.

Murderous Children (2018)

MURDER MOVIE MURDERED

[4/10 · 2 October 2020]

This is a film about four (true) cases of children who have committed murder and is centred in a reformatory. Taking real cases of children murderers and looking at what brought them to that state is a great idea, unfortunately it has been inexpertly realised. The actors playing the parts of the experts and social workers look as though they're reading from boards that are just out of view. Their flat exposition is all we learn about the children's past, the kids themselves are mostly constrained to acting out the murders and after. Poor performances, too much 'Blah. Blah. Fishcakes' from the pretend professional carer's, plus a lack of reference to fact left me with a shallow, unconvincing and disappointing movie. It's worth noting this film's form, content and presentation is very similar to another Mexican film, 'El Camino De La Vida' from1956. I also need to point out that one of the 'case files' left me feeling very uncomfortable. This was an enactment of a murder that so exactly matches an infamous UK crime that it seems unlikely to have originated in Mexico. A copy-cat murder is not impossible, but every detail is the same. I was quite offended, as a viewer, that the filmmakers seemed to take the UK story with an apparent lack of respect to those involved or their audience and sold it as their own because of its shock value.

Susa (2010)

SUPERB MODERN REALIST MOVIE

[8/10 · 19 August 2020]

A really well made modern realist film filled with the unspoken desperation of a 13 year old boy caught up in the repetitive grind of poverty. A brilliant performance by Avtandil Tetradze as Susa, a boy who lives in a shack with his mother which is a bus ride from a small town. Money's too tight for Susa to go to school, instead he gets up early to go to the impoverished town where he works for an illegal backstreet vodka factory. He takes as many bottles as he can carry in his shoulder bag and spends the whole day traipsing around on his own selling them. His constant vista are the dirty run down concrete buildings of the town. He does this every day and has to give a portion of his money to two bullies who hang around the marketplace. His days are filled with silence and walking and waiting for his dad to return.

Love in Thoughts (2004)

MIDDLE CLASS TOSH

[3/10 · 19 August 2020]

Why are films made about people with no redeeming characteristics which then expect us to care about what happens to them? It's 1929 and young adult friends Paul and Guenter decide to spend the weekend at Guenter's summer house outside Berlin while his parents are away. They are privately educated and faux intellectuals. Friday: They arrive at the summer house. Paul meets Guenter's manipulative sister Hilde and immediately falls in love. Hilde has sex with Hans a working class guy. Hans has sex with Guenter who is in love with Hans. Saturday: Guenter and Hilde have a big party that goes on all night where all sorts of daft stuff happens. Sunday: The four main players go back to Guenters' Berlin apartment. Hans and Guenter spend time together, then Hans spends the night with Hilde. Guenter and Paul decide to form a suicide club where they kill those who destroyed their joy and then shoot themselves. In the cold light of Monday morning Paul changes his mind. Guenter shoots Hans then himself. I don't know how that description made the plot sound, but its presentation is as pretentious soul gazing. Paul and Guenter constantly emote a load of rubbish whilst being miserable (think Neil in the Young Ones). The only person who seemed capable of enjoying himself was the working class, therefore immoral in ignorance, Hans. Their most profound insight, that true joy can only be experienced once and then the rest of your life is spent being punished for it, is profoundly ignorant, spurious pseudo religious based mumbo jumbo. You know the film's a lost cause when the 'DJ' at the party, set in 1929, starts 'scratching' with an old 78 gramophone record.

Jet Boy (2001)

THERE IS NO SANITY CLAUSE

[5/10 · 19 August 2020]

A very flawed film with more plot holes than a cheese grater. It is a fairy tale for abused children dressed up as gritty realism. It has a daft storyline and an over-the-top ending that only lacked an appearance from Santa Claus to make it complete. Its failure to represent reality, considering the seriousness of the story line, was getting on my nerves. But the completed movie is greater than the sum of its parts. The acting, particularly of Nathan the abused boy, is very good and regardless of everything that is wrong with the film, I couldn't help but become involved in the action and emotionally invested in the outcome.

Hymypoika (2003)

OLD FASHIONED MORALITY TALE

[4/10 · 19 August 2020]

Oh dear. Oh dear. Yet another Victorian morality tale dressed up as a story of modern sexual freedom. A sort of updated struwwuelpeter (without the humour) to shock the middle class viewers, the target audience (I suppose) for this sort of internalised non-drama. The audience can then nod their heads sagely when inevitable disaster overtakes the promiscuous youngsters. The sub-genre works like this: Take a bunch of wealthy kids in their late teens, they don't have to work so, for the want of anything better to do, they gather to experiment with sex which seems like a good game until it leads them into obsession and tragedy. In this case a boy obsessed with filming everything creates a club where participation requires each member to bring a video of their latest conquest for them all to see. Ho hum. Someone dies at the end. Who'd have thunked it?

Torrid Noon (1965)

A BULGARIAN CLASSIC

[8/10 · 19 August 2020]

This is a remarkable, absorbing, well shot, well acted and well scripted (if a bit over poetic at times) film that had me gripped from beginning to end. This is a film that looks like being one thing and then flips and becomes something else entirely without losing its thread or momentum. It opens at a station where soldiers on manoeuvres and civilians are waiting for a late train to arrive so theirs can set off. A captain and three privates take a hand pumped rail trolley and trundle off to see what's happened. They find the delayed train, but it's deserted. Meanwhile a commander, controlling a massive army training manoeuvre close to where the action is taking place, is furious when reports come in that a bridge they were going to use is blocked by civilians. He takes to a helicopter to see what's going on and as it passes over the fields he sees the abandoned train, then he comes to a river with the bridge. There are male and female farmers, middle class tourists from the deserted train and firemen on the river banks and on the bridge. In the water three of his tanks stand motionless. The commander, not best pleased, lands the helicopter to investigate. At this point the story changes. The film retreats a couple of hours to where three children are playing in natural pools near where their farmer families are gathering in the harvest. They are having fun in their deserted area of play and decide to move onto the nearby river by the bridge. The youngest boy doesn't want to get in as it's too deep for him, but the other two play and swim with the freedom of no adults being nearby. Under the bridge they find a fissure in the wall where a lot of small fish are. Not far away there is a full army manoeuvre taking place. The vibration of one of the army's bombs causes the bridge to shudder and one of the boys, neck deep in water, finds his hand has been trapped. The rest of the film is a compelling rescue mission. Made when Bulgaria was part of the USSR, this film could be seen as an example of the levelling effect of communism making all different types of people act as one. But it's both more subtle and simple than that, and is an uplifting show of a disparate group of people coming together in the face of an emergency.