Mugabe and the White African

I rented this film on Lovefilm. It was made in 2009 and is a documentary charting the legal case taken by two White Zimbabwean farmers to challenge Mugabe's attempts to seize their farm. They are Mike Campbell and his son-in-law Ben Freeth, and they went to the SADC tribunal, which is essentially an international court, presided over by judges from countries in Southern Africa, and which was sitting in Windhoek, Namibia. In addition to court scenes, there is plenty of footage back on the farm. Many neighbours' farms have been taken over under Mugabe's land redistribution policy, and Mike, Ben and their families struggle to maintain security on their property. All in all a very interesting but deeply shocking portrait of what was once a beautiful country to visit. Am off to read up more on what is going on in Zimbabwe now.

The secret in their eyes

This is an Argentinian film directed by Juan Jose Campanella that won the best foreign film Oscar in 2009. It is the story of a retired criminal prosecutor who is writing a novel about one of his murder cases. It has a few twists and turns that keep you thinking about various issues around crime and retribution, but I wouldn't say it was an edge of your seat thriller. I rented it on Lovefilm.

The Browning Version

I saw this film in NFT2 at the BFI in London. It is an adaptation by director Anthony Asquith of Terence Rattigan's play of the same name. The film was made in 1951 and stars Michael Redgrave as an unloved and unsympathetic schoolmaster who is retiring on grounds of I'll health. Overall there is a deep sense of disappointment within him, both relating to his professional life and his marriage to a fairly unforgiving wife played by Jean Kent. Some of the phraseology seems quite dated - plenty of spiffing and topper, but it is still a well crafted and meaningful film for modern times.

Under the Tuscan sun

Based on the book by Francesca Maye, but fictionalised, whatever that means! The film's about a recently divorced American writer, acted by Diane Lane, who buys a villa in Tuscany on a whim. It is a diverting romantic comedy, with good support actors - Polish builders who refurbish the villa, a heavily pregnant friend from the US, played by Sandra Oh, and an eccentric very stylish English lady, played by Lindsay Duncan. Although it isnt the most sophisticated film I have ever seen, it is a warm story, and I just enjoyed a lot of the Italian settings and personalities.

The four-faced liar

I saw this on the closing night of the London lesbian & gay film festival, at the BFI. It is an appealing film about the relationships between two generation Y couples and one of their lesbian flatmates in New York, whose social life rotates around their local bar, the four faced liar. The script hangs together well, and seems pretty believable. The screening was introduced by the ever impressive Sandra Hebron, head of festivals at the BFI, and the ever nattily dressed programmer Brian Robinson - tonight he was wearing an orange suit.

Steep

Just watched an amazing documentary about extreme ski-ing, rented on Lovefilm. It is a must for those who love the mountains, and also gives some interesting insights into some of the personalities involved. There is plenty of incredible footage of people ski-ing down unfeasibly steep slopes and leaping off impossibly tall cliffs, in various locations such as Chamonix, Alaska and Iceland. It took me back to a trip that my friend Jon and I did to La Grave about six years ago - it is a small village in the French alps at the foot of the seriously scary looking Meije mountain, which features in the film. As one interviewee put it, you can be sipping your coffee in a bar one moment and five minutes later you can be at risk of death if you take the wrong turn on the slope. The stories of first descents made by various extreme skiers is pretty captivating, including the first descent of Grand Teton by Bill Briggs in 1971 - just google it to get a sense of his craziness and sense of adventure! Another interesting scene is three ski mountaineers getting caught in a mini avalanche on camera in Iceland.

The night watch

I went to see this film as part of the London Lesbian & Gay film festival, at the BFI on the South Bank (NFT1).  Nice comfy seats, and I had a bit of an intermittent snooze during the first 30 minutes (I always find myself quite warm in NFT1).  The film is an adaptation of a novel by Sarah Waters (who subsequently took part in an interview and Q&A session).  The film / book is set during and after the second world war, and is about four main characters, three of whom are in a triangular lesbian relationship.  The fourth is a young man who is in prison.  Somewhat confusingly, but intriguingly,the plot goes backwards - i.e. we start in 1947, and then go back to 1944 and then 1941 - so you have to pay attention!  I have to say that I didn't warm to the film as much as I was expecting to - I usually enjoy period pieces very much, but this one seemed a bit flimsy to me - e.g. it was shot in Bristol, but was meant to be London during the blitz, with silhouettes of St Pauls cathedral, etc.  I also just didn't really click with the characters.  In the interview Sarah came across as a very interesting, eloquent person, who spoke widely about writing Tipping the velvet and all her other work. 

El camino

I went to watch this film with my friends Alan and Alex, at the Cine Lumiere, the cinema which is part of the Alliance Francaise in South Kensington.  It is a beautiful building, with a wonderful marble staircase, and the cinema seats are super comfy with loads of leg room.  The film was being shown as part of a Spring weekend Spanish film festival.  It stars Martin Sheen as an american opthalmologist whose son dies at the beginning of walking the Camino de Santiago, the 900km pilgrims walk from the French / Spanish border to Santiago de Compostela in North Western Spain.  The father decides to continue the journey on the son's behalf.  Having done a small part of the Camino about three years ago (in a group which included Alex and Alan) I was intrigued to see a film about it.  However, I found the film quite disappointing - the plot was pretty simplistic at times (e.g. gypsies are bad people; oh no they aren't really), and they didn't seem to make the most of the wonderful scenery in northern Spain.  It was still kind of nice for me to re-immerse myself in the experience of walking el camino - the character encounters quite a few wierd and wonderful people on the trip.  However, overall I would probably only give the film a five out of ten.  The film is directed by one of Sheen's sons, Emilio Estevez (Sheen's original surname is Estevez - his Spanish parents moved to the US).  Emilio also stars as the son in the film, who comes back as an apparition to his father occasionally.  Watch out for the scene with the amazing flying incense burner in the cathedral at Santiago - the priests do an amazing job with ropes and pulleys to get it swiging at great speed along the length of the cathedral.  One useful piece of information for me is that there is a two week long Spanish film festival in London in September.