Pa negre

I went to see this film with lovely Clare at the Cine Lumiere, which is part of the French Institute in South Kensington.  Very spacious seats in the cinema, with lots of legroom and a lovely curving marble staircase in the lobby.  Well worth a visit.  The film was being shown as part of the London Spanish film festival, and had won none Goya awards, including best film, best director (Agusti Villaronga) and best adapted screenplay.  As you no doubt know, Pa negre is catalan for black bread.  The film is set around Andreu, an 11 year old boy, growing up in a Catalan village in 1944, after the Spanish civil war.  There is a major nastiness at the beginning of the film (any horse lovers look away), with Andreu's father's business partner and his son being murdered.  There then follows a complicated story involving a mysterious ghost, Andreu's extended family (including a beautiful cousin Nuria who loast a hand when she was playing with a grenade) , neighbours, etc, as you try and keep up with who might have done the nasty deed, and why.  Andreu's father Farriol, was a republican, and faces various acts of persecution during the film.  All in all, it was a bit too complicated for me to enjoy fully - too many characters and sub stories, with not enough character development.  Watch out for the scene involving pig castration wire (any males look away).

Mad dogs

I rented this from Lovefilm, and boy is it tedious.  I think it must have been shown as a four or five part TV drama and frankly I didn't get into it at all. It is the story of four former schoolfriends summoned to visit a fifth friend at his villa on Mallorca.  Said friend is up to no good, and a tale of drug dealing, killings, police corruption, etc unfolds.  However it just all feels either predictable or you just don't care about the characters in the slightest.  Just about the only redeeming feature is the villa and surrounding countryside, which looked lovely.

Life as we know it

I rented this from Lovefilm, and watched it on my portable DVD player in Venice.  Its the pretty slushy but still entertaining story of two singletons bringing up their baby goddaughter, Sophie, after her parents die in a car crash.  Add in that the two singletons, Messer (crazy guy, crazy name, huh?!) and Holly dislike each other, having gone on a disastrous blind date a few years back.  A supporting part (Dr Sam) is played by Josh Lucas, who also starred in one of my favourite films of 2011 so far, Red Dog.

The disappearance of Alice Creed

I rented this on iTunes and watched it on my iPad in Venice.  It's a British kidnap story; with domineering Vic and malleable Danny being two ex-cons who meticulously plan the kidnap of the daughter of a rich man, and demand a £2m ransom.  I liked the Britishness of it, having seen too many US thrillers over the years, and it has a sufficient number of twists and turns, crossing and double crossing, to keep you guessing.  Danny is played by Greenock born Martin Compston, who I remember watching in Ken Loach's Sweet Sixteen - in which the F word is used a remarkable 313 times.  The kidnapee is played by Gemma Arterton, a former Bond girl, and lead actress in Tamara Drewe.

Lou

I rented this from iTunes and watched it on my iPad in Venice.  It is set in rural New South Wales, surrounded by sugar cane, and is the story of a single mother struggling to fend off debt collectors whilst raising her three daughters.  Partly as a source of income, she takes in her father in law (played by John Hurt), who is in the early stages of Alzheimers.  The eldest daughter, Lou, is initially cold, angry and distant, but gradullay warms to her grandfather (who she has never previously met), with his tales of exploring the South Pacific during his time in the merchant navy.  He in turn imagines that Lou is his long lost wife, Annie.  All in all, a nice thought provoking story.