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Why not look at my blogs on Books; The Archers; and a series of entries on my other activities.
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The Painted Veil

I'm a great fan of Somerset Maugham and I think he's an under rated novellist. Most of his books have been made into films - but generally not recently. He's coming back into favour again, and I'm glad. This film is a better than average adaptation of his novel 'The Painted Veil'. Like most Maugham works there are the usual elements - the Far East, Colonial times, British 'values' under pressure in exotic climes, melodrama, suppressed emotions bursting out inappropriately and receiving sometimes undeserved punishment.
In this case Kitty has been drawn into a loveless (well on her side at least) marriage with Walter to escape her unrelenting mother. Walter is a bacteriologist in Shanghai. Kitty is bored in China and (as always) turns elsewhere for entertainment and pleasure. Discovering her infidelity Walter blackmails her into coming with him to a cholera ridden area of China. Here she is in danger from disease, and the activities of the Nationalists who are seething with hatred of all foreigners (especially the British).
As ever with Maugham there is redemption to be found and surprises as the relationship between Kitty and Walter is affected by circumstance and those around them (including the wonderful Diana Rigg as a Mother Superior).
This wasn't the greatest adaptation - tedious in places, but always raised above the banal by excellent acting - and a terrific screenplay. Rating: 8/10

The Lives of Others

I found this German language Oscar winner fantastic!

Appropriately it begins in 1984 in the GDR. If this is an accurate depiction of life in the former East Germany it really must have been a scary place to be. The Stasi (the State Security) were watching and listening out for every possible dissent. The film follows one agent of State Security listening in to the goings-on with the apartment of a writer who had been seen as one of the pillars of the state - but was suspected of being not quite what he seems. As the story unfolds this agent becomes drawn into the lives of the couple he ius overhearing, and begins to bend the rules and overlook some of things he sees and hears. The incorruptable becomes corrupted - not by money or bribery but by emotion.

This is so sinister as a film, and it captures the bleakness of Eastern European life wonderfully. Although the story is bleak, scary and sinister, this is achieved by a marvellous plot, camera work and music that is so quiet that it impinges sub consciously to evoke fear. I was so drawn in by this film I think it is outstanding. Go see it if it gets to a cinema near you. Rating: 10/10

Sunshine

I had this film recommended to me, because I hadn't seen anything about it previously I went purely on their recommendation.
I'm glad I did. This is not your average sci-fi movie. The premise of this film is that our sun has decided to die. ICARUS 1 had been sent off to detonate an enormous nuclear explosion but nothing was heard of them again. We're now on board ICARUS 2, 'the last best hope' (where have I heard that before?) for humanity. The ship has been going for over six years. There are eight crew men who believe they can send off the bomb and return to an earth that has had the lights (and life) turned back on.
This is an old-fashioned action/thriller movie. The suspense is incredible, after a slow start you're kept on the edge of your seat as we move inevitably towards the sun. The characters are well developed and you are made to care about their fate. This is a though provoking and well crafted film - and incredibly the science seems right. The ship looks like one that has been going for six years - rather than just come off the end of NASA production line.
There are hints of the film 2001, but there are twists and the special effects are great.
Go see this untypical sci-fi film. My rating 8/10

Mr Bean's Holiday

I really loved this film - I laughed so often throughout the 90 minutes. Rowan Atkinson reprises his regular TV role and the accident prone hapless Mr Bean. The eponymous hero wins a holiday in Cannes and the film traces his journey - encountering on the way a budding film star, the 'kidnap' of the son of a film director, a travelling band, explosions, car chases, missed trains, appalling restaurant etiquette (or lack of it), and all filmed for Mr Bean's personal video record.
Rowan Atkinson's facial expressions are (as ever) wonderful and there are some terrific set pieces (I will never hear 'O mio babbino caro' again without remembering a fabulous mime performed by Mr Bean in a market, wearing a jumper on his head). OK so this isn't educational, it isn't a 'message movie', but my word it is entertaining - and the many children in the audience loved it - and it kept their attention throughout - not many film can say that!
My rating: 9/10

Days of Glory

What a powerful movie. I found this film in French and Arabic incredibly moving. It tells the tale of a group of Algerians recruited to fight for France towards the end of the Second World War.

Their motives for joining these colonial regiments are diverse, except they are united in one belief - that they are fighting for their 'mere patrie', the motherland - a country they have never seen and with which they share very little (race, colour, religion). They think they are fighting for liberty, fraternity and equality. This is despite the fact that they are never going to be promoted, paid well, given leave, given good rations, or be welcomed in the same way as the French troops. All the officers are French (or pretend they are, hiding their true ethnicity) most Algerian and Moroccan troops don't even rise to become private soldiers - they are lower than non-combatant French enlisted men.

The group fight through Italy, go to Marseilles, work their way up mainland France - where one falls in love with a French woman - but their correspondence is intercepted and the romance is doomed.

The group of soldiers end up as the advance guard in an Alsation village, fighting to the last. They have been led there by a Corporal who is duped into believing the promises of promotion, good pay and esteem. He believes that after the War the French African colonies will achieve their independence and achieve the liberty, equality and most importantly the fraternity promised by the French consitution. In 1959 (after the Algerian War) all these soldiers had their pensions frozen, and although a law reversing this was passed at the start of this century no French government has felt able to implement the proposition.

My rating? A tremendous 9/10. Go see it!

It has now joined my top ten of 2007 films - look in my earlier post.