Couscous

A very dusappointing film. Far too long and rambling, the director seemed unclear of his purpose or the point he was trying to make. Set amongst the North African community in a port in Southern France it centres on a dysfunctional family. They seem to be constantly arguing, being unfaithful, the women are universally haradans or victims, the men cheats, liars, lazy and worthless. So what's not to like? The length (nearly three hours) to describe the setting up of a restaurant on a boat with redundancy money was just tedious, because you knew from the start that the central character would be systematically let down, betrayed and humiliated by the two families he's involved with - and thereby proving to the native French that the North Africans have nothing to offer. Surely there's more to this community than this film would lead us to believe. Rating - a grudging 4/10

Un Secret

Another wonderful French film. Francois is a thin and physically weak child of a gymnast father and elegant swimmer mother. The film opens in the 1950s and it becomes clear that he is a grave disappointment to his parents. Cutting to the present (and to black and white photography) father Maxine has disappeared following the death of his beloved dog, believing he his to blame for the dog's death. Gradually the film goes back into the past of Francois and his parents. The boy had made a discovery in the attic realising that his cold and detached parents do not want to talk about their past, the truth is revealed by a friendly adult who has known the couple throughout their lives. The secret is a pretty massive one, involving betrayal, death and dishonour. Suffice it to say the early realisation that the couple are Jewish gives a hint of what might be to come. The story line is a bit clunky in places, the frequent cutting backwards and forwards requires great concentration, but the passion comes through with looks and few words. Immensely believable and oh so tragic - the audience at the showing I went to (mainly of older patrons) were deeply moved, and some were in tears at the end. The mother, Tania, is played with just the degree of elegant aloofness that belied the underlying suppressed emotions. An interesting technique of showing some sections in black and white didn't entirely come off, but still worth a 8/10 rating.

Priceless (Hors de Prix)

Jean (Gad Elmaleh) is a barman in an upmarket hotel in the South of France. One evening Irene played by Audrey Tautou (a high class hooker or gold digger) walks into his bar and mistakes him for a millionaire. Unfortunately for them both her sugar daddy (Jacques) discovers that they have had a night of passion, and he ditches Irene just as he was due to propose marriage - her meal ticket for life. Jean is besotted.

Irene finds out the truth about Jean's lack of money, and when he pursues her to her new 'target group' in Nice she takes her revenge by emptying his bank account and abandoning him. Fortunately for him a passing rich woman takes him on as a gigolo. Irene sets about teaching him the ropes - showing how he can exploit the situation financially, but at the same time beginning to fall in love with him. This film is so typically French, and very funny. I keep asking - why don't they make British films like this? Perhaps the situation is uniquely Continental to use an old-fashioned phrase. Rating: 8/10

Mongol: The Rise of Ghengis Khan

What a great disappointment this film was. I think it was trying to be an epic, and a sort of saga/ fairy story or parable, and as a result there was a great deal of seemingly pointless riding (or galloping) about of horeseback, chatting to wolves masquerading as a local God, and totally

inexplicable escapes of the 'with one bound he was free type'. So for example at one point the young Ghengis (confusingly called throughout the film by a totally different name) disappeared through a snowdrift into freezing water, and moments later he was walking into a camp to meet the man who would become his blood brother, and evental rival and enemy. Later he was shot in the back with an arrow, his horse his sent off home with him in the saddle (arrow still in back) and then the next scene but one has him walking into another camp. So many things not explained. His wife has two children, but one seems to have been conceived while she was abucted by Ghengis' mother's first husband, the second while Ghengis was enslaved in a Chinese town. He doesn't seem to doubt their parentage at all. Even the great battle scene is a bit tame and there is a lot of the typical Chinese film action with whirling knives and swords and leaping. Although captions were flashed up on the screen giving dates of events I still didn't get the continuity nor were characters properly developed. Ghengis motivation seemed largely ignored. In an early scene Ghengis selects his bride (he was only 9) and said he would return for her 5 years later. Some 15 years later (or more - I was unclear) he bumps into her again (bearing in mind these are nomadic people I found it hard to understand how people found one another except by accident) and says 'I said I'd come back for you'. Did he not have any romantic entanglements in the meanwhile - and how risky was that during that time? I also didn't understand how he could make so many superhero escapes - totally alone, but then turn up with entire armies of men - where did he gather them from? So all in all not a success. Rating: 5/10

Pygmalion

It was interesting to see this pre-war film adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's of the play I saw recently at the Old Vic (see the review on one of my other blogs). Shaw was the screenwriter

and won an Oscar. Several changes were made and extra scenes introduced, many of which turned up in the famous post-war musical adaption - My Fair Lady. Leslie Howard takes on the Professor Higgins role and Wendy Hiller (in one of her early screen roles) is Eliza. I think this version is immensely successful, although Leslie Howard isn't really innocent enough (after all he was to be Ashley in Gone With the Wind a year later) but Hiller is terrific and believable. Although this is a 70 year old film it isn't just a stage production - the medium allows far more flexibility of scenary - and scenes, introduces crowds and much more obviously introduces the element and danger of discovery when Eliza is a guest at the Ambassador's Ball to prove how Higgins can transform her speech so dramatically. The film certainly retains the main points of Shaw's original play of an earlier generation. Very much worth seeing. Rating 9/10