Written and directed by British-born Zeina Durra, Luxor is a love story, a meditative look at healing and also a beautifully shot postcard trip around the mystical ancient ruins and sites in the city and deserts.
Set in the beautiful city of Luxor in modern day Egypt, we follow Hana a British war trauma doctor, played exquisitely by Andrea Riseborough, on a solitary break in the ancient city seeking healing, re-birth and regeneration.
On arriving we start our trip in the ‘Winter Palace’ hotel, a relic from the old Hotel days, visually reminiscent of the Agatha Christie, Merchant Ivory days. As she ventures into the city, we are aware from her interactions with the taxi driver that this is a familiar haunt for her, which is substantiated when she bumps into a past lover Sultan, an archaeologist played by Karim Saleh. As the film progresses, we are immersed in the spirituality of the location, the effects it has on healing Hana’s dark traumatised soul, which slowly reveals as the film progresses on.
The sense of past, present and future in her life are perfectly mirrored by the juxtaposition of modern-day and ancient dig sites, although much of her emotions are insular, they are ever-present. The rhythm of the film is slow, the heightened sounds of footsteps and doors clicking in the hotel are key in the overall feeling of solitude and displacement felt by Hana. Although she is from a scientific background, she often questions the energy felt from the city and visits a witch doctor to ease her trauma.
Towards the end in a climactic release during a dance scene, she finally let’s go, and we discover Hana’s dark past and her anxieties ease, leaving us hopeful that she has a future with hope of happiness, and potential to pursue a deep and meaningful love for both herself and Sultan.
A truly beautiful film, with stunning shots of the city and desert, and a journey of one woman’s past trauma to future happiness.
Cordelia is a psychological drama from director Adrian Shergold, co-written with, and starring Antonia Campbell-Hughes as a sensitive actress living with her identical twin sister in a basement flat in London, still in recovery from a past trauma which is revealed as the plot unwinds. The film is emotionally tense, psychologically disturbing and keeps the audience’s attention via ‘tension/ release’.
The story has strong parallels to Polanski’s film ‘Repulsion’ – a similar narrative of lonely young woman, living with her sister and slowly losing her mind and grip on reality.
Prior to her sister Caroline (also played, not so convincingly by Campbell-Hughes) and her boyfriend (Joel Fry) leaving for the weekend, there are inserts of disturbing dream sequences which builds uncertainty and an element of question to what will unfold.
The basement flat is an effectively creepy setting of peeling wallpaper, dark rooms and mice filled corridors. However, it does come with a highly desirable built in Classical music system – via upstairs Celloist and Concert Hall musician neighbour, played by the handsome ‘Beast’ actor Johnny Flynn. Without generalising (I am), always beware of handsome, romantic professional musicians. As a fan of 70’s horror I immediately pricked up my attention when he cited ‘Valerie’ as the name of his instrument. Nothing good comes from that protagonist’s name…as its Halloween look up Valerie and horror movies and you’ll be in for a treat…anyway I digress.
As their relationship develops, so does the tension. There are some great shots in the underground, which would have even the most hardened of thriller fans gasping for breath.
Much of this film to me, is taken up with is it a dream, is it real, is this a mental breakdown? And less so on clever dialogue or story. Highlights come with cameos from Michael Gambon as a helpful eccentric neighbour and Alun Armstrong as a fellow actor in the play.
Watchable, but leaves me left unsatisfied rather than wanting more. For that I will go back for a revisit of ‘Repulsion’.
Waiting for the Barbarians, an adaptation of the novel by J. M. Coetzee, is the English language directorial debut by Ciro Guerra. The narrative focuses on the decline of an undisclosed Empire, beautifully shot in the desert. Starring Mark Rylance as the retiring Colonial Magistrate, Johnny Depp as the tyrannical Colonel Joll, and Robert Pattinson as the overly sadistic second in command Mendal.
The film is split into four chapters over the duration of a year, symbolizing the passing seasons, the yearly cycle of birth, maturation, decline and ending representative of the recurrent patterns in nature… also a mirroring of time in our world, never more omnipresent than the current period we live in now. Although the location and time remain anonymous throughout, we as the audience get a sense of era and location from the interior, and landscape shots. Many reminiscent of Lawrence of Arabia 1962, and ‘The English Patient’ 1996.
Waiting for the Barbarians’ story starts with the Colonial Magistrate (Mark Rylance) cast as the sensitive, steady lead. He plays it softly spoken and his emotions are expressed via small gestures. Only someone with his talent and experience could deliver this delicate role. Located in a far-away outpost of the Empire, he combines managing the daily aspects of the town, with studying local antiquities and artifacts. His life is slow and measured, with little disruption, until the arrival of state security officers. His prior concerns are honoring and understanding the land and indigenous people, so the sudden change in dynamic with the new ominous stark regime is an unwelcome presence.
Colonel Joll, is the head of the police, a cold character with a penchant for torturing the enemy. Depp plays this down, compared to his other roles over the past years, which seems to have him playing mainly caricatures, rather than characters. He arrives with all the pomp and ceremony of the colonial times, the sinister, arrogance and vanity of the personage of that era. His attire does all the talking here, an indicator of his presence – dark Navy uniform with a rather unique pair of glasses. Their black lenses and cross-section symbolize this character’s blindness, his taste for torturous cross-examinations of the innocent people, prove these Colonial officials to be the Fascist barbaric ones.
They are focused on the apparent arrival of the Barbarians, a group of ‘uncivilized’ dangerous invaders. As Colonel Joll and his officers terrorize and imprison more of the locals, the Magistrate moves away from his duties and makes it his mission to question the motives of the officer’s treatment of wrongfully captured prisoners. Amongst these are a nameless indigenous Girl (played by Gana Bayarsaikhan), a tortured vagrant who he brings into his household, much to the concern of his cook, considerately played by Greta Scacchi. More eye symbolism comes into play here as we unfold the story of her blinding under questioning. He soon becomes infatuated with her, washing her feet in a Mary Magdalene/Jesus role reversal, in which, overcome with emotion he passes out in her presence.
Determined to join her people, the ‘Magistrate’ embarks on a journey through the desert to unite her with her people. On his return, he is arrested, his possessions and privileges seized by Mendal. Robert Pattinson seems awkward, aloof and not within the film. Usually, I rate his abilities, (his performance in the Lighthouse, is one of my favorites this year), but he wastes one of the best lines in the film with his withdrawn delivery. Maybe he intended it that way. He is a sadistic and cold officer, hellbent on forcing the new regime. Classed as a deserter and traitor to the Empire, the ‘Magistrate’ is left filthy and homeless, and used as a visual form of deterrent via a humiliating scene in which he is hung in female clothing by a tree.
As time passes, the officers grow bored, still awaiting the arrival…climaxing with a horrific token of symbolism from the Barbarians, that they will not be threatened by their presence.
With this, the officers depart, leaving the ‘Magistrate’ holding the bag, to what we can only assume as the impending arrival of the Barbarians…or not.
The slow unfolding of the story, the expansive wide shots, and Rylance’s sensitive character portrayal are the strongest element of this film. All enhance that we are small insignificant beings in this huge world… yet we cause so much destruction through fear and our obsessive need for ownership. Waiting for the Barbarians is a well thought out retelling of a not so distant past, and sadly current world we still occupy.
Sci-fi/horror comedy meets Cosmic Court drama – ‘Sister Tempest’ is the second film written and directed by comic book artist and filmmaker Joe Badon. His previous ‘The God Inside My Ear’ ’17, a surrealistic, genre-bending, comic film, shot in a not too dissimilar in style.
Elder sibling Ann Hutchinson (Kali Russell) is under a cosmic tribunal, focusing on the mysterious disappearance of her younger sister Karen (Holly Bonney. Ann is a teacher at a private girl’s art school, where a new student, Ginger Rodgers Breadman (Linnea Gregg) (yep- that’s her real name) a child of potato farmers joins. Ann develops a rather inappropriate relationship with a new student, and swiftly they become roommates. It is not long before this simple country girl has a rapid transformation – developing a cabalistic skin condition, and a voracious cannibalistic appetite.
Initial response after viewing…I’d been sent someone’s art school experiment. The plot is delivered via flashbacks, and a good portion is inserted with an extended montage of archive documents, photographs and stock footage. Dialogue flits between narration and Badon’s art department and comic book background weighs heavy, with tinny props, mannequins, and cheap model making. Strangely lit at points, with strong use of ominous color pallets. The sound design is an interesting use of old-school sci-fi soundtracks and is often quite lively. This is the strongest aspect of the film and ties the story together, keeping us animated during a somewhat obscure collection of visuals.
The film is low-budget and highly stylized, reminiscent of techniques used in 50s/70s cosmic horror and sci-fi TV/B-Movies. The structure of the narrative is choppy, surreal and at times confusing. Trawling through past interviews with Badon its clear to see this heavily stylized film is a homage to this format, but I find it misses the overall essence.
“My films are all about my love of cinema and putting all my favorite films in a blender! I think that is what makes my voice unique, especially in today’s creative landscape… Back in the 50s and 60s, tiny production companies would make no-budget sci-fi and horror and load it up with as many locations and papier mache monsters and cheap effects as they could!” – Joe Badon in an interview by: Paul Farrell for ‘Dead Ringers Podcast’ – Apr’2019
Personally, an avid fan of vintage B-movies, obscure horror comedies and cult TV shows, such as The Twilight Zone, Old-school Dr Who, John Waters and David Lynch – I found it quite disappointing, as it failed to deliver.
The whole film is weird. Not good weird. Just plain odd. I think you have to have a really open-mind, or some great hallucinogenics to get on board.
Who knows, maybe I’ll look back on this in 5 years and shove it on the cackle-worthy list of cult trash films.
Model Shop is a late sixties LA based film made by French Director Jacques Demy, centring around the penultimate 24hrs of a 26 year old unemployed architect George Matthews (Gary Lockwood), who’s got the debt collectors hot on his tail to repossess his car, and his hot live-in girlfriend Gloria (Alexandra Hay) an aspiring actress – tired of his non-committal and nonchalant lazy ass.
Off on a mission to borrow a $100 to save the one thing he seems to care about, his car…(typical sixties male lead), he encounters a mysterious all white wearing Goddess called Lola (Anouk Aimee). Captivated, he stalks her and finds that she works in a seedy ‘model-shop’. For fans of Demy’s earlier work, and new fans alike, the Lola character is a reprisal from his earlier French speaking film ‘Lola’ made in 1961, also played by Aimee.
For the sake of this review and how it relates to the first of ‘Echo in the Canyon’, I will not focus on the relationships of the characters in the narrative, more on the creativity of the time, the laid-back attitude, social climate and the landscape.
The camera follows George, either driving his car through the roads and valleys of LA, or on the sidewalks of the city, dropping in on Diners, friend’s offices and homes all to get his money. When he spots Lola in a carpark and follows her, we follow along to a view of the cascading beauty of the canyon; a mixture of city buildings, pylons, epic rolling hills and trees. This technique is heavily mirrored in Jakob Dylan’s driving scenes and aerial shots of Laurel Canyon in ‘Echo in the Valley’.
When asked about the making of ‘Model Shop’ Demy said;
“I learned the city by driving – from one end of the Sunset to the other, down Western all the way to Long Beach. LA has the perfect proportions for film. It fits the frame perfectly”.
This is very apparent and highlighted beautifully in a scene where George visits his musician friend, at his home in the Valley. From the interior, recording equipment and his discourse, we acknowledge that he’s successful. Learning George’s predicament he freely whips out the $100 note he is so desperate for, part of a much larger wad, kept so coolly in his trouser pocket. As he moves over to his keyboard, a huge poster of ‘The Beatles’ looms over like a religious painting of ‘Jesus and his disciples’ – blessing this alter of creation. At this point George interjects with something ‘funny’ that happened to him earlier….
“…I stopped at this place that looks up over the city. It was fantastic. I suddenly felt exhilarated you know. I was really moved by the Geometry of the place. Its conception its Baroque harmony. It’s such a fabulous city. To think some people claim it’s an ugly city, when it’s really pure Poetry, it just kills me. I wanted to build something right then, create something…you know what I mean”?
“Yeah I do, I understand”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppg7w8XfYR4
I feel it is here, the joining of an unemployed architect, a musician and the inspiration of music, city and dwellings that we get a real sense of the freedom and creativity at that period, and more of a genuine indication of why that place was such a melting pot.
Music features heavily, with a Score by LA Rock Band ‘Spirit’ very much in the foreground. We are made very aware of its importance, sudden switching on of tunes, gives the action a sense of interruption/ accentuation of mood…George tuning in always when driving, and using one of his last nickels to put a record on the Jukebox in the Diner scene, and also the classic piano music when he is with Lola.
There are so many more things I could go in to about this film, the looming war and being drafted, the seedier sides of LA, but as it was missed from the documentary, I have left it out. One thing that I think is worth mentioning in this review comparison, is the dialogue from George to Lola’s roommate via the telephone in the last scene (WARNING: Plot spoiler) – after his girlfriend has left him, his car is being towed away in the background, and he no longer has to be drafted to Vietnam is when he discovers Lola has left for Paris;
“I just wanted to tell her that I love her. I wanted her to know that I was going to begin again. It sounds stupid, I know. But a person can always try”!!
On that note, both Documentary and Film are a love affair, both look into LA and its vast beauty. One succeeds in its depiction of a time, a style an emotion. The other just attempts…but at least like the final quote…”a person can always try”.
