Like film? Then you'll love Screentime.

Screentime, produced and presented by Carol van Opstal and Alison Lee-Tet, is a weekly review of films currently screening in Melbourne.

Tune each Monday at 8:45am and 5:15pm for reviews of recent and upcoming film releases.

Don't forget to listen to Screenthemes, our film, tv and screen media music, news and information programme, each Saturday afternoon from 4-5. For more news and information about film and screen media events in Melbourne, including more film and DVD reviews, visit the Screenthemes programme companion website here.

Carol van Opstal also presents weekly DVD reviews each Tuesday on our weekday arts magazine programme The Score, and a Weekly Film Wrap on The Score each Thursday morning, about current and upcoming film and screen media events in Melbourne. (Click here to find out more about our arts magazine programme: The Score)

You can also hear film reviews presented by John Sheridan and John Slavin, on Accidental Arts, which is broadcast each Saturday from 11:30am-1pm.

3MBS - keeping you informed about the arts in Melbourne.

Current and recent reviews:

August 11th: And When Did You Last See Your Father? reviewed by Alison Lee-Tet
July 28th: Married Life reviewed by Carol van Opstal
July 21st: The Savages reviewed by Carol van Opstal
July 14th: Standard Operating Procedure reviewed by Carol van Opstal
July 7th: Ten Empty reviewed by Carol van Opstal
June 30th: Charade reviewed by Alison Lee-Tet
June 23rd: The Band's Visit reviewed by Carol van Opstal
June 16th: My Brother Is An Only Child reviewed by Carol van Opstal

And When Did You Last See Your Father? (U.K 2007)
Directed by: Anand Tucker
Screenplay: David Nicholls, based on a novel by Blake Morrison
Starring: Jim Broadbent, Colin Firth, Juliet Stevenson, Matthew Beard, Gina McKee, Elaine Cassidy and Sarah Lancashire.                              
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Reviewed By: Alison Lee-Tet

Blake Morrison has a lot to say to his father, but just doesn’t know how to express it.
And When Did You Last See Your Father? is bio-drama with family at it’s core. Based upon true events of British poet and writer Blake Morrison, it paints an honest picture of pain, love and family ties as Blake tries to re-capture memories of bygone eras with his father, Dr Arthur Morrison.

Never content with life without picking fault at his son, Arthur (Iris’s Jim Broadbent) has always looked down upon Blake (Mamma Mia's Colin Firth) and the choices he's made in life, including his profession, and has frequently crushed his son’s teenage dreams and confidences.

When Blake returns to his Yorkshire childhood home all grown up, he finds little has changed with his father's attitudes, as good and bitter memories resurface as Blake witnesses his father’s health deteriorate, and he is powerless to stop it.

Sadly there is no prescription that the doctor can write to cure his health. Blake wants to say so much, and questions are left unanswered regarding family history.

The film is beautifully shot and is indulgent in its' overall cinematic using clever flashback sequences portraying past decades as the duo reflect on bonding together from camping to dinners and awkward teenage love. There is great use of mirrors as props to show characters’ reflections and facial expressions from fascinating angles.

Directed by Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie), all cast members chosen for this film do a great job dealing with often depressing subject matter. The screenplay is also well structured to reflect much in action and little in dialogue, giving the actors varying physical acting challenges. Juliet Stephenson (Breaking and Entering) intrigues as Mrs Morrison, a wife caught between half truths, lies, and illusions involving family members, while newcomer Matthew Beard is delightful in his portrayal of a young Blake at various adolescent stages.

The film is not a happy one, but it is compelling for its cinematography and superb acting from all. Broadbent and Firth are sure to be nominated for an award of some kind in the future.

And When Did You Last See Your Father?  will have you asking yourself that exact question, and saying what you want to say to him now, rather than later.

It is now showing in selected cinemas.

Married Life (U.S. 2008)
Directed by: Ira Sachs
Screenplay: Ira Sachs & Ora Moverman, based on a novel John Bingham
Featuring: Chris Cooper, Rachael McAdams, Particia Clarkson, Pierce Brosnon
Running time: 90 mins

How well do you know the person you’re married to? How well can we know anybody? How do we reconcile the desire to be in a stable, secure relationship, with more primitive urges, such as those that drive people to have affairs? Is it possible to repair a relationship from which one partner has strayed, and do such illicit wanderings constitute an irreparable dissolution of a relationship?

Ira Sachs explores these themes in his film Married Life, which tells the story of Harry who believes, somewhat narcissistically, that his wife would be so pained by his leaving her for another woman, that the only way to spare her the pain, is to murder her.

However, things are not all as they appear on the homefront, and his caddish best friend (Brosnan) covets the same young siren (played by Rachael McAdams, who is glorious on screen).

Despite being set in the forties, its themes are, as often happens with love stories, timeless.
Fear not. The film is nowhere near as dark as the subject matter suggests. In fact, there is even a lightness about it, as well as repeated injections of wry humour.

The production design is excellent: it feels as if the actors were able to relax and enjoy being transported back to the forties. Their performances remain true and unmannered.

Particia Clarkson is excellent as Harry’s wife. Chris Cooper is outstanding as the misled husband. Sachs, quite rightly, intentionally chose an actor who comes across as a “regular guy”. Brosnon is good, but it’s unclear whether we are supposed to see him as a playboy, or an ageing man. The inclusion of David Wenham in the film is unfortunate. His accent confounds, and he doesn’t seem quite right in the role. But ultimately, that’s not important. This filim isn’t a social treatise, though it is designed to make people think.

In a recent interview for 3MBS's Screenthemes, Sachs said that he wanted to challenge a couple of entrenched beliefs, such as the concept of a “mid-life crisis” , and the notion that people are morally bad for being tempted to stray from relationships.

The so-called mid-life crisis, he insists, is simply a reflection of the energy with which people continue to live their lives into middle age, and a testament to the fact that even beyond youth, we continue to grapple with this balancing act called "life".

Sachs also seeks to dispel the taboos that surround intimate, committed relationships, be they between sexual partners, spouses, or relatives. He suggests that people torture themselves unnecessarily for questioning their commitment to the significant people in their lives. It is not that he condones infidelity. Rather, he believes that people needn’t agonise over the occasional doubts they may have.

These themes are indeed present in the film, but they linger subtly in the background. Primarily, this is an entertaining film: a stylish and pleasant way to escape a rainy Melbourne Winter’s afternoon.

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The Savages (U.S. 2007)
Directed by: Tamara Jenkins
Screenplay: Tamara Jenkins
Featuring: Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco
Running time: 113 mins

The Savages opens with gentle, panning, streetscape views of Sun City, Arizona. It looks like an advertisement from the1950’s, promoting urbanisation. Sunny, clean, single-story houses, showcased with a nostalgic tune from yester year. It’s charming, in a somewhat kitsch way, but somehow warm, safe and appealing.

From behind a row of manicured hedges, a band of older women in glitzy tap outfits appear and run their routine in slowmo.

Then it becomes clear: the song we’re hearing is one they would have heard when it was first released. Sun City, it turns out, is a mecca for the elderly looking to downsize their lives and keep their older, and increasingly frail and poorly insulated bodies warm.

Two siblings whose parents have been virtually absent, are given responsibility for their estranged father, upon whom dementia has cruelly descended, who has been living in this sun-clad city. His despicable demeanour won’t make it easy.

The sunshine soon vanishes from their lives, and the jokes are delivered less frequently as the film progresses. What has begun as a quirky, somewhat eccentric film about siblings reunited with their absent father, soon becomes a heart-wrenching examination of what baby boomers, and even younger generations are now facing in droves: caring for their longer-living but physically ailing elderly relatives.

Each sibling deals with the situation differently. Wendy (Laura Linney), a neurotic office worker with aspirations of becoming a playwright, having discovered a briefcase of family memorabilia among her father’s belongings, feels increasingly sensitively predisposed towards her father, and makes his comfort a priority. But who, or what, is she really trying to comfort? Her father’s distress, or her own guilt?

Her older brother John (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an academic, is more pragmatic in his approach. Charged with the responsibility of finding accommodation for their father, he is able to distance himself. For a time. Or is he just hiding?

These two siblings have been put in a difficult situation: sufficiently confronting for children who love their parents, but even more challenging for these two, who were clearly a low priority in their parents’ lives.

There are other issues floating around in this story, among them, the sibling rivalry that has chased John and Wendy into middle age. We also see how their early family life shaped their development and subsequent ability or otherwise, to forge healthy relationships with others as they matured. And we learn why Jon cries when his girlfriend makes him eggs for breakfast.

Will the Savages cope? Is it possible for an agonising situation such as this to pave the way for anything good?

This is a fine film in so many respects: the screenplay, the direction, and the acting (no surprises there). It’s disarmingly amusing at times. But mostly it’s moving, and ultimately life-affirming - in a curiously tragi-comical fashion.

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Standard Operating Procedure (Documentary, USA 2008)
Directed by: Errol Morris
Featuring interviews with: Megan Ambhul GranerJaval Davis, , Ken Davis, Tony Diaz, Lynndie England, Jeffrey Frost, Sabrina Harman, Janis Karpinsky, Roman Krol, Jeremy Sivits,
Running time: 116 mins

It’s true that photographs capture a moment. What they don’t necessarily convey, are the events leading up to, or following the ones you see immortalised on photo paper or, more commonly nowadays, in pixels.

Such was the case at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad when, in 2003, when a number of photos of Iraqi prisoners and their US Soldier captives were leaked to the press. Who can forget the horrific image of the hooded man, standing on a box, arms outstretched with what appear to be electronic wires attached to his fingertips? Or the image of naked prisoners standing in a line, while a female US soldier, cigarette hanging out of her mouth, points at the genitalia of one of the prisoners?

In his latest film, Standard Operating Procedure, Errol Morris aims to tell the stories behind the photos, by interviewing the people who were involved in those incidents, as well as other military personnel from Abu Ghraib, and a civilian interrogator.

Despite its success at the Berlin film festival, there has been a fair amount of criticism of Morris’s film: some people believe that the integrity of the project was compromised due to the payment that many interviewees received, and the implicit exoneration of their actions.
Certainly, this documentary adopts the line that although the acts perpetrated against the Iraqi prisoners were appalling, the soldiers who were indicted for the crimes were hapless scapegoats who were carrying out orders by “softening up” the detainees for interrogation.
Morris suggests that the so-called “real” atrocities in Abu Ghraib prison, were committed against unnamed prisoners who were brought in by “OGA”s (Other Government Agencies), and even killed during interrogation.

Nevertheless, for some, the results of this film, and of his last documentary The Fog of War, are unsatisfactory. Morris has been accused of letting his interviewees off the hook, as it were.

He certainly gives his interviewees free reign to admit culpability in this film, which they never quite seem to do. But, as with Robert McNamara in Morris’s previous film, we often learn as much about people from what they omit, as what they tell us.

So, is Morris really to blame here? After all, he used the same techniques in this film as he had used in The Thin Blue Line some years ago, that resulted in the freedom of a man falsely imprisoned and awaiting execution for a murder he didn’t commit. Given the topic of the documentary, it’s difficult to see how the filmmaking techniques could possibly eclipse the subject matter. But evidently for some, they do.

In a recent Q&A session at Cinema Nova (as part of their Meet The Filmmaker series), Morris acknowledged to interviewer Tom Ryan (from The Age newspaper), that when people are being interviewed, they are ostensibly recounting the story as they recall it. What Morris does, is simply provide a visual representation to accompany their words.

Still, one of the pitfalls of this film is the re-enactments. Morris has always gone for some level of visual accompaniment to his subjects’ narratives, but the re-enactments, on top of the disturbing photos were redundant, not to mention excessive.

It would be awful to think that a distinctive filmmaker like Morris had reached his apex with The Fog Of War. Nevertheless, purely for the questions it raises, Standard Operating Procedure is an important film.

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Ten Empty (Australia 2008)
Directed by: Anthony Hayes
Screenplay: Anthony Hayes, Brendan Cowell
Featuring: Geoff Morrell, Daniel Frederiksen, Lucy Bell, Blazey Best, Jack Thompson
Running time: 95 mins

Ten Empty was devised by Anthony Hayes and Brendan Cowell, during a night out at a pub in Sydney, several years ago. Like many young actors, they were full of ideas and potential projects, but they would make their ideas a reality.

At its heart, Ten Empty is about the relationship between fathers and sons: of the almost parental role that children adopt in relationship to their parents when their parents get older, and of the awkwardness surrounding the shift in these dynamics.

Elliot (Daniel Frederiksen) returns to his family home, to attend a christening. His father, Ross (Geoff Morrell), has married his deceased wife’s sister, Diane (played by Lucy Bell).

Elliot is notably restless and uncomfortable. He’s a working-class lad who’s succeeded in the big city, and has until now, managed to distance himself comfortably from his proletarian roots. Re-visiting his childhood home, and the people he grew up with, makes him cringe. Does he think he’s better than these people?

But there’s more to it than that. Much more. The family is facing a crisis which is not only difficult to face, but which resurrects ghosts from a troubled past.

There are some amusing moments in the opening scenes of this film, that serve to introduce us to the characters, before we’re plunged into the drama, although from the outset, there is an air of discomfort.

Geoff Morrell is brilliant, as Elliot’s proud and troubled father. His ability to play the rugged “Aussie” who, in private, is suffering tremendous pain, makes him an excellent casting choice. Jack Thompson performs probably his best role in years – a small, supporting one, as Ross’s “mate”: a dinky-di guy, who tries poignantly to reach out to Ross, albeit through blokey small talk
.
The women are also great in this film. Lucy Bell’s character Diane is fighting hard to keep the family from falling apart. Blazey Best, as Bernadette, plays a refreshingly empowered, autonomous woman – the only character in the film who neither expects nor wants anything from Elliot.

In a recent interview for 3MBS’s Screenthemes, director Anthony Hayes stated that it was their intention to depict realistic, multi-faceted women: not just as ancillary characters to the men but as distinct people in their own right. The five years it took for this film to finally get made were worth it, given that this is a subject that would have benefited from the maturity that those years would have bestowed upon its screenwriters and director.

Ten Empty is a fine Australian film. Iit is a mature and thought-provoking examination of the conflict between the traditional hallmark of Australian male relationships – ‘mateship” – and the need for Australian men to develop more emotionally intimate and truly supportive relationships with each other.

It’s also a very promising feature. Hayes and Cowell have accomplished a great deal with Ten Empty: bringing to life in film, a topic that is close to their hearts, but in a non-egocentric manner. For the sake of our film industry, let’s hope that they continue to work together on other projects in the future.

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Charade (1963)
Directed By: Stanley Donen
Written By: Peter Stone
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy.
Running time: 113 minutes
Rating: 4 and 1/2 stars
Reviewed By: Alison Lee-Tet

This seductive and very charming 1963 thriller is a delight from start to finish, full of ups and downs, comedy mistaken identities and murder.

CHARADE draws you in with its bright technicolor opening, and that ever catchy Henry Mancini theme, “Charade,” beginning with much noise and bravado from its spinning circular shapes and colours, ever reminiscent of the James Bond films ‘shutter’ titles.
Its title gives little away as the film's players weave and dodge many obstacles to a most delightful and unpredictable end.

The stylish Audrey Hepburn stars as Regina “Reggie” Lampert who is an uptown, wealthy language translator with the United Nations
.
The intrigue begins in the Swiss Alps as Mrs Lampert is holidaying, unaware that her husband has been murdered following a discovery that he was embroiled in a risky yet very clever and cunning monetary crime some years ago with five men who he served with in World War Two.

Enter a mysterious suave, well spoken man who Lampert meets during trip, Peter Joshua (Cary Grant). Lampert then coincidentally runs into him as she returns home to find her Parisian apartment empty of all its’ effects. Joshua offers her a place to stay. It is with him that Lampert finds friendship, comfort and fun.

She is frustrated that the police believe she killed her husband. It was impossible for her to commit murder as she was on holiday at the time of his death.

Walter Matthau (Grumpy Old Men) also stars as the CIA investigator and suddenly as his inquiries begin, the other four suspects involved with Mr Lampert’s money crimes also begin to disappear.

Things become stickier by the minute: add to this a case of mistaken identities (Joshua changes his name about six times) and some outrageous humour as Joshua tries to win Lampert's trust and love:  try picturing Grant having a shower fully clothed and deliver his lines. It brings tears to one’s eyes.

The charm of CHARADE is its clever use of on screen chemistry and clever juxtaposed dialogue between Hepburn and Grant. Humour is pulled off with clumsy charm and grace that only the two actors do excellently; thanks to a clever screenplay and great direction and use of on screen space...CHARADE is a film where you don’t need steamy bedroom scenes to create chemistry. The pair creates this with only looks, a smile or a line.

Naturally the soundtrack creates intriguing moods, thanks to Mancini’s use of percussive suspenseful melodies, and it's ever present ‘Charade’ theme, much action, and some wonderful visual shots of Paris including a wonderful moonlit Seine river cruise.

The one negative to CHARADE is although its picture quality has been digitally restored, the sound levels change dramatically against the altering levels of dialogue often making it  hard to hear.

CHARADE’S ending is one of the best I’ve seen in a long time, ranking alongside many classic Alfred  Hitchcock films, and it's possibly one of the best thrillers of the golden age of movies...they don't make films like this any more.

CHARADE is now available to buy or rent on DVD.

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The Band's Visit (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret) (Israel/France 2007)
Directed by: Erin Kolirin
Screenplay: Erin Kolirin
Featuring: Sasson Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz, Saleh Bakri, Khalifa Natour
Running time: 87 mins

Finally, this much-anticipated film has reached our shores. Be thankful that it found its way here, unlike the hapless “Police Ceremonial Band of Alexandria” who, in Erin Kolirin’s film The Band’s Visit, gets lost whilst on the way to Petah Tiqvah, in Israel, where they have been booked to perform at an official function.

An amalgam of pride and miscommunication leaves them stranded in a desolate town called Beit Hatikva – a remote outpost, offering little more than an apartment block surrounded by sandy wasteland. The locals are served by a shopping centre comprising one or two shabby buildings, and a café with an al fresco area that overlooks a seldom-used roadway and the barren expanses beyond.

The Band members don’t speak Hebrew, and the Israelis don’t speak Arabic. But they will come to understand each other, in more ways than one.

It hardly seems fair that The Band’s Visit was denied entry into the foreign language category of the Academy Awards last year. Apparently more than fifty per cent of the dialogue is in English. However, it’s usually stilted, and the reason the characters resort to English is because it is a linguistic middle ground. These are people who are grappling to be understood; here, language is a symbol of the confounded relationship between these cultures.

A scene in a house in which local residents have billeted a few of the band members, is as touching as it is humorous. Kolirin isn’t afraid to show that these people view each other suspiciously and he doesn’t shy away from comically lingering on their conspicuous awkwardness.

Fortunately, there is a truly universal language: music. Interestingly, for a film about a band, there’s no soundtrack. The closest this film comes to having a soundtrack, is the rickety sound of the Band members’ trolley wheels clickety-clacking on concrete: an enchantingly Tatiesque touch. The magic of this film is its sheer restraint. It is suffused with understated charm.

The Band’s Visit is such a promising feature début from Kolirin: a whimsically humorous and moving piece with a universally strong cast. What lies beneath the engaging story and winsome characters, is a cogent reminder that no matter which county or culture we hail from, deep down, we are all the same, and that rich experiences can indeed spring from the most seemingly austere environments. The Band’s Visit is a gentle but extremely memorable experience.

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My Brother Is An Only Child (Mio Fratello è Figlio Unico) (Italy 2007)
Directed by: Daniele Luchetti
Screenlay: Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli, Daniele Luchetti
Featuring: Elio Germano, Riccardo Scamarcio, Diane Flieri, Angela Finocchiara, Luca Zingaretta
Running time: 100 mins

Be prepared to be gently swept away to mid –twentieth century Italy, in Daniele Luchetti’s latest feature: My Brother Is An Only Child (an adaptation of Antonio Pennacchi’s novel: “Il Fasciocumunista”).

When we first meet him, Accio is a young boy at a seminary, anxiously sublimating his pubescent urges by adhering strictly to rigid religious disciplines. During a visit from his brother Manrico, Accio is given a picture of an Italian screen siren. Manrico tells Accio that the woman in the picture is his girlfriend. This rouses Accio’s latent sexuality, tips him over the edge, and he is promptly expelled from the seminary and sent home to his family in who live in a small rural Italian town. The boys’primal longings for the same girl will remain influential for years to come.

Back home, Accio’s parents have preconceived ideas about what path his future should take. Accio, the youngest of three children, seems keen to differentiate himself somehow, while still yearning for guidance on what to think and how to behave.
   
Subsequently, he adopts as a role model, the paternal figure of a powerful local, who just so happens to be fascist. Accio’s membership into this group provides him with immediate sense of belonging, status and might: all the things he feels are lacking in his relationship with his family who, significantly, are all communists. In fact, his brother Manrico is somewhat of an activist. Perhaps this is what impels Accio to align with the fascists. Meanwhile, he longs for his brother’s girlfriend – a real one, this time – named Francesca.

Ultimately, this is the story of about a boy becoming a man, and the rites of passage that are involved: sexual awakening, romance (and the differentiation between the two), sibling rivalry, and the overarching development of a moral frame of reference to guide him through the rest of his life. Elio Germano is wonderful as Accio, and the sequence in which Accio transitions from childhood to adolescence is beautifully devised.

This film presents is an intimate portrayal of socio-political life in Italy up to and including the anni di piombo - Italy’s politically turbulent years: characterised by terrorists acts committed by extremists from both ends of the political spectrum.

But this isn’t a political film. Ultimately, it’s a coming-of-age story: a story of romance, and of the inherently conflictive but durable nature of family relationships.It is a delight to be immersed in the world of these animated Italians, with their passionate views, expressive gesticulations, and melodic language.

Luchetti gave the actors considerable freedom (once he had managed to get them to shrug off customary dramatic tricks of the trade), and he did well to present a story spanning decades in a constrained manner, where other filmmakers would have outstayed their welcome.

My Brother Is An Only Child is a delightful film that flourishes in its Italian setting. The scenery, language, and Franco Piersanti’s evocative soundtrack add to this film’s timeless, Italianate charm.

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