Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, Mike Newell (Four Weddings and A Funeral, Mona Lisa Smile) offers cosy romantic drama in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Juliet Ashton (Lily James) is a young, established author, but not under her own name. In a post-WWII London, she receives a letter from a stranger looking for answers and in exchange she learns of a community brought together by books in the bitterness of Guernsey’s German occupation. Intrigued, she invites herself to the island to learn more about this unusual society.

Upon her arrival, Juliet meets the misfit members of the book group and discovers the powerful community they have built for one another. This chorus, each with their own quirks and foibles are written with great wit by Don Roos and Thomas Bezucha. Amongst them are the eccentric gin-brewing Isola (Katherine Parkinson), the slow but compassionate post-master Eben (Tom Courtenay) and the stubborn mother-hen Amelia (Penelope Wilton).

Juliet’s pen pal, the stereotypically rugged but tender Dawsey Adams (Michiel Huisman) is foiled by the growing condescension of her teeth-grindingly smug American love interest, Mark (Glen Powell). The film explores our relationship with the ‘other’; how in light of war, one woman sees humanity transcend political labels, yet another man fails to understand even the limitations of wealth.

Juliet befriends and determinedly questions each character regarding the society’s elusive founder Elizabeth (Jessica Brown Findlay). What she uncovers, relayed through flashbacks, increasingly becomes her most compelling story to date, but Juliet is forced to question the morality of writing about other peoples’ lives.

Filmed in South West England, the movie is largely set on the idyllic island of Guernsey. Juliet flits along coastal paths, between quaint stone cottages and up cobbled streets on her quest to uncover the real costs of the German occupation for this channel island coterie. The stunning yet somewhat bleak landscape shots, respectively act as respite to and a solemn reflection of the darker narrative points.

Newell’s story-telling plays on familiar romantic tropes. These predictable, fairy-tale moments will warm some cockles and burn others with their gratuity. However, the film does stand alone in it’s refreshing portrayal of the lasting effects of war. The themes of community and loss, the romanticism of landscapes and relationships alike, presented through a drip-fed, genuinely mysterious narrative, come together to produce a film well worth watching.

Eve Jones

The post Film Review: Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society, “…refreshing portrayal of the lasting effects of war” appeared first on Plymouth Arts Cinema | Independent Cinema for Everyone | located at Arts University Plymouth..

Todd Haynes, saw huge success with his 2015 drama, Carol, but as his first directorial foray into family film, Wonderstruck is a cinematic delight. The 1927 film, The Jazz Singer was the first feature length movie with audible dialogue and revolutionised the way many of us consume film. However, for Rose (Millicent Simmonds), the deaf protagonist of Wonderstruck, this change throws her world upside down. No longer able to engage in the media that she loves, Rose sets off on a life-changing journey in search of a silent film actress (Julianne Moore) and the escapism her films once provided.

Alongside Rose’s adventure, the movie tells the story of pragmatic 11 year-old Ben (Oakes Fegley), on a similar quest to find his enigmatic father 50 years later. He too becomes deaf in a freak accident and both children end up independently navigating New York in their respective time periods, undeterred by their lack of hearing. The tenacious characters share an awe for the bustling city and the Natural History Museum. Haynes portrays the transcendence of a child’s wonder across time through his shot for shot parallels between the two narratives.

The black and white colouring of Rose’s story firmly sets it in its earlier era and, without dialogue, reflects the silent films that she so admires. Haynes substitutes ambient sounds with close-up visuals – we see horses’ feet moving, bells ringing, shoes being shined, to allow audiences an insight into Rose’s sensory experience.

This is not to say that the film is aurally uninteresting. Ben’s viewpoint alternates between the hearing environment he so recently left behind and the relative silence he now experiences. Unlike Rose, Ben converses aloud with other characters, but in both parts of the film the soundtrack is eclectic and atmospheric. It jumps from orchestral numbers to ‘70s funk to David Bowie’s Space Oddity, as much as the style of the film changes from silent film, to more conventional framing and then animation. Haynes manages to find unity amongst this idiosyncrasy where other directors could have lost their way.

By casting Moore as both the silent film actress (in Rose’s narrative) and an older character (in Ben’s narrative), the two stories begin to mysteriously intertwine. Acting a deaf character as a hearing actor requires nuance and both Moore and Fegley execute their roles well. The real breakthrough however, comes from Simmonds, who is herself deaf. Directed by Haynes via an American Sign Language interpreter, she creates emotive interactions with characters through facial expression and movement alone.

There are a few plot flaws where minor characters are abandoned without conclusion, but this could be attributed to the single-mindedness of the children to reach their goals, the stories told from their viewpoints. Ultimately, Wonderstruck offers a refreshing perspective of the world from a minority often overlooked in film.

Eve Jones

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The word charming doesn’t necessarily spring to mind when watching a film starring a pack of flea-ridden, scabby, sneezing, filthy dogs living in a canine displacement camp called Trash Island, but it perfectly describes Wes Anderson’s latest offering.

The film, Isle of Dogs, is set twenty years in the future in a fictional, dystopian Japanese city called Magasaki. Various diseases, including the dreaded “snout flu”, have ravaged the canine population and, as a result, the city’s corrupt mayor has banished all dogs to a bleak, off-shore island that serves as the local rubbish tip. The dogs live and fight and survive among the rubbish on Trash Island along with the rats and the ticks and the mosquitoes.

Grim and bonkers as it sounds, this stop motion feature recalls Anderson’s 2009 feature Fantastic Mr Fox, and is anthropomorphism in its most exhuberant form. The dogs are brought to life with wisps of fur moving in the breeze and fleas running through their coats, and when tears well up (of course dogs can’t really cry) all disbelief is suspended, even though suspension of disbelief is a prerequisite here: At the very start we are informed that, for the purposes of the film, “all barks are rendered into English”.

The plot follows Atari, the mayor’s 12 year-old ward and the search for his own canine protector, Spots, who has also been banished to the island. Crash landing his “Junior Turbo-Prop” rocket ship on Trash Island, Atari teams up with a pack of self-styled “indestructible alpha dogs”, a band of battle-scarred, sneezing misfits led by Chief (Bryan Cryanston). Their hunt for Spots takes them across the industrial wasteland of the island via a series of mechanised, eccentric and sometimes menacing modes of transport. Meanwhile, a pro-dog group led by aspiring investigative journalist and foreign exchange student Tracy (Greta Gerwig) leads a revolt against the mayor with the help of research scientist Yoko Ono (voiced by Yoko Ono). Just like Fantastic Mr Fox, the sometimes tenuous plot here revolves around a sense of kinship, meticulously-detailed capers, missions and escape plans.

The cast list alone should give you an indication of what deadpan fun and outright kooky treats you are in for. Along with Cryanston, Gerwig and Ono, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton and Jeff Goldblum are all up for some zany fun.

But unlike Fantastic Mr Fox, which was based on a children’s book, Isle of Dogs feels more demanding in nature, more grown up. The film doesn’t shy away from adult themes and has a prominent message about oppression and discrimination and what happens when corrupt governments work to silence a population. While the use of animated dogs makes its appeal more universal there are other aspects that make it more impenetrable for children.  While the dogs “speak” English, the human characters speak in their native tongue, but there are no subtitles for the Japanese and only some of it is translated by interpreters.

Despite this and despite the group of sometimes fidgety pre-schoolers at the screening we went to, I am happy to report that we all loved it, including the ten and twelve year-olds (the story is, after all, about a 12 year-old boy’s search for his dog). Saying Isle of Dogs quickly enough turns it into “I love dogs”, and the love for four legged fleabags of all shapes and sizes on screen here is palpable –  but you don’t have to love dogs to love this film; just cinema and the power of imagination.

Monika Maurer

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Birds Eye View (BEV) launches a pilot programme designed to grow audiences for films created by women. The project seeks to empower audiences to make a positive intervention in the distribution and exhibition space. Supported by BFI Audience Fund, “Reclaim The Frame” Influencer Project (which will run from April to September 2018) will spotlight 4 films in 5 cities over 6 months. The project aims to develop a growing network of people who are dedicated to broadening the frame through which we engage with film.

The Reclaim The Frame project will:

WHY NOW?

With gender inequality in film and across wider society dominating the headlines, we are proud to a programme that makes a positive intervention in the cinema by enabling audiences to make a change to our film culture and support narratives told from the female gaze. Men account for 92% of directors and 90% of screenwriters of the Top 200 Films at the UK box office in 2016.  

We are almost always being made to watch a one-sided view of the world. It’s time to start asking: what are the stories we are missing out on? The gender imbalance throughout the film industry also helps explain why women are very often objectified, stereotyped or secondary when we see them on the screen. Film is a powerful medium but is not reflecting the world that we inhabit … and we want to change that.

ABOUT BIRDS EYE VIEW

Birds Eye View (BEV) is a year round agency that campaigns for gender equality in film celebrating its fifteenth anniversary: they spotlight, celebrate and advocate films created by women, and support women working in film. They’re not just for women, but for everyone. Director of Birds Eye View, Mia Bays said: “The up-swell of energy, anger and passion-for-change following the revelations of widespread sexual harassment and misconduct in Hollywood and beyond has strengthened our resolve to tackle gender inequality and the power imbalance in film. The time for change is now, and we see this unique programme as fitting squarely into this aspiration.” 

BEV have supported over 30 films in the last two years with promotions and events, such as Suffragette (2015), Toni Erdmann (2016) and Step (2017). They host these events with leading filmmakers, cultural influencers and social justice campaigners, such as director Gurinder Chadha OBE, publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove and acclaimed film critic Anna Smith.

PARTNERS

The Reclaim The Frame project is supported by distribution partners: Curzon Artificial Eye (and Media Europe), Altitude Entertainment and Vertigo Films. Lia Devlin, Head of Marketing, at Altitude said: “This idea has significant value to us as a distributor, enabling us to raise the profile of the films and the filmmakers, break out independent films across the UK and ultimately promote the diversity that the BFI and Birds Eye View are committed to”.

Plymouth Arts Centre launched the project, and additional venue partners are HOME in Manchester, Tyneside in Newcastle, Midlands Arts Centre & Mockingbird Cinemas in Birmingham, and Genesis and Picturehouse Central in London. 

We are also delighted to have the support of industry partners Mubi and Pulse Films.

THE FILMS

The first “Reclaim The Frame” film will be REVENGE by French first-time feature filmmaker Corelie Fargeat. This provocative, rape-revenge B-Movie sets the tone for a project that seeks to counter conceptions of ‘the female gaze’ as a one-size-fits-all description. REVENGE is genre-bending, kick-ass grindhouse movie that demonstrates women can make all kinds of movies!

Tickets to the Reclaim The Frame screening of Revenge at Plymouth Arts Centre are available to book by clicking here.

Guest speakers will frame discussions around the film by exploring the psychology of revenge, representations of rape on screen, the female gaze on screen and the B-Movie / Slasher genres.

Our second film, a British first-time feature, will screen in July 2018; the third film will preview as part of the Reclaim The Frame project in August; our final film will screen at all six partner cinemas in September 2018.

To join us in supporting women in film, sign up here – it’s free and in return you’ll receive free cinema tickets, DVDs and merch.

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Andrey Zvyagintsev has a growing reputation not just as a director but as modern Russia’s conscience. Just as Vladimir Putin has now secured a fourth term in a landslide victory, Zvyagintsev appears like Banquo’s ghost to remind us of the poisons currently afflicting his home country.

His last film, Leviathan (2014) won armfuls of accolades and awards the world over. Yet at home it was harshly criticised by the government (who part-funded the film) and sought to subject it to a new law that could see it banned for “defiling the national culture.” It certainly was an eye opener, full as it was of vodka swilling apparatchiks crushing the spirits and (literally) the homes of anyone standing in their way. At its centre was a monolith, a huge whale carcass (the leviathan of the title) that stood as a symbol of Russia’s massive and insurmountable obstacles.

That image could be argued to be pretty on the nose – it’s certainly difficult to miss. Loveless pretty much suffers from the same problem (insofar as it is a problem) – it’s fair I think to say that Zvyagintsev is not really a dealer in great subtlety. He may believe the issues he is communicating are too urgent to waste time with anything less than the starkest of images. Loveless does at one point feature a main character stuck on a treadmill, wearing a Lycra top with “Russia” actually emblazoned on the front of it. Hm.

But for all that the film does not lose any of its emotional punch. We start out by seeing the awful marriage of Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) and Boris (Aleksey Rozin) on its very last legs. When at home they argue furiously in front of their child, Alexey (Matvey Novikov) and away from home they both have their bit on the side. The only reason they are keeping the sham together at all is, at least in part, due to a bizarre and ultra-conservative rule at their work where they must be proven to have a family. Then, one day, Alexey does not come home. When it becomes clear that this is not a simple case of playing truant, they alert the authorities, who do not seem at all bothered (runaways are at epidemic levels in Russia, apparently). The matter becomes desperate and Zhenya and Boris must find some way of collaborating, despite their animosity. They dig right through the ruins, including old buildings, family homes and Russia’s crumbling institutions, in their increasingly frantic search.

Loveless is, like a form of surgery, painful but necessary. As matters escalate in that part of world we have, in Zvyagintsev, a real insider feeding us knowledge about what life is like there, from his point of view. We should all be keeping an eye on what he’s up to.

Ieuan Jones

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So, the golden statuettes have all been handed out, the corks have all been popped and it’s the morning after the night before.  Since the venerable Academy have decided that Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water is the year’s best film, are we to make the same of it?

Well, it certainly was an interesting choice. It has many of the hallmarks of a del Toro fable. It is both grounded in a real world – in this case Cold War Baltimore – and also adrift a world of fantasy. This particular one looks like it’s ripped straight from a vintage copy of the classic comic ‘Amazing Stories.’ You can even imagine a tagline like “Forbidden Love of the Sea!” set on the cover, among the other splashes of space aliens and giant bugs. (The next-door neighbour here, Giles (Richard Jenkins), who is an illustrator pimping his art, feels like a conscious nod to this idea.) And The Shape of Water really is comic book to its core – from its bold primary colours, all sea greens and raspberry reds – to its plot, which juxtaposes real monsters who feel with human monsters who don’t.

Del Toro has form with comics (sorry, graphic novels) of course – he directed the Marvel adaptation Blade II (2002) and was behind the two Hellboy films (originally Dark Horse comics) made to date. But The Shape of Water feels immediately different to these, perhaps closer to the dark imagination of his Pan’s Labyrinth (2006). Sally Hawkins plays Elisa, a mute cleaner of a government facility, where the incredible discovery of a merman is wheeled in inside a tank. Elisa’s intrigue is piqued and she sneaks in to steal glances of the mysterious fish man, then leaves out some food for him, and then … well, you don’t need me to tell you what happens next. Suffice it to say that before long the danger becomes all too real, from the military, in the form of Colonel Strickland (Michael Shannon, at his most Michael Shannon) and those they are pitted against, namely the Russians. The misfits become pawns in the game of the power hungry, including the humble scientists such as Dr Hoffstetler, played by Michael Stuhlbarg (who by law must be in every Hollywood film going right now).

The Shape of Water’s broadness sometimes gets the better of it. Elisa’s friend at the facility, Yolanda (Allegra Fulton) felt a little too close to type and without any shade. And one scene in particular, where Giles is made to feel most unwelcome at his favourite lunch spot, was pretty on the nose – making explicit what had been made abundantly clear elsewhere. But when it hits, it really does – right down to a musical number sprung from nowhere and right out of golden age song and dance routine. Maybe it was the perfect choice for an old Hollywood backslap after all!

Ieuan Jones

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Writer-director Greta Gerwig’s solo debut is a wincingly funny and wistfully sentimental bildungsroman comedy. Unique experiences of teenage isolation and traditional coming-of-age tropes combine to create a modern ode to teenage hometowns; to loving yet restrictive mothers; and to the ubiquity of adolescent yearning, the yearning of all senses.

The piece can be considered a bildungsroman in both senses, with Saoirse Ronan playing the titular Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, a spunky and obstinate teen attending Catholic high school, portraying both some of the first years of true personality and final years of spiritual education. Although confident and willing, Lady Bird is undiscerning and almost snobbis, with her self-given nickname appealing holistically to all of her characteristics. Overwhelmingly, Lady Bird is alienated- by her fluxing relationship with Catholicism; by her town, “the Midwest of California”; by her overt sense of class in a strikingly post—9/11 American suburbia; but mostly by her intensely pragmatic and pessimistic mother who dismisses her dreams to study at “cultured” and bohemian East Coast colleges. This lack of maternal communication is the crux of the film, with dialogues (or lack thereof) that all viewers will find simultaneously comforting and authentic; both Lady Bird and her mother are unable to make the self-sacrifices needed to maintain the parental bonds forged in childhood.   

Gerwig doesn’t view her work as a truly autobiographical piece, instead commenting “it has a core of truth that resonates with what I know.” One of the most interesting aspects of the film is its time period, with the depiction of high school boredom circa 2002 inviting questions of class, societal inequality and the ‘war on terror’. Young people today are often blanketed by their addiction to ever-general ‘social media’ by the media, but Lady Bird emphasises that the passionate hedonism and determination of youth (with almost every scene beginning in media res and continuing at this intense speed) fosters the same emotions and relationships regardless of technology or setting- characters truly are the focus of this film, and not their status or family situation (although it’s reported that Gerwig did ban mobiles phones being used whilst on set).

Ultimately, Lady Bird is a film that will make you laugh but also consider both your coming-of-age and your parenting (if applicable, naturally). Subtle and poignant dialogue is complemented with a lightning-fast plot to successfully portray all aspects of youth, and its age-defying qualities of independence, isolation and love. If Conan Gray and Jeffrey Eugenides were to come together and make a film, Lady Bird would almost certainly be the end point.

Additionally, the £4 under-25s tickets at Plymouth Arts Centre really are fantastic. Myself and friends often enjoy contemporary, classic and independent cinema for such brilliant prices here in Plymouth. I think it is massively important that art is open and accessible to all, and £4 tickets really are testament to this.

Beau Waycott

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Mia and Anna also took the opportunity to launch the new Birds Eye View influencer programme – with a mission to draw ever greater audiences to films made by women to showcase a wider perspective of the world. 

Regular contributor Eve Jones attended the screening, and here she reports back on the event…

In last Tuesday’s mild evening air I walked to Plymouth Arts Centre for the screening of Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, introduced by award-winning film producer, Mia Bays and renowned film critic, Anna Smith. As part of the joint International Women’s Day programme between Plymouth Arts Centre and Peninsula Arts, the event would include a post-film discussion in partnership with Bays’ non-profit organisation, Birds Eye View (BEV), which has been working to improve gender parity and visibility in film for over a decade.

When I arrived, flushed from my walk, the centre was already abuzz with an audience in anticipation. Though mainly women, it was reassuring to see so many men also interested in the film and the launching of the BEV influencer programme which is looking for cinephiles to, as Mia put it, spread this ‘wonderful gender equality virus’.

Settling into the cinema I chatted warmly to my row D neighbours, a fellow blogger and an independent cinema programmer. Anna and Mia enthusiastically prepared us for the film and as the lights dimmed I had little idea of what to expect.

After nearly two hours of immersion the audience let out a sigh, the rolling credits bringing us back into reality. Having known so little about the film beforehand, I was surprised by how subordinate the Wonder Woman narrative was to that of the polyamorous relationship of the three protagonists and their consequential internal conflicts. Anna and Mia jumped straight onto the mics to begin their post-film discussion, celebrating the film’s subversion of the male gaze and sympathetic portrayal of polyamory.

The film’s creator, Angela Robinson, is a rarity in Hollywood as a self-identified gay, black writer/director. Mia opened up the ‘A&Q’ to the viewers, asking us to consider how this affects the telling of the story. Not even waiting for microphones, audience members were keen to vocalise their opinions on the film. The refreshing portrayal of female sexuality and the shame often associated with that (a presentation likely authenticated by Robinson’s personal experience as an outsider in the eurocentric, heteronormative film industry) was well received by the audience, some thanking the speakers for bringing the film to their attention. It appeared that many of us identified with this pain of conformity and, through the discussion, we were led to confront the sacrifices we make to fit in to society.

Equally engaging was Anna’s question: did watching the film change your perceptions of polyamory? It appeared that suspension of disbelief towards the three romantic relationships was greatly affected by audience experience. Nevertheless, we all agreed that Robinson avoided the salacious stereotype surrounding polygamy, depicting instead a poignant love story without using the ‘dominant cinematic grammar’ – tropes used to depict romance in mainstream film making.

The Arts Centre and speakers worked to create a supportive atmosphere, allowing people to converse about their own prejudices without judgement and leading to fascinating insights into the true power of the film. This enrichment that comes with diversity is exactly what BEV are working to propagate through their Influencer programme and we were left with a rally to agitate over gender equality in film. I can’t wait to see what other discussions BEV will inspire through film at Plymouth Arts Centre over the coming months.

Between May and September, Birds Eye View will be bringing four films made by women (including cis-women, trans-women, femme/feminine identifying genderqueer and non-binary), to Plymouth Arts Centre, each screening hosted by BEV and expert speakers, filmmakers or actors. If you want to get involved in the influencer project, you can find more details by clicking here and attend the ‘town hall’ event at Plymouth Arts Centre in April.

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