Richard Online

REVIEW: Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story ★★★★★

April 25, 2025

I am not entirely certain of this, but I suspect this may be the first documentary film I have ever seen in a cinema. It is certainly the first I have reviewed. And what a terrific documentary to choose.

Directed by Sinéad O’Shea, it tells the story of Edna O’Brien, one of Ireland’s most controversial and important novelists. The film tells her life story from her birth into “a strict, religious family” in rural County Clare in 1930, moving on to her marriage to the Irish writer Ernest Gébler in 1954, against her family’s wishes. However, it was not a happy marriage, and when her first novel, The Country Girls, was published in 1960, the writing was on the wall, although the marriage limped on for another four years before she finally left him. The film then charts her astonishing career over the next sixty years, during which she published eighteen novels, eight short story collections, eight plays, a poetry collection and a host of children’s books and non-fiction books.

However, it is not just her writing that was important but the astonishing life she led. Her early books were banned in Ireland for many years, primarily thanks to the malevolent influence of the Roman Catholic Church. She is described in the film as a ‘Bon Vivant’. Her London parties were attended by the great and the good of the literary and acting worlds. She was very outspoken about sex from a woman’s perspective, and very scathing about the contribution of men. She had relationships with a number of famous film stars, and an affair with a very senior British politician which lasted many years.

Scottish novelist Andrew O’Hagan, who is interviewed in the film, said: “She changed the nature of Irish fiction; she brought the woman’s experience and sex and internal lives of those people on to the page, and she did it with style, and she made those concerns international.”

The documentary uses her diaries, her many public appearances on arts programmes (interviewed by the likes of Russell Harty, Melvyn Bragg, and so on), comments from other writers, including Anne Enright and Walter Moseley, and testament from her two children, Carlo and Sasha. It also includes an extended interview undertaken for the film by Ms O’Brien in 2023 and 2024, shortly before her death.

I have to confess that I knew only a little of her astonishing life and have barely scratched the surface of her work: I have read only one of her novels: The Red Chairs, which I loved, and which was written when she was 85; I saw two of her plays: Triptych (purely by chance, I happened to be in San Francisco on the day it opened there) and Joyce’s Women; I have seen adaptations of The Country Girls and The Lonely Girl (The Girl with Green Eyes); And I have read her biography of James Joyce.

Sinéad O’Shea’s excellent documentary has opened my eyes to a hugely important and powerfully intellectual woman writer – I will be reading a lot more in the near future!
REVIEW: Holy Cow ★★★★☆

April 23, 2025

This is the debut feature film of French film-maker Louise Courvoisier. It received its World Premiere in the Un Certain Regard section at last year’s Cannes Festival and had its UK release last week. It is a drama about cheese-making – specifically Comté cheese from eastern France. Except, of course, that is not what it is really about.

It tells the story of Totone (Clément Faveau), a carefree and somewhat wild 18-year-old boy who spends his days drinking and chasing girls with his best friends Jean-Yves and Francis. However, when his father, a heavy-drinking cheese-maker, is killed in a car accident, he suddenly finds himself sole carer and provider for his young sister Claire (Luna Garret). He gets a menial job in a nearby dairy farm, and almost immediately loses it after an altercation with a co-worker. Then he discovers the large prize money available for making award-winning Comté cheeses and sets his sights on scooping the top prize – after all, cheese-making runs in the family. However, unsurprisingly, making the cheese is not quite as easy as he had imagined.

Clément Faveau is excellent in the lead role, an extremely subtle, nuanced and under-stated performance and Maiwene Barthelemy, playing Marie-Lise, the young local dairy farmer who he falls in love with, is equally wonderful. This is social-realism in the style of the Dardenne Brothers: the story is gently teased out – shown not told – and the young protagonists, placed in an impossible position, are always likeable and their optimism is infectious.

I must add that the cheese-making scenes themselves are most informative and whilst watching the film will not teach you exactly how it is done, it will leave you with a reasonable understanding of the complexities involved.

Holy Cow is directed with a surprising lightness of touch for a first feature, and Louise Courvoisier is clearly a name to watch. It is unapologetically sentimental, but there are no easy answers. I whole-heartedly recommend this film. Don’t worry if you are not overly keen on subtitles – there is not that much dialogue anyway!
REVIEW: The Return ★★★★☆

April 15, 2025

The Return is a 2024 film adaptation of the second half of Homer’s Odyssey, directed by Uberto Pasolini, from a script by Edward Bond and John Collee. Gone is all the fantasy: no sea monsters; no Gods. This film is Odysseus’s return. It begins with his broken body washed up on the shores of Ithica, twenty years after he left it for the Trojan war, and charts his personal journey back to regaining his wife, his son and his Kingdom. I will not provide any plot detail – who am I to add my interpretation to one of the most famous stories in literature.

The influence of Edward Bond is clear from the very beginning, and the film is all the better for it: the storytelling is clear, powerful and highly effective and, importantly, remains true to its source. At times, the film resembled a piece of theatre, with the director not afraid to linger on the faces of the characters, allowing us to travel with them on their own psychological journeys.

Ralph Fiennes gives a towering performance as Odysseus, retaining the power of the great warrior, all muscle and sinew, but showing the fatigue of every day of those twenty years, a ravaged older man, with neither the raw energy nor the recklessness of his youth. Juliette Binoche gives a quiet dignity to his long-suffering wife Penelope, who not only had to wait ten years for him as he fought at Troy, but a further ten as he journeyed home. Having no idea whether he was alive or dead, she waited desperately for news, whilst fighting off the unwanted attentions of the suitors who had gathered in the hope of winning both her favour and her fortune.

The Return is also a return for Fiennes and Binoche themselves – it is almost thirty years since they last acted together in Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient.

Unfortunately, whilst the two central performances were spellbinding, the supporting cast were somewhat inconsistent in places. Charlie Plummer was only adequate as their son, Telemachus, and the suitors were something of a mixed bag, although Marwan Kenzari added a degree of light and shade to Antonius, the leader of the pack.

In summary, this is a very good retelling of the final half of the Odyssey, well scripted, well directed and with two wonderful central performances. The storytelling and direction are well paced, allowing the plot to breathe whilst never dragging. If you like Homer’s story, you will love this film.
My ‘Top 3 and a Bit’ films about Alcoholism

April 14, 2025
My name is Richard, and I am a Filmaholic. I think that will be the only joke in this post – somehow humour does not feel appropriate.

Following last week’s list of films about drink and drinking, I am now looking at films which focus on the darker side of the alcohol experience: alcoholism. I have watched some 17 films on this subject in the last two weeks and have seen some films which, while often distressing, were of exceptional quality and, unsurprisingly perhaps, involved some astonishing individual performances.

So, here are my Top 3 films about alcoholism, together with notes on several additional films which are certainly worthy of attention:

(1)        Days of Wine and Roses (1962 – Blake Edwards)

Hard-drinking advertising salesman Joe Clay (Jack Lemmon) meets teetotal Kirsten Arnesen (Lee Remick), and they begin a love affair. Kirsten is reluctant to touch strong liquor, however after admitting a passion for chocolate, Joe introduces her to the Brandy Alexander. And so begins a downward spiral as their excessive drinking plays an increasing part in their lifestyle. They marry and have a daughter. Alone all day with her child, Kirsten finds her only solace comes from the bottle. Ironically, whilst Joe ultimately finds the strength to embark on the twelve-step programme and to take his parental responsibilities seriously, it is not that easy for Kirsten. Both actors deservedly won a batch of acting awards and were nominated for several others. Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer, who wrote the title music, also won the Oscar for Best Song as well as three Grammy awards.

(2)        Drunken Angel (1948 – Akira Kurosawa)

In the slums of Tokyo, the titular drunken angel, Dr Sanada (Takashi Shimura), gets a late-night visit from Matsunaga (Toshiro Mifune), a small-time Yakuza who needs a bullet removing from his hand. After removing the bullet, Sanada examines him and diagnoses him with tuberculosis. They begin an unlikely doctor/patient relationship, almost a friendship, although they are polar opposites in the new ‘Americanised’ Japan following the end of the second world war: Sanada represents the strong tradition of family in Japan; Matsunaga represents the yakuza idea of severing ties with real family and accepting the yakuza leader as a surrogate father. Both are consumed by their diseases: Sanada with alcoholism, and Matsunaga with tuberculosis. Kurosawa considered this to be the first film he made entirely for himself and, perhaps not coincidentally, it was the first of the sixteen films he made with Mifune.

(3)       The Lost Weekend (1945 – Billy Wilder)

The film is based on Charles R Jackson’s novel of the same name about an alcoholic writer, Don Birnham (Ray Milland) who neatly sidesteps his brother’s plans to take him to the country for a long weekend and evades his girlfriend Helen (Jane Wyman)’s attempts to steer him away from the booze, in order to settle into a weekend of drinking. He begs, borrows, pawns and steals in order to fund his habit, using anyone who is gullible enough to let him. When he is not drinking he is recovering from drinking (he suffers terrible hallucinations about a bat killing a mouse) or working out how he will fund his next drink. This is a harrowing picture of the evils of drink but for me the ending was just a little too easy. The film was nominated for seven Oscars and won four of them: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director for Billy Wilder and Best Actor for Ray Milland.

And the Honourable Mentions …

The following films are those that came very, very close to making my Top 3, but did not quite get there (the ’bit’), listed in alphabetical order:

The Country Girl (1954 – George Seaton)

The film tells the story of Frank Elgin (Bing Crosby), an alcoholic musical theatre star who is given a chance to resurrect his floundering career with a starring role in a Broadway musical. Frank is entirely dependent upon his wife Georgie (Grace Kelly) but in order to gain the sympathy of the show’s director he feeds him a pack of lies suggesting that it is Georgie who is the hopeless alcoholic and that she is totally dependent on him. The film tackles the subject of the lying and deception of the alcoholic in his need to disguise his addiction extremely well. I think this is the best performance I have seen from Crosby (who was nominated for an Oscar) and Kelly thoroughly deserved her four Best Actress awards, which included both the Oscar and the Golden Globe.

Crazy Heart (2009 – Scott Cooper)

Based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Thomas Cobb, Crazy Heart tells the story of ‘Bad’ Blake (Jeff Bridges), a 57-year-old alcoholic country singer who was once a star. Now he tours bars and bowling alleys across the south-west of the United States in order to make enough money to survive and pay for his habit. In one of these bars he meets fledgeling journalist and single-mother Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and agrees to give her an interview. They begin a relationship, and Jean and her son give Bad a reason to quit drinking and get his life back on track. But, as every addict knows, it is never that easy. The acting was uniformly excellent (look out for Colin Farrell as Tommy Sweet) and Bridges won a total of six Best Actor awards, including the Oscar. The Weary Kind, a song featured in the film also picked up five awards for Best Original Song, including the Oscar.

Flight (2012 – Robert Zemeckis)

William “Whip” Whitaker (Denzel Washington) is a commercial airline pilot who is hailed a hero when he crash-lands his plane after a mechanical failure with a near-miraculous manoeuvre, saving the lives of all but six of the 102 people on board. However, it becomes apparent that he was drunk on the morning of the accident, and is a helpless alcoholic who also uses cocaine to help him focus on his job – there is an excellent cameo by John Goodman as his dealer. The film is primarily about his refusal to accept his alcoholism which has blighted his life, destroying his marriage, and ruining his new relationship with Nicole Madden (Kelly Reilly), herself a recovering alcoholic who tries and fails to steer him towards AA. Washington is excellent as Whip, for which he picked up a couple of Best Actor awards and an Oscar nomination.

Leaving Las Vegas (1995 – Mike Figgis)

For some reason I had it in my head that this was some kind of a romcom – maybe because the name is on the same lines as Sleepless in Seattle. I apologise unreservedly for that – this is a harrowing drama about Ben (Nicholas Cage), a suicidal, alcoholic, washed-up screenwriter and Sera (Elisabeth Shue), the Las Vegas prostitute with whom he falls in love. They help and support each other as best they can but this is a relationship which is doomed from the beginning. Figgis apparently encouraged the actors to do their own research for the project, and Cage spent two weeks binge-drinking in Dublin, while videotaped by a friend so that he could later study how the drinking affected his speech. The performances are both astonishing: Cage won the Oscar and fourteen other Best Actor awards; Shue won six Best Actress awards.

My Name is Bill W (1989 – William G Borchert)

Quite honestly this does not quite fit the list. To begin with, it was made for television; and secondly, whilst a pretty solid biopic, it is not actually a great film. However, it is about Bill Wilson (James Woods) and the founding of Alcoholics’ Annonymous, and I thought under the circumstances, that’s kind of important. For almost exactly an hour, it tells the story of Wilson the drunk, showing how alcohol took over his life, how he became a liability both as an employee and as a husband, and how he ended up strapped to a bed in a sanitorium. And then he quite literally sees the light, and the remaining forty minutes charts his recovery, his meeting with “Dr Bob” Smith (James Garner) and the founding of AA. In fact, James Woods won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Television Movie, so it does have some artistic pedigree.

Smashed (2012 – James Pondstedt)

Kate Hannah (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is a primary school teacher, her husband Charlie (Aaron Paul, of Breaking Bad fame) works from home. They are both extremely heavy drinkers. One day a hungover Kate throws up in front of her class and, to cover up the real cause of this, tells her class she is pregnant. As her drinking gets more and more out of her hand, her behaviour gets more and more extreme. It includes smoking crack with a stranger who bums a lift from her and urinating on the floor of a convenience store, then stealing a bottle of wine as the cashier looks on astonished. However the pregnancy lie comes back to haunt her and she loses her job. Finally she accepts the help of a co-worker who takes her to AA meetings, and she decides to try to become sober. I felt the film dealt particularly well with the couple’s downward spiral into oblivion, and also with Kate’s recovery through her involvement with AA.

A Star is Born (1954 – George Cukor)

Actor Norman Maine (James Mason) was once a huge star but after years of drunkenness he is now more of a liability to the studio which employs him. On a drunken spree he discovers cabaret singer Ester Blodgett (Judy Garland) and, spotting her potential, persuades her to do a screen test for the studio. His faith is rewarded, and she has a meteoric rise to stardom, under her new name, Vicki Lester. They get married. But as her star is in the ascendancy, his falls. The studio terminates his contract and, unemployed and unemployable, he turns ever more to drink. Mason and Garland are both excellent in their roles, and they won the Golden Globes for Best Actor and Best Actress respectively. Strangely for an avid film fan, I had never seen this extremely famous film before, but now I have I thoroughly recommend it.

Under the Volcano (1984 – John Huston)

Set on the Day of the Dead in Quauhnahuac, Mexico, a year before the outbreak of the second world war, the film tells the story of alcoholic British Consul Geoffrey Firmin (Albert Finney) as he tours the town in a drunken stupor. He is searching for a pile of letters from his estranged wife Yvonne (Jacqueline Bisset), which he left in a bar at some stage on a previous spree. Firmin lives with his half-brother, Hugh (Anthony Andrews) who is a journalist investigating Nazi activity in Mexico. Yvonne returns in a bid to resurrect her marriage, and the three of them embark on a drunken trip to one of the twin volcanoes that rise above the town, with tragic consequences. Finney, whose performance was outstanding, won two Best Actor awards and was nominated for four others, including the Oscar.

And the rest…

So, what else did I watch in compiling my list? The following films were also considered, but ultimately did not make the grade:
- 28 Days (2000 – Betty Thomas) – apart from a few fairly hard-hitting moments, this film seemed to trivialise the rehab process, which seemed to me rather inappropriate.
- Barfly (1987 – Barbet Schroeder) – based on Charles Bukowski’s semi-autobiographical novel, this film suffers from poor casting – Mickey Rourke was simply not believable in the central role.
- The Girl on the Train (2016 – Tate Taylor) – Film adaptation of Paula Hawkins’ best-selling novel. Interesting idea, but too plotty and formulaic for me.
- Julia (2008 – Erick Zonca) – People make terrible decisions under the influence of alcohol – they kidnap small children, sleep with weird Mexicans and double-cross armed bandits; as for me, I spent £1.60 on ebay buying the DVD of this film and wasted two hours of my life watching it – terrible enough!
- The Morning After (1986 – Sydney Lumet) – more a film about a drunk than about an alcoholic, in fact a thriller, and a creaky one at that. Just say no!
- When a Man Loves a Woman (1994 – Luis Mandoki) – I found this over-long and rather preachy; we didn’t see enough of the downward spiral, just the rock bottom and the recovery; and the ending is just plain silly!
I had an interesting, if somewhat harrowing couple of weeks researching this list. In order to add some much-needed beauty and balance back into my film-watching, my next Top 3 and a bit list will be films about poetry.

I am sure I have missed loads of films on alcoholism, so if you have anything you think I should watch or that may deserve a place in my “Top 3 and a Bit” please let me know. I will endeavour to find them and watch them.
REVIEW: Mr Burton ★★☆☆☆

April 8, 2025

Mr Burton is a new British drama film directed by Marc Evans about the early years of Richard Burton’s career, beginning in his mid-teens, in the early days of the Second World War, and continuing up to the Festival of Britain year, 1951, when Burton played Prince Hal in Henry IV parts 1 and 2 at Stratford, and his status as a star was confirmed.

However, the Mr Burton of the title is not Richard, but Philip, Richard’s English teacher who somehow recognised the raw talent in the rather wild young Richard (then called Richard Jenkins), trained and mentored him, adopted him (hence the name change), and helped him get into Oxford University, and ultimately begin his career as an actor. Philip was so important to Richard’s career that Elizabeth Taylor once said in an interview that: “without Philip Burton there would never have been a Richard Burton”.

The story is interesting enough and the characters, Philip (Toby Jones) and Richard (Harry Lawtey) ought to be sufficiently interesting/dynamic respectively as to make this a sure-fire hit. And yet, it just never quite gets off the ground. The relationship between the two is interesting enough; Toby Jones is, of course, excellent as Philip; and Harry Lawtey makes a very creditable stab at young Richard, particularly in the later scenes when Richard’s voice has developed from the coarse young son of a Welsh miner into the Richard Burton we all know so well. But the way the story is told is very workmanlike and the background shots of the smoky drab industrial landscape that was the Pontrhydyfen of Burton’s youth are relentless and, ultimately, become rather tedious.

There were also a number of questionable details which sent me straight home to Melvyn Bragg’s biography ‘Rich’ for some fact-checking. The film shows Philip Burton as the man who first suggests Richard joins his playgroup at the YMCA; and singlehandedly talks the school into taking him back after he left prior to his School Certificate to earn some money and contribute to the household. But so far as I can tell, these roles were undertaken by Leo Lloyd and Meredith Jones respectively. The film also shows Philip paying £50 to ‘buy’ Richard from his father as part of the adoption process. But there seems to be no evidence to support this. In Philip’s diary there is no mention of any sum of money being paid, and the actual signature was secured by David Jenkins, a policeman and Richard’s brother, ‘with no difficulty’.

Okay, I get poetic licence and the need to simplify stories, but given how much Philip actually did for Richard, I do not see the need to give him credit for things he didn’t do. Laying it on just a little too thick, don’t you know!

In summary, this is an opportunity missed. The acting was good, but the storytelling and direction were just a little too pedestrian. There were occasional flashes which served to show how good a film it might have been, particularly towards the end in Stratford, but these were too few and too late to save the film.
REVIEW: Four Mothers ★★☆☆☆

April 4, 2025

A couple of years ago in a charity shop in Harrogate I came across a DVD of an Italian film called Mid-August Lunch, the first film directed by actor/screenwriter Gianni Di Gregorio. I bought it and I loved it. It is about Gianni, an unambitious bachelor who ambles through life, racking up debts and looking after his 93-year-old mother. In order to settle a number of these debts, he finds himself looking after three other old ladies in his small flat in Rome over the Ferragosto holiday. It is funny, subtle, nuanced and, most of all, human; much as I hate to use the phrase, I really did find it life-affirming.

This morning Darren Thornton‘s latest film Four Mothers, apparently a remake of Mid-August Lunch, was released in the UK. I got up early and, with high expectations, took the train to Leeds for the 10:05 screening. Sadly, I have to report that it did not live up to the original. To begin with, I should say that it was not really a remake, it was more a loose adaptation of the original idea with various sub-plots hung onto that framework.

The action has been moved from Rome to Dublin where Edward, a young and newly successful author (James McArdle) looks after his aging mother (Fionnula Flanagan) whilst juggling media interviews and zoom meetings with his publisher trying to arrange a US book tour. And I think for me that was the problem: the relationship between the ambitious Edward and his mother was never allowed to achieve the tenderness which existed between Gianni and his mother – Edward was just too busy!

The three other ladies were each the mothers of gay friends of Edward, but these friends were mere caricatures, not properly drawn characters. It was as if in the Italian original, all the characters were sketched in pencil, allowing a degree of nuance in their playing, whilst in Four Mothers they were all drawn with heavy pencil outlines, allowing for no subtlety at all.

Looking at the positives, I thought that McArdle and the actors playing the four mothers were all very good in their roles. There was also a cameo role for the always-excellent Niamh Cusack as a medium, although this seemed to be shoe-horned into the plot and again felt rather forced. Also the ending (which I cannot explain here without spoiling it) just did not work on any practical level. Basically, the plot was just too clunky, and the result was a ‘remake’ which managed to lose all the charm and humanity of the original.

Having said all of that, I do wonder what I would have made of the film had I never seen the original, so I would be interested in hearing the opinion of anyone coming across this ‘blind’.
My ‘Top 3 and a Bit’ films about Drink

April 1, 2025
I made my first post a list of food-related films (and at the same time committed to making two lists of my favourite films every month). I then set about making a list of my Top 3 films on drink and drinking.

Having immersed myself in booze films for nearly a fortnight, it is clear to me that I should not do this in a single list: there are films that, for want of a better word, celebrate drink and there are films about alcoholism. And like the best scotch whisky, these lists are best not blended. So this list is on the lighter side of the subject, and the list which will follow in a fortnight’s time will take an altogether darker route.

Just as the vast majority of my chosen films about food were actually about a whole host of things other than food, so my favourite films about drink are really about family, love, friendship, grief, midlife crises, and so on. There are films actually about drinking, but these tended to be about groups of youngish men who have a great time getting drunk, but watching these films proved about as interesting as being the nominated driver on a marathon pub crawl. So not only will they not make the list, but they will not even get a mention.

So, here are my my Top 3 films about drink and drinking (the Grand Crus), together with a note of a small group of films which are also worth tasting:

(1)        Another Round

Thomas Vinterberg’s 2020 film is not entirely on the lighter side, and I did consider whether it should appear in my next list, however it is certainly a comedy-drama and to me the celebratory elements of the positive effects of drink, such as confidence and self-esteem, won out. Its deft, artful direction is reminiscent of Vinterberg’s earlier masterpieces, Festen and The Hunt. It follows four schoolteachers experimenting with a philosophical theory on the benefits of maintaining a consistent blood-alcohol level. But these men are all firmly in midlife crisis territory and as they up the level of the experiment, so the various issues in their personal and professional lives are brought to the fore. Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang and Lars Ranthe are uniformly excellent in their roles and Mikkelsen is quite wonderful in the final scene. The film was nominated for a whole host of awards and amongst others, won a total of seven best International/non-English language film awards, including both the Oscar and the BAFTA.

(2)        Sideways

Directed by Alexander Payne in 2004, Sideways is something of a cult classic. It is another mid-life crisis film, this time about a road trip through the Santa Barbara wine country. The protagonists are depressed teacher/writer Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church), a washed-up actor, and the aim of their trip is to celebrate Jack’s forthcoming marriage. This is a complex film: at times light and charming, at times deep and thoughtful and at times very, very funny indeed. Interestingly, it had a real impact on the US wine industry, with sales of Merlot falling 2% following the film’s release and demand for Pinot Noir rising a staggering 16%. If you see the film you will understand why: or you could just drink the wine!

(3)        Back to Burgundy

This 2017 French drama film, directed (and co-written) by Cedric Klapisch, tells the story of three siblings coming to terms with the death of their father. The eldest son, Jean, returns home to France after an absence of ten years, which resulted from his inability to get on with his father; his sister Juliette has stayed working with her father on the family’s vineyard; their younger brother has married and works with his father-in-law on a large wine-making estate nearby. The film follows the next year of their lives as they reconnect and confront their grief, the practicalities of inheritance, and find a way forward. It is about loyalty, rivalry, grief and everything that makes up family relationships. But it is also about wine-making and if you watch it you will learn something of the complexities of making fine French wines. I love this film – I have it on DVD and watch it every couple of years!

And the Honourable Mentions …

The following films are those that came very, very close to making my Top 3, but did not quite get there (the ’bit’), listed in alphabetical order:

The Angel’s Share

This 2012 film is proof that champion for social justice Ken Loach (and writer Paul Laverty) can do funny. Set in the low-level-criminal underworld of Glasgow, it follows Robbie, a young ne’er-do-well who begins the film having narrowly escaped a custodial sentence, instead receiving a term of community service (known as community payback in Scotland). Half-way through his first shift he is called in to hospital where his girlfriend has given birth to their son. He promises to go straight and become a decent law-abiding citizen, but with all his baggage that is far from easy. His salvation comes in the form of learning to appreciate whisky, encouraged by his Payback Supervisor Harry. The film is funny, and the characters are very likeable, although there is a scene with a victim of Robbie’s previous self in a Restorative Justice meeting that leaves you in no doubt of the damage which he has inflicted in the past. However, the film works well, there is a great cameo role for Roger Allam, and it finishes with The Proclaimers’ 500 Miles – what’s not to like?

Another Year

Mike Leigh’s 2010 comedy-drama, Another Time, shows a year in the marriage of Tom and Jerry, played by Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen. The marriage is a very happy one, which serves to highlight just how unfulfilled and unhappy all their friends seem to be. And whilst alcohol plays a significant part in all their lives, for some it becomes a vicious cycle: the more unhappy they are, the more they drink, the unhappier they seem to become. As for Tom and Jerry, they seem as chilled and easy going as it is possible to be – the perfect friends to have; but when they sense betrayal, especially when it concerns their family, they are both quick to defend those they love. As with most Leigh films, this is a film about details, the tiny nuances which make up everyday life. A joy to watch.

Last Orders

This 2001 drama, written and directed by Fred Schepisi, is based on the 1996 Booker prize-winning novel by Graham Swift. Much of the film is set in and around the Coach and Horses, a South London pub frequented by recently-deceased local butcher Jack Dodds, played by Michael Caine. Jack’s last orders were to have his ashes scattered in Margate. His son and his drinking mates set off from the Coach and Horses heading for Margate to carry out his wishes, and Jack’s life-story is told in flash-back whilst they travel through darkest Kent, with one or two necessary stops by the wayside. The excellent cast, which includes Tom Courtenay, Bob Hoskins, David Hemmings, Ray Winstone and Helen Mirren do justice to Graham Swift’s fine novel … almost! Well worth the effort.

Whisky Galore!

This 1949 Ealing Comedy, directed by Alexander Mackendrick, was adapted from the 1947 novel by Compton Mackenzie, who co-wrote the screenplay with Angus MacPhail. Interestingly, both Mackenzie and MacPhail were English, and Mackendrick was born in the United States, however he relocated to Scotland at just eight years old to live with his grandfather, so at least there is some Scottish blood involved in this most Scottish of films. The story relates to the shipwreck of a cargo vessel on the shores of the small (fictional) Hebridean island of Todday, and the local community’s efforts first at salvaging the cargo of whisky and secondly at hiding their ill-gotten gains from HM Customs and Excise. James Robertson Justice appears as the island’s doctor and there is an interesting early role for a 25-year-old Gordon Jackson. This film was missed from my original post, and I watched it at the recommendation of ‘Whiskey Nut’ (see comments below) – it is a lot of fun and is well worthy of its place in the Honourable Mentions.

So having turned my original idea of a Top 7 into a Top 3 and a Bit for my Food post, I have now turned my drink post into two posts – I guess that double-vision is a natural result of all that drinking.

And the rest…

I must give a special mention to a film with a drinking title, that is not really about drinking, as such: 35 Shots of Rum. Claire Denis’s 2008 drama is a lovely slow burn about a close father-daughter relationship, where the mother died many years previously. They live in an apartment building alongside an old flame of the father and a young man who has a somewhat complicated romantic attachment to the daughter. I cannot add any detail about the plot without spoiling it – you will just have to watch it for yourselves. So why am I mentioning it here? Simply because the 35 shots of rum in the title relates to a drinking ritual (although possibly one which the father has invented himself), and drinking rituals, another example being a yard of ale, can be very important in some cultures, sometimes as rites of passage and sometimes, as here, to mark special occasions. Also, I have to mention it, because it is a brilliant film!

So, what else did I watch/rewatch in reaching my list? The following films were also considered, but were ultimately the vin ordinaire of the bunch:
- From the Vine – an unfunny comedy, instantly forgettable
- Uncorked (2009) – clichéd romantic nonsense – requires a strong stomach
- Uncorked (2020) – much better than the 2009 vintage – the only similarity is the name, but still rather formulaic
- Withnail and I – a cult classic I know, but really, there just isn’t enough ‘body’
I had an interesting week, and now feel a bit hungover, but that was only to be expected. I will be back in a fortnight with the darker side of drinking – my Top 3 films about alcoholism.

I am sure I have missed films on booze, so if you have anything you think I should watch or that may deserve a place in the “Top 3 and a Few More” please let me know. I will endeavour to find them and watch them.
REVIEW: When Autumn Falls ★★★★☆

March 30, 2025
Yesterday I went to see Francois Ozon’s latest film When Autumn Falls, which was released in the UK a week last Friday. I had seen the film before, at the London Film Festival in October, however five months have past since then, so I felt it was worth another viewing.

I first came across Ozon with Frantz, strongly recommended by Mark Kermode, and since then he has become one of my favourite directors – I have seen all his subsequent work and tracked down virtually all of his earlier films on DVD. He has been criticised for not having a consistent style, but to me that is one of his strengths – he rarely fails to both surprise and delight. Sometimes I think Ozon makes films which emulate and celebrate those of other film-makers he admires, consider 8 Women as his Jacques Demy film. To me, When Autumn Falls feels like a Claude Chabrol plot as realised by Eric Rohmer – praise indeed!

The film tells the story of two lifelong friends, Michelle and Marie-Claude, enjoying their peaceful retirement in a quaint Burgundy village, far-removed from Paris where, in another lifetime, they were somewhat unconventional ‘work-colleagues’. Michelle loves her quiet routine, though looks forward to the visits of her young grandson, Lucas. However, her relationship with Lucas’s mother, her only daughter Valérie, leaves much to be desired and when Michelle accidentally hospitalises Valérie, having picked the wrong mushrooms, that relationship is stretched beyond breaking point.

At about this time Marie-Claude’s only son Vincent is released from prison for a crime which is never disclosed to us and Michelle helps him out by offering to pay him for working in her garden.

Michelle grieves for the loss of her relationship with her grandson; Vincent is grateful to her and wants to help; Marie-Claude looks on with a sense of foreboding. The stage is set, but I cannot reveal anything further without spoiling this beautifully-crafted plot.

What I love about the film, in addition to the story we are told, is the details it keeps to itself – basically the who knows what and when. This is never quite revealed to us, and in particular, we leave the cinema wondering just how much Michelle knew and/or suspected.

Ozon, who not only directs but wrote and produced the film, has brought together a cast who he previously used in supporting roles in By the Grace of God in 2019. In occupying the role of Michelle, Hélène Vincent gives the performance of a lifetime: a masterclass in understatement; and Josiane Balasko is just right in the supporting role of her friend Marie-Claude. Between the two of them, they have over one hundred years of filmmaking experience. Pierre Lottin as Vincent adds an air of the unknown to this quietly smouldering thriller – why was he in prison and just what is he capable of?

I whole-heartedly recommend this film. I very much enjoyed spending time with these fascinating characters, with their long-buried secret, rather disreputable, pasts and I love films that leave me wondering what really happened.

Incidentally, I am sixty-five years old today, and so might be considered to be entering my own Autumn years; indeed, just a few weeks ago I wrote a poem entitled Autumn. In case anyone is interested, here it is:
```
Autumn

It is not the things we did together that I shall miss, 
     but the things we never got around to doing
Not the places that we visited en famille, 
     but the places we shall never get to share
Not trekking through Paris, family in tow, 
     but taking morning coffee à deux, at a little tabac in a Gallic village square
Not beer and crisps on the Yorkshire riviera, 
     but leisurely chiantis on the terrace as the sun sets over Capri
Yes, I shall still do New England in the fall, 
     but with some or other friend; it will not be as imagined
No, it’s not the moments burned into my memory that I shall miss, 
     but our hopes and dreams, as they slowly ebb away
```
My ‘Top 3 and a Bit’ films about Food

March 17, 2025
My original title was: My ‘Top 3 and a Bit’ films for which food forms an integral part of the plot – more accurate, but not so catchy!

I decided to make my first post a list. I intend to make two lists each month of my favourite films on specific themes, in addition to commenting on the new films that I see. And I thought films about food would be a good start – that has to be easy, right?

So here I am a week on, having watched/rewatched a veritable smorgasbord of food-related films, trying to determine what ‘about food’ means. Because virtually none of my chosen films are about food: they are about love and family and loneliness and a host of other things. So my definition is films for which food is an integral part of the film.

Having managed that, now for my Top 7. Why seven? Well, everyone does five, or ten or twenty or fifty… I just wanted to be different. But actually, it was not that easy. First, I watched a lot more than seven really good films, and I found discounting some of them just too difficult to do. Also I wanted to recommend more than seven films because I want you to watch them – they are really, really good!

So, here are my Top 3 films for which food is an integral part of the plot together with a small group of films you really should watch just as soon as you possibly can!

(1)        The Taste of Things (The Pot-au-Feu)

In this 2023 French historical romantic drama, live-in cook Eugénie prepares the meals for gourmand Dodin Bouffant (and his friends) on his country estate in the late nineteenth century. Both middle-aged, they are also in a long-term romantic relationship, but maintain separate bedrooms: he has repeatedly proposed marriage, but she declines, preferring what they have. Then following a health scare, she agrees to marry him in what he refers to as ‘the autumn of their lives’. The simple joy they find in developing new recipes and preparations together makes this gentle ever-so-slow-burning film whatever is the film equivalent of unputdownable, and the fact that the lovers are played by Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel, themselves once a couple, adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the film. It is described on Rotten Tomatoes as “an exquisite seven-course love story for the soul” – I can’t beat that! Please be warned – you will probably cry.

(2)        The Lunchbox

This 2013 drama, written and directed by Ritesh Batra, tells the story of Ila, a young housewife, who is seeking to bring some romance back into her marriage by cooking delicious lunches for her wayward husband. However, after a mix-up in the complex lunch delivery system in Mumbai (the dabbawalas), Ila’s lunch is delivered in error to Saajan, a middle-aged accountant approaching retirement, rather than to her husband. Each day, the error is repeated. Ila and Saajan begin to correspond through little notes passed via the lunchbox and gradually develop a friendship, sharing events and stories from their own lives. Finally they arrange to meet, however he loses confidence, at the last moment: she is so young, and he is ready for retirement. This is a beautiful, sad story told through the care she puts into preparing the lunches and the tenderness he puts into his notes.

(3)        Eat Drink Man Woman

This 1994 comedy-drama directed by Ang Lee had somehow passed me by. I discovered it only when researching for this list, however I have now purchased the whole Father Knows Best trilogy on DVD, so I will be able to revisit it over and over again. The film follows the members of the Zhu family as they navigate the challenges of love, life and family whilst they undergo the transition from tradition to modernity in Taiwan. Every Sunday evening, semi-retired chef and widower Zhu prepares a sumptuous feast for his three daughters, a tradition which he had assumed would continue in perpetuity. But his daughters’ own personal lives intervene.

And the Honourable Mentions …

The following six films are those that came very, very close to making the top 3, but did not quite get there, listed in alphabetical order:

Babette’s Feast

This 1987 Danish drama film directed by Gabriel Axel is based on a short story by Karen Blixen, better known perhaps for Out of Africa. One day Babette Hersant, a French refugee, turns up at the home of two elderly and pious Protestant sisters in a remote Jutland village. She brings a recommendation as a housekeeper from an old suitor of one of the sisters. They cannot afford to employ her, but she volunteers to work for free and for fourteen years she serves them and the strange community over which they preside. Then Babette comes into some money and decides to show her appreciation to the sisters by paying for and preparing a ‘real French dinner’ on their deceased father’s hundredth birthday. However, the earthly pleasures Babette prepares clash with the harsh protestant values of the congregation.

Big Night

Big Night (1995) was co-directed by Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci (who also co-wrote and stars in the film). The film follows two Italian immigrant brothers, Primo (the chef) and Secondo (the businessman), as they host an evening of free food at their restaurant in a last-ditch attempt to gain publicity and build up patronage before their bank loans fall due for repayment and foreclosure beckons. Primo serves up the finest feast I will never get to partake in however the brothers have been double-crossed by their friend and business competitor Pascal (played magnificently by Ian Holm), and things do not go according to plan. The final scene of this film is quite brilliant.

The Cakemaker

This is the debut film of Israeli writer/director Ofir Raul Graizer. Thomas, a young German baker, learning of the death of his Israeli male lover Oren, who he sees only periodically when he visits Germany on business, decides to travel to Israel as part of his grieving process. Here he discovers, and forges a relationship with, Oren’s widow and young son. Told with intelligence and restraint, the story is beautifully crafted, and the characters are wonderfully drawn.

Couscous (The Secret of the Grain)

A delightful film made in 2007 by Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche (perhaps better known for his Palm D’Or winning Blue is the Warmest Colour). Set in the French Mediterranean city of Sete, it tells the story of Slimane Beiji, the head of a Franco-Arabic family who, having lost his job at a local shipyard, sets out to leave a legacy for his large and disparate family by converting a dilapidated boat into a family restaurant which will specialise in his ex-wife’s ‘famous’ fish couscous.

Like Water for Chocolate

This 1992 romantic-drama film, directed by Alfonso Arau, is all about tradition and gender roles in a Mexican family. It takes as its starting point the not uncommon tradition which forbids the youngest daughter from marrying, so that she will be free to take care of her mother as she ages. However, this youngest daughter, Tita, makes the mistake of falling in love, and so begins a complex series of events, both comic and tragic, involving all the members of the de la Garza family. The film, which uses magic-realism to great effect, is wonderfully punctuated by Tita’s mouthwatering cooking.

Tampopo

This 1985 Japanese comedy film, written and directed by Juzo Itami, is a kind of love letter to the Japanese tradition of Ramen. A truck driver, Gorō, calls in at Tampopo’s roadside ramen noodle shop for his dinner. There is an altercation with another customer, and he steps in and helps Tampopo. He stays the night and next morning, as she gives him his breakfast, she asks him what he thinks of her Ramen. It is not good. The rest of the film is, effectively, the search for the perfect Ramen, with many side-nods to the importance of food in Japanese culture thrown in.

And so my Top 7 was stretched and shrunk and pulled this way and that, but finally became my definitive list. Except…

And the rest…

What about the films that were wonderful but couldn’t be included because although on the face of it food was going to be key, it turned out to be not quite key enough. A big round of applause please for Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet (1993) and My Favourite Cake (2024) co-directed by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha. I heartily recommend both of these films.

And finally what else did I watch/rewatch in reaching my list? These films were also considered and were generally very enjoyable fodder, although fell just a little short of my à la carte selection:
- The Chef
- Chocolat
- The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover
- Eating Raoul
- Fried Green Tomatoes (at the Whistle Stop Café)
- The Green Butchers
- The Hundred-Foot Journey
- Mid-August Lunch
- My Dinner with Andre
- Ratatouille
- Soursweet
Just to say, I had a great week, still a bit hungry, but that is only to be expected. I now need a rest from food films; however I will be back in a fortnight with films about drink and drinking – it seems a sensible place to go.

I am sure I have missed films, so if you have anything you think I should watch or that may deserve a place in the “Top 3 and a Few More” please let me know. As I think you will probably have gathered, whatever you recommend I will endeavour to find and watch.