Review of 2011: Cinema - 10 Favourite Films

Cinema-memories, 2011.

Texan boyhoods. Parisian chimes at midnight. The end of the world. On Tresco, a painter gives a young man some advice. In Nottingham, two men meet, connect, part. Somewhere, a wedding reception goes off the rails. A Roman hero in a Balkan warzone. A novel use for Viagra. A mother and daughter ponder loss. A portly fantasist turns up in someone else’s fantasy. A waiting cat gets philosophical. Christophe Honoré goes p*rn... Not quite a movie year to match 2010 for me, but, even so, 2011 offered some incredible cinema experiences, many of which demonstrated film’s ability to encompass the domestic and the cosmic as no other medium can do.

                                                         Archipelago (dir. Joanna Hogg)

Joanna Hogg’s tender, funny chamber drama, revealing under-the-surface tensions (and under-the-surface love) on a family vacation on Tresco, makes most other films this year look heavy-handed and overstated by comparison. Beautiful work from Tom Hiddleston, Kate Fahy, Lydia Leonard, Amy Lloyd and Christopher Baker. 

                                                      Weekend (dir. Andrew Haigh)

Well, here’s a surprise. Not one but two British films ending up on this year’s list... Haigh’s Nottingham-set boy-meets-boy romance is perfectly scaled, beautifully observed, brilliantly acted, and convincing in every detail.

                                                        Elena (dir. Andrei Zvyagintsev)

Oh boy. My favourite film of the London Film Festival was Zvyagintsev’s third movie, a subtle but bracingly intense drama that explores issues of class and social status in contemporary Russia through the story of the title character (brilliantly played by Nadezhda Markina). A Tarkovsky for those of us who (confession time) have been bored by the majority of Tarkovsky’s work, Zvyagintsev is as philosophically-inclined as his illustrious predecessor but without losing sight of character and narrative. Elena is a marvellously assured piece of filmmaking: beautifully rhythmed, rich in unstressed details, and full of spaces for the viewer’s involvement and interpretation.

                                                    A Separation (dir. Asghar Farhadi)

I don’t know anyone who didn’t love and admire this: Farhadi’s splendid, complex drama seemed to grip and involve everyone who saw it.

                                                    Melancholia (dir. Lars von Trier)

It’s the end of the world as they know it. And Lars’s characters feel… well, not exactly fine.

                                                 The Tree of Life (dir. Terrence Malick)

As divisive as Melancholia. Sure, “that” montage is a chore and the ending is soggy. But Malick’s grandiose evolution opus has the most wonderful stretches: piercingly evocative scenes of Texan boyhood that strike many deep chords. Risible at its most expansive, then, but singularly affecting at its most personal and intimate.

                                                     Midnight in Paris (dir. Woody Allen)

At which American audiences finally renewed their love affair with Woody Allen. And indeed who could resist Allen’s completely charming and generous-spirited time-travel comedy, a valentine to Paris, an ode to living in the now? Less loved, Allen’s You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (2010), which got its British release this year, also had its merits, not least a lovely performance from Gemma Jones.

                                                        The Future (dir. Miranda July)

A few very inventive and original movies emerged from America this year, among them Miranda July’s The Future, a brilliant meditation on time that made me exclaim an enthralled “Wow!” on two occasions.

                                                        Dark Horse (dir. Todd Solondz)

Toning down the misanthropy and the shock value a notch Todd Solondz produced in Dark Horse one of his most involving and resonant films, one that follows its portly protagonist into a very odd liaison - and even further into his even odder fantasy life. Its narration unravelling as the protagonist unravels, Dark Horse takes some wonderfully confounding twists and turns as it progresses, culminating in an exquisite  final shot. And few filmmakers can match Solondz’s unnerving ability to capture the sheer awkwardness of human interaction on screen.

Coriolanus (dir. Ralph Fiennes)

And wait a minute ... is that a third British film on the list? Ralph Fiennes’s big ‘n’ brawny adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s least-loved tragedies doesn’t win many points for subtlety. But it's still one of the most memorable Shakespeare adaptations seen in many a year.

Honourable mentions and 2010 releases not seen until this year:

Rabbit Hole, True Grit, Homme Au Bain, A Simple Life, Li and the Poet, Bal, A Screaming Man, Farewell, Animal Kingdom, Potiche 



Film Review: A Separation (Farhadi, 2011)

I haven't yet got around to seeing Asghar Farhadi's highly regarded previous feature About Elly, despite the fact that it's included on what's probably my favourite Top 10 Films 0f 2010 list. But I can certainly recommend the Iranian director’s latest film, A Separation, which won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, the first Iranian film to do so. It’s a rich and empathetic drama that explores the break-up of a professional 30-something couple, Nader (Peyman Moaadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami). In contrast with the intellectual and abstract (sometimes frustratingly so) tone that some of us have come to associate with Iranian cinema, there’s a direct, emotional quality to A Separation that’s rather bracing. It’s an approach that’s evident from the very first scene of the movie, a front-on shot from the perspective of the Judge that finds Simin explaining that she wants to leave Iran because she doesn’t want their daughter Termed (Sarina Farhadi) growing up “in these circumstances.” Nader disagrees, not least because he has an Alzheimer’s-afflicted father (Ali-Asghar Shahbazi) who requires constant care. The conflict between the pair is thus succinctly established, but the situation is unresolved, legally speaking, prompting Simin to move back in with her mother and Nader to hire a young woman, Razieh (Sareh Bayat), to take care of his father while he’s at work.

But, as it turns out, A Separation isn’t "just" a tale of marital break-up angst. Instead, as the drama pivots upon an unfortunate incident that brings Razieh’s volatile husband Hodjat (Shahab Hosseini) into the fray, the scope of the movie broadens. And we come to recognise that the title refers not simply to the separation of the couple but to a range of societal schisms - between classes, between generations, and between genders, more broadly.

However, these conflicts and tensions, with their wider resonances, are explored through an intense focus upon the everyday domestic experiences of the characters. Although the movie is a little sketchy on Nader and Simin’s work lives, and perhaps errs a little in keeping Simin off-screen for too long after the first few scenes, it’s mostly beautifully structured, with a strong sense of pace and rhythm and occasional well-judged ellipses that leave plenty of space for the audience’s involvement and interpretation.

Indeed, what’s particularly stimulating about A Separation is the way in which it never allows the viewer to come to a final judgement on its characters. As in life, our perspective on the people here keeps shifting. At first, Bayat’s pregnant, put-upon Razieh seems the most sympathetic figure, but that impression goes through a few changes before her heart-wrenching final scene. The movie pulls you in every direction in terms of how you respond to its protagonists, and it looks at everyone with a tender yet unsentimental regard. The portrait of Nader’s father is one of the most realistic representations of an Alzheimer’s sufferer that I’ve seen on screen, and Farhadi’s work with the two young actresses who play Nader and Simin’s and Razieh’s daughters is also peerless. Noteworthy, too, is the film’s seriousness: it’s not po-faced in tone, but Farhadi doesn’t try to sweeten the pill with humour and his engagement with moral issues is entirely refreshing. Great movie, and an antidote to Bridesmaids (2011), for those who feel the need of one.