Le Chignon D'Olga

The film pulls on the silent tradition, in a way which reflects the silent comedy of Jacques Tati. The irony and humour about both love and death are handled in ways which are similar to Divine Intervention: crucially that the falling in love occurs in entire silence and the tragedy of suffering is shown but not discussed. The plot itself is simple and yet satisfying. There was no big wow for me, and the psychology of the drama was relatively unsurprising. It was handled though with deftness and a low budget which left me comfortable with the end product. I'll give it a six and a half out of ten.

Divine Intervention

This film by the Palestinian Elia Suleiman won awards at Cannes and elsewhere in 2002 and has a stylistic flavour reminiscent of Jacques Tati's films 'Monsieur Hulot's Holiday' and 'Mon Oncle'. The semi-silent ironic social commentary come comedy masterpiece has a sense of timelessness by being part of a century old genre grouping. It does go beyond that though by translating the genre into something which moves closer to the humour of political Brechtian darkness. There are several scenes which are masterpieces in their own right, such as the first sequence at the 'Al Ram Checkpoint', the discarded apricot stone, the lost tourist trying to find their way round Jerusalem and the neighbourly 'behaviours' of Nazareth which serve as a commentary on all the tensions of Palestine and Israel. The only things it had in common with 'Talk to Her' was another snake killing episode and hospital scene: otherwise they are worlds apart. This gets a cautious eight and a half, due to the weakness of the ninja scene in the final fifth of the film and because I don't know how funny this is across ethnic and political divides.

Talk to Her

Bullfighting and an inappropriate relationship between a nurse and a patient in a persistent vegetative state do not sound like a promising combination, neither do they sound like watchable subjects in their own right. Unsurprisingly neither of these central plot themes were mentioned in the blurb I read prior to renting it, since it would probably have put off ninety per cent of viewers. That being said it is a tragic, disturbing and puzzling film which has several surprises, many challenges for the viewer and leaves many plot questions unanswered from start to finish. I was left wondering again about some of those major questions such as 'what is truth' and 'what is justice' and 'what is life' and 'what is a price worth paying' and 'is taking up ballet or bullfighting ever a good idea'. I won't say anymore though in case others want to watch it without spoilers. I haven't made my mind up about the script and plot, and neither am I sure how I'm left feeling. Because it was skillfully unsettling I will give it a six, though I cannot tell whether the score would go up or down over time as yet.

Mrs Pat

A play about Mrs Patrick Campbell, pivoting around her troubled friendship with George Bernard Shaw. She played the first Eliza in his play Pygmallion. She was a troubled and hurting soul who had the sharpest of wits, and has given the modern world many entertaining one-liners such as 'Does it really matter what these affectionate people do— so long as they don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses!'.

As a premiered production though the whole thing was rather weary, drawn out and not helped by the soft toy pekinese which was attempting to be the same hound spanning a whole lifetime's work ... that was weird. The arrival of George Bernard Shaw and then their vitriolic argument near the end of the play, where they came to some kind of accommodation of one another, was of some interest but only that. I think a two and a half out of ten.