THE TRAITOR
A few more releases are opening in cinemas this week including Marco Bellocchio’s compelling, multi award winning epic drama based on the true story of the Cosa Nostra which begins in the early 1980’s and spans over two decades.
The story opens in Palermo when a brutal, heroin war breaks out between Sicilian mafia bosses, which forces Tommaso Buscetta, also known as Favino, (Pierfrancesco Favino) to flee to Brazil with his third wife Maria Christina (Maria Fernanda Candido) and small children. His two grown up sons from a previous marriage and brother are executed in Palermo, while Favino is arrested in Rio by the Brazilian police who extradite him back to Italy…
Bellocchio, the director of VINCERE, another Italian epic based on true events, demonstrates his flair and magnificent vison in grandiose style. The opening at a lavish party where all the Casa Nostra members are present, before the execution begins, brings to mind another mafia classic – Francis Ford Copolla’s THE GODFATHER. “I am an honourable man not a Mafioso, but a member of the Casa Nostra. I joined in order to help the poor,” Favino proudly confesses to Judge Giovanni Falcone – an act which immediately marks him as a traitor amongst the other Casa Nostra members.
Give yourself a treat and see this magnificent epic on the big screen!
STAGE MOTHER
Jacki Weaver, the wonderful Australian, who found fame in Hollywood in her later years thanks to her Oscar nominated performance in ANIMAL KINGDOM, excels here as Maybelline, a deeply conservative church choir director, who leaves her dull life in Texas behind after she inherits her late son’s drag club in San Francisco. Maybelline is like fish out of water when she first arrives at this flamboyant enterprise and feels deeply regretful for having cut off her son from her life.
Thom Fitzgerald’s likable film is worth seeing just for Weaver’s remarkable performance alone and its colourful characters – very much in the style of Ryan Murthy’s television series POSE – will certainly put a smile on your face.
SAINT FRANCES
Written by Kelly O’ Sullivan, who also plays Bridget, a free spirited 34-year-old torn whether she should have an abortion following an unwanted pregnancy. Meanwhile, she gets a job as a nanny looking after Frances (Ramona Edith-Williams), a precocious six year old daughter of a gay couple…
O’ Sullivan has written a gift of a part for herself and her smart dialogue and fully fleshed characters sparkle with wit and originality. The actors are excellent but it is little Edith -Williams who steals the show as the eponymous heroine!
THE RIFLEMAN
This biggest success of all time at the Latvian box-office adapted from Aleksandrs Grins’ book “Blizzard of Souls” based on his own experiences and banned by the Soviets. Director Dzintars Dreibergs brings vividly to life the harrowing story of a 17-year-old farm boy who volunteers for the Latvian army along with his former marksman father during World War 1. The action and horror of the trenches are seen through the innocent eyes of the young rifleman forced to mature under these horrific circumstances…
Superb production values with a cast of thousands along and a myriad of volunteer background artists, who are all credited at the end. An important film about a dark part of history!
DIGITAL DOWNLOADS & DVD RELEASES
HOW TO BUILD A GIRL
Notorious scene stealer Beanie Feldstein, from LADY BIRD and BOOKSMART, shines in this amicable film based on Caitlin Moran’s novel. Moran also wrote the screenplay and sets the action in 1993 on a council estate in Wolverhampton.
Sixteen-year-old Johanna Morrigan is determined to leave her working class roots behind aspiring to become a popular music journalist but first she decides to change her hair colour to red and her name to Dolly Wilde…
American Feldstein is very persuasive as a Midlands teenager hungry for success and brings a lovely energy to her portrayal under Coky Giedroyc’s astute direction. The plot may lack surprises but overall it is executed with such gusto that it is almost impossible to resist. Feldstein is in good company supported by an eclectic British cast that includes Paddy Considine, Joanna Scanlan, Frank Dillane and Emma Thompson. (Amazon Prime Video)
ALICE
Writer/director Josephine Mackerras makes an impressive feature film debut with this story of Alice (Emilie Piponnier), a Parisian young woman living the perfect life with her attractive husband Francois (Martin Swabey) and small son. But her golden world collapses when she discovers that her “perfect” husband has spent all their money on prostitutes leaving their mortgage unpaid for over a year. And like BELLE DE JOUR Alice enters the world of prostitutes but out of necessity rather than boredom…
A gripping film with a terrific Piponnier as the gutsy protagonist! (Curzon Home Cinema, BFI Player, Amazon Prime)
COINCOIN AND THE EXTRA-HUMANS
Bruno Dumont revisits the setting and characters he originally created for P’TIT QUINQUIN five years ago as a four part TV series. In this new 4-parter Quinquin is now a grown up with a different nickname CoinCoin. His friends are still the same while Eve, his childhood sweetheart now goes out with someone else. Life in this sleepy part of Cote D’Opale, not far from the jungle of Calais, continues at its regular rhythm, until extra-terrestrial gunk begins to fall from the sky. The inimitable duo Captain Van Der Weyden and his loyal sidekick Carpentier set out to investigate…
It is great to see these adorable characters return in this delightful film. A comic take on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS executed in a surreal, fashion and worth discovering! (Digital Release by New Wave Films)
3 BELA LUGOSI FILMS: The star of DRACULA plays three unhinged doctors in these thirties’ adaptations from Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, THE BLACK CAT and THE RAVEN – a collection of unmissable thrills and horror from Universal with Boris Karloff, as Lugosi’ nemesis in the last two. (Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment)
THE PORTUGUESE WOMAN: Rita Azevedo Gomez’s elegant period drama follows the story of the eponymous heroine on a remote cattle in Northern Italy and as she awaits patiently for her husband Lord Van Ketten to return from the war…Its theatrical, Brechtian staging is filmed in exquisite and perfectly framed compositions, with mostly static camera shots and with hardly any close ups. A mesmerising experience! (MUBI)
Any feedback is welcome: georgesavvides@hotmail.co.uk