The Colony (Colonia).

Although it stated at the beginning of the film that it was based on real life events my initial thoughts while watching the movie was that what I was experiencing on screen was too far fetched to be true.  Then during the end credits we were shown actual pictures of Colonia Dignidad followed by director and co writer Florian Gallenberger stepping up to explain that this place really did exist and was still in existence today, admittedly a milder version designed to attract tourist’s and was now called Villa Baviera.

 

Colonia Dignidad.

The movie is based on the real life events that took place in the Colony which was run from 1961 by an ex Nazi preacher Paul Schafer who was attributed by his followers to have spoken the word of God (credibly portrayed by Michael Nyqvist who played Mikael Blomkvist in the Dragon Trilogy) and located in a remote part of Chile. At the time it had 300 residents mainly Germans who were said to be fundamentalist Christians with men and women living mainly segregated lives behind high barbed wire fences, watch towers and spotlights. This authoritarian regime ran all elements of its member’s lives, even regulating the birth of children who as it turned out were open to sexual abuse; later Schafer was actually charged with sexual abuse of children and sent to prison. Other criminal activities were discovered which included weapon sales and money laundering.

 

Paul Schafer with some of his victims.

When Pinochet’s Chilean coup, backed by the USA, deposed the democratic President of Chile Salvador Allende in 1973 it put the country under military rule for years. Reprisals followed against Allende supporters and this is where Gallenbergers film begins. A German activist Daniel  (Daniel Bruhl) who has been campaigning for Allende is joined in Chile by his air stewardess girlfriend Lena (Emma Watson) for a four-day break between Lufthansa flights. After her arrival the coup takes place and both Daniel and Lena get arrested. While Lena gets released Daniel is identified as the artist behind pro Allende posters and is taken away.

The results of Pinochet's military coup.

We find out that Paul Schafer is collaborated with the military regime and provides a warren of tunnels under the remote pseudo religious camp were dissidents of the regime are tortured and killed. It’s in these tunnels that Daniel finds himself. Daniels brain function is affected following a long period of horrendous torture sessions and he’s put to work in the camps smithy carrying out menial tasks. Lena finds out where he is held and decides to join the commune with the intention of rescuing her brain dead boyfriend.  

 

Michael Nyqvist with Emma Watson.

The main purpose of this well-intentioned film is to expose the terrible goings on that took place at Colonia Dignidad both above and below ground and the 40 year long complicity and protection offered by Chile’s German Embassy, remembering that the right wing German state had close ties with Pinochet and his brutal regime, believing that they were supporting the fight against communism. To this end the director of The Colony (2015) succeeds and gives us the added bonus of an exciting and fast moving thriller. As usual in a lot of modern films the villain gets the best lines and for this reason the movie is always better when Michael Nyqvist is on screen.

 

The arrest of Schafer. 

Florian Gallenberger told the audience at the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival where the film was receiving its UK premiere that he knew about the existence of the camp since he was a child in Germany but it was not until much later that he realised the true nature of the colony. It took him four years to research the story and during that time won the trust of the camps inmates also getting sight of the archives that were finally released well after the 30-year limit. He also explained that he did have a nightmare raising the money for the film because of its subject matter. Also casting initially gave him problems but he did not explain. Asked why he did not go into more detail about the child abuse that was associated with Schafer and other members of the commune he said that he deliberately underplayed both the torture scenes and the child abuse because he wanted to open the film to a wider audience and not put people off of seeing it. The 30000-acre colony is now open as a tourist attraction but this legitimacy can hide its legacy. The original members now in there ninety’s have been offered treatment but most have refused and do not want to leave the commune. Its problematic for those who were the young abused who still have great problems living in normal society. Most of the younger members who avoided the abuse have managed to live normal lives. Even after Schafer left others took over and carried on his cruel and abusive teachings.  Not surprisingly Chile still struggles with this episode of its history.

Noah.

Darren Aronofsky has lost his touch! After two consecutively excellent movies, The Wrestler (2008) and Black Swan (2010) we have gone back to the ridiculousness of his confusing romantic drama The Fountain (2006). His latest is deemed a ‘biblical blockbuster’ and is allegedly said to be based on the story of Noah’s Ark found in Genesis chapters 6-9 in which God is said to have saved Noah, his wife, children and a male and female animal of each species from a great flood by instructing him to build a giant ark.

Filmed in Southern Island, Noah (2014) stars Russell Crowe who mopes his way through the role of Noah.  You remember Crowe he was the one who played the all singing Inspector Javert in the dreadful movie adaptation of Les Miserables (2012) well he’s not much better in the role of Gods emissary on earth, barely braking out of that earnest no nonsense look he always seems to carry around no matter what role he plays even when he’s talking to the sky! Jennifer Connelly is Naameh, Noah’s spouse. She has worked with Aronofsky before in Requiem for a Dream (2000). Emma Watson, who I really enjoyed in The Bling Ring last year, plays the daughter in law, Ila while Douglas Booth, who was Pip in the three-part BBC TV adaptation of Charles Dickens Great Expectations, is her husband and the eldest son of Noah. Anthony Hopkins, who can’t seem to land a decent role lately, plays Methuselah with Hackney born Raymond Winstone as the villain of the piece, King Tubal-Cain, who was much better as Jack Regan in last years The Sweeney. The acting is dire, hammy and completely non-convincing with everybody playing them selves - the blame for which must rest firmly with the director.    

So this is what a Tottenham supporter looks like these days?

This sanctimonious nonsense tries to teach us the meaning of life but fails miserable. Certainly not on par with biblical epics like The Ten Commandments (1956) or Ben Hur (1959) although the Aronofsky’s budget was in the region of $125 million - so there’s no real excuse. And where did the stone monsters come from, don’t remember them at Bible study! If you’re really are feeling in need of a little religion may I suggest Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) your find it far more fulfilling than this modern meaningless gobbledygook.

 

The version from my childhood!

I read in the paper this morning that Aronofsky’s film has spawned a series of novel’s including a graphic one, correct me if I’m wrong but I thought that Noah was already based on a book?   

The Bling Ring

Another season of the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club started on Monday night with the showing of Sofia Coppola's latest film The Bling Ring (2013). As with her previous movie Somewhere (2010) she not only directed but also wrote and co-produced it as well. Our host for the evening was Film Club regular Alec Barclay and he started his introduction by telling us a little about the director’s background. 42 year old Coppola is the only daughter of Francis Ford Coppola who was responsible for directing such films as The Godfather Trilogy (1972-1990), The Conversation (1974) and of course one of the top three films of all time (my words not Alec's) Apocalypse Now (1979). She started her career by appearing as an infant in seven of her father’s films. Her directing career started with the 1999 movie The Virgin Suicides, a film that tells of events surrounding the suicides of five sisters in an upper middle class suburb of Detroit during the 1970's. Her second feature was the award winning Lost in Translation (2003), which starred Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray as an ill matched couple that form a touching non-sexual relationship after a chance meeting in a Tokyo hotel. She's followed this with Marie Antoinette (2006), loosely based on the life of the French Queen leading up to the French Revolution; it won an Academy Award for Costume Design.

The Bling Ring is based on a magazine article that appeared in Vanity Fare, which in turn is based on the true story of a group of seven young people who between October 2008 and August 2009 burgled the Los Angles homes of several celebrities including Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom and Megan Fox. The value of the stolen designer goods and cash was said to be in excess of 3 million dollars. In fact a great deal of the stolen property belonged to the American Heiress and socialite Paris Hilton who along with Kirsten Dunst appear in the movie as themselves. These spoilt rich kids track the activities of the celebrities on line and enter their homes whilst they’re away. Its Sofia Coppola's knowledge involving the creed of celebrity culture and its effect on impressionable youngsters that makes this film a stylish take on the world of the imagined importance of material wealth and instant communication.

Girls have just got to have fun....

You really want to dislike these shallow middle class Hollywood burglars with their know all attitude and swagger, but because the film does not moralise or criticise the ring members or there ultra opulent victims, and because of the rich vain of humour that runs right through out the films 90 minutes running time you can’t help but have a sneaking regard for these young people and as Chris Fujiwara said in his programme notes for the 2013 EIFF 'Coppola creates a detailed and casually convincing portrait of the social milieu of the informal gang, enabling us to view them as they see themselves: not as rebels or daring outlaws, but as normal kids who are merely acting out to the fullest the premises of their media driven, consumerist culture by taking literally the fantasy of imaginary intimacy with celebrities'

 

....but how things can change.

It certainly would be remiss of me not to mention the young cast who are excellent especially Katie Chang who plays the so called leader of the gang Rebecca Ahn, Israel Broussard as the only male member of the gang Marc Hall and not forgetting Emma Watson (Nicki Moore) who has grown from the 11 year old Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (2001) via her part as Lucy the young dresser in My Week With Marilyn (2011) into a very beautiful and talented 23 year old actress. As our host said to me afterwards he was not expecting a great deal from this film, but what we did get was an enjoyable and amusing slice of the modern day, middle class American life style.