Forty Shades of Blue.

Trophy Wife.

Not only did Dina Korzun's ground breaking performance come to my notice in Last Resort (2000) but also to the independent Memphis born film director Ira Sachs. So impressed was he with the Chekhov Moscow Arts Theatre stage actress that he cast her in the leading role of Laura in his character driven drama Forty Shades of Blue (2005) Korzun plays the young and beautiful Russian trophy wife of the much older Alan James (Rip Torn in an energetically powered performance).  James is a highflying Memphis record producer who drinks and parties with the upper echelons of the local music scene and regularly plays away from home. Laura does not seem to object to Alan’s philandering, appearing quite content, living in their spacious mansion and looking after their young son Sam. This seemingly fragile arrangement is shattered with the arrival of Alan James’s estranged adult son Michael (Darren Burrows) who has not seen his father for five years.

Philandering Husband.

Ira Sachs took six years to complete his script creating the outline of the story based on his father who divorced his mother when his was eight years old, although the characters in the movie are completely different. Compelled by a female narrative the central focus is on Korzun’s character, a female out of step with her own society, an outsider. The perfectly cast Russian actress imparts a memorizing presence on screen adding a texture to the role and carrying the film, the wrong actress in this part would has ruined the ambiance of the movie. She was nominated for Best Female Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards and the film went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Estranged Son.

Cold Souls.

If you’re an admirer of the Michel Gondry/Charlie Kaufman surrealist school of film making ( Being John Malkovich 1999, External Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2004 or maybe The Science of Sleep 2006) then your going to love Cold Souls (2009) The French born writer and director Sophie Barthes debut feature film has a very bizarre story line.  After intense rehearsals for the Chekhov's play “Uncle Vanya,” Paul is emotionally drained. He stumbles upon an advert in a magazine for a ‘Soul Storage’ clinic, a private lab offering relief from the burden of your soul. Paul decides to get his soul extracted, only to discover that it has the shape and size of a chickpea. After a failed attempt to live and act without his soul, he rents one from an alleged Russian poet that guides him into a strange dreamlike world. Things take an unexpected turn when he decides to get his original soul back and he meets Nina, a Russian who illegally transports souls from her homeland to America.

It get’s even weirder when you discover that Paul Giamatti (Win Win 2011) is playing himself!! Also involved in this oddball story are David Strathairn as Doctor Flinstein who runs the ‘Soul Storage’ clinic, Emily Watson (Oranges and Sunshine 2010) plays Pauls despairing wife Claire, and the lovely Russian actress Dina Korzun, who came to my notice in the Pawel Pawlikowski asylum drama Last Resort (2000), plays the soul mule Nina.

Russian actress Dina Korzun. 

Quite wrongly the film projects itself as a laugh out loud comedy, which unquestionably it is not. The humour, when it occurs, I would describe as unconventional and dark, more intriguing than entertaining. One for the Kaufman enthusiasts I think?

Last Resort

Tanya, Artiom and Alfie.

Following last weeks Love Film disaster Amer (2009) this weeks was back on track. Following his debut film for Shane Meadows Room for Romeo Brass (1999) Paddy Considine appeared in Last Resort (2000), which proved to be the first of two films for Polish born director Pawel Pawlikowski, the second was My Summer of Love (2004) which explored the relationship between two young women from different classes and backgrounds Considine played working class Mona’s (Natalie Press) brother who became a born again Christian while serving a prison term. The film also starred Emily Blunt as the upper middle class Tamsin and went on to win the Alexandra Korda Award for Best British Film at the BAFTA’s.

In Last Resort twenty something Tanya (Dina Korzun) arrives from Moscow with her 10 year-old son Artiom (Artiom Strelnikov) expecting to be met by her English fiancé to start a new life. When he does not turn up they claim political asylum and are confined to a holding area called Stonehaven, a bleak seaside resort, while the authorities consider their fate. Meanwhile Artyom strikes up a friendship with the manager of a local amusement arcade Alfie (Considine) who also gets cheap cigarettes and phone cards for the immigrants. Tanya, attempting to raise money to escape to confines of Stonehaven, gets a job making titillating movies for a local porn king played be the real life pornographer known as Ben Dover. She soon realises that this employment is not for her. To make matters even more complicated a loving relationship gradually develops between Tanya and Alfie.

Pawlikowski film is much more than a sad love story that’s destined to go nowhere. It deals with the thorny issue of asylum in Britain from the migrants prospective. The rather unwelcome look of a midwinter seaside resort, the grey sky and the grey cold looking sea emphasise the hopelessness of the migrant’s situation. Filmed in Margate in the winter months the movie was not originally intended for a theatrical release and was shown on TV but did get a limited run in a small amount of art-house cinemas. All three main leads greatly enhance the enjoyment of the story by making their characters totally believable. Another British movie I would highly recommend for those that enjoy uncompromising realism.