Pride.

Normally I don't like feel good movies but this one is a bit special in the same way that Made in Dagenham (2010) and Brassed Off (1996) were a bit special. It's the serious subject matter that these film’s tackle that makes them interesting with an added sense of British  humour, something none of us could get through life without, not these days anyway! Nigel Cole's film dramatises the Ford sewing machine strike of 1968 that finally lead to Equal Pay Act 1970 for women. Where as Pride (2014) directed by Matthew Warchus (who is soon to replace Kevin Spacey as creative director at London's Old Vic Theatre) deal's with two important subjects that could easily become a neglected part of our social history. Firstly lesbian and gay men's rights at a time when AIDS was becoming a key political issue, with little appetite from the authorities to fight the decease and secondly the UK miners strike which took place in 1984/85 which was the most significant and far reaching strike in the twentieth century, one which still has repercussions to this day and not just in the impoverished and run down mining community's that were left to rot but the far-reaching effects it is still having on the British working class, entirely imposed by rich elitist Westminster and their rich elitist backers in the City of London, incidentally this was the reason why a lot of people living in Scotland voted YES in the independence referendum – a fairer and more equal society.

 

LGSM get ready to join the march. 

The benefit concert.

This amazing story is based on true events that happened 30 years ago. It gives us an account of the alliance between the pioneering London fundraising group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM), and the people of a mining village in the Dulais valley in Wales who like the rest of the brave mining community were mainly reliant on outside help to enable them to continue with the strike and not starve! LGSM raised £11000 by December 1984 and also enough money to provide a much needed mini-bus for the miners to use. We witness the last gasp of popular socialism and the unfortunate rise of AIDS but what is really significant about this story is the coming together of two groups of people that one would think, on the surface would not be possible. An inspiring film that makes you feel that mankind could sort out their differences and then you read the newspaper and realise that perhaps this is just wishful thinking?

 

Jonathan Blake survives AIDs for 30 years! 

But Mark Aston died at 26!!

This film continues the long line of great British films that used to be called ‘social problem’ movies. As well as being entertaining it’s a political film about solidarity as the Welsh miners Union leader Dai Donovan (Paddy Considine who gives a commendable performance) meets Gay activist Mark Ashton^[1] (Ben Schneter) and they realise how much each of these different groups had in common. Both groups had a common enemy, both groups had been demonised by the right wing press and both groups had engaged in a fight with the political establishment to support what should be their rights, whether it is be your sexual preferences or to live and work in a community that should be safeguarded against outside interests, importing coal and now fracking to keep an austerity hit country warm. To be honest the gays seem to have done better over the years^[2] although amongst certain sections of an ignorant public and certain right wing political party's homophobia is still rife.  

 

Without LGSM and other support groups....

....the miners would have been starved out by the authorities.

Along with its great 80's soundtrack, which includes tracks by Billy Bragg, The Smiths, Frankie, Bronski Beat and The Pet Shop Boys reminding you that this period produced some great pop music, we have a terrific screenplay by actor turned playwright Stephen Beresford. Both 'sides' are well supported by some very well known actors. Besides Considine we have great performances from the magnificent Imelda Staunton, who played Hefina who died during the making of the film, and the magically understated Bill Nighy, along with Jessica Gunning, who plays Sian James who is now Labour MP for Swansea East, as well as Ben Schneter we have a wonderfully camp Dominic West who plays Jonathan Blake who was one of the first to be diagnosed with AIDS in the UK but has recently celebrated his 65th birthday, George MacKay, Joseph Gilgun and Andrew Scot supporting gay rights. Anyone with a social conscience and enjoys a dam good, well made film, will find Pride irresistible – but take a hanky! 

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^[1]The co-founder of LGSM Mark Aston died in 1987 of an AIDS related illness. He was 26 years old.

^[2] In1985 the Labour Party conference there was a motion to support equal rights for gay men and lesbians. It was carried due to a block vote from the miners Union that ultimately lead to civil partnerships and marriages. From being a criminal offence to legitimacy in a relative short time – for the UK! 

Sunshine on Leith.

It’s extremely rare that I switch off a DVD or leave a cinema screening before the end of a film, but with Sunshine on Leith (2013) I was more than happy to make an exception. I managed to struggle through the first 25 minutes before I gave up on this ridiculously embarrassing piece of gobbledygook!

I would question the ambiguity of film? Perhaps director Dexter Fletcher (Wild Bill 2012) and writer Stephen Greenhorn, who adapted his own musical, meant it as a light hearted ‘feel good’, what ever that means, comedy musical? Sorry it didn’t work, no one could sing and it wasn’t funny! Perhaps it was meant to be a magical realist fairy tale, but nothing in it spouted wings! Watching the first 25 minutes was a twee, cringe worthy experience, which I doubt improved much as the film went on. It may have hoodwinked most people but I would be happy to walk 500 miles to avoid ever seeing any part of this film again………

How I Live Now.

Described as a young adult novel, Meg Rosoff’s first book was published in 2004 and won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the American Printz Award for young-adult literature. Adapted into a film and directed by Kevin Macdonald How I Live Now (2013) is set in the near-future, 15 year old Elizabeth (Saoirse Ronan), who prefers the name Daisy, is an anorexic American teenager from New York sent to stay with Aunt Penn and her three cousins Edmond (George MacKay), Isaac (Tom Holland) and Piper (Harley Bird), on a remote farm in the English countryside during the beginnings of hostilities between the authorities and what are portrayed as well armed terrorists. Initially withdrawn, homesick and feeling alienated, she soon begins to warm to her new family and surroundings, striking up a romantic fascination for her 14 year old cousin Edmund. But on the fringes of their idyllic summer days are tense news reports of an escalating conflict in Europe. As the UK falls into a violent, chaotic military state, Daisy and her extended family finds themselves fighting for survival.  

The visitor from America.

What we get in fact is a group of bohemian children who live a privileged life in a large old farmhouse until a nuclear bomb explodes in London that puts the mockers on their seemingly happy and contented childhood. The film itself is reputed to be more graphic than Rosoff’s book and along with the incestuous love affair between two blood cousins would not seem suitable for young children, or am I being moralistic? Except for Saoirse Ronan’s very believable portrayal of Daisy it’s a slightly disappointing outing for Macdonald with the films trailer looking more exciting than the actual movie.

With cousin Edmond.

For Those in Peril.

Director:	Paul Wright
Country:	UK
Year:	2013
Running Time:	93 mins
Principle Cast:	George MacKay	Aaron
	Kate Dickie	Cathy
	Nichola Burley	Jane
	Michael Smiley	Jane’s Father

with Kate Dickie.

Following the screening of director Paul Wright’s impressive debut feature film I asked him if when he wrote the story he had based any of it on the Solway Harvester disaster, a scallop dredger from Kirkcudbright Scotland which sank off the coast of the Isle of Man in heavy storms on 11^th January 2000 loosing all seven crew members, as his film had brought this terrible tragedy to mind. His answer was that he knew nothing about this sinking until after he had completed the screenplay. Later when talking to Kate Dickie, who comes from Newton Stewart, she told me it was her that brought the similarity between the real life incident and the movie to Wrights attention.

Kate with Michael Smiley and a young 'Aaron'

Working along side his brother Michael on the fishing boats had been a dream for Aaron. When he finally gets his wish tragedy strikes and the boat claims the lives of five crewmembers including his brother. The only survivor is Aaron who cannot remember what happened. He refuses to believe that his brother and the other crew members are really dead and that some how the local legend of the sea monster, that was told to him as a young boy, has come true and if he can get back to sea he can, some how, rescue them and bring them back alive.  Gradually the village folk turn against him, their animosity towards him driving him to feel ever more alienated. Suffocated by his own anguish the only support he gets is from his mother Cathy and Michaels grieving girlfriend Jane.

 

The talented Paul Wright.

Originally premiering at this year’s Cannes Film Festival its UK premiere was the first time most of the cast had actually seen the film. Also in attendance were families from the coastal fishing village of Gourdon in Aberdeenshire where the film was shot on location.

The fractured narrative and the various film formats added to the darkness that’s always involved with the mysteries and the power of the sea.  Images, the director stated, was his main motivation along with the story’s he heard as a child living by the sea. Mention must be made of the films young lead George MacKay whose portrayal of the anguish and torment that possesses Aaron is powerfully believable and the backbone of Wrights movie with Kate Dickie giving her normal assured performance as Aarons mother. The premiere's Q&A finished with a promise by Scotsman Paul Wright that he was more than happy to continue to make films in his home country but with the skill he has shown in making this movie the attraction could be there for him to move further a field to practice his filmmaking trade: lets hope he doesn’t.