Three and Out

My interest in this British movie came about because it starred Mackenzie Crook who I had enjoyed in the brilliant BBC TV series Detectorists where he plays opposite Toby Jones as one of two metal detecting friends Andy. This award winning comedy has been a great joy to watch and all 3 series are highly recommended.

In Three and Out (2008) Crook plays Paul Callow a dreamer who is a driver on the London Underground system. He wants to move to Scotland (who in there right mind would not want to) and right a novel. But the sticking point is a lack of funds. After he has two fatal accidents, while driving his train, in less than a month he finds out that if he can manage a further fatal accident within the same month London Transport will give him early retirement and 10 years salary, which would allow him to live out his dream All he needs to do is find a volunteer to jump in front of his train!

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I enjoyed the rather black humour of this twisted story, but I realise that I am in the minority. The critic hated it and ASLEF the train drivers union organised a protest at the movies premiere accusing the films plot of being ‘insulting and foolish’. They pointed out, quite rightly, that any train driver involved in fatal incidents could be traumatised by it.  Although I can see where the Union are coming from, I don’t agree with the critics.   

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! 

Hitchcock and The Girl.

Alfred Hitchcock.

Sacha Gervasi’s attempt at a biopic of the life of the Leytonstone’s best-known son Hitchcock (2012) can be seen from two perspectives. Firstly a movie about movie making in Hollywood in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s at a transitional time in the studio’s history and to a certain extent this succeeds. Secondly, as a study of a perverted weirdo, which the film hints at, but generally glosses over. The plot is partly based on Stephen Rebello’s non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The movie covers the making of this 1960’s film from when Hitchcock acquired the rights to Robert Bloch’s gothic horror novel about the true-life killer and grave robber Ed Gein, up until the films release and non-critical success.   It exposes that while Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) Stage Fright (1950) and Strangers on the Train (1951). 

is lusting after his latest blonde actress, Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson) his wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren) is engaged in a flirtatious relationship with a younger man, the writer Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston) who had worked on two of Hitchcock’s previous scripts

Hitchcock gambled his reputation and re mortgaged his home to make Psycho and he no doubt made stars of some of his leading actresses but at what cost to their integrity? Gervasi’s film only hints at his perversity where we see Hitchcock spying on Vera Miles (Jessica Biel) via a peephole cut through the wall into her dressing room, dictating what clothes each actress should wear and the hair styles they should have not just on the set but at any time while under contract and God forbid if they get pregnant.

Janet Leigh.

I do agree with film critic Peter Bradshaw that this Hollywood movie was completely upstaged by the BBC/HBO TV play The Girl (2012) shown just before last Christmas. This was based on a 1983 book written by Donald Spoto about Tippi Hedren’s revelations that she was sexually harassed and abused when she worked under Hitchcock’s direction on two films, The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). The play also provides superior performances from its lead actors namely Toby Jones as Hitchcock and Imelda Staunton as Alma, better suited to the role than Helen Mirren. Sienna Miller gives a very satisfying performance as Hedren.

 

The out of favour Vera Miles.

The Girl’s most dramatics scene has Tippi Hedren cowing on an attic set while live birds are thrown at her ‘shitting and pecking’. The scene, which only lasts two minutes in the finished movie, was supposed to be filmed in one day with mechanical birds. Instead it took five days with live birds until one of them pecked Hedren’s left eye leaving a deep cut on the lower lid and she broke down and had to be taken home under sedation to receive medical care. Another example of the sadistic and cruel treatment of women from a man who said ‘Blondes make the best victims. They’re like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints’. Hedren was quoted as saying ‘I had always heard that his idea was to take a women, usually a blonde and break her apart’. During Marnie he actually asked her for sexual favours telling her she would never work in the film industry again if she did not grant his disgusting wishes, which obviously she did not.

 

Tippi Hedren with Hitchcock.

Our culture has a history of excusing or ignoring the excesses of famous men for example Jimmy Saville whose abuse, both mental and physical, of young girls over many years was allegedly ignored by the BBC.  Hitchcock hints that he was incapable of sex, admitting that ‘he could not get it up’ which begs the question was his attraction to blonde leading ladies a sick fantasist dream?  This ‘walrus dressed like a man’, his words not mine, makes your skin crawl. A bully who quoted indecent sexual rhymes that passed as humour, who was happy to punish his actresses if they did not curtail to his wishes and each of them treated like his own personnel possession. Not the most pleasant man to work with.

Jessie Matthews appeared in the only musical Hitchcock directed, Waltzes from Vienna (1934), and we are told in Michael Thornton’s biography Jessie Matthews that even at this early stage of Hitchcocks career he was one of highest paid directors in British films and was already accustomed to being the ‘star of the show’ and could not stand competition especially from the films young star who was at that stage ‘Britain’s first film goddess’. He was taken to task at the time by The Times newspaper for treating Jessie as ‘a not too important part of the films design’ She summed him up as a domineering young man who knew nothing about musicals and said that she and her female co-star Fay Compton, were unnerved by him because of his sarcasm and his well known reputation as a practical joker. Due to Hitchcock’s lack lustre direction and his famous distrust of actors the film was a flop, panned by the critics and has since become regarded as the worst film in his career.

As I said previously not the most pleasant man to work with.

The Awakening

Ghost Hunter Florence Cathcart.

A ghostly child with a twisted Scream like face, a haunted house, some very spooky characters and a ghost hunter with a deep and shocking secret are the ingredients of The Awakening (2011) which sets out its intent in the opening credits with the following statement: After the massive loss of life in World War 1 many drew comfort from a belief in the supernatural. Its 1921 and Robert Mallory a schoolmaster at Rookford Boarding School for Boys, situated in the wilds of Cumbria, is sent to engage Ms Florence Cathcart a ghost hunter who exposes fake spiritualists and who is deemed somewhat of an authority on the subject. This follows the case of a pupil who is said to have been scared to death by the ghostly apparition of young boy. Florence suspects that one or more of the pupils has engineered a deception that has ended in tragic circumstances, but with all the best stories involving the supernatural, all is not what it seems or is it?

This supernatural melodrama is co-written by Stephan Volk, whose work includes the screenplay for Ken Russell’s Gothic (1986), and Nick Murphy who’s directorial debut this is. The movie is a cross between Alejandro Amenabars The Others (2001), which starred Nicole Kidman who won a BAFTA for Best Actress for her performance, and the Spanish-Mexican horror film The Orphanage (2007) that was produced by Guillermo del Toro.

Its not what it seems - or is it?

It’s hard to believe that this is Rebecca Hall’s, Roedean School head girl and daughter of theatre and film director Peter Hall, first starring role after appearing in nine previous feature films! She does a very convincing job as the obviously troubled Florence Cathcart and has more than adequate support from Dominic West as Robert Mallory and Imelda Staunton as the Rookford’s matron.

There are some genuinely creepy moments with the cinematography presenting a cold and unfriendly image that’s absolutely essential to narrate a good ghost story. But with some contrived narrative ploys, for instance when Florence Cathcart drops as obviously cherished monographed cigarette case and attempts to pick up the ciggie’s before the silver case and therefore loosing the object at the bottom of a lake, and a combination of plot points that really don’t lead any where and are not always explained satisfactorily, tend to spoil this otherwise enjoyably ghostly thriller.