Still Life.

Director:	Uberto Pasolini
Country:	UK
Year:	2013
Running Time:	87mins
Principle Cast:	Eddie Marsan	John May
	Joanne Froggatt	Kelly Stoke
	Karen Drury	Mary
	Andrew Buchan	Council Manager
	Ciaran McIntyre	Jumbo
	Neil D’Souza	Shakthi

John May has worked for the council for 22 years. His job is to find any remaining relatives or friends of those who have died alone. When there are no next of kin and based on what evidence that Mr May can find at the deceased home he has to decide what type of service these unfortunates should have, burial or cremation and make the arrangements including a short eulogy and what type of music to play. If he is unable to find anyone to attend the funeral service he will go himself. John May loves his work but then one morning his manager tells him that the authority has to cut back so he is being made redundant. Meticulous and organised to the last he asks for extra time to finish his final case. William Stokes lay undiscovered for 40 days in a flat neighbouring John May’s surrounded by little more than empty bottles. Mr May finds a photo album in the flat into which has been carefully placed pictures of what may or maybe not the dead mans daughter? Intrigued he starts his detective work that gradually reveals the life and secrets of William Stokes.

John May stops for a chat.

Starring one of Britain's best character actors Eddie Marsan (my own favourite was Scott the cabby in Mike Leigh’s 2008 Happy Go Lucky) who deservedly won The Award for Best Performance in a British Film at the 2014 EIFF for this role along side the lovely Joanne Froggatt. Directed, written and produced by Luchino Visconti's nephew Uberto Pasolini it was set and shot in London.

The dedicated John May as portrayed by one of the UK's finest character actors.  

As it was only a month since my own mother had died I cannot judge if this movie affected me more than it would other people, but it certainly affected me in away I could not have imagined. Having never really grieved, as my mother and I were not very close, during the film I got very emotional! This is a story about loneliness and death and how when some people pass away there is sadly no one to mourn or attend their funeral service - fortunately this was not the case with my mother but in this uncaring time we live in I am reliably informed that it is not an unusual occurrence. A very brave film that exposes the loneliness of living in a big city and one that looks at death to give the true meaning of life. See also Dreams of a Life (2011)

Filth.

Its not often that a film goes on general release in Scotland before it does in the rest of the UK, at least not before Independence next September, but that’s what happened with Filth (2013) a British crime comedy-drama written and directed by Jon S Baird and based on Irvine Welsh’s third novel of the same name published in 1998. This is Baird’s second feature film after 2008’s Cass the true story of a former football hooligan who became a writer. I suppose that this new film is also about a thug but this time he is a member of the police force!

The nice policeman teaches the wee man some sign language. 

The problems associated with self loathing seems to appear in many of the movies I have watched recently and raises its psychiatric head once more in this every day story of a bigoted, corrupt and substance abusing alcoholic Edinburgh based Scottish Detective, a sort of over the top John Rebus who hates himself to such a degree that he makes nearly every body’s life a misery he comes into contact with.

Obviously part of the investigatiom!

This terrific piece of story telling is the bastard offspring of a three way cinematic shag between Clockwork Orange (1971), Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant (1992) and Trainspotting (1996) and comprises some of the cream of British acting including Joanne Froggatt, Shirley Henderson, Kate Dickie, Eddie Marsan, Jim Broadbent, Martin Compston, Garry Lewis and John Sessions to name but a few. But even in this exhorted company James McAvoy stands out as the bipolar junkie, Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson who when asked by his superior why he joined the police force he replied ‘polices oppression’ ‘did you want to stamp it out from the inside?’ ‘No’ replies Robertson ‘I wanted to be part of it’ which really sums up the character.  

Now there's a man who's not always in control?

It’s a movie that will no doubt divide audiences. As Peter Bradshaw remarked in his critique it amounts to Acid Rain on Leith, but thankfully there’s not a sign of a dance routine although we do get a song from David Soul!

In Our Name.

“Dedicated to the thousands of service men and women incarcerated in British prisons after returning to a civilian life” is a quote at the end credits that gives the basic premise for this well written and well-acted film In Our Name (2010). Suzy, a private in the British army, returns home from a tour of active duty in Iraq. She not only struggles to readjust to normal civilian life away from the war zone but finds it impossible to go back to having a sexual relationship with her squaddie husband Mark and to rebuild a bond with their daughter Cass.

Joanne Froggatt, who won the Most Promising Newcomer at the British Independent Film Awards for her feature film debut role as Suzy, displays quite traumatically the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder, which as the story progresses we learn stems from an incident in Iraq which involves the death of a young girl about the same age as her daughter. The character refuses to acknowledge that a problem exists, one that deteriorates greatly when she discovers hidden photos of her husband posing with Iraqi corpses.

Obviously war can brutalise soldiers and many will return home unable to cope. While they are still in the forces it’s the military that responsible for treatment. Once they leave and return to civilian life then it’s down to the NHS who have been accused of dumping veterans on service charities like Combat Stress. The veterans struggle to find help which in not always available. In turn this lack of support can lead to homelessness, family breakdown, prison and even suicide. It’s no wonder that UK governments have been accused of neglecting our soldiers. In America it has been estimated that just fewer than 50% of the homeless are Vietnam veterans! Can’t understand why this meaningful film has not had a wider release, It can’t possible have been for political reasons?  Director Brian Welsh has certainly not presented us with an easy watch, but one that adequately justifies the movies tagline ‘the real battle is coming home’!