The Face of an Angel.

And yet another movie with a promising synopsis that did not come off! Maybe its me but I thought I was about to see a feature film based on the real-life story of American Amanda Knox who along with her boyfriend were accused of the murder of 21 year old Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy in 2007. How wrong can you be?

Directed by Michael Winterbottom The Face of an Angel (2014) is said to be inspired by the book Angel Face that in its self was drawn from crime coverage by Newsweek/Daily Beast writer Barbie Latza Nadeau, who in the film is Simone Ford (Kate Beckinsale) but the murder and the trial form only the periphery of our story. Winterbottom’s movie mainly concerns a film director called Thomas Lang (Daniel Bruhl) who is asked to develop a script for a movie to be based on the trial of US student Jessica Fuller and her Italian boyfriend who are accused of murdering an English student Elizabeth Pryce. But what the film is really about is Lang’s crisis of conscience that involves him taking vast quantities of cocaine and having some dodgy nightmares – but to be honest with you I’m not really sure? All I am sure about is this confusing and pretentious nonsense is another movie that’s not worth your time.

The Look of Love.

Paul Raymond.

Soho is an area in London’s West End that is quite nostalgic for me. In the early summer of 1965 exams had just finished and talk was of leaving school and getting out into the world to earn your living, in a climate of full employment. But before friends parted company for what was probable the last time it was decided to arrange a day out in what was the most sleaziest part of our capital city, an area that attracted allsorts even a ‘no it all’ group of schoolboys. In this truly vibrant area you would encounter young, and not so young, women hanging out of windows and doorway’s attempting to entice a randy group of young schoolboys to part with their pocket money, these wonderful ladies were kindly offering to do what they could to improve our minimal sexual experiences! Needless to say these kind offers were not taken up. But after being offered a group discount, well it was the middle of the afternoon; it was decided to visit what was fondly known in the parlance of the day as a strip joint.  It consisted of a small stage, some rows of uncomfortable chairs, mainly frequented by some dubious looking gentleman in cloth caps and long overcoats, and a small unlicensed tea and coffee bar at the rear where we sat with the girls while they waited to take there turn on the stage and remove a good portion of their skimpy garments to what seemed an endless recording of Roger Millers King of the Road. Incidentally you will not be surprised to learn that we had a great time, not because we got to look at naked ladies but it was the terrific banter we had with the girls who turned out to be not much older than we were. When the first stripper returned to the stage most of us took our leave, not wanting too much of a good thing! In December of the same year on a night out in Leicester Square, for a few drinks and something to eat, I met my future wife.

Jean dances with her ex-husband at Debbie's wedding.

It was this part of London that made Liverpool born Geoffrey Anthony Quinn, better known as Paul Raymond, a multi-millionaire and according to Michael Winterbottom latest movie The Look of Love (2013) he had a great deal of fun accumulating a vast fortune believed to be in the region of 650 million pounds. The film begins around 1958, when Raymond opened his first private members club, Raymond Revuebar Strip Club, in a former ballroom in Soho’s Walkers Court and ends with a family tragedy in 1992.  It tackles his marriage breakdown to Jean Bradley and his subsequent relationship with the infamous British sex symbol Fiona Richmond. We learn how he built up his glamour empire, Paul Raymond Publications and his Soho real estate portfolio. But the overriding subject of the film is Raymond’s profoundly loving relationship with his daughter Debbie to the detriment of a relationship with either his two sons. Winterbottom shows this in some detail and with great affection.

Paul snorts out his business empire with his daughter.

It’s a funny and highly entertaining movie that does not leave a lot to the imagination but does it inoffensively. Reflecting an era that had oodles of style it gets the detail just right and has a great soundtrack that echo’s the sounds of the day. Although Raymond was a complete sod, Steve Coogan’s wonderful portrayal made him into a human character, someone you help having a sneaking admiration for. As well as Coogan the film has a great cast including Anna Friel as Jean, Imogen Poots as Debbie and Tamsin Egerton as Fiona Richmond.

Fiona Richmond.

Trishna.

British born director Michael Winterbottom is famous for working across a great deal of genres. Looking down his film credits its quite surprising (1) how many films he has actually made (2) the diversity and variety of these films. His latest movie is his third adaptation of a Thomas Hardy novel. The first was Jude (1996) based on Jude the Obscure; he followed this with The Claim (2000), which transposed The Mayor of Casterbridge to the 1860’s Californian gold rush. The third film is Trishna (2011) adapted from Tess of the d’Urbervilles and set in modern contempory India rather than Hardy’s familiar stomping ground, Wessex.

Will this passionate lover affair survive? 

Trishna (Slumdog Millionaires Freida Pinto) is a young girl from an impoverished rural background in Rajasthan who meets a privileged well educated young British businessman Jay Singh, played by Riz Ahmed who was much more effective in Chris Morris’s Four Lions (2010), returning to India to work in one of his fathers many hotel businesses. When an accident destroys Trishna’s family livelihood she goes to work for Jay and the pair fall in love.  Because they are defying traditional Indian convention they run away to Mumbai, one of the only places in India they can live out a normal relationship. But of course you just know it will all end in tears?

Freida pinto plays Trishna.........

....with Jay Singh portrayed by Riz Ahmed.

This in fact is one of the problems with Winterbottom’s movie, it’s narrative is so obvious you just know well in advance what’s about to happen. Combine that with a weak storyline that does not really exploit the story’s big question: can a relationship be based on beauty alone or will it always descend from superficial love into a potentially destructive sexual relationship, Hardy obviously thought so, unconvincing acting and its need of a stronger female lead sums up the difficulty I had with this movie. On the plus side its an ideal setting for the adaptation, contrasting the two entirely differing worlds of traditional and modern contempory India. Marcel Zyskind’s photography is excellent giving great visual imaginary to the whole thing and the soundtrack especially written for the film does add to the narrative. But a somewhat disappointing outing for Winterbottom.

A Mighty Heart.

Daniel Pearl awaiting execution. 

I found British director Michael Winterbottom's detailed account of the search for Daniel Pearl, a kidnapped Wall Street journalist, a little one sided. A Mighty Heart (2007) was adapted from his wife’s memoirs of the same name. Supporters of Omar Sheikh abducted Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002; a British born militant who it's alleged was recruited by the British intelligence agency (MI6). He is also alleged to have links with the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Pearl was taken by a political grouping calling itself The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty who slit the journalist's throat and then beheaded him, cutting his body into ten pieces before burying it.

Mariane Pearl.

The only highlight of this predictable movie is the wonderful performance from Angelina Jolie as the French freelance journalist and author Mariane Pearl although it's a little short of her award winning performance given in Clint Eastwood's heart rendering Changeling (2008). The cinematography literally leaves you in the dark; the story lacks tension and has a set of characters that are impossible to warm too. But the most disappointing aspect is that the we are not given substantial reasons for the kidnapping other than the fact that Daniel Pearl was Jewish and is suspected of being a Mossad agent. Overall a very disappointing movie.

The Claim

Peter Mullan and Nastassja Kinski.

Michael Winterbottom is a director well known for working across a multiplicity of genres. His second attempt at a Thomas Hardy adaptation, following the 1996 movie Jude based on the novel Jude the Obscure, was a British western, yes that’s what I said, that rarest of animals a British western! Of course there have been previous films that matched this genre but to be fair not that many even if you count Carry on Cowboy (1965). The only other one that’s comes immediately to mind is the truly bizarre The Singer Not The Song (1961) which I saw in the confines of the vast Angel Odeon in Islington on its release (well it does star Dirk Bogarde!). The Claim (2000) can probably be described as an epic; it was shot at the Fortress Mountain ski resort in Kananaskis County, Alberta, Canada, which is located in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies were the average temperature is  -13.2c but can dip as low as -50c. In fact the cold climate made the making of the film an ordeal and even the director was said to have suffered from frostbite.

Its 1867 and we are in prospecting town of Kingdom Come where it always appears to be deep in the depths of winter. This desolate place is owned and run by an Irish immigrant Daniel Dillion (our very own Peter Mullan) who amassed a fortune during the Gold Rush of 1849. Dillion desperately wants the railroad to come through his town and to that end invites the Central Pacific Railroad surveyor Dalglish (Wes Bentley) to conduct a survey of the surrounding area. Also arriving in town are two mysterious women (Nastassja Kinski and Sarah Polley) whose appearance is obviously coursing Dillion some torment, we are taken back some twenty years to discover the reason.

Kingdom Come.

The film boasts some breath taking scenery photographed by Alwin Kuchler, known for his work on, amongst others, the two Lynne Ramsay films Ratcatcher (1998) and Morvern Callar (2002) and the recent Joe Wright thriller Hanna (2010). The screenplay was down to regular Winterbottom collaborator Frank Cottrell Boyce and Michael Nyman best known for his multi-platinum soundtrack album for Jane Campion’s 1993 award winning movie The Piano composed the original score but unfortunately the film was not a financial success. More of an interesting curiosity than a great movie, very visual with Mullan giving his normal convincing performance which is not necessarily the case with some of the other members of the cast.

The Killer Inside Me

I’m quite sure that Stieg Larsson would not have liked Michael Winterbottoms first fully US-shot film The Killer Inside Me (2010) as Stieg was adamantly opposed to violence against women and Winterbottoms film has courted adverse publicity and a certain amount of outrage for that very reason. John Curran and Winterbottom faithfully adapt the movie from Jim Thompson’s 1952 novel with great period detail in the classic Hollywood noir tradition. The story, set in the curious small town world of Central City in the West Texas of the 1950’s, unfolds through the eyes of Lou Ford. Ford appears to be a clean cut, slow talking, polite and an understanding deputy sheriff but under the surface our lawman is a man menaced by a secret sickness with a taste for extreme violence and rough sex, the man is also a rapist and a killer.

Lover or killer?

The violence in this movie steers the film away from being an entertaining yarn into something very dark and disturbing. The aggression is primarily against women with one particular beating the worst single act of screen brutality I’ve seen since Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible (2002). Our own British Board of Film Classification, when giving the film a 18 certificate stated ‘Although several scenes are very strong and impactful with the potential to cause offence to some viewers, the scenes in question do not endorse or eroticise sexual assault or pose a credible harm risk to viewers of 18 and over’ The violent behaviour is certainly far from being titillating. You pay’s your money, you takes your choice.