02 Saturday Mar 2013
Director: Peter Webber
Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Matthew Fox, Kaori Momoi
Plot: As the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII, Gen. Fellers is tasked with deciding if Emperor Hirohito will be hanged as a war criminal. Influencing his ruling is his quest to find Aya, an exchange student he met years earlier in the U.S.
Release Dates: 8th March (USA), TBC (UK)
20 Sunday May 2012
Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, David Thewlis
Plot: Albert Narracott and his horse Joey are separated by the onset of the First World War, but he resolves to be reunited with his best friend by enlisting in the army.
How do you produce a film about a bloody war that is aimed at a family audience? The central theme of War Horse is a story of friendship between a farm hand and his horse, but it doesn’t take long for the action to be transferred to the muddy, WWI battlefields of Northern Europe. But Steven Spielberg has done just this – by bringing Michael Morpurgo’s 1982 novel of the same name to the big screen, he has managed to craft a harrowing plot to appeal to all ages.
In 1912, Albert Narracott (Irvine) lives in the Devon countryside with his parents Rose (Watson) and Ted (Peter Mullan), who are struggling to pay the rent on their farm. Albert witnesses the birth of a foal and marvels as it grows into a fine animal. A couple of years later, Ted buys the colt, to plough their fields, at an auction for an inflated price much to the dismay of Rose, who is concerned that the rent will not be paid in time. The Narracott’s landlord Mr. Lyons (Thewlis) turns up at the farm, demanding payment, but is promised by Ted that, having only paid part of the rent, he will get the lower field ploughed despite the fact it is very stony. Albert names the horse Joey and trains him various commands so that he is able to plough the field. After a few unsuccessful attempts, it beings to rain, softening the ground enough for the field to be ploughed, but the resultant crop is wiped out by a storm.
In August 1914, Britain declares war on Germany and the call goes out for horses to be sold to the cavalry, along with men to join the army. Ted decides to sell Joey to the military to pay the rent without telling Albert, who rushes into the local village to stop him. Captain James Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston), a young cavalry officer pays for Joey at a lower price than Ted needed before Albert can get there. He tries to enlist in the army, but is told by Nicholls that he is too young – instead he ties a lucky charm to Joey’s bridle and promises that they will be reunited. Nicholls and Joey are sent to France to take part in the opening skirmishes of the war. Joey becomes attached to Topthorn, a black horse who belongs to Major Jamie Stewart (Benedict Cumberbatch), Nicholls’ superior in apparently more ways than one. When a charge against the Germans goes horribly wrong, Joey and Topthorn fall into enemy hands and go on an adventure of their own, but will Joey ever return to the rolling hills of Devon and back to his master?
In any other director’s hands apart from Steven Spielberg, War Horse could have been an overly sentimental Hollywood slush-fest, but instead it’s both a wonderful depiction of a heartwarming story but also the heartbreaking situation faced by soldiers on both sides in the trenches. Aimed primarily at teenagers, the plot has enough substance to entertain a very wide audience indeed. Spielberg’s ability to crank up the romanticism of the proceedings, whether the action is in the relative comfort of the Devon countryside or in the deadly no-man’s-land of The Somme, is second to none – this is a master at work. You could say War Horse is an amalgamation of two of his best films – E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982) and Saving Private Ryan (1998) – the relationship between a boy and a non-human combined with visceral fight scenes harks back to memories of Spielberg firing on all cylinders.
Newcomer Jeremy Irvine is perfectly cast in the central role of Albert. Although he shares the screen with an illustrious roll-call including Peter Mullan, Emily Watson, Tom Hiddleston and Niels Arestrup, his performance sits very comfortably among his fellow co-stars – despite the fact he spends most of his scenes knee-deep in mud. In stark contrast to his poor showing in the drab affair that was The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Hiddleston’s Captain Nicholls is a much more convincing character than Freddie Page – and he does this in a fraction of the screen time. The cinematography is simply stunning. Janusz Kamiński, who has worked on every Spielberg film since Schindler’s List photographs with his usual aplomb, especially the final scene which features a gorgeous sunset. You can easily see why Kamiński is Spielberg’s tried and trusted right-hand man with the quality on display here.
War Horse isn’t perfect – some of the crucial characters all too fleetingly appear and disappear – but this is both entertaining and an absolute joy to watch. If Spielberg makes another war film, be sure to be first in the cinema queue.
Rating: 
04 Sunday Dec 2011
Tags
2010, Gilles Pacquet-Brenner, Kristin Scott Thomas, Mélusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup, Sarah's Key
Director: Gilles Pacquet-Brenner
Stars: Kristin Scott Thomas, Mélusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup
Plot: Whilst investigating The Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup in 1942, an American journalist in present-day Paris discovers a story involving a Jewish girl whose family was caught up in the horrifying events.
Kristin Scott Thomas has a varied filmography. Arguably her two most famous roles, that of Fiona in Four Weddings and Katharine Clifton in The English Patient, launched her into the consciousness of cinema-goers. What you may not know is that, despite her very English name and upbringing, from the age of 19 she has spent most of time living in Paris and has consequently become a regular staple of French cinema. I’ve Loved You So Long and Tell No One displayed her fluency, but also proved that there is room elsewhere for British actors and actresses outside their own country aside from Hollywood.
Sarah’s Key stars Scott Thomas as Julia Jarmond, an American journalist researching an article on the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup, which involved the mass eviction of Jews out of German-occupied Paris in 1942, decreed by the Nazis but carried out by the French police. The chronology jumps back and forth between Julia’s investigations and the story of Sarah Starzynski (Mélusine Mayance), a Jew whose family were torn asunder by the raids. Sarah’s family receives a visit from the police at their apartment and are told to leave immediately. Prior to being shepherded out of their home, Sarah manages to usher her brother Michel (Paul Mercier) into a closet in the living room and locks the door to prevent the police from taking him too.
The Starzynskis are sent to the Vélodrome d’Hiver, a cycling stadium where thousands of other Jews have been herded and made to wait in unsanitary conditions. Sarah reveals that she still has the key to the closet and becomes increasingly desperate to return to the apartment and save Michel. The family is split as they are eventually sent to different camps amid scenes of chaos – her parents are sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and she must try to escape from the Beaune-la-Rolande camp and return home. Meanwhile, in present-day France, Julia makes a series of shocking discoveries about what happened to Sarah and her brother, whilst also finding that their lives are intertwined more closely than she could ever have imagined.
Sarah’s Key, whilst not in the same league as Schindler’s List or Life is Beautiful, is a very poignant, moving and involving drama. Obviously it is Sarah’s story that will grab you the most as it is by far the most affecting – Mélusine Mayance is excellent in the title role and her emotional performance is finely balanced to include a loss of innocence but also a fine portrayal of the awareness that her character’s brother is first and foremost her chief concern. The atmosphere of war-torn France is beautifully imagined, especially the harrowing scenes in the camps, but the use of cinematography in the countryside is terrific.
Julia’s story is thought-provoking, but doesn’t pack the same punch as the 1940′s plot, but Kristin Scott Thomas holds this part of the film together very well. In less accomplished hands, the role of Julia may have been diluted to the point of corny, although Scott Thomas does well to speak French fluently while holding a decent American accent. Some critics have pointed to the present-day sub-plot almost as a diversion from the more interesting historical events – this is true to a certain extent, but such is the unavoidable contrast in style between the two timelines, that they actually complement one another.
There are better films about The Holocaust, but Sarah’s Key is well worth a watch if you want to learn more about a lesser-known and heart-breaking chapter in the history of the Second World War.
Rating: 
13 Tuesday Sep 2011
Tags
2008, Asa Butterfield, Boy, David Thewlis, Holocaust, Mark Herman, Pyjamas, Striped
Director: Mark Herman
Stars: Asa Butterfield, David Thewlis, David Friend
Plot: Set against the backdrop of Word War II, Bruno, the son of a concentration camp commandant, strikes up a friendship with a Jewish boy sitting on the other side of the garden fence.
If Schindler’s List is viewed as the definitive adult perspective of The Holocaust, then The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is its innocent equivalent. The vast majority of films devoted to showing the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps have, aside from Life is Beautiful, shown how grown-ups dealt with the realisation that their lives were going to be cut cruelly short by such an evil regime.
The story concentrates on the life of Bruno (Butterfield), the son of a high-ranking German officer (Thewlis) who is promoted to a new job. As a result, the family has to move away to southern Poland. Unbeknownst to Bruno, this new post that his father has acquired is actually as commandant of the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
One day, left to his own devices, Bruno goes for a wander behind the house (even though his mother forbid him) and encounters a group of people milling about beyond a tall fence – most notably Schmuel (Jack Scanlon), a boy who appears to wearing pyjamas. His new friend is actually an inmate at the camp who, along with his family, have been put to work wearing the camp uniform (the ‘pyjamas’ of the film’s title). Bruno visits Schmuel a number of times, bringing him food and water while they become friends yet blissfully unaware of what is really going on.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a curious film, because it isn’t really aimed at any age in particular. There are strong elements of family drama, yet the second half well and truly builds towards a climax that could only be comprehended by an adult audience. Having said that, it is refreshing to watch a different, knee-high perspective on a well-worn subject matter – particularly the horrifying finale that will haunt you for days afterwards.
Rating: 
