09 Tuesday Apr 2013
Director: James DeMonaco
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Edwin Hodge
Plot: If on one night every year, you could commit any crime without facing consequences, what would you do? Over the course of a single night, a family will be tested to see how far they will go to protect themselves when the vicious outside world breaks into their home.
Release Dates: 31st May (USA), TBC (UK)
28 Thursday Mar 2013
Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick
Plot: We catch up with Jesse and Celine nine years on in Greece. Almost two decades have passed since their first meeting on that train bound for Vienna.
Release Dates: 24th May (USA), TBC (UK)
24 Monday Dec 2012
Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Andrea Eckert
Plot: Two strangers meet on a train and end up spending a night on the streets of Vienna, but will their relationship last beyond just a chance meeting?
As far as cinema is concerned, the city of Vienna is perhaps most famous for Orson Welles’ dark, gloomy and brooding 1949 film The Third Man, in which Harry Lime lurked among the cloaked alleyways and spouted that most famous monologue on Switzerland’s lack of creativity through being traditionally neutral. So it’s refreshing to be able to see this glorious medieval place in the daytime, set as the backdrop to a charming romantic film that doesn’t heavily rely on comedy or drama for its kicks – just a good old-fashioned script full of wit and charm.
Two people in their twenties, a young American called Jesse (Hawke) and a French woman named Céline (Delpy), meet on a train going from Budapest to Vienna. Jesse is going to fly back to America from Vienna, while Céline intends to continue back to her home city Paris after visiting her grandmother. They strike up a conversation and reveal one another’s situations to each other and quickly become enamoured. When the train reaches Vienna, Jesse suggests to Céline that she joins him for a walk around the city until the following morning, as he doesn’t have enough money for a hotel. He convinces her by saying that, when she is married to someone else in 10 or 20 years’ time, she might regret not taking more opportunities when she was free and single.
After wandering around some of the landmarks for a few hours, Jesse and Céline eventually kiss at the top of the Wiener Riesenrad at sunset and start to feel a genuine connection. Continuing to roam the cobbled streets, they begin to open up much more to one another and have conversations which include love, religion, life and their views of the places in Vienna that they visit. Jesse and Céline find common ground when he tells her that he was visiting his now-ex girlfriend in Madrid and she reveals that her last boyfriend broke up with her six months previously because she apparently loved him too much. As the sun rises the next morning, the two must decide whether this will be the last time they ever see each other again.
Watching a film about two people walking around a city for over an hour and a half might seem like a tedious idea, but Before Sunrise has the perfect company, a magnificent setting and more importantly, a screenplay that feels very natural yet entertaining at the same time. The all-important characterisation is the key in a film such as this. The two protagonists must be engaging and believable, vulnerable at times, yet ultimately convincing when telling their back stories and revealing how the decisions they’ve made in their lives has led them to be on this particular train at this moment in time. Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan (with some uncredited help from both Hawke and Delpy), have fashioned a terrific script which never lets up – even when there are a few reflective scenes including one in a graveyard, there is still a purpose. By making each character think deeply about their own mortality although not in a morbid way, it is clearly designed to be in the context of the path which their lives must take, either with or without one another. Vienna itself is a fantastic place for such a story to unfold – you might argue that this is in fact a tourist advert, but there are few places that could be a more fitting setting.
The casting of Jesse and Céline has to be spot-on, otherwise we will probably lose interest very quickly – thankfully this is absolutely perfect. Ethan Hawke may be better known for action films than anything else these days, but his portrayal of Jesse is excellent. Being able to be charming yet not sleazy is the real test for a romantic leading man and Hawke hits the mark admirably. The real star here however is French-American actress Julie Delpy who, in her first major English language role, is magnificent as Céline, exuding both a luminous beauty, but also the ability to deliver her lines in a very natural way. It is clear to see how her star quality in both acting and writing has enabled her to make a name for herself through trans-Atlantic films such as 2 Days in Paris and its companion piece, 2 Days in New York. Credit is also due to Richard Linklater’s direction which, with help from Lee Daniel’s cinematography (and also the gorgeous Austrian scenery), is also effortless. There is one notable scene in particular, where Jesse and Céline go into a room to listen to Kath Bloom’s Come Here – there is no dialogue, just the two characters taking it turns to unknowingly look at each other in admiration – this sums up the agonisingly unspoken feelings that run throughout their time in Vienna.
Before Sunrise is a hidden gem of a film – arguably dwarfed by the Titanics and Love Actuallys of this world, but if a CGI-free hour and a half in the company of two fine actors in a beautiful city sounds appealing, then this is most definitely for you. Also be sure to check out the as-good sequel set in Paris, Before Sunset, although Sunrise feels like a much more rounded film even though the finale may leave some slightly unsatisfied.
Rating: 
11 Wednesday Jul 2012
Tags
2011, Ethan Hawke, Joanna Kulig, Kristin Scott Thomas, Pawel Pawlikowski, The Woman in the Fifth
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas, Joanna Kulig
Plot: A college lecturer goes to Paris seeking solace from a scandal. There he meets a mysterious woman who may be connected to a series of murders.
Kristin Scott Thomas is apparently the go-to actress if you need to globally commercialise an arty French film. Tell No One, I’ve Loved you So Long and Sarah’s Key have all featured Scott Thomas at or near the top of their bill. Whereas these films had her speaking in the French tongue, surprisingly her character in The Woman in the Fifth has a posh English accent, although on this occasion she is half-Hungarian, half-French.
Tom Ricks (Hawke), an American literature professor, arrives in Paris from Minnesota, intending to be near his six-year-old daughter Chloé (Julie Papillon). When he arrives at his ex-wife Nathalie’s (Delphine Chuillot) apartment, he finds her to be very hostile and she tells Tom to leave due to a restraining order and calls the police. Having got onto a bus, Tom falls asleep and wakes in the outskirts of Paris, only to discover that his luggage and money has been stolen. He wanders into a cafe which doubles as a hotel – he convinces the owner Sezer (Samir Guesmi) to give him a room as long as he eventually pays the bill. After a day or two, Sezer asks Tom whether he can pay, but when he doesn’t receive assurances, gives Tom a job as a night guard in a gloomy, basement office for 50 Euros a night. Tom is invited to a writers’ gathering, where he meets Margit Kadar – they chat briefly before she asks him to come round to her apartment in the fifth arrondissement at 5pm, twice a week, no questions asked.
Meanwhile, Tom tries to see Chloé whenever he can, by watching from afar or having a brief conversation through the school gates. He starts writing a long letter to her and begins work on a new novel while he is on the night shift. When Tom goes to see Margit at her apartment, they start a relationship and mainly talk about his worthiness as a writer. Tom also begins to have an illicit affair with Sezer’s Polish wife Ania (Kulig) and has his life threatened by Omar (Mamadou Minte) who lives next door to his hotel room, as he saw Tom and Ania sleeping together on the roof. They had previously had an altercation over Omar’s apparent reluctance to flush the toilet that they share. When Omar is found dead, Tom becomes the prime suspect especially as the police find the note given to him by Omar that they believe Tom actually wrote They also disclose a revelation about Margit that throws Tom’s life into utter chaos. Sezer is found to be the culprit and Tom is subsequently released from custody, but then Chloé goes missing and he goes to see Margit to find the truth and hopefully, his daughter.
The Woman in the Fifth is quite an oddity. There’s a very arty feel about the whole film (well, we are in Paris after all) even though the trailer suggests otherwise. Not a great deal happens until the final twenty minutes or so – we merely follow Ethan Hawke’s character Tom as he familiarises himself with the streets of the city, meeting a hotchpotch of characters, each with their own agendas. Even though there is supposed to be an air of mystery throughout the film, there’s only a sense of aimless wandering in a foreign country – it’s more like Lost in Translation but without the comedy. Having said that, it is a relief to be able to see a different side to Paris, one that A Prophet showed – away from the bright lights, upmarket cafés and museums. Although we do catch a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower in the background it isn’t a Hollywood-tourist-landmark-checklist that we have grown accustomed to in recent years. The transplantation of the action from the famous centre to a rundown part of town is clearly designed to reflect Tom’s state of mind.
Ethan Hawke speaks mostly in a lazy American-French accent, although about half of the film is in English. His character Tom is hard to like – he watches his daughter from afar almost in a creepy way and appears to be rude to anyone who offers him help or tries to be nice. Hawke doesn’t really convince here, although to be fair the screenplay doesn’t offer him the opportunity to try a little drama. Kristin Scott Thomas has little to do, despite being the subject of the film’s title. She is supposed to be enigmatic, yet this merely involves smoking cigarettes and looking into middle distance as all writers are obliged to, of course. Joanna Kulig, who has the only other significant role is underused but shines in her bit-part role as Tom’s muse. Pawel Pawlikowski’s direction is solid enough, although there are too many pretentious shots of a forest which promise much in the way of a thunderous revelation, but instead appear to be shoved in merely to reflect Tom’s creative thoughts as he writes for his daughter.
The Woman in the Fifth is a muddled patchwork that asks many questions but leaves most of them unanswered. There is meant to be some kind of M. Night Shyamalan-style nuclear bombshell towards the end, but instead you’re left with the feeling that it’s actually just a damp squib of a firework.
Rating: 
