Last Call

My relationship with this movie is very special. Mr Bernstein visited the island of Corfu on May 2018 in order to visit the university I graduated from, Ionian University. The island was so charming that he decided to premiere his las feature film not in Athans but in Corfu. Everbody was very happy to watch the movie on the island. Then, my dear professor sent me an e-mail and told me that the movie needed to be subtitled immediately. So we decided to accept the challenge. We did the subtiling in 3 days without sleeping, eating and having to go to work every afternoon. I loved the movie so much that I could not resist. First of all, the script was magnificent. It was a pleasure to translate a high quality script that had so many intertextual references which you have to spot. All in all, the movie had its own symmetry and geometry. A movie speaking about life with all its all the joys and sorrows. A poet filled with a lust for life being exploited by everybody, all the social institutions, trying to take advantage of him, to make him feel mad and guilty because he can to bear the weight of such a cruel world. So he writes about life in a poetic way incessantly in order to find excitement.

I was staring through the cage of those meticulous ink strokes - at an absolute beauty.

• Amadeus (1984)

After I watched Last Call I was driving around my hometown and in my mind I played again and again scenes from Last Call, I heard the passion and tragic beauty of his words, and the escalating accompanying notes and I could feel the same gripping emotions. The battles we all face. The knot in my stomach that made me want to burst into tears was coming back all over again as I could understand the universal tragedy and agony of being alive on this planet, of being an awake soul. Just like his poetry. If that is not a great film, I don't know what is...

I'm a big fan of John Malkovich, love Tony Hale although I've only seen him in comedy and thought Rhys Ifans was legendary in Notting Hill so I was fascinated by the casting of Last Call but I thought that being about a revered poet it might lean towards arthousey pretentiousness especially as I knew it was partly shot in black and white. However, I found this film to be surprising and extraordinary in every way and I loved it. The script is written by the director Steven Bernstein and is beautifully poetic without being annoyingly abstract, it's also expertly directed but unique, it doesn't come together like a typical Hollywood movie, it feels unusual, and the mix of colour/black and white I interpreted as the alcoholic deliriums Thomas often inhabits lacking the colour and clarity of his more sober, vivid moments. The performances by the entire cast including Romola Garai and Zosia Mamet are outstanding; it's a pithy piece full of complicated characters all fighting to survive in Thomas's fragile narcissistic web and requires a lot of acting talent which the cast possessed in spades. Thomas at first glance is a stereotypical flawed genius but Bernstein's words and Ifans' portrayal is so complete, so somehow full of humanity whilst also being clearly monstrous that I was totally enthralled. I have some experience of loving someone who was a slave to the drink and I felt Last Call showed the desperate pain of a rabid alcoholic without making him or those who love him into victims. Last Call is about the life of one man and I'm sure Thomas would have loved it not because it is flattering but because it is art at its best; truthful and moving and really in all its aspects an homage to great film-making.

When it comes to films based in history, Dominion is a rare gem in a sea of monotony. This dynamic film captures Dylan Thomas in a way that made it feel the viewer is actually looking in on the life of the tortured poet. The black and white cinematography invokes a feeling of being inserted into the time period, and thus the viewer becomes a part of the story and creates an interesting new perspective. This stylistic cinematography works hand in hand with the poetic-ism of the script to bring us a snapshot of the poet Dylan Thomas' life. Dominion is a film that will captivate audiences with its unique dynamic and harsh realism of the story line. Furthermore, the cast's portrayal of the characters brings a sense of realism to the viewer, and keeps them wanting more.

I loved it. True theater, amazing cinematography, beautiful language and an unforgettable portrayal by Rhys Ifans of Dylan Thomas.