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Reviews
The Party (2017)
It's not just the canapes that go up in smoke at this satirical soiree!
A richly dark social satire by Sally Potter moves in real time in the home (Islington, maybe??) of uber couple Janet (Kristen Scott Thomas) and Bill (Timothy Spall), who are hosting a small intimate gathering of friends to celebrate her promotion as Shadow Minister of Health. Bill, an acclaimed academic, however, is preoccupied and increasingly inebriated as he works through his old vinyl record collection, while Janet prepares food and takes calls from well- wishers. Guests start to arrive, and a wonderfully eclectic liberal and north London lot seem to be assembling. There is acerbic American, April (Patricia Clarkson) and her new age boyfriend Gottfried (Bruno Ganz); Martha (Cherry Jones) an academic colleague of Bill's and her much younger heavily pregnant wife, Jinny (Emily Mortimer), and then a palpitating mass of turmoil that is Tom (Cillian Murphy) the 'wanker banker' arrives, rushing to snort coke in the bathroom and then assuring everybody with much perspiration that his lovely wife, Marianne, Janet's assistant, is delayed but will arrive soon
or maybe by Coffee! Although all have seemingly come to praise Janet, each seems to be carrying their own dramatic news; seemingly everyone has secrets. Bill makes his own announcement, which is the catalyst for an escalation towards all- out confrontation; the canapes can go up in smoke and the gathering of friends begins to unravel. All of this wonderful fayre is crammed into a breakneck 71 minute, single act, black and white, ensemble piece throughout which Scott Thomas is in devastating form as she deals and then doesn't, conceals and then reveals much ado about plenty! It may be a view of the social elite, the political class, the insiders, but it shines a much needed light onto the human condition and our capacity to surprise one another. This ensemble are hilarious with belly laugh out loud moments (I'm sure the way I was laughing was a code violation), witty one liners aplenty. The caustic and chaotic interplay is a joy to behold and this film zips along totally in tune and ends with a wonderful twist.
Let Me Go (2017)
A generational odyssey of dark revelation and emotional turmoil!
Based upon the true life memoire of Helga Schneider, Let Me Go explores the effect of abandonment and its rippling impact on family relationships; in this instance between four generations of women in the same family. A fantastic cast led by Juliet Stevenson (Truly Madly Deeply) playing Helga deliver on a thoughtful emotional and superbly adapted screenplay from Polly Steele (who also directs this independently financed piece – prize winning at Bentonville for the ensemble cast and part of the official selection for the Edinburgh Film Festival). Set in the London of 2000, we meet Helga as a woman working as a dressmaker in London who receives an unsettling letter and puts it away as her granddaughter calls into the shop. With a bit of cajoling by the granddaughter, Emily (Lucy Boynton – Sing Street), we learn Helga's cousin, Eva, has written from Vienna to say that Helga's mother, Traudi is close to death in a nursing home. That sad news is not only a revelation for Emily and Helga's own daughter, Beth (as a somewhat lost soul and free spirit by Jodhi May) as neither were aware of a Traudi's being alive, but it is clear that Helga doesn't want to talk about the estrangement. It is only with some interweaving of flashbacks and Helga's own reluctant partial remarks that we learn that 60 years earlier Helga (then only four years old), is left in wartime Germany by Traudi to the care of an aunt. Traudi embodies many contradictions as both vulnerable, needy and confused old woman in a care home, but then at times revealing that she is sharp, devious and quite wicked. Without doubt played brilliantly by Swedish actress, Karin Bertling (The Bridge and Wallander). Emily's naïve excitement at discovering she has a long lost great- grandmother and her genuine affection for Helga sees her wheedling onto the trip to Vienna where we then get to follow not only the tides of Helga and Traudi's lives, but to see the unmistakable effects that mark Beth and Emily with the inevitable unravelling of family secrets and guilt. Underpinned by a moving and sympathetic soundtrack composed by Phil Selway (Radiohead) beautifully using a string quartet to mirror the main protagonists and the beautiful and poignant settings in and around Vienna, this film makes one think about the very essence of life, relationships and family ties. Bravo to the UPP for giving this two sold out shows and I hope there may be a growing take up of this small masterpiece of storytelling.
CHARLIE MCGINTY