“Elizabeth” tells a refreshing story about the Queen
We recommend the new film starring Tilda Swinton and a drama that celebrates the beauty of the Camargue.
«Elizabeth: A Portrait in Part(s)»: Elizabeth II became Queen in 1952; the coronation took place a year later in Westminster Abbey.
Foto: Ascot Elite
Elizabeth: A Portrait in Part(s)
Documentary by Roger Michell, GB 2022, 89 min.
When the British filmmaker Roger Michell died last September at the age of 65, some could only remember «Notting Hill» (1999), the romance with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. There wasn’t much more. Or is it? Eight months after his passing, Michell appears to be more present on the cinematic landscape than ever. On the one hand, the slightly quirky social satire “The Duke” (with Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren) recently started. And now Michell’s final work is coming to cinemas, just in time for the Queen’s 70th jubilee on June 2nd.
In “Elizabeth: A Portrait in Part(s)” Michell mixes archival documentary footage with snippets of film (sometimes Olivia Colman or Claire Foy, who played the Queen in “The Crown”) suddenly grin at you. The film dispenses with explanatory comments and relies entirely on the viewer’s desire to see and discover. Then you see the Queen unusually open, sometimes snappy or completely carefree. For example, when the royal yacht Britannia goes into service in the early 1950s, Elizabeth plays tag with the sailors on the ship.
Stars also have their say. Paul McCartney, for example, remembers: “We were around 14 at the time, and the Queen around 25. For us teenagers, she was a hottie.” Robbie Williams, on the other hand, was unlucky: When he met Elizabeth before a performance, she simply asked: “Are you the technician?” (zas)
Memory
Drama by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, THA/CO 2021, 135 min.
A film like a spell, this trip by the Thai Apichatpong Weerasethakul (“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”). This time he shot in Colombia: Scottish botanist Jessica (Tilda Swinton) arrives in Bogotá, where she visits her sick sister. On her journey, Jessica is accompanied by a dull thump that nobody but her seems to hear. When she can no longer sleep, Jessica begins to search for the origin of the noise.
Like no other, Weerasethakul creates a pantheistic cinema, where the world seems animated by ghostly presences and the images are charged with the story of trauma and political violence as if by themselves. As half an extraterrestrial, Tilda Swinton fits perfectly into this hypnotic dream cinema, which always remains a reflection on our seeing (and hearing). (blue)
Tom Medina
Drama by Tony Gatlif, F 2022, 100 Min.
The highlight of this film is the Camargue. This alluvial plain in Provence offers impressive images: vast swampy landscapes, colonies of flamingos, herds of horses galloping and fighting bulls charging at each other. Tom Medina (David Murgia) is sent to the area by a juvenile court judge to work on the farm of horse breeder Ulysse (Slimane Dazi). It’s his last chance to get his life back on track.
But Tom keeps screwing things up. Not least because of the visions that haunt him – for example in the form of a glowing white bull. The story takes on a mythical dimension. Very fascinating. Incidentally, director Tony Gatlif (“Exiles”) took his own experiences as a young man as the basis for the plot – he too was sent by a juvenile judge to a horse breeder. (ggs)
All This Victory
War drama by Ahmad Ghossein, Lebanon/F 2019, 93 min.
“Top Gun: Maverick” is currently celebrating the military as a big cinema spectacle, while “All This Victory” is less glamorous. The film takes place during the 2006 Lebanon war. Marwan drives from Beirut to his home village to fetch his father. But he has long since disappeared.
When bombs fall, Marwan takes refuge in a ground floor apartment with a few others. This becomes a trap when Israeli soldiers occupy the apartment above without noticing the Lebanese civilians. Fearing the enemy, Marwan and Co. are hiding.
A true case served as the template for this thriller with a black humor undertone. The background noise is impressive: a large part of the action takes place in a few rooms, the characters hardly see anything of what is happening outside – but bomb explosions, gunfire and the roar of fighter jets give an idea of apocalyptic conditions. (ggs)
Shin Godzilla
Monster film by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, J 2016, 120 min.
Thanks to blockbusters like «Godzilla vs. Kong», the radioactive dinosaur Godzilla is a Hollywood star. At the same time, Japan continues to produce its own films with the house monster, most recently “Shin Godzilla”. It sees itself as a reboot without reference to the previous parts. Director Hideaki Anno (“Neon Genesis Evangelion”) takes the story of the monster running amok as an opportunity to criticize Japan’s government. It totally fails here in the face of a nuclear threat – the Fukushima disaster is an obvious influence. The Xenix is showing «Shin Godzilla» in a series dedicated to Tokyo. Already clear: In the film, the metropolis gets the brunt of Godzilla’s destructiveness. (ggs)
Fri June 3, 10:45 p.m.; Fri June 10, 10:45 p.m.; Fri, June 17, 10:45 p.m.; Sat June 25, 11 p.m., Xenix
Adolf Muschg: The Other
Documentary by Erich Schmid, CH 2022, 86 min.
A portrait of the 88-year-old writer Adolf Muschg, who talks vividly – about his youth, his depressive mother, Fukushima, the politicization at Cornell University and, more generally, about everything that remains alien to us. His humor flashes again and again, but why does director Erich Schmid never ask a critical question to someone who says he was saved “for a higher life”? (blue)
Posted today at 11:53am
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