Leviathan … Wednesday 11th May, 8.30pm
Nominated for best foreign language film at the Oscars and the winner of the same category at the Golden Globes, Leviathan was applauded for the way it deals with social issues in contemporary Russia – although not by the officials who helped pay for it!
Inspired by The Book of Job and the work of Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan is a vodka drenched exploration of love, faith, corruption, violence, freedom and economic decay. It’s the story of married couple Kolya (Aleksey Serebryakov) and Lilya (Elena Lyadova), and their son Romka (Sergey Pokhodaev), who are forced out of their ancestral family home on the whim of the Mayor who wishes to develop their prime site for himself. Shot in Teriberka on the Barents Sea coast in northwest Russia, the Russian Ministry of Culture apparently stumped up 35% of the film’s budget.
Needless to say they weren’t terribly happy with Director Andrei Zvyagintsev’s brazen and derogatory take on Russia’s bureaucracy, the Russian Orthodox Church, or the average Russian’s daily consumption of vodka. Initial attempts to ban the film were scrapped after it’s Oscar nomination, and while the Russians may not like it, Leviathan is a remarkable and engaging satire.
The Homesman … Saturday 14th May, 8.30pm
The opening title sequence of The Homesman, a film written and directed by Tommy Lee Jones, is striking for a couple of reasons. Firstly for the simple and stark cinematography courtesy of Rodrigo Prieto (The Wolf of Wall Street, Brokeback Mountain) and secondly for the never-ending list of impressive actors who appear in the film.
This is Jones’ second feature film, in which he stars as the title character George Biggs, a roguish low life who finds himself indebt to the pious Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) who saves him from a lynching. Set in Nebraska during the 1850s Miss Cuddy is something of an anomaly – a woman living on her own and successfully farming her land. When three women (played by Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto and Sonja Richter) in her parish are driven mad by the harsh frontier conditions, it’s Miss Cuddy who offers to take them on the dangerous 5 week journey to Iowa where some kind church folk have agreed to help return the women to their homes back east. Mr Biggs reluctantly agrees to help her.
An adaptation of Glendon Swarthout’s novel the film looks like a western, but whatever you do, don’t call it a western in front of Jones – he’s been known to walk out of interviews over it. The Homesman might look like a western, but plot wise it is something else, something Jones would prefer to call a story “about women in the middle of the 19th century, and also American imperialism on the west side of the Mississippi River at that time.”
It is indeed a grim, tragic look at frontier life from a female perspective as we flashback to see what has tormented these women from abusive husbands to the death of their children. George Bigg’s path to redemption unfolds as expected, but the real hero here is the strong and courageous Miss Cuddy and it’s her journey that really strikes a nerve. She might be “plain as an old tin pan and bossy” but she sure is memorable.
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him… Sunday 15th May, 8.30pm
This film is part of an experiment by young filmmaker Ned Benson who explores one couples relationship from varying perspectives. It’s an idea that saw three films being made – the original Him version, followed by the Her version and then a culmination of the two, the Themversion.
Over two Sunday’s, Rialto Channel is playing the Himand Her versions of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby staring James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain as married couple Conor and Eleanor. The films looks at the way they deal differently with the death of their child and how this leads to the demise of their marriage. It’s a film that explores the way we deal with grief and respond to pain.
Benson and Chastain met at the Malibu Film Festival over a decade ago and began working on this project. Originally, Benson wrote just the Him version, but whenChastain started asking questions about her character Benson realised a film that captured Eleanor’s perspective was warranted too. It makes for a lengthy affair, but Chastain and McAvoy do their jobs brilliantly and you can’t help but get caught up in their lives.
It’s been 23 years since I traveled through Russia, and yet watching Leviathan, a satirical Russian drama set in the present day, it looks like little has changed. An ambitious and audacious work by Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev, Leviathan stunned critics at its 2014 Cannes Film Festival premiere where Zvyagintsev and his co-screenwriter Oleg Negin won the award for Best Screenplay. It’s a stunning film, and my first highlight of the week.
Leviathan … Wednesday 11th May, 8.30pm
Nominated for best foreign language film at the Oscars and the winner of the same category at the Golden Globes, Leviathan was applauded for the way it deals with social issues in contemporary Russia – although not by the officials who helped pay for it!
Inspired by The Book of Job and the work of Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan is a vodka drenched exploration of love, faith, corruption, violence, freedom and economic decay. It’s the story of married couple Kolya (Aleksey Serebryakov) and Lilya (Elena Lyadova), and their son Romka (Sergey Pokhodaev), who are forced out of their ancestral family home on the whim of the Mayor who wishes to develop their prime site for himself. Shot in Teriberka on the Barents Sea coast in northwest Russia, the Russian Ministry of Culture apparently stumped up 35% of the film’s budget.
Needless to say they weren’t terribly happy with Director Andrei Zvyagintsev’s brazen and derogatory take on Russia’s bureaucracy, the Russian Orthodox Church, or the average Russian’s daily consumption of vodka. Initial attempts to ban the film were scrapped after it’s Oscar nomination, and while the Russians may not like it, Leviathan is a remarkable and engaging satire.
The Homesman … Saturday 14th May, 8.30pm
The opening title sequence of The Homesman, a film written and directed by Tommy Lee Jones, is striking for a couple of reasons. Firstly for the simple and stark cinematography courtesy of Rodrigo Prieto (The Wolf of Wall Street, Brokeback Mountain) and secondly for the never-ending list of impressive actors who appear in the film.
This is Jones’ second feature film, in which he stars as the title character George Biggs, a roguish low life who finds himself indebt to the pious Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) who saves him from a lynching. Set in Nebraska during the 1850s Miss Cuddy is something of an anomaly – a woman living on her own and successfully farming her land. When three women (played by Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto and Sonja Richter) in her parish are driven mad by the harsh frontier conditions, it’s Miss Cuddy who offers to take them on the dangerous 5 week journey to Iowa where some kind church folk have agreed to help return the women to their homes back east. Mr Biggs reluctantly agrees to help her.
An adaptation of Glendon Swarthout’s novel the film looks like a western, but whatever you do, don’t call it a western in front of Jones – he’s been known to walk out of interviews over it. The Homesman might look like a western, but plot wise it is something else, something Jones would prefer to call a story “about women in the middle of the 19th century, and also American imperialism on the west side of the Mississippi River at that time.”
It is indeed a grim, tragic look at frontier life from a female perspective as we flashback to see what has tormented these women from abusive husbands to the death of their children. George Bigg’s path to redemption unfolds as expected, but the real hero here is the strong and courageous Miss Cuddy and it’s her journey that really strikes a nerve. She might be “plain as an old tin pan and bossy” but she sure is memorable.
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him… Sunday 15th May, 8.30pm
This film is part of an experiment by young filmmaker Ned Benson who explores one couples relationship from varying perspectives. It’s an idea that saw three films being made – the original Him version, followed by the Her version and then a culmination of the two, the Themversion.
Over two Sunday’s, Rialto Channel is playing the Himand Her versions of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby staring James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain as married couple Conor and Eleanor. The films looks at the way they deal differently with the death of their child and how this leads to the demise of their marriage. It’s a film that explores the way we deal with grief and respond to pain.
Benson and Chastain met at the Malibu Film Festival over a decade ago and began working on this project. Originally, Benson wrote just the Him version, but whenChastain started asking questions about her character Benson realised a film that captured Eleanor’s perspective was warranted too. It makes for a lengthy affair, but Chastain and McAvoy do their jobs brilliantly and you can’t help but get caught up in their lives.