There are a few changes on Rialto Channel this June. Rialto World, which brings you the best in foreign film, will begin screening on Mondays at 8.30pm. On Tuesdays you can catch top international dramas and returning hits like acclaimed series Rectify, while on Wednesdays new series Rialto New Wave continues screening the work of first time feature film directors. Thursday evening remains dedicated to documentaries, and Saturdays are still the best place to see our finest independent premieres, with Rialto Selection. In another change, Sunday evening is now the best place to catch quality British drama, with Rialto British. Got all that? Now, here are my picks for the week
There are a few changes on Rialto Channel this June. Rialto World, which brings you the best in foreign film, will begin screening on Mondays at 8.30pm. On Tuesdays you can catch top international dramas and returning hits like acclaimed series Rectify, while on Wednesdays new series Rialto New Wave continues screening the work of first time feature film directors. Thursday evening remains dedicated to documentaries, and Saturdays are still the best place to see our finest independent premieres, with Rialto Selection. In another change, Sunday evening is now the best place to catch quality British drama, with Rialto British. Got all that? Now, here are my picks for the week.
Still Mine (2013)
Staring: James Cromwell, Geneviève Bujold and Campbell Scott
Directed by: Michael McGowan
Screening: Official Selection, Saturday 7th June, 8.30pm
Like Far From Her and Amour, Still Mine is an evenly paced and restrained drama about a couple dealing with the onset of Alzheimer’s. It’s a genuine and touching story of love, devotion and determination as 89 year-old Craig Morrison attempts to build a house in New Brunswick, Canada where he can look after his wife Irene (Bujold). Craig plans to cut his own timber and use the high quality and sustainable techniques his father, a shipbuilder, had taught him. However his plan doesn’t follow strict local building codes and he’s ordered to stop work. James Cromwell is captivating as the stubborn and wry Craig Morrison, and a wonderful reminder you’re only as old as you feel! This film is also a wonderful tribute to old handcrafted traditions, and a dig at today’s bureaucracy gone mad.
Wallander Series 3 (2013)
Staring: Krister Henriksson, Charlotta Jonsson & Douglas Johansson
Directed by: Agneta Fagerström-Olsson
Screening: Friday 6th June, 8.30pm
Recently, I went to the Writers and Reader’s Festival in Auckland where I heard Camilla Lackberg, a Swedish crime writer, talk about the great influence Henning Mankell, the creator of the Wallander crime series, has had on Swedish writing. I’ve now read a couple of books from Lackberg’s gripping series of grisly crime novels set in a small coastal Swedish town, I feel I’m perfectly primed to dive back into the third series of Wallander. This series is based on Mankell's last novel, The Troubled Man, and other original stories, and follows the hard drinking, depressed detective Kurt Wallander as he solves rather shocking crimes while battling his demons. The sort of series you never feel you can get enough of, Wallander is gripping, taut and well-written telly filled with flawed but likable characters. Just as well then that Rialto Channel is screening two 90 minute episodes each Friday evening until the end of June.
The Man Who Laughs (2012)
Staring: Gérard Depardieu, Marc-André Grondin & Christa Theret
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Améris
Screening: Rialto World, Monday 2nd June, 8.30pm
Victor Hugo’s 1969 novel The Man Who Laughs has been adapted five times, but that hasn’t stopped French director Jean-Pierre Améris (Romantics Anonymous) giving it a shot. A story about a disfigured boy (Grondin) and blind girl (Theret) taken in by a compassionate traveling showman (Depardieu), it mixes magical realism and gothic romance. Améris’s vision begins like an old fashioned fable and ends up like a surreal fantasy. It’s an interesting interpretation, delivers on Hugo’s themes and is filled with good performances. On the flipside, it feels a little soulless and claustrophobic, perhaps limited by the style in which its been shot. Unlike the other recent Hugo film Les Miserables, no one bursts into song; which is a good thing.