Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Lilyhammer is a hybrid that mixes Nordic noir with the US gangster genre, underlined by the opening credits that show a car driving over a bridge in New York then cutting to a train speeding through the Norwegian countryside. At the same time the theme music changes pace and style to bring you to this new setting.

Its star, Frank “The Fixer” Tagliano (Steven Van Zandt) is a mobster who chooses to relocate to Lillehammer, Norway when he enters the FBI protection programme, after testifying against his former buddies. His unusual selection was inspired by the fact that he enjoyed watching the TV coverage of the 1994 Winter Olympics when it was held in Lillehammer, Norway. And that is the least quirky aspect of this series.

Frank, going under the new name of Giovanni Henriksen, soon gets back into his old mobster way of life and establishes himself as the owner of the Flamingo club, which is run by his hapless business partner and friend Torgeir Lien.

The third season takes some of the action beyond Norway to New York City and Rio de Janeiro. In Brazil, Torgeir’s brother (Roar Lien) gets set up in a drug deal and, in New York, Frank’s old mates discover where he’s hiding and decide to whack him.

Lilyhammer is a fast-paced comedy drama with a string of quirky characters and subplots. Most of the dialogue is in Norwegian with English subtitles, though Franks speaks in English and understands Norwegian and most of the foreign gangsters speak English peppered with plenty of swear words!

Besides Frank, who bulldozes his way through what he would call the commie bullshit of Norwegian society, nearly every other character stands out. Torquier is a bug-eyed loyal servant for Frank, but he does have moral standards if pushed too far by Frank. Even when he takes up knitting it leads to the murder of a very unsavoury British gangster and a series of ghostly encounters that sends him to the edge. Another regular character is Jan Johansen (Fridtjov Såheim), who is a hypocritical self-serving ‘right on’ citizen who gets sucked into Frank’s orbit.

The whole mixture takes us from the familiar to the wildest and most surreal places on television. Many of the loose ends of the story strands are completed in Season 3 and since Netflix has stopped funding it, so it seems unlikely it will return to our screens. Shame, since this is a brave project that deserves repeated viewings and transcends the boundaries of different genres and expectations.

LILYHAMMER: SEASON 3 / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: VARIOUS / SCREENPLAY: ANNE BJORNSTAD, EILIF SKODVIN, STEVEN VAN ZANDT / STARRING: STEVEN VAN ZANDT, TROND FAUSA AURVAG, MARIAN SAASTAD OTTESEN, ANNE KRIGSVOLL, STEINAR SAGEN, PAUL KAYE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

Chuck Workman’s insightful documentary, Magician, aims to readdress this perception. Narrated largely by Welles himself via archive interviews, alongside new and historical interviews with co-workers, family members and celebrity fans (including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Peter Bogdanovich and Simon Callow), Workman paints a very different picture.

Welles’ ability was obvious from an early age. He was starring in and directing plays whilst at school. In his teens he blagged his way into starring roles in Irish theatre. By his early 20s, he was back in America with his own reparatory company. Radio soon followed, including his now legendary version of War of the Worlds. By the time he moved to Hollywood (somewhat reluctantly he claimed), Welles was already a huge star.

After his first film, Kane upset newspaper baron Randolph Hurst – upon whom it was loosely based – RKO got scared, reigning in the young artist and butchering his follow up, The Magnificent Ambersons. From then on, his relationship with Hollywood was never the same. Welles continued to direct and act in both films and theatre for over 30 years, to mixed success. There were occasional critical and commercial hits, such as Touch of Evil (another film recut against the director’s wishes), but he never again matched his early success. When he died in 1985, he was known more for his celebrity than his work – his appearances in numerous substandard films and adverts having cheapened his legacy.

Using copious clips from his films – including his numerous unfinished projects – Workman lets Welles’ genius speak for itself. Rather than paint the traditional picture of Welles’ as an artist in decline, Workman portrays Welles as both ahead of his time (which he unquestionably was) and someone whose talent continued to flourish throughout his career. Simon Callow – who has written several acclaimed biographies of the director, and features extensively in the film – even suggests 1965’s Chimes at Midnight, not Citizen Kane, may well in fact be his best film.

What is clear is that Welles was never meant to fit into the studio system. Unlike his contemporary Hitchcock, Welles’ brand of filmmaking was incompatible with what studios wanted. Proclaimed by Richard Linklater as “the patron saint of indie filmmakers”, he became an indie filmmaker at a time when indie filmmaking didn’t exist, working largely in Europe, using money wherever he could find it.

For a film subtitled The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles, Magician also skims over much of his personal life. We’re shown famous actresses that Welles was known to have associated with, but the film won’t go so far as to say they were his lovers. Likewise, rumours of Welles’ alleged homosexuality and his illegitimate son (the director Michael Lindsay-Hogg) are mentioned, but not dwelled on. Magician is very much focused on mythologizing Welles, not humanising him. The work he took in later life – where he accepted pretty much any role if the money was right – is glossed over in a short montage, with an unquestioned explanation from Welles that he only took these roles to finance his work. Likewise, his weaker films, such the widely derided F for Fake, are spared the same analysis afforded some of his more resounding successes.

Whilst Magician may not be the most objective documentary ever made – it’s clearly aiming to paint its subject in the most flattering light possible – it is nonetheless a portrait of a remarkable, if flawed, artist. Whilst it may not present as compelling case for the director’s later works as it would like, the talent on display from one of cinema’s greatest auteurs is remarkable.

Special Features: A conversation with director Chuck Workman / A personal appreciation of Orson Welles by Simon Callow

MAGICIAN: THE ASTONISHING LIFE AND WORK OF ORSON WELLES / CERT: E / DIRECTOR: CHUCK WORKMAN / SCREENPLAY: N/A / STARRING: ORSON WELLES, PETER BOGDANOVICH, SIMON CALLOW / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Fellini’s Casanova is without doubt one of the most preposterous, ridiculous and indulgently stylised films you could ever envisage. It is also one of the most extraordinarily brilliant, a savagely personal depiction of a flawed historical character who occupies a rare position in our cultural history.

A Venetian carnival acts as the prologue to a story that details a series of Casanova’s erotic encounters as the legendary lothario journeys across Europe visiting some of the 18th century’s most prominent cities. As a guest of various courts, Casanova deflowers a frisky nun, competes in a challenge as to who can satisfy a woman the most times within an hour, and suffers from great personal angst brought on by the realisation he has no real place in the world. Casanova imagines himself as a romantic figure, a man of education in a world populated by the savage – a view that brings him both adoration and ridicule.

Fellini was never more “Fellini” than he was in 1976 with his Casanova. This epic tale of uncontrollable debauchery is a work of cinematic art that has rarely been equalled. With a visual eye that has influenced directors from Tim Burton to David Lynch, Fellini’s fantastical imagery was never more realised than in Casanova. In early scenes the central character rows a gondola across a stormy sea made up from used black bin bags. Later, as Fellini’s distaste for Casanova’s lifestyle becomes increasingly clear, what he has described as the “void” in his subject’s life becomes more evident in the episodic depictions of his adventures. It is both fitting and significant that the final act of a life spent pursuing such personal gratification, despite Casanova’s insistence that he actually loves women, is a dream sequence involving an animatronic life-size doll that the anti-hero relates to more than any other.

The symbolism contained within the film is strikingly blunt and also cryptically confusing. Repeat viewings of the film would be necessary to appreciate and identify the depth of the layers hidden within Fellini’s Casanova, and even then some will remain a mystery. Perhaps this is the point, perhaps it is the intention of the director to confuse his audience while bewildering them with beautiful, overtly sexual imagery. It is poignant that at one point in the film one character turns to another and questions “You do know it’s symbolic don’t you?” The performance of Donald Sutherland as the lead emphasises this further; it being so intensely involved as to be almost comedic.

As an introduction to the Italian master’s work, Fellini’s Casanova is not the best place to start. As sweeping a statement as it may be, La Dolce Vita and 8 ½ are two of the most influential films of all time, and are more successful in their ambition than this film. They are true classics, examples of a style of modernist fantasy of which Fellini was the major exponent. Fellini’s Casanova is stunning, it is an important piece of work, but there is no doubt it isn’t as approachable as some of Fellini’s other films. Brilliant but undoubtedly flawed. A little like Casanova himself.

FELLINI’S CASANOVA / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: FEDERICO FELLINI / STARRING: DONALD SUTHERLAND, TINA AUMONT, CICELY BROWNE, CARMEN SCARPITTA / RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 7TH

 

As an homage to – or pastiche of – the Italian cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, Bloody Sin walks a very fine line between being authentically so bad it’s good, and being deliberately so good at what it’s doing that it’s actually bad. Certainly for modern audiences not familiar with the genre and titles it is referencing, the tone and production will come as much of a shock as anything found within the film.

A crew of pornographers from New York – in reality all Italians and badly dubbed into appallingly accented English, some so poorly that subtitles will almost certainly be required – travel to an ancient Italian castle, intending to revitalise the magazine they work for with some adventurous torture photography. There they are greeted by the castle’s German owner, Terence Fisher, whereupon two tales of old evil collide in bizarre and unpredictable ways.

Director Domiziano Christopharo’s attention to authenticity runs to casting a porn actress as his porn star, with a performance to match, while Dallas Walker as Fisher (no relation to the Hammer film director, as pointed out onscreen) is a complete cinema novice – and manages to give one of the film’s more interesting performances. Utilising split screen, stop-motion dream sequences, sepia monochrome and turning page comic book panels as between-scene screen wipes, there’s hardly a rabbit Christopharo won’t pull out of his hat in order to emulate the feel of the films he is evidently so in thrall to.

And mostly it works, often incredibly well – but perhaps too well. With a group of characters who are all either dumb or eccentric, or both, and with performances that are universally both arch and simultaneously stilted (often leaving ‘accidental’ pauses between lines of dialogue), it’s impossible to really care about anyone, which is hardly the point. The story itself – or rather, stories, with Bloody Sin deliberately confusing matters by telling its two horror narratives in parallel – is quite ostentatiously convoluted and chaotic, and only rewarding if you’re not hoping for too much in the way of sense. The pay-off is worth the wait though, and there’s never a point at which the film becomes too dull or too bewildering to follow.

Undoubtedly something of a folly, your mileage will vary considerably over whether you’ll be able to enjoy Bloody Sin. If Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace is your bag, undoubtedly you’ll find much to like – although Bloody Sin falls far short of being as intentionally funny as the Channel 4 series. If on the other hand you like your horror to be scary, your plots to follow through logically, or your characters sympathetic, you’ll probably end up disappointed. For what it’s worth, this reviewer thought it was a blast.

Extras: trailers, interviews

BLOODY SIN: ABOMINATIONS OF THE THIRD REICH / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: DOMIZIANO CHRISTOPHARO / SCREENPLAY: FILIPPO SANTANIELLO, DOMIZIANO CHRISTOPHARO / STARRING: DALLAS WALKER, NANCY DE LUCIA, ROBERTA GEMMA, LORENZO BALDUCCI / RELEASE DATE: TBC (UK), SEPTEMBER 8TH (US)
 

An overlooked kitsch classic of the seventies, Horror Hospital finally resurfaces in the UK, and with a sparkling HD makeover to boot!

A fallout with a band causes songwriter Jason (Askwith) to seek out a restful break, picking up a cheap spa holiday from ‘Hairy Holidays’ (fun in the sun for the under thirties promises the ad). However, after only just making it out of the seedy booking office without having his pants ripped from him by the salacious Mr Pollack (a gloriously camp turn from an end-of-career Price), Jason has more stress when he discovers the treatment Dr Storm (Gough) has in store for him. Young Judy (Shaw), whose Aunt (Pollock) helps run the place, tags along (and hops into his bed), Jason attempts to liberate the lobotomised ‘tenants’ of the Storm’s retreat. He doesn’t count on the leather-clad bikers who protect the abode, a sarcastic, gurning dwarf (Martin) or Storms car, which has handy blades to decapitate those who try to escape.

First things first, Horror Hospital is brilliant. Don’t get us wrong, it’s not the best made film ever, nor is bestowed with the best acting talent or script. However, it’s so much fun that one can’t help but love it. That it has languished in relative obscurity over the past decades is criminal. Lovable archetypal cheeky chappie Askwith is an absolute riot here, in a role wrote specifically for him. Diminutive Skip Martin, who had also appeared in Hammer’s Vampire Circus is a delight every second he’s on screen. He plays sinister, slapstick, surreal, and sadness with equal flair. And where do we begin with Michael Gough? He’s clearly hamming it up as much as he’s been requested to, and knows he’s above the material, but one can’t help thinking he’s enjoying it (although he always refused to talk about the film).

Even the absolutely ludicrous plot doesn’t distract from the enjoyment to be had. It’s schlocky, gory and (intentionally) hilarious, and despite very limited camera angles (most scenes were shot with little or no pick-ups for close-ups) doesn’t sag in between the action. The disc is also packed with some worthy extra features too. Ported over from an earlier foreign release is a commentary from the producer Richard Gordon (who’s no longer with us, sadly), which is packed full of anecdotes and well worth a listen. There are also two newly filmed sections, a talking head ‘making of’ that features many of the surviving crew who are interesting and revealing, and a much more fun, upbeat chat with Mr Askwith, who speaks about the film with great enthusiasm and joy.

A standout of ‘70s British horror, it’ll have you in stitches.

Extras: see above.

CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: ANTONY BALCH / SCREENPLAY: ANTONY BALCH / STARRING: MICHAEL GOUGH, ROBIN ASKWITH, VANESSA SHAW, DENNIS PRICE, ELLEN POLLOCK, SKIP MARTIN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

In the topsy-turvy world of cult journalism, it probably won’t surprise you to know that one comes across a lot of independent movies. Now, don’t get us wrong here; a lot of them are rather good. Not constrained by the mores of mainstream cinema, rules can be daringly ignored and ground fearlessly broken. However, it has to be said that as worthy as these movies can be, those miniscule budgets mean that you have to cut them a bit of slack. Mates of the director might be cast in key roles, FX may be strained to the point of breaking and, we suspect, the on-set catering may have been on the basic side. So it comes as a great pleasure (and a bit of a change) to find oneself watching a thoroughly indie-flick and, by the halfway point, realising that you’d forgotten it was made for next to nothing.

The first thing Judas Ghost gets right is a fairly good story penned by Simon R. Green and based on his own Ghost Finders novels. So we have a team of professional ghost-hunters dispatched from the Carnacki Institute to a seemingly benign village hall to do something about recent weird goings-on. Looks like a simple job so they even have a cameraman in tow to shoot a training film for the new recruits. Of course it turns out to be far from straightforward (otherwise it’d be a bit of a dull movie) and before we know it we’ve got moving doorways, unremitting darkness, buckets of blood, genuine mystery and more mild-to-extreme peril than you can wave holy water popsicle at.

We all love professional ghost/vampire/alien hunters, so it’s off to a good start from the get-go and setting the entire film in one room is, of course, a very clever move when you don’t have the cash to spend. It’s actually a very convincing and specially-built set (in Portishead, of all places) so director Simon Pearce gets the most out of the chosen location with more flexibility than the real thing would provide. But it’s the basics that count so the engaging script and more than capable cast make up for any other shortfalls. Martin Delaney as Team leader Jerry might be on the verge of irritating, but as Jerry is a supremely over-confident egotist who loves the fact that he’s starring in the training film, we think he got this pitch-perfect. He’s exactly the kind of dolt who might just say “we don’t take shit from the afterlife” and actually believe it. And Simon Merrells adds some genuine class as the cameraman with a mysterious past. Horror fact-fans will be fascinated to know he was Benico Del Toro’s brother in The Wolfman (2010). Add a bit of well-judged humour, a nice turn from Grahame Fox as the inevitable and rather well done titular ghost and you’ve got an entertaining movie. Result.

Basically Simon Pearce has done a lot with what he’s got here and while Judas Ghost isn’t actually terrifying, it certainly chilling enough to do the job and we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the DVD or getting it from one of the major streaming providers.

Special Features: Behind the scenes / Deleted scenes

JUDAS GHOST / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: SIMON PEARCE / SCREENPLAY: SIMON R. GREEN / STARRING: MARTIN DELANEY, LUCY CUDDEN, SIMON MERRELLS, ALEXANDER PERKINS, GRAHAME FOX / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

Once again, the brilliant Arrow Films have taken an old favourite and given it a suped-up, cleaned-up, extras-filled Blu-ray release. This time the film in question is Marco Ferreri’s 1973 mildly dark comedy, La Grande Bouffe.

In terms of plot, the film finds four long-standing friends take up residence in a country mansion. The simple aim of the game is to gorge themselves on as much food as possible… well, until they also decide to add some female company into the mix. As such, three whores and a teacher end up at this party of excess and decadence, but maybe all in question have bitten off more than they can chew.

The end result of La Grande Bouffe is seemingly what you’d get if you plonked a couple of Carry On movies, a few Confessions of a… movies and a large dollop of European arthouse in a blender and hit full speed for just over 2 hours. Despite the odd premise and risqué sexual element, there are actually plenty of laugh-out-loud moments dotted throughout La Grande Bouffe’s runtime. Particular humour comes from the sexed-up Marcello, with his smutty tone remiss of a French Sid James (or even our very own Assistant Editor, Martin), although all involved in this feast of overindulgence get their moments to shine in equal measure.

Somewhere buried within the plot of food and sex, Ferreri’s film does have some semblance of irony and, dare we say, meaning. As the sounds-good-on-paper plan of indulgence begins to spiral out of control, there is a clear message of overdoing things, with each person’s particular vices coming back to bite them on the proverbial backside.

The style and shooting of La Grande Bouffe is as lavish and as full of colour as its exquisite dining tables, and the film gushes vibrancy, character and detail at every corner. Holding it all together is our central foursome (all using their real first names for their characters – Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Ugo Tognazzi and Philippe Noiret), as all have their little quirks and differing characterisations that slowly start to unravel throughout the film. Then there’s Andrea Ferreol as the apparent delicate flower of a school teacher who it soon becomes clear is up for arguably even more of a good time than anyone else involved in this plentiful party of profligacy.

As ever with these recent Arrow releases, we’ve got a crisp, enhanced new transfer of the film, which adds even further to its charm. Yes, it might be mad as a box of frogs at times, but La Grande Bouffe is a tasty offering in bizarre-but-brilliant cinema.

Special Features: The Farcical Movie feature on Marco Ferreri / Behind-the-scenes footage with cast and crew interviews / Extracts from Couleurs autour d’un festival with cast and crew interviews / Selected scene commentary / News report from Cannes Film Festival / Visual essay / Trailer / Collector’s booklet

LA GRANDE BOUFFE / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: MARCO FERRERI / SCREENPLAY: MARCO FERRERI, RAFAEL AZCONA, FRANCIS BLANCHE / STARRING: MARCELLO MASTROIANNI, MICHEL PICCOLI, UGO TOGNAZZI, PHILIPPE NOIRET, ANDREA FERREOL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

Charlie Chaplin made several films rightly considered classics, and if you’re a fan of silent cinema, you’ve probably got them on DVD already. But if there’s a gap in your collection, you may want to pick up one of the new releases from Artificial Eye, and the latest in that collection is Modern Times, considered one of his best.

For those unfamiliar with it, Modern Times may not be exactly how you imagine a Chaplin film. For starters, it’s not entirely silent. Made later in his career, and preceding his first proper ‘talkie’ The Great Dictator, this film blends silent and sound filmmaking, mostly focusing on Chaplin’s physical pratfalling but with some incursions of sound, most notably when he’s forced to improvise a song and dance number and spouts a masterwork of gibberish known as the “nonsense song”.

Secondly, the story’s no light-hearted romp. After losing his factory job, Chaplin’s ‘Little Tramp’ character goes through a series of jobs, desperately trying to hold onto work so that he can he can keep himself and his orphaned girlfriend off the streets. This may sound like a bit of a downer, and indeed Chaplin doesn’t pull his punches in his critique of the oppressive industrial society and the struggles of the unemployed.

But don’t think the film’s at all as downbeat as this theme – you come to Chaplin for the physical comedy, and Modern Times provides that in bucketloads. Every job the Tramp tries out is hampered by a mixture of incompetence and bad luck, providing a regular stream of moments that will make even the most skeptical of old cinema laugh out loud. From letting a massive ship float off to sea to getting his mechanic boss stuck between the cogs of an enormous machine, via roller skating around a department store, perilously close to a high drop, this guy can’t seem to get anything right. Look out, too, for the brilliant scene in which the factory owners test out a new ‘worker feeding machine’ on him, a ludicrous contraption that looks like Wallace and Gromit crossed with 1984.

Modern Times will surpass your expectations; blending unrelenting social critique with the buffoonery of one of the twentieth century’s greatest comedians, it’s genuinely worthy of the term ‘masterpiece’.

Also included on this disc is The Idle Class, a half-hour film from 1921 in which Chaplin’s Tramp wanders onto a golf resort and gets up to his usual trouble. Plus there’s BTS look-back Chaplin Today, an introduction, trailers, and deleted scene. These extras aren’t new – Chaplin Today first appeared on a 2003 release – so may not warrant a re-purchase from established Chaplin fans, but will more than suffice to indulge the curiosity of newcomers.

Special Features: The Idle Class / Chaplin Today / Introduction / Deleted scene / Trailers

MODERN TIMES / CERT: U / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: CHARLIE CHAPLIN / STARRING: CHARLIE CHAPLIN, PAULETTE GODDARD / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 24TH

 

The comedic stylings of Charlie Chaplin are rather lost on the modern age. The problem with being one of the classic clowns of the last century is that everyone has either copied him or copied someone copying him. As a result, he seems rather tame to modern tastes. This is not always true though – The Great Dictator is one of his greatest achievements and is still both amusing and relevant to the people of the 21st century.

Released in 1940, The Great Dictator is a thinly veiled parody of Hitler’s Germany, or to put it another way, a funny little man with an odd moustache having a go at one of history’s greatest monsters, who also happened to be a funny little man with an odd moustache. The movie opens with the nation of Tomainia on the losing side of World War I. We meet Chaplin’s first character, a simple Jewish/Tomainian barber who bares more than a passing resemblance to Chaplain’s world famous Little Tramp character. 20 years pass and a chap called Adenoid Hynkel has risen to power. He also happens to look like the barber. Hynkel is aided in his desire for world domination by Napaloni, played by Jack Oakie, who has more than a passing resemblance to Mussolini.

The movie packs a lot into two hours, helped by its skilful and cutting assessment of the world stage in 1940. This is an American movie and became many American’s first taste of the horrors that were happening in Europe at the time. Chaplin is ruthless in comedy and humanitarian in his direction.  The movie ends with a, now famous, heartfelt plea for peace and understanding, and it is worth watching for this alone.

The Blu-ray/DVD extras aren’t that remarkable. We get a nice (if uncontroversial) documentary that correctly asserts that Chaplin was ahead of his time in both awareness of global politics and in production of funny movies.  We get some rare colour footage taken whilst the movie was being shot, and the usual trailers and adverts for related products. It’s nothing terribly interesting all told, but then we can hardly expect an audio commentary from the long dead actors.

The Great Dictator is a classic for a reason, and if you haven’t seen it you should. Its complexity will no doubt surprise you, and its message will move you.

Special Features: Documentary / Rare colour footage / Trailers

THE GREAT DICTATOR / CERT: U / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: CHARLIE CHAPLIN / STARRING: CHARLIE CHAPLIN, PAULETTE GODDARD, JACK OAKIE / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 24TH

 

The latest, and presumably “final”, film b legendary filmmaker John Boorman, Queen & Country is the long-awaited semi-sequel to Hope & Glory. Set in 1952, the central character of Bill Rohan (Callum Turner), who previously took childish pleasure in his school being bombed, is now doing national service for the Korean War alongside his rebellious comrade, Percy Hapgood (Caleb Landry Jones). Along the way, their friendship becomes challenged, psychological wars break out between fellow soldiers, and Bill undergoes a rite of passage, not just with the army, but also in the prospects of romance when he obsessively falls for suicidal toff “Ophelia” (Tamsin Egerton).

This is a story that is obviously very personal to John Boorman, being heavily inspired by many events that have happened in his own life, and it is pretty much everything you would expect from him. The film is visually arresting, the story is very heartfelt and rich with nostalgia, features a melange of conflicting accents and some peculiarly theatrical staging involved. This is a very old-fashioned film in some ways, yet this is one of those films that hark back to the old days of moviemaking, as symbolised by the film’s moving final shot.

Boorman is someone who has had an extraordinary career with many great highs (Deliverance and Point Blank) and many unforgettable lows (Exorcist II: The Heretic and Zardoz), but in the case of this, it’s oddly gentle in some ways. There is a dark subversive undercurrent about being involved in the national service and what it must’ve been like, and when you watch the film you do feel the personal vision that’s in it. Most of the actors involved do give solid performances: the louche Richard E. Grant is brilliantly deadpan, David Thewlis chewing the scenery as ever, Callum Turner being a likeable lead, and Vanessa Kirby is brilliantly witty as Bill’s rebellious sister.

However, despite the care and attention that’s been put into this film, one can’t help but feel disjointed and uncertain about it. Some situations occur abruptly out of nowhere and some of the performances can be quite alienating, particularly American actor Caleb Landry Jones, whose portrayal of an unstable Brit with a fire-branded temper is more associated with that of a blood-vessel-busting whiner. Also, Tamsin Egerton gives a cold performance that makes us less sympathetic towards her mentally suicidal loner, yet it’s not entirely Egerton’s fault, but to due with what she’s been given to work with, which is a shame considering how great an actress she is in 4.3.2.1., Chalet Girl and TV’s Camelot.

There’s a strange theatricality to John Boorman’s work, as it always has been, which is a disjunction sometimes between the visuals and the sound, and it’s primarily Boorman’s own distinctive flair of theatricality. It’s a distinctive vision by a director who has earned the right to make the film he wants to make, even though that film is quite alienating at times and emotionally disconnecting. It is a shame it’s not as masterful as it should’ve been, yet Boorman is someone that has somehow able to turn flaws into significant strengths, and that is something he’ll always be famous for.

QUEEN & COUNTRY / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: JOHN BOORMAN / STARRING: CALLUM TURNER, CALEB LANDRY JONES, PAT SHORTT, TAMSIN EGERTON, RICHARD E. GRANT / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 24TH