Saturday June 29
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy [M-Net.01.50]
THE SEARCH IS OVER- RODRIGUEZ FLANCKED BY MICHAEL BARKER AND MALIK BENDJELLOUL
Searching for Sugar Man [M-Net.03.55]
Sunday June 30
Zilch
Monday July 1
Master Harold …and the Boys [M-Net.03.25]
Tuesday July 2
A VERY DISTURBING PERFORMANCE FROM MICHAEL SHANNON.SEE BELOW
Take Shelter [M-Net.02.45]
Wednesday July 3
MICHELLE WILLIAMS IN BLUE VALENTINE
Blue Valentine [M-Net.00.30]
The Horses of McBride [M-Net.03.50]
Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First Hundred Years [e.tv.22.35 and 02.00]
***
MICHAEL SHANNON PRECOGNITION OR
PRE PSYCHOTIC?
MALIK BENDJELLOUL
Searching for Sugar Man [M-Net.Saturday.03.55] won an Oscar this year for Best Documentary, always a keenly contested category. The movie was made by Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul, but the story, of course, has a strong South African connection.
SEX AND DRUGS...NOT MUCH ROCK 'N' ROLL
In my first week on the job, in a record bar in the mid 70s, a customer asked me for Cold Fact, something or someone I’d never heard of. I asked a colleague, ‘Oh yeah, he replied, ‘that Rodriguez guy who sings about sex and drugs’
THE PSYCHEDELIC SUSSEX LABEL
I found the album on the shelf marked Folk, the label was Sussex, featuring a guy in a hat and glasses, singing in the then popular singer/ songwriter fashion. I sold many of those albums through the years and gave it not a second thought.
WHERE DID HE GO?
Later, after the Sussex label went bang, for a while Rodriguez records (there was another one) became hard to come by; the rumour mill into overdrive. Rodriguez had died on stage/overdosed/gone to live on a Native American reservation. There was no Internet check in those days and besides Folk/Rock had given way to Queen Disco.
SUGAR WITH HIS MAN
Two hardened Rodriguez fans, one even nicknamed Sugar after the Rodriguez song Sugar Man began to search for the reclusive singer, found him and gave Sixto Rodriguez the beginnings of a second career; then came Bendjelloul and his Award winning film. This appraisal is a little simplistic, for example, Rodriguez also had a keen fan base in Australia.
CRAIG BARTHOLOTHEW STRYDOM
The movie, however, is both imaginative and unique, capturing the essence of a long ago time with both flair and panache. Personally, I wonder if Stephen (Sugar) Segerman and Craig Bartholothew Strydom, the two fans who initiated the search for Sixto found what they were looking for…
RODRIGUEZ- STILL STRUMMING
or even knew what it was… something that nether Rodriguez or anyone else can give them, their lost youth. That being said, the film is a nostalgic treat for those of us who were there, and a fascinating slice of history those who weren’t even born in the 70s.
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MASTER HAROLD AND ONE OF THE BOYS-VING RHAMES AS SAM
Another film with a definite South African setting is a version of Athol Fugard’s play, Master Harold… and the Boys [M-Net.Monday.03.25], first written and produced in 1982.The movie, like the play is set in a Port Elizabeth tearoom in 1950.
ATHOL FUGARD
The play, was of course, banned in South Africa for many years; like most of Fugard’s work, the play/film holds up a fly specked mirror, one that reflects the brutality that was Apartheid.
HALLY TRANSMUTES INTO MASTER HAROLD
Apartheid made racism a way of life, bigotry was carefully handed down from one white generation to another, until this learned behavior became a way of life. Master Harold, at 17, is at the stage when this impregnated racial hatred begins to bare tragic fruit.
LONNY PRICE ONCE PLAYED HALLY
In spite of the allegorical use of Ballroom Dancing, Kite Flying and Rain, the story remains essentially a filmed play, but with high-quality performances from Freddie Highmore as Harold, Ving Rhames as Sam and Patrick Mofokeng as Willie (the Boys). Director Lonnie Price does a sensitive job; after all, he knows the play very well, he originated the part of Hally/ Harold on Broadway.
NOT ALL OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE FROM DAWSON'S CREEK ACHIEVED LONG LASTING FAME
Michelle Williams has come a long way since her beginnings on Dawson’s Creek. For a while, too, she was merely known as Heath Ledger’s girlfriend and mother of his child, Matilda. More recently, however, she has proved herself to be a talented dramatic actress with a creative cutting edge.
AN UNEASY KISS FROM BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Ironically, her first Oscar nomination came in 2005, supporting Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain. In 2010, she was nominated for Blue Valentine [M-Net.Wednesday.00.30], only to loose to Natalie Portman.
WILLIAMS AS MARILYN
In 2011, she was again nominated, this time for playing Marilyn Monroe, only to be beaten by Meryl Streep impersonating Margaret Thatcher. Her time, I’m sure, will come.
RYAN GOSLING AS THE TROUBLED TEACHER IN HALF NELSON
Her co star in Blue Valentine, Canadian actor/ musician Ryan Gosling has also proven himself to be an actor of note, appearing in films as diverse as Lars and the Real Girl, Half Nelson and Drive.
LOVE ISN'T ALWAYS STRONG OR CONSTANT ENOUGH
In Blue Valentine, Williams and Gosling appear as a couple inside a failing marriage, the clever use of flashback allows the audience to participate in the events that brought them to this crisis point.
SO NEAR AND YET SO FAR AWAY
Blue Valentine is not a tranquil experience, reminding me a little of Ingmar Bergman and a lot of John Cassavetes. The performances are starkly real and the movie as a whole is well worth while.
AMY HILL HEARTH AND THE DELANY SISTERS
There are two biopics on show this week, one featuring strong women and the other defenseless horses. Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First Hundred Years [e.tv.Wednesday.22.35 and 02.00]; is a film made in 1999 from the 1993 book, which the Delany sisters wrote with the help of Amy Hill Hearth.
DEE AND CARROLL DO A FINE JOB
The movie stars Diahann Carroll and Ruby Dee; as a pair of strong willed sisters who lived a long time and saw history meld and change shape around them.
TWO SISTERS:TOGETHER FOREVER
Sadie and Bessie Delany were born to a freed slave, and lived in America from the days of the Jim Crow legislation to the heady liberation of the Civil Rights Struggle and beyond. Their ongoing Oral History is a joy to behold.
The Delany Sisters have honest opinions on all kinds of life experiences, from men to longevity. What a little gem of a movie with outstanding worthwhile performances. In a very valid way, The Delany Sisters can be seen in direct contrast to Master Harold… and the Boys
SO THE OWNER SAID
The Horses of McBride [M-Net.Wednesday.03.50] is a true life drama, set on Mount Renshaw, near the town Mc Bride, British Columbia, Canada.
STARVING, FREEZING AND NEAR DEATH
Two starving horses are left to die in the snow after being abandoned by their owner.A father and daughter duo, played by Aidan Quinn and Mackenzie Porter, rally their small town and risk themselves to dig these helpless creatures out of the snow.
AIDAN QUINN AND MACKENZIE PORTER ARE THE HUMAN STARS
This Canadian Production is such a pleasant change from all the violence and destruction that seems to be the norm these days.
JEFF NICHOLS
On a very different level, Jeff Nichols wrote and directed Take Shelter [M-Net.Tuesday.02.45]— the crux of the film is this; is Michael Shannon’s dream of apocalyptic devastation real or merely a manifestation of his paranoid imagination.
WORRIED WIFE AND TROUBLED HUSBAND
Jessica Chastain co stars the worried wife, who can’t be sure whether her husband has an inherited mental imbalance or like Noah before him, does he know something we don’t. This is an outstanding piece of cinematic fiction or should that read, cinematic fact?
RICHARD BURTON WAS LE CARRE'S QUINTESSENTIAL SPY; HERE PICTURED WITH MICHAEL HORTON
David Cornwell, better known as John Le Carre, has been writing about boozy, dissipated worn out spies since the 60s. Richard Burton was a perfect Le Carre spy, when he was cast as Alec Leamas in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, made in 1965. George Smiley was a peripheral character in that bleak black and white movie, played by Rupert Davies.
SIR ALEC AS SMILEY IN THE 70S
On television in the late 70s, Alec Guinness made the character of George Smiley his own; blinking eyes and obsessive spectacle cleaning. Even Le Carre thought that Sir Alec made a perfect Smiley.
OLDMAN IN CHARACTER
I was surprised when Swedish director Thomas Newman was announced to direct Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy [M-Net.Saturday.01.50], with Gary Oldman as Smiley and Colin Firth as Bill Haydon. What inspired casting that turned out to be.
BRIDGET O' CONNOR WAS ONLY 49 WHEN SHE DIED
Bridget O’Connor co wrote the script, sadly she did not live to see Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’s completion, she died of cancer before the film was released; Tinker Tailor is dedicated to her memory.
SAMMY DAVIS SANG THE SONG
The story, set in the spy infested 70s, is complicated, but well made and fairly succinct, with an emotive use of music, especially in the Christmas Party sequence. The song, The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World does exist and came from a British spoof called Licensed to Kill, made back in 1965, no prizes for guessing which spy is being sent up.
OLDMAN AS SMILEY
Oldman received much adulation and an Oscar nomination for his Smiley performance, which proves that old spies and spymasters never die; they just get their raincoats dry-cleaned and buy a new hat. A last comment, I’m sure that Smiley would have preferred the Charles Trenet original to Julio’s version of La Mer.
COLIN FIRTH-WHAT IS HE PLANNING?
I’m almost spoiled for choice this week, but as an old spy book/movie fan, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy [M-Net. Saturday.01.50] does it for me.