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| The Ipcress File |
Litigante, Curzon Home Cinema, Monday July 13
Although lockdown has eased for many, Curzon is continuing its excellent selection of Living Room Q&As, this week including a post-screening chat with Litigante director Franco Lolli and the star of his film Carolina Sanín. The actress is a writer by trade but you wouldn't know it as she fully inhabits Colombian single mum Silvia as she copes with the stress of motherhood (Leticia Gómez, a retired lawyer but equally adept in front of a lens), the fractious relationship with her terminally ill mum and a legal threat at work. Lolli never forces the action or the emotion as he examines what makes these two women tick in a naturalistic and, ultimately, hopeful way. The Q&A begins at 8.30pm. Plus you can catch Werner Herzog on July 16 at the same time, talking about Family Romance LLC. Read our full review of Litigante here.
Nico, 1988, Film4, Thursday, 2am and You, the Living, Amazon
Andrew Robertson writes: These films have much in common beyond commas. Quotidian grandeur, celebration of melancholy, and, dreamingly, the bombers. Andersson's film is notionally second in a trilogy, no help nor harms in knowing its parentheses. From its first episode, a directorial voice instantly distinctive. Among his characters some who doubtless know Nico's work, though they may prefer The Cure. Their punctuated struggle, to know, to be known is more than echoed in Susanna Nicchiarelli's rhythmic biopic. Each has moments of levity, wit, beauty - I can recall all of 1987 in Nico clearer than the actual year. Neither perhaps comfort viewing - though there's certainly affirmation in knowing others struggle. In each there is much of sound, the ring of truth. Read our full reviews of You, The Living and Nico, 1988.
The Ipcress File, BBC iPlayer, until August 10
Michael Caine was busy cementing himself as a household name on the big screen when he took on the role of Harry Palmer in Sidney J Furie's spy thriller, which came out the year after his breakout turn in 1964's Zulu and the year before Alfie. He brings a dash of East End grit to Len Deighton's secret-agent-with-attitude, who is embroiled in a kidnapping and brainwashing plot. Shot with off-kilter angles by cinematographer Otto Heller, we are invited to step into Palmer's disorientation, but Furie always ensures the movie stays grounded in a reality that's a world away from the glitz of James Bond. Read our full review here.
In Between, Film4 player until July 23
Debut director Maysaloun Hamoud found herself issued with a fatwa for this film - a celebration of womanhood which explores the lives of three Palestinian women sharing a flat in Tel Aviv as they find themselves caught between tradition and modernity. Leila (Mouna Hawa) and Salma (Sana Jammelieh) are best mates and social butterflies who find their lives shifting when the shy, hijab-wearing Nour (Shaden Kanboura) moves in. This might sound a familiar set-up but Hamoud avoids cliche to allow the emotion and connection to gently build between the trio as they stand in solidarity with one another in the face of the complex demands of a patriarchal society and their cultural roots. Read our full review.
Deadpool, Film4, 9pm
Ryan Reynolds has, arguably, the best time anyone has had in a superhero suit as the wisecracking mercenary at the heart of Tim Miller's comic book caper. Subversive and slick, this origin story sees Reynolds' Wade Wilson being subjected to the rogue experiment that leads to his super-healing powers but you're here for the banter not the plot as Reynolds deftly delivers snark carefully crafted snark by scriptwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, merrily skewering action cliches as they zip and zap across to time frames with ease. It's testimony to just how good Reynolds is at this that, by the end, you won't just be laughing, you'll care about what happens. Read our full review here.
Anita And Me, iPlayer until July 18
Tapping into the same well of cross-cultural comedy drama as Bend It Like Beckham and, more recently, Blinded By The Light, Myra Syal's sprightly adaptation of her own semi-autobiographic book, is brought to warm-hearted life by director Metin Hüseyin. Stepping back to 1972, it charts the coming-of-age of 12-year-old Meena (Chandeep Uppal, full of infectious energy) as she befriends an older, rebellious teen (Anna Brewster). Full of character-driven comedy and with a great ensemble cast, it might not linger too long in the memory but it's fun while it lasts. Read the full review here.
Last Year In Marienbad director Alain Resnais has come up in our short selection before with the The Styrene's Song and his short documentary All The Memory Of The World is also well worth your time. The film, about the French national library, features clever roving camera, dramatic cuts and a surprisingly philosophical consideration of memory.
