Film review: Robert Eggers' The Witch

The wilderness of colonial New-England, 1630.  Upon the threat of banishment for his extremist religious views, a Puritan farmer leaves a plantation town with his wife and five children and founds a farmhouse at the edge of a forbidding wood. 

There they begin a devout life in solitude until, one day, the baby is stolen by a malevolent figure that lurks in the trees, and superstition and mistrust set in. As the family begins to unravel, a sinister force slowly takes hold...  

The Witch does not conform to the tired, ten-a-penny examples of modern horror that dole out cheap thrills with tiredly predictable jumps and scares. 

To watch this film is to be immersed human darkness, to be filled with a dread that slowly creeps beneath your skin and haunts you long after the credits have rolled. It is an exquisitely unflinching study of trauma, visceral angst, and paranoia that is framed, and not dominated, by the supernatural.

The film’s young director, Robert Eggers, grew up in New England, where the ruins of colonial houses still remain and stories of witches are still a part of the landscape. “I had witch nightmares all through my life”, he explains. “I wanted to make an archetypal New England horror story, something that felt like an inherited nightmare from the past.”  

And for Eggers, the devil was in the detail. The film was almost entirely shot by the light of a candle or sunlight, the sparing soundtrack uses instruments from the era, and the language is directly influenced by contemporary reported accounts of witchcraft. “I think there’s a kind of magic in the authenticity,” he reveals. 

The director also fought a long battle to persuade the film's investors to provide a budget that would allow for total historical accuracy, from constructing sets using actual period tools down to sourcing antique, hand-woven cloth for costumes. “My obsession was to recreate the 17th century in order for the witch to be real again for people,” says Eggers, “and for her to be powerful again.”

And quite rightly so, since, to the superstitious, male-dominated zeitgeist of those times, a witch was very real – and very threatening. She was a monstrous embodiment of unbridled femininity, wicked, deadly, and horribly beguiling; she was an inversion of the domesticated housewife, what Eggers refers to as “the anti-mother”, who dances naked in the woods for the devil and steals unbaptised infants away into the night.  

Eggers’s witch is the catalyst in a grim and inescapable alchemical reaction that occurs as the family unit collapses under the pressure of a self-imposed exile and consumes itself.

Compelling performances are given by the whole cast, most especially so by its younger members. 

Actor, Anya Taylor-Joy, absorbingly portrays the film’s central character, Thomasin, who struggles amid the constraints of her puritanical surroundings as she enters into womanhood.

 A truly remarkable acting talent is demonstrated by teenager Harvey Scrimshaw, who plays Thomasin's younger brother, Caleb, during an incredibly disturbing scene of possession and euphoric torment.

The Witch is a work of beautiful cinematography that masterfully handles the use of light and shadow. What’s more, each carefully constructed shot is a lesson in the creation of anxiety: never before have trees been rendered so utterly menacing.

It is easy to draw a host of themes from the film – feminism, coming of age, the plight of the outcast, the fragility of the social infrastructure – yet Eggers is wisely unwilling to restrict the piece by preaching his own personal meaning too heavily.

 In the same way, Eggers’s elusive witch figure herself acts only a kind of profane mirror in which the characters descry the awful truth of their own fears, flaws and longings, and perhaps help us acknowledge our own. “The weight and intensity of the past has a kind of power”, he says. “I find it’s a better place to ask big questions. […] The dead speak more loudly to me than the living.” 

The Witch was released in cinemas 11th March. Watch the trailer below.

 © Images courtesy of A24

Film review: AMY - a powerful mosaic of the unforgettable icon from the perspectives of those that knew her

After three years in the making, the wait is almost over for fans of the inimitable music icon, Amy Winehouse, as the much talked about new docufilm of her life hits screens this Friday.

Created by the team that brought us the multiple award-winning 2011 film, Senna, this new insight rejects the more more common “talking heads” format. Using archival footage almost exclusively, including an abundance of unseen home video recordings, Amy presents new audio recordings of interviews with the starlet's friends, family and colleagues, and also features fascinating glimpses of her sing notes, and previously unreleased tracks. What this mesmerising film reveals to us is the woman behind the name and beyond the tabloids.

Last night, a live screening of the film’s London gala premiere was aired at over 300 cinemas across the UK, along with a Q&A session featuring Director, Asif Kapadia, the film’s Producer, James Gay-Rees, and Nick Shymanksy, Amy’s first manager and close friend.

“When they think of Amy, a lot of people only seem to think of her in that latter period,” Kapadia tells us before the film begins, “and I wanted to readdress that. […] I wanted a positive image to come up, a young, healthy, beautiful image, not a negative one; a film that shows the real Amy - someone that was really funny, intelligent, amazing, a brilliant writer, a brilliant singer.”

Yet, Amy’s release has not been without opposition from within. Although the artist’s father, Mitch Winehouse, was initially keen for Kapadia to direct the film after seeing his previous work, he was unhappy with the final cut and threatened legal action unless further editing took place. Although some alterations were made, Mitch remains angered with the portrayal, believing it makes him out to be an uncaring father and a villain: “there’s too much at stake. There’s Amy’s reputation. There’s my reputation”, he said in an interview recently.

Shortly after Amy’s death, her father set up the Amy Winehouse Foundation, an organisation which works to help prevent the effects of drug and alcohol misuse on young people.  Mitch describes the film as being “misleading and contains some basic untruths”, airing concerns that “if this hurts the Foundation, which it potentially could do, you’re talking about damaging thousands of kids.” However, it appears that what this film does in fact give us is an unflinching look at the harrowing consequences of Amy’s addictions and the traumatic effect on those close to her. In stark contrast to her father’s opinion, it is clear Kapadia’s film instead highlights these issues and so can only serve to aid the foundation’s cause.

As the director admits, he is not associated with the music industry nor had ever met anyone linked to her, so had almost no knowledge of Amy as a person whatsoever before approaching the film, doing so without any kind of prejudice or agenda.  He at first gained the trust of her close friend, Nicky Shymanksy, who then put him in touch with her other friends and associates, and slowly, over the course of three years, he interviewed around one hundred people to try and fit together her story like a puzzle, build her timeline, and get a complete picture of Amy: “It’s a mosaic, it’s never perfect, “says Kapadia, “it’s fragments, you’ve got memories, you’ve got little pieces here and there and you’ve got to play with them as much as you can to try and plug holes.” With this in mind, surely this film then is an arguably rare example of artistic impartiality that gives us the most truthful, balanced portrait of Amy yet, in all possible lights?

Sore spots, it seems, have only developed where the archival content that has arisen isn’t always kind to those involved. Mitch admits he began an affair with another woman when Amy was just a little over a year old which carried on in secret for eight years before her parents finally divorced, affecting her incredibly deeply.  So, when we hear audio of Amy herself describing how her father was never there for the “important bits” when she was growing up, it goes to reason that what Mitch is more likely fearful of is a brutally honest depiction of himself over which he has no control and which doesn’t gloss over any of his influences on Amy’s life, both good or bad.  

Of course, Amy couldn’t escape documenting the turbulent relationship with ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, one of the more notorious aspects of the troubled artist’s life. It was clear that Amy was madly in love with bad boy Fielder-Civil, but it becomes quickly clear that her emotional overreliance on him was dangerous, and their marriage was continually intense, volatile and toxic.  Her introduction to crack cocaine and heroin by her husband, combined with ongoing bulimia issues and her later alcohol abuse, was to send her into a destructive downward spiral and cause the irreparable health problems which ultimately lead to her death.

Of course, the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle of the talented star attracted the attentions of the press, and paparazzi swarmed about her house day and night, adding to the stress and pressure of her everyday life. But it was never fame that Amy wanted; the only thing she craved was to make music. The night before she died, Amy’s bodyguard, Andrew Morris, recalls how she was watching videos of her performances with him. “’Boy, I can really sing!’ she said. “But do you know what? I’d hand all of it back right now, just to be able to walk down the street again.”

However, the film doesn’t necessarily lay the guilt for Amy’s death on any single individual. Instead, it honestly presents the various failures, small and large, of a number of individuals - amongst them the singer herself - to say enough is enough and put Amy first. 

Nevertheless, asked during the live Q&A if he is of the belief that you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to help themselves, Shymanksy disagrees, saying “You can try.” “But everyone did try, didn’t they”, says the interviewer, to which he insinuatingly replies, “well, I don’t know about that. I think there’re levels of statements you make, positions you take. You can’t say to someone ‘I don’t believe you should be doing that, but I’m going to go along with you while you do it.’” It’s quite obvious he is referring to what he sees as the often complicit attitude of Amy’s father in regards to her destructive behaviour, as well as his seemingly skewed paternal priorities, alluded to by many of those close to Amy in the film including her oldest and closest friends, when it came to putting his daughter’s wellbeing before her musical career.

Amy loved her father deeply, and constantly sought affirmation from him. It does appear that, in many ways, he rejected numerous vital opportunities to intervene which could have, to some degree, helped save Amy’s life further down the line. One striking example is even painfully immortalised in her hit song, “Rehab”: “I ain’t got the time and if my daddy thinks I’m fine - they tried to make me go to rehab and I said ‘no, no, no.’” When concerned friends suggested rehab after finding her in a drug-fuelled haze amid squalid living conditions following her first devastating break up with Blake, her father admits in an interview that he told her there was no need. Naturally then, she chose to decline the help she desperately needed.

Had she decided differently, the album “Back to Black” may well never have come into existence, but it’s also possible Amy could have been prevented from travelling any further down the dark path she was unwittingly on, nipping her addiction issues in the bud and saving her life. That the single representing her fatal decision also had a part to play in leading her to international fame (as well as infamy) and eventually to her premature death is a horrible irony.

Amy’s lyrics themselves are of such significance to her story that Kapadia makes the bold decision to present them to us visually on screen at several points, since they alone can best express her perspectives, her loves, and her struggles, without external prejudice. Although there was no definitive expert on Amy to whom the director could talk, the most revealing insights to what was going on in Amy’s mind at different stages of her life, as one observant audience member at the Q&A session noted, lay unquestionably in her songs. “Her lyrics are the map”, Kapadia remarks. 

  

Amy gives us the full picture that was always missing, and is a deeply moving and powerful work of cinema. We see the warm, intelligent, outspoken girl grow and enter into womanhood, with all her faults and strengths in tow, as she begins the iconic career which was our blessing and, perhaps, her curse.  An immense talent, charismatic, passionate and wise beyond her years, Amy Winehouse is quite simply the voice that affected a generation.

Amy is released nationwide on the 3^rd July.

Images (in order) from Wikipedia, unkown source, decorandstyle.co.uk, topnew,in, and The Guardian

REVIEW: Matthew Bourne's Edward Scissorhands is a shear delight

After ten years, Matthew Bourne has revived his critically acclaimed stage interpretation of Tim Burton’s cinematic masterpiece, Edward Scissorhands, brought to life by his dance theatre company, New Adventures. It recently kicked off its nationwide tour after a successful month-long residence at London Sadlers Wells theatre over Christmas and is currently performing at Liverpool’s Empire theatre.

This unique modern fairy tale of how society reacts to the outsider and how it treats all those who are different has unquestionably become a cult-classic. One day, a clever, but lonely old inventor decides to create a son; and so, using his ingenious skills, Edward is brought to life. However, the old man passes away before he can replace his creation’s frightening scissor appendages with hands and innocent Edward is unwittingly left alone and incomplete. When he finally ventures beyond the grounds of his father’s crumbling mansion, he is taken in by the family of a caring Avon saleswoman and falls in love with her teenage daughter, Kim. Thanks to his strange appearance and the whacky, imaginative hedge sculptures and haircuts he produces, Edward quickly becomes flavour of the month with the town’s residents – but it can’t last, and as the tide turns and opinions change everything begins to fall apart.

Before it finally premiered in 2005, the first dance production of Edward Scissorhands took over seven years to be developed. Bourne believes he would have given up hope of the project ever coming to fruition but for the support of the film’s creators: director and all-round fantastical genius, Tim Burton;  composer, Danny Elfman, whose score for the film has become an iconic fairy tale soundtrack and is retained in the stage adaption; and skilled screenwriter, Caroline Thompson, who also helped co-adapt new stage version. “I was overwhelmed, during this time,” says Bourne, “by the kindness and trust that they each showed me in handing over what I knew was a very personal and beloved project for each of them. […] I only hope […] that we have done justice to the spirit of their unique cinematic version.”

Unafraid, as ever, to stamp his own mark onto renowned and much loved works, Bourne has daringly added a striking new addition to the plot, creating a prologue that reveals to us the tragic reasons why the inventor decides to create Edward in the first place.

In addition, he takes the essence of some of the larger than life inhabitants of Hope Springs that we recognise from the film, developing and transforming them into entire families for a more defined and contrasting patchwork of suburban life that still successfully channels the comedy of the original. For example, Burton’s fanatically religious neighbour becomes a whole god-fearing, judgemental family complete with Goth son, and a garish family of hicks set up their lawn chairs next to the pin-up perfection of the local mayor and mayoress’s offspring. As always with a Bourne creation, the set and costumes, both designed by Lez Brotherstone, are mesermising and perfectly compliment the performance.

Some aspects of the creative changes, however, don’t come without a certain loss. In Burton’s film we see lucky, strong-hearted and unerringly decent character of mother figure Peg Boggs fearlessly visit the ominous mansion that broods over the town, discover the lonely Edward, and usher him into the colourful, 50s-isinpired world he only ever spied from afar. Yet, Bourne’s Peg simply discovers Edward as he wanders the streets in confusion, and although she is kind and loving, the prominence of her role is significantly lessened and there is a sense that she merges a little too completely into the background as a slightly more mundane 50s housewife character.

Of course, to a die-hard fan, in the re-adaption of such a timeless cult-classic there will always be something at which to nit-pick. Yet, the change is a forgivable one when considering the difficulty of translating the heart-breaking emotion of the original work into expressive dance choreography. Nevertheless, Bourne’s Edward Scissorhands is a triumph.

Talented young Dominic North wins the hearts of audience members with his excellent portrayal of Edward (also played by Liam Mow) and overcomes the challenge of handling the scissor blades that are part of his costume effortlessly. All the company’s dancers, without exception, are immensely gifted. Larger scenes featuring the full cast of over twenty are truly a feast for the eyes, with little character quirks played out wherever you look, thanks to the careful attention of Bourne’s devoted choreographic detail.

One particularly memorable and beautiful scene portrays Edward and Kim, as they dance within a magical dream sequence where the topiary figures Edward sculpts whimsically come to life. Another re-enacts the famous scene as Edward sculpts an angel out of ice and Kim dances entranced in the snow-like flakes that fall below, all with gorgeously balletic choreography.

Touring until mid-march, regardless of whether or not you are a fan of Bourne’s work or even of dance, everyone must seize the fleeting opportunity to catch this magical work for the second time before it’s over for good.

As if on cue, as the curtain falls in Liverpool, flurries of snow roll into the city and across the North West - you can’t help but wonder if Edward is behind it all.

For more information about the show and for tour dates, visit Matthew Bourne's New Adventures website here.

Photos by Johan Persson

CULTURE: CHARLIE CHAPLIN'S STUNNING AND MOVING SPEECH ON HUMANITY

Charlie Chaplin’s beautiful and moving speech on humanity and the fight for a free and united world, from his film The Great Dictator (1940), and with the addition of stirring music by Hans Zimmer from the film Inception (2010).

Utterly stunning. Never have his words rang more true than in these times of oppression, greed, and fear.

ARTICLE: GRATEFUL TO GATSBY ~ Jazz Age Revival in the Modern Day

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is unequivocally one of the best literary works of the twentieth century. ‘In my younger and more vulnerable years’ (to quote the opening lines of the novel’s realistically flawed narrator, Nick Carraway), I was introduced to the text at school and was instantly smitten.

         It follows the tale of one enigmatic man’s unquenchable sense of hope as he tirelessly strives to win back a love that slipped through his fingers years before, all amid the corruption and decadence of Jazz Age New York. Though evocative of its era, it is a timeless story that resonates as strongly today as it did then, and with gorgeous prose and short, pacey chapters, The Great Gatsby is a must-read you’ll devour in no time at all and be left wanting more.

      As the excitement grows for the release of Baz Luhrmann’s latest bold new film adaption starring Carey Mulligan and Leonardo Dicaprio, it seems that Gatsby mania has taken hold.

Francis Cugat’s poignant artwork for the original edition of The Great Gatsby (right) so impressed F. Scott Fitzgerald that he decided to reference it in the book itself: ‘I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs’. As well as new editions of this cover, many others are now being released. In particular, Penguin has created a sumptuous new set of Fitzgerald’s stories with beautiful, shimmering Art Deco covers (Below).

Perhaps most influenced of all by the renewed interest in all things 20s is, however, the fashion world, as seen in Sue Wong’s new collection of elegant evening gowns dripping with glittering jewels and embroidered beading. And it’s no small wonder, with Prada having designed the dazzling array of costumes for the film’s actresses, mixing vintage styles with some of its more recent lines to create some strikingly beautiful and daring new pieces (below). 

Four sketches released by Prada for their The Great Gatsby costume designs

Along with hit series such as Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire, The Great Gatsby is also prompting men to look to the iconic styles of the past in favour of sleek tailoring, tie pins and luxurious fabrics. Being an advocate of classic men’s attire, I couldn’t be more thrilled.

In a bid to remain faithful to the look of the period, Catherine Martin, the film’s Academy Awarding-winning Production Designer, approached Brooks Brothers (the clothing company that the author Fitzgerald himself used) to design the clothes for the film’s leading actors as well as all the male extras. To tie in with the film’s release, Brooks Brothers have released a collection based on the garments used in the film, even including their trademark straw boater hats (see below).

Brooks Brothers new Gatsby collection based on the garments they created for Luhrmann's new film.

          Fitzgerald was also a patron of iconic jewellers Tiffany & Co. with whom Martin also collaborated for the film. Tiffany created signature pieces, such as Gatsby’s daisy-themed signet ring (below), as  well as allowed costume designers access to their extensive archives in order to recreate jewellery contemporary to the period,  like the exquisite tiara band (below) sported by actress Carey Mulligan at one of Gatsby’s extravagant parties. What’s more, the jewellers has released its Jazz Age Glamour Collection, decorating the flagship Fifth Avenue store with window displays inspired by the film (below). To show their appreciation for the original book, Tiffany has even granted Orion Books permission to use a design from their archives to create a new book cover.

Some of Tiffany's deco Jazz Age Glamour Collection window displays, New York

               The film will be in cinemas on 10th May, and I not only hope it is able to live up to the hype surrounding it, but that it also does justice to Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. If nothing else, Luhrmann’s adaption has made us appreciate once more all the beautiful artistic triumphs of a bygone era. I leave you with the words of Jay Gatsby himself: “‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’”

Review: PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER ~ From Book to Film

'[...]his gifts and his sole ambition were restricted to a domain that leaves no traces in history: to the fleeting realm of scent.'  

Süskind's novel is one you'll be glad you stuck your nose into.   

   Written in 1985, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (or Das Parfum as it appears in its original German) tells the story of 18th century man gifted from birth with the finest nose in the world. With it, he can detect, and distinguish between, every smell under the sun. 

   Relishing in the thousands of odours he encounters and stores up like ghostly memories in his black heart, he soon becomes obsessed with creating a perfume like no other on earth: a perfume made up of the collected fragrances of beautiful, young woman.  Its crowning glory will be the most intoxicating and elusive female scent he has ever encountered; and he will stop at nothing to possess it...

   Split into lots of short chapters and with eloquent and very pretty prose that are satisfyingly easy to read,  it is the ideal book for dipping in and out of; though, perhaps because of this, you may well find yourself lured into sniffing out "just one more chapter..." after another. It is a very pensive novel, and challenges our notions of beauty, self, and social order, yet all in a manner that refuses to be heavy going or patronising to the reader.

   Due to the fact that much of the book's most poignant moments involve the experiencing of certain aromas and the internal reflections and revelations they incur, it is certainly a difficult book to adapt onto screen. However, despite a certain necessary trimming-down of time periods, Tom Tywker's 2006 film adaption (see trailer above) is largely successful in its portrayal of such a seemingly impossible novel to film; all thanks to a clever use of 'blooming' light effects, camera shots and angles, and (the usual favourite of mine) a superb soundtrack (see right) which manages to beautifully imitate the detection and elusiveness of scents and the veritable ecstasy Grenouille feels in encountering them (best identified in the tracks  'Streets of Paris' (1:51) and 'Meeting Laura' (27:09)).

    Without wishing to ruin the end of either the book or film, the director manages to portray, in a very artistic and tasteful manner, an especially difficult scene from the end of the story (to those of you in the know I need merely say the 'town square' scene) which could potentially have seemed vulgar and ridiculous. It is a film I would very much recommend.



Rachel Hurd-Wood as the intoxicating Laura Richis (Left) and Ben Wishaw as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Right), murderous Perfumer with an extraordinary gift, in Perfume: The Story of  Murderer (2006).

    Without any further gilding the lily, it remains only for me to say that Perfume: The Story of  a Murderer is an intriguing and satisfying book that brings in to question a whole host of ideas of identity and of the finite nature of life.

Rating: ★★★

Softback book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfume-Story-Murderer-Patrick-Suskind/dp/0141041153

Film adaption:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfume-Story-Murderer-DVD/dp/B000MTF09A

   What're you thoughts on Süskind's novel? Does the film adaption live up/surpass to your expectations? Let me know your thoughts!

Film Review: Anna Karenina (2012)

A moving and bold adaption that is breath-taking in its theatricality

The respective talents of director Joe wright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard that have united to create this latest adaption of Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel Anna Karenina, deliver a fresh and vibrant addition to the rather stagnant realm of the period drama.

  The film recounts the fall from grace of Anna karenina (Keira Knightley), an aristocratic socialite who defies her husband, government offical (Jude Law) as well as the accepted social norms of 19th century Russia in her scandalous love affair with young, handsome and devilishly charming army officer Count Vronsky (Aaron Johnsnon).

Keira Knightley on set, with the clutter of
backstage at a theatre merging with the lavish
surroundings of 19th century Russian aristocracy.

  To describe this film as visually breath-taking is an understatement.

   The captivating and imaginative concept of setting the majority of the film within the confines of a 19^th century  theatre blurs lavish and dream-like scenery with the very real ropes, props and cobwebs of the stage wings. The result is a deliciously stylised portrayal of the decadent final days of the Russian Empire where surge heated passions and scandals, that serves to contrast starkly with the fleeting glimpses we are given of the labouring world of the character Levin, played by Domnhall Gleeson, the film’s ‘one true soul’ according to production designer Sarah Greenwood; he is Wright’s Tolstoy counterpart who is able ‘to leave the theatrical metaphor. He gets a proper house and fields and everything.’ The perfection to detail is at once apparent, from the sumptuous costumes – noticeably Knightley’s, whose garments inspired by 1950s French couture give a subtle dash of modernity to 19^th century elegance – to the perfectly choreographed and ethereal dance scenes.

   Despite Johnson coming off as a touch wooden and Keira Knightley’s occasional habit of overacting some scenes, the performances are nevertheless strong, well-played and, combined with the orchestral genius of Dario Marianelli’s superb score, incredibly moving, ensuring Wright’s creation contains a wealth of substance to match its unquestionable style.

   Anna Karenina is a successful interpretation of a notoriously difficult novel to portray on screen, a must see film that explores the boundaries between artifice and reality, happiness and duty, love and lust.

Rating: ★★★★

Runtime: 130 min. In cinemas now.