CONTENTS Page 3 Page 4-7
Editorial Dunkirk Allied soldiers from Belgian, The British Empire and France are surrounded by the German army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War 2.
Page 8-11
The Beguiled The unexpected arrival of a wounded Union soldier at a girl’s school in Virginia during the American Civil War leads to jealousy and betrayal.
Page 12-15
Song to Song Two intersecting love triangles. Obsession and betrayal set against the music scene in Austin, Texas.
Page 16-19
Maudie An arthritic Nova Scotia woman works as a housekeeper while she hones her skills as an artist and eventually a beloved figure in the community.
Page 20-23
In This Corner of The World. Set in Hiroshima during World War 2, an eighteen-year-old girl gets married and now must prepare food for her family despite rationing and lack of supplies.
Page 24-28
FilmFest Follower - Venice. A look at the programme of films on offer at the oldest film festival in the world.
Page 29-30
FilmFest Follower - Melbourne. A look at the programme scheduled to be screened at the longest programme of any film festival – 18 days.
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Extras – DVD – FRANZ In the aftermath of WWI, a young German who grieves the death of her fiancé in France meets a mysterious Frenchman who visits the fiancé's grave to lay flowers.
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Poster: Dunkirk.
PHOTO CREDITS: WARNER BROS. 1,4,6,7,32. UNIVERSAL PICTURES INTERNATIONAL. 8,10,11. STUDIO CANAL. 12, 14,15 SONY PICTURES RELEASING UK. 16,18,19 NATIONAL AMUSEMENTS 20,22,23
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: We would like to thank the following for their help in providing images for this magazine: Clare Cornick @Warner Bros.com Jenny Brereton PR Coordinator @ Warner Bros. Entertainment UK Megan Jones @premiercomms.com Paul Ockelford @premiercomms.com 2
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EDITORIAL Hello film lovers! Another exciting issue of Movies by Mills for you to read and encourage you to support your arthouse cinema and guide you to the best films to see on the big screen. Our front cover showcases a cinematic experience to treasure: Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece DUNKIRK which tells of the evacuation of thousands of Allied forces from the French beaches after being entrapped by the Germans in May 1940. Nolan’s intention was to put the cinemagoer right there at Dunkirk and is why it must be seen in 70mm Imax!
There are four other film recommendations: The Beguiled, Song to Song, Maudie and In This Corner of the World. As film festival seasons begin to emerge, we follow the programmes of two major festivals: Melbourne, which has the longest film schedule of any festival, 18 days, and Venice which is the oldest film festival in the world. Most film lovers are very optimistic in the films that are on the horizon, which is why they follow news about film festivals and attend art house cinemas to see the best films at them. Around the world there are film festivals; Sundance, Rotterdam, Berlin, New York, Cannes, Hong Kong, Tribeca, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Karlovy Vary, Melbourne, Sydney, Toronto, Vancouver, Venice, Moscow, Los Angeles, Tacoma, San Francisco, Dublin, Vienna, Mar Del Plata, Auckland, San Sebastian, Tokyo, Beijing, Pusan and London. Many of the films that are scheduled to be screened at Venice and Melbourne will be shown at the London Film Festival in October and Movies by Mills will be there every day to review the best and bring them to you in our Special 64-page issue which will be published online on Sunday 5th November – like Firework Night, something to celebrate.
Enjoy the read.
Brian Mills Magazine Editor
Paul Ridler Magazine Designer
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DUNKIRK Directed by Christopher Nolan Starring: Fionn Whitehead, Damien Bonnard, Aneurin Bonnard, Barry Keoghan, Mark Rylance, Tom Glynn-Carney, Tom Hardy, Jack Lowden, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy. There’s no hiding from this son. We have a job to do. Mr Dawson Turn it around. Shivering Soldier Any film by Christopher Nolan cannot be ignored and Dunkirk is no exception and by shooting on Imax and 65mm film it puts you right in the centre of the action and that action is recreating when 400,000 British and Allied troops were surrounded by enemy forces. Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea, facing an impossible situation as the enemy closes in. The story unfolds on land, sea and air. RAF Spitfires engage the enemy in the skies above the Channel, trying to protect the defenceless men below. Meanwhile, hundreds of small boats manned by both military and civilians are mounting a desperate rescue effort. Dunkirk is based on the evacuation that, although it took place in the early months of World War II had a direct impact on the outcome of the war. Nolan’s objective was to turn this historical moment into immediate, immersive cinema: an epic action thriller in which the stakes couldn’t be higher. He affirms: “What happened at Dunkirk is one of the greatest stories in human history, the ultimate life-or-death race against time. It was an extraordinary suspenseful situation, that’s the reality. Our aim with this movie was to throw the audience into that with an absolute respect for history, but also with a degree of intensity and of course, a sense of entertainment too. The story began in late May 1940, when the British Expeditionary Force, along with French, Belgian and Canadian troops were forced back to the beaches of Dunkirk. The shallow-drafted beach, with its 21-foot tide, prohibited the large British naval ships from rescuing the men. But there was hope, a call had gone out for small boats to aid the effort and a flotilla of non-military “little ships” sailed out from the
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southern coast of England to bring the men home, codenamed Operation Dynamo.
The film’s historical consultant, Joseph Levine, emphasizes that the 1940 evacuation is far more than just a British story. “It was a massive event that still has international significance. Everything that’s celebrated about World War II in Britain, in the United States, and all around the world, would not have happened without the Dunkirk evacuation taking place. If the British army had been killed or taken prisoner, Britain would almost certainly have surrendered, and we’d likely be living in a very different world today. To me, Dunkirk is about the preservation of freedom.” Kenneth Branagh, who plays the British naval commander, agrees. “Your life and mine would have been profoundly changed had that courageous, brave, patient, impossible moment not been lived through by people who stuck at it, and in so doing protected all of our futures. It’s place in our military, social, political, and emotional history can never be underestimated. In a sense, you could look at an evacuation as being unheroic, but somehow it adds up to something phenomenally heroic about the human spirit. In fact, the rescue of their stranded army against seemingly impossible odds gave rise to the term that is a permanent part of the British cultural lexicon: the Dunkirk spirit.” Seeing the event through the eyes of just a few individual characters was something that struck Branagh when he read the script. “Chris managed to weave together a very human story that brings all those personal moments together within this epic dimension. He is quite brilliant in my view, a master filmmaker.” Mark Rylance, who plays the captain of one of the little ships, concurs, “It has a deep meaning for the English people. We were the underdogs on that beach, but we rose to the occasion and eluded the superior forces of the enemy at that time. The Dunkirk spirit has to do with that perseverance and endurance and also selflessness. I don’t imagine anyone else could have done a more faithful and essential telling of this story in a more thrilling and exciting way. I think it makes for an extraordinary movie-going experience.” Newcomer Fionn Whitehead, who takes on the role of one of the young British soldiers on the beach, says, “The Dunkirk spirit brings to my mind a sense of togetherness and a show of community – coming together to help out someone in trouble.” Tom Hardy agrees. “Time and time again, Chris consistently manages to raise the bar. He is a true professional who doesn’t leave a stone unturned or dismiss an opportunity. He is always in control and set in his volition, but he is not inflexible. That’s extremely powerful for an artist. He’s generous, sensitive, funny and incredibly intelligent, and I trust him – if he says he’s going to do something, he will.” Another hallmark of Nolan’s films is his preference for capturing the action in-camera and eschewing digital effects and CGI as much as possible. “To me, it’s always very important to try and work with real things and real people. The resulting effect of that is very visceral and enveloping, and draws you into the story.
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FIONN WHITEHEAD as Tommy in the Warner Bros. Pictures Action Thriller “Dunkirk”.
MARK RYLANCE (centre) as Mr Dawson in the Warner Bros. Pictures Action Thriller “Dunkirk”. 6
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JAMES D’ARCY as Colonel Winnant and KENNETH BRANAGH as Commander Bolton in the Warner Bros. Pictures Action Thriller “Dunkirk”.
KENNETH BRANAGH as Commander Bolton in the Warner Bros. Pictures Action Thriller “Dunkirk”.
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THE BEGUILED Directed by Sofia Coppola Starring: Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Elle Fanning, Kirsten Dunst. You are a most unwelcome visitor and we do not propose to entertain you. - Miss Martha You’ll find I’m easily amused. - Corporal McBurney You won’t be here long enough for that. - Miss Martha The Beguiled is a reworking of Don Siegel’s 1971 film which starred Clint Eastwood as the Yankee soldier John McBurney who is rescued from death by a teenage girl Amy (Pamelyn Ferdin) from a southern boarding school. She manages to get him back to the school, which is run by the headmistress Miss Martha (Geraldine Page). At first the all-female staff and the pupils are scared, but as McBurney starts to recover, one by one he charms them and the atmosphere becomes filled with jealously and deceit. Sofia Coppola’s film is based on Thomas P Cullinan’s civil war set novel, with a few alterations, but told from the female perspective rather than the male’s. The film won Coppola Best Director Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. She has a well-earned director’s filmography after her Oscar win for Lost in Translation, which starred Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson with its storyline of a faded movie star and a neglected young woman who form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo. Prior to making ‘Translation’, Sofia’s feature debut was The Virgin Suicides. A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict religious parents in suburban Detroit in the mid-1970s. Kirsten played the eldest sister Lux. There is also a strong tendency for Coppola to work with the same actresses: Kirsten Dunst has appeared in The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, The Bling Ring (as herself), and now…The Beguiled. While Elle Fanning first appeared opposite Brad Dorff in Somewhere and now has a leading role in The Beguiled. Following on from Marie Antoinette, came Somewhere. After withdrawing to the Chateau Marmont, a passionless Hollywood actor re-examines his life when his eleven-year-old daughter surprises with a visit. The Bling Ring, her fifth film, concerned a group of family-obsessed teenagers who use the internet to track celebrities’ whereabouts in order to rob their homes. Back to the director herself, she is still a Hollywood rarity of being a woman director in an industry that is, and always has been, male 8
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dominated. She weathered the critics who have criticised her of having a silver-spoon privilege of being the daughter of one of the most famous filmmakers in Hollywood: Francis Ford Coppola: director of The Godfather trilogy, and the highly acclaimed Vietnam war epic Apocalypse Now. Amongst his other films is the experimental and grossly underrated One from The Heart. Sofia was raised by being surrounded by talent, besides her father, her cousin is Nicolas Cage, whose birthname is Coppola, and therefore it should not be surprising that she has become the filmmaker she is today. The film foregoes the sexual politics of Siegel’s 1971 version, but focuses on the survival instincts of her female characters. One morning in the woods, an 11-year-old girl Amy (Oona Lawrence) is interrupted from picking mushrooms by a hushed whisper from the overgrowth. She fears the sight before her: a wounded Yankee soldier, Corporal John McBurney (Colin Farrell). Amy calls out for Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman) Head of the Seminary for Young Ladies, to come help her drag the badly injured man inside. McBurney realizes he has found a safe refuge from the battlefield he fled and the soldiers who would have either left him to rot in prison or had him shot for desertion. For Miss Martha it is deciding whether to notify the authorities that they have an enemy prisoner or give him aid and sanctuary. It is her Christian morals which dictate her actions. She tends to his shrapnel-filled leg, bathing him; a sequence of shots of his chest, forearms, calves and neck. The first to succumb to sexual awakening by having a man in her presence is Alicia (Elle Fanning), a teenager but flushed with sexual needs and bored out of her mind. She huddles by the door, trying at least to get a glimpse of the handsome hunk lying half-naked on the couch in the dim interior. The students begin appearing with pearl earrings in their ears, or dressing up, or sneaking in to give him gifts. All of this is looked upon in horror by Miss Martha. The effect that John is having on the girls reaches the point that they are ready to tear each other apart to get to him. At one point, Edwina (Kirsten Dunst) is so aroused by him she almost collapses against a wall. Everyone loved working with Sofia as these comments reflect: This is very much a Sofia film. She visualised every frame, and it’s without doubt, the most aesthetically rich film that I’ve ever been part of. It is really a relaxed environment, incredibly easy-going and just generous to her core. - Colin Farrell Sofia is the classic woman. I think everybody does a great job, crew and everyone because they love Sofia so much because she wants to make sure that everybody’s happy and having a great time on her set. - Elle Fanning It’s always very comfortable. Everybody’s kind because they want to be there. She really puts together good energy and cast members and so her vision naturally comes to life. - Kirsten Dunst And the last word from Sofia about making the film: It’s beautiful, artful, thrilling and fun
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Corporal McBurney (Colin Farrell in The Beguiled.
Jane (Angourie Rice, Amy (Oona Lawrence, Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman), Emily (Emma Howard), Alicia (Elle Fanning), Marie (Adison Reeve) in The Beguiled.
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Alicia (Elle Fanning) in The Beguiled.
Edwina (Kirsten Dunst) and Colonel McBurney (Colin Farrell) in The Beguiled.
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SONG TO SONG
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Directed by Terrence Malick Starring: Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman. We thought we could just roll and tumble. Live from song to song, kiss to kiss. - Faye Terrence Malick’s reputation as a different breed of moviemaker is still evident in his work: voice-over narrative, luscious lingering cutaways to nature. In retrospect, he has never reached the critical acclaim of his first features: Badlands, a study of a disturbing violent odyssey that has become a cult favourite. Following that would have challenged most directors, but not only did Days of Heaven not disappoint but it showed Malick’s fascination with symmetrical compositions and landscape vistas to be envied. Like Badlands, the film follows the journey of an outlaw couple: Richard Gere and Brooke Adams, and Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek in the former. But then came the oft-quoted twenty year’s absence, which led to countless rumours as to where he vanished to, plus what a loss it was to lose such a talent. When he did reappear, it was with The Thin Red Line, an adaptation of James Jones’s World War II novel of the same name. The reaction to the film was one of puzzlement, after all it came after Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, which moved audiences to the core, but The Thin Red Line was a completely different take on the subject. War it seemed to say was much more than just a conflict between two groups of men, but is an affront to nature, and in turn an affront to God. Malick cannot resist showing the colourful wildlife around the soldiers, or capturing the light streaming the leaves of the trees. It’s as if God is watching these strange human beings’ intent on destroying all that is good in the world. It is this that is the spiritual heart of his movies and it is there in Song to Song but it takes over two hours to arrive. For the problem is not the message but how it is delivered. Terrence Malick has a unique method in making his films which appear that they are improvised but they are written as screenplays and actors are often told to deliver their lines and then to do the take again without the dialogue but by showing it in their expressions. Many actors find this an interesting contrast to the way they would normally perform and has become another trademark of the director. Ryan Gosling who plays BV in Song to Song, said that there was no script at all. This is obvious when you see the movie but let us just look at the storyline. Faye (Rooney Mara) a songwriter, is attempting to get her life together while at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Her affections are divided between Cook (Michael Fassbender) a music producer and fellow writer BV (Ryan Gosling). There are numerous cameos from Holly Hunter, Cate 12
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Blanchett, Natalie Portman, who plays a waitress until she hooks up with a customer, none other than the egotistical Cook. Each of the leading characters are lost souls going from bed to bed, song to song. It is all emotionless, vacuous and boring except for the beautiful cinematography by Emmanuel Lubeski, but it is not until the end that we see that is the whole point of the movie, when BV and Faye finally show that they sincerely love each other – and even in that romantic moment, the camera cuts to a close-up of a caterpillar crawling through her hair – nature wins through ala Malick. The quick cuts from one scene to another provoke confusion because they are not related to each other and that is the whole point. The original title of the film was Weightless and like its plot, light as a feather. What was the atmosphere like on the set? From the quotes below it was harmonious and everyone enjoyed working with Terry. For Ryan Gosling, it was his second time having starred in Knight of Cups. Terry’s understanding and generosity was evident when Ryan said to him that he would like to direct another film, and Terry allowed him to use the camera. Terry said that in this film you are supposed to be the truth. So don’t act. - Lykke Li The main thing was really my note on this character was that he was Satan from “Paradise Lost” and so that was the note I kinda ran with. I came out, and he said, “Are you interested?” and I said: “Absolutely, and I have time and I want to do it, so I flew out to Austin, and I think about 4 weeks later or whenever it was. About working with Terry Malick: It is a singular voice. He is just a poet with the visual storytelling media and the dialogue itself. I guess in some respects the first American auteur, after the French Wave Cinema. I just knew that when I watch Terry’s films, they do something, other than the intellectual, strike something in you intellectually and great art does that. He would say too “Attack, Michael, Attack!” Particularly my character who is such a manipulator, trying to jiggle things up and trying to provoke something and then do nothing. It is pretty exhausting, I have to say by the end of the week because of the nature of the way Terry shoots. It is just one film magazine after the other. There is no break, you get half-hour lunch, and then it’s go go go. What I like about it is that you’ve got to be really fit as an actor, in terms of keeping your muscles engaged all the time. About his character: I felt like my character was trying to become God. He is taking a lot of drugs. He is really throwing himself into any experience to try to reach a higher power, a higher plane. Somebody I suppose who doesn’t think, rallies against God in a way…shouldn’t I be in that position. He is a manipulator who in some ways sucks the life out of things. But also, there is a good side to him: a curiosity to him, a realness to him. He does hurt. He does bleed. About working with Natalie Portman: She was fantastic, very easy to work with, a lot of fun, really easy to dance with, and that is a thing more than ever that you rely on the person opposite you, with this sort of work, because it’s improvisation. About Terrence Malick’s use of music: I think he understood music regardless whether it’s country and western. He understands the mathematics of it. There are two universal languages in the world; music is one, mathematics is the other. You don’t need any translation or subtitles, it is the same for everything and I think that is where his sort of genius lay. And that is evident in Song to Song.
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BV (Ryan Gosling) and Faye (Rooney Mara) in Song to Song.
Patti Smith (Patti Smith) and Faye (Rooney Mara) in Song to Song. 14
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BV (Ryan Gosling) and Cook (Michael Fassbender) in Song to Song.
Cook (Michael Fassbender) and Rhonda (Natalie Portman) in Song to Song.
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IN THIS CORNER OF THE WORLD Directed by Sunao Katabuchi Starring: Non, Megumi Han, Yoshimasa Hosoya, Natsuki Inaba. Thank you for finding me in this corner of the world. - Non One can see by the beautiful animation of this film that the director’s influence was that of Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of Studio Ghibli, one of the world’s most successful animation studios and where Katabuchi once worked as Miyazaki’s assistant. The leading character is an eighteenyear-old girl who gets married and now has to prepare food for his family when he is called to war, despite the rationing and lack of supplies. As she struggles with the daily loss of life’s amenities, she must maintain the will to live, which she does through her inner beliefs that everything will be all right. They’ve always called me a daydreamer. Non is also an artist in her spare time and draws pictures of everything and everyone, including an old folk tale about a crocodile. The drawings help keep her mind off the deteriorating conditions of the region due to the war. Sunao Katabuchi makes history come to life, but with a fresh perspective that has often escaped the eye of Western filmmakers. He retains the point of view of a Japanese housewife and her civilian life and she is an upbeat force as the world explodes around her. Once the war escalates, so the animation reflects the societal changes for women, while the days leading up to the bombing of Hiroshima are portrayed with a visually visceral palpable fear. Nothing is sweetened as to the devastation and appalling destruction caused by war. In contrast, are Non’s happier dreams, drawn with bright, vibrant pastels which serve as a nice contrast to the paler watercolour anime. The film brings a very nostalgic and intimate story to light with some beautiful animation a unique look at the years before the bombing of Hiroshima, making it an engrossing and affecting film. The first part of the film may appear to be a little sluggish, as it shows the coming of age of Non, but it lays the foundation of the character: her dreams, her optimism. The second-half of the movie gears up to an impressive hardship of war and what than entails and taps into the emotion that’s rarely observed, bringing a sombre atmosphere to what was a sweet and pleasant story of 16
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nostalgia, by showing you what the true loss of war can be: an entire community filled with lives flourishing all over taken away. Yet, the film remains heart-warming even when it gets into some of the dramatic parts of the history. Whilst there are really some sad moments that pull at your heartstrings, the determination of Non, as she negotiates an unimaginably harrowing situation is so uplifting, and brings out beauty amidst all the horror of war. The animation is styled in a similar fashion to many of Studio Ghibli best works: Spirited Away, The Wind Rises, The Tales of Princess Kaguya, When Marnie Was There. And In This Corner of the World, we learn how the young girl loves to draw, which is even more apparent against the beautiful hand-painted landscapes. From her love of drawing comes a series of stunning sequences in which we see the Japanese navy ships, as well as aerial battles and air-raids in the skies above Hiroshima turned into delightful and colourful paintings seen from the eyes of this young girl, heightening the sense of sadness when you think about such a happy and kind-natured character having her life turned completely upside down by war. Ultimately the film is handled very well when it comes to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. This is not a direct story about the event on August 6th, 1945, the very moment itself is not shown explicitly, but continues to focus on the confused and gradually beleaguered people living in the city on the outskirts of Hiroshima. However, the story still brings to light the horrors of the aftermath of the bombing, but in that it continues to show some beautifully, heartwarming and uplifting moments that emerge from the terror, and in the film’s finale, it really radiates with a bold and brave and utterly stunning demonstration of the strength of decent human beings in the face of the worst possible adversity. The gorgeous and beautifully-executed visuals are a delight to behold, resulting in a film that is a deeply emotional experience and inspired by the films from Studio Ghibli. In This Corner of the World is a film for the whole family. Japanese with English subtitles. AWARDS:
Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2017 Won: Jury Award for a Feature Film. Awards of the Japanese Academy 2017 Won: Best Animation Film. Mainichi Film Concour 2017 Won: Best Music Score.
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Non (Suzu – Voice) In This Corner of the World.
Non (Suzu – Voice) In This Corner of the World.
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The Battleship In This Corner of the World.
Children facing the reality of war. In This Corner of the World.
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MAUDIE Directed by Aisling Walsh Starring: Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke, Kari Matchett. I make my designs up on the window. Birds whizzing by, they’re all different. The whole of life already framed. Right there. - Maude
Based on the true story of Canadian folk artist Maud Dowley, Maudie is an emotional biopic or what was once known as a weepie. The story takes place in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia. Maud (Sally Hawkins) has rheumatoid arthritis. So-called friends and family have disowned her as ‘a waste of space’. When her brother Charles (Zachary Bennett) tells her that he has sold the family home, she is flabbergasted. It was not yours to sell, she tells him. And who is going to run it? he asks I will, Maud tells him. You can’t even take care of yourself let alone a house. I’ll get a job or something. A job doing what? I don’t know! Despite her debilitating handicap Maud finds the will to live through the joy she gets from painting because all she really needs is paint and a brush, for her canvas is all around her; walls, windows, doors, pieces of discarded wood panelling; as Everett (Ethan Hawke) soon discovers to his annoyance when he hires her as his housekeeper. He soon makes his position known to her on the day she arrives. Let me tell you how it is around here. There’s me, them dogs, them chickens, and then you. In reply, she makes her position clear too. Do you want me here or don’t you or I’ll walk out right now. Bent as she is, Maud is a quirky woman that draws cinemagoers into her world but she is no way perfect and has faults like everyone else. With her right hand she holds her paintbrush while her left holds a cigarette. She superficially seems harmless, but she will
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take only so much before she cracks and shouts back. Her body might be failing her, but her resolve to fight for her rights are still there. Maud Dowley creates art to survive the world she is in and takes verbal and physical abuse that her disgruntled employer and eventually her husband gives her. Everett is naturally obnoxious and angry and it takes a lot before he finally realizes that he has feelings for Maud and loves her in his own way. What lies at the relationship between Maudie and Everett is tenderness, compassion and forgiveness. Sally Hawkins fully inhabits Maudie in every way. She is an actress who can show how joy and kindness in adversity form a rare and beautiful type of courage and showing that she is a good woman whose primary need is simple and yet difficult to attain – to create art in a secure environment. Happy-Go-Lucky is still the film that Sally Hawkins is remembered. Anyone who has not yet seen this movie is advised to do so as it really shows her extraordinary comedic acting ability. She plays Poppy Cross who at thirty-years-of-age is happy-go-lucky. She lives in Camden. She is cheeky, playful, frank while funny, and talkative to strangers. She is conscientious and an exuberant primary-school teacher, flatmates with Zoe, her long-time friend; she’s close to one sister, not so close to another. In this slice of life story, we watch her take driving lessons from Scott (Eddie Marsan), a dour and tightly-wound instructor, take classes in flamenco dance from a fiery Spaniard, encounter a tramp in the night, and sort out a student’s aggressive behaviour with a social worker’s help. Along the way, we wonder if her open attitude puts her at risk of misunderstanding or worse. What is the root of happiness? Most of the film was shot in and around London as well as in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. It was her third film directed by Mike Leigh and it gained her a cluster of awards: Berlin Film Festival 2008 Best Actress. Golden Globes 2008 Best Actress. Evening Standard Brit Awards 2008 Won Peter Sellers Award for Comedy.
Hollywood Film Award 2008. Actress of the Year. Indiewire Critics Poll 2008 Best Lead Performance. New York Film Critics Circle Awards 2008 Best Actress. Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2008 Best Actress. Village Voice Film Poll 2008 Best Actress. Maudie is an inspirational drama showcasing the multi-talented Sally Hawkins.
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Maud (Sally Hawkins) in Maudie.
Maud (Sally Hawkins) in Maudie. 22
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Everett (Ethan Hawke) and Maud (Sally Hawkins) in Maudie.
Everett (Ethan Hawke) in Maudie.
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FILMFEST FOLLOWER VENICE 2017 COMPETITION DOWNSIZING (Opening Film) Directed by Alexander Payne Starring: Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern. A social satire in which a guy realizes he would have a better life if he were to shrink himself.
MOTHER! Directed by Darren Aronofsky Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer. Centres on a couple whose relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.
SUBURBICON Directed by George Clooney Starring: Matt Damon, Oscar Isaac, Julianne Moore. A home invasion rattles a quiet family town.
THE SHAPE OF WATER Directed by Guillermo del Toro Starring: Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Michael Shannon. Another-worldly fairy tale, set against the backdrop of Cold War Era. Circa 1963. In the hidden high security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa is trapped in a life of silence and isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda discover a secret classified experiment.
LEAN ON PETE Directed by Andrew Haigh Starring: Travis Fimmel, Steve Zahn, Chloe Sevigny. A young boy embarks on a perilous journey in search of his long-lost aunt and a possible home for his only companion the stolen racehorse Lean on Pete.
MEKTOUB, MY LOVE: CANTO UNO Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche Starring: Shain Boumedine, Ophelie Baufle, Salim Kechiouche. Amin, a young screenwriter goes to his Mediterranean home town for a summer vacation where he falls in love with Jasmine, and meets a producer who agrees to finance his first film. But when the producer’s wife shows interest in Amin, leaving him to decide between her, Jasmine and his career.
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THE THIRD MURDER Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda Starring: Masaharu Fukuyama, Koji Yakusho. Suzu Hirose. Thriller. The title is a pun on the Japanese idiom sandome no shoujiki in meaning to the English “Third’s the charm”.
CUSTODY (Jusqu’a La Garde) Directed by Xavier Legrand Starring: Josh Daugherty, Erin Fleming, Frank Crim. In a world he calls ”Desert Gothic Noir”, director John Lacy has laid out a hauntingly desperate landscape that audiences are sure to embrace.
FOXTROT Directed by Samuel Maoz Starring: Lior Ashkenazi, Sarah Adler, Dekel Adin. A troubled family face the facts when something goes terribly wrong at their son’s desolate military post.
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Directed by Martin McDonagh Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Abie Cornish. After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter’s murder case, Mildred Hayes makes a bold move, printing three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby, the town’s revered chief of police.
UNA FAMIGLIA Directed by Sebastiano Rosa Starring: Marco Leonardo, Micaela Ramazzotti, Fortunato Cerlino. The family, the Grassos are the real protagonists and how family importance gets highlighted during the December holidays.
FIRST REFORMED Directed by Paul Schrader Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Ethan Hawke, Michael Gaston. An ex-military chaplain is wrecked by grief over the death of his son. Amanda Seyfried plays a member of his church, whose husband, a radical environmentalist, commits suicide.
SWEET COUNTRY Directed by Warwick Thornton Starring: Sam Neill, Bryan Brown, Thomas M. Wright. A period western set on the Northern Territory frontier where justice is put on trial.
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THE LEISURE SEEKER Directed by Paolo Virzi Starring: Donald Sutherland, Helen Mirren, Kirsty Mitchell. A runaway couple going on an unforgettable journey in the faithful RV they call The Leisure Seeker.
OUT OF COMPETITION (Fiction) OUR SOULS AT NIGHT Directed by Ritesh Batra Starring: Judy Greer, Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Matthias Schoenaerts. Addie Moore and Louis Walters, a widow and widower, who’ve lived next to each other for years have had almost no relationship but that all changes when Addie tries to make a connection with her neighbour.
VICTORIA AND ABDUL Directed by Stephen Frears Starring: Judi Dench, Michael Gabon, Olivia Williams. Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian named Abdul Karim.
LOVING PABLO Directed by Fernando Leon de Aranoa Starring: Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Peter Saarsgaard. A journalist strikes up a romantic relationship with notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar.
DIVA! Directed by Francesco Patieno Starring: Victoria Claiborn. A heart-warming comedy about a singer, Sheri Goodman who because of her pretentiousness and unreliability, finds her career spiralling downward.
RACER AND THE JAILBIRD Directed by Michael R Roskam Starring: Matthias Schoenaerts, Adele Exarchopoulos. Set against the background of a brutal crime gang in Brussels, a tragic love story between Gigi, a high-flying gangster, and Bib, a young racing driver with very upper-class breeding.
ZAMA Directed by Lucrecia Martel Starring: Gimenez Lola Duenas, Matheus Nachtergaele. Based on the novel by Antonio di Benedetto written in 1950, on Don Diego de Zama, a Spanish officer of the Seventeenth Century settled in Asuncion, who awaits his transfer to Buenos Aires.
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THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A MODERN WOMAN Directed by James Toback Starring: Sienna Miller, Alec Baldwin, Charles Grodin, Colleen Camp. Sienna Miller plays an actress in a part that was written for her by director James Toback, but the storyline is being kept under wraps.
BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 Directed by Craig Zahler Starring: Jennifer Carpenter, Vince Vaughan, Tom Guiry. A former boxer-turned-drug runner lands in a prison battleground after a deal gets deadly.
WORMWOOD Directed by Errol Morris. Not surprising as there is so much expectation about this movie because it is an ‘Errol Morris’ project. Any details regarding plot etcetera are being kept under wraps until the last minute. We can but hope it will be worth the suspense.
OUT OF COMPETITION (Non-fiction) MY GENERATION Directed by David Batty An immersive archive documentary drawing on Michael Caine’s personal reflections on the sixties, driven by music of the decade.
JIM & ANDY: THE GREAT BEYOND – THE STORY OF JIM CARREY & ANDY KAUFMAN, FEATURING A VERY SPECIAL CONTACTUALLY OBLIGATED MENTION OF TONY CLIFTON. Directed by Chris Smith A behind-the-scenes look at how Jim Carrey adopted the persona of idiosyncratic comedian Andy Kaufman on the set of Man on the Moon.
THIS IS CONGO Directed by Daniel McCabe An unfiltered look into the lives of 3 characters surviving amongst the most recent cycle of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, otherwise known as the M23 Rebellion.
THE DEVIL AND FATHER AMORTH Directed by William Friedkin Father Amorth performs his ninth exorcism on an Italian woman. A documentary that will bring back memories of Friedkin’s most famous film THE EXORCIST.
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ALIVE IN FRANCE Directed by Abel Ferrara A film retrospective and a series of concerts in France dedicated to songs and music from his film preparations with his family and friends form the material, showing another side to the director of films like Bad Lieutenant and King of New York.
HAPPY WINTER Directed by Giovanni Totaro Every Summer on Palermo’s Mondello beach over one thousand cabins are built ready to host as many families who will spend the holidays there. For them the beach huts are a perfect scenario for hiding behind the memory of a social status the crisis of recent years has inevitably compromised.
ORIZZONTI (Horizon) MARVIN Directed by Anne Fontaine Starring: Isabelle Huppert. Follows a gay man who fled his hometown after being shunned by them, an experience that inspired his smash hit autobiographical play.
KRIEG Directed by Rick Osterman Starring: Ulrich Matthes, Barbara Auer. Arnold and his wife Karen are shocked when their joint son Chris tells that he has committed himself to the Bundeswehr and the deployment is already imminent. The use of the son’s son abroad is the beginning of a gruelling time for Arnold and Karen.
WEST OF SUNSHINE Directed by Jason Raftopoulos A father has less than a day to pay back a debt to a violent loan shark, while looking after his young son. Starring: Damien Hill, Ty Perham, Arthur Angel.
DISAPPEARANCE Directed by Ali Asgari Starring: Amirez Ranjbaran, Sadbe Asgari. A young couple from Tehran tries desperately to find help in one night: the young woman has bleeding and does not want her parents to know.
OUTRAGE CODA (Closing Film) Directed by Takeshi Kitano Starring: Takeshi Kitano, Toshiyuki Nishida. The story of Octomo who was stabbed while in jail in the last chapter of the franchise. Octomo gets involved with new Yakusa battles after he comes back to the Yakusa society.
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FILMFEST FOLLOWER MELBOURNE AUGUST 3rd - 20th 2017 JUNGLE Directed by Greg McLean Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Alex Russell, Joel Jackson. A 22-year-old backpacker and two friends venture into the Bolivian rainforest to have an adventure of a lifetime, but was anything but.
LOVELESS Directed by Audrey Zuyagintsev Starring: Yanina Hope, Maryana Spivak. A couple going through a divorce must team up to find their son who has disappeared during one of their bitter arguments.
FACES PLACES Directed by Agnes Varda & JR A Documentary. Agnes Varda, the Grande Dame of the French New Wave, revives the spirit of “The Gleaners and I” with this picaresque romp through rural France, and is joined on her travels by the artist JR.
APRIL’S DAUGHTER Directed by Michael Franco Starring: Emma Svarez, Ana Valeria Becerril. Valeria is 17 and pregnant. She lives in Puerto Vallarta with Clara, her half-sister. Valeria has not wanted her long-absent mother April to find out about her pregnancy.
GOLDEN EXITS Directed by Alex Ross Perry Starring: Emily Browning, Ceric Butta, Adam Horovitz. An intersectional narrative of two families in Brooklyn and the unravelling of unspoken unhappiness that occurs when a young foreign girl spending time abroad upsets the balance on both sides.
THE BUTTERFLY TREE Directed by Priscilla Cameron Starring: Melissa George, Ewen Leslie. Evelyn, an ex-burlesque queen, bewitches single dad Al and his teenage son Fin with her zest for life. When father and son discover they are competing for the affections of the same woman it reopens old wounds over the death of Fin’s mother.
THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos Starring: Barry Keoghan, Nicole Kidman, Alicia Silverstone. A teenager’s attempts to bring a brilliant surgeon into his dysfunctional family take an unexpected turn.
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WONDERSTRUCK Directed by Todd Haynes Starring: Oakes Fedley, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams. The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
A MAN OF INTEGRITY Directed by Mohammed Rasoulof Starring: Reza Akhlaghirad, Soudabeh Beizaee. A drama about the corruption and injustice in thr Iranian society. You are suppressed, or you have to join the suppressor to survive.
HAPPT END Directed by Michael Haneke Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Mathieu Kssovitz. A drama about a family set in Calais with the European Refuge Christmas time backdrop.
LOVING VINCENT Directed by Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman. Starring: Aidan Turner, Helen McCrory, Eleanor Tomlinson. A feature film about the life and mysterious death of Vincent Van Gogh.
IN THE FADE Directed by Faith Akin Starring: Diane Kruger, Denis Moschito, Numar Acar. Katja’s life collapses after the death of her husband and son in a bomb attack. After the time of mourning and injustice, here comes the time of revenge.
A GENTLE CREATURE Directed by Sergei Loznitsa Starring: Liya Akhedzhakova, Vasilina. A woman lives in a small village in Russia. One day she receives a parcel she sent to her husband, serving a sentence in prison. Confused and angered, she sets out to find her package and why it has been returned to sender.
LUCKY Directed by John Carroll Lynch Starring: Harry Dean Stanton, David Lynch, Ron Livingston. The legendary Harry Dean Stanton stars as a hard-living 90-year-old atheist on a spiritual journey in this eccentric and moving film.
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EXTRAS DVD OF THE MONTH
FRANTZ Directed by Francois Ozon Starring: Pierre Niney, Paula Beer.
In a small German town in 1919, Anna repeatedly visits the grave of her fiancé, Frantz, who was killed in battle during World War I. One day she spies a mysterious young Frenchman Adrien, also laying flowers at the grave. She enquires about his business there and he explains he was a friend of Frantz. The pair become increasingly close and Anna becomes more and more intrigued by Adrien’s history with her fiancé. Long buried secrets are revealed that will illuminate unknown areas of their past lives and impact their future ones in a wearied and battle-scarred Europe. At once graceful and gripping, Franz is an intimate and timely exploration of healing and forgiveness across European borders.
EXTRAS * Deleted Scenes * Posters Featurette * Lights and Costumes Testing *F rantz In Venice Featurette * Trailer www.moviesbymills.com
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