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from Movies by Mills (March 2020)

THE CALL OF THE WILD

Hello film lovers!

Here we are at the first of another month and one that again will bring the best of films to you.

Our cover feature review is The Truth with two of its stars: Catherine Deneuve & Ethan Hawke. It fulfils the criteria of MbM’s standards of a memorable film that one would want to watch again.

Other films reviewed in this issue are: Little Joe, directed by Jessica Hausner, starring Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw.

The Call Of The Wild, directed by Chris Sanders, starring: Harrison Ford, Omar Sy, and Buck.

We also take a retrospective look at the BAFTA awards and the Academy Awards, listing the winners in each category.

There is also a feature article on movie posters and the collectible value of original posters and how to tell an original poster from a fake, plus also where you can purchase posters one-sheets or quads from trusted sources.

Finally, there is our feature: DVDs of the Month. This month’s selection:

ROMA

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK

BICYCLE THIEVES

THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS

ENJOY THE READ

Magazine Editor Magazine Designer Brian Mills Paul Ridler

Directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke, Clementine Grenier, Manon Clavel

Once upon a time there was a witch, but her heart was as hard as stone.

- Fabienne

A stormy reunion between Scriptwriter Lumir (Juliette Binoche) with her famous mother and actress, Fabienne (Catherine Deneuve), against the backdrop of Fabienne’s autobiographic book and her latest role in a Sci-fi picture as a mother who never grows old. Lumir has arrived from New York with husband Hank (Ethan Hawke) and their young daughter Charlotte (Clementine Grenier) to celebrate Fabienne’s memoirs: “La Verité.”

This is Kore-eda’s first film made outside his native Japan and working with renowned international stars: Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche. Celebrated for critically acclaimed films I Wish, Like Father, Like Son and Our Little Sister, Kore-eda has gone from strength to strength; capitalised with his most personal film After the Storm (2016). He was prompted to write the script after his own father died and seeing how his mother was coping. The narrative follows a young father trying to return to the good graces of his family. Ryota, the father, is an author turned private detective struggling to make ends meet as he flitters away all the money he earns on gambling, barely able to pay child support for his son. Family tensions run high with Ryaota and his sister believing each other is taking advantage of their mother. When a typhoon hits, holed-up in his mother’s house with his estranged wife and son, Ryota attempts to rekindle relationships with his family. Family relationships are an ongoing theme with Kore-eda and are once again are evident in The Truth but this time between a mother and her daughter.

The Truth follows Shoplifters in Kore-eda’s filmography; a film which was an excellent and compassionate love letter to family, which was emphasised in the film’s marketing mantra: ‘Sometimes you choose your family’.

After a successful shoplifting spree, Osamu and his son rescue a little girl in the freezing cold and invite her home with them. Osamu’s wife Nobuyo reluctantly agrees to shelter her. Although her family is poor, they live happily together until an unforeseen incident upsets the delicate balance they have created, revealing long-buried secrets….

Shoplifters went on to win the coveted Palme d’Or at Cannes, An Academy Award for Best Motion Picture in a Foreign Language, Golden Globe for Best Motion in a Foreign Language and BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language.

Returning to The Truth and to the leading actresses and their characters which dominate the story.

Catherine Deneuve who launched her career in 1957 with The Twilight Girls. Seven years later she starred in one of the greatest films ever made: THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG. She was cast as Genevieve Emery, an employee in her widowed mother’s chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. She has fallen in love with a French auto mechanic Guy Foucher. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, the pair share a passionate night. Genevieve becomes pregnant and then must choose between waiting for Guy’s return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant.

Three years later Deneuve joined her sister Francoise Dorleac in another memorable movie, THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT, which was a tribute to the Hollywood musical. The film was directed by Jacques Demy, as was ‘Umbrellas’, with music composed by Michel Legrand. Catherine Deneuve’s success was meteoric.

And so to Kore-eda’s casting of Juliette Binoche as Lumir, Fabienne’s daughter in THE TRUTH. Like Deneuve, Binoche is a well-known actress making her film debut in Liberty Belle in 1983. Her first film that gained her critical acclaim came six years later in THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING.

However, what really catapulted Juliette Binoche’s acting career to a new level was starring in BLUE, one of a trio of films made by Krzysztof Kieslowski called THREE COLORS. She plays the role of Julie, a woman reeling from the tragic death of her husband and young daughter. More than just a tale of grief, it’s also a tale of liberation, as Julie attempts to free herself from the past while confronting truths about the life of her late husband, a composer. Shot in sapphire tones and set to an extraordinary operatic score, BLUE is an overwhelming sensory experience.

When you get two great actresses together on the screen like Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche, you know that you are about to experience a momentous work of art. As their characters show, neither of them are willing to give in to the other, because these strong women both believe they are right…yet they both love each other.

Though THE TRUTH may at first appear to be a difficult film to watch, it is anything but. So be prepared for the last sequence which is a celebration of life.

The audience left the screening which I attended not with a frown but with a smile, me included, for I would gladly watch the film again….and that’s the truth.

Fabienne (Catherine Deneuve) & Lumir (Juliette Binoche) in The Truth