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Films Worth Watching by iofilm
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| Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou
as illegal immigrants in Britain on the run in Dirty Pretty Things |
Dirty Pretty Things
Reviewed by The Wolf
Immigrants, illegal or otherwise, have become entrenched in the slogan-slippery
pages of the popular press. Here the man who made Dangerous Liaisons and High
Fidelity, with Hollywood stars, has returned to the roots of My Beautiful Laundrette
and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid and rediscovers London’s hidden underbelly.
Stephen Frears could have persuaded Denzel Washington and Nicole Kidman to play
the Nigerian and Turkish leads, but decided instead on British-born Chiwetel Ejiofor
and French flavor-of-the-moment Audrey Tautou. He made the right choices.
Essentially, this is not an asylum seeker’s cry for help, but a murder mystery
of sorts, although the theme that runs through it is one of survival. Okwe (Ejiofor)
is a doctor on the run from Lagos, who works two jobs and hardly ever sleeps.
Senay (Tautou) is a hotel cleaner from Ankara, who fears the immigration police,
because she is not supposed to have a job, nor make money from subletting her
flat. She dreams of New York.
Between driving a mini cab and taking up his post as a hotel night porter , Okwe
crashes on Senay’s couch. "You don’t have a position here,"
he is told. Without a passport, you become invisible. Having no position is like
having no life and Okwe learns how to stay in the shadows. After discovering a
human organ down a toilet in one of the hotel bedrooms, a chain of events is set
in motion that will threaten both their lives.
The film works on many levels. Frears keeps the flam out of buoyant and tells
the story with admirable restraint. Although political in one sense, this is a
thriller. Okwe is an illegal, which means he is at everyone’s mercy and
cannot go to the police; he is exploited by both the hotel manager (Sergi Lopez)
and the mini cab boss. His only true friend is a British Chinese hospital worker
(Benedict Wong), who shares his love of chess. There is a strong feeling that
under the surface of multiculturalism, London operates a black economy, except,
in this case, with blood on its hands.
Ejiofor’s performance is perfectly judged. Okwe is a man of conscience,
while Senay is intimidated by insecurity, fearful that at any moment she might
lose everything and be deported. Okwe won’t compromise, except by remaining
silent. Ejiofor conveys an inner strength with absolute conviction.
Tautou has a more difficult time of it. Senay’s neurotic personality, prone
to paranoia, won’t allow her to settle. The character is well written by
Steven Knight, avoiding stereotype. Whereas Okwe is watchful and calm, Senay is
frantic and suspicious. Also, emotionally she’s out to lunch. Tautou looks
a little lost in this other person’s body and only allows the spirit of
Amelie to emerge briefly in one scene.
As the devious, manipulative charm school graduate, Lopez is a force to be reckoned
with. His comic style suits the theatrics of hotel management, like the Devil
in a mask.
Swimming Pool
Reviewed by Robert Alstead
Weirdness and in particular sexy weirdness is a trademark of French film director
Francois Ozon’s films. In the musical melodrama Eight Women, an Agatha Christie
pastiche featuring some of France’s most beautiful actresses, he has Catherine
Deneuve tusselling on the floor in the embrace of her arch enemy played by Fanny
Ardant. In black comedy sitcom a demonic lab rat sets libidos into overdrive even
incest is in. In Criminal Lovers it is Hansel and Gretel styled S&M fantasies.
This unusual English language drama, set in a French country house with a swimming
pool, seems tame by comparison. There is a strong sexual undertow throughout,
but this slow-building mood film relies less on eccentric plot turns, although
not dispensing with them altogether.
Charlotte Rampling plays taciturn and prickly author Sarah Morton, living in rainy
London and looking after her elderly father. In spite of her successful career,
she is bitter and fed up writing her detective thrillers. When she complains to
her publisher, John (a debonair Charles Dance) that he doesn’t nurture her
like he used to, there is the suggestion of a romance that has gone off the boil.
On John’s suggestion, she moves to his house in France to relax and write.
In the quiet warmth of the French countryside she blossoms: the words flow, we
see her enjoying trips into the local village and she even starts flirting, hesitatingly,
with a hunky waiter at the local cafe.
However, her peace is upset when John’s French-English daughter Julie shows
up unannounced one night. Luscious Ludivine Sagnier plays the randy young teenager
who wobbles in high-heeled sandals, skimpy shorts and little else by the pool
by day and keeps Sarah awake having loud sex with a different man from the village
each night. The swimming pool provides a metaphor for their differences. Early
on Julie declares that she loves swimming in the pool, to which Sarah calls it
"a cesspool of bacteria."
Initially Sarah is tight-lipped and frosty, irritated by Julie’s attempts
at friendliness, her hedonism and her unabashed sexuality. But after initially
observing Julie with cool disdain, Sarah’s curiosity gets the better of
her. Julie even works her way into Sarah’s fantasies, as well as into her
novel.
In such a self-contained film there are few visitors to the house these two actresses
are able to shine. Both are highly watchable for different reasons. Sagnier is
a combustible mixture of sexy impudence, youthful rebelliousness and vulnerability.
Rampling, 58, gives a riveting performance, with sharp-tongued put-downs and suppressed
sensuality.
Ozon teases us with the possible ways in which the relationship will play out,
deliberately leaving many questions about each character’s past unanswered.
It is funny, sad, surprising and mysterious. Events occur slowly, almost imperceptibly,
which may explain why Ozon saw fit to throw in the sudden, almost perfunctory
plot twist in the latter part of the drama. Still, if the denouement seems an
Ozon incendiary device, the rest of the film smoulders brilliantly.
Reviews are provided by iofilm. For
the latest European film reviews visit www.iofilm.com.
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