Tag: abusive

The Ice Tower
(La Tour de Glace)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 21 November 2025
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(La Tour de Glace)
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Director – Lucile Hadzihalilovic – 2025 – France, Germany, Italy – Cert. 15 – 117m

*****

Midwinter. A homeless girl stumbles onto a film set where a notoriously difficult actress is shooting an adaptation of The Snow Queen – out in UK cinemas on Friday, November 21st

Opening with microscopic images of of snowflakes and more abstract visuals of refracted light, this swiftly delivers a female voiceover (by Aurélia Petit from Saint Omer, Alice Diop, 2022; By the Grace of God, François Ozon, 2018; Happy End, Michael Haneke, 2017; Personal Shopper, Olivier Assayas, 2016; The Science of Sleep, Michel Gondry, 2006) in French with English subtitles for those of us in the UK, in which the word ‘neige’ (snow) is seemingly, endlessly repeated. Then images of a girl wandering snow covered mountainsides gives way to night time small town streets before Jeanne (newcomer Clara Pacini) is told off for arriving late at the supper table. “I was afraid you’d gone”, says one of the younger girls (Cassandre Louis Urbain).

At night, Jeanne surreptitiously reads a postcard from a friend picturing Alpenaille skating rink addressed to her at the Bon Secours (Good Rescue) Foster Home.

The little girl from earlier comes into her room complaining of a nightmare.… Read the rest

Tags abusive, actress, adaptation, August Diehl, Aurélia Petit, bauble, bedtime story, bereavement, bleeding, blue bead, break-in, Cassandre Louis Urbain, catering table, cave, Christmas tree, Clara Pacini, costumes, cut, danger, dead mother, drink, drugs, enchantment, fairytale, film set, film shoot, foster home, France, Gaspar Noé, Germany, handbag, head wound, Hitch, hitch-hike, homeless, hotel, hotel lobby, ice, ice rink, icicles, ID card, identity, imposter, Italy, kiss, labyrinth, ledge, lift, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Marine Gesbert, Marion Cotillard, Midwinter, miniature set, mountain, mountainsides, mulled wine, necklace, nightmare, P.A., playing a role, postcard, precipice, predator, prism, projection box, rape, raven, realm, refracted light, rushes, screening room, skating rink, sleep, snow, snowflakes, stand-in, stranded, streets, succubus, supper table, sustenance, tantrum, The Ice Tower, The Snow Queen, torchlight, tower, Valentina Vezzoso, wandering, warehouse

Features Live Action Movies

No Trees in the Street

Director – J. Lee Thompson – 1959 – UK – Cert. 12 – 96m

****

An essentially honest young woman living in her parents’ East End slum fails to stop her impetuous younger brother from becoming involved in the criminal underworld – one of two J. Lee Thompson movies out on UK Blu-ray, DVD and Digital

Framed by a contemporary story of plain clothes policeman Frank (Ronald Howard) trying to talk sense into a knife-carrying teenager (David Hemmings), this takes place in the East End street where the latter lives some 20 years previously. The name has changed: back then, Somerset Street was known as Kennedy Street. The policeman, who is local, has always worked this beat. 20 years ago, he was trying to prevent another young man from drifting into a life of crime.

That other young man is Tommy (Melvyn Hayes), who lives with his father, mother and older sister Hetty (Sylvia Syms) in fairly basic accommodation. It’s a poor area and honest work is hard to come by. Both brother and sister would like to find a way out, into a better life. Both have less than honest ways of doing so, in the form of local ‘businessman’ Wilkie (Herbert Lom).… Read the rest

Tags 1950s, a better life, abusive, accommodation, aerial photography, attraction, British, businessman, Carole Lesley, character study, crime, criminal, David Hemmings, East End, Elstree Studios, first starring role, French New Wave, gangland girl, good girl, Herbert Lom, honest, housing, J. Lee Thompson, Joan Miller, job, Kennedy Street, kitchen sink realism, knife, Lana Morris, Lee-Thompson Godwin/Willis, Liam Redmond, living at home, London, Melvyn Hayes, music hall, object of affection, older sister, on the beat, performer, plain clothes policeman, police beat, policeman, poor, poverty, pragmatism, production company, quirky characters, romantic interest, Ronald Howard, roots, screenplay, set, siblings, slum, smooth operator, Somerset Street, Stanley Holloway, stealing, straight and narrow, Sylvia Syms, Ted Willis, teenager, theatre, torment, troubled youth, UK, underworld, unemployment, unloading a van, unrequited love, waste ground, young offenders, young woman, younger brother

Features Live Action Movies

Where
The Crawdads
Sing

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 19 July 2022
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The Crawdads
Sing
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Director – Olivia Newman – 2022 – US – Cert. 15 – 125m

***1/2

A young woman who grew up alone in the North Carolina Marshlands is the prime suspect for a murder she may or may not have committed – out in cinemas on Friday, July 22nd

The body of Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson) is discovered having fallen to his death from an old, 63’ high viewing platform. But did he fall or was he pushed? The reclusive, local outcast and so-called ‘Marsh Girl’ Kya Clarke (Daisy Edgar-Jones) swiftly becomes the prime suspect after sheriffs find a red, woolly hat at her house, a fibre from which matches one found on Chase’s corpse.

As the investigation proceeds in the generic form of a whodunit by way of a courtroom drama, with the kindly Tom Milton (David Strathairn) as her self-appointed defence attorney against the state prosecutor in her jury trial, the narrative spilts into two separate strands, with the story of Kya’s personal history from childhood to the then present day of 1969 running in parallel until… well, refusing to divulge spoilers forbids me from saying, except that the final reel and the ending are arguably the most satisfying part of this engrossing movie.… Read the rest

Tags a woman alone, abusive, abusive father, Ahna O’Reilly, and coping mechanism, attempted rape, attorney, bayou, brothers and sisters, college, coping, coping mechanism, corpse, courtroom drama, Crawdads, Daisy Edgar-Jones, David Strathairn, defence, defence attorney, defence lawyer, drawing, fall to death, family, father, fibre, friendship, Garret Dillahunt, Harris Dickinson, investigation proceeds, Jim Crow laws, Jojo Regina, jury, jury trial, lawyer, leave home, literacy, Luke David Blumm, Marsh Girl, marshlands, mechanism, Michael Hyatt, mother, motorboat, murder, mussels, Mychael Danna, North Carolina, North Carolina Marshlands, Olivia Newman, outcast, painting, parents and children, prime suspect, racism, rape, reading, reclusive, red woolly hat, Reese Witherspoon, romance, school. prejudice, segregationism, sheriffs, siblings, state prosecutor, Sterling Macer Jr., surrogate parents, survival, suspect, Taylor John Smith), teen, teenage, trial, US, viewing platform, violence, whodunit, wildlife, Will Bundon, woolly hat, writing