Tag: armed forces

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

The Choral

Director – Nicholas Hytner – 2025 – UK – Cert. 12a – 113m

*****

Against the backdrop of WW1 and a dwindling male population, the choral society of a small Yorkshire village attempts to mount a performance of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius – out in UK cinemas on Friday, November 7th

The fictional town of Ramsden, Yorkshire, 1916. World War One has been raging almost two years in France, but that almost seems like a distant world to 17-year-old lads Ellis (Taylor Uttley) and Lofty (Oliver Briscombe) whose main concern is eyeing up the local girls and working out their chances. Almost. Because Lofty’s job as a telegram boy, on which rounds Ellis accompanies him, means he’s delivering news of deaths from the Front to wives waiting anxiously at home and, following the 1916 Conscription Act requiring men aged 18 and above to join the armed forces, conscription notes to households from the King. (Prior to the Act, joining up had been voluntary although there was considerable moral and social pressure on men to do so.)

Closer to home, a more immediate concern looms for Ramsden in the form of the local choir, which has just lost its musical director to the army.… Read the rest

Categories
Documentary Features Live Action Movies

20 Days
In Mariupol
(20 днів
Y Маріуполі)

Director – Mstyslav Chernov – 2023 – Ukraine – Cert. 18 – 94m

*****

A Ukranian-born, Associated Press video journalist and his stills photographer go to Mariupol where they report on Russia’s assault and invasion of that city – out in UK cinemas on Friday, October 6th

There are some films that are incredibly tough to watch which you nevertheless know you need to watch. This documentary is one of those films. The experience of watching it clearly pales beside the actual experience of being in the Ukranian city of Mariupol during the first 20 days of the attack and subsequent siege by Russian armed forces, more so beside the actual experience of being trapped there. And I am British, so Ukraine is not my country; I find it almost incomprehensible to imagine what it would be like if what has happened to Mariupol were to happen in my home town. (If you’re an urban Brit, insert the name of your city at this point.)

I’m not convinced that the credited director Mstyslav Chernov, a Ukranian-born, Associated Press video journalist who has reported on conflicts around the globe since joining AP in 2014, set out to make a feature film. He was just (just!)… Read the rest

Categories
Animation Features Movies Shorts

Memories
(Memorizu,
メモリーズ)

1/ Magnetic Rose (Kanojo no Omoide, 彼女の想いで)

2/ Stink Bomb (Saishu Heiki, 最臭兵器)

3/ Cannon Fodder (Taiho no Machi, 大砲の街)

Directors

– 1/ Koji Morimoto, 2/ Tensai Okamura, 3/ Katsuhiro Otomo

– 1995 – Japan – Cert. 12 – 113m

*****

Executive producer Katsuhiro Otomo’s anime anthology adapts three of his dystopian-themed manga stories into animation – out on Blu-ray from All The Anime, Monday, 12th September, details below review

The film that made Otomo’s name and the one with which he’s most frequently associated is Akira (1988). It wasn’t his first film, though. Previously, he was one of nine directors who collaborated on the uneven portmanteau Robot Carnival (1987), a compendium of different animated stories based around robots of various types. One of the other directors was Koji Morimoto.

Memories is loosely similar – it only has three stories (and three directors), allowing each of the segments a bit more room. Its three episodes are very different yet perfectly complement each other. Otomo directed the third section Cannon Fodder.

Parts of the roughly two hour Akira drag, while Otomo’s later Steamboy (2004) gets lost within a massive set piece after a near perfect opening first reel or so.… Read the rest