Tag: Switzerland

Late Shift
(Heldin)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 1 August 2025
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(Heldin)
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Director – Petra Blondina Volpe – 2025 – Switzerland – Cert. 12a – 92m

****1/2

An experienced and competent nurse in a hospital in the Western world endures a particularly gruelling night shift – out in UK cinemas on Friday, August 1st

There’s a moment of calm at the start of Late Shift… Scrubs going through a laundry system… Floria Lind (Leonie Benesch from September 5, Tim Fehlbaum, 2024; The Teachers’ Lounge, Ilker Çatak, 2023; The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke, 2009) on the night bus to her shift… She and a colleague making small talk whilst changing at the lockers… (The film ends similarly, with a reverse of this bookend, peace after the night shift is over.) And then, they’re on shift.

As soon as Mrs. Lind comes into the ward, the chaos starts. She helps a male colleague (bilingual in German and, for the patient, French) lift the demented Mrs Kuhn (Margherita Schoch) out of her wheelchair so Floria can change the lady’s underwear (and, quite literally, clean her shit off the floor). This evening, it’s Floria, one other nurse (Sonja Riesen), and Amelie (Selma Jamal Aldin), an inexperienced med student. Handing over, a colleague runs through by name the patients on the ward this shift and their various medical needs.… Read the rest

Tags 40 000 Euros, Albana Agaj, Alireza Bayram, bedside, business, calm, cause of death, change client’s underwear, chaos, chaos starts, clarity, clean shit off the floor, competent, cornered, corpse, crisis, CT scan, demand, demanding, dementia, discharged, distressed, Doris Schefer, everyday struggle, experienced, fathers and daughters, French, gallbladder, gastric tube, German, gruelling, healthcare system, Heinz Wyssling, Heldin, hospital, in deb, Jürg Plüss, kindness, Late Shift, laundry system, Leonie Benesch, life and death, lockers, Margherita Schoch, med student, medication, moment of calm, need, NHS, Nicole Bachmann, night bus, night shift, nurse, on shift, op, operation, painkillers, paramedics, parasitic, patient, patients’ pills, peppermint tea, Petra Blondina Volpe, poison cabinet, poor diagnosis, private patient, privileged, put-upon, reading glasses, respite, resuscitate, Ridvan Murati, scared, scrubs, Selma Jamal Aldin, small talk, Sonja Riesen, surgery, Swiss healthcare system, Switzerland, the Western world, UCLH, underfunded, understaffed, University College Hospital, Urbain Guiguemdé, Urs Bihler, ward, warmth, watch, wheelchair, wristwatch

Animation Features Movies

Savages
(Sauvages)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 1 August 2025
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(Sauvages)
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Director – Claude Barras – 2024 – Switzerland – Cert. PG – 87m

French with English subtitles.

*****

An indigenous pre-teenage girl stands up to loggers destroyingthe local rainforest – stop-frame animated feature from the director of My Life as a Courgette is out in UK cinemas on Friday, August 1st

From its opening moments in darkness following unsettling creature noises suggesting a jungle forest, followed by jungle forest establishing shots – a frog jumping across a river via a series of stones, a snake slithering around a tree, a baby orangutan (non-verbal voice: soundtrack composer and co-sound editor Charles de Ville) swinging on a branch – it’s clear that this has high ambitions indeed. All the above would be one thing to execute in live action – a few location natural history shots… possibly library footage. In model – or stop-motion – animation, you need to physically build everything in terms of miniature model sets, so to achieve such images is a major undertaking.

Having already set the production bar high, this then pushes it up further with the rasping sound of a chainsaw, as the tree heights on which the baby orangutan and its mother (voice: de Ville again), who has just rescued the infant from the attentions of the deadly snake, are resting suddenly topples into a camp of workers who are going about their allotted task of destroying the creature’s natural habitat.… Read the rest

Tags 11-year-old, 3D animation, ancestors, animation, animator, Babette De Coster, baby, backing of the authorities, Benoît Poelvoorde, Borneo, bulldozer, capitalism, chainsaw, Charles de Ville, child-eating monster, children trying to cope, Claude Barras, compromise, contemporary life, cousin, darkness, digitally immersive environment, economics of deforestation, embarrassment, environment, environmental theme, fathers and children, film activities, financial gain, followed by jungle, forest, frog, grandfather, grandfathers and children, habitat destruction, hands-on physicality, harvest fruit, heritage, incoming call, indigenous, infant, jungle forest, learned survival skills, loggers, loss of a parent, loss of the mother, Martin Verset, maternal instincts, miniature, model, model animation, model sets, modern technology, monster in the forest, mother’s death, mothers and children, myth making, native, natural habitat, natural outdoors world, nuclear family, orangutan, orphan, ostracise, Oxbridge graduate, palm oil extraction, peer group, Penan, perceived societal norm, Pierre-Isaïe Duc, police, pre-teenage, puppets blink, rainforest, rampage, rasping, resistance, ringtone, rucksack, Sauvages, savage, Savages, school, single-parent families, smartphone battery died, smartphone obsession, smelly boy, snake, spoken language, stop-frame, stop-motion, struggling to cope, swinging on a branch, Switzerland, trauma, tree, tropic, true to his roots, venomous snake, viral video

Animation Documentary Features Live Action Movies Top Ten

Top Ten Movies
(and more),
excluding re-releases)
2023

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 5 January 2024
No Comments on Top Ten Movies
(and more),
excluding re-releases)
2023

All films received either a theatrical or an online release in the UK between 01/01/23 and 31/12/23.

List with re-releases and festival films added in is here.

*****

1. Full Time (France, 2021)

2. Girl (UK, 2023)

3. The First Slam Dunk (Japan, 2022)

4. Junk Head (Japan, 2023)

5=. 20 Days In Mariupol (Ukraine, 2023)

5=. Beyond Utopia (US, 2023)

5=. The Blue Caftan (Morocco, 2022)

5=. Infinity Pool (Canada, Hungary, France, 2023)

9=. Past Lives (US, South Korea, 2022)

9=. Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms (China, 2023)

9=. Reality (US, 2023)

12=. Godzilla Minus One (Japan, 2023)

12=. Bobi Wine: The People’s President (UK, 2022)

12=. Smoking Causes Coughing (France, 2022)

12=. Enys Men (UK, 2022)

12=. Holy Spider (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, 2022)

12=. Blue Jean (UK, 2022)

12=. Fashion Reimagined (UK, 2022)

12=. Name Me Lawand (UK, 2022)

12=. Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (US, 2023)

Tokyo Story (Japan, 1953)

12=. Ferrari (US, 2023)

—

22=. The Boy And The Heron (Japan, 2023)

22=. Killers of the Flower Moon (US, 2023)

24. How To Blow Up A Pipeline (US, 2023)

25. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning: Part One (US, 2022)

26. Klokkenluider (UK, 2022)

27.… Read the rest

Tags 2023, Albania, Annecy, Australia, Bhutan, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Focus, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, JPF Touring Programme, Kazakhstan, LEAFF, LFF, Lithuania, LKFF, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Philippines, PÖFF, Poland, premiere, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tibet, Top Ten Movies, UK, Ukraine, US, world premiere

Animation Documentary Features Live Action Movies

A Sudden Glimpse
to Deeper Things

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 18 October 2024
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to Deeper Things
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Director – Mark Cousins – 2024 – UK – Cert. PG – 88m

*****

A look at Scots artist and painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, who had synaesthesia – out in UK cinemas on Friday, October 18th

I am someone who frequents art galleries, yet I have to confess that before seeing this film, I had never heard of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. Cousins starts his film off assuming we know nothing about her.

He starts with images. Who is this old woman on a verandah with palm trees in the background? Or peering down at rocky ground wearing an all-weather coat?

In later years, she frequently wore a necklace she had made resembling, in Cousins’ words, Concorde with droplets.

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, a woman to whom all men were attracted (“she’d have flirted with you”, a woman who knew her tells Marc) was fascinated by order and disorder. Her arresting 1967 abstract painting Pilgrimage consists of Vermillion squares on brown, jostling as if in a procession across the picture surface.

Her father (and here Cousins cuts in the moving image of Joseph Cotten giving his “if you rip the sides off houses you’ll find swine” speech from Shadow of a Doubt, Alfred Hitchcock, 1943) never wanted her to be an artist.… Read the rest

Documentary Features Live Action Movies

Catching Fire:
The Story of
Anita Pallenberg

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 17 May 2024
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The Story of
Anita Pallenberg
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Directors – Alexis Bloom, Svetlana Zill – 2023 – US – Cert. 15 – 113m

***1/2

The chaotic life of the archetypal rock chick, told through her own words and those of her children – out in UK cinemas on Friday, May 17th

After her death in 2017, Anita Pallenberg’s two surviving children Marlon and Angela discovered a manuscript; she had written an autobiography. Marlon worked his way through it as part of his bereavement process and was so taken with the articulate text that he sought out producers to turn it into a film. (He is one of the film’s executive producers himself, while both directors are credited as among the producers). Numerous clips from an interview with him are used in this resultant documentary, along with excerpts from Anita’s manuscript voiced by an actress, along with interview footage with Angela and verbal audio from Rolling Stones band member Keith Richards, Anita’s partner for a decade and the father of her children.

Like many of the young generation who rose meteorically to cultural prominence in the swinging sixties, Anita Pallenberg was a war baby. Her first years were accompanied by the sound of falling bombs; as she puts it, she didn’t learn to walk, but to run.… Read the rest

Tags 1960s, 1970s, acid, actress, addiction, Alexis Bloom, Angela Richards, Anita Pallenberg, archive, art school, authorities, autobiography, bereavement, bereavement process, bio, bombs, Brian Jones, career, celebrity, crib death aged 10 weeks, documentary, drug abuse, drug-taking, drugs, England, falling bombs, France, French-speaking person, Germany, heroin, home movie, hospital, house guest, household, incriminating evidence, interview, Kate Moss, Keith Richards, kidnap a Rolling Stone, London, LSD, manuscript, manuscript; autobiography, Marlon Richards, Mediterranean, model, modelling, modelling career, mothers and children, movie actress, movies, New York, parents and children, police, rage, rebel, relationship, rock chick, roulette, Russian roulette, Scarlett Johansson, separation, South Of France, strong-willed, style icon, Super 8, surviving children, Svetlana Zill, swinging sixties, Switzerland, Tangier, Tara Richards, The Rolling Stones, tidy away, UK, unfit mother, US, Volker Schlöndorff, war baby

Animation Documentary Features Live Action Movies Top Ten

Top Ten Movies
(and more)
2023

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 5 January 2024
1 Comment on Top Ten Movies
(and more)
2023
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Work in progress – subject to change. Because I am still watching movies released in 2023, so it’s always possible that a new title could usurp the number one in due course. Before that, I have a lot more movies still to add / sort.

All films received either a theatrical or an online release in the UK between 01/01/23 and 31/12/23.

This version includes re-releases, but those aren’t numbered. It’s hard to imagine movies improving on Powell and Pressburger’s i know where i’m going or The Red Shoes, Powell’s Peeping Tom or Von Trier’s Melancholia.

In addition to re-releases, this version also includes films seen in festivals which haven’t had any other UK release in 2023.

The star ratings may occasionally differ from the star rating I gave a particular film at the time of review.

Beyond the first 25 numbered titles, there may be numerous errors (missing links to reviews where I wrote one, year of release, country, and maybe more). All this will be fixed in time, but I wanted to get something online in the holidays.

Finally, last year’s list is here.

Top Ten Movies (and more) 2023

Please click on titles to see reviews. (Links yet to be added.)… Read the rest

Tags 2023, Albania, Annecy, Australia, Bhutan, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Focus, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, JPF Touring Programme, Kazakhstan, LEAFF, LFF, Lithuania, LKFF, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Philippines, PÖFF, Poland, premiere, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tibet, Top Ten Movies, UK, Ukraine, US, world premiere

Features Live Action Movies

Three Colours: Red
(Trois Couleurs: Rouge)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 11 April 2023
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(Trois Couleurs: Rouge)
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Director – Krzysztof Kieślowski – 1994 – France – Cert. 15 – 99m

*****

An up-and-coming model strikes up a friendship with a retired judge after her car accidentally runs over his dog one night – 4K restoration is out in UK cinemas on Friday, April 14th

This represents the third part of a trilogy based on the three colours of the French national flag, with each film representing one of that nation’s three values of liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, brotherhood). I interviewed Kieślowski for this back in 1994, the second time I’d interviewed him. The first was in 1993 for Three Colours: Blue.

Like Three Colours: Blue and Three Colours: White before it, Three Colours: Red is about human connection or lack of it. As if to underscore the point, it starts off with an international phone call which fails to connect. In a nod to Dial M For Murder (Alfred Hitchcock, 1953) where a phone call is shown via images of telephony, little mechanisms springing into brief action to make a phone call happen, Kieślowski has his camera race along telephone cables on the ground, at one point following them down a beach into the sea and out again onto land on the other side of a lake or ocean.… Read the rest

Animation Documentary Features Live Action Movies Top Ten

Top Ten Movies
(and more,
excluding re-releases)
2022

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 2 January 2023
No Comments on Top Ten Movies
(and more,
excluding re-releases)
2022
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Work in progress – subject to change. Because I am still watching movies released in 2022, so it’s always possible that a new title could usurp the number one in due course. Before that, I have a lot more movies still to add.

All films received either a theatrical or an online release in the UK between 01/01/22 and 31/12/22. Prior to 2020, I’d never included online releases (well, maybe the odd one or two as a special case) but that year saw the film distribution business turned upside down by COVID-19. The movie business is still changing, and the dust hasn’t yet settled.

This version excludes re-releases (Psycho, Paris, Texas and Pickpocket, not to mention the first six Bond movies, would top everything here). It has been an amazing year for re-releases including one or two incredible, old movies being released in the UK for the first time on Blu-ray. This is the year I get to rank all 25 Eon Bond movies, and why not? A link to that longer list will be added here in due course.

In addition to re-releases, this version also excludes films seen in festivals which haven’t had any other UK release in 2022.… Read the rest

Tags 2022, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Kosovo, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, The Netherlands, Top Ten Movies, UK, US

Features Live Action Movies

Everything Went Fine
(Tout C’est Bien Passé)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 17 June 2022
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(Tout C’est Bien Passé)
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Director – François Ozon – 2021 – France – Cert. 15 – 113m

*****

An elderly man recovering from a stroke enlists his two daughters to help him achieve assisted suicide and die with dignity – out in cinemas on Friday, June 17th

Emmanuèle Bernheim (Sophie Marceau) gets a phone call to say that her dad André Bernheim (André Dussollier), 85, is in hospital recovering from a stroke. She rushes to the hospital to meet her sister Pascale Bernheim (Géraldine Pailhas) in ER where he’s having an MRI scan. When they see him on the ward, mouth elongated on on side of his face, he can’t remember what happened. He has lost many everyday functions of his body.

While a fellow stroke survivor on his hospital ward makes rapid enough progress to soon be discharged, the less fortunate and initially bedridden André is moved to another hospital for more specialist treatment. Nevertheless, he eventually improves and in due course graduates to being sat in a chair in his room. Later still, he learns to use a wheelchair. His dietary abilities improve from initial intravenous drip feed through being spoon-fed mashed veg through to eating accompanied in a restaurant.

On one occasion early on when Emmanuèle visits him in hospital, she’s horrified to discover him lying in bed in his own excrement and immediately summons the manageress, who not only makes excuses about the amount of work required to look after a patient like this and how the hospital is short-staffed but also gives a personal assurance that this won’t happen again (and, indeed, no such further incident recurs).… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Everything Went Fine
(Tout C’est Bien Passé)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 13 June 2022
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(Tout C’est Bien Passé)
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Helping a loved one to die

Everything Went Fine
Directed by François Ozon
Certificate 15, 113 minutes
Released 17 June

France. Two daughters, Emmanuèle and Pascale Bernheim (Sophie Marceau and Géraldine Pailhas), visit their 85-year-old father André Bernheim (André Dussollier) as he recovers from a stroke. The process is slow and difficult, and he may never make a full recovery. André has lived life to the full, often looking to himself rather than those around him, and has come to a decision. Separately he tells each of them, “I want to die.”

In his current state of health, he considers life no longer worth living and wants to be able to end it while he still has the mental and physical capacity to do so. Ironically, this… [Read the rest in Reform magazine]

Read my alternative, longer review.

Everything Went Fine is out in cinemas in the UK on Friday, June 17th.

Trailer: