Tag: growing up

Little Amélie
or
The Character of Rain
(Amélie
et
la Métaphysique des Tubes)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 5 February 2026
No Comments on Little Amélie
or
The Character of Rain
(Amélie
et
la Métaphysique des Tubes)
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Directors – Maïlys Vallade & Liane-Cho Han – 2025 – France – Cert. PG – 77m

*****

A Belgian diplomat’s baby daughter growing up in Japan comes to realise, by her third birthday, that she is not God – out in UK cinemas on Friday, February 13th; previews Saturday, 7th and Sunday, 8th February

In the beginning was God. At least, that’s how the new-born Amélie (French language version voice: Loïse Charpentier) sees herself. She is, essentially, a tube which swallows, digests and ejects (as per the film’s French language title). She has a perfect command of verbal language, so sees no need to say anything. That said, she makes great use of voice-over throughout the piece. She remains motionless, practising “the gift of serenity”. “Your child is a vegetable”, proclaims a doctor to the child’s parents. She remains in this state until her second birthday, when life is interrupted by an earthquake – nothing significant in the wider scheme of things, but a momentous event in the interior life of a small child. She attempts to speak, but to her horror the words in her head don’t emerge, only baby noises.

Amelie is the third child of Patrick (French voice: Marc Arnaud) and Danièle (French voice: Laetitia Coryn), and has two older siblings, Juliette (French voice: Haylee Issembourg) and André (French voice: Isaac Schoumsky).… Read the rest

Tags animosity, baby, baby noises, beach, Belgian, Belgian chocolate, bereavement, between two cultures, birthday, bombing raid, books, Brussels, carp, catch up, Cathy Cerda, childhood, chocolate, comics, commemorating the dead, danger, daughter, departed spirit, diplomat, drowning, early years, earthquake, East and West, family trip, fellow god, Festival for the Month of Boys, first word, France, God, grandma, grandmothers and grandchildren, growing up, grown up situations, grumpy, Haylee Issembourg, housekeeper, housekeeper and employer, Isaac Schoumsky, Japan, Japan and Belgium, Japanese character, Laetitia Coryn, landlady, lantern festival, Liane-Cho Han, Little Amelie, Loïse Charpentier, Maïlys Vallade, Marc Arnaud, missing, monster, mothers and sons, names, naming, neighbour, ornamental gardens, parents and children, peering out, picture books, pond, post-war, rain, rescue, running, serenity, siblings, small child, survive, taste, The Character of Rain, three years old, toddler, transcendent, tube, two-and-a-half years old, vacuum cleaner, Victoria Grosbois, walking, war, wonder, World War 2, World War II, World War Two, write your name, WW2, Yokusai, Yumi Fujimori

Animation Documentary Features Live Action Movies Music

It’s Never Over,
Jeff Buckley

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 13 February 2026
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Jeff Buckley
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Director – Amy Berg – 2025 – US – Cert. 15 – 106m

***1/2

A look at the life of the hugely talented singer / songwriter whose career in the 1990s was cut short by his untimely death – out in UK cinemas on Friday, February 13th

It’s tempting to place Jeff Buckley among the all too long list of rock and roll music casualties who killed themselves via a mixture of excessive lifestyle and drug abuse, a list which includes Jeff’s absent, singer / songwriter father Tim, who died of a morphine and heroin overdose at age 28.

This documentary charts its subject’s life chronologically and thus doesn’t get to the issue of Jeff’s death until late on. Following his early years as a young hopeful living in New York City, Jeff Buckley relocated to Memphis where one day, aged 30, he swam out into the Wolf River (a tributary of the Mississippi) and was never seen alive again. The autopsy, which was pretty much open and shut, recorded that he had one beer in his system. Nothing else. The river at this location had a powerful undertow, so Buckley’s untimely death can be put down to a tragic combination of ignorance and misjudgement.… Read the rest

Tags 28 years old, 30 years old, absent father, Amy Berg, autopsy, bass, Bob Dylan, café, career, classical music, Columbia Records, concert pianist, contract, death, documentary, girlfriend, Greenwich village, growing up, he swim, he was living on borrowed time, home movie, home movie footage, Jeff Buckley, Jimmy Page, Joan as Policewoman, Joan Wasser, Led Zeppelin, Mary Guibert, Memphis, Miles Davis, Mississippi, morphine and heroin overdose, mother, music documentary, music festival, New York City, Nina Simone, Page and Plant, Rebecca Moore, record company, river, Robert Planet, rock and roll music casualties, rock music, Sin-é, singer, singer/songwriter, single parent, single parent mum, speaker, Tim Buckley, tributary, undertow, unfit father, untimely death, US, vibrations, Wolf River, work ethic, working tables, young hopeful

Features Live Action Movies

A Perfectly Normal Family
(En Helt Almindelig Familie)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 2 October 2020
No Comments on A Perfectly Normal Family
(En Helt Almindelig Familie)

Director – Malou Reymann – 2020 – Denmark – Cert. PG – 97m

****

A girl struggles to deal with her dad’s new female gender identity – in cinemas and on Modern Films Virtual Screening Room and Curzon Home Cinema from Friday, October 2nd

This opens, closes and is punctuated at regular intervals with 4:3 aspect ratio home movie footage of a family, two sisters growing up and precious moments with their mum and, particularly, their dad (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard). The first excerpt sees dad carrying baby Emma, showing her to the camera and herself in a mirror, showing her her mum Helle (Neel Rønholt) in bed and her elder sister Caroline / Caro in her cot, then taking her downstairs to watch the football match on TV with dad. “Are you a little football girl?”, he asks her.

The rest of the film is in 16:9 widescreen, starting off with teenage Emma (Kaya Toft Loholt) and the rest of her football team being told off by their coach. On the sidelines, dad dribbles the ball. She comes over and tackles him effortlessly. Later, when the family go to look at a dog because both girls want the family to have one, it becomes clear that something is up with their parents.… Read the rest

Tags daughters, Denmark, father, football, gender identity, growing up, home movies, parenting, parents and children