Tag: tube

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)
Sticky post

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

Features Live Action Movies

The Small Back Room

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 28 May 2024
No Comments on The Small Back Room
Sticky post

Directors – Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger – 1949 – UK – Cert. PG – 106m

*****

In London during World War Two, a back room boffin and bomb disposal man struggles with alcoholism – 4K restoration played at BFI Southbank on Tuesday, May 28th prior to release on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital on Monday, June 3rd

This black and white, post-war era drama isn’t the first film that comes to mind when people think about Powell and Pressburger – it was made immediately after what today are regarded as three of their best colour features – A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and their arguable masterpiece The Red Shoes (1948). And that was preceded by one of their finest black and white works, “i know where i’m going!” (1945).

In many ways, The Small Back Room couldn’t be more different. There’s a marvellous sense of whimsy about those films, even if the later ones are intense and savage in places. Like Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes – and, for that matter, Powell’s late solo masterpiece Peeping Tom (1960), an intensity lies at the heart of The Small Back Room.

Gone are the light, airy spaces of the earlier films, their sense of the outdoors expanse (and, in The Red Shoes, the expanded landscapes of the eponymous ballet sequence within the film).… Read the rest

Tags across the hallway, advertising, alcohol, alcoholism, Allies, ATS, barman, black and white, bomb, bomb disposal, booze, boss, carriages, Chesil Beach, Christopher Challis, Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds Of Powell + Pressburger, cinematographer, civil servant, claustrophobia, clock, colleagues, conference rooms, corporal, Cyril Cusack, dance, dancehall, dancehalls, David Farrar technical, department, drama, Emeric Pressburger, explosion, faces, false leg, field radio independent producers, flat, flats, German, German expressionism, girlfriend, government, hands, head of department, indulge, interiors, Jack Hawkins, jazz band, Kathleen Byron, lab, leisure time, local, London, London Underground, low, Michael Gough, Michael Powell, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Milton Rosmer, minister, Nigel Balchin, novel, office politics, offices, pain, partner, pebble, post-war, Powell and Pressburger, pub, pubs, relationship, Renée Ascherson, research, research lab, restaurant, Salisbury Plain, scientist, Second World War, secretary, self-worth, Sid James, stoic, Ted Heath’s Kenny Baker Swing Group, temptation, test, thermos flask, ticking, tools, tube, UK, wartime, welfare, whisky, Whitehall, window, working life, workmen drilling, World War 2, World War II, World War Two, wrenches, WW2

Animation Documentary Features Live Action Movies Shorts

The Picks that spoiled our film critic!

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 21 November 2023
No Comments on The Picks that spoiled our film critic!
Sticky post

Tallinn viewed from the Nordic Hotel Forum.

Jeremy Clarke returns to the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in order to cover the Critics’ Picks section (which is now on its second year); he encounters what’s probably the strongest section of the event

Some people have a fear of flying. I don’t, but dislike of all the bureaucratic paraphernalia that surrounds airports. Not to mention London’s transport system, which is good most of the time, but not so much when it goes wrong. Coming home from the Festival last year, I got caught up in a tube strike. That didn’t happen this year. Indeed, the travel to and from the airport worked better for a number of reasons.

One was that the Festival’s hospitality team were kind enough to book my flights to and from Heathrow. This meant I could use the Elizabeth Line to travel to and from the airport. I currently live on the Victoria Line, which connects directly with three major rail terminals (Kings Cross, Euston, Victoria) but not the Elizabeth Line. The Elizabeth was all a bit too new last year, but Londoners who frequently travel into the centre of town as I do have got rather more used to it, and the Oxford Circus (Victoria Line) to Bond Street (Central Line) to Heathrow (Elizabeth Line) is reasonably easy to navigate.… Read the rest

Tags 27th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, 27th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival: Critics' Picks Competition, 2D animation, airport, Alexela Concert Hall, animation, app, Arnold Schwarzenegger, arrival, baggage, baggage going missing, beehive, Bond Street, breakfast, bureaucracy, Central Line, changing flight, check in, cocktails, Critics' Picks, Critics' Picks Competition, departure, Elizabeth Line, Euston, flying, Frankfur, Heathrow, honeycomb, King's Cross, Kino Sõprus, London, London Transport, Londoner, Lufthansa, Niki Nikitin, Nordic Forum Hotel, Oxford Circus, PÖFF, PÖFF 2023, PÖFF 2023: Critics' Picks Competition, PÖFF 27, PÖFF 27: Critics' Picks Competition, PÖFF: Critics' Picks Competition, programmer, roof, Sarah Connor, Tallinn, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2023, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2023: Critics' Picks Competition, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival: Critics' Picks Competition, to Heathrow, tube, tube strike, UK, Victor Fraga, Victoria, Victoria Line, Wendy Ide, WordPress White Screen of Death