Tag: visibility

The Dive

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 23 August 2023
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Director – Maximilian Erlenwein – 2022 – Germany – Cert. 15 – 91m

***1/2

Two women go diving near a remote stretch of coastline and find themselves in trouble – out in UK cinemas on Friday, August 25^th following its UK Premiere at Frightfest on Thursday, August 24th

Opening with an image of light shining through the waves on the surface of the sea – reminiscent of nothing quite so much as light similarly shining through the title lettering at the start of sci-fi horror shocker The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982) – this promises something dark, foreboding and threatening from the get go. The talkative Drew (Sophie Lowe) plans diving trips for herself and her more taciturn sister May (Louisa Krause).

On this occasion, the pair head toward a remote stretch of coastline in a rental car listening to the radio playing Only You by The Platters, a song which clearly means a lot to both of them judging by the enthusiastic way they sing along. (It would be nice to think that the radio station plays other tunes as well, but this is all we hear, presumably because the production could only afford the movie rights to the one song.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Cave Rescue

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 1 August 2022
3 Comments on Cave Rescue
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Director – Tom Waller – 2022 – Thailand – US Cert. PG-13 – 99m

****

A Thai-based dramatisation of the 2018 Thailand boys’ football team cave rescue, with some of the rescuers playing themselves – on Blu-ray (US only) Tuesday, September 13th

In 2018, the world held its breath when the 12 boys of a football team and their 24-year-old coach became trapped in a cave when rain fell unexpectedly and water levels within the cave system started to rise. Incredibly, the ensuing rescue attempt involving divers from the US, UK, Ireland and Canada got all 13 out alive. According to this film, sadly, there was one fatality among the Thai Navy SEAL divers involved in the rescue.

Quick off the mark, Thailand-based producer-director Waller made the story into a feature film The Cave (2019), aimed at the Thai market. With Netflix having already secured the rights to the boys’ stories – a miniseries Thai Cave Rescue (2022) is coming to Netflix US in September 2022 – Waller and his co-writers had to find an alternative route to telling the story. A meeting with Irish diver Jim Warny, who was involved in the rescue operation, resulted in the decision to base the narrative not around the thirteen people trapped underground but the men and women who attempted to get them out (mostly men, although there are one or two women featured among the paramedics not to mention an assistant to the local Governor).… Read the rest

Animation Features Live Action Movies

Where Is Anne Frank

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 7 August 2022
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Director – Ari Folman – 2021 – Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Israel – Cert. PG – 99m

*****

In Amsterdam, a year from now, her imaginary friend Kitty sets out to discover what happened to Anne Frank – out in cinemas on Friday, August 12th

Amsterdam, Holland, about a year from now. Early in the morning, the usual tourist queues are assembling outside the Anne Frank House, passing a tent housing refugees on the pavement. Inside, something strange happens as a glass case shatters and the original copy of Anne’s diary is exposed to ink from a pen, affecting the ink writing on the pages and materialising Kitty (voice: Ruby Stokes), the imaginary pen-friend to whom Anne addressed her diary.

The materialised Kitty is perplexed. Where is Anne Frank? What has happened to her, to the house? The staff, too, are perplexed. They can’t let the waiting crowds in with the case broken, but those people have been queueing for hours and it seems wrong not to open up for them. After a brief debate a solution is found and the diary moved to Anne’s room where it is placed on the desk where it naturally sits. The concerns of the house staff seem trivial compared to those of Kitty.… Read the rest

Tags 1945, 2D animation, 3D model sets, Aardman, Albert Dussel, Amsterdam, Andrew Woodall, Anne Frank, Anne Frank House, Anne Frank’s diary, Ari Folman, attic, attic hideout, Auschwitz, authority figure, capture, Clark Gable, crowds, defeat, dentist, dissolve, Edith Frank, Emily Carey, execution, fathers and daughters, German Occupation, German soldier, glass case, Greek mythology, Greek underworld, handbags, hidden, hidden attic hideout, hide, hiding, Holland, Holocaust, illegal immigrants, imaginary friend, imaginary pen-friend, immigrants, ink writing, invisibility, it can’t happen here, Jew, Jewish, Jewish ethnicity, Jews, Margot Frank, Michael Moloney, migrants, mothers and daughters, museum, Nazi Occupation, Nazis, Nell Barlow, Otto Frank, parents and children, pavement, pen and ink, pen-friend, Peter Van Daan, pickpocket, Ralph Prosser, refugees, Ruby Stokes, Samantha Spiro, Sebastian Croft, Second World War, sheltering, siblings, sisters, Skye Bennett, squat, Stuart Miligan, tent, the Allies, The Third Reich, thief, tourists, Tracy-Ann Oberman, trial, Tristan Oliver, UK, Van Daan, Veronica Lake, visibility, visitors, war crimes, war zone, World War 2, World War II, World War Two, WW2

Movies

Where Is Anne Frank

Hiding from deportation

Where Is Anne Frank
Directed by Ari Folman
Certificate PG, 99 minutes
Released 12 August

Amsterdam, about a year from now. Inside the Anne Frank House, Anne’s imaginary pen-friend Kitty (voiced by Ruby Stokes) materialises out of the ink from the pages of Anne’s diary. The perplexed Kitty wants to know what happened to Anne, and starts reading her diary to find out, taking it with her when she leaves the premises where she is invisible. Outside the house, she becomes visible.

Asking police ‘Where is Anne Frank?’ she is shown the bridge, hospital, school and theatre bearing Anne Frank’s name and is told, Anne Frank is all around you. [Read the rest at Reform magazine…]

[Read my longer review…]

Trailer:

Tags 1945, 2D animation, 3D model sets, Aardman, Albert Dussel, Amsterdam, Anne Frank, Anne Frank House, Anne Frank’s diary, Ari Folman, attic, attic hideout, Auschwitz, authority figure, capture, crowds, defeat, dentist, Edith Frank, Emily Carey, execution, fathers and daughters, German Occupation, hidden, hide, hiding, Holland, Holocaust, illegal immigrants, imaginary friend, imaginary pen-friend, immigrants, ink writing, invisibility, it can’t happen here, Jew, Jewish, Jewish ethnicity, Jews, migrants, mothers and daughters, museum, Nazi Occupation, Nazis, parents and children, pavement, pen and ink, pen-friend, Peter Van Daan, pickpocket, Ralph Prosser, refugees, Ruby Stokes, Sebastian Croft, Second World War, sheltering, siblings, sisters, squat, the Allies, The Third Reich, thief, tourists, trial, UK, Van Daan, visibility, visitors, war crimes, war zone, World War 2, World War II, World War Two, WW2

Features Live Action Movies

Thirteen Lives

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 1 August 2022
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Director – Ron Howard – 2022 – US – Cert. 12a – 147m

****

A dramatisation of the 2018 Thailand boys’ football team cave rescue, with the rescuers played by name actors– out in cinemas on Friday, July 29th and globally on Amazon on Friday, August 5th

In 2018, the world held its breath when the 12 boys of a football team and their 24-year-old coach became trapped in a cave when rain fell unexpectedly and water levels within the cave system started to rise. Incredibly, the ensuing rescue attempt involving divers from the US, UK, Ireland and Canada got all 13 out alive. According to the informational titles at the end of this film, sadly, there was one fatality among the Thai Navy SEAL divers involved in the rescue (shown in the film) and another death in that group later as the result of a contracted infection.

The story captivated the world, which held its breath as the days went by after the boys first became trapped by the water flooding the cave. For over a week, it wasn’t even known whether they were still alive. When they were located, alive and well, the question loomed large as to whether they would be able to get out alive.… Read the rest

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