By Anne Brodie
A brilliantly subversive take on Bram Stoker’s horror vampire classic and crowd pleaser Dracula, Nosferatu will scare the bejaysus out of you. Master of eerie Robert Eggers has taken the tale to new heights of eroticism, despair and terror while exploring the reality of a woman obsessed with her captor. Eggers, fuelled by his disciplined and intricate reconstruction of historic primitivism has crafted a work of art, in this well constructed, intense and monumental experience. His 2015 film The Witch still haunts 10 years later; he set the bar high illustrating with unique cinematic power humanity fighting against an unbeatable foe, the Darkness, whatever shape it may take. Its Germany 1838 and two married couples Anna and Friedrich Harding (Emma Corrin and Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Ellen and Thomas Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult) become inveigled in evil and adultery when the women “commune” with the vampire. Anna had an intense experience with it as a child and carries fear and arousal that causes convulsions. Thomas must leave her alone for a business trip to Count Orlok’s castle in Eastern Europe. He’s warned by locals not to go to there as it is evil but he wants to make a land deal. The Count (an unrecognisable Bill Skarsgård) welcomes him but doesn’t show his face; his hands tell the story if Thomas had cared to read them. Ellen has a horrific visitation bringing back the terrors of her youth; the Hardings will look after her, but Anna is now in danger. A doctor (The Witch’s Ralph Ineson) is summoned and says Ellen is only sleepwalking but an experienced vampire hunter (Willem Dafoe) knows better “We have been blinded by science, I have wrestled with the devil”. And the battle for the human soul is on. The plague of vampirism has brought with it a secondary plague – rats. There is so much to see and experience in Egger’s chiller. Compared to The Witch, Nosferatu is far more complex, proving he can go simple and dense with equal mastery. The ultiimate jaw dropping anti-Christmas movie experience. In theatres Christmas Day.
James Mangold’s look at early Bob Dylan, A Complete Unknown doesn’t offer a lot of insight into who was Robert Zimmerman (Timothée Chalamet) aged 19, of Duluth, Minnesota, in favour of performances of his best-known early songs. We meet him freshly arrived in New York, 1961, under his new name Bob Dylan, headed for Greenwich Village, the hub of the folk music scene, the launching pad for numerous musicians depicted here – Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), the Dust Bowl balladeer, Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) whose kindness shines forth, early Johnny Cash, Al Kooper, and Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) his lover and rival. Folk music was part of the peace movement depicting the struggles of the ordinary man in a capitalist world, and then the protest movement. Pete Seeger had been charged with contempt of Congress, for refusing to name names in the Hollywood blacklist of supposed Communist sympathisers during the Red Scare. Dylan carried the torch and saw his career go global, a revered, mysterious figure and his landmark songs. His first New York lover Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) was his muse, while he was also in a relationship with another great talent, the young Baez. As Dylan was famously private, I’m not sure if the film is factual, but it is certainly a showcase for his important legacy of songs. Attention is paid to the news and crises of the day, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and set him in a time of great change. The drama ramps up in the final chapters when Dylan brings out his electric guitar. You know the rest but this portion of the film is pretty darned riveting.
Nicole Kidman’s thrill seeking executive, wife and mother Romy in Babygirl risks it all for the decades younger Sam (Harris Dickinson), an intern who can calm dogs with unique training skills. She notices him noticing her and like that he’s in her face- she plays it cool but things get hot as she succumbs to his sexual demands, trained to do his sexual bidding, like a dog. She’s his willing emotional, his slave. He calms her as the dog was calmed. Her relationship with husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas) is sexually fulfilling but lacks the edge her intern provides. And she’s vulnerable; she grew up in cults and communes, he spotted her, recognised that she was malleable. Most of the movie involves Kidman pleasuring herself or him or vice versa which struck me as a strange bid for relevance by an actor with Kidman’s stature. Writer Director Halina Reijn pulls no punches in sex scenes that seem real, as Kidman’s character tries to keep the affair secret and protect her seniority. Her daughter tells her she “looks like a fish’, artificial, mocking her need to hold back time. Because inside she feels inadequate and is jealous when he dates her daughter while keeping her on a leash. He humiliates her and she obeys, so the woman with all the power and wealth and family still doesn’t feel worthy and craves punishment. I dunno, doesn’t seem Christmas movie but there it is. This erotic drama from writer director Halina Reijn certainly has a sinister undertone.
And not long now till Maura Delpero’s remarkable family drama Vermiglio opens! This year’s Grand Jury Prize winner at Venice and Italy’s International Feature Film pick for the Oscars takes us to a tiny mountaintop village that really exists in Italy. It’s 1944 and families anxiously await the end of the war and the return of their sons. The local teacher and his wife welcome their tenth baby, everyone seems to be pregnant in this village! Their eldest daughter Lucia begins a romance and marries Pietro – a Scillian deserter sheltering in their barn. The rural life is barebones and labour intensive but villagers are bound together in generations of community and hard work. They are blessed with all manner of natural resources; constant prayers of thanks dominate their days. Eventually Pietro is sent off to fight as Lucia pines for him; she’s pregnant. Each member of the community from the oldest to the youngest is spotlit, we experience a wide range of experience and behaviour and feel close to them via wonderful small moments, a male chorus, a toddler bringing his mother a flower, community music and dance nights, a young girl making her sacrifices to Jesus, the wedding and dinner atop a mountain … such an arresting, visual and stirring film. However, harsh realities come home that upend things and the villagers are called on be resilient, and forgive or split the community apart. Riveting yet beautifully soft and quiet. Theatres Jan 3
Happy Holidays Dear Readers!!!