Movies to move you.....
As the last remnants of the British Empire crumble and Britannia slips beneath the waves, there are still a few things that the British do best.
Drinking tea, queuing, rights of way across private land....and low budget movies about ordinary people made in an endearing, amusing and moving way.
If you want lavish, fast paced, action packed, big budget, high tech movies with truck loads of special effects.....look toward Hollywood.
The Brits on the other hand seem to effortlessly make films on a shoestring budget with quality scrips and quality actors.
The last two movies we have seen at the local cinema are.....
Finding your Feet
A lovely, feel good movie dealing with family relationships, the importance of friends and community, aging and death - following the lives of two sisters from different economic backgrounds.
It may sound strange to call a movie about aging and death a "feel good" movie. But it really is. It's more like a celebration of life.
Staring Celia Imrie and Imelda Staunton as the sisters, backed up by the wonderful Timothy Spall and Joanna Lumley and a great supporting cast, it's a movie that points out that although aging is something that comes to us all, it doesn't mean that it can't be enjoyed....even celebrated, inspite of all the aches, pains and sickness that sometimes accompanies it..
As Celia's character says in the movie "it's one thing being afraid of death.....another being afraid of life". Basically the message is that you're never too old to take a risk or to have an adventure.
Life is not a rehersal.....it's real and it's short.....so enjoy it while you still can.
Link to Youtube clip showing the official trailer is below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Cp6ba2Y0g
You come out of the movie ready for anything - wanting to thumb your nose at the boring people and take off on an adventure. Loved it!
The second movie is
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
It sounds like a bit of a mouthful but we found it to be an entertaining and thought provoking movie.
Directed by Mike Newell (Four weddings and a funeral) and a script by Kevin Hood (British playwrite - who cut his teeth on the early "Grange Hill" TV scripts) and staring a predominantly British cast including Penelope Wilton and Tom Courtenay I'm calling it a British film even though it was made with French money and produced by a French film company.
Staring Lily James and set on the island of Guernsey just after the end of the second world war, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was formed as a way for the citizens of a little town in Guernsey to break the curfew imposed by the German occupying army during the war.
Based on the 2008 book of the same name by Mary Ann Shaffer, the story follows the main character Juliet Ashton (Lily James) a successful writer, who travels from her home in post-war London to Guernsey to unravel the mysteries of the Society and its members.
It is a bit of a chick flick so naturally theres a fair share of romance and romantic complications, but there is also enough depth of story to keep the rest of us entertained too.
It explores a number of different but inter-linking themes including the love of books, self discovery, courage and loyalty, all against the backdrop of war and the emotional and physical effects that war imposes on ordinary people.
Link to the Youtube clip for viewing the movie trailer is below. Just copy and paste into your browser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTDNGv61-Dk
It was an easy movie to get absorbed in. I have to admit that I enjoyed it.
I also felt - and it may sound silly - an emotional link to the movie and its subject matter, as my parents both lived through the war....mum as a school girl being bombed in Sheffield by the Luftwaffe and dad as a teenage sailor with the British Royal Navy serving on destroyers and minesweepers.
They married in March 1950, less than 5 years after the end of the war and honeymooned on Guernsey.....hence the tenuous link.
Thanks once again for reading the blog. Comments and (constructive) criticism welcome.
More posts follow soon.
