PAPILLON - ON THE IMPORTANCE OF NEVER LOSING HOPE... NO MATTER WHAT...

Love is a strange and many splendored thing. Sometimes it comes with a flash of light and a clap of thunder, engulfing us all in an instant. But sometimes it sneaks up on us quietly taking us over so gently we don’t even realise until we have been completely engulfed. This film crept up on me exactly in this way. I started off watching it almost out of a sense of duty – it’s a known classic and I felt as if I should have watched it by now – and for the first hour or so honestly wasn’t that hooked. I ended up deciding that my first tattoo will be the butterfly that gave the film it’s name – the butterfly tattooed on the main character’s chest. I have the pain threshold of a slug when it comes to needles (terrified doesn’t scratch the surface of how they make me feel as anyone who has tried to take blood from me can testify) so this is really something. Allow me to endeavour to explain how.

The film is based on the memoires of the same name of Henri “Papillon” Charriere,  a petty criminal native to France. Convicted (all his life he claimed wrongly) of killing a pimp, he is sent to the penal colony in French Guyana. This is a dismal place where the prisoners are treated little better than animals and the more unruly ones (like Charriere) are kept in solitary confinement for years ( that’s “years”, plural) so that they are “broken” (and often killed). Of course it’s completely possible to get yourself into trouble even in solitary confinement in which case you are deprived from light for up to six months… As you can imagine, Charriere is not an easy prisoner by a long shot. Two things keep him alive and (relatively) sane: his friend Dega who is a renowned forger and a man of means who can make *ehm* connections even in this most dismal of jails and his dogged obsession with escaping. The trouble is that this place is specifically designed so, as the guard so succinctly puts it, France can “wash her hands” of the men and dispose of them. For ever. It is going to take one hell of a lot more than determination for Papillon to escape…

You may have made the analogy already. And to tell the truth, yes,  in places the film has that distinct feel one gets from “escape from POW camps” type tales that were so popular around the time of the 2^nd World War. You know, completely disparate characters pulling together against a common brutal enemy and almost impossible odds. The fact that we have Steve McQueen (who was the lead in The Great Escape ten years before this film was made) in the title role does nothing to alleviate this analogy. Of course genre-wise, it’s your basic buddy-movie really. The strong decisive “masculine” one (Steve McQueen) and the more effeminate, “scaredy” one who “gets things done” aka Dustin Hoffman as Dega. Technically the film is brilliant in so many ways. One of my particular favourites was that beautiful if slightly jarring contrast between the paradise island of French Guyana and the brutality of the colony. And to me, to be absolutely honest, this film stuck out with its story, more than anything else…

First of all, a tiny bit of research straight away proved what I strongly suspected: it is widely presumed that the stories Charriere tells as his life story partly come from other prisoners. You could very well argue that the story is a bit like a swashbuckling pirate story. And I do not mean that in a disrespectful way. It’s just one of those things where when you look at the list of misfortunes that befalls the hero, it is almost numerically impossible for one single person to be THAT unfortunate. But then again, I don’t think the fact that it didn’t happen to a single person detracts from their force – considering they were probably true. I’m pretty sure 6 month blackouts happened as did solitary confinement for years on end along with God knows what else besides…  I mean these stories are unbelievable, but the truth often is stranger than fiction…

And secondly, just because an event is based on reality but doesn’t match up to it 100% must we, in every single case, wag our fingers and dismiss it because it’s not “telling the truth”? This is a story about the amazing capacity human beings have to find inner strength and keep up hope. And shall I tell you something else? I don’t even think it’s that important whether Papillon made it to freedom or not…  (SPOILER ALERT!) What matters is, when he is put on Devil’s Island – a minimum security branch of the colony where the prisoners are pretty much left to their own devices on a tiny island surrounded by shark- infested waters and nowhere to launch a boat from Papillon, who is now old and grey and not a little insane after 5 extra years in solitary confinement, STILL hasn’t given up. While Degas (who has somehow landed himself on the same island) is happy to settle in and concentrate on growing carrots, Papillon is still plotting… Now call it obsession or madness if you will, I think Papillon’s tireless bids for freedom speaks to something in all of us. You know. The part that secretly “knows” that one day you will be famous. You will be rich. You will have that red Ferrari. The entire world may be telling you that that plan, whatever it is, is very probably going to end in heartache. Outwardly you agree. Inwardly, there is a tiny voice inside insistently telling you to keep plugging at it. Papillon is the story of a man who never, never lost that voice. And I think this is a far more important message than any other the film may or could contain.

I mean, look at it this way. As I write this review, Holocaust Remembrance day is almost upon us. I just finished watching a documentary about British Holocaust Survivors. They site a lot of different “ingredients” for survival in those most horrific times, blind luck being one. But the second? Optimism. A sense of humour. And if that doesn’t tell you something about what it takes to survive in this world, I don’t know what will…   

UN PROPHET / A PROPHET

I don’t know how “in” to the European film scene you are, but if you are (in) you will have heard of the French film “Un Prophet.” It not only won a whole bunch of awards continent-wide (one BAFTA, the Jury Grand Prize at Cannes, 9 Cesar awards and a Golden Globe Nomination to name but a few) but was an Oscar ® nominee for Best Foreign Picture no less. The trailer seemed (to me) to make it out to be a modest little number, plus after having watched Celda 211 (see archive for review – a Spanish masterpiece that one) I sincerely doubted any other film set in a prison would be able to “wow” me. Ok, so the film is by no means “little” and it knocked my socks off. Now let me give you a brief explanation of why.
Set in modern-day France we follow the story of Malik El Djebenah, a prison inmate of Arab origins. He has pretty much spent the best part of his adult life in jail – but that isn’t saying much since he is only 19 years old. And as he is 19 years old, he is now being moved from the ?? to prison proper, to finish his sentence with the “big guys”. Malik is young and inexperienced and in prison some guys are bigger than others. In this particular case, the Corsicans are about as big as you can get. Malik is soon (and completely by chance) tangled up with them. He does their dirty work (some work dirtier than the rest it has to be said…) they consent to not killing him, in short they have a mutually beneficial deal of sorts going. But although Malik seems to be little more than their lapdog on the outside, inside, he has plans of his own. He uses his head, experience and the trust of the Corsicans to start “businesses” of his own, until, let us say, he reaches a point where he must either sink or fly… The question is whether in this case pride comes before a fall or not…
While watching this film I couldn’t help but remember the gangster classic “Scarface” from time to time. Malik is sort of like Tony Montana, only not quite. For example, he is not consumed by the need to rule and wield power the way Tony is. At first he is just trying to survive. Then he is just trying to make a living. Then he is just seeing how much he can get away with… Although both characters end up wielding great power, Malik’s is a more of a slow and painful decent not a flaming ascent like in Tony. I can definitely say that Malik reacts pretty much the way you or I may have done if we were in prison at 19. And the realism, to my mind, doesn’t end there. I get the impression, though of course I am no expert, that Un Prophet is a very realistic portrait of a certain facet of life in France…
To sum up the film is exciting, sad and at times very difficult to watch… And it’s conclusion… Is different from what you may expect, and don’t count on the Scarface simile to give you any clues! Watch it with caution - but definitely watch it!

CLAUSTROPHOBIA FROM SPAIN : "CELL 211"

Who do you think of when you hear the phrase “famous Spanish director”? Pedro Almodovar? Alejandro Amenabar? Well, Daniel Monzon might be another name to add to that list. He basically took everyone (including Almodovar and Amenabar) by surprise at the Goya awards this year and made off with eight of them. And the “surprise contender” is Celda 211 / Cell 211 . Although, to be fair, to anyone who has actually seen this film, this will not come as a surprise.

Based on a book – now a bestseller of course - Cell 211 is the story of Juan, soon to be father and prison warden. And life for Juan is exciting : He loves his wife who is six months pregnant to their first child and he has just got out of his rather gruesome job at the local slaughterhouse and become a prison warden. He has a day until he starts yet but he decides to visit the local “slam” anyway. He wants to give a good impression – not to mention starting learning the ropes… His new colleagues are happy to meet him and eager to show him around, all seems to be going well until a small accident happens… The prison is being renovated and a falling piece of plaster hits Juan on the head, momentarily knocking him out. His colleagues decide to lay him down in an empty cell (cell 211 as you may have gathered) and run for the doctor. Just at this particular point, an uprising starts in the prison. And Juan is left inside, on his own and unconscious. When he comes round, there seems to be only one way of surviving the madness : pretending he is the new inmate of cell 211 instead of a guard until he can find a way of breaking out…

Now, the story and the pace of Cell 211 is more than enough to glue you to the screen. It’s an adventure story and thriller of the highest caliber, there are many twists and turns you will never have even imagined. But there is also a very deep side to it that I think makes it relevant in our troubled times. Ok fair warning, this is another film I saw in the “Human Rights” competition of the local film festival. Police brutality, prison conditions and prejudice are the main themes of the film and very easy to “spot”. But there is a much deeper and more disturbing side to the storyline. It is the argument, which seems to be surfacing more and more often these days that each and every one of us is capable of violence if pushed hard enough and put in the right circumstances… And indeed, this is a side of the storyline that you may find disturbing – the idea of someone like you or I committing hideous crimes – or alternatively the idea that people who commit hideous crimes are really just like you or I sometimes – is disturbing to say the least. It doesn’t make it any less true for all that though… Watching it will give you quite a lot to think about. After it’s finished though. You will not have the time to “think” about anything ‘till the end of the film – it’s too darn exciting!!

SOME HISTORY, SOME POLITICS AND SOME "HUNGER"

If you looked at the summary of this film and said “God no, not another film about The Troubles!” I could actually relate to that. But if you want to watch one and decide to make it this one, you actually wouldn’t be doing that badly for yourself.
Hunger, is another true story (you may have noticed I have a soft spot for those). Through the eyes of Davey (played by Brian Milligan), a new IRA prisoner in Maze prison, we witness the “Blanket Protests” during which Republican prisoners led by Bobby Sands (played rather superbly by Michael Fassbander) protested in various ways to gain political status (one example is that since as political prisoners they would have been allowed their own clothes, the prisoners attired themselves only in their prison issue blankets and refused to wear prison uniforms – hence the name “Blanket Protests”). The various forms of non-cooperation and dissidence culminated in a hunger strike that led to the death of some of the protesters, including Bobby Sands himself.
Now once again I have to tell you, this film is not for the faint of heart. The film is, by nature, very political, and discusses the morality of the protests and the motivation of dying for a cause very effectively. But it is far from being all ideas and “heroics”. You will watch the prisoners and the guards “face off” in all its terrible glory. The film skimps on no detail, including the details of the protests (and believe me the Republican prisoners were “imaginative” ),the hunger strike and its physical effects on the strikers.
But if you force yourself past this undoubtedly disturbing side of the film, you find yourself faced with a fascinating narrative where many forms of hunger are discussed. Of course there is the physical hunger, predominant in the film but also the hunger for political rights, glory, righteousness… But at the end, my feeling was that the greatest “Hunger” was one that is not mentioned at all but to my mind was painfully present throughout the film : the hunger for peace. A thought-provoking and sensitive film you should not miss…

SOME HISTORY, SOME POLITICS AND SOME "HUNGER"

If you looked at the summary of this film and said “God no, not another film about The Troubles!” I could actually relate to that. But if you watch only one film on the subject and decided to make it this one, you actually wouldn’t be doing that badly for yourself.
Hunger, is another true story (you may have noticed I have a soft spot for those). Through the eyes of Davey (played by Brian Milligan), a new IRA prisoner in Maze prison, we witness the “Blanket Protests” during which Republican prisoners led by Bobby Sands (played rather superbly by Michael Fassbander) protested in various ways to gain political status (one example is that since as political prisoners they would have been allowed their own clothes, the prisoners attired themselves only in their prison issue blankets and refused to wear prison uniforms – hence the name “Blanket Protests”). The various forms of non-cooperation and dissidence culminated in a hunger strike that led to the death of some of the protesters, including Bobby Sands himself.
Now once again I have to tell you, this film is not for the faint of heart. The film is, by nature, very political, and discusses the morality of the protests and the motivation of dying for a cause very effectively. But it is far from being all ideas and “heroics”. You will watch the prisoners and the guards “face off” in all its terrible glory. The film skimps on no detail, including the details of the protests (and believe me the Republican prisoners were “imaginative” ),the hunger strike and its physical effects on the strikers.
But if you force yourself past this undoubtedly disturbing side of the film, you find yourself faced with a fascinating narrativewhere many forms of hunger are discussed. Of course there is the physical hunger, predominant in the film but also the hunger for political rights, glory, righteousness… But at the end, my feeling was that the greatest “Hunger” was one that is not mentioned at all but to my mind was painfully present throughout the film : the hunger for peace. A thought-provoking and sensitive film you should not miss…

NO INTRODUCTIONS NEEDED FOR THIS ONE - I GIVE YOU "BRONSON"

I came to watch Bronson when I was in a very peculiar mood indeed. You know “those” days, you may have got out of bed the wrong side, something may have gone very wrong in the office, or everything may have gone slightly wrong everywhere… In short, you’ve had enough, your nerves are in shreds and you feel rather belligerent and at odds with the world. Not, you may observe, the best frame of mind for a film. Not Bronson. If I had to describe my experience of it, I would use one word only: cathartic.
Which brings me to my disclaimer. Be warned, Bronson is not for the faint of heart or stomach. The level of violence portrayed is positively Tarantinian (and if that isn’t a word it damn well should be!) and the way the said violence is portrayed can be downright disturbing. Personally, this was not so much of a problem for me, I am a massive Tarantino fan, it should be said. But you may not be. So be warned.
Bronson is the true story of Michael Peterson, or rather his alter-ego, Charles Bronson, Britain’s most famous and most violent prisoner. We follow Bronson shocking career from prison to a facility for the criminally insane, to the outside world and back “inside” again. Not only do we get a blow by blow (very literally) account, it is Bronson himself who is narrating it! (well, not the real Bronson but Tom Hardy does such a spectacular job of the part you could be forgiven for being fooled) Thus we travel all the way into Bronson’s world, his psyche. And the fact that he actually is criminally insane makes for very interesting scenery indeed.
So far, Nicholas Wendig Refyn’s Bronson has taken Sundance, Rotterdam, London and Dublin film festivals by storm, and I can quite see why. And if you ever get round to watching this film, within 30 seconds of meeting Tom Hardy’s version of Bronson, I guarantee it, so will you…