CinemaSerf

I'll admit to being a bit confused as to the purpose of this documentary. It follows a select tour by Ukrainian-born American violinist Isaac Stern to communist China where he meets some of their prodigiously talented young folk who are adept at just about everything from playing musical instruments to table tennis to gymnastics. The one thing he seems to want to identify and correct is a certain rigidity with their playing styles, but that often leads to what appears to present a rather condescending approach to their skills. Hence my confusion. Is he there to impart his "Western" techniques on the Chinese or to see how they have embraced and adapted European classical music to their own style of music? We visit some Chinese opera and again, there is a degree of patronising going on which suggests an inferiority of East v West that didn't sit so well with me. It touches, quite harrowingly in one interview, on the attitudes of the Maoist authorities when it came to eradicating the influences of Mozart et al and replacing them with domestic themes, but that again seems to ignore the facts that the musical traditions of this nation are easily as old as anything that was imported from the courts of Vienna or Berlin. Stern is very clearly a talented musician, but as a communicator and a teacher, well I found him lacking in understanding or respect for a heritage that dates back aeons and that's musical styles he, himself, might struggle to master. It's a bit long, but is still an interesting treatise on the weaponisation of music that showcases some sublime talent - epitomised by a young lad on the piano - amidst a politically manipulative environment.

If you're up for a bit of borderline farcical pantomime that manages to merge elements of Laurel and Hardy with Ingmar Bergman by way of "Mary Poppins" then this is the film for you. It's set amidst the sand dunes of the coast of La Manche where folks have begun to mysteriously disappear. Drafted in to investigate is the avuncular "Insp. Machin" (Didier Després) and his sidekick "Malfoy" (Cyril Rigaux). They quickly settle their investigation on a confluence of the sea and the Slack river, where a family of subsistence oyster farmers live under the gaze of the mansion of the wealthy "Van Peteghem" family. This family - that wouldn't have looked out of place at the start of John Boorman's "Deliverance" (1972) - largely ignore the locals and live their degenerate lives selfishly, flaunting their obvious wealth in front of their poverty stricken neighbours. Things get a bit complicated when local urchin "Ma Loute" (Brandon Lavieville) takes a shine to the enigmatic "Billie" (Raph) and that not only breaks the unwritten convention that has inhibited the association of the local proles and their visiting patricians. It also complicates the sleuthing for our policeman, who is prone to swelling (think "Aunt Petunia" from "Harry Potter") when he gets nervous about a case and for the eccentric family led by the mad as cheese "André" (Fabrice Luchini) and the scene stealing "Aude" (a Juliet Binoche who seems determined to present an hybrid of Katharine Hepburn and Dame Margaret Rutherford as she hams up delightfully). Virtually nobody is as they seem as the drama unfolds and whilst the comedy could never be described as subtle, it's very excessive nature carries it along entertainingly, if perhaps a little sporadically, towards a denouement that Luchini himself has a go at describing to an equally bemused audience and family. That conclusion is a bit rushed and, I thought, undercooked - but the whole film offers us parodies galore, is grandly scored, photographed and designed and there are a few silly scenes that did make me giggle as it pokes fun at the riche, the not so riche, sexual ambiguities and taboos as it generally lolls along enjoyably.

This starts off with the typical family formula where dad (Tony Hale) is trying to raise his two young children "Amber" (Bianca Belle) and brother "Jack" (Kue Lawrence) following the death of their mother. He's engaged the help of his sister "Liz" (D'Arcy Carden) to sell their home and so tensions are bubbling under when "Amber" is found to have drawn something a little on the scary side at school. Fortunately, her teacher reckons it is way better to sketch these things than actually implement her imagination and so gives her a notebook in which she secretly characterises much of her feelings about her family, her schoolmates and, of course, her grief. Meantime, "Jack" has discovered that a nearby pond seems to have some magic properties that initially he hopes will help him repair their special pizza plate, and then - well what else could it resuscitate? That's when his sister intervenes - but her book falls into the water and that miraculously animates some of her vividly drawn imaginary creatures that now proceed to terrorise the town, the siblings and the annoying "Bowman" (Karon Cox) who all have to get their thinking caps on if they are to thwart these multi-coloured and limbed beasties that are proliferating freely and perilously. The adults here do fine, but essentially this is really a film from the three youngsters as they use their magical foes to manifest and then face down their own emotional baggage, relationship issues and demons. There's a little sibling rivalry from time to time too, but once the battle lines are drawn it's more about working together whilst they combat their sometimes quite menacing nemeses. There is a fairly clearly presented underlying message about how we deal with sorrow and of the dangers of leaving these feelings unaddressed, all whilst the animation mixes well with the live action and there's plenty of mischief along the way, too. It's good to see a film that has something to say, and this one is innovative in the way it does that. Worth a watch.