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Rating 4½
Directed by Hans-Christian Schmid
Written by Bernd Lange
Starring Sandra Hüller, Burghart Klaußner, Imogen Kogge, Nicholas Reinke, Anna Blomeier, Jens Harzer, Walter Schmidinger, Johann Adam Oest and Irene Kugler
Michaela Klingler (Sandra Hüller), who comes from a deeply religious family, begins university, against the wishes of her mother Marianne (Imogen Kogge), with whom she has a slightly frosty and distant relationship, but with the blessing of her father Karl (Burghart Klaußner). This follows a number of years spent in and out of hospital, while doctors have tried to find a stabilising treatment for her epilepsy.
She soon meets Hanna Imhof (Anna Blomeier), who she had known at school, and begins a relationship with another student, Stefan Weiser (Nicholas Reinke). However, she has a seizure in her dorm room and, following another seizure during a religious pilgrimage, she goes to her pastor, Gerhard Landuaer (Walter Schmidinger), believing that she is possessed by demons. He reacts angrily, telling her she needs medical treatment, not spiritual guidance, but he also consults with a younger priest, Martin Borchert (Jens Harzer), who encourages her to believe she has a higher purpose and God is testing her.
Michaela stops taking her medication and her condition worsens. Hanna wants her to go to hospital, but instead, Stefan takes her home, where the priests conduct an exorcism, in an effort to rid her of the demons she is convinced have taken possession of her.
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This 2006 German film draws on the true story of Anneliese Michel, a young German woman who, in 1976, died following an exorcism that had been officially sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church, a decision that was later rescinded. Her parents and the two priests who performed the exorcism were prosecuted for negligent homicide and subsequently convicted of manslaughter. The same events inspired the 2005 American film ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’.
Unlike that film, we are not treated to ‘Exorcist’-style horror here. This is a serious study of a young woman who is suffering from a severe and debilitating illness and the tragic consequences brought about by the actions of her well intentioned parents and the zealous young priest who believes she has been chosen to be tested by God. The film has a chilly, brittle and disengaged tone, allowing us to experience the increasing sense of isolation that Michaela suffers. The cinematography is superb, using washed-out colours and wintery settings to further heighten this sense of isolation. The camera work gives the film a documentary-like feel.
In an early scene, when Michaela’s father takes her to the university and they are shown the dorm room she has been assigned, he gives her a gift, a typewriter, saying she will need it for her studies. When she returns home shortly afterwards, clearly happy and enjoying her new life, and goes with her parents on a pilgrimage, her mother gives her a rosary. The juxtaposition of these two gifts, highlighting the differing attitudes of her father and her mother, is a good example of the quiet and subtle way the film expresses the external factors that affect Michaela’s internal thinking about her illness.
The film is beautifully constructed and the acting is excellent. Sandra Hüller, Burghart Klaußner and Imogen Kogge, in particular, give tremendous performances. The film is never heavy handed in its approach to its subject matter and it doesn’t preach, at least not from my viewpoint. It gets an extra half-point for including an Amon Düül song on the soundtrack.
Highly recommended.
‘Requiem’ won fourteen awards at various film festivals in Europe and America. The story of Anneliese Michel also inspired the Public Image Limited song ‘Annalisa’, which can be found on their 1978 album ‘First Issue’.
Review posted 27 January 2009
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Rating 4
Created by Rob Thomas
Written by Rob Thomas (three episodes), Diane Ruggiero (five episodes), Phil Klemmer (six episodes), John Enbom (six episodes), Dayna Lynne North (three episodes), Cathy Belben (four episodes), Russell Smith (one episode) and John Serge (one episode)
Directed by John Kretchmer (six episodes), Nick Marck (three episodes), Jason Bloom (two episodes), Harry Winer (one episode), Kevin Bray (one episode), Steve Gomer (two episodes), Rob Thomas (one episode), Guy Norman Bee (one episode), Sarah Pia Anderson (one episode), Rick Rosenthal (one episode), Michael Fields (two episodes) and Martha Mitchell (one episode)
Starring Kristen Bell, Percy Daggs III, Jason Dohring, Teddy Dunn, Enrico Colantoni, Francis Capra, Tessa Thompson, Kyle Gallner, Ryan Hansen, Charisma Carpenter, Steve Guttenberg, Krysten Ritter, Harry Hamlin, Michael Muhney, Jeffrey D Sams, Erica Gimpel, Alona Tal, Amanda Noret, Alyson Hannigan and Amanda Seyfried
The simmering conflicts between the super-rich residents of Neptune, California and the poor majority have reached boiling point following the arrest of the killer of Lilly Kane (see season one of the show). Woody Goodman (Steve Guttenberg), the self-styled “Mayor”, intends to incorporate Neptune (with reference made to the genuine Californian charter city of Palo Alto, home to Stanford University) and thus marginalise the poor even further. Gang warfare is rife and when a Neptune High school bus is blown up during a field trip, Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) is convinced she was the intended target.
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The second season of ‘Veronica Mars’, first broadcast on the UPN television network between 28 September 2005 and 9 May 2006, kicks off in the aftermath of the events that occurred at the climax of season one. It largely follows the format of that season, mixing high school teenage drama and murder mystery, weaving a tangled web of different storylines involving a large number of characters that ebb and flow until they finally come together at the end of the twenty-two episode run. It doesn’t have the freshness of the first season, simply because the format is now familiar, but by and large it maintains the same level of quality. Once again, it is very addictive viewing.
In the first season, Veronica had been ostracised by her former friends, the rich clique at Neptune High. This time around she is, more or less, back in the fold, although her father is not rich by any stretch of the imagination, unlike the parents of her reacquainted friends. This creates a degree of conflict with the people she had got to know when she was an “outsider”. This is perhaps not explored as thoroughly as it might have been, although it is interesting to observe her frequently rather smug disposition become more pronounced and she seems to have some rather ambivalent attitudes generally.
It does seem as if the narrative had to be shoe-horned to accommodate some things that were driven by external factors. There are examples of stunt casting that are all too obvious, such as the cameo appearance by Joss Whedon, the creator of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and a supporter of the show, in episode six, although it passes by painlessly enough. In other areas, budget constraints might have played a part. Wallace Fennel (played by Percy Daggs III, one of the lead cast), Veronica’s best friend, is written out entirely during episodes six through nine and is also missing in episode fourteen. His mother Alicia (Erica Gimpel), disappears from the storyline altogether after episode five and is not seen again until the final episode. Having said this, production standards are high, at least to my untrained eye.
The season-long story arc is a little convoluted, drawing together the blowing up of the bus and the imminent trial of the accused killer of Lilly (Amanda Seyfried), plus several other story strands introduced in individual episodes. This is generally done very well, although it does rather unravel at the very end, becoming particularly chaotic and messy in the concluding episode, which tips over into implausibility and becomes all rather silly. It’s a minor quibble, though, and should not be allowed to take away from what precedes it. This final episode, ‘Not Pictured’, was rated as the best of the series by Empire magazine.
Viewing figures for the show on UPN dropped from the 2.5 million average of season one to 2.3 in season two.
Review posted 22 January 2009
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Rating 4½
Created by Rob Thomas
Written by Rob Thomas (six episodes), Jed Seidel (five episodes), Dina Ruggiero (seven episodes), Dayne Lynne North (three episodes), Phil Klemmer (four episodes), Aury Wallington (two episodes), Russell Smith (one episode), John Enbom (three episodes) and Carolyn Murray (one episode)
Directed by Mark Piznarski (two episodes), Harry Winer (one episode), Michael Fields (two episodes), Nick Gomez (two episodes), Sarah Pia Anderson (one episode), Nick Marck (four episodes), Guy Norman Bee (two episodes), Marcos Siega (three episodes), John Kretchmer (three episodes), David Barrett (one episode) and Steve Gomer (one episode)
Starring Kristen Bell, Percy Daggs III, Jason Dohring, Teddy Dunn, Enrico Colantoni, Francis Capra, Harry Hamlin, Kyle Secor, Lisa Thornhill, Michael Muhney, Erica Gimpel, Corinne Bohrer, Alona Tal, Alyson Hannigan and Amanda Seyfried
A year has passed since Lilly Kane (Amanda Seyfried), the best friend of Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) and sister of her former boyfriend Duncan Kane (Teddy Dunn), was brutally murdered. Veronica’s father, Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni), was the local sheriff at the time, but when he accused Lilly’s father, Jake Kane (Kyle Secor), a billionaire philanthropist, of the crime, he was removed from office and his wife Lianne (Corinne Bohrer) walked out on the family and left town. He now works as a private investigator. Veronica, who was ostracised by her former friends because of her father’s actions, does some sleuthing of her own. They all live in Neptune, a coastal town in Southern California where the sons and daughters of the super-rich collide uneasily with the have-nots, such as Eli ‘Weevil’ Navarro (Francis Capra), the leader of a teenage Latino biker gang, at the local high school.
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‘Veronica Mars’ premiered on the now defunct UPN television network on 21 September 2004, four months after the finale of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, which had moved to UPN for its final two seasons. It was seen as a successor to ‘Buffy’, an attempt by the network to retain the younger audience that had been attracted by that show. During its first season, comprising 22 episodes, it averaged 2.5 million viewers, compared with the 4.1 million viewers who watched season seven of ‘Buffy’ (4.6 million for season six). The show survived for three seasons in all, the third one on the new CW television network, before being cancelled in 2007. During this time, it garnered a lot of critical support.
Stephen King called the show, “Nancy Drew meets Philip Marlowe,” and that is not a bad description. It plays out as a mixture of high school teen drama and murder mystery, with constant nods to the hard-boiled crime thrillers of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Is it realistic or believable? Hardly at all, but somehow it creates its own internal realism, just as ‘Buffy’ had done. In the end, ‘Buffy’ was far more believable than, as an example, the hospital-based soap-drama ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, despite the presence of vampires, demons and the supernatural. Something similar happens with ‘Veronica Mars’.
Kristen Bell, who, at 24 years of age, was seven years older than her character and looks it a lot of the time, is excellent in the lead role. It is easy to see why some observers expect big things from her in the future.
All of the cast are excellent. Many of them were new to me, although I recognised Bell from the remake of the J-horror film ‘Pulse’ and Enrico Colantoni from his role as Mathesar in the wonderful sci-fi spoof film ‘Galaxy Quest’. Amanda Seyfried had previously appeared in ‘Mean Girls’ and is now probably best known for her lead role in the hugely successful film version of ‘Mamma Mia’, which has a worldwide box office gross not far short of $600 million and is the biggest selling DVD of all time in the UK. Harry Hamlin, who plays Aaron Echolls, the film star father of Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), the boyfriend of Lilly Kane, is well known, of course, and Alyson Hannigan from ‘Buffy’ appears in three episodes as Logan’s sister, Trina.
When I first heard about ‘Veronica Mars’, prior to its premiere on UPN, I was very interested. By the time the show arrived in the UK in October 2005 I had lost interest, partly, I suspect, because of the constant claims that it was the “new Buffy” and what appeared to be some decidedly unsubtle stunt casting, seemingly intended to pander to a particular fan base. In any case, it was broadcast on a UK television channel I did not have access to. Over time, as the hype died down and then the show went off the air altogether, my interest began to increase again, but when I finally got to watch a bit of it, a segment from a random episode from either the second or third season, it made no sense whatsoever and I began to suspect this was a show that would just pass me by. However, following a recent conversation with a friend, I was finally persuaded to take the plunge and I purchased a second-hand Region 1 copy of the season one DVD set (it has never been released on DVD in the UK).
The first few episodes passed by painlessly. I enjoyed them, although I had a few minor reservations. Then, without realising it, I started to become completely hooked, ending up watching several episodes (eight, in fact) in a single day, something I have not done in a very long time. It quickly became completely addictive.
The mix of elements is very successful and the murder mystery is actually rather well done and genuinely diverting, with plenty of twists and turns. I found the character Logan, in particular, increasingly interesting. Initially, he is really rather repulsive and that same assessment is reasonable come the end of season, but he is also, by that time, considerably more complex and I found myself questioning my judgement of him.
‘Veronica Mars’ works much better than the similarly themed but significantly more stylised 2006 indie film ‘Brick’, which, despite generally favourable reviews, I found painfully contrived. I now have DVD sets of the second and third seasons and very much look forward to watching them. Review posted 16 January 2009...
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Rating 1
Directed by Christopher Menaul
Written by Lynda La Plante
Starring Kelly Reilly, Ciarán Hinds, James Durr, Shaun Dingwall and John Savident
Rookie policewoman DC Anna Travis (Kelly Reilly) joins a murder enquiry headed up by no-nonsense DCI Langton (Ciarán Hinds), who asked for her because he had previously worked alongside her father. Several women, mostly prostitutes, have been brutally murdered and suspicion is soon directed towards Alan Daniels (James Durr), a successful actor. ...
‘Above Suspicion’ was produced for ITV and shown in two parts on consecutive evenings. It was written by Lynda La Plante and based on her 2004 novel of the same name, the first of four novels she has written about the character Anna Travis. La Plante is probably best known for her character Jane Tennison and the three ‘Prime Suspect’ novels, which were successfully adapted for television starring Helen Mirren.
I was looking forward to ‘Above Suspicion’, largely because of Kelly Reilly, who I liked in previous things I’ve seen, for example the 2006 remake of ‘A for Andromeda’. However, after a reasonably diverting if somewhat clichéd start, it quickly went downhill, not helped by the decision to portray Travis as a wet face flannel and the rest of the police team like some throwback to the 1970s and ‘The Sweeney’. I thought it was very poorly written, something I certainly wasn’t expecting, given Lynda La Plante’s reputation, and the acting was surprisingly unimpressive, although James Durr might have been better served with a stronger script.
Critical reaction was largely negative, but the viewing figures were good, something ITV badly needed, rising from 6.8 million for the first part to 7.3 million the following evening. Review posted 8 January 2009...
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Rating 2
Directed by Jon Favreau
Written by Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway – based on characters created by Stan Lee, Don Heck, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby
Starring Robert Downey Jr, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Leslie Bibb, Faran Tahir, Shaun Toub and Sayed Badreya
Tony Stark is a genius weapons-manufacture industrialist. He is also arrogant, hedonistic, wilful and unreliable. During a US military sponsored visit to Afghanistan, the vehicle he is travelling in is attacked, using weapons manufactured by Stark Industries, and he is captured by rebel forces. They take him to their hideout, a labyrinth of caves in the desert, where he is tortured and put to work, building a new weapon. He tricks them and builds a weapon-heavy suit of body armour, which he uses to escape. On his return to America, he announces that his company will cease all weapons development and manufacture, creating conflict with his business partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), but also begins to work on a secret project to perfect the body armour, which he then uses to attack the rebel forces that first captured him.
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‘Iron Man’ is based on a Marvel Comics character that first appeared in 1963. The film, which had a production budget of $140 million, premiered in America in May 2008 and was greeted with rave reviews by nearly all film critics. It has a 93% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 222 reviews. It went on to gross just under $582 million at the box office.
The film is well made and the special effects are impressive. It has a strong cast and Robert Downey Jr, who I think is probably the best American film actor of his generation, is effective in the lead role. Jeff Bridges is another highly accomplished actor, although his supporting role here does not give him a great deal of opportunity to shine. Gwyneth Paltrow is uninteresting in the role of Pepper Potts, Stark’s personal assistant, although I should perhaps mention that I find her uninteresting in most things, so undoubtedly my reaction is not entirely specific to this particular performance.
I am not a comic book aficionado and generally speaking I do not find comic book adaptations especially interesting. ‘Iron Man’ is no different. In fact, I found it somewhat tedious. More so than that, I thought it was offensive. The message does not seem to be that the morality of weapons development and the weapons industry is, at best, highly questionable, but that the only real worry is that weapons get into the hands of the wrong people. What I took away from the film was the message that weapons developed for use by the American military to use to kill people of their choosing is perfectly acceptable, just as long as it stays that way. The suggestion in the film, seemingly a device intended to put us on the side of Stark and America, that the rebel forces will stop at nothing, including torture, to get what they want is quite stunning in its hyprocrisy However, judging by the response of critics, and not just American critics, I am clearly in a minority in taking offence to this and not liking the film.
A sequel, once again directed by Jon Favreau, whose previous films include the Will Ferrell comedy ‘Elf’, is planned for release in 2010.
Review posted 8 January 2009
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Rating 0
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Written by Stephen Churchett and Nicolas Winding Refn, based on the novel by Agatha Christie
Starring Geraldine McEwan, Richard E Grant, Lee Ingleby, Amanda Burton, Anne Reid, Dan Stevens, Ronni Acona, Adrian Rawlins, Will Mellor, Emily Woof, Johnny Briggs, Laura Michelle Kelly, Ruth Wilson, George Cole and Graeme Garden
When financier Jason Rafiel dies, he conspires to bring together a disparate group of people on a coach tour, leaving Miss Marple (Geraldine McEwan) to unravel the tangled web of intrigue and solve the mysterious disappearance of a young woman called Verity Hunt several years earlier. ...
‘Nemesis’ was the last of the twelve Miss Marple novels written by Agatha Christie and was first published in 1971, forty-one years after the first novel, ‘The Murder at the Vicarage’, Miss Marple having first appeared in a short story published in 1927. It was adapted for television by the BBC in 1987 with the inimitable Joan Hickson in the lead role.
The new ITV adaptation, part of the Geraldine McEwan ‘Marple’ series, was broadcast on 1 January 2009. Although it follows the basic premise of the novel, it makes numerous changes, omitting some characters and adding others. None of these changes add to the story. They do, in fact, detract greatly from it. Geraldine McEwan is an excellent actress, but I don’t especially like her take on Miss Marple, who is portrayed as far too knowing and vaguely bohemian, taking away completely from the person whose real achievement is being able to blend into the background and observe what is happening around her with needle-sharp incisiveness. That is the character created by Agatha Christie and portrayed so brilliantly by Joan Hickson. I do, however, understand the thinking behind the decision to “modernise” the character and offer an alternative to Hickson’s definitive portrayal.
Although not really a fan of ‘Marple’ (which began with ‘The Body in the Library’ in December 2004), I have enjoyed some of the eleven episodes that proceeded ‘Nemesis’, but this latest instalment, the last to feature McEwan, was painful to watch. I cannot imagine a worse and more dispiriting adaptation, quite frankly.
‘Marple’ continues during 2009 with four new episodes, now starring Julia McKenzie in the lead role, starting with ‘A Pocket Full of Rye’.
Review posted 2 January 2009
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Rating 4
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Written by Ardel Wray and Curt Siodmak, based on a story by Inez Wallace
Starring Frances Dee, Tom Conway, James Ellison, Edith Barrett, James Bell, Theresa (Teresa) Harris and Christine Gordon
Betsy Connell (Frances Dee), a young Canadian nurse, is hired to care for Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon), the catatonic wife of Paul Holland (Tom Conway), the owner of a sugar plantation in the Caribbean. Once there, she discovers that Paul has a strained relationship with his heavy drinking half-brother, Wesley Rand (James Ellison), who blames him for Jessica’s condition. The events that follow are set against a backdrop of voodoo worship by the local people.
Val Lewton produced a sequence of nine atmospheric low-budget b-movie horrors for RKO Radio Pictures between 1942 and 1946, each one made for a budget lower than $150,000 and with a running time of no more than 75 minutes. They were directed variously by Jacques Tourneur, Mark Ronson and Robert Wise (who went on to the direct the 1951 sci-fi classic ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’ and after that the hugely successful musical films ‘West Side Story’ and ‘The Sound Of Music’). Tourneur remains, probably, the director most closely associated with the work of Val Lewton, directing the first three films, including the classic ‘Cat People’.
‘I Walked With A Zombie’ was the second film in the sequence, first released in 1943. It eschews shocks and effects, instead creating a claustrophobic atmosphere through the subtle use of camera angles and shadows. The story itself, which was allegedly inspired by the Charlotte Brontë novel ‘Jane Eyre’, is complete hokum, but this just adds to the almost quaint charm. The film is a product of its time and would be unlikely to appeal to many younger horror genre viewers these days, but it remains quite brilliant and is without doubt my favourite zombie film.
Edith Barrett, who plays the mother of Paul and Wesley, was just 36 years old at the time, although one imagines her character would have been at least twenty years older. Frances Dee was married to the actor Joel McCrae from 1933 until his death in 1990.
Review posted 2 January 2009
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Rating 2½
Directed by Andrew Adamson
Written by Ann Peacock, Andrew Adamson, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, adapted from the book by C S Lewis
Starring Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Tilda Swinton, James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent and the voices of Liam Neeson, Ray Winstone, Dawn French and Rupert Everett
The Pevensie children (Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy) are evacuated from London during World War II and taken to live in a country manor house owned by Professor Digory Kirke (played by Jim Broadbent and generally thought to act as a fictional alter-ego of C S Lewis). While playing hide and seek, the youngest sibling, Lucy (Georgie Henley), discovers an old wardrobe in an otherwise empty room. When she hides inside the wardrobe she discovers that it is a doorway into the wintery world of Narnia, where she encounters Mr Tumnus (James McAvoy), a faun who tells her about the White Witch (Tilda Swinton), who has placed a curse on the land, creating one hundred years of perpetual winter, and rules by instilling fear into the hearts of the inhabitants. Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Poppenwell) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes) do not believe Lucy at first, but when Edmund is also drawn into Narnia he encounters the White Witch and is enchanted by her. Eventually, Peter and Susan also find themselves there, where they must join forces with Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson), a noble lion, and fight the forces of darkness.
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The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children written by the Irish academic C S Lewis, who taught at Magdalen College, Oxford, between 1925 and 1954 and was then the Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge. Lewis was a friend of the author JRR Tolkien and both were members of the Oxford literary group known as the Inklings. The Narnia books were first published between 1950 and 1956 and drew on mythology and folk legends, as well as Christian religious themes. The story is influenced by the author’s religious beliefs and also by the events of World War II.
The books have caused some controversy over the years, with accusations that they advocate misogyny, racism and religious bigotry. Philip Pullman, the author of ‘His Dark Materials’, is a particularly vociferous critic of books. Equally, some religious groups have criticised the books, claiming them to promote paganism and interest in the occult, despite the fact that Lewis was a devote Christian. The release of the 2006 film version of ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’, the first of the seven books, renewed these debates, at a time when hostilities between Judeo-Christian and Muslim people was once again a serious cause for concern.
‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ was, at one time, when I was a young boy, my favourite book. It is probably 35 years or more since I last read it, but I remain very fond of C S Lewis as a writer, largely because of his space trilogy (published between 1938 and 1945) and ‘A Grief Observed’, the book published in 1961 following the death of his wife, the American poet Joy Gresham. The Chronicles of Narnia is intended as a magical journey and never more is that apparent than in the first book. The film somehow fails to conjure up that magic, despite special effects that allows it to visualise Narnia, or perhaps for that very same reason. The special effects are allowed to drive the film and the magic is therefore lost. The 1988 BBC production, consisting of six 30-minute episodes, made for a production budget that would not even be 1% of that of the film, was quite simply better, although I wonder if perhaps my judgement is slightly skewed because I really wanted to be spellbound by the film.
The film critic Cynthia Fuchs best captures the problem encountered in the film, concluding her review by writing, “The children’s indoctrination seems less charming. They are warriors, drawn into killing and a general faith in militarism, into the sense that wars might solve problems, or at the least, beat them into submission. And that is very scary.” The magic becomes dissipated, much like the ‘Lord Of The Rings’ trilogy was ultimately undone by the insistence of Peter Jackson in making each battle bigger and louder than the last, thus taking away from the magic of the story. It is simply another example of CGI effects getting in the way. That the characterisation of the four leads is so bland and tissue-thin is also a factor.
Georgie Henley is very endearing in the role of Lucy and the other young actors portray their roles effectively, given that they have so little to work with. The majority of critics reserved most praise for the performance of Tilda Swinton. Overall, the reviews were generally positive and the film has a 75% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 202 collected reviews. The film had a whooping $180 million production budget and grossed in excess of $745 million at the box office, making it the second highest grossing film of 2005, behind ‘Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith’.
The second Chronicles of Narnia book, ‘Prince Caspian’ (based on publication dates, not the chronological order of the story), was made into a film in 2008. It had an even bigger production budget, but its box office gross was considerably lower than that of the first film, although it still grossed nearly $420 million.
Review posted 1 January 2009
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Michaela Klingler (Sandra Hüller), who comes from a deeply religious family, begins university, against the wishes of her mother Marianne (Imogen Kogge), with whom she has a slightly frosty and distant relationship, but with the blessing of her father Karl (Burghart Klaußner). This follows a number of years spent in and out of hospital, while doctors have tried to find a stabilising treatment for her epilepsy.
This 2006 German film draws on the true story of Anneliese Michel, a young German woman who, in 1976, died following an exorcism that had been officially sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church, a decision that was later rescinded. Her parents and the two priests who performed the exorcism were prosecuted for negligent homicide and subsequently convicted of manslaughter. The same events inspired the 2005 American film ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’.
In an early scene, when Michaela’s father takes her to the university and they are shown the dorm room she has been assigned, he gives her a gift, a typewriter, saying she will need it for her studies. When she returns home shortly afterwards, clearly happy and enjoying her new life, and goes with her parents on a pilgrimage, her mother gives her a rosary. The juxtaposition of these two gifts, highlighting the differing attitudes of her father and her mother, is a good example of the quiet and subtle way the film expresses the external factors that affect Michaela’s internal thinking about her illness.
