David Thomson - The Guardian

Through the eyes of a child: films to see with your kids

Here we go again with films you might like to see with your children - I stress "with". I cannot guarantee that nothing in these films will upset some children, so parental presence is very important as a safety factor, and to talk about the experience afterwards.

So, first, here are ten (not my top ten, just the ten I thought of today) films that are, broadly, about a child's experience of the world, and of family:

1. Meet Me in St Louis (1944)
Margaret O'Brien is the youngest sister in the family: she has a big night on Halloween and experiences crisis at Christmas. But with Mary Astor as her mother and Judy Garland as one sister, she has help.

2. The Fallen Idol (1948)
Bobby Henrey is the lonely child of a rich household. He adores the butler, Baines (Ralph Richardson), but Baines is a troubled man, and the boy has to share the pain.

3. The Black Stallion (1979)
A tale of a boy and a horse, beginning on a desert island before moving on to the races. Kelly Reno is the boy. Mickey Rooney (a great child actor for nearly 85 years) is his trainer.

4. Shane (1953)
A classic Western with Alan Ladd as the gunfighter who helps the small Wyoming settlement and Brandon De Wilde as the little boy who watches him.

5. Les 400 Coups (1959)
The feature film debut of Francois Truffaut in which Jean-Pierre Leaud plays a boy growing up in Paris - will he end in delinquency or as a film-maker?

6. Paper Moon (1973)
Tatum O'Neal stars with real-life dad Ryan in Peter Bogdanovich's story of small-time confidence tricksters in the '30s.

7. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Roddy McDowall plays the youngest child of a Welsh mining family in this John Ford classic. It doesn't really feel like Wales but certainly feels like childhood.

8. The Secret Garden (1949)
Be sure to get the old version, with Dean Stockwell and Margaret O'Brien.

9. Oliver Twist (1948)
As filmed by David Lean - frightening sometimes, but true to the spirit of Dickens, with John Howard Davies as Oliver, Alec Guinness as Fagin and Anthony Newley as the Artful Dodger.

10. Pather Panchali (1958) The debut film from Satyajit Ray, in black and white and set in an impoverished Bengal, as seen and felt by a young boy, Apu.

I recently wrote on this blog about why I believe many adult films, particularly those from a few years ago, are perfect for kids. Here are a few prime examples of movies which are really about adult experience but which involve children.

1. Citizen Kane (1941)
Don't just stand there, show it to your child, show it to yourself. And feel the sense of lost childhood.

2. Red River (1948)
A boy grows up to challenge his adopted father, driving cattle from Texas to the railhead, with John Wayne and Montgomery Clift.

3. The Miracle Worker (1962) With language and education themes, this Helen Keller story stars Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft.

4. Bicycle Thieves (1948) A classic of Italian neo-realism about a boy and his father, directed by Vittorio de Sica.

5. The Sixth Sense (1999)
Some call it a horror film, some a mystery. Haley Joel Osment sees dead people, but then most children do.

6. Cria Cuervos(1976) An astonishing Spanish mystery film directed by Carlos Saura, with Geraldine Chaplin and a great child actress, Ana Torrent.

7. East of Eden(1955) James Dean's debut, from Steinbeck and directed by Elia Kazan, is an agonised story of a "bad" teenager searching for love.

8. To Kill a Mockingbird (1961)
From the Harper Lee novel: Gregory Peck is a country lawyer, Mary Badham his daughter.

9. The River (1951)
Frenchman Jean Renoir made a film about an English family (teenage girls and a little boy) in India (from a book by Rumer Godden) - a truly great film.

10. What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
This is why there was once so much fuss over Leonardo Di Caprio as a child actor. Also with Johnny Depp and Juliette Lewis.

Rebecca Hall

I saw that Mary had posted a link to Rebecca Hall quite recently and since she gives two wonderful performances (as two very similar characters....after a fashion) in current films I thought I'd post this link too.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C14931-2443606%2C00.html

Perfume & Casino Royale

I must apologise for not finding the time to come in here. If you click on my name you'll see that I have not even been able to keep my own personal film notes up-to-date.

I have seen some really engaging films lately and as I see so many, I have come to realise that my impression of the films I see is like the product of a logarithm based on my personal expectations divided by the mood I'm currently in and the ambience of the surroundings. So a film I see one day in a certain situation might leave a different impression on my in different circumstances.

I don't know why I see fit to single out these two films but there you are - at least I'm here !!

I have been full of nervous anticipation about Perfume. I was very happy to see that a German director was at the helm because even with the best efforts of Sean Barrett's translation, it needed someone who understood the nuance of the original text - though I don't want to kid anyone that I speak fluent German - it just felt right that Tom Tykwer was in control and he used both German and English scriptwriters.

When Ben Whishaw was cast I was in heaven. He's an odd boy and no mistake but he has the nervous energy and physic that in my mind completely epitomises Grenouille. I have seen him on stage several times and he can actually make you feel uncomfortable and yet protective at the same time.

In the event, the film is sumptuous and exquisite. An assault on the senses in every way to the extent of drowning in the beauty of it all............and yet this is a tale of a murderer. Ben is so vulnerable that I never felt anything but empathy with his Grenouille. There are some incredible scenes shot with such technical excellence that I am sure they will be discussed for months.

I am very understanding of the difference between the mediums of book and film and I would never say anything as vacuous as 'it's not as good as the book' when referring to ANY adaptation. A journey one has taken in one's mind with the prompting of words on a page can only be realised on screen by either complete coincidence, lack of imagination and understanding of the assets/constraints of film or a very long mini-series.....IMO! A film is the realisation of other people's journey and should be enjoyed as such in a stand-alone sense

And so to Casino Royale. I am not a huge fan of Bond films. I have not seen very many of them at all and even fewer on the big screen. I start to watch and then cannot believe how silly they are how terrible the dialogue is. However, ever since Geordie I have looked out for our Daniel and presented with the opportunity to see this film in a very comfy auditorium, I thought I would show my support.

I'm sure you've all read the reviews in the papers but I must tell you that all the hype really is substantiated. The nay-sayers would have to be of very low age or IQ to not appreciate what a marvelous step this film has taken. The script, whist being ever predictable, is sharp and witty and it's execution is seamless in the most part. There are a couple of awful SFX moments but I'll forgive them. I find perfection hard to handle anyway - I guess I would be suspicious of it and find it lacking in soul !!!!!

So there you go.........my two penneth for the year !

Variety 11/9/06

TV Films of interest:

Two-fer telepics
Gambon, Smith star in Poliakoff films

By DAVE MCNARY, DENISE MARTIN, DENISE MARTIN, TAMSEN TILLSON

Michael Gambon and Maggie Smith will star in separate TV movies from writer-director Stephen Poliakoff for HBO Films and the BBC.

Poliakoff, who directed Emmy-winning miniseries "The Lost Prince," has written and is directing both telepics, the first of which is shooting in London. An airdate has not yet been determined.

Talkback Thames produces the projects for HBO and the BBC; both co-finance. Joanna Beresford, Lorraine Heggessey and Nicolas Brown are exec producers. Deborah Jones serves as producer.

Companion films tell the story of an "exquisite house, frozen in time" as seen through the eyes of Joe (Danny Lee Wynter), whose tale begins as the teenage son of a cleaner who takes care of the house.

Gambon stars in the first telepic, "Poliakoff 2006," which explores the relationship between Joe and Elliot (Gambon), a strange and wealthy London man who owns the dark and moody home. Joe is the link between the reclusive billionaire and the outside world.

Set in the same house, companion pic "Capturing Mary" takes Joe and other characters on a journey through the past. His story is intertwined with that of Mary (Smith), an older woman recalling earlier days and her first encounter with the charming and mysterious stranger who affects her life forever.

Ensemble casts also include Rupert Penry Jones, David Walliams, Ruth Wilson, Kelly Reilly and Rebecca Hall.

Poliakoff has written and directed "Gideon's Daughter," "Friends & Crocodiles" and "Shooting the Past." He received BAFTA's Dennis Potter Award for writing and directing the Gambon starrer "Perfect Strangers."

Both Gambon and Smith have been feted for their collaborations with HBO. Gambon received an Emmy nom for his perf in the cabler's "Path to War" and appeared in "Angels in America," while Smith won an Emmy for her work in the mini "My House in Umbria."

The Guardian on The Fallen Idol

Did the butler do it?

The Fallen Idol, based on a story by Graham Greene, was the author's favourite film of his work - even though it radically altered the original. David Lodge on a perfect partnership of writer and director

David Lodge
Saturday November 4, 2006

Guardian

There are many significant differences between the film The Fallen Idol (1948) and the short story on which it was based, "The Basement Room", although Graham Greene wrote both story and screenplay. The creative input of the film's director, Carol Reed, was crucial, as Greene warmly acknowledged, but he recognised at the outset that the structure and import of his story would need to be radically changed to make a successful film.

Usually, writers who adapt their own work are more protective of the integrity of their original texts, and if they allow others to take over the task of adaptation they are often bitterly disappointed by the end result. Greene had cause to complain about the liberties Hollywood studios took with several of his novels, notably The Power and the Glory and The Quiet American. The Fallen Idol was a model of what the development of a movie should be, but very seldom is: a close collaboration between a writer and a director who enjoyed complete rapport, supported by a producer (Alexander Korda) who did not interfere with the creative process.

The Fallen Idol was Greene's favourite among the films he wrote; he preferred it even to The Third Man (1949), also made in collaboration with Reed, because "it was more, I felt, a writer's film, and The Third Man more a director's film". Only the title of the film, imposed by its distributors, displeased Greene.

He wrote "The Basement Room" in 1935, to alleviate the tedium of a voyage home from Liberia, where he had acquired the material for his travel book Journey Without Maps (1936). This recent experience no doubt suggested the African anecdotes with which the butler, Baines, regales the little boy left in his charge. In the story, they have for the most part the ring of truth, but in the film they are transparently fictitious, and at the end Baines has to admit to the disillusioned boy that he has never even been to Africa - just one of many differences between the two versions.

Both story and film are essentially about a child's innocence prematurely exposed to adult experience, but this dramatic formula is worked out differently in each medium. In the short story, the emphasis is on how a seven-year-old boy's traumatic involvement in a crime of passion affects his later life as an adult. It begins with the departure of his upper-class English parents on a two-week holiday. For the first time in his life he ventures through the green baize door that separates the basement kitchen from the main house. The green baize door, marking a psychological as well as a territorial boundary, is a recurrent motif in Greene's work, which can be traced back to his schooldays at Berkhamstead school, where his father was headmaster: a green baize door separated the safe familial home from the threatening corridors and dormitories of the school where the young Greene, as the head's son, was subject to bullying and exclusion.

At first young Philip welcomes the greater intimacy that he enjoys with his adored friend Baines in the new conditions, but Mrs Baines soon spoils the idyll by her malice and suspicion. When Philip accidentally observes an emotional meeting in a cafe between Baines and a young woman, he is drawn into a web of adult deception and intrigue without really understanding what is at stake. "He would never escape that scene," comments the authorial voice. "In a week he had forgotten it, but it conditioned his career, the long austerity of his life; when he was dying, rich and alone, it was said that he asked, 'Who is she?'"

Baines asks the boy not to mention the girl, Emmy, to Mrs Baines. "'Of course not,' Philip said ... 'I understand, Baines.' But he didn't understand a thing; he was caught up in other people's darkness." When the suspicious Mrs Baines interrogates him later in his nursery bedroom, he betrays Baines's trust without meaning to, and she in turn tries to swear the boy to secrecy by bribing him with the promise of a new addition to his Meccano set. The authorial voice again interpolates: "He never opened his Meccano set again, never built anything, never created anything, died the old dilettante, 60 years later with nothing to show rather than preserve the memory of Mrs Baines's malicious voice saying good night, her soft determined footfalls on the stairs to the basement, going down, going down."

The situation rapidly escalates into confrontation and violence. Mrs Baines pretends to go away, luring her husband into inviting Emmy to stay the night, then appears frighteningly at Philip's bedside, "like the witches of his dreams", demanding to know where the lovers are. Philip is speechless with fear, but when Mrs Baines hears tell-tale sounds from one of the guest bedrooms he screams a warning. Baines comes out of the bedroom and struggles with his furious wife. "She went over the banisters in a flurry of black clothes and fell into the hall." Philip flees in his pyjamas, and wanders the streets (a reprise of an episode in Greene's unhappy adolescence when he ran away from home and school and hid for a brief period on Berkhamstead Common) until spotted and taken to a police station. When a constable takes him back home, where Mrs Baines lies dead, he again involuntarily betrays Baines by mentioning Emmy. The story ends:

"Out with it," the constable said, addressing Baines with professional ferocity, "who is she?" Just as the old man 60 years later startled his secretary, his only watcher, asking, "Who is she? Who is she?" Dropping lower and lower into death, passing on the way perhaps the image of Baines: Baines hopeless, Baines letting his head drop, Baines "coming clean".

The recurrence of the phrase "Who is she?" anticipates the famous "Rosebud" enigma in Orson Welles's Citizen Kane, but there is no trace of these authorial "flash-forward" passages in The Fallen Idol. Their effect could have been accommodated by presenting the main story as a long retrospect, framed and punctuated by scenes of the 67-year-old Philip on his deathbed; but imagining such a hypothetical adaptation reveals an interesting anomaly in Greene's story. In describing Philip on his deathbed, 60 years after the main action, the narrator is not prophesying but reporting. Since the story was first published in 1936, the character cannot have died at a later date; therefore the main action, when Philip was seven years old, must be taking place no later than 1876. In fact, it is represented as taking place well into the 20th century - there are references to motor cars and aeroplanes, and to the Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner (erected in 1925) - and, in the absence of any contrary indication, one assumes that it is set in the mid-1930s.

I am not aware that this anomaly has ever been commented on before, and I did not notice it myself until I thought about the film adaptation of the story. Like the double time-scheme of Othello (in chronological time, there is no occasion when Desdemona could have been unfaithful to Othello with Cassio), it is something the reader, involved in the boy's story, simply doesn't notice.

But when, in 1947, Greene and Reed considered how to translate the story into the more literal narrative medium of film, the problem would have been obvious. If the 67-year-old Philip were to be shown on his deathbed, it could not be later than "the present day" (ie 1947) and the main story would therefore have to be pushed back to 1887. Perhaps this was the crucial factor that prompted Greene to undertake a radical reworking of his story in the screenplay, in which the essentially Freudian meaning of the original (the psychological damage caused by suppressed memory of trauma) was displaced by a less bleak resolution of the plot. Greene, however, gave other reasons.

From Greene's published comments, Nicholas Wapshott's biography of Carol Reed and other sources, we know how the film was conceived and developed. In May 1947, Reed suggested to Alexander Korda that they should adapt Greene's novel England Made Me (1935) for the screen. Korda counter-proposed "The Basement Room", and Reed was converted as soon as he read this "wonderful story". He arranged a lunch with Greene the next day to discuss the idea. Greene's first reaction, as he recalled a few years later, was surprise:

"... because it seemed to me that the subject was unfilmable - a murder committed by the most sympathetic character and an unhappy ending which would certainly have imperilled the £250,000 that films nowadays cost. However, we went ahead, and in the conferences that ensued the story was quietly changed, so that the subject no longer concerned a small boy who unwittingly betrayed his best friend to the police, but dealt instead with a small boy who believed that his friend was a murderer and nearly procured his arrest by telling lies in his defence."

Greene and Reed took three interconnecting rooms at a Brighton hotel, one for each of them with a secretary in the middle. Greene worked in the mornings while Reed slept late, and they would meet for lunch to discuss the progress of the script. "It was always I who thought, 'This is hopeless,'" Greene recalled. But with Reed's help and encouragement, the screenplay took shape as it departed more and more from the original story.

It was Reed's suggestion to make the setting a foreign embassy in London, partly because very few British households had butlers in the austerity economy of 1947. This change prompted the construction of a magnificently grand set for the interior of the house, which would provide Reed with all kinds of opportunities for visual effects, emphasising the isolation and vulnerability of the little boy (now called Philippe) who so often observes the adult world from a distance: from high landings and balconies, between banisters, and through windows. His pet snake, however, was Greene's idea, and a very effective one on several levels - dramatic, symbolic and character-revealing.

The film begins with the departure of Philippe's father, the ambassador of an unspecified francophone country, leaving to fetch his wife from a hospital somewhere abroad. At first it follows the narrative line of the story fairly closely, though expanding the dialogue in several scenes. There is, for instance, a long, coded conversation in the cafe between Baines and his girlfriend (here a secretary at the embassy called Julie), in the drolly uncomprehending presence of Philippe.

But with the fatal struggle between Baines and his wife, the plot takes a radically new direction. In the story, it is clearly implied that Baines deliberately pushes her over the banister to her death; in the film, she falls accidentally off a window ledge from which she is trying to see into the bedroom where Baines has rejoined Julie. To the boy, glimpsing this action in stages (like clips from a movie) through windows on different levels as he flees the house down the fire escape, it looks as though Baines has murdered his wife, and when he is brought back home he naively tries to exculpate the butler from suspicion by lying on his behalf. This only makes Baines look more guilty, until the police discover Mrs Baines's footprint in the earth from an upset flowerpot on the window ledge and accept Baines's innocence.

Ironically (the ironies come thick and fast in the last reel), the boy chooses this moment to tell the truth - namely that he was responsible for overturning the flowerpot two days before, thus jeopardising Baines's situation once again. But luckily, none of the grown-ups believes the boy.

The narrative dynamic of the second half of the film is therefore quite different from that of the original short story. From a dark psychological study of childhood trauma it has been turned into a Hitchcockian suspense thriller, with occasional moments of delectable comedy, in which the hero is suspected of murder but at the last moment is vindicated and happily united with his beloved. Baines becomes a more sympathetic character, accepting some responsibility for the failure of his marriage and showing pity for his dead wife.

What makes The Fallen Idol a film of exceptional distinction, however, is its presentation of the action mostly through the eyes of a child, who observes the adult world without understanding it - and that derived from the original story. It was a narrative strategy Greene may have borrowed from the novel What Maisie Knew by Henry James (a writer he admired enormously), which describes a series of interlocking adulterous affairs, divorces and remarriages from the point of view of a sensitive but only dimly comprehending child.

It wouldn't have worked, of course, without Reed's inspired casting and direction of Bobby Henrey as Philippe, and the young boy's astonishingly natural, convincing performance was professionally matched by Ralph Richardson's in the role of Baines. In movies, even the best writers and directors depend ultimately on the actors to realise their intentions.

· A new DVD of The Fallen Idol is released by the Criterion Collection on November 11