Change Your Image
Patrick Culkin
Reviews
Just Ask for Diamond (1988)
Worth my time.
Of course the film Just Ask For Diamond, directed by Stephen Bayly, is different from the novel by Anthony Horowitz. Time (and budget too) demands the story is edited so as to fit over 200 pages of text into 90 minutes of film. Indeed, the result is that a lot of interesting events are cut from the plot as well as many of the novel's original and charming characteristics. Dialogues are shortened, the narrator is more or less removed, violence is toned down. Where the novel has a tough and very cynical 13-year-old who has not got a good word for anyone or anything he has to deal with -the city of London, for instance, is presented as if it were the capital of Hell, the film presents us with sweet and adorable-looking Colin Dale who seems concerned more with maintaining a Received Pronunciation accent than playing a poor kid on the brink of the precipice. And London has come to look about as menacing as the green pastures where the TeleTubbies live. Still, the man responsible for the screenplay is the same as the one who wrote the book and he leaves us with enough to enjoy Just Ask For Diamond (a.k.a. Diamond's Edge). Dursley McLinden is the perfect cast for clumsy Tim, Susannah York makes a wonderful numbed-by-grief Lauren Bacardi, Patricia Hodge is a hit in two widely differing roles, Jimmy Nail looks exactly like what we have in mind when we think of a fascist London cop, there's a half a dozen of talented actors playing the crooks, and even Colin Dale, despite the posh accent, makes a nice lead and makes you wish you could stay a little boy for all your life. A lot of the humour is still there, but since it's mostly on a verbal level one should not rely on subtitles.
Happiness (1998)
Marvelous.
This film is indeed marvelous. Todd Solondz combines really absurd situations and embarrassing moments -some of which most of us do encounter in daily life and some we hopefully won't- with serious issues. Thus, this film provides not only a very high degree of entertainment -Solondz' sense for irony is exceptional-, it gives you a critical view on society without judging or condemning or forcing you to think one way or the other. I am genuinely impressed by Happiness and its cast full of great actors. I hope to see more of this talented director. The only thing I know that comes close to Solondz' sense of humor and tragedy is Elizabeth Jolley's novel Mr Scobie's Riddle.
Sandra, c'est la vie (1992)
A beautiful film
Sandra c'est la Vie is a wonderful film about ordinary people and ordinary situations. No special effects, no action, no glamour...just people. Dominique Othenin-Girard has often been kicked down both in Hollywood and Europe by people who are judging from horror films like Halloween 5. Not one of them mentions this beautiful and sensible film. Probably no one knows about it. It's a shame. I just love directors like this who are not ashamed to produce trashy films and then suprise you by coming up with something really, really good. Sandra c'est la Vie does not deserve to be tucked away in oblivion. I will not say anything about the plot, but the style of this film as well as its genre is close to that of Il Ladro di Bambini and Central do Brasil. Do watch it if you get the chance and see what a great director/writer Hollywood is missing.