**

The Souvenir-sp

This movie is about a young woman filmmaker (Honor Swinton Byrne) who establishes a relationship with a somewhat older man. She appears to fall in love with him and he turns out to be a liar, drug addict, and to be promiscuous in the age of HIV/AIDS.

The storyline keeps returning to the main character’s attempt to make her film. Perhaps the writer/director, Joanne Hogg, is drawing upon her own experiences or observations. The film certainly conveys a negative view of men especially in the treatment and demeaning of women.

It is interesting that the mother of the main character is actually played by the actress’s real-life mother, the esteemed actress, Tilda Swinton, but there are no real dramatic interactions between them. The main male lead is well done by Tom Burke.

Despite the beautiful photography (by David Raedeker) and excellent acting, we felt that the story line was drawn out and pretentious. We understood the characters and we were looking for a storyline with more depth, more surprises, and even more emotion in our two-hour visit with them, but alas, we didn’t find it. (2019).

***

The Grand Budapest Hotel- rm–  This movie is a mixture of a fairytale, a romp with the keystone cops and a sophisticated mystery.  We are introduced to the Grand Budapest Hotel somewhere in Europe in modern times during an off-season. It is clear that the hotel has an interesting history, as does the one of main characters who we meet. That is an older Mr. Mustafa (F. Murray Abraham) now the owner of this Grand Lady of a Hotel that still is magnificent.  He takes us back to what are probably the 1930;s when he was a young lobby boy of the hotel known as Zero (Tony Revolori). He became a protégé of Mr. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) the legendary concierge of the hotel with whom he is about embark upon a great adventure.  Gustave is the perfect gentleman who befriends the wealthy men and women who come to hotel. One in particular Madame D. (Tilda Swinton) leaves a valuable painting to him, which he discovers when he travels to pay his respects after she is murdered. His young faithful companion accompanies him. Their adventure leads to confrontation with police, soldiers, and time in jail with an escape, a bad villain and a fanciful tale. It all probably should viewed as an allegory for the good times of pre World War II in Europe that were turned into death and destruction with precious memories by those who survived. The director and screen writer Wes Anderson is known for bringing imaginative story lines to the screen such as Moonrise Kingdom, The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore and many others. In this case he based the story on writings of Stephen Zweig. The dialogue is fitting the upper crust that is being served by the likes of Gustave and his lobby boy but then periodically breaks down into paradoxical comments that bring out a good laugh and reminds you that there is satire going on here. The setting is old Europe and it was filmed in Germany where Anderson and his crew found or created not only the Grand Hotel but also magnificent castle like mansions, prisons and even escape tunnels. The cast was excellent which included Jude Law, Bill Murray, Ed Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Owen Wilson, Jason Swartzman, William DeFoe, Adrian Brody, Bob Balahan and others. Some had very small parts but all were on the mark to give a realistic performance in a fantasy movie. (2014)

* * * *
I Am Love – rm – This Italian film with English subtitles is unusual in several respects. It is beautifully photographed with each frame seemingly magnificently painted. Director and screenwriter Luca Guadagnino takes his time in setting the scene. The film maker seems to respect the audience to be able to understand very subtle points throughout the movie. The story also takes on a sexual relationship which we usually do not see depicted on the screen. The movie is a modern film set Milan, Italy where we are introduced to a wealthy family who live in a grandiose home with servants who are an important part of their everyday life. We meet the family during a leisurely birthday party for the grandfather patriarch who announces he is turning over the industrial manufacturing company to his son and oldest grandson. We also meet the grandmother, wife of the son who is a transplant from Russia, and their three grown children (two boys and a girl). Early in the story we see the fleeting attraction of the wife to her son’s close friend who is planning to open a beautiful restaurant in the countryside with him. Perhaps more likely in Europe than in the US, this quickly develops into a passionate sexual relationship without us seeing any other reason for them to be drawn to each other. Their hidden liaison continues and we also learn of another secret relationship which the daughter reveals. Food is also a player in this movie as it adds to sensory pleasures which are being depicted. There is much passion and beautifully photographed sexual encounters, tension and fear of discovery and then a tragic confrontation. Tilda Swinton who plays the wife is superb as she creates this sexually obsessed woman who also demonstrated some of the most painful emotions a person might ever feel. 2010