Things To Come
On release from 2nd September
Philosophers on film have often provided the excuse for lengthy monologues. Rarely, if ever, have life and thought been so entwined as in this film from writer-director Mia Hansen-Løve. Nathalie (Isabelle Huppert) is an elegant professor with an equally savant spouse and two grown children, a book-lined Paris apartment and a Breton seaside home. But her students note her lack of radical commitment, her mother (the great Édith Scob) is entertainingly but disturbingly demanding, her publishers grumble that her brand needs refreshing and her marriage is not as secure as it once seemed.
Caught in the bind of the post-’68 generation—revolution done, rationality and affluence triumphant, non?—Nathalie faces unexpected challenges while she continues to explore Pascal and Rousseau with her students. The brilliance of Hanson-Løve’s film (she won Best Director at this year’s Berlin Festival) is the truth of the situations in which Nathalie’s philosophy must pertain. Convincingly atmospheric—from family dinners to anarchists’ retreat—and open to complex interpretation, the film proves astonishingly moving. Huppert excels, even by her own extraordinary record. Nathalie, however exasperating, is someone to love.
Hell or High Water On release from 9th September
Director David Mackenzie follows his acclaimed prison drama Starred Up with a West Texas tale of brothers (played by Chris Pine and Ben Foster) finding an illegal way to save a failing family ranch. There’s Jeff Bridges, too, as the Ranger in measured pursuit. The characterisation lifts this far higher than a capable heist and run movie.
Under the Shadows On release from 16th September Tehran in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war: coping with night-time air-assaults from Iraqi missiles, with her husband at the front, young mother Shideh (Narges Rashidi) insists on staying in their apartment with their young daughter. Everyone is scared, especially when talk begins of evil spirits churned up by the atrocities. This Farsi-language horror from London-based writer-director Babak Anvari is suffused with his childhood memories from wartime Tehran. It certainly makes you jump but works equally well as an allegory of fear and suspicion.
Philosophers on film have often provided the excuse for lengthy monologues. Rarely, if ever, have life and thought been so entwined as in this film from writer-director Mia Hansen-Løve. Nathalie (Isabelle Huppert) is an elegant professor with an equally savant spouse and two grown children, a book-lined Paris apartment and a Breton seaside home. But her students note her lack of radical commitment, her mother (the great Édith Scob) is entertainingly but disturbingly demanding, her publishers grumble that her brand needs refreshing and her marriage is not as secure as it once seemed.
Caught in the bind of the post-’68 generation—revolution done, rationality and affluence triumphant, non?—Nathalie faces unexpected challenges while she continues to explore Pascal and Rousseau with her students. The brilliance of Hanson-Løve’s film (she won Best Director at this year’s Berlin Festival) is the truth of the situations in which Nathalie’s philosophy must pertain. Convincingly atmospheric—from family dinners to anarchists’ retreat—and open to complex interpretation, the film proves astonishingly moving. Huppert excels, even by her own extraordinary record. Nathalie, however exasperating, is someone to love.
Hell or High Water On release from 9th September
Director David Mackenzie follows his acclaimed prison drama Starred Up with a West Texas tale of brothers (played by Chris Pine and Ben Foster) finding an illegal way to save a failing family ranch. There’s Jeff Bridges, too, as the Ranger in measured pursuit. The characterisation lifts this far higher than a capable heist and run movie.
Under the Shadows On release from 16th September Tehran in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war: coping with night-time air-assaults from Iraqi missiles, with her husband at the front, young mother Shideh (Narges Rashidi) insists on staying in their apartment with their young daughter. Everyone is scared, especially when talk begins of evil spirits churned up by the atrocities. This Farsi-language horror from London-based writer-director Babak Anvari is suffused with his childhood memories from wartime Tehran. It certainly makes you jump but works equally well as an allegory of fear and suspicion.
