Reviews

Like the struggles of Helene played by Mala Emde in Johannes Boss's German comedy-drama 'Oh Hell' , some of the quirks of this series are quite fun but others take us to rather dark places. Hell's autobiographical telling of events as friends, family, colleagues etc., are drawn into her tragic orbit is similar in bleakness to 'Fleabag' (no imaginary 4th wall though!). It doesn't have the lol comedy of tragic figure David Brent in 'The Office' and something of the writer's wordy artfulness gets lost in the translation for me, but there's enough here to feel sympathy for Helene's troubles and the impending doom that comes from her actions. 'Oh Hell' constantly tugs at our emotions, if you don't laugh you'll cry etc., so surely quite clever? I'm not a psychiatrist/doctor, but recognize Helene's oddball behaviour is likely mental disorder, OCD, Asperger's maybe, but she's also knowing and kind so her friends discuss in the 7th episode how to help somebody so 'special'. The see-saw ending leaves things hanging in the balance, good because I think we still want to fight Helene's corner and help her as she navigates reality, a credit to Emde's sympathetic nuanced performance. After all, Hell's finally found a great job that suits her aptitudes! I hope they continue with the series. The deconstructed music along with commercial songs provide a fitting bumpy road soundtrack, along with the memorable theme tune 'Dilemme' by Belgian-Congolese rapper Lous & The Yakuza. Post-modern, post-feminist bleak comedy drama ...

The sequel to Fabien Nury's period French Noir 'Paris Police 1900' is more of a slowburn than the first series. You don't get to know the important details of 'Paris 1905' until the final episode, so a bit more patience is needed. I kept thinking to myself "Well, I'm enjoying this, but is it really as good as the first one?". I'm not sure. I still love its attention to period detail, real life historic events, amazing sets and props, great filming technique, gripping drama and action, a credit to everybody involved in its production and a work of art you could say! But the subject matter of the second series is a bit obscure (also sleazy, but I guess that's the point, Paris social underbelly etc?), and, as another reviewer has pointed out, the writers occasionally fall into explaining language which suggests some sort of confusion in the plot. Most of the characters that we grew to love in the first series are still there, retired Prefect of Police Louis Lépine ("the little man with the big stick") played by Marc Barbé is now bereaved as his wife died of Sepsis, and is joined by his daughter Louise (Mathilde Weil), maverick officer Joseph Fiersi (Thibault Evrard) is adjusting to retired life, and, of course, it's still hard to resist the secret love between detective Antoine Jouin (Jérémie Laheurte), now 'happily' married, supposedly, and lawyer Jeanne Chauvin (Eugénie Derouand). Among other things, of course, lots of interesting stories continue to be woven into the main plotline. That said, I found it hard to get totally into 'Paris Police 1905', but held on until it came good in the end, patience! Good that BBC Four and iPlayer have made the Canal+ series available in the UK. I hope the makers decide to continue, as I'm sure there are loads more events they could feature around the turn of the century in Paris.

Xiaoshuai Wang's 'So Long, My Son' is the first part of the writer/director's 'Homeland' trilogy in which drama stories are set alongside social changes in the last 40 years of China's history. The first part takes an unflinching look at the struggles of a couple from Northern China following a family tragedy, and how they adapt their lives to some of these changes. Events take place from the 80s onwards in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, and end with a friends reunion about 30 years later.

The film maker 'chops' events up in a semi-chronological way, muddling but keeps focus on the main themes which centre around the family's loss, their migration to Fujian province in the south to try to start again and the economic and social hardship they face throughout their lives. Memory is also a long-running theme which the film is in a good position to examine.

It had me gripped for the whole 3 hours. The director doesn't fall into the trap of sentimentalizing the hardships the people in the story face, and in the midst of all the upheavals the couple remain true to each other which makes the film very heartening.

Xiaoshuai Wang occasionally uses a long shot technique which I like very much, events often set against very dramatic backdrops. The acting, although a little wooden at times, is basically first rate, Wang Jingchun playing the husband Liu Yaojun and Yung Mei playing his wife Wang Liyun were both commended for their roles, but all the actors performed well. I particularly liked the mini-supporting role of Qi Xi who plays Moli the sister of one of the other characters who has a crush on Yaojun and the complexities their lives take which keeps you guessing.

Looking forward to the next part in the trilogy ...

'The Velvet Underground' is certainly artful and reverential to its subject. No stranger to music, Todd Haynes also made the fictionalized Bowie story 'Velvet Goldmine' (1998) and mysterious Dylan fantasy documentary 'I'm Not There' (2007)). Making the definitive VU documentary is something of a holy grail for film makers, but I'd say Haynes enjoyable film achieves its aims partially.

It's fair to say The Velvet Underground blazed the trail for punk and indie music 70s and onwards. Lou Reed, John Cale ... but so much more! Brian Eno famously once said: "Their first album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band". For Haynes film, the music nerd in me would have liked more information about the various songs (titles, albums, dates, producers etc.), even art history like this needs its points of reference. I guess it wouldn't bother most newbies as info can be checked easily these days, but I'm old school and like films to organize and document their subject matter, too difficult to catch everything in the final credits.

If you are coming to The Velvet Underground for the first time, they were only together roughly 1966-1970 so their music isn't hard to navigate. Counter intuitively, tackle the studio albums in reverse order. Start with the 4th and final 'Loaded' (1970), great songs by Lou Reed as he contemplated a solo career ('Sweet Jane', 'Waiting For My Man', 'Rock'n'Roll'), then go back to their eponymous 3rd (1969), 'unplugged' beautiful achingly sad songs in a story cycle again by Reed ('Pale Blue Eyes', 'Candy Says', 'Beginning To See The Light'). The band's 2nd 'White Light/White Heat' (1968) is chaotic and avantgarde, but its song 'gems' shine through all the noise, Cale and Reed shared the songwriting duties but it was to be Cale's last as a band member ... and finally there's 'The Velvet Underground & Nico' (1967), legendary, but so much written about it already. Live album '1969' is a nice homage to Reed's guitar playing, and 'Live at Max's' is a very collectable if poorly recorded bootleg of the band late career. Happy exploration!

Nice to hear people like John Waters and Jonathan Richman among many others contributing to Haynes' film ...