I wasn’t prepared, I’d read no reviews and I knew nothing about this play other than I’d been told it was about to transfer to the West End and was written by a French Canadian. Relevant? I think not. Five characters; a wife, a husband, two neighbours also a wife and husband, but older and with an adult son with a nervous facial tic. The relationships are bizarre and the characters perform a complex psychological but unlikely dance. Has the writer read Freud or some other analytic writing? Maybe or maybe not, but the actions and dialogue at some level make a kind of crazy sense. We start with the young wife, tortured by her baby’s cries, a...
Read More‘THE LADY IN THE VAN’ Alan Bennett is a national treasure. He’s also a gifted writer, a humorist and a shrewd judge of character. These all come together in his latest film. ’The lady in the van’ is a superb characterisation of an elderly vagabond who randomly parks her van with herself in it, along the streets of Camden in London. One day, the van breaks down and she persuades Alan Bennett who just happened to be passing, to help her push the van to an area which more suits her. But she remains in the area and from that moment on, the two begin a kind of psychological war dance. What’s wonderful about this film is the writer’s honesty because it’s not just...
Read MoreSo what’s different from the betrayal of women [or of men] that’s gone on over the centuries. Promises to marry, declarations of love, for better for worse, for richer, for poorer, to love and to hold, till death us do part- like it says in the marriage vows, only this time in this case, that someone was an undercover agent. That’s what makes it different. He, and we’re talking here of ‘he’, in fact several of them, took advantage of their professional position and bcame involved with women, one even fathering a child, so that their roles as police officers were ultimately lost. It was almost as if they felt they had a licence to...
Read MoreEver wondered why sci-fi and horror films and books have such a hold on our imagination? Might it be the fear of being invaded by an alien force who want what we have, whether real or imagined, and will stop at nothing to get it; risking their lives in the process. The press cover of the desperation of migrants is similar, presenting them as sub-human and capable of the most extreme behaviour and therefore by implication ultimately destructive of the Western way of life. There is a reality and there is a fantasy but there is a difference between them and the hysteria of the press and others doesn’t help. Maybe reading or watching a film which works with these...
Read More08/24/2015 ‘Gemma Bovery’ Did you ever read ‘Madame Bovary’ by Flaubert, an intense tale of passion, ennui, and unfulfilled womanhood? This recent film, directed by Anne Fontaine after Posy Simmond’s graphic novel, is influenced by that novel but holds little in common. Emma has become Gemma but unlike the original tragic anti-heroine, the film portrays her as an empty beautiful temptress who predictably always gets her man. So far, so boring. I found myself frequently glancing at my watch and waiting impatiently for the end. The only character of interest was the baker, an educated and well read man, played inspirationally by Fabrice Luchini, with the unfortunate...
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Marguerite Valentine is a former child protection specialist now writing psychological thrillers. Her debut novel is 'Between The Shadow And The Soul'.