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jolyonsykes
Reviews
Winter at Westbeth (2016)
The winter of our content
This stream of consciousness documentary follows three elderly people as they cope with Winter – the fourth and final season – in a large re-purposed industrial complex of buildings, the Bell Telephone Company's laboratories in Manhattan. Old technology, such as vacuum tubes, telephone switching, gramophone records, even transistors were the building's first residents, personified by the current residents, old technology people, who write by hand using pencils. The three are in their seventies, eighties and nineties respectively and the movie shows major events of their lives, such as their deceased partners and career highlights, using flashbacks, pieces to camera, and filmed visits to archives. Some of the close-ups show hair, wrinkles and make-up with confronting detail while some sequences are cloyingly over-sentimental. The sentimentality is offset as the three face the challenge of remaining relevant and reinventing themselves as silicon chip microprocessors, leaving the audience with warm, positive feelings about old age.
Chaharshanbeh, 19 Ordibehesht (2015)
Gruelling but satisfying
I found this movie a gruelling love story with a satisfactory, if predictable ending. The benefactor's motive is slowly revealed by quite skilfully-written dialogue, as are other story and back-story elements. Some of the plot devices were unconvincing, such as the amount of "blood money" demanded, and the coincidence of the benefactor's former fiancée arriving on the same day, 9th May. There were some interesting comments on Islamic law, as well as on blood money. The men are privileged but unhappy, their self-esteem undermined by having to rely on gender privilege, leaving them insecure and subject to violent or angry outbursts.
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Still hot after all these years
This movie has not aged; it's still wonderful, full of laughs and surprises. The violence is handled well, almost as slapstick, and Marilyn thoroughly deserved her Best Actor award. The friendship and tension between Curtis and Lemmon helps carry the story, as does Joe E Brown as the fourth corner in this love triangle, but the real star is writer Billy Wilder. The dialog is perfect, probably the result of endless rewrites. Osgood gets the final line, "Well - nobody's perfect" but the script continues, hinting at a sequel: "But that's another story - and we're not quite sure the public is ready for it."