March In Films, All The New Releases This Month

Films can affect us all in a variety of ways. They can make you laugh, they can make you cry, they can make you gaze on in bewilderment and wonder how Danny Dyer keeps finding work. But they can also give you itchy feet.

Getting Away From It All -

All it takes is one well-shot, idyllic landscape and thoughts of abandoning the nine-til-five rat race surge through your head before you know what’s hit you. A prime example would be The Motorcycle Diaries, starring Gael Garcia Bernal as a young, pre-revolutionary Che Guevara. Just try and watch it without wanting to book the first flight to Buenos Aires, rent a knackered motorbike and go on the ultimate road-trip.

In Bruges offers a more manageable excursion with a few days off work. Never had the thought of visiting Bruges, in Belgium, even crossed most peoples minds before seeing this comic-thriller about two hitmen laying low for a few days in the picturesque Belgian town. Now it seems like a great idea. Although hopefully you wonít be hiding from the law after a botched assassination.

Rarely has spending an extended period of time on a train seemed more appealing than in Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited. Being cooped up on a train with strangers is something many of us face on a daily basis, and it doesnít usually lead to the kind of adventures that Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman find themselves having across India. More just staring at the back of someoneís bald, sweaty head really.

It would be remiss of me not to mention Lord of The Rings here, and all that it did for New Zealandís tourism. But for something closer to home, Withnail and I always makes hanging out in a dilapidated cottage in the middle of the English countryside greatly appealing. With or without a highly destructive, alcoholic, out of work actor, who has neglected to mention what his uncle is expecting in return for your free stay.

 

But enough of this wistful travel-talk, letís see whatís on at your local cinema this month…

 

Archipelago (4th March) is the second film from British director Joanna Hogg and follows an upper-middle class family as they take a holiday together in Tresco. They have gathered together to give son Edward a good send off before he goes to Africa for 11 months on a volunteering expedition, but cracks soon start to appear in the happy family facade. Hoggís style of direction is to use long takes and let conversations unfold, which lend a certain documentary aesthetic to this bleak, quirky comedy.

The Tempest

If you’re a fan of something a bit Shakespearian, then look no further than a re-imagining of The Tempest (4th March), starring Helen Mirren as Prospera. Prospera was formerly known as Prospero in the Shakespearian tale, and was male, which provides the most obvious twist to previous adaptations. As the story goes, Prospera is left to die and stranded on an island, biding her time until she is able to cause a shipwreck which brings those to her who are responsible for her having spent the last 12 years there. It is a grand tale of revenge and is being given a very CGI-heavy make-over by Miramax, but you can only hope they havenít tried to give the work of Shakespeare a back seat to the special effects. Comic relief comes in the form of Trinculo and Stephano, played by Russell Brand and Alfred Molina respectively.

Patagonia (4th March) intertwines the two, very separate lives of Gwen; thirty and living in Cardiff, and Cerys; an elderly diabetic woman living in the Southern Andes of Argentina. Their stories are contrasting, but inextricably linked by the area of southernmost South America, called Patagonia, which has had a large Welsh heritage ever since 1865 when settlers first moved there to escape Anglican rule.

In true, two buses come along at once style, there was a documentary out last year called Separado, in which Gruff Rhys from the Super Furry Animals travels around Patagonia, looking for a long lost relative. Both Separado and Patagonia are films which could cause the aforementioned travel bug to nest in your brain until you find yourself quitting your job and heading off for 6 months backpacking in South America, so approach with caution!

 

Norwegian Wood (11th March) is best known as a song by The Beatles, and later a book by Haruki Murakami. This Japanese film, set in 1969, is a tale of love, loss and nostalgia for the past, directed by Tran Anh Hung and starring Rinko Kikuchi, of Babel fame. Murakami is arguably one of the world’s greatest living writers, and the success of this book made him something of a star (for a writer at least) in Japan when it was released in 1987. A beautifully shot book adaptation, which uses The Beatles song as a recurring motif.

Submarine

A quick mention must be given to Submarine (18th March), partly because it is the dÈbut feature film from Richard Ayoade, otherwise known as Moss from the IT Crowd. The other reason it must only be given a quick mention is that thereís a dearth of information about it floating about on the internet! What we do know is that it has been adapted from Joe Dunthorne’s novel of the same name, Paddy Considine is in it, and it is a light-hearted, coming-of-age story, centered on a 15 year old boy called Oliver Tate.

Ballast

Although it first premiered at the Sundance film festival in 2008, Ballast (18th March) is only this month getting itís full UK release. Who knows what took it so long but at least itís finally made it, as it was raved about by many upon it’s release in the U.S.

Ballast is a quietly intense, social realism narrative, based in a very poor area of the Mississippi Delta. It features a lot of local actors who have probably experienced first hand some of the issues of poverty that the film examines. Understated, yet powerful and affecting seems to be the gist of it; washed out landscapes and characters who seem to have been left behind by the American Dream.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

I already like Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (4th March) a lot, just from the trailer, because it made me shriek. I would like to say it startled me, and I growled in a manly fashion, but alas, it was definitely more of a shriek. Such is life. Issues of masculinity aside, Guillermo Del Toro has put his producers stamp on this horror film, which usually means very good things. The story focuses on Sally Hurst, a young girl who has recently moved into an old 19th century mansion that her dad (played by Guy Pearce) is restoring. So far, so good on the classic horror film set-up. Sally then discovers a hidden basement, full of all sorts of nasties, but of course, being but a small child, does anyone believe she’s released an assortment of monsters from the dark places beneath the house? No, of course they don’t.  They’ll learn…

The Insatiable Moon (4th March) is a film all the way from New Zealand, about a middle-aged man called Arthur who believes he is the second son of God. It is a warm, funny and touching story, which involves a community wanting to shut down a boarding house full of harmless local down-and-outs, and the owner’s battle against widespread prejudice to keep a roof over their heads. Rawiri Paratene plays Arthur, who some may know from Whale Rider, which was a huge film for New Zealand back in 2003.

Wake Wood

For fans of classic horror, Wake Wood (25th March) should tickle your fancy as it is the first film produced by Hammer Films in thirty years. Hammer were, for a long time, a name synonymous with spine-tingling tales of the supernatural. Christopher Lee made his name in Hammer Horrors, most notably as Dracula, and so Wake Wood has a legacy as long as your blood-spattered arm to live up to. And from the evidence of the trailer, it does not disappoint. Firstly, and this is important for the horror genre, the film has an 18 certificate. This may seem trivial, but Iím always suspicious of a horror film with less than a 15 certificate. How can something be truly scary if children are allowed to see it? Wake Wood has a definite feel of the original Wicker Man to it, with a village full of weird customs and traditions, being visited by a couple who hope to resurrect their young daughter from the dead, to spend a few more days with her. It looks like good, old fashioned grizzly, gory fun.