www.list.co.uk/film
CRIME/ACTION ROCKNROLLA (15) 14min .0.
Is there a filmmaker in Britain who’s been more derided than Mr Madonna? A bit unfair all this criticism is too: it’s not Guy Ritchie’s fault that the competent, very watchable gangster flicks Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch were some of the most overrated films of all time. And let’s be honest, Swept Away could have been Citizen Kane (it wasn’t) and we’d still have slammed Ritchie for putting his bad-acting superstar wife in the frame. Meanwhile, nonsensical psychological gangster picture Revolver wasn’t as bad as all those terrible reviews made out — at least it showed an ambition to be different that’s often lacking in Brit flicks. So here we are at film five and Ritchie is playing this one as safe as houses. We’re back in London, a city that’s seen such an economic boom that the criminals deal in houses and works of art rather than hanging about street corners or rubbing shoulders with rouble
billionaires. As is Ritchie’s wont, the story is told with a signature narration and follows the pursuits of a bunch of get-rich-quick, bumbling, loveable rogues who could have walked straight off the set of an Ealing comedy. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, just ask the Coen Brothers, but familiarity has made these personalities seem tired and uninspired.
The object of every criminal’s desire is to become a RocknRol/a, a man who wants and has it all - girls, money, drugs and celebrity status. In telling the story Ritchie shows trademark flashes of visual panache and humour as the hoodlums run around in circles trying to outdo one another. Toby Kebbell playing a punk rock star, Thandie Newton as an accountant, Tom Wilkinson essaying a criminal kingpin and Tom Hardy as gay hoodlum Handsome Bob, all shine.
It’s all perfectly serviceable, but still leaves us guessing over whether Ritchie is just a one-trick pony. Only time will tell. (Kaleem Aftab)
I General release from Fri 5 Sep.
DRAMA THE DUCHESS (12A) 110min 000
In his second film feature UK filmmaker Saul Bullet Boy Dibb retells the tragic true life story of 18th/early 19th Century aristocrat Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. Celebrated beauty and socialite Georgiana (Keira Knightley) is married off to an uncaring Duke (Ralph Fiennes). It's a mismatched and temperamental marriage in which she finds little favour with her husband. Her friend Bess (Hayley Atwell) comes to comfort her but before you could unlace a corset. Bess has her feet under the both the family table and the Duke. Georgiana, in turn, falls for future prime minister Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper) but only inequality and tragedy can come of such assignations.
Given resonance by its all too obvious Diana Princess of Wales analogy (who was a distant relative of Cavendish), The Duchess is essentially a beautifully shot and directed period TV drama. The alienation that this bright. spirited woman felt is hammered home, even if we are often at a loss as to exactly why the public adored her. Danish co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen (Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself. Brothers) brings some ennui to proceedings with endless scenes of Georgiana wandering hopelessly round the Devonshire estate. a ghost in her own life and marriage. Fiennes' Duke of Devonshire becomes more than a mean old man, presented as a husband trapped by social form, unable to connect with his young wife. but equally unable to let her run around town with a political upstart. Familiar and tedious stuff. Vive la re’publique!
(Georgina Wilson Powell) I General release from Fri 5 Sep. See profile, right.
Name Saul Dibb
Born London, England. 1968. Background Dibb started his career working on documentaries. Lifters followed a group of shoplifters and 2003's Easy Money detailed the life of a couple working in the porn industry. He also worked as a cinematographer on Jon Ronson‘s excellent Channel 4 documentary Tottenham Ayatollah. His feature film debut was the well- received black-on-black gun crime thriller Bullet Boy. starring ex-So Solid Crew member Ashley Walters. He then went on to direct the adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst's 80s-set award winning gay romantic novel The Line of Beauty for lTV.
What’s he up to now‘? He has just directed The Duchess, an adaptation of Amanda Foreman's acclaimed book Georgiana, The Duchess of Devonshire. It stars Keira Knightley as the eponymous aristocrat. The marketing has been selling the film as an 18th Century Princess Diana Story, much to Dibb's amusement.
What he says about his work on the script after replacan Dane Suzanne Bier in the director’s chair ‘I read the script before I read the book and once I'd got two thirds of the way through I felt it was something that I wanted to do. Maybe because it carried so many of the similar kind of themes as Bullet Boy. even if I wasn't immediately aware of the similarities. But it was also the emotional power of it, and the challenge to convey the emotional power in a period 200 years ago. I also felt that it was a feminist tragedy. I probably tried to focus the story onto one period much more when l started work on the project. Originally it covered the life of the Duchess right to the deathbed. What i wanted to do was not in any way make anything that was going to be a biopic. but to focus very much on the course of the first big chapter of her marriage, the first seven to ten years. and to try and find a clear focus for the storyline through that.’
Interesting tact Saul Dibb is the son of documentary filmmaker Mike Dibb. who directed Edward Said: The Last Interview.
(Kaleem Aftab)
I The Duchess is on general release from Fri 5 Sep. See review, left.
4—18 Sep 2008 THE LIST 4"