Burn After Reading

Ethan Coen & Joel Coen: Burn After Reading (US/GB/FR 2008).

US/GB/FR © 2008 Focus Features. P+D+SC+ED: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen. P also: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner. DP: Emmanuel Lubezki – 35 mm – digital intermediate – print 35 mm color 1:1,85. M: Carter Burwell. Starring George Clooney (Harry Pfarrer), Frances McDormand (Linda Litzke), Brad Pitt (Chad Feldheimer), John Malkovich (Osborne Cox), Tilda Swinton (Katie Cox), Richard Jenkins (Ted Treffon), David Rasche (CIA Officer), J. K. Simmons (CIA Superior). A FS Film print viewed at the opening gala of the Helsinki International Film Festival (Love & Anarchy) at Bio Rex, Helsinki, 18 September 2008. – Print with a slightly denatured digital intermediate look. – The Coen brothers in good form. – Joel Coen: "If you want to call it a comedy I wouldn't protest. It's sort of about the CIA, the culture of physical fitness and internet dating". – The auteurs see this as the third film of their idiot trilogy. – A black comedy with fine performances (the best performance I have seen from Brad Pitt) and effective music by Carter Burwell. – The satire of a soulless way of life got a good laugh response from the audience. – The sharply written film has surprising twists, the ensemble is excellent, and it is not totally empty.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Bharat Nalluri: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (GB 2007). Frances McDormand (Guinevere Pettigrew) and Amy Adams (Delysia Lafosse)-

Miss Pettigrew – päivä täynnä elämää / Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day [Swedish title]. 

    GB © 2007 Focus Features. 

    D: Bharat Nalluri. SC: David Magee, Simon Beaufoy – based on the novel by Winifred Watson (1938). DP: John de Borman – Super 35 – anamorphic – film print 35 mm – digital intermediate by Framestore – –colour by DeLuxe - Panavision 1:2,35. Music: vintage tunes by Cole Porter ("Anything Goes"), "If I Didn't Care". 

    Starring Frances McDormand (Guinevere Pettigrew), Amy Adams (Delysia Lafosse), Shirley Henderson (Edythe Dubarry), Ciarán Hinds (Joe Blumfeld). 

    A FS Film release print with Finnish /Swedish subtitles by Arto Vartiainen / Ditte Kronström. 

    Viewed at Kinopalatsi 3, Helsinki, 23 August 2008.

Good entertainment set in London on the eve of WWII as the middle-aged nanny becomes the social secretary of a chanteuse.

"I'm an expert on the lack of love".

There is a light touch and elegance in the film that threatens to stay superficial, but there are also moments of real feeling. In the music, the moment of true feeling is "If I Didn't Care".

The career of Joe Blumfeld from socks to brassières.

The Depression ambience of unemployment and soup lines. The recurrent motif of hunger during Miss Pettigrew's day. She eats the cucumber slices in the beauty parlor and tries to get the half-eaten apple from the floor of the railway station.

The happy endings are maybe too pat, but believable at first because of the sincerity of the actors. "I've been looking for you all my life".