Hereford's Borderlines Film Festival has just started. We are booked for twenty movies. The first, Sightseers, was inauspicious despite its ever-changing and familiar scenes (the Crich Tram Museum, Mother Shipton's Dripping Well, the Ribblehead railway viaduct). SPOILER ALERT!!! A serial killer takes his new girl-friend on a caravan trip north from Redditch. Immensely irritating.
Compare/contrast with Babette's Feast which we were seeing for the fourth or fifth time. The tears rolled down my cheeks, dried, and rolled again; I didn't dare glance at VR. In case you have been misinformed this is not a foodie's wet dream but a film about human goodness told with surpassing wit. I have pondered and I could not be friends with anyone who did not respond positively to Feast. Please, please, do not tell me if this is the case with you, dear reader.
Then along unlit, narrow, barely surfaced, country lanes, guided only by the satnav, to Garway village hall to see a masterpiece: Once Upon A Time In Anatolia (five stars out of five by The Guardian).
In modern-day Turkey three cars, carrying policemen, a doctor, a public prosecutor and two suspects follow a seemingly hopeless nighttime quest, along remote wild roads, to locate a place. Nothing mystical, the concerns are obvious but the film's length (2 hr 28 min - and it's not a second too long) tells us this is no mere criminal matter. Quickly the idea that these are actors becomes ludicrous; they are as real as you or I. Procedures are botched, arguments boil up and dissipate, beauty briefly visits the mens' tired bodies. Be patient for a while; after that there are just people, small scale (but significant) events and your thoughts.
I've never yet seen Babette's Feast, one of those pleasures I'm saving up.
ReplyDeleteLucy: Aware of my feelings Occasional Speeder bought me a framed Babette's Feast poster for my birthday some years ago. It hangs in the en suite and I see it every time I shave.
ReplyDeleteYour comment tempted me to send you the DVD but perhaps your chosen unfamiliarity is the better option given the caveat I include in the post.
B's Feast is lovely for its foodiness as well as its human qualities. It touches me deeply for both reasons. I was about to arrange a DVD for L until I read your response, but I'll leave it to you. I do think you should follow your original inclination.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, now I feel like I've been fishing. I'm sure I would like it but no one needs to send me a copy. Funnily enough someone who hasn't corresponded for ages e-mailed me today and mentioned it too...
ReplyDeleteI assume that's the poster in question in the post, it looks very luxuriant and painterly.
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