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The Beautiful Summer

The Beautiful Summer

The Beautiful Summer Rating

★★★★★

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Adapted from Cesare Pavese’s 1949 novel, ‘The Beautiful Summer’ written and directed by Laura Luchetti offers an evocative portrayal of self-discovery, longing, and sensual awakening. Set in 1938 preceding World War II in Turin, Italy. This coming-of-age story follows Ginia (Yile Yara Vianello), a young seamstress living with her brother Severino (Nicolas Maupas) in a modest apartment.

Ginia and Severino are relaxing at the lakeside with friends when Amelia (Deva Cassel) recognising one of them, swims over to join the group. Ginia is instantly allured by Amelia’s beauty and confidence, and both are curious of the other. Amelia is a nude model for painters. Severino is openly disdainful of Amelia’s choice of occupation, whereas Ginia finds herself intrigued by it.

Early in the film Amelia offers Ginia to watch her be painted, Ginia shyly declines and instead peers through the glass outside. Amelia introduces Ginia to a bohemian world that ignites her imagination. Ginia has her first romantic experience with the painter Guido (Alessandro Piavani) and finds herself curious to model also. The line “I want someone to look at me and show me who I am” reflects Ginia’s journey of self-exploration; as well as a kind of consenting voyeurism and exhibitionism, as a form of communication. Seeing and being seen. Underlying a foundational question- “Who’s vision do we wish to be cast by?”

The film is an emotive tapestry exploring jealousy, control, love, loss, desire, and practicality, with complexity. Yile Yara Vianello offers authenticity to the twists and turns of her characters journey, where polarity emerges at a middle pathway that is both authentic and refreshing.

 

The Beautiful Summer
The Beautiful Summer

Diego Romero’s cinematography is exquisite in its rendering of Turin’s architecture, landscape, and the casts interplay among them. The subtle shake of the camera in certain shots, and the focus on physical actions contribute to the film’s intimacy and tactile quality. The transition from summer to autumn is conveyed in its fleeting glory, echoing the themes of love and loss.

Autumnal hues are accented by colourist Andrea Baracca, and harmonious choices amongst the art, costume, and make-up departments offer stylistic cohesion that enriches the story. The chemistry between Yile Yara Vianello and Deva Cassel is tantalising. There is a tenderness between their characters, and it’s as if they are both holding a delicate secret together. The pensive piano scores composed by Francesco Cerasi mirror Ginia’s inner landscape, as she navigates her feelings, and choices.

If you like your storylines packaged and labelled neatly, I do not recommend this film. However, if you are like me and enjoy a storyline that feels more like a dance than a march, you will be captivated by the world Luchetti has created.

To book tickets to this or other films, click https://italianfilmfestival.com.au/films/iff24-the-beautiful-summer

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

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The Critic Sydney Film Review: McKellen Wows in British Period Thriller

The Critic

The Critic Rating

★★★★★

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In Anand Tucker’s The Critic, an impressive British cast leads the audience through an enjoyable, if underwhelming, artistic thriller.

Ian McKellen plays the titular role of drama theatre critic Jimmy Erskine. As a critic at The Daily Chronicle in 1930s London, Erskine lives a lavish lifestyle as a “prince on a pauper’s salary”. He spends his days lapping up champagne at his exclusive gentleman’s club and his evenings viciously tearing apart the London theatre scene in a manner that earned him the nickname Beast.

When the previous laissez-faire owner of the Chronicle unexpectedly passes away, control of the newspaper and his title as Viscount is handed over to his modernising son (Mark Strong). Erskine will resort to great and terrible lengths to ensure that his position and status are kept, even going so far as to form a twisted alliance with Nina Land (Gemma Arterton). The ambitious, if flighty, theatre actress who has long suffered the keen bite of Erskine’s scathing theatre reviews.

McKellen obviously has a great deal of fun with this juicy role. Within the comical and searing character, he combines a dash-it-all attitude with genuinely villainous actions. Alongside this, McKellen employs expertly delivered and shrewdly constructed witty turns of phrase and caddy takedowns. It is a joy to watch him flex on screen.

Despite this intriguing and complicated character presented, it’s surprising that the film chooses not to follow him alone. Instead, the film shifts focus to the wider cast, a veritable who’s who of British independent cinema. Featuring rounded performances from Mark Strong, Ben Barnes, Leslie Manville, Gemma Arterton and Alfred Enoch, The Critic makes use of this strong supporting cast. Manville is granted quite a few memorable one-liners to make up for her shockingly little screentime, but the real stand-out performances come from Arterton and Strong.

Strong makes use of his well-recognised stoic visage, leading the viewer to assume more nefarious motivations from the Viscount, concealing a truly vulnerable character underneath. His performance elicits genuine sympathy and pity from the audience.

 

The Critic
The Critic

Arterton is simply given the most to do as the earnest ageing actress looking for immortality on the stage. Struggling to match her talent with her ambition, she jumps through many emotional turns through her twisted partnership with McKellen’s Erskine.

Credit must be given to the lighting and production design. Often in period pieces, the colour palette can be drab, or sepia-toned to reflect the past. Thankfully in this film, the production design leans into the Art Deco style of the period, marrying beautifully constructed sets with wonderfully original real locations. Often the screen is overcome with jewel tone lighting of deep ambers or sorrowful blues.

Despite beautifully constructed shots, a few genuinely funny lines and sympathetic character beats, this thriller never quite realises its full potential. The comedic moments are not present or consistent enough to define the story. While the thriller elements are not shocking or intriguing enough to mark it as a true edge of your seat thriller.

The most interesting character beats are often left underdeveloped in service of simply moving on to another plot point, without properly examining interesting threads in the interpersonal relationships.

The film misses out on an opportunity to live up to its namesake, to explore the rich relationship between the critic and the criticised. The dynamic between McKellen’s critic and Arterton’s actress is the most compelling relationship presented on screen, and worthy of further inspection. The film does not take that extra leap and instead remains focused on unveiling the thriller at hand, to mixed results.

Please check your local cinema directory for session details.

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

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The Ghost Train: All Aboard The Supernatural Express

The Ghost Train

The Ghost Train Rating

★★★★★

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To celebrate the 70th anniversary of Castle Hill Pavilion Theatre, the theatre company performed an adaption of The Ghost Train, written by Arnold Riley. The classic thriller opened on the 20th of September to a full house ready for some suspense and humour.

The Ghost Train is set in an old train station, where a group of stranded passengers face a night of eerie happenings as they await the arrival of a supposedly haunted train. Directed by Stephen Snars, the production evokes a gothic atmosphere, keeping us on the edge of our seats. The mystery of the ghost train creeps in at just the right moments.

The ensemble cast excels in portraying a diverse group of travellers – each with its own quirks. Each actor excels at commanding the stage without overpowering the other. Their interactions feel authentic as they explore the possibility of a ghost story being real. A standout performance comes from Paul Sztelma playing Teddie Deakin, the seemingly carefree prankster who adds most of the necessary humour to the play. His blend of charisma and comic timing kept a sense of unpredictability, keeping the audience and characters wondering about his true nature.

The creaky old station, with its dim lighting, helps set the stage for this spooky tale. There were times when I forgot the design was a stage and not the night sky. The clever use of sound design—clattering trains in the distance, spooky sounds, and unsettling silences—further amplify the ghostly atmosphere. The costumes of the characters help set the time period of the play.

 

The Ghost Train
The Ghost Train

A primary theme of The Ghost Train is the fear of the unknown and how fear can make our minds play tricks on us. The play explores how superstition can create an atmosphere that can make the most sceptical of people believe they heard or saw something supernatural. As identities and intentions are revealed, the play touches on how appearances can be misleading.

The chilling moments and the humour kept the audience engaged, as you could hear the laughs and shocks from audience members. The play was well-paced, keeping us entertained the whole time through its use of suspense.

The play is much more than a ghost story and balances chilling moments with unexpected humour. The plot twist delivers a satisfying conclusion to The Ghost Train. We left the theatre, remembering that even old-fashioned ghost stories can still provide us a good scare. The Ghost Train was an excellent choice to help celebrate 70 years of Castle Hill Pavilion, offering thrills and plenty of laughs along the way. If you are up for a spook, watch The Ghost Train, playing from now until October 12.

Book your tickets @ https://paviliontheatre.org.au/theghosttrain/

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

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Karate Man – A Brilliantly Clever Interactive Live Action Comedy

Karate Man

Karate Man Rating

★★★★★

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5

If you have ever played a video game, you’d feel the excitement of pressing a combination of different buttons on the controller and moving your character around the screen – to fight villains, explore different rooms and make decisions. The game always has a goal, often several, with riddles and various quests to complete before the goals are met, before you finally win the game. Perhaps it has taken hours to play. Imagine this. You know what I mean. Now think about the characters jumping out of the screen and are standing right now in front of you, swaying from one foot to the other, patiently waiting for you to give them a command on your controller. Your game has come to life – and you get to make decisions about what happens next. This is what happens in this comedic show Karate Man.

Co-creators and directors Bruno Dubosarsky and Daniel Scarratt have produced a truely unique and hilarious interactive play…and play we did! All audience members participated and became immersed into the story, by taking turns with the controller and pushing buttons, directing Karate Man to do what they wanted in response to the story’s many challenges.

The buttons were typical gaming commands such as kick, throw, punch, jump, grab as well as move left / right/ down and up, all of which Karate Man had to do immediately on command as soon as the it was read out by the game’s narrator. The sound effects added to the authenticity of a video game, complete with repeating sounds when the characters were waiting to be directed what to do.

 

Karate Man
Karate Man

This video game character was portrayed perfectly by Bruno Dubosarsky and done with such robotic fluidity that it was believable, his movements imitating the basic gaming commands of the 1980’s video games. As you can imagine, the fight between Karate Man, moving in a step by step controlled fashion (eg “right, right, jump, right, kick. Left, left, down, punch”) and his arch enemy Ross Roundkick, played with cheeky wickedness by Daniel Scarratt in the year 198X was hilarious and one of the highlights of the show for me. I was laughing so much as poor Karate Man was directed to move in ridiculous excess due to the audience still getting used to using the controls at the beginning of the show – it would have been exhausting for Bruno. At one stage, Karate Man was directed by the controller “left, left, left, left, left” right off the stage – the audience was crippled with laughter! I had never been to a Choose Your Own Adventure show like this before, and I loved it.

The story of Karate Man takes us into the lives of Karate Man and his wife Kara. Her name being half of his name seemed to be on purpose, and added to the cheesy charm of the show. Kara was played by Stephanie Ryan and her mannerisms of a video game character were spot on. Karate Man had to complete some challenges in this game and the audience was given three choices which led to different scenes and more goals to achieve. As the audience were making the decisions about where Karate Man was going to go next in our rendition of the play, I could see how the show would completely change on different nights. It would be interesting to return to experience another scenario and set of goals.

 

Karate Man
Karate Man

The supporting cast, Tim Dunk as the Time Fish, Juliet Rae Timmerman as Alex Coober and Maddie Atkins lent keen exaggeration into their video game characters and were very entertaining. All of the actors at different times were so funny, and I believe that some lines may have been impromptu.

The script was clever and contained some references to pop culture embedded. Prop designer Stephanie Ryan kept the stage simple. A few painted large posters were used, as well as a few other props, and was all this show needed as it was more reliant on the physical comedy and the script.

Shown as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival 2024, Karate Man was spectacularly funny and one of the most original interactive shows to hit the stage! Instead of playing video games at home, head out to the PACT Centre for Emerging Artists in Erskineville to have your own personalised adventure with Karate Man.

Show run: 17-21 September 2024
Tickets: $30 – $38
www.sydneyfringe.com/events/karate-man-a-live-action-video-game

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

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