BELLE - FILM REVIEW

Release Date: 13th June 2014

Age Certificate: 12A

Running Time: 104 mins

Director: Amma Asante
Writer: Misan Sagay

Stars: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Matthew Goode and Emily Watson

Belle; is a period piece to invite a wide audience to understand the hardship of Dido Elizabeth Belle, a mixed race ‘illegitimate’ daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral. Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is as beautiful as the film, from the corset driven costumes to some of the well framed shots, it achieves what it needs to achieve, and that is being visually pleasing. 

However, by accomplishing this it looses the grit of the underlying story of a mixed race girl experiencing social apartheid in her extended family. You feel somewhat cheated that the real drama of this young girl’s life is not fully explored and therefore cannot immerse yourself in what it must have been like for Dido during this traditionalist time.  Every face, every scene and every scenario is too polished, and in turn, gives the whole film a shallow and lifeless aura. It has the feel of a Sunday TV film that you can enjoy with a cup of tea and a slice of cake.  

5/10

THE GRANDMOTHER - SHORT FILM REVIEW

Release Date: 1970

Age Certificate: 12A
Running Time: 34 min
Director: David Lynch

Writer: David Lynch

Stars: Dorothy McGinnis, Richard White, Virginia Maitland and Robert Chadwick

I recently bought the short films of David Lynch after having an epiphany after viewing Blue Velvet. Yes, I had watched Eraserhead, Lost Highway, The Striaght Story and only the first series of Twin Peaks before; but nothing could have prepared me for The Grandmother, which like I said is a short film by the weirdo, of the name Lynch, it came prior to the cult classic of Eraserhead. 

In short, The Grandmother is about a boy who is unloved by his parents, he yearns to be loved, and so one day he finds a bag of seeds in his bedroom. So by no hesitation he dumps a mound of soil in the middle of his bed and plants a seed. Over time this seed develops and pops out a person; his grandmother. She smiles, and loves him. After that, it sort of becomes a blur and I wouldn’t be able to tell you what happened. 

Either way, I strangely enjoyed it, the low – very low lighting brought a nightmarish aura to this otherwise lovely film. All the characters have pale – very pale faces. There is a shot in the film that incorporates this fantastically.  We see a close up of the boy’s face, he turns away and walks down the stairs, but we only see his white face floating down, in otherwise utter darkness. 

David Lynch’s 1970 short film is hard to understand, difficult to relax into, but very enjoyable when looking back; it also gives you the permission to say you’ve seen a very peculiar film.

8/10