Based on the book by Swiss Alexander Ziegler, who as a 22-year-old was sent to prison for a gay relationship with a 16-year-old, this is a not-so-simple love story that battles its way through prison, a reformatory for juveniles, and considerable torment. Although it is a German production, almost all of the action takes place in Switzerland. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 6th, 2014 at 7:00 pm. Updated on April 6th, 2014 at 7:00 pm.
“What are you, Kelly? A man or a rat? You’re a rat!” says newspaper editor Frank Gebhardt to Matt Kelly. This is a film about that rat… and the kid who suffers from his ratdom – his rattee. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 31st, 2014 at 9:41 pm. Updated on March 31st, 2014 at 9:41 pm.
I’d thought that this was a movie based on real-life events, but no, it’s a dramatisation of those events interspersed with commentary from the real-life characters, 35 or more years on. A ‘documentary feature’ is what it is, apparently. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 24th, 2014 at 8:28 pm. Updated on March 24th, 2014 at 8:34 pm.
This is a variation on the adage that “You can’t keep a good man down.” Sometimes, it seems, you can’t keep a really, really bad man down, either. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 17th, 2014 at 10:00 pm. Updated on March 17th, 2014 at 10:08 pm.
This is not quite a morality play, but it’s not far removed from one: the two high-living adulterers both come to sticky ends while the poor-but-honest workers prosper and find happiness. And the wrongdoer who goes to jail, but remains true in his heart, gets a second chance. Ahhh. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 11th, 2014 at 9:25 pm. Updated on March 11th, 2014 at 9:25 pm.
Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, 1936. Spain is about to plunge into civil war, and an unlikely romance between Daniel Da Barca (Tristán Ulloa), a charismatic Republican doctor, and Marisa Mallo (María Adánez), the daughter of a wealthy businessman who has quickly thrown his lot in with Franco’s rebel Nationalists, is beginning to blossom.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 9th, 2014 at 12:59 pm. Updated on March 9th, 2014 at 12:59 pm.
The premise sounded promising, if a little in poor taste: a game show involving Death Row inmates competing for stays of execution and prizes for their grieving relatives. The odds are stacked rather heavily against them (which means that they will almost certainly be killed ‘live’ on TV), yet “these people are already on Death Row,” the host reminds us. “Their lives are basically over. We give them a chance, a way to be somebody… a way to be entertaining before they go.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 4th, 2014 at 9:21 pm. Updated on March 4th, 2014 at 9:21 pm.
There’s something a little pathetic about two ageing action heroes reliving their glory days from the ’80s. Granted, neither Sylvester Stallone nor Arnold Schwarzenegger looks mid-sixties, exactly, and they make a far better fist of playing action heroes than the younger but tumescent Steven Seagal in Maximum Conviction (2012). But it’s a worrying trend; I’m not looking forward to seeing Chuck Norris and Burt Reynolds wreak havoc in a palliative care prison.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on February 24th, 2014 at 9:26 pm. Updated on March 9th, 2014 at 1:13 pm.
Jailhouse as haunted house. It’s not the most novel of concepts. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on February 16th, 2014 at 1:35 pm. Updated on February 16th, 2014 at 1:35 pm.
This was released as Women Without Men in Britain – a title suggestive of something a bit wild or scandalous. It’s neither of those. I suppose that if one takes the title at its most literal, it’s indisputable that the women prisoners are without men. And although she might not agree, the lead character, Angela Booth (Beverly Michaels), is decidedly better off for it.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on February 12th, 2014 at 10:00 pm. Updated on February 12th, 2014 at 10:02 pm.