THE SALT PATH*

Theatre director Marianne Elliott has adapted Raynor Winn's best-selling but now controversial book about her and her husband's epic walk around the south-coast of England. Sadly I watched this after the controversy broke so I am not sure how far I was influenced by accusations that key elements of the biographical book were faked.  I hope I just watched the film on its own terms.  But boy this is a tedious film.

It opens with middle-aged husband and wife Raynor (Gillian Anderson) and Moth (Jason Isaacs) destitute, homeless and hiking around the pretty southern coast of England.  They both have regional accents, with Isaacs pulling his off better than Anderson.  They look rough, sun-burned and stressed. They have no money - are reduced to busking - and Moth has a degenerative illness. So the film starts in bleak dull tones and a reduced aspect ratio.  However, the apparently literally regenerative power of being one with nature and walking in beauty allows the film's colour scheme to become sunnier and the aspect ratio to widen. I cannot imagine a more on-the-nose directorial choice.  But I saw no real signs of enlightenment and I was not moved by the couple's plight. The pace was slow and nothing really happens beyond the odd stranger donating a pot of hot water or momentary stress at whether their kids are okay. Apparently there is some malarkey about being "salted" but I was unconvinced and unmoved. I also thought the landscape and seascape photography would be more impressive.

THE SALT PATH is rated 12, has a running time of 115 minutes and is on release in the UK. It played Toronto 2024.

BLUE JEAN****

The 1980s were a dark time in England - strikes, recession, homophobic scares over AIDS and then, as a direct consequence of fear of the "gay plague", the introduction of Section 28, preventing local governments from "promoting" the gay lifestyle. Overnight a bunch of schoolteachers, who were probably closeted anyway because society was homophobic, found themselves at genuine risk of losing their jobs if outed. Never mind if they were good at their jobs and really cared about the kids they taught.  The fact that they were "deviants" precluded them from being teachers.

Georgia Oakley's assured debut feature, BLUE JEAN, is an attempt to dramatise the moral quandary Section 28 put teachers in, as 'don't ask don't tell' forced them back into the closet. It centres on a dedicated and charismatic sports teacher called Jean, played by Rosy McEwan. She is out to her family but not to her school, and in a relationship with the more comfortably out Viv (Kerrie Hayes).  The fact that Jean is more guarded is already a source of tension in their relationship, even before Section 28 announces its presence on news reports.  When it comes, it's a heavy bludgeon of prejudice on top of a deep layer of heteronormative pop culture, as symbolised here by the iconic 80s dating show, Blind Date.  Matters are brought to a head when new girl Lois (Lucy Halliday) sees Jean in a gay social club and clearly looks to her for support as she's bullied at school. The question is whether Jean will compromise her secrecy to stand up for Lois and what is right. 

What I like about this film is that it's willing to show its lead character as morally compromised but not judge her harshly for that. At the end of the film there's a wonderfully joyous gay social and one of the activist members of the group explains to Lois that the people in the closet who are in professional jobs help in their own way, by donating money to the cause. The viewer may or may not find peace with that, but given the clearly depicted nastiness of the environment I have a lot of sympathy with it. 

I also love that this is one of the few films that I can remember that centres the lesbian experience, and Northern lesbians at that!  Moreover, it depicts a vibrant, supportive, wonderfully vital lesbian culture through the social club and squat. Even more rare, the film shows a lesbian couple enjoying sex and intimacy in a way that feels authentic and does not pander to the male or straight gaze. In so many ways, this film is unique and wonderfully unapologetic. 

Finally, I really love writer-director Georgie Oakley's colour palette and framing, and the lead performances. I defy anyone not to cheer with joy when Jean finally tells a misogynistic suburban divorcee that she's gay. But for the most part her character is more slippery, subtle and nuanced and all the better for that. 

BLUE JEAN has a running time of 97 minutes and is rated 15. It played Venice and London 2022 and is currently on release in the UK.

AFTER LOVE - BFI London Film Festival - Day 9

Aleem Khan's AFTER LOVE, is a deeply moving drama that is told with a controlled, spare austerity and visual style that is truly impressive in a debut feature.  The film stars the superb Joanna Scanlan as Fahima - a white English woman who converted to Islam when she married her husband many decades ago.  As the film opens we see a scene of normal and apparently happy domesticity before the husband quickly dies. Fahima discovers an ID card and mobile phone among her late husband's effects with messages from a woman - Genevieve - in Calais. It soon becomes clear that her husband had another family a mere 20 miles away across The Channel.  Fahima takes the decision to go and confront this woman, but in a very telling moment, she is mistaken for a cleaner, and in a state of shock, assumes that role and discovers more about the Calais family. 

So much is said and left unsaid about the immigrant experience in that assumption that she's a cleaner, and in setting the film in Calais.  Indeed, in the film as a whole, there is very little dialogue. Scanlon shows Fahima's reactions through her physical and facial acting.  There's also something extremely clean and disciplined and austere about how Khan chooses to show her journey. A great example is Fahima's journey across the Channel is a bus, which is shown with three rather elegant  scenes of her sitting in exactly the same place on the bus and on our screens, cut to show the passing of time.  Khan also has a beautiful way of capturing still tableaux and landscape. When he moves his camera, it is with slow and deliberate intent.

In the other roles Nathalie Richard is a great foil for Scanlon as Genevieve, but it's really Talid Ariss who steals the show in a role I won't name for spoilers.  Both contrast nicely with Scanlon's Fahima in their ease with expressing their emotions.  By contrast, there's a moment near the end of this film where Fahima embraces someone but pauses beforehand, unsure about whether she's going to allow herself this moment of emotional catharsis. It's as though she's been waiting all film to exhale.  The power of the moment is intense. 

AFTER LOVE has a running time of 89 minutes. The film played Toronto and London 2020. It does not yet have a commercial release date. 

DEATH OF A GENTLEMAN

Like the directors of this documentary, I am a passionate fan of cricket, and of the highest form of the game, Test Match cricket. Like them I have watched in horror the rise of the more explosive T20 form of the game, and how it has shortened the patience of audiences and players alike.  I have also watched with horror as the power in world cricket has shifted toward the country with the largest and most passionate fanbase and the most corrupt culture of corporate governance - India - and how that power has been used to shore up the influence of the big three nations -  India, England and Australia - at the expense of the smaller and less wealthy playing nations.  For example, the cricket world cup is the only world tournament where qualifying places are carved up among the big boys.  In football, for example, San Marino qualifies in the same way as Brazil. Free market forces ensure the best teams get through.