WHAT a wonderful film this is. Billed as a triumphant return for Swedish director Jan Troell – Oscar-nominated in 1972 for his best-known film The Emigrants – it is a beautiful piece which feels genuinely life-enhancing.
Maria Heiskanen is superb in the lead role as Maria Larsson, a working-class mother in Sweden at the turn of the 20th century. As she struggles to feed her children amid the violent, drunken rages of would-be communist husband Sigge, Maria finds a wonderful escape in her discovery of the blossoming world of photography. She is encouraged in her new passion by local camera shop owner Sebastian much to Sigge’s wrath, and the two form a touching friendship which always threatens to become something more. Sigge meanwhile is a constant philanderer but Maria is loathe to leave him due to her dying father’s warning that marriage is a life commitment. Expertly framed and lit, Everlasting Moments is a gentle triumph of the film craft and a must for every Daily Post Flickr group member.
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Doctor Who - Dalek War (PG)
A FOUR-disc box set comprising two classic six-part storylines broadcast in 1973, pitting the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) against his mechanized, sworn enemies. In the first installment, Frontier In Space, the timelord and his companion Jo (Katy Manning) meet a band of mercenaries in the employ of The Master, who is secretly plotting an interplanetary war. In Planet Of The Daleks, the doctor and Jo descend on the planet Spiridon where they come face to face with an army of Daleks as well as voracious plants. With enough extras to satisfy every Dr fanatic.
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The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (15)
PIPPA LEE would appear to be a picture of American housewife contentment, hosting her weekly dinner parties for her ageing publisher husband. Thirty years his junior she looks after his every need.
But looks can be deceiving and underneath the facade, Pippa is a woman unsure of what her life now amounts to. Her need for extra fulfilment manifests itself in bouts of fridge-raiding sleep-walking and recollections of her earlier days. We travel back through her life, from smothered child of a prescription-addicted mother, to teenage runaway and party child, to bastion of middle class solidity. Wonderfully played by Robin Wright Penn, Pippa reminds us that we are capable of being different people at different points along our mortal coil. A laid-back Keanu Reeves arrives as next door’s son to remind Pippa of her need for love while Winona Ryder delivers a similarly excellent cameo as the needy friend who tempts her husband. Writer-director Rebecca Miller’s adaptation of her own popular novel is not without flaws, at times the necessary dislocation of the theme leaving you feeling like a voyeuristic outsider but Penn’s performance keeps you enthralled.
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