nil by mouth ( film )
nil by mouth offers a harrowing look at a working - class family beset by drugs, alcohol and abuse .
best original screenplay: boogie nights, the full monty, mrs brown, and nil by mouth .
nil by mouth is playing as part of bfi southbank’s ‘london on film’ season. tickets are available by visiting the bfi website (or clicking here )
looking for movie tickets? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing nil by mouth near you .
alexander korda award for outstanding british film: the borrowers, the full monty, mrs brown, nil by mouth, regeneration, and twentyfourseven .
best leading actor: robert carlyle for the full monty, billy connolly for mrs brown, kevin spacey for la confidential, and ray winstone for nil by mouth .
nil by mouth is an acting tour - de - force, with ray winstone at his very best, demanding our attention as he walks into every room. personal, relevant and darkly true - to - life, nil by mouth is a testament to british cinema and how honest we are when revealing the conflicted nature of family .
'' nil by mouth'' is rated r (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). it includes unsparingly ugly domestic violence and profanity wall - to - wall .
best leading actress: kim basinger for la confidential, helena bonham carter for the wings of the dove, kathy burke for nil by mouth, and dame judi dench for mrs brown .
to say nil by mouth pulls no punches would be accurate, and oldman doesn' t flinch when bringing some quite horrible moments to the screen. ray winstone and kathy burke put in superb performances too, burke in particular. and whilst nil by mouth isn' t a film you' d particularly want to watch twice, it desperately deserves to be seen once. oldman, to date, hasn' t directed another movie .
nil by mouth received generally positive reviews, currently holding a 65 %
fresh
rating on rotten tomatoes. roger ebert awarded the film 3. 5 / 4 stars, writing :
the film' s portrait of street life in south london is unflinching and observant .
title nil by mouth year 1997 distributor (s) 20th century fox film co. ltd classified date (s) 22 / 07 / 1997 main language english submitted run time 128m 21s approved footage 11551 + 3 bbfc reference aff150671 registration number cfj00167
the screenplay, with introduction by douglas urbanski, was published in 1997 by screenpress books .
a photo - diary of the film' s production, containing photos by jack english, was published in 1998 by screenpress books .
rough, tough but with an underlying generosity toward its characters, gary oldman' s
nil by mouth
is an impressive writing - helming debut cloaked in a torrent of profanity and loutish, abusive behavior .
davek mr. leigh, i recently saw meantime for the first time on filmfour and funnily enough it reminded me very much of gary oldman' s nil by mouth. given his comments about how nil by mouth was very much autobiographical (and clearly the same goes for his performance in meantime), it made me wonder how much of you is in your films. are there many autobiographical influences? and another question about meantime. how old was tim roth when the film was made? he looks about 12 !
kevin spacey and kim basinger were nominated for their roles in the 1950s - style us crime thriller la. confidential, which is also in the running for the best film award. gritty drama nil by mouth and the wings of the dove have also been hotly tipped for potential prizes .
nil by mouth features the word
cunt
82 times, more than any other film in history. it also features around 428 uses of the word
fuck
, more than any film at the time until summer of sam beat it 2 years later; as of 2014, the record for most uses of the f - word in a dramatic film is currently held by swearnet: the movie, which boasts 934 utterances of said obscenity .
number 23 it beats out
the departed
( 2006). but it was beaten by
jay and silent bob strikes back
( 2001). so
nil by mouth
contains roughly 200 more f - words. and could you use the f - word as an adverb in a sentence ?
written and directed by gary oldman; director of photography, ron fortunato; edited by brad fuller; music by eric clapton; production designer, hugo - luczyc - wyhowski; produced by luc besson, douglas urbanski and mr. oldman; released by sony pictures classics. running time: 128 minutes. this film is rated r .
awards: bafta award for best original screenplay, alexanda korda film for outstanding british film; official selection 1997 cannes film festival, winner best actress, kathy burke .
a gruelling, uncompromising film, nil by mouth ends with the sobering dedication :
in memory of my father
. clearly influenced by the work of alan clarke - whose scum (1979) was winstone' s most famous credit until this film relaunched his career - and by the american independent film - maker john cassavetes, this stands as one of the most powerful and unfashionable british films of the 1990s. ironically it was made entirely with french money, courtesy of nikita (france / italy, 1990) and the fifth element (france, 1997) director - producer luc besson .
the fire appeared to go out after burke delivered that incendiary performance as a battered wife in nil by mouth .
i had been waiting my whole career to do a film like that ,
she beams at the memory .
it was an amazing experience. i did a couple of films after that, but they never had the same feel .
our artistic director of film, jason wood, tells us more about his passion for one film wonders, the subject of a new film season screening here at home in march 2018 .
it' s a hospital term which means
intravenous only .
a character in the film describes his father with the phrase. i use it literally and i use it ironically, because these characters have no communication skills. when they do communicate, it' s often abusive and verbally very violent. they drink beer and they smoke and everything, so it' s everything by the mouth and nothing by the mouth .
jason wood is artistic director, film at home and the co - editor of enthusiasms, a new magazine about film culture .
i didn’t understand this film. i will admit that i was charmed by the characters and there were plenty of … continue reading →
in a rare moment of calm during gary oldman' s fierce debut feature,'' nil by mouth,'' four generations of women in one family stand huddled together. they are listening to the pounding on the front door and wondering what the raging bull named raymond (ray winstone) will do next .
the film depicts the environment oldman witnessed growing up on a council estate in south east london. oldman' s sister laila morse plays janet and his mother voices a song in the film. the title is a medical instruction (literally
nothing by mouth
), meaning that a patient must not take food or water. it is set to the soundtrack
peculiar groove
by frances ashman .
title stems from raymond’s monologue describing a visit to his father in hospital, where a sign above the bed stated “nil by mouth. ” as well as a metaphor for his dad’s parsimony with loving words, it’s an apt description for all the characters, whose four - letter volubility is too often a substitute for real emotion .
at the beginning of
nil by mouth
we cannot understand the south london dialect very easily, and aren' t sure who all the characters are. by the end, we know this family and we understand everything they say, and many things they do not say. and we remember another very minor character in the film, the small child of ray and val, who sits at the top of the stairs during a bloody fight, and sees everything .
hanging in pride of place over the dining room table in kathy burke' s north london home is a still from the set of nil by mouth, the acclaimed domestic - violence drama for which she deservedly won the best actress award at the cannes film festival in 1997. but there' s a surprise. the photo depicts the film' s director, gary oldman, leaning over to whisper something to her co - star ray winstone. burke is not in the picture .
the film is not primarily making a political or social statement, however. the character of ray is a cause of suffering to those around him, a viscous mystery inexplicable in terms of environment. in the scene which will come to represent nil by mouth in the minds of those who see it, he wakes valerie to accuse her of evidently non - existent infidelities and beats her savagely with fist and foot .
( for artistic excellence by illuminating issues of great social and political importance. )
rough, tough but with an underlying generosity toward its characters, gary oldman’s “nil by mouth” is an impressive writing - helming debut cloaked in a torrent of profanity and loutish, abusive behavior. this perf - driven portrait of a dysfunctional london working - class family, which often plays like hyped - up ken loach sans the politics, will need excellent reviews and canny [ … ]
unusually, nil by mouth takes an objective view of bill' s addiction - scenes in which his mum is forced to help him score are a long way from the hyped - up excitement of danny boyle' s trainspotting (1995) - and reserves its real anger for the abusive ray, a pathologically jealous husband and alcoholic who beats the pregnant val black and blue in the film' s most harrowing scene. in a long, pathetic monologue to his friend mark (jamie foreman), ray explains the title metaphor, recalling a sign posted over his own alchoholic father' s hospital bed:' nil by mouth' .
plenty went down there, but nothing good came out ,
he complains. while ray is granted a hint of self - knowledge, it' s hard not to think the cycle of abuse will continue .
the film boasts an ensemble of scene stealers - including the wonderful eugene levy - and the film is one of the funniest of the 1990s, full stop .
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film & tv: london brawling (weekly alibi. 03 - 30 - 98 )
the film, about unemployed yorkshire steelmen who turn to stripping to make a living, has received 11 nominations, including best film, best original screenplay and best actor .
best film: the full monty, la confidential, mrs brown, and titanic .
she is a performer who, thanks to such deathless roles as waynetta slob and perry (both opposite harry enfield), has over the years been labelled with almost tiresome regularity
a national treasure
. something about the vulnerability burke revealed endeared her to audiences and critics alike – in one year, 1998, she was nominated for three baftas (nil by mouth, tom jones and harry enfield and chums) .
yet
nil by mouth
is not an unrelieved shriek of pain. there is humor in it, and tender insight. after he almost kills himself on a bender, ray is hospitalized, and mark visits him. in a monologue brilliantly delivered by winstone, ray complains about the lack of love from his own father :
not one kiss. not one cuddle .
in ray' s mind, he is the abused child. we sense oldman' s ability to understand, if not forgive .
seem to emulate, if not surpass, all that made these performances great. is it really surprising that kathy burke (valerie) won the cannes film festival' s best actress award or that ray winstone (ray) won the british independent film award' s best performance by a british actor in an independent film award? these two performances alone could solidify
knife: held by a man who' s chased billy and his friend into a laundromat .
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), the 1968 film which first paired these two cinematic titans. storaro introduced the film and answered questions. he also explained univision, a system he used during the production of
the highest grossing film ever to have been made in britain, the full monty, has scooped the highest number of nominations in the 50th british academy (bafta) film awards .
but this isn' t unusual. nil by mouth is a film about tired people living tired lives. maverick actor gary oldman made his directorial debut with this film where he channels the experiences of his own childhood growing up in south east london. the film contains a powerful intensity that has haunted me ever since i have seen it. he directs with a piercing eye that takes us into the depths of depravity and deep into the soul of a family set to implode. armed with his cinematographer, ray fortunato, oldman commands the streets of london and the shabby neighborhoods that his characters inhabit. to watch is to witness, and it is a miracle that oldman was able to show so much with so little .
and while in 1984 it seemed truly barmy that bill murray was writing and starring in an adaptation of somerset maugham' s the razor' s edge, his reputation has grown so much since that it seems like an interesting curiosity rather than an act of stupidity. and there was widespread scepticism when gary oldman, at a time when he was hollywood' s evil mastermind of choice, kept insisting he was about to make an autobiographical film in south london. but the sneering stopped after nil by mouth. it helped, of course, that oldman stayed behind the camera and that he wanted to make a realist european film .
ml i have worked with kathy burke. she played the main character, nell, in it' s a great big shame! , which was my last stage production, done at the theatre royal, stratford east, in 1993. she is one of my favourite actresses, although it is of course a total coincidence that i was on the jury at cannes in 1997 when she was awarded best actress for her role in nil by mouth !
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in fact, before battlefield earth was released, a few over - anxious cult watchers had warned about either overt, or subliminal, propaganda for scientology being pushed by the film. as it is, the film has done scientology more damage than anything its opponents could ever have contrived .
knife: held by janet as she prepares herself in case raymond manages to get into her flat .
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the last time we heard about a film version of classic ‘70s action show the ...
these lives are bleak in part because of the place where they are lived. nil by mouth was filmed on the bonami estate in deptford, since demolished. oldman' s director of photography, ron fortunato, gives the exteriors an occasional perverse duty, filmed in morning mist with fluttering pigeons, without ever making the estate look fit for human habitation. a local kid, playing grimly in the recreational space provided, gives strangers a baleful look that is wholly understandable .
directed by gary oldman. starring ray winstone, kathy burke, laila morse and charlie creed - miles .
valerie' s mother says :
we are unlucky, aren' t we ?
then
do you still love him ?
. she doesn' t answer, but after a few weeks of numb defiance, she takes ray back. nil by mouth would be more impressive if it didn' t hurry over this crucial failure of nerve - valerie' s decision obliquely conveyed to us by her gran singing :
can' t help loving that man of mine
in the pub. even in this supremely dysfunctional family, after all, we have seen glimpses of agnus, a scottish in - law who seems undistorted by the addicted damage around him. but gary oldman' s film earns the great, if back - handed, compliment of being powerful enough to argue with .
twentieth century fox home ent. , fox pathe home entertainment, 20th century fox film co. ltd
ml tim was, i think, 21 or 22 when we made meantime. all my films are autobiographical in one way or another, though never really in the direct autobiographical sense that nil by mouth is for gary - it was a dramatisation of his family experiences. for me, all kinds of experience, of people and relationships and atmospheres and moods and conflicts and good moments and bad moments and places and all kinds of stuff find their way out of my subconscious and into my films .
with its sodden escapism heightened by eric clapton' s seductively bluesy score, and with actors who betray not a whit of vanity or self - consciousness throughout the story, the film watches raymond reach his breaking point. what he breaks, or tries to, is valerie: the domestic brutality seen here is sudden and shocking, and mr. oldman makes its horror deeply felt. yet the strange pragmatism within the depths of ms. burke' s extraordinary performance is what makes'' nil by mouth'' powerful: the sense that for all valerie' s stubborn, damaged pride, the pattern of these lives is too ingrained to change. ms. burke hauntingly conveys the contradictions that keep valerie and raymond together .
now, just because his father mistreated him doesn' t mean that he isn' t responsible for his own actions and the death of his own unborn child. but they do make us think. if his father had been there, would ray have been the man that he had become? would it all have come to this? of course, to many this is an unforgivable sin. and many may be repulsed by the ending where the entire family has reconciled and ray sits in a chair kissing his neglected daughter. but i don' t know. at least she isn' t getting nil by mouth ...
leonard maltin classic movie guide, copyright 2005, 2010. used by arrangement with penguin group (usa) inc .
if you' re as excited by working title' s adaptation of john le carré' s classic ...
gary oldman' s
nil by mouth
descends into a domestic hell of violence, drugs and booze, where a man can kick his pregnant wife and then, drunk, scrape out the words
my baby
on the wallpaper with his bloody fingernails. it takes place in the pubs and streets of south london, where the actor grew up, and is dedicated enigmatically ,
in memory of my father .
we want to stand back out of the way: something primal, needful and anguished is going on here .
handing me the first of several post - prandial teas in a mug decorated with the logo from carry on up the khyber, the 44 - year - old explains why she feels so positive about giving up acting .
i just didn' t get a buzz from acting any more, so eight years ago i made the decision to focus on directing ,
reveals burke, who during her illustrious performing career also won a british comedy award for gimme, gimme, gimme (2002), a british independent film award for nil by mouth (1998), and a royal television society award for mr wroe' s virgins (1994) .
film fest. in america, the reception has been less energetic. the film' s press kit describes it as
a realistic look at modern day england rarely depicted in motion pictures .
no small wonder, since
best foreign language film: l' appartement, lucie aubrac, ma vie en rose, and the tango lesson .
anthony asquith award for achievement in film music: the full monty, la confidential, titanic and romeo and juliet .
a devastating, unforgettable directorial debut from gary oldman, a film for which he also wrote the script. there' s something of an autobiographical basis for the film, although to quite what degree is best known by oldman. it' s the story of a drug - infested neighbourhood in south london, and one family living in the midst of it .
certainly not a happy or uplifting tale, this is a disturbing look at life most of us would rather not see, and many will probably feel the same way about this movie. perhaps making this film was cathartic for oldman - - cleansing the demons of his past - - but i doubt many moviegoers will want to watch or be part of the process. bleak and disturbing, and featuring some strong, but unlikeable performances, this is a decent directorial debut for oldman. let' s just hope next time he picks a more likeable and pleasant subject. we give
nil by mouth
a 4 out of 10 simply because its raw ugliness nearly makes it unbearable to watch .
, and then you make this intensely personal film. do you see any kind of a pattern in your role choices ?
for the first time in years there is a real sense of vibrancy and excitement around the british film industry .
rough, tough but with an underlying generosity toward its characters, gary oldman’s “nil by mouth” is an impressive writing - helming debut cloaked in a torrent of profanity and loutish, abusive behavior. this perf - driven portrait of a dysfunctional london working - class family, which often plays like hyped - up ken loach sans the politics, will need excellent reviews and canny marketing to find an audience, especially stateside, where the thick cockney accents present a major barrier to comprehension. some 15 minutes taken out of the running time would be a major assist to this powerful but uncompromising low - budgeter .
gary oldman clearly is dealing here with autobiographical wounds. i saw him after the film played at cannes, and he volunteered the information that a chair in the film is the same one his father sat in while drinking at home. he spoke in a flat voice, giving information, but i sensed that the chair was still occupied by the stabbing ghosts of days and words .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
when the movie premiered at last year' s cannes film festival, its unflinching brutality prompted several walkouts, notably during a scene in which the film' s drunken father (ray winstone) savagely beats his pregnant wife (kathy burke). but
gary oldman returned to his east london roots with this semi - autobiographical drama of domestic violence and alcoholism. kathy burke received the 1997 cannes best actress award. music by eric clapton. produced by oldman, luc besson (the fifth element), and douglas urbanski .
nil by mouth exposes in grainy super 16 the violent and squalid underbelly of working class life in south london. it begins with a close - up of raymond (winstone), ordering a round in a smoky club. all seems unremarkable until he delivers the drinks. then in a torrent of bad language that makes boyz n the hood and twin town sound like teletubbies, oldman has raymond confront those he has kept waiting - including mark (jamie forman) his partner in crime, his wife valerie (burke), her mother janet (morse) and valerie' s smackhead younger brother billy (creed - miles) - the extended dysfunctional family from hell. brutally, raymond reinforces his dominance, denigrates the women and establishes a template for the film .
'' nil by mouth'' begins in a carousing spirit, with raymond, valerie and friends at a neighborhood pub, and with the men and women so disconnected that they sit in separate parts of the room. raymond looks gleefully at home this way, sniggering with his cronies in a boys' - night - out spirit, while the women look grateful merely to be having a few laughs and getting out of the house. while valerie is enjoying this brief chance to shake off her chronic defeat, her younger brother, billy (charlie creed - miles), is developing the drug habit that constitutes another form of escape .
got a film that you feel is a forgotten classic? email me and tell me about it at nch257 @ nyu. edu .
the hollywood box - office hit. titanic, also picked up five nominations, including best film, best direction and visual effects .
, as victims of their environment. during a particularly poignant scene after ray has assaulted valerie, he makes a long confession to his mates. he explains how his own parents constantly fought. his father virtually lived at the pub and always smelled of drink. he was never there for him or his mother. we sense that all of his violent impulses are rooted in his father' s behavior. but then he says something that may, or may not, truly absolve him from blame. he explains how one time when his father was in the hospital they visited him to find a strange sign above his bed that read “nil by mouth”. the conversation continues :
, which marks the actor paddy considine' s debut as a director. (i review the film in tomorrow' s issue of the
this is the first year in which the bafta film awards are to be separated from the television awards, with different ceremonies for each .
the public will also get their chance to vote for their favourite film from the 10 most successful releases in britain over the past year .
as a classic. but they are complemented by incredible performances from a magnificent supporting cast. there' s charlie creed - miles as billy, a young drug addict who gets the money for his habit from his mother. there' s laila morse (oldman' s sister) as janet, who' s complacency is matched by an unspoken vengeance by the film' s end. and there are all the other people who surround themselves with the small family of ray and valerie. they form a microcosm of comfort and misery against the poisonous environment where they are forced to reside .
by shooting in a hand - held, documentary style, oldman gives the film even more of a disturbing twist. since it looks and feels like a documentary - - which we usually associate with being a slice of
reality
- - the film is very uncomfortable to watch. the camera work is often shaky, and vehicles and other objects often block our view of what' s happening. one gets the feeling that what we' re seeing is real, and the fact that the film is filled with brutally grim material doesn' t help that matter .
probably not. without any well - known performers in the cast and less than appealing sounding subject matter, most kids will skip this film .
, his directing and screenwriting debut, the celebrated thesp recreated a living hell he knew all too well—the downtrodden south london neighborhood where he grew up. based on a series of the director' s childhood memories, the film is the story of a family burdened by addiction, abuse, and poverty .
at one point, i just wanted to disappear off the screen for a while and then reappear as an older person, but i don' t even think that' s going to happen, now. i did two lines in a fake commercial sketch for horne and corden [ the poorly received sketch show that she directed ]. when i watched it back, i thought i was so dreadful, i cut myself from the final edit... acting just doesn' t give me any joy... i don' t have the same feeling in my belly... it just isn' t there any more... i had been waiting my whole career to do a film like [ nil by mouth ]. it was an amazing experience. i did a couple of films after that but they never had the same feel .
production: a sony classics (in u. s .) / 20th century fox (in u. k .) release of a luc besson presentation of an se8 group production. produced by luc besson, douglas urbanski, gary oldman. co - producer, hilary heath. directed, written by gary oldman .
bertolucci' s scheduled appearance was canceled because of an illness, but he spoke live via satellite and was obviously moved by the audience' s warm reception .
nor was she enticed by the blandishments of hollywood .
even when i was getting' billy big bollocks' film awards, i was never going to go to hollywood. i wanted to stay here and get back to basics. my sense of humour is very british. i feel rooted in london .
this is not a particularly explicit scene by contemporary standards (we don' t see blows landing). oldman delays the full impact until we see the extent of valerie' s injuries, the swollen bruising and closed eye. threatened by ray that worse will happen if she goes to hospital or blames him, she tells her mother she was knocked down by a car - a hideously credible explanation of her condition. only after she has lost her baby does she tell the truth .
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bafta' s vice - president, lord david puttnam, said :
the creation of a dedicated awards ceremony for film could not be more timely .
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premiered at cannes in 1997. burke was awarded the festival' s best actress prize by isabelle adjani' s jury for her portrayal of a similarly abused woman .
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we know from media coverage of your own problems with alcohol that the film' s chronicle of alcoholism and its effect on the family is personally relevant to you .
. marek gajczak from lodz won the silver tadpole award for a way for moravia. manuel mack from deutsche film and fernsehen akademie berlin won the bronze tadpole award for
if baseketball is one underappreciated 90s comedy featuring the south park duo of trey parker and matt stone, then orgazmo is the other that urgently needs seeking out. particularly given that we' re in such superhero - infested cinematic waters, orgazmo - the hero of the film within the film here - is a welcome and relevant diversion .
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. is it possible that he was inspired also by the dynamic at play in that film between the audience' s expectations of colman, and the demands of the role? using a predominantly comic performer in a part that requires the audience' s sympathy can only benefit the movie. see also allison janney playing chris cooper' s downtrodden wife in
kevin reynolds came to this one after the well - charted joys of making waterworld, opting for a low - budget, raw film. he cast samuel l jackson in the lead role as a teacher fighting an almost - unwinnable battle in his classroom, and whilst it' s a bit choppy, it' s a compelling film .
perhaps most prominent amongst the one film wonders, and following on from oldman, are actors who decided to turn their hand to directing after years of being on - set and accumulating experience. peter lorre’s der verlorene (the lost one, 1951) offers a very personal comment on the circumstances in germany that forced lorre into exile in 1933. told in flashback, the film concerns a research doctor, played by lorre, who is forced into political complicity with the nazis by their shrewd, cold - blooded exploitation of his emotional and psychological weaknesses. a product of the depressed german film industry of the post - war years, der verlorene is a morally ambiguous work that stylistically reaches back to the german expressionism of the late 1920s and early 30s. a passion project for lorre, who returned to his homeland 18 years after leaving it and becoming an international star, the film was released at a time when the german nation was loathe to be reminded of its crimes. a commercial disaster, lorre returned to a lucrative acting career in america .
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on the afternoon of friday march 10, mike leigh went online from his soho production office to answer questions from film unlimited users. the hour - long chat was by turns cordial and fiery and covered everything from the london mayoral race to the bbc' s failings to his latest, oscar - nominated movie, topsy turvy. here is the edited transcript .
, at the end of the film. and your older sister, who' s never acted before, plays kathy burke' s mother under the pseudonym laila morse. obviously
evading the propriety of linking aesthicism with a film on the holocaust, it is undeniable that this is a work of art. the foulness has been best conveyed ...
dorothy lamour did for the sarong what jane russell did for the cross - your heart bra. since her first film, the jungle princess, she became inextricably ...
.) what' s interesting about burke' s acclaim from a british perspective is how it was tinged with surprise. despite making her film debut in mai zetterling' s
anthony hopkins and alec baldwin star here, and whilst the drama is better than the action, the edge is an occasionally brilliant film, and most certainly worth digging out .
gary' s oldman' s first film as writer and director is a fierce and fatalistic family drama set on a housing estate in south - east london. if the script was written by an outsider, it would seem like a class libel, but since oldman can claim this milieu as his own, it' s at least a libel with some authority .
ml has peter missed the point? i should say so. if he spent the film waiting for it to start and wondering if it was too long, then so far as i' m concerned it wouldn' t have mattered if it was seven minutes or seven hours long, it' s just not his type of film. his loss .
* this is an entry for the great recasting blogathon hosted by frankly, my dear and in the mood. thanks so much for the opportunity to write such a fun post ...
mrs brown, was nominated eight times, including best actress category for dame judi dench, who has been nominated for an oscar for her portrayal of queen victoria in the film .
godfathered by french director luc besson, with whom oldman made both “the professional” and “the fifth element, ” pic is clearly a deeply personal film for the 39 - year - old thesp, who’s drawn on many of his memories of life in the dreary projects of southeast london. (production company’s name replicates the postal code of an area in which oldman grew up. )
that' s pretty much the way you' ll watch this film too. beyond the atrocities that occur, the film is also difficult to watch due to the thick accents and the often muddled delivery of dialogue. like many other films that showcase actors speaking english with thick, localized accents, it takes a while to get accustomed to what the characters are saying. that only adds yet another frustrating level to the film, and the fact that many of the verbal exchanges come in the form of yelling and screaming matches doesn' t help either .
the film didn' t do hugely well in cinemas, but did spawn two direct - to - video sequels. reviews were mixed at the time, but mimic' s much better than its more critical assessments would have you believe. a recent director' s cut pushes the film closer towards del toro' s original intentions, and it' s well worth seeing .
one of the film' s key scenes comes after val returns home and is seen, black, blue and bandaged, by her mother. she tells janet she was struck by a hitand - run driver. janet clearly knows ray beat her daughter, but accepts the story. the dialogue here is precise in its observation; val' s details all have to do with the location (
you know, down by the shops
), as if the story is proved by the fact that the shops exist. her mother vows revenge on the bastard driver who committed the hit and run; both women understand this is code for ray. (
you know what it' s like going to hospitals late at night ,
janet says at one point. in most healthy families, this is not something everyone knows .) the film' s portrait of street life in south london is unflinching and observant. billy, drifting, looking for a fix, gets involved in a strange fight over a tattooed street person and his little pet dog. he goes to his mother' s factory to borrow money for a fix, and then asks her to drive him to a dealer .
its fate was almost mirrored by the brave, johnny depp' s directorial debut about an illiterate man who sells himself to a producer of snuff movies. depp talked his friend marlon brando into co - starring, and iggy pop into writing the soundtrack. the film was shown at the 1997 cannes festival, to an astonishingly hostile reception. it was never released in the uk or the us .
ryan gilbey is the new statesman' s film critic. he is also the author of it don' t worry me (faber), about 1970s us cinema, and a study of groundhog day in the
modern classics
series (bfi publishing). he was named reviewer of the year in the 2007 press gazette awards and is film critic in residence at falmouth university .
recently cited as an inspiration by isabelle huppert, barbara loden’s wanda has undergone a process of rediscovery. written by and starring loden, who gives an utterly convincing performance as the meandering, emotionally confused and half - destitute wanda of the title, the film follows her as she drifts through drab semi - industrial american townships and from one dead end relationship to the next. shot cheaply on location on 16mm and then subsequently blown up to 35mm, wanda is unassuming, understated and at times unapologetically rough and ready. drawing on influences as diverse as italian neo - realism, shirley clarke and the cinema vérité of cassavetes, the film portrays america as sad and shabby. described as semi - autobiographical, loden, the wife of elia kazan, succumbed to cancer in 1980 and never completed another movie .
the center of authority in the film is janet (laila morse), the worn blond mother whose factory job is one of the family' s few steady sources of income. her own aged, feisty mother, kath (edna dore), is still around. janet' s daughter is valerie (kathy burke, who won the best actress award at the cannes film festival) .
james spader plays ballard, whose automobile accident draws him into a group of people who are aroused by the near - death experience of being in a car wreck. cronenberg’s style of direction is too scientific and erudite to be crudely titillating, which might be why some critics were horrified by it: crash refuses to either glamorise or coyly airbrush its protagonists’ kinky leanings, and the result is a gripping, disturbing drama .
what i used, i used with respect and discretion. i disguised it enough, i think. i smoothed the edges. they' ve seen the film and they' re very happy and very moved by its honesty. that' s what i set out to do, to make something from my heart. in that way i hope i' ve not disgraced them but served them with dignity .
but let' s say travolta wasn' t just obsessed by the book because he is a scientologist. it might just be his favourite novel. that' s even sadder. film stars' long - nurtured pet projects usually have an element of tragic over - ambition to them, a yearning to do something that' s either more personal or breaks them out of the restrictions of their star persona .
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it' s been 50 years since the release of this film, and its stars - * warren beatty * and * faye dunaway * - have been receiving some attention lately for thei ...
in 2015, laila morse is better known for her long - serving role in eastenders as mo slater. her first acting role, at 52, is in the maternal role of janet, in nil by mouth. she’s the glue the binds the group together. she reluctantly funds her son’s habit and can go toe - to - toe with ray when he’s bordering on abusive in the household. her tired frustration reveals so much. she can’t lock ray up or force billy to go clean – and sadly, it seems, she can’t pull val away from her explosive husband. but she shows love and support. she is there for them when others aren’t. she’ll put billy up when ray refuses to. she pops over for a cup of tea to see val – and she’s her lifeline to force change on the status quo. janet looks after the aging grandmother too, who represents the same character, thirty years later by singing ‘can’t help loving that man’ in the local club. janet silently sings the song herself as she has heard it so many times before. despite ray and billy’s corrupted, selfish perspectives, janet has clearly seen their kind before too. this is nothing new .
and say ,
oh yeah, i disappeared for awhile because of nervous exhaustion .
in a way i was challenged; i was forced to say ,
i have this illness and i suffer from this .
i don' t know many people who in some ways, their lives aren' t affected by
the ism
—by alcohol and drug - taking and all those other things we put under the umbrella .
oldman' s incredible directing is matched, if not surpassed, by the performances that this film contains. how do i describe the acting? well, it would help to look back on some of the best performances that i have ever seen. but not just the best, the most terrifying. the performances that stay with you long after you have left the movie theater. let' s see. there' s gena rowlands in
imagine a movie where every character is played by gary oldman, in the drunken overacting oldman mode. oldman' s unfocused and self - indulgent directorial debut has moments of poignancy and insight, but not enough to make it endurable .
oldman' s own father was an abusive alcoholic who left his family for another woman when gary was seven; by the time oldman reached international acclaim as an actor, he' d developed a serious drinking problem of his own .
. honorary golden frog awards were presented to prof. jerzy mierzejewski, dean of the cinematography department at the state film school in lodz, and bobby arnold, president of arriflex corporation, for his immense contribution to the development of film technique. in addition, a gold medal was awarded to friend for his contributions to the success of the festival, and special prizes were presented to vittorio storaro and director bernardo bertolucci for their longtime collaboration .
hiskander mike, i am an actor and a huge fan of your films. thank - you for such a fantastic contribution to the film industry. what can i do to work with you? let' s meet !
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the word
fuck
and its variations are used 428 times, an average of 3. 34 times per minute, a higher rate than any other film to date (march 2008), with the exception of the documentary
you were visibly moved at cannes last year while discussing this intensely personal story from your own childhood. has it gotten easier as you' ve taken this
child
around the world, including the recent sundance film festival ?
ray (ray winstone) dips into the drugs he sells, and is amply distorted by them, though he' s in a less obviously desperate state than his kid brother - in - law billy (charlie creed - miles), addicted to heroin. the only time that billy looks anything other than gormless is when he is cooking and administering a fix - he' s almost ennobled by concentration on the task. even in a police cell he manages to feed his habit .
it' s from director lee tamahori (best film: once were warriors, most infamous: die another day), and it' s based on a screenplay by david mamet, which should instantly be a clue that there' s quite a lot to this. the centre of the movie is a plane crash that leaves three people stranded in the wilderness. but there' s a three way relationship of sorts, and not a comfortable one, that' s already been established by the time the plane goes down. and so whilst on one hand, there' s a big bloody bear, and the perils it brings with it, on the other there' s the simmering dislike between the key characters.
nil by mouth is a 1997 british-french drama film portraying a family of characters living in south east london . it was gary oldman 's debut as a writer and director ; the film was produced by douglas urbanski and luc besson . it stars ray winstone as raymond , the abusive husband of valerie ( kathy burke ) . the film was a critical success , winning numerous awards . time out considered nil by mouth to be the 21st best british film . 
nil by mouth is a 1997 british-french drama film portraying a family of characters living in south east london. it was gary oldman's debut as a writer and director; the film was produced by douglas urbanski and luc besson. it stars ray winstone as raymond, the abusive husband of valerie (kathy burke). the film was a critical success, winning numerous awards. time out considered nil by mouth to be the 21st best british film.
nil by mouth is a 1997 british-french drama film portraying a family of characters living in south east london. it was gary oldman's debut as a writer and director; the film was produced by douglas urbanski and luc besson. it stars ray winstone as raymond, the abusive husband of valerie (kathy burke). the film was a critical success, winning numerous awards. time out considered nil by mouth to be the 21st best british film.