In a Better Cinema

To my home town for a change. Always a nice place to be on a sunny Sunday when the residents have a smile on their face and time for the finer things.

A pleasant rail journey took me past Little Egrets in the ooze on the Ouse and the folorn last chunk of my old school, in the final stages of demolition, and now surrounded by modern buildings including the new home of the "Seagulls", the Amex Stadium.

The reason for the visit was a member's preview of a film at one of the best, and oldest, cinemas in the country: The wonderful Duke of York's. 

I can recall less happy times for the 100 year old when it was a very shabby "second run" cinema in a town with a number of far more imposing film theatres. It was known then, with good reason, as a "flea pit", while the glorious Regent (since demolished) and the, now derelict, Astoria with its bar, stereo sound and penchant for "Now for a season in 70mm" epics, gave the discerning Brightonian cinema-goer much more attracive alternatives. While those, together with the Academy, ABC, Curzon, Classic, Brighton Film Theatre, Gaiety, Continental, the old Odeon and many others, have fallen by the wayside, the dear old Duke's has soldiered on and after a period as a cinema club (membership well worth its £1 annual sub) it is these days part of the Picturehouse group, and a very enjoyable place to spend a couple of hours.

It has lots of leg room, a bar, balcony, etc and an interesting programme. More populist and less "art-house" than in its club days and even catering for the current 3d fad, it is still likely to show some less mainstream films such as yesterday's Danish drama, Haevnen or In a Better World

 The film was very Scandinavian which is to say, perhaps with an unkind degree of stereotyping, that it isn't a bundle of laughs. It is on the other hand, gripping and well acted.

This feels much more familiar in a period when Scandinavian books, films and television series are riding a wave of popularity. I have enjoyed the "Dragon Tattoo" films, from the Stieg Larsson books, and more recently caught up with the first two series of Henning Mankell's "Wallander" and  Danish hit series "The Killing"

The story of In a Better World concerns two rather battered and disfunctional families. It largely takes place in Denmark though some of the characters are Swedish and newly arrived from England and one of the two fathers divides his time between Denmark and an un-named but dangerous African country where he is a doctor and surgeon in a bush hospital with few facilities and some very unpleasant patients.

Both families are fractured, one by the recent death of the wife/mother and the other because a past affair had resulted in separation and impending divorce. The young sons of the two families end up as friends in adversity, both misfits, one very badly bullied, they meet at school and become constant companions as their impotent rage at their circumstances finds increasingly desperate expression.

There are a number of themes and explorations, thoughtfully and sensitively approached and both the fathers and sons give excellent performances. A recurring and underlying theme in the film is use, or misuse, of power up to and including the power of life and death.

Both the adults and the children have to decide how to react to "bullying" from those who have assumed power over them. This is not a new theme, Shane is one version of its exploration for example, but this film does add some very contemporary references.  Is the use of violence to oppose brutality justified? The film does not entirely answer this in a comfortable or predictable way as death and violence demonstrate some positive results. We are, however, also allowed to take away from this some powerful ideas of what might have been the results of this strategy.

There are some things in the film that, on reflection work less well and probably a lot more that would benefit from a careful second viewing. For me, possibly the biggest problem was the disconnect between the African scenes and the Danish. I fully appreciate the point of the scenes in illustrating another aspect of the main theme, as well as illuminating the character of the doctor, but they were less involving because they appeared more...well...fictional...as plot and character appeared drawn with broader strokes.

I have no major criticisms overall as I was engrossed and continued to ponder the messages long after I'd begun the journey home. I and my ever-increasing dislike of heights do wish that not every film would have scenes filmed from the top of ridiculously high buildings though. Stop it. It's not big (well it is I suppose...) and it's not clever. If I wanted to make myself feel ill I'd watch Man on Wire again.