Winterbottom spices up British Film Festival

Winterbottom spices up British Film Festival

Darul Aqsha, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Two films by acclaimed British director Michael Winterbottom
-- Wonderland and The Claim -- highlight the British Film
Festival, which runs here until April 21 before moving to Bandung
and Surabaya.

The 41-year-old Michael Winterbottom made his feature film
debut with the Butterfly Kiss (1995), a road movie centered on
lesbian lovers on a fatal trip through Britain. The movie, a
British-styled Thelma & Louise (1991), is enlivened with music by
The Cranberries, Bjork and PJ Harvey.

But his name only entered the global movie industry with his
semi-documentary film Welcome to Sarajevo (1997), based on the
true story of British correspondent Michael Nicholson, who wrote
the book Natasha's Story about his experiences in war-torn
Sarajevo in 1992.

In the film, Nicholson becomes Henderson, who gets involved in
helping a refugee girl named Emira escape Sarajevo to London. The
movie received a warm response at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival,
though it did not receive any awards.

For the British Film Festival, two of the director's dramas
were selected. Wonderland looks at the life of a lower-middle
class family. The family comprises the parents, their four
children, grandchildren and two sons-in-law.

The parents, Eileen (Kika Markham) and Bill (Jack Shepherd),
are extremely bitter. Eileen is frustrated with her retired
husband, who is getting tired of her gloominess and desperation.

One of the couple's three daughters, Nadia (Gina McKee), a
waitress in a cafe, looks for love by placing personal ads.

Her sister Debbie (Shirley Henderson) is a single mother who
sometimes brings men back to the beauty parlor she runs to have
sex. The third sister, Molly (Molly Parker), is expecting her
first child and her husband Eddie (John Simm) has been fired from
his job as a furniture salesman.

Their son, Darren (Enzo Cilenti), cannot stand living at
home, so he runs away and never makes contact with his parents
again.

Though Wonderland focuses on the lives of ordinary people, the
movie's quality cast, strong screenplay, minimum use of music and
fast-moving camera make it no ordinary film.

The movie, with its examination of the lives of Eileen and
Bill, their neighbors and Londoners in general, may remind
moviegoers of the work of Iranian directors Jafar Panahi and
Abbas Kiarostami.

The second Winterbottom film at the festival, The Claim, has a
wonderful story, popular actors and music by Michael Nyman (The
Piano). But all of these factors cannot save the movie, which as
a whole is flat and not at all touching.

The movie is adapted from British author Thomas Hardy's novel,
The Mayor of Casterbridge, transferred to an Old West setting.

The film centers on Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan), a prospector
who sells his wife and daughter to another gold miner for his
claim to a gold mine. Two decades later, Dillon has turned the
gold mine into a town called Kingdom Come, where he lives with a
young mistress, Lucia (Milla Jovovich).

The sudden arrival of his dying wife, Elena (Natasha Kinski),
and daughter Hope (Sarah Polley), along with Dalglish (Wes
Bentley), a wandering railroad surveyor, changes everything.

Haunted by his past, Dillon leaves Lucia and remarries Elena,
promising to bequeath the town to Hope. At the same time,
Dalglish becomes a menace to Dillon with his plan to build a
railroad line crossing through the town.

The Claim fails to reflect Winterbottom's kinetic skills as a
filmmaker. It's not as intense as many of his previous films,
such as Butterfly Kiss, Jude (1996, also adapted from a Thomas
Hardy novel), Welcome To Sarajevo and Wonderland.

However, moviegoers, especially Winterbottom fans, can look
forward to the release of the director's two latest films, 24-
Hour Party People and The Silk Road, this year. Will they be as
successful as his earlier films? Just wait and see.

Screening time

Wonderland:

* Pusat Perfilman H. Usmar Ismail, Jl. HR Rasuna Said, Kuningan,
South Jakarta: 5:30 p.m. on April 17; 2:30 on April 19; and 3
p.m. on April 21.

* Pondok Indah shopping mall Studio 21, Jl. Metro Pondok Indah,
Pondok Indah, South Jakarta: 6:15 on April 20.

* Drive-In Cinema Plaza Senayan: 9:30 p.m. on April 22 and April
23; 6 p.m. April 24.

The Claim:

* Pusat Perfilman H. Usmar Ismail, Jl. HR Rasuna Said, Kuningan,
South Jakarta: 10 p.m. April 20

* Pondok Indah shopping mall Studio 21 on Jl. Metro Pondok Indah,
Pondok Indah, South Jakarta: 8:30 p.m. April 19.

For tickets and further information: Tel. 2524115;
www.britishcouncil.or.id; www.mweb.co.id/britishfilm-festival