Precious is a new-style weepie but one that is much more bracing than depressing
Precious
Theatre
Ian McKellen is captivating throughout. He delights in the play’s gallows humour, yet is also maudlin and poignant
Waiting for Godot
Theatre
Slight quibbles notwithstanding, this will set the West End’s stock riding high
Enron
Utterly, utterly brilliant. You really are in for a treat
Though 'Trilogy' has won rave reviews, I personally found myself exasperated after about an hour
We went on a quiet sunday evening and the food was excellent, but the experience let down by the service and ambiance
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Rithy Panh.
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Vanthon Duong, Stephane Rideau, Gaspard Ulliel, Randal Douv
Description: A feisty matriarch is conned into investing her money in farmland located perilously close to the ocean, which floods regularly and is unable to support crops. With the help of her two children, Joseph and Suzanne the mother defies local bureaucrats to build a dam to keep out the sea and protect the community from the ravages of the tides. However, she meets lots of resistance at a time when ladies were expected to stay quiet and accept their lot in life.
Country: FR/CAMB/BELG. 2008. 116mins
Astrid Berges-Frisbey in The Sea Wall
Cambodian director Rithy Panh, who escaped the Khmer Rouge when young, was the right director to adapt Marguerite Duras’s first novel, culled from her own experiences as a young woman in the French Indo-China of the Thirties.
Isabelle Huppert plays the writer’s mother, who faces bankruptcy when the sea wall protecting her rice crop collapses.
Astrid Berges-Frisbey is the 16-year-old daughter (clearly Duras) who is courted by an older and richer Vietnamese man.
Mother covets his money but doesn’t want her daughter marrying a Vietnamese.
Panh and his cast traverse the story with sensitivity but the film lacks Duras’s way with words and images.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Morning:
3°c
