The Lost King (5 Stars)

In Germany there's a Mediathek for the first German television channel. Literally translated, the word means media library. In actual fact it's more of a temporary catch-up for television broadcasts. After a film or a talk show is shown on television, it's put online in the Mediathek for a few weeks. It's similar to the BBC's Iplayer, but not as flexible. In the recent past I've only watched political talk shows, mostly about the recent German elections, but today I noticed that "The Lost King" is available. This was one of my favourite films of 2023, so I jumped at the chance to watch it again.

The default setting is that the film is shown dubbed into German. That's obvious, because the Mediathek is intended for viewing in Germany. Then I checked the settings, and I discovered that it could also be watched in the original English version.

Now this is where it got weird. The default version is with German dialogue, with optional German subtitles. The version with English dialogue has an option to turn the subtitles on and off, but it doesn't work as expected. If the subtitles are turned off, German subtitles are still shown. If the subtitles are turned on, the subtitles are shown in duplicate: in white at the bottom of the screen and in yellow at the top of the screen; the identical text in German. What monkeys did they hire to program the Mediathek?

I enjoyed the film regardless. It's the true story of a woman who was so obsessed with Richard III that she saw visions of him. And yet she found his grave, a feat that notable British scholars had failed to do for hundreds of years. In addition, she cleared Richard III's reputation by proving that Shakespeare's depiction of him is incorrect.

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Wonka (4 Stars)

Yet another film about Willy Wonka? I can vaguely remember seeing Gene Wilder in the 1971 film, but I never bothered watching the 2005 film with Johnny Depp. I wouldn't have gone to the film today if my grandson Oliver hadn't insisted on seeing it.

In the new film Timothee Chamolet plays Willy Wonka, a young man who dreams of opening a chocolate shop. He can perform acts of magic to help himself reach his goals, but the magic either works or doesn't work, depending on the plot necessities. When he arrives in the unnamed small town he doesn't have any money, so he intends to sleep on a bench. He's approached by the co-owner of a laundromat who offers him a room for only one sovereign that he can pay later. At the laundromat he signs a contract, even though he can't read. The terms of the contract effectively enslave him for 10,000 days, more than 27 years.

With the help of a fellow slave, a girl called Noodle, he manages to get in and out of the building during the day, preparing to open his chocolate shop. But there's a cartel which has a monopoly on chocolate sales in the town, and they're prepared to kill him to prevent the competition.

Today was my first opportunity to try out my cinema's new D-Box seats, which were introduced two months ago. They're a cheaper version of the 4DX seats that I used when I saw "Avengers Endgame" in Birmingham. They're comfortable recliners with vibrations and slight swaying motions. There's no wind, water or scent. As a budget version of the 4DX chairs they're not particularly enjoyable. The vibrations were annoying on every setting from light to extreme.

The chairs have also been installed poorly. They've been put in two rows at the back of the cinema, rows 20 and 21. The screen looks small in the distance. It would have been better to place them in the middle of the cinema, maybe as the tenth row. The main advantage of putting them at the back is that it'll be easier to remove them if they prove to be unpopular.

According to my cinema's website, there's a seven Euro surcharge for the D-Box seats. On the surface that seems to be true. The standard price today was 10.50 Euros, and the price for D-Box seats was 17.50 Euros. But there are hidden charges that can be found in the small print. There are no rebates allowed on the price of D-Box seats. As the owner of a Cineplus card I receive a one Euro rebate on seats, so I would have paid 9.50 Euros for a normal seat, but I had to pay 17.50 Euros for a D-Box seat; an eight Euro surcharge. For children it's even worse. For children under 11 the normal seats cost 6.90 Euros, but there's no children's price for the D-Box seats; they still cost 17.50 Euros. That's a whopping 10.60 Euro surcharge, 153% extra for something that nobody wants.

The D-Box seats are a failure. Poor quality, overpriced and badly placed. The seats were hardly used today, only one person apart from Oliver and myself. We shan't use them again. In the post-Corona days of smaller cinema audiences it was a foolish investment that won't recoup its costs.

The Lost King (5 Stars)

This is a true story based on recent events. They've been telescoped in the film. The events seem to take place within the space of a few weeks, but it was actually 15 years, from 1998 to 2013.

Philippa Langley is a divorced woman who lives in Edinburgh with her two sons. She still has a good relationship with her ex-husband, who visits her every day to help with the children. She suffers from a health condition called ME, myalgic encephalomyelitis, which leads to chronic fatigue. Having never heard of this illness I read about it online, and there seems to be disagreement about whether it's an illness in its own right or the symptoms of other illnesses. Whichever is the case, it has an effect on Philippa's life which she has to deal with on a daily basis.

After seeing a production of Shakespeare's play "King Richard III", Philippa becomes fascinated with Richard. He's described as an ugly, deformed man who killed his nephews in order to become king. Philippa doubts this description is accurate. She thinks Shakespeare wrote the play basing his information on the propaganda of the Tudor kings who replaced him. She begins to do research into his life. In particular, she tries to find his grave. His body disappeared after he was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.

During her research she faces resistance from scholars and historians who think they know better than her. Another problem, if it can be called a problem, is that she has frequent visions of Richard III himself. He talks to her and encourages her to continue with her research. Is it possible that these visions were the result of her chronic fatigue? The film doesn't answer this question.

"The Lost King" is one of the best films of 2023. Sally Hawkins' performance as Philippa Langley is outstanding. I've long been a fan of the director Stephen Frears, especially his adaptations of true stories. "The Lost King" is a welcome change to the modern blockbuster movies which use big action scenes to distract from weak plots.

The Shape of Water (5 Stars)

I'm always doing my best to advertise my blog, with mixed success. I have a visiting card with my blog's logo and URL that I hand out to people. I don't give it at random to complete strangers. That would be rude, little more than spam. I give it to people that I talk to. For instance, yesterday I visited the doctor and I was talking to an elderly man in the waiting room, so I handed him my card. I'm not sure how old he was, maybe 80, and he didn't understand the concept of blogging. He asked me if I write film reviews professionally for a newspaper or magazine. That's a question I'm often asked, even by younger people. People who like my reviews say they're good enough to be published, and I could earn money for them. I have to disagree.

If I were on the staff of a newspaper, I'd be sent to the cinema every day to watch the newest releases. I'd have to be objective in what I write. Even if I don't like a film, I'd have to restrain myself from writing things that would prevent people visiting the cinema. That's not my intention. I strongly support cinemas, but if I think a film is trash I'll say so. You can search for my one star reviews in my alphabetical list of posts.

You may have noticed that my ratings tend to be at the upper end of the one to five scale. Three is average, but I don't rate many films with one or two stars. That's no coincidence. I don't watch just anything, which I'd have to do as a professional reporter. I only watch films that I think I'll like. Sometimes I'm wrong, and there will be a low rating, but most of the films I watch are rated four or five stars.

My reviews are also erratic. I can write ten paragraphs without saying anything about a film. What I often say is that my blog isn't about films in themselves, it's about the effect films have on me. If you read my blog regularly, as many people do, you'll get to know me. For instance, the title picture of this post is a screenshot of Octavia Spencer, who's not the main actress. In the importance of the characters in the film, she's probably fifth. I've put her photo in this post because I like her. It's as simple as that. She's one of my favourite actresses, so I'll emphasise her, however small her role is. Don't expect me to be objective.

Here she is with Sally Hawkins, the film's leading actress.

One other thing about me is that I need to enjoy films. If I've spent a whole week watching films with a three star or lower rating, I feel like my head's unclean. I need to watch one or two five star films to get myself back to normal. I might pick a film at random from my top 100 film list. I actually have a top 200 list, but I haven't published it because I don't put the bottom 100 films in order, I just keep them in alphabetical order, ready to watch whenever I want to clear my head of bad films.

"The Shape of Water" is one of those films. It's in the bottom half of my top film list. That still makes it a brilliant film. I greatly enjoyed watching it today.

And if you want to know more about the film itself, all I'll say is that it won the Best Film Oscar at the 2018 Academy Awards, so it's not just me who likes it.

Success Rate:  + 7.8

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The Shape of Water (5 Stars)

I don't think that my favourite film has ever won the Best Film award at the Oscars. I just looked at the list of past winners, and maybe "Slumdog Millionaire" is an exception. I'm not sure without checking what other films were released that year.

Most years I'm really annoyed when the Best Film award is announced. I feel like throwing a shoe at my television set. "How could a film like that have won? What were the judges thinking?" I could name many, many examples, but I'll just pick out "Argo". It's not a bad film, it's quite a good film, but it was nowhere near best film of the year. Other nominations were "Django Unchained" and "The Life of Pi", both of which would have been worthy winners.

The last two years were different. "The Shape of Water" and "Green Book" might not have been my favourite films of the year, but they're both very good films which deserved to win. They might not be as good as "Tragedy Girls" and "Deadpool 2", but they're both excellent films. (Which reminds me... when will Brianna Hildebrand get her first Oscar?)

"The Shape of Water" is like "Beauty and the Beast", except there's no Beauty. Elisa is a plain looking woman, not beautiful, not ugly, just average. She's the sort of woman that you wouldn't give a second look if she passed you in the street. Her real beauty is inside. She's a loving, caring person. She has problems in her own life, such as being mute, but she still puts others first. Isn't that better than being a beauty queen?

It's said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. When the Beast looks at Elisa he sees the Beauty. She's perfect in his eyes.

Most of the film takes place at night. It's a dark film, both visually and atmospherically. The film takes place at night out of necessity. Elisa is a cleaning lady who goes to work with her mop and bucket when everyone else goes home to bed.

The film is a fairy tale. It's a beautiful fairy tale with a happy ending. There are problems in the film, there are even tragedies, but the viewer knows from the beginning that they'll live happily ever after.

Success Rate:  + 7.8

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The Shape of Water (5 Stars)

This is my favourite film of 2018 (so far), and it's also the first film that I've been to see in the cinema twice. That's something I do very rarely. In this case it's worth it. I picked up details that I missed the first time round. After the first viewing I assumed the film takes place in the late 1950's. This time I could pinpoint the year as 1963, based on a conversation saying that it was 13 years since the Battle of Pusan (1950). I also saw the gills in the final scene that I'd missed in my first viewing. That's something I really should have noticed. My excuse is that it was the fourth film I saw on January 21st, so I may have been tired and less attentive.

This is a love story. I always like love stories. It's a science fiction story, and I like most science fiction films. It's also a fairy tale. I don't often like fairy tales, but "The Shape of Water" is perfect. It was a good choice to win the Academy Award for Best Film of 2017. It might not have been my first choice, but it was a good choice.

It's April 1st today. Maybe I should be making joke posts today? Maybe I should be reviewing non-existent films or highly praising films that are rubbish. No, I don't think that's my style. But never say never.

The Shape of Water (5 Stars)

This is the ninth film in the Stuttgart White Nights Festival.

My regular readers must have noticed that my reviews were shorter than usual the last two days. My regular readers who are also attentive already know the reason why. When I visit a film festival I watch a lot of films, sometimes as many as five in a day. I want to write about them all while they're fresh in my head, but I don't have much time to write because of a little thing that I do every day called sleep. For that reason I give myself a ten minute limit to write about festival films.

"The Shape of Water" is the last film I've seen at the White Nights Festival, and I consider it the best film, so I can stay up late writing about it. I don't have to get up early to watch any films tomorrow. It's a film that deserves a bit of extra effort.

Reviewers have written that this is Guillermo Del Toro's best film since "Pan's Labyrinth". I disagree. I consider this to be his best film ever, leaving "Pan's Labyrinth" far behind. The film isn't original, but when was originality ever necessary to make a good film? It copies the story of "Splash", but with reversed genders.

A secret government laboratory in Baltimore in the early 1960's is doing research to assist the space race. An underwater creature is delivered from South America which is thought to hold the secret of surviving in space. The creature is tortured by the laboratory's sadistic boss, Colonel Strickland, who plans to ultimately dissect the creature for his research.

A mute cleaning woman called Elisa sees the creature and has sympathy with it. The creature reacts to her kindness, and the sympathy turns into love. Elisa realises that the only way to save the creature's life is to smuggle it out of the laboratory.

The film can be praised from so many different angles. As a fairy tale for adults it delivers everything that's expected, including a happy ending. (That's not a spoiler, because everyone knows that films like this have a happy ending). The cinematography highlights the bland imagery associated with the 1950's and 1960's. Sally Hawkins, an actress I've never paid attention to before now, puts on a brilliant performance as Elisa. Octavia Spencer also acts brilliantly as Elisa's colleague Zelda, but we expect no less from her in all her roles.

This is the most nominated film for this year's Bafta awards, in 12 categories. It's one of the favourites to win the Oscar for best film, although it has some tough competition this year.