Disclaimer.

Successful yuppie couple (Wife has a secret). Long ago Italian seaside holiday.

(Husband has to leave early). Wife and young son frolic in the sand. Young stud who’s girlfriend has just left spies young mum and son. (Mostly mum) Mum notices stud taking pictures. Hot sex.

(Two versions) Version one. Lots of fun frolicking + naughty bits). 

Version two Not so much. Not fun. Nasty.  Mum falls asleep on the beach. Young son gets swept out to sea in rubber dingy. Wakes freaks out. Young stud swims out to sea and saves boy but drowns on the way back. Mum ignores drama of drowned stud. Parents of stud grieve. Wife goes off the rails dies of cancer. Bereft husband discovers secret fictional manuscript wife has written of incident. Self publishes book indicting yuppie wife. Goes on revenge rampage determined to kill now grown son of yuppie wife. Not going to tell the ending in episode 7. Director Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men; Gravity: Y tu mama tambien) has untangled this complex and sometimes confusing narrative into a 7 part TV miniseries. Starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville, Sacha Baron Cohen Leila George.   359 stars

Tuesday.

A young woman with a terminal disease is about to die

One day death in the form of a shape shifting parrot comes into her room.

So begins the intriguing tale by first time director Daina O. Pusić about death and humanities inability to comprehend and understand this universal phenomenon. Deaths appearance does not particularly upset or perturb Tuesday affectingly played byLola Petticrew. Her only request is that death delay its mission until Zora, her mother played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus returns from work. 

Her mothers reaction on seeing death and realizing what its presence means for her daughter beginning a mission to try and forestall its inevitable actions. Trying to kill the bird by various means she ends up swallowing the charred remains of the creature. By doing so forestalling its duties reports begin to come in of people and animals not dying from their injuries and roaming the countryside in zombie like states. Swallowing the bird has its own disastrous effects on Zora until her daughter makes her realize her mistake intruding to put off the inevitable.  In doing so she regurgitates the bird allowing it to complete its duties. After her daughters death she becomes demoralized. The bird on a revisit to ‘see how she is doing’ , she asks the bird to continue its mission with her, hoping for an afterlife where she can reunite with her daughter. The bird refuses, saying that the afterlife is a legacy in other peoples memories. How Zora lives her remaining days is her daughters afterlife. On pondering this is is reminded of a conversation she had with her daughter in her final day promising she would continue on trying to live her best life  in her memory. This is a strange and affecting film that with great humanity tackles a subject that is rarely visited with such style.  499.5 stars

 

 

 

  My Brilliant Friend

 
 I did an original review of the first three seasons of the HBO distributed series in  Feb 2023. The fourth and final season (The Story of the Lost Child) released this year has just concluded. The entire series spanning four years of production time.  Carrying on from the previous seasons the story continues the complex and sometimes tortured relationship between Elenor Grecco (Alba Rohrwacher) and Raffaella Cerulla (Irene Maiorino).  Elenor being the narrator and writer of their lives together. It’s a lifetimes story spanning their childhood into their old age. A vast complex detailed telling. The Tv productions being faithful to the original four volume set of books. What prevents this from being a giant soap opera, is the skill and authenticity of the original writing by Ferranti and the wisdom of the directors for following that writing so closely and  the actors for bringing their efforts to the screen with such riveting performances.

488 stars