BERLIN -- Marianne Faithfull is unforgettable as a middle-class, middle-aged frump who takes a job at a sex club in order to raise enough money for her grandson's life-saving operation in Sam Garbarski's crowd-pleasing comedy-drama "Irina Palm".
Cheers and applause erupted following the Berlinale press screening Tuesday, and that reaction should accompany this competition film on the way to awards and audiences everywhere.
Mixing pathos and comedy expertly, with many funny lines, the screenplay by Martin Herron and Philippe Blasband, based on an original script by Blasband, shows a knowing hand in scenes involving stuffy Little England villagers and the cynical operators of the sex business in London's Soho.
The situation is established quickly. Maggie's small grandson Olly (Corey Burke) will die unless he gets to Australia for an operation that's only available in Melbourne. The treatment is free, but it will take £6,000 for Maggie's son Tom Kevin Bishop) and his wife Sarah (Siobhan Hewlett) to get him there.
The boy's parents are broke and Maggie, a widow, already has sold her home to pay for Olly's treatment. Turned down by her bank and employment agencies, Maggie spots a job offer for a hostess in a Soho doorway.
Full of trepidation, she enters a world she has never experienced and of which she has not the slightest knowledge. In a very funny scene, the world-weary Eastern European club owner, Miki (Miki Manojlovic), patiently explains that "hostess" is a euphemism for "whore." He examines her smooth hands and says she could make a lot of money by masturbating men that she wouldn't see as they placed their organs through a hole in the wall.
Outraged, Maggie flees. But seeing once again how distraught her family is, she returns and takes the job. Another sex worker, Luisa (Dorka Gryllus), patiently instructs her in the techniques of the job. "The first time is embarrassing, but after that you'll wank for England," Luisa says.
Miki gives Maggie her own booth and the professional name Irina Palm, and soon men are lining up for her exceptional ministrations. She even decorates her little booth with pictures and knickknacks from home. With the promise of making a lot of money, Maggie decides to keep doing it though she is desperate to make sure no one in her family or her village finds out what she's doing.
That, of course, is where the tension lies as both her son and the prissy members of her bridge foursome become ever more curious about her daily activities in the city. The inevitable revelation and the various reactions to it are hilarious, sad and warming. The only discordant note in the picture is in Tom's behavior when learning of his mother's sacrifice, but it does serve to heighten the response of Sarah and the other women.
The film's guitar score by Ghinzu does much to amplify Maggie's path from obeying conventional mores to casting away worries about what people will think. Garbarski does not shrink from the harsh realities of the sex industry, but he also takes time to develop an unlikely romance between Maggie and Miki.
Manojlovic deserves high praise for his handling of the club owner's reluctant corruption, but it is Faithfull's compassionate and knowing performance that will leave audiences smiling.
IRINA PALM
Entre Chien et Loup, Pyramide International
Credits:
Director: Sam Garbarski
Screenwriters: Martin Herron, Philippe Blasband
Based on an original script by: Philippe Blasband
Producer: Sebastien Delloye
Cinematographer: Christophe Beaucarne
Editor: Ludo Troch
Music: Ghinzu
Production designer: Veronique Sacrez
Costume designer: Anushia Nieradzik
Cast:
Maggie: Marianne Faithfull
Miki: Miki Manojlovic
Tom: Kevin Bishop
Sarah: Siobhan Hewlett
Luisa: Dorka Gryllus
Jane: Jenny Agutter
Olly: Corey Burke
Julia: Meg Wynn-Owen
Beth: Susan Hitch
Edith: Flip Webster
Shopkeeper: Tony O'Brien
Art: Jules Werner
Old Women: Ann Queensberry, June Bailer
Dave: Jonathan Coyne
Franck: Tim Plester
Dunia: Malina Ebert
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Cheers and applause erupted following the Berlinale press screening Tuesday, and that reaction should accompany this competition film on the way to awards and audiences everywhere.
Mixing pathos and comedy expertly, with many funny lines, the screenplay by Martin Herron and Philippe Blasband, based on an original script by Blasband, shows a knowing hand in scenes involving stuffy Little England villagers and the cynical operators of the sex business in London's Soho.
The situation is established quickly. Maggie's small grandson Olly (Corey Burke) will die unless he gets to Australia for an operation that's only available in Melbourne. The treatment is free, but it will take £6,000 for Maggie's son Tom Kevin Bishop) and his wife Sarah (Siobhan Hewlett) to get him there.
The boy's parents are broke and Maggie, a widow, already has sold her home to pay for Olly's treatment. Turned down by her bank and employment agencies, Maggie spots a job offer for a hostess in a Soho doorway.
Full of trepidation, she enters a world she has never experienced and of which she has not the slightest knowledge. In a very funny scene, the world-weary Eastern European club owner, Miki (Miki Manojlovic), patiently explains that "hostess" is a euphemism for "whore." He examines her smooth hands and says she could make a lot of money by masturbating men that she wouldn't see as they placed their organs through a hole in the wall.
Outraged, Maggie flees. But seeing once again how distraught her family is, she returns and takes the job. Another sex worker, Luisa (Dorka Gryllus), patiently instructs her in the techniques of the job. "The first time is embarrassing, but after that you'll wank for England," Luisa says.
Miki gives Maggie her own booth and the professional name Irina Palm, and soon men are lining up for her exceptional ministrations. She even decorates her little booth with pictures and knickknacks from home. With the promise of making a lot of money, Maggie decides to keep doing it though she is desperate to make sure no one in her family or her village finds out what she's doing.
That, of course, is where the tension lies as both her son and the prissy members of her bridge foursome become ever more curious about her daily activities in the city. The inevitable revelation and the various reactions to it are hilarious, sad and warming. The only discordant note in the picture is in Tom's behavior when learning of his mother's sacrifice, but it does serve to heighten the response of Sarah and the other women.
The film's guitar score by Ghinzu does much to amplify Maggie's path from obeying conventional mores to casting away worries about what people will think. Garbarski does not shrink from the harsh realities of the sex industry, but he also takes time to develop an unlikely romance between Maggie and Miki.
Manojlovic deserves high praise for his handling of the club owner's reluctant corruption, but it is Faithfull's compassionate and knowing performance that will leave audiences smiling.
IRINA PALM
Entre Chien et Loup, Pyramide International
Credits:
Director: Sam Garbarski
Screenwriters: Martin Herron, Philippe Blasband
Based on an original script by: Philippe Blasband
Producer: Sebastien Delloye
Cinematographer: Christophe Beaucarne
Editor: Ludo Troch
Music: Ghinzu
Production designer: Veronique Sacrez
Costume designer: Anushia Nieradzik
Cast:
Maggie: Marianne Faithfull
Miki: Miki Manojlovic
Tom: Kevin Bishop
Sarah: Siobhan Hewlett
Luisa: Dorka Gryllus
Jane: Jenny Agutter
Olly: Corey Burke
Julia: Meg Wynn-Owen
Beth: Susan Hitch
Edith: Flip Webster
Shopkeeper: Tony O'Brien
Art: Jules Werner
Old Women: Ann Queensberry, June Bailer
Dave: Jonathan Coyne
Franck: Tim Plester
Dunia: Malina Ebert
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/14/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The eeriest thing about the new scare movie "Stir of Echoes" is its uncanny resemblance to the hit film "The Sixth Sense". The two films share so many plot points -- a little boy seeing dead people, a man and boy bonding to the exclusion of the boy's mother, the search for a young girl's murderer -- that one could be the ghost of the other.
But if "Stir of Echoes" is hurt by being released after "The Sixth Sense", the film suffers an additional disadvantage. It has more than a few frightening moments, and writer-director David Koepp does a commendable job of building tension in the early going. But by choosing a more conventional path than "The Sixth Sense", this film feels much more ordinary.
The similarities are probably not going to hurt boxoffice performance, however. So Artisan can hope for good opening numbers that hold up into the second weekend.
Jake Zachary David Cope), the young son of a Chicago blue-collar family, often talks to unseen people. But his parents, Tom Kevin Bacon) and Maggie (Kathryn Erbe), seem oblivious to this curious behavior. Then on a dare, Tom's sardonic sister-in-law (Illeana Douglas) hypnotizes him at a party.
Immediately, Tom starts hearing and seeing weird things, not unlike his son -- only not as clearly. As the visions continue, Tom comes to realize the family house plays host to the spirit of a teenage girl, who is making demands on him.
Based on Richard Matheson's 1958 novel, Koepp's screenplay is compelling enough for the first couple of acts as Tom struggles to make sense of his visions and his son's paranormal abilities. But problems arise when the audience's "psychic" abilities exceed those of the characters.
At a certain point, it becomes patently obvious how the girl died and who her killers are. All that remains is for Tom to search for the body. Unfortunately, this search becomes an obsessional dismantling of the house that takes up an excessive amount of screen time.
Then the climax -- where seemingly half the neighborhood proves culpable in either the girl's death or the cover-up and there's an attempt to murder at least two more people -- throws credibility out the window. This nonsensical noisiness stands in stark contrast to the quiet but startling revelations that mark the conclusion of "The Sixth Sense".
Like that film though, "Stir of Echoes" benefits from a awesome performance by a young actor. Cope, who has appeared in six commercials, has such an open spirit and calm demeanor that he makes Jake feel like an old soul in a very young body.
Bacon is always a fine actor, but sometimes his intensity doesn't work for the role. Here his character is so tightly wound from the beginning that Tom undergoes less a transformation than an entrenchment. Erbe makes the most of her third-banana role, evoking the pain and the effort to connect of a person who finds herself essentially the only nonbeliever at a convention of psychics.
STIR OF ECHOES
Artisan Entertainment
Producers: Gavin Polone, Judy Hofflund
Writer-director: David Koepp
Director of photography: Fred Murphy
Production designer: Nelson Coates
Music: James Newton Howard
Costumes: Leesa Evans
Editor: Jill Savitt
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jake: Zachary David Cope
Tom: Kevin Bacon
Maggie: Kathryn Erbe
Lisa: Illeana Douglas
Frank: Kevin Dunn
Harry: Conor O'Farrell
Running time -- 94 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
But if "Stir of Echoes" is hurt by being released after "The Sixth Sense", the film suffers an additional disadvantage. It has more than a few frightening moments, and writer-director David Koepp does a commendable job of building tension in the early going. But by choosing a more conventional path than "The Sixth Sense", this film feels much more ordinary.
The similarities are probably not going to hurt boxoffice performance, however. So Artisan can hope for good opening numbers that hold up into the second weekend.
Jake Zachary David Cope), the young son of a Chicago blue-collar family, often talks to unseen people. But his parents, Tom Kevin Bacon) and Maggie (Kathryn Erbe), seem oblivious to this curious behavior. Then on a dare, Tom's sardonic sister-in-law (Illeana Douglas) hypnotizes him at a party.
Immediately, Tom starts hearing and seeing weird things, not unlike his son -- only not as clearly. As the visions continue, Tom comes to realize the family house plays host to the spirit of a teenage girl, who is making demands on him.
Based on Richard Matheson's 1958 novel, Koepp's screenplay is compelling enough for the first couple of acts as Tom struggles to make sense of his visions and his son's paranormal abilities. But problems arise when the audience's "psychic" abilities exceed those of the characters.
At a certain point, it becomes patently obvious how the girl died and who her killers are. All that remains is for Tom to search for the body. Unfortunately, this search becomes an obsessional dismantling of the house that takes up an excessive amount of screen time.
Then the climax -- where seemingly half the neighborhood proves culpable in either the girl's death or the cover-up and there's an attempt to murder at least two more people -- throws credibility out the window. This nonsensical noisiness stands in stark contrast to the quiet but startling revelations that mark the conclusion of "The Sixth Sense".
Like that film though, "Stir of Echoes" benefits from a awesome performance by a young actor. Cope, who has appeared in six commercials, has such an open spirit and calm demeanor that he makes Jake feel like an old soul in a very young body.
Bacon is always a fine actor, but sometimes his intensity doesn't work for the role. Here his character is so tightly wound from the beginning that Tom undergoes less a transformation than an entrenchment. Erbe makes the most of her third-banana role, evoking the pain and the effort to connect of a person who finds herself essentially the only nonbeliever at a convention of psychics.
STIR OF ECHOES
Artisan Entertainment
Producers: Gavin Polone, Judy Hofflund
Writer-director: David Koepp
Director of photography: Fred Murphy
Production designer: Nelson Coates
Music: James Newton Howard
Costumes: Leesa Evans
Editor: Jill Savitt
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jake: Zachary David Cope
Tom: Kevin Bacon
Maggie: Kathryn Erbe
Lisa: Illeana Douglas
Frank: Kevin Dunn
Harry: Conor O'Farrell
Running time -- 94 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 9/10/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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