Calvary is a very good and fulfilling movie about life itself, and about big stories coming from small places - from the Irish countryside in this instance.
The photography by Larry Smith (BSC) is a first and an absolutely divine ode to life by a man, Larry, who with a camera movie, he brings about a full and objective sense of colourfulness representing the faithful reality of the places where each scene occurs, at the same time that he keeps a well-implied cinematic effect through mise-en-scene itself - an On Camera ARTIST in his own right.
Then, the actual naturalism of the beautiful coastal locations where the action takes place, and the gamut of colours in bars, church, the river, the streets, the home or the home of the other, draw the spectator into this beautiful world where things cannot... but go wrong since the very moment we witness the altar boy in the first act painting a landscape by, and of the seaside; A landscape in which, with no reason at all -the boy himself states- two anonymous men are depcited, yet reasoning will be, so wait and watch!
The movie in my senses [I entered the cinema about 2 minutes into the movie...] commences at church with most characters introduced right at communion time - what a paradox this is soon to be. The array and variety of these characters bring to life a beautiful palette of performances and characters development through archetypes that all centre, circumvent, and stride around the very life of the protagonist, a priest (Brendan Gleeson) who [this is all character's background] turned into priesting after the death of his wife. He is thus the one who currently looks after the parochial spirituality in town. The audience get to know about this in real time when his daughter (Kelly Reilly) comes back to town from the natural failure of living in tough-London and the cross-down of the path in life. By then, we have already been introduced to many if not all the characters implied in this story, all tongues out towards and in communion.
The story does then develop over a week time-spam in which, despite the apparent normality of life in the village, the stakes from the very beginning set-out to take us towards what it is a somehow envisaged drama-ending, the one of the sinful and/or twisted mind of the human brain, and the consequences of many modern and no-so-modern life paradigms in the group dynamics of this community that could be yours itself - in the country of the urbanity of life.
A personal remark on the film is that upon the only thing that has kept me away of the movie itself for a little while. This has been the physical beauty of actress Kelly Reilly, who plays the character of the daughter, and who...
© 2014 George Pimentel - Image courtesy gettyimages.com
at the ending of the film comes to face the man who has __________ the life of her father. Her plausible look sparking into tears closes film and story in a fashion that, for those with some experiences of life, may suffice to state that despite it all, life is hard and tough, yet one has to face it as it does come, as she does do.
Interestingly, the credits run in a sequence of credits & still imagery showing locations from the movie, and covered by a music track in Spanish. Curiosity has not killed the cat, and I have found that this is it "Subo", with words and music by by Rolando Amadeo Valladares, yet performed by Los Chiriguanos.
Even more interestingly, the debate and likeness of the track on the Facebook Site of the movie. Whether or not you want to buy the original track played in the movie, this is a version of it by "Los Mandariegos", Subo (i.e. I do go up).
Last but nonetheless, if a sentence, if a word, better to say, has to summarise the moral of this film, and by extension one of the scourges of the post-post-modern society we live-in, this is integrity. Integrity is what keeps our protagonist out of trouble, what keeps his mind in peace. Yet, integrity also lands our priest straight into it, into raw life.
Sinfulness, remorsefulness and temptation are at every character's doorstep [as in real life] in the narrative and sequence of actions in the film. And yet, our main character deals with it all with a great degree of parsimony and entire spirituality, only until his time to face his own fate comes, all perfectly built in the stakes of the actions that bring to this point. This is where he does then succumb to the feelings of the heart and the penance of the soul, rather than to the thoughtfulness of mind and rationality of the human.
This is a very, very recommendable movie brought about to my very senses by the programmer of one of the pearls in the cinema-world in London - The Watermans Centre in Brentford, TW8.
For more information on the film, do please pop into a cinema where it is on. Likewise, for the trailer and the rest of details, do click on IMDB.
Poster from the movie, authors copyrigths
Written and posted by @UXGentleman
The photography by Larry Smith (BSC) is a first and an absolutely divine ode to life by a man, Larry, who with a camera movie, he brings about a full and objective sense of colourfulness representing the faithful reality of the places where each scene occurs, at the same time that he keeps a well-implied cinematic effect through mise-en-scene itself - an On Camera ARTIST in his own right.
Then, the actual naturalism of the beautiful coastal locations where the action takes place, and the gamut of colours in bars, church, the river, the streets, the home or the home of the other, draw the spectator into this beautiful world where things cannot... but go wrong since the very moment we witness the altar boy in the first act painting a landscape by, and of the seaside; A landscape in which, with no reason at all -the boy himself states- two anonymous men are depcited, yet reasoning will be, so wait and watch!
The movie in my senses [I entered the cinema about 2 minutes into the movie...] commences at church with most characters introduced right at communion time - what a paradox this is soon to be. The array and variety of these characters bring to life a beautiful palette of performances and characters development through archetypes that all centre, circumvent, and stride around the very life of the protagonist, a priest (Brendan Gleeson) who [this is all character's background] turned into priesting after the death of his wife. He is thus the one who currently looks after the parochial spirituality in town. The audience get to know about this in real time when his daughter (Kelly Reilly) comes back to town from the natural failure of living in tough-London and the cross-down of the path in life. By then, we have already been introduced to many if not all the characters implied in this story, all tongues out towards and in communion.
The story does then develop over a week time-spam in which, despite the apparent normality of life in the village, the stakes from the very beginning set-out to take us towards what it is a somehow envisaged drama-ending, the one of the sinful and/or twisted mind of the human brain, and the consequences of many modern and no-so-modern life paradigms in the group dynamics of this community that could be yours itself - in the country of the urbanity of life.
A personal remark on the film is that upon the only thing that has kept me away of the movie itself for a little while. This has been the physical beauty of actress Kelly Reilly, who plays the character of the daughter, and who...
© 2014 George Pimentel - Image courtesy gettyimages.com
at the ending of the film comes to face the man who has __________ the life of her father. Her plausible look sparking into tears closes film and story in a fashion that, for those with some experiences of life, may suffice to state that despite it all, life is hard and tough, yet one has to face it as it does come, as she does do.
Interestingly, the credits run in a sequence of credits & still imagery showing locations from the movie, and covered by a music track in Spanish. Curiosity has not killed the cat, and I have found that this is it "Subo", with words and music by by Rolando Amadeo Valladares, yet performed by Los Chiriguanos.
Even more interestingly, the debate and likeness of the track on the Facebook Site of the movie. Whether or not you want to buy the original track played in the movie, this is a version of it by "Los Mandariegos", Subo (i.e. I do go up).
Last but nonetheless, if a sentence, if a word, better to say, has to summarise the moral of this film, and by extension one of the scourges of the post-post-modern society we live-in, this is integrity. Integrity is what keeps our protagonist out of trouble, what keeps his mind in peace. Yet, integrity also lands our priest straight into it, into raw life.
Sinfulness, remorsefulness and temptation are at every character's doorstep [as in real life] in the narrative and sequence of actions in the film. And yet, our main character deals with it all with a great degree of parsimony and entire spirituality, only until his time to face his own fate comes, all perfectly built in the stakes of the actions that bring to this point. This is where he does then succumb to the feelings of the heart and the penance of the soul, rather than to the thoughtfulness of mind and rationality of the human.
This is a very, very recommendable movie brought about to my very senses by the programmer of one of the pearls in the cinema-world in London - The Watermans Centre in Brentford, TW8.
For more information on the film, do please pop into a cinema where it is on. Likewise, for the trailer and the rest of details, do click on IMDB.
Poster from the movie, authors copyrigths
Written and posted by @UXGentleman
