Larry Oliver Film Reviews

Pictured : Bookshop owner Sandra ( Valeria Bruni Tedeschi ) joins six-year-old Alex ( César Botti ) under the table in a scene from the French drama ' L'Attachement ' adapted from Alice Ferney 's novel, ' L’Intimité'  by screenwriters  Raphaële Moussafir , Agnès Feuvre and director Carine Tardieu , working with scenario consultant Agnès de Sacy . Still courtesy of Diaphana Distribution (France). French director Carine Tardieu’s film, L’Attachement (clunky English title The Ties That Bind Us ) is exceptional. In it, the characters spend two years of their time, and 106 minutes of ours, doing the right thing whilst processing or responding to considerable emotional pain. Adapted from Alice Ferney’s 2020 novel, L’Intimité , by Tardieu working with co-writers Raphaële Moussafir, Agnès Feuvre and scenario consultant Agnès de Sacy, it stars Valeria Bruni Tedeschi – always a good reason to watch a movie – as Sandra, an unmarried woman in her fifties who runs a femin...

  The penultimate film of this series is low-budget indie, Scrapper , a British, nay, London film written and directed by Charlotte Regan. Regan has directed a bunch of short films, some of which have been screened internationally, helmed pop and corporate videos and has absolutely earned the right to succeed. I have mixed feelings about the end result. I enjoyed it very much, but it veers close to the aesthetic of British – specifically BBC – children’s television. If Regan sought a career directing episodes of Byker Grove or The Story of Tracy Beaker this would not be a bad thing, but my suspicion is that she has ambitions above tea-time in front of the kiddies. Regan deals with a difficult topic – loss. Specifically the loss of one’s mother as experienced by a pre-teenage girl, Georgie (newcomer Lola Campbell). The effect is disorientating, numbing and world collapsing. Regan approaches the subject with good - I would qualify, excellent - humour. Georgie decides to manage ...