Robert Tanitch reviews the latest DVDs
BELLE (20th Century Fox) was the first black aristocrat in England and she had a huge dowry; but who of equal rank would be willing to marry a black woman in the 18th century? The true story is inspired by a famous painting and heavily fictionalised. Dido Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who enjoyed a privileged and cultured life at Kenwood, was raised by Lord Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice (Tom Wilkinson), who supported the abolition of the slave trade and was the judge in the notorious case of a slave shipping company claiming insurance for the loss of a cargo of slaves they had drowned when they became diseased and unfit for sale. Amma Asante directs with a real feel for the period. The film is elegant, well cast and very watchable.
TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT (Artificial Eye). The Belgian directors, the brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, are social realists and their films are always credible. There is to be a secret ballot in a small factory. Can a young mother (Marion Cotillard), suffering from depression, persuade her fellow workers to forgo a bonus so that she can keep her job? Encouraged by her husband, she approaches them one by one. It is a humiliating experience. It’s a time of recession and everybody is hard-up and everybody needs the bonus. Solidarity, in the face of an unpleasant floor manager, is difficult. Timur Magomedgadzhiev is heartbreaking.
COLD IN JULY (Icon) is a drama set in Texas and directed by Jim Mickle. A man (Michael J Hall) kills a criminal intruder in his home in self-defence and is then threatened by the victim’s father (Sam Shepard). So far so good; but the longer the film goes on the more unbelievable, the bloodier and less appealing it gets. The Hall character starts acting totally out of character whilst the character Don Johnson plays seems to be in a different movie to everybody else. It is all the more disappointing since the opening sequence is so realistic and exciting.
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