M&M: The Hour of the Lynx

A young man arrives in a snowy small town and seemingly without reason brutally kills an elderly couple in a house. The man, by the name of Drengen, is caught and brought to the high security area of a prison. There the young psychologist Lisbet does an experiment by giving the inmates pets. Among them Drengen, who gets a red furred cat. Another inmate gets jealous during yard exercise time and throws the cat over the fence. Surprisingly Drengen has bonded a lot with the cat and ends up killing the other inmate in anger. The cat is found again. But Lisbet has to abandon the experiment. Since it's the last time with the pets, Drengen gets the cat back to say good-bye. But he claims that it's not his cat. He's convinced that god is speaking to him through the cat and pushing him to commit suicide. Lisbet doesn't know what else to do but involving the priest Helen.

Drengen is totally withdrawn and there's nothing they can get out of him that makes much sense. Helen persuades a guard to lock her in with Drengen in his cell over night. In the night Drengen starts talking and things start to make sense when he begins to talk about his past. You've got to watch yourself to find out what he's telling. The original title of this Danish-Swedish movie by the way is I lossens time.

As you can see above, Drengen is a young man, who is not afraid to use brutal force. So this movie isn't a totally easy one. Apart from those two murders however, the movie impresses by being markedly calm and makes one wonder, even well after the closing credits are over, about topics like blame, forgiveness and belief.

By the way, the source material for this movie was a theatre play The Hour of the Lynx (original title: Lodjurets Timma) by the Swedish writer Per Olov Enquist and is a play for five people, which premiered in April 1988 in Stockholm. The premiere for the German version was in 1992 in Ingolstadt. In 1991 the Hessische Rundfunk (Hessian Broadcast) and Sachsen Radio (Saxony Radio) together produced a radio play version of the theatre play.

M&M: The Flying Scotsman

Dear reader,

yesterday I thought: which movie am I going to review tomorrow?!

Then, unrelated to that, purely because I like Jonny Lee Miller in “Elementary” and wanted to see him him in other roles, I watched “The Flying Scotsman”. All right, I've seen him also in “Trainspotting” and “Hackers” before. So I don't only know him from “Elementary”.

The Flying Scotsman. A flying Scotsman? Oh no, I don't want to watch fantasy like that tonight. Okay, let's see what the movie is about. Aha! Based on the true story of the Scotsman Graeme Obree (Jonny Lee Miller), who loves riding his bike and sets a new world record – with a bike he build on his own! A bike, which consists of parts of a washing machine. Now, that does sound quite interesting. It does have a dark side to it though: Graeme has moments of depression and attempted several suicides.

In the movie Graeme is married to Anne (Laura Fraser) and the two have a child. In “real”life the two are divorced now and in 2011 he had a “coming out” and revealed that he's gay, as The Guardian for example reported: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2011/feb/02/graeme-obree-cycling

As a child, he was bullied by other boys and one Christmas Graeme's parents gave him a bike for a present. He used it to get away from his bullies at first, but he enjoyed riding his bike in later life, too. So it's not very surprising that after he has to close his cycle shop, he starts working as a bicycle courier. While working there, he meets another courier, Malky (Billy Boyd), who's equally enthusiastic about bikes. When Graeme wants to set a new world record, he hires Malky to work as his manager. Because he builds his bike himself, sponsors of expensive bicycle companies fear for their money, so the Union Cycliste Internationale do their best to disqualify Graeme and make life difficult for him. But Graeme is creative and ambitious enough, to give them parole.

The film spares us many an amplified story telling and cliches and shows the enthusiastic biker Graeme Obree and his ambition. That certainly makes a movie well worth watching for other people, who enjoy riding their bike. The only sad bit about the film is that it starts well, and later seems to just rush through Graeme Obree's life. The childhood and beginning with Malky are in part very humorous. Then again he's just sitting there doing nothing at the harbour or at home. Seemingly depressive phases. (Today he's diagnosed as bipolar or manic-depressive.) But then he gets on his bike again and then the film ends. A bit sad for a film with such a good start. Especially worth mentioning for those daring to watch the film with the original audio, is the convincing Scottish accent of Jonny Lee Miller. Jonny Lee Miller was born in Kingston upon Thames, England, so truly a different accent.

The Flying Scotsman, for me, is a film well worth watching, despite the weaknesses towards the end, especially for bicycle fans (and fans of the Scottish accent). Quite worth watching and maybe also motivating for the viewer to get on their own bike a bit more again. We don't have to set a new world record though. Enjoy the ride!

Until next blog,

sarah

M&M: Takin' Over The Asylum

Dear reader,

something new today, which I hope I'll be able to do once a month: M&M: Movie of the Month. With that I want to introduce you to a movie, I know and like.

To start this of: the mini series „Takin' Over The Asylum“. This is a series of 6 episodes, each about 50 minutes long, which came on tv in 1994 and brought fame to the two main actors Ken Stott and David Tennant. I didn't know Ken Stott before and looking back I only watched a couple of movies he was in, which are listed on his imdb.com profile. Because I was and am watching lots of Doctor Who, I certainly knew David Tennant very well. Although it was quite amusing and strange seeing him that young: 23 years old.

The characters and story:

One of the most important persons is Eddie, played by Ken Stott. Eddie is salesman for double glazing windows and he's got an alcohol problem. His passion is being a radio D.J. Right at the beginning of the series, he gets fired from his job as a D.J. however. Although he is offered a new job at the St. Jude's hospital, which once had a radio station and they want to start it again. Eddie agrees to help and can tell his colleagues, who are standing with him after the termination notification that, “He didnae dump me. I've been promoted, if you must know.” The colleagues want to know where he will work. He tells them, St. Jude's. They start laughing. Eddie asks them why they are laughing. “St. Jude's is a loony bin!”

When Eddie goes to St. Jude's the first time, he meets Campbell (David Tennant). He shows Eddie the radio station, which looks more like a storeroom. Campbell tells Eddie that the station was working once. But rumour has it that the next day 122 patients went to their shrinks saying they were hearing voices. They prescribed about £ 6000 worth of major tranquillisers, before they realised it was the radio and the radio station was closed after that. Campbell doesn't believe it though. He can't believe 122 patients could not be watching television at the same time.

Campbell is a manic-depressive (bipolar). Although in the series we only see him manic and totally enthusiastic about the radio station. Eddie teaches him to be a D.J. and Campbell finds not only his job, but quite possibly his calling, too. One time Eddie asks Campbell, “Are you sure you're not manic?” Campbell: “I'm inspired, Eddie!” Eddie: “What's the difference?” Campbell: “Inspired is when you think you can do anything. Manic is when you know it.”

Rosalie (Ruth McCabe) is compulsive. She often makes lists and is cleaning all sorts of things. When Eddie arrives at the radio station the second time, Campbell and Rosalie have cleaned it all up and put things in order in just one day. “Much as I hate to take advantage of someone's illness, but she did insist”, says Campbell. Eddie asks, if they really did all of that in just one day. “Don't you wish, you were manic?”, asks Campbell. Eventually Eddie appoints Rosalie to be the station manager. One time there's a health day. Since the radio station needs a new mixer and that needs financing, the group decides to use that day to do some fund-raising. Who's organising the day? Rosalie, of course, who finally can use her lists for some good and pretty much assigns everyone at the station with tasks to do and hands them lists for what to do exactly.

Francine (Katy Murphy) is very depressed and also self harms. Eddie once sees her putting out a cigarette on her arm. “I couldnae find an ashtray”, she says about that. Later on she does use an ashtray Eddie hands her. Francine, too, gets training from Eddie to D.J. Francine and Eddie like each other and become friends.

Another important role for the radio station is with Fergus (Angus Macfadyen). He's a schizophrenic electrical engineer, who helps the group with everything electronical. Every now and then he'd run away from the station to come back some time later the same day. At first he just goes away, because he's bored. Over the course of the series however he runs away in more or less spectacular ways to get a new mixer for the radio station and other stuff.

Apart from the hospital there are some more people worth mentioning: Eddie's grandmother (Elizabeth Spriggs), with whom he's living together. She's from Lithuania and has her very own thoughts about Eddie's future. For example she's not that sad when he tells her that he got fired from his D.J. job. And at the age of 38, he should please marry soon! When Eddie tells her, he just didn't find the right one yet, his grandma replies with, “You think I find the right one? You think your mother find the right one? All blue eyes and itchy feet. We find misery. But God put us on this Earth to suffer. That's how He invent Stalin.”

And then there are also the colleagues and the boss of the sales company. All highly motivated. Eddie keeps that job with more luck than brains for that job and it's a real miracle that he becomes the “salesman of the month”. But sometimes one may wonder if Eddie's colleagues should be the ones in the mental hospital and the group from there should be the ones out.

In the series there are some quite serious psychiatric illnesses shown. Personally I think, they totally do not stultify it though, but do it with the appropriate seriousness for the illnesses and yet in a funny way. For me the group of the radio station is very likeable, especially with and because of their quirks, each of the illnesses brings with them.

Until next blog,

sarah