Change Your Image
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Reviews
Goodnight, Mister Tom (1998)
A brilliant film that deserves to be better known
This film has been on my wish list for ten years and I only recently found it on DVD when my partner's grandson was given it. He watched it at and was thrilled to learn that it was about my generation - born in 1930 and evacuated in 1939 and he wanted to know more about it - and me. Luckily I borrowed it from him and watched it on my own and I cried all through it. Not only did it capture the emotions, the class distinction, the hardship and the warmth of human relationships of those years (as well as the cruelties (spoken and unspoken); but it was accurate! I am also a bit of an anorak when it comes to ARP uniforms, ambulances (LCC) in the right colour (white) and all the impedimenta of the management of bomb sites and the work of the Heavy Rescue Brigades. I couldn't fault any of this from my memories, and the sandbagged Anderson shelter and the WVS canteens brought it all back. The difference between the relatively unspoiled life in the village and war-torn London was also sharply presented I re-lived 1939/40 and my own evacuation from London with this production! I know Jack Gold's work, of course, and one would expect no more from him than this meticulous detail; but it went far beyond the accurate representation of the facts and touched deep chords about human responses and the only half-uttered value judgements of those years. It was certainly one of the great high spots in John Thaw's acting career and of Gold's direction and deserves to be better known. It is a magnificent film and I have already ordered a couple of copies to send to friends.
Mój Nikifor (2004)
A very subtle and moving interpretation
I was at first puzzled by the way in which we got the impression that Nikifor had been 'discovered' at the point that the film began. He had actually been known since the late 1930's, albeit in a limited way. However, the film hinted at his mysterious background - what, for example, did he do during the 1939-45 war? Possibly it gained, though, from not going down that route as well as for ignoring the deportation that he underwent in 1947/8 when the Lemko (the Slav ethnic group to which he belonged) were deported to north-eastern Poland. His creative 'awkwardness' was subtly presented by Krystyna Feldman; and Roman Gancarczyk gave a a realistic performance as the artist, Marian Wlosinski. However, I gained the impression that we were supposed to see Marian finding himself as an artist through his care for Nikifor. I didn't find this entirely coherent. However, as a study in the development of a human being in that situation I thought that it succeeded entirely, especially against the subtle portrayal of the breakdown in his family. I thought that the background of People's Poland through the 1960s was convincingly presented and the range of characters in the film was brilliantly presented through some very accomplished and intelligent acting by the wide range of people presented in often quite small parts.