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by Sam Juliano
Many thanks to all the great writers who have given the Sixth Annual Allan Fish Online Film Festival distinct scholarly heft and astounding diversity. I say it every year, but I’ll say it again here. This is the best year yet for this Jamie Uhler-founded project, and as a result God willing the endeavor will continue years into the future. Thank you so much Canadian film programmer and writer Sachin Gandhi for his inspired attendance throughout, and for his deeply-moving post. But thanks to everyone, since the site view numbers are far better than they have been for months. The AFOFF will end tomorrow, with a final modest posting by Yours Truly.
Writing continues on Irish Jesus in Fairview, and buoyed by the positive energy and support from my Canadian muse, Valerie Clark, I am approaching 66,000 words, and am nearing the point where I will have to again meet up with my artist, Andrew Castrucci to discuss the book’s cover. Then the editing. But all that will need to wait about one more month or so as I attend to some crucial chapters. My current plans are to send the aforementioned Valerie my manuscript (uncompleted but substantial) in about two weeks.
Voting continues on the African and Middle East polling and by and large it has been inspiring. Thanks to Marilyn Ferdinand, James Horsefall, Marco Tremble and the FB gang for their fabulous ballots.
Haunting and shattering “Benediction” the Best Film of the Year as we approach the mid-way point of 2022!
One of the world’s greatest living directors, the Brit Terence Davies, has crafted a film that must surely rank with the very best of his career. As always this purveyor of moods, poetic devises and somber underpinnings places narrative behind brooding sensibilities, meditative angst and oft-soaring lyricism, though in the aptly-titled “Benediction” the story of the poet, Siegfried Sassoon – a WWI objector who is institutionalized for his “unpatriotic” stance, Davies offers up a powerful and profound story of hidden desires. These are eventually set aside for a conventional lifestyle that never brings any measure of happiness to its tortured protagonist, a sensitive man who endures aching sadness, partially through behavior, markedly masochistic. Sassoon is betrayed by most of his male lovers, and though a highly effective past and present structure, emboldened by searing flashbacks, the leaves one deeply and profoundly moved. The cast, led by Jack Lowden is utterly magnificent, and Nicola Daley’s memory-laden cinematography intersperses the monochrome war scenes with the incandescent interior passages to give the film a scrap-book aura that is never sidelined, even by the powerful drama on display. Davies’ religiosity is again integrated when Lowden’s character converts to Catholicism late in life, and that aspect too is powerfully integrated into the narrative. ***** of ***** (highest rating; Lucille shares my great enthusiasm every step of the way. We saw the film Saturday night at Manhattan’s Angelika).
Wishing everyone a great week!
