By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Joanna Hogg
Country: united_kingdom
Year: 2014
Running time: 100
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1107850/combined
Bruce says: “Joanna Hogg in an early interview talks freely about her first film, UNRELATED, winner of the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) prize at the 2007 London Film Festival. Trained as a photographer, Hogg worked in British television for many years before tackling her first film. Hogg claims Ozu and Bresson have influenced her. As writer/director she has specific notions about her own filmmaking. Her goal is to depict, ‘what is happening in the everyday.’ Bresson in his Notes on Cinematography says, ‘Let the feelings create the events, not the events create the feelings.’ Having seen her first three films I can readily testify Joanna Hogg has taken that advice to heart.
“Anna (Kathryn Worth) is the central character in UNRELATED. We first see her on a dark country road in Tuscany, rolling her suitcase as she walks toward the camera. She has arrived from London to join close friends who have rented a vacation house. We gradually learn the particulars. She and her husband Alex have had a serious fight and she has decided to vacation alone. What Anna has not anticipated is that all the adults would be caught up in coupledom or in various aspects of parenting. Immediately she feels isolated. She stays up drinking with the four teenagers long after the other adults have turned in. Soon she is spending her days with the teens as well. Oakley (Tom Hiddleston), the most effusive and gregarious of the teens, seems to be bonding with her in ways more adult than teenage. Oakley philosophizes about relationships, ‘If the sex isn’t good, nothing else matters.’ Her school friend Verena (Mary Roscoe) is angry that Alex is a ‘no show’ and that Anna is seeking out her children for companionship.
“One drunken night the car Anna and the kids are riding in ends up in a ditch. It is towed away. The kids, fearing parental wrath, make up a story that they proactively took the car to a garage because it was behaving strangely. Anna swears to keep the secret. Verena, however, coaxes the truth from her. Consequently, all hell breaks loose.
“Hogg displays an uncommon sense of place by creating her atmosphere using a minimalist approach to describe both architecture and nature. She also displays unusual reserve in the way scenes play themselves out. In one key moment a heated argument occurs. Instead of putting the argument on visual display, it is simply heard by the other characters (and, of course, the viewer.) Hogg knows that the importance of the moment is not what is being said but how the others react to the high-pitched words.
“Kathryn Worth, destined to remind many viewers of Sally Hawkins, is perfect as the lonely, confused Anna. Although she studied acting she had never before appeared in a film. UNRELATED also marks the auspicious debut of Tom Hiddleston, an overly confident teen whose self-assuredness will undoubtedly trip him up later in life. As Hogg says, ‘That is another picture. 5 cats”
Julie says: “I would add this to your list of must sees for noms. Wonderful direction, sound, production design and acting. Bruce gives a very detailed review. Thanks Bruce for recommending this movie and director!
“I’m hooked on Joanna Hogg and as a director and have started her other movie ARCHIPELAGO and will finish that tomorrow most likely since it’s streaming and I’ll watch a dvd this evening.”