we are the giant is a 2014 american documentary film produced and directed by greg barker .

the film had its world premiere at 2014 sundance film festival on january 18 , 2014 .

the film is scheduled for a limited theatrical run from october 30 , 2014 in uk .

a special screening and panel q&a will also take place at london 's bfi cinema on the october 30 , 2014 .

we are the giant

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we are the giant” is both vital and devastating , with raw material conveyed through elegant construction . ”
“ ' we are the giant’ is another prima facie document in the unfolding foreign drama of our time—one that could entirely refashion international relations . the subjects…are deeply inspiring figures . ”
powerful , tragic and ultimately inspirational , we are the giant follows the everyday decisions that transform not just individual lives but the fates of nations . as their stories echo across history , the characters in we are the giant speak directly to our own lives , reminding us that we are all products of revolutions , and offering hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds .
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we are the giant / u . s . a . , united kingdom ( director : greg barker ) — we are the giant tells the stories of ordinary individuals who are transformed by the moral and personal challenges they encounter when standing up for what they believe is right . powerful and tragic , yet inspirational , their struggles for freedom echo across history and offer hope against seemingly impossible odds .
“we are the giant” is both vital and devastating , with raw material conveyed through elegant construction . barker asks the hard questions , issuing the frightening possibly of necessary violence when pacifism yields no results .
the project came about when director greg barker approached me at the mill to create the graphics and the visual look of his latest documentary we are the giant . we had an existing working relationship , as last year i designed the titles and graphics for his documentary manhunt : the search for bin laden .
“slickly assembled and insightful . compelling and fluidly told stories of the struggle of individuals . the rather abstract and complex subject of the arab spring is given a human face…in the slickly assembled “we are the giant . ” ( the first story is ) both inspiring and sobering . ”
i remember visiting the museum as a child and being amazed when i came face to face with the blue whale skeleton we are now unveiling in hintze hall .
' nay ! ' answered the child ; ' but these are the wounds of love . '
directed by sundance veteran greg barker , produced by john battsek and julie goldman and co - produced by arab - american filmmaker razan ghalayini , we are the giant was filmed largely in secret and sometimes at great risk over the past two and a half years .
“ ( ' we are the giant ' ) is actually a documentary feature film about nonviolent resistance through the lens of revolutionaries in syria , bahrain and libya , ” said ghalayini , referring to the protests and uprisings beginning in 2010 that came to be known as the arab spring .
“we are the giant” profiles seven activists involved in various national uprisings of the arab spring , several of whom already have high international profiles ; some are now deceased or imprisoned . a surfeit of harrowing on - the - ground footage during protest crackdowns , plus the protagonists’ testimonies , make for a frequently inspiring and exciting documentary . but helmer greg barker [ … ]
given how reluctant pandas are to breed , it may seem misguided to fund their conservation . but there ' s a reason we spend so much money .
for me , it’s about the power of the subject matter . you cannot cut corners with research and development as the truth of the film needs to come first . any flourish or embellishment of fact diminishes the film . with both we are the giant and manhunt , research was paramount and all - encompassing .
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all day long they played , and in the evening they came to the giant to bid him good - bye .
and when the children ran in that afternoon , they found the giant lying dead under the tree , all covered with white blossoms .
the heart of every revolution is a human one , the signs written by hand . in we are the giant , director greg barker delivers a devastating account of the arab spring , intimately focused on the stories of fathers , mothers , sons , daughters – revolutionaries – across libya , syria , and bahrain with an eye to the world .
the clarion call of a grander moral calling anchors the documentary we are the giant , and in large part saves it from its own overstuffed passion . profiling a handful of activists involved in arab spring uprisings in libya , syria and bahrain , the film mixes unsettling firsthand protest footage with involving stories of self - sacrifice .
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every afternoon , when school was over , the children came and played with the giant . but the little boy whom the giant loved was never seen again . the giant was very kind to all the children , yet he longed for his first little friend , and often spoke of him . ' how i would like to see him ! ' he used to say .
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every afternoon , as they were coming from school , the children used to go and play in the giant ' s garden .
' we don ' t know , ' answered the children ; ' he has gone away . '
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' you must tell him to be sure and come here to - morrow , ' said the giant . but the children said that they did not know where he lived , and had never seen him before ; and the giant felt very sad .
he natural history museum in london has unveiled its new star , a giant blue whale skeleton called hope .
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' who art thou ? ' said the giant , and a strange awe fell on him , and he knelt before the little child .
“the buried giant” is a melancholy book , and the mist that breathes through it is a melancholic mist . the narrative tone is dreamlike and measured . there are adventures , sword fights , betrayals , armies , cunning stratagems and monsters killed , but these things are told distantly , without the book’s pulse ever beating faster . they are described unflinchingly , precisely , sometimes poetically . enemies are slain , but the deaths are never triumphant . a culmination of a planned trap for a troop of soldiers , worthy of a whodunit , is described in retrospect , once we already know what must have happened . stories drift toward us in the narrative like figures in the mist , and then are gone . the excitements that the book would deliver were this a more formulaic or crowd - pleasing novel are , here , when they appear , not exciting , perhaps because they would be young people’s adventures , and this is , at its heart , a book about two people who are now past all adventure . axl and beatrice , gentle and caring and kind , wish only to survive , to reach their son , to be together . they need to remember their past , but they are afraid of what those memories might bring them .
as acting president of the bahrain center for human rights , al - khawaja is one of the leading voices in “we are the giant , ” along with her sister zainab al - khawaja . maryam al - khawaja has been banned from her country of bahrain for participating in peaceful protests against the existing regime . her sister and father , internationally acclaimed human rights activist abdulhadi al - khawaja , are both serving prison sentences for their non - violent acts of resistance .
lue whales are now making a recovery following decades of exploitation that nearly drove them out of existence .
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' what are you doing here ? ' he cried in a very gruff voice , and the children ran away .
there are quite a few , but the title sequence that drew me to make the jump from print design to motion was dawn of the dead .
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“we were watching history happen before us , and greg sat down next to me and he was like , ‘this is insane ! ’ and we were looking around and we were among the only two people in this massive office of like 50 who were paying attention to this . and greg and i started talking and we said , ‘you know what ? nobody is going out there to make a film about this right now . ’”
there is a moment in director greg barker’s documentary “ we are the giant ” when we are confronted by a young girl singing a sweet song of revolution in arabic , while a peaceful protest against the syrian government unfolds in the streets behind her . her smile is wide and her voice lovely until a blast erupts no more than a yard behind her , the camera swerving as smoke billows and mangled figures lurch around in confusion . perhaps mercifully , we never see what has become of the girl ; within the same reel , there is another senseless massacre , as one man hoarsely shouts amidst a barrage of bullets , flanked by dead bodies . “it was peaceful ! ” he cries out , unable to understand what prompted the police to open fire .
' but where is your little companion ? ' he said : ' the boy i put into the tree . ' the giant loved him the best because he had kissed him .
in we are the giant ordinary citizens face the same moral questions that have defined revolutionary leaders across the ages , from jefferson to che to mandela . with remarkable access , the film takes its audience inside the lives of six extraordinary people who grapple with the agonizing and universal dilemmas at the heart of all struggles for justice and freedom : whether to take up arms and fight , or to advocate change through peace and non - violence .
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but that future looks uncertain , if the finances are anything to go by . keeping giant pandas has become prohibitively expensive . contrary to the popular impression , the chinese government does not offer pandas to foreign dignitaries , or zoos , as gifts ; in fact , all pandas sent out from china are on paid loan and , as notes to the naturkunde show tell us , “with a loan rate of €1m per annum , this exceeds the budget of many zoos” . at present , the number of pandas kept outside china is 162 overall , with 55 of them living in 19 zoos across the world . there are roughly 1 , 600 giant pandas still living in china , the number confined to mountainous regions of the south - west .
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the passion and idealism that fuel both successful and attempted revolutions provide the human focus of greg barker ’s “we are the giant , ” a dramatic account of people active in the movements sparked by the arab spring . looking at two people each in libya , syria and bahrain , the film doesn’t try to explain the political background or complexities of these societies but instead offers haunting , up - close portraits of individuals who elect to put their nations’ fates above their own .
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ichard sabin , the museum’s leading whale expert , said :
whales are incredibly mysterious and behaviourally complex creatures , as well as being the giants of the ocean .
so he crept downstairs and opened the front door quite softly , and went out into the garden . but when the children saw him they were so frightened that they all ran away , and the garden became winter again . only the little boy did not run , for his eyes were so full of tears that he died not see the giant coming . and the giant stole up behind him and took him gently in his hand , and put him up into the tree . and the tree broke at once into blossom , and the birds came and sang on it , and the little boy stretched out his two arms and flung them round the giant ' s neck , and kissed him . and the other children , when they saw that the giant was not wicked any longer , came running back , and with them came the spring . ' it is your garden now , little children , ' said the giant , and he took a great axe and knocked down the wall . and when the people were gong to market at twelve o ' clock they found the giant playing with the children in the most beautiful garden they had ever seen .
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' who hath dared to wound thee ? ' cried the giant ; ' tell me , that i may take my big sword and slay him . '
what we should be doing is saving habitats , not single species , no matter what their cuteness factor . and scrapping all kinds of other pointless activities , from huge arms contracts to self - defeating agribusiness and energy subsidies , and using the money saved to undo the damage we have done to the land and seas around us . that way , we would have lots of cash to stop the destruction of forests and peatlands , and even a few million on the side for such quixotic projects as saving the panda . because these animals are worth it . hunted for sport by the rich , then driven from large tracts of its natural habitat by agricultural and housing development , the giant panda deserves better than to be scrubbed from conservation’s ledger books through false accounting .
years went over , and the giant grew very old and feeble . he could not play about any more , so he sat in a huge armchair , and watched the children at their games , and admired his garden . ' i have many beautiful flowers , ' he said ; ' but the children are the most beautiful flowers of all . '
2 . when hemsworth pees on a dead alien , it’s inside a giant alien forest that is inside of a ufo large enough to cover much of the atlantic ocean .
6 . before the movie begins , we learn an
african warlord
spent 10 years fighting the aliens in hand - to - hand combat . ( frankly , this is the movie that should have been made , but c’est la vie . ) in the movie , we see warlord dikembe umbutu murder an alien with two machetes .
ishiguro is not afraid to tackle huge , personal themes , nor to use myths , history and the fantastic as the tools to do it . “the buried giant” is an exceptional novel , and i suspect my inability to fall in love with it , much as i wanted to , came from my conviction that there was an allegory waiting like an ogre in the mist , telling us that no matter how well we love , no matter how deeply , we will always be fallible and human , and that for every couple who are aging together , one or the other of them — of us — will always have to cross the water , and go on to the island ahead and alone .
“we are the giant” profiles seven activists involved in various national uprisings of the arab spring , several of whom already have high international profiles ; some are now deceased or imprisoned . a surfeit of harrowing on - the - ground footage during protest crackdowns , plus the protagonists’ testimonies , make for a frequently inspiring and exciting documentary . but helmer greg barker ( “ghosts of rwanda” ) also risks pretentiousness in various forms of stylistic and thematic overreach , while providing viewers scant explanatory info on the regional conflicts . this u . s . - u . k . co - production will have an easier time scoring broadcast sales in the latter territory ; elsewhere , exposure will be spotty beyond fest travel .
putting our blue whale , hope , at the centre of the museum , between living species on the west and extinct species on the east , is a powerful reminder of the fragility of life and the responsibility we have towards our planet .
my favorite book from ishiguro so far which is saying something since i given 5 stars to when we where orphans and the remains of the day is on my favorites list .
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the elderly couple are axl and beatrice — “perhaps these were not their exact or full names , but for ease , this is how we will refer to them” — who start out living in a hill - warren village , ill treated by their fellow britons . axl and beatrice love each other deeply and care for each other as best they can . beatrice has a malady , a pain in her side she insists is nothing serious , for which she seeks a cure . they have reached the age when their memories have become unreliable , when names , faces and even events slip away . but the problems with memory and event are not just theirs ; all the people in their community , and even those in neighboring villages , briton and saxon , appear to be having the same difficulties . there is a mist that takes memories : good memories and bad , lost children , old rancors and wounds . and memories are valuable . they make us who we are .
indeed , the lethal finality of those dangers is central to the first story , about libya . we quickly learn that one of the two figures who are the focus of this account , 20 - year - old muhannad ben - sadik , was killed in the attempt to overthrow dictator moammar ghadhafi . his story is told by his colleagues and the tale’s other protagonist , his father , osama ben - sadik .
' i cannot understand why the spring is so late in coming , ' said the selfish giant , as he sat at the window and looked out at his cold white garden ; ' i hope there will be a change in the weather . '
bookending each of the three segments – libya and syria are the first two entries , with bahrain taking up the greater part of the documentary’s 90 - minute running time – is a kaleidoscopic overview of revolutions from throughout history . images of tiananmen square and the african american civil rights movement glide across the screen , all punctuated by quotations from transformational figures ranging from thomas jefferson to martin luther king , jr . far from overreaching , “we are the giant” implements the framing device organically , with the filmmakers’ idea for equating the arab spring with all of humanity’s great revolutions clearly born from how their subjects constantly reference those from history who inspired them to act . it turns material that could have resulted in a sporadic narrative into a profound statement that the arab spring is a continuation of humanity’s constant efforts to make a better , more just world .
and the child smiled on the giant , and said to him , ' you let me play once in your garden , to - day you shall come with me to my garden , which is paradise . '
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the raindrops of our memories “but then again i wonder if what we feel in our hearts today isn ' t like these raindrops still falling on us from the soaked leaves above , even though the sky itself long stopped raining . i ' m wondering if without our memories , there ' s nothing for it but for our love to fade and die . ” k . ishiguro , the buried giant there are times , i think , one must admit bewilderment and a certain lack of knowledge or learning to fully understand some novels , but can nonetheless say tha
the raindrops of our memories “but then again i wonder if what we feel in our hearts today isn ' t like these raindrops still falling on us from the soaked leaves above , even though the sky itself long stopped raining . i ' m wondering if without our memories , there ' s nothing for it but for our love to fade and die . ” k . ishiguro , the buried giant there are times , i think , one must admit bewilderment and a certain lack of knowledge or learning to fully understand some novels , but can nonetheless say that the story impacted him ; that , in a relatively short read , he inhabited the phenomenal , yet surreal , atmosphere of dense fog that enveloped the terrain and the faded memories of the protagonist medieval married couple ( and of all the population in the mystical land ) ; that he felt for the couple and their lost memories and , most importantly , that he has a deeper understanding , from having read this book , of how much memories are a significant part of who we are and of our love for those in our lives , and yet at the same time our love is more than memories : true love is in our souls and as long as we can see and know those we love , our love will not die , in spite of our vanishing remembrances . i know this sounds mawkish . yet , because i cannot articulate to you exactly why i found the story so profound , i am left to conveying my impressions , however sentimental they may seem .
we are t he giant transports viewers to the front lines of the arab spring through the courageous stories of six extraordinary people grappling with the dilemma at the heart of all struggles for justice and freedom : whether to take up arms and fight , or to advocate change through peace and non - violence . filming largely in secret and at great risk over the past two and a half years , award - winning director and former war correspondent greg barker ( manhunt ) frames intimate portraits of individuals from very different walks of life resolving to stand up for what they believe in and challenge the oppressive regimes determined to crush popular uprisings .
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but the spring never came , nor the summer . the autumn gave golden fruit to every garden , but to the giant ' s garden she gave none . ' he is too selfish , ' she said . so it was always winter there , and the north wind , and the hail , and the frost , and the snow danced about through the trees .
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mobilizing in the streets in libya , syria and bahrain , as well as on facebook and twitter , inspired young activists have been awakening the world to their plight and changing the course of history . among these unlikely heroes are the outspoken sisters maryam and zainab alkhawaja ( whose twitter handle “angry arabiya” has over 40 , 000 followers ) , both fiercely determined to protest for human rights even under perpetual threat of imprisonment and exile . this timely documentary follows the everyday decisions that transform not just personal lives but the fates of nations , reminding us that we are all products of revolutions and offering hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds .
if nature is not a prison and earth a shoddy way - station , we must find the faith and force to affirm its metabolism as our own . . . to do so means nothing less than a shift in our whole frame of reference and our attitude toward life itself , a wider perception of the landscape as a creative , harmonious being where relationships of things are as real as the things . without losing our sense of a great human destiny and without intellectual surrender , we must affirm that the world is a being , a part of our own body .
the buried giant is a subtle and melancholy reflection on memory and forgetfulness and the roles they play both in the lives of individuals and those of countries and peoples . it is the kind of novel that yields up its secrets gradually , and it’s worth persisting with even if you are not initially convinced . it’s a very distinctive work—distinctive to the point of eccentricity—and the reviews have been accordingly mixed , some very negative . to enjoy it , you have to cede to its peculiar , incantat
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4 . there’s an entire story about space pilots from across the world . the storyline works because the characters who speak languages that aren’t english are more than a dumb punchline , and because it basically doubles the film as a spiritual sequel to starship troopers .
so much for the gentle giant image . nevertheless , there is also pathos to be found in the museum’s account of his life story . when bao bao died in august 2012 at the age of 34 , he was “the methuselah” of the giant pandas living in zoos . despite his long life , and many attempts to find him a mate , he remained without descendants – so far , at any rate : his sperm has been stored in a deep - freeze and is available for artificial insemination in the future .
syrian friends ghassan yassin and motaz murad committed themselves to peaceful resistance against assad’s tyranny , though the extreme brutality of the regime’s response — we see entire civilian neighborhoods bombed beyond recognition , dead children scattered among the rubble — eventually prompted the rise of the oppositional free syria army .
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“we were thinking about a way to tell a story about , not just the arab spring , but revolution as a whole , and the engaging and beautiful experience that is people standing up for themselves ,
ghalayini said .
and so one thing led to another and within three months i had called maryam and i was like , ‘hey , how are you ? my name is razan , i’m working on a film , can i come visit you or something ? ’ and she was like , ‘are you cia ? what is this ? ’”
3 . the mega ufo has legs , like a spider legs but , you know , the size of a city . one of these legs dig into the east coast of the usa , and stops in the backyard of the recreation of the white house — destroyed in the first film . the city - sized leg of a giant ufo doesn ' t totally destroy the most politically loaded building in the nation ; it just knocks over the american flag on its roof .
and of course , such decisions depend on subjective assessment . as ishiguro shows in the course of this tale , if even happily married couples can hold vehemently differing perceptions of shared memories or objects seen in the distance , how can we hope all to agree on the right course of action in relation to major issues ? the buried giant of the title is an allegory for the buried hatchet ; the repression of hatreds , resentments and the desire for violent redress . it prevents justice being attained , but also impedes the never - ending cycle of tit - for - tat .
if there are rare moments in the buried giant when the plot does teeter into pastiche , and the swords and sorcery can seem a tad silly , then these are more than compensated for by a power and a strangeness that are , in the shakespearean sense of the word , weird . “there’s a journey we must go on , and no more delay …” it is surely no coincidence that these words of beatrice to her husband , displayed prominently on the book’s jacket , should echo the haunting final lines of kent in king lear : “i have a journey , sir , shortly to go . / my master calls me ; i must not say no . ” old age and memory loss , suffering , love and war : what shakespeare explored in the eerie setting of pre - roman britain , ishiguro explores in the context of a period of history barely less mysterious . for all the deconstruction the buried giant performs on its manifold sources and inspirations , the ultimate measure of ishiguro’s achievement is that his novel is more than worthy to take its place alongside them . the quest undertaken by axl and beatrice is not merely a search for their son , but one that follows in the footsteps of sir gawain , and tennyson’s king arthur , and frodo . the novel’s parting assurance is affecting precisely because it is so hard - won : “but god will know the slow tread of an old couple’s love for each other , and understand how bleak shadows make part of its whole . ”
it was a large lovely garden , with soft green grass . here and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars , and there were twelve peach - trees that in the spring - time broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl , and in the autumn bore rich fruit . the birds sat on the trees and sang so sweetly that the children used to stop their games in order to listen to them . ' how happy we are here ! ' they cried to each other .
, “to get more investment bang for conservation’s few bucks we need to protect a far greater variety of species than one hardy creature struggling to eat bamboo up a mountain . ”
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downstairs ran the giant in great joy , and out into the garden . he hastened across the grass , and came near to the child . and when he came quite close his face grew red with anger , and he said , ' who hath dared to wound thee ? ' for on the palms of the child ' s hands were the prints of two nails , and the prints of two nails were on the little feet .
what i feel , confronted with these photos , is not just a deep kinship , but also a form of continuity . we are here together and the only way to make ourselves at home is to share the land with these others , the animals which , as shepard remarked , make us human . this was a view held by many berliners back in the time of the wall , as von reiswitz recalled when we spoke at his studio : “during the time of the wall , the zoo was a sort of local recreational area for people from west berlin . this zoo was like a zoo inside a zoo during that time . so , people living in berlin were very close to these animals , because everybody was in a zoo . ”
there are many instances of that scar in barker’s remarkable documentary , an intensely moving account of the arab spring that focuses on the stories of prominent revolutionaries across three different countries : there is osama ben - sadik , a libyan man and virginia - resident whose son , american - born muhannad , leaves behind his life in the united states to join in the fight against muammar gaddafi . in syria we meet motaz murrad and ghassan yazzin , leaders of peace movements , both of them convinced that non - violent protests could inspire reform in the assad regime . then there are sisters maryam and zainab alkhawaja , who join their human activist father abdulhadi alkhawaja to fight against the dictatorship of the al khalifa family in bahrain by utilizing pacifist methods .
even when people are aware of their past misdeeds , can they expect forgiveness ? in a scene in a monastery , wistan challenges a monk on the religious belief that prayer and self - flagellation will absolve crimes .
the self - sacrificing sense of moral necessity felt by the principals here is stirring , as are the numerous frightening sequences of street combat . ( at one point someone’s camera records a little girl cheerfully singing a song , only to have the moment jolted by a shell explosion , the child’s well - being unknown in the ensuing haze . )
we took a day to do a mini - shoot , with a red epic , some plates of the burning and ink moments to have some original transitions . we filmed burns in front of green screen for the animators to eventually incorporate into the animations . i used textures , paint , type , ink , newspaper headlines , photocopies , etc . i thought it was important to stick to a monochromatic language which would evoke newspapers and old photographs .
the move isn’t nonsensical , in the capacity that a child could track what’s happening . there aren’t characters and storylines from a dozen other movies buttressing resurgence — you don’t even need to know the plot of the original . twenty years ago , aliens attacked earth . we won , built a harmonious global community , and advanced our weaponry for when they returned — which is now . how will we beat them this time ? the answer is no less preposterous than its predecessor’s solution : a head cold .
as beatrice says : “if that’s how you’ve remembered it , axl , let it be the way it was . with this mist upon us , any memory’s a precious thing and we’d best hold tight to it . ”
one morning the giant was lying awake in bed when he heard some lovely music . it sounded so sweet to his ears that he thought it must be the king ' s musicians passing by . it was really only a little linnet singing outside his window , but it was so long since he had heard a bird sing in his garden that it seemed to him to be the most beautiful music in the world . then the hail stopped dancing over his head , and the north wind ceased roaring , and a delicious perfume came to him through the open casement . ' i believe the spring has come at last , ' said the giant ; and he jumped out of bed and looked out .
as someone who has read all of ishiguro ' s previous works i was of course more than excited to finally get my hands on a copy of the buried giant . oh boy , if only that excitement hadn ' t been sourly crushed by the actual contents of this novel . the buried giant is very different from all of ishiguro ' s other novels . in fact it ' s so different that i can ' t even compare it to any of his previous novels . the main difference is of course that this is essentially a fantasy novel . now i ' ll be the first to
until 2015 the skeleton was hung alongside a model whale in the mammals gallery and wasn’t in full view , but in her stunning new home , where you are able to walk underneath and see her from all angles , she is even more spectacular .
oh boy , this is the book that caused such uproar among ishiguro fans ! before you pick up this novel , please believe me when i say this is going to be nothing like any of his previous work . so if you are resistant to change , you might want to skip this one . don’t expect it to be the remains of the day , and definitely don’t think this is going to be the next never let me go . in fact this book won’t even be set in our own time or even plane of reality . on the surface of it all , the buried giant is
yet are you so certain , good mistress , you wish to be free of this mist ? is it not better some things remain hidden from our minds ?
it may be so for some , father , but not for us . axl and i wish to have again the happy moments we shared together . to be robbed of them is as if a thief came in the night and took what ' s most precious from us .
wrapped around the three accounts are slickly produced graphics ( scored with soaring music ) that invoke popular uprisings before and beyond the arab spring , from the american revolution to more recent upheavals in poland , south africa , china , burma and other countries . though the filmmakers rather dubiously intermix quotes from tyrants and murderers such as lenin and che guevara with others from democratic and non - violent figures including nelson mandela and martin luther king , jr . , the implicit point that all revolutions stem from a universal hunger for freedom is nicely offset by the specificity of the three stories we witness , which illustrate not just the commonalities but also the differences among recent revolts in the arab world .
nevertheless , ishiguro is too subtle and complex a novelist to rest content with such a message . the memory loss that may serve a troubled people as a blessing cannot help but threaten the individual with the dissolution of his or her self . at the heart of the buried giant , luminous amid all the dragons and warring knights , is a deeply affecting portrait of marital love , and of how even the most precious memories can end up vulnerable . axl and beatrice are an aged couple who , in the grip of the mysterious amnesia that has afflicted the whole of britain , abruptly decide to visit a son that they had forgotten so much as existed . in the course of their journey , they meet a boatman in the ruins of a roman villa , whose duty it is to ferry people to an island of the dead . only if a couple can convince him of their devotion will he allow them to travel together . from that moment on , axl and beatrice are haunted by a dread that they would fail such a test , and be separated for ever . “axl and i wish to have again the happy moments we shared together . to be robbed of them is as if a thief came in the night and took what’s most precious from us . ”
one day the giant came back . he had been to visit his friend the cornish ogre , and had stayed with him for seven years . after the seven years were over he had said all that he had to say , for his conversation was limited , and he determined to return to his own castle . when he arrived he saw the children playing in the garden .
you ' ve long set your heart against it , axl , i know . but it ' s time now to think on it anew . there ' s a journey we must go on , and no more delay . . .
the buried giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen in years . sometimes savage , often intensely moving , kazuo ishiguro ' s first novel in nearly a decad
then the spring came , and all over the country there were little blossoms and little birds . only in the garden of the selfish giant it was still winter . the birds did not care to sing in it as there were no children , and the trees forgot to blossom . once a beautiful flower put its head out from the grass , but when it saw the notice - board it was so sorry for the children that it slipped back into the ground again , and went off to sleep . the only people who were pleased were the snow and the frost . ' spring has forgotten this garden , ' they cried , ' so we will live here all the year round . ' the snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak , and the frost painted all the trees silver . then they invited the north wind to stay with them , and he came . he was wrapped in furs , and he roared all day about the garden , and blew the chimney - pots down . ' this is a delightful spot , ' he said , ' we must ask the hail on a visit . ' so the hail came . every day for three hours he rattled on the roof of the castle till he broke most of the slates , and then he ran round and round the garden as fast as he could go . he was dressed in grey , and his breath was like ice .
in itself , this promiscuous mixing of influences and periods within a fantasy novel is hardly original to ishiguro . george rr martin , for instance , has always performed it with particular aplomb , fusing plot lines drawn from the wars of the roses with locations that plainly draw on hadrian’s wall or the steppes of genghis khan . the buried giant , though , unlike a song of ice and fire , makes play with the gaps and the seams . they are designed to show . the shimmering of literary influences within ishiguro’s prose is like that of memories within a fading mind : fragments shored against ruin . yet always , haunting the novel , lurks the possibility that the memories themselves may be false . the buried giant cannot help but exist in the shadow of the near - total oblivion that has claimed the period ishiguro is writing about . one character worries that god himself may be afflicted by amnesia – “and if a thing is not in god’s mind , then what chance of it remaining in those of mortal men ? ” ishiguro is less certain than tolkien that what has been forgotten can be redeemed .
for the title sequence itself i worked with a very small team . the mill ' s team consisted of three animators – justin sucara , victor duncan , and greg park – who did a brilliant job of bringing the designs , textures , and concept to life , two producers , and myself as the sole designer and director . i also worked with the film ' s editor , josh altman , who was a fundamental shorthand . we were all eager to make the best of this project as we knew what a great film this is . everyone gave it their best and we made an extremely demanding delivery of 13 : 22 minutes of full - on design and animation in roughly 4 weeks . with a project like this , it ' s a true labor of love with all involved !
but the immediacy of such scenes isn’t really helped by all the filigree barker imposes to provide a big - picture perspective . there are innumerable overly fussy black - and - white graphics interludes ( by vfx outfit the mill ) mashing up imagery and headlines from practically every historical freedom struggle imaginable . adding yet more onscreen text are too many quotes encompassing everyone from jesus to che guevara , mao tsetung , martin luther king jr . , nelson mandela and joseph stalin . of course the issues involved in arab spring uprisings are universal , but so much extraneous material seems to suggest that viewers won’t grasp that unless they’re hammered with reminders of more familiar , similar fights closer to home . at the same time , the pic provides little of the specific backgrounding that would make it more accessible to those not already well versed in contemporary middle eastern politics .
' my own garden is my own garden , ' said the giant ; ' any one can understand that , and i will allow nobody to play in it but myself . ' so he built a high wall all round it , and put up a notice - board .


doctor 's orders is a 1934 british , black-and-white , comedy film directed by norman lee and starring leslie fuller , john mills marguerite allan and ronald shiner as miggs .

it was produced by british international pictures .

doctor ' s orders ( film )

we don ' t have enough data to suggest any movies based on doctor ' s orders . you can help by rating movies you ' ve seen .
grazia blithely ignores her doctor’s orders and surreptitiously devours a forbidden macaroni casserole . maria , from whom valeria wrested the television set , sneaks off to a nearby cafe for a drink .
bilge ebiri writes about film for new york magazine and bookforum . he is also the director of the feature film new guy ( 2003 ) .
comedy in which a hospital doctor discovers that his father is a market quack .
the cast and crew credits , as well as the film ' s title , are given orally by twin sisters .
future learning and skills – giving everyone the opportunity to build a lifelong relationship with film .
professor samuel kassow describes what happened on august 12 , 1952 , when many yiddish poets and jewish figures of the anti - fascist committee were executed on stalin ' s orders . the doctor ' s plot , which erupted in january 1953 , was the next stage in stalin ' s cycle of conspiracies .
reviewed at venice film festival ( orizzonti ) , sept . 3 , 2016 . ( also in toronto film festival — platform . ) running time : 103 min . ( original title :
réparer les vivants
)
an interview with writer / director boots riley about his incendiary new film ,
sorry to bother you .
i like comedian leslie fuller , but he ' s rarely in any good comedies . there is nothing particularly bad about doctor ' s orders ( 1934 ) . just hums along in it ' s way . there are a few scenes which you sense could have been funny where they didn ' t put enough effort in making them such . forgettable feel - good story too .
but breast cancer has been more frequently and , perhaps , better dealt with by tv movies ( lifetime’s short - film anthology “five” ) and medical - themed series ( “grey’s anatomy” or “er” ) than it has on the big screen .
magda follows doctor’s orders after her operation and heads to the beach with her son , uncomfortable with his mother’s physical changes , and the introverted arturo , who steadfastly keeps matters platonic even after his wife dies . with a 70 % chance of being cancer - free , she is determined to carry on by bravely shaving her hair , wearing a wig , using a prosthetic breast and plotting to buy new “boobs . ”
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…
doctor ' s orders
guards a similar secret ( funny how the same twist aired six days apart on two different tv shows ) , although in this case i ' m not so sure it guards it so well , since i had clearly figured it out ahead of time . ( the only tiny remaining doubt : maybe i was being tricked into thinking there was a twist , and there actually wasn ' t one and they were just using weird events to make me think there was . talk about over - analysis . as data once said ,
knowing that he knows that we know that he knows . . .
) all the hints are clearly there in
doctor ' s orders .
the second phlox offers to walk t ' pol to her quarters , the jig is up .
this routine second world war drama finds the normally reliable dirk bogarde slightly off - form as a pilot grounded on doctor ' s orders . his determination to continue flying is deflected momentarily by his love for naval intelligence widow dinah sheridan and the disappearance of comrade bryan forbes after he ' s caught tinkering with a code machine . it ' s all pretty much as you ' d expect , but a little more insight into the lives of the air crews would have filled in the gaps left by the absence of flag - waving propaganda .
alabam is lovesick . he tells mickey how he can ' t get close to the girl of his dreams ; he ' s overheard by dave , a smooth operator , who insists that alabam leave everything to him . he contrives to have alabam and mickey wreck alabam ' s car in the girl ' s front yard , then he arrives , posing as a doctor , asking the residents of the house if they ' ll let the injured boy come inside while the doctor examines him . meanwhile , mickey gets a look at the girl ' s cousin and feigns injury so that now both lads are in beds upstairs while dave , the doctor , conjures foul - tasting treatments . the fly in the ointment is the girl ' s crusty uncle , who may stand between the lads and their true loves .
the film takes on gabrielle’s listlessness , slumps into an opiated fug . the malady is mysterious and not easily treatable . it just exhausts you . it transforms from a story about release to just another jail . at times it felt like there was no escape .
the couple move to the coast , where dependable josé begins to build a house . gabrielle is still afflicted , now with paralysing cramps that may or may not be real . she’s sent , on doctor’s orders , to a spa in the swiss mountains . there – finally – she meets someone who might help her escape herself : a floppy - haired hottie called andré sauvage ( louis garrel ) . a veteran of the war in indochina , he’s picked up a kidney infection that manifests itself in bouts of exhausted sighing . his treatment is gob - fulls of opium and the odd manly grunt to help through the pain . all this byron - esque suffering is , unsurprisingly , right up gabrielle’s street .
it doesn’t take a scholar of narrative structure to figure out how these two narratives will be joined , quite literally , at the heart , but quillévéré observes medical process — and the worn bodies that undergo them — with a reverent , methodical exactitude that should have viewers knotted in tense concern regardless . the film has no need for trumped - up reminders of life - or - death gravity , nor for agitated cutting and scoring as doctors shout imperatives at each other : it’s the quiet human details of the situation , as parents’ final sentiments are relayed to unconscious ears , or tentative smiles of understanding are exchanged across waiting rooms in the early hours , that land like the benevolent of punches to the gut . “careful , no powerful emotions , ” claire wryly cautions her loved ones at one point , repeating doctor’s orders but knowing it’s far too late for such restraint .
that fusion of formal and emotional fluency should make “heal the living” the helmer’s most widely distributed work to date , and deserves to fix her name in producers’ minds for even more ambitious , potentially international , crossover projects . dazzlingly composed and choreographed , the film’s opening stretches may surprise admirers of her earlier , earthier films , as tom harari’s lithe , gliding camera tracks tattooed teenager simon ( gabin verdet ) from a secret tryst in his girlfriend’s bedroom to a late - night bicycle joyride through his hometown of le havre to an early - morning surf appointment with friends .
obviously , the fact that t ' pol isn ' t real is hidden from the audience more for our benefit than for phlox ' s , and the fact that it ' s t ' pol whom he imagines is for obvious script reasons : she ' s a vulcan and could logically be immune to the anomaly ' s effects .
the conundrum continues : how do you do an inspiring breast - cancer story without depressing the audience or resorting to clichés ? “miss you already , ” while more original , already showed what happens if you go too far in the other direction . still , if “ma ma” encourages just one woman to examine herself regularly and not wait to see a doctor if something seems amiss , at least the film will stand as a rather stylish public service announcement for early detection .
utterly amazing ! i was surprised to see voyager ripoff tng in ex post facto but i never thought enterprise would ripoff voyagers few original idea ' s ! lucky for this show phlox ( psychotic doctor that he is ) is one of the few characters i like behind porthos but ahead of hoshi and reed . 2 stars .
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to gianni’s mild chagrin , luigi arrives not only with his mother but also with her sister , maria ( maria calì ) . coincidentally , gianni’s doctor ( marcello ottolenghi ) pays a visit to monitor gianni’s blood pressure and prevails on him to take in his own mother , grazia ( grazia cesarini sforza ) , who is afflicted with an array of ailments that require several medications and strict dietary guidelines . suddenly gianni , reduced to sleeping in a deck chair , is single - handedly running what amounts to a temporary geriatric ward .
a lot has been made of female sexuality coming to the fore at this year’s cannes . from the land of the moon continues the trend to a degree . it’s implied that much of gabrielle’s pain is rooted in sexual frustration . there’s a lot made of what gabrielle calls “the principal thing” . this , in agus’s novella , is love . but garcia suggests sexual fulfilment is strong in the mix here too . in an early scene gabrielle stands , dress hiked up and lets a river wash over her . it’s the pursuit of orgasm as escape . getting off to get out .
directed by gianni di gregorio ; written by mr . di gregorio , based on a story by mr . di gregorio and simone riccardini ; director of photography , gian enrico bianchi ; edited by marco spoletini ; music by ratchev and carratello ; production designer , susanna cascella ; costumes by silvia polidori ; produced by matteo garrone ; released by zeitgeist films . at film forum , 209 west houston street , west of avenue of the americas , south village . in italian , with english subtitles . running time : 1 hour 15 minutes . this film is not rated .
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daniel blake is an affable 59 - year - old middle class widower in newcastle recovering from a heart attack and seeking fi - nancial assistance from the state . government illogic stipulates that his benefits will be taken away unless he looks for work , yet doctor’s orders prevent him from working . at the welfare office , daniel meets single mother katie , whom he befriends , offering his platonic friendship and gentle , grandfatherly support to her and her two children . deservedly the winner of the coveted 2016 palm d’or award at cannes , this is a rare and unapologetic political drama which touches the soul and reminds us of the power of simple compassion . director ken loach and the outstanding lead actors have created fictional , yet very real people , whom we will not soon forget .
the ladies who lunch in gianni di gregorio’s luminous sliver of a film , “mid - august lunch , ” are roman women in their 80s and beyond who have gathered in a small condominium in the trastevere neighborhood . the modest apartment is the home of gianni ( mr . di gregorio ) , an unemployed 50 - something bachelor , and his 93 - year - old mother , valeria ( valeria de franciscis ) .
with : gianni di gregorio ( gianni ) , valeria de franciscis ( valeria ) , marina cacciotti ( marina ) , maria calì ( aunt maria ) , grazia cesarini sforza ( grazia ) , alfonso santagata ( luigi ) , marcello ottolenghi ( doctor ) and luigi marchetti ( viking ) .
katell quillévéré ' s superb third feature is a wrenching medical drama that blends dazzling formal polish with rawest emotion .
dr . charles walker returns to allison ' s dreams , and this time it involves one of her daughters .
not to mention it has phlox ' s letter narration , ending with him deciding to leave the hallucinated parts in .
bill blake , a jovial con man is known to friends and his son as a traveling salesman , but in reality operates a phony medicine show , complete with singing , a monkey , and audience shills . his son ronnie has studied to become a doctor and internes at a nearby hospital . the boy ' s love interest is a nurse there , but his rival is anxious to expose his father as a market quack to ruin him .
one of the film’s deepest satisfactions is its characters’ complete lack of ruminative psychologizing . when the women look back , it is with a sense of having lived full lives . had “mid - august lunch” wavered from its matter - of - fact realism , it might have toppled into sentimentality or morbidity . instead it is a group portrait of people who are comfortable with who they are , savoring the pleasures of food and companionship and living in the moment . the movie glows .
considering that the disease is currently the nation ' s most common cancer according to the american cancer society , there are surprisingly few of note . of course , the 1983 oscar - winning “ terms of endearment ” is the grandma of such weepers . then there was last year’s buddy pic “ miss you already . ” both 2003’s “ pieces of april ” and 2005’s “ the family stone ” are centered on holiday - themed family gatherings where the matriarch is at risk . and the 1967 camp classic “ valley of the dolls , ” of all things , had sharon tate ’s sex symbol desperately opting for suicide after her diagnosis .
' s real - life son , enzo , can been seen on the dubois ' refrigerator , spelled out in magnetic letters .
man , what a rip - off of voyager ' s
one
. enterprise ripped off a lot of previous st scripts , unfortunately .
allison is again dreaming about dr . charles walker with whom she ' d had a previous encounter . unfortunately , she ' s also under arrest . it all started several days before when she and joe refused ariel permission to go to the movies with a 14 year - old boy . it turns out walker has been speaking to ariel in the school library and encouraging her to ignore her parents rules and just not tell them what she ' s doing . when allison drops the girls at school , she sees walker talking to dr gramado , the father of the boy who wanted to take ariel to the movies . ariel decides to go to a party at the boy ' s house without telling anyone but allison finds out what is going on and rushes to the gramado house where she misinterprets what she sees and assaults the doctor .
basically the story of a man forced to finally see the injustice around him . riley’s movie is designed to do the same thing to you . …
the surfing footage that ensues has a diving , deep - blue majesty that outstrips more hi - octane hollywood depictions of the sport for sheer kinetic wonder ; however high the narrative stakes , “heal the living” takes several such moments to consider the world its characters are merely passing through . the ocean , meanwhile , serves as a motif of life and death throughout the film , though not in the expected way . on the drive home , through a half - dreaming motorist’s eyes , the road turns to rippling water — a split - second before a crash that sends simon fatally through the windshield .
i ' m not one to hate or bash enterprise and this wasn ' t a bad episode but it was clearly a rehash of voyager ' s one .
i have to day , i didn ' t see the ending coming . . . because i had already considered and rejected the possibility . if t ' pol was under , why wouldn ' t the doctor remember putting her under ? he should ' ve said
t ' pol did you wake up ?
but he didn ' t . so i assumed i missed something . turns out i didn ' t .
roger ebert ' s speech on empathy for the
11th hour
series on april 9th , 1994 , being republished here in honor of his birthday june 18 .
it ' s not until near the end of act one where we even see that t ' pol is still walking around the ship . it ' s a nice little craftily hidden surprise that keeps us just a little off - balance — and , of course , provides a major hint that telegraphs the twist at the end .
production : ( france - belgium ) a les films du bélier , les films pelléas presentation of a france 2 cinema , mars films , jouror , cns prods . , ezekiel film production , frakas prods . , rtbf , proximus production in association with la banque postale image 9 , manon 6 . ( international sales : films distribution , paris . ) produced by david thion , justin taurand , philippe martin . co - producers , jean - yves roubin , cassandre warnauts .
noteworthy is how useless t ' pol proves in these scenes — how she never takes action or pushes buttons — and it ' s a rather obvious hint that tips us off to the ending : she isn ' t doing anything because she isn ' t really there . i have mixed feelings on jolene blalock ' s performance , which eventually degenerates into a series of weird facial expressions amid t ' pol ' s increasing paralysis — which may be the point , but comes across as a little off .
the ending of sixth sense surprised you ? wow ! while i enjoyed the film , i thought it was blatantly obvious from the opening scene ( given what happened ) . thus , the whole t ' pol thing in this episode was a real cheap shot . archer clearly said he was leaving phlox with this responsibility in the first 5 minutes . obviously he wouldn ' t have said that if t ' pol had been concious too . so from the moment we see her , we know something is wrong . then they make the mistake of having the meal in the kitchen , where t ' pol doesn ' t eat . so what more proof do we need ? it is a shame that they couldn ' t have worked this one out a little better . without archer ' s speech to phlox , t ' pol ' s appearance would have made more sense .
when the condominium’s manager , luigi ( alfonso santagata ) , informs gianni that his bill for electricity and other services has remained unpaid for three years , a deal is struck . if gianni will look after luigi’s mother , marina ( marina cacciotti ) , for a couple of days around ferragosto , the italian holiday celebrated on aug . 15 , his debts will be forgiven .
ten weeks is obviously not an option , especially given phlox ' s ( and t ' pol ' s ) mental state , so phlox ( and t ' pol ) must figure out how to start the warp engines and pilot the ship out of here . the resulting scene shows exactly why starships need engineers , and why going to warp speed necessitates an engine room staff .
gabrielle and her husband , josé ( alex brendemühl ) are taking their son to a regional music competition , where – in respect to mama’s gloomy sensibilities - he’ll mournfully trot out some tchaikovsky . the mood in the car is peculiar . mum’s distant , dad and son clearly more connected . they roll into lyon in a funk . then gabrielle spots an address that stirs a violent memory . and from there , we’re off .
2 stars filler . rehashed from voy’s “one” which itself was not very good . meh and my patience by this point in the season was thin seeing the writers just drag out the xindi arc week after week stalling
i ' m sure some will argue that there isn ' t much story here . they would be correct . it ' s essentially a two - character show , the impetus of which is a silly spatial anomaly with arbitrary properties . and , no , the ending is hardly the surprise that it wants to be . but that ' s okay . this is an acting showpiece , and a technique showpiece , and a fairly entertaining one .
the premise is that the entire crew ( less phlox and — sort of — t ' pol ) must be put into a comatose state so the ship can travel through a massive spatial anomaly ( the same type as the one encountered in last week ' s
harbinger
) that would cause the humans fatal brain damage if they were awake . phlox ' s denobulan physiology makes him immune to the effects . also immune to the effects are t ' pol ( sort of ) and the captain ' s beagle , porthos . passing through the anomaly will take four days at full impulse ; trip warns that to attempt going through at warp would be too risky .
when t ' pol suddenly showed up , i was surprised . didn ' t he put her to sleep too ? so , i thought : oh ! she ' s a hallucination too . but then as the show went on , i kind of figured that maybe she wasn ' t . but then when the end came near , i realized that she was . so , i guess i knew , kind of . but i was satisfied . i liked the way it all played out . and i really liked the freaky hoshi scene . > > the ending of sixth sense surprised you ? wow ! while i enjoyed the film , i thought it was blatantly obvious from the opening scene ( given what happened ) . the grand majority of people who saw sixth sense were surprised by the ending . guess we all are not as clever as you .
haha jammer your reviews tend to attract the most pedantic cynical commentors i ' ve ever seen . i don ' t now it that ' s the star trek fan base or a combination of factors . one ' s things for sure i wouldn ' t want to go to a party with any of these folks . . . . i ' d probably commit suicide just to get away from them . and to the people saying
y don
t dey jus go under ? !
why would a spacial phenomena expand in only 2 directions . do we live in a 2 - d world ? no , nothing is restricting it ' s expansion therefore it will fill space in all 3 directions .
this was my favorite episode of the season so far . i initially groaned when they argued that it would be faster to fly through something at impulse than to warp around it . that ' s like arguing that it ' s faster to crawl through the everglades on your hands and knees rather than to fly over them in an airplane . but technobabble not withstanding , i really got interested in the episode and became genuinely concerned about what they might have to sacrifice in order ot make it out of the anomaly in one piece . credit for that absolutely has to go to billingsley ' s phlox who remains my favorite character of the whole ensemble . this was truly how star trek was supposed to be made . well done !
but for all of these artistic touches as a director , medem the screenwriter disappointingly provides zero female support in the form of relatives or friends for magda , save for a kindly nurse . instead , her handsome married gynecologist julián ( asier etxeandia ) seems to have endless time to devote to magda’s well - being , including serenading her now and then with cheesy love ballads . she also runs into a kindly soccer scout named arturo ( luis tosar ) at her son’s match , just as arturo receives the tragic news that his daughter has died in a car crash and his wife is in a coma . how convenient that they can rely on each other to fill their emotional gaps as magda’s husband gallivants about all summer with a beautiful student .
when gianni runs out of food , he goes shopping for fish reeled directly from the tiber river and brings them back for a holiday feast he cooks with his best friend , viking ( luigi marchetti ) . the movie’s scenes of food preparation are mouthwatering .
but when magda receives bad news , the movie’s last third suddenly turns into a mawkish hallmark card . probable death is seen as a glorious opportunity for love , happiness and freedom ; a miracle assures her that her valiant spirit will survive no matter the outcome .
amid the teeny conflicts , there is no high drama and little overt pathos beyond grazia’s observation that “without memories , what would you do ? ” the performances by nonprofessional actors are so perfectly natural that “mid - august lunch” often has the feel of an easygoing documentary .
as you might guess , dr . lucas , i had considered deleting this letter and starting over , since large sections of it are now , obviously , fictitious . however , i decided that my delusional account would probably prove entertaining .
— phlox ' s letter
from the land of the moon is a choc - cake rich drama that oozes along on the strength of a committed performance from cotillard and the odd sprinkle of visual flair . it presents a kind of no - frills silliness , almost tricking you into believing its balderdash . it’s based on italian author milena agus’s 2006 novella , which has been relocated by director nicole garcia to 1940s provence , the french coastal town of la ciotat , the swiss alps and lyon , sometime later in what looks to be the mid - 60s . the story is told in flashback from this point .
this is the most bored i ' ve been all season . 1 star from me , but part of the reason for that is i simply don ' t care about phlox at all . he ' s okay as a supporting character but i have no interest in episodes devoted to him .
reedom , as the far left used to say , is the right to choose your jail . school , job , family , marriage : no cage is distraction enough for gabrielle ( marion cotillard ) , who – with a dreamer’s conviction – will do anything to escape the box being built for her .
yep , saw it coming but not immediately . when t ' pol first appeared , i was just like
wtf ?
however as the show proceeded i could see that she was never interacting with anything , and she wasn ' t telling phlox anything that he didn ' t already know , etc . so i guessed that she was just in his mind and that they were going for the sixth sense ending . jolene ' s befuddled bubbleheaded facial expression when she ' s supposedly trying to find some control in engineering was priceless ! i almost had to pause the ep , i was laughing so hard . 3 * indeed , agreed .
@ jeff : that ' s because space has always been treated as two dimensional in star trek . of course , if you want a in - universe explanation , you could make up something about the anomaly being ( approximately ) spheric , meaning that the way over or under it was as long as the one around it .
i quite enjoyed this episode . if we ' re going to have a diversion from the xindi story arc , then this is the sort of story i ' m happy to see , certainly much more entertaining than that groan - worthy harbinger ep . personally i ' m just glad when the writing and execution can sucessfully achieve a clear goal , even a simple one , without reaching for lazy solutions , and i don ' t think that ' s an issue here . it does strongly resemble voyager ' s
one
in many ways , but i consider it a sufficiently different take to be worthwhile , and good further development of phlox ' s character . and the atmosphere of the story was well realised . this isn ' t a deep story , but , it isn ' t dumb , and i ' m always grateful of that in a trek episode , because you can ' t take that for granted . . . the truth about t ' pol isn ' t overly hidden , plenty of clues are there , enough to make an attentive viewer fairly sure that she ' s imagined , but not quite 100 % sure for a while , at least . and so i think the twist works well even if you do see it coming , because you get to say
ha , knew it !
much better is billingsley , who displays a range that begins at affable and ends up at frazzled , but all the while comes off as
phlox .
the thing about phlox is that he has an overly expressive , cheerful style of speech . most people typically only speak like that if they ' re on stage or in some other stylized medium ( like , say , star trek ) . but with phlox , it ' s his everyday style , and we accept it because he ' s a denobulan — but more importantly because billingsley brings a credibility to it . this is a solid and versatile performance , delivered within the boundaries of phlox - isms .
t ' pol is in no better shape than phlox , and is losing control of her emotions as a result of the anomaly ' s effects . in retrospect , i like the idea that t ' pol falls apart just as phlox does ; since they are both really just phlox , it makes sense that they would both go insane at the same time .
just by being an episode that tries to scare the viewer , it loses a star in my opinion . i never liked or understand the fun of scary movies . as seen in this episode , there is basically no story but phlox running around being scared while we listen to the typical scary music and the sudden scary imagery that pop up on semi - unpredictable cues . while i liked the monologues and the phlox / t ' pol interaction , i really couldn ' t get past the fact that this is just a rip - off of
one
, only with the roles reversed . both have the logical scientific
babe
and the doctor , an evil nebula , an unwillingness to go around it , only humans effected ( sort off ) , hallucinations of scary stuff and invading aliens , main character loosing her marbles , engine problems at the end , etc . where
one
still had an interesting insight into seven , this only shows typical horror show clichés .
or , in the case of scrubs , perhaps you are too busy laughing . a similar narrative twist — with a reasonable level of underlying poignancy — appeared at the end of this week ' s episode . i wasn ' t expecting it at all , perhaps because scrubs is not the sort of series where you expect a twist like that . but the clues were there .
valeria , whose elaborate , swept - up hairdo suggests a copper - colored froth of whipped cream , is the most imperious . for a while she commandeers the apartment’s only television and sets herself apart from the others . once settled in , the women engage in small acts of self - assertion . one unashamedly flirts with gianni . another gripes about the kind of pasta being prepared .
the twist at the end , to get this out of the way , is that t ' pol isn ' t and never was awake during the time phlox is tending to the sleeping ship . she ' s a figment of his imagination , apparently designed by his mind to keep him from becoming completely unhinged , which happens gradually as a result of unforeseen effects from the anomaly field .
i agree with marco p and brock ! reading the comments on jammer ' s review scares me . there are some really creepy and cynical people on here . anyway , i think phlox is one of my favorite characters of all star trek series among data , worf , and captain picard . but i cannot help wonder if the writers were out of ideas so they were picking ideas from previous series .
why are all the doctors on star trek so awesome ? well . . . crusher not so much , but that series had picard . : p i still like the doctor the best , but phlox is still up there . . . as to the t ' pol thing , i would say its only logical for his mind to be able to imagine her instead of anyone else . as you have noted many times , the vulcans have super plot immunity , and no doubt his plot driven brain would realize this and think of her as merely immune whereas the humans he would be forced to help . he could conjure up some denobulans , but this would take a bigger leap of faith then ' t ' pol is vulcan immune ' . as phlox degenerates more though , more humans are seen , showing logic is slowly being strangled into submission . i wonder if the thing really expended at all or if that part was in his head too . the plot never makes that point clear , although of the verious figments seen throughout the episode it would be the most believable . . .
star trek has , of course , done it may , many times , but i ' ve always loathed the notion that a particular anomoly only affects organic lifeforms selectively ( and almost unilaterally , humans are the vulnerable species ) because it makes little logical sense . radiation , poisonous gas , or whatver else working that way is simply ridiculous . it ' s a bad as the asteroids or the storms or the holes in the ozone layer in countless disaster movies ( armageddon and the core come to mind immediately ) that seem to have minds of their own because they inevitably target urban areas when the locations should be completely random . i guess it ' s not as thrilling to see a wheatfield in north dakota get obliterated as it is to see asteroids decimate new york , electrical storms demolish rome , or cosmic rays melt the golden gate bridge .
completely obvious from the start . gee , t ' pal was a hallucination ? what a shock . dumb ending . i think the complete obviousness of t ' pal ' s illusion - how could we really think otherwise ? - ruined the episode . even if you were completely dense , the drawn - out engineering scene where she was a helpless fawn made it plain , which rendered the ended
no shit , sherlock
.
it probably doesn ' t really matter , because the story is more concerned with structure and technique than deep psychology or character significance . on those chosen levels , the episode works pretty well , giving phlox a series of hallucinations that he eventually recognizes as unreal and must cope with . one hallucination is his deranged hunt for the xindi insectoid , which ends when he nearly phasers porthos . ( t ' pol :
you nearly shot the captain ' s dog !
)
elsewhere the expression of inner turmoil is a lot less interesting . there is loads of gabrielle running away desperately - into the woods , the sea , a ditch . cotillard’s ability to tear up in an instant is used to the point of exploitation . gabrielle is , on many occasions , simply too nasty to care about . “every time you visit it rains , ” she tells josé . “people are right : you’re mean , ” he says later . he sticks around , still .
i predicted a different plot twist - i thought an alien lifeform had assumed t ' pol ' s form to hitch a ride through the spatial anomaly . would explain why t ' pol appeared without warning and wasn ' t sure how to operate the warp engine . when phlox saw the real t ' pol asleep , i assumed that he was going to turn to the other t ' pol and ask who she really was - and why she had delayed the ship from getting out of the anomaly .
decorating these sentiments are claw - flapping red crabs near the water , perhaps a symbol of the disease that ironically has given her inner strength and wisdom . and , in a recovery - room reverie , we are treated to the sight of magda’s beloved nipple preserved on ice . but more important than the washed - out blue - tinged rooms , bleached white interiors and sun - blasted sea and sand is cruz , who single - handedly breathes a sense of genuineness into this maudlin exercise even if she can’t cure all of its flaws .
i am surprised no one mentioned the easter egg of phlox thinking something was outside the window on the hull . it seemed like an homage to shatner ' s pre - trek twilight zone episode , where he sees a creature on the wing of the plane he is on . as for the twist , i was surprised to see t ' pol the first time she appeared , but did not consider that she was not real until the end . i wasn ' t exactly surprised as much as it just made sense given what had proceeded it .
this episode really falls apart if scrutinized . it ' s something that has a lot of holes if thought of too much . for instance , if t ' pol was asleep , did that mean phlox never checked on her ? didn ' t she need some form of sustenance while asleep ? also , where did the crew
relieve
themselves ? just right in their uniforms ? were they all given adult diapers ? for that matter , why were they even in their uniforms while asleep ? while i was surprised by the ending , and enjoyed this episode , i did feel it was a cheap trick . it seems that someone came up with the ending , and then said
okay , now write what happens forty minutes before this !
overall not bad , especially since it dealt with phlox who is well played by billingsley . i saw the plot twist with t ' pol well before the reveal , but my wife didn ' t see it coming at all . i think those of us with training or exposure to scriptwriting or story analysis caught it because we look for such things while watching a story . we know that a gun revealed in a camera shot means that gun is going to get fired at some point in the story . for others , it ' s a surprise . seeing the
twist
in advance doesn ' t mean anyone is smarter or more prescient , it just means we all approach our story time in a different manner and outlook . that said , i didn ' t see the sixth sense plot twist coming , though seeing that movie probably helped me in this episode to detect the similar twist .
and to the people saying
y don
t dey jus go under ? !
why would a spacial phenomena expand in only 2 directions . do we live in a 2 - d world ? no , nothing is restricting it ' s expansion therefore it will fill space in all 3 directions .
i ' m pretty sure everyone understands it is 3d ( or beyond ) . the question is : why isn ' t it faster to go around the anomaly at warp 5 than to go through it at full impulse ? must have been a pretty big pancake of an anomaly . but then it expanded in thickness pretty fast so that seems unlikely . it made little sense to me and i ' d have loved an explanation in the episode . any sort of pseudo scientific explanation on what sort of anomaly it was would have been interesting . what made trek insteresting to me was the exploration of possible phenomena . here they just ignore any attempt at justifying it .
this holds water to a point , since phlox is no more aware that t ' pol is a hallucination than we ( at first ) are . on the other hand , the question
why t ' pol ?
is an interesting one , and it raises some issues that the story doesn ' t really address . if this hallucination is designed to help phlox deal with his isolation ( denobulans do not like isolation , and there ' s dialog explaining how they choose to live in crowded cities on their homeworld ) , why would his mind pick t ' pol , who tends to keep to herself both in real life and in this hallucinated version ? why not pick someone he knows better , like one of his wives or a close friend ? if he must imagine someone from the ship in order to fool himself into believing that he is not alone , would his mind really pick t ' pol ? ( i ask in sincere curiosity , not purely as a nitpick . perhaps he identifies with t ' pol as the other non - human outsider . )
phlox talks about waking his medical crew after waking the senior staff . aside from the revelation that he actually * has * medical crew , it does explain why he might not know that t ' pol had been put under - - it ' s possible his crew did it . however , yeah , i ' m one of the people who saw through the thing the moment t ' pol showed up . they talked about him having to run the ship single - handedly . they prepped him to do that . he had stuff he needed to check , he had to learn how to navigate , how to fix stuff in engineering , etc . hell , he was * walking around the ship naked * . after all that , t ' pol showing up was nothing short of a
wtf ? ?
moment . after reading that there was some sort of twist at the end , i was really expecting it to be something * else * , since i couldn ' t imagine they would try to use something so blatantly obvious as their twist ending - - much less that people would actually fall for it . i guess everyone watches differently , though .
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the boys stage phony accidents so the girls will have to nurse them back to health .
go behind the scenes of the mission : impossible movies , check out the latest videos and trailers , and see which spy movies topped the box office in our mission : impossible guide .
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mickey daniels and grady sutton drive their car across the lawn in front of the girls ' house and crash into a tree , leaving very prominent tire tracks on the lawn . although this happened several minutes into the story , the tire tracks are clearly visible in the opening scenes - before the car was driven across the lawn .
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bill blake , a jovial con man is known to friends and his son as a traveling salesman , but in reality operates a phony medicine show , complete with singing , a monkey , and audience shills . . . . see full summary »
jermaine fowler and omari hardwick of sorry to bother you take us back in time to the worst jobs of their careers .
bip did not close in 1939 . they had been renamed associated british picture corporation . although their studios at elstree were closed at the commencement of war they continued to make films at welwyn garden city . consequently their films could not have acquired the status of public domain .
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sorry , we don ' t yet have a full guide to this comedy .
© 2018 guardian news and media limited or its affiliated companies . all rights reserved .
tahar rahim , emmanuelle seigner , anne dorval , bouli lanners , kool shen , monia chokri , alive taglioni , karim leklou , alice de lecquesaing , finnegan oldfield , theo cholbi , gabin verdet , galatea bellugi , dominique blanc . ( french dialogue )
crew : directed by katell quillévéré . screenplay , quillévéré , gilles taurand , adapted from the novel
mend the living
by maylis de kerangal . camera ( color , widescreen ) , tom harari ; editor , thomas marchand .
with : tahar rahim , emmanuelle seigner , anne dorval , bouli lanners , kool shen , monia chokri , alive taglioni , karim leklou , alice de lecquesaing , finnegan oldfield , theo cholbi , gabin verdet , galatea bellugi , dominique blanc . ( french dialogue )
a 17 - year - old car crash victim lies brain - dead in hospital , as doctors urgently pitch the virtues of organ donation to his distraught parents ; over in another town , a middle - aged mother of two with a severely degenerative heart condition goes on the waiting list for a transplant . what sounds like fodder for a routinely gripping episode of [ … ]
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shush ! - growing up jewish under stalin . a memoir by emil draitser .
roger ebert was born on this day in 1942 , and died a little over five years ago . i owe a good part of my success…
a look back at robert zemeckis ' half - animated classic , who framed roger rabbit , on its 30 - year anniversary .
knowing that the spanish drama “ma ma” is about a woman coping with breast cancer , i was curious to check out beforehand how many well - known hollywood films have tackled the subject in the past .
“ma ma” could be a case study on why that is , despite capitalizing on the considerable charms of penelope cruz , who is both star and producer . she is present with every pulse of her being as magda , a young mother in madrid who learns in the first scene that she must undergo chemo , followed by a mastectomy . she initially frets more about the pending loss of her right nipple ( an ongoing theme ) and having to reschedule her hair appointment than she does the status of her health .
meanwhile , the other less - than - uplifting circumstances of her life—defined by an absent philandering philosophy professor husband , a soccer - mad son who craves a father figure and her status as an unemployed teacher—slosh around her like a tub brimming with soap - operatic suds .
an interview with terry gilliam , director of
the man who killed don quixote .
the ebert club is our hand - picked selection of content for ebert fans . you will receive a weekly newsletter full of movie - related tidbits , articles , trailers , even the occasional streamable movie . club members also get access to our members - only section on urltoken
in brief : a skeleton plot , but it supplies some pretty decent psychological - thriller atmosphere .
the secret at the end of the sixth sense has to go down as one of the best - executed narrative twists in recent years . i didn ' t see the movie until it came out on dvd , and still i didn ' t see the ending coming , even though i had heard for months that there was a revelation at the end . the key , i think , is misdirection . the solution is sitting there in plain view , but you are not thinking about it , because you are not aware there is even a puzzle to be solved . you are too busy concentrating on the character drama .
i admire the intentions here , and i admire most of the execution , which deals in psychological terror . but i wonder : was anybody actually taken in by the trick ending ? had anyone actually not figured it out ? ( i ask in all seriousness , and would be interested in hearing from those who were . )