{"id":1051,"date":"2011-02-05T23:16:17","date_gmt":"2011-02-05T22:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1051"},"modified":"2017-07-05T16:24:51","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T15:24:51","slug":"brighton-rock-dir-rowan-joffe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=1051","title":{"rendered":"<em>Brighton Rock<\/em> (2010), dir. Rowan Joffe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Davie described Larkin\u2019s poetry as a \u2018<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\">poetry of lowered sights and patiently diminished expectations.\u2019<span> <\/span>By setting his version of Graham Greene\u2019s novel in the summer of 1964, Rowan Joffe sets the film at a moment when society was moving between that lowered vision, and the newer world of the \u2018swinging sixties\u2019. <span> <\/span>Thus, Joffe pitches the film at a point where the dynamic of the family was changing but was still stifling. Sam Riley\u2019s Pinkie \u2018pays\u2019 Rose\u2019s (Andrea Riseborough) father for his daughter\u2019s hand in marriage. <span> <\/span>When Pinkie asks Rose, \u2018Why are you doing this?\u2019 her simple reply is \u2018To get away.\u2019 Pinkie seems to have no family attachments at all, other than the gang that has nurtured him.\u00a0 <span> <\/span>And through this film, Pinkie becomes more and more alone. The film\u2019s battling mods and rockers are the British teenager starting to make their presence felt.<span> <\/span>The pill is starting to become available, but so, still, is the death penalty.<span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Joffe has a eye for the exquisite details of that time:<span> <\/span>the bakelite public phones in their red steel boxes;<span> <\/span>the plaster model of a little boy with a calliper and charity box, that stood in nearly every shop or caf\u00e9;<span> <\/span>trilbies for the men and headscarves for the women.<span> <\/span>The film is also beautifully filmed;<span> <\/span>every frame wonderfully composed, both close ups of the faces, but also long shots around Brighton and the Downs.<span> <\/span>Brighton Pier looms through all of this like a magnificent Gothic cathedral.\u00a0<span><\/span>And the Catholicism of the film, too, is headily exotic;\u00a0 Pinkie calls them &#8216;Romans&#8217; rather than &#8216;Catholics&#8217;. Sometimes, however, this all seems slightly overwrought, over cooked, and Joffe can\u2019t resist the temptation of reinforcing any moment of drama with swelling and swollen music. <span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">This is a different film to the Boulting brothers\u2019 version of 1947;<span> <\/span>inevitably so. <span> <\/span>However, few could replace Richard Attenborough as the demonic angel, Pinkie. <span> <\/span>Attenborough\u2019s translucent beauty creates an exquisite pitch to Greene\u2019s Catholic sense of betray and damnation.<span> <\/span>Sam Riley\u2019s razored jaw-line clenches and unclenches and he certain conveys the solipsism of the sociopath;<span> <\/span>but lacks Attenborough\u2019s terrifying evil that asks his Rose to make the final sacrifice that will inevitably lead to damnation.<span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">It has been said that this is Andrea Riseborough\u2019s film. <span> <\/span>In the 1947 film, Carol Marsh\u2019s Rose, was somewhat \u2018wan and palely loitering\u2019, whereas Riseborough has a presence and inner conviction that matches that of Riley\u2019s Pinkie. <span> <\/span>Riseborough totters around in high-heels, peering out at the world from beneath her unkempt fringe with pale wondering eyes. <span> <\/span>Hers is a fragile beauty that the trajectory of the film almost crushes. <span> <\/span>And the cream of British acting supports, particularly Helen Mirren as Rose\u2019s tea-shop owning boss, who does actually seem to know what makes these young people tick. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">The above reservations notwithstanding, Joffe\u2019s film is undoubtedly wonderful;<span> <\/span>gripping and emotionally harrowing. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Davie described Larkin\u2019s poetry as a \u2018poetry of lowered sights and patiently diminished expectations.\u2019 By setting his version of Graham Greene\u2019s novel in the summer of 1964, Rowan Joffe sets the film at a moment when society was moving between that lowered vision, and the newer world of the \u2018swinging sixties\u2019. Thus, Joffe pitches [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[14,283],"tags":[57,215],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.2.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Brighton Rock (2010), dir. 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