Movie reviews

THE SILENT TWINS - Q&A WITH THE PRODUCER, THE DIRECTOR AND A PSYCHOTHERAPIST

The director first read an article in "New Yorker", next read the script, next read the book, she also saw a documentary film. June, the surviving twin, was happy for the movie but didn't want to meet the director. So next she used the girls' works as a means to get to know them. Ania Cyklińska from @Psychoedu saw a documentary about them on YT. The animations, the sisters' works weren't in the script. The script was based just on the article and the book. Originally Marjorie Wallace (the book author) was the guide through the movie. Tim Thomas - the doctor was a go-between between the producers and the protagonist - he's a very warm person. The book explains what really happened, the film retains mystery. It might be schizophrenia but that would have appeared in adolescence. Here selective mutism is most probable and there may be various reasons for that, maybe because of their accent they experienced racism so felt alienated. In the girls' diaries they are violent against each other - cut-outs were used to show actions rather than words. They distanced the film from their violence, decided to show their art rather. In the book they'd describe the same day in two ways. Jennifer was into drawings and voodoo so the animations are her stories. June's  is "Pepsi-Cola Addict". Possible induced paranoia - they were isolated so one could infect the other with her hallucination. Jennifer would draw the twin into her visions. Stress can cause one to imagine incredible things. When you read you realise they decided one of them had to die for the other to live and Jennifer decided to die. After Jenny's death June started to speak, stopped writing. Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska, the producer said making films was like having an independent state. Her earlier movies were "Córki dancingu" ("The Lure) and "Fuga" ("Fugue") - I've reviewed both before. This one was fully shot in Wrocław, with a Polish crew. The scriptwriter gave her the script because she wanted them to be like "Córki dancingu" ("The Lure"). Broadmore (in England, not Wales) was for murderers etc. They had art therapy there and nature. The wall is there because in the 19th century a patient had run and murdered someone. In the book, they're constantly bulimic. The director and cinematographers went to Haverfordwest, Wales and then chose the palette. British sockets were delivered. Only one scene was filmed in the UK, took 1 day of shooting - they smell glue in a studio in England. The road struggle was shot in Ursus, Warsaw, the brick houses in Wrocław. The poems and animations were used emotion-wise, they aren't chronological. Work on music had been done before shooting, they had listened to more than 3000 pieces. In the book you learn they listened to Blondie's "Heart of Glass" a lot but that piece was too expensive to use in the film. "Hot Love" was also popular in Wales in the 80s. The documentary is on YouTube, it's BBC "Silent Twins: Without My Shadow". Jennifer died of heart muscle inflammation. Earlier she hadn't eaten for a few days, she collapsed in the van, died in hospital. Potential reasons: medicines, stress, hunger - any was possible.

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JACKIE EN OOPJEN (JACKIE AND OOPJEN)

Watchable. Originally Dutch so a person walks out of a painting at Rijksmuseum. The plot is based on differences between our times and a few centuries ago. Pleasant but not really funny. It only gets hilarious at school, especially the punching the teacher scene and the lady's knowledge of Rembrandt.