Mirror

Year of Release:  1975
Director:  Andrei Tarkovsky
Screenplay:  Aleksandr Misharin and Andrei Tarkovsky
Starring:  Margarita Terekhova, Ignat Daniltsev, Larisa Tarkovskaya, Alla Demidova, Anatoly Solonitsyn, Tamara Ogorodnikova, Arseny Tarkovsky
Running Time:  106 minutes
Genre:  autobiography, drama

If you are unfamiliar with the work of acclaimed Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky it's worth bearing in mind that he once said that no film that is any good should be "enjoyable".  Even by Tarkovsky's standards Mirror is inaccessible.  This largely plotless film blends autobiographical fragments, Russian history, dreams, nightmares and fantasies.  It features many Tarkovsy hallmarks such as long languorous takes, switches between colour, black-and-white and sepia,  images of nature, fire and water, and levitation.  Tarkovsky's father, Arseny Tarkovsky reads his own poetry in voice over, and the director's wife, Larissa Tarkovskaya, and mother, Maria Vihnyakova, appear.  It is not a film that can be understood in the way that a normal film can be, it's like a film poem.  If you give yourself over to it's unique spell you will be rewarded with beautiful imagery, that lingers for years after you've seen it.  In fact it is a film that it's hard not to feel affected by.  It's a demanding film, but worthwhile.  At least after it, you feel like you have had an experience.

  A look into Andrei Tarkovsky's Mirror

Au revoir les enfants

Year of Release:  1987
Director:  Louis Malle
Screenplay:  Louis Malle
Starring:  Gaspard Manesse, Raphaël Fejtö, Philippe Morier-Genaurd, Francine Ranette
Running Time:  104 minutes
Genre:  Period drama

France, 1944:  The country is occupied by Nazi Germany, and Julien Quentin (Manesse) is a student at a Catholic boarding school in a small town.  The tedium of school life is soon interrupted by the arrival of three new boys, one of whom, the socially awkward Jean Bonnet (Fejtö) is in Julien's class and dormitory.  Jean soon becomes the target of bullying by the other pupils, and he and Julien dislike each other initially.  However, after some time, Julien becomes increasingly fascinated with the bright, but strange, Jean, and the two strike up a tentative but genuine friendship.  Julien eventually learns Jean's secret. His real name is Jean Kippelstein and he, and the other two boys, are Jewish, who have been granted asylum by the strict but compassionate priest who runs the school, to keep them safe from the Nazis.

This is an autobiographical film, detailing events from Louis Malle's own childhood in occupied France.  Julien Quentin stands in for the young Malle.  It's a beautifully made film, with great performances from the young cast.  The realities of the occupation are largely kept away from the students, who live their lives in the school largely protected form the daily realities of Nazis and their collaborators, until it literally knocks on their door.  It shows the banality of evil, and also everyday bravery and compassion in both active and passive resistance.  The conclusion however is quietly devastating.
The film features the film debut of Irène Jacob, who would later star in The Double Life of Veronique (1991) and Three Colours: Red (1994), in a small role as a piano teacher.  It also indirectly influenced Quentin Tarantino, while working as a clerk in a video store a co-worker had trouble pronouncing the title of the film and burst out with "I'm sick of these reservoir dogs!"

Raphaël Fejtö and Gaspard Manesse in Au revoir les enfants 
     

"The Pigeon Tunnel" by John le Carre

Year of Publication:  2016
Number of Pages:  342 pages
Genre:  Non-fiction, autobiography

In a career that has lasted 55 years, ex-spy turned novelist David Cornwell (who writes under the pseudonym John le Carre) has become one of the greatest living authors.   Initially writing intelligent Cold War thrillers such as The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1963) and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974), le Carre has come to use the structure of the espionage thriller to explore human psychology and explore the political and moral climate of modern geopolitics.  This book is not really an autobiography, but it is likely as close to one as we are ever likely to get.  It collects reminiscences and anecdotes of events and people in le Carre's life, that have helped shape his remarkable career.  We are presented with a cast of actors, spies, directors, politicians, journalists, crooks, prisoners and fellow authors.  Beautifully written, and full of interesting stories, by turns funny and dark, and sometime both, particularly in one of the book's best stories where le Carre writes about his complex relationship with his con-man father.  This is a book to treasure.

"I'm a liar... Born to lying, bred to it, trained to it by an industry that lies for a living, practiced in it as a novelist.  As an maker of fictions, I invent versions of myself, never the real thing, if it exists."
- John le Carre, The Pigeon Tunnel    

Dark Night: A True Batman Story

Author:  Paul Dini, art by Eduardo Risso
Year of Publication:  2016
Length:  128 pages
Genre:  Graphic novel, autobiography

In January 1993, scriptwriter Paul Dini was at the height of his profession.  Specializing in cartoons, he wrote for Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and was writing for the internationally successful Batman:  The Animated Series (for which he created the character Harley Quinn).  However, one night returning home from a date, Dini was set upon by two muggers and savagely beaten to within an inch of his life.  After his horrific experience Dini feels unable to face life again, let alone write Batman.   After all, where was the Caped Crusader when he needed him?

Dini structures the book as if it is a movie pitch to bored Hollywood executives.  he starts with his childhood where his loneliness and frequent run-ins with bullies are mitigated by his imagination, and his love of cartoons and comics.  As an adult, his recuperation is detailed partly with a series of conversations between Dini and Batman, and famous Batman villains, such as the Joker, Two Face and Poison Ivy.  Batman is that voice that tells him to suck it up and deal with it, the Joker is more seductive, telling Dini that he doesn't need to work on that script, just play video games and watch TV, he can get back to work the next day, or the day after that, or the day...

Risso's art is beautiful, detailing the characters in lusciously coloured paintings, that evoke the look of early 1990s cartoons.  I read it in a few hours and enjoyed it immensely.  It is sometimes dark, sometimes funny, often gritty.  It is a powerful and effective tale of healing and the power of art and creation, and also the fact that fictional characters can have such great value to real life.

       

"Diaries" by Franz Kafka

Year of Publication:  1948
Number of Pages:  519 pages
Genre:  Non-fiction, diaries, autobiography

This book collects the diaries kept by Czech writer Franz Kafka from 1910 until 1923, the year before his death at the age of 40.  The entries deal with Kafka's daily life in Prague, his complex relationship with hsi domineering father, and his feelings for the woman he loved but could not bring himself to marry.  Also there are accounts of his dreams, his struggles to write and his feelings of loneliness, guilt and alienation.

The book is a heart-rending read at times and fiercely intense.  Kafka comes out of the pages as a senstive, deeply troubled artist, however the editor, and Kafka's friend and literary executor, Max Brod points out in his afterword that Kafka revealed only one side of himself in his diaries, partly because they seemed to have been a kind of therapy for him.  What isn't revealed is the friendly, fun-loving person who enjoyed a joke and was well-liked by most of the peole who knew him.  

It is important to rememebr that the book was never intended for publication.  Although, Brod stated later in interviews that Kafka, a keen reader of published diaries, would probably have been pleased to see his journal in print.  The book at times is quite hard to read.  Kafka frequently used his diaries for wrtiting exercises  and they, along with his accounts of his dreams, blend confusingly with his discriptions of his daily life.

The book also includes several travel diaries which record Kafka's journies through Switzerland, Paris and Germany.  These travel diaries are generally more light-hearted and matter of fact than the bulk of the diaries.

This book is a must read for anyone, not just Kafka fans, and provides an invaluable look into the inner world of one of the greatest writers of world literature.

"EmiTown: Volume 2" by Emi Lenox

Year of Publication:  2012
Number of Pages:   408 pages
Genre:  Autobiography, diary, comics, graphic novel

For the past couple of years Portland, Oregon resident Emi Lenox  has been chronicling her life in a daily "sketch diary".  This second volume covers 1 May 2010 to 30 April 2011, and marks a slight change from the first volume as it deals with both Emi's relationship with a new boyfriend and the loss of her job, as well as burgeoning success in her career as a comics artist (including a guest artist spot in an issue of Sweet Tooth, whose creator Jeff Lemire contributes a short comic strip as an afterword).

One of the big problems for diary comics often face is how much to share and how much should remain private.  Lenox deals with this by disguising some of the more personal episodes with fantasy strips involving tin-hat wearing soldier cats and superheroes.  These tend to be obscure but the reader can get enough of the gist of what is happening without feeling too intrusive.

This book is darker than the first book and a little more complex, as Lenox endures some pretty tough times, however there are still plenty of the incidental pleasures of life, which made the first volume such a delight and even the darker elements are shot through with a strong vein of humour.  There is a page for every day of the year, some are done like traditional comic strips, some are illustrations with notes, others are a single full page drawing.  There are also random song lyrics interspersed throughout.  Each month is prefaced by a list of the songs referenced that month.

Emi Lenox is a very talented artist and she started EmiTown initially as a private exercise in developing her art, before putting it out in the world initially as a website (http://www.emitown.com/) and reading through both published volumes you can see how she becomes more skilled and confident in both her writing and art as it progresses.  Lenox is an effortlessly likeable and engaging narrator whose cartooning is some of the most adorable around.  

You won't regret a visit to the world of Emi Lenox and EmiTown is a place you will want to visit again and again.

         

"EmiTown" by Emi Lenox

Year of Publication: 2010
Number of Pages: 408 pages
Genre: Diary, autobiography, graphic novel

Summary: As it says on the front cover, this is a "sketch diary" in which writer and artist Emi Lenox details a year of her life from May 2009 until April 2010 through notes, comic strips, sketches and song lyrics. She describes the details of her day to day life as well as comics detailing her as superhero "Ocean Girl" and a general leading an army of cats among many others.

Opinions: The book began as a web comic. Read straight through as a collected book it works really well. The switch from daily notes to the fantasy comics are slightly disconcerting at first but it's not long before you get used to it. As a diarist Lenox has a good eye for the details of daily life both funny and sad, and she is a very talented illustrator. It's kind of amazing that she manages to produce work of this quality on seemingly a daily basis. It is an endlessly entertaining and hugely charming book, which for the most part has a refreshingly positive outlook on life and the world, without ignoring the dark side.
If you are looking for a unique and engaging reading experience, this is well worth checking out.