Une lueur d'espoir

The key to understand this great movie is the poem by Dylan Thomas: "in my craft or sullen art" "In my craft or sullen art Exercised in the still night When only the moon rages And the lovers lie abed With all their griefs in their arms I labour by singing light Not for ambition or bread Or the strut and trade of charms On the ivory stages But for the common wages Of their most secret heart.

Not for the proud man apart From the raging moon I write On these spindrift pages Nor for the towering dead With their nightingales and psalms But for the lovers, their arms Round the griefs of the ages, Who pay no praise or wages Nor heed my craft or art." Two works of art:the film and the poem

tadzio filippini

Ultimately this is just another love story with all the typical plot elements, but the physical disabilities of the protagonists add an interesting twist, and the material is handled well by the cast, the director, and in fact, all concerned. The pacing of the film is deliberately slow, as are some of the pans, which effectively sets up the mood of the film. Blues are used well in the film also, and there is some careful framing to show the characters against different trappings. The music serves to establish the mood as well, and the film is hardly ever maudlin - the sentimental factor is balanced well, except in the final twenty minutes. Lastly, Nannette Newman and Malcolm McDowell both deserve to be praised for their acting here. Each of them has their own share of solid drama to handle, and they both do a good job, but McDowell in particular, who perfectly captures the resentment and depression that his character feels. Overall, it is just another romantic drama, but it is still a film well done.

Around the same time that Malcolm McDowell became famous as Alex in "A Clockwork Orange", he also starred in "The Raging Moon" (called "Long Ago Tomorrow" in the United States). He plays Bruce Pritchard, a football player - that's soccer player to us Americans - whose legs give out and he has to live in a home for invalids. Here he meets Jill Matthews (Nanette Newman), and his relationship with her prompts him to start rebelling against the institutions mores. But there's no sugary ending here.

I would say that McDowell's role here bears some similarities to Alex in "ACO", but is obviously a totally different kind of person. Neither character really fits in with society, and they both end up confined. Of course, Alex lives a life of ultra-violence, while Bruce is a perfectly calm and reasonable individual.

Maybe I'm the only person who even thinks this. I thought that they did a very well job with the movie. It paints not so bleak a portrait of it's town as "Kes" does, but this still doesn't look like a very pleasant setting. Certainly the convalescence home is the less desirable of the two settings within the movie. For me, the setting took precedence over Bruce and Jill's relationship. I recommend this film.

PS: was co-star Bernard Lee the same guy who played M in the James Bond movies?

Healthy soccer player in England loses the use of his legs. I liked this because he's one of those guys who's a gifted soccer player, loved in school, lots of friends, get's all the girls, & the brother expected to succeed. For someone popular like this to all of a sudden come down with an incurable disease & wham he can't walk is quite the shocker. He has an interesting family which makes you laugh & before he loses the use of his legs, his older brother gets married. They have a pretty big wedding, with some funny moments between family members. He has a bad attitude & applies to go into "one of those places for cripples". He barely looks at anyone & gives only the bare minimum verbal responses. The place he goes in is really nice & he eventually starts to open up & make friends with the other cripples. Pretty good story & what I particularly appreciated was that when he falls in love with a girl in a wheelchair, the story doesn't ever get corny or mushy lovey dovey or show embarrassing sex scenes. Just a very realistic portrayal of life for two people in love in wheelchairs.

I can't say that I am really a fan of Malcolm McDowell. He always seems to play an angst-ridden "victim" of something, and here is no different. He ("Bruce") suffers a debilitating injury whilst playing football, and is now wheelchair bound. His working class family have no idea how to care for him (nor much interest, either) so he is shipped off to a care home, ostensibly, for more specialist care. Depressed and dejected, he meets "Jill" (Nanette Newman). She is also confined to a chair, and engaged to a fiancée who is loyal but increasingly full of little love - or lust, just pity. As the two start to bond, they discover a rebellious nature and a sense of optimism which lifts both of their spirits. That's about the height of the story, it is simple and straightforward with little effort made to fill the plot with faux scenarios. The supporting cast - Bernard Lee and Georgia Brown amongst them, offer us honest and plausible characterisations as those around them must also do some adjusting of their own. It has a sadness, a relentlessness to it, which is complimented well by the steady pace of the film and an effective score from Stanley Myers - both of which allow McDowell to offer up one of his better, more considered and empathetic performances. Newman is adequate. I found she always had a slightly soporific tone to her voice which I never really liked and which sometimes rendered her conversations about more serious matters (here it is sex and longing) hard to absorb. There are no rose-coloured cottages for people here, as the ending demonstrates - and that, too, adds a degree of authenticity to this story that is curiously depressing yet uplifting at the same time.