On the Black Hill

Clearly, the identical twins Benjamin and Lewis are not identical twins. If one stretched the imagination, they could be seen as fraternal twins, but that's pushing it. One is much older than the other.

Of the actors who play the adult brothers, the award for Best Actor would surely go to the shorter of the two, even though he seems much too old for the part. He has a subtlety that the taller, younger-appearing actor does not. He can change his expression and demeanor without moving a muscle in his face or body, while the taller one manufactures expression.

This movie is rather hard to follow, at times.

Not unlike the distant Welsh valley where it was filmed, this screen adaptation of Bruce Chatwin's novel can be a little too remote at times, but it captures the insular life of an old Welsh farm with vivid austerity. In just under two hours the film spans over eighty years in the lives of identical twin brothers, born into a century which seems to happen somewhere over the distant horizon (their closest involvement with the Second World War is watching the glow on the skyline of Coventry burning during the Blitz). The film offers a challenging vision of continuity between successive generations of a family tied (for better or worse) to the land, but the episodic, hopscotch approach effectively (deliberately?) forestalls any dramatic momentum, and no matter how eloquently expressed the stark isolation of the twins' life together is often cold and depressing.

This is the kind of movie that picks some characters and show their entire life, from their childhood until their death. Here the story is about 2 twin brothers who are very different but are very close too and who have lived in Wales since their birth in 1900. The movie begins explaining how their parents met, fell in love and married and later it centers in the 2 brothers, how they grow, how the 2 World Wars affect their lives and their little problems on the Wales countryside. A marvelous and beautiful film, perfectly directed and acted. A must see. 9/10

A slow burner for sure, but one of the films I saw as a teenager, along with Life is Sweet, Boys from the Blackstuff, that had the same feeling of taking you into different lives, different cultures, and ways of thinking that are , for better or worse, no more than nostalgia.

It's not an uplifting film at first watch, but the sensitivity it deploys without the expense of becoming sentimental is beautiful. The landscape is brutal and barely productive, but the attachment of the family to it is mirrored in the attachment of the brothers to each other and their father's legacy.

I hope the BFI ensure this is preserved in their archives, it's surely worth it.

It shows that this is a novel adaption. The first thirty minutes rush through the plot, introducing subplots that are never picked up again. The middle part and end is not bad, but overall it is just an average movie based on a much better novel.