Mr Turner
Reading Film Theatre was busier than I have seen it for a long time yesterday evening, when I went to see Mr Turner. Timothy Spall gives the title role character though not really charm, with little in the way of dialogue but much in the way of grunts. The film starts in the middle, I think, as Turner returns to London from a trip to the Netherlands. The story that unfolds is matter-of-fact, with episodes showing his relationship to his family (especially his father), to patrons, to fellow artists and later, to Mrs Booth. It also chooses to showcase demonstations of his technique, such as observing a snow-storm whilst lashed to the mast of a ship, or observing the new railways. Turner's work was appreciated by many fellow artists but was also divisive. It was, I think, very obviously a Mike Leigh film, and some of the more parodic scenes also made me think of Jane Austen, or Charles Dickens, or Victoria Wood. I enjoyed it.