Le Film de Mon Père review – father’s videotape legacy sparks intergenerational dialogue

A Swiss film-maker’s parent leaves behind a visual diary that raises questions about the limitations of art in a fascinating documentary debut The genesis of Jules Guarneri’s documentary – his first – comes from an unusual gift. Having made more than 20 hours of a filmed diary, his father, Jean, entrusted the material to the budding director, hoping that it would form the building blocks for his son’s first feature. These visual journals, in which the older man addresses the camera – and ultimately Guarneri – with recollections from his past, are awash with nostalgia and regret. As Jean’s recordings are interspersed with Guarneri’s own footage of his family, what starts out as a monologue gradually transforms into an intergenerational dialogue between father and son. Filmed with a fixed camera, Jean’s diaries have a static quality that echoes the stagnancy of his life story. Christabel, his wife and Guarneri’s mother, was an heiress, and the couple lived as idle rich in the Swiss vil...

G20 review – Viola Davis plays president in so-so action thriller

The Oscar winner plays a soldier turned world leader forced to fight back in Amazon’s simple, serviceable star vehicle

Released just three months after the inauguration, geopolitical action thriller G20 was always going to have unavoidable resonance. While the shoot ended back in March last year, there must have been points during the post-production process when those involved wondered if their film – a rousing story of a Black female president taking charge – would coincide with a similar, albeit less schlocky, real world victory.

But it wasn’t to be and instead the film has landed on Amazon at a far less inspiring time for America when a president has decided to destroy rather than save his country. Any links to be made from fiction to fact push Trump’s agenda closer to that of the bad guys, who aim to tank the global economy and stop a perceived US overspend of foreign aid. While there are moments that might unintentionally insist us to make the connection (lead villain expressing glee at a horribly familiar red stock market arrow), G20 isn’t trying to be The Political Film We Need Right Now, its makers smartly picking brawn over brain.

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