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The Beatles song “Eleanor Rigby” famously imagines its eponymous heroine as a solitary spinster who attends a wedding wearing “a face that she keeps in a jar by the door,” then dies and is given a funeral to which “nobody came.” “All the lonely people, where do they all come from?” the chorus mournfully wonders.” “All the lonely people, where do they all belong?”

The British drama “Still Life” by writer-director Uberto Pasolini is pretty much an exact cinematic equivalent of Paul McCartney ’s downcast lament. It begins with three funerals, of different faiths, at which there is only one mourner, the same in each case. He is John May ( Eddie Marsan ), a short, square-ish fortysomething who not only attends such funerals but also arranges them and even writes their eulogies.

This is his job, but it has also become something of a mission, even an obsession. May works for a council in south London where he’s assigned to arrange for the burials of people who die without any relatives or intimates to assist with their passage out of this life. Much like Eleanor Rigby. There seems to be a steady stream of such folk, since May has been employed for over two decades. And the government evidently has the largesse to allow him to pay for proper funerals, each with a clergyman, music, a good casket and a decent burial.

Since they have no one else, May regards the deceased as “his” people, and he goes to extra lengths to serve them well. Researching their lives as exhaustively as limited time and resources allow, he constructs the most favorable life narrative for each that he can, and this becomes the person’s eulogy. He also tracks down any lost relatives or friends and tries to persuade them to attend the last rites – usually without success.

Otherwise, May’s life appears to be neat, clean and empty. He’s like an amalgam of the protagonists of Henry James ’ “The Altar of the Dead” and T.S. Eliot’s “Prufrock” – devoted to his dear departed while living a life measured out with “coffee spoons.”

After establishing May’s routines and rituals, the story take a turn when a young, officious new superior calls him in and tells his job is being consolidated out of existence. Apparently the bureaucracy would rather pay for simple cremations rather than funerals, and has no need for his personal attention to detail. Stunned that he’s only got a few days left being paid to pursue the quest that’s occupied his adult life, May finds a last case that he gradually begins treating as a grand cause.

As it happens, the deceased lived across from him, suggesting how modern city life divides communities into solitary cells. The man’s body had not been discovered for many days, but May enters his shabby, smelly apartment and, with his usual meticulousness, begins picking through his belongings (partly filled photo album, old LPs), looking for clues.

The portrait that emerges is one of a drunken, abusive, ne’er-do-well, just the kind of guy who would die alone and unlamented. But that doesn’t deter May, who puts his usual detective skills into high gear and tracks down a number of people who knew the man. They’re generally not happy to hear his name mentioned. A woman who runs a seaside fish and chips shop, who was his girlfriend two decades before, recalls him as violent and impetuous. Two homeless men, who served with him in the Falklands War, say much the same but allow that his roughness was useful in training for combat.

May also finds the man’s grown-up daughter (Joanna Froggat) working in a rural center for rescued dogs – a job that signals something of her feelings of abandonment. The last time she saw her dad, she says, he was in prison and punched out a guard. She’s grateful to May that he’s let her know the sad news, but she doesn’t want any further involvement with her father…until she changes her mind and calls the messenger back, sparking a connection between two lonely people that propels the tale’s third act toward an ending in which sudden surprise is followed by a bit of magical-realist uplift.

The film’s title says lots about its mood and style, which is heavy on becalmed views of rooms, objects like an apple peel and office utensils, and May’s glazed gazes at nothing in particular. Pasolini (formerly a producer of films including “The Big Monty”) says this approach is indebted to late Ozu, but it’s also one shared by many European art films of the downbeat-humanist sort. In terms of atmosphere, it conveys a kind of drab ordinariness that, for some reason, in English films, comes across as exceptionally dull, constricted and depressing.

The nuanced particularity pays its best dividends in the exacting, flavorful performances, especially Marsan’s Mr. May, who has a face like a squashed grapefruit, with doleful eyes, a looming nose and a stretched mouth that only really smiles when he meets his last client’s daughter. Whether filmgoers want to join his journey will be a matter of individual taste. Though the film’s lachrymose gist is conveyed with subtlety and insight into the rigors of loneliness and mortality, it is lachrymose nonetheless. Fans of “Eleanor Rigby,” in any case, should not miss it.

Godfrey Cheshire

Godfrey Cheshire is a film critic, journalist and filmmaker based in New York City. He has written for The New York Times, Variety, Film Comment, The Village Voice, Interview, Cineaste and other publications.

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Still Life (2015)

Eddie Marsan as John May

Joanne Froggatt as Kelly Stoke

Karen Drury as Mary

Andrew Buchan as Council Manager

Neil D'Souza as Shakthi

• Uberto Pasolini

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Still Life, movie review: Eddie Marsan gives a likeable performance in well-observed drama

(12a) uberto pasolini, 92 mins starring: eddie marsan, article bookmarked.

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The director Uberto Pasolini (best known as producer of The Full Monty) had the idea for Still Life when he read a newspaper story about British council workers entrusted with tracking down the next of kin of those who died alone.

Eddie Marsan plays John May, one of these council workers, a lonely man himself but one who attends as many funerals as he can.

May also writes eulogies for the dead in a bid to give them a taste of dignity and recognition. His dedication isn't shared by the Council, who want to sack him after 22 years.

This is a gentle, well-observed drama with a very likeable performance from Marsan as the Mr Benn-like hero. The ending, though, is just a little too treacly.

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By Lauren Fox

• Nov. 2, 2021

STILL LIFE By Sarah Winman

Historical fiction hits closest to the bone when it illuminates what we know to be true: that we move through capital-H History, but in each moment, the spotlight shines brightest on the unremarkable details of our own lives. Momentous events occur, and sometimes we’re caught up in them, but we are — simultaneously, inescapably — the main characters in our own stories. Sarah Winman’s sweeping “Still Life” is a parade of small stories, intimate connections and complex characters whose lives illuminate the tedium and cataclysms of the 20th century.

Ulysses Temper is the modest, searching, wandering protagonist. (We’re told early that he’s named after a winning greyhound, but sometimes a cigar is not just a cigar.) We meet him as a young soldier in Italy in 1944; almost immediately he crosses paths with Evelyn Skinner, a 64-year-old lover of life and an enthusiastic art historian. She imparts life-changing wisdom about love and art and the city of Florence. Their paths diverge, and he takes her words with him back to London, where he resumes working at a pub. Soon enough, Ulysses and his makeshift family — his ex-wife’s young daughter, Alys; his friend Cress; and a talking parrot named Claude — move to Italy, where Ulysses has inherited a large apartment that they convert into a thriving pensione . Cress, who was able to communicate with trees in London, can also communicate with trees in Italy.

It’s hard to encompass all that happens in this whopper of a book, partly because it spans four decades (and more than 450 pages), but even more so because much of it is just the stuff of life, suffused with copious dialogue so casual and idiomatic that it almost subverts its own demand for attention. Ulysses’ wife, Peg, falls in love with another soldier; she gets pregnant. Ulysses continues to love Peg and eventually raises the child on his own, since Peg is not fit for motherhood. One character finds love in his golden years. Another finds love early, and nothing else compares. During the war, Ulysses saved a life in Florence. Some years later, he is repaid for his kindness.

What holds these characters together is the love of a chosen family and the role of art in maintaining their commitments to one another. Much of the story takes place in Florence, and one particular capital-H Historical moment is the 1966 flood of the Arno, during which millions of books and works of art were destroyed, and countless livelihoods were obliterated — each, Winman reminds us, meaningless without the other.

The novel’s articulation of faith is spoken by Evelyn, who rhapsodizes in the early pages, “Beautiful art opens our eyes to the beauty of the world, Ulysses. It repositions our sight and judgment.” This is a theme that runs through the novel, and it’s a bold authorial move, insisting upon the transformative power of aesthetics. Winman makes the case over and over again that beauty is truth, truth beauty, and of course it raises the reader’s expectations. If the book itself isn’t transcendent, the scaffolding will not hold.

But the scaffolding, for the most part, does hold (although I could have done without the talking parrot, who seems to have flown in from another story). The real magic of “Still Life” is the elevation of the ordinary, the unabashed consecration of human experiences.

Early in the novel, after Ulysses’ wife asks for a divorce, and then sleeps with him, he ruminates on the scope of his life: “Somewhere between an atom and a star was this.” He orders a meal: “He asked her what the specials were, and she moved close to his ear. Tortellini in brodo , she purred. It was as erotic a moment as he’d had in years. He felt giddy and stumbled against the chair.” These are humans in orbit, connected by the staying power of heartbreak and kindness. And here is Winman describing an ordinary Italian summer day: “Golden light edged around the dark gray clouds and Cress used the phrase ‘unconscionable beauty’ in describing the garden. Cress was becoming poetry.”

Sentence after sentence, character by character, “Still Life” becomes poetry.

Lauren Fox’s latest novel is “Send for Me.”

STILL LIFE By Sarah Winman 464 pp. Putnam. $27.

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Still Life: A Three Pines Mystery

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‘Still Life’: Movie review

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British character actor Eddie Marsan (“The World’s End,” “War Horse”) is long overdue for his own starring vehicle. But this mopey, simplistic film won’t be the one to make him a household name in the U.S.

Marsan’s John May works in a drab, gray office in a drab town, making funeral arrangements for those who pass away without next of kin. In a sweater vest and tie, he takes his work seriously, attending services and preparing eulogies based off research from the deceased’s remaining knick-knacks. His old-world methods are on their last legs, however, when a new boss (with a computer!) fires him. Before May goes, though, he has one last duty: to find the lost daughter of a local loner in whom he saw his own possible future path.

This might have worked as a short story. As a film, it’s not viciously bad, but it’s dull. Worse, there’s a ludicrous ending designed to elicit an emotional reaction. But the poor script and treacly music just leave you asking when it will all end.

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‘the surfer’ review: nicolas cage battles board-stealing aussie beach bums – cannes film festival, george robinson to star in feature take of texas monthly article ‘still life’; kevin james & jeff sussman producing.

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EXCLUSIVE: George Robinson, the star of Netflix’s Sex Education, is attached to headline the movie Still Life based on the award-winning Texas Monthly 2009 article of the same name written by Skip Hollandsworth.

Still Life tells the true story of John McClamrock, to be played by Robinson, and his mother Ann. The two made a life together within the walls of their small Dallas home after John was paralyzed by an errant tackle on a Dallas high school football field in 1973. John McClamrock’s story garnered worldwide attention and support.

The film will be produced by Jim Whitaker and Jeff Sussman and directed by Samantha Buck and Marie Schlingmann. Scott Brown, Texas Monthly president, Megan Creydt of Texas Monthly , and Kevin James are EPs.

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The screenplay, originally by Jon Boyer and rewritten by Buck and Schlingmann, is based closely on the article as well as personal accounts from the McClamrock family.

Buck grew up in Dallas mere blocks from the McClamrocks’ neighborhood. Both come to the project with a deep understanding and passion for the family’s story.

Robinson has been praised for his role on  Sex Education which brings authentic disability representation to the screen. Robinson himself is tetraplegic after injuring his spinal cord during a rugby match in 2015.

Buck and Schlingmann are the writers and directors of  Sister Aimee ,  a fictional rendering of the disappearance of 1920’s evangelist Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. They developed a series for HBO, The Big D, based on their short  The Mink Catcher about the crossroads of sexuality and politics in Dallas 1980, and are working with Sony Television on an adaptation of Celia Lasky’s novel  Under the Rainbow . Buck also directed the Peabody award-winning documentary Best Kept Secret  ( New York Times Critic’s Pick, PBS series POV, nominated for a Gotham Independent Film Award).

Whitaker is currently finishing the live action film  Peter Pan & Wendy   with David Lowery. His previous credits through his producing deal with Disney include  Timmy Failure   with Tom McCarthy and  A Wrinkle in Time with Ava DuVernay , amongst others. Adam Borba and Taylor Chestnut are overseeing production and development for Whitaker Entertainment.

Sussman and James of Hey Eddie Productions recently produced the recently released Netflix film  Home Team . Their previous credits include  True Memoirs of an International Assassin and Here Comes the Boom.

Texas Monthly recently signed a first-look deal with HBO and HBO Max. HBO Max is already in production, with Lionsgate Television, on the limited series  Love and Death , based on the Texas Monthly Press book  Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs , and on articles in  Texas Monthly titled  “Love and Death in Silicon Prairie.” Also in development at HBO Max is an adaptation of “When ‘Angels in America’ Came to East Texas.”  Texas Monthly  has numerous articles and podcasts into various stages of development and production, with partners who include George Clooney, Laura Dern, Tom Hanks, Taylor Sheridan, and Renée Zellweger, as well as HBO and HBO Max, ABC, Discovery Plus, Netflix, Paramount, and Starz.

Robinson is represented by United Agents. Buck and Schlingmann are represented by ICM Partners, Mosiac, and Victoria Cook at FKKS. James is represented by UTA and Jeff Sussman Management. Texas Monthly is represented by CAA.

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‘kingdom of the planet of the apes’ review: wes ball’s exciting new chapter proves there’s still life in the franchise.

Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand and William H. Macy lead the latest installment, depicting a future where humankind’s hubris has led to its downfall, making apes the dominant species.

By David Rooney

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Putting aside the disposable 2001 Tim Burton remake that got the 21st century Planet of the Apes franchise off to an unpromising start, the trilogy that followed found remarkable durability in material that dates back six decades to French author Pierre Boulle’s 1963 sci-fi novel. Mixing action thrills and visual spectacle with a surprisingly thoughtful challenge to the belief that humanity is the exclusive domain of man, the films are among the increasingly rare summer blockbusters to combine brawn and brains.

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At a moment in modern history when autocratic rule is on the rise across the globe, Josh Friedman’s smart screenplay takes its cue from its recent predecessors in reflecting the politics of its time. But the movie works equally well as pure popcorn entertainment, packing its two-and-a-half-hour running time with nail-biting thrills but also allowing sufficient breathing space to build depth in the characters and story.

Bringing POTA veteran Andy Serkis on board as a special consultant has paid off with strong work from a new cast led with soulful sensitivity by Owen Teague . The performances are also a credit to stunning motion-capture technology from Peter Jackson’s Weta FX company, which worked on the three previous films. Worlds away from the actors in quaint Halloween monkey masks in the original 1968 film with Charlton Heston, the apes here have expressive features and extraordinarily lifelike movement.

A brief prologue shows a solemn funeral ceremony for Caesar, the beloved ape leader played so memorably by Serkis. Onscreen text informs us that hubris led to the downfall of the human race, while a virus robbed them of their intellect and ability to speak, causing them to retreat into the shadows. The apes, by contrast, grew more intelligent, becoming the planet’s dominant species. The action begins “many generations later.”

The pulse-pounding opening introduces an inseparable trio of best friends on the cusp of adulthood: Noa (Teague), Soona (Lydia Peckham) and Anaya (Travis Jeffery), as they scale mountainous stretches of forest looking for eagle eggs. Attempting the most daring climb, Noa narrowly escapes a fatal fall. Their rule is that they always leave one egg behind in the nest, establishing early on that moral codes are “written” into their upbringing as law.

The three young chimpanzees belong to the Eagle Clan, a thriving community built around a massive multi-story tower constructed out of tree branches and logs, where Noa’s father Koro (Neil Sandilands), known as Master of Birds, oversees the eagles that protect the apes and hunt for food. The clan’s traditional rite of passage, called “bonding,” requires each ape to nurture an egg until hatched, making the eaglet their lifelong companion and becoming experts in falconry.

It emerges that the killers are the troops of Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), a bellowing bonobo despot who twists the ideals of his namesake to serve his quest for absolute power. When an attack on the Eagle Clan village leaves Noa separated from his community, he sets out on a classic hero’s journey across unknown territory to find the abducted apes, dodging Proximus Caesar’s goons in close calls along the way. Noa’s growing understanding of himself, his insecurities and his courage, adds emotional heft to his trajectory.

He acquires a companion in wise old orangutan Raka (Peter Macon), a devout follower of the original Caesar’s teachings, who convinces him to let the human who has been trailing them tag along. Her name is eventually revealed to be Mae, and despite her initial appearance as a feral waif (think Newt in Aliens ), she turns out to be an intelligent and resourceful young woman.

The “kingdom” of the title is Proximus Caesar’s coastal colony, where a multitude of enslaved apes labor in a futile quest to break open a huge iron vault. Proximus Caesar, who has been schooled in human history by an opportunistic member of that shunned species, Trevathan ( William H. Macy ), is convinced the vault contains all of mankind’s information and technology. He believes that accessing it will consolidate his rule and accelerate ape evolution.

Working with editors Dan Zimmerman and Dirk Westervelt, Ball knows when to put his foot on the accelerator in a movie with no shortage of adrenaline. He and writer Friedman could perhaps have taken more care over a few fuzzy story points here and there: How did Proximus Caesar come to believe the vault was such a trove of knowledge? Why does it take almost the entire movie to clarify that Noa and Soona are not siblings? But the fast pace is reward enough. That’s not to say the film lacks quiet interludes, with the exchanges between Noa and the profoundly decent and compassionate Raku among the most poignant.

Cinematographer Gyula Pados, who shot Ball’s last two Maze Runner entries, brings muscularity and hyper-agility to the visuals, which include some awe-inspiring scenic wonders, while John Paesano’s full-bodied orchestral score propels things along with a robust emotional charge. Fans of the franchise should find much to enjoy in this very solid new installment, which points the way forward to a potential new recalibration of the human-ape balance.

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Still Life: A Three Pines Mystery (2013 TV Movie)

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Movie Review: ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ finds a new hero and will blow your mind

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Noa, played by Owen Teague, in a scene from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” (20th Century Studios via AP)

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Proximus Caesar, played by Kevin Durand, in a scene from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” (20th Century Studios via AP)

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Raka, played by Peter Macon, in a scene from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” (20th Century Studios via AP)

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows a scene from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” (20th Century Studios via AP)

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Soona, played by Lydia Peckham, left and Noa, played by Owen Teague, in a scene from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” (20th Century Studios via AP)

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Noa, played by Owen Teague, from left, Freya Allan as Nova, and Raka, played by Peter Macon, in a scene from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” (20th Century Studios via AP)

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Freya Allan in a scene from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” (20th Century Studios via AP)

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Fans of the “Planet of the Apes” franchise may still be mourning the 2017 death of Caesar, the first smart chimp and the charismatic ape leader. Not to worry: He haunts the next episode, the thrilling, visually stunning “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.”

We actually start with Caesar’s funeral, his body decorated with flowers and then set alight like a Viking, before fast-forwarding “many generations later.” All apes talk now and most humans don’t, reduced to caveman loin cloths and running wide-eyed and scared, evolution in reverse.

Our new hero is the young ape Noa (Owen Teague ) who is like all young adult chimps — seeking his father’s approval (even chimp dads just don’t understand) and testing his bravery. He is part of a clan that raises pet eagles, smokes fish and lives peacefully.

That all changes when his village is attacked not by humans but by fellow apes — masked soldiers from a nasty kingdom led by the crown-wearing Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand, playing it to the hilt). He has taken Caesar’s name but twisted his words to become a tyrannical strongman — sorry, strongape.

Unlike the last movie which dealt with man’s inhumanity to animals — concentration camps included — ape-on-ape violence is in the cards for this one, including capturing an entire clan as prisoners. Proximus Caesar’s goons use makeshift cattle prods on fellow apes and force them to work while declaring “For Caesar!”

Screenwriter Josh Friedman has cleverly created a movie that examines how ancient stories can be hijacked and manipulated, like how Caesar’s non-violent message gets twisted by bad actors. There’s also a lot of “Avatar” primitive naivete, and that makes sense since the reboot was shaped by several of that blue alien movie’s makers.

The movie poses some uncomfortable questions about collaborationists. William H. Macy plays a human who has become a sort of teacher-prisoner to Proximus Caesar — reading Kurt Vonnegut to him — and won’t fight back. “It is already their world,” he rationalizes.

Along for the heroic ride is a human young woman (Freya Allan, a budding star) who is hiding an agenda but offers Noa help along the way. Peter Macon plays a kindly, book-loving orangutan who adds a jolt of gleeful electricity to the movie and is missed when he goes.

The effects are just jaw-dropping, from the ability to see individual hairs on the back of a monkey to the way leaves fall and the crack of tree limbs echoing in the forest. The sight of apes on horseback, which seemed glitchy just seven years ago, are now seamless. There are also inside jokes, like the use of the name Nova again this time.

Director Wes Ball nicely handles all the thrilling sequences — though the two-and-a-half hour runtime is somewhat taxing — and some really cool ones, like the sight of apes on horseback on a beach, a nod to the original 1968 movie. And like when the apes look through some old illustrated kids’ books and see themselves depicted in zoo cages. That makes for some awkward human-ape interaction. “What is next for apes? Should we go back to silence?” our hero asks.

The movie races to a complex face-off between good and bad apes and good and bad humans outside a hulking silo that holds promise to each group. Can apes and humans live in peace, as Caesar hoped? “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” doesn’t answer that but it does open up plenty more to ponder. Starting with the potentially crippling proposition of a key death, this franchise has somehow found new vibrancy.

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” a 20th Century Studios release that is exclusively in theaters May 10, is rated PG-13 for “intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action.” Running time: 145 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Online: https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/kingdom-of-the-planet-of-the-apes

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits