ARTS 29
7 May 2022 THE WEEKFilm
I’d been “dreading” the remake of Call My
Agent!, the cult French comedy set in a talent
agency in Paris, said Barbara Ellen in The
Observer. “How could it be as funny, twisted
and delicious” as the original? Thankfully,
Amazon Prime’s Ten Percent is “a beautifully
crafted” joy. We are now in an agency in Soho,
presided over by Jim Broadbent and Jack
Davenport. The plot lines echo those in the
French series, and involve similar celebrity
cameos – from the likes of Dominic West,
Helena Bonham Carter and David Harewood –
but the show develops its own distinctly British flavour.
Someone’s clearly thrown a lot of money at this remake, but it
has a big flaw, said Camilla Long in The Sunday Times: “It’s not
very funny.” In fact “it is the opposite of funny”. Davenport isn’tfunny, while Lydia Leonard, “a serious actress”,
struggles to step into the shoes of Camille
Cottin. Even the star cameos aren’t funny:
instead of sending themselves up, the celebs
come across as “normal and friendly”. The
script was written by John Morton, the man who
created W1A, which means “lots of nibbling
little rejoinders in tense eyebally meetings
where secretaries will cut people dead just by
saying ‘Yup’“. I felt I was “drowning in a blizzard
of corporate manners”.
I really enjoyed the series, said Rebecca
Nicholson in The Guardian. The agents are too nice, and it could
have done with more “spiky humour”; but I still hoovered up all
eight episodes “with gusto”. Is there any point to this remake?
“Not really.” But was I invested by the end? “I was.”Ten Percent: the British remake of Call My Agent!
I’ve always had “a bit of a soft spot” for Downton, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator. Tuning into
a new offering is reassuring, like “putting on a pair of old slippers”. But even my patience was tested
by A New Era, the second Downton film spin-off. We’re now in 1928, and the dowager countess
(Maggie Smith) has unexpectedly inherited a villa from a French aristocrat, with whom she had a
dalliance many moons ago. As a “posse of Downton residents” decamp to the Riviera to inspect
the property, Downton itself is invaded by a film crew who are paying through the nose to use the
building as a set. All the usual Downton ingredients crop up – “a birth, a proposal, a death, a
paternity worry, a health scare” – but there’s far too much exposition, and the writing is often
woeful. “Old slippers? Sometimes they have to go.”
Yes, this film is “a bit silly”, said Matthew Bond in the Daily Mail, but it’s also “charming, well
acted” and funny to boot. Keep the faith through the “clumsy-feeling start” and you’ll find yourself
watching a film that is “huge fun” and rather poignant. “It is, of course, several leagues below”
2001’s Gosford Park, Fellowes’ “original country-house movie”, said Peter Bradshaw in The
Guardian. And yet “I have to admit – like someone with an empty tube of Pringles in their hand that
was full ten minutes ago – that I did find this film entertaining”. There’s something riveting about its
mix of “deadly serious melodrama and bizarre glassy-eyed pathos”. All the same, I hope this is the
last Downton instalment. If Fellowes does insist on eking it out, perhaps he could revisit the family in
the 1970s, when they have been “reduced to penury by exorbitant but highly justified rates of tax”.Downton Abbey:
A New Era
2hrs 5mins (PG)A second big-screen
helping of Julian
Fellowes’ drama
★★★This ravishingly beautiful film follows wildlife photographer Vincent Munier and travel writer
Sylvain Tesson as they comb Tibet in search of the elusive snow leopard, said Kevin Maher in The
Times. In “thrillingly immediate footage”, we see the pair come across bears, foxes, falcons and
bharals (aka blue sheep) while engaging in “deeply serious debates” about “the nature of looking and
being and the hopelessness of humanity”. All this is set to a “soulful, plaintive score” by Warren Ellis
and Nick Cave. The film sits “somewhere between David Attenborough and Samuel Beckett” – our
two protagonists are “endlessly waiting”; but their patience and the viewer’s pays off when the film’s
star, the camera-shy leopard, “eventually makes an appearance”.
The Velvet Queen was originally intended for television, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail, but it
was considered “so cinematic” it was given a big-screen release. Television’s loss is cinema’s gain, as
the photography here is “truly breathtaking”. I saw it at the end of a long day and was snapped out
of my weariness by the “incredibly powerful image” of a “lone snow leopard, sleek and elegant,
standing on a mountain ledge, considering its options and looking anything but vulnerable”. The
film certainly looks extraordinary, said Wendy Ide in The Observer, but I could have done without
the “highly ornamental narration”. For Tesson, the search for the leopard is a “profoundly spiritual”
experience (“Prehistory wept,” he says at one point, “and each tear was a yak.”). But if you can
handle the voice-over, I challenge you “not to be moved” by this film, which captures the “stark
drama” of Tibet, and the “magnificent indifference of the natural world”.The Velvet Queen
1hr 32mins (12A)Beautifully shot
documentary about Tibet’s
elusive snow leopard
★★★★This “hip-hop-flavoured coming-of-age drama” is about a group of Moroccan teenagers learning
to question “the repressive attitudes and adult hypocrisies they see all around them”, said Alistair
Harkness in The Scotsman. The film is set in an arts centre in a deprived suburb of Casablanca,
where former rapper Anas (Anas Basbousi) has been employed to teach hip-hop to local youths.
He’s an inspirational teacher, but his tough-love methods don’t go down well with the centre’s
administrators. Director Nabil Ayouch then passes the mic to his charismatic pupils (played by non-
professional actors), whom we see learning “to use rap to articulate who they are while negotiating
complicated home lives, religious obligations and gender inequality”.
The Arabic title of this “empowering” film translates as “rise your voice”; while in France, the film
is called Haut et fort, meaning “high and loud”, said Mark Kermode in The Observer. Both titles
encapsulate the film’s “vibrant spirit”. Although it’s “clear from the outset” where the plot is heading,
the film has an “infectious energy” that draws viewers into the lives of its characters. I’m afraid I
found it hackneyed, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph. It “largely consists of the same three
scenes on rotation”: classroom squabbles about weighty issues; vignettes from the students’ personal
lives; and writing and performance sessions, “in which you’d have to concede the results tend to be
spirited rather than great”. Casablanca Beats “just about gets by on restless teenage energy and its
bustle of winning young faces”, but it’s too “relentlessly perky”, earnest and simplistic to work.Casablanca
Beats
1hr 41mins (12A)Earnest hip-hop drama
★★“Beautifully crafted”