FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Hirokazu Koreeda’s Shoplifters presents characters scraping by on the margins of society. Your choices, then, for what we’ll be screening on Tuesday 1 July are out of three films that also feature characters on the margin. Up for the vote are:

Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, USA, 1978)

“Perhaps the most typical example of a ‘70s American art film — daring, romantic, rebellious but also filled with longing for the beauty of the past.” — Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

In 1916 Chicago, steelworker Bill (Richard Gere) flees to Texas after a fatal altercation with his boss, taking his little sister Linda (Linda Manz) and girlfriend Abby (Brooke Adams) along with him. They find work at the ranch of a wealthy farmer (Sam Shepard) who falls in love with Abby, and, believing her to be Bill's sister, asks the three to stay on after the harvest, setting in motion a jealousy-fuelled sequence of events… Terrence Malick's follow-up to Badlands features a ravishing score by Ennio Morricone and absolutely stunning cinematography (shot mostly at the ‘magic hour’) courtesy of Néstor Almendros and Haskell Wexler.

Heaven Knows What (Josh & Benny Safdie, USA, 2014)

"There's an acrid authenticity to this portrait of the lives of homeless junkies in New York that seeps, pore-deep, into the viewer..." — Wendy Ide, Observer

Homeless young heroin addict Harley (Arielle Holmes) roams the streets of New York to panhandle and get her next fix, while her unstable boyfriend Ilya (Caleb Landry Jones) drifts in and out of her life. Arielle Holmes had actually lived rough on the streets of NYC and, after being discovered by Josh Safdie, wrote and texted him almost every situation and story she experienced. Heaven Knows What is a great early film from the brilliant Safde brothers (Good Time, Uncut Gems) and the soundtrack makes excellent use of Isao Tomita's electronic interpretations of Debussy, bathing the entire film in a woozy narcotic haze.

Naked (Mike Leigh, UK, 1993)

"Leigh's picaresque tale is his by far his most cinematic. The cast is outstanding - Thewlis, in particular, whose virtuoso performance gives the film its cruel energy, wit and power." - Time Out

When Johnny (David Thewlis) flees Manchester in order to escape a beating and turns up unexpectedly at the London home of his ex (Lesley Sharp) she is initially pleased to see him. But their reunion is short-lived and the troubled Johnny sets off on a long dark night of the soul, leaving an indelible impression on everyone he encounters (including Katrin Cartlidge, Gina McKee, Ewen Bremner and Claire Skinner). Mike Leigh arguably produces his most interesting work when operating outside his comfort zone (see also Vera Drake and Topsy Turvy) and Naked is his darkly comic masterpiece - while in the character of Johnny, David Thewlis has created an anti-hero as unsettling and unforgettably off-kilter as any of your Travis Bickles, Randle McMurphys or Alex the Droogs.