Keswick Film Club - Reviews - Kinds of Kindness

Kindness in many ways ought to define us as human beings: "we should be kind whilst there is still time" wrote Philip Larkin. 'Kinds of Kindness' the latest film directed by the Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos explores this human virtue, or does it? The only really kind act shown in the film was a brief encounter with a little boy who had saved and adopted a hedgehog as a pet. Lanthimos though is sceptical of the whole idea of kindness, which he maintains can often be simply disguised self-interest.

We were all but full to capacity at the Alhambra for Lanthimos' last film 'Poor Things' but last night we had a smaller than average audience, some of whom found the film utterly enthralling whilst others found it utterly appalling! It is hard to describe the film in a meaningful way. It is split into three different stories, which are only tangentially related, yet employ the same actors, including Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. Each story deals in some way with death and, in the final story, the resurrection of the physical body. Maybe then the ultimate kindness that can be shown is not to allow death to have final dominion?

The film though does not yield to easy interpretation, and already a number of critics have tied themselves in knots trying to decipher it! I found it at once completely gripping and almost totally unfathomable. The film serves as a showcase for Lanthimos' incredible talent as a director and scriptwriter. Into his orbit he has also attracted great actors, cinema photographers and soundtrack producers, none more so than the audaciously gifted Emma Stone. All the actors sparkle with Lanthimos' deadpan genius: in his world everything is just off-kilter enough to be funny, but just real enough to be horrifying. Possibly then a comment on the "reality" we presently live in!