Don't get too old to make movies, Mr. Loach

I first became aware of Ken Loach in 1996. I was living in Germany, and would cross the border to Strasbourg, France to see films in English. There was one big place that always had a few American or English films, and there was some other smaller, artsy place where you could see more obscure thing, often in series. There was a Ken Loach series at one point, and they were running Land and Freedom and Ladybird, Ladybird. I don't even remember if I saw those films there, so I don't how I remember what they were.

In any case though, by now, I've seen most of his films, and had been waiting all year to see The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Cillian Murphy was very convincing as a blue-eyed Irish doctor who gives up his medical career to fight for Irish independence with his brother and brethren. Ireland in 1920 is something I know nothing about, and I now want to know more. It's curious that an English filmmaker was telling this story. And the English characters were so extremely ugly in this, I found myself wondering if this was accurate, or if Loach was somehow making atonement or reparations for his forefathers.

I haven't cried so hard in a movie in ages. We know, because we hear, that war makes a person do unimaginable things. When someone's loyalty to a cause wins out over their bonds with family, this becomes even harder to understand. And like many war movies, it left me crying not only for the story, but in gratitude for my own privilege and freedom.

I'm glad I wasn't able to catch this in the theater earlier this year, because on the DVD is s short documentary called "Carry on Ken" exploring the director's work. Robert Carlyle, Peter Mullen and other actors from some of his best work, along with crew members and the man himself review the unique ways in which he works, and explain why they think his films are so unique.

I didn't realize it, but he forces his actors to use a lot of improv, which always intriques me in dramas. In fact, they talk specifically about the scene in Carla's Song when Robert Carlyle's character finds Carla in the bathtub. That was improv. The only instruction the actor got was to go to that apartment, find the key, and go in. Amazing stuff.

He's got a new one lined up for next year, I think it's called It's a Free World.