French

‘Temple Grandin' is a biographical film which largely focuses on her life and the effect that autism had on her. It does not really cover how it affected her family and significant others. This film captures her personality and belief in humane livestock husbandry. ?The actress, Claire Dane brilliantly captured the nuances of her speech and her determined and dogged spirit. It is a very watchable film and highlights the many obstacles that society places in the way of neuro-atypicals.

After a happy few early years, Temple Grandin endured a childhood of struggle and ridicule which was mercifully interspersed by the occasional person with compassion and insight, able to see beyond her eccentric behaviour. These individuals enabled her to salvage her life and to find meaning and purpose, something which is all too often denied to anyone unable to conform.

Temple Grandin is a visual thinker and has a visual memory and the film shows how this affected her ability to understand everyday language but also how it enhanced her abilities in many other areas. It is these abilities that she used to understand cattle who are also visual thinkers. Grandin observed the different sounds cows made and quickly differentiated between contented and frightened and was able to see the physical world through their eyes. She observed that they were happiest when moving in circles and would calm down when held firmly by a special container. These observations led her to design handling equipment and also a special box which she used to calm herself.

It was her science teacher at her last school who immediately realised that Grandin was something quite special He helped her to gain confidence and develop her area of aptitude and to realise that she could enjoy a career which encompassed the things she loved to do. As a result, she grew in confidence and later earned huge respect from others who, because of her talent, wanted to mix with her and were willing to accommodate her difference

The film documents what a struggle she had to be taken seriously as a woman. Her autism and sometimes rather inept communication style was an additional obstacle. Through persistence and some lucky breaks she eventually got the opportunity to pitch her ideas and once she focused on the financial benefits to the farmer rather than the humanity of her systems, her ideas were taken seriously. The film to me highlights why we must all learn to see beyond the social awkwardness, otherwise society will lose a lot of ingenuity.

The film is also a useful educational tool as it helps to demonstrate and explain the communication problems and sensory problems and what confuses and overwhelms as well as what calms and excites.

This is a feel good movie with many a lesson to take away. Difference in people can be good. It allows problems in the world to be inspected from a different, fresh angle, often seeing something that no one else could see. Temple Grandin because of her autism brought humanity into the world of husbandry and in her own words ‘nature is cruel but we don't have to be'

This was the first foreign language film I remember watching and I was held spellbound by it. It's so subtle and the sense of menace and atmosphere is palpable. Watching it again recently I loved the almost Hitchcockian attention to the mood, but where Hitchcock focused on the more technical aspects of directing Chabrol, to me, focuses on the human psychology. This was what enthralled me as a teenager.

In a bulk standard Hollywood murder film there would have the suspense of the chase; the murder and intrigue, but when the thrill of the chase is over so is the film... When Le Boucher ends the viewer is left with a lot of questions with some uneasy answers and s/he has to provide his / her own interpretation on what has just happened. I never realised films could do that - most films I'd seen had big concepts and only one resolution. This films looks at how the murders affect the town itself, and in particular the local teacher, is far more subtle and, therefore, rewarding when the story is resolved (and boy, is it resolved!).

This is a hauntingly brilliant film, one that certainly deserves to be re-watched!

What a great concept: a girl is fed up with life and is about to jump off a bridge when she is propositioned by a stranger - why not join me in my circus act? I can throw my knives at you, and if one happens to kill you, well at least that's dying with style! From that wonderful premise is spun the most offbeat romantic comedy I've seen in a long time. I'm not sure why the film captivates as it does; it's almost a seduction... but I do know this much, once seen it's never forgotten.