Turtle Diary (Irvin, 1985): BFI Soutbank, NFT2, 8.30pm
This 35mm presentation, also being shown on July 21st, is part of the Glenda Jackson season at BFI Southbank. You can find the full details here.
Chicago Reader review:
Two victims of urban malaise, a bookstore clerk (Ben Kingsley) and an author of children’s novels (Glenda Jackson), discover a mutual obsession—to free the sea turtles held in a dank London aquarium. Based on a novel by Russell Hoban (Riddley Walker), this British production threatens all kinds of cuteness and whimsy; the chief pleasure of the film lies in the way Harold Pinter’s straightforward script and John Irvin’s nicely distanced, unemphatic direction avoid all of the obvious sentimental pitfalls. This one earns its charm by rolling back the rhetoric and sticking close to the texture of daily life: the plot payoffs, when they come, seem much more triumphant and honest in this restrained context. With Richard Johnson, Eleanor Bron, and Jeroen Krabbe.
Dave Kehr
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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