Review: Sylvia: Tracing Blood

Saxon Logan's thoroughly absorbing "Sylvia: Tracing Blood" tells the story of Sylvia Raphael: a woman with a secret life, comprising triple identities, who went on to become one of Mossad's most effective agents.

Saxon travelled far and wide to interview family, friends, a former lover, heads of security and one man greatly affected by the actions of the organisation she worked for. The 1972 Munich Olympics massacre led Sylvia to the town of Lillehammer in Norway, where Mossad planned to kill Ali Hassan Salameh: the man behind the Black September atrocity.

During the course of this riveting human interest story, we encounter Sylvia's brother Bunty; her widower Annaeus Schjodt; Chico Bouchikhi - renowned musician, founder of The Gypsy Kings and brother of the man mistakenly killed in Lillehammer - her former lover Sunday Times correspondent Jon Swain and other friends and associates who share their memories of her.

Through their eyes, we learn of her early years; her graduation as a teacher and subsequent move to Israel where she lived on a Kibbutz; how she assumed the identity of a Canadian photojournalist named Patricia Roxborough and her work for Mossad which involved many dangerous situations, culminating in a prison sentence for conspiracy to commit an assassination.

Sylvia's great beauty; her self control and strong character, together with her work as a highly skilled operative are all discussed, even touching on her gallows humour during the final months of her battle against Leukaemia.



The very best film making and cinema educates us and moves us, and "Sylvia: Tracing Blood" scores so very highly in both departments.

Witness the approach to her hometown as magisterial photography takes us through the unforgiving beauty of 'The Valley Of Desolation'; Bunty's visit to the old family homestead evokes an almost Checkovian element where he joyfully discovers the Aga is still there, and calls to mind the ghosts of the Family’s past. Jon Swain's arrival at the Paris apartment where he and Sylvia shared a home, with him ironically unknowing his girl-friend’s vocation.

The past re-visited, invoking happy memories, but also a great sadness as the stepping back to times gone by throws us back to the present with a gaping hole that can never be filled.

Add to this, the director's often tear-inducing voice-over narration, and you have a documentary film that leaves an indelible mark.
It's also a beautifully balanced work, allowing us to appreciate why Sylvia enchanted so many people, but never losing sight of the fact that her story regretfully includes the death of an innocent man. Praise too, for the sterling work put in by Saxon's team: Helena Grier Rautenbach's superlative score which is thoroughly deserving of a soundtrack album; Eliot Haigh's endlessly inventive photography, capturing the contrasting beauty of old world terrains and contemporary exotic locations, and Bernard Bruwer's brilliant editing which is amongst the very best I've seen in many a long day. Careers of great substance await this trio. One other notable feature of this film and its production is the director's will-do attitude, overcoming obstacles - love the way he and his crew enter a Norwegian top security prison, having previously been denied permission to do so - en route to get the whole picture.



I've been lucky enough to see the long version of this documentary film which runs for 1 hr 47m 30s, and you can be sure I'll be including further coverage on Wonderland in the future, as there's so much to take in here, a single viewing cannot even begin to do it justice.

For now, I confidently predict "Sylvia: Tracing Blood" will have a long and acclaimed life. A triumph, no less.

Blu-ray Review: Saxon Logan's Sleepwalker

"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?"
Edgar Allan Poe

Driving rain, the ominous sound of thunder and an old dark house provide a perfect setting for the cinema of unease, and that's exactly what we get in the opening sequence of Saxon Logan's Sleepwalker.

The house of Albion - the oldest known name for the island of Great Britain - is rather appropriately populated by Alex and Marion Britain (Bill Douglas and Heather Page), and old school brother and sister act who are soon to welcome Richard and Angela Paradise ( Nickolas Grace and Joanna David) as their guests for the weekend. The Paradise couple couldn't be more different than their hosts, with Richard immediately marking himself a a rude, totally insensitive bigot views and 'Only person is me' attitude will later clash with Alex's own beliefs and principles. Initially, the Britain's had planned for a cosy candlelit dinner, but the storm breached the windows of Albion, forcing this party of four to visit the local restaurant, where Fulton Mackay and Michael Medwin await as hosts. Once there, Richard's homophobia and absurd political views ("mass unemployment is good. Sucks the poison out of the system") result in a fiery clash with Alex, who represents the polar opposite of his opponents view that the unscrupulous chase for wealth really does lead to a personal paradise. Small wonder that the confrontations continue back at the house as more alcohol is consumed, leading to sibling arguments, jealousy, sizzling sexual tension and talking point murder scenes that would fit perfectly into the great Italian horror films of Dario Argento and Mario Bava. The stylish sequences of bloodletting provide an astonishing finale, and this mid-length feature (made in 1984 and running 47 minutes) has more absorbing themes and ideas within its running time, than many films three times the length.

Sleepwalker is beautifully directed, with the screenplay - a tripartite affair from Saxon Logan, John Vernon and Michael Keenan - is a triumph and the performances are exquisite. A word of praise, too, for Phil Sawyer's score which is enormously disconcerting, and perfectly in tune with the onscreen events. There's a lot more to Sleepwalker than meets the eye, and I'm simply itching to discuss the film's final image, but will instead wait til the dust has settled and more people have seen the film before I return to it on this blog.

The same can be said of Saxon's 'Stepping Out' and 'Working Surface', both of which are featured on this Blu-ray/DVD combi pack. 'Stepping Out' is a 5 minute short, and played with Roman Polasnki's The Tenant at UK cinemas. I still believe The Tenant to be Polanski's finest work, and Stepping Out is a perfect companion piece with its themes of gender, role reversal and becoming someone else. Stepping Out was actually shot inside 24 hours, and the same time frame was allocated to Working Surface - a 15 minute short starring Bill Douglas, Heather Page and Joanna David. Dedicated to Lindsay Anderson, this, like Saxon's other work, has endless replay value, using dislocation of time and the age old disease of writer's block to construct a thoroughly absorbing account of characters departing from their written word confines. The BFI have also included Rodney Giesler's 'Insomniac', a 45 minute mid-length piece that justifies its inclusion here with a lively tale of sexual fantasy and dread behind the walls of sleep. The Insomniac would be a great way to sign off this very special Flipside releases, but there's one more item to tell you about. Shot in Cape Town in June of this year, 'O Lucky Man' is a 75 minute interview with Saxon Logan, taking in his friendship and working relationship with the Great(s) Lindsay Anderson and Bill Douglas; his persistence at striving to find work in the industry and the stories behind Sleepwalker, the aforementioned short films and Anderson gems such as O Lucky Man. It's also the story of a man who sees filmmaking as a vocation, and who suffered setbacks along the way.

Witness Saxon's moving account of Sleepwalker's success on release at the Berlin Festival, and a government policy that meant it sunk without a trace over here. At one point, Saxon is overcome and it's hard not to shed a tear as you witness his passion for the great art form that is film, and his regret at how things originally turned out for Sleepwalker. Now, the film that was released at the wrong time is reborn, with major thanks going to film historian Darrell Buxton, and you can hear of the part Darrell played in this interview. This Flipside release is region-free, and the picture quality for all the features is more than acceptable. There is also a BFI booklet to accompany this release with writing on all the features, though I must confess I have yet to read it. This is one of the jewels in the flipside crown, and already destined to be on many top ten lists come the end of 2013.

You can read my review of a theatrical screening , written several years ago HERE

Coming Soon. Saxon Logan's Sleepwalker

Great news from the BFI who will be releasing Sleepwalker in September. Check out the list of extras which will make this a very special release, and look out for a full review here. "

"The British Film Institute has revealed that it is planning to release a Dual Format edition of director Saxon Logan's Sleepwalker (1985), starring Joanna David, Bill Douglas, and Heather Page. The release will arrive on the market later this year. When wealthy couple Richard and Angela visit Marion and Alex in their decaying family home, their differing social and moral attitudes create uneasy tensions. An inharmonious evening of drunkenness and sexual rivalry soon turns bloody as the guests fall victim to an unhinged attacker. Featuring a rare performance from Bill Douglas (Bill Douglas Trilogy, Comrades), and starring British screen greats Joanna David and Heather Page (both of whom would go on to work with Douglas in Comrades), Sleepwalker is an outrageous and incendiary mix of biting satire and bloody horror that is at once reminiscent of otherwise unlikely bedfellows Lindsay Anderson and Dario Argento. Remastered from the only surviving print, this long-unseen mid-length film is presented here for the first time on any home video format, along with two shorts by its director, Saxon Logan, and the rare 1971 mid-length fantasy, The Insomniac, directed by Rodney Giesler."

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" Special Features: Presented in High Definition and Standard Definition "

" The Insomniac (Rodney Giesler, 1971, 45 mins): a man experiences a night-time world that is part foreboding nightmare, part sexual fantasy "

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" Stepping Out (Saxon Logan , 1977, 10 mins): a couple's untraditional early morning ritual is observed in a short drama which originally supported Polanski's The Tenant in UK cinemas"

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"Working Surface: A Short Study (with Actors) in the 'Ways' of a Bourgeois Writer (Saxon Logan, 1979, 15 mins): Bill Douglas plays a writer struggling with a script about the interior lives of two women (playing by Joanna David and Heather Page)"

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" Extensive booklet with essays and complete credits "

You can read my review of this film HERE
I was lucky enough to see this on the big screen several years back and also had a review copy on VHS.
I will be reviewing the Blu-ray in September.


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Saxon Logan's Sleepwalker

"Hey, tell me the truth. Are we still in the game?" - Oscar Hsu. eXistenZ "

"Saxon Logan's extraordinary 49 minute feature pitches four people into a class war situation with a vicious sting in the tale. After a not entirely stress-free journey, ("Wake me up when it's over")Richard Paradise (Grace) and wife Angela (David) arrive at the house of Albion, owned by brother and sister act Marianne and Alex Britain. When a violent storm breaches the walls and windows of Albion, Marianne is forced to abandon plans for a quiet candlelit dinner so the quartet head for a local restaurant where Fulton Mckay and Michael Medwin materialise as all-seeing, all-knowing proprietor and waiter; a Fulci-esque pair of characters who appear to 'come with the place.' It's here the fun really does start as Richard- ("He's in videos") looking for all the world like a deserving victim from Jose Larraz's Vampyres - launches a vicious attack on Alex (the excellent Bill Douglas) and his socialist principles. Be sure this loathsome 'Tory Boy' will set your hackles rising, as his entrepreneurial claptrap embodies the sentiments of Neil Kinnock's brilliant rejection of Conservative values ("The only person is me. The only number is one. The only time is now".) And the ladies? While Angela demonstrates she's at least a few pills short of a full valium bottle, Marianne (Page) simply drinks, while exuding a trouser-rousing air of sex and sensuality that remains right up to a veritable blood-soaked finale. "

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" Boasting a script laced with black as crude humour, Sleepwalker comes over like a head-on collision between Mike Leigh and Dario Argento, with its mise en scene often recalling the late, great Mario Bava. Frequent references to nocturnal, eyes wide shut states of being - comas, sleepwalking, the strange tale of a certain Mr. Valdemar, not to mention Alex's final terrified demand ("Wake up!") - take this film beyond the usual 'stuff of nightmares' fare and suggests that were it not for a calamitous change in British cinema policy, one Frederick Kruger may not have had things entirely his own way."

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" Yes, it may not be taking things a bit too far by comparing Sleepwalker to the work of a certain Mr. Argento (gory murder scenes, a sleeping witch and a girl who emerges from a drug-induced slumber), there is another (possibly unintentional?) Suspiria moment. When this film hits the small screen, hit the pause button when Alex's computer screen displays a passage of text from a script translation. There you'll see a description of a couple arriving at a town called Freiburg."

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"This is a review I penned several years back after seeing Sleepwalker on the big screen. Now get set for some exciting news."

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