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Miss G (Eva Green, Casino Royale) is seemingly a force of nature, a glamorous presence beloved and idolized by her blossoming charges at an all-girls British boarding school. Her students heap adoration upon her, a love that Miss G basks in and returns until the arrival of Fiamma, a wild and self-confident transfer student from Spain. Fiamma s new role as teacher s pet ignites the jealousy of former class queen Di (Juno Temple) and triggers an obsession in Miss G that quickly spirals out of control. A sterling cast leads this dark coming-of-age thriller, the debut feature of Jordan (daughter of Ridley) Scott.
"Riveting…while evocative of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Picnic at Hanging! Rock, Kohler's writing is so smoothly confident and erotic that she has produced a tale resonant with a chilling power all its own."â€"ElleIn Sheila Kohler's brilliant 1999 novel, a beautiful schoolgirl mysteriously disappears into the South African veld. Forty years later, thirteen members of the missing girl's swimming team gather at their old boarding school for a reunion, and look back to the long, dry weeks leading to Fiamma's disappearance. As teenage memories and emotions resurface, the women relive the horror of a long-buried secret. A stunning and singular tale of the passion and tribalism of adolescence,
Cracks lays bare the violence that lurks in the heart of even the most innocent.Put adolescents together in a confined environment with only minimal adult supervision, and bad things will happen--a truism in literature as well as life. (Think
The Children's Hour, think
Lord of the Flies.) But in Sheila Kohler's eer! ie, atmospheric
Cracks, the bad things that will happe! n are no t the ones you might expect, and the message is far more complex than just "Children are savages." (Although they certainly are.) Written in an ominously anonymous first person plural, the novel follows the 12 girls on the swim team at a South African boarding school. They include the jock, the pretty one, the brain, the fat girl, and perhaps most interestingly, the shadowy Sheila Kohler, a storyteller whose tales all "came to the same dramatic finale: violent death..." All of them are in love with the dashing Miss G, their swim instructor, and a "crack," as it turns out, is a crush--the embodiment of all of adolescence's formless yearnings:
When you had a crack you saw things more clearly: the thick dark of the shadows and the transparence of the oak leaves in the light and the soft glow of the pink magnolia petals against their waxy leaves. You wanted to lie down alone in the dark in the music room and listen to Rachmaninoff and to the summer ra! ins rushing hard down the gutters. You left notes for your crack in her mug next to her toothbrush on the shelf in the bathroom. If you accidentally brushed up against your crack and felt her boosie, you nearly fainted.
When they're not swimming, the members of the team amuse themselves by torturing new girls and taking turns fainting in chapel, until Fiamma Coronna throws everything off balance. A breathtaking Italian princess, a first-class swimmer, Fiamma quickly earns the girls' enmity by becoming Miss G's favorite. Worse still, she shows no interest in her teammates at all, and the usual hazing soon escalates to something far more serious. Heat dust, frangipani, adolescent sexuality simmering just under the surface: this could all have gone terribly, terribly wrong. It doesn't, and Kohler's elegant prose is the main reason why. The girls may be overheated, but the author's language never is.
--Chloe ByrneUnited Kingdom released, PAL/! Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You ! need mul ti-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Cast/Crew Interview(s), Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: A teacher who prides herself on being different meets a student who matches her non-conformist nature in this period drama. It's 1934, and Miss G (Eva Green) is a teacher at a private school for girls near the Eastern coastline of England. While most of the teachers at the school are severe and straight-laced women who reinforce its reputation as a repressive environment, Miss G is more youthful and glamorous than her colleagues, and enjoys dropping hints of a free-spirited past to her young charges. Miss G encourages her students to challenge conventional norms of the day, and organizes a diving team at the school that she oversees with great interest. Miss G also sees a danger in the cliques that dominate the school, and she tries to under! mine them, much to the annoyance of Di (Juno Temple), who hold a high place in the school's pecking order. But things change for both Miss G and her students when Fiamma (Maria Valverde) enrolls at the school. Fiamma is from Spain and has a strong independent streak; she doesn't look to her peers for approval and insists on doing things her own way, which makes her all the more exotic and appealing to the other students. Fiamma also earns the approval of Miss G, but before long rumors begin to spread that the teacher's interest in her new student is more than academic. CRACKS was the first feature film from director Jordan Scott, whose father is the noted filmmaker Ridley Scott. ...CracksUnited Kingdom released, Blu-Ray/Region B : it WILL NOT play on regular DVD player, or on standard US Blu-Ray player. You need multi-region Blu-Ray player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby DTS-HD Master Audio ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SPECIAL FEATURES! : Cast/Crew Interview(s), Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Trai! ler(s), SYNOPSIS: A teacher who prides herself on being different meets a student who matches her non-conformist nature in this period drama. It's 1934, and Miss G (Eva Green) is a teacher at a private school for girls near the Eastern coastline of England. While most of the teachers at the school are severe and straight-laced women who reinforce its reputation as a repressive environment, Miss G is more youthful and glamorous than her colleagues, and enjoys dropping hints of a free-spirited past to her young charges. Miss G encourages her students to challenge conventional norms of the day, and organizes a diving team at the school that she oversees with great interest. Miss G also sees a danger in the cliques that dominate the school, and she tries to undermine them, much to the annoyance of Di (Juno Temple), who hold a high place in the school's pecking order. But things change for both Miss G and her students when Fiamma (Maria Valverde) enrolls at the school. Fiamma is from Spa! in and has a strong independent streak; she doesn't look to her peers for approval and insists on doing things her own way, which makes her all the more exotic and appealing to the other students. Fiamma also earns the approval of Miss G, but before long rumors begin to spread that the teacher's interest in her new student is more than academic. CRACKS was the first feature film from director Jordan Scott, whose father is the noted filmmaker Ridley Scott. ...Cracks (2009)United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Cast/Crew Interview(s), Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: A teacher who prides herself on being different meets a student who matches her non-conformist nature in this period drama. It's 1934, and Miss G (Eva Green) is a teacher at a! private school for girls near the Eastern coastline of Englan! d. While most of the teachers at the school are severe and straight-laced women who reinforce its reputation as a repressive environment, Miss G is more youthful and glamorous than her colleagues, and enjoys dropping hints of a free-spirited past to her young charges. Miss G encourages her students to challenge conventional norms of the day, and organizes a diving team at the school that she oversees with great interest. Miss G also sees a danger in the cliques that dominate the school, and she tries to undermine them, much to the annoyance of Di (Juno Temple), who hold a high place in the school's pecking order. But things change for both Miss G and her students when Fiamma (Maria Valverde) enrolls at the school. Fiamma is from Spain and has a strong independent streak; she doesn't look to her peers for approval and insists on doing things her own way, which makes her all the more exotic and appealing to the other students. Fiamma also earns the approval of Miss G, but before long ! rumors begin to spread that the teacher's interest in her new student is more than academic. CRACKS was the first feature film from director Jordan Scott, whose father is the noted filmmaker Ridley Scott. ...CracksDuring a state funeral for a beloved former First Lady in New York City's largest cathedral, the unthinkable occurs. Armed men disguised as monks seize the church and seal themselves inside, along with more than one hundred of the most powerful people in America. The captives include world leaders, actors, TV stars, athletes, and politicians, and the kidnappers are armed with enough C4 explosives to blow a crater in the middle of Manhattan.
NYPD officer Michael Bennett is pulled into the standoff as lead negotiator. Despite the escalating danger, Michael faces an even more terrifying crisis at home. His wife has been diagnosed with a devastating disease, and Michael faces the prospect of losing the love of his life and having to raise their ten children alone.! With his own life teetering and the lives of thousands sudden! ly his r esponsibility, Michael struggles to diffuse the tense situation fast. Yet the kidnappers' moves are impossible to predict, and they block every attempt to break into the cathedralmost as if they are privy to their deliberations.
