Since its gala premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, writer-director Petra Volpe’s extraordinary movie has generated a level of anticipation that would not normally be associated with a hospital drama. But the hype is more than justified.
Leonie Benesch, who, as surgical nurse Floria Lind working in a Swiss hospital, delivers a performance worthy of Oscar-nomination, describes Late Shift as an “action movie” – and you can see why. Attending to 26 patients on her ward, which is chronically understaffed (“it’s just two of us today”), Floria is a perpetuum mobile, always walking, talking, answering calls, administering treatment, trying to keep fretful relatives in the loop.
Thanks to Judith Kaufmann’s nimble cinematography, handheld takes and lengthy tracking shots capture the sheer relentlessness of Floria’s work and the near-impossible demands she faces on every shift. From the first shot of newly cleaned royal blue scrubs gliding down an automated hanger, we grasp that the hospital is essentially a high-tech warehouse for the healing, the suffering and the dying.
Each patient is anxious, many are in pain, some – like Mr Leu (Urs Bihler) – simply want to be given their diagnosis. Florian knows the answer to his repeated inquiries, but it is not authorised to tell him – and his doctor is sequestered in the operating room.
To soothe a woman distressed by dementia, meanwhile, she sings the German lullaby Der Mond ist aufgegangen. Urbain Guiguemdé plays a man from Burkina Faso, nervous as he is taken away for tests, who says he is “all alone”. Floria replies: “You have me”- but then, as always, has to rush off.
Even as her patients face the most intense and possibly final hours of their lives, she does not have the time to show them the compassion of which she is clearly capable. Benesch prepared meticulously for the part, working with medical professionals so that her handling of carts, syringes, medication and mobile beds would be authentic.
Though Late Shift – originally entitled Heldin (Heroine) – is not remotely didactic, it has already triggered a debate across Europe about the critical mismatch between numbers of medical staff and the needs of patients in hospitals everywhere. The system is near breaking point, possibly past it.
During the German general elections, many nurses held aloft #wirsindfloria (We Are Floria) signs. There are presently 26,000 vacancies for registered nurses in England alone. Late Shift powerfully dramatises the human consequences of that international crisis.
BOOK
On Bullshit: Anniversary Edition, by Harry G. Frankfurt (Princeton University Press)
Based on an essay written in 1986 and published as a short book in 2005, this crisp classic by the late American philosopher Harry G Frankfurt has been deservedly republished by PUP to mark its 20th birthday.
Before the perils of post-truth, “truthiness” and misinformation had entered mainstream debate, Frankfurt had identified the all-important distinction between lies and bullshit. Citing Ezra Pound, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Henry Longfellow, he concluded that “the essence of bullshit is not that it is false but that it is phony”. A bullshitter’s “statement is grounded neither in a belief that it is true nor, as a lie must be, in a belief that it is not true”.
The menace of the bullshitter is therefore fundamental: “He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.” Twenty years since its publication, it is alarming to reflect how consumingly topical this minor masterpiece now is.
FILM
Bring Her Back (general release)
Remember nice Sally Hawkins in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) and the Paddington movies? Well, not that. In the second feature film from the Philippou twins, Danny and Michael – who broke out on YouTube as “RackaRacka” – Hawkins plays Laura, foster carer to the visually impaired Piper (Sora Wong, superb) and her older stepbrother Andy (Billy Barratt), who have suffered a terrible bereavement.
Already living in her home in Adelaide is Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), a selectively mute, shaven-skulled, evidently disturbed young boy whose menacing behaviour – his first act is to try to eat a cat – suggests that all is not quite as jolly and fun-packed as Laura initially suggests. In his no-hold-barred commitment, Phillips delivers a performance that bears comparison to Linda Blair’s in The Exorcist (1973).
Be warned: this is a weapons-grade body horror movie that, like the Philippous’ smash-hit Talk to Me (2022), explores the power of the occult. What are the horrific, grainy VHS recordings, apparently of demonic rituals in Russia, that Laura watches at night? And why is she so brutally gaslighting Andy and trying insidiously to undermine Piper’s trust in him?
Though Bring Her Back is as gruesome as mainstream cinema gets, its deepest horror lies in the fragmentation of Laura’s psyche and the lengths to which she is prepared to go to heal a profound emotional wound. In this respect, the movie draws much of its strength from Hawkins, who reveals what a spectacular and versatile actor she truly is. Not for the faint of heart but strongly recommended.
FILM
Heavens Above!/ Two-Way Stretch
(STUDIOCANAL Vintage Classics, August 4)
As we approach the 100th birthday of Peter Sellers on September 8, here is a welcome re-release on Blu-ray of two gems from his filmography. In Robert Day’s Two-Way Stretch (1960), he stars as prisoner “Dodger” Lane, conspiring with Wilfrid Hyde-White as “Soapy” Stevens (a conman posing as a vicar), Lennie “The Dip” Price (Bernard Cribbins) and “Jelly” Knight (David Lodge) to pull off an ingenious diamond heist – assuming, that is, that they can stay one step ahead of the new chief prison officer, “Sour” Crout (Lionel Jeffries).
In the more whimsical Heavens Above! (1963), directed by John and Roy Boulting and based on an idea dreamt up by Malcolm Muggeridge, Sellers plays the idealistic priest John Smallwood who is appointed to the parish of Orbiston Parva where the wealthy Despard family rules supreme (their fortune based on the fictional drug “Tranquilax”, marketed as a sedative, stimulant and laxative all-in-one).
Genial though he is, Smallwood quickly declares that the village doesn’t have “enough real Christians about to feed one decent lion” and intends to “reopen negotiations with the Kingdom of God.” This aggravates Archdeacon Aspinall (Cecil Parker): “I don’t think there’s any need to keep bringing God into this, Smallwood”.
Initially, the vicar’s radical generosity wins him new friends – until it starts to undercut local trade. The church hierarchy must find a way of getting him out: though, as the movie’s zany conclusion reveals, the prelates have no idea quite how far away Smallwood is willing to go.
Watched back-to-back, the movies are a fascinating insight into the ascent of Sellers from the genius of The Goon Show (1951-60) to his eventual status as one of the great British character actors of the century: star of The Pink Panther (1963), Dr Strangelove (1964) and Being There (1979). In this spirit, BFI Southbank is also mounting a special season, In Character: The Films of Peter Sellers (August 2-30).
EXHIBITION
Gorillaz: House of Kong
(Copper Box Arena, London, August 8-September 3)
There are still tickets left for what promises to be one of the exhibitions of the summer, staged to mark the first quarter century of the virtual band founded by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett.
The music and adventures of singer 2D, drummer Russel Hobbs, guitarist Noodle and bassist Murdoc Niccals will be celebrated in this immersive experience – concluding with four live shows on August 29, August 30, September 2 and September 3, the band’s first since Coachella 2023. It is a promising sign of mischief in the works that the exhibition’s motif is the demon Pazuzu from The Exorcist – covered in bright patches and decals.
There will now be a summer intermission. The newsletter will return on Friday, August 29.