Puffball [2006] [DVD]

On the face of it Puffball is an eerie tale of Witchcraft and the Old Gods still in operation in 21st century Ireland ,and read simply like this it conveys much power taking us through the images of Mythological woman(crones,fertile maidens,and virgins)into an exploration of what it means to be female.But what I think it is really about is the inabilty of us all to secound guess life.Almost every plan laid down by every character in this film comes to nothing,fate thwarts them and then gives them little crumbs of comfort to be getting on with and then the film moves on(much like life).It is only when the old dies that harmonisation occurs between what had previously been disparate parts and all this overseen by the young girl who has knowledge of what must be done to see out the old.As Roeg says in the making of puffball documentary that accompanies the film."Do you know what God laughs at? People who make plans!"-Buy this Dvd its head and shoulders above any tedious so called horror film out there!

Nicolas Roeg's discordant anti-thriller 'Puffball' is an eerie tale of conception and covert coupling filmed in his unmistakable style; not even slightly mellowed or distilled for the 21st Century.
Still powerful with a driving erotic charge - still taking the everyday and ordinary and making it seem strange.

'Puffball's plot is simple but intelligent (yes readers, you've got to THINK about this one, sorry...); mad-stare Mabs is desperate for another child; she has 3 girls already and longs for a boy. Her mother Molly, a slightly Wiccan mad-woman troubled by a tragic event in her past, decides to assist using an ancient hex but inadvertently knocks up a completely different woman - Liffey - a lithe architect renovating a nearby cottage.
Much angst and intrigue ensues as the two ladies (and their respective spouses) go head to head in a psychological and symbolic battle for the unborn child.

Into this already heated environ Roeg introduces much organic and biological detail; eye-popping real sex sequences (filmed inside the women!) insinuating a supernatural connection between the rush of sperm flooding the cervix - and the releasing of the giant puffball's spores (the old witch's element in her increasingly eccentric spells); the dominant symbol of fertility throughout the film.

Kelly Riley is lustrously sexy as Liffey; her physicality proving the catalyst for the dream-like events which unfold following her arrival.
Miranda Richardson is the delusional Mabs, driven to fluence and unorthodoxy in her frantic attempts to conceive.
Molly is played with skanky wraithishness by Rita Tushingham; all woodland twitchery and phallic enchantments, desperate in the belief that her own pain will ultimately pass if she can cause Mabs to cop for a womb-full.

There are some blokes about the place but they're not really important beyond occasionally donating copious amounts of man-seed to further facilitate the story-line.
This is a women's film - and it's not a rom-com. (!)

Serious adult themes are addressed and enlarged upon from the female perspective with no sense of voyeurism or amusement. Sex is presented grittily and naturalistically - there's no sweeping orchestra and mounting soft-focus passion for Liffey. Even so, she behaves responsibly; using a condom while making out with her boyfriend only to find its effectiveness has been compromised by witchery - and into the bun-club she swiftly goes - much to her initial horror.
She then drunkenly gets it rough on a straw lined barn floor from Mabs' handyman husband - fuelled by fire-water home-brew and secretive fertility rituals performed in the woods by Molly and a naked virgin..(oo er..!)...
At this point Donald Sutherland pops his head round the door for a cameo, just as the films final disturbing twists and turns find their marks...

'Puffball' is intense. If I've made it sound like rural-porn - I apologise, but without the sex scenes the film would lose a lot of its impact and distinctive tone.

The cast are universally fab, the low-key special effects are memorable and Roeg's laissez-faire direction indicates powerfully the genius of 'Walkabout' and 'Don't Look Now' is still bubbling: alive with ideas and purpose.

And of course there's a moral: if you're thinking of messing with Mother Nature in her wisdom - don't.

In this incoherent film, capable architect Liffey (Kelly Reilly) moves into and renovates a remote Irish cottage. She falls foul of her mildly deranged neighbours, a mother (Molly) and daughter (Mabs) played by Rita Tushingham and Miranda Richardson. Mabs wants a male baby; Molly seems to have lost a male child. This makes them resentful of the pregnant Liffey. Various magical high jinks ensue, Liffey has a complicated pregnancy in more ways than one, and there may well be a ghost involved, too - it's all a bit vague.
Rita Tushingham does an occasionally comic job of darting madly around the undergrowth in full-on spaewife mode; Miranda Richardson does here best with the rather one-dimensional Mabs. Kelly Reilly unfortunately radiates a sort of tentative haplessness whenever she's called upon to depict Liffey's capable nature: issuing apologetic instructions to the builders, performing a bit of catastrophically unconvincing joinery, poking at a recalcitrant generator, or giving her boyfriend a rather listless reproach for getting the Land Rover "stuck" in two inches of mud. By far the most rounded and believable character is provided in a supporting role by Tina Kellegher as Mabs' nosey and sullen sister.
It gets worse: the male characters are stereotypical sexist ciphers, the sort that are insulting not just to men but to women as well. The two younger men are good only for delivering grunting sex, being a bit confused and hurt by the women's subtle natures, and getting into a fistfight (over the women, of course). The third male trundles in as a predictable Father Figure for the beleaguered Liffey: it's her ex-boss come to offer her her old job back, sporting a shock of white hair, a supportive and uncritical attitude, and a wardrobe from Old-Guy Chic. Donald Sutherland plays the role with a peculiar accent and a slightly spaced look throughout.
And there's something generally flat about the acting. In part this is because of the intermittently stilted dialogue, but there also seems to have been a directorial policy of keeping things understated to the point of incredulity. When Liffey and her boyfriend are told that she has a life-threateningly low placenta which will necessity an elective Caesarian section, they simply nod at each other placidly, as if they'd been told she might need to buy some elasticated pants.
Against this flat background, the overwrought imagery seems even more laboured: we got the analogy between the puffball fungus and the pregnant abdomen the first time, thanks. And the Jacques-Cousteau-style views purporting to be "sex from the inside" are simply hilarious.

Well worth not watching, despite a promising-looking combination of writer, cast and director.