Five minutes to midnight video movie#

'As far as Cinder was concerned, things were less than okay.' Six Minutes to Midnight is a tribute to those real-life girls who, as guests from a land that would soon become a vicious enemy, represent a strange little intersection of English and German history-the human element behind symbols clashing on a badge.'They trudged back to the house and Qrow put her back to bed before finally falling into bed himself. The sea and its surrounding rocks are features of the natural world that have borne witness to sights we might never have dreamed of, including neat rows of young German girls, in black bathing suits and white caps, heading out into the white-tipped waves for a swim.

Five minutes to midnight video movie#

(In an early scene, Miller wins over his somewhat unwelcoming new students by teaching them a good old English music-hall song, РІР‚СљItРІР‚в„ўs a Long Way to Tipperary.РІР‚Сњ) And as shot by Chris Seager, the movie is gorgeous to look at, giving us seascapes and craggy cliffs with a dreamy, misty edge, as if they were somehow aware of our presence, viewing them from our vantage point some 60 years in the future. Izzard, so dazzling as a live performer, is always fun to watch onscreen: As Miller, she has a vibrant, inquisitive energy. (A scene in which a character shocks the young women with a chilly lecture about anti-Semitism makes them seem more clueless than some earlier scenes have led us to believe.)Р”В«ut the movie is still quietly entertaining, and thereРІР‚в„ўs something heartfelt about its approach-it seems guided by a desire to believe that young peopleРІР‚в„ўs views can be shaped and redirected for the better by simple kindness. In her devotion to her charges, Miss Rocholl is a bit too blind to the dangers they might pose to her own country while some of the girls seem genuinely innocent and naР“Р‡ve, others have clearly been schooled in Nazi ideals. The idea for Six Minutes to Midnight emerged from IzzardРІР‚в„ўs fascination with the school.Р”Р„s compelling as the raw idea may be, the plot of Six Minutes to Midnight could have been more finely tuned. (Izzard disclosed in December that she is transgender and uses she/her pronouns.) The Augusta-Victoria College was a real school, in operation from 1932 to 1939 the badges on the girlsРІР‚в„ў uniforms, reproduced in the movie, featured a lion rampant flanked by both a Union Jack and a swastika. Six Minutes to Midnight was written by Goddard, Izzard and Celyn Jones, and its subject has special meaning for Izzard: Her family is from Bexhill-on-Sea, and she spent a great deal of time there as a child.

Even with her countrymen becoming increasingly suspicious, with good reason, of all things German, Miss Rocholl insists on believing in the basic decency of her young charges. But theyРІР‚в„ўre also just girls, teenagers, and the schoolРІР‚в„ўs headmistress, Miss Rocholl (Judi Dench), has a great deal invested in giving them a proper English education, as well as simply keeping them safe. The attendees are all young German women from РІР‚СљgoodРІР‚Сњ families, very possibly the daughters, nieces or goddaughters of Nazi officials. Izzard plays a teacher, Thomas Miller, who takes a job at Augusta-Victoria College, a finishing school in the coastal town of Bexhill-on-Sea thatРІР‚в„ўs sort of a cross-cultural experiment between England and Germany. ItРІР‚в„ўs August of 1939, and England is on the brink of a war whose scope it canРІР‚в„ўt yet imagine. Six Minutes to Midnight, an espionage drama directed by Andy Goddard and starring Eddie Izzard and Judi Dench, has a gentle spirit that you donРІР‚в„ўt expect from a period spy thriller-but then, there arenРІР‚в„ўt many spy thrillers with imperiled schoolgirls at their center.