Although I threatened previously to stop doing this, it has unfortunately become traditional for me to comment on the film choices on British television each festive season. Long gone are the days when I would await the fortnightly Christmas edition of the Radio Times with bated breath. Now one's sources of film viewing are so broad via satellite, streaming, and the internet generally, to say nothing about actually visiting ones local cinema, that it is becoming impossible for the television schedulers to offer us much in the way of 'treats'. I doubt that many are looking forward to the umpteenth showings of the popular animations of the last fifteen years -- but perhaps it keeps the kiddies quiet.
Of the 34 film premieres on Freeview over the next fourteen days (yes, I did count them), there are only five movies that I have not already seen. I suppose I should count my small blessings. This is omitting FilmFour (which has all of two premiere showings -- neither to write home about.) Once one has deleted the made-for-television Christmas flicks and the really dire children's fodder, one is left with 21 'real' films which this scribe has previously viewed -- and since these 21 include three of the highest-grossing films ever ("Skyfall", "Avengers Assemble", and "The Dark Knight") I would surmise that plenty of others have also seen a fair number of then. The premieres include the classic Disney animations "Cinderella" (1950) and "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1960) which may be their first showings on the box, but hardly 'new' to most of us.
As always the premieres are heavy on animation -- not much else on Christmas Day, the best of these being "Puss in Boots" and "Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists". There are some real 'turkeys' among the remaining 'live action' movies like "John Carter" and "Wanderlust", but the recommendable ones include "Gran Torino" (from back in 2008), "Men in Black 3" (this series is always fun), and "The Help" (a remarkably clever film). There's not much else to tempt the discerning adult.
Of course there is the usual sprinkling of 'classic' charmers (what the Radio Times euphemistically call 'another chance to see') like "Casablanca", "It's a Wonderful Life", "The Wizard of Oz", "Kind Hearts and Coronets" and "Singin' in the Rain" -- but we seem to get the same selection every year. What about less-known 'oldies' and non-English language premieres and 'classics' -- there is nary a one in the schedules.
In case you want to know, the five premieres that PPP has not seen and which she will therefore definitely schedule (you all know I'm a completist!) are "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen", "Hunky Dory", "The Raven", "The Look of Love", and "Quartet". All of these were previously shown on Sky Box Office, only to fall between the cracks, never shown on Sky Premiere, and left to surface on terrestrial TV in very due course, leaving literally dozens of movies which appear to have disappeared completely. I should add that none of the five, except possibly "Quartet" are films which get me the least bit excited. Meanwhile Sky will be screening both "Frozen" and "The Lego Movie" (neither of which I've seen) -- two more kiddie flicks for the child in all of us.
While I'm having my usual Christmas moan, I should add that there is also a dearth of film-related other programming. The usual' let's make a stupid list' compilations are all repeats and the only two new bios are Darcey Burrell on Audrey Hepburn and a documentary on Julie Walters. Yawn, yawn, yawn...
I would hate to leave my readers with any damper on their seasonal spirits, so let me wish you all a joyful holiday season and a productive and peaceful New Year. I'll be back in 2015, hopefully with renewed enthusiasms.
Friday 19 December 2014
Friday 12 December 2014
Wake in Fright (1971)
Some movies gain almost mythic status when one considers their fate over the years and the above film is an interesting case in point. The original novel published in 1961 by the Australian writer Kenneth Cook was first optioned by a British television producer to be adapted for the box. This TV drama was meant to be directed by Joseph Losey and to star Dirk Bogarde, with Robert Helpmann (and subsequently James Mason or Donald Pleasence) in the main supporting role.
Those plans obviously crashed and the next one knew the novel was being made into a film in Australia with the Canadian director Ted Kotcheff at the helm. The main role of John Grant was filled by the Aussie actor Gary Bond (a cross between a young Peter O'Toole and a young Richard Chamberlain) with Pleasence -- always a creepy presence -- still in the frame and with the addition of Australian old-time movie star Chips Rafferty also in support. The final picture was sufficiently well thought of to be selected by Cannes to be the official Australian entry in 1971, but the country's National Film Board refused to endorse this because of the unfavourable light in which the country was depicted. Still the film remained in competition and was subsequently a long-running hit in France. In contrast, it was something of a financial flop elsewhere, appearing in chopped up versions under the title "Outback", until only distressed and incomplete negatives were available.
The movie's mythic reputation continued to grow, since this film and "Walkabout" released at about the same time, were credited by local film-makers as spurring the Renaissance of Australian movie-making in the early 70s and beyond. However the master negative had disappeared and after years of searching it was located finally in a Pittsburgh company's dump bin marked "for destruction". It was eventually restored and re-mastered and in 2009 it became only the second film to be invited to Cannes for a second showing.
The movie centers on Bond's Grant, an impoverished yet relatively cultured university graduate, indentured to teach in a one-room schoolhouse in Tiboonda in the back of beyond, a desolate settlement in the endless vast hot, dry terrain. For his Christmas break he takes the one-carriage train, ignoring his boisterous and drunken fellow travellers, to the nearest big town, Bundanyabba - The Yabba for short - where he plans on getting the next day's flight to Sydney and civilization. That evening when most of the locals have gathered in the illegal, after hours pub, he witnesses their simple pastime, a gambling game totally without finesse where they bet on whether two tossed coins will land heads or tails. While unable to understand the idiocy of this game, he is tempted to try his luck and proceeds to win a goodly sum. However, thinking that further winnings could free him from his teaching contract, he returns to the floor and manages to lose everything -- stranding him in this frontier mining town. He wakes naked the next morning -- a man without prospects.
The film would have it that Aussies are imperialistic drinkers so there is no shortage of punters offering to buy him a few jars. He is invited to 'lunch' by one of the locals, who is soon joined by three of his friends including 'Doc' (Pleasence), and an afternoon of heavy drinking. He tries to become friendly with the daughter of the house (and none of the others can fathom why he might prefer talking to drinking) but only can vomit when the encounter threatens to become sexual. He fends off an actual sexual approach from 'Doc' with whom he spends the night, and by the next afternoon he willingly joins the four of them for a bloody and vicious kangaroo hunt. Effectively Bond is rapidly becoming a man who is having the veneer of civilization stripped from him piece by piece and he finds himself in a no-win situation. With no funds, he attempts to hitch his way to Sydney, but unwittingly finds himself back at The Yabba and ultimately back in the dead-end world that is Tiboonda.
No one can claim that 'no kangaroos were injured in the making of this film' as Kotcheff includes footage of actual licensed kangaroo hunters who went out nightly to stalk their prey by blinding them with bright spotlights. This graphic and gory footage managed to get both the government and the environmentalists up in arms. The Australian Tourist Board could hardly be pleased with the negative imagery of their would-be tourist attractions. The director claims that he himself would never injure an animal and that kangaroos are the most anthropomorphic of beasts. He adds that the footage was included to illustrate the depths of Bond's degeneration -- and apparently the bloodiest footage never made the final cut. As is, it is all pretty horrific.
I wondered about the film's title as there is nothing explanatory in the movie. It is explained by a one-line foreword in the novel itself and reads: "may you dream of the devil and wake in fright".
Those plans obviously crashed and the next one knew the novel was being made into a film in Australia with the Canadian director Ted Kotcheff at the helm. The main role of John Grant was filled by the Aussie actor Gary Bond (a cross between a young Peter O'Toole and a young Richard Chamberlain) with Pleasence -- always a creepy presence -- still in the frame and with the addition of Australian old-time movie star Chips Rafferty also in support. The final picture was sufficiently well thought of to be selected by Cannes to be the official Australian entry in 1971, but the country's National Film Board refused to endorse this because of the unfavourable light in which the country was depicted. Still the film remained in competition and was subsequently a long-running hit in France. In contrast, it was something of a financial flop elsewhere, appearing in chopped up versions under the title "Outback", until only distressed and incomplete negatives were available.
The movie's mythic reputation continued to grow, since this film and "Walkabout" released at about the same time, were credited by local film-makers as spurring the Renaissance of Australian movie-making in the early 70s and beyond. However the master negative had disappeared and after years of searching it was located finally in a Pittsburgh company's dump bin marked "for destruction". It was eventually restored and re-mastered and in 2009 it became only the second film to be invited to Cannes for a second showing.
The movie centers on Bond's Grant, an impoverished yet relatively cultured university graduate, indentured to teach in a one-room schoolhouse in Tiboonda in the back of beyond, a desolate settlement in the endless vast hot, dry terrain. For his Christmas break he takes the one-carriage train, ignoring his boisterous and drunken fellow travellers, to the nearest big town, Bundanyabba - The Yabba for short - where he plans on getting the next day's flight to Sydney and civilization. That evening when most of the locals have gathered in the illegal, after hours pub, he witnesses their simple pastime, a gambling game totally without finesse where they bet on whether two tossed coins will land heads or tails. While unable to understand the idiocy of this game, he is tempted to try his luck and proceeds to win a goodly sum. However, thinking that further winnings could free him from his teaching contract, he returns to the floor and manages to lose everything -- stranding him in this frontier mining town. He wakes naked the next morning -- a man without prospects.
The film would have it that Aussies are imperialistic drinkers so there is no shortage of punters offering to buy him a few jars. He is invited to 'lunch' by one of the locals, who is soon joined by three of his friends including 'Doc' (Pleasence), and an afternoon of heavy drinking. He tries to become friendly with the daughter of the house (and none of the others can fathom why he might prefer talking to drinking) but only can vomit when the encounter threatens to become sexual. He fends off an actual sexual approach from 'Doc' with whom he spends the night, and by the next afternoon he willingly joins the four of them for a bloody and vicious kangaroo hunt. Effectively Bond is rapidly becoming a man who is having the veneer of civilization stripped from him piece by piece and he finds himself in a no-win situation. With no funds, he attempts to hitch his way to Sydney, but unwittingly finds himself back at The Yabba and ultimately back in the dead-end world that is Tiboonda.
No one can claim that 'no kangaroos were injured in the making of this film' as Kotcheff includes footage of actual licensed kangaroo hunters who went out nightly to stalk their prey by blinding them with bright spotlights. This graphic and gory footage managed to get both the government and the environmentalists up in arms. The Australian Tourist Board could hardly be pleased with the negative imagery of their would-be tourist attractions. The director claims that he himself would never injure an animal and that kangaroos are the most anthropomorphic of beasts. He adds that the footage was included to illustrate the depths of Bond's degeneration -- and apparently the bloodiest footage never made the final cut. As is, it is all pretty horrific.
I wondered about the film's title as there is nothing explanatory in the movie. It is explained by a one-line foreword in the novel itself and reads: "may you dream of the devil and wake in fright".
Friday 28 November 2014
Body and Soul (1925)
Apart from the standard popular tune, there have been a surprising number of films, TV series, and mini-series with the above title -- each unrelated to the next, but none of such potentially great interest to the movie buff as the above Poverty Row movie.
Looking at niche interests, one must note that it was directed by Oscar Micheaux, one of very few black directors to accumulate a substantial body of work in the bad old days, and that it showcases the first film role (and his only silent role) of the majestic Paul Robeson. Both of these men were giants with landmark footnotes in film history. Micheaux is credited as the first African-American to produce a feature-length movie ("The Homesteader" - 1919) and also the first to produce a feature-length sound movie. Not many of his movies survive and since they were intended primarily for black audiences, few are known today. The fact that they were all made on the proverbial shoestring did not help them to linger in the collective memory.
As for Robeson, he was one of the first black actors to cross over into 'white' films, most noticeably in the original 1936 version of "Showboat". Tall, handsome, with a beautiful bass voice, he was the son of a minister, graduated from college in 1919, and attended Columbia Law School -- so he was hardly any kind of stereotype. He performed on stage and in concert from the early twenties, and made a series of wonderfully conceived films (several of them in England) in the thirties. His last film performance was in "Tales of Manhattan" (1942) when he took offence at the portrayal of Negroes in Hollywood movies. Always a radical and a fighter for justice, he was suspected of Communist sympathies (he famously performed in Moscow), and had his passport confiscated for his beliefs. He was effectively blacklisted and his career destroyed. A sad, sad story.
In the above film he takes a dual role as the respectable, poor would-be inventor Sylvester and his ex-convict brother who poses as a man of the cloth. His fire and brimstone sermons become so popular with the local community, that no one sees his true colours (a drinker and a gambler) through the façade. He entices Sylvester's girlfriend or rather rapes her, manages to get her to steal the money that her poor old mother has been saving in the family bible, and drives her in disgrace from her home. When the mother eventually traces the girl, she is starving and sickly --soon to die. The mother is played by the large and imposing fair-skinned Mercedes Gilbert, who was a well-known stage actress, and the girl by Micheaux's sister-in-law in her only film appearance.
While censorship was not as formal in the twenties as it became after the Hays Code, the director was broadly criticised by his fellow blacks for portraying a minister as a thief, rapist, and murderer. Without the funds to reshoot the movie, Micheaux tacked on a new ending -- an early instance of 'it was all a dream, the nightmare of a tortured soul' cop-out. Despite this being the only time Robeson played what could be considered a villain, his performance is mesmerising. The film is worth seeing for him alone, but the Criterion disc is blessed with a great jazz score by Wycliffe Gordon and Courtney Pike. And while I usually object to voices on the sound-track of a silent movie, I could just about swear that at times I could hear Robeson himself singing.
I am away for a short break at the end of next week, so I shall reappear in a fortnight's time. 'Til then....
Looking at niche interests, one must note that it was directed by Oscar Micheaux, one of very few black directors to accumulate a substantial body of work in the bad old days, and that it showcases the first film role (and his only silent role) of the majestic Paul Robeson. Both of these men were giants with landmark footnotes in film history. Micheaux is credited as the first African-American to produce a feature-length movie ("The Homesteader" - 1919) and also the first to produce a feature-length sound movie. Not many of his movies survive and since they were intended primarily for black audiences, few are known today. The fact that they were all made on the proverbial shoestring did not help them to linger in the collective memory.
As for Robeson, he was one of the first black actors to cross over into 'white' films, most noticeably in the original 1936 version of "Showboat". Tall, handsome, with a beautiful bass voice, he was the son of a minister, graduated from college in 1919, and attended Columbia Law School -- so he was hardly any kind of stereotype. He performed on stage and in concert from the early twenties, and made a series of wonderfully conceived films (several of them in England) in the thirties. His last film performance was in "Tales of Manhattan" (1942) when he took offence at the portrayal of Negroes in Hollywood movies. Always a radical and a fighter for justice, he was suspected of Communist sympathies (he famously performed in Moscow), and had his passport confiscated for his beliefs. He was effectively blacklisted and his career destroyed. A sad, sad story.
In the above film he takes a dual role as the respectable, poor would-be inventor Sylvester and his ex-convict brother who poses as a man of the cloth. His fire and brimstone sermons become so popular with the local community, that no one sees his true colours (a drinker and a gambler) through the façade. He entices Sylvester's girlfriend or rather rapes her, manages to get her to steal the money that her poor old mother has been saving in the family bible, and drives her in disgrace from her home. When the mother eventually traces the girl, she is starving and sickly --soon to die. The mother is played by the large and imposing fair-skinned Mercedes Gilbert, who was a well-known stage actress, and the girl by Micheaux's sister-in-law in her only film appearance.
While censorship was not as formal in the twenties as it became after the Hays Code, the director was broadly criticised by his fellow blacks for portraying a minister as a thief, rapist, and murderer. Without the funds to reshoot the movie, Micheaux tacked on a new ending -- an early instance of 'it was all a dream, the nightmare of a tortured soul' cop-out. Despite this being the only time Robeson played what could be considered a villain, his performance is mesmerising. The film is worth seeing for him alone, but the Criterion disc is blessed with a great jazz score by Wycliffe Gordon and Courtney Pike. And while I usually object to voices on the sound-track of a silent movie, I could just about swear that at times I could hear Robeson himself singing.
I am away for a short break at the end of next week, so I shall reappear in a fortnight's time. 'Til then....
Friday 21 November 2014
There's a whole world out there...
It never ceases to amaze me how many interesting movies are waiting to be discovered by the open-minded viewer. I could happily ignore most new releases -- although to be fair I try to make the effort to see them all in due course -- in the hope of finding my entertainment further afield. This week has been a good case in point, since after watching the film that I intended to be the centrepiece of this entry, I saw two others that merit if only the briefest of mentions.
The first of these was a German experimental film from 1925 titled "Das Blumenwunder", which I assume means 'the wonder of flowers'. No point trying to verify this on IMDb since the film isn't even included in their remarkable database. Effectively it was a very, very early entry in what I think is called time-lapse photography, watching various flowers bloom, blossom, and sometimes fade. I have certainly seen modern-era nature programmes using the same technique, but never morphing the flowers into flowingly-robed dancers as this one did! On one level its 65 minutes running time verged on the boring, but I kept telling myself that the movie was probably of great historic merit and certainly of great curiosity value.
The second movie was a modern Indian one from Channel Four's annual late-night Indian season. I've given up watching every one of these movies as a matter of course, but do set those that sound of potential interest. I picked a real winner with "Lootera" (2013). Set in 1953, shortly after the country's independence, it seems at first a run-of-the-mill love story as the sickly daughter of a rich landowner (whose property is largely being nationalised) falls for the handsome 'archaeologist' who is excavating on their land. He loves her too, but his 'brother' tells him that their 'uncle' would never sanction the proposed marriage. Their engagement is announced but when her father visits their temple to prepare for the ceremony, he discovers his gold statues have been looted and the handsome lover has done a bunk. The so-called uncle has meanwhile purchased the treasures of the house and paid for them with a wad of counterfeit cash! Hence, I assume, the title of the movie.
Seeing his daughter's suffering kills the father and the story resumes with her living (and dying from TB) elsewhere in genteel poverty. Hunted by the police since many others were similarly deceived, the impostor comes back into her life while on the run -- and a different sort of love story follows, largely inspired by the O. Henry story of 'The Last Leaf' -- not that any happy ending was feasible.' This was an unusual and gripping tale and the film blessedly didn't suffer from the characters bursting into song and dance at every opportunity. Yes, there was music and singing, but this was as a background to the action and the film was all the better for its restraint.
So finally to the movie intended as this week's topic: "The New Gulliver" (1935). This film from Aleksandr Ptuschko (1900-1973), often referred to as 'the Russian Disney' was both very much of its period and a total delight despite that. What I'm getting at is that almost all Russian movies from the 30s featured smiling, happy, collective workers, going about their tasks for the glory of Mother Russia. (I doubt the films would have been sanctioned had this not been the case). Ptuschko takes the classic tale and rewrites it as a Communist text. The live-action actor, a big, brawny, cheerful yet gormless fellow, is shipwrecked in Lilliput, where he is captured by a host of impressively fashioned stop-motion miniature figures. (Again this must be one of the earliest major examples of the technique.) However these Lilliputians are a decadent bunch of aristos, while toiling beneath the kingdom are crude Claymation figures forced to manufacture munitions and awaiting their chance to rebel and to rise to the surface. I guess you get the message!
The Lilliputians decide that Gulliver should join their army as a man-mountain defence, and prepare a sumptuous banquet for him. They bring on the entertainments including a troupe of tinier midgets ('You have midgets?" he asks in amazement). However Gulliver wonders why they 'beat' their workers and he refuses to toast their king; he says they should change their motto from 'God save the throne' to 'God save Labour'. Rather than defending the kingdom from foreign enemies as in the book, Gulliver supports the workers as they storm the palace, forcing the king and his queen to hang precariously from the clock-tower. 'At last' enthuses our hero as he awakes from his dream.
You can watch this gem on the treasure-house that is You Tube. There is a copy available with English subtitles, even if these are occasionally difficult to read with their white on white. There is also a slightly longer version posted, but without the necessary titles that definitely add spice to this fantasy. Well recommended!
The first of these was a German experimental film from 1925 titled "Das Blumenwunder", which I assume means 'the wonder of flowers'. No point trying to verify this on IMDb since the film isn't even included in their remarkable database. Effectively it was a very, very early entry in what I think is called time-lapse photography, watching various flowers bloom, blossom, and sometimes fade. I have certainly seen modern-era nature programmes using the same technique, but never morphing the flowers into flowingly-robed dancers as this one did! On one level its 65 minutes running time verged on the boring, but I kept telling myself that the movie was probably of great historic merit and certainly of great curiosity value.
The second movie was a modern Indian one from Channel Four's annual late-night Indian season. I've given up watching every one of these movies as a matter of course, but do set those that sound of potential interest. I picked a real winner with "Lootera" (2013). Set in 1953, shortly after the country's independence, it seems at first a run-of-the-mill love story as the sickly daughter of a rich landowner (whose property is largely being nationalised) falls for the handsome 'archaeologist' who is excavating on their land. He loves her too, but his 'brother' tells him that their 'uncle' would never sanction the proposed marriage. Their engagement is announced but when her father visits their temple to prepare for the ceremony, he discovers his gold statues have been looted and the handsome lover has done a bunk. The so-called uncle has meanwhile purchased the treasures of the house and paid for them with a wad of counterfeit cash! Hence, I assume, the title of the movie.
Seeing his daughter's suffering kills the father and the story resumes with her living (and dying from TB) elsewhere in genteel poverty. Hunted by the police since many others were similarly deceived, the impostor comes back into her life while on the run -- and a different sort of love story follows, largely inspired by the O. Henry story of 'The Last Leaf' -- not that any happy ending was feasible.' This was an unusual and gripping tale and the film blessedly didn't suffer from the characters bursting into song and dance at every opportunity. Yes, there was music and singing, but this was as a background to the action and the film was all the better for its restraint.
So finally to the movie intended as this week's topic: "The New Gulliver" (1935). This film from Aleksandr Ptuschko (1900-1973), often referred to as 'the Russian Disney' was both very much of its period and a total delight despite that. What I'm getting at is that almost all Russian movies from the 30s featured smiling, happy, collective workers, going about their tasks for the glory of Mother Russia. (I doubt the films would have been sanctioned had this not been the case). Ptuschko takes the classic tale and rewrites it as a Communist text. The live-action actor, a big, brawny, cheerful yet gormless fellow, is shipwrecked in Lilliput, where he is captured by a host of impressively fashioned stop-motion miniature figures. (Again this must be one of the earliest major examples of the technique.) However these Lilliputians are a decadent bunch of aristos, while toiling beneath the kingdom are crude Claymation figures forced to manufacture munitions and awaiting their chance to rebel and to rise to the surface. I guess you get the message!
The Lilliputians decide that Gulliver should join their army as a man-mountain defence, and prepare a sumptuous banquet for him. They bring on the entertainments including a troupe of tinier midgets ('You have midgets?" he asks in amazement). However Gulliver wonders why they 'beat' their workers and he refuses to toast their king; he says they should change their motto from 'God save the throne' to 'God save Labour'. Rather than defending the kingdom from foreign enemies as in the book, Gulliver supports the workers as they storm the palace, forcing the king and his queen to hang precariously from the clock-tower. 'At last' enthuses our hero as he awakes from his dream.
You can watch this gem on the treasure-house that is You Tube. There is a copy available with English subtitles, even if these are occasionally difficult to read with their white on white. There is also a slightly longer version posted, but without the necessary titles that definitely add spice to this fantasy. Well recommended!
Saturday 15 November 2014
Korean movies
Korean movies have gone from strength to strength over the last fifteen or so years and I can think of dozens that have enchanted me, from period epics through quirky policiers, from fantasy sci-fi through effective horror. Therefore when we noticed that a Korean Film Festival was scheduled for London this month (incidentally the 9th and the largest and most ambitious of all the Korean Festivals staged around the globe), we thought 'let's book some tickets'. After studying the very diverse programme which featured the 102nd(!) film from director Im Kwontaek and a retrospective of the movies of talented 'outsider' Kim Ki-duk, we settled on two films from a short-list of seven or eight. They were, as it turned out, not necessarily the best choices we could have made and short reviews follow below.
Coincidentally -- or perhaps in support of the Festival -- Film Four also scheduled five television premieres for recent Korean movies five nights in a row. I thought 'super-duper' and set the hard-disc for the very late night showings of "In Another Country" (2012), "Like You Know it All" (2009), "The Day He Arrives" (2011), "Oki's Movie" (2010), and "Hahaha" (2010). However, I had to literally force myself to sit through these five which were largely very slow and tedious and occasionally confusing.. Ironically each of them had a main character who was either a film director or critic (or in some cases both).
The generalisations I can tell you by distilling the five movies are that Korean film-makers all look like late teenagers (presumably not the bloke who has just shot his 102nd film), drink to excess, are always unfaithful to their wives, and are given to sprouting would-be profound but actually idiotic inanities at the drop of a hat. The weather is either freezing cold, rainy, or boiling hot -- and umbrellas are essential accessories. The films were all surprisingly well-rated on IMDb, but I couldn't tell you why. The first actually starred French super-star actress Isabel Huppert rabbiting away in English to the otherwise Korean cast who were forced to reply in occasionally pigeon English. How peculiar! The classic 'groundhog day' scenario seems to have been adapted by the screenwriters of these movies and all of them featured repetitious scenes, dialogue, and characters. Something of a big yawn and not super-duper at all.
To return to the Festival itself, our first selection was Kim Ki-duk's latest "One on One". I referred to him as an outsider above since while he is well-revered overseas, he is not particularly popular in his home market; his films which have won major prizes at the top international film festivals have received scant praise among Koreans themselves. They tend to focus on society's own outsiders and on the cruelty meted out by man to his fellow man; his main themes are isolation, death, suffering in silence, and the need for revenge. None of this holds instant appeal for the average Korean movie-goer, whereas we foreigners treasure his movies as so-called 'art-house gems'. His latest film is somewhat more conventionally constructed than many of his others. We follow a mismatched vigilante group, who dress up in varying costumes and uniforms, who seek to avenge the murder of a high school girl by the minions of some branch of the government. As is often the excuse for evil-doing, the perpetrators who are picked up and tortured one by one into signing confessions, claim that they were only following orders. Some of them begin to regret their actions -- others can't understand the fuss. The director seems to be asking where does responsibility stop? Can we ever satisfactorily correct society's wrongs? He does not provide us with any simple answers.
Our second choice "Cold Eyes", based on a 2007 Hong Kong thriller, was in contrast a huge hit in Korea. It is something of a rather atypical police procedural and I personally found it a little on the mechanical side. The lead actress Ha Yoon-ju plays a rookie policewoman with uncanny observational skills assigned to Hwang Sang-jun's surveillance unit; their job is to trace and pin down high-profile criminals rather than actively engaging with them. Their main target here is a ruthless criminal and bank-robber played by pretty-boy actor Jung Woo-sung (the 'Good' in 'The Good, the Bad, and the Weird'). The latter is apparently something of a major heart-throb back home and his appearance for a Q and A at the cinema yesterday attracted a throng of cooing, lovesick Korean ladies both in the audience and outside. I had no idea there were so many young Koreans living in London.
While the above reviews may come off as a little dismissive -- particularly of Film Four's selections -- I have not been put off seeking more Korean movies to view in the future. On balance the good ones I have seen in the past more than compensate for the seven seen this week, and certainly the two Festival choices were both of some minor interest.
Coincidentally -- or perhaps in support of the Festival -- Film Four also scheduled five television premieres for recent Korean movies five nights in a row. I thought 'super-duper' and set the hard-disc for the very late night showings of "In Another Country" (2012), "Like You Know it All" (2009), "The Day He Arrives" (2011), "Oki's Movie" (2010), and "Hahaha" (2010). However, I had to literally force myself to sit through these five which were largely very slow and tedious and occasionally confusing.. Ironically each of them had a main character who was either a film director or critic (or in some cases both).
The generalisations I can tell you by distilling the five movies are that Korean film-makers all look like late teenagers (presumably not the bloke who has just shot his 102nd film), drink to excess, are always unfaithful to their wives, and are given to sprouting would-be profound but actually idiotic inanities at the drop of a hat. The weather is either freezing cold, rainy, or boiling hot -- and umbrellas are essential accessories. The films were all surprisingly well-rated on IMDb, but I couldn't tell you why. The first actually starred French super-star actress Isabel Huppert rabbiting away in English to the otherwise Korean cast who were forced to reply in occasionally pigeon English. How peculiar! The classic 'groundhog day' scenario seems to have been adapted by the screenwriters of these movies and all of them featured repetitious scenes, dialogue, and characters. Something of a big yawn and not super-duper at all.
To return to the Festival itself, our first selection was Kim Ki-duk's latest "One on One". I referred to him as an outsider above since while he is well-revered overseas, he is not particularly popular in his home market; his films which have won major prizes at the top international film festivals have received scant praise among Koreans themselves. They tend to focus on society's own outsiders and on the cruelty meted out by man to his fellow man; his main themes are isolation, death, suffering in silence, and the need for revenge. None of this holds instant appeal for the average Korean movie-goer, whereas we foreigners treasure his movies as so-called 'art-house gems'. His latest film is somewhat more conventionally constructed than many of his others. We follow a mismatched vigilante group, who dress up in varying costumes and uniforms, who seek to avenge the murder of a high school girl by the minions of some branch of the government. As is often the excuse for evil-doing, the perpetrators who are picked up and tortured one by one into signing confessions, claim that they were only following orders. Some of them begin to regret their actions -- others can't understand the fuss. The director seems to be asking where does responsibility stop? Can we ever satisfactorily correct society's wrongs? He does not provide us with any simple answers.
Our second choice "Cold Eyes", based on a 2007 Hong Kong thriller, was in contrast a huge hit in Korea. It is something of a rather atypical police procedural and I personally found it a little on the mechanical side. The lead actress Ha Yoon-ju plays a rookie policewoman with uncanny observational skills assigned to Hwang Sang-jun's surveillance unit; their job is to trace and pin down high-profile criminals rather than actively engaging with them. Their main target here is a ruthless criminal and bank-robber played by pretty-boy actor Jung Woo-sung (the 'Good' in 'The Good, the Bad, and the Weird'). The latter is apparently something of a major heart-throb back home and his appearance for a Q and A at the cinema yesterday attracted a throng of cooing, lovesick Korean ladies both in the audience and outside. I had no idea there were so many young Koreans living in London.
While the above reviews may come off as a little dismissive -- particularly of Film Four's selections -- I have not been put off seeking more Korean movies to view in the future. On balance the good ones I have seen in the past more than compensate for the seven seen this week, and certainly the two Festival choices were both of some minor interest.
Friday 7 November 2014
The Babadook (2014)
By and large I avoid most Australian films, since I find the accent both grating and often difficult to understand. In fact we could have selected the above movie as one of our choices at the recent FrightFest, but did not include it for that reason. However the generally amazing reviews it has garnered on its cinema release caused an immediate reappraisal for this fan of all things 'horror-able'. Having now seen it, let me state categorically that it provides truly creepy viewing and is destined to become a cult classic.
A freshman effort from writer-director Jennifer Kent, this low-budget but big-impact film focuses on conflicted mother Amelia, brilliantly embodied by Essie Davis, who is desperately trying to raise her genuinely disturbed and annoying son. Widowed when her husband was killed in a car accident while driving her to hospital to give birth to young Sam (a fact which the boy cheerfully advises to all and sundry), she is easily aggravated, sleep-deprived, and struggling to cope with her son's night terrors and disruptive behaviour at school and in public. A picture-book titled 'Mister Babadook' mysteriously appears on his bed-time reading shelf and it takes but one reading of the terrifying tale, which predicts death and disaster, for the boy to become convinced that this threat is real and that the Babadook does indeed inhabit every shadowy nook. Child actor Noah Wiseman gives a scary performance that could leave any child well and truly traumatised.
Sam is determined to protect his mother from this fearsome creature and before long Amelia too begins to believe that something truly disturbing is looming in the darkness. She soon begins to lose her grip on reality, experiencing phantom phone calls and the reappearance of the mended book after she has carefully torn it to shreds and burned it. It does not displace one's rational belief in the nonexistence of monsters, that we too see her fears take shape in the form of the terrifying Babadook. The film's horror is far more psychological than the gleeful frissons we experience in viewing a bunch of typical teens being picked off one by one. Amelia finds that her long-standing resentment of the son who caused her husband's death begins to morph into physical hatred of the youngster. She is finally unable to cope. The child who begins the film as the bratty object of our disgust, causing us to sympathise with his harassed mum, turns into the object of our pity as we fear for his physical safety.
Without wishing to spoil the film's logic, one begins to suspect that Amelia was herself the author of the fiendish book, a way of making concrete her own worries and disappointments. In the end (spoiler here) the status quo can only be resumed by locking away the terror (real or otherwise) in the cellar that also houses all of her dead husband's chattels. The final images, however, suggest that the Babadook that any of us might create is alive and well and looking for his re-release.
A freshman effort from writer-director Jennifer Kent, this low-budget but big-impact film focuses on conflicted mother Amelia, brilliantly embodied by Essie Davis, who is desperately trying to raise her genuinely disturbed and annoying son. Widowed when her husband was killed in a car accident while driving her to hospital to give birth to young Sam (a fact which the boy cheerfully advises to all and sundry), she is easily aggravated, sleep-deprived, and struggling to cope with her son's night terrors and disruptive behaviour at school and in public. A picture-book titled 'Mister Babadook' mysteriously appears on his bed-time reading shelf and it takes but one reading of the terrifying tale, which predicts death and disaster, for the boy to become convinced that this threat is real and that the Babadook does indeed inhabit every shadowy nook. Child actor Noah Wiseman gives a scary performance that could leave any child well and truly traumatised.
Sam is determined to protect his mother from this fearsome creature and before long Amelia too begins to believe that something truly disturbing is looming in the darkness. She soon begins to lose her grip on reality, experiencing phantom phone calls and the reappearance of the mended book after she has carefully torn it to shreds and burned it. It does not displace one's rational belief in the nonexistence of monsters, that we too see her fears take shape in the form of the terrifying Babadook. The film's horror is far more psychological than the gleeful frissons we experience in viewing a bunch of typical teens being picked off one by one. Amelia finds that her long-standing resentment of the son who caused her husband's death begins to morph into physical hatred of the youngster. She is finally unable to cope. The child who begins the film as the bratty object of our disgust, causing us to sympathise with his harassed mum, turns into the object of our pity as we fear for his physical safety.
Without wishing to spoil the film's logic, one begins to suspect that Amelia was herself the author of the fiendish book, a way of making concrete her own worries and disappointments. In the end (spoiler here) the status quo can only be resumed by locking away the terror (real or otherwise) in the cellar that also houses all of her dead husband's chattels. The final images, however, suggest that the Babadook that any of us might create is alive and well and looking for his re-release.
Friday 31 October 2014
The Way (2010)
I really am turning into some sort of soppy sausage! I often find my tears welling up when I watch certain movies which manage to tug at the old heartstrings, but I wasn't expecting this to happen watching a movie about a traditional Catholic pilgrimage. The above film caught me unawares...
Starring Martin Sheen and directed by his non-Charlie son Emilio Estevez, who also wrote the screenplay based on the book by Jack Hitt, this was obviously a project close to their respective religious hearts. Sheen plays widowed and relatively carefree California ophthalmologist Tom, whose biggest disappointment is that his only son Daniel (Estevez) prefers a footloose and feckless quest for adventure rather than a more settled way of life. On the golf course with his cronies, Sheen takes a call advising that Daniel has been killed by a freak mountain storm one day out on a pilgrimage journey -- the fabled El Camino route from St. Jean Pied de Port in France across the Pyrenees to Santiago de Campostela in Spain. Off he flies to bring home the body of his beloved son.
On arrival he has a change of heart and, having had Daniel's remains cremated, decides to undertake the 500 mile journey himself as an homage and in honour of his lost son. He has all the necessary gear if not the necessary fitness, but resolves to make the journey -- however long it takes. His plan is to sprinkle some of the ashes at graves and shrines along the way, before leaving the remainder at the journey's end cathedral; he is determined to complete the pilgrimage that his son died trying to complete. Estevez made the journey himself filming the action amongst real pilgrims and real hostels en route, shooting only in natural light. However to fill out the Sheen storyline, Doctor Tom acquires some regular travelling companions: Yorick van Wageningen (the jolly 'I'm Joost from Amsterdam') who is doing the trek to lose weight but who takes every opportunity to liberally sample the food and booze on the way; Deborah Kara Unger as the jaded and cynical Canadian Sarah who sees the journey as her last chance to finally give up ciggies for good on arrival in Santiago; and James Nesbitt as blocked Irish writer Jack, who may or who may not be based on the book's author.
Sheen is initially locked into his own grief and dismissive of the friendly overtures from his fellow pilgrims, but shared efforts and hardships, including having his backpack with its holy box of ashes stolen by a gypsy boy, bring them closer. The backpack is returned by the stern father of the chastened lad and he convinces Sheen that he must continue his pilgrimage past the cathedral to the wild northern coast before spreading the last of the ashes -- not that I really understood why. Sheen's companions have every intention of ending their journey at the cathedral -- their missions accomplished or otherwise -- but in the end their new-found fellow-feeling keeps them with Sheen through the final tribute to his son. The doctor's quest is so heart-felt that at various stages of the journey, he (and we) see the late Daniel happily mingling with the crowd.
This is far too spiritual an endeavor to be lumped as another road movie and it doesn't really have the echoes of "The Wizard of Oz" that some have suggested. The movie honours a 1000-year old pilgrimage and it is clear that both Sheen and Estevez found it a moving and highly religious exercise. The standard greeting to pilgrims on The Way is 'buen camino'; indeed, father and son here have furnished the viewer with a very moving and very 'good road' for our own journey.
Starring Martin Sheen and directed by his non-Charlie son Emilio Estevez, who also wrote the screenplay based on the book by Jack Hitt, this was obviously a project close to their respective religious hearts. Sheen plays widowed and relatively carefree California ophthalmologist Tom, whose biggest disappointment is that his only son Daniel (Estevez) prefers a footloose and feckless quest for adventure rather than a more settled way of life. On the golf course with his cronies, Sheen takes a call advising that Daniel has been killed by a freak mountain storm one day out on a pilgrimage journey -- the fabled El Camino route from St. Jean Pied de Port in France across the Pyrenees to Santiago de Campostela in Spain. Off he flies to bring home the body of his beloved son.
On arrival he has a change of heart and, having had Daniel's remains cremated, decides to undertake the 500 mile journey himself as an homage and in honour of his lost son. He has all the necessary gear if not the necessary fitness, but resolves to make the journey -- however long it takes. His plan is to sprinkle some of the ashes at graves and shrines along the way, before leaving the remainder at the journey's end cathedral; he is determined to complete the pilgrimage that his son died trying to complete. Estevez made the journey himself filming the action amongst real pilgrims and real hostels en route, shooting only in natural light. However to fill out the Sheen storyline, Doctor Tom acquires some regular travelling companions: Yorick van Wageningen (the jolly 'I'm Joost from Amsterdam') who is doing the trek to lose weight but who takes every opportunity to liberally sample the food and booze on the way; Deborah Kara Unger as the jaded and cynical Canadian Sarah who sees the journey as her last chance to finally give up ciggies for good on arrival in Santiago; and James Nesbitt as blocked Irish writer Jack, who may or who may not be based on the book's author.
Sheen is initially locked into his own grief and dismissive of the friendly overtures from his fellow pilgrims, but shared efforts and hardships, including having his backpack with its holy box of ashes stolen by a gypsy boy, bring them closer. The backpack is returned by the stern father of the chastened lad and he convinces Sheen that he must continue his pilgrimage past the cathedral to the wild northern coast before spreading the last of the ashes -- not that I really understood why. Sheen's companions have every intention of ending their journey at the cathedral -- their missions accomplished or otherwise -- but in the end their new-found fellow-feeling keeps them with Sheen through the final tribute to his son. The doctor's quest is so heart-felt that at various stages of the journey, he (and we) see the late Daniel happily mingling with the crowd.
This is far too spiritual an endeavor to be lumped as another road movie and it doesn't really have the echoes of "The Wizard of Oz" that some have suggested. The movie honours a 1000-year old pilgrimage and it is clear that both Sheen and Estevez found it a moving and highly religious exercise. The standard greeting to pilgrims on The Way is 'buen camino'; indeed, father and son here have furnished the viewer with a very moving and very 'good road' for our own journey.
Friday 24 October 2014
Three more foreign language films...
Here I was expecting to report on our last two choices for the London Film Festival and I find myself having to review a third foreign film as well. First things first:
3 Hearts (2013) - Our penultimate Festival movie was this French one (again with Catherine Deneuve -- though not in the lead) and I'm not 100% certain why we chose it. Quite possibly the fact that I have a certain fondness for the Belgian actor Benoit Poelvoorde, ever since I first saw him in "Man Bites Dog" (1992) all those years ago, guided its selection. I certainly have no burning interest in the movie's two female leads Charlotte Gainsbourg and Chiara Mastroianni (daughter of Marcello and indeed Deneuve), although both are able actresses. Poelvoorde -- an unlikely romantic heart-throb -- has a chance meeting with Gainsbourg and love blossoms. However arrangements for a return meeting fizzle out and, broken-hearted, off she goes to the States with her second-best boyfriend. Soon Poelvoorde has another chance meeting, this time with her sister Mastroianni, and ends up marrying her, not initially twigging that he has wooed a pair of sisters, although the penny soon drops. How can he avoid the showdown, since he is too much of a coward to tell the truth to his new wife, especially since he still fancies Gainsbourg.
This is the sort of quandary that only occurs as a dramatic device in movies and the untenable contrivances soon begin to pall for the viewer. The film is well-acted by all four (Deneuve plays the girls' mother and she soon has her own suspicions), but there was nowhere for the action to go satisfactorily, to the extent that the ending becomes a 'what-if' device of its own. In short something of a potboiler with the distracting thought throughout of how much Mastroianni really, really looks like her dad!
The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom (2014) - This Chinese movie was the Gala Performance in the 'Cult' strand of the Festival, but we booked to see it on its second showing the next afternoon; I was hoping for something of a gem, but was disappointed. It's based on the same classic novel that gave rise to the lovely Hong Kong movies "The Bride with White Hair" and its sequel in 1993, where Brigette Lin and the late Leslie Cheung created their own brand of magic. However director Jacob Cheung (no relation) has fallen prey to the 're-imagining' bug, rewriting the story on such a big scale with a myriad use of CGI that the doomed lovers are swallowed up by the grandeur of the design and the overly convoluted storyline. Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing has relatively little chemistry with her male lead and despite the credited 'artistic guidance' from Hong Kong legend Tsui Hark, the movie is not a patch on the earlier ones. If one is unfamiliar with these, it's a pleasant enough romp with some spectacular action sequences, but it's really a completely different ballgame -- and not for the better.
You would think that we would have had our fill of foreign-language flicks during the course of the Festival, but a rather positive review for a new Japanese movie tempted us back out to the cinema to see "Black Butler" (2014). Since it was only showing once a day at a single movie-house in a one-week window, we didn't exactly have a great deal of choice as to when we might see this film. I suspect it will now disappear from the scene until its inevitable DVD release. So, you may ask, was it worth the outing? Yes and no...
It's apparently based on a popular manga and has previously been released as an anime. This live action version is probably more accessible to the Western viewer, despite I gather the various liberties that the directors have taken with the original story. Briefly, our 'hero' Ayame Goriki, has witnessed 'his' parents' murder and vows revenge by selling 'his' soul to a demon in exchange for some supernatural help. The various parentheses are not really a spoiler, since the lead role is supposedly a boy but the actress playing the part is decidedly female in appearance. The demon is played with some cheeky devilish flair by the un-Japanesey-looking Hiro Mizushima. Together they must battle a fiendish drug cartel who are unleashing 'The Demon's Curse', a drug which causes its victims to die suddenly and horribly and to become mummified. Goriki must also get to the root of the original crime, before her own demon claims his due.
Again the action sequences are very well done and the two leads are appealing and likeable, although the possibly blossoming romance is both unlikely and probably out of keeping with the original manga. Nevertheless it's relatively good fun -- not a brilliant movie, but a cheerful enough one if ever it comes your way.
I won't promise, but I'll try to review an English-language movie next time!
3 Hearts (2013) - Our penultimate Festival movie was this French one (again with Catherine Deneuve -- though not in the lead) and I'm not 100% certain why we chose it. Quite possibly the fact that I have a certain fondness for the Belgian actor Benoit Poelvoorde, ever since I first saw him in "Man Bites Dog" (1992) all those years ago, guided its selection. I certainly have no burning interest in the movie's two female leads Charlotte Gainsbourg and Chiara Mastroianni (daughter of Marcello and indeed Deneuve), although both are able actresses. Poelvoorde -- an unlikely romantic heart-throb -- has a chance meeting with Gainsbourg and love blossoms. However arrangements for a return meeting fizzle out and, broken-hearted, off she goes to the States with her second-best boyfriend. Soon Poelvoorde has another chance meeting, this time with her sister Mastroianni, and ends up marrying her, not initially twigging that he has wooed a pair of sisters, although the penny soon drops. How can he avoid the showdown, since he is too much of a coward to tell the truth to his new wife, especially since he still fancies Gainsbourg.
This is the sort of quandary that only occurs as a dramatic device in movies and the untenable contrivances soon begin to pall for the viewer. The film is well-acted by all four (Deneuve plays the girls' mother and she soon has her own suspicions), but there was nowhere for the action to go satisfactorily, to the extent that the ending becomes a 'what-if' device of its own. In short something of a potboiler with the distracting thought throughout of how much Mastroianni really, really looks like her dad!
The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom (2014) - This Chinese movie was the Gala Performance in the 'Cult' strand of the Festival, but we booked to see it on its second showing the next afternoon; I was hoping for something of a gem, but was disappointed. It's based on the same classic novel that gave rise to the lovely Hong Kong movies "The Bride with White Hair" and its sequel in 1993, where Brigette Lin and the late Leslie Cheung created their own brand of magic. However director Jacob Cheung (no relation) has fallen prey to the 're-imagining' bug, rewriting the story on such a big scale with a myriad use of CGI that the doomed lovers are swallowed up by the grandeur of the design and the overly convoluted storyline. Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing has relatively little chemistry with her male lead and despite the credited 'artistic guidance' from Hong Kong legend Tsui Hark, the movie is not a patch on the earlier ones. If one is unfamiliar with these, it's a pleasant enough romp with some spectacular action sequences, but it's really a completely different ballgame -- and not for the better.
You would think that we would have had our fill of foreign-language flicks during the course of the Festival, but a rather positive review for a new Japanese movie tempted us back out to the cinema to see "Black Butler" (2014). Since it was only showing once a day at a single movie-house in a one-week window, we didn't exactly have a great deal of choice as to when we might see this film. I suspect it will now disappear from the scene until its inevitable DVD release. So, you may ask, was it worth the outing? Yes and no...
It's apparently based on a popular manga and has previously been released as an anime. This live action version is probably more accessible to the Western viewer, despite I gather the various liberties that the directors have taken with the original story. Briefly, our 'hero' Ayame Goriki, has witnessed 'his' parents' murder and vows revenge by selling 'his' soul to a demon in exchange for some supernatural help. The various parentheses are not really a spoiler, since the lead role is supposedly a boy but the actress playing the part is decidedly female in appearance. The demon is played with some cheeky devilish flair by the un-Japanesey-looking Hiro Mizushima. Together they must battle a fiendish drug cartel who are unleashing 'The Demon's Curse', a drug which causes its victims to die suddenly and horribly and to become mummified. Goriki must also get to the root of the original crime, before her own demon claims his due.
Again the action sequences are very well done and the two leads are appealing and likeable, although the possibly blossoming romance is both unlikely and probably out of keeping with the original manga. Nevertheless it's relatively good fun -- not a brilliant movie, but a cheerful enough one if ever it comes your way.
I won't promise, but I'll try to review an English-language movie next time!
Friday 17 October 2014
More London Film Festival
As I'm sure I've said before, when choosing festival films to book, we usually go for those most unlikely to secure a cinema release -- which doesn't really mean worthy movies about Bulgarian tractor drivers, starving Scottish crofters, or the like, but usually interesting-sounding films not in the English language. So it will come as no surprise that three of the four pics seen since I last wrote are foreign-language films; and while the fourth may indeed be an American production, it is a recently rediscovered and restored semi-silent, and therefore unlikely to hit the local multiplex:
French Riviera (2014) - The French title of this intelligent film from director Andre Techine translates as 'The Man who was Loved Too Much' which tells you rather more about the movie than the wishy-washy English title. Based on real events in the 1970s, the story follows the fortunes of wealthy casino owner Catherine Deneuve, her ambitious young lawyer (Guillaume Canet), and her recently divorced daughter Agnes -- a brave performance from Adele Haenel. When Canet fails to manipulate the widow Deneuve into making him the casino manager, he focuses his charms on Agnes. While initially ignoring the married masher's attentions, she is gradually sucked into his manipulative grasp, especially since she has not been able to obtain her full inheritance from her cash-strapped mother; he brokers a deal with a local Mafioso which effectively destroys the mother-daughter relationship and Deneuve's control of the business. Once Canet has feathered his own nest, his interest in Agnes wanes as she in turn becomes more and more dependent and demanding.
Then Agnes disappears and Deneuve spends the next 30 years and all of her fortune trying to establish her daughter's fate -- which is unknown to this day. She suspects murder and eventually brings Canet to trial. Her performance from the aging glamourpuss of the 70's to a bitter and impoverished old woman in the final scenes is without any conceit for an actress who was once one of the screen's great beauties. This long film stays watchable albeit more than a little leisurely and the end titles bringing the viewer up to date seem tacked on in haste.
Cub (2014) - This Belgian film was a late addition to our original selection since it sounded like something that we might have chosen at FrightFest had it been showing there. It concerns a Cub Scout pack's camping expedition in a dark forest, led by two overbearing, bumptious pack leaders. Our attention immediately focuses on young Sam who seems something of an outcast and ill at ease with all of the others. Folktales speak of a werewolf who roams the woods, but the scout leaders dismiss this as little more than campfire chills; Sam thinks differently. However, there are far worse threats lurking in the shadows, as the expedition members discover to their misfortune. In truth the story was more than a little muddled and the action difficult to follow (or rationalise) with the dark cinematography. (I shudder to think how unwatchable this movie would be on the small screen). I'm glad we saw it but it was far from the best horror/slasher movie ever.
The World of Kanako (2014) - The Japanese director Tetsuya Nakashima was responsible for such excellent films as "Confessions" and "Memories of Matsuko", so it was a no-brainer to select his first film in four years. The elderly Tetsuya was amazingly on his first visit to London and jokily introduced the movie via an interpreter, inviting comments at a Q & A to follow -- not that we stayed for this. I can just imagine the questions the audience might have had for him, since this stunning film was full of complex twists. The hero, a recently fired police detective, gives good psycho as he rampages through the film at the behest of his estranged and divorced wife, to discover what has become of their darling daughter Kanako who has gone missing. Through a series of flashbacks we learn that she might not have been the little angel that her parents remember and that she may well have been more of a devil to her schoolmates, teachers, and besotted boyfriends. Tetsuya keeps the action and cartoony violence flowing, possibly a little too long (I was beginning to think that the movie would never find its ending), with some brilliant cinematography and use of pop music, combined with lashings of mind-blowing and eye-blinding flashing images. It is all quite a tour de force with some strange characters -- in particular a lolly-sucking, fresh-faced policeman -- who counterpoints the increasingly bloodied anti-hero in his obsessive quest for Kanako.
Why Be Good? (1929) - Finally we have this curio which should have been a whole lot better and more entertaining than it was. In 1929's Hollywood, all of the studios were getting on the sound bandwagon, so it seems more than a little strange that this newly re-discovered movie is in fact devoid of dialogue. It boasts a Vitaphone 16-inch disc music track and sound effects. which don't really sit well with the silent era large-gestures acting style and copious inter-titles. It's the sort of combination one expects in the early 30's from the backwaters of China or India (or from Charlie Chaplin!).
Apart from the hype in the programme, we were curious to view this movie to see a leading role for the little-known Colleen Moore, a popular flapper of the period, who retired from the movies in 1934. She plays a shop-girl and would be swinger, an energetic dance contest entrant, who is really a good girl under her sexy, knowing façade. She's madly in love with a millionaire's son (after one short encounter!), but his Daddy tries to warn him off 'that sort of girl'. It's all rather predictable and stilted, and Moore comes off as the poor man's Louise Brooks. She's certainly not as good looking and even lacks the "it-ness" that makes Clara Bow's films so appealing. I'm all for discovering lost movies, but this really is little more than a strange and mildly diverting curio.
French Riviera (2014) - The French title of this intelligent film from director Andre Techine translates as 'The Man who was Loved Too Much' which tells you rather more about the movie than the wishy-washy English title. Based on real events in the 1970s, the story follows the fortunes of wealthy casino owner Catherine Deneuve, her ambitious young lawyer (Guillaume Canet), and her recently divorced daughter Agnes -- a brave performance from Adele Haenel. When Canet fails to manipulate the widow Deneuve into making him the casino manager, he focuses his charms on Agnes. While initially ignoring the married masher's attentions, she is gradually sucked into his manipulative grasp, especially since she has not been able to obtain her full inheritance from her cash-strapped mother; he brokers a deal with a local Mafioso which effectively destroys the mother-daughter relationship and Deneuve's control of the business. Once Canet has feathered his own nest, his interest in Agnes wanes as she in turn becomes more and more dependent and demanding.
Then Agnes disappears and Deneuve spends the next 30 years and all of her fortune trying to establish her daughter's fate -- which is unknown to this day. She suspects murder and eventually brings Canet to trial. Her performance from the aging glamourpuss of the 70's to a bitter and impoverished old woman in the final scenes is without any conceit for an actress who was once one of the screen's great beauties. This long film stays watchable albeit more than a little leisurely and the end titles bringing the viewer up to date seem tacked on in haste.
Cub (2014) - This Belgian film was a late addition to our original selection since it sounded like something that we might have chosen at FrightFest had it been showing there. It concerns a Cub Scout pack's camping expedition in a dark forest, led by two overbearing, bumptious pack leaders. Our attention immediately focuses on young Sam who seems something of an outcast and ill at ease with all of the others. Folktales speak of a werewolf who roams the woods, but the scout leaders dismiss this as little more than campfire chills; Sam thinks differently. However, there are far worse threats lurking in the shadows, as the expedition members discover to their misfortune. In truth the story was more than a little muddled and the action difficult to follow (or rationalise) with the dark cinematography. (I shudder to think how unwatchable this movie would be on the small screen). I'm glad we saw it but it was far from the best horror/slasher movie ever.
The World of Kanako (2014) - The Japanese director Tetsuya Nakashima was responsible for such excellent films as "Confessions" and "Memories of Matsuko", so it was a no-brainer to select his first film in four years. The elderly Tetsuya was amazingly on his first visit to London and jokily introduced the movie via an interpreter, inviting comments at a Q & A to follow -- not that we stayed for this. I can just imagine the questions the audience might have had for him, since this stunning film was full of complex twists. The hero, a recently fired police detective, gives good psycho as he rampages through the film at the behest of his estranged and divorced wife, to discover what has become of their darling daughter Kanako who has gone missing. Through a series of flashbacks we learn that she might not have been the little angel that her parents remember and that she may well have been more of a devil to her schoolmates, teachers, and besotted boyfriends. Tetsuya keeps the action and cartoony violence flowing, possibly a little too long (I was beginning to think that the movie would never find its ending), with some brilliant cinematography and use of pop music, combined with lashings of mind-blowing and eye-blinding flashing images. It is all quite a tour de force with some strange characters -- in particular a lolly-sucking, fresh-faced policeman -- who counterpoints the increasingly bloodied anti-hero in his obsessive quest for Kanako.
Why Be Good? (1929) - Finally we have this curio which should have been a whole lot better and more entertaining than it was. In 1929's Hollywood, all of the studios were getting on the sound bandwagon, so it seems more than a little strange that this newly re-discovered movie is in fact devoid of dialogue. It boasts a Vitaphone 16-inch disc music track and sound effects. which don't really sit well with the silent era large-gestures acting style and copious inter-titles. It's the sort of combination one expects in the early 30's from the backwaters of China or India (or from Charlie Chaplin!).
Apart from the hype in the programme, we were curious to view this movie to see a leading role for the little-known Colleen Moore, a popular flapper of the period, who retired from the movies in 1934. She plays a shop-girl and would be swinger, an energetic dance contest entrant, who is really a good girl under her sexy, knowing façade. She's madly in love with a millionaire's son (after one short encounter!), but his Daddy tries to warn him off 'that sort of girl'. It's all rather predictable and stilted, and Moore comes off as the poor man's Louise Brooks. She's certainly not as good looking and even lacks the "it-ness" that makes Clara Bow's films so appealing. I'm all for discovering lost movies, but this really is little more than a strange and mildly diverting curio.
Friday 10 October 2014
Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)
As mentioned last week the London Film Festival is now in full swing. There wasn't much that immediately caught our attention and we eventually settled on seven movies -- from yesterday's choice above through the weekend of the l8th-l9th. So you'll get one review today, four next Friday, and the final two the following Friday. I just hope the next six movies engage me rather more than this Chinese one did.
I guess we chose it, not just because it was a Berlin Golden Bear winner, but also because it sounded something of an oddball and not at all the sort of film that one associates with the typical Chinese fare. With its talk of various body parts turning up on industrial conveyor belts in different parts of the country and the suggestion that a serial murderer might be at large, it seemed more than a little promising. Unfortunately despite some bravura sequences, the tale does not quite hold together nor survive its many longueurs in the telling.
Writer-director Diao Yinan achieves a fairly stylish production and some interesting wintry scenery, but not a completely coherent story. Our policeman hero Zhang is invalided off the force after being wounded during a spectacularly bungled arrest and finds his solace in the bottle. From 1999 when the tale begins, we travel with him through a long tunnel and emerge five years later for the mystery's continuation. No longer a cop, he is still fascinated by the reappearance of body parts, in this instance with ice skates attached. All of the victims seem to link to the widow of the first corpse five years back, a comely lass working in a local laundry; he becomes obsessed with her and her possible role in these macabre murders. The explanations when they come are a little out of left field and not very satisfying, especially since to my Western eye both the hero and the 'maybe' villain looked pretty much the same. The final arrest is accompanied by a dazzling display of fireworks, for no apparent reason. The movie therefore ends in this blaze of glory forcing the viewer to ignore much of what has inexplicably come before. Quirky, yes. An unusual look at Chinese small-town life, yes. But gripping film-making, no.
Actually I should like to close by mentioning my most enjoyable discovery of the past week -- the Douglas Fairbanks 1922 silent version of "Robin Hood", which I'd not seen before. Apart from Fairbanks' fabled athleticism and the interesting casting of Wallace Beery as King Richard (as bulky and bawdy as the usual Beery persona) and Alan Hale in the role of Little John (the same role he played in the splendid 1938 Errol Flynn version), this long (133 minutes) production had the most extraordinary sets, costumes, literally cast of 1000s, and attention to detail that could put most modern film-making to shame. Each frame, with its inky blacks, wonderful tinting, and elaborate set design made a series of aesthetically pleasing stills, which combined into a truly magnificent and exciting whole. A masterpiece!
I guess we chose it, not just because it was a Berlin Golden Bear winner, but also because it sounded something of an oddball and not at all the sort of film that one associates with the typical Chinese fare. With its talk of various body parts turning up on industrial conveyor belts in different parts of the country and the suggestion that a serial murderer might be at large, it seemed more than a little promising. Unfortunately despite some bravura sequences, the tale does not quite hold together nor survive its many longueurs in the telling.
Writer-director Diao Yinan achieves a fairly stylish production and some interesting wintry scenery, but not a completely coherent story. Our policeman hero Zhang is invalided off the force after being wounded during a spectacularly bungled arrest and finds his solace in the bottle. From 1999 when the tale begins, we travel with him through a long tunnel and emerge five years later for the mystery's continuation. No longer a cop, he is still fascinated by the reappearance of body parts, in this instance with ice skates attached. All of the victims seem to link to the widow of the first corpse five years back, a comely lass working in a local laundry; he becomes obsessed with her and her possible role in these macabre murders. The explanations when they come are a little out of left field and not very satisfying, especially since to my Western eye both the hero and the 'maybe' villain looked pretty much the same. The final arrest is accompanied by a dazzling display of fireworks, for no apparent reason. The movie therefore ends in this blaze of glory forcing the viewer to ignore much of what has inexplicably come before. Quirky, yes. An unusual look at Chinese small-town life, yes. But gripping film-making, no.
Actually I should like to close by mentioning my most enjoyable discovery of the past week -- the Douglas Fairbanks 1922 silent version of "Robin Hood", which I'd not seen before. Apart from Fairbanks' fabled athleticism and the interesting casting of Wallace Beery as King Richard (as bulky and bawdy as the usual Beery persona) and Alan Hale in the role of Little John (the same role he played in the splendid 1938 Errol Flynn version), this long (133 minutes) production had the most extraordinary sets, costumes, literally cast of 1000s, and attention to detail that could put most modern film-making to shame. Each frame, with its inky blacks, wonderful tinting, and elaborate set design made a series of aesthetically pleasing stills, which combined into a truly magnificent and exciting whole. A masterpiece!
Friday 3 October 2014
Two for the road...
No not the old Albert Finney/Audrey Hepburn charmer, but a title to celebrate the fact that I actually went to the cinema twice this week to see two new releases. Apart from attending film festivals (and by the way the London Film Festival is imminent), visiting an actual cinema more than once a week (and on average it's not even that) is unusual for me. By way of some explanation, most weeks there are few new movies that entice me -- and judging by the various trailers I saw on these two excursions, there's not a heck of a lot coming up to whet my appetite either. However the advance publicity for "Maps to the Stars" and "Gone Girl" fuelled my enthusiasm, so off we went... and now it's judgment time:
To start with David Cronenberg's 'Maps...' based on a vitriolic screenplay from scriptwriter Bruce Wagner, this is a master-class in serving up Hollywood in a black shroud. Each of the very unlikeable characters manifests an aspect of the La-la Land scene that manages to both fascinate and horrify the viewer. It is a movie that it is impossible to actually like, yet one whose brilliance is very easy to appreciate, while shuddering at the excesses on display. Julianne Moore won a Best Actress award at Cannes for her portrayal of a washed-up, yet still self-deluded Hollywood leading lady. Hers is a brave and no-holds-barred portrait of a holy monster, full of unwarranted self-adulation and incapable of genuine emotion or regrets. Into her household comes a new 'chore-whore' assistant in the drab shape of burns-victim Mia Wasikowska; one suspects from the get-go that she is not quite right in the head. Without giving too much away, it turns out that she is the recently-released-from-the-nuthouse daughter of phoney self-help guru John Cusack and his 'wife' (actually his sister) Olivia Williams, and the sister of their monstrous, spoiled, foul-mouthed 13-year old movie brat Evan Bird. Unsurprisingly most of the characters are haunted by ghosts from their pasts, who materialise at inappropriate moments, and who loom large in framing the action. The only would-be 'normal' character is limo driver Robert Pattinson (Wagner apparently had a similar job during a short spell in Hollywood), and frankly I had my doubts about him as well.
This is the first movie that cult director Cronenberg has shot outside of Canada with five days in the States and 24 in his native Toronto. His casting is impeccable, right down to the minor roles, and Moore, in particular, while still in remarkable shape for a 53-year old, is not afraid to show us the tolls that the years have taken. I would quibble however with some of the director's use of gratuitous nudity which added very little to the horrific tale; in particular I could have done without Moore's three-in-a-bed shagging culminating in the male partner's full-frontal masturbation, or the highly unflattering shot of Williams in her bath. In contrast and ironically, a farting constipated Moore on the toilet did effectively contribute to her self-absorbed characterization. However, most of the action is just a titillating tease to the horrific denouements the film has in store for us.
And then there is "Gone Girl" which currently has an unheard-of 9 out of 10 approval rating on IMDb, despite only having been on release for a few days. The comments and most of the reviews I have read verge on unqualified raves for slick director David Fincher, who I personally think has made a couple of brilliant movies and a number of over-rated potboilers. Going against the tide I am inclined to put his latest movie in this second category. Based on a wildly popular novel by Gillian Flynn, who, as screenwriter as well, has managed to open out the book's structure of diary entries to a more cinematic rendering, it is nearly impossible to review the film without revealing the 'big twist' that comes in the middle -- not at the end of the story. However I shall refrain from this 'spoiler' in case you're one of the few people who have not yet read the book.
Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike play golden couple Nick and Amy, both writers who have lost their high-powered New York jobs and who have relocated to Nick's hometown in Missouri. There is the odd suggestion that not everything is rosy in their supposedly perfect marriage. Then on the afternoon of their fifth anniversary, Nick returns home to find their mini-mansion in a shambles and Amy missing. Cue nosey intrusive police officers, Amy's high-flying parents who have made their fortune from their series of kiddies' books featuring 'Amazing Amy', and enough volunteers to staff an army who join in the hunt for the lovely missing lady. According to the rising local hysteria, mainly because Affleck does not seem appropriately sad, and egged on by trial-by-television journalist Missy Pyle, the general conclusion is that he has murdered his wife. Just about everything seems to be conspiring against him which is where the no-spoilers-allowed rule comes into effect. All I can say at this stage is that the movie's judicious use of flash-backs leads us to the conclusion that perhaps Amy was not quite the perfect wife nor the wholly innocent victim, and that the marriage might have been cracking at the seams.
I think Affleck was just about perfect in the role of the poor shmuck whose life is snowballing out of control. However I have my doubts about Pike. The consensus seems to think that this is the 'break-through' role for the British actress and that she deserves an Oscar nod. I'm not saying she won't receive this accolade (though a BAFTA seems in the bag), but I found her performance patchy and much of her dialogue inaudible. Mind you I had some trouble with the dialogue generally, both because of the occasionally overwhelming music, but also because of the rather strange use of funny Southern accents by much of the cast. I never though of Missouri as being a particularly Southern state, but there you go...
I'm sure the film will do good business -- much better than 'Maps...' I suspect, but I really didn't care for it at all -- too leisurely and with one of the most totally unsatisfying finales and resolutions that I have encountered for a while. If you asked me to rate these two new films with the other two I have seen at the cinema in the last month, I would still put the Woody Allen film as the most enjoyable, with "Lucy" and "Maps" close seconds in terms of well-made and absorbing flicks, and this one right at the bottom of the heap.
To start with David Cronenberg's 'Maps...' based on a vitriolic screenplay from scriptwriter Bruce Wagner, this is a master-class in serving up Hollywood in a black shroud. Each of the very unlikeable characters manifests an aspect of the La-la Land scene that manages to both fascinate and horrify the viewer. It is a movie that it is impossible to actually like, yet one whose brilliance is very easy to appreciate, while shuddering at the excesses on display. Julianne Moore won a Best Actress award at Cannes for her portrayal of a washed-up, yet still self-deluded Hollywood leading lady. Hers is a brave and no-holds-barred portrait of a holy monster, full of unwarranted self-adulation and incapable of genuine emotion or regrets. Into her household comes a new 'chore-whore' assistant in the drab shape of burns-victim Mia Wasikowska; one suspects from the get-go that she is not quite right in the head. Without giving too much away, it turns out that she is the recently-released-from-the-nuthouse daughter of phoney self-help guru John Cusack and his 'wife' (actually his sister) Olivia Williams, and the sister of their monstrous, spoiled, foul-mouthed 13-year old movie brat Evan Bird. Unsurprisingly most of the characters are haunted by ghosts from their pasts, who materialise at inappropriate moments, and who loom large in framing the action. The only would-be 'normal' character is limo driver Robert Pattinson (Wagner apparently had a similar job during a short spell in Hollywood), and frankly I had my doubts about him as well.
This is the first movie that cult director Cronenberg has shot outside of Canada with five days in the States and 24 in his native Toronto. His casting is impeccable, right down to the minor roles, and Moore, in particular, while still in remarkable shape for a 53-year old, is not afraid to show us the tolls that the years have taken. I would quibble however with some of the director's use of gratuitous nudity which added very little to the horrific tale; in particular I could have done without Moore's three-in-a-bed shagging culminating in the male partner's full-frontal masturbation, or the highly unflattering shot of Williams in her bath. In contrast and ironically, a farting constipated Moore on the toilet did effectively contribute to her self-absorbed characterization. However, most of the action is just a titillating tease to the horrific denouements the film has in store for us.
And then there is "Gone Girl" which currently has an unheard-of 9 out of 10 approval rating on IMDb, despite only having been on release for a few days. The comments and most of the reviews I have read verge on unqualified raves for slick director David Fincher, who I personally think has made a couple of brilliant movies and a number of over-rated potboilers. Going against the tide I am inclined to put his latest movie in this second category. Based on a wildly popular novel by Gillian Flynn, who, as screenwriter as well, has managed to open out the book's structure of diary entries to a more cinematic rendering, it is nearly impossible to review the film without revealing the 'big twist' that comes in the middle -- not at the end of the story. However I shall refrain from this 'spoiler' in case you're one of the few people who have not yet read the book.
Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike play golden couple Nick and Amy, both writers who have lost their high-powered New York jobs and who have relocated to Nick's hometown in Missouri. There is the odd suggestion that not everything is rosy in their supposedly perfect marriage. Then on the afternoon of their fifth anniversary, Nick returns home to find their mini-mansion in a shambles and Amy missing. Cue nosey intrusive police officers, Amy's high-flying parents who have made their fortune from their series of kiddies' books featuring 'Amazing Amy', and enough volunteers to staff an army who join in the hunt for the lovely missing lady. According to the rising local hysteria, mainly because Affleck does not seem appropriately sad, and egged on by trial-by-television journalist Missy Pyle, the general conclusion is that he has murdered his wife. Just about everything seems to be conspiring against him which is where the no-spoilers-allowed rule comes into effect. All I can say at this stage is that the movie's judicious use of flash-backs leads us to the conclusion that perhaps Amy was not quite the perfect wife nor the wholly innocent victim, and that the marriage might have been cracking at the seams.
I think Affleck was just about perfect in the role of the poor shmuck whose life is snowballing out of control. However I have my doubts about Pike. The consensus seems to think that this is the 'break-through' role for the British actress and that she deserves an Oscar nod. I'm not saying she won't receive this accolade (though a BAFTA seems in the bag), but I found her performance patchy and much of her dialogue inaudible. Mind you I had some trouble with the dialogue generally, both because of the occasionally overwhelming music, but also because of the rather strange use of funny Southern accents by much of the cast. I never though of Missouri as being a particularly Southern state, but there you go...
I'm sure the film will do good business -- much better than 'Maps...' I suspect, but I really didn't care for it at all -- too leisurely and with one of the most totally unsatisfying finales and resolutions that I have encountered for a while. If you asked me to rate these two new films with the other two I have seen at the cinema in the last month, I would still put the Woody Allen film as the most enjoyable, with "Lucy" and "Maps" close seconds in terms of well-made and absorbing flicks, and this one right at the bottom of the heap.
Friday 26 September 2014
Magic in the Moonlight (2014)
It seems I've become something of a Woody Allen apologist. The reviews here for his latest 44th (!) movie were so universally negative, that I nearly didn't go to see it on its release. The Times' critic described lead actor Colin Firth's performance as "soggy" -- whatever that means, and nearly all the detractors tend to compare each new Allen release with earlier Allen movies, rather than with the general dross available in cinemas today.
By that rather limited viewpoint, Woody's latest is not one of his greatest (and do bear in mind that I was not particularly taken with "Blue Jasmine"), but it is sunny and breezy, manages to bring smiles to one's face in addition to the occasional laugh-out-loud chuckle, and is much more than just a pleasant way to pass some 90 minutes. Always fascinated by magic and magicians, Allen casts Firth as heavily made-up, unrecognizable Chinese conjurer Wei Ling-Soo, a world-renowned performer in the late 20s when the film is set. He thrills audiences with his skill at making elephants disappear, sawing ladies in two, and evaporating and re-appearing himself. In his non-stage life as uptight, cold and caustic rationalist Stanley, he derives the utmost pleasure from de-bunking fake mediums. He has recently acquired a super-efficient and therefore highly suitable 'fiancee' in the form of Catherine McCormack and is supposedly happy with his rigid world view..
When an old childhood friend who has also become a professional magician albeit less successful (Simon McBurney with the most distracting comb-over ever) tells him about a sweet young thing (Emma Stone) busy plying her money-making seance act on a susceptible family on the Riviera, adding that he has been unable to discover her trickery, Stanley is tempted to go and expose the young hussy. Stone's Sophie has not only charmed rich dowager Jacki Weaver with her attempts to communicate with her late husband, but she has also enticed Weaver's ninny of a son (Hamish Linklater). He persists in serenading Sophie non-stop with his titchy little ukulele while he croons songs of the period slightly off-key; he and his Mum are preparing to fund a psychic research centre to Sophie's delight (and the greedy joy of her chaperone mother, Marcia Gay Harden in a nothing role), and he also hopes to make her his pampered wife.
Stanley is introduced into the household under a false identity by McBurney and Weaver's daughter and son-in-law who are fearful that Mum and Junior are being fleeced. From the moment he lays eyes on the wide-eyed Sophie, he attempts to pooh-pooh her supposed flashes of psychic inspiration, even when she seems remarkably prescient about his travels, love-life, and real identity. He remains unimpressed by her parlour tricks and is determined to show her up for the phony gold-digger that she is. However on a day trip with him to visit his beloved Aunt in Provence (a smashing performance from old-stager Eileen Atkins), Sophie manages to sense things about his Auntie's past relationships that she could never have known. Thus the consummate rationalist Firth must re-evaluate his long held prejudices and admit the possibilities of the soul, religious beliefs, and something inexplicable to his own hidebound views. He even calls a press conference to admit to the world that he just may have been wrong all these years. There is absolutely nothing "soggy" about his performance and the other main players are fine as well.
However when Atkins is injured in a road crash and Firth reluctantly attempts to offer up a little prayer to an unacknowledged God, he is reminded that even if his dear aunt should die, he can always communicate with her via Sophie. This knocks some sense back into his addled mind: only the skill of doctors can save his aunt and Sophie really must be some colossal fraud -- as a pedlar of illusion himself he is sure he can expose another, never dreaming initially that McBurney and Sophie might be in cahoots. Even when the truth is out and Sophie has accepted Linklater's proposal, Firth begins to understand that there is something about her which has touched him deeply and that even in the rational world there is something which can only be described as real magic. He offers his hand in marriage to save her from herself, but is rebuffed -- much to his amazement that a young lady from Kalamazoo should turn down the great full-of-himself celebrity. That's your final chance he yells after her...but we can guess the ending.
As always Allen's use of period music is brilliantly incorporated in the film and there is even a brief cameo from Ute Lemper as a café singer in Berlin (complete with grotesque Weimar figures in the foreground). The South of France photography is sumptuous as well. I feel that Woody keeps returning to his favourite period of the l920s if only to incorporate the spiffy shiny period roadsters which accompany nearly each scene; he may even have a fetish for them! As for the age difference between Firth and Stone, not that there is any mention of this in the storyline, I admit that there is something just a little bit creepy about this. However as Allen himself has admitted, he is now far too old himself to play against some of the exciting new actresses he finds, so substitute Woodys with all their inbuilt neuroses and jaded outlooks must fill in for him. Perhaps this recurrent theme is a sweet little love letter to his own much younger spouse in a marriage which has now lasted the best part of twenty years.
This is the sort of movie that one can just sit back and enjoy on its own terms, without pursuing any sort of intellectual exercise as to how it fits into the Allen canon. Bring them on Woody!
By that rather limited viewpoint, Woody's latest is not one of his greatest (and do bear in mind that I was not particularly taken with "Blue Jasmine"), but it is sunny and breezy, manages to bring smiles to one's face in addition to the occasional laugh-out-loud chuckle, and is much more than just a pleasant way to pass some 90 minutes. Always fascinated by magic and magicians, Allen casts Firth as heavily made-up, unrecognizable Chinese conjurer Wei Ling-Soo, a world-renowned performer in the late 20s when the film is set. He thrills audiences with his skill at making elephants disappear, sawing ladies in two, and evaporating and re-appearing himself. In his non-stage life as uptight, cold and caustic rationalist Stanley, he derives the utmost pleasure from de-bunking fake mediums. He has recently acquired a super-efficient and therefore highly suitable 'fiancee' in the form of Catherine McCormack and is supposedly happy with his rigid world view..
When an old childhood friend who has also become a professional magician albeit less successful (Simon McBurney with the most distracting comb-over ever) tells him about a sweet young thing (Emma Stone) busy plying her money-making seance act on a susceptible family on the Riviera, adding that he has been unable to discover her trickery, Stanley is tempted to go and expose the young hussy. Stone's Sophie has not only charmed rich dowager Jacki Weaver with her attempts to communicate with her late husband, but she has also enticed Weaver's ninny of a son (Hamish Linklater). He persists in serenading Sophie non-stop with his titchy little ukulele while he croons songs of the period slightly off-key; he and his Mum are preparing to fund a psychic research centre to Sophie's delight (and the greedy joy of her chaperone mother, Marcia Gay Harden in a nothing role), and he also hopes to make her his pampered wife.
Stanley is introduced into the household under a false identity by McBurney and Weaver's daughter and son-in-law who are fearful that Mum and Junior are being fleeced. From the moment he lays eyes on the wide-eyed Sophie, he attempts to pooh-pooh her supposed flashes of psychic inspiration, even when she seems remarkably prescient about his travels, love-life, and real identity. He remains unimpressed by her parlour tricks and is determined to show her up for the phony gold-digger that she is. However on a day trip with him to visit his beloved Aunt in Provence (a smashing performance from old-stager Eileen Atkins), Sophie manages to sense things about his Auntie's past relationships that she could never have known. Thus the consummate rationalist Firth must re-evaluate his long held prejudices and admit the possibilities of the soul, religious beliefs, and something inexplicable to his own hidebound views. He even calls a press conference to admit to the world that he just may have been wrong all these years. There is absolutely nothing "soggy" about his performance and the other main players are fine as well.
However when Atkins is injured in a road crash and Firth reluctantly attempts to offer up a little prayer to an unacknowledged God, he is reminded that even if his dear aunt should die, he can always communicate with her via Sophie. This knocks some sense back into his addled mind: only the skill of doctors can save his aunt and Sophie really must be some colossal fraud -- as a pedlar of illusion himself he is sure he can expose another, never dreaming initially that McBurney and Sophie might be in cahoots. Even when the truth is out and Sophie has accepted Linklater's proposal, Firth begins to understand that there is something about her which has touched him deeply and that even in the rational world there is something which can only be described as real magic. He offers his hand in marriage to save her from herself, but is rebuffed -- much to his amazement that a young lady from Kalamazoo should turn down the great full-of-himself celebrity. That's your final chance he yells after her...but we can guess the ending.
As always Allen's use of period music is brilliantly incorporated in the film and there is even a brief cameo from Ute Lemper as a café singer in Berlin (complete with grotesque Weimar figures in the foreground). The South of France photography is sumptuous as well. I feel that Woody keeps returning to his favourite period of the l920s if only to incorporate the spiffy shiny period roadsters which accompany nearly each scene; he may even have a fetish for them! As for the age difference between Firth and Stone, not that there is any mention of this in the storyline, I admit that there is something just a little bit creepy about this. However as Allen himself has admitted, he is now far too old himself to play against some of the exciting new actresses he finds, so substitute Woodys with all their inbuilt neuroses and jaded outlooks must fill in for him. Perhaps this recurrent theme is a sweet little love letter to his own much younger spouse in a marriage which has now lasted the best part of twenty years.
This is the sort of movie that one can just sit back and enjoy on its own terms, without pursuing any sort of intellectual exercise as to how it fits into the Allen canon. Bring them on Woody!
Friday 19 September 2014
Mr Belvedere Goes to College (1949)
After the rather soft-core horrors of FrightFest, the time has come to reintroduce some classic whimsy into the mix. The above movie is the first of two spin-offs from the inimitable Clifton Webb's pouring-porridge-over-baby's-head triumph in "Sitting Pretty" (1948), as self-proclaimed 'the world's greatest genius' Lynn Belvedere.
Webb is amongst the most unlikely of Hollywood leading men, coming to talkies well into middle-age with his caustic performance as the suave villain in "Laura" (1944). Indeed he made several silents back in the 1920s and was a professional ballroom dancer and Broadway star in his earlier career. As a matter of interest, he originated the male leading role in Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit" both in New York and in London. The characters he played in his second late-life film career were often remarkably close to his own waspish personality: debonair, cultured, slightly effete but never effeminate. A bachelor, he lived with his mother who was apparently his best friend, until her death in her early nineties, six years before his own. He left us with a treasury of memorable films including the original "Cheaper by the Dozen", "Stars and Stripes Forever" as John Philip Sousa, and the Barbara Stanwyck version of "Titanic". Even in some of his lesser-known flicks like "Dreamboat" and "Heavens Above", he was never anything less than terrific.
After the unexpected success of "Sitting Pretty", the Belvedere character was revived in this movie to examine how the self-educated genius who left formal schooling after two exasperating weeks in kindergarten (!), reacts to the campus scene when he finds that a college diploma is a prerequisite to receiving a literary prize that he has been awarded. Mind you, it is his intention to complete the four year course in under one year. Not that we ever see him attending classes, but we do get to witness his response to Freshman hazing, his unlikely impressive abilities as a pole-vaulter, and his civilising a bunch of unruly sorority sisters. His bumptious ways are always winning and Webb is, in effect, the only reason to both watch and enjoy this movie, despite oneself.
It pains me to say, that he acts his co-star, a late-teen Shirley Temple, off the screen. I have never made a secret of how charming I (and most of Depression-era America) found the young actress when she was but a toddler. Later, rather thankless, roles like this one probably account for her early retirement. Here she plays a young war widow, who has gone back to college under her maiden name, with her three-year old son in tow, but discreetly hidden away. She is determined to write a tell-all magazine article about the notorious Mr Belvedere and he is determined that she will do nothing of the kind. She also has a low-key romance with would-be suitor Tom Drake, whose mother (Jessie Royce Landis) is horrified when she learns about the scandalous child. This whole sub-plot is completely dispensable, but it would have left the feature a rather short film. One must therefore relish Webb's indelible performance, like when Belvedere is arrested by a young cop (Jeff Chandler in an early bit part), works his way out of the handcuffs, and claims that, yes, he did teach Houdini a few tricks. He also uses his one free phone-call to contact his friend J. Edgar Hoover to intervene. As always, the prickly yet super-confident Webb is the most memorable thing in this rather patchy movie.
I will soon watch the third Belvedere movie "Mr Belvedere Rings the Bell", which I have never seen (but I have the disc on order). There he takes on the nursing home challenge -- I kid you not. I bet he quickly sorts out the wrinklies and their problems. What a man! What a character!
Webb is amongst the most unlikely of Hollywood leading men, coming to talkies well into middle-age with his caustic performance as the suave villain in "Laura" (1944). Indeed he made several silents back in the 1920s and was a professional ballroom dancer and Broadway star in his earlier career. As a matter of interest, he originated the male leading role in Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit" both in New York and in London. The characters he played in his second late-life film career were often remarkably close to his own waspish personality: debonair, cultured, slightly effete but never effeminate. A bachelor, he lived with his mother who was apparently his best friend, until her death in her early nineties, six years before his own. He left us with a treasury of memorable films including the original "Cheaper by the Dozen", "Stars and Stripes Forever" as John Philip Sousa, and the Barbara Stanwyck version of "Titanic". Even in some of his lesser-known flicks like "Dreamboat" and "Heavens Above", he was never anything less than terrific.
After the unexpected success of "Sitting Pretty", the Belvedere character was revived in this movie to examine how the self-educated genius who left formal schooling after two exasperating weeks in kindergarten (!), reacts to the campus scene when he finds that a college diploma is a prerequisite to receiving a literary prize that he has been awarded. Mind you, it is his intention to complete the four year course in under one year. Not that we ever see him attending classes, but we do get to witness his response to Freshman hazing, his unlikely impressive abilities as a pole-vaulter, and his civilising a bunch of unruly sorority sisters. His bumptious ways are always winning and Webb is, in effect, the only reason to both watch and enjoy this movie, despite oneself.
It pains me to say, that he acts his co-star, a late-teen Shirley Temple, off the screen. I have never made a secret of how charming I (and most of Depression-era America) found the young actress when she was but a toddler. Later, rather thankless, roles like this one probably account for her early retirement. Here she plays a young war widow, who has gone back to college under her maiden name, with her three-year old son in tow, but discreetly hidden away. She is determined to write a tell-all magazine article about the notorious Mr Belvedere and he is determined that she will do nothing of the kind. She also has a low-key romance with would-be suitor Tom Drake, whose mother (Jessie Royce Landis) is horrified when she learns about the scandalous child. This whole sub-plot is completely dispensable, but it would have left the feature a rather short film. One must therefore relish Webb's indelible performance, like when Belvedere is arrested by a young cop (Jeff Chandler in an early bit part), works his way out of the handcuffs, and claims that, yes, he did teach Houdini a few tricks. He also uses his one free phone-call to contact his friend J. Edgar Hoover to intervene. As always, the prickly yet super-confident Webb is the most memorable thing in this rather patchy movie.
I will soon watch the third Belvedere movie "Mr Belvedere Rings the Bell", which I have never seen (but I have the disc on order). There he takes on the nursing home challenge -- I kid you not. I bet he quickly sorts out the wrinklies and their problems. What a man! What a character!
Friday 12 September 2014
The Rest of the Fest
As promised, the remaining six movies we saw at FrightFest last month: However, as time passes, my powers of recollection fatally diminish. Maybe that really is the best way to review movies -- if a film doesn't stick in ones memory, perhaps it was little more than a time-filler (it would have to have been pretty bad to qualify as a time-waster). Here's the verdict:
Open Windows: I was keen to see the latest from Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo, whose intriguing "Timecrimes" (2007) was one of the more challenging flicks at FrightFest a few years back. This time he was directing in English with a nearly A-list lead in the shape of Elijah Wood; however the tale of enticing Wood's fan-site webmaster to act as a pawn in the proposed kidnap of 'movie star' (erstwhile porn actress) Sasha Grey left me completely cold. I've never been much of a fan of split screens, and the combination of computer images, tablets, and smartphones fighting to open windows on the screen became a new form of 'found footage' torture to me. As Wood becomes unwillingly more and more involved in the plot, the whole sorry business began to make less and less sense. Sorry, folks.
Faults: This was the European premiere for what was described as a disturbing black comedy, starring genre fave Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Well it was hardly comic, but yes, it was quite disturbing in its way. Leland Orser, a familiar-looking actor better known for his TV appearances, very effectively plays a slightly slimy cult de-programmer who is in serious financial shtuck; he convinces Winstead's parents that he is the very man to return their daughter from the tentacles of the mysterious cult called Faults which appears to have brainwashed her. However, once she is kidnapped and taken to a remote motel, with her parents in the adjoining room, things do not quite go to plan. In the game of cat and mouse that follows, one begins to question who is winning the battle of wills. Hardly a horror film, but still a tense and intriguing movie.
The Samurai: This German concoction did not make a great deal of sense and I would be hard-pressed to tell you what it was actually about, but it was good gory fun and more typically the type of fare I would expect FrightFest to showcase. Set in a provincial town beset by a wolf's rampages, young cop Jakob (who has been leaving food in the woods for the predator) receives in the post a strange-shaped parcel addressed to 'Lone Wolf'. After a mysterious phone call asking if 'his' package has been received, Jakob goes to a cottage in the forest; here an ancient samurai sword is unwrapped and its possession taken by to a peculiar and fierce man dressed as an extremely unfeminine woman. This almost-human embodiment of the wolf goes on a bloody rampage in the village, decimating all who have made fun of Jakob and a bunch of innocents as well. The question is can Jakob stop the massacre and more importantly does he want to.
Alleluia: Again, I was eager to get tickets for this Belgian movie, since its director Fabrice du Welz helmed the very memorable "Calvaire" (2004). Here he retells the true story of serial killers Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez which first hit the screen in the cult flick "The Honeymoon Killers"(1969). The story is relocated to the Belgian countryside as gigolo Michel becomes enticed by overweight, needy, and drab single mother Gloria (a smashing turn from Spanish actress Lola Duenas). They pose as brother and sister to entice rich widows into his dubious arms before killing them for profit. However as Gloria becomes more and more jealous and demanding, especially as his latest conquest is a wealthy stunner, their fragile deceptions are threatened by her sexual insatiability. A pretty fair 're-imagining' as they say nowadays.
Nymph: This Serbian movie (not "A Serbian Movie") was probably the worst of the eleven films we chose, and unfortunately it wasn't even a 'foreign' film since it was made in English -- probably to increase its commercial prospects which are frankly pretty slim. Two American gals visit Montenegro to see an old college chum; together with his fiancée and one of his pals, they take an ill-advised excursion to an abandoned island fortress. That will teach them to avoid the warning words of the local nutter fisherman, played (one wonders why) by Franco Nero. Once ashore they encounter the bloodthirsty resident siren/mermaid who has been lovingly cared for by one of Nero's old crew these many years, and they seem to be trapped when they find that their boat has been destroyed. It was all a bit of a yawn, although the scenery was nice and there were lots of glamour shots of gals in skimpy bathing costumes to keep some people happy.
Extraterrestrial: This is actually a three-year old movie from the above-mentioned Spanish director Vigalondo, but at least it was in Spanish. With a very small cast (since most of the local humanity have been abducted by aliens in the spaceship hovering above the city), a couple wake after a one-night stand, much to the gal's embarrassment since her live-in lover is about to return. They must also deal with her creepy next-door neighbour who is determined to expose sexual shenanigans in which he is offered no part. This was a low-budget yet mildly entertaining mash-up of sci-fi and rom-com, a harmless but not overly memorable movie.
And there you have it. Will we return for more FrightFest next August? Like Sean Connery I have now learned never to say 'never' again. The move to a new cinema and having to split the audience into three parts with a rotating rota of movies seems to have worked quite well, and if anything the time-keeping was better (thank you gods) than it has been previously. Time will tell...
Open Windows: I was keen to see the latest from Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo, whose intriguing "Timecrimes" (2007) was one of the more challenging flicks at FrightFest a few years back. This time he was directing in English with a nearly A-list lead in the shape of Elijah Wood; however the tale of enticing Wood's fan-site webmaster to act as a pawn in the proposed kidnap of 'movie star' (erstwhile porn actress) Sasha Grey left me completely cold. I've never been much of a fan of split screens, and the combination of computer images, tablets, and smartphones fighting to open windows on the screen became a new form of 'found footage' torture to me. As Wood becomes unwillingly more and more involved in the plot, the whole sorry business began to make less and less sense. Sorry, folks.
Faults: This was the European premiere for what was described as a disturbing black comedy, starring genre fave Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Well it was hardly comic, but yes, it was quite disturbing in its way. Leland Orser, a familiar-looking actor better known for his TV appearances, very effectively plays a slightly slimy cult de-programmer who is in serious financial shtuck; he convinces Winstead's parents that he is the very man to return their daughter from the tentacles of the mysterious cult called Faults which appears to have brainwashed her. However, once she is kidnapped and taken to a remote motel, with her parents in the adjoining room, things do not quite go to plan. In the game of cat and mouse that follows, one begins to question who is winning the battle of wills. Hardly a horror film, but still a tense and intriguing movie.
The Samurai: This German concoction did not make a great deal of sense and I would be hard-pressed to tell you what it was actually about, but it was good gory fun and more typically the type of fare I would expect FrightFest to showcase. Set in a provincial town beset by a wolf's rampages, young cop Jakob (who has been leaving food in the woods for the predator) receives in the post a strange-shaped parcel addressed to 'Lone Wolf'. After a mysterious phone call asking if 'his' package has been received, Jakob goes to a cottage in the forest; here an ancient samurai sword is unwrapped and its possession taken by to a peculiar and fierce man dressed as an extremely unfeminine woman. This almost-human embodiment of the wolf goes on a bloody rampage in the village, decimating all who have made fun of Jakob and a bunch of innocents as well. The question is can Jakob stop the massacre and more importantly does he want to.
Alleluia: Again, I was eager to get tickets for this Belgian movie, since its director Fabrice du Welz helmed the very memorable "Calvaire" (2004). Here he retells the true story of serial killers Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez which first hit the screen in the cult flick "The Honeymoon Killers"(1969). The story is relocated to the Belgian countryside as gigolo Michel becomes enticed by overweight, needy, and drab single mother Gloria (a smashing turn from Spanish actress Lola Duenas). They pose as brother and sister to entice rich widows into his dubious arms before killing them for profit. However as Gloria becomes more and more jealous and demanding, especially as his latest conquest is a wealthy stunner, their fragile deceptions are threatened by her sexual insatiability. A pretty fair 're-imagining' as they say nowadays.
Nymph: This Serbian movie (not "A Serbian Movie") was probably the worst of the eleven films we chose, and unfortunately it wasn't even a 'foreign' film since it was made in English -- probably to increase its commercial prospects which are frankly pretty slim. Two American gals visit Montenegro to see an old college chum; together with his fiancée and one of his pals, they take an ill-advised excursion to an abandoned island fortress. That will teach them to avoid the warning words of the local nutter fisherman, played (one wonders why) by Franco Nero. Once ashore they encounter the bloodthirsty resident siren/mermaid who has been lovingly cared for by one of Nero's old crew these many years, and they seem to be trapped when they find that their boat has been destroyed. It was all a bit of a yawn, although the scenery was nice and there were lots of glamour shots of gals in skimpy bathing costumes to keep some people happy.
Extraterrestrial: This is actually a three-year old movie from the above-mentioned Spanish director Vigalondo, but at least it was in Spanish. With a very small cast (since most of the local humanity have been abducted by aliens in the spaceship hovering above the city), a couple wake after a one-night stand, much to the gal's embarrassment since her live-in lover is about to return. They must also deal with her creepy next-door neighbour who is determined to expose sexual shenanigans in which he is offered no part. This was a low-budget yet mildly entertaining mash-up of sci-fi and rom-com, a harmless but not overly memorable movie.
And there you have it. Will we return for more FrightFest next August? Like Sean Connery I have now learned never to say 'never' again. The move to a new cinema and having to split the audience into three parts with a rotating rota of movies seems to have worked quite well, and if anything the time-keeping was better (thank you gods) than it has been previously. Time will tell...
Friday 5 September 2014
FrightFest and a Girl Named Lucy
Because I said I would, let's return to FrightFest, or at least to the five films we watched on the Friday and Saturday of the weekend:
Late Phases (2014): A UK premiere for this clever take on the werewolf film. Grumpy, blind war veteran (a thoroughly abrasive Nick Damici) moves into a supposedly idyllic retirement community...idyllic apart from the banging and screeching on his first night there and the fact that his guide dog is killed protecting him from an unseen beast. It doesn't take a genius to work out that an unfriendly neighbourhood werewolf is rapidly decimating the elderly population, not that his nosey neighbours appreciate his concern. Nor does the reality-denying local priest (an always welcome Tom Noonan). Not a great deal actually happens and the splatter is kept to a jokey minimum, but warrior Damici is armed to bring matters to a head and restore some sense of order into the doomed community, whatever the cost to himself.
R100 (2013): This Japanese film receiving its UK premiere was not part of the main programme, but featured on the 'Discovery Screen'; we chose it because non-US and non-UK movies have been the pick of the Fest in previous years. What a swizz! Film Four who are the festival's main sponsor actually broadcast the movie, free-to-view, the same weekend. Had we known that we might have saved ourselves the cost of a decent bottle of wine! Bitching apart, it was a weird treat and I suppose there was some advantage to watching it on a big screen. Our 'hero' (a recognizable Nao Omori from the great "Ichi the Killer") has a boring job and a wife in a coma. So as one might, he joins a strange gentleman's club to fulfil his fantasies. The catch is there is no quitting membership within the first year and he is beaten, embarrassed, and abused by a series of dominatrices -- but guess what, his reaction is supreme bliss. After an obese deliverer of projectile saliva (don't even try to picture this) dies at his house, he fights back, killing ranks of female ninjas, until the CEO of the club, an occidental buxom giantess locks herself in his fortress for the ultimate orgasms to the strains of Beethoven's Ninth. A kinky hoot...but what in the world was this movie doing at FrightFest?
The title refers to the fact that this is purportedly the 100th film of a 100-year old director, as we eventually discover from a bunch of his lackeys. An apologist for him says that no one can understand this movie until they too are 100. A colleague retorts that there is therefore no point releasing the film, since how many 100-year olds are there and how many of them go to the cinema? Good questions....
The Harvest (2014): Another UK premiere for another US movie with rather more interesting credentials. From director John McNaughton of "Henry" fame and starring Samantha Morton and Michael Shannon, they play a somewhat estranged and somewhat deranged married couple with a big secret concerning their bedridden son. As a young new neighbour (a fine Natasha Calis) tries to make friends with the lad, Morton's behaviour becomes more and more defensive, desperate to hide the fact that there is another bedridden boy in the basement. What is being harvested and for whom is the shocking puzzle for the viewer to discover.
Starry Eyes (2014): Still another UK premiere and I'd better hurry along or I'll never get through everything I'm hoping to cover today. This was a mildly interesting examination of the desperate search for stardom in Hollywood by a would-be actress with rather minor talents. Performed by a no-name cast, our heroine Sarah is seduced by the producer of a supposed film company -- a front for a bunch of Satan worshippers we gather -- and is physically and mentally transformed into a beautiful murderess. So now you know how one becomes a success in La-La Land.
Life after Beth (2014): A preview this time for a Sundance hit starring Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan (flavour of the month), John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, and Anna Kendrick in a zom-com of dubious distinction. Young Zach is heartbroken when his girlfriend Beth dies, but rather taken aback when she comes back to life as a gradually disintegrating zombie. Her parents (Reilly and Shannon) are thrilled to have their daughter back and happy to turn a blind eye to her strange behaviour. Meanwhile Zach's family want him to get involved with a nice young lady of their choice, although they then are distracted when their long dead relatives begin to arise from the grave. Why all of the characters were meant to be Jewish is a complete mystery and non-sequitur. The film started as mildly amusing but soon outstayed its welcome.
* * * * * *
And here comes "Lucy" which deserves rather more room than I have left. This new film from French director Luc Besson (who has directed very little of late) is a fine bit of entertainment and something of a roller-coaster ride. Starring the delectable Scarlett Johansson, the movie has a similar premise to Bradley Cooper's "Limitless" (2011); it poses the question, what would happen if we humans used more than 10% of our potential intelligence. Cooper rose to the 20% level with amazing consequences, but Johansson's heroine gradually moves up to 100%. She begins the movie as a feckless bimbo living in Taiwan. Her slime-ball boyfriend Pilou Asbaek (yes, him out of "Borgen"), involves her in a major drug heist master-minded by Min-sik Choi ("Oldboy"), and she finds herself with a bag of some weird chemicals sewn into her tummy. One of her jailors, before she and three other mules are to be dispatched to various European cities, fancies a bit of 'how's your father' and kicks her in the stomach when he is rejected. This breaks the bag and disperses its contents into her system with unforeseen results as her intelligence and cunning grow by leaps and bounds.
She makes her way to Europe to recover the full drug haul with hordes of the Chinese Mafia on her tail, their guns blazing indiscriminately, and Lucy is no slouch herself when it comes to disposing of the enemy. Into the mix comes intelligence guru Morgan Freeman who has lectured on our poor use of our potential, but he adds little to the procedings as Johansson's Lucy is more or less the whole show. It's hard to think of another young actress who could have thrown herself so completely into the role as she becomes aware of her mortality and strives to preserve the knowledge that she has unwittingly acquired. Perhaps the film could have been rewritten for an older lead actress like Streep or Mirren, but it would have been a very different animal.
Of course the whole concept is a load of tosh, but it is beautifully handled by Besson. The cinematography of animal life and the special effects are masterfully presented, and he takes pains to remind us that the original ape linking the animal world to humankind was also called Lucy. Johansson moves from a pretty nobody to the embodiment of unimaginable intellect and pure spirit.
Next time for the remaining six FrightFest films....
Late Phases (2014): A UK premiere for this clever take on the werewolf film. Grumpy, blind war veteran (a thoroughly abrasive Nick Damici) moves into a supposedly idyllic retirement community...idyllic apart from the banging and screeching on his first night there and the fact that his guide dog is killed protecting him from an unseen beast. It doesn't take a genius to work out that an unfriendly neighbourhood werewolf is rapidly decimating the elderly population, not that his nosey neighbours appreciate his concern. Nor does the reality-denying local priest (an always welcome Tom Noonan). Not a great deal actually happens and the splatter is kept to a jokey minimum, but warrior Damici is armed to bring matters to a head and restore some sense of order into the doomed community, whatever the cost to himself.
R100 (2013): This Japanese film receiving its UK premiere was not part of the main programme, but featured on the 'Discovery Screen'; we chose it because non-US and non-UK movies have been the pick of the Fest in previous years. What a swizz! Film Four who are the festival's main sponsor actually broadcast the movie, free-to-view, the same weekend. Had we known that we might have saved ourselves the cost of a decent bottle of wine! Bitching apart, it was a weird treat and I suppose there was some advantage to watching it on a big screen. Our 'hero' (a recognizable Nao Omori from the great "Ichi the Killer") has a boring job and a wife in a coma. So as one might, he joins a strange gentleman's club to fulfil his fantasies. The catch is there is no quitting membership within the first year and he is beaten, embarrassed, and abused by a series of dominatrices -- but guess what, his reaction is supreme bliss. After an obese deliverer of projectile saliva (don't even try to picture this) dies at his house, he fights back, killing ranks of female ninjas, until the CEO of the club, an occidental buxom giantess locks herself in his fortress for the ultimate orgasms to the strains of Beethoven's Ninth. A kinky hoot...but what in the world was this movie doing at FrightFest?
The title refers to the fact that this is purportedly the 100th film of a 100-year old director, as we eventually discover from a bunch of his lackeys. An apologist for him says that no one can understand this movie until they too are 100. A colleague retorts that there is therefore no point releasing the film, since how many 100-year olds are there and how many of them go to the cinema? Good questions....
The Harvest (2014): Another UK premiere for another US movie with rather more interesting credentials. From director John McNaughton of "Henry" fame and starring Samantha Morton and Michael Shannon, they play a somewhat estranged and somewhat deranged married couple with a big secret concerning their bedridden son. As a young new neighbour (a fine Natasha Calis) tries to make friends with the lad, Morton's behaviour becomes more and more defensive, desperate to hide the fact that there is another bedridden boy in the basement. What is being harvested and for whom is the shocking puzzle for the viewer to discover.
Starry Eyes (2014): Still another UK premiere and I'd better hurry along or I'll never get through everything I'm hoping to cover today. This was a mildly interesting examination of the desperate search for stardom in Hollywood by a would-be actress with rather minor talents. Performed by a no-name cast, our heroine Sarah is seduced by the producer of a supposed film company -- a front for a bunch of Satan worshippers we gather -- and is physically and mentally transformed into a beautiful murderess. So now you know how one becomes a success in La-La Land.
Life after Beth (2014): A preview this time for a Sundance hit starring Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan (flavour of the month), John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, and Anna Kendrick in a zom-com of dubious distinction. Young Zach is heartbroken when his girlfriend Beth dies, but rather taken aback when she comes back to life as a gradually disintegrating zombie. Her parents (Reilly and Shannon) are thrilled to have their daughter back and happy to turn a blind eye to her strange behaviour. Meanwhile Zach's family want him to get involved with a nice young lady of their choice, although they then are distracted when their long dead relatives begin to arise from the grave. Why all of the characters were meant to be Jewish is a complete mystery and non-sequitur. The film started as mildly amusing but soon outstayed its welcome.
* * * * * *
And here comes "Lucy" which deserves rather more room than I have left. This new film from French director Luc Besson (who has directed very little of late) is a fine bit of entertainment and something of a roller-coaster ride. Starring the delectable Scarlett Johansson, the movie has a similar premise to Bradley Cooper's "Limitless" (2011); it poses the question, what would happen if we humans used more than 10% of our potential intelligence. Cooper rose to the 20% level with amazing consequences, but Johansson's heroine gradually moves up to 100%. She begins the movie as a feckless bimbo living in Taiwan. Her slime-ball boyfriend Pilou Asbaek (yes, him out of "Borgen"), involves her in a major drug heist master-minded by Min-sik Choi ("Oldboy"), and she finds herself with a bag of some weird chemicals sewn into her tummy. One of her jailors, before she and three other mules are to be dispatched to various European cities, fancies a bit of 'how's your father' and kicks her in the stomach when he is rejected. This breaks the bag and disperses its contents into her system with unforeseen results as her intelligence and cunning grow by leaps and bounds.
She makes her way to Europe to recover the full drug haul with hordes of the Chinese Mafia on her tail, their guns blazing indiscriminately, and Lucy is no slouch herself when it comes to disposing of the enemy. Into the mix comes intelligence guru Morgan Freeman who has lectured on our poor use of our potential, but he adds little to the procedings as Johansson's Lucy is more or less the whole show. It's hard to think of another young actress who could have thrown herself so completely into the role as she becomes aware of her mortality and strives to preserve the knowledge that she has unwittingly acquired. Perhaps the film could have been rewritten for an older lead actress like Streep or Mirren, but it would have been a very different animal.
Of course the whole concept is a load of tosh, but it is beautifully handled by Besson. The cinematography of animal life and the special effects are masterfully presented, and he takes pains to remind us that the original ape linking the animal world to humankind was also called Lucy. Johansson moves from a pretty nobody to the embodiment of unimaginable intellect and pure spirit.
Next time for the remaining six FrightFest films....
Friday 29 August 2014
An Embarrassment of Riches...
Here I am back after my respite and I don't know where to start, with a number of films fighting to be selected for my beady-eyed scrutiny. As I wrote three weeks back, the next film on the agenda was "Guardians of the Galaxy" which was a jolly enough romp, but not really my sort of thing. It's a refreshing left-field offering among the plethora of super-hero flicks, but it will probably seem less fresh when we are offered the inevitable sequel in a year's time or so. I must say, however, that Vin Diesel makes a great tree!
Then there were the eleven -- yes eleven -- FrightFest films that we selected last weekend. This does indeed represent a conscious weaning on our part, since we would have felt obliged to watch most of the twenty-six films featured in the main programme (or alternates on the Discovery Screen) had we bought the weekend pass -- and frankly eleven were nearly too many. By and large I liked most of them, although there were a couple of iffy ones, but what struck me most of all was how unfrightening the majority were -- there was more in the way of fantasy than frights. There was very little in the way of gore (and we all know how much pppatty likes her gore).
For tradition's sake I will write a bit about each of them over the coming weeks -- but not today. Instead, I want to touch briefly on a terrestrial TV premiere which I watched the day after FrightFest and which I thought was not only better made but also more scary and gripping in part than any of the Fest's offerings. The film is "Red Lights" (2012) and while comments on IMDb verge on the 'big swizz' end of the spectrum, I thought it was pretty super. Sigourney Weaver plays a respected ghost debunker, showing up false mediums and psychics over a 30-year career; her protégé is Cillian Murphy who in turn is mentoring Elizabeth Olsen. They have a fine old time exposing the frauds who are making money off the gullible, but Weaver is wary of having another go at Robert DeNiro's Simon Silver, who is making a comeback from retirement after another sceptic unexpectedly died while investigating him. Weaver doesn't want to know as Silver was able to rattle her in the past, but Murphy is crazy keen to have a go. Then Weaver drops dead! She was so good in the role that the heart could have fallen out of the film, but the intense Murphy manages to keep us watching. And I for one was totally unprepared for the big reveal....
The last of the day's reviews will be "Sin City 2 - A Dame to Kill For" which was actually included in the FrightFest programme, but which we didn't watch there since we knew it was about to be released broadly. So back to the cinema we went! Somewhere in my old reviews I wrote about the first film back in 2005 (and I am too lazy to search out the url) but my recollection is that I really, really liked it. And guess what, I liked the sequel as well. Now to be honest it has been receiving some pretty dismissive reviews and far be it from me to claim that it is a great movie; but it is an absolutely superb visual experience -- and for once even the 3D effects were more than gratuitous. OK maybe the dialogue is pretty poor (what do you expect from a graphic novel adaptation?) and the characters may be pulp stereotypes, but that is all part of its modus vivendi and all part of what makes the film fun viewing.
Eva Green gives a fearless and largely nude performance as the femme fatale of the title and newcomers Josh Brolin and Joseph Gordon-Levitt give substance to two of the three intertwining stories. Powers Booth makes a dastardly villain and it's a welcome return for the unrecognizable Mickey Rourke, a ghostly Bruce Willis, and bump 'n grinder Jessica Alba. Jamie Chung substitutes wonderfully for Devon Aoki with some great and let it be said brilliantly gory martial arts. The blood here seems almost aesthetic when it splashes bright white rather than crimson. There is even a blink and you might miss it cameo from Lady Gaga. I'm puzzled why the movie has so many detractors. Maybe what was considered ground-breaking once has lost its charm in the intervening years, but I think co-directors Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez have given us another movie to savour.
I promise to return to the other FrightFest reviews next week.
Then there were the eleven -- yes eleven -- FrightFest films that we selected last weekend. This does indeed represent a conscious weaning on our part, since we would have felt obliged to watch most of the twenty-six films featured in the main programme (or alternates on the Discovery Screen) had we bought the weekend pass -- and frankly eleven were nearly too many. By and large I liked most of them, although there were a couple of iffy ones, but what struck me most of all was how unfrightening the majority were -- there was more in the way of fantasy than frights. There was very little in the way of gore (and we all know how much pppatty likes her gore).
For tradition's sake I will write a bit about each of them over the coming weeks -- but not today. Instead, I want to touch briefly on a terrestrial TV premiere which I watched the day after FrightFest and which I thought was not only better made but also more scary and gripping in part than any of the Fest's offerings. The film is "Red Lights" (2012) and while comments on IMDb verge on the 'big swizz' end of the spectrum, I thought it was pretty super. Sigourney Weaver plays a respected ghost debunker, showing up false mediums and psychics over a 30-year career; her protégé is Cillian Murphy who in turn is mentoring Elizabeth Olsen. They have a fine old time exposing the frauds who are making money off the gullible, but Weaver is wary of having another go at Robert DeNiro's Simon Silver, who is making a comeback from retirement after another sceptic unexpectedly died while investigating him. Weaver doesn't want to know as Silver was able to rattle her in the past, but Murphy is crazy keen to have a go. Then Weaver drops dead! She was so good in the role that the heart could have fallen out of the film, but the intense Murphy manages to keep us watching. And I for one was totally unprepared for the big reveal....
The last of the day's reviews will be "Sin City 2 - A Dame to Kill For" which was actually included in the FrightFest programme, but which we didn't watch there since we knew it was about to be released broadly. So back to the cinema we went! Somewhere in my old reviews I wrote about the first film back in 2005 (and I am too lazy to search out the url) but my recollection is that I really, really liked it. And guess what, I liked the sequel as well. Now to be honest it has been receiving some pretty dismissive reviews and far be it from me to claim that it is a great movie; but it is an absolutely superb visual experience -- and for once even the 3D effects were more than gratuitous. OK maybe the dialogue is pretty poor (what do you expect from a graphic novel adaptation?) and the characters may be pulp stereotypes, but that is all part of its modus vivendi and all part of what makes the film fun viewing.
Eva Green gives a fearless and largely nude performance as the femme fatale of the title and newcomers Josh Brolin and Joseph Gordon-Levitt give substance to two of the three intertwining stories. Powers Booth makes a dastardly villain and it's a welcome return for the unrecognizable Mickey Rourke, a ghostly Bruce Willis, and bump 'n grinder Jessica Alba. Jamie Chung substitutes wonderfully for Devon Aoki with some great and let it be said brilliantly gory martial arts. The blood here seems almost aesthetic when it splashes bright white rather than crimson. There is even a blink and you might miss it cameo from Lady Gaga. I'm puzzled why the movie has so many detractors. Maybe what was considered ground-breaking once has lost its charm in the intervening years, but I think co-directors Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez have given us another movie to savour.
I promise to return to the other FrightFest reviews next week.
Friday 8 August 2014
The Spooky Bunch (1980)
I really got suckered into buying tickets for this film. The BFI's programme guide described it as "virtually unclassifiable", a horror comedy with "kooky dances and gruesome murders", melding the traditions of Cantonese opera with contemporary sensibilities. Before booking I checked out some specialist reviews and they all seemed to agree that this was a fresh fusion of historical traditions and a charming modern approach by London-trained director Ann Hui in her sophomore outing. Well, folks, let me tell you that this was one of the worst Hong Kong movies I have ever seen -- and I've seen some pretty awful ones!
The gist of the tale is that a third-rate opera company is invited by a rich old man, Mr Ma, to perform on a remote island on the condition that the lead role is taken by bit-player Ah Chi (Josephine Siao -- a popular actress who appeared in local films from the age of seven and who continued in supporting roles for some years to come). He wants his nephew and only surviving relative Dick to marry her to remove a curse placed by her grandfather that has plagued the family for years. Dick, played by pop star du jour Kenny Bee, is something of a lothario and is not ready to make a match with the very childish Ah Chi. However, not only is she something of a dimwit, but she also has (to my western ears) no talent for Cantonese opera whatsoever. The caterwauling performance is all but unwatchable and seems to go on forever.
It seems that Grandpa Ah and Mr Ma were responsible in the distant past for poisoning a whole platoon of soldiers with some tainted drugs and they, together with a long dead femme fatale, want their revenge. The first indication of the presence of vengeful ghosts occurs when the lead opera hero is possessed by another screechy female, one Cat Shit (modestly translated in the subtitles as Cat Poo!). This Bowdlerism was about the only vaguely amusing feature of the excruciating 93 minutes. Unfortunately every time some promising comic action seems imminent, one of the characters drops down dead. In the end the local audience is replaced by the spirits of dead soldiers, until a local priest exorcises them, leaving Ah Chi and Dick to face a wonderful future together -- or not, since the 'kicker' is that one evil spirit still lurks in the body of a local child.
This movie was released the same year as Sammo Hung's "Encounters of a Spooky Kind" which began the trend in Hong Kong for a whole run of supernatural, highly amusing, and beautifully realised ghost stories. I was conned into thinking that the above film would be equally entertaining, but wrong, wrong, wrong.
This may be my last blog until late August, despite the fact that I will be seeing "Guardians of the Galaxy" early next week and would normally write about it. I shall be away for a while, visiting family, and when I get back its the annual FrightFest blow-out over the Bank Holiday weekend. I know I wrote that last year's marathon would be our last and indeed we did NOT buy the weekend pass this year. As a compromise to our gradual weaning, we have chosen tickets for a selection of the films being showcased -- no early starts, no late evenings -- and we are hoping for the best. No doubt a full report will follow...
The gist of the tale is that a third-rate opera company is invited by a rich old man, Mr Ma, to perform on a remote island on the condition that the lead role is taken by bit-player Ah Chi (Josephine Siao -- a popular actress who appeared in local films from the age of seven and who continued in supporting roles for some years to come). He wants his nephew and only surviving relative Dick to marry her to remove a curse placed by her grandfather that has plagued the family for years. Dick, played by pop star du jour Kenny Bee, is something of a lothario and is not ready to make a match with the very childish Ah Chi. However, not only is she something of a dimwit, but she also has (to my western ears) no talent for Cantonese opera whatsoever. The caterwauling performance is all but unwatchable and seems to go on forever.
It seems that Grandpa Ah and Mr Ma were responsible in the distant past for poisoning a whole platoon of soldiers with some tainted drugs and they, together with a long dead femme fatale, want their revenge. The first indication of the presence of vengeful ghosts occurs when the lead opera hero is possessed by another screechy female, one Cat Shit (modestly translated in the subtitles as Cat Poo!). This Bowdlerism was about the only vaguely amusing feature of the excruciating 93 minutes. Unfortunately every time some promising comic action seems imminent, one of the characters drops down dead. In the end the local audience is replaced by the spirits of dead soldiers, until a local priest exorcises them, leaving Ah Chi and Dick to face a wonderful future together -- or not, since the 'kicker' is that one evil spirit still lurks in the body of a local child.
This movie was released the same year as Sammo Hung's "Encounters of a Spooky Kind" which began the trend in Hong Kong for a whole run of supernatural, highly amusing, and beautifully realised ghost stories. I was conned into thinking that the above film would be equally entertaining, but wrong, wrong, wrong.
This may be my last blog until late August, despite the fact that I will be seeing "Guardians of the Galaxy" early next week and would normally write about it. I shall be away for a while, visiting family, and when I get back its the annual FrightFest blow-out over the Bank Holiday weekend. I know I wrote that last year's marathon would be our last and indeed we did NOT buy the weekend pass this year. As a compromise to our gradual weaning, we have chosen tickets for a selection of the films being showcased -- no early starts, no late evenings -- and we are hoping for the best. No doubt a full report will follow...
Friday 1 August 2014
Friends with Kids (2011)
Before I get too involved with my reactions to the above trifle, I must report that I have finally got hold of a DVD of "The Dybbuk" (1937) -- stuck in my memory from a viewing many moons ago. It's an important work insofar as it is one of very few surviving Yiddish films made in pre-war Poland. It's more a musical than a drama with a heavy emphasis on liturgical and folk music, and not overly interesting cinematically. The tale of star-crossed lovers unknowingly betrothed before their births, can only end in tragedy. He woos Satan to win her, and dies for his sins; she willingly accepts his departed soul into her body (the dybbuk of the title). All the rabbinical tribunals in the world can not separate these two. My copy, produced by the Bel Canto Society of New York was a little sparing with the subtitles, but it's an easy story to follow albeit rather strange, different, and, yes, memorable.
Getting back to the film above, I actually sort of enjoyed it while watching it. It was only afterwards when I began to think about it, that I decided that I'd had the wool pulled over my eyes and that it was probably a load of rubbish. Written, directed, and starring Jennifer Westfeldt, in retrospect I feel that the movie was a vanity piece of the first water. She plays Julie, a high-flying career gal pushing forty who fancies motherhood, but not marriage. She's seen how having kids has wrecked the lifestyles of her two best friends, to say nothing of their marriages, and decides that having a wanted child outside of wedlock is the obvious answer. Her best (platonic) mate Jason played by Adam Scott (not an actor I know but pretty likeable) also fancies having a kiddie and obligingly impregnates her. They decide that they will share the expenses and the nurturing of their son Cole and that they will be able to remain good mates, since of course they don't fancy each other. Ha, ha, ha.
So there you have the bare Hollywood bones for what any idiot can predict will be the movie's denouement. However, the dialogue is generally smart and the other two couples -- hot off the success of "Bridesmaids" are Maya Rudolph and Chris O'Dowd, Kristen Wiig and Jon Hamm. These charmers, combined with would-be new paramours for Julie and Jason played by Edward Burns and sexpot Megan Fox keep the film starry and pretty watchable, as long as one doesn't look too closely at the many clichés sprinkled along the way. I understand that Westfeldt has been in a relationship with 'Mad-Man' Hamm since the late 90s and no doubt he helped secure the attractive cast.
The film starts off well, but becomes more and more predictable, and it is hardly the feminist tract that some would suggest. Unfortunately, Westfeldt devotes far too much screen time to her appearance and her chatter, and uncharitably one becomes only too aware that her rather frozen face is the result of an overabundance of botox and/or surgery. Ironically, the money men decided to feature the popular Wiig (who actually looks more attractive than usual here) on the film's promotional poster, rather than she. More known for her stage and television work, Westfeldt does possess a quirky talent which first came to the fore in her script for "Kissing Jessica Stein" back in 2001. As an actress, she was fine in that movie, but I can't help but wish that she'd given the lead role in this film to another actress, one not quite so full of herself and her 'charm'.
Getting back to the film above, I actually sort of enjoyed it while watching it. It was only afterwards when I began to think about it, that I decided that I'd had the wool pulled over my eyes and that it was probably a load of rubbish. Written, directed, and starring Jennifer Westfeldt, in retrospect I feel that the movie was a vanity piece of the first water. She plays Julie, a high-flying career gal pushing forty who fancies motherhood, but not marriage. She's seen how having kids has wrecked the lifestyles of her two best friends, to say nothing of their marriages, and decides that having a wanted child outside of wedlock is the obvious answer. Her best (platonic) mate Jason played by Adam Scott (not an actor I know but pretty likeable) also fancies having a kiddie and obligingly impregnates her. They decide that they will share the expenses and the nurturing of their son Cole and that they will be able to remain good mates, since of course they don't fancy each other. Ha, ha, ha.
So there you have the bare Hollywood bones for what any idiot can predict will be the movie's denouement. However, the dialogue is generally smart and the other two couples -- hot off the success of "Bridesmaids" are Maya Rudolph and Chris O'Dowd, Kristen Wiig and Jon Hamm. These charmers, combined with would-be new paramours for Julie and Jason played by Edward Burns and sexpot Megan Fox keep the film starry and pretty watchable, as long as one doesn't look too closely at the many clichés sprinkled along the way. I understand that Westfeldt has been in a relationship with 'Mad-Man' Hamm since the late 90s and no doubt he helped secure the attractive cast.
The film starts off well, but becomes more and more predictable, and it is hardly the feminist tract that some would suggest. Unfortunately, Westfeldt devotes far too much screen time to her appearance and her chatter, and uncharitably one becomes only too aware that her rather frozen face is the result of an overabundance of botox and/or surgery. Ironically, the money men decided to feature the popular Wiig (who actually looks more attractive than usual here) on the film's promotional poster, rather than she. More known for her stage and television work, Westfeldt does possess a quirky talent which first came to the fore in her script for "Kissing Jessica Stein" back in 2001. As an actress, she was fine in that movie, but I can't help but wish that she'd given the lead role in this film to another actress, one not quite so full of herself and her 'charm'.
Friday 25 July 2014
Blue Jasmine (2013)
If you suspect that I am about to give this Woody Allen film a rave review, you couldn't be more wrong. I have, over the years, written about how much I usually enjoy his movies, even when he is going through one of his frequent unfashionable periods. I admit that there have been one or two films in the last maybe twenty years that have proved the exception to the rule, but Allen can usually be relied upon to furnish a good time (at least for me).
Had I not been incapacitated last autumn when this movie was released, you can bet that I would have been off to the cinema to see it at the earliest opportunity -- but that was not to be. Subsequently the film has been so hyped, especially for Cate Blanchett's Oscar-winning lead, that I was hoping for something really special when I finally caught up with it this week. There is no denying that she gives a barn-storming performance as the psychologically fragile spoiled wife who is forced to come down in the world when her husband (Alec Baldwin) is arrested for financial fraud. As others have pointed out, the movie is a case of 'Woody does Streetcar Named Desire', as Blanchett's Jasmine (nee Jeanette) moves from her high-flown New York life-style to her non-biological sister's seedy San Francisco apartment. Sister Ginger is played gormlessly by Sally Hawkins -- an actress who usually manages to irritate me -- and her new boyfriend is the abrasive Bobby Cannavale. Ginger's ex (they both lost all of a lottery win care of Baldwin's devious tactics) is played, surprisingly straight, by ex-potty mouth comedian Andrew Dice Clay.
Allen adopts a flash-forward, flash-back structure to contrast Jasmine's previously spoiled life style with her penniless current position, but this becomes a little disconcerting after a while, since it is abundantly clear from the moment her first-class (!) flight lands in San Francisco, that we are dealing with a damaged, erratic, and irrational personality, one who is unable to adapt to the realities of her new life. We get the message, without the unnecessary rubbing in, that her way of life in the good old days in New York was supremely shallow and materialistic. She nourishes pipedreams about her potential future as a stylish interior decorator or fashion designer, without any firm game-plan or the necessary finance to achieve these goals. She thinks she has struck the mother-lode when she meets wealthy Peter Sarsgaard, who harbours political ambitions and who is looking for a trophy wife (which she appears on the surface); however the shallowness of his supposed 'love' is evident when he becomes aware of the many lies she has proffered to protect her false image. and drops her like the proverbial hot potato.
Hawkins, meanwhile, always subservient to Jasmine has been convinced to try to 'better' her prospects and starts an affair with a married liar, before realising that Cannavale is the 'one'. In the end, Jasmine packs up her designer suitcases and leaves for an uncertain future. There is no implied resolution to her problems -- in fact there is no ending whatsoever. The film just stops. The irony of course is that Jasmine is the author of her own sad situation, since it was she who shopped Baldwin to the FBI in a fit of pique over his infidelities, despite always claiming that she knew absolutely nothing at all about his business activities.
The problem with this film is, that despite Blanchett's bravura performance, there are no likeable characters, not even the hint of a Woody chuckle, and a drama that is both downbeat and depressing. This is not the kind of good time that I count on Allen to provide.
Had I not been incapacitated last autumn when this movie was released, you can bet that I would have been off to the cinema to see it at the earliest opportunity -- but that was not to be. Subsequently the film has been so hyped, especially for Cate Blanchett's Oscar-winning lead, that I was hoping for something really special when I finally caught up with it this week. There is no denying that she gives a barn-storming performance as the psychologically fragile spoiled wife who is forced to come down in the world when her husband (Alec Baldwin) is arrested for financial fraud. As others have pointed out, the movie is a case of 'Woody does Streetcar Named Desire', as Blanchett's Jasmine (nee Jeanette) moves from her high-flown New York life-style to her non-biological sister's seedy San Francisco apartment. Sister Ginger is played gormlessly by Sally Hawkins -- an actress who usually manages to irritate me -- and her new boyfriend is the abrasive Bobby Cannavale. Ginger's ex (they both lost all of a lottery win care of Baldwin's devious tactics) is played, surprisingly straight, by ex-potty mouth comedian Andrew Dice Clay.
Allen adopts a flash-forward, flash-back structure to contrast Jasmine's previously spoiled life style with her penniless current position, but this becomes a little disconcerting after a while, since it is abundantly clear from the moment her first-class (!) flight lands in San Francisco, that we are dealing with a damaged, erratic, and irrational personality, one who is unable to adapt to the realities of her new life. We get the message, without the unnecessary rubbing in, that her way of life in the good old days in New York was supremely shallow and materialistic. She nourishes pipedreams about her potential future as a stylish interior decorator or fashion designer, without any firm game-plan or the necessary finance to achieve these goals. She thinks she has struck the mother-lode when she meets wealthy Peter Sarsgaard, who harbours political ambitions and who is looking for a trophy wife (which she appears on the surface); however the shallowness of his supposed 'love' is evident when he becomes aware of the many lies she has proffered to protect her false image. and drops her like the proverbial hot potato.
Hawkins, meanwhile, always subservient to Jasmine has been convinced to try to 'better' her prospects and starts an affair with a married liar, before realising that Cannavale is the 'one'. In the end, Jasmine packs up her designer suitcases and leaves for an uncertain future. There is no implied resolution to her problems -- in fact there is no ending whatsoever. The film just stops. The irony of course is that Jasmine is the author of her own sad situation, since it was she who shopped Baldwin to the FBI in a fit of pique over his infidelities, despite always claiming that she knew absolutely nothing at all about his business activities.
The problem with this film is, that despite Blanchett's bravura performance, there are no likeable characters, not even the hint of a Woody chuckle, and a drama that is both downbeat and depressing. This is not the kind of good time that I count on Allen to provide.
Friday 18 July 2014
The Sadist (1963)
A few weeks back I wrote about the book "Bad Movies We Love" which made me to watch films which I might otherwise have ignored. Another book which has encouraged me to seek out oddities is the beautifully named "Slimetime" which sells itself as 'a guide to sleazy, mindless, movie entertainment'. It started life as a 27-issue fanzine in the late '80s by its author Steven Puchalski, a self-confessed lover of bizarre and generally unheralded flicks, and his lovingly researched movies were collected into book form in 1996.
It would be both wrong and unfair to lump all of his collected films as B-movies or Trash , since a number of them are true genre classics and cult favourites, such as "El Topo" "White of the Eye", "Wings of Desire", "The Abominable Dr Phibes", and many more. However the collection also includes some pretty dire bottom-of-the-barrel titles that you would never want to see more than once (if at all), and I must admit to having sat through most of these. However some of his choices were unfamiliar to me, piquing my curiosity and earning a place on my fabled 'must see' list. The above title was one of these.
Anyone who knows anything about the provenance of this movie -- to say nothing about its exploitation title -- would approach it with doubts and caution, but come away completely convinced that it is something of a near-classic. Inspired by the success of Hitchcock's "Psycho", the hack actor/producer/director Arch Hall Sr, continued his hopeless attempt to make a film-star of his supremely untalented son, Arch Hall Jr. Junior was thrust into the limelight originally in Dad's 'masterpiece' "Eegah!", where he and his girlfriend discover a caveman who has managed to survive all these years in California living in his cardboard cave. (As one interesting footnote to movie history, the giant barbarian was played by Richard Kiel, latterly Jaws in the Bond movies). Junior also had the opportunity to display his non-existent vocal talents in this film and his next "Wild Guitar". Do yourself a favour and don't try to find this pair of time-wasters.
It is therefore amazing what novice director James Landis has managed to achieve here. The 90-minute film is set in real time and concerns three school-teachers en route to Los Angeles to watch a baseball game when their car breaks down. They pull into an apparently unattended wrecking yard to attempt repairs, puzzled by the unfinished plates of warm pie in the office. Suddenly they are set upon by lumbering. simpering hulk Hall Jr, one of cinema's all-time unredeemable pyscho-killers. Inspired again by the true story of Charlie Starkweather and his teen-aged girlfriend, whose killing spree was immortalised in "Badlands", Hall plays one Charlie Tibbs on the run after his own mini-reign of terror. He is accompanied by his very childish, giggling girlfriend, played by his previous co-star Marilyn Manning, who has no dialogue but who spends most of the film wrapped around him, whispering sweet nothings in his ear, and encouraging his excesses.
The three teachers are older, bespectacled bloke Don Russell (quickly tortured and killed), would-be action hero Richard Alden (the only one of the cast with any sort of subsequent film career), and the uptight but dishy female lead, Helen Hovey, who Hall enjoys pushing around and casually molesting. She is in fact the heroine of the movie (spoiler: the only survivor) and does a reasonable job. Pity she never made another picture -- I gather she was a Hall cousin roped into the enterprise. With its single set and minimal plot it is staggering that the suspense successfully builds. No relief appears when two motorcycle cops stop by for some cold cokes from the fridge (apparently played by off-duty policemen with their own machines); Hall blithely mows them down to the 'music' of the police radio in the background telling them to be on the look-out for the fugitives. One just doesn't know when the next bit of random violence will raise its head, right through the scary and horrifying final scenes -- guaranteed to provide nightmares for days to come!
The film also benefits from its magnificent photography, the first American job of work for Hungarian refugee Vilmos Zsigmond, subsequently one of the most lauded cinematographers of the 20th Century. He successfully captures the heat, agony, and hopelessness in this wasteland of wrecked cars. Despite itself, the film is something very special.
It would be both wrong and unfair to lump all of his collected films as B-movies or Trash , since a number of them are true genre classics and cult favourites, such as "El Topo" "White of the Eye", "Wings of Desire", "The Abominable Dr Phibes", and many more. However the collection also includes some pretty dire bottom-of-the-barrel titles that you would never want to see more than once (if at all), and I must admit to having sat through most of these. However some of his choices were unfamiliar to me, piquing my curiosity and earning a place on my fabled 'must see' list. The above title was one of these.
Anyone who knows anything about the provenance of this movie -- to say nothing about its exploitation title -- would approach it with doubts and caution, but come away completely convinced that it is something of a near-classic. Inspired by the success of Hitchcock's "Psycho", the hack actor/producer/director Arch Hall Sr, continued his hopeless attempt to make a film-star of his supremely untalented son, Arch Hall Jr. Junior was thrust into the limelight originally in Dad's 'masterpiece' "Eegah!", where he and his girlfriend discover a caveman who has managed to survive all these years in California living in his cardboard cave. (As one interesting footnote to movie history, the giant barbarian was played by Richard Kiel, latterly Jaws in the Bond movies). Junior also had the opportunity to display his non-existent vocal talents in this film and his next "Wild Guitar". Do yourself a favour and don't try to find this pair of time-wasters.
It is therefore amazing what novice director James Landis has managed to achieve here. The 90-minute film is set in real time and concerns three school-teachers en route to Los Angeles to watch a baseball game when their car breaks down. They pull into an apparently unattended wrecking yard to attempt repairs, puzzled by the unfinished plates of warm pie in the office. Suddenly they are set upon by lumbering. simpering hulk Hall Jr, one of cinema's all-time unredeemable pyscho-killers. Inspired again by the true story of Charlie Starkweather and his teen-aged girlfriend, whose killing spree was immortalised in "Badlands", Hall plays one Charlie Tibbs on the run after his own mini-reign of terror. He is accompanied by his very childish, giggling girlfriend, played by his previous co-star Marilyn Manning, who has no dialogue but who spends most of the film wrapped around him, whispering sweet nothings in his ear, and encouraging his excesses.
The three teachers are older, bespectacled bloke Don Russell (quickly tortured and killed), would-be action hero Richard Alden (the only one of the cast with any sort of subsequent film career), and the uptight but dishy female lead, Helen Hovey, who Hall enjoys pushing around and casually molesting. She is in fact the heroine of the movie (spoiler: the only survivor) and does a reasonable job. Pity she never made another picture -- I gather she was a Hall cousin roped into the enterprise. With its single set and minimal plot it is staggering that the suspense successfully builds. No relief appears when two motorcycle cops stop by for some cold cokes from the fridge (apparently played by off-duty policemen with their own machines); Hall blithely mows them down to the 'music' of the police radio in the background telling them to be on the look-out for the fugitives. One just doesn't know when the next bit of random violence will raise its head, right through the scary and horrifying final scenes -- guaranteed to provide nightmares for days to come!
The film also benefits from its magnificent photography, the first American job of work for Hungarian refugee Vilmos Zsigmond, subsequently one of the most lauded cinematographers of the 20th Century. He successfully captures the heat, agony, and hopelessness in this wasteland of wrecked cars. Despite itself, the film is something very special.
Friday 11 July 2014
A Disappointment and a Surprise
I'm afraid it's been another one of those weeks where my film-viewing has been largely uninvolving, especially when you think that I sat through two longish documentaries on cycling-cheat Lance Armstrong. Ours is a keen cycle-race household -- well really Michael far more than me, so the two movies aired to coincide with the start of the Tour de France were required viewing for us. However one would have been more than enough, since although we are probably more familiar than most with the cast of characters and the historic footage, the two films were overwhelmingly repetitive. Armstrong does comes across in the end as the nasty do-anything-to win villain that we always suspected was lurking there under the surface, rather than the holier-than-thou cancer-survivor-becomes-Superman image he sought.
Anyhow back to the two films headlined above. From this week's selection of Sky premieres, we first watched the so called pick of the bunch "We're the Millers" which was a box-office hit -- and then, somewhat reluctantly, "Sunshine on Leith", a Scottish 'musical' which sounded potentially dire. The 'Millers' movie should have been cast-iron entertainment, especially since Jennifer Aniston films are usually guaranteed hits because of the goodwill the actress manages to retain. In this one she plays a stripper (woo-hoo! and is given the opportunity to display her well-toned 44-year old body), who needs money, and is recruited by her drug-dealing neighbour, Jason Sudeikis, to pose as his wife. The idea is to play 'Happy Families' for the border guards as they attempt to bring back a huge stash of drugs from Mexico -- something Sudeikis has agreed to do for local drug kingpin Ed Helms to get himself out of a financial hole. For the balance of the family group Sudeikis recruits another neighbour, dorky teenager Will Poulter (the British lad is having a surprisingly buoyant career in American flicks) and street-punk Emma Roberts.
This mismatched bunch set off on their naughty adventure and are forced to deal with nasty Mexican villains, a double-crossing Helms, and another RV-travelling family comprised of a jaded treasury agent, his uptight teenaged daughter, and his horny wife. Take it from me, very little in the way of jolly japes ensue. But of course our four main protagonists, despite their obvious differences, do end up as the happy family they have been pretending to be. Overall one big disappointment.
As for 'Sunshine', a low-budget movie from sophomore director Dexter Fletcher (better known here as an actor), this really turned out to be the proverbial ray of sunshine. Based on a 2007 stage production by a local Scottish repertory company and featuring the music of The Proclaimers (a pop-folk groups headed by the twin brothers Reid), the story concerns a pair of soldiers/friends returning to Edinburgh after a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Davy and Ally are played by George MacKay and Kevin Guthrie, both totally unknown to me as was most of the remaining cast. The only 'big' names are Jane Horrocks and Peter Mullen, playing one set of parents, and it is just as well that there was a subtitle option since I never can understand a word that Mullen says and could well have had the same problem with the rest of the performers.
Anyhow we follow the lads as they attempt to adjust to civilian life, physically unscarred by their military duty unlike their badly-disabled buddy in the local rehab unit. They look for work and love, all of this punctuated with The Proclaimers' catchy tunes. I confess I knew nothing of their music prior to watching this film, but it is joyful and infectious -- and the group's hits such as 'Let's Get Married', 'Letter from America', and 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' are slotted into the action without too much contrivance. Unlike recent big budget musicals like the over-hyped "Les Mis" and the over-the-top "Mamma Mia", this film is small, unbloated, and nearly perfectly formed. The final scene at the rail station is reminiscent of the happy conclusion to "Slumdog Millionaire", but writ large with what seems to be half the population of Edinburgh in attendance singing. Even if true love doesn't work out for one of the pair, it's a really feel-good movie.
Anyhow back to the two films headlined above. From this week's selection of Sky premieres, we first watched the so called pick of the bunch "We're the Millers" which was a box-office hit -- and then, somewhat reluctantly, "Sunshine on Leith", a Scottish 'musical' which sounded potentially dire. The 'Millers' movie should have been cast-iron entertainment, especially since Jennifer Aniston films are usually guaranteed hits because of the goodwill the actress manages to retain. In this one she plays a stripper (woo-hoo! and is given the opportunity to display her well-toned 44-year old body), who needs money, and is recruited by her drug-dealing neighbour, Jason Sudeikis, to pose as his wife. The idea is to play 'Happy Families' for the border guards as they attempt to bring back a huge stash of drugs from Mexico -- something Sudeikis has agreed to do for local drug kingpin Ed Helms to get himself out of a financial hole. For the balance of the family group Sudeikis recruits another neighbour, dorky teenager Will Poulter (the British lad is having a surprisingly buoyant career in American flicks) and street-punk Emma Roberts.
This mismatched bunch set off on their naughty adventure and are forced to deal with nasty Mexican villains, a double-crossing Helms, and another RV-travelling family comprised of a jaded treasury agent, his uptight teenaged daughter, and his horny wife. Take it from me, very little in the way of jolly japes ensue. But of course our four main protagonists, despite their obvious differences, do end up as the happy family they have been pretending to be. Overall one big disappointment.
As for 'Sunshine', a low-budget movie from sophomore director Dexter Fletcher (better known here as an actor), this really turned out to be the proverbial ray of sunshine. Based on a 2007 stage production by a local Scottish repertory company and featuring the music of The Proclaimers (a pop-folk groups headed by the twin brothers Reid), the story concerns a pair of soldiers/friends returning to Edinburgh after a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Davy and Ally are played by George MacKay and Kevin Guthrie, both totally unknown to me as was most of the remaining cast. The only 'big' names are Jane Horrocks and Peter Mullen, playing one set of parents, and it is just as well that there was a subtitle option since I never can understand a word that Mullen says and could well have had the same problem with the rest of the performers.
Anyhow we follow the lads as they attempt to adjust to civilian life, physically unscarred by their military duty unlike their badly-disabled buddy in the local rehab unit. They look for work and love, all of this punctuated with The Proclaimers' catchy tunes. I confess I knew nothing of their music prior to watching this film, but it is joyful and infectious -- and the group's hits such as 'Let's Get Married', 'Letter from America', and 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' are slotted into the action without too much contrivance. Unlike recent big budget musicals like the over-hyped "Les Mis" and the over-the-top "Mamma Mia", this film is small, unbloated, and nearly perfectly formed. The final scene at the rail station is reminiscent of the happy conclusion to "Slumdog Millionaire", but writ large with what seems to be half the population of Edinburgh in attendance singing. Even if true love doesn't work out for one of the pair, it's a really feel-good movie.
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