U2 & Max Headroom
A ‘postmodern classic?’ Hmmm……the consensus seems to veer from vomit sounds to kill these holier than though two bit hucksters who are standing on the soldiers of giants by ‘making’ this video.
I must concur. It might help if the song was actually any good, and this is from a lapsed U2 fan. It has resurrected the whole negativeland controversy from the early 1990′s which makes them look foolish rather than evil, as per the recent tax evasion allegations. I am a huge Zoo TV era fan, but that was over ten years ago. Fuck me, that’s scary…..
Speaking of Zoo TV and ‘amazing’ early 90′s technology fetishism, lets travel back – Infinitely more interesting is this incedible hack, back in the infancy of the culture we consider cyber – I must must have been barely 14 and Max Headroom film/video was the fuuttuurree. Kudos to do a hack during a US transmission of Dr. Who – never my personnel idiom, but well timed.
Flotsam & Jetsam III
I was pleased to receive this in the post this week, a unexpected gift from a fellow cultist. Perfect timing, as I’ve just finished my first ‘worthy’ novel of the year, ‘Great Expectations‘. It was pretty good, and curiously it seems that the film has is about to receive a re-release – spooky.
Here are some photos I’ve taken around the big smoke during my travels. I can’t remember the last time it snowed. The last two are from a meeting I attended at Ken Livingstone’s house, or the GLA Building as it’s more commonly known. It’s quite rare I get up to town for work related activities these days so this made a nice change from the routine of Twickenham.
Some terrific unanswered questions here, great stuff. Vaguely related, this weekend’s homework is to review this site, and to write me a 2000 word essay on exactly what will happen when they turn on the Large Hadron Collider. I’ve played too many FPS’s and seen too many bad horror films not to be worried.
I’ve finally got my hands on a film by Kurosawa. No, not that one, this unrelated chap who has been described as the Japanese Kubrick. I shall report back.
Given this, this is quite brilliant, the guy is being feted as hero amongst the financial intelligentsia. Some linking around lead me to this story from The Guardian: ‘After being charged £20 for a £10 overdraft, 30 year old Michael Howard of Leeds changed his name by deed poll to Yorkshire Bank PLC Are Fascist Bastards. The bank has now asked him to close his account, and Mr. Bastards has asked them to repay the 69p balance, by cheque, made out in his new name.’
Good interview with David Lynch, where he explains the reasons for his switch to Digital Video – it allows more space in the frame to dream, apparently. I’ve decided I’m going to go down to the NFT next month and see if there have been any ticket returns as they re-sell them 15 minutes before the performance. Wish me luck.
As our resolutions crack and disintegrate, let us remember that when we get back on the sauce there are critical rules of etiquette to be observed. I also give you the greatest drinker in history. Sixteen bottles of wine in four hours. A $40,000 bar bill for a month long stay at Park Hyatt, London – that’s $1290 a day. 119 Beers. IN SIX HOURS. Sir, I salute you (hic…)
Oscars 2007
Well, no major surprises here, except perhaps the nomination of Greengrass as best director. You won’t be surprised to hear that I’m not an advocate of the theory that an Oscar win denotes quality, as any guild who votes for ‘Dances with Wolves‘ over ‘Goodfellas‘, or ‘Rocky‘ instead of ‘All The President’s Men’ or ‘Network’, or even ‘Going my Way‘ instead of ‘Double Indemnity‘ need their stupid heads examined.
Still, anyway the Oscars can be fun, so let’s play a little game. Here are the nominations in full, I have bolded the ones I’ve seen, italicised the ones I think should win, and underlined those that I think will win. I did the same thing for the Bafta’s last year on the back of a competition that my flatmate was involved with at work (he works for 20th Century Fox). My suggestions won which proves I know more than the champagne swilling film executives of Soho. I rule. Winner gets the kudos and praise of his peers, losers the eternal shame and damnation of failure.
Since some of the movies haven’t reached our shores yet there is of course an element of guesswork, we can’t establish the quality of ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ for example, but you can I think be sure of some things on political grounds – This will be another face off between Scorsese and Eastwood I reckon, and this time Scorsese will win. Just watch me eat my words on February 26th…..
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Leonardo DiCaprio in “Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.)
Ryan Gosling in “Half Nelson” (THINKFilm)
Peter O’Toole in “Venus” (Miramax, Filmfour and UK Council)
Will Smith in “The Pursuit of Happyness” (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Forest Whitaker in “The Last King of Scotland” (Fox Searchlight)
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Alan Arkin in “Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)
Jackie Earle Haley in “Little Children” (New Line)
Djimon Hounsou in “Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.)
Eddie Murphy in “Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount)
Mark Wahlberg in “The Departed” (Warner Bros.)
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Penélope Cruz in “Volver” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Judi Dench in “Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight)
Helen Mirren in “The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)
Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada” (20th Century Fox)
Kate Winslet in “Little Child” (New Line)
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Adriana Barraza in “Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
Cate Blanchett in “Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight)
Abigail Breslin in “Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)
Jennifer Hudson in “Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount)
Rinko Kikuchi in “Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
Best animated feature film of the year
“Cars” (Buena Vista) John Lasseter
“Happy Feet” (Warner Bros.) George Miller
“Monster House” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Gil Kenan
Achievement in art direction
“Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount)
Art Direction: John Myhre
Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
“The Good Shepherd” (Universal)
Art Direction: Jeannine Oppewall
Set Decoration: Gretchen Rau and Leslie E. Rollins
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse)
Art Direction: Eugenio Caballero
Set Decoration: Pilar Revuelta
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (Buena Vista)
Art Direction: Rick Heinrichs
Set Decoration: Cheryl A. Carasik
“The Prestige” (Buena Vista)
Art Direction: Nathan Crowley
Set Decoration: Julie Ochipinti
Achievement in cinematography
“The Black Dahlia” (Universal) Vilmos Zsigmond
“Children of Men” (Universal) Emmanuel Lubezki
“The Illusionist” (Yari Film Group) Dick Pope
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse) Guillermo Navarro
“The Prestige” (Buena Vista) Wally Pfister
Achievement in costume design
“Curse of the Golden Flower” (Sony Pictures Classics) Yee Chung Man
“The Devil Wears Prada” (20th Century Fox) Patricia Field
“Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount) Sharen Davis
“Marie Antoinette” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Milena Canonero
“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada) Consolata Boyle
Achievement in directing
“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) Alejandro González Iñárritu
“The Departed” (Warner Bros.) Martin Scorsese
“Letters from Iwo Jima” (Warner Bros.) Clint Eastwood
“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada) Stephen Frears
“United 93” (Universal and StudioCanal) Paul Greengrass
Best documentary feature
“Deliver Us from Evil” (Lionsgate)
A Disarming Films Production
Amy Berg and Frank Donner
“An Inconvenient Truth” (Paramount Classics and Participant Productions)
A Lawrence Bender/Laurie David Production
Davis Guggenheim
“Iraq in Fragments” (Typecast Releasing)
A Typecast Pictures/Daylight Factory Production
James Longley and John Sinno
“Jesus Camp” (Magnolia Pictures)
A Loki Films Production
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
“My Country, My Country” (Zeitgeist Films)
A Praxis Films Production
Laura Poitras and Jocelyn Glatzer
Achievement in film editing
“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise
“Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.)
Steven Rosenblum
“Children of Men” (Universal)
Alex Rodríguez and Alfonso Cuarón
“The Departed” (Warner Bros.)
Thelma Schoonmaker
“United 93” (Universal and StudioCanal)
Clare Douglas, Christopher Rouse and Richard Pearson
Best foreign language film of the year
“After the Wedding” A Zentropa Entertainments 16 Production
Denmark
“Days of Glory (Indigènes)” A Tessalit Production
Algeria
“The Lives of Others” A Wiedemann & Berg Production
Germany
“Pan’s Labyrinth” A Tequila Gang/Esperanto Filmoj/Estudios Picasso Production
Mexico
“Water” A Hamilton-Mehta Production
Canada
Achievement in makeup
“Apocalypto” (Buena Vista) Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
“Click” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Kazuhiro Tsuji and Bill Corso
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse) David Marti and Montse Ribe
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) Gustavo Santaolalla
“The Good German” (Warner Bros.) Thomas Newman
“Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight) Philip Glass
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse) Javier Navarrete
“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada) Alexandre Desplat
Best motion picture of the year
“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
An Anonymous Content/Zeta Film/Central Films Production
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik and Steve Golin, Producers
“The Departed” (Warner Bros.)
A Warner Bros. Pictures Production
Nominees to be determined
“Letters from Iwo Jima” (Warner Bros.)
A DreamWorks Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures Production
Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg and Robert Lorenz, Producers
“Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)
A Big Beach/Bona Fide Production
Nominees to be determined
“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)
A Granada Production
Achievement in sound editing
“Apocalypto” (Buena Vista)
Sean McCormack and Kami Asgar
“Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.)
Lon Bender
“Flags of Our Fathers” (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by Paramount)
Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
“Letters from Iwo Jima” (Warner Bros.)
Alan Robert Murray
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (Buena Vista)
Christopher Boyes and George Watters II
Achievement in sound mixing
“Apocalypto” (Buena Vista)
Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Fernando Camara
“Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.)
Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer and Ivan Sharrock
“Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount)
Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer and Willie Burton
“Flags of Our Fathers” (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by Paramount)
John Reitz, Dave Campbell, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (Buena Vista)
Paul Massey, Christopher Boyes and Lee Orloff
Achievement in visual effects
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (Buena Vista)
John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and Allen Hall
“Poseidon” (Warner Bros.)
Boyd Shermis, Kim Libreri, Chaz Jarrett and John Frazier
“Superman Returns” (Warner Bros.)
Mark Stetson, Neil Corbould, Richard R. Hoover and Jon Thum
Adapted screenplay
“Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” (20th Century Fox)
Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Peter Baynham & Dan Mazer
Story by Sacha Baron Cohen & Peter Baynham & Anthony Hines & Todd Phillips
“Children of Men” (Universal)
Screenplay by Alfonso Cuarón & Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby
“The Departed” (Warner Bros.)
Screenplay by William Monahan
“Little Children” (New Line)
Screenplay by Todd Field & Tom Perrotta
“Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight)
Screenplay by Patrick Marber
Original screenplay
“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)
Written by Guillermo Arriaga
“Letters from Iwo Jima” (Warner Bros.)
Screenplay by Iris Yamashita
Story by Iris Yamashita & Paul Haggis
“Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)
Written by Michael Arndt
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse)
Written by Guillermo del Toro
“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)
Written by Peter Morgan
Babel & The Three Amigos
The Mexicans are here. Flavour of the month (well, the past year) has been the triumvirate of The Three Amigos, Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro, & Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. All three released critically acclaimed, moderate box office hit pictures last year, the last of which ‘Babel’ hit the UK last weekend.
Similar to his previous outing 21 Grams (which was one of my favourite films of 2003) Inarritu weaves a number of seemingly unconnected plots together – a recently bereaved American couple on sabbatical in the desert, two rural Moroccan child brothers and their fathers acquisition of a new rifle, a Mexican maid’s attempts to get to her son’s wedding across the border and for me the most satisfying thread, a deaf mute Japanese schoolgirls coming to terms with her burgeoning sexuality – wipe that smile of your face.
Cate Blanchett is as solid as ever, and Pitt proves that when presented with the right material he can actually be bearable. The rest of the cast are comprised of new faces (with the exception of Gael García Bernal who only pops up in half a dozen scenes) which ultimately make the tales more engaging – you’re never quite sure where these stories are heading, although the connections between the stories (bar one) are obvious to detect. Rinko Kikuchi has deservedly gained an Oscar nomination, more on these soon.
Some of the critical fraternity have accused the film of simplistic moralising and being riddled with implausible coincidences – ironic really since one assumes that the same critics in the US at least gave the support and eventually the best picture award to ‘Crash‘. I can see their point, but the fine line of a reasonable element of disbelief was maintained for me. I would however concur that the Mexican maid’s story careers off into absurd territory which damages the film as a whole. This whole thread could have been dropped without detriment but I suspect the author’s political convictions got the better of them – they wanted a stab at Fortress America which could really could have been tackled in a separate picture.
Nevertheless, the overall effect was still striking for me, perhaps since my last two cinema visits have been less than satisfactory. I grabbed a copy of ‘Children of Men‘ after the movie and was not disapointed – one of the best Sci-Fi movies of recent years, and probably one of the best UK Sci-Fi movies ever. This film captured in one frame of celluloid a more chillingly plausible and gripping nightmare vision of the UK (and the world) than every insipid minute of this farce.
Grrr….
Today, I am ANGRY. I am ANGRY that idiots like this have opportunites to publish their poisonous ideology. Colbert takes him down here. I am ANGRY that the whole UK Big Brother fiasco has infected some of the sites I frequent which I assumed were above such cultural dross (I’m aware of how snobbish and elitist that sounds but to paraphrase Bill ‘God’ Hicks ‘I don’t want to sound arrogant or bitter but I am, so that’s how it comes out’). Most of all though, I am EXCEPTIONALLY ANGRY with the NFT for not telling me that they have arranged a screening of ‘Inland Empire’ followed by an interview and Q&A with Lynch himself which has now SOLD OUT. Talk about adding insult to injury, they also rejected my application for tickets to next months premiere of the new Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright film ‘Hot Fuzz‘ which also had a Q&A session. What exactly do I pay my £35 a year subscription for?
On the flip side, tonights cinematic fix is sorted as I have this beauty to get through. I had a quick look at it last night and it is shaping up to be one of the best film documentaries I’ve seen. The extras are long solo interviews with some of the key players of the 70′s, including my personal fave Paul Schrader (who always has some excellent anecdotes) so that should keep me occupied. There also appears to be a reasonable choice of quality films at the flicks to pick from for the weekend as well, which is a rarity. Should I see this, this or this?
Smokin’ Aces
I hope you appreciate my commitment to my 2007 cinematic film a week resolution. For my second film of the year I’ve taken in another turkey.
This should be easy to cover in two sentences. Buddy ‘Aces’ Israel, a Sinatra type mob figure turns high level snitch and holes up in the penthouse suite of a high class hotel on the shores of Lake Tahou. A million dollar mob bounty ensues, with a parade of unusual assassins and law enforcement officals rushing to be the first to kill or claim the prize.
What a mess – this is all over the place. It’s another one of these ‘cool’ and ‘edgy’ crime films that have surfaced in the wake of Tarantino’s work, joining the mini genre of American violent films that lack a shard of invention, interest or investment in the characters. The alleged twist is telegraphed early on, and the blaze of gunfire and exploding squibs simply bores you rigid. Still, the upsides are that Affleck gets clipped about ten minutes in, and we are treated to a hilarious cameo from Arrested Development’s Jason Bateman as a decrepit lawyer – he is the only good element in this waste of time and money.
It’s a shame, after Carnahan’s blistering debut. This smacks of that ‘difficult’ second film syndrome, where more money and of course more interference from the studio leads to a real abortion. You can almost imagine the production meeting, overwhelmed with sharp suited, coke addled junior exective pouring scorn on the first rough cut and declaring, ‘you know, this picture needs more hookers. And swearing’.
One for you spidey fans, from a blog review site – ‘So I rented a DVD of the early 60′s crime TV show “The Naked City”, which is famous for being filmed on the streets of New York City. Well, in this one episode, there is a scene that takes place in front of a newstand and look what is clearly hanging from a wall in the background; Spiderman. But not just any Spiderman comic… it’s THE VERY FIRST APPEARANCE of Spiderman ever. Amazing Fantasy #15.’
From a smilar site, one for you narcotic psyconauts – a letter from the drugfather himself, from 1956 – over 50 god-damn years ago. In other news, better get your alibi sorted out Stokster.
They’re all out to get me….
My MKULTRA research deepens. That Gottlieb chap was quite a character eh? I think we’d have to resurrect Peter Lorre to play in him in any feature film. Actually, come to think of it there’s a great conspiracy film here that would go down well with todays jaded, government distrusting beanie clothed paranoiacs. I like the idea of a parallel inner space race being conducted along with the outer space race – but of course we all know that Apollo 11 was filmed on a soundstage in the Arizona desert by Kubrick don’t we? In fact, Kubrick knew a lot about these conspiracies.
Psst – Just so I’m clear, the last two links are of course a joke- it amuses me to delve around the darkest recesses of the web, exposing some of these ludicrous allegations– for example the following quote from a video on Youtube still makes me chuckle ‘If you view the movie EYES WIDE SHUT when he returns home from the “party” and finds the mask on his bed…his wife describes an assault on her mind using radio frequency radiation weapons to attack her psyche. The director paid with his life…Stanley Kubrick died immediately after release.’ He died just before release you IDIOT. And it was clearly a telepathic drone attack, sheesh some people just don’t know how to research…
On a related note, I missed this dude’s birthday as I was ripped off my t*ts on a double drop of some mean black microdots. Still, he’s made it 101. That’s quite a life. So who would play Hoffman or Gottileb in our movie then?
Films to see in 2007
Well, 2007 is shaping up to be quite a bumper year for intriguing new releases – some long awaited projects finally get released, and we’ll see if those film makers who have badly departed from the route marked ‘quality’ can steer back their critical careers back to success.
Inland Empire
I’m scared. French release trailer here. This is probably the film I’m most looking forward to in 2007. It’s had some warm and cold reviews, but the prospect of three hours of Lynch experimenting with digitial video and revisiting ground outlined in ‘Mullholland’ Drive is mouthwatering. Let’s just hope it’s not hopelessly incoherent.
There Will Be Blood
A new P.T. Anderson project – it’s been too long since ‘Punch Drunk Love’. All I’ve heard is that it’s a period piece (which is itself a departure for PTA) set in turn of the century rural America, with Daniel Day Lewis who turns in another memorable performance. It sounds like a re-make of the Jimmy Deans last picture, as it also centres around the fledgling oil dometic oil industry. I wonder if we will see PTA’s political stripes as this is obviously fertile ground to explore considering the current global climate.
The Science of Sleep
Michel Gondry is, to put it mildly, an unusual director. ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ is one of the my favourite romantic films, and again he has a Kaufman script to spark his outlandish visual style. Some fans have cited it as the best Gondry film yet – we shall see.
Zodiac
Finchers back – a lot of great directors seem to be releasing ‘product’ this year after a hiatus – good stuff. This looks like a return to Se7en territory, and concerns the investigation into the Zodiac serial killer who terrorised California in the 60′s and 70′s. Intriguing trailer, and will be interesting to see what he does with the conclusion – check out the wikipedia link here if you’re interested. PLuS i’LL gEt 2 RitE mY RevIeW iN tHe MANner Of a CeReal KiLLa………
300
First of the blockbusters that has me circling dates in the calendar – this looks terrific. Do you like Gladiator movies? Hmm, err…anyway – I loved the trailer which appears to expand on the breakthrough techniques trialed by Rodreguiz in ‘Sin City’ – and Snyder delivered gore and fun galore with his suprisingly adept ‘Dawn of the Dead’ remake. Ah, hell, who am I kidding – I just want to see FIGHTING.
Spiderman 3
It’s funny how these films are terrific at the cinema, and then pretty dull when you catch them again on the small screen. Still, Raimi usually delivers the goods, although he seems to at risk of juggling too many balls at the same time with this – three villans, Gwen Stacey and Peter’s corruption seems a lot to rattle through in one picture.
Grindhouse
More details on this are emerging – apparently it’s two 90 minute movies (one Rodriguez, one Tarantino) episodes strung together with a linking ten minutes of fictional exploitation trailers made by the likes of Eli Roth and our very own Edgar Wright. Sounds like it could be great fun, but it think it would need to have a bit more depth that merely a 180 minute homage to hold the attention. Hmm.
The Good German
Soderbergh and Clooney back again, this time for a post World War 2 period piece influenced by the films of old school Hollywood directors such as Curtiz, Wellman and Lang. Not heard much about this, although some purists are apparently disturbed by the combination of old school film making and realistic dialogue – they say ‘fuck’ a lot as I imagine you would when facing down a world threatening murderous political ideology. But that’s just me.
Rescue Dawn
Werner Herzog returns to narrative film-making. I’ve enjoyed his recent documentaries and am still trying to track this conundrum down, but it’s good to see him back in the directors chair with a Christian Bale led survival story set against the backdrop of the vietnam war.
No Country for Old Men
The Cohens are back, and thankfully it seems they’ve put their difficult (and downright unsuccessful) comedy phase behind them with a picture that seems to hark back to their debut, ‘Blood Simple‘. An unusual cast (No Hunter, Turturro or Goodman?) will hopefully result in a return to form.
Sin City 2 & Hellboy 2
Two comic books, two sequels. I enjoyed both original outings immensely, they certainly ranked amongst the best transfers of comic to film yet realised, so let’s hope the – well, I’m not sure sequels is the right word, I think installments is more apt – let’s hope the installments are as much fun and exciting as their predecessors.
Black Books
Shame he’s not doing ‘Starship Troopers II’. Not that anyone else is mind, but boy does that film deserve a sequel eh? (before the pedants start whining I’m talking about a proper sequel, not this travesty). Anyway, this is Verhoven returning to his native Holland for another World War II thriller which sounds like it could be competing with ‘The Good German’. I suspect they’ll be more nudity and blood though.
Eastern Promises
I watched a good documentary on the career of Cronenberg this week, an extra on a disk of ‘The Brood’. He’s never been a director I really liked, or disliked, but he’s certainly consistent in terms of his interests and areas of exploration – although I think he revisits the same ground a bit too often. Nevertheless, after the superb ‘A History of Violence’ he seems to be firing on all cylinders, and has cast Viggo Mortensen in his follow-up tale which seems to be another crime genre piece. The formula worked before, let’s hope he repeats the success.
Fast Food Nation
I’m hearing some great things about Linklaters follow up to ‘A Scanner Darkly’, based on the smash novel of the same name. Another praiseworthy political film, more needed please.
The Fountain & Southland Tales
These could go either way – both talented directors, but sometimes your reach can extend your grasp and the response from Canne to both of these was less than glowing. Still, what do the French know eh? I mean, historically they’re only responsible for more world class directors than any other nation on earth. Pah, amateurs….
Right, well that’s a lot to look forward to. There’s a couple of others, so this looks like a busy year.
Beam me up Steve…..
I want one. I want one so much it hurts. It’s funny, I’m such a critic of advertising, marketing and the whole sick capitalist system, but then I see one of these I wonder how much my kidneys would raise on the black market. I’m such a whore. Yes it’s pricey – £375 for the must have 8GB model, you could get a reasonable mac-mini for that initial cost – but this is essentially a combined Blackberry, i-pod, phone, camera, e-mail, web access – I really think it’s the first step of the next generation of gadgets. Touch screen phones are apparently not new – must have missed a meeting - regardless to me this is uber-cool.
No doubt Apple have spent an obscene amount of money to develop and manufacture this kit and therefore the production levels just aren’t yet high enough to build one for every person on Earth – yet. Like any other company, while they develop the manufacturing operations they charge a heavy premium for the 1% of trend setters who can afford it and are willing to pay it. Usually these people are not concerned with the phone being buggy and limited as they own the state of the art device – first. They’re the ones essentially paying for the bulk of Apple’s iPhone development costs. I don’t think it will hit Europe until 2008 anyway by the sounds of things.
So that’s Christmas 2008 sorted out then. Cool being in the future ain’t it? It’s a portable computer that makes phone calls – and I want one now. As one technology specialist said ‘I think they just fucked every other phone manufacturer on the planet.’ If you need more convincing, here’s the keynote, you can skip to about 30:00 for the cool stuff…
Anyway, anyone remember Mr. Agreeable from the sadly defunct Melody Maker? Well, he has a site here.
Apocalypto
Hmm. Not the best start to the year – I went and saw ‘Apocalypto‘ on Saturday afternoon to kick off 2007′s celluloid adventure, and Mel certainly seems to have as equal a fascination and repulsion with the horrors of the human body as Cronenburg. Stabbings, lacerations, beheadings, maulings, gouging, disembowelings and evisceration abound, and that’s just the opening credits. After the travesty of one of the most dangerous films of recent times I promised myself to never again fill the coffers of right wing racist Gibson, but some of the reviews were just so gushingly positive I couldn’t resist. I have learnt my lesson.
It’s 17th Century South America (specifically a little bit under the cape of Guatemala) and we are taken into the peasant lives of a group of indigenous yucatek natives. We are swiftly introduced to our main protagonist, a young male of the tribe, his son and conveniently pregnant wife. After a series of scene setting sequences, the tranquil atmosphere is shattered by a raid of the Mayan elites who demand new bodies for their brutal sacrifices.
Now, some people are understandably up in arms about the historical authenticity of the movie and normally I would dismiss such criticisms as largely redundant – a film is a work of fiction and as such liberty with certain truths are neccessary evils in order to get the picture made and coherent – but having seen the film I must concur with the naysayers. Gibson’s thesis, signposted in the opening credits, is that sick societies disintegrate from within – but if you’re not presenting the events accurately to such a overwhelming degree then your whole point is rendered meaningless. The final revelation also stinks of cultural imperialism, which I won’t elaborate on here but you’ll guess the ending long before it arrives. The last third is probably the best computer game movie made thus far (I think they call this damning with faint praise) as our hero has every possible obstacle thrown at him, with the odd boss fight thrown in for good measure – snakes, quicksand, rapids, waterfalls, wild animals, – eventually it just becomes so absurd you want the slippery bugger to take a javelin in the skull.
It’s Hollywood by the numbers – this is not a daring vision of an uncompromising artist who demands realism by insisting on accurate language reproductions – We’re talking your standard central protagonist in jepordy, three act stucture (set-up of village & capture, transport to city & escape, chase & resolution). The final sequence is quite simply so cliched that you leave the cinema shaking your head in woe. Avoid.
If anyone’s interested, I did manage to get over to see Marc Bolans shrine, pictures above. For the record, it was bloody raining and I still went on a Sunday afternoon – see how your precious tax dollars are spent on us lowly paid public sector workers?
2006 Film Top Ten
Finally, after a month of deliberation and drafting, are the Mint’s best films of 2006. I think I’ve been fairly good with making an effort in getting out to see things, although I’m still annoyed that I missed ‘Children of Men‘ at the flicks as from what I’ve read it sounds like one of the highlights of the year. I love dystopian sci-fi, and having such a film set in London is so rare that it demands viewing at the very least for it’s curiosity value.
I thought it might be interesting to also add in the best films I have seen in 2006 regardless of the year of release – some of these were caught amongst seasons at the NFT or unique short releases in some of London’s more esoteric cinemas (Your Curzon’s, your Picturehouses ) but most will be from my on-line membership ‘LoveFilm‘. So, in no particular order :
2006 Releases
A Scanner Darkly
I was a little hesitant about this as I am a long term dick fan (ha ha) and the thought of ANIMATING his best novel filled me with dread. However, this was before I saw the superb Waking Life which eliminated all doubts that this could be a unique and apt approach to his narcotic fuelled ramblings.
Blade Runner still remains my favourite dick film (ha ha) but this runs a close second. It’s typical Linklater, dialogue driven and conventionally shot, but that realism fused with the rotoscoping just throws it into a slightly unnerving atmosphere which reflects the paranoia inherent in the story. I saw this on a Sunday afternoon and it must have had some bizarre effect on me as I suffered the worst insomnia of my life – I didn’t sleep at all that night and went straight into work at 6.00am. That was a fun day….
The New World
If you held a gun to my head I would have to select this as my favourite film despite seeing it in less than ideal conditions (surrounded by bored teenagers who evidently were expecting a Colin Farrell action movie, not projected in it’s correct 70mm aspect ratio in a alleged art cinema- pah) but hey, it’s Terrence Malick for fucks sake.
Can this man make a bad film? OK, he hasn’t had many stabs at it but every picture he’s made is a masterpiece – he will not compromise, there is no pandering to Hollywood sensibilities – he knows how he’s going to tell you the story and that’s what he does. There is no-one in the english language I think who captures the etheral, dream-like poetic atmosphere that he does with his extraordinary compositions, glacial pace and distanced approach to characterisation and plot. This film, like his others, stays with you long after you’ve seen them as you work out your own interpretation of the themes explored and questions posed. Along with Michael Mann, he is the best American Director working today (sorry Marty, your last three films have fucking sucked) as for me they are all, like Kubrick, perfectionists who will devote everything into getting their vision up on the screen.
Compare the moment when the explorers reach the shore (at the start of the movie) with the same event in a film like 1492 – In the latter we are subjected to an overwhelming musical score with crashing cymbals, slow motion photography tracking on the moment that Depardieu touches down in the water to convince the audience that hey, this moment is as significant as Armstrong leaping out of the Eagle onto the Sea of Tranquility – in ‘The New World’ a disheveled and disease ridden sailor leaps stumbles into the water, briefly crosses himself with a scoop of water whilst mumbling a christian prayer, and we move on. Towards the end a ‘natural’ wanders around a British stately home garden marveling or bemused by the topiary sculptures – a symbol for him of our control and violation of earth. The contrast between savage and civilisation, nature and order are communicated only visually – Genius. I wait with baited breath his awesome sounding next project.
The Prestige
I’ve already blogged on this so not much more to say except that I’m looking forward to seeing it again. Hopefully I’ll uncover more of the riddles and paradoxes to equip me with enough material to keep a dozen fan analysis sites heaving with speculation.
Hidden
Or should I be posh and refer to it as Cache? This film can be read in a number of ways – is it a treatise on the nature of cinema itself, the act of watching a film and the tricks, subterfuge and suspension of disbelief that occurs? Is it a examination of France’s shameful treatment of it’s Algerian immigrants over the past 50 years? Well, that and more – Hanake delivers on both fronts in this unsettling and disturbing thriller.
People who have seen it and tended to dislike it I think have missed the point entirely –
SPOILERS
If you meet one of these fools then ask them what they thought of the last shot with the two sons meeting together on the steps of the university and the consequent myriad of enormous questions that this revelation poses, and inevitably you’ll be greeted with a blank stare then a quizzical ‘Eh?’ which just goes to show how much attention they were paying.
SPOILERS END
The same rule incidentaly goes for the end of the ‘Blair Witch Project’ where a lot of aquaintences of mine didn’t even catch the implications of the last frames, with one of the victims standing in the corner, waiting to be killed. It’s a film that demands repeat viewings, and I have no doubt that each of those will be as rewarding as the first.
Syrianna
Harking back to the second golden age of Hollywood – the 1970′s – this is the year’s best political fiction film. You’ve got to admire Clooney, after starting his film career in the worst way possible with THAT film (unless you count ‘Revenge of the Killer Tomatos’ as his debut) he’s forged himself a career as one of the most talented political film makers around as either producer, director or actor. It was a toss up between ‘Syriana‘ and ‘Good Night & Good Luck’ – I just found the former more gripping, immediate and relevant, given the themes of profit obessessed industrial corporations, global corruption and the exploitation of natural resources. The film treats it’s audience as intelligent adults, cutting between three or four different threads without making obvious narrative or dialogue led connections as it hurtles to it’s depressing denouement. Matt Damon’s redundant bereavement plotline seems tacked on to give him some moral conflict, but that’s the only real criticism I can make of this superb picture.
United 93
It’s a shame that Paul Greengrass has been pulled (or walked) from the ‘Watchmen’ project as I think he is the perfect director for the project. He pulls off gritty, intense action sequences in the Matt Damon ‘Bourne’ movies and can also tackle in an even handed way political themes in films such as ‘Bloody Sunday‘ and ‘United 93′, without losing sight of the human drama. ‘United 93′ is gripping, heartwrenching stuff even when you are only too aware of the events of that historic day.
Pan’s Labyrinth
Again, not much to add to my previous entry, but there is a nice interview here. For full on academic chin stroking pretention mode, check out this comprehensive Sight & Sound analysis – but only if you’ve seen the movie.
The Proposition
The best western made in years, possibly since ‘The Unforgiven’. Brutal, grim and unrelenting with captivating performances from Guy Pearce, Emilly Watson and Danny Huston. It’s like a Nick Cave song come to life – wrath, revenge, violence and god permeate the atmosphere of this fantastic film. It begs the question – why haven’t Austrialian film-makers mined this period of their dark history? Maybe the kudos and positive reviews directed to this movie will open the floodgates. Neo-Peckinpah? Maybe, but that’s high praise indeed.
No, ‘The Departed‘ doesn’t get an entry I’m afraid I was sorely disapointed with Scorsese’s last effort. It was vaguely entertaining, but Nicholson was wasted and I’m afraid I simply can’t take DiCaprio seriously as either a moody cop/gangster, a millionaire, a gang leader or in fact anything beyond a weedy pretty boy. Memo to Marty – Give up the kid, get back with Niro and at least salvage his career from the embarrassments of Meet the Analysts or whatever, for all our sakes…
DVD & Retrospective Films
Sword of Doom
I got through many Japanese films this year, some in order to prepare myself for my holiday, and some to bask in the post journey bliss – ‘Sword of Doom’ was by the far the best of the bunch. It has compositions worthy of Ozu, treads the same ground as Kurosawa (Samurai protagonists, examinations of honour, caste and relations in feudal Japan) along with some superb duel sequences. ‘Kill Bill’ Volume 1 is on BBC2 tonight and this is a film I know influenced the cultural magpie (or should that be thief?) Tarantino when he was in pre-production. I’m giving ‘Bill’ another another go as I hated it the first time round at the cinema and perhaps I wasn’t in the mood. Join me and play the Tarantino ‘homage’ game and see how many films Tarantino steals from – I reckon I can get at least a dozen…..
La Belle et la bête
Magic on a disk – it’s as simple as that. I loved this film so much as soon as I finished watching it I fired it up again with the illuminating commentary by cinephile Christopher Frayling. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Incredible production design, a classic captivating story, a timeless fairy tale.
The Spiral Staircase
Good old fashioned golden age Hollywood fun. Like Mildred Pierce, this is one of those 1940′s oddballs – a combination of women’s picture and film noir in which a mute terrifed heroine faces down a small town serial killer who is determined to ‘eradicate beauty from the world’. Fantastic chiaroscuro lighting (as you’d expect from any good film noir) and ground breaking approaches to storytelling (for the production line of 1940′s Hollywood) combine to make this a repression themed picture that would make Hitchcock proud.
The Station Agent
I recently saw Little Miss Sunshine which turned up on many critics best of year lists, and once again I wonder if I’ve seen the same film. Two dimensional ‘damaged’ characters end up making a impromptu road trip – hi-jinks ensue, as the plot plunges towards an inevitable ‘shocking’ set-piece ending where your comfortable sensibilities will be challenged. Alan Arkin (who is normally great) is a grandad who takes smack and likes porn – gee, how crazy is that? Fuck off. I gravitate more to independant cinema than the mainstream junk but films like this give good, quirky indie movies like ‘The Station Agent’ a bad name.
A ‘vertically challenged’ train shop worker inadvertently inherits a small plot of land in a small US town which contains the town railroad station house. He meets a number of unusual aquintances who gradually evolve into his friends as there lives take some unexpected twists and turns – and that’s it. It’s, funny, heartwarning stuff that sucks you in to the characters plight, and puts a big happy smile on your face as the credits roll – who can say fairer than that?
One of my new year resolutions is to see a film at the cinema once a week, and blog about them here. Even with the vast array of cinemas at my disposal in London it will be quite daunting to locate 52 films worth tearing myself away from the Mac or X-Box 360 to see but that’s the plan. I also intend to concentrate on one director for a month and catch at least four of their films through my DVD membership and conjure up an insightful and illuminating analysis of their work that would cause the editor of Sight & Sound to weep with envy. I’m going to try and catch Perfume or Apocalypto this weekend as they seem the most interesting of the current flock, so watch this space….
Flotsam & Jetsam II
Before I post my round up of movies for 2006 (and I know you are all quivering with anticipation) here is some madness I have been accruing over the past few days.
La Jetee – I’m on the record as disliking ‘Twelve Monkeys’, but not because it’s inferior to Chris Markers original story, but because it’s a badly edited, badly acted over directed mess – anyway here is the source material for your consideration. See if you can spot the only shot that isn’t a still.
When you’re out polling Lucifer, the lord of lies, at 25 to 1 then don’t you think it might be time to think about what you’re doing?
Some more Spidey 3 footage here, I should save this for my soon to be published 2007 films post but I’m sharing them here because I love you.
Here is the story of a charming individual – Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA’s chief Dr. Evil during the 1950′s. More here, and no I haven’t seen ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ recently…
Caught playing games at work? Calmly explain to your foolish boss that you are actually developing your time management resource allocation and interpersonnel skills with this little presentation.
Not a weblink as such, but as part of my job I have to go and inspect Marc Bolan’s shrine this weekend. No, this is not a joke, nor a euphemism (and I don’t have to do it over the weekend but it’s only a few minutes walk away and I don’t have much else planned so…) but one of the more unusual requests I’ve received in this job. A resident of glorious Barnes called me and explained she was looking to buy a property in the area but she was somewhat distressed to see this ‘eyesore‘ violating the local ambience – therefore yours truly has to go and have a look and see what the condition of the shrine is. I could just get a minion to do it but it is vaguely interesting – I may pass her number on to the Marc Bolan Appreciation Society and they can discuss the ‘eyesore’ with her…..
Flags of Our Fathers
I think Clint Eastwood is over-rated. There, I’ve said it. OK, films such as ‘Pale Rider’ and ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales’ are very good - and of course ‘Unforgiven’ is one of the best westerns ever made, but (and I’m refering just to his self-directed films here) there are also some deeply mediocre pictures on his CV - ’Space Cowboys’? ‘The Rookie’? The plaudits heaped on ‘Million Dollar Baby’ mystified me as I thought it was nothing more than well acted sentimental trash. I recently caught the end of the execrable ‘Heartbreak Ridge’ which is possiblty the most jingoistic piece of US military propaganda since the infamous Green Berets – complete with a stirring score as the gung ho marines save the poor peasants.
The plaudits have continued with Eastwood’s most recent picture, ‘Flags of Our Fathers‘ The plot gravitates around the soldiers who erected the stars and stripes over the battlefield of Iwo Jima and the ensuing propaganda efforts on home soil as the iconic image seeps into the war tired public consiousness. As the film develops, Eastwood explores the nature of heroism and propoganda, as it is revelaed that the flag was erected twice, before the battle was even won, and that two of the three main protagonists who are shipped back to the States to campaign for war bonds weren’t even in the picture.
Visually, the film is impressive, with some well produced CGI images of the massive fleet off the coast of the island giving a real sense of the enormity of the battle. Much has also been made of it’s alleged intense battle sequences which made we wonder if I had seen the same film – the battle scenes are reasonably graphic and gruesome but ‘Saving Private Ryan’ they are not. Twitching, hand-held operators? Check. Washed out, bleached negative film stock? Check. Indiscriminate death and overwhelming sound design that makes you duck in your seat? Check – yet Eastwood fails to reach the same intensity of sheer terror, chaos and mayhem that Spielberg captured – maybe we become immune to these images so much quicker these days especially when real world examples are available at the click of a mouse.
The film is certainly contemporary as it does give food for thought on what it acceptable in the realms of propoganda, truth and lies during times of national conflict. Whilst relying on some clumsy metaphors (crimson red sauce being poured over cakes imitating the flag scene – ooo, it’s just like blood isn’t it?) it is worth seeing and raises some pertinent questions, but you won’t be leaving the cinema feeling mentally and emotionally assualted like you did after Ryan. It will be interesting to compare it with the second film that Eastwood has produced on the battle, ‘Letters from Iwo Jima”, which focuses on the Japanese side of the battle, due in the UK in late February.
Oh, almost forgot – Happy New Year.
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