Flotsam & Jetsam XXI
Well, probably the last miscellaneous post I’ll have the time to post this year as all my efforts will now be turned to completing my ‘epic’ films of the year review. Let’s kick off with a quick retrospective look at the best film magazine I’ve read, the now sadly defunct ‘Neon‘ that was published around the late 1990’s. It covered all the basics of course, new releases, upcoming projects, books and myriad film geek paraphernalia but it was the articles on film movements, genres and interesting back stories on specific film productions that were genuinely illuminating and entertaining, it wasn’t an obvious adjunct to a studios marketing arm that is so often what passes for film magazines these days – yes that’s you ‘Empire’ and ‘Total Film’ you corporate fucks. I’ve always remembered the (obviously satirical) commentary in one issue praising Al Pacino’s Oscar winning method acting portrayal of Robert De Niro in ‘Heat’ and the crew explaining that ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ was taking so long to complete because Kubrick insisted on wandering around the set every morning with a thermometer to ensure that every scene was shot at the same temperature – genuinely funny writing for all us movie geeks out there. In reference to the above reprint (click to enlarge) here are two memorable moments from the late great Kinski’s career….
So, 3D cinema seems to be the new revolution. I’ve been following this for a while now and I suspect over the next decade the mainstream – and I stress mainstream – film experience will have a seismic shift in this direction. We’ve already had some minor tremors with the embryonic emergence of new major release motion capture pictures such as ‘Beowulf’ (which I enjoyed a lot more than expected) and kiddy nonsense such as ‘Polar Express’ but I think the enormous financial investment to convert cinemas in the States – 20,000 of them and counting – to be able to project this new format is a harbinger of things to come. Quite apart from ‘The Dark Knight’ reception in IMAX and the revelation that Michael Bay is shooting the major action sequences of Transformers 2 in the same format it seems to me that we are witnessing a new direction to battle the proliferation of home cinema systems, downloads and other delivery models that keep people at home rather than visiting the local fleapit. It has echoes of the recession of the 1920’s when people flocked to the cinema to escape the woes of their day to day lives as well as the studios pushing new technologies such as Cinemascope, VistaVision etc. in the 1950’s to combat the rise of TV, if I were a gambling man I’d stake money on next years ‘Avatar‘ being a real watershed release, more on that project in my ‘Films To See in 2009’ commentary that will be up shortly.
Just to temper any beliefs that I’m some sort of deranged lunatic (see below) I’m nominating Ang Lee as this posts director of choice for contemporary film-makers whose career I follow with interest. I think the key word with Lee is versatility, although he tends to explore human relationships and ‘outsiders’ in his films he has done so in a truly diverse choice of genres, a period drama, literary adaptation, superhero movie (hugely underrated that film, all you fan-boy haters can stick it), western and of course the martial arts movie. He seems to effortlessly produce interesting, watchable and entertaining films without resorting to any identifiable visual style which I think is the mark of a master craftsman. I haven’t seen the controversial ‘Lust, Caution‘ yet but it’s on my film-list for Xmas, maybe I’ll settle down with the parents for a viewing as it’s a nice historical love story right?
Boo hoo!! Cheese eating surrender monkeys!! How dare the French snub England and omit a single British film from their list of the 100 most beautiful movies ever made eh? Well, I think its a shame there’s no Powell & Pressburger pictures on there or maybe ‘The Third Man‘ but hey, film lists can never satisfy everyone. For what its worth I think it’s an excellent selection although I am surprised to see ‘Night Of The Hunter‘ up at the silver medal position. It’s a fantastic, poetic and magical film (beautifully lit by the legendary Stanley Cortez as you can see here) which has always been hugely admired (Laughton was so depressed at the initial critical reaction that he never directed another film which is criminal) but its never been quite that well acclaimed before, just goes to show how critical opinions can ebb and flow with the passage of time. For what it’s worth, here is ‘Sight & Sound’s list of films of the year, it has prompted me to make an effort to go and catch ‘Hunger‘ this weekend before it leaves screens.
For podcast discovery of the year I’m down to two choices. Firstly there is the Canadian based ‘Film Junk’ in which three dudes sit around and discuss current releases, upcoming DVD’s and Blu-Ray’s, what older films they’ve recently watched and just about anything exciting on the rumor and trailer front. Although the guys film knowledge seems to evaporate around the 1970’s mark it is occasionally very funny, especially since one of the guys comes across as a grumpy and opinionated John Carpenter fan who will take every opportunity to extol the virtues of ‘Prince Of Darkness’ and ‘Big Trouble In Little China’ – sound familiar? The best discovery however is ‘Cinema Diabolica’, a very professional show which broadcasts weekly reviews of the best in exploitation, euro-crime, giallo chillers, shogun dramas, generally all the very best that sleazy and underground cinema has to offer. At the risk of sounding pompous what I like about this show is that it is the real deal in terms of the genuinely ‘cult’ and has turned me on to new films and film movements (although I have seen ‘Female Convict Scorpion 701 ’ and the absolutely stunning ‘Lady Snowblood’ (which is one the best Japanese films ever made) which is all too rare for me these days. It also gave me ten minutes of doubled-up, uncontrollable laughter when one of their ‘fans’ rang in and left a lengthy and absolutely mental voice-mail – if you’re intrigued then download episode 20 from their 8th April broadcast, skip to about the 1hr, 18 minute and 30 second mark and prepare to be aurally assaulted – very NSFW, absolutely hilarious and whatever this Australian headcase is on I want some….
Due to listening to ‘Cinema Diabloica’ I’ve been on a bit of a explotation film bender recently so to close the last flotsam of 2008 here are some links to some disgusting and disgraceful, shocking and stupid, queasy and crazy, hilarious and horrible, superb (Spoilers here for the brilliant finale of that puppy) and sublime, amusing and amazing, lurid and lame, terrible and truimphant moments of all the best moments of the wonder that is film that will never grace a Christmas playlist. Enjoy….
Minty's Menagerie 
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