Convento (US) (site) + Battenburg (UK)
Battenburg was shown in yesterdays' world animation segment, but it was a good primer for Convento. This short documentary describes the present-day use of the Convento sao Francisco, an ancient building whose original purpose was to house the relics of Christs cross. Today however, after a period of dilapidation, it has become the home of Geraldine and her adult sons, Cristiaan and Lois. They're a bit.. eccentric.
Geraldine restricts herself to a few modest plaster works, and grows a few vegetables and tramps knee-deep through the pond fishing out bindweed in her spare time. Her sons while away their hours making grander artworks. Christiaan in a rather macabre way takes the skeletal remains of animals he finds and reanimates them with crude animatronics. Dotted around the grounds are some of his works, ranging from the forgettable to the brilliant. His installation sculpture made from the ancient water wheel of the old house powers a full-size animatronic mule on an endless circle around the pumping well, as real ones would have done in years gone by. Most of the materials for his works originate from the nearby dump, where all sorts of electrical goods containing electronics and motors allow these things to be made on the cheap.
Lois, as if to go one stage further is more into film, doing slightly batshit things such as persuading his long-suffering girlfriend (I presume) to put on an inflatable space suit with him and bound about like idiots. Also: singing leaves and a stuffed gibbering rabbit trussed up in armour. Yes.
Though I found the little window onto these reclusive lives distracting, and the surroundings they lived in to be very beautiful, they bothered me too much to really enjoy this film. Maybe the most telling part for me was Geraldine's admission near the end that they just don't do proper hard work like normal people, instead just arsing around making strange sculpture and crazy film. Maybe I'm a little bit jealous. 6/10
World Animation Competition 3 - Long Shorts
After last night's marathon I thought there would be loads here too, but this segment was specifically for those short films that were a bit chunkier than the others.
The Lost Town of Switez (Pol) - An interpretation of a poem by Adam Mickiewicz. A young man has an encounter with a figure in the road as he rides through the night. Stepping out of the carriage, the coachman and horses are bolt asleep. He stumbles through the forest, but he is under attack - in fact the hordes of Norman-like horsemen are shooting flaming arrows past him and towards a city, whose genteel population can only flee to their church for sanctuary. It is beautifully made, using computer graphics with a pastel watercolour effect, and the art style of the religious works of the middle ages his hallucinations evoke religious fervour to compliment the rousing orchestral choir that completes the reverie. A beautiful, wordless allegorical tale. 7.5/10
Wild Life (Can) - A young and naive gentleman ignores his stuffy fathers' wishes and heads out from the comfort of Blighty to the frontier settlements of early 20th Century Alberta. Massaging the facts as he writes back home, his biggest problems are yet to materialise as winter comes along - and they're not wussy British ones over there, either. It develops a more sombre edge to it's initial pip-pip personality, and the quirky art style fits the mood perfectly, it too changing as the story darkens. 8/10
Journey to Cape Verde (Por) - Feeling stifled and trapped, a young twentysomething packs up a backpack, leaves a note for his loved ones and quits Lisbon for a place where he can find himself. He's clearly been looking a while and now he knows - Africa, in particular the Cape Verde islands. Using primary colours and a thick black pen for the main art style, he narrates his journey retrospectively, the stylised stick-figure animation complemented by pages from his diary with pencil sketches and simple watercolours of some of the more memorable sights on his travels. A beautiful and intimate tale of becoming intentionally lost and keeping going to find a new existence, and one that gives me itchy feet. 8/10
The Monster of Nix (Bel) - Hovering around the half-hour mark, this could easily be put on the telly for a Christmas holiday treat. It's a Grimm-style tale with a bit of magic and wonder, and a little bit scary like you would expect. A boy gets a nasty surprise when his grandmother, and most of the house disappears. His village is being destroyed somehow, and buoyed on with the hope of locating her, goes to the forests, where all sorts of weird creatures come out of the shadows, some good - some not so good, and some you just aren't sure of. Some of these beings are gathering strange silver eggs, said to hold stories inside of them. But it's clear the world is being destroyed and the main story is about to end.
It's a dark fairytale, but the creepiest bit is the animation style. In the same way Madame Tutli-Putli mesmerised me a few years ago by combining stop-motion and computer effects so you couldnt see the join, this takes it a little further. I honestly couldn't tell some of the time whether it was real people in masks or computers making the characters. The faces were clearly the work of ones and zeroes, but the movement and detail looked super-real. It was compelling to watch, the only problem being that this was in the town hall, and so again the acoustics made it so some of the dialogue was difficult to follow. It's a shame, because otherwise I really enjoyed it. 8/10
Heat Wave (Fra) (review)
Using a non-linear storyline, which overlaps and goes back on itself to tell the same segment from a different point of view, Heat Wave relates the tales of several people living in a Marseilles suburb. Single mum Anne is trying to keep a secret hospital visit secret from her daughter Amélie, who in turn is struggling with how to deal with her new-found pregnancy to both her and her boyfriend, Luigi. He suddenly has a passion to leave and wants her to go wit him. Apart from this group is the quiet natured Georges, who just wants to have a quiet life and listen to his music, but things just don't seem to be going his way today. The most influential character has only a fleeting role at the start and at the end of this piece, and this whole film leads up to the defining moment where the intersection of several lives results in tragedy.
The events in each life laid bare are pretty pedestrian, but the skilful weaving of lives and time-lines creates an engaging story, and one that takes you by surprise with it's ending. For a French film it's pleasingly lacking in philosophy, too. 7.5/10
Leeds Film Festival 2011: Day 4
The Day The Earth Stood Still (US) (wiki)
It's always nice to come back to a classic film, especially when you have the chance to see it on the big screen. This original version (no sad Keanu here) dates back to 1951 and can be considered the original sci-fi movie. It loses nothing of it's original suspense sixty years later.
Seeing it with fresh eyes (I must have been a teen when it was last on) my concentration has shifted. Back then, I watched the film from the standpoint of young Bobby, a gee-willerkins American kid (surely a model for Russel in Up) whose boundless energy and cops-and-robbers imagination sees aliens and gangsters around every corner, though this time he's on the money when Mr. Carpenter appears mysteriously a few days after the alien ship lands and some trigger-happy soldier shoots the occupant. The alien has a dire message for the world, and the world (or at least the army) seem intent on signing their own death certificate.
Now, I can see a few messages and themes not far under the surface, an anti-war ethic, a look to the scientists and thinkers of the age to take a lead, and a message of getting our world in order while we still can. Reworded and reworked a thousand times since, it remains topical stuff, and given the increasingly intelligence-shunning nature of US politicians these days, perhaps a reminder that they have taken a step backwards in that regard (except for the totalitarian robot solution that is suggested however).
Of course, you're not going to be able to watch the film without noticing the dated special effects but it still manages to both challenge and entertain the audience, and probably scare a few small children, Dr. Who-style in the process. 7.5/10
World Animation Competition 2
A bumper crop of animated shorts this year, and this 14-film bundle is only one of three animation events in the strand. The last one is tomorrow.
The Boy In The Bubble (Irl) - Alan Rickman narrates a childrens poem about a young boy whose girlfriend leaves him in a snap when a better one comes along. Casting a spell, he traps himself inside a bubble. Allegorical with a simplicity aimed at children, it was nice although the animation was a little wooden. 7/10
Don't Tell Santa you're Jewish (Can) - A charmingly wobbly cartoon art style is used with minimal colours to describe a jewish girl's trip to see Santa, so she can get a present. However, santa has his own secrets to keep. 7.5/10
Luminaris (Arg) - Stop-motion animation can be applied to real people as well as plasticine models. Using thousands of stills to tell its story of a man half-inching a few office supplies to fund his private dream. Really charming and witty, and good fun. 8/10
Bottle (USA) - Using similar stop-motion techniques, this is a bittersweet tale of two amorphous creatures on either side of an ocean; one made of snow, the other sand. They communicate by sending each other little presents in a bottle, until one takes the plunge and suggests they meet. 8/10
366 Days (Ger) - A paramedic's first day on the job is tough and his new partner seems distant and uncaring towards the patients they see. He tries his best to make up the shortfall, but maybe it's he that needs to reassess his approach. 7.5/10
Alimation (Fra) - A simple film about cakes. On a turntable. Sweet, sugary decorations and a carefully set frame count create a zoetrope effect, making them both clever and yum. Was short enough not to become repetitive. 6.5/10
Don Justino de Neve (UK) - A portrait of the man forms the basis of this messy scrawled short, where the Don himself shows us how much of a bounder and cad he is with the ladies, who despite being treated like crap, can't keep their hands off him. Like he says of himself - he's not a nice man. 7/10
Sudd Slut (Out of Erasers) (Den/Swe) - An ambitious short that attempts to squeeze the end of the world into a few minutes. A woman rides a bus, and notices a strange residue on the back of the seat. Slowly turning her to a mess of papery scribble, the only cure is to erase it with a pencil rubber. An absurd premise turns creepy as the substance spreads and multiplies, taking people over like Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, until she is forced to take drastic action. 7.5/10
Un Petit Bol D'Air (Fra) - Idling thoughts and random patterns come together as with previous short favourite Love and Theft. It's pretty and goes in harmony with the bombastic music, but it's nothing more than a distraction. Fortunately it's too short to become annoying. 6.5/10
Battenberg (UK) - A very unusual and macabre offering, using taxidermied animals as puppets in a stop motion story. A squirrel and his miniature humanoid servants come upon a magpie after it blats against the window of their house. He is invited for tea but Squirrels intentions are malevolent. Technically sound, it is let down by a confusing, messy story. 7/10
Modern No 2 (Jpn) - A refreshingly Japanese pop-y music video using blocky, angular shapes that morph in and out of each other to the thumping melody. It's bright and airy, and the music isn't bad either. 7.5/10
La Détente (Fra) - Any animation depicting the first world war trenches has to be careful not to tread on any toes, and though I think this will receive some criticism, it's not warranted. A young man in the middle of the horrors of war has a breakdown, and imagines the horrific scene in front of him made out of objects from his childhood; tin toys, cushions and bedsheets, popguns and strings of lights, as a coping mechanism. But his imagination cannot hold completely and the reality of the world seeps back in. 8/10
Hello Bambi (USA) - WTF-ery should come from Japan alone, and this seemed to be a facsimile from across the pond. Some oddly-drawn children (looking like a Pixar experimental film from 1985) cry to the funeral march tune. Somebody's Snow White doll is being led away, helped by a female Darth Vader and a DeLorean, and Thomas the Tank Engine, maybe. I really have no idea what just happened. 6/10
The Gloaming (Fra) - Ending on a high - this semi-computer generated film follows an unnamed man as he walks through a desert, finds a blob of matter, and watches it grow into a planet, and that includes a humanoid race of people who predictably find all sorts of ways to form factions and kill each other to death. Religion, capitalism, greed and jealousy are all displayed in scenes familiar to humanities past. A very well made, philosophically sensitive look at our lives. 8/10
Take Shelter (US) (site)
Take Shelter was one of only three films picked out of the hundreds to be previewed just before Wuthering Heights, the opening gala film. For this reason, I was curious to find out what had made them favour it. Set in one of the Midwestern states of the US, where Curtis, an ordinary father and husband begins having troubling dreams all with a similar theme. Thick, oily rain followed by some sort of threat on his family, often by shadowy figures trying to get him. The constant feature is an approaching, apocalyptic storm; massive angry rain-clouds and destructive twisters. It begins to take a toll on his waking life, and his perception of what is real begins to slip.
Michael Shannon plays the lead role alongside a largely unknown but talented cast, taking us on a trip through the troubled psyche of a mentally ill man, heading towards the brink and having his own mind threaten his livelihood more than the weather ever could. A tense and uncomfortable thriller, well acted and unpredictable, and a strong ending. 8/10
The Fatherless (Austria) (site)
Another film about reuniting a troubled family (see also: A Night for Dying Tigers, Wonderful Summer and Reuniting the Rubins this year alone). Although this one has a novel edge to it. Father Hans has just died, leaving a wife and four distant children, each of whom return with partners in tow to the dilapidated family house more or less immediately after hearing of the event. Thing is though, Anna was mother in name alone, as Hans was alpha male in a 1980's idealistic hippy commune, a gathering of like-minded types who didn't seem to mind him fertilizing all the women in the group. Consequently, the four siblings share a father but not a mother. Anna was the only one who stayed after the commune broke up.
Kyra is the most mysterious of the lot - she left over twenty years previous as a girl, a day or so after the troubled birth of the youngest one, Zizzi. Something made her return, especially when she said she had been 'forgiven' by her fathers dying breath.
What happened in the ground zero event that caused so many rifts is revealed slowly with flashbacks mingled in between family revalations and rediscovered trinkets, not forgetting to let a few truths get spilt for the partners to stress over for good measure. It is all well thought out and set nicely in a beautiful Austrian countryside house. The characters are well rounded if not completely appealing they at least have a believability to them and a fragility that suggests their upbringing did not reflect the ideals. It was engaging and enjoyable, and like all the best examples of the genre, makes you want to know how things continue after the end. 7.5/10
It's always nice to come back to a classic film, especially when you have the chance to see it on the big screen. This original version (no sad Keanu here) dates back to 1951 and can be considered the original sci-fi movie. It loses nothing of it's original suspense sixty years later.
Seeing it with fresh eyes (I must have been a teen when it was last on) my concentration has shifted. Back then, I watched the film from the standpoint of young Bobby, a gee-willerkins American kid (surely a model for Russel in Up) whose boundless energy and cops-and-robbers imagination sees aliens and gangsters around every corner, though this time he's on the money when Mr. Carpenter appears mysteriously a few days after the alien ship lands and some trigger-happy soldier shoots the occupant. The alien has a dire message for the world, and the world (or at least the army) seem intent on signing their own death certificate.
Now, I can see a few messages and themes not far under the surface, an anti-war ethic, a look to the scientists and thinkers of the age to take a lead, and a message of getting our world in order while we still can. Reworded and reworked a thousand times since, it remains topical stuff, and given the increasingly intelligence-shunning nature of US politicians these days, perhaps a reminder that they have taken a step backwards in that regard (except for the totalitarian robot solution that is suggested however).
Of course, you're not going to be able to watch the film without noticing the dated special effects but it still manages to both challenge and entertain the audience, and probably scare a few small children, Dr. Who-style in the process. 7.5/10
World Animation Competition 2
A bumper crop of animated shorts this year, and this 14-film bundle is only one of three animation events in the strand. The last one is tomorrow.
The Boy In The Bubble (Irl) - Alan Rickman narrates a childrens poem about a young boy whose girlfriend leaves him in a snap when a better one comes along. Casting a spell, he traps himself inside a bubble. Allegorical with a simplicity aimed at children, it was nice although the animation was a little wooden. 7/10
Don't Tell Santa you're Jewish (Can) - A charmingly wobbly cartoon art style is used with minimal colours to describe a jewish girl's trip to see Santa, so she can get a present. However, santa has his own secrets to keep. 7.5/10
Luminaris (Arg) - Stop-motion animation can be applied to real people as well as plasticine models. Using thousands of stills to tell its story of a man half-inching a few office supplies to fund his private dream. Really charming and witty, and good fun. 8/10
Bottle (USA) - Using similar stop-motion techniques, this is a bittersweet tale of two amorphous creatures on either side of an ocean; one made of snow, the other sand. They communicate by sending each other little presents in a bottle, until one takes the plunge and suggests they meet. 8/10
366 Days (Ger) - A paramedic's first day on the job is tough and his new partner seems distant and uncaring towards the patients they see. He tries his best to make up the shortfall, but maybe it's he that needs to reassess his approach. 7.5/10
Alimation (Fra) - A simple film about cakes. On a turntable. Sweet, sugary decorations and a carefully set frame count create a zoetrope effect, making them both clever and yum. Was short enough not to become repetitive. 6.5/10
Don Justino de Neve (UK) - A portrait of the man forms the basis of this messy scrawled short, where the Don himself shows us how much of a bounder and cad he is with the ladies, who despite being treated like crap, can't keep their hands off him. Like he says of himself - he's not a nice man. 7/10
Sudd Slut (Out of Erasers) (Den/Swe) - An ambitious short that attempts to squeeze the end of the world into a few minutes. A woman rides a bus, and notices a strange residue on the back of the seat. Slowly turning her to a mess of papery scribble, the only cure is to erase it with a pencil rubber. An absurd premise turns creepy as the substance spreads and multiplies, taking people over like Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, until she is forced to take drastic action. 7.5/10
Un Petit Bol D'Air (Fra) - Idling thoughts and random patterns come together as with previous short favourite Love and Theft. It's pretty and goes in harmony with the bombastic music, but it's nothing more than a distraction. Fortunately it's too short to become annoying. 6.5/10
Battenberg (UK) - A very unusual and macabre offering, using taxidermied animals as puppets in a stop motion story. A squirrel and his miniature humanoid servants come upon a magpie after it blats against the window of their house. He is invited for tea but Squirrels intentions are malevolent. Technically sound, it is let down by a confusing, messy story. 7/10
Modern No 2 (Jpn) - A refreshingly Japanese pop-y music video using blocky, angular shapes that morph in and out of each other to the thumping melody. It's bright and airy, and the music isn't bad either. 7.5/10
La Détente (Fra) - Any animation depicting the first world war trenches has to be careful not to tread on any toes, and though I think this will receive some criticism, it's not warranted. A young man in the middle of the horrors of war has a breakdown, and imagines the horrific scene in front of him made out of objects from his childhood; tin toys, cushions and bedsheets, popguns and strings of lights, as a coping mechanism. But his imagination cannot hold completely and the reality of the world seeps back in. 8/10
Hello Bambi (USA) - WTF-ery should come from Japan alone, and this seemed to be a facsimile from across the pond. Some oddly-drawn children (looking like a Pixar experimental film from 1985) cry to the funeral march tune. Somebody's Snow White doll is being led away, helped by a female Darth Vader and a DeLorean, and Thomas the Tank Engine, maybe. I really have no idea what just happened. 6/10
The Gloaming (Fra) - Ending on a high - this semi-computer generated film follows an unnamed man as he walks through a desert, finds a blob of matter, and watches it grow into a planet, and that includes a humanoid race of people who predictably find all sorts of ways to form factions and kill each other to death. Religion, capitalism, greed and jealousy are all displayed in scenes familiar to humanities past. A very well made, philosophically sensitive look at our lives. 8/10
Take Shelter (US) (site)
Take Shelter was one of only three films picked out of the hundreds to be previewed just before Wuthering Heights, the opening gala film. For this reason, I was curious to find out what had made them favour it. Set in one of the Midwestern states of the US, where Curtis, an ordinary father and husband begins having troubling dreams all with a similar theme. Thick, oily rain followed by some sort of threat on his family, often by shadowy figures trying to get him. The constant feature is an approaching, apocalyptic storm; massive angry rain-clouds and destructive twisters. It begins to take a toll on his waking life, and his perception of what is real begins to slip.
Michael Shannon plays the lead role alongside a largely unknown but talented cast, taking us on a trip through the troubled psyche of a mentally ill man, heading towards the brink and having his own mind threaten his livelihood more than the weather ever could. A tense and uncomfortable thriller, well acted and unpredictable, and a strong ending. 8/10
The Fatherless (Austria) (site)
Another film about reuniting a troubled family (see also: A Night for Dying Tigers, Wonderful Summer and Reuniting the Rubins this year alone). Although this one has a novel edge to it. Father Hans has just died, leaving a wife and four distant children, each of whom return with partners in tow to the dilapidated family house more or less immediately after hearing of the event. Thing is though, Anna was mother in name alone, as Hans was alpha male in a 1980's idealistic hippy commune, a gathering of like-minded types who didn't seem to mind him fertilizing all the women in the group. Consequently, the four siblings share a father but not a mother. Anna was the only one who stayed after the commune broke up.
Kyra is the most mysterious of the lot - she left over twenty years previous as a girl, a day or so after the troubled birth of the youngest one, Zizzi. Something made her return, especially when she said she had been 'forgiven' by her fathers dying breath.
What happened in the ground zero event that caused so many rifts is revealed slowly with flashbacks mingled in between family revalations and rediscovered trinkets, not forgetting to let a few truths get spilt for the partners to stress over for good measure. It is all well thought out and set nicely in a beautiful Austrian countryside house. The characters are well rounded if not completely appealing they at least have a believability to them and a fragility that suggests their upbringing did not reflect the ideals. It was engaging and enjoyable, and like all the best examples of the genre, makes you want to know how things continue after the end. 7.5/10
Leeds Film Festival 2011: Day 3
Grave of the Fireflies (Jpn) (site)
Unfortunately, I missed the start of the film, but since I've seen it a few times before that's not a problem for reviewing purposes. My main reason for seeing it again is my desire to see the looks on people's faces when they leave the cinema afterwards, and the conversations you can overhear. Many people walk in unprepared, thinking that it's just a cartoon and they shouldn't expect much more than if they were watching a Disney flick.
Grave of the Fireflies is based on a semi-autobiographical book by Akiyuki Nosaka, who survived the firebombings of his home town and the subsequent obliteration of Hiroshima. Seita, a fifteen year-old boy and his younger sister, Setsuko are caught in the middle of the firebombings and in the chaos are parted from their mother, who later dies of her injuries. Forced to take shelter with their aunt, and then by themselves when she mistreats them, they are forced to live in a firebomb shelter, as their resolve and meagre food sources dry up.
The fragile beauty of innocent youth, surviving how they can while their world crumples around them. Buoyed temporarily by moments of delicately-drawn beauty and a genuine love between the two main characters, the viewer is nonetheless put through the wringer, and by the end, as you watch little Setsuko play innocently to the scratchy strains of 'there's no place like home' your eyes will be wet. 8/10
Toomelah (Aus) (site)
The aboriginal community of Toomelah has seen better days. It carries on as a mishmash of houses and caravans connected together by dirt roads and potholed pavements. Daniel is a young boy growing up in the absence of his father, who spends his time wandering round and sitting in the gutter. Mother seems half out of it, as you would expect when she's doing drugs. Father figures are few on the ground, and unfortunately the closest at hand are a group of wasters and their small-time gangster leader, Linden, the local one-stop shop for drugs Their caravan provides a refuge from the pressures of school, and it's not long before they graduate him from petty crime in GTA, to helping them out in real life.
Things turn worse when the previous pharmacist comes out of jail and looks to re-establish his patch, while at the same time muscling in on Daniel's home life by carrying on with his mum. He's confused, angry and too young to understand where he's headed.
As well as the main story, the director makes use of Aboriginal imagery and the far out staring of the elders in Daniels life to suggest a severed link to their heritage, and makes the case without saying it that it is this that is the cause of many of the problems on the screen. One scene shows the wasters talking about their totems in a way divorced from the reverence offered by their ancestors.
Though the film may put off sensitive ears - it's about as C-word crammed as you could fit in a film - it is also a sombre study of a decaying link with the past, a link sacrificed for something far less valuable for short-term gain. While that seems dark, there is also room for happiness, and a bit of humour, and the ending gives hope for the future. 7/10
Mitsuko Delivers (Jpn) (review and trailer)
Mitsuko is an oddity. A young, heavily pregnant woman who makes her decisions based on which way the wind is blowing, literally. Kind and thoughtful, but completely insane and unpredictable, it's not the best mentality to be imminently in receipt of child. Feeling some undefinable urge, she ups sticks one day and heads back to a run-down back street area of Tokyo where she spent a little of her childhood, dragged there with her parents who were fleeing from some bad debts. It's clear to see where she gets her itchy feet.
Back then it was rough and ready, but lets say it had 'character', and the personification of this was 'Granny', the landlady for several of the small rooms in the street and not someone you would want to take on. Granny clearly made an impression on Mitsuko, just as she did to Joichi, the young boy in the nearby restaurant who became infatuated. Fifteen years later. both are looking as run down as the street itself, now all but abandoned. But now Mitsuko is back, she can begin taking the world on her shoulders and sorting it all out. if only that baby would stop trying to be born.
A Japanese comedy with the usual familiar traits: overacting just seems to go with the territory in Eastern films, and Mitsuko can get a little.. passionate. But it's difficult not to enjoy it's appealing characters, bounding energy and positive storyline. It's not quite up to the form of last years' Departures, but it's a solid, fun, funny effort. 7.5/10
The River Used to be a Man (Ger) (review)
I can't tell if this film was meant to incite a degree of schadenfreude, but for me at least there was a guilty pleasure in seeing this young, arrogant and thoroughly unprepared fop get a serious wake-up call. An unnamed actor is travelling through Africa on a sabbatical, and after a couple of hairy near misses on the dark and slippery roads at night, the idea of taking a side-trip on a canoe, with a native tracker for a guide sounds like a perfect way to relax. He silently guides them through the marshlands, where landmarks are few and far between. Even if he was paying attention, which he's not he wouldn't be able to find his way back. On the trip there he spends most of it napping, and it's only round the campfire the following night deep into nowhere land, do the two actually get a conversation going.
It's a shame the guide is stone cold dead by the morning. He is lost, alone and completely unprepared. His kit? A torch and a book on birdwatching because he brought bugger all with him. Panic ensues, but at least he has enough good in him to attempt bringing the body back as well.
The rest of the film is his progress - of sorts; more by luck than skill of finding his way back. Stormy nights, angry wildlife and standoffish locals all cause him serious problems on his way, and his weak-willed attempts to get through it make you want to shout at him to get a backbone.
The idea of drifting constantly through marshes and scrub-land indistinguishable from the last bit would naturally get a bit samey after a while, and fortunately there is a bit of progress and variety to move things forward, but the film teases you, dangling little whiffs of salvation in front of you. Instead it concentrates on creating an increasingly dreamlike view where mirage and confusion trick both him and the viewer, leaving the ending deliberately ambiguous. 7/10
22nd of May (Bel) (site)
A single day, a very important day for one ordinary man. Sam gets up and leaves for work as a security guard in a Belgian shopping centre. As he stands outside, a bomb explodes within, knocking him to the ground and creating a dusty, fiery hell inside. Doing his job, he fights the ringing in his ears and heads into the smoke and flames, but after a few minutes of trying to help people, he panics and flees the scene until his legs cannot take him any further.
And then a woman who should be dead appears in front of him.
Some of the worst films I have seen start with confusion and never become clear. Some of the best films I have seen start with confusion and slowly reveal the director's vision as the film goes on. 22nd of May is certainly in the latter group. Reality and time go to pot for a while as the film keeps you guessing at what you are seeing for a while, and never spells it out for you, and it is better for not doing. I must confess I had a sinking feeling that it was turning into another Temptation of St. Tony but it was fortunately much better than that.
If I describe much more the enjoyment of the film will be spoilt, other than to say it is an ingenious attempt at manifesting the psychology of a man's torment in the real world. I would recommend this film to anyone who likes to be lightly bamboozled by what they see and have to do a little bit of the work to make the pieces fit. 8/10
Unfortunately, I missed the start of the film, but since I've seen it a few times before that's not a problem for reviewing purposes. My main reason for seeing it again is my desire to see the looks on people's faces when they leave the cinema afterwards, and the conversations you can overhear. Many people walk in unprepared, thinking that it's just a cartoon and they shouldn't expect much more than if they were watching a Disney flick.
Grave of the Fireflies is based on a semi-autobiographical book by Akiyuki Nosaka, who survived the firebombings of his home town and the subsequent obliteration of Hiroshima. Seita, a fifteen year-old boy and his younger sister, Setsuko are caught in the middle of the firebombings and in the chaos are parted from their mother, who later dies of her injuries. Forced to take shelter with their aunt, and then by themselves when she mistreats them, they are forced to live in a firebomb shelter, as their resolve and meagre food sources dry up.
The fragile beauty of innocent youth, surviving how they can while their world crumples around them. Buoyed temporarily by moments of delicately-drawn beauty and a genuine love between the two main characters, the viewer is nonetheless put through the wringer, and by the end, as you watch little Setsuko play innocently to the scratchy strains of 'there's no place like home' your eyes will be wet. 8/10
Toomelah (Aus) (site)
The aboriginal community of Toomelah has seen better days. It carries on as a mishmash of houses and caravans connected together by dirt roads and potholed pavements. Daniel is a young boy growing up in the absence of his father, who spends his time wandering round and sitting in the gutter. Mother seems half out of it, as you would expect when she's doing drugs. Father figures are few on the ground, and unfortunately the closest at hand are a group of wasters and their small-time gangster leader, Linden, the local one-stop shop for drugs Their caravan provides a refuge from the pressures of school, and it's not long before they graduate him from petty crime in GTA, to helping them out in real life.
Things turn worse when the previous pharmacist comes out of jail and looks to re-establish his patch, while at the same time muscling in on Daniel's home life by carrying on with his mum. He's confused, angry and too young to understand where he's headed.
As well as the main story, the director makes use of Aboriginal imagery and the far out staring of the elders in Daniels life to suggest a severed link to their heritage, and makes the case without saying it that it is this that is the cause of many of the problems on the screen. One scene shows the wasters talking about their totems in a way divorced from the reverence offered by their ancestors.
Though the film may put off sensitive ears - it's about as C-word crammed as you could fit in a film - it is also a sombre study of a decaying link with the past, a link sacrificed for something far less valuable for short-term gain. While that seems dark, there is also room for happiness, and a bit of humour, and the ending gives hope for the future. 7/10
Mitsuko Delivers (Jpn) (review and trailer)
Mitsuko is an oddity. A young, heavily pregnant woman who makes her decisions based on which way the wind is blowing, literally. Kind and thoughtful, but completely insane and unpredictable, it's not the best mentality to be imminently in receipt of child. Feeling some undefinable urge, she ups sticks one day and heads back to a run-down back street area of Tokyo where she spent a little of her childhood, dragged there with her parents who were fleeing from some bad debts. It's clear to see where she gets her itchy feet.
Back then it was rough and ready, but lets say it had 'character', and the personification of this was 'Granny', the landlady for several of the small rooms in the street and not someone you would want to take on. Granny clearly made an impression on Mitsuko, just as she did to Joichi, the young boy in the nearby restaurant who became infatuated. Fifteen years later. both are looking as run down as the street itself, now all but abandoned. But now Mitsuko is back, she can begin taking the world on her shoulders and sorting it all out. if only that baby would stop trying to be born.
A Japanese comedy with the usual familiar traits: overacting just seems to go with the territory in Eastern films, and Mitsuko can get a little.. passionate. But it's difficult not to enjoy it's appealing characters, bounding energy and positive storyline. It's not quite up to the form of last years' Departures, but it's a solid, fun, funny effort. 7.5/10
The River Used to be a Man (Ger) (review)
I can't tell if this film was meant to incite a degree of schadenfreude, but for me at least there was a guilty pleasure in seeing this young, arrogant and thoroughly unprepared fop get a serious wake-up call. An unnamed actor is travelling through Africa on a sabbatical, and after a couple of hairy near misses on the dark and slippery roads at night, the idea of taking a side-trip on a canoe, with a native tracker for a guide sounds like a perfect way to relax. He silently guides them through the marshlands, where landmarks are few and far between. Even if he was paying attention, which he's not he wouldn't be able to find his way back. On the trip there he spends most of it napping, and it's only round the campfire the following night deep into nowhere land, do the two actually get a conversation going.
It's a shame the guide is stone cold dead by the morning. He is lost, alone and completely unprepared. His kit? A torch and a book on birdwatching because he brought bugger all with him. Panic ensues, but at least he has enough good in him to attempt bringing the body back as well.
The rest of the film is his progress - of sorts; more by luck than skill of finding his way back. Stormy nights, angry wildlife and standoffish locals all cause him serious problems on his way, and his weak-willed attempts to get through it make you want to shout at him to get a backbone.
The idea of drifting constantly through marshes and scrub-land indistinguishable from the last bit would naturally get a bit samey after a while, and fortunately there is a bit of progress and variety to move things forward, but the film teases you, dangling little whiffs of salvation in front of you. Instead it concentrates on creating an increasingly dreamlike view where mirage and confusion trick both him and the viewer, leaving the ending deliberately ambiguous. 7/10
22nd of May (Bel) (site)
A single day, a very important day for one ordinary man. Sam gets up and leaves for work as a security guard in a Belgian shopping centre. As he stands outside, a bomb explodes within, knocking him to the ground and creating a dusty, fiery hell inside. Doing his job, he fights the ringing in his ears and heads into the smoke and flames, but after a few minutes of trying to help people, he panics and flees the scene until his legs cannot take him any further.
And then a woman who should be dead appears in front of him.
Some of the worst films I have seen start with confusion and never become clear. Some of the best films I have seen start with confusion and slowly reveal the director's vision as the film goes on. 22nd of May is certainly in the latter group. Reality and time go to pot for a while as the film keeps you guessing at what you are seeing for a while, and never spells it out for you, and it is better for not doing. I must confess I had a sinking feeling that it was turning into another Temptation of St. Tony but it was fortunately much better than that.
If I describe much more the enjoyment of the film will be spoilt, other than to say it is an ingenious attempt at manifesting the psychology of a man's torment in the real world. I would recommend this film to anyone who likes to be lightly bamboozled by what they see and have to do a little bit of the work to make the pieces fit. 8/10
Leeds Film Festival 2011: Day 2
Summer of Goliath (Mex/Can) (review)
According to this film, middle-aged Mexican women are strange creatures. Leave your wife, and you're likely to find her crawling through a lake wearing your clothes and making a sound like a pregnant hippo. I've just spoilt the ending there, sorry.
How we got there was anyone's guess. We started with a young man (Goliath, even though thats not his real name) accused of the murder of his girlfriend. Mad woman is left alone with an older lady who bears no relation who sells tacky merchandise by handing catalogs to strangers. Two army dropouts act generally useless and idiotic, and make no impact on the goings on, other than to arse about and intimidate old men on walks. Oh, and kick trees. Two lads play and half-bully a younger one who hangs around with them. All the males call each other 'faggots'. No sense is made and no structure reveals itself.
Yesterday's blurry shots and close-up back-following returned in abundance as we followed several of them wandering pointlessly through the undergrowth, leading nowhere and doing nothing when they got there. This is accompanied by many drawn out sequences while nothing happens. Example: Mad woman asks army drop-out son to memorise a letter we have just spent several minutes watching her write out on a pad. She then goes through it several times. It's painful.
There was very little about this film to enjoy. No structure, no meaning. I guess it was meant to show us life in a typical Mexican backwater village. It succeeded in that, but unfortunately they chose to dramatize a particularly disconnected and uneventful day. 4/10
Best Intentions (Rom/Hun) (review)
Romanian cinema often has a cold edginess to it, but this is an unusually benign example of the country's output. Alex and his girlfriend Delia pause their argument-peppered existence when news of Alex's mother having a stroke comes via the phone. Jobs and appointments are abandoned and Alex heads across the country to her side. Turns out he's a bit of a mummy's boy, and his desire to perhaps make up for his absence and ensure she is alright brings him to the centre of the decision making process. Leave her in the local hospital, or go to Cluj, which apparently has a better hospital but involves a risky trip. Mother seems on-off, sometimes lucid and others plastering her whole face with lipstick before it can be wrestled from her grasp. To complicate matters, fellow patients, doctors friends and random strangers all reinforce or knock down his intentions leaving him a confused child getting nothing done.
And that's the extent of the story really, an indulgent study on what happens when a family member has a scare in hospital, and how it affects the family around them, with a slightly useless man who seems to advertise his iPhone by strapping it to his head for half the flick trying to keep control of all the threads. It's not especially exciting, but its deconstruction of a man who thought he could take control and finally realise that he could not was well made. I guess the ideal audience for this would be those in a similar situation, as I guess Alex would generate a lot of empathy from them. Others will probably get bored, or lost in the quickfire subtitles and unnecessary medical terms. 6.5/10
The Other Side of Sleep (Irl/Ned/Hun) (review)
Director Rebecca Daly was briefly present at the start, although she postponed any Q and A until it's showing tomorrow since it was getting late. Her film tells the story of Arlene, a lonely, slight girl working a menial factory job by day and confining herself to her flat by night. Inconceivably, she wakes one morning in the middle of a forest, right next to a dead girl she does not recognise. In a panic she scrambles home and cleans her dirty clothes, and tries act normal at the factory later that day. A conspicuously missing bracelet, presumably left at the scene forever threatens to expose her connection, and as her behaviour becomes ever more erratic, piling on top of a handful of stressful events, she watches helplessly as the investigation close in, and local village tongues wag at the retribution the murderer will receive.
After a strong start, the film gets bogged down a little in the middle - an area which could have been trimmed a bit and had a little pep put in, but the film as a whole is an edgy, entertaining mystery thriller. Antonia Campbell Hughes plays the ambiguous and mysterious lead just perfectly keeps the viewer in the dark about her involvement until the very end. 7.5/10
According to this film, middle-aged Mexican women are strange creatures. Leave your wife, and you're likely to find her crawling through a lake wearing your clothes and making a sound like a pregnant hippo. I've just spoilt the ending there, sorry.
How we got there was anyone's guess. We started with a young man (Goliath, even though thats not his real name) accused of the murder of his girlfriend. Mad woman is left alone with an older lady who bears no relation who sells tacky merchandise by handing catalogs to strangers. Two army dropouts act generally useless and idiotic, and make no impact on the goings on, other than to arse about and intimidate old men on walks. Oh, and kick trees. Two lads play and half-bully a younger one who hangs around with them. All the males call each other 'faggots'. No sense is made and no structure reveals itself.
Yesterday's blurry shots and close-up back-following returned in abundance as we followed several of them wandering pointlessly through the undergrowth, leading nowhere and doing nothing when they got there. This is accompanied by many drawn out sequences while nothing happens. Example: Mad woman asks army drop-out son to memorise a letter we have just spent several minutes watching her write out on a pad. She then goes through it several times. It's painful.
There was very little about this film to enjoy. No structure, no meaning. I guess it was meant to show us life in a typical Mexican backwater village. It succeeded in that, but unfortunately they chose to dramatize a particularly disconnected and uneventful day. 4/10
Best Intentions (Rom/Hun) (review)
Romanian cinema often has a cold edginess to it, but this is an unusually benign example of the country's output. Alex and his girlfriend Delia pause their argument-peppered existence when news of Alex's mother having a stroke comes via the phone. Jobs and appointments are abandoned and Alex heads across the country to her side. Turns out he's a bit of a mummy's boy, and his desire to perhaps make up for his absence and ensure she is alright brings him to the centre of the decision making process. Leave her in the local hospital, or go to Cluj, which apparently has a better hospital but involves a risky trip. Mother seems on-off, sometimes lucid and others plastering her whole face with lipstick before it can be wrestled from her grasp. To complicate matters, fellow patients, doctors friends and random strangers all reinforce or knock down his intentions leaving him a confused child getting nothing done.
And that's the extent of the story really, an indulgent study on what happens when a family member has a scare in hospital, and how it affects the family around them, with a slightly useless man who seems to advertise his iPhone by strapping it to his head for half the flick trying to keep control of all the threads. It's not especially exciting, but its deconstruction of a man who thought he could take control and finally realise that he could not was well made. I guess the ideal audience for this would be those in a similar situation, as I guess Alex would generate a lot of empathy from them. Others will probably get bored, or lost in the quickfire subtitles and unnecessary medical terms. 6.5/10
The Other Side of Sleep (Irl/Ned/Hun) (review)
Director Rebecca Daly was briefly present at the start, although she postponed any Q and A until it's showing tomorrow since it was getting late. Her film tells the story of Arlene, a lonely, slight girl working a menial factory job by day and confining herself to her flat by night. Inconceivably, she wakes one morning in the middle of a forest, right next to a dead girl she does not recognise. In a panic she scrambles home and cleans her dirty clothes, and tries act normal at the factory later that day. A conspicuously missing bracelet, presumably left at the scene forever threatens to expose her connection, and as her behaviour becomes ever more erratic, piling on top of a handful of stressful events, she watches helplessly as the investigation close in, and local village tongues wag at the retribution the murderer will receive.
After a strong start, the film gets bogged down a little in the middle - an area which could have been trimmed a bit and had a little pep put in, but the film as a whole is an edgy, entertaining mystery thriller. Antonia Campbell Hughes plays the ambiguous and mysterious lead just perfectly keeps the viewer in the dark about her involvement until the very end. 7.5/10
Leeds Film Festival 2011: Day 1
What a time to get the snuffles, eh? A hefty wad of tickets sat teasing me on my desk this morning and by the evening, I'm stuck with a couple of pieces of hanky up my nose, trying to avoid the cameras as I make my way to the opening gala of the Leeds Film Festival.
Like a carbon copy of last year, but with different free booze, the entrance to Leeds Town Hall was crammed with eager film-goers waiting for it all to start. I notice a few familiar faces in the crowd from previous fests, and the odd glance of recognition is exchanged. We file our way into the main hall and I manage to plonk myself in my favourite seat.
It's the same venue, so again we had to contend with some iffy acoustics, but I've complained about this before, so I won't go on. We just had to make the best of it.
Director Andrea Arnold gets the honour of opening the festival with her next film after last years' Fish Tank (which unfortunately I happened to miss). After Arnold and a locally picked lineup of the film's stars suffered a rowdier than necessary reception from some idiots up in the rafters, (who got told to shut up, earning the director another round of applause from the rest of us,) perennial festival organiser Chris Fell got out of the way and the film began.
Once I heard that Wuthering Heights was getting a showing, I made sure my next book would be from my library of cheap classics that over several years I am slowly making my way through. It's a proper classic, and though the period style of vocab-rich chatter can take an initial adjustment period, it's one of those passionate page-turners that earns it's reputation.
Arnolds film attempts to bring the 300-ish pages of thick velvety prose and multi-generational love-hate tale down to a two hour film, and as you would expect, some elements are sacrificed. Not the location, of course. It's filmed entirely on the Yorkshire moors in all their foggy, muddy, gritty glory. Or the perceived living conditions which are lifted straight from the pages, faithfully painting a picture of the Heights as a semi-barbaric place that barely accommodates the living as so many seem to cough and die there. (Indeed, perhaps with tongue in cheek, Arnold signifies the imminent demise of several of the characters by them suddenly having a terrible cough, and croaking almost in the next scene, something parodied several times in popular culture.) What does go is the gentility and complexity of the script; whereas the book is filled with intricate conversations between the characters, these are reduced to their absolute minimum, and without the cut-glass accents and reservation of swearing you might expect either. Consequently the film loses some of the beauty that could have potentially been realised on the screen.
For those who haven't read the book, it tells the story of Heathcliff, a dark-skinned boy brought into Wuthering Heights - a remote farmhouse way up on the hills, cut off from the rest of the world in rain and snow. Treated badly at the start by the occupants - except for Mr. Earnshaw who brought him in, and his daughter Catherine, a wayward minx of a child who takes a shine to him. Slowly however his meagre comforts are removed, and when Catherine gives her hand to another, Heathcliff flees, vowing revenge on all who have done him bad. When he returns, he wreaks havok on the lives of all, regardless of whether they had done bad by him or not.
Though the story includes the lives of several generations of the Earnshaw family, and the partners in their entwined fate, the Lintons in nearby Thrushcross Grange, the film strips this down also, concentrating only on the feverish relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff and largely forgetting the rest. Mr Lockwood, in the position of the reader as the unfortunate man who stumbles on the households some years later is removed entirely, and the narrator of the bulk of the piece - the servant and diplomatic linchpin Ellen is only a background character. Consequently, what could possibly be seen as the most iconic scene from the book - the spooky and feverish hallucination of Lockwood as he spends the night in Cathy's room and feels an icy hand on his - is missing.
Is what remains any good? That will depend I think on whether you have read the book. I felt disappointed at the minimal script that was only loosely tied to the original, and some of the language (not only the clumsiness of the wording, but also all the jeffing going on!) felt very out of place and quite jarring. The camera work was a bit annoying too. A lot of fuzzy close-up shots where the cameraman was drunk or getting too familiar with the backs of the actors, interspersed with shots of the various fauna. It wore down the patience after a while.
So.. yeah. I wouldn't say it was bad, but there were several troubling elements that might have seemed less so without the words being fresh in my mind, mixed with a general feeling that too much had been cut out. There is a raw, bleeding passion present in the film, but it is of a less intensive, shallower kind than that achieved in the book, and despite the adult Cathy being played by the distractingly beautiful Kaya Scodelario (whose eyes could melt even Heathcliff's stony heart), it's not a film I would want to spend a second pair of hours re-watching. 7/10
Update: In the cold light of day, looking through some previous reviews of mine that got the same score (and were better films), Anonymous's post caused a rethink. 6/10
Like a carbon copy of last year, but with different free booze, the entrance to Leeds Town Hall was crammed with eager film-goers waiting for it all to start. I notice a few familiar faces in the crowd from previous fests, and the odd glance of recognition is exchanged. We file our way into the main hall and I manage to plonk myself in my favourite seat.
It's the same venue, so again we had to contend with some iffy acoustics, but I've complained about this before, so I won't go on. We just had to make the best of it.
Director Andrea Arnold gets the honour of opening the festival with her next film after last years' Fish Tank (which unfortunately I happened to miss). After Arnold and a locally picked lineup of the film's stars suffered a rowdier than necessary reception from some idiots up in the rafters, (who got told to shut up, earning the director another round of applause from the rest of us,) perennial festival organiser Chris Fell got out of the way and the film began.
Once I heard that Wuthering Heights was getting a showing, I made sure my next book would be from my library of cheap classics that over several years I am slowly making my way through. It's a proper classic, and though the period style of vocab-rich chatter can take an initial adjustment period, it's one of those passionate page-turners that earns it's reputation.
Arnolds film attempts to bring the 300-ish pages of thick velvety prose and multi-generational love-hate tale down to a two hour film, and as you would expect, some elements are sacrificed. Not the location, of course. It's filmed entirely on the Yorkshire moors in all their foggy, muddy, gritty glory. Or the perceived living conditions which are lifted straight from the pages, faithfully painting a picture of the Heights as a semi-barbaric place that barely accommodates the living as so many seem to cough and die there. (Indeed, perhaps with tongue in cheek, Arnold signifies the imminent demise of several of the characters by them suddenly having a terrible cough, and croaking almost in the next scene, something parodied several times in popular culture.) What does go is the gentility and complexity of the script; whereas the book is filled with intricate conversations between the characters, these are reduced to their absolute minimum, and without the cut-glass accents and reservation of swearing you might expect either. Consequently the film loses some of the beauty that could have potentially been realised on the screen.
For those who haven't read the book, it tells the story of Heathcliff, a dark-skinned boy brought into Wuthering Heights - a remote farmhouse way up on the hills, cut off from the rest of the world in rain and snow. Treated badly at the start by the occupants - except for Mr. Earnshaw who brought him in, and his daughter Catherine, a wayward minx of a child who takes a shine to him. Slowly however his meagre comforts are removed, and when Catherine gives her hand to another, Heathcliff flees, vowing revenge on all who have done him bad. When he returns, he wreaks havok on the lives of all, regardless of whether they had done bad by him or not.
Though the story includes the lives of several generations of the Earnshaw family, and the partners in their entwined fate, the Lintons in nearby Thrushcross Grange, the film strips this down also, concentrating only on the feverish relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff and largely forgetting the rest. Mr Lockwood, in the position of the reader as the unfortunate man who stumbles on the households some years later is removed entirely, and the narrator of the bulk of the piece - the servant and diplomatic linchpin Ellen is only a background character. Consequently, what could possibly be seen as the most iconic scene from the book - the spooky and feverish hallucination of Lockwood as he spends the night in Cathy's room and feels an icy hand on his - is missing.
Is what remains any good? That will depend I think on whether you have read the book. I felt disappointed at the minimal script that was only loosely tied to the original, and some of the language (not only the clumsiness of the wording, but also all the jeffing going on!) felt very out of place and quite jarring. The camera work was a bit annoying too. A lot of fuzzy close-up shots where the cameraman was drunk or getting too familiar with the backs of the actors, interspersed with shots of the various fauna. It wore down the patience after a while.
So.. yeah. I wouldn't say it was bad, but there were several troubling elements that might have seemed less so without the words being fresh in my mind, mixed with a general feeling that too much had been cut out. There is a raw, bleeding passion present in the film, but it is of a less intensive, shallower kind than that achieved in the book, and despite the adult Cathy being played by the distractingly beautiful Kaya Scodelario (whose eyes could melt even Heathcliff's stony heart), it's not a film I would want to spend a second pair of hours re-watching. 7/10
Update: In the cold light of day, looking through some previous reviews of mine that got the same score (and were better films), Anonymous's post caused a rethink. 6/10
Before the flood
It will soon be festival time and then there will be so many films, so why I squeeze others in is beyond me. Oh well.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (UK) (site)
John Le Carré's substantial novel makes ambitious subject matter for a film, and trying to fit it into a couple of hours was going to be difficult, even with Le Carré himself on board. Not only that, but it's dense, term-laden script would, if handled wrong either alienate fans of the work, or make the storyline impenetrable for those unfamiliar with George Smiley.
The film walks the line between both, and seems to err towards the latter. The viewer is given no concessions, and is piled straight into the thick, soupy spy scenario. A secret agent working for the British Intelligence Agency is shot and supposedly killed as he attempts to retrieve intelligence on a mission in Budapest. This is shown as flashback, and 'Control' - the head of the SIS and overseer to the handful of divisions including Smiley's, has to find a scapegoat. Smiley gets the chop.
At some time afterwards, a reshuffling has occurred since Control topped himself, but it seems that the balance of power has shifted and iffy goings on are afoot in the upper floors of the agency, and Smiley is asked back to investigate rumblings of supposed Russian dealings, that might go right to the top of the organisation. Things get hotter when Tarr, a supposed loose canon who went missing in Istanbul after reporting the mole winds up in his apartment, with tales of odd reactions and assassination attempts.
Whether you view a meaty plotline that won't be obvious until you've either read the book (I haven't) or watched the film a few times, will dictate your enjoyment of this film. I confess I was a little lost at times, although the film does take it's time to flesh out some key scenes in powerful silence. These are, after all, a bunch of middle-aged men in 1960's Britain - there was never going to be a hard rock soundtrack. What it lacked in action movie mayhem, it more than made up for in style and atmosphere. Gary Oldman was unrecognisable but perfect for Smiley, John Hurt played a brief but pleasingly grumpy Control, and the casting choices for the rest of the rather large array of characters were spot on. The tempered colour schemes and drab weather put us right in the middle of Le Carré's universe, feeling both cosy and dangerous at the same time.
I would very much like to catch this film at least once more to get a hold of the bits I missed the first time around, and it has also encouraged me to spend some time looking up the rest of the Smiley stories.
The Adventures of Tintin (US) (wiki/site)
There were good signs with this film. Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson at the helm, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as the Thompson twins, and a pretty decent looking trailer that showed the film wasn't aimed so much at kids, as adults who grew up with the books and cartoons.
So was it any good? Yes, I think it was. Once you get over the slight creepiness of the lifelike-yet-still-cartoon style of animation similar to that in the Polar Express (which is very impressive by the way) you begin to get an appreciation of how much work has gone into the picture; from the more traditionally animated opening segment to the little references here and there to the originals. Adults over a certain age will find themselves with a big grin on their faces.
As said, the action stays faithful to the 'feel' (seriousness/time period/locations) of the original. No Thunderbirds-style modern Americanisation here. It is set quite early on in the Tintin universe, as it is mostly concerned with him meeting with Captain Haddock, who happens to hold the secret to a massive treasure hidden by his pirate ancestor. Like a European Indiana Jones, it has a fine mix of secret agents and bad guys and international travel pitched at a level just complicated enough to entertain the adults but not confuse the children; and though the director has been tempted make use of computing power to insert a few action scenes that look out of place when compared to the original source material, this doesn't distract enough to spoil the film. It ends with the promise of a sequel, and by this point I was fully happy to go see one.
There was really only one problem with the film, and that was the slimmed-down list of characters from the books, which aside from Tintin and Snowy, consisted only Haddock and the satisfyingly bumbling Thompson twins. Hopefully though, if a sequel happens we'll get some of the others too. 8/10
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (UK) (site)
John Le Carré's substantial novel makes ambitious subject matter for a film, and trying to fit it into a couple of hours was going to be difficult, even with Le Carré himself on board. Not only that, but it's dense, term-laden script would, if handled wrong either alienate fans of the work, or make the storyline impenetrable for those unfamiliar with George Smiley.
The film walks the line between both, and seems to err towards the latter. The viewer is given no concessions, and is piled straight into the thick, soupy spy scenario. A secret agent working for the British Intelligence Agency is shot and supposedly killed as he attempts to retrieve intelligence on a mission in Budapest. This is shown as flashback, and 'Control' - the head of the SIS and overseer to the handful of divisions including Smiley's, has to find a scapegoat. Smiley gets the chop.
At some time afterwards, a reshuffling has occurred since Control topped himself, but it seems that the balance of power has shifted and iffy goings on are afoot in the upper floors of the agency, and Smiley is asked back to investigate rumblings of supposed Russian dealings, that might go right to the top of the organisation. Things get hotter when Tarr, a supposed loose canon who went missing in Istanbul after reporting the mole winds up in his apartment, with tales of odd reactions and assassination attempts.
Whether you view a meaty plotline that won't be obvious until you've either read the book (I haven't) or watched the film a few times, will dictate your enjoyment of this film. I confess I was a little lost at times, although the film does take it's time to flesh out some key scenes in powerful silence. These are, after all, a bunch of middle-aged men in 1960's Britain - there was never going to be a hard rock soundtrack. What it lacked in action movie mayhem, it more than made up for in style and atmosphere. Gary Oldman was unrecognisable but perfect for Smiley, John Hurt played a brief but pleasingly grumpy Control, and the casting choices for the rest of the rather large array of characters were spot on. The tempered colour schemes and drab weather put us right in the middle of Le Carré's universe, feeling both cosy and dangerous at the same time.
I would very much like to catch this film at least once more to get a hold of the bits I missed the first time around, and it has also encouraged me to spend some time looking up the rest of the Smiley stories.
The Adventures of Tintin (US) (wiki/site)
There were good signs with this film. Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson at the helm, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as the Thompson twins, and a pretty decent looking trailer that showed the film wasn't aimed so much at kids, as adults who grew up with the books and cartoons.
So was it any good? Yes, I think it was. Once you get over the slight creepiness of the lifelike-yet-still-cartoon style of animation similar to that in the Polar Express (which is very impressive by the way) you begin to get an appreciation of how much work has gone into the picture; from the more traditionally animated opening segment to the little references here and there to the originals. Adults over a certain age will find themselves with a big grin on their faces.
As said, the action stays faithful to the 'feel' (seriousness/time period/locations) of the original. No Thunderbirds-style modern Americanisation here. It is set quite early on in the Tintin universe, as it is mostly concerned with him meeting with Captain Haddock, who happens to hold the secret to a massive treasure hidden by his pirate ancestor. Like a European Indiana Jones, it has a fine mix of secret agents and bad guys and international travel pitched at a level just complicated enough to entertain the adults but not confuse the children; and though the director has been tempted make use of computing power to insert a few action scenes that look out of place when compared to the original source material, this doesn't distract enough to spoil the film. It ends with the promise of a sequel, and by this point I was fully happy to go see one.
There was really only one problem with the film, and that was the slimmed-down list of characters from the books, which aside from Tintin and Snowy, consisted only Haddock and the satisfyingly bumbling Thompson twins. Hopefully though, if a sequel happens we'll get some of the others too. 8/10
I've Done This
And so have quite a few others, to my surprise. I think I shall do it again, after hearing this guy list the reasons.
How many times has a wad of junk mail dropped through your letter box, asking you AGAIN whether you'd like a loan, or offering a free shiny pen set for signing your life away? Plenty, I would guess. I confess that after a particularly stressful time at work, one such establishment received retribution in the form of their business reply envelope being stuffed with other junk mail (with identifying data carefully removed of course), and just in case they were a bit hungry, last nights potato peelings, topped off with a few application forms filled in entirely with swear words.
It turns out I revert to a teenager's mentality when sufficiently annoyed.
But it seems, give or take a cuss-word, that I am not alone, and the tactic can be modified to allow us armchair Occupy activists to do our bit. Give a bit of much needed cash to the Post Office, make (some) use of all that paper, have a bit of a dig at the banks, and keep them busy at their own expense.
How many times has a wad of junk mail dropped through your letter box, asking you AGAIN whether you'd like a loan, or offering a free shiny pen set for signing your life away? Plenty, I would guess. I confess that after a particularly stressful time at work, one such establishment received retribution in the form of their business reply envelope being stuffed with other junk mail (with identifying data carefully removed of course), and just in case they were a bit hungry, last nights potato peelings, topped off with a few application forms filled in entirely with swear words.
It turns out I revert to a teenager's mentality when sufficiently annoyed.
But it seems, give or take a cuss-word, that I am not alone, and the tactic can be modified to allow us armchair Occupy activists to do our bit. Give a bit of much needed cash to the Post Office, make (some) use of all that paper, have a bit of a dig at the banks, and keep them busy at their own expense.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)