tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50771996322239621392024-03-06T04:31:55.843+00:00Cinephile CrocodileCinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.comBlogger4291125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-8995862248613615492020-11-05T13:00:00.001+00:002020-11-05T13:00:23.251+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikhfL2ITKiPtwgSj0uwzQMxcd94ZXIMkiMXaiIKok1gzxRJa5v4En0nzhzliD7gASMO1cKc9juzXZ_92pvA4QuaxHNFKUkVFb6Vo_rS3PWZbgU56_Nf_SY9JkJYo71dBeP6ae8g1uKqzzI/s1600/Freaked+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="758" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikhfL2ITKiPtwgSj0uwzQMxcd94ZXIMkiMXaiIKok1gzxRJa5v4En0nzhzliD7gASMO1cKc9juzXZ_92pvA4QuaxHNFKUkVFb6Vo_rS3PWZbgU56_Nf_SY9JkJYo71dBeP6ae8g1uKqzzI/s640/Freaked+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcTXlLcGQtMeeuBc_s4Wer279qsDPvs5Tb0jBD1bLjMthLozHaemoo2gG0CgMGp9id67267HCU6GHOj5By4ttiYTjLzkgp0tv9A3dn63Yx8569_IsPpL1mDJsqx1FHwHso46cEHsmU4GWl/s1600/Freaked+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="630" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcTXlLcGQtMeeuBc_s4Wer279qsDPvs5Tb0jBD1bLjMthLozHaemoo2gG0CgMGp9id67267HCU6GHOj5By4ttiYTjLzkgp0tv9A3dn63Yx8569_IsPpL1mDJsqx1FHwHso46cEHsmU4GWl/s640/Freaked+3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGLTZ9q0pf0zjxQv-IqBPvDOAXQ4sk6l56mXZgOG75n4GeYyJacL9i7-bMFt0nU9svmfstA7ZrNj1ee-sByDg7yBLkfGP4RlURpJ2K_9pX_tLumcZaZ9FBN8-gs4TQqQdG4QDV_DPiO_LY/s1600/Freaked+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="368" data-original-width="688" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGLTZ9q0pf0zjxQv-IqBPvDOAXQ4sk6l56mXZgOG75n4GeYyJacL9i7-bMFt0nU9svmfstA7ZrNj1ee-sByDg7yBLkfGP4RlURpJ2K_9pX_tLumcZaZ9FBN8-gs4TQqQdG4QDV_DPiO_LY/s640/Freaked+4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Freaked</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span>Alex Winter, Tom Stern<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">1993</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">*****</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Something
terrible happened in the early 90s. Studios, who would quite happily let
established directors piss money up the walls, suddenly lost their bottle. You
have to look at the Coppola’s of the game, who over-ran on projects and made
many a studio executive’s heart weak. They made a few masterpieces for sure,
but their work ethic made studios nervous because it lost them money. It’s
always about the money, which is understandable, but more and more studios
couldn’t see beyond the money. Now I am surprised that 20th Century Fox went
for the film quite as much as they did. Alex Winter and Tom Stern pitched the
idea to 20th Century Fox and Joe Roth, the head of the studio at that
time, loved the idea and offered the two a twelve million dollar deal to direct
it, despite the fact that neither of them had any experience directing a major
Hollywood film and had never even shot on 35mm film before. Freaked,
originally called Hideous Mutant Freekz, was conceived around the
time Winter and Stern had directed 1988's Bar-B-Que Movie, a short film
starring and featuring the music of rock band Butthole Surfers. Winter,
Stern and Surfers frontman Gibby Haynes began work on the first draft
of the script, envisioning it as an obscene, ultra-violent horror film once
again featuring the Butthole Surfers, costing around $100,000. The idea was, as
Alex Winter put it, "Beach Blanket Bingo meets The Evil
Dead". The two fished the script around to various studios for years, but
to no avail. Following the end of production on Stern and Winter's MTV sketch
comedy show The Idiot Box, staff writer Tim Burns was recruited to join
the two in a number of rewrites. The film was completely revisioned, dropping
the aspect of the Butthole Surfers entirely and turning it into a full comedy in
the vein of the Monty Python and MAD Magazine-inspired humour
that was present in The Idiot Box. Joe Roth loved it but signed them up on
the condition that the film had to be rewritten and toned down to fit
a PG-13 rating; therefore, most of the profanity was written out of
the final draft to fit MPAA standards. Within a month of being picked up, the
film began production. However, during filming, Joe Roth was fired as studio
head by Rupert Murdoch and replaced with Peter Chernin, who didn't
like the film nor the fact that twelve million dollars was being invested in
it. It was perhaps a little premature of Roth to release a line of action
figures, a novelization and, most notably, a comic book released by Hamilton
Comics that was drawn before most of the casting was completed, so none of its
characters looked anything like their real-life counterparts. Chernin cut the
film's post-production budget, thus forcing a lot of the soundtrack (including
a demo song that Iggy Pop had recorded for the closing credits) and
special effects to be greatly cut down or eliminated altogether. The film's
title was changed, as well, from the poorly received "Hideous Mutant
Freekz" to the supposedly more accessible "Freaked", a title
neither Winter nor Stern much cared for. After several poor test screenings,
Fox chose to pull the film from a nationwide release and cut its advertising
budget, leaving no money for commercials or newspaper ads. Despite initial
positive critical response, the film opened in October 1993 on only two
screens, making a mere $6,957 in its first weekend. It quickly dropped out of
theatres, making less than $30,000 and becoming a box-office failure. It
doesn’t take a genius to see that by trying to save money, the studio ended up
loosing way more than they had to. The whole concept of test screening is
utterly ridiculous. The film is amazing, a cult classic, although so few people
have seen it it still isn’t the cult classic it deserves to be acknowledged as.
It’s everything I love about the 90s. It begins with Skye Daley (Brooke
Shields) as she is interviewing beloved former child star Ricky Coogin (Alex
Winter). Rather bluntly, Skye asks how Ricky so quickly went from one of
America's sweethearts to a name that makes children scream in terror. Ricky, completely
in silhouette, begins his story. Ricky is shown accepting an endorsement
contract from slimy mega-corporation E.E.S. (Everything Except Shoes) to
promote "Zygrot 24", a toxic fertilizer, in South America. Although
hesitant at first, the greedy, self-centered Coogin caves in after their sleazy
CEO (William Sadler) offers him $5,000,000. Ricky travels immediately to the
South American town of "Santa Flan" with his buddy Ernie (Michael
Stoyanov). During their flight, the duo have a run-in with Ricky's 12-year old
number one fan Stuey Gluck (Alex Zuckerman). Stuey begs Rick not to promote
Zygrot 24 only to accidentally fall out of the plane. Once Ricky and Ernie
arrive in Santa Flan, they cross paths with an angry group protesting Zygrot 24
and Ricky. In the group is environmentalist Julie (Megan Ward), who
Ricky is instantly smitten with. The two con Julie into thinking they're also
environmentalists (Ricky posing as a highly injured accident victim, his face
covered in bandages) and she agrees to join them on a trip to another protest.
However, she soon finds out their true identities and the three are stuck with
each other for the rest of the drive. They decide to take a detour to see Freek
Land, a local freak show only to wind up in the clutches of demented
proprietor and mad scientist Elijah C. Skuggs (Randy Quaid) and his henchman,
Toad (Jaime Cardriche). Utilizing his "Testy Freeks Machine", he
merges Julie and Ernie into a single body and turns Ricky into a hideous green
mutation. As Elijah has run out of Zygrot, only half of Ricky's body is
mutated. Ricky meets the other freaks, including Ortiz the Dog
Boy (an uncredited Keanu Reeves) Worm (Derek McGrath) a giant arthropod,
Cowboy (John Hawkes) a literal anthropomorphic cow, the Bearded
Lady (Mr. T in a dress) and Sockhead (Bobcat Goldthwait), who has
a sock puppet for a head. Ricky has trouble adjusting to his new life
as a freak, though he opens up when some of the other freaks recount how they
were captured and disfigured by Elijah. During his first performance, Ricky
foregoes his act (which inexplicably had him dressing like a caveman) and with
some suggestions from Worm he performs a Shakespearean monologue which
captivates the audience. Spotting his agent in the crowd, Ricky jumps off the
stage hoping to be rescued, but flies into a murderous rage when the agent
makes fun of him. Ricky tears his agent's head off and the crowd runs screaming
into the night, with Elijah simply noting "that's what I call
entertainment." The next day Ricky discovers to his horror that he is
seeing a floating specter of Stuey. He angrily shoes Stuey's astral form away,
but Cowboy states that only a pair of soulmates can have such a strong
telepathic bond. After multiple failed attempts to sell the story to newspapers
Stuey manages to sell Ricky's story to the Weekly World News, who will
print anything, but ends up being captured by a group of shady businessmen that
work for E.E.S. Ricky tries to escape by stealing the outfit of a milkman, only
to be captured by Skuggs's gun-toting Rastafarian eyeball henchmen (literally
giant eyeballs with Rastafarian accents and headwear) and brought before
Elijah. Skuggs tells Ricky he plans to have him fully mutated into a
blood-thirsty monster who will kill all the other freaks at the next show. On
his way back to the freaks shed, he runs into the other freaks also making an
escape attempt, and also dressed as milkmen. Ricky butts heads with Ortiz and
the two fight until Ortiz is distracted by a squirrel and runs off, the Rasta
eyeballs in pursuit. With Ortiz gone Ricky is named the new Freaks leader.
Ricky and the freaks break into Skugg's lab to create a serum that will
complete Ricky's mutation and have him kill Skuggs instead of the freaks. Ricky
accidentally leaves the concoction in the lab, but finds a bag of tasty
macaroons which the freaks enjoy. Ricky eventually finds out that Elijah's
Zygrot suppliers are none other than E.E.S., who arrive at Freek Land with a
shipment of Zygrot 24 and an imprisoned Stuey Gluck. As they discuss their
plans to mutate the world's population into an race of E.E.S workers and
consumers, Stuey follows a telepathic tip from Rick and manages to escape,
grabbing the coffee can of mutation goo left behind by Ricky along the way. On
the night of the show, Stuey appears with the batch of Zygrot only to have an
annoyed biker dump it onto him, which turns him into a grotesque seven-foot
monster. Stuey kills the biker and prepares to storm the stage and save Ricky.
The Rasta eyeballs attempt to kill Stuey but he kicks dust into their eyes,
blinding them. Toad tries to swallow Stuey only for Julie and Ernie to throw an
M80 onto Toad's tongue which he swallows and promptly explodes. In response,
Elijah infects Ricky with his own Zygrot, turning him into an equally grotesque
seven-foot monster. As Ricky and Stuey battle to the death onstage, Elijah
notices the E.E.S. executives trying to steal his equipment. Elijah stops them
by soaking them with a Zygrot bazooka, mutating and merging them all into a
giant, fleshy shoe. Right before Ricky is about to destroy Stuey, Cowboy
reminds him that Stuey is his soulmate. A wave of compassion comes over him,
and he gives Stuey a hug. Enraged, Elijah unsuccessfully tries to fight Ricky,
who bashes him in the head, breaking his spine. Skuggs tries to get Ricky not
to kill him by offering him the antidote for his mutation, telling him it was a
time-delayed serum baked into a batch of macaroons. Ricky comments that he
skimped on the sugar and punches Skuggs, sending him flying into the vat of
Zygrot 24. An FBI task force arrives to save Ricky after having learned of
Stuey's article. Skuggs suddenly reemerges from the Vat, having taken the form
of Skye Daley. The FBI task force guns Skuggs/Skye down.Back at the interview,
it's revealed that Ricky had turned back to normal (along with most of the
other freaks, except for Worm, who hates Macaroons). They are then joined by
Ortiz who has finally caught the squirrel and Stuey, still a giant super-freak.
Skye comments on Elijah mutating to look like her, and Ricky realizes that Skye
actually is Elijah. Skuggs lunges after Ricky with a machete, only to be
gunned down by the now normal Julie. As she embraces Ricky, Skye rises again,
this time to be gunned down by Ernie. Ricky and Julie kiss and everyone waves
farewell to the audience until the film ends on a frozen shot of Skuggs once
again rising up to attack Ricky. It was the ultimate film to me back in 1993.
It had Bill & Ted, it had Brooke Shields, it had MR T!!! It is amazing John
Hawkes had such a shining career after this. William Sadler, from Bill &
Ted, was great and this was probably my favourite Randy Quaid performance of
all time. I also think Bobcat Goldthwait’s Sockhead is the greatest character
of all time and should have had his own film. Add to that the great music and
the amazing special effects from the three best effects companies of the day:
Tony Gardner's company Alterian, Inc., Steve Johnson's XFX, Inc., and
Screaming Mad George's Studio and what you are left with is possibly the
greatest example of early 90s counter-culture. This would have been a classic
had it been given a proper release. The irony is that it would be a better
known film had it been as bad as the studio thought it was. Films like Troll 2
are now official cult classics because they’re known as ‘best worst’ but
Freaked doesn’t fall into that category. Freaked is the best, it’s just that
not enough people know it.</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-72330503984647101792020-11-05T13:00:00.000+00:002020-11-05T13:00:07.395+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqdc-iltwrVMiIUmgisOakwNeYpuCu-ba3umfnq35l-4moZvTgrFSnMCrZ6nt2mzHb6GiEgB0K-KW0mTcuo1QEDd_CHR58d7qCuXQ_ytGutPPuDI9HNCdTglh4GBQopD5S-vGiWXLD61ar/s1600/Down+to+the+Bone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="321" data-original-width="485" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqdc-iltwrVMiIUmgisOakwNeYpuCu-ba3umfnq35l-4moZvTgrFSnMCrZ6nt2mzHb6GiEgB0K-KW0mTcuo1QEDd_CHR58d7qCuXQ_ytGutPPuDI9HNCdTglh4GBQopD5S-vGiWXLD61ar/s640/Down+to+the+Bone.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Down
to the Bone</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Debra Granik</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">2004</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">****</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I
have to say I feel a little sorry for Debra Granik. Her 2004 feature debut
should have put her on the map, and it did to some degree, but it will be
remembered most for Vera Farmiga’s utterly compelling performance. Her 2010
follow up Winter’s Bone drew huge amounts of praise but again, it was the
making of Jennifer Lawrence, rather than herself. I like to think people know
her now after the brilliant Leave No Trace but who knows, either way, she’s a
phenomenal director who deserves more credit. Visual flare aside, what really
makes her a great director is her generosity and the way she allows each actor to
flourish. This is why people remember the performances and the actors, rather
than her, and its that kind of integrity that the industry needs more of. I’ve
never directed a film, so that might sound condescending, but it annoys me
because I think artists such as Granik are woefully overlooked, even though
they make great film after great film. Down to the Bone tells the tale of Irene
Morrison (Vera Farmiga), a working class mother of two boys, who lives
in Upstate New York and works as a supermarket cashier. We learn
early on that she is keeping a cocaine addiction a secret from her
family. Much of the film is fly on the wall family stuff; her eldest son
pesters her to buy him a pet snake for his birthday; her husband builds them a
second bathroom; the marriage is largely sexless etc. On the night
of Halloween, Irene takes her kids trick-or-treating and, at one of the
houses they visit, she meets Bob (Hugh Dillon), a nurse, and there is a
connection. The next day, Irene takes the kids to a reptile shop to buy a
snake, but finds that they don't have enough money for one. While her boys wait
in the car, Irene visits her dealer, asking him for another fix, but he refuses
since she hasn't been paying for the last couple of weeks. At work, Irene
contemplates taking money from the cash register. She then goes back to her
dealer with Ben's birthday money given to her from her mother-in-law, but the
dealer refuses to take it. We follow her day to day life as she juggles normal
life with a clear craving for drugs. At a support meeting about cravings, she
meets fellow addict Lucy (Caridad de la Luz), and befriends her. While at the
facility, Irene again encounters Bob. Before she leaves, Bob visits with a book
that helped him during his quitting phase, and offers her his support. At
Irene's first Narcotics Anonymous meeting, a man celebrates one year
of abstinence. In the following weeks, Irene finds it difficult to stay clean
when her friends use drugs around her. One day at work, she is called into the
manager's office. She is told her usual fast work has slowed and she admits her
past drug, proclaiming it was the drugs that helped her work so quickly. Her
honesty costs her and she is subsequently fired. Lucy suggests they start a
cleaning business in order to gain money, to which Irene agrees. On the way to
her next NA meeting, Irene offers to give Bob a ride and the pair begin an
affair. Bob then takes her to a snake breeder so she can purchase one for Ben.
The night the two become intimate, Bob excuses himself to the bathroom. Irene
then walks in to find him shooting up. Furious at his hypocrisy, she
argues with him, kicks him out but ends up using his drugs and the pair later
reconcile. After taking drugs in Bob's car one night, the two are pulled over
by the police. They are both arrested and detained when an officer finds a drug
burner on the dashboard and a half-ounce of heroin. A lawyer briefs Irene on
her best sentencing option: if she pleads guilty, she must commit to 50
individual counselling sessions, 100 group counselling sessions, and 250 NA
meetings a year; he informs her that if she screws up, she'll be sentenced to
several years incarceration in a state prison. When she arrives home, she
admits her affair to Steve, who tells her to move out. Lucy gives her a place
to crash, although she's angry with Irene for flaking out on a job. Irene
eventually finds herself a house and gets some custody of her kids. After
another of Irene's Narcotics meetings, Bob shows up to apologize for getting
her caught up in his mess and subsequently avoiding her calls. Irene forgives
him and he begins to stay at her house. Meanwhile, Bob is using, but intends to
start going to support meetings again. His dealer tries to persuade him to sell
some pills, but he refuses. Irene realizes he's been getting high by combining
his prescribed methadone and other drugs, and as a result could endanger her
kids; she confronts him and silently asks him to leave – the first step, we
hope, of her full recovery. It’s a very gritty and realistic drama that shows
that there is no glamour to drug addiction and many addicts lead normal lives.
Addiction ruins families and relationships and makes bad people of good folk,
and this is what Done to the Bone shows perfectly. Stark and powerful, as it
should be.</span></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-50888635749373285632020-11-05T12:59:00.003+00:002020-11-05T12:59:51.580+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoyAQxXRsM716obhYdxUuuc1fbBCDFZRwpYF7yZL6fABsVnFgbFuzwDDHM9RHCqaXqFiW9NOQfzDQ-TwNXyfIKyU6Uost9B9tNA-VXhyphenhyphenHVvkpEW_UCwW5rcs4AX7Pua0uylGOVdWSPt_Oz/s1600/Lemon+Tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="848" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoyAQxXRsM716obhYdxUuuc1fbBCDFZRwpYF7yZL6fABsVnFgbFuzwDDHM9RHCqaXqFiW9NOQfzDQ-TwNXyfIKyU6Uost9B9tNA-VXhyphenhyphenHVvkpEW_UCwW5rcs4AX7Pua0uylGOVdWSPt_Oz/s640/Lemon+Tree.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Lemon Tree</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dir: Eran Riklis<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2008<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: yellow;">*****</span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Director Eran Riklis had covered personal
relationships between Arabs and Middle Eastern Jews in his previous
films The Syrian Bride and Cup Final, achieving widespread
success in Israel as well as with international audiences. It’s safe to say
expectations for his next film were high but when dealing with a story like
Lemon Tree, he was always going to upset someone. I think it is an
extraordinary film but even though Riklis says its not about the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it clearly is and he shouldn’t shy away from the
fact. That said, the end message is universal. The story begins when
the Israeli Defense Minister Israel Navon (Doron Tavory) moves to a
house on the border between Israel and the West Bank, with the
building sitting on the Israeli side just next to the dividing line. The
Israeli Secret Service views the neighboring lemon grove of Salma Zidane (Hiam
Abbass), a Palestinian widow whose family has cared for the area for
generations, as a threat to the minister and his wife. The security forces soon
set up a guard post and a fence around the grove. They then obtain an order to
uproot the lemon trees. Salma feels isolated given that her son has moved
to Washington, D.C. and her daughters are now married. The local
village elder Abu Kamal (Makram Khoury) advises her to give in, but Salma
decides to work with the young lawyer Ziad Daud (Ali Suliman). They take their
case all the way to the Supreme Court. All the while Mira Navon (Rona
Lipaz-Michael), the minister's wife, sympathizes with Salma as she watches her
from over the fence. The court case receives notable media attention, and Mira
gives a news interview that her husband regrets. Mira believes that the Israeli
military overreacted, and she also shares Salma's sense of
personal loneliness. Although they never speak, a complex human bond
develops between the two women. As the Palestinian cause is dismissed, Mira
decides to leave her husband and a stark concrete wall is built between Salma's
land and the Defense Minister's house. A final camera shot reveals the lemon
trees have all been pruned. It’s about as devastating a final moment of a film
can be. Riklis has said that he designed the film to be essentially apolitical,
focusing on character development rather than exploring the issues of
the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He has said that he created a 'fairy
tale quality' to the film in which the audience can sympathize with all of
the people featured in it. He stated that "I wanted to populate this film
with a lot of faces and give each character their own moment of grace, even
when, on the surface, it's one of the 'bad guys,' so to speak.. ... This film
does address the ugly side of occupation perhaps, yet no blood is spilled.” A
fictional representation of the Israeli West Bank barrier punctuates
the film throughout. While he has a point, the uprooting of the lemon trees
feels almost as bad as a death. Your opinion of the film really depends upon
your views but I think the viewer should reflect upon the fact that Riklis is
Israeli himself. Those who criticised the film the loudest upon its release
also claimed the film was too "fem-centric", as well as anti-Israeli
and pro-Palestinian. I think that speaks volumes. The truth is, the plot was
based on a real life incident. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul
Mofaz moved to the border within Israel and the occupied
territories and security forces began cutting down the lemon
trees beside his house, arguing that it could be used by terrorists as a
hiding place. The Palestinian family who owned the trees sued the minister and
took the case all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court. They lost, and
their trees had to be cut down. Riklis watched a news report about the case
online before developing the story further in a fictional setting. It really
does make all criticism and accusations of it being anti-Israeli quite absurd,
it is essentially a true story. Riklis forges into areas other Israeli
filmmakers won't venture and I’m glad he does. Salma and Mira are fictional characters
but there are thousands of Salmas and Miras in the middle east, this film is
for them. Unsurprisingly, the film did well in Palestine but not so well in
Israel. The conflict will go on for a long time, hopefully the Salmas and the
Miras will one day be able to communicate and live together, and hopefully
there will be some lemons left for them both to enjoy. One day this will be a
film people watch in history lessons and they will struggle to understand how
the world can be this way, that day can’t come soon enough. Thankfully we have
artists and film makers like Riklis who are bold enough to communicate with
both sides at risk to himself and his career.</span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-92167701967676440372020-11-05T12:59:00.002+00:002020-11-05T12:59:38.345+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYhKKVY_ZByKE2x4Y2xx7htYWbdcnNlxsInFM9tjY1aatkKK9puklVHvTetGk5XCaMmCVAVQUwcf9hSzAxE9rf6mjUC5NYb8YEr2cTcGfYmyjBaM1thY7HcqMWGz9Ic3A5ujxUMxRoMdzc/s1600/Les+combattants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="754" data-original-width="1400" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYhKKVY_ZByKE2x4Y2xx7htYWbdcnNlxsInFM9tjY1aatkKK9puklVHvTetGk5XCaMmCVAVQUwcf9hSzAxE9rf6mjUC5NYb8YEr2cTcGfYmyjBaM1thY7HcqMWGz9Ic3A5ujxUMxRoMdzc/s640/Les+combattants.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Les
combattants (AKA Love at First Fight)</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Thomas Cailley</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">2014</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">****</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Les
Combattants, or Love at First Fight as it is also known, is a touching and
rather unexpectedly sweet tale or romance when opposites don’t, and then do
attract. I don’t like to generalize but I find that the French always manage to
produce a sweeter kind of romance film, ones where the quirky, while very much
there, never distract from the chemistry of the couple in question. Les
Combattants literally translates as ‘The Fighters’, which goes some way in
telling the audience that this isn’t going to be your typical boy meets girl
scenario. It is neither conventional or predictable, but it is rather
wonderful. The ‘boy’ in this ‘boy meets girl’ tale is Arnaud (Kévin Azaïs), a
carpenter in business with his far more enthusiastic brother. He’s easy going,
relaxed, mild-mannered..docile even. He takes life in his stride, carpentry
doesn’t really seem for him but while he might wonder if he is meant for other
things, he certainly isn’t looking. That said, he would never let down his
brother. In the opening scene, he and his brother Manu are informed of the
passing of their father and the pair set about making a coffin for him, only to
be told home-made coffins are not allowed at burials. While visiting a couple
who are interested in having a pergola built in their garden, Arnaud is
distracted by their daughter Madeleine (Adèle Haenel). Madeleine is strange,
determined and almost nihilistic. She is obsessed with mastering the art of
extreme survival skill and spends hours holding her breath in her parent’s
pool. She is determined to be ready for the end of the world, should it be on
the immediate horizon. The pair clash immediately, Arnaud is intrigued but
confused by Madeleine’s attitude and Madeleine doesn’t seem to give a damn
about anything but her own survival achievements. It is clear however that both
are unsure of their futures, while their ways may feel quirky and even a little
extreme, they are very much typical teenagers approaching adulthood. Arnaud is
strangely drawn to Madeleine and Madeleine does not push him away. When
Madeleine declares that she is joining the French Army, Arnaud takes everyone
by surprise and joins up too. Madeleine then becomes annoyed, even more so when
Arnaud does well in training while she struggles at the bottom of the class. Over
time Madeleine realises that her dream is lost, Arnaud is clearly attracted to
her but how could she possibly be with someone who only highlights her
failures. The behaviour of the two characters is strange but the script is
written so beautifully, you realise that actually this is the evolution of what
would become a romantic relationship. I’ve never joined the army for love, but
I did some strange things in my teenage years, mostly in the pursuit of love.
The film then takes a wonderful path of awakening when the pair decide to run
away from the camp to live in the woods. There, they flourish, as does their
love for each other. Finally Madeleine is surviving how she imagined, catching
her own food and sleeping under the stars. It is only when she eats a piece of
uncooked squirrel does it all come crashing down. Falling desperately ill,
Arnaud carries the unconscious Madeleine to the nearest village, only to
discover that it has been evacuated. With ash falling from the sky, it feels
that this could actually be the end of the world. It isn’t of course. A nearby
fire has caused the village to be evacuated and the pair are found by the army.
One wonders whether it was one of their fires that caused it. At the hospital
Madeleine realises that she has failed in her mission to become a survival
expert, worse than that she was saved by someone with no interest in the
subject, a boy no less. However, he could never have saved her without the
training he had no interest in and in the forest all they needed was each
other, thus, all you really need is love. It’s subtle and quite wonderful.
Thomas Cailley’s direction is wonderful, thanks to him and the brilliant
performances from Adèle Haenel and Kévin Azaïs, it really did feel like
witnessing true young love. You can’t fight it. To find the balance of romantic
and quirky is hard, most rom-com are awful because they get either one of both
counts wrong but here Cailley gets it spot on, thanks also to his co-writer
Claude Le Pape’s excellent screenplay.</span></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-21481430341770439792020-11-05T12:59:00.001+00:002020-11-05T12:59:24.465+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5YaeN1HEF-z-y2zT7jB03ox3N9UGM4WtuLO8Pvbn4lC8TNbBwRjGLunZJRodutf26RKv_RGeyszrZeZNbUT5FRfObo0Jx7KBuLGxkYp2crUTs0EcnRByvRh4OSozoFRoxxjN89MdYnRfe/s1600/Beyond+the+Hills.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="760" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5YaeN1HEF-z-y2zT7jB03ox3N9UGM4WtuLO8Pvbn4lC8TNbBwRjGLunZJRodutf26RKv_RGeyszrZeZNbUT5FRfObo0Jx7KBuLGxkYp2crUTs0EcnRByvRh4OSozoFRoxxjN89MdYnRfe/s640/Beyond+the+Hills.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Beyond
the Hills</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Cristian Mungiu</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">2012</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">****</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It
is quite amazing just how Cristian Mungiu’s 2012 film Beyond the Hills is so
subtle but still manages to go for the jugular. The film takes an intelligent
swipe at the Romanian Orthodox church and it is interesting to know that the
popular musical The Book of Mormon was released around the same time. I find
comparing them quite interesting, as they are both worlds apart in structure
and tone but they somehow pull off the same trick – one using laughter and the
other using tragedy – but both showing the ridiculousness of some religious
practices. The story follows two orphaned young women, Voichița and Alina.
Alina has come to visit the Romanian Orthodox convent
during Lent, where Voichița now lives. Alina had been working in Germany,
and it transpires that the two girls were previously roommates at a children's
home and had shared a physical relationship. The monastery is led by a
30-year-old Priest who speaks ill of declining faith in Western Europe,
citing same-sex marriage, and forbids anyone outside of the faith from
entering. He inquires about Alina to Voichița, who tells him Alina irregularly
attends church and does not go to confession. They soon urge Alina to
begin confessing, especially if she intends to stay. Alina clearly wants to
rekindle her relationship with Voichița, but Voichița tells her they must be
cautious given it is Lent. Voichița seems tempted, especially when sex is
offered but her new way of life has changed her and she makes it her mission to
‘save’ her friend. Both friends try to ‘save’ each other in their own ways but
they have grown too far apart. Some time later after Alina has left the
convent, Voichița seeks her out, and when she finds her she tells her she is
now a nun, that she has chosen to be with God so she will never be alone, and
her love of Alina is different from before. Voichița convinces her to return
with her to the convent, but Alina asks Voichița that they escape together.
Their relationship is clearly deep-rooted and once more they try to save one
another. After Voichița refuses, Alina attempts to jump down a well, but is
restrained by the nuns and taken to the hospital. There, doctors restrain Alina
to prevent her self-harm, after which they send her back to the convent to
assist with recovery. There, the nuns read to Alina about sin. Alina begins
a ‘Black Fast’, but when the Priest learns of this when Alina is not at
the table, they see Alina is attempting to enter the altar to make a wish to
the icon they have there. The Priest admits the icon exists, but says entering
the altar is a severe sin, and tells the nuns the Devil is in Alina
and the convent. Alina is clearly suffering a breakdown as she feels she has
lost her friend, partner and lover. Alina remains tied down to a board with
chains and towels. The nuns witness a worsening in her condition and take her
back to the hospital. There, the hospital staff find Alina is dead on arrival,
and observe the wounds on her wrists and ankles from the restraints. The staff
tells the nuns this constitutes homicide and threatens to call the police and
media. An officer investigates the convent. Seeing the board Alina was tied to,
the officer interprets it as a cross. The officer also says forcible restraint
leading to death is a homicide. The Priest denies criminal intent, saying the
restraints were to prevent self-harm, and invoking the analogy of a parent's
right to force children to take medicine, though the officer replies Alina was
not a child and the Priest was not her guardian. The nuns also cite Alina's
strength as mysterious, but Voichița says Alina studied martial arts. The
police take the Priest and the nuns who tied up Alina away, with Voichița
choosing to go with them. The screenplay was inspired by two novels by the
writer Tatiana Niculescu Bran, documenting the Tanacu exorcism, in
which a young member of a monastery in Moldavia died in 2005 after
an exorcism ritual. Mungiu was inspired to make the film after seeing
the stage version in New York while promoting 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
in 2007. It’s a darker film than Mungiu’s previous work, concentrating on the
classic idea of there being two sides to every story. To me this was an atheist
film but to someone religious it could mean something else, it basically
explores the presence of God and the absence of God, depending on the viewer’s
faith. There is a level of ambiguity about it, with all the talk of god, it is
really the question of the devil that is at play. I also think that how mental
illness is still looked at by many religions is an important subject to
explore. The contrast in tone throughout the film is quite unexpected but
rather effective. The subjective conclusion was very satisfying, very much a
‘life continues as normal’ outside the happenings of a convent where even the
tiniest of events can become exacerbated. Grim and enlightening with a slice of
lemon – classic Cristian Mungiu.</span></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-61013150062995676482020-11-05T12:59:00.000+00:002020-11-05T12:59:08.098+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ooKWgCK18CpXFUiTKrNXE5ajA50JPx6MW4PzUlZU3i-y7EDzy7D1soq57bobLny3nSZ0Ouk1SE4L5pl2Js3XUg1vA44N1Gd7YSRWMddT3VzimdRAtoUieWjuXngbZZ7DdAxK8YkGhKCn/s1600/Me+and+You.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="665" data-original-width="1000" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ooKWgCK18CpXFUiTKrNXE5ajA50JPx6MW4PzUlZU3i-y7EDzy7D1soq57bobLny3nSZ0Ouk1SE4L5pl2Js3XUg1vA44N1Gd7YSRWMddT3VzimdRAtoUieWjuXngbZZ7DdAxK8YkGhKCn/s640/Me+and+You.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Me and You (Io e te)</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: yellow;">***</span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I found it difficult to watch Me and You and not wonder
how this was a film by the same man who bought us such greats such as The
Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900 and The Last Emperor. I wasn’t a huge fan
of 2003’s The Dreamers either but I had hoped that the last nine years was
enough time to give his next project some real thought. I liked the concept, I
just think it was totally wasted. It’s a sad looking swansong, that’s for sure.
The story is simple: young Lorenzo (Jacopo Olmo Antinori) has difficulties
communicating and relating to others – although I don’t think he autistic or
anything – he just prefers his own company and his own thoughts. When his class
goes to the mountains for a week on a skiing trip, Lorenzo secretly settles in
the basement of his apartment building, pocketing the trip’s fee to spend on
provisions. However, his happy solitude is interrupted with an unexpected
appearance of a strange girl called Olivia (Tea Falco), who turns out to be his
half-sister. Olivia, from his father’s first marriage, is nine years older than
him and he hasn’t seen in a long time. She asks if his parents are at home, and
he pretends not to know, thinking his parents might have asked her to
investigate. A short while later he hears someone trying to open the lock to
the basement and Olivia enters, looking for something in a box of her old
things. She doesn’t find it and leaves in desperation. In the middle of the
night she returns, knocking on the window and asking Lorenzo if she can stay
the night. At first he refuses categorically, but when she threatens to tell
everyone he is there, he backs down. This turns out to be useful, since his
mother calls again, more insistent than ever that she needs to speak to a
teacher, and he persuades Olivia to pretend to be one. It turns out, though,
that Olivia has become a drug addict and is suffering from withdrawal
from heroin, and this is why she’s in a desperate situation. She asks him
for some sleeping pills. The only place he can think of getting them is from
his grandmother (Veronica Lazar) who is dying in hospital. He visits her and finds
the pills in her handbag, but ends up spending much longer at the hospital than
intended when his grandmother wakes up and asks him to tell her a story. Once
back in the basement, Lorenzo finds Olivia passed out, almost dead. During his
absence she has rummaged through all the boxes and found and taken some
sleeping pills. She sleeps solidly for three days. By the end of the week, the
relationship between Lorenzo and Olivia has changed from hostility to
complicity, since they both feel rejected by society, both have secrets, and
both feel understood, without judgement, by the other. Olivia promises not to
use drugs anymore and they both promise to stay in touch. On the last morning
Lorenzo awakes to find a note Olivia has left, reminding him of their mutual
promise. I don’t want to speak ill of Bernardo Bertolucci, he was a great
director and I really admire that he made Me and You so late in his career,
especially in relatively bad health, but I don’t think there was enough of him
in the story. His greatest films are the ones where he has thrown himself into
the picture, this film feels like someone else’s, Niccolò Ammaniti’s. I
actually think that the two leads give great performances and the direction
itself is adequate, I just don’t think the film worked as a whole. I think I
would have preferred more static shots, with the odd contrasting moving
sequence. The dialogue was also lacking, indeed, a really good script could
have lifted the film no end. I did like the interjection of music and I could really
relate to it at times, I just couldn’t connect with the characters. I think it
all happened a little too fast and as well performed as Olivia was, I’m not
sure I ever truly believed she existed. I think the difference between the
original script and what was actually filmed was the biggest let down. I feel
that a bold conclusion was softened for a wider audience, a decision that I
feel backfired spectacularly. It’s a firework without ignition, it’s all there
ready to explode but nothing ends up lighting it and even if a light was found,
towards the end the wick becomes far to damp to ignite anyway. I’m being
perhaps overly harsh, but this is the great Bernardo Bertolucci, it should have
been a masterpiece. Like I said, it’s tragic that this was to be his last film
and it’s not without its magic, it just makes me sad on several different
levels is all.</span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-82652961169808428502020-11-05T12:58:00.003+00:002020-11-05T12:58:50.152+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYuu4QCTgv7U7CseJthOvbwKRZKgdFP9WMvu5NgpPw5GlX0UKMeFB1ehlvV8wEgPiLZ3UH6YP6hTWoATN21v55JHJjjJMV9vdAjCipu-AXoHiGyyAbtB1L2tN10NHpfLMftouI6lRYM0R8/s1600/Of+Gods+and+Men.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="544" data-original-width="1280" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYuu4QCTgv7U7CseJthOvbwKRZKgdFP9WMvu5NgpPw5GlX0UKMeFB1ehlvV8wEgPiLZ3UH6YP6hTWoATN21v55JHJjjJMV9vdAjCipu-AXoHiGyyAbtB1L2tN10NHpfLMftouI6lRYM0R8/s640/Of+Gods+and+Men.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
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</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Of
Gods and Men</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Xavier Beauvois<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">2010</span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">****</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Xavier
Beauvois’ 2010 drama Of Gods and Men tells the tragic true story of The
Monks of Tibhirine. In 1996, seven French Trappist monks from the
monastery of Tibhirine, Algeria, were kidnapped and found beheaded.
The Armed Islamic Group of Algeria claimed full responsibility for the
incident. However, according to documents from French secret services, it
is possible that the killings were a mistake carried out by the Algerian
army during a rescue attempt. The film is in part an adaptation of John W.
Kiser's 2002 book The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith, Love, and Terror in
Algeria. The film opens with a quotation from the Book of
Psalms, Psalm 82:6–7: "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are
children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the
princes." We then follow the monks' peaceful routine of prayer which is
repeated throughout the film. The character development is strong as we follow
the monks as they eat and talk together while providing medical assistance to
the local community. Their interaction with the community is soon interrupted
however by the threat of an Islamic fundamentalist group. When their
elected leader, Christian (Lambert Wilson), declines the protection of the
corrupt civil authority, the monks divide among themselves on the question of
whether to stay or flee Algeria. Before a decision is reached, a group of
fundamentalists, led by Ali Fayattia, enters the monks' compound in force on
Christmas Eve and demands their doctor and his medical supplies. Christian
refuses their requests and cites the Quran as proof of the monks'
goodwill. With a mixture of surprise and respect, Fayattia leaves the compound
and grants it his protection until his capture, torture and death at the hands
of government forces. Despite the growing danger, the monks come to consensus
on the moral importance of maintaining their committed lives with, and ministry
to, the local population, even when faced with violence and death. Ultimately,
the terrorists seize most of the monks during a nighttime raid and hold
them hostage. As the captive monks trudge a snowy path towards a grim
fate, the film concludes with the spiritual testament of Prior Christian
de Chergé, bravely written in the face of death. The surviving two monks of
Tibhirine left Algeria and traveled to a Trappist monastery near Midelt in Morocco.
The murdered monks were Dom Christian de Chergé, Brother Luc (born Paul
Dochier), Father Christophe (Lebreton), Brother Michel (Fleury), Father
Bruno (born Christian Lemarchand), Father Célestin (Ringeard), and Brother Paul
(Favre-Miville). The film project was initiated by Etienne Comar in 2006, when
the tenth anniversary of the incident made it a topic again in French
media. Comar, a film producer by profession and a Catholic, had been fascinated
by the monks since the earliest news of the abduction, but felt that their
death had overshadowed what he thought was really interesting - why they had
decided to stay in Algeria despite the ongoing Algerian Civil War. Comar
contacted Xavier Beauvois in 2008 after having written a draft, and
together they continued to work on the screenplay. The two researched, met
with theologians, and during a break Beauvois chose to live for six days
at the Tamié Abbey in Savoie – something he later requested the actors who
played the monks to do before filming begun. Some inspiration was taken
from writings by two of the Tibhirine monks, Christian de Chergé and Christophe
Lebreton. Franco-American monastic consultant Henry Quinson was asked to
correct and add historical and liturgical content for further authenticity. The
script was later sent to relatives of the deceased monks, most of whom reacted
positively to the project. The financing coincided with the revelation of the
Algerian army's possible involvement in the incident, which once again sparked
an interest for the story from media and the public. Xavier Beauvois clearly
made every attempt at telling the story with the utmost respect and handled the
story with great care. As preparation for their roles, François Polgar, the
former assistant director of the choir of the Paris Opera, former director of
Le Chœur de Radio France and director of The Paris Boys Choir, trained the
actors who were to play monks for a month in
the Cistercian and Gregorian chants. The cast is impressive and
represents the crème de la crème of French cinema. Each actor spent a week
living as a monk at the Tamié Abbey. The actors used different approaches to
their individual roles. Lambert Wilson primarily used Christian de Chergé's
writings to develop a subjective perception of the monk's personality. Xavier
Maly, a non-Catholic, prepared himself by praying every day for a month.
Jean-Marie Frin based his interpretation partially on a home video from Paul
Favre-Miville's vow. Michael Lonsdale on the other hand preferred to rely on
instinct, and did not prepare much at all. Each technique worked and the
characters felt real and their conversations and their prayer are totally
believable. The attention to detail is astonishing. The main filming location
was the Benedictine monastery of Toumliline, which had stood
unused and unattended for more than forty years. The film team, under
production designer Michel Barthélémy, renovated the monastery so it would
resemble the location of the actual events. Quinson who had assisted with
the screenplay was also present on the set as an adviser. Attention was
paid to extras' clothing and Arabic intonation so that they would look and
sound Algerian and not Moroccan. I love that nothing is done for
artistic effect and that there is no emotional manipulation. It’s an emotional
film for sure but it is handled tactfully and tastefully. It’s still a mystery
what actually happened to the Monks but it really isn’t the point of the story,
what made them stay is and is what gives us inspiration and food for thought,
and Beauvois and his fellow film makers couldn’t have conveyed this any more
perfectly than they did.</span></span></div>
<br />Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-5748226605046062712020-11-05T12:58:00.002+00:002020-11-05T12:58:36.004+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dir: Lloyd Kaufman, Michael Herz<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1990<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: yellow;">***</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I appreciate Troma films more than I enjoy them and while
I regard Lloyd Kaufman as a genius of sorts, I also find it hard to watch most
of his films. I’m not shocked or disgusted, they’re just not very good, or at
least, none of them live up to their ideas or their reputations. Quite how he
built such a cult empire is beyond me, but I guess bad taste needs its
champions. I have a love/hate relationship with The Toxic Avenger – I didn’t
love the first one, quite liked the second one and hated three and four. Sgt.
Kabukiman appears in a couple of them and I think I liked him better there – as
a supporting character. Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. is odd, very odd, and
while odd is good, Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. is far too long for its own
good. The same joke it told over and over again and it gets a little too much
to bare. Like all Troma films, it suffers from bad editing and from being far
too self-indulgent. It’s origins are perculiar. While filming The Toxic
Avenger Part II in Japan, where the original Toxic Avenger had been a
major hit, Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz were approached by Tetsu
Fujimura and Masaya Nakamura of Namco to create a
Kabuki-themed superhero film, supposedly based on an idea by Kaufman. Namco
became a producer, giving Troma a one and a half million dollar budget to begin
preproduction. Creative differences troubled production from the start. Namco
and Herz wanted a mainstream-accessible film geared towards children, whereas
Kaufman wanted the usual Troma-esque sex and violence style. The film was
eventually cut into both PG-13 and R-rated versions – I’m not sure which is
worse or makes the least sense. The film follows Sergeant Detective Harry
Griswold (Rick Gianasi), a clumsy N.Y.P.D. cop investigating a string
of murders involving Kabuki - a
classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the
unique style of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some
of its performers. While attending an amateur Kabuki play, Harry witnesses
thugs gun down the entire cast. In the ensuing gunfight, Harry is forcefully
kissed by one of the dying actors, unknowingly becoming blessed with the powers
of Kabuki. Before he knows it, Griswold finds out that he has the ability to
transform into Kabukiman, a colorfully dressed slapstick superhero who has
the ability to fly and access to such unique weapons as heat seeking chopsticks
and fatal sushi. He also has to eat worms, but I think that’s a Troma thing,
rather than a Kabuki thing. With the assistance of the beautiful Lotus (Susan
Byun), he helps clean up the crime-ridden streets of New York and try to stop
maniacal businessman Reginald Stuart (Bill Weeden) and his Goons, who plan to
fulfill an ancient evil prophecy that will summon The Evil One whose demonic
powers can enslave the world. The plot is thin and the acting is bad, although
Rick Gianasi is pretty good. I do wonder whether it would be considered racist,
if it wasn’t so ridiculous. It is probably best known for Troma’s one and only
Hollywood stunt. There is a car chase scene that happens midway through the
film where several carloads of gangsters chase Harry Griswold, wearing a clown
costume, through the streets of Jersey City. The chase climaxes when one of the
cars, a 1979 Ford Thunderbird, strikes another vehicle, flips upside-down 30
feet in the air, lands, and then inexplicably explodes. Five years later,
exactly the same footage was used in a scene in Tromeo and Juliet for
not only being cost-effective, but also because Kabukiman had yet to
be widely distributed on video (and thus brought some confusion as to which
film the footage originated from). Despite obvious continuity flaws, Troma has
managed to fit the same footage into each of their films as a tongue-in-cheek
homage, including Terror Firmer, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger
IV, Poultrygeist, and Return to Nuke 'Em High Vol.1. Since the film's
video debut in 1990, Sgt. Kabukiman has gone on to make several appearances in
the "Tromaverse", becoming one of the company's most well-known
mascots next to The Toxic Avenger. Kabukiman (played by Paul Krymse in a
simpler costume) can be seen in a number of Troma commercials and video
introductions throughout the 1990s. Most notably, Kabukiman was one of the
prominent figures on Troma's Edge TV, where he appeared in a short parody of
old public service announcement films, entitled Sgt. Kabukiman
Public Service Announcement, which was directed by former Troma employee and
Guardians of the Galaxy director/screenwriter James Gunn. The character
almost got himself a carton, much like Toxic Crusaders, but he was deemed
too odd. Kabukiman made the return to the screen in 2001's Citizen Toxie:
The Toxic Avenger IV, where he was once again played by Paul Kyrmse. In the
film, Kabukiman has gone from a serious superhero to a pathetic, drunken has-been
who is looked upon with disdain by the citizens of Tromaville. There was quite
a bit of backlash from the hard-core fans of the original film. 10/10 for
originality but the character is love/hate. It is what it is, its too obvious
to criticize in many respects and I would never tell people who love it that
they are wrong but I just found it a little too long and mind-numbing – even
for a Troma film. However, I do love seeing 1990 in all its glory and I adore
the special effects.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-78200289955812564032020-11-05T12:58:00.001+00:002020-11-05T12:58:20.721+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Neighboring
Sounds</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span>Kleber Mendonça Filho<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">2012</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">*****</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Neighboring
Sounds is the astounding debut feature from writer/director Kleber
Mendonça Filho. It’s a film that doesn’t quite state it’s intentions until the
very end, and even then I’m not sure it does. Just as I settled into the story
the whole style of it changed and, although subtle, it became one of the most
original films of the decade so far. The story has so many hidden layers I’m
still not sure I got all of them but this very simple film is an excellent
exploration of society, looking at the old ways as well as sounding echos from
the future. The fact that it only took six weeks to shoot but over two years to
edit shows just how much thought and meaning went into the final production. It
is a slice of modern Brazil but the truths relate to everywhere in our modern
climate of change. What starts out as a very simple drama following a couple of
residents of a Brazilian street, soon turns into an existential journey of fear
and paranoia but without descending into horror or cheap thriller territory. The
film has a constant sound of dogs barking, the hum of a refrigerator, music
blasting from a street vendor’s stereo, the distant noise of a hundred
televisions and the vibrations of a dozen early morning vacuum cleaners. It is
visually captivating from start to finish, even in the most ordinary of scenes.
We flash through the lives of several of the residents but the invisible main
character of the film is the ever present feeling of existential anxiety that
permeates each and every sub-story. There is a sense of inevitable doom that is
so subtle, it’s almost impossible to put one’s finger on. Unlike many typical
Brazilian films, Neighboring Sounds is not about life in the favelas or about
gangsters or drug gangs, but about the uneasy divide between the growing
middle-classes and the working class living side-by-side in a crowded urban
setting. Compositions are framed behind fences and closed doors to suggest
maximum isolation, a suggestion that in today's Brazilian urban areas, a
melting pot is built out of necessity, not out of choice. There is an element
of limo to the street where young and old clash regularly with very few
mediators. The opening shot shows old photos of workers in a sugarcane
plantation who would have lived there originally. This is cut down in contrast
as a shot of a young girl on rollerblades glides past a row of brand new
apartments. From there on unfold a series of small incidents that convey an
atmosphere of encroaching claustrophobia. Bia, a married mother of two, is
driven mad by the constant barking and howling of her neighbour’s dog and sets
about poisoning it while keeping it secret from her suspecting children,
setting the tone of the entire film. João, the closest character the film has
to a protagonist, is caught naked in his living room with Sofia by the arriving
housemaid Maria who makes light of the incident, engaging in conversation with
João and Sofia in the confining space of his kitchen. The block is run by the
local "don," Francisco a wealthy landlord with a questionable past.
João is Francisco's grandson, a real estate agent for the family who own many
of the new buildings in the street. On leaving João’s apartment, Sofia realises
that her car has been broken into and her stereo has been stolen. The arrival
of a rather pushy independent private security firm the same day as the theft
is suspicious but João immediately suspects his cousin Dinho, a lazy petty
criminal who lives in the shadow and protection of his grandfather. João hires
the security patrol manned by Clodoaldo to oversee the neighborhood's safety.
The residents of the block are relatively wealthy, so they feel they need more
security but even then, they do not feel safe in a country where there is a
large disparity between rich and poor. The security patrol is ostensibly there
to ensure the neighbor's safety, but accomplishes the very opposite when their
true motives are revealed. All the while João contemplates his role there,
after living abroad for many years before. Over time Sofia quietly accompanies
him as the sense of anxious dread becomes more apparent. What seems to be
disconnected and inconsequential is put together like a jigsaw puzzle that
leads brilliantly to the films final scene. It gets a little fantastical
towards the end which I absolutely adore but many of the film’s core scenes
come from simple lines of dialogue and unique situations. The waterfall scene
where it is suggested that Francisco is in fact the devil is wonderful but it
doesn’t quite hit the gut as the scene whereby João is trying to sell an
apartment of a recently deceased suicide. It transpires that the previous
occupant jumped several stories to their death from the beautiful balcony with
a view. It is easy to enjoy the visuals and be entertained by the colourful
characters but there is no escape from the sense of inevitability, like
something negative is being foreshadowed. It’s an absolute masterstroke to
achieve this mood from the very ordinary. Those two years of editing were
clearly used wisely. It’s not short of a masterpiece.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-90610419220857423432020-11-05T12:58:00.000+00:002020-11-05T12:58:06.204+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkwjYxdPTMQrFk6KAkDJ-wNHKwrCFvuJRiUw42nYSV-MNeZ6uh071-xxquELK1pZ83ZvxqngDxtXp0feePCsYrs31DnJf1TkhjpY0yvXswRrNjIuptgtCjlZqCDikyFJcjIInYxtqQhlfk/s1600/Long+Shot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="900" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkwjYxdPTMQrFk6KAkDJ-wNHKwrCFvuJRiUw42nYSV-MNeZ6uh071-xxquELK1pZ83ZvxqngDxtXp0feePCsYrs31DnJf1TkhjpY0yvXswRrNjIuptgtCjlZqCDikyFJcjIInYxtqQhlfk/s640/Long+Shot.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Long
Shot</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Jonathan Levine</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">2019</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">***</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In
many respects Long Shot is a classic run-of-the-mill rom-com, but with some
important upgrades that I hope other rom-coms take note of. We’ve seen rom-coms
that explore power struggles many times before, in fact perhaps in all of them,
as they always seem to follow the Cinderella story, the rich man poor girl
scenario, Romeo & Juliet, Lady and the Tramp et cetera et cetera. Long Shot
is ever so different in that ‘power’ is treated very differently. Charlize Theron
plays the U.S. Secretary of State while Seth Rogan plays an independent and
influential underground journalist. Who has the real power is up to the
audience. While Theron’s character is smart, dynamic and successful you could
see negatives in what she does, Rogan’s character is scruffy, idealistic and a
little too quick to act - the pair are opposites in a very different way. Both
have the same roots and much in common, and more importantly both have their
own flaws. I like that Rogan’s character isn’t a complete idiot and that
Theron’s isn’t completely inhuman. We see that the two were childhood friends
at one point, Charlotte (Theron) being Fred’s (Rogan) babysitter. Set in the
present, U.S. Secretary of State Charlotte Field learns
from President Chambers (Bob Odenkirk) that he does not plan on
running for a second term. As an ex-actor, he now sees his future in film and
boasts that apart from George Clooney, he’ll be the first TV actor to make it
in Hollywood. Seeing an opportunity, she convinces him to endorse her as a
potential presidential candidate. Meanwhile, New York City journalist
Fred Flarsky learns that the newspaper he works for has been bought by Parker
Wembley (played by Andy Serkis in a fat old white guy suit), a wealthy media
mogul whose ethics directly oppose Fred's. Furious, he promptly quits but
cannot find another job. Depressed, he turns to his more successful best friend
Lance (O'Shea Jackson Jr.), who takes him to a charity fundraising event that
Charlotte is also attending. She and Fred recognize each other from when she
was his babysitter. It is evident that he still has a secret crush on her from
when they were teenagers. While they catch up, Wembley interrupts them to plan
a meeting with Charlotte, leading Fred to condemn Wembley's actions and beliefs
before leaving. Upon reading some of Fred's columns, Charlotte decides to hire
him to write her speeches over the protests of her manager Maggie. Despite
voicing skepticism of her ethics, Fred takes the job. At a world leaders
summit, Charlotte is forced to revise a speech involving a planned
environmental revision to appease some of her constituents. When Fred objects
and calls her out on abandoning her morals, she changes her mind and the speech
is a success. As the two continue to spend time together under the pretext of
Fred learning more about Charlotte for his writing, they start to get close.
Finally, after surviving a revolution in Manila, they begin a relationship
together. Upon finding out, Maggie tries to warn both that the public will
never accept them as a couple. When Chambers orders Charlotte to remove plans
to preserve the trees, as some friends with financial interests of his asked,
she lets off steam with Fred by getting high on ecstasy. A hostage crisis
occurs soon after and, despite still being high, Charlotte manages to talk the
captors down and free the hostage. Even though the incident increases
Charlotte's approval rating, Chambers is livid when she chooses to ignore his
orders and call him out. He confronts her in his office alongside Wembley, who
has a vested interest in removing the trees as part of her plan. The two
blackmail her with a hacked video from Fred's webcam. The hacked video depicts
Fred discussing his and Charlotte's relationship and Fred further masturbating
to a video of one of her speeches, the hacked video culminating in Fred
ejaculating in his own beard. Charlotte shows Fred the hacked video and informs
him that she has agreed to the ultimatum, and that she wants to introduce him
and their relationship publicly once his image is cleaned up. Disappointed and
unable to change, he refuses and they break up. Back in New York, Fred talks
with Lance, who tells him that he has been too stubborn with his principles and
refusal to consider other people's needs and opinions. He also comes out as a
Republican to Fred’s dismay. During her announcement to run for president in
2020, Charlotte changes her mind and opts for her original plan, also revealing
the blackmail from Wembley and Chambers and describing the content of the video
before its release. Fred searches for Charlotte and finds her waiting at his
apartment. They admit that they love each other, and meet the press outside
where Charlotte introduces Fred as her boyfriend. In 2021, the couple marry and
Charlotte is sworn in as the first female president with Fred as "First
Mister", him having taken her last name. You kind of know what you’re
getting with a Jonathan Levine movie, it has a few misses but most are
forgivable. I liked Bob Odenkirk’s President. He isn’t based on any President
in particular but I could see a bit of each of the last 7 presidents in him.
June Diane Raphael is great in her supporting role as an adviser and Alexander
Skarsgård was brilliant as the Prime Minister of Canada. Charlize Theron and
Seth Rogan are great together, playing off each other brilliantly, their
real-life friendship seeping into their performances in a good way. Andy
Serkis’ performance is a bit strange however.Levine, Theron and Rogen, all
related that after Andy Serkis accepted the role of Parker Wembley, he then
developed a extensive prosthetic makeup design for the character, a makeup
regimen that required hours a day to execute, even though nobody asked him to.
Rogen remembered, "we offered him the role, and then he was like, 'Okay.'
And then he started sending ideas for what he would look like. And we were
like, 'What do you mean? I thought he kind of looked a lot like Andy Serkis.'
But he was like, 'No, I got this whole thing.' And we were like, 'Whatever,
man!'" I guess he can’t help it, Serkis is the motion capture/prosthetic
guy. The drug humour was predictable, the potty language a little too full on
and the ejaculation scene wasn’t funny. There’s Something About Mary told the
same joke over twenty years ago, I’m all for recycling but not with jokes.
Apart from that it’s fine. The possibilities for ‘The First Mister’ are huge,
maybe they should have played on that more, maybe that’ll be the sequel, who
knows, but if you want a light rom-com that isn’t the same as all the others go
for this one, as it is ever so slightly better.</span></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-74445937080541173072020-11-05T12:57:00.002+00:002020-11-05T12:57:50.837+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjviBTzyJuueFTxsQZEHCzOiacSGvBAd-07bFk5W9VpFpdfZPrFFgUlyWFTRjm71v4n5eASPUDX-2aDnOu0EOEN7qILGtel4vu1NsX3S_VIFtra2U0_Plc_YvS5yTL3A71Uw1dEJB81hQn0/s1600/Father+of+My+Children.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjviBTzyJuueFTxsQZEHCzOiacSGvBAd-07bFk5W9VpFpdfZPrFFgUlyWFTRjm71v4n5eASPUDX-2aDnOu0EOEN7qILGtel4vu1NsX3S_VIFtra2U0_Plc_YvS5yTL3A71Uw1dEJB81hQn0/s640/Father+of+My+Children.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Father of My Children</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dir: Mia Hansen-Løve<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2009<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: yellow;">****</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mia Hansen-Løve’s 2009 drama is two things. On one side
its an intriguing look at incredible defiance in the face of tragedy and on the
other it’s a helpless, but not at all demoralizing, look at how life is so
often out of our hands. It’s a tragic tale, where all hope is dashed away, and
yet, it isn’t in the least bit disheartening or coldly matter of fact. It’s sad
but there is a weird positivity about it that I just can’t put my finger on.
It’s a remarkable film, and without wanting to sound patronizing, it’s even
more remarkable that it was directed by twenty-seven year old. However, as
profound as the film is, Mia Hansen-Løve is part of the story, the story being
true. It is in part based on the death of Humbert Jean René Balsan, a French
film producer and chairman of the European Film Academy. He was known for
securing financing and distribution for diverse and often challenging films. In
February 2005, Balsan was found dead in the offices of his production company,
Ognon Pictures, in Paris. He was known to have suffered from depression,
and sadly hung himself. In this fictional version of the story, we follow
Grégoire Canvel (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing) who is a French film producer and
chairman of his own film company. Despite his luxurious country home, apartment
in Paris and film company he is drowning in debt. We follow Grégoire as he
continues to take on more work despite his slate of current films continuing to
rack up costs and as he goes home to his family at the weekend, never showing
them the situation he is in. For the first half of the film we see his denial
but also feel that he’s the sort of person who could probably turn things
around. However, upon learning that he is 4 million euros in debt and that his
catalogue of films, that is already mortgaged, is only worth less than a
million euros, and that his bank refuses to extend him any more credit, he
burns his bills and then promptly shoots himself in the street. It’s quite the
surprise if you’re not expecting it. In the wake of his death his wife Sylvia
attempts to honour her husband's memory by completing the work currently in
production. However her attempts fail and she is forced to liquidate the
company. Meanwhile, while waiting for her mother outside of the production
office, Grégoire and Sylvia's eldest daughter, Clémence (Alice de
Lencquesaing), overhears people talking about her father and how he led a
double life and had a son from whom he was estranged. While Sylvia is in Sweden
trying to secure funding for one of Grégoire's last films, Clémence digs
through her fathers papers and discovers he did have a son named Moune to whom
he sent money. Though she meets with Moune's mother, Isabelle, she ultimately
does not meet Moune himself. On the day the company is dissolved, Sylvia and
her three daughters go to Grégoire's office one final time. Afterwards they
leave Paris and though Clémence had wanted to visit her father's grave in order
to say goodbye, her mother tells her there is simply no time. In the backseat of
the car Clémence begins to cry as they pass through the city. In real life,
Donna Balsan, who, for all her grief, did her utmost to save Ognon Pictures,
but also failed to raise enough funds. I have no idea whether the part of the
story involving Grégoire’s secret son was true, but Balsan had three kids and
not two, so I suspect it isn’t. What the scenes involving Grégoire’s daughters
does is, while being sympathetic, remind us just what happens to those left
behind after a suicide. Grégoire’s inability to share his concerns for not
wanting to cause concern is also highlighted, again, acting as a sympathetic
warning to those thinking of taking their own lives and for those close to
people who suspect a friend or loved one is going through a tough time. Hansen-Løve met Humbert
Balsan after she had made her first short film and he had originally intended
to produce her first film All Is Forgiven before he committed
suicide. She cast her cousin Igor Hansen-Løve in the role of Arthur Malkavian,
a young screen writer whose film Grégoire wants to produce, giving him an
experience similar to her own. It’s an honest tribute, not just to Balsan who
was greatly admired, but also to his wife and children who carried on after his
departure. The troublesome Swedish director in the film is based on Hungarian
director Bela Tarr, who Balsan had trouble with at the time of his death. The
important thing that Hansen-Løve addresses though, is that Balsan was a
good person, a loving husband and loving father. There is no morbid delight in
the evocation of death, instead, this is a look at the essence of one’s soul
and how we should not judge a life based on one small mistake. It’s a film that
goes against what we’ve come to expect from such subjects and there is
something rather profound in its focus ans simplicity. It’s very touching and
respectful as well as balanced and refined. The performances, particularly from
Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Chiara Caselli and Alice de Lencquesaing
are perfect and there is visual flare here that is beautiful but it never
distracts from the story. It’s a profound gem of a movie.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-21165970752074916452020-11-05T12:57:00.001+00:002020-11-05T12:57:36.644+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTsdgkQnIchemozZWFeO88JECbal8nxU01C-Qn3RD4qGNCsC_kgcF_WXtfYUWDQWpWfvQjGepmPVmvV-2BYyQnbNmiZh9NVzevp1yy3lCDptf2UBBdgSOof1UJcWQOSj6tuBkTSp1Hd6-T/s1600/Odette.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTsdgkQnIchemozZWFeO88JECbal8nxU01C-Qn3RD4qGNCsC_kgcF_WXtfYUWDQWpWfvQjGepmPVmvV-2BYyQnbNmiZh9NVzevp1yy3lCDptf2UBBdgSOof1UJcWQOSj6tuBkTSp1Hd6-T/s640/Odette.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Odette</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span>Herbert Wilcox<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">1950</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">*****</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Odette is
a 1950 British war film based on Jerrard Tickell's Odette: The Story
of a British Agent, which tells the true story of French-born Special
Operations Executive agent Odette Sansom, who was captured by the Germans
in 1943, condemned to death and sent to Ravensbrück concentration
camp to be executed. However, against all odds she survived the war and
testified against the prison guards at the Hamburg Ravensbrück trials. She
was awarded the George Cross in 1946, the first woman ever to receive
the award and the only woman who has been awarded it while still alive. The
film was directed by Herbert Wilcox and jointly produced by he and his
wife Anna Neagle. Neagle was originally reluctant to play the role so Wilcox
offered it to Michèle Morgan and Ingrid Bergman, both of whom
turned it down. Eventually when the real Odette suggested Neagle play her,
Neagle agreed. Both Odette Sansom (by then Odette Churchill) and Peter
Churchill served as technical advisors during the filming, and the film ends
with a touching written message from Odette herself. Both Odette and and Anna
Neagle spent considerable time in France, visiting locales associated with the
story. Odette later said that Neagle "was absolutely into it. In fact it
took one year after the end of the film to get back to normal, she was more
upset by doing that film than I was reliving the experience." Odette said
that she lobbied intensely for the film not to be made in Hollywood, for fear
that it would be fictionalised, and that she was pleased by the result.
Personally I found the start of the film to be rather stifled but it soon found
it pace. In response to a radio broadcast request for photographs of France,
mother of three Odette Sansom sends a letter to the Admiralty, but an
addressing mistake brings her to the attention of the Special Operations
Executive, who need French people to go back to their homeland as espionage
agents. She completes her training in September 1942 and is sent to France. She
travels to Cannes, where she is met by Captain Peter Churchill (Trevor
Howard), her superior. She also meets "Arnauld" (Adolphe Rabinovitch
– played by Peter Ustinov), another agent. Her first assignment is to go to
Marseilles to pick up plans for the docks there. Barely warned in time of a
raid organized by Abwehr Oberst "Henri" (Hugo
Bleicher), Odette, Peter and Arnauld are forced to relocate to St. Jorioz,
where they rendezvous with Jacques. Learning of the Maquis, Peter requests
arms, medicines, etc. for them. He is then recalled to London. A large airdrop
of supplies is arranged. Later, however, Henri contacts Odette. From a captured
agent, he has learned all about Odette's network. He claims that he and others
disaffected with Hitler wish to make contact with the British. However, she
suspects otherwise and orders the other agents to disperse. Then she and
Arnauld wait for Peter's return by parachute drop. However, she and Peter are
captured by Henri and eventually taken to Fresnes Prison, near Paris.
Arnauld was away when the hotel where they were staying was raided so avoided
capture. Odette is tortured by the Gestapo, but does not break and is sentenced
to death. An apologetic Henri visits her; at her request, he arranges for her
to see Peter one last time, though she hides her fate from him. She is then
taken to Ravensbrück concentration camp on 26 July 1944 and
immediately placed in solitary confinement. The Germans believe Odette's lies
about Peter, that he is related to Winston Churchill and that she was
the brains of the network, while he was a playboy dilettante, and he is merely
imprisoned. With Germany invaded and collapsing, on 16 April 1945, the camp
commandant is ordered to execute his prisoners, but he orders a subordinate to
see to Odette's safety. When the inmates learn that Hitler is dead, they riot.
A guard comes for Odette and she believes she is to be executed, but the
commandant instead takes her to the advancing Americans, believing another of
her lies, that she is Peter's wife and therefore related to the British Prime
Minister. Back in England, Odette contacts her children, explaining that she is
no longer working away and will be home with them shortly. In a rather teary
and heartwarming scene, she is finally reunited with Peter. The end of the film
contains a title card saying as follows: "It is with a sense of deep
humility that I allow my personal story to be told. I am a very ordinary woman
to whom a chance was given to see human beings at their best and at their
worst. I knew kindness as well as cruelty, understanding as well as brutality.
My comrades, who did far more than I and suffered far more profoundly, are not
here to speak. It is to their memory that this film has been made and I would
like it to be a window through which may be seen those very gallant women with
whom I had the honour to serve." - Odette Churchill.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The
film is exciting and full of suspense and ends with a beautifully touching
scene. The personal message by the real Odette comes as a heartwarming but
sharp reminder, that all of this is true, as unbelievable as it seems all these
years later. Anna Neagle and Trevor Howard are perfect together and Peter
Ustinov is brilliant in his supporting role. It’s an important Second World War
film in that it deals with the very personal risk of a few, rather than the
guns-blazing action films that would follow. It is a wonderful tribute and an
accurate telling of a true story – sadly a rarity within the genre.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #6a6a6a; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b></b></span></span>Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-6566709033335144472020-11-05T12:57:00.000+00:002020-11-05T12:57:10.371+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTdY5g0U3KYsQZCILspL46uC9todO48r0-cqrOIaYBSOEsvFCGMQgbVjBsQ4EIpEr0w2sihog3C0YFElTtlL7HJuERus-LgzW3kvYuGFZgS1ifbqfDgmLvDtnu6nnOY0jIK33TZ0aS8fhq/s1600/Godzilla+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="774" data-original-width="1094" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTdY5g0U3KYsQZCILspL46uC9todO48r0-cqrOIaYBSOEsvFCGMQgbVjBsQ4EIpEr0w2sihog3C0YFElTtlL7HJuERus-LgzW3kvYuGFZgS1ifbqfDgmLvDtnu6nnOY0jIK33TZ0aS8fhq/s640/Godzilla+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Godzilla
(Gojira)</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span>Ishirō Honda<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">1954</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">*****</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ishirō
Honda’s 1954 classic Godzilla (Gojira) isn’t about a giant green lizard that
terrorizes Tokyo. I mean it is, but that’s not really what it is about. Written
by Honda, Takeo Murata, and Shigeru Kayama, Gojira was written to symbolise
nuclear holocaust from Japan's perspective and is a metaphor for nuclear
weapons. Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka stated back in the 1950s that,
"The theme of the film, from the beginning, was the terror of the bomb.
Mankind had created the bomb, and now nature was going to take revenge on
mankind." Honda filmed Gojira's Tokyo rampage to mirror
the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, stating, "If Godzilla
had been a dinosaur or some other animal, he would have been killed by just one
cannonball. But if he were equal to an atomic bomb, we wouldn't know what to
do. So, I took the characteristics of an atomic bomb and applied them to
him." Themes aside, Gojira was really just a classic 50s B-movie, but
there was always something more to it above the others and most of it’s
American counterparts. When the Japanese freighter Eiko-maru is
destroyed near Odo Island, another ship – the Bingo-maru – is
sent to investigate, only to meet the same fate with few survivors. A fishing
boat from Odo is also destroyed, with one survivor. Fishing catches mysteriously
drop to zero, blamed by an elder on the ancient sea creature known as
"Gojira". Reporters arrive on Odo Island to further investigate. A
villager tells one of the reporters that something in the sea is ruining the
fishing. That evening, a storm strikes the island, destroying the reporters'
helicopter, and Gojira, who is seen briefly, destroys 17 homes and kills nine
people and 20 of the villagers' livestock. Odo residents travel to Tokyo to
demand disaster relief. The villagers' and reporters' evidence describes damage
consistent with something large crushing the village. The government sends
paleontologist Kyohei Yamane to lead an investigation on the island, where
giant radioactive footprints and a trilobite are discovered. The
village alarm bell is rung and Yamane and the villagers rush to see the
monster, retreating after seeing that it is a giant dinosaur. Yamane
presents his findings in Tokyo, estimating that Gojira is 164 ft tall and
is evolved from an ancient sea creature becoming a terrestrial creature. He
concludes that Gojira has been disturbed by underwater hydrogen
bomb testing. Debate ensues about notifying the public about the danger of
the monster. Meanwhile, 17 ships are lost at sea. Ten frigates are
dispatched to attempt to kill the monster using depth charges. The mission
disappoints Yamane, who wants Gojira to be studied. When Gojira survives the
attack, officials appeal to Yamane for ideas to kill the monster, but Yamane
tells them that Gojira is unkillable, having survived H-bomb testing, and must
be studied. Yamane's daughter, Emiko, decides to break off her arranged
engagement to Yamane's colleague, Daisuke Serizawa, because of her love for
Hideto Ogata, a salvage ship captain. When a reporter arrives and asks to
interview Serizawa, Emiko escorts the reporter to Serizawa's home. After
Serizawa refuses to divulge his current work to the reporter, he gives Emiko a
demonstration of his recent project on the condition that she must keep it a
secret. The demonstration horrifies her and she leaves without breaking off the
engagement. Shortly after she returns home, Gojira surfaces from Tokyo
Bay and attacks Shinagawa. After attacking a passing train, Gojira
returns to the ocean. After consulting with international experts,
the Japanese Self-Defense Forces construct a 100 ft, 50,000
volt electrified fence along the coast and deploy forces to stop and
kill Gojira. Yamane returns home, dismayed that there is no plan to study the
monster for its resistance to radiation, where Emiko and Ogata await hoping to
get his consent for them to wed. When Ogata disagrees with Yamane, arguing that
the threat that Gojira poses outweighs any potential benefits from studying the
monster, Yamane tells him to leave. Gojira resurfaces and breaks through the
fence to Tokyo with its atomic breath, unleashing more destruction across the
city. Further attempts to kill the monster
with tanks and fighter jets fail and Gojira returns to the
ocean. The day after, hospitals and shelters are crowded with the maimed and
the dead, with some survivors suffering from radiation sickness.
Distraught by the devastation, Emiko tells Ogata about Serizawa's research, a
weapon called the Oxygen Destroyer, which disintegrates oxygen atoms
and causing organisms to die of a rotting asphyxiation. Emiko and Ogata go
to Serizawa to convince him to use the Oxygen Destroyer but he initially
refuses, explaining that if he uses the device, the superpowers of the world
will surely force him to construct more Oxygen Destroyers for use as
a superweapon. After watching a program displaying the nation's current
tragedy, Serizawa finally accepts their pleas. As Serizawa burns his notes,
Emiko breaks down crying. A navy ship takes Ogata and Serizawa to plant the
device in Tokyo Bay. After finding Gojira, Serizawa unloads the device and cuts
off his air support, taking the secret of the Oxygen Destroyer to his grave.
Gojira is destroyed, but many mourn Serizawa's death. Yamane believes that
if nuclear weapons testing continues, another Gojira may rise in the
future. It is a warning to the future from the victims of the past.
Gojira contains political and cultural undertones that can be attributed
to what the Japanese had experienced in World War II, so much so that Japanese
audiences were able to connect emotionally to the monster. Many viewers
actually saw Godzilla as a victim and felt that the creature's backstory
reminded them of their experiences in World War II. The atomic bomb testing
that woke Gojira were carried out by the United States, the film in a way can
be seen to blame the United States for the problems and struggles that Japan
experienced after World War II had ended. The film could be said to have served
as a cultural coping method to help the people of Japan move on from the events
of the war. Making it a monster movie was very canny, as it appealed to the
masses – the genre being popular at the time – and would have carried around
the world. It’s clearly a political piece but it would not appear so, being a
melodramatic monster movie. It is perhaps the first film to ever use metaphor
in such an obvious and outrageous manner. It startles me just how many people
still don’t realises what it’s really all about. Toho originally planned
to produce Eiko-no Kagi-ni (In the Shadow of Glory), a Japanese-Indonesian
co-production about the aftermath of the Japanese occupation of Indonesia,
however, anti-Japanese sentiment in Indonesia forced political pressure on the
government to deny visas for the Japanese filmmakers. The film was to be
co-produce with Indonesian studio Perfini, filmed on location in Jakarta in
color (a first for a major Toho production), and was to open markets for
Japanese films in Southeast Asia. Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka flew to Jakarta to
renegotiate with the Indonesian government but was unsuccessful and on the
flight back to Japan, conceived the idea for a giant monster film inspired by
the 1953 film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and the Daigo
Fukuryū Maru incident that happened in March 1954. The film's opening
sequence is a direct reference to the incident. Tanaka felt the film had
potential due to nuclear fears generating news and monster films becoming
popular, due to the financial success of The Beast from 20,000
Fathoms and the 1952 re-release of King Kong, the latter which earned
more money than previous releases. During his flight, Tanaka wrote an outline
with the working title The Giant Monster from 20,000 Leagues Under The
Sea and pitched it to executive producer Iwao Mori. Mori approved the
project in April 1954 after special effects director Eiji
Tsuburaya agreed to do the film's effects and confirmed that the film was
financially feasible. Honda was not Toho's first choice for the film's
director, however, his war-time experience made him an ideal candidate for the
film's anti-nuclear themes. Several other directors passed on the project,
feeling the idea was "stupid," however, Honda accepted the assignment
due to this interest in science and "unusual things," stating,
"I had no problem taking it seriously." It was during the
production of Gojira that Honda worked with assistant director Koji
Kajita for the first time. Afterwards, Kajita would go on to collaborate
with Honda as his chief assistant director for 17 films over the course of 10
years. Due to sci-fi films lacking respect from film critics, Honda,
Tanaka, and Tsuburaya agreed on depicting a monster attack as if it were a real
event, with the serious tone of a documentary, which has always made Gojira
stand out above all other monster/b-movies. There have been many Godzilla
movies made since, some good, some bad, but the good ones always follow Honda,
Tanaka, and Tsuburaya rule. It is an iconic film in terms of idea and special
effects, a cultural phenomenon and one of the most important films of the
twentieth century.</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-33932581847792222732020-11-05T12:56:00.002+00:002020-11-05T12:56:56.124+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeczucCI7CH71H-pb0OW5TOuWtmK9gZjJPKuAHmf-zc-WvjXzEarNjU0CDsAB9a3Jl5Ej7TMG6kvwn5eKdC2q2W69BCgK6NxKQiQYU6-zJLZejyRE8ENVCXI2zT9hCDsxcQemrjqpb_tlZ/s1600/Alexandra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeczucCI7CH71H-pb0OW5TOuWtmK9gZjJPKuAHmf-zc-WvjXzEarNjU0CDsAB9a3Jl5Ej7TMG6kvwn5eKdC2q2W69BCgK6NxKQiQYU6-zJLZejyRE8ENVCXI2zT9hCDsxcQemrjqpb_tlZ/s640/Alexandra.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Alexandra</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Alexander Sokurov</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">2007</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">***</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Alexander
Sokurov’s subtle critic of the Chechen War is a deep meditation that really
works over time. I can’t say I was that enamored by it while I was watching it
but days later it still had me thinking and pondering its intention. It’s a
difficult film and one that follows its own pace. I wouldn’t quite compare it
to Tarkovsky but Sokurov certainly has found an otherworldly way of looking a
people and situations and somehow makes the horror of war seem a little like a
dream. We follow Aleksandra Nikolaevna after she is invited by her grandson,
Denis, a senior lieutenant in the Russian Army, to visit his military base
in Chechnya. Her journey is aided by soldiers who have been ordered to be
her escorts. But it is a lawless land; the two young happy-go-lucky conscripts who
assist Nikolaevna on to an armoured train are assailed shortly after saying
goodbye at the station. On arrival at the army camp, Aleksandra is taken to her
grandson's platoon area and told to wait but she refuses to sit inside the
tents because of the sweltering summer heat. Wandering around, she meets and
interacts with the young soldiers on the base. Many are standoffish at first
but soon, after she shares some pies, some begin to talk to her. She returns to
the tents to find Denis had returned. They hug and exchange pleasantries. Later
Aleksandra meets her grandson's commanding officer who shows her around the
base; he also questions her as to her reasons for visiting. He explains that
Denis is a good officer but the request asking for permission for his
grandmother to visit was bemusing. The next day she decides to leave the
cantonments and visit the local market despite the reservations of the soldiers
on guard duty. Nevertheless, she insists on going so they then ask her to get
cigarettes and biscuits. In the town she discovers that many of the locals are
hostile towards her because she is Russian. However she soon starts talking to
an elderly Chechen woman named Malika who explains she was a teacher before the
war. The local lady explains that many of the young people have been
irreparably changed by the fighting. Malika gives Aleksandra some cigarettes
and biscuits before inviting her back to her war-ravaged apartment where they
drink tea and talk. Aleksandra thanks Malika and promises to return and pay her
for the supplies. A local boy is then asked to take Aleksandra back to the
Russian army camp. Although initially aggressive to her because she is a
Russian, his attitude softens when she tells him that people should not be
labelled together and that intelligence is more powerful than war. On arrival
back at base, Aleksandra distributes the cigarettes and biscuits among the
soldiers. Some then take her to a mess where she is given a hot meal.
Aleksandra then returns to Denis' quarters where she finds her grandson mulling
over his life in the army after he had to strike a soldier for disobeying him.
After talking about their lives, Denis soon brightens up and plaits his
grandmother's hair while she promises to find him a wife. The next day,
Aleksandra is woken up by Denis who tells her she has to leave now because he
and his men are going on a five-day mission. Slowly the elderly lady gathers
her things before making one last walk through the camp saying goodbye to the
soldiers she met. At the gate, she says goodbye to Denis as he climbs onto
an armoured vehicle and to his commanding officer who silently
acknowledges the good her trip has done to her grandson and the men under his
command. Aleksandra then walks back to town where she meets Malika and her
local friends. Refusing to take any money for the cigarettes and biscuits, the
group walk Aleksandra back to the armoured train. Aleksandra gives Malika
her address asking her to come and visit her in Russia. She then boards a
rolling car. The train moves off with Aleksandra waving from the doorway. With
the train's departure, Malika turns and walks away with a grim expression.
Aleksandra rides along looking out across the desolate empty fields of
Chechnya. It’s hard to know what it all means, or if it even happened. It
certainly feels dreamlike and desolate, like it was something imagined by a
lost soul – perhaps Denis at war, or maybe even Aleksandra at home. It feels as
if Denis is remembering his grandmother and letting her go, or maybe Aleksandra
is dying at home, thinking about her grandson. Either way, it feels like a
goodbye. As I was watching I felt nothing but frustration though, as it wasn’t
clear what was happening. It is only after a few days thinking about it, does
it have me wondering whether it was as simple as it first appeared. If it was
in fact real and not a dream, I can appreciate the point of view of an older
person and appreciate the anti-war message, but there must be more to it than
that. For once it is entirely up to the audience to ponder.</span></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-28903042048160453622020-11-05T12:56:00.001+00:002020-11-05T12:56:24.426+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-G_5vmRGodX1dm5-aMoziTw7ZIr6vNbO2hKPRLfrZdVeSfyrQsO-NsfpTSC4gqx1z6jvQNHTLaIUuhFHbf_PW_hI_zidBfbAp6Mj_L9d6eV0iJOfHvrQjd2gkZa2twnrwNr-9P74f1aDQ/s1600/Shaft.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-G_5vmRGodX1dm5-aMoziTw7ZIr6vNbO2hKPRLfrZdVeSfyrQsO-NsfpTSC4gqx1z6jvQNHTLaIUuhFHbf_PW_hI_zidBfbAp6Mj_L9d6eV0iJOfHvrQjd2gkZa2twnrwNr-9P74f1aDQ/s640/Shaft.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Shaft</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Tim Story</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">2019</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">*</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Shaft
is the sequel of Shaft, which of course was the sequel of the classic
Blaxpoitation film, Shaft. The Shaft film of 2000 (the third Shaft sequel
following Shaft’s Big Score, and Shaft in Africa) featured Samuel L. Jackson as
Shaft, the nephew of the original Shaft, played by Richard Roundtree. In 2019’s
Shaft, we learn that the original Shaft is actually 2000’s Shaft’s father and
that Shaft 2000 has a son, also named Shaft. It’s not really made clear why the
original Shaft told Shaft 2000 that he was his uncle, rather than his father
but I imagine it had something to do with being only six years older than him.
It’s all rather confusing but it matters not, because 2019’s Shaft really isn’t
worth wasting your time trying to understand. Why it even exists is anybody’s
guess, there’s running out of ideas and then there’s really running out of
ideas. I think what the film was trying to convey was that the concept of Shaft
is outdated, which I’m not sure anyone disagreed with. However, it is critical
of Shaft 2000, way more than it is of the original. Shaft 2000 was an updated
version of the original Shaft, and I would argue it was far more up to date
than its near thirty-year predecessor, but then Shaft 2000 isn’t really the
same as he was nineteen years ago. He is far more like the original Shaft, who
in turn is a lot closer to 2019’s Shaft in attitude. Sort of. You could say
that the updated Shaft is now more dated than the dated Shaft, and that the new
Shaft isn’t really Shaft at all. There is a reason why this film didn’t do so
well, it was impossible to promote. That and the fact that the script was
awful. Rewind to 1989, John Shaft II (Shaft 2000 – before the year 2000), his
wife Maya Babanikos, and his infant son John "JJ" Shaft Jr. (Shaft 2019
before 2019) survive an assassination attempt by drug lord Pierro
"Gordito" Carrera. Concerned that Shaft II's lifestyle will put them
in danger, Maya leaves him and raises JJ on her own. 25 years later, JJ (Jessie
T. Usher) is an FBI agent and a cybersecurity expert
with a degree from MIT. He’s a nerd. After his childhood friend Karim dies
of a heroin overdose, JJ concludes he must have been murdered. JJ travels
to Harlem to investigate Manuel, the drug dealer who runs the
neighborhood and sold the heroin that allegedly killed Karim, but is violently
ejected from his property. While being treated for a minor injury in the
hospital by JJ's other childhood friend and his own crush Sasha, he shows her
Karim's toxicology report. She notes that the amount of heroin in Karim's
system would have killed him long before he could have taken that much by
himself, suggesting that he was indeed murdered. With no other recourse, JJ
turns to Shaft II (Samuel L. Jackson, Shaft 2000, his father) for aid. Shaft II
agrees to help after realizing that JJ's case may lead him to Gordito. The two
begin investigating together, but JJ's progressive white collar outlook on life
clashes with Shaft II's old-school street ways. After confronting Manuel again,
the Shafts investigate "Brothers Watching Brothers", the drug rehab
clinic Karim was a part of. There they learn that Karim stopped going to rehab
in favour of attending services at a mosque currently under suspicion by the
FBI for terrorism. The next day, Sasha accompanies JJ and Shaft II to
investigate the mosque, where they are removed from the premises after the imam
notices JJ's FBI badge. Shaft II convinces JJ and Sasha to have a romantic
dinner together, and the Shafts next investigate a convenience store owned by a
woman named Bennie Rodriguez who donated $500,000 to the mosque. Maya calls JJ
to inform him that she is coming to New York to meet a man for a date; she is
overheard and followed by Shaft II. The Shafts survive two separate
assassination attempts orchestrated by Bennie, and Maya forces Shaft II to kick
JJ out of the investigation for his own safety. JJ turns over the evidence they
have gathered to the FBI, who arrest the mosque's imam. However, the media
accuses the FBI of Islamophobia, and JJ's boss Vietti fires him. JJ returns
to Shaft II and overhears a conversation about Gordito, leading him to believe
that his father was stringing him along the entire time. While Shaft II visits
and reconciles with Maya, JJ and Sasha track down Bennie to an abandoned
warehouse and learn that "Brothers Watching Brothers" is a front for
a drug smuggling ring; Karim was killed when he threatened to blow the whistle
on their operation. JJ is caught by the smugglers; Sasha is captured while JJ
is rescued by Shaft II. The two visit JJ’s grandfather, John Shaft Sr. (Richard
Roundtree, the original Shaft), to acquire more firepower, and Shaft Sr.
decides to accompany them in an assault on Gordito's penthouse. The Shafts kill
the drug smugglers after JJ has an intense fight with Cutty and kills him,
avenging Karim's death. He rescues Sasha before being confronted at gunpoint by
Gordito. Gordito attempts to shoot JJ to spite Shaft II, but Shaft II takes the
bullet and shoots Gordito, causing him to crash through a window and fall to
his death before collapsing. In the aftermath, Shaft II recovers at the
hospital. JJ and Sasha kiss and begin a relationship. Vietti offers JJ his job
back, but JJ turns it down in favour of joining his father and grandfather in
their PI business, suggesting that this might not be the last we see of the
Shaft trio. This is undoubtedly the last time we will see the Shaft trio. The
character is of course outdated but an honest look at what a Blaxpoitation
character such as Shaft is doing in 2019 would have been brilliant. Instead,
they dated Shaft 2000 into a misogynistic, homophobic asshole – something he
wasn’t back in 2000. Maybe that is the true honesty of the film though, maybe
the original Shaft is a full on Trump-supporting nut but he just knows better
than to talk about it. I’m not really sure though, why you would make a sequel
such as this, that only goes to destroy the history of the loved character. It handles the subject matter, particularly the Islamophobic bit, like a clumsy toddler with slippery fingers. The
film is written for people who never saw the original and perhaps never even
saw the 2000 remake. Shafted would have been a better title. It’s utter
garbage, just how much money does Samuel L. Jackson owe?</span></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-43506447655723945452020-11-05T12:56:00.000+00:002020-11-05T12:56:08.091+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmhNLZPXcG98Fgd6KITZDyVy3SVEbRhKeeD_ZqR_DOanj-Y7-OPyuBOe_JzvwG8I-rsHAS9mwSZIX6PRzi1V2LiGTIKkXfgSTvHDyutFjVotyHMOpNDUqzzj7S7_66rf-PCrHTsvriNLix/s1600/The+Secret+Life+of+Pets+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="700" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmhNLZPXcG98Fgd6KITZDyVy3SVEbRhKeeD_ZqR_DOanj-Y7-OPyuBOe_JzvwG8I-rsHAS9mwSZIX6PRzi1V2LiGTIKkXfgSTvHDyutFjVotyHMOpNDUqzzj7S7_66rf-PCrHTsvriNLix/s640/The+Secret+Life+of+Pets+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>The
Secret Life of Pets 2</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Chris Renaud</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">2019</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">**</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The
Secret Life of Pets 2 is, much like The Secret Life of Pets, Toy Story but with
animals instead of Toys. An unoriginal idea, but I don’t really care. The first
film dealt with jealousy – a little dog called Max felt somewhat betrayed
(which he was) when his owner brought home another dog called Duke. Much like
Buzz and Woody, Max doesn’t really see himself as a dog and sees himself as
favourite while Duke is an intruder who doesn’t fit in. They argue, get into a
ridiculous scenario and eventually become friends. In the imaginatively titled
The Secret Life of Pets 2, both dogs are in the same boat as their owner falls
in love, gets married and has a baby. At first Max doesn’t warm to the baby as
his quiet routine becomes disturbed, but after a while, once the baby is
walking and talking, they bond with a mutual affection. Then comes the anxiety
of parenthood. He starts scratching and ticking and is taken to the vets who
sticks a cone of shame on him. A while later Max and Duke’s owners take the
pair to the farm – which isn’t slang for putting them down, they actually go to
a farm that is owned by their owner’s, husband’s uncle. There Max meets
Rooster, a Welsh Sheepdog voiced by Harrison Ford, who takes him under his
wing. Meanwhile, back at the apartment block where they live, Gidget – the
little fluffy dog from downstairs who has a crush on Max – is panicked as she
has lost max’s favourite toy that he entrusted her with. She eventually finds
it in a cat-infested apartment below hers. A little old lady – cat lady – lives
there with many, unhinged felines and Gidget finds the only way to infiltrate
is to dress like a cat herself. A few apartments across lives Snowball, a bunny
who thinks he’s a superhero. He is visited by Daisy who tells him a wild story
about how she was traveling on a plane and witnessed a White tiger cub
named Hu being mistreated and held captive by an abusive circus owner named
Sergei. She asks for his hep to save Hu and he agrees. Gidget, who has somehow
been declared queen of the cats, helps Snowball and Daisy rescue Hu. However,
Sergei sends his black wolves to hunt and snatch Hu back. The gang stash Hu in
Max’s apartment while they’re away but when Max and his family come home early
they discover Hu. The black wolves find them, they take Hu, all the cats get in
a car, they end up on a train, there’s a fight with a monkey….at this point I’d
had enough. I watched the rest of the film but only technically. My eyes hurt
and my brain became numb There was far too much going on at once and none of it
seemed to have any point or logic to it. The film is for kids, I get that, but
all the great animations of this ilk manage to appeal to all generations. This
is not one of those films. I guess I have no problem with my young son watching
such films but I’m not sure it is something he would have much enthusiasm for.
I’m glad they replaced Louis ‘sex pest’ C.K. with Patton Oswalt as the voice of
Max, and Harrison Ford’s first voice performance was, good, but apart from that
the film made the muscle under my left eye twitch. The big tiger, the evil
wolves, the cats driving a car and the circus train bored me. There was no real
story here and it felt like this was a crazed first draft, written by someone
late at night, high on caffeine, who hadn’t been asleep for three days. Someone
with a tight deadline perhaps. What I wanted to know was how Max and Duke’s
owner can afford such an apartment with amazing views of New York? She must be
busy – probably too busy to have much spare time, which leads me to wonder why
she thought it a good idea to have dogs. You can’t have dogs if you live in an
apartment and are never at home, it’s cruel. How many bedrooms does this
apartment have anyway, because the view is the same from each window? At first
I wondered whether the film would be an important lesson to children about the
effects of anxiety but apparently the solution is simply putting a cone around
your neck. Treat the symptoms instead to curing the cause? Any vet would have
doped Max with about as many expensive drugs as they possibly could. This
should have been a film about a drugged up dog and his many hallucinations. Oh
my God, maybe it is? It would explain a lot. I’m not sure what Harrison Ford’s
Rooster really taught Max in the end but I was too annoyed at Max’s stupid
owner for allowing him and Duke – city dogs – to sleep outside when the house
they were staying at clearly had enough room for them. Max should consider
himself lucky anyway. He was a few years old in the first film and in this film
his owner meets a guy, marries him and has a kid. The story doesn’t actually
begin until the kids is around three years old, two and a half at best, so Max
is in pretty good health for his age. How Snowball is still alive is anyone’s
guess, I guess he really is a superhero because he should be in a shoe box
three feet under ground in central Park by now. Snowball is voiced by Kevin
Hart, Kevin Hart is black, so of course Snowball has to rap at the end of the
film, it’s a rule. The bad guy is also foreign, because foreign people are
generally bad. The film is a mere shadow of the original. A disappointment all
round but it does have less sex-pests than the first, which is something I
guess.</span></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-83450458851737715612020-11-05T12:55:00.002+00:002020-11-05T12:55:51.122+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpRue_Kf2eqsxQZRdpLx9cWsTR9uMKsNJUTrPdf0sWwrrph2oOI8JD2x63GI1grfi13R3zozTEIdViMegJ9iS01BC-U5tsxxMBQObGKSTLQRAV9LPszm7NYLmysZv4tZjx0FfqkTNcY_7r/s1600/Between+Two+Ferns+The+Movie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpRue_Kf2eqsxQZRdpLx9cWsTR9uMKsNJUTrPdf0sWwrrph2oOI8JD2x63GI1grfi13R3zozTEIdViMegJ9iS01BC-U5tsxxMBQObGKSTLQRAV9LPszm7NYLmysZv4tZjx0FfqkTNcY_7r/s640/Between+Two+Ferns+The+Movie.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Between
Two Ferns: The Movie</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Scott Aukerman</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">2019</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">***</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There
should be a law that states that television shows should never be made into
movies – with very few notable exceptions. That said, Between Two Ferns isn’t
really your typical television show. It’s not on television for a start but
whatever, how you watch your shows doesn’t really matter in the scheme of
things and this ‘movie’ isn’t being shown in cinemas anyway. While many don’t
see Between Two Ferns as a real television show, it certainly still follows all
other television shows that have over gone the movie treatment in theme. Movie
versions of TV shows generally take the show on the road – outside of the
studio, they include some big names and they have a bigger budget. Between Two
Ferns does exactly that. While you can be cynical about the whole thing it
actually feels like logical progression, although I’m not sure Zach
Galifianakis’ exaggerated version of himself needed much backstory – he is what
he is. It’s a weird one really and anyone who struggled with the TV show will
probably still struggle with the movie. I liked the TV show but I didn’t love
it. As the blooper reel shows at the end of the show, most actors burst out
laughing at Galifianakis’ unexpected and shocking questions. The scene is then
re-shot with the actor not laughing, having time to compose themselves and
obviously knowing what they are about to be asked. This keeps the interview
awkward, as Galifianakis clearly wants it. I’m a little tired of awkward humour
now, it’s been done to death and The Office (the original) finished years and
years ago – please can we try something new? I’d prefer to see the natural
reaction from guests but I do also appreciate some of their come-backs which
would have taken them time to come up with. The story here is that Zach
Galifianakis, who always dreamed of becoming a star, finally found success with
his public access TV show when Will Ferrell discovered him and uploaded his
show to his own Funny Or Die production channel. However, Galifianakis has
since become a laughing stock. When guest star Matthew McConaughey is nearly
killed by a burst water pipe during an interview, Will Ferrell decides to pull
the plug. After deliberation he agrees to give Galifianakis his own late night
chat show instead of his web show, as long as he gives him ten new interviews
in a week’s time. So Zach and his crew take a road trip to complete a series of
high-profile celebrity interviews that the crew believe is to restore his
reputation, rather than get him (and not them) ‘promoted’. So basically
Galifianakis and his crew travel to the actors, rather than them coming to him.
There is an element of post-modernist mockumentary about it where the
documentary crew are also being documented and the fact that everything is
already rehearsed is highlighted. It is more original than it is funny but it
has its moments. They manage to bag quite a few impressive guests, including
Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Dinklage, Gal Gadot, Jon Hamm, Brie Larson, John
Legend, David Letterman, Matthew McConaughey, Keanu Reeves, Paul Rudd, Jason Schwartzman,
Adam Scott, Chrissy Teigen, Tessa Thompson, Bruce Willis, among many. I don’t
think the essence of the original show is lost but it is a little stretched.
The idea becomes a tad diluted but they do make up for it towards the end of
the film with some quick-fire snippets of interviews. The overbearing problem
for me was some of the between interview scenes. Some worked but some
absolutely bombed. Much like Galifianakis himself, its very hit and miss.
However, Will Ferrell is the absolute worst. Absolutely nothing he does is
funny and he is horrible at improvised comedy. I still don’t know why he’s
popular, Elf was okay I guess in retrospect but I would argue that anyone could
have played that character. He has no comedy timing and absolutely no grasp of
what is funny. He clearly thinks everything he does is funny, and comedy is of
course subjective, but he is always only in it for himself. Great comedy is
generous, a great comedian shares the comedy and tries to establish a
relationship with whoever else is on screen. I’m afraid Galifianakis is much
the same but Between Two Ferns has worked because he’s clearly friends with
most of the people he interviews. This isn’t really a movie if I’m being
completely honest. It is an extended television special, not the best episode
of Between Two Ferns but certainly not the worst. It has some moments of great
comedy, followed by moments of comedy at its worst, making it strangely
exciting and very watchable. At least I thought so, my wife hated it and went in
the other room and read a book.</span></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-28882471700477030392020-11-05T12:55:00.001+00:002020-11-05T12:55:33.611+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQv0KkYXGmpoSnVtGMrXEHiqA4AYU2zUqjSAAPk6yFk8GY4qMQXTKS66y75YbLQ0KAt_ruwGaFNfeTy0MTFqihe_cBoPFoTavXzzyxy2avpgRiavlJ-pYRfX2jB5NrwyIplkS0qz0xKp88/s1600/The+Golden+Dream.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQv0KkYXGmpoSnVtGMrXEHiqA4AYU2zUqjSAAPk6yFk8GY4qMQXTKS66y75YbLQ0KAt_ruwGaFNfeTy0MTFqihe_cBoPFoTavXzzyxy2avpgRiavlJ-pYRfX2jB5NrwyIplkS0qz0xKp88/s640/The+Golden+Dream.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>The
Golden Dream</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span>Diego Quemada-Diez<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">2013</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">*****</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Diego
Quemada-Diez is better known for his work as a cinematographer, The Golden
Dream is his feature debut as a director, and what a debut it was. The film
shares its title with the 1983 song by Mexican-born Enrique Franco, who sung
about the challenges of US immigration. There was a similar film made in 1987
that also took inspiration from Franco’s song that was about a successful and
middle-aged Mexican immigrant. Quemada-Diez’s film on the other hand deals with
younger, undocumented immigrants in the here and now. A very different story
and one with a brutally real unhappy ending. Samuel (Carlos Chajon), Sara
(Karen Noemí Martínez Pineda) and Juan (Brandon López), three teenagers from
Guatemala, decide to leave poverty by going to the United States. After
crossing the Mexican border by boat, they find another immigrant,
a Tzotzil native called Chauk (Rodolfo Domínguez) who does not know
Spanish but is able to befriend Sara. When they arrive in the town of Chiapas,
they busk for money to eat and drink but are later caught by Mexican
Immigration Police agents, who steal Juan's boots and threaten Chauk with a
gun, before deporting all of them back to Guatemala. They are deposited by the
border to Mexico and so they are able to easily find a way back across it, but
at this point Samuel decides to stay in Guatemala as he feels the risks just
aren’t worth it. Juan dislikes the idea of going with Chauk after taking an
instant dislike to him, but Sara forces him to go on with him and the three
continue on the road to the north. While riding on a train to northern Mexico,
the train is stopped by the Mexican Army who attempt to capture the immigrants.
The trio manage to escape and are offered refuge and work by a nearby
sugar-cane farmer. During a party at the plantation, the three of them drink
and dance until Sara and Juan begin kissing, and end up leaving Chauk alone.
The next morning Chauk feels betrayed by Sara, but decides to remain with them
and continue the ride to the north. During the trip, they are detained by drug
traffickers, who steal the belongings of the passengers and kidnap the females.
Sara, who has dressed as a boy the entire journey, is soon recognized as a girl
and is taken by the traffickers. When Juan and Chauk resist and try to help
Sara both are beaten and knocked unconscious. Chauk wakes up and tends to
Juan's injuries. When Juan recovers, both recognize that they can do nothing
for Sara and decide to continue their voyage to the north. During the next
train ride, they meet a teenager from Guatemala that offers them jobs, but in
reality it is just a trick and the boy delivers them into the hands of a group
of criminals. When the leader learns that Juan is from his same hometown, Juan
is released. Juan later returns and offers the leader the American Dollars he
had saved before the journey, in order to free Chauk. His offer is accepted but
at a huge risk and they both flee as quickly as they can. Juan and Chauk
finally arrive in Mexicali, where they get help from a group of immigrant
traffickers to cross the border between Mexico and United States. The
traffickers take the boys across the border but leave the two on their own in
the desert. They’ve made it. However, immigrant hunters are hiding in the hills
and Chauk is shot dead by a sniper. Juan runs for his life and arrives in an
alien world, without the happiness he thought he would feel. He soon gets a job
in a meat factory with many other immigrants. The movie ends with Juan looking
up at snow falling in the night sky, he remembers a conversation Chauk tried to
have with him during their journey (they spoke different languages and did not
understand each other) and he realises that Chauk had wanted to come north to
see snow for the first time. It’s heart-rending but life-affirming stuff. I think
the fact that Diego Quemada-Diez worked so long as a cinematographer he knew
the importance of the journey. We travel the hundreds of miles with the four
friends, the film is long because it needs to show each and every dusty road
and every single rail track along the way. The film isn’t political, it merely
shows the very real risks involved that poor people endure in want for a better
life. It’s not a greed that fuels these people but access to a just and fair
life. It makes you wonder if the life is that much better, whether the golden
dream is actually that golden. The heart-breaking element of the film is that
much of what happens is based on several true incidents. The American dream
seems to only work for those who already had it, those who never had to dream
of it in the first place thanks to their elders who were also immigrants. The
hypocrisy still sickens me. Diego Quemada-Diez’s film is beautiful and as
brutal as it needed to be. The four young actors are superb and the film is a
masterpiece, but it is also so much more than that. It is a must see film,
something that should be shown in schools and the sort of film angry old white
men will tell you is wrong – which should tell you the opposite.</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-29324266068165610852020-11-05T12:55:00.000+00:002020-11-05T12:55:15.132+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc8l_zgvJTIu8xG_Swhi_egbM3kbQWpNQRq5j_FrS8om4ep5taEPKGsxnGoL8qbML0DZNg58_-0XGrIVOVyNMOld565pBARpPczKt3A0uR5aERNMxK6wLMr2Qo4uL88xslU-Bd3xtDKaqr/s1600/Sabrina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="782" data-original-width="1024" height="488" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc8l_zgvJTIu8xG_Swhi_egbM3kbQWpNQRq5j_FrS8om4ep5taEPKGsxnGoL8qbML0DZNg58_-0XGrIVOVyNMOld565pBARpPczKt3A0uR5aERNMxK6wLMr2Qo4uL88xslU-Bd3xtDKaqr/s640/Sabrina.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Sabrina</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Billy Wilder</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">1954</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">****</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The
goings on behind the scenes are just as famous as the film itself in Billy
Wilder’s 1954 romantic classic Sabrina. The lead actor hated everyone, the
other two leads fell in love and had an affair and the director, who would end
a 12-year business relationship with the studio after the film’s release, was
so up against it, he asked the actors to fake sickness so he’d have a chance to
catch up. Sabrina is a bonafide classic but one wonders whether it could have
been better with one or two slight changes. Sabrina Fairchild (Audrey Hepburn)
is the young daughter of the Larrabee family's chauffeur, Thomas (John
Williams), and has been in love with David Larrabee (William Holden) all her
life. David is a three-times-married playboy who has never paid attention to
Sabrina because to him she was still a child. Eavesdropping on a party at the
Larrabee mansion, as she has often done before, Sabrina notices David enticing
yet another woman. Distraught, she leaves her father a suicide note and starts
every car in the garage so as to kill herself. Instead she is interrupted by
David's older brother, Linus (Humphrey Bogart), who escorts her back to her
quarters above the garage. Sabrina had been on the point of sailing for France,
where she is to attend a culinary school in Paris. After two
years there, she returns home as an attractive and sophisticated woman. When
her father is delayed from picking her up at the station, David offers her a
lift instead without even knowing it is Sabrina. Once David realizes who she is,
he is quickly drawn to Sabrina and invites her to join him at a party at the
mansion. When Linus sees this, he fears that David's imminent marriage to
Elizabeth Tyson may be endangered. If the engagement is broken, it would ruin a
profitable opportunity for a great corporate merger between Larrabee Industries
and Elizabeth's very wealthy father's business. Instead of confronting David
about his irresponsibility, Linus pretends to sympathise with him and in a
moment of inattention David sits down on champagne glasses he has placed in his
pockets, so that he is incapacitated for a few days. Linus now takes David’s
place with Sabrina on the pretext that “it’s all in the family” until both fall
in love, although neither will admit it. In fact Linus’ plan is to pretend to
be accompanying Sabrina back to Paris but not to join her on the liner.
However, when he reveals his intention to Sabrina instead, she agrees to leave
the next day and never come back. The following morning, Linus has second
thoughts and decides to send David to Paris with Sabrina. This means calling
off David's wedding with Elizabeth and the big Tyson deal, and he schedules a
meeting of the Larrabee board to announce this. However, David enters the room
at the last minute and declares that he has decided to marry Elizabeth after
all. David helps Linus recognize his own feelings for Sabrina and assists him
in rushing off to join Sabrina's ship before it leaves harbor. Linus and
Sabrina meet on board and sail away together. The story is flawed way before
the film is. I hate how suicide has been so poorly handled in love stories. You
have to go back to Romeo & Juliet to find its origins but since then,
particularly in older films of the 40s and 50s, it has been used out of context
and in a irresponsible manner. We look back at films like Sabrina and comment
on the love story without once questioning Sabrina’s mental state or the
actions of the two brothers. Everything about it, when you really think about
it, is deplorable and not romantic at all. It’s horrific really, but Hepburn’s
eyes, Holden’s charm and Bogart’s voice somehow make people overlook such
things. I like the film because I like watching Bogart, Hepburn and Holden, not
because I like either the story or the characters. Initially, Cary Grant was
considered for the role of Linus, but he declined, supposedly because he did
not want to carry an umbrella onscreen but I don’t know how true that really
is. The role was taken by Bogart. Best known for playing tough detectives and
adventurers, Bogart was cast against type as a smart businessman gradually
transformed into a romantic lead. He was something of a last minute
replacement and he knew, just like everyone else did, that he wasn’t really
right for the part. He was very unhappy during the filming, convinced that he
was totally wrong for this kind of film, mad at not being Wilder's first
choice, and not liking Holden or Billy Wilder. Bogart also disapproved
of Audrey Hepburn and he wanted his wife Lauren Bacall in
the role. Asked how he liked working with Hepburn, Bogart replied: "It's
OK, if you don't mind to make a dozen takes." During production of the
film, Hepburn and Holden entered into a brief but passionate and
much-publicized love affair but Hepburn called it off once she learned that
Holden couldn’t bare children. Bogart later apologized to Wilder for his
behavior on set, citing problems in his personal life but by that time the
stories were infamous. Wilder began shooting before the script was even
finished, and Lehman was writing all day to complete it. Eventually he would
finish a scene in the morning, deliver it during lunch, and filming of it would
begin in the afternoon. Considering the film’s many problems, the final result
is pretty miraculous. For all of the problems the film though, I do find it
funny just how many times Wilder managed to mention the play The Seven Year
Itch – the next film project with a new studio. The reality is that the film
isn’t as special as all that but it is, and always will be, a joy to watch the
four giant film makers at work.</span></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-50952505819975105202020-11-05T12:54:00.001+00:002020-11-05T12:54:33.992+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgANPrcG_dCQwo8Qibrt8O3fKyGf9d2S2vkG9KiQeYByOJEaZwitqQGaaB3fq9s9w6rVooOoLmEDEhFiJR9Llq8pxWIaE4BdocWfWnWZplTJevP2SVMCVAfacZ72lDhp6Z-p6Cs9sKw2s4Q/s1600/Nomad+In+the+Footsteps+of+Bruce+Chatwin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgANPrcG_dCQwo8Qibrt8O3fKyGf9d2S2vkG9KiQeYByOJEaZwitqQGaaB3fq9s9w6rVooOoLmEDEhFiJR9Llq8pxWIaE4BdocWfWnWZplTJevP2SVMCVAfacZ72lDhp6Z-p6Cs9sKw2s4Q/s640/Nomad+In+the+Footsteps+of+Bruce+Chatwin.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Nomad: In The Footsteps Of Bruce Chatwin</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dir: Werner Herzog<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2019<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: yellow;">****</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Werner Herzog’s Nomad: The Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin, is
an ode to his beloved friend, the celebrated adventurer and writer who died in
1989 at the age of 48. My first thought was why had Herzog taken so long with
his tribute, but as the film progressed it became clear that the German
director had been referencing his friend in nearly every film he’s made since.
When Chatwin was near the end of his life, he gave Herzog the rucksack he’d
carried on all of his travels. Thirty years later the filmmaker set off on a
trip inspired by Chatwin’s dangerous and magical journeys with the very same
backpack behind him. Herzog recalls how, when making 1991’s Scream of Stone – a
film based on an idea from mountaineer Reinhold Messner, who Herzog had
worked with in his documentary The Dark Glow of the Mountains - he used
the backpack as a cushion while he nearly froze to death after getting caught
in a blizzard with a couple of other crew members. While he doesn’t confess to
the bag saving his life – the other crew members didn’t have anything to sit on
and they all survived – he was comforted by it and felt that Bruce was somehow
close to him. It is clear that Bruce was very dear to him and that the
adventurer has never been far from his thoughts. It feels like this was a
promise to a friend, like Rescue Dawn was to little Dieter who wanted to fly.
The film isn’t as sentimental as it would be with any other director though,
which will come as no surprise to Herzog fans, but it is far more emotional
than I would have expected from him. The film is all the more moving for its
subtlety. Herzog’s trip, following in his friend’s footsteps, begins
in the Patagonian cave where Chatwin’s ancestor discovered the skin and
bone of a brontosaurus, although it later transpired that it was actually the
skin of a 10,000-year-old giant sloth, which the writer wrote about in 1977.
Chatwin's boyhood fascination with the skin was enough to inspire the South
American voyage that produced his first book, In Patagonia. The film isn’t
so much a biography of the adventurer, more a journey retracing his steps with
a few memories and thoughts thrown in, a bit like W. G. Sebald’s The Rings of
Saturn, but very much in Herzog’s unique style. "Bruce Chatwin was
searching for a strangeness" Herzog explains, making the pair kindred
spirits for sure. Herzog follows Chatwin’s path down to the bottom of the
world, talking with many people along the way including the granddaughter of
the man who found the brontosaurus/sloth skin, Nicolas Shakespeare – Chatwin’s biographer
who shows Herzog the adventurer’s personal museum of artifacts and an
Aboriginal scholar who didn’t totally agree with everything Chatwin did in
regards to his culture. We learn of Chatwin’s collection of strange objects,
some of which inspired his journeys. Opposite to most quests, he would start
with the artifact, then go in search of its history along with whatever other
unrelated stories came with it. Herzog follows some of these treks, and is
similarly fond of tangents. He goes to Neolithic sites in Wales where
blindfolded pilgrims commune with forces they think travel through ley lines.
He photographs ancient cliff paintings and contemplates the carious colored
handprints left behind by ancient civilizations. In a fascinatingly balance chapter,
he goes to Australia and speaks to Aboriginal elders about the songlines that
gave one of Chatwin's books its name. In a scene similar to one in his earlier
documentary Grizzly Man, Herzog listens to a recording of these songs but
refuses to share them with the viewer, after he speaks to a scholar who
believes outsiders should never hear the ancient songs these tribes created and
who condemns Chatwin’s book. Herzog has made a point about this sort of thing
before, the clumsiness of early explorers and the effect their rambling has had
on ancient civilizations. Between each adventure Herzog talks to Chatwin’s late
wife, how she felt about his affairs with men and what life has been like
without him. He also talks of his own relationship with Chatwin, one of mutual
respect, brutal honesty and encouragement. It feels like they admired each
other but could also be quite competitive. Chatwin sounded like he could often
be as blunt as Herzog, telling him when he didn’t much care for his films.
"When he came to see my new film at the time’, said Herzog, "the
first thing he said was: 'Werner, I'm dying.' I said, 'Yes I can see that.'” It
sounds harsh to us but I’m sure it wasn’t ever meant as such to them. That
said, there is a sadness to Herzog’s voice when he tells of how, on his
deathbed, Chatwin sent Herzog away, telling his wife that he had no desire to
die in front of him. This clearly had nothing to do with their friendship and
everything to do with the memory Chatwin wanted Herzog to have of him, but I can’t
help but think Herzog would have wanted to have been beside him holding his
hand and telling him interesting things. I had no idea of their friendship and
I found it fascinating how both men’s careers intertwined over the years. This
is a classic Herzog documentary but with far more emotion than I’ve
seen from him before, making it quite a journey. I feel privileged that he
shared this special friendship with us.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><b></b></span></span>Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-34634100325510770822020-11-05T12:54:00.000+00:002020-11-05T12:54:15.254+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOT1z8fbhg3KyudHFSebnQK0kWJ55Q20s2w6YFfmlZcrS0_QWDtlWfV_VbE8gghZrIRWvYYuCzqfAcxCm1ljHWqL5efoxUH1jab-ox3G3bzY3q8QBcINlXuX-kl-KQ-teSbkUwusUhYly7/s1600/New+Town+Utopia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOT1z8fbhg3KyudHFSebnQK0kWJ55Q20s2w6YFfmlZcrS0_QWDtlWfV_VbE8gghZrIRWvYYuCzqfAcxCm1ljHWqL5efoxUH1jab-ox3G3bzY3q8QBcINlXuX-kl-KQ-teSbkUwusUhYly7/s640/New+Town+Utopia.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>New
Town Utopia</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Christopher Ian Smith</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">2017</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">****</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There
seems to be a real decline in schools teaching sociology these days which is a
huge shame, as I believe it is that one lesson that proved most helpful in
post-school/adult life. Sociology is the study of society, patterns of
social relationships, social interaction and culture of everyday life. It is a
social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and
critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order,
acceptance, and change or social evolution. If you aren’t socially aware then
there is something missing. That’s what I believe anyway, I also don’t
understand people who ‘Aren’t interested in History’. I digress. New Town
Utopia was first brought to my attention by a musician I follow, the
rather brilliant Phil Burdett, who is interviewed and whose music features in
the film also. Phil Burdett is a great musician and an amazing lyricist, and
when he says somethings good I believe him. The film also has a wicked poster.
My heart sank a little when I learned that the film was about Basildon, but
comes down to subconscious prejudice, which the film challenges. The first
historical reference to Basildon is in records from 1086. It is mentioned in
the Domesday Book as 'Belesduna'. The name 'Basildon' may be derived
from the Anglo-Saxon personal name 'Boerthal' and the Anglo-Saxon
word 'dun', meaning hill. In historical documents, this name had various forms
over the centuries, including Berdlesdon, Batlesdon and Belesduna. However,
when people think Basildon they think concrete jungle, a vision of the future
from a forgotten past. In the late 1940’s, after the Second World
War, Billericay Urban District Council and Essex County Council,
concerned by lack of amenities in the area and by its development, petitioned
the Government to create a New Town. Basildon was one of eight 'New Towns'
created in the South East of England after the passing of the New Towns
Act, created in part after so much of London was bombed during the blitz.
People wanted new beginnings, a bit of countryside, away from the smog and the
capitol City that was left in ruins. On 4 January 1949 Lewis Silkin,
Minister of Town and Country Planning, officially designated Basildon as a 'New
Town'. His famous speech celebrating the future town is read out throughout the
film by Jim Broadbent. Basildon Development Corporation was formed in February
1949 to transform the designated area into a modern new town. The New Town was
laid out around small neighbourhoods with the first house being completed in
June 1951. A large, illuminated town sign "Basildon Town Centre
Site" at 3.5 feet was erected in 1956 by the railway and stood until early
construction was completed. The history of Basildon from the 1940 to present
day is told by residents old and new, some who moved just after the war and
others who were born and bred there, although most of the interviewees are
artists, poets and musicians. Between them they explain how they or their
parents were coaxed out of London with a promise of a golden future in a
modernist new town. A New Town Utopia as the title suggests. Some
interviewees reminisce about childhood spent hiding in the many secret
alleyways built around the area, comparing the landscape as one great big
concrete playground. A place like Basildon will always divide opinion when it
comes to aesthetics. Personally, as run down as parts of it are, I see much
beauty in its brutalist design. Brutalism being something you either love or
you hate. I get the impression that the residents, and former residents
interviewed perhaps appreciate it more now then they did growing up surrounded
by it. Unlike many of the surrounding areas, Basildon didn’t quite become the
London commuter belt which would typically pump money into an area, things are
a little different now, but the fancy apartment blocks of the 40s weren’t so
fancy during the 70s and 80s and are only being appreciated as was intended, 70
years after they were built. It is safe to say that there has always been
resentment in the area. Resentment that the utopia never really happened, that
many promises weren’t kept, that it has been in decline due to lack of funding
for a very long time and that if the families had stayed in London, their
properties there would now be worth large amounts of money. It wasn’t all bad though.
Creativity always rises up through poverty and Basildon had many great clubs
and venues throughout the 70s and has produced more hit bands per square meter
then any other town in England. The film also looks at social housing and the
impact of Thatcher's right-to-buy policy; the neglect of creative and cultural
facilities by national and local government; and the demonisation of working
class people by the British media. Basildon was always considered
a barometer of public opinion in general elections. The results
of the constituency elections were the same as the overall result of general
elections from 1983 to its abolition in 2010 and Basildon was said to epitomise
the working class conversion to Thatcherism during the 1980s, though the town
did not vote Conservative in 1979. Nor did the Conservative Party ever hold an
absolute majority in the town – its success was due to the split between the
SDP and the Labour Party. Basildon isn’t unique in this respect but it was
always the first town people turned to. It has always had a bad reputation, one
that has always been unjust and woefully unfair. This documentary doesn’t just
condemn the flawed visions of the past but also looks at the injustice and
under-funding of the present. It’s a lesson from the past and the present that
the future should take heed from. That said, it is also a celebration of a
community and a reminder that governments, politicians and councils don’t make
towns, people do. A fantastic slice of modern sociology.</span></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-19275273558978725042020-11-05T12:53:00.000+00:002020-11-05T12:53:57.571+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAgkCKiiIcKo76Inz1tWg8Sk6CalWA1GlhHSNgZHckeyEvSY2FKuqozhtfrfLGdl31I5tGUZDm5zonhI0JgqyqbJmlQxTn1HfhdGVazynEKhNCcAPM8ES0nPc_KttcAxvK851Orve3fW37/s1600/Gilda+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="960" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAgkCKiiIcKo76Inz1tWg8Sk6CalWA1GlhHSNgZHckeyEvSY2FKuqozhtfrfLGdl31I5tGUZDm5zonhI0JgqyqbJmlQxTn1HfhdGVazynEKhNCcAPM8ES0nPc_KttcAxvK851Orve3fW37/s640/Gilda+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Gilda</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Charles Vidor</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">1946</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">*****</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When
most people think of Charles Vidor’s 1946 noir thriller they think of Rita
Hayworth flicking her hair back and dancing along to ‘Put the Blame on Mame’.
Fair enough, it was an iconic character with a performance to match, but I’ve
always thought the best thing about Gilda was Glenn Ford. He is the one that
always drew my attention, clearly keen to get back into acting after serving
three years in the navy during the Second World War. Still, you can’t argue
with Hayworth’s ultimate femme fatale, the character has gone on to
inspire many an actor, writer and director from the likes of Jessica Rabbit,
The Spice Girls, The Shawshank Redemption and an atomic bomb. Johnny Farrell
(Glenn Ford), a small-time American gambler newly arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina,
wins a lot of money cheating at craps, and has to be rescued from a
robbery attempt by a complete stranger, Ballin Mundson (the brilliant George
Macready). Mundson tells him about an illegal high-class casino, but warns him
not to practice his skills there. Farrell ignores his advice, cheats
at blackjack, and is taken by two men to see the casino's owner, who turns
out to be Mundson himself. Farrell talks Mundson into hiring him and quickly
gains his confidence. However, the unimpressed washroom attendant, Uncle Pio
(Steven Geray), keeps calling him "Mr. Peasant". Mundson decides to
take a trip and leaves Farrell in charge for while and he excels at the
opportunity. When Mundson returns from his trip he does so with a beautiful and
spirited young woman - his new wife, Gilda (Rita Hayworth). It is immediately
apparent that Johnny and Gilda once had a romance that ended badly, though both
deny it when Mundson questions them. Johnny visits Gilda alone in the bedroom
she shares with her husband, and the two have an explosive confrontation. While
it is unclear just how much Mundson knows of Gilda and Johnny's past
relationship, he appears to be in ignorance when he assigns Farrell to keep an
eye on Gilda. Johnny and Gilda are both consumed with their hatred of each
other, as Gilda cavorts with men at all hours in increasingly more blatant
efforts to enrage Johnny, and he grows more abusive and spiteful in his
treatment of her. Mundson is visited by two German businessmen. Their
secret organization had financed a tungsten cartel, with everything
put in Mundson's name in order to hide their connection to it. However, when
they decide that it is safe to take over the cartel after the end of World
War II, Mundson refuses to transfer his ownership of it to his backers. The
Argentine police are interested in the Germans; government agent Obregon
(Joseph Calleia) introduces himself to Farrell to try to obtain information,
but the American knows nothing about that aspect of Mundson's operations. When
the Germans return later, Mundson kills one of them. Farrell and Gilda have
another hostile confrontation, which begins with them angrily declaring their
hatred for each other, then ends with them passionately kissing. After seeing
or overhearing them, Mundson flees to a waiting retractable gear airplane.
Farrell and Obregon witness its short flight as the plane explodes shortly
after takeoff and plummets into the ocean. Farrell concludes that Mundsen
committed suicide, unaware Mundson has parachuted to safety and faked his own
death. Gilda inherits his estate. Johnny and she immediately marry, but while
Gilda married him for love, Johnny is avenging their mutual betrayal of
Mundson. He stays away, but has her guarded day and night out of contempt for
her and loyalty to Mundson. Gilda tries to escape the tortured marriage a
number of times, but Johnny, now rich and powerful, thwarts every attempt,
trapping her in the relationship that has become a prison for them both.
Obregon finally confiscates the casino and informs Farrell that Gilda was never
truly unfaithful to Mundson or to him, prompting Farrell to try to reconcile
with her. At that moment, Mundson reappears, armed with a gun, to kill them
both, but Uncle Pio manages to fatally stab him in the back. Then Obregon turns
up, and Johnny tries to take the blame for the murder. Uncle Pio finally
credits Johnny for being a true gentleman, while insisting that he had killed
Mundson. Obregon, however, is uninterested in arresting anyone since Mundson is
already legally dead. Farrell gives Obregon the incriminating documents from
Mundson's safe. Farrell and Gilda finally reconcile, apologizing for the many
emotional wounds they have inflicted on each other. It’s a great thriller and I
loved the fake death but the characters are all over the place. No one is ever
what they seem but not in a clever way. I think it is forgiven all its minor
faults though, due to just how stylish it all is. The direction of the film has
often been criticized but I think that’s very unfair. Charles Vidor got so much
out of his cast and if you look back at all their films they all became better
actors because of him and their time on Gilda. After all, he started with two
actors who refused to slap each other, to having two actors with missing teeth.
The character of Gilda was so famous that Rita Hayworth once stated
"They fell in love with Gilda and woke up with me." It’ll be the role
she will always be known for and I don’t think there is anything wrong with
that, although it is often forgotten that she wasn’t just a pretty face – her
performance is outstanding. It is no surprise that she was a WW2 pin up for
many a solder. While Gilda was in release, an atomic bomb due to be
tested at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean's Marshall
Islands bared an image of Hayworth, a reference to
her bombshell status. The fourth atomic bomb ever to be
detonated was decorated with a photograph of Hayworth cut from the June 1946
issue of Esquire magazine. Above it was stenciled the device's nickname,
"Gilda", in two-inch black letters. Although the gesture was
undoubtedly meant as a compliment, Hayworth was deeply offended. I wonder what
she made of Jessica Rabbit?</span></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-6575471992199916042020-03-22T18:26:00.000+00:002020-03-22T18:26:38.964+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0E2TwBJUibiDnP0hqz8UYJl7yWTtXM0Br8BbMK-SyiS6qir1yQUo3xA9_00EGrXYxjtKtg8jYi0Vm51Eq9qLkGcit-VYbI_YkydiYIQw1YWsSJzTbjtl2DQBu8kLDRJifTjF41__MA6dq/s1600/Th%25C3%25A9r%25C3%25A8se+Desqueyroux.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="940" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0E2TwBJUibiDnP0hqz8UYJl7yWTtXM0Br8BbMK-SyiS6qir1yQUo3xA9_00EGrXYxjtKtg8jYi0Vm51Eq9qLkGcit-VYbI_YkydiYIQw1YWsSJzTbjtl2DQBu8kLDRJifTjF41__MA6dq/s640/Th%25C3%25A9r%25C3%25A8se+Desqueyroux.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Thérèse
Desqueyroux</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Claude Miller</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">2012</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">****</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Claude Miller’s final film, Thérèse Desqueyroux, is
a fitting film to depart on. Critics have been comparing Miller’s work to that
of his mentors François Truffaut, Robert Bresson and Jean-Luc Godard
for years but Thérèse Desqueyroux is his and only his. Adapted from François
Mauriac’s famous 1927 novel, which itself was inspired by the Henriette Canaby
attempted murder case of 1906, the film has a freshness about it that isn’t
typical of the genre but gives the overall production a feeling of heightened authenticity.
Set in the south-west of France, in the late 1920s, Thérèse Laroque agrees to a
marriage of convenience between wealthy families by marrying Bernard
Desqueyroux, a bourgeois landowner. They then settle on his family's property,
located in a vast area stretching over acres of pine forests. Bernard is a
local man with a passion for hunting and defending with conviction the family
traditions. However, Thérèse is quickly stifled by the monotony of her married
life. She gives birth to a daughter whom they name Marie, but her boredom seems
to grow every day. In her own words, she is looking "somewhere else".
Bernard suffers from an unspecified condition for which he is prescribed
arsenic. Thérèse takes the opportunity to attempt to poison her husband, but in
forging a prescription, she is discovered. In addition to being dishonored by
her own family, she is disowned by her husband's. She faces justice for the
alleged murder attempt until her husband and in-laws, who intend to keep up
appearances within their provincial society, make up their own version of what
happened. The case is dismissed and Therese is confined to the house.
Eventually, after many years, she is allowed to leave and live in Paris on the
understanding that she will only return for weddings and funerals. The film is
a faithful adaptation but there are differences in the narrative. The book is
characterised by some unusual structural devices, including a long internal
monologue which often switches perspective, revealing the thoughts of several
characters but this is sensibly removed within the film. The vast majority of
characters in the book are seen as quite unpleasant people; Thérèse's father is
revealed to be a callous sexist more concerned with protecting his political
career than looking after his daughter, while Bernard himself is portrayed as
an emotionally unavailable man obsessed solely with hunting and serving the
needs of the family. However, in the film there are glimmers of kindness and
the characters feel far more forgiving than in the novel. As in much of
Mauriac's work, physical imperfection signifies moral destitution and most
characters have some sort of flaw – phrases such as "hard black
nails", "short bow legs" and "fat little Hippolitus"
all describe various male characters, just within the first few chapters but
again, the film is far more forgiving. In the novel Thérèse is proud of her
intelligence and self-perceived wisdom, as she is in the film, but the
unrequited crush she has on former childhood friend and sister-in-law Anne
isn’t as obvious in the film. It’s a shame really, as these tones are said to
match Mauriac's own struggles with sexuality, so they really should have been
respected but I also see why they would be toned down/removed. Mauriac once
commented back in the early 50s that is novel used some devices that came from
the silent films, such as a lack of preparation, the sudden opening,
flashbacks. They were methods that were new and surprising at that time but of
course wouldn't work in modern film. It is interesting though how a book would
copy an old film and be copied, many years later by a film. Miller’s direction
is faultless and the performances and chemistry between Audrey Tautou as
Thérèse Desqueyroux and Gilles Lellouche as Bernard Desqueyroux is
perfect. Tautou’s performances are always good but I’m glad Lellouche was given
the right amount of space to develop his contrasting character. When a film is
about one persons unhappiness then you have to give the source of that
unhappiness just as much attention as the person themselves. While the film is
ever so slightly slow in places, it absolutely drips class and just the right
amount of pause. It’s a fitting tribute to the source novel and a great film to
end a career on.</span></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-6310726621051867502020-03-22T18:25:00.000+00:002020-03-22T18:25:13.762+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU3x69GoItlb6S3HxFzfAribtg7GJqgPzWvJ-C1GllQwPRRDxcq5glaDJZtL6a_ew8oT2z2-0zpkp-p6_hi8LYLD3-DSRQWkD9VH2iHbkpgyw0nnvEWihH_4p8ilBe4y0fG13RZ2LtIw4a/s1600/Lust+for+Life.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="614" data-original-width="1275" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU3x69GoItlb6S3HxFzfAribtg7GJqgPzWvJ-C1GllQwPRRDxcq5glaDJZtL6a_ew8oT2z2-0zpkp-p6_hi8LYLD3-DSRQWkD9VH2iHbkpgyw0nnvEWihH_4p8ilBe4y0fG13RZ2LtIw4a/s640/Lust+for+Life.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Lust
for Life</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Vincente Minnelli</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">1956</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">****</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One
of my favourite chapters of Kirk Douglas’s memoir The Ragman’s Son is the one
where he talks about his experiences of working on Vincente Minnelli’s 1956
Lust For Life, a biopic of the famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. A few
pages in, Douglas remembers that John Wayne attended a screening of the film
and was horrified at what he saw. "Christ, Kirk! How can you play a part
like that? There's so few of us left. We got to play strong, tough characters.
Not those weak queers,". Douglas tried to explain, "It's all
make-believe, John. It isn't real. You're not really John Wayne, you
know." Wayne, born Marion Morrison, looked at him oddly, as if Douglas had
betrayed him. I wouldn’t say Lust For Life was Douglas’s best film or even his
greatest performance but I would argue that it was the most unique and
passionate performance of his career. There is certainly nothing wrong with
Minnelli’s direction but this is Douglas’s film and he carries it on his
shoulders. The story begins with Vincent as a young man, training to be a
minister like his father before him. However, the church authorities find him
unsuitable. He pleads with them to be allowed some position and they place him
in a very poor mining community. Here he becomes deeply absorbed in the daily
poverty and begins sketching daily life. The apostate religious leaders do not
like his approach, and they frown on his social activism and care for the poor,
scolding him for living like the people he was there to help, when ministers
were to be seen as living comfortably. Immediately we understand Vincent and
the maddening times he lived in. He returns home to his father's house. He
falls in love with his cousin but she rejects him because of his inability to
support himself financially. The infatuated Vincent follows her to her family
home, where he holds his hand over a candle flame to prove his devotion, only
to learn that she has said she is disgusted by him and doesn't want to see him
again. A friend gives him paint and artist materials and encourages him to
paint, and he heads to Paris. Here he takes up with a prostitute who
eventually also leaves because he is too poor. His passion then turns fully to
painting, which he pursues while agonizing that his vision exceeds his ability
to execute. His brother, Theo van Gogh (played by James Donald), provides
financial and moral support. Paul Gauguin (played by Anthony Quinn), whom he
met in Paris, joins him in Arles and for a while life is good, but Vincent
becomes too obsessive even for Gauguin's tastes and they argue, after which
Vincent famously cuts off his own ear. Vincent begins experiencing
hallucinations and seizures and voluntarily commits himself to a mental
institution. He signs himself out, and with Theo's help returns to a rural area
to resume painting. Out painting cornfields he is frustrated by the crows and
ultimately shoots himself in despair of never being able to put what he sees on
canvas. As a result, he dies a few days after shooting himself. To prepare for
his role as the troubled painter, Douglas practiced painting crows so that he
could reasonably imitate van Gogh at work. According to his then wife Anne
Buydens, Douglas was so into character that he returned to home in character.
When asked if he would do such a thing again, Douglas responded that he
wouldn't. However, his role was so great and he was so focused on performance,
he and Stanley Kubrick kept the momentum and made two of the greatest films of
all time soon after (Paths of Glory and Spartacus). It amazes me that John
Wayne still had a career up until his death in the late 70s as he never once
changed his persona, while Douglas on the other hand developed his craft and
pushed the boundaries as far as he could. He is still seen as a classical
Hollywood actor, which he is, but they forget how dynamic and ahead of the game
his performances often were. Both Anthony Quinn and James Donald are great
actors but their performances were ten years behind Douglas’s. The film was
shot on location in France, Belgium and the Netherlands and
many of the set buildings are still there, indeed, I’ve sat opposite the little
yellow house in France many a time (originally believing it was the original
and not the film prop). Two hundred enlarged colour photos were used
representing Vincent’s completed canvases; these were in addition to copies
that were executed by an American art teacher, Robert Parker. Although it may
look a bit muted in colour nowadays, the technique is still remarkable to
today’s standards. I will admit that the presentation of the aesthetic
controversy between Van Gogh (humane and intuitive) and Gaugin (intellectual
and brusquely cynical) is both over simplified and somewhat misleading but
Douglas’s performance is the greatest exploration of neuroticism captured on
film at the very least. Plus, the film stars the great Lionel Jeffries in a
minor role, and when all is said and done and when no one can truly say whether
or not this was a true representation of a troubled artist, an appearance from
Lionel Jeffries, no matter how small, instantly makes a film magical. In all
seriousness though, it’s a great film, way ahead of its time with one of the
most intense performances of all time.</span></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077199632223962139.post-74867179392718824062019-11-16T16:35:00.000+00:002019-11-16T16:35:57.106+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4m3YEPlcSBBgbyMqIA-8S_4HQbSvRhmNmu6nsJW9XpSfE7uBEU9N-RlAJed8OHw2aOTGY5U6lCEkKKOLpMMezV4VnMBXc2aCFQ5Mi544tlCaH8tMJJa4RJbS8FW2b2DgAJ7QTn65_N_Q8/s1600/Momentum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="1281" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4m3YEPlcSBBgbyMqIA-8S_4HQbSvRhmNmu6nsJW9XpSfE7uBEU9N-RlAJed8OHw2aOTGY5U6lCEkKKOLpMMezV4VnMBXc2aCFQ5Mi544tlCaH8tMJJa4RJbS8FW2b2DgAJ7QTn65_N_Q8/s640/Momentum.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>Momentum</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dir: </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Stephen Campanelli</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">2015</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: yellow;">*</span></span><span style="color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The
money a film makes has no baring on its quality and I stand by that statement.
Avatar was the most successful film of all time for many years but I think few
people would argue that it was the ‘greatest’ film ever made. Some of my
favourite films didn’t make a penny, low budget masterpieces like 1992’s Eddie
Presley came and went without anyone noticing and it was utterly brilliant. So
just because Momentum came and went in 2015 without anyone noticing doesn’t
mean that it’s a bad film. So it only made £46 at the UK box office, probably
not surprising given that it had no advertising and only played for one day
across just ten cinemas. People just see the headline ‘Film makes only £46 at
the UK box office’ and assume the worst and that is wrong, just as people think
films that make ridiculous amounts of money are automatically great. Real film
fans know that there are many straight-to-video gems out there and Netflix
should also tell people that a big financial cinema release doesn’t guarantee
quality each and every time. I think I’ve made my point. However, 2015’s
Momentum is a dreadful film and I feel sorry for those people who left the
house and spent £46 between them to go see it. I’d want my money back if I were
them. A great cameraman doth not necessarily make a great director, and while
there was a touch of flare in Stephen Campanelli’s debut, there wasn’t much of
anything else. The film opens up during a bank robbery, although you’d be
forgiven for thinking you were watching three sex gimps playing laser quest.
Our protagonist is Alex (Olga Kurylenko), a trained ex-military
agent-turned-thief, who gets pulled by her former partner into a high-tech bank
heist, her ‘one last job’. During said heist, which of course goes wrong, she
accidentally steals a valuable flash drive containing incriminating evidence.
Alex is then relentlessly pursued by a team of agents led by Mr. Washington
(James Purefoy), who has been sent by an anonymous Senator (Morgan Freeman) to
retrieve the flash drive. While involved in a violent and frenetic
cat-and-mouse chase across the city, Alex tries to uncover the conspiracy
behind her pursuers. I have to admit I love a good bank heist movie but this
isn’t a good bank heist movie. The robbery is so high-tech it’s utterly
ridiculous, flashing lights equaling clever stuff my tiny brain could never
understand. Olga Kurylenko is not a leading actor and nor is she an action
star. She’s barely an extra. There is something to be said for James Purefoy’s
camp villain but it certainly cannot be taken seriously - Vincent Cassel was
clever to jump ship when he did. Freeman offered his services to Campanelli for
his directorial debut based on their prior working relationship, when he was a
cameraman for Clint Eastwood but looking at most of the films Freeman has
made over the last few years I’m starting to think that he owes someone a lot
of money, possibly the same person Nicholas Cage and John Travolta owe. There
is never an ounce of intrigue or suspense to be had, although I did wonder what
the hell was going on for the first half of the movie – which doesn’t count. As
a thriller it is never thrilling, the action is too mediocre for an action
movie and it is far to predictable to ever be entertaining. I’m all for switching
off to some mindless action but if one switches off too far then they fall
asleep and that is what I felt myself constantly battling against. The real
joke was that it was intended as an entry point to a franchise. Perhaps that
was the origin of its failure – it was written with other films in mind and not
enough time was spent on simply getting the one film right. It’s a bit obtuse
really, and it failed because of it. It is deeply ironic that it was called
Momentum as that was the one thing it was severely lacking, especially for a
self-proclaimed action film. It’s the sort of thing even Milla Jovovich would
pass on – and that’s saying something (although I still love her). Cliché,
predictable, formulaic, boring….I have very little else to say about it.</span></span></div>
Cinephile Crocodilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858476545972593907noreply@blogger.com0