I was at Empire Magazine's MovieCon, a delightful way to spend a weekend at the NFT in London. And before watching The Expendables, we heard from Danny Boyle talking about 127Hours (that seemed perfectly normal at the time).
I've never been a massive fan of Danny Boyle's work- 28 Days Later, Shallow Grave and Trainspotting are brilliant but Sunshine, The Beach and Slumdog Millionaire were not for me. But I have the utmost respect for the ambition of the man- he wants to make all these films in different genres and listening to the man talk really made me respect this. He took all the power he'd developed in Hollywood with Slumdog and made 127 Hours. It would be the challenge of his career, I mean- could he make a movie-movie about the true story of a dude trapped in a cavern...
Man. 127Hours. I need a moment. Danny Boyle's best film. My advice to Danny Boyle-quit. Yazz lied- the only way is down after this. It's like he took everything he learnt through his career and made what could have been a harrowing struggle-for-survival story and made an exciting, *writ large and sparkly* VISCERAL affirmation for life and living.
The trick was always going to be, how do you make 90mins in a cave interesting and cinematic? Last year, we had Buried - which is also about being isolated and figuring how to save yourself. The makers of Buried, raised the stakes and said- 'And we won't leave the box either' and for all intents and purposes (favouring a Hitchcockian jawn), I'd class Buried as a success too. But it's no 127 Hours.
Boyle has no qualms about leaving the cavern for our hero Aron (James Franco) to flashback or dream or hallucinate. It's a weird thought but I'm certain this cavern movie which is 90% concentrated on one guy is too big for TV at home. 127 Hours is too cinematic- maybe it has to do with being trapped in the dark with Aron too but 127 Hours just an incredible visual event (pardon my hyperbole but it is. It's a truly a 'ride'... Shit. Sorry.). There's different camera styles being employed, from 35mm to hi8 to camera phone; one minute you seeing sumptuous vista of the American Outback, the next you're in a clastrophobic cavern... like. It's a jarring movie (you will be jarred-there will be jarring) but it won't be shaky-cam visuals. The jarring element (perhaps predictably) is the story and Franco is mind-blowing here. I came a Franco fan, I left a Francophile ('Really, Cody.') He shines in the role of a lifetime for any actor-like I said it's 90% concentrated on one guy ('LOLZ'). James Franco's Aron is not a maudlin character, in fact, for a man stuck in a cavern-he's almost too cheery but we love that he's so proactive in his own survival- maybe because we can't guarantee we'd be so inventive if we were in the same hiking trainers...
But some how in the end you forget about all this 'Stuck in a canyon' business- the film becomes this super powerful coda to not being alone and embracing your life and sharing it with other people. Okay, when I put it like that it sounds sappy and sentimental but remember this was the film, where your main concern was going to be about how gruesome the arm bludgeoning was going to be.
See- me and A.O. Scott of The New York Times aren't so different...
Oh and Danny Boyle... if you do want to make more films... um, I'd be cool with that.
I watched 127 Hours at the cinema, another great resource for movies.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Cul-De-Sac (1966)...
I've never been a massive fan of Danny Boyle's work- 28 Days Later, Shallow Grave and Trainspotting are brilliant but Sunshine, The Beach and Slumdog Millionaire were not for me. But I have the utmost respect for the ambition of the man- he wants to make all these films in different genres and listening to the man talk really made me respect this. He took all the power he'd developed in Hollywood with Slumdog and made 127 Hours. It would be the challenge of his career, I mean- could he make a movie-movie about the true story of a dude trapped in a cavern...
Man. 127Hours. I need a moment. Danny Boyle's best film. My advice to Danny Boyle-quit. Yazz lied- the only way is down after this. It's like he took everything he learnt through his career and made what could have been a harrowing struggle-for-survival story and made an exciting, *writ large and sparkly* VISCERAL affirmation for life and living.
The trick was always going to be, how do you make 90mins in a cave interesting and cinematic? Last year, we had Buried - which is also about being isolated and figuring how to save yourself. The makers of Buried, raised the stakes and said- 'And we won't leave the box either' and for all intents and purposes (favouring a Hitchcockian jawn), I'd class Buried as a success too. But it's no 127 Hours.
Boyle has no qualms about leaving the cavern for our hero Aron (James Franco) to flashback or dream or hallucinate. It's a weird thought but I'm certain this cavern movie which is 90% concentrated on one guy is too big for TV at home. 127 Hours is too cinematic- maybe it has to do with being trapped in the dark with Aron too but 127 Hours just an incredible visual event (pardon my hyperbole but it is. It's a truly a 'ride'... Shit. Sorry.). There's different camera styles being employed, from 35mm to hi8 to camera phone; one minute you seeing sumptuous vista of the American Outback, the next you're in a clastrophobic cavern... like. It's a jarring movie (you will be jarred-there will be jarring) but it won't be shaky-cam visuals. The jarring element (perhaps predictably) is the story and Franco is mind-blowing here. I came a Franco fan, I left a Francophile ('Really, Cody.') He shines in the role of a lifetime for any actor-like I said it's 90% concentrated on one guy ('LOLZ'). James Franco's Aron is not a maudlin character, in fact, for a man stuck in a cavern-he's almost too cheery but we love that he's so proactive in his own survival- maybe because we can't guarantee we'd be so inventive if we were in the same hiking trainers...
But some how in the end you forget about all this 'Stuck in a canyon' business- the film becomes this super powerful coda to not being alone and embracing your life and sharing it with other people. Okay, when I put it like that it sounds sappy and sentimental but remember this was the film, where your main concern was going to be about how gruesome the arm bludgeoning was going to be.
See- me and A.O. Scott of The New York Times aren't so different...
Oh and Danny Boyle... if you do want to make more films... um, I'd be cool with that.
I watched 127 Hours at the cinema, another great resource for movies.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Cul-De-Sac (1966)...
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