Touching The Void (2003)

I don't know why I waited to watch Touching The Void. I guess I felt there was no sense of urgency to watch it; maybe I felt like I knew how it would play and that it would be predictable thereby rendering it unnecessary. But when I noticed it was coming on tv, i was keen to watch- maybe out of residual bonhomie from 127 Hours - ideal double-bill partners.
Not that they're especially similar the main difference that tragic accident in that movie means the guy is completely stuck- in this movie, the unfortunate climber has to keep moving or he will DIE. The other main difference is that this movie is told in interview and narration by the real people involved, with actors reconstructing the events.
Which brings me to one of my original preconceptions - if these guys are being interviewed, then by proxy- we know they've survived and if we know that where does the dramatic tension come from? Well to highlight my naivety, as with 127 Hours, The question becomes not did they survive but how did they escape their desperate situation? And in the broad sense, what does it feel like to be in that situation and an extra dimension not in 127 Hours, what is it like leave your best friend to save yourself?
It's at these points where Touching The Void shines with Simon Yates and Joe Simpson's intense honesty about their thought processes in these life-or-death situations like Simon admitting to thinking about coming up with a different story to explain what happened to Joe to explain why he didn't make it back so he wouldn't have to say, he cut his rope loose to save himself. It's moments like this that make the drama all the more accessible because... In that situation, you know in your heart-of-hearts, you'd be thinking the exact same thoughts and there's an unspoken agreement there between them because Joe would have done the exact same thing and says as much. But then besides the gallows-mindset, when Joe had to pull himself together to stay alive; he develops this fully understandable, petty system to make himself work harder and improve his time descending the mountain, in the way, any of us would in the way we work at work everyday.
It's an admirable debut from Kevin MacDonald and certainly better than recent effort, The Eagle. MacDonald was a producer on Senna and he's certainly better with the documentary/true story stuff like Last King of Scotland . I'm not writing the guy off just yet but Kev- Stay in the yard of the last century, yeah?

I watched Touching The Void (2003) on FilmFour.
My 2011 in Movies will return with CopOut (2010)...

Brazil (1985)

Maybe it’s just indicative of my ‘ornry’ personality but the most interesting, engaging thing about Terry Gilliam’s Brazil is the ‘custody battle’ that surrounded its American release.
Now none of even it’s most ardent supporters/fans would suggest that this film was a commercial motherlode and even in pre-production it would have been clearly far-out and an ‘acquired taste’; I use that term specifically- I don’t think there’s anything about the film that’s beyond the average person’s conception or imagination BUT it’s very arch, exceedingly bleak in places, phantasmagorical and emotional yet illogical. But then, that goes for most Terry Gilliam films.
The obvious point being that this was not something a studio like Universal should have touched with barge-pole. Studio head- Sid Sheinberg, to many the literal godfather of the ‘blockbuster‘ and Steven Spielberg (metaphorically), saw what Universal probably chipped in half the budget for (5-7mill), and saw something they would struggle to sell. (So would I… There’s a completely tenuous reason for the film to be called Brazil for starters. Don’t ask me what I’d call it… ‘The Steampunk Bureaucracy’…’‘1985’?!).
Something pertinent (I feel) that gets left out of the discussion of that mild skirmish is that in 1985, there was no studio-‘art-house’ labels like Focus Pictures or Fox Searchlight, that would underwrite this sort of kooky, medium-scale film for your overseas markets and Western pseudo-intellectuals like me.
If you can’t already tell, I’m not the greatest fan of Terry Gilliam movies; I always feel like I should like them more then I do. I think he’s a great visionary stylist and he made a significant contribution to comedy with Python, which gave birth to more DIY dark animated comedy, and he’s a massively charismatic public figure but I have trouble dialling into his movies and Brazil is no different.
But I have to give the man credit for landing this purposely convoluted with a lot of different messages like homeland security and surveillance, bureaucratic superstructures and the day-job and as well as this, the film is set in this world of 30’s/40’s style with 80’s technology. It’s not for me but he created a British fantasy epic.
The delicious irony in the American battle for control of Brazil, that this film about getting lost on the industrial ladder and fighting against it, managed to break free from its creatively corrupt overseers and blossom due to grass roots support for it…

I watched Brazil (1985) on BBC2.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Touching The Void (2003)...

Seven Samurai (1954)

This is my first foray into Kurosawa. He had a history of giving birth to these new types of stories- most famously, the percieved memory by different people as seen in Rashomon and Seven Samurai was one of the first gang-on-a-mission film; The Magnificent Seven being a direct remake.

Point Blank (A Bout Portant) (2010)

This movie almost perfect in a weird way. I know I'm going to struggle to explain this. It's like a take away at the end of a night out- and almost spiritual in the way, it fills you up to your soul. It's not actually the best meal you'll ever taste and you'd never attempt when you weren't drunk but used in a mercenary way, it just... It just works. It serves its purpose perfectly. Does what it says on the tin. This is an ideal example of the French modern thriller, made by an assured master of this sub-genre. I guess the most famous of these films is Taken. That was made by the French for Hollywood and worked like gangbusters. Recently Hollywood took on of the classics of the sub-genre, Anything For Her and made a foul horse turd of a remake called The Next Three Days, which I obviously still carry a high level of distain for. The original, which i admit now I did not see- was made by the maker of this film, Fred Cavayé but I promise to remedy that soon because this is everything you want from a thriller- it's short, sharp and assured.
What's great is that, he doesn't want to makes a 2hr action film with set pieces-he's made a 80min film which goes hard from the start and doesn't run out of steam. Cavayé also knows how to dress a simple story and make it LOOK convoluted- during the mid-section, the film does a lot of nifty twists and turns and doesn't really carry it through but it's not an issue.
Still I don't really want to say what the films about-there's elements of '2 strangers stuck together on the run', 'family in peril' and 'civilian has to take on criminal underground'.
Needless to say, I thought this was great; exactly what I hoped for...by no means,  the best movie i'll see this year and i have to say, that it's not as good as Animal Kingdom in the thriller stakes but  perfectly executed, in terms of genre and form.
Luc Besson and his proteges, like Pierre Morel and Olivier Megaton produce 2 or 3 films a year, in the hopes that they make something like this good but they never match their promise. Fred Cavayé obviously has the inside track on crafting these confectionery thrillers and will be great to watch develop in the future.
And this time, Hollywood - bring him to over and let Cavayé work on a bigger canvas. That would be best....

I watched Point Blank (A Bout Portant) (2010) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Seven Samurai (1954)...

Cinema Paradiso (1988)

<p>Perpetually on 100 Greatest Movies lists and lauded since it's release more than 20years ago, Cinema Paradiso to me was worth watching just to tick it off list; to have an opinion on. <br>
In hindsight, I can see why film fans and cinema critics love it so much- It's like The Notebook for movie nerds. It's a Mills and Boon love letter to the darkened room with the magic beam of light called cinema and y'know... Obviously, I'm hip to his 'eternal magic of film' message but i still say when you cross the 2 1/2hrs mark, you're crossing to the darkside. <br>
But then I'd be lying if i said Giuseppe Tornatore's sentimental journey, didn't resonate with me. <br>
The almost 50year story of an old projectionist and his sweet young boy prot&#233;g&#233; plays out in 3 parts, when the boy is in his tweets, his late teens and his fifties and we see how cinema builds their friendship and shows us how captivating a role film can play in our lives. In the Italian community, where the film is set- the town cinema is where the community gathers to. They all watch together, this being before tv and the Internet. It reminds you how exciting it is to be in a packed cinema, how an audience can breath life into a film. It's a simpler time, that i certainly don't wish to return to but it's nice to visit. <br>
Then again they get to watch movies outside in the summer, under the moonlight which looks and sounds heavenly. One of my favourite movie experiences was watching The Blues Brothers under the stars with thousands of compares at Glastonbury, one year. <br>
I guess when the film turns into a literal love story and the young Toto begins to find love for himself, that's when I started checking out. You can trust me when I say that this film could very comfortably finish after the 2hr mark but it insists on continuing with the story passed the point of caring with a seemingly tacked-on wraps-everything-up-in-a-tidy-bow 40min epilogue. Now admittedly this is the director's cut - so... okay, there are other shorter versions readily available but like Oliver Tate from Submarine, i think it's the preferential way the filmmakers would want me to watch the film but as I say, the stuff I liked was the etherial magic of cinema stuff at the start because the little boy and the old man make such a cute friendship and the schmaltzy nostalgia for cinema of yore is quite effective is reminding you of your own early memories of going to the pictures; watching some crap 6weeks after everyone at the Park and Dare, a grand old theatre and sneaking underage into films at a god-forsaken fleapit called the Phoenix... <br>
These times are cherished memories that ignited my love for film today... </p>
<p>I watched Cinema Paradiso -Director's Cut (1988) on DVD via LoveFilm. <br>
My 2011 in Movies will return with Point Blank (A Bout Portant) (2010)... </p>

Screwed (2011)

I was so on the edge as to whether to see this because frankly this film has no place in a cinema. No offence but the cast and crew were probably as surprised themselves because this is British DTV fodder and I don't take that the wrong way but there's nothing about this film that says theatrical release- the cast are DTV or TV stars, the director made 2 DTV movies before it and it's written by the writer of 'Is Harry On The Boat?' - don't remember that? Great. And there's nothing particularly ambitious about the film either... It's the adaptation of a British prison officer biography but apart from the obligatory escape plot, it follows all the rules of a prison film.
In deciding, i even consulted reviews of the film, which were obstensively terrible but one highlighted, that some of the This Is England cast were in it - this sold me.
Well that person lied- Milky is in it and I think Woody is in it too but he's got no lines and nothing to do. Sacrilege and waste!
It 'stars' James D'Arcy (don't know) as the prison officer and Noel Clarke as the prison gangster and Milky and the fat guy from the Football Factory (you know...) as other prison officers. Our man begins as a squadie sent home after time spent in that mild skirmish in the Middle East before setting into the Prison service as a last option after that it's downhill fast as he becomes corrupted by the stress, drugs and violence that goes hand in hand with working in the slammer... I guess!?
It's not so much poorly written as it lacks originality- any of the reveals at the end or the outcome, were telegraphed to anyone who's seen a prison movie, from about 10mins in; apart from that, it's sparce in detail-high on action, which in this context is good.
If anything, this film reeks of going through the motions; i can't imagine that anyone involved was there apart from work and/or financial gain- i can't imagine any of them feel particularly passionate about it. Noel Clarke, who I like, just looks bored but isn't horrible in it. Actually, the woman playing 'the wife' is making an effort but since no one else is... I just looks like she's annoying and trying too hard. In the last half of the film, whenever she turns up on screen, it's unintentional comedy gold.
In reality, you should always support British cinema (or any country's cinema) but i don't know if supporting this particular breed of tosh but then there were a lot of people coming out to see it, so...

I watched Screwed (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Ip Man (2008)...

Ip Man (2008)

As much as i want to like and/or love kung fu movies, they never resonate with me as well as I would hope. I really like Enter The Dragon and Kill Bill Vol. 1 but secretly stuff like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Iron Monkey sends me to sleep. Don't get me wrong, it's impressive to look at and i love all the wire work but the stories are DULL. But I keep coming back, which leads us to Ip Man. I must have seen Donnie Yen be alright to middling in about 10films but i couldn't tell what they were or if he was actually in them; Ip Man is my eyes and probably others is where he begins to make a lasting impression.
It's the true(?) story of Martial Artist Master Ip and his journey through the last years of the second World War 2. At the start, he has a nice house and surroundings for his wife and child and has a lord of the manor respect around a town famous and full of martial arts masters and schools. His life and temprement are modest and he is happy to practice his art with friends and colleagues. By the 2nd act of the film, his family are homeless and destitute, due to the invasion of China by the Japanese; and yet, he remains strong is spirit; not resting on his laurels to provide for his family by finding manual labour but his trouble really begins when a narcissistic Jap General decides to organise fighting tournaments between the Chinese and Japanese...
In this film, Yen gets to play a character, just short of an Asian 'Superman', he is modest, honest and true. When he hears that people are being beaten and killed, he's desperate to help and when the town are being subjected to bullying by a gang of thugs, he teach them all how to fight his style of 'Wing Chun'. He inspires his town to rise up and defend themselves and they in turn, inspire him to continue fighting and rebelling against their oppressors. Yen, obviously good at the tough stuff is surprisingly effective at the dramatic and emotional 'actory' parts, playing not the hardman hero with the one-liners but a thoughtful and obstensively peaceful man fighting to save lives.
If you couldn't tell, what engaged me about this film over other similar movies was the story and this career defining role by Donnie Yen. I'm looking forward to Ip Man 2, which is already available and i understand that Ip Man 3 is on it's way too....

I watched Ip Man (2008) on FilmFour on 9th June.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Cinema Paradiso (1988)...

Cecil B Demented (2001)

After the disappointment of the previous film (I don't even want to say it name), I retreated to a cantankerous old friend, John Waters and his film, Cecil B Demented. I've never been in any rush to see his films in a completist way and if anything, i love the man for himself, less than his films but they have a delightful distasteful fug them. I don't know why but the 3 or 4 films of his i've seen, have a comforting simple entertaining trashyness about them like fast food. They're superfluous, salty and probably bad for you. I love his sense of absurdity like in this film, he has a character that's continually torturing one of the main characters, as a way of venting his own frustration at being heterosexual and that his life would be so much easier if he were gay!
Cecil B Demented is the story of a wannabe director and his cult-like desciples who kidnap a Hollywood actress, for the purpose of using her to make a movie. But this is more or less, a vehicle for Waters to vent about Hollywood and how fay their movies have become. Cecil's gang/crew have directors like Fassbinder and Sam Fuller and William Castle tattooed on their body and Cecil takes time give sermons on the weight movies used to carry, while they hang on his every word. The Hollywood actress, played by Melanie Griffith, exemplifies everything wrong with them- she stars in these trite romantic comedies, that are offensive by their inoffensiveness.
Another delightful surprise about the film is that 10 or 11years later, it features glimpses at a youthful Maggie Gyllenhall and Michael Shannon. They look so cute!
The point of Water's message is 'I don't care if you make high drama or pornography but do something that makes me feel!'. I mean obviously the idea of an audience paying to see Patch Adams 2 or a sequel to Forest Gump is a joke (and a righteously distasteful Waters-ean joke at that!) and but, there's obviously a realistic sense that it's not exactly far from reality in this 'Wild Hogs/Old Dogs' industry.
There are many sight gags set by Waters like cinemas showing the likes of Lake Placid 2 and Scream 4,obviously auspicious by the reality that they actually exist nowadays.

I watched Cecil B Demented (2001) on LoveFilm Online.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Screwed (2010)...

Norweigian Ninja (2010)

Lost in translation- that's the closest to a positive, I can give this film. As will become very apparent, this film was one of the biggest disappointments I've had in watching a film in some time. I'm not sure how but I guess my expectations were too far wide of the gap. The cover art/poster of the film is great as is the evocative title- Norweigian Ninja. I guess I was hoping for a Norwich version of a exploitation flick or a quirky pale Black Dynamite but it's nothing close to that.
For one, it's not funny and it might be lost in the language gap but there's a definite unsuccessful sardonic tone to proceedings.
There's little to no action or any other exploitative qualities either and this leaves the film to be reminicent of an Action Man advert, where these guys are preparing to fight an enemy but there's very little of that too.
So there's not really much else, I can say about it since my knowledge of Nordic cinema is certainly limited but I hope the record shows that i certainly didn't come at this film, with knives out and I really wanted to see this idiosyncratic take on the exploitation film or even the spy film, like say the OSS films. It's a crime for any film to be boring but for an action film, Norweigian or not- it's still quite inditement.

I watched Norweigian Ninja (2010) on DVD, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Cecil B Demented (2001)...

Bridesmaids (2011)

I've been looking forward to this film for a while, so when the chance came up to get preview tickets, i was quite diligent in getting them (I'm usually too slow in getting those tickets usually).
It's a condescending statement to make but i've always wanted to see that comedy where girls are mischievous and funny, like in the films i love like Superbad or Withnail And I. I mean most of the women in my life are really funny and funny women are so sexy to me. Too much information I know but ... still at some point, these films turn into identikit romcom tripe. I mean I'm (fairly) romantic (I'm not made of stone!) and i love comedy- romantic comedies should be glorious but they're usually neither. Bridesmaids solves that problem by removing the romance angle.
Okay, it doesn't actually but it's not the crux of the film, just a sub-plot. When the film works best, it's when these women are all together and playing off each other and the other strength is that all but 2 or 3 characters in the film are women. It should go without saying that Kirsten Wiig is brilliant, mostly playing the straight woman it should be said. If I'm honest I found her sketches on SNL really irritating TO START but then I quickly realised how super talented she is not performing comedy. But then in her modesty, she's not only co-written a film to showcase her talents- she created a world for all these other talented women to work too like Rebel Wilson and more obviously, Melissa McCarthy. She's going to big star now after her role as tenacious Megan and I get the feeling... It maybe something I read but I think they reshot to put more of her in the film based on the stirling work she was doing. But then there's Chris O'Dowd and Jon Hamm as Kristen's good and bad love interests; Hamm gets to be deliciously vile and the lovely Chris O'Dowd gets to be the sweet guy. THEY MAKE SUCH A CUTE COUPLE.
Well put together by Paul Feig and Judd Apatow, it's just a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours in the cinema and you feel good leaving the cinema. It's funny and delightful and sweet. I have could watch this film over and over again and in a year, where everyone is making these dirty comedies- it's nice to see one that's as funny as it is naughty.

I watched Bridesmaids (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Norweigian Ninja (2010)...

Citizen Ruth (1996)

First of all, Citizen Ruth reminded me about solvent abuse.
God... No one does that anymore do they? Used to be a major thing. And I remembered that and i don't know why that is something inordinately funny about huffing glue to me. I guess compared to other drugs, it doesn't look so severe. You just look like you're having a panic attack.
Anyway, this film is about a women who's addicted to doing this (as well as anything else she could get her hands on) and finds her self pregnant. Due the continuous habit of Ruth (played by Laura Dern) getting getting caught and having her 4th or 5th child at this point, she's advised by a judge to have an abortion. This begins a battle between the hard left and hard right to decide the future of this fetus.
I first found out about this film while reading Peter Biskind's Down and Dirty Pictures. It's an incredibly rich idea or concept and the idea has always stuck with me. It seemed impossible to me that that could ever make a comedy out of it and land it as well. But surprisingly, it can have it's cake and eat it!
By some act of movie miracle, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor manage with their debut film to make a generally even-handed movie about Abortion and have it be thoroughly hilarious as well as sensitive and affecting. First off the script is solid and it's perfectly paced with a strong sense of story. They also wrote a great character in Ruth and it's the best thing I've ever seen Laura Dern ever do. Ruth is an incredibly stupid person, who unfortunately also has a bad addictive personality. She's selfish and childish and i guess that takes the sting out of the tail of all the A-word talk because she's so unaware of herself, she doesn't understand the severity of her choices and Dern hits the nail on the head perfectly, not by portraying her as a junkie but as a wholly lazy woman.
Other notable cast members include Swoosie Kurtz and Mary Kay Place playing right wing protesters and everyone's favorite American bureaucrat prick, Kurtwood Smith as their leader. They're all playing roles that they've all done before several times but it works for the film to make for a realistic environment for when things get more incredulous.

I watched Citizen Ruth (1995) on BBC 2.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Bridesmaids (2011)...

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Sunset Boulevard, like other classic films of the time like Casablanca and Gone With The Wind has unfortunately been overshadowed by their endings to the point that that all people can remember them by. Before I saw it, i thought it was a story about an old melodramatic actress whose glory days where behind her (which it sorta is...) but that she was the protagonist because she's the focus of any incidental talk about the film.
But as much as i love Gloria Swanson playing the iconic faded silent movie star, Norma Desmond- it's sad to me that everything else gets forgotten about. For one, this film is sensationally darkly humorous; but of course it is... It's Billy Wilder. He deftly mixes the humor with this bleak almost ghost-story like plot of the older woman gentrifying this young man in Hollywood. Then there's William Holden as the youngsters man that she almost imprisoned in her house- it's the best thing I've seen him in because his character is sharp, witty and human in his sense that he just wants the easy life and his ambition doesn't really stretch as far as he'd like.
I guess what people have loved about Sunset Boulevard over the last 60years was that it was 'meta' before 'meta; obvious it a Hollywood story made by Hollywood but it's litter with cameos of people playing themselves, most substantially Cecil B. DeMille. Add the the fact that Gloria Swanson was a silent movie star who saw her popularity fade after the talkies began and the man playing the lady's butler is Erich von Stroheim- one of the most prolific European silent film directors. What I'm trying to say is that no-one made films like this and no one else probably made anything remotely similar until Singin In The Rain (... 2years later.. Still though...)
But then who can deny the pull of Norma Desmond? A cynic might argue that it's just the most broad overacting ever seen but the woman's callous wit and deep self-doubt is completely magnetic. Her decent into madness is completely understandable and her actions seem completely excusable if not justified.
Sunset Boulevard is a classic because it's story and themes, especially in today's through-away celebrity culture are particularly apt and still as fresh as it was 60years ago...

I watched Sunset Boulevard (1950) on FilmFour.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Citizen Ruth (1995)...

Senna (2011)

Only a few days after writing about The Thin Blue Line and 20years after it's release Senna shows just how far the theatrical documentry has come. Produced by Working Title for Universal on relatively large distribution/release and directed by Asif Kapadia, a BAFTA winner for his debut film, The Warrior; he'd never made a documentary before this.
I didn't/still don't know much about Formula One or Motor racing or sport at all. To me, it preferable to Nascar only because they don't insist on going around an infernal bowl and obviously, the crashes. Admit it, you like the crashes too. But I still think the sport is still so boring because everybody seems so evenly matched in machines and almost prerequisite lack of charm and charisma.
Almost polar-opposite to the drivers of today was Ayrton Senna, the Muhammad Ali of F1, the embodiment of work and focus and daring behind the steering wheel. Senna (the film) is made up totally of old footage of the man via home footage, interviews and obviously, the races, with notable friends, family and colleagues narrating over it. This works as opposed to the talking heads style of documentary interviews/information because it keeps you in the 80's/90's in which it's set; there's little sense of hindsight of it being something that took place 20years ago-more that it's unfolding infront you like more of a biopic.
At the centre of the film is the struggle between Senna and Alain Prost, his worthy adversary in the sport. From the film, you get the sense that Senna was unpolished talent-rough in the sense of being naive about the nature of politics in sport whereas Prost was a master of perception, on and off the circuit; who understood the what was unnecessary was not always being faster on the day. As I've said before about filmmakers and their antagonists, Kapadia knows better to make Prost the villain and he comes across equally if not more charming then Senna. The audience always pulls for Senna in their battles but we respect Prost totally. What Senna represents and what Kapadia captures perfectly is that he was a role-model of tenacity and determination and perfection in his craft. In the best moments of the film, he talks about almost transcendentally driving the car through the circuit - that his focus and determination attain a level of second nature- he talks about it like moving through a tunnel and his only concentration being the act of moving forward, not left and right. Just the pure joy of attaining that level of enlightenment, that he felt was like being touched by God.
Like I say, I think what Kapadia beings to the film is that it doesn't feel like a documentary, more that it feels like a movie with the story unfolding in front of you. I want to describe it like Titanic (except that its a horrible metaphor) in that, you know something tragic will happen eventually but you forget. Kapadia doesn't dote on that and i think that adds strength to the film.

I watched Senna (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Sunset Boulevard (1950)...

Leaves of Grass (2010)

Leaves of Grass is a meeting of two great American actors - Tim Blake Nelson, most memorably from Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, and Ed Norton from a few films you love and lots of films that diminished on your expectations. Nelson writes and directs, Both produce and act. What essentially takes place is a druggie Parent Trap, where Norton plays identical twins; one, a straight-laced classic philosophy college professor and the other; an obsessive weed seller. When Richard Dreyfuss' demand payment, the drug-dealing brother hatches a plan for the educated brother to take his place for protection since they never speak.
I watched Leaves Of Grass (2010) on DVD via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Senna (2011)...

The Thin Blue Line (1988)

The Thin Blue Line is the most revolutionary film you may never have heard of. Made over 20years ago, it completely changed the art of documentary. You can stem the influence to probably any documentry made for tv or cinema made today. <br>
It came from a time when documentaries were not theatrical commodities like they are today and were mainly exercises in talking-head interviews cut with relevant footage. What Errol Morris did was add a distinctive sense of narrative and use reconstruction as an tool to effect that. So I'm not suggesting that he invented the <br>
'police reconstruction' but he certainly popularised it and more over no one had used documentry as a story narrative form on that scale really before instead of the usual broad informational format. <br>
The crux of the film is the true life story of a cop in Dallas, who was shot point-blank after the routine stop of a car and the conviction and appeal of Randall Adams, who was found guilty of the crime. <br>
Was well as the ways ive described above, Morris uses a stoic camera shot to interview and that adds a sense of reality- i mean, for all my big talk about filmed crime scene reconstruction, you're listening to the story being told by the people involved; including the police, witnesses, lawyers, Adams and the other suspect, David Harris. Again, this was completely original to have a feature length true story being told by the people involved - now, it's common place on 10 documentary channels any hour of the day.<br>
And the film still stands up today; you're watching interviews that took place no less than 1year after the fact and though, at the start it's a lil unclear how is who or what is going on- you begin to pick up what people's motivations are and this is down to the sparce way, Morris and composer Phillip Glass add music over the film. There is no sweeping orchestra when Randall Adams is making the case of his innocence and no 'Baby Elephant Walk' style silly music when we hear some so-called witnesses out lie about what they saw; but in the end- this makes the experience of watching richer... You feel the sense that you are working out the truth of events for yourself.<br>
And I don't want to spoil it but the conclusion of the ended up changing the law...

I watched The Thin Blue Line (1988) on DVD via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Leaves Of Grass (2010)...

X Men: First Class (2011)

I'm happy to declared, with a certain amount of pleased surprise that this is the best X Men movie. I don't remember the last time people held their breath, curious about whether a movie would be shit or not like they've been with this one. I mean usually we see films in the distance and we can tell if they'll be any good or not. But in the X Men canon - this is a whole new mutant (... I'm not proud of myself...); there was a mixed bag of hope and limitations - it would be made by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman, who had ascended to this new level of filmmaking talents and I'm sure this was before KickAss had come out, just on word-of-mouth. But- they were given less than a year to make the film. To put it in perspective - i had seen the full trailer for Thor, a film that would certainly not see the light of day for another year before before frame 1 of this film hadn't been shot. Now obviously, it doesn't necessarily take a year to make a film like this but they probably finished photography on Thor in early 2010, big budget summer offerings take a long time. Also the last 2 XMen films are examples of the most cynical types of that sort shallow filmmaking and X Men 3 was made in similar circumstances of a rushed shoot to terrible effect.
But... Somehow (1/4 of billion $) Vaughn has managed to not only pull off an entertaining blockbuster but probably the best one we'll see this summer. To be fair, he dealt himself a good hand having the cast lead by 2 of best British actors of this generation, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. I love McAvoy's effortless Scottish charm and he lays it on as this young Professor X and Fassbender IS Sean Connery's James Bond for the first 20 he's on screen in this film. He is joy to behold. But speaking of which, Vaughn has made a covert love letter to Terence Young, Guy Hamilton and the early Bond filmsthe, with faux Ken Adam sets and 60's style and sexual mores. Set before and during the Bay of Pigs conflict, the film uses the situation to base the story.
Since these movies obviously have big casts, I can't name everyone but Kevin Bacon is good as the main baddie and Jennifer Lawrence is a really great at play the young Mystique (after slating her less than a week ago).
I really want to say this is Vaughn's best film but hmmm...
And i know with the constraints he was under, it must have been the most challenging film he's ever worked on but he really came through and right now, he could do anything he likes (so long as he promises Fox another X Men and the fans another KickAss)...

I watched X Men: First Class (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with The Thin Blue Line (1987)...

Mary and Max (2009)

Today's entry grows weirder by the description. An Australian animated film (I don't recall Australia ever making any animation...) about the pen-friendship between a little Aussie girl and a middle aged fat New York.
Both are desperately lonely in their world and struggle to get along and make sense of it. Together, they become co-conspirators and find solace in the others letters.
Writer and director, Adam Elliot likes skirting very close to very uncomfortable comedy; like every 2mins something almost heartbreaking almost happens but he reigns it in before it does and that's his skill. Mary and Max is consistently on the verge of something tragic happening but it continues to be warm and funny. As well as Elliot writing, this film has life breathed into it by narration by Barry Humphries and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, playing Max. Hoffman Max is caught perfectly between Moe the Bartender and James Gandolfini.

Jour De Fete (1953)

Since the animated comic melancholia that was The Illusionist in February, I've been meaning to delve further into the work of French funster (his words...) Jacques Tati.
As much as I love comedy, i'm pretty ignorant to the ways of silent comedy but I'm prepared to start with Tati. If only because you should start with Keaton or Chaplin and I have to be different.
I don't know what it is that makes him appeal to me... Maybe its the sense that he only made 4 or 5films and spent so long developing them, as in years - which breeds the sense that they were made to the best of his ability and obviously, others percieved his talent to be peerless so...

Violent Cop (1989)

"Her brother's coming... and since you saw fit to rape his sister, you're all going to back me up... We're all going to kill one another... "
Some of the final lines in Kitano's directorial debut, Violent Cop. I guess outta context must seem overblown and pompous but when you're such a thorough and poetic filmmaker, you earn that sort of hyperbole.
As I'm writing this, I'm struggling about what else I can say about Beat Takeshi, that I haven't already said, despite the fact that I really enjoyed his films- Violent Cop is very similar to Hana Bi, the film of his is watched in January. It's about a detached policeman with problems at home and a bad habit of excessive violence in the workplace. It's also persistently funny in that desperately deadpan Kitano way. He sorta like an Asian Shane Black in that way except he doesn't have to rely on a Clapton/Kamen soundtrack of the emotional moments and violence in Kitano's movies is deadly serious and solemn. I don't know why but it never feels gratuitous. I think because it's almost like a release from the tension. Yeah, Kitano uses comedy and violence as a breather after the obstensively moody and tense double crossings and police corruption.
I mean,  in American fare, as the protagonist detached further from society and submitted to his dark predilection for violence, he would be finally given redemption and called a hero. Takeshi has no interest in that- he loves let the main men he plays for wild and maim but redemption is not on anyone's docket. The best they can hope for is the peace in death...

Le Mepris (1964)

Things haven't been particularly pretentious around for a while, so I gotta go Godard. Le Mepris was the product of Godard's producer, seeing that Brigitte Barford was becoming close friends with him and that would be his best chance to make some money for once, since she was the most famous woman in the world at the time. In a way it worked- it was also Godard's most successful film upon release.
But this not only has to do with Bardot, it's Godard's best photographed film but it's still pretty aimless in story and narrative. No bad thing but you need to be a cinematic icon to land that sort of thing.
The crux of the piece is that this Hollywood producer wants this writer to draft him a movie version of The Odyssey and it makes his wife (Bardot) treat him with Le Mepris (trans.- CONTEMPT!)
Godard must love listening to people converse more than any other filmmaker. His films are 90% that.
What was strange for me while watching this movie was I had, unconsciously, turned on the English version of the film as well as the English subtitles (I watch most films at home with subtitles given the choice) but after 5mins of watching the film, i realised that the subtitles were not matching up with what was being said on screen...
Then I started thinking 'Ohhh. Godard is subverting the use of subtitles to use as a tool for showing what these characters are thinking as opposed to what they are thinking. *Referential clap* I look forward to the extras where this practice is explained...'
And after the film has finished and i'm navigating through the extras, there's nothing regarding the subtitles. I check Wikipedia-nothing. Relevant BluRay Review-nothings. Which makes it even more curious...

I watched Les Mepris (1964) on BluRay, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Violent Cop (1989)...