Films This Week

(Click here to read my general introduction to the 'Films This Week' series of posts.)



Street Angel



 

12/02/13

Went to see Argo, which I really liked. Right from the off, it oozed with tension. But there was also something else at play: an old Warner Brothers logo, scratches, aspect ratio changes, storyboards…all things, one can't help but feel, that were designed to call attention to the film's construction. It may be a film about hostages, but it's also a film about filmmaking (despite playing out against a political backdrop, I'm not sure it can be said to be a film about politics – although perhaps it is a film about political films, about political representation in films… But really it plays as a cross between a thriller and a Hollywood satire). It feels almost like a bold statement against the crassness of much contemporary mainstream cinema: look, it's saying, how good mainstream films were in the 1970s – let's go back to making films like that. As much as the tension of the moment sucks you in, it never quite feels like it wants you to forget that you're watching a movie. And, while it's true that things get a little overcooked at times, this may be part of its reflexive schema, and there's no denying the pure, thrilling entertainment of it all (the pacing is superb). Furthermore, while the political backdrop may not ultimately seem to be what the film is about, it's far from broadly stroked: the Americans don't come out of it looking like the good guys (they interfered in another country's politics – and not for the last time). It's produced by Heslov and Clooney, and feels like something Clooney would direct (in the best possible sense).

 

14/02/13

Watched 7^th Heaven. The first part of the film has a lot of charm, despite its air of schmaltz. There's a rich vein of humour, and plenty of striking visuals (the vertical move up to the apartment is breath-taking). It's a shame, then, that it builds to such a disappointing second half. Simply put, I lost interest when the war came. Perhaps I was put off by the sentimental religiosity, or perhaps it was simply the lack of emotional engagement I ultimately felt. The couple endures hell, but it has no weight.

 

15/02/13

Watched Street Angel. The design and photography were excellent (especially in the first ten minutes), and Janet Gaynor gives a very fine performance, but with the exception of one or two brief moments there was very little that interested me in the narrative. It probably doesn't help that the story cleaved so closely to that of 7^th Heaven (with the roles reversed – here it is the woman who is the reluctant lover who relents, only to have to leave her partner directly after agreeing to marry them. There's even an interloper who tried to break up the relationship by saying that the absent partner is no better than they are… Is Street Angel supposed to be a remake of 7^th Heaven?). The influence of Murnau well may be felt at times, but Borzage's films ultimately don't have the same impact. When all is said and done, Street Angel is nonsensical rubbish…beautiful though the images may be.

 

16/02/13

Went to see Chameleon Street at the BFI. I didn't think it was the clearest or (with one exception) the most dramatic storytelling, but the film's experimental edge felt incredibly fresh, even after all these years. It hasn't aged a day, and still feels incredibly bold and powerful. Truly original filmmaking.

Quote for the Week

'What is being held against you - cultivate it, it is your essence' – Jean Cocteau, as quoted in Nick Pinkerton's review of To the Wonder, Sight & Sound March 2013.

Films This Week – A New Venture

As anyone who has read the journal from the making of Life Just Is will know, in the last few years I have become something of an obsessive diarist. In amongst the scribbles pertaining to my filmmaking, I have also taken to writing down my thoughts on every film I see. These reviews (for want of a better word) are written for my own benefit, and up until now I've never seen any reason for them not to stay that way. However, as we move firmly into the New Year, I've decided it's time for a change – and, from now on, I'm going to aim to publish these scribblings right here, on this very blog, on a weekly basis (normally, I suspect, on a Sunday or Monday).

 

Why the change? It's hard to say for sure. Perhaps it's partly because I keep telling a friend of mine that she should publish the extensive notes she has a habit of making every time she watches a film. Perhaps it's the influence (inspiration) of Harriet Warman, who has been consistently publishing her thoughts on her weekly viewing over on her blog. I may not watch as many films as Harriet, or write about them as eloquently, but seeing as I'm taking the time to note down my thoughts, I felt like I might as well begin sharing them. How long this sharing will last remains to be seen, but it's an idea…for now at least.

 

The life of this weekly feature will partly depend upon what effect it has on my writing – the reviews I write in my journal have a different tone to the reviews I write for publication, precisely because (until now) they've been written for my own benefit. They are often pithy, unadorned, unpolished. They are quick scribbles – and it is these quick scribbles that I will now be reproducing here, verbatim, with no further work done on them.

 

So, it's an experiment, of sorts. But hopefully one you'll enjoy (feel free to let me know in the comments section). Anyway, without any further ado, here we go – week one!

 

04/02/13

Ben and I went to see Life of Pi. I thought it had some interesting ideas about religion, but I wasn't sure that it really went anywhere with them – it was kind of just a little… dull. The narrative structure (framing device) sucked all the drama out of the film, because we knew Pi was going to survive his ordeal unharmed. I also found the switch in narrator – from old Pi to young Pi – a little problematic. Still, it had some good visuals, and the VFX were excellent. I also thought it made good use of 3D – although I'm still not a convert. There's something distracting about it (sometimes there's a kind of flicker in the image), which pulls me out of the film. So much for it making for a more immersive experience. I'm still intrigued by the possibilities it offers to the human face though – there were some effective moments in Pi in which Lee frames faces against plain backgrounds (the sky, a hospital curtain), and thus, ironically, reduces the depth of the 3D frame. Somehow, it's almost these moments that work best…

 

05/02/13

In the evening I watched Tabu, which has some excellent compositions and contains a beautiful play of light…Murnau's idea of 'architectural cinematography' – based on dance and German paintings – excites me. Unfortunately I can't quite say the same about the story of Tabu, which didn't really grip me, even with its tragic (and moving) ending. It does have some interesting narrative and structural parallels with Murnau's other work though – contrary to Tony Rayn's assertion that Murnau was not an auteur, there seems to be much that recurs throughout his oeuvre. There's a letter from Murnau reproduced in the booklet which implies a deep seated loneliness and rootlessness, a feeling of not fitting in. Taken in this light, his films can, in some respects, be seen as stories about the search for a home, for acceptance, and for love (the search often being represented by a literal journey).

 

07/02/13

Elina came around to show me The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. I enjoyed the colours and the stylisation (the artificiality) of the world it constructed, as well as the melodrama of the story. But the music was awful.

 

09/02/13

Watched Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, which was far too overdone for my taste – stylised to the point of silliness (and, what's worse, ugliness – there's no fun to be had here). Even the jokes fall so flat they barely register as the film stumbles over them. Truly terrible.

Quote for the Week

'Real art is simple, but simplicity requires the greatest art' – F.W. Murnau, 'The Ideal Picture Needs No Titles', Theatre Magazine, January 2918.

 

Quote for the Week

'It's a combination of wanting a change personally and of feeling like I've hit a wall in my development that I don't know how to break through. The tyranny of narrative is beginning to frustrate me, or at least narrative as we're currently defining it. I'm convinced there's a new grammar out there somewhere. But that could just be my form of theism' – Steven Soderbergh on the reasons for his retirement from film, taken from this excellent interview.

My Top Films of 2012

So, here we are: that time of year when I look back over my previous year's viewing and put together a list of the best films that I saw, both old and new. Overall, 2012 felt like a fairly strong year to me, and I'm aware that I haven't even seen many of the films people are raving about.

When it came to putting together my list of The Best Films from Previous Years that I Saw for the First Time in 2012, I decided to limit myself to one film per director. With this in mind, then, Die Nibelungen stands in for many other Langs, Landscape in the Mist for many other Angelopouloses, and Le quai des brumes for both itself and Le jour se lève.

I've not done much critical writing this year, so I don't have any reviews to link to this time, although you can find capsule reviews of all the films on my 2012 list over on Cinetalk, where this list has previously appeared. As always, directors' names will take you to their IMDb pages.

My Top Films of 2012

01) Demain? (dir. Christine Laurent)
02) ¡Vivan las Antipodas! (dir. Victor Kossakovsky)
03) Magic Mike (dir. Steven Soderbergh)
04) California Solo (dir. Marshall Lewy)
05) The Kid with a Bike (dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
06) Tabu (dir. Miguel Gomes)
07) The Search for Emak Bakia (dir. Oskar Alegria)
08) Goodbye First Love (dir. Mia Hansen-Løve)
09) Amour (dir. Michael Haneke)
10) Your Sister's Sister (dir. Lynn Shelton)

Bubbling under: The Amazing Spider-Man (dir. Marc Webb), Marvel Avengers Assemble (dir. Joss Whedon), Jack and Diane (dir. Bradley Rust Gray), What Is This Film Called Love? (dir. Mark Cousins).


The Best Films from Previous Years that I Saw for the First Time in 2012

01) Die Nibelungen (1924, dir. Fritz Lang)
02) Landscape in the Mist (1988, dir. Theo Angelopoulos)
03) The Flight of the Red Balloon (2007, dir. Hsiao-hsien Hou)
04) The Searchers (1956, dir. John Ford)
05) Le quai des brumes (1938, dir. Marcel Carné)
06) The Battle of Chile (1977-1980, dir. Patricio Guzmán)
07) Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010, dir. Banksy)
08) Gate of Hell (1953, dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa)
09) The Loves of the Pharaoh (1922, dir. Ernst Lubitsch)
10) Clothes of Deception (1951, dir. Kôzaburô Yoshimura)

Bubbling under: Fall of the House of Usher (1928, Jean Epstein), Lost Chapter of Snow: Passion (1985, Shinji Sômai), O Sangue (1989, Pedro Costa), Decasia (2002, Bill Morrison)

Renewed Passion

I'm well aware I've been neglecting this blog of late. To be honest, I've just been too busy working on getting things ready for the release of my feature, LIFE JUST IS, which hits cinemas and DVD/download in the UK and Ireland this December. Alongside the film, I'm also putting out two books, one containing both the first and final drafts of the script, and the other containing an edited version of my director's journal, along with a few other pieces, including an essay I wrote on transcendence and film. Both of these have ended up being slightly more work than I had anticipated, so my workload has been pretty full on.

However,I have still found time to review Masters of Cinema's new release of The Passion of Joan of Arc for Silent London.

As I hope the review and the forthcoming books prove, I haven't given up on on critical writing, and I hope to pick this blog up again once time permits.

For those interested in purchasing the books (or the new Joan of Arc release, for that matter), please visit the LIFE JUST IS Webstore, where you will find a whole load of goodies that I recommend for purchase through Amazon.