UK: Radley Metzger, 1979
IMDB reference
Wednesday, 11 April 2007
Monday, 9 April 2007
Saturday, 7 April 2007
CHILDREN OF MEN ****½
UK/USA: Alfonso Cuarón, 2006
I watched this film tonight with the girlfriend. Both of us were gripped and enthralled from start to finish. The real stand-out aspects for me were Clive Owen giving a genuinely accomplished performance and best of all the superb cinematography. Yes, the film is quite dark in places and very drab colour scheme wise but that frayed urban feel really captures the current zeitgeist of defeat and despair inherent to late-capitalist society.
I watched this film tonight with the girlfriend. Both of us were gripped and enthralled from start to finish. The real stand-out aspects for me were Clive Owen giving a genuinely accomplished performance and best of all the superb cinematography. Yes, the film is quite dark in places and very drab colour scheme wise but that frayed urban feel really captures the current zeitgeist of defeat and despair inherent to late-capitalist society.
The hand-held camera aesthetic, often over done in the hands of a less capable director and crew, was masterfully handled especially in the long continuous shot inside the building in the refugee slum. I also felt that whilst bordering on the over-stated the momentary halt brought to the bloodletting between the "terrorists" and the army by the sight of Owen and Key bringing out the crying baby summed up visually the films thematic core. That of human life, whatever its ethnicity, is something to be valued and treated with respect. A lesson history tells us we've yet to learn and inevitably never will as our supposed civilised society flounders from one bloody conflict to another. One only has to reflect on our own growing tendency in Britain to shoot, stab and murder our own neighbours in both city and countryside.
On a negative note though I did find the ending a little too abrupt and it highlighted my main criticism of the film over all. Whilst Director Alfonso Cuarón may wish to bring the background to the foreground and really tell the story through images I felt this technique contributed to a lack of depth being given to the main characters. However, this is just a personal response as I was moved by the film (the isolated school scene in particular) and could have even been moved to tears I suspect if the characters had engaged my sympathy to a greater degree by the film allowing me to get to know them better.
Oh well, guess I’ll have to buy the original novel by PD James...
Friday, 6 April 2007
(*) BLADE RUNNER: THE DIRECTOR'S CUT *****
USA/Singapore: Ridley Scott, 1982 (the director's cut released in 1992)
IMDB reference
IMDB reference
Thursday, 5 April 2007
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
Sunday, 1 April 2007
Thursday, 29 March 2007
TEACHERS - SERIES 1
UK: Various Directors, 2001 (Created by Tim Loane)Fun and whimsical UK comedy-drama with some well observed performances.
Score: 8/10
Tuesday, 27 March 2007
Friday, 23 March 2007
Thursday, 22 March 2007
Saturday, 17 March 2007
Thursday, 15 March 2007
Sunday, 11 March 2007
Saturday, 10 March 2007
Sunday, 4 March 2007
HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS **
USA/Germany: Donald Petrie, 2003
Being left in a room with nothing but your girlfriend's DVD collection can do weird things to you. This 'battle-of-the-sexes' rom-com is certainly not my typical night's viewing, however, much like the curiosity that teenage girl magazines evoked in me during my puberty I couldn't resist taking a peek. Actually, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days was far better than I was expecting and at the end of a long day, I did find myself in the right frame of mind to giggling along with the easy, unchallenging humour.As far as the story goes it is pretty familiar stuff with two supposedly ambitious and calculating young professionals courting each other in the name of a bet, only to realise by the end that in fact they have fallen in love for real. Okay so the film is rather superficial and lacks any real emotional pull (the tissues were left untouched on the bedside table) but in Matthew McConaughey and especially Kate Hudson it does feature two likeable leads. Indeed, Kate Hudson in particular impressed me by her comedic assurance (no doubt picked up from parents Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn) and her disarmingly natural on screen presence. For those who haven't yet seen it I would strongly recommend watching Hudson's engaging performance in effective chiller The Skeleton Key.
IMDB reference
Saturday, 3 March 2007
Friday, 2 March 2007
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