Bridge to Terabithia (2007)

Before I get to the above film let me advise anyone who might be curious about the film reviewed below that most of the musical sequences from "The Wayward Cloud" are available to view on You-Tube and they are well worth a look.

There were some positive vibes about the above Disney production based on a popular children's novel, but I was unsure just what to expect.  It is an intelligent and totally non-saccharine examination of pre-teen anxieties and the power of the imagination, but I somehow see it as appealing more to adults than youngsters, since there is a downbeat twist towards the end of the tale, one that is only partly compensated for by the upbeat ending.  Young actor Josh Hutcherson familiar to me from "Zathura..." and "Little Manhattan" plays the middle child amongst four sisters.  Artistically inclined and aware of the financial strains his parents face, he is bullied at school and is generally alienated.  Into his life comes a new classmate and neighbour in the shape of AnnaSophia Robb, so very good in "Because of Winn-Dixie"; she is the only child of some free-thinking writers, manages to win Hutcherson 's trust, and helps his imagination to take wing at they create and explore the mythical land of Terabithia.  I took these two to be about 12 years-old, but I gather that they are only meant to be 10 or so.  Since they were respectively 15 and 14 when the film was made, they were technically too old to play believable pre-teens, but this didn't really distract from the tale, although I do find Robb's dark brows and very blonde hair just a wee bit creepy.  The other two actors of note were the wee thing who played Hutcherson's younger sister, with whom he must share a bedroom, and Zooey Deschanel as a happy-clappy music teacher.  Robert Patrick as Hutcherson's stressed father was an unhappy combination of sternness and repressed love, believable but not really likeable.  The limited but judicious use of CGI effects to underline the children's fantasies add to the appeal, but this would have been nearly as successful a film without them.  But keep the tissues at the ready!

I'm off for one of my occasional New York visits in a day or so and therefore will not be posting anything new until the beginning of April.  But you can bet your bottom dollar that I'll have seen a film or two in the meantime.  See you soon...

Tags: Bridge to Terabithia, world of the imagination

The Wayward Cloud (2005)

This Taiwanese film was shown at the Berlin Film Festival in 2005 and had a brief U.S. release last year and has probably turned up at the occasional fest; it is not however likely to be shown at your local multiplex nor, for that matter, to be available on DVD, except possibly as a Far East import.  I certainly do not anticipate a UK DVD release unless I was prepared for a movie that would be cut to ribbons by our enlightened censors.  To put no further point on it, despite certain jollities, there is little to distinguish it from pure porn in places and with a misogynistic bent at that; I gather it specialised in festival-showing walk-outs.  So where did I view this masterpiece?:  off a German/French satellite arts channel (Arte); fortunately dialogue was sparse so I was able to follow the extremely weird story.

Directed by auteur Ming-liang Tsai who has made some of the most exquisitely boring films of recent years like "Good Bye Dragon Inn" and "What Time is it There", his cinematic style is marked by scenes being held for what seems like minutes with no action whatsoever.  This film revisits the two main characters from "What Time..." who were briefly seen in the director's equally tedious short "The Skywalk has Gone".  He was originally seen selling knock-off watches on the street, but has now packed that in to become a porn actor; she has returned from her sojourn in Paris and is looking for him.  Meanwhile the city is suffering a drought, bottled water is like gold, and folk have turned to watermelons for comfort.  Believe me, you will never view that fruit again with the same eye when you discover the uses that have been found for them in this movie.  The film ends with a vicious sex scene involving a possibly dead porn actress and an oral sexual assault on our heroine.  Some critics have suggested that this art house trash is actually a satire on the porn industry and the dryness of our lives; pull the other one!

What finally makes this film watchable, if not comfortable, is the oddity of the director's vision and the fact that the hard sex scenes are interspersed with boldly-coloured musical numbers including some camp Cantonese renditions of Western pop songs.  So yes, I probably would like to see this one again (with English titles this time), but that is more than a little unlikely.  File this one under movies that you are not likely to ever see...

Tags: The Wayward Cloud, Ming-liang Tsai, arthouse porn

The Lives of Others (2006)

I have had something of a bee in my bonnet about this German Academy Award winner that has put me off watching it before now; I had no doubt that it was probably a well-made and absorbing film, but I could not forgive it for taking the Oscar away from "Pan's Labyrinth".  So I tried to work out what it was about the movie that made it the more appealing to the Academy voters.

For a start, perhaps a film about East Germany in the years prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall was more resonant to the voters' sensibilites than a magic realism fable set in the dying years of the Spanish Civil War.  Then again, some viewers just don't warm to fantasy.  I really can not quibble too convincingly since the director has turned out a film which probably presents an all-too-true portrait of the effects that the huge Secret Service Stasi spy network had on the lives of the nation and not a cosy picture of a simple and naive way of life as in "Good Bye Lenin".  The story is told through the characters of actress Martina Gedeck who is involved with playwright Sebastian Koch as they are spied upon by Stasi captain Ulrich Muhe, a man who will stop at nothing to get the confessions he seeks.  However he gradually changes as he realises that not only is there a richer life out there but that not all of the targets set for him deserve to be brought down.  Muhe's is a beautifully underplayed role and his fall and redemption do indeed move the viewer.   Gedeck as the fast-living actress and Koch as the socialist stalwart who refuses to believe that he has been under surveillance are also excellent, as is the depiction of a grey and unforgiving society.

However I still think Del Toro wuz robbed! 

Tags: The Lives of Others, East Germany

The Forsyte Saga (1967)

I have not been keeping up my film-watching average this week, as I have been revisiting the above BBC series (apparently the first mini-series ever) -- all 26 episodes at roughly 50 minutes each.  I still have two to go, but I thought I should take a break and put down a few thoughts for my latterday reading and reminiscence.

I must confess that I did not watch the 2002 remake which was considerably shorter, filmed in colour, and generally sexed up (as a key plot point revolves around marital rape).  Partly this was because I had such fond memories of this original series, partly because given my druthers I will always opt for classic black and white filming, and partly because I just couldn't seen Gina McKee who is undoubtely a better actress than Nyree Dawn Porter in the pivotal role of Irene -- she just isn't good-looking enough.  Originally broadcast on Saturday nights for its full 26 weeks back in 1967, it had a nation glued to its TV sets and remains a remarkable achievement today.

Based on a trio of trilogies by John Galsworthy -- only the first three novels actually comprise "The Forsyte Saga" -- it traces the fortunes of a wealthy but not titled family from Victorian times through the late 1920s, as they reflect both the feuds that can arise in extended families and the changing social environment.  Undoubtedly the most interesting portions are the early chapters with the old guard of aged aunts and uncles and one felt their loss as each one gradually left the story.  Apart from the aforementioned Irene, the main protagonists are 'Young Jolyon' played by Kenneth More and his four children by his three wives and Soames played by the incredible Eric Porter and his late-in-life daughter played by the lovely Susan Hampshire.  Soames was meant to be the villain of the piece, insofar as a man of taste and principle who has lost in love can be a villain.  While something of a cold fish and hard to accept compared to the free-thinking More, I have always felt that his is the backbone of the tale and I can not help but feel sorry for him.  The fact that Porter is such a brilliant actor is no small part of this.

Peopled with familiar faces from British television -- the actors are less-known for their movie credits (although Hampshire's appearance in the amazing Belgian movie "Malpertuis" endears her to me), the cast is without exception fabulous.  When I've finally rewatched the remaining two episodes I know that I will miss them all and will want to plan a revisit very soon.

Tags: The Forsyte Saga, Eric Porter, Kenneth More

The Hurricane (1937)

If I haven't mentioned it innumerable times previously, let me put on record once again that John Ford ranks amongst my favourite directors.  This film is something of an anomaly for him being neither a Western nor an Oirish flick, but a South Seas Islands adventure, so popular at that time.  And what an achievement; this viewing was even more memorable than my first encounter with the movie on television several many years ago.  I was recently introduced to an equally maniacal movie buff who has built a small cinema in his garden, seating only 13 persons, who shows l6 mm prints of classic films twice a month.  This was last night's spectacular. 

Set on a small island some 600 miles from Tahiti, it is the love story between the continuously-cast Dorothy Lamour as a sarong-wearing native and her handsome lover, Terangi, played by Jon Hall (who was actually part-Tahitian by descent).  Racist politics cause  his being jailed for breaking a man's jaw and constant escape attempts (since one should not attempt to confine such a free spirit) result in his sentence being further and further extended.  This in itself would only qualify the movie as a high-class potboiler, but the supporting cast of C. Aubrey Smith as the island's craggy priest, Thomas Mitchell in his typical role of a drunken doctor, John Carradine as a sadistic prison warder, Jerome Cowan as a ship's captain, Raymond Massey as the local administrator who could have helped poor Terangi, and Mary Astor as his sympathetic wife lift the drama to movie-lover heaven.

However the real star of this film and the main reason for its lasting appeal is the stupendous hurricane that takes up the last reel, destroying the island, killing most of its inhabitants, and generally unleashing nature's havoc.  Considering how long ago this film was made -- long before the CGI tricks of today -- this depiction is an amazing achievement and exciting in just about every way.  I often accuse Mr. Ford of making films which make me cry; this one is not in that category at all, but remains a remarkable reminder of his movie magic.

Tags: The Hurricane, John Ford, great cast

The Game (1997)

A fellow cinema blogger, Joe Valdez, whose reviews I admire for their thoroughness -- I admit that I haven't the patience to write at length about a film and tend to give only my gut reactions -- recently reviewed the above movie in a way that made me want to see it again.  So I did, but still am unable to share his enthusiasm for it.

Michael Douglas plays a workaholic businessman whose feckless brother, Sean Penn (trademark: "best actor of his generation") gives him 'the game' as a birthday present.  This is supposedly a tailor-made entertainment for the man who has everything and an intrigued Douglas initially goes along with it.  Were it me, I would have told the corporate suits administering the wheeze to sit on it when they began with their battery of psychological questionnaires.  What follows thereafter is a non-stop, action-packed whirlwind where Douglas is shot at, ruined financially, and left in a shallow Mexican grave.  The movie plays on our generation's paranoia and one can believe that concerted outside forces can indeed impinge on our lives and self-perception.  It is all terribly exciting and outrageous, and, as long as one ignores the gaping plot-holes, meant to be entertaining; however it is all relentless without even a sprinking of humour to keep one happily viewing.  And I just couldn't buy the final outcome or the ease with which Douglas accepted it.  I have never warmed to his father as an actor, despite his appearing in some remarkable movies, and I think I feel the same way about the son.  He is certainly able, but in no way likeable.

So Joe, you did your job and got at least one viewer to pay attention and seek out a particular movie.  It's not your fault that I was unable to enthuse on the same terms.

Tags: The Game, Michael and Kirk Douglas

Repo Man (1984)

I must admit that I was not the least bit taken with this movie when I saw it originally way back when, but I have been hearing for so long as to what a cult item it has become, that I gave in and watched it again.  An early feature from writer/director/actor Brit Alex Cox, who after "Sid and Nancy" more or less squandered his talent on unwatchable films, it certainly takes a skewed look at 80's America.  Emilio Estevez is a foul-mouthed young punk and out of work when he meets up with Harry Dean Stanton -- for whom I have a great deal of time, especially after his magic moment in "The Straight Story".  Stanton is part of a group of misfits who make their living by repossessing cars and he takes the initially reluctant Estevez under his wing, filling his head with the importance of the 'Repo Man's Rules of Behaviour'.

This is just the framework for a screwy sci-fi scenario where a disgruntled scientist has stolen an alien corpse from Roswell and it is burning up radiation in the trunk of his car; with a 20,000 dollar bounty, everyone is in pursuit from the FBI to a pair of brotherly car thieves to the repo men.  There is a lovely scene right at the beginning when a highway patrol guy pulls the car over, opens the boot, and nothing is left of him but a pair of smoking boots.  There are lots of nice touches, like cans bearing labels reading 'food' or 'beer' and there is some smart dialogue as well, kind of a 1980's Kevin Smith approach.  But a little of this movie goes a long way and it really ends up just being silly.  I guess the net result is that I'm pleased to have watched it again, but I think I can easily wait another twenty years before repeating the exercise.

Tags: Repo Man, Alex Cox, Harry Dean Stanton

Strayed (2003)

This French film by director Andre Techine provides an eye-popping role for Emmanuelle Beart, but was in many ways a very disturbing experience full of apprehension for the viewer.  The time is 1940 and having been widowed early in the war, she is fleeing the German advance on Paris with her cosseted 13-year old son and rather bratty daughter.  When their car is strafed by enemy fighters and dozens around them killed, the three lose everything and have no idea where to turn, until they are helped by a resourceful teenager, played by Gaspard Ulliel whom I reviewed recently in his role as the young Hannibal Lector.  There is something not quite right about him with his shaven head, rude manner, and fainting fits, but they gratefully accept his help and settle into an abandoned mansion which he has broken into.

Beart is deeply upset at his presence, especially after she finds that he has scavenged a gun and a grenade amongst his daily foraging, but she is also grateful that he manages to find food for her family and on the surface she tries to think of him as an older son.  However there is a pulsating visceral attraction between them, which eventually leads to very rough sex; although she was 40 when this movie was made, Beart still possesses a lush body and is not afraid to show it. From here onward things go from bad to worse when it becomes clear that the war has been over for several days as far as France is concerned and when the authorities intervene.  Without giving away the downbeat ending, I will only say that the film stops fairly abuptly with Beart still trying to protect the now somewhat tarnished innocence of her children.  To be honest, although it was well made, I really didn't like this movie; it made me feel afraid much of the time and just a little bit dirty.

Tags: Strayed, Emmanuelle Beart

Phantom of Death (1988)

This Italian oddity, also known in English as "Off Balance", is finally available in an uncut version, although the DVD is unfortunately dubbed; however, since the two lead actors, Michael York and Donald Pleasance, are English, the net result is less disastrous than it might have been.  Directed by Ruggero Deodato, one of the more reliable goremeisters, responsible for video nasties like "Cannibal Holocaust", there is an ample quota of nicely filmed red stuff.

York -- one might parenthetically ask here, whatever became of his career, since his leading man days -- plays a 35-year old lionized concert pianist.  When his hair starts falling out in chunks, he discovers that he has been incubating an aging disease which unleashes his hidden psycho.  The make-up effects as he becomes more and more aged and hideous are actually pretty convincing.  Pleasence plays his typical late-career role of a frustrated policeman on the killer's trail, but always one step behind.  When York's love interest, giallo stalwart Edwige Fenech, announces that she is pregnant, York feels he must kill her and the foetus as well since it will bear his tainted blood; this was preceded by a scene in which he sees a young child who suffers from the same ailment with the body of a youngster but the face of an elderly man -- which was enough to upset the best of us (although such oddities seem to be standard television fare nowadays).  This is hardly a great film, but it certainly had its bloody moments, one of which was played twice to make sure that we understood its significance -- or something!

Tags: Deodato, Michael York, Italian horror

Apartment Zero (1989)

I might have been back on line sooner if my computer hadn't moved up the Swanee during my absence with my broadband connection gone walkies; it seemed to take forever and a lot of stress to be put right, but here I am only slightly the worse for wear.

I haven't seen this film for several many years and guess it would comfortably fit into the cult viewing category apart from the fact that it is really little-known.  It is written and directed by one Martin Donovan, not the actor who started off in Hal Hartley movies, but the pseudonym for an Argentinian-born writer who co-wrote this screenplay with 26-year old David Koepp, who has gone on to write the latest Indiana Jones spectacular.  But enough of that; what about the film?  It is set in contemporary Buenos Aires, where it was filmed in English, and stars Colin Firth of all people as a more than repressed repertory movie theatre owner.  (If nothing else this film would appeal to me for all the movie paraphenalia on display and the movie games that Firth's character Adrian likes to play.)  Set shortly after the traumatic days of political turmoil in Argentina, Firth's ploy is to pretend that he is English as one way of removing himself from the unpleasantness of those days.

He lives in an apartment block peopled with grotesques from whom he tries to keep his distance, but financial pressures (his Mum is dying in hospital) force him to look for a flatmate and into his life comes dishy Hart Bochner's Jack.  Jack is everything (on the surface) that Adrian is not -- outgoing, friendly with all the neighbours, and too willing to try to be whatever Adrian would like him to be.  It is not long before we discover his true and rather sinister background as a government assassin, but this does not prepare us for the inconsistencies of Adrian's behaviour or the very strong and very weird ending.  Definitely one to seek out, although as far as I know it is not yet on DVD; this is something of a pity, since my copy is an edit-down from the original theatrical release which I would love to see.

Tags: Apartment Zero, cult movies, Colin Firth