A Night At The Movies

Martin was away tonight, so I decided to watch a couple of DVDs.

 

First up was Hellboy. It’s the sort of movie that Martin hates, but that I love – a comic-book perfectly translated to film. Lot’s of brilliant little touches that made it work for me. OK, the hero is large, red, and short-tempered, but he’s still a dutiful son who tries to get on with his adopted father, and is tongue-tied when in the presence of his girl. Ron Perlman is perfect as Hellboy, and the rest of the cast make their characters come alive.

 

Next up was Contact – a film I think I’ve seen about eight times now. The magisterial opening: a long reverse zoom shot from the earth out to the farthest reaches of the universe (with the radio static of mankind’s broadcasts dying away into nothingness), resolving into the glint in the eye of an eight-year girl. The wonder of astronomy – the seed planted in that little girl, coming into flower in the adult. The debate between science and religion (and perhaps it’s me, but I think that science trounces religion in this film, as for me in life). The passion of Ellie – and it’s not "faith" – it’s her clear-eyed wonder of nature and of the world around her that makes her what she is, and which is so much more admirable to me than the bathetic, pathetic Palmer Joss, the shallow David Drumlin or the amoral Michael Kitz. 

 

And in both films – the marvellous presence of John Hurt. In Contact, he has a line that summarises for me the very attraction of film; his wonderful, sly voicing, not so very far removed from satan himself, of the essence of movies: "Wanna take a ride?"…