Category: Film

Michel Gondry apparently solves the Rubik Cube using only his feet. Apparently? Well, Gondry is a film director, and there’s the clue of how this was done…

Imagine Disney’s Mary Poppins as a horror film… This is what the trailer might look like. Very well done indeed.

 

(hat tip to Not Saussure)

Pruned draws attention to a film by the German director Nikolaus Geyrhalter: Our Daily Bread. It looks interesting, but will probably put you off your food.

Having mentioned the film The Prestige last month as something that sounds interesting, it’s now opening in Europe and the reviews are coming in. Despite a stinker of a review by Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian last Friday, today’s Observer (the Guardian’s sister paper) has an enthusiastic review by Philip French. I think I’ll go with French.

 

Oh, and I see that the film has been made from a book of the same name by Christopher Priest. Something else to go on the book wishlist, I think.

It’s an animated film by Run Wrake. It illustrates the importance of karma. It is bizarre. It is worth watching. It is for Chris and Ed.

Ooh, my interest is definitely piqued. This sounds like a film to watch out for…

I’ve mentioned her before, but once again, I’ll draw your attention to Nina Paley and her charming animations. The occasion is that the fifth episode of the Sitayana is now online. You can link to the other episodes via this page, and Nina’s main web site and blog is here.

And, of course, sometimes radio isn’t enough… Here’s a quite brilliant piece of animation that is a sort of origami of film culture. See how many films you can spot.

I’d not heard of this film before, but it looks to be the sort of offbeat humour that appeals to me, and with a good cast (Brenda Blethyn, Alfred Molina and Christopher Walken). It appears to be a little difficult to get hold of (Amazon in the UK doesn’t have it), but fortunately Bol.com here in The Netherlands has it in stock.

The story of Oedipus – in an 8 minute short film, performed by vegetables. Nicely done, particularly the bit where he puts out his eyes…

 

(hat tip to In4mador)

The Queen was directed by Stephen Frears, who also made My Beautiful Laundrette over 20 years ago. The film, with its story of a gay love affair between a British Pakistani and a white racist, raised a frisson or two, not to say outrage, in the British Asian communities. Now comes Nina’s Heavenly Delights, directed by Pratibha Parmar. It too contains a gay relationship, a lesbian one this time, and one that is less angst-ridden than that between Omar and Johnny. Times they may be a-changing. This article in today’s Guardian about the film and the reality for some gay British Asians gives me hope for the future.  

I’m no monarchist, but I do want to see The Queen, and reading this review makes me want to see it even more.

Mark Kermode is in particularly fine form this week for his film reviews on BBC radio FiveLive. The remake of The Wicker Man turns out to be as bad as I feared, and, in Mr. Kermode’s fine words: "the film Little Man is, in every way, evil-minded, bad, and a profoundly depressing indictment of the way in which the modern movie industry works… It is the most retrograde, horrible, nauseating, inward-looking, smug, repulsive, grotesque, ill-advised, badly-judged film".

 

You can hear Mark Kermode via the web here, or download a podcast from the same page.

I don’t get a good feeling about this. The low-key matter-of-factness of the original was what made it even more powerful, in my opinion. Why is it that most things that Hollywood touches turn to dross in their hands? Ah, Sturgeon’s Revelation again… That, and the fact that Neil LaBute clearly ain’t no Anthony Shaffer…

I mentioned that great cult classic film The Wicker Man recently. What I did not realise at the time was that the film was actually shot in an area of Scotland that I know a little of, being that I’ve got family living there. Apparently, the remains of the Wicker Man’s legs can still be seen at Burrowhead. I must go and take a look for myself the next time I’m in Dumfries and Galloway.

I’ve just downloaded and watched Elephant’s Dream – a short animation showcasing computer animation tools made by the Open Source community. The tools may be fine, but the film sucks. Visually quite inventive, but the storyline is tired, acting terrible, and the continuity girl was obviously on holiday when the film was thrown together. It’s billed as a project "bringing together a diverse team of artists and developers from all over the world". Clearly, the elephant has turned out to be a camel – a horse designed by a committee. 

I came across this review of the latest film by Jan Svankmajer: Lunacy. Sounds like a film to watch out for.

I got around to seeing Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride tonight – and thought it was brilliant. In these days of CGI, it is wonderful to see how good stop motion animation can be, when it is carried out at the very highest levels. Corpse Bride, like the best works from the Aardman stable, is filled with an unstoppable inventiveness that makes the puppets more alive than many live action films. The film is filled with visual and verbal jokes on all levels (the second hand shop, with the second hands pointing the way in which the fugitive Victor has fled, for example)

 

What also struck me is how Burton increasingly seems to be the manager of his very own repertory company – he uses the same actors time and again in his films: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Christopher Lee, Albert Finney, Michael Gough, and, doing the music, Danny Elfman.

 

Whilst Elfman’s music is immediately recognisable (and in Corpse Bride, has clear echoes with his Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas), there were moments of pure Gilbert and Sullivan or Cab Calloway coming through in this score. In several places, the music took centre stage to advance or to illuminate the plot (for example, According to Plan or Bojangles’ Song), and animated film became operetta.

 

There were also some new additions to the repertory company, who I hope will make reappearances in future Burton films: Joanna Lumley, Paul Whitehouse and Jane Horrocks.

 

All told, Corpse Bride is simply wonderful.

 

Oh, and as an aside, it was interesting to see Burton and Bonham-Carter, who are, apparently, an item, sporting the same birds-nest hairdos…

Last night, BBC Four showed a couple of programs devoted to the life and work of Terry Gilliam. First up was an interview with Gilliam by Mark Lawson, which was interesting in itself. But for me, the real revelation came with the showing of Gilliam’s masterpiece Brazil that followed the interview.

 

Of course, I’ve seen Brazil before; several times, in fact. But this was the first time that I’d seen it in many years. Post 9/11 and 7/7, the film has taken on many resonances that simply did not exist for me in the early years. I was struck by the parallels between the political landscape of the film (unseen terrorists versus the state and its propaganda machine) and today’s world. It was, I have to say, a much more uncomfortable experience for me than when I had previously seen the film.

 

I’m not the only person to feel this way, it appears. Check out this essay from Robert Blumen. While Blumen naturally views Brazil through the lens of being American, I can report a similar frisson as a Brit, viewing the recent history of Blair’s Britain. It makes for uncomfortable thoughts of where we are and where we are going.