(500) Film of Empire - Day 152 - Valentine's Day

Such is my sad little life that I am all alone on Valentine's Day, but that means I'm free from having to pay over-inflated prices for cards, chocolates and flowers.
After an afternoon of rehearsals for the second show I will be in this year which will be a cabaret of Music from the Movies, how perfect is that for me, I retired to the comfort of my sofa with a curry banquet for one (is there anything more depressing on Valentine's Day than ordering a curry banquet for one? Answers on a postcard please) as it was time for a double bill and started with a romance... a True Romance!

157 - True Romance - 4 stars
The course of true love never runs smooth and that certainly the case for Clarence and Alabama, a comic book and movie nerd and a call girl, who get mixed up with white Rastas, mob bosses, movie producers, and a stoned Brad Pitt along the bumpy road to love.
One of the major criticisms of Tarantino, and at times a very valid one, is that he doesn't know how to edit himself. He writes and writes and writes but is very bad at cutting things out of his own work. Inglourious Basterds is his best work in years and gets better with multiple viewings but it doesn't alter the fact that it is a bit too long. Then there is Death Proof, half an OK film and half of self-indulgent waffle between annoying female characters.
However True Romance might be Tarantino's best film because it is not directed by him. Tony Scott directs this with his usual visual flair mixing fast cutting, gun fights, action, music, etc with the high octane style that served him so well through 80's action films like Top Gun, etc but still knows when to slow things down to serve the dialogue, which is unmistakabley Tarantino.
Whether it is Clarence talking to a woman at a bar about Elvis or Kung Fu movies, Galdofini's mobster discussing how the act of killing becomes diluted, it has a familiar ring to it that comes from Hollywood's enfant terrible.
And it is in this film that we get Tarantino's finest scene; Walken vs Hopper in 'the liar scene'.
I encourage you to use the link and watch the scene in its entirety but to summarise, Walken is at his most chilling as a mob enforcer determined to get Hopper to spill the beans on where his son Clarence is. Hopper knows he is screwed either way so turns the tables on Walken's Sicilain mobster with a classic history lesson. Tony Scott uses simple shots to allow the two actors to go back and forth with each other and the classical music over the top creates one of the best face offs in cinematic history.
Now I don't want to spoil the ending of the film, but since it is Valentine's Day and I'm in a bitter kind of mood I would have been much happier to have seen the film end with Tarantino's original ending, which is available on the DVD if you want to see it.

A change of pace now and I'm watching Little Miss Sunshine that holds a special place in my heart as it was the first movie that I watched with the first girl I ever loved and the only relationship I've ever had. We had a great year and a half before it ended but we've remained close friends and she still knows me better than anyone.
It's funny how films or songs can suddenly transport you back to a certain place or time in your life, make you feel and remember things that can make you feel happy or sad, and all from just a chord or lyric or image. That's why I love movies so much, they are my true Valentine. Because they will always be there, even if no one else is.

402 - Little Miss Sunshine - 4 stars
The original little film that could, and did by grossing over $100 million worldwide and winning awards left, right and centre. This resulted in every quirky indie hit being labeled as "this year's Little Miss Sunshine".

The reason this film succeeds is down to the quality of the acting. There is not a poor performance between the dysfunctional family, mixing established character actors like Kinnear, Collette and Arkin with rising stars Dano and Breslin. The standout performance however comes from Steve Carell as Frank, the gay, suicidal uncle. It is a deeply moving and charming performance as you can see his journey from despair to reconnecting with his family. It is a million miles away from Brick in Anchorman or The 40 Year Old Virgin, and continues the tradition of comic actors playing it straight e.g. Bill Murray and Jim Carrey.

The climax of the film is a critique and mockery of the Bizarro world of US child beauty pageants. Seriously, look at some of the kids Olive is competing against. They resemble children but their faces look like grown ups, deeply disturbing (for more evidence check out Bruno for the depths the parents will sink to to promote their children).

However its the weird and wonderful that win out in the end thanks to the funniest dance sequence since Napoleon Dynamite.

Days remaining - 213 Films remaining - 280

(500) Films of Empire - Day 151

122 - The Princess Bride - 3 stars
William Goldman created one of the best loved fairy tales of the Eighties by using the classic structure and giving it a post modern twist in the telling of it (a grandad, played by Peter 'Columbo' Falk reads it to his grandson) and the dialogue that has some serious snap, crackle and pop. Also some of it seems rather adult for what is essentially a kids film, e.g. "there is a shortage of perfect breasts in this world, it would be a shame to ruin yours".
Perhaps it is because I never saw this as a kid (what? I can hear you all crying out in disgust. I must have been too busy watching Star Wars for the 1000th time), but I wasn't as blown away as I thought I was going to be.
Although there it is still an enjoyable film that gave pop culture lines like "Inconceivable" and "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" and my favourite scene in the film, the battle of wits which has a fantastic punchline.
It also breezes along at a nice 90 minutes with tight pacing except when it is being interrupted by Fred Savage complaining to Columbo about the kissing or the fate of certain characters.
This makes light of one of my pet peeves for you know what really grinds my gears? Besides people who don't watch subtitled films? People who ask questions during a movie?
Is there anything more annoying than having a film interrupted by "who is that guy?" or "why are they doing that?", when you know that if they just sit back and enjoy the film the question will be answered in time.
I'm happy to answer questions after it's finished if there is confusion or just a good discussion to be had but leave it till the end credits!

(500) Films of Empire - Day 150

175 - Rushmore - 4 stars
Between Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman, their creation of schoolboy Max Fisher could well be the Ferris Bueller of the Nineties.
Both are cocky young men but where Bueller was looking to escape from school, Fisher spends too much time in it with lots of extra curricular activites (as shown in a funny montage).
Central to the story is the love triangle between Max, the object of his affections Miss Cross, and his friend Herman Blume, a businessman and former Vietnam vet who was "in the shit", played with sardonic wit by Bill Murray.
It is wonderfully played out as Max and Herman prove that the thing that drives men to madness is women. They have petty fights with each other as they both make a play for Miss Cross, alienating each other until Max brings everyone together at his school play Heaven & Hell, a Vietnam epic that hs the budget and special effects of a Michael Bay blockbuster!
Anderson has a Coen-like quality in creating quirky but memorable minor characters in his films and Rushmore has the fantastic Magnus Buchan, the Scottish bully who torments Fisher.
He has one of the strongest Scottish accents I've ever heard o screen, possibly due to the fact he is in a cast of Americans and Brian Cox also plays American. It proves once again that Scots are among the top swearers in cinema (see also Begbie in Trainspotting and the fabulous Malcolm Tucker in In The Loop, who raises swearing to an art form).

Days remaining - 215 Films remaining - 283

The Belmont Film Podcast - Episode 4

The brand new podcast is online thanks to the lovely John at The Kiosque website.

This week Lynsey and myself review THE WOLFMAN remake starring Benicio Del Toro, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt.
Also up for discussion is the over-reliance on CGI in modern cinema against excellent practical effects in the likes of THE THING.

To listen to and download the podcast, click here.

To subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, click here.

Remember that feedback is always appreciated, so any thoughts or comments can be posted below.

(500) Films of Empire - Day 149

435 - American Psycho - 3 stars

Misjudged on its release by those expecting a horror or psycho thriller. Instead the filmmakers scaled back on the extreme violence that featured heavily in the novel and instead produced a blacker than noir comedy and wicked satire of the fashion, music, greed and materialism of the 1980's.
Patrick Bateman is the kind of guy who would have idealised Gordon Gekko from Wall Street. "Greed is good", but murder and listening to Phil Collins is bad. His lifestyle, his clothes, his apartment all suggest that he wants to "fit in" with society, except for one problem. He's totally insane... well anyone who listens to Phil Collins must be mental.  His bloodlust is not fuelled by childhood issues or anger at the state of the world but because someone has a better business card than him.
Christian Bale was a revelation in the role, this being his breakout adult role proving he is no longer "the kid from Empire Of The Sun". He effortlessly switches bewteen smarmy yuppie, goofy music nerd and psychotic killer.

The best moments in the film are Patrick Bateman's music reviews. Taking place during sex with hookers or murdering work colleagues, Bateman muses on such eighties musical visionaries as Collins, Whitney Houston and, the highlight of the film, murder to Huey Lewis And The News.

358 - Russian Ark - 1 star

There is an argument that cinematography and editing are tools that allow the story to unfold and shouldn't be obviously OTT where the audience thinks "wow, that is a cool shot", and that is the point when you are taken out of the movie albeit temporarily.
An example of this are the noticeable extended steadicam shots by Joe Wright in P&P and Atonement, as a result I was continuely expecting a similar shot in The Soloist and unable to fully get involved in the film, although it turned out that there wasn't one at all!

That isn't to say there are not exceptions to the rule like the crane shot in Touch of Evil or ... And so with that thought in mind I popped Russian Ark in the DVD player and prepared to watch an arthouse film that is 96 minutes long and shot in one single continuous take. Would the extreme and bold choice in cinematography style have an effect on the viewing of the film?
Turns out it really didn't matter, it could have had tons of crazy Michael Bay style camera work but it wouldn't have stopped this film being the most boring film I have watched so far on the list, if not ever!

Some philistines out there claim that foreign language films can be too arty and pretentious, and if this was the only one I had seen I would be tempted to agree with them!
I don't have much interest in Russian art or history so I have absolutely no desire to spend 90 minutes slowly walking round a Russian heritage museum through varying points in history.

Now we come to the camera work in the film. It is a wonderful experiment in organisation and timing to make sure that everyone hits their marks on time (sound dubbing was clearly done in post-production) and after about 10 minutes or so you become used to the fact that it is all being shot in one continuous take... or is it?

I'm going on record now to post my suspicions tht this is not one single continuous take. I suspect there may be a couple of hidden edits in here.

A famous case of this is Alfred Hitchcock's Rope. It was shot in just ten takes each lasting around 10 minutes in length (because this is how much film the camera coul hold at one time) and edited together to almost seem like a continuous take. The edits were hidden by having the camera moving behind a character of focusing on a table (another great example of this is episode 4 of the great TV series Psychoville).

I believe that thi was done here too, as there are a couple of odd moments where the camera zooms in and focuses on a particular painting befre panning away again, and I think it is in these moments that secret edits between take occur. I might and could be wrong but my suspicions are there.

Days remaining - 216 Films remaining - 284

(500) Films of Empire - Day 148

426 - Enduring Love - 2 stars
Daniel Craig plays a man who is involved in a hot air balloon accident that ends in the tragic death of a man. Obsessed with anaylsing the accident to find out if it could have been prevented, he becomes distant from his girlfriend yet at the same time more involved with a creepy stalker whose intentions are not clear.
Despite a good central performance by Daniel Craig, this is a bit of a mess really. It has the look and feel of a BBC TV series but they have tried to make it more mainstream by having some flashy camerawork and an loud substandard Psycho-esque score that is used to let the audience know that something creepy, tense or exciting is happening, all of which feels out of place with what should have been a small, modest film.
Then there is the problem that I have with the scene in the end credits. A scene that has no real purpose being in the film and doesn't answer any questions that we have about a certain character throughout the film. Wish I could say more but it would be entering spoiler territory and besides a lot of people seem to agree with me on the message boards on IMDB!

Days remaining - 217 Films remaining - 286

(500) Films of Empire - Day 147

162 - A Nightmare On Elm Street - 3 stars
I'd originally scoffed at the high ranking of this thinking there must be better horror films out there. But you know what, it is actually very good, one of the better horror films of the 80's.
Memorable for being one of those films that many people saw when they were children and having a lasting effect on them. Like all those people who are afraid of clowns because when they were 12 years old they stayed up late to watch Stephen King's IT and were terrified by Tim Curry's Pennywise.
Nightmare works because of its strong concept, the fear that we are totally helpless when we are asleep and the idea that if we die in our dreams, do we die in real life?
The deaths of the young teenagers haunted by the gruesome Freddy Krueger are nicely executed, with Freddy being much more malicious and joke-free than the sequels. It has a mixture of good and bad effects; good - the girl flying around the ceiling and the bed of blood; the bad - Freddy's big wobbly arms and final scare moment (it's obviously a doll!).
It also earns bonus points for being the movie with the casting credit of "introducing Johnny Depp". That's right, everyone's favourite quirky actor first popped up as one of Freddy's victims in the early eighties. In a piece of spooky film trivia, apparently he only got the part after coming along to the audition with friend Jackie Earle Haley who is due to appear this year as Freddy Krugeur in the upcoming remake, which actually looks surprisingly good!
Hope it keeps the creepy nursery rhyme;
1, 2 Freddy's coming for you,
3, 4 better lock you door,
5,6 get a crucifix,
7, 8 better stay up late
9, 10 never sleep again...

Days remaining - 218 Films remaining - 287