At first the idea of seeing Victoria Wood in a drama seems wrong, but looking at her biography, she was a playwright before she started writing comedy shows and performing stand up.
The drama follows the life of an ordinary housewife in a shipbuilding town during WWII, and how she is coping with a depression ("nerves"). We encounter much that we expect with a wartime drama, a look at the mechanics of the home front blackouts, blitzes, Andersons versus Morrisons, potential gas attacks and sons going to war.
The drama also shows how a woman comes to terms with her oppression under her husband and her emancipation through volunteer work, and the incumbent committee politics and class strata therein.
David Threlfall should be admired for his soft voiced father figure. I'm more used to seeing his comic roles, but he does drama well (and action in "The Marksman").
Monday, June 13, 2011
Diary of a Lost Girl
I must admit I have developed a bit of a soft spot for Louise Brooks, a very talented American performer, who walked out on the Hollywood system and went to make films in Europe. Her dancers physique and youthful face are very pleasing, but add on to that her ability to sell her character to you credibly without the overstatement we usually see in silent movies.
This time around she is another fallen woman. The film addresses how badly rape victims are treated, as if they are culpable, and it follows a now stereotypical decent into "wantonness" and "depravity", after all an impoverished beauty with a tarnished reputation can only take on one career.
The story finds salvation for her and a moralistic and modern conclusion is arrived at.
Some rather hammy comic relief characters, but overall a great film.
This time around she is another fallen woman. The film addresses how badly rape victims are treated, as if they are culpable, and it follows a now stereotypical decent into "wantonness" and "depravity", after all an impoverished beauty with a tarnished reputation can only take on one career.
The story finds salvation for her and a moralistic and modern conclusion is arrived at.
Some rather hammy comic relief characters, but overall a great film.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
C'est arrivé près de chez vous (Man Bites Dog)
Award winning, highly acclaimed, much talked about, and I can see why.
If you feel like seeing a movie with some interesting poems, discussions on architecture, cinema and relocation of communities for low income housing projects then this film is for you, a biting politico-socio satire. HOWEVER, there is another side to this fly on the wall mockumentary, the person we are observing happens to be a serial killer.
This film is about 20 years old, but shot in B&W entirely hand held camera work. The photography is very good, as is the editing, and acting. Technically this is a fantastic film. The obsidian black humor is at times painful to endure, everytime we have respite and humor it is tightly coupled with brutality.
How did I stay the distance? Since I've been contemplating whether I should watch this film since it was new, I decided I had to tough it out. Definitely K rated, not for the feint of heart.
If you feel like seeing a movie with some interesting poems, discussions on architecture, cinema and relocation of communities for low income housing projects then this film is for you, a biting politico-socio satire. HOWEVER, there is another side to this fly on the wall mockumentary, the person we are observing happens to be a serial killer.
This film is about 20 years old, but shot in B&W entirely hand held camera work. The photography is very good, as is the editing, and acting. Technically this is a fantastic film. The obsidian black humor is at times painful to endure, everytime we have respite and humor it is tightly coupled with brutality.
How did I stay the distance? Since I've been contemplating whether I should watch this film since it was new, I decided I had to tough it out. Definitely K rated, not for the feint of heart.
Un Flic (Dirty Money)
Well, not a fantastic film, but reasonable enjoyable. This film has two heists, one is a standard bank job to payroll the second which is a which is a train job utilizing a helicopter. The target, illicitly smuggled drugs, which they are going to sell back to the drug dealers, figuring the cops wouldn't get involved. Unfortunately a grass had told vice that the drugs were being moved.
The train job is daring, one of the first I've seen, and reminiscent of the Firefly episode "Train Job". Thing is, it was all done with scale model and sound set, still it's good modelling, and reasonable lighting so you can just relax and take it for what it is, and that is a moderate French crime drama.
The train job is daring, one of the first I've seen, and reminiscent of the Firefly episode "Train Job". Thing is, it was all done with scale model and sound set, still it's good modelling, and reasonable lighting so you can just relax and take it for what it is, and that is a moderate French crime drama.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
The Town
This must be a relatively forgettable film as I was only just reminded of it, and it was one I saw in-flight between here and Taiwan.
A team of bank robbers are not sure if they were ID'd by a witness, in trying to figure this out, one of them falls in love with her. I forget if you starts to get out of the crime world, or tries to live the double life, but the story was adequate, as was the action scenes and overall I've forgotten it.
A team of bank robbers are not sure if they were ID'd by a witness, in trying to figure this out, one of them falls in love with her. I forget if you starts to get out of the crime world, or tries to live the double life, but the story was adequate, as was the action scenes and overall I've forgotten it.
Le Cercle Rouge
A heist movie. I love heist movies. This one is about a jewel heist, with all the attendant attention to detail of how to overcome state of the art security systems. Catherine Zeta Jones does not dance through lasers in this one, but they do have to defeat a grid of electronic eyes, and other super high tech computer controlled gadgets.
The first half of the movie is a mix of a getaway/escape/manhunt movie, and a released convicts hunt taking his dues from his crime boss. The two criminal leads come together in a contrived accident to work through a plan that they'd been provided. All the time dogged by the Gendarme engaged in a nationwide manhunt.
The heist sequence was well executed, the manhunt was adequate, the ending was swift and almost fatalistic.
If you like noir, and you like French, this 1970 offering is an interesting watch. For the most part it's shot straight, with an alcoholic experiencing the DTs as the exception. Moody and brooding are probably adjectives that would be used to describe the pacing of the film, the sort of things you don't typically see in contemporary Hollywood, except in maybe Michael Manns films.
7/10 but you need to be in the mood.
The first half of the movie is a mix of a getaway/escape/manhunt movie, and a released convicts hunt taking his dues from his crime boss. The two criminal leads come together in a contrived accident to work through a plan that they'd been provided. All the time dogged by the Gendarme engaged in a nationwide manhunt.
The heist sequence was well executed, the manhunt was adequate, the ending was swift and almost fatalistic.
If you like noir, and you like French, this 1970 offering is an interesting watch. For the most part it's shot straight, with an alcoholic experiencing the DTs as the exception. Moody and brooding are probably adjectives that would be used to describe the pacing of the film, the sort of things you don't typically see in contemporary Hollywood, except in maybe Michael Manns films.
7/10 but you need to be in the mood.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)