Films of 2006
Well, as this blogpage has only just started at the end of the previous year, this is an opportunity to look back through the previous 11 months or so at the films (that I have) seen in the cinema during that time. If there any omissions therefore, my apologies, but I either missed them or they did not interest me enough to want to see them.
The year began for me with a film that by the end of the year was already being shown on British television sets: MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS, a likeable piece of 1930s nostalgia with a Full Monty-type gag about the daring of the Windmill Theatre to present nudes live on stage. The joke wore a bit thin for me after the first telling, but Bob Hoskins was an excellent foil for Dame Judi Dench. My favourite film of the year was one from 2005: MERRY CHRISTMAS (aka. Joyeux Noel), about the Christmas truce on the trenches in 1914, on the anniversary of my own great-grandfather's death in WWI. The musical remake of THE PRODUCERS was noisy and brash - just like the original 1968 film really, with song and dance numbers to boot - but at least Susan Stroman's direction gave a different slant to Mel Brooks's tired material, and there occasionally were some truly hilarious moments, not least the (very) end of the credits.
In February BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN carried a lot of kudos, several award nominations, and an unfair label as a "gay cowboy movie", but was beautifully shot and crafted with Ang Lee's usual sensitivity. GOODNIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK was also very well photographed (in black and white), although it was just a little too knowingly nostalgic, but George Clooney proved this year that he is just as accomplished behind the camera as in front of it, and David Strathairn was also a compelling Edward R. Murrow. The top British film of this period was John Le Carre's THE CONSTANT GARDENER, but despite excellent performances by Ralph Fiennes and the Oscar-winning Rachel Weisz, I found it ironically a little anti-British in its sentiments (directed by a Brazilian).
In March I saw an old print of Powell and Pressburger's classic THE RED SHOES; well worth a look in the cinema to appreciate its true beauty and colour. Watching V FOR VENDETTA was like entering a strange dream, entering a Britain controlled by fascists - for largely unexplained reasons - with Natalie Portman swapping her Padme Amidala image for a reasonable English accent and a drastically shaven head; I could not escape memories of Hugo Weaving as cricketer Douglas Jardine in Bodyline, but the film, though long and uneven, I found entertaining in spite of its flaws. ROMANCE AND CIGARETTES was also an unusual film, with the likes of James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet and Christopher Walken singing songs which fatally undercut them by dubbing the original singers for most of the time.
April saw a quite clever heist thriller directed by Spike Lee, INSIDE MAN, making a "mainstream" film for once, but with his usual edge to the material. At the end of its cinema run I saw MUNICH, a challenging film for Steven Spielberg to attempt, not without its flaws, in much the same way as the Israeli terrorists tried to justify their actions in killing Palestinians as retribution.
In May an underrated comedy PRIME was greatly enhanced by the presence of Meryl Streep as a Jewish psychiatrist who discovers that her client (Uma Thurman) is dating her own beloved son. Best British film of the year for me was PIERREPOINT (US title The Last Hangman) about the last (but one) executioner in the UK, from the 1930s right through to the 60s, with Timothy Spall excellent as always in the title role, and the film itself was also incredibly powerful in a very understated way - this year's Let Him Have It.
June saw the much-hyped World Cup, so in order to escape the hullabulloo I travelled to a relatively football-free zone (Scotland), and saw, among other films, Johnny To's gangster drama ELECTION, a film criticised in some quarters for its lack of violent action, but I found this a bonus especially as the violence is heightened by its taking place in shadow or off-camera, and the rest of the film had an excellent Godfather style to it. Director's autobiographies on film tend to be sentimental and overly nostalgic, and Richard E. Grant's WAH-WAH was no exception, but did have an excellent performance by Gabriel Byrne as Grant's alcoholic father. Because the release date was 6/6/06, that seemed to be the main excuse for remaking THE OMEN, but at least it didn't take itself quite so seriously as THE DA VINCI CODE did.
SUPERMAN RETURNS, released in August, also took itself rather seriously, a sequel-cum-remake with more of a Christopher Reeve impersonation than a performance by Brandon Routh, but Bryan Singer's film had some clever new ideas, and Kevin Spacey was an excellent Lex Luthor - returning the villainous character to its comic book origins. Superman was not around on September 11th 2001, but some of the cast of UNITED 93 most certainly were, playing themselves in a semi-reconstruction of the hijacked plane that crashed down into a Pennsylvania field instead of (it is believed) the Capitol building in Washington - as good as any film you're ever likely to see about that momentous day. At the end of the month I saw Gretchen Mol give an uncanny performance as THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE.
I didn't have much time for seeing films during September or October (being involved in the making of a film myself), but of those I did A SCANNER DARKLY was weird and unusual, and in that sense one of the best adaptations of Philip K. Dick ever made. But unlike George Clooney, Keanu Reeves is just a pretty face.
In November came one of the most eagerly anticipated and hotly-debated James Bond films of all time: CASINO ROYALE, with Daniel Craig resoundingly beating off the "George Lazenby factor" of following a succesful actor (Pierce Brosnan) in the role, by bringing a whole new dimension to the character that returned it to the roots of its author Ian Fleming.
Finally in December, after many attempts to see it during the year, but denied by last-minute cancellations or travel problems, I saw Ken Loach's THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY, criticised in Britain for being rabidly anti-British/pro-IRA, but this is only half true, and the film deservedly won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for its depiction of two brothers torn apart by the issue of Irish independence.
Well, as this blogpage has only just started at the end of the previous year, this is an opportunity to look back through the previous 11 months or so at the films (that I have) seen in the cinema during that time. If there any omissions therefore, my apologies, but I either missed them or they did not interest me enough to want to see them.
The year began for me with a film that by the end of the year was already being shown on British television sets: MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS, a likeable piece of 1930s nostalgia with a Full Monty-type gag about the daring of the Windmill Theatre to present nudes live on stage. The joke wore a bit thin for me after the first telling, but Bob Hoskins was an excellent foil for Dame Judi Dench. My favourite film of the year was one from 2005: MERRY CHRISTMAS (aka. Joyeux Noel), about the Christmas truce on the trenches in 1914, on the anniversary of my own great-grandfather's death in WWI. The musical remake of THE PRODUCERS was noisy and brash - just like the original 1968 film really, with song and dance numbers to boot - but at least Susan Stroman's direction gave a different slant to Mel Brooks's tired material, and there occasionally were some truly hilarious moments, not least the (very) end of the credits.
In February BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN carried a lot of kudos, several award nominations, and an unfair label as a "gay cowboy movie", but was beautifully shot and crafted with Ang Lee's usual sensitivity. GOODNIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK was also very well photographed (in black and white), although it was just a little too knowingly nostalgic, but George Clooney proved this year that he is just as accomplished behind the camera as in front of it, and David Strathairn was also a compelling Edward R. Murrow. The top British film of this period was John Le Carre's THE CONSTANT GARDENER, but despite excellent performances by Ralph Fiennes and the Oscar-winning Rachel Weisz, I found it ironically a little anti-British in its sentiments (directed by a Brazilian).
In March I saw an old print of Powell and Pressburger's classic THE RED SHOES; well worth a look in the cinema to appreciate its true beauty and colour. Watching V FOR VENDETTA was like entering a strange dream, entering a Britain controlled by fascists - for largely unexplained reasons - with Natalie Portman swapping her Padme Amidala image for a reasonable English accent and a drastically shaven head; I could not escape memories of Hugo Weaving as cricketer Douglas Jardine in Bodyline, but the film, though long and uneven, I found entertaining in spite of its flaws. ROMANCE AND CIGARETTES was also an unusual film, with the likes of James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet and Christopher Walken singing songs which fatally undercut them by dubbing the original singers for most of the time.
April saw a quite clever heist thriller directed by Spike Lee, INSIDE MAN, making a "mainstream" film for once, but with his usual edge to the material. At the end of its cinema run I saw MUNICH, a challenging film for Steven Spielberg to attempt, not without its flaws, in much the same way as the Israeli terrorists tried to justify their actions in killing Palestinians as retribution.
In May an underrated comedy PRIME was greatly enhanced by the presence of Meryl Streep as a Jewish psychiatrist who discovers that her client (Uma Thurman) is dating her own beloved son. Best British film of the year for me was PIERREPOINT (US title The Last Hangman) about the last (but one) executioner in the UK, from the 1930s right through to the 60s, with Timothy Spall excellent as always in the title role, and the film itself was also incredibly powerful in a very understated way - this year's Let Him Have It.
June saw the much-hyped World Cup, so in order to escape the hullabulloo I travelled to a relatively football-free zone (Scotland), and saw, among other films, Johnny To's gangster drama ELECTION, a film criticised in some quarters for its lack of violent action, but I found this a bonus especially as the violence is heightened by its taking place in shadow or off-camera, and the rest of the film had an excellent Godfather style to it. Director's autobiographies on film tend to be sentimental and overly nostalgic, and Richard E. Grant's WAH-WAH was no exception, but did have an excellent performance by Gabriel Byrne as Grant's alcoholic father. Because the release date was 6/6/06, that seemed to be the main excuse for remaking THE OMEN, but at least it didn't take itself quite so seriously as THE DA VINCI CODE did.
SUPERMAN RETURNS, released in August, also took itself rather seriously, a sequel-cum-remake with more of a Christopher Reeve impersonation than a performance by Brandon Routh, but Bryan Singer's film had some clever new ideas, and Kevin Spacey was an excellent Lex Luthor - returning the villainous character to its comic book origins. Superman was not around on September 11th 2001, but some of the cast of UNITED 93 most certainly were, playing themselves in a semi-reconstruction of the hijacked plane that crashed down into a Pennsylvania field instead of (it is believed) the Capitol building in Washington - as good as any film you're ever likely to see about that momentous day. At the end of the month I saw Gretchen Mol give an uncanny performance as THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE.
I didn't have much time for seeing films during September or October (being involved in the making of a film myself), but of those I did A SCANNER DARKLY was weird and unusual, and in that sense one of the best adaptations of Philip K. Dick ever made. But unlike George Clooney, Keanu Reeves is just a pretty face.
In November came one of the most eagerly anticipated and hotly-debated James Bond films of all time: CASINO ROYALE, with Daniel Craig resoundingly beating off the "George Lazenby factor" of following a succesful actor (Pierce Brosnan) in the role, by bringing a whole new dimension to the character that returned it to the roots of its author Ian Fleming.
Finally in December, after many attempts to see it during the year, but denied by last-minute cancellations or travel problems, I saw Ken Loach's THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY, criticised in Britain for being rabidly anti-British/pro-IRA, but this is only half true, and the film deservedly won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for its depiction of two brothers torn apart by the issue of Irish independence.
posted by Joe at 9:47 PM
1 Comments:
huh... love this thread ))
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