Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Jan 29th
Children of Men**
GB 2006. Universal/Ingenious Film Partners 2 LLP/Toho-Towa. 109m.


In an infertile society of the near future, a civil servant stumbles upon the world's only pregnant woman.
Dingy looking British science faction, a sort of Blade Runner without the slickness, or Brazil without the black comedy, drawing upon contemporary issues in sometimes heavy-handed fashion. Relentlessly gloomy but never dull, with some bravura scenes and good cameos.

Written by: Alfonso Cuaron, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, from the novel by P.D. James.
Producers: Hilary Shor, Iain Smith, Tony Smith, Marc Abraham, Eric Newman.
Director: Alfonso Cuaron.
Starring: Clive Owen, Michael Caine, Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Pam Ferris, Clare Hope-Ashitey, Charlie Hunnam, Danny Huston, Peter Mullan.
Photography: Emmanuel Lubezki.
Music: John Tavener.
Production Design: Jim Clay, Geoffrey Kirkland.

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Thursday, January 25, 2007

Jan 20th
Witchfinder***

(review by Mark Richards)
Headgate Theatre, Colchester

(Will Parrick as Matthew Hopkins and Joe Sales as John Stearne) 

Witchfinder tells the story of the self-styled Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins and his assistant John Stearne and their witch hunts of the 1640s in East Anglia. It is an atmospheric film, enhanced by the use of locations such as Colchester Castle and its dungeons where many alleged witches awaited trial. I was struck by the brutality of Hopkins’ methods and their portrayal in the film such as relentlessly walking the accused back and forth until they collapsed from exhaustion or depriving them of food and sleep for days on end. The opening felt a little clumsy with too much narrative. Clearly a lot of information has to be conveyed in a relatively short time in order to set the scene and establish Hopkins but it could have been smoother. The cast gives a good account of itself, while some performances were slightly off-key these were hardly distracting. The editing was occasionally idiosyncratic and distracting, especially in the extreme close-ups, which often did not follow the character that was speaking or being spoken to. These are minor grumbles though. One of my favourite scenes was the fair, a complex crowd scene, which was faultlessly executed. Indeed, for a small scale production, it triumphs in its evocation of the 1640s by its attention to detail, particularly in the costumes and use of locations. Most of all it is the performances of the enthusiastic cast that convince and make the film work as well as it does. An interesting and well-made film that deserves to do well and get recognition beyond its week long run at the Headgate Theatre in Colchester.

MR

followed by:
The Making of Witchfinder**
(GB 2007. 25m.; Amusing collection of outtakes from the film, plus some interesting insights both from a historical and a film-making perspective.; d, narr: John Worland.)
JS

(Will Parrick on the set of Witchfinder)

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Alphabetical List of Films (2006)

Title (date)

Ben-Hur (Dec 24th)
The Best of Benny Hill (Dec 30th)
Brokeback Mountain (Films of 2006)
Casino Royale (Films of 2006)
The Constant Gardener (Films of 2006)
The Da Vinci Code (Films of 2006)
Election (Films of 2006)
Escape to Athena (Dec 18th)
Escape to Victory (Dec 28th)
Goodnight, and Good Luck (Films of 2006)
Inside Man (Films of 2006)
The Masque of the Red Death (Dec 31st)
Meet Me in St. Louis (Dec 16th)
Merry Christmas (Films of 2006)
Michael Jackson's Thriller (Dec 24th)
Mrs. Henderson Presents (Films of 2006)
Munich (Films of 2006)
The Notorious Bettie Page (Films of 2006)
The Omen (Films of 2006)
Pierrepoint (Films of 2006)
Prime (Films of 2006)
The Producers (Films of 2006)
The Red Shoes (Films of 2006)
Romance and Cigarettes (Films of 2006)
A Scanner Darkly (Films of 2006)
Superman II (Dec 10th)
Superman Returns (Films of 2006)
United 93 (Films of 2006)
V for Vendetta (Films of 2006)
Wah-Wah (Films of 2006)
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Dec 23rd))

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Jan 13th
The History Boys*
(Ipswich Film Theatre)

Successful A-Level pupils spend a feverish extra few months studying for a University entrance exam.
Alan Bennett's pleasantly witty but slightly old-fashioned play (apart from its sexuality) set anachronistically in the 1980s, is adapted for the screen a little too knowingly by most of the talents involved in the successful stage production, with some of the actors looking a little over-rehearsed in their roles by now, and other elements that should have been left on the stage.

d: Nicholas Hytner
s: Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour, Stephen Campbell Moore, Penelope Wilton, Clive Merrison, James Corden, Dominic Cooper, Sacha Dhawan, Andrew Knott, Russel Tovey

Sunday, January 07, 2007

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.

Friday, January 05, 2007

Dec 31st  
The Masque of the Red Death*                
GB 1964. American International/James H. Nicholson-Samuel Z. Arkoff. 89m. ws

The devil-worshipping Prince Prospero indulges in decadent parties, whilst outside the nearby village is ravaged by the plague.
Long-winded and very luscious adaptation with more camp atmosphere than Gothic menace.

Written by: Charles Beaumont, R. Wright Campbell, based on stories by Edgar Allen Poe.
Producer/Director: Roger Corman.
Starring: Vincent Price, Hazel Court, Jane Asher, Patrick Magee, David Weston, Nigel Green, Paul Whitsun-Jones, Robert Brown, Skip Martin.
Photography: Nicolas Roeg.
Music: David Lee.
Costume: Laura Nightingale.
Production Design: Daniel Haller.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Dec 30th
The Best of Benny Hill* 
GB 1974. EMI/Euston Films/Thames Television. 82m.

Compilation of sketches directly transferred from television recordings onto film, of a very saucy comedian whose boyishly naughty appeal seems curiously international, in spite of a deeply misogynistic vein throughout most of the material. The sketches themselves are also quite funny and demonstrate Hill's flair for multi-character playing.

Written/Songs by: Benny Hill.
Producers: John Robins, Roy Skeggs.
Starring: Benny Hill, Patricia Hayes, Henry McGee, Nicholas Parsons, Bob Todd, Jackie Wright, Andree Melly, Michael Sharvell-Martin, David Prowse, and others.
Musical Direction: Ronnie Aldrich.
Editing: Archie Ludski.

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