Movies and film

Here's another bit of expanded musing I originally posted on Ian Adams' East-end Blog in response to his widening the cultural input from merely books to all forms...

Last movies seen in a theatre: The Emperor's New Clothes, part of the Collingwood Cinema Club series. Based on a novelette called The Death of Napoleon. Starring Ian Holm. Quite good and funny/tender. Of course I had to go watch any film about Napoleon. Saw Chocolat before that, another good CCC film.

Otherwise we seldom go to the cinema, especially not for popular Hollywood films. Can't stand the audiences because there's always someone right behind us who won't shut up during the movie. Or someone's cell phone ringing. Or a cache of debris we step in left by someone too lazy and inconsiderate to take their garbage and unfinished food to the waste bin. Much cleaner, quieter and enjoyable to watch them at home on DVD. Besides at home we serve wine; the theatres don't.

Last worthwhile movies rented: We rent a movie or two a week. Mostly new releases, but sometimes we venture into the older movies. We look first at the international titles, then at the rest. We've rented a lot of films, but most are easily forgettable... here are a few that stuck...

* Masked and Anonymous Starring Bob Dylan and John Goodman. An art film that is very strange and confusing. It might have had more impact had they cast someone else in the lead. The aging Dylan acts like Peter Fonda: no emotion, no motion. But it is compelling at times.
* Hitch, Starring Will Smith. Cute fluff; romantic comedy that proved much better than I expected, however.
* Shaun of the Dead. Quirky British black comedy that's pretty dry but a cute take off on American horror films.
* Incident at Loch Ness - a mockumentary that would have been great at 30 minutes, good at 45 and way too long as it was released. But we watched it all the way through anyway. It really grabs you in the final 10-15 minutes.
* Motorcycle Diaries. Che Guevara's trip of self-discovery around South America in the 1940s. Very good, although it helps to have read his diaries before, to understand some of the episodes. It does explain a lot about how he became so passionate a revolutionary.
* Cellular. A reasonably good and passably intelligent thriller.
* House of the Flying Daggers. Visually stunning, great choreography and special effects, this film is one of those recent Chinese historical-fighting films that are so entertaining and beautiful.
* Vanity Fair. Surprisingly good, beautifully shot and well directed. Long but thoroughly entertaining. My immediate response was to run out and buy Thackery's ponderous novel so I could compare the two.
* Ray Great, powerful film bio of Ray Charles. Terrific music, too.
* DeLovely. Another good musical bio, this time of Cole Porter. Kevin Kline does the role very well. And the soundtrack is really good.
* Super-Size Me. A good social commentary about fast food, excess, consumerism and pop culture.
* Terminal, with Tom Hanks. An unexpectedly good film. Hanks really excels in this role. The airport as home...
* Lighting in a Bottle. A documentary about the blues. Has some great performances, and some really bad ones (like the rap version of Boom Boom).
* Frida. A terrific film about an enigmatic artist, and turbulent times.
* Parting Shots Lightweight British comedy with a good cast.

Not so great films we've rented: This list will grow as we rent more or remember the stinkers we've rented... this is the list that usually doesn't stick with us for long... there are generally more films to avoid than rent in any video store...

* The Aviator. An okay film, it really didn't deserve all the fuss it garnered.
* I Robot. Asimov's terrific series on robots and cybernetics had to get to film eventually. The core issues of robots and the challenges to the Three Laws are marginally covered, but mostly it's about special effects and action, rather than social and moral issues. An okay film, but not deep.
* Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. A so-what film, like the Harry Potter sequels.

Waste of Celluloid: Most popular/Hollywood films we rent. Any film that depends on special effects rather than plot or dialogue is probably going to be bad.

* National Treasure for example. Yawn. Predictable and silly.
* Life Aquatic. Booooorrring and hideously overdone. Lasted maybe 45 minutes before it was ejected.
* Ladykillers How Tom Hanks ever agreed to star in this gawdawful piece of dreck is a mystery. The original British film is so much better - and has no gratuitous swearing. We watched less than half of it before turning it off.
* Meet the Fokkers An inside joke for the movie industry, this is a dull and predictable takeoff on Meet the Parents, both of which are as boring and banal as an episode of Seinfeld, but mercilessly much longer!
* Oceans Twelve. The remake of Oceans Eleven was passable, but the sequel is merely predictable and corny and in some scenes simply awful.
* The Matrix Sequels The first film was good, the second two increasing lost their focus and kept repeating the same sort of episode and events. It only delayed the inevitable ending without adding any real drama or meaning.
* Sideways. This was supposed to be funny? It's Bob & Ted's Incredible Adventure for intellectuals. Whining, self-indulgent, egotistical characters show off their wine knowledge to impress babes. Off after 30 minutes.
* AVP. Alien was a great, scary movie. Predator was a fun, action film. AVP is neither. It's silly, almost as scary as the Simpsons, and has just too damn many monsters to be frightening. Enough with the crappy sequels, already!

Great Canadian Movie: Hmmm. Perhaps the NFB's Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen because I saw it in the late 1960s and it turned me on to his writing and songwriting. Not a great film as I recall, however, merely a personal memory. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Cohen at a sales convention for McClelland and Stewart many years ago, when I was a book sales rep for them. I have always enjoyed his work. I used to like to watch NFB shorts in the 70s and 80s, but the last one I recall was Cosmos, which used a Vaughan Williams piece as its soundtrack.

Favourite movies: This list might get long...

* Young Frankenstein Mel Brooks' superb parody has greater depth than a single viewing would see. Susan and I watch this film together at least once a year. I could watch it more, but she tires of it rather sooner than I.
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939, with Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara. Wildly different from Victor Hugo's book, it was still a masterpiece. Laughton was at his peak as the tormented Quasimodo. And Maureen - what a beauty, even in black and white.
* Bladerunner: A dark view of the future, this film was the first of the sci-fi/cyberpunk films. Along with that should go its goofy counterpart, Fifth Element, which is really quite a good film. Throw in the first Star Wars, too...
* Lawrence of Arabia Sweeping, grandiose, with another tormented soul at its centre. Great cast as well.
* Fiddler on the Roof Aside from the terrific music, this is a heart-wrenching tale of human lives caught in turbulent times. And a good view of the outcast society of Jews that was created by an oppressive Russian state in the late 19th century.
* Casablanca another of my favourites. What's there to say about this movie that hasn't been said by everyone else?
* Baraka, Ron Fricke's visual masterpiece, released in 1992, an entire 93-minute film without dialogue. "An incredible journey through 6 continents, 24 countries..." Baraka is an ancient Sufi word, which means "a blessing, or as the breath, or essence of life from which the evolutionary process unfolds." Breathtaking and deeply moving imagery. Also quite disturbing in some scenes. Not for the faint of thinking.
* Brazil. If you haven't see this, there's no way to describe it. Part Orwell, part Monty Python, it's got great unexpected depth.
* Susan's favourites include Shirley Valentine, The Thin Man movies, African Queen, Clockwork Orange and Star Wars (the first three) and Buena Vista Social Club (we share that as one of our mutual favourites).

Latest films I've bought: Thank the seven gods for eBay...

* Fellini's Satyricon (1968). Okay, this came from Amazon.ca... a metaphor for the corruption of western society and values set in Nero's Roman empire.
* The Corporation. Everyone interested in politics or modern society should watch this!... and this was a previously-viewed film from Blockbuster... it should be shown in schools.
* George Lucas' first feature, THX-1138 - very smart film, even today. Interesting view of the future, although mostly allegorical.
* Peter Watkin's Privilege (1967). An overlooked work, this presages the corporatization of the music industry today, as well as the corporate pressure to use pop culture to create conformity and consumerism.
* Fellini's Casanova (1974). Donald Sutherland plays the lead in Fellini's caustic take on the 18th century diarist. I personally think it's an unfair take on the man, but it's entertaining. I recommend you read the diaries (the Trask edition) instead.
* Citizen Kane. Another one of my favourites.
* Leni Reifenstahl's Triumph of the Will . More frightening than any Hollywood horror. This is the ur piece of propaganda films. It's hard not to see the parallels between Reifenstahl's Wagnerian vision of Germany in the 1930s and the right-wing patriotic fervour in Bush's America today.
* Jeeves and Wooster: the 23-episode mega-DVD set. Okay, so it's TV and not film, but it's a super collection of one of the best and funniest series the BBC ever produced. Right up there beside Blackadder as my favourite TV stuff (which is another thread entirely... coming in another blog entry).
* Caligula. Saw this in the theatre back in the 80s when it was first released. Tinto Brass - more known for his mature Italian sex comedies - was only partial director, the rest was all Bob Guccione. Pornographic, violent, shocking, meandering and clumsy, it is nonetheless a strangely magnetic film. I also bought a collection of three Tinto Brass movies as comparisons of his work.
* Kurosawa. A collection of 11 of his films. Great stuff, from the Seven Samurai to Yojimbo.
* Mars Attacks. Okay, that was a mistake...

Last film I cried at: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the scene where Spock died. Hey, I'd grown up with this guy and spent more years in his company than anyone else. He mattered, damn it. Susan cries at Kleenex commercials...