NEWSFLASH

Everyone should know this.

With nothing better to do, I was browsing daytime television and came across - no word of a lie - this beautiful specimen:

The film version of Catherine and William's relationship, released in 2011. I particularly liked the part when Cate dives in the water from her rowboat to dramatically confront Wills, Notebook-style.

Does anybody else in the world know about this? This is trashy brilliance.






Nothing can top this. That's all for now.

FILM: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (English Version)

When I heard the Swedish film adaptation of the literary phenomenon Millennium trilogy was to be remade by Hollywood, I was slightly narked. If you've seen Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (2009) I think you'd agree that the film is almost untouchable in its gritty, darkly disturbing interpretation of the story. I assumed the worst - that Hollywood, in its ongoing attempt to meet the widest possible target audience, would tone down and misinterpret a narrative which is best effective because of its inherent dark projection of humanity. But, of course, when the uncreative desperation of the industry grasps a successful, pre-sold (and therefore less risky), story, it is not going to pass on a chance to
adapt, adapt, adapt. $$$

I was peeved with the arrogance that a Hollywood studio thought it could do better than the exceptional Swedish original. This has happened before, with another Scandinavian success Låt den rätte komma in (2008) - A.K.A Let The Right One In - replaced with Let Me In (2010). I felt a sense of snooty disapproval, an erratic instinct to defend the gritty indie film against the monolithic mainstream machinations of Hollywood.

I was also proved wrong. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011) is certified 18 in the UK, and accordingly packed with the same horrific, edgy darkness which epitomises the Millennium series. I didn't think Noomi Repace's performance of the androgynous and intriguing Lisbeth Salander could have been equalled, but the unassuming Rooney Mara launches into the role with an air of enigma and indignance for which she should be commended. I was also pleased by the master-stroke casting of Daniel Craig as the everyman protagonist Mikael Blomkvist; he brings an understated charisma to the role which was not quite met by the Swedish actor (Michael Nyqvist), whose character to me was eclipsed entirely by Swedish Salander.

Rapace and Nyqvist

Mara and Craig

Both films are fittingly shot with blueish-grey tinting, creating the grizzly, decaying, uncleansed feel which the narrative possesses. This is best shown through Tumblr's 'Movie Barcodes', which condenses every single shot from the films into a single bar code, pictured:

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Swedish Version, condensed.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo English Version, condensed.

So, what to conclude? The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (which is, conveniently, released on DVD on Monday) should not, despite the inevitability, be compared with its Swedish counterpart. They should be viewed as distinctly separate pieces , because I can't decide which I like more.

Friday the Thirteenth

I probably should have posted this at exactly midnight, but I wasn't cool enought to be up that late

I'm not one for superstitions, particularly the whole 'Friday the Thirteenth' gag. I was born on the 13th of September (though a Monday) and so far I haven't perished unnaturally (touching wood); but after a brief heroic glimpse of wikipedia, apparently the number 13 is unholy or transgressive as oppose to 12 which occurs in nature - 12 months, 12 hours - and religion - Jesus' 12 disciples, the 12 Olympian Gods, par example. By contrast 13 peeps at a table usually results in misery - The Last Supper being a palpable example.

Friday is traditionally a day of bad luck - not according to Rebecca Black, apparently - with absurdly named 'Good' Friday of course signifying Christ's crucifiction; stockbrokers also steer clear from the date as it is associated with market crashes.

So this is the date decided to launch horror flick: The Cabin In The Woods. Starring Chris Hemsworth of Thor (2011) fame, the film is intended to subvert genre stereotypes by literally picking Horror film apart. 'A group of young people go to a cabin for a boozy break, but get much more than they bargained for' = perfect formula for a generic Horror Film. However, Cabin instead celebrates these cliches by applying a voyeuristic  sci-fi slant to the film, as the characters are being watched and their fates are being manipulated cruelly to create the perfect horror.

So what are the Horror Movie Stereotypes?

The Slutty Victim. This girl is usually a bitch with a two dimensional personality. She'll be running around doing a girly scream with broken nails and revealing clothing, which has, by the way,  been conveniently ripped up by the pervy maniac/werewolf/vampire/monster/ghost to make it even more so. This girl is the one who dies horrifically as punishment for her crimes of being shallow and too good looking. Usually during sex.

And here we have Paris Hilton modelling perfectly the doomed bimbo in House of Wax (2005). "What? I'm not nominated for an Academy Award for this performance?"

The False Alarm. This technique is utilised in practically every single horror film, and with good reason - it's perfect for creating suspense and setting in the tension. You know the score: person walks into a dark room, there's a loud crashing sound behind them, the shot goes to the cause of the commotion and its just Bob the cat being clumsy or something.

Evil Children. Often the icon of ultimate innocence can be twisted to create a vision of ultimate evil and horror. There's something inherently disturbing about children being corrupted, perhaps because it's the height of the unnatural. Perhaps one of the earliest examples of this in film is in The Exorcist (1973), multiple others followed from The Ring, The Grudge, The Shining, Orphan, The Messengers and Insidious, to name a few.

I wonder which codes The Cabin In The Woods are going to apply? Produced and co-written by Joss Wheden, the genius behind Buffy The Vampire Slayer, I'm enthralled to see this quirky horror mash up.

Almodovar as freaky Auteur

Pedro Almodovar, or simply Almodovar as he likes to be presented - 'un film de Almodovar' and all that - is a Spanish film director whose films have disturbed audiences universally. Best known probably for Volver (2006), Broken Embraces (2009) and, most recently, The Skin I Live In (2011), I can't help watching one of his films without feeling assaulted in some way.

The most recurrent theme in his work is sexuality. And this is brutally presented through graphic scenes of rape, subversive gender roles, and surrealism.

Perhaps the most shocking representation of sex and sexuality in Almodovar film is displayed in Talk to Her (2002). A scene apparently central to the narrative, the 'shrinking lover' depicts a - no word of a lie - story about a couple whose relationship is challenged by the fact that she has shrunk him to the size of a smart phone. But in a twisted take on Honey I Shrunk The Kids, the story gets even more bizarre when he, well he... I think you should just watch the film and see for yourself.

Here's a picture, you can probably guess what happens next.

This is Almodovar putting across ideas of sexual tabboos and subverting the role of women and men through - yeah is he just being a pervert?

I don't think so. The silent film seems to parallel the main plotline of heterosexual male absorbtion with the inanimate female form. Its style echoes of film produced in the surrealist movement by the likes of Dali, and hints at Freudian concepts of the hedonistic id, and even the death drive (the whole returning to the womb concept). In the main plot of Talk To Her [SPOILER], a male nurse rapes his comatose client. Almodovar converts this to an underlying message of men's objectification of women through the male gaze. Putting this idea in such a format makes it seem repulsive, and the scene is a symbollic rape, perhaps alluding to male control over women in cinema.

This helpless women is graphically mutilated in surreal Dali film Un Chien Andalou (1929)

Alicia in Talk To Her is molested by her nurse while comatose.

You should see Almodovar's other movies.

On a lighter note, I was fortunate enough to visit the British Film Institute (BFI) headquarters in London last month on a trip with my college. The day was titled 'Almodovar as Auteur'.

Establishing Shot

Two Shot - see I was actually there! - with Laura, more dedicated film nerd.

It was an alright trip despite the fact it was on the sunniest day of the year so far, and we spent most of the time in a dark room learning about Almodovar. A speaker made it worse by ruining the deliberate twist of an ending for The Skin I Live In before any of us had watched it. Who does that? The BFI does that.

QUICK REVIEW: 21 Jump Street

21 Jump  Street is , comfortably, just what you'd expect from this sort of film. Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill bounce off each other as a comedy cop duo. I found myself laughing a little too loudly to be socially acceptable in a public environment, but that's a compliment.

There are a couple of misplaced bits of CGI explosion which sidle their way into action film environment, but the in joke that things don't seem to explode like they do in the movies in real life meant that after all that disappointment we were pretty much due.  
Oh and I almost forgot, there's a suprise hollywood star who pops up unexpectedly at the end! It made the film.

A bit of fun, but 21 Jump Street is aiming for just that.

FILM: The Hunger Games



“Happy Hunger Games!”

trills Effie Trinket, our first personfication of totalitarian control of The Hunger Games' dystopian futurescape, accompanied inevitably with a preened English accent. Of course it’s English, people with English accents always represent evil, take Jeremy Irons’ Scar in The Lion King. And with these immortal words, the Hunger Games kick off. 

The film is gorgeously made, with poignant scenes such as the morning before 'reaping' - when the tributes are chosen - shot with no non diegetic sound, enhancing the sense of realism and reality you may find in a reality television programme, which of course is what the story is reflecting on, as the Hunger Games themselves are heavily televised for the manditory watch of all citizens of the state of Panem. Performances throughout the film are impressive, with Jennifer Lawrence striking in the leading role, as well as Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) convincing as the hyperbolic Games' presenter, and Elizabeth Banks stepping away from Rom Coms (40 Year Old Virgin, Zach and Miri Make a Porno) to play the embellished and in many ways grotesque Effie Trinket.

Caesar Flickerman, played by Stanley Tucci

I really liked the way the film interpreted many of the subtleties of the book, for example when Katniss does something symbolic in the arena, it leads to a full on riot in district 11. Also ,the gamemakers seem to manipulate the tributes’ fate through a virtual screen, with the ability to generate man made fires or monstrous canines at the touch of a button. This enhances the sense of god like power which they have over the tributes, and the sense of virtual technology being inherently sick.

Thanks to the book it was based on, the film has a gripping and inventive narrative. But this is exploited skillfully in The Hunger Games. The filmmakers followed the novels' narrative respectfully,  reflecting the same themes of  the dangers of reality television, voyeurism and authoritarian corruption; most respectively, of sadism and scopophilia - which is effectively the Morbid Urge to Gaze. Since Orwell's 1989 these frightening issues have been placed to the forefront of culture. The most ancient-set example of such scopophilia being in Roman times, when the gladiatorial games involved slaves placed in an arena to fight to the death for the entertainment of the mob. This is best presented in Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000).

A more futuristic version, perhaps more comparable to The Hunger Games, is Gamer (Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, 2009). Starring Gerard Butler, this science fiction film centres around a world where death row convicts are manipulated as characters in a videogame. The film is extremely graphic, as the manifestation of man’s most basic visceral desires: sex and gore. The use of bloody violence here creates intense horror, making the audience reflect on the idea of 'reality games' like, for example Grand Theft Auto where it's deemed cool to beat up 'hoes', as repulsive.

Gamer is certified an 18, as oppose to Hunger Games’ 12A rating. The Hunger Games, by comparison, is much less violent. A scene in the book, where a young girl is run through by a boy’s spear while being caught in a net was inevitably cut from the film, with the boy instead throwing the spear from a distance. This is understandable as the concept of the former would have been too disturbing to convert to a visual format, particularly for 12 year olds. But I felt that was one of the moments in the book which really expressed the horrific nature of the Hunger Games, a sort of Lord of the Flies with girls, where innocence is utterly destroyed.

Moreover there is limited blood or gore in the film, with slashes or wounds limited to the torso area, the extent of which can be hidden by clothing. Does this lessen the threat or realistic feel of the film? To an extent, yes. But I also felt that The Hunger Games was, pardon the pun, far better executed than Gamer, which relied on its viscerality as a shock factor, and subsequently fell apart by the end as the filmmakers evidently struggled to find a narrative resolution. By contrast The Hunger Games relies on terror to create momentum, and this drives the narrative forward as we are tied to the fate of the characters, terrified by what might happen next, and repulsed by the unsettling concept of putting adolescents into an arena to fight to the death. The story is so well executed we don’t need the violence to feel afraid, we are already there, in the arena, imagining the brutality. This is the effect of a good film.

Yes, perhaps the film is tailored to suit a 12A audience, however you can’t blame the producers for not wishing to evade the main targets of the film - since the protagonists are majorly young adults, it would be foolish to alienate this audience. Other than this, The Hunger Games is perfectly made, stays true to the riveting plot of the book, and interprets intelligently where there are gaps in the narrative.

I salute you, Hunger Games,

"And may the odds be ever in your favour!"

FILM: Wrath of the Titans (post viewing)

Wrath of the Titans, the follow on from the 2010 remake Clash of the Titans was released in British cinemas last Friday.

The film reverts back to fateful Sam Worthington's Perseus, who has returned, accompanied with a more potent Aussie accent, to the humble occupation of a fisherman. And there's instantly something fishy about this choice of lifestyle when you've just nipped to the underworld, killed a gorgon and saved the mythological world from the clutches of a 80ft+ Kracken. The narrative quickly resolves this questionable career move when the predictable badass Hades decides it'll be a good idea to kill all the 'immortal' Gods - save effeminate Spaniard, and unlikely God of War, Ares - and bring back their mentally unstable Dad - Kronos - to wreak havoc on Earth. Once again, Perseus gets involved.

The sequel features much more imaginative and satisfying beasts, in the form of Cyclops, Chimaera, Kronos and a Minotaur, as well as a handful of freakish double bodied warriors. There's also some cool God action when Zeus and Hades finally decide to step in to the fight.

I didn't bother to see this in 3D. After the abysmal Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides experience, I was too wary of dishing out the dollar only to be met with a film which mildly hurt my eyes and had one slightly three dimensional moment, but i'd be interested if anyone saw it in 3D and let me know what they thought.

The film has some sweet action sequences, and the CGI really is impressive, particularly when you're put into the point of view of Perseus on a flying horse, attempting to avoid the seemingly unavoidable volcanic weaponary of Kronos. There was a couple of dubious moments when I was confused Pegasus didn't get fried. And, at points, the rapid-cut, handheld battle sequences get a little confusing. 'Wait, who's getting their head smashed in?'

In terms of relations to the previous film, I think Wrath surpassed Clash in entertainment value. It seemed to be conscious of the last film's cheesiness, like when a character jibes "Oh, Perseus! 'RELEASE THE KRACKEN!' And all that?". Despite this, it also makes room for some awkward moments. There's a weird scene [POSSIBLE SPOILER] where Hades is gazing at his brother Zeus and says "I do", leaving a pregnant pause before adding "forgive you!" - or am I just being immature? This one also leaves out the mass of characters you don't really care about, trimming it down to Worthington, Rosamond Pike and Toby Kebbel to save the day. On the subject of Pike (not the fish), she makes a good heroine, joining in the battles and whatnot, although I do feel it's a bit harsh that they decided to cut out Gemma Artheton's Io, awkwardly strategically killing her to make way for romances with the Princess.

"Io? Who the deuce is she?"

Yes the plot follows the main structure of the first film. What with the emerging crisis; unlikely hero; treachorous destination; and strangely amiable beasts (the scorpions in Clash, cyclops in Wrath), along with the epic final battle with the gigantic but slow-moving baddie (the Kraken and Kronos). But this is much better executed, with more humour, entertainment, and genuinely impressive special effects.

And, let's face it, Hollywood can't green light anything original! That would be risky.