Classics: Treasure Island & Vertigo

In the middle of getting ready for an imminent work trip to Israel, I found time to attack a couple of classics from different media; the book Treasure Island, and Hitchcock’s masterpiece of film, Vertigo.

First up, Treasure Island, a book I can’t actually remember if I read when I was younger as the themes are now so familiar; pirates with parrots and wooden legs, buried treasure and heroic cabin boys. Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic is best read at a younger, more innocent age, yet maintains it’s ability to thrill even to us jaded older folk. A fun, lightweight classic but don’t expect anything too mentally challenging.

Then we have Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. As someone who watches a lot of movies I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I’ve not watched any Hitchcock films. This is something I realise I now need to rectify, as Vertigo is visually sumptuous, engaging with great acting from James Stewart, and a thrilling soundtrack. There’s also a classic early intro sequence from Saul Bass. The story follows Stewart, who plays a detective on retirement due to the onset of crippling vertigo which caused the death of a fellow officer. Stewart, for want of anything else to do, accepts a friend’s request to follow his wife, Kim Novak, who has been acting strangely and apparently is possessed by the suicidal spirit of a dead woman. Stewart accepts, and in carrying out his duties falls in love with the wife and things progress from there.

Although the film is now over 50 year old it is still a joy to watch. The speed of pacing may put off some viewers, but Hitchcock was well ahead of his time and if you’re not addicted to jump cuts then all will be well. Happily for me this now means I have the rest of Hitchcock’s back catalogue to watch as well. Splendid stuff.

Favourite Films: Twelve Monkeys

Above: “I am the man who kills Bruce Willis” – the actor with the dubious and singular honour of killing Bruce on-screen is coached by Terry Gilliam”

Most of you will know about my mild obsession with Terry Gilliam and his amazing films. Gilliam’s movies are some of the most regularly re-watched in my extensive collection, along with those of the Coen Brothers and Christopher Nolan. All of them delight in visually stunning extravaganzas combined with off-beat yet engaging characters, and Twelve Monkeys is no exception.

Twelve Monkeys is Gilliam’s 1996 sci-fi time-travel confuso-thriller starring Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis and Madeline Stowe amongst others. The basic story is based around the surreal French short film La Jetee, centering around a man from the future who has seen his own death as a child. In this re-telling our soon to come dystopian future has the remnants of he human race living underground, holding on after a devastating virus has killed most people. Willis plays James Cole, a prison inmate chosen to go back into the past to try and investigate what happened and ultimately retrieve a pure source of the original virus so the future/present scientists can create a cure. With me so far? Well there be spoilers ahead, so be warned.

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Don’t Burn After Reading!

Last night we went to see the Coen Brothers’ latest, Burn After Reading, at the Curzon Soho – after an abortive attempt to go see it at the over-mirrored, off-putting Apollo Picadilly. For those of you who don’t know, Burn After Reading is a dark comedy set around the ‘Intelligence’ scene in Washington DC, with a roster of acting stars the likes of which is normally only seen in Soderberg movies – Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovitch, Frances Dormand and many more. With all those talents vying for space you’d think the movie might end up over-baked, but it’s an amazing set of twists, turns, laughs and surprises as you might expect from such talented film makers as the Coens. Definately a must see, especially for fans of the Coens.

The Curzon was, as usual, showing an interesting range of previews most of which looked like great films. One in particular caught my eye – Steven Soderberg’s two part epic Che. This true to life biopic, previously called ‘The Argentine and the Guerilla’, follows the life of Che Guevera from his early days as an Argentine doctor through to cultural icon that he is now. Che is played by Benicio del Toro and goes through an amazing range of body sizes along the way. All looks very exciting, although the early reviews are somewhat mixed.

BTW, How come it costs £12 or more to go to the cinema in London these days? This comes as a brutal shock after getting used to $12 in New York for, what I’d imagine, is the same film just with bigger, more comfortable seats (to fit the larger gentleman). I don’t think cinema’s can blame pirates for a decrease in film attendance when they’re gouging us like that!

Movie Review: Molière

Molière is a French period movie set in the 17th Century and starring the wonderful Romain Duris, puppy eyed lead from The Spanish Apartment (L’Auberge Espagnol). The story follows the life of the French actor and playwright Molière through a period of his life that historians don’t know much about, imagining what happened based on his own plays. So Molière gets thrown in debtor’s gaol in Paris, only to be rescued by a rich benefactor, Monsieur Jourdain, who wants to learn the fine art of acting in order to impress a woman he’s fallen in love with. Taken out to the country we meet the other players in this act, Jourdain’s wife and daughters, and members of the French royal court – nicely setting off the beauty of the sets with their internal ugliness.

Molière is a great movie, deep, visually stunning, yet hugely funny and moving. Romain is at times dark and brooding, then generous and funny, and all fully fleshed out by his highly talented portrayal of a complex character. Definately a must see, even if you’re not a great fan of sub-titles. Read my full review of Molière here.

Movies: The Fountain & Mighty Wind

A movie night last night, starting with Darren Aronofsky’s ‘The Fountain’, filmed here in Montreal three years ago, and Mighty Wind.

The Fountain got mixed reviews which stopped me seeing it in the cinema, and after Requiem for a Dream Aronofsky had a lot to live up to, and having watched it I can see why – it’s not easy going, and not a cheerful, Hollywood movie that’s for sure – but then when are Aronofsky’s movies ever like that? Cut to the chase – the movie is stunning in places, dramatically wrenching and beautiful with some great acting. So I highly recommend it to everyone.

Onto Mighty Wind, another ensemble comedy piece from the team behind Best in Show and the folks from Spinal Tap. With those credentials you would expect some laugh out loud faux documentary moments and it doesn’t disappoint there, however overall the film left me un-satisfied. Mighty Wind seems to lack any real drama and just meanders along like a folk Spinal Tap that only goes to 6, not 11. There is some standout acting in there but don’t expect too much.

You can read my more detailed reviews here: Mighty Wind and The Fountain.

The Darjeeling Unlimited

It’s been a few years since genius film-maker Wes Anderson’s last film, The Life Aquatic, so it was with great pleasure that tonight we went to see his latest, The Darjeeling Limited. Unsurprisingly we weren’t disappointed, Anderson’s trademark visual style has been transposed effortlessly onto an Indian continent backdrop and the story, written by Anderson, Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman, is wonderfully uplifting and melancholic at the same time.

The movie centers around three estranged brothers on a journey across India on the Darjeeling Limited line. Each brother has his own character flaws, and the inter-play between them all is wonderfully engaging. As their journey progresses across the country other colourful characters are introduced, each with varying impact on the brothers and their life trajectories. Family relations, trust, spirituality and escapism are all investigated as the brothers continue their journey, and by the end of the film they are all changed – but for how long is the question given the embedded character flaws that have kept them going up till now.

Darjeeling Limited is a another great film from Anderson, perhaps not his best but it’s hard to tell these things on first watching. The dynamic nature of Life Aquatic is missing somewhat, being replaced more by emotional tones than melodies. If you love Anderson, you’ll love this – and if you’ve never seen his films then this is a great place to start.

Oh, and as a bonus before the main feature there’s a short – Hotel Chevalier – which fills out a sub-plot of the main movie, plus gives you a chance to how short both Natalie Portman and Jason Schwartzman are. Amongst other things.

America’s Sicko Health System

Just saw Michael Moore’s latest expose on the American health system – Sicko. A great film from Mr Moore, incisive, emotional and as usual he manages to bring up 9/11 as often as a Republican Presidential candidate, hopefully to more positive ends. The subject of the film is America’s singularly unique approach to healthcare – privatization to an extreme degree. Every US citizen has to pay for their healthcare in monthly payments to private organisations, although more normally this is through their employer. Should the inevitable happen and they need to go to the doctor, their HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) has to pre-approve any charges raised, from the consultation, ambulance trips, x-rays and everything. This all sounds a great win for private industry and free choice (the positive view on HMOs) until it goes wrong and the company’s bottom line becomes more important than saving lives – the situation Moore says now exists.

I’ve had to go through US medical treatment a few times now, with varying levels of medical cover. The first time was due to an icey slip into a puddle which resulted in a sprained tendon that took an age to heal but no major operation thankfully. The slip also resulted in about $5,000 in medical bills from a few hours of emergency room checkups (that weren’t even that quick). Luckily this was all covered, but it would have been an unwelcome cost should my HMO have decided not to pay out. In Moore’s movie the many ways that HMO’s avoid payouts and the impact on peoples’ lives is gone into in detail, often heart wrenching detail as death is regularly involved. Unsurprisingly the government’s link with big business is singled out as a driving factor by Moore, and his old pal George W comes in for the usual treatment.

Having revealed the warts of the US system, Moore then proceeds to wax lyrical about overseas systems based on ’socialist’ practices – ie, taxes pay for everyone’s health cover however poor, all are equal. Canada, Britain, France and Cuba are examined and Moore acts out his country’s amazement on how well these systems work. As a Brit I know the British system isn’t as wonderful as Moore makes out, but I’m glad we have that rather than the US system. Equal healthcare for all is a wonderful thing, as none of us know who will be unlucky in the good health lottery.

Sicko is a great film, more emotionally wrenching than his previous offerings and a lot more human while staying political as only Moore can. Generally the US doesn’t get much sympathy these days due to its oil driven global policies, but this film reminds us that the citizens of the US are often the ones who suffer. Hopefully this movie will help drive positive change for all.

Disclaimer: Many years ago I did some work for Humana, one of the HMO’s mentioned in the film. In fact when you watch the film and see the ridiculously huge and be-marbled Humana offices in Louisville, look at the small brick building to the right – that’s where we were working.

Stardust – An Epic Gaiman Movie

Last night we went to see Stardust, the film adaptation of Neil Gaiman & Charles Vess’ same titled graphic novel. Gaiman’s last foray into movies, MirrorMask, was interesting but somehow un-engaging, but Stardust is an absolute delight all the way through. A fairy-tale love story, set in a world alongside England – reached through a hole in the wall next to the town of Wall (near Ipswich). Once the protagonist, Tristran Thorne, sets off on his quest to find a fallen star the action comes thick and fast, with twists and amazing characters on the way that keep you constantly engaged and smiling.

My personal highlights are the ghostly chorus of the dead princes, all named based on their order of birth, from Primus to Septimus, and all vying to be the next king by dint of being the last one alive. The already dead brothers includes David Walliams and Rupert Everett, and en masse they inject a wonderful note of humour into a Shakespearean tradition. The special effects are also fully integrated, never too showy just there in subserviance to the story as they should. Plus you have Robert deNiro as a flying ship captain with a hidden secret, Ricky Gervais with a brief cameo as a salesman plus a panoply of other famous actors from both sides of the pond – thankfully a lot are British given that’s the general accent. Even Claire Danes’ accent is reasonable, if a little too plumy in places.

You know this movie would never have gotten made were it for the success of Harry Potter, so for that we owe J K Rowling another thanks. Gaiman is an amazing author and explorer of the imagination, but his popular success is still limited even after the oustanding Sandman graphic novels and a selection of successful novels. Indeed, rumours of Sandman’s movie debut have been around for many years now, but it has yet to appear. Fingers crossed that Stardust has enough box office success to put some steam behind other Gaiman adaptations. So go see it!

The Next P K Dick Movie

There’s a new movie coming out in a few weeks based on Philip K Dick’s ‘The Golden Man‘, one of his longer short stories. Of course the big question is: is this another Blade Runner, or is it more of a Paycheck?

We’ll have to wait and see whether Next is any good. It has the potential to be interesting, with Nicholas Cage playing a Las Vegas magician who can see the future and hence change it, but it’s definately more ‘based on’ the original story than faithful to it. In the original, the Golden Man was the next stage of human evolution – unable to communicate, but with the ability to see the future and a huge threat to mankind due to his extreme fertility and attractiveness to human females. Oh, and he was gold. Dick wrote a story that discussed the possibility of mankind being replaced by a species better suited to the world, but less intelligent – an animal in human form. The movie takes just one of this mix of ideas and puts together a pre-summer epic involving terrorism plots and lots of running away. So it won’t be considered a ‘Dick’ film by anyone other than the marketing folks who get more attention through using his name, but if you want mindless action I’m sure it’ll be just perfect.

Bond, not Blond

Last night we went to see Casino Royale the new James Bond movie, and it’s definately a thumbs up – with some reservations. Like many fans of the series I was mildly concerned by the choice of a blond actor, however talented, to play Bond – but the high class of acting and toughness of Daniel Craig has won through to create a new, darker yet highly enjoyable Bond. Read on to find out more – although be warned, there are some spoilers…

After the campy 60s Casino Royale there was no way this Bond could be anything other than dark. In fact almost to counter the saturated colours of the last version, this new Royale starts in black and white – although I have to say the choice of ‘dramatic’ angles actually made me almost laugh in their naivity and seemed to echo the other. That laughter was soon quelled as Bond brutally and realistically achieves his double-0 status with his two first kills. More ‘Layer Cake’ than James Bond.

Then the titles… which weren’t good. They really need to stop using computer generated cleverness on this and get back to basics.

We cut to later, Bond is now in the African jungle hunting a potential bomber with his inexperienced partner. One slip up and Bond is thrown into a man on man chase through jungle, market and building site – but this is no normal Bond chase. No gadgets, no cutting corners just man against man as they literally race up scaffolding and jump across fatal heights in an amazing balletic display of speed and violence. This alone made the movie worth watching for me, while simultaneously making me feel vertiginous as they run across cranes. Amazing.

The trail of the bomber leads Bond onwards towards bad guy LeChief’s airport ‘terrorist’ plot, demonstrating the frailty of the leads he has to react to in order to save lives, whilst destroying property. The script deftly takes Flemming’s original novel and interjects the modern fear of terrorism while maintaining the development of Bond’s cold detachment and athletic prowess. Again, gadgets are at a minimum, but thrills are not.

The stage is now set for the title player, Casino Royale, to make an entrance as LeChief has to make back the money he lost after Bond thwarted his plan. Now this is the first point at which I feel the film looses itself a little bit, as more supporting characters are brought up with minimal introduction – all apparently integral to the plot. Some script editing would be useful as we deal with the new ‘Bond girl’ Vesper Lynde, Mathis the local bureau contact, corrupt police, more henchmen (& women) for Le Chief and a plethora of supporting poker players. Yes, poker not bacarrat. In amongst all of this, Bond has to cooly out play LeChief, win all the money, get poisoned and almost die, fight some guys, woo the girl and invent a cocktail. Guess what. He manages it all, but it takes some time – which could easily have been trimmed.

The game is won, all is good. But wait, there’s more! Betrayal, a chase, an amazing torture scene which, if you’re a woman will have you drooling and if you’re a man will have you wincing and calling your gym at the same time. Then, somehow, Bond escapes, he recuperates, gets the girl and goes on holiday. Here things, to my mind, really start to fall apart… After Bond ‘escapes’ the torture chamber I was convinced that he was being drugged to give away the passcode to the money, but turns out I was wrong – turns out the film makers needed a good 10 minutes of film to convince us that Bond and Vesper were in love. Star Wars II anyone? In fact it almost looks like the same European lake… Ug. Don’t get me wrong, the quality of writing here is infinitely better than Lucas’ pre-pubescent efforts at love scenes, but it’s still drawn out.

Oh wait. That wasn’t the end. The usual model of ‘Bond and girl float off into the sunset together’ is royally turned upside down. It’s a great twist, leading to another good sequence, but no better than what went before. Plus at the end of it all we get Dame Judi Dench delivering some platitudes to Bond about how he’s learnt, before he goes off to coldly get his revenge. Then the film ends, not with a cliff hanger – but with the introduction of the new, darker Bond forged from fires of betrayal and loss.

Sigh. So almost perfect. This could have been the best Bond film ever, even knocking the early Connery efforts off their podium. Just a little bit of editing, a little bit less Sony product placement and a few less characters to identify and understand. Maybe next time?