| 4 matches for "Movies" in the Tag Cloud | | Thu, 26 Aug 2010 07:25:24 +0100 |
| Last night we watched..... |
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Last night we watched the second half of Haneke's excellent movie, "The White Ribbon". As promised, I won't reveal the outcome, but needless to say it was a cliff-hanger, and quite a shock. We still don't actually know what happened to Karli, the midwife's son in the final scenes, but we can imagine.. In the end it was left to the village teacher (also the narrator) to discover the shocking secret. What really made the plot clear was the interview with Haneke, also on the DVD, and viewers should not pass over this. To summarise, he states that viewers should not assume that because the film was set in Germany it could only happen in Germany: the themes are universal and therefore could be re-made in other countries. Of course, the movie would "look" different but the message would be the same, and as he said that I had a vision in my mind's eye that it would make a superb French film.Haneke's final quote was that "... the film is about the origin of every type of terrorism, be it of political or religious nature" and although this sounds somewhat extreme, the fact is that a repressed generation is bound to react in a negative way, and if the repression is extreme enough then the reaction will be as extreme. QED. |
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| Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:55:00 +0100 |
| Tonight we are watching.... |
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Tonight we are watching another foreign-language film - or rather the second half - of Haneke's fascinating but disturbing "The White Ribbon". Filmed in atmospheric black and white its an epic tale of unexplained and increasingly bizarre events in a 1913 German village. It starts with the local doctor being thrown from his horse by a length of wire stretched between 2 trees, but the seriousness of this outwardly dreadful act soon pales into insignificance as other odd events take place in a village where everyone seems to have at least one skeleton in the cupboard. Needless to say, the pace of the film reflects the era, and the moody lighting serves to place the viewer in an uncomfortable but privileged seat. In fact, as the tension slowly builds, one almost expects to see Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple arrive at the village to try and fathom out the situation. The film is also a fascinating social commentary of pre-war Germany and reminded me of a similar film, "The Inheritors" which we'll watch next week. As I said, we'll be watching the remainder of the film tonight and needless to say I won't be providing any spoilers :-) |
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| Tue, 08 Jun 2010 07:28:44 +0100 |
| Cloverfield on TV last night. Yawn... |
Well, what I can say about Cloverfield which was on TV last night? Its reputation preceded it of course, especially tales of audience "motion sickness" due to alleged use of a hand-held cam. Yeah, there was plenty of panning involved, but on a 14" screen TV it doesn't quite have the same impact! But the movie itself.. *sigh*, well I could summarise it as "Alien meets ThirtySomething meets Independence Day meets 28 Weeks Later meets Blair Witch Project", and as such failed to measure up to any of those offerings, except maybe for ThirtySomething, and Blair Witch for its tawdriness. I'd also take issue with the way it was filmed: okay, so it's fiction, but a camcorder that has enough battery power to last that long? I don't think so.. and that's one helluva(n) autofocus system; as far as I could tell there wasn't one blurry moment, even when the cameraman was rolling around avoiding the plot aliens.And the characters? For the most part, instantly forgettable, and I have indeed forgotten them. Of course, the director made sure that his young "stars" weren't forgotten during the action by resorting to nauseating rewind flashbacks to earlier, happier times on the camcorder. Amazing that they could then fast-forward to where they were previously filming without a break in continuity! In the end I got down to watching the movie with the sound off while reading my Twitter stream and the next time I looked up the credits were rolling by. I was so pleased we didn't pay to go and see it. But it seems that the director is considering another movie - he's apparently reluctant to film a sequel (thank god) but "might be interested in a prequel" (god help us!!).Overall I'll give it 3/10 and would recommend that you give it a miss. |
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| Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:35:51 +0000 |
| Watching District 9.. |
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I'm watching the movie District 9 on UMD video, on the Sony PSP. Although I'm not a big fan of the docu-drama format, the plot is actually very good. Not being a Hollywood "drama" it has a gritty, unpleasant realism: highly recommended! More later when I've finished watching! |
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More! Entry #3497 posted by MH Media (GB) tagged under Movies
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