Another festival has been and gone and it has been a little less enjoyable than
last year though this may be distance ledning enchantment.
'Dean Spanley' started our viewing with a delay as the cast were paraded for no good reason as only the director spoke. Early parts of the film seemed to
be rather overlaid with tricksy camera angles which added nothing but a tour
de force by Sam Neill and the usual charismatic performance from Peter O'Toole which more than matched that in 'Venus' made this a delightful film
to watch. Sold support from Jeremy Northam and Bryan Brown and a nice
cameo from Judy Parfitt rounded things out.
'The Warlords' is a Chinese epic which does not have spectacularly brilliant
costumes like 'The Curse of the Golden Flower' but has a more solidly based
character-driven plot from the opening sequence where Jet Li, a general who
has been thoroughly defeated, pulls himself from under dead bodies of his
troops to the final few moments. Base, apparently, on a manga, it tells the
story of Li and two bandits who become blood brothers and then defeat the
enemies of the Emperor but have a falling out. The battle scenes are very
well handled with a cast of thousands (not CGI) in contrast to the very human
interaction between the three and others. Overall, a very good film.
'Achilles and the Tortoise' is the latest Takeshi Kitano effort and a distinct
improvement on the previous two which were more than a little self-indulgent. A strange story about an obsessive artist who shows great talent
as a rich child but then, following his father's ruin and death, became
impoverished while supported by a loving wife. The adult artist is played
by Kitano and the art shown is his - some of it more acceptable than others -
with the film being a satire on the art world of today, the influence of dealers
and their control of both the market and 'taste' and the ever-present search
for the next 'big' idea.
'The Silence Before Bach' is a fictionalised documentary with one very great
advantage - Bach's music. Staring in an empty set of rooms with a player-
piano moving around while playing the Goldberg Variations, it then takes
scenes from the life of Bach and, later, Mendelssohn, as well as a number of
contemporary scenes though what a lingering sequence of a well-rounded
young violinist taking a shower had to do with the rest is not clear - at least
she had the figure for it.
'The Fugitive Futurist' Is a short silent which was shown in Trafalgar Square
before the main feature which I did not see as it had started to rain - sitting on cold steps is just about acceptable but cold, WET steps is not. The film
purported to show a future London through a machine which showed the
Thames covered over by roadway amongst other fancies (and the winner of
a future horse race) with the finale being the inventor being taken back to
ther asylum! Enjoyable.
'Louise-Michel' possibly claims the title for the biggest load of pretentious
rubbish I have set through (only because I had a dinner reservation at the end
of the film). There are bad films cheaply made by beginners and others like
some of the Frightfest offerings and many of those which go straight to DVD
but this was supposedly made with serious intent and greeted with near
reverence as the latest masterpiece from Kervern and Delepine whose previous offering 'Aaltra' had some merit. The best part of this mess was the
fact that it ran only 90 minutes though this felt like several hours.
'Hansel and Gretel' is a scary fairy tale for adults. A young man crashes his
car and wanders into the forest looking for help where he is found by a sweet
young girl who takes him to her home. His phone does not work and there is no phone in the house where the parents and three children make him
welcome for the night - but the next day he finds no way out of the forest.
He then finds the parnets have gone and he is expected to stay and look after
the children. After a number of shocks, he is able to find his way back to
the road and rescue. An interesting Korean film, well made and conceived
with a charming and unexpected ending.
'The Living Corpse' is a 1929 German-Russian co-production which has been
restored complete with orchestral accompaniment - a change from piano only
which can be more than a little wearing. The great Russian director Vsevolod
Pudovkin takes the lead role of a husband who wants his wife to be happy by
marrying her lover but finds this not possible as there are no grounds. He
refuses to compromise by arranging a false adultery and then fakes his own murder which allows his wife to marry after a year's mourning. Some years
pass but he is recognised by the man who was setting up the fake adultery
who then tries to blackmail him. He refuses and there is a trial for bigamy (!)
during which he commits suicide to allow his wife to continue her life. The
two things that puzzle me are why he went back to a restaurant where he was
bound to be recognised and why he appeared to be the one on trial. The
film was long but well made with some very nice shots and interesting montage sequences.
'The Good, the Bad, the Weird' is a great romp set in the 1930s - Indiana Jones meets the Good, the Bad and the Ugly! The plot which involves a
treasure map, a bandit, a bounty hunter and a petty criminal and the Japanese
army is almost irrelevant providing the basis for a series of splendid set pieces - a train robbery, a running battle through the thieves' quarter of the
city and an extended chase as the semi-deserts or Manchuria which is where
the Japanese army get involved. Very well done with the main characters all
demonstrating great panache in their roles.