Nobody Knows Anything

One cinema visit this week marked with a *.

Gladiator (2000)

The first time I saw Gladiator I knew how it would end as soon as I saw the scene at the beginning of the film where Commodus is fight training with his men in the woods. It would end in the arena with a fight between him and Maximus. It’s called foreshadowing, and once you become aware of it, you can never become unaware of it. You can only be fooled by it when it’s been done more carefully and concealed as a throwaway line of dialogue or a casually exposed and then dismissed prop. The annoying part is if you removed this short scene, which lasts half a minute at most, would the film be better for it or not? Because when you get to the scene at the end, you’ve spent a couple of hours watching Maximus hack people to death, and the result of the Maximus/Commodus fight should be a foregone conclusion. Do you need to know that Commodus is handy with a sword? Does it make any difference?

Donnie Darko (2001)

A word about film soundtracks. Which is better? Careful choice of exactly the right track, or turning the whole thing over to a music supervisor and saying I want something 80s? What struck me watching Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason was that because Universal could afford a giant music budget, the whole film had been bathed in a wash of slushy romantic hits because that would make for a better soundtrack album. In contrast, Donnie Darko has very deliberately chosen songs that are meant to relate to the whole and be part of the meaning of the film. Check out the lyrics to Mad World if you don’t believe me.

The Hunt for Red October (1990)

How underrated is John McTiernan? The first time I saw Die Hard I didn’t realise just how artfully it had been constructed, it was Bruce Willis in a vest, excitement on every level, all that. Yet as the vast wave of Die Hards on a Boat, Train, Plane, etc started filling up theatres in the early 90s, the directorial skill of Die Hard started to become more apparent. Think of this: at no time in the film are you in any doubt as to where in the building an event is taking place, and the reason you’re never in any doubt is because you have been carefully and deliberately shown around every location without even knowing that you’ve been taking in this information. This style continues in this film, although this time a lot of it’s been achieved with some unsubtle production design. I have a real weakness for submarine films, and sound designers do too; in 5.1, you’re on the sub.

Basic (2003)

Connie Nielsen is great in Gladiator. On their recommended commentary track on the Extended Edition, Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe spend some time contemplating whether or not Nielsen could be a bigger star than she is. What occurred to me is that she may not want to be. Connie Nielsen is not Reese Witherspoon, I don’t think Nielsen has the drive and ambition to push for superstardom. And on the evidence of Basic, why would she want to? Nielsen is from Denmark, she’s tall, she speaks seven languages, so you can imagine how well this goes over in casting sessions where she is automatically the smartest person in the room. There isn’t a moment in Basic where you don’t believe in her character, she has a Southern accent, and a proper military bearing (McTiernan forced her to wear proper army boots throughout the shoot).

Ali (2001)

Spike Lee would have made a different film, but I don’t know if he would have made a better one. This film is another in Michael Mann’s portraits of lone, driven individuals, which date back to The Jericho Mile and Thief and perhaps reach their apex in Heat. Or perhaps the apex is Ali. All I know is that Muhammad Ali’s decision not to accept the draft is one of the finest deeds a human being has ever done.

When We Were Kings (1996)

Compare and contrast. As good as Will Smith is in Ali, and he is very good indeed, it becomes more intimidating when you see for real the guy he had to play. The unique extras on the R2 release of this DVD are the original TV telecasts of both the Rumble in the Jungle and the Thrilla in Manila. Ali and Foreman were big guys, they don’t move with any particular grace, and the Zaire fight is exhausting to watch because you can see the stamina draining from their bodies with every round.

The Good Shepherd (2006) *

How restrained is Matt Damon’s performance? In an early scene, Angelina Jolie is licking his ear with her tongue, and he has to remain unaroused because that’s part of his character. Long but absorbing, maybe Robert De Niro should have directed more in the last 10 years instead of hiring himself out to Rocky & Bullwinkle and the like.

Something Wild (1986)

Who ever loved a yuppie? This was part of the yuppie nightmare series that also included After Hours and Fatal Attraction. Yet it hasn’t aged a bit. Exemplary screenwriting meant that all Jonathan Demme had to do was turn up on set and get things going. And assemble a soundtrack so lengthy it has its own credits sequence.

Donnie Darko (2001)

Oh, I appear to have watched this film twice. First time round was the theatrical release, this time it’s the director’s cut. It’s interesting that now we know what the film’s about, has it become less or more mysterious?

After this lengthy update of the films I saw in the first 14 days of February, I’ll switch to a weekly posting procedure. I thought it would be nice to post daily immediately after I see every film, but then I thought, do I want a life, or do I want a blog? Anyway, none of these films were seen in the cinema, all were watched on DVD.

House of Flying Daggers (2004)
Zhang Yimou may have made these films (see Hero below) as a lark between more serious fare, but quite honestly, we could do with more directors taking time outs like this.

Leon (1994)
For the record, this is the longer version of the film from America with the disc of extras. Being French is what allows Luc Besson to get away with what he does in this movie. And isn’t it interesting that no one films America better than directors from Europe?

Bull Durham (1988)
In 1990, I wrote my MA dissertation on Hollywood films of the 1980s, and divided them into a number of categories: politics, women, business and foreign policy. The section I didn’t include at the time (because I only came up with it years later) was a section called people, and this is where a film like Bull Durham fits perfectly. There’s a tendency in nostalgia to oversimplify the past. If you have everyone dressed like Don Johnson in Miami Vice, you can point to it and say 80s, but the truth is, I don’t remember anyone dressing like Don Johnson in the 1980s. Tim Robbins comes pretty close though in an early scene in the bar. I was inspired to watch this again after reading Stewart O’Nan and Stephen King’s book, Faithful, about the 2004 baseball season during which the Boston Red Sox won the World Series (which naturally only involves American teams). This is something of a big deal for Red Sox fans, and the book is absolutely soaked in esoteric baseball arcana and lingo which makes it read more like science fiction than anything else. The simplest way to parallel it in the UK would be to imagine a world in which Birmingham City win The Champions League. And anyway, this isn’t really a film about baseball, it’s a film about people, about starting out, and finishing up, and what you do in the middle.

Shaun of the Dead (2004)
My sister doesn’t like zombie movies. She says, “This isn’t one of those movies where they go uurrgghh uurrgghh, is it?” And I’m like yes, and she’s like I can’t be doing with that, but I did like 28 Days Later. “But that’s a zombie movie,” I protest. But it does no good. What I liked most about Shaun of the Dead is that Simon Pegg has his hero make a lot of the same mistakes that Duane Jones makes in Night of the Living Dead. Even though Duane is meant to be the hero, his actions mean that most of the people he’s ostensibly protecting end up dead. I like the idea that Shaun’s brilliant plan is to go to the one place where there will be the most danger, and something horrible will happen to someone he loves. This may have annoyed frivolous people who like their horror served with a big dose of stupidity, but it makes Shaun into an actual film rather than an empty collection of injokes.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
What a surprise. I like this too. The thing is, though, I’ve liked this since that day sometime in 1983 when I read Stephen King’s original story, and was gobsmacked by the turn in the narrative that I did not see coming. Some of the best news I’ve heard lately is that Frank Darabont is going to direct The Mist, King’s exceptionally fine 1980 novella that was originally published in an anthology called Dark Forces. I wonder if Frank Darabont has mixed feelings about having his directorial career tied so closely to one writer. “Why do they call you Red?” “Perhaps because I’m Irish.”

Day of the Dead (1985)
More brains. I must have more brains. And guts. George A Romero reckons this is his best work, and maybe it is.
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
At a Memorabilia event at the NEC, one of the traders once tried to sell me the vinyl soundtrack of this film for £10 when you could buy it on CD very easily for £5. Some people just don’t get it, do they? This is one of the great undiscovered gems of 1980s cinema, and one of those times when William Friedkin hits instead of missing. This has one of those music scores which is great because it’s horribly dated: every time the syndrums and sequencers start pounding away, your attention is commanded and held.

Hero (2002)
Obviously, this would be the R3 director’s cut with the 6.1 DTS ES discrete soundtrack. You can hear every thwack of an arrow. This movie plays much better with the 10 minutes Harvey Weinstein had removed from it rather than without them.

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
Unexpected tribute to Anna Nicole Smith. Okay, she wasn’t much of an actress. But here’s a spooky thing. This was the day she’d died or the day after it, and I’d decided it was time to watch this film again. And I had completely forgotten that Anna Nicole was even in this movie, and about halfway through, there she was. Cue X-Files theme. She was only two months younger than me, you know.

Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
Anna Thomson is in this movie as the magician’s first assistant (before Rosanna Arquette gets the job). She’s an interesting character well worth googling, also goes by the name of Anna Levine. She is, like Jerry Lewis, very popular in France. Madonna is really a character actress, and would have had a much better film career if she’d concentrated in that area. All of the times she’s played a character part, she’s been great: this movie, A League of Their Own, Dangerous Game, Evita. All the times she’s played a leading role (Shanghai Surprise, Body of Evidence, The Next Best Thing) she’s stunk up the place because she’s not a lead; she doesn’t have what it takes. And to those who would say that Evita’s a lead role, I say you’re wrong, it’s a character part. And you can dance, for inspiration.

Yojimbo (1961)
Not the new Criterion re-releases, but the older BFI discs.

Sanjuro (1962)
I think this is the equivalent of John Woo’s Once a Thief, a fun movie knocked out just for the audience. In which case it also has something in common with the two Zhang Yimou movies mentioned hereabouts.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
I was clearly having a samurai thing in the first half of February. Some say that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon isn’t really about anything in the way that Hero is a political drama and House of Flying Daggers is a love story; all Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is about is a green sword. I will end with Steve Martin’s fantastic joke from the 2001 Oscars (and I may not have this absolutely correct but I’m close): “I went to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with a friend and she complained that there weren’t any tigers or dragons in it. Don’t you see, I said, the tigers are crouching and the dragons are hidden.”

Battle Royale (2001)
Obviously this was the two disc extended director’s cut. Considering I hate reality television with a passion, I’ve gravitated towards a number of films which take a satirical view of the whole reality TV phenom, and draw dark conclusions from it. Films like My Little Eye and Series 7: The Contenders. Although the events of Battle Royale aren’t televised, you feel that it won’t be too long before they are.

I don’t watch TV. I’ve almost completely abandoned it as an entertainment medium. Instead, I’m all about the DVD. And the cinema. And surround sound. There will be DTS references, oh yes, there will. The only thing I’m going to do here is basically list every film I watch this calendar year and offer something like a things I’ve learned from watching them, probably in brief. Or other comments, which may or may not relate. I’m also going to do my level best not to edit my comments excessively, so this is pretty much straight from my head to cyberspace. Since I’ve already been too lazy to start this in January, I’m going to start with everything I watched in January.

Since the cinema visits will be rarer than the DVDs, I’ll put a * next to the cinema visits.
The Incredibles (2004)
Because I was in need of cheering up.

Ran (1985)
And having been cheered up, I needed to feel a little more miserable again. This was the Criterion Collection’s release of Ran, which has pretty much rendered all other releases redundant. I first saw Ran 20 years ago in a cinema, in all probability at the Aston Triangle, and remembered two things: it took a fair old time to get going, and that the villainness met with a fairly spectacular end. These things remained true, but what’s even more true is that the film ends by dumping you in a big black hole and saying, well there we all are, what do you think about that? Another thing: Chris Marker’s excellent making of documentary, AK, included on disc 2, underlines something very important: it was all done for real. Kurosawa had a giant castle set built on Mount Fuji, which he then attacked with real extras on real soldiers, and then burnt to the ground in real time, placing his leading man in real danger (since the poor guy has to stagger out of a burning castle down very steep steps covered in vision obscuring makeup all the time pretending that he’s completely insane).

The Doors (1991)
I love this film. I think people who don’t are people who don’t love cinema. A slightly older academic friend of mine once told me that this is what the sixties were really like; even though the film is wildly inaccurate about a whole bunch of things, it gets the tone of the period absolutely spot on.

Hannibal (2001)
Possibly because I’d just read Hannibal Rising. I think people are right: it was a lot better when we didn’t know why Hannibal Lecter had become the way he was. Anthony Hopkins is still too camp for me, but I have a lot of time for Julianne Moore, and she is great in this.

Apocalypto (2006) *
Is it just me or should this have been a widescreen movie? I could’ve sworn the trailer was widescreen. Anyway, this was a big step up from The Passion of the Christ; at least Mel Gibson’s used all those pieces of silver to do something interesting. The reason this film was shot on digital cameras is that in a jungle there’s not enough light at ground level to register an image on film without bringing in an enormous array of lighting equipment, which would negate the reason for filming in the jungle in the first place. The film may have a whole bunch of problems (its purported historical and ethnological accuracy among them) but it worked for me.

Lady and the Tramp (1955)
I needed a break from human sacrifice and brutality and this was perfect. The 2.55:1 frame seems a strange choice for a film that largely takes place in houses and alleyways but it leads to some fantastic compositions. And the animation is gorgeous: people who think that 3D CGI is the future of animation really need to check out the sequence in this film where the owners try and lock Lady in the dining room on her first night in the house. And the raindrops in Bambi; Bambi has lots of great character animation in it, but the animation of nature is breathtaking.

Where the Truth Lies (2005)
I don’t know how convinced I was by this. I think the film needed a more intriguing premise than demonstrating just how cute Alison Lohman is.
Evil Aliens (2005)
This makes an interesting companion piece to The Descent (see below), which also directly references a whole bunch of scenes in other films, but is a far superior work because cast and crew take the central premise seriously, and they’re not afraid to scare. Unfortunately, Jake West takes nothing seriously, and his film and his cast suffer badly as a result. If you as a filmmaker don’t believe in your premise, neither will anyone else. This is just a diversion from real filmmaking. Fun but a shame. Just because you can rip people’s spines out doesn’t mean you should.

The Conformist (1970)
Wow. It’s been an awful long time since I watched this, and it’s only improved with time.

A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
And so this is Robert Altman’s last film. The imaginary death of an imaginary radio show with warm humour, country songs, and Lindsay Lohan. This film was shot digitally.

The Fifth Element (1997)
The best moment in this film: Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich have boarded a spaceship that will take them to a far off planet to retrieve magical stones they need to save the universe. But first, the spaceship must be refuelled. Cut to a location beneath the ship. Cue reggae music. Cue rastas and working stiffs who look like they’re smoking something. One guy bangs on a hatch, pulls out an empty fuel cell, picks up a full cell glowing bright green (it’s radioactive), and slams it home. They guys head off for lunch. End of scene. If this film had been made in Hollywood, this scene would never have made it past the first script development meeting because it does absolutely nothing to push the story forward, it doesn’t involve any of the leads, and it is in essence pointless. Except that the point is that it’s an integral part of the world of the film and the film would be poorer without it.

Novecento (1976)
I watched this five hour plus film in one day. Not something I would particularly recommend. I am now convinced that a communist revolution from the grass roots of peasant farmers is the only way to stop the ruling oligarchy of fascists and child murderers from destroying all that is great about our country. And that Dominique Sanda is one of the most beautiful women ever to have been photographed. See The Conformist above.
The Descent (2005)
See Evil Aliens above.

Babel (2006) *
I’m not sure how convinced I was by this movie. The connections between the four stories were, it has to be said, awfully slight and really more of a contrivance than such a film so convinced of its own importance really has any business getting involved in. The actors were all terrific though, as was the score. I just don’t know if the movie has anything to say. And it’s all rather put in perspective by Short Cuts (see below).

Contact (1997)
I love this film, and I’m not ashamed to admit it in a public forum. Hey, Contact haters, get with the programme.

Seven Samurai (1954)
The Criterion Collection hit another home run. The extras on this disc occupied me for another month. That Kurosawa, he was really good, you know.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)
I remember this as fairly uneven when I saw it in the cinema, but it seemed much better in a home environment, particularly when you can pause and go back and check out the sheer weight of injokes and action going on even in the deep background.

Tommy (1975)
I love Ken Russell, and Tommy is Ken at the height of his powers. The surround sound is overwhelming, and it’s quite a surprise to discover that this film is one of the innovators in the technology that led to the 5.1 home cinema systems of today. Critics at the time complained that the film was too loud; they were unaware that this was one of the first films where the sound was just right.
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Which has to be followed by:

Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
Roland Barthes wrote a book called Le plaisir du texte, and this is just an example of that.

The Usual Suspects (1995)
Still holds up. Still makes other crime thrillers look ordinary and underplotted by comparison.

The Color of Money (1986)
I think what I like more than the performances (and everyone here is at the top of their game) is Richard Price’s crackling dialogue which never fails to cut to the point of every single scene.

Mean Girls (2004)
I must be insane but this film gets better every time I see it. We pray for you, Lindsay, we pray for you.

Short Cuts (1993)
This film is embarrassingly good. Alejandro González Iñárritu should be locked in a room for a month with Robert Altman’s entire back catalogue, and not let out until he’s repented of his foolish ways and vowed to become a better filmmaker. The Criterion Collection really spoil us with this one: the film newly remixed in 5.1, Luck Trust & Ketchup a terrific 90 minute making of documentary, and all the Raymond Carver short stories and poems that inspired the film in a newly published version of an out of print book.

Gosford Park (2001)
A film that rewards you for paying attention. Dense and packed with backstory and incident, it’s a film that inherently criticises the society and world it’s depicting at the same time as it recreates it in all its forensic detail.

Zwartboek (2006) *
In an interesting development, this film was projected digitally, and looked absolutely fantastic. It retained the clarity, depth and grain of film projection, but will of course never be subject to scratches, flaws or fading.

Soldaat van Oranje (1977)
So I had to check out Paul Verhoeven’s earlier WWII epic again as well.

Starship Troopers (1997)
And I really love Starship Troopers: “Rico, you kill bugs good!”

Dreamgirls (2006) *
Every bit as good as promised. People who don’t like musicals are clinically dead. There’s just no hope for them.

Wild Things (1998)
Sex crimes. Oh yes.

De Vierde Man (1983)
Perhaps not the best film to watch in the afternoon.

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