Nobody Knows Anything

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.