Paths of Glory

Wednesday, 5 January, 2011 Paths of Glory (1957) dir. Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Kirk Douglas, George Macready, Joseph Turkel, Adolph Menjou, Ralph Meeker

****

By Alan Bacchus

The Criterion Blu-Ray of Stanley's Kubrick's classic war film looks absolutely fantastic. The 16x9 TV enhancement, though it actually crops a portion of it's 1.66:1 frame, adds a wonderful new full screen look of spectacle missing in previous DVD versions of the film.

It's one of Kubrick's most important films, with the exception of Spartacus, it's his most sentimental, a film with a clear humane message, that said, it’s still laced with Kubrick’s cynicism and indictment of human frailties.

It also features the same kind of truncated narrative structure he would employ in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Full Metal Jacket. The first half occurs almost exclusively on the front, either in battle or preparing for battle. The second half plays out either in the immaculately decorate aristocratic palaces of the haughty French generals, or in the halls of the kangaroo court where the fates of the three poor souls chosen to represent the cowardice of the regiment are determined.

Kubrick’s command of both the huge spectacle of action in the celebrated Ant Hill attack scene and the intimate and intellectually stimulating dialogue scenes between the characters showcase everything of what the great filmmaker will accomplish in his career.

Texture in the battle scenes is astonishing. Those lengthy tracking shots of Dax confidently walking to the demarcation point before the battle is mesmerizing to watch. As well look around at the detail in the background and the atmosphere of smoke, debris and the booming sounds of the artillery fire which blanket the soundtrack.

Paths of Glory also lays the foundation of Kubrick’s visual aesthetic, or his stylistic language which he would hone, reuse and arguably steal from himself numerous times throughout his career. For the first time we can see how Stanley Kubrick’s sees the world, through wide angle lenses, following his characters on his dolly through the trenches of the Western front. Same with the classical designed interiors of the Chateau where the trial takes place and where in safety the smug General Broulard conducts his war.

When we watch the scene where Dax approaches Broulard about Mireau’s heinous actions in the battle, the Johann Strauss waltz which plays in the background brings to mind the dance of the space station in 2001: A Space Odyssey a decade later.

Kirk Douglas provides a typically heroic and righteous performance as Dax. But arguably the best performance is George Macready as the stubborn and opportunistic General Mireau who is supremely villainous.

Mireau bridges two levels of conflict - General to General, as in the opening scene with the passive aggressive General Broulard; General to Colonel as in Mireau vs. Dax. The third level of conflict exists from Lieutenant to Corporal, represented by the complex relationship between Lt. Roget and Cpl Paris.

The opening scene is especially important. When approached by Broulard about attacking the Ant Hill, we actually see Mireau heroically champion his men saying, ‘I’m responsible for these men…etc’, and even when offered the promotion he’s hesitant and aware of the optics of such a post at the expense of the confidence of his men. And then he instantly switches to an unconscionable tyrant for the rest of the film. Curiously we never get to see that warm character from the opening scene.

This contradiction in character is at the core of Kubrick’s argument. The fact is, no one is fully to blame for the atrocities of war. In war sacrifices must be made. We never know who had given General Broulard the order to attack the anthill and thus pass the order to Mireau and thus pass the orders to Dax. The chain of command is infinite up to the top, through Kubrick is sure to show us where the buck stops, at the bottom with the fate of the three executed soldiers.

View the original article here

Chungking Express

Wednesday, 12 January, 2011 Chungking Express (1994) dir, Wong Kar Wai
Starring: Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Faye Wong, Tony Leung Chiu Wai

****

By Alan Bacchus

The opening credit in this film belongs to Quentin Tarantino's distribution arm Rolling Thunder Pictures, in his usual font, Though it's thematically and aesthetically different than his work, it's easy to see why this piqued Tarantino's interest. Both females leads are elusive hip chicks, not unlike Uma Thurman in both Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, Pam Grier and Melanie Laurent and others. Ultimately we could derive this type of character from Jean-Luc Godard in Vivre Sa Vie, Anna Karina, the waify bohemian prostitute who was so darn sexy in that demure sweater.

In Chungking Express Brigitte Lin and Faye Wong exhibit the same desirable qualities as Anna Karina and those Tarantino characters. They are so elusive Kar-Wai doesn't even give them names. Lin is unidentified but unmistakeable as the mysterious woman with the blonde wig who always wears sunglasses even at night. Faye Wong plays the niece of a convenience store clerk with a 'je ne sais quoi' carefree flightiness. Both gals have enough  spunk to attract the attentions of two lonely heartbroken cops.

But this is a Wong Kar-Wai film which means lovers getting together is not so easy. Like many of his works, in particular In the Mood For Love, Wai tells a story of the barriers to love, instead of the emotional bond which should bring them together,

It's mid-90's Hong Kong, a rain-drenched city bristling with colourful neon, inhabited by night owls, an amalgam of cultures, Chinese, British, American, South Asian. Think Blade Runner in the present. Wai divides his 90mins into two distinct narratives set around the aforementioned convenience store deep in the heart of this electric city.

Takeshi Kaneshiro plays cop 223, whose just broke up with his girlfriend and finds himself ogling a mysterious, cloaked, wigged and sunglasses wearing drug dealer (Brigitte Lin). In the second half of the picture we see Tony Leung as cop 663 who has also broken up with his GF but drawn to Faye Wong's sprite and young convenience store clerk.

Leung's staid expressions fit his formal police attire. For Takeshi K he’s more outwardly love sick and thus wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s more susceptible to getting drunk and confessing his inner torment. The two contrasting personalities, both with the same conflicts and goals, work like a classic ying and yang.We never see these stories intertwined, yet we feel as they are both happening simultaneous or in some kind of Inception-like dreamworld.

Chungking has an honest and rare cinematic purity to it. It's wholly stylish, but not in an obtrusive way. The streetwise motion and colours organically weaves itself into the dreamlike narrative. A scattershot story really barely held together by plotting. Instead Wai tells a dual story which works better as one.

The universal love story and mix of cultures infused with the pitch perfect mix use Western pop songs, ‘What a Difference a Day Makes”, “California Dreaming”, also the Cranberries' 'Dreams' in Chinese, adds to the accessibility of this story.

Much has been written about Wai's impressionistic style. Indeed it's a visual and aural masterpiece. Not a set piece driven film, but a mix of elegance and edgy art house sensabilities. It’s both formal and controlled and wild and meandering. Watch the dialogue scenes often filmed with long lenses with the camera locked down, throwing the background out of focus and beautifying the subjects. The rest of the camera is constantly in motion, whipping, panning and moving about, not haphazardly always following the subject either the physical motion or the emotional state of the characters. Slo-motion, reflective surfaces all add to his hip-romantic aesthetic.

View the original article here

Secretariat

Saturday, 15 January, 2011 Secretariat (2010) dir. Randall Wallace
Starring: Diane Lane, John Malkovich, Dylan Walsh, Dylan Baker, James Cromwell, Kevin Connolly

***

By Alan Bacchus

Secretariat is a handsome and classy sport drama from Disney, surprisingly intelligent and detailed about the sport. Mostly free of the schmaltzy sappiness of some of their other efforts of the past 10 years, like Remember the Titans, but missing the dramatic tension and urgency of say, Seabiscuit.

Penny Chenery (Diane Lane) is just a regular housewife in the 60’s, but part of a horse breeding family. After the death of her mother, and the dementia of her father Penny becomes inspired to grab hold the family legacy, save the ranch and her horses from being sold and rebuild a new breeding empire on the back of the legendary Secretariat.

He’s probably the most famous horse in the history of horseracing - at least in the past 50 years. Famous for then being the first triple crown in 25 years and simply demolishing the competition by 31 lengths to win the crown in it's final Belmont Stakes in 1973. Weaved into this traditional sports genre is a astute business story, the economics of the breeding business and Penny's long game strategy to win. I like films where I can actually learn something I never knew before and coming out of Secretariat has given me a new appreciation for breeding and thoroughbred racing.

Randall Wallace, primarily known as a screenwriter (Braveheart) but working with another scribe here, hits all the expected narrative beats. Like when Secretariat wins Horse of the Year, a jubilee moment for Penny, but by the rules of Syd Field, and others we know a dramatic ball will drop shortly. Indeed not one minute later does Penny find out her father has suffered a stroke. What doesn't work unfortunately is the b-plotting with Penny’s liberal daughters living it up as flower children in the 60’s.

There's a strong performance from Diane Lane, despite her obvious wig. John Malkovich is fantastic as always as the stubborn but confident trainer Lucien. He supposed to be a French Canadian and thank God he plays his accent straight American. Fine character actors such as Dylan Baker round out the other characters adequately.

Wallace must have had a difficult creative choice to make as to how to film the racing sequences. We can't help compare to Gary Ross's hyper-stylized treatment of the racing scenes in Seabiscuit. John Schartzman’s photography in Gary Ross’s film is still the last word in this regard, as Wallace’s races scenes are only serviceable, employing a handheld point of view style likely subject to the film’s significant budget differential to Ross’ bigger and grander film.

Secretariat just doesn’t resonate thematically. The lack of a strong metaphor, whether it’s socio-political as in the relationship of Seabiscuit to the Great Depression, or the connection of the horse to the emotional arc of it’s main character. As such Secretariat, the film, loses out to Seabiscuit by a length or two, but it still makes for an entertaining race.

Secretariat is available on Blu-Ray and DVD from Disney Studios Home Entertainment

View the original article here

Get Him to the Greek

Tuesday, 11 January, 2011 Get Him to the Greek (2010) dir. Nicolas Stoller
Starring: Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, P Diddy, Elizabeth Moss, Rose Byrne

***

By Alan Bacchus

Forgetting Sarah Marshall was a good film, but Get Him to the Greek is even better, taking the supporting plotline of the audacious British rocker Aldous Snow and his shameless boycrush stalker Aaron (Jonah Hill) on it’s own in this rambunctious politically incorrect comic roadtrip.

Mondo drug use, alcohol abuse, inappropriate sexual fornication contributes to the strong carefree and anarachic quality of this film. Ten years ago they used to call this type of picture, ‘a gross out comedy’. But there’s more than just gross bodily fluids spewed about there’s something truly irresponsible and naughty about Get Him To The Greek.

P Diddy playing a record label executive assigns Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) from the first film, now an artist manager, to pick up Snow from the UK and, hence the title, bring him to the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles to perform at his comeback concert.

Brand, who in real life seems to consciously embody the chaaracter of Snow as his stage act, is a spaced out druggie, who’s so far removed from conventional social reality. He is the rock star poster child. He’s the same aloof yet charming guy from Sarah Marshall, but Stoller fleshes out his backstory by inventing an ex-wife whom he has a young child with, in addition to his more developed drug addiction to everything under the sun. For Aaron, he has a humdrum relationship to his girlfriend, who is a doctor with absolutely no time for anything but sleep when she’s at home.

The journey from London to LA features a number of raucous set pieces, which are leaps and bounds more audacious than most of the The Hangover. Aldous Snow’s visit to The Today Show for instance produced riotous laughter, same with surreal Vegas sequence where Aaron finds himself high as a kite on a hardcore amalgam drug called ‘The Jeffrey’.

We take the good with the bad with these types of films. There’s a set piece or two too many, including the threesome scene in the third act with Aaron’s wife, where the film should have moved straight to the concert finale. But we'd still rather see the filmmakers swing for the fences than strike out looking.

To make this film passable by moral and ethical standards of conduct there’s some closure to Snow’s drug habit. But we can almost see Brand winking to the camera. We know Brand, nor Stoller mean it. Stoller and his character revel in this behaviour and the film is better for it.

View the original article here

Only When I Dance

Friday, 7 January, 2011 Only When I Dance (2010) dir. Beadie Finzi
Documentary

***

By Alan Bacchus

Beadie Finzi's inspiring documentary charts the journeys of two ballet dancers, both from 'slums' of Rio de Janeiro, where their supreme artistic talents has allowed them to rise up out of poverty and into the competitive world of dance.

Irlan is a teenaged boy who is characterized as the most promising young ballet dancer in the country. Isabella is a spry young girl with immense talent but unfortunately doesn't have the exact type of body world class ballerina posses. Both come from the notorious favelas of Brazil, the same violent place where City of God is set in. Both are also black, which, unfortunately like in many places in the world, means they have to work even harder than everyone else to be noticed.

Finzi takes us on a year long journey where we see Irlan and Isabella receive scholarships to the renowned Centro de Dance Rio, one of the most rigorous and prestigious ballet schools in Brazil, a stepping stone which will take them to New York City where the world's best dance companies recruit their new talent.

It’s heartbreaking to see the anguish on Isabella’s face when she tells us of the pressure to keep her wight down. The poor girl, barely 15 and with a beautiful slim body, but not slim enough for international competition. The emotion is up front and raw and uninhibited. For Irlan, he is a near flawless dancer, and the suspense comes from his parents' struggle to pay for the necessary travel arrangements where his opportunities lay.

The competition is fierce and Beadie rings out as much suspense as she can from the judge's deliberation and eventually dramatic decision announcements. The dancing is superb. I don’t know ballet from Adam but Irlan’s final dance routine in Switzerland, channelling the soul of Nijinsky, the edgy torture Russian dancer controversial for his new style of dance, is truly awesome.

Watching Irlan and Isabella travel the world is also a thrill. Like Irlan trying to catch snow on his tongue in Switzerland, or Isabella mesmerized by the Times Square light show. Seeing the world for the first time through their eyes is as triumphant as their work on the stage. If anything I only wish we saw more of the kids, both on stage and experiencing these new vibrant worlds. At 79mins, there's much room to flesh out some of these tender and intimate moments.

Otherwise, Only When I Dance, should serve as a credible rousing and real world alternative to the manufactured American Idol or other similar TV reality song and dance shows. This is the real deal.

Only When I Dance is available on DVD from Film Movement, the December DVD of the Month Selection. Click HERE for more info.

View the original article here

Unboxing 'The Social Network' Blu-Ray

Saturday, 8 January, 2011 The Social Network (2010) dir. David Fincher
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Rooney Mara

****

By Alan Bacchus

Second time round on Blu-Ray, The Social Network holds up just as a well as the first, a remarkably well-told story of Facebook and the quick and mighty rise of the site and it’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg.

Sony Pictures will release the Blu-Ray/DVD on Tuesday Jan 11, but I only received the press release a few weeks ago (Dec 23rd to be exact). It’s a mighty fast release considering the film was only released Oct 1st, and the film was still in 250 theatres in North America. The film has been winning virtually every major critics awards, in addition to its numerous GG Nominations. So I guess there were two choices 1) re-expand the film into theatres again, once the Oscar nominations come out (Jan 25, 2011) and thus capitalize on the usual box office spike which comes with ‘Oscar Season’, or 2) Release the Blu-Ray/DVD version and have this spike applied to Home Entertainment sales.

Sony obviously chose #2, and it seemed to be a last minute decision, considering the short time between when the press release went out and the street date, next Tuesday.

Thankfully, Sony has spared us a no-frills version of the film, unlike the shameful initial Paramount release of Zodiac, which didn’t feature any supplements, only to be trumped by a full double-disc director’s cut version of the film a year later. Sony gets it right the first time round.

This decision and the unique packaging of the product is congruous with the general themes and content of the film. The physical packaging is barely recognizable as a movie, let alone The Social Network. It’s a dark navy blue cardboard slipout box, with the poster tagline enbossed on the front. The credits on the back but also in navy and barely visible. And the only place we can find the title of the film is the side, which is also in the same colour scheme. Sony, of course, has included a slip cover which has the poster and technical details so it stands out on the shelves, but when it goes on your shelf at home, it’ll be the non-descript innocuous version I just described.

Inside, the simplistic theme continues. Rewatching the film again, it fits in with one of the major sources of conflict for the main characters, the monitization and exploitation of the site for money. When the Zuckerberg character shows Eduardo the first mock-up of the site, his first comment is about the simplicity of design and function. Such is the case here. After popping in the Blu-Ray it takes little time to load the content, little time before we get picture on the screen, and there’s absolutely no trailers, previews or anti-copyright ads prior to the feature. Immediately we get the menu screen, and it’s ready to play.

The feature of course looks freakishly awesome, crisp and perfect like all of David Fincher’s films. Trent Rezner’s score whollops the speakers and especially the subwoofer.

The special features, as expected, completely bypasses the usually featurette hyperbole. The main documentary, entitled ‘How Did We Ever Make a Movie About Facebook’, features interviews with the participants involved against a white background looking right into camera (perhaps using Errol Morris’ interrotron interview device) and breaking down the process of making the film. We’re dropped right into pre-production with a verite-style camera, a fly on the wall, watching the process of David Fincher. In particular the story sessions with Aaron Sorkin and the actors breaking down the subtext of the dialogue is awesome.

No press junket footage here, no canned answers, raw, substantial, but also controlled and expertly edited sneak peak behind the scenes.

I think Mark Zuckerberg would be approve. I certainly do. Pick this one up, ASAP. And if you don’t have a Blu-Ray player, pick that up too, along with a 42” HDTV and a HD Sound System.

The Social Network is available on Blu-Ray from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

View the original article here

SUNDANCE 2011 - Tyrannosaur

Sunday, 23 January, 2011 Tyrannosaur (2011) dir. Paddy Considine
Starring: Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman, Eddie Marsan

***½

By Alan Bacchus

Joseph (Peter Mullan) is a spoke in the wheel of domestic abuse, which was handed down by his father to himself. We don’t know what exactly happened in the past but by the sad lonely testy life he leads, his mistakes of the past have carved out a mighty big hole in his heart.

As a character study Peter Mullan’s the right man for the job. His coarse face, gravely smoker's voice and rough working class Scottish accent he’s the epitome of a British hooligan. Joseph’s temper gets the better of him in the opening when, after he’s kicked out of a bar, he takes his anger out on his dog, killing him. Yes, this is the kind of kitchen sink movie we’re in when the dog dies in the first five minutes.

This type of abuse is rampant everywhere in Joseph’s life. His neighbours even, a young boy he takes a liking to, is constantly being intimidated by his mother’s fiery boyfriend and his aggressive pitbull. But when he meets a kindly godfearing lady, Hannah, working in a used clothing store, she’s like a beacon of light through the clouds on the perpetually overcast days.

Joseph just can’t turn off his antagonism though, and he even turns away the kindness of Hannah. But she senses his defensiveness and welcomes him back. Considine, who writes and directs, pulls the rug out from under us with a shocking first act turn wherein Hannah finds herself victim of abuse at the hands of her own seemingly put together and successful husband.

Considine rides a wave between a tender romance of two desperate and lonely souls and sinking his characters further into the depression of their working class shithole. We desperately want the romance to work, not necessarily to consummate but escape their previous lives and start anew. But Considine is ruthless with his characters, choreographing a number of gruesome beatings and touchstones of abuse which cause their characters to change.

In terms of actors turned writer/directors Tyrannosaur’s closest cousin would be Gary Oldman’s Nil By Mouth. Like Oldman Considine aggressively wants to push our emotional buttons and shock into submission. And there’s nothing wrong with that, I appreciate a good cinematic beat down if there’s a heart and soul still beating at the end. Under Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman’s superlative performances and mutual chemistry Considine succeeds in making us want to spend 90mins in the lives of these tortured characters.

View the original article here