1.00pm: The Four Feathers
If you've ever watched British television on a Sunday afternoon, then you'll know the story already. Harry Feversham (Heath Ledger) and Jack Durrance (Wes Bentley) have been firm friends within the British Army for some time now, but the situation changes dramatically when their battalion is sent out to the Sudan to give Johnny Foreigner a damn good sorting out. Harry's just got engaged to Ethne (Kate Hudson), and this is one of the key reasons that lead to him resigning his commission and quitting the Army. It results in him being branded a coward by his colleagues and dumped by Ethne. In an attempt to prove himself, he follows them out to the Sudan in disguise, blacking up to help his friends secretly.
Shekhar Kapur's remake of the classic AEW Mason story comes as a bit of a surprise: after the anachronistic pyrotechnics of Elizabeth, this is a no-frills, old-fashioned gung-ho adventure flick, which doesn't even attempt a contemporary spin on the idea of a war in the Middle East. And as these things go, it's wonderfully assembled, barring a couple of peculiar leaps in the story that hint at some post-production hacking on the part of Miramax. As you'd expect from Kapur's earlier work, it's visually stunning, with some particularly awe-inspiring desert photography. And the battle scenes, where a film like this stands or falls, are equally extraordinary: the guy next to me was audibly yelling at the screen at one particular wide shot of the British being attacked on all four sides. Veteran action co-ordinator Vic Armstrong was responsible for these sequences, and I suspect we'll be returning to them following his Masterclass talk on Sunday.
In fact, this would be a perfect action-adventure romp if it wasn't for the cast. Oh, the supporting players all acquit themselves well (notably Djimon Hounsou as Harry's Sudanese companion Abou), and Wes Bentley continues to impress with his splendidly brooding presence. But Kate Hudson is let down by her attempt at a British accent, which moves around the country like it's got a student railcard. And Heath Ledger is just six feet of bugger all at the heart of the film, completely lacking in any sort of charisma at all. If there's anything Kapur deserves to be congratulated for, it's for keeping everything else in The Four Feathers moving so fast that you don't notice the complete personality vortex at its centre.
4.15pm: Bonanza
Bonanza Muchinsci is King Of The Pikeys round his part of Buenos Aires. Ulises Rosell's documentary depicts Bonanza's life in a scrapyard with his kids Norberto and Veronica, and the things they do to get by day to day: dealing in scrap metal, poaching animals for resale or food, and other activities of varying degrees of legality. Bonanza reminisces about his past, and looks ahead to his uncertain future (notably, his worries about Norberto taking over the family, er, business).
Bonanza is an interesting little documentary, in a festival which seems to be full of them this year. In comparison with the slickness of some of the others we've seen, this is pleasingly rough-edged and non-judgemental, giving a real sense of these lives while somehow managing to avoid an uneasy feeling of voyeurism. It doesn't try to force the events into a storyline: rather, it presents what at first appears to be a random series of scenes, which build up into a full picture from steadily accumulating detail. There are some fascinatingly educational sequences on how to catch animals (snakes with a Coke bottle, parakeets with a wire fence and some glue), and the whole thing is held together with some rather good music from Manu Chao. I've been going on for the last week about how good Argentinian cinema is becoming: well, here's another example.
9.00pm: Dead Or Alive: Final
Here's one plot summary. We're in Yokohama in the year 2346. Mayor Woo keeps its population under his thumb by the compulsory use of a birth control drug, to be taken under penalty of death. He's assisted in this by his head enforcer Honda (Riki Takeuchi). However, an underground resistance movement is starting to build, and they're getting some help from renegade replicant Ryo (Sho Aikawa). The scene is set for a showdown.
Here's another plot summary. This is the third film in Miike Takashi's trilogy, following Dead Or Alive and Dead Or Alive 2: Birds. Like its predecessors, its sole purpose is to set up a huge conflict between characters played by Riki Takeuchi and Sho Aikawa, and then get them to resolve that conflict as apocalyptically as possible at the climax. And along the way, to rip the piss out of whatever genre Miike's decided to set the film in this time.
So once again we have a movie that will bring big dumb grins to the faces of Miike Takashi fans, and looks of utter confusion to people who haven't seen his work before. Sho Aikawa gets to perform all manner of ludicrous stunts with the aid of some typically over-the-top CGI, while Riki Takeuchi gets to stomp around looking cool as usual. Hilariously, the movie's sole attempt at a distinctive 24th century look is done as cheaply as possible, by filming in Hong Kong with green filters and some video distortion. (Miike even manages to pass off one of Hong Kong's old trams as a futuristic vehicle.) The final confrontation is everything the movie's title would lead you to hope for, and even makes an attempt at tying the whole trilogy of totally unrelated films together. Time Out may whinge that Miike is wasting his obvious talents on fluff, but I defy you to find anyone else on the planet who's making fluff as enjoyable as this right now.
Notes From Spank's Pals
Everything Together
The Cineaste - As Spank has rightly observed, Latin American cinema is hot at the moment, a situation no doubt helped by some fine films at last year’s LFF. But also, disappointingly, amongst the gems there are some real turkeys. Last year we had the woeful and aimless Saturday, and this year, most depressingly, Everything Together seems to have been cut from exactly the same cloth. It really is a soporific yawn.
Perhaps its biggest handicap is that its director, whose first film this is, has an established background in theatre. Too many scenes are too long, have no camera movement, and overall have too little visual variety. But that’s not all: there are really only two characters, and they repeat what they’re trying to say to each other endlessly. The storyline, although that’s far too grandiose a description of it, is that a young couple want/need to split up, but have difficulty coming to terms with the fact and communicating it to their partner. And that’s it. We have repeated dialogue, the discussions go round and round in circles, and it’s all going absolutely nowhere. In fact it was all horribly reminiscent of Saturday. Now it wasn’t necessarily the plot that was at fault - if, say, the film had been made by the French, we would have had incisive dialogue, witty humour, clever philosophy, glorious shots of the Seine at night, and no doubt some erotic sex as well. But this film had none of these. About half way through, a man at the front got up and walked out. This proved the cue for several others who felt the same way. It would probably be a bit of an exaggeration to say that there was a stampede for the exit doors, but not much of one.
Perhaps the harshest criticism to be levelled the film is that it didn’t even have the strength of character for me to dislike it as a bad film: it was just such an empty, dreary, uninspiring nothingness. Its only plus point was its running time: normally for a film only 65 minutes’ long I’d feel seriously short-changed. With this one it was a blessed relief.
My Mother's Smile
The Cineaste - “An intelligent and savage satire about the Catholic establishment and the church in Italy,” writes Adrian Wootton. “So it’s got to be true then,” as another certain critic, clearly a hugely knowledgeable authority on the Catholic church, would reply.
Only slightly distracted by being sold, in error, a ticket for a completely different film (regular readers will remember how only last year I witnessed some of the cutting-edge personnel practices in place at the OWE), I settled down for a film which developed as a thoroughly engrossing spectacle. Ernesto, a painter, is separated from his wife and son, living in his studio/flat, but for the sake of appearances and maintaining the family dignity, puts on a façade of remaining together with them as a family. Various family and social issues surface, most of them offset against a background of the role/importance/influence of the Catholic church. The main driving force of these is the campaign for the canonisation of Ernesto’s mother - the reason for which, as one of Ernesto’s impossibly glamorous aunts explains to him, is that it will bestow on the fading name of the family honour, dignity, and a respected place in society. This develops as a wonderfully sharp and satirical tale of manners, customs, and personal standing. It was cleverly and humorously done - there were some hints of the absurd realism of Bunuel, and the witty attention to detail of the minutiae of everyday life of Moretti. But probably more than anything it was a strong comment on the grandiloquent ceremonies and formalities of the Catholic church.
And the ending was quite extraordinary. This was a brilliant, sharp, and engaging film.
Dead Or Alive: Final
The Belated Birthday Girl - As someone known as a bit of a Miike obsessive, I feel duty bound to add a few thoughts on this one.
Like the first in the trilogy, Dead or Alive: Final opens terrifically, with a scene combining action and comedy in a style which is a frequent feature of Miike's films (although he is such a varied as well as prolific director that you can't really say anything is exactly typical of him). In this film, we are firmly in science fiction territory, set in 2346 in a time with enforced population control, undergound resistance movements and battle androids. And to me, this is possibly where the film is at its weakest, as the story line is such a well-worn science fiction cliché. But then again, maybe that's the point, with Miike cheekily taking genre clichés and then throwing you right off balance with something completely unexpected. Which brings me to the ending. I'll say nothing to spoil this, but will merely say that, again like the first in the trilogy, Miike gives us a very Pythonesque, totally surprising, show-down finale, which seemed to leave the audience totally bemused.
This is my 12th Miike, if I'm counting correctly, and I wouldn't say its one to start with if you haven't seen any, but for the fan there's a fair bit of good stuff in there, with some fine fight sequences, fun effects and laugh-out-loud moments. The look of the film is very interesting too, and the two leads are as good as those of us who've seen the first two films have come to expect. Going on previous experience, I'd say it's most unlikely this will get a cinema release beyond the festival circuit, but Metro Tartan have picked it up, so I guess look out for a forthcoming DVD, to add to the other two already or shortly available.
Octavia
The Cineaste - Last year we had some pretty classy gems from Spain at the LFF (Ten Days Without Love, Sex & Lucia, Fausto 5.0), so there were some high standards to live up to. How would Octavia measure up? Magnificently. Absolutely magnificently.
Director Basilio Martin Patino has produced here a real, cerebral, staggering gem. Rodrigo, after four decades away from his home town of Salamanca, has returned for an important conference. Along with his glamorous wife, it’s a great opportunity for him to catch up with many old connections: his illegitimate daughter, the fiery grand-daughter he’s never seen, his cousin and other family members, as well as other friends and business contacts. And whilst Rodrigo would like this to be one long succession of contented, nostalgic meetings, various personal issues, history, allegiances and personal memories make it quite different. And not just on a personal/family basis, but on the business side as well. Because Rodrigo works in espionage, and in the past he’s been implicated in some subversionist organisations, and there are more than a few ghosts rattling around in his political cupboard. He’s questioned about his involvement with guerrillas in Colombia, and his role in the downfall of the Berlin wall.
Patino revealed, and then drew together, these various strands very well. But more than this, the whole mood and atmosphere of the film was breathtaking. Because it’s all set against a glorious background of luxurious sights, sounds, gastronomic festivities and sparkling, stimulating conversation. There were sumptuous shots of the surrounding countryside, and of Salamanca’s rich architectural heritage. Periodically there were pieces from Bach and Mozart, which enhanced the atmosphere ten-fold. It was magnificent. I laughed, I wept, I held my breath in awe. If I was still doing my rather pretentious star rating, this film would get six. And to unashamedly copy other’s ideas, if this film doesn’t get a general release, there’ll be very serious trouble.
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