Archive for March, 2009

It’s Winter (2006)

March 27, 2009 at 11:49 am · Filed under It's ok

And i guess also quite gloomy, with a lot of that melancholic Iranian fatalism going on.

There’s lots of serious moustache (men) and serious scarf  (women) in Iranian films. And alot of jacket (men) too. The kind of jackets you see in 2nd hand shops donated from recently deceased smelly old men.

The young “cheeky bastard” in this film has gotta find work. Cus he wants to get laid. He’s stalking a black burka-ed widow. As well as not getting laid he’s not getting paid either.

Then he marries the black widow. There hasn’t been any romantic development. It just sort of happens.

The point of the film isn’t romantic love. The point is to show how pointless life seems to be; especially when you’re young and you’ve got nowhere to point your purpose towards. You’re in Iran, where

“Air is gloomy, doors are closed, hands hidden, breaths are clouds; people worn-out, heavy-hearted. It’s Winter“.

Sung sorrowfully over a train station scene of desolation at the end.

I don’t mind a sad bit of sorrow or a dark bit of despair  – especially if it comes beautifully wrapped up in soulful significance ala Tarkovsky or Kiewslowski.

But the cold wintery desolation in this film was a tad dull.

Dir: Rafi Pitts, Iran

6/10

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Sexy Beast (2000)

March 18, 2009 at 3:55 pm · Filed under Good ·Tagged ,

Life is cushty. Gael is roastin and boilin and bakin on the Costa Del with his ex porn star wife – “Dirty Dee-dee” – mate “H” and Jackie. Fandabidossi.

Until. And then. Along comes Don. Psycho nut-case Don. Gonna make their fat cushty life’s a friggin nightmare.

Ben Kingsley is Don. Skinny little Mahatma transmogrified into this crazy foul-mouthed Ogre. Frightening the life out of “big oaf” Gael. Has the casting gone wrong? Shouldn’t Ray Winstone (Gael) be doing the Big Daddy slappin and bullyin?

Well, no as it happens – cus Ben Kingsley manages to totally pull off Don: as the scary psychopathic mad monster of a nutter. Terrorizing poor “lovable lummox” Ray (Gael) out of his wits.

Don is shocking. Shocks Ray and Co. Shocks us. How could so much foul mouthed filth be streaming out of Gandhi’s mouth!

“Talk to me Gael. I’m here for you. I’m a good listener. Shut up. Cunt. You’re revoltin. You look like a crocodile. Fat crocodile, fat bastard. Fuck off wanker – you’re doing it!”

Doin the job. The Bank heist. On and on goes Don, wearing Gael down into a shambling wreck:” Do it! I won’t let you be happy. Why should I ?!“

A nasty cunt is Don. Capable of anything.

“She’s alright Jackie. Big tits. I fucked her. Dirty cow. I quite liked her“

He’ll piss on your bathroom carpet, kick you in the bollocks, stub his cigarette out on your eyeballs. Yes, a right nasty cunt.

“Cunt” is said alot in this film. Said with hateful relish: “Cun-TT“.

I’ve seen this film quite a few times now. I like watching it together with someone – to see how they’ll react to Kingsleys extraordinary performance. They’re usually as capivated, fascinated, appalled by Don as i am.

Because of Ben Kingsley’s Don the film appears to have taken on a cult status. But without him, it wouldn’t be up too much. In the last half hour, when Ben moreorless disappears off the screen, it reverts to a not very engaging “Lock, Stock” Gangter movie.

Ben Kingsley has come along way since Gandhi. Cunt.

Dir: Jonathan Glazer, England

8/10 when Ben Kingsley’s in it

6/10 without him.

The screenplay has a kind of Pinteresque menace to it:

“Where there’s a will. And there is a fucking will. There’s a way. And there is a fucking way. There’s always a fucking way”

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Turtles can fly (2004)

March 15, 2009 at 7:08 pm · Filed under Tedious

Can’t help feeling let down by this film.

The kids in the film are actual Kurdish refugees; bawling out their lines, or weeping and wailing continuously. Not much subtlety of expression or nuance of characterization: I just felt blasted the whole time by crude, clumsy, gestural, histrionics.

The film jumps about in a confused mess. Maybe that was part of the direction: to convey the confusion and messy chaos of life’s that have been shattered by war into incoherent fragments. Hollowed out by horror into ciphers for life rather than personally lived as authentic individuals.

And much misery is on show; of kids who are armless, legless, homeless, hopeless, orphans.

But this film invalidates them even further – by robbing them of all their credibility.

Dir: Bahman Ghobadi, Iran/Iraq

5/10

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Open Hearts (2002)

March 12, 2009 at 2:33 pm · Filed under Good ·Tagged

Joachim and Cecilie are engaged to be married. Light-hearted irony greets his proposal.

Then Bam! So shocking what happens next i had to rewind.

Christ! This could be a grim watch. Good grim. But harrowing.

“And life goes on“. Anyway. Somehow. A way has to be found to carry on.

Things pass.

Onto something else. Even more confusing. And upsetting.

“If i love you enough you’ll love yourself one day” says Cecilie. “Listen to you! Shut your face!. You’ve got to stop listening to all those pop lyrics” says Joachim. He’s turned into nasty and vicious immediately. “Get lost. Go!” he shouts at her. So she goes.

The hand-held camera is good at distilling all the intricate intimate moments; it stays on faces, as if looking at their thoughts.

Cecilie is The Mishap Girl. She’s got to find solace. Along comes Niels; doctor of the wife who caused all the mishap in the first place.

It kind of feels like a Kiewslowski film, intensely minutely personal.

Family break up. “Everyone is confused as hell“

The Dogme aesthetic has been described – or even accused – of being a “home video” approach. I like it because it makes film-making seem immediate and accessible. No fancy pants tricks or flash gimmicks. Just honest to goodness “realism”.

And if – like this is – the film is backed up by a good script and complex characterisation, it punches hard to your guts.

It’s superior home-video. With credibility in spades.

Dir: Susanne Bier, Denmark

7.5/10

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