Recent Viewing

[Fran]

Ivor, would love to prise that out of your hands for a little view here?

Missed it the couple of times it was on....

[Ivor]

Ivor, would love to prise that out of your hands for a little view here?

Missed it the couple of times it was on....

No bother, I have a DVD of Dr Feelgood live in Kursall 1975 too. Utterly fucking amazing.



Actually I'll watch that tonight!

[Jared]

Really powerful documentary on the decline and gradual evolution of Detroit... sensitive and well balanced.

http://mubi.com/films/detroit-wild-city

[Seán]

We've just finished watching the first season, recommended:

[mcq]

have had a mini Hirokazu Kore-eda fest over the past month:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Still-Walking-D ... 134&sr=1-3

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nobody-Knows-DV ... 134&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/After-Life-DVD- ... 134&sr=1-1

for me, he's one of the finest film-makers working anywhere in the world, today...

After Life is an extraordinary film. I remember watching it at the cinema (the Irish Film Institute in Dublin) on its release and thoroughly enjoying it. I haven't seen any of Kore-eda's follow-up films though. Speaking of Japanese masters, have you seen Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu Monogatari or Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story? Quietly astonishing films which put most of Kurosawa's films in the shade, apart from the unforgettable Ikiru.



I've also heard wonderful things about Mikio Naruse, whose films the BFI have releasing on DVD. I have heard he may be the equal of Ozu and Mizoguchi.

Oh, and speaking of Taiwanese films, I also highly recommend the late Edward Yang's profoundly rewarding A One and a Two.

[Jared]

^^ Ozu & Mizoguchi are also geniuses... they spawned a phenomenally powerful Japanese social realism, the legacy of which has passed onto Kore-eda.

Mcq (sorry, I don't know your name; I just always end up wishing you'd post more often.. ;-) ) Kore-eda's films are uniformly delightful, powerful and thought provoking... he's never made a dud. Please click on the link, you will find you can watch After Life, Maborosi, Still Walking & Nobody knows by Kore-eda... for a couple of euros.

http://mubi.com/watch

they are very well worth watching...

[mcq]

The name's Paul, Jared, and I'll try to post more often. Speaking of social realism in cinema, you'd be hard pressed to find a finer example than the great Robert Bresson who famously avoided using professional actors in his film, believing that they would bring an artificiality into his work, and insisting on the honesty that "amateurs" brought to his creative visions. His work is ascetic and uncompromising but profoundly rewarding. Films like A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, Mouchette and Au Hasard, Balthazar are indeliby inscribed on my mind. His insights into the human condition makes the more critically-lauded Tarkovsky look like an amateur in comparison. "No beautiful images, but only necessary ones", he famously once said. The first time I saw Pickpocket, it made me as uncomfortable as the first time I read Crime and Punishment. And just like Dostoyevsky's works, Bresson's films mark you for life.

[mcq]

Last night, I watched Nobody Knows, a film directed by Hirokazu Koreeda in 2004 and recently recommended to me by Jared. This is a wonderful film, perfectly judged in the understatement of its directorial tone. The (true) story is a heartbreakingly sad one of a family abandoned by their mother and whose eldest sibling, Akira, is forced to support his family single-handedly, yet it is the director's singular achievement that the viewing experience is not an unremittingly bleak one. First of all, he does not judge anybody in this film, least of all the mother. The film is edited very simply to ensure that this is the case and you get the very powerful sense of life unfolding and taking its natural course. There is very little exposition in this film in terms of back story, or any kind of commentary on what we are seeing. Secondly, there is very little music in this film. In many Western films, music can be used as a kind of emotional exploitation, extracting emotional responses from viewers that have not been earned by their director. That is certainly not the case here. Thirdly, the cinematography is breathtaking. Perfectly framed shots, each of which have their own natural rhythm. There is no unnecessary lingering over life's injustices or occasional moments of joy. Some shots are unforgettable, such as the burial scene near the end of the film, when Akira's hands start to shake and his friend, Saki, gently puts her hands over his and holds them until the shaking recedes. And then the next scene finds them returning home by train. No words are exchanged, but the image of their shellshocked faces and begrimed bodies says more, much more, than any words could possibly convey. And the closing scene of the film sees the family walking down a city street away from the camera eye, and then suddenly the youngest, Shigeru, looks back and the screen freezes. It's an extraordinary way to close the film - a snapshot in time. An American film would insist on bringing things to a close, on imposing order on what we have just seen. But there are no clearcut resolutions in life, even death itself is an interruption.

[mcq]

Tonight I watched Head-On, an amazing headrush of a film, rooted in truth and intensity, about redemption, obsessive love, identity and self-renewal. It's an extraordinary experience, with a wonderful soundtrack of traditional Turkish music and Western pop. The kind of film that defeats cerebral analysis, but rather provokes an emotional response. A tale of two nihilistic souls who are saved and consumed by their love for each other. An exceptional performance from Birol Unel, who retains something of the anguished intensity of Javier Bardem. Perhaps the film is best defined by a line from a psychiatrist that Unel's character visits following his suicide attempt: "If you want to end your life, end it. But you don't have to die."

[Jared]

Last night, I watched Nobody Knows, a film directed by Hirokazu Koreeda in 2004 and recently recommended to me by Jared. This is a wonderful film, perfectly judged in the understatement of its directorial tone. The (true) story is a heartbreakingly sad one of a family abandoned by their mother and whose eldest sibling, Akira, is forced to support his family single-handedly, yet it is the director's singular achievement that the viewing experience is not an unremittingly bleak one. First of all, he does not judge anybody in this film, least of all the mother. The film is edited very simply to ensure that this is the case and you get the very powerful sense of life unfolding and taking its natural course. There is very little exposition in this film in terms of back story, or any kind of commentary on what we are seeing. Secondly, there is very little music in this film. In many Western films, music can be used as a kind of emotional exploitation, extracting emotional responses from viewers that have not been earned by their director. That is certainly not the case here. Thirdly, the cinematography is breathtaking. Perfectly framed shots, each of which have their own natural rhythm. There is no unnecessary lingering over life's injustices or occasional moments of joy. Some shots are unforgettable, such as the burial scene near the end of the film, when Akira's hands start to shake and his friend, Saki, gently puts her hands over his and holds them until the shaking recedes. And then the next scene finds them returning home by train. No words are exchanged, but the image of their shellshocked faces and begrimed bodies says more, much more, than any words could possibly convey. And the closing scene of the film sees the family walking down a city street away from the camera eye, and then suddenly the youngest, Shigeru, looks back and the screen freezes. It's an extraordinary way to close the film - a snapshot in time. An American film would insist on bringing things to a close, on imposing order on what we have just seen. But there are no clearcut resolutions in life, even death itself is an interruption.

Hi Paul... great review, and I'm really pleased you enjoyed the film... try 'Still Walking' next; a little more subtle, but portrays the changes in Japanese society over the the past few generations from the traditional patriarchal society, as the culture is immersed in post-war westernised values. It's profound and deeply revealing; one you can watch over again.

I went to see 'The Artist' today at my local cinema, and I have to say it was extremely well done, and probably well worth a few oscars, if the trinkets mean anything to you..

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1655442/