Smultronstället (1957) aka Wild StrawberriesVictor Sjostrom is having bad dreams. A simple demonstration of how walls are built to protect ourselves from others and their drawbacks. Using a road trip to revisit the events that have changed him, the lead character avoids the ‘mental masturbation’ of psychology. Each scene impacts on him as he leans back and looks out of the car windows, reflecting. Amazing acting and directing filling the screen with quiet melancholy, regret and the profundity of making peace with one’s own life. Quite the most beautiful journey through a Swedish summer.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)J.K. Rowling expands her franchise into the political machines of early 20th New York and the desire to catch ‘em all. When the world of Harry Potter first appeared on our screens it was filled with colour. The trains were Gryffindor red, the fields Slytherin green. By the final two episodes, it had become night, illuminated only by wand-white sparklers and populated by grey-shrouded witches. The skies of New York inherit that monotone pallor and bring forth rain. They joy has gone. Only blandness remains.
Roma (2018)Alfonso Cuaron grounds life in the rituals of cleaning and care as slowly ticking grenades at the core of a family and a country wait to detonate. While riding out the waves of chaos, it’s often wise to focus on the details in life. The clarity of black and white cinematography allows an intimate view into the detail only momentarily allowing the bigger pictures to surge through like the tide. When it arrives, the catharsis is deadened by the central character’s sheer ability to cope and continue. Beautifully done in every respect.
The Cockleshell Heroes (1955)José Ferrer proves to be tone deaf when it comes to sacrifice and military discipline. On the one hand a Boy’s Own rollicking war adventure with a soupcon of Carry On farce, on the other a dramatic re-enactment of a real WWII commando raid with all the resulting loss of life that entrails. Clunky, unbelievable and in poor taste, Ferrer is out of his depth without canoe, wet-suit or snorkel. Amongst the laughable miniature work and perfunctory set design, it is well-paced and incidentally tense. Not often enough to make it worth while.
после смерти (1915) aka After DeathIsolated Andrei discovers that too much love isn’t necessarily a good thing. A still film. Not only is there little action in this film, there’s very little movement either. There is much staring at interesting things off-screen, occasionally in a wheat-field. The cold and clammy fingers of Death claim not only the women in Andrei’s live, but inveigle their way through the lens and into the celluloid as well. Tableaux mourants. The composition may be haunting, but the obsessive moping brings a rare touch of farce to a tragedy.
Split (2016)Emotional trauma is the origin of super-villainy according to M. Night Shyamalan. While this is an admirably low-key approach to the super-origin story, it’s also dangerous and delicate ground to tread. This veers too far towards ham-fisted handling of its subject matter, saving its subtlety for the revelation of the monster inside. There’s a degree of sympathy voiced by several of the characters, but inevitably the voices in the Horde arguing for restraint are drowned out by the director-driven narrative imperative from the outset.
Behind the Screen (1916)Charlie Chaplin performs a slapstick cavalcade. There’s nothing like a backstage set comedy to get all the classic slapstick moments into a two-reeler. If you need a trapdoor gag or a pie-fight in your life, this is for you. This is all about Charlie’s physical performance skills and charm. Throwing in Edna Purviance cross-dressing in dungarees and some questionable commentary on labour relations in the film industry and it’s 25 minutes of escape from the grim bits of the world outside.
東京流れ者 (1966) aka Tokyo Drifter - Rewatch
Seijun Suzuki boils the yakuza thriller down to its fundamentals and keeps boiling. Reduced almost to abstraction and hanging together by the sinews of a plot, he throws some of the most stylistic and bold visuals at the screen. Big chunks of primary colours. Snow drifts. The ennui of loyalty in a world of cool. A 1960s ronin with his own folk song motif and uniform. This is a dramatic directorial statement, the Mondrian of yakuza eiga, but I would happily sit and watch a yakuza film set in the grainy black and white pre-credit world.
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)Doug Liman enjoys repeatedly killing an actual height Tom Cruise. It’s Groundhog Day again. Essentially a dumb militaristic action film masquerading as something cleverer. The film is trapped in an eternal recurrence of previous events until the plot riddle can be solved and destroyed with major ordnance. Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise get to enjoy a romance based on mutual fulfilment of their primal death urges, frequently involving tentacles. Enjoyable and aware of its own ridiculousness.
Puce Moment (1944)Kenneth Anger raids his grandmother’s wardrobe for a moment in the sun. A dress, a splash of perfume, some fake eyelashes and we’re transported into a dream of 1920s Hollywood glamour. It’s hard to repress the sheer stuttering excitement this simple sequence of actions inspires in Anger. As his star reclines on a bed, she dreams of the past. So does the man behind the camera, projecting his fantasies figuratively and literally while toying with the film speed for that hand-cranked look.
Europa Report (2013)Sebastian Cordero utilises the professionalism of a crew of astronauts to extract the terror from a mission gone disastrously wrong. The lack of a score and the low-budget found footage camerawork don’t help. It’s the flat affect and lack of reaction of a crew of scientists working on out the way forward when faced with catastrophe that kills the drama. It’s well constructed and paced. A truly interesting experiment. Leaving the audience to insert its own stomach-clenching with no cues needs revision.