PREFACE
This is the sporadically updated blog of reviews by Harriet, author of In the Aquarium: a londoner's life.
I have kept the reviews separate to enable them to be indexed and therefore more easily accessible (see listing below).
FAVE FILMS DEAD MAN What an idea, the man is dying for almost the entire length of the film, the music is fantastic, its black and white, ideology, mythology, funny, sad, Johnny Depp sex god...
THE DRAFTMAN'S CONTRACT The first Peter Greenaway film I saw and possibly the most accessible. Beautiful set, costumes, direction. Fantastic soundtrack.
MULHOLLAND DRIVE I knew exactly what was going on right up until the last 15 minutes and damn it but then I lost it.
NIGHT ON EARTH Jim Jarmusch made the only film with Winona Ryder worth watching and it had Beatrice Dalle (say no more)
O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? Roar out loud with laughter and tunes that make you love country music. My sister had to sneak out of the cinema ahead of our dad and me cos she was so embarrassed at our laughing.
ORLANDO Quiet, passionate, time travel.
PITCH BLACK Bails and I watched this with its bleached scenery and its whoar factor star. We LOVED him, Mr Diesel take a bow.
RESERVOIR DOGS Tight Tarantino gang heist gone wrong. Great soundtrack. And there's something about Michael Madson, dancing just before cutting off the cop's ear...
ROMUALD ET JULIETTE Truely lovely romance comedy.
THREE COLOURS TRILOGY Blue, White and Red. I liked them all. Quiet stories, beautifully shot.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS Its a story told. And the first time I saw it I didn't get the twist until just before it happened.
So there was a little mix up and it looked like I wouldn't get a ticket BUT saved at the door by chap with a spare. Most disconcerted by the bouncer laughing uncontrollably all during the lacking-ticket fiasco, made me feel quite out of sorts. Stood for an hour with the space gradually filling and filling. Lots of men, some women. Not a bling crowd, not a heavy drinking crowd. Solid fan crowd, followers from time. Was trying to stand in the middle - not too near the stage but not behind anybody too tall. Sadly a group of six GIANTs came and stood next to me (good foot taller than I am) and once the music started there was no way to win. The crowd bounced. CL rapped. Pete Rock played the decks. The fans went wild, in a very male, intense kind of way. They hadn't played together for 10 years. We were witnessing a reunion. It was goood.
Its one of those you either love or hate. People have said its over-hyped (it probably is), its boring, has no story and makes you hate the idea of going to Japan. I liked it. Foreign cities, especially when you can't speak the language and the culture is very very different, can make you feel like this. LIke being outside and looking in, not connecting with anyone on any level, having purposelessness in your wanderings. There were beautifully composed shots - very neatly and simply defined like japanese prints. It was quietly played. Not much dialogue. Not much happened. But you felt the feeling of not wanting to be in a hotel, that it was impersonal, that the significant others were wrapped up in their own thing, that the people you did come in contact with were superficial and therefore unimportant. It seemed to be all about details - and certainly wasn't about action. Loved the scene of the japanese friend singing the Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen on karoke.
