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.
I had looked forward to this movie. I really wanted to like it. It was time we saw something good.
Its beautiful. Beautiful cinematography, fantastically chosen locations, fabulous costumes. Amazing fight scenes. Great bit at the beginning when Mei is dancing the Game of Echo - sort of following the sound of mounted drums. Also beautiful bamboo forest scene where men run throught he tops of the bamboo, slightly misty and rustling. Many twists and turns - who is conning who, nobody is who they claim to be. Ends with a scene where the three leads who end up being in a love triangle fight to the death. The scene starts in autumn and ends with a snow scene. Blood on snow. I was interested that the audience laughed when Mei got up after we thought she had died - this seemed to be the final stretch of the imagination for many of them - unable to suspend their disbelieve any further which I didn't quite understand considering the film is somewhat fantastical, both in the moves possible in fights and the changes of scenery, season etc.
So its truely beautiful to watch but ends up feeling a little insubstantial as far as plot goes. AFter reading the synopsis it makes better sense - it is apparently a love story wrapped up in an action film. Its just as a viewer I was concerned about the action as well as the love story. We don't actually know what happens to the House of Daggers in the end, despite this being integral to the story from the beginning, or at least thats how it seemed. Unless we take the last scene where within the love triangle we take their killing each other as a metaphor - two from the House of Daggers and one from the authories - they all killed each other, therefore do we take it to mean that after there were no winners in the larger battle that was going on. Dunno. I'm unclear.
The other factor which could well influence our satisfaction with the film is the actual theatre - never have I been in such an unbearably hot cinema, tightly squeezed and rabbit-warreny. The screen was also reminiscent of the old days before the multi-plex when multi-screen cinemas had tiny screens slightly bigger than a large TV. Not a good viewing experience. I would highly recommend avoiding it.
The rash of recent horror movies has meant I've been seeing more of them than I care to. Mostly, however they aren't being particularly scary, generally just silly, and rehashed versions of other films.
This was no exception. Clever filming which kept you tight within close boundaries of vision, closeups, shallow depth of feild. Sometimes seeing the film from the character's point of view, sometimes looking at them from around corners. Also didn't rely totally on the cliche of dark corners but also had empty white spaces brightly lit to hurt your eyes.
Set in the tunnels under london, specifically around Charing Cross Station and the now closed Down Street, in the sewers and connecting passageways. Something is killing people, very violently. Lots of blood. Fear. The character doing the killing is a monster, slack skin and bruises and blood, pretends to be a doctor, can only speak in repetition of what he has heard others say.
The beautiful girl is chased around the tunnels, lots of people get killed, all those who she partners up with get it. She survivies.
