One of the unexpected advantages of booking a large swag of movies is that you often only remember the vaguest details of the particular film you're going to see. This made my first movie, Red Road, even more exciting than it would otherwise have been -- apart from the fact that it had security cameras in it, I couldn't remember anything about it. This meant that during the first half-hour, it felt like anything could happen. Is this a magical realism flick, with people turning into animals? Could be! Is it a sci-fi "it's all a simulation" movie? Maybe! My confusion was enhanced by the fact that the thick Scottish accents on display meant that I was often guessing at what might have been said, and hoping that whatever it was wasn't essential to understanding the point of the movie. (I suppose the whole "guess what's happening from context" is quite appropriate for a security-camera based movie. :)
As it turned out, it was a low-key thriller, and while I enjoyed it, I don't think it would lose anything being watched at home if it turned up on TV. Possibly with teletext subtitles for the accent impaired turned on.
Someone pointed out to me that most of the people involved in writing and making this film were women, which, in retrospect, makes sense -- the female characters did feel more fleshed out than the male, for example. It may be that this film would have more of an emotional impact to people who've been affected by the central crime that drives the story. On the whole, I'm not disappointed that I saw this, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend people seek it out.
Wider question -- what about the "surveillance society" thing? The fact that CCTV cameras are being used in Britain to try and keep a lid on antisocial behaviour, and the fact that the custodes are only human, so they'll occasionally abuse their powers? I guess... if the cameras are in public places, where a policeman walking the beat might be, then the only difference to me is that people's behaviour won't be immediately changed. It seems to me to be qualitatively different from tapping phones or observing people in their homes or places of work. As the Video Kid says:
"Ain't gonna change the way I move, 'cos I'm live on CCTV.
Ain't gonna change the way I groove, let the camera catch my booty."
Words to live by, eh? :)
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My next movie, Venus, manages to get an awfully large number of very good mature British actors on the screen. The story itself isn't particularly new -- an older man allows himself to be taken advantage of by a younger woman -- but whereas the man is usually made vulnerable by the possibility of social disgrace, Peter O'Toole's character is made vulnerable by age... which makes it much easier to empathize with him, I think.
The crowd was also... um... "mature", which probably meant that the film had more of an impact on them than it did for me. Like the first one, I enjoyed it; and I liked watching it with an audience which felt a resonance; and I thought that the actors were excellent. But the story... didn't make me want to rave about it. A good film, but not a great one.
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My third film was Tales of Earthsea. A studio Ghibli adaptation of Ursula le Guin's setting, I can see that there were bits that might have been a little confusing if you've never read the books, though I thought that they did a fair job of explaining what was going on. There were plenty of good images in the film, an dI imagine that I'll eventually get the DVD; but it's merely an okay Studio Ghibli film. (Which puts it ahead of an awful lot of movies, right there.)
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Belle Tojours was my fourth film. It is very, very, very, veeeeeery sloooooooow. And tres, tres French. There were some interesting bits in a bar involving dialogues between the main character and the bartender, with byplay from two hookers that were sitting nearby; but I'm not sure that the good bits justify watching the whole thing. Maybe if you have a remote to speed through the long, long static shots of the landscape? :)
To be fair, it was a follow-up film of sorts to another movie; perhaps if I'd seen the previous one, it would have had more impact. Or given the end, it might have been even more frustrating.
One redeeming feature was the short that showed before it, Pen Pusher. The central conceit is that a boy is sitting in a train, underlining certain passages in a book; then he notices everyone looking at the girl sitting next to him, who is also reading. He starts underlining words to communicate with her, and she gets out a pencil and starts underlining back, It was quite a nice, clever little piece, and I'm glad I saw it.
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The last film I saw on the first day was The Signal. Essentially a zombie apocalypse/bodysnatchers type deal: a signal plays on all tvs, radios and phones that makes people paranoid, easily suggestible, delusional, and murderous -- but convinced that their murderousness is completely rational. It was very, very violent and bloody, with lots of sharp and blunt trauma, and at least one beheading-with-spade; but it also had a lot of humour around people's attempts to act as if nothing's wrong while the world falls apart around them. I thought that they sustained the tension well, and that splitting the film up into distinct sections, each with its own focal protagonist, moved the story forward in interesting ways; and I liked the way they explored the consequences of the world that they'd set up.
All in all, it is probably too scary and violent for many people's taste; but I would say it was definitely the best film of the day, and would recommend it to those who like horror films. Not a masterpiece, but I enjoyed it a lot.
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Goodness, I'm really falling behind, aren't I? I still have two days to document...
Unfortunately, I've been trying to keep up with work mail, which is tricky given that I don't get home until 11pm; and my new laptop, while awesome in many ways, is a little bigger and heavier than my previous one, which makes me less likely to take it with me. But never fear, gentle reader -- my other reviews will arrive soon! :)
Posted by svend at July 21, 2007 9:42 AM