Film Reviews
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A
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Abominable Dr Phibes, The (Robert
Fuest, 1971)
Comic horror with Vincent Price, Joseph Cotten, Peter Jeffrey,
Terry Thomas & Virginia North.
This is an oddly captivating farrago of horror and comedy,
with Price camping it up as the eponymous doctor, determined to wreak revenge
on the surgeons under whom his wife died. It's all quite gruesome and
unpleasant, and yet at the same time, the film's dark, wicked sense of humour
will surely raise a few laughs. Director Fuest milks the central character for
all the pathos he can get, which only adds to the film's ironic undercurrent.
For its genre, the film is surprisingly well-made, with high production
values, including splendid art-deco scenery by designer Brian Eatwell and a
fitting score by jazz musician Basil Kirchin.
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AI: Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
Science-fiction with Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances
O'Connor, William Hurt.
Spielberg's movie is eventually rather slow and convoluted
after a promising start. It becomes a tad pretentious, sends mixed messages
and fails to hang together as a coherent vision. Throw in the typical
Spielbergian tendency to sentimentalism, and you end up with a fairly uneven
film. It will disappoint those who expected a pacey action-thriller, although
as a futuristic fantasy/fairy-tale variation of Pinocchio, it certainly
maintains a genuine charm and sense of enchantment. And despite its hopelessly
tangled thematic web, it is full of points of interest that will no doubt draw
me back to it again.
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All or Nothing (Mike Leigh,
2002)
Drama with Timothy Spall, Leslie Manville, Alison Garland,
James Corden, Ruth Sheen & Sam Kelly.
Leigh is at heart a simple storyteller who delights in letting
us see real human beings in real situations, inviting us along on the journey
as their lives and characters are shaped. As expected, we meet a number of
struggling (and uniformly depressed) characters, all of whom have hidden
depths which are revealed as the central events of the film transpire. Leigh
elicits believable and affecting performances all round. Admittedly, this is
even bleaker than
Secrets and Lies,
although there is an undercurrent of redemption as the tensions begin to
resolve. Compelling stuff.
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Amelie aka Le fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain
(Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
Drama with Audrey Tatou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Isabelle Nanty,
Dominique Pinon & Rufus.
I delight in films about vulnerable people finding redemption, and this is
one such film. Amelie is a fragile creature, a young woman afraid of the
world, too wounded by life to love and be loved, who one day serendipitously
stumbles upon a child's box of toys and trinkets that will set in motion the
events that promise her salvation. She begins finding ways to help people, but
only ever from a distance. When she is granted the opportunity to open herself
to life and love, however, will she run away, or will she take the plunge?
Here we have a fascinating tale that celebrates the giftedness, uniqueness and
specialness of every person and every moment. In an extraordinarily magical
way, director Jeunet causes us to weep and laugh at the ironies of life and
the blessedness of truly living it. Cinematically, Amelie is inventive and
entrancing, frequently lapsing into surreal fantasy. Tatou is charming as the
character at the centre of Jeunet's surreal yet totally believable world.
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American Werewolf in London, An (John Landis, 1981)
Comic horror with David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne, John
Woodvine & Brian Glover.
John Landis crafts an enjoyable piece of horror hokum, a tongue-in-cheek
werewolf thriller that gives an affectionate nod to the old horror movies and
also manages to deliver a few scares. The title says it all: The mainstay of
the film's humour, at least for the first half, is the irony of an American
finding himself in England. The jokes are as much a poke at American
perceptions of England as jabs at Englishmen themselves, from the
class-riddled consciences of the native characters (they are all either
inferiors or superiors) to the grim, rural northerners ("Don't go out
on't'moors" -- and we all know what happens next). Special effects were
pioneering, and still look pretty good today. The soundtrack helps with the
irony. Entertaining, if macabre.
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Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
Romantic comedy with Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Paul Simon &
Christopher Walken.
This is certainly Woody's greatest film to date. It is not only riotously
funny, but also compellingly human, with a warmth, genuineness and sincerity
not so easily detected in some of the director's later films.
It is common to read Woody Allen's films in self-referential terms, the
legitimacy of which he himself denies. His films, however, virtually cry out
for such an interpretation, concerned as they are with the complex and often
blurred interrelations of life and art, reality and fantasy (as here, and
also, most explicitly, the disappointing
Deconstructing Harry,
almost twenty years later). Plus Woody makes it so tempting to view his main
characters not as "Alvie Singer" (his name in this picture), but as "Woody
Allen". Virtually all his characters are neurotic writers or comedians with
problem love-lives -- in other words, the person who emerges from Woody
Allen's pictures is the real-life Woody Allen. In Annie Hall, Woody reflects
on past relationships, in particular his relationship with the girl of the
title (Keaton). It is dramatic and funny throughout, and ends on a
surprisingly touching note.
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As Good As It Gets (James L Brooks, 1997)
Comedy-drama with Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding,
Jr, Shirley Knight, Yeardley Smith & Skeet Ulrich.
A reviewer commented that the events of the film conspire to make Jack
Nicholson (or rather Melvyn Udall) a human being. On the contrary, this is a
film where the central character, an obsessive-compulsive bigot, is human from
the start: We just don't realize it. A key moment in the film is when Simon,
Melvin's gay neighbour (Kinnear), is telling the young male prostitute,
Vincent (Ulrich), about his art, and comments that he likes to watch people
because sometimes, when you look at someone long enough, "you see their
humanity." At that point Vincent is momentarily enabled to see something
beyond the seedy world of male prostitution; at the same time Simon gives us
the interpretive key to the whole movie. It is a film about three very
different people who discover their common humanity.
Melvin is a hateful and insensitive recluse with a debilitating mental
disorder; Carol (Hunt), a Manhattan waitress struggling with her son's chronic
illness and finding her identity swallowed up in the process; Simon, a gay
artist who loses everything when he is attacked and robbed in his own home.
One by one they must learn to see the humanity in each other and, as
importantly, in themselves ("Where'd I go?", asks Simon as he looks at the
reflection of his battered face in the mirror). We, too, must learn to see the
human being underneath the spiteful and vicious (if somewhat the "loveable
rogue") in Melvin. The theme is developed sensitively and beautifully
throughout the course of the film (perhaps only slightly overlong at more than
two hours), with help coming from a fourth character, Verdelle, a dog, whose
pivotal role in the narrative is easily overlooked, standing in the same
cinematic canine tradition as Toto in
The Wizard of Oz. By the end of the film, we are aware that the big
issues in the character's lives are still to be totally overcome, but the
process of resolution has begun as it should, with the characters each
recognizing the dignity and worth of the others and themselves.
James L. Brooks's delicate direction carefully avoids excessive
sentimentalism and saccharine sweetness, though admittedly it teeters
perilously close to the edge at times, and results in one of the most charming
and profound comedies of recent years.
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B
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Bananas (Woody Allen, 1971)
Comedy with Woody Allen, Louise Lasser & Carlos Montalban.
This 1971 satire has little in the way of plot, but is amusing
enough, with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Noticeably more chaotic and
lowbrow than subsequent offerings, but seeds of the later, more sophisticated
Allen are discernible nonetheless.
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Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (Seth Holt, 1971)
Horror with Andrew Keir, Valerie Leon, James Villiers & George
Coulouris.
Plenty of blood and guts, by Hammer standards anyway, in this
1971 offering from the famous "House of Horror". The story concerns an
Egyptian princess being reincarnated in modern-day London, thus giving plenty
of scope for both contemporary and ancient elements. A very stylish production
is directed with plenty of atmosphere by stalwart Holt (Taste
of Fear, The Nanny), who
sadly died before filming finished. Villiers stands out for his sliminess as
the central villain, where Leon stands out mainly for her ample bosom. The
score by Tristram Cary (The Ladykillers,
Quatermass and the Pit) is
pivotal to the tension.
In-joke/trivia: Character Tod Browning is named in homage to
the director of such vintage horrors as
Dracula (1931); and Hammer afficianados should look out for the names
on the sign outside Villier's house early on in the movie.
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Breakfast Club, The (John Hughes, 1985)
Teen comedy-drama with Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall,
Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy & Paul Gleason.
A damn enjoyable movie. It stands out as a classic of its genre, the '80s
teen movie, the "brat pack" flicks exemplified in the films of John Hughes (Ferris
Bueller's Day Off). In Hughes's world, the grown-ups are exposed as
morons, and here it is Gleason as high school Principal Richard Vernon ("Does
Barry Manilow know you raided his wardrobe?") who becomes the token adult
object of ritual humiliation.
In the film, five students find themselves thrown together for a Saturday
detention. Throughout the course of the day they fight, they cause mischief,
they laugh, they cry, they get high, and they wind up discovering that as
different as they are from each other on the surface -- the rich kid, the
geek, the troublemaker -- underneath they're the same ordinary kids going
through the same ordinary struggles. If you can find it in your heart to
forgive the cheesiness as Hughes presents every cliche of his era one by one,
and overlook one or two implausibilities and absurdities the film throws at
us, this is a great film that puts adults in their place for a while and
reminds us that "kids" are human, too.
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Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)
Melodrama with Trevor Howard, Celia Johnson, Joyce Carey &
Stanley Holloway.
I always forget what a masterpiece of cinema Lean's Brief
Encounter is, but am instantly reminded when I sit down again to be mesmerized
by its spell. This may be a screen adaptation of stage material, but creaky
and theatrical this is certainly not. On the contrary, Noel Coward's drama is
transformed into something uniquely cinematic. The story concerns the
bittersweet affair of central character Laura Jesson (Johnson) with Dr Alec
Harvey (Howard), and it is a story that is told intriguingly through Robert
Krasker's inspired lighting and camerawork, Jack Harris's editing and Sergei
Rachmaninov's music, taken from the Second Piano Concerto, but which
nevertheless could have been written for the film. The main performances
wrench our emotions with utter conviction, and Coward's own experience of
forbidden love is tragically and poignantly expressed (see critic Richard
Dyer's homage to Brief Encounter in the BFI Film Series).
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Broadway Danny Rose (Woody Allen, 1983)
Comedy-drama with Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Nick Apollo Forte &
Sandy Baron.
This gentle and affectionate comedy is full of genuine warmth, something
Woody's work does not always have. Sandy Baron narrates the story of Danny
Rose, a likeable but blundering Broadway agent whose acts include a blind
xylophone-player and a balloon-folder. Danny emerges as a hero-figure who
stands up for the little guys and makes a difference in his own way, including
in the life of a barely recognizable Mia Farrow. Witty, surreal and engaging,
Broadway Danny Rose is an often-overlooked gem in the Allen canon.
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Browning Version, The (Anthony
Asquith, 1950)
Drama with Michael Redgrave, Jean Kemp & Nigel Patrick.
Michael Redgrave turns in a sterling performance as one of British cinema's
most pitiful and tragic creatures: Terence Rattigan's despised schoolmaster,
Andrew Crocker-Harris. Rattigan works from his own one-act play, the major
difference being the longer (and more hopeful) ending. It is some ten or
fifteen minutes or so before Redgrave appears, with the result that the
character is built up in the mind of the audience as something of a legend,
known of only through the semi-apocryphal caricatures related by the other
characters. This sets the stage nicely for the gradual revelation of
Crocker-Harris's humanity underneath the cold, passionless exterior. Redgrave
is rather camp when he initially appears, although he soon settles down into a
more subdued, but brilliantly acted performance. Brian Smith, playing the
young Taplow, also manages an excellent performance, noticeably devoid of the
stiltedness and artificiality that is present in so many other child actors of
his generation.
The story is told melodramatically, but believably, through the lens of
veteran photographer Desmond Dickinson's camera, and tightly executed as
expected Anthony Asquith. The central performances are bolstered by impressive
supporting players. Also worth seeing is Albert Finney's almost equally
affecting performance in the Figgis
version, some forty-five years later.
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Browning Version, The (Mike Figgis,
1994)
Drama with Albert Finney, Greta Scacchi & Matthew Modine.
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C
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Carry On Behind (Gerald Thomas, 1974)
Comedy with Kenneth Williams, Elke Sommer, Joan Sims, Kenneth
Connor, Bernard Bresslaw, Peter Butterworth, Patsy Rowlands, Jack Douglas &
Windsor Davies.
There were only a handful of truly worthy Carry On films, in my opinion,
and Carry On Behind is certainly one of them. Even though by this stage the
series was missing regulars such as Sid James (I never quite took to him
anyway) and Charles Hawtrey, and Dave Freeman had replaced Talbot Rothwell as
scriptwriter, Carry On Behind is still one of the greats. The script has
Williams and guest star Sommer as two archaeologists heading up a student dig
of Roman remains on a caravan site. There is plenty of toilet humour and
double entendres in the usual vein, eliciting as many groans and cringes as
laughs.
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Cinema Paradiso aka Nuovo
Cinema Paradiso (Guiseppe Tornatore, 1989)
Drama with Philippe Noiret, Jacques Perrin, Marco Leonardi,
Salvatore Cascio & Pupella Maggio.
Cinema Paradiso is an exhilarating film that does its best to squeeze every
drop of emotion out of its audience. I know it is trendy to dismiss it as
sentimental pap (as London's Time Out magazine did), but dammit, Cinema
Paradiso is a fine film that never outstays its welcome in my collection.
Tornatore's Felliniesque tale is set in the Sicilian village of Giancaldo,
actually the director's home town of Bagheria, and begins as the young,
fatherless Salvatore befriends the local cinema projectionist, Alfredo.
Salvatore's coming-of-age is the occasion for a poignant portrayal of the
coming-of-age of an entire city and, ultimately, a nation. The backdrop for
this charming and involving piece of storytelling is the cinema. For
Salvatore, film is a lens through which he interprets life, something with
which film-lovers will identify.
The film is full of memorable images and symbols, many of which appear
early on and are later hauntingly brought back into play. Bringing the film to
life is Ennio Morricone's beautifully rustic score. Philippe Noiret and
Jacques Perrin both turn in affecting performances. Anyone who has ever loved
the cinema, and has ever struggled with the pain of letting go of memories,
will find Cinema Paradiso mesmerizing.
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Cinema Paradiso (Director's Cut) aka Nuovo
Cinema Paradiso (Guiseppe Tornatore, 1989)
Drama with Philippe Noiret, Jacques Perrin, Marco Leonardi,
Salvatore Cascio, Brigitte Fossey & Pupella Maggio.
Fans of the original theatrical cut of
Cinema Paradiso should watch this radical revision out of curiosity. Those who
have never seen Cinema Paradiso may find their experience of the film ruined
if they watch the recent version first. I suggest getting acquainted with the
far superior earlier film before sampling this interesting, but flawed recut.
The new version is a totally different film. The focus is shifted from the
central character's relationship with Alfredo, a cinema projectionist, to his
lifelong obsession with a lover from his adolescence. The latter lacks
believability, and radically alters the mood of the film. Aside from this
insertion of a mammoth chunk of storyline that was absent from the first film,
there are a few edits and extra scenes dotted here and there throughout the
film that hack to pieces some of the most memorable and effective moments from
the original. Perhaps I am just too in love with the original (the irony here,
in view of the film's major themes, is stark) to be able to accept this new
version. Admittedly, the extra storyline fills in some glaring holes in the
original, though not without creating a few new loose ends.
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Curse of Frankenstein,
The (Terence Fisher, 1957)
Horror with Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Hazel Court,
Robert Urquhart & Valerie Gaunt.
The Curse of Frankenstein was the first of the many gothic horrors for
which the Hammer Studios became renowned, and it remains one of the best.
Fisher's seminal film contains all the sophistication, irony and terror that
made the Hammer Frankenstein series so successful and memorable. Peter Cushing
plays the villainous Baron magnificently, and Christopher Lee presents us with
an original and sympathetic portrayal of the creature. Production design is
stunning, especially some of Les Bowie's lush matte paintings (Hammer's
excellent crew always had a talent for making relatively cheap productions
look expensive), and veteran James Bernard supplies one of his best scores.
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