Before Sunrise

Before Sunrise

Director: Richard Linklater.

Written By: Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan.

Photography: Lee Daniel.

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and Andrea Eckert.

Year: 1995

Country: USA, Austria, Switzerland.

 Richard Linklater, a figure whose impact on American cinema is often understated, stunned everyone in 1995 with his simplistic and charming romance of two strangers finding love in Europe. 

 Jesse, played by Ethan Hawke, is an moneyless American travelling from Budapest to Vienna by train when he encounters a French beauty named Céline (Julie Delpy) making her way back to Paris. The two engage in discourse and strike an instant affinity for one another. When the train pulls up in Vienna, Jesse takes his chance and ask her to get off with him. Although they both know that he needs to make his flight back to the US in  the morning so they only have the one night together. 

 In their exploration through late night Austria they meet an assorted array of idiosyncratic characters, including avant-garde actors, fortune tellers and poetic bums. Raising similarities  to the film that made Linklater famous, Slacker. It's essentially the same film only giving it a story and changing the location from Austin to Vienna.    

 The film is written with a great deal of intelligence but not in a contrived way; it's apparent that the writers of the film (Linklater and Krizan) are both smart and it comes through naturally in the screenplay. The two characters, Jesse and Céline are likeable and well acted, unlike the unbearably cocky characters you get in most contemporary romances like the horrible The Notebook. 

 Before Sunset has one of the strongest female voices in cinema, developed from Kim Krizan and Julie Delpy's involvement in the film. Yet there is only one named female character in the whole film, so it's helps prove how little weight the The Bechdel Test holds.

 Guaranteed to make you laugh and likely to make you cry, Before Sunrise isn't another unrealistic and ostentatious romance film; it's a slice of real life and a showcase of real love. 

 Score: 5/5

   

The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Night Rises

Director: Christopher Nolan
Written by: Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan
Photography: Wally Pfister 
Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway.
Year: 2012
Country: USA, UK



 My expectations going in to The Dark Knight Rises were so high, it was almost destined to disappoint me. But like an unexplained phenomenon, it somehow managed to exceed my hopes.

I want to avoid spoilers as much as possible, so I won't go into too much detail of the story. All I'll say is that The Dark Knight Rises is set eight years after the events of The Dark Knight. Gotham doesn't need The Batman any more and Bruce Wayne has gone into exile.

 This is the final chapter is the Batman trilogy. Director Christopher Nolan claims to have no interest in making any more and I believe him. Cinematographer Wally Pfister is retiring from his role as cinematographer for life as a director.  The film is also a clear conclusion to Bruce Wayne's story, albeit an ambiguous and subjective one.  

 It's a shame Wally Pfister is retiring from photography because he's one of the best  cinematographers of his generation. It was no exception in The Dark Knight Rises, it's mostly shot underexposed and it has a similar blackness to films like David Fincher's Se7en or The Godfather.   

 Christopher Nolan and Wally Pfister are both preservers of celluloid, so The Dark Knight Rises was shot on 35mm film and is not in 3D. Which leads me to one of the only grievousness,  not with the film, but how it was exhibited. In my local Vue cinema a digital projector was used which made what should have been pitch dark blacks come out as really deep greys. If you can see it projected in 35mm or in an IMAX cinema, do so.       

 Chris Nolan, who is yet to make a bad film, delivers again. His direction is spot on throughout and delivers a well written and intelligent screenplay in coalition his brother, Jonathan.  

 Christian Bale's Batman is still somewhat laughable with his 'Get off my lawn' voice, but is otherwise great and think he makes a brilliant Bruce Wayne. 

 Anne Hathaway as Catwoman I had a lot of trepidation about, she can be a hit or miss. She actually does pretty well In this... and she's sexy, too. She also has a sidekick, played by Juno Temple. Who I think must have had most of her scenes cut out because she's a pointless and rarely seen.

 I've been a big Tom Hardy fan for a while and he makes a badass Bane, he begets genuine fear every time he's a screen. A lot of people complain that they couldn't understand him most of the time. I didn't have this problem myself. Some of it could be to do with the sound systems varying cinema but I think most of it is to do with not being able to see his mouth, we don't realise how much we rely on lip movement. 

 I wont go into every actor because there are so many, but everyone in this film gives their best. New actors include Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard. All returning actors are given their due course, no characters are crammed in out of obligation. Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon could finally get the academy he's been due for a long time. 

 The action scenes are some of the best I've seen in a long time. The first confrontation between Batman and Bane is intensely visceral, I could personally feel every hit Batman took. 

 It refreshing to see an action film from a filmmaker that understands that great action scenes aren't made with shaky cam (that is the technical term) and fast editing, but from carefully crafted choreography. 

 The art direction was stunning, I especially liked the design of Bane. In the comics bane wears a full face mask but the decision to show his eyes adds to the horror. The colour scheme is mostly black and other cold colours. This looks great and fits the tone of the film but less so as I said before if you're watching it in digital. 


 Hans Zimmer's score is faultless, I would say better than his score for Inception in terms of how it fits the movie. But the film also knows when not to use music at all. In Batman's fight with Bane and in an emotional speech by Alfred from Michael Caine, no music is used which adds to the emotion. Although it does makes the crunching of crisps and popcorn clearer.


 The film is full of the wildly imaginative set pieces, which use a mixture of CGI and practical effects the two of which blend together nicely.   

 The film is on the long side at almost three hours. I honestly didn't feel this and I could have carried on watching for at least another half an hour.


 My only complaints are that some things aren't explained that I would have liked to have been. I can't go any further without spoiling the film, but they're not major plot holes, so nothing that will take you out of the experience.   

 I think it's important to state that I don't think this film is suitable for children. It might be a 12A here in the UK and a PG-13 in the US, but the long dialogue scene, bleak persona, dark cinematography and colossal run-time will bore your under twelves. And although the violence may not be bloody it's definitely brutal. Don't risk it, take them to see The Amazing Spider-Man instead. That has the bright coloured, wise cracking, pantomime villain fitting stuff they like. There were several children in the screening I was in and they all talked, cried, climbed and eventually left before the end. 

 I still need to watch Moonrise Kingdom and there are many movies ahead of us including The Master, but The Dark Knight Rises has the potential to be my movie of the year. It's everything you want in a Blockbuster and more. It's a must watch, go see it (unless you have kids) 

Score 5/5          

Mesrine: Killer Instinct

Mesrine: Killer Instinct 

Director: Jean-François Richet
Written By: Jean-François Richet and Abdel Raouf Dafri.
Photography: Robert Gantz
Starring: Vincent Cassel, Cécile De France and Gérard Depardieu.
Year: 2008
Country: France, Canada and Italy.


 Mesrine: Killer Instinct is the first of two films that recalls the life of France's most infamous criminal, Jaques Mesrine. Who I'll admit before seeing this film I wasn't aware of.


 Jaques Mersrine is played flawlessly by Vincent Cassel, possibly my favourite actor. Only challenged by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Vincent Cassel you may know from Black Swan, Shrek, Irreversible or a fantastic French film called La Haine, which is a must watch.


 The direction in Mesrine is phenomenal throughout. But there's one act that steals the film (mild spoiler coming up) Where Mesrine is sent to prison and put in an isolation cell. Imagine, if you can, Steve McQueen's Hunger meets Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys and that's what you get in this.


 Mesrine: Killer Instinct appears to borrow from nearly every action movie and thriller ever made: Natural Born Killers, Mean Streets, Leon. It even has a little Matrix/Equilibrium style camerawork and its use of Tammy Wynette's Stand By Your Man is completely Tarantinoesque. Its art direction also has element of The Conformist.


 I honestly can't think of anything bad to say about Mesrine: Killer Instinct and even if I could, I wouldn't point it out in fear that it may persuade you to not watch it.


 Mesrine: Killer Instinct is a phenomenal film. It works as action, it works as a thriller, it works as a biography and it works as cinema. I just hope Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 is as brilliant


Score: 5/5

Play Time

Play Time

Director: Jacques Tati. 

Written By: Jacques Tati, Jacques Lagrange and Art Buchwald.

Photography: Jean Badal and Andrés Winding.  

Starring: Jacques Tati, Leon Doyen and Georges. 

Year:1967

Country: France 

It's hard to get laughs from French comedies sometimes. films like Le Dîner de Cons are brilliant but you don't get the sense of comic timing when you have to read subtitles. With Play Time you don't get that problem because about 80% of the movie is dialogue free. And half the dialogue that is in it is English.

 Play Time is a charming satire of modern life (Or at least modern life as in was in the '60s). Satire is usually quite fierce and takes a vicious bite, Play Time however is quite quaint and is more like a cheeky poke than a Hang, Drawn and Quartering    

 The first half of the movie, which is the superior half, sees Jacques Tati's recurring character, Monsieur Hulot getting lost in a elaborately designed office block. The second half follows the disastrous opening night of new five star restaurant, that's still under construction. 

 At a glance you might think Play Time as a quirky little French comedy, but it's effectively an epic. Shot on 70mm film and, due to the size of the sets it required, it took three years to produce, starting in 1964. 

 What's incredible about Play Time, much like Star Trek, it predicted so much. For example when Monsieur Hulot is running through the levels of the incomprehensible building, he see's all the workers working solitary in their own tiny square boxes. This was 20 years before the office block structure was introduced into workplaces.

 Play Time is a delightful physical comedy which is wonderfully choreographed. And I can see it becoming an annual viewing pleasure of mine.  

Score: 5/5

   

George Washington

George Washington

 

Director: David Gordon Green 

Written By: David Gordon Green 

Photography: Tim Orr 

Starring: Paul Schneider and Eddie Rouse

Year: 2000

Country: USA   

 George Washington is a tale of friendship and tragedy that matches that of Stand By Me.  

 This is the first feature from director David Gordon Green, known more recently for films like Pineapple Express and The Sitter. How he went from directing movies of this caliber, to making Your Highness I will never understand. 

 A drama set in a sparsely populated town in North Carolina that was opened to limited release in 2000. It follows a group of friends as they try to cover up and forget a tragic accident that happened to them. 

 There are no professional actors in the film, they're all locals or people who David Gordon Green knew personally. Some of the actors like Paul Schneider and Eddie Rouse went on to do other things, but for most it was their first and only acting experience, which shouldn't come as a surprise, a lot of the dialogue in the film does feel mannered. This doesn't ruin the film, once you're captivated by its story, you don't even notice. 

 The screenplay is really strong, especially in dialogue. It does have that pretentiousness that you get with all indie movies, but it's a good type pretentiousness. 

The films characters, although idiosyncratic,all feel completely real and relateable. 

 For a movie set in the American South that has a mix of Caucasian and African-American characters, you're waiting for it at any minutes to turn into Do The Right Thing, but it never does.  In fact, race is never brought up at all. It makes for a pleasant change to see a movie that has such a multiracial cast that doesn't feel the need to make a comment on race relations. Also a movie that shows the South in a positive light.

 George Washington made me smile and it nearly brought me to tears. It's masterly made and touchingly sentimental. It's a gem in independent cinema.   

Score 5/5

   

Jaws

Jaws

Director: Steven Spielberg.

Written By: Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb. 

Photography: Bill Butler.

Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss. 

Year: 1975.

Country: USA.      

 Jaws is back in cinemas this month so I wanted to talk about. I really love this movie. Jaws is to me what The Exorcist is to Mark Kermode. As I'm writing this I'm drinking black coffee out of a Jaws mug and I have  John Williams' score open in a YouTube tab.  

 There are three important things I want to point to start with. 

 Firstly, Jaws is movie about a shark. Exactly that, It's not a metaphor for the Vietnam War or Adultery or anything else. It's about a shark. 

 Secondly, Jaws is the name of the movie, not the Shark. I'm just saving you from sounding like a moron. (Though the mechanical shark was actually named Bruce by the cast and crew) 

 Thirdly, Jaws is very very much a horror movie. There's a lot of dispute over weather Jaws is a horror, or merely a thriller. A strong argument is because the film only has a PG certificate (although my copy says 12) and we're used to horror films having a R/18 rating. But the old Universal Horror classics like Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wolfman are all Us, and you can't deny they're horrors. The other common, stupider, argument is that Jaws is just plain 'not scary'. I've heard this argument from lots of people for lots of different movies including The Exorcist and The Shining. Fist off being scary is not the definition of horror; George A. Romeo's Dawn of the Dead is nothing but fun and gore, there are no scares in there, but still, unarguably, horror. Secondly, fear is subjective. Many people found Paranormal Activity unwatchably horrifying, I found it unwatchably boring. Anyway, I digress. Jaws is not only a horror, it's a special type of horror; we've all heard the stories of people not being able to go in the sea that summer, failing their swimming lessons or some not even being able to take a bath after watching Jaws. Great horror plays on people's fear, Jaws creates fears.  


 Jaws is from the 70s, the golden age of American cinema. This was the decade where we were gifted with movies like The Godfather, Easy Rider, The French Connection, and Star Wars. The 70s also brought us some of the greatest directors like Coppola, Scorsese and the director of Jaws; Steven Spielberg. Spielberg is possibly the most famous man in cinema (Only  person arguably more famous would be Hitchcock) but at the time of Jaws this was only his third movie. Duel and Sugarland Express were the only films under his belt. Robert Shaw even considered turning down his role because he'd never heard of the director. 


Jaws is set on the small fictional Island of Amity, a tourist trap in the summer. It's approaching the 4th of July, the biggest day for commerce on the island from all the visitors from the mainland. But when the remains of a young girl turn up on the beach, it looks like the town's summer may be ruined by something that's lurking in the water... (Do sharks lurk? Or is lurking something exclusive to crocodiles?)


 The lead role of Chief Brody is played by Roy Scheider, an ex-New York City cop who has a phobia of the water. The catalyst of this phobia is never properly explained.  You've also got Richard Dreyfuss playing a brilliant role as oceanographer and shark expert, Matt Hooper. It's entertaining when both of these characters exchange in discourse; Hooper is overenthusiastic about the sea and Brody is petrified by the very mention of it.  


 When we first see the character Quint, played by classic movie actor Robert Shaw he seems like a bit of a cliché and he starts to make Jaws feel more like a B-Movie. If you haven't seen Jaws, imagine crossing Herman and the Sea Captain from The Simpsons. However in a incredible scene about three-quarters through where Quint and Hooper are showing each other their scars, we learn learn about his back story and that his persona is really just a suit of armour that he wears. When we lean this is makes the character more interesting. If it wasn't for this scene his (spoiler) death wouldn't have been as effective. 


 For me the most interesting character is the Mayor of the Island who refuses to close the beaches. He's an original kind of protagonist, he's not driven by personal gain or just plain insidious. He actually has the island's interests in mind, he doesn't want to put local businesses in danger. He's not evil, he's just ignorant. And also cowardly, when the Mother accuses Brody of not closing the beaches, the Mayor just stands their and doesn't take responsibility.       


I'm not trying to show off, but I'm pretty much never scared by movies, mostly because I know the difference between reality and fiction. Jaws is the only movie I can remember that properly scared me when I watched it for the first time at a young age. The scene where Brody and Hooper are out at sea for the first time in Hooper's boat and they find a wrecked fishing boat. Hooper dives down to inspect the boat, while he's doing so the head of the fisherman floats out a hole in the keel. Nothing has ever made me jump as much as that scene. I think this is an important scene in the film, because it's here that you realise that Brody, Hooper and Quint are not safe, just because they are in a boat.

 Jaws is filled with treasureable moments, like the shooting stars that you see, which according to Spielberg are unauthentic and captured by accident, and not an effect. Also the memorable lines like 'You're going to need a bigger boat' and 'It's only an island when you look at it from the water'

 Two things that really make the film are the editing from the amazing Verna Fields (Jaws was her final movie) and the theme from John Williams which is up there with Star Wars in most recognisable themes. As the stories go, Spielberg was really down about Jaws, he wasn't getting the support he needed from Universal,  the mechanical shark wasn't working and plethora of other problems. He went to John Williams and demanded 'What have you got for me?'  John played him the infamous track 'DUN DUN...DUN DUN...' Spielberg was astonished; he knew right away that this music could save the film.  With the combination of editing and the music, he could avoid showing the shark as much as possible. When you do see the shark it does look fake, but I'm always having too much fun to care.

 Jaws is also a staple in movie history. Originally, films were released regionally. You would get a big premier in Hollywood, then a couple of weeks later in New York and then maybe a month later in some small cinema or drive-in in a Ohio town before eventually moving on worldwide. Jaws was the first movie to get a nationwide release It was released in every cinema on the same day, like it's done now. To afford this, Universal had to lunch a massive marketing campaign. Bringing out Jaws themed lunchboxes, t-shirts, toys and the a paperback of the original book were all released. Jaws was one of the first movies to do this (If my cinema knowledge is as good as I think it is, Planet of the Apes was the first ) but this seems common place now. Walk in to any Toys 'R' Us Today and it will be filled with Avengers swag. Jaws also rocketed Spielberg's directing career, after this Columbia gave him $20 million to make Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 


 Jaws is one of the greatest American and the best film from a director with a phenomenal career. It's both great fun and brilliantly made. For your money you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing!      


Score: 5/5