|
official site : www.sunderlandfilmfestival.com
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
PLAY TIME : [7/10] : aka Playtime : France 1967 : Jacques Tati : 124mins
Play Time : oblique missing link between Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965) and Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love (2002). Overlong (title = "playing" with "time"?) at 2hr+ plus: Alphaville 98 minutes, Punch 91. Famously costly flop in febrile late-60s France: Tati bankrupted. Unsurprising in retrospect: one-off, experimental, nightmarish kind of "comedy" - fruit of genius/auteur's dangerous carte blanche. Artsy results: Godard's 2 ou 3 choses / crowd-sprawl of Robert Altman, Andreas Gursky. Our surrogate in this disorienting world, Tati/Hulot, off-screen for (audaciously) long stretches. Weird structure: second hour mostly devoted to slapstick opening night of fancy ‘Royal Garden' restaurant. Shenanigans prefigures Fawlty Towers: brilliantly choreographed belly-laughs build expertly to a peak. Best sight-gag: Bunuelian "death" of the "menu" (makes perfect sense when you see it). Pain in backside: Billy Kearns' uber-obnoxious American-in-Paris Tony Schultz, perhaps the most eminently stranglable character in movie history. Tati's biggest error: Kearns/Schultz outstays welcome after a minute, remains prominent/visible/audible for what seems like a punishing hour. Tati's failing: overcooks decent jokes/ideas (final ‘carousel' is typically over-the-top). Widescreen a must: intricately-planned colour/detail/reflections ill-served by TV. Inspired moments, but demented/mania chaos/control/chaos/control overload eventually provokes headache: for many, a little too much to take in at once.
Neil Young
18th February, 2005
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
MARIA FULL OF GRACE : [6/10] : USA 2004 (copyright-dated 2003) : Joshua Marston : 101mins
If they gave out an Oscar for Best Movie Poster, this year's prize would surely go to low-budget US-Columbian co-production Maria Full of Grace in which a coltishly pretty young woman (Catalina Sandina Moreno as Maria) is photographed looking up at a small white object held above her face. The image is arresting enough on its own, but in the context of the film - which chronicles how Maria becomes a drug-mule trafficking cocaine from Colombia to the USA - its ambiguity is nothing short of brilliant: the white object looks like a communion wafer, but could also be one of many coke-filled capsules which Maria must swallow as part of her desperate, perilous mission.
They do give Oscars for acting, of course, and Moreno's nomination as Best Actress was presented as a major surprise by many sections of the media. This was, however, just sloppy journalism: Moreno's work had been spoken of as Oscar-worthy ever since the movie premiered at last January's Sundance Film Festival - where debutant writer-director Marston picked up the Audience Award. And Moreno went on to share Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival - with none other than Monster's Oscar-winning Charlize Theron.
Since then, Maria Full of Grace has steadily accumulated up an impressive array of gongs from festivals and critics' organisations all over the world. With some justification: the film, while by no means groundbreaking in its direction or script, is a thoroughly absorbing, economic, admirably unsensational treatment of a subject which deserves wide exposure. And fine as Moreno is, Patricia Rae is at least equally outstanding in the minor role of Carla, sympathetic sister of Maria's ill-fated fellow-mule Lucy (Giulied Lopez).
One could question Marston's decision to focus his film on such a beautiful and intelligent individual - we see conspicuously less of Maria's plain, inarticulate pal Blanca (Yenny Paola Vega) - and he does slightly soft-pedal some of the more drastic consequences of Maria's unwise decisions. But these aspects seem a reasonable price to pay for making the film accessible to general audiences - and, as a blurry-but-legible advertising poster visible in the final scene ironically informs us, "It's what's inside that counts."
Neil Young
18th February, 2005
originally rated 7/10, but downgraded after further reflection, 10th Oct 2005
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A HOME FOR THE BULLETS : [5/10] : UK 2005 : S N Sibley : 90 mins approx (DVD projection)
Enjoyably ramshackle no-budgeter, shot on video around the north-east of England and chiefly notable for an utterly frenzied central performance by Ken Mood as revenge-obsessed cop ‘Axel Falcon'. Far from restraining his leading man, writer-director-producer-editor-cinematographer (phew!) Sibley seems to have encouraged Mood to go as wildly OTT as possible - perhaps following the example of Werner Herzog's dramas in which Klaus Kinski was routinely allowed similarly crazed leeway.
The story is a cobbled-together affair in which Falcon swears vengeance on Davro (Scott Johnson), the cackling weirdo criminal bigwig who ordered the execution of his wife and teenage son. Raucous, incoherent shenanigans ensue, most of them thinly-veiled excuses for Sibley to try his hand at various forms of action-movie hi-jinks. The results, though wildly uneven, aren't without promise, though it's to be hoped he'll exert a little more discipline in future productions (a sequel, A Grave for the Corpses, has reportedly already been completed - if nothing else, Sibley clearly has a knack for catchy titles).
His most effective touch in Bullets, meanwhile, comes in the prologue when he interpolates footage from a Troma war "epic" to provide Falcon with an amusingly unlikely ‘Nam backstory. The casual viewer may presume that this footage has been simply "nicked" - but the out-of-the-blue, Roger-Corman-style cameo appearance of Troma head-honcho (and sometime Sibley mentor) Lloyd Kaufman conclusively proves otherwise...
Neil Young
18th February, 2005
to order a DVD copy of A Home for the Bullets, call S N Sibley on (UK) 07903 942273 or e-mail neil@jigsawlounge.co.uk
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Play Time and Maria Full of Grace seen at CineWorld cinema, Sunderland, 21st January 2005. A Home for the Bullets seen at Kino Vivaldi, Sunderland, 23rd January 2005 (world premiere). All screenings were public shows as part of the 2nd Sunderland Film Festival.
click here for reviews of other SFF2 titles, and click here for full list of films seen and reviewed |
