- The Blair Witch Project
I think you had to get really into the whole Blair WItch-thing in order to get scared by this. I didn’t and wasn’t. I imagine if you’d become addicted to finding out all the details in their full fictitious glory, then you could well have been affected by this movie. As it was, it seemed to be purely a film about some student film-makers who forget some basic things about camping out in the woods, get lost, and probably die. Reading some of the associated folklore did make me realise they put quite a lot of work into the background story to the film, just most of the details of what may or may not have gone on aren’t in the film. At the very least, it was cunningly marketed.
- Taxi
Seen as part of the Martell French Cinema Tour, so seen (thankfully, since I hate dubbing) subtitled although it seems to be getting a dubbed release later. Produced and written by Luc Besson (Subway, Nikita, Leon, Fifth Element) and directed by Gerard Pires, Taxi is a fast-moving action film whose central characters are a former pizza-delivering taxi driver and a policeman who has managed to fail his driving test eight times in fairly serious ways, mainly driving into newsstands. The dialogue is witty and combined with the fast pace, cool soundtrack and hint of European disharmony makes the whole film a joy
- The New Eve (Nouvelle Eve)
Again, seen as part of the Martell French Cinema Tour, The New Eve is an enjoyable comedy. Perhaps it does follow what some people might claim is a typically French formula, that of a single girl falling in love with a married man and running off with him, but it is more than that. Camille is single and happy living her life the way she has been. She’s just determined to have fun and sleeping with people doesn’t mean she wants to go out with them. Her life changes thanks to a chance meeting with Alexis after she visits her doctor. Suddenly she finds the only thing she wants is for him to fall in love with her, but he keeps slipping out of her grasp and that is only the beginning of the story.
- L’Argent
Based on a Tolstoy short story called ’The False Note,” this moral fable tells the disasters that result from a schoolboy passing a forged note in a Paris shop. It seems to get too wound up on throwing various problems the way of the two main characters to be affected and comes across as a bit odd. Released in 1983, the film ends in multiple murders and confessions of guilt though how you are supposed to feel afterwards is never really clear. Is it just a slightly bizarre tale of some divine will being carried out or is it saying that all sin gets intertwined leading to catastrophic consequences?
- Romance
A film about anything but. Marie only loves one man, her boyfriend Paul. Unfortunately, he refuses to engage in sexual relations (he prefers that she not even touch him, which obviously doesn’t really help her self-esteem) since he has no desire in that area. He never really expected her to love him in quite the way she does, so completely. She eventually gives into her desires and goes off one night, so beginning a journey of exploration of her own self through a number of sexual encounters. Throughout this time, she still only really can love Paul until after she does become pregnant he becomes more interested in discos and drinking and she finds him less than helpful at the most important time of her pregnancy. At this point she goes over to the only other man she has been seeing regularly, her dodgy boss who’s into bondage. This film, by Caroline Breillat, leaves many questions in the viewer’s mind and is certainly thought-provoking.
- The Sixth Sense
Wonderful film with a brilliant performance by Haley Joel Osment playing Cole. Also a film rather more likely to make you jump than Blair Witch, the film has a delightful, though not wholly unexpected, twist at the end. Supernatural thriller that proves Hollywood isn’t all about expensive movies that fail to satisfy. To say more is unnecessary, just see it if you haven’t already even if you don’t like ghosts.
- Afterlife
A Japanese film centred on a week in the life of the workers at a facility in Limbo. Every Monday sees the arrival of newly deceased people who have three days to choose the single moment they wish to spend all eternity with, neglecting all others. Once this selection has been made, actors and technicians try to recreate that moment on film before the week is out. On Saturday, the films are all screened and once an individual’s film had been shown they are whisked off to eternity with that single memory. This week, two people prove more difficult - one who claims his life was utterly uneventful but who manages to make quite a difference, and one who chooses not to choose is his way of taking responsibility. The counsellors do their best to guide the deceased to their decisions: “You are now dead - I’m sorry for your loss.” Is there more to our identity than our memory or imagination, and which moment would you choose seem to be the main questions posed. I liked it, lots.
- The Devil’s Feast
Far more likely to induce feelings of travel sickness than Blair Witch due to its speedy camerawork (though that may have also been due to my not being in the best of health on that Friday evening). The whole film is essentially a documentary-style piece exploring the inner workings of an artist, Chloe Mason, whose work is, to say the least, controversial. The most part of the documentary is the past that led her to create the art. Directed by Sharon Woodward, the whole thing is very local since it was filmed in Oxford. Overall, I thought it enjoyable and well worth seeing yet probably hard to actually recommend to someone else (IYSWIM).
- The Straight Story
A film directed by David Lynch and allowed to go at its own pace. We follow Alvin Straight (73, living in Iowa) as he travel 300 miles on his riding lawnmower (he doesn’t have a Driver’s License, you see) to see his brother Lyle (in Wisconsin, “a real party state”) who has had a stroke. He hopes to make peace with him since they hadn’t spoken for over ten years. During the journey we learn more and more about the characters we first met or heard of at the start until we finally discover the outcome of this long trip. It’s a story of determination and one that makes you care, perhaps all the more because the pace feels anything but rushed.
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A double-bill I saw as part of the Uzbekistan festival at the Phoenix in Oxford. Both directed by E Ishmukhamedov. Described as a light-hearted double bill from Swinging Tashkent in the 60s, both were highly enjoyable tales managing to weave many not-entirely-directly-connected events into the whole story, such as the revolt in Greece. For more about Uzbek films, visit the Uzbekfilm studio website
- The Limey
Directed by Steven Soderbergh. The deciphering of Cockney Rhyming Slang got a little annoying after the first few times Terence Stamp explains what he means to some American, but it certainly doesn’t get in the way of enjoying the film. It’s shot in retrospect with ex-con Stamp flying home to Britain and looking over what has just happened. Until the end you’re not sure how it turned out and whether the dream-like shifts in perspective are of a man dying or what exactly. Wilson (Terence Stamp), just out of prison, travels to LA to avenge the death of his daughter. Wilson believes record producer Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda) is responsible and starts looking for evidence. These two men in their 60s engage in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, “Tell him I’m coming,” as Wilson shouts at one point after being nearly beaten to death. The use footage from Ken Loach’s 1967 film “Poor Cow” for flashback sequences is a masterstroke which seems to fit perfectly highlighting the fact that perhaps Sonderbergh really is someone to watch in the future. Sex, Lies and Videotape wasn’t some one-off.
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