Wednesday 31 July 2013

Criminal
(2004)

RATING:60%
FORMAT:Cinema



A story of everyday criminality and the volitional reasons for its existence.

The ducking-‘n’-diving central character is a model of the avoidance of honest toil at the financial expense of others.

A movie about trust that shows there’s no honour among thieves (because of the non-existence of enforceable contracts) and precious little among the so-called honest citizens.

The problem here is with the plot-heaviness which squeezes out any genuine chracterization; albeit that the actors do the best they can with this fundamental weakness.

The con man here becomes increasingly desperate as obstacles pile-up between himself and a US$750,000 finder’s fee for a rare (fake) banknote; leading to unpleasant filial revelations. So much so that you begin to lose sight of just who’s conning whom.

The acting is first-class and the plot surprising - they both need to be because the twist ending is, in many ways, obvious and these two qualities are cleverly used to misdirect you until the final moment of truth.


Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Tuesday 30 July 2013

Lost Prince
(2003)

RATING:60%
FORMAT:DVD

Reptilian Humanoids

Rather bland historical affair that does not really deal very effectively with the emotional retardation of the UK Royal Family - and of royalty itself - that leads to the inability to accept anything different - or inferior - as truly human.

The acting is superlative from all concerned but this does not disguise the essential poverty of imagination at work here from a writer who raises interesting and important issues while then refusing to explore their implications with any subtlety or insight.

Unlike The Queen, this does not engage the emotions in any meaningful way.


Copyright © 2011 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Monday 29 July 2013

Thin Red Line
(1998)

RATING:80%
FORMAT:DVD

A poetic, impressionistic and almost-silent war movie that uses facial expressions and snatches of overheard dialogue to forcibly communicate the stress and humanity of war.

An all-star cast of strongly-purposeful faces gets across the feelings and thoughts of the characters more effectively than mere acting. The actors use sheer willpower and star presence to suggest what they really feel and how their emotions came about. The essence of this journey through physical combat is that the same experiences affect different people in wildly-differing ways and of how this brings out their essence as humans – be that good or bad.

This movie never falls prey to the all-too-easy, war-is-hell clichés; preferring to show that fighting forces each man to confront himself and that many do not like the inevitably-painful self revelations.



Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.co.uk) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Sunday 28 July 2013

Secret Garden
(1993)

RATING:80%
FORMAT:DVD

The basic theme here is of the possibilities of the universe within you. This is explored for children via their love for flora and fauna and the dream that humans and animals can and should co exist more pacifically than in real life.

Yet, still these kids face the adult hang-ups used against them. A boy blamed by his father for the death of his wife proceeds to emotionally cripple his son by claiming he's a real cripple. He insists on all manner of quack medical procedures to cure him; the father thus remaining in a permanent state of mourning.

The humorous fantasy elements come about with the amusing spectacle of children ordering adults about – at which the wonderful Maggie SMITH soon bridles.

The secret here is to unlock the past – as with the eponymous garden – to be free of the baleful affects of wallowing in it.


Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Saturday 20 July 2013

Playtime
[Play Time]
(1967)

RATING:100%
FORMAT:DVD

Style of comedy that, like Police Squad and the comedies of Robert Altman, requires effort from the audience that is repaid in spades. There are no characters as such here and no-one is favored over any other. The gentle satire here is focused on society as a whole - not on individuals. With recognizable characters, the systemic and intuitional nature of the humor would have been made thoroughly redundant. There is no plot as such - a collection of connected episodes exploring the themes of excessive contemporary bureaucracy, package holidays and the depersonalizing affects of modern life in general.

Technically, this movie looks more expensive than it really is and is all the better for it. An odd fact that given that the film, like that produced by that other comic genius Charles Chaplin - Modern Times - and René CLAIR’s À Nous la Liberté, this critiques the soullessness of modern, Western life and living.

Probably the director Jacques TATI’s greatest work and, even more probably, a masterpiece.


Perhaps too subtle and too clever comic masterpiece that can never be fully appreciated at a single sitting.

Skating on the thin ice of modern western life, Monsieur Hulot – as you’d expect – manages to find all the cracks. Not a soulless universe but a man made hell of concrete, steel and glass where physical appearance is more important than substance; passive conformity more than genuine self expression. The elegant sterility of these surroundings is contrasted with the occasional flourishes of colour and humanity – especially of the old as compared to the young. An odd mixture of wistfulness and melancholy.

A brilliant exposition of the anti human design aspects of the western built environment and its consequences for our sanity that amuses in almost subliminal ways that will stay with you long after you see it.


Subtle and clever comedy; requiring multiple viewings for a full appreciation. What you miss within the camera frame, filled with ongoing activity, could make this boring as director Jacques TATI plays with the language and grammar of film – the real playtime here. So pay attention to this democratic farce without film stars that uses aural close-ups instead of visual ones!

Skating on the thin ice of modern Western life, Monsieur Hulot manages to find the cracks. He articulates the common feeling that Western culture has created for itself an alienated and alienating built environment, within which we are trapped by our own cleverness. Not a soulless universe, exactly, but a man made hell of concrete, steel and glass where appearance is more important than substance; passive conformity more valued than genuine self expression. The minimalist and elegant sterility of the surroundings contrasts with flourishes of color and humanity amid the overall gray color scheme – a color film for a black and white world!

Here, unnecessary inventions jostle with each other for our attention: Battery operated brooms, silent doors and spectacles that you do not have to remove to apply makeup! Western cities are shown as identical in a travel agency; rendering the tourism shown here pointless. In a formalist, material culture, what we see is more important than anything else; effectively abolishing privacy because one cannot impress others on ones own; hence the transparent living rooms of the homes in Tativille.

A penetrating exposition of anti human architecture and its consequences for our sanity that amuses in almost subliminal ways that will stay with you long after seeing it. The most brilliant comedy of modern times since Chaplin’s Modern Times with difficult to use labor saving devices; citizens into nothing more than consumers; thoughts divorced from emotions; theory from practice. All the minor pains of modern, technology driven life that can so easily add up to one big pain. Given that everything here is for show, it is hardly surprising that the whole lot climactically disintegrates as the human element supposedly fails the designers’ dreams of a planned society into which people must fit rather than the other way around.

Jacques TATI and Barbara DENNEK give the film its human warmth and values – the general lack of which Hulot hotly criticizes. As with all clever people, one wonders where he gets his ideas from (hyperesthesia, perhaps?), but you are thankful for them.


Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Amsterdam Heavy
(2011)

RATING:20%
FORMAT:DVD

Overwrought, under-written, ineptly-directed & weakly-acted.


Tuesday 9 July 2013

Ceský Sen
[Czech Dream]
(2003)

RATING:60%
FORMAT:DVD



Clever-yet-contradictory attack on marketing and advertising; claiming we are passively manipulated, despite market-research testing proving we are not that manipulable; otherwise, such research would not be conducted.

The marketers cannot justify their jobs since they readily agree to tell the Czech public lies; while refusing to openly admit they dissemble for high-paying clients; precisely because of this money. Their arrogant, sophistical arguments reveal poorly-concealed guilt.

People prefer lies because they smell sweet – unlike truth. Attempts to sell things people do not need gives capitalism a bad name, but people choose to buy crap (since it fills holes in empty lives) and such sales provide large-scale employment. A satire both on the desire for something-for-nothing and the Czech dream of European Union membership motivated by the same reason.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.