Evangelism
BlogalongaPotter: Why I’m Not Sure I Can, But You Probably Should
I always wondered, and I’m sure I wasn’t alone when I was younger, why any evil geniuses never tried the same scheme twice. Admittedly they had a second crack at the Death Star, but surely if an idea’s good enough, it’s worth trying more than once? And that doesn’t even cover the ideas which actually work. So of course, when an idea’s as good as BlogalongaBond, the creation of evil genius The Incredible Suit, it must be worth doing several times. Earlier this year, I leaped at the opportunity to shamelessly rip-off another person’s good idea when I created, with BlogalongaMuppets, which has been at least one-eleventh as successful as the original.
Inevitably, since BlogalongaMuppets wasn’t even the second coming of the Blogalong (for that was BlogalongaRusskie), others would decide to follow in its stead. So now two people who prefer to be known as @billowl and @ChrisSykes108 who between them created the blog All Of Whine And Space have also created BlogalongaPotter. It’s fantastic to think that the thing I inventively copied off someone else has now, along with that thing, inspired others to create their own Blogalong. Hopefully this is just the next step in a long tradition of monthly blogging events, but while I’m not sure I can join in this one, I thought I’d take a minute to explain why I can’t, but you probably should.
1. I may have exceeded the limit for the target demographic
Let’s be honest about it, I don’t think J.K. Rowling particularly had the 37 year old married man demographic particularly in mind when she wrote the Potter books; if she did, then she was horribly misguided. It’s easy to denigrate Potter and its fandom, much in the same way as it’s easy to knock Coldplay. Well, I happen to like Coldplay – so sue me – and I did enjoy the Potter films, but the only time I ever read any part of the books was when trying to make sense of Deathly Hallows, Part 2, and resorting to Mrs Evangelist’s copy. If she was a blogger, then this might be ideal for her as she bought most of the books, and read them, on day of release. So if you’re that kind of person – and there’s a LOT of you out there, if you’re willing to admit to it – then you might be just the kind of person to write for BlogalongaPotter.
2. I don’t work well without pressure
BlogalongaBond was created with a specific purpose – to blog about the Bond films at the rate of one a month. When BlogalongaBond started, there were 23 months to go until the release of the new film, and 23 Bond films – you do the maths. The benefit of this is that it doesn’t give any concession to the lackadaisical; if you don’t do one a month, then you don’t hit the number, it’s as simple as that. (That said, I’ve so far done two double bills becuase I didn’t have time to write one in two months this year…) It became slightly more complex when they moved the UK release of Skyfall forward a month, but thankfully The Suit once again demonstrated his genius by deciding to ignore this problem completely.
I also started BlogalongaMuppets along the same principle, in that I started in September, and the four of us on this epic journey will cover all of the theatrical releases by February, when the confusingly-titled The Muppets hits cinemas in the UK. I do find that the principle of having something to work to keeps my mind generally focused, and idea of having something new at the end of it gives the Blogalong almost the feeling of a delightful bloggy Advent Calendar, with the new film being a sort of Christmas at the end.
But that’s not to say it has to be like that – BlogalongaRusskie wasn’t working towards a new Tarkovsky film, and the Blogalong should be a chance to explore a complete body of work, whether or not there’s a new film at the end of that. So if you fancy the chance to revisit the Potters with fresh eyes, then now is as good a time as any.
3. How much is there to say about a boy and his wand?
The biggest reason that I don’t feel I can commit t BlogalongaPotter, to be honest, is that I’m not sure what else I’ve got to say about the franchise. I’ve already posted a summary of all of the films, and a detailed review of both parts of Deathly Hallows (part 1 and part 2). While I did thoroughly enjoy the films, they don’t hold the same place in my heart as the Bonds or the Muppets, or indeed other franchises such as those from Lucas or Jackson.
But if you feel that you can tease something out, or take a new angle on the films, then I’d very much look forward to reading them. BlogalongaBond has inspired a whole different set of perspectives, and I’ve attempted to take a view on the legacy of the Bond films, looking each month at how they have inspired future Bond films and action cinema in general. Maybe there’s a new angle on the Potter films to be taken, and maybe you’re just the person to find it?
4. I’m already struggling to keep up with the Blogalongs
And, as I’ve already mentioned, I’ve found it hard enough to keep up with one Blogalong at various points this year. Despite that, I foolishly took on another Blogalong on top of the first one, but it’s pushed my busy schedule to almost breaking point. The thought of having another film to watch, and then write about, is a little more than I can manage at this point. But there’s only a couple of dozen people who’ve Bonded, and just four Muppets, which leave around 469,127 bloggers left on the internet to get involved.
Now, you might point out that I’m only going to be BlogalongaMuppeting for another couple of months, so it wouldn’t be long before I’d be back down to two again. And you’d be right, but of course you must remember the bigger picture. Cast your mind ahead to May 2013, and the twelfth in another huge cinematic series in effectively its third incarnation, one which is very close to my heart, and still boldly going where no-one has gone before. Which means I’d need to kick that off around June of this year, while BlogalongaPotter is still running.
So, BlogalongaTrek anyone? No? I’ll get my coat.
Review of 2011: The (Half) Dozen Best Trailers of 2011
2011. The last full year any of us is going to live, if those who mistakenly believe that the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world on December 21st next year, are correct. Which they’re not. Probably. If they were, we’d only get to see half of The Hobbit, and that just wouldn’t be right. Anyway, it’s been another year full of 365 days, as so many of them are, and it’s been filled with more trailers than you can shake a stick at.
I’ve attempted two regular features during the life of this blog, but only one of them ever stuck – sorry, Friday Encourager, it just wasn’t meant to be – and each month I run down the Half Dozen most interesting looking trailers for films released cinematically in the coming month. (Or, in one case because I was so busy with work, the best trailers for the films I’d just seen that month.) And then last year, I summarised the year with the Half Dozen best trailers of the year. But when I sat down to look at this year, try as I might, I just couldn’t pick six that summed up the year for me, so I’ve cheated and put together a full dozen for you instead.
But there’s undeniably something about trailers. When Mrs Evangelist and I watch a film, we normally spend as much time dissecting the trailers afterwards as we do the actual film. Sometimes more so, when we can’t remember all of the trailers we saw less than two hours ago. What could be better, then, than the chance to sit down and watch a dozen of the year’s best, back to back? So enjoy this start of the review of the year that was 2011, with twelve mini-movies which helped to liven up the bit between the adverts and the actual film for me this year.
Guiltiest Pleasure Of The Year Award – Killer Elite
Let’s be honest, this probably wasn’t much as a film – I didn’t even manage to see it – but the trailer had all of the biggest excesses you could possibly imagine. Guns! Explosions! Cars! A helicopter! The Stath! The Ow! The Niro! The Strahov… Strahos… That woman off of Chuck! Twangy guitars! A man jumping out of a window tied to a chair! Did I mention explosions yet! It’s like an adrenaline shot of stupidity delivered directly to the eyeballs, and I look forward to renting this and getting very drunk one night next year.
The Good Bits All In The Trailer Award – Battle: Los Angeles
And by that, I mean that the trailer had more good bits in it than the actual film did. It’s not actually one of the best trailers of the year on its own terms, but if you measure trailers in comparison to the films which they’re for, then this one is about 8000% better, as the film made me want to invent new methods of self-torture just to numb the pain of what was showing. The worst thing is, despite having two different cinema memberships, I PAID to see this film. Ugh.
The Best Summer Blockbuster Trailer Award – Captain America: The First Avenger
Summer blockbusters weren’t bad this summer, if they were based on Marvel comic characters. Thor and X-Men Babies were both pretty great, and although Captain America was just shaded by them both in terms of the actual film, it probably had the best promo. Rumour has it that the sequel will be set in the present day – if that means there isn’t a role for the fabulous Hayley Atwell, I’ll be very disappointed. (Although if it were down to me, I’d be finding tenuous excuses to shoehorn the also fabulous Stanley Tucci in again as well.)
The Artistic Impression Award – Pina
Some great imagery here – woman with a tree on her back! Man having a running jump into a cuddle! Woman with giant arms – oh wait, hahaha! LOL, as I believe the youngsters are saying these days. It’s the background music that imprinted on my consciousness the most, though – at least once I came out of the cinema with that tune in my head despite having seen an entire film after that trailer.
The Literally Coolest Trailer Of The Year Award – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
David Fincher knows how to put a trailer together. (Or he knows how to work for a studio that have people that put trailers together. Never quite sure how that works.) This might have been in contention for the best of the year had it not re-used a gimmick from last year’s best trailer for The Social Network of an impossibly cool cover of an existing track, this time Trent Reznor’s reworking of a Led Zeppelin track rather than the Scala cover of Radiohead that worked so well on the Facebook movie trailer. Nonetheless, this was a trailer so iconic that even the Muppets did a spoof of it.
The Give A Dog A Break Award – Beginners
It’s been a pretty depressing year for movie dogs – Tyrannosaur and Snowtown leap immediately to mind, and even My Dog Tulip is essentially a film about how smelly and awkward dogs can be – so let’s celebrate one film where the dog gets treated like most real dogs, like man’s best friend. Sadly, Beginners premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year, so Cosmo the dog wasn’t in contention for the Palm Dog at Cannes this year, which went to Uggy from The Artist. (I’m not making this up – there really is a Palm Dog given out at Cannes. Honest.)
The Best Marketing Of A Difficult To Market Film Award – Le Quattro Volte
What do you do if you’ve essentially made a silent film which is a meditation on life and the nature of existence, with a mood and a feeling almost impossible to capture in a two minute promo? You make the trailer included here, which somehow succeeds not only in capturing that sense of mood perfectly, but also somehow captures the wonderful feeling of surprise that watching the whole film provides.
The “This Trailer Probably Came Out Last Year But The Film Was This Year And It’s Great So I’m Putting It In Anyway” Award – True Grit
I love the Coen Brothers, but I’ve never thought of myself as a fan of Westerns. Inescapably though, their best two films in the past ten years have had a Western feel, and while No Country For Old Men was a modern day take, this is a traditional Western through and through. I buy very little in terms of film to watch at home these days, mainly because I’m normally in a cinema watching new films and there isn’t time, but this was the first Blu-ray I bought this year.
The Fantastic Trailer Nothing Like The Fantastic Film Award – The Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Don’t get me wrong, Tinker Tailor is one of the finest films of the year, but this trailer suggests a sense of urgency and threat that just doesn’t exist in the same way in the film itself. Tomas Alfredson has created a slow-burn masterpiece, but your expectations might be unfairly set by the trailer, which in itself is a majestic piece of work, with a hum and a rhythm all its own, but which might leave you expecting something nearer a period Bourne than what you actually get. I’m not generally a fan of such mis-selling, but if it gets you into a cinema to watch such a top quality film, maybe it’s not so bad.
The Blowing The Entire Movie In Two Minute But It’s Still Cool Anyway Award – Drive
The other common practice in putting together trailers is to give too much away, and sadly the trailer for Drive falls into this category. While it perfectly captures the mood and feel of the film, it is pretty much the film itself edited down into two minutes – most of the trailer runs sequentially and there are plenty of third act moments on show here. If by some miracle you’ve seen neither the trailer or film yet, then do yourself a favour – stop watching about fifty seconds in. If you like what you see, rent the film when it’s out in January. But if you watch the whole thing, then you have only yourself to blame.
The Best Marketing Campaign Award – Green With Envy
Undoubtedly the best marketing campaign of the year was for a film that’s not out until next year, and is one that you can tell will hold a dear place in my heart, as I started a blogging initiative for it that united bloggers across the nation in appreciation of its legacy. This trailer started it all, and magically I came across it completely unawares, and also managed to play it to Mrs Evangelist before she became wise to it as well. If the film itself is half as good (and the current scores on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes suggest it will be), then we’re in for a treat in February.
The Trailer Of The Year 2011 – Submarine
But my favourite trailer of the year was the one for the debut film from IT Crowd star and Mighty Boosh regular Richard Ayoade. It might wear its influences a little too much on its sleeve when expanded out to feature length, but here everything from the instant character summary of our protagonist Oliver to the gradual crescendo of Jacques Brel’s Quand On A Que L’Amour is so expertly judged; this is as close to trailer perfection as anyone achieved in 2011.
Wreckers: A Local Film For Local People
Ever wanted to be famous? Judging by the proliferation of TV talent shows clogging our screens, there’s quite a number of people who’d like to be discovered, for singing or dancing or even dog-wrangling, and become just famous enough that they can perpetuate that by being sent to the land of the convicts to eat various marsupial genitalia while being mocked by slightly receding Geordies. I’m not sure I’ve ever had that compulsion, but it was put to the test a couple of years ago when the village where I now live became the setting for a feature film.
While I’ve been a lifelong fan of film, and that love has grown to almost obsessive proportions in the past few years, it’s what’s on the screen that’s always interested me. I’ve certainly come to question the artistic decisions of a few writers and directors over the years, but I’m not sure the creative urge has ever burned that brightly within me, nor for that matter have I ever been a fan of the spotlight. Even at school, I was quite content to take on the backstage roles and to allow others to get their lights out from under bushels; and although one of my other hobbies has always been singing, I’ve always been more comfortable taking a role in the choir rather than out front singing solos. But moving to the village allowed me to take on another role, that of choir master of the choir at the village church, and it’s ideal in the sense that the back of your head gets more attention from the congregation or audience than your face ever does. Few roles offer such power and such anonymity in the realm of artistic endeavour.
But it was through the church music that I first came into contact with an actual film in production, back when The Movie Evangelist was just a glint in the milkman’s eye. I had an e-mail from the writer and director of the film, a lady by the name of Dictynna Hood, and she’d been scouting for a village to use in her first full-length feature film. As there were potentially scenes in the church and involving two of the characters singing in the choir, I was involved in discussions about the possibility of using the choir on film. No sooner had my visions begun of seeing my name in lights – admittedly very tiny ones at the end of some credits – than the decision was made to go with a choir more suitable to the filming process: in other words much better singers than us and people who could be subjected to the vagaries of filming schedules more easily.
When the actual filming happened, it all pretty much passed me by. I was aware that something was happening, by the fact that the village pub had suddenly developed blacked out windows, but I can recall neither seeing a film star or anyone that looked like they might be a director of photography, a key grip or even a best boy. Consequently I thought little more about it until earlier this year, word came through to the village that the film was finally nearing completion, after a duration by no means uncommon in the world of movies, and that it was hoped to gain a cinema release later in the year. I also discovered at this point that the film had actual proper famous people in it, including Claire Foy and Benedict Cumberbatch.
How had I missed that? Had it been kept secret to avoid hordes of screaming Cumberbatchites swamping the filming? Admittedly this was pre-Sherlock, before he became a household name (and any household, surely, would be thrilled to have such a fantastic name, packed full of rich consonants and exciting syllables), but he’d still been in Atonement, The Other Boleyn Girl and Starter For 10 when he came filming, and I’m not saying the village isn’t exciting, but I’ve known people who’ll come out for the opening of a bottle of pop, never mind somebody famous. Or maybe I was just off in the cinema, taking in big screen dramas while a smaller one was unfolding right on my own doorstep. But when the news came in that there’d be a screening in the village of the film before it went to cinemas, it felt like too good an opportunity to pass up.
Which is how I found myself conducting my first actual interview, in a quaint little tea room in the next village, on a cold afternoon in November. I had engineered opportunities to talk to two other directors last year, one of whom was Mark Cousins, whose 15 part epic The Story Of Film sits unwatched on my Sky+ box as we speak, desperately waiting for me to find time to watch it. So the fact that this was actually coming to me seemed too good an opportunity to miss, and Dictynna and I enjoyed a cream tea, while talking about everything from the films of Michael Haneke to whether Benedict would make a good Doctor Who. (I’m still so busy that a month later, I still haven’t typed it up, and I’m even sat writing this on my iPhone on a train to London. But at least it’s in the can. Or the voice memos. Or something.)
The screening that followed that evening was a real triumph for the power of cinema to bring people together, and marked the first time that I’ve attended an advanced screening where the director brought crisps and home-made cakes for the audience. (I genuinely hope it’s not the last time.) Sadly, there was nowhere in the village with suitable facilities to hold the screening, but the nearest town has a hall where they hold a monthly cinema club with a projector and a big screen. Which I also hadn’t heard of. But that evening, over 100 villagers and a few curious members of the film club packed the hall to see an advanced screening of Wreckers.
It took me around ten minutes to actually be able to focus on the film itself. I’ve seen a few films where I’ve known the landmarks, and it does give a slightly eerie sense when watching the film; if you’ve ever seen London landmarks featured in a film and walked those streets, you’ll have some understanding of the principle. I also saw another British film recently, Weekend, which was filmed on the streets of Nottingham, and which caused me to have a few moments of recognition which took me out of the film slightly, having worked there for two years. But this is nothing to the effect of watching a film made on the very small streets of a village that’s been your home for the past four years, not least because film geography and actual geography can be two different things.
Take, for example, the church. There’s a number of scenes set both inside and outside the church, and on two occasions characters have a conversation outside the porch, then turn and walk off through the trees to their houses. Here’s a shot of the porch itself:
There are trees to the left of the porch, which the characters wander through on their way home. And here’s a shot of exactly what’s through those trees:
Yes, through the trees is not a leafy, tree-lined path, but a walled churchyard from which the only escape is the gate opposite the porch, in completely the other direction. The temptation to stand up and to shout at the screen “WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!?!” was one that I barely resisted. Similarly, walking to your house through fields which are not connected, or walking to the school which appears to be in another village entirely in real life, were all disconcerting reminders that what we see on screen is a construct, and only as real as our imaginations, a point which Dictynna attempted to remind the audience of before the film.
The reaction afterwards was mixed, although I firmly believe that was the audience rather than the film. Every film needs to find its own audience, and Wreckers rather had one thrust upon it rather than naturally finding its own, but it was at least a lovely and heartfelt gesture to reward the patience of those that gave their time to its making. There is, I’m sure, some irony in the difference between the fictional village and its hotbed of infidelity and secrets, and the warm, open welcome which the actual villagers provided, but at least that generosity has been repaid in kind.
And as for me? Anyone who’s read this blog before may recall that I’ve already had one inanimate object I’d come into contact with become more famous than me; I have a music stand in church which I use when conducting, and that stand was used by the visiting choir’s director. It is in the film for around two seconds by my estimation, but it’s there on screen. If you look really closely.
So now, even my own music stand is more famous than I am. On reflection, It’s a good job I don’t like the taste of kangaroo testicles.
The Half Dozen: 6 Most Interesting Looking Trailers For December 2011
And here we are, the end of another year, and my first full year writing this blog. For me on a personal level, it’s been a journey I couldn’t have possibly envisaged, as it’s been one where I’ve watched more and more films, but sadly a busy work life and a training course outside of work mean that a few things have had to give, sadly including writing the blog at various points. But I’ve already managed to fit in 157 films in the cinema this year, about three a week, already 30 more than my previous record last year.
But December is always a busy month, with Christmas shopping and carol singing and stuffing turkeys and the like. Of my 127 last year, only six were in December, and this year may represent a similar challenge; as well as doing the equivalent of two full time jobs at the moment, I will be singing in a minimum of thirteen carol concerts and stuffing at least one turkey. (Or possibly a couple of poussin or a guinea fowl; even a teeny tiney turkey is a lot for Mrs Evangelist and I to get through on our own.)
So with film watching time at a premium, some tough choices have to be made. The biggest disappointment this year is the lack of any new Christmas films at Christmas, not least because someone decided it was a good idea to release Arthur Christmas in the middle of November. Last year’s Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale was an unexpected treat, but for a seasonal flavour this year you’ll have to track down one of the many showings of classic Christmas films at your local flicks, such as It’s A Wonderful Life, Die Hard or The Muppet Christmas Carol. I heartily recommend all of the above on the big screen if you get the opportunity, though.
The Half Dozen: 6 Most Interesting Looking Trailers For November 2011
November. The time of year when Americans have Thanksgiving, and we give thanks that we don’t have to eat a giant turkey twice in five weeks. Eating turkey curry until the second week in January because you’re mother’s bought a turkey bigger than she is is not something I’d want to go through once in a year these days, never mind twice, but I digress. We’ve nearly made it through another year, but there’s still a few cinematic treasures to be found before we get out the stuffing.
Thanksgiving, of course, normally means a big event movie, and now that Potter’s wrapped up and everyone’s losing interest in Rupert Grint (bless), the other big franchise based on popular books has had to step into the fray with a two part finale. Yes, just to eke it out a little longer for the general dissatisfaction of everyone who isn’t a fourteen year old girl, Twilight’s back this month with the first part of the last part, Breaking Dawn. On Thanksgiving itself, the US will be giving thanks for a trio of family films: Arthur Christmas, the new Aardman animation which we are getting this month as well, and Hugo and The Muppets, which sadly we have to wait for. In a sort of cultural exchange, they’re not getting Tintin until Christmas, but I know who’s got the better deal.
Anyway, onto this month’s breakdown. I’ve excluded a couple of the big hitters at the end of the month, Moneyball and 50/50, have fairly generic looking trailers for their type, so while I’m sure I’ll end up seeing them, they’ve not made this list. As well as those listed above, not making the cut this month are Johnny Depp (The Rum Diary), Nicolas Cage (Justice) or a giant human centipede (I’m sure you can guess). Here are the half dozen that did.
The Half Dozen: 6 Most Interesting Looking Trailers For October 2011
And so we come to October, and again my stupidly busy life means that I’m getting to October about two weeks after everyone else. Still, that’s not so much of a problem, mainly thanks to the last two weeks in September, when I inhabited the Cambridge Film Festival, my local annual cultural highlight which this year saw me taking in twenty-seven films. That might sound like a lot, but one gentleman I sat next to during Tyrannosaur advised me that he had, one year, seen forty-four films during the eleven days of the festival, yet it wouldn’t surprise me if there were people out there who could better that figure.
But as Mr 44 (for I never actually asked him his name) told me, what I effectively knew already, by seeing such a wealth of films in such a short space of time you’ve effectively denied yourself anything new and decent at the cinema for weeks afterwards. While I saw the September release Melancholia last weekend, I’ve already ticked off a number of the October releases. Last weekend’s Tyrannosaur, Midnight In Paris and Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark? Seem ’em. Also this weekend’s Sleeping Beauty, and still to come this month, the likes of Contagion, The Yellow Sea and The Silence. If you’ve not seen Tyrannosaur or Midnight in Paris yet, then allow me to attempt to convince you as they’re both excellent, and The Yellow Sea and The Silence are both varied spins on traditional genres that are worth seeking out, and Contagion’s a Jude Law performance and a better ending away from greatness. But more on that another time.
Anyway, by my self-imposed rule, which I’ve already broken at least once since I started, I only include films here that I’ve not yet seen. So here’s this month’s fifteen minutes of potential fame.
The Half Dozen: 6 Most Interesting Looking Movies For September 2011
What’s the best month for movies? Is it January or February, when the stream of awards contenders elevates the class of the multiplex for a brief period? Maybe May or June when the big blockbusters quite literally explode onto our screens? Well, based on the quality of what didn’t make this list, as well as what’s on it, one of the most interesting months of the year must be September. If you were to ask me why, you’d probably be expecting some form of in-depth analysis, which may be asking a bit much for my poor little brain at the end of a hard week – maybe it’s because we’re coming into festival season, the third of the great film seasons of the year, or maybe it’s because it’s the first month of the year ending in “ber”. Basically, I’ve got nothing.
What I have got, though, is a stack of quality trailers for you this month. As I said, the quality of what’s on the list is matched by what’s not. Some trailers, including those for Drive (which I have seen, and is, as the youngsters say these days, amazeballs) and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy will appear on my separate run-down of the trailers for the films I’m seeing at the Cambridge Film Festival this year. In addition, I’ve already seen Kevin Smith’s Red State, which I liked, but you probably won’t; there’s the British film that everyone’s talking about, Kill List, which apparently you should see as cold as possible, so I’m not going to inflict the trailer on you; the match up of one of the actors of the moment, Michael Fassbender with up and coming actress Mia Wasikowska, both playing in the dangerous regional English accent territory that Anne Hathaway fell foul of recently; and Tom Hardy / Joel Edgerton testosterone fest Warrior, which got very good reviews from the people that saw it at the secret screening that I failed to get into. Sorry, readers. Read the rest of this entry »
The Half Dozen Special: Cambridge Film Festival 2011
It barely seems possible that a whole year has gone by since last year, but I guess that’s how calendars work, so no point trying to fight it. September is here again, so it’s time for the 31st Cambridge Film Festival, and for me the second experience of one of the UK’s foremost festivals of film. Having lived in Cambridgeshire for three years, I’d never even seen a single film at the festival, but last year made up for it in spades, in the end seeing nineteen films over the eleven days of the festival. You can see the full list here on last year’s Half Dozen, but there were some real gems in there. I may not have seen the likes of The Desert Of Forbidden Art, Pelican Blood, Dark Souls or The People vs George Lucas if there weren’t playing at a festival, and I didn’t see a single film that I regretted. In addition, the surprise film, which everyone I spoke to had pegged as everything from The Social Network to Despicable Me, turned out to be Chico & Rita, which was a delight. I can only hope to be similarly surprised again this year.
Ah yes, this year. My cinematic obsession still knows no bounds, it seems, so this year’s trailer run down is somewhat longer. So far I’m booked to see 34 films, as well as talks by Mark Kermode and Neil Brand and the festival’s late night short film festival, Tridentfest. I’m going in having seen one of the 34 already – Drive, which is so good I couldn’t pass up the chance to see it again at the Festival, especially when director Nicolas Winding Refn is due to be there, but even though it’s my second favourite film of the year so far, I live in hope that something will sneak up, surprise me and manage to beat it. And in the process of writing this I’ve already had two recommendations of films that happen to be playing at the Festival that I’m not seeing – yet! Read the rest of this entry »
The Half Dozen: 6 Most Interesting Looking Trailers For August 2011
My wife and I both enjoy a trip to the cinema, but it’s fair to say that our criteria for when to go are somewhat different. I will happily watch a film if the day ends in ‘y’, but she is not always as keen. First among her list of reasons for not wanting to be in the cinema is if it’s a nice day, she can’t cope with the concept of being in a dark, air-conditioned room while it’s sunny. I get round this by spending my morning enjoying the sunshine, then descending into darkness around lunchtime and normally emerging four or five films later.
Still, if climate change is giving us anything, it’s wetter, cooler summers, which can only be good news for the worlds of Cine and houses of Picture of this world. Of course, by this point in the year, many of the bigger blockbusters have come and gone; already this month we’ve had Super 8, the understated Spielberg homage, and the umpteenth in the Planet Of The Apes series, but there’s still plenty of interest yet to come, including another franchise extender and what will be, in my continued cinema education, my first Almodovar seen on the big screen. Tasty.
Sarah’s Key
Kristin Scott Thomas seems to be virtually a film industry in herself. It feels strange to see a French drama now without her in, and she’s even popping up later this year in French set R-Patz drama Bel Ami. This time, the also-not-French co-star role is taken by Aidan Quinn and the chosen subject is World War II flashbacks, but other than that it appears to be another solid entry from the former Four Weddings star.
The Interrupters
I can only imagine a few disappointed, illiterate youths ending up watching this instead of their intended viewing of the latest comedic exploits of Will, Simon, Jay and Neil. Maybe it’ll do them good, as The Interrupters appears to be the most well timed movie ever made, and a reminder that no matter how bad things got in London a couple of weeks ago, it’s by far the only city with any trouble.
Kind Hearts And Coronets
To anyone my age, it may be that Alec Guinness is the beardy bloke from Star Wars. If that’s the case, I would strap them down and force them to watch The Bridge On The River Kwai. Unless of course I met them around now, in which case I’d pack them off to watch this Ealing comedy. If eight Alec Guinness performances don’t help to offset three short turns as Obi-Wan, then there’s plenty of other Guinness goodness waiting for them when they get back.
In A Better World
My continued quest to see all of the Best Foreign Language Oscar nominations each year will hit number four in August. I’ve already seen Incendies, Dogtooth and Biutiful, and so far I would have given Dogtooth the prize myself, but it’s maybe more an acquired taste than the others. Oscar voters gave it to this Danish drama, of course, so time will tell if my disgruntlement of last year that the wrong title won is repeated this year. As good as The Secrets In Her Eyes was, it wasn’t as good as The White Ribbon, and it was only a shade better than A Prophet. In A Better World, you have a lot to live up to.
Final Destination 5
This might feel a little out of place in such illustrious company, but I have a soft spot for horror, and for the Heath Robinson nature of the deaths of the Final Destination series in particular. I saw about ten minutes at Empire Presents: BIG SCREEN last weekend, and it was a very enjoyable 3D gore fest, making the most of its slim virtues. Whether it can maintain for the whole running time remains to be seen, but Tony Todd’s back and that alone is enough to be pressing my geek buttons.
The Skin I Live In
And finally, some Almodovar horror. Definitely the stand out trailer this month in my list in terms of oddness, it’s also one of own personal shames that I’ve never seen any of Pedro’s works in the cinema, a wrong I hope to put right before the month is out. It commits the cardinal trailer sin of being a foreign language film that doesn’t want to reveal it’s in a foreign language, but it’s just strange and menacing enough that I’ll let it off.
Empire Presents: BIG SCREEN
If you’ve been living on Mars for the last twenty-two years, you may not be aware that probably the most successful film magazine in print in the world is British, and it’s called Empire. (If you’ve been living on Mars, you’ve apparently got six arms and look like an extra from Attack Of The Clones, but more on that later.) Not only have the lovely staff at Empire Towers managed to put words and pretty pictures on paper for you twelve times a year for all of those past twenty-two years, but they’ve also branched out into other activities, and I don’t mean internets and Twitters and Chris Hewitt becoming slightly more famous. No, they’ve been hosting a well attended and publicly voted Movie Awards each spring and, for the past three years, a public event called Movie-Con at the BFI in London, with Hollywood stars in attendance and sneak previews of upcoming films.
Last year, one of those sneak previews was Scott Pilgrim vs The World, and when Edgar Wright casually announced this to the world on Twitter an unprecedented demand caused heavy over-subscription for the available tickets, and a meltdown of the BFI’s phone lines caused a lot of people to miss out. So the event had to grow, to be fair to the hundreds, possibly thousands, of fans disappointed last year. I had a mild coronary in the process of attempting to get tickets, as you may recall, but managed to get in and take another with me. Despite being on the back row and a host of other assorted dramas on the first day, I had an amazing time and have been counting down the days ever since like the rabid fanboy I so clearly am. Read the rest of this entry »
The Movie Evangelist 