Category: Films and movies

Whether big-studio or independent, celluloid or digital, anything about movies

Notes on a Scandal

Flower in the Oxford Botanical Gardens

To call Notes on a Scandal a ‘thriller,’ as many have done, is to strike close to the reasons for which I found it largely unsatisfying as a piece of cinematic work. While decently acted, the story just couldn’t justify the drama that the producers tried to spin around the story. It turned out more like an example of amplified tabloidism, rendered a bit surreal through the inappropriate Philip Glass soundtrack (though my sense that the music made the plot seem trivial may derive from how I associate Glass inescapably with the bombing scenes in The Fog of War).

While the film was not without interesting elements – how a narrator can both be exceptionally aware of the workings of the world around her and profoundly ignorant of how others perceive her – they are ultimately not enough to redeem it as a piece of storytelling. If you’re going to make a film about people violating societal taboos, they ought not be so wishy-washy about it. Nobody wants an uncommitted, neurotic villain, nor one with no particular artfulness through which to be redeemed.

Aeon Flux

I saw the film version of Aeon Flux today. The physics and biology were bad; the architecture and lighting were good. Overall, it makes me want to go to Berlin. It also makes me want to watch Gattaca again: a film with similar logical flaws, but a comparable commitment to aesthetics.

As virus-haunted-future films go, 12 Monkeys is much better. As lethal heroine films go, Ghost in the Shell remains the standard. The philosophical issues raised are less superficial, and the combat is infinitely more credible. There is a lesser extent to which Force = [ Mass * Acceleration / Physical attractiveness of person in question ]. Also, no matter how many Hollywood dollars they seem capable of bringing in, elaborate flips and cartwheels are simply not tactically effective.

Excellent BBC nature series

Landscape near Goreme, Turkey

Anyone interested in nature or geography should have a look at the spectacular television series “Planet Earth.” I watched a couple of episodes on Antonia’s very large television and was thoroughly impressed by the quality of the videography and the lengths they went to in order to get amazing imagery. I saw the episode featuring Lechuguilla Cave and another on mountains. Without a doubt, it is the best nature documentary series I have seen since The Blue Planet. Both were made by the BBC, and may constitute the strongest endorsement I have seen for that broadcaster.

I have been tempted many times to buy the DVD set of The Blue Planet, but don’t think it would be wise to buy the European version, which will not play on most North American devices. Both The Blue Planet and Planet Earth also have rather good websites. If you are in the UK, you can even download high resolution video clips. Unfortunately, they are only available as Windows-only DRM-protected Windows Media Player clips: hardly what you would want from a public broadcaster. Mac users will have to be satisfied with an excellent new background image.

All the President’s Men

Continuing to draw upon Kai’s excellent connection of DVDs, I watched All the President’s Men. Above all, it has reinforced my conviction that journalism is a noble but difficult profession. The amazing thing is that they were just relying on notes. These days, one can simply expect that all conversations, emails, and phone calls are being recorded.

Other people have already written better and cleverer things about the film than I can manage at the moment.

In the end, though, a reasonable person must suspect that the present American administration has engaged in deceit at a level that makes the Nixon administration look moderate by comparison. The question is when, if ever, that claim will be authoritatively confirmed or refuted.

Thirteen Days

I watched Kai’s copy of Thirteen Days tonight. As a historical re-enactment of the Cuban Missile Crisis, it is apparently quite accurate. A lot of the dialogue was taken straight from tapes made of the meetings. Though, from what I have read, our historical understanding of the crisis keeps changing as new evidence becomes available. One can only speculate how much of what has happened in world politics more recently will be improperly understood, unless such archives are eventually opened.

The tension between the military and civilian portions of government is a particularly interesting aspect of the film. The kind of autonomy granted to military forces – as required for strategic reasons – is profoundly worrisome, in a world where ever more states have ever more nuclear weapons. That’s what makes the crisis such a chilling incident: the disjoint between intentions and certain action, the possibility of error and catastrophe.

Crossing the Bridge

Radcliffe Infirmary Fountain

Tonight, I watched the copy of Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul that my flatmate Kai gave me. Quite aside from its virtues as a documentary, it demonstrates something about tourism. The whole thing is basically shot in areas we never saw: areas you couldn’t hope to access without knowledge of the local language. Those of us most familiar with English are lucky that it has become the standard for business, technology, and science. Unfortunately, that very status can help to push English speakers to the margins of places they visit.

The music that forms a constant backdrop to the film is excellent. Indeed, the musical segments are a lot more engaging, overall, than the various statements made by musicians about Istanbul or Turkish music. My favourite, among the musical offerings, is the rap music made by a man called Ceza. I will need to track down some more of his work. Just be sure not to watch the film using tiny laptop speakers as the audio source. The Etys and the A510 vie for the title of ‘best electronic purchase per dollar.’

PS. There has been a bit of progress on the job front. I actually have an offer of a job in Oxford, starting immediately. I am a bit wary for two reasons: it involves two shifts a week starting at 6:30am, and I suspect that the pace of academic work may get somewhat fevered this term (not that I could ever devote as many hours a day to it as my flatmate Alex does). On the matter of a job after I leave Oxford, there has been some progress as well. All this seems to indicate that even very tangential personal contacts are a more effective route than openly advertised positions and recruitment websites.

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Conciousness raising through free DVDs

There is a website that will supposedly send you a free DVD copy of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Some statistics are up, on how many tickets and discs they have given away. I have placed a request, and I will let you know if it actually works. They seem to be overwhelmed with thousands of requests at the moment, so that seems pretty unlikely.

If they do send me one, I will make sure to screen it publicly at least once. The case Gore makes is rigorous and compelling; this is also an interesting demonstration of how science, politics, and advocacy run together. I wrote about the film earlier.

Syriana

I saw Syriana with Claire this evening and, quite frankly, did not think much of it. The central messages – that the oil business, espionage, and Middle Eastern politics are murky – are exceptionally obvious. Furthermore, the story was told in such a way that no concern was ever really developed for any of the characters. The plot was complex, but lacking in suspense, and one torture scene was graphic and unpleasant enough to have us both looking away from the screen. While the point of the film may have been the sheer cynicism of these processes, and those engaged in them, it is not a message that seems original, or even well conveyed.

With neither subtlety, human appeal, or much of an ability to conjure a response, Syriana is a film better skipped.

The X-Files in retrospect

Unproductive pre-Christmas days are reminding me of evenings long forgotten. Specifically, those taken up in watching The X-Files and being terrified about all the pseudo-scientific content therein. These days, I am more appreciative about the opportunities the series provided to the emerging film and television industry in Vancouver, as several of my friends could describe on the basis of their personal experience.

I remember evenings after the point where my paternal grandfather replaced our television with one three times the size, in order to watch the World Cup – an event that had less than zero significance for me at the time and has not much more now – when I would watch new episodes of the X-Files and be unusually unable to sleep before the school days subsequent.

It is interesting how The X-Files was concerned to the point of paranoia about the dangers of government secrecy, whereas television today has largely embraced the mindset of the ‘War on Terror.’ 24 is an example that is shamefully compelling.