ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT, THE

Source: WIKIPEDIA

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1994 - Australia/U.K. (PolyGram Filmed Entertainment/Australian Film Finance Corporation/Latent Image Productions Pty. Ltd.)


DIRECTOR: Stephan Elliott
SCRIPT: Stephan Elliott
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Brian J. Breheney
MUSIC: Guy Gross

    Oh the shock! Oh the controversy! Oh the 1994, when the world was a very different place indeed! I'm pretty sure that before Priscilla... hit the screens I had absolutely no idea about the existence of drag queens and even once the reviews started to circulate I still couldn't quite get my head around the very concept. I was, in fact, convinced that the idea of blokes wearing outlandish female costumes to sing and dance in them was simply made up for the film by someone with a very original sense of humour. I might have not erred alone on that one... So, with the shock value gone, what's left of Priscilla... in 2015? (un)Surprisingly a lot. Here's what and why.

ADVENTURE, THE (L'AVVENTURA)

source: WIKIPEDIA

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1960 - Italy/France (Cino del Duca/Produzioni Cinematografiche Europee/Societé Cinématographique Lyre)

DIRECTOR: Michelangelo Antonioni
SCRIPT: Michelangelo Antonioni
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Aldo Scavarda
MUSIC: Giovanni Fusco




    When L'Avventura was screened to the audiences of the Cannes Film Festival in 1960 it was actually booed by the large majority of the critics and both Antonioni and the female star of the film Monica Vitti pretty much legged it from the cinema. I guess it tells us a thing or two about those critics. It has happened to so many masterpieces though. At first misunderstood and underestimated, the time and devotion of the fans eventually give those films well deserved justice. It's such a common pattern it's almost a rule. Which, in turn, is unfortunate, since where's a rule, there are bound to be exceptions. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...

ADAM'S RIB

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA

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1949 - USA (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

DIRECTOR: George Cukor
SCRIPT: Ruth Gordon, Garson Kanin
CINEMATOGRAPHY: George J. Folsey
MUSIC: Miklós Rózsa

Oh how cruel can the Gods of Passing Time be! Oh how ruthless the relativism and changing contexts are! Oh how fresh and provocative, and daring the ADAM'S RIB must have been in 1949. Well, that was a looooong, loooong time ago and today, it isn't. And while it's still a lovely film with superb performances from Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, it simply isn't the film it thinks it is any more. And what's worse, in the world of 2013 it also turned into a bit of a bitterly ironic caricature of its own self. Oh what a cruel, cruel trick has the time played on this film indeed!

ACTRESS (a.k.a. CENTER STAGE, YUEN LING-YUK)

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA

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1992 - Hong Kong (Golden Way Films Ltd.)

DIRECTOR: Stanley Kwan
SCRIPT: Peggy Chiao, Tai An-Ping Chiu
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Poon Hang-Sang
MUSIC: Huang Jin Chen

     With this film, I really thought I hit my first serious stumble during this whole book-film-blog project. It's all fun and games when you just go along watching and reviewing films, at your leisure, doing a bit of research here and there, picking your brain and putting it all into words, but there is one, critically essential requirement that simply cannot be bypassed. I need to be able to watch the film first. And in this case it didn't seem to be all that simple. At least at the beginning. Here's what happened:

AN ACTOR'S REVENGE (YUKINOJŌ HENGE)

SOURCE: Wikipedia

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1963 - Japan (Daiei Studios)

DIRECTOR: Kon Ichikawa
SCRIPT: Natto Wada, Daisuke Itō

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Setsuo Kobayashi
MUSIC: Masao Yaki, Tamekichi Mochizuki

     Like most proper gaijins, since I've seen a couple of Kurosawa films, went through manga and anime phase in my youth, and at least once in my lifetime bought a pack sushi from Tesco, I consider myself a bit of an expert on Japan. I mean, we've all seen Tom Cruise being the samuraiest of the samurai and we've made jokes about the size of Japanese men's... well, nevermind that, right? Okay, I'm kidding. I have done a bit more than that. I did try to learn Japanese for a little while and I did do some post-diploma Oriental studies. Which (combined) achieved only as much as making me painfully aware how ignorant in this field I had been before and how not much wiser I have become after. So, not an expert then. Still, I had just enough background to know where to go to start digging and believe me, dig you should, because the more you know, the more you will appreciate this unusual and strangely beautiful film. Or just read on. After all, I've done all the hard work already.

ABRE LOS OJOS (OPEN YOUR EYES)

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1997 - Spain (CANAL+ España, Las Producciones del Escorpión S.L, Les Films Alain Sarde) 

DIRECTOR: Alejandro Amenábar
SCRIPT: Alejandro Amenábar, Mateo Gil
PHOTOGRAPHY: Hans Burman
MUSIC: Alejandro Amenábar, Mariano Marín

     As it happens I am now currently watching the whole run of Twin Peaks on DVD and I can't escape the feeling that those posts of mine here, on this blog, seem to be falling more and more into the Log Lady Intros pattern. Unclear message, vaguely relating to the reviewed film, a bit of a drivel, really. And that's on a good day, otherwise it's just a repetitorium of 'my expectations against reality' routine. I guess there is only as much originality in the world and most of it is elsewhere anyway.

And so, this time...

                            ...we'll go all over it again. But at least I've got an excuse. First, I don't like Spanish cinema that much (not from what I've experienced of it so far) which, admittedly, has a lot to do with  overreacting women shouting a lot, because Pedro Almodóvar told them to. And second, I have already seen one Amenábar's film and absolutely hated it (how lucky, how very lucky of us that THE SEA INSIDE did not make it to the book!). So, as you can surely appreciate, the forecast was not so good. On the other hand, I was desperate to finally find a Spanish film I would actually like (unless we 'forget' that PAN'S LABYRINTH is a co-production and call it Spanish) so I think it is fairly important that I do stress, that my prejudice in this case was not taking over. It was there, true enough, but I've done the best I could not to cloud my vision. Which doesn't matter anyway, because it is a good film and I'm always willing to give credit where credit's due. Not as good as many critics would have you believe, but I'm happy to announce that finally I've found a Spanish film that I like. There. I said it.

A ONE AND A TWO (YI YI)

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA

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2000 - Taiwan (Atom Films, Nemuru Otoko Seisaku Iinkai, Omega Project)

DIRECTOR: Edward Yang
SCRIPT: Edward Yang
PHOTOGRAPHY: Wei-han Yang
MUSIC: Kai-Li Peng

      There is an old Polish poem based on folklore fairy tales about a noble man, Twardowski, who signs a pact with the devil. Wealth and all in exchange for the soul. Usual T&C's apply. The repossession of the soul was supposed to take place in Rome, which made it quite easy for Twardowski to wave his middle finger in front of the devil's face for long years simply by not travelling to Italy. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Of course, as it always happens in those kind of stories, all this fooling around wasn't meant to last. And so, one night, Twardowski found himself in an inn, where the devil jumped at him demanding the soul. Twardowski tried to shrug the devil off but it turned out that the name of the inn, which he didn't pay attention to, was... yes, you got it - Rome. Give yourself a biscuit. The story goes on a little bit more but we are going to stop here, because this is where the parallel between the story and my encounter with A ONE AND A TWO lies. You see, if I'm Twardowski and the film is the inn then... well, then the inn isn't called Rome, naturally, it's called New Wave Cinema.

Oh my.

A NOUS LA LIBERTE

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA.ORG

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1931 - France (Film Sonores Tobis)

DIRECTOR: René Clair
SCRIPT:  René Clair
PHOTOGRAPHY: Georges Périnal
MUSIC: Georges Auric

     My word, I was so ready to hate this film I should probably hang my head in shame and think about what I've (nearly) done. In my defence though I'd like to say that all I had to start with was the year, 'freedom' in the title and a glimpse of a review (I avoid reading about films before watching them so that I don't get my opinion influenced too much) from which my eye fished out words like 'left-wing', 'socialist' and 'propaganda'. My heart sank and was not far from knocking out a sizeable hole in the bottom of the Mariana Trench but then I have spotted another word that made me stop recoiling from the anticipated terror. A 'comedy' it said. And with that single word a tiny flicker lit up at the end of the tunnel. Thankfully it wasn't a train either.

PROJECT A, PART II ('A' GAI WAK JUP JAP)

SOURCE: IMDB.COM

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1987 - Hong Kong (Golden Way Films Ltd, Paragon Films Ltd)


DIRECTOR: Jackie Chan
SCRIPT: Jackie Chan, Edward Tang
PHOTOGRAPHY: Yiu-Tsou Cheung
MUSIC: Siu-Tin Lai

     As soon as you realise that this is a Jackie Chan film, you start asking yourself 'why?'. I mean, we all know Jackie, don't we? Affable, with a smile so child-friendly to make a puppy Labradors start calling their union reps to organise an industrial action, and with a tendency to shower us with characters, who, while lovable, are not always up there with the Daniel Day Lewises of the acting Pantheon. Also, the reader's vigilant eye will no doubt locate the all-worrying 'PART TWO' in the title prompting the inquisitive mind to ponder, what the hell happened to the PART ONE and was it just insignificant, or to put it simply, a pile of manure? The reader, indeed, would be totally excused to wonder, ponder, ask questions and doubt. I know I did. And the answers are...

8 1/2

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA

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1963 - France/Italy (Cineriz, Francinex)

DIRECTOR: Federico Fellini

SCRIPT: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, Brunello Rondi  

PHOTOGRAPHY: Gianni Di Venanzo

MUSIC: Nino Rota

     Ah, Maestro! It's been a long time! A very long time, in fact. It's been so long, Maestro, that I fear I just grew accustomed to the fact that we love you, signore Fellini, without remembering why we love you and what for. I was scared that over the years I have taken you for granted myself, that getting to know you as a child I have never tried to confirm the foundations of my devotion to your talent. I have done, what I criticise in others - I was so sure of your greatness I didn't try to question it, to verify it. So now we meet again. Me, more than twenty years older, grown up, far more saturated with life, than when we first met. And you, still dead, I'm afraid. But that should not be a problem, I'll just do all the talking.

THE 42nd STREET

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA

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1933 - USA (Warner Brothers Pictures)

DIRECTOR: Lloyd Bacon
SCRIPT: Rian James, James Seymour, Whitney Bolton (uncredited)
PHOTOGRAPHY: Sol Polito
MUSIC: Harry Warren

     Now, where was I...

Busy, is the answer. It is not a witty answer, nor especially exiting but at least it's honest and the best one I've got. Also, it's not really worth wasting any more time on, so let's just get started. There's a film's carcass on the operating table awaiting to be dissected. I better try and stop myself from the urge to lick the scalpel.

THE 400 BLOWS (LES QUATRE CENTS COUPS)

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA

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1959 - France (Les Films du Carrose/Sedif Productions)

DIRECTOR: François Truffaut
SCRIPT: François Truffaut, Marcel Moussy
PHOTOGRAPHY: Henri Decaë
MUSIC: Jean Constantin

     Will it not be a little bit worrying if I start with the words 'I was dreading this film so much'? And also, if I add that I have not had seen this film before, I knew nothing about it and all I knew about the director was just his significance to the La Nouvelle Vague? I guess it would, if I were a pay-for film critic, but thankfully I am nothing more than a one-of-a-billion cinema enthusiast occupying a tiny little corner of those mighty internets. It still doesn't make it quite OK but at least there's no one here to kick me out of this job, and then again, appreciate the honesty. After all I must be the only person (or at least one of very few) who doesn't mind to admit to it, instead of copy&paste-ing fragments from Wikipedia pretending, that I knew it all since I was five.

     So, yes, the bottom line is that THE 400 BLOWS surprised me, and surprised me positively which is the kind of surprising I don't mind in the slightest. So let's break it down into a handful of paragraphs to see why.

3-IRON (BIN-JIP)

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA

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2004 - South Korea/Japan (Kim Ki-duk Film/Cineclick Asia)

DIRECTOR: Kim Ki-duk
SCRIPT: Kim Ki-duk
PHOTOGRAPHY: Seong-back Jang
MUSIC: Slvian








This was exactly what I was waiting for and what I was hoping for when I started the blog. Yes, it is great to get the opportunity to write a few words about the films I already know and love. Even more when I have to wade through choices I neither agree with nor even understand. But the ultimate prize is a discovery. Stumbling upon a film I most likely would have overlooked otherwise, and which would be a revelation, something to blow me away, sweep me of my feet and ascertain my my view in what the cinema should be about: telling stories and making us forget about the real world for as long as the film lasts. 3-IRON does both in a most superb way. It's been a while since I got charmed by a film so much and to be honest, I don't expect jewels like this one to wait for me behind every corner. But it's so good they still there and no matter how much older I get, no matter how many films I've seen, there is still something there to surprise me in that fresh and totally unpretentious way. And here's why:

THE 39 STEPS

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA

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1935 - U.K (Gaumont British Picture Corporation)

DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
SCRIPT: John Buchan, Charles Bennett, Ian Hay
PHOTOGRAPHY: Bernard Knowles
MUSIC: Hubert Bath, Jack Beaver, Charles Williams







   There is no question about Alfred Hitchcock's cinematic legacy. And I'm not taking it just for the face value, I do recognise his genius myself. But the rule of 'credit where credit's due' is a double-edged weapon. And for that reason I am not keen on giving said credit where it has not been earned properly. The 39 Steps seems to me to be a perfect example. And even if I wasn't really sure what to expect, I can definitely assure you: whatever it was, I did not get it. Except for disappointment, that is.

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

SOURCE: IMDB

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1968 - USA/U.K. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

DIRECTOR: Stanley Kubrick

SCRIPT: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke

PHOTOGRAPHY: Geoffrey Unsworth

MUSIC: Classical

     I was so enthusiastic about the prospect of writing about 2001 that one could almost take it for giddiness. Having to wade through the communist propaganda in the last two films, turning into my favourite genre for a change and one of most iconic titles within it as well, felt like fast-approaching holiday after winning the lottery jackpot. And then it hit me. First, as with so many other titles, I have not properly watched this film for more than ten years, maybe even longer. And second, I've just put myself in position where I am supposed to write something smart on a subject that hundreds of critics already wrote just about everything. No pressure then. 'Crap!', I thought to myself using an unorthodox (beginning with an 'f') spelling of that word. But a job's a job and a simple blogger's got to do what a simple blogger's got to do. So I sat down, whimpered a bit and then watched the 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY very carefully indeed. Here's what I found:

TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER (2 OU 3 CHOSES QUE JE SAIS D'ELLE)

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1967 - France (Anouchka, Argos, Carrose, Parc)

DIRECTOR: Jean-Luc Godard

SCRIPT: Jean-Luc Godard, Catherine Vimenet

PHOTOGRAPHY: Raoul Coutard

  

   It is quite funny, how deciding on watching the films from 1001 MOVIES... in alphabetical order rather than chronological, accidentally put together two films that suddenly created some sort of a context for each other. In the red corner, an Italian Marxist Bertolucci with his 1900 and in the... other red corner a French Marxist, Godard with TWO OR THREE THINGS... You think a draw? Of course not, that would be far too easy and too little fun as well. Only because they both hark back to the same ideology, doesn't mean there are any similarities. Which is just as good because there are none. And actually, I tell you what, forget Bertolucci. Godard deserves some punches without anyone else's help.

1900 (Novecento)

source: IMDB

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1976 - Italy/France/West Germany (Produzioni Europee Associati)

DIRECTOR: Bernardo Bertolucci

SCRIPT: Franco Arcalli, Bernardo Bertolucci, Giuseppe Bertolucci

PHOTOGRAPHY: Vittorio Storaro

MUSIC: Ennio Morricone  

   So there you go. Only second film on the list and I'm already struggling to come up with something witty to kick off with. But there are two options though. I could take all the blame, go down the sackcloth and ashes route, admit publicly that I'm nothing more than a half-wit pretending to know anything about cinema (or anything at all for that matter), or... well, blame the film. But can you? Can you actually turn around, rise your head and face the behemoth of a film, backed up by names like Bertolucci, Storaro, Morricone, Lancaster, De Niro, Depardieu, Sutherland? Can you stand confidently in the way of a pounding train that this five-and-a-half hour of historical, political, social, nostalgic, coming-straight-from-the-heart epic of a movie is and still hope to survive? Wouldn't it be a blasphemy? A lunacy? An attention-seeking stunt? Would my family, my friends, my friends' pets ant their fleas not be cursed to oblivion by the lynching mob of film critics with their steaming Starbucks cups and cheap Biros raised in angry, clenched fists?

Maybe. But it's still better than admitting that it was me, who didn't get the brilliance of 1900.

12 ANGRY MEN

source: Wikipedia

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1957 - U.S.A. (Orion-Nova)

DIRECTOR: Sidney Lumet
SCRIPT: Reginald Rose
PHOTOGRAPHY: Boris Kaufman
MUSIC: Kenyon Hopkins 

   Only now I properly realised what did I get myself into. And don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the fact that for the next 20 years or so I have committed myself into writing a blog that has a very slight significance in the grand scale of things, or that the list of films is swarming with titles which normally I would appreciate no more than a persisting itch in the gentlemanly areas. No. That I can live with, I've worked as a journalist for long enough to be able to convince myself that 'professionalism demands it' and since professionalism is a frame of mind, not being paid and hardly even read, doesn't change anything here. So no, it's not that. What really started to bother me, just before I've watched my first film, was the cold realisation, that I'm going to be reviewing films, sometimes forgotten, mostly obscure, very often quite foreign, and still try not to include spoilers. Why? Because that's something the 1001 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE did not manage to achieve. And I don't want to be just as good. I need to be one step ahead. I need to be better.

Which is going to be, in publishable words, rather difficult.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU READ BLOGS

   Can I blame my friends for this? The thing is, since last year some of them came up with those annoying blogs. Annoying because my humble self have already started in the dust and rust covered past three of those and abandoned them all fairly quickly. Now, that is a perfectly legitimate thing to do with a blog. After all, we all did it, did we not? You come all enthusiastic, bursting with ideas, full of optimism and good will and get fed up with it all sooner than you could say ‘oh-wow-I’ve-had-a-visitor-last-month-wait-no-it-was-me-from-a-computer-in-the-library’.

So, yes. I think I can blame my friends for this and so should you. In case I start this blog, carry on for three months and abandon it like every single one of them before, remember that you should blame my friend for this. For having better ideas than mine and for being consistent (unlike me). And for making me jealous and coming up with an idea that surely is silly, over the top and has a potential of mildly cool if I only managed to carry on for longer than, say, three entries. But then again, no one visits forgotten blogs so why should I worry?