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.

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.

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...

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.