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March 23, 2006
Match Point
There was a time when I could proudly say that I had seen all of Woody Allen's feature films. Three full days at the sadly missed Carlton Movie House in the mid 1980s filled in 'missing' films such as The Front, Interiors and Zelig. Although it had been a slow start for me (I hated his films until my mid 20s) all of Allen's 60s, 70s and 80s films had something going for them. They were either out and out funny or ironic, and frequently both. Then something happened. Whether it was the highly acrimonious divorce from Mia Farrow or publicity that came from it, Allen seemed to dry up. He was still making and appearing in films, but the only one I managed to see for eight years was the documentary about his European jazz tour Wild Man Blues (Barbara Kopple - 1997)- and that I had to search out to a underground cinema in London in 1999. Melinda and Melinda (2004) was a good film and had a local release, but was hardly classic Allen.
Match Point is not Allen's best film ever, it is not a return to his best mid 1970s films such as Manhattan and Annie Hall, yet it is certainly his best film since 'Husbands and Wives' and 'Shadows and Fog' from 1992. Unusually for Allen too is that the film is not only not set in New York, but in London - perhaps something to do with BBC funding?
In Match Point Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a high ranking professional tennis player who, bored with being not quite good enough on the circuit, takes up a position as a coach in a tennis club that attracts the well to do. He soon meets Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode) who introduces him to his sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer). Chris is drawn into the very well to do family and is more or less pressured in to a top job in the family business and marrying Chloe. Chris also meets Tom's beautiful, but slightly unstable fiancé Nola (Scarlet Johansson) and the inevitable affair develops. A fatal attraction develops and Chris must make the choice between his very comfortable existence with the Hewitt's and his sexual passion for Nola.
Match Point is a drama about ambition and obsession, the seduction of wealth, and the often-jarring relationship between love and lust. Perhaps most importantly, however, the story reveals the huge part luck plays in the events of our lives, refuting the comforting misconception that more of our life is under our control than it really is.
The subject matter is not a new area for Allen, who does not appear in the film, and Match Point is more or less a straight drama sprinkled with Allen's trademark irony. As always Allen get fabulous performances from his actors. Perhaps the only discordant mark against the film was the casting of James Nesbitt (Cold Feet) as a policeman, it is hard to take him seriously following his comedic roles (such as the scene in Cold Feet where he woo's Rachel (Helen Baxendale) by standing naked outside her house with a rose held between his lower cheeks) and the constant smirk on his face.
Overall, Match Point is an excellent film that maintains Allen's ironic view of modern upper class city society and returns him to the forefront of filmmaking.
4.5 stars
Posted by andrewrenaut at 12:51 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2006
The Passenger
The Passenger.
It is thirty years since I first saw this film staring Jack Nicholson in the role of a journalist who uses the death of a fellow hotel guest to change his identity and tries to escape his frustrated life, and I had more or less forgotten about it. However, with its huge reputation and the Astor playing it for two weeks in a restored version (It doesn’t look like they found the original negative, but worked from an OK print.) it was a good opportunity to compare The Passenger with more recent films about journalistic ethics such as Capote and Good Night and Good Luck.
Well how has stood the test of time? Firstly, this film is achingly slow. In the 70 year-old Astor the sound of the audience travels through the dress circle far more so than in a modern cinema, and the fidgetiness of the audience was clear. Leonard Maltin’s guide puts the film at 119 minutes and the new print comes in at 126 minutes. The first ten minutes of Nicholson’s character David Locke – a play on the films premise that we are locked into to our lives and it is impossible to escape our given identity – traveling through desert to unsuccessfully meet a band of rebels in an undisclosed northern African military state, seems to go on for ever and it is only when Locke’s temper explodes after bogging his Land Rover that the story really begins. Locke trades his identity for that of a gunrunner – Robertson (Charles Mulvehill). At this point we see Locke using Robertson’s to further his career as an investigative journalist - or do we? We are taken on a road trip through London, Germany, and Spain (lovely use of the Gaudi rooftops of Bacelona), with Locke befriending a young architecture student (whose name is never given.) played by a sultry Maria Schneider (Last Tango In Paris) - who more or less disappears after this film. Robinson is of course wanted by the authorities and together with his former wife (Jenny Runacre) and film editor (Ian Hendry) who eventually realise Locke has taken on Robinson’s identity follow him and “The Girl”. They all finally catch up with him in a dusty little town.
The film is best summed up by its final shot. Beginning with a very very slow zoom through the bars of the hotel room onto the dusty square where a series of small yet familiar events happen, but also the arrival of the African gun buyers. The shot then passes through the bars and follows the arrival of Locke’s former wife and the police. We then return to the window where Lock lays on his bed in the same position he found Robinson.
The film is brilliant in the way it depicts Locke as a man without direction, but its filmic style is purely early seventies, and as such very dated. Its early hand held camera work is very grainy and on the huge Astor screen difficult to watch. No doubt there were location difficulties, but it demonstrates just how far colour film stock has progressed. Although I disagree with the assertion that other people’s identities are never better than our own and that the world is a stark alien place, this is one of Michelangelo Antonioni’s more cohesive films – others include Blowup (1966) and Zabriske Point (1970). However, this might have made a better film if Locke had used his new identity to further his making of the film about the damaging struggle of the military against the people of Africa at the time of Idi Amin and apartheid. Overall, a very interesting film, but one that threw away many opportunities.
8 stars.
Posted by andrewrenaut at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2006
Kinky Boots
Kinky Boots
Kinky Boots has had a lot of promotion over the past three weeks that is something that always sets off alarm bells. However, while it is not Good Bye and Good Luck or Capote, Kinky Boots is fairly good escapist entertainment.
Kinky Boots is something of a mixture of the excellent little Australian film Spotswood and its well-known cousin Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Like Spotswood it is set in a small shoe-making factory that time forgot. The old owner is living in a previous age, but keeping the factory going for the sake of the livelihood of his employees. When he dies (Kinky Boots) or is forced to look at his finances (Spotswood) a new direction is required. Both films rely on the quirkiness of the employees, but where Spotswood has Anthony Perkins as a hard nosed accountant who is softened by the ways of the factory, Kinky Boots has Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton, Will - Secret Life of Us) going through a similar scenario as that of the less than likable son of Monarch of the Glen (BBC TV) - called back to run a failing business, leaves high pressure fiancée for a girl from the other side of the tracks, Lauren - beautifully played by Sarah-Jane Potts. Edgerton plays the character in a rather surly manner that makes the character quite unlikable. (Not that his character in Secret Life of Us was that pleasant either.) and the final scene where he is forced onto the runway at a Milan shoe fair, are cringe worthy.
Although promoted as a Joel Edgerton film, this is a really a vehicle for Chiwetel Ejiofor as Lola, a Transvestite who Charlie "saves" from thugs. Lola is a dreamer, but has a successful career as a performer in a small, off Soho, night club and Charlie is made to see the potential of moving from well made, but poor selling, men’s shoes into specialist shoes for heavy men who easily break the heals of stiletto shoes made for women. There is the usual conflict between the Lola and Charlie and a factory worker - who gives his respect when Lola gives away winning an arm wrestling contest.
It is really Chiwetel's performance and his singing in particular that are the stand out in this film. It is not camp in the way the Pricilla is and it avoids the miming of disco songs used in so many films since Muriel’s Wedding. Chiwetel, if he indeed does do the singing, sings magnificently and I would recommend the soundtrack.
This is not an altogether bad film, it is a just a little bland and flat in its direction and performances - Chiwetel excepted. As you can see it seemed to draw in so many other films for its story and was therefore for me not terribly original. This is not Four Wedding and a Funeral, but likable, feel-good film, that will make a great winters evening video night in.
6 stars.
Posted by andrewrenaut at 10:23 AM | Comments (1)
March 07, 2006
Samsung Video Camera
One of my students brought in a video camera today for a bit of a lesson on how to use it. It is brand new but didn't come with an instruction manual. Nothing much unusual there. But it cost a massive AU$200.00. (Roughly US$150.00) Sure its Hi8, fairly large, and old technology, but Hi8 is equal to DVD and MiniDV in quality and the larger drum will not wear as quickly (My MiniDV is showing signs of wear.) My first Vedeo 8 camera (a fairly basic one at that) cost over $3000.00 in 1987. The only drawback with this camera is that it does not have a microphone input (it has a fairly noisy mechanism.) Yet for a family taking home videos it's remarkably good value for money.
Posted by andrewrenaut at 04:05 PM
March 04, 2006
Finally getting somewhere!
Finally getting somewhere with this Moveabletype on my website! The dates are now displaying properly and when you click on a link it should point you in vaguely the right direction. So I'll post this and see how we go...
Posted by andrewrenaut at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)