and that’s about as deep as it goes….
(Source: betweenglasspanes)
ANOTHER BLOG ABOUT FILMS
February 20, 2012
February 15, 2012
Shame and The Artist
A few thoughts on the people’s favourite (excluding the City of Liverpool), and shoe-in for as many Oscars as Adele’s had Grammys - Michel Hazanavicius’ paean to the Silent Era of cinema ‘The Artist’, and Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender’s uncomfortably intense but brutally brilliant ‘Shame’.
Over the last three months I’ve read, listened and watched more impassioned assertions and ardent declarations on these two films more than an on any other cinematic release since way, way, way back when last years Oscars were nearly upon us.
That said they are both so very, very good that I’m going to add my tuppence worth to the unregulated world that is the blogosphere.
So, as alluded to before, both films are supremely well realised works off cinematic art, helmed by seemingly fearless auteurs that operate outside of Hollywood’s cloying reach. All that said neither film is without reproach. Neither film has been free of criticism from critics or public alike, and to illustrate this at its most base level its necessary to point out that in the aforementioned City of Liverpool people demanded their money back as THEY HADN’T REALISED THE FILM WAS SILENT. Similarly in the screening yours truly attended a trio of ogreous Camden Town girls in the seats behind giggled uncontrollably every time Fassbender was naked (i.e a lot) and proceeded to natter throughout the films drawn out and thoroughly devastating climax. When a gentleman sitting in front of them told them to ‘shut the fuck up’ they’re proclaimed ‘it was a shit film anyways’.
I’m not suggesting we should start taking as gospel all that this country’s Jeremy-Kyle-Fodder opines on any given weeks releases, but they cant be ignored. Apart from the three girls who clearly hadn’t seen a man in the buff for some time, many more people whose profession it is to have opinions on these matters, concur to a certain extent.
Its is undeniable that McQueen’s uncompromising vision of a New York swathed in grey skies and artificial lighting, soulless spaces and seedy, anonymous hook-ups is hard to stomach and would thus be expected to divide opinion. Rightly or wrongly many people don’t want to pay good money to exit cinemas 101 minutes later, enveloped in ‘Shame’s overwhelming fog of utter grimness with some distinctly unpleasant sequences and images to stay with them for days to come. Furthermore, there are suggestions that to voluntarily become ‘intimately’ acquainted with the individuals portrayed in ‘Shame’ deserves a certain level of disclosure. McQueen decides, it has to be said not particularly originally in films of this ilk, to offer very little in the way of back story or any sense of traditional character development or emotional arch. Many things are alluded to while very little (in the way of irrefutable fact) is explicitly revealed. Presumably McQueen decided that an overriding sense of shallowness and emotional disconnection was necessary in an exploration of the pathology of insatiable sex addiction, however this understanding doesn’t dull the effect this has on the viewing experience.
February 15, 2012
ANOTHER BLOG ABOUT FILMS
I watch films. I read about films. I discuss films. I critique films. I thumb through reference books while I watch films. I fact-check films that open with ‘based on true events’. I watch films again.
Here, just to prove a point to myself, I’ll put to pen paper (unless there is a blogging phrase that’s passed me by?) and with time work out whether I can, with any modicum of success, write about films.
After half a decade out of education and half a decade behind, on top off, and under a bar squandering said education, I’ll attempt to sieve through the detritus in my noggin and rediscover something I genuinely believe I was once moderately OK at. Hopefully, with a bit of regular practice and writing on a subject I’m genuinely interested in, (as opposed to, say, the sociology of space (and place) or risk assessments outlining the correct way to transport potato’s), I should improve. And then I’ll have proved a point. To myself. I’m told I’m stubborn like that.
The brighter ones down at the front will have astutely observed that the first of the above paragraphs consisted of a bunch 3 or 4 word sentences and that the third paragraph comprised of sentences including upwards of a dozen words - one of which was ‘detritus’.
I’d call that improvement. So far, so good.
