24fps: LAKEVIEW TERRACE

Where did Neil Labute go wrong? In the Company of Men was a fantastic and memorable debut but what has he come up with since? It seems the old adage is true. You really are only as good as your last movie. Still, if Neil is only as good as this, I’m not sure that would be so terrible. I mean it’s not the best film you’re going to see this year, but it sure as heck ain’t the worst either. Keep your expectations low and you might just enjoy it as DVD rental like I did. This is what counts as my idea of a movie to watch with the better, smarter half of those two people residing at Perridge Mansions. I can follow the story no matter how much natter I get in the left ear! Although it has to be said the sound recording was abysmal – I could barely make out the dialogue in some early scenes even when my left ear was free. As I suggest – the story itself is entirely run-of-the-mill though I have to say I do enjoy films where the director at least follows my first rule: Do nothing wrong! Nothing is so stupid you can’t live it for one hundred-plus minutes and Samuel L Jackson is actually called upon to act in some scenes and even if he’s not exactly straining himself it’s better to see him in this than playing XXX non-character Augustus Gibbons which is just humiliating. The racial theme never really develops fully (as I suspect nobody wants to see that film yet) so it remains a by-the-numbers thriller. I enjoyed it – for what it was. And Lady P thought it was a good’un too. Mind you we have more than a passing interest in the theme

24fps: FIVE EASY PIECES

Five Easy Pieces (1970). Where do I start with this one? Shall I say MY SECOND MOST FAVORITE FILM OF ALL TIME? Nah, you’d get bored hearing me say stupid things like that all the time. What can I say? Well, it’s American Independent cinema like they don’t make anymore. There’s a hundred and one critical essays about it floating around the web. I ain’t going to be able to say anything as smart as what has already been said so … I won’t bother.

All I can say is that this speaks to me personally. As do all my favourite things. I don’t like these films cuz they be smart, po-lit-i-cal or any some such. I likes ‘em because they hit a nerve. “When will he stop going on about his dad?” Sorry guys, but that scene cuts me up every time. I can’t help it! OK so we”ll put that to one side. What really gets to me is Bobby’s predicament. That is why I love this film. It describes a familiar feeling that I just can’t shake myself. It offers no real solutions either. In its quiet, studied way it addresses a problem that I’ve not seen described in any other film. There are no wasted moments here – “That’s a wig you wear, isn’t it?”

Bobby wants to be honest. Indeed he is honest, but the world just doesn’t present itself in way that he can accept it. Honesty he finds is a brutal stick, to use as a weapon or a defence. Bobby wants too much. He gladly takes on the role of rough blue collar rig worker and its easy camaraderie, but is horrified by the ultimate fate of his ‘poor’ friends and the lengths they are driven to in order to survive. Elton and Stoney always make me think of Barney and Betty Rubble for some reason. Bobby loves ‘his girl’ Rayette, but has to force down the contempt he also has for her lack of er, well, intellectual depth. She’s funny, loving and loyal, but in the end that is just not enough. And yet when later in the movie someone else decides she lacks ‘class’ he doesn’t think twice about defending her. But is that what he does? Nah, the intellectuals make him just as sick too.

Bobby appears dumbfounded by the duality of people. He wants them to be smart enough to have a view, but when they do have a view he finds them intractable. We are never quite sure whether Bobby has any real talent or not. The five easy pieces are too easy for him, yet he is on the run from something. Inability, fear of failure, I dunno. For me the film just sums up precisely the feeling I have that things just won’t fall into place – ever. That there is something within gnawing away within waiting for the moment to explode, or the person to explode at. That life isn’t going to break down into a series of five easy pieces that you can live with.

And yeah “I want you to hold it between your knees!”

Though that diner scene is the one well-remembered scene in the movie it’s not the crucial one – that comes later when Bobby turns on his real peers. That later scene is less well-remembered , and perhaps for obvious reasons. It doesn’t lend itself to repetition or ‘our’ shared experience. I would say more but that’s it. “I don’t even want to talk about it.” It’s about a man on unsafe ground. The ending perfect. I mean who really knows what’s going to happen next?

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out.” I get that a lot.

24fps: BLACK NARCISSUS

Black Narcissus (1947) is, wait for it, MY FAVOURITE FILM OF ALL TIME! “How is this possible?” you say. Let me explain.

It was written, directed and produced by ‘the Archers’, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Oh, you want more? I don’t know, that should be enough for anyone! But why then not The Red Shoes or The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp? Well, those two do feature in my top 100, Blimp quite highly, but in Black Narcissus I find everything I want. Those things include the nostalgia inherent in picking an ‘old’ movie rather than a modern one. It’s only as films age that they acquire perfect taste. I’m not going to say anything about wine – don’t worry.

I suppose the thing that stands out most obviously is the subject matter. Name me one other film where ‘nuns go mad in the Himylayas’. So its striking in its obtuseness to begin with. The story seems wafer thin in that not a great deal seems to happen and when it does it doesn’t seem to amount to very much, except for the fact that it does! Watching this as a child I fell in love with this on the basis that it was just had a fantastic thriller ‘ending’ – a life and death struggle between two nuns at that! Now of course the many layers of sexuality and repressed desire strike me most agreeably.

Add to that photography by Jack Cardiff against which many a master painter of old fades into insignificance. Rarely a film of that age where almost every single frame could live quite easily as a print on the living room wall. The matte paintings that lead you to fully accept that Wales is somewhere in Asia are still astonishing. Maybe not entirely believable, but still astonishing.

Still not convinced. I refer you to the scene where Kathleen Bryon applies her lipstick, in ultra close-up, not for the first time in her life one thinks. For me that is probably the high point of the medium itself! Within that scene notice the bravura editing and movement, truly painting with light. For more chills again with Kathleen Byron her reappearance at the door as Deborah Kerr tugs at the bell rope. There isn’t anything in the Exorcist to approach that for the sudden realisation of a purely evil intent.

OK, it’s not all sex and horror! There are some amazing scenes in flashback of Deborah Kerr’s life before her character Sister Ruth joins the order. Dazzling colour to shame the pre-raphaelites! And David Farrar as the love interest? Well, speaking as a straight man, and that’s pretty straight as the English go, I almost fell in love with him myself. Having him ride around on the smallest of ponies does nothing to diminish his mystique and the final shot of him in the rain looking after the one thing he cannot have and brushing his hair back in the most manly of manly ways is simply magnificent. And I don’t give a hoot how that sounds!

Is that enough? I’ve not mentioned countless favourite scenes. Or even Flora Robson. Or Sabu. “3pm to 4pm, physics with the physical Sister!” Or Jean Simmons! Or my favourite line of dialogue in any movie ever – “I DON’T LOVE ANYONE!”

As a final note I’d just like to say that if you haven’t seen a decent print of this film then you’ve not seen it at all. I caught a version on cable that was barely watchable. I think this is out or soon to be out on Blu-ray soon. Get that. Or the Critereon DVD version I’ve got with all the really great extras on it.

There is an absolute wealth of information out there on this film if you look hard enough and I’ve discovered a few new tidbits myself today!

Did I say this is MY FAVOURITE FILM OF ALL TIME?

24fps: ANNIE HALL

Annie Hall. What a wonderfully simple unpretentious title. It’s hard to imagine a film getting a title like that now. It’s easy when the film is a biopic – I mean you know what to expect or rather who – but just who the heck is Annie Hall?

If this were a simple love story it wouldn’t stand so many repeated viewings, but here it is at the top of my personal list and a safe bet to pull off the shelf and view any time. It’s made easy by the episodic nature and relatively fast pace. Each scene has a different hook, a fresh gimmick, a new joke, sometimes sophisticated, sometimes banal, romantic, sexy, always funny and just full, rich. Rich in language and style without ever being flashy or just about the surface. A moment of perfect clarity for Woody. It’s original too. When Christopher Walken does his thing. When the subtitles reveal the thoughts of the characters. When Woody gets to prove his point in the cinema queue and then talks directly to camera he harks back to Laurel and Hardy but also sets the stage for the next thirty years or so of film-making. Of course he has long since lost the plot, but this will always be the film that stole the Oscar from Star Wars and rightly so. La-De-Da! La. Dee. Dah!

TV: PENNIES FROM HEAVEN

Pennies From Heaven (1978) was a BBC series that literally rocked the world of all that saw it. I’ve never seen anything better. Film. TV. Books. Whatever. This is it for me. The pinnacle of artistic achievement, blending meaning, memory, meta tricks, production design, a mix of video and photography … acting, oh the acting. The script is sublime, intelligent, funny and, crucially, comic and terrifying at the same time. Just like reality.

The content also reflects my view of reality. There is a word, a state of being, that very few writers and artists can manipulate, work with, fashion. That word is pathetic. Our hero Arthur rarely climbs above being pathetic, a cowardly and selfish hero, ripped apart by his desires and weakness, his hopes and doubts. A real man. A real man like I know them. But never described before or since in a language I get so immediately, so personally.

I have the joyous advantage of having seen this as it went out back in 78. I remember the outrage of the media, the shock felt by audiences, the mortification I felt alongside my parents. This was strong stuff. Right to the precipice and off … well off! Bad things happen to good people. Justice is not served. Sex smells. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it and I can hardly believe it now thirty years later. If you haven’t seen it, it is at the very top of the list of my personal recommendations to you.

If you have had the misfortune to see the US movie remake first then I pity your immortal artistic soul. Your life has been ruined and you might as well kill yourself now and start again. Dennis Potter’s Pennies from Heaven is so far beyond criticism I am going to spontaneously combust now! Goodbye!

Hello again. Phew, that was hot. Bob Hoskins never made a better move than accepting this offer. I knew someone so scarily like him physically it still gives me the creeps. He went the same way – kinda!

24fps: SIDEWAYS

Sideways (2004) is just a nice character comedy with just enough bite to keep me coming back for more. It’s the perfect kind of film for me. I want to made to think things out for myself. I don’t want to know where I’m going and I want rich character based conversations that are both funny and revealing. Don’t ever get drunk with me! I do like the complexity of a character that has enough good and bad for you to waiver in your like/dislike for them – aren’t most your friends like that? Real people? Wonderful one minute, ridiculous the next. Supportive and destructive. Well mine are both at different times.

I’d like to say the film itself is like a fine wine, but y’know I nothing about wine. What a philistine! I do know a good movie though and this is one of them. The director Alexander Payne is fast becoming the new Woody Allen, like when Woody used to be any good!

And that’s two movies (with The Specials) featuring Thomas Hayden Church – so at least he’s found his way onto my A-list anyway (I’ve not seen Spiderman 3 yet).

This was a quick Movie Night catch up! I can’t remember if this is early or late. That’s what working for yourself will do to a blog!

24fps: SLING BLADE

Go on everybody who has already seen this. Do the voice. You know you want to. Well, it is hard not to focus on the tour-de-force of acting that is at the centre of this movie, but it has an awful lot more going for it than that alone. Let’s not forget all the other top-notch performances from the likes of JT Walsh in the creepy bookends, Lucas Black as the boy, John Ritter as the gay store manager, Rick Dial who never acted before (and who runs a furniture store while not acting), legend Robert Duval who just sits there acting out of his socks, even Jim Jarmush as the Frosty Cream clerk!

Although the acting is strong throughout I wonder at some scenes and events that don’t totally work for me. Would Karl really be set free with no advice or support at all just so he can wander back to the institution hours later? Dwight Yoakam’s character seems a little on the obvious side too. The film also seems overly dependent on a series of monologues which while dramatic and effective are not terribly cinematic. It is however one of those films where I need to hear every word because the horror is all in the script, which perhaps makes it more of a play than a film.

My favourite scene is where Karl suggests to his father that the stories he’d been told as a child allegedly from the Bible might not have been there. The thought of what those stories might have involved sends shivers down my spine. Karl also tells us early on where he lived as a child ‘out back’, but the genius here is that when we see ‘out back’ for real it’s still shocking – if not more so because he has already told us and we might not have considered the reality of what he meant.

There is a version out there with a second disc crammed with DVD extras. Well worth getting as the additional interviews and information is first class – one of the few extras discs that I made 100% use of. Now let me see if I’ve got another link ‘out back’ – here you go! The script. I made the mistake of reading the bit where Karl describes what happened to his brother. I can never read that without blubbing!

Some people call it a movie. I call it a film. Hurhum!