SF Diplomat

REVIEW - Rescue Dawn (2006)

My final Videovista review this month is Werner Herzog's Rescue Dawn.

This was a bit of a disappointment I must admit.  Someone recently pointed out to me that my film reviews tend to naturally gravitate towards films that are about "loneliness, despair and death", which is probably true.  This also explains why I'm such a fan of Herzog's film making, in fact, his documentary Grizzly Man is probably one of my favourite documentaries (along with the works of Adam Curtis).

REVIEW - The Backwoods (2006)

This month I have also reviewed Koldo Serra's The Backwoods for Videovista.

Going by the IMDb page and a few of the other reviews I've had a look at online, I get the impression that this film has done the film festival circuit and got a real kicking for its troubles, though I can't quite understand why.  Though perhaps the reason for that kicking disappeared along with the 60 minutes or so that differentiates the DVD version from the version that got released in Argentina.

REVIEW - The DL Chronicles (2005)

My review of The DL Chronicles has gone live over at Videovista.

I was hoping for a slightly different take on many of the 'genre conventions' of gay cinema or at least an interesting look at a lifestyle that you don't hear that much about in the UK, but instead I got a rather disappointing series of rather unfocused TV episodes.

I've reviewed some other works of gay cinema :

• Eating Out (2004)
• Garcon Stupide (2004)

Looking back over those reviews, I bemoan the 'marks out of ten' rating system as aside from the stupid haircuts and the silly phone sex scene I can't remember anything about Eating Out but I can remember the substantially more ambitious and intelligent Garcon Stupide in some detail.

Though one thing that does weird me out is the fact that many gay films feel the need to feature quite steamy sex scenes.  I'm not sure if this is supposed to keep the straights out or try and get the gays in or just an opportunity to put something on film that might have had them chemically castrated by past generations but I noted such things were entirely absent from Celine Sciamma's fantastic Water Lillies (Naissance des Pieuvres) whose sex scenes are firmly grounded in awkward, fumbling reality.

REVIEW - Rendition (2007)

April's Videovista also has my review of Gavin Hood's rather disappointing Rendition.

Speaking of American Politics, I've recently been enjoying Bill Moyers' Journal, which can be subscribed to as a podcast.  A lot of bad things are said about Amercian Journalism but Moyers' coverage easily out-stretches anything I've encountered before in terms of depth of analysis and insight.  I actually think it's better at covering American politics than anything on British TV is at covering British politics.

REVIEW - Uwasa No Onna (1954) and Chikamatsu Monogatari (1954)

This month's Videovista has just put up my twin reviews of Uwasa No Onna (The Crucified Woman) and Chikamatsu Monogatari (The Crucified Lovers) both directed by the great Japanese director Mizoguchi Kenji, who has a nice piece about him in this month's issue of Sight & Sound.

I'm quite a big fan of this period in Japanese cinema partly because it is so radically different to the neon Manga-ised image of the place that filters through to us in western media and genre art.

There's a lovely stillness and thoughtfulness to Japanese cinema of this period.  The relative drabness of the setting along with the reserved, controlled demeanor of many of the actors only serves to emphasise the boiling emotions their charaters are going through.

For further cool post-War Japanese cinema, consider my reviews of some of the films of Yasujiro Ozu :

• Tokyo Twilight
• An Autumn Afternoon
• Good Morning!
• Equinox Flower

Videovista Reviews for December

This month I have three new DVD reviews to offer you...

• Beowulf and Grendel - A live-action adaptation of the poem that is far superior to Robert Zemeckis' over-blown cartoon.
• The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant - A nightmarish German arthouse film about masochistic lesbian relationships.
• Mary of Scotland - A so-so telling of the life of Mary Queen of Scots from the golden age of Hollywood.

This month's recommendation is easy; Beowulf and Grendel, a fantastic, intelligent and great looking viking movie.  Hurrah!

Videovista Reviews for November

Due to maternal problems and time suckage, it's been a couple of months since I last reviewed for Videovista and it's nice to be able to do so again.  Normal service will resume from next month though.  This month I have only two reviews for you and they're pretty much at opposite ends of the entertainment spectrum.

• Pleasure Party (Une Partie de Plaisir) directed by Claude Chabrol - A shockingly misanthropic story about a preening macho man who announces to his wife that they now have an open relationship only for him to later realise that he cannot stand the consequences of this.  A scathing attack of certain macho masculine tendencies ultimately undermined by the writer and director's failure to write decent parts for women.
• The Raccoons ( Series One) by Kevin Gillis - A pleasant trip down memory lane for a look at a nice 80's cartoon series that really struggles to be anything more than nice.  Deserves to be introduced to a new generation but likely to be of little interest to grown-up nostalgics.

This month's recommendation is Chabrol's Partie de Plaisir simply because it's actually interesting.  However, The Raccoons is far more likable and emotionally engaging.

Videovista Reviews for August

As a rainy July turns into a potentially humid August, the Videovista website has updated and I have some new reviews.

 

• Sherlock Holmes - The Incident at Victoria Falls is one of the weirdest pieces of television that I have ever seen.  Starring Christopher Lee and Patrick MacNee in a rather crumbly state, this miniseries was funded by Silvio Berlusconi and not based upon an actual Holmes story.  The result is some lovely South African countryside (though at no point does any overweight copper come running in gasping "The kaffirs are running amok!" which I think is a real loss for any film set in South Africa) and lots of weird League of Extraodinary Gentlemen-style melding of history and fiction.
• 10th and Wolf is  written and directed by the man who recently won a best screenplay Oscar for Crash (no... not JG Ballard... the other Crash) but his award-winning talents seem to have deserted him as the film is a collection of cliches barely held together by lots of people being very emotional at the drop of the hat.
• Labyrinth of Passion is Pedro Almodovar's second film and it is pretty much what you'd expect of an Almodovar film.  Lots of transgressive sexuality, lots of OTT style and a rather flimsy if entertaining plot.  To air an old marketing cliche, Almodovar's a bit of a Marmite director.  He's brown, sticky and is entirely made up of fermented yeast.  No... wait... I mean that he's a director you either love or hate and I can't help but love his weirdly kitsch world.

Not a particularly heavy month or a particularly satisfying one I'm sorry to say.  My recommendation goes to Labyrinth of Passion but I'm not completely happy with my own reasons for liking it.  I suspect that the fact that Almodovar is such a divisive director makes it easy for us to either damn him or complete accept him and I can't help but feel that I'm letting the film off easily as a result.  Alternately, Incident at Victoria Falls might well be worth a look if you're considering a long plane journey as it really is quite a strange piece of TV.  It also has Joss Ackland in it and I adore Joss Ackland partly as a result of his fantastic performance as Jerry Westerby in the TV adaptation of John Le Carre's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (for shame if you haven't seen it!) and partly as a result of his scenery chewing in this golden oldie... "I'm going there... but I like it here wherever it is".

Videovista Reviews for July

Tic-Toc, Tic-Toc, time passes, the days of our lives slip through our fingers like the blood of a murdered lover.

But on the plus side I have the latest batch of my reviews from Videovista!

 

• Tourette de France - A documentary about famed Tourette's syndrome sufferer John "John's Not Mad" Davidson and a load of Tourette's suffering teenagers traveling to France on a double-decker bus with Keith Allen.  Made by Victor Lewis Smith's production company and played largely for laughs the documentary is too light-weight to really justify a DVD release.  Plus Keith Allen is a mostly an arse.
• Golden Balls - A critique of 80's excess and spanish machismo, Bigas Luna's break-through film runs out of steam way before the final credits roll despite a decent central performance by Javier Bardem.
• The Stolen Children - A predictable but intelligently made return to Italian neo-realism that deals with a carabinieri forced to look after a pair of children that were abused by their mother.  However, despite some promise, the film never quite manages to find anything interesting to say about its subject matter.
• Sex & Fury - An early 70's Japanese exploitation film about a female gambler who is more than willing to strip naked and kick some arse with a katana.  Plagued by some terrible performances but boasting some fantastically stylish cinematography Sex & Fury is perhaps a little too weird to be all that accessible to anyone except exploitation film fans.

My choice of best film this month is Sex & Fury, though it was a decidedly average month.  Nothing too terrible, but nothing fantastic either.

Videovista Reviews for June

Another month and another constellation of Videovista reviews. This month's selection is rather interesting even if there was quite a lot to get through.

• Cousin Cousine can broadly be called a romantic comedy but aside from the Four Weddings-style jokes there's also an intelligent line in drama running through the entire film and commenting quite acerbically on French hypocrisy and attitudes to sex.
• Fando Y Lis is the first feature length film by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Features some interesting ideas and has a great commentary track but ultimately lacks the vision and spark of Jodo's later films El Topo and The Holy Mountain.
• La Constellation Jodorowsky is a feature-length interview with the man himself. Like Fando Y Lis it is included as a part of Tartan's recently released Jodorowsky Collection. The interview touches on his abortive attempts at bringing Frank Herbert's Dune to the screen as well as some of his later films but also spends a large amount of time looking into the new form of psychoanalysis he had created in the mid 1990's. Interesting but flawed.
• 1900 sees Bernardo Bertolucci directing Robert de Niro and Gerard Depardieu. A tale of land-owners and peasants against the backdrop of the Italian battles between communism and fascism that is full of rich imagery but devoid of anything interesting to say.
• Pervert! is an old fashioned exploitation film full of gore and bouncing breasts. Clearly made for no money but with a lot of good will, it's difficult not to warm to the film despite the fact that its script is a bit creaky and it's not nearly as good as other films in the same genre.
• The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe Collection features both the original classic of 1970's French comedy and its less illustrious sequel. Beautifully designed, incredibly silly but with a hard political edge, these are two great films on one DVD and it's difficult to find any fault with either of them.

This month's best film is a close run thing between Cousin Cousine and The Tall Blond Man collection. I'd suggest that you look into both but my monthly recommendation ultimately goes to The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe Collection because it's funnier and cleverer and isn't only about people jumping into bed with each other.