” THE LAST WINTER “…Film Review
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
meanwhile the lads(slideshow man+brother roberto+sammyMacTheRockkid) trooped into dendy cinema to watch
” THE LAST WINTER ”
australia 2007
screenplay+male lead, matt nable
story about footballer for newtown jets (local team here in marrickville),set in the 80’s as corporate takeovers were happening in the game and local grass roots clubs,like the jets, were disappearing…nable is former 1st grader for manly sea eagles(he knows his stuff+bears an uncanny simmering resemblance to a young charles bronson…an early “eric bana “style nomination for best male lead of the year)…its an explosive film,early scenes of the brutal,biff/bash style set to power rock chords…contrasted with slow,dignified domestic/pub scenes as we get to know the flaws+strengths of the characters off field…matty johns is the coach (a fantastic job channelling some of his cessnock coaches…johns is a former international/now commentator+comedian…here he plays it straight to the snarling villian of the piece,the club CEO/real estate guy john jarrett, last seen scaring people in that hitchhiker movie…here with fake tan he’s even scarier….raelee hill plays the wife who stands by her man until he starts lashing out+avoiding his family…she won’t wear it and she gives a wonderful luminescent performance,calling him out+finding the man inside again…
cameos by tommy raudonikas “i could run faster than that 1/2back”,thomas(schindlers list)kenneally,roy masters,ivan cleary add to the fun…everyone drinks KB+players smoke before a game…
still the heart of the film goes to nable as the aggro footballer “grub” realising there is more to life than saturday arvo’s…footy in the 70,s+80’s was my mileau so the feel rings true…i was a pretty-boy fullback then,so didn’t feel the need to bash anyone but the final message of passion+loyalty i endorse…off to henson park soon to see if life imitates art…oh,yes we shall bring our petanque!!
4 *** outta 5
” AMAZING GRACE “…Film Review
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
” AMAZING GRACE ”
UK dir. michael apted 2007
most of us have heard the song, some may know the lyrics were
supplied by an ex-slave ship captain, john newton…who knew much about william wilbeforce???
apted(7 up) brings his assured eye for character development to this period piece, wilberforce is a politician with a conscience,introduced to us at first by standing up to 2 men beating a horse,even though he is sick…he already has failed to abolish slave trading…he is sick+ medicated ,but stays with his loyal cousin…so he begins doubting his mission,sick+slightly balmy (cue sweet scenes with his butler who quotes francis bacon,”i don’t just dust your books m’lord”)…with the help of a motley crue of like-minds,rufus sewell as a delightfully sly+tipsy clergyman,a majesterial michael gambon+a deeply impressive john newton,played by albert finney-the mop scene in the abbey-
alone is worth a supporting oscar…and there’s y’usson n’dour(sic) playing a ex-slave turned author…plus the scrumptious flame-tressed maiden,played ravishingly by romola garai, who woos him back to the fight+into her heart…luminous+challenging,she renews his (ahem) spirit+ yes gives him a “life”…
paul byrne in the www.smh.com.au said the film shows politics can still be used for good…lobbying the good fight against vested interests,being accused of sedition in fearful times,being lied about,being defeated time+time again…in one memorable scene sewell confronts wilberforce with the news that paris is planning revolution…wilberforce stays loyal to his king and abhors violence…the man is worthy but apted never permits the film to be too worthy+dull—often gambon,sewell or his wife puncture the solemnity with wit—cue great golf scene with prime minister william pitt, and also delightful homage to chariots of fire…toffs enjoying a good stride together…
we are not spared the horrors of the slave trade, some MP’s on a pleasure cruise are tricked into being berthed next to a death-reeking ship,n’dour shows his branded flesh…still this film is just one part of that large tale–how one man summoned the guts to keep fighting against injustice, year after year,without violence,just bringing his best argument–no plot spoilers but the film turns on a delightful legal anomaly…
wonderful performances,script+production…a shameful period that should never be forgotten+ wait for the credits—you may never say you hate bagpipes again…not too many dry eyes as i left….
4 **** outta 5
so what do you think?
see trailer at www.amazinggracemovie.com
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” POWAQQATSI ” …Film Review
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
” POWAQQATSI ”
USA 1988 dir godfrey reggio
2nd part of eventual trilogy,”LIFE IN TRANSFORMATION”,
this time godfrey takes his cinematographer(graham berry+leonidas zourdoumis) around predominately, the third world ,beginning with a human chain of workers carrying bags of slag or mud up a mud hill…with phillip glass’s building music, again we have reggio’s love of the horror/beauty image…we see countless polluted cities with suns setting,poverty dressed up with bright saris,toiling workers ekeing out existances in mesmerising rythms+repetitions…
all this human toil+struggle begins to subtly change into harmony+rythms as villagers introduce song+dance+ritual in their daily lives…the shelters are human scale,everyone is included…there is a strong sense of common purpose…men rowing together catching fish…so when we see the first sari-clad figure struggle with choking traffic to cross the road ,you can see where reggio is going,now big inhuman cities appear(hong kong with its mountains of identical apartments…a boy swallowed up by the dust of a passing lorry(mere inches away)…what fate progress? what have we gained + what have we lost?
the film has more heart than the first,koyaanisqatsi,as it focusses on people,their daily lives,the dignity+strength of the simple struggle for survival—and more flowingly poetic images than the 3rd,naqoiqatsi(sic)
which had seductive CGI imagery(clever but ultimately a little soulless)
glass introduces appropriate eastern themes in his work and i wondered what the team would make of a post 9/11 world + the harmonious rise of china???
**** outta 5
so what do you think?
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” JINDABYNE “…Film Review
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
” JINDABYNE ”
australia 2006 dir: ray lawrence
4 friends on a fishing trip discover a dead body,but don’t report it for 3 days…and continue catching fish along the beautiful river…
ok kids,this is a slow burner of a film, a layered+intense look at adult relationships under stress…directed by ray lawrence(bliss) and starring gabriel byrne (based on a short story from raymond carver-”so much water,so close to home”)…it is filled with simmering inarticulate rage like a sam shepard play…
set in the snowy mountains of NSW,it centres on stewart kane(gabriel byrne) and his wife claire(laura linney),their relationship is tested when she discovers they tethered the dead girl in the river as they continued their trout fishing trip,the dumped body being a young koori girl…the main metaphor of the piece being the original township of jindabyne that was drowned by a dam +covered over with a new placid surface…
the writer beatrix christian (who i’ve met+worked with,is a leading playwright+dramaturg),scene after scene is elegantly wrought,many open- ended+ only in the accumulation of detail does the drama unfold…the men are accused of “doing nothing”,a lack of respect for the dead that the local kooris find unforgivable…
some jarring notes though, claire( a non-relative) is “allowed ” to view the body in the mortuary+ the funeral rites are shown (usually such smoking ceremonies are taboo-see disclaimer @ start of film warning kooris that dead people are portrayed)…these quibbles aside ,this is a great film,the emotional heart belonging to the american outsider,claire,who wants to apologise to the koori family,to draw everyone in the community together,black+white—impossible?—watch the ending…(no spoilers but this very macho australian male was fighting back tears…)
its about how we all try to “move on” and how we tell our children that there are “no bad men around”…btw, a roll call of my favourite actors,chris haywood,bud tingwell+max cullen…
**** outta 5
so what do you think?
” BORAT “…Film Review
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
” BORAT ”
….kahazakistan 2006
here at PWOC we like to pride ourselves on supporting foreign films
but sadly this documentary left me very cold.essentially a “fish-out-of -water” narrative filmed in cinema-veritie,it is let down by its stumbling narrator…borat is from a central asian country,formerly of the soviet empire who travels to america in search of cultural ideas to modernise his country…
so far so good+his charming village seems very rustic+homely,but the shaky production values can not be forgiven,and so many scenes just end with non-resolutions,people actually run away…as a documentary it sadly sheds little light on america, turning into a road movie that even misses traveling through montana…
a documentary should be all about the subject,that is americans+how they live,but this falls down by being too much about the narrator+his awkward,gross manner…”put your manners back in” as that glorious star of movie-films tom cruise would say…
sadly this is no valiant effort by a plucky 3rd world country,think iranian films of last decade,it sadly is one of the less illuminating documentaries in cinema history,it even shows obese,fat people…wrestling….
* outta 5,sorry….
what do you think?
” THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP “…Film Review
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
” THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP ”
france 2006 www.thescienceofsleep-movie.com
dir: michel gondry (eternal sunshine of the spotless mind/be kind,rewind)
ok,the sleeper surprise of last year(pun intended) finally makes it downunder,the family buses to king st Dendy—a vindaloo @ tamanas ,followed by a wizards book 4 sammyMacTheRockid+an asterix dvd (with depardieu) 4 dad…so a relaxed ,sunny trio sit down as darkness descends and the electric shadows begin to flicker…
immediately we’re projected into the dreaming mind of stephan,a mexican artist/inventor who works 4 a crummy nudie-calender firm in paris by day but in his dreams, inhabits a surreal TV station where his id is the CEO…all sets made from cardboard as are the cameras…so far ,so nutty…and this young actor,gabriel garcia bernal(motor cycle diaries) has more charisma and sheer likeableness than any mortal should be allowed…but surprisingly this is an immensely touching tale of boy meets girl…literally across the apartment hallway,after dropping her piano…an awkward romance slowly develops…and stephan’s real world + dream world collide in a goofy,charming cavalcade of scenes…truly inspirational cinema as gondry goes for labour-intensive cities+set-pieces filled with his beloved cardboard(don’t throw away those cylinders people),hand drawn animation,music,dummy BIG HANDS,cellotape for running water,( he directed that white stripe’s video with the 1000’s of progressing drumkits)
i felt entirely simpatico with this approach,you never feel tricked or manipulated (oh maybe once or twice),the “subconcious+reality” building believable pathos+drama,scene after scene+ no spoilers, but a scene where stephan gives “life” to stephanie’s “horse” brings magic back into cinema that no amount of CGI can replace…
on one level this is a knockabout+tender modern romance, and on obviously another level,it is a bravura performance allowing the audience entry into the character’s mind+dreams…like “groundhog day”, he keeps waking up to absorb+adjust what has just happened …he is an awkward individual with a prickly relationship with his mother+co-workers ,but will stephanie truly accept him?
an off-beat,daring(terry gilliam must be flattered) film from a young director,polyglottal as the protagonist speaks spanish,a little english + embarrasing french…so the language keeps changing to accomodate him.
similar to “subway” by luc besson, a modern whimsical very-french take on the matters of the heart…floated out of the cinema into the bright light of king st…see it for bernal,see it for the jokes,see it for the romance, but most of all see it for what cardboard can do…
***** outta 5 (would give more if it was mathematically possible)
so what do you think???
(as a postscript–3 hours later i was reading the review of the film in THE BRAG, a free music/arts paper here in steak’n'kidney”
-when i noticed a familiar face down the bottom of the same page—sam,smiling @ theVanishingPointArtGallery a few days ago…
www.myspace.com/thebrag hahhahahahhahhaaaa such is the magic of reality hahhahhaaaaaa)
” MANON DES SOURCES “…Film Review
(”JEAN DE FLORETTE “…..starring yves montand+gerard depardieu-a bittersweet rural tragedy in 3 acts…hunchback inherits farm only to be swindled of its real water supply…hot+dusty in southern france,loud crickets+thunder with no rain…each scene,each bit of dialogue is so succinct+reverberating(have to see sequel to find out why)-hint-very dickensian plot—gerard,young,idealistic+faithful only to be undone by fate,obsession+his scheming neighbours…@ open window,harmonica+operatic aria from wife possibly sweetest scene in motion pictures… )
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
Manon des Sources
France 1986
director claude berri
from the novels by marcel pagnol
yep,sequel to jean de florette…gerard depardieu is long dead+buried…the scheming soubeyrans are running a successful carnation nursery with the farm’s abundant springwater…all is rosy ,but is it?….a handsome young teacher meets a wild,beautiful goatherd,long limbed+mysterious….
ugolin(daniel auteil),the dimwitted soubeyran,also falls in love with the girl but he knows it is manon,the grown up daughter of the man he swindled the farm from…he makes 2 of the most cringeworthy declarations of love in world cinema,1 private on the wild hillside+1 public in front of the village elders as “the house of cards” ,made from deceit+lies come crashing down…
the girl,(played by a young emmanuelle beart),exacts terrible revenge on the whole town,as they were complicit in not helping her father find the truth about his spring,by upon discovering the actual source of all the region’s water,bloody well blocking it off….can the priest+procession receive a miracle?…will there be unexpected news “straight out of a dickens novel”?…
will any witnesses come forward?…did auteil really sew her hair ribbon straight through his nipple? yes he did,no CGI here…can the goatherd change her mind+save the town?…
***** outta 5
what do you think?
(these 2 films have always resonated deeply with me as i grew up in the dry,dusty countryside of the limestone plains,near canberra…father was a gardener+opera lover,water was scarce…we caught wild rabbits,went spotlighting,roamed the countryside)
” DONNIE DARKO “…Film Review
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
” DONNIE DARKO ”
USA 2001
we begin in a sunlit,well-manicured upper middleclass suburb like all bad american TV…kids on bikes,dining rooms,mom,pop+3 children….but things immediately go sideways,cussing between siblings,sleepwalking,visions…thankfully the mom+pop are loving yet bewildered by their son donnie’s behaviour,they provide a therapist(possibly the greatest expositional device in film) who hypnotises Donnie and reveals
his state of mind…he sees and talks to a giant,creepy rabbit who tells him the world is going to end on october 30(halloween)…so far so FRIDAY13th
but the writer/director Richard Kelly seems to have bigger plans…this is not so much a mental health picture than a time travel one…there are many wonderful surprising moments in the film such as the first kiss between D and his girlfriend,after she’s just run out of class in tears,the scream of anguish by drew barrymore’s teacher after she’s been sacked(the greatest “faaark” in cinema history?) patrick swayze’s motivational guru’s bust for child porn,the dancing troupe’s(”failure is not an option”)innapropriate dance moves that sexualize young girls…all these side characters are note perfect+fully integrated in kelly’s momentum-gathering script…
but the ker-ching moment for me was the old crone miss Sparrow whispering to D “that all living things die alone”, and D discovers that she was the author of “a philosophy of time travel”….so the themes of death,fate,choice* loom large in this and if you can take on board time travel the ending is truly gut wrenching….no plot spoilers
jake gyllenhaal has the sad,soulful eyes+puppy dog face to make his character likeable while still acting occasionally like a jerk,an uncreditted maggie,his sister plays his sister,always helps the verisimilatude…his girlfriend probably should have been cast by christine ricci…the use of slo-mo+sped up film at start i thought was just stock in trade tricks but when the time-travel theme kicks in it reinforces the elasticity…clever
spent 2 hours after this film tossing+turning,chewing over dialogue+characters,impossible to sleep…a fascinating big-idea film,and re—californian high school imbroglio? my ten year old son watched this + it opened up some good conversations about hallucinations,imagination+mental health+oh and dad did his best with the physics of the time-travel stuff..
5 ***** outta 5 (for the surprising arc+theme)
so what do you think?
*when D+ girlfriend go to cinema to watch evil dead,the other film playing is scorcese’s last temptation of christ…another film where the protagonist has a final choice about his fate….hmmmmmmmmm clever
ok, seen unfortunately thru the prism of the VT slaughter name 3 things that resonate from film???
” THE VILLAGE “…Film Review
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
” THE VILLAGE”
by M.Night Shyamalan 2002
yeah the second most well-known indian behind APU from the simpsons quickie-mart, delivers another slice of off-kilter suspense…
set in the pennsylvanian countryside in autumn,all luminous brown-gold leaves,low skies+naked poplars,a small village of quiet,quaker-like people work,clean+cook+go about their business,long communal lunches outside on tressle tables,candle-lit rooms+polite,quaint language…a small isolated community,self-sufficient+happy….or are they? why can’t the colour red be seen?(flowers are pulled up+buried)why can’t they venture out in the woods?
why can’t they speak of “the things we cannot speak of”?
for as well as being polite+quaint,these people are repressed+scared,the elders mostly…longing,curiousity,wanderlust are all forbidden,there are many secrets+shyamalan ,who also wrote the piece, has great fun with the release of information…no plot spoilers here like in premiere magazine,thanks,spoiled it yesindeedy for me-tho there is still many things to like…
ronnie’s little girl bryce dallas howard is luminous as the blind girl love interest,all large watery eyes + strong jawed determination+playfulness,the girl is a fine actress…william hurt+sigourney weaver both deliver restrained puritan performances,a touching “non-touching” relationship,joaquin phoenix is a tight ball of fist,sensing the secrets+lies…adrien brody brilliant as the mad noah,the catalyst for action+change…
of course the editting is masterful,like the movie “alien”*,we only see flashes,the music by james newton howard requisite with screeching violins…tempo is mixed up with joyful weddings,games+soft romance…suspense builds with every revelation…
*not a hint,sigourney doesn’t save the day
5 ***** out of 5
so what do you think?
” KOYAANISQATSI “…Film Review
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
“KOYAANISQATSI”-life out of balance 1983
director godfrey reggio, music phillip glass, cinematography ron fricke
yeah, just had “earth hour”,where business+private householders turned off the lights for 1 hour on saturday night so tis quite prescient to discuss this film,all slow motion/speeded up scenes of this planet+its inhabitants…no CGI as in NAQAQUATTSI(sic) so film does look dated(and not just those beehive hairdos+sideburns -ouch!)
again it starts in the grand canyon/nevada desert with hopi indian rock art —then mining….uranium enriching + bombs -so far so predictable + 1 image stands out – a nuclear test with a joshua tree in the foreground, the mushroom cloud ascends with a thick trunk so similar to the tree ,i felt a hard knot of sadness in my throat simultaneously with a hit of pure aesthetic pleasure—i’m not even adding phillip glass’s score @ this stage…reggio works best when he walks this fine line between horror+the sublime…
the rest is pretty much us poor dumb humans working @ sausage factories and dodging cars in busy cities…fair play but don’t forget godfrey,as wim wenders showed, each of these rat-like beings possesses a world of feeling+thought…desire+fantasy…ie, he’s making a point but over-egging the pudding…some would argue that nuclear proliferation has prevented more large-scale wars in the last 70 years….for a more satisfying response i lead viewers to search out peter weir’s “the last wave” and wim wenders’ “where the green ants dream”…
too much speeded up traffic+and not enough contrast with individuals– i see this as his first pessimistic+monastic work (he trained as a priest) ,against received opinion i prefer the next 2 in the trilogy…coming soon…they have more heart and aren’t into being purely alarmist…
i give it ****, what do you think?
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