Lured

Jealousy’s eyes are green my dear, don’t let yours turn that dreadful colour.

You’re incorrigible.

Of course I am. I am an unmitigated cad.

That’s George Sanders playing the smooth as silk Robert Fleming in Douglas Sirk’s 1947 whodunit LURED.

The film starts with a good looking girl travelling on a bus in the heart of 40’s London, in her hand is a tiny piece of newspaper. The camera punches into a close of said paper and we see it has been taken from the personals section. This girl is on her way to a date. She disembarks the bus and meets her potential suitor on a street corner, we do not see the chap of course, only his shadow protrudes from behind the wall, the girl seems pleased to meet the man and they walk off. We see the pair enter a restaurant but the mysterious figure is only shown in silhouette behind a curtain, the girl, sitting opposite him and in full view, chats excitedly. We jump cut to an interior. A shadow, obviously our man, types out an envelope marked to the police, a gloved hand removes the letter. We cut to a letter box as the gloved hand posts the note. We then find ourselves in the offices of the police the next day as they read the letter, revealing the “Poet Killer” has struck again……

Have a look at the aforementioned scene. It’s a great example of cinematic “showing” not “telling”. Watch out for the neat delivery of information on the sandwich board and also the clever way that Sirk instigates the camera move as they walk into the restaurant.

Following the initial deliberations by the law we are taken to a wonderful dancehall scene. Girls line up at the side of the room and willing punters have to pay sixpence for the honour of dancing with them for 5 minutes, it’s interesting stuff. Did these places really exist?? If so, it just shows how crass our courting rituals have become. The fact that lonely gentlemen were happy to part with their hard earned cash for a 5 minute waltz is quite sweet, and totally alien.

We are introduced to two of the dancing girls (both American) they chat and one reveals she has scored herself a hot date via the personal columns, it’s like the internet but with personality; the other (whilst her freind “dances”) is approached by a talent agent and offered an audition at a higher class of establishment. The unfortunate half of the pair with the date inevitably ends up as the poet killer’s latest victim, the lucky one, who goes by the name of Sandra Carpenter and is played by Lucille Ball, ends up getting a job as a lady detective with the police to be used as bait to snare her friend’s killer. There’s no interview for this job, she’s only asked to hitch up her skirt to the knee and describe Charles Coburn with her eyes closed.

Fake notices are placed in the personal ads of London’s newspapers in the hope that the serial killer will come out of his rotten woodwork and attempt to abduct our powerful female protagonist. It’s at this point the film takes a fantastic diversion. It involves Boris Karloff in a 10 minute cameo and should really just be watched rather than explained……. It’s GREAT!

It’s during a faux date that Sandra finds herself tricked into the company of Robert Fleming, the creamy smooth nightclub magnate who originally offered her the audition. Does it sound far fetched? Well it is. This is where the film strays from its initial path; the investigation is dropped from our attention for a noticeable period to concentrate on their blossoming relationship until Fleming himself finds himself implicated as the poet killer. The last act and eventual revealing of the killer plays out in a rather rushed fashion.

Although a weakness, it wouldn’t say it renders the picture ruined. Sirk, like ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (the only other offering of his I’ve seen to date) gives us a strong female lead who effortlessly holds the cards in a man’s world. There are some great scenes here and Charles Coburn delivers his usual enjoyable performance as the no nonsense police chief.

Recommended………

EIFF Off

The EIFF is over for another year.

It’s a shame I never got round to posting fresh analysis and opinion on the films as I saw them but to be honest, my desire to type has been waning of late. It seems like the only thing I’ve done for the last 2 years is type so I thought it best to take a break and regain my thirst for communicating. Via the gift of innocent smoothies and some decent sleep, it seems to be back.

It was a good festival, maybe not as complete an experience as last year due to my work commitments but I got along to a decent amount of stuff and met some cool people.

The opening film was the new Sam Mendes pic AWAY WE GO which had John Krasinski (star of the US comedy TV show The Office) and Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live) in the leading roles. It was a good natured, whimsical start to the fest which neither offended nor inspired me. The dudes at Filmspotting ripped it to shreds but the picture, in my opinion, doesn’t strive to be anything beyond what it is on its surface, 2 people in love trying to find their way after discovering they have a child on the way. Mendes himself came out and introduced the film and his summing up of what we were about to see was in no way weighty or philosophical. And that’s ok by me. You can’t sit and watch PERSONA over and over after all.

The EIFF wouldn’t be what it is without its weird midnight pictures. Those pictures that may not see the light of day beyond the festival circuit. These are the real finds and it always annoys me that these little gems are what make a festival, but very few people get to see them.

One such example is White Lightnin’.

The film stars up and coming Brit actor Edward Hogg as Jasco White, a real life character from the deep south of America who has his troubled life dramatised in this picture (Jasco, incidentally, is currently in jail) Hogg does a tremendous job bringing this hardened individual to life. There are moments of striking beauty despite the grimness of the subject and I never once felt that director Dominic Murphy pushed things too far. I loved this film and would say it was the best of my festival. I hope this picture gets a release, if it does it’ll probably run late at night, it’s worth staying up for!

The real highlights for me this year were the In Person interviews. I took in Darren Aronofsky, Bill Forsyth, Roger Corman, Sharmila Tagore and Joe Dante sharing their cinematic views live on stage. It was especially pleasing to see my college tutor Jonny Murray doing a great job interviewing Bill Forsyth. It’s now clear in my mind that Scottish cinema can be funny, insightful and important without having to resort to drab, arbitrary stories of drink, drugs or violence. Our nation has more to offer, we just don’t know how to fund it.

Kim Newman interviews Roger Corman

I’ll lastly mention the Roger Corman retrospective that was running as a compliment to his In Person appearance. I’ve mentioned Corman a few times on this blog but I don’t think his contribution can be overstated. I had the pleasure of watching THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, THE INTRUDER and THE RAVEN on the big screen, more on THE INTRUDER soon as I’ve bought it and will dedicate a full post to the flick. People need to get into this guy. The films, although quite rough around the edges in many cases, show an ingenuity, a passion and an energy for story so often lost on glossier, more expensive productions. This freedom, I believe, is now returning thanks to the digital age, how that freedom will be utilised is another discussion altogether.

The Slacker’s Back

Well it’s been a while innit?

There have been genuine reasons for the extreme lack of activity on the blog (It’s not laziness, honestly) and it’s cool that people are still dropping by despite having chuff all new to read.

Firstly, work on THE THREE TENNERS continues. I’m almost done with recording the sounds I need. All that will be required then is to lovingly complete the aural design and get a hand with colour correction. I really don’t want to rush this film as it’s my EIFF entry for next year and those people go for quality…… usually.

We also had a fantastic directing workshop with up and coming Scottish director Morag McKinnon. Morag has just finished her first feature and was extremely helpful, friendly and informative. It was great to direct in front of a working director as what your doing really comes under scrutiny, even more so than it does when on set. Anyway, it went well and a certain amount of confidence was taken from the feedback.

Last weekend I was in Manchester letting off some major steam and what better way to do this than by going to an Oasis gig. They’re not everybody’s cup of tea, granted, but were the band of my adolescence and in some strange way, helped me through some even stranger times. I’ll always have a special place in my heart for those lads. I can’t wait to bounce my grandkids on my knee and enthrall them with tales of being halfway into a coma alongside 50,000 people in a field by Loch Lomond in 1995.

Manchester was like being back in 91′…. Falling out of clubs at 6 in the morning in the arms of 100 mates you’ll never meet again only to get get right back on it and basically kick your body all over the shop.

There’s a nice documentary about the whole Britpop era, as told by the protagonists themselves.

This well crafted film takes us from the Stone Roses gig at Spike Island, through the grunge invasion, into the rise of Britpop, Blur V Oasis, New Labour, Pulp’s rise from a decade of obscurity to the record breaking Oasis Knebworth gigs and finally, the crash of the dream round about their Be Here Now album. It’s not just a film about the music, but the impact it had on a society screaming out for something new.

I have to say, I was well placed for all those movements of the youth, being the age I am now. One doesn’t miss being 18 these days knowing what the kids have missed out on. I really hope they can get off their arses and get something going that isn’t comodified as soon as it becomes vaguely popular like some Simon Cowell inspired sell out fest.

If you were around at the time, whether you were into the music or not, you should check out this film. There’s some great moments with a beatifully lucid and retrospective Jarvis Cocker with alternative, leftfield views being provided by trip hop efficienado 3D from Massive Attack and Louise Wener. Hell, even Damon Alburn is tollerable.

Jarvis Cocker in what I genuinely believe, is his own bedroom

I’ll leave you, for now, with a couple of clips from the aforementioned documentary. First up is a little section on the birth of Oasis, secondly is some comment on how New Labour weren’t shy on jumping on the “Cool Britannia” bandwagon.

I won’t leave it so long next time.

Victim of a Lynchin’

I’m currently reading the Faber and Faber book: Lynch on Lynch.

As the title might suggest, we’re taken into the mind of the man who is occasionally referred to as Jimmy Stewart from Mars. I love that nickname and it fits perfectly. Jimmy Stewart was, in his early career certainly, the all American boy that any girl could take home to their mom. One only has to think of his persona in YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU, MR SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON or THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER. David Lynch also deals with the portrayal of middle America in many of his films but this is a world where there is a constant underlying darkness barely suppressing an unsettling vibration that threatens to manifest itself at any given moment. . . . It’s the unspoken fear we all have when interacting with this world gone mad.

I’ve had the 1990 film WILD AT HEART knocking about in my collection for a while and decided last night to give it a spin. This is Lynch at his darkest; I’d go so far to say that this film eclipses BLUE VELVET in the shock stakes, an opinion that was shared by many on the pictures release.

Although the violence, sex and madness is pretty relentless there’s some great stuff going on in this movie. Diane Ladd’s portrayal of Marietta Fortune is something to witness, I wonder if Ellen Burstyn looked at this picture before shooting REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. Then you’ve got Willem Defoe popping up as the repulsive Benny Peru “As in the country”. There’s one particular scene with Laura Dern in the motel room that really has you squirming, Lynch literally has the audience in the palm of his hands here. This film also suits Nick Cage’s monotone drawl, he’s not bad in this movie at all.

Visually the picture is as you’d expect from Lynch. We have the recurring visual motif of the striking match, the extreme close ups of cigarettes being smoked, the regular references to the Wizard of Oz with flashback sequences being used to great effect. Despite the horror of the situation, Lynch draws us into the intimate world Sailor and Lulu have created for themselves. In a sea of freaks, Lula seems almost normal, a woman attracted to a man with the capacity to kill, she finds comfort in that misguided strength however.

Benny Peru

Have a look at one of the tamer scenes below. It may not have any sex or physical violence but it’s saturated with that Lynch atmosphere. It’s also a good demonstration of the relationship between Sailor and Lulu, there are many moments like this is the picture which reinforces this paradox of tenderness being heightened by horror.

No one, of course, can explain David Lynch films like David Lynch. Here the interviewer quizzes him about the negative press:

Did those bad reactions to the film surprise you?

“A little bit. Everybody has a line that they won’t cross over, but it’s different for each person. I didn’t think I’d pushed it to the point where people would turn on the picture. But, looking back, I think it was pretty close. But that was part of what Wild at Heart was about: really insane and sick and twisted stuff going on. Just like in real life you know?
I don’t want to give the impression that I sit around thinking up horrible things. I get all kinds of different ideas and feelings. If I’m lucky, they start organizing themselves into a story – then maybe some ideas come along that are too eerie, too violent, or too funny, and they don’t fit that story. So you write them down and save them for two or three projects down the road. There’s nowhere you can’t go in a film – if you think of it, you can go there.”

The film is not an easy watch, not by any means but therein lays the fun. You know you’re going somewhere that will lead to strange thoughts or confusion, or gentle dread when you put on a David Lynch film, STRAIGHT STORY aside of course.

Summer Lovin’

The sun is out and the darkness has gone. It only seems like yesterday that we were huddled round a cigarette in the grips of winter, wondering with pleading eyes if we’d see another dawn.

Things have been busy and posting has been as sparse as a good Guy Ritchie movie. Notice how I don’t tag Guy Ritchie on this post, the man is loathsome. THE THREE TENNERS is now at the latter stages of post production. This evening I’ve been creeping around the streets of Ravelston (the place where I live) like Walter Murch trying to find the wonderful nuance of sound that will bring my film to life. Where in this picture can I find a place for a boiler sparking into life? I swear to god it’s like a post apocalyptic rescue ship taking off from the dusty, barren remains of the earth, or at least it sounds like it.

Murch at work

Last night I returned to watching films like a Charlton Heston slurping water unknowingly from Jesus in BEN HUR. It was a magic feast which included the following picture.

Now this to me was a bit of an achievement. YES Fellini is one of the finest, most technically gifted filmmakers to have ever walked the earth, YES 8 1/2 is always in the top five, usually top 2 of the best films ever but do you think I could get through this thing without falling asleep?….. No. it may be that there is some kind of subliminal hypnotic thing going on with his pacing, lighting and camera moves because his films always have a valium type affect on me. Last night I pumped myself with enough caffeine to keep an elephant awake and sat through it……… The picture is tremendous.

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Marcello Mastroianni is Guido, a film director trying to get to grips with his creativity, His many women and the array “guiding” voices that surround him, confusing his work with either simplistic babbling or pretentious over analysis. He slips into many dreams of childhood exposure to sex, religion and his experience of life with dazzling imagery and incredibly staged scenes. This is truly filmmaker’s film. I found myself rewinding scenes, playing them slow, examining cuts, moves and lighting with intense precision. I can feel a Fellini spell coming on which could blow my admiration gaskets after just coming out of a Josef Von Sternberg marathon. Incredible stuff, seriously, get a hold of it, you WON’T be disappointed.

I have to show a scene and what better than a big old slice of Saraghina. The only shame about this clip is you don’t see the horrific dressing down Guido suffers after satisfying his boyish curiosity. The priests are not as harsh as his Mother who comes close to disowning the boy. And what about Saraghina herself?? What a woman!! There she is just hanging about the beach doing the rumba for anyone who happens to be carrying some change. She reminds me of an ex I once had, the only difference is she’d rumba for free.

I’d love to post some more of this film as there’s so much great stuff. I don’t have the time so we’re on Youtube existing stock tonight folks, do enjoy though…….

Gone Shooting

Today sees the first day of principle photography on my new film THE THREE TENNERS. I’m half an hour away from “leaving the house” time so, having checked, rechecked, then rechecked again, equipment, actors and crew, I thought I’d calm the old brain down by firing up a post.

Last night I took at the 1967 “freak out” movie THE TRIP for some low budget inspiration and Roger Corman, true to form, didn’t dissapoint. Peter Fonda plays Paul Groves, a television commercial director who, following a split with his wife, enlists the help of a friend to guide him through the kaleidoscope of confusion and weirdness that is your average LSD experience. I’d write more about it as it’s interesting stuff but my pc has dragged its heels and now I’m off to shoot a picture.

Here’s the trailer, you can watch the whole thing on Youtube right now!

For Every Up……..

Filmmaking is the last refuge of the bi-polar insomniac.

The day before last I lost a location, yesterday I secured one, not the location I’d lost but an important location all the same. Today I’m going to try and secure another location (not the original one I’d lost but equally important) as well as going to see a guy about an alternative location to replace the one lost the day before yesterday……..

I got drunk yesterday after saying I was forever off the booze. It was only to celebrate getting the location……. it is a pub after all.

Next time I’m getting a producer, this is too much.

…………. You’re wrong Matt, It’s a great picture.

11 Days and Counting

The blog has taken a back seat of late as I’m in crazy pre production preparation for my upcoming film THE THREE TENNERS which starts shooting in 11 DAYS!!!

The loacations are almost locked, the cast is almost….. well….. cast, the crew are on board and ready to go. This is the most involved and complex picture I’ve attempted by far so everthing is crossed for its wellbeing.

Progress updates and posts about good movies to follow real soon!

That Night We Went Trashy

My girlfreind Cindy has stated on several occasions she doesn’t really want to go to the cinema with me. She’s a girl who likes to take in a picture without the 2 hour post viewing analysis. That’s fine with me, her cinematic approach works for her and provides pleasure…. So does mine. It’s all about recognising and accepting the differences isn’t it?…..

She came to visit at the weekend and, on the promise I didn’t bang on about it afterwards, we went to the movies. Now there was method to the selection. I figured that if we went to see something COMPLETELY trashy, I’d have nothing much to say afterwards, making my promise all the easier to honour. Aliens Vs Monsters seemed like a good bet but the guys from FILMSPOTTING had lots of good things to say about it….. Everything else was extrememly middle of the road (watching real rubbish is always better than merely adequate rubbish) or interesting leaving only one option:

Director Steve Carr’s 5 pictures before this effort give a very clear idea of what was going to be served up on screen. Such memorable movies such as NEXT FRIDAY, DR. DOOLITTLE 2, DADDY DAY CARE, REBOUND and ARE WE DONE YET point towards an experience that was destined to be forgotten as soon as we left the foyer but hey, that was always the intention.

Kevin James (who co wrote the picture) plays Paul Blart, our portly protagonist. Size plays a major part in the plot of this movie as does Hypoglycemia, the condition Blart suffers from that prevented him from being a bona fide state trooper and relegated him the the ranks of mall security guard.

Lacking the respect of just about everyone, Blart spends his time yearning for a crack at the big time of policing and the love of an obligatory attractive mall worker. Fate comes to his rescue when the mall is taken over by the least convincing bunch of terrorists I’ve ever seen on screen who (unsurprisingly) kidnap the object of his desires. He has the chance to earn the respect of his colleagues, the cops and the girl by taking down the crooks and rescuing the kidnapped mall workers, all this unravels in a very DIE HARD-esque fashion….. Yes, it really is that formulaic.

The film is a series of fat / hypoglycemia “jokes” woven together with the aforementioned plot that, at the end of it, makes you want to wash your eyes out with malt vinegar.

That asside, there were laughs in this film…… 2 of them. Cindy was tickled by a scene right at the start when Blart’s 2 wheeled mobility contraption crushed a yappy little dog and I laughed too, not at that scene but somewhere. Thing is I can’t remember what the scene was. Honestly, that’s how forgettable this film is.

Oh, and can anyone guess how everything turns out?

Go see Aliens Vs Monsters……….

Movies on Youtube

I’ve always been against watching full movies on Youtube but when faced with staying in a room in Camden last week that had no DVD player, no TV and a laptop that didn’t play AVI files I was left with no choice. Now I have to tell you…..

Apart from having to move to the next section every ten minutes, The experience wasn’t at all horrible.

Here’s what I watched and the beauty of this post is, you can watch them too…… and NOW!!

This 1936 Alexander Korda production of the H.G. Wells novel is a fine example of really good British Sci Fi. Wells apparently hated the Fritz Lang film METROPOLIS and wanted to make this picture the opposite of the German’s futuristic epic. I have to say though, even though there was a dislike there, you could definately tell the filmmakers had seen METROPOLIS, along with Eisentein’s work. This is no criticism however, as if it could be.

The picture is set in “Everytown” and has 3 major shifts in time (joined together with some nice militaristic montage) covering pre war, post war and the future where man’s futile battles with each other are exposed and examined. It’s great stuff with some nice dialogue and strange futuristic inventions like “the gas of peace”.

Give it a whirl, you can watch it NOW and probably should!

Next up was the 1955 Roger Corman picture DAY THE WORLD ENDED.

This post apocalytic romp charts the fortunes of 7 survivors of a nuclear blast. There’s some real tension here and, true to form for this genre of picture, it features a very interesting “mutant”. Give it a whirl.