Innocence (Lucile Hadzihalilovic. 2004)

This is a current favourite of mine. By turns Beguiling, sinister and implausibly beautiful, the world of this film hovers somewhere between a dark fairytale and an allegory of the pubescent rite of passage. It's a romantic paean to childhood and, of course, innocence. Yet, its Gothic overtones also suggest the cruelty of the passage into the adult world and, perhaps, say something about the modern female condition. It's a puzzle; I've seen it three or four times now and find new things each time.

There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson. 2008)

This is being touted as the Citizen Kane of our era. I don't disagree; it's certainly epic in its scope and length and D D-L gives a really magnificent, brutal performance (he deserved that Oscar the other night - well done that Daniel). I think it might be a film that can only be understood fully after multiple viewings. It's obviously about many things: oil, religion, greed, alienation (one could go on). However, the most interesting aspect of the film, to me, was the way in which the characters performed their identities to one another. No one can tell the difference between faking it and being real in this film- your identity is what you sell yourself as. Pretty existential and Johnny Greenwood's pulsating score is fab!

Grey Gardens (Maysles Brothers. 1975)

I don't think this film is exploitative (although many critics seem to think it is - apparently the cameraman has his nose up Young Edie's arse at some point...I think it was just an unfortunate angle and he happened to be behind her on the staircase, ho hum). I do think it's desperately sad and also very funny at times. Amongst the decaying grandeur, I think there's a serious point being made about the fluidity of human identity and the nature of love / dependency. It's quite Chekovian actually...these characters say they are going to leave and everything is going to change, but you know they never will and everything will stay the same. Apparently, it's being re-made as a feature film starring Drew Barrymore, which should be interesting and I'll defintiely go and see it.

My Article on Sofia

I haven't written anything for ages; although I have been making frequent trips to the cine, I've been very busy with other things. Such as this:

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/07/sofia-coppola.html

Paranoid Park. Gus Van Sant 2007.

Van Sant’s latest addition to his canon of films dealing with youth in crisis may well be the apogee of his career. Many elements of the director’s previous work, such as the adoption of a non-professional cast and the deliberate discrepancy between sound and visual tracks, are maintained here, but these rudiments converge to awesome effect in ‘Paranoid Park’. Undoubtedly, Christopher Doyle’s signature cinematographic style contributes a significant formal element to the film by complimenting the director’s abiding fascination with the beautiful awkwardness and poignant transience of youth; long tracking shots are interspersed with slow-motion Super 8 footage of skateboarders that put the adolescent body through a cinematic ceremony revealing a quasi-balletic quality that reminds us that these are bodies fundamentally in transition. However, it is the director’s uncanny ability to visually map the teenage rituals invoked to deal with or mask immense pain that remains in the viewer’s mind long after viewing the film and confirms him as one of the genuine auteurs of American cinema. A scene of breakdown, rendered poetically through the use of an expressionistic soundtrack and tight close-up, is a particularly memorable moment. If this isn’t teen art, then I don’t know what is.

Control. (Anton Corbijn. 2007)

Bloody amazing. Bloody amazing.

In Search of a Midnight Kiss (Alex Holdridge. 2007)

Touted as the 'American Indie discovery of the year' by Hannah McGill, the artistic director of the EIFF, I trotted along to this with interest. It didn't disappoint. Shot in austere black and white with intimate camera-work, its 'indie' origins are apparent. What was perhaps more unexpected, was the way in which the narrative draws you into the lives of two self-confessed 'misanthropes' with equally squirm-inducing and charming measure. This really is 'Before Sunset' without all the self-conscious acting-out (which has always left me on the fence-post when it comes to Linklater). Moreover, I found all the characters to be wholly believable because the relationships between them are never simple; rather, they are messy, complicated and full of hidden agendas. This film is like a relationship on fast forward: you see the flirting, the bickering, the exhilaration, the heartbreak and the disintegration all within the space of 24 hours. Is this the meaning of cinema verite?