screwd_skull Blog

This is such a good film! I'm a fan. I watched the preview before it was released, not even sure it has been relesead yet.

I like the fact that, although the story includes a vampire, it does not ever loses its focus and decides to concentrate on its main character and the relationship between two different people.

When Eli (the vampire girl) attacks someone, it is so sudden and not unexpected, but sort of the tension is so subtle and well-built that it shocks you everytime.

The realtions and struggles that gravitate around Eli are treated very humanely and we cannot help but fall in love with Eli and Oskar. They are both very good actors, very well cast and I can't think of a better film to watch in the cinema. It has sadness, but also flashes of comedy, it is so well structured and the cinematography reminds me of "Fargo" with "No Country for Old men" this wasteland of snow, mostly silent.

Just SO perfect! I recommend it to everyone. It is totally worth it.

Under discussion:

Crash  (2005)

I watched this film when it first came out, but this week when I watched for a second time, I was somewhat disappointed because, when I had first watched, I had thought it was a good film. It does deal with the heavy-weight issue of the inherent racism in the U.S.A. however, second time round, I realized it is not just addressing the issue, but it is in itself, a very racist movie.

The white characters seem more like caricatures and stereotypes, while the black characters are fated to be thieves, although put in that posiiton due to society's racism, they are stereotypically portrayed as only petty thieves who white people should be afraid of. It is also ironic that these young black men are rather well-educated and able to communicate their views rather succintly, but have no choice in the matter, but be what society tells them to be, instead of using their clear intelligent ability to not conform to the stereotype.

It simply disappointed me.   

Under discussion:

Enemy of the State  (1998)

Apart all the alarmist, government related stuff in this movie, it's all rather enjoyable. It does not in any way revolutionise the genre, it runs smoothly through the motions and delivers what is expected of it. it's a no brainer, but it acts like it's giving you something to think about i.e. Will Smith's "wife" keeps going on about the government's intrusion of privacy into individual's life, however the whole concept seems rather stale, especially in our society, increasingly watched, recorded and monitored.

I got this film out of my college's library, because I was told it would be an extremely funny film. However, since I study media, when i watched it all I could see were stereotypes all over the place. Fair enough it is actually based on the play by a Pakistani playwright and so is the script, I cannot shake off the fact that, although the actors playing the wild offspring of a strict Pakistani dad, are only conforming to what we, meaning the British public, tend to see as Pakistani rebellion; that they argue, instead of talking, do things without telling parents and do not want anything to do with the religion they were brought up with. It is not unusual to see a racial minority actor like Archie Panjabi, although trying to break the stereotypes like she does in "Bend it like Beckham" but only by playing them.

Under discussion:

A Cancao de Lisboa  (1933)

This was the first fully Portuguese film; funded, directed, written and acted only by Portuguese people. It is a classic in its home country and is simply a delightful film.

It started the trend for films mixing comedy and fado along with biting satire of the upper classes, as those were times of struggle for the Portuguese, with a new dictator as head of state. Most of the population would have been extremely poor, therefore justifying the need for laughing at the upper classes. There is also the important address of the differences between city folk and country folk; Vasco, the main character, is getting his education, which is funded by his aunts, in the capital, Lisbon. He fails his exam, but does not have the guts to tell his aunts, starting a web of deceit, as he also wants to marry his girlfriend, Alice, the daughter of the local tailor. he has a tempestuous relationship with Alice and her father and, eventually looses his aunts' confidence in him; he turns to fado.

There are many memorable catchphrases that still live on in the Portuguese vocabulary arising from this film along with the scene in the zoo.

Under discussion:

Alice  (2005)

This is the story of a father's obsessive quest to find hid missing daughter. He sets up 11 cameras in shops along the streets that he and his daughter used to walk to get her to school, he then rewatches 3 or four tapes at the same time, everyday, in the hope that the same person who kidnapped his daughter and his daughter will pass through these same streets. we are then shown the deteriorating relationship between the missing child's mother and father. this is beautifully portrayed in lingering shots and the film has blue hues of coldness and is incredibly haunting and painful to watch the pain.

It is only a shame that this film is not as widely available as it should be, along with other Portuguese films.