bitdepth

I Like to Watch

I’ve been watching a lot of films lately, which is a lot of fun. Much of that is due to subscribing to a DVD-by-mail service called Zip.ca. You add films to your Ziplist (which is like the Netflix queue) and then they are shipped to you. Since I’ve signed up I haven’t been able to get the number of films on my list below 200. That’s because I keep adding films to the list. What is great about it is that it makes it possible to fill in gaps in my viewing habits. Lately I’ve been navigating through a fairly rich vein of French cinema where I’ve been able to alternate back and forth from Nouvelle Vague to more recent (and related) films such as Sur Mes Levres (Read My Lips), De battre mon coeur s’est arrêté (The Beat That My Heart Skipped), and Rois et reine (Kings and Queen). It is very good to be able to see some of the great work that has been done and it’s an inspiration as well. I love watching films.

March 22, 2006 cinema, dvd, film, zip.ca

Mermaid Avenue

Ain’t nobody that can sing like me
Way over yonder in the minor key

One of my favourite singer / songwriters is Billy Bragg who is not afraid to combine music and politics together. He’s able to mix the personal and the political in an entertaining way that also enables change. I’d heard a few of his recordings of some Woody Guthrie songs, but I didn’t know the story until I saw the documentary about the recording of Mermaid Avenue, Man in the Sand. The film follows Billy Bragg as he works with Woody Guthrie’s daughter Nora, who gave Bragg access to the huge library of unrecorded Guthrie songs to record some for the first time. Bragg brought the band Wilco to the project to collaborate with and the film about the project hints at some tension between them, but the music transcends that. The documentary is narrated by Nora Guthrie and she tells the story of her father as we see Bragg collaborating with the members of Wilco as well as Natalie Merchant in adding music to the lyrics that Woody wrote. It’s fascinating to watch the process and to see Bragg with Nora as they talk about the man and his music. It’s a great documentary that combines music, history and people together.
My favourite song from the project is She Came Along to Me (with the acoustic version from Live at the Barbican my preferred recording), closely followed by Birds and Ships, featuring Natalie Merchant’s vocals. Overall the recordings are solid but some of them feel a bit overproduced. I also purchased some Billy Bragg bootlegs with Guthrie songs and I prefer the live versions. Maybe the live performances fit in better with Guthrie’s lyrics or it’s just hearing a great performance live, but the different versions are fascinating (as well as Billy’s banter between the songs). With the recordings and the film, I’m realizing what a huge influence Woody Guthrie has had on folk and popular American music.

December 11, 2005 billybragg, dvd, film, mermaidavenue, music, review, woodyguthrie

It’s All Gone Pete Tong

It's All Gone Pete Tong The music mockumentary is a difficult form due to some outstanding films that established the genre. It’s All Gone Pete Tong starts off as an over-the-top mockumentary about a DJ that has many funny bits in the opening act, but they start to seem a bit routine. But then the film begins to shift tone as our hero, Frankie Wilde, begins to lose his hearing. The performance by Paul Kaye is amazing and he manages to go from slapstick to serious as the film progresses. His manager, played by Mike Wilmot as a sleazy self-absorbed show business-type perpetually on the verge of a heart attack serves as Frankie’s connection to the world. Things start to fall apart for Frankie and his manager can’t make any more excuses as the world goes silent for the DJ.
Up to this point I was a bit confused by the shift in tone, but one scene with the appearance of Beatriz Batarda as a lip-reading teacher, completely won me over. The film is visually and sonically gorgeous and the critical scene where Frankie learns to lip read is an amazing use of sound and visuals. The lighter tone of the earlier scenes didn’t prepare me for that scene and it hit me just right and all my doubts about the film were erased. For the first time I have more of an appreciation and understanding of how it is possible to read lips. With the shift in tone in that scene the film pretty much becomes a drama that worked very well for me.
Shot and mixed in a bold and aggressive style, it’s sophisticated and polished and I was even more surprised when I found out it was shot on HD. Structurally and in technique I loved the film. It begins as a mockumentary, then some of the over-the-top elements begin to drop out as it looks and feels more like verité, and finally it moves into more traditional drama. It’s an unconventional structure and that’s what threw me off, but I’m very glad that I stuck with it.

November 30, 2005 dvd, film, itsallgonepetetong, review

Read My Lips (Sur Mes Levres)

Read My Lips A thriller often is an interesting exercise. How are things arranged and how do they play out? A thriller can be constructed out of many well-worn plots and be reasonably pleasing depending on the skill of the director, the crew and the actors. The smart way to handle a thriller is to combine an interesting plot with some interesting characters. A film should never be just about the events, but the people.
In Read My Lips (Sur Mes Lèvres) Jacques Audiard stylishly presents two unforgettable characters.
Emmanuelle Devos is great as Carla, a woman who is almost deaf and works in an office where she is overworked and ignored. When she is given the opportunity to hire an assistant she chooses Paul (played by Vincent Cassel), who has just been released from prison. They begin a strange friendship and the film constantly keeps you intrigued in figuring out what is going on between them. Is she someone who is plain and not noticed, a femme fatale, a victim, or a seductress? She is all of those things and more.
Far more interesting than the intricacies of the plot are the ways that parts of their personalities and desires are teased out of them. I would think that I understood what was going on, but then things would change. It’s a somewhat twisted, somewhat sweet story about two people whose plain surfaces hide very complex and deep individuals within.
Shot in a distinctive, sensual style with an amazing soundscape, it looks, sounds and feels completely unique, just like the characters. There is a loving attention to detail and a subjective point of view that shows what is going on with an efficiency and style that I loved.
tags: film, review, readmylips

August 30, 2005 dvd, film, readmylips, review

Ghost Dog

I don’t know how to describe the film other than to say that Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is a film that Jim Jarmusch in 1999. Like many of the films by Jarmusch, it’s a fascinating mix of well-crafted filmmaking with a diverse range of talents combining together to create something unique. While overall there are some parts that may not completely work, it has a remarkable range from broad comedy to scenes that are surprisingly moving as well.
Ghost Dog is built around the character played by Forrest Whitaker and he holds the entire thing together. He’s a hit man who lives his life according to the Samurai code. All of the characters in the film seem to be slightly out of place in varying degrees. The ice cream man who speaks no English, the mobster who loves hip-hop music, everyone who watches tv seems to watch cartoons, and the little girl who carries around books in her lunch box, and Ghost Dog himself who communicates with his contact via homing pidgeon.
The film is lovingly constructed and like a great song you can get something different out of it every time you experience it. Everything fits together and I watched it twice in one day and saw different things. What does the colour red mean? What do the quotations from Samurai code mean? How does it all fit together? Why does Ghost Dog always set the volume of music to 21? The mixture of styles, characters, tone and technique combine to create something unique that sticks with you as you roll things around in your head.

August 27, 2005 dvd, film, ghostdog, jimjarmusch, review

The Assassination of Richard Nixon

The 1970s were a turbulent time in the U.S. and a lot of interesting films came out of that time. Niels Mueller firmly sets The Assassination of Richard Nixon in the 70s as he shows the transformation and decline of a man who slowly becomes disconnected from reality. Shot in an evocative high-contrast style (by Emmanuel Lubezki) that carefully mirrors the state of mind of Sam Bicke played by Sean Penn. It’s another controlled burn with Penn trying to make sense of his life in an unrewarding job while separated from his wife and children. The world doesn’t make sense and as he watches the news he begins to connect with those who fight the system and who are opposed to Richard Nixon.
The film feels as if it was made in the 1970s (in a good way) and I couldn’t help but think of Martin Scorsese‘s Taxi Driver which also follows the decline of a man who doesn’t fit in. But Sam Bicke isn’t Travis Bickle and while Taxi Driver has a sense of dread from the very beginning and Robert De Niro has a sense of menace, Penn’s Bicke is a person we feel sympathetic as the world doesn’t make sense and he tries to do the right thing. But the routine grinds him down and he only seems to connect with things he sees in the media which helps him form his plan. A dark and precise portrait of a tragic figure.
tags: film, review, theassassinationofrichardnixon

August 25, 2005 dvd, film, review

1 / 8