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The King’s Speech

The King's Speech

In the modern world the idea of a monarch who has supreme power over people is a bit of an anachronism, but with the prospect of an upcoming royal wedding, it appears that there still remans a bit of interest in that type of thing. I’ve never been much of a fan of the Merchant-Ivory school of historical dramas. Too much rich person angst for me. The dynamic, self-effacing, anarchic UK of Monty Python, Billy Bragg and Russell Brand appeal to me more than the dry lamentations for a lost empire. That could be why I’m not so keen on Harry Potter, so while I was anticipating The King’s Speech, I knew that there was the chance that it would go down the road of the safe historical drama.

But it wasn’t that at all. From the very first shots it had me. Using wide lenses, shallow depth-of-field and off kilter framing, the film provides a very human and accessible version of history and historical figures. At times I was surprised as I recognized historical figures. I hadn’t seen them as future kings or queens, but as people, which is a testament to the filmmaking skills of Tom Hooper.

There is an amazing chemistry between Colin Firth (as King George VI) and Geoffrey Rush (as his speech therapist) and the entire film subverts expectations with scenes that cut just before what we expect to see and focusses on the very human aspects of the characters. It’s a lot of fun and also moving as we watch someone struggle with a personal challenge. Even with a more conventional treatment the story itself would be interesting, but with a bold approach it transcends the genre and makes for a memorable film that is fun and moving at the same time.

December 20, 2010 2010, film, review

Winter’s Bone

Winter's Bone

I went to see Winter’s Bone not knowing anything about it and was quite amazed at the film. It’s a low-buget beautifully-shot drama set in the Ozarks directed by Debra Granik. The heart of the film is an amazing performance by Jennifer Lawrence as the 17 year old woman who is looking for her father who disappeared. His skpping out on bail puts the family home, woods and her brother and sister at risk since the land and house were put up for his bail. His daughter needs to find him or lose the house and the woods that surround it.

Shot in a naturalistic style with a subtle and casual pacing, it gradually reveals details of the community and family as the mystery unfolds. It’s a gripping drama with characters that feel authentic and don’t follow the standard Hollywood conventions. One of the great things about a drama where the actors aren’t easily recognized is that there is an uncertainty introduced as you aren’t sure which characters are good or evil or even if those concepts have much meaning. It’s a story of courage, survival, family and community and provides a bracing glimpse into life in rural America.

December 19, 2010 2010, film, review, winter's bone

A Prophet

There hasn’t been a film by Jacques Audiard that I haven’t liked, so there was a pretty good chance that the third film by him that I’d be seeing, A Prophet, would probably live up to expectations.

In the film Read My Lips (Sur Mes Lèvres), he constructed a clever noirish story about a woman who is almost deaf and has lip-reading skills. Beautifully shot and with a great central performance by Emmanuelle Devos, it’s intimate and surprising with a plot that twists and turns.

The Beat That My Heart Skipped (De battre mon coeur s’est arrêté) focusses on a man who must decide between a life of crime and his dream to become a concert pianist. With an electric performance by Romain Duris, it takes the unlikely combination of crime and music and builds another surprising story about fascinating characters.

With A Prophet, Audiard has another great cast with interesting characters, but this time it’s set mainly in a French prison and again it subverts expectations with a plot that is not completely predictable. We watch a young Arab man (brilliantly played by Tahar Rahim) who enters the prison system and negotiates his way through the complex world of gangs and alliances over a period of years. Bringing elements of magical realism into the story it combines the violent and brutal world of prison life with another layer that adds a poetry and beauty to the story.

On one level it’s the story of a man who gradually changes into someone else, but during the film it’s a constant series of small and beautiful revelations that combine into a compelling story. We’re taken on a journey with our hero (or anti-hero) as he faces challenges from those who judge him based on prejudice and the lessons that he learns along the way. It’s a story of friendship, loyalty and survival, beautifully shot and constructed.

December 11, 2010 2010, A Prophet, film, review

My Top Ten Films from the 30th Atlantic Film Festival

Oxford Marquee As the summer winds down the excitement begins for the wide range of films that fill the screens during the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This is the 30th festival and while I’m not sure what the exact number it is for me, it’s a safe bet that at this point I’ve attended about half of them. The amazing thing about the festival is how every year there are surprises in the films that appear and something that may be highly anticipated could disappoint and something that wasn’t on anybody’s radar becomes a favourite film. When you combine that with wonderful people and good weather you have one of the best 10 days of the year as everyone celebrates and shares and enjoys film. This year wasn’t as completely immersive as last year where there were more films to see, but overall there were some great films and most of the films were very much worth watching and discussing. Here are my favourite ten films from this year’s festival: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Modra, In a Better World, Heartbeats, Fubar 2, Incendies, Gainsbourg (vie héroïque), Undertow, Trigger, and The Myth of the American Sleepover.

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October 10, 2010 aff2010, film, lists, top10

Polaroid Photos

Sometimes there are lucky coincidences in life that expand your image creation possibilities. One of my daughters found a previously enjoyed Polaroid OneStep CloseUp camera. The challenge with a Polaroid camera is that Polaroid stopped making film for it. But luckily The Impossible Project came along with some remarkable people with the idea of creating new instant film for old cameras.

Instead of simply making the same films that were made before, The Impossible Project went in a bolder direction with their first film by choose to create a monochrome sepia-toned film called Silver Shade. The images are dreamy and soft with variations in the colour happening when the temperature is different. It’s lovely and magical and unpredictable which is one of the pleasures of film.

The design of the camera is quite interesting. It takes Polaroid 600 film, which is ISO 600 film that comes in a pack with a battery. The film and battery (and chemicals to develop the film) are all within the pack that goes into the camera. The camera has a flash which flips up to take a picture. The focus is fixed with a plastic lens that can be adjusted to two focus ranges – closeup (2 feet to 4 feet) and the normal setting (4 feet to infinity). A very simple and inexpensive camera when it came out in the late 90s.

The film arrived in the mail from The Impossible Project and I eagerly opened it. Inside the beautifully-designed package was the pack of film that I put into the camera. When I swung up the flash the dark slide popped out with the distinctive sound of a Polaroid motor ejecting a print. The first thing in a pack of Polaroid film is the darkslide, which protects the unexposed film beneath it and that is what gets ejected first. For The Impossible Project they made each one of their darkslides special by turning them into collector cards with different challenges and messages on them.

The camera appeared to be working, so I ran outside and took a picture of the car with the kids waiting in it. The picture popped out and I shielded it and shook it to assist the development. It worked! Then I took a couple of pictures of the kids and then it stopped working. Either something jammed in the camera which drained the battery or there was something wrong with the film. The Impossible Project very generously sent me another pack of film to test out. While waiting for the film I searched on eBay for another camera and purchased. Before that camera arrived, the replacement film did, and that worked, so I’ll have two identical cameras to take Polaroid pictures with.

It’s a magical experience to take instant pictures with the unpredictability being part of the thrill. Embracing constraints is fun and I look forward to creating some instant images with sepia-toned film and look forward to the other films The Impossible Project are working on.

July 27, 2010 camera, film, impossibleproject, polaroid

Top Ten Films of 2009

While I’ve posted the list elsewhere, I didn’t really explain the choices. So here is the annotated collection of my favourite films from last year in alphabetical order: 35 Shots of Rum, (500) Days of Summer, Bright Star, Broken Embraces, An Education, The Invention of Lying, Moon, Pontypool, A Serious Man, and Tokyo Sonata.
It was a pretty good year for films.

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February 7, 2010 2009, 35shotsofrum, 500daysofsummer, aneducation, aseriousman, brightstar, brokenembraces, film, lists, moon, pontypool, theinventionoflying, tokyosonata