A Town Called Panic ***'

Don’t judge a book by its cover?  And don’t judge a film by its milk advert.  A new personal code I intend to live by.  I find this advert quite unbelievably annoying, but 70 minutes of a basically identical premise is somehow extremely funny.

It’s Horse’s birthday, and Cowboy and Indian have forgotten to buy him a present.  They decide to build him a barbecue, but don’t have enough bricks so buy some off the internet.  But, zut alors, they accidentally buy 50 million bricks instead of 50.  This leads to a manic adventure taking in the centre of the earth, the North Pole, and the depths of the ocean, with barely time to breathe.

Watching A Town Called Panic feels a bit like watching Postman Pat, or Pingu, on speed.  By the end I was exhausted.  The animation is delightfully crap, and hides what was undoubtedly an enormous amount of hard work.  It’s not quite Adam and Joe Show levels of charming unsophistication, but it doesn’t feel far off.  (Yes, I know that reference is about ten years out of date now, and isn’t really relevant anyway, but I wanted to link this clip in somehow, just because it makes me laugh).

If you like your comedy clever and highbrow, then this film is not really for you.  If, however, you want to escape in silliness for an hour, with the main thought running through your head being ‘this is actually insane’, then I highly recommend.

I would have given this four stars, but took off half because I think you have to be in a very specific mood to enjoy this, otherwise funny could too easily become being-repeatedly-bashed-over-the-head irritating.

The Secret in Their Eyes ****

On the surface The Secret in Their Eyes is a crime thriller set in Buenos Aires in the 1970s, following detective Esposito as he investigates a brutal case of rape and murder.  But to that we must add the layer that he is looking back from 25 years later, as he is now retired and writing a book about the case.

In re-visiting the case he is attempting to deal with his past, including the fact that he was in love with his superior, Irene, and has been ever since, but has never been able to voice it.  This plays out very subtly and beautifully beneath a tense and tightly crafted murder story involving some stunning set pieces - look out for the chase scene in the football stadium.

The corruption of the justice system at the time is an interesting subtext to the film.  I am ashamed to admit that my knowledge of Argentine history pretty much begins and ends with Madonna, so the political edge went over my head slightly, but ultimately this didn’t seem to matter.  I understood that people could just ‘disappear’, without needing a knowledge of the Dirty War (isn’t it nice, this learning together?).

This is much more than a run of the mill crime thriller, and much more engaging than a dry documentary of Argentina‘s political past, which probably explains why it won Best Foreign-Language picture at this year‘s Oscars.  This is a film about constancy, about friendship, about memory, and about people’s reasons for being.  And about secrets.  Revealed in people’s eyes.  But you probably guessed that.

Charity Shop Challenge #1 - FTW (1994)

Director: Michael Karbelnikoff
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Lori Singer
Genre: Crime/Western/Romance
Charity shop: It was a present so I’m cheating before I’ve even started.  Sorry reader(s?).

Way back in the mists of time, before the advent of internet acronyms that needed googling to be deciphered, when Mickey Rourke’s face was still more flesh than plastic, FTW stood for F**k The World.

Rourke plays Frank T. Wells (see his initials?  How clever), a cowboy who has just got out of prison.  He killed a man but it wasn’t really his fault.  He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  With a knife.  But anyway.  He’s a loner who just wants to be free from the shackles of his past, like the wild horses that run in slow motion across the prairies of Montana.  I think this was a deep bit, but all I could think of was Susan Boyle.  Frank T. Wells just wants to make enough money to buy a ranch, so he competes in rodeos.  Lots of rodeos.  In slow motion.

Scarlett (Lori Singer) is a damaged woman.  She’s the victim of some completely unnecessary incest which only seems to be in the film to be a bit controversial.  She meets Frank T. Wells when she’s on the run from the police, after robbing a bank (in slow motion) and watching her brother get shot.  She has FTW tattooed on her hand, and she and Frank T. Wells realise they’re destined to be together.  They have quite a lot of sex: in the rain, on the car roof, in a hot spring in the middle of a field (do you get hot springs in Montana?).  But their dark pasts, and the police, are always catching up with them.  There’s a beautiful moment where they point guns at each others’ heads, such is the intensity of their love, and the dark pasts are revealed, and it’s very emotional.

Will they be able to evade the police?  Will Frank T. Wells win the rodeo championship?  Where else can they fit in some slow motion?

Highlight:  Frank T. Wells’ Native American friend gives him some advice: ‘We do what we do because something inside tells us to.  And that’s that.’

Interesting fact:  Apparently Mickey Rourke turned down Bruce Willis’ role in Pulp Fiction to write and star in FTW.  Oh Mickey, what a pity.

Conclusion: Glorious nonsense.  FTW  For The Win!

Why Should You Care That I've Seen Things?

I have been wondering, what reason can I give you to read this over the thousands of other film/culture blogs that are out there (unless you‘re my friend or family and you take pity on me)?  Well, I don’t have the contacts to get previews or exclusives (apart from the Goodnight Sweetheart musical revealed below, news I must admit I am pretty excited by).  If you don’t live in Oxford I can’t imagine you’ll be enticed by the theatre reviews (though they are of the utmost quality and are certainly worth a read).  And so, for something a little bit different, I proudly present…

THE CHARITY SHOP CHALLENGE

From time to time I will, for the sake of science, or culture, or truth, or beauty, or something, purchase a random DVD from a charity shop, and tell you all about it.  Thus will we learn about films we would probably never otherwise have heard of, and I will become a good, charitable member of society.

The Rules:
1. I will not spend more than £2 (unless charity shop DVDs are more expensive than I think they are).
2. I will not limit the choice by genre, age, perceived quality, or whether or not I have heard of anyone in it.
3. If I realise that watching random films that no-one has ever or will ever see is a massive waste of time and I should be watching something better, then I am allowed to stop.

Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran: Writing for the Stage and Screen - Oxford Playhouse, Sept 17 2010

Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran have had a prolific television writing career for the past 25 years, their work including Shine on Harvey Moon, Birds of a Feather, and Goodnight Sweetheart.  But they are not here as television writers, but rather as Olivier nominated playwrights, and the talk takes place on the set of their newest play, written especially for the Oxford Playhouse, Von Ribbentrop’s Watch.


The play is inspired by a true story: Laurence Marks (who is Jewish) bought a watch for $200 and years later discovered that it originally belonged to Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi Germany’s Foreign Minister who was hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.  It turned out that the watch was worth about £50,000.  Whether it would be morally right for him to make a profit from Nazi memorabilia developed over three years from argument with his friend and writing partner Maurice Gran, to art.

Aside from very engagingly selling their play (Saturday was unfortunately its last night in Oxford before it goes on tour), they also talk about their theatre career in general.  They say that chance encounters have played a huge role in their success, but how many of us can say that we just happened to sit next to Alan Ayckbourn at the Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival?  Their television career made these chance encounters, with the right people, possible.

On being a writer, Marks says that everyone in the room will have had a wonderful idea, but only one person will know that they have had it.   Von Ribbentrop’s Watch raises the question, what would you do if you discovered you owned some Nazi memorabilia?  Sell it?  Give the money to charity?  Donate it to a museum?  Or write a play about it?

PS. Goodnight Sweetheart: The Musical is coming.  You have been warned.

Gainsbourg ***

Biopics are a tricky genre. The challenge is to engage someone who knows all the facts already, and someone else who knows none. I fell into the latter category. The only things I knew about Serge Gainsbourg before the start of the film were that he was French, and he wrote the song that was used in the beer advert with the sexy ladybirds. 

Now I know a bit more, though the actual biographical details are quite confusing. Wives and lovers come and go without much explanation. And I have no idea how many children he had. Though maybe he didn’t either. 

This is more than a run of the mill ‘The Life and Times of Serge Gainsbourg’ movie however. It is based on the graphic novel by Joann Sfar, who also directs the film. We meet Serge as a young boy in Nazi-occupied Paris, when he still went by the name of Lucien Ginsburg. He makes up stories for his sisters, and from these stories springs the most surreal, and probably most enjoyable, part of the film. He invents a character, a kind of nightmarish man-sized puppet alter-ego that follows him round into adulthood, whispering to him his insecurities and ambitions. 

This surreal element disappears about half an hour from the end of the film, and with it went my interest. Maybe a huge fan of Serge Gainsbourg would have enjoyed seeing him record a reggae version La Marseillaise, but for me it really added nothing to the complex and interesting character that had been presented for the first three quarters of the film. 

So, basically, I think for a Serge Gainsbourg fan it would be great: a biopic with lots of songs, plus quirky, innovative elements. And lots of beautiful women. No ladybirds though.

Apples - Burton Taylor Studio, 23-26 June 2010

Heartbreaking, and brutal, and funny, and shocking, the stage adaptation of Richard Milward's novel Apples is brilliant. 

A group of six teenagers are growing up and trying to cope with life the only way they can see how - they go out clubbing, get drunk, get high (the apples here are ecstasy), sleep around, anything to escape from being inside their own heads. 

The characters may not want to be inside their own heads but we do, and we are granted access as they tell us their stories via a series of dramatic monologues within the scenes. This works brilliantly as Adam reveals to us his OCD behaviour, his violent home life, and the fact that he can cope with all this because of Eve, with whom he is hopelessly in love. She barely knows that he exists. We are not in Paradise. The Garden of Eden here is a Middlesborough council estate, and behind the poetic and moving attempts to work out who they are lurks the threat of physical violence, and sexual violence, desperation, and bewilderment. 

The difficulties of being not quite an adult and not quite a child are dealt with very cleverly, moving seamlessly between mentions of drug-fuelled nights out and Scooby Doo and jammie dodger-fuelled days in. 

The staging is brilliant: the set is minimal, with just a few chairs and some screens which are used really innovatively. The music is brilliant, the lighting is brilliant, the actors are all brilliant, even the scene changes are brilliant, with them effectively being part of the performance. You may be able to tell, I quite liked it. 

Heartbreaker ****

Heartbreaker (L'Arnacoeur) is the perfect antidote to the below par romantic comedies that have been offered up in recent months.Sex and the City 2? Letters to Juliet? Non, merci. This is so far superior it's almost silly to compare. 

Admittedly, the plot is quite predictable. Alex (the remarkably attractive Romain Duris), his sister, and her husband get paid, by fathers or siblings or friends, to split up couples. Don't worry, only couples where the woman is unhappy and doesn't realise it. We don't need to get distracted by morals here. Alex breaks up relationships, he doesn't break hearts. Even though the film is called Heartbreaker. Hmm, maybe there's a nuance lost in translation. Anyway, quelle surprise, Alex falls for his mark, Juliette (the equally remarkably attractive Vanessa Paradis), but will he be able to steal her away from her fiance? (Her fiance played by Andrew Lincoln. Yes, Andrew Lincoln from Teachers and This Life. In a French film.) And will he be able to keep professional and personal feelings separate? And will they kiss in the end?

You can probably guess the answer to those questions. So why go and see another predictable romcom? Firstly, the guilt factor from seeing a frothy film is completely blown away because it's in French. It's got subtitles, therefore your friends will think you are very cultured and highbrow. Secondly, predictable can be wonderful when it's done well. Most of Audrey Hepburn's films were predictable, but they were glorious because they were charming. And this is certainly charming. It is silly, and funny, and warm, and irresistible. And beautiful to look at, both in cinematographic and aesthetic terms (did I mention how attractive the leads are?). And they recreate the iconic scene from Dirty Dancing, and the only thing that was lame and embarrassing about it was the very big grin left on my face.  Formidable!

Titus Andronicus - Corpus Christi College, 9-12 June 2010

Titus Andronicus, on this week at Corpus Christi College, is hilarious. Trouble is, I still haven’t worked out if it’s supposed to be. The story is extremely gruesome, and includes murder, rape, hands being chopped off, tongues being cut out, a bit of cannibalism. Did I mention the murders? There are quite a lot. When a play begins with a bowl of blood on the stage, and most of the cast have a red tinge to their clothes already, you know you're in for a dramatic time. 

And dramatic it certainly was. There was shrieking, and screaming, and growling, and moaning, and manic shouting. There was quite a lot of manic shouting. Corpus Christi auditorium doesn't really have the best acoustics for manic shouting. 

But for me, the incoherent words did not matter, and to be honest the plot didn't really matter either. The gore mattered. There was quite a lot of gore. I don't think violent scenes have ever made me laugh so much. Everything was played so melodramatically, it almost became farce. 

There is a line in the play, "Why dost thou laugh? It fits not with this hour". It probably came after a murder. But it made me wonder: was it Shakespeare's intention that the audience should be laughing? Maybe it was a comment on people finding entertainment in violence. Maybe in this production the actors and director were being extremely clever and had turned what is commonly thought of as tragedy into practically slapstick comedy. But, then again, maybe it was just brilliantly bad. 

Oh, and Titus and his brother Marcus are women, and there's a midwife with a beard. I have no idea why.

Dangerous Liaisons - Trinity College Gardens, 2-5 June 2010

Sex, manipulation, and revenge are the unholy trinity of players in Trinity Players' Dangerous Liaisons, performed in the beautiful setting of Trinity Lawns this week. (Apologies - I am slightly ashamed of that first sentence, but really, who can resist an unholy trinity of players? Not I, obviously). 

So, we are transported to late nineteenth-century France, where the Marquise de Merteuil challenges her friend/ex-lover/rival the Vicomte de Valmont to seduce the young and innocent Cecile, to whom another ex-lover of Merteuil has become engaged. This is partly as an act of revenge, but mainly just for her own amusement. Valmont however thinks this is too easy, and has his eye on the virtuous Presidente de Tourvel. The Marquise tells him that if he can obtain written proof of a sexual encounter with the Presidente de Tourvel, then his reward will be one last night with her. Thus the game begins. How seriously do they take it? Win or Die. 

The play is witty, dark, and sexy, and the Trinity Players just about pull it off, though hopefully the line-fumbling will lessen as the run continues. Chloe Courtney has the stand out performance as the cold, calculating Marquise, bored by and detached from the world around her. She manipulates all of her pawns, including Cecile and the man Cecile is in love with, Danceny, with a great air of ennui. 

The highlight for me has to be the sword fight near the end. Being on the front row I did fear for my life slightly, particularly as I'm sure that Danceny's fringe cannot have helped his hand eye coordination. 

Win or Die? Win, definitely. Join me, and don’t try to resist the unholy trinity in the glorious sunshine this week. Though do remember to pick up a blanket in the interval. It’s less fun to watch winning and dying with chilly knees.

Much Ado About Nothing - OFS Studio, 25-29 May 2010

Shakespeare meets Allo Allo in Oxford Triptych Theatre’s production of Much Ado About Nothing. Sicily is replaced with post-war France, signified by a long rendition of 'La Marseillaise', some rather enjoyable accordion music, and a couple of huge tricolores festooning the stage (more of which later).
 
The action centres around a bistro run by Leonato, father of beautiful Hero. Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, and evil Don John return from war, Claudio promptly falls in love with Hero, grumpy Don John does a bit of evil plotting, and high jinx ensue. But all this is background really for the two characters who steal the show. The actors playing Benedick and Beatrice are excellent as the verbal adversaries who are tricked into falling in love with each other. Or just tricked into admitting what was there all along. What may to a modern audience seem rather contrived becomes convincing, thanks to the obvious enjoyment that Benedick and Beatrice take from their war of wit, and the chemistry between the pair.
 
But back to the big flags: at first it is unclear what is gained by transplanting the story to France. It is all worth it however in the scene where Benedick hides while eavesdropping on Claudio and Don Pedro (who incidentally bears a remarkable resemblance to Charlton Heston), and becomes convinced that Beatrice loves him. The sight of Benedick’s moustache showing through the white stripe of the tricolore is truly a joy to behold.
 
Aside from the strong performances of Benedick and Beatrice it has to be said that some of the acting is hit and miss, and some of the humour does fall a little flat. All in all though this is a pretty good version, and also your last chance to go to the intimate OFS Studio before it is closed for refurbishment. So go along if you can, otherwise you will be an ass, and if you’re very unfortunate it will be written down. Now you want to go, don’t you, just to find out what on earth I’m talking about.

Bad Lieutenant ****

'It feels like we're working for some kind of greater good,' says Xzibit's gang boss to Nicholas Cage's eponymous Bad Lieutenant as they make a business deal, whilst in the background his two henchmen dump a body in the river. But there is no greater good here in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, as Nicholas Cage wades through the moral swamp investigating a murder. Everything is corrupt and sleazy. The fact that this scene is funny hopefully goes a little way to illustrating the blackly comic tone of the whole of Werner Herzog's latest release. He takes a traditional good cop gone bad tale, and breakdances all over it. 

Nicholas Cage's manic performance sees him back to his joyously over the top best, as he somehow makes a seedy, drug addled, gambling, corrupt cop someone that you, perversely, want to succeed. It is impossible to take your eyes off him, apart from when a couple of smiling iguanas share a fantastically insane scene with him. He's a brilliant detective, but the sole driving force of all of his actions is the desperation to score drugs. He would threaten to kill your granny if it would help him.

How did something so bleak and amoral make me leave the cinema in such a good mood?

Completely bonkers, and completely brilliant.