43 posts tagged “film”
Well under rather mysterious circumstances Watchmencomicmovie.com have today released photos of what most of the Watchmen cast will look like in full costume.
Apart from a rather odd looking getup from Veidt (Ozymandias) (little boy playing dressup in B&R/Spartan wear) and Nite Owl's rather strange interpretation of the cowl from the book (visual metaphor for his impotency?) everything looks rather impressive, especially Rorschach, Silk Spectre and of course, Rorschach. For some reason Snyder has run them through his favourite desaturation mode which makes it hard to make out some of the details, especially in the case of Rorschach's famous purple pinstripe trousers and cravat. But on the whole, I think fans can breath a collective sigh of relief. Check them out below, and here's the original link to the source
Nite Owl played by Patrick Wilson
The Comedian played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Veidt (Ozymandias) played by Matthew Goode
Rorschach played by Jackie Earle Haley
Good god. The look, the details. Might be a little too Seven in filter, but makes me very excited to see some footage of this:
Ingenious and hilarious. Must see film:
The Western has contained within its gunfights, its robberies, its plains, and crag ridden hideouts, its heroes and heroines the elements of the best of cinema. Though some might describe its history as myriad simple stories they hide a complexity of message that can shake even the most cynical of audiences. This is no less true of James Mangold's fine addition to the genre, 3.10 to Yuma. A remake of the classic of the same name it takes the surface simple story of two opposing moral forces, of struggling rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale) and violent outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe), drops them into a thrilling race against time, while subtly balancing this with an exploration of the effects of civilisation on the West.
From the first notes of Marco Beltrami's classic score and the simple, gunshot title card, this is pure undiluted genre filmmaking. No compromises to modernity; no post-modern wink. It's clean and pure, with gorgeous natural lighting and all the more powerful for it. Though Mangold holds off on the typically languorous shots of the epic Western vistas, it is essential in emphasising the claustrophobia of pursuit. He chooses performance over artistic authority, never letting his style become intrusive, directing the looks, the silent spaces, and the rhythm of dialogue expertly.
And it is an actor’s film; the screen crackling with charisma. Bale is excellent as the former Union sharpshooter, now poor rancher drawn into the prison transfer of Crowe's delightfully wicked and wily Ben Wade not because he needs the money, though that is the ostensible reason, but because he fears the disappointment in the eyes of his family. He wants to rage against the subjugation of civilisation and he sees the power and freedom personified by Wade, a scholar who kills without mercy; recalling at times The Judge from Cormac McCarthy's excellent Western tale, Blood Meridian. The two characters are intertwined, with each action they give insight into the other, how they are similar: both fathers, Evans to a brave son and Wade to savages, to what they lack and have too much of, whether it is pride or ferocity. And as they are intertwined, the natural order of good and evil bleeds together to produce far more interesting grays. It is a testament to the quality of the filmmaking and most importantly the performances of the two leads that we end the film empathizing with both men.
Like any great Western the tapestry of this film is embellished by its supporting cast. From Peter Fonda's gritty, bible riding bounty hunter, to arguably the highlight of the film in the form of Ben Foster’s psychotically fragile and deadly Charlie Prince, this is a delight, recalling the careful and colourful casting in any Peckinpah film. In fact in an ending that also recalls the opera of Leone in sound and retribution, there is a sense that the Western pedigree is being dusted off for a revival and not a moment too soon.
What begins with the clack of a typewriter ends on the aged face of an author as seen through a video screen a world away. For Joe Wright’s new film ‘Atonement’ is less about the tragedy of a love torn apart; of the stories of Knightley’s Celia or McAvoy’s Robbie. It is really about their creation and manipulation in the minds of the audience by a jealous and spiteful child.
We find ourselves in the wilting heat of a hot summer day in 1935, the threat of war is in the air, but seemingly locked away by the strange architecture of a family estate and the rambling grounds that surround it. There is an odd unreality to the place; where bombers can be seen passing overhead through the skylight of a green room. Here time seems to warp with the landscape under the intense heat and perception becomes twisted with it.
A dinner party is being prepared for the family of the brittle Celia Turner, elegantly performed by Knightley, recently returned from a time at Cambridge where she avoided her childhood friend Robbie, the son of the estate’s groundsman. Class divides them, but the proud and patient Robbie belies his lowly status thanks to the charismatic presence of McAvoy. Meanwhile Celia’s precocious sister Briony is feeling disgruntled after her recently completed play is discarded for the promise of a cooling dip in the pond. As she sits in a lonely room she is distracted by the flight of an errant bee and through a window a fiction is begun from the first fleeting glimpses of romance beside a stone fountain.
Though a later violent act of passion compounds the decision that follows, it is at this moment that ‘Atonement’ is elevated above its forbears. Wright subtly replays events, using the opening and shutting of a window to wrap the scene as if Briony has shut herself off from the alternate interpretation the audience is then presented. As Knightley bursts from the waters of the fountain, is the look McAvoy gives her sinister or one of great fondness?
The staid simplicity of many period weepies, of love divided by class lines, is wonderfully shredded by Christopher Hampton’s script as we see how a bitter lie can shake the foundations of the world itself. As Briony falsely accuses Robbie of a heinous crime, her own innocence becomes a perversion rather than purity, transforming the ostensible leads into characters in her new story.
It’s as if her lie brings the war down upon them, as both she and her sister Celia leave for a shattered London to train as nurses while Robbie becomes a Private in the army and finds himself separated from his unit. Wright extends his metaphor of innocence lost with the further deterioration of the characters: Celia at a loss without her love; Briony a ghost burdened by her lie, and Robbie’s mind fading as he tries to cling onto thoughts of what might have been. The horrors of war perfectly epitomises the ruin their lives have become as Robbie drifts past rows of executed children, and searches for sustenance on the chaotic beaches of Dunkirk.
Wright is an obvious talent and this film on the whole cements that. In the earlier scenes we see touches of Malick in his drifting camera and his use of light and nature. He mixes this with more of a classical style, using tilts and tracking shots to produce evocative compositions. A shot through the doorway of a French barn is practically Fordian in its power. However, once Wright has laid out the foundation of Briony’s terrible judgment he seems to lose his way slightly, sinking into an excess of style that though striking such as in the technically brilliant tracking shot at Dunkirk, can be at odds with the carefully constructed mechanism that is the film as a whole.
For it is a mechanism rather than a narrative that makes this film so impressive. The final act or at least section of the film shows the elderly Briony being interviewed about her new autobiographical novel. It is here that ‘Atonement’ pulls off a clever reversal, turning a central scene between the three characters where love has been reunited, from a truth to a fiction, but a fiction that attempts to rectify the great wrong that has been a splinter in the hearts of them all. It touches on the nature of the author as someone more than just mortal, more akin to a God; seeking to bring back innocence and purity to those who most deserve it. ‘Atonement’ is most certainly artifice, and most certainly art, choosing not to present an easy ending. It would rather hold back, and build a longing that makes this tale all the more powerful for it. Whether this is capable of touching as much as a more linear or pedestrian narrative might is down to the individual, but for me it was a breath of fresh air in the pervading mustiness of British period drama.
Wow, for once the Daily Mail (sabre rattling right Wing British tabloid) has come up trumps, with a great pic to pic comparison of the major conspirators involved in the Valkyrie plot to assassinate Hitler, the story of which is currently being filmed by Bryan Singer, and starring Tom Cruise. Click here for the full story, and check out this pic of that actors below:
Ok, this is interesting. I remember posting a link to the script to the new Wes Anderson film, The Darjeeling Ltd. You can read all about what is supposed to be the synopsis to that here, although Wes Anderson has been throwing out cryptic curveballs for a while now.
Today Joblo.com have posted the first pic from a short film that is being exhibited outside competition and will show before viewings of The Darjeeling Ltd. Apparently it's a prologue to the main film, and features Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman who go through a breakup in a hotel room. As the report says, Schwartzman's character from Darjeeling wears the same yellow robe that Portman is wearing in this pic. Gorgeous:
Is it just me or does this look really good?
