Reviews

I'd like to defend the giant Teddy Bears too. What I can't defend is Uma Therman's slaying of the 'Emma Peel' legend. As a devoted follower of the original 60s television program (let's face it, if you weren't you probably wouldn't have bothered with this film, really - pray they never remake 'The Prisoner' for the big screen) I had mixed feelings about this film. I thought the plot was brilliant and Sean Connery excellent as yer typical English Eccentric Megolmaniac but it was severely let down by a director who couldn't direct actors and a lead actress you couldn't find her character. Flawed but not one of the worst films ever made (just compare it to The Perfect Storm or any recent James Bond and you'll see what I mean).

Suicide Club is a typically energetic and hyper quirky cinematic treat from Japan. What you may need to know to really enjoy this happy hell-ride is that for 'director' read 'performance artist'. Director, Shion Sono is better known as the man behind many a controversial and largely impromptu public performances 'sans camera'. The other thing you may need to know is that the train station featured at the beginning of the film was notorious for suicides. So much so that Japanese officials allowed a special 'suicide tax' to be levied on the families of those people committing suicide at this station (and others like it) to deter disillusioned salarymen from continuing create train delays.

According to Sono, he shot alot of the scene as he would direct as performance pieces. Without formal permission, he grabbed his actors and had them pile into the station and do their thing. I doubt there are many 'Hollywood' that would even contemplate such a risk, let alone pull it off with such energy and vision. This type of Japanese cinema is a bittersweet candy bar. Dont try and savour it, just enjoy the rush cause you may start to feel and little sick at some point soon.

I have has a long standing affection for movies that, no matter which era they belong to, manage to instil a sense of enthusiasm and integrity to it's subject matter. Suffice to say that, in my view, a movie without flaws is not necessarily a perfect movie. So to Carnival of Souls has wonky camera work, slightly shaky acting and low budget effects holds little validity as long as the spirit is there (and, puns intended, this film has plenty of em). I first saw this film at a 'film buff' type screening which most people attending laughed most of the way through although I found it strangely moving.

There is almost a sense of 'teen angst' isolation in the main characters ghost-like meanderings and her rejection of a society of lecherous men, condescending physician and muttering old ladies. Add to this the totally flawless setting for the desolate lake- side carnival and you have the endearing, hidden classic many critics have explored. I only wish there was a little less of the 'organ' music at the start, anymore and you could be felling a little delusional yourself.

P.S. Avoid the Wes Craven remake at all cost. Unless you prefer (limited) style of substance and lacklustre performances.

This has to be my all time favourite film. I have watched it over and over again and cannot find fault with it (although if I do, I learn to love it too). I think it has something to do with the film's innate spontaneity. It creates a joyous sense of creativity and freeness on the actors and the film-makers part (with Vitti and Stamp at the high of their 'New Wave' popularity). Modesty Blaise is total fun and total filmatic glamour in all it's technicolour radiance. It is a sad fact that there is not a filmmaker alive today that could inject a film with this sort of cheeky decadence and lightheartedness and get away with it. A film of it's time that I personally hope with resonate through the ages.

Discovering François Truffaut's adaptation of 451F is like uncovering a musty, tatty but intriguing old paperback in a boot fair. It's like rummaging through a time capsule buried by a bunch of school kids watching the dawn of a nuclear age. It's a film, I imagine, science fiction buffs have shunned since it's inception for it's lack of hi tech gadgetry (apart of those dodgy, yet endearing, jet pack thingys the firemen employ during Montag's chase scene) and rather personal take on Ray Bradbury's original story. From a design perspective it's fascinating, taking in to account every 'modern' ideal from Book Jackets to Home Furnishings to Public Transport, all lavishly shot in minute detail. 451F is not a great film but it is none the less a fascinating period piece for a future that was (thankfully) never to be.