Andrea Arnold, 2006
Having seen the superb Fish Tank, I went back and got her other feature film. And it readily stands alongside.
Rather like the Mike Leigh slice-of-life films, it's a harsh emotional landscape of contemporary Britain, realistic, and yet with an almost unbearable tension sustained. Andrea Arnold is a serious talent.
Shot on a bottom of the pile Glaswegian tower block estate, the cow count is predictable.
No cows.
Monday 22 March 2010
Thursday 18 March 2010
The Last Detail
Hal Ashby, 1973
The fact that this was directed by Hal Ashby two years after Harold and Maude, and stars Jack Nicholson two years before One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest should get your attention.
It's certainly a serious precursor to Nicholson's role as McMurphy; the same delicious headstrong cockiness and that prominent level of unfocussed intelligence that isn't quite as high as he reckons.
Two soldiers accompany a third across the country to a long stretch in military prison for stealing 40 dollars. It's an allegory about the way the military brutalises its recruits, for the way it brutalises society at large, even at a stretch for the arc of an individual life itself. Our guardians flail around offering us a good time for a short interval, but it's only ever going to have one outcome in the long-term.
As with many Coen brothers pictures, the wide American landscape offers plenty of opportunity for cattle, yet we're left wanting.
No cows.
The fact that this was directed by Hal Ashby two years after Harold and Maude, and stars Jack Nicholson two years before One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest should get your attention.
It's certainly a serious precursor to Nicholson's role as McMurphy; the same delicious headstrong cockiness and that prominent level of unfocussed intelligence that isn't quite as high as he reckons.
Two soldiers accompany a third across the country to a long stretch in military prison for stealing 40 dollars. It's an allegory about the way the military brutalises its recruits, for the way it brutalises society at large, even at a stretch for the arc of an individual life itself. Our guardians flail around offering us a good time for a short interval, but it's only ever going to have one outcome in the long-term.
As with many Coen brothers pictures, the wide American landscape offers plenty of opportunity for cattle, yet we're left wanting.
No cows.
Wednesday 17 March 2010
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Karel Reisz, 1960
Another film - like A Taste of Honey, Up The Junction, Kes and The Man In The White Suit - that has me marvelling at smoky mid-century Britain.
'I want a new house, one with a bathroom and everything,' says Doreen.
No cows, but this is definitely the first movie I've seen with moorhens. Not that they appear on screen, but the scene at the end where Arthur explains why he's seeing Doreen clearly has two moorhen chirrups.
No cows.
Another film - like A Taste of Honey, Up The Junction, Kes and The Man In The White Suit - that has me marvelling at smoky mid-century Britain.
'I want a new house, one with a bathroom and everything,' says Doreen.
No cows, but this is definitely the first movie I've seen with moorhens. Not that they appear on screen, but the scene at the end where Arthur explains why he's seeing Doreen clearly has two moorhen chirrups.
No cows.
Monday 15 March 2010
The Haunting
Robert Wise, 1963
Overplayed acting, bizarre camerawork and exaggerated effects should make this hammy, but actually they work as intended. This is one of the scariest films I've seen in a long time, even allowing for the late at night lights off environment. I physically jumped several times, and had more moments where the hairs on my legs stood up than I can recall. An absolute masterpiece.
And despite being set in a haunted house, they still managed to get a horse in there. Yeah yeah, we've seen loads of horses. Bring on some variety. Even if it's not cows a good goat'd do.
No cows.
Overplayed acting, bizarre camerawork and exaggerated effects should make this hammy, but actually they work as intended. This is one of the scariest films I've seen in a long time, even allowing for the late at night lights off environment. I physically jumped several times, and had more moments where the hairs on my legs stood up than I can recall. An absolute masterpiece.
And despite being set in a haunted house, they still managed to get a horse in there. Yeah yeah, we've seen loads of horses. Bring on some variety. Even if it's not cows a good goat'd do.
No cows.
Tuesday 9 March 2010
Alien Resurrection
Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1997
This is a pedigree. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, having done the creepy nightmarish Delicatessen and City of Lost Children, about to embark on the luminous magic of Amelie and A Very Long Engagement.
Written by Joss Whedon, having written Toy Story and just starting to do Buffy. his gang-show approach is in full force, and his deep love of the Alien mythology shines through, with a sustained rich humanity.
And it's in deep space far in the future. Humans only.
No cows.
This is a pedigree. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, having done the creepy nightmarish Delicatessen and City of Lost Children, about to embark on the luminous magic of Amelie and A Very Long Engagement.
Written by Joss Whedon, having written Toy Story and just starting to do Buffy. his gang-show approach is in full force, and his deep love of the Alien mythology shines through, with a sustained rich humanity.
And it's in deep space far in the future. Humans only.
No cows.
Monday 8 March 2010
The Science of Sleep
Michel Gondry, 2006
Horses are the Stephen Fry of livestock in movies. They're really good and everything, but do they have to be so prevalent?
This brilliant, playful movie - written and directed by the guy who directed Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind and a bunch of Bjork and White Stripes videos - features a horse dressed up as a toy horse. Nice variation, but still, it's the most overexposed animal.
No cows.
Horses are the Stephen Fry of livestock in movies. They're really good and everything, but do they have to be so prevalent?
This brilliant, playful movie - written and directed by the guy who directed Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind and a bunch of Bjork and White Stripes videos - features a horse dressed up as a toy horse. Nice variation, but still, it's the most overexposed animal.
No cows.
Thursday 4 March 2010
The Road
John Hillcoat, 2009
There is much to recommend this film, a great premise, a continual tension, a look as bleak as the psychological landscape it explores, a superb performance from Viggo Mortensen.
But never work with children and animals, as the actors cliche goes. And not just because they're unpredictable on set, but because they can't fucking act. Dogs barking at people don't look alarmed, they look like a dog trained to bark on cue. Children don't have the requisite emotional experience to carry a film.
In something like The Road, a child needs to exhibit severe trauma. And be emaciated like Viggo, but of course you're not allowed to starve children for weeks before the shoot. So we end up with a plump child whining like he's being told he can't have money for a Wii.
At the start, this movie explains that all livestock is dead. Yet even before they've told us that there's a horse, one of only two animals in the whole movie (the other's an insect). The horse is such an overexposed animal, there's barely a film without one. Come on directors, give the equines a day off for once.
No cows.
There is much to recommend this film, a great premise, a continual tension, a look as bleak as the psychological landscape it explores, a superb performance from Viggo Mortensen.
But never work with children and animals, as the actors cliche goes. And not just because they're unpredictable on set, but because they can't fucking act. Dogs barking at people don't look alarmed, they look like a dog trained to bark on cue. Children don't have the requisite emotional experience to carry a film.
In something like The Road, a child needs to exhibit severe trauma. And be emaciated like Viggo, but of course you're not allowed to starve children for weeks before the shoot. So we end up with a plump child whining like he's being told he can't have money for a Wii.
At the start, this movie explains that all livestock is dead. Yet even before they've told us that there's a horse, one of only two animals in the whole movie (the other's an insect). The horse is such an overexposed animal, there's barely a film without one. Come on directors, give the equines a day off for once.
No cows.
Thursday 25 February 2010
Some Like It Hot
Billy Wilder, 1959
Quite possibly the funniest movie ever made, the quickfire chemistry of Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis just sparkles, and every frame with Lemmon's face in is a comedy classic. Couple this to the unerring luminous fabulousness of Marilyn Monroe and you have a movie that will never tire.
And let's say a small prayer of thank that the roles didn't - as was nearly the case - go to Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope.
It is a wonderful, brilliant movie. It is, however, not perfect.
No cows.
Quite possibly the funniest movie ever made, the quickfire chemistry of Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis just sparkles, and every frame with Lemmon's face in is a comedy classic. Couple this to the unerring luminous fabulousness of Marilyn Monroe and you have a movie that will never tire.
And let's say a small prayer of thank that the roles didn't - as was nearly the case - go to Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope.
It is a wonderful, brilliant movie. It is, however, not perfect.
No cows.
Monday 22 February 2010
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer
Kevin Billington, 1970
Two words: David Cameron.
I defy anyone to watch this film and not think of him. The stuffy old Tory leaders being superceded by a supercilious man from the PR industry telling you his clamour for power's really all about giving power back to you.
Written by the director with Peter Cook, John Cleese and Graham Chapman, it usually gets belittled in reviews. Like How To Get Ahead In Advetising and Cecil B Demented, it's two-star decried for being a heavy handed rant dressed up as a fictional plot. Which is exactly the reason I'd give those films four stars.
As with the Python's other work, they cannot write parts for women (what do we expect from a bunch of men who went to posh single-sex schools?). But if we leave aside what it doesn't do and concentrate on what it does, it's superb.
Despite numerous opportunities for cattle, there are none to be seen. However, there is a goat, standing on a bench with the prime minister.
No cows.
Two words: David Cameron.
I defy anyone to watch this film and not think of him. The stuffy old Tory leaders being superceded by a supercilious man from the PR industry telling you his clamour for power's really all about giving power back to you.
Written by the director with Peter Cook, John Cleese and Graham Chapman, it usually gets belittled in reviews. Like How To Get Ahead In Advetising and Cecil B Demented, it's two-star decried for being a heavy handed rant dressed up as a fictional plot. Which is exactly the reason I'd give those films four stars.
As with the Python's other work, they cannot write parts for women (what do we expect from a bunch of men who went to posh single-sex schools?). But if we leave aside what it doesn't do and concentrate on what it does, it's superb.
Despite numerous opportunities for cattle, there are none to be seen. However, there is a goat, standing on a bench with the prime minister.
No cows.
Friday 19 February 2010
Bedazzled
Stanley Donen, 1967
Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore in a fabulous 60s rewrite of Faust. They, as you'd expect, play a variety of roles. Eleanor Bron - who weirdly enough had a cameo with John Cleese in a 1979 episode of Dr Who written by Douglas Adams - matches up with a range of foils for them.
It's not just the script and acting but the setting. It's made me want to dig out a bunch of 60s British films I've not seen for a couple of decades - Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush, Up the Junction, Alfie, and The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer. Hopefully some of them will have a better cattle count.
No cows.
Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore in a fabulous 60s rewrite of Faust. They, as you'd expect, play a variety of roles. Eleanor Bron - who weirdly enough had a cameo with John Cleese in a 1979 episode of Dr Who written by Douglas Adams - matches up with a range of foils for them.
It's not just the script and acting but the setting. It's made me want to dig out a bunch of 60s British films I've not seen for a couple of decades - Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush, Up the Junction, Alfie, and The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer. Hopefully some of them will have a better cattle count.
No cows.
Tuesday 16 February 2010
Quadrophenia
Watching this again the parallels with Saturday Night Fever are startling, as I said earlier. And now I'm wondering if the connection isn't more direct.
Saturday Night Fever was based on a 1976 article by Nik Cohn, 'Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night'. He said at the time it was journalism, but 20 years later he admitted it was fictional, based in Shepherd's Bush mods.
Was it even more fictional than that? Quadrophenia came out three years later. However Quadrophenia the rock opera came out in 1973. Did Cohn just lift the basics of the story and transplant it to disco era New York?
Whatever, there are some good rural bits in the movie as they go to and from Brighton, it wouldn't have taken much to put a few cows in one of the fields. Just ordinary ones would have been fine, they wouldn't have had to be customised mod cows with loads of wing mirrors sticking out. But no.
No cows.
Saturday Night Fever was based on a 1976 article by Nik Cohn, 'Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night'. He said at the time it was journalism, but 20 years later he admitted it was fictional, based in Shepherd's Bush mods.
Was it even more fictional than that? Quadrophenia came out three years later. However Quadrophenia the rock opera came out in 1973. Did Cohn just lift the basics of the story and transplant it to disco era New York?
Whatever, there are some good rural bits in the movie as they go to and from Brighton, it wouldn't have taken much to put a few cows in one of the fields. Just ordinary ones would have been fine, they wouldn't have had to be customised mod cows with loads of wing mirrors sticking out. But no.
No cows.
Friday 5 February 2010
Fish Tank
Andrea Arnold, 2009
An astonishing capturing of the post-adolescent period of life, part adult with the serious choices to make, part child terrifyingly unaware of how the world works and the dangers that lie a moment away on all sides.
Profoundly realistic, proving that you really don't need guns, rich people, murders, helicopters or vampires to make compelling drama.
It's set in London, yet they still work in a major part for that most overexposed cinematic livestock, the horse.
No cows.
An astonishing capturing of the post-adolescent period of life, part adult with the serious choices to make, part child terrifyingly unaware of how the world works and the dangers that lie a moment away on all sides.
Profoundly realistic, proving that you really don't need guns, rich people, murders, helicopters or vampires to make compelling drama.
It's set in London, yet they still work in a major part for that most overexposed cinematic livestock, the horse.
No cows.
Thursday 4 February 2010
Don't Look Now
Nicolas Roeg, 1973
A creepy film set in Venice is unlikely to provide cows a-plenty, but they still manage time to squeeze in that overfilmed animal, the horse. Horses have got to be the most common animal in films. The equine-loving brigade have surely had their fill by now, time to move over a few of the whinnying longfaces and get some lovely square-arsed square-nosed livestock on camera.
No cows.
A creepy film set in Venice is unlikely to provide cows a-plenty, but they still manage time to squeeze in that overfilmed animal, the horse. Horses have got to be the most common animal in films. The equine-loving brigade have surely had their fill by now, time to move over a few of the whinnying longfaces and get some lovely square-arsed square-nosed livestock on camera.
No cows.
Tuesday 2 February 2010
Sweeney!
David Wickes, 1977
If the TV series didn't exist, this movie would be thought of as a pacy, grimy British crime flick alongside Get Carter. But somehow the anti flares-era snobbery prevails and anything to do with the Sweeney is seen as kitsch.
This (unlike the negligible limp sequel Sweeney 2) is a brilliant film of urban crime, power politics, the way the ruling eilte will always act above anything the law can affect or the front pages will tell. And the chemistry and banter between Thaw and Waterman is just magnificent; real, human and witty yet never undermining the gravity of their jobs.
Hard on the heels of Whisky Galore! and Shaft's Big Score!, this is the third film I've watched in recent weeks with more exclamation marks in the title than cows on screen.
No cows.
If the TV series didn't exist, this movie would be thought of as a pacy, grimy British crime flick alongside Get Carter. But somehow the anti flares-era snobbery prevails and anything to do with the Sweeney is seen as kitsch.
This (unlike the negligible limp sequel Sweeney 2) is a brilliant film of urban crime, power politics, the way the ruling eilte will always act above anything the law can affect or the front pages will tell. And the chemistry and banter between Thaw and Waterman is just magnificent; real, human and witty yet never undermining the gravity of their jobs.
Hard on the heels of Whisky Galore! and Shaft's Big Score!, this is the third film I've watched in recent weeks with more exclamation marks in the title than cows on screen.
No cows.
Monday 1 February 2010
Take It Or Leave It
Dave Robinson, 1981
Bob Marley made the most universal music ever. All around the world, all kinds of people love his stuff. Not as in don't mind it, but as in really deeply love it.
Madness have a tinge of that position in Britain. They have the music-hall element necessary for any British band to be taken to our hearts (Sergeant Peppers was profoundly experimental an all, but When I'm 64, Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite, Lovely Rita, they could all have been done on The Good Old Days). They also played a version of 2-Tone ska, the first multicultural music to originate in the UK. They have the British cuddly irreverence and cheek like we see in the Ealing comedies, but they can also make clear moral statements on songs like Embarrassment and Ghost Train. Their videos are still a joy to watch, fresh, funny, loose, boisterous, sparkling.
So, a film of them in their early days, played by the band themselves a few years later, it should be great, right?
Wrong. I've found a movie with an even greater great-band/shit-movie discrepancy than Control.
God, this film is boring. Shoddily shot, awkward, and with a pervading laddish meanness in lieu of any subtler way of having interaction, it's an endurance test. And I say that as someone who really loves the band and their music.
There's a fair bit of Sweeney London as the backdrop. Which of course has a dearth of bovines.
No cows.
Bob Marley made the most universal music ever. All around the world, all kinds of people love his stuff. Not as in don't mind it, but as in really deeply love it.
Madness have a tinge of that position in Britain. They have the music-hall element necessary for any British band to be taken to our hearts (Sergeant Peppers was profoundly experimental an all, but When I'm 64, Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite, Lovely Rita, they could all have been done on The Good Old Days). They also played a version of 2-Tone ska, the first multicultural music to originate in the UK. They have the British cuddly irreverence and cheek like we see in the Ealing comedies, but they can also make clear moral statements on songs like Embarrassment and Ghost Train. Their videos are still a joy to watch, fresh, funny, loose, boisterous, sparkling.
So, a film of them in their early days, played by the band themselves a few years later, it should be great, right?
Wrong. I've found a movie with an even greater great-band/shit-movie discrepancy than Control.
God, this film is boring. Shoddily shot, awkward, and with a pervading laddish meanness in lieu of any subtler way of having interaction, it's an endurance test. And I say that as someone who really loves the band and their music.
There's a fair bit of Sweeney London as the backdrop. Which of course has a dearth of bovines.
No cows.
Friday 29 January 2010
Pulp Fiction
Quentin Tarantino, 1994
As fresh, stylish, inventive, playful, and riotously original as you remember it. But Tarantino's never hot on the livestock, is he?
No cows.
As fresh, stylish, inventive, playful, and riotously original as you remember it. But Tarantino's never hot on the livestock, is he?
No cows.
Thursday 28 January 2010
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Milos Forman, 1975
I saw this when I was about 15 and found it immensely powerful. Coming back to it a long time later, it is everything I remembered and more.
Magnificent group performances - so little is told of each patient's story, yet you feel you know it all and see exactly why they fail to function in the world), the subtlety of Nurse Ratchett's delivery, the allegory for the way society's norms will try to snap anyone who won't bend to them. And of course, Jack Nicholson's brilliant cocky lead, reprising many elements of his role in the underrated The Last Detail two years earlier (which was the next thing Hal Ashby directed after the magnificent Harold And Maude).
Cuckoo's Nest swept the Oscars, but then again what does that mean? So did fucking Chicago, whereas Apocalypse Now only picked them up for Best Cinematography and Best Sound.
Anyway, when a film's this good you can forgive it all manner of scenic oversights, even a lack of cattle.
No cows.
I saw this when I was about 15 and found it immensely powerful. Coming back to it a long time later, it is everything I remembered and more.
Magnificent group performances - so little is told of each patient's story, yet you feel you know it all and see exactly why they fail to function in the world), the subtlety of Nurse Ratchett's delivery, the allegory for the way society's norms will try to snap anyone who won't bend to them. And of course, Jack Nicholson's brilliant cocky lead, reprising many elements of his role in the underrated The Last Detail two years earlier (which was the next thing Hal Ashby directed after the magnificent Harold And Maude).
Cuckoo's Nest swept the Oscars, but then again what does that mean? So did fucking Chicago, whereas Apocalypse Now only picked them up for Best Cinematography and Best Sound.
Anyway, when a film's this good you can forgive it all manner of scenic oversights, even a lack of cattle.
No cows.
Wednesday 27 January 2010
Car Wash
Michael Schultz, 1976
This is a lightweight movie, but it's far from worthless.
The sense of post-teen high energy in dead end jobs is leavened with the understated gravitas of ex-con Lonnie. Newly Nation of Islamed Dwayne - now Abdullah - is heavy-handedly characterised until the final scene with Lonnie where they share their sense of inner turmoil that their collegues don't feel. No clumsy moralising or hokey wisdom, but instead a highly plausible and much more affecting simply acknowledgement of their common ground.
But mostly, it's a big bright daft sunshiney film, shot well so that we see the real life city going about its day around them. It's a hurried and caricatured affair, yet also somehow authentic, like finding a snapshot of childhood. And then there's Norman Whitfield's fabulous disco-soul soundtrack.
All set one one sunny Friday afternoon in urban LA, it's as cowless as you'd expect.
No cows.
This is a lightweight movie, but it's far from worthless.
The sense of post-teen high energy in dead end jobs is leavened with the understated gravitas of ex-con Lonnie. Newly Nation of Islamed Dwayne - now Abdullah - is heavy-handedly characterised until the final scene with Lonnie where they share their sense of inner turmoil that their collegues don't feel. No clumsy moralising or hokey wisdom, but instead a highly plausible and much more affecting simply acknowledgement of their common ground.
But mostly, it's a big bright daft sunshiney film, shot well so that we see the real life city going about its day around them. It's a hurried and caricatured affair, yet also somehow authentic, like finding a snapshot of childhood. And then there's Norman Whitfield's fabulous disco-soul soundtrack.
All set one one sunny Friday afternoon in urban LA, it's as cowless as you'd expect.
No cows.
Monday 25 January 2010
Children of Men
Alfonso Cuarón, 2006
A vision of the future so convincing, so recognisable, that I'm having problems thinking myself out of treating it as something of an inevitability.
The scene where Kee calls Theo for a private talk is in a barn with cows, which Kee talks about before getting down to the real purpose of their conversation. There are a couple of good off-camera moos in the farmyard too.
A vision of the future so convincing, so recognisable, that I'm having problems thinking myself out of treating it as something of an inevitability.
The scene where Kee calls Theo for a private talk is in a barn with cows, which Kee talks about before getting down to the real purpose of their conversation. There are a couple of good off-camera moos in the farmyard too.
Friday 22 January 2010
A Serious Man
Joel and Ethan Coen, 2009
Another Coen classic. The people in their movies actually look like people instead of polished Hollywood waxjobs, the events always feel realistic even when they're highly implausible, you often don't know if the comedy is really funny or if you're a little confused, and the storytelling is really odd. You've no idea where it's going, where it'll end.
Avatar looked great but fucking hell, you knew everything that was going to happen before you went in didn't you? That Star Wars Lord of the Rings thing.Whereas the Coens don't let you even feel sure about when major characters will bow out or what's a reasonable point to end the story.
But once again they've let the bovophiles in the audience down. Are we really meant to be satisfied with a dead deer? Poor show, boys.
No cows.
Another Coen classic. The people in their movies actually look like people instead of polished Hollywood waxjobs, the events always feel realistic even when they're highly implausible, you often don't know if the comedy is really funny or if you're a little confused, and the storytelling is really odd. You've no idea where it's going, where it'll end.
Avatar looked great but fucking hell, you knew everything that was going to happen before you went in didn't you? That Star Wars Lord of the Rings thing.Whereas the Coens don't let you even feel sure about when major characters will bow out or what's a reasonable point to end the story.
But once again they've let the bovophiles in the audience down. Are we really meant to be satisfied with a dead deer? Poor show, boys.
No cows.
Thursday 21 January 2010
Avatar
James Cameron, 2009
Well, what can livestock you expect of this CGI eye-candyfest, set entirely on another planet? That said, there's some bloody good six legged horses, and in the early scene where the chopper first sets the avatars down in the jungle, a few little goat things dash out of the way as it lands. More goats in movies! Who'd've thunk it?
No cows.
Well, what can livestock you expect of this CGI eye-candyfest, set entirely on another planet? That said, there's some bloody good six legged horses, and in the early scene where the chopper first sets the avatars down in the jungle, a few little goat things dash out of the way as it lands. More goats in movies! Who'd've thunk it?
No cows.
Wednesday 20 January 2010
No Country for Old Men
Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007
Oh for fuck's sake, so much rural Americana, but where's the fucking cattle?
No cows.
Oh for fuck's sake, so much rural Americana, but where's the fucking cattle?
No cows.
Tuesday 19 January 2010
Robinson In Space
Patrick Keiller, 1997
For such a simple documentary I find this very hard to describe in a way that conveys how good it is.
Over the summer of 1995 Keiller toured England, shooting stationary images of industrial and cultural interest. Witty, lefty, evocative and utterly absobing, helped immensely by the comforting, wry Peter Sallisesque voiceover of Paul Scofield.
In the bit where they talk about coal going to Fiddlers Ferry power station there's a lovely shot of an indolent summery herd of friesans cudding.
For such a simple documentary I find this very hard to describe in a way that conveys how good it is.
Over the summer of 1995 Keiller toured England, shooting stationary images of industrial and cultural interest. Witty, lefty, evocative and utterly absobing, helped immensely by the comforting, wry Peter Sallisesque voiceover of Paul Scofield.
In the bit where they talk about coal going to Fiddlers Ferry power station there's a lovely shot of an indolent summery herd of friesans cudding.
Thursday 14 January 2010
Central do Brasil (aka Central Station)
Walter Salles, 1998
Once again, goats get a good look-in. When I started keeping count of the cattle I knew that horses would be all over movies, but I never realised just how many goats there are. Amelie, Very Annie Mary, Robin and Marian, now this. Seven cow movies and four goat ones!
This movie also features donkeys and a pig.
No cows.
Once again, goats get a good look-in. When I started keeping count of the cattle I knew that horses would be all over movies, but I never realised just how many goats there are. Amelie, Very Annie Mary, Robin and Marian, now this. Seven cow movies and four goat ones!
This movie also features donkeys and a pig.
No cows.
Tuesday 12 January 2010
Saturday Night Fever
John Badham, 1977
This is such a misunderstood film. Many people dismiss it as kitsch. The majority of these that I come across, when I actually ask them outright, haven't seen the film. Most of the rest have only seen the butchered TV edit that takes out the sex, swearing, drugs and violence.
It's actually a pretty gritty coming of age film, with Tony Manero awash in post-adolescent intense unfocused drive. More than anything, this movie reminds me of Quadrophenia. The dominant music-centred youth cult of the day provides a backdrop for the story and outlet for the protagonist, who moves beyond his shitty job, belittling parents and uncomprehending small minded mates into the wide world; not knowing what he'll do next, only that something else that makes some sense has got to be out there.
Now imagine taking all the sex, drugs, violence and swearing out of Quadrophenia and see what you'd have left. Ignore the TV edit of Saturday Night Fever, it's the 18-certificate version or nothing.
As the movie is set entirely in Brooklyn with a little Manhattan, there's a predictable level of bovine action.
No cows.
This is such a misunderstood film. Many people dismiss it as kitsch. The majority of these that I come across, when I actually ask them outright, haven't seen the film. Most of the rest have only seen the butchered TV edit that takes out the sex, swearing, drugs and violence.
It's actually a pretty gritty coming of age film, with Tony Manero awash in post-adolescent intense unfocused drive. More than anything, this movie reminds me of Quadrophenia. The dominant music-centred youth cult of the day provides a backdrop for the story and outlet for the protagonist, who moves beyond his shitty job, belittling parents and uncomprehending small minded mates into the wide world; not knowing what he'll do next, only that something else that makes some sense has got to be out there.
Now imagine taking all the sex, drugs, violence and swearing out of Quadrophenia and see what you'd have left. Ignore the TV edit of Saturday Night Fever, it's the 18-certificate version or nothing.
As the movie is set entirely in Brooklyn with a little Manhattan, there's a predictable level of bovine action.
No cows.
Wednesday 6 January 2010
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Garth Jennings, 2005
This is another teaser like Chocolat.
In the animation explaining the babel fish we see a farmer and a cow.
Later on, Arthur uses the expression 'till the cows come home' and Zaphod Beeblebrox asks 'what are cows?'. Sadly, he doesn't get an illustrative answer.
No cows.
This is another teaser like Chocolat.
In the animation explaining the babel fish we see a farmer and a cow.
Later on, Arthur uses the expression 'till the cows come home' and Zaphod Beeblebrox asks 'what are cows?'. Sadly, he doesn't get an illustrative answer.
No cows.
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