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Something didn't quite sit well with me the first time I saw this film. Maybe my expectations were skewed, as I loved Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, and I expected to love Be Kind Rewind just as much. Maybe I just didn't really pay attention to what I was watching (I think I remember wandering around my room as it was playing). But there was something about it that wasn't what I hoped it to be.
Watching it for the second time, however, was very different. For one thing, I now actually know who Fats Waller was, and that heightened my interest. I enjoyed hearing his music dotted throughout the film. I feel privileged that I can recognise the songs and it made me feel more affectionate to the film.
I like it when that happens, when you enjoy something more the second time around. It's like you weren't ready for it the first time around and it had to wait until you were in the right place. It leaves me wondering whether I'll enjoy The Science Of Sleep more the second time I watch it as well...
Final Thought: If you watch this on DVD, in the special features there is footage of Mos Def singing Fats Waller's songs in Paris. Watch it. It's only 6 minutes but it's great.
Up Next: Beauty And The Beast (1991)
The thing about Batman for me (and many others) is that he's a superhero who isn't a superhero. No special powers, no radioactive catalysts, no botched experiments, no mutations. Just a vigilante guy. And that's where much of the fascination with him lies, in the idea that, given the means, anyone could be him.
And what makes Batman Begins work for me is that it recognises that. We're not in a cartoon world, we're in a gritty, everyday but heightened reality that is almost believable. The punches have weight behind them and the falls hurt.
There's so many movies adapted from comic books now. I can understand why, there's so many stories all laid out already, a catalogue of complex characters and a fanbase at the ready. That raises the expectation though, so it's amazing that the number of good quality comic-based films is relatively high.
Final Thought: Gary Oldman should be in every movie, please.
Up Next: Be Kind Rewind (2008)
When I was a kid discovering music, I would pinch my father's CDs that I liked the most. My father listened to a lot of jazz and classical music, so that was where I started. Henry Mancini made an impression on me. I loved "Baby Elephant Walk" and "Pink Panther". There was another song on the same album called "Main Title from The Great Mouse Detective".
Being a child, and therefore prone to come up with my own definitions for things, I thought it cool that a composer my father liked had written a piece of music about an imaginary mouse detective. I thought it was just an idea that had occurred to Mancini one day; "Suppose there was this detective, but he was a mouse... I think his life would sound like this..." After all, he'd written music about baby elephants and pink panthers, so for me it wasn't much of a stretch. I loved the piece of music and was satisfied with my explanation for it.
Years later, I discovered the film Basil, The Great Mouse Detective at the video store. It had animals in it, so of course I hired it. When the opening credits started and the theme played, I froze. I knew that music! I scrabbled through my CDs to confirm that I was right, and sure enough, there it was on the track listing. I'd been listening to it for years and never learned that it was the theme music for a Disney film before that day that I'd hired it on a whim.
After I'd watched the film, I pulled out my CD and listened carefully to the title music several times. I heard it so differently having seen the film. I could picture the characters and their world. The piece seemed more emotive to me, knowing what it was created for. This was a piece that was part of my discovery of music. It wasn't something that I was told was good, it was a piece that I decided myself that I liked. I had made that choice independent of outside influence. I had listened to that album so many times growing up, I knew every little nuance of every track. And then, out of the blue, completely unwittingly, I'd discovered a whole new meaning to a piece that I thought I knew so well. It was an amazing experience to listen to a piece of music that I knew intimately, and hear it as though I was listening to it for the first time. Because it gave me that feeling, this film will always be special to me.
Final Thought: Hooray for mice with Scottish accents.
Up Next: Batman Begins (2005)
I know this film back to front. I have no idea how many times I've seen it. It's not one of Fred Astaire's better known films, in fact it's toward the end of his career as a dancer. For some reason though, of all the films that my father showed me from the Astaire catalogue, I watched this one more times than any other. I love the behind-the-scenes nature of it, and the in-jokes (such as the digs about Charisse's height or Astaire's career).
Astaire was in his early 50s when this film was made, and as a result his dance numbers are more on the restrained side. That's not to say that they're lacking in style or class, not by a long shot. It's odd I guess that my favourite Astaire movie isn't one that really showcases what he's known for.
Whenever I watched this film with my father, he'd be in raptures over the "Dancing In The Dark" number. And "Shiny Shoes" is a joy, and the closest in style to a young Astaire. The shoe shiner in that number was apparently a real life shoe shiner, known for his rhythmical technique, and my father always wished to see more of him. And I just can't take my eyes off Nanette Fabray. To me, vaudeville trained performers were incredibly engaging, in a very particular way that you don't see much in modern films. Their style wouldn't really suit modern film, to be fair, but there's something so refreshing about it that I wish it was more common today.
Final Thought: At the time of writing this, The Bandwagon is available on DVD in Australia, but, despite my searching, I can't find ANY of the Astaire/Rogers catalogue. They were released on VHS when I was a kid, but I don't understand why I can't get them anywhere today on DVD. It's beyond frustrating.
Up Next: Basil, The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
Within in the first five minutes of this film, I was struck by how gentle it is. I can't think of a better word for it. This film is gentle. This feeling stays throughout, even in the dramatic moments, because the protagonist is a shy creature and it wouldn't suit his story to present it in another way.
This was yet another Disney movie that I didn't see while young. So many people say that they were shocked and devastated when Bambi's mother meets her fate, but I already knew of her demise before I saw the film for the first time. As a result, I almost feel like I'm missing an essential part of what it is to watch Bambi, because her death wasn't a shock to me. For such a thing to happen in what is mostly such a peaceful film was quite traumatic for many viewers, I believe.
Although I didn't watch the film as a child, I once again must have somehow got my hands on it's related picture book, because I sure did know that I liked Thumper. I was actually thrilled on watching the movie for the first time to discover that Thumper's character is even more charming than I'd imagined.
The presence of man as an ever present but never seen threat is disturbing, and apparently didn't sit well with audiences in the original theatrical release. We're shown the idyll of Bambi's world, and then pretty bluntly told that humans constantly threaten to destroy it. In the current age this is more acceptable, with more people environmentally aware, but back then it would have been pretty confronting. In fact it's now common for hunters to be portrayed as villains, whereas back then it was quite a commercial risk to make such a connection.
Final Thought: I really love when animators take care to accurately portray the movement of animals.
Up Next: The Bandwagon (1953)
I was initially going to write two separate entries for these films, but each time I went to write it, I found myself wanting to put them together in the one post. I then kept questioning that impulse but ultimately decided that I am just going to go with it, because it's my blog and I can do what I want.
Part II: I never saw the second half of this film growing up. I possibly never even saw the first half. I certainly remember the moment of the shark hologram swallowing Marty, but I think that's because they enjoyed using that moment when advertising the movie, back when the gag of that many Jaws sequels was more relevant.
I find the second half of this film the most interesting, once they head back to the 1950s and have to dance around the plot of the first movie. The way that previously central plot moments can become peripheral when observed from the perspective of a parallel story is interesting to me. (I'm likely to go in to that in much more depth when I get to Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead in my collection).
Part III: And then, for me, here's where the series gets a bit weird. Throwing them in to the Wild West was a bit of a longshot, despite the idea being planted early on. I don't know what I would rather have seen though, I haven't given it enough thought.
Final Thought: The
Seamstress was accepting of every ludicrous plot point in these films,
only to take issue with a flying train. Because, you know, that's just
ridiculous.
Up Next: Bambi (1942)
Anyone who grew up in the 80s has seen Back To The Future stacks of times, purposefully or not. This movie, and its sequels, was screened on television so many times, it might as well have been part of the regular line-up (...perhaps it was...?) I saw fragments of this film in passing enough times that I could probably have pieced it together without having to sit down and watch it right through.
When I moved out of home, one of my housemates had the Back To The Future trilogy, and I decided to watch it to find out whether I had actually seen the films in full. And the answer was no. I had actually seen fragments of all three films, and stitched them together in to one giant film in my mind.
I think the reason the Back To The Future films work is that the time travel is the central plot point, with the rest of the events revolving around that, rather than the time travel being a means to catalyse the plot. As a result, the audience is less inclined to try to catch them out on any time travel mistakes, and more prone to wonder "Ooh.. I wonder what they're planning to do with that plot point..." I like a film where small details and lines are planted to recur and pay off later.
I also like a film with great music, but just how much is my opinion
of a film's theme music influenced by feelings of nostalgia? Because,
man, this movie has some great theme music. Music that heralds ADVENTURE!!
Final Thought: That comment above about the music heralding adventure got me thinking about other great sweeping adventurous music (Indiana Jones theme, Jurassic Park theme...), which then got me thinking about how those adventure movies died out somewhat after the 90s. I think they've been replaced with comic hero adaptations, which are often great, and I love them. But I loved those rollicking adventure movies... Bring them back.
Up Next: Back To The Future Part II (1989)
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