skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I just... don't like this film very much. I would normally assume that I watched it due to liking Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, but that can't be the case because Being John Malkovich came out first and I definitely saw it at the cinema. And I don't even think I liked it then, so I must have bought it purely because John Cusack was in it. This was not a Be Kind Rewind experience - I did not enjoy it more the second time at all. All I kept thinking as I watched it was "Did I really enjoy this the first time I saw it? Why do I own this?? Everything is just so uncomfortable..."
It's really quite bizarre to have John Malkovich be the most likeable character in a film. Not to be insulting, but it's really against the grain for him and I'm not sure it's intentional. I enjoyed this film the most whenever he was on screen, and his exploration of his own subconscious is very inventive.
All in all though, I dislike this film. It'll be going to the second hand store tomorrow.
Final Thought: It is interesting to see story elements in this film that Charlie Kaufman clearly managed to make more successful in Eternal Sunshine.
Up Next: Big Fish (2003)
This is easily one of my top three childhood films. It is as comforting and familiar to me as the smell of my father's cooking. Angela Lansbury is just wonderful, and I was always amazed by films that combined animation with live action. I was amazed by how they managed to put real people together with something that I knew was created on paper. It seemed extremely clever to me and I was fascinated by any film where it occurred (which led me to watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit? as a kid; a decision I regretted. That steamroller scene was upsetting).
I regularly hired the video from my local store and knew it back to front, but upon purchasing the 25th anniversary DVD, it turns out that there was a lot more to the story than was shown in the initial version that I saw. There are quite a few songs that weren't in the video I saw as a kid, and the extended Portobello Rd dance sequence is lovely. I mentioned previously that I resented the addition of a song to my DVD copy of Beauty and the Beast ("Human Again" wasn't in the original version, and I don't feel that the film flows smoothly in to it, so it jars my viewing experience), but I must say that the additional scenes in Bedknobs and Broomsticks work for me. They give the characters more depth. As a kid, I particularly never understood why Emelius suddenly shacked up with Miss Price at the end, but with the extended version their quiet affection for each other is shown and so it all makes sense.
Final Thought: It often happens that, as an adult, you'll go back and watch a film or TV show you loved as a kid and realise that it was actually a bit messed up. It somehow didn't seem that way to you when you were young. Yet with Bedknobs and Broomsticks, I always thought the deflation of the suits of armour most creepy, even as a child.
Up Next: Being John Malkovich (1999)
I remember there being a fuss about this movie when it was released. The fact that computers were used to partly animate the ballroom scene was a big deal. It seemed so strange to me at the time that a person would use a computer for animation. I knew that making a cartoon involved several pieces of paper that you drew on and then flicked between a lot. The idea of using a computer for that was just weird.
I went to see this film at the cinema and just loved Belle. She was bookish, brunette and inquisitive, which I found appealing. I also loved the music theatre nature of the soundtrack. The opening theme is gorgeous and the songs have such entertaining lyrics ("I use antlers in all of my decorating...").
I do wonder though, how much of the furniture in the castle was just furniture? If it was entirely furnished with the staff in their transformed state, what did they do once everyone was human again?
Final Thought: Thinking back, "inventor" was a common profession according to 90s films...
Up Next: Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
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)
_DVD_boxart.JPG)
