Change Your Image
larsvontrio
Reviews
Festen (1998)
Festen: sort of like 'incest' and 'fester'.
So much has been written about this film here, and all I've read so far is positive. I can only agree. I watched it for the second time on Saturday afternoon after a fairly boozy Friday night with a friend who hadn't seen it. I found it pretty unbearable at times, as did the friend. Its tension relating to the verbal revelation of unspeakable acts is peculiar to this movie. The closest thing to it would be if Hitchcock had staged a group therapy session. The embarrassment, disbelief, revulsion and denial of the group is palpable to the sucked-in viewer. At times we wish the avenger Christian would just f*** off and let us enjoy the celebration! (As another reviewer said, at times the viewer feels almost intrusive, and by the same token shares the feelings of the group). Strangely, the intensity of its disturbing middle section, with the battle of wills between father and son, is only lightened once the group has been broken down and forced to accept the truth by a memorable missive from beyond the grave. Two performances I haven't seen praised here are that of the chef, a burly bloke who grew up with Christian and is on his side, who helps make the unmasking of Christian's father possible; and the weedy, neurotic-looking man who keeps trying to leave saying, "I can't take it! I already suffer from depression!" That might have gone for many in the audience too, if it weren't for something noble about the entire enterprise that keeps you glued to your seat.
Play for Today: 'Nuts in May' (1976)
Mike Leigh & Co are a genius
I've just had the pleasure of watching Abigail's Party again. It was very powerful, and I wondered if I should comment on that film, but decided that the original idea of commenting on Nuts In May was the right way to go.
What can I say about Nuts In May? This film is a is a perennial favourite. And let me reiterate 'film' - unlike Abigail's Party the whole of this looks like it was shot on film. Not that I'm denigrating the filming of Abigail's Party, that was great too.
Call it mad, but I think Nuts In May is on a level with Raging Bull, and visceral character studies of that nature; even though it seems so mundane on the surface, it is in fact a seething series of tableaux of petty minded and petit-bourgeois preconceptions.
But then again, Keith is a noble and heroic figure, one that you find yourself rooting for again and again. Alison Steadman is surprisingly good in her role as the passive-aggressive wife who just wants to experience a life outside the confines of her cosy Keith-life, for once, I only say that because it's so radically different from her signature role in Abigail's Party.
I must agree with that guy who didn't understand the film at all: why does it end with a pig? Anyway, that's enigmatic, and we don't criticise David Lynch for it, do we?
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
A tragic tale of unrequited love in the dangerous world of 70s news gangs
Champ loves Ron, but Ron loves Veronica. Brick loves lamp, while Brian only loves the smell of desire, m'lady. Meanwhile, gifted linguist Baxter undertakes a fantastic journey and becomes a friend to the bears. Finally, Chris is having a psychedelic awakening.
All this and more, such as poetry, jazz flute, a girl who's Brazilian... or Chinese or something weird, a cat turd on a plate, a whale's vagina, Sex Panther and the uncontrollable desire to drink more Scotch will "crawl into your head" forever if you watch this totally newsworthy motion picture.
Go f**k yourself, San Diego.
Blue/Orange (2005)
Two head shrinks and a London black guy
This is a top drawer drama from BBC4, which begins with a white doctor attempting to treat a black guy for schizophrenia. Tensions build between the pair until the entrance of Dr Smith (Brian Cox) seems to herald a new, less ethnocentric viewpoint regarding the alleged patient's "borderline psychosis". The black guy is a born wind-up merchant, who manages to make the two white guys tie themselves up in knots, until, finally, they turn on each other.
What this film says to me is, we in Britain think we know all there is to know about black people, ever since the colonial times and the Windrush immigration subsequent to that. In fact, we have something of an inferiority complex, and the sheer nastiness of the two doctors as they engage their victim in therapy, conveys this concept admirably.
As incendiary BBC drama goes, it transcends most of the output on BBC1, and makes jaded Hollywood movies about race relations look like the slick exercises in empty propaganda that they are. The acting is brilliant, and the direction makes us remember that a few well placed stompings around the room can be dramatic whilst still conveying unpalatable nuances of character - ie it's not over-acting, its actors portraying the anguish that comes with facing unpalatable truths like the fact that one's whole academic approach could be founded on a lie. As a previous reviewer said, Brian Cox in particular (although given the best role) has really outdone himself.
Blue Orange will challenge your perceptions or misconceptions of what it means to live in a multi-cultural world, and despite its psychiatric hospital setting/veneer of mental illness, it really inhabits a world that is a microcosm of our own.