12 Angry Men

Wow. One of the best films I’ve ever seen and definitely a 10/10. 12 jurists decide on the fate of a young man convicted of murdering his father. Brilliant acting from all of them, realistic and engaging characters, a very well written script and almost entirely filmed in one small room, this really is a masterpiece. The only fault I can think of is that the viewer knows how it will end right from the beginning, but that is kind of inevitable with a drama like this. So... watch this film.

Tesis (Thesis)

A Spanish film by Alejandro Amenábar, director of Abre los Ojos; I saw his name and decided to watch this. It was well worth it: lots of suspense, lots of nerve-wracking moments, characters with a bit of depth and a good plot. Like all thrillers, the film did suffer from several “why-are-you-doing-that, it’s-clearly-not-a-good-idea?” moments which always annoy me. But it was definitely an above-average thriller and also asked some interesting questions. 7/10

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I remember hearing that this was a romance when it came out and refusing to watch it on that basis. Having read a bit more about it, I went to see it and thought it was brilliant. It was a great film, and left me asking myself so many questions about the nature of love, memory and happiness that I will probably bore you with a blog about it soon. I liked the characters a lot and the plot was (literally) fantastic. I think it was particularly interesting for me as I am practically emotionless and this is one of the most emotional films I have seen. I can’t quite understand the casting of Jim Carrey though. 8.5/10

Cultural Renaissance

Having a lot of free time in general, holidays in particular, and access to libraries where borrowing DVDs and CDs as well as books is free, has led to a kind of cultural renaissance in my life. The number of books I am reading, DVDs I am watching, and new albums I am listening to, is increasing at a glorious rate.

I have little to say about music – there have been no major changes in my tastes of late – or about books, as I am mostly re-reading things or reading crap at the moment (although I have just started a book which promises to be utterly brilliant, but more about that when I’ve actually finished).

That leaves films. I have seen five of late: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, 2001: A Space Odyssey, City of God, The Seventh Seal and Children of Men.

I have little to say about The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. While it was depressing, it was very artificial, with the lines clearly carefully chosen to tug at heartstrings. Still, it wasn’t bad, so maybe a 6/10.

 I don’t quite know what to say about 2001. I read the book but can’t find a blog post about it; essentially, I was quite disappointed. However, if we ignore the fact that the basic premise of the story is startlingly ridiculous, and the conclusion requires some kind of hallucinogen to make sense, the film was actually quite a lot better. The sets were amazing, especially considering the age of the film. A 7/10 perhaps.

City of God was cinematic perfection. Wow. Great acting with a gripping storyline. It succeeded in all the places Slumdog Millionaire failed, in my view. It showed harsh reality without compromise, but managed not to be crushingly depressing by showing attainable ways for certain people to escape the favela. It was genuinely Brazilian, aimed at a Brazilian audience, not at a Western audience needing reassurance of its own superiority, and therefore entirely authentic - the actors were from favelas and needless to say, the film was entirely in Portuguese. I think this has instantly become one of my favourite films – after finishing, even though I needed to get to sleep, I watched all the extras. 10/10

I expected the Seventh Seal to be one of those classics which was mind-blowing at the time but impossible to watch fifty years down the line. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was watchable, although it was definitely rather too heavy on the metaphysics. The whole focus on death, despair and apocalypse got old quickly, especially as characters sounded like they were quoting philosophy textbooks rather than speaking; I suppose this reflects the post-war mentality, although in this case it’s surprising this film should come from neutral Sweden. Anyway, the sets weren’t bad and the film is worth watching if only for the existentialist angst, so 6/10. Also, I understood several words of Swedish! I know it’s similar to Norwegian, but I didn’t expect it to sound identical to it.

Children of Men was amazingly bad. I was fairly fond of the book, although critical of certain aspects, such as the ending and the speech. The film, on the other hand, quickly descended into sillyness with a full half hour of the main characters calmly walking though gunfire and coming to no harm. There were also some instances of characters quoting from the book, which of course sounded ridiculous. It’s a shame that such an interesting idea and such a good book should result in such a poor film.Credit where credit is due: on a visual level, the film was bordering excellent for its visual portrayal of future-Britain and refugee camps, with some great sets. That pushes up the final score to 3/10.

 I have seen several very good films of late: Tours held a “cinema and film” festival this weekend, showcasing a lot of brilliant British film, including three that I went to see: My Son the Fanatic, Young Soul Rebels, and My Beautiful Launderette. I also saw 8^th Wonderland at the festival, and Gandahar and Ratatouille separately.

My Son the Fanatic

I recommend this very strongly, one of the best films I have seen of late. It follows a first generation Pakistani immigrant who drives a taxi, drinks alcohol and gives rides to prostitutes. He gets to know one of them and confides in her about his problems with his son, who is becoming increasingly radicalised. A lot of very good acting and characterisation made this film really gripping. The subject matter will doubtless be interesting to any Briton, considering the issues we have with second generation Muslim immigrants. 9/10

Young Soul Rebels

This film is set in the 1970s and follows two young black men (well, one if mixed race, but if Obama can be called black, so can he...) who have their own pirate soul radio station. Interracial gay sex occurs. It was interesting to me as a look into 70s society – perhaps older readers remember the times when the police were institutionally racist (okay, yes, that is a stupid sentence... I meant they were blatant about it!) and punks existed and all. The subcultures were interesting, the protagonist slightly frustrating in his stubbornness, the characters engaging, the interracial homoerotica interracial and homoerotic. Overall very depressing (like My Son the Fanatic) but definitely a good film. 7/10

My Beautiful Launderette

Like a cross between the other two films, this was also set in the 70s and incorporated themes of race relations, Pakistani integration and interracial homoeroticism. The only one of the three I had been meaning to see for a while, I thought it was good, but in some ways quite frustrating. The protagonist had enough negative character traits to make me want to punch him. His lover was strangely submissive given his background. There was a bizarrely sexual girl who I couldn’t imagine coming from a Pakistani family, no matter how secular. However, a lot of the rest of the characters (and cast) made up for this, the look at 70s Britain and the state of race relations at the time was again very interesting and, I’ll be honest, interracial homoeroticism is always fantastic. 7/10

8^th Wonderland

A little known 2009 Franco-Italian film which I heartily recommend. It felt amateur in places, but the idea was so brilliant that it kept me hooked all the way through. Set in the near future, the film revolves around a group of people who are among millions to have become citizens of 8^th Wonderland – the first virtual country. There are regular referendums in this most democratic of nations, and if a motion is passed in 8^th Wonderful, the citizens attempt to enact similar change in their real nations. But their actions gradually become more and more extreme... I would give this film 10/10 for conception. I also loved the use of about 10 different languages. There were a few let downs in realising the idea, some poor acting, some unbelievable aspects to the plot, and some bizarre choices of metaphor, lowering the score overall to 8/10. It kept me hooked nonetheless and is more than worth a watch – quite brilliant.

Gandahar

You may remember me waxing lyrical about Fantastic Planet and being quite enthusiastic about Time Masters. Gandahar is the final feature length film directed by Laloux. I watched it in French without subtitles so didn’t follow 100% but I think the films generally declined in quality. Gandahar still has all the wonderful aspects of Laloux – surreal images and amazing music – but this time the plot felt, well, silly. If you’re new to Laloux I would recommend Fantastic Planet instead. If you’re not, and you want to watch some more, then be warned about the slip in quality! 5/10

Ratatouille

Is there much point reviewing this? It’s Disney. It’s good fun, will make you laugh, and a nice feel-good film. 7/10

I've just realised how long it's been since I last blogged about films. I hope I haven't left any off the list. Here it is, anyway, in vague order of how much you should watch the film.

1) Synecdoche, New York
2) Howl's Moving Castle
3) Metropolis
4) Cinema Paradiso
5) Mulholland Drive
6) My Neighbour Totoro
7) La belle et la bête (Beauty and the Beast)
8) El espíritu de la colmena (The spirit of the beehive)

Synecdoche, New York
This is the best film I have seen in ages. It is also the most pretentious film I have seen in ages. You should watch it. It's just kind of overwhelming in its presentation of the human condition and can't really be described any further. It made me laugh and cry. Really. As one of my friends said, "It immediately became one of my favourite films". That's true of me, and I imagine most other people who watched it with me; I can't really recommend this film enough.

Howl's Moving Castle
Yet another Studio Ghibli, and yet another outstanding film. I think I'm a fan. The main character was flawed in this, which I like, while not being annoyingly moral (as in Princess Mononoke) or annoying stupid (Spirited Away, to begin with, although she did develop, I'll admit). Enthralling from start to finish, Studio Ghibli rocks.

Metropolis
Wow. Just wow. Easily the oldest film I've ever seen (1927), and definitely worth checking out. It's a German film set in a dystopian future in which the upper classes and working classes have separated completely, with the latter being forced underground to work machines. The hero (a member of the upper class) rebels against the system, the working classes begin to plan a rebellion and a mad scientist builds a robot... brilliant! Politically it seemed to be a very social-democrat kinda film, pro-workers rights but against workers in control. Good overall.

Cinema Paradiso
I have seen very few Italian films, but they all seem to be fantastic, focusing on the ups and downs of life and human relationships rather than spectacular plots. This film does that very well, but you also get to see Italy growing up with the protagonist; overall, it's fascinating and poignant.

Mulholland Drive
I spent most of this film thinking "what the fuck is going on?!" I accept that it was a really good film overall; brilliantly shot, brilliant acting, great use of metaphor and some fantastic lines. It did annoy me, though, that the director went out of his way to confuse the viewer, and that ( spoiler ) Still good overall, I guess, but not my thing.

My Neighbour Totoro
Totoro, Totoro! Hooray! A film with no bad guys... and yet able to keep your attention throughout with its imagination. Thumbs up overall; I particularly like the catbus.

La belle et la bête (Beauty and the Beast)
The original French black and white film, not the modern Disney version. It was kind of interesting but I don't remember much about it, so clearly didn't make that great an impression. I remember being impressed with the fantastic elements of the plot and how they'd been filmed, considering the time period.

El espíritu de la colmena (The spirit of the beehive)
Nothing happened? I'm usually quite receptive to slow, arty films of the European variety but they usually contain some semblance of a plot. Not so here.

One of my aims for this term has been to watch more films, which I've managed quite well so far. Of late I've watched La Planete Sauvage, American Beauty, A Tale of Two Sisters, Oldboy, Fire and Raise the Red Lantern. :D

La Planete Sauvage - Fantastic Planet

1970s French animated surreal sci-fi. :D These are all my favourite adjectives, and this is now one of my favourite films; all my friends I've shown it to have also thought it was amazing, extremely original and enthralling in every way. If you like more than two of the aforementioned adjectives, please watch it! The entirety can be found on Youtube in both English and French. 10/10



American Beauty

I went into this with high expectations and came out slightly disappointed. It was a brilliant film, incredibly well done, well shot, interesting characters, entertaining plot. On the other hand, that was all it was - an excellent film, but not outstanding in any respect. In an ideal world, this would be the minimum standard of all films... I don't understand why it's so widely admired, and feel it must just be due to Americans who have never seen any non-Hollywood films in their lives thinking this is really original. 8/10

A Tale of Two Sisters
Srsly, wtf? I went to see this with 3 friends. Only one of us had any idea what was going on; for the rest of us, this was just a sequence of scenes. :| Crazy Koreans!

Oldboy
I entered this with some trepidation after the other Korean film. Oldboy was actually really good, a kind of Korean Kill Bill of sorts. It required suspension of disbelief because a lot of the plot was ridiculous, but was enthralling and convincing enough to make you suspend disbelief. 7/10

Fire
This was the first independent, non-Bollywood film I'd seen. It caused riots in India when it was screened because it had lesbians, which loads of quasi-fascist Hindu nutters claimed was "un-Indian". I thought it was beautiful, and it made me cry. I can't quite believe this film came out of India. To fully appreciate it, I think you need to be deeply familiar with Indian society and culture as well as Bollywood; this film was a refutation of all of that, a refutation of Indian tradition and conservative mores. To my English friend who came along, it was just a reasonably interesting film about Indian lesbians, so I wouldn't especially recommend it to people who aren't familiar with India. I think this film will stay with me forever though. 8/10 because there were several slips and the whole thing just lacked the artistic cohesion of Western films.

Raise the Red Lantern
Chinese classic, superb. Beautiful, intriguing story of a man's four wives. Slightly too long, but still a must see. 8/10

Yesterday I went charity shopping with Annie, with pleasing results. I bought the RotK DVD (yes, shamefully I didn't own it before...), 2 Discworld books (1 of which I already owned, alas), an atlas of ancient history and the Book of Lost Tales by Tolkien. I'm particularly pleased with the last two. The atlas covers all those ancient Eurasian empires, like the Hittites and Assyrians, that nobody really cares about. I feel I should know more about them - the world didn't start with the Ancient Greeks, and it will be interesting to see what came before them. The Book of Lost Tales I remember being my favourite volume of the History of Middle Earth series - so much amazing myth.

I also bought a 5000 year old game. It was discovered in Ur and dates from 2600 BC (although my replica dates from the 1980s). It's pretty darn fantastic. Look at the board!



Look at the pieces!


It would be worth it for the amazing design alone, but I've played it and it's a pretty good game, somewhat like backgammon but more strategic.

Finally, anybody who is LJ friends with lalwendeboggart will remember her Walkers taste test. If not, and if so, to recap: Walkers introduced 6 new flavours of crisps, only one of which can survive. Like Lal, I have now tried all six, and can rank them:

1 - Builder's Breakfast
2 - Fish and Chips
3 - Cajun Squirrel
4.5 - Hoisin Duck / Onion Bhaji
6 - Chilli and Chocolate

Builder's Breakfast is something like crisp heaven, while Chilli and Chocolate approaches hell. I was quite impressed with Fish and Chips as well. The other three flavours were good at tasting like what they were meant to, but not good flavours for crisps.

Films

I recently bought The Motorcycle Diaries and Pan's Labyrinth to add to my meagre DVD collection.

Recently seen: Che part 1, The Class, Sunshine.

Che: part 1

Fairly interesting look at his life but one of those films I probably wouldn't watch more than once, I guess. The best part was Castro's soothing voice... Should probably get round to watching part 2 some time.

The Class (Entre les murs)

Again, this was a very interesting look into French classrooms, and the acting was superb. Lots of nicely flawed characters, wonderfully French.

Sunshine

Crap science, but suspension of disbelief was fine due to the good acting. The psychological aspect of the film, getting to know the characters and all, was brilliant. A good sci-fi film overall, but not quite a classic, I think.


Books

Recently read: The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway) and Sophie's World (Jostein Gaarder)

The Old Man and the Sea

Well it was quite interesting to read, but I wasn't sure what to make of it afterwards... Apparently, Hemmingway said that he didn't give the book "meaning" to start with, but that's clearly bollocks... I suppose my main problem is that there are too many different things that can be read into the book, and I don't know enough about Hemmingway to know what is from the author and what is from me (although that raises the question of how important that distinction is anyway). Ho hum. I think the main message I got out of it was an existential one - the twin futlity and nobility of everything we do.

Sophie's World

Written by the second famous writer from Norway (awww). I really liked it as an introduction to philosophy, but the plot was a bit bash. I can kind of see what the author was trying to do in the second half - exploring questions of reality, existence, free will - but don't think it worked particularly well. Still, definitely worth it if you want a quick intro to philosophy.


Music

Give yourself a cookie if you read all the above. If so (and even if not, I suppose), here is your Jewish-Ethiopian reward:

Films I have seen this term: Slumdog Millionaire, Spirited Away, Amores Perros, Les poupées rousses, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Dostana. I have also discovered the best cinema ever (which calenaldion would certainly love) - one screen, entry music rather than trailers, comfy seats...

Slumdog Millionaire - Certainly didn't live up to the hype. It was okay, but I don't understand how anybody can think it was amazing. Pros: the depiction of India as it really is, including the darker side of it, which is probably something most Western people aren't familiar with. Cons: Too many holes or lack of believability in the plot, e.g. flashbacks corresponding exactly to the order of the questions, kids suddenly learn English. Oh, and the romance...

Spirited Away - Amazing. I think I am becoming a fan of Studio Ghibli. Overall I liked it more than Mononoke, I think; the protagonists of both were annoying, but more so in Mononoke. Mononoke only really got going about halfway through, when it suddenly became epic; Spirited Away was consistently good and amazingly imaginative. I love No Face!

Amores Perros - Overall really good. The middle section was generally good - it did get a little boring and ridiculous, but not too much. The first and last thirds were absolutely perfect and more than made up for the slightly weaker middle section.

Les poupées russes = Russian Dolls = the sequel to L'auberge éspagnole, one of my favourite films. The sequel was meant to be as good, but I think it fell quite short; it was okay to see once, but nothing like as good as L'auberge éspagnole.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona - The first Woody Allen film I've ever seen. I think it was quite like L'auberge espagnole in a way; an interesting slice out of the lives of the main characters. I think the main characters were really good as concepts, and the actors played them well. The narration was a bit of a strange inclusion in a film. I was quite annoyed that the film was set in Barcelona but the characters spoke Spanish. Apparently the two main characters were actually from Spanish-speaking parts of Spain who moved to Barcelona, so that makes a bit more sense now. Good overall.

I watched both of these during my wonderful stay in Leeds, where much geekery (read: Age of Empires) happened.

Princess Mononoke

For a while, this was the highest-grossing film in Japan. Finding that out was a little shocking - it shows how completely different Japan is to the West. It's an anime, so I was dubious at first, but it was actually very good - a historical fantasy following a cursed prince attempting to get his curse lifted. The characters were a lot more complex than anything you'd find in Disney, although the protagonist's moralizing was ever so slightly grating. The music was really good. The fantasy world was well made - simple enough for the big screen, but nice and imaginative. I can't wait to see more by the creators now.

Twilight

brinniel  mentioned this is a post recently, and sarahlitarose  wrote scathingly about the book in February. Although I was dubious about this film too because I'd heard it was a romance, I actually quite liked it as a one-off bit of entertainment. I liked how the vampires lived and the inclusion of Native Americans, and of course vampire baseball! I suppose I liked the heroine for being nice and analytical, until she became incredibly stupid briefly for plot purposes. The villains were nicely villainous. Edward was not especially attractive. The romance itself was annoying simply because of the overt Christian sexual morality, but overall it was definitely not a bad film.

I'm not sure I'd want to read the book though. From what sarahlitarose  says, it sounds like I'd find it pretty dull - romance is not really my genre, so repetitve gushing over one another would probably do my head in. However, one of my friends has read and likes the books, and she promised me both lesbianism and a greater role for Native Americans if I should read it. I wonder if those elements are worth churning through the romantic bits.

I spent the weekend at Cambridge because one of my friends (Mike the Mathematician) lives there. Five Oxonians were there altogether, plus a couple of Mike's friends at some points. I've been to Cambridge a couple of times before and think it is actually quite a lot nicer than Oxford. The grand college, like King's, are prettier than Oxford equivalents like ChristChurch; the towncentre is more spread out and doesn't have people spilling onto the streets; there are loads of parks spread out throughout the town and the shops are better (Fopp! Giant Oxfam! Amnesty Bookshop! Mead vendors! Geeky shop whose name eludes me!).

I had a good time, involving punting (with no falling in! The poles are lighter in Cambridge and therefore easier to manage too. Oh, and the river is cleaner), picnics, nudists, blackberries (first of the season!), bubbles, pubs and Age of Empires until 3:30am.

I bought quite a few things at brilliant Cambridge prices, including LOTR FOTR DVD which I shamefully did not own; these games: Age of Empires 1, Shogun Total War, Theme Hospital; and a book by Noam Chomsky called Hegemony or Survival. Noam Chomsky is one of my person heroes, being a linguist, a socialist, the most quoted living person in the humanities and generally cool. I'd always meant to read one of his political books but never got round to it, so it was this to find this book on American foreign policy for £3.

 I spent two days in Cambridge this week, Wednesday to Friday morning - it was fantastic. Cambridge is really so mcuh nicer than Oxford - there areparks everywhere. I stayed at Mike's (wonderful Oxford mathematician) house, which is awesome and Victorian. Time splitters, age of empires and cake-baking occurred.

Purchases:

Books:
Is it just me or is everything shit? 1 and 2. Cynical and hilarious. Everything is indeed shit. The only problem I found with this is that the authors seem to think that, if they insert the word "fuck" into every single entry, the book will be better. This is also shit. Such is life.
No Logo by Naomi Klein. Some anti-corporate book from Oxfam, should be interesting. It's hard to believe the extent to which corporations control literally everything... somebody should really inform David Icke.

DVDs:
Donnie Darko. 'Nuff said.
The Edukators - German film about a group of communists who break into people's houses and rearrange their furniture. Seen it before, it's really good.

Other:
Mead. Yes, mead. On the basis that honey tastes amazing, this should clearly be my drink of choice from now on. Unfortunately Cambridge seems to be the only place I can get it, and you can't exactly go to a bar and say "glass of mead please".



In other news, I am back to Oxford on Wednesday (at last, thank God!). I will have exams straight away. I do not remember which parts of the course I'll be tested on... I have no idea what to revise. Damn it. Home work is still to be done.

Next term is going to be ludricously busy. Exams at both ends of term, which is only 9 weeks. I already have stuff planned for the first four weekends - that's half the term!  Gah. It also doesn't help that I have a gameboy advance charger now, so I'm back on Pokemon and Super Mario. And of course, the ever present Risk boardgame. And Go. And climbing trees. It will be sunny. Perhaps going to parks. And I'll have my own laptop. Facebook and Livejournal. Oh, and David Cameron is coming in the first week, but I don't think I'll get in - according to facebook, 760 people are definitely going and a further 300 are maybes. The Oxford Union tends to get full at around 250 people. Alas, I did actually want to go listen to the twat say stupid things. Oh well.

How much work will get done? Any bets?

Seeing as I don't have a job yet, I thought I may as well watch as many films as possible. 28 Days Later was on last night, and I loved it. I love zombie films in general - not because of the zombies, but because I love post-apocalyptic or dystopian film and books. They raise so many interesting questions.

I wonder what I would do in such a situation (yes, I know how unlikely it is to occur). I'm not sure whether I'd grab a kitchen knife and large pointy stick and struggle to stay alive, or whether I'd just overdose on some pills. And I wonder if, in such a situation, people really would abandon morality and aim to preserve themselves. The two main reasons I see to be moral are God and society. A zombie-ish situation would probably make one renounce faith in God, and society would have collapsed.

So, this came at just the right time:
52%

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

In other news, I have finally given in and got a facebook.

This Harry Potter puppet parody rocks: