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Reviews
Behind the Candelabra (2013)
A great film if Kenneth Russell had made it!
An enjoyable film with knock-out performances by Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, but in the end it is a little dull and empty because it is simply yet another relationship film. It could be When Harry Met Sally - albeit gay and with a somewhat unhappy ending. It strikes me that by focussing purely on relationships an enormous chance has been missed: Liberace was an astonishing phenomenon in his day, there must be more tell and show about his motivation, his talents (which obviously extended way beyond just tickling the ivories), his background, his mother, etc etc. Imagine doing the same to James Brown, say, or David Bowie, you know, giving maybe five minutes of them on stage and the rest about their mundane love lives? Does it make sense? What a shame Kenneth Russell wasn't still around to knock this potentially amazing material into real shape. Then the film would have earned nine stars at least!
Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (2011)
a very amusing way to spend an evening
Having been lucky to get to see the German premier of this film I must say it was a real joy. Excellent acting by the leads in this gay extraterrestrial romantic comedy, and some comedy scenes from the two agents that had me in stitches. Unlike the other reviewer, I did not find their presence in the work at all out of place, and certainly did not feel the humour petered out. Having been lucky to get to see the German premier of this film I must say it was a real joy. Excellent acting by the leads in this gay extraterrestrial romantic comedy, and some comedy scenes from the two agents that had me in stitches. Unlike the other reviewer, I did not find their presence in the work at all out of place, and certainly did not feel the humour petered out.
El Topo (1970)
etched deep in my mind
I watched this film when it came out in 1970 in a wonderful art-house cinema in London, and then in 2006 found a DVD to give it its first re-watch in 36 years - and was astonished that I had forgotten only about a third of the film - almost every scene had been etched that deeply on my mind. Truly phenomenal. I have watched most of the other Jodorowski movies and was more or less equally impressed - but this was the first and so my favourite. Question: when will someone finally translate his novel, "Where the Birds Sing Most Sweet" into English. I read it in German, absolutely compelling! I watched this film when it came out in 1970 in a wonderful art-house cinema in London, and then in 2006 found a DVD to give it its first re-watch in 36 years - and was astonished that I had forgotten only about a third of the film - almost every scene had been etched that deeply on my mind. Truly phenomenal. I have watched most of the other Jodorowski movies and was more or less equally impressed - but this was the first and so my favorite. Question: when will someone finally translate his novel, "Where the Birds Sing Most Sweet" into English. I read it in German, absolutely compelling!
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Shoddy acting and an outright insult to other people's beliefs
I seem to recall thoroughly enjoying the first Indiana Jones film, many years ago, and the last one with Sean Connery was also immensely entertaining, as I recall. So it was without any mixed feelings that I sat down to watch Temple of Doom. It got off to a bit of a shaky start, although the Busby Berkeley routine and the singer were all worth watching: something was a little too heavy-handed for my liking, or missing. What was it? After about ten minutes I realized that it was Harrison Ford, who really is a terrible, wooden actor. i was watching the film in English, having seen the other films dubbed in German by presumably skilled actors. What a difference! But even that (and the leading lady's appallingly silly role - nothing she could do about it I guess, that was the script), shouldn't have spoiled things. What now came was the tritest and offensive (truly offensive) pile of never-ending clichés about India I could ever have imagined. Not even clichés, but downright idiotic fantasies, such as Indian's eating monkey brains, performing voodoo, etc etc. And then the depiction of Kali, the protecting mother goddess in her ferocious aspect as a king of sub-Aztec monster took the biscuit. Sure, her cult has been abused, was indeed so by the historical Thugees, but Dr Jones should have shown a little more comprehension on these matters. Add to that the invocation of Sita and Ram - anything but nasty deities in the Hindu pantheon - in the demonic gibberish chanted by the Thugees and one wonders how Hollywood wasn't nuked. Sure, this kind of film doesn't live from method acting and stereotypes can be amusing, but if Spielberg wants to teach us respect to our neighbours he would do well not to go trampling about on other people's beliefs just to produce a blockbuster. Apart from which, I found the action sequences interminably boring, lacking the kind of build up and choreography which by You only live twice should have been standard. Maybe the underground trolley ride had its moments, and the bridge sequence could have been worse, but most of it was cluttered and strangely unmotivated. All in all I found this a really dismal bit of Hollywood propaganda for Western colonialism (note: there were only nasty fanatical Indians who we should despise, or the poor and helpless who need Western help - a very familiar Hollywood scheme).
The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Boring, tired, uninspired
Perhaps I was awaiting some understanding of two of the 18th century's most astonishing minds (The Grimm Brothers not only collated all of those hem wonderful folk tales, they also produced a major work on German myths and did the backbone work for the German equivalent of the Oxford English Dictionary - they themselves did five or so volumes during their own lives, the remaining 20 or so took over 100 years to finish! Obviously they didn't have TV and films like this to waste their time with!) But leaving the historical perspective and the vitality of the loaned historical characters aside, this was a tired, dull movie that never made it beyond silly clichés and heavy-handed humour. With such a mundane script, it is hardly surprising that the actors rarely had the opportunity to excel, making the whole a somewhat leaden experience. If you want to really see what the Grimm brothers and their like have to offer the present day view, look at Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves, a film that deserves the roughly 7 points it has been given on these pages.
Zardoz (1974)
excellent intellectual and sensual cinema
i remember a friend once saying to me that this is a film you will only like if you have an IQ of over 130 or under 90 - i'm not sure that intelligence is what it's all about, but certainly this little masterpiece will probably only appeal to fringe sections of the movie-going world, but by them be all the more acclaimed. A great performance by Charlotte Rampling, ditto Sean Connery (showing pre-The Rock and non-Bond integrity), plus many others. If you don't know your Yves Klein and Magritte you may be missing out on some of the better jokes, but nevertheless a lot of food for thought. Excellent cinema, humorously pre-dating the likes of Vanilla Sky or even Fight Club in its examination of what is our personal existence.
The Company (2003)
Vapid kitsch
Ms Campbell's idea of choosing old master Altmann as a "choreographic" director for a dance film should perhaps have worked. The result, however, is seriously flawed because Altmann shines when he can marshall large amounts of humour and scintillating irony and has a strong cast - all of which is missing here. I don't even object to the basic idea of having little plot, but the human interest aspect is reduced to a series of flat, moralizing mini-episodes consisting of little more than tedious reminders of how hard a dancer's life is (all those ghastly injuries; the tragedy of being thrown out of a role one has worked on for months shortly before the premiere; how awful that these talented kids have to live in squalor and work evenings in bars to make ends meet; etc. etc. - all served up as dismal clichés). Even the love life of the leading lady appears to be nothing more than a raised finger: remember, viewers, dancers are just like you and me and also have boring, pedestrian boyfriends! That aside, the main reason the film fails so dismally is the choice of company and choreography. The works we see (beautifully filmed) might have seemed interesting 80 years ago as a vaguely acceptable continuation of Diaghalev and the Ballet Russes, but 21st century ballet it is not. What we are served up is interminable hours of vapid kitsch of the sort that gives ballet a bad name. Assuming Altmann had something to offer in this film, I watched to the end hoping that there would some ironic twist, that the truly awful ballet that is the focus of the second half of the film would be booed off stage of such like. But no, like the entire film we are expected it to take it at face value as a masterpiece. At best the film is an insight into the provinciality of US dance, but the bottom line is that this is incredible nonsense dressed as art.