RichRock : Running Free

Pixar make great films. End of story. Each films they’ve released has not only upped the technical bar on CG generated films, but also in terms of story, character, and atmosphere. Ratatouille is fantastic. Not an outrageous laugh a minute film, but thoroughly enjoyable, accessible, and despite the circumstances, believable. Let’s face it, Pixar rock. Here’s the proof:

• Toy Story - Awesome
• Toy Story 2 - Even better
• A Bug’s Life - not seen, can’t comment. Yet.
• Monsters Inc - made me cry at the end. Excellent - even for ‘Welcome To The Himalayas!’ scene.
• Finding Nemo - I wasn’t sure about this. The bubble had to burst. Pixar do it again. Awesome film.
• The Incredibles - this time I really thought they’d blown it. I watched this with a degree of cynicism, and I was wrong, but it was Pixar’s darkest feature yet.
• Cars - How do they keep going with new stuff all the time? This was awesome - great characters, excellent story. Even the attention to detail was superb.
• Rataouille - I’ve given up on Pixar ever making a dud. If they have, this is most definitely not it.

Which leads me to their next film, Wall-E. I really don’t like the voice they use in the trailers, but the character has already shone through. Pixar are going to do it again. Here’s the superbowl spot:

Following on from last night’s commentary on War Films, I’d like to look at the misunderstood part of cinematography - the single shot take.

What I mean by this is an extended take of one scene which could last 1-2 minutes. Notable examples include:

Children Of Men - When the resistance (Clive Owen et al) are driving towards Bexhill, and are confronted with the rampaging youth mob. In this scene, the mob drop a burning car in their path, and a motorcyclist gives chase. The whole scene lasts around 2 minutes, without a single break in the shooting. Only later, upon much investigation, do you learn that the whole scene was filmed around the shell of a car. Only when you do see this scene do you realise the impact that a single-take scene can have.

War Of The Worlds - when Tom Cruise is fleeing the dock area, this scene is not only notable for the Superbowl shot of the bridge blowing up and destroying his local neighbourhood (a scene I will never forget), but the freeway escape where the camera skirts around the vehicle, and past other vehicles strewn around the road. Notable because it included other elements in the scene, such as the aforementioned car debris.

Bad Boys II - Gangster shootout - where Will Smith and Martin Lawrence encounter a bunch of drug dealers in a hideout, the camera pans round our heroes, and through the doors of the bad guys, adjusting the camera’s path through debris, fans, etc. This is virtual one-shot cinema at it’s almost finest. A constant revolution through doors, windows and scenery to reveal the actions of both good and bad guys in one take.

Such cinematography could be labelled as virtual cinema. And in the post-Matrix era, this could be true. However, long, linering shots of such quality could be traced back to Japanese cinema. These guys could make a facial expression interesting. For 5 minutes. Never mind any action. In these days of Michael Bay-esque fast cuts, heavily saturated cinema, we could be forgiven the works of Alfonso Del Cuaro and remember the longer cinematography as featured in Snake Eyes, where the opening scene lasts 15 minutes or so. But it is a clever deception. It is a series of four or five takes, overlaid with clever cuts, from bodies blocking to overplacement of shadow. But it’s what makes a shot interesting. Like photography, it’s what makes something worth keeping. Something visually interesting, or unique. Which is why Children Of Men, despite it’s dystopian themes, will always be a favourite film of mine.

I’ve just watched ‘Schindler’s List’, possibly one of the most moving movies that I’ve ever seen. There’s a small selection of cinema which I will watch not to be entertained, but reminded, of we as a human race, and our capabilities of atrocities towards one another.
When I say that there are movies that do not entertain, I am correct. Quite often we see war movies as glamourising the art of death-dealing, yet the pain and suffering that this causes shows us that we are really human, emotional beings. Of these films, I have a few that I hold dear to my heart, not because of the violence they portray, but the essence of what we are as humans, and how flawed we can be:

• Schindler’s List - already mentioned, the systematic extermination of the Jews, recreated in black & white film, and how one man’s profiteering bought him the ability to give several hundred people hope at life after WW2. Not entertaining because it shows a brutal regime, the abuse of Jews having to sift through the remains of their brethren, having to bury their friends, subjected to torment and terror.
• The Killing Fields - based around the story of Dith Pran and Sydney Schanberg, a journalist for the New York Times, with Dith Pran as his ever able assistant. This story tells of the genocide that happened in the killing fields of Cambodia. Following both stories of Dith Pran’s captivity and Sydney Schenberg’s efforts to locate Dith, this movie moves towards an intensely emotional reunion. The horror of the killing fields is quite accurately portrayed, and very realistic. This movie, again, is not entertaining.
• Brotherhood (Taegugki) - this is definitely not one for the weak hearted. This film centres around two brothers drawn into the Korean war, a war which has never been resolved, with only a ceasefire holding place. Considering the tense situation between both countries, it was impressive that Korea’s largest budget live-action film could out-do ‘Saving Private Ryan’. And the reason this is mentioned? Saving Private Ryan, despite it’s brutal depiction of war, somehow glamourised it. Brotherhood rips any glamour of war to shreds. And your emotional state with it. This film has emptied boxes of tissues from me, merely because of the base nature that mankind can stoop to when faced with these decisions: kill or be killed. This film does not entertain, but informs, due to the socio/political nature of Korea (the scene where the girlfriend is taken to be executed merely because she attended a communist rally being a point), but also lifts the lid on how families cope during these times of war. One review stated,
  

  “Most positive reviews cite its unflinching portrayal of war and praise it for showing the brutality of both the North and South Korean armies.”

  Not a bad statement coming from a South Korean film.

So that’s my immediate selection. A series of films which do not entertain, but inform us of historical events, that show us facets of human nature we choose to hide under a layer of glamour. These films, being war films, when people get shot, they die. There are consquences. Scenes like where the Jews were lined up to save ammunition make this even more poignant. There is no glamour here. No dressing up, no ‘get up and carry on’. It’s a depiction of human life. And death.

Yes this post has been morbid. But there is something good about all this. People do live. The Schindler survivors. Sydney and Dith. I won’t mention the last, it would be a spoiler. The quintessential point of mankind is hope. Like the Architect states in the Matrix : Reloaded. Hope.

Hope is what we have to drive us on. But as in 1 Corinthians 13:13:

And now faith, hope, love, these three remain; but the greatest of these is love.

Nuff said. Mainly because I’m tired. And it’s late.

Sigur Ros. I love this band. I’m not really one for ‘band’ music, nor even pop/rock generally, but this Icelandic folk/rock quartet certainly know how to make a four-piece sound, well, ‘interesting’.

Know my propensity for obscure, found sound music, ambient noodling, etc, these guys provide it in spades, all from pure natural organic sources. So I was really chuffed to have been given the 2-disc standard edition of ‘Heima’.

Heima means Home in Icelandic, and is an interesting variation on a music DVD. Firstly, although this is about a series of free concerts at the end of a world tour, the primary film is a documentary about how it came about, with clips of performances from the shows. The second disc shows the performances in more detail.

Having only really watched the film Heima, I can’t fully comment on this. However, Heima as a documentary is beautifully shot, with fantastic sound, an excellent structure charting Sigur Ros’ free concerts in Iceland, how they felt, what it meant to both them as a band and the people they played for. One outstanding moment is when they revisit a disused fishing factory, where a lot of film footage was shown of it’s heyday. The fact that so many people travelled to this remote, abandoned building, and the comment, ‘It was good to return life to this place, if only for one night’ makes it seem so poignant.

Sigur Ros are not a performance band. In fact they are the complete opposite. This makes them suited to a variety of venues, such as the aforementioned factory, a tea room, at a reservoir protest, a schoolroom, and many more, leading up to the more traditional stages commonly associated with events like Glastonbury.

It’s not often that music moves me, but this music, combined with the scenes of God’s natural beauty, moved me to tears. This is a superb DVD, and I’m slightly gutted yet relieved that I didn’t get the special edition, although it might be worth adding to the Sigur Ros collection I have. Now, anyone got a spare copy of Von they want to sell off?

This look seems to be the flavour of the month. Might keep this for a while….

Anyway, I purchased Darren Aronofsky’s latest film, ‘The Fountain’ today. I gave it a run through, but for me the difference between speech and whisper was quite extraordinary, so I may have to watch with subtitles. That said, it was an awesome, profound film, with themes that may yet come to light. In some respects, it’s a shame the film never achieved what the director intended.
I tucked into a little bible tonight too. I read a passage that has been on my mind for the last few days, and I am wondering whether to share with my babe. It’s Philippians 4:8 - and it’s all about the whatever is good, whatever is funky, meditate on these things. Just with my movie selection, and general considerations of another person in my life, do these things now have a rightful place? The bible doesn’t have anything to say on movies, because if it did, I’d be very impressed.
That said, it does have a lot to say about what we are to think on, and the above passage is a powerful reminder of that. There are other passages, but I’ll see what happens there.
Also, a bit of news in the pipeline. I’m hoping to get a motorbike soon. The babe in my life allowed me to get one. Practically said it would be the best thing for the relationship in terms of getting some private time by going off somewhere. Not to mention I prefer bikes over cars any day. I’ll keep you all posted on the developments about this. First step is to arrange either a CBT or DAS course. I’ll have to find one first. Already I have my dream bike planned - a Honda CBR400F, if the girlfriend likes it…

Well, I now have another job - Customer Service Advisor for a multinational company! I start at the end of february, so that’s pretty cool… Gives me a month to get nervous! I went around the facility, and the office and recreational stuff too, and it seemed pretty cool. Hopefully I’ll get to know some of the 2000+ that work there!
On another entirely different front, I congratulated myself by going shopping, picked up ( ) by Sigur Ros, 2 albums by Fiona Apple (excellent voice), and the first two DVD’s of Ghost In The Shell - Stand Alone Complex : 2nd Gig (which must be one of the longest titles ever!) All for less than £20! It’s bad news being so close to some quality stores in the city, plus there’s a good Pen/Filofax shop near the station too. Time to start collecting those Lamy pens!
Well, it’s a quick post to update y’all, and I’ve got to go get some dinner and go out to homegroup (a church thang). I’ll post again soon!