Well this is apparantly my 250th post here and I briefly considered doing something in this post to do with 250, but any kind of list or what have you would be way too long so I thought I'd just mention it. I have my loyal "tens" of readers and it seems quite random when I get suddenly twice as many more visitors, there doesn't seem to be any consistency (rather like my taste, apparantly 
) but I quite like that. I'm very glad I started doing these little reviews and round ups and I wish I'd started it years before, you forget so many things and even brief comments can spark a memory. I got online-rental in ... 2006 I think and thinking back to all those Bergman films I raped them of and other stuff like finding my first little festivals, I wish I had my thoughts from the time. Oh well, memories will have to suffice. It seems random that the blog basically coincided with the closure of my favourite cinema (the Midlands Arts Centre, the whole complex of which is being renovated) and when I think about all the films I've seen there ... I now can't believe I don't have anything like this chronicling my thoughts on them. Anyway, on with what I've been seeing.
I know I said the other week I'd wait until the end of the run to talk about the Swedish Wallanders on BBC at the moment, but Krister Henriksson was so good the other night I thought I'd mention it here. The tone of these Swedish ones are more melancholic in general but so far I do prefer the Ken Branagh ones (although they're based on Mankell novels rather than outlines so that's probably the reason). One scene in particular had Kristensson going into overdrive (getting the coroner's report on the murder of his first kiss) and it recalled Charlotte Rampling in Under the Sand or Song Kang-Ho in Sympathy for Mr Vengeance - it's just the kind of scene for a good actor to really get their teeth into and Krister subtlely nailed it.
Rather annoyingly, The Street is on at the same time and so I've been watching those on the iplayer for the last couple of weeks. Never seen it before but Bob Hoskins got me to watch it last week for his modern day High Noon with Liam Cunningham (who was excellent). This week was Anna Friel and since Pushing Daisies she's really coming on as an actress. I did have massive problems with the actual drama, it was completely dependent on coincidence, not only in setting up the drama (Friel's hooker starts a relationship with her plumber and it turns out his dad is one of her clients), but even more lazily in the conclusion as well. The acting makes it work though, even if I did find some of the nudity completely unneccessary (did I just complain about Anna Friel getting her tits out? 
maybe I'm coming down with Swine Flu or something 
).
Okay, what else, oh yes! Now this came as a complete shock to me, but it turns out the Poles have gone and made the final film in Krzysztof Kieslowski's planned trilogy of films. Tom Tykwer butchered the first, Heaven, but Cate Blanchett may have been the best I've seen her and Danis Tanovic did the second, Hell (L'Enfer) which was one of my favourite films of 2005 (and was the kind of film regularly on at the MAC). So not only has the final one, Purgatory (well, it's called Hope, or Nadzieja) been made but it has been and gone last year in the UK. I don't remember hearing anything about this so I assume it was a 3 cinemas in London-type job.
The film is rather like a lot of the Italian ones I've been watching recently, it's very smooth visually and technically well put together. I did find the score rather uneven and didn't think that was a strong point. The story is that a young lad films an art theft from a church and blackmails the perpetrator into returning the painting. There are some interesting ideas and themes but I don't think they're satisfactorily explored. This is the kind of film where a great performance could really elevate it out of the ordinary but the lead actor, Rafal Fudalej I found limp in a very enigmatic role and as such he prevented it being as good as it could have been. Still a decent watch, better than Heaven as a film (but without the performance), all it really made me want to do though was get my copy of L'Enfer and watch it done properly. Shows what can be done when you get a proper filmmaker to do the job.
Lastly, I caught The Happening on Sky tonight, even though I'd heard bad things about it. Dear me, it was poor. It was the first time I've seen Mark Wahlberg (usually a very solid, capable actor) be wooden, Zooey Deschanel was completely unconvincing, bland and unable to portray any emotion satisfactorily and nobody else did themselves any favours by being in it. M. Night Shyamalan's script doesn't even make sense using its own internal logic, his direction ensures it's just about watchable, but on occasion the only way to take the film is as a comedy. Easy to see why it got so many Razzie noms.
that's how I saw it, it'll be on til Monday at least (and sometimes they keep things up for the whole of the duration of the series).
Happy 250!
Can't believe I didn't watch The Street, I mean I've never watched it before, but had I known she would have been on, I'd have been there pronto...
Yes, The Happening was horrendous, and I've always been one to give Shyamalan as much wiggle room as I can with his weird ideas and often strange execution, I've found things I loved in ALL his films...until this one. I don't know how the hell he could have come to the conclusion that Mark Wahlberg was the man for this role. I agree that he's usually watchable, but he's pretty limited in what he can do and directors usually stick to putting him in the right kinds of roles, this was just all wrong. It definitely felt like it was TRYING to be a comedy at times, and then at others it was like a straight horror...I mean it just had weird, weird tone. What a mess.