I thought I’d dedicate a post to the stressful moments in cinema, the ones that have you nervously shifting in your seat until they are, somehow, brought to a finish. these moments may only get you the first time, but the good ones (the bad ones) have you wriggling uncomfortably every time you watch the film thereafter. If you can bear to watch the film at all.
A note about Spoilers: I’ll try, where possible, not to ruin these films for you but if you haven’t seen them and you ever think you will don’t read that film’s part. Stressful moments are often pivotal moments.
I thought I’d start with a classic in the form of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
The taxing moment in this film comes right at the end. Our friend Tuco (the ugly) is just about swinging by the neck, perilously teetering on tip-toes on a poorly constructed grave marker; meanwhile Blondie (the good) is galloping off into the distance without so much as a nod to his partner in crime. At this point we’ve become attached to Tuco and would like him, very much, not to die. We know Blondie has a penchant for shooting through hangman’s rope, but will he? He’s not a massive fan of Tuco. He’s very far away too… I’m not sure he could actually do it from there… And he’s not turning round. Is anyone else really worried about the colour of Tuco’s face?
This is England
I got given this film a couple of Christmases ago after I had already seen it. Unfortunately the DVD is still in it’s wrapper because I haven’t yet been in a self-destructive enough mood to put myself through that ordeal again. Just briefly (and simply), in case you haven’t seen it, the film is about a young boy who turns skin-head in the 80’s and gets in with the wrong crowd. It was autobiographical to a certain extent, following the lines of writer/director Shane Meadows’ childhood.
The bit I most remember this film for, apart from the end, is the horrific moment when Combo, an angry and very high skin-head, completely looses control and violently (extremely violently) attacks the teenage Milky. After Combo calms down and stops pounding his fist into Milky’s face all we can see is a lot of blood and no clear sign as to whether we just witnessed murder. It feels like a very long time before you find out Milky’s fate.
Why This is England would get to me is somewhat obvious, but another, less blantent drain on my nerves was Lars and the Real Girl
If you’ve seen this film you might be questioning my sanity; it is, after all, a slow, quiet film about the mental breakdown of a very nice man, and the healing process that is helped along by the loving people around him. However I know for a fact that I am not the only one who was grated at by this film. The key here isn’t what did happen, but what didn’t. The first time I watched this film I was waiting for something to go wrong, for the filmmakers to just push something that little bit too far and for someone to get seriously hurt. I can’t now remember what I though might “happen next” all those times, what I thought was round the corner at every narrative junction. Rest assured though fellow watchers, they kept it on the straight and narrow.
These are examples of pretty much the three main reasons you might get a little stressed sitting in your cinema seat: intentional narrative tension, violence, and an almost subconscious worry that bizarre things might happen in an otherwise lovely narrative (filmmakers beware, doing this unintentionally can kind of ruin viewing experience).
I would though, like to give honourable mention to Ghost Dog
While Ghost Dog does have some genuinely intended moments of stress (I, for example, had grown very attached to those pigeons), it also has two or three moments of accidental painful agony. If any of you have seen it you might remember those driving scenes, you know the ones: Forest Whitaker in a stolen car with his hood up, he puts some tunes on, he drives… the he drives, then he keeps on driving, oh, and then he drives some more. Never has a scene that is not driving the plot lasted so long. Ooh did I say ‘driving’ again?
That’s because he still is.
It really is a good film, and if you get the chance do watch it, do; but if it bothered you that Iron Man 1 runs for an hour before there is any Iron Man action, or that Shaun of the Dead has no real zombie proceedings for the first thirty minutes, recognise that you are not a patient viewer – that you may need your fast forward buttons for these scenes. Heck, I enjoyed those things and I still wanted to reach for the remote.
In other news, through no fault of my own (*cough*) I have mislaid my camera. When I find it, and by god I will, I will upload some pictures of my latest models.
Until then, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu, “And you And you, And you and you and you.”
Just a quick post to bring you guys up to date. Been super-uber busy recently and thought I’d share some of the stuff I’ve been up to.
Firstly a piece you’ll recognise. I finished the figure for this some time ago, but I’ve given her her own little environment, the one I always imagined her in:
If you guess all four ingredients I used to make the hills you shall have a prize (not a real prize, one of them self fulfillment jobbies).
Also, I finished the boy I was working on. He’s pretty much the same size as the girl but, as intended, a little creepier – note the smile. Here he relaxes against his own personal eternity wall, for your viewing pleasure.
I’ve been doing a little sewing recently too, all in the name of homemade Christmas presents.
For Rosie2 a doorstop/bookend:
For Mina a marshmallow, to go with her hot chocolate:
For Rosie1 a cloud, believe it or not, to hold her pens.
(They slide into the top of each dome).
So, amongst other things, that’s what I’ve been busy with. Sorry it was a short post this time, “the days are just packed”. In the next post: A yeti, an otter, good books and, you know, stuff…
I’ve been busy for a while but now it’s time to fill you all in. This might take some time, partially because I am distracted because my cat is eating my plasticine, and partially (mostly) because I have a lot to say.
Working backwards in slow succession I’ll start where I finished. I’ve had a design laying around for some time for a soft toy I wanted to make, and I finally got round to finishing it yesterday. It’s my first attempt at sewing in a considerable amount of time so frankly I’m just glad that he’s staying together. Here he is in all his glory:
Also (and more importantly) I’ve been doing what I promised myself and drawing, drawing, drawing. I’ll mention in passing these naked ladies (who, I swear, look nice when you see the actual pages D:)
and then move swiftly on to the many faces of Abi. I needed to practice drawing caricature expressions and I predominantly did this useing my own face. I worked into my favourite (sorry about image quality):
I also think they look nicer in person. As does the subject ¬¬
I’ve been working digitally too. Unfortunately, I looked at the image too long and now I’ve got myself stuck. But here, for your viewing pleasure, the bits that I think are ok:
In conjunction with doing things, I have also been watching things. The other day me and Mina went to see The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Her idea, not mine, and a very good idea it was too.
I liked the story line, it was imaginitive and classic in an ‘evil versus good and everyone has magical powers’ sort of way, but with that modern twist. Very Terry Gilliam really.
I’m pleased that Johnny Depp, Colin Farrel and Jude Law having to take over from Heath Ledger fitted into the plot so well, and that the castings worked, not intruding on the story or the character at all. In fact the only bad thing I have to say about it really was the content of the illustrious Imaginarium itself. There were some obvious inconsistencies with it that I felt, actually, made the narrative run smoother, but what did bother me was the shallowness of it. Rather than imagination it seemed only to represent superficial desires. For instance, a middle aged woman enters and sees giant high heels adrift on an azure lake. Both Mina and I couldn’t help thinking that if we’d gone in what we saw would have been appreciably better. But then, I suppose that’s the point.
Otherwise I enjoyed.
As well as cinemaing it up I also bought a DVD. Having finally got my PS2 plugged in in lay of my DVD player, now no longer functional, I sat down for 106 minutes of total viewing pleasure.
Hands up if you’ve seen Push? It didn’t do very well at cinemas (it completely passed me by) but I was recommended it by both Tom and Mina and it was really worth the watch.
In fact, in honesty, I’m here to stand on my tiny internet pedestal and shout “Buy it ! Buy it!” as loud as I can. The reason being that I want a sequel and, based on what it made at the box office, I couldn’t call that occurrence a likelihood without extremely good DVD sales.
It’s received a lot of flak from people who call it a Heroes rip off. It isn’t, so there. Firstly it was written several years ago, before Heroes filled the heads of the zeitgeist. Also the only major similarity is that there are lots of people with powers running around doing powerful shiz. It’s no more a rip-off of Heroes than Heroes was of X-men. In fact less.
That out of the way, why don’t I actually tell you WHY it’s so good (and why you should buy it).
Well it is about people with powers. It’s set in modern day China and full of modern day Americans and modern day Chinese people. The basic premise is that we live in a world were some people have powers and these people are hunted. It’s based loosely on real life situations in that it extrapolates (liberally) from testing that has really gone on in countries all round the world on people with psychic powers. In the film these people may be able to do any one of the following: Pushing (effectively mind control), Moving (telekinesis), Bleeding (emitting super high-pitched kill-you-dead sound waves), Watching (seeing the future), Sniffing (using psychometry to find people), Shifting (making one thing look like something else), Wiping (removing memories), Shadowing (hiding things or poeple), Stitching (healing people, or unhealing people ¬¬).
The hunters in the film are Division (creepy mean government officials) and captives are held and tested on in hopes of creating psychic powered wonder-soldiers. Your basic Sci-fi action film.
What makes it so good is how the characters, who are well formed and quite comic bookesque, are compelling, not angsty and unlikable, like troubled super people can often become. The powers are managed well, looking good and making sense, and the whole thing fits together very satisfyingly – plot, character interaction, setting.
Another thing to admire, and what really makes the film, is the aesthetic. The colours fit perfectly, what could seem gaudy is made intense and attractive and there wasn’t one single location that looked out of place or that didn’t impress me. Many scenes where shot on busy streets in one take and look amazing.
Other scenes are darker, I don’t think I’ve ever seen more shades of teal.
Interiors where also lovely, palatial clubs contrasting with the colourful grime or Nick’s cheap apartment.
It was cast well too, with Chris Evans (new to me) and Dakota Fanning starring in the lead roles as Nick and Cassie. I like the back and forth between these two and they both really held there own. Here is Dakota Fanning looking pink:
I still haven’t (and can’t) explained all of it’s appeal, and I can only hope you’ll trust me and give it a try. Just imagine super-powers, great, relatable characters, an excellent story and more aesthetic beauty than you can shake a stick at.
And heck, Christmas is (almost but not quite) coming up. Why not buy a few copies and share the love?
