An Attempt at Structure Week 2 - International Legends, Local Idiots

International Legends, Local Idiots 

Films: ‘Point Break’ ‘Close-Up’ ‘Cleo from 5 to 7’

T.V: ‘Stath Lets Flats’ ‘Hate Thy Neighbour’ ‘The Boys’


If you are reading this then that means I managed to commit to this for more than one week which is a small victory for me! It has been an interesting week, this is the first week that has felt like Uni life, except for the obvious pandemic restrictions I have managed to get through to some sort of routine. I have been out of education for a while and I do not think I ever considered how difficult the transition to full time studying would be, there always feels like there is something to do. Even writing this right now I am procrastinating some work somewhere but after a while I think it is important to take a break from the overwhelming pile of 'to-dos' and try to do something for myself. Something about entirely online working makes studying feel like nothing more than studying for the sake of studying. I am just following the set things to do for the sake of it, I think without that in person relationship with my professors I have struggled to see it as anything but a checklist. Perhaps once I actually get real assignments and essays etc this will all make sense but it’s hard not to see my degree as a side hustle to everything else going on in my life.

If I am totally honest the current state of the pandemic does not exactly fill me with hope for real university life to kick in anytime soon. But at the same time inexplicably London seems to not be facing stricter Lockdown restrictions unlike many places in the north. My cynical mind cannot help but think that this is entirely convenient for a government that can’t afford to have their hometown under lockdown, but London feels closer to normality than anywhere else. You walk through Soho at 6pm and it's still alive, even though spending an insane amount of money to live extremely close to a university I can’t visit can feel like a waste, there's something about London that can never quieten down. The most frustrating aspect is just the lack of stuff going on, I miss live music so much and I wish there was new films that I cared about coming out, the cinemas just playing 'Tenet' 24/7 is more depressing than the actual pandemic. I’m still finding my course interesting even if it feels like a Skillshare course and London will never stop being London, I sometimes just can’t help feeling angry, especially when I’m being told my chosen career path is a waste of time from the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Anyway! The less said about them lot the better, let us move on to what I watched this week.

Point Break

One module I am really enjoying is the one revolving around Film Form, where we spend a week doing a deep dive into one specific form of film, it is all very introductory but brilliant for getting your head around certain ideas. This week, in order to fully understand the concept of editing, we had to watch the homoerotic masterpiece that is 'Point Break'. I'm going to be honest; I went into this film not expecting much, I really soured on 'Jerry Maguire' last week, so another iconic 90s film wasn’t exactly that enticing. However, I ended up having an insane amount of fun with the madness in this film, as action films from this era go this is about as quintessential as it gets. I couldn’t work out if I was genuinely really invested or just enjoying the ridiculousness of everything but I think that is honestly the charm of the film, it manages to take itself so seriously that it comes full circle and somehow feels incredibly self-aware. For every camp dialogue scene there are several incredibly executed action scenes that are honestly some of the best in action movie history (both skydiving sequences are insane). Keanu and Swayze are phenomenal, their chemistry is what keeps the film together and the plot is actually full of great surprises and always manages to keep its energy, I genuinely loved this for multiple reasons. 

Close-Up 

It was an intimidating thought starting my second week with a whole sub-culture of cinema I had never crossed paths with but learning about Iranian cinema was nothing short of extraordinary. I never realised how beloved and influential Iranian cinema is, these are filmmakers that are regarded as legends in most modern director's eyes. Kiarostami is the most iconic and we had the pleasure of studying his film 'Close-Up' a sort-of documentary tale about the true story of Hossain Sabzian who was put on trial for impersonating Film Director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The film combines real court scene footage with re-enactments featuring the people playing themselves in scenes mentioned in the court footage. It is all based around Sabzian and his complex love for cinema combined with evident loneliness and philosophical troubling. I appreciated it more than I enjoyed it, the film is tough to get through and although lands the impactful moments, the majority of the scenes are these long uncut dialogue heavy sequences that can be really difficult to stick with. Perhaps it is my terrible attention span or simply the fact I don’t speak the language, but I found myself losing the drive in a lot of scenes. However, that is not to say it isn’t insanely well done and the dialogue has this poetic rambling quality which is so interesting, honestly the story itself is enough to keep this film a float but Kiarostami's signature realism and craft makes it a truly special experience.

Cleo from 5 to 7

Now as a film fan I may get burnt at the stake for this but... I don’t really like French New Wave films. I get that they set this incredible precedent for the future of cinema and I totally agree with a lot of the 'Young Turks' ideas about auteur theory and making films personal. But I find that a lot of them tend to just follow this idea of just throwing new techniques at the wall for the sake of it. I find it fundamentally contradictory to push for new interesting techniques yet also claim films have to be personal to be worthy, so many of these filmmakers just put in these techniques to seem new and revolutionary rather than adhering to a genuine personal idea. 'Breathless' struggles from this a lot, the film is one of the most arrogant films ever made and I can’t help but wonder if Goddard really made those decisions because of a great spat of personal triumph, or if he just wanted to do something different to be different. Having said this, I really enjoyed 'Cleo from 5 to 7' which is a FNW film about a hypochondriac singer having a stressful afternoon. It doesn’t feature much more than a series of vignette's following Cleo's character going through her life, it is quiet and incredibly impactful. It is full of these really nice decisions, the opening shot is in colour but the rest is in B&W, it will draw attention to conversations in the background and the camera feels trapped to Cleo with this authentic adoration. I really loved it, it was refreshing to have a film of this movement feel open and honest, rather than smug and contrived, the late great Agnes Varda was a legend and the antidote to a lot of my issues with this era. 

Everything Else 

Studying has officially begun to move on its way, meaning I don't actually have that much time on my hands to watch other content. Luckily, my sleeping pattern is all over the place and I spend most of my evenings getting to watch and find some interesting stuff. I started getting into Jamali Maddix' series 'Hate Thy Neighbour' which is half documentary/half stand-up revolving around Jamali visiting extremist sub-cultures and proving himself to be an incredibly levelheaded and respectful human being. It has a lot of comparison to Theroux' work but Jamali adds this hilarious wit and ability to discuss and promote his ideas succinctly, his work is incredible, and I really appreciate how much craft goes into this series. I also watched British BAFTA winning comedy 'Stath Lets Flats' which is well worth the amount of praise it gets, the show is hilarious and Demetriou might have just created a new generation's Alan Partridge, my only problem is like most British shows there is hardly any episodes and the wait for more is going to be exhausting. 'The Boys' wrapped up this week with a finale that did not disappoint, I think I'm still planning on doing a full write up on it as my thoughts are a little all over the place about the show. In anticipation for next week's return of the best show ever made, 'Taskmaster' I've been spending my journey's around London listening to Richard Herring's RHLSTP, a podcast where Herring rambles with a comedian guest in a nonsensical fit of beauty. I've fallen in love with it, and Herring himself which has only excelled the already enough amount of anticipation for the return of 'Taskmaster'.

I think that's about it! A surprisingly rewarding week in terms of stuff I watched, but a week where the reality of what the next few months may look like really set in. I'm lucky to have even an ounce of certainty in a time like this and I consider having a platform like this an absolute luxury. Look after each other, talk to each other and don't vote tory next time you idiots. 

Thanks for reading!