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 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!