herbiehancock

No 306 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Director Steven Spielberg When watching the films as a set in succession (as I have just done) - the qualities of this film (which I always remembered as the weakest of the original trilogy) really shine through. After the darkness of face melting and nightmare tribes, the far more jokey vibe of this film seem a lot more appropriate. There is a lot of good in The Last Crusade.... lets check it out. Really - what we're doing with the trilogy is building and then - to a certain degree - deconstructing a legend. So where Raiders of the Lost Ark gave us the hero and a romantic foil who is his equal, the sequels begin to look at how he behaves with people less suited to his adventurous lifestyle. Whether they be children and civilians (Short Round shows Indy's paternal streak far more beautifully than his relationship with Mutt... but I'm jumping forward a film) or whether they be his own estranged family. The films show us just enough...

No 153 - The Innocents Director - Jack Clayton Is there anything more scary than weird children? There are so many films that focus on children being possessed , or acting unusually or developing cruel and manipulative powers . The mix of evil with innocence is a terrifying but intoxicating and you can understand why it is such a popular subject. It is also a timeless subject, for whilst the acting may have dated in this film, the chills certainly haven't. This film follows Miss Giddens , the new nanny for two children (Miles and Flora) who appear to be going through various stages of weirdness and may or may not be possessed. Flora seems the more innocent of the two, her unusual behaviour mostly being running away to dance in unusual places. Miles, however, is an odd little bundle. He seems adult before his time. He speaks to Miss Giddens in an odd patronising manner, full of 'darlings' or 'did I startle you my dear', which, whilst it fits the tone of the Victo...

No 90 - When Harry Met Sally Director - Rob Reiner Once again, this little blog allows me to rack up one of the ( alarmingly many) classic films that I have never seen. Today is all about the rom -com. Or relation-com. Or friend-com... because 90% of this film isn't about love but about the relationship and friendship between two people and how it develops. I'm naturally wary of romantic comedies. I have discussed my preconceptions with them before, it is too easy for the film to fall into a formulaic and predictable set up. For the film to lose any sense of drama. We know the couple get together at the end... that is the point of a romantic comedy, what is important is the journey. You want the film to be interesting and different. You want the characters to be likable and have development. We all know where we're going, lets enjoy the ride. Luckily the story is superb. It talks about the subtle way that a friendship can build up. Beginning with two brief moments separate...

No 418 - V for Vendetta Director - James McTeigue I really wanted to start this blog with V's exceptional introductory monologue... however it is far too long for the title bar. So I'm going to put it here: Voilà ! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi , now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V. It is a hell of a tongue twister a...

No 361 - Clerks Director - Kevin Smith I wish to begin with a little dash of cinematic blasphemy . The first time I watched Clerks I was massively underwhelmed, and the sappy loser in me still believes that Chasing Amy is the best film in the View Askewniverse . I went back to Clerks with an open mind - perhaps I would enjoy it now that I am older and allegedly wiser. Whilst it is very funny, I still do not think it is as funny as other people make out. However there is a lot in it that I do really enjoy. What I love is the down and dirty feel of the film. Yest the dialogue is crude. But the film is visually crude too, distorted and grainy black and white. It looks fabulously when well used. See Pi as another classic example. But also see the brilliant opening scene to Clerks II in order to see a great play on that visual style. The visual style of the film is simple and follows an equally simple 'plot' (of sorts). The film follows two clerks in two shops (the clue is in the...

No 93 - El Espíritu de la Colmena (The Spirit of the Beehive) Director - Victor Erice This film was made at a time when Spanish cinema couldn't directly discuss politics, so it is fair to say that it is symbolic . An Allagory . I don't know if I'll ever know exactly what it symbolises. I don't know if it matters. What matters is one simple point: this film is beautiful. The film follows a Spanish family in the early 1940's. The mother (who is never the most central of characters) appears to be unhappy with her lot and writes letters to a lover who is in France - a victim of a war, but never states whether it is the Spanish civil war or WWII. The father tends to his bees and writes his essay on beekeeping and generally seems quite distant and tired. Distant from the rest of the village and distant from the rest of his family. He is played by Fernando Fernán Gómez and at times he looks so much like Pete Postlethwaite it is remarkable. Whilst these two character...

No 71 - The Night of the Hunter Director - Charles Laughton Apparently this film got such little interest that Charles Laughton never directed again, and yet, over time it has been regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. I knew nothing about it, only the iconic 'Love' and 'Hate' hands . The hands belong to the travelling preacher, Rev Harry Powell, played by Robert Mitchum in an intense bit of acting. From the moment he arrives in the film (very early on), you can see that he is a bad bad man. He murders women because he believes God hates them. Then he uses their money to fuel his next murder. It is a very short term life plan, but he seems to be good at it. Well, good at the murdering and escaping bit... as he gets caught for stealing a car and is sentenced to jail. We are then introduced to the children protagonists John and Pearl Harper and their dad. In my opinion, the dad is just as bad as the Preacher. He kills some people, steals some money and then...

No 159 - The Royal Tenenbaums Director - Wes Anderson This is my favourite film. I really ruddy love it. I'm going to try and explain what it is about this film that I love so much and why I think it is a truly wondrous cinematic experience, both poignant and funny, and how it shoes a real human dynamic in a twisted version of the world. I am very fond of Wes Anderson's directorial and story telling style, and I think the reason I hold this film in such high esteem is that it was the first of his films that I saw. Wes Anderson's films share a visual style, they also share similar story elements (dysfunctional families and relationships, father issues). Therefore, once you have seen one of the films, you get an idea about what to expect in future films. I once discussed this with my former flatmate Phil. His favourite Wes Anderson film was Rushmore , whilst mine is this one. However our reasons for liking the films were identical. We both liked our preferred films because t...

No 40 - Vertigo Director - Alfred Hitchcock This film made me feel stupid. I went in with very little knowledge of the plot, I only knew it had a dream sequence designed by Dali (another memory carefully stored from my wonderful times at MOMI ). It DOESN'T have a dream sequence designed by Dali! Spellbound does .... and Spellbound isn't even on the ruddy list. So, as I didn't know the plot of the film I was very surprised when it is unveiled that Gavin Elster would like retired detective John ' Scotty ' Ferguson to follow his wife because he thinks she is possessed by a suicidal ghost. That is a bit of a bonkers plot. It certainly isn't what I was expecting from a Hitchcock film. Now yes, there is a twist that explains it all in a logical way. It also cancels out the main crux of my bugbear with this film.... However, as the twist isn't revealed till about 20 minutes before the end, I have lots and lots of notes which talk about one thing: Jimmy Stewart ...

No 26 - Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Director - Stanley Kubrick Kubrick is a very impressive fellow. I'm sure this is something I've mentioned before, but just look at his back catalogue . He very rarely tackled the same genre twice. But whatever film he makes be it sci- fi , horror , epic or Comedy , he makes a pivotal film of the genre. Of course, when doing a comedy, it doesn't hurt to have the very excellent (though somewhat temperamental ) Peter Sellers . What I love about this film is the initial subtlety of the comedy and how that subtlety is gradually blasted into tiny pieces over the course of the film. The opening credits set the tone of the film as scenes of ships refuelling in the air are shown with sensual music playing over the top. The end effect is almost pornographic and begins to illustrate one of the key points of the film. Lust and war and sex and violence are all mingled together and this becomes increasingly ...

No 480 - The Son's Room (La Stanza Del Figlio ) Director - Nanni Moretti I knew that this film had done very well when it had been premiered at Cannes in 2001. That, however was the end of my knowledge. I didn't even know it was an Italian film until it began! It is a really brave film handling a very simple theme and the way that it handles the theme show all the differences between European and American drama. I have started this blog with two one sentence paragraphs... which is truly awful writing. I promise that I shall now get on with and discuss the film's theme. The theme is death. Not just the notion of death but a family's reaction to it. What I particularly liked about the film is how soft it is, how underplayed. We are never told what to look at, instead it feels like a very real exploration of real people. Nanni Moretti has not only written and directed this film, but he takes the lead role and he plays it beautifully.The film is set in two halves, both...

No 483 – The Big Red One Director – Samuel Fuller I went into this film with no expectations at all, in fact I couldn ’t really remember what I had read in Empire magazine – so I really had no idea what I was going to sit down and watch. I had hedged my bets and was pretty sure it was a war film. Turned out it WAS a war film! Hooray for me….. except…. I’m not the biggest fan of war films, they all have a similar message (War is horrible – a message I utterly believe) and they’re all very serious (again, entirely appropriate for the subject matter) which doesn ’t make it the most exciting genre in my books. It was therefore not a surprise to me when the film began with a beautiful, albeit somewhat self important, opening disclaimer (this is a fictional life based on factual death), an artistic palette (black and white and red – the War film colour scheme of choice ), religious iconography and a sense of po -faced fatalism on the battle ground of WWI. We follow a soldier as he hides behi...