herbiehancock

No 441 - Being John Malkovich Director - Spike Jonze A couple of days ago I went to see Where the Wild Things Are and I found it a truly upsetting experience. Don't get me wrong - you MUST all watch it, it is a beautiful and emotional journey and a visually stunning film. It is also a detached , cold, harsh and painfully heartbreaking study of loneliness. I found it very difficult viewing and at times almost inaccessible . I'm amazed that this was considered a 'kid's film' for a while. After watching it I felt inspired to go and watch some of Jonze's past films to see if they were as hard and as moving as Where the Wild Things Are. So, it makes sense to begin with his ridiculous debut film. The plot is too difficult to explain as there are so many little additional parts of it which make the story twist and turn. But the key essence of the film is paraphrased by the protagonist, Greg Schwartz (John Cusack ) There's a tiny door in my office, Maxine. It...

No 446 - High Fidelity Director - Stephen Frears Narration is a tricky cinematic feat. It is perfectly normal for a book to be written in first person, or to be written in a style that directly targets its audience. "You may be wondering, dear reader, why I - a humble plumber from Constantinople did blah blah blah...." However this is a very difficult thing to convey in filmic terms. A narrator and breaking the fourth wall is a very risky move. Which can sometimes work and sometimes feel like a lazy inability to convey emotion. Rather than a narration, we have a protagonist who is also the narrator. The riskiest of risky moves as he flips out of the film to tell the viewer something, whilst surrounded by oblivious co-stars and extras. This film presents itself as a story of love and music, but it isn't. It is a story about lists. John Cusack's Rob has a near- autistic obsession with lists. He loves music and records, OBSESSES over music and records because it can...