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The title says it all. Yep, this is a movie about a group of people floating around on a lifeboat. Doesn’t sound real exciting, does it? How could anyone possibly make an entertaining film out of that? Never mind. Alfred Hitchcock will show you how it’s done.
Dutch film director Paul Verhoeven has been making a living on lurid, box-office-friendly Hollywood thrillers for some time now. Characterised by a sort of polished sleaziness mixed with frank violence, these films have never been particular favourites of the critics, but nevertheless, their pure entertainment value has led to many of them going down as cult favourites (RoboCop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers, Showgirls). In Holland, Verhoeven is more highly regarded - his breakthrough 1973 film Turkish Delight was voted Dutch Film of the Century in 1999. Perhaps it’s fitting then that, in his return to his homeland, he should abandon robots, strippers and aliens for the more serious subject matter of the Dutch World War II Resistance.
There is no more tiresome Hollywood tendency than its predilection for basing big budget films on old TV shows. One would think the American film industry was creatively bankrupt from the slew of these remakes that have hit cinema with increasing regularity since the 90’s, but the truth is that it is more indicative of cycnical populism; of producers having found an easy answer ot the question of “What do the peeps want?”. Well, I guess that’s what they get paid for. At least you get seasoned pros like Michael Mann appointed to realise these projects. But, really, doesn’t Michael Mann have something better to do than rehash this old ground like this? Maybe so, but even when he might be working on the wrong project, he still does a damn fine job.
OK, how old is Keira Knightley? 23 or something? And how many films has she racked up now? Surely she is one of the hardest working actresses in the world - she seems to be in a new movie every few weeks! In Saul Dibb’s period drama, The Duchess, she has found a role substantial enough to stretch her ability more than usual, and she comes through with flying colours.
Midnight Juggernauts
British India
Van She
Bluejuice
Lost Valentinos
Children Collide
Manning House
Saturday October 18th, 2008
That’s right. Festival season is upon us once again. And in these days when no self-respecting festival will deign to charge you much less than $150 for vast lineups containing two or three acts you know well alongside two dozen you’ve never heard of, what an opportunity the crowd at Sydney University’s Manning Bar have presented us with in Sounds in the Grounds. Four of Australia’s hottest acts for forty bucks? Could we possibly go wrong? The short answer is “No”. Read the rest of this entry »
Sometimes I get the feeling that there are so many crazy, whacked out, brilliant ideas running around in Tim Powers’ head that perhaps his greatest challenge when writing a novel is to keep in control of the outflow. Let the tap out too fast and everything would spill out onto the page willy nilly, and the task of tying all these threads together would be impossible. The multitude of plot strands in Expiration Date, each of which entails at least one weird and funky idea of its own, must have made this a particularly difficult project to keep the lid on.
You know what it’s like when you start a new job. You don’t really know anyone, so you tend to hold back in your interactions until you know the best way to get through to all these new individuals. Meanwhile, your new boss is probably trying to mould you into his pre-formed vision, and you’re still finding your way around the new office, so no matter how keen you are to do something great, it all kind of feels forced and out of reach. It must have been the same for Alfred Hitchcock when he made the move from his position as the pre-eminent filmmaker in England and started work on the bigger stage of Hollywood. The Paradine Case is one of his first films for an American studio, and it represents a strange transition point between the exuberant brilliance of his English films and the form-bending mastery of his greatest Hollywood films. Read the rest of this entry »
