Melancholia (2011)

Before I say anything, about Melancholia, I will say that Antichrist was not my cup of tea. It wasn't the very confronting sex scenes or my fear of Willem Dafoe (okay maybe that had something to do with it, also the fact that he was in said confronting sex scenes) that left me uncomfortable. It just didn't sit well with me. So I was expecting this movie to be like most arty movies (read: pretentious pseudo intellectual-philosophical bullshit).

Luckily I was incredibly wrong.

The film is divided into two parts, one for each sister. The first half is about Justine (Kirsten Dunst), the bride whose life is falling apart on the night of her wedding. The second is about Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who is afraid that the approaching planet will destroy the earth despite the assurance of her husband (Kiefer Sutherland).

Two sisters, one afraid of life and the other of death, both having to face what they fear. It's a really clever premise and a nice take on the usual 'end of the world' movie, here there's no Bruce Willis to save you. Nor are there any strange futuristic weapons or CGI people falling into huge cracks in the ground, poor things.

This is a wonderfully good looking film, every shot is artfully done. It's just so beautiful to look at. It will leave you sighing. And Kirsten Dunst finally redeems herself for 'Bring It On' as well, in fact all the actors do a pretty good job (no surprise, I mean look at the cast, they have John Hurt for goodness sake!).

The soundtrack borrows from Wagner's Prelude from Tristan and Isolde and there's a really great pairing between what you see and what you hear. They compliment each other perfectly. It's so moody and melancholic I just had to put up the whole thing for all to hear.

And finally I just want to say that director Lars Von Trier is a, well, he's a strange one. Sympathising with Hitler during a promotional tour for your movie is not a good idea no matter how awkwardly you try to justify it. But enough on that, Melancholia is a beautiful film and please don't let what was said prevent you from seeing it, it is amazing.

I Did Do Something Productive While On Hiatus

Oh, while I wasn't blogging, I attempted to get behind the camera and make a music video for a school assignment. The song is by my boyfriend, you can check out his new blog here. It was all filmed in the Dandenong Ranges, a really good place for picnics and walking around. Oh and if you like the song, you should definitely check out his band Euthymia, that's some good stuff right there.

My lecturer said it was boring and repetitive but I'd like to know what everyone else thinks. I really didn't think it was that bad, but then again what do I know?

We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)

It has been a while but I'm back, and hopefully for good. I'll admit I've been lazy. I had contracted writer's block after the very difficult essay writing period and I just couldn't get back into it. It was a tough time for all involved...

Okay, okay, I was up all night playing Skyrim, are you happy now?

Anyway I've seen a few films since my short hiatus and I want to tell you about them all. Some were pretty good (Richard Ayoade's directorial debut Submarine), some not so good (Scream 4, shudder). But let's start off with what I think could possibly do well at the Oscars this year, director Lynne Ramsay's We Need To Talk About Kevin.

We Need To Talk About Kevin is based on the best-selling book by Lionel Shriver. Tilda Swinton is what drives the film, she's a compelling actress and completely believable as the isolated Eva Katchadourian, the mother of Kevin (played by Rock Duer, Jasper Newell and Ezra Miller), a troubled boy who will eventually commit mass-murder at his high school. The film captures the strained relationship between Kevin and Eva, from his birth Eva feels no connection between her and her son and the two fail to bond. We view Kevin as a bad child, but is this just how h

e is, or is it because of the lack of love from Eva.

Red is the predominant colour of the film, from the tomato fight in the first sequence, the red paint thrown across her house and finally the sirens and redflashing lights at the high school where Kevin has completed his killing spree. It ties the film together and allows Ramsay to play with the narrative structure, taking us back and forward through Kevin's upbringing and Eva struggling to cope with her guilt after her son's imprisonment.

And it gets the author's tick of approval, Shriver was apparently really happy with how it turned out. This is a really well-made movie, it looks beautiful and it has a wonderful pace to it, it effortlessly avoids becoming sluggish halfway through. The performances were great although I still have trouble trying to accept that John C. Reilly can occasionally do 'serious'. Ezra Miller's portrayal of the teenage Kevin can be a little over-the-top but it's forgivable, this movie is all about Swinton, who was also a producer.

While it can be a distressing and confronting movie, We Need To Talk About Kevin is definitely worth watching.

The Prince And The Showgirl (1957)

There is nothing more relaxing during the holidays than watching the midday movie in your pyjamas after a big night out (Maybe with the exception of breakfast in bed whilst watching reruns of Friends and dissecting everything that happened on said-night-out with actual friends). However due to the nature of this blog I don't really get to relax while I watch movies anymore, it's all about note-taking and trying to remember the plot so I can regurgitate it back to you in a paragraph or so. Thanks a lot film-dependent, you have ruined my sacred midday movie tradition.

Enough ranting, today I watched The Prince And The Showgirl an old Marilyn Monroe movie about a Prince (Laurence Olivier) who meets showgirl Elsie (Monroe) and tries to seduce her. Using her womanly wiles, Elsie is able to seduce her prince, broker peace in Europe and earn herself some sort medal for her services.

This isn't the best Marilyn Monroe movie I have ever seen, as you can guess she was only there to look pretty and play that same character she had been playing her entire career. But it's still Monroe who steals the show, mainly because she is incredibly beautiful in a white figure-hugging dress doesn't hurt. Our eyes naturally just shift over to her whenever she's in a scene and it's no surprise because there isn't much else about this movie that makes watching it a very pleasant experience.

Laurence Olivier's regent prince is so very annoying and ridiculous and not very handsome at all. I kind of despised him and most of the royal family of the imaginary Carpathia, why Elsie would waste her time with them is a mystery to me. And the plot moves at such a glacial pace, I could go and read War & Peace, come back and they would still be having the same conversation which I still wouldn't understand because the whole thing is so bloody confusing.

While I didn't enjoy The Prince and the Showgirl, Marilyn Monroe aficionados will maybe put up with it for her, depending on how patient they are. I wouldn't recommend it but whether you watch it, is entirely up to you. But in more recent news I hear that the new Michelle Williams movie about Marilyn is going to be set in the time when this movie was being made, hopefully it's not as bad.

Night Of The Living Dead (1968)

So it's Easter time and I thought 'we should deal with a film that really captures the whole Easter spirit and is kind of meaningful...'

And then I thought 'Nah. But I guess in a sick way Night of the Living Dead does have the whole resurrection of the dead thing in common with Easter, thus making it totally appropriate Easter viewing.'

I don't know how many zombie films I've seen, it's probably in the hundreds but Night of the Living Dead is one of the earlier ones (that said, these movies have been around since the 30s), it's the first in George A. Romero's zombie film franchise that has given us such zombie gore gems as Day of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead and the somewhat forgettable Diary of the Dead.

Night of the Living Dead is about a group of people who lock themselves in a farmhouse after the dead begin to comeback to life and start attacking the humans. They have to work together in order to survive the attack, however they don't all get along.

I don't know why but I found these zombies to be HILARIOUS, particularly the random naked one you can see in the trailer. At the beginning of the film they're semi-intelligent, they even resemble normal people. Only halfway through the movie they start to become more like what we have today. I'm sure it was terrifying back in the 60s but unfortunately that has been lost over time. Watching the zombies devour people was funny too, it looks like they're eating a ham bone or something, it's terrible but in a good way.

There's something Alfred Hitchcock-esque about Night of the Living Dead, it kind of reminded me of Psycho, you have the beautiful blonde woman being terrorised and the deliberately loud sound effects that punctuate the usual silence in order to frighten the audience. There isn't much dialogue and it's not particularly good, neither is the acting. They're all just way too hysterical and it gets annoying.

Sometimes it kind of borders on being a bit sexist, the women are portrayed as being completely useless or crazy, especially Barbra (Judith O'Dea) who acts like a complete idiot the whole time. The women seem to lead most of the male characters to their demise as well. What I also found interesting was the character Ben (Duane Jones), a black man who is the hero and has to deal with a very annoying group of white people, as well as group of predominantly white zombies. I'm guessing this would have been quite controversial in the day (particularly the end sequence, but I'm not going to ruin it for you). I'm just glad he wasn't some stereotypical 'black' character who was given a supporting role. It's good to see a black actor at the centre of a film, when you think about what was happening in terms of civil rights at the time.

It's worth watching if you like zombie films, but I wouldn't say it was my all-time favourite. If you're a zombie fan here's a list of all zombie movies for you to work your way through... Good luck

Labyrinth (1986)

I've been feeling quite nostalgic lately and I don't know why. So I chose something I used to watch on a semi-regular basis. Labyrinth is a movie that I remember being on TV all the time when I was a kid. I think I mainly watched it because of David Bowie and his too-cool-for-school eye makeup, that I may or may not have tried to recreate.

Labyrinth is all about Sarah (Jennifer Connelly), a young girl struggling with the responsibilities that come with growing up. One day whilst babysitting her younger brother Tobey, she wishes that the goblins would take him away. And then they do (I'm not sure why she's so surprised by this, I wish goblins would take my little sister away, sigh). Tobey is taken by the incredibly camp goblin king Jared (David Bowie) and held hostage in his castle at the centre of the labyrinth. To rescue him, Sarah must conquer the labyrinth with the help of new friends along the way.

I'm quite fond of a good cult movie, especially one with puppets, musical numbers and some sort of fantasy theme. Jim Henson has an amazing imagination and the detail of this all is absolutely mind-blowing. There are some wicked visuals here, the setting in this fantasy medieval world that you fall in love with.

I guess the best thing about Labyrinth is David Bowie, I mean he IS this movie and it's probably why most people watch it. And he helped with the music, which is a tad lame but still cool enough to be mentioned.

Anyway, I'm sure that at the time the filming techniques used were totally cutting-edge in 1986 but they have dated and look really tacky. You can only laugh at the terrible costumes in the ballroom scene (I don't think I've ever seen that much taffeta, except maybe my parents wedding album). And the acting, I know puppets don't have full facial control, but that's no excuse for the humans in this movie (I'm looking at you, David Bowie). But all this cheesiness makes it loveable, in a childish way. You don't watch Labyrinth expecting it to be on the same level as something by, I don't know, let's say Stanley Kubrick. You're watching it to be entertained, which it does do in its own weird way. It's one of those movies you watch and say 'they don't make 'em like they used to'.

And that's about all I have to say for now. I suppose I'll be here same time, same place tomorrow.

Elephant (2003)

Hello again. Yes it has been I while since I've posted anything, mainly because I'm lazy... sorry about that, it's been a busy few days at chez Michelle. Anyway I'm back on the wagon, ready to start again and we'll start with Gus Van Sant's Elephant, another film brought to me by my cinema studies class.

Also I should mention that if my writing seems a bit, well, all over the place it's only because I've had about 4 cups of coffee in the past 2 hours and to say I'm a little over-caffeinated is a gross understatement. I'll try and be as coherent as possible but I'm not making any promises.

Elephant is part of Van Sant's death trilogy, which also includes Gerry and Last Days. Each film details an incident involving a death that has actually happened. Elephant is about the Columbine high school massacre. It follows the lives of several of the students on the day of the massacre, including one of the gunmen, Alex (Alex Frost).

There is something very ominous about Elephant, the way the camera weaves through the corridors and how the lives of the students loop around each other. The school is like a maze, you find yourself becoming lost just like the teenagers you are watching. The worst part is knowing what's going to happen, you're just waiting for them to open fire. It's not judgemental and it doesn't try to explain or blame anyone. Sometimes horrible things happen and you can't find the logic behind it.

What surprised me most was that the cast consisted mostly of new or non-proffessional actors and how well they put this together. It's completely believable, you feel for outcasts Alex, Eric and Michelle. It wasn't over the top, the death scenes are not done in typical Hollywood fashion (aka the slow-motion fall to the ground and woe-is-me face). The whole film is done in a way both minimal and moving, nothing is overstated.

I loved Elephant, and I hope if you choose to watch it you do too.

Bye for now, not forever