Archive for the ‘docu-drama’ Category
Author: Gerald
On the side of the resisters
It’s men – not the veil – that are the women’s main concern in life. Or, if this weren’t a film from a predominantly Muslim country, their main cross to bear. The women are the guests on Hebba’s TV talk show, and they run the gamut of Egyptian society, from meek murderesses to mighty media stars. The men in their lives, whether ministers or minions, are uniformly trouble for the women. That’s Scheherazade Tell Me A Story (2009) in a nutshell.
Author: James
A world underwater
Jacques Perrin’s new film Océans (2009) deserves wide-screen viewing, and I now regret that I never saw his 2001 Peuple Migrateur (Winged Migration) in the cinema, writes Gerald Loftus.
For viewers requiring documentary purity, Roger Ebert’s comment on Perrin’s previous film still holds, this time for Océans: “Facts are not the purpose of Winged Migration. It wants to allow us to look, simply look, at birds–and that goal it achieves magnificently. There are sights here I will not easily forget.”
Author: Gerald
In the footsteps of Ibn Battuta
Karma, I believe, doesn’t appear in Islam, so maybe it was just fate that I’d be stopped in my tracks by the poster outside one of Washington DC’s Smithsonian museums.
It was Ibn Battuta who immediately caught my eye. I had just completed hours of meetings inside that same museum, discussing future cultural and educational programs to be conducted in Ibn Battuta’s birthplace – Tangier, Morocco – and here he was! U-turn back inside, where I got myself not only an IMAX ticket, but also a couple of related books to lug back in my suitcase.
Author: James
No going back
Paul Greengrass has proved himself to be a world leader when it comes to the blending of fact and fiction – he is perhaps cinema’s most adept exponent of the ‘docu-drama’ approach, as he went on to prove with United 93 (2006), which was a far superior account of another day on which the world changed, namely 11 September 2001, than Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center (2006).
Author: James
strong>Not kidding around
Set in Kabul, Barmak Akram’s Kabuli kid (2008), via the felicitous device of taxi-driver Khaled (Hadji Gul) who has to take charge of a baby when his mother leaves the child in his cab, paints a vivid picture of the city’s citizens and how their attitudes have been affected by 25 years of war and the fall of the Taliban.
Author: James
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…
All this talk on Picturenose (writes Cillian Donnelly) about Ronald Emmerich’s big-budget end-of-the-world thriller 2012 (2009) has prompted me to revisit this 1981 curio – a kitsch docu-drama based on the prophecies of the seer Michel de Nostradame, who is more commonly known as Nostradamus.
Author: James
Suffer the children…
Börn (Children) (2006)certainly starts as it means to go on – two young troublemakers break into an older man’s home after he unwittingly answers the door. Laying his DVDs to waste, one of the pair (wonderfully acted by Gísli Örn Gardarsson) shouts: “What’s this? Black and white arty-farty shit?” A referential nod…
Author: James
Children on the inside
Gerald Loftus is back with an enlightening look at mothers in prison…
Any film whose credits include “Baby Wranglers” along with the usual jobs such as screenwriter, grip, etc. is worthy of special consideration. In fact, Leonera was in the competition for the 2008 Cannes Golden Palm, and has won awards at lesser film festivals on several continents. Nor can there be any doubt that Martina Gusman as principal character Julia provides a world-class performance. But what about those babies, and why do they require wrangling?
Author: James
Watch, listen, learn
Just like the Chinese/Japanese exhortation to “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”, writes Gerald Loftus, Three Monkeys (official site) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan offers no clear explanation of the underlying meaning. Is it just good sense to mind your own business, or is there a danger of ignoring evil and being complicit? Watching this tense non-thriller, another maxim comes to mind: be careful what you wish for.
Author: James
As the world unravels…
A few words about Threads (1984) by Mick Jackson (The Bodyguard (1992), Volcano (1997), QED: A Guide To Armageddon (1982)) – a film that demands to be seen and appreciated, even if ‘enjoyed’ is not the most appropriate term to describe what your reaction to this post-nuclear holocaust nightmare is likely to be…
- Colin: Mike: the Matrix was utter toss. Don’t go there. Anyhow, I’m right with you on Aliens –...
- Colin: James: Why not do ten more and see if you can avoid putting the god-awful travesty that is Independence Day in...
- CD: The Day the Earth Stood Still (it’s about an alien who is Jesus…but better than ET) Soylent Green...
- James: Hello Chris, and welcome to Picturenose!
Many thanks for your comment – I thought, in fact, that... - James: Colin, good points, both on Westworld (which should really have been included, I know, I know) and otters.