The Jotter

The Big Lebowski trailer here

#90 Der Untergang (Downfall)
#89 Blood Simple
#88 Bonnie And Clyde
#87 The Big Lebowski
#86 The Mosquito Coast

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

100 Films You Must See #87


#87 THE BIG LEBOWSKI Joel & Ethan Coen 1998

:) I wondered if it was appropriate to start this particular entry with a smile, I thought No, I have a small audience, but an audience who expect well written pieces. Then I thought about the film I was reviewing and it came to me, I have had so much repeated fun with this film that who cares really and maybe you'll definitely buy into my mood, the mood in which the Coen's allow you to be involved in.

There is a lot about The Big Lebowski that is not of classic film and I think most will not agree on my selection. For starters you may ask if Blood Simple is the perfect crime film why does this film reign supreme over it? I don't see it that way. I think with films it is what your left with at the end of the day.

Anyway enough about that, it's all justification and I won't have anymore of it. The Big Lebowski is a triumph of the comedy genre. It does what many fail to and that is simply make you laugh. You may be laughing at the one liners, the innuendo, the observational, the caricatures, the futile conversations or the outright foul language, it all has it's place within context.

An example is when we open the film to see The Dude a.k.a. Jeff Lebowski played by Jeff Bridges in a shopping mall, he is an untidy, modern hippy and as he checks out milk for his white Russians, we hear George Bush address the American people on standing up to aggression, this mind you was from the time of the Iraq war (91' desert storm). Just before this we hear a cowboy voiceover introducing The Dude (which in fact is a name given to the Dean Martin character in Rio Bravo 59' who was a no-hope drunk) and we learn that those words of the then president actually wouldn't have an effect on the man, it's the world around him that has turned cynical and edgy. It's his friend the retired Vietnam Vet Walter played by John Goodman that 'won't stand the aggression'. watch this scene

The Big Lebowski is a ride for the paranoid and in the end these pivotal characters are fighting an unchecked enemy, something made up. The Coen's have fun with this idea and ride it into oblivion which reminds me of older slapstick comedies that have no plot but are a series of sketches and have that single character that is effected by all the moron's around him when all he wants to do is go bowling.

100 Films You Must See

Bonnie And Clyde trailer here

#90 Der Untergang (Downfall)
#89 Blood Simple
#88 Bonnie And Clyde
#87 The Big Lebowski

Monday, January 30, 2012

100 Films You Must See #88

#88
BONNIE AND CLYDE
Arthur Penn
1967

I can remember seeing Bonnie And Clyde as a young man and thinking it was a light take on a gangster film. The music and sometimes blase performance of Warren Beatty had me believing that he was a joker and that this film would somehow be over the top. When you finish Bonnie And Clyde you begin to realise that there was no joke, no whimsy, actually nothing light about it at all. If there is one word I could give such a film, it would be that of truth. You see I don't know what being a bank robber, criminal, gangster or all three of them combined would be like, but I'm willing to bet it starts out being fun and games but it will most likely reach the depths of that famous last scene. If you haven't seen it, I won't spoil it.

You may find from my past reviews that I like my crime film with necessary violence, I always remember Francis Ford Coppola stating how much he hated violence and creating a crime scene on film. I think the violence he directs in his films is always necessary. Cut to Arthur Penn director of Bonnie And Clyde and he states he wanted to show what real violence would be like, none of your old Hollywood type murders and subdued blood. I think what he achieved here is a portrait of the aftermath, something audiences can learn from, it's all justified within.

With some master performances from Beatty and Dunaway this is a must watch film that stands the test of time for it's brutality and truth.

100 Films You Must See

#90 Der Untergang (Downfall)
#89 Blood Simple
#88 Bonnie And Clyde

Friday, January 27, 2012

100 Films You Must See #89

#89
BLOOD SIMPLE
Joel & Ethan Coen
1984

Blood Simple is the first piece of writing and directing the Coen Brothers attempted. For me there are way too many first films from virgin directors to list that are perfect. It's something about your first feature that shows a freedom, a style and confidence in story, that really shines through. Here in Blood Simple a film from their thriller genre we are invited to go inside a small American community and to touch on what violence and what madness it brings.

Do you know what it's like to do something wrong once and be so upset with your self that making the same mistake seems like a sense of freedom is bestowed upon you. The Coen's touch on that here, Blood Simple does not give us a series of murders, but one, and in this you can't help but remember Alfred Hitchcock and harp back to the way his films and Blood Simple concentrate on one murder and their is no glorifying it. Also alike is the manner of the murder, and the complexity of one man's death, that with it, comes a conscience, regret, and what's most fun, a way to hide it.

The actions of these characters are so thought out that you begin to believe that yes this could really happen and what's worst is that you can mildly understand the bewildering decisions they make. Blood Simple is a fine achievement in the thriller genre and just maybe one day, the many thrillers made would see sense to drop the overt, in your face, jumbled flashback, flash-forward aspects of the psychological thriller and concentrate on how a murder can inhibit or release some from their burdens and learn from the masterclass of these very fine filmmakers.

Blood Simple trailer here

100 Films You Must See

#90 Der Untergang (Downfall)
#89 Blood Simple

Thursday, January 12, 2012

100 Films You Must See #90

#90
DER UNTERGANG (DOWNFALL)
Oliver Hirschbiegel
2004

I'm still not sure if most Germans new what was happening under their noses. I wonder even if they knew, what could be done? One things for certain, this type of thing could happen again, people are so easily swayed, that's why Downfall is an important film.

I have recently viewed Judgement At Nuremberg 1961 (which should but will not be included in this list as it was viewed after the close of 2011) a film that delves into the trials shortly after the holocaust. The film had German judges up on trial, we the audience can swing either way as these men made and passed law to keep that abominable man in power and allowing him to do what he did. I bring up this film because I believe Downfall's themes are very similar, that is, do these people know what they are really doing and will anyone who can forsee the severity of their actions make a change?

Simply put, Downfall is a must see film. It's truly up to you what you take from the film. We take perspective from Traudi Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara) whom is hired by Adolf Hitler (Bruno Ganz) as his secretary, you can only imagine the atrocities she would become aware of. Downfall is actually that, the fall of a dictator all set within a claustrophobic German bunker as the allies drew closer and closer to capturing the man. "I do not want to live in a world without National Socialism" one associate would say as suicide became an ever apparent alternative to having been captured, but are these the words of an idealist or a coward? It's for you to decide.

If we ever chat about men that make films, then Bruno Ganz is at the very top. Never over the top or nonchalant, Ganz's adaptation of Adolf Hitler is flawless. Yes, I almost felt for this awful awful lack of a human.

I believe what Downfall does above all, is it reinstates the confusion and uncertainty of that time. It raises the same questions and some 70 years later gives no certain answers. Downfall is an account of a horrific time, that needs to be seen. Oliver Hirschbiegel understands that we the audience don't need anyone to tell us we need a trial or a lynching or a long dictatorial speech, what we do need are the facts and we will come to our own independent conclusions, something Nazi Germany individually could not determine for themselves.

Downfall trailer here

100 Films You Must See

#90 Der Untergang (Downfall)

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

100 Films You Must See #91

#91
MATCH POINT
Woody Allen
2005

Match Point signified two things for Woody Allen, his turn to making more films abroad as opposed to his love of New York. The other being his collaboration with Scarlett Johansson, she would later be cast in Scoop 2006 and Vicky Cristina Barcelona 2008. I bring these two points up because I find them vital to his filmography and his writing. You see in those films starring Johansson, Allen was now writing a form of his character that frequented most of all his earlier films. If you closely watch Johansson in all three films included Scoop where she co-starred with Allen, She is Allen reborn into a new body, a better looking one at that. The Woody Allen character has not been lost at all, he has hung onto it.

I have been debating whether or not to give you a rundown on the plot or not, I know I shouldn't as Match Point's backbone is that is surprises. Even having said that, you'll be waiting for something like a bang. I've said too much already. This is a thriller but a thriller that is planted purely in pace and timing. There is nothing in the major part of the introduction and first act that desires to tell you a thriller will emerge, after all it is a Woody Allen picture and he is most intent to concentrate on character, the rest will flow on. Please just watch the film without even reading the blurb, you'll see I haven't included a trailer either.

Match Point is scathing on it's character's, it's not about the old deabte, good vs. evil, it's not really about relationships and their ups and downs, it's simply about surviving in human world of mistakes and misfortune.

So Woody Allen makes his first appearance on my list of films you must see. Expect to see a few more from the director. I am enjoying this new wave of cinema from the director, surprisingly his more recent films are some of his best, but in all I have hardly seen an average Allen picture.

100 Films You Must See

Okuribito (Departures) trailer here

#92 Okuribitu (Departures)
#91 Match Point

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

100 FIlms You Must See #92

#92
Okuribio (Departures)
Yojiro Takita
2008

Departures is a film full of sincere beauty. Everything about this film, it's content included is about the beauty you find within every circumstance and to that, the most dire. Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) a retrenched cellist is in need of a new job. The job is that of encoffinment which is preparing the dead for burial. Daigo never tells his wife, after-all he is coming home everyday having bathed and cleaned the dead, he only takes the job as to support his family. This is not a film about afterlife and having the dead enter that realm, it is simply about all the people who are left behind once a death has occurred. Unlike anything I have ever seen before there is a lengthy, done with care and absolute respect. I won't say more, for this film is all about feeling and not thought, something you should have lack-there-of while viewing this impressive film.

If you have noticed already from the list of films I am compiling, I have a soft spot for serious drama that can make you laugh at all the right times, Departures does just that. There is a soft humour but it never interferes with the ensuing story, it only helps us see the lighter side, it does not allow us to fear the death themes but with that allows us to understand and accept the tradition of departing gracefully and with respect.

There are many films that try to tap into the beauty of something so dire, Yojiro Takita does it with humility and sincerity. Departures is a film that must be seen if not for anything but for it's beauty.

100 Films You Must See