skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Film: Fellini's Casanova
Release date: 1st May 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 148 mins
Director: Federico Fellini
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Tina Aumont, Cicely Browne
Genre: Drama/Fantasy/Biography
Studio: Mr Bongo
Format: DVD
Country: Italy
Frederico Fellini’s biopic of the infamous womanising Venetian author is a little unusual to say the least. In Fellini’s favourite of his own films, we follow Giacomo Casanova (Donald Sutherland) throughout his life, witnessing his various loveless sexual exploits as he travels across 18th century Europe. Boasting striking visuals and heavy symbolism, it won’t be to everyone’s taste.
The film opens in Venice, where the annual carnival is taking place. After witnessing the festivities, Giacomo Casanova begins his run of sexual adventures. First, in Venice, he puts on a sexual performance with an actress dressed as a nun for the voyeuristic pleasure of a rich noble. Then, after a brief imprisonment for supposedly practicing the dark arts, he escapes to Paris, where he conducts an insane ritual designed to transform an elderly aristocratic woman’s soul into that of a young man’s (predictably, using sex, with the addition of a candle headdress!). Later, after apparently losing his sexual potency (after inevitably catching a venereal disease), he travels to London, where he is fascinated by a giantess, and gets a kick out of watching her being bathed by two dwarves.
Over his life, his sexual encounters become less and less fulfilling, to the extent that in Dresden, a woman rejects his advances and he instead participates in a bizarre orgy with a hunchback and two heavyset women. He lives his final days sad, ridiculed and alone as a librarian at a count’s residence in Bohemia…
The visuals are striking, if a little unusual. Each city Casanova visits is represented in a very theatrical way, by a minimalist set (the ocean is represented by billowing bin liners in one scene, for instance, whilst London is shown as a single cobbled street shrouded in fog).
The costume design is also very impressive, deservedly winning an Academy Award. Each of Casanova’s outfits is extravagant to the extreme. They become less over-the-top throughout the course of the film (in early scenes and flashback sequences, he appears as a strutting and garish peacock, but he gradually becomes more subdued and dapper as he spirals into old age and depression).
Everything about the character of Casanova is designed to make him grotesque – from the horrific hair and makeup (including rolled and bunched hair, and a shaved crown to make the hairline more severe) to his sickening expressions during intercourse and, of course, the very fact that it’s Donald Sutherland playing him (not exactly the most conventionally attractive man). He’s portrayed as largely emotionless – an automaton seeking sexual gratification while avoiding attachment. At no time do we feel anything for his younger self; on the contrary, he is quite repulsive. Only in the final act to we feel any empathy (or is it pity?) for him, when he’s being mocked.
The whole film represents a man’s need to gratify his desires and his inability to connect on any emotional level. No matter where Casanova travels, no matter what he goes through, he will never find happiness, he will never find love. Easily the most poignant scene is a fantastical moment where Casanova falls for a doll-like woman, and, after seducing her, continues to dream of her for the rest of his life. She is, in reality, his ideal woman – she will never resist his advances, and never require him to engage with her on anything more than a physical level. In this moment, the true sadness of Casanova’s character is revealed: he is utterly unable to love a real woman, and has to make do with a mannequin.
Some scenes may appear a little laughable to some, as the acting and characterisation is, at times, very exaggerated. This is still in keeping with the dreamlike, theatrical feel of the film, but it may annoy some viewers.
It’s not the symbolism, exaggeration and flights of fantasy that irritate the most, however. What really grates is the clumsy Italian dubbing of Donald Sutherland on this particular DVD, which distracts to the point of having a detrimental effect on the story!
Despite the heavy-handed dubbing of Sutherland, and the love-it-or-hate-it theatrical visuals and acting, Fellini’s Casanova effectively tells the story (impressive considering the lack of real plot points) of Italy’s most famous libertine. The film’s unusual visuals are effectively simple, and though the film begins emotionally shallow, it becomes quite poignant by the conclusion. SSP
Film: Fellini's Casanova
Release date: 1st May 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 148 mins
Director: Federico Fellini
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Tina Aumont, Cicely Browne
Genre: Drama/Biography
Studio: Mr Bongo
Format: DVD
Country: Italy
Giacomo Casanova is a writer, a wit and an aesthete. Venturing out from his native Venice and passing through the hedonistic capitals of Europe, he seeks to be recognised for his manifold and self proclaimed talents in the higher arts. But in his reckless wanderings, Casanova comes to realise that all anyone is interested in are his sexual escapades. Fellini called this film his masterpiece.
The film opens during one of Venice's famous carnivals. A statue of Venus is to be raised from the Grand Canal, but the supports break and she is one again engulfed by the water. Subsequently, Casanova, who has witnessed this while masked, is brought a note, asking him to attend an island where a nun excitedly awaits his ravishment.
On arrival, he learns they are to be watched by the French Ambassador who proclaims Casanova's sexual genius, only to disappear when Giacomo asks for a reference to the King.
On the return from the island, Casanova is accosted by the inquisition, who imprison him in a cell he can barely stand up in. However, he shortly escapes and embarks on a travel across Europe; Italy, Germany, Britain and France, hoping to make his mark as a man of letters, but everywhere he finds debauchery and disappointment - his string of sexual conquests hollow as he chases nonexistent dreams.
In Dresden, Casanova chances upon his mother in an empty Opera House. She can no longer walk and he carries her to her carriage, but after she drives away, he realises he has forgotten to ask her address to write to her. Finally, at the end of his travels, Casanova finds a position as Librarian at Waldstein. But he has become an object of ridicule, forced to eat with the servants. He is left to dream about the one woman he found in his travels whom he considered perfect. An automated doll…
Fellini's Casanova is a haunted dream journey through spectacular sets, populated by a bemused Giacomo and a surreal circus of grotesques. Deliberately as un-erotic as possible, Fellini meditates on the emptiness within Casanova, and the artifice that surrounds him in the debauched European nations - artifice that Casanova cannot help but beg for recognition from. The film is an incredible vision that does not readily open itself to explanation, but rather needs to be felt emotionally through the absurd chaotic journey on which Casanova is our steadfast guide.
The occasional narration by Giacomo provides the reinforcement that the madness we are witnessing is in fact Casanova's madness, even while Donald Sutherland provides an imperious and unrelenting presence as the stillness at the centre of each scene. Sutherland, despite being possibly the least likely actor ever to portray Casanova, radiates a softness and unnatural beauty that is quite unexpected. It is a triumph, therefore, that he never allows Casanova to become an object of sympathy or to allow his naiveté to overcome his dialogue with the audience. Fellini despised Casanova. Sutherland allows him to become an object of ridicule without compromising the character's integrity. The audience are left unmoved by Casanova's journey, upon which he learns nothing, tells the audience nothing, creates nothing, leaves nothing, and ends up with nothing except a dream about a hollow woman. When other stories about Casanova focus on tremendous amounts of sex and ribaldry, this is a film that dares to show the dark side of the very first ‘playboy’.
However, this does not make for easy viewing. The plot is nonexistent, the Brechtian theatrical techniques are many, constantly reminding the audience that they are viewing a facade of a facade, and the main character is a perpetually deluded freak for whom sex becomes such a routine, that it has all the eroticism of training for and participating in an Olympic sport, and for whom women drift into nonexistence.
For all that, Fellini keeps his audience through incredible scenes. London is a perpetual road in a pea soup fog, inhabited by a 7ft woman fighter who is attended on by two dwarfs. Casanova blunders through, lost and alone. In Germany, he finds a hall filled with pipe organs, played discordantly, and then concordantly, presided over by a comatose Dudley Sutton. As pure cinema, this is as good as it gets. Scenes that will etch themselves into the brain and never leave.
Fellini called Casanova his masterpiece. It is. However, that does not make it easy viewing, nor does it make a whole lot of narrative sense. Casanova is very much a film that requires its audience to feel rather than to think, and what is more, promises to leave them unmoved. It is a brave filmmaker who desires to pull off such a feat and a rare filmmaker that succeeds. A compelling film. PE
Film: Bodyguards And Assassins
Release date: 31st May 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 139 mins
Director: Teddy Chan
Starring: Donnie Yen, Leon Lai, Xueqi Wang, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Nicholas Tse, Simon Yam
Genre: Action/Martial Arts/Drama
Studio: E1
Format: DVD
Country: China/Hong Kong
The starriest cast in recent memory assemble for an epic tribute to one of the most important figures in Chinese history. The scene is set for a crushing disappointment, or an outright classic. But which?
Hong Kong, 1905. Dr Sun Yat-sen heads for the British colony in order to discuss his plans for a rebellion against the oppressive Qing Dynasty. But when word of his travels reaches the Imperial Court, assassins are sent to intercept him.
Committed revolutionary Chen Xiao-bai (Leung) anticipates this, and seeks the assistance of ‘Boss’ Li Yu-tang (Wang Xue-qi), a sympathetic businessman who worries that his 17-year-old only son, Chong-kwong (Wang Po-chieh), will suffer a grave fate if he continues down a political road. With ‘Boss Li’ providing financial support, the revolutionaries look to ensure Dr Sun’s plans are carried out. But when the Imperial Assassins begin picking off the rebels, Chen knows that his leader’s life is in grave danger.
Chen constructs a daring scheme to protect Dr Sun and throw the Imperial villains off the scent. To do this, he will need the assistance of an unlikely group of local heroes, each with their own story to tell…
A simple plot description, like the one above, of Bodyguards And Assassins could not hope to encompass each of the dozen-strong central cast, and their respective arcs and dynamics. This is grand, ambitious storytelling on a scale Western audiences might think surprising for a cinema thought of (often wrongly) as trading more in spectacle than in narrative sophistication. And while the big cast of characters are often not much more than familiar cinematic archetypes (including the quiet, academic revolutionary; the big-hearted simpleton; the estranged daughter; the concerned patriarch), the litany of Chinese/Hong Kong stars and superstars of several generations do their utmost to ensure that each of them is memorable.
It’s to the cast’s credit that the film is held together during a difficult, and somewhat clunky opening twenty minutes, as director Teddy Chen bounces from one character to the next, busily setting everyone up and winning audience affection as quickly as possible. And as the film dilutes it historical politics with odd, mostly unsuccessful comedy, we begin to fear that this starry ensemble is going to be too big to keep track of, and that the web of relationships will prove too confusing. But once everyone is introduced, the film seems to gain focus, with Tony Ka Fai Leung’s upstanding Chen Xiao-bai plotting with exiled Qing soldier Fang Tian (an effective Simon Yam cameo).
Then, acid-wielding ninjas crash through the ceiling and set about assassinating the revolutionaries in a skirmish that, though well-staged and exciting, feels very out of place in what was beginning to shape up as a rich, historical drama. That the action is choreographed with the kind of stylised movements that border on the supernatural prompts an audience to ponder exactly what sort of film they’re watching - worthy epic, or fight flick? It soon becomes clear that the answer is a bit of both.
As the central players are moved into position, Chen sets up the core premise of his film - that each of the dozen-strong cast will gather together to hold off the Imperial soldiers from attacking the convoy taking Dr Sun to his clandestine meeting, and run a decoy mission to keep them off the scent while the meeting is underway. Suddenly, Chen’s big-budget cinematic history lesson becomes an intriguing, and potentially ingenuous high concept period thrill-ride.
Moving into an enthralling, near-real-time second hour, as the heroic rebels come under attack from soldiers, ninjas and local mobs, with a succession of exhausting and emotional personal sacrifices, Bodyguards And Assassins ultimately does find a unique cinematic identity. If the resulting action sequence - draining in its length, exhilarating in its relentlessness - is not quite unique in its style and staging, it nevertheless makes for something approaching a brand new movie-going experience. To turn key Chinese history into a traditional, cinematic rollercoaster is a bold move, but Chen pulls it off, successfully marrying a Chinese and Hong Kong-style ‘fable’ with Hollywood-esque scope and grandeur.
As mentioned, the cast of this film is just about the largest collection of Chinese/Hong Kong stars in recent memory, and to a man they do some of their best work. Often considered the lesser of the two, Tony Leung’s ‘Big Tony’ Ka Fai is an appealing presence in what could have been the rather dull part of single-minded rebel Chen Xiao-bai - Leung makes the most of a meaty moral dilemma (his personal conflict surrounding the risk to his friend’s son, employed as a decoy for Sun Yat-sen), and is one of two anchors the script leans on to ensure it does not drift into narrative chaos.
The other anchor is Wang Xueqi, the eldest of the cast, in the role of Li Yu-tang. His journey from ambivalence to political conviction and determination amounts to perhaps the lone traditional ‘character arc’ in the film, and Wang is quietly immense as his character finds reserves of strength and will he had thought lost. It is a tremendous, un-showy performance, rightly acknowledged at award ceremonies throughout Asia in 2010.
The rest of the cast do their part and hold their own. Donnie Yen continues to operate outside his comfort zone, following his well-received turn in Ip Man with a performance here - as a conflicted Hong Kong police constable - that is more understated than his usual style, and completely without vanity. Nicholas Tse has never been better as ‘Four’, the illiterate Li family rickshaw driver who wants nothing more than to get married if he survives this tumultuous day. Fan Bingbing brings grace to a largely thankless role as Li Yu-tang’s fourth mistress who has a romantic past with Yen’s policemen. Leon Lai is a perhaps a strange choice for the role of a beggar who happens to be a martial arts master whom the rebels count on for the most important part of their plan, but as one of Canto pop’s ‘Four Heavenly Kings’, he brings the necessary gravitas.
Another of the ‘Kings’, Jacky Cheung, features in a stunning one-scene cameo, the best of a trio (the others being Eric Tsang and, bizarrely, Michelle Monique Reis) who turn up to further sprinkle somewhat distracting stardust on proceedings.
Visually, the film is utterly immaculate. Arthur Wong’s cinematography is typically beautiful, and the production design’s realisation of Hong Kong’s Central District in the early 20th century is a true wonder (wide shots of Hong Kong Island viewed from the other side of the harbour are almost heart-stopping in their detail and splendour).
Bodyguards And Assassins is a quality production, a true Asian ‘event’ movie, and fantastically enthralling two hours. If the parts don’t quite fit into a consistent whole, that should not at all detract from the sumptuous production values and terrifically thrilling action.
Ultimately not quite the classic it could have been (and thinks it is), but this flawed, messy epic is engrossing and powerful, knowing what audience strings to pull. Agonisingly close to greatness. JN
Film: Harpoon
Release date: 10th May 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 83 mins
Director: Julius Kemp
Starring: Gunnar Hansen, Pihla Viitala, Nae Yuuki
Genre: Horror
Studio: E1
Format: DVD
Country: Iceland
Harpoon is Iceland’s first foray into the world of slasher/horror, with enough obvious nods to a certain 70s horror classic to explain its subtitle ‘Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre’.
The set up is simple, and very much a genre standard. A disparate group of people are taken from their natural surroundings, placed in jeopardy, with a group of ‘crazies’, and there you have it - blood and carnage! In this case, we have a multi-national tourist party comprising individuals and small groups who have never met before. They are all visiting Reykjavik, and decide to go on a whale watching trip, but disaster strikes while at sea, and with the captain of the tour ship wounded, the group are forced to take refuge on an unused whaling ship crewed by a family who bear a grudge for the loss of the whaling industry, and hold the international community squarely to blame…
From the opening credits it is hard not to be swayed by the style and chutzpah used by the makers of Harpoon - the library footage and epic orchestral sweep, as the film kicks off, acts not only as a paean to the loss of the local industry, but as a nod to the bygone era to which Harpoon owes most of its inspiration. And make no mistake, Harpoon not only nods in the direction of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it smothers it in a giant bear hug, like family members separated at birth meeting for the first time thirty years later. Thankfully, although the makers of Harpoon clearly love the Tobe Hooper classic, they make no attempt at revisionism or crass copying.
It has been more than twelve years since Harpoon director Julius Kemp made his last feature Blossi, a film which did not set the cinematic world alight, but whatever he has been doing in the meantime, it really has paid off because Harpoon is brash, confident, stylish and hugely enjoyable.
The dated opening credit sequence is literally blasted from the screen by a death metal barrage - a trick repeated throughout the film with old or existing preconceptions being bent or destroyed by the relentlessness of the onscreen action. Harpoon succeeds where loads of remakes fail because rather than updating wholesale sequences from existing slasher films, it uses them as a basic template, a foundation upon which to play with, and confound ideas in order to create something familiar but entirely new and vibrant.
Harpoon’s ability to warp and surprise the viewer while using a tried and tested formula is all down to the clever characterisation and script. Almost no-one in Harpoon turns out to be as they initially appear. A red herring is introduced almost immediately - mature women objectify black men, characters behave disgracefully toward each other, and almost everyone has surprising character traits or flaws. When the set piece is introduced which will ultimately leave the tourists in peril, it is shocking; when the full scale violence erupts moments later, it is brutal and explosive, despite the fact we are fully aware it is going to happen. This isn’t terror, this is shock and awe.
Harpoon has a wonderful aesthetic, and pleasure can be derived from a number of places. Amongst the breathlessness, there are moments of still, electrifying beauty. One scene in particular, involving a harpooned tourist dangling from a ship whilst framed by the fjord in the background, is destined to become an iconic snapshot - in its own way every bit as powerful as Father Merrin’s stark silhouette, as he prepares to enter the infamous house on 3600 Prospect Street.
The accompanying score is also pitch perfect: at times a lullaby, at other times a dentist’s drill. In one truly beautiful scene, distressed heroine Annette whispers a funereal version of the Bjork classic ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’, while the remainder of the tourists gather over the recently deceased. The effect is simple gorgeous, and acts as a rare pause in amongst the mayhem. You won’t get moments like this in the next Halloween reboot!
The acting is well above average for this type of genre film. The frantic pace means that broad strokes are used to paint the characters, and the actors establish who they are within minutes, but still keep enough in reserve to enable them to reveal their true selves at the appropriate time. It is impossible to know who to trust, and this second guessing remains pretty much until the final reel. Stand outs are ‘woman in distress’ Annette (a note perfect Pihla Viitala) or ‘put upon assistant’ Endo (a quite brilliant Nae Yuuki). Both these actresses give layers to characters who could have easily disappeared into stereotypes.
Of course, all this fraught energy means something has to give, and this is where Harpoon really differs from Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Exorcist for that matter. There is almost no prolonged tension in the film at all. At no point is a prevailing mood or atmosphere allowed to really grab hold, despite ample opportunities were this could have been allowed. This lack of tension doesn’t spoil the film, and there are tense moments interspersed with the madness, it is just that Harpoon may not live as long in the memory as the classics which have been its inspiration. However, at only 83 minutes long, you really won’t miss the slow build - just strap yourself in and enjoy the roller coaster.
If you are sick and tired of the Hollywood machine regurgitating the horror classics of yesteryear then Harpoon will remind you what made those films so incredible, while at the same time offering you something genuinely thrilling. SM
Film: Sleeping Bride
Release date: 31st May 2010
Certificate: PG
Running time: 100 mins
Director: Hideo Nakata
Starring: Risa Hoto, Yuki Kohara, Takaaki Enomoto, Tomoka Hayashi
Genre: Romance/Comedy
Studio: Palisades Tartan
Format: DVD
Country: Japan
The Glass Brain by prolific manga author Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy and an obsessive Walt Disney fan) provides the bizarre inspiration for J-Horror mastermind Hideo Nakata’s left of centre romantic tale (originally released as part of the Ring Trilogy).
An emergency rescue team discover a pregnant sole survivor clinging onto life amongst the sizzling wreckage of a horrific plane crash. She manages to live just long enough to give birth to a cataleptic baby daughter, Yumi (Riso Goto).
Now motherless and abandoned by a grieving father, the child is taken into the care of a medical staff that offers little hope of her ever emerging from the deep routed coma.
Seven years later, a young boy, Yuichi (Yuki Kohara), is admitted to the same hospital suffering from chronic asthma. Bored he wonders the corridors looking for and finding a distraction in the shape of the mysterious coma girl. For the remainder of his stay, armed with a vivid imagination and knowledge of the sleeping beauty fairytale, he makes a daily pilgrimage to Yumi’s room to place a single kiss on her lips and utter the words: “I am a prince, please wake up.”
A decade on, and Yuichi, now a well-liked high school pupil, is stunned as he watches a news broadcast regarding the plane crash and subsequent birth of the coma girl. His feelings for Yumi flood back, reigniting a dormant childhood obsession and forcing him, at the expense of other relationships, to return to the girl’s bedside and continue his ritual kiss, all seemingly to no avail…
Director Hideo Nakata, who gate crashed into the public’s conciseness with breakout movie Ringu and subsequent genre defining J-Horror films, tries and fails dramatically to prove to the world that he is so much more than the master of supernatural suspense. It is true to say that he had previously enjoyed a limited success in Japan with non horror films, however, these have always had a prominent dark tone at their heart (twisted kidnap flick Chaos and documentary Sadistic And Masochistic spring to mind). However, for what is basically a reimaging of an old fairytale updated for a female teen audience, he injudiciously abandons his usual well crafted stylistic methods, honed to perfection in his classic Dark Water, for an almost straightforward directing by numbers approach.
Conspicuous by their absence are Nakata’s trademark atmospheric moments of suspense, created through nothing more than interesting camera angles. Worse still, adding insult to injury, the director replaces intriguing imagery with soft-focus insipidness, while allowing emotive sounds to be drowned in an ocean of orchestral drivel. His use of colour is drab, at best, and the music score by long-time collaborator Kenji Kawai is ill judged, at times grating on the nerves, and a constant distraction.
The dialogue, closely adapted from Tezuka’s manga script by Chiaki Konaka, is so bland that it becomes a struggle to empathise with the main characters, although, admittedly, the two leads make the most of their roles, and, unlike the supporting cast, they do emerge with some credence. In particular, Riso Goto shows promise with her beguiling and somewhat quirky depiction of a stranger fascinated by her new milieu as once dormant senses begin to blossom. Another small positive is that the film itself is not totally without charm, especially in the early stages when we watch Yuichi fall for the helpless coma girl, but these scenes are stretched out to the point that it becomes a trial of stamina just to keep eyelids open. Furthermore, a benign sub-plot is unceremoniously wedged into the mix, serving little purpose other than to emphasise the blatantly obvious in a story that would have been better suited as a compact thirty minute episode of something in keeping with The Twilight Zone or Tales Of The Unexpected.
Nakata is obviously out of his comfort zone with this story, as he attempts to cater for a slightly younger audience, but even in the film’s darker moments, when Nakata should be in his element, we are subjected to a plodding substandard made for daytime TV approach. By the time the end credits roll, our tears are not those of sadness or happiness for the characters’ plight, but of relief that we can at last get our life back.
An incredibly boring and poor adaptation of a potentially interesting story by a director forsaking his unique and intelligent style to pander to the misjudged masculine idea of the demands of a female teenage audience. MG
