Film: The Maid
Showing posts with label Showing: August 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Showing: August 2010. Show all posts
REVIEW: Cinema Release: The Human Centipede [First Sequence]
Film: The Human Centipede [First Sequence]
Release date: 20th August 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Tom Six
Starring: Dieter Laser, Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Akihiro Kitamura, Andreas Leupold
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Studio: Bounty
Format: Cinema
Country: Netherlands
Few would have thought that a joke between Tom Six and friends would ultimately result in the film that has provoked worldwide debate over its release and certification.
Much to their frustration, Jenny (Yennie) and Lindsay’s (Williams) car breaks down en route to a nightclub while on vacation in Germany. Stranded on a dirt road with zero phone signal and little sign of help arriving, the two Americans venture out on foot to find help.
Saved by the presence of a house in the middle of nowhere, the women they are relieved and thankful when Dr. Heiter (Laser) offers to call for roadside assistance. Unbeknown to them, their fortunes are in flux and, with the arrival of a third person, ultimately doomed to becoming part of a psychic surgical experiment to create a human centipede…
The first thing noticeable is the story, or occasionally lack there of. Narratively, the film is a lot like the slasher works of the 1980s, with young women isolated in the middle of nowhere. Unlike those films, Six preferred to disregard the idea of building the tension gradually to the point of frenzy, like Jaws, and opted to allow the storyline to serve the visual display that he is about to dish up - and it works. Much has been made of the surgery in this film, and whether it attracts you or repulses you – ultimately, if you’re watching the movie, you’re watching it for the purpose of seeing what it’s all about. Giving that, as a rationale, they have managed to create a positive out of a negative - a complex narrative that builds slowly towards the creation of a human centipede would no doubt leave the audience frustrated and resentful.
Laser (as Dr. Heiter) is a tall intimidating figure who carries himself as if he is sculpted from true evil. His disregard for human life is wonderfully balanced with an unspoken past he dangles in front of the camera in the moments of solitude. The explanation scene, so outlandish that it could just as easy raise a wave of laughter as a chilling silence is pitch perfect, always menacing and clinical without appearing hammed up - a veritable Brian Cox as Lector rather than Hopkins. The weak line performance wise are the Ashleys (Williams amd Yennie), though mainly Williams, as their delivery is always heavy, their dialogue (which is suspect at times to begin with) lands flat, and their gestures and mannerisms are a painful reminder that the content of the film most likely scared off actresses of a higher calibre. Thankfully, and this is in no way meant to be misogynistic, once they’re stitched together, this is no longer an issue, and the film can genuinely stand a chance of improving.
The actual surgery is handled with a real balance and maturity. A lot of the media hype related to this film would paint a picture of it being nothing more than graphic ‘shock cinema’, in the style of the video nasties that were rife a generation ago. In fact, the only signs post-operation of their joining are some fresh scars along the cheek. That’s not to say that there aren’t some truly difficult scenes to sit through. The removal of sections 2 and 3’s teeth will always get a wince from those who have ever been to a dentist. The movement of the centipede when Heiter is training them can also be difficult at times to watch, but only during the close ups.
The cinematography adds to the atmosphere of the film in every aspect. Though not always as flashy as it promised, a delightful light flare during an early scene promised a visually stunning film. These moments of great style are infrequent, with Six preferring to allow the cinematography, like the narrative, to play servant to the horrific set pieces that the film is punctuated with. The look of the film, alongside the lead’s performance, is played straight and is clinical. All precautions are taken to prevent the film from lapsing into a hammed up gore flick of little merit or mood.
Though the film has its faults, mostly in the unimaginative set up for the main body of the narrative, it also has a lot going for it. The Human Centipede is actually quite an old fashioned horror film that has sutured together the key elements in any film of its genre, and then pushes it out a little further than most are comfortably used to. DL
REVIEW: Cinema Release: Mother
Film: Mother
Release date: 20th August 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 129 mins
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Starring: Kim Hey-ja, Won Bin, Ku Jin, Yoon Jae-moon, Jun Mi-sun
Genre: Crime/Drama/Mystery/Thriller
Studio: Optimum
Format: Cinema
Country: South Korea
Having enjoyed box office success with the throwaway if fun monster flick The Host, director Bong Joon-ho returns to tackling the sort of heavy subject matter he excelled on with the likes of Memories Of Murder early in his career.
Yoon Do-joon is an impressionable, mentally-impaired twenty-something, led astray by his friend Jin-tae (which sees him rolling around, fighting in the sand pit of a local golf course), and suffocated and frustrated by his overprotective mother, who wants to feed him at the dinner table and sleeps next to him half-naked at night
After a night out where he creates a scene after Jim-tae doesn’t turn up, an inebriated Yoon Do-joon calls out and follows a school girl to a derelict building. Yoon is apparently scared off by a large rock that is thrown from the shadows, but the next day the girl is found bludgeoned to death, and he is arrested by the police and quickly manipulated to sign a confession.
His mother cannot believe her son is capable of such a heinous crime, and believing the police are taking the easy route and fitting him up, she sets out to find the real killer…
The out of context, quirky tone which permeates throughout is set straight away, as we follow the ‘mother’ of the piece serenely walking through a field’s long grass, before she begins an initially amusing yet soon uneasy slow, rhythmic dance in time with the title music. The next scene sees the mother (played by Kim Hye-ja) cutting herbs, the sound of which is crisp and intense, as the camera cuts between her fingers getting ever closer to the blade and her son outside with his friend by whom she’s distracted, then WHAM!, a car ploughs into her son and she heads out in hysterics. These two key scenes are indicative of the director’s joy in leading the viewer in one direction only to throw a curveball, and to quickly jolt the viewer as long periods of calm and sobriety suddenly turn extreme. You never know quite what to expect next and the director succeeds in creating a feeling of uncertainty, so important to a mystery, and more necessary here when needing to distract from several flimsy plot twists and developments.
The director, as we know from success stories like The Host, has a penchant for humour, and this combined with some wonderfully inventive cinematography and unnecessary surprise additions provides occasional treats - for example, when the boy urinates against the wall outside, the camera pans out to show his mother slowly approaching before closer inspection of her offspring’s uncivilized activity. She then begins to feed him as the camera now hoisted above shows his urine trickling behind. Suddenly the bus we were unaware he was waiting for turns up and he runs on.
Given the film’s sinister subject matter, and the overall sombre mood (darkly lit, with heavy storms for the most part), these moments of humour make more of an impression, but are also cheap tricks for a director seemingly unwilling to truly confront or examine the underlying darkness – suggesting an almost incestuous relationship between the pair who sleep together, later becomes a throwaway line for outsiders, although this would have been very important in explaining the mother’s behaviour. We are shown Yoon as odd at best because he’s played too comically, with never a missed opportunity to laugh at his expense (when his friend kicks a rear view mirror off a Mercedes Benz his efforts at emulating said activity only sees him land on his rear). His time in incarceration (where inmates revel in his reaction to being called a “retard”), away from the mother he was apparently so reliant upon, isn’t shown to be difficult for him, and he’s never in any serious anguish, occasionally rubbing his “temples of doom” when he wants to remember events that enter intermittently, and with many inaccuracies.
Given the role isn’t fully fleshed out, and there’s little drama (even his arrest becomes a jokey aside, with a car accident seeing a dazed police officer cuffing and reading him his rights, whilst a large gathering of civilians gawp through the police car’s window – later a police officer kicks an apple from his mouth), you have little understanding or sympathy for the son’s predicament. Your investment in this key character diminished further because of such a powerhouse performance from Kim Hye-ja, stealing every scene the pair share.
As with other key South Korean successes, such as Thirst and Ms. Vengeance, the film is carried by an outstanding female lead performance. The mother’s facial expressions say everything we need to know at times, and she stirs the audience with the role demanding she run the whole gamut of emotions, gaining the strength and courage to investigate given the police’s lazy ineptitude, yet clearly desperate and tormented by her need to protect her son. Her adaptability in the role is indicative of the film’s approach to storytelling, and even if we aren’t emotionally tied to developments, and there’s a criminal lack of tension (even during a scene where she has to creep past a sleeping suspect) as we reach the final scenes, both her performance and the director’s invention are to be marvelled at.
Cleverly crafted, with an old-timey feel (the Hitchcock-style score certainly lends weight to that feeling) and an outstanding lead performance (which has earned an extra star for this review), Mother is another classy South Korean offering, but the director’s unwillingness to explore the characters’ psychosis and some convenient plot developments prevent it being considered a classic. DH
NEWS: Cinema Release: Aisha
Sonam Kapoor and Abhay Deol star in this tale of a meddling upper-class girl.
Aisha (Sonanm Kapoor) is a girl who believes that everyone's business is her business. Arjun (Abhay Deol), however, is a boy who very strongly believes that Aisha should mind her own business!
Delhi's upper-class scene has its own set of social rules, and Aisha navigates her world with a great sense of style and even greater optimism. Caught in her web are her best friend Pinky (Ira Dubey), the small town girl Shefali (Amrita Puri), the West Delhi boy Randhir (Cyrus Sakuhar) and the hunk Dhruv (Arunoday Singh). Aisha will make sure everyone dances to her tune, while all Arjun wants to do is disentangle that web and get Aisha out of an impending sticky mess.
Welcome to Aisha's fabulous world of playing Cupid - if only that Arjun would stay out of her way!
Film: Aisha
Release date: 6th August 2010
Certificate: TBC
Running time: TBC mins
Director: Rajshree Ojha
Starring: Sonam Kapoor, Abhay Deol, Anand Tiwari, Ira Dubey, Amrita Puri
Genre: Bollywood/Romance/Comedy
Studio: PVR/Ani Kapoor
Format: Cinema
Country: India
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
