beat: James Burt's weblog

Why I won't be watching the Watchmen

One of my favourite books is American Psycho.  The constant bored tone Ellis uses is stunning.  I've never seen fiction handle boredom and disconnection so well.  When the film came out I decided not to watch it.  I couldn't see a movie replicating the things I admired about the book.  The requirements of a Hollywood movie would sensationalise a book I loved for its lack of sensationalism.  I didn't want this  completely different work to alter the way I thought of a novel I liked.

I feel the same way about Watchmen.  I love the book.  I remember arguing for hours with friends about which characters were the most moral, who was 'right'.  Then I watched the first trailer and heard Rorscach's voice.  In my mind Rorscach speaks in a weasely voice, closer to his secret identity than the figure he cuts in costume.  In the clip I saw he sounded more like the trailer-man.

I love the novel Watchmen.  I love the way it's paced, the speed at which it unfold when I read it.  I love the details in the background, the detours the story takes.  Like Alan Moore I can't see these things working in a movie.

A couple of links from LinkMachineGo sum up two other reasons I don't want to see the film: the tacky associated merchandise ("we're society's only protection"?) and that it's not likely to be a good adaptation.

I hope everyone enjoys the film, it's just not for me.

Sita sings the blues

Back in December Roger Ebert raved on his blog about an obscure movie called Sita Sings the Blues on his blog.  The movie is described as "An animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana set to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw".  Reading Ebert's description I decided I had to see this film.  But the article ends on a sad note:  "the songs Annette Hanshaw sings (composed and recorded in the 1920s!) in the film are still restricted by copyright, and therefore no one is free to distribute a film that uses them, no matter how brilliant the film may be."

Then yesterday an event turned up in the upcoming RSS feed for Brighton: the local Flash programmers group are showing the movie.  It turns out the rights issues have been resolved and the film is now available for free download.

I don't yet know if the film is as good as promised but I'm excited to see the Internet is working as it should be.  You read about an odd, obscure film, then a locally organised group put on a showing.  No marketing or advertising required, just a couple of appropriate RSS feeds.

My favourite films of 2008

I watched a lot of movies in 2008. Most of the mainstream films were disappointing, particularly the superhero ones, all of which ended with two men fighting to settle points of principle.  As Roger Ebert points out, by far the best shot in The Incredible Hulk was a simple ariel shot of Rio; and, while the Dark Knight was fun, I can't see why so many people declare it a classic since it was neither innovative or surprising.

I did see some great films though.  My favourites were:

1. The Orphanage (now facing an unneccessary Hollywood remake)
2. Man on Wire
3. My Winnipeg
4. Brighton Wok
5. Cloverfield (I loved the final scene)

I don't think My Winnipeg had the coverage it deserved, with a blink-and-you-miss-it showing at the Duke of Yorks, but it was one of the most creative and exciting films I've seen in years.  Hopefully someone else will be prompted to watch it and tell me what they think.

Synecdoche, New York Trailer

The trailer for Synecdoche, New York is one of the most exciting trailers I've seen in a while.  According to wikipedia a synecdoche is a figure of speech related to metonymy, where part of something stands for the whole.  I don't know how good the film will b but the trailer gives me goosebumps.

Why I love Brighton

I saw the sign below while walking home on Monday:

I missed all of the Halloween festivities this year, but it's good to know they're going on.  The same evening I also saw a poster for Brighton Wok (click for a larger version):

I was amused to see the poster quoting this weblog.  I stand by that comment - I have no desire to watch Iron Man a second time but I will be at the Duke Of York's on Saturday for the Brighton Wok screening, even though I have it here on DVD.  Iron Man may have starred Robert Downey Jr. but Brighton Wok's Ninja Flakes were more creative than anything I saw in Iron Man.

Also this week, I've noticed one of those little signs of aging.  I no longer have to say no to the flier touts near the HSBC on North Street.  They don't even offer me their fliers now.  Guess I'm too unhip for dance clubs now.

Man on Wire

I missed Man On Wire at the Duke of York's but caught it this afternoon at the Odeon (I think it's on at Brighton Marina next week).  This documentary was staged as an artistic heist movie (the tagline is "1974. 1350 feet up. The artistic crime of the century.") and follows Philippe Petit as he pursues an apparently impossible dream of crossing the twin towers on a tightrope.

It's fascinating seeing the amount of work and preparation that went into creating such a spectacular event for its own sake.  The characters involved were fascinating, seen in contemporary footage and looking back in modern interviews.  The film is also striking for the stories not told, such as exactly how the group's friendships fractured after the event.  I'm very glad I got to see this on a cinema screen, where the scale of Petit's achievement was underlined.

Roger Ebert Review

“I needed absolute detachment. Complete freedom. I needed to be a cast away on the desert island of my dreams.”

Brighton Wok

It's fair to say that neither Joh or I expected much from the movie Brighton Wok, a copy of which she bought me for my birthday. I mean, it was always going to be better than Urban Menace but I was expecting something like Brighton: The Musical, of interest mainly to people from Brighton.

Brighton Wok is actually a very good movie. Not good as in 'despite the low budget', or 'because it's filmed somewhere I know'. I enjoyed it more than some of the blockbusters I've seen this summer. Recently I've been comparing films to Iron Man - $140 million to make, entertaining enough, but no spark.

Brighton Wok was a much better film than Iron Man, and used its smaller budget very well. The baddies are based in the Royal Pavilion and the film starts with some lovely aerial shots of the town. The script is funny without being corny, particularly the French student, who speaks mostly through subtitles and is obsessed with 'street cred'. The fight scenes are fun and the storyline exciting.

The plot is that an army of ninjas have taken over the town (after burning down the West Pier, of course). They begin kicking out the hippies and harrassing residents. Two old ladies search for a champion to save the town as rumours spread of a 'chosen one' with the power of Ganja Boxing. The soundtrack is fantastic, with some great songs, but above all I loved the strange vision of Brighton: kung-fu experts training in traveller camps, the 'Ninja Express' shop, the Crazy old man up a tree at Queen's Park, the constant references to Brighton-and-Hove rather than Brighton.

I loved this movie and will force everyone to watch it with me on my return to Brighton. Everyone!

Thank you Joh!

Feeding the multiplex

I sent off my first submission in ages this morning - a review of the movie Maid In Manhattan for a local newspaper review column. Only 200 words, but it is a start. It has been a long time since I had something published and I did not want to turn down the opportunity to review a newspaper column written by a friend of my sister's.

I read somewhere that bad movies take as much work as good ones. I find it hard to believe that anyone working on Maid in Manhattan could mistake it for a classic. It did its job well enough, the acting was OK, and it was never dull, but the film was just flat. At first I wondered why anyone would see this film. Then I looked at the other choices of movies - out of 6 films on at the Harlow cinema only two were suitable for under-12s and the other choices included a horror movie and Jackass. This suggests to me that Maid In Manhattan was intended to mop up people who were not interested in the other movies available.

I wonder if the makers set out to produce a film that worked as a commodity?