June 9, 2005
Summer Movie Preview!!
Entertainment Weekly does it, Rolling Stone does it and now International Intrigue does it -- The Summer Movie Preview!!! And for your subtitle viewing pleasure, there are a whooping three foreign films coming out this summer! Lucky for you they are some big foreign films with a lot of buzz. Well, I’ve seen them and I’m going to tell you about them....
So when you get tired of Tom Cruise fighting aliens, Mr and Mrs Smith fighting each other and Anakin fighting the evil inside himself then check out these tasty international offerings.
HIGH TENSION
In a time when horror films have gotten overly post-modern, there’s something really comforting about a straightforward horror film.
Marie and Alex are college friends and exams are coming up. So they leave school to go to Alex’s family farmhouse in order to cram before the tests. They no sooner get there when a mystery killer arrives and begins to kill people off one by one. They run, he kills, they run.
And there was something nice about this. The director, Aja, says he wanted to homage his favorite horror films from the 70s. And this film does have that sense. Thrilling suspense, gore-filled violence, attractive women in trouble -- and really the joy of this film is watching something so simple, but very well made.
That is, until, the unfortunate twist. I heard there was a twist that ruined the movie before I saw it and wondered -- how bad could it be? Well, I didn’t hate the twist, I would have been fine with it, but it honestly didn’t make any sense.
To be fair, the twist does shed a very interesting light on some of the action earlier in the film. Topics that I’d be interesting in discussing after the movie -- if the twist managed to make full narrative sense, which it doesn’t.
But I’ll suggest what was suggested to me before seeing this movie. If you’re a fan of horror, enjoy a technically sound first 3/4 of the movie. Put the rest out of your mind.
Ironically, Aja, the director, says “Nowadays, most horror movies use irony to take a sardonic look at the genre while still using its tricks, as if people are afraid of making an out-and-out horror movie. We wanted to go back to the roots of the genre and give audiences a real ‘battle for survival,’ a real cinematic experience.” And if only it was that! This film, at the very least, showed me how much a truly straightforward, no frills, no wink-wink horror film is needed. I would love to see something, like this film sets out to be, that is not overly stylish and just scary.
What’s interesting about this film is that it was made in France but is clearly in the vein of American, particularly 70s, horror films. This feels like the real remake of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE because it owes so much to that film (the recent remake only owed anything to music videos). Lion’s Gate tried something a little different for the American release attempting a half-dubbed, half-subtitled approach that I think worked rather well. It helps that there is hardly any dialogue in the film. But they made this approach seem like part of the film and I think it was a good choice. It helps that the star, Cecile De France, does her own dubbing.
 |
And speaking of Cecile De France, I have only seen her in one other movie and that was AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS. To say she looks different in this film would be an understatement. I didn’t think much of her after her fluffy character in AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, but she seems a lot more interesting to me as an actor after this. In AROUND THE WORLD she is a French lady with big curly hair and a big fluffy dress. In HIGH TENSION, she’s a tomboy with short, cropped hair and an athletic physique. She easily has the most to do in the movie and carries the film quite well.
So in the end, the film is pretty scary, very well done and overall pretty enjoyable until the end. If you like the 70s kind of horror films, this was made specifically for you.
This film will be released on June 10th, the trailer can be seen here
HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE
Hayao Miyazaki is a well known name amongst animation lovers and cineastes alike. At 68 he is still producing films regularly and there is always great anticipation for his work.
His new creation, HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE, showcases the originality and visual panache he’s become associated with. There are a number of unique characters and a whirlwind adventure as fans of his films are used to.
Sophie (Emily Mortimer) is a shy young hatmaker who accidently encounters the notorious magician Howl (Christian Bale). Because of their brief encounter, the Witch of the Waste (Lauren Bacall) curses Sophie and turns her into an elderly woman (Jean Simmons).
I think Grandma Sophie is one of Miyazaki’s most endearing main characters. I’ve gotten pretty tired of his naive, well meaning and generally annoying small children. Grandma Sophie is kind but sassy. I sympathized with her and was really interested in following her story. This may be partly to Jean Simmon’s fantastic voice work. The star of GUYS AND DOLLS, SPARTACUS and THE ROBE proves she still has it. She shows up everyone else in the film and brings so much life to an animated character.
On the other hand, Christian Bale, who voices Howl, doesn’t really do the best job -- not all good actors make good voice actors -- but his voice is so sexy and alluring I really didn’t care that he read most of his lines the same way.
But the character of Howl was inconsistent. There’s one scene where’s he’s vain, several where he’s heroic, some where he’s a coward, others where he shows he cares about others and some where he shows that he only care about himself. To me this didn’t make for a well rounded complex character but instead an inconsistent character where I couldn’t understand his motivations most of the time.
Also, there is a love story between Sophie and Howl but I don’t feel like we see the love build and grow. The filmmakers take for granted that we’ll find the main female and main male romance believable. I didn’t. They simply tell you they’re in love without showing you.
Howl’s life is tied directly with that of Calcifer (Billy Crystal), a small but big mouthed fire that powers Howl’s moving castle. The castle moves so that no one can find Howl. It has a door that can open to several different places including his fake shop fronts for his aliases. Living with him in the castle is the young boy Markl (Josh Hutcherson) who is like an apprentice. Although we don’t know much of anything about how he ended up there and why Howl took him in.
Billy Crystal is frankly distracting as Calcifer, an attempt at Robin Williams casting that just seems out of place in this film. But the minor characters in general, as quirky and interesting as they may be, seem less endemic to the story as in SPIRITED AWAY and more last minute editions because you’re so used to seeing them in Miyazaki films.
Howl and other magicians have been asked to fight the King’s war. Howl fights although he is not sure it is the right thing to do. Also, the constant fighting is turning him into his inner monster. He cannot continue the way he does. The King is advised by mischevious Madame Sulliman (Blythe Danner) who also seems to have it out for Howl.
Is this starting to sound confusing? Well, it is. For me, the biggest problem in the sometimes mess of narrative -- without giving away a subplot in the film you won’t even notice exists -- is at the end of the film, one of the characters will say, ‘I’m this guy!’ and you probably won’t have the slightest idea of who that guy is.
Some of these story problems may come from the dubbed version of the film. I have not seen the subtitled version and it may better flesh out some of these narrative and character issues. I’ve never had problems with the narrative being coherent in Miyazaki’s films before so I hasten to blame him for this.
But as the adventure continues, it starts to get tedious. When another bit of conflict occurs, after several others, one of the viewers in my screening proclaimed pejoratively out loud, “What next!?”
But for as muddled as the narrative gets, the visuals never have this problem. Rich landscapes and unique character designs make this film worth watching.
While the conclusion of this film is that all curses can be lifted with love -- a sentiment I’m not sure if I should applaud or gag at. But my conclusion is that inventive visuals is enough to keep my mind occupied when the story is merely confusing it.
So, despite some problems, Miyazaki delivers a visually interesting adventure as always. While I doubt it will be touted as highly as SPIRITED AWAY, the visuals alone are probably worth your 10 bucks.
This film will be in limited release on June 10th and the trailer can be seen here.
NIGHT WATCH
Although I covered NIGHT WATCH in a previous column, I thought it was certainly worth discussing again. The film is the first in a trilogy, the third part of which is to be filmed in English. The epic fantasy tale was made for a mere 4 million dollars yet delivers convincing Hollywood-style special effects. The director, who had previously worked with Roger Corman, had learned to make the most of his money.
The film is based on a novel which was a cult classic in Russia and has become a great seller after the success of the film.
The story revolves around the Light Ones and the Dark Ones who came to a tenuous peace hundreds of years ago. To keep the peace they created the Night Watch, to police the Dark Ones and the Day Watch, to police the Light Ones. But as you would expect from an epic film such as this one, event soon begin to spiral out of control leading to action-packed and thrilling scenes and building to a supernatural climax involving vampires, werewolves, magicians and more.
This film is a watershed in modern Russian filmmaking and shows that the country has great potential. Hopefully after the success of this film, there’ll be a lot more really impressive work coming from the country.
The film is directed by Timur Bekmambetov, who was a commercial and music video director and it shows in his work, for better or worse. It does help him create amazing visuals at the very least. And will help it appeal to American audiences who are used to this kind of shooting style.
He notes that he didn’t know entirely how to make a Russian fantasy like this one because there wasn’t anything for him to look to as a reference. But upon reading the novel he “found that the story really was something special because in it, fantasy not only meets reality – but Russian reality — and it’s the first Russian movie that has this unique point of view.”
And this movie is easily as much about Russia, Moscow in particular, as it is about vampires and werewolves. They shot at a lot of landmark sights in the city and tried to balance the reality of the city -- the real streets, the real people -- with a colorful visual style and fantastical story.
The star, Konstantin Khabensky, was a very big star in Russia already. He brings a great everyman quality to his character Anton. Anchoring the audience in a real character although in a fantastical world.
This film is really interesting on it’s own merits and more interesting when looked at as a part of Russian culture.
You can check out my review of NIGHT WATCH, although I did watch the film in Russian without subtitles. But it sure does look cool and I’ll be the first one in line when it comes out.
Night Watch will be in limited release on July 29th and you can watch the trailer here.
IN TWO WEEKS: At last, the last part, part III, of Hong Kong Triads!!! An in depth look at the fabulous YOUNG AND DANGEROUS series.
E-MAIL THE AUTHOR |
ARCHIVES
