The Karen Carpenter Story

 

To say I was sceptical before watching Todd Haynes’ barbie doll re-enactment of the career of Karen Carpenter would be an understatement. It just sounded like something I would have little or no interest in. However, although its not my favourite documentary of all time, it did exceed my expectations. The opening re-enactment of Karen Carpenter’s suicide was actually quite disturbing and that dark edge drew me in. The film was certainly dated and extremely cheaply made, but I thought Haynes tackled the bizarre format with a dark sense of humour. The barbie dolls obviously reflect celebrity image, but I also feel that it gave Todd Haynes a chance to give startling facts and details about anorexia but from a simple child-like point of view. The portrayal of celebrities in this documentary was of its own culture, unable to co-exist with a normal life. The changes in Richard and Karen reflect this as they can no longer maintain their pure image because of the culture change they have made.

Love is the Devil

 

On Tuesday when I heard we would be watching a biopic of artist Francis Bacon, I went in to the screening with uncertainty. It could be really interesting and different, or it could be pretentious and just a bit crap, the usual dilemma with films on this course. The main issue in ‘Love Is The Devil’ is the relationship between human form, sin and art.

The film’s protagonist Francis Bacon, sees the human form as grotesquely and tragically beautiful. The film deals with his homosexual relationship with former crook George Dyer, this relationship is used in the film, less for storyline, but more as a means of focusing on the character of Francis Bacon. The way he treats Dyer, reflects his views on art and life, ultimately he loves Dyer for his tragic beauty, but for Bacon art is more important, and he must make life difficult and miserable for Dyer for him to achieve his potential in Bacon’s eyes.

The director John Maybury, incorporates abstract art based around the human form in his film. For me it did not work in this particular film, I didn’t believe the script of the film was strong enough to get away with fairly meaningless images of high arts.

In my opinion this film was far from special or unique. The story of a conflicted and tortured artist is getting boring and that stale plot reduced the credibility of the imagery used in the film. The Machiavellian aesthetics of this film weren’t for me, it is just depressing, self-indulgent and pointless.

The Hurt Locker

 

I’d been wanting to see ‘The Hurt Locker’ for a while, I heard about it before the Oscars buzz hit and had high hopes for the film and for the first time in a while a war film has actually delivered. I really enjoyed the film and I think its the best war film since ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (although ‘Tropic Thunder’ was quality just not in the same way obviously).

‘Hurt Locker’ dealt with a few of the issues surrounding war and I was impressed that it did so without being too preachy or cheesy. War films will always be stigmatised as being preachy and most are, but lets face it, wars will always be portrayed as negative and tragic because they aren’t exactly a hoot in real life. One of the issues in the film is the old problem of the relationship between invading soldiers and the indigenous people of the country. The main character in ‘Hurt Locker’ befriends a young Iraqi boy who has adopted American culture. This shows progress in the war but he is only an impressionable child. For me the role of the boy in the film was to create a likeable and light character to contrast with the general representation of Iraqi’s in this film which is hostile and scared.

I enjoyed the way the film dealt with the addiction of wars. My uncle is a former soldier and he constantly reminisces about his army days. He tells me about how the lifestyle of being in the army was perfect for him because he said the bond you form fighting alongside people is stronger and different to a normal friendship, he is also full of quite exciting and hilarious stories from his army days. I liked the way ‘Hurt Locker’ presented this strange addiction as it reminded me of my uncle’s stories and I believe it is a fair representation of army life.

Battle of Algiers

 

Firstly, I thought this was a cracking film. Any film scored by Ennio Morricone will always rate highly with me and this was no exception. I thought this film was ahead of its time because some of the camera shots used were very adventurous. There were also incidents of extreme violence portrayed in the film. My favourite scene of the film was when three Algerian women planted bombs in the French section of Algiers. Because real explosions were used I found the scene very realistic and quite controversial for 1965.

The film was very neutral, giving each side the chance to create empathy with the audience. This made the film far more intriguing as it gives a refreshing insight in to why so many wars and revolutions are fought. It shows both sides in a war share human loss, pride, aggression and hate, in the ‘Battle of Algiers’, we see both sides explain how certain acts of war are motivated.

The neutrality of the film also contributed towards understanding the relationship between the invader and the native. Both sides at times in the film express rage, revenge and respect towards each other. I think the film shows largely hate from the Algerians to the French, but it also shows how a lot of indigenous people actually need the French. They are scared of the French but work for them because they know the French have wealth and power that can actually make their life better.

One Plus One

I’m a massive Stones fan, I’m also a big fan of ‘Breathless’ the only other Jean Luc Godard film I’ve seen. So for me, ‘One Plus One’ was a massive let down. I enjoyed the scenes of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards having a laugh and jamming, but apart from that the film was simply an insight in to just how bad England and English culture was in the 1960s. The arrogance of this film is unmatched, Godard is obviously a legendary and talented director but no one has the right to try and get away with some of the artistic trash in ‘One Plus One’.

This film largely made me think about 60s culture. Its hard to imagine being in my generation, just how significant some of the cultural and social changes that took part in the Sixties were. My image of rebellion in the 50s is just riding around on a Harley Davidson scaring normal people James Dean style. But moving in to the Sixties, a drugs culture was introduced in to Britain that really did change youth culture, and thinking about it shows me how dark and strange this time most have been to live in.

This film was bereft of any realism or structure, it was too much of a mess to get any point across, the information you receive as a viewer is gibberish at best. Good song though.

Dogtown and Z-Boys

 

I was pessimistic before watching this documentary about skateboarding, it’s not something I’ve ever been interested in, but this film was a nice surprise. What I loved about this documentary was the emphasis on just how unique the skills of the Z-Boys were, it showed how a new idea really can change the way people do things. When Sean Penn and the Z-Boys are describing the first time in history a skate boarder went vertical, I was actually impressed at just how great that would have been to see. It’s not exactly the collapse of the Berlin Wall but you expect skateboarders to ride on verticals and so to be there at the birth of that would be a great honour.

The film largely showed how choices made in early life stay with you. I felt particularly sorry for Jay Adams, the youngest and talented Z-Boy, who suffered in later life after choosing to enjoy his early years care free. It didn’t change my lazy ways but it did scare me a bit because Adams deserved the most, but he took it too far and is now a bit of a train wreck. This film showed the importance of motivation in the working world as director and Z-Boy Stacy Paralta proves.

Some of the film was quite stale, repeated footage of people doing primitive skateboard tricks did bore me, I also thought the film got repetitive and was overly dramatic and intense for what is a pretty unimportant subject.