End of Week Post

This was an interesting week that saw the end of my Silent film marathon and my return to normal blogging. Thanks again to all those who put up with my endless Silent film reviews for weeks. I appreciate it. 


25th Hour - 2002 directed by Spike Lee
9/10

A most excellent film that ranks among Spike Lee's finest films. The whole cast is excellent and while I had a few problems with Lee's style of film making at first the at times jarring editing in particular, I soon got used to it.The story was one that might not sound very interesting on paper, but I can assure you that the combined talents behind this film make it quite gripping to watch, even though it lasts well over 2 hours I can honestly say I was not bored for a minute.
At first I felt a bit to detached from the film, possibly because of how overtly even aggressively American it was, however I found the end to be very moving.
It's a very realistic film in many ways, especially where the different characters and there motives are concerned, and I liked that a lot. Very admirable work by Spike Lee.


Doubt - 2008 directed by John Patrick Shanley
9/10

This one was a very interesting film, it's ambiguity and the performances by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams were the main points of interest. The rest of the film was good but unimpressive. It's felt very much like a filmed play, which it is, but I didn't have a problem with this as the dialogue was well written and expertly deliverd by the cast.
The subject matter was of course highly controversial, especially in light of the recent discoveries concerning the Catholic Church, but I liked the way it was handled.



 Pulp Fiction - 1994 directed by Quentin Tarantino
10/10

I'm thinking of writing a post on this film, so I won't say much here. Only that I liked this film far more than I had remembered from my last viewing, and almost as much as my first viewing.
I won't say it's the greatest film ever made, because it really isn't, but it was the film that is responsible for my aspirations to become a director and my writing about cinema. A real life changer for me.






The Intruder - 1962 directed by Roger Corman

I watched this film so as to review it for Nathanael's Roger Corman marathon, you can find the banner to the right.
A review will be up sometime soon.
Until then all I can say is that this is probably Corman's best film.







 I also started watching The Face Of Another, but couldn't finish it at the time. I'll probably finish it sometime this week as it's fascinating, if slow at times.


A Few Thoughts

•  For some reason, although I have a great number of posts in my Draft section I rarely finish them when I want them finished and just generally take to long over them. I don't know if this is because I'm writing to many at the same time, or because I spend to much time procrastinating, but I really should try and posts in a more regular fashion.

• Thus I've decided to implement a couple more regular features on this blog. Up until now only this End of the Week post was a recurring feature, but I've decided to now post at least two reviews a week.  I'm thinking of something like, one review of a blockbuster, a mainstream film and generally a recent one. And one review of an international film, from any period of time, as well as Cult classic films. I'm also planning a couple of director overviews, I think the next will be on Paul Thomas Anderson.

• I find it very interesting that Kung Fu Panda 2 actually looks better than Cars 2, for a Dreamworks film to appeal to me more than a Pixar film is rare indeed, maybe this represents a shift in the animation world. Maybe Pixar's time at the top is up? What do you think.

• I also noticed Jean Claude Van Damme did a bit of voice work of Kung Fu Panda 2, that was cool news, even though I'm not a fan of his action films. I would never hesitate to recommend the film JCVD, in which he gives a rather impressive performance.

• Finally, I just don't get the hype over the recently leaked Girl With a Dragon Tattoo trailer, it was an awfully made trailer with a horrid butchering of "Immigrant Song" by Led Zep. I barely made it through to the end. However, James @Cinemasights thankfully pointed me in the direction of a far more interesting trailer, that of the upcoming Take Shelter, now that is a good trailer that really got me interested in the film.

Time for some links:

Some interesting discussion was going on over at Anomalous Material recently, the subject was Films We Have Resisted. Don't forget to check out their review for Ran while your there, one of my favourite films of all time!


Stevee writes about how she came to be a cinephile and how she sustains her cinephilia in the isolated location she inhabits. Interesting stuff.

Chris shares a few of his thoughts on a film I recently was very impressed by, Synecdoche, New York.

Andy Buckle tells of a recent good deed he did at his local cinema.

Custard reveals his 7th FRC Icon, Dame Judi Dench, a really good actress in my opinion, although I haven't seen much of her work.

James announces his upcoming marathon, in which he will cover the films of director Claire Denis.

The 15 Movie Questions meme was fun to do and gave some interesting results, I particularly like the one put together by Kevyn Knox though.

Lesya @Eternity of a Dream has finished her Audrey Hepburn marathon, in which she reviewed every single the actress starred in.Very impressive work, if you're interested check out her recap here!

Anomalous Material reviews Woody Allen's latest film, Midnight In Paris, which I was rather sceptical about at first due to the decline in the quality of Allen's films of late, but I have to admit that all the positive reviews have won me over and now I kind of look forward to watching it.

CS reviews 13 Assassins, I have no idea why I haven't seen that film yet, it seems like something I would love..

And finally, Bonjour Tristesse reviews 10 1/2, a Quebecois film that seems rather interesting.


As for the upcoming posts this week, well I think there'll be a post on Pulp Fiction (not really a review though), a post on the Herzog/Kinski collaborations and a review.


As usual, feel free to posts your thoughts on anything mentioned above, or even anything film related at all.