h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Pat

I think the main problem (for me)with the Batman films is that, because each film introduces a raft of new characters, each with their own backstory, far too much time is spent on exposition and not enough on action, so that, when the main fight scenes come, they are over too fast.

I like the dark tone in films for mood, but it tends to obscure the action when it comes - especially in Batman Forever. I must be getting old because I spend too much of the films saying Wha'happened? Wha'happened?. Dark is good in film noir but works against action films (Except in the hands of a master like Carol Reed).

I liked the idea of Nightmare Before Christmas more than its execution. It is not a particular style of animation I like. Stop motion should be cute like Chicken Run!

Well that's enough for today! See you all tomorrow



Peter

Hi Pat

OK - conkers at dawn

I bagsy Denise Richards anyway.

Want to play a little game ? Google for chunkideas, and hit the entry which mentions snowball. Top game ! Turn the sound up though.



PK

Hi PK,

Played the snowball game, thanks for the suggestion. Couldn't understand everything the victims were saying though. Dodgy soundcard, or inability to understand the broader regional accents?

Did you ever play the cat-apult game?

Pat ? Are you now Dougal ? Can I be Manny ????

Re the game, it appears to be in a Scotch dialect. Best with a sound card.

What is the cat-apult game - spounds good. Don't like cats. Apart from Cat Deeley of course.

Is Peter okay ?

Yep, Peter's fine thanks.

I spent all day yesterday watching the extended Lord Of The Rings DVDs. Another three days or so and I'll have finished watching all the documentaries and commentaries.

There's also the Bergman retrospective on Film Four to watch. It's a good thing I don't have to spend my days wasted in working for a living.



Peter

BTW that's Scots dialect. Scotch dialect is glug,glug

Hi Peter

Thought you'd disappeared down the black hole of Calcutta there for a while !

Have you ever seen aflim called "Les Visiteurs du Soir" ? 1940s I think, Marcel Carne.

P.S. I use the word "Scotch" to wind up the Scotch, espcially Mel. Apologies if you have some tartan blood.

No. No tartan blood here. Just having a laff!

I can't say I've seen "Les Visiteurs du Soir" which is slightly embarrassing considering I keep banging on about how good French cinema was in the thirties and forties. The best Marcel Carne films I know, that I have seen, are "Les Enfants du Paradis" which is one of the most amazing films ever made. (During the occupation in - I think - 1944, under the noses of the Nazis). It is an amazingly beautiful film and I can't recommend it highly enough.

And "Quai des Brumes", mainly because it has the great Jean Gabin in it. It uses naturalistic exterior shots in a dockland location about twenty years before Hollywood discovered "real" locations.



Peter

Anyone seen, and want to discuss, Aaronofsky's "Requiem For A Dream"? I saw it yesterday for the first time, and it "blew me away".

I never knew you lot were into foreign film

anyone seen The Hairdressers Husband

one of my all times favs

with Reine MArgot, Le Glorie de ma Pere (spelling wrong i know)

Merd!

anyone seen th eoriginal Solaris?

sorry Pat not seen Requiem For A Dream yet

sounds good , it's on the list

Anyone else seen "Leningrad Cowboys go America" (I think Peter mentioned it somewhere) ? Hilarious.

Hey PP

Requiem for A Dream - brilliant film! Much better than Pi (never got that). The last half hour - the destruction of all the main characters - is incredible (And they were all Oscar worthy performances) I don't think I've seen Ellen Burstyn better - and Connelly was far better than in A Beautiful Mind

Am I gushing too much? It's just that I've never been able to find anyone else who's seen it and I think it should be seen by anyone who likes good film.

Over to you Pat!



And hi Brad

I saw the Hairdresser's Husband a few years ago but can't remember much about it. French, right?

La Reine Margot. One of my favourites. Bought it on DVD.

Original Solaris. Excellent film. Tarkovsky; genius!

again

Peter

Right then, RFAD.

Like you Peter, the key to it for me was the inexorable disintegration of the 4 characters' lives in the last half hour.

There were so many levels on which this worked so well.

First, as a matter of narrative, no-one escaped. The fact that the mother effectively led the way (when in a lesser film she might have been allowed to escape) meant that there was also no escape for the viewer.

Secondly, the pacing was just overwhelming: it was assault upon assault on the senses, with barely room for the viewer to catch breath amongst the horrors. The characters' personal nightmares, as well as their hopes, had been so carefully set up in the first hour of the film that once the disintegration started, it all seemed so inevitable: but inevitable in the way a car crash is once the horrible forces of physics are in play. One knows broadly what's going to happen, but can't look away because the details, horrific though they are, are still to unwind.

Thirdly, the use of split screen meant that more things than seemed conceivable could be happening at the same time: again, using the technique in the first hour made it feel natural by the time the torrent of destruction started.

Finally, but not to be underestimated, the music. I'm a big fan of the Kronos Quartet, and although the score wasn't Nyman (who works a lot with Kronos), it could have been very easily. The repetition, the cyclical nature of the melody, just added to the sense of a whirling, unbreakable circle of despair.

You think you were gushing? I loved it. Of course, the above would not have worked had it not been for the quality of the performances, but I find it easier to understand and comment on the more mechanical aspects rather than acting per se, about which I know very little.

Anyone else care to tell Peter and me why we're right (or wrong)?

The other thing about the self-destruction of each of the characters is the callous and uncaring way they are treated by everyone they come in contact with.

No one seems to consider the possibility that the mother's problem might be drug related. She is just "crazy". The son's infected arm is ignored. And the girlfriend comes into contact with more and more scuzzy "businessmen" who use, abuse and dump her.

It underlines the inevitability of their destruction No "good fairies" here to come to the rescue.