This is a single post from deeden.co.uk made during the period May 2002 to April 2009. During a previous grand redesign I decided to make a break with the past and consign the old entries to history. This entry is from May 2004 and lives here forevermore.

A few films I saw

I had a long lazy weekend last weekend, Friday to Monday. I relaxed and didn’t do anything that productive, other than put a set of shelves together on Sunday. I did see a number of films over the weekend though. 2 for the first time, one for the first time in it’s entirety. In order these films were…

Hero

A film I was sceptical of, not being the biggest fan of Chinese period cinema, but which surprised me with just how good it was. A fairly simple tale told in flashback with Jet Li talking to the Emperor and explaining how he killed 3 assassins who wanted the Emperor dead. It wasn’t a simple as that of course as we saw multiple versions of what may or may not have happened, with characters motivations and actions changing in each. Added to that were wonderful cinematography and settings as well as some fine acting from all concerned. Thoroughly recommended.

Troy

Let me start by saying that Wolfgang Petersen can direct wonderfully well. Das Boot more that adequately proves the point. This film however is a terrible let-down. The script is fairly awful, giving the actors little hope. Some people make a decent stab at it, such as Brian Cox, but most are floundering. Brad Pitt struggles along not doing much to disprove the thought that he’s only in the film to look good. He tries but it just doesn’t happen for him. One person does stand out and that is Peter O’Toole. One scene in particular, where his character King Priam goes to see Achilles (Brad Pitt), causes him to show everyone else up. In a minute or two he brings the whole film to life and achieves a sense of believability that all the spectacular effects in the world can’t accomplish.

Epics are making a comeback apparently, sadly some people seem to have forgotten that they’re supposed to be interesting. The best ones tend to focus on one individual against an epic backdrop. Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Ben-Hur, Spartacus and many more. Give me just one compelling character to follow and you’re on the right track. Populate your film with too many badly-acted characters and a confused story and you end up with something like Troy. Wolfgang should be ashamed.

Kind Hearts and Coronets

I’d seen part of this before and really enjoyed it. Yesterday we turned over and found that it had just started, so Michèle and I sat down and watched away quite happily. It really is a classic, fantastically funny yet subtle and dark. Dennis Price is excellent as the murderer Louis Mazzini while Alec Guinness plays each of his eight roles to perfection, making each one a different character. A wonderful black comedy of the type that they don’t make that often anymore. Watching it reminded me of another Guinness film, The Ladykillers, another classic black comedy, now sadly remade by the Coen Brothers who really should know better. Don’t remake the classics unless you can improve on them. That’s something both Wolfgang and the Coens could do with learning.