My All Time Favorites.

Listing favorite movies is like listing favorite relatives: you may like them all and don't want to offend anybody, but some are just better than others.

1) Trainspotting

2) Le Samourai

3) Annie Hall

4) There Will Be Blood

5) The Right Stuff

The First CtC Review: "Let the Right One In"

I'm saying it, I don't care: Sweden sucks. Like, hardcore sucks: it snows all the time, the schools are cold brick and mortar buildings and have no windows and the kids are either brutal bullies, Death in Venice-like blonde satyrs or vampires. Let the Right One In tells the story of Oskar: a reculsive, incessently picked on 12 year old with not a lot going for him. The biggest problem in his life is Conny, who tortures our poor Oskar to no end, taunting him with calls of "Piggly wiggly" and whips him with a switch. After one bully session Oskar meets the slightly terrifying Eli, another 12 year old "child" who promplty tells him that they can't be friends. Oskar's reply: "what makes you think I want to be your friend?"

The tales of Oskar and Eli eventually meet up when Eli's guardian and sometimes butcher has an "accident" and Oskar finally realizes her true nature as a vampire. The all-encompassing love of children is protrayed beautifully here and Eli and Oskar share their deepest secrets and even a bed, but they aren't interested in each other in a sexual manner, they're just happy they finally have somebody who understands their prediciment. Much of their relationship is told in short, clipped declarative statements that are more truthfull than most films can hope to reach. The films strong suit is the odd dichotomy between the children and culiminates in one exceedlingly violent encounter in a bath house. It's nice to have a vampire on your side, isn't it?

Atmosphere reigns as snow is constantly falling and white drapes across everything. Director Tomas Alfredson uses the bleek, opressive landscape to share the childrens hopeless future. There are many long tracking shots where the camera is placed at odd angles, which gives the fim a definate off putting feeling. At times ,though, this effect is used too much and there are blocks of time that drag where we see close ups of people in deep, thoughtful poses. I like to think there is a moral in every story, and for this one: watch out who you pick on, because for all you know, their best friend is a murderous vampire (and oh boy does Eli kill A LOT of people).

Score: Four out of Five. Future watching: Pans Labyrinth, Labyrinth (the one with Jennifer Connelly), and Legend.

Let's do some watchin.

Watch this scene from Vittorio Di Sica's 1948 film The Bicycle Thief and watch closely for elements of mise en scene. Ask yourself: why did he set it up this way? Why does Di Sica put the things in his shots that he does (eg the band, the background people)? Not all of the answers are groundbreaking film theory hypothesis, but watch closely. You'll be suprised with yourself.

A cornucopia of conspicuous conflagrations.

The cornerstone of film theory is mise en scene, a French term which literally means "putting on stage." Mise en scene is, simply, everything that is happening in the film world at the time you are watching it. Take the picture on the left. 

This is from the David Lynch movie Mulholland Drive. The shot by itself doesn't look like much, but there are a lot of questions a critical viewer has to ask. Who is the man in the chair? Who is the man behind him? What kind of office is the man in? Who is watching this man? Much more besides (and, bear in mind, dearest reader, there is no audio, which is an important part of mise en scene). 

Asking questions about a film is important because any director worth their salt will set up each scene as a moving painting, with hints and clues about the film, and each scene has to fit into the overall theme or tone of the film; even a passive viewer will feel askew when even one scene is off. Alas, this is the hardest part of directing, because the audience won't see it when you're doing right (they are hopefully too wrapped up in the film to care) but only notice when it is wrong. 

Visit this excerpt from Richard Kolkers Film, Form and Culture to learn more.

Inglorious Not-Very-Nice-Guys!

Quentin Tarantino's new film Inglorious Basterds seems like a heck of a lot of fun. He may not be the most original director but, gosh darn, he's rootin and tootin.

2008, not a good year.

A film year like 2007 only comes along once in a lifetime: There Will Be Blood (TWbB) cemented the fact that Daniel Day Lewis is the greatest actor maybe of all time; No Country For Old Men (NCfOM) made me realize that the Coens do not have an original thought in their head; and Michael Clayton showed the world the darker side of the Clooney. And let us not forget the awesomely political Wall-E.

2008 however, dear reader, was a bit slow.

According to metacritic.com, an aggregate entertainment scoring site, the highest rated American movie of the year was the Gun Van Sandt biopic Milk. While a good movie, it should not stand high with it's 84 (out of 100) rating, while TWbB got a 92 and NcFOM got a 91. As is wont to happen on slow years, the French ruled with the powerful film The Class about a few teachers trying to make the best of a bad situation. Slumdog Millionaire, most peoples choice for Best Picture, is Danny Boyle's weakest film, even more so than Millions.

There were some bright spots though. Mike Leigh's outrageously optimistic Happy Go Lucky has introduced the world to Sally Hawkins, Mickey Rourke's stunning performance in The Wrestler and everybody's favorite laughing villain got a treatment for the ages from Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.

Let's hope for a stronger 2009 from the Americans, shall we!

Valentines Day! Yah?

Filmthreat.com is running a few twisted essays involving the horrible holiday. This one features an awesome filtering process for a potential mate. This one makes you love Blake Lively more than you already should.

Saul Tigh for President.

Sure he may be a cylon, but anybody keeping up with the Joneses knows that the "skinjob" cylons are the ACTUAL humans anyway. I think we missed the boat on this one, people.

Who's watching the Watchmen?

It's entirely possible that the Watchmen movie will have nothing to do with the actual graphic novel (it is not a comic!). Zack Snyder hasn't exactly established himself a gritty director, which is what the movie calls for. According to his website bio, Zack Snyder has been compared to a young David Lean. Who did this comparing is unkown, but offbase it certainly is. Let us go through his roll shall we:

1: Dawn of the Dead. This 2004 movie is far from being terrible, infact, it's down right entertaining. The problem: younger fans think that this film is the be-all-end-all of zombie movies. Only the select viewer knows that it is a remake of the 1978 George Romero movie, the sequel to his classic Night of the Living Dead. The original has a strong anti-consumerism message, but the Snyder remake takes the subtext out and replaces it with non-stop action. For today's movie going audience, this is apparently what goes for high cinema.

2: 300. Uh, 3-friggin-00. The machismo factory about 300 oily men who battle fuggly Iranians. Gerard Butler ripples and yells and wears a helmet for some reason. Faramir narrates and Jimmy McNulty takes a turn for the crappy by trying to be evil as a Spartan politician. Snyder doesn't even try to make it an intelligent movie; it's a guys movie about dudes killing other dudes in terrible and awesome ways. There is honor, respect, glory and rampant baby killing. I can give it credit for putting Thermopylea in the lexicon. However, everytime I eatout I hear some wanna-be warrior yell "Tonight we dine in hell!" Thanks, that's about as fresh as yelling "I'm Rick James..." you know the rest.

Hello.

Welcome one and all to the first post of the best damn postiest blog on the web. This is Committed To Celluloid and you, dear reader, are welcome to join in and post whatever your heart wishes, uh, so long as it's clean and dedicated to film. So, go, post...post...please...