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[Guest]

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I haven't seen it, but it sounds like I need to! I really love mah jong.

[erwin]

Current Watching

After 25 years (again) I finally caught 'Silverado' on TV last night. Great fun. Kevin Costner's first big film, I think - he's very good. Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn and Danny Glover also. The only really false note is John Cleese as a town sheriff. It just doesn't work, I'm afraid.

[Ek weet nie]

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I'll just mention stuff in the cinema recently.

Bright Star
Beautiful. Captivatingly beautiful. Everything looks perfect. Actors do exactly what is required. I just couldn't warm to the film at all. It's a classy film though.

Jennifer's Body
Pretty awful. Even a tacked on lesbian scene couldn't save it. A few smiles from the dialogue but this wouldn't even get noticed if it wasn't for Diablo Cody.

9
First few minutes show a post-apocalyptic world that is stunningly created. Then you realise it's a condensed version of Lord of the Rings without the humour, verve or imagination.

Katalin Varga
Don't trust well meaning critics looking to help out a young British film-maker. It shows potential but it's ugly as hell. The night time scenes look like they were shot on a camcorder.

Tales from the Golden Age
Hilarious. I'm going to remember the spinning carousel for a long time. Only complaint was it dragged on a bit at times but I quite like that none of the shorts felt like they were there just to make up the numbers.

Goodbye Solo
This has been getting rave reviews in America but I just didn't buy the original set-up meeting of the two main characters. As a result I couldn't get involved in the story to the degree required to appreciate it. Not awful but left bemused by where the praise is coming from.

Army of Crime
Bright, colourful and beautifully shot. Not exactly what you expect from a French resistance film. Focuses on the French immigrants who fought for France and doesn't hold back. Really enjoyed this, it might even sneak into my Top 10 of the year.

Thirst
Lyra nailed it above. I found it hard to adjust to fluctuating tone throughout. This should have been an awful lot better.

[Guest]

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I've been really looking forward to Bright Star. It sounds lovely. Like Campion's in Portrait of a Lady mode rather than say Holy Smoke.

I really wanted to catch Katalin Varga but you sound underwhelmed, maybe one for DVD from what you say about the cinematography.

Anyone seen Fish Tank? I thought Red Road was mostly very good so I would like to.

[ian.64]

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Been revisiting Garth Merenghi's Darkplace on the 'Demand' button on cable and, even if it isn't exactly a cavalcade of laughs, it's a highly amiable stroll through a spoofery of slightly shambolic 70's sci-fi/horror shows (with cheap production values, natch) and not without chuckles. With a bit more work it could've been a strong cult hit instead of a low-profile gem, and the character of Merenghi himself is a belter - a misogynistic, self-aggrandizing git of low talent with a ravine-deep lack of awareness of his own failings - and I'd love to know who Matthew Holness based him upon.

Speaking of Holness, it's unusual to notice that Richard Ayoade, Alice Lowe and Matt Berry are still popping up hither and thither, but Mr. Merenghi himself has dropped completely off the radar.

A mere trickle of concern in the overwhelming sea of everyday problems, but even so...

[Ginger Yellow]

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I adore Garth Merenghi's Darkplace. I missed all but one episode when it was originally aired (I think they showed it on Thursdays), but I picked it up on DVD and have watched it several times since.

[Ek weet nie]

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I saw Fish Tank. I also enjoyed Red Road and I thought Fish Tank was an improvement. It has a great sense of place with a couple of the most shocking non-horror non-gore scenes I've seen this year. Definitely check it out if you liked Red Road, it has the same sense of unease.

Perhaps my expectations were too high for Katalin Varga. The Guardian and BBC podcasts both praised highly as did the print versions of the Guardian and the Independent. I think they are a bit like Roger Ebert when they overpraise a small movie in order to get people to see it. It's unquestionably better than a lot of films with 50-100 times the budget and does interesting things particularly with background sound but it's not that good.

[ian.64]

Current Watching

I missed all but one episode when it was originally aired (I think they showed it on Thursdays), but I picked it up on DVD and have watched it several times since.

I've toyed with the idea of buying it, because of the extra material on there, but the show holds appeal for me because there's a wonderful, delicious potential to it that has the slight drawback of not being completely realised. To be honest, it's about time the sci-fi genre's cut-price, cheap-tack approach to some of its creations - as GMD neatly takes the piss out of - had a major spoof makeover, and I'm talking about the unintentional laughs I sometimes found in Blake's Seven episodes. The drama of it stopped for me when I saw that those iron walls on spaceships had tell-tale wrinkles where the smooth-on iron-look wallpaper had been badly applied.

It's absolutely ripe for a pisstake.

[Guest]

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NA, yeah, they do do that, the overpraising thing, which is fine as far as it goes, well-intentioned &c., but more often than not it's not for the right small films that everyone should see (even discounting my bias, honestly). It's kind of infuriating. Trouble is, given the lack of venues nowadays, a smallish release needs 5* reviews from the Guardian and Time Out, or it will flop, and that's unfair.

I'll try to see Fish Tank this weekend I think. If i recover from this grim painful chest infection.

[Ek weet nie]

Current Watching

Do get well soon.

Any tips for recent small films that didn't get love but are worth seeing?

I do like the idea of critics being a lobbyist for films (as long as the motives are pure obv.). That really should be their main job rather than writing long reviews on the latest blockbuster. In terms of films opening for regular programming in Dublin there were 28 films opening this month, 32, 26 and 25 in the previous months. In London it will be even higher. Anything without a name or significant marketing budget will get lost if the critics don't shout from the rafters. Despite pretty good publicity and an arresting narrative about the filmmaker, Katalin Varga opened to only 17 screens in the UK & Ireland. If you aren't living beside an arthouse cinema you've no chance of seeing it. If the Irish Film Institute don't pick something then we have little or no chance of seeing it here in Dublin.

The problem with the critics praising it to the heavens is that it raises expectations. Most of the time I make an effort to go into a film with as little knowledge as possible. But to choose a film I need to trust a director or an actor if I'm going in "blind". Granted I'll have expectations because of previous work but I'll also give leeway due to famous name syndrome. I'd love to walk in blind to every film but there are just too many released to see everything so you need a filtering mechanism. I can't see any other method for that than critics. I guess it's just a Catch-22 situation.

Of course you know all this and better than I do but it feels good to have expressed that on screen despite the rambling. Learning how the game is rigged at least lets me know why so many festival successes and low-budget films don't get on screen here. It's not always due to them being lacking in quality.

[Guest]

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If say the Metro/Other cinema was still open and the ABC Piccadilly and if 3 or 4 others were not now parts of chains then things would be a bit different. These closures/moves to the mainstream meant that little films couldn't spend a week or two at a popular cinema and then if they did well enough move over to the ABC and give people a few weeks to go instead of a few days. I do think it's significant. The other major factor is TV sales. Not that many years ago distributors could buy a small film and if they got a BBC or C4 sale, that would be enough to ensure that they could afford to release it. Then the terrestrial channels stopped showing foreign language films and shoved them over to BBC4 and they pay far far less for TV rights; so buying a smaller film is a bigger financial risk now.

Famous name syndrome - yeah. I try not to do that cos just as often a famous name is propping up a not-that-great film, but I know what you mean, and it does help with press. I get a lot of feedback on what to see/not bother with from Ed's visits to festivals, from his friends in the business and to an extent also from the GU film board - I kind of tend to see the critics as a poor supplement to these first-hand recommendations I guess, and actually I rarely bother reading them any more. But obv that's just me and I'm not a typical cinemagoer.

Did you see Home or Wonderful Town just out of interest?

thanks, too. I feel like I've inhaled chilli powder and I've got six episodes of Brotherhood to get through by tomorrow! ugh

[Ek weet nie]

Current Watching

Brotherhood had moments of inspiration, the mother going from the union job to the Walmart like supermarket being the main one, but the gangster stuff was poor. The two sides of the same coin aspect of the brothers got old after the second episode. Good luck getting through them, I can't imagine subtitling those would be straight forward.

Dublin's self-styled premier arthouse cinema is in fact owned by the largest chain of cinemas here. This week it's showing An Education, Taking Woodstock and The Men Who Stare At Goats. Granted it is far from blockbuster territory but I don't see what is arthouse about it. There are exceptions to that though and one of those was Home that played for a week. I liked it - very clever although I thought the ending was a bit heavy-handed compared to what preceeded it. My prudish side also objected to the frequent nudity - not sure what was going on with character and whether I was missing something big about that.

The IFI is super, particularly for festivals and classic screenings (this month is Orson Welles season, last was Hitchcock in Britain, the French Film Festival starts tonight). I do notice that it doesn't pick up many acclaimed films from festivals - is that connected to the Europa film funding system? The Lighthouse also seems to be the genuine article - The White Ribbon, Tulpan, Welcome and Bright Star is on this week. They need a loyalty or membership scheme though, I've been the only person at a screening (Tony Manero) and regularly less than five people at other times. Everywhere else is just part of a chain showing multiplex fare.

Wonderful Town didn't play here at all. It is on my to watch list and I see it is available to download on Asian Movie Addiction but I don't like to download low budget recent releases even if I don't bat an eyelid to pirating more commercial stuff. DVD importing is beyond my means so hopefully Artificial Eye or similar pick it up.

I do follow festival reports (mostly through American bloggers and theauteurs) but I don't know anyone who moves in those circles so it is a bit hit and miss as regards recommendations. You end up watching something excellent like You, The Living followed by something so-so like Liverpool by Lisandro Alonso.

As regards famous name syndrome I focus on directors even if most of the auteur theory has holes to drive a bus through. As I learn more about film in general I'm getting better at forming my own independent opinion rather than being swayed by reputation but at times it's like I'm in an Art Gallery scanning the nameplates looking for someone I recognise.

[Guest]

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Well Ed's released Wonderful Town on DVD, I don't know if that includes in the RoI actually, but I would have thought so. Modern Life? Cloud 9? those are his also but also very good.

I have a little problem with the word 'arthouse', it can be useful shorthand sometimes but I tend to mistrust it. But I know what you mean. I think the IFI is very good, haven't heard of the Lighthouse but it sounds like they're doing a good job. We're lucky to live in capital cities, although nowadays if you want you could stay informed and see everything from anywhere if you have the DVD & broadband budget. and that's the thing. increasing numbers of films being made and being made accessible in some shape or form, more and more division of audiences into niches, fewer and fewer films to go out and see. Like having 300 cable channels all getting 50 viewers and only the blandest crap being shown on the BBC. It feels weird to say that all this explosion of content is bad for the culture as a whole, but sometimes I think it really might be.

[Guest]

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oh and I've never seen Brotherhood and have to start with s02e06 so I have no clue what is going on! So far someone's had a birthday party involving strippers fucking each other with bright blue strap-ons and a bunch of women have spent their ladies' lunch discussing what a horrible chore having sex with their husbands (most of whom I presume were at the party) is. The two are no doubt connected.

[Ek weet nie]

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Balls, I typed a long (for me) reply and the dog ate it. The gist of it was that the company that released Wonderful Town have a very impressive index of films.

I'll try to add more tomorrow but in the meantime could any reading admin lengthen the default amount of time that people are logged in for before being ejected?

[EIM]

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[Guest]

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that's good of you NA, I'll tell him you said that.

[Ek weet nie]

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The first season of Brotherhood didn't have much sex in it - the occasional flash of breasts to remind people that Showtime could show as much as HBO. They noticeably sexed it up in the second season and it seems like you got quite an introduction to the series.

I haven't seen either Modern Life or Cloud 9 but I am aware of favourable reviews of both. Cloud 9 played in the Lighthouse but I couldn't make it, Modern Life didn't get a cinema release that I know of but I'd be interested in comparing it to sleep furously.

My local library has quite a few of the back catalogue of his company and I've caught quite a few of them in the cinema. Out of curiousity how does sales to libraries work? Does the company just get the benefit of one sold DVD or do they get paid each time it gets lent out? I've borrowed over 100 DVDs from the library and always been curious as to what way it works. Girl on the Train is playing in that French Film Festival I mentioned earlier.

As regards the explosion of content I don't think it would have too negative an effect if the movie channels available in the UK and Ireland were as diverse as possible. Ideally you would have channels focusing on geographical areas - South America, Mexico, Asia (yep, let's lump South Korea, China, Japan, Phillipines, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Vietnam and all the rest all in together as if they are one mono-cultural area) and Israel have all produced great cinema recently - as well as more established areas. As it is Sky Movies devotes 5 or 6 channels to blockbuster and kids fare, a couple to acclaimed classics and an Indie channel as a poor sop. TCM and MGM just play classics. FilmFour do good stuff but they are never going to be able to cover the breadth of new cinema with just one channel. BBC Four shows good stuff but it isn't always easy to keep up to date with what it is showing. It is as if all the cable channels are going after the exact same demographic - perhaps it is the only way to be commercially viable without doing phone-in quiz quackery.

As you mention, we are lucky to be living in an age were the choice and availability of cinema has never been equalled. The fact that I can read immediate reaction to any festival worldwide and browse collections online of the DVD companies that don't get nearly enough shelf space in HMV and other high street retailers means that my viewing experience is far better than that of someone even ten years ago. At the same time though I much prefer to see something on the big screen in the cinema.

I'm not sure that broadband has been good for the small budget festival film though - it's definitely easier to target and advertise to potential viewers. The reality of piracy (and I'm more guilty than most on this score and realise that spending a small fortune on legitimate cinema products doesn't offset the bad karma) means that easily 90% of the films available on DVD are easily locateable to download for free. I'm sure that will only have a growing negative effect on margins and hence choice available ultimately. I've no idea what the small companies can do to stem that - what anti-piracy measures there are seem to only benefit the large companies. Criterion allowing paid-for streaming for $5 of their films is a good idea. Straight away they get into rights issues, only people in Canada and the US can view it. To date I've tried to buy as much as I can from Second Run and Eureka! Masters of Cinema to support them. Overall broadband would seem to be more of a hindrance to the traditional business model than any help.

[Guest]

Current Watching

Sales to libraries, I'm not sure actually but I think it would be simply one DVD sold. Although the licensing has got to be different hasn't it. There's probably an agency or something that handles these things the way there are offices that book stuff for film societies, etc. I think Lovefilm don't pay per rental.

what I meant by broadband was simply the availability of information, really, at the moment, and access by post to services like Lovefilm. There is of course the developing streaming/on demand/download to rent/buy options but yeah, we're still in the transition zone between piracy and "itunes wants HOW much?!?" and "I don't trust computers" and so on. But I think Soda are having some success with sales that way. For your small companies it's all about adaptability and response to the way things are changing I guess. Digital projection is also very interesting in that the whole model for theatrical exhibition could completely change, cinemas could show 8 different films in one screen in one day, or whatever. Maybe some diversity will be enabled by this. Haha. Well, one can hope.

Brotherhood was shite. I got so bored. After 5 episodes I had no idea still which was the good brother & which the bad, or who the hell all those women were, with their dreadful accents.
Now I'm on Sleeper Cell series 2, which so far is worse than series 1.

[Ginger Yellow]

Current Watching

I've been watching True Blood, against my better judgement. I seem to be a sucker for shows with cliffhangers.

Anyway, the Buffy/Angel rip-offs - sorry, parallels - were pretty blatant before, but it's just become ridiculous in the last episode I saw. It's even got its own Darla now.

Netflix has a really good streaming service in the US. I wish Lovefilm would get their act together on that front. I presume there's licensing issues involved, given that UK broadband connections tend to be better than in the US.

[Guest]

Current Watching

True Blood is like that. It's a bit bobbins but you end up watching 8 episodes in a row and then wondering why you did. Trick is to realise Eric is by far the best value and Bill is a boring old wet blanket.

Guiltily I've read most of the books. They're kind of better than the series.

[Ginger Yellow]

Current Watching

Bill is a boring old wet blanket.

Oh, God, yes. At least with Angel, who was also something of a wet blanket, there was always the risk that he'd go nuts and kill everyone in Sunnydale. While forcing Buffy to watch.

[Guest]

Current Watching

Indeed. Bill would be more likely to bore you to death by whingeing on about taxes or the war of nothern aggression or the sorry state of kids today. Blond vampires obviously rule in general. Have you watched series 2 as well? I'm kind of saving it for when I run out of other stuff.

[Ginger Yellow]

Current Watching

I'm about 5 episodes into Season 2. I'd read on here that it's better, but if it's anything I think it's worse. Jason's character arc makes no sense whatsoever.

[Guest]

Current Watching

Poor old Jason. He has a bit of a hard life. What happens to him works out quite well in the books, but I'm guessing they've rushed it through in the series and added all sorts of unnecessary frills & nonsense like they did with Tara.