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XCIII: City that Never Sleeps (John H. Auer, 1953)
Splendid noirish Chicago-set city has a million stories film, where infidelity, blackmail and corruption intermingle as a cop decides between his wife and lover, as a crooked lawyer blackmails him into entrapping a burglar, and his father (another cop) is looking for his son. Beautifully shot in glorious black and white, although the closing long shot looks oddly set bound. But then it's actually a fantasy as the cop's partner doesn't seem to quite exist.
XCIV: Insomnia (Christopher Nolan, 2002)
Potentially corrupt LA cop Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and his partner Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) are seconded to a small Alaskan town to solve a brutal murder. Stumbling around in the fog, and tired because of an inability to sleep, Dormer shoots Eckhart dead. Rather than admitting to the accident - which will compromise his integrity further - Dormer starts a cover up, only to be blackmailed by the real murderer.
I've avoided this for years, despite liking much of Nolan's pre-Dark Knight work, as it's a remake of a frankly superior Scandinavian original with Stellan Skarsgård. There the insomnia was better played, and of course a less familiar cast prevented the distracyion of wondering why Abbie for ER was managing a hotel. Nothing wrong with the remake as such - and always interesting to see Robin Williams cast against type - but the other version just seems to sing more.
Dormer heh heh - geddit?
And did you see what I did with my choices?
XCV: Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)
Rewatched for work - the archetypal slasher, sequelled to death, rebooted to death and remade, but still pretty good. Small child Michael Myers stabs his sister dead, then fifteen years later returns to Haddonfield, Illinois, seeking new victims. Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) fights back. It's stuffed full of references to Hitchcock and Hawks - and at least one to Leigh Brackett (the sheriff)
XCVI: The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)
Ligh Brackett had a small hand in this script, and Kershner had directed Carpenter's script for The Eye of Laura Mars. Second (or fifth) and best of the Star Wars films, although as Sarah Millican pointed out, that's the cool answer. Despite the opening scroll, it does rather assume that the audience knows what has gone before, and leaves with a downer. It's more of a seventies film than Star Wars itself is. Here's Han Solo admitting to love for Leia, Luke dealing with Yoda, Ben speaking from the dead and Darth getting through admirals like he has endless supplies. I supect this version had a few bits of augmentation - the city scapes felt a little CGI, and I know some scenes were reshoot.
XCV: Sita Sings the Blues (Nina Paley, 2008)
Feature length animation available under a creative commons licence, and intercutting Paley's own break-up with the Ramayana and Annette Henshaw singing the blues. Very impressive and witty, especially as the tellers of the Ramayama argue over the details, but I'm not sure it quite hangs together. I saw this at the Anifest, and I have to say I could have done without Paley's specially recorded introduction as it seemed the opposite of informative.
XCVI: Animal Farm (Joy Batchelor and John Halas, 1954)
The first British-made feature length animation, infamously finded by the CIA, and a rather different ending from the novel, which rather undercuts the ironies at work. The visual style is Disney-esque, but obviously there are no somgs, and apparently the story boards were more expressionist. I doubt it would appeal to many children though.
XCVII: Like It Is (Paul Oremland, 1998)
Semi-autobiographical tale of a Blackpool bare knuckle boxer (Steve Bell) who is picked up by a London night club manager (Ian Rose), and who start living together in London. Their relationship is threatened by a jealous house mate (Dani Behr) and night club owner (Roger Daltrey). Low budget film funded in part by Channel 4, with good performances from Bell and Daltrey, rather let down by the rest of the cast. These days it would be a subplot of a version of Skins.
XCVIII: Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum, Volker Schlöndorff, 1979)
Adaptation of the Gunter Grass novel. Oskar is born near Danzig in the 1920s, and at the age of three is given a tin drum, and then throws himself down a flight of steps, determined not to grow any further. He remains at the same height, as the area is increasingly dominated by Naziism and the second world war arises.
I didn't spot any Lucinda - there is supposedly a link to the Peter Carey novel from the original novel - but it does seem illuminating for Banks's The Wasp Factory, where a copy of the book circulates. I've not read the novel, but I gather there Oskar is more of an unreliable narrator confined to an asylum. There is some sense of distancing in the film, but little sense of ambiguity.
Totals: 98 - [Cinema: 29; DVD: 62; Television: 7]
Splendid noirish Chicago-set city has a million stories film, where infidelity, blackmail and corruption intermingle as a cop decides between his wife and lover, as a crooked lawyer blackmails him into entrapping a burglar, and his father (another cop) is looking for his son. Beautifully shot in glorious black and white, although the closing long shot looks oddly set bound. But then it's actually a fantasy as the cop's partner doesn't seem to quite exist.
XCIV: Insomnia (Christopher Nolan, 2002)
Potentially corrupt LA cop Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and his partner Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) are seconded to a small Alaskan town to solve a brutal murder. Stumbling around in the fog, and tired because of an inability to sleep, Dormer shoots Eckhart dead. Rather than admitting to the accident - which will compromise his integrity further - Dormer starts a cover up, only to be blackmailed by the real murderer.
I've avoided this for years, despite liking much of Nolan's pre-Dark Knight work, as it's a remake of a frankly superior Scandinavian original with Stellan Skarsgård. There the insomnia was better played, and of course a less familiar cast prevented the distracyion of wondering why Abbie for ER was managing a hotel. Nothing wrong with the remake as such - and always interesting to see Robin Williams cast against type - but the other version just seems to sing more.
Dormer heh heh - geddit?
And did you see what I did with my choices?
XCV: Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)
Rewatched for work - the archetypal slasher, sequelled to death, rebooted to death and remade, but still pretty good. Small child Michael Myers stabs his sister dead, then fifteen years later returns to Haddonfield, Illinois, seeking new victims. Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) fights back. It's stuffed full of references to Hitchcock and Hawks - and at least one to Leigh Brackett (the sheriff)
XCVI: The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)
Ligh Brackett had a small hand in this script, and Kershner had directed Carpenter's script for The Eye of Laura Mars. Second (or fifth) and best of the Star Wars films, although as Sarah Millican pointed out, that's the cool answer. Despite the opening scroll, it does rather assume that the audience knows what has gone before, and leaves with a downer. It's more of a seventies film than Star Wars itself is. Here's Han Solo admitting to love for Leia, Luke dealing with Yoda, Ben speaking from the dead and Darth getting through admirals like he has endless supplies. I supect this version had a few bits of augmentation - the city scapes felt a little CGI, and I know some scenes were reshoot.
XCV: Sita Sings the Blues (Nina Paley, 2008)
Feature length animation available under a creative commons licence, and intercutting Paley's own break-up with the Ramayana and Annette Henshaw singing the blues. Very impressive and witty, especially as the tellers of the Ramayama argue over the details, but I'm not sure it quite hangs together. I saw this at the Anifest, and I have to say I could have done without Paley's specially recorded introduction as it seemed the opposite of informative.
XCVI: Animal Farm (Joy Batchelor and John Halas, 1954)
The first British-made feature length animation, infamously finded by the CIA, and a rather different ending from the novel, which rather undercuts the ironies at work. The visual style is Disney-esque, but obviously there are no somgs, and apparently the story boards were more expressionist. I doubt it would appeal to many children though.
XCVII: Like It Is (Paul Oremland, 1998)
Semi-autobiographical tale of a Blackpool bare knuckle boxer (Steve Bell) who is picked up by a London night club manager (Ian Rose), and who start living together in London. Their relationship is threatened by a jealous house mate (Dani Behr) and night club owner (Roger Daltrey). Low budget film funded in part by Channel 4, with good performances from Bell and Daltrey, rather let down by the rest of the cast. These days it would be a subplot of a version of Skins.
XCVIII: Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum, Volker Schlöndorff, 1979)
Adaptation of the Gunter Grass novel. Oskar is born near Danzig in the 1920s, and at the age of three is given a tin drum, and then throws himself down a flight of steps, determined not to grow any further. He remains at the same height, as the area is increasingly dominated by Naziism and the second world war arises.
I didn't spot any Lucinda - there is supposedly a link to the Peter Carey novel from the original novel - but it does seem illuminating for Banks's The Wasp Factory, where a copy of the book circulates. I've not read the novel, but I gather there Oskar is more of an unreliable narrator confined to an asylum. There is some sense of distancing in the film, but little sense of ambiguity.
Totals: 98 - [Cinema: 29; DVD: 62; Television: 7]
