Casino Royale Martin Campbell 2006 US/UK/CzechRepublic1st time; big screen James Bond is given his Double-O status and is entered into a high stakes card game to track down a rich funder of terrorism. Generally very good: less about saving the world than saving the franchise, which it does sufficiently - but in doing so, it creates a hell of a lot of potential for other directions. Comparisons with Batman Begins are easy yet unfavourable, since that film was revitalised by Christopher Nolan... With a more confident, less "in-the-box" director, these Bond films could perhaps venture down what would probably be considered a more "artistic" route, with an emphasis more on the character's psychology. Let's not kid ourselves, after all: not only are the villains becoming more and more unmemorable with each film, but the most intriguing scenes here are those in which Bond finds himself in a sort of character crisis, first when he meets the MI6 accountant who offers a character analysis of him, and then as he frantically washes himself of an ememy's blood following a gritty, not-so-clean kill. He's ruthless, brutal, very interesting because of his charm, and begs further exploration as a born-again phenomenon.
Les hurdes Land without Bread Luis Buñuel 1933 Spain1st time; big screen Documentary on the Hurdanos, a remote area of Spain inhabited by peasants. Excessively didactic and with too much of an agenda - arousing pity from images and social comment - to be comfortably placed as a documentary. The English voice-over, added after the film was banned in Spain, is horrid.
Festen The Celebration Thomas Vinterberg 1998 Denmark2nd time; big screen At a formal gathering to celebrate his 60th birthday, a patriarch's eldest son drops a bomb when he makes a speech and a very serious accusation. Few films have achieved the sustained energy of Festen, the aggressive aesthetic, the ferocious narrative, or the fierce rollercoaster of emotions. Essentially, it's a black comedy, at times uncomortable to watch because it is so well handled, tackling a disturbing subject theme with much confidence. Sharp and perceptive, with tremendous acting and a daring script, it must be continually praised for tackling major and awkward scenes instead of avoiding them. Gutwrenching, powerful, and quite possibly one of the best films ever.
Crash David Cronenberg 1996 US/Canada2nd time; big screen A married couple become involved with a group of people with an overwhelming fetish for car crashes. Cronenberg often begins his movies in the thick of it - little exposition, no real closure, and in between there's an endurance-testing, patience-requiring exploration of whatever theme is being tackled. Here, we have a succession of sex scenes in and around cars, increasing each time in disturbing, almost de-eroticised frankness. There are some incredible, brief explosions of intensity - Ballard having sex with Helen Remington for the first time, Ballard meeting Vaughan in the hospital for the first time, Vaughan's car ramming Ballard's wife from the rear ... in fact, as Vaughan, Elias Koteas steals the entire film.
...dot com bold typeface rhetoric. You go clickety click and get your head split. 'The hell you look like on a message board Discussing whether or not the Brother is hardcore?
