Allegro Christoffer Boe 2004 Denmark1st time; big screen A famous pianist returns to Copenhagen and is tempted into "the Zone", where lost memories are found again. Very interesting, striking up conscious similarities to Stalker, but at less than ninety minutes, it hardly has the chance to offer much worth. It has an ultra-grainy visual, shot entirely at night; the novelty of a mysterious place where one might retrieve lost memories wears thin halfway through. Thematically of interest, and boasting a great deal of potential, and there seems to be signs, or intentions, of an emotional core somewhere deep down, but it's hidden in remote, distanced dialogue, and character purpose is entirely unconvincing.
Borom Sarret Ousmane Sembene 1966 Senegal1st time; big screen A day in the life of a poor wagoner, who takes people from here to there for little cost. Discard any kind of accusations of crude technicalities, and this is gripping for two primary reasons: firstly, it is a rare look into African culture of the mid-sixties, and secondly, it is so new, so fresh, so different - and consciously so - to conventional Western filmmaking. Camera angles have a kind of conscious ideology to them - such as the low/high angles to denote class division; the dialogue is overdubbed, naively, into French, so as to draw us into empathy by means of remote distancing; and there is a persistent rhythm throughout, invoked by a recurring musical motif, of minimalist and effective percussion.
Notting Hill Roger Michell 1999 US/UK1st time; big screen An ordinary bookshop worker can't believe his luck when the world's most popular actress walks into his store, and what begins is an on/off love affair. The synopsis shows much potential, but the commercial intentions of Michell and scriptwriter Richard Curtis let it down. There are genuine moments of interest: Julia Roberts more or less playing herself, attending a birthday meal as the lowly Hugh Grant's date is full of potential; there's some neat visual editing late on when Grant walks down one single street over different seasons of the year, with invisible cuts changing from autumn to snow to spring to summer; and in general, it explores the whole concept of stardom and celebrity, and how these figures of worship are prone to human emotions too. The makers would have achieved much more had they eradicated the lousy one-liners, forced humour and re-drafted the final third into a more succinct, less predictable - perhaps more bitter- affair. But it's just another craft-it-for-the-chicks film, alas.
Last edited by Capo de La Cosa Nostra; 12/06/0609:17 AM.
...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?
