[Closed] Recent Viewing Part III

Saw three films in the past three days... that is some sort of record for me at this point in my life.

First... Drive. I didn't expect to like this as much as I did I thought the cinematography was the real star of the film. The car chase in the middle of the film was excellent. Excellent sound editing as well. Ryan Gosling was OK... but he was dead face serious throughout most of the movie. He smiled a few times but for the most part he looked constipated. I mean, his face didn't even move a muscle during the hotel shootout! Ugh! I would have loved to see more of Ron Perlman and less of Albert Brooks. Sorry, Brooks was miscast.

Cliff Martinez music was incredibly effective in the film... but it's wasn't anything special or memorable and it sucks on CD. HOWEVER, the songs were excellent. They had a retro 80's vibe to it which my wife loved as did I. Desire's "Under Your Spell" is really good and College's "A Real Hero" should get an Academy Award nomination. Great tune!

We then had a viewing of Raising Arizona. I have never seen it but I've always wanted to. I thought it was brilliant. What a screenplay! I don't think Nicholas Cage has been any better than he was in this film. His hair was something else! John Goodman and William Forsythe are excellent as Cage's ex-con buddies. Again, I love the cinematography in this film. And I must say that the I busted a gut at the kid writing the word FART on the wall of Cage and Hunter's trailer home. I'm so mature. I had a blast watching this and can't wait to explore even more Coen Bros. films. Barton Fink might be next.

Lastly, we saw Hanna. I didn't know what to expect from this film. Never saw a trailer and had no idea what it was about. What I do know is that there is a lot of controversy surrounding the film in the film score community so I had to check it out for myself. Everything up to the point of the big reveal was amazing! I found the last 15 minutes or so to be pretty standard Hollywood fluff and expected a bit more from the story. But like I said I was engaged from the first frame on. Unlike the Gosling character in Drive, who was stone cold through out the film, director Joe Wright lets us in on Hanna's new experiences and let's Hanna's emotions pour out on screen... the wind through her hair while driving through Morocco, her first kiss (hilarious scene) and her first encounter with electricity. This film could easily have been a standard balls to the walls action film but there was time to breathe which was a nice change of pace. The action scenes were very well choreographed and the performances were for the most part excellent. The Bana (father) and Ronan (Hanna) scenes, especially at the beginning of the film, were incredibly strong and believable. However, I wasn't too keen on Blanchett in this film. Overall, I was really surprised by the film and would really like to see it again.

As for the music... while the CD is not that engaging on it's own (however I haven't listened to it since seeing the film) the music in context is very effective. I don't know why this score is getting so much flack but from the scores first notes during the cabin raid we know what to expect from the rest of the score... at least I thought I did. While I found that opening cue to be a bit distracting and misguided, the rest of the score works very well and even has a few memorable themes to grab a hold of. For those that don't think music plays an important part in the film or that the director didn't care about music then why was Isaacs always whistling "The Devil Is In The Beats/The Devil Is In The Details." If that's not a bad guy calling card a la The Imperial March (not comparing the two pieces mind you but what their role is in context of the film) then I don't know what is. It's a theme that just infiltrates your mind and complete takes over. You'll never forget it. I thought it was brilliant and down right fucking creepy. And I love the music box styled Hanna theme with vocals. The wordless vocals remind of M83 Vs Big Black Delta's remix of "Fall" on the Tron Legacy Reconfigured album. The action material was unique... I haven't heard anything like that in a film before. It's pretty much drum and bass but is performaned in this chaotic fashion that matches perfectly with the on screen action.

Anyway, I thought the score was very well done, has an emotional core and was perfectly spotted. It wasn't just electronic wallpaper and it even followed specific synch points in the film... I thought that only classically trained film composers could do that...?

Up next - The Godfather Part II. I know... it's awesome and all that shit... but I haven't had a chance to find a three and half hour block to watch it in its entirety.

-Erik-

I've seen bits and pieces of the The Godfather Part II but have never had the opportunity to really give it my full undivided attention. I'm hoping I can do that tonight. It's one of the films I have on my holiday viewing list.

I've heard Coen's The Ladykillers is awful hence the crow joke in No Country for Old Men. I also want to revisit Fargo; a film I panned when I saw it back in 1996. I think I have a better understanding of the Coen's sense of humour so I think I will enjoy Fargo more than I did back then.

-Erik-

That whole scene was comic genius that comes full circle with Cage opening the door to his moving car and grabbing the diapers off the street! Both my wife and I lost it! Brilliant stuff!

-Erik-

JS: THE ABYSS - SPECIAL EDITION (1989)

Actually, I saw it yesterday in preparation for an article on montages. It's one of my alltime favourite films, but I've always felt that the special edition has some serious issues. Silvestri's score is also one of my alltime favourites. He's never been better.

As for my Top 10 favourite films, this will always change. As of right now, these are up there:

The ALIEN films, esp. 1 and 2
SCHINDLER'S LIST
JURASSIC PARK
THE APU TRILOGY
BLADE RUNNER
PROFESSIONE: REPORTER
The STAR WARSes
The LOTRs
A.I.
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS

( at the risk of sounding too pushy ) Please do so Erik, it's one of the best black comedies ever made and with a perfect cast to die for. I know the Coens are huge fans of this film but they really should have left it alone, it's like remaking Casablanca or Gone With The Wind etc, you can only be in for a big fall.

Aliens extended cut is also flawed. Yes, the automatic machine gun scene is back but the Newt prelude should have been left on the cutting room floor. Seeing Newt and her family at the beginning of the film completely ruins her appearance later on.

As for T2 - I hate, HATE, HATE the Reese dream sequence. "On your feet soldier! " What a poorly written scene. However, the removal of the chip from Arnold's head later on is a killer scene.

-Erik-

That long post was a very good read, thanks!

ALIEN and one of the many BLADE RUNNER director cuts are both very strong filmmaking experiences. They should have been on my list of favourite films.

The whistling villain is an old film reference (HANNA has a few of those). In this case, the child murderer from Lang's M -- a strange German if ever there was one -- goes around whistling Grieg's 'Hall of the Mountain King'. Here Tom Hollander is a strange German out to murder a child who goes around whistling...
Actually 'Hall of the mountain king' appears anyway, when she goes to visit the toy maker.

BOOOOOOOH. Its use in SOCIAL NETWORK was its best use in film that I've seen. And just a plain ol' fantastic marriage of music and visuals regardless.

But I adore the HANNA soundtrack -- both in the film and outside. It's probably my most-played soundtrack this year.

EDIT : Here is what Fincher said about that scene from Pitchfolk.com

Pitchfork: The most noticeable music moment in the film is the Henley Royal Regatta scene, which shows two main characters in a rowing race and doesn't have any dialogue. It's almost like a music video stuck in the middle of the movie.

Fincher: Well, it kind of is. It's the only type of action sequence in the movie. In the script, Aaron described what happens: cut-- we're in the middle of this race... and they lose. From a dramatic standpoint, it's an odd sequence because you're being dropped into something you're not prepared for. It's not like Rocky where you know he's gonna end up having to fight Apollo Creed and you know what the stakes are. Here, it's like: Welcome to the Henley Royal Regatta. What is that? How does it work? Why does anybody care?

I thought it would help me know what to shoot if I had a piece of music to cut the scene to. So when we were scouting we found out the whole idea of the Henley Royal Regatta was based on an Edwardian-period garden party. I didn't know anything about Edwardian-period garden parties, so I called [sound designer] Ren [Klyce] and asked him for an example of an Edwardian composer. Ironically, we ended up with [Edvard Grieg's] "In the Hall of the Mountain King". First, I was too embarrassed to call Trent about it. [laughs] But then I asked him, "What do you think about doing like a Wendy Carlos version of 'Hall of the Mountain King'?" And it was off my plate.

I still didn't like it and it felt ridiculously out of place.

-Erik-

That HANNA film is interesting, thanks for the review Erik. I don't even know if it has run in theatres here. I never heard about it or saw a trailer, and I didn't knew it was directed by Joe Wright. Combined with the music, which I heard some tracks of, it makes the whole thing rather surreal!

No, I definitely haven't seen all films and tv shows that feature Grieg's piece at some point or another (whether as source cue or narrative tool), but of those that I have, no one comes even CLOSE in terms of how it works in context. Not even M. Nor BIRTH OF A NATION, DEAD SNOW or what-have-you.