Life as a Teapot
Books. Films. Tea.
Titanic
Mar 6th
I have to admit to being borderline obsessed with the sinking of the Titanic, my obsession came looong before the James Cameron film (and for the record I was 11 in 1997) and it’s something that’s quietly followed me most of my life. Titanic was probably the most documented accident involving the greatest number of lives lost during peacetime (not including natural disasters) – the other day I joined audible and the first audiobook I picked up was Colonel Archibald Gracie’s account of the sinking, not only was it his very detailed personal account but he’d spent time gathering information from the other lifeboat survivors and inquiries so it made for gripping listening. Since then my obsession has re-emerged (although I suppose it did last Halloween as I went as a Titanic crew member) and I’ve picked up a few of the films I had on VHS.
Personally, I am not a fan of James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’, ‘A Night to Remember’ is one of the best films about the sinking, however saying that ‘The Ghosts of the Abyss’ is one of my favourite documentation’s of the wreck site. One thing I will say about ‘Titanic’, the actual sinking of the ship whilst not entirely factual (she didn’t break into two) is a brilliant watch.
After much thought I caved in and picked up a copy of said DVD (as well as a ‘Night to Remember’ and the 1963 ‘Titanic’… couldn’t find ‘SOS Titanic’ or ‘Raise the Titanic’ [what? It's awesome in a this is so bad it's good way]). You never know, I might like the film this time round!
Oscar Predictions 2010
Mar 3rd
Didn’t do that bad with my BAFTA predictions, bounced round the living room when ‘The Hurt Locker’ walked away with the majority of the big awards, something it deserved 100% of! Anyway, this year I have put money on my Oscar predictions – if it all goes well I shall come away with £217 
).
Film: The Hurt Locker
Director: Katheryn Bigelow
Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker
Adapted Screenplay: In the Loop
Film in a Foreign Language: A Prophet
Animated Film: Up
Actor: Colin Firth
Actress: Gabourey Sibide
Supporting Actor: Matt Damon
Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique
Music: Sherlock Holmes
Cinematography: The Hurt Locker
SFX: Star Trek
Animated Short: A Matter of Loaf and Death
BAFTA Predictions 2010
Feb 20th
This years BAFTAs are now hours away. I popped over to the Royal Opera House between shows to admire the scaffolding, and wonder why people want to spend the night in the freezing cold just to catch a glimpse of famous people… but hey, everyone has something. My plan for Sunday is to lounge in front of the TV (or stream it on the laptop if I can) with a pot of tea and watch the ceremony, so here are my predictions:
Film: The Hurt Locker
British Film: In the Loop
British Writing, Producing or Directing: Duncan Jones
Director: Katheryn Bigelow
Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker
Adapted Screenplay: In the Loop
Film in a Foreign Language: A Prophet
Animated Film: Up
Actor: Andy Serkis
Actress: Gabourey Sibide
Supporting Actor: Christian McKay
Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique
Music: Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (technically cheating I suppose but it was one hell of a film!)
Cinematography: The Road
SFX: Star Trek
Animated Short: The Gruffalo
Upcoming Adaptations that Intrigue Me
Feb 8th
I get ‘Sight and Sound’ magazine each month, not because I’m anti-Empire or Total Film (I like them both, the reviews are good fun and I like the ‘upcoming’ sections) but because there was a discounted yearly subscription if you were a BFI member (also when’s the last time you read an article that described the blood tickling out of a young maidens neck after a vampire attack “was as close to a cum shot as mainstream cinema came.”!)
As I was reading February’s issue on the train I noticed that Lynne Ramsay was due to adapt ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’, staring Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly. ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’ by Lionel Shriver was one of the most unsettling books I’d read and have long wondered what a film adaptation would be like, in my head it’s a sort of cross between ‘Elephant‘ (the Gus van Sant film) and ‘Silence of the Lambs’. I can’t say I ‘loved’ the book, it was powerful, unnerving and I thought it was brilliant… but not something I don’t think I could read again (not that I could, the ASM I loaned it to never returned it). Lynne Ramsay is going to be writing and directing, have to say I’m not familiar with her work but there’s a lot of buzz around the adaptation… I do know that Ramsay was originally onboard to do ‘The Lovely Bones’ but left handing it over to Peter Jackson (loved the book, felt the film lacked feeling) so I’m definitely intrigued.
The other upcoming adaptation that makes me go “oooh” is Lee Daniels is planning to do the musical ‘Miss Saigon’. Now, I can’t say that the musical is in my top ten but it is a powerful production and I really can’t see it up on the screen, it’s very theatrical. What would be awesome is if instead of doing an all-star casting ala Rob Marshall (although Catherine Zeta Jones and Queen Latifah were awesome in ‘Chicago’), he got people like Lea Salonga or Johanna Ampil to star? Granted I suppose they’re both maybe a little too old to play the role now but there are some pretty cool techniques around 
. I also think it’s an odd choice of director, Lee Daniels is famous for ‘Precious’ and producing both ‘The Woodsman’ and ‘Monsters Ball’ – not someone who you immediately link to musicals regardless of how dark their subject matter.
I await developments with interest.
Oscar Predictions
Feb 2nd
It’s officially Oscar season, and in a rare turn of events I’ve seen all but two of the Best Picture nominations. Unlike previous years they’ve expanded the category to ten films, maybe they weren’t sure they’d have six brilliant films by this time. As expected ‘Avatar’ has been nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects – I think the one it really deserves is the VFX one, although I’d be overjoyed if ‘Star Trek’ walked away with that one! If it takes home the ‘Best Picture’ I’d really have to question what exactly the ‘Academy’ are looking for, is ‘Avatar’ really better than these films? ‘The Blind Side’, ‘District 9′, ‘An Education’, ‘The Hurt Locker’, ‘Inglorious Basterds’, ‘Precious’, ‘A Serious Man’, ‘Up in the Air’, or ‘Up’?
Even though ‘Avatar’ was impressive, I would love for ‘Sherlock Holmes’ to come away with the award for art direction (and music, that score was fantastic!).
Okay so my predictions:
Best Picture: The Hurt Locker or Precious
Best Actor: Jeremy Renner
Best Supporting Actor: haven’t seen the pictures they’re all from, with the exception of Stanley Tucci, whilst I thought he was great I don’t think he was award worthy.
Best Actress: Gabourey Sidibe (randomly, why wasn’t the girl who played Susie Salmon nominated? She was excellent).
Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique or Vera Farmiga
Best Animated Film: Up or The Princess and the Frog
Art Direction: Sherlock Holmes or Nine
Cinematography: The Hurt Locker or Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker or Less Daniels for Precious
Original Score: Sherlock Holmes
Animated Short Film: A Matter of Loaf and Death
Visual Effects: District 9
Adapted Screenplay: In the Loop or Precious
Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker
(didn’t do all categories obviously, I haven’t seen any of the documentaries of short films this year.)
Getting Work
Jan 20th
I’m not big on making New Year’s Resolutions. There’s always the “loose weight” one, but due to my vehement dislike of exercise of any form (I’m serious here, during my years at secondary school I was very active – I played cricket, badminton and fenced regularly – but I was so demoralised by the PE teachers at school that I packed it all in, now I just walk a lot) it’s one of those “oh well, nevermind.” things – I’m actually pretty happy the way I am.
The one thing I am doing is actively seeking a new job. I’ve hit year four and due to some stuff that I don’t think is appropriate to write about on a public blog, it’s clear that this is the time to move on. Unfortunately though due to the ‘economic climate’ people aren’t moving around as much as they used to, they’re sticking with the show even if they’re bored out of their skulls or no longer enjoying what they do.
I’d actually like to get on a big show that’s opening soon, there’s more scope for building up a relationship with those you work with and getting them to take a risk by giving you something else. As I don’t want to work on a crew (and to be honest, because of my height it’s not something that would ever be offered to me) I’m limited to LX (which is fine, that’s what I want to do) but I don’t want to be tied to the same job – I spent 2yrs tied to the same ’spot on ‘Dirty Dancing’ before I got the board op. position (originally sold as ‘LX No. 5′ with more responsibility, boy was I gullible to believe they’d stick with what they offered!), now I’m tied to my desk (I actually like board op’ing, so that’s not too bad).
I’ve been reading Paule Constable’s blog about lighting ‘Love Never Dies’, the rig sounds massive and exciting to work with. I put my CV in at stage door but I have a feeling they’ll have crewed up whilst ‘The Rat Pack’ was there since the turn over wasn’t too long. I’m keeping my fingers crossed and it’s still early days, the hard thing about getting work is that it’s all about who you know, because I’m not a pub-goer I don’t casually encounter other chief lx/production lx’s.
I’m confident though.
Popularity Contest
Jan 17th
I’m starting to think that awards like the Golden Globes and the Oscars are really awards for most popular or highest grossing film, particularly the ‘Best Picture’ category.
Just take a look at the nominations for the Best Drama Golden Globe: ‘Avatar’, ‘The Hurt Locker’, Inglorious Basterds’, ‘Precious’ and ‘Up in the Air’, which to you screams best drama? Is it the over-hyped visual MMO gamers wet dream, the powerful but disturbing ‘Precious’ (only read the book, not see the film), the clever and witty ‘Up in the Air’ or the tense war drama ‘The Hurt Locker’… (sorry haven’t seen ‘Inglorious Basterds’ so can’t comment as I know nothing about it)? Yes, you got ‘Avatar’ won for Best Drama! It also won Best Director, beating Kathryn Bigelow, Clint Eastwood, Jason Reitman and Quentin Tarantino!
The nominations for the BAFTAs are announced on the 21st Jan, lets hope that these don’t turn into giant popularity contests (although ‘Avatar’ has been long listed for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Cinematography as well as a ton of technical awards). Incidentally, the BAFTA long list is actually kind of interesting:
Best Film: Avatar, District 9, An Education, Gran Torino, The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, Invictus, Moon, Precious, The Road, A Serious Man, A Single Man, Star Trek, Up and Up in the Air.
I think the five films we’ll be seeing in nomination list are: An Education, The Hurt Locker, Moon, Precious and Up in the Air. (I wish I could believe ‘Star Trek’ was worthy of a Best Film BAFTA, but much as I love it the sci-fi film that deserves that accolade is ‘Moon’).
Film Review: ‘The Road’ (2010)
Jan 17th
‘The Road’ is the latest of Cormac McCarthy’s novels to reach the big screen, and boy is it every bit as bleak as the book.
I first read ‘The Road’ back in 2008 after I heard an interview with one of the ‘Fallout 3′ ’s lead designers talking about how the novel had inspired the landscape of the game. As I’ve said before I’m fascinated with the post-apocalyptical tale and being such a ‘Fallout’ fan this was a book I looked forward to reading. I loved the book, but found it difficult to read because of the style, originally I thought that was a technique to go with the story – you know, everything we thought and understood is gone and now it’s about survival – but then I read ‘No Country for Old Men’, which is in exactly the same style and while I think Roddy Doyle does it better I didn’t find the style as frustrating as some have found.
Arriving on the big screen largely intact, the role of the Woman has been expanded upon in a way that doesn’t feel out of place, ‘The Road’ is visually startling with it’s bleak, forgotten and broken landscapes and takes a tight hold and promises a very uncertain ride. It’s hard to find hope in a place where hope no longer exists and no matter how hard you want the Man and the Boy to find safety, comfort, anything, you know that in this world it isn’t going to happen. In fact, the scene where the Man and the Boy discuss how to commit suicide might just haunt for me a good long time.
I wasn’t a huge fan of ‘No Country for Old Men’, I didn’t find it a very interesting film as, like the book, it didn’t go anywhere or have a particularly interesting story/characters (looked pretty though) so I was initially sceptical when I heard that ‘The Road’ was being adapted for screen but Joe Penhall did an outstanding job with the script, and Javier Aguirresarobe shot the film beautifully. Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee give stellar performances as the Man and the Boy, as does Charlize Theron as the Woman. The rest of the cast are brilliant and should be complimented on being able to bring some of the more unpleasant characters to haunting life.
If you’re a fan of the novel then you should watch this film, if you’re a fan of the post-apocalyptical tale then this is the film you should see, if you’re looking for a life-assuring happy tale then really, don’t.
Review: ‘Avatar – 2D’ (2009)
Jan 1st
I opted to see the 2D version as I’m not convinced that 3D is anything other than a gimmick that only lasts the length of the cinematic run, I mean seriously, what are they planning to do when it comes to releasing the film on DVD? At no point did I go “oh, this would look awesome in 3D.”
Anyhow…
‘Avatar’ is all fur coat and teeny tiny knickers (with great big modesty sucking holes in).
Visually I fell completely in love with the world of Pandora, it’s inhabitants (especially that spinney bioluminescent rainbow lizard thing) and it’s mythology. Everything looked real, it had solidity, movement and everything that a real world should have. It promised so much, but ultimately I was let down by a recycled, cliche driven and predictable plot that at times felt like nothing more than an inconvenient extended cut scene in a video game that I desperately wanted to skip in order to get back to the interesting stuff. I also don’t think I’ve seen flatter characters in a long time, only Dr Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and the ‘copter pilot Trudy (Michelle Rodriguez) showed any real depth and I suspect that was more down to the actors abilities rather than the characters.
I’d also been led to believe that this style of animation was revolutionary, but the Na’vi looked more like computer game characters than the more ‘realistic’ Gollum from Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy. Gollum looked like he had substance, he looked like he belonged within the world and I suspect this was more to do with the fact it was a completely had the advantage of real terrain whereas Pandora was completely CGI. I had a few issues with the movement of some of the land creatures, particularly the ‘horses’ – unlike the flying thingies they didn’t seem to move smoothly, I’m sure I’ve seen ‘horses’ in games where the movement has seemed fluid but these just felt like Ray Harryhausen style creatures.
I know it might seem I’m filling the ‘whiney hater’ role here but I despite all my issues with the film, I didn’t hate it. I loved the world, and James Cameron could have created one of the most visually stunning, realised MMO. Pandora seems a perfect candidate, with it’s rich mythology and energy that flows through the place offered one of the most creative storytelling ideas I’ve seen in a long time. Cameron had the perfect opportunity to make the greatest MMO known, but instead settled for a mediocre film with absolutely stunning visuals.
The future is 3D? I hope to hell it’s not.
Dec 28th
I saw one 3D film this year (‘UP’) and I couldn’t see the fuss (film was good, 3D pointless) – if you want to see 3D go to the theatre.
As a bit of a sci-fi geek I decided that I had to see ‘Avatar’ even though the trailers didn’t make me that fussed… so like every good sci-fi fan with a cinema membership I booked my ticket in advance, paying my extra £1.50 on top of my normal ticket price. When getting to the cinema I was told I had to pay an extra £1.50 on what I’d already paid extra in order to purchase the 3D glasses. What the hell? I’d already paid extra! What was the extra for? Not being prepared to pay more for a film I’d already paid more to see I got a refund.
3D is a gimmick that only lasts the films cinematic run, unless they’re planning to hand out 3D enabled TVs when ‘Avatar’ ultimately comes out on DVD I don’t see the point in bothering at all (especially as it’s also showing in 2D). Many film makers were saying that they were going to watch closely to see how ‘Avatar’ did before deciding on their own 3D ventures, by all accounts it’s doing brilliantly and will probably come away with a few technical awards during Oscar season but if this is the way cinema is headed then I might just hand back my cinema membership.
Many people believe that the existence of this new brand of 3D film making is to combat piracy, well you know what? I’ve never seen a more positive advert for film piracy. My local Vue is showing it in 2D and that’s where I will be spending my money (particularly as I have a free ticket to use there – technical problems during a film I saw there a few months ago).
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