Noah

Shadows dance in distinctive shapes in Noah to form nightmares. Representation is something which is never consistent in the film. At times, stories are told with nothing more than moving light and at other times bright animations are thrown in way of the audience. This artistic choice is an unusual one, meaning the film takes stock of a number of cinematic mediums to produce an altogether dark, protruding biblical tale of epic proportions. Upheld by strong performances and stunning visuals, Noah is a bold direction even for Darren Aronofsky, a man who never fails to establish his unique vision of traditional tales.

Noah is a dramatic retelling of the bible story entailing a man who is tasked with the building of an arc to save the innocent before an apocalyptic flood. The film progresses from ambiguous communications from God to Noah, to interpretations, to the full engagement of the task ahead. The challenges that Noah faces are many: he must defend the arc from the sinful (thus being all men), the resistance of his own family and eventually, truly understanding God's intentions for him. 

100 Film Facts About Me

1. During my final year of high school, I studied only four subjects. This meant that I had an abundance of free periods. In these spares I use to go to the cinemas by myself.
2. I have never walked out of a film. Period. 
3. It was mostly my dad who fostered a love of films in me. English is only his second language and yet he has seen more Alfred Hitchcock films than I have. He loves The Godfather and even shed a tear in The English Patient. 
4. He is my favourite movie companion after Clea Moon, over at Spreepark.
5. I have a soft-spot for British rom-coms. These include Notting Hill, Four Weddings & A Funeral, About Time, Love Actually, Bridget Jones' Diary and About A Boy.             

A Week In Autumn

It's been a hectic few weeks. I attended a Q&A presentation of Jerry Katzenberg just last week, have been working non-stop and am just wrapping up my mid-sems for uni. My final assignment is due in on Thursday and from there expect an inflow of posts: review after review, an insight into Sofia Coppola, a look at the teen genre in film and a special surprise involving a meeting with one distinguished actor/director.

Below are just a few images of things which kept me sane (or insane) this past week. 

This poster is so perfect. Shailene's scowl, her crossed arms, the unusual angle of the camera and the print of the title. 

Preview Screening: The Grand Budapest Hotel

In film, there are two distinct ends of the artistic spectrum. On one end we have realism - an incredibly popular facade to be found in Australian film (e.g. Look Both Ways, Muriel's Wedding). On the other end we have substantial, orchestrated, staged glamour. Extravagant costumes, set pieces and colour schemes. This is where we find Wes Anderson. Wes Anderson is just about the most stylish director of his generation. He takes notions of 'originality' and 'artistic zeal' under his wing and flies with it. He brought us the feverish dream-like films The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom. Never abandoning his distinct aptitude for creating worlds within worlds, he disappoints us not in his latest creation. 
Every time he allows us to see through his eyes, ours inevitably shine in awe of the new world. We leave the cinema having seen more colours than we ever knew existed.  If it is possible, Anderson has let simply let perfection run awry in his latest masterpiece. 

The story of A Grand Budapest Hotel is no simple one. Set in three different time frames, the film chronicles the adventures a young meagre lobby boy, Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori), and how he comes to own the once-renowned hotel. Taken under the strict tutelage of a notable, rather legendary concierge Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes), Zero becomes his greatest confidant. When a murder mystery, a stolen priceless Rennaissance painting and an organised jailbreak are thrown into the mix the result is nothing less than pure cinematic delight. 

Top 13 Films of 2013

2013 Minimalist Film Art

In the year 2013 I finished my final year of high school and was given, as reward like thousands of students across the country, 3.5 entire months of idle reckoning, of freedom. I, in much realism feared I would spend the entire summer wasting away - partying until exhaustion, nauseousness and smeared makeup be commonplace. My mind shouted insults of recklessness, inadequacy and general uselessness at my self-esteem - "what do you have to count for 18 years of being alive?" I scrambled of course in panic to realise what I could achieve in the space of 3 months before my life would be consumed with the academic indulgence of university life. Summer - a concept I once longed for in the insanity of year 12, became upon reproach a nightmare of unrealised and impossible expectation. So I abandoned idle thoughts of long dark nights in fake bright lights with 'new friends', beaches decorated with bikinis, tanning oil and barely audible music on our iPhones. I chose to indulge myself in material perfection. Because we can all exist in movies but life is effort. I switched the reality where films were the truth and life was cloying with fakeness. It is this type of thinking of course that breeds anti-social behaviour - writers and artists, appreciators of non-existent cultures will always be pretentious. We carry grace only in our mediums but stumble around in life. We're all pseudo-intellectuals begging for attention.  

People can say its sad, because I chose not to have a real life but live in the lives of others, ones that might not even be real. But that's the irony and beauty of insanity. It's my reality... so in my world you're only lying. 

So here it is: the top 13 films responsible for my insanity in 2013

Preview Screening: Tracks

An event I had been looking forward to for quite some time was a preview screening of the Australian semi-biographical film Tracks. The night encapsulated much discussion of the adaptation and a special appearance by the author of the basis novel Tracks and the original protagonist, Robyn Davidson, herself along with photographer, Rick Smolan. An interesting aspect of the night was the discussion of the idea and basis of adaptations - of how closely a filmmaker can translate a story or series of events from page to screen. An eloquent speaker, Robyn Davidson emphasised the belief of her experience to be completely segregated from that of the one presented in the film. This being said, she neglected not to articulate just how seamless and singularly remarkable she found the film to be. 

Tracks tells the story of a driven, lost young woman who abandons all social conventions and instead seeks to cross the deserts of Western Australia - a distance of 1,700 miles. She spends months prior searching and working for funds and training camels. Eventually finding a means for her personal odyssey in media, she embarks on her journey with a promise, on her part, of several meet-ups with a photographer along the way and an appearance in The National Geographic.  

Some Comments About the 2014 Oscars

Though nowhere near the most enjoyable Academy Awards show I have seen, it was by far the most agreeable. 
I think I speak on behalf of most people when I say that Ellen Degenerous was quite the disappointment. Her pizza gag and twitter selfie debacle were highlights of the night and even they were not memorable enough to save her from securing her never-again-to-be-host stature. 

The 2014 Oscars nominations were certainly questionable especially in the Foreign Language Film category. Both Blue Is The Warmest Colour and The Past were snubbed. Here, for once I believe that the Golden Globes got it right - both films were nominated although the winners of the category were the same in both - The Great Beauty which I can argue too much with. I laughed upon seeing the Bad Grandpa nomination almost as much as I ridiculed the Jonah Hill best supporting actor nomination. This years Oscars was strange in that although you couldn't exactly predict the winner, the two front runners were incredibly obvious. But this alone was enough to have us on the edge of our seats for the entire duration of the highly-anticipated night.

Two Days, Two French Films: The Past and Blue Is The Warmest Colour

Monday and Tuesday. The Past and Blue Is The Warmest Colour. Vastly contrasting, yet uncannily similar in the technical sense. A fine trait of French cinema, close range shots are in their abundance - a technique used to have the audience feel a greater presence in the film itself. Little flourishes of music so common in American film are rare. They never tell you how to feel, but rather provide genuine incentive for you to feel such things. It's stark and its cinematic realism but its terribly likeable - its not weak sentiment but just a combination of raw, rich acting, sensitive directing and subtle film editing.  

At its material core, the two films could not be any more different. Le Passé is an in-depth inspection of less than a week in the life of a family of complex dimensions. You have the central character Marie Barrison (Bérénice Belo) who is soon to be divorced from her Iranian spouse Ahmid (Tahar Rahim) and remarried to the young sullen Frenchman Sahmir (Salim Kechiouche)  whose wife is in a coma. Marie's daughter Lucia (Pauline Berlot) harbours an ill-concealed disapproval of her mother's new relationship and it is only time before everyone understands the full basis of this persisting aversion. Blue, by some contrast blossoms as an innocent love story between literature-passionate high school student Adèle (Adèle Exarchopolous) and our older blue-haired woman, mysterious fourth-year fine arts student Emma (Lea Seydoux).

Winter's Tale

In 2001, Akiva Goldsman produced an adapted screenplay for the much-revered spectacle that was A Beautiful Mind. Enthralling, riveting and procuring a league of impressive performances from its cast - the film went on to win Goldsman his first Academy Award for his work on the adaptation. Imagine my disappointment then when Goldsman's directorial debut failed in every aspect that A Beautiful Mind thrived in. Both films were rich of ideas and sentiments but where A Beautiful Mind neared perfection in its masterful plot cues, Winter's Tale is kept barely alive with an air of artificiality and sordid disappointment. However, Winter's Tale is "impossibly beautiful" to look at. The cinematography is a fine tribute to how far, technologically, the world of film has come.   

Set completely in a time space of New York winters, A Winter's Tale depicts the attraction between an orphan thief who lives above Grand Central Station, Peter Lake (Colin Farrel) and a young heiress with an affliction. Their chance meeting occurs when Peter attempts to break into Beverly Penn's (Jessica Brown Findlay) home. The film encompasses ongoing themes of miracles, of light and darkness and of angels and demons.     

12 Years A Slave

Perhaps the greatest victim in the film 12 Years A Slave is young Patsey - one of the only female slaves featured in this extraordinary film. She is portrayed by newcomer Lupita Nyongo'o, who upon receiving a win in the Best Supporting Actress category at the SAG awards articulated something remarkably accurate. She thanked the director. She said: 
"Thank you Steve McQueen. Thank you for taking a flashlight and shining it under the floorboards of this nation and reminding us what it is we stand on." 
Director Steve McQueen upheld an incredible morale in the creation of this masterpiece. He is a proven expert in handling delicate subject matters with precision and care. As an audience member of any of his films you see what he sees and what he believes. That is: if it is a cruelty be done then it is a cruelty to be seen. 

Solomon Northup's biography brought to life shows us how he, in pre Civil War America, is a free African-American man who makes a living as a distinguished performer. In an act of trickery and betrayal he is abducted and sold into slavery. Torn away from his beloved family, he is conditioned to live under cruel subjugation and inhumane circumstance. Twelve years a slave, Solomon awaits a time when "freedom is opportune" to redeem his humanity and reclaim his liberty.