El Cochecito - Marco Ferreri (1960)

Small comedies. How difficult is it to find one? This one is so funny and small that it's a little jewel. I've seen quite a few Spanish comedies... I now understand where some (or most) of them are coming from.

Most comedies tend to be about nothing serious, just a bit of fun.. which isn't too bad sometimes. This film disguises in humour a very sharp criticism of the worst things of society: greed, lack of solidarity, selfishness, snobbery... also the treatment old and /or disabled people get.

The sound is a shame. The bad dubbing is the worst thing about it.

Don Anselmo is just adorable. He plays such a childish old man that you love him immediately and empathise with his cause, no matter how crazy it is. There are so many films thatjust lack that and fail to engage you.


El Cochecito

Separado! - Dylan Goch/Gruff Rhys (2010)

Music documentaries can get a little boring and empty of content. Not always, but mostly. If it tries to be psychedelic... well it can get pretentious too (perhaps it worked in the 70s). This is different though.

It's a road-movie music documentary, it's fun, it's amusing and very well structured. The more trippy sequences are well achieved, they aren't overdone at all... the real life part sometimes seem more psychedelic! It also surprised me the amount of fluent Welsh speakers in Patagonia, I wouldn't have thought there were so many of them. One thing that is not minor is that it doesn't avoid historical events that needed at least mentioning.

It is well filmed and well edited. Apparently they did have a lot of footage to work through, so it makes it an even better job. The motion-graphics as very nice too.

My favourite scenes: Brazilean musician introducing "Chiffy!" and the 'gigs' for the Welsh speaking people (who were probably expecting something traditional) with old ladies covering their ears

Separado!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt.2 - D. Yates (2011)

So yeah, one day is Angelopoulos the other Harry Potter... you never now with me.

I was curious to see the end of it. I thought part 1 was rubbish and boring. Of course it's got information you'll need for the second part, but two films were unnecessary. Rules of the market.

Though it's the same rules of the market that allows for it to have a great sound. I've always thought they tend to have good sound.. but this was quite impressive. It had all the conditions for it: fantasy film, lots of action, non-real creatures... I'm glad it wasn't wasted. As I was watching it I kept thinking what a great experience it would be to work in such a film. When I found this video I confirmed it... big budget sound making seems like a lot of fun!

SoundWorks Collection: The Sound of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

The perfomances. The ones that stand out are Ralph Fiennes and Alan Rickman. They play the bad ones and it's easy to over do the bad ones. But they are so measured. Especially Fiennes who at times seems to just be using his eyes to be evil. 

The one thing I hated: the age effect. "19 years later".. is basically the same teenage kids with grown up clothes (a bit too big for them) pretending to be grown ups. No. It doesn't work. You can still tell they are young. Awful way to ruin... well the end, really. Finding adult actors would have been better (not that they haven't grown it's just that they still look young). 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt.2 

Voyage to Cythera - Theo Angelopoulos (1984)

I think being a director is a very difficult thing to try to do. Being a great director is something only a few can achieve. Theo Angelopoulos is one of those few. He makes difficult, intricate films. 

Voyage to Cythera is a film about an old man returning home. It's a film about love. It's a film about encounters. It's a film about politics. It's a film about many things. That's why it's not easily comprehended. 

What makes it a director's film? The use of very long shots, neverending scenes beautifully staged. You wonder how you can think of such a way of presenting a subject and then actually turning it into a film.

When you think of Greece you might expect blue skies and sunny beaches... well there's nothing of that in Angelopoulos cinema. Grey overcast days are Greece too. I like that.

«In VOYAGE TO CYTHERA the voyage is really a reworking of the myth of the Return of Odysseus according to a myth which preceded Homer. Similar to Dante's version, there is a pre-Homeric version that Odysseus set sail again after reaching Ithaca. So the film becomes more a leaving than a homecoming. I have a soft spot for the ancient writings. There really is nothing new. We are all just revising and reconsidering ideas that the ancients first treated.»

Theo Angelopoulos 

Taxidi sta Kythira

A Matter Of Life And Death - M. Powell / E. Pressburger (1946)

First thing I thought was how much of a post-war film it is. You can tell it's from 1946. The first part seems like a choice between the free world full of happiness and Heaven, grandiose but full of burocracy. Then it changes into a completely different film.. that I have to say  thought ended too soon. The first part had nice timing, but when his trial begins it all happens too fast....

I'm not a fan of Technicolor. In this case it's very nicely used, photographed by Jack Cardiff. The black and white used for heaven is very impressive and the sets are amazing. I quite like that. The film is also known as Stairway to Heaven due to an impressive set piece built for a scene.

I wish I had written more about it when I saw it... I have forgotten most of the things I wanted to say no...

A Matter Of Life and Death

The Ladykillers - Alexander Mackendrick (1955)

My first Ealing Comedy ever. I should be embarrased. 

I quite enjoyed it. I like simple small films and this is a simple black comedy. The humour is so... natural, not forced at all. That's when it works best. Sometimes it seems excess of jokes or acting will make it funnier, and no, it won't. This film proves that less is more if over fifty years later it still works. 

The best thing about it is definitely the performances, from the old lady to the whole bunch. 

I can understand why the Coen brothers will want to remake it. I can understand why they would be interested but can't understand why anyone might think it needs to be remade or it might work in any other way than the original. Just by looking at the cast you know it won't work, you know it will be one of those trying-to-be-funny comedies... it just sounds wrong. 

Great films that still work as well as contemporary films do shouldn't be remade.

The Ladykillers (1955)