The White Diamond - Werner Herzog (2004)

I am not sure how he does it but Herzog does it over an over again. He's the master of documentaries.

If you analyse most of his documentaries he uses the same formula: find an interesting topic, find interesting characters, go to a unique location... oh and yes, you can't forget Herzog's madness and his Bavarian accent. You can say that's his secret and it works every single time.

The White Diamond begins with an engineer making a flying device. You find out early on that he has a haunting memory: it's not his first experiment, someone died trying to make a film and he is traumatised. But the story will unravel slowly, interestingly... only great story-telling can do that, and that is actually the secret Herzog has mastered.

The landscape is beautifully photographed and the sound is extremely well used. The sound of the canopy, the noise of the waterfall... when we finally hear the accident's story you can almost imagine it. The music is very well chosen and it's just go really well with the images.

I hope never stops making documentaries, I hope he never stops finding stories and characters that are as crazy as he is. ♥

Nochnoy dozor - Timur Bekmambetov (2004)

I can't be objective when it comes to Russian films. This films proves it.

I had seen it before and all I could remember was that I saw it in one go and ended up watching half of the second part the same night. I enjoyed it more.

This time I thought it was... well impressive for a Russian film. It really looks like a Hollywood film. The visual effects are rather impressive and the sound work is quite good too- sounded a lot better than many films I've heard lately. It's a real fantasy film, only spoken in Russian. Is there a better vampire than one that speaks Russian? I don't think so.

Not much to say about it. Good effects. Typical good vs evil story. A Russian LOTR (which makes it a little more interesting) but without the need to read the book, it works as a film on its own.  The trailer says it all, there's no more than that.

Night Watch