Field missions:
Art: Patrick Caulfield; Alan Cristea Gallery, London
Tuesday 1st September 2009
Film: (500) Days Of Summer; Apollo Cinema, Leamington Spa
Wednesday 2nd September 2009
No music-related events for this week.
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Film review: Inglourious Basterds
Inglourious Basterds
A Quentin Tarrantino film starring Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent and Christoph Waltz
(May contain some spoilers)
It's 1941, and a group of German soldiers pull up at a French dairy farmer's house. The highest ranking German officer, who has earned the nickname 'The Jew Hunter', sits down with the owner of the house, and over the course of 20 minutes slowly breaks him down through measured, yet casual conversation, disarming charm and rhetoric, and after getting the farmer to reveal that he is hiding a Jewish family, old-fashioned brutality, SS-style. One young girl survives and runs away, as the officers shouts out "Au revoir, Shoshanna!"
Inglourious Basterds probably won't be topped by many films for Best Opening Scene of the year; it's one of those classic Tarrantino-esque encounters with a loose energy that slowly grows in tension until it reaches the end of its tether and is let go withsudden and shocking results. It's a key part of what made Resevoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction instant '90s classics; stories weave in and out and peak as they finally come together, where the build-up was as brilliant constructed as the pay-offs. Inglourious Basterds continues in this tradition to (mostly) good effect, but on a ridiculously epic scale.
Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), and his gang of Basterds aim to spread fear amongst the German high command; Raine's charges are in debt to him, and in order to pay off the debt, each man must scalp 100 dead Nazis. The next scene sees them at work, killing all but one, who ends up with a Swastika carved into his head, forever marking him out as a Nazi, but spared his life in order to spread fear amongst the Germans. Of the Basterds, Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth) is particularly feared, his exploits earning him the nickname 'The Bear Jew'. Pitt takes the role of Raine with relish; his indignant hillbilly disgust at the mere mention of Nazis helps him to steal most of the scenes he's in by sheer force. Roth's performance is more measured, whereas Til Schweiger's ever-seething Hugo Stiglitz is the unchained Basterd who excels in brooding and psycopathic violence.
The third chapter introduces us to a cinema owner in Paris, who is later revealed to be Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent), who escaped from the Germans at the beginning of the film, and now runs the cinema under the alias Emmanuelle Mimeux. She comes into contact with German war hero Frederick Zoller (Daniel Brühl), whose grand claim to fame is killing 300 American soldiers over three days in a bird's nest (sniper's position). Zoller falls for her, and asks Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) to host the premiere of the propaganda film 'Nation's Pride' - featuring Zoller as himself - in her cinema. Zoller is possibly the weakest character in the film, taken from the mould of the average lovestruck supporting character, albeit with a crude arrogance and unbending allegiance to the Third Reich (the higher command are oddly in awe of Zoller; Goebbels is particularly taken with his young star) which makes him difficult to warm to, despite Brühl's best efforts.
From there, two plots to kill the Nazi high command emerge, both to take place at the film premiere. All of the actors are on good form, but special praise must go to Christoph Waltz as the horribly charismatic Standartenführer Hans Landa, aka 'The Jew Hunter'. Tarrantino has claimed that without the ability of Waltz, the film wouldn't be made, and whether he's turning on the charm in bi-lingual conversation or ruthlessly killing a German double agent in cold blood, Waltz's performance has Oscar-winner written all over it.
At over two-and-a-half hours, and with a lengthy supporting cast filling out each strand of the overall plot, the film's longer set pieces tends drag in places, before a swift blast of action kicks in to make sure you're still paying attention; witness the seemingly never-ending build-up - in reality, all of ten minutes - as Michael Fassbender, playing German-speaking Brit Lt. Archie Hicox, struggles to conceal his identity in a French tavern, before the scene explodes into action with a swift and bloody gunfight, and the body count goes up again.
Inglourious Basterds isn't going to be to everyone's liking, but once you get past the bloodshed and the revisionist history, and try and get your head around some of the plot lines and twists, it is well worth the mental, emotional, and financial investment. The decade or so that Tarrantino put into this film was definitely worth it; it's not quite a masterpiece, and doesn't sit easily in any recognisable genre, but it will be seen as a highlight of cinema in 2009.
4/5
A Quentin Tarrantino film starring Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent and Christoph Waltz
(May contain some spoilers)
It's 1941, and a group of German soldiers pull up at a French dairy farmer's house. The highest ranking German officer, who has earned the nickname 'The Jew Hunter', sits down with the owner of the house, and over the course of 20 minutes slowly breaks him down through measured, yet casual conversation, disarming charm and rhetoric, and after getting the farmer to reveal that he is hiding a Jewish family, old-fashioned brutality, SS-style. One young girl survives and runs away, as the officers shouts out "Au revoir, Shoshanna!"
Inglourious Basterds probably won't be topped by many films for Best Opening Scene of the year; it's one of those classic Tarrantino-esque encounters with a loose energy that slowly grows in tension until it reaches the end of its tether and is let go withsudden and shocking results. It's a key part of what made Resevoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction instant '90s classics; stories weave in and out and peak as they finally come together, where the build-up was as brilliant constructed as the pay-offs. Inglourious Basterds continues in this tradition to (mostly) good effect, but on a ridiculously epic scale.
Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), and his gang of Basterds aim to spread fear amongst the German high command; Raine's charges are in debt to him, and in order to pay off the debt, each man must scalp 100 dead Nazis. The next scene sees them at work, killing all but one, who ends up with a Swastika carved into his head, forever marking him out as a Nazi, but spared his life in order to spread fear amongst the Germans. Of the Basterds, Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth) is particularly feared, his exploits earning him the nickname 'The Bear Jew'. Pitt takes the role of Raine with relish; his indignant hillbilly disgust at the mere mention of Nazis helps him to steal most of the scenes he's in by sheer force. Roth's performance is more measured, whereas Til Schweiger's ever-seething Hugo Stiglitz is the unchained Basterd who excels in brooding and psycopathic violence.
The third chapter introduces us to a cinema owner in Paris, who is later revealed to be Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent), who escaped from the Germans at the beginning of the film, and now runs the cinema under the alias Emmanuelle Mimeux. She comes into contact with German war hero Frederick Zoller (Daniel Brühl), whose grand claim to fame is killing 300 American soldiers over three days in a bird's nest (sniper's position). Zoller falls for her, and asks Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) to host the premiere of the propaganda film 'Nation's Pride' - featuring Zoller as himself - in her cinema. Zoller is possibly the weakest character in the film, taken from the mould of the average lovestruck supporting character, albeit with a crude arrogance and unbending allegiance to the Third Reich (the higher command are oddly in awe of Zoller; Goebbels is particularly taken with his young star) which makes him difficult to warm to, despite Brühl's best efforts.
From there, two plots to kill the Nazi high command emerge, both to take place at the film premiere. All of the actors are on good form, but special praise must go to Christoph Waltz as the horribly charismatic Standartenführer Hans Landa, aka 'The Jew Hunter'. Tarrantino has claimed that without the ability of Waltz, the film wouldn't be made, and whether he's turning on the charm in bi-lingual conversation or ruthlessly killing a German double agent in cold blood, Waltz's performance has Oscar-winner written all over it.
At over two-and-a-half hours, and with a lengthy supporting cast filling out each strand of the overall plot, the film's longer set pieces tends drag in places, before a swift blast of action kicks in to make sure you're still paying attention; witness the seemingly never-ending build-up - in reality, all of ten minutes - as Michael Fassbender, playing German-speaking Brit Lt. Archie Hicox, struggles to conceal his identity in a French tavern, before the scene explodes into action with a swift and bloody gunfight, and the body count goes up again.
Inglourious Basterds isn't going to be to everyone's liking, but once you get past the bloodshed and the revisionist history, and try and get your head around some of the plot lines and twists, it is well worth the mental, emotional, and financial investment. The decade or so that Tarrantino put into this film was definitely worth it; it's not quite a masterpiece, and doesn't sit easily in any recognisable genre, but it will be seen as a highlight of cinema in 2009.
4/5
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Photobox
www.photobox.co.uk
Point, click, upload, order prints from the above, frame, sell.
No, I don't do business plans.
Point, click, upload, order prints from the above, frame, sell.
No, I don't do business plans.
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Les Paul (1915-2009)
Without your amazing achievements in guitar design, multi-tracking, and the classic recordings you've left us (especially those with Mary Ford), I wouldn't be able to 'live' in my bedroom, making glorious noise. Thank you for the music.
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Tuesday, 4 August 2009
On holiday from Friday
Will be back on the 16th with pictures of Budapest/Prague/Sziget Festival.
We're all going on a summer holiday...
We're all going on a summer holiday...
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