THE RAILWAY CHILDREN: NOTES

When I saw The Railway Children the film a long time ago, I could not forget Jenny Agutter’s portrayal of Bobbie, or Roberta. Reading the E. Nesbit’s book on which the movie was based, the characterization of goody goody Roberta was such that provoked an irresistible desire to put my hands on her tender 12 year old neck and wring and wring and wring  it until she stopped flapping her wings. I have to say that, not being born or raised in Britain, I only read the novel this week. I found it extremely exasperating, if I had been a kid reading it, most probably I would have chucked it straight away into the dust bin.

Yes, it was written in a different era, depicted so much like a fairy tale that reminded me of David Cameron’s take on the Big Society, a society of goody goody children rather than greedy greedy bankers and environmentally and socially abusive oil corporations.

Lionel Jeffries’ film, fortunately, concentrated on, for what I remember, the depiction of the human story rather than the depiction of a socially contented society, if you allow me the repetition of words, which it was not. The General Strike was not that far away, and the Great War was lurking just around the corner of history.

Phantom Punch DVD reviewed

Director: Robert Townsend
Writer: Ryan Combs
Cast: Ving Rhames, Stacey Dash, Nicholas Turturro,  Bridgette Wilson, David Proval, Rick Roberts, Alan Van Sprang, Egidio Tari, Andrew Hinkson, Troy Amos-Ross .

Phantom Punch, a flawed but fascinating film about a flawed and controversial legend of boxing, Sonny Liston, a film that explores the underbelly of American heavy weight championships.

Phantom punch was the controversial punch inflicted in 1964 by Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali when he converted to Islam, on the former heavy weight boxing champion Sonny Liston attempt to regain the title, a man known for his “killer” fists. That punch, for those of you old enough to have watched the fight, most probably in a black and white television set, knocked Sonny Liston out of his chances to that crown on the first round. Judging from the release of this DVD, the controversy continue to rage on, 46 years later.

Phantom Punch is primarily aimed at a niche audience, although it is fascinating to follow the life and tribulations of Liston. It is a flawed film about a flawed man who rose to the top of his sport from the dungeon of an American penal institution. It is a tough look at a tough man. It is also a biased movie, as the depiction of his greatest rival, Cassius Clay, by Andrew Hinkson is a caricature of the man. However, its subject is not only about Sonny Liston or boxing, it is also about racism that permeated America in the 50s and 60s and, to a lesser extent, even nowadays. Yes, people such as Liston were respected, but only in the ring, only as money making machines; in daily life, the “n” or “b” words were still being regularly thrown at them, or they were routinely being abused by the police, authorities and the press. It tackles the involvement of the mafia in organized sport, particularly boxing, when many boxers were “own” by particular families, used as cash cows and dispensed with when they became surplus to requirement, or attempted to fly with their own colours. Liston’s involvement with organized crime is hinted at, although it does not go beyond that as it seems that there is no enough evidence to prove it either way. Phantom Punch touches the traps posed by sudden riches and fame for celebrities when the term had not even been coined in its current usage or, if it had, it was not widely used.

While the portrayal of the environment where these events unfolded all those years ago gives its flavour, some of the details (such as the type of microphone that the singer was using) were not of its time. I found the use of the change of the cinematography from black and white to colour between chapters very annoying and distracting, particularly when those chapters are rather short. A gimnmck which I did not appreciate at all, as well as the rather anaemic and farsical sex scenes which could very well a good contender for the worst portrayal of sex in cinema. The special features are quite poor: certainly, I would have liked to have seen the footage of the actual fight between Liston and Clay.

Ving Rhames measured but powerful performance is a very convincing Sonny Liston, while Nicolas Turturro is brilliant as his manager. David Proval’s depiction of the family boss is chilling in his business like approach to crime and Andrew Hinkson portrayal of Cassius Clay was, frankly, ridiculous.

The film was originally released in the USA in 2008.

DVD Release date: 24th May 2010
Running time: 100 minutes
DVD RRP: £15.99

Distributor: Metrodome Distribution

All images © Metrodome Distribution

Jane Eyre

I am re-reading Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, as Cary Fukunaga's take on it should be released sometime in 2011. Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Alice in Wonderland) as Jane, with some fantastic actors such as Jamie Bell, Judi Dench, Michael Fassbender, Sophie Ward, and many others. Is Mia too pretty to play the part of plain Jane? Some people would say, yes. I think that Mia has a kind of flexible beauty, she can still be beautiful and plain.

Re-reading the book, it is clear to me that, whilst  Charlotte Brontë defines Jane as "... you were no beauty as a child", that is not the same that saying she was ugly. The regime of the educational establishment were she grew up meant that her manner, appearance and clothing were worked out to be plain. However, I disagree with the common assumption that she was 'plain Jane', she was not. Canons of beauty change over time, indeed in the past few years they have moved here in Britain. The book was written in the first half of the 19th century, Jane's plainness was defined within the idea of beauty of that time. Would she be considered plain nowadays?

I originally read the book in a Spanish translation some forty years ago. I understand that filming has just finished, or nearly, in Yorkshire. I am looking forward to it. Fukunaga's Sin Nombre was a brilliant film.

For a  just released still from the film please follow the link:

http://mia-wasikowska.net/2010-05-14/update_ID=428

See also USA TODAY for more information:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2010-05-14-brontes14_ST_N.htm

Post updated on May 16th, 2010.

Japanese film Fish Story reviewed

“The Beatles had broken up and The Velvet Underground had gone weird...”

Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura
Writer: Tamio Hayashi
Japan 2009 112 mins Cert TBC
Cast: Atsushi Ito, Kengo Kora, Mikako Tabe, Gaku Hamada, Mirai Moriyama

Fish Story is a witty concoction of disparate aleatoric stories and a bewildering set of characters, mostly briskly paced, carefully knitted together by the mainly solid acting and the alchemy shown by the director in the treatment of the story both in its direction and editing, the scenes ending in cliff hangers which are not resolved until the very end. In less capable hands, it is likely that the film would have ended as an almighty mess. It requires intense concentration as the details and elliptic twists of the plot and the actual resolution of the characters by the performance of the cast are essential for its comprehension. If no attention is taken when watching it, it will end up as an incongruent collection of scenes with no threads to glue them together, as the complexity of its structure has qualities which come straight out of quantum mechanics.

Fish Story shifts its tone from being a disaster movie – the initial scene of a deserted Tokyo street with rubbish strewn everywhere and traffic lights still working for no-one is a brilliantly economic depiction of the impending catastrophe to befall on the planet, to being a romance (a key ingredient in the mix, although not obvious at first), a comedy, a tragedy, and a punk musical, with ironic takes on the music industry, on Far East martial arts films and on the cult of the superhero, so popular in some recent blockbusters. There are also oblique references to the economic uncertainties of post war Japanese history woven somewhat hesitantly into the story. It kept me most of the time at the edge of my seat with a half drunk cup of tea in my hand hanging in mid air.

The film is set in Tokyo in 2012, a disabled man (we learn he is suffering from terminal stomach cancer) in a motorized buggy negotiates his way through the litter strewn in the deserted and silent streets, until he is attracted by the sound of music coming from a record shop, the only sign of life we see or hear. There we learn that a comet (a characters on its own right in the background, although with no name) is heading towards Earth, only five hours away. Its impact will generate a tidal wave taller than Mount Fuji, the mother of all tsunamis, that will drown not only Japan but the whole of the world as well. It does not matter if it crashes in Argentina, its devastating effect will still be the same. The population had already fled into higher grounds, where they will probably be killed by volcanic eruptions or the apocalyptic eternal winter that will ensue. There is no escape, the end is nigh.

There we also learn of a 1970s record which did not sell as the shop owner and a solitary customer have decided to spend their last hours of their lives listening to music. The song being played, Fish Story, was the swansong recorded by Gekirin (the Wrath), a Japanese punk band performing before punk existed, before the Sex Pistols formed, a band that failed to make a career in the music industry, a band whose music was too far ahead of its time. There is a hilariously riotous scene of the band playing in a night club, ending in a most undignified melee that would have made any hard punk proud of.

Will the world be saved? Who will save it? How will it be saved? Flashbacks are introduced as the characters in the record shop argue about their possibilities of survival, flashbacks which gradually build up the story that leads to the completely surprising resolution of the film. We also learn that the fate of the world hinges not on a song, but on a mistranslation.

Some of the special effects are unreal, such as the depiction of the comet remaining the same size and position in the sky throughout the film, although by the end of it the moment of impact was very close. I am not going into further details as to do so will be to spoil the plot.

The cinematography adds to the sense of impending disaster not only for the fate of Earth, but also for the fate of the characters, being particularly poignant in its rendition of the last performance by the band recording the Fish Story song. There is a Manga feel that particularly suits the film. The performance of the cast is, overall, solid, although in some points is all over the place.

The sad thing in this era of blockbuster domination of cinema is that if this striking although at times somewhat rambling film were to be made by one of the Hollywood studios, with all their marketing and distribution power and weight at their disposal, it would probably be a box office hit. A very intelligent, witty and and entertaining film that demands the viewer's full concentration to be enjoyed.

Fish story will be released at the ICA Cinema, London, on May 28th, 2010.




Distributor: Third Window Films
Website: http://thirdwindowfilms.com/films/fish-story
Film website: http://fishstory-movie.jp/

All images  © Third Window Films.

Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop reviewed

Once upon a time a video camera fell into the hands of a Frenchman living in Los Angeles. The result of that otherwise entirely forgettable  incident is Exit Through the Gift Shop, or stopping Mr Thierry Guetta stupidly playing with that camera and do something useful instead, as playing at being Mr Brainwash the showman and con the art connoisseurs both in Los Angeles and New York out of their pocket money. Or is it the whole thing a big con? If it is, who is conning whom in here? Are we, the viewers of this film, being conned about the very existence of Mr Brainwash? We know that Thierry Guetta does exist, unless Banksy has also being able to convince the Los Angeles Times and the BBC that a construct has a real existence. We also know that Mr Brainwash mounted those exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York. However, who is Mr Brainwash really? Banksy? Thierry Guetta?

What makes Exit Through the Gift Shop so unforgettable, apart of being a superb documentary on the street art scene of the past decade, depicting the works not only by the still secretive Banksy – we see his shadowy figure and hear his electronically distorted voice, but also by many other famous and infamous graffiti artists, a film that does justice to the guerrilla filming approach, both Guetta and Banksy seem to have spent an inordinate amount of time escaping the clutches of police officers and security personnel. This is an irreverent look into the art world, into the shallowness of the art market. It also documents very closely what entailed for Banksy and other street artists to produce their works, as the camera follow their preparations and raids in the middle of the night into some of the most unlikely locations, high up on walls above the roofs of adjacent buildings, the camera pointing anywhere and everywhere as Thierry climbs behind them, crossing fences to get into restricted access areas in Disneyland, or filming Banksy as he surreptitiously hangs some of his own paintings in the National Gallery, where it remained undetected for several hours. The camera even follows him in his incursion onto the most notorious and infamous wall of our contemporary world, the wall separating Israel from the Palestinian territories.

Banksy finally managed to shake Guetta off his back by challenging him to produce the goods, the resulting 90 minutes long film would have been much more intelligible if it had been edited by a toddler. So, Mr Brainwash the artist was born, storming Los Angeles in a big way with Life is Beautiful, and another show following in New York shortly afterwards. However, at this point, none of the questions raised at the beginning of this review have been answered, and probably they will remain as such.

Exit Through the Gift Shop is an irreverent and humorous film which documents Banksy and the street art scene commendably well, a very anarchic affair in a British way. I intensely enjoyed it. My only regret is that I would have liked to see more of Banksy’s works, as they are very witty, inquisitive, anarchic and subversive.