Universal Pictures are 100 years old this year, so to celebrate we’re going to watch 100 films from the legendary studio. Those of thee that follow us on Twitter might have noticed that we live tweeted along to Justin Lin’s Fast Five last night, with the hashtag #HopeLiesUni100, to kick start the whole thing. While it made for an interesting counterpart to the weeks earlier Two-Lane Blacktop, thats about the only thing of any real note that can be said about it (catch up by clicking here).

Aside from last night’s adventure in celluloid, we’ve also taken in screenings of -

Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)

Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman)

The Incredible Hulk (Louis “son of François” Leterrier)

I imagine that quite a significant chunk of the 100 films we see this year will be Hitchcock flicks, thanks to the fact that they either produced or now own many of them. As mentioned before, follow the hashtag #HopeLiesUni100 to keep up with the whole thing.

Oh, and please feel free to suggest Universal films that you’d like to see us cover! 

Alexander Payne returns to screens for the first time since 2004’s Sideways, with a work that while cut from the same cloth, is ultimately quite the diversion for the Nebraskan filmmaker.

The Descendants charts the life of Matthew King, a man coming to terms with the impending death of his wife. As he struggles to come to terms with it himself he must repair a fledgling relationship with his daughters and come to terms with a couple of devastating revelations concerning his wife’s fidelity. Concurrent to this runs a subplot involving the sale of a piece of familiar land, with the preface that “everything has its time” a dual memoranda for the dueling issues taking hold of King’s life.

The Descendants marks Payne’s first venture in to foreign lands. Well, Hawaii. The Hawaii presented openly eschews the tourist money shots and dream vacation perusing in favour of giving us an inside in to the “reality” of the island(s). It may seem like an odd film to draw comparison to, but one couldn’t help but think of the portrayal of Australia in this years’ Animal Kingdom when considering Payne’s portrayal of Hawaii. King openly acknowledges audience expectations of a tale set in Hawaii, ultimately summing up his feelings with an aggressive declaration of “Paradise? Paradise can go fuck itself“. Alas, while the golden beaches of Kauai may be rendered murky and grey by cinematographer Phedon Papamichael’s cinematography, one in never especially far away from the expected clichés of Hawaiian shirts and sandals.

For all of the visual flair, its Payne’s script (written along with Nat Faxon and Jim Rash) that impresses the most. Based upon Kaui Hart Hemmings’ book of the same name, the script is note perfect, and an accomplishment in itself. Payne impresses with the way in which he manages to maintain a balance between the conflicting emotions on display throughout the whole of The Descendants. At times the film is earnest, at times it is sad and at times it is irate. It never veers too close to the sentimental, and I was left ultimately feeling rather satisfied with the work enough to deem it sincere, which is always the ultimate measure of such a film.

The cut of the film runs to this emotional spine, with abrupt, angry cuts driving the viewer between sequences when hysteria is presented on screen, and smooth, pleasant connections made between the more serene moments. Beautiful time-lapse photography is used to convey just how wonderful the topography of the Hawaii islands truly are, and just how much contradiction and beauty lies in the strangest of places. Graveyard’s sit next to skyscrapers, and untouched landscapes are ripe for the picking by entrepreneurial developers thanks to responsibility distanced distant relatives of the pioneers of the land (in turn giving The Descendants it’s title). The film is scored to the eternally pessimistic strings of the tropical hymn, the familiar strings of the steel guitar, again riding upon stereotype, bringing with it a jarring, yet completely apt tone.

George Clooney is the central protagonist and turns in a great performance. The actor features in every scene, playing a middle age father for what might be the first time (was he middle aged in One Fine Day?). The support is equally able, with Amara Miller as Scottie, the youngest of the King clan managing a decent balance and never too precocious. The highlight of the supporting cast might just be Robert Forster, as the wizened father of the dying women at the heart of the film. Yet for all of the success of the films supporting ensemble it is Clooney who stands out the most, as the noble figure who protects his dying wife’s legacy in spite of himself. Sure, it could be accused of being a little bit worthy and a tad overwrought, but it’s a likeable, charming work and a well made one to boot.

What follows is a reprint of our review of Bombay Beach from last years DocFest. The film is on theatrical release in the UK from today.  

An inverted look at the “American Dream”, Alma Har’el’s Bombay Beach is a beautifully constructed work, ground in emotionally resonating touches that cannot fail to effect and inspire. From the films opening sequence, which incorporates old promotion videos of the vacation resort that the man-made Bombay Beach once was, to the numerous music promo video-esque vignettes that punctuate the picture, Har’el’s film is an eclectic work of genuinely profound beauty. A feeling of eerie beauty bounces around the picture, with the landscape, littered by dead animals and lit by fireworks, quite literally the centre of the universe for the denizens of the area (its notable that every locale outside of Bombay Beach is measured in terms of the vicinity/ distance from the titular site).

Slab City, a location previously brought to life on-screen in Sean Penn’s Into The Wild, is home to a number of interesting characters. To say the least. Focussing on Red, an old man and life long drifter, we see the world through his eyes, with a surprising poetic streak running throughout his observations. The people surrounding Red are nothing short of misfits, but a god-damn joyful bunch of misfits. Every single person in the film visibly looks as if they have a story to tell, their rugged appearance bearing as many a tease in to a life lived as any of the monologues shared. How do these people end up out there? Why would anyone want to be out there? Some are bound by hereditary situation, while others are brought to the dunes by misfortune, or because they are running away from something. CeeJay falls in to the latter camp. A black teenager attempting to avoid the fate that befell his gangbanger cousin, with aspirations of one day playing football for the NFL, CeeJay is somewhat indicative of a great deal of the people who have taken up residency by the Salton Sea, in that he displays a great determination and hope in the face of the situation they’ve found themselves in.

Benny Parrish is perhaps the ultimate icon of this candid, spontaneous attitude to life. A bi-polar young boy being brought up in the most dysfunctional of scenarios, Benny is something of a beacon of naïve optimism in the face of the adversities enforced. By the time the credits roll Benny has become an hyper-medicated zombie, a shadow of his former self, failed not only by his parents (although they themselves are arguably trying their best to raise their kids responsibly, in as much as they are barely capable of doing so), but also by the government systems put in place to supposedly help such people. Doctors mis-diagnose the boy to the point of seizure, and are unwilling to reappraise his wellbeing for whatever reason. At times the sight of Benny wandering around the salt desert, clambering around the corpses of dead animals and abandoned trash reminds of Harmony Korine’s Gummo, yet while one could at least take respite safe in the knowledge that Korine’s work was fictional the same can obviously not be said of the situations faced here in Bombay Beach.

Alas, the genuinely unbelievable story of the Parrish family extends far beyond Benny. As the story of Benny’s parents unravels via old home videos, we are given an insight into a story that is difficult to believe is borne out of reality. In the earlier years of the 21^st Century Benny’s parents were arrested and imprisoned on laws brought in to effect following the events of 9/11. Having built their own makeshift army, apparently in response to the lack of government support in the area, the pair’s makeshift bombs saw them branded terrorists by the establishment, and sentenced to several years in jail.

As mentioned afore, the film is punctuated by a couple of designed vignettes, each one scored to a specific music track. Bob Dylan and Zachary “Beirut” Condon provide the audio, with Condon’s appearance reminding of Har’el’s beginnings as a director of music videos (most notably perhaps for Beirut’s Elephant Gun). While the constructed nature of the vignettes goes against the general rules of the documentary, they manage to feel legitimate enough, and downright poetic in parts, for one not to be drawn in wholly. The final vignette is especially moving.

Ultimately though, Bombay Beach reminds the viewer of the vastness of America, and the manner in which, even in the country that is the poster boy for Western society, some people still manage to slip through the cracks. Masterpiece doesn’t even begin to cover it.

There’s a certain energy that passes through Monte Hellman’s seminal meditation on the great American road. It seeps laconically through almost every aspect of the films construct. From the beautiful grain structure, seemingly organic in its nature, through to the breviloquent performances, each one at times both heightened yet grounded. 

Two-Lane Blacktop traces the path of a group of anonymously named protagonists as they make their way from one part of America to another. The film balances atop the pairing of James Taylor’s The Driver and Dennis Wilson’s The Mechanic. The two men are joined by Laurie Bird’s The Girl and compete against Warren Oates’ GTO. The plot is as slight as the script is thin, yet in Monte Hellman’s film, as per the tradition of all good road movies, it’s how we get from A to B, rather than the convolutions that punctuate the journey.

Akin to an inverted Thunder Road, prematurely born (to run) five years earlier than Springsteen’s odyssey, Hellman’s film does very little to romanticise the world being presented. Places charted off the beaten track are nary kind to out-of-staters (if not quite as unforgiving as those in Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider), and when it rains in Hellman’s America, boy does it pour.  Through Hellman’s eye the mythologised becomes real (I’m wanton to use the term “gritty”, alas that particular adjective has been run in to the ground by a Hollywood intent on proving itself something otherwise), and the spirit of the old west translated to the contemporary now. The commonalities between Hellman’s earlier work in the Western genre and here are quite explicit, with the similarities again drawing comparison to the earlier Easy Rider, a film which itself was a knowing spin on the Western. In fact, when writing on the Hopper film we were keen to point out the theoretical feat that the New Hollywood had to pull with Easy Rider, which was to overcome the Western, the prevailing old Hollywood idiom in order for it to “take” the industry. Which it did (At the time we also relished in the certain irony that it was a Western which itself brought the New Hollywood to its feet in the shape of Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate). 

Hellman’s film opens to a chorus of engines. There’s no diegetic score, no dialogue. All that can be heard stems from the engine of the films fifth “star”, the 1959 Chevy 150. It’s a beast of an automobile, raw and noisy, and quite literally breathtaking at times; it’s almost impossible not to be caught up in the scenario being presented when said scenario is presented from within the skeletal frame of the vehicle itself.  When dialogue does eventually creep on to the films sound track it is naturalistic and missive. It’s almost anti-cinematic, which is a little ironic considering the subject matter (there’s little more quite as representative of the American cinema than the open road). Elsewhere, the rattle of the car is a near constant audible element. Any exposition comes courtesy of the Warren Oates’ loudmouth GTO (named for his car). What he lacks elsewhere in his personality he more than makes up for his alienating use of the spoken word. He’s the natural home for voice of the movie, purely because his “voice” is that of one that is so ill thought of by the people that he is speaking for. His vocal accompaniment is one of pure antagonism to the message of our protagonists, yet overrides simply because the others do not speak out, either through lethargy or fear. 

Hellman’s quest to subvert the iconography of Americana is never more apparent than with one characters insistence that Coca-Cola, the drink that defined the refreshment needs of the U,S of A (and would later bring Hands Across America), is bad for you. As is all quick fix junk food, the fruit and nectar of the definitive American dining experience. Citing the idea that it makes you tired, in direct response to a sequence in which GTO can be seen aping the definitive visage of the free spirited Coke swilling, leaning-post American. 

It’s befitting that the one character that quite literally faces his mortality in Two-Lane Blacktop is James Taylor (The fact that little more than a decade later Taylor would be the only member of the core cast that still lived adds an extra poignancy). The scene of the car accident is the closest the film comes to a Hollywood-type epiphany, yet it’s debatable as to whether or not our “hero” actually takes anything from the experience. As the film closes, in silence, the roar of the Chevy’s engine long-gone, the frame literally burns in to the night, leaving Hellman’s characters alone to find their way, as appropriate a moment of closure as one might expect. 

In this weeks Eastern Premise Jason Julier takes in Akira Kurosawa’s  Sanshiro Sugata. After almost a whole year of weekly articles we finally arrive at the biggest name in Japanese cinema.

After 46 instalments it’s finally time for the arrival of Akira Kurosawa. Yes, it is long overdue but as one of the most visible and documented Japanese filmmakers I’ve really wanted to avoid adding to the wealth of material on this undeniable influential talent. Another valid reason was that the BFI was set to release his work on blu ray in during 2011. Well, the year has almost passed without sign of a release on the format and I cannot wait much longer. The BFI have managed to release another DVD boxset in the form of ‘Kurosawa: Crime Collection’, which follows the period after the film I have chosen for Eastern Premise #47.

Where to begin? To me, there is no better place than with his debut feature film Sanshiro Sugata, released in 1943 by Toho Film Studios. Having served his apprenticeship in the studio system as a scriptwriter and assistant director, Kurosawa helmed this project based on a novel from Tsuneo Tomita. It seems apt that for a director forever associated with the samurai and the intricacies of their combat, his debut film is another form of fighting but unarmed. Rivalries between two warring clans forms the cornerstone of many a Kurosawa film and in Sanshiro Sugata we follow the struggle two opposed martial arts houses.

The age of the samurai is no more but the traditions of martial arts continues, as does the almost ‘rock star’ celebrity of its most daunting exponents. This is a martial arts tale with more emphasis on the actual characters than the stunt work we associate with the genre today. Each house practices one specific martial art, namely judo or jujitsu, and engages in organised bouts to decide the champion. Susumu Fujita takes the lead role of Sanshiro, a headstrong young man looking for his purpose and direction in his life. Seeking an apprenticeship within a Jujutsu house, he observes the lead players and the dynamics of the martial art. It is during one evening when its members try to teach a rival a lesson that he sees the potential of the opposing judo discipline.

Switching sides he wins the trust of the judo house before learning the fundamentals of the art. It is only a matter of time as this new fighter builds a fearsome reputation and the local children sing his praises as a warning to all. Sanshiro then has to face his former jujitsu colleagues, before fighting their leader and overcoming the distraction of his daughter. The final showdown is with his nemesis in an illegal bout on a windswept hillside that would inspire Masaki Kobayashi’s Harakiri decades later.

It’s a startling debut and features many of the trademark features of a Kurosawa film even at this embryonic stage of his career. There is an evident ‘Western’ feel to the film, with great moments of stillness, physical prowess; the heroic champion and his use of nature and weather. Returning to the film again recently, it’s these moments of raging calmness that allow the characters to show their emotions. The title cards which assist the storyline, the sparse use of music and sounds in general, inject an almost silent film feel to drama. Kurosawa gives the stage over to his cast and they respond admirably.

The fighting sequences display great skill and confidence; changing camera speeds and the ability to communicate the power of violence without actually showing it on screen. Kurosawa himself stated that “I remember the first time I said ‘cut’ – it was as though it was not my own voice at all. From the second time on it was me alright.” This sentiment is evident as the film is very influential and the work of a confident director who knows what is required.

Sadly we’re never likely to the experience Kurosawa’s original cut of Sanshiro Sugata, as the Japanese wartime censors removed 17 minutes from the finished version. What we have is instead is the censored theatrical edition that clocks in at just under 80 minutes and in parts is evidently missing scenes. The finalised script does exist and this would not be the first time Kurosawa’s work was cut without his approval, either by the authorities or the studio itself. By making these cuts the film has a more rapid and haphazard feel, leaving the viewer with questions. Thankfully Toho Film Studios was extremely pleased with the film and encouraged Kurosawa to return only 2 years later with Sanshiro Sugata Part Two to provide a greater sense of closure.

At the time of writing Sanshiro Sugata has yet to be released in the UK. The only Western version available is part of the Criterion Collection’s ‘Eclipse 23: Akira Kurosawa’ and lacks any extras. The DVD print is not fantastic and while I’m thankful to have the opportunity to view any film while so many others from this period have been lost. I remain optimistic that the BFI will treat Kurosawa with the same respect they have shown to date with their Yasujiro Ozu releases.

]]> http://hopelies.com/2012/01/25/eastern-premise-47-sanshiro-sugata-judo-saga/feed/ 0 2 adam east 4 2 1 http://hopelies.com/2012/01/24/masters-of-cinema-quarter-two-2012-schedule/ http://hopelies.com/2012/01/24/masters-of-cinema-quarter-two-2012-schedule/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:08:01 +0000 adambatty http://hopelies.com/?p=8681 Read more]]>

It seems like only yesterday that we were praising the announcements made at the Masters Of Cinema’s Spring 2012 event. Alas this afternoon marked the boutique home video label’s declaration of intent for this years second quarter, with an eclectic bunch of flicks making an appearance. The unlikely pairing of Alfred Hitchcock and Kenji Mizoguchi kick off the second quarter of 2012 for Eureka’s Masters Of Cinema imprint, with seven films from the two directors across three releases. Elsewhere there is a Billy Wilder Double Indemnity led Double-Bill, and a veritable Charles Laughton fest in May. Also, head to the bottom of this article for an amazing competition courtesy of the guys at Eureka. 

Before we round up todays announced titles lets take a moment to recognise what will no doubt shoot straight to the head of many a cinephile’s most anticipated list. While not announcing the disc itself, the team at MoC revealed this afternoon that they had acquired the UK rights to Carl Th. Dreyer’s The Passion Of Joan Of Arc. Thus far unreleased on DVD or Blu-ray in the UK, the classic Dreyer silent film joins the likes of Vampyr and Michael (although OOP) in the MoC collection, with the mere thought of Rudolph Maté’s beautiful cinematography in 1080p almost enough to render one frothing at the mouth (and if the brief snippets of the film featured in the Criterion Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie are anything to go with then we’re certainly in for a treat; TPOJOA certainly cleans up nicely). Roll on 2013, and here’s hoping a couple of other Dreyer titles join it. 

Lifeboat – 2012 is certainly shaping up to be the year of Alfred Hitchcock. Not only are the Hitchcock 9 due to make their bow, but there is a very real chance that Hitch’s Vertigo could be named the Greatest Film Of All Time™  in the upcoming Sight & Sound decade poll. The Masters Of Cinema welcome Hitchcock in to the collection with a timely reissue of his wartime films, in a package headed up by his early Fox collaboration, Lifeboat. A wonderful little tale of “What If?” that predated The Twilight Zone by almost two decades, the Hitchcock film ably portrays the directors use of space and wit to create a tale of suspense quite like no other, essentially drawing up the blueprint for the single-location shoot in the process. Lifeboat is accompanied by a pair of wartime shorts, Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache. 

Special Features:

• New high-definition master, officially licensed from Twentieth Century Fox
• New high-definition transfers of Hitchcock’s little-seen French-language 1944 wartime films, Bon voyage (26 minutes) and Aventure malgache (31 minutes) officially licensed from the British Film Institute
• Optional English subtitles on all three films
• 20-minute documentary on the making of Lifeboat
• 12-minute excerpt from the legendary 1962 audio interviews between Hitchcock and François Truffaut, discussing Lifeboat and the wartime shorts
• PLUS: A 36-page booklet featuring archival imagery alongside new writing by critics Bill Krohn, Arthur Mas, and Martial Pisani

Lifeboat is released on Dual-Format on April 23rd.

Ugetsu Monogatari - Kenji Mizoguchi’s masterpiece makes its first appearance in high definition anywhere in the world thanks to this upgrade of an existing Masters Of Cinema DVD title. Accompanied by Oyū-sama, the package replicates the existing DVD, albeit with a brand-new HD transfer for Ugetsu Monogatari. We’ve written extensively on the film in the past, check out this essay if you’d like to know more about the film.

Special Features:

• Newly restored high-definition transfer of Ugetsu Monogatari
• Mizoguchi’s Oyū-sama (also in 1080p on the Blu-ray)
• Optional English subtitles on both features
• Tony Rayns video discussions of Ugetsu Monogatari [9:00] and Oyū-sama [13:00]
• Original Japanese and Spanish theatrical trailers for Ugetsu Monogatari
• Ugetsu Monogatari restoration demonstration
• Illustrated booklet featuring rare archival imagery and award-winning translations of the 18th century Ueda Akinari stories adapted in Ugetsu Monogatari

Ugetsu Monogatari is released on Dual-Format on April 23rd.

Sanshō Dayū and Gion Bayashi – The second Mizoguchi package is headed by Sanshō Dayū, our favourite of the directors films. While the extras package remains the same as the existing MoC DVD release, the film itself is presented in a new transfer.

Special Features:

• Newly restored high-definition transfer of Sanshō Dayū
• Mizoguchi’s Gion Bayashi (also in 1080p on the Blu-ray)
• Optional English subtitles on both features
• Tony Rayns video discussion of Sanshō Dayū [29:00] and Gion Bayashi [11:00]
• Original Japanese theatrical trailer for Sanshō Dayū and original Japanese theatrical teaser for Gion Bayashi
• Before-and-after Sanshō Dayū restoration demonstration
• Illustrated booklet featuring rare archival imagery and a full reprint of the 1915 Mori Ōgai story adapted in Sanshō Dayū

Sanshō Dayū is released on Dual-Format on April 23rd.

Island Of Lost Souls – May marks a pair of Charles Laugton led works, both of which were announced during the previous Masters Of Cinema line-up event. Erle Kenton’s Island Of Lost Souls has been bumped up from a “mere” standard definition DVD to a Dual-Format edition, which is fantastic news.  

Special Features:

• New high-definition restoration of the uncut theatrical version, officially licensed from Universal Pictures
• Newly created SDH subtitles on the feature for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Uncompressed original monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• An exclusive video piece in which horror critic and historian Jonathan Rigby discusses the film and its source novel
• Original theatrical trailer
• More extras to be announced nearer the release date
• A lavish booklet featuring rare production imagery, and more!

Island Of Lost Souls is released on Dual-Format on May 28th. 

The Ruggles Of Red Gap – The second Laughton title of May, this time with a film directed by Leo McCarey, the man behind the collection’s beautiful ode to love and time, Make Way For Tomorrow. While we’ve never seen Ruggles Of Red Gap, it promises a wholly different experience to the previous McCarey film, with this comedy of errors potentially something quite different to anything else in the MoC series thus far.

Special Features:

• Beautiful new high-definition master, officially licensed from Universal Pictures
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
• Optional music and effects track
• Ruggles on the Radio: three adaptations made for radio broadcast, all featuring Charles Laughton and Charlie Ruggles in a reprisal of their famous roles
• Laughton reciting Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, originally released as a 78-rpm record in 1937.
• PLUS: A booklet featuring rare archival imagery, and more!

The Ruggles Of Red Gap is released on Dual-Format on May 28th.

Double Indemnity – While April might belong to Hitch, June is Billy Wilder’s. A pair of the director’s finest are released on Blu-ray only, as part of MoC’s agreement with Universal Pictures.Following in the wake of their fantastic treatment of Touch Of Evil the Masters Of Cinema team turn their attention to another seminal film noir from the Universal stable. Quite possibly Billy Wilder’s most formidable hour, Double Indemnity features a legendary triptych of performances from Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson, with the release headlined by a brand new exclusively restoration by The Masters of Cinema Series.

Special Features:

• Exclusive new high-definition restoration, officially licensed from Universal Pictures
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing-impaired
• 1950 Lux Radio Theater adaptation starring Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck
• The original theatrical trailer
• More extras to be announced nearer the release date!
• PLUS: A 36-page booklet featuring rare articles, images, and more!

Double Indemnity will be released exclusively on Blu-ray June 25th. 

The Lost Weekend – A second Billy Wilder picture, and our personal favourite. Wilder’s 1945 film won the Best Picture Oscar the following year, and features one of *the* all-time great central performances from Ray Millard. Wilder and Millard were dually rewarded for their work too, making this descent in to alcoholic despair one of the great tomes on addiction in the American Cinema. As with their release of Double Indemnity, this marks the first time that The Lost Weekend will be available on Blu-ray anywhere in the world.

Special Features:

• New high-definition master, officially licensed from Universal Pictures
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
• Exclusive new video introduction by director Alex Cox
• The 1946 Screen Guild Theater radio adaptation of The Lost Weekend – starring Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, and Frankie Faylen
• The original theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring rare archival imagery, and more!

The Lost Weekend will be released exclusively on Blu-ray June 25th. 

Competition

The kind folk at Eureka have given us one copy of each of this months releases of Two-Lane Blacktop, Le Silence De La Mer and Punishment Park to give away. For a chance to win simply answer the following question, stipulating which title you would like. 

Q. Le Silence De La Mer is based on the novel by whom?

Answers to adam@hopelies.com by the end of Sunday please. 

Film Clash is back, with our first “proper” episode of 2012! Ali returns from his time in the wilderness to reveal all about his favourite films of 2011. At the centre of the episode sits Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, while elsewhere Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar is briefly looked at. 

Listen Now:

Click here to be taken to iTunes.  iTunes may take a couple of hours to update, so apologies if Episode 18 isn’t available just yet.

Click on the picture below to check out this week’s show here at Hope Lies.

As always, thanks for listening, and please feel to leave feedback whenever and wherever you possibly can! iTunes reviews are appreciated, and we can be found on twitter (@filmclashUk) and on Facebook.

Please feel free to use the comments section below to let us know if we’ve missed anything. Monday Blu(e)s and DVD’s is produced in association with Film@Home, the British Video Association’s digital hub for the promotion of Blu-ray. More information on Film@Home can be found on their Facebook page.

Disc Of The Week

Le Silence de la mer – Jean-Pierre Melville’s fantastic debut piece makes its bow in high definition, following in the footsteps of an already remarkable edition courtesy of The Masters Of Cinema label. Combining the sensibilities of literature with those of the cinema Melville’s first work is quite unlike anything else produced by the filmmaker. Supplements include a brand-new and exclusive to Blu-ray documentary on Melville, as well as those from the previous release, the highlight of which was a 20 minute video essay from personal-hero-of-Hope-Lies and Melville authority Ginette Vincendeau. 

Take advantage of Eureka’s amazing customer service by buying directly. Click here for more info. 

Two-Lane Blacktop – The Masters Of Cinema imprint continues it’s fruitful relationship with Universal with this release of Monte Hellman’s well liked Two-Lane Blacktop. While not a particular favourite of ours, Two-Lane Blacktop does feature a wonderful performance from Dennis Wilson, and the release itself is up to the sort of standards one has come to expect from MoC. It’s also available in Steelbook flavour, if you happen to be that way inclined. We’re not.

On a related note, last years MoC release of Universal’s Touch Of Evil was named the Best Single Overall Global Home Video Release of the Year by the good folk at DVDBeaver.

Click here to be taken to Eureka’s own store. 

Punishment Park – It’s apt that The Masters Of Cinema are releasing this upgraded edition of the previously DVD-released Punishment Park on the same day as Two-Lane Blacktop, as both are valuable and insightful tomes on the counter-culture (and both were produced in the same year, 1971). It sounds terribly cliché, but Peter Watkins’ scathing attack on detainment and justice policy remains as relevant today as it was over 40 years ago. 

Punishment Park can be purchased directly from MoC by clicking here. 

Liverpool - Lisandro Alonso is a new name to us here at Hope Lies at 24 Frames Per Second, but given that the recommendation comes from the venerable Second Run DVD it’s certainly a name we’ll be seeking out. To quote the blurb on the back of the release, “Liverpool was heralded at both Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals in 2008, proclaimed “one of the best undistributed films” by both INDIEWire and Film Comment, and ‘Best Film of 2008′ by CinemaScope“.

Today we welcome back new contributor Damon Carter, with his continuing adventures of the In-Defence Of kind. In this instalment Damon takes on a film considered by many to be the responsible for one of the all-time great Oscar injustices, Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump…

What’s your favourite film of 1994? Not an easy question I know. I’ll make it easier for you. Choose from the following five films. Forrest Gump, Four Weddings and A Funeral, Quiz Show, Pulp Fiction or The Shawshank Redemption. This was the line up for “Best Picture” at the Oscars in 1994, and for what it’s worth three out of the five I would count amongst my favourites of all time. Comparing movies against each other should always be an exercise where one should tread carefully. None the less it is what the Academy members do each year in the name of show business. The question I posed at the start was not a trick question with a right or wrong answer. It is simply up for debate. The point is that if you like one film more than the other it doesn’t necessarily make the film you ignored a bad film. But as time has shown Forrest Gump’s triumph in the best picture category has actually made it a more derided film thanks to its success

The role of “In Defence Of…”, from my perspective at least, is to defend films that critics have cast aspersions on. These may be small or large but we need to rid ourselves of them in order to get to the crux of the matter. Has the film been misjudged? In the case of Forrest Gump so rarely have I researched opinions on a film and found such a polarising response. This is highlighted to the fullest by John Patterson. In 2007 John Patterson published an article on The Guardian’s website titled Oscars Greatest Crimes and at number 1 was Forrest Gump:

“Forrest Gump was the perfect movie tie-in for the Gingrich takeover of Congress the same year. Like the New Right, Gump was culturally retrograde, politically reactionary and self-servingly revisionist about matters ranging from the Ku Klux Klan and Vietnam to the Black Power movement and Aids as God’s vengeance for promiscuous, citified women. Writer-director Robert Zemeckis’s message was – crudely summarised, as he’d like it – stay stupid, stay home, don’t ask questions and hate those who do. It was the biggest-grossing movie of the year, ensuring easy victory over the insurgent indie Pulp Fiction which, for all its shortcomings, was easily the most vigorous and inventive mainstream American movie of the year.” 

The Academy Awards are the most famous awards ceremony in the world. But, frequently critics have knocked the relevance of them. I mean how we can have faith in an academy that has snubbed Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and most recently Christopher Nolan in the best director category. The truth is that all film critics hate the Oscars for various reasons and we denounce their importance every year. But it doesn’t stop us getting annoyed if we sense injustice and clearly Patterson believes there has been one here.

Forrest Gump is a film that had all the right ingredients to win an Oscar. Tears, comedy, an underdog and all set to the backdrop of America’s modern history since the fifties. It also has its fair share of sentimentality and as we all know the Oscar loves that but the critics do not. There are all the moments that you would expect to be present in an uplifting American tale. We surely all roll our eyes when Jenny and Forrest cross the water in front of the Washington monument to be greeted with cheers from thousands. There are also strange statements that don’t cross the Atlantic “Life is a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get” (do they never check the miniature booklet that comes with pack?). On the face of it Forrest Gump has stupid written all over and is the celebration of an idiot. Plenty of reason for critics to not like it then.

 The story follows the character of Forrest Gump (unsurprisingly), a forty something simpleton from Alabama who decides to talk through his life story at a bus stop park bench to various strangers. Forrest’s voiceover dominates the film and is possibly one of the reasons the film annoys so many. His voice becomes quite grating and we start to feel like the person at the bus stop trying to shuffle away, but as he continues to talk we can’t help but be sucked in by his story.  We see him overcome the humiliation of having braces on his legs as a youngster to become an unbelievably fast runner which kick starts his many travels throughout the United States. On his journey he becomes a college football star, serves his country in Vietnam, wins a medal of honour, becomes a professional ping pong player, starts and ends up owning a multi million pound business, runs across America (for no particular reason), marries his high school sweetheart and becomes a father. Not bad for someone with an IQ of less than one hundred. The story rests on its lead character and his ability to engage with other characters. This enables us to meet Forrest’s mother, his girl Jenny, his likely friendship with Bubba and his unlikely friendship with Lieutenant Dan.

I’ve never met anyone like Forrest Gump in a movie before, and for that matter I’ve never seen a movie quite like “Forrest Gump.” Roger Ebert

Forrest clearly ends up leading a very eventful life, but as far as his character arc goes he doesn’t really change from within. This is a curiosity that has also puzzled many haters of the film. It’s very much against the grain for a main character to stay the same throughout. The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction both show character arc’s from its main characters that show a significant change. But it is a testament to the script and Hanks’s performance that Forrest never seems boring. Although he is clearly not very smart he seems fearless and free in ways that many other characters are not. In many ways it is refreshing to see a character that goes on an incredible journey but almost seems unmoved by the whole experience. But this is fine as for change and transformation we only have to look towards the two key relationships Forrest has with Lieutenant Dan and Jenny who undergo mental and physical changes throughout. When Lieutenant Dan first walks onto screen he commands respect and is played with equal amounts of humour, humanity and pathos by the wonderful Gary Sinise. His transformation becomes entirely believable. This is a man who believes he is destined to die and feels robbed of death and trapped in life when he is left disabled. Forrest is the one who gives him a second chance, not that he made a conscious decision to though. Forrest never shows him any pity and never loses any ounce of respect for his mentor. Lieutenant Dan realises this goodness in Forrest not when he saves his life but when he breaks down at the realisation of being a cripple. “I was Lieutenant Dan Taylor” “You still Lieutenant Dan” Forrest responds. Lieutenant Dan is almost taken back by the sincerity and admiration in Forrest’s voice. Forrest believes in his Lieutenant all the way and it is this belief that gives Lieutenant Dan the notion that his life can still be worth living. This unlikely friendship fills the screen with warmth and camaraderie when Lieutenant Dan mocks Forrest’s dream of being a shrimping boat captain. He has to eat his words when Forrest makes that dream a reality and has to become Forrest’s first mate. When Lieutenant manages to walk the final one hundred yards to Forrest’s wedding on his magic legs. It isn’t overdone and feels justified given all that the two have gone through together. This is one of the most magical of friendships ever committed to film.

The romance of the film is anything but traditional. Forrest obviously does get the girl, but their moments together are given short shrift as Jenny is a rebel and wants to be free of everything especially herself. From her troubled upbringing by a sexually abusive father she dabbles in drugs, nude photo shoots, strip shows, protesting against the war in Vietnam, encountering lowlifes and chiefly not being able to commit to anything. During the movie Forrest and us the audience want to hold onto her for longer but she is too busy running away from everything. Her character is almost complete counterpoint to Forrest. Forrest is stupid but has a knack of making wise choices. Jenny is smart but has a knack of doing stupid things. This very feature has been used to pronounce the film as very conservative with The National Review featuring Forrest Gump as one of the best one-hundred conservative movies of all time.

“…the title character, an amiable dunce who is far too smart to embrace the lethal values of the 1960s. The love of his life, wonderfully played by Robin Wright Penn, chooses a different path; she becomes a drug-addled hippie, with disastrous results”

The disastrous results being when Jenny succumbs to an unnamed virus (Most critics agree that the virus is Aids but whatever it is, is irrelevant) Jennifer Hyland Wang also argued that Curran’s demise:

 “…symbolizes the death of liberal America and the death of the protests that defined a decade [1960s].”

A conservative viewpoint would lend itself to Jenny being punished for her promiscuous lifestyle but that would be to attach meaning where none was present.

If we think back to Patterson’s earlier criticism of the film, it is mainly about the political standpoint of the movie and not necessarily to do with the film at all. He would much rather have seen the obviously non-political Pulp Fiction having been championed at the Oscars. It is here where we can most easily identify Forrest Gump’s ability to create a dichotomy.

Tom Hanks was quoted as saying “the film is non-political and thus non-judgemental” As the film’s success gathered pace, many conservative figures (including Bob Dole who referenced the film in his campaign for presidency in 1996) adopted the movie as their own and opposers to this belief quickly denounced it’s so called right-wing strengths giving them free reign to attack the film. It was clear that the film had touched a nerve with some people. But which one is less clear. Hanks assertion that the film is non political seems to be entirely strong. Throughout the film Zemeckis places many cultural reference points so that we know what era we are in. Forrest is spliced into history in a very real sense and none more so do we get an idea of Forrest’s political standpoint than when George Wallace infamously stands in front of a school door to two black students. Vivian Malone Jones drops her book and Forrest being Forrest simply tells her she dropped it and gives it her. It could easily be seen as a grand political statement and in many ways it is. But for Forrest this was the simple act of telling another human being that they had dropped something. Forrest doesn’t understand politics or prejudice and has enough trouble trying to figure out the rest of the world. Even when in Vietnam he is merely shooting at the enemy he only has time to think about all the people he cares about. It is admittedly a conveniently simplistic viewpoint but he is a simple character. Even at the end of the scene Forrest gives his trademark wave as a symbol to how he is confused by everybody’s reaction to him. Forrest Gump leans in neither direction but those on the right or left will naturally attach meaning to moments in the film based on their own ideals. But Forrest Gump(both character and  movie) leans in neither political direction. Zemeckis is not trying to shroud scenes in metaphor; he simply uses major historical moments to place the viewer in the moment. Chiefly though it’s played for comic value of which Zemeckis has always had an eye for. According to this story Forrest opened the can of worms of the Watergate scandal, created the “shit happens” slogan and is picking up royalties for every time an IPod is bought. We don’t take this seriously it is just good fun and makes us laugh. Zemeckis has previous experience with this particularly in his Back To The Future movies where he plays around with the origins of the skateboard, rock and roll and even mocks reality when Marty McFly reveals thirty years earlier that an actor will be president someday. It is safe to say that Forrest Gump is free from any political stance so to attack it on this basis would seem harsh. It is also harsh to claim the film as self servingly revisionist. This is after all a work of fiction and makes no bold claims that Forrest Gump ever existed and had any real effect on the moments he encounters.

As a movie Forrest Gump feels very unique at the same time as managing to somehow feel hugely familiar. Gone is a traditional three act structure replaced with a more episodic feel as we span the decades of time. A main character that says very little and doesn’t change very much. A romance where the main character only gets the girl for a short while.

Forrest Gump has worked its way into popular culture. “Run Forrest Run” is now shorthand for anyone mocking another person’s running ability (see Fight Club). Also in Tropic Thunder, where Ben stiller demonstrates why Tom Hanks performance was so good when cynically learning that you never go full retard in a movie. The story is engaging and involving with each performance from the actors pitch perfect. Tom Hanks gives Forrest the correct amount of innocence and dumbness to make him lovable and hilarious from scene to scene. Some of the most hilarious are when he addresses his drill sergeant at boot camp (“To do whatever you tell me drill sergeant”) and some of the more sadder when he addresses his loved ones gravestones.. Robin Wright Penn shows us all the beauty, charm and troubled past to recognise Forrest’s love and loyalty to her whilst being very much aware of her own self destruct button. Gary Sinise is magnificent as a proud lieutenant who is broken and brought back to life with the help of his friend. The movie is free from cynicism and doesn’t shirk the events of America’s troubled times. It does not celebrate being stupid and does not champion being clever. It is an originally uplifting tale which is mistakenly criticised for having political leanings. These political leanings will only come to the fore if they sit so presently in the viewer. It is simply about a man who rather than sit at home and watch the world pass him by decides to get out and run. He meets life head on and soaks it all up. There’s nothing political in that. Just the beauty of life passing before our eyes. Did it deserve to win that Oscar in 1994? Who knows? Does it deserved to be enjoyed again. Definitely.

Charlie Chaplin. The Little Tramp. Charlot. Regardless of what name you know him by, the chances are that you do know of him. Without a hint of hyperbole intended it’s not much of an overstatement to suggest that Chaplin was quite probably the most famous man of the first half of the 20th century. Speaking from the perspective of a 21st century dweller, whose birth fell some years after the death of Charlot it’s hard to actually consider that the man ever actually existed, and is more akin to the likes of Mickey Mouse, Philip Marlowe or Atticus Finch in the realms of the great American popular culture than any “real” person. To once again quote the often quoted (at Hope Lies at 24 Frames Per Second at least) André Bazin piece on Chaplin, “CHAPLIN IS A MYTHICAL CREATURE”, and quite simply declared Chaplin to be “A MAN BEYOND THE REALMS OF THE SACRED”. And this was while Chaplin still lived.

In celebration of the life and works of one of the cinemas great figures Hope Lies at 24 Frames will be taking a week long look at the man’s creative output. From the early Keystone comedies, through to his often-forgotten final directorial outing A Countess From Hong Kong, via an exploration of the mechanics of the auteur (citing Chaplin’s 1942 redux cut of The Gold Rush), we look forward to taking a fresh look at a landmark of the early cinema.