Showing posts with label arthouse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arthouse. Show all posts
5 October 2014
Jarmusch Collection Blu-ray Review - Down By Law (1986)
Genre:
Drama, Comedy
Distributor:
Soda Pictures
BD Release Date:
6th October 2014 (UK)
Rating: 18
Director:
Jim Jarmusch
Cast:
Tom Waits, John Lurie, Roberto Benigni
Buy:Jim Jarmusch Box Set [Blu-ray]
Down by Law was Jim Jarmusch’s third film, his best and most popular. It was also recently re-released in the UK cinemas. Jarmusch’s most ambitious film to date, it marked the beginning of a long collaboration with the cinematographer Robby Müller. It’s an absurdist noir black comedy and remains the only film Jarmusch has used “American money” in it’s funding.
The story concerns three different men who are unknown to each other until they are thrown into jail together in New Orleans. Zack (Tom Waits) is a disk jockey, Jack (John Lurie) is a smalltime pimp, and both are innocent of the crimes they are imprisoned for. Their cellmate is Bob (Roberto Benigni), an Italian tourist who is imprisoned for manslaughter. They eventually hatch a plan to escape and end up in the swamps of the New Orleans Bayou.
Tom Waits, who was almost always a bit player, gets a co-lead here and you really get to see how good actor he can be. John Lurie is great as well and it’s a shame he hasn’t done much acting work since the 80s except some work on the TV show OZ, although this is partly down to illness. Benigni, however, steals the film: he gets all the biggest laughs, his character constantly misunderstands his cellmates to hilarious effect.
Robby Müller, one of the world’s best directors of photography from the 1970s to the early 2000s, shot Down By Law. He hasn’t shot a film in over 10 years, but his influence it still felt around the world. Down by Law contains some of Müller’s best work, the scenes in the Bayou are absolutely beautiful. The nearest comparison would be some of the scenes in Tarkovsky’s first film Ivan’s Childhood. He would end up working with Jarmusch on all his features up to and including Ghost Dog, with the exception of Night on Earth.
Almost 30 years after its release, Down By Law remains a high water mark of Independent cinema, and also of Jim Jarmusch’s career. It’s a surreal farcical trip and even on second and third viewings it still works its strange charm on you. It’s also full of great performances and a great soundtrack supplied by Tom Waits and John Lurie.
The film’s transfer onto Blu-Ray, from what I gather, comes from the same masters as the Criterion Blu-Ray. It looks the best I’ve ever seen, it’s crystal clear throughout but regains the right amount of film grain. The disc features a series of phone calls Jarmusch made to the cast for the original Criterion DVD which are funny and insightful regarding the film and their relationship.
★★★★★
Ian Schultz
13 September 2014
25 August 2014
3 August 2014
19 June 2014
18 June 2014
12 May 2014
10 May 2014
1 April 2014
28 March 2014
1 March 2014
DVD Review - For Those In Peril (2013)
Genre:
Drama
Distributor:
Soda Pictures
Rating: 18
DVD Release Date:
3rd March 2014 (UK)
Director:
Paul Wright
Cast:
George McKay, Nichola Burley, Katie Dickie, Michael Smiley
Buy: For Those In Peril [DVD]
British cinema has long since been known for its realist aesthetic with directors such as Ken Loach (Kes, Raining Stones, and Ladybird, Ladybird) and Mike Leigh (Life Is Sweet, Naked, and Secrets & Lies) working at the forefront of our national cinema within a social realist idiom. In more recent years, with Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher and Andrea Arnold’s more recent Fish Tank springing to mind, the traditional realist mode as changed context and become more poetic in its form. And now we have Paul Wright, whose debut feature For Those in Peril uses local folklore to transcend the boundaries of realist cinema and imbue his story with a sense of magic.
The film concerns itself with the guilt and need for redemption that take their toll on Aaron (George Mackay), the lone survivor of a fishing accident that claimed the lives of several young men including his own brother. With the local townsfolk of the remote Scottish fishing community in which he resides either blaming him or resenting him for being the only one to return, and with his only solace coming from his mother (played by the excellent Kate Dickie) and his dead brother’s girlfriend Jane (Nichola Burley), Aaron retreats into his own world. With the conviction that his brother is still alive and after taking literally the fable his mother used to tell him as a child, he sets out to rescue his brother from the belly of the monster at the bottom of the sea.
My initial reaction when I watched the film was that the use of folklore to lift the film into the realms of magical realism was, as other critics have been eager to point out, a major misjudgement that diverts our attention away from the films compassionate and intense psychological core. But upon reflection the real problem isn’t anything to do with the films magical elements but more to do with the 18 certificate given to the film, because this film does work as a children’s fable, albeit a dark one, that should be made available for a younger audience. For while the film still has its problems, namely the credibility of the townsfolk’s resentment of Aaron, the film is an ambitious debut that deserves to sit alongside Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher, Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant, and Ken Loach’s Sweet Sixteen as a children’s film that has fallen foul of the BBFC’s rating system.
Shane James
22 January 2014
11 January 2014
Win Kelly + Victor On DVD
The surprise critical British independent film Kelly + Victor will be released this Monday, 13th January on DVD and Bluray. We have teamed up with Verve Pictures and have 3 copies of the film on DVD up for grabs.
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When Kelly (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) meets Victor (Julian Morris) on the dance floor of a Liverpool nightclub, the attraction is instant. After wandering through the night they find themselves at her flat, making love with a passion and urgency that neither had experienced before. Both Kelly and Victor are struggling to get by as best they can, while the people around them are choosing illegal lifestyles; she is escaping a brutish former lover, while he is being dragged into a world of drugs. It’s when they make love that their darker instincts take over.
Directed by Kieran Evans, Kelly+Victor is a devastating story of obsessive love anchored by two complex but tender performances.To win Kelly + Victor please answer the following question...
Q.What BAFTA was Kelly + Victor nominated for Along with Shell Earlier this week for ?
Deadline is 2nd February 2014 (23:59pm),If you haven’t done already Like us and stay with us at our Facebook page (if you are already liking us just share this post on twitter and facebook). Must be 18 or older to enter.
1.The competition is not opened to employees, family, friends of The Peoples Movies, Cinehouse, Verve Pictures employees who have the right to alter, change or offer alternative prize without any notice.2.All The Peoples Movies entries must be done via contact form. deadline Sunday(23:59pm) 12 years or older to enter 3.Failure to include any information required to enter could result in your entry been void. 4.automated entries are not allowed and will be disqualified, which could result you been banned, DO NOT INCLUDE telephone numbers as for security reason your entry will be deleted.5.If you are friend or like us at facebook for every competition you enter you get double entry, but you must stay friend/like us all the time,or future entries maybe considered one entry if you are liking us share the post on facebook and re-tweet the post.6.The Peoples Movies, Cinehouse takes no responsibility for delayed, lost, stolen prizes 7.Prizes may take from days to a few months for delivery which is out of our control so please do not complain 8.The winning entries will be picked at random and contacted by email for postal details and will be announced via facebook, sometimes we are unable to confirm winners. Uk & Irish entries only.
UK Competitions and Prize Draws at UKwins
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ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions
30 December 2013
DVD Review - Upstream Colour
Genre:
Sci-fi, Drama, Arthouse
Distributor:
Metrodome Distribution
Rating:
15
BD/DVD Release Date:
30th December 2013 (UK)
Director:
Shane Carruth
Cast:
Amy Seimetz, Frank Mosley, Shane Carruth
Buy Upstream Colour:
[DVD]
or [Blu-ray]
[Amazon]Upstream Color is without a doubt the strangest film of 2013 and there have been some strange films this year. It’s the 2nd film by Shane Carruth who made a splash in the indie world 9 years ago with the incredibly overrated Primer which was made for $7,000 but it was unnecessarily complex for it’s own good. Carruth worked on a highly ambitious science fiction epic for the years in-between films but it eventually gave up due to lack of funding.
The film starts with a woman being tasered and kidnapped by a man called “The Thief” in the credits. She is under his mind control and forfeits her money to him and she is only allowed to small portions of water. The Thief performs surgery on her which involves putting a live roundworm in her which has blue tinged orchid leaves dust in it which infects her system.
She awakes and the roundworm is attracted by infrasound waves and she goes to a pig farmer/field recorder’s farm in trance. The farmer performs a transfer of the worm into one of his pig’s. She awakes and has no memory of what happened in her SUV. The woman finally realizes that all her money has been stolen and her employer fires her.
The film picks up a year later and she meets a man on a train (played by the director) and they bond and fall in love. They may have more in common than they initially thought. It then becomes increasingly stranger and stranger.
Carruth literally served as director, writer, producer, actor, cinematographer, editor, composer, casting director, production designer and sound designer… take that Orson Welles! His cinematography is reminiscent of the recent Terrence Malick films at times. The sound design is outstanding which he won a special jury award at Sundance for his sound design. Carruth is being a very talented director and he has the makings of a real auteur but give it a couple more films before calling him one.
It’s a very admirable film even though it’s extremely pretentious at times and utterly baffling. Despite some of the film’s problems it’s a breath of fresh air in a time of endless sequels and comic book films than somebody makes a film this out there. I don’t full understand what the film is about and it’s quite possibly Carruth himself doesn’t. It’s a pretty unforgettable film with plenty of ideas and an endlessly fascinating story that surprisingly wraps itself up in the end. There are still many unanswered questions and people will debate them for years to come.
Ian Schultz
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