2008 Survey: Cinema

Like Music a couple of years before hand, the act of watching films became kinda fragmented this year. It was hard to know what you were meant to be looking at with cinemas, dvds (bought or rentals delivered straight to your door), online media layers (such as iPlayer [bbc.co.uk/iplayer] — every country should have one — and Criterion’s new website [criterion.com]) and a whole cacophony of formats to download all vying for our attentions. Knowing what to watch and where became a science in itself, so we enlisted the help of friends and friendly critics to guide us through the cine mire like the Little White Lies reviewers, with their 3-teired reviews system [littlewhitelies.co.uk/reviews] or dyed-in-the-wool cinegeeks like Mark Kermode [bbc.co.uk/fivelive].
 
Mainstream cinema started loosing out, just as the record industry had before it, to people with minds of their own making choices outside the narrow margins of the over-marketed Hollywood bilge spewing forth from the multiplexes. Cinema became more and more about personal journeys and sharing these with yer mates. I delved into the realm of narrated documentaries about London. The film I got most excited about in 2008 was Patrick Keiller’s London [iMDB].
 
I always find the ‘funest’ thing about watching any mainstream Hollywood film is in etching out it’s sociological subtext. What with Hollywood spending less on innovation and seeming to lock down cinema distribution even more this year, America’s core propaganda machine (cause most Hollywood film are essentially propagating American’s narrow world view) only helped highlight the slow crappy death throws of the last of the ’super powers’ — a term the country invented and then gave it to themselves to let everyone know that’s what they were (note past tense).
 
Anyhoo, subtext and blatant anti-mainstream Americanism aside Fantasy was huge this year. Gone were the bleak dystopian visions of previous years (V for Vendetta, Children of Men etc) in favour of grander, glitzier and altogether more ‘jolly’ vistas… stand up Wall•E and Nunu’s The Day the Earth Stood Still. 2008 saw the preview of a new type of British film too that followed similar themes involving grand dystopian fantasies although in a completely unique way. If Franklyn isn’t the film mainstream cinema-goers are flocking to see when it’s finally released this year, then that’ll be your proof something seriously rotten going on with cinema distribution in the UK.
 
And now, in an effort to keep the waffle to a minimum – oops too late, here is the list…

Franklyn [YouTube]
— The time for British film to step out of the shadows of it’s American counterparts is long gone but Franklyn is a exception to the rule. It may be mimicking Hollywood’s love of CGI heavy fantastic fantasy pieces but it’s a film imbued with enough appropriate style, intelligence and complexity to stand out from it’s peers. Plus it’s great to see the gritty and gothic old London town that tourist flock to see turned up to eleven.

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Accident [YouTube]
— I was going to put seeing Modesty Blaise at the BFI as my second choice but it’s like my most favourite film ever anyway so instead I’ve included Accident. Same director, same actor, same era, completely different film. It’s kind of spooky that the same year I discovered the Losey-Pinter-Bogarde triangle was the same year that Harold Pinter sadly passed away. What I’ve nick-named the Losey-Pinter-Bogarde triangle refers to a couple of very British films directed by Joseph Losey, written by Harold Pinter and starring Dirk Bogarde – Accident and The Servant (Losey and Pinter also collaborated on The Go-Between sans Bogarde). Whereas The Servant uses highly expressive angles and obvious set-ups, Accident is deliberately quieter, and hence more sinister by contrast, leading you up the proverbial garden path into a very private little world, before dumping you on the road outside the gates in amongst the traffic at the very end. It’s both curious and thrilling at the same time.

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The Fall [YouTube]
— I always thought The Cell was kind of under-rated. In a way, it was a shame they had to stuff it into the serial killer category. Visually, there’s not much else like it, so I was kind of excited to see what director Tarsem Singh would follow it up with and The Fall did not disappoint. What it lacks in tension, it makes up for in story. Again fantasy was massive this year and The Fall was a welcome break from the glossy tack, message leaden films that caused some serious cinema bloat this year.

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Be Kind Rewind [YouTube]
— What’s not to like… okay, there’s Jack Black… okay, it’s kind of schmatzy… hey I forgave it though. Did you? More interesting was Michel Gondry’s idea that if more non-actor type people were in the film then more non-actor type people will like it, which he acted upon by involving as many bystanders to contribute to the film as possible, creating a new fake realness… or something. It’s confusing when you think about it, but in a good way. I love the DVD extras too where Mia Farrow is talking about joining a dating website. A classic DVD extra, there.

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The Orphanage [YouTube]
— The Orphanage was shit scary. I jumped several times. Without having to go anywhere near any of that nasty, gritty ‘torture porn’ nonsense either (and Spain has been producing it’s own fair share of that sort of thing lately too). Ultimately, The Orphanage finds the right balance between smart and scary and is a lesson many modern horror movie makers could learn from.

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Cashback [YouTube]
— Looking at the work of photographer turned film maker, Sean Ellis, you’d think his first feature film would be more science fictiony or something, so it was a neat surprise to find him producing a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story set in Whitechapel Sainsbury’s. Cashback is a cheeky little film shot through with lush, in-camera effects and loads of, er, naked bossoms… I was going to say ‘boobs’ but that sounds all shades of wrong. This is when you get the ’semi-autobiographical’ part of the film and luckily doesn’t detract from it’s charm… it will be an element you’ll find hard to scrub from yer mind’s eye though (and I’m not even a straighty)… there are a lot of boobs. Still, a good film that deserved a wider audience.

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London [linefeed/953]
— The film has been out for a while and on my list of things to see for just a long, especially after reading that it was part of the inspiration behind Saint Etienne’s London extravaganza, ‘Finisterre‘. It wasn’t until this year that I actually got hold of a copy. Needless to say it’s a excellent. Perfect lazy Sunday viewing. I’ve banged on about it enough, see the linefeed entry above for more about it.

Other films I caught this year that I’d like recommend to you and yours include: No Country for Old Men — Natch / Jar City — Wierdy beardy Icelandic policeman eats whole sheeps heads. Eewwe! / Happy-go-Lucky — She’s mostly annoyingly happy but her driving instructor is decidedly not. Nice companion piece to… / Naked — Re-released on DVD this year. Must see Mike Leigh. Warning: It will make you feel bad / The Diving Bell & The Butterfly — Not for the weak willed – not even my usual fare – but rewarding nonetheless / The Children — Everyone loves evil children don’t they? Especially when Mum and Dad are sad sack Waitrose-a-holics. But they can’t help it. They’re ill. / Phase IV — Saul Bass’s 1970s foray into ant-based science fiction. Just. Plain. Weird.