Indie-credible: Film festival brings a wealth of indie talent to Cornwall

Emma Farley casts her eye over the latest happenings from the indie movie scene...

Living in Cornwall and being an indie fan isn’t an easy task. Very few independent films make their way down to my neck of the woods, which is why I am proud to be on the committee of the Penwith Film Society (I have a say in the films that are shown in my cinema) and why I am grateful for the Cornwall Film Festival. For once, the new indie releases will be shown on time pretty close to home. I have been crazy busy this week with preparations for the festival and trying to balance it with the day job so this week’s indie-credible is just a shout out about the indie releases you need to check out in the next week. And please, show some love for your own local film festival and tell me what’s so awesome about it in the comments section.


New releases:

In cinemas now – Let Me In, Another Year, Mammoth

Three awesome indie films are opening in cinemas this week; two of which will be playing in my area courtesy of the Cornwall Film Festival next week. Let Me In has surprised me with its popularity, both with audiences and critics. I’m usually against Hollywood remakes of successful foreign films but Matt Reeves’ vampire flick has enough of an indie edge make me give it the benefit of the doubt. For those of you not in the know, it is adapted from the Swedish novel Let the Right One In and is about a boy who is bullied and finds a friend in a girl who just happens to be a vampire. Of course, there’s a helluva lot more to it than that.

“Horror film, serial killer drama, revenge fantasy, or coming-of-age romance, Let Me In succeeds whichever way you want to look at it.” - Simon Reynolds, Digital Spy

Another Year, Mike Leigh’s latest dramedy, stars Jim Broadbent, Leslie Manville and Ruth Sheen in a film about love, relationships and friendships. The film follows an old married couple throughout one year in their life and the people who come and go. In an era where British cinemas are dominated by Hollywood blockbusters, it’s reassuring to know that filmmakers like Leigh can still make an impact.

“Makes you appreciate that there are still a few people out there for whom film is still a worthy artistic expression.” - Laremy Legel, film.com

Lukas Moodysson’s art house film Mammoth features indie darling Michelle Williams and world cinema favourite Gael Garcia Bernal as a married couple who are dealing with a long distance relationship while the husband is working in Thailand.

“A remarkably subtle exploration of family in a time of capitalism.” - Christopher Null, filmcritic.com

Out on DVD Monday 25th October – Moulin Rouge (BD), Romeo + Juliet (BD)

The DVD highlights for me this week are the Blu-ray editions of Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet. There are few films as well written, beautifully shot and passionately acted as these, and they feature some pretty incredible on-screen couples. My DVD buying habits have been a bit excessive lately so I’ve had to resort to putting these on the old Christmas list.

I hate having to wait


Emma Farley a.k.a. filmgeek

Movies... For Free! House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Showcasing classic movies that have fallen out of copyright and are available freely from the public domain (with streaming video!)...


House on Haunted Hill, 1959.

Directed by William Castle.
Starring Vincent Price, Carolyn Craig, Richard Long, Elisha Cook Jr., Carol Ohmart, Alan Marshal and Julie Mitchum.

A low-budget b-movie horror from 1959, William Castle's House on Haunted Hill stars Vincent Price as eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren, who invites five random strangers to attend a party for his fourth wife Annabelle (Carolyn Craig). Loren then offers them a proposal: to spend a night in his haunted mansion - the location of a series of brutal murders - in return for $10,000 each, payable upon their survival. Warning the guests that their host is psychotic, Annabelle soon commits suicide and the strangers begin to experience a series of macabre events with no means of escape from the terror...

Director Castle employed a unique promotional gimmick known as 'Emergo' during the film's original theatrical run, which utilised a pulley system to frighten the audience by dragging a plastic skeleton above their heads. House on Haunted Hill proved to be a huge financial success and prompted Alfred Hitchcock to develop a low-budget horror of his own, resulting in the 1960 classic Psycho, while it was also the subject of a remake in 1999 starring Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen.


Embed courtesy of Internet Archive.

Click here to view all entries in our Movies... For Free! collection.

More Thoughts on... The Social Network (2010)

The Social Network, 2010.

Directed by David Fincher.
Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Brenda Song, Rooney Mara, Armie Hammer and Max Minghella.


SYNOPSIS:

A biopic on Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of popular social networking site Facebook.


“Who on earth would want to make a film about Facebook?” was my first remark upon hearing the popular social networking site was having its story told on the big screen. My thinking was that a group of geeks and nerds masturbating over their motherboards and electronic code with the eventual goal of creating something that people could use to let their friends know they have fed their cat and are now eating hobnobs seemed absolutely shite. Even when I saw the trailer and it’s slick production value I couldn’t have cared less. That is until I saw one name – David Fincher. “It’s made by Fincher?” I exclaimed. “Shit! I’m going to have to watch this.”

I must confess that I am a massive fan of Mr. Fincher. Fight Club is a film that blew my mind as 16 year old as it was so clever, dark and the twist was one that I could never see coming in a million years. I was mesmerized by the story and the method by which it was told, so for that reason it is one DVD that will never gather dust on my shelf. The Game and Seven are also two fantastic films that captured my imagination and, more recently, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button moved me to the verge of tears. So… I had to see The Social Network.

The Social Network is the story of Facebook’s creator, Mark Zuckerberg, as he takes the idea of an electronic social network from a seed through to its one-millionth member. Throughout the film we cut back and forth between the two legal battles being fought against Zuckerberg by his former best friend and first investor, Eduardo, and the three guys who claim Zuckerberg stole their idea. How closely based it is upon Zuckerberg’s real story is unsure since the world’s youngest billionaire has distanced himself from the project, but it doesn’t matter. The film is brilliant. Despite the cutting back and forth between two lawsuits that consist of Zuckerberg sat wearing socks and sandals at a table with several lawyers constantly arguing, the film never slows.

I was engaged right from the very start when Zuckerberg’s rude, ignorant and condescending conversation with his girlfriend leads to her breaking up with him. I was still engaged come the very end when Facebook achieved it’s one-millionth member and Zuckerberg had managed to alienate every single friend he ever had. There’s something about Fincher’s slick and slightly dark style of directing that keeps me enthralled in all of his films. This is no different. The Social Network really is a slick film and whispers in Hollywood are suggesting possible Oscar nominations.

Acknowledgement must go to Aaron Sorkin’s script as it ticks along nicely and gives you enough time with Zuckerberg to see his loneliness and resentment for others without spending too long watching him sat on his own. Zuckerberg’s clever wit flows beautifully despite the sheer number of immensely complicated words he strings into his clever sentences.

Jesse Eisenberg plays Zuckerberg exactly as I would expect a billionaire computer nerd to act and he gives a great portrayal of a kid who has absolutely no social skills. The harder he tries to make friends, the less he has. It must be said that this film could well have been a bore-fest with any other combination of filmmakers, but Sorkin and Fincher have nailed it with the help of Eisenberg.

The Social Network is a story of success, friendship and how one will ruin the other. To be successful Zuckerberg must forsake his one true friend Eduardo and despite the website hitting its one-millionth member the loneliness felt by Zuckerberg is so brilliantly subtle and so very tragic. I could easily watch The Social Network again immediately.

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D.J. Haza

Movie Review Archive

Five Essential... Bruce Willis Films

Tom Jolliffe selects his Five Essential Bruce Willis films…

By the time the 80’s were in full swing, the muscle bound action hero era was at the forefront of blockbuster movies. Stallone was in his pomp, and so to was Arnold. The mono-syllabic tough guys with square jaws, rippling 12 packs and far more baby oil on their bods than is actually required, reigned supreme. Still, by the time the 80’s were heading to a close, it was clear there was room in the market for a few everyman tough guys to offer a slightly more relatable hero, a more sympathetic hero, and a more vulnerable hero.

As well as Mel Gibson, who became synonymous as the deranged Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon, even more successful was Bruce Willis, who threw his hat into the action ring in 1988. However, though he’s fired many a gun and set off many an explosion, Bruce Willis has successfully ventured into many genres and taken some well calculated risks over the years with young up and coming film-makers. Turkey’s aside, Willis has a career that has largely entertained and offered diversity. Here is the essential Bruce Willis!

5. The Last Boy Scout (1991, dir. Tony Scott)

A total guilty pleasure. Willis offers us a darker version of John McClane. As Hallenbeck he’s an outright bum, a shit, and a burnout who has to pull himself out of the gutter to solve his latest case, aided by comedy sidekick Damon Wayans. Last Boy Scout is pure excess. It’s one-liners aplenty, style over substance (thanks to Tony Scott’s visuals-first approach), and with some excellent action set pieces. Willis is superb and his deadpan delivery is hilarious. Willis and Wayans bounce off each other brilliantly, while Shane Black's script is stock full of brilliant black humour.





4. The Sixth Sense (1999, dir. M. Night Shyamalan)

Before M Night Shyamalan disappeared up his own backside, he introduced himself to the world with this brilliant film about a boy who sees dead people. It’s a film reliant so much on it’s young star, Haley Joel Osment, as well as Bruce Willis. The two hold the film magnificently. While the film may lose a little once the twist is revealed, it is still very well made, and impeccably acted. The only downside following its release was that it started a whole spate of “twist” films in the first years of the new millennium. M Night has also failed to come close to equaling this since, and his films of late have been woeful.




3. Twelve Monkeys (1995, dir. Terry Gilliam)

A fantastic science fiction film from Terry Gilliam. This is the crazy Python stalwart at his best. The film is well designed and challenging, and Willis proved here that he’s a great actor, not just a movie star. Brad Pitt also shines in a role which earned him an Oscar nomination. The film looks great, opting for a bleak, cold and grimy view of the future. Gilliam’s attention to detail is put to good use to create one of the best sci-fi movies of the last two decades.






2. Pulp Fiction (1994, dir. Quentin Tarantino)

Following such a brilliant first film like Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino had an uphill task even coming close to repeating his success in his sophomore effort. However, with great aplomb, he manages to match it toe-to-toe. Many will in fact stand rigidly in the corner of Pulp Fiction as QT’s best work, though I’m still too much in love with Reservoir Dogs to ever switch corners. There are so many standout roles in this piece, and the award plaudits headed the way of Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta and Uma Thurman. In any other film Willis’ performance could have earned him an Oscar nomination. He’s superb here, making full use of his screen time. The film is a work of genius, which as yet, Tarantino has not come even close to matching since.


1. Die Hard (1988, dir. John McTiernan)

The career defining role of Bruce Willis. Die Hard is quite possibly the best action film ever made. It’s fantastic! Why? Well it’s got it all! It’s got awesome set pieces, the best action hero ever, the best bad guy ever, the best henchman ever, the best douche-bag reporter ever, the best incompetent chief ever, the best partner who protagonist never meets ever, the best slime ball with eyes on lead's wife ever, and the best FBI partnership ever! The humour is simple and brilliant. The film is consistently funny, with great gags, without even trying too hard. The film has a lot of great set ups and pay offs (the bare feet, the watch). But best of all is the pitting of the wise-cracking monkey in the wrench, Bruce Willis, against the sharp suited criminal mastermind, Alan Rickman. Die Hard is infinitely repeatable, with new brilliant subtleties to be unearthed with every re-watch. Action movie perfection.


Honourable Mentions...

The Fifth Element, Die Hard 2, Die Hard With A Vengeance, Die Hard 4.0, Sin City and Hudson Hawk (nah, just kidding!).

Agree? Disagree? We'd love to hear your comments...

Tom Jolliffe

Essentials Archive

54th BFI London Film Festival: 127 Hours (2010)

127 Hours, 2010.

Directed by Danny Boyle.
Starring James Franco, Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn, Clémence Poésy and Lizzy Caplan.


SYNOPSIS:

The true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston, who found himself trapped by a boulder for five days in May 2003.


Slumdog Millionaire had phenomenal success, winning eight Oscars and seven BAFTA’s to name just a few awards it picked up. So how do the same filmmaking team follow up a movie that has literally won everything? Danny Boyle (director) and Simon Beaufoy (writer) give you... 127 Hours.

Based on Aron Ralston’s book Between a Rock and a Hard Place, the film details his horrific ordeal whilst climbing a canyon in Utah. He falls down a crevasse and his right arm gets trapped by a loose boulder that pins him down in the crack of an awesomely desolate valley. Aron, being a self-confessed ‘hard nut’, goes on his adventure without notifying anybody of his whereabouts, something that it quite humourously dealt with at the end of the film: “Aron now leaves a note letting people know where he is going”.

Boyle expertly takes the audience in to the ‘situation’ Aron (played very well by James Franco) finds himself in. In a few films that are quite claustrophobic audiences feel threatened by the scenarios, but as well as that in 127 Hours I found myself constantly thinking ‘what would I do in this situation?’ after every attempt Aron makes to try and free himself. His final option, which many already know, is still done in highly dramatic and real fashion. There have been reports that several people have fainted during the scene where he frees himself, and in an interview with TXT Movie Club Boyle says “The danger is that it becomes the be all and end all of seeing the movie. What follows is a moment of redemption where he enters into the sunlight. People should see it in that context. I hope it doesn’t put people off who feel that they might get too distressed by it. It’s not distressing in that sense, but it is intense.”

The film has a similar feel to the recent released Buried starring Ryan Reynolds. Both protagonists find themselves trapped in seemingly inescapable positions, the only difference is that Boyle mixes things up a bit. I’m not taking anything away from Buried, I thoroughly enjoyed that film, nor am I comparing it directly to 127 Hours. But Boyle uses flash backs, hallucinations and a range of creative camera angles to liven up what has the potential to be a boring sequence of events. Seeing someone trapped for a long while, there is only so much you can do with a brief like that to work from, but Boyle’s flair is tried and tested here - and it passes with flying colours.

Another interesting dimension added to the dilemma is Aron’s humour. He has with him a camcorder and a digital camera (which he uses to take a photo of an important possession he leaves behind when he escapes). He records videos for his family should he not make it back and makes funny remarks to help keep his spirits up. Either through humour or insanity he also mock interviews himself, even saying “you didn’t even tell anyone where you were going? Oops!” If these video recordings are indeed based on the Ralston’s actual messages then it really does show his inner strength.

Danny Boyle teams up with two cinematographers on this film, one of whom he has worked with before on Slumdog. Slumdog had a dazzling array of bright colours in a lot of scenes that were captured beautifully, and in 127 Hours there is one colour that is dominant - orange. Rich orange covers the terrain that Aron explores and although it is a dominant feature it is not over baring. The battle of man vs nature is portrayed excellently and the aerial shots of the canyon really emphasise its beauty, vastness and unpredictability.

Overall the film is gripping, more funny than I thought it would be, thought provoking and it has a powerful ending with shots of the real Aron and his young family. Boyle can again add another film to his consistently great filmography.

Jon Dudley is a freelance film and television journalist and his 17-minute short film Justification was shown at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

Movie Review Archive

Special Features - A conversation with producer Daniel Pleacoff

Jon Dudley interviews Daniel Pleacoff, producer of Treasure of the Black Jaguar...


Tell us a little about this project.

Daniel: The project originally started with Masayuki Imai who was doing a film out in L.A. and the production wasn’t going really well, it was just kind of a mess. Cameron Van Hoy, who is the producer of this Treasure of the Black Jaguar project and an actor in the film, was an actor in [Masayuki Imai’s original film] as well. Basically he went to them and said “look, we want to make a better film for you guys, this film doesn’t do Masa justice.” He went to them and raised the money and we made Treasure of the Black Jaguar.

Treasure of the Black Jaguar was originally a script Cameron [Van Hoy] had come up with a few years back, and it was an homage to Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It’s about three guys that go out into the desert also looking for something valuable and realising that their greed actually turns the three characters against each other. So we have the same thing with a new directing style and a new way of telling the story from maybe a younger perspective, a younger point of view - on a more indie kind of scale.

What was the reception of the film after it was screened at Raindance?

Daniel: We were very surprised. We were very happy to have a very warm reception to the project. We didn’t really know what to expect when we first went in to the project and so we were happy to find out that people really enjoyed it. So far what we’ve gotten [as feedback] is the directing of the film is very stylistic and that they are a lot of cool moments, a lot of cool shots. The geography we had was absolutely beautiful and that really added a lot to the production value. It was just an amazing journey the whole way through, from the point of view of the story, from the point of view of us a film makers because we had a little crew out in the middle of the desert, in the middle of nowhere, not knowing if anybody was ever going to see it, and here we are! We have been very grateful for the reception so far and it’s been very kind.

Has the positive feedback enabled you to secure distribution for the film?

Daniel: Just from the U.K. we have already started to get a lot of interest. After last Saturday’s screening at The Apollo Cinema we had a bunch of meetings set up for this last week. We went to Sony, Paramount, Warner Brother’s, so now we’re talking, we’re announcing, we’re sending out screeners and negotiating, just to understand what options are available to us. I personally just flew back from Rome just before this screening. I came straight from the airport here. I met with some Italian distributors who are very interested. They are yet to see the film, I’m sure they will love it but in the mean time it’s just the trailer which has gotten us a pretty long way so far.

Masa Imai is a rather [well] known actor in Japan so for us we’re very lucky to have him. So we know, just through him alone, we’re pretty confident we’re going to have a good trail in Japan and the people of Japan are going to get to see it. Basically the idea was that if we had him we could get at least one market for sure! We also actually have a follow up movie also with Masa Imai called Miracle Man. That’s the next movie, we’ve shot, completed, we’re in the post [production] process right now, just picking up the colour and sound. Hopefully we’ll be screening it next year, maybe even as soon as January.

Does that mean you will enter it to the Sundance Film Festival?

Daniel: We’ve submitted to Sundance, we’ve submitted to Slamdance, we’ve submitted to Tribeca. We’re confident about Tribeca, Sundance and Slamdance we’re still waiting on where we’ll probably find out in November. We don’t really know. Just out of this last week from the last screening we’ve got a lot of indication from the festival. Now we’re just deciding on the best strategy for us. In a year from now we expect to have it worldwide as fast as we can, explore our market potential and follow that up with our second movie, also starring Cameron Van Hoy and Mike Dreyer and Masa Imai.

They [Van Hoy and Michael Dreyer] both put in great performances in Treasure of the Black Jaguar. The performances helped keep the audiences attention. We had a lot of problems along the way, things we didn’t expect. This was collectively our first feature film that we have all worked on together. We’re really excited to know that it’s possible, that we were able to do it, that we can move forward from here and have our second follow up film.

Are you able to reveal the budget at all?

Daniel: I want everyone to see it first.

Of course. You don’t want people to judge the film against the budget?

Daniel: We don’t want people to judge it against the budget because at the end of the day it all came down to people. There was a lot of relationship and at the end of the day it just came down to people working really hard. The value of the film is more of the hard work put in to it and not so much the actual hard dollar. I’d love to tell you [the budget]!

You’re a very young producer in this business. What did you do prior to this project?

Daniel: Well, I’m twenty five years old. I’ve been making movies since I was twelve years old with my buddies. It’s always been a passion of mine even though my parents hated it. They wanted me to be a lawyer or a doctor or something! And this is a very risky business. But I’m alive only once in my life, I get one chance to do what I really want to do.

When I was nineteen I was very lucky. I got an internship working on Saturday Night Live for two years in New York. So I was at NBC for two years and I really got to go around the block and I got to understand what it was like to be in the industry. I made a lot of great relationships while I was there. Then after that I just worked my way up. I PA’d [personal assistant] for a number of years, I was a script supervisor, I was a boom operator. I’ve done everything there is to do in film so for me now as a producer, all those elements of ‘how can we put together a film’, when I’m on set I know what everyone else’s job is. I also know the problems they might expect and now I’m in a better position to expect problems and try to avoid them. Each time around I always try to be better and better and better, look at the mistakes I’ve made in the past and fix them for the next project.

So in that sense was this film a learning curve for your second project [with Masayuki Imai]?

Daniel: Treasure of the Black Jaguar was absolutely a learning curve. There were a lot of things we didn’t really expect and that was maybe my own ignorance really, I just didn’t know certain elements and what to expect. So the second time around I was a lot more prepared, a lot more organised because at the end of the day I was really like a one man army. I did the job of maybe twenty people and so that meant three or four months with three or four hours of sleep a night and I was traumatised at the end of it! At the end of the whole process I just wanted to be gone and thought ‘never again will I do it this way!’ I hope to continue building and raise more awareness of the project. It will reach a time when it will just be smooth sailing.

What is it in particular about Treasure of the Black Jaguar that you think will attract and engage audiences?

Daniel: The performances themselves are very good. The actors that we had are studio actors, they had already been vetted. Mike Dreyer has been in The Sopranos, Cameron Van Hoy has been in several films and worked with Academy Award winning actors. He was in the TV show Crash with Dennis Hopper which was the TV version of the film. Timothy Murphy has been in a number of films himself. Right now he has an amazing commercial out in the US that has gotten him a lot of awareness which could put this [film] on the map even more. He’s an Irish actor so all these things come together. At the end of the day the story is about the treasure of the Black Jaguar, a real story from ancient Mayan history. The whole 2012 thing has been an issue, people don’t know what to expect, they don’t know if it’s the real thing. Either way people seem to be enchanted, myself included, in the idea that something might happen on that day and so anything that has to do with a mysterious object that brings about greed will intrigue [audiences], especially in the middle of the desert.

We shot about four hours outside of L.A. and so we had this amazing geography, mountains and canyons and cliffs. It was a hard thing to shoot because we were out there with very little luxury. We were sending down our equipment on a rope! Down forty or fifty feet into a canyon, and it’s expensive stuff! We had to be very careful.

Yes I can imagine! I saw on the end credits that the film was shot entirely on location in California, like you mentioned. What was it like organising locations and sets?

Daniel: Well the only design elements were the interior locations, the brothel sequence for example. We literally shot that in a bar and we had our set designer who really did a great job in bringing to life the room, the feel, the look, the colours, the entire ambience of what we were trying to get. But as far the exteriors go the desert really spoke for itself. We shot in a little town called Lone Pine where John Wayne did all his movies. Stage Coach was filmed there and a lot of other famous western films, so we were very proud to be a part of that. This movie in my opinion is a classic American independent film and I’m very glad with the reception we’ve had from a European perspective. But like I said, we really didn’t know what to expect.

Treasure of the Black Jaguar trailer:


Read our review of the film here.

Jon Dudley is a freelance film and television journalist and his 17-minute short film Justification was shown at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

54th BFI London Film Festival: 2010 Award Winners

The 54th BFI London Film Festival drew to a close yesterday with the announcement of the festival's award winners at a star-studded ceremony in London's LSO St Luke's.

The festival jury - chaired by Patricia Clarkson and including Gabriel Byrne, Sandy Powell and Shekhar Kapur - presented Russian director Aleksei Popogrebsky with the Best Film award for his psychological drama How I Ended This Summer, while British filmmaker Danny Boyle was presented with the prestigious BFI Fellowship for his outstanding contribution to film.

Also in attendance was Martin Scorsese, who delivered a special tribute to the work of the BFI National Archive for its 75th anniversary.


A full rundown of the award winners...

BFI Fellowship: Danny Boyle

Best Film: How I Ended This Summer (dir. Aleksei Popogrebsky)

"Tense, moving and universal in its scope, this is a cinematic tour de force." - Patricia Clarkson

Special commendation to Archipelago (dir. Joanna Hogg)

Best British Newcomer: Clio Barnard, director of The Arbor

"Clio Barnard’s genre-busting film The Arbor is innovative, eloquent and emotionally resonant... a stunning debut" - Tony Grisoni

Sutherland Award: Clio Barnard (The Arbor)

"This is a challenging, moving and utterly memorable film and a deserving winner of the Sutherland Award" - Sandra Hebron

Grierson Award for Best Documentary: Armadillo (dir. Janus Metz)

"Armadillo is a touchstone film that will be watched for years to come.” - Kevin Macdonald

We'll be finishing up our coverage of the London Film Festival here at Flickering Myth over the next few days, while highlights of the awards ceremony will be broadcast on Sky Arts 2 HD on November 7th.

For the Love of Trailers - The How-To-Cope-With-It Edition

What to look forward to (or not) as Louise-Afzal Faerkel casts her eye over the trailers for upcoming releases Tiny Furniture, Rabbit Hole and Biutiful...

TINY FURNITURE

I am cynical, sceptical person. The glass is always half empty for me. My reasoning is for thinking like that is in order to surprise myself if I happen to enjoy a movie. I mostly assume the worst about serious pictures. I do get excited about films, but the ones I genuinely look forward to are few and far apart,. They must present something incredibly innovative or be part of a franchise I have respect for me to give a toss. In this context, Tiny Furniture is in a very grey area for me. It looks incredibly wordy and unnecessarily smug. And yet it looks quite the opposite.

It is a very contemporary and relevant picture (especially for someone like self-pitying yours truly, a recent graduate). It is a coming of age story about a young lass in a bit of a post-graduation-life-trauma type of situation. She moves back home, gets a job as a restaurant hostess and falls for a YouTube phenomenon video maker, and then starts getting into the whole video making thing herself. To put it blandly.

The trailer does not present it as wholly self-righteous but it is very much on the edge. For instance with the use of a younger, holier-than-thou sister character. I have always had a problem really believing in the unexplained natural maturity these characters have (especially in indie movies, e.g. (500) Days of Summer most recently). When she belts out phrases like “You were not gonna marry him, he’s like a little spec of granola on a bowl of homemade yoghurt”, I get what she means, but it is a needlessly odd image. It is not cute nor original. It is just weird. Not good weird; unnecessarily-wordy-and-pretentious-weird.

But somehow therein lies the charm of the movie, as far as I can see from the trailer. It tells the truth and sometimes the truth does not make sense. It does not seem like it will be an easy watch for neither cynicists nor idealists (it feels pretty brutal in places) but that does not matter. This film could contain elements that not only exposes our current culture but could be telling the truth about what we cannot perceive to be the reality of things.

The trailer itself is a mishmash of random quotes in an order that kind of makes sense and simultaneously confuses you as to its structure. It dips into the oddity of modern relationships but it does not feel like it will bring anything new to the table.

I cannot make my mind up about this one. Lovely readers, please watch it and help me out here.


RABBIT HOLE

John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Itch, Shortbus) has an uncanny ability to make his characters and actors express themselves physically and verbally. They are just as good at being on their own as they are at being awkward in social situations. They learn to deal with themselves as much as they learn to deal with others around them. Their journeys are interesting, compelling and we are invited (read: lured) into recognisable yet unfamiliar situations (to most of us).

Rabbit Hole deals with life after Becca and Howie (Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart) lose their young son. It is a film about how to make sense of things. Or rather, how to simply move on with life. It is possibly a difficult film to watch, not just for its subject matter but also for its performances.

There is evidence of this from the first scene of the trailer where Nicole Kidman’s character protests the allegation that her co-sufferer’s daughter died because “God needed another angel”. It presents the film as a piece that is not going to be positive or glossy. It will concentrate on performances (given that it is based on a play, it is no surprise).

What I truly like about the structure of the trailer itself was its minimal use of music. More often than not, trailers will contain epic, quirky or dreamy pieces of music throughout their presentation of the film to affect the spectator’s mood. Here, I found the moments of silence to be more efficient (thank you!) and more meaningful. One scene that felt a bit too much, but was needed to attract a global audience was Becca’s speech about how she is not “feeling enough”. It is a bit too dramatic in context. The more subtle the trailer, the more I want to watch the film.

Nonetheless, the trailer is itself so intense, it could potentially work on its own as a short film (with a few adjustments). The music almost having its own life lets the film speak a lot for itself, which is so refreshing. Keeping in line with distinctive approaches to film promotion, there is a lack of intense, high-pace, 3-frame editing, annoying displaying montages (which are only really forgivable for action movies). There is the typical actor name and face montage at the end, but it takes its time and is not self-involved. By not sticking to convention all the way through it is easier to appreciate the work put in the trailer.

Tragic but beautiful. And tipped for the Oscars.


BIUTIFUL

Here is a trailer that is never explicit about anything and does not take the audience of a fool. Here is a trailer that is more or less a two-minute montage of mute clips supported by a soundtrack but is not patronising. And here is a trailer that knows what it is and it is in fact doing what most trailers fail to do: it gives you a minor but powerful taste of what is to come.

Biutiful has already played at Cannes, London Film Festival and a multitude of other festivals around the world. It has won numerous awards and has been hailed as director Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s (21 Grams, Babel, Amores Perros) best film to date. It deals with the story of a man who is in a difficult position in his life. I will not tell you why, you must watch the trailer yourself. Simply telling is tampering with the beauty of this trailer.

For all too often trailers focus on the story so much they reveal everything about the movie, if only audiences pay enough attention and put the pieces together. The trailer for Biutiful is not one that fools you about its narrative, nor does it tell you what it is directly about. It demands work from the audience, and despite being stuffed full of quotes from reviews and the CV of the director, at its core it is simple.

It could be that the structure of the trailer will work against the movie. Either it will repel people from itself or it prove to be too pompous for its own good. Perhaps it has told the entire story in the trailer and is trying to clever (and I am not seeing it). But I am happy to indulge in it because it serves the nature of the film. It brings across the atmosphere it most likely possesses in the picture itself and it feels like it could leads to something extraordinary – or abominable.

I will refrain from saying more. Let me know what you think.


Louise-Afzal Faerkel

Thoughts on... Treasure of the Black Jaguar (2010)

Treasure of the Black Jaguar, 2010.

Directed by Mike Bruce.
Starring Cameron Van Hoy, Michael Drayer, Timothy V. Murphy and Masayuki Imai.


SYNOPSIS:

Two boys discover that easy money is just a mirage when their desert-based caper takes a murderous turn.


Treasure of the Black Jaguar is an American independent film that received a positive reception after being screened at Raindance. Having now seen the film myself I honestly feel that after its theatrical release it has the potential to be accepted as a real gem of indie cinema.

The story focuses on two friends, Anthony (played by co-writer Cameron Van Hoy) and Shlomo (Michael Drayer) who end up in prison after failing with a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. Whilst inside they meet treasure hunter Blake West (Timothy V. Murphy) who helps them escape and takes them on an expedition to retrieve a mysterious artifact - along with the fame and fortune that comes with it. Unfortunately for the trio a former colleague of West’s, Katsu Taka (Masayuki Imai), is also after the same prize.

One of the film’s strong points is how the two lads have the audience’s emotional support throughout the movie. I have seen many road trip/traveller films and often find myself just waiting to see what happens and wondering, but not caring, how the protagonists will overcome the obstacle in front of them. Even before they encounter any problems themselves I was urging Anthony and Shlomo, led by Blake, to get to their target successfully... but of course if everything had gone smoothly it wouldn’t have made for an entertaining movie.

Whilst on their adventure I couldn’t help but be reminded of the Burt Reynold’s film Deliverance - partly because of the similarities between the character’s situations (they set out to achieve something but encounter trouble along the way) but also because both films give the audience a visual feast with American back-country settings.

The ‘mission’ in Treasure of the Black Jaguar was filmed solely in Lone Pine, in the Californian desert. It’s the perfect location - the desert is an isolated environment but also represents perhaps the naivety of the two boys who aren’t entirely sure of what they are searching for or what will happen if they find it. Which leads me to my next point...

One of the charms of independent films is that they are not afraid to take their stories down less obvious, crowd pleasing routes. Without trying to give too much away, one of the plot points delivers quite a vicious and unexpected outcome, something that may not have been allowed had this been a studio production. And the good thing about it is that it grabs the audience with an emotional hook and doesn’t let go.

Treasure of the Black Jaguar is a strong independent film blending themes such as friendship, ambition, inner strength with a dose of vulnerability together to create a smooth yet punchy story to audiences. I genuinely believe this can get the right reception it needs to be an underdog indie hit.

Be sure to check out our exclusive interview with Daniel Pleacoff, producer of Treasure of the Black Jaguar, which you can find here.

Jon Dudley is a freelance film and television journalist and his 17-minute short film Justification was shown at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

Movie Review Archive

Thoughts on... 'Tron Night' - A 25 minute preview of Tron Legacy

With Tron Night taking place tomorrow we take an early look at the special 25-minute 3D preview of Tron: Legacy...

All throughout the internet, a whisper has been slowly growing to a shout, a chorus, a chant - ‘Flynn Lives!’

Like many other kids of the 80s, the original Tron burned an indelible image onto my retinas. Whether you were lucky enough to see it in the cinema or catch it on TV later, if you saw it as a kid you should know what I’m talking about. The lightcycles, the glowing costumes, the ominous electronic music, that little thing that went ‘Yesyesyesyes.’ We just hadn’t seen anything like it. It may not have fared that well at the box-office but it became a landmark for computer & visual effects as well as being a shadowy foreteller of many things to come. 90s rave culture, computer-animated films, saying ‘end of line’ at the end of conversations. Just me on that last one? Ok, but eitherway, when I first heard they were making a sequel to Tron, I went through all the emotions. Excitement, intrigue, concern, resentment. Then, when test footage started to appear online, I was straight back at excited again. By the time the trailers were showing in cinemas I was feeling like I was eight years old again.

So when I hear that Disney are previewing an entire twenty-five minutes of footage a month and a half before the film opens, you can imagine my excitement. So here’s a brief breakdown of what we get...

We begin with a message being typed across the screen from Tron: Legacy helmer, Joseph Kosinski, before the sound of Sam’s (Flynn’s son, played by Garrett Hedlund) bike revs us into the first footage, an early scene between Sam and Flynn’s friend Alan (Bruce Boxleitner from the original). The scenes are all numbered so we can gauge roughly where we are in the full-length feature, with what we see at first mostly the introduction to the story we get from the trailer. Alan explains that he was paged from Flynn’s office at the arcade, even though the number was disconnected years ago. Following this we’re treated to the entire scene from the trailer where Sam goes to his father’s derelict arcade to investigate.

As he switches on the power, all the arcade machines spring to life, with music and sound effects blaring out from every side. At the far end of the room, lies the Tron arcade cabinet. Pulling off the plastic sheet, Sam uncovers the lightcycles doing battle on screen and bemusedly puts a coin in the machine. It falls through, and bending down to retrieve it he realises that the machine is on a giant pivot, which he pushes to the side revealing a secret door. He enters an underground tunnel, The Eurhythmics booming from the noisy arcade hall upstairs, before finding a huge computer terminal. Trying to access it, he inadvertently activates the laser behind him and….FLASH! He’s in the grid.

The next scene begins with Sam swamped in bright light, as a jaw-droppingly realised ‘recogniser’ (the giant flying things) descends upon him, capturing him and holding him with other rogue programs. The jump going from the real world into the grid literally sent shivers down my spine – the 3D kicks in (the ‘real world’ is in 2D, a nice touch I thought) and the stark contrasts of black with streaks of white, blue and orange is startling.

From here Sam is assigned to ‘Games’ and is sent to be fitted out in his Tron suit by four female programs all dressed in white. They stride robotically towards him, removing his real world clothes and donning him in a black bodysuit streaked with the familiar blue glowing lines. They also provide him with his disc, on which his data is to be encoded. As they attach it to his back, his eyes flash with a cold, computer blue, as if pure electronic data is rushing through his body. Finished, they back away, leading Sam to ask, “What do I do now?”, to which the white-haired program simply replies, “Survive.”

Disney and Kosinski don’t tease us. They give us what we’ve all been waiting for. The following scene is a modern update of the original’s gladiatorial-style games, the action set in a giant electronic stadium, complete with a baying crowd and several battles taking place in glass domes suspended in the centre of the arena. Programs face off against each another, the combatants using their data discs as frisbee weapons. After a fast-paced battle Sam manages to defeat his opponent by smashing a hole in the floor which the other program falls through, while a mysterious hooded figure watches on.

We jump ahead several scenes to see Sam and a helmet-wearing program escaping the main grid in some kind of car hotly pursued by lightcycles. They release bombs to blow up the cycles, and in one fantastic birds-eye view, slow-motion shot, the cycle-rider flies off his exploding bike, spins round in the air, then creates a new cycle out of thin air, landing on it as he hits the ground!

The helmet-wearing program helping Sam escape is revealed to be Quorra (Olivia Wilde with a black bob), a warrior program (and obvious love interest) who takes him to a secret, off-grid base where Sam comes face-to-face with his father. There’s a tangible emotional connection between Jeff Bridges and Garrett Hedlund’s characters, as they embrace for the first time in twenty years. It’s here that we see the real driving heart of the story, that beneath the incredible special effects is a realistic father/son relationship. Sam explains that Alan got Flynn’s page, leading Sam to the secret lab under the arcade, which seems to confuse Flynn. This is one of the preview’s most revealing plot points, that the message was actually to lure Sam into a trap.

Finally, we get to see Michael Sheen’s gleefully over-the-top character Castor, as well as Daft Punk (who score the film) at the decadent ‘End-of-Line’ club, before a swiftly-edited sequence of clips get us further salivating over the rest of the film, including a young Flynn (Clu, a digital replica of the real Flynn and Tron: Legacy’s antagonist) goading an off-screen Bridges.

It’s the Tron we’re familiar with, but amped up considerably for a modern audience, with the spectacle of the original more than matched by the vast digital landscape Kosinski has crafted. There appears to be a constant electronic storm over the grid, adding a feeling of foreboding doom or oppression, a smart metaphor for the character of Clu, and one that Sam must undoubtedly overthrow. The booming, pulsing synth music, the sleek, stunning visuals and the teases of an epic story all left me ecstatic. Come December, the eight-year old in me is going to freak out. Can’t wait.

Roger Holland

A Legacy of His Own: A Doug Liman Profile (Part 2)

With his latest film Fair Game released later this year, Trevor Hogg profiles the career of director Doug Liman in the second of a two part feature... read part one.

“I’ve always been a huge action film fan and a couple of friends of mine were in marriage therapy,” explained screenwriter Simon Kingberg as to the origins of Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). “The way they were talking about it sounded kind of aggressive and mercenary. I just thought it would make an interesting template for a relationship inside of an action film.” Mayhem and chaos ensues when two married assassins are contracted to kill each other. “One of the ways that you write it is that all of the action sequences in the film have to be, in some form, expressions of where these characters are in their marriage… Instead of two people having a fight at the dinner table about the salt, they’re actually doing it with assault rifles.” The film student found himself a supportive mentor in Oscar-winner Akiva Goldsman (A Time to Kill); the script which served as Kingberg’s thesis for his Masters of Fine Arts captured the attention of Nicole Kidman (The Hours) who got Brad Pitt (Se7en) to play her husband. Unfortunately for Kidman, she had to drop out because of her commitment to the remake of The Stepford Wives (2004). “Because of all the romantic controversy around Mr. and Mrs. Smith, there was a lot of talk about the casting of that movie,” stated director Doug Liman. “Angelina Jolie [Salt] was not my first choice. When people hear about the other actresses we were considering, they say, ‘Wow, you were really lucky that that didn’t work out and you ended up with Angelina.’ What people don’t realize is, had it worked out with a different actress, I would have created a different character.” The action-comedy which cost $110 million to make stars Vince Vaughn (Be Cool), Adam Brody (Jennifer’s Body), Kerry Washington (Ray), Keith David (Platoon), Chris Weitz (About a Boy), Rachel Huntley, and Michelle Monaghan (Trucker). Mr. & Mrs. Smith earned $478 million worldwide and received nominations from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films for Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film and from the Irish Film and Television Awards for Audience Award Best International Star (Brad Pitt).

Venturing once again into television, Doug Liman directed the pilot episode of Heist (2006). The seven episode series created by Mark and Rob Cullen centres around a gang of crooks that attempts to rob three different Beverly Hills jewelry stores at the same time. The NBC aired program stars Marika Dominczyk (Who Do You Love), Dougray Scott (Enigma), Steve Harris (Minority Report), Michele Hicks (Northfork), David Walton (Fired Up!), Billy Gardell (The Deported), Reno Wilson (Crank), and Seymour Cassel (Rushmore). Riding on the commercial success of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Liman helmed the pilot episode of a proposed 2007 TV spin-off featuring Martin Henderson (The Ring), Jordana Brewster (The Fast and the Furious), Lauren Birkell (The Babysitters), Shane Brolly (Underworld), Anthony De Longis (Roadhouse), Michael Kelly (Changeling), Julia Ormond (First Knight), and Rebecca Mader (The Devil Wears Prada). Relocated to the suburbs, contract killers John (Henderson) and Jane Smith (Brewster) commit assassinations while trying to deal with their marriage issues. Set six months after the original picture, Simon Kingberg described the series, which failed to be picked up by a television network, as being “Married… with Children with guns.”

Adapting a science fiction book by author Steven Gould, was next on the cinematic agenda for Doug Liman. David Rice (Hayden Christensen), who posses the ability to teleport himself to anywhere around the world, is pursed by a shadowy government organization. Jumper (2008) was an elaborate production which filmed in 20 cities in 14 countries between 2006 and 2007. “The teenage boy inside of me was just fascinated with the idea of how outrageous teleportation could look,” confessed Liman, who decided to change the actor portraying the main character two months into filming. “I recast the male lead because Tom Sturridge [Being Julia], who was playing David Rice, just couldn’t play twenty-five. He was eighteen.” Impressed by his performance in Shattered Glass [2003], the director hired Hayden Christensen to replace Sturridge. The cast switching had a ripple effect as Rachel Bilson (New York, I Love You) took over from Teresa Palmer (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) in the lead female role. The $85 million science fiction production features Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot), Diane Lane (The Perfect Storm), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction), Michael Rooker (Cliffhanger), AnnaSophia Robb (Race to Witch Mountain), Max Thieriot (Nancy Drew), Jesse James (The Butterfly Effect), Tom Hulce (Amadeus), Kristen Stewart (Panic Room), Teddy Dunn (The Manchurian Candidate) and Barbara Garrick (The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond).

Along with the casting issues, there were special effects matters that needed to be addressed. “I was just thinking, ‘How could a guy who can teleport, fight?’” stated Rob McCallum, one of the six storyboard artists who worked on the picture. “So you were really pushing yourself to try to think of inventive, cool, spectacular ways that you could use the jumping talent that these characters have.” In charge of translating the storyboard images to the big screen was Weta’s visual effects supervisor Erik Wingquist. “The concept of what a jump looks like changed and evolved a little over the course of post-production,” remarked Wingquist. “There are shots in the film that use still array footage but not in the same way we saw in The Matrix [1999]. The Matrix was largely about stopping time whereas this is about using slower shutter speeds on those still array cameras to end up with a streaky motion-blurred image as the perspective is changing.” The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films nominated Jumper for Best Music; at the Teen Choice Awards Rachel Bilson won for Best Movie Actress – Action/Adventure, while Samuel L. Jackson contended for Best Movie Villain. In response to the suggestion that Jumper, which earned $222 million worldwide, is the first installment of a proposed trilogy, Hayden Christensen replied, “This has been definitely been set up in a way that will allow for more films, and Doug has been careful to make sure he’s created characters that will have room to grow.” Empire magazine agreed in its movie review which stated, “[It’s] Limans’ least charismatic action and the least developed, but it stills packs some crackling action into its brief running time and lays foundations on which a great franchise can be built.”

Trading fiction for facts Doug Liman chose to adapt the memoir Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House by Valerie Plame. In retaliation for her husband’s (Sean Penn) public accusations that the intelligence reports on Iraq had been falsely manipulated, the American government reveals Valerie Plume (Naomi Watts) is a CIA operative. “When I read [Jez & John-Henry] Butterworth’s first draft on Fair Game [2010],” explained the New York filmmaker, “I got to page five and thought, ‘I love the characters of Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson.’” The theme of the story resembles an action-comedy blockbuster previously helmed by Liman. “Anyone who has seen Mr. and Mrs. Smith knows that [the subject of] husband and wife married spies is something that I find particularly interesting. There are some similarities with Fair Game too. Only one of them is a spy, but it’s still a husband and wife maintaining a marriage against the backdrop of all the lies that come with that kind of job.”

“I personally wanted to go to Baghdad and see with my own eyes before talking about an operation that takes place in Iraq in Fair Game,” revealed Doug Liman. “Every location we went to, the security team would say how many minutes we could spend at that location. They showed us the classified report from the day before of how many attacks there had been in the city. It was about thirty-five pages long. Little of this stuff is in the press but it really brought home how real the danger was for us.” Time was not a commodity the moviemaker could afford to waste. “The longest we got in any one spot was twenty minutes. The rationale was that the moment the car stopped and we were spotted getting out to film, someone was making a phone call and forces were being mobilized to attack us.” Liman made sure to take extra security measures while conducting the principle photography. “As much as possible I delegated the filming, trying to keep as low a profile as possible. If we were told it was a very dangerous location, sometimes I wouldn’t even get out of the car. The camera was a gigantic ‘look at me’ and it was safer for everyone if it was held by an Iraqi crew member.” Questioned about Iraqi War pictures being cursed at the box office, Doug Liman replied, “A lot of the other movies that have been about the war or dealt with the war have not been great movies. In fact, they’ve been motivated more by politics than by story, and that’s been a turn-off to audiences.” Fair Game stars Ty Burrell (The Incredible Hulk), Iris Bahr (The Last Exorcism), Bruce McGill (The Insider), Sam Shepard (The Notebook), Satya Bhabha (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), David Denman (Big Fish), Brooke Smith (The Silence of the Lambs), Michael Kelly and Noah Emmerich (The Truman Show).

Doug Liman remains active in television as he is involved with producing I Just Want My Pants Back (MTV, 2010); a group in their twenties struggle to make a life for themselves in New York City. The cast for the comedy features Kim Shaw (Greetings from the Shore), Chris Parnell (Looking for Kitty), Peter Vack (Consent), Jordan Carlos (Ghost Town) and Elisabeth Hower (New York Lately). Another small screen project for Liman is the CIA operative series Covert Affairs (USA, 2010) staring Piper Perabo (The Prestige), Christopher Gorham (The Other Side of Heaven), Anne Dudek (Park), Peter Gallagher (The Hudsucker Proxy), and Kari Matchett (Civic Duty).

Next on the cinematic to-do list for Doug Liman is an adaptation of the alien invasion novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka about a solider trapped in a time loop which sees him reborn each morning to fight again. “All You Need is Kill [2012] is a project that I’m developing at Warner Brothers. It’s an amazing script,” stated the director. “It delivers all of the wiz-bang satisfaction of a big Hollywood effects movie, but it does it in a completely original way.” Attica, a film in the works about the 1971 prison uprising, has a personal significance to the moviemaker. “After the uprising was put down, the inmates were weary of talking about the events – guards had been killed and no one wanted to add a murder charge to their record. My father’s job was not to prosecute; it was to find out the truth about what had actually occurred.” Liman continued, “Ultimately he succeeded, and his report is a riveting page-turner. But the people whose job it was to prosecute the crimes wanted my father to reveal who had admitted to what. When my father refused, they threatened to hold him in contempt of court and throw him in jail. The commissioners with whom my father had produced the report gave my father a hacksaw as an act of solidarity.”

There is also an untitled moon project rumoured to be starring Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko). “I think the greatest accomplishment in our lifetime really was the Apollo program,” observed the director. “And rather than just tell a history of the first lunar landing, I want to make it relevant to a young audience by having the group today recreate what the Apollo program did forty years ago.” Other possible movies include Jumper 2 and a fantasy tale. “Nick Tungsten, Nightmare Hunter is a project I’ve been developing for years because it’s an action movie set entirely inside a child’s nightmare… It’s an adventure film for the proletariat.” Contemplating his cinematic philosophy, Liman mused, “I really believe that filmmakers should entertain. There’s nothing I hate more than a movie that preaches.” The director added, “A Doug Liman movie is one where there is no villain. Everyone has their different viewpoints, so who says that the person you’re following has to be the hero? I think it’s much more interesting to have the grey areas”.

Visit Doug Liman's official blog at 30 Ninjas.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

Monsters regional tour and 'Monster Making Masterclass' with filmmaker Gareth Edwards

We're still over a month away from the release of British sci-fi flick Monsters but UK audiences can get an early look at the film courtesy of BAFTA with three regional screenings taking place next week in Bristol (Monday 1st at Watershed Cinema), Newcastle (Tuesday 2nd at Tyneside Cinema) and Glasgow (Wednesday 3rd at Glasgow Film Theatre). Each screening is followed by a Q&A with writer-director Gareth Edwards, who makes his feature debut with Monsters after building a name for himself as a visual effects artist.

Meanwhile for those interested in gaining a better insight into the filmmaking process, both the Bristol and Newcastle screenings are preceded by a special free event hosted by Gareth Edwards, "A Master Class in Making Monsters", in which he discusses his experiences of getting his debut feature made and the challenges of creating visually compelling aliens on an incredibly low budget.

To apply for tickets to the screenings / masterclasses, email regions@bafta.org.

"Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear there and half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures". Monsters begins when a US journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border."


Monsters is set for a nationwide release on December 3rd.

54th BFI London Film Festival: West is West Q&A

Coverage of the West is West Q&A from the London Film Festival...

In attendance:

• Ayub Khan-Din (Writer)
• Lesley Nicol (Anne)
• Ila Arun (Basheera)
• Aquib Khan (Sajid)
• Emil Marwa (Maneer)
• Om Puri (George)

It’s been eleven years since the first film (East is East) which was very successful. It seems an extraordinary long time for a sequel when in general sequels tend to get rushed out. Explain a little why it’s taken so long.

Ayub: Before I was writing I was an actor and writing was just something I did as a hobby between jobs. I had written East is East in around ’82/’83 when I was at drama school and again much later, I think it was ’89/’90, I wrote a film called Riffle Was Here which was basically West is West. It was the follow on from East is East. After East is East came out I didn’t think about writing a sequel to it. Riffle Was Here was around. The “huge-ness” of the success of East is East was off putting. Also, having seen lots of other sequels that didn’t quite capture the original of that author was a stumbling block for me. But then a couple of years ago I stared looking a the script for Riffle Was Here and I just kind of thought what was important was to create a film that was a story in itself. You wouldn’t have to refer back to East is East, it had to be a stand alone story for me. And also for me, the worst thing about sequels is they do try to go back and do the same kind of gags and things that the earlier film did. So for me this film had to move forward, both emotionally and with the comic stance as well.

The film started off very light hearted and then developed well into a deeper area. When is the next part of the trilogy going to be?

Ayub: The thing about trilogies is that people always look at the first and second films. I don’t know probably this year or next year. I’m thinking about it now.


Three of our guests here are returning from the first film. Om, you return as the fearsome George. It must be strange coming back to a character after so long. How did it feel?

Om: It feels normal to me. The way George Khan gradually develops in East is East, I look at him at the end of the film as a mellowed person. When he’s about to hit his wife, Emil (Mandeer) grabs his hand and looks straight into his eyes and that’s where I tried to interpret that in George Khan’s eyes, the feeling is that his empire is over. He can’t take the children for granted any more and therefore he has to change his perspective and he has to behave himself. He spends the entire night in the chip shop. In the morning when Ella finds him sitting there on a chair and she asks him if he wants a cup of tea he says “I’ll have half a cup”. In this film he’s a much mellowed George Khan who’s matured, who’s full of guilt, embarrassment, awkwardness, especially when his British wife, without announcing it, lands in Pakistan and he’s totally dumbfounded. He doesn’t know how to react and how to handle this enourmous situation.

How much research did you have to put in for the script [for growing up in a mixed race household]?

Ayub: East is East is pretty autobiographical. The parents were directly drawn from my own parents. In my family there were ten kids, but unfortunately with the play [East is East was originally a stage play], and also with the film, we couldn’t afford to have a bigger cast so it was all kind of condensed down. All the arguments, like the children arguing in East is East, I formed in my own head over a period of time. it’s not something you think about when you’re a kid, you just duck. With my Dad basically you just ducked down quick and let the next one get it! So you don’t really think in those kind of terms about the wider argument, it’s only later on when I started writing East is East that I tried to understand his perspective on life, who he was, how he thought our lives should be. It was only at that time, much later, that those arguments kind of formed, and I automatically started drawing on experiences and situations that happened to me. West is West again is based on my experience. I got sent to Pakistan when I was twelve years old. I was wagging school, doing a bit of shop lifting, just being a horrible teenager. My brother was already out there and my parents thought it might be a good idea to get rid of me for a year for me to look at a different life outside of Salford. I did go there and I ran riot for a year. My Dad’s first wife and family weren’t keen on me, I wasn’t keen on them and we were just kind of knocking heads all the time. But again much later when I came to start writing West is West, after East is East there were a lot of unanswered questions. People wanted to know more, people wanted to specifically know more about that woman in Pakistan and about the daughters and about the children. For me I thought I want to know more. All I knew was the antagonism that we had, but I really wanted to explore how that woman felt. After thirty five years suddenly he [George] sends two boys who turn up on her doorstep. It enabled me to try and get into her skin and to try and tell her story.

Emil: Well I was first part of the stage play and being mixed race myself I drew from my own experience. What was nice was reading West is West and actually seeing that my character had a nicer journey if you like, a more mature journey. He becomes a man, he is standing up to his father which he doesn’t have the opportunity to do in East is East. It was great for me as an actor to take that character on further and develop him in such a way. Ayub wrote it in such a way that it gives Maneer [his character] a chance to sort of develop out of this religious zone where he’s desperately trying to please his father. He goes to Pakistan in order to find a wife but at the same time he learns that things aren’t the way his father told him they were, and that’s what gives him the strength to stand up to him. And eventually, luckily enough, he finds himself a wife.


Aquib, this is your first acting experience and you’re taking over, if you like, a character [Sajid] that was rather well loved first time around. That must have been quite a challenge?

Aquib: Yeah, nearly everyone I know has seen East is East so I knew it would be pretty challenging but I thought I’d relate myself towards him because I am an annoying little teenager! So actually it was pretty easy!

So some experiences you have in the film, are they from real life too?

Aquib: Yeah there were some experiences from real life. I have lived in some areas around where I live, in Bradford, which were pretty racist and me being British Pakistani I could draw from those experiences and add it towards this film. He [Sajid] experiences racism from both sides not just from the white culture but the Pakistani culture as well. When he goes there they say “who’s this little English boy?”

What were the challenges, if any, when scripting this film to make it appear as a stand alone film?

Ayub: I think the major challenge for me, even before I started writing it, was thinking about Ella and the first wife in Pakistan. It was one of the most important issues in the film, that these two people have to communicate in some way. Every time I started thinking about it I was coming up against a brick wall because technically one spoke English and one spoke Punjabi so to have a third party in that scene that they have together in the film would have been taking away from it. And then it suddenly dawned on me that it didn’t matter that they didn’t speak the same language because they were talking about the one person they both loved, in a different way, but it was the one person they were both focusing on at that point. They communicate through the gestures they make. I wanted to be really clear when I was writing about that, about the way they both touched things and touched each other. Until I got that, that was the most difficult part of the project for me. Once that had happened so many different things started falling into place. I wanted to tell Basheera’s story well, without just being about this angry woman who had been abandoned thirty five years before. I wanted to make her a rounded character so you could understand exactly who she was and the decisions that she was going to make about this relationship and this man. A lot of the groundwork had gone in when I wrote Riffle Was Here so it wasn’t just jumping in to something that was completely new. I had a rough outline from the original script I started to write that I could follow. I was also trying to follow on from East is East so I had to decide to take only two of the boys. It was hard to discard those other characters because they were fantastic and needed to have a voice as well but I thought at this point the two most important were Sajid, the youngest boy, an Maneer the religious boy. Both those characters had to have a Road to Damascus moment.

Ila, you are new cast member is this potential saga. When you read the script how truthful did you feel it was from when you first saw it?

Ila: Like Ayub said, my character was genuinely a very well written role, and I can see thousands of such women who are forced to be silent. I could see their pain, so for me to get into that role it’s emotional, for any woman not just Pakistani. So for this fantastic role I can give what a woman can give, all the emotions. I [as the character] was told be silent for all those years, I don’t just want to speak for two minutes now.

Ila and Aquib, what was it like joining an already established cast, and also for everyone, what challenges did you face shooting in India?

Aquib: At first I found it pretty hard to blend in to the family, but I just thought ‘I am Sajid’, he is me now, and pretended the character hasn’t changed. Going to India was fantastic, it was the first time I’ve been there, I love the climate obviously, coming from rainy Britain! I stayed there for six or seven weeks. I’ve been to Pakistan before so it’s a lot like that, I could speak the language so it was great.

Ila: I always felt I was part of the family as Mrs Khan number one! So I’m shocked when [speaking in character] my husband comes back with these two sons who will take their own time to adjust. I felt absolutely at home. I think it was a difficult job for George (Om Puri) who ignored me, left and created his own world. I was waiting for them to come back and for me it wasn’t a problem.


Lesley you are another returning character [as Auntie Annie]. What were the challenges you faced in India?

Lesley: To be honest there weren’t really any challenges. It was one of those dream jobs. I’ve been a part of this whole East is East project, and West is West, for fourteen years. We did the stage play together, it’s been a family affair for a very long time. Weirdly Ayub [writer] and I had been working together in a television drama when he handed me the script and said ‘do you want to have a look at this?’ It’s been a project very close to our hearts, still is. India is beyond wonderful and I can’t wait to go back. All the crew their, the Indian crew, and to have Ila there was a great privilege and everyone was wonderful as always. It was a very very happy job and I feel lucky to have been there.

Ayub, were you conscious to portray a more positive image of Pakistan than we often see in the media over here , and were would you take the trilogy in the third part? Would we be following them once they [the Khan family] got back to the UK?

Ayub: So many things happened after East is East, like the bombings in London. No matter what I did people were going to refer back to that. I was writing about the Pakistan I saw in 1974 when I was there. You can’t make references to what’s going on today and what’s happening in Pakistan now. I didn’t attempt that, I just wanted to portray what I saw at the time and put my characters into that period. In terms of what’s going to happen next I can’t really say yet! George has got an understanding with his younger son and at the end of East is East there was a kind of ‘live and let live’ situation that was going on with the older sons. He hasn’t really come to turn with his older sons and his older sons haven’t really come to terms with him yet. There has to be a situation that brings those people together. Even being brought together by an emotional situation, whether or not they’ll walk away with any further understanding of each other I’ve yet to kind of develop.

Om, if you could chose what Ayub wrote about you [as George] for the third film what would you like him to do with your character?

Om: I want to live with both the women!

Aquib, this is your first film, and a major role, how did that feel? And on the subject of this being a trilogy is it going to be set in the 70’s/80’s again or are you going to bring it to 2010/2011?

Ayub: No it’s going to be around the time I left school so ’77, ’78, late seventies, early eighties.

Lesley: Well the clothes are fabulous!

And Aquib, how did this first major role feel and did anything go wrong at all?

Aquib: I wouldn’t say anything went wrong, it was all smooth. I just tried not to think about it because I knew if I thought about it there’d be pressure and I might break down! I just thought ‘this is my new family for six weeks’ and to just blend in. I just thought ‘I’m Sajid now’, it’s pretty easy to play, that’s it!

It’s been eleven years now, and I remember when East is East came out and it felt like a landmark, a chance to see Asians in a great British film. There have been more representations since so I wondered what the panel thought of the intervening years, whether we’ve [Asians] been represented more on screen.

Om: I’m not really familiar because I don’t live here.

Emil: I’m thinking off the top of my head, Slumdog Millionaire. Well actually that’s set in India isn’t it. We’re talking Bend It Like Beckham, It’s A Wonderful Afterlife, Gurinder [Chadha]’s films. Basically I can only think of Gurinder’s films, so in answer to that I would have to say not really.

Ayub let me just come to you with this. I remember talking to you a few years ago and you saying that there had been a very limited representation, an almost patronising wave of Asian characters. I think you yourself were in something like London Bridge, a television series, then things perked up a bit. What’s your observation?

Ayub: It changes. When I came out of drama school, the only representation we [Asians] had in the media was we either played shopkeepers or were beaten up by skinheads, or we were just being allowed to be doctors. But it gets better. Without My Beautiful Laundrette [a British film from 1985] there wouldn’t have been Brothers in Trouble [another British Asian film from 1995, also starring Om Puri], without those two there wouldn’t have been East is East. Every generation moves it on a little step more. It’s hard enough getting films made whether you’re Asian or not, the money isn’t there. There’s even less money there now because of the cut to the UK Film Council, which was a major mistake. They kind of supported young black filmmakers, and I include everyone in that [Asian, Indian, Pakistani filmmakers]. It was a place where young black filmmakers were helped, were encouraged. We’ve still got Channel 4, Film 4 and the BBC but it much smaller ways. But it helps every time a film like East is East or Bend It like Beckham comes out, it just pushed to the fore that black stories are mainstream, it doesn’t just have to be specifically about black problems. Emotions are universal. Every film that comes along helps that.

Read our review of West is West here.

Jon Dudley is a freelance film and television journalist and his 17-minute short film Justification was shown at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.