the beloved son of god

who's a fat cat?



fat cat (kent cheng) has spent over three years in an asylum, after an unsavoury incident involving three hoodlums and a cop. fat cat is free to leave, providing someone comes to discharge him. unfortunately, fat cat is an orphan and mentally retarded, he doesn't have any friends and case workers seem reluctant to take him on. however, bibi (maggie cheung) feels sorry for fat cat and decides to take his case on; all is going well until she takes him on a day trip to lantau and they are separated. fat cat is left to fend for himself, until wu (wu ma) reluctantly takes him under his wing and a relationship begins to develop between them...

as soon as this started, i realised that it was, essentially, a sequel to 'why me?', which i hadn't seen. thankfully, it works as a stand alone film, so this wasn't a problem. the film starts out with a lot of exposition, setting the scene with a few flashbacks, but starts to get going once fat cat and bibi meet, although it comes into its own, once fat cat and wu run into each other.

the relationship between fat cat and wu, alongside the performances they put in, is what makes the film; kent cheng does some good work and always makes sure that fat cat is a well rounded character, whilst wu ma does a great job in portraying a genuine affection which grows between the two characters. it's not a great film, but it does a good job with a topic which is often felt to be taboo in hong kong.

good stuff...

the dvd is hk$39 from buyoyo.com

ichi the killer

dvd review...



at kfccinema.com

you can read my own review, of the film, here...

the bride with white hair

cho yi hong (leslie cheung) is the wu tang's most accomplished swordsman; it is a life that has been thrust upon him, having been an orphan, raised by the clan. when cultists, led by siamese twins chi wu shuang (francis ng and elaine lui), begin to threaten the wu tang and the seven other clans, cho is dispatched to kill them. cho yi hong has (have?) other plans, though, dispatching lien (brigitte lin), a supremely talented martial artist who was raised by wolves, to kill cho and the leaders of the eight clans. the thing is, lien and cho have a connection which, instead of killing each other, makes them fall in love...

a much lauded romantic fantasy from ronny yu, this is a classy wu xia which concentrates more on love, than martial arts. sure, there are some impressive elements to the action; mainly people losing heir heads and being cut in half, but there's not much in the way of intricate choreography. the filter heavy, slow motion cinematography doesn't really help...

still, there's a lot more in to enjoy here, than martial arts; a simple, yet effective narrative is raised in quality by the fantastic production design (well, for a 1993 wu xia) and the effort that has been invested in the production. leslie cheung and brigitte lin add an air of quality to proceedings, whilst francis ng (who i didn't recognise until around half way through the film) is just plain scary.

good stuff...

the dvd is hk$39 from buyoyo.com

crazy n' the city

it's mildewed...



chris chan (eason chan) is a cop in the wanchai district of hong kong; he spends his time on the beat, mainly giving out parking tickets, keeping the peace and undertaking other mundane activities. like he says, being a cop isn't really like it is in the movies. when chris gets a new partner, manly (joey yung), he begins to start re-evaluating his role and, if anything, finds himself revitalised by her presence...

parts of this film are great: the refreshingly mundane portrayal of police life, mixed with some well written characters, produce enough comedy and drama to engage the audience. my only problems with the film are when the narrative begins to mirror the action which it initially mocks. still, even if that is the case, the first hour of the film is easily strong enough to forgive this and it is still entertaining, even if there's a bit of cheese added to proceedings.

eason chan is wholly likeable as a cop who's resigned himself to just being a cop and joey yung is great as the perky rookie. then, there's francis ng, who plays shing; a man who has slipped into a mild depression / schizophrenic condition and has become a character who mooches around wanchai, annoying people rather than causing bother. not his best work, but pretty good. a host of little cameos and familiar faces in minor roles fill out the cast nicely; lam suet, sam lee, waise le, alex fong, kara hui and crystal tin, are all nice to see.

not great, but there's enough greatness to make it, at least, good...

the dvd is hk$39 from buyoyo.com

the ballad of cable hogue

the ladiest damn'd lady...



after being dumped in the middle of the desert by his partners, cable hogue (jason robards) stumbles around for a couple of days before he stumbles upon some water. now, this water is special; it's the only water, on a stage car route, for fifty miles. cable springs is established and hogue sets out to build a business, with a little help from joshua (david warner), a preacher of questionable beliefs; whilst falling for hildy (stella stevens), a young lady of questionable occupation...

well, this is a strange, yet adorable film; as much as they (whoever they may be) want to dress it up as a comedy, it is, quite clearly, a love story. at this point, with the backing of stella stevens, i should probably say that 'they' are most likely sam peckinpah; who, apparently, insisted that this was a comedy. well, i suppose there are plenty of comic elements (even some which are levered in with crowbar), but it is more of an off-kilter drama, tinged with romance. i guess, what i'm saying is, it's not really a film that sits steadily in any genre, be it western, drama, romance or comedy...

what it is, despite a few hokey moments (which stick out like a saw thumb), is a whole lot of fun, strange and quite lovely at times. jason robards is as great as he always is and i think that anyone could fall for stella stevens. david warner also puts in a fine performance in a wonderful supporting role, which was probably a joy to play.

great stuff...

the dvd is £9.99, as part of the 'sam peckinpah's legendary westerns collection', from hmv.com

el orfanato

the orphanage...



when laura (belen rueda) moves into a house, which was the old orphanage where she grew up, things start to get a little weird. her husband, carlos (fernando cayo), doesn't seem to be that worried, but when simon (roger príncep) seems to make a few new imaginary friends, maybe, he should be...

produced by guillermo del toro, 'the orphanage' was much lauded at cannes and seems to be garnering some pretty favourable hype. in the spirit of 'pan's labyrinth' and, the superior, 'the devil's backbone', 'the orphanage' is another a film which mixes both fantasy and reality in quite a successful fashion, with a bit more of a slant towards making you scared. alongside a solid performance from belen rueda, the beautiful location, stunning production design and great cinematography are a whole bunch of unnerving and genuinely frightening elements. in that respect, it is a success...

still, there are times when this film is simply a well dressed, polished cliche. there are also times when you start thinking about just how far, from a-z, they are going to get through the big book of 'things people do in horror films, which you would never do in real life'. too far, for me: in that respect, it was a failure.

overall, if you can get past a few clunky devices, used to shift the narrative along and you're not expecting a particularly original set of scares, it is okay. however, if you're willing to submit to it and be seduced, by its fancy packaging, into forgiving it any short-comings; you'll probably love it.

personally, considering it was the closing film of what has been the best leeds film festival for a couple of years, i thought it to be one of the weaker films i saw, but think that it will probably be the most successful...

urban explorers : into the darkness

some people like to go to buildings which have been abandoned, snoop around and take some pictures; this is a film about such people.

a pretty interesting documentary, focussing on urban explorers from around the world; well, some americans, scots and french. on the whole, they're a mixed bunch; although they all seem to get kicks out of sneaking in to the world that has become off limits. i think i'd have preferred to know more about where they were snooping, rather than the snoopers, themselves. slim jim, however, was an interesting, if slightly odd, character; an engineer by day, map collecting, comedy running, explorer by night.

pretty good...

times and winds

what about granny's roof?



set in a small, windswept town, perched in the northern turkish mountains which overlook the sea, three children go about their lives. omer (ozkan ozen) dreams of killing his father, the imam (bulent yarar). yakup (ali bey kayali), his best friend, doesn't respect his father and harbours a crush on his teacher (selma ergec). yildiz (elit iscan), a female cousin of omer, feels marginalized now that he parents have a new baby...

in the same way that the call to prayer repeats its morning, noon, afternoon, evening and night cycle, life of the people in the village follows a similar pattern; children become their parents, who have children that mature to be like their parents...

perhaps the first thing to say about this film is that it looks amazing; the location is naturally stunning and the cinematography, be it long, static shots or steady-cam walks through the village, is quite beautiful. the music of arvo part, and the wind that whistles through the olive groves, also ensures that the film sounds great. the performances of the children and adults are well rounded and naturalistic, maybe even more so than characters who they portray.

still, despite this degree of quality, i never found myself fully immersed in the film; as much as i was in awe of the location and enjoyed a lot of what i saw, i still found my mind wandering. it was as if it was an art house drama 'painting by numbers', and the sum of the parts just didn't quite add up or deserve the hyperbolic praise that seems to have been heaped on the film.

pretty good, but never great...

a man's job

are you here to give mummy a massage?



juha (tommi korpela) has been made redundant from his job at a stone cutting factory; so as not to worry his depressive wife, he still leaves the house at 5am everyday and searches for work. after a couple of months he's had no luck and decides to advertise himself as a builder; when is first client is more interested in him, than which wall he's to knock down, juha embarks on a new career as a male escort...

a funny, finnish comedy that works pretty well, even if a lot of the humour is derived from the fact that it is a man who has been driven to selling himself, as opposed to a woman. good work from tommi korpela and jani volanen, who plays olli; juha's taxi driving friend / pimp...

good stuff...

noise

it's a g...



when a girl, caitlin (katie wall), discovers the carriage of her train home from work is filled with dead bodies, a murder investigation begins. the discovery of a related bidy prompts the police to set up a caravan, for people to feed them information, in the locale. constable graham mcgahan (brendan cowell), a slacker cop with a bad case of tinnitus, gets the bum job of manning it for the night shift. as the investigation goes on around him, mcgahan struggles with his home life, boredom and the locals who come into his life (and caravan)...

well, when i saw 'the proposition' at the film festival, a couple of years back, it was the best screening i saw; looks like that honour will go to another australian film, this year. 'noise' is a classy, well-written, drama, which presents a different take on much walked path.

the film manages to introduce a great cast of characters and weaves a totally engaging narrative around the edges of a murder investigation. the use of sound is great and it never becomes a gimmick, whilst the film creates genuine tension, exhibits humour and drama, without straying into melodrama. the cast, in particular, the central performance of brendan cowell, are superb. i really hope this gets the exposure it deserves...

excellent stuff...


the dvd is au$31.66 from ezydvd.com.au

paper dolls

no promises in the promised land...



in 2001, israel closed it's doors to palestinian workers. 300000 immigrant workers arrived in israel over the next few years. amongst these workers are the paper dolls; a group of filipino transsexual performers. during the day, however, they have very different jobs: four of the five girls work as carers for old israeli men, one is a hairdresser...

tomer heymann followed the group for several months as they live their daily lives; some hiding their real selves, some living as they like, seeking acceptance, having fun and dreaming of performing at israel's biggest club...

this was something i had to watch as the blurb sounded so bizarre. what i actually watched was an interesting look at a side of israel i didn't know existed, which is both entertaining and moving. what makes the film is the obvious affection that develops between tomer and the dolls and the relationship between sally and haim.

haim is 89; he lost his voice to cancer, a battle which he is still fighting, and is helped along by sally. sally (born 'salvatore') is 29; she's been working with haim for a few years, living as a woman and performing with the paper dolls from time to time. the relationship that this unlikely pair has, is like father and daughter; the warmth and affection between the them and the joy that they bring to each other, is quite touching.

less bizarre a film, than you'd expect from the blurb; very good...

feet unbound

that's a long walk...



a documentary about the women who took part in the 12500km walk, known as the long march, which was undertaken by the red army, between 1936-39. a handful of surviving participants recount their story, whilst khee-jin ng follows their path (in a car), whilst musing about the life that she leads in twenty-first century beijing.

the survivors are all well into their eighties and nineties, but they are a quick-witted bunch of ladies, who've lived through unbelievable hardship and, on the whole, are still going pretty strong. khee-jin ng allows them to tell their stories with some skill, but she does come across as being living a lazy, fruitless and superficial life, in comparison. this serves to either make her slightly annoying or serves to highlight the massive, incomprehensible, difference, between her life and theirs. thankfully, more often than not, it's the latter...

good stuff...

audience of one

organic living chip...



reverend richard gazowsky grew up as the son of a pentecostal minister; when his mother reached sixty-five, he took over as pastor of her san francisco based church. he saw his first film, aged forty, then, a few years later whilst praying on a mountain top, he had a vision from god. god wanted richard to make the biggest, best film, ever!

richard wanted to make such a film - "'star wars meets 'the ten commandments' - and, after bleeding his congregation dry and selling his own house with the promise of funding from germany, he sets out to make 'gravity'; based on a futuristic, ancient, outer space on earth, retelling of the joseph story.

director mike jacobs just sits back and captures the grand failure that unfold before his very eyes. the reverend richard gazowsky is clearly driven by a dangerous religious intensity, which produces moments of pure comedy, whilst you watch in absolute horror. still, he's always sure that a miracle will help them pull it out of the bag...

very good...

the man from the embassy

i'm a twit...



herbert (burghart klaußner)is the development secretary at the german embassy in georgia. he is bored and spends his time playing computer games, having an affair with his translator and getting drunk. one day, when shopping, a young, local girl, sashka (lika martinova) attempts to pick his pocket. herbert takes sashka to the market security, but soon feels sorry for her, when he sees her being man-handled. when he sees her running away, he helps her escape the clutches of the security guards. thus begins their relationship...

herbert and sashka slowly become friends; playing computer games and laughing. whilst sashka receives money, attention, food and clothes from herbert, herbert gets company and a sense of responsibility. unfortunately, a friendship between a man in his late-fifties and a girl in her early teens is hard for a lot of people to swallow and it isn't long before they are beset with trouble...

now, it's by no means perfect, but this is a very good film. an engaging musing on a friendship which society finds very hard to accept, loneliness, friendship and life as a visitor in a foreign land. excellent performances from, the veteran, burghart klaußner and, the newcomer, lika martinova. at times intense, at times beautiful; it left me feeling a little drained...

good stuff...

build a ship, sail to sadness

sniffing petrol...



vincent (magnus aronson) travels around dumfries and galloway on his scooter, talking to the locals about his idea of setting up an mobile disco...

that's it, really. it looks as if it's been filmed on a broken vhs camera: the colours are over saturated and it has a noisy imange quality. still, this works and it ends up looking pretty good. it leaves you with a smirk on your face, but it does drag a little.

okay...

all in this tea

oolong...



david lee hoffman decided to take a three month break from college, after ten years he returned from his travels. david spent most of this time travelling around asia, living with monks, nomadic tribes, hanging out with the dalai lama and, more than anything, developing a taste for tea. the film follows david as he travels around china, attempting to buy tea, from the business he owns, which grew from him bringing tea back to the united states.

a fascinating documentary about the chinese tea industry, along with a brief history of tea and the ceremonies involved in it's preparation and enjoyment. it's made all the more watchable by david's passion for the subject, which he attempts to pass on to his friends, including werner herzog...

luckily, the screening was followed by a tasting session, laid on by an importer of speciality teas. had some nice taiwanese green and some oolong that didn't disappoint.

good stuff...

have you another apple?

i'm hungry...



in a desolate, sparsely populated country, the sickle-bearers rule over a timid populous. when a tall, bald man (zabi afshar) manages to escape from them, he stumbles into a village, where everyone is asleep. his hunger drives him to disturb the men and women who live there, including a beautiful young woman (leila moosavi), who gives him some bread then, when the sickle-bearers arrive, feign sleep. the pair end p being captured, then escaping from the sickle-bearers and travelling from village to village, with the constant threat of capture...

this was a strange, yet highly entertaining film, sitting somewhere between 'mad max' and 'el topo'; a strange world, filled with bizarre characters, filmed beautifully. iranian director, fazli bayram, (who also wrote, executive produced, filmed and fulfilled various other roles) manages to craft an off-kilter, yet very watchable, not to mention funny, film. good performances, great production design and cinematography, and up to having made my first iranian film watching experience, a very good one.

great stuff...

¡ya basta!

secuestro...



around ten people are kidnapped, every day, in mexico: it is, according to an convicted kidnapper"in fashion". '¡ya basta!' takes a look at the phenomenon, interviewing police, academics, victims (and their families), politicians and kidnappers.

after watching, the supremely intense, 'secuestro express' (see below) i developed an interest in the phenomenon of kidnapping, and it's massive growth, in central america. this was an interesting, worrying and well made documentary, examining the impact of secuestro on mexico.

very good...

secuestro express

written june 2006...



i'd seen the hong kong disc of this getting released a couple of months ago and wondered what it was. i had a look at imdb; it's a venezuelan film, shot digitally, it's about a kidnapping and is the first venezuelan film to get international distribution. i kinda forgot about it, until saturday when there was a free ticket offer in 'the guide'. so, i went to see it with a friend last night.

if i tell you that she was in tears throughout the film and noticeably shaken for a couple of hours after, that may give you an indication what it was like.

the film tells the story of carla and martin; a young couple out clubbing, they return to their car then head to a convenience store, on their way out they are kidnapped. what follows is a very intense, unrelenting and bizarrely funny ordeal. it's not the greatest film, there are floors aplenty, but the atmosphere that is created and the incredible strength of the performances makes it an experience.

intense...

the dvd is £5.99 from hmv.com

please vote for me

children and the future...



wuhan, china. a class is given the chance to vote for who will become class monitor. luo lei; class monitor for the last three years, who is strict and a little violent, cheng cheng; a slightly over-bearing and devious quick thinker and, xiaofei; a quiet, quite shy girl are the candidates. they are eight years old and this is their introduction to democracy...

made as part of the 'why documentary?' project, this is a very enjoyable watch. regardless of whether you think the way the children adapt to underhanded techniques and playing the political game in an attempt to garner votes, shows democracy in a bad light or not, this is a great watch.

xiaofei fades, a little, into the background, whilst cheng cheng and luo lei pull out all the stops as they try to win votes. parental input, plans to sabotage opponents, bribes and simple popularity all come into play; resulting in an introduction to democracy, which has both joy and tears for all involved. for the audience, there is much to enjoy and a good look at just how savvy these kids and their parents are, when competing for votes. there's also a whole lot of laughs...

excellent...

ugly swans

children and the future...



viktor (gregory hlady) is a writer, who has moved from russia to america. after a strange situation arises in his former home town, viktor is invited to join a u.n. commission, who are investigating it. the aquatters, a strange bunch of genetic mutations, have a school, filled with children who they are teaching to think and to expand their humanity. it rains constantly and the powers at be seem particularly threatened by the situation; viktor wants to get to the bottom of it...

well, the first thing to say, is that konstantin lopushansky is doing his best to ape the style of tarkovsky's 'stalker', but we all know that lars von trier did a better job with 'element of crime'. still, the film does look pretty...

basically, it makes it's way through it's 'children are the future; should they be encouraged to blossom or conform' narrative, in a reasonably enjoyable fashion, even if it does over-egg itself. a reasonable slice of sci-fi, elevated above it's station by the cinematography and production design.

okay..

strawberry shortcakes

happy birthday to you...



satoko (chizuru ikewaki), akiyo (yuko nakamura), chihiro (noriko nakagoshi) and toko (kiriko nananan) are four young ladies who live in tokyo. satoko works as the receptionist for an escort agency; she is looking to fall in love and have someone love her in return. akiyo works for the escort agency, but secretly loves her old school friend, who she still goes for a regular drink with. chihiro and toko share a flat; chihiro works in an office and dreams of married life, whilst toko is an artist, who only seems to have time for her work...

well, of the three i've seen at the festival, so far, this has been the stand out. 'strawberry' shortcakes' is the adaptation of a manga (actually written by kiriko nananan), which tells of the relationships between two pairs of girls and the lives that they lead. it's a nicely understated production, which minimal scoring and nice cinematography; it is very well acted, never melodramatic and, occasionally, very funny. i will always be reminded of it, when i hear someone singing 'happy birthday'...

the cast are excellent and they have good characters to work with; each of whom has traits of some a stereotype (or should that be archetype?), but is never allowed to be less than three-dimensional.

very good stuff...

the dvd is $38.95 from hkflix.com

the girl by the lake

between the adriatic sea and the alps...



the body of a girl (alessia piovan) is discovered by a lake, in a small, north-eastern, italian town. a detective, sanzio (toni servillo), arrives from the city and begins to investigate...

aah, lovely northern italy. what you have here, is a solid production; a good cast, great location, relatively tight script and an interesting enough narrative. there's also a pretty good score, from teho teardo, which slots in very well. the thing is, it all feels like an episode of 'prime suspect' or a similar, good standard, investigative drama.

pretty good, but not really good...

hana

even i don't eat shit before it has turned into rice cakes...



soza (junichi okada) is a samurai, who lives in a poverty stricken tenement in edo; a place he has come to find the man who killed his father, so he can perform the act of retribution. however, soza is not your average samurai; frowned upon by his elders and a poor swordsman, soza questions the conventions and expectations of his rank. instead of rigorously pursuing retribution, soza finds himself teaching the other residents of the tenement to read a write, whilst slowly falling in love with the widow, osae (rie miyazawa)...

the only other hirokazu koreeda film i've watched, was the stunning 'nobody knows', 'hana' is a very different film, but it carries the quality and class of its predecessor. 'hana' is a deceptively light-hearted, comedy-drama which, like many recent films, looks at the last days of the samurai and uses it to explore humanity, in a wider sense. it is funny, engaging and moving, but in a particularly understated and relaxed fashion.

okada and miyazawa are great in the main roles, but the film is literally filled with smaller roles for some of japans finest acting talent (surely a testament to koreeda's reputation); tadanobu asano, jun kunimura, katsuo nakamura, yoshio harada, teruyuki kagawa, renji ishibashi, susumu terajima, kenichi endo, moeko ezawa, shigeru hiraizumi and others, all put in fine supporting performances...

still, 'hana' might not appeal to everyone; it does move along at a very gentle pace and, if you are not already reasonably familiar with the ins and outs of the samurai's world, you may not find it too accessible.

good stuff...

the dvd is hk$93 from dddhouse.com

vexille

mmm, robots...



in the early 21st century, robotic technology makes huge advances. with the impending creation of androids being considered too dangerous, their development is forbidden: japan flaunts these rulings. leaving the u.n., closing its borders and creating an impregnable electronic barrier, japan isolates itself from the world.

despite this isolation, america (amongst others) still trade with japan, in order to get heir hands on the latest technology. however, when it appears as if something fishy is going on, a crack team of soldiers is sent into japan; now a completely unknown world...

i'm quite surprised to find out that this was written and directed by sori (fumihiko), who also directed, the excellent, 'ping pong'. a quirky comedy, this is not. 'vexille', is a sci-fi, action-thriller, with a good dose of explosions and robot action thrown in. the premise, as you may gleam from my introduction, starts off pretty well; this continues, as we arrive in japan but, ultimately, it does become a little flat as it progresses towards its climax. this would be a bigger u=issue, but for the fact that it is so nice to look at.

the style of the animation is very nice; it sits somewhere in the middle ground between cell-shaded and full-on cgi. essentially, the world of 'vexille' is, almost, photo-realistic cgi, however the detailing of characters is more akin to a more conventional anime realism. on the whole, this works very well and there are some scenes which are truly stunning.

so, overall, you have a reasonable concept and some great visuals; an accessible inhabitant of the space between 'ghost in the shell' and 'casshern'...

a good starting point for this year's film festival...

career opportunities

you got a tattoo?



jim (frank whaley) is a loser: he lives with his parent, is a compulsive liar, gets fired from even the most menial of jobs and has a kiss curl. josie (jennifer connelly) is the daughter of the town's richest man, isn't happy and doesn't have a tattoo. when jim takes the job of 'night clean-up boy' at the local target (a huge out of town store), he didn't expect to be locked in and left by himself. furthermore, he certainly didn't expect to find josie there, after she fell asleep, deciding whether or not to get arrested for shop lifting, in an attempt to embarrass daddy. and thus, a strange romance begins, only to be interrupted by the appearance of two stupid crooks (dermot and kieran mulroney)...

written by john hughes, but not directed by him, 'career opportunities' isn't particularly funny; i think i smirked a couple of times and maybe even raised a mild giggle at one point. still, if you like absolutely ridiculous films, you're a sucker for scenarios where people are have big shops all to themselves (like me) and you fancy jennifer connelly (unlike me), then you might just enjoy it.

i'll say that it scraped its way toward being entertaining, but only because i enjoyed watching it when i was sixteen...

the dvd is $8.96 from dvdpacific.com

hooper

rough skin over the entire body...



sonny hooper (burt reynolds) is hollywood's number one stunt man and stunt co-ordinator. despite his position, his best years are now behind him; a fact that seems to be hitting home with each "gag" he performs and the arrival of ski (jan-michael vincent), a younger, faster, more daring stuntman, on the scene. will a final hurrah for sonny and a stunt that will launch ski's career, be one gag too many?

well, this has been a favourite of mine since i saw it as a child and decided that i wanted to be a stuntman. it never happened. it's a film that changes as you watch it over the years; you notice more jokes, that you wouldn't have understood as a child, and more references to films and the film industry, which probably didn't register the first time you saw it. still, it's so full of stunts and spectacle, that a child would not be bothered that chunks of the film would've gone over their heads. i know that i wasn't. these changes mean that it still stands up for repeat viewings, not because of the stunts (which are of a pretty high standard), but because of these extra bits, which now make sense.

it's not a great film, but it is still a fun film to watch, which has some very nice touches here and there...

the dvd is $5.20 from dvdpacific.com

the notorious bettie page

show some restraint...



bettie page (gretchen mol) grew up in tennessee then, after some rather unsavoury experiences, moved to new york, where she became a glamour model. as her career progressed, she found herself working for a brother and sister, irving (chris bauer) and paula klaw (lili taylor), posing for bondage photographs that would earn her fame, notoriety and land the klaw siblings in trouble...

more quality work from the mary harron / guinevere turner partnership, who both appear to be huge bettie page geeks, brings the story of miss page to the screen, with a particular focus on her bondage work with the klaws. gretchen mol is simply fantastic as bettie; conveying the sense of joy and wholesome nature of page, alongside her christianity, which seemed to be at odds with the line of work that she undertook. as well as examining the attitudes towards sex and fetishism in the 1950s, the film looks at just how much bettie, an extremely sweet-natured girl from a small southern town, knew about the wider world of bondage that she became a figure head of.

the slightly grainy, high-contrast, black and white cinematography gives the film a nice feel of the fifties, from the off, with splashes of technicolor being used only to show magazine covers and bettie's trips to miami's sunshine, surf and bunny yeager (sarah paulson). add to this, some fine work from the costume and production design departments, with a supporting cast, who are universally excellent (see jared harris and cara seymour, in particular), and you have a fine film.

good stuff, indeed...

the dvd is £5.99 from hmv.com