Change Your Image
Jon F
Reviews
Memoirs of a Survivor (1981)
Perhaps it is a little too obscure for some
I found the film immensely interesting. You see the decay of urbanity from the eyes of a woman ('D') hiding in her bastion of civilisation, a council flat. Her impregnable retreat is suddenly breached by the intrusion of two factors, the imposition on her by an unnamed authority of an orphan called Emily, and her sudden realisation that beyond the wall lies the past? the future? or perhaps an alternative world told through the various incarnations of a house she visits as an unseen entity.
While the brutalised orphans of the streets outside seem to be beginning to supplant the authorities and are accelerating the end of the world. D realises through her wall, that the condition of her society is not new. Society grows from strict disciplinarian routes, and when achieved embarks on a decaying relaxation of morals which inevitably ends in the collapse of society. Those that are necessary to rebuild society are not necessarily nice people, merely essential, thus we arrive at the Gerald character. Eventually Emily and Gerald rescue the savage (troglodyte) children of the subways, and with the help of D and the wall, take them to a new Eden, where the children will be able to begin a new society starting from caveman.
It is obvious because of the cannibalistic nature of the children that Gerald, Emily and D will not survive this process, but their action is essential to build anew, and the children will begin without the memory of their former civilisation's decay. Thus we are brought from the end of the world, to the beginning of a new world for the orphans of the old. Most people believed that the collapse of D's world was a prediction of the collapse of our own, but perhaps our world is actually the one behind the wall. That is up to you.
This is an intensely moving novel produced by a woman of feeling who had witnessed the brutalisation and savagery of war at close hand and understood the nature of the fall of society. Not an action film, but a masterpiece that many will not understand because of its intensely philosophical nature.
Aurora (1998)
Not bad
I purchased this on DVD cheap for a laugh. There was a small amount of special effects at the begining, the rest was desert scenes, with skylines that look suspiciously like they were altered using Bryce. But that isn't the point. The special effects are almost non existant, so they don't get in the way of the film. This could easily be trekking across the Sahara as across the planet Aurora. The interactions are well thought out, the break up of authority well depicted. I give it a good rating, for an indie film it is really good.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
What A Con!
One of the adverts said "Its the film everybody is talking about" Then overdubbing (on images of people leaving a cinema without looking very happy) the words "So why is no one talking?"
Well, probably because they have just payed good cash to sit through one hour and 14 minutes worth of drivel. What a feeling of ripped-off-ness those people must have had. Thank god I only watched it by buying a 20p ex-rental DVD.
Children, playing at being children acting frightened in the woods, and using a lot of 'F' words, how riveting. Not to mention unconvincing! We know that there are many people who in normal conversation use the 'F' word once in every three, but a good screenplay writer knows that this does not work on the screen. He knows when to use it for maximum effect, and when not to use it. The fact that only twenty minutes into the film these children were running around screaming "What the F's going on" rather brought the film to a climax too soon, after which it was embarrassingly boring.
The concept was good, but the material as presented would have been better summed up in 30 minutes and not left to linger for over an hour. It is reminiscent of a comedian who has to milk the last laugh from a flimsy sketch, only to desist at the 20th groan.
More effective in my mind was the spoof documentary, "The Curse of the Blair Witch", which showed only enough of those embarrassing, (and probably embarrassed children), to effect a briliant concocted mythology, which would, on its own have been able to stand with all great April Fool Spoofs, such as "The Spagetti Harvest", "Dinasaurs in London", and "The Brain Drain". Instead, they decided to inflict it on us as a film, and worse of all call it the best horror of 1999.
The only thing that this is a tribute to is the producer's stunningly effective advertising campeign, especially their use of the internet for promotion. It worked once, next time the public will be more sceptical. Which is a pity, since there were a few better films that year that would have benefitted from such a shrewd advertising mechanism than this one.
In the words of Our Lord W C Fields, "Never give a sucker an even break!". They have made their money, and I congratulate them on their gimmick. Lets pray that they do not want to inflict more of this tripe on us.
L'histoire d'Adèle H. (1975)
The Real French Lieutenant's Woman
This is the story of Adele Hugo, daughter of Victor Hugo. Adele was seduced by a French Lieutenant who promptly left her for foreign shores. Adele followed him for several years trying to win him back until she was found a penniless mentally disturbed vagrant in Barbados.
Adele was the last Hugo to die (sometime in the 1940s). Isabele Adjani (also Nosferatu 1979) brings the role of Adele to life superbly.
This is a brilliant film! one of Truffaut's best.