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Retrospective (2014)
Amazing short film
There has been a lot of contention surrounding War Photographers for a long time. In fact, some of the backlash of these evocative pictures has driven the artists to suicide. It's a constant tension with asking yourself at what point do you believe a photograph should intervene with the subject? Do they continue to document the war or do they put the camera down in order to help, delving into their resources to reach out to the humanity they are portraying? Or at some point, do you have to devoid yourself behind the lens and use these images to shock the world into action? What is right
What is morally right?
Starring Charles Dance and Omid Djalili, this is the subject of Garrick Hamm's short film Retrospective. It revolves around acclaimed wartime photographer Jonathan Hoyle who is being celebrated with his new book (the title of the film) and an art exhibit. With much praise, however, it is clear that Hoyle is troubled by his own work and is striving to detach himself from the whole affair and his lifetime of photography. However, this task is not as simple as it first looks and he finds that his work has caused more trouble for his subjects and their families than he cared to flinch about.
The whole story is written with acute perception and daringness. Hamm wields the camera similarly to Hoyle, with emotion behind the lens as well as in front of it. The attention to each side of the story – the distraught family of the "acclaimed" death on the front cover and Hoyle's own anguish with the attention and witnessing the death – are balanced with equal visceral perception. The ideas presented are firstly about art and survival, immortalisation and the removal of oneself in order to pursue the vital work. Secondly, it deals with love and consequence, the confrontation with the emotions one isolates themself from. This ideology creates a stirring, provocative film that is sturdily acted by both Dance and Djalili.
Working alongside his acclaimed cinematographer Michael Seresin, the movie is a stunning effort from Hamm that really dares to ask questions. Played in unnverving fashion, Retrospective is an intellectual and fantastic film that deals with a sensitive issue with both tact and grace.
Halley (2012)
Slow but enjoable
There has been a lot of talk surrounding Mexican movie Halley. The biggest word to come from their lips is zombie and that might make you groan. It seems on an yearly basis we get a new infection of monsters and obsess over one. A few years we have had the vampire and now there seems to be an influx of zombie movies. Nevertheless, Halley seems to bring a different few on the genre and entwines it perfectly with an artistic flare. Halley is about Bento, a gymnasium security guard who keeps himself alone. Whether or not Bento is a zombie is debatable but he is definitely different. Bento is plague with some illness which means he is decaying. His skin is rotting, he has maggots eating at him and he keeps himself going with embalming fluids. When he collapses in a train station, he even wakes up in a morgue. Contrasting to the bright lives of Mexico City, Bento struggles daily to keep his self going in this moving film about isolation and a man and his body. Halley is a very slow and paced movie. And that may not be necessarily bad, all though it may lose favour with audiences. In fact, Halley creeps along with a plodding Bento. But this pace, or lack of, actually works well with our lead character and we are drawn into his tired life. Director Sebastian Hoffman, with his feature film debut, contrasts Bento's life against the fit and healthy bodies of those around him in the gym as well as the lights of Mexico City. The audience itself is brought into a world of isolation and the effect is almost claustrophobic , a forlorn world bearing down from the screen. Even when Bento is taken out with Silvia, his vivacious manager, we are given a more bitter impact of loneliness as Luly too is a fleeting, friendless soul despite her attempts to be otherwise. Lead actor Alberto Trujilo, who himself lost pounds and life for the role of Bento, is a terrific body actor who gives a quirky grotesque performance that begs sympathy for our monster. And what Halley never makes us forget is how much of a monster Bento has become. The gruesome elements are much here but there aren't overdone. There are incredible make up effects here to show the deterioration of Bento's body. While it is not graphic and forced down our throats, the shock and grimace is still there, particularly at the finale which strips us cold in its absurdity. Halley is a simple movie which does not over complicate in its genre and is a odd tale about humanity, or someone's lack of. Hoffman here effectively gives us a beautifully shot portrayal of a body betraying a man causing him to withdraw from society. While some may not like the films drag, you cannot help but feel drawn into the painful life of Bento and others that we may pass by as we go about our lives. Whatever Bento is beating with, it is an empty one and it resonates loudly with the audience. 4/5 TTFN