waltz with bashir

Almost May, really? Time flies when you’re having fun! I’m still planning on making good on my 365 post-promise, and the good news is that I’m cherry picking the best of what I’ve seen, read and eaten the last few months for your pleasure.

To start with, a serious, but visual delight of storytelling. Waltz with Bashir was on my Film Fra Sør shortlist last year, but it took me till now to get to see it at the cinema. The first animated film to be nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, it tells the story of how the director Ari Folman uncovers his long buried memories of his personal experiences in the Lebanon War.

If you are at all a fan of the graphic novel, this film is definitely for you, as it’s a graphic novel come to life, grippingly and heart-stoppingly so. Few judgements are made on what happened, why and how, but a solemn reminder that every armed conflict affects and marks individuals, people like you and me.

leonardi baa vinci

Mr. Snow\’s cousin tipped me off on this one. I\’m sure this has made it into the Shepherding Hall of Fame where he lives. Watch and be azamed. Tusen takk, D!

slumdog millionaire

If you haven’t got plans for the weekend and haven’t seen the film yet,  I can’t say much else except that this incredibly watchable film will be a hugely entertaining way to spend two hours, and make you want to cheer out loud. That’s the effect the wild city filming and music had on me, despite the slightly thin storyline. Beat the book hands down. Just go!

top 10 films of 2008

It’s that time of year again, when everyone gets to make their lists of favourites for the year, and one of the ones I watch out for most is the film list. The Guardian’s film critics have put together theirs, below.

It seems like I got to go to the cinema lots this year, having seen 5 out of the 10 (1, 2, 3, 7 and 10), one more is waiting on DVD (8), and meant to see but missed 2 more at the Oslo Film Festival (5 and 9). That leaves two that didn’t really make it onto my radar (4 and 6), but now they are in the cross-hairs.

I’m not really sure I agree with their No.1 choice, if only because the book was not only better, but importantly had a very different ending and message. And of course, I saw many films which were older than from 2008. If I had to choose from their list, I think the Myyear list would look like this:

1. The first half hour of Wall-E.

2. Man On Wire

3. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

4. There Will Be Blood.

5. No Country for Old Men.

See below for the Guardian’s list!

hunger

(A different) Steve McQueen won the Golden Camera at Cannes this year for his film Hunger, about the IRA hunger strikers at the Maze Prison outside Belfast during the 1980s. Sadly one I missed at the Oslo Film Festival this year, but I got to read and learn more about the story behind it from men who had been there themselves, in this article in the Guardian.

From it,

In 1976, the British government had decided to phase out special category status for convicted terrorists as part of a bigger process known as ‘criminalisation’. The protest began on 14 September 1976, when Kieran Nugent, the first IRA man to be convicted for terrorist offences under the new policy, reputedly said to a prison guard: ‘If you want me to wear that uniform, you’re going to have to nail it to my back.’ He was given a blanket and escorted to his cell.

Other IRA prisoners followed his example, and in 1978 the mass blanket protest turned into the dirty protest when IRA prisoners refused to leave their cells following another violent dispute, this time over a demand for extra towels in the communal washrooms. The prisoners’ policy of non-cooperation meant that they were often confined for days on end in their tiny concrete cells with just a blanket, a mattress and a Bible. Refusing to wash or slop out, they began emptying their urine out over the floor and smearing their excrement on the walls.

Freddie Toal was one of the prisoners, and said:

‘For a long time, when I was on the blanket, I had no real idea what I looked like. The only time I ever saw my face was this one time when the screws were sweeping piss into our cells. The sun suddenly shone through the window and, for a few seconds, I saw my reflection in a pool of piss. It sounds funny but it took me a while to register it was me. I looked like a wild man.’

Go to the article to read more about how and why men find themselves in such a situation, and the Northern Ireland story in general.

brickhead

Watch and be amazed. Who needs machines… or even a wheelbarrow?

life on mars

Mr. Snow was adamant that he didn’t want to start on another series of Dexter or The Wire for fear of getting hooked again, but somehow Life on Mars found its way into the DVD player. And yup… he’s hooked.

Sam Tyler is a policeman in Manchester who has an accident – and wakes up in 1973, dressed in flares and a leather jacket, but still a policeman. So it’s a crime series with the added element of time travel back to the funky 70s. This means flowery green wallpaper, rather heavy-handed policing (even when dealing with witnesses!), dubious forensics methods and more. The bizarre concept actually works a treat, especially on the dark winter evenings. Snuggling on the sofa in front of the fire optional but preferable.

a journey on a london bus

This film is from a tip-off by Time Out, especially for Ms. D when she moves to London. It was made in 1950, showing newly arrived visitors from Africa and the Carribean how to catch a London bus. Truly amazing quotes include:

‘Try and catch a bus that is going to the place you want to reach.’

‘They know that buses run to carefully prepared timetables and are always punctual. People never have long to wait.’

‘The conductor controls everything in a cheerful way.’

What I want to know is, did people in 1950 laugh sarcastically too when they saw the film?

Go here to see Time Out’s complete list of 20 greatest London YouTube clips. Paul McCartney’s ‘music video’ on the Central Line is priceless, as is AC/DC with tiny shorts and a banana.

up the yangtze

I’m creating my very own IDFA here in Oslo this week. Canadian-born Chinese director Yung Chang made Up the Yangtze over a year of living in the region and following a local family due to lose their home when the Three Gorges were dammed up. Their oldest daughter is sent to work on a river cruise ship instead of continuing school, to help support the family once they lose their livelihood (subsistence farming) and home.

It’s not that the director doesn’t love his subject, as he describes his experience during filming warmly. But the resulting film seemed superficial and a little cold. Perhaps – as was alluded to – he didn’t find the China he was expecting from his grandfather’s tales.

At the risk of sounding callous, I didn’t feel the film told me anything new about this issue, apart from reinforcing two thoughts I already had. Specifically, the back-breaking, grinding poverty of some Chinese today, and that it will be a long time before I step foot on a cruise ship. Disappointing.

ballast

Ballast was an odd film, in that I liked it while watching it, but less so the more I thought about it afterwards. I blame the infiltration of Mr. Snow’s negative thoughts. At least it gave us lots to talk about.

Initially I liked the cinematography (even though I suspect it gave me motion sickness) – a handheld camera with abrupt outtakes from a disrupted family life, none of which Mr. Snow found novel. Also, I thought quite a lot happened and at quite a pace, but Mr. Snow found it slow and seriously lacking in action.

We both managed to agree that the happy ending was a bit trite, but then the Mechanic hadn’t found it happy at all. In fact he had spent most of the film (after figuring out what the heck was going on) thanking his lucky stars that he hadn’t been born poor and black in the American South. As I said, we had lots to talk about.