Kapital – last night was the world-premiere for Greg Hall/ Steve Martland film commission for Manchester International Festival. Apparently the three “Londoners” (those two and Alex Poots, festival director) cooked up the title in a café in Finsbury Park – and I think that about says it all.
Simon Mellor said in the post-film Q&A that he thought that Manchester was one of the main characters in the piece. And I couldn’t have agreed less. If you’re a Cockney, why come to a strange city and try and make a “Mancunian” film?
My feeling overall was that it could have worked as four short films. Actually, it could have been one short. In fact, I recommend you watch the well-edited one minute trailer approximately 75 times instead of catching the full director’s cut…
It was like watching an art installation film piece in a cinema; it’s certainly no feature film. Nice try MIF, but features budgets tend to have another nought on the end of them. As a result of that, and I suspect also the providence of the director, this really isn’t a film worth seeking out. More Krap-ital than Kapital.
technorati tag: kapital, manchester international festival
Showing posts with label film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label film. Show all posts
05 July 2007
30 April 2007
film sense-orship
Too young to see the film you star in because of the BBFC rating? Then make sure you get it shown in Bristol (a la Shane Meadow's This is England).
At last, an authority showing some sense over film censorship - and adjusting the certification to a 15. If only this had happened for Sweet Sixteen as well. Sadly, it's too late now.
technorati tag: BBFC, this is england
At last, an authority showing some sense over film censorship - and adjusting the certification to a 15. If only this had happened for Sweet Sixteen as well. Sadly, it's too late now.
technorati tag: BBFC, this is england
"15 minutes" - this sunday
15 Minutes (18)
The final in our Heroes and Villains series (and the last in this run of films…)
The final in our Heroes and Villains series (and the last in this run of films…)
This Sunday, 6th May
Doors: 6.30pm Film starts: 7pm prompt
VENUE CHANGE ** please note that we've moved venues (contact for location details) **
If you want to explore the film's themes and issues: Post-film discussion: 9.15pm onwards Evening ends: no later than 10pm
Feel free to bring your own food, drinks and snacks.
29 March 2007
Reel Spirituality - Leon, this Sunday
Leon (18)
The third in our Heroes and Villains series
This Sunday, 1st April
Doors: 6.30pm Film starts: 7pm prompt
VENUE CHANGE ** please note that we’ve moved venues (email Sanctus1 for location details) **
If you want to explore the film’s themes and issues:
Post-film discussion: 9.15pm onwards Evening ends: no later than 10pm
Feel free to bring your own food, drinks and snacks – I think there might be free popcorn!
Next month, the last in the series of Heroes and Villains:
6th May - 15 Minutes (18)
18 January 2007
into great silence...
I read recently that one of the golden rules of creative writing was “don’t tell the reader, show them”, meaning that explanation is patronizing and ultimately detracts from the narrative. Philip Groning might well have had this line in his head when he filmed his three-hour documentary, Into Great Silence, about the monastery, La Grande Chartreuse, and its order of Carthusian monks.
I’m so glad he chose not to make an “explanatory” documentary – this was immersive cinema, which is exactly what it needed to be. I don’t think it could have been anything else. In that sense, it reminded me a little of Koyanisquatsi. Put simply, it was a series of beautiful moving-photographs, capturing the natural and built environments, the rhythmic daily life of the monks, and of course the silence…
Yes, I had little idea what the chants all meant; yes, the on-screen quotes jarred occasionally (especially when they’re in French and German, thus subtitled right at the bottom of the screen in English); yes, I spent the first 30 minutes feeling acutely aware of the rustle of every single person in the sold-out cinema. Even a little explanation (a smooth voiceover by Morgan Freeman a la The March of the Penguins?) would have killed it.
What’s more, you can’t exactly rush a film that took 16 years even to get permission to make and is essentially about a life of intense, focused, reflective contemplation measured out by seasons and in rhythm to a 900 year old daily pattern. To try and fit it into a neat 120 minutes would have felt wrong. Like slow food is to McDonalds, this is to your average Hollywood blockbuster. I am also struggling to think of the last time I was in the cinema with such a respectful audience. OK, I was the youngest by about twenty years, but a less cinematic bunch I couldn’t have imagined. I reckoned everyone else there either was or wanted to be a priest or a nun…
On reflection, it would have been difficult to make a film about the life of this monastery that wasn’t beautiful. My memories of it now are only of elementary essentials: shafts of light, flickering candles, simple food, snow, sunshine, reading and writing, chants, wooden spoons, long corridors, and of course that silence…
The daily reality of the monks’ lives was to me a mix of the unexpected and to-be-expected. The unexpected? Them sliding down a snow covered hill and whooping in delight, the plastic bottles, their electric razors, feeding the cats. The expected? The monks praying, praying, and then praying some more - in the flickering light of the chapel, in their simple wooden cells, at all times of the day and through every season. And that silence…
It’s not a lifestyle that I would want to live, but it’s an incredible and privileged glimpse into a life a world away from mine. The monks’ economy of action and focus of attention is something that I envy on one level – as if everything has become so simple and so condensed and so thoughtful that nothing else matters.
To start with I felt a bit voyeuristic watching them move slowly about the monastery, but my initial worries that there were no main characters to hang 167 minutes of “action” on were put aside as, even without words, the men came to life on the screen – the young one, the ancient and stooped gardener/ cook, the novice…
Towards the end, one old monk – who was blind and partially deaf – said a few simple sentences about his beliefs. One of those stuck with me: “The world has lost any sense of God. It is a pity…” And it was the one time that I wanted to speak out and break that silence…
I’m so glad he chose not to make an “explanatory” documentary – this was immersive cinema, which is exactly what it needed to be. I don’t think it could have been anything else. In that sense, it reminded me a little of Koyanisquatsi. Put simply, it was a series of beautiful moving-photographs, capturing the natural and built environments, the rhythmic daily life of the monks, and of course the silence…
Yes, I had little idea what the chants all meant; yes, the on-screen quotes jarred occasionally (especially when they’re in French and German, thus subtitled right at the bottom of the screen in English); yes, I spent the first 30 minutes feeling acutely aware of the rustle of every single person in the sold-out cinema. Even a little explanation (a smooth voiceover by Morgan Freeman a la The March of the Penguins?) would have killed it.
What’s more, you can’t exactly rush a film that took 16 years even to get permission to make and is essentially about a life of intense, focused, reflective contemplation measured out by seasons and in rhythm to a 900 year old daily pattern. To try and fit it into a neat 120 minutes would have felt wrong. Like slow food is to McDonalds, this is to your average Hollywood blockbuster. I am also struggling to think of the last time I was in the cinema with such a respectful audience. OK, I was the youngest by about twenty years, but a less cinematic bunch I couldn’t have imagined. I reckoned everyone else there either was or wanted to be a priest or a nun…
On reflection, it would have been difficult to make a film about the life of this monastery that wasn’t beautiful. My memories of it now are only of elementary essentials: shafts of light, flickering candles, simple food, snow, sunshine, reading and writing, chants, wooden spoons, long corridors, and of course that silence…
The daily reality of the monks’ lives was to me a mix of the unexpected and to-be-expected. The unexpected? Them sliding down a snow covered hill and whooping in delight, the plastic bottles, their electric razors, feeding the cats. The expected? The monks praying, praying, and then praying some more - in the flickering light of the chapel, in their simple wooden cells, at all times of the day and through every season. And that silence…
It’s not a lifestyle that I would want to live, but it’s an incredible and privileged glimpse into a life a world away from mine. The monks’ economy of action and focus of attention is something that I envy on one level – as if everything has become so simple and so condensed and so thoughtful that nothing else matters.
To start with I felt a bit voyeuristic watching them move slowly about the monastery, but my initial worries that there were no main characters to hang 167 minutes of “action” on were put aside as, even without words, the men came to life on the screen – the young one, the ancient and stooped gardener/ cook, the novice…
Towards the end, one old monk – who was blind and partially deaf – said a few simple sentences about his beliefs. One of those stuck with me: “The world has lost any sense of God. It is a pity…” And it was the one time that I wanted to speak out and break that silence…
technorati tag: into great silence
02 January 2007
Reel Spirituality: this Sunday - The Life Aquatic
New Year’s resolutions - See more films? Do something new? Get 30% extra from your Sundays?
Then come along to Reel Spirituality!
This Sunday, the last in “The Outsider” series…
7th January - The Life Aquatic (15)
1st Sunday of the month at Nexus
Doors: 6.30pm Film starts: 7pm prompt
If you want to explore the film’s themes and issues:
Post-film discussion: 9.15pm onwards Evening ends: no later than 10pm
Feel free to bring your own food. Drinks and snacks available on the night.
+ Book stall of film and spiritual books +
The next series is “Heroes and Villains”
4th February - The Proposition (18)
4th March - House of Flying Daggers (15)
1st April - Leon (18)
6th May - 15 Minutes (18)
See you there? Hope so.
technorati tag: the life aquatic, technorati tag: reel spirituality
Then come along to Reel Spirituality!
This Sunday, the last in “The Outsider” series…
7th January - The Life Aquatic (15)
1st Sunday of the month at Nexus
Doors: 6.30pm Film starts: 7pm prompt
If you want to explore the film’s themes and issues:
Post-film discussion: 9.15pm onwards Evening ends: no later than 10pm
Feel free to bring your own food. Drinks and snacks available on the night.
+ Book stall of film and spiritual books +
The next series is “Heroes and Villains”
4th February - The Proposition (18)
4th March - House of Flying Daggers (15)
1st April - Leon (18)
6th May - 15 Minutes (18)
See you there? Hope so.
technorati tag: the life aquatic, technorati tag: reel spirituality
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