- Intellect

Transcription

- Intellect

September/October 2011 www.thebigpicturemgazine.com
directory of
world
cinema
experience global culture
through the magic of film
The Directory of World Cinema aims to play a part in moving intelligent, scholarly criticism beyond the
academy. Each volume of the Directory provides a culturally representative insight into a national or regional
cinema through a collection of reviews, essays, resources, and film stills highlighting significant films and
players. Over time, new editions will be published for each volume, gradually building a comprehensive
guide to the cinema of each region. To contribute to the project or purchase copies please visit the website.
www . worldcinemadirectory. org
To view our catalogue or order our books and journals visit www.intellectbooks.com. Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG. | Tel: +44 (0) 117 9589910
contents
Issue Sixteen. September/October 2011
Features
06
0 6 | Spotlight
Growing Pains:
Cinema of Adolescence
1 4 | Art & Film
Mr. Strong:
The Bright and Brilliant
Poster Art of Tom Whalen
2 2 | 1000 Words
Absolute Beginner:
John Hughes and the
Films of American Youth
In Transition
Regulars
0 4 | Reel World
The Railway Children
20 | Four Frames
Stand By Me
2 6 | On Location
Los Angeles, USA
'But face it. You're a neo
maxi zoom dweebie, what
would you be doing if you
weren't out making yourself
a better citizen? '
John Bender
3 0 | Screengem
My Life as a Dog
3 4 | Parting Shot
First Person Shooter
3 8 | Listings
A Roundup of this Issue's
Featured Films
cover image kes (KOBAL)
22
The Big Picture ISSN 1759-0922 © 2011 intellect Ltd. Published by Intellect Ltd. The Mill, Parnall Road. Bristol BS16 3JG / www.intellectbooks.com
Editorial office Tel. 0117 9589910 / E: [email protected] Publisher Masoud Yazdani Chief Editor & Art Direction Gabriel Solomons Guest Editor Neil Mitchell
Contributors Jez Conolly, John Berra, Daniel Steadman, Robert Beames, Neil Mitchell, Sam Price, Nicola Balkind, Scott Jordan Harris, Gabriel Solomons
Please send all email enquiries to: [email protected] / www.thebigpicturemagazine.com l The Big Picture magazine is published six times a year
Published by
intellect
| www.intellectbooks.co.uk
September/October 2011
3
reel world
f i l m b e yo n d t h e b o r d e r s o f t h e s c r e e n
On The
Rails
The Railway Children, an iconic 1970s
children's novel has inspired more than just
film and theatre productions. Neil Mitchell
jumps aboard to follow its trail of influence.
e d i th nesbi t's p er enn ially
popular children's novel
The Railway Children has in
recent years been successfully
transferred to the stage,
a production that follows
in the footsteps of several
small screen versions and
Lionel Jeffries' iconic 1970
film adaptation. Jeffries'
unashamedly sentimental and
nostalgic take on Nesbit's book
sees the Waterbury family
relocate from London to a
small village and learn to live
in relative penury after the
father of the family, a foreign
office employee, is wrongly
incarcerated for selling state
secrets to the Russians. The
children of the title, Roberta,
Phyllis and Peter, immortalised
in Jeffries' film by Jenny
Agutter, Sally Thomsett and
Gary Warren, experience a
series of events all connected
to the nearby railway line that
requires them to show wisdom,
courage and understanding
4 www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
beyond their tender years,
culminating in the famous
'daddy, my daddy' tear-jerking
climactic family reunion.
The Railway Children's
gentle view of childhood has
an enduring place in the hearts
of those who have read or seen
it, with its evocative name now
used in the real world for a vital
and ongoing concern, that of
combating child homelessness.
Founded in 1995 by David
Maidment, former Controller
of Safety Policy for British
Rail, the Railway Children
charity, whose mantra is 'getting
to street kids before the street
gets to them', has 117 projects
set up in the UK, Africa and
Asia and last year helped over
25,000 street children. With
the latest theatrical production
of Nesbit's classic supporting
the charity and with 24
partner organisations working
in conjunction with Railway
Children, the plight of the most
vulnerable members of society
will not go unnoticed. [tbp]
The Railway Children's
gentle view of childhood
has an enduring place in
the hearts of those who
have read or seen it.
Image: www.railwaychildrenwaterloo.com
left lionel jeffries' classic 1970 film / above London's theatrical version is staged at the former Eurostar terminal which features the Stirling Single, a 60 tonne steam locomotive
gofurther
[web ] book tickets to see the London set Theatre production at www.www.railwaychildren.org.uk
5
spotlight
c i n e m a ' s t h e m at i c s t r a n d s
Kobal (2)
cover
feature
Y
Growing
Pains
Films about the trials, tribulations and triumphs of
childhood are plentiful, but which ones stand the test
of time?. J o hn berra and sa m price retreat into
their past to better assess some classic examples.
kes (1969)
Dir. Ken Loach
Now that Kes is routinely
recognised as a British cinema
classic, and its director is feted
as one of the country’s greatest
living filmmakers, it’s easy to forget
the potency of the film proper.
Kitchen-sink dramas tend to get
a rough ride by contemporary
audiences and critics, lazily and
ignorantly dismissed as hunks
of Northern miserablism. It’s
a good thing, then, that Ken
Loach’s film contains timeless
themes. An unvarnished look at
the shortcomings of the British
class system in the late 1960s, Kes'
enduring attraction lies in Loach
taking something almost bizarrely
specific (a bullied underachieving
school boy learns to train a kestrel
falcon to fend off his woes) and
rendering it as a universal tale
of the frustrations of childhood.
Unsentimental but emotionally
devastating, it’s one for the ages.
[Sam Price]
Kes' enduring
attraction lies in
Loach taking something
almost bizarrely
specific and rendering
it as a universal tale
of the frustrations of
childhood.
➜
left
DAVID BRADLEY and friend
above
DAVID BRADLEY, FREDDIE FLETCHER and LYNNE PERRIE
7
Kobal (2)
All About Lily
Chou Chou (2000)
Dir. Shunji Iwai
The cruelties of youth are
filtered through a fragmented
narrative that follows two Japanese
schoolboys as they attend junior
high and take an ill-fated vacation
to the island of Okinawa with their
classmates. It is suggested that high
school is an institution that must
be survived as blackmail, bullying,
shoplifting and rape are among
the acts committed by teenagers
on a daily basis, while teachers
struggle to maintain the respect
of their students and parents are
either absent or ignored. These
socially isolated adolescents listen
to the ethereal music of titular
pop idol Lily Chou Chou and
discuss the meaning of the singer’s
lyrics through internet message
boards, but virtual friendship is no
substitute for the real thing and the
film ends in devastating tragedy.
[John Berra]
socially isolated
adolescents listen to the
ethereal music of titular
pop idol Lily Chou Chou
and discuss the meaning of
the singer’s lyrics through
internet message boards
above
Jean-Pierre Léaud
top left
HAYATO ICHIHARA
spotlight GROWING PAINS
The 400 Blows (1959)
Dir. François Truffaut
The film strives to show
that Antoine is a victim
of circumstance, whose
fledgling talents deserve
better than a dysfunctional
family environment and an
oppressive education system.
Although the teachers of 13-yearold Antoine (Jean-Pierre Léaud)
regard him as a troublemaker, he
can more accurately be described
as misunderstood, or easily manipulated by the mischievous
children around him. Skipping
school to roam the streets of Paris,
squandering time in seedy arcades, resorting to petty theft and
plagiarising Balzac result in a trip
to the principal’s office and, eventually, a transfer to an observation
centre for troubled youths. Yet the
film strives to show that Antoine
is a victim of circumstance, whose
fledgling talents deserve better
than a dysfunctional family environment and an oppressive education system, although he achieves
some measure of freedom in the
legendary parting shot. Antoine’s
eventful later life would be explored by Truffaut and Léaud in
four subsequent collaborations.
[John Berra]
9
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Dir. John Fawcett
Luke’s mix-tapes form
a slamming soundtrack
with choice cuts by A
Tribe Called Quest, KRSOne and Wu Tang Clan.
the wackness (2008)
Dir. Jonathan Levine
New York City circa 1994:
directionless teenager Luke
Shapiro (Josh Peck) spends the
summer days that follow high
school graduation selling pot out
of an ice-cream cart, listening
to the latest hip-hop artists, and
trying to win the affections of
popular classmate Stephanie
(Olivia Thirlby), who is also the
step-daughter of his psychologist
Dr. Squires (Ben Kingsley).
Hanging out with Dr. Squires
leads to some off-the-hook advice
like, ‘Get your heart broken, find
yourself face down in the gutter, get
your balls sucked, make a real mess
of a life’, and Luke must step-up
when it becomes apparent that
his family is in serious financial
trouble. Luke’s mix-tapes form a
slamming soundtrack with choice
cuts by A Tribe Called Quest,
KRS-One and Wu Tang Clan.
[John Berra]
Burying the body of a school
hockey player in her back garden,
moments after attempting to rip
out the girl’s jugular with her teeth,
misanthrope and burgeoning
teenage werewolf Ginger Fitzgerald
(Katharine Isabelle) ventures, “Noone ever thinks chicks do shit like this.
A girl can only be a slut, bitch, tease
or the virgin next door… We’ll just
coast on how the world works”. Free
of the Scream-infected irony and
pre-dating both the chaste cultural
inferno of the Twilight series and
self-aware ‘cult’ efforts stalking
similar ground – Teeth, Jennifer’s
Body - Ginger Snaps is a film
which, even after two superfluous
sequels , still feels as dementedly
rabid as it did on release. Ginger’s
turn as a murdering lycanthrope
remains the deftest blend of
suburban satire and late-pubescent
horror since Sissy Spacek
unleashed her adolescent fury
in Brian de Palma's 70s shocker
Carrie. [Sam Price]
above left
ben kingsley and josh peck
opposite
katharine isabelle and and emily perkins
kobal (2)
spotlight GROWING PAINS
Ginger Snaps
is a film which,
even after two
superfluous
sequels, still feels
as dementedly
rabid as it did
on release.
11
Whale Rider (2002)
Dir. Niki Caro
Keisha Castle-Hughes’ captivating
performance as Pai is Whale
Rider’s ultimate strength, a
refreshingly unaffected and
joyous thing shorn of the usual
lugubrious and dead-eyed
machinations associated with
certain Hollywood child actors.
Castle-Hughes plays a young
Maori girl tasked with the lessthan-enviable task of convincing
her grousing old grandfather that
the tribal chief-ship should pass
to her, a role traditionally the
preserve of the first-born male
heir. With a mother dead from
childbirth and a distant father
pursuing a career on another
continent, the film could have
been an up-market, self-important
Free Willy by way of romanticised,
tourist board approved mythmaking prone to descending
into trite emotionalism. Instead,
director Niki Caro's film sidesteps
the plot’s obvious potential for
pat melodrama, revealing itself as
uniquely transcendent by the time
of the moving conclusion. [Sam Price]
right
RAWIRI PARATENE and
KEISHA CASTLE-HUGHES
www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
director Niki Caro's
film sidesteps the
plot’s obvious potential
for pat melodrama,
revealing itself as
uniquely transcendent
by the time of the
moving conclusion
spotlight
c i n e m a ' s t h e m at i c s t r a n d s
13
one sheet
t h e a rt o f t h e m ov i e p o s t e r
Mr.
Strong
Raised by feral robot wolves in the backwoods of northeastern
pennsylvania and nourished on a steady diet of comic books,
arnold schwarzenegger movies and swedish fish, to m wal e n of
Strong Stuff is fast becoming the go-to guy for intelligent, fun and
highly stylized film posters with a vintage illustrative touch.
The Shining (©2010)
4-color screenprint
Private commission
The Fly (©2010)
4-color screenprint
produced for Colonial Theatre's
'first friday fright nights'
one sheet Tom walen
previous page
Steamboat Willie (©2011)
4-color screenprint
Released through Slideshow
Collectibles
The Wolf Man (©2008)
4-color screenprint
Part of the 'Universal Series'
“I [was] inspired by the
fantastic painted art that always
accompanied horror movies and
decided to translate some of those
classic movies into my style.”
Great Pumpkin (©2011)
8-color screenprint
Produced through
Dark Hall Mansion
one sheet Tom walen
Monsters, Inc. [Variant] (©2011)
5-color screenprint
size: 18" x 24"
Paul (©2010)
4-color screenprint
produced for the US premiere
of the film at the SXSW festival
"It wasn't until sometime in 1986 when
I really felt the urge to create art of
my own. From there, I consumed every
comic I could pilfer off of Nana's spinner
rack and spent endless hours at the
drawing desk that my dad gave to me."
gofurther
[web ] www.strongstuff.net [buy tom walen's work ] www.strongstuff.deviantart.com
four frames
t h e a r t o f a b b r e v i at e d s t o r y t e l l i n g
R UNNIN G S C A R ED
1
3
Stand By Me, Dir. Rob Reiner, 1983
2
4
The transition from
childhood to adolescence
at its most exhilerating.
Je z Conolly steps
onto the tracks for an
extreme close-up.
e a r l y o n in his rites of passage trek
out of the fictional town of Castle Rock
along the Oregon railroad in search of
missing boy Ray Brower’s dead body,
Gordie (Wil Wheaton), together with
his three pals, resorts to a short cut
across a train bridge and narrowly
avoids suffering the same fate as little
Ray. Gordie comes to the rescue when
Vern (Jerry O’Connell) stumbles on the
precarious track and freezes in the path
of an oncoming locomotive. Chris (River
Phoenix) and Teddy (Corey Feldman)
look on in horror as Gordie and Vern
make a desperate scramble to the safety
of the far side of the bridge. They make it,
just, and end up in a dusty heap, battered,
bruised but relieved to be alive. Director
Rob Reiner shot the scene at Lake Britton
Bridge on the McCloud River Railroad in
Burney Falls State Park, California.
Read More f o u r f r a m e s online at
21
1000 words
m o m e n t s t h at c h a n g e d c i n e m a f o r e v e r
Absolut�
Beginner
John Hughes excelled in making films that managed
to both glamorise and humanize the experience of
growing up in an America at a time of prosperity.
ni c ol a balkind examines his continuing appeal and
relevance in an age of crippling austerity.
above/below
john hughes and matthew broderick
molly ringwald in sixteen candles
whether you're a literature lover or a film fan,
coming of age stories are
ubiquitous. The heyday of the
bildungsroman began with J.D.
Salinger's enduring Catcher in
the Rye, and was revived for
the screen by John Hughes in
the 1980s. A powerhouse of
writing and directing, Hughes
invented the contemporary
teen movie as we know it. Between 1984 and 1991, the John
Hughes (Movie) Academy
educated an entire generation
of high schoolers on the meanings of love, sex, and rock and
roll. Though he wrote until
2008, during his most active
period he penned 11 features,
of which he directed five, in-
cluding Sixteen Candles,Weird
Science, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,
and the inimitable The Breakfast
Club. Towards the end of this
time he also wrote two classics for the K-12 years: Home
Alone and Curly Sue, directing
the latter. He introduced to the
world such teen stars as Molly
Ringwald, Anthony Michael
Hall, and Matthew Broderick
and though many of his stars
graduated, many more came of
age and were subsequently immortalised by 80s cinema.
For a certain generation,
Molly Ringwald became
the face of the 80s. Battling
through a forgotten birthday in
Sixteen Candles and overcoming
personal hurdles and bullying
in Pretty in Pink, she became
the poster-girl of adolescence
- a crown that has since been
held, but never stolen, by the
likes of Alicia Silverstone,
Melissa Joan Hart and Emma
Stone. Her crystallising moment arrived early, with a rightof-centre one-shot in which she
stands staring at the spot where
her mother stood moments
before, wearing a look of disbelief that’s at once naive and
world-weary. “I can’t believe
this,” she says, looking us directly in the eye, “They fucking
forgot my birthday.” Cinema’s
23
➜
1000 words the hughes effect
above
andrew mccarthy (pretty in pink)
above opposite
emilio estevez, anthony michael-hall and
ally sheedy (the breakfast club)
go further...
kobal
Molly Ringwald became
the poster-girl of
adolescence - a crown
that has since been held,
but never stolen, by the
likes of Alicia Silverstone,
Melissa Joan Hart and
Emma Stone.
sharp-tongued sweet sixteen
year-old came of age in quirky
home-made styles, having her
developing breasts fondled
by Grandma, stealing envious glances at the senior girl’s
perfect physique in the shower,
and cluelessly scribbling her
crush’s name on an anonymous
“sex test”. Unwaveringly close
to the bone, Molly’s underconfident, surly take on teen
worries spoke to an audience
of peers.
One of those peers, Anthony
Michael Hall, was defined
early on as 'The Geek' in The
Breakfast Club, and became
the testing ground for the male
side of sex concerns. Many
of these concerns he solves in
Weird Science by creating his
own older-woman mentor in
the form of the voluptuous Lisa
(Kelly LeBrock), who shows
him the ropes. The young geek
gets short shrift in Hughes’
later years, though, as the director moved on to more charismatic young men like Matthew
Broderick’s irresistible Ferris
Bueller and Career Opportunities’ bare-faced liar and suburban escapist Jim Dodge (Frank
Whaley).
Variations on Hall’s Geek
were set against Judd Nelson’s
Breakfast Club tough guy and
Robert Downey Jr’s New Romantic cool guy. Defined not
only by his over-confident,
dorky retorts, but also by his
rich lexicon of facial expressions and flair for improvisational comedy, in his crowning
moment in Weird Science Hall's
Gary leans casually against
the leather facade of a whisky
lounge booth, sipping bourbon
and twisting a fat cigar between
his fingers whilst performing,
with well-lubricated fervour, a
black jazz musician impression
for the ages. Later, confronted
by some mutant bikers with the
force of wrecking-balls sent by
his feminine creation, his coming-of-age task is as simple as
standing up for himself. Hall’s
mastery of the timid type and
his aptitude for physical comedy put him a cut above the
fold, keeping him alive in our
[book] 'You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation'
kobal
hearts and minds to this day.
Another graduate of the John
Hughes Academy has no trouble asserting himself. One who,
close to flunking due to absence, takes on his high school
nemesis - the principal Ed
Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) - in the
name of one fabulous day off.
Matthew Broderick sealed the
teen heart throb deal from the
moment he touched down on
screen as Ferris Bueller, treating
his humble audience to a tutorial on the necessary deceptions
that ensure a long and prosperous day of truancy. Speaking
direct to camera in a style that
would later be adopted more
freely in female-led narratives,
the charismatic Broderick is the
guy who has it all, including
the pretty girlfriend and insufferably insecure best friend,
whom he attempts in vain to
coax from his shell. Taking on
the city of Chicago (the beating heart of John Hughes and
his movies), the film takes
Hughes’ classic chase elements,
this time unfurled throughout
the film as the plot ducks and
weaves around town, avoiding
detection at every turn. Bueller is a rambunctious charmer
with little to do with coming
of age, but his vindictive and
jealous sister plays against him,
apparently seeing something
phoney behind Ferris’ act that
others are missing. The principal feels the same, and in a
show-down they each race for
Bueller’s front door: teacher to
catch him out of bed; Ferris to
return home before his parents
find him gone; Hughes’ playful chase humour hits its stride
as he leaps through sprinklers,
over fences, and even halts momentarily to chat up some sexy
sunbathers.
The Walt Disney of teen
cinema, Hughes had a formula for success in which his
characters clear the hurdles
The Walt Disney
of teen cinema,
Hughes had a
formula for success
in which his
characters clear the
hurdles that keep
them from their
ideal high school
sweetheart.
that keep them from their
ideal high school sweetheart.
Aspirational movie magic is
alive and well in his features,
an obstacle course of difficult
parents, other-worldly oddities,
and home town nemeses. His
downtrodden protagonists are
often alienated from the popular guy or gal but, when time
and chance permit, they allow
for the most satisfying of high
school Hollywood endings.
In The Breakfast Club, however, he blows open the social
strata of high school, taking its
stereotypes and literally locking them in a room together
to fight out their differences.
Though the dramatic world
of high school is immune to
wholly happy endings, the image of the teens dancing on the
library mezzanine is the rosetinted moment of high school
happiness to which every adult,
teen, and John Hughes fan
wishes they belonged. [tbp]
[book] 'John Hughes and Eighties Cinema' by Thomas A. Christie [web] www.thebratpacksite.com
25
Los
Angeles
on location
t h e p l a c e s t h at m a k e t h e m o v i e s
POINT BLANK (1967)
Dir. John Boorman
US, 92 minutes
Starring: Lee Marvin, John
Vernon, Angie Dickinson
john boorman ’ s
distinctly
European crime thriller perfectly
captures the high gloss but vacuous feel of Los Angeles in the late
1960s as loner hitman Walker (Lee
Marvin) prowls the city seeking
revenge. The object of his scorn is
ex-pal Mal Reese (John Vernon)
who left Walker for dead and
made off with his share of the loot
following a double-cross of the
most irksome kind. Some key Los
Angeles landmarks such as Santa
Monica's Huntley Hotel and mob
boss Brewster’s extensive ranchstyle estate on a bluff overlooking
Hollywood Boulevard are used to
great effect and paint a picture of
a sprawling, spankingly clean and
sunlit city while locations like the
LA river's 6th Street Viaduct show
the grimy underbelly lurking beneath the shiny veneer.
The heart of hollywood's star-studded industry
for more than a century, Los Angeles and its
abundant and ever-changing locales have set the
scene for a wide variety of cinematic treasures.
G ABRIEL SOLOM ONS, editor of the new intellect
book World Film Locations: Los Angeles takes us
on a gloriously sunny whirlwind tour.
left
lee marvin in point blank
below
heather graham in boogie nights
boogie nights (1996)
Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
US, 155 minutes
Starring: Mark Wahlberg,
Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds
paul thomas anderson ’ s epic
story, set in the 1970s and 1980s
adult film industry of the San
Fernando valley in Los Angeles,
follows the turbulent lifestyle of a
ragtag bunch all intent on claiming the fame and fortune afforded
those involved in such a lucrative but dubious industry. Along
the way, we see the city through
a luminous, sunkist haze similar
to that experienced by a visit to
Disneyland. This fantasy world
however is a thin veil under which
lives are destroyed by drugs,
greed, paranoia and dysfunction - and the film functions as an
appropriate allegory for a city at
the centre of the entertainment
industry that has – and continues
to – oscillate between excess and
success for much of its history.
27
on location
t h e p l a c e s t h at m a k e t h e m o v i e s
killer of sheep (1981)
Dir. Charles Burnett
USA, 83 minutes
Starring: Henry G. Sanders,
Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy
kobal (2)
charles burnett ’ s blackand-white film Killer of Sheep was
his UCLA thesis film made for
$10,000 over a series of weekends
in 1973. The poetic black-andwhite film is a hauntingly beautiful
snapshot of life in the povertystricken Watts neighbourhood of
South Central Los Angeles. Watts
became a predominantly black
neighbourhood during the 1940s
as thousands left the segregated
South in search of better
opportunities. The area, however,
gained national prominence
during the six-day-long Watts
Riots in 1965 that many viewed
as a reaction to the widespread
injustices that blacks suffered.
Killer of Sheep, filmed eight years
after the Watts Riots, is a sensitive
and humanistic portrait of the dayto-day life of people getting by in
the ways that they know how.
[Deirdre Devers]
go further... [book ] To order your copy of World Film Locations: Los Angeles
left
children in killer of sheep
below
jack nicholson in chinatown
The poetic black-andwhite film is a hauntingly
beautiful snapshot of life in
the poverty-stricken Watts
neighbourhood of South
Central Los Angeles.
chinatown (1974)
Dir. Roman Polanski
USA, 130 minutes
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston
roman polanski ’ s classic NeoNoir is a veritable tour of Los
Angeles landmarks. Capturing the
hidden sacrifices and backroom
dealings behind the emergence
of LA as one of the world’s
great cities, Chinatown revels
equally in Los Angeles’ classic
Spanish Colonial architecture,
the glamour of iconic Hollywood
restaurants like The Brown Derby
(represented in the film by The
Prince, in Koreatown), and the
urban backwash of the city’s
aqueducts, bridges and barren
riverbeds. The more Gittes (Jack
Nicholson) uncovers of the
conspiracy to steal water from
the city, the more we see the
squalor behind LA’s veneer of
sophistication and charm.
[Martin Zeller-Jacques]
Simply visit www.Intellectbooks.com for further information [web ] 'Like' World Film Locations on Facebook
29
screengem
e vo c at i v e o b j e c t s o n s c r e e n
seemore
Read 'Lost Classic': Jeremy (Arthur Barron 1973) by Jez Conolly on thebigpicturemagazine.com
The
Garden
Folly
My Life as a Dog (1985)
The ramshackle retreat of mischievous pre-teen
Ingemar and his equally mischievous uncle is one
of cinema’s great getaways, and also one of its great
visual metaphors. Scot t Jordan Harris hides inside.
few coming of age dramas
Few coming of age dramas are
as endearing or enduring as
Lasse Hallström’s Swedish classic
My Life as Dog. Central to it
is the story of young Ingemar,
who is sent to live with his aunt
and uncle in the small town of
Småland when his mother’s
health, and patience with his
raucous escapades, starts to
fail. Central to Ingemar’s life in
Småland is the folly his uncle is
building in the garden.
Or rather, the folly his uncle is
building near the garden. When
Aunt Ulla asks, ‘How can you
be so stupid and build on land
we don’t own?’, Uncle Gunnar
responds with perfect logic:
‘That’s why it’s called a folly!’
The folly is constantly under
construction and, though we
seldom much constructing
being done, it is finished by
the film’s final scenes. In that
way, it mirrors the formation of
Ingemar’s adult self. For much
of the film, the hut is a means
of prolonging childhood: in it,
Ingemar and his uncle, sit, talk
and listen to awful Povel Ramel
music, free of responsibility
and with few thoughts of life
outside the rickety walls around
them. But, at the end of the film,
the folly becomes a chrysalis.
Ingemar flees to it to escape the
tragedy that has engulfed him
and, when he emerges the next
morning, his childhood is over.
[tbp]
31
WORLD
FILM
LOCATIONS
exploring
the city
onscreen
A new film book series from Intellect. www.intellectbooks.com
Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967)
city
essays
Y
"I knew the joy of New York
long before I ever visited
the city. The Godfather, The
Apartment and Breakfast
at Tiffany's all introduced
me to the cinematic scope
of one of the world's most
vibrant cities. This book
reminds me of that joy."
Hardeep Singh Kohli
"Insightful, entertaining
essays about classic
films and the role their
real-life... locations
play in them."
Don Payne
(Consulting producer,
The Simpsons)
new
york
£9.95
Y
PAPERBACK
edited by scott jordan harris
ISBN 9781841504827
Paperback / £9.95
Be they period films, cult classics, or elaborate directorial love letters,
New York City has played – and continues to play – a central role in the
imaginations of film-makers and movie-goers worldwide. The stomping
ground of King Kong, it is also the place where young Jakie Rabinowitz
of The Jazz Singer realizes his Broadway dream. Later, it is the backdrop
against which taxi driver Travis Bickle exacts a grisly revenge. The
inaugural volume in an exciting new series from Intellect, World Film
Locations: New York pairs incisive profiles of quintessential New York
film-makers – among them Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Sidney Lumet,
and Spike Lee – with essays on key features of the city’s landscape that
have appeared on the big screen.
“An elegant tribute to the films and locations that have given New
York its private real estate in our minds. The contributors are so
immediately readable and movie-savvy.” – Roger Ebert
london
edited by neil mitchell
£9.95
Y
PAPERBACK
An exciting and visually focused tour of the diverse range of films
shot on location in London, World Film Locations: London presents
contributions spanning the Victorian era, the swinging 1960s, and
the politically charged atmosphere following the 2005 underground
bombings. Essays exploring key directors, themes, and historical periods
are complemented by reviews of important scenes that offer particular
insight into London’s relationship to cinema. From Terror on the
Underground to Thames Tales to Richard Curtis’s affectionate portrayal
of the city in Love Actually, this user-friendly guide explores the diversity
and distinctiveness of films shot on location in London.
ISBN 9781841504841
Paperback / £9.95
“Handsome and intriguing, like a ghosthunter’s companion to a world
that is – and isn’t – there,” – Francine Stock
also
available
tokyo
los angeles
paris
dublin
latest titles now available for
amazon kindle and other e-readers
+ download the free ipad app >>
visit the kindle and itunes stores for more information
parting shot
i m i tat i o n i s t h e s i n c e r e s t f o r m o f f l at t e r y
It is no coincidence that FPS
shots appear sporadically in
the action-heavy, second half
of Neill Blomkamp’s District
9. Blomkamp and producer
Peter Jackson were originally
planning to adapt Microsoft’s
game series Halo.
go further... [issue 14 ] Read ‘Parting Shot: One In The Eye: The Telescopic Gun Sight' by Scott Jordan Harris
clockwise from below king of the mountain / doom / district 9
Game
O�
As the popularity of video games rises, so
does the use of the First Person Shooter
(FPS) signature image as a narrative device
onscreen. Rob be ame s investigates.
v i d e o g a m e s have long drawn
from Hollywood, often telling
derivative stories using liberally
re-purposed elements from many
films. Yet the influence of games
upon movies has become almost
equally pervasive over the last
decade, one example being the
recurring use of visual tropes
associated with the First Person
Shooter genre. The FPS’ signature
image, of the “player” stalking
“enemies” from a first person
perspective with a gun barrel fixed
to the bottom right-hand corner
of the screen, has been employed
by several filmmakers of late – the
most obvious instance being in
the 2005 adaptation of pioneering
shooter Doom. The big screen
version features a five minute,
real-time sequence shown from
the perspective of Karl Urban’s
protagonist, with the audience
watching from behind his rifle.
Similarly, Spanish thriller
King of the Mountain/ El rey de
la montaña uses FPS shots in its
final moments. The audience takes
the viewpoint of two children,
perched behind the butt of their
weapons, as they ruthlessly
pursue an unarmed man through
the woods. Director Gonzalo
López-Gallego explicitly uses
these shots to crassly parallel
video game culture with youth
violence (the film’s title is a
play on a common type of
multiplayer FPS gameplay).
It is no coincidence that FPS
shots appear sporadically in
the action-heavy, second half
of Neill Blomkamp’s District 9.
Blomkamp and producer Peter
Jackson were originally planning
to adapt Microsoft’s game series
Halo. Whilst similar first person
shots were used before FPS
games emerged (notably in one
eye-catching moment of Clint
Eastwood’s 1973 High Plains
Drifter), they are now irrevocably
wedded to the iconography of
gaming and almost always hold
gaming as a deliberate point of
reference. [tbp]
35
Backpages
Getting involved with...
thebigpicture
Go Further
would you like to contribute
to The Big Picture magazine?
We’re always on the lookout for
enthusiastic film-lovers with a
passion and flair for the written
word. So, if this sounds like
you, then simply send us a few
examples of your writing along
with a short personal bio to:
Gabriel Solomons, Senior Editor
[email protected]
download
issues you
may have
missed
A complete back issue archive
Print issues of The Big Picture
get snapped up pretty fast, so if
you missed out simply visit the
downloads section of the website
to catch up on all content from
past issues.
join
the big
picture
family
read
our latest
articles
The writing’s on the wall
Read some of the finest
writing on film by our growing
team of ridiculously talented
contributors, with regular posts
satiating even the most avid of
film-loving appetites.
visit: www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
Performing Arts Visual Arts Film Studies Cultural & Media Studies intellect books & journals
Intellect Books
publishers of original thinking | www.intellectbooks.com
Touring the Screen
Tourism and New Zealand Film Geographies
By Alfio Leotta
ISBN 9781841504759 | Paperback | UK £24.95 | US $40
Following the success of prominent feature films shot on location,
including Peter Jackson’s wildly popular The Lord of the Rings,
New Zealand boasts an impressive film tourism industry. This
book examines the relationship between New Zealand’s cinematic
New
TITle
representation – as both a vast expanse of natural beauty and
a magical world of fantasy on screen – and its tourism imagery,
including the ways in which savvy local tourist boards have in recent
decades used the country’s film representations to sell New Zealand
as a premiere travel destination. Focusing on the films that have had a
strong impact on marketing strategies by local tourist boards, Touring
the Screen will be of interest to all those working and studying in the
fields of cinema, postcolonial history, and tourism studies.
Alfio Leotta teaches film studies at the University of Auckland,
New Zealand.
Intellect is an independent academic publisher of books and journals, to view our catalogue or order our titles visit www.intellectbooks.com
or E-mail: [email protected]. Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, UK, BS16 3JG. | Telephone: +44 (0) 117 9589910
Backpages
Film Index
So you’ve read about the
films, now go watch ‘em!
The Railway Children (1970)
Dir. Werner Herzog
Breakfast Club (1985)
Dir. John Hughes
g see page 4/5
g see page 33
Kes (1969) Point Blank (1967)
Dir. Ken Loach
Dir. John Boorman
g see page 6/7
g see page 34
All About Lily Chou Chou (2000)
Dir. Shung Iwai
Boogie Nights (1997)
Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
g see page 8
g see page 35
The 400 Blows (1959)
Dir. François Truffaut
Killer of Sheep (1981)
Dir. Charles Burnett
g see page 9
g see page 36
The Wackness (2008)
Dir. Jonathan Levine
Chinatown (1974)
Dir. Roman Polanski
g see page 10
g see page 37
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Dir. John Fawcett
My Life As A Dog (1985)
Dir. Lasse Hallström
g see page 11
g see page 38/39
Whale Rider (2002)
Dir. Niki Caro
El rey de la montaña (2007)
Dir. Gonzalo López-Gallego
g see page 12/13
g see page 42/43
Stand By Me (1983)
Dir. Rob Reiner
Doom (2005)
Dir. Andrzej Bartkowiak
g see page 28/29
g see page 43
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
(1986)
Dir. John Hughes
District 9 (2009)
Dir. Neill Blomkamp
g see page 30/31
Pretty In Pink (1986)
Dir. John Hughes
g see page 32
g see page 42
intellect
Plublishers of this here magazine...
Each issue of The Big Picture is produced
by Bristol based publisher, intellect.
publish
original
thinking
Intellect is an independent academic publisher
in the fields of creative practice and popular
culture, publishing scholarly books and journals
that exemplify their mission as publishers of
original thinking. Theyaim to provide a vital
space for widening critical debate in new and
emerging subjects, and in this way they differ
from other publishers by campaigning for the
author rather than producing a book or journal
to fill a gap in the market.
Intellect publish in four distinct subject areas:
visual arts, film studies, cultural and media
studies, and performing arts. These categories
host Intellect’s ever-expanding topics of enquiry,
which include photography, drawing, curation,
community music, gaming and scenography.
Intellect titles are often multidisciplinary,
presenting scholarly work at the cross section of
arts, media and creative practice.
For further information about the company and
to browse their catalogue of titles simply visit:
www.intellectbooks.co.uk
thebigpicture disclaimer
The views and opinions of all texts, including
editorial and regular columns, are those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent or
reflect those of the editors or publishers.
9;B;8H7J;I*,O;7HIE<9?D;C79EL;H7=;
FkXb_i^[ZX_#cedj^boXo
j^[_dj[hdWj_edWbboh[demd[Z
<_bcIeY_[joe\B_dYebd
9[dj[h"<?BC9ECC;DJ
fhel_Z[i]beXWbYel[hW][e\
Y_d[cW_dYbkZ_d][nYbki_l[
_dj[hl_[mi"_d#Z[fj^h[l_[mi"
Z_iYkii_edie\d[mh[b[Wi[i
WdZYbWii_YÒbci"Wkj^eh_jWj_l[
fheÒb[iedbkc_dWh_[i_dj^[
_dZkijho"WdZZ[l[befc[dji
’’
_dj^[Whje\ÒbccWa_d]$
’’
<_bc9ecc[djh[]kbWhbofkXb_i^[iiec[e\j^[X[ijmh_j[hi_dj^[mehbZWdZ
j^[ofheX[WdZfWhi[Y_d[cW_dj^[mWoj^WjZ[[f[diekh[nf[h_[dY[e\_j
Å K J D ;? D : ; F; D : ; D J F H ; I I 8 ; IJ 7 HJI 9EL ; H7= ;
<?BC9ECC;DJ$9EC '$...$)')$,&.+KI'$/-)$,(-$+',(
?dj[hdWj_edWb<_bc9ecc[djFE8en)&&&":[dl_bb[D@&-.)*KI7
IK8I9H?8;0'oh,_iik[iIWl[))e\ekhijWdZWhZhWj[KI'/$/+ki[YeZ[(<<:</m^[dehZ[h_d]$
Prepared by MagCloud for Alessandra Rimoli. Get more at gabsol.magcloud.com.

- Intellect

Transcription

Similar documents

Naqsh Short Films

Film quiz 12 May 2011

Bandyke Moving Pictures

presents - Program in Arts of the Moving Image

Join us for a free screening of First Generation —

THE CREATION OF MEANING - Press Kit

Page 19 - Films - Magazine for the Arts

Visual Story for Ambassadors Cinema I am going to see a film at the

Oct 2013 reg layout