Film: Willard (2003)

Being either bullied at work or stuck at home looking after his sick mother, Willard (Crispin Glover) lives an unfruitful life. Then one day he meets a white rat who he calls Socrates. Socrates is both a loving and intelligent rat who brings hoards of friends with him. Willard soon discovers that through Socrates he able to control the rodents to get revenge on his boss, but the tables are turned when another rat, the gigantic Ben, gets jealous of being in second command after Socrates.

Willard is actually a remake of a film of the same name from the 70's. The original spawned a sequel entitled 'Ben' which gained notoriety due to it's more famous theme song by Michael Jackson. The song Ben itself appears twice in the film, the original and a new version sung by Crispin Glover who also directed a music video for it. Having previously only seen this music video I was never aware that the original song was written for such a film as it was, especially by Jackson. Though thinking of the Thriller video the connection makes more sense.

The characters in Willard are all archetypal, the sympathetic outcast who lives with his mother, the over the top and bluntly evil bully and the possible love interest. Overall the film is easy to get into and just plain fun.

Watch Crispin Hellian Glover's Ben

Film: Tie shan gong zhu (1941)

Aka Princess Iron Fan this is an early Chinese animated feature, I've heard to be one of the first even. Based on the book Journey to the West I watched this without subtitles but managed to barely follow the story. Three disciples of a traveling monk, a monkey king, a pig and water spirit attempt to steal a power fan from a princess in order to defeat an angry fire demon who is causing a massive heat wave. That about makes up the first half, the second I wasn't too sure about but it involved the fan again and also some singing along the way.

Having previously only watched the English dub of the Japanese Monkey series it was nice to see another adaption of Journey To the West, especially such an early one. The animation is crude as can be and the shots seem to make more movement then necessary (there are shots where the camera appears to dart back and forth for little reason), the former however being acceptable.

As i say it was nice seeing such a rare piece but would of been nice with subtitles. The animation is available to download from archive.org

Download

Film: You Can't Take It With You (1938)

Frank Capra directed comedy about a couple to struggle with families from conflicting backgrounds. One a middle class family who believe life should be lived with fun in mind, the other from the establishment who wants to buy their house in order to build a factory.

This film is absolutely wonderful from start to finish, I couldn't of enjoyed it more, well possibly without the ad breaks as i watched it on TV. A very young Jimmy Stewart co-stars who is excellent in this film. Very funny, I will add it to my 'wishlist' at once.

Cinema: Rescue Dawn (2006)

Werner Herzog's fictional re-enactment of Dieter Dengler's experience in the Vietnam war (See: Little Deiter Needs to Fly review).

From watching Herzog's documentary on Dengler Rescue Dawn felt very faithful, despite missing out several events such as the fact that Dengler was held captive twice and not just once as shown in the film and the incident concerning his wedding ring which he retells in the documentary. There has also been debate to the accuracy concerning Herzogs depiction of Eugene. However my only complaint, if any, is the simple fact that Dengler (played by Christian Bale) is lacking a German accent. Dengler was born in Germany and left for America at the age of 19 and retained an accent after nearly 40 years. In Rescue Dawn, Bale has a straight forward American accent which may imply that he came to America much sooner.

What is fascinating about the film is what has been pulled from the original documentary, the anecdotes and tidbits of information that pop up such as how the Vietcong's made fire which Dengler demonstrated himself.

Even despite want is going on the locations look stunningly beautiful. At times the camera would be used hand held, following characters much like in Herzogs documentaries giving the film what seems like an added dimension.

Overall I enjoyed the film a lot and feel that watching Little Dieter... first gives off a much better understanding even if it takes away any surprises (which is besides the point). Compared to other war films I have appraoched this one different, it has felt more like a worthwhile education then entertainment.

Promotional Crap

Part of what this blog (or flog as I'm currently calling it) is to show off some of the film related stuff I find such promotional items found in cinemas. The first i present on here isn't very exciting but is for a film I am much looking forward to.

It's a simple promo/competition card for Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind. However it does come with a mini credit card sized poster, which I think is quite neat.

Film: Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

Now this is Jarmusch's true debut!

Split into three episodes in the first an Hungarian girl called Eva comes to America to live with her aunt but must stay with her disinterested cousin Willy for 10 days till she gets out of the hospital. The second Willy and his best friend Eddie travel to Cleveland to visit Eva and in the last the three visit Florida.

Stranger Than Paradise started out as 30 minute short made on old stock given to Jarmusch by Wim Wenders and was later expanded int o the film we know today. Every scene is shot in single long takes with blackouts inbetween making the film presented more as moments than want conventional editing to conceive.

What Stranger has that Permanent Vacation didn't was ability bring across the actors/characters personalities making the quality of the acting less strident. An aspect that would be seen in later films where Jarmusch would cast many non-actors in roles.

Cinema: Wheel of Time (2003)

Part deux of the Werner Herzog season, in which Herzog takes a look at the Buddhist Kalachakra initiations from 2002. Done in a more traditional method then Little Dieter, the pic features interviews with the Dalai Lama and Takna Jigme Zangpo, a man who was imprisoned for 37 years demanding freedom for Tibet.

Whilst Dieter was a lot simpler to get into Wheel of Time is worthy not only as an education into Buddhism but also to the lengths that man would himself in for their beliefs, as demonstrated when pilgrims are shown making there way to the initiations whilst getting on the ground in prayer and back up again every few steps for however many days they must travel. For one monk it took him several years.

I throughly enjoyed this film and i am looking forward to seeing the final part in the Herzog series this Sunday with Rescue Dawn.