Unknown Pleasures (Ren xiao yao, S.Korea-Japan-France-China, 2002)

Unknown Pleasures is the final part of Jia Zhangke’s ‘Hometown trilogy’ (after Xiao Wu and Platform) and it’s probably the grimmest of the three. If the eponymous character of Xiao Wu is one person being left behind by economic development in China, the teenage protagonists of Unknown Pleasures represent a whole (post-Mao) generation whose lives [...]

Platform (Zhantai, Hong Kong-China-Japan-France, 2000)

Whilst Xiao Wu focused on one individual experiencing the transition to capitalism in China, Platform follows a theatrical troupe during the 1980s, a period of vast change as Deng Xiaoping instituted economic changes. Jia Zhangke’s second feature is stylistically very different from the handheld realism of Xiao Wu; often the motionless camera observes the action [...]

Fundraising to go to Venezuela

I hope readers will forgive a personal post as my daughter’s fundraising for a trip to Venezuela. The trip’s purpose is to both explore the country, often demonised by the conservative press because of its socialist leader Hugo Perez, but also contribute something in the form of helping local communities.
It’s not cheap and she’s working [...]

Endgame (UK, 2009)

I hesitate to suggest that this film, premiered in the UK on Channel 4 last month, reveals the hidden story behind the dismantlement of apartheid as it my just be new to me. But this dramadoc (Chiwetel Ejiofor, above, is playing Thabo Mbeki) focuses on the ‘behind the scenes’ meetings between the ANC and representatives [...]

Diary of the Dead (US, 2008)

As the most influential zombie-film maker George Romero might be accused of being behind the times by introducing self-reflexive postmodernism into his movies over 10 years after Wes Craven’s success. However, his seminal Night of the Living Dead (1968) included a scene where Barbara’s brother states, in his best Vincent Price voice, that ‘they are [...]

Quatermass and the Pit (UK, 1967)

The image above might suggest a rather tacky, low budget SF-horror movie but this is a terrific example of Hammer horror. It’s not the Gothic remakes, featuring Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster, but Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass, a character who first (and last in 2005) appeared on TV. Whilst some of the characterisation, the paternal academics, has [...]

Eden Lake (UK, 2008)

Thrillers are meant to take us to places we don’t want to go in real life; horror movies should take us even further. So the best horror movies are ones that are showing us things we don’t want to see: this can be through ‘gross out’ or through the narrative. Eden Lake does both and [...]

Xiao Wu (China-Hong Kong, 1997)

Director Jia Zhangke dropped beneath my radar, for some reason, until I saw Still Life (2006); that presented me with the enticing prospect of ‘catching up’ on some terrific films. It’s obvious to go chronologically so, surprisingly, I am; Xiao Wu was his first feature. Heavily influenced by Italian neo realists, and Bresson’s Pickpocket (France, [...]