I took a little break from horror films after October so I have watched;
The Godfather
I'd never seen this before, yes I know... 5/5 etc, a lesson in film making, never have 3 hours felt so brief!
Nishi Ginza Station
Delving into my Imamura box set, I've not seen any of these films so I thought it'd start with the shortest one. There was no synopsis on the case as it's a bonus feature to the main film but it turns out to be a bit of a screwball comedy about a man trying to get a bit on the side while his wife is on holiday with the kids! Aside from some dodgy and uncomfortable 'blacking-up' of one of the actresses it was fun and made me laugh out loud a few times!
Birdman
Been meaning to watch this for a while and it's on Sky Movies so I stuck it on while I wrapped my Christmas Presents. It was a good film, it was not what I was expecting at all, but then I never looked at any reviews or synopsis and based my opinions on the poster and the Oscar buzz. I don't think it deserves the hype it received but Keaton was excellent and Norton made me laugh a few times - on-stage boner...
The Insect Woman
This is the main feature that is paired with Nishi. This film is pretty epic in it's scope, following the life of a woman from child to matron. I must admit I found the first 25-30 minutes to be a little confusing and it wasn't until the film settled down in Tokyo that it started to show some clarity. Tome, the titular protagonist is it not a nice person, in fact no-one in this film is particularly nice. It's as if the theme of the film is that people are screwed up selfish beings and are all out to get what they want any way they can. It was a very good film and I hope the other Imamura's are as good as this one was.
Tenderness of the Wolves
I saw this one before as a featured film in a festival in Sheffield. I thought it was good then and it was projected from a very well used almost grindhouse quality print. This new BD from Arrow breathes life into the film, it looks pristine. The story is based on true events from the 1920's but transformed into post WW2 Germany due to the production crew having access to props from that era.
It's uncomfortable to watch in some places, the scenes where Haarmann attacks his victims are done in grim realism and you feel every moment of them. If you can persevere with the narrative it's well worth watching.
Probably going to watch The Godfather part 2 tonight
after i've done my homework... I have to write an assignment about website usability and standards compliance
