Future Shorts

I remember Dawn Simpson telling me today’s audience were into ‘snacking’ when I interviewed her about the Propeller short film channel. It’s very true as there’d be no audience for You Tube if it wasn’t. We want our media delivered to us at any time, during any situation, and on whatever medium suits the moment. Short film has prospered over the past few years because it’s finally found a commercial audience who can invest five minutes of free time, not in the morning Metro while on the bus, but on film, television clips, and podcasts. They can do it because the technology makes it easier than reading a paper. Just as You Tube couldn’t work without snacking, the IPhone and Ipod wouldn’t without this new phenomenon either.

For me, short film is a fabulous form of cinema because it allows new filmmakers to hone their craft, and an audience to see film with all the frailties and raw beauty that cinema used to possess. Recently, I’ve been very impressed with the output of British-based Future Shorts (www.futureshorts.com). Unlike Propeller or Ronke, you don’t need Sky to see their films as they’re available via My Space (http://www.myspace.com/futureshorts) and their You Tube channel (www.youtube.com/futureshorts).

My favourite at the moment is Oedipus (Click Here) by self-acclaimed makers of ‘stupid comedy’ Rong, a UK-based group of cinema fanatics who won the BBC new filmmakers award in 2005. The warped but genuinely amusing tale begins with the title-card ‘The following featurette should not be viewed by anyone who has, or has had, a mother and/or father’. It proceeds to fit a left-of-centre modern day tale of masturbation into the ageless, but equally warped, psychology of Freud’s Oedipus complex. The film, made in 2004, features an rhyming narration that works particularly well, but it’s the perfect pace of the film that really sets it apart. It may be raw but Oedipus examples the virtues of short film with enthusiasm and obvious skill.

Certainly, for a more accomplished and less risqué piece of cinema look no further than Japanese film Right Place (Click Here). This comedy-drama looks at a Tokyo worker’s obsession with neatness and perfection. It features some stunning cinematography that perfectly encapsulates what the film tries to portray. The rigid, static camera shots and balanced frame set the film’s tone, a correctness that has to be maintained. Indeed, Right Place is cinematic art at its most inspiring, with superb use of sound and lighting, and a rhythmic flow to the editing.

Other very worthy films to look for are the brilliant animations from Yev Yilmaz (check out Procrastination: Click Here), Gokhan Okur’s Last Train Ride (Click Here), and the multi award-winning Heap Of Trouble (Click Here). Also, check out Pierre Olivier’s beautiful Can We Kiss (Click Here), a film set in a French café about a girl who wants to practice her audition lines with a complete stranger.

I wish the new Star Wars movies were made 20 years ago....

My problem with the new Star Wars films stems from one important fact: George Lucas is now more concerned with making fan fiction than constructing the fundamentals of plot, character, and dialogue. For me, Attack Of The Clones, like Phantom Menace and Revenge Of The Sith, seem like Lucas giving screen time to characters the fans want to see - R2-D2's battle with molten lava, C-3PO's out-of-body adventure, Boba Fett's back-story (let's not forget how Boba Fett dies!) rather than celebrating the whole saga and making something worthy of beginning the series. These new films look more like cartoons, the stories are far too complicated, and the actors don't have the skill to turn Lucas' stale dialogue into authentic expression. Yes, there are some good moments - all action orientated - but Lucas should have sought the help of Lawrence Kasdan when writing the screenplays and he should have handed the directorial duties to more skilled filmmakers. Lucas is a brilliant fantasist who creates wonderful worlds and adventure stories, but he has no restraint, and that's the most damning thing about Star Wars Episode 1, 2, and 3.

Over The Hedge

It's nothing new but Over The Hedge is an enjoyably funny affair from Dreamworks. We've seen better animation films over the past few years and Over The Hedge only copies their winning formula - a fast-action plot, lovable characters with big-star na...(read more)me voices, and the idea that the little guy overcomes adversity - but there's a sense we've been here and done that already. Over The Hedge is funny and endearing, but it's treading a hedgerow we've been down many times before.

Love Film DVD Rental - Don't use this company!

The first month was great – too good, in fact – and there I was parading the virtues of online DVD rental and how perfect my supplier Love Film was. Oh dear, how wrong was I. Don’t let the ‘2 weeks free trial’ con you into thinking you’re getting a good deal!

I was with them for four months (using their £12.99 a month package which allows you to receive an unlimited amount of DVDs with two at home at any given time), and for the final three months, I never once received a film I actually wanted.

At one point I received DVDs in the post, checked to see what they were, and sent them back immediately because I simply didn’t care to watch them. Part of the problem with renting films is that you have to watch them within a given time frame. Sometimes this can work out for the better, but the way online rental works - with your next DVDs sent out once you’ve returned your last ones - you only get your moneys worth if you power through around 4 films a week. Two things: 1) Sometimes there just isn’t enough time in the week to get through 4 films, but more importantly with Love Film, it’s even harder when the films aren’t ones you actually want; and 2) you are relying on Love Film to post out your DVDs promptly to beat Sunday’s lack of post.

Love Film pander to the needs of new customers leaving monthly subscribers out in the cold. For the first few weeks I received all the DVDs I wanted, promptly and in good condition. After my first month’s payment had been taken, I stopped receiving the films I wanted and only got films they force you to add to a wish list. Basically, if you don’t have twenty films on a list, they won’t send you a single film – or at least, I didn’t receive one when I struggled to list twenty. My problem with the list is that I only wanted brand new releases, perhaps two per week. I have a huge collection of DVDs at home, I wasn’t interested in catalogue titles. After a month, I’d run out of catalogue titles I wanted. When my list dwindled to less than the ‘recommended’ (actually read: necessary) twenty titles, nothing was sent out until I replenished the list, essentially, with films I didn’t want. I was left paying for a service I wasn’t getting.

Essentially, Love Film wants to be bigger than it can manage, at least at the present time, and I wouldn’t recommend using them as your online rental company. Their customer service is very poor (although they have tried to improve it), their inability to deliver on the customer’s need is even more damning, and they have a poor policy for customers who want to leave. I had to pay for another month of zero service because after ringing their customer service team (you have to phone them to cancel membership, you cannot do it online) I was told (a complete lie) that near the time of my next payment I could officially cancel my membership online. This was not the case. I called up on the day of my payment for the following month and because I had DVDs at home (they’d sent more out even though I’d notified them that I wanted to cancel my membership), I had to pay for another month. Terrible.

I won’t be ignoring the huge amount of unhappy user reviews on ciao.co.uk ever again.

Disturbed by Disturbia..and not in a good way

I'm kind in forgetting Disturbia isn't original because it's just another drawback in a list of bad things this soulless, predictable, poorly directed film has going for it.

Is it unfair of me to mention Rear Window - Alfred Hitchcock's (the maestro of suspense) perfect thriller about a man who believes his neighbour killed somebody - the film Disturbia tries to update for the 21st Century, mobile phone-using, Ipod-listening, internet-using audience that craves, believe it of not, American Pie turned into a Silence of The Lambs meets The 'Burbs. I'd say it isn't unfair because the filmmakers should have watched Rear Window over and over and over again to find out just exactly how to make a thriller work.

The film itself is poor from execution right through the actors to the script. It takes 40 minutes for anything to happen and then the finale is rushed and predictable. The other problem is how the themes of loss and the protagonist's psychological struggle after his father's death is an afterthought to the house arrest set-up and his infatuation with the beautiful neighbour.

It's all just badly judged and makes the much better remake of The Hills Have Eyes, The Saw sequels, and Wrong Turn look like bona fide modern day classics.

My advice: watch for free, or don't watch at all.

Celebrating Into The Night

...John Landis' most underrated film is arguably his greatest achievement. For new and old fans, and for those just wanting to find out more about it, check out Celebrating Into The Night.

This feels like...Deja Vu...

....Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott re-team for the excellent time-bending movie Deja Vu. Despite a few issues I had with the narrative logic of the film, this is an exciting roller coaster ride of bad guys, car chases, and thrilling action sequences.

Jason X isn't so bad....

...okay, it isn't a 'great' film...in fact it's really, really, really, silly, but it knows it's limitations and runs with a playful use of slasher convention and science-fiction mystique. Oh, and it also borrows heavily from the Alien movies! READ MY REVIEW HERE

WHERE IT RANKS in the Friday The 13th series:

1. Friday The 13th (3/5)
2. Friday The 13th - The Final Chapter (3/5)
3. Jason Lives: Friday The 13th Part IV (3/5)
4. Friday The 13th - Part II (2/5)
5. Friday The 13th - Part III (2/5)
6. Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood (2/5)
7. Jason X (2/5)
8. Friday The 13th - A New Beginning (Part V) (1/5)
9. Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1/5)
10. Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (1/5)
11. Freddy Versus Jason (1/5)

Friday The 13th (Sean S. Cunningham, 1980, USA) - The raw and bloody original was a lot less influential than people think. It was massively inspired by John Carpenter’s Halloween and not nearly as good. Rating: 3 out of 5

Friday The 13th - Part II (Steve Miner, 1981, USA) - The second film is the first where Jason actually is the killer. It’s more enjoyable than the original film but far too similar. Rating: 2 out of 5

Friday The 13th - Part III (Steve Miner, 1982, USA) - It’s exactly the same film as the previous two, with the unfortunate bonus of 3-D. Rating: 2 out of 5

Friday The 13th - The Final Chapter (Part IV) (Joseph Zito, 1984, USA) - The film stars a young Corey Feldman who has to come to his older sister’s aid when Jason takes a fancy to her. This is silly fun and follows a very similar path to the films that proceeded it. However, it’s a better film than Part III and the most enjoyable of the sequels. Rating: 3 out of 5

Friday The 13th - A New Beginning (Part V) (Danny Steinmann, 1985, USA) - The best sequel is followed by the worst. A plotless mess and the worst Jason Voorhees film in the franchise. The fifth film tries to reignite the series after Jason is seemingly killed for good, but it fails to do a good job, simply stringing together bloody deaths for the sake of showing off the latest prosthetic and make-up effects. Waste of time. Rating: 1 out of 5

Jason Lives: Friday The 13th Part IV (Tom McLoughlin, 1986, USA) - A coherent plot helps Part IV be one of the better sequels. Rating: 3 out of 5

Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood (John Buechler, 1988, USA) - A nice premise that sees a sort of Carrie V Jason battle is sadly under-developed. However, it makes for some fun sequences and a little inventiveness to what had, by this time, become a rather dull retread of the same plot line. Rating: 2 out of 5

Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (Rob Heddon, 1989, USA) - A terrible mess that lacks any sort of plot. There’s some nice special-effects towards the end but you’d have fallen asleep by the time you get to them. Rating: 1 out of 5

Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (Adam Marcus, 1993, USA) - Jason gets killed at the beginning which is about the only decent bit of the movie. Rating: 1 out of 5

Freddy Versus Jason (Ronny Yu, 2003, USA) - A gimmicky piece of rubbish seeing Freddy Krueger battling Jason Voorhees. On paper it seems like a crowd-pleaser but it’s bad filmmaking 101, and isn’t as fun as Jason X. Rating: 1 out of 5

(c) Strange Conversation

Doomed....

Perhaps I had higher hopes than I should have for the videogame adaptation Doom. I can't say it's a good film...read my review HERE

Into The Psyche of a Broken Man…revisiting John Landis’ Into The Night

CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE

John Landis might be remembered for Trading Places, Blues Brothers, and An American Werewolf In London. He might also be remembered by his detractors for the unfortunate incidences that occurred during the filming of The Twilight Zone, but for me, his career should almost be defined by his 1985 masterpiece Into The Night.

The film, starring Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer, is a little seen gem (not unlike his vampire flick Innocent Blood) that sheds the genre trappings of say An American Werewolf and the iconic prominence of stars and celebrity in, for example, Trading Places, Blues Brothers, or Coming To America. It’s a film that focuses on character, very much inspired by its time, with Landis not having to worry about special-effects (ala man changing into werewolf) or eccentric spectacle (look no further than The Blues Brothers or Animal House). It’s Landis’ most assured piece of filmmaking, and debatably, his greatest ever achievement.

The film is also prominent because it was the first Landis made after the tragedy of 1982 when Vic Morrow, Myca Dinh Le, and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, were killed when a helicopter stunt went wrong. Landis and other production crew were initially blamed and charged with manslaughter. Many people still hold Landis responsible for the deaths but the fact remains that after a long trial, Landis and the other crew members were acquitted in a court of law. The director was clearly deeply affected by the terrible deaths – more than many give him credit for – and this can be seen in Into The Night. His vision is pessimistic and bleak. He shows a disregard for commercialism and a materialistic world, and uses Los Angeles (the most fictionally abused city by American cinema, where dreams are made and broken) as his backdrop. His main character is confused, alone, miserable. He can’t sleep, almost an indication he has to spend more waking moments in his misery than those who can sleep. The film is very a much an investigation into what happens when conventional life loses its boundaries and suddenly a cavernous space opens up with infinite possibility. It’s about a frightening reality that isn’t governed by pop-culture, television adverts, or consumerism. Landis depicts a world where we have to make choices – not always the right ones – but choices that aren’t necessarily straight-forward. Ed, the main character, learns what he wanted by the end of the movie but can’t fathom what it is at the beginning. The choice, therefore, isn’t always in front of us, and we might never know what it really is, but it exists. (READ MORE)

The Howling and the modern Gothic

I watched Joe Dante's excellent 'The Howling' last night and what I liked especially about it was the way it portrayed intelligent werewolves. In 'An American Werewolf in London', the werewolf is very primal, only interested in feeding its hunger. In 'The Howling' and also 'Silver Bullet', the werewolf is intelligent and manipulative. There's a great shot in 'The Howling' when the journalist is looking through the doctor's files and the arm of the werewolf appears from the right of screen. It's a great shot, but also shows the intelligence of the beast - it didn't just want to feed, it wanted to hide important secrets.

It is interesting to note how different directors have approached the werewolf - for example, silver bullets kill the 'intelligent' werewolves of 'The Howling', but normal bullets kill the primal werewolf in Landis' 'An American Wereowolf'. The writer and directors seemingly take different aspects of Gothic tradition and work them into modern horror stories - in 'The Howling', we see humanistic elements within the beasts themselves who want to use the media for their own gain; in 'An American Werewolf' we see comedic value taken from Gothic tradition in that, for instance, when a human changes into a werewolf and his clothes are ripped off, what happens when he wakes up next morning , naked in a public zoo; and 'Teen Wolf' that allows its main character to use the fruits of an animals power - it's speed and strength - to become his school's best basketball player.

TOP 10 HORROR MOVIES OF THE 1980s

The Different Faces of the Beast: Werewolf Movies from the 1980s

The best werewolf movies from the 1980s:

1. An American Werewolf In London
2. The Howling
3. Silver Bullet
4. Wolfen
5. The Company Of Wolves

Don't forget....THE TOP 10 HORROR FILMS FROM THE 1980s....what are yours?

Top 10 Horror Films from the 1980s

I've thought long and hard, and spent many an hour choosing the best horror films from the 1980s to place in my top 10. Please have a look and tell me what are your favourite horror films from the eighties. CLICK HERE TO BE TAKEN TO THE TOP 10

You, Me, and Dupree (2006, Russo/Russo)

Kate Hudson is pretty, that's undeniable. Yet, being pretty can only get you so far, and while You, Me, and Dupree is a 'pretty' picture with sun-kissed photography, flashy cars and gleaming boats, tailored suits, and some arguably handsome male actors, it's a vacuous waste dump of copied ideas and high-concept trash. It lacks any originality and is as predictable as every other Hollywood romance-comedy from the last few years. Maybe if Ben Stiller had taken the Matt Dillon role, they'd be life to this film, but aside from some - admittedly - hysterical moments from Owen Wilson (who's the only good thing about the movie), this is one hell of a poor effort.

Short Film In The UK

My university dissertation was very well received - was I surprised just how highly it was marked? - yes, I was! Don't follow my example to a first-class degree mark, as I ignored most of what the tutors were advising. There was classes put on to help students write, set-out, and research their dissertations, as well as constant tutor/student progress meetings, of which I attended none.

I was taken aback by how some of my fellow students were treating the 'system', as if you needed to follow it in order to succeed. It wasn't as if I knew any better but I wasn't going to write a professional-looking piece of work by following guidelines that were really created for students who simply could not think for themselves. My advice to students writing their dissertations is simply: work to create something different, that hasn't been done before. If you can write it well, show you've done plenty of research, and critically analyse every shred of evidence you put forward, you'll be close to a first class grade.

Anyway, enough of that. Here is my dissertation serialised:

What I wanted to do was investigate what opportunities there were for new filmmakers to break into the British film industry through short film. Click on the chapter link to read the article:

1. Short Film: A brief critical history

2. Short Film In The UK: Screen Yorkshire and the Independents

3. Short Film In The UK: Film Festivals and Competitions

4. Short Film In The UK: Technology and the Tiny Screen

5. Short Film In The UK: Availability, Audience, and the Future

6. ‘Okay, we’re done’: The story of my first short film

7. Short Film Take II: The Trouble With Mr. Goldman

8. Short Film In The UK: Recommended Links

Still reeling from Empire Movie Quiz

...so I didn't know what colour lightsabre Mace Windu has...my unfortunate undoing. Yet, as we eventually guessed right my knowledge of the new Star Wars was one of ridicule. Should I know this piece of information from films I hold with no regard? Lucas' special-effects-ridden-no-character-no-heart prequel trilogy is a set of films I doubt I will ever return to - one viewing is torture enough. But it is with regret that the question caused me such difficulty yet because I was fast asleep through most of Star Wars: Episode 2 (or is it 3?) I'll continue to be humbled by the trilogy's trivia.

Shallow Grave

Shallow Grave, British director Danny Boyle’s debut feature film, is about the disintegration of friendship under the strain of greed. It’s also a bleak social study of three bright but blinded intellectuals who’ve allowed callous opportunism defeat any moral grounding. It’s certainly a daring, hard-edged low-budget thriller that paints a dark, almost dangerous view, of the young, middle-class characters it portrays. But it’s also a very astute investigation of the primal forces that drive human beings. Indeed, the three main characters display the primitive form of Freud’s theory of personality development when they allow their moral judgment to be governed by the pleasure of having lots and lots of money. (READ MORE)

Influence of the Hollywood strudio system 1930 to 1940

The ‘Studio System’ during the 1930s strangled independent cinema and took such great liberties to turn a profit that creativity was severely compromised. The ‘Studio System’ was run by the producer’s that worked within it, and the films that they produced were under their total control. The creative driving force behind movies that were later seen, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, of the directors and writers, was generally lost to the ‘system’. What directors complained about was an objection to the ‘adaptation of Hollywood to a decentralised management system first introduced to American industry by general motors in the 1920s, and itself evidence of the studios assertion of their existence as industry rather than art form.’ (Maltby, 1995. pg. 85) The producers, once assigned to a project, would hire directors and writers to work under them, but as producers supervised all aspects of production from writing and shooting through to editing, writers and directors argued for change and creative freedom that eliminated ‘the involved, complicated, and expensive system of supervision which separates the director and writer from the responsible executive producers’. (Maltby, 1995. pg 83) The Screen Director’s Guild condemned those producers who ‘have little respect for the medium, less respect for their audiences and excuse their lack of imagination by ridiculing it in others.’ (Maltby, 1995. pg. 83) Producers were involved in more than one film at a time, sometimes three or four... (READ MORE)

(READ FULL ESSAY - CLICK HERE)

Alien in the monstorus grasp of womankind

This essay investigates feminist theory towards Ridley Scott's Alien with reference to Laura Mulvey and Barbara Creed. (READ FULL ESSAY)

Looking at feminist writer Laura Mulvey’s analysis of the classical Hollywood film it is interesting how Alien (Scott, 1979) defies her claims about scopophilia, in that the film both subverts her ideas about voyeuristic visual pleasure and narcissistic visual pleasure. (Mulvey, 1975/1989, pg. 353) Mulvey claims that scopophilia (the desire to see) is a fundamental drive according to Freud and that it is sexual in nature. Therefore film uses this in two ways – one is that of voyeurism, both of character, figure and situation, and the second is that of narcissism within the story and the image. She sees scopophilia as a structure that functions on an axis of activity and passivity and that this is gendered. From a voyeuristic point of view, her analysis of classical Hollywood film established ‘the male character as active and powerful: he is the agent around whom the dramatic action unfolds and the look gets organised. The female character is passive and powerless: she is the object of desire for the male character.’ (Mulvey, 1975/1989, pg. 353) This appears to be reversed in Alien as the active and powerful character who defeats the alien and outlives all, including the men, is female. Furthermore, the dramatic action unfolds around her, and the male characters are presented as weak – Captain Dallas makes mistakes, he breaks quarantine laws and cannot protect his team, eventually dying; and robot Ash, whose look and appearance is that of a man, malfunctions and fails his duties. From a narcissistic point of view, Mulvey argues that the audience is forced to see the male character as the powerful, idealised one over the female because she cites Lacan’s concepts of ego formation as the driving force. Lacan claimed that a child derives pleasure from a perfect mirror image of itself and forms its ‘ego’ based on that idealised image. Mulvey therefore says, the ‘representation of the more perfect, more complete, more powerful ideal ego of the male hero stands in stark opposition to the distorted image of the passive and powerless female character.’ (Mulvey, 1975/1989, pg. 354)

(CLICK HERE TO READ FULL ESSAY)

Good source for essays about cinema

Cinema Review - a blog that archives the best film theory and criticism essays found around the web.

1980s Classic Vol. 1: Withnail and I

For many, the first introduction to Bruce Robinson’s tale of friendship at the end of the ‘greatest decade in history’, appears not in the form of a video, a curry, and a group of mates, but by the discovery of an intoxicated body lying forlornly on the living room floor. ‘What happened here,’ someone will ask, to hear the reply: ‘He was playing the Withnail and I drinking game.’ Of course, anyone not familiar with the film might not immediately see the significance until reminded, ‘you know, the one where you drink every time Richard E. Grant drowns his sorrows in either alcohol or lighter fuel. Of course, the lighter fuel must be reserved only for terminal cases and those who can’t afford the alcohol.’

Of course many associate the film with student life. The living in squalor – the kitchen with an ever-growing tower of dirty dishes turning last weeks leftover chips and gravy into new life forms, larger with every day, seeking south for winter. It’s easy for your average student to take one look at the greasy stove and congregation of plates and cutlery (that are beginning to smell like a morgue) and decide to ‘sort it out tomorrow’. It’s even easier to start watching ‘Withnail and I’ trying to sort out their own messy sink because at least you get to keep your hands clean and have a few laughs for good measure.

Released in 1987, ‘Withnail and I’ was, during its production, hampered by a producer who couldn’t see the merits of the film, and a director who admitted he didn’t really know what he was doing. Bruce Robinson, by this time, had already accomplished himself as a writer. He’d been nominated for both Oscar and Bafta awards for his screenplay The Killing Fields which looked at the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia from the experiences of three journalists. Yet, his real passion was acting, or at least that was until he became disillusioned with whole practice after spending years being rejected and having to live off the state. However, since he couldn’t make it as an actor, he decided he may well profit from telling the story of his trials and tribulations. That’s where the genesis for ‘Withnail and I’ came from. But, Robinson’s script takes more from the essence of the period, and the way he was feeling at the time, than from any one situation. The film doesn’t rely on strong plotting, it relies on characters in a predicament; friendship in a world of confusion, counter-culture, and loss.

READ THE FULL REVIEW - CLICK HERE

TOP 10 1980s Coming of Age Films

The 1980s produced some of the best teen movies in cinema history. The video generation fondly remember such classics as The Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink, Some Kind Of Wonderful, and Stand By Me. Yet, many forgotten greats are just as good such as John Cusack in Better Off Dead or The Sure Thing.

What are your favourite teen films from the 1980s? View Strange Conversation's Top 10 coming of age films - JUST CLICK HERE!

Latest Essays

Not just another dead soldier: Subjectivity in Saving Private Ryan

In Saving Private Ryan, ‘focalisation’ forms a major part of the narrative as it ‘shapes our perception of the fabula [story]’[1]. The way in which it does this is by omitting story information in the plot to create a focal point for the narrative. As we are introduced to Captain Miller, the main character of the film, we are immediately focused on his part of the overall story. This is only a minor part of the focalisation that the narrative creates, because through the suppression of gaps we are quickly told who is on the side of the ‘bad’, and who is on the side of the ‘good’. In the initial battle sequence we know German soldiers must be dying. We see them shooting, yet this is all we see. This suppression of gaps helps focalise the story on Miller and the Americans while delineating a divide between what the plot believes are the good and bad. The gap however is temporary, as we see dead German bodies being searched and/or moved. We fill in the gap that other German soldiers must have died in the firefight previous. Although the gap is suppressed, ‘surprise’ is not its goal which is usually a major use of the suppressed gap. In this case, the gap (which we can imagine would be German soldiers screaming in pain, and dying in much the same way as the Americans) localises our attention on the American soldier’s deaths. It creates a causal relationship in that the ‘barbaric’ German bullets kill the ‘helpless but heroic’ Americans. Therefore when, in this case, we fill in the gap, through the subjective view presented to us, the dead German soldiers are mere trophies of the ‘heroic’ American’s who have survived this long. Because of this set-up, when American soldiers later kill surrendering Germans there is less a sense of reversed-barbarism more an awful feeling of payback. The cause and effect of the events presented in the first battle work on the audiences generic expectations of a war movie, and reinforce the ‘good’ and ‘evil’ divides. As mentioned, it is very subjective as we are told who is ‘good’ and who is ‘bad’. (READ FULL ESSAY - CLICK HERE)

Latest reviews

Shallow Grave (Danny Boyle, 1994, UK)

Shallow Grave, British director Danny Boyle’s debut feature film, is about the disintegration of friendship under the strain of greed. It’s also a bleak social study of three bright but blinded intellectuals who’ve allowed callous opportunism defeat any moral grounding. It’s certainly a daring, hard-edged low-budget thriller that paints a dark, almost dangerous view, of the young, middle-class characters it portrays. But it’s also a very astute investigation of the primal forces that drive human beings. Indeed, the three main characters display the primitive form of Freud’s theory of personality development when they allow their moral judgment to be governed by the pleasure of having lots and lots of money. (READ FULL REVIEW)

The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006, USA)

I looked at the running time before beginning to watch Martin Scorsese’s 2006 crime-drama and thought it might be too long. My girlfriend certainly thought so – she was asleep after half an hour and woke up with about forty minutes left. As I tried to bring her up to speed with what had happened, I found myself breathlessly retelling events without a pit-stop for oxygen or chance for her to really take it all in. When I finally said, ‘so that’s it, I’ll just pause it and go for a wee,’ I realised I was on the edge of my seat (an exceptionally comfortable sofa) and had been for the past hour and a half. As I relieved myself of half a bottle of wine I knew, as I reminisced about the film, I was experiencing Scorsese’s most polished and entertaining film since Goodfellas. (READ FULL REVIEW)

The Queen (Stephen Frears, 2006, UK)

Not that I can fault Helen Mirren who deserves her Academy Award for best performance. Her portrayal of the Queen is mannered and at times amusing. Yet, putting the royal family into a drama about tragedy and loss is both over-sentimentalising a relic that doesn’t deserve such attention, and caricaturing famed figures whose lives are already constructs of media derision and, at times, fascination. It’s most telling that Alistair Campbell’s scorn and egocentric asides are the most truthful and believable attributes of a film that first asks its audience to suspend their disbelief, and then asks us to suspend our disbelief for the over-privileged, out-of-date, out-of-touch royal family. When it comes to the second part, it becomes increasingly difficult and awfully easy to find ‘oneself’ shouting words like ‘robots’ and ‘who are ya’ at the screen. (READ FULL REVIEW)

Welcome to Strange Conversation

Strange Conversation was the brain child of film critic Daniel Stephens who, after finding the trials and tribulations of reviewing DVDs for a living a little constraining, wanted to expand his love and enthusiasm for film to all facets of cinema. Inspired by Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate who said, 'This conversation is getting a little strange', the bimonthly film journal Strange Conversation was born. With weekly updates and a round-up every two months, Strange Conversation is packed with a love of cinema that is sometimes lost online. Featuring past and present film reviews, shot of the month, scene of the month, diverse Top 10 selections, biographies, film history and theory essays covering everything from feminism, genre, and the film industry, to short film and foreign cinema, you're bound to find something of interest.

This blog will feature the best-of from the magazine with constant updates.

Strange Conversation is written entirely by a film fan, for film fans. Visit now at www.filmjournal.net/danielstephens