Steven Soderbergh on the MCU

Film  Steven Soderbergh sidesteps a landmine with all the grace you'd expect from him at Variety.  My guess is if MARVEL offered him something, the Richard Lester fan in him would probably take a second look:

There’s an interesting article in the New Yorker that argues that the Marvel Cinematic Universe ate the movie business. Do you agree?

If that’s true, it’s not really relevant to me. The bottom line is people go see what they want to go to see. I’ve got to figure out how to integrate that reality into how I work. I have two choices. I either find something that I love and that has enough in it to potentially attract an audience at a scale that would make the prospect worthwhile to a studio, or I stick to a medium in which those concerns aren’t primary like television or streaming. I’ve got two movie projects that I’m preparing that I’m very excited about that have enough in them to justify coming out theatrically in a normal wide release and not as an arthouse film.

Whenever this question comes up, rather than asking if the MCU has been the death of cinema, the more interesting question would be if the director/actor/whoever would consider making a film if the right project came along. 

Dear god, I'm glad Soderbergh's retirement didn't stick.  He continues to be one of those directors who can make films which say important things and are also great genre pieces.  Hopefully he'll take a crack at the western soon.  

Incidentally The New Yorker piece is more even handed than the title or the interviewer above suggests: its an in-depth history of the studio with plenty nuggets about the Sony deal.  I had no idea that the third Garfield film was going to be a desperate time travel adventure featuring dinosaurs.

Also, there's no point blaming a studio which turns out two-four films a year for "ruining cinema" as though the audience is a sheep like mass.  Hollywood has had its own hand in this by producing so many average films which strain for mass appeal to the extent they don't appeal to anyone.

Steven Soderbergh has a new distribution model.

Film Not only does Soderbergh have a new film upcoming but a whole new way of releasing it wide without a major studio in the US:

"There’s no one component that hasn’t been done before, but I think it’s a combination of components. There have been advancements in technology that make it a lot easier to get a movie out in 3,000 screens than it was even two years ago. The economic model is pretty simple. You sell the foreign to cover the cost of the [film] negative. We sell the non-theatrical rights to cover the cost of the [prints and advertising], and that’s it. It’s really simple. People have done this before. The distribution part is only a little different because we control it in a way that you normally don’t get to control distribution."

Also sounds like he was a hands on producer for Ocean's Eight, so he's back, back, back.

Terence Stamp on The Limey.

Film Every AV Club Random Roles column always seems to have a Steven Soderbergh story and here's Stamps, about how the director managed to secure the footage of Poor Cow for The Limey

"I was on holiday in Hawaii, and I got this number to call him and he’s telling me about the movie. And he said he’d seen this older movie I’d done called Poor Cow, and he was thinking of using footage from this old movie as a kind of backstory, and how did I feel about that.

"I was speechless, really, because when I got the call from him, I just assumed it was for some kind of supporting part. But as he explained the movie, I realized that he was actually thinking of me as the limey. He said, “What’s the matter, what’s the matter? Don’t you like it?” And I said, “I really like it! Did you think I wouldn’t?” He said, “I don’t know a lot of other male stars who’d like to be up there with themselves 30 years ago.” And I said, “Not me, mate.” However, during the shooting of the movie, we didn’t have permission [to use the Poor Cow footage]. Every week, every time he got a day off, he’d go to Warner Bros. and work his way up from the people who sell you, like, frame by frame. He worked his way up, and finally on the last weekend, he’d worked his way up to the head of Warner Bros. And what he told me was this. He said that the guy said to him, “Why are you dealing with me? Why can’t you deal with the people who sell the movies by footage?” And Soderbergh said, “Because I want permission to put anything I need from the movie, into my movie.” And the guy—I can’t remember the guy’s name—said, “I can’t do that.” Steven said, “Why not?” and he said, “Because it’ll create precedent.” Steven said, “Yes.” And he said, “I can’t do it.” Then Steven said this thing which I thought was amazing; he said, “If you won’t give me permission to do it, I will never make another movie for you.” This is a guy who’s like 35 or 40. And the guy said, “Oh, take it, take it.” What was wonderful for me when I saw [The Limey] was his pace and his restraint in how little [of Poor Cow] he used when he could have used anything from it. That, to me, is why I put him up there with Fellini and Wyler. "

No mention of Full Frontal during which Stamp has a metatextual cameo, but you have to admire the confidence. But you can understand why Steven's decided he doesn't want to have to deal with the bullshit of getting films made any more, though I do wonder if he might have been able to carry on if he'd done a Woody Allen and decided to move to Europe for a while.

Time.

Film Oh Steven, wow:

"... I got my hands on a book by a guy named Douglas Rushkoff and I realized I’m suffering from something called Present Shock which is the name of his book. This quote made me feel a little less insane: “When there’s no linear tie, how is a person supposed to figure out what’s going on? There’s no story, no narrative to explain why things are the way things are. Previously distinct causes and effects collapse into one another. There’s no time between doing something and seeing the result. Instead the results begin accumulating and influencing us before we’ve even completed an action. And there’s so much information coming in at once from so many different sources that there’s simply no way to trace the plot over time”. That’s the hum I’m talking about. And I mention this because I think it’s having an effect on all of us. I think it’s having an effect on our culture, and I think it’s having an effect on movies. How they’re made, how they’re sold, how they perform."

That quote is mostly a quote because you should read the whole of Steven Soderbergh's keynote at the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival which crystallizes in one place the general mood of cinema or at least Western cinema in the past couple of decades.

He's pessimistic.  I'm not.  There are ebbs and flows.  There is interesting work out there.  The problem is its obscured by the blockbusters more than ever or the release windows are so marginal we're all tending to simply wait for the dvd.  We're still watching this stuff, we're just not watching it in its intended setting.

Steven Soderbergh's exit interview.

Film  When Steven Soderbergh implied he'd stop making films at the age of fifty, it didn't seem like a realistic prospect.  He loves the medium too much to stop, it seemed, there'd always be an itch.  Well. it looks (unfortunately for us) that he's making good on his promise and has given what amounts to an exit interview to New York Magazine.  The interviewer's a bit obnoxious (Jennifer Lopez was also amazing in Antz, Jersey Girl and Selena) but that only seems to coax Soderbergh into doing all the things you can do in the best exit interviews in jobs: bitch about colleagues, the management, how you would do things better and what you plan to do in the future.  Which includes this awesome revelation:

"I’m overhauling Kafka completely. It’s funny—wrapping a movie 22 years later! But the rights had reverted back to me and Paul Rassam, an executive producer, and he said, “I know you were never really happy with it. Do you want to go back in and play around?” We shot some inserts while we were doing Side Effects. I’m also dubbing the whole thing into German so the accent issue goes away. And Lem and I have been working on recalibrating some of the dialogue and the storytelling. So it’s a completely different movie. The idea is to put them both out on disc. But for the most part, I’m a believer in your first impulse being the right one. And I certainly think that most of the seventies directors who have gone back in and tinkered with their movies have made them worse."

Of all Steven's films there's not a single one I haven't admired if not usually flat out loved, including Ocean's 12 and Full Frontal which are practically the same film or at least idea presented in different idioms.  But his other credits are just as intriguing.  He was a second unit director on The Hunger Games.  He was a producer on Rumour Has It...  He was a screenwriter on the film Criminal but asked for the credit Sam Lowry (presumably a Brazil reference).  I can feel another viewing project coming on.  But not soon.  I've the whole rest of Doctor Who to get through this year.  Perhaps in time for the dvd release of the new director's cut of Kafka, a sentence I never thought I'd type.

"before we figured out what the algorithm was"

Film The few of you who've been reading this for a while may remember the old Scene Unseen series from back in 2004 and this short piece about the entertainingly confrontational audio commentary on Steven Soderbergh's film The Limey. Now on the eve of his retirement, Soderbergh explains to The AV Club the film's editing process which turned a film that didn't work into something which I think we can all agree is something of a classic:

"It was shot and cut chronologically. It was written that way, and it was done that way, and it didn’t work. I’m not saying that’s the script’s fault. I’m just saying it didn’t work. It had to be rethought from frame one. And before we figured out what the algorithm was, I thought we were in trouble. I remember the day—God, this would be January 1999 — Out of Sight had just won the National Society Of Film Critics awards for picture, director, and screenplay, and I got a call from Stacey Sher, one of the producers, going, “I’ve got great news, it was just announced that blah blah blah.” And I remember thinking, “I really don’t care. I would trade that for one edit that would work.”

Later in the interview he talks about poor reception for The Good German, which, with its mimicing of ancient film artifice is probably an interesting film to revisit in the wake of The Artist.

not naming any names

Film As I've discovered when working my way through everything they've produced in their career, one of the problems with some auteurs is their tendency to fade away (not naming any names but I do still have some hopes for You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger). Perhaps because of the creative itch they continue working and working quietly flushing their reputation down the toilet in the process (Topaz).

Which is why, surprisingly, even though he's one of my favourite directors and certainly the most consistent of directors working now, I'm quite pleased that it sounds as though Steven Soderbergh will be going through with his plan to retire from directing. He just doesn't seem to be enjoying it any more:

""When you reach the point where you're, like, 'if I have to get into a van to do another scout I'm just going to shoot myself,' it's time to let somebody else who's still excited about getting in the van, get in the van."

There will be two more films: Liberace starring Damon and Michael Douglas, and Man From U.N.C.L.E. with George Clooney, which from a casting point of view seems like a decent sign off. Unfortunately it also means he'll be curtailing his low budget experiments (begun with Bubble and The Girlfriend Experience).  Maybe.  Itch, itch, itch.

Review 2010: The Opinion Engine: 4/31: "Everything is a remake of something before" vs. "Everybody's rebooting existing characters/universes with new stories" (suggested by @oneswellfoop on Twitter)

Film The use of the word “remake” can be puzzling and inconsistent so I'd like firstly to define what I mean when I say remake. What I think of a remake is when a story, which originated as a film is remade as a film. The Steven Soderbergh's Solaris is generally spoken of a remake even though the director went back to the original source book and went from there. New film adaptations of Shakespeare plays are increasingly referred to as “remakes” even though that’s silly. Comics adaptations are also pegged as such even though again they’re just another look at the material. Peter Jackson’s King Kong is a remake. So’s Gus Van Sant’s Psycho. Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is not and neither is the American adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

With that out of the way, from flicking through the December issue of Empire magazine, the one with the motion captured Tin Tin on the cover, you could assume that the only product in production at major studios are adaptations, reimaginings, sequels and remakes. Nearly every page includes news, views and interviews in relation to some adaptation of a comic or book or television series or in some cases a sequel to what was an original idea. In a review section that includes the likes of Machette, Paranormal Activity 2 and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, the Mike Leigh film, Another Year with its publicity still of a couple of retirees tucked up in bed looks like an oasis of integrity in a desert of opportunism.

The implication of the original statement that adaptations and sequels and remakes are a recent phenomena, this is some new opportunism. They are not. It is not. In the silent era, films were sometimes remade (and this is the purest form of remake) out of necessity because the original copy had worn out, or were pirated by another company by filming them again (which eventually led to the likes of Edison placing their logo within the set to demonstrate it was an original). It wasn’t too long after sound became flexible enough that whole film series sprang from comics, the likes of Batman poorly recreated in black and white serial shorts.

Much of the product in the original old Hollywood studio system was based on something, a stage play, a book and very often newspaper or magazine articles. The recently reissued It Happened One Night, the ancestor for decades of screwball romantic comedies was based on a short fiction, Night Bus by Samuel Hopkins Adams, admittedly extensively reworked by Capra and his collaborator Robert Riskin. It was rare for Hitchcock to produce something original from his early silents through the close of his career. Truly original ideas are rare. Even the so-called original screenplays nominated at the Oscars are most often inspired by real life events or are biographies.

Because you can’t argue with the metrics. Inception is an anomaly. All of the highest grossing films of the past twenty years and even before, both by year and together in a chart are based on existing properties or franchises; even Pirates of the Caribbean began as a theme park ride. Adapt something already in existence, especially if it's a best selling book or well visited theatre production and you have a built in market and if you’re able to grow what you’re selling beyond its core audience you’re onto a winner. Hollywood and beyond makes these things, and has always made these thing because we want to see them, or at least some of us do. Even if the result is rubbish.

Finally watching Transformers 2 recently, I think I’ve witness the nadir of the type (though I’m willing to accept that as we’ll see which ever film raped your childhood you’ll no doubt consider your nadir). Not able to really afford the toys, I was still an avid reader of the British comic from the first issue onwards until it finally went out of print years later. What Simon Furman and his fellow writers accomplished there was astonishing; they took a toy line, developed a mythology and managed to give all of the robots specific personalities, a code of honour and importantly make us care.

The first film, despite importing some of the human characters, trashed that mythology, mostly ignored the personalities and generally had little regard for what had gone before, resulting in a work that was everything Furman et al had been fighting against. In the second, the original machines are barely on-screen and entirely interchangeable, the new, messy character designs no help in trying to identify them. The central story, a fairly derivative quest narrative is driven by the human characters, the accompanying Transformers, all new creations simple (and on two counts racist) comic relief.

In other words a film demonstrating everything that is wrong with this kind of film. Its box office was still huge, but even now analysts are wondering how many of those people actually enjoyed watching the film; the criticism of both its star and director are telling. No wonder there’s a collective groan whenever some new piece of cultural heritage is being ploughed over. My previous nadir, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy failed because it took everything that was right and funny and quotable about Douglas Adams’s original scripts, words worked over tortuously and slowly until they passed his stringent standard and paraphrased them.

Yet somehow I still have a high sense of anticipation for the new version of Judge Dredd, the aforementioned Tin Tin, Tron Legacy and even have a vague hope that the next Transformers will be the best of the series. Because years ago, even before the first Transformers, I came to the conclusion that Hollywood could adapt or remake whatever it likes. It could even take a crack at Doctor Who if it wanted to or offer up a remake of When Harry Met Sally. Cultural sacred cows, I have a few, but everything is up for grabs, and they can do what they want with the mythology, change everything.

Because actually, in the end, the extent to which the property matches its source is less important than if the resulting film is good. The Lord of the Rings films took many liberties with the original text but I haven't met many fans of the books who hate the films. Same with Harry Potter. Robert Downey Jnr’s Tony Stark is barely recognisable from the figure in the comics yet readers of the Iron Man comic have embraced him. Offering another adaptation of Solaris would seem like sacrilege beyond Tarkovsky’s definitive presentation, yet Soderbergh created something that respected both properties and produced something new and very special. Indeed.

About the only real argument one could logically against the concept of adaptation per-se is in relation to books. A book is a one-to-one communication between the author and reader; the former controlling and crafting the experience and imagination of the latter. After a film adaptation, that experience is irrevocably interfered with; it’s impossible to read Pride and Prejudice without your favourite actress inhabiting the character of Elizabeth Bennett and I’ve recently heard adults chatting nostalgically about the time when they had their own version of Harry, Hermione and Ron in their heads instead of the actors who’ve made the characters their own.

So you never know, the rem- ... sorry ... reimaging of Buffy might be quite good. It's possible.

Follow @oneswellfoop here.

Watching all of Woody Allen's films in order: Miami Rhapsody (1995)

Then When I was working in Birkenhead, researching public sculpture at the local history office, there was a Blockbuster Video on the route to the library. Birkenhead Blockbuster seemed to be the local clearing house for unboxed ex-rental tapes, which they were selling for fifty pence. It’s there that I bought a copy of Miami Rhapsody on the strength of the name. Knowing nothing about it, I watched in abject horror as I realised that it was a “copy” of a Woody Allen film and even then being in thrall to the master thought it blasphemous, unfunny dreck and said as much when I made my own inlay card for it later.

Now In Miami Rhapsody, director David Frankel does for Woody Allen what, Paul Verhoven attempted in Basic Instinct, Steven Soderbergh tried with The Good German and Todd Haynes succeeded with in Far From Heaven, taking the style of another director and inject a slightly different spin on it. With the presence of Mia in a matriarchal role, a casual observer might suggest that she’s saying to Woody, “see what you do isn’t that special”. Except this isn’t just a parody, or rough copy as New York Magazine (and many others suggested in a contemporary review, but an affectionate homage and one which I’m far kinder towards twelve years later.

Frankel is clearly a fan. As well as hiring Mia (who had to know what she was getting herself into), Scenes from a Mall’s Paul Mazersky plays her screen husband. His observation of Woody’s style is superb from the camera movements to choice of editing to the performances. As Roger Ebert notices, the film opens with an Annie Hall style confessional to camera from Sarah Jessica Parker (who’s mainly the “Woody Allen” figure for the duration) as she spends the film coming to terms with what she wants from relationships, stories of lust and infidelity amongst her family and friends spin about her, told in the anecdotal style of Radio Days.

If Stephen Spignesi had updated his Woody Allen Companion he would have had a field day looking for in-jokes. The film opens with the credits on titles cards against a black background (albeit with the wrong font) and a Louis Armstrong tune. At one point Martin Landau’s plotline from Crimes and Misdemeanours is retold with Kelly (Emily Gilmore) Bishop in the Angelica Houston part but with a much more positive outcome. At another, Jeremy Priven walks through dressed as Fielding Mellish from Bananas, brown rimmed glasses intact. Though cinematographer Jack Wallner is no Gordon Willis (who is?), he succeeds in painting Miami with the same beauty as Manhattan, except with a gold hue replacing black and white, and there are some technically very impressive steady-cam shots that drift through the city for many minutes.

The film has a raft of sweet performances. Jessica Parker is still a couple of years away from Sex In The City were her on-screen persona seemed to stiffen somehow and her delivery of some of the Allen-tinged zingers is eerie, her timing impeccable. The film captures Antonio Banderas in the same year as Desperado made him a star in the English speaking world and gives him plenty of room to show off his charisma. Mia’s playing a perfectly Mia character, slightly embarrassed that she should be the object of anyone’s affection able to show the facility for light comedy denied her in Husbands and Wives. Carla Gugino is also worth a mention simply because she’s one of my favourite actresses and um, that’s it. She’d later work with Banderas again on the Spy Kids movies and Priven on Entourage.

There are a few weak spots. There’s a certain narcissism amongst the characters which Woody would not have left uncommented upon or unpunished. Naomi Campbell appears playing a model and Kevin Pollack’s mistress and offers a non-performance but not in the Robert Bresson sense (think Jennifer Tilly’s character in Bullets Over Broadway), apart from in one moment in which she has to become really angry which she manages to be almost naturalistically convincing. The storytelling is often muddled and episodic as for periods Jessica Parker reacts to other people’s confessionals as though Frankel can’t decide whether he’s trying to create an ensemble piece like Hannah or a linear story with a single main protagonist like Manhattan.

But Frankel isn't always slavish to Allen and like the aforementioned directors injects elements which Woody hasn’t yet, almost as a commentary. One of my favourite moments has Banderas visiting his mother and the scene, though still one handheld shot in a style similar to Carlo Di Palma, the scene is played entirely in Spanish with subtitles and lacks the cultural orientalism of the later Vicky Christina Barcelona. The attitude to sex is far more explicit. People don’t just talk about it, we see them doing it. A lot. In lingerie. As Jessica Parker’s character asks her mother at one point “Now is the age in which you decide to become promiscuous?” It was 1995.

miniblog archive

'...Mission': Listenable (or Gabriella Cilmi ditched Amy Winehouse for Girls Aloud's sound) http://bit.ly/6t1vAX

Some lovely snowy photos of Sefton Park in Liverpool where I live: http://bit.ly/7LnZ4R

Casey Johnson's grief tweets http://ff.im/-dTO7u

The importance of voice http://ff.im/-dTLVU

Y2.01K http://ff.im/-dTKYp

Sport TV in 3D isn't what you'd expect: http://bit.ly/7T3A83

Copenhagenisation http://ff.im/-dTJQw

New year, old genre: is it time for science fiction to die? http://ff.im/-dTIoN

#spotify This is a crime, plain and simple. Someone should change the law. Make it retrospective: http://bit.ly/828FD5

You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story: Richard Schickel in Conversation http://ff.im/-dTHQD

Completed Rebecca Miller's The Private Life of Pippa Lee today. Spent most of the duration wondering why everything seemed so familiar then I remembered this ... http://bit.ly/TtUO8

Happy Birthday, Madame de Pompadour, Arts Patron and Mistress of Louis XV http://ff.im/-dTCJz

#spotify A Pulp Fiction playlist (as best I can) http://bit.ly/6i7b8A

Steven Soderbergh Shot A Secret Improvised Film in Australia Last Month http://ff.im/-dTAmL

I think Rule #34 comes into play here http://ff.im/-dSgMV

Torchwood: The Musical nearly happened written by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus from Abba. Oh good god. http://bit.ly/7SGP9s

Breathtaking dissection of the Russell T Davies era of Doctor Who: http://bit.ly/7TZSKX

Tesco gives a little help to independent bookshop http://ff.im/-dQ9J4

Losing Your Affection http://ff.im/-dPT0y

Metafilter community on the tragic death of Brad Graham http://ff.im/-dPNnE

In-Store "Optimization" is Usually Useless, Often Slows Down PCs [Saving Money] http://ff.im/-dPM6E

Snow UK: how Ben Marsh is using Twitter to create data http://ff.im/-dPKEP

In Which It Was The Way He Saved Her http://ff.im/-dOYPM

Ebert's best films of the past decade. His choice for 1 will knock your socks off & the socks off the actor playing you http://bit.ly/50Ltmz

Waziristan: The last frontier http://ff.im/-dOGL9

lip services for "Sex, Lies"

Film A.O. Scott tries to confer auteur status on Steven Soderbergh ...

"There is a tension within “Solaris,” for example, between the austerity and abstraction of the European art-cinema tradition where its roots lie and the Hollywood genres of romantic melodrama and spaceship adventure toward which it is drawn. And there is an even deeper split within “Che” — between procedural rigor and political romanticism, or perhaps between the discipline of guerrilla filmmaking and the demands of the historical biopic."

... though despite lip services for "Sex, Lies" Scott totally ignores anything pre-Schizopolis. And Schizopolis for that matter.

Renée Fleming!

Neil and Palma's Kilimanjaro Challenge
Neil Perryman, co-editor of Behind The Sofa and his friend Palma Carter are doing a charity climb up Mt Kilimanjaro to see the roof of the world in aid of UNICEF and they're looking for sponsors. You can make a donation here. Given the date, I think Neil's just looking for a way to avoid the next series of Torchwood.

Ada Lovelace Day.
Have you signed up yet? 24th March some of us bloggers will write about a woman in technology who is unsung. I think there's still time to pledge. I haven't decided who I'll be writing about, but I suspect selecting Suw herself would be missing the point, even though she deserves it.

Renée Fleming to sing at Obama's inauguration
And some other people, but still -- Renée Fleming! I just hope we get to see some of it, though I suspect the BBC coverage will be the likes of Justin Webb talking about the US economy whilst Shakira sings in the background.

Neko Case track. Free download.
And because I'm linking to it, the record company are sending $5 to an animal welfare charity. Just because I'm allergic to cats doesn't mean I can't help them out once in a while.

Catherine Zeta Jones is Cleopatra in Steven Soderbergh's 3D musical Cleo!
I don't think there's anything this man can't at least try to direct. Jones was about the only thing which made the film version of Chicago watchable. Secretly I hoped she would be the next Doctor Who, which seems terribly unlikely but consider her performances since High Fidelity. Not that (the royal) we could have afforded her.

Sarah Beeny is in my generation.
It hadn't occurred to me that Sarah Beeny was thirty-seven, just two and a bit years older than me. Which isn't to say I thought she was older, it's that I forget sometimes (as we've established) that I'm not in my twenties. It makes her more approachable somehow. Before this becomes too inappropriate, I should mention that this interview from last weekend's worth reading for the opening few paragraphs were the Guardianista forgets what she looks like...

Is it Little Boots?
Production company actively looking for crap dancers for a video shoot. Will only say that they're one of the BBC's fifteen musicians to watch. Lady Gaga? La Roux? Remember when singers had names which sounded like someone you'd meet at the shops, like ... oh ... no ... erm ...

Heather Higginbottom reacts
Donna Moss. "She's a fine lookin' woman." etc.

Barack paraphrases an Alanis Morissette song. Probably not.
"Enough about me, lets talk about you for a minute / Enough about you, lets talk about life for a while / The conflicts, the craziness and the sound of pretenses / Falling all around... all around." I still can't quite believe that by next Tuesday evening, this man is going to be the US President. In this video, without pretension, he offers what amounts to an advert for the inauguration describing the various media outlets and websites that will be carrying the event, including a kids version on Disney with Michelle and Joe and then goes all Capraesque with suggestions on how people can help serve their country.

Amanda describes the plot of Star Wars from the tiny amount she’s seen.
Genius. And strangely close to Lucas's original synopsis.

Friends of Dorothy
Health warning: Contains Bobby Davro and the phrase: "Take it away kids, here we go."

Girl comforts friend whilst studying.

Danielle Steel has been translated more than Shakespeare
That's horrifying if understandable. I'm yet to here reports of Shakespeare having been translated successfully, verbatim, into any other language and that includes Klingon.

Jessamyn's my year in cities and towns, 2008
Amazing collection of photographs of the guestrooms she's stayed in. That I couldn't compile a similar collection underscores why I need to get away and soon. Any offers?

How did we come to this?

Liverpool Biennial 2008 One of the most technically brilliant short films ever made is Claude Lelouche’s Rendezous in which a car careen through Paris’s many districts during one of the most exciting yet death defying eight minutes you’ll see (it was butchered recently to become a Snow Patrol video). Lelouche’s film was the starting point for Nancy Davenport’s Workers, a series of documentary videos flowing through the Open Eye Galleries. Employees are shown at a Jaguar car factory at work and rest, on the production line and in the canteen, lateral tracking shots almost creating the view from the window of one of the cars passing by. It’s an important work, because it demonstrates that in places like this, human beings and machines have become to a degree interchangeable, especially since these are the kinds of job in which break time is conducted in the premises which doesn’t seem to provide any respite at all. How did we come to this?

Similar apocalyptic visions at the Bluecoat and Tracey Moffat’s Doomed, a ten minute sequence of shots from disaster and action films, in which humanity loses against wave upon wave of destructive forces, natural and man-made and alien. I suspect someone whose seen less films than me will have a different reaction, since I spent most of the three times I watched this trying to guess where all of the scenes were from, to the point that the other people gathered around on Friday night were asking me. Doomed was originally created a few years ago, and since montage sequences just like it have proliferated on video sharing sites like YouTube, but there's a definite intensity to the sheer scale of carnage on view here, a chance to concentrate on those who buy it whilst the hero is dashing for higher ground or locking themselves in a bunker. Just why does that man keep reading his paper as water washes through New York in The Day After Tomorrow rather than dash for the library like everyone else? What’s the point in checking stock options if you’re not going to be around the spend the dividends?

At the Tate, Guy Ben-Nar’s Second Nature recreates Aesop’s fable of The Fox and the Crow, showing animal trainers attempting to coax the real life animals into giving a performance, for the bird to drop a piece of cheese to the predator on the ground. At the centre is a short section in which those trainers give a fairly good reading of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, even if this is rendered unintentionally funny because one of them mispronounces the name in the title to rhyme with ‘gobot’. In both cases we’re witness to repetitive, painfully fruitless acts – Didi and Gogo are never likely to see the man and there’s no way you’d expect the crow to give up the piece of cheese.

If there is a must see at the Biennial, especially if you are a film fan, it’s Omar Fast’s Take a Deep Breath, which blends aspects of Mike Figgis’s Timecode, Tom Dicillo’s Living in Oblivion and Steven Soderbergh’s Full Frontal in a work that experiments with the nature of reality in film and how our expectations of conflict, and in this case the story of a real world medic who attended the scene of a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 2002. His narration and interview footage are intermixed with scenes featuring a fictional film crew as they recreate the scenes he witnessed and experienced, their narcissism dislocated from the grimness of the scene their art department has recreated.

What makes this work is the quality of the writing, its dark humour and characterisation better than some feature films can muster and performances, which hark back to the naturalistic heyday of indie productions. They’re unknowns, bit players from tv series and movies put in centre stage. I presume you’re not supposed to recognise any of them, and yet there I was on Friday night, blurting out ‘That’s Harry Von Gorkum!’ in the darkness. The suited man sitting next to be looked across and asked who and so I inevitably had to actually tell him. This English actor was the second choice to play the Doctor in the 1996 US tv movie. If Paul McGann hadn’t signed, the fate of the franchise would have been in Von Gorkum’s hands. He’s very good in this, and you can certainly see his timelord quality, as bluffs his way through asking one of the other extras out on a date.

Finally, if you’ve ever wondered how Harry Lime felt after going through the conditioning process in The Ipcress File (and if so, why?) pop along to FACT and try and sit for the duration of Ulf Langheinrich’s LAND. On entry you’re handed some 3D glasses and depending upon which end of the piece you are, you’ll either be lulled by the gentle waves across what looks like an ocean floor, or assaulted by the kind of sound and vision an average untuned analogue tv throws out, rendered in 3D with an extra layer of flashing strobes underneath. The effect creates particles which hang in the air, and though oddly captivating it’s also nerve and brain jangling, Langheinrich mission to leave you unsettled accomplished.

originally a caveman

feeling listless finds
I've been trying to decide what to do with the tumblr for months, and finally I've decided to turn it into a place to gather any videos and the like. In other words, use it properly. So that's somewhere else for you to subscribe to, because I'll not be repeating anything here. It's like an alternate multimedia reality. Latest video? Matt Damon: "I want to know if she believes there were dinosaurs four thousand years ago..."

Archrs - an everyday story of web development
The every day story of country folk turned into an astonishing web-based interactive drama without changing a word.

Play With Spider
For those of you missing La Princess.

Soundtracked - "Death Race" by Paul Haslinger
Brutally honest blog post from the composer for P.W.S.A.'s new film, which demonstrates how far along in the creative process it is that the music is conceived. John Ottman's talked about this very subject. Elsewhere, Charlie Kaufman directs.

Google News farce triggers Wall Street sell-off
I think as people reliance on the web for information rather than human contact intensifies, the regularity of this kind of thing will increase.

Steven Soderbergh working on Liberace film and wants Michael Douglas
Which is precisely why I love Soderbergh. I can't think of a single predictable career choice he's made.

Michelle Obama Interview: Her Father's Daughter
"Eventually I thought, This is a smart man with a good heart, and if the only reason I wouldn't want him to be president is that I'm married to him, no, I can't be that selfish.''

Jerome Bixby's Man From Earth
It's not often I'll unreservedly recommend a film, but Man From Earth is special. It's a low budget fantasy tale in which a man draws together all of his university colleagues out to his wood cabin just before he leaves forever and tells them that he was originally a caveman and has lived for fourteen thousand years. Their reaction is as you'd expect, but over the following eighty odd minutes the details of the man's possible life are laid out and through some great performances and writing from the late Bixby (he finished the script on his death bed) you begin to question what's possible. This is intelligent sci-fi of the kind which is rare in movies these days, questioning genetics and belief systems and in places has crystallised answers to some of the intellectual questions I've been wrestling with for the past few years. The cast includes the likes of Tony Todd and John Billingsly and a stunningly good David Lee Smith as the potential cro-magnan. It's K-PAX without the showboating.

a problem of their choosing

Giant spider brings Liverpool to standstill
La Machine is here and it's big. I wondered how they were going to demolish that building.

Wallace & Gromit model for Harvey Nics
How It Was Done
So much work for a single frame.

Scotland the Baffling
"I've come to love so many things about Scotland. The fish suppers, the mountains, the graffiti ... but I cannot get my head around THE TUB." It's called simply a bowl in these parts and I agree that on the face of it, this is a curious habit. But then you look at the sink itself and ugh!

I'm a rock chick, get me out of here!
Laura Barton tackles opera and has pretty much the same reaction I have. The comments from readers are as callous as you'd expect.

In Search of the Simple Sandwich
"For the last few years, I’ve noticed a creeping obsession among the sandwich-vendors of our nation’s capital and high street to add all sorts of random stuff to their lunchtime staples, turning what might otherwise be a simple, beautiful, tasty thing into something utterly fussy and overcomplicated."

Librarians find the weirdest things in returned books
"Pals keeps a collection of creative and unusual "bookmarks" on display behind her desk in case people want them back. Her wall is covered with greeting cards, personal letters, travel mementos, board game pieces, doilies, playing cards and one recent addition: a list of "karma violations." She also has found combs, deflated balloons and origami creations."

How pop music transfers should work
If Keisha were to leave and somehow convince Mutya and Siobhan to give it another go, who would be the Sugababes then? It'd be the Bucks Fizz band dispute all over again.

Sushi & business have more in common than you might think
I do love the design of Yo Sushi outlets. It's just a pity I'm not fond of the food.

Curtains Up On Sydney Theatre Company 2009
Cate Blanchett's new company has snagged Steven Soderbergh to direct a production, the content of which is still under wraps.

Pink Panther Ultimate Collection Prowls to Disc
Proper recreations of Eighties tea times are finally in our grasp. The Panther goes into the car and five minutes later the TARDIS is materialising at the side of the road. A different road, obviously.

The borrowers: 16-plus American adaptations of British television shows
A typically well researched piece from The AV Club. I hadn't seen any clips from the US version of Coupling before and I can immediately see why it flopped. Over here we seem more used to long involved scenes about situations with speeches and fewer punchlines, whereas the US sitcoms I've seen tend to have staccato editing and much higher gag rate.

The Palin Meltdown in Slo-Mo
Sarah Palin Soap Opera
I'm becoming slightly obsessed with the Sarah Palin story. Not her, you understand, but the fall out at the Republican Party's apparent inability to deal with a problem of their choosing, pulling out of interviews with networks when they have the audacity to criticise a candidate and the like. Unlike here, were not too long ago on BBC News, John Sopel referred to Palin as John Major's running mate during the news headlines. Now, as per The Daily Show, here's your moment of zen:

"Did I regret it or do I regret it now? Not for a second." -- Gillian Anderson

Film Gillian Anderson's been keeping an irregularly updated blog for a few years. Last April she addressed the whole apparent love/hate relationship she had with co-star David Duchovny on The X-Files and what she says pretty much closes the book on it (at least for me) Oh and the new film is being shot back in Vancouver, which is where it was when the show was at its best. Can't wait.

Meanwhile, Vanity Fair go mad for the new Indiana Jones films, but I'm sure you've read that already. There are some on-line only interview with Steven and George (who's still clearly in denial about the Star Wars prequels). The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is essentially an attempt to recreate the look, pacing and character of the first three movies which sounds like as much of an experiment in style as Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven and Steven Soderbergh's The Good German.

No, now look I'm sorry ...

Film In a summer of bloated blockbusters and hardly enticing torture horrors, I haven't been to the cinema much, preferring instead to catch up on all the films I missed in the first seventy-five years of cinema history when I hadn't been born yet. What thirties films lacked in budget they made up for with invention, tight scripts with incisive characterisation.

Largely my abstinance has been critic and word of mouth led with the new Pirates and Spiderman films apparently being particularly avoidable. By rights, I should have missed out Ocean's Thirteen too, but having been the only person who seemed to think Ocean's Twelve a work of genius (outside of the people who made it) I couldn't pass up the chance to fly against the critical tide again.

Ocean's Twelve was roundly regected by critics but the reception for this has been pretty mixed, ranging from Mark Kermode's rant and Peter Bradshaw's one star lambasting in The Guardian to Empire Magazine's four stars. Director Steven Soderbergh's has generally endured this reception of late with writers generally focusing on what a work is not rather than what he's delivered.

Which is a shame because once again, this is an amazing film, ambitious in its narrative, experimental in its use of character, visually and sonically a feast. It's disappointing that even when Soderbergh has succeeded in producing a work of purposeful entertainment and artistic brilliance there's still almost being treated like the hack he certainly isn't.

It's not entirely above reproach. The storyline, another casino heist, does not have the emotional punch of the first and to a degree second films. In addition, anyone paying attention could work out what twists there are in the climax. Although the entire crew is back minus the ladies, not everyone has that much to do with Bernie Mac in particular being particularly hard done by. Now and then it seems just a little bit too pleased with itself, but that smacks of confidence more than anything else.

These do however seem to be effects of parring the story and the requirements of the narrative down to their most basic parts. The film is about the heist and the mechanics of the operation, the opening act of the second film stretched over a couple of hours. It's comedy drama then in its purest form, grabbing the funny where ever possible. It's also clear that Soderbergh and writers Brian Koppelman & David Levien want the audience to be in on those mechanics so that they can feel included rather than excluded from the team.

That means that unlike other sequels which get bogged down in giving everyone their own subplot to keep the stars happy, its able to keep the focus on the goal. In fact, it's quite refreshing to once again see these actors, who've carried films themselves, just popping in for little more than a cameo in order to facilitate a gag. What's wrong with having something that amounts to the Record Breaker's Christmas Special were Roy Castle would be joined by a galaxy of stars during the festive period?

It's one of the first films in years not to waste Al Paccino's devlish personality and here he's in full shit-eating hoo-ahh mode as the villianous casino manager whose at the centre of the trouble. It's equally refreshing to see someone like Ellen Barkin playing this kind of comedy role again. The criticisms were basically in the order of 'How could you treat this older actress in this way, putting her in the sad position of being seduced by this young buck' failing to note how sexy she is and that actually lesser films would have cast a much younger actress in the role.

The young buck by the way is Matt Damon, who I think has finally gotten over the pasting he recieved in Team America: World Police -- in other words I don't have their way of saying his name flashing into my head every time I see him on screen anymore. Everyone in the cast is a natural comedian though, with the double acts of Scott Carn and Casey Affleck, Shaobo Qin and Damon and George Clooney and Brad Pitt all making welcome returns. The latter is perhaps the funniest, time and again the mirth developing from what isn't being said and a mere weary look or tired gesture stealing the show.

Their scenes together are just a couple of the array of very funny moments that litter the film and which, crucially unlike many sequels aren't contingent on you having seen the other two. There are character moments sure with will resonante if you know who they're talking about and why (there are still some hollywood in-jokes which will only work amongst the really clued up amongst us) but in the main the funny is brought without prior knowledge and it's the first time I've laughed out loud at the cinema in ages.

Some complained that in the second film the main gang weren't together nearly enough, blown across the four corners of Europe with the structure of the story being dictated by the scheduling of the cast. If that was still the problem here, it's largely been solved and there's certainly more of a sense of the family again, probably helped by everything taking place in Vegas. Some of my favourite scenes in Twelve were when the cast were in a hotel room or whatever generally improvising with the camera trying to pick up what it can. There's less of that here, with Ocean's team collected across the widescreen in tableau.

In fact, wasn't prepared for how well photographed the piece is, Soderbergh (who operates the camera himself) using a range of pallets, some of which recall the opening film all reds and browns through to other works -- there's even the odd shot which could have dropped in from his low budget experiment Bubble. One amazing shot which pans across a casino floor zooming in and focusing on the faces of each of the team in turn as they communicate to each other with an adjustment of their glasses. There's no doubt that the director is an auteur, all of his films sharing a distinctive look and feel.

The film is also bathed in more of series regular David Holmes music. There's also a pleasing return to the old Hollywood style montage sequences that mix text and images to communicate story points and the passage of time, accompanied by Holmes mix of jazz and blues music. There are moments when the characters return locations from the first film and Holmes quietly underscores the scene with a subtler version of music from Ocean's Eleven, in one scene in particularly almost suggesting a nostalgia for a time when it was easier to see the goal and (without givin too much away) when you knew who your enemies were.

The oddest of the criticism was unsurprisingly from the usually right Mark Kermode who when he wasn't ranting on about the appearance of Julian Sands (who isn't that bad here) took up against the film for being set and about Vegas which he didn't have very many nice things to say about. Whilst its true that this is a pretty good tourist recruitment film for the area, how could this film exist without perpetuating that fantasy? If I was something akin to social realism I'll dodge through a copy of Leaving Las Vegas or Casino(?) or Showgirls(!?!). Some of the most impressive shots are from the sky as we see the new imaginary casino photorealistically inserted into the real Vegas.

The presence of Sands though does indicate one of the more unusual elements of the film, its Britishness. As well as Eddie Izzard there's a startling appearance from Olga Sosnovska who fans of the BBC series Spooks will know as Fiona Carter and is utterly luminous in her small role. Some of the film looks to have been shot in London (and real London not the version that appears in Lost) and there are some unexpected reference to UK pop culture which you can't imagine anyone in the US audience (or anyone else) would get. Perhaps it's as an apology for Don Cheadle's accent which is noticably less mockney this time out but still doesn't sound quite right. Frankly, I'm amazed that his character Basher wasn't outed as being really American, the sound of his voice being an affectation. In Ocean's Fourteen maybe.

Since this has done great business at the box office despite the critics I can't imagine a fourth film hasn't been discussed. Whether the formula can stretch to another installment I'm not sure -- apart from anything else, would all of the cast return? If I had one small criticism, with the exception of Barkin and Sosnovska the film lacked a feminine touch and it would be great to see Roberts and Zeta Jones back next time in bigger roles. There was also an even greater reliance on technology too and perhaps next time the gang could be placed in a position where they have to work completely on their wits to succeed. It'd have to be against a different landscape though. How about Shanghai?

"Sunshine, sunshine, a happy day. Off to the cricket match I'm away. Somebody else can work for me. I'm the happy absentee." -- The Spinners

Film With narrative and characterisation as unpredictable as an episode of Torchwood, Danny Boyle's film Sunshine drops the kind of crew that might populate an Alien film into a Solaris-style planetary mystery and develops an intelligent version of The Core. None of which is a bad thing. It's been while since we've been able to enjoy giant ships flying through deep space on the big screen without a Jedi or Vulcan piloting them and whilst it sometimes potentially threatens to nosedive into a vat of pulp, excellent performances, direction, editing and music mean that the film engrosses throughout.

The set up couldn't be simpler and is described by Cillian Murphy in the opening moments. The sun, our sun, is dying and a mission has been sent to re-ignite it - eight astronauts in a space ship, the Icarus II, strapped to the back of a bomb which will be dropped in. The name of the ship of course suggests a secondary mission - what happened to the first Icarus and why couldn't it complete the same mission? Along the way, the crew experience the same problems that usually occupy the time of characters in these things with machine failures and argumentative computers and - well that would be telling. Suffice to say that this is the kind of film that tries to throw as much excitement in as possible.

It's spectacle cinema at its best. Fans of the shots of Solaris in the Steven Soderbergh remake will be well served here as the camera digitally explores Sol, convincingly suggesting how its fiery eddies and solar flares might look should a future Nasa mission decide to have a look. Some of the best scenes in the film are of the astronauts in the ship's observation deck awestruck by the sight, some pushing the boundaries of a necessary light shield so that they can get a closer, cleaner look, bathing themselves in its light. Boyle's very conscious that he needs to show their amazement so that we as an audience can buy into what is after all an artificial construct.

I don't think there's a weak link in the cast and its to their credit that this group of scientists and engineers are so three dimensional given that scriptwriter Alex Garland has seemingly deliberately divested them of any back story. Although everyone's been talking about Murphy, megastar in waiting, Chris Evans shows a depth he's until now been unable to show and its wonderful that the underrated Michelle Yeoh gets another chance to demonstrate that she's much more than a martial arts expert - there's a wonderful scene in which her character Corazon is able to see that all is not lost and life will out.

Pointed Opinions

Film About two years ago I signed up to That's What I Think, a survey website. Although it's name sounds like a radio phone in show from one of the angry radio channels, what actually happens is that periodically they send by email a questionnaire on a telling subject and after answering their question you're assigned 'opinion points' which when collected together over time can be turned into shopping vouchers for Amazon, CD-WOW or Firebox.

The surveys I've generally received have been about uk cinema releases -- what films I can remember are in general release and which on their list I'd actually want to go and see. It makes for depressing reading and I'm sure there are a couple that are outright fiction given that I've never heard of the actors or the title but it's possible they're just going 'under the radar'. This time about the only worthy thing on the list was Stephen Soderbergh's The Good German. There's a very fallow period ahead.

I thought it was another transparent dangling carrot but today I made my first £10 voucher. It took two years of course, but it does prove with patience you can get something (sort of) for nothing. The reason I'm boring you with this is because they inevitably have a referral system, were if I send them the email address of people who want to join, when those people do surveys I get a kick back.

Unsurprisingly, this sounds like a very good thing for somebody but I don't really want to just randomly send out emails unless I think the person is interested and will want to take part. So essentially if this is something you think you'd be interested in doing, let me know and I'll send you the sign up email. The only rule is that you have to be in the UK ...

Review 2006: Graduation Day!

F asks:
I've kindly been given a subscription to LoveFilm and while I have a few things I'd like to see I want to make the most of the opportunity and see films I wouldn't otherwise. I have a largely uneducated interest in foreign film, particularly French and Italian - any recommendations? No horror please, just interesting and beautiful films you think are worth watching.

First of all, welcome to LoveFilm (the European Netflix), which is finally creeping out of its Fight Club-like obscurity and becoming the rental company of choice for the film fan. Well alright the service can be maddening sometimes, you'll only rarely get the film you really want but the whole of the global film history is available to you (apart from anything which isn't available on dvd) and it's going to be a wild ride. Again, I say, welcome.

Secondly, I love this question. I love this question because I've almost already answered it. Earlier in the year, a friend's girlfriend asked pretty much the same thing and I spent that night drawing up a list. I decided that rather than simply dropping in those films which everyone expects you to have seen, I'd include the interesting and beautiful films that I thought were worth watching. And that's what you've asked for here. As it turned out ...

It's a bit long.

I originally posted it on here mid year and looking through there's not one I would change, although I have added a couple I've met since. It is an ecclectic mix, although the high proportion are French because for many years most of anything released here has heralded from that great nation. I have to admit to there being a void in my knowledge were the Italian cinema industry should be but we have ways and means which'll be described afterwards. Anyway, here is the list and just for you as well as flagging up the films I've really loved with a *, those with a (h) are the horror films so that you can avoid them...

8 Women
20:30:40 *
400 Blows
Akira
L'Apartment *
A Very Long Engagement
Aimee and Jaguar
Amelie *
Amores Perros
Bande A Part *
Battle Royale
Belle Epoque
Belleville Rendez-Vous
Betty Blue *
Blue Gate Crossing *
Bob De Flambier
Closely Observed Trains
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Cyclo
Etre Et Avoir
Fairwell My Concubine
Festen
Un Flic
French Twist
Goldfish Memory
Goodbye Lenin!
Heaven
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
Hero
Hidden
House of Flying Daggers
In The Mood For Love
In This World
Intimate Strangers
Irreversible
Jean De Florette/Manon Des Sources
Jesus of Montreal *
Jules Et Jim
Kitchen Stories
Lagaan
La Règle du jeu
La Reine Margot
Last Life In The Universe
Like Water For Chocolate
Look at Me *
Love Me If You Dare
Ma Vie En Rose
M
Malena
Metropolis
No Man's Land
Nikita
Okay
Partie De Campagne
Place Vendome (pictured)
Pot Luck * (l'auberge espagnole)
Le Gout des Autres
Ran
Red Lights
Ringu
Rome, Open City
Run Lola Run
Shaolin Soccer
Show Me Love *
Solaris
Summer Things
Super
Survive Style 5+
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter And Spring
Sunrise
Take Care of My Cat
Taxi *
Taxi 2 *
Ten
The Dreamers *
The Hairdresser's Husband *
The Horseman on the Roof
The Last Metro
The Man Without A Past
The Motorcycle Diaries *
The Seventh Seal
The Umbrellas of Cherborg
The Russian Dolls *
Three Colours Blue *
Three Colours White
Three Colours Red *
Three Seasons (1999) *
Throne of Blood
Trilogy - One / Two / Three *
Un Coeur En Hiver
Un Flic
Une Liaison Pornographique
Volver
Wild Strawberries
Wings of Desire
Y Tu Mamma Tambien
Zatoichi *

So actually, no horror, which could mean that my mate's girlmate had the same request. Although to be honest once you've seen Ringu, Ju-On, The Name of the Beast, The Eye and Audition everything else seems a bit derivative.

There are a couple of crossover films - which might be considered English Language in a certain list, and it's far from complete. I'm sure there are omissions which will have other film fans bristling. What only one Almodovar they'll be saying. Where's all the Truffaut gone? Which is why I'm also going to throw in some hints and tips. Sorry if any of this is too obvious or unhelpful:

Don't expect many happy endings. I think it was Godard who said that if the film has a happy ending people will remember the middle. Give them a surprise and they'll walk away talking about the ending. Expect curve balls and surprises. But sometimes that can be the good thing because just when you expect the suicidal homeless prostitute to kill herself finally and violently, the rich bloke she met in a café earlier in the film will sweep her off her feet.

European filmmakers tend to adhere to something called the auteur approach which means that many of their films will have similar concerns and have a similar style. American examples would be Woody Allen or Steven Soderbergh. If you like one of their films you'll more than likely enjoy everything else although be wary of artistic development - I love Jean-Luc Godard's early New Wave films but as time's gone on he's become increasingly more obscure and abstract stretch what might be considered a narrative to its limits to the point that I find is most recent stuff unwatchable. Oddly enough, play the casting game too. Actors like Emanuelle Beart or Irene Jacob or Jean Reno have been very astute over the years in working with some of the really great directors and if its good enough for the ... Be wary of Gerard Depardieau though - he's the Michael Caine of France and has made some real stinkers over the years.

What I've tended to do lately is really scrutinize the synopsis that appears on the site and if the story doesn't seem attractive you're probably best steering clear. The main problem with getting this stuff through LoveFilm is that you'll have been to work had a shitty day and if you're not careful they will have sent you a masterpiece from Bergman's particularly depressive period. Uplifting stuff in a 'I'm glad my life's not like that' kind of way but not the sort of thing to be looking at when all you want is a bit of escapism.

I'd imagine I'd get shouted at by some of my peers for that last sentence but I'm working from bitter experience. If you see something you think you'd like to see but don't think you'd like to see any time, keep it noted down somewhere and surprisingly maybe your local library has a copy. If you're at uni, you might even have access to a language centre connected to that school and often they'll allow anyone to borrow the material or watch it there if they have the facilities.

French Heritage films are great. You really haven't seen a costume drama until you've seen them do it - whereas the British do the small intimate chamber stories, the French are generally all about the big sweeping melodramatic gestures, autocracy getting the chop and what not and the budgets are generally massive. I suspect the reason that Sofia Coppolla's Marie Antoinette was booed at Cannes is because she was riffing on one of their beloved genres more than the apparent misunderstandings about French history. Pick up some books on French Cinema and there will be a massive section about Heritage films but the funny thing is that although as with everywhere else they share cast members and directors and even writers with other styles of filmmaking, they're a law unto themselves. As usual, the wikipedia is a good place to look for more information and recommendations. I've included a couple in the list above.

Now, to address the Italian film void and everything else ...

Look at BBC Four's website. They're pretty selective and haven't broadcast many bad films not even for contractual reasons. Many of the things I had to watch for my film studies course were recordings from their broadcasts. They also generally have an introductory essay which will give you a flavour of the film and also a list of suggestions for further viewing.

Also the list of Oscar nominations. Amazingly, there aren't that many bad choices amongst the winners, and looking back into the past some really seminal films have been chosen. But basically if it looks boring and a haul, it probably is.

The Wikipedia. The entries for French Cinema and Italian Cinema are a mine of information and individual film entries have links to database websites like the Internet Movie Database and Rotten Tomatoes so that you can see what the film is really like. Time's precious and thirty seconds glancing through this can save you two and a half hours screen time spent with some insufferable people café hopping in Marseille who you'll just want to smack. To save time just these are the links to just the film lists for France and Italy. The metaentry for World Cinema is here.

I hope that is of some use. Anyone else got any ideas?