On Exceeding Genre Conventions with Haywire

Genre films contain elements that are familiar. This is why they are easily identifiable and easily categorised: rom-com, sci-fi, western and so on. This is also why genre films can be stale and unimaginative; they have to be familiar yet at the same time entertain an audience used to being saturated by poor genre films.

Haywire fits very comfortably into the rouge spy genre. A genre done very well (The Bourne Ultimatum, 2007) and also not so well (see most Jean Claude Van Damme and Steven Segal films). Haywire without doubt falls into the former category, but this should be no surprise. Soderbergh has done this at least twice before, once with Out of Sight (1998), the bank robber genre and then with Ocean’s Eleven (2001), the heist genre. Like Haywire both told familiar stories, but Soderbergh has such complete control over his mise-en-scene and such creativity with his camera that all these films transcend their contemporaries by being so visually stimulating. Haywire certainly has its issues - the untested lead struggles to deliver a line, but makes up for it with the exhilarating action sequences; the dialogue is occasionally cliched and the story sometimes confusing. Yet, these small problems matter not when the film is so beautifully crafted. Soderbergh's camera roams in places other directors seem unaware of; his use of music, not only draws to mind the coolness and sophistication of Out of Sight and Ocean's Eleven, but adds another layer of enjoyment to Haywire. There are few genre films, or films this year as viscerally exhilarating or as visually accomplished as Haywire.

On Character Positioning in Shame

Steve McQueen’s last feature film, Hunger (2008) about a hunger strike, displayed his video artist roots and could not be called a hugely accessible film. Despite it’s brilliance, it required work from the audience (which is no bad thing). In Shame, McQueen relinquishes none of his style, but manages to create a far more accessible film about a far more difficult topic, the dark and unsexy side of sex addiction.

Shame’s protagonist, Brandon, is an outside successfully masquerading as in insider in a successful New York company. However the masquerade is slipping. To communicate Brandon’s difficulty in penetrating the world of his contemporaries, McQueen constantly films him at the edge of the screen, sometimes even splitting his body in half. As Brandon struggles to feel that his sex addiction isn’t the life ruining habit he knows it is, McQueen, through his mise-en-scene, tells us he’s an outside. This framing allows us to understand the open ending. Before the dramatic ending, Brandon is filmed walking straight down the middle of the screen telling us that he has at last been able to accept his addiction and his desperation. Therefore, when Brandon the sexual predator of the opening scene sees the same woman he flirts with at the start again, his sexual confidence is replaced by what appears a disgust at himself now his realisation is concrete.

On Censoring War in War Horse

Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998) was a brilliant, but horrific account of the Second World War that did not shy away from the brutalities of war. There are some similarities between Saving Private Ryan and Spielberg’s War Horse, yet a significant difference is the family friendly, almost old-fashioned representation of wartime Britain. The orange, sun drenched fields of Devon have literally never looked so perfect. Yet, when the film leaves Devon and moves to occupied France and Germany during the First World War, Spielberg is able to represent death and the horrors of war without resorting to Ryan’s brutality. A scene with the execution of two young deserters is powerful without being at all explicit. This may not be an accurate representation of war, but it is an allegory for loss that can be absorbed and understood by a young audience.

War Horse will be too sentimental for some and this is valid criticism. Despite the death and horror of the First World War, the film ends of a high note and the loss of human life is second to the rescue of a horse’s. Yet, it is a beautifully shot film and in lesser hands may not work and certainly would not contain the moments of pure brilliance that Spielberg brings to it. A scene in no man’s land during the Battle of the Somme as two opposing soldiers free the horse from barbed wire amongst the horror of war and lightly falling snow is simply incredible.

On the Validity of The Artist

The Artist opens with an audience watching a silent film in 1927 and the experience, as a contemporary audience, of watching a silent film within a silent film and the knowing nods that come with it provides the theme for which most of the pleasure of this film derives. Yet The Artist has enraptured the imagination of almost every critic and captured the attention of almost every awarding body in America and the UK. In fact many predicting the results of the award season, which we are about to enter, see The Artist cleaning up. The question to be asked is why?

It is possible that it is the experimental nature of The Artist is responsible for its remarkable success. A (almost completely) silent film in 2012 is certainly a curiosity and without a doubt The Artist communicates a clear narrative without the use of sound. Yet, we cannot be surprised that contemporary audiences are able to follow a cinematic art form that has been redundant for almost 90 years. We live in such a media saturated world that many of us are sophisticated consumers of media without being aware of it or of the study and theories of media. We immediately construct narratives out of images all the time: a photograph on the front page of a newspaper before we read the headline, a painting in a gallery. Before receiving any other form of information to anchor the image, we construct a story. Therefore the lack of dialogue in The Artist should pose no issues in how it communicates especially as its story is very simple to follow. It is also worth questioning how valid an experiment this is. There are many great silent films still easily accessible today, the work of Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. Yet, silent film fell out of favour because of audience demand (as The Artist tells us) and should we be celebrating the pastiche of a cinematic form that is no longer valid for contemporary audiences. Instead, should we not celebrate the advancement of technology? Should we not celebrate those filmmakers experimenting with IMAX, with 3D or even with narrative? Is Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008), a film with a complicated but clear narrative, filmed in part for a growing technology, IMAX, not something more worthy of our congratulations? Or, it is because it deals with a superhero that it is deemed a less artistic venture?

Maybe, as mentioned above, it is the way it tells a story while also giving the wink and the nod to an audience already aware of the history of cinema. If this is the case then Scorsese’s Hugo (2011) achieved this far more successfully and continued to push the advancement of 3D technology while retaining a beautifully nostalgic feel. Hugo also reminded us the way in which actual silent film was made and the creativity and danger behind it. Surely The Artist had every advantage that modern technology allows.

This is not to completely discredit The Artist; it is thoroughly enjoyable and well acted. However it is an event movie for a niche audience. It is the film lover’s equivalent of a summer blockbuster, something to be seen and talked about at the water cooler. It should not be placed on a pedestal and lauded and awarded above more valid cinema simply because it is unique for 2012.

On MUBI's Aesthetic Compilation

Two links to the MUBI website looking at the best film posters and images from last year. Many from lesser known and lesser seen films.

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/the-best-movie-posters-of-2011?utm_source=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digest37

http://mubi.com/topics/2011-year-in-cinema-in-images?utm_source=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digest37

On the Top Ten for 2011

It is no secret that in summer cinemas are saturated with tent pole films and that more serious films tend to arrive from September onwards in an attempt to remain fresh in the minds of awards voters. 2011 was a poor year for summer blockbusters with none being at all memorable, yet the top ten list below is primarily made up of films released in the UK during the summer; films that came and went quietly amongst the obnoxious screams of Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon and co. For comprehensive purposes, the third instalment of Transformers takes the accolade for worst film of 2011.

There are some fantastic films that narrowly missed the top ten and deserve mentioning again. David O. Russell’s The Fighter, a film with extraordinary performances and while perhaps not historically accurate, still an incredibly visceral boxing film. Also in February there was the beautiful adaptation of Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, directed by Mark Romanek and the Coen brothers’ True Grit. More recently, Drive, Take Shelter, Tyrannosaur and Moneyball all came close to making the top ten. For 2011, the top ten is as follows;

Hugo (dir. Martin Scorsese)

Incendies (dir. Denis Villeneuve)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (dir. Tomas Alfredson)

A Separation (dir. Asghar Farhadi)

Black Swan (dir. Darren Aronofsky)

Senna (dir. Asif Kapadia)

The Tree of Life (dir. Terrence Malick)

13 Assassins (dir. Takashi Miike)

Blue Valentine (dir. Derek Cianfrance)

Submarine (dir. Richard Ayoade)

A varied list, taking in films from all over the world created by directors, producers and writers working from all scales and positions in the film making hierarchy and all telling unique, powerful stories.