A TRIP TO YOUR PAST AND YOUR IMAGINATION : "WILLOW"

Now, was this a major childhood film where you grew up? I had never heard of it to be honest. My boyfriend, however, grew up on this apparently. As in he actually knows most of the film word for word. When I disclosed that the closest I could think of to “Willow” was the iconic “Wind in the Willows”, that would never do. I was promptly sat down to watch the film then and there, because frankly, how did I survive to 29 without having seen the film in the first place? If there is one thing I love, it’s a good fantasy film with a good dollop of ‘80s nostalgia as you guys know by now, and so we settled down. But then the credits started… Hang on, Lucasfilm? Ron Howard as director? (director of Angels & Demons, Frost / Nixon, The Da Vinci Code, Cinderella Man and A Beautiful Mind among other things). George Lucas himself as executive producer? Er, OK hang on, this is not some lost children’s flick from the ‘80s. This is serious stuff with potential to be a classic.

So, what is the story here? In a land far, far away, where magic still rules the earth, there is an evil queen called Bavmorda (I LOVE all the names in this film by the way. They would give Dickens a run for his money). She is an unjust tyrant that rules the land with much cruelty; however, all hope is not lost. There is a prophecy. A prophecy that tells of a very special baby girl whose destiny it is to topple Bavmorda and put an end to her tyranny. (I know, it’s not the most original storyline in the world, but hey… Ok, what was the basic storyline for Lord of the Rings? Thank you. Moving on).  Our queen Bavmorda however, is not one to leave things to chance. She gathers all the pregnant women in the kingdom in the hope of finding this special baby and perform a ritual that will “exile her soul to oblivion”. The baby is indeed found; however, the midwife-  being a brave and clever soul - smuggles her out of the castle. Hereby starts our adventure. It falls to Willow Ufgood, a dward, Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) a rather hot-headed swordsman of dubious intent, two brownies (having stopped reading Enid Blyton a while back I had clean forgotten about the existence of brownies. Shame on me!) and an unfortunate sorceress who herself has been changed into a muskrat to get the baby to the safety of a good kingdom where she can grow to fulfil her destiny. Willow has magic, the power of good and justice on his side. But will it be enough to conquer the evil magic and barbarian hoards of Bavmorda?

Ok, I know. There is a lot in this film we have seen before. And then again, it is because of instances like this, when they are done so well, that we want to see this type of thing again and again and again. Willow does it well. All of it. The requisite bouts of comedy are well done and still hilarious. The atmosphere and the magical world constructed are superb. I mean, yes of course if they had the technical possibilities we have today it would be a whole different story. But shall I tell you something? It is no substitute for imagination. I honestly think that special effects are well and good but it’s making us lazy. I mean, when I was a child we had entire imaginary worlds – built out of thin air! We used very little in the way of props, we often “pretended” everything existed and we were fine. We loved it! Think the classic scene in “Hook” where they sit down to dinner and seemingly there is no food there at all. Only when the characters start using their imaginations they see that there is food on the table and you know what? It is as filling as you please. This is the strength of imagination. And this is that makes this film an absolute joy to watch. It is not that the film is “lacking” in comparison to modern films where all the (visual) gaps are filled in for you. You just have to use a different skillset. A skillset we don’t use as often as we should in the modern world by my reckoning. I guess this is why some of us really enjoy ‘80s fantasy movies while others find them pointless. If you are of the latter group I strongly encourage you to give this a whirl. Exercise your imagination a bit. Go on… You’ll enjoy it once you get into it you know…

CONTROL - THE TRUE STORY OF A MUSIC LEGEND

I watched this film a while ago during the Istanbul film festival. I loved it. The time went by and my memories of it dimmed a bit. I still remembered it as good though. Now, I shared this on my facebook page the other day so some of you may remember this comment but here’s the thing. I was wrong. It isn’t good. It’s f.cking brilliant. It’s the kind of film that makes you (well me anyway) run out, buy everything Joy Division ever recorded and listen to it on a loop for ever. And I would; only it wouldn’t be very practical. I will rant about why I like Joy Division’s music and more specifically Ian Curtis’s singing in just a sec. Let me tell you about the film first.

Ian Curtis was a rather extraordinary teenager. He was just over six feet tall, very into both reading and writing poetry (no doubt the birth of his lyrics later on) and rather quiet. He had friends, went out from time to time, but didn’t talk much. He met Debbie when they were in their late teens and by the time they were 18, they were married, much to the surprise of his friends. When a few of the local lads took him on as the lead singer of their band (then called Warsaw), they didn’t expect him to change their lives. At rehearsals (and this is actually quoting one of the band members) he just mumbled into the microphone barely audible. But once they hit the stage… Ian’s booming voice took over the room. His dancing (now a thing of legend) was incomprehensible to most who assumed (wrongly, history teaches us) that he was very high on drugs. He was on a natural high, lost in the music. Fame swept over Joy Division taking them to heights they never expected. In the meanwhile, Ian was diagnosed with epilepsy that doctors couldn’t seem to be able to help him with. He had a daughter now, but his marriage broke down when he fell deeply in love with Annik a Belgian embassy worker. And everything aside, Ian never wanted to be famous. Feeling unable to control his health, his emotions or his career, Ian Curtis took his own life, aged only 23 years old. Control is his story.

Corbjin, originally a photographer of great fame, does a fantastic job in this film. And his direction is only rivalled by Sam Riley’s performance, portraying the awkward, sensitive, angst filled lead singer of Joy Division. The film shows a Curtis torn between his responsibilities as a husband and father and his heart. I am not generally speaking at all supportive of extra-marital affairs but one can see how this happened. They were married so young. And then they grew up. Debbie continued loving Ian, but Ian had a new life with his new found fame. What is more, the film portrays his relationship with Annik as something very deep and emotional, not just a “passing fad”. Could one blame him?  I don’t think so.

The film itself, shot in black and white, gives a very clear portrayal of the underlying angst that dominated Curtis’s life and finally overcame him. The emotions are so sensitively, artistically conveyed, I defy you to not feel literally heart-broken by the end of the film. And the one other thing dominating the film is it’s extraordinary soundtrack. Filled with all the classics by Joy Division along with music from greats such as Bowie, Iggy Pop and the Sex Pistols Control is a true trip back in time. And possibly a chance to discover Joy Division. When I’m feeling down, when I’m confronted with a challenge I not sure how I am going to overcome, I find there is something incredibly and strangely cathartic about the music of Joy Division. Curtis’s singing, along with the lyrics convey a certain sense of sadness. This cannot be likened, in literary fashion, to a stormy sea. This thing is grey. It is dense. Like a fog, only it grips at your throat. And it is no shape, no form, no end. For most of us, the fog then slowly clears, for Curtis, it did not. But what makes me feel good about his singing is that, to me, that is what sadness sounds like. I don’t know what else to call it, but Ian knows. He gets it. And it’s very cathartic to listen to his voice and know that he gets it. Or got it. And knowing that someone else got it, always clears the fog for me. I am not sure if that last paragraph makes a lot of sense to anyone but me. But I guess what I’m trying to convey is that listening to Joy Division and watching Control are very healing, soothing things for me. And this film matters to me, a lot. I hope you enjoy it.

P.S. As an interesting aside, it’s rather sweet to note that the actor who plays Ian, Sam Riley and the actress playing Annik, Alexandra Maria Lara, started a relationship after meeting on the set of the film five years ago and live together in Berlin to this day… 

THE '80s, HIGHSCHOOL AND "THE BREAKFAST CLUB"

I thought long and hard about what to include in “nostalgia” week. I have quite a few – cinematically very important – period pieces lying around just waiting to be reviewed (I am, it must be said, shamefully behind on my review-writing. This is particularly sad because I am by no means behind on my viewing so some projects have had to be abandoned because I couldn’t remember them with sufficient clarity. I feel guilty, you can probably tell. It won’t happen again.) Then I thought, which is the one period that we all remember, think about and discuss be it with fond or not so fond memories… High school. And I have, close to hand the high school movie that almost single handedly started the genre up. It is a cornerstone in any case and a wonderful little time-capsule from the ‘80s. Its name has been sort of forgotten but when you watch it you realize that so many films after it have been modeled round it that its spirit definitely lives on. I am talking about The Breakfast Club.
In every high school – or most of them anyway – there is at least one teacher that is hot stuff on discipline and this school is no exception. Saturday morning, 7.00 a.m. sees five students seated in the library for detention. They seem to be a cross-cut of the school, one of them is slightly mad, one is the school “jock” from the wrestling team, one of the geeks, one of the popular girls and the school trouble-maker. Trapped in school together for nine hours on a weekend is no fun, not least because these five are from completely different “worlds” in high school terms. By the end of the day however, a lot will have changed and the five “criminals” may have learned more than they ever expected to…
Yes, I know the whole trope of unlikely characters coming together and figuring out they are not so different after all isn’t exactly new. The thing is though; this film is one of the first “high school films” that explored this. It’s other major advantage over its copies is the fact that thanks to good directing and strong acting from the young cast, the film is able to explore the whole high-school world with greater honesty bordering on brutality. It’s like I say about nostalgia, we mostly look back at high school with memories that are sometimes a lot fonder than they actually deserve to be. This film does an excellent job of reminding us of the cliques, the “boundaries” and how important it all was back then. It also has a peculiar spectacular quality that means it is very much a performance we are watching. I don’t mean this in the sense that it is difficult to form emotional bonds with the film, it isn’t at all but it is also an excellent reminder of the fact that we can never go back to high school. We can only look back in, from the outside. Whether we would actually want to go back in there or shudder at the thought is irrelevant, the point is that it is an excellent portrayal of time gone by. Think of it as a brilliant moving snapshot. With no Photoshop to smooth out the pain and the fear though…