ESSIE SPEAKS OF DOCUMENTARIES

OK, first up, I appologise. This week is going to have to be a short update again. I will, I promise, make it up to you all. Somehow. But take heart, I have taken measures to ensure that this week's update will at least, be pretty darn enjoyable to you.

First up I have undertaken to "speak" about a genre we don't (in my view) talk about enough : documentaries. There are some darn good ones out there and I strongly feel they should not be overlooked. One of the two "updates" this week is in fact quite infamous, it is Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man. It caused a lot of stir when it first appeared, did you get to see it? If not, here's your chance. Then there is D.A. Pennebaker's extraordinary fly on the wall documentary about a music legend... It's a bit of challange to get into stylistically but soo rewarding once you "make it through!"

In short, in my view, this week's update is short and sweet. I hope you agree...

happy viewing!
Essie

DOCUMENTARY ON A LEGEND : "DON’T LOOK BACK"

Ok, honestly, I am not quite sure what you guys will make of this one. I mean I don’t blame anyone for it; I’m not quite sure what to make of it either. Or rather I wasn’t at first. Its style is a little unconventional but to be fair I personally fell in with it very quickly. I mean, you might ask yourself what the heck could be unconventional about a documentary; it’s a pretty simple format after all… Pertinent clips and footage is shown as a narrator explains and what is going on. My point exactly. What if there is no narrator?
This seems to be exactly what the director D.A. Pennebaker asked himself before he made this documentary, for this is exactly what happens here. The documentary is about music legend, philosopher and poet Bob Dylan. In 1965 he spent three weeks touring the U.K. with Joan Baez. D.A. Pennebaker’s camera (in the singular. No fancy multiple camera angles, close-ups and so forth here) followed wherever he went. Then the footage was edited, the most striking moments selected and edited together – with no fancy or frills you understand, just one segment on the back of another – and presented for our delectation. I personally thought this was NOT the brightest idea a director could have at the start; I stand corrected. When you think about it, it’s rather an ingenious idea…
In the age of the internet and the DVD, we have all seen quite a lot of backstage – behind the scenes clips, right? We almost inevitably have a guide, telling us who is who, what is what; we are the privileged guest being shown around the studio / backstage. But of course, even though these are basically documentaries they still reek of performance. And these days they are performances of course. I mean let’s face it – every film accounts for the “behind the scenes” footage in the production stage. With Don’t Look Back however, we are just spirited backstage and left there. We are not even told who is who and what is going on. Not even a sentence or two on the screen. So in the first place, this is no performance. Mr. Dylan has kindly allowed us to hang around that’s all, he has no time to stop and explain stuff to us, and so he just gets on with his life as if we weren’t there. This whole feeling is exacerbated by the use of a single camera – no continuity type editing and definitely no real concern with “painting pretty pictures”. But this in itself doesn’t really matter because the subject matter is just so interesting; it’s a historical moment, it’s Bob Dylan and there we are, face to face with the man himself – or the closest we’ll ever get to him at any rate.
In this footage Dylan is 23. But even back then, as he gives snappy answers to well-meaning reporters and tries to explain his unique point of view and message to the world the poet and philosopher side of him shines through. I was taken aback by the lack of guidance but by the time we reached the end I was staring absolutely mesmerized… It’s a proper oldie this one, so it may be a tad hard to find; but make the effort to get your paws on a copy. It’s an experience not to be missed in my view…

DOCUMENTARY ON A DOCUMENTARY : "GRIZZLY MAN"

Ok , I rather like this one. It’s kind of neat – or I think so anyway. Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man is a documentary. It’s a documentary on a documentary. No, I’m not trying to be clever or anything, this is real life. Herzog looks back on the life of Timothy Treadwell who spent the best part of 15 years living in the Alaskan wilderness campaigning for the protection of wild animals and specifically Grizzly bears. A greater part of his work involved filming the animals in their natural habitat and talking about them later, giving information to the general public.
And it has to be said at this point, Treadwell was quite a character. A one-time actor (never completely comfortable in his own skin and going as far as pretending he was Australian to most of his friends until his death) and a recovering alcoholic with much darkness in his past, he found his own form of salvation in the months he spent out in the wilderness. His work was very evidently well-meaning but none-the-less controversial. A lot of the natives of the area thought that Treadwell was in fact crossing a boundary and this was not only disrespectful to nature on a spiritual level but detrimental to the animals he was trying to protect as his constant presence made them used to humans and thus easier to catch and kill. Herzog presents as objective a look at he can at the life of an extraordinary man who literally lived and died for the animals.
Herzog’s Grizzly Man is thought provoking to say the least. Whatever else he was, Treadwell had the capacity to make you think. As one watches the footage – carefully edited post-mortem by Herzog and his team – one cannot, for example, help but notice Treadwell’s dark past seeping out. His approach to the animals is almost that of a child not an adult man. It could be argued that this was done purposefully to engage children and the general public (Treadwell spent the other half of the tear touring the schools and giving talks to children about conservation) but one doesn’t need to be overly observant to realize that it isn’t all an act. He gets frustrated with park authorities (who are not doing all they can to protect the animals) and goes off on a frustrated, violent rant about them littered with all kinds of insult. Out of the blue, a short but intensely homophobic rant finds its way into the footage. It could be argued that Treadwell was not a very pleasant man. From the footage, Herzog’s sympathy to him is very evident. But the admirable thing is that Grizzly Man doesn’t try to paint a pretty picture, it is very much “warts and all”. If nothing else, this film will get you thinking about Treadwell specifically and conservation in general. And even if, like me, you end up thinking that Treadwell was a rather unpleasant and rather troubled man, it is important to remember that his intentions concerning nature, animals and conservation were all in the right place, even if the ways he went about realizing them were questionable.

ESSIE SPEAKS OF INDULGING OUR INNER CHILD

Life is an important business. In fact one great thinker said (Oscar Wilde, one of my favorite great thinkers), as I recall it is far too important to be taken seriously. This is why we should all make room for a little nonsense in our lives. As Willy Wonka (another great thinker in Roald Dahl's universe) said back in the '70s (this is the older film not the Johnny Depp version) "A little nonsense now and then is cheriched by the wisest men." Hence my love of animations. The easiest one-stop route to childhood, fun and fantasy if only for a couple of hours.

I don't know why I'm waxing so philosophical this week. I have a suspicion it's the fact that over here up north it starts getting dark at around 15.30. And I DO NOT like it. One bit.

But enough of that and back to the nonsense!

Happy viewing,
Essie

INDULGING OUR INNER CHILDREN: "ANTZ"

I guess the new and high level of technology available to all these days is setting the standard higher for everyone, but I feel that animations especially have really gone their own way. More and more of the greats – I mean the great actors – lend their voices to animated characters, the worlds created in studios, be it Pixar, Dreamworks or Disney are more and more extravagant. It’s time for animations to up their game slightly. It’s like the job market; there comes that time when everyone has a degree, getting a masters is what one has to do to stand out… Now Antz, I felt, combined just enough of everything, to the point that we can say with some confidence that even if they haven’t hit on the ideal combo, they are pretty damn close. The actors are talented, the “new world” is, if not original definitely imaginative and the story is, if not actually completely original, chock full of witticisms that make it easy to forgive any banality on its part. Cheeky is the word I’m looking for. For this little number we are headed off underground; and no less than the great Wood Allen lends his voice to Z, an ant with an attitude problem.
But this is not some kind of typical “Woody Allen” attitude problem. In fact by some standards Z might well be considered a rather usual, typical ant/person. The problem is that he has an attitude at all. He has his own personal outlook on stuff. He doesn’t want to be like the rest of the crowd. He has a mind of his own. This is definitely NOT a good thing if you live in an ant colony. But while Z is yet to figure out how exactly to survive in the colony; he is forced head-first, first into love with possibly the one woman /ant in the anthill that is completely inaccessible to him and then into the heart of an intrigue that may well determine the fates of thousands of his fellow-ants… The question is, will Z be able to get his act together and rescue his relationship AND the colony?
Now as you can see as far as the story goes, this is nothing original. Nothing original AT ALL. However, and I don’t want to point them all out to you one by one but there are some little humorous touches that made me laugh out loud. The thing with animations is that when you do sit down to watch them – with me this is always the case at any rate – you don’t expect anything too complex. That’s why when you see all the small references they seem to count even more. Still, I like the way being competitive has pushed the genre to be better – even though I am no great fan of mass commercialization. In the humor present in this movie I also felt a touch of Woody Allen. It could be psychological of course, simply because I knew Allen was in the film, because fair is fair his name is not stated as one of the writers but still… And the rest of the cast do a pretty fine job too; Sharon Stone is Princess Baka (Z’s love interest) and Christopher Walken (always a steady favorite of mine), Gene Hackman, Sylvester Stallone (of whom I hadn’t heard of in donkey’s years) and Jennifer Lopes (don’t snort, she actually does a good job of it here =) ). In short, the movie achieves nothing completely original, one has to be fair. It is a bit of a classic example. But unlike most “classics” it is has a lot of sensitivity and originality in it, it is obvious that a lot of thought has gone into the making of it and that gives it quality. Class. Highly recommended, chuckles guaranteed.

INDULGING OUR INNER CHILDREN : "BOLT"

I liked this film. I think I did anyway. I mean don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy watching it – most of it anyway – but… What I think I mean by that is that all in all I found it a touch infantile. However, there is something rather endearing about the whole thing, especially if you’re a soppy git like me who gets all “awww” about little children and their dogs even though they are animated. Plus the whole thing does contain a few clever twists and some bits you simply have to laugh at… I dunno, not the brightest contestant in the lineup but it does hold its own…
Bolt is a super-hero. He is the dog of Penny who is the daughter of a prominent scientist. Penny’s father is responsible for very, VERY important discoveries and his arch enemy Dr. Calico and his cats are constantly out to get him. Bolt must assist Penny in saving the day – and sometimes even the world – time and time again… That’s what Bolt thinks, anyway. In reality, Bolt is the star of a very successful TV show and his loving mistress Penny is an actress. I mean, she is his mistress and she adores him but she is not the daughter of a scientist. (Think “The Truman Show” with a dog.)Penny has a successful career and Bolt has an adrenaline-filled life. Until, that is, the show’s director decides to end one episode on a cliff-hanger. Penny is abducted; Bolt is separated from her and taken to the trailer as he is meant to save her in the next day’s shooting. Bolt however, cannot rest until his precious Penny is safely home, so he escapes from the trailer and… Gets shipped to New York, by mistake. Now, what is a dog who has no idea of what real life is all about and thinks he has super powers to do in the big city? Will he ever get home? Will he ever see Penny again?
My mild problem with this film is the fact that it mixes something completely and delightfully original with something completely and utterly banal. I mean, cute kids and pets getting separated dates from the heyday of the Lassie TV series for Heaven’s sake, we kinda should have moved past this, especially considering it is painfully, PAINFULLY obvious that they will be reunited in the end. The “Truman Show” angle is however, not that bad. It affords a lot of comedy possibilities, some are good (I’m thinking Bolt’s two fellow cast-members, two cats, who know that Bolt thinks he’s a super-hero and regularly make fun of him through the skylight of the trailer – rather a nice touch those two.) Some are good, but get a bit old after a while (I’m thinking the whole pigeon thing from beginning to end I mean it starts of being not that bad, but wears a little thin towards the end.) The mainstay of the comedy is of course Bolt thinking he’s a super-hero and the attempts on the part of a “hostage” he takes to explain to him what is really going on. Again, nice but a little predictable…
That being said, like I said, the film is cute. In fact it is CUTE. And it is impressive that modern animation technology means that a dog that actually doesn’t exist can be so darn adorable… John Travolta lends his voice to Bolt, which gives the little pooch a bit of an edge. And the major advantage of this one is that you can happily set the little ones in front of it, watch it with them without getting too bored and while being able to get up and make snacks and coffee without missing too much. Gets a thumbs-up from me at any rate…

INDULGING OUR INNER CHILDREN : "THE ROAD TO EL DORADO"

Ok, I have to admit, this is a funny one. In more senses than one. I mean yes, animations are usually valued on their ability to make one laugh, and as far as that is concerned this one is very, very high up there indeed. It errs slightly, ever so slightly on the side of the infantile. But only just. I mean, as you watch it yes, you feel that it is a bit immature. But at the same time they have caught onto such brilliant points in the film that you cannot help liking it in the end or laughing. I don’t quite know how they did it, but this gruesome twosome really stole my heart.
Tulio (voice of Kevin Kline) and Miguel (voice of Kenneth Branagh) are two buddies and con-artists from 16th century Spain. They make their living basically off short-cons, loaded dice and such like and have a pretty OK deal of the whole thing all in all, until their lives change forever by the acquisition of a map. This map is supposedly the map to the legendary golden city of El Dorado in the new world. This means more gold than the two buddies could possibly imagine, it is an opportunity not to be missed. And as luck would have it, Cortes is just about to set sail to conquer the new world and so our two friends decide to tag along. Now the new world is indeed full of gold, adventure and opportunities, and our two friends are waist-deep in all of them pretty fast. But it fast becomes very clear that whether they will actually survive the ordeal to tell this tall tale is another matter altogether.
Like I said. There is a serious lack of “adult jokes” in this one. Do not compare it to something like Antz; which is constructed in a way that is hilarious both for adults and for kids. But the thing with Eldorado is that it is so good at what it does, you can’t help enjoying it. I mean, don’t forget – and I feel we have a bit these days – that good, clean, old-fashioned humor can also be hilarious if done well. We are rather used to double-ententes, allegories or sexual humor, well it doesn’t all have to be this way. I mean, think back at Tom and Jerry cartoons. Basically kids’ stuff, but you watch’em and love’em right? It is “immature” on one level but it’s just… So funny. So really, who cares! This is pretty much the same deal. Good clean fun for adults and kids. And that, let’s face it, is hard to find these days…