Week 35

Introduction

As you may remember from last week, this is technically Week 34 Days 5-7 and Week 35; and I bet no one would've remembered if I hadn't said! For a 10-day week I haven't watched a great deal of films, though (as explained last week) there have been reasons. Nonetheless, the four I have watched leave me only two short of the long awaited number 100!


Week Thirty-Five

But that's for next week. So, here are those four films, each from a different decade, across almost 60 years no less!


95) Before Sunrise (1995, Richard Linklater, DVD) 4/5
Two 20-somethings meet on a train from Budapest to Paris, get off in Vienna and spend the night there until one of them has to fly out in the morning. A simple premise, though you may wonder how it sustains 95 minutes. The answer is, very well. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy make for a likable couple and it's no chore to spend so long with, essentially, just them chatting to each other. Some of the attempts at philosophising may wear thin (Delpy especially seems more adept in the lighter parts), but the funny and romantic sections do work beautifully. Bittersweet in all the right ways. Probably best watched while still fairly young.

96) Before Sunset (2005, Richard Linklater, DVD) 4/5
Nine years on, Jesse and Celine meet again in Paris... It's as simple a premise as Sunrise, and in many ways is very similar: it's essentially two people talking, laughing and philosophising. It's an odd sort of sequel -- it doesn't just take the same characters into a new story, or directly continue the original. These are the same people, but they're older and changed. It's very reflective; it's almost about the first film, from a different perspective. You also don't miss a thing -- its in real time from beginning to end, showing us every second the characters spend together. Personally I didn't think it was as good as Sunrise -- it's not as funny and it sadly closes off some of the original's beautiful ambiguities. Part of the problem may be that I'm close to the character's ages in the first film but a good decade out here (though, I hasten to add, that's not solely it). In the end, it works quite nicely as a companion piece, but (perhaps) not as a film in its own right.

97) A Study in Scarlet (1983, Ian Mackenzie & Alex Nicholas, DVD) 2/5
Peter O'Toole is again the voice of the famous sleuth in this disappointing animated adaptation of the first Sherlock Holmes mystery. The adaptation is faithful to the original novel's structure (sadly, as its a somewhat bizarre one, and ripe for a more interesting interpretation), but loses any elements pertaining to Holmes and Watson's first meeting. The animation seems more basic than the other entry in this particular series that I've seen, and O'Toole's performance is flatter; the rest of the cast don't fair any better. The story itself isn't a bad one, but after being pleasantly surprised by The Sign of Four I just found this to be disappointing.

98) Great Expectations (1946, David Lean, DVD) 4/5
Classic adaptation of the acclaimed novel. While my experience of Dickens is woefully limited to screen adaptations, this is one of my lesser favourites; the first act and elements of the climax are wonderfully Gothic (and here beautifully directed to that effect), but it seems to lack the depth or importance of works such as Bleak House, Oliver Twist or A Christmas Carol. Though, aside from the dully straightforward middle, there's little to dislike about the adaptation. John Mills is too old to convince as a 20-year-old Pip, but his performance is good and he's ably supported. However, the main highlights are undoubtedly all in Lean's brilliant direction.