Assets World

BAFTAS 2012

rehna — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:38:15 +0000

I’m going to ignore the advice of Alice in Wonderland and start my report of the Baftas 2012 not at the start but at the end because it involves George Clooney AND Brad Pitt.

I have discovered a secret door in the Royal Opera house. Like the black door that leads Tom to his secret garden, so, for two years this one has led to a secret star strewn corridor where only the A list wander.
I found it by mistake. Last year, I was running late for the show, my newly blow dried hair was in danger of becoming frizzy from the relentless rain so as I scarpered down a side street I sought to scramble through the first door I saw to the opera house. I blindly ran —— right into someone’s chest. Looking up desperately I saw it was Paul McCartney! Sir Paul McCartney to be absolutely correct. Mr Beatle. Mr Music to be lyrical.
He looked terrific. Far better looking in the flesh than he appears on TV. But so startled was I by the unexpected encounter I could think of nothing to say. Not even, I confess, sorry.
I just edged past him sheepishly and wham straight into a corridor full of nominees and presenters! They seemed nonplussed by my presence so I mingled for a while pretending I belonged.
It was fun but I assumed it was a one off.

This year I went into the entrance used by everyone else. Did my red carpet stint then went inside to watch the show and listen to the winners as they came backstage.
After it was all over and I watched George and Brad laughing in the VIP section and everyone putting on their coats, I too flung my camera into my huge bag under the gloves, scarf, note pad and assorted junk and decided to leave quietly through that same door. It was too darned cold to go to the front of the building where the paparazzi were waiting for the stars to come out on their way to the Grosvenor House party.
As I stepped out of my door onto the silent street I saw two security guys standing by a big car with blackened out windows. Not my ride home, I guessed.
Something made me turn around. Right behind me – George Clooney and Brad Pitt talking together, still laughing over something.

How I fumbled in my bag for the camera! Could I find it in time, could I heck.
The two men hugged and George jumped into the car. I had earlier seen him and briefly interviewed him on the red carpet. He was charming as always and said some nice things about Whitney’s passing. I was less concerned about snapping him, my colleague had managed to get me in a shot with him anyway so I can always say, ‘oh yes, that’s me with, oh goodness, why, it’s George Clooney behind me. Gosh, how did that happen????’
But Brad?

He hadn’t spoken to many of the press groups on the red carpet, preferring to sign autographs for the screaming fans (no doubt he got the loudest, wildest cheers when he arrived). Even George had said to us, ‘Is Brad here yet? No, don’t tell me, we’ll know when he arrives from the screams!’
And here he was now, right beside me waiting for his car and I had nothing at hand with which to capture the moment.

The moment passed quickly. A white car with blackened windows appeared as if by magic and he was gone. I followed the car sadly. I was going that way anyway towards my own car. A crowds had gathered around the corner. I don’t know what they saw through the dark windows but it was enough to make them yell with delight and a hundred flashlights went off as they snapped wildly. Unlike me, with cameras and phones at the ready.

The Iron Lady

rehna — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 23:24:45 +0000

Audiences are as divided about The Iron Lady as voters were about Margaret Thatcher herself. In my screening there was a trickle of applause at the end from one group while some people in front of me were clearly bored. One of my own group declared it ‘tedious’. However, few would disagree that Meryl Streep is magnificent as Mrs T.
At times I thought I was watching the real thing, so well has Streep captured the woman both now as an elderly victim of dementia and in her heyday as the first ever female prime-minister of a Western nation. An Oscar nomination is guaranteed (a staggering 17th) and the golden man himself very likely (and deserved).
The problem is, the film is not a heavy weight enough vehicle to carry her colossal talent.
Those expecting a straight narrative of power will be sorely disappointed by the inordinate amount of time spent on her illness, her reliance on dead husband Dennis (here a hallucinatory presence that just won’t go away) and her life now. The glory days of 3 election victories, the Falklands war, the relationship with Reagan, the economic success and the cold war ending are dealt with, if at all. in a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ series of flashbacks. Her most famous speeches are missing completely as are many iconic images. if I hadn’t lived through the Thatcher years, I would not have learnt much about her from this film.
Apparently Oliver Stone was keen to do a Thatcher biopic; that will probably not be made now which is a shame.

A slight film unable to properly hold a great central performance.

The Ides of March (review) LFF

rehna — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:30:50 +0000

All everyone wants to know about the London film festival is; ‘what was George Clooney like?’
Not what was the best film (The Artist by a mile – for the record) but what was gorgeous George like.
Well, he was pretty gorgeous.
A little grey now, a little crumpled around the edges but exactly as you would expect (and hope) George Clooney would be; charming, suave, witty, friendly. When he was asked a question at the press conference he answered it with genuine interest, he talked to the questioner not at him. If the interviewer was female she’d get that little extra attention, that special smile. George knows how to play the game, so well.
You’d think he’d make a great presidential candidate.
Well, he does in The Ides of March -although his campaign goes off the rails when an intern speaks up- although he says he would never give it a go in the real world.
Clooney directs and acts in The Ides of March and he does a very good, solid, assured job in each role. It’s not proper Oscar material, despite the gushings of a critic from a women magazine. Although it will probably be a runner due to the high regard in which Clooney is held. He’s ably supported too by Oscar winner Philip Seymour-Hoffman and nominee Ryan Gosling. The subject matter; the machinations behind a political campaign too are reminiscent of the 70’s films which got awards committees excited.
But, good as the film is, it’s never quite spectacular. It’s good while you’re watching it but it leaves no memorable mark. It’s a little like the candidate who when he doesn’t get chosen fades back into the scenery.
George was great. Ides of March was merely good.

Anonymous – review (LFF)

rehna — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:00:29 +0000

Anonymous kills two sacred English cows in one go. 1. That William Shakespeare was not the literary genius the world knows but a barely literate jobbing actor who played the part of the bard whose works were actually written by a nobleman lover of Queen Elizabeth 1. 2. That the queen herself, revered as the virgin queen was far from it and bore 3 illegitimate children.
Some people will not be able to get past the first post with this film due to what Shakespeare scholars have decried as its preposterous basic premise. They would be missing a rollicking good tale.
The argument against Shakespeare being the true author of the work attributed to him is not quite as ludicrous as you’d think at first blush. It is a theory believed by credible Shakespeare fans. Not least because the man who wrote masterpieces such as Hamlet and Macbeth would have had to have been a well travelled, highly educated man with a detailed knowledge of Elizabethan court life. William Shakespeare from Stratford upon Avon did not fit the bill. The earl of Oxford did.
I remain open-minded about the theory. I enjoyed the film.
It boasts fine performances from Vanessa Redgrave and her daughter Joely Richardson who play the older and younger queen respectively and Rhys Ifans as the poetic earl. David Thewlis is excellent as the scheming king/queen maker behind the throne and Roland Emmerich as director clearly was passionate about the age because it’s filmed with great care.
At the film press conference he and his actors described the film as a celebration of Shakespeare (whoever he was) not a hatchet job. It’s a Shakespearian story they argued, not a documentary. It’s a film shot in an epic style with interweaving stories of treachery and intrigue.
In fact the film is as much about the battle for succession after Elizabeth’s death and the development of theatre as an art form as it is the central idea that it was the pen of a nobleman which gave us the masterpieces which have never been bettered rather than the man from Stratford.
Ultimately as Emmerich said at the conference; whoever he was, Shakespeare was the writer of the people and the soul of the age.

LFF 2011 – Bernadette: notes on a political journey

rehna — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:25:26 +0000

“I was drawn to the story of Bernadette Devlin by the passion, courage and intelligence of the woman, all qualities which have remained undimmed over the years,” says Lelia Doolan. “I wanted to offer the story of an activist who has never deviated from who she was from when I first saw her years ago in the 60s and 70s when she was this extraordinary creature in a mini skirt spouting what she believed non stop!”
And offer an extraordinary story Doolan does in Bernadette: Notes on a political journey. It’s a documentary about a woman who was once hardly off our screens as the firebrand who became an MP at the age of 21 and ferociously challenged the British government over the Bloody Sunday massacre and the H block hunger strikes. Her story is told very much in her own words in a series of interviews Doolan undertook over 10 years.
“I didn’t want the views of others,” says Doolan, “I wanted the film to be her reflections on her life with hindsight.”
There is a remarkable life to be reflected upon. The one time ‘Castro in a miniskirt’ is now a woman in her sixties, living a comparatively sedate life but the fire still burns in her words. She remains as passionate as ever, is highly critical of the Good Friday agreement and is still deeply concerned about and for people who are dispossessed.
How might Bernadette Devlin McAliskey be remembered?
“If there’s any justice,” says Doolan, “she should be remembered as a hugely intelligent, important figure who ultimately was not a militarist but someone who believes very much in politics and negotiations.

The London Film Festival 2011

rehna — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:23:16 +0000

The London Film Festival 2011 is underway. The opening gala was 360, an international ensemble piece shot in various European cities and the USA. The Hollywood names are all British; Anthony Hopkins, Rachel Weisz and Jude Law but the other countries, France, Russia, Slovakia and Germany are well represented by their respective stars.
As in the award winning Babel, this is a film about interconnectedness across the globe. The multi-lingual cast may not share a language or a lifestyle but the same invisible thread weaves through their respective lives across continents.
The film is directed by Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener) and written by Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost Nixon). It is impeccably made and well acted across the board. It’s absorbing while you’re watching it but ultimately this years festival opener feels something of an anti-climax. Even as you’re following the various storylines, you can’t help feeling that it is an incomplete jigsaw. Some pieces are missing.
The other problem it has is, that because the storylines are short and competing with others in the same film, you never get a sense of suspense building to a real crescendo. There are too many false leads which inevitably take us nowhere, some scenes are simply implausible and a couple of the stories are resolved most unsatisfactorily.
Overall, 360 is a starter purporting to be a main course.

rehna — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:42:43 +0000

The non gossip ‘story’ of the week has to be the ‘life with Aniston was dull,’ comments attributed to Brad Pitt because he talked about being unfulfilled in the 90′s. Now, I don’t know if iggy Pop lookalike Aniston is dull. Whether anyone is objectively utterly tedious depends on your own level of interestingness, I suppose.
All I can say about Aniston is:
She’s certainly never done or said anything to suggest she is INTERESTING.
For almost 20 years now she’s clogged the tabloids with self absorbed drivel and a relentless PR machine that tries desperately to paint her as a bona fide movie star and a desirable woman. Yet, nothing about her personally hints at anything other than an obsession with the contents of her gut and total self absorption which by definition makes a person insufferably boring.
So, a story that she may be dull to live with is about as newsworthy as dog bites man.
Brad Pitt, promoting Moneyball, which has had rave reviews and around which there is Oscar buzz, compared his happy life now to when he was a bored stoner sitting on his sofa in a marriage which was not what outsiders thought it was.
Bingo! That’s the crucial line. He was unhappy in his marriage. He did not think it was the fairytale Aniston’s publicity and rabid hen following would have people believe. Angelina Jolie did not ‘steal’ him away, he wanted to run.
Intelligent people have always understood that.
End of the National Enquirer et al shit.

Jane Eyre

rehna — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:10:32 +0000

There have been many cinematic and television adaptations of Charlotte Brontë’s classic, Jane Eyre. Few have captured the bleakness, desolation and loneliness of the heroine’s life as stunningly as this new version by director Cary Fukunaga.
I saw Fukunaga two years ago at a screening of his debut film Sin Nombre about illegal Mexican immigrants and he mentioned this would be his new project. It sounded intriguing.
It’s been worth the wait.
Fukunaga describes the book as a mix Gothic horror and romance – a book of changing tones. He captures those tones successfully with a backdrop of the Yorkshire Moors and the brilliant casting of Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender in the lead roles. (Mr Rochester and Heathcliff are two of the most difficult roles for actors to play well but the scrumptious Mr Fassbender does a superb job.) Dame Judi Dench as Mrs Fairfax only adds to the quality.
This isn’t a Friday night popcorn blockbuster. Bonnets, a slow development of the story and beautiful dialogue won’t exactly pull them in by the truckload but for fans of the book this is a visual and acting treat.

Friends with Benefits (film review)

rehna — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:09:39 +0000

Friends with benefits asks the eternal questions: can there be sex without emotional involvement and is it different for men and women?
They have been asked before of course, on screen, recently in No strings attached, but this is, in my opinion, one of the best films you’ll be on the subject.
Friends with benefits is genuinely witty, at times laugh out loud funny, clever, sexy, modern and sassy.
The story/set-up is simple; two singletons with previous bad experiences in the relationship arena decide to try a sex only, no expectations, stay friends hook-up.
They are both smart, cynical, worldly, entering into this willingly – what could go wrong?
If you’re thinking, that crazy little thing called love, you might be on the right track.
It’s not the story here, it’s the wit, the modern wisdoms, the determination to make it work in the brutal world of modern relationships, that is at the heart of this film which was in development hell for years before writer-director Gluck updated it.
Mila Kunis utterly gorgeous and irresistible in her first lead role and Justin Timberlake is, again, much better than you expect him to be.

I enjoyed this movie hugely and I recommend it highly. Don’t be put off by the ghastly thought of a Jennifer Aniston type rom-com. This is clever, superior stuff. Go see it.

The London Film Festival 2011 launch

rehna — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:08:30 +0000

Wednesday saw the press launch for the 2011 London film Festival. Getting into the Odeon Leicester Square was the first achievement of the morning for the assembled journalists. The place is a complete obstacle course at present with all its scaffolding and construction work paraphernalia.
But in we got, and it was worth the effort.
Sandra Hebron, the outgoing artistic director unveiled a very exciting line-up of films and events.

Having read the amazing book, We need to talk about Kevin, is a must see for me. Not too sure about the casting of John C Reilly as Franklin but let’s see.
I’m also looking forward to Madonna’s W.E which is a gala film. In fact, all the Gala films look great.
The festival is also always full of gems that I might not always go to see otherwise. As long as I don’t get another Mexican hard-core porn film this year I’ll be fine!

The festival starts on 12th October. Check here for my news reviews and interviews. See you then.