colin-657 Reviews

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)

Only for a wet day in Huddersfield

[2/10 · 25 January 2013]

I have an endless fascination with how easily swayed the public is by cod profundity. This is beautiful to watch in a travelogue kind of way. In the story a lot happens, enough to stop you questioning its actual meaning.

Unfortunately about 30 minutes into the film the essential triteness of the director takes over and we have a bit of sex, a bit of dire martial arts, then a bit of Kitsch Buddhism. Great Art House film this is not, but on the level of a popular entertainment it is just slow enough to make the slow think it profound and quick enough for those without attention span to keep in touch.

It was a wet day in Huddersfield and I was feeling a bit flaccid so this was just what was required!

Damnation (1988)

Don't forget the humour

[10/10 · 25 January 2013]

I watch Bela Tarr's films over again with endless fascination. The length is not a problem: No longer that many pieces of music. If you can concentrate through a Wagner opera and I hope you can, then a Tarr film is not very long. All the films are very much products of team work but lead by an autocratic man who knows exactly what he wants, hence the seam free quality of the experience, It is that, rather than the length which requires the concentration. I have not found it mentioned often enough but there is much humour in his films, Karrer does a reprise of Gene Kelly, which is then itself parodied near the end of the film. Damnation is maybe still my favourite, I suppose for the mesmerising way sound is used to structure a complex web of association, but then all of the available late films has so much to offer

Bata-ville: We Are Not Afraid of the Future (2005)

Not that Arty

[5/10 · 25 January 2013]

I know something about Bata. Know about Zlin. Know a little about Maryport and know a little about Tilbury! So I thought I had an automatic interest in this film, and to that extent I found things to entertain me. and therefore I am probably overrating it. But the truth is that it is a dull film.

I don't think it achieves anything much for art, and it was as "art" that that it received the original funding. I bet the makers are good at doing funding proposals! It does not do much for the communities involved, except to a few who had a nice holiday. It does not tell us anything new about "nowhere" places. Camera work is OK.

If you do not know even a little about Bata maybe the story it tells would be interesting and make you want to explore further and there is much fascinating information available.

Shirin (2008)

A conceptual poem

[9/10 · 23 January 2013]

This is only my second Kiarotami film, the first was Certified Copy, 20 minutes into that I was going to give up, mainly because HE the character infuriated me beyond belief. I stayed with it and was soon after totally immersed. Approaching this film, I now was forewarned that I would be asked to think and reflect, to that end I had not read any prior comments. The set up is easy to understand; a room full of actresses watching a well known play, but that is the premise only, at least I could be aware that it could not possibly be happening in real time and this was a performance of a performance, the reactions are staged as much as the play we do not see. Where does its meaning reside I do not really know nor want to know, you can give it a feminist meaning, a political meaning and aesthetic meaning and surely it is all of these and perhaps more or perhaps less, Asking for meaning almost always diminishes true art

Mammuth (2010)

I also knew a Mammuth

[8/10 · 7 January 2013]

Lets just concentrate on one small matter The knowingness of the filmmakers is apparent with there choice of bike. At the time Serge would have been a biker this would have been an aspiration for a European working man that was possible of fulfilment. In his comatose state the world moved on and his icon becomes a forgotten relic as many of the Mammuths did. Out of touch he would be unaware that the bike has now become a cult and consequently recently accrued great value. I have also had my Sidcup moments and in a sort of way also been redeemed by art so I understand that sector of the film, although perhaps in this film is slightly unbalances the structure And then Yolande Moreau can make shaving an armpits so moving that I cried.