Legend, which got mixed reviews during its festival run. I thought Tom Hardyâs performance as both the Kray twins so outweighed any weaknesses that the film was gripping from the opening (very funny) scene. For all the violence (what else? Itâs the Krays), the film generally is suprisingly funny, and it captures something of the subculture of the East End hardnut in some nicely observed mannerisms (such as the way the younger hoodlams especially seem to stare through their eyelids to look extra tough). Authentic locations (if a little cleaned up) and nice motors. The killings of Cordell and McVitie are brutal. Hardy has this weird look in his eyes - he appears to lack irises - and you never know which way things are going to jump. Aside from Fassbender and Bale, I donât know of any actors of their generation with that kind of intensity (Gyllenhaal?) Thewlis is also good fun, as are Cordell and Jack the Hat. Great to see one of my ex-students get a screen credit.
Brooklyn. A Nick Hornby script from a Colm Toibin novel. A much slighter film even than Legend in a way, but again a nice performance from Saoirse Ronan, who seems to be physically tansformed as the story unfolds. Julie Walters steals her scenes effortlessly as the matriarchal Irish-Brooklyn landlady.
45 Years. Another âactorsââ piece, with Charlotte Rampling (very much the star) and Tom Courtenay, in a story about secrets. A bit over-earnest and very conservatively filmed, it does have two stand-out scenes - one involving Rampling, an old analogue slide projector and bedcloth (proving that the most cinematic of scenes doesnât need the flashbangs), and the other at the end. The final dance encompasses the entire movie: not a word is said but the whole story is written on Courtenayâs and Ramplingâs faces - until the final few framesâŚ
Seems a bit pompous to call Transformers a âfilmâ. I have a default of calling American movies movies, European films films and British films crap. A bad habit, no doubt. There is another term which is much more common in the industry itself: picture. So if you want to sound like some overblown Hollywood mogul, drawl on about who is and whoâs not going to be in the picture.
Thatâs allowed, KRG. Itâs a different usage to the industry âpictureâ, and is characteristically British. Hockney, whoâs very eloquent about the significance of film to art (and his art especially), talks about memories of âgoing to the picturesâ as a very Saturday-morning-matinee thing.
[Bletch has vision of Furball leaning back in a chair with a canvas back that has Furball embossed upon it, holding a cone megaphone in one hand and a large, ethically produced cigar in the other, shouting âactionâ]
