Ghosts of childhood

Spirited Away (2001)

Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki the English version of this film has voice acting from Daveigh Chase, Jason Marsden and Suzanne Pleshette. A girl travelling with her parents to live in a new town finds herself transported to a world of spirits.

The basic plot of this film is a coming of age tale where our heroine goes from scared to courageous and has more than an echo of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland about it. Drawing heavily on Japanese culture and folklore some of the elements of the film are pretty strange to me as a western viewer but always entertaining. Of course the animation is of a high standard and fits in with the usual style you expect from Anime.

4/5

Dark dreams of afternoon

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)

Directed by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid this film stars Deren who also wrote and edited the film. A young woman returns home and falls asleep in her arm chair.

This short film does a better job of framing it's bizarre narrative than other surrealist/avant garde films I have seen but is still wildly open to interpretation. You can easily see how the film had more than a little influence on Mulholland Drive (2001) for example with some of the repeated elements from this film appearing in Lynch's film. There is some camera work and editing but the film may be a little ambiguous for some.

4/5

El Poopo

El Topo (1970)

Written & directed by star Alejandro Jodorowsky this film also features Brontis Jodorowsky, Mara Lorenzio and David Silva. A gunfighter rides through the desert with his young son.

While I really enjoyed The Holy Mountain (1973) I found this film to be a mess of symbolism for the sake of it and a story that goes nowhere. Maybe it helps to watch this film high but to the sober mind I found it to be a film that tries to be clever rather than a film that actually is clever. At times there are some nice landscapes but unless you find something that speaks to you in the film this can be a hard one to sit through.

2/5

If you go into the woods today

Calvaire (2004)

Directed by Fabrice Du Welz this film stars Laurent Lucas, Jackie Berroyer, Jean-Luc Couchard and Philippe Nahon. A travelling singer has his van break down on him in a rural area and is taken to the local inn by a strange man looking his missing dog.

Through out the film this is a strange and creepy experience with some really messed up events but I do not think it is anything beyond that. Mostly the plot is just messed up for the sake of it and relies on the cliché of “country people are strange” with nothing much more to it than that. None of the direction really takes this beyond being an average genre piece and it is more off an oddity than truly scary.

3/5

Once Upon a time in China

A Touch of Zen (1971)

Written and directed by King Hu this film stars Hsu Feng, Shih Jun, Pai Ying amd Roy Chiao. An unambitious artist/scholar has his life turned upside down by a fugitive on the run from corrupt government officials.

This film has a huge reputation and while I'm not sure it's one of the all time greats it's certainly entertaining throughout it's over 3 hour run time. Elements of the story, especially the ending, hint at Buddhist themes but I am not sure these are fully realised beyond the action/adventure story. There is some use of symbolism and the sets/locations no doubt inspired more modern Wuxia films that you are probably more aware of.

4/5

Not exactly those it looks up to.

The Longest Week (2014)

Written and directed by Peter Glanz this film stars Jason Bateman, Olivia Wilde and Billy Crudup. A man that has spent his entire life living off his absent parent's hotel fortune suddenly finds himself cut off.

This film is somewhere between a Wes Anderson and Woody Allen film with a hint of early Jean-Luc Godard, specifically Olivia Wilde made up like Anna Karina. Never hitting the heights of any of the masters that it is inspired by the plot of this film is not as bad as I have seen reviews suggest even if the protagonist is a terrible person and the film goes beyond being obvious about it's intent. Jason Bateman is always watchable and does a good job here despite it not being the strongest script he has had to work with.

2/5

Blood in the water

Children of Glory (2006)

Directed by Krisztina Goda this film stars Kata Dobo, Ivan Fenyo, Sandor Csanyi and Karoly Gesztesi. A young water polo player on the Hungarian national team ahead of the 1956 Olympics gets caught up in the political uprising in Hungary during the same year.

While this film tells a fictional story it reflects a lot of moments of real history which it thankfully does without any claims of being a true story. The film does a good job of showing the repressive nature of living under the thumb of the Soviet state against the desire for freedom. Largely the film is well made and does not give in to over sentimentality or melodrama.

4/5