brideshead revisited (julian jarrold, 2008)

i love the story, i love the book and i love the tv series. that’s why i never wanted to watch this when it first came out. nonetheless, some weeks ago i felt a certain itch to watch it, so i got hold of one copy and watched it the other night.

all in all, it’s on the good side of ok. my problem might be that i couldn’t help but compare it to the book and the tv adaptation. and for me there’s only one sebastian. ben whishaw does a good job at being slightly creepy, almost slimey, but lacks the seductiveness of anthony andrews. matthew goode, on the other hand, plays an impeccable charles.

there is actually one scene that creeped the hell out of me, the one in the library between charles and rex, where they discuss julia’s future as if she was some kind of object or prize, made all the more painful to witness when you realise she’s listening at the other side of the door.

having said that, there’s also an appalling scene at the beginning where we see a horrible cgi ocean liner followed by something out of a perfume ad for tv: julia appears and charles follows her through a corridor, all in slow motion. not only that, but we get to see that scene again towards the end of the film. horrible.

but not horrible enough to spoil the movie. they actually did a good job at condensing the story (even though i would have liked them to keep the detail of charles painting one of the mansion’s galleries -a nice metaphor to highlight the fact that brideshead left a mark on him, but he also left his mark on the house).

oh, and, of course, i couldn’t possibly finish this review without mentioning the clothes. i want them all, especially the cute swimsuits (not that i ever lie in the sun, but i still want one).

Rating: 7/10

parade’s end (susanna white, 2012)

i have mixed feelings about this, to be honest. i thought the first three episodes felt rather rushed; the story had no time to breathe (but i guess that’s what happens when you try to condense four books into five episodes). anyway, it looks amazing, the wardrobe is outstanding and some of the acting is top-notch (miranda richardson, i’ve always loved thee, and i always will; but why, oh, why, do we have to endure that atrocious rupert everett?).

i found episode four and five (the war years) much more enjoyable. the characters are by now fully developed and the slight comedy element is at its best (that general is hilarious!). and a very sweet ending, too.

Rating: 7/10

house on haunted hill (william castle, 1959)

i quite enjoyed this, to be honest. but i’m a sucker for ‘oldies’, when it comes to horror. i love how it’s a mild cocktail between camp and spooky.

apart from the amazing house, my favourite bits were the first ‘frights’ with the american-gothic servants (i’m not ashamed to say that on one of their scenes i actually clapped at the tv!). and vincent price, of course, is superb.

from here, the story moves on to be a melodrama more than a haunted house story, but it still has very nice details (the skeleton scene at the end was awesome!).

i also liked how not everything is explained… so, yes, the more i think about it, the more i like it!

Rating: 7/10

kraken (china miéville, 2010)

a book about ancient squid cults? bring it on! can i offer myself as sacrificial victim?

all in all, this is fun. there are so many great ideas and it’s certainly action-packed. i enjoyed it. i loved the sects, and the kraken library, all the ink business with the tattoo and grisantemum, wati, the familiars… loads of stuff.

there seems to be, however, a huge mismatch between the lexical richness and the style. there’s no doubt mr miéville has a wealth of vocabulary, the issue is that sometimes he comes accross as a bit of a show-off, especially when the style of the novel is clearly pitched to young adults.

some of the ideas, too, were clearly aimed for that YA audience, with an almost (sorry!) harrypotteresque feeling about them, whereas in others he crosses the line and is definitely in fantasy-horror adult territory.

the book also left me feeling i needed a bit of a rest. there is so much happening! he has so many ideas, the universe in ‘kraken’  is so rich, that there is no space for breathing. it kind of feels it should be developed in a series of books more than in just one novel, as it can sometimes feel a bit cramped.

but, as i said before, i enjoyed it. but i want to read some of his early stuff now.

ps. on a side note, i will never forgive him for, on several occasions, saying that squids have two ‘hunting arms’. they are two ‘feeding tentacles’, china. i want to believe it’s poetic licence and not ignorance; after all the book is riddled with strange terminology, and i’m sure he undertook a lot of research about ‘the main character’ in the book, but i can’t see the point of it.

Rating: 7/10

primer (shane carruth, 2004)

i love the way this is filmed. you don’t get too many sci-fi movies that think outside the box when it comes to visuals. in here, both the photography, the light and the music, even the performances, speak of an indie movie. about time travel. bring it on!

the result, nonetheless, is  good, but not that good. the story is brilliant, but we’ve seen it so many times before. i love how you need to get to the end and think back to know which aaron is which in each scene, though. and the idea of a time machine inside a time machine is genius.

i think my main problem is that it failed to excite me. for the first half an hour it was all blah blah blah tech blah and more blah. it might be needed for the story, but that didn’t stop me from feeling bored. and later on, even though it gets more interesting, i just watched from a distance, i didn’t manage to ‘engage’ with the characters or ‘feel’ for them.

as a whole, it certainly gets better in restrospect, but i can’t say i really enjoyed watching it. maybe is one of those films that gets better and better every time you watch it. not sure if i feel like doing it, though.

Rating: 7/10

the woman in black (james watkins, 2012)

let’s start by saying that this is nowhere near as good as the book or the play. however, as a film in itself is not that bad. hammer really gets its sets and locations right. the house is amazing, and so is the marshland. i loved that scene when they recover the body. all that mud and how they managed to infuse it with a very classic hammery feeling, a kind of ‘indoorsy outdoors’; i love it. and so many creepy toys and stuffed animals! i certainly want the wee monkey with the maracas.

on top of all that, there are some very spooky moments that actually made jump on my seat (particularly the scene with the crow’s nest at the beginning and the one with the windowpane towards the end).

the acting was ok, but i had issues with daniel radcliffe. he looked too young for my liking; i never believed him as a father (but i admit that might be because i can’t picture him portraying anything other than ‘the-boy-who-lived’).

i kind of liked the change in ending, too (i loved how cynical it is), but i hated the cheesy final scene with all my guts .

all in all, much better than i expected. well worth a watch if you like ghost stories. however, if you are a hardcore susan hill fan, you must watch it with an open mind, i warn you!

Rating: 7/10

absentia (mike flanagan, 2011)

i liked the mixture of indie film-making and ghost story. at the beginning, somehow the languages were fighting to coexist. i loved that. it starts as an archetypical moody indie movie and at some point you realise there’s something that doesn’t really compute: the supernatural factor. after a while, however, both languages manage to reach an agreement in your brain and everything runs smoothly and works perfectly well.

the story itself is a bit predictable but still enjoyable, enhanced by some nice creepy moments. some of the effects are not quite there, though, and i found some of the ghostly make-up is a bit hallowe’eny, but not too crappy.

as a whole, it’s not great but it’s on the good side of ok.

the moral of the story? don’t leave tupperware boxes with food for the dead.

Rating: 7/10

the sunset limited: a novel in dramatic form (cormac mccarthy, 2006)

my favourite bit in mccarthy’s novels has to be the dialogues: they are always so sharp and realistic. that’s why i was looking forward to reading this, as it’s ‘just dialogue’.

nonetheless, i felt slightly disappointed. i enjoyed it, and some parts where actually really good, especially at the beginning, but everthing seemed a bit of an ‘exercise’. as a whole, i found it a bit too forced, sllightly artificial. the sheer choice of names (‘black’ and ‘white’) already denotes a sort of a metaphorical game, with the two main characters who, apart from being from different races (yes, you guessed correctly: ‘black’ is black and ‘white’ is white) also come from completely different backgrounds and have very different ‘life visions’.

still, as i say, i enjoyed it, especially all the discussions about death. why doesn’t he call it a ‘play’, though?

Rating: 7/10

dandelion wine (ray bradbury, 1957)

i love the concept: an autobiographical fantasy; and the structure, and the characters… but, above all, i love his prose. really lyrical and evocative and so beautifully written.

this is not, however,  a conventional read. there’s no proper storyline, it’s more the ‘feeling’ of summer. it can’t really work that well if it’s raining outside, i guess.

the ‘story’ is a child’s realisation of his mortality during the course of one summer. most of the book is about death. but, even though it has its upsetting moments (i felt rather sad when i read the episode where some kids don’t believe the old lady could ever have been a young girl), for the rest of the time the book leaves you with a melancholic summery smile.

my favourite story? the relationship between the older lady and the younger man. simply beautiful.

Rating: 7/10

a matter of life and death, aka stairway to heaven (michael powell, emeric pressburger, 1946)

it’s obviously flawed (blatant propaganda left, right and centre), but i really like the wee story and everything in the afterlife world is awesome! i loved the trial at the end (visually more than anything else), the giant escalator with the statues of famous people, the bureaucratic process and the portable wings… everything! i liked how they played with b/w and technicolor, too: the cool otherworldly bits were in b/w (yass!).

Apart from the propaganda, the film strangely glorifies the act of dying. it’s a bit like “hey, it’s cool to die, the afterlife is awesome!”. but i liked it anyway.

Rating: 7/10