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Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
A very sad and moving film that looks at how an elderly man looks back at his life with regret and only starts “to live” once he finds out that he has stomach cancer. I found this film to be close to Ozu in many ways in how it deals with themes of children neglecting their parents, for me the saddest moments are throughout the film when is son is completely ignorant of his father’s suffering. The final act does slightly threaten to become too didactic for its own good, but before it can Kurosawa reminds us of why he is one of the most powerful visual directors ever as he cuts between images of our protagonist’s final days.
The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953)
I have heard a lot of praise for the cinematography of this film, and whilst the stark black and white photography does help extenuate the harsh conditions and deteriorating mental wellbeing of the characters, I must say that I find Clouzot to be slightly inconsistent. Much like Diabolique, you have some sequences which are absolutely outstanding that will stay in the mind for a long time after viewing, but there are also large chunks of the plot that are unmemorable and not overly cinematic either. Once our characters are on the road the film really does get going and there are some very suspenseful well-constructed sequences.
Rain Man (Barry Levinson, 1988)
Sorry to people who are fans of this film, but this film did virtually nothing for me. There are no interesting cinematic elements that are utilised to tell the story that it wants to tell about disability, so it relies solely on the performances of that main two characters. Whilst Dustin Hoffman is very dedicated to his role - and this risks sounding harsh - his character becomes repetitive, and even more annoying are the way in which one cliche scenes occurs after another as Tom Cruise’s character goes on a “journey”. I recently watched Green Book, which I thought was heavily flawed and not overly cinematic, yet enjoyable thanks largely to the film's humour. I struggled to find Tom Cruise compelling or warm enough at any point.
Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, 2017)
Nolan deliberately chooses to use a lot more restraint and strips this story down to fewer elements, which works because instead of exploring complex ideas we have universal human emotions that have been repeated throughout history. There are a number of really nice visual images that Nolan strikes up such as the small fishing trawler led by Mark Rylance, passing a much bigger Navy ship on its way to Dunkirk. The decision to mainly rely on unknown actors helps the story create almost archetypal characters that make the story powerful because we know that in reality there were many of these types of people in their various roles doing their bit for their country. The archetypal nature of the characters and other limited elements do however have their drawbacks as the film begins to feel repetitive in certain areas and feels unsure how to tie everything up together.
A very sad and moving film that looks at how an elderly man looks back at his life with regret and only starts “to live” once he finds out that he has stomach cancer. I found this film to be close to Ozu in many ways in how it deals with themes of children neglecting their parents, for me the saddest moments are throughout the film when is son is completely ignorant of his father’s suffering. The final act does slightly threaten to become too didactic for its own good, but before it can Kurosawa reminds us of why he is one of the most powerful visual directors ever as he cuts between images of our protagonist’s final days.
The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953)
I have heard a lot of praise for the cinematography of this film, and whilst the stark black and white photography does help extenuate the harsh conditions and deteriorating mental wellbeing of the characters, I must say that I find Clouzot to be slightly inconsistent. Much like Diabolique, you have some sequences which are absolutely outstanding that will stay in the mind for a long time after viewing, but there are also large chunks of the plot that are unmemorable and not overly cinematic either. Once our characters are on the road the film really does get going and there are some very suspenseful well-constructed sequences.
Rain Man (Barry Levinson, 1988)
Sorry to people who are fans of this film, but this film did virtually nothing for me. There are no interesting cinematic elements that are utilised to tell the story that it wants to tell about disability, so it relies solely on the performances of that main two characters. Whilst Dustin Hoffman is very dedicated to his role - and this risks sounding harsh - his character becomes repetitive, and even more annoying are the way in which one cliche scenes occurs after another as Tom Cruise’s character goes on a “journey”. I recently watched Green Book, which I thought was heavily flawed and not overly cinematic, yet enjoyable thanks largely to the film's humour. I struggled to find Tom Cruise compelling or warm enough at any point.
Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, 2017)
Nolan deliberately chooses to use a lot more restraint and strips this story down to fewer elements, which works because instead of exploring complex ideas we have universal human emotions that have been repeated throughout history. There are a number of really nice visual images that Nolan strikes up such as the small fishing trawler led by Mark Rylance, passing a much bigger Navy ship on its way to Dunkirk. The decision to mainly rely on unknown actors helps the story create almost archetypal characters that make the story powerful because we know that in reality there were many of these types of people in their various roles doing their bit for their country. The archetypal nature of the characters and other limited elements do however have their drawbacks as the film begins to feel repetitive in certain areas and feels unsure how to tie everything up together.
