Monday 25 January 2016
Wednesday 13 January 2016
fiLmReviEw
THE REVENANT
[2015, USA - English]
THE REVENANT
[2015, USA - English]
One just can't review Alenjandro G. Iñárritu's latest epic adventure film The Revenant without touching on (or rather as I'd prefer to put it - appreciating) the laborious eight months of intense and moiling shoot the entire cast and crew endured while filming in remote locations in British Columbia and Alberta. Iñárritu's insistence on doing things for real, making the cast go through conditions not so different from those faced by the film's characters, has had the entire team spending two hours everyday to travel to the filming locations, and working under subzero temperatures that could drop as low as -40C. The ambitions of the Oscar-winning director has extended to a grit commitment of having the story filmed chronologically, using only natural light. In other words, it only gave them shooting windows of two hours’ adequate sunlight each day. Iñárritu has shared that a film like this “is a homage to the original cinema tradition", where directors go places and risk challenges. Budget inevitably ballooned, with initial sum of $60m rising to $90m, then finally $135m.
DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass, experienced frontiersman guiding a fur-trapping expedition through the wilderness of the Dakota territory in 1823. The team is led by Captain Henry (Domhnall Gleeson), with team members including Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), Bridger (Will Poulter) and Hawk (Forrest Goodluck), Glass’s son by a Native American woman. Following a massive attack by hostile Native Americans which operates as the brilliantly beautiful opening scene, and a gruesome bear attack that leaves Glass on the brink of death, the remaining men decide to abandon Glass in order to increase their own chances at making their way back to the barracks safely. The film then moves on detailing Glass’ turbulent throe, in precise anecdotes of his painful fight for survival, which eventually transforms into a compelling quest for revenge.
The film is as real as it can get, with every scene and every expression depicted in such organic presence and pure visceral energy, audience is placed right into the scene with the characters. Iñárritu wants to make you uncomfortable, so savage in some of the scenes that you will be left gawking or twitching. That is the only way to allow audience to be totally immersed in the experience. And what an experience it was for me. Coupled with Emmanuel Lubezki’s cinematography and Iñárritu’s fluid long takes (effectively applied though not exactly and extensive like what we saw in Birdman), the entire journey is transformed into a cinematic spectacular. Already bagged the Oscars for Best Cinematography twice consecutively for his work on Gravity and Birdman, I am not surprised at all that the Mexican cinematographer will be getting his third in February this year. In fact, it will be my wish as well for Iñárritu to bag the Best Director again after his triumph with Birdman last year.
OK we also need to talk about the bear scene. Iñárritu’s insistence on minimal use of CGI is admirable, limiting computer imagery to almost exclusively to create animals (including the bear). Watching how DiCaprio is pummeled and virtually torn into pieces by the beast will leave audience aghast. He was in fact really thrown around with the use of wires and other apparatus, with the bear being digitally added later. And suffice to say, this is not the only shocking (and amazing) scene involving animals that is in store with this 156-minute drama.
The plot is left thin and scarce, intendedly. However that would be the only missing piece for me to conclude it as a true masterpiece. I’ve never had issues with one-note films and don’t get me wrong, The Revenant is rich in emotional grit (making you root fervently for the antagonist’s fight and survival) and carries a rather strong, positive underlying message about the exploitation on the indigenous communities. I just wished they could have included a tad more of delving into Glass’ past, how his roots intertwined with his demised Native American wife. After all, the film is helmed by few but strong actors. Hardy gives one of his best performance I’ve seen so far, and of course DiCaprio drags us along in his excruciating journey. You can almost feel every thud, every blow he takes, his heavy breaths fogging the screen at close-ups, the strained vocals through his drenched agonizing facial expressions and dribbling and frosting beard. This man went to hell and back for his performance, it’s time they gave him the much deserved Oscar that has eluded him throughout his two decades of great acting.
Rating: A-
Monday 11 January 2016
fiLmsToLoOkOutFoR
45 YEARS
[2015, UK – English]
Directed and written by Andrew Haigh, 45 Years is a British drama tells the story of couple Kate (Charlotte Rampling) and Geoff (Tom Courtenay), about to celebrate their 45th anniversary when their marriage is thrown for a loop after receiving news that the body of Geoff’s former girlfriend has been found. It has been fifty years since she had fallen into an Alpine crevasse during their hiking, but the news unlock secrets left unshared between the couple and Kate’s perspective on their marriage starts to change forever. Both the lead actors won Best Actress and Best Actor Silver Bears at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, and there’s now even an Oscar buzz for Rampling. “It just shows the magic of film,” the sixty-nine year old actress shared. “We had no idea what actually would get through to an audience.” Courtenay agreed. “Yeah I think people do seem to relate it to their own lives, a lot of couples.”
45 YEARS
[2015, UK – English]
Directed and written by Andrew Haigh, 45 Years is a British drama tells the story of couple Kate (Charlotte Rampling) and Geoff (Tom Courtenay), about to celebrate their 45th anniversary when their marriage is thrown for a loop after receiving news that the body of Geoff’s former girlfriend has been found. It has been fifty years since she had fallen into an Alpine crevasse during their hiking, but the news unlock secrets left unshared between the couple and Kate’s perspective on their marriage starts to change forever. Both the lead actors won Best Actress and Best Actor Silver Bears at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, and there’s now even an Oscar buzz for Rampling. “It just shows the magic of film,” the sixty-nine year old actress shared. “We had no idea what actually would get through to an audience.” Courtenay agreed. “Yeah I think people do seem to relate it to their own lives, a lot of couples.”
MAJOR ROLES TURNED DOWN BY LEONARDO DICAPRIO
Before landing himself with five Oscar and eleven Golden Globe nominations, Leonardo DiCaprio has turned down several major roles including Spider-Man (which went to Tobey Maguire), Robin in Batman Forever (which went to Chris O'Donnell) and Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels (which went to Hayden Christensen). Instead, DiCaprio has painted his resume with meatier award winning/nominated roles in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Aviator (2004), Blood Diamond (2006) and The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013). Clearly his choices in films he undertake has made him one of the best actors around, and looks like a potential sixth Oscar nomination is on its way, for his role as Hugh Glass in Alejandro G. Iñárritu's The Revenant. Having said that, the forty-one year old actor is however not totally opposed to joining blockbuster franchise ranks. Even with superhero movies, DiCaprio said, “You never know. You never know. They’re getting better and better as far as complex characters in these movies. I haven’t yet. But no, I don’t rule out anything.”
#LeonardoDiCaprio #TheRevenant #Spiderman#AnakinSkywalker #BatmanForever#WhatsEatingGilbertGrape #TheWolfOfWallStreet#BloodDiamond #Aviator #AlejandroIñárritu #Oscars#GoldenGlobes #Actors #Movies
THE DANISH GIRL'S JOURNEY
It’s hard to imagine that this film was once considered a “commercial poison” and producer Gail Mutrux had to patiently seek a glint of hope for the right people and attraction to bring it to the silver screens. Taking a decade to be finally produced from the time screenwriter Lucinda Coxon started working on it, The Danish Girl had been circulating among numerous filmmakers and actors, and had a fair share of drop-outs including Charlize Theron, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rachel Weisz. All three were initially slated to play the role of Gerda Wegener, the wife of Lili Elbe who supported him in his journey to be one of the first known recipients of sex reassignment surgery. In fact, finding the right actor to play Elbe proved to be even much harder. Nicole Kidman at some point in 2008 signed on to produce and play Elbe, that too didn’t pan out. Then finally in that same year during the filming of a battle sequence in Les Misérables, director Tom Hooper handed a large unmarked envelope to Eddie Redmayne and calmly said, “Read it.”
"I knew the script had a long, tortured history," Redmayne shares on his experience, “But it's a wonderful love story. It reframed my notion of love, that love is not about gender or bodies. It's about souls. The minute I read it, I wanted to do it – I wanted to make it right away, right after Les Mis." But Hooper told him to calm down as it would take time, and it took three years before he actually signed on officially to The Danish Girl. "It was a very vulnerable feeling," the Oscar-winning actor shares on his extreme transformative role. "You're being judged wherever you go by crew and castmembers. You're scrutinized. People think actors are always wanting to take their clothes off for the camera, like, 'I'm ready to get naked!’ But it's not true. It was as uncomfortable an experience for me as it would be for anybody." In one particular scene, Redmayne stands naked in front of a full-length mirror, his genitalia tucked between his thighs.
#TheDanishGirl #TomHooper #EddieRedmayne#CharlizeTheron #GwynethPaltrow #RachelWeisz#NicoleKidman #LesMisérables #Films #Movies#LiliElbe #GerdaWegener #Oscars
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