Film: The Artist

It's been a while since I wrote anything for this blog, that's uni work for you! I have actually watched quite a bit of good stuff as well recently so hopefully I will remember enough about some of the things I have been watching to chatter about them!

We have also had the Oscars and BAFTAs. I watched the BAFTAs but not the Oscars, although I hear they went pretty much the same way, with the Artist cleaning up most of the awards it was nominated for and much of the other awards going to the same films too. After seeing the Artist do so well, I had to watch it. It hadn't really appealed to me as anything more than a 'something I'll get round to watching' sort of film until this point, but I was intrigued as to how it had blown a lot of other great films out of the water.

Trailer - the Artist

The Artist (in case you don't already know) is a silent movie set in the 1920s about George Valentin, a silent movie star (played by Jean Dujardin, an extremely gorgeous man) who is finding it hard to make the transition into 'the talkies'. The bright young star Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) is having no such problems, and we see her rise to fame as George's popularity dwindles.

At first I thought a) that this would be quite a happy upbeat movie and b) that it would be difficult for me to really get into and understand what was going on in a film with no words. Both of these first thoughts were actually wrong. Firstly to thought b), which I'm sure has put many people off this movie. The sound in the film all comes from music matched to the mood of the scene (apart from a very well done piece in the middle of the film, but I won't say any more as I don't want to ruin it for anyone) and expression all comes from the actors hamming it up. Sometimes their mouths move so that you can imagine what is being said, and occasionally there are traditional silent movie subtitle screens, but this doesn't happen that often. You would think it would be hard to follow but it's really not. This film is very well done actually, and I didn't expect to have enjoyed it and be saying this about it. You very quickly forget that there is no talking and become immersed in the story line of the film. There were very few moments where I didn't understand what was going on and where I lost interest, and that really surprised me given my earlier misgivings.

Jean Dujardin

As for the plot of this film and enjoyability (not a word but oh well) of this film, I was again surprised. As I said, I was expecting a very light, jovial, happy film with some light comedy and a lot of laughs. It turns out that this film is actually pretty dark in places, and there were many plot turns in it that surprised me because of the lightness I was expecting. At the beginning of the movie, we see George at the height of his career and fame. As the film progresses, events turn and George is left a broken and desperate man, grappling with his fear of 'the talkies' and his new found desolation. As there is no speaking, George cannot explain his feelings and so we see them almost through his own eyes, with dreams or symbolic references throughout the film. He starts off as such a happy character that his downfall is really sad, especially as we are brought so close to his own feelings. The audience is drawn in very well throughout this film and we can almost feel as if we are there in the movie with George.

I really enjoyed George's character and his plotline, but I can't say I feel the same about the charater of Peppy. She starts off as an extra in one of George's films, and they have an instant connection. He gives her some advice and she quickly becomes a star. She goes on to become (in my opinion) a bit full of herself and annoying. She seems like a really weak character as she doesn't have as much depth as George's character, and she did bug me throughout the film. She then takes on behaviour that seemed to me to be bordering on stalker-esque. This isn't the typical love story I expected either, but I won't say any more as I don't want to give anything away about the film; I think it is almost best viewed knowing very little about it and so not knowing what to expect.

Overall I did enjoy this film much more then I thought I would. I'm still not sure I can see why it cleaned up at all the award ceremonies; maybe it is the hype associated with this film and the fact that it is 'different', but it is definitely worth a watch if you ignore everything you have already heard about it before. You may be surprised how much you will enjoy it.

PS, there is also a really cute dog in this film.

Book Review - Never Let Me Go

Would you believe it, I haven't actually watched any TV worth commenting on for a while! I seem to have rediscovered reading for pleasure, something that I lost interest in when I realised that my uni course consisted almost entirely of extremely unpleasurable reading. I may throw a few book posts into my blog in the future.

So, Never Let Me Go (for a fuller summary of the plot, follow this link).This book is written by Kazuo Ishiguro, a Japenese-British author. I read Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day (also a not-very-well-done film starring Anthony Hopkins that leaves all of the best bits of the book out) for A Level English. I can't say it was a favourite of mine at the time; the book is full of so much subtle symbolism that you find yourself thinking 'did the author really give so much significance to so and so glancing out of a window'? The protagonist who narrates the book is also somewhat irritating throughout most of the novel, although I think this is the whole aim of the book, as we begin to feel more sympathy for the character as the story progresses, and it is only once I had finished the book that I realised I had enjoyed it.

Never Let Me Go is pretty different to The Remains. I was expecting symbolism galore and artsy messages like with the other book, but symbolism was not the main theme of the book as far as I could tell (although of course there were plenty of symbolic elements). The book is centred around an adult called Kathy reliving memories of her youth and looking at them again with adult eyes, with the added dimension that Kathy and the other characters are clones whose sole purpose in life is to grow up and 'donate' their organs to the rest of the population. This book isn't remotely sci-fi though; the clone and donation aspect is only really discussed in terms of how that affects the lives of the characters, not in a science fiction sort of way, and it works really well (as I'll come back to later).  

This book feels like it is written quite simply, with the narrator's style flowing casually through the story. I felt pretty detached from this book until near the very end; like The Remains, I don't think I realised how good it had been until I'd finished it off, and then I wanted to read it again almost immediately, feeling I would appreciate it much more the second time round. Having said that, this book is weirdly addictive. Even though there isn't even that much of a gripping plot line with no real major events, there is always the feeling that over the next few pages you will find out something totally integral to the plot.

It's the clone dimension that makes this book a real page turner. That the characters are clones is hinted at throughout the book, and it is easy for the reader to work out their true purpose in life from fairly early on. However, within the story anything to do with their destiny as organ doners is shrouded in euphemism, and the characters seem to live a pretty normal life. Kathy and her friends are puzzled by aspects of their lives and make guesses as to what different things mean, and this curiousity is passed onto the reader, leaving me desperate for answers by the time I reached the final section of the book. As I said earlier, the ending makes the book and it is during this part that we get the answers to the questions that Kathy has been alluding to throughout her story.

The ending also makes you realise how attached you had become to the characters. The main voice of Kathy holds little emotion in my opinion, almost as if she has resigned herself to her fate and wants to factually record the musing of her earlier life. Because of this, the emotion that I felt at the end of the novel really surprised me. I won't say anymore so that I don't ruin the ending for those of you who read it, but this is a truly brilliant book that I urge everyone to read, even if it doesn't seem that way to start off with. I can't really express how much I enjoyed this book so read it yourself and see if you agree!

Never Let Me Go has also been turned into a film which I haven't yet seen but I'm sure I will feel the need to write about as soon as I have watched it judging by the trailer:

First TV Chatterings

I've attempted to blog several times before and usually I write a couple of eager posts and then get fed up, leaving a trail of half-hearted attempts across the internet (at this point, who's to say it won't happen again with this blog? Hopefully not...) So, I've decided if I really want to keep myself, let alone anyone else, interested I need to write about something I enjoy doing and am interested in, and sad as it may sound, TV and films tick this box rather nicely! 

I'm aiming not to really review programmes, but more to comment on them really. It will probably seem like I'm pretty one-sided; there really aren't going to be many heavily negative comments, cos who watches a TV shows that they think is rubbish for more than about 15 minutes before flicking over to a Friends re-run or the Simpsons or something? There will be some current stuff, but as a university student who relies on iPlayer, 4od and the like, as well as re-runs and new discoveries of old American comedies, there may be a few blasts from the past too!