‘’You need to package yourself so that people will truly mourn your loss. And America loves pregnant women. As if it's so hard to spread your legs. You know what's hard? Faking a pregnancy. First, drain your toilet. Invite pregnant idiot into your home and ply her with lemonade. Steal pregnant idiot's urine. Voilà! A pregnany is now part of your legal medical record. Happy Anniversary.’’
- Amy Dunne, Gone Girl
Back in July I decided to start watching the TV-show F.R.I.E.N.D.S. for the first time. Yes, I’ve never seen that show before… Within two months I’m already in season 9. This month I don’t have any series or TV-shows (because I’m pretty occupied with F.R.I.E.N.D.S. haha) but I’ve got seven film recommendations, waiting to be read.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street
From the very first minute of the film I was surprised. I did not know it was a musical so when Johnny Depp started singing out of nowhere… But it’s honestly one of the best musicals ever made! It’s kind of an old silent horror movie with music. The film is based on the infamous story of the barber Benjamin Barker, also known as Sweeney Todd, who killed over 160 people in his barbershop at 186 Fleet Street in London.
Set in Victorian London, Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) is married to the beautiful Lucy and they have a pretty daughter together, Johanna. He was one of the most accomplished barbers in all Victorian London. The corrupt judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) got attracted to the beauty of Lucy and false accuses the barber of a crime he didn’t commit. Barker got sent to a prison in Australia so the judge could get Lucy for himself, and after gaining custody he abuses her. After 15 years of exile, Benjamin Barker returns to London under the identity of Sweeney Todd, to find his wife dead and his daughter in the hands of the evil Judge Turpin, to seek vengeance from judge Turpin. He meets the widow Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), who is the owner of the meat pie shop. Mrs. Lovett tells him that Lucy swallowed arsenic many years ago, and Turpin assigned himself tutor of Johanna. With the help of Mrs. Lovett, he reopens his barber shop in which he lures his victims with a charming smile before casually ending their lives with a flick of his razor across their necks. But not one man, nor ten thousands of men killed can satisfy Sweeney's lust for vengeance on those who've caused him years of pain over the loss of his family.
The film has two color pallets: dark and moody with very little colors, and bright and warm. Now the present, after Sweeney Todd’s return to London, is set in the first color pallet. One of the few colors that stands out in this dark color pallet is red, which is logic considering the story (Little fun fact: Tim Burton insisted that the film be bloody, as he felt stage versions of the play, which cut back on the bloodshed, robbed it of its power. For him, "Everything is so internal with Sweeney, that the blood is like his emotional release. It's more about catharsis than it is a literal thing."). The flashbacks are set in the second color pallet, back in the day Barker still formed one happy family with his wife and daughter.
The voices of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are incredible. At first the casting directors had doubts on casting Johnny Depp for the role of Sweeney Todd because they didn’t know whether Depp could sing or not but, since his acting career started by him moving to L.A. as a musician, now we know he can most definitely sing.
The songs for the part of Mrs. Lovett were very hard. As Bonham Carter says: “ By The sea is really tricky because there’s no space to breath, at all. […] Angela said that she confronted Sondheim and said ‘where do I breath?’. ‘Well, I didn’t write anywhere you could breath. You just don’t’.’’
Burton tried to avoid ‘’a lot of dialogue and then people bursting into song’’ by cutting out a lot of choruses and cutting out a lot of secondary people singing to let the main characters project their feelings through the music.
With a great cast and a screenplay written by John Logan, who also co-wroted the screenplays for both ‘Skyfall’ and ‘Spectre’, Tim Burton directed it to a masterpiece.
Gone girl
Gone Girl is a murder mystery mystery with lots of twists and turns following the characters Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike). On Nick and Amy’s 5th wedding anniversary Nick reports that his wife goes missing. The movie tells the story from Nick’s perspective and Amy’s perspective as Nick tries to find out where his wife went. Along with the time and the local searching program it is suspected that Nick killed his wife.
What I love about this film is that it not only tells the story of this murder mystery, but also the story of a relationship that seemed to be so perfect and idyllic from the outside but slowly disintegrated, and about people wearing masks to hide who they really are inorder to manipulate one another. The first hour of the film really sets the stage and then the ‘mind twisting’ fun really begins. This film keeps you guessing about what happened till the end.
One of my favorite quotes is:
‘’Men always say that as a defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the cool girl means I’m hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes and burping, plays videogames, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex and jams hotdogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s most culinary gangbang while somehow maintaining a size two. Because cool girls are, above all, hot. Hot and understanding. Cool girls never get angry. They only smile in a chagrined loving manner and then let men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me. I don’t mind. I’m a cool girl’’
This quote is actually from the book because the film version is way shorter, which makes it a little bit different.
The Duchess
Based on the true story of Georgina Spencer, The Duchess of Devonshire, this film is about more than just her life. It also explains the pressure behind stardom all the way back in the 1770’s. Georgina has been in the spotlight since her 17th and has to keep continuing living under the spotlights for the rest of her life. Even back in the day, there were gossip magazines and people already felt the need for wearing the same clothes and hairstyles as celebrities.
After a careless youth, Georgiana Spencer (Keira Knightley) is married off at 17 by her parents (Charlotte Rampling), marries the Duke of Devonshire, named William Cavendish (Ralph Fiennes), and became Duchess of Devonshire in 1774, at the height of the Georgian period, a period of fashion, decadence, and political change. Spirited and adored by the public at large she is well aware that she has only two primary responsibilities as Duchess: (1) to produce a male heir for the Duke; (2) to be loyal to him.
However, their marriage is not as she expects, where he pays more attention to his dogs than he does to her. Even their lovemaking is cold and clinical. As long as she doesn't fulfill that first responsibility, which seems to be difficult to achieve, their marriage will remain distant.
Georgina finds herself focusing on other activities. Those outside activities, which make her a star among the elite, include fashion design, gambling, and surprisingly politics. She becomes one of the first fashion queens of England, extremely popular in high society, and soon the victim of the first 'paparazzi' who capture her on drawings wherever she appears.
She befriends Lady Elizabeth Foster - Bess - (Hayley Atwell) whose own marriage is in disarray, as her husband beats her and he has all but taken away their children from her. Georgiana and Bess act as each other's emotional support, which on Georgiana's side includes inviting her to live in Devonshire House with her and the Duke. But, once again, she’s betrayed by her husband who cheated on her with Lady Bess and wields his power with the three eventually living uncomfortably together.
Georgiana falls passionately in love with Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper), a rising young Whig politician. However, despite his ongoing liaison with Lady Bess, the Duke refuses to allow her to continue the affair and threatens to take her children from her.
The film is partially shot in the historical Bath, Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, which was Georgina’s home. Even now, the current Duchess of Devonshire still lives there.
The costumes in this film are insane. It’s no surprise that it won the Oscar, a BAFTA Film Award, Costume Designers Guild Award and an Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Achievement in Costume Design.
It took two hours every day to get Keira Knightley fully costumed, including being sewn into her corsets. Once she was fully dressed and wigged, it was practically impossible for Knightley to go to the toilet in the production trailers.
‘’It’s the wigs more than anything else. Not this one this one is fine but there was a particular one in Bath that was… I think about 2 feet high or something, where I could not lift my head. It was so heavy that I couldn’t lift my head. So in Chjula the GOP was sort of saying’I’m getting you halfway through the scene and then we can’t see your eyes anymore’ and it was because my neck could not hold the weight of my own head.They actually build me this ridiculus so that I could.. I could get my head on the stand so I just couldn’t.. I couldn’t hold my head up. I head everybody like holding the wig trying to take the weight. It was fine for like the first 5 secondsand then my neck would just go… I felt like I was a tree that would just fell over or somethingand people did keep kind off shouting ‘timber’ as I walked past’’ Keira Knightley says.
Into The Wild
Into the Wild is based on the book Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, which tells the true story of Cristopher McCandless.
In the spring of 1990, the 24-year-old Christopher (Emile Hirsch) graduated from Emory University. Before his parents (Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt) and sister (Jena Malone) head home to Virginia Chris refuses his parents' gift of a new car to replace his old Datsun which he states works perfectly fine. He tells them that he has thoughts of going into Harvard Law but his parents and sister will learn by the end of the summer that Chris had no intention of going to Harvard as he has since moved from his apartment in Atlanta without a word to them. He abandoned his possessions, gave his entire $24.000 savings to charity and arranges with the post office to hold his mail for a couple of months before being "returned to sender" to give him a head start in his escape from his family. To cut all the connections with his family he destroys his ID and rechristened himself as Alexander Supertramp. On his journey Christopher encounters a series of characters who shape his life, such as Wayne Westerberg (Vince Vaughn), Tracy Tatro (Kristen Stewart) and Ron Franz (Hal Holbrook).
Chris' car is eventually discovered abandoned in the Arizona dessert. His parents intend to continue to search for Chris until they know conclusively what has happened to him.
Before I’d seen the film, I read the book and at the beginning of the film I had a hard time identifying Emile Hirsch as Cristopher McCandless. I felt like he wasn’t the same Cristopher as I pictured in the book, but halfway through the film Emile Hirsh’s performance totally changed my mind and I was starting to see the Christopher described in the book.
The film’s screen play is written and directed by Sean Penn. The music, except for 'Hard Sun', is all made by singer-songwriter Eddie Vedder, who is also the leadsinger of Pearl jam. 'Society' is even nominated for a Golden Globe.
For a movie it’s hard to be even better than the book. Yet, after I’d watched it, I felt like this one is. One of the reasons is the amazing cinematography. One of the things that did bother me is that McCandless is portrait as a hero, which I think he’s not. The way he abandoned his family without a phone call, a note or any explanation what so ever, I think, was selfish, self-righteous (since he didn’t take a map or a compass with him and didn’t take the time or effort to actually inform himself about living in the wild in Alaska) and his hurtful adolescent behavior was just wrong. There is nothing wrong with having a free spirit and wanting to break away from money grabbing and modern society but he ultimately paid a terrible cost.
Phone booth
Phone booth is a psychological thriller from 2002, which tells the story of the fast talking and wise cracking New York City publicist Stuart Shepard (Colin Farell). He thinks the whole world is in his hands. His greatest lie is to his wife Kelly (Radha Michell), who he is cheating on with his girlfriend, Pam (Katie Holmes). Every day he uses the same phone booth to call Pam but on the last day, before
this particular phone booth is demolished, the phone rings. Believing it’s Pam who’s calling from the phone, he picks up and finds himself on the line with a dangerous yet intelligent psychopath with a sniper rifle. The sniper (Kiefer Sutherland) knows everything about Stuart’s life, his job, his relationships and his lies. The caller prides himself on using force to punish corrupt people, such as Stuart, by forcing them to admit all of their lies and sins through mental games, or killing them. The caller now has Stu as his hostage, and demands Stu comes clean with his wife. Even when the New York City Police arrives and demands Stu comes out of the phone booth, he won’t be able to hang up. If he hangs up the phone, he dies.
The entire film is shot at the same location, the phone booth, so it’s up to the dialogues to make it an interesting film. These dialogues are so strong that they have you on the edge of your seat. So a shout out to Larry Cohen for writing the screenplay! The events of the film occur in real time, just like in the TV-show ‘24 Hours’, and all scenes were shot in order as they happened. What is interesting about this film is that it is shot in just 12 days, which makes it the first film ever to be shot in such a short time period. The scenes inside the phone booth took 10 days to shoot; the other 2 days of the 12 day schedule were used on exterior shots of the booth's surroundings.
The Beach
Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an American backpacking through Asia with a handful of friends from Europe. While in Bangkok, he meets a mad Scotsman who calls himself Daffy Duck (Robert Carlyle), and rants on about a beach paradise on a secret island and the parasites of civilization. Shortly before Mr. Duck kills himself, he gives Richard a crude map to a place in Thailand that he claims is paradise on earth: beautiful, unspoiled, and uninhabited. Richard meets Françoise (Virginie Ledoyen) and her boyfriend, Étienne (Guillaume Canet), and convinces them to join him to the island.
On their way, Richard befriends a pair of American surfers. They talk excitedly about the myth of the beach and how it has an almost unlimited supply of marijuana. Richard copies his map and slides it under their door the next morning.
When they first arrive on the island, they come across an enormous marijuana plantation guarded by local farmers armed with AK-47 assault rifles, where they barely manage to evade being noticed. The island is also a home for the beach community, lead by Sal (Tilda Swinton). Richard, Françoise and Étienne are allowed to stay on one condition: to promise they haven’t told anyone else about the island.
At first, living on the island was living a dream: swimming in the ocean, catching fish with a harpoon and all sorts of events. But, one day, the American surfers arrive on the island. Sal gets furious and gives Richard the task to do whatever it takes to get those Americans off the island again.
In this film you get to see the things that people will do in order to stay at their home, the Beach. You see the changes in Richard’s personality. The longer he stays on the beach, the more mad and paranoid he becomes. As a viewer you do have to be aware of the illusion the island gives, otherwise it may look a little like a music video. The cinematography is very, very good. Especially in the scenes DiCaprio portraits Richard as paranoid. The combination of different speeds and close-ups or weird positions gives it a paranoid like vibe to it.
‘’Titanic made Leonardo DiCaprio a sensation. The Beach that proved he was a movie star.’’
- The Rolling Stones
The Half Of It
Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) is a shy, introvert, straight A student with Chinese roots. She and her dad don’t have a lot of money, so she writes essays and sells these to her fellow students. One day, she finds herself helping the school jock, Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer), writing love letters for his crush Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire), who is one of the most popular girls in school. Because of his feelings for Aster, Paul really wants to do his best to grow as a person. In addition, purely out of instinct, he becomes the friend that Ellie needs to crawl out of her shell. Throughout the love letters Ellie writes she knows how to give Aster a crush on Paul, not knowing about the feelings she’ll get for Aster.
This film isn’t the typical romantic love story you may expect it to be. It’s more than just ‘who gets the girl’. It’s about friendship, self-love and being yourself. You see the cooperation of writing letters between Ellie and Paul growing into a friendship. Because the story focuses on Ellie, Paul and Aster the characters become more interesting and you’ll find much more depth in their personalities.
That's it for this month's film recommendations blog. I hope you liked it and found some inspiration to watch. Currently I’m watching all the 10 Tarantino films in order and maybe I’ll do another film blog this month where I analyze the Tarantino films. But since school is going to start next week, it depends on how much schoolwork I have to do.
Make sure to cheack out the previous films and series blog here!
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