Change Your Image
Goatbeyondhope
Reviews
Les misérables (1995)
A very special experience.
This is a truly beautiful film, remarkable for it's simple elegance in unraveling the story of it's principal characters which belies the many complex layers that lie underneath, as Hugo's original characters make their increasing presence felt as the story progresses. It would be highly advantageous to have a good grasp of the characters and plot/line of Hugo's "Les Miserables" in advance of watching the film in order to fully appreciate the universality and agelessness of the human situations which are re-encountered in this particular World War II setting. Both Hugo's novel and the film fully empathize with our universal human experience, and what are still the central concerns of our lives: pleasure & pain, the love and hate present in our relationships, and at the most fundamental level, simple survival. It can leave the viewer personally identifying one moment with Jean-Valjean, and yet in the next with Fantine or Cosette, and inevitably (disturbingly), with Javert. This is an exquisite exploration and contrast of our human capacities both to bring about almost unlimited destruction, and to build life and inextinguishable hope. Very special.
One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975)
Remember what it was like just to laugh?
This was one of the most memorable films of my childhood, and I hadn't seen it since it came out in the cinema in England when I was seven years old, until I was given a DVD of it again today, thirty-one years later. Although today it didn't have me rolling in the aisles or have me doing Peter Ustinov impressions for hours afterward like it did back then, it still was a charmer, and it was simply just fun to watch. It deliberately encapsulates a bit of the paradoxically innocent yet bigoted flavor of England back in those times, and there are many little delicate touches for those with an appreciation for the idiosyncrasies of the English. Peter Ustinov is perfectly cast to be given license to run amok with his non-politically-correct character, considering he was one of the most well-read, culturally-sensitive intellectuals of his generation. (Check out HIS Bio!) It's certainly all about him. Overacting? I'd say "playing it broad" instead, and yet with real skill. Ustinov was a master raconteur on many subjects: political, cultural, and musical, and his comedic timing was also very acute. I think it shows. Is this film racist? Well, it certainly couldn't have been produced by Walt Disney in today's social climate, but I'd say rather that it is really a grand romp in satire, made at a time when we could more easily laugh at ourselves and each other, and forgive a little easier too. Sure it's completely "wrong" that the Chinese guys are actually played by Europeans in make-up. But the very joke lies in just how much a parody this "Chinese" make-up actually is, and how no-one is remotely intended to be fooled. Paraphrasing lines of Ustinov's (Chinese) character explains this perfectly: "How can you tell Europeans apart? They all look the same...those eyes." The film left me with the wistful feeling and hope that here was the England and these were the kinds of adventures that we had when we were children. (How dearly I would still love to run around with a squad of Great British Nannies or Chinese Agents looking for a microfilm on the Diplodocus in the Natural History Museum.) It's a wonderful time to look back to, even if it probably only ever existed in imagination. Sadly, the once-free-to-wander-in- during-our-summer-holidays Natural History Museum now charges a hefty admission fee. And that's a fact.