Brassed Off
Tonight You Belong To Me
(Source: gnrly)
Having received the wonderful, and highly under appreciated*, Karate Kid boxset for my birthday two weeks ago, I was reminded of, and would like to draw everyone’s attention to, Sweep the Leg Johnny with J Daly’s Message to Jacob and Sylvia.
*because you can never appreciate a classic (cult or otherwise) too much
Buffalo ‘66; King Crimson - Moonchild
A Telephone Call Away - Bill and Kori Withers. A beautiful little segment from the documentary Still Bill (2009).
I love both Woody Allen and Charlie Chaplin. I find their films uplifting, moving, and very real (couple exceptions, obviously). And their approaches to Romantic Comedy are, for old material oddly enough, refreshing after all the dozens and dozens of “chick-flicks” that have essentially polluted this genre. The formulaic rom-coms today are aimed almost entirely at the female market, and I think that this is a mistake.
Firstly, the best films in the genre come from men, and secondly, whilst still filling that category, are two very different kinds of filmmakers - this not only shows that they can tug all the right heart strings at the right time, but they broaden the genre away from the formulaic mess the “chick-flick” is making it seem to be.
Romantic Comedies don’t have to be one dimensional. They can be articulate and layered in substance.
On another matter however, using my two filmmaker examples, I have something of a confession to make:
Whilst watching most any of their pictures for the first time, I found that they tended to drag a fair bit. However, the ends of all of their films (notably The Great Dictator and Manhattan) were so incredibly moving that, for me, the entire film reaches perfection. A similar case I had of this recently was Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise.
On second viewings, and more, I am in love start to finish - but I wonder if that is because of the anticipation in knowing the end, or that now I can appreciate all the elements leading up to it? I believe it might be the latter. Character development doesn’t happen immediately. The end of any film allows you to find out who these people, whom you just spent the last 1hr30 getting to know, really are. And once you know and you go back, you not only understand how and why they became that person, but can choose to want another life for them or choose to relax in knowing that everything will be alright.
That dimension of the film and the story is created where you now know these people better than you know yourself. You don’t know the end to you story. You don’t know how to suddenly make a change and be okay with it.
The problem with the chick-flick and the formula is that you know the ending before you’ve ever met the characters. It doesn’t matter how they got there either. The profession will change, but little else.
Cannot for the life of me work out why this came to mind, but it’s a classic! Featured in the 1992 film of the same title, from 1959, this is The Clovers with Love Potion No.9
