A POST ON CHARACTER REGARDING JEAN LUC GODARD'S 'DÉTECTIVE':

If there ever was an example given that proves the old saying "too many cooks spoil the broth", it must be given in the form of looking at Jean-Luc Godard's 1985 film Détective. It sounds good on paper, a simple detective story with an integrated plot through different groups of people, hence me purchasing the film a mere week after watching Au Bout De Souffle (an example of an amazingly unique piece of art from JLG).

The reality is, this film sucked.
I got to about half way through the film, paused to take a sip of my drink, and in that second of drink-sipping, had a moment of clarity. I was 40 minutes into the film and had no idea what was going on. Well, I lie, I knew the basics, could distinguish between the different time periods, flashbacks and so on, however it was the lack of affection and connection with the characters that made me feel an almost distance between me and the film, almost that I felt like I couldn't watch the film due to not having the slightest clue about the character of anyone in the film.

One of my main pleasures in watching films is connecting to the characters. I think it's such a vital part of any film, and in this genre particular, detective films, half of the fun is playing the guessing game throughout the film of who killed who. It was simply impossible in this film to get any enjoyment from the (many) scenes where two characters discuss their lives and thoughts and the problem, in my opinion, is the sheer quantity of dry characters.

When comparing this film to Pedro Almodovar's Women on The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, a film with many characters surrounding the central plot, we see just how much the development of characters contrasts. WOTVOANB is an amazing film to look at in terms of character development and control, with the characters lives capturing yours for the 85 minutes of the film (10 mins shorter that Détective, can I just point out).

Nathalie Baye, Johnny Hallyday & Jean-Luc Godard

 This film was only just over an hour and a half long, and, although I state the character development is flawed, the film itself did not drag on at all. The framing of a lot of the shots were aesthetically pleasing, and let's be real, I have a weakness for the French language.. which counts as a legitimate reason, right?
All joking aside, the film paced itself decently, and I feel an extra ten, fifteen minutes at the start, introducing the audience to the characters in an engaging and natural way would have benefitted the film hugely, and changed my opinion on the film in general.

I'm not 100% sure whether JLG was given an embarrassingly bad script to work with, or if he made the decision for some obscure creative reason, but all in all, in my opinion the films big potential was definitely not achieved. I have a massive respect for JLG as a director, and in no way will this film be putting me off researching and watching more of his films, but hey, i'm just shooting the messenger auteur.

OSCAR 2013 RECAP:

Right, I've sat down at my desk and told myself I'm not leaving until I finish my blog post about the Oscars in hopes of actually finishing a post in under 3 hours for once, so here goes. This is just going to be some opinions on the awards (although not many are controversial as I think this year the academy picked nearly perfectly!), and general rambling about the films involved, it could be a long one, though, so grab yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy the post!

I'm assuming if you're reading this, you know the Oscar winners already, if not, a link to them is here. I don't want to spoil anybody's fun if you couldn't watch last night and are planning to catch up.

How could I start off talking about last night's events without mentioning Anne Hathaway. I think everybody secretly knew that she was going to get the Oscar for her destroyingly perfect portrayal of Fantine in Les Miserables, however when the nominations for best supporting actress were being called out, and the clips were playing, I realised how amazing every actress was and the nerves kicked in. I was obviously rooting for Anne and was overjoyed when my worries were put at rest. She accepted her

award as gracefully as ever, with a beautiful speech starting with a heartbreaking 'It came true...', alluding to her constant efforts finally being rewarded, fulfilling a dream she has had since starting her acting career.

Her acceptance speech went on beautifully for several minutes, with her thanking everybody under the moon it seemed. Concluding her speech with a reference to the struggles of her character, Anne Hathaway proved her class and appreciation of getting the chance to beautifully portray the persona of a broken person so truly, and showed that she is aware that although Les Miserables is set in the 19th century French Revolution, people much like Fantine are still struggling with everyday life.

"Here's hoping that some day in the not to distant future, the misfortunes of Fantine will only be found in stories and nevermore in real life"

Perhaps my happiest moment of the ceremony last night was seeing Christoph Waltz be honoured with an award for his hilariously flawless portrayal of Dr. Schultz in Tarantino's Django Unchained.  

As one of my all-time favourite actors, Christoph Waltz was obviously who I was cheering on to win, and as the first winner to be announced, the Oscar's were kick started into an epic night of emotion and pride of the industry and art form that I have dedicated my life to. This was second year of winning this award in a Tarantino film for Christoph Waltz and his first thank you was dedicated sincerely to the genius director himself.

Now, if there is a controversial point that shows my disagreement with the Academy, it is the fact that Quentin Tarantino was not up for the Best Director award. Django was my film of the year. Hands down. As a self-confessed huge Tarantino fan, there may be some unknown bias inside somewhere, but the film had no flaws at all in my eyes. The cinematography, the casting, the EVERYTHING. If there is one director who knows how to get everything right when making a film, it is most definitely Quentin Tarantino, and boy, did he get it right with Django. 

However, I'm open to accept that the Academy had some reason to pick the other (wonderful, don't get me wrong) directors over Tarantino this year, and his best original screenplay award was definitely something I was undoubtedly sure he would receive.   

Now, I'm afraid I'm going to get a little British on you for a moment. Previous to this year's 85th Academy Awards, the James Bond franchise (50 years of films) had only received 7 nominations and 2 awards. I was absolutely thrilled to find out that in one year alone the franchise doubled the amount of awards and picked up two more. Sound editing was a rather uneventful award, aside from the fact that it was a tie pick and there were two winners, and the real excitement was in Adele and Paul Epworth winning the award for best original song. It was not exactly unexpected, with the whole of the film world/music world/general world basically coming to the conclusion as soon as the nominations were announced that she would win it, however, from a British point of view, the pride of seeing her stood up there with her non-proper accent, representing the working class of Britain, was enough to make my night.

I've rambled enough, I feel, and I know I haven't even mentioned the big winners such as Argo & Life of Pi, however the films, directors and actors mentioned here are ones who I have been rooting for, my personal favourites, and the ones I am more than happy for. 

Well, I guess that's another Oscar year over, and by that I mean another year of staying up until 5am and watching the live stream, then having to get up three hours later for a 9am lecture at university.

Fun, fun, fun.