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| Let the Right One In |
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Sunday, 12 May 2013
Thursday, 9 May 2013
Tuesday, 7 May 2013
Movie of the Week - Layer Cake
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| Layer Cake |
First of all, just a quick update on the blog. If you're a regular here then you may have noticed some change in the design of this blog. I've given Ramble Film a makeover, simplifying the overall look of it and making it neater and tidier. As for the incredibly short Movie of the Week post, this running feature is going to be cut down drastically. Quite frankly, I'm not finding the time to write these sorts of posts these days. Not only that but they were becoming a bit of a chore. So, from now on each Movie of the Week will be a simple picture, like the image above. Just to be clear, this represents last week's Movie of the Week. I'll be back tomorrow with this week's.
Wednesday, 24 April 2013
Movie of the Week - In Bruges
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| In Bruges |
In Bruges was one of those films I saw with absolutely no knowledge of it before going in. Therefore, it was not so much a pleasant surprise, but it was certainly satisfying to see and enjoy a film I knew nothing about. To be honest, going into a film like that does alter your overall experience. There's no doubt I would have a slightly dissimilar (if at all) view of In Bruges if I had seen it knowing what I was signing up for.
Set in Bruges, Belgian (shocking, I know), In Bruges was written and directed by Martin McDonagh (Seven Psychopaths). The British black comedy stars Colin Farrell and Brenden Gleeson, two Irish hitmen in hiding, with Ralph Fiennes as their gangster boss. Their boss' instructions are to travel to Bruges and await further instruction. This is much to the pleasure of Ken (Gleeson), but Ray (Farrell) couldn't be more bored. That is, until he meets Chloë (Clémence Poésy), a local drug dealer and thief moonlighting as a production assistant on a local film set.
The film has quite a few parallels to Harold Pinter's one-act play The Dumb Waiter and the film Don't Look Now (1973). During In Bruges, Chloë talks about the idea of a film-within-a-film, and the film set featured in the film is an homage to this. On top of this, Ken and Ray visit the Groeningemuseum and observe Hieronymus Bosch's painting The Last Judgement. Elements of the painting are represented in the film-within-a-film with the costumes that the actors are wearing, symbolising Bruges as heaven, purgatory and/or hell.
[SPOILERS! If you have yet to see the film, then skip to the next paragraph.] Later on, Ken can be seen watching the beginning of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958). This film has a three-minute continuous shot of a car bombing. Following this, Ken receives a phone call from his boss, instructing him to assassinate Ray. On the other end of the line, Harry's (Fiennes) desk and home office is very similar to that of the Corleone family's in The Godfather (1972).
Released in early 2008, In Bruges received highly positive reviews from the critics. Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, saying "This film debut by the theater writer and director Martin McDonagh is an endlessly surprising, very dark, human comedy, with a plot that cannot be foreseen but only relished." Tasha Robinson of The A.V. Club also praised the film, giving it an "A-" grade, lauding the performances of the main cast: "Farrell, having successfully made the transition from over-exposed-yet-underutilized action-thriller star to one-film-a-year artiste, gets a lot to work with, and he sells it all flawlessly, moving convincingly from offhanded, prickly asshole mode to nervous young lover to disintegrating martyr," and that "then again, all the leads are perfectly cast, and they help turn a light farce with thriller overtones into something deeper and sweeter."
In Bruges was nominated for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy at the 66th Golden Globes, while both Brenden Gleeson and Colin Farrell were nominated for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, of which Farrell won. Furthermore, McDonagh won Best Original Screenplay at the 62nd BAFTAs. The film was also nominated for the Best Original Screenplay award at the 81st Academy Awards, but lost to Milk (2008).
Since its successful release, the film has garnered that of a cult status.
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