OK, so clearly there’s not been an awful lot of movie-watching going on, what with the World Cup and all on our very doorstep. Hence another look at what’s coming at us down the pipe. Inception looks awesome.
Mind-shifting thriller. Tick. Ellen Page. Tick. Joseph Gordon Levitt. Tick. Music by Hans Zimmer. Tick. Christopher Nolan directs. Tick tick tick. Oh, I am so looking forward to this one….
Body of Lies is a strange film that’s handicapped to a degree by the fact that its two towering leads – diCaprio and Crowe – conduct most of their interactions telephonically.
DiCaprio plays Roger Ferris, a CIA operative in Iraq who’s distinguished from his fellow countrymen by actually liking the Middle East and Middle Easterners generally. But in spite of his fervour and relative decency, Ferris is continually undermined by his boss (Russell Crowe), a lard-ass cynic who observes and controls Ferris’ every move via real-time images from a high altitude spyplane. This way he also fucks up Ferris’ more sensitive relationships – budding girlfriend, Jordanian spy chief, Arab stoolpigeon, that kind of thing. The plot such as it is revolves around attempts to lure out a shady Bin Laden-ish recluse, mostly by prodding his ego via the creation of a fake rival terror outfit. Frankly they could have made a really good hour-and-a-half movie about that subplot alone.
Sam Mendes. Kate Winslow. See? I am not always low brow.
In Revolutionary Road, the lovers of Titanic grow up and settle in the suburban precursor to American Beauty. It’s all picket fences, and grey commutes and cigarettes and martinis and shagging the secretary / next-door-neighbour. Prison with tupperware and a manicured lawn.
April (Winslow) – not exactly altruistically – imagines getting out and running away to France. But Hubby Frank (diCaprio) gets a promotion and April falls pregnant, which completely scuppers the idealistic plans. And then comes a small scene when an acquaintance’s son comes for lunch. He’s on home leave from a mental institution, and we discover his real handicap is telling the truth. With merciless cruelty, he chops through the Wheeler’s facade and mocks their delusions. It’s a wrecking ball to their fragile marriage.
I found Revolutionary Road painful to watch. I’ve spent too much of my own life wishing I was somewhere else entirely (mentally pulling an Edvard Munch) not to identify with the protagonists. For what it’s worth, the movie shot in wealthy Connecticut, in the dormitory suburb of Darien – a town where the median property price is now a million dollars, where blacks and Jews were once notoriously excluded. There are other links and pictures and maps from the film at the Filmmaps site, and there’s a nice insider take on being in the running to be “that house” at Matrix Real Estate.
Maybe it’s Leonardo month on DSTV, but this week’s Sunday Night Movie was Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond. Set in the shocking chaos of a West African civil war, a poor fisherman (Djimon Hounsou) is enslaved by rebel forces and made to pan for the diamonds that essentially are funding the insurrection. Having found a diamond the size of a bird’s egg, he is thrown a lifeline by a cunning ex-Rhodesian (Leonardo di Caprio) who offers to help him reunite his family and escape from the war.
Blood Diamond is an interesting movie; its portrayal of the pandemonium of anarchy is startling, and it inspires genuine horror and dismay. It’s also a pretty thrilling roller coaster ride, as the pair race to retrieve the diamond and rescue the family.
Although there was an attempt to film in Sierra Leone, there isn’t sufficient film-making infrastructure to support a project of this size. Therefore the producers turned South, with South Africa and Mozambique (serviced from KZN) doing the honours. As usual, Emmanuel Levy records the choices and impacts of filming quite beautifully; I love his thorough and insightful reports on on-location filming.
The city of Maputo doubled for Sierra Leone’s capital city, Freetown. Filming the explosive fall of Freetown presented a range of logistical challenges to the entire production team. The director points out that it took careful coordination to achieve utter turmoil. He explains, “It had to appear chaotic, but you cannot do that chaotically. It required extensive planning and focus. I can’t remember how many times we walked those streets, discussing the exact positioning of the cameras, the cast, the stunt people, the extras…”
On a smaller scale – though perhaps of greater importance to Film Commissioners trying to justify their efforts based on economic impacts – the biggest South African beneficiary, according to Cape Town Magazine, was the sleepy KZN town of Port Edward:
Gary Bentley of Margate resort Surfspray Cottages, who has not only secured a role in the movie, but has scored with his business, too.
It was a bumper season for Bentley last Christmas when the production team rented his resort for the first three months of pre-production. Bentley cashed in on his famous guests by advertising their stay on his website, attracting several others to the resort….
…..The Port Edward hardware store has improved its turnover by 15% since the crew arrived. Local electricians, plumbers and builders are also reaping the economic benefits.
Anyway, that was Blood Diamond. My only real complaint: I just couldn’t get beyond Leonardo di Caprio’s appalling mashing of the white African accent. It’s not that difficult, honestly, so how come the stars always get it so badly wrong? (Michael Caine once played FW de Klerk in a cockney drawl, having given up on even trying to get it right.)
But there is one more thing. As if by magic, Andrew Sullivan linked this morning to a story by Edward Jay Epstein in the February 1982 edition of The Atlantic – it’s called Have You Ever Tried To Sell A Diamond? and it is a truly outrageous account of the total and utter manipulation of the international diamond trade over the last half century by the South African corporation De Beers. It’s a must read.
Martin Scorsese’s excellent The Departed was on TV the other night. Set in Boston, the violent tale revolves around a gangster (played smarmy by local boy Matt Damon) who infiltrates the police department and a cop (aced flat and hard by Leonardo DiCaprio) who infiltrates the gangs. When it becomes clear that there’s a mole in each of the organisations, there’s a frantic, bloody race to unveil the culprits.
Boston has recently played location for a slate of top end movies - The Verdict, Good Will Hunting and Mystic River to name but a few. And as the Boston Movie Tours company notes, in this movie “There are some awesome Boston shots and the movie bleeds Boston.”
And in a case of art meeting life, the 2005 Boston Movie Tours black-and-red brochure apparently made it into a scene in the movie; you can apparently glimpse it on the counter behind Vera Farmiga as she’s moving in to Matt Damon’s apartment (in fact the top floor of Suffolk University Law at 120 Tremont Street, Boston.)
I love that.
