Yogi's Movie Consumption Blog

An over-ambitious police officer is relocated to the countryside where he soon finds himself on the trails of a brutal murderer. I watched this on a popcorn night but nevertheless I couldn't quite enjoy it like Shaun of the Dead. It has its funny parts, but somehow the story felt a bit too contrived. Instead I wanted to give a shot at analyzing the camera positioning/editing: the first scene in the police department. I am becoming interested in shoot-reverse-shot scenes and alternatives to them, so maybe it's good to start with a standard setup. The scene is important as it is presents the protagonist with his big obstacle - being transferred to the country side. The viewer learns that officer Angel is quite oblivious and stubborn. His character traits will get him into loads of trouble later in the story. (He still felt a bit flat, though) Here is the setup as I see it: (click to enlarge) C1, C2 are closeups - one whip pan on C2/OS2 OS1, OS2 are over the should...

A tour guide, living in Yemen is slowly warming to the revolution in his country. McAllister's answer in the QA session was quite revealing: He builds his documentaries about specific characters he is looking for. There is a frankness in Keis' behavior that lets the filmmaker look at a pretty intimate level at the sarcastic tour guide, whose business is lost to the maelstrom of revolution, repression and kidnappings. I was quite impressed by the film, but after leaving the cinema I found myself thinking about too many unanswered questions. I had the feeling that the filmmaker had a really hard time to get Keis' transformation across in the editing room - he just plays it too cool - and had to resort to pretty shocking pictures and some rather cutcutcut editing. The film seems to end a bit abrupt after Keis inner change.  I was also wondering if the Khat that these people are endlessly chewing is some kind of 1984-ish downer to keep everybody happy, non-violent and ...

A middle-aged woman meets falls passionately in love with a man she briefly meets. The film has a strong ending, but I had trouble getting into it in the beginning. This might also have to do with the lead role - she was too much a victim I thought. After a long while I could start to understand her struggle with her "real" life. What I really liked was how the back and forth transitions between her memories and her present situation worked. It seemed there weren't too much and not too few. And the ending with her husband welcoming her "home" was quite impressive. There are some really amazing shots of trains arriving in the station, especially at the beginning and just before the end.

A betrayed remote family member of the Duke of Asgoyne murders his way to the top of the inheritance succession. An extremely amusing story - the comedy comes a lot from the comedic variations on the same kind of difficult action (ie killing the next relative in line) - watching the actors was a delight and some of the impersonations of Alec Guiness were jaw-dropping, especially the old priest, slightly senile and the "fool of the family". The open ending helped me to keep the tension and fresh in memory. There seems to have been a different ending in the US, which I haven't seen, but was supposed to give "moral" closure, as crime was not allow to pay back then.

An upcoming ballet star has to decide between her career and her heart. The theater behind-the-stage liveliness and the dance sequences are beautifully filmed and haven't aged at all (some of the special effects have) - the visual interpretation of Victoria Page's psychological state expressed through her dance is marvelous without feeling forced. The build-up to the story took quite long and some of the essential love story moments were only hinted at - I wonder why. Camerawork is generally fantastic and I can hardly remember a film being so colorful except maybe some of Kurosawa's later work.