Cinematic Foreplay

I love the description of the time you have to wait before a director reveals the monster as "cinematic foreplay":

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/05/17/godzilla_2014_shows_the_monster_an_hour_in_does_it_work_the_data_on_how.html

Having recently watched Pacific Rim I agree with del Toro's comments about his film: it started with a climax and built up from there.

It's also good to see the mention of Night of the Demon. 

I'd read about this and had to hunt it down, but it was definitely worth the search.  I think it would have been far better if the monster had not appeared in the first scene: our imagination is always far more effective than anything a director can show - especially in a film that was made far before the pre-digital age.

The Woman in Black is another recent example where there is a significant delay before we see the monster/ghost - and the delay builds up the tension. 

It also occurred to me that the final sequence at the station might be a deliberate echo/tribute to Night of the Demon.

Cannes Film Festival

Seven years go I attended the Cannes Film Festival for the first time.  My then-employer was a major sponsor and each year there were a few tickets provided for employees.  In most years the tickets were handed out after a ballot of interested parties - so there was little chance of winning - but this year the company decided to set up a blogging competition.  I was one of the winners - and I haven't stopped yet.

The organising team were more keen to tell us about the logistics  for the trip, but they could not answer my first question: what screening were we due to attend?  So many films now regarded as masterpieces received their first screening at Cannes, but sadly what we saw was Les Chansons d'Amour:

I didn't manage to find a single review of it and inevitably it did not feature in any of the awards.

I still read all the reviews from Cannes avidly, and sometimes enjoy a good review of a bad film rather than a rave about a masterpiece.  This year Peter Bradshaw's description of Grace of Monaco featuring performances so wooden that they were a fire risk made me laugh our loud several times:

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/may/14/grace-of-monaco-cannes-review-nicole-kidman
 

Best Adaptations of Novels

I think it was Phillip Pullman who commented on the close relationship between novels and cinema, in that both genres have the ability to direct the viewer/reader to what the director/author wants to focus on - as opposed to the the theatre where the audience is free to concentrate on whatever it wants to.

Thus it's interesting to see such a range of novels in this list of the best adaptations:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/books-life/6166774/25-best-book-to-film-adaptations.html

It's difficult to argue with most of them, and I'm particularly pleased to see The Remains of the Day, which I thought was one of the best adaptations ever, on the list.  It's also good to see the Harry Potter films as well as The Lord of the Rings trilogy included: both of these were epic in every sense of the word.

the only addition I'd like to make is to propose Notes on a Scandal, which is a brilliant version of an excellent novel that at first reading seems impossible to adapt.

 

Are these the best shots in cinema?

I like the idea of someone collecting the best shots in cinema and have just followed Geoff Todd on Twitter:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/10807513/Are-these-the-15-best-shots-in-cinema.html

I have David Thomson's Moments That Made the Movies on my shelf and I dip into it from time - it's that kind of book.

His slection of films is eclectic, although it does include the usual suspects.  But what makes it intersting is the choice of image to represent each film.  Some of them are truly unexpected.  It's an excellent book

I enjoyed Star Wars, but...

I enjoyed Star Wars and the two sequels in the original trilogy, but Doctor Who has always been my favourite sci-fi/fantasy saga - and the Doctor would have sorted out Darth Vader in two 45 minute episodes.

I'd  read about the influence of Kurosawa on the story in previous articles and had also clocked the Casablanca reference (although I'd also thought there was a little of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe in it), but this fascinating article lists ten films that influenced George Lucas:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/star-wars/10817059/10-films-that-influenced-Star-Wars.html

I particularly liked the weird parallels with The Wizard of Oz - although I preferred Zardoz.