Mondo Marhaug: A Film Diary 1
Norwegian artist Lasse Marhaug is known for his torrential output of harsh noise albums, both solo and with Jazkamer, and for his excellent Pica Disc label. But few people are aware that he is as passionate about movies as he is about music. Twice a month, Lasse checks in with a wrap-up of what he’s been viewing.
*****
HARRY BROWN (2010)
A retelling of the DEATH WISH vigilante story. One man’s had enough of the violence in his neighbourhood and takes actions against the punks. This time it’s Michael Caine starts killing off the local teenage hoodlums, after they kill his best friend. Caine gives a good performance (as always), but HARRY BROWN is shot with hand-held camera, drained of colour, trying to convey some sort of ’social realism’ on us, which for me doesn’t work. I liked the recent DEATH SENTENCE better. And if you’re new to the genre watch DEATH WISH 3 first. That’s a masterpiece of vigilante cinema.
IT MIGHT GET LOUD (2008)
Jimmy Page hooks up with The Edge and Jack White to talk about the guitar and jam a little. In between we get segments where each guitarist talks about how they started out. The Jack White segments are as suspected dull; he drives around with a nine year old kid portraying himself as a kid. (Would have been better with Kermit from the Muppet Show). The Edge comes across as a pedal-freak, showing us his huge rack of pedals and effects that creates that famous bland U2-sound. Watching his segments I started to wonder when is the Republic of Ireland going to publicly apologize for U2? It’s long overdue. The Jimmy Page segments are worth seeing your time though. We see him listening to old 7” singles (he’s got quite a record collection it seems) and talking about how Led Zeppelin started out. The best bit is in the middle of the end credits, when Page is shown making crazy noise with a theremin saying ”it might not have six strings, but it’s a lot of fun”. If The Edge and Jack White were replaced with Keiji Haino and Keith Rowe this would have been a great film. And I wonder when someone is going to make a proper Zeppelin docu.
THE BOOK OF ELI (2010)
Denzel Washington in a post-apocalyptic western directed by the Hughes brothers. Didn’t exactly sound like dynamite on paper. But MAD MAX 2 being my favorite action film I’ll watch anything post-apocalyptic, so I gave this one a chance. BOOK OF ELI has some decent action pieces, but overall comes across as a two-hour advertisement for the bible and iPods. This current trend of draining half the colour out of the picture has to stop. It just looks lame. Black and white for people who are afraid of black and white. And the plot-twist at the end is supposed to be clever, but is not. Book of crap.
ZERO FOCUS (1961)
Japanese Hitchcockian black and white thriller from director Yoshitaro Nomura. Newly wedded woman must go search for her husband who mysteriously disappears in wintery northern Japan. Turns out her husband had some dark secrets. Being a big Hitchcock fan I found this well-made film quite enjoyable. A 30 minute wrap-up with long flashback sequences shouldn’t work, but does.
DOGTOOTH (2009)
Brilliant film from Greek director Giorgos Lanthimos. Father and mother keeps their three teenage kids isolated from the world in their desolate country estate. Of course when teenage hormones starts running amok it can’t last and things will go wrong. Long carefully composed static takes, lack of a music score, great performances and a bold script makes this one of the best new films I’ve seen in a long time. I’m reminded of another Greek family-themed film; the fantastic SINGAPORE SLING (1990). DOGTOOTH is a must see.
Tags: Book of Eli, Denzel Washington, Dogtooth, Giorgos Lethimos, Harry Brown, It Might Get Loud, Jack White, Jazkamer, Jimmy Page, Keiji Haino, Lasse Marhaug, Led Zeppelin, Mad Max 2, Michael Caine, Singapore Sling, The Edge, theremin, Zero Focus
Lasse, you are my new favorite movie reviewer.
Just saw DOGTOOTH as well — especially amazing because it achieves that tense atmosphere of “anything can truly happen” and preserves that feeling by totally not exploiting or abusing it. The balance of the untold/unseen is just as strong (don’t want to get into details too much for fear of spoilers, but keep an eye out for all sorts of weird peripheral signs).
Why not just review good and/or interesting movies? Why devote space to crappy films, like BOOK and LOUD? At least be extra-clever if you’re going to confess to wasted time. Stick to your day-job!
“Why devote space to crappy films”
exactly, there are only a couple of megabytes left on the internet, use them wisely.