Films - 2/06 - 8/06
Films of the week:
"Zodiac"
Set in California in the 1970s, a geeky cartoonist at the San Francisco chronicle, the newspaper through which a serial killer called the Zodiac communicates with the people, gets interested in the case. After the case is off the mediatic spotlight unresolved, he continues the research on this own account.
Much like "Fight Club" and "Se7en", this is a very masculine film. Unlike modern crime shows, where solving a crime is the work of large forensic teams who work in labs and with mice-free computers, this is very much the personal work of teams of partners. Two-men cops who drive to the crime scene together in the same car. The other dimension here is the press room. The film is quite successful in controlling very carefully the tension - emphasizing the banality of the job where necessary, and the excitement and suspense of a thriller where merited.
However at the end of the film, I didn't find myself saying - "That was excellent". Just the feeling that it was worth the watch.
The "that was excellent!" was reserved this week for "Grindhouse - Death Proof".
THis is almost a deconstruction, in 2 parts, of the notion of sweet-revenge. The act of seeing someone being bashed to death can be very satisfying, even amusing, if one empathizes with the victim. The empathy here is created in a very transparent fashion. Firstly by, in the 1st part of the film, developing succinctly the character of the bad-guy - not going into details but convincing us that this chap would be no great loss. Then, proceeding on to develop, in the 2nd part of the film, the characters of the chosen ones... this time more personal, through interaction and dialogue.
Once the legitimacy has been established with the audience, the action - attack and counter-attack.
If anything, just the meticulousness and sophistication with which the exploitation films were referenced through the photography and editing make the film worth watching.
"Zodiac"
Set in California in the 1970s, a geeky cartoonist at the San Francisco chronicle, the newspaper through which a serial killer called the Zodiac communicates with the people, gets interested in the case. After the case is off the mediatic spotlight unresolved, he continues the research on this own account.
Much like "Fight Club" and "Se7en", this is a very masculine film. Unlike modern crime shows, where solving a crime is the work of large forensic teams who work in labs and with mice-free computers, this is very much the personal work of teams of partners. Two-men cops who drive to the crime scene together in the same car. The other dimension here is the press room. The film is quite successful in controlling very carefully the tension - emphasizing the banality of the job where necessary, and the excitement and suspense of a thriller where merited.
However at the end of the film, I didn't find myself saying - "That was excellent". Just the feeling that it was worth the watch.
The "that was excellent!" was reserved this week for "Grindhouse - Death Proof".
THis is almost a deconstruction, in 2 parts, of the notion of sweet-revenge. The act of seeing someone being bashed to death can be very satisfying, even amusing, if one empathizes with the victim. The empathy here is created in a very transparent fashion. Firstly by, in the 1st part of the film, developing succinctly the character of the bad-guy - not going into details but convincing us that this chap would be no great loss. Then, proceeding on to develop, in the 2nd part of the film, the characters of the chosen ones... this time more personal, through interaction and dialogue.
Once the legitimacy has been established with the audience, the action - attack and counter-attack.
If anything, just the meticulousness and sophistication with which the exploitation films were referenced through the photography and editing make the film worth watching.