29 August 2003
Sometimes I think the fates conspire against me. I’ve seen Once Upon a Time in America on DVD in my local MVC, and have been sorely tempted to buy it. I haven’t, mainly because I have a terrible suspicion that this actually the best gangster film ever, a hidden gem, and that’s a lot to live up to. So when I go to the Apple trailers site, I don’t need to be greeted by two films with similar titles: Once Upon a Time in Mexico , and In America . But of them, more, and later.
(Ooh, new URLs at the IMDb . And another one missed. It’ll be back with a bang next week, never fear.)
The trailer for The Holy Land is a deceptive little bugger. It boasts about winning the Grand Jury prize at the Slamdance film festival. Note that’s Slamdance, not the infinitely more prestigious Sundance film festival. It loses points for being old (it hails from 2001), and having the infinitely annoying gravel-voiced voiceover dude.
Oh, that and it appears to be an entirely predictable romance against society, with the male character trying to find himself. Yuh-awn.
And while we’re on that theme, the trailer for The Four Feathers isn’t available at the Apple site, but also contains such a voiceover and would appear to be an even worse film (I saw the trailer when I went to see Whale Rider and Igby Goes Down ).
Hafið is a title I didn’t dare put into my plain-text description (I never know how to transliterate the ð — is it ‘th,’ or is there more to it than that?). Now this was an Official Selection at Sundance. The trailer did nothing particularly wrong, apart from when the old woman does the ‘kaboom’ thing and the similar text to the Far From Heaven trailer at the end, but nothing very right, either.
Doesn’t Émilie Dequenne look different in Une femme de ménage from Le pacte des loups ?
Thirteen (trailer) is a film I’ve been interested in for a while, mostly out of idle speculation borne from reading Holly Hunter’s filmography. It stars Evan Rachel Wood of S1m0ne fame — and I use that word advisedly, because S1m0ne was a poor film — and co-writer Nikki Reed (only fourteen!). What it shows is how fucked up high-school social dynamics are, in a documentary stylee, with talented actresses. Looking forward to it.
Sometimes I wonder if Robert Rodriguez really does have only one idea. Once Upon a Time in Mexico (trailer) is also called Desperado II, which in turn was El Mariachi 2.
A potted history here: El Mariachi was an independent film success, to put it mildly. With just $7,000, Rodriguez made a fun action film that grabbed the attention of Hollywood execs — who, incidentally, don’t know jack. As the title of his book implies, that was what he wanted to do: become a ‘Hollywood player’ rather than, I dunno, tell stories with pictures and sound?
Anyway, three years later he made a sequel, Desperado, that had a decent cast and was another action film that was just fine, nothing special, nothing disastrous. Since then he’s made From Dusk Till Dawn , a — you guessed it — fun action film. Credit to the man for versatility, though: this one had zombies. Since then blah Spy Kids blah Spy Kids 2 blah Spy Kids 3-D .
We all know what to expect from Rodriguez: sequels, guns, guitars, and explosions. This is exactly what Once Upon a Time in Mexico has and is.
In America (trailer) is considerably more interesting. Yet another Sundance selection, I should hate it, because it’s ‘Oirish’ and films that play on ethnicity are usually terrible. An yet, and yet…it’s directed by Jim Sheridan, of My Left Foot fame (that got Daniel Day-Lewis his first Oscar) and it stars Samantha Morton, who was excellent in Morvern Callar . Also, it veers close to cloying sentimentality, but manages to avoid it. I realise this is only a trailer, but if you were going for that market, you’d pack the trailer with it, right?
Well done, you’ve read this far. Now for the real gold. Via Tagline, I present to you: the trailer for Wonderful Days .
I literally knew nothing about this when I downloaded it. Thanks to my vast film knowledge, I noticed almost instantly that it was anime. Now Miyazaki aside, I don’t like anime, and this wasn’t a particularly Miyazaki-esque trailer.
This film is gorgeous. Thanks to the downloadable press pack, I can tell you that it’s been five years in the making and is the most expensive Korean film ever, thanks to its ‘Multimation’ technology, which blends CGI, miniatures, and 2D cell animation.
I have a nasty suspicion that this film could actually be rubbish. The trailer, though, is incredibly watchable. I’ve already said it’s great-looking, but I haven’t said that it doesn’t have a voiceover (oh sainted day), but a lush piece of orchestral music punctuated by occassional sound effects. It shows lots without giving away the plot. This is why it is brilliant: it says ‘look, this looks good, but what does it mean? Watch me. Watch me. Watch me. Watch me. Watch me. Watch me. Watch me. Watch me watch me watch me! Watch me.’
I’ll make every effort to do so.