James DC’s Week In Movies and DVDs

Miles Davis, Doomwatch and Kurosawa’s Take on King Lear

In the first in a regular column, our Contributing Writer James DC offers a roundup of notable releases at the cinema and on DVD…

MILES AHEAD
Director : Don Cheadle
2016
In selected cinemas now
Rating : 6/10

A bit of a mixed bag, this one. Cheadle does a great job of impersonating the great trumpeter and jazz pioneer Miles Davis, and the film is mostly fun, with some nice stylistic flourishes and a forward rush that keeps the audience on their toes, for much of the running time. However, some have heavily criticised the screenplay for playing fast and loose with the actual facts of Davis’ life; 70’s Blaxploitation movies are blatantly referenced, with wild car-chases through dark, Noir-ish streets and impromptu, bungled gun fights in basements, over drug deals gone wrong and stolen master tapes of unreleased music – it’s a sure bet this is all pure invention. But perhaps this doesn’t matter so much if you aren’t a huge fan of Davis; you take it as it comes and accept it for what it is. However, for the rest of us, the minimal plot, set during a fallow, depressed period when Davis was addicted to cocaine in the mid-to-late 70’s, and involving a battle between him and his record label over the unreleased master tapes of his latest album, isn’t enough. For the devoted fans, there is a gaping hole at the centre of this ‘fantasy biopic’, where the real-life motivations, desires, manipulations and neuroses of the real-life Davis are left still undiscovered and enigmatic; only for the ‘casual’ viewer then, in that sense.

VICTORIA
Director : Sebastian Schipper
2015
In selected cinemas now
7/10

This has been justly celebrated for the incredible feat of being filmed in one single, choreographed take, for over two hours running time. However, it isn’t the first time this has been accomplished, and both Timecode (2000, Mike Figgis) and the unequaled masterpiece that is Russian Ark (2002, Alexander Sokurov) got there first. But, in many respects, it is still a brilliantly realised vision: a girl goes out, raving and partying in Berlin, and fatefully meets a bunch of nice but drunken and drugged-up guys, who later get her into serious trouble, as we follow their exploits through the night, until dawn. What is so fantastic about many of the scenes is that they seem so realistic, and it is no surprise to find that the film was mainly improvised – rather than being script-bound – around a skeletal plot and the pre-set locations. There are some poignant and effective moments, with some excellent acting, given the obvious pressures and complexities of such a shoot. So, top marks for all of that. But the filmmakers let themselves down with the implausible and slightly ridiculous last third of the running time, where they seem to have given in to a somewhat mainstream remit of giving the audience action orientated thrills and spills to the detriment of the rest of the film – which is more akin to a Ken Loach kitchen-sink drama than the low-fi Reservoir Dogs it increasingly begins to resemble. But Victoria is well worth seeing, despite its flaws.

RAN  
Director : Akira Kurosawa
1985
In selected cinemas, plus on DVD/Blu-ray, now
9/10
Ran received a rapturous reception when it was first released over thirty years ago, has accumulated classic status since, and is now in UK cinemas as a beautiful digital restoration, where it deserves to be seen on the big screen. The film is a stately, ravishing, inventively stylistic, multi-layered historical war drama, partly based on Shakespeare’s King Lear, as well as legends of feudal warlords in 16th century Japan. Director of such influential films as Seven Samurai (1954), and Yojimbo (1961), Akira Kurosawa created this last great masterpiece in his autumn years, utilising a huge budget and untold resources for the time – and it can be seen on the screen. Nothing quite like it had been done before in Japan, with thousands of extras, lavish, colour-coded costumes and armies, bravura action sequences, incredible sets and Noh theatre style acting, all creating a dream-like, yet visceral backdrop to a tragic, timeless tale. There are quiet, lyrical moments, and subtly humorous asides, but the scene when the decrepit lord Hidetora is brutally attacked by his warring sons’ armies, stumbling away from his burning castle like a mad-eyed ghost, is the film’s stunning centrepiece.  If you are at all interested in the history and achievements of awesome, classical cinema, then this is essential viewing.

AUTUMN ALMANAC
Director : Béla Tarr
1984
Out on DVD now
8/10
One of the greatest ‘arthouse’ directors of the last forty-odd years, the Hungarian Bela Tarr is a unique observer and critic of the darker, troubled side of humanity, with its accompanying neuroses, obsessions, injustices, violence and, ultimately, ennui. This, his fourth feature, is essentially a claustrophobic chamber-piece, focusing on five unsavoury characters who live side-by-side in an apartment and who constantly scheme, manipulate, moan, bicker, argue, and eventually fight amongst themselves. Redolent of Fassbinder’s best films, it’s a portrait of existential angst, compulsive aggression and dysfunctional disintegration – in other words, a whole lot of fun, if, like me, you sometimes despair at the ignoble and insidious behaviour of certain sections of humanity. Unlike his earlier and later films, this is highly sylised, elaborate, and abstract, in terms of the mise en scene (albeit with his customary long, intense takes); the sets are lit by luminous colours and the flamboyant camera angles are obtuse and odd – one long fight scene is shot from below, through a glass floor, as one of the protagonists is practically strangled to death! If you are willing to surrender to the slower pace than normal and ostensibly inchoate ‘plot’, then the demented joys of this bizarre, captivating, wittily scornful film are plenty. Certainly, if you are a fan of Tarr, this is an indispensable purchase.

DOOMWATCH
BBC TV
1970 – 72
Out on DVD now
7/10
Another casualty of the absurd, short-sighted policy of the BBC in the 1960’s and 70’s, when they saved a relatively small amount of money by wiping video-taped episodes of old TV programmes, this is a beautifully packaged DVD box-set of all the extant episodes, culled from three seasons, of the groundbreaking science fiction series, Doomwatch. Very of its time, many episodes dealt with the headline-grabbing environmental and socio-political concerns that were prevalent in the media at the time (and which are, unfortunately, still problematic today), including genetic engineering, chemical waste, industrial pollution, terrorist sabotage and wildlife culls. This is the type of muted, British stiff-upper-lip, almost ‘cosy’ science fiction of John Wyndham, as opposed to the more far-out, cosmic theatrics of Doctor Who, or the later Blake’s 7. There is a certain nostalgic charm to these stories, despite the often studio bound, dialogue heavy stories and melodramatic, dated acting. Oh, and don’t forget the sometimes cheesy, low budget special effects, like the notorious episode ‘Tomorrow, the Rat’, whereby the characters are ‘attacked’ by huge, mutated rats – actually plastic props, some sewn into the actors’ trousers – whilst they try to hammer them all to death in a tumult of screams and hysteria. Great stuff! Along with over seventeen hours’ worth of episodes – including the previously un-transmitted ‘Sex and Violence’ – there is a wide-ranging, informative and fun documentary, ‘The Cult of Doomwatch’, which nicely sets the scene before diving into this fascinating, cult curio from the days of TV past (which, incidentally, was watched by 13 million viewers in its heyday – and that was on a Monday night, too).