Ashes and Diamonds
Andrjez Wadja (1958)
On the final day of WWII a Warsaw Pole who fought in the uprising
is tasked with killing a minister of the newly formed government. He's no stranger to the job but confusion and anger have begun to sink in so he has some drinks, meets a girl and mulls it over, while the party heads clink glasses in the next room. As Poland hits a political crossroads we find an everyman patriot facing an existential crisis.
Andrjez Wadja directs it with all the beauty and skill of Hollywood's golden age; there's a slick brooding lead and, naturally, a beautiful girl too but there's a world-weariness and humour here which feel so distinctly Polish. Wadja learned his craft at the Lodz film school- believed by many then and now to be the finest institution of its kind- and graduated more than a decade before America's so called “film school generation” got up and running. Interestingly both Scorsese and Coppola, arguably that group’s most lauded members, ranked Ashes and Diamonds amongst their favourites for Sight and Sound's widely renowned canon last year and it's not so difficult to see why. It’s a stunning, moral piece of work which seems, at once, to sum up all the disillusionment of its time before asking the defining question, what really remains when war has run its awful course: Devastation or triumph; Ashes or diamonds.
Andrjez Wadja directs it with all the beauty and skill of Hollywood's golden age; there's a slick brooding lead and, naturally, a beautiful girl too but there's a world-weariness and humour here which feel so distinctly Polish. Wadja learned his craft at the Lodz film school- believed by many then and now to be the finest institution of its kind- and graduated more than a decade before America's so called “film school generation” got up and running. Interestingly both Scorsese and Coppola, arguably that group’s most lauded members, ranked Ashes and Diamonds amongst their favourites for Sight and Sound's widely renowned canon last year and it's not so difficult to see why. It’s a stunning, moral piece of work which seems, at once, to sum up all the disillusionment of its time before asking the defining question, what really remains when war has run its awful course: Devastation or triumph; Ashes or diamonds.
Sexy Beast
Jonathon Glazer (2000)
Ray Winston plays a retired mob guy winding down with his wife
and two pals in sunny Spain. A rogue boulder skims his head early on and
crashes into the tiled love hearts on the floor of his pool. It proves, of course, to be a bad
omen. A mad ex-colleague (Ben Kingsley) then arrives on the scene, ready to blow, determined to pull the ex con back into the game for one last job, a safety deposit heist back home.
A year before the film’s release, its director, Jonathon Glazer had swept the advertising awards with his thumping Leftfield driven Surfer advert for Guinness. For this, his first feature, he managed to transfer that roaring intensity to the big screen. Roque Banos’ score seems to channel that leftfield track and Ivan Bird provides a stunning portfolio of maverick, weightless camera work. The results seem to ooze all the style and confidence you might expect from a renowned ad man but Glazer keeps the blood flowing by drawing two quite remarkable performances from his leading men. Winston is rock solid as the affable geezer and Ben Kingsley, chiefly known at the time for playing a legendary pacifist, is a frightening time bomb in the supporting role. His short-fused; straight-backed Don Logan is an all consuming, suffocating presence which would come to shower the actor in awards and change his cinematic image for good.
A year before the film’s release, its director, Jonathon Glazer had swept the advertising awards with his thumping Leftfield driven Surfer advert for Guinness. For this, his first feature, he managed to transfer that roaring intensity to the big screen. Roque Banos’ score seems to channel that leftfield track and Ivan Bird provides a stunning portfolio of maverick, weightless camera work. The results seem to ooze all the style and confidence you might expect from a renowned ad man but Glazer keeps the blood flowing by drawing two quite remarkable performances from his leading men. Winston is rock solid as the affable geezer and Ben Kingsley, chiefly known at the time for playing a legendary pacifist, is a frightening time bomb in the supporting role. His short-fused; straight-backed Don Logan is an all consuming, suffocating presence which would come to shower the actor in awards and change his cinematic image for good.
The Cook, the Thief,
His Wife and Her Lover
Peter Greenaway (1989)
Michael Gambon goes off on a mad one as a wealthy philistine
restaurateur in this chambered circus of vulgarity from director Peter
Greenaway. He plays the titular thief; Helen Mirren his titular wife. It all pans out in his cavernous new restaurant where he wines and dines his cronies
while an intellectual client seduces his spouse. Gambon’s endless pile of charlatan
quips and Mirren’s inherent sexuality combine well with the richness of Greenaway’s
design for this absurdity infused Entrée
of Thatcherite excess. Marvel at Jean Paul Gaultier's lavish costumes, Ben Van Oats' decadent production design and Michael Nyman's delicate score. Bon Appetite.
The Apple
Samira Makhmalbaf (1998)
The debut film of this Iranian New Waver tells the story of an
old man and his blind wife who kept their two children at home until they were
11 years old. The father’s poor and fears the girls will be shamed if left
alone but then the two break out and go exploring. In the renowned new wave fashion Makhmalbaf
allows the real life people involved to play themselves. It's bittersweet and dignified. It's about kids and community. It's very Makhmalbaf. Very Iranian New Wave.
Scorpio Rising
Kenneth Anger (1964)
The most well known of this experimental
filmmaker’s shorts is a rapid-fire collage of motorcycle fetish, homoeroticism and
idol worship. Massively influential, Anger’s strange use of rock and roll would
inspire Martin Scorsese, David Lynch and countless others that followed.
The Loveless
Kathryn Bigelow (1982)
Like much of her work which came
after; this debut feature from Kathryn Bigelow focuses on a group of brooding
young men on the hunt for a buzz. It follows a gang of bikers who stop for a
night in a nowhere town on their way to Daytona. It stars Willem Defoe in his
first ever roll and is just as rose tinted, fetishized and homoerotic as the
Anger short (see above) which inspired it.
Before the Devil Knows
you’re Dead
Sidney Lumet (2007)
Two brothers get trapped in a downward spiral when a plot to
hold up their parents’ jewellery store goes tragically wrong. For his 46th and final film, the late Sidney Lumet directs the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman for
some clever, gloomy viewing; an old-school piece of film making from an old-school
film maker.
