In Bruges (2008) -Romanian

 In Ingles ;) here:

Scrisă pentru retrospectiva TIFF 25 in AperiTIFF.

"They're Filming Midgets..."

O fi rai, iad sau purgatoriu? E Bruges!

Un debut extraordinar al irlandezului Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), In Bruges este unul din cele mai bune filme ale anului 2008 și mult mai mult de atât. Film cult par excellence, îi crește valoarea de fiecare data când îl revăd. Sunt însă siderat, după debutul de la Sundance, filmul nu a luat atunci niciun premiu major, Globul de Aur pentru Colin Farrell și nominalizare la Oscar pentru scenariu original, câștigător la acestă categorie la BAFTA.

Îmi place însă să cred că a făcut pentru turismul din Bruges ceea ce Vacanță la Roma a făcut pentru Roma!

Eu, de exemplu, am fost o zi în 2014 și am mers exact cu opiniie lui Ray versus părerile opuse ale lui Ken.

Cuplul Colin Farrell / Ray -Brendan Gleeson /Ken e fabulos, și McDonagh le-a mai dat un film extraordinar împreună 14 ani mai târziu, The Banshees of Inisherin (2022).

Iar Ralph Fiennes /Harry e impecabil, feroce, un personaj irezistibil.

Se simte că McDonagh e și dramaturg și că influențele lui literare vin din Teatrul Absurdului, dar filmul e extrem de cinematografic.

În primul rind e tributar piesei lui Harold Pinter, din 1959. The Dumb Waiter, tadusă în românește Liftul pentru mâncare sau Micul lift. La rîndul ei, piesa lui Pinter se inspiră din cea a lui Samuel Beckett, Așteptându-l pe Godot (1953). Adaugă un pic de British Gangster Cinema, aici Irish, un pic de peisaj de Breugel din Bruges, nihilism, o traumă mortală, un love story improbabil și un umor negru și absurd de nota 11.

Alte piste: Touch of Evil, Don’t Look Now, Carlito’s Way, picturile lui Hieronymus Bosch.

Muzica lui Carter Burwell, cel mai probabil via frații Coen (v. Fargo în aceeași retrospectivă TIFF de comedii negre), cu care McDonagh a început o frumoasă colaborare pentru toate filmele sale ulterioare.

La fel ca și Fargo, In Bruges nu a rulat la vremea lui în cinema în România.

 

Alin Ludu Dumbravă

The Dog Stars (2026)

Ridley Scott's newest pic, The Dog Stars, is as close to a western as he ever did get to do. A post-apocalyptic story, it's a very slow and intimist film, 1 character, a dog, two characters, three characters, that's it. Oh, and a Cessna 1956 plane. Major character. 

Jacob Elrodi (frankenstein) replaced Paul Mescal as Hig, the pilot. Josh Brolin who worked previously with Scott on American Gangster is the cynical Bangley. They represent opposite views, opposite worlds, one missing his old world, the other one adapting, full survival mode. 

Supporting are Margaret Qualley (OUTiH, Poor Things, The Substance, Kinds of Kindness, Drive-Away Dolls, How to Make a Killing), in her most normal and romantic role (up to now) as Cima and Guy Pearce as Pops (Pearce was the old Peter Weyland in Prometheus). Benedict Wong is also here (he was in Ridey's The Martian) and an Ewen Bremner cameo that works as a red hering. He also worked for Scott in Black Hawk Down.

Now if you already read the reviews which I can't understand...? Worst ever for a Scott film??

Worse than Gladiator II and Napoleon which were painful to sit through? Anyway, this is not that biggie of a film, compared to the scale of these two baaad juggernauts...

The film is very slow and it builds atmosphere gradually. The three acts are separated smoothly. The landscape, the nature is another silent character, the green, the mountains vs. The Wasteland.

Incredibly the whole film was shot in Italy, with the Grand Junction sets built at Cinecitta. DOP is Erik Mesermschmit, David Fincher's later collaborator, here in his 1st cinema fare with Scott (he worked before with RS on TV's Raised by Wolves and The Dope Thief).

Comparisons with The Last of Us or The Walking Dead are wrong, closer is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. 

The Dog Stars is based on the 2012 book by Peter Heller and the script is by Mark L  Smith who wrote The Revenant.

Harry Gregson-Williams composed the score, which is part elegiac, part menacing, it's his 7th for a Scott film.

The soundtrack has also dramatic value, it's folkish and rockish, from the opening credits with Hozier ( Like Real People Do), that gets replayed at the end of the film, to Van Morrison (Tupelo Honey), to Caamp’s “By and By” (on headphones), Dean Martin (Memories are made of This), to the end in The Chieftains and Mick Jagger. (The Long Black Veil). Featuring also Charmaine written by Lew Pollack, Erno Rapee performed by Jack Nitzsche, from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Fly Me to the Moon, sung by Allison Janney on screen. 

There is a most poetic scene at the end with the "mormons"/ mennonites countryfair that transcends Ridley Scott's cinema, an optimist message in a post-apocalyptic world. I sensed in the interraction betwwen Hig and Bangley could be a sort of tribute to Ridley's late brother, Tony....

To be seen on the Big Screen.

The IMAX thing is a gimmick tho.

3 1/2 out of 5, 7 out of 10 !

The Rule of Jenny Pen (2024)

The Rule of Jenny Pen (2024) id the 2nd film of New Zeelander James Ashcroft. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: meets Bubbahotep (without the mummy ;) and Misery. Rush and especillay Lihgow are a blast, one of Lithgow's best. Stellar acting. Not for the faint of heart ;)

TBC 

RIP Tim Curry

Tim Curry aka Dr Frank-N-furter, on stage since 1973 !

Curry was 80, he had a stroke in 2012 and sice then did mostly voiceover work.

Quintessential as Dr. Frank-N-Furter the Transexual Vampyre from Transylvania in the cult movie that invented the Midnight Movie Madness, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), also featuring Meat Loaf. 

also:

The Dark Lord in Ridley Scott's superb Legend (1985), under heavy prosthetics make-up (over 6 hours if work).

Long John Silver in The Muppet Trasure Island

Wadsworth in Clue )1985)

The clown from It (1990), the original Pennywise

Dr Petrov in The Hunt for the Red October opposite Sir Sean Connery...

And the infamous Romanian con Herkemer Homolka, 'at last freed from Ceausescu's chains' from the very bad guilty pleasure movie Congo (1995, Frank Marshall).  I guess the neme came from Oskar Homolka ?

"While filming Congo, I sat on top of a Volcano talking to Tim Curry..." - Bruce Campbell said about sitting on top of a volcano talking with Tim Curry.

Curry earned three Tony nominations and a Daytime Emmy and released three musical albums in his career.