Films: What Caught My Attention Today

En kärlekshistoria (A Swedish Love Story), a 1970 film by Roy Andersson.

Andersson’s feature film debut is a sunny, optimistic work that has drawn comparison to early films by Ingmar Bergman. Two adolescents meet and cautiously fall in love in beautiful surroundings during the peak of an idyllic Swedish summer. Oblivious to social boundaries, they innocently create their own milieu, expecting little from the adults around them.

As soon as I found out which film was used in a Pearl Jam fan-made video, I was reminded my mum liked this film. I remember saying the title seemed so simplistic and to this, she said it may be simple but the film itself isn’t. I had an inkling it didn’t end well, so I didn’t make an effort to see it. I had forgotten that when this film was released, my mum was roughly eleven years old. Regardless, it left an impact on her so I’m going to make an effort to see it somehow to find out how so.

A fan-made video of Pearl Jam’s Just Breathe, featuring A Swedish Love Story

Oh hey, I think I recognise one of those actors – at 0:26 – as the boy from Death in Venice? I’m quite sure it’s him. This is who I meant:
Yes! I just checked imdb.com and it’s Björn Andrésen – has a two-bit appearance in A Swedish Love Story as “Pär’s Buddy” and a large role in Death in Venice as Tadzio, an idolised object of the protagonist’s interest. (*a self-congratulatory back pat*) I just read the Wikipedia entry (linked through his name above) – it sounds as if he had had a tough time, which is quite awful considering he was only sixteen years old.

But as always, I digress.

U.S. Remake: LET ME IN

Let Me In (a remake of a Swedish film, Let the Right One In, based on the novel), a tale of a twelve-year-old boy entering an odd and affecting relationship with a vampire, Eli.

From a Wikipedia entry of the remake:

In adapting the film, a few adjustments were made, such as changing the names of the protagonists [Oskar and Eli] to Owen and Abby, and moving the setting from the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg to “a small New Mexico town.” Los Alamos County has granted a special request from the film’s director and producer to name the town in the movie “Los Alamos, New Mexico.”

Producer Simon Oakes has made it clear that the plot of Let Me In will closely resemble that of the original film, except that it will be made “very accessible to a wider audience”; “If you say ‘remake’, I think that’s true to say. That’s what it is. It’s not a reimagining. [It has] the same beats, maybe the scares are a little bit more scary. We’ve been able to ramp that up quite a lot, obviously for budgetary reasons.”

“A little bit more scary”? Oops. That will surely rankle an army of fanboys. I was curious enough to see the remake trailer, but first – there’s a trailer of the original film:

Here’s a trailer of the remake, Let Me In

That Morse code in the end, is it “help me”? Anyroad, it seems similar to the original film, but darker and perhaps, with faster pace. To be honest, I’m giggling at the idea this will make fanboys throw themselves upon ground and weep.

I’m quite amazed at some publishers and producers for missing an opportunity to attract male readers by not comparing a vampire novel with Let the Right One In. Like they have been doing for female readers by comparing films or novels with Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight or its film adaptations. I don’t think some even realised Let the Right One In is teen boys and young men’s own Twilight. Some even think Let the Right One In is one of most romantic films they have seen. Heh.

Film Adaptation of Never Let Me Go

I’ll admit at this point that I’m terribly protective of British author Kazuo Ishiguro, because his willingness to share his experiences with us about his life-long battle against general assumptions that he thinks, feels and speaks Japanese – and the expectations of him as a Japanese man – when all along he feels he’s British (and it shows in most of his works). I could and can sympathise with that, deeply; just as much as I do for author Leslie Charteris. In short anyone who says his writing seems “Japanese-like,” I eye-roll because I think they’re basing it on his name or ethnicity. But I digress.

The Never Let Me Go trailer looks quite good, which is a surprise. I didn’t think it would be.

OTHER FILMS

Ugh, I waffled too long. Other films caught my attention today:

• I Saw the Devil - a South Korean crime thriller, directed by awesome Kim Ji-woon (responsible for A Tale of Two Sisters (U.S. remake, The Uninvited), fantastic crime film: A Bittersweet Life, and an odd western film, The Good, the Bad and The Weird) with two heavyweight actors facing each other: Choi Min-sik (Oldboy) and Lee Byung-hun (A Bittersweet Life and an odd romantic film, Bungee Jumping of Their Own), playing on the idea of “To catch a murderous monster, become a murderous monster”. Seriously, you have no idea how much I want to see I Saw the Devil. I’d sell the mites to see the film right now. Maybe. Unsurprisingly, there is already a U.S. remake in the pipeline.
• the Coen brothers’ remake of a classic western film, True Grit - Jeff Bridges in the John Wayne role; I’m not keen on John Wayne, but Jeff Bridges? I’m all for it.
• The Rum Diary – based on Hunter S. Thompson’s novel of same title, it revolves around the adventures and anxieties of Paul Kemp, a 30-year-old American journalist working in Puerto Rico; I still think 47-year-old Depp – note: also a producer of this film – is a tad too old for the role (see a pic below), but I am happy Bruce Robinson is at the helm of this film — in case you didn’t know, I’m shamelessly a BR fangirl. He’s one of four writer-directors I’d completely trust with anything.
• Inception by Christopher Nolan, starring Ken Watanabe and Leonardo DiCaprio (I think I’m the only person on this planet who likes him). This one looks as if it may be the one where I can finally forgive Nolan for doing a painfully dull remake of the excellent Insomnia and – excuse me – his crappy Batman films including The Dark Knight. Here’s a trailer of Inception.
• a remake of Arthur (bad-boy comedian-actor Russell Brand in the Dudley Moore role with Jennifer Garner in the Jill Elkenberry role. My mum loved Dudley Moore so unsurprisingly, she enjoyed Arthur. I never liked the film, though. Anyhow, I wonder what would she think of this remake?)
• the news of future adaptations: Blood Oath, based on a vampire thriller novel by Christopher Farnsworth; Clock Tower, based on the legendary Japanese horror game series from the 1990s, and All You Need is Kill, based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s cult SF novel.
• Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World – I have mixed feelings about this one, actually. I can’t quite pinpoint exactly why. There is a concept that I didn’t feel comfortable with, but what? I don’t know. Perhaps I’ll need to watch the film to find out. I mean, it’s a Edgar Wright film. Directed Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
• There’s a lot of buzz about Moon director Duncan Jones’s future projects, particularly Source Code, Mute (a crime thriller featuring a mute bartender who investigates his girlfriend’s disappearance) and Escape from the Deep, based on Alex Kershaw’s WWII novel of same title.
• the talks on a potential remake of the legendary 1925 silent film, The Battleship Potemkin. The idea of remaking this film is blowing everyone’s mind.
• And finally, RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE! Everyone has a guilty pleasure, right? The Resident Evil film series is that for me. RE:A is the fourth film so far.

Woo!

Well, here is the very last one: Burke and Hare, director John Landis’s black comedy film featuring Simon Pegg as Burke and Andy Serkis as Hare.

Um… yeah.

To be fair, it’s not unusual to make a comedy out of real-life murder cases. I’m thinking of black comedy films like The Young Poisoner’s Handbook, loosely based on  real-life poisoner Graham Young, a teenager who tested various poisons on his own family, which eventually ended with his step-mother’s death.

Even so, turning a real-life murder into a comedy still makes me uncomfortable.

Surprisingly, there doesn’t seem to be many romantic films from the U.S. this year. It’s mostly action films, animated children’s films, ancient-era fantasy films, and crime thrillers. And quite a few remakes of non-American films.

There is an interesting-sounding SF romantic film: Upside Down, directed by Juan Diego Solanas, starring Jim Sturgess and Kirsten Dunst.

Look up towards the sky and rub your eyes because you won’t believe what you see: cities, forests, and oceans with their own inverted gravity, only an arm’s length away, yet completely unreachable.

Adam is a seemingly ordinary guy in a very extraordinary universe.

He lives humbly trying to make ends meet, but his romantic spirit holds on to the memory of a girl he met once upon a time from another world, an inverted affluent world with its own gravity, directly above but beyond reach… a girl named Eve.

Their childhood flirtation becomes an impossible love. But when he catches a glimpse of grown?up Eve on television, nothing will get in the way of getting her back…

Not even the law or science!

Period films…

• The Three Musketeers - yup, another adaptation of a classic novel. Yawn.
• Hugo Cabret – Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Brian Selznick’s YA fantasy novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a 1930s-era tale of an orphan who lives inside a train station.
• Jack and Jackie – a closer look at the relationship between John Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier before their marriage.
• The Wereth 11 – a WWII film, based on a true story of eleven American black soldiers who were captured during the Battle of the Bulge as POWs then killed.
• Centurion - another epic Roman-era film
• The Ghost of Munich - based on Georges-Marc Benamou’s historical novel.
• oh, yeah – Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides a.k.a. POTC4