tomgraham101-39-39878 Reviews

Beware of Mr. Baker (2012)

Even if you don't like drums, see this movie

[8/10 · 13 October 2012]

I have just seen this film at a BFI screening, with Jay Bulger and the fearsome Mr Baker himself turning up on stage afterwards for a fractious Q&A that ended with shouting, swearing, recriminations all round, and Jay Bulger seemingly storming off stage. The perfect end to a brilliant documentary!

The story is fascinating and engaging throughout, with Ginger Baker himself coming across as a complex and contradictory character. While you're appalled at much of his behaviour (he comes across as a pretty damn terrible father/husband/work colleague), you can't help but admire his incredible energy and drive, his prodigious musical talent, and his refusal to ever let life beat him down.

The sparing use of beautiful and rather poetic animation works very well, and Jay Bulger himself refrains from including himself too much in the finished film - and when he does take centre stage for a moment, it's an extraordinary (and violent!) moment.

By the way - Jay, if you're reading this, I'm sorry people shouted at you after the screening. Perhaps, given the subject matter, it's only appropriate that the whole thing ended in acrimony. And hats off to you for getting a cold, reserved audience of Brits so fired up and vocal.

Great work - loved the film.

The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 3: From Sark to the Finish (2004)

Unique, Brooding, Wonderful

[10/10 · 17 December 2011]

Peter Greenaway brings his phenomenal trilogy of Tulse Luper films to a dark and elegiac close with 'From Sark to Finish'.

World War II is coming to an end, the Cold War is looming. Death is everywhere - the Danube is clogged with the corpses of murdered Jews - the great power blocs of East and West are squaring up for their glowering stalemate. Somehow, Tulse - like the rest of us - must steer a course through the barbarism and insanity of the world, surviving in one prison only to end up in another.

Greenaway works remorselessly - and brilliantly - against the saccharine dictates of mainstream commercial cinema. One character, who deals with the aftermath of the Holocaust in a seemingly flippant and sickly humorous manner, suddenly announces "I had better not wake up and find this is real", before running off to impotently scream out his disgust and horror into an empty metal canister. Later, when Tulse is trapped in the stultifying claustrophobia of the Cold War, he shows very simple, and yet utterly futile, basic human kindness to a distraught girl who is as much a prisoner as he is. The hero cannot save the damsel in distress - all he can do is bring her a basin of hot water for her bath.

And yet, Greenaway's boundless invention and flair (brilliantly realised by his cast and crew) illuminate every frame, turning what could have been a depressing slog into a profoundly moving, thought-provoking, invigorating experience not quickly forgotten.

I recommend this film (and the whole trilogy) to all who are looking for richer, deeper, more challenging, and thus more inspiring work than can be found in mainstream cinema. "From Sark to Finish" is a beautiful and (in then older sense of the word) 'terrible' film - a worthy comment on the blood-stained 20th Century from one of our greatest and most consummate visual artists.

M Is for Man, Music, Mozart (1991 TV Movie)

Visionary and exhilarating!

[10/10 · 19 June 2011]

What I know about dance (contemporary or otherwise) wouldn't even fill the back of a postage stamp, but even in my ignorance I could appreciate and even marvel at the extraordinary choreography and performance skills on display in this truly stunning film. Ben Craft is as lithe as an eel, never making a clunky or awkward movement even when twisted into painful- looking contortions (at one point, he seems to be taking his entire body weight on his head and one shoulder). The two naked female dancers are no less agile and balletic, describing devils, lovers, Beethovian geniuses, and even a sperm fertilising an egg, with an almost arrogant aplomb.

On its own, the choreography, performances, and stunning musical score would hold your attention. But seeing it all run through the visionary imagination of Peter Greenaway takes its all to a whole new level. The anatomical engravings of Vesalius come hypnotically to life, then crash into the wild and bawdy world of Hogarth. Information flickers and flashes across the screen. Reality twists and morphs as in a dream. The dancers leave behind visual echoes of parts of their body as they whirl about the screen. Multiple images pile up, transform, over- lap, and then vanish. The art direction and cinematography are gorgeous throughout.

This is art, in the very best sense of the word - it excites, it inspires, it dazzles, and it makes you glad to be alive in a world where such work is possible. See it if you can, even if you prefer Hollywood movies to art-house. Forget your preconceptions, open your imagination, and take the plunge with this unique film!

Nightwatching (2007)

Rich, Beautiful, Moving, Challenging

[8/10 · 28 April 2011]

My advice is to first watch 'Rembrandt's J'Accuse', Greenaway's companion film. It fills you in on the background, the characters, the thesis for the conspiracy, and generally sets the scene for 'Nightwatching' itself, which is extremely elaborate and requires a far more prolonged degree of concentration than 99.9% of films being released. Having said that, the film certainly stands alone as a powerful and intelligent piece of cinema that puts forward a contentious and challenging theory about the circumstances surrounding Rembrandt's painting.

Some viewers have pointed out how moving the film is - and indeed it is. But I for one have found ALL of Greenaway's films to be deeply moving. Unlike mainstream directors, he doesn't attempt to tug at the heartstrings, but instead deploys one rich, elegaic, achingly beautiful set piece after another, letting the ideas and associations reach the emotions of the audience. In Greenaway's world, extreme beauty and extreme horror exist cheek-by-jowl - his heroes (more so than his heroines) look for logic and order, and find ultimately chaos and decay - the good go unrewarded, the bad go unpunished - and yet, out of it all, rises a triumphant celebration of life, art, human aspiration, and the possibilities of cinema itself.

If you want a bedtime story about goodies overcoming baddies, look elsewhere. 'Nightwatching', like Greenaway's other work, offers - and demands - much more than that.

A TV Dante (1989–1991)

A Triumph

[10/10 · 27 April 2011]

Peter Greenaway and Tom Philips have together created the single most visionary piece of television ever broadcast. Those who complain about the lack of 'cinematic grammar' are missing the very point - it's like an illuminated manuscript, but one created using the most cutting edge (for its time) technology, and employing a post-modern aesthetic that allows anything and everything to be thrown into the mixture, be it high medieval poetry or today's breaking news images. Grainy stock footage of blips moving on a radar screen is hauntingly used to depict angels passing through the heavenly spheres - a Muyrbridge sequence of a powerful boxer descending a staircase becomes Christ's harrowing of Hell - Dante's internalised world is rendered as a modern ultra-scan screen - desperate escapees attempting to flee across the Berlin wall become, literally, souls in Hell.

The actors performing Dante, Virgil and Beatrice give superb readings of the poem, whilst experts and commentators provide moving footnotes just as in a printed edition of the Inferno. The elaborate and meticulous word-paintings of Tom Phillips are beautifully interwoven with the bold filmic images of Peter Greenaway, creating a unique and inspirational experience that shows up just how thin and watery most of what passes for TV actually is.

A masterpiece.