There is always a sense of anticipation with each Wes Anderson release and with Moonrise Kingdom being his first live action feature since 2007, probably even even more so this time.

Set on a New England island in the sixties,  as ever, the film exists in Anderson’s world meaning plenty of primary colours and eccentric characters. 

The film introduces young actors Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward who appear a Sam and Suzy, two kids who fall in love. Sam is an orphan who also happens to be a boy scout.  Suzy listens to Francoise Hardy on a portable record players and spies on her mother with a pair of binoculars, they are both isolated and detached characters. 

The pair run away together and all the adults connected to them go on a search for the two, these include Suzy’s parents(Bill Murray and Frances McDormand), Scout Master Ward(Ed Norton), and Captain Sharp(Bruce Willis), as well as smaller roles for Tilda Swinton and usual Anderson collaborater Jason  Schwartzman.

The actors who make their Anderson debut on Moonrise Kingdom really shine, they all bounce off each other in an almost cartoonish fashion.

The framing is interesting to say the least, the best example of this being the scenes’s featuring narrator Bob Balaban who introduces the audience to the island of ‘New Penzance’, Each frame is a beautifully composed and often appears to be a hilarious visual gag.

As ever the score also shines, featuring the gorgeous French pop of Francoise Hardy and beautifully choral and orchestrated arrangements. It gives the film a sense of jovial yet haunting nostalgia. 

Overall this is an enjoyable film with plenty of internal laughs. It is a feature full of fun and playfulness and simply must be watched the way is it supposed to, in the cinema.

So some youths have been causing trouble at a McDonald’s in Wigan, causing The Daily Mail and the rest of the country to be outraged. I don’t recall behaving like this when I was a teenager growing up in Wigan a few years ago, although one time me and my friends for a bit of a change decided to go to a pie shop instead of spending all our pocket money on McDonald’s, my friend Ryan turned to the rest of us with a look of joy on his face and said “Fantastic a proper restaurant”. 

Although I don’t condone the actions of the teenagers I feel that is this is an incident that has been blown out of proportion by the media, however, it has been described as a “riot” and that there was around “100 people involved”, this is just silly paper talk. McDonald’s is a place that is always full of rowdy kids, yes it is clear from the video that a few have taken it a bit far by jumping over the counter but there’s no damage, there’s no violence, just immature and boorish behavior. 

We essentially live in a totalitarian state now people should be aware that they are being watched in one way or another. They are going to get their fifteen minutes in negative sense.

I also don’t buy the excuses that there are no jobs or futures for teenagers in Britain, there’s always jobs if you want them, or even go to college and university and better yourself, it’s just the media trying to make it seem like the country has gone to pot when really it was never there in the first place was it?

The people I feel sorry for however are the staff and even the managers at the said McDonald’s franchise, they are doing hard graft for low pay just for people to treat them with such disrespect whilst the owners of McDonald’s sit thousands of miles away with their billions in the bank, cigar in one hand, a burger in the other and not a care in the world.

This would never happen at Galloways, a proper restaurant.          

So the breaking news is that Richard Lewis has resigned as chairman of the RFL after a decade long tenure, the former tennis professional and current chairman of Sport England has returned to his former sport as the chief executive of The All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon.

Lewis has come under much critiscm, especcially for the lack of coverage the game has recieved.  The game at professional level quite simply need simply needs a lot more media coverage and investment, especially by blue chip companies. He does actually deserves quite a lot of credit.

He brought in large sums of cash from sporting councils which has benefited the international, professional  and also the improvements to the grassroots game by the RFL. 

Because of recent events including the Crusaders and Bradford fiasco’s many people will be pleased to see him leave but Lewis was an expansionist and quite forward thinking. and the game seems to be in a stronger state that it was a decade ago.

It is important to realise that the fourteen top-flight are a set of independent clubs and some have been run better than others, this is not the fault of the RFL, the franchise system has allowed clubs to bring through their own players and make ground improvements without fear of getting relegated and not returning to Super League, Lewis despite his mistakes is a true professional. 

It is likely Nigel Wood will take over but perhaps this is the right time to have a complete overhaul of the personnel at Red Hall. The RFL can’t afford to have a small time chairman, it is vital for the game of Rugby League at all levels that Lewis’s successor, somebody who is a real driven, successful businessman with all the right contacts who can get this sport going again.  



 

This week is the return of one of the biggest events on the sporting calendar, yes that’s right, the rugby league is back on after a long pre-season of twists and turns which saw Joel Tomkins leave for Union, his younger brother Sam also making a  cameo in the that code and former Wigan, St Helens and Warrington centre Martin Gleeson receiving a long ban for a doping scandal.

So what have we got to look forward to this season?

Plenty by the looks of it, a Super League season is never boring on or off the pitch and the same should  be the case in it’s seventeenth season.

St Helens and Salford have fantastic new grounds and the fact that Warrington have extended theirs show that Lancashire is leading the way when it comes to stadia.

It is also exciting times for the North Wests other two sides Wigan and Widnes, after a fairly successful season last season which inluded the Challenge Cup win at Wembley, Wigan now have a new coach in local lad Shaun Wane who has brought in plenty of new blood including Welsh talents Ben Flower and Gil Dudson, probably one of the best things to come out of the demise of the ill fated Crusaders.

Widnes also make their long awaited return to the Super League, traditionally one of the more successful clubs in the sport, it will be interesting to see how Denis Betts men fare with their new artificial pitch.

On the other side of the Pennines, Leeds will be looking to improve their league form after last seasons shambolic form, yes they may have triumphed in the Grand Final but there is a genuine feeling that was a fluke.

Tribes were one of the stand out acts of 2011 and it was interesting too see them avoiding being associated with the crop of hyped ‘NME’ bands last year, instead using the year to build their fan base, it is fair to say their hard work is paying off. 

As was the case with Arctic Monkeys several years ago Tribes have managed to come out on top without the help of the likes the NME, they heavily criticized Tribes last year and now they hope to latch on to them at any sign of success, 

With a few fantastic EP’s and countless high energy gigs, it is now time for them to finally release their debut album Baby.

The opening track Whenever is a mildly shoe-gaze anthem which is sure to be their next single such is its catchiness.

This is followed the now familiar We Were Children, this is the same version of the one featured on the namesake EP released last year. Combining riffs similar to those of the Pixies, the loud, quiet, loud formula works on this track.

The third track is Corner Of An English Field is warm, gentle pop song that which really gives the listener a sense of place with front-man Johnny Lloyd’s poetic lyrics. This song is a tribute to the late Charlie Haddon, frontman of Ou Est Le Swimming Pool.

Halfway Home is the fourth track on the album, it is a catchy gentle number that starts off semi-acoustic but builds up to something much bigger with crashing drums and fuzzy guitars.

Sappho is another track people will be familiar with after also being released as a single last year. This is a true British anthem with tiny brushes of glam. It cleverly references the ancient Greek poet Sappho as well as being a great lesbian love story(“How do you tell a son that his daddy left his mum when he fell in love with a girl like you?”) 

The following track is Himalaya, with it’s slow tempo drums, bass guitar and build up, it is amazing how a band confidently sound so stadium rock on their debut album. 

Nightdriving was a free download last year but for the album it has been re-recorded, it has a simple yet catchy chord progression with Lloyd questioning “What use is God if we can’t see him?”

When My Day Comes rounds off the album, this returns to a faster tempo, with it’s shouty memorable chorus, it’s a fantastic way to round off a clearly British album.

Walking In The Street managed to be pop-punk and Britpop at the same time, which sounds terrible but this blend works. 

Alone With Friends is a dreamy pop song yet somehow it does not sound like Tribes and does not fit the album somehow, they are band with stronger B-sides than this album track and it hard to understand it’s place on here other than to warm up for the final track.

However the album is saved by it’s closer Bad Apple, an emotional track that has the pacing many debut albums finish with, it is truly is lighters up 

There are a couple of previously released tracks such as Girlfriend and Sent To Earth that would have improved this album tenfold, however even without these songs, the album is laden with an energy needed in British music. 
Vocally they have been compared to The Libertines but their is more to them than this, musically they are sway towards influential American indie acts such as Pavement, Pixies and Built To Spill, however they do not ape these acts, this is undoubtedly a fresh British album with quite a lot of big and brash album which indicated that this record is indeed just a starting point and it will be interesting to see where they go from here, and no matter which direction they choose it has already been more interesting and exciting than their recent contemporaries.



8/10



Nathan Croucher 

Nathan Croucher

The Sound of The Diving Bell & The Butterfly and Moon. 

I am generally going to concentrate on two films directing by two different directors, these are The Diving Bell & The Butterfly(2007) by Julian Schnabel and Moon(2009) by Duncan Jones,  the reasons for this is that they both have features which contain interesting sound design, for this reason I will also discuss the sound designers used on the features directed by Jones and Schnabel. Additionally it is important to mention any music used whether it be the score or the soundtrack as this adds to the listening experience in several ways whether it be adding to the narrative or just the audience enjoying the song. Hearing a good score or soundtrack can not only add to the audiences cinematic experience beyond the film, it could expose them to an artist they had no listened to which is a potential money spinner for film companies and record labels.

The Diving Bell & The Butterfly is what I would consider to be Schnabel’s finest film. It depicts Jean-Dominique Bauby’s life after suffering a stroke which left him paralysed apart from one of his eyes and is based on his short autobiography Le Scaphandre et le Papillon  a book he wrote through a  blinking method with his eye . He wrote about “trapped-in syndrome” experience and it was a time consuming effort but he unfortunately died from pneumonia about a week after the novel was published.

Schnabel said in an interview that he actually didn’t want to do this movie. It was more like it came to him, and he had to do it.(Schnabel: Reasons for making Diving Bell 2007)

He has locked-in syndrome and this means from a filmic sense Schnabel can mostly have a first person narrative, with most of the sound being heard from the lead characters eyes. You would assume that because of this the sound would not be interesting but this is not the case.  



There is a great deal of music used in this film to give a character who can’t communicate a sense of character and it is there quite a bit of popular music used throughout many of the flashbacks

Tom Waits All The World Is Green is used in the seaside Father Day at 59:00, it a relatively upbeat scene despite Bauby’s situation. The jazzy music in a sense manages to make it even more surreal and gives it a French flavour.  

It could be said the scene that is set in Lourdes has similarities with My Left Foot. There is a flashback to at a time he had previously been there set to Don’t Kiss Me Goodbye by Orange and Emmanuelle .

The soundtrack also features Ultraviolet(Light My Way) by U2 and Pale Blue Eyes by The Velvet Underground and well as various other songs.

The score was composed by American composer Paul Cantelon. It mostly consists of him playing piano with occasional string section.  It a piece that has many key and tempo changes to fit the emotion of Bauby, the piano solo could possibly be a metaphor Bauby only being able to communicate with one part of his body.

It is also important in this paper to mention the people involved in the sound department of the film. The sound on the film seems to have been a massive team effort due to the amount of people credited in the sound department, however I will concentrate on the sound recordists Jean-Paul Mugel and the sound editor Francis Wargnier.

Jean-Paul Mugel is one of France’s most accomplished sound-recordists and mixers. He has also tended create live music in the sound edits. He has worked on a variety of films in various different languages including French, English and Spanish and some of his credits include Wim Wenders Wings of Desire and the fantastic Paris, Texas. His work for The Diving Bell & The Butterfly actually won him a Cesar Award for Best Sound.  The Cesar’s are the national film awards of France.

 Wargnier has worked on the popular French film  A Prophet (2009) and he and Mugel’s sound design and editing in The Diving Bell & The Butterfly is certainly interesting and by analysing much of the sound in the film it’s clear how important the sound is , and how it can keep the audience interested in what is quite a long film.  

There is a scene at 19:08 which Bauby has his eyelid shut because it is no longer functioning. This is one of the most uncomfortable scenes in the film.  We can hear his heavy breathing and this shows his sense of fear

Much of the footage at the start of the film is blurry and out focus, this fits in with the muffled sound, especially when when we can hear his own thoughts. There are many static shots used because of the inability to move his head although the shot will move slightly when his eyes start to wander, because of this we can see his struggles ,He wishes to speak and ask questions but he can’t much to his frustration.

Bauby often blinks, sometimes often used as a cutaway to flashbacks from his past, but the blinking will still continue through the flashback. There is no sound for the blinking, it seems that this is so the audience is distracted but if it was added even very low in the mix it would have added texture to the blinking scenes.

The French language ordered frequency alphabet being read by his nurse, partner or anybody he ‘communicates’ with has quite a repetitive and rhythmic feel that works however prominent in the mix

At 1:03:00 his children are singing but then they leave the room it is silent and we again see how isolated Bauby is. A minute later he is watching a football match, he is frustrated when the television is turned off.

One hour and ten minutes in there is scene of people praying for Bauby, there is then a small montage of different chants, by Africans, Nepalese Buddhists and Catholic. We then see him in the church; there is fantastic echo in the church which makes the priests voice more projected. The short montage is interesting because of Schnabel said the film was sort of Buddhist,.

“The film is kind of Buddhist yet Schnabel’s film doesn’t show this by separating him from his body — it’s through embodying exactly where he was at that Bauby exudes aliveness. Even his dreams and imaginings always come back to the present, sometimes almost seamlessly.(Thompson, 2011)


There is a scene that is prominent through the film if Bauby underwater wearing a deep sea diving suit, the sound is interesting as we can hear his breathing and the underwater ambience. The sound of this is interesting as it makes it is both dreamlike and realistic at the same time, those few seconds that somebody is underwater are isolated and almost isolated, with everything around being muffled.    
In an online article about diving and underwater sound  the author states
“One might expect that hearing under water is easier but this is not so. The volume does not depend on the speed of sound; rather, it is dependent on the amplitude of sound waves and on the perceptive capabilities of the audial organ”.( Sound & Hearing:The Physics Of Diving) but how do sound designers create a realistic underwater sound that replicates what our ears hear whilst underwater? One way is to use a hydrophone which is underwater microphone, there are variety of different ways of portraying any movement in the water whether it be to do it one set or even use a vocoder to create swooshes”’.

An hour and half into the film we can hear Bauby’s heartbeat, there are faster paced steadycam shots and has fallen down a hole in his imagination, his friend is on an otherwise empty plain and Bauby gives up his seat for him, apparently this is a recurring dream.

At 1:36:00 we see and hear Bauby coughing, this sound gives both the audience and the other characters hope that he may be making a recovery but it is just pneumonia.

Two minutes later there is flashback to Bauby driving his car from Paris to the home of his son, he then drives his son around the French countryside and tells him an anecdote. He then starts to feel hot and then pulls over and has a stroke, this is his last moment as an able bodied man and the start of his downfall, there is a very loud grinding noise which is not at first obvious but seems to be his foot still being on the acceleration pedal on his car whilst he is in neutral.

The film concludes around 1:44:00 mark and his nurse tells him that the book has now been written, the sound is more muffled than usual and his sight is becoming less clear and the light is more overexposed, a sign that is body is now failing him and he is about to die.

Moon

Duncan Jones is a fairly new director in the sense that he has only directed two films thus far Moon(2009) and Source Code(2011) but these are two fantastic features which proves that he can make a name for himself without being in his fathers(David Bowie) shadow.

Moon is a science fiction film with quite minimalistic sound design which actually drives the narrative forward, in this sense it is similar to Julian Schnabel’s Diving Bell & The Butterfly despite having totally different themes and genres.

The production sound mixer on Moon was Patrick Owen who has also worked the Howard Marks biopic Mr Nice

The score was composed by Clint Mansell who well known for his famous composition Lux Aeterna which was used in Requim For A Dream, as well as this he was the former guitarist of the band Pop Will Eat Itself.

In a 2009 interview with music magazine Mojo he said “I loved the script, I knew it would bring something good out of me. We talked about the general themes of being alone, being in a long-distance love affair, the overtones of regret and fear and this melancholy loneliness and dream state of wishing for something that’s out of reach.”(Mojo 2009)

“I’m more excited about finding something I relate to in a film that brings something out of me and trying to find the true voice of that film. That approach wouldn’t be right for every film but a film like Duncan’s or Darren’s that are thoughtful and lyrical and emotional can take that extra layer”(Mansell, Mojo 2009)

At the start of the film there is an introduction to the moon and it’s purpose and an energy source for earth. This gives a sense of the time, place and environment straight away.

Around five minutes in we see Sam talking to a recording of himself, he then says he is talking to himself. This shows us the main theme of the film straight away, isolation.

A minute later we then hear Gerty voiced by Kevin Spacey, this is similar character to Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey, a film which Jones said he is paying homage too amongst others including the original version of Solaris, this could be why Moon has a retro futuristic feel to it. Gerty has been Sam’s only companion for the past ‘three years’

At 8:51 We hear the first female voice, it is his wife and his daughter, There is a similar sense of isolation in this scene to that of The Diving Bell & The Butterfly, Sam can’t talk to his partners and child and neither can Bauby

Ten and a half minutes in we can hear a flute like section of the score, we see Sam talking to himself whilst he is doing his chores and activities, he then burns his hand with boiling water, the score then seeps in at the moment indicating that something bad. Sam claims to have burnt his hand watching TV, but Gerty says Sam has imagined the television. This is then followed by a shot of Sam imagining he is with his wife.

Thirteen minutes in a we hear a Chesney Hawkes on the alarm clock, this is briefly a moment of comic relief, hearing an early nineties one hit wonder works well in this futuristic setting because it is unexpected yet something we all know.

In the sixteenth minute of the film Sam crashes his vehicle and then wakes up in bed, Gerty has taken care of him, or so it seems. What is more noticeable in the space centre at this point in an unusual hospital like humming ambience.   

In the twentieth minute of the film Sam gets out of bed, Gerty says there are some problems but it appears Gerty is actually talking to somebody else, which is unusual considering they are supposed to be the only ones on there. We can also hear the mechanics of Gerty’s machinery moving.

At 23:47 Sam goes back to work and ends up cutting a wire and the alarm goes off, his is a generic alarm sound like a fire alarm as opposed to a futuristic one, it is interesting how some sounds still function in a film, especially a science fiction one, without the need for any much editing or changes.  

There are many pressurized doors in the setting, although most pressurized doors such as the ones used in non-domestic fridges and in tunnels such as the euro-star do not quite make the same loud sound of air pressure being released. Despite this the audience knows very well what these doors sound like due to them being common-place in sci-fi films. By having Science fiction sounds people are familiar with the audience instantly understands the genre and setting.

He goes outside in his helmet and there is much heavy breathing. He then discovers another person and carries him inside with him, he is also Sam Bell.

The other Sam is skipping at 31:00 and the ‘original’ Sam is confused, he is not used to another person in the space centre. Sam thinks he is losing his mind, he can only see one person and this is somebody seems to be himself; this is another level of isolation in a sense. The other Sam is reluctant to talk to him as he knows they are clones. When the film approaches its fortieth minute they receive a message saying a rescue mission is coming. After this Sam asks Gerty whether he is a clone, something Gerty does not answer.


When the film approaches its fiftieth minute (48:00) Gerty explains that Sam is in fact a clone, his memories are just uploaded ones uploaded from those of the original Sam Bell. Piano and strings gently come into the mix during the realisation of this.

Exactly on 54:00 the score becomes more busy, this it indicate something big or grand is happening, this is when both Sam’s realise they are not getting alive feed to earth because of the pillars. We can see Sam bleeding through his helmet but we can’t hear it for two reasons, one he is in his helmet and secondly he is in space, this silence plays on our fears that nobody can hear you in space.

At 1:05:00 Sam uses a video device to make a call to Earth, this is where he accepts his situation more as he discovers his ‘wife’ is dead and his daughter is now grown up, we also hear the original Sam in the background. Despite the futuristic setting what is interesting is traditional phone call sound, again showing that such sounds still work in a different time, place and environment.

In the final ten minutes a computerizes female voice counts down until the rescue mission Eliza ‘arrives’. Sam successfully sneaks onto the departing space shuttle but as an additional twist it turns out he has fixed the live feed.


Conclusion

After much analyis of these two films, it’s clear to see that the sound used in them whether it be the foley, dialogue and even the music used gives the films a certain amount of depth, drive the narrative forward and almost importantly, give us a sense of what it’s like to be that character, at first glance The Diving Bell & The Butterfly and Moon may seem like they have nothing in common but they both deal with themes of isolation and this is put across to the audience in the sound used.

Bibliography

Book

Jean-Dominique Bauby (1997). The Diving Bell & The Butterfly(Film tie-in edition ). France: Harper Perennial. 144.

Brian David Johnson (2011). Science Fiction for Prototyping: Designing the Future with Science Fiction.: Morgan & Claypool Publishers .


Web

Julian Schnabel: Reasons for making “Diving Bell” . (2007). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u4vWkgxGnk. Last accessed 15^th December 2011

Ivanova, D. Sound & Hearing:The Physics Of Diving. Available: http://library.thinkquest.org/28170/36.html.

Nathan Thompson. (2011). Life Lessons from The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Available: http://lifeasahuman.com/2011/mind-spirit/inspirational/life-lessons-from-the-diving-bell-and-the-butterfly/. Last accessed 18th December 2011.

Andrew Male. (2009). Clint Mansell Q&A: http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2009/07/clint_mansell_qa.html. Last accessed 18th December 2011.

Looking back at 2011, although I may not have realised it most of the time, this has actually been a fantastic year. 

With various projects keeping me busy it has been what be considered an experimental year both professionally and personally. The short film Cotton Frequency  and the installation piece Broadcast-Legal were unconventional to say the least. As well as doing some work at The Courteeners/Coral gig at the end of July and doing my usual bar job throughout the entire year I have also decided to start writing again, this could be considered as something to fall back on but it isn’t, it’s just a joy being able to express ones opinions. 

I have mostly written about music, sport and film this year so I had better give out this years Nathan Croucher Scouring Pad Awards or ‘The Scourers’ Sponsored by Brillo.


Album Of The Year- Arctic Monkeys-Suck It & See There has been a plethora of fantastic guitar albums in 2011 but this year’s first Scourer goes to those four lads from Sheffield, there seems to have been less expectation with this record because of 2009’s Humbug. The band have developed their sound to create a fatter poppy sound that does not stray away too much from the experimental nature of their third.  Runners Up- The Horrors- Skying, Shlohmo-Bad Vibes

Song Of The Year- This is a more difficult task than picking an album, there has been a wide range of brilliant songs released this year, many of them guilty pleasures to a degree. Many others would choose a song that has sold the most records or downloads, but not is not what a great single is about. After putting a lot of thought into this I have decided to give the second Scourer to Sappho by Tribes. The first single from their upcoming debut album was part of the soundtrack a fantastic summer. As well a cracking video this catchy indie anthem which has a quiet-loud-quiet-loud formula is seemingly about a lesbian.
Gig If The Year- The Coral-Haigh Hall, Wigan- The Coral supported The Courteeners in late June but it was those cosmic scousers who stole the show. They were ultimate mix between quiet and loud, fuzzy yet clean guitars and still an incredibly tight band around ten years after debut album. New material such as She Rides show they still know how to write classics.

Film Of The Year- Source Code- Duncan Jones second feature is by no means original but this Sci-Fi thriller is an hour and half of pure entertainment. The script is one of the more cleverly written this year.
Runner-Up- Submarine

Sporting Moment- It’s a biased one but Wigan’s victory at Wembley over Leeds meant the Challenge Cup finally came home after all these years.

City- Sheffield and Berlin.
 

So there is another film in the Mission Impossible canon this time directed by Brad Bird, known more for his animated movies like The Incredibles and Ratatouille this is his first live-action feature.

The plot involves a botched operation by the IMF to steal a set of nuclear launch codes, however the plan goes terribly wrong and the other IMF agents must to break  Ethan Hunt(Cruise) out of a Moscow prison, aware that they cannot carry on without his help. The story opens sometime after the third film in the franchise which is explained in the plot 

The group dynamic of the film, featuring Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton and obviously Cruise somehow manages mask the latter’s performance which is his usual smug self. 

The characters William Brandt and Benji Dunn, (Renner and Pegg respectively) are stronger that the now familiar Ethan Hunt(Cruise), Pegg’s British character is there for comic effect and to a degree it does work and Renner also delivers a strong if more serious and deep performance, it feels like these characters especially Dunn will stick around in future installations. 

Patton’s character is that of a typical sexy and strong lady but the sexual tension between her and Cruise seems forced and does not feel right in the context of Hunt’s ‘previous relationship situation’. The female antagonist Sabine Moreau  (Lea Seydoux) however is a mysterious, beautiful lady of little words whose character works perfectly on what is supposed to be a espionage film.

It feels like a franchise that went stale after the first sequel, and although impressively shot with IMAX cameras and with fantastic sound design expected of a Hollywood feature, the narrative and a few of the performances border on ridiculous, and most of the set pieces seem to be lacking in any form of tension, as part of the audience it’s hard to feel part of the so called thrill ride expected of such a film. Cruise’s action sequences seem quite plastic and stale especially the ones at the Kremlin and the sandstorm in Dubai although the window scene at the Burj Khalifa(the tallest building in the world) is a tense, jaw-dropping moment which harks back to the good old days of the first two films.

 For all it’s faults, the general critical praise and box office profit of this film will most likely ensure this series will continue but Ghost Protocol feels quite a tired attempt at making another spy-thriller, there are plenty of elements in the film that do work very well but not enough to stretch over the course of 133 minutes.

I shall give it two scouring pads out of a possible five.

2/5

Nathan Croucher




 

Nathan Croucher

Through a critical analysis of one film from the lecture programme, plus another film of your own choice, discuss ways in which film can explore and illuminate philosophical issues.

Introduction

In the following paper I will demonstrate how two films, one of which was screened and discussed as part of the Thinking Through Film module portray certain philosophical issues. The early section will concentrate on American director Terence Malick and much of the secondary research I have done on him, This includes his links and influence from certain philosophers and I will also use his 1998 feature The Thin Red Line as my film of choice.

The second part of the paper will concentrate on how philosophy is portrayed in Mike Leigh’s Naked(1993)

The links between philosophy and film may at times seem vague and some people often comment on how philosophy can portray philosophical issues but not actually contribute to philosophy itself. Whatever side of the argument you stand on there is no doubt that many directors have clearly raised philosophical issues and there is nobody better to look at than Terrence Malick. Famously patient when it comes to developing his feature films, even to the point that there was a twenty year gap between Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, his beautifully shot films have often raised questions to the audience in ways other directors may have previously not, this is perhaps partly why he is so revered.

In Terence Malick: Film and Philosophy by Tucker and Kendall they discuss what gives a film character on page 14, this is done using Malicks New World (2005) as an example, showing how the actual environment or nature affects plot and the protagonists, it’s as if nature is a character, this is common throughout various Malick films but I will be concentrating mostly on just Thin Red Line

The same chapter also references Edmund Husserl who was an early 20th century philosopher. According to The Essential Husserl: Basic Writings In Transcendental Phenomenology compiled by Donn Welton,Husserl in many ways remained a fellow traveller of seminal thinkers along the winding course of philosophy(Essential Husserl Chapter 2) Some of his elaborations which involve the assumptions of existence fit in very well with Malicks filmic style and the themes illuminated. . One of these philosophical ideas is one called phenomenology, this generally concerns conscious experience, with The Thin Red Line Malick could be playing with this idea.

Heidegger can also be linked to Malick, even as far as Malick even meeting the 20th century German philosopher. Heidegger was initially world changing but the Nazi party ended up taking up some of his ideas which in effect but people off him. Malick’s films especially the Thin Red Line are instances of what may be called Heideggarian cinema. Malick’s approach to filmmaking is strongly influenced by him.

The fact that Malick is so silent about his films leave them open to debate and argument which is itself an philosophical function(Poetic Visions of America, Patterson, H)

Cavell argues that Malick has ‘found a way to transpose such thoughts for out mediation. In films such as Badlands, Days of Heaven and Tree of Life he shows how the beauty of earth as if it was a character rather than something that just passes us by, this is also the case with The Thin Red Line. The film presents itself being as inter-connected of the world.

“He has discovered how to acknowledge a fundamental fact of film’s photogenic basic, that objects participate in the photogenic presence of themselves, they participate in the recreation of themselves on film.(Cavell)

The Thin Red Line references the question of being, “Being, which is that brings forth all beings, is itself not a being Different kinds of being have been distinguished from subsistence and other notions”(Lacey, A.R). The film focuses on the actions and morality of individuals, mostly through voiceover. It shows how individuals act in an effectively meaningless war, for example bravery, madness, numbness. This fits in with Heidegger’s philosophical questioning on Dasein and Being, Philosophy had only asked about beings. Since Ancient Greece, philosophy is the history of the forgetting on Being, in capitals. Heidegger believed that philosophy for the past two thousand years had neglected ‘being’ because it deemed obvious, rather than worthy of question. It was Husserl that stated that ‘all that philosophy could and should be is a description of experience “Experience itself is not science”(Husserl,1917 Lecture ), Heidegger appears to be the polar opposite of Husserl.

Dasien is a German word which Heidegger made famous in his book Being and Time. It actually means existence but he claimed it shouldn’t mean a subject. For example it means a person exists, but not the fact they exist. This relationally is not itself a being that can be grasped or isolated but cinema has the potential to at least help us glimpse at it.

Malick presents very deliberate neutrality toward both the concrete events and situations in the narrative as well as philosophical question, primarily through the character Sgt Wit, the only one who accepts everything around him.

We don’t actually see any humanity from the Japanese until after the first battle. Through this we can see that War is an intrusion on an otherwise natural paradise.

It is quite interesting how Sean Penn’s character believes that this world is the only one.

The Native Micronesians portray an image of freedom, going back to Plato’s Cave, this is indeed a contradiction that knowledge gives them power, in some senses knowledge can tie somebody down like a chain.

Mike Leigh’s Naked.

In the second part of this essay I am going to as stated, discuss Naked(1993) a British feature directed by Mike Leigh.

It follows a character called Johnny played by David Thewliss. He is an outspoken Mancunian who is London as he has raped a woman in his home city and must escape. He decides to see an old girlfriend Louise and he encounters various other alienated and displaced characters whilst in the capital. He often quotes various philosophical texts, quotes and ideas to everybody he meets He’s frustrated because he’s not understood. he’s an intellectual and mostly whenever he speaks everyone else does not quite understand, he can also often be seen reading, in fact in one scene his bag goes missing with his only possesions being his books of philosophy.

He is a flawed character has who redeeming qualities which make the audience engage with him. His story is intertwined with that of another character called Jeremy (Greg Cutwell) a posh, upper class yuppie who happens to behave pretty much like Johnny, but the audience find it hard to sympathise with him, this is a common theme in many of Mike Leigh’s films.

It deals with themes of Alienation. Alienation in philosophy has been explored by Heidegger , Sartre ,Fromm and countless other philosophers.

Karl Marx used the term ‘alienation to describe the depersonalised and purposeless of people who have become estranged from vital social and economic elements in their lives”, in the study of relating alienation to Naked it could also concern the human condition of estrangement from reality, for him a spiritual and rationally coherent whole(Collinson, Fifty Major Philosophers: A Reference Guide)


“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does”(Satre,Being and Nothingness Conclusion, II)


Johnny has no connection with a woman named Sophie who is seemingly obsessed with him yet he has sex with her several times, “One classic sign for alienation is mistaking sex for love” This fits in well with Johnny’s behaviour, he is alienated to the point that the consequences of his actions do not matter. She lacks self esteem to the point where even a bullying, arrogant Johnny can have sex with here. She is the first person he has a full conversation with in the film and we can from what he says that it is quite bleak, “Have you ever thought that you may have already lived the happiest day of your whole life, and all you have left to look forward to is fuckin’ sickness and purgatory?”

There is a pair of young Scottish homeless people in the film, they are alienated from the public, they are apart at one point and need to find each other, and Johnny helps then but as soon as they are back together they go off and ignore Johnny, he is himself alienated.

“Naked is an attempt to investigate the possibility of expressing freedom in an alienating society that promotes attitudes of bad faith.(Boulé & McCaffre, 2011).
There is a security guard with a belief that the rapture is near, Johnny meets his and they have a conversation. The building he works in is described as a post-modern gas chamber, guarding empty space could be used for the homeless but it isn’t.

They have a discussion about religion, the security guard thinks that bar-codes will become used for people, he is looking for meaning in absurd places. He is also alienated. He looks out of a high rise window and often spies on a woman, this is voyeurism. He has a fantasy life which involves his so-called past life, he want to visit and 17th century cottage in Eire which he believes was where his former physical being used to live.

One of the Reponses to a meaningless and empty universe is to create meaning, for comfort. Some of the things we consume as humans is escapism, intoxication is escapism, even music is an escape.

An person leading an authentic existence would perhaps take responsibility for their own actions. Johnny has the freedom of an authentic existence but is tied down to an inauthentic one.

Leap of faith, no safety net, does not makes a decision right or wrong, it is about making choices that do not matter, and this is often common with adults.

Reckless abandon is having no concept of consequences, Jeremy has such a pessimistic view of the world he feels he can do as he pleases.

Jeremy says he will commit suicide on his 40^th birthday, he tells this to a woman he rapes at his apartment. That he wants to die young gives the impression that he thinks life is short and therefore there are no consequences.

As Albert Camus put it bluntly “There is one but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide(Camus, A (2005). The Myth of Sisyphus(Paperback). London: Penguin)

The myth of Sisyphus is a famous painting and also a philosophical anecdote. Jean-Paul Sartre’s study of Albert Camus’s ‘novel’ on which he relies heavily on the philosophical work The Myth of Sisyphus, informs us that philosophy has interpretative and instructive purpose in relation to fiction and art’(Boule, McCaffe, 2011)

The gods as a punishment had condemned Sisyphus to rolling a rock to a top of a mountain for all eternity, making his life effectively meaningless. “The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart, one must imagine Sisyphus happy”(Camus,2005).

This is perhaps why Jeremy has yet to commit suicide, finding happiness in the futilty of life, this is why as humans most of the time we choose not to commit suicide. There is joyful affirmation in the absurdity of it all. Naked is a film full of circles, Johnny starts off running away and the film closes with him running away, nothing has been resolved, presumably Johnny will meet more people for the rest of his life and nothing will become of it. Johnny’s Dad was violent, this shows a cycle of violence.

“The surrender of man thinking to rationalism and of his artifice to technics have consequences which console man with the feeling that he is progressing but make him neglect or deny fundamental forces of his inner life which are turned in forces of destruction”(Existentialism and Humanism, Sartre)

Conclusion

After initially watching these films, it is clear that there is a broader experience to be gained by studying certain philosophers and their ideas, especially when they relate directly to film. By illuminating and portraying philosophy in their features Malick and Leigh have introduced many people to an area they may not have previously thought about with philosophy being an extension for a film and vice versa. On the surface Naked is at risk of seeming nihilistic and depraved, and The Thin Red Line could just be another war movie but by adding philosophical ideas it gives the films another dimension. The debate may always rage on as to whether film is only illustrating philosophy it is clear that both film and philosophy have worked together side by side and opened each other up to new audiences with their thought provoking philosophical films.

Books

Heidegger (2010). Being & Truth. London: Indiana University . 5.

Tucker & Kendall. (2011). Malick and Film Phenomenology. In: Terrence Malick: Film and Philosophy. New York: Continuum International. 14-.

Patterson, H. (2007). Chapter Fourteen: Terence Malick’s Heideggerian Cinema:War and the Question of Being in The Thin Red Line. In: Patterson, H The Cinema of Terence Malick:Poetic Visions Of America. 2nd ed. USA: Columbia University Press; 2nd edition . 179-189.

David Davies (2009). The Thin Red Line:Philosophers On Film. New York: Taylor & Francis Group. 77.

Welton, A Husserl, E. (1999). Introduction. In: Welton, D The Esn sential Husserl:Basic Writings In Transcendental Phenomenology. USA: Indiana

Husserl, E Moran,D. (1999). Introduction. In: Moran, D Logical Investigations Volume 1-Reprint. USA: Routledge. 1.

Satre, JP. (2007). 1. In: Existentialism & Humanism. London: Taylor & Francis.. 11.

LACEY, A.R (1976). A Dictionary Of Philosophy . 2nd ed. London: Routledge &
Keegan. 19.

Jean-Pierre Boulé, Enda McCaffre. (2011). Chapter Three, Naked, Bad Faith and Masculinity. In: Boule & McCaffre Existentialism and Contemporary Cinema: A Sartrean Perspective. UK: Berghahn Books.

Satre, JP (2003). Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology. 2nd ed. London: Routledge. Conclusion II.

Collinson, D (1987). Fifty Major Philosophers:A Reference Guide. London & New York: Routeledge. Glossary -164.

Camus, A (2005). The Myth of Sisyphus(Paperback). London: Penguin 

Web

Sinnerbink.R. (2006). A Heideggarian Cinema?:. Available: http://www.film-philosophy.com/2006v10n3/sinnerbrink.pdf. Last

Scott Tobias. (2009). The New Cult Canon: Naked. Available: http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-new-cult-canon-naked,31328/. Last accessed 10/12/2011.

Sandmeyer,B, Husserl,E. (2007). Chronology of Writings. Available: http://www.husserlpage.com/hus_cbib.html. Last accessed 9th

It’s never an easy task reviewing any of The Falls albums, after a wide variety of work spanning more than thirty years, their cult following and spontaneous yet familiar nature means there really isn’t any expectation. 

The latest addition to the long canon of Fall albums is Ersatz GB 

Mark E Smith is sounds almost phsycotic and often snarls through many of the tracks, there seems to be a new energy in this album, an angry satirist biting back. This is most prominent on Greenway, a fast paced track in which Smith snaps “ ”wank off the dog to feed the cat””

On Happi Song the keyboardist and Mark’s wife sings lead, this does not suit the album whatsoever yet this Passions-esque track is still brilliant and suits a different time.

Another highlight is Mask Search with it’s repetitive rhythm section and buzzing guitars, it reminds catchy yet raw and the lyric “BUT I’M SO SICK OF SNOW PATROL AND WHERE TO FIND ESSO LUBRICANTS AND MOBILE NUMBER” is simply unforgettable.

Overall I won’t be giving the album a rating, it’s a belting record but I don’t need to preach to the converted really, fans of The Fall know what they are getting with this record because they don’t know what they are getting.

It’s a Ryan Cooper. Ryan likes cats, cookies and young plums.


 

As a reasonably new band, Tribes have already released several glorious singles and EP that rank up there with the finest, if not the finest of the year. The Camden band have managed to become the stand-out act of 2011, no mean feat when you consider how much hype the competition receives. The question is, would they be able to match their poppy yet lo-fi, anthemic studio work to a live audience?

Of they they can, this is perhaps helped by the fact the band are grafters, instead of the usual internet route many bands take, Tribes work hard, and you can’t knock a tryer, they have played many shows in their young careers, by going down this route they have attained many loyal and vocal fans.

Tribes show at Leadmill in Sheffield was an intimate yet chaotic affair and it was all the better for it, the audience well and truly felt Tribe’s vibes.


 

So The Stone Roses are back together after many years away, I have been a little skeptical thus far but I am actually looking forward to the Heaton Park dates next summer. I have not seen many reformed bands live with the exception of Echo & The Bunnymen so it is not for me to predict how it will go but it will be interesting to see how one of theis countrys greatest bands get’s on. Oh and I prefer Second Coming, fantastic record.