Weekly Films

Not a lot of films on this, and most of the detail on V For Vendetta will end up in it's own post. It's odd - Innocence is a truly outstanding and important film, much better than V..., but V... has got a bit of buzz in the zeitgeist. Of course, who gets to see Innocence? Anyway....

Innocence **** - vision of girl's school as hell. Starts with a coffin being opened by little girls - out pops another little girl, 6 year old Iris. She is brought into the society - there are 5 houses, 7 girls each, one per year, 6-12, it seems, wearing ribbons denoting their ages. They go to classes (science and dance) - they swim and play - they hang around. They are served by downcast old women and taught by two elegant young women who may have secrets of their own. They can't leave, they have no contact with anyone outside, some of them do mysterious things at night. They pine, they adjust, they are bullied by the teachers and each other and mysterious outsiders. All of this is shot in in long, still takes, with low cameras, odd noises, etc. - the film creates a palpable sense of dread, but dread that isn't quite justified. Terrible things are hinted at, but don't materialize (though sometimes they do).... The tone - the dread, the camera creeping around the old buildings, the hints of something nasty just around the corner - is quite reminiscent of Suspiria, of all things - though without the mayhem. The director was present for the screening - during the Q&A, I was gratified to hear her name Argento as one of her inspirations. The beauty, unease, the dancing... It has a strong specifically female point of view, partly expressed in the emphasis on bodies, dealing with the social construction of their identities - but it's also remarkably effective at getting at what it feels like to be a child. The utter strangeness of things, the strange demands made by adults, their strange pronouncements on life, on how we should act. It's a great film.

V for Vendetta **: it's the future, though it's a lot like today. A fat stupid twit raves on TV (looking and sounding like Christopher Hitchens, with a dose of Rush, Bill O'Reilly, and the usual suspects) - meanwhile, a girl goes out after curfew. She's quickly harrassed by cops - and rescued by a guy in a Guy Fawkes mask. He takes her and shows her the Old Bailey being blown up. The next day, she goes to work at a TV station - he shows up and causes trouble, makes a speech promising to blow up Parliament in a year, then leaves, as she saves him from a cop. He has an underground lair. He watches The Count of Monte Christo and occasionally goes out to kill people who deserve it. The cops look for him. The government rails. Backstory gets filled in - then more backstory - meanwhile Stephen Rea is a cop. The government is incompetent - none of the cops can even spy on each other, the TV station doesn't have the wit to turn off the girl's ID when she's wanted for terrorism, cabinet level (or whatever would pass for a cabinet in this world) people prowl around alleyways looking for clues and lead raids on dissidents. Natalie Portman gets her head shaved. Strange twists occur. Months pass and nothing happens. Things blow up.... When you get right down to it, though, it's nonsense, with some nice visuals and highfalutin' quotes. It isn't that bad, but it's not very good either. It's slow and awkward and plays like a very long trailer, as everything is skimmed through without much time to develop. Portman does her job, Hugo Weaving sounds good and moves well under his mask. Stephen Fry is criminally underused. Stephen Rea acts all decent and stuff, but doesn't have anything to do. For all that, it is packed full of ideas, though scattered around, like piles of books in a nerd's bedroom. And thus, I may have mopre to say about it in coming days - it has engendered a certain amount of controversy, and offers many chances to philosophize.