every single film ever made has been digitally compressed into a huge library, where they can be accessed, taken apart, used, reused – infinitesimally

Mrs Chubbs, Home Movies, 1993

Take Peter Cushing’s appearance in the latest Star Wars film, and the controversy over whether we have the right to have actors play parts that they never could have had any knowledge of. It’s all there in Home Movies…

Something else which is there is the character of Amanda Jones from the 1985 film Some Kind of Wonderful. Who would’ve thought then that she would the seed of the story for the Mr Tumnal follow-up, The Imaginary Wife as just one of the literary and pop-culture references to find and enjoy?

Before Midnight

In the summer of 1995 I fell in love with a film.   Before Sunset was the film; a story of two people, Celine and  Jesse, who met on train crossing Europe, talk, get off at Vienna, walk around the city, talk some more, and say goodbye. Before Sunset was the sequel that picked up the story nine years later… they met again in Paris, talked some more and possibly, maybe got together.

Another nine years and a ‘conclusion’ to the  trilogy sees Celine and Jesse at the end of a holiday in Greece with their young family.  I have been looking forward to this movie and fearing it in equal measure. Will this film soil my two favourite films of all times…?

I needn’t have feared. It was brilliant.  Not so much the love story of the earlier two films but then the love story was never really the point of these films, but the  plot device that got two characters talking. I’ve come away from seeing this film hoping that a book of the film, if the screenplay is available (as they have with the earlier films) as the film is just so damn quotable – I lost count of the number of times that I thought I must remember that line but then another would come along and scream remember me at me.

I’ve grown up with these films. I am, within a couple of years the same age as Celine and Jesse, and of their actors Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, and their revisiting of their story matches my own life.

It seems that my two favourite films have become three.

Before Midnight

In the summer of 1995 I fell in love with a film.   Before Sunset was the film; a story of two people, Celine and  Jesse, who met on train crossing Europe, talk, get off at Vienna, walk around the city, talk some more, and say goodbye. Before Sunset was the sequel that picked up the story nine years later… they met again in Paris, talked some more and possibly, maybe got together.

Another nine years and a ‘conclusion’ to the  trilogy sees Celine and Jesse at the end of a holiday in Greece with their young family.  I have been looking forward to this movie and fearing it in equal measure. Will this film soil my two favourite films of all times…?

I needn’t have feared. It was brilliant.  Not so much the love story of the earlier two films but then the love story was never really the point of these films, but the  plot device that got two characters talking. I’ve come away from seeing this film hoping that a book of the film, if the screenplay is available (as they have with the earlier films) as the film is just so damn quotable – I lost count of the number of times that I thought I must remember that line but then another would come along and scream remember me at me.

I’ve grown up with these films. I am, within a couple of years the same age as Celine and Jesse, and of their actors Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, and their revisiting of their story matches my own life.

It seems that my two favourite films have become three.

Give me the child. Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen. For my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is as great. You have no power over me.

I’m not sure what brought Labyrinth to mind, but at some point this week, it did… Actually I do, Helen Thomson posted something facebook about having problems with a marauding goblin army and that got me remembering the David Bowie song from the film…

You remind me of the babe. What babe? The babe with the power. What power? The power of voodoo. Who do? You do. Do what? Remind me of the babe.

…and that prompted me to buy the album – £3.99 download from amazon. It turns out that Emma has never seen Labyrinth and and so tonight, after a rather bargainous meal c/o M&S Meals for Two for a tenner washed down with a scrummy Irish Coffee, we settled down to watch my dvd of it. Brilliant, jut brilliant. I love that film.

I was reminded by something that Mrs Moss said to me today, of an interview that I was set not long after joining LiveJournal nine years ago by her daughter rachel2205. It’s interesting to look back on these old posts and reflect on how my life has changed in so many ways but at the same time have retained so much of what makes me me. Particularly the answer to Question 5: optimism really does win out.

And on that note…

If you want to be interviewed, comment below, and I’ll ask you 5 questions, which you then post in your journal, whilst also asking people if they want to be interviewed. Do you see?

It’s beautifully made, and filmed, and the interior shots of Athelhampton House (the Dorset house that stands in for Green Knowe in this version) are a fitting tribute to the real manor house that we have visited. The main Chimneys of Green Knowe story of Susan, Jacob and Sefton is faithful enough too. What I did find jarring is the relationship that Tolly has with his Grannie and his backstory in this adaptation.

I can see why they have changed it. For some reason they have leapt straight into the second book on this occasion and so Tolly (Toseland) loses everything he found out on his previous visit to the house. We see him ask about if Grannie believes in ghosts, or climbs the big, old oak tree without deference to Old Green Knowe, wonders about the St Christopher, or asks Boggis if there has always been a Boggis working here, when really he knows all these answers already. He knows about Alexander, Toby and Linnet (I still love the name Linet for a girl if we were ever to have a girl…), and he knows that Grannie has grown up with the ghosts of the house as much as he now is. Knowing all of this happened in the first book, and that it has Tolly recently in the second book, made it jarring for me in this film that all of that had changed.

All in all, a good film, well told, but an odd choice to have filmed the second book in preference to the first.

Meanwhile for true Green Knowe magic, visit the actual house. And when I do see the movie, I shall be sure to take my ebony mouse with me…

I was a bit unsure about the way that they animated some of Beatrix’s drawing and the brief scene involving her parents going out for the evening in a pumpkin carriage pulled by mice; they seemed unnecessary elements – like the filmakers were unsure that we would ‘get’ her sense of imagination. Also, whilst fun, they detracted from an otherwise ‘straight’ film.

On balance though I can forgive the film it’s faults for the quintessential charm that it had, and the pleasure that it gave me to watch. A good evening…

Of the books, book four, The Goblet of Fire, is my least favourite of the books. The film of it, goes some way to improve upon it, but I am not sure how well it stands as a film in it’s own right, outside of the Harry Potter universe. Being the fourth film in the series you can excuse the film makers for not making it accessible to anyone new to the films, but I think that it possibly relies on the prior knowledge of the books too much. Events happen, and stories unfold, but they are not placed into a defined story arc. Also, in the last film I loved the older, rundown Hogwarts that they have retained in this book, but the oldy-worldy look stands at odds with characters wearing clothing made of modern fabrics. I’m not saying that this doesn’t work, but it does bring up some intriguing conflicts in the mís en scene.

The effects are of course stunning, and the aging of the young leads, is not a problem for me – the whole point of this series after all is that they do age. And there are some brilliant touches to this film, the Yule Ball for instance, just how did they film that with all those shiny-reflective surfaces. And the Wyrd Sisters was inspired. Jarvis Cocker, singing This is the Night, Magic Works, and Do The Hippogriff was fantastic in a post-The Darkness environment.

Yes, we lose the Dursley’s in their entirety, and ‘school’ is kept to the barest of minimums (but then this isn’t Grange Hill), but I feel that this adapation actually makes a better story out of The Goblet of Fire and the book. In some ways, it’s the story that the book could have been if it had been edited more. I will also be intrigued as to what we are presented with on the dvd. Part of me wants the ‘extended edition’ with all those extra ‘little’ bits that they had to trim off the scenes to bring it down to time. The detail they’ve gone to is exquisite.

In short, I enjoyed it!

My verdict? The new movie is not such a complete, utterly faithful telling of the Jane Austen classic as Mr Davis’ version, but then again how could it be? The BBC adaptation is three times as long, all told. This is a film, and it’s a very good film. The photography is lavish and luxurious, the acting is fine, and the production values excellent. Keira Knightley was superb as Elizabeth (although perhaps the film has succumbed to the same fate as previous productions in being more beautiful than Jane) and fitted well with the other four Bennet girls, who were, as an ensemble, refreshingly as young as they should be.