Saturday, 16 April 2011
Thursday, 14 April 2011
How much does your life weigh?
'All the things you probably hate about travelling -the recycled air, the artificial lighting, the digital juice dispensers, the cheap sushi- are warm reminders that I'm home.'
In 2009, I sat within an cinema audience for a screening of Jason Reitman's third feature film 'Up in the air', up until this point I had been impressed by 'Thank you for smoking' and had understood and appreciated 'Juno's success but I had no idea that the film I was about to witness, would still have me thinking about it now.
The film was enjoyed by the crowd, laughing in the places where the film wanted you to laugh but what made me feel inferior to the rest was when the film ended and we all applauded, it somehow felt polite as opposed to a general love for what they had just watched. I included a large WHHOOPP which I think the film deserved. I remember someone slightly turning their head, almost as if they were thinking, 'what's wrong with you, you liked that film? I couldn't stop thinking about it...but why?
Was it the false pretences in which the film seemed like it was going to turn out in the end but didn't, this ain't no romantic comedy. Was it the world in which our protagonist was in, a man who fires people for a living, mirroring the current recession of the new millennium? Was it the fact that people fired in the film did actually lose their jobs in real life, the life imitating art factor with Ryan Bingham being played by George Clooney, the sharp comedy of the script, the gentle and subtly played out drama of a man learning the beauty of having a 'co-pilot' in life.
Ryan Bingham is a man who learns that the life he has been rejecting for years is actually much better than the life he has been living confidently in. He continues in his job to no satisfaction, his family regard him as a ghost, the woman he finally falls for, already has been living what he realises he now wants, so what has he got left...?
Ryan brings another future to Natalie Keener with his enthusiastic reference...with the final scene looming, where is our scene informing the audience confidently that Ryan will be okay, smile at a woman on the plane before he starts talking to her, using the Hollywood technique we'll lived with for years, that idea 'that everything will be alright in the end.'
Well...we do get it, Ryan stands with destination endless, acknowledges the audience with a sadness in his face, with a voice-over describing whilst happy families will carry on tonight, the stars will shine before disappearing and the final light of hope...will be his wing-tip flying over. Dead. Silence. The audience is left with clouds...Ryan is alone...
Why did I like this film? The man from the cinema and most of the audience who heard that loud whoop, seems like they thought the same or maybe they were too stunned or taken back by what they had just seen? I love it because I can't believe I see it...
Ryan Bingham learns but he doesn't change...he is the same man at the beginning and the end, only left with more pain...
In a great scene where he learns who he actually is, where he's from, what is at the centre of his life, the pilot asks him whilst they sit side by side on the plane 'where you from?' Ryan replies...
'I'm from here.'
Ryan Bingham: 'How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life... you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV... the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. You go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home... I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office... and then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your brothers, your sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack, feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks.'
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Saturday, 25 September 2010
The Bill (1984-2010)
'We've all got it coming son, today's your turn.' Detective meadows uttered to the last caught murder suspect on the final episode of what would sadly be the end of 26 year old 'The Bill', one of the longest running series in British TV history. The end for a great show is always sad but some are inevitable...they will end...most things do. However in the case of 'the bill', it's end was more to do with change destroying it, as oppose to cutbacks.
'The bill' was originally a half an hour slot, like most TV shows into the 90's, an hour was now the standard format and so it followed. With it's initial first line 'okay Carver, let's do it.' The ending titles sequence of the police officers feet walking down the street, was always pictured as it official image, even after it was dropped for a more upbeat, uptone, "modren" title sequence. 'The bill' was about police officers, the law and their work. The bill may have had storylines over the years with certain characters but essentially the bill was not a soap, which made it stand out from all other British TV programmes.
I throughly enjoyed watching it over the years, I always knew I could come back to watching it after a long period, not worried about missing any huge continous plotline, because there usually wouldn't be one. I was tuning it for a gripping story, based on people living in London, a crime, suspects, investigation, solved, end. No gimmicks, no music to disguise the reality, in fact using ambience sounds to their advantage, creating high realistic drama.
The most remembered and favourite TV year of the bill for me is quite recent with 2008, in which they had a very ambitious and extremely successful eight parter titled 'witness', which focused on knife and gun crime within young children on a council estate. 'Witness' was unrelentless, gripping, powerful and thoughtful drama. Later that year, a two parter 'Hold me tight' tackled the murder of a eight year school girl and the main suspect a young boy around the same age. In the end, the boy was convicted of the crime after confessing but the officers were not sure weather to file the crime under murder, accidental or manslaughter. 'Over the limit' focuced on PC Sally Armstrong, who drunk a bit too much at a nightclub and crashed her car into another, the episode focused on three of the officers as they attempted to avoid anyone else at the station finding out about the incident and Sally being involved. The episode ends with Sally not being found out. As the bill carried onto other episodes and other storylines, this was never referred to again, PC Armstrong never got her comeuppance, noramally forbidden in the TV world.
The bill changed it formats over the years, adjusted to the times, sadly it was change that brought about it's demise and sudden lowered viewing figures. The change was to happen in September 2009, in which the format changed the gritty cinematography to glossy, from handheld to dolly. With a title sequence, devoid of it's original music of 26 years, now replaced with a confusing other track, murky ambience and pointless fast images. It was a sadly a matter of time, as the Bill now, was no longer gripping, exiciting, relevent or interesting. With an ambitous final steadycam one shot through the station, moving outside the station, crane shot up and end credits, the final epsiode entitled 'respect' dedicated it's long TV run to the men and women of the Metropolitan police force, past and present, as the final words of detective Meadows echoed...
'Today was one of the good days.'
The bill, ordinary people in a uniform, taking a responsibily for society.
R.I.P. You're nicked!
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
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