Day 14: My favourite film by a female director

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Raw (2016)

There are so many female directors who I love. If you click on the ‘female directors’ tag on the left of my blog page, you’ll see many examples; some with multiple films, others with only one.

There’s Ana Kokkinos, Claire Denis, Agnès Varda, Sophia Coppola, Mia Hansen-Løve, Cate Shortland, Kelly Reichardt, Rachel Perkins, Doris Dörrie, Maren Ade, Jane Campion, Sally Potter, Maya Newell, Lyn Ramsey and Agnieszka Smoczynska. And Lynn Shelton! I was so saddened to hear that she passed away last week as I loved Sword of Trust (2019), Your Sister’s Sister (2011) and Hump Day (2009).

I had to pick one, though, and I keep coming back to Raw (or Grave) – you can read my review here. It was the first feature of French screenwriter Julia Ducournau and I felt like a changed person after I saw it. It is surreal and demanding, gory and beautiful and ultimately about female desire and power. And vegetarians. If you don’t mind challenging films, I recommend you watch it.

And if the only film by a female director you can think of with this prompt is Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker (2008), then I’ll send you a list of what to watch.

Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.

Coming Next: Day 15: Your favourite musical film

Day 13: A film that reminds me of being a teenager

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Image via qagoma.qld.gov.au

Gallipoli (1981)

I was obsessed with this film from the age of 16 until I was around 20. I collected articles on it, created artwork when I was supposed to be doing homework, fell in love with its classical and contemporary music score and dreamed about star Mark Lee (and was jealous when my friend Alison saw him play at her university union night in his band).

I could quote swathes of it – “What are your legs? Springs, steel springs. And what are they going to do? Hurl me down the track. How fast can you run? As fast as a leopard. How fast ARE you going to run? As fast as a leopard. Well let’s see you do it then!” Mel Gibson was at his likeable best but his character was perhaps too much of a rogue for my delicate adolescent heart.

It was also an education on war and the first time I had really thought about its impact on ordinary people like myself. The story is not a new one and hit many beats that are familiar now that I have watched more films of its ilk – youth, innocence, mateship, heroism, the brutality of authority as well as the enemy. It succeeds in the same way 1917 (2019) does, by picking out the personal story of two people and showing how arbitrary the line is between surviving and dying.

What film reminds you of being a teenager? It might be one that you loved as a teen or one that embodies the feel of being young.

Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.

Coming Next: Day 14: Your favourite film by a female director

Day 12: My favourite remake/reboot

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Image via http://www.britannica.com

His Girl Friday (1940)

I’m cheating a bit with this one as I didn’t realise His Girl Friday was a remake until I did a bit of searching. There are so many examples of Hollywood remakes of excellent non-English language films but I couldn’t find a single one that improved on the original. There are some decent remakes of classic films but for every You’ve Got Mail (1998), a delightfully modernised (by Nora Ephron) The Shop Around the Corner (1940), you get twenty The Women (2008) (don’t even bother with it and go straight to The Women (1939)).

His Girl Friday is one of my all-time favourite films; smart and funny with whip-cracking, razor-sharp dialogue. Cary Grant is as good as he is in The Philadelphia Story (1940) but it is Rosalind Russell who steals the show. I never get bored watching it. I have to admit, though, that I have never seen The Front Page (1931), its precursor, which makes me wonder if many modern remakes might not be disappointing if the original didn’t exist.

I’m really interested to hear how others respond to this prompt. Are there some remakes/reboots I don’t know about or that I should give another chance?

Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.

Coming Next: Day 13: A film that reminds you of being a teenager

Day 11: A film I walked out on

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Image via http://www.moviesanywhere.com

National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985)

Starting a trend that I have embraced to this day, 1985 was the year I first walked out of a cinema part way through a film after having paid for a ticket. I think I lasted about half an hour or the National Lampoon equivalent of three sausage jokes. I had laughed myself silly at Animal House (1978) and either I had matured in those intervening years or the NL humour had regressed.

I was with a friend and we made a collective decision to abscond and make better use of our time. What surprises me now is to discover that Amy Heckerling directed European Vacation and the screenplay was cowritten by John Hughes. The next time (and only other time for many many years) that I walked out of a film was when watching Absolute Beginners (1986) at a tiny arthouse cinema in London’s Soho; even David Bowie couldn’t make it watchable.

Now, of course, at the Melbourne International Film Festival where I might be seeing three or four films a day, it’s much easier to bail and go find some warm food or a cold drink to help keep me going. There is an immense relief in pushing open the doors and stepping into the light, knowing that you have just salvaged a few hours that would otherwise have been wasted.

I’m aware, though, that most people will sit through anything if they’ve paid for a ticket. Am I the only one who does this?

Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.

Coming Next: Day 12: Your favourite remake/reboot

Day 10: My favourite Australian film

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Only the Brave (1994)

There were so many I could choose for this category. Lantana (2001) was my favourite for a long time, Gayby Baby (2015), In My Blood it Runs (2019) and The Songkeepers (2017) are favourite documentaries and, more recently, I loved the underrated Sleeping Beauty (2011), the bloody The Nightingale (2018) and the unique Terror Nullius (2018).

I saw Only the Brave a couple of years ago at MIFF along with some other excellent restored Australian films – Starstruck (1982), Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds (1987) and Shame (1988); you can read my review here. It’s a story about what it is to be a teen that still resonates 25 years later. It is steeped in a dark, urban reality that is as Australian as The Castle (1997) but of course, much more bleak.

I have a feeling that most others might be drawn to the more commercially successful Australian films. What’s your favourite?

Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.

Coming Next: Day 11: A film you walked out of at a cinema

Day 9: The scariest film I’ve seen

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Image via http://www.mentalfloss.com

Paranormal Activity (2007)

Usually scary films don’t scare me for long as I think I maintain an emotional disconnect just to protect myself from being genuinely freaked out. Some are just horrible – Wolf Creek (2005) put ideas and images into my head that I wish I could unsee – and some get let down by the ending where the horror unmasked is less frightening than my imagination promised – Hereditary (2018) is an example of this .

I watched Paranormal Activity one night at home with my partner and he, as often happens, got tired and went to bed before the end. The story is about a young couple who move into a new house where there is a demonic presence. It’s shown only through footage from a camera set up in their bedroom and so there is a lot of suspense created by what happens outside of the room that we can’t see but also what happens while they are asleep that we can see.

It’s one of the few movies that, when it ended, I was scared to walk around my quiet, dark house. I experienced something similar when I watched The Blair Witch Project (1999) for the first time recently. It had the same video camera footage technique and an evil that was potentially demonic and those final scenes really stuck with me. I can see how Paranormal Activity might have been influenced by it (and the long term impact it has had on the horror genre).

What’s the scariest film you’ve seen, particularly as an adult?

Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.

Coming Next: Day 10: Your favourite Australian film

Day 8: My favourite animation

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Spirited Away (2001)

Of course it has to be a Studio Ghibli / Miyazaki film and it was a toss up between Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro (1988). I love the complexity of this story though and the way many of the antagonists are shown to not be quite what they seem. I love the exquisite beauty of backgrounds like the one above, the pluckiness and obstinacy of Chihiro, the pathos of No Face and the shameless audacity of Yubaba.

The English dubbed version provides a little bit of extra context for a non-Japanese audience and makes the film easier to watch for young kids but I would recommend watching it in its original language with subtitles. You get a better rendering of the characters and the culture, I think. It’s a great family film although some bits might be a bit scary for under 7 year olds.

What’s your favourite animated feature film? I have a feeling it might be a head-to-head contest between Disney and Ghibli.

Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.

Coming Next: Day 9: The scariest film you’ve seen

Day 7: My favourite black and white film

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Image via thegirlinrowk.wordpress.com

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

There are so many B&W films that I love but this Iranian feminist vampire Western is pitch perfect for me. The debut of British-born Ana Lily Amirpour, it has a killer soundtrack, haunting visuals and an understated narrative of love and redemption in an Iranian ghost town. The soundtrack is perfect for late night long distance driving.

Read about it here on IMDb and, if you have a Kanopy account, it’s currently available to stream.

What’s your favourite black and white film? Is it a classic like The Philadelphia Story (1940) or something more contemporary?

Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.

Coming Next: Day 8: Your favourite animation feature film

Day 6: A sequel that’s as good as the original

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Image via ianfarrington.wordpress.com

Aliens (1986)

No surprises with this one, although it was a toss up with Terminator 2 and Mad Max 2. All three were successful first films, improved by a higher budget for their sequel and let down by each next film as a revolving door of directors tried in vain to capture what made them great.

I love the original Alien (1979) with all its low-budget suspense and scares. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is a strong heroine in a world of men although it was the 70s so director Ridley Scott had to have her menaced whilst wearing skimpy underwear. With Aliens, James Cameron allowed her to unapologetically take charge and, although it was as the ferocious mother trope, it was (and still is) exhilarating for this twenty-something year old to watch.

Posted as part of the 30-Day Fillums Challenge, created by me. If you want to see what’s coming up, have a look at my post here and feel free to join in by commenting each day with your own choice.

Coming Next: Day 7: Your favourite black and white film