Initially Four Lions was released on 115 screens across Britain, but it grossed £2,932,366 in total at the box office. It was rejected by BBC and Channel 4 for its sensitive subject matter but later found funding from Film 4 Productions and Warp Films after the operation 'Funding Mentalism' in which Chris Morris e-mailed fans of the show, asking for £25-100 in return for being an extra in the film.
The inspiration came to him after reading about a failed terrorist plot to attack a US warship. A radical cell filled a boat with explosives and pushed it into the water. "It sank. I laughed. I wasn't expecting that."
The metascore of Four Lions is 68/100, based on 28 online reviews, which are highly varied. Time's Richard Corliss gave it 100/100, stating "Stranded without the usual moral compass, the audience is left on its own to decide what's funny or awful, or awful funny". Justin Chang of Variety magazine said in his 50/100 review: "While exaggeration can be a legitimate tool for the humorist, the men's broadly overplayed idiocy simply doesn't gel with the pic's would-be-convincing portrait of the jihadist's everyday mindset."
Friday, March 25, 2011
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Slumdog Millionaire
It is debatable whether or not Slumdog Millionaire accurately represents the slums of mumbai and its citizens. Indian critics in particular argued that the British English Jamal used and that the film received more praise than similair films made by Indian directors contributed to an overlying air of Britishness, but also Hollywood values relating to the film. Although the entire film is set in India, the director, Danny Boyle, the star, Dev Patel, and much of the funding are British. This raises the question regarding how accurately a British production team can represent another nation. On the other hand, Boyle and the cast made several journeys to the slums, and many children in the film lived there prior to filming. Perhaps it is because of this reason that many recipients such as actor and film maker Aamir Khan saw Slumdog Millionaire as a "film about India like Gandhi" rather than an "Indian film". Expanding from this is the interpretation of the film as "tourist porn", something Sunday Times critic India Knight describes as "grim but uplifting, with amazing cinematography and beautiful colours. Something that would make western audiences feel better about their own loves but would also present the worrying plight of Mumbai's street and slum children as surmountable through a combination of ambition and resourcefulness." If the film did indeed just make western audiences feel better about themselves, Slumdog's success at the Oscars ceremony is not surprising, considering the award is in itself a symbol and icon of Hollywood and western culture.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Feminism in Contemporary British Cinema
A feminist cultural icon of post-feminism is Bridget Jones, on and off screen. On one hand she has the lifestyle and professional career campaigned for by earlier forms of feminism. On the other hand she adheres to the old-fashioned ideals of courtship. She has more modern significance because she lives the freedom but also the loneliness of "singleton" life. The films are more intimate because of the voice-over and inter-titles. The casting of Colin Firth (Darcy in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice) made his character more of an object of lust for Bridget. Also, the involvement of Richard Curtis and Hugh Grant linked the film to British romances like Notting Hill.
The work of some female directors explore the connections between emotional trauma and sexual desire. Editing in particular is used to show the intensity of a character's grief, and to render their motivation and passivity to be unclear.
The work of some female directors explore the connections between emotional trauma and sexual desire. Editing in particular is used to show the intensity of a character's grief, and to render their motivation and passivity to be unclear.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Examples of high concept movies
High-concept films are an ideal genre for making a teaser trailer, here are some successful examples of such films, with Cloverfield in teaser form.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Shane Meadows
Shane Meadows is a British film director who grew up in a council home in the town of Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. His father was a truck driver and his mother worked in a fish and chip shop. After leaving school with no O levels, he turned to petty crime. As a director, his social background is important as it was the foundation of his portrayal of English identity (specifically the East Midlands) through social realism.
What makes his films so believable is that most if not all of them have a degree of autobiography about the characters and the plot. For example, This is England (2006) was deeply autobiographical. Meadows made a realistic portrait of 1980s culture that was based heavily on his personal experience of joining in with the skinhead movement, with the main character Shaun representing a younger Shane Meadows when he got absorbed into the skinhead subculture himself.
The personal familiarity he brings to his films comes in a different way in A Room for Romeo Brass, (1999) where the plot is heavily based on a time when Meadows’s best friend had an accident and was bound to bed for two years. He began to hang around with more undesirable people and the feelings expressed by the characters are so realistic and representative of life in the east midlands because the story is more or less a true one, as realistic as films get.
In his other films, there is a larger sense of brutal honesty than social realism. Dead Man’s Shoes (2004) was inspired by Meadows’s friend who had been bullied, took up drugs and then committed suicide. He said “I couldn’t believe that, going back ten years later, he had been totally forgotten in the town – it was as if he had never existed. I was filled with anger against the people who had bullied and pushed drugs onto him”. The plot follows the character of Richard, who returns to his home village seeking retribution for the abuse of his younger brother. This film is not realistic in the same way as the British New Wave, but it is realistic in the sense that it is a screen translation of real experiences and feelings.
Meadows is often compared to directors Mike Leigh and Ken Loach for his use of kitchen-sink realism and improvisatory methods in filming. He encourages his actors to ad lib to give his films heightened reality, which results in the vernacular language found in his work. The slang and style of speaking are very important in the creation of identity in Meadows’s films, because having a specific dialect can completely change someone’s regional identity; for instance, the cultural label of Scouse comes with an assumed liverpudlian accent, not the queen’s “RP” english. This is a main part of the credibility of the identities represented through Meadows’s characters.
What makes his films so believable is that most if not all of them have a degree of autobiography about the characters and the plot. For example, This is England (2006) was deeply autobiographical. Meadows made a realistic portrait of 1980s culture that was based heavily on his personal experience of joining in with the skinhead movement, with the main character Shaun representing a younger Shane Meadows when he got absorbed into the skinhead subculture himself.
The personal familiarity he brings to his films comes in a different way in A Room for Romeo Brass, (1999) where the plot is heavily based on a time when Meadows’s best friend had an accident and was bound to bed for two years. He began to hang around with more undesirable people and the feelings expressed by the characters are so realistic and representative of life in the east midlands because the story is more or less a true one, as realistic as films get.
In his other films, there is a larger sense of brutal honesty than social realism. Dead Man’s Shoes (2004) was inspired by Meadows’s friend who had been bullied, took up drugs and then committed suicide. He said “I couldn’t believe that, going back ten years later, he had been totally forgotten in the town – it was as if he had never existed. I was filled with anger against the people who had bullied and pushed drugs onto him”. The plot follows the character of Richard, who returns to his home village seeking retribution for the abuse of his younger brother. This film is not realistic in the same way as the British New Wave, but it is realistic in the sense that it is a screen translation of real experiences and feelings.
Meadows is often compared to directors Mike Leigh and Ken Loach for his use of kitchen-sink realism and improvisatory methods in filming. He encourages his actors to ad lib to give his films heightened reality, which results in the vernacular language found in his work. The slang and style of speaking are very important in the creation of identity in Meadows’s films, because having a specific dialect can completely change someone’s regional identity; for instance, the cultural label of Scouse comes with an assumed liverpudlian accent, not the queen’s “RP” english. This is a main part of the credibility of the identities represented through Meadows’s characters.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
The Monomyth
Joseph Campbell
The hero was a key area of Campbell's comparative mythological studies, and he found they followed a kind of narrative pattern he called the "monomyth". The monomyth is found in stories throughout the world.
Campbell summarised his belief that several myths from disparate times and regions share a similair structure and stages, in this quote from his book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces":
"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man."
His structure contained 17 steps in 3 categories:
Departure:
The Call to Adventure
Refusal of the Call
Supernatural Aid
The Crossing of the First Threshold
The Belly of the Whale
Initiation:
The Road of Trials
The Meeting with the Goddess
Woman as temptress
Atonement with the Father
Apotheosis
The Ultimate Boon
Return:
Refusal of the Return
The Magic Flight
Rescue from Without
The Crossing of the Return Threshold
Master of Two Worlds
Freedom to Live
Campbell described narratives of Buddha, Moses and Christ in terms of the monomyth, and his work has also influenced film makers, authors and songwriters; maybe most notably George Lucas's Star Wars movies, and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
Critics have said that Campbell's theory of the monomyth contains stages so vague that they can easily be applied to a lot of different texts.
The hero was a key area of Campbell's comparative mythological studies, and he found they followed a kind of narrative pattern he called the "monomyth". The monomyth is found in stories throughout the world.
Campbell summarised his belief that several myths from disparate times and regions share a similair structure and stages, in this quote from his book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces":
"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man."
His structure contained 17 steps in 3 categories:
Departure:
The Call to Adventure
Refusal of the Call
Supernatural Aid
The Crossing of the First Threshold
The Belly of the Whale
Initiation:
The Road of Trials
The Meeting with the Goddess
Woman as temptress
Atonement with the Father
Apotheosis
The Ultimate Boon
Return:
Refusal of the Return
The Magic Flight
Rescue from Without
The Crossing of the Return Threshold
Master of Two Worlds
Freedom to Live
Campbell described narratives of Buddha, Moses and Christ in terms of the monomyth, and his work has also influenced film makers, authors and songwriters; maybe most notably George Lucas's Star Wars movies, and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
Critics have said that Campbell's theory of the monomyth contains stages so vague that they can easily be applied to a lot of different texts.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
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