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Considering how much money is spent on even the lowliest British art film, it is still a wonder how many truly awful films are made each year. One after another are trolled out on the celluloid conveyor belt. Some of the worst make a packet, some of the best are ignored or put down by the woefully inadequate cinema media. The public invariably goes to see what it is told is good (or hyped). Having said all this, a few top quality films slip through the net each year. Top of the pile in '99 (and a must see) was Festen. The
plot is fairly simple - a family gathering for the patriarch's
birthday. However, what a family. Full of tensions, quirks, and
a number of skeleton's. The filming is exemplary, with numerous
interesting shots and camera angles. It is true that the film
was the first from the dogma 95 school and was, therefore, always
going to 'benefit', in terms of originality, from the constraints
put upon the director. Having to use natural light and handheld
cameras could be severe limitations, but the crew allow the 'rules'
to take them in imaginitive directions. Of course, the superb
cast and script make the film stand out. Every element in Festen
is excellent, but the combination of them all makes it a landmark
piece of cinema. See it as soon as you can.
To see what The Critic has made of some of the latest releases why not delve into the reviews page?
You don't need to waste two hours of your valuable time watching Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts prancing around the screen to know that Notting Hill is garbage. You saw Four Weddings and a Funeral and wished you were the stiff. Independence Day - saw it - absolutely loathed it. Overblown, jingoistic, plotless, badly acted excrement. So who, in their right mind, needed to see Godzilla to know it was going to be as bad? (worse, I heard). With limited time and money you simply cannot see all the films. You choose what you think will be good, or even great, using your critical judgement. Some non-entity at work recommends The Mummy. You say fuck that, I know it'll be shit. But, they say, you haven't seen it. Do I have to see all the celluloid waste products to know what's worth giving a try? You reply. No, but you shouldn't criticise what you haven't seen. Bollocks, you think. This is like being back at school. No critically unaware arsehole is going to tell me what I can and can't criticise. Especially, when they just told you that The Idiots was offensive to the mentally ill when they hadn't even seen the film. The hypocrisy of stupidity. Sometimes you just despair.
Was there a queasy feeling in your stomach as you watched The Blair Witch Project? Were you scared? I have to admit that the answer, in my case, is yes to both questions. I felt sick at the pathetic display of cinema inadequacy that I was watching and scared that someone would find out that I had wasted my money on such garbage. The film is clearly a tribute to the power of the internet as a marketing tool. Surely, word of mouth could not sell a film as bad as that? Where were the cinematic innovations? How frightening can it be to see three annoying students run around the woods at night? Clearly many critics were too far up their own arses to realise what they were seeing and many people who watched the film are easily frightened. Oh, the horror of it.
Festen
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