Ash Red

Late last month, Chinese authorities raided the Ash Red exhibition in Beijing and ordered the removal of more than twenty artworks, including a painting of Mao Zedong by Gao Qiang. Other Mao images were also removed from the exhibition, which had opened a week before the works were confiscated.

The Lumière Brothers’ First Films

The documentary The Lumière Brothers’ First Films presents eighty-five of Auguste and Louis Lumière’s earliest works, dated 1895–1897. Their most famous films are all included, and presented impeccably: windowboxed to prevent cropping, restored from their original negatives, and with no graphics obscuring the image. This reveals the films’ unusual diagonal perspectives and multi-layered compositions, and the surprising depth of focus the Lumières achieved. The commentary, by Bernard Tavernier, is passionate and witty.

The Aristocrats

The Aristocrats (by Paul Provenza) is a documentary about the world's most offensive joke, supposedly an old Vaudeville tradition recited backstage amongst comedians as a furtive rite of passage. The joke is as follows: a man walks into a talent-agent's office and says, "I have a great act for you". The act consists of multitudinous defilements. After he finishes describing it, the talent-agent asks him what it's called. He replies: "The Aristocrats!". The set-up and punch-line are always the same, with the body of the joke providing an opportunity for extended improvisation.

In this documentary, 100 comedians give their own interpretations of the joke and its significance, with the film effectively representing a barometer of contemporary taboos. Gilbert Gottfried, who was performing in New York a few weeks after the Twin Towers were destroyed, made a 9/11 joke and was heckled by the audience. To recover, he told them The Aristocrats instead, one of the first times it had been performed in public. In the documentary, Gottfried is praised as a fearless pioneer for daring to make The Aristocrats public, however it seems to me that he would have been more daring if he had continued with the 9/11 material.

Our true contemporary taboos are race, sexuality, disability, religion, and terrorism - one comedian not involved in the documentary, Jerry Sadowitz, would have surely contributed the most truly fearless, shocking version of the joke. Having said that, my favourite version of the joke is Howie Mandel's, because he claimed that the only English word his Polish grandmother knew was...

Inside Deep Throat

Inside Deep Throat, by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, is a documentary about the film Deep Throat. It discusses the making of the film, the backgrounds of its stars and director, the film's distribution, convictions, and cultural impact.

The central argument of this rather polemical film is that Deep Throat represents a triumph of art, pioneering spirit, independent filmmaking, and enlightenment, suppressed by feminists, courts, and governments. The fact is, though, that the independent film movement began in the 1940s and 50s, the sexual revolution happened in the 1960s (both predating Deep Throat), and exploitation films have always been about money rather than art.

Some heavyweight names are interviewed, including Camille Paglia, Linda Williams, and Annie Sprinkle, though they aren't given enough time to develop their arguments. (The DVD commentary track, however, does include extra interview material.) Deep Throat's director (Gerard Damiano) and male star (Harry Reems) also contribute, though Linda Lovelace died shortly before the documentary was filmed.

The most notable omission is Chuck Traynor, Lovelace's husband, who beat her and (perhaps) forced her into making Deep Throat amongst other less savory films. Lovelace's contention that, when we watch Deep Throat, we are watching her being raped, is neither supported nor rejected, though the extent of her consent is an issue that requires the sort of balanced, in-depth analysis missing from this documentary.

Double Indemnity

Double Indemnity is one of the archetypal examples of film noir. It has a despondent voice-over, an amoral male anti-hero, chiaroscuro light and shadow from Venetian blinds, and a femme (egrav;s) fatale. It also tackles classic noir themes: murder, sex, and betrayal.

Barbara Stanwyck in an icy blonde wig is excellent as the sleazy wife plotting to kill her husband for his insurance money, and Fred MacMurray is great as the Mr Nobody insurance salesman who requires little persuasion to formulate a lucrative and murderous plan. The highlights are Stanwyck’s lingering stares, straight into the camera, clearly revealing that she is about to double-cross MacMurray. But best of all is Edward G. Robinson as MacMurray’s boss, whose fast-paced and complex speech about suicide statistics is a key set-piece.

This being the 1940s, crime cannot pay, so Stanwyck’s fate is doomed—but not, of course, before she admits that she is a tramp. MacMurray must pay, too, though in the unexpectedly tender conclusion he is shown genuine compassion by Robinson.

Yet another masterpiece from Billy Wilder, Double Indemnity’s dying male protagonist’s voiceover seems to prefigure one of his later films, Sunset Boulevard. The script was co-written by Wilder and pulp noir novelist Raymond Chandler.

“If His Majesty whispers in my ear...”

Thaksin Shinawatra’s Thai Rak Thai party won the election held two days ago. The result was hardly unexpected, as the Democrats and other opposition parties boycotted the poll. In fact, TRT was unopposed in many northern constituencies (TRT’s heartland), and many voters in Bangkok and the south (the Democrat’s stronghold) abstained as there were no Democrat candidates.

There have been street protests by monarchists in Bangkok for the past few months, eventually leading Thaksin to dissolve parliament in February. The protests started after Thaksin sold a 48% stake in his Shin Corp. business to Singaporean company Temasek. Thaksin’s government had increased the legal limit on foreign ownership of telecom firms to enable the Shin sale, and changed the tax code to avoid paying any tax on the deal, a blatant manipulation of the law for personal gain.

Thaksin has announced that despite winning a majority, he will not accept the position of Prime Minister. He had earlier joked that he would quit—“If His Majesty whispers in my ear”—further angering his opponents, who accused him of showing a lack of reverence towards the King.

Kom Chad Luek

Korkhet Chantalertluk, editor of Kom Chad Luek (คมชัดลึก), has resigned after his newspaper published a misleading story about Sondhi Limthongkul, the leader of the People’s Alliance for Democracy. The article, published on 24th March (p. 18) included extracts from an interview with Sondhi, and ended with the following quote about Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra: “ถ้าไม่ยอมลาออก ต้องบอกประชาชนทั้งประเทศว่าให้ในหลวงลาออก” (‘if he refuses to quit, he has to tell the whole country that the King should resign’).

Sondhi complained that his quote had been edited, and that it was highly misleading to suggest that he had called for the King to abdicate. (He issued a press release with a transcript of the interview, to prove his point.) The newspaper printed a front-page apology on 29th March, the editor tendered his resignation, and publication was voluntarily suspended for five days. The article led to both Sondhi and Korkhet being charged with lèse-majesté, though the charges were ultimately withdrawn.

The Sheaf

Will Robbins, editor-in-chief of the University of Saskatchewan's newspaper The Sheaf, has resigned following publication of a cartoon featuring Jesus and a pig. The cartoon, titled Capitalist Piglet, was published on 2nd March. The University has censured the newspaper and demanded an apology.

Balderdash & Piffle

Balderdash & Piffle, a BBC2 TV series about the etymologies of unusual words from the Oxford English Dictionary, accompanied by appeals for evidence of antedating, was broadcast in January. Although the whole series was quirky and interesting, most fascinating for me was Germaine Greer's exploration of one word in particular (The C-Words, 30th January), in which she unfortunately reversed her earlier calls for the word to be normalised.

2006 Bangkok International Film Festival

Last week, we saw two films at the Bangkok International Film Festival 2006: a prize-winner (Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, which won Best Director for Park Chan-Wook) and an out-of-competition screening (Woody Allen's Match Point). The Festival opened on 17th February with Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Invisible Waves, and closed today. Screenings took place at two cinemas: Grand EGV Discovery and Paragon Cineplex.

Match Point has been called Woody Allen's return to form, but even though he's one of my favourite directors it seems merely a rather average thriller to me. It's not a comedy, though much of the dialogue is unintentionally hilarious. Allen has no ear for how Londoners speak so each character, from the wide-boy estate-agent ("That's Laahndan, mate") to the Hooray Henry-ish Tom ("La bloody Traviata") is equally exaggerated. The central plot point, when a tennis coach kills the mistress who hinders his serendipitous social climbing, happens very late into the film, though despite the protracted build-up there is no attempt to portray the formulation of the murder plan. Allen has tackled a very similar subject before, in Crimes & Misdemeanors, which also revolves around a man plotting the murder of his mistress and is a much more profound examination of moral culpability.

Sympathy For Lady Vengeance stars Korean TV actress Lee Young-Ae, who gives a superb against-type performance as a freed convict seeking revenge against a child-killer who committed the crime she herself was imprisoned for. It is the third in a trilogy of vengeance films, preceded by Sympathy For Mr Vengeance and the sensational Oldboy. While Oldboy was brutal and aggressive throughout, Lady Vengeance is less consistent. Its first half is structured somewhat confusingly, with extensive flashbacks and several attempts at comic relief that seem jarring after Oldboy's emotional intensity. In its second half, the tone changes dramatically: the narrative becomes more focused, linear, and disturbing. It's hard not to think of the Bride in Kill Bill, another assassin on a mission of revenge with her young daughter in tow, and, as with Kill Bill, the second half of Lady Vengeance is more satisfying than the flashier first half.

"With Best Wishes...Stanley Kubrick"

A genuine Stanley Kubrick signature (on a Christmas card, circa 1978), of which I'm now the very proud owner.

Nang Nak

Nang Nak (นางนาก) was a huge success in Thailand when it was originally released, and launched a Thai horror revival. Ever since, the most popular Thai films have been horror titles, usually with ghosts as central themes.

Nang Nak is not especially scary, though it is highly emotional. It does have some brief horrific moments, but its main purpose is to show the depth of Nak’s love for her husband. The script (by Wisit Sasanatieng, who has since become a director in his own right) has rather simplistic dialogue: much of the film is taken up by Nak repeatedly crying her husband’s name, perhaps in tribute to the classic TV version of the story.

The director of Nang Nak, Nonzee Nimibutr, is practically single-handedly responsible for the international attention Thai cinema is now receiving, as both a director and producer. Nonzee could justifiably be called the godfather of the Thai New Wave.

Les Diaboliques

In Les Diaboliques, a sadistic headmaster, Michel, runs a dilapidated school alongside his (literally) weak-hearted wife, Nicole, and his butch mistress, Christina. The two women take solace in each other, and there are hints that they are lovers themselves. Michel seems to mistreat both women, though he reserves most of his cruelty for Nicole, forcing her to eat the rotten fish he serves as a school dinner.

Christina convinces Nicole that they should murder Michel, though she is initially reluctant. She pours him a glass of spiked whiskey, then has second thoughts and tries to stop him drinking it, spilling it on his shirt in the process. He slaps her because of her clumsiness, and this is the final straw: she gladly pours him another large measure. (As in Psycho, the audience's sympathies are drawn to quasi-murderous characters.) Christina drowns the sedated Michel, and they dump his corpse in the school swimming pool, though when the pool is drained his body has vanished...

Les Diaboliques is extremely Hitchcockian, with its convoluted murder plot, a naturally suspicious policeman, and high suspense. In fact, Alfred Hitchcock was reportedly concerned that director Henri-Georges Clouzot had stolen his thunder. The novelists Boileau-Narcejac, who wrote Celle Qui N'Etait Pas (the basis for the film), followed it with From Among The Dead, written specifically to appeal to Hitchcock's sensibilities; he took the bait, and based Vertigo on their novel. His film Psycho was perhaps an attempt to up the ante and confirm/reassert his position as 'master of suspense'.

Les Diaboliques climaxes with one of the most famous suspense sequences in horror cinema. At the end of the film, a caption-card urges the audience not to spoil it for future viewers by revealing the final twist (just as lobby posters later implored audiences not to reveal the ending to Psycho). Suffice to say that contact lenses are utilised to disturbing effect, and anyone who has seen the lurid bathroom scene in schlock classic The Tingler will recognise identical character motivations and a similar modus operandi.

201 Greatest Movies Of All Time

The new issue of Empire has published the results of its 201 Greatest Movies Of All Time poll:

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
3. The Lord Of The Rings I: The Fellowship Of The Ring
4. Star Wars IV: A New Hope
5. The Godfather
6. Pulp Fiction
7. The Lord Of The Rings III: The Return Of The King
8. Fight Club
9. GoodFellas
10. The Matrix
11. Jaws
12. The Usual Suspects
13. The Godfather II
14. Alien
15. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
16. Gladiator
17. Aliens
18. The Lord Of The Rings II: The Two Towers
19. Casablanca
20. Back To The Future
21. Seven
22. Heat
23. LA Confidential
24. Apocalypse Now
25. The Big Lebowski
26. Citizen Kane
27. Reservoir Dogs
28. Die Hard
29. Raging Bull
30. Some Like It Hot
31. Lawrence Of Arabia
32. Blade Runner
33. 2001: A Space Odyssey
34. Jurassic Park
35. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
36. Batman Begins
37. Terminator II: Judgment Day
38. Lost In Translation
39. The Silence Of The Lambs
40. Star Wars III: Revenge Of The Sith
41. Donnie Darko
42. Amelie
43. Taxi Driver
44. Magnolia
45. Toy Story
46. Schindler's List
47. Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
48. Star Wars VI: Return Of The Jedi
49. Memento
50. Almost Famous
51. American Beauty
52. Chinatown
53. Rear Window
54. True Romance
55. The Shining
56. Ghostbusters
57. The Exorcist
58. Titanic
59. Dr Strangelove
60. Grosse Pointe Blank
61. Moulin Rouge!
62. City Of God
63. Vertigo
64. The Princess Bride
65. Scarface
66. Sin City
67. Once Upon A Time In The West
68. Gone With The Wind
69. Annie Hall
70. Seven Samurai
71. Saving Private Ryan
72. Rocky
73. The Wizard Of Oz
74. Withnail & I
75. The Third Man
76. A Clockwork Orange
77. Cool Hand Luke
78. Toy Story II
79. Kill Bill I
80. Braveheart
81. It's A Wonderful Life
82. Stand By Me
83. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
84. Evil Dead II
85. Monty Python's Life Of Brian
86. Psycho
87. Garden State
88. Serenity
89. Double Indemnity
90. Clerks
91. Shaun Of The Dead
92. This Is Spinal Tap
93. The Searchers
94. Jerry Maguire
95. Edward Scissorhands
96. Leon
97. The Lion King
98. Superman
99. The Thing
100. The Terminator
101. The Blues Brothers
102. North by Northwest
103. Manhattan
104. King Kong
105. When Harry Met Sally
106. Speed
107. The Great Escape
108. Singin' In the Rain
109. 12 Angry Men
110. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
111. Unforgiven
112. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
113. The Graduate
114. Brazil
115. Monty Python & The Holy Grail
116. La Belle & La Bete
117. The Thin Red Line
118. Groundhog Day
119. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit
120. Fargo
121. Top Gun
122. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
123. Grease
124. Once Upon A Time In America
125. Hero
126. Rushmore
127. Spider-Man II
128. Cinema Paradiso
129. The Last Of The Mohicans
130. Preadtor
131. Oldboy
132. Airplane!
133. The Breakfast Club
134. Dawn Of The Dead
135. Anchorman
136. Breathless
137. The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
138. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade
139. The Deer Hunter
140. Casino
141. Swingers
142. Field Of Dreams
143. Platoon
144. Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire
145. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
146. The Evil Dead
147. Good Will Hunting
148. Goldfinger
149. Trainspotting
150. Blue Velvet
151. Kill Bill I
152. Spirited Away
153. Halloween
154. The Truman Show
155. National Lampoon's Animal House
156. The Adventures Of Robin Hood
157. The Bourne Identity
158. The Royal Tenenbaums
159. JFK
160. Scream
161. The Philadelphia Story
162. The Wild Bunch
163. On the Waterfront
164. Blazing Saddles
165. Dirty Dancing
166. South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut
167. Badlands
168. The English Patient
169. King Kong
170. Sideways
171. The Italian Job
172. Full Metal Jacket
173. The Sting
174. X-Men II
175. The Elephant Man
176. Crash
177. The Sound Of Music
178. Mulholland Drive
179. There's Something About Mary
180. Dead Man's Shoes
181. La Haine
182. Do The Right Thing
183. The Ladykillers
184. Thelma & Louise
185. Dirty Harry
186. The Birds
187. Boogie Nights
188. Breakfast At Tiffany's
189. The Night Of The Hunter
190. Pretty Woman
191. The Producers
192. Romeo & Juliet
193. To Kill A Mockingbird
194. Mad Max
195. Glengarry Glen Ross
196. Sense & Sensibility
197. Enter The Dragon
198. Rebel Without A Cause
199. The Killer
200. The Descent
201. Eraserhead

As I've said before, 200 films is a reasonable list - not too long, not too short. Empire's list of 201 has enough space for many films ignored in traditional top-100 lists (La Haine, Casino, and Dawn Of The Dead, for instance). However, at only 5%, foreign-language films are still hugely under-represented.

There is also a strong bias in favour of recent releases, remakes, and sequels. Is it really necessary to have two Star Wars films and two Lord Of The Rings films so high up the list, and why include the Scarface remake yet exclude the original version? Some Like It Hot is the 1959 comic masterpiece, not the obscure 1939 comedy. Note also that Crash is the Paul Haggis Oscar-winner, not the scandalous David Cronenberg film; Psycho is the original version; and Titanic is the James Cameron version. There have been many adaptations of Romeo & Juliet; this one is the Baz Luhrmann version.

A handful of the highest-placed films in this poll have ranked in similar positions in other recent polls, and we can compare the new list with previous Empire polls (100 Favourite Films Of All Time, 1996; Your 100 Greatest Films Ever!, 1999; The 50 Best Films, 2001; 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time, 2004). For example: Pulp Fiction (1996: #1, 1999: #6, 2001: #10, 2004: #7, 2006: #6), Star Wars IV (1996: #2, 1999: #1, 2001: #1, 2004: #2, 2006: #4), The Lord Of The Rings I (2004: #1, 2006: #3), and The Shawshank Redemption (1996: #53, 1999: #4, 2001: #3, 2004: #5, 2006: #1). Thus, perhaps a new canon is forming.

Charlie Hebdo

Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical newspaper, is currently being sued by the Grand Mosque of Paris and the Union of French Islamic Organisations. Its 'crime' was to print a special issue in support of the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed caricatures yesterday, and to create a new one on the front page (featuring a sobbing Mohammed, sad that he is "loved by idiots").

The cover image is by Jean Cabut, known as Cabu. On the back page, Mohammed is represented as a skull (rather tastelessly) and, in a pastiche of Rene Magritte by Loic Schvartz, as a pipe. Inside is caricature of a laughing Mohammed by Georges Wolinski. A cartoon by Philippe Honore depicts Mohammed as a series of objects, as Weekendavisen did last year. Laurent Sourisseau, known as Riss, portrays Mohammed as a president. Bernhard Verlac, known as Tignous, has recreated Jyllands-Posten's most infamous cartoon, of Mohammed with a bomb in his turban.

A previous Charlie Hebdo cartoon of Mohammed, from the 27 November 2002 issue, did not cause any particular controversy. The cartoon, by Cabu, featured Mohammed as the judge of a beauty contest.

Wedding Crashers

I've been carefully avoiding the so-called Frat Pack comedies but this week I saw David Dobkin's Wedding Crashers and was pleasantly surprised that the humour was subtle rather than gross-out. It's a Frat Pack film because its two leads (Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn) are both leading members of the Frat Pack group, and it has a traditional cameo by Will Ferrell, though it actually seems more like a romantic comedy.

It's as formulaic as any other romantic comedy, and at no point were my sides in any danger of splitting. Wilson, however (whose character has more depth than Vaughn's), seems like a surprisingly impressive actor.

Christopher Walken does what he does best, projecting instant gravitas and power tinged with potential menace. Isla Fisher (who I remember from Home & Away!) is fairly one-dimensional, though Rachel McAdams is a good match with Wilson. (The unrated version is seven minutes longer.)

The Greatest Beats

Thai rapper Joey Boy has issued a profuse apology after it was discovered that a verse from the Koran was inadvertantly included in one of his songs. The song in question, Maya, was first released on the 1998 album Bangkok, and was also included on last year's greatest hits album The Greatest Beats. The earlier album is already deleted, and The Greatest Beats will now be withdrawn because of the protests against Maya.

Why is it necessary for him to apologise and withdraw the record? If the Koran (or the Bible, for that matter) is quoted in a rap song, what's the big deal? A Thai Muslim group has complained that it is disrespectful to quote the Koran out of context, but Joey Boy is not a Muslim, so why should he be required to treat the Koran as a sacred text?

(Lebanese performer Marcel Khalife's song Ana Yousef, Ya Abi, was accused of blasphemy in 1995 as it featured a Koran quotation. Indian artist MF Husain also provoked controversy by quoting from the Koran in his song Noor-Un-Ala, from the soundtrack to his 2004 film Meenaxi: A Tale Of Three Cities.)

Cache

Cache, by Michael Haneke, is thought-provoking, complex, and highly ambiguous. It begins with a long, static shot of a nondescript urban house, which is later revealed as footage from a surveillance camera. Videotapes of similarly covert recordings are sent anonymously to the owners of the house, Georges and Anne. It becomes clear that the sender knows Georges well, as the tapes hint at guilty secrets from his childhood.

One of the tapes identifies the location of a suburban apartment, and Georges visits it in order to investigate the source of the videos. When he arrives, he finds Majid, an Algerian orphan whom he had victimised when he was younger.

Cache has no music score, and the resultant silence emphasises otherwise trivial sounds, such as doors closing and cutlery clinking. Many scenes are filmed in long takes with a static camera - several sequences are identified as surveillance video footage, and the remainder may either be actual videos or simply scenes that resemble the videos.

Deception and betrayal seem to be recurrent themes. Georges is in denial (to himself, his mother, and his wife) about his childhood cruelty towards Majid (revealed in a flashback in which he beheads a chicken). Accusations are frequently made, and we cannot ascertain which statements are true and which are not.

On the surface, the film's central question is: who is making the videotapes? Majid convincingly denies it, as does his son (perhaps less convincingly). The film's final shot provides an explanation or clue of sorts if you look closely, though it doesn't feel completely satisfactory.

Many questions are left unanswered. Why does Georges's boss seem so sinister? Who are the mysterious friend and his mother that Georges's son stayed with? What is the full extent of the childhood rivalry between Georges and Majid? Does Georges commit suicide at the end, or merely take sleeping pills? If Majid's son did record the tapes, why does he continue to deny it?

Like Haneke's earlier Funny Games, Cache is a story of bourgeois domestic complacency invaded and destroyed. In this case, there is also a racial subtext to the narrative, as Georges is presented as a repressed pseudo-intellectual with thinly-veiled racist attitudes. The central conflict between Georges and Majid can be taken as a commentary on contemporary France's reluctance to acknowledge its racial minorities (a theme explored explosively in La Haine). War footage from Algeria is played on TV screens at several points, though the central characters are always tellingly oblivious to it.

Aside from the subtext of racial tension and bourgeois indifference, there are also excellent performances by Daniel Auteuil (Georges), Juliette Binoche (Anne), and especially Maurice Benichou (the emotional Majid). Its unresolved narrative makes a second viewing essential.

The Maltese Falcon

Last month, Dateline Bangkok reviewed Touch Of Evil, the last of the original film noir cycle. Today is the turn of the first film in the cycle, The Maltese Falcon, by John Huston (a remake of an earlier film by Roy Del Ruth).

Humphrey Bogart stars as Sam Spade, in the first of his definitive noir detective roles. (He later played Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep.) This was Bogart’s first heroic performance, after previously being typecast as a villain in supporting roles. What makes Bogart’s character so interesting is his moral ambiguity: he is prepared to sleep with his business partner’s wife, only to reject her once she is widowed.

Like Rick Blaine, Bogart’s character in Casablanca, Spade’s alliances appear to shift, until his cynical, self-protecting façade disappears when he puts love aside to do the right thing. There are also other Casablanca connections: along with Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre also feature in both films, in similar roles.

Lorre, a major star in Germany before World War II, played sinister villains in numerous noir thrillers. He is perfect as the gardenia-scented Joel Cairo, twisting a phallic walking-cane and even putting its tip to his lips. Greenstreet is wonderful as the amiable Kasper Gutman, constantly chuckling to himself. He would develop further comic mannerisms in Casablanca, such as his habit of casually swatting flies.

Elisha Cook has an unbilled supporting role and, as always, plays the unlucky fall-guy. He previously appeared with Lorre in Stranger on the Third Floor, which has sometimes been cited as the first true noir.

Stranger on the third Floor has more shadows and Expressionist lighting than The Maltese Falcon, so it certainly looks like a noir film, though it was The Maltese Falcon that established the archetypes of the noir genre. The Maltese Falcon’s cynical detective, duplicitous femme fatale, and ambiguous morality formed the basis of many subsequent noir thrillers.

The film’s dialogue seems more authentic than the contrived innuendo of The Big Sleep. Also, Bogart is amazingly fast with his lines: his quick delivery makes this performance more energetic than the world-weary characters he played in other films of the period. It’s a largely studio-bound film, though the sets all have ceilings to create a claustrophobic atmosphere and increase the tension.

The Maltese falcon itself, a bejewelled statuette, is merely a MacGuffin, a plot device intended to motivate the central characters. In a line adapted from The Tempest, Spade calls it “the stuff that dreams are made of.”

Touch Of Evil (preview)

Touch Of Evil, directed by Orson Welles, was the last of Hollywood's initial film noir cycle, bookending a trend that began with The Maltese Falcon. It's an exceptionally dark film; literally so, because several scenes take place in almost pitch blackness. Like all great noir films about high-level police corruption, it has a superb sense of authority and gravitas that it takes great pleasure in unravelling in its conclusion.

The opening shot is one of the greatest sequences in cinema: a four-minute crane shot following an American couple as they cross the Mexican border. When Welles was interviewed for This Is Orson Welles, he said that, with hindsight, he disliked the bravura of this opening shot, pointing out that there is another, longer, more complex crane shot later in the film. This later shot, in which the camera moves through several rooms of an apartment, is less flamboyant and therefore, according to Welles, more of an achievement.

Famously, the film was altered by Universal against Welles's wishes. Some extra exposition scenes were added, and the film was re-edited behind his back. Welles wrote a long memo to the studio, arguing eloquently against the revised version ("In most cases, I can see, or guess, the point of view which has motivated the change, even when I don't happen, personally, to agree with it"), though most of his requests were refused.

In 1976, a longer version of the film was released. This restoration (the version I've seen), while marketed as a director's cut, is more accurately a compromise between the studio's version and Welles's intended vision. It does restore several key scenes originally removed by the studio, though it also retains the non-Welles sequences that the studio added. Finally, in 1998, most of the non-Welles scenes were removed, and the film was re-edited in accordance with Welles's memo.

One last point: in Touch Of Evil, Janet Leigh stays as the only guest at an isolated motel, staffed by a nervous desk-clerk; two years later, in Psycho, Janet Leigh stayed as the only guest at an isolated motel, staffed by a nervous desk-clerk. Admittedly, she isn't murdered in Touch Of Evil (in fact, perhaps to appease the censors, it's made unrealistically clear that she is never harmed), though the situation is strikingly similar nonetheless.

Stardust Memories

Woody Allen always maintains that he never plays himself in any of his films, and he finds it inexplicable that the audience jumps to the conclusion that his screen persona reflects his true personality. But let's look at the evidence: in the films in which he stars, he often plays neurotic writers and comedians who live in New York, enjoy jazz music and European films, and are in analysis.

In Manhattan, Allen's character, Isaac, defends Ingmar Bergman, Allen's favourite director, as "the only genius in cinema today", and reels off a list of "things that make life worth living" composed entirely of Allen's own favourite things. Revealingly, in Deconstructing Harry, Allen plays Harry as a hard-drinking, pill-popping misogynist - none of which are Allen's own personal characteristics - yet cannot resist also depicting him as a man who avoids smoking dope, which echoes Allen's own attitude though is incongruous for the character in the film.

In Stardust Memories, Allen plays Sandy, a comedian-turned-director who, after making a series of comedies, is branching into portentous drama. Sandy is followed everywhere by autograph-hunters and wannabe actors, and harassed for charitable donations. His producer and fans (and even a group of visiting aliens) dislike his latest film, preferring the "early, funny ones". This is an obvious reference to the negative reaction Allen had received for his Bergman-esque drama Interiors, which was stylistically a stark contrast to his earlier, funnier films such as Sleeper.

Stardust Memories was not an especially popular film, precisely because of the perceived conflation of Allen himself and his characters. In the film, Allen's fans are shown as invaders of his privacy who misinterpret his work. In interviews, though, Allen makes the very sensible point that, if he really did dislike his admirers, he would not be so foolish as to reveal it in one of his films. Stardust Memories self-referentially represents Allen's perplexity and defiance at the negative reaction to Interiors (the autobiographical element), and is also a comic portrait of a consciously exaggerated celebrity lifestyle.

Like his later film Deconstructing Harry (in which Allen plays a writer who encounters the characters from his own fiction in his real life, intercut with dramatic recreations of his novels), Stardust Memories is a post-modern blend of narrative and narrative-within-narrative. It's like a 'Chinese box', beginning with a scene from Sandy's new film, then showing Sandy himself, and frequently switching to dream sequences and scenes from Sandy's other work. The two films also employ jump-cuts in some scenes, an otherwise rare device in Allen's work.

There are some very funny lines. When Sandy complains that he doesn't want to make another comedy, his producer tries to convince him otherwise: "They want laughs in Kansas City, they've been working in the wheat fields all day". When he's stuck in traffic, he asks: "Is the Pope in town, or some other showbusiness figure?". Interestingly, the famous Eddie Adams photograph of the execution of Nguyen Van Lem is blown up to wall-size in Sandy's apartment, to reflect the character's depressed state of mind.

Is it a pretentious film? Yes. Is it as good as his early, funny films? No. But the confusing layers of reality are justified by a revelation at the end: we learn that the entire film has itself been Sandy's creation, and we see the 'actors' watching themselves at the premiere and commenting on their performances.

King Kong

The original version of King Kong is stunning. The megalomaniacal Dino de Laurentiis attempted to remake it in the 1970s, and failed spectacularly. Peter Jackson must be even more of a megalomaniac if he believed he could succeed where de Laurentiis failed.

Personally, I can never see the point of remakes or cover-versions. If you admire a film or song so much, why feel the need to change it? Jackson says he was inspired by the original King Kong as a child, and he now wants his own version to similarly inspire the next generation of children. Surely his Lord Of The Rings trilogy is already a huge inspiration to young children today? And if children are seriously interested in filmmaking they will surely admire the original version of King Kong provided that they have exposure to it.

Jackson's King Kong reportedly cost $207,000,000 to produce, making it the most expensive film ever made (although, if adjusted for inflation, the most expensive film is still Cleopatra, itself a remake). Instead, why not spend a fraction of that inflated budget on a worldwide theatrical rerelease of the original version? Yes, it would be less commercially viable, though less money would be risked because a new film would not actually be made.

John Cleese once said that he had spoken to a film producer and asked him what was the most difficult type of film to market to a multiplex audience. The answer was: anything original. Audiences like formulas, they like genre conventions, and they like actors playing to type. So remakes and sequels are guaranteed box-office successes.

Watching the original King Kong, I constantly asked myself: "How the hell did they do that?". Watching Jackson's remake, I kept asking myself: "How much of this is CGI?". The panoramas and vertigo-inducing helicopter shots look spectacular, yet they are devalued because of the film's reliance upon CGI. Kong is entirely computer-generated, as are the dinosaurs, etc. on Skull island. Kong himself is a convincing CG creation, though many other effects look articifial (when the actors are in rowing-boats, it's obvious that the sea and surroundings are CG). The CG dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were amazing, though why, years later, are CG dinosaurs being churned out left, right, and centre? Has CGI not yet moved on from the resurrection of extinct species?

The film is almost three hours long, and the time whizzes by, so it's certainly entertaining, though you would think that, with such a long running-time available, the plot would have fewer holes. For example, Carl announces that he has "come into possession of a map", though how it came into his possession is never questioned or revealed. The back-stories of Ann (the previous disappointments in her life) and Jimmy (his quasi-feral early life) are both hinted at, though never disclosed. Jack rescues Ann from Kong single-handedly, because they love each other, though when they return to New York they are inexplicably apart.

Heart Of Darkness is one of my favourite novels [though I admit I probably have more dictionaries than novels!], and it was very powerful as the source for Apocalypse Now. But referencing it in adventure films has become a bit of a cliche now, so the not-too-subtle inclusion of it in the new King Kong is not necessary.

Jackson's past as a gore director is hinted at a couple of times. In the ship's hold are a collection of caged animals, amongst them a Sumatran rat monkey, which was the animal that caused the zombie plague in Braindead (for my money, Jackson's best film). When the natives of Skull island are discovered, they are portrayed as crudely as those in Italian mondo and cannibal horror films; in particular, with Carl obsessively filming everything he sees, there is a hint of Cannibal Holocaust. (When Kong is exhibited in a New York theatre, Jackson makes a joke out of the exaggerated gesticulations of the dancers playing natives, though he is guilty of just the same exaggeration in his earlier depictions of the natives on Skull island.)

The scene that formed the centrepiece of the trailer for Jackson's film, in which Carl tells Ann: "Scream for your life!" (a scene taken from the original version of King Kong) is not included in the final cut (or the extended director's cut). However, there is a subtle reference to the original film at the start, when it is explained that "Fay" is working on an RKO film with "Cooper": Fay Wray (the 'scream-queen' of the original film), King Kong's original studio, and Merian C Cooper (its co-director).

Fantastic Voyage

Fantastic Voyage, by Richard Fleischer, was one of the other in-flight movies on the return flight to Bangkok last week. I remember Innerspace (a Fantastic Voyage spoof) as one of my favourite childhood films, though I had never seen the original Fantastic Voyage itself.

The title was surely inspired by Jules Verne. Exactly a century previously, Verne wrote about fantastical, then-impossible expeditions: Voyage To The Centre Of The Earth and Around The World In Eighty Days. A few years ago, I wrote a paper, Fascination Beneath The Surface, comparing the fictional voyages of Verne to the subcutaneous photographs of artists like Gilbert and George.

Fantastic Voyage is a natural progression from Verne, and it long predates Gilbert and George. (It arguably influenced them because it shows an equally iridescent, abstract view of our insides.) The film shows blood corpuscles as if they were oils in a lava lamp, for instance. Now, endoscopic imaging can place cameras inside a real human body, and Mona Hatoum has turned her own endoscopy examination into video art, coming as close as is currently possible to a documentary version of Fantastic Voyage.

Fantastic Voyage has an incredible concept: the miniaturisation of a team of scientists in a submarine, surgically injected into a man's body in order to remove a potentially fatal blood clot. What is surprising is that it makes no bones about the fact that this concept is all it has to offer. There is only a brief exposition at the start, hinting at a Cold War sub-plot in the vaguest possible terms. The purpose of the miniaturised rescue mission is to remove the blood clot in order that the man can regain consciousness and divulge a state secret, though the film ends abruptly as soon as the miniature scientists emerge from the man's body. We are not told if the man survived, what his secret was, or even if he was able to pass it on, as if the film itself admits that they were merely plot devices to serve the concept.

Kill Bill II

On the plane back to Bangkok, one of the in-flight movies was Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill II, which I hadn't seen before. I saw Kill Bill I when it was released, though I wasn't overkeen on it because of the constant martial arts. I'm not an especially big fan of kung-fu films, so I didn't go to see Kill Bill II.

Having finally seen it on the plane, I was surprised by how stylistically different it is to the first film. The martial arts elements are much less prevalent, and there's much more of Tarantino's typically witty dialogue. Some of his trademark shots are included, as usual (a low-angle point-of-view: Budd and Ernie looking down at the Bride; a sequence replayed from two different perspectives: Elle driving up to Budd's trailer).

There are numerous references to other films, the most obvious being an homage to Carrie when the Bride's hand thrusts out of the ground as she escapes from the grave. (The version released in Japan contains some additional shots, with almost a minute of extra material.)

History Of Graphic Design

The fourth edition of A History Of Graphic Design has been published in the US (and in the UK later this year). The previous editions were all written by Philip B Meggs, though following his death this new edition (retitled Meggs' History Of Graphic Design) has been revised and updated by Alston W Purvis.

There are very few books on graphic design history (literally only a handful), and Meggs's book has always been regarded as the most comprehensive on the subject, tracing graphic art from prehistory to the present day. It's not only the definitive history of graphic design, it's one of the essential books on the history of art.