Spectre.

Daniel Craig, as I suspected he would be, is the best of all the six actors who have portrayed Ian Fleming’s Secret Service Agent with the licenced to kill code number - James Bond 007. Agreeing to take up the role in 2005 his first outing as Bond was in Casino Royale (2006), which was the beginning of a reboot of the Bond franchise. This was followed two years later with Quantum of Solace (2008) and then what was to my mind the best of the Bond films to date, Skyfall (2012) bringing in Sam Mendes to direct proved to be an ingenious move, as it became the highest grossing film in the complete series. Keeping Mendes on as director for Craig’s fourth outing as the MI6 agent was certainly the right decision. 

Some nice product placement....

As fans are aware the previous M (Judy Dench) died at the end of Skyfall and we met the new M in the form of Ralph Fiennes. Also returning are Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny and Ben Whishaw as the technical wizard Q whose relationship with Bond is just one of the films many highlight’s.  The movie starts with what has got to be one of the best pre credit sequences of any of the bond films. We are in Mexico City and The Day of the Dead carnival is taking place, 1000’s of people are on the streets dressed as various characters associated with the yearly event. Bond, dressed in a skeleton suit, is off to a hotel room with a beautiful woman but before she can hang up her frock he is out and across the rooftops attempting to assassinate Marco Sciarra, suspected of being involved in a terrorist bomb plot. What follows is as an exciting action sequence ending with a fight in a moving helicopter over the heads of the vast crowd. This sets the tone for the remainder of the movie.

.... a  beautiful woman who can use a weapon....

The film cleverly harks back to previous Bond movies and as well as explaining the origins of international criminal syndicate and terrorist organisation Spectre (Special Executive for Counter Intelligence, terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) and its evil mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld, there’s reference to Bonds only real love Vesper Lynd, an appearance of Mr White (Jesper Christenson) but this time we also get to meet his daughter Doctor Madeleine Swann played by the French actress Lea Seydoux. Also involved in the mayhem are Andrew Scott as C, Christoph Waltz as Franz Oberhauser and not forgetting Monica Bellucci as the widow of Marco Sciarra.      

 

....and not forgetting a villain.... 

Lets hope that Spectre (2015) is not Mr Craig’s last outing as Bond and that perhaps the Craig/Mendes partnership can be persuaded to give it another go. As with the best of the Bond movies this latest outing does not take itself to seriously and the only real demand it makes of its audience is to sit back and enjoy, and enjoyable it certainly is.   

....all goes to make a great Bond film.

Skyfall.

The Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Dumfries Scotland.

On the 3^rd November 2012 the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre celebrated 25 years of exceptional and friendly customer service coupled with screenings of some of the best movies made over that period from all over the world and from every different genre including documentary’s and feature films which in turn has given the film loving public in Dumfries and Galloway, South West Scotland a opportunity to broaden their understanding, their appreciation and their love of cinema. This grand occasion was commemorated by a martini and champagne reception that encouraged a James Bond character dress theme.

The previous evening the RBC Film Club along with civic dignities had been invited by The Leader and Members of Dumfries and Galloway Council to attend the Film Theatre for a civic reception. Hosted by film theatre staff past and present, various speeches were made giving us, the guests, an interesting outline to the previous 25 years, before the new Film Officer Tom Benson articulated the final few words of the evening we were shown an amusingly and well-made local short film. Filmed at the Dumfries Academy and called Vampire Musical it demonstrated how home-grown talent is encouraged and importance of the RBC at giving locally made films their first public performance. 

Happy birthday Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre and many more of them. Now back to its most important business: the films.

A world weary James Bond.

Its strange how a film can make you feel like a young teenager, waiting eagerly in your cinema seat for the lights to go down and the film to begin and consequently following the twists and turns of an exciting and action filled narrative from the pre-title sequence right up to the films exhilarating conclusion and watching the final credits to discover you have just spent a speedy 140 minutes traveling the world. Of course the film I refer to is the latest outing for 007 himself Mr James Bond, licenced to kill on behalf of Her Majesties Government. Skyfall (2012) is the 23^rd film in a successful 50 year franchise and with its unrelenting action sequences that barely purse for breath, a story that grips you by the throat and a film that takes you back to the very essence of Ian Fleming’s Bond, it’s one of the best. 

M

Raoul Silva.

Sam Mendes first outing as a Bond director has been widely praised as a more psychological complex character study than previously seen with it’s closer connections to M (the formidable Judi Dench) and returning our hero back to his Scottish roots. But don’t panic you still get the normal mix of beautiful women, explosions, chases, shootouts, a certain amount of brand promotion and of course fancy cars including a very welcome guest appearance, cheered by the RBC audience, of the Aston Martin DB5 that first appeared in Goldfinger in 1964. In his third outing as the British agent Daniel Craig has really staked a claim to be the best participant in this great role, looking older and a little dog-eared he can still pull if off.  After being absent in the previous two films we get Q back in the form of Ben Whishaw who plays the part with just the right amount of geekyness. But as with all the Bond films we expect a villain of merit and we are not disappointed. The well known Spanish actor Javier Bardem appears as Raoul Silva, one of the most unsettling villains we have seen in a Bond film, a cross between Anton Chigurh, who he played in the Coen Brothers film of No Country for Old Men (2007), and Robert Shaw’s Red Grant the blond haired SPECTRE assassin in From Russia With Love (1963). 

Severine (Berenice Lim Marlohe) 

Eve (Naomie Harris)

Photographed by probably the best DOP in the world Roger Deakins whose third film this is for Mendes, but best known for the eleven films he made with the Coen Brothers. The best scenes are these filmed in London and Scotland going from the drab moody streets of our capital city to the beautiful landscapes of Glen Etive in the Highlands of Scotland. This is not a film to be missed, it’s a film to be enjoyed allowing the thirteen year old in us all to dream of being a secret agent, driving the most expensive cars in the world and consulting with attractive women, although I am convinced there will be a female 007 one day, I can still dream and forget Cameron’s broken Briton for a couple of hours.

and not forgetting Q.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2011

I’m not a great admirer of David Fincher’s recent work. Zodiac (2007) was completely devoid of any real tension, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) was tiresomely long and tedious and although I would agree that it was cleverly written The Social Network (2010) was interesting without being dynamic. There’s always a tendency toward flashy technique in Fincher’s output. His latest attempt at directorial immortality, the reworking of the brilliant Swedish film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), is no exception; a glitzy out of place opening credit sequence and flamboyant soundtrack does not make up for the films obvious failings. 

This unnecessary reworking of the first part of Steig Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) was the subject of this week’s RBC Film Club evening. Our very own Filmmaker Alec Barclay gave a fine introduction to the evening and took a rather fiery discussion that followed the viewing.  Alec explained that this version of the film, was still set in Sweden but with it’s large Hollywood style budget could afford some well known actors and actresses although the relatively unknown Rooney Mara takes over the role of Lisbeth Salander previously played by Noomi Rapace with Daniel Craig taking time off from his day job as the British spy James Bond to play Larsson’s alter ego, the investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist. Alec went on to talk about the soundtrack, which resurrects Led Zeppelins Immigrant Song this time sung by Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and was created by the same team who won an Academy Award for the music for The Social Network, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Atticus Ross son of Radio Caroline founder Ian Ross.

The original Lisbeth Salander.

Fincher's Lisbeth Salander

This is the first part of Larsson’s Trilogy, for which to date 65 million books have been sold, it depicts the relationship between the middle-aged left wing investigative journalist and the young bi-sexual ward of the state, researcher and computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. The pair join forces to investigate the disappearance, some 40 years previous, of the great niece of Hendric Vanger, (Christopher Plummer) the 82 year-old former Chief Executive Officer of a group of companies owned by a very wealthy Swedish dynasty.

Hendric Vanger and Mikael Blomkist.

I personally have two main problems with Fincher’s USA remake. Lisbeth Salander is an iconic character, one I will always associate with Noomi Repace’s inspired performance. There’s an authenticity in the way she, and Michael Nyqvist who plays Blomkvist in the original film, portrays the main characters. In my opinion Fincher goes to far in softening Lisbeth’s image, which does not convey her deep hatred for men. In the original she only had sex with Blomkvist to satisfy her carnal desires whereas in the remake she seems to fall in love with the journalist also at the climax of the film she asked Blomkvist permission to kill the ‘villain’ the real anti authoritarian punk would not seek permission! My second gripe is that the strength of original film, directed by Neils Arden Oplev, is in the way it transposed Larsson’s written word onto the screen. In this inferior interpretation Steven Zaillian takes unnecessary liberties with the novels narrative including changing the ending along with the important fact that Blomkvist’s mysterious list of telephone numbers was solved by someone other than Lisbeth and while we are on the subject what happened to Blomkvist’s prison sentence?

Finally I will ask again the question’s that was raised many times during Monday nights discussion: why did the Americans remake a brilliant Swedish thriller, other than the fact that they can’t read and secondly why on earth did half the cast speak with dodgy Swedish accents (the exception being Sellan Skarsgard who is Swedish) and the other half did not? Perhaps Mr Fincher would have been better to have set the story in America, he made so many unnecessary changes one more would have not made a lot of difference.

Defiance (2008)

Bielski Brothers

I had previously enjoyed directorial work from the American director Edward Zwick including Legends of the Fall (1994) The Last Samurai (2003) and especially Blood Diamond (2006) which I have seen on a number of occasions, in fact its a subject that’s back in the headlines at present with the Naomi Campbell/Charles Taylor affair. Defiance (2008) is no where near as good as this previous work. This ‘war’ film is an account of the Bielski partisans, a group led by three brothers who saved and recruited Jews in Belarus during the Second World War. The film stars a rather dour Daniel Craig as Tuvia Bielski and Liev Schreiber who does manage to breathe some life into the character of Zus Bielski. Filming took place in Lithuania just across the Border from the actual location which at least adds a sense of authenticity to the proceedings.

No one comes out of this story with any credit; the passive Jews appear to care more for their possessions than their own lives, Soviet partisans are not fussed who they kill be it Jews, Germans or the local inhabitants who in turn seem to be quite happy co-inhabiting with the invading army and handing over the local Polish Jews. Well at least you know where you are with the Nazis! Zwick directs this unexciting movie with a very heavy hand. Not an enjoyable film and one I would not recommend.