More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)
9 September
Preamble :
In preparing what follows for publication (e.g. checking such things as release-dates), it has become apparent that IMDb has been told to call Crimes of The Future (2022) Drama / Horror / Sci-Fi. (It obediently calls The Killing of A Sacred Deer (2017) Drama / Horror / Mystery.)
In fact, it is an indigestible, plasticized stew of (in chronological order*) such elements as :
* Doctor Who (1963 – 1989) [Especially The Troughton / Pertwee / Baker I years]
* Delicatessen (1991)
* Shadows and Fog (1991)
* Crash (1996) [Cronenberg's own, far superior film]
* Kinetta (2005)
* Raw (2016)
* The Killing of A Sacred Deer (2017)
* Pain and Glory (Dolor y gloria) (2019)
* The French Dispatch (2021)
As Wm. Blake might well have claim'd, so might he then - of his latest Crimes - Kronenbourg :
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 15, 2022
[...] My genius,
Labouring long, over my task, with me,
Gave wing to this Epicke. [...] pic.twitter.com/wbEzf4E5Xf
Four Theses (Review points proper)
(1) Only restrained by someone's recent Tweet** that one cannot justifiably comment on a film, if one walked out, it can now be said that, at 15-20 mins of 107, the impulse to leave Crimes of the Future then should have been taken.
(2) Without the names Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, etc., Crimes would be indistinguishable from an undistinguished film-festival submission, whose 'screener' one would keep pausing to shout incredulous injunctions or obscenity (as if one's dutifully tortured watch were the real drama ?).
(3) A film that is over-reliant on speech - rather than juxtaposition of scenes or narrative-jumps - as exposition, and (inter alia) shabby interiors*** in low light-levels against which to set Lanthimos-like conversations.
(4) It helpfully used up a free ticket at The Arts Picturehouse.
Courtesy of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart (as The Eurythmics), there is, now, a synopsis [Eurythmics, Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (Official Video)], to which #UCFF links here !
Heady cinema days, 2 yrs ago...
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 11, 2022
A somewhat nonsensical screenplay, prioritizing sentiment* over science, but has nothing on Cronenberg's plot- and dialogue-driven latest or [other reasons] Official Competition (2021) !
* Differently, First Man (2018) jars, when in quarantine ? https://t.co/jfM4paNOCD pic.twitter.com/O57ZHqDaSh
More to come... ?
Afterword :
* Crimes even ended indeterminately, as if DC thought a sequel - though perhaps no more than one's imagined ending - profitable / sellable, or desirable ?
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 12, 2022
* Not least in the light of the film itself, must one question this English-language version's wording of 'A film by...' ? https://t.co/jpR2SPyPNo pic.twitter.com/iCYnuBbf9p
End-notes :
* Titles with underscoring will, in due course, have links to #UCFF reviews - the film-references are not necessarily to films rated well.
** Obviously, as it was in the last week, not this Tweet, but it will do... :
Okay, sorry I thought you meant one in particular. I have the 'Barry Norman Rule', after the old film reviewer, that unless I have seen a film right through to the end, I cannot comment on it. I will get back to you on 'Tenet' around 2023.
— Alexander Rooksmoor (@ARCRooksmoor) September 14, 2020
*** As of, if not in, the derelict buildings in Athens that we see in establishing shots. (Occasionally, we are en plain air)
If you want to Tweet, Tweet away here
Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
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