On 25th February 1916, Charlie Chaplin signed a $670,000 deal with the Mutual Film Corporation to produce a film a month over a one-year period. This made him the highest-paid entertainer in the world. The deal came as a surprise to the film industry; many had expected him to sign with a larger studio and Mutual hadn’t really been considered as an option. However, the money (according to Dollar Times online calculator it was equivalent to $15.2m in 2015) and the creative freedom swayed him and production began in earnest.
The first of these films, all of which were short comedies, was The Floorwalker, released on 15th May 1916. The basic story involves a department store floorwalker (Lloyd Bacon) who is involved with embezzlement of money with the store manager (Eric Campbell). When they receive a letter informing them that detectives are on the way to investigate the finances, they decide to run. However, when the floorwalker spots a near-perfect lookalike in a tramp (Chaplin), he decides to offer to switch personas with him, without realising that the tramp himself is in trouble with the police for property damage in the shop.
The film has a couple of classic Chaplin comedy moments. The first (which is reused throughout to great hilarity) involves the tramp’s inability to go up or down an escalator. It is just pure comedy gold and though it has been imitated many times over, never has it been done so effectively. Another set piece that has had its imitators over the years is the first meeting of the trap and the floorwalker, in which they become intrigued by one-another and begin to mirror the other’s movement. It requires perfect comic timing and is brilliantly executed. It is perhaps more fondly remembered in The Marx Brothers’ comedy Duck Soup, though the gag in that film involved a mirror so isn’t strictly a copy.
All twelve films from the Mutual Film Corporation period are collected in an excellent Blu-ray (and DVD) released by BFI this month. The presentation of each includes two scores (all have one score by Carl Davis and an alternative score by a range of composers), an audio commentary and a brief discussion in the extensive booklet. The restorations are evidently full of care and attention to detail, which I’ve come to expect of BFI releases but will never stop appreciating.
Go out and buy a copy now and support the important restoration projects for classic cinema. You won’t be disappointed with this release.
Charlie Chaplin – The Mutual Comedies is out now on BFI Blu-ray and DVD.
Earlier today, my wife and I found ourselves walking on the red carpet, alongside Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Jude Law, Miranda Hart and Peter Serafinowicz, for the UK premiere of new film Spy. It was at the ODEON on Leicester Square. Here’s a photo of me on the red carpet.
I’ve been on the red carpet a couple of times before and it’s always a lovely experience. Of course, nobody cares who we are, though that doesn’t mean we didn’t ham it up a little. [1]
There’s been quite bit of interest for the film over the last few weeks and the anticipation was well justified. We laughed so much our faces hurt.
McCarthy and Law are hilarious throughout.
Spy is an action comedy about office-based CIA data analyst Susan Cooper (McCarthy), who is forced to go out onto the field when her partner Bradley Fine (Law) disappears and the identities of other top field agents – including Rick Ford (Statham) – are compromised. Going undercover to attempt to infiltrate arms dealer Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne) with the help of her office friend (Hart), the story is the perfect platform for some caper-based hilarity.
I was a little apprehensive going into it as the premise is quite familiar and hasn’t been done well for a long time. I was immediately pleasantly surprised, with an opening scene that sets the story up well, falsely draws us in to a serious film, then slaps us in the face with a huge laugh.
Jason Statham has never been so likeable. His character can best be described as Jay from the Inbetweeners if he somehow became a CIA agent. You can see he’s flexing his comedy muscles and really trying hard to make his co-stars laugh whilst holding back himself. His character is a highlight.
The real star, of course, is Melissa McCarthy. Her comic timing is impeccable and it’s easy to see this film becoming a critical and commercial success with her out front. She has had several opportunities to show us what she’s got, but she has fallen slightly short on several occasions (see Identity Thief). This is a comic actor at the top of her game.
The rest of the cast are excellent, especially Serafinowicz, and you can see they’re enjoying such a fun script. I can’t recommend it enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the start of a franchise.
[1] About a month ago I speculatively tweeted a review of Furious 7 as an entry to a competition run by Stella Artois and Film4. Actually, it was a review of the trailer. I’ve not seen the film, nor have i seen the trailer. Indeed, of all the films in the series I’ve only seen Tokyo Drift. I didn’t think much of it. Anyway, that’s why I’m here. I’ve included the review here, in case you’re interested.
The Video Game E.T. the Extra Terrestrial is an infamous piece of video gaming history. Everyone knows how it went: in 1983 Howard Scott Warshaw (Yars’ Revenge, Raiders of the Lost Ark) was given five weeks to produce a game for the Atari 2600 system alongside the release of the film and in time for the Christmas market. An over-confident board pushed to produce a market-saturating amount of cartridges based on the game being a best-seller, but when the reviews came in and everyone discovered that the game was terrible, the sales dried up. Atari started getting large amounts of returns of the cartridge and realised they were haemorrhaging money, so (the legend has it) they decided to dump some 700,000 cartridges in a landfill in New Mexico.
This film covers the history of the gaming industry, specifically Atari, the background to the game’s release and Howard Scott Warshaw’s part in the game. The main point of interest, though, was built around the highly anticipated excavation of the landfill to uncover the truth behind the cover-up and see if the burial really happened. I won’t ruin the result of the excavation, though it was a huge news story when it happened.
A happy treasure hunter. I guess he could now “go home”.
The film was of huge interest to me and the subject matter was something I was happy to dedicate an hour of my life to. The director, as the film clearly lays out, is of great stock, having recently help screenwrite several huge Marvel films (including The Avengers). However, in comparison to Blackfish (which I watched in the same sitting), the storytelling failed to get me hooked. It has a short running time so there was no padding, but it just lacked the emotional power that is so evident in the great documentaries or modern cinema. There was nothing terrible about it – there was some good analysis of Atari in their booming year, a great side-story with Ernest Cline (author of the excellent Ready Player One) and a very brief cameo from George R.R. Martin. I just didn’t make the connection I hoped I would.
I perhaps wonder whether the short running time wasn’t enough. there was easily a further ten minutes on each of the two main topics: the history of Atari as a company being the first and the excavation of the landfill site being the second. I left wanting to find out more and though the information is available on the internet I don’t think there was a better platform than this to tell the whole story.
For a more engaging and humorous take on the excavation, check out Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie, which pays no attention to the facts and spends its time trying to keep us entertained instead. Atari: Game Over counts as a near miss for me.
David Bowie has made a career out of reinventing himself. In his early days, it felt like he was creating personas simply to discard them at the peak of their popularity: The Thin White Duke, Aladdin Sane, Ziggy Stardust and, most famously, Cobbler Bob. He didn’t simply create the characters – he lived them. The belief he had in these characters seeped into the psyche of the general public in a way no other popular artist has achieved since.
Whilst these great creations don the designs of shirts the world over (or maybe just in Camden and Topshop), and at least one has become ironically infamous, many of Bowie’s ventures and guest appearances have fallen by the wayside, perhaps a little too weird for the average Bowie fan to comprehend.
Here’s a countdown of the weirdest and most wonderful Bowie moments over the years.
1. David Bowie and Tina Turner star in a Pepsi advert together
Whilst Tina Turner’s popularity arguably hasn’t followed the same trajectory as David Bowie, in 1987 she was a big crowd-puller and on a par with Bowie. Pairing the two together after the ill-fated Michael Jackson commercials was a match made in heaven. Unfortunately David Bowie was accused of sexual assault during his Glass Spider Tour and although all charges were later dropped, so was the advert seen above as Pepsi panicked about being associated with a high-profile court case. It’s a huge shame because the ad, which riffs on the 1985 John Hughes film Weird Science, is a great piece of pop music history.
2. Boz in the video game Omikron: The Nomad Soul
Yes, that’s right. In 1999, Eidos released a not-very-popular title called Omikron: The Nomad Soul on PC and, later, Dreamcast. David Bowie had a considerable amount of input into the storyline and design, plus he provided several songs for the soundtrack (most of which were reworked for his then-upcoming album Hours… or released as b-sides for the associated singles). In addition to performing in the in-game band The Dreamers, he features as Boz (see the above video), a mystical figure that appears digitally at various points in the game. It’s hardly Bowie’s finest moment but worth seeing to imagine what it felt like in 1999 when these graphics were cutting edge.
3. The original video for Space Oddity (1969)
I think if you’ve got this far down the article and you’re still reading you probably have already seen the famous video for “Space Oddity”. If you’re in any way interested in the history of Bowie, you’ll recognise the persona in this video as Aladdin Sane, which Bowie had assumed for his sixth studio album in 1973. However, on 2nd February 1969 David and his then-collaborator John Hutchinson recorded a video using an earlier version of the song, and that’s what you can see above. It’s quite different and entertaining in its own right, and a fairer reflection of what he was like at the time the song was recorded. By 1973, Bowie was a completely different person and his backing band had changed, so it’s nice that there is preserved a more accurate visual representation of the track.
4. Crystal Japan sake adverts
There’s not much to go on in this advert. Just a bit of Bowie at a piano playing some ambient music followed by him drinking some sake. And a pyramid thing with the top chopped off. So…
5. Jazzin’ for Blue Jean
Back in 1984, David Bowie was riding high off the back of one of the most successful albums of his career, Let’s Dance, which hit number one globally to positive critical reviews. Such was the popularity, a decision was made to rush-release a new album, Tonight, which featured three covers and a couple of collaborations. Sales-wise it was successful, but poorly-received critically. One curiosity from it is the promotional video produced for the song Blue Jean. Clocking in at over 20 minutes, Jazzin’ For Blue Jean allowed Bowie to explore his acting abilities under the guidance of British filmmaker Julien Temple. Unfortunately, the results were less than impressive.
In it, he plays Vic, a window cleaner desperate to impress an unnamed girl played by Louise Scott. To win her heart, he pretends to know popular musician Screaming Lord Byron (also Bowie) and takes her on a date to see him perform. It’s going through the motions for the most part the performance of the song as Byron near the end is vintage Bowie. Perhaps that’s why it was cut into a three-minute conventional video for use on MTV.
It’s a tough watch now but worth checking out if you are really keen.
6. A strange tone for Jareth the Goblin King singing “As The World Falls Down”
We all love the Labyrinth. It was a childhood favourite of mine and in many ways hasn’t really gone into the ironic standing I’m sure it assumes for most people. After all, it’s a great fantasy storyline, the soundtrack is actually fantastic and it has David Bowie in it. What’s not to like? I’ll tell you what… if you take the track “As The World Falls Down” out of context and lay out the facts (as Bowie sings lovingly into the eyes of the girl he’s kidnapped, with those extremely tight trousers on, remember Jennifer Connolly was fourteen when this was filmed) it makes for interesting reading. Well, I’m being purposefully sensational here. There’s nothing terrible here. It’s a great song by a great artist in a great film. Stop fretting.
7. I Want My MTV
“Too much is never enough”, according to Billy Idol at the end of this video. David only appears briefly at the start of this video, but it’s still a wholly bizarre experience. Well worth 30 seconds of your life.
8. Bowie pokes fun at the Laughing Gnome
I remember the first time I heard The Laughing Gnome. It was particularly hard to track down for a quick listen: unavailable on YouTube or any of the streaming sites, the only way I could reveal the hilarity was to purchase it as part of the self-titled 1967 Deram album David Bowie – and even then only on the 2010 deluxe two-disc version where it nestled on the second disc (it strangely wasn’t actually included on the original album despite being one of the singles taken from it). It’s a shockingly awful novelty record that isn’t in keeping with anything else he produced before or since; even treating it as a children’s song you have to worry about how many of the puns would be understood by a child (for example, the “London School of Eco-gnome-ics” is mentioned). It is often misquoted as being Bowie’s first big hit, though it didn’t trouble the top of the charts until he’d achieved mega-stardom as Ziggy Stardust, reaching #6 in 1973 (six years after its original release).
So it’s highly pleasing to see the above video, taken from 1999’s Comic Relief push, where Bowie reveals a new song titled “Requiem for a Laughing Gnome”. It’s a song played exclusively on a recorder, “with choreography”, and a message pops up with a threat that it will continue for four hours unless the public donates more money. It’s always great to see interviews with Bowie from about 10-15 years ago – he’s actually a lot more sociable and friendly than most people imagine he will be.
9. Bowie talks about the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men
In Bowie’s very first television appearance at the tender age of 17 – as Davey Jones – he talks about the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men (presumably SPOCTLHM, pronounced spock-tull-hum”). It’s obviously a publicity stunt to get his face on TV, but a piece of rock history nonetheless.
10. Starring as Tesla in The Prestige
Whilst on hiatus between 2003’s Reality and 2013’s The Next Day, Bowie hardly made any appearances in public. However, in 2006 he found time to act in Christopher Nolan’s film The Prestige as Nikola Tesla. It was a pretty bizarre moment when I noticed this as I’d not seen the film at the time and had forgotten he was in it. He does a pretty good job too. Great film, great ending. Back when Christopher Nolan was good.
2015 looks set to be a huge summer for visiting the cinema. I’ve already been blown away several times at the high standard I’ve seen (Birdman, The Tales of Princess Kaguya, Whiplash and The Theory of Everything are all very special films, and Avengers: Age of Ultron blew me away too). Looking forwards, there’s plenty more to be excited about. Here’s some of the film’s I’ve got in my diary.
German Concentration Camps – A Factual Survey
Probably the most historically important film of the decade.
A British documentary film covering the exploration of the Nazi concentration camps. Fourteen locations were visited in Poland, Austria and Germany. The purpose of this film was that it would be shown to all the freed prisoners leaving the concentration camps and sites of atrocity after the fall of the Third Reich. Unfortunately there were delays in production and by 1946 it was deemed to be inappropriate and the footage was shelved.
Thankfully the footage has been finished off and there have been some screenings schedules around the UK (which can be found here). I can’t wait to see this historically important and inevitably moving film.
Jurassic World
Is this going to be the return to form we’ve been waiting for?
I’m sorry. We’re all thinking it. The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III were both utter dross. The first in the series was, in my opinion, one of the greatest films ever made. In the action genre it should be held up as a sepcimen of near perfection – its relentless and frequent peaks and troughs take you on an exhausting adrenaline rollercoaster as soon as things start to go wrong. It was also a hugely significant film in terms of advancing special effects. Since the sequels thus far have been huge let downs, the announcement of a new franchise reboot was met with groans across the internet and beyond. Then the trailer dropped and hope was restored. So far there doesn’t seem to be anything to quash the hope.
The release date is set for 10th June. The world is waiting!
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
I can’t wait for fourth film in the franchise to be released.
I’m a big Star Wars fan. I’m not the kind of person who knows the facts inside-out, certainly not on the same level as some people I know, but the original films are just absolutely fantastic action sci-fi films. It’s a shame that Episodes I-III were so dreadful. I do believe there is one good film to be found within their bloated running times. They just got them wrong.
The Star Wars community groaned when Disney bought the rights to Star Wars, but I immediately knew it would be a positive move. Disney know how to make a great live-action action film. The first three Pirates of the Caribbean films were actually not as bad as people have remembered them (our memories may be tarnished by the lackluster fourth installment). John Carter was actually far better than the first twenty minutes suggested. The Tron reboot wasn’t bad either. With a captive audience ready to give the new films a chance and no George Lucas around to mess things up, we’re set to finally be rewarded with a film worthy of the originals.
Terminator: Genisys
I do hope Arnie says “I told you I’d be back” just one more time.
I don’t think this will be the return to form as the two franchise reboots above, but it will be good fun to see how it turns out. Since his retirement from politics, Schwarzenegger hasn’t really done any films that fully stand up to his releases in the late 80s and early 90s. I hope this is the one that shows us he’s still got it and with Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones favourite Daenerys Targaryen) on board we should have something to keep us entertained for a couple of hours.
Ant-Man
Films like this are in short supply.
Paul Rudd, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish. It’s Ant-Man. It has been a troubled creation process, but I still think this is going to find the balance of comedy and action that was sadly missing from The Green Hornet, the last superhero film that went down the comedy route. I’m hoping it’s successful enough to see him included in future MCU films. I guess time will tell.
I remember a couple of years ago when I saw the queues of young girls stood outside the theatre awaiting the release of the latest One Direction Movie, 1D: This Is Us. I’m pretty sure I passed a snide comment to whoever I was with at the time berating the popularity of the film, which was clearly not aimed at me. I wasn’t the “target audience”. Nonetheless, what a bunch of idiots standing there to watch such a rubbish film.
One for the fans
It took me until last night to realise how wrong I was to do this. My wife was out of the house and so I saw it as a perfect opportunity to finally watch the imported copy of Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie [1]. Alas, my wife returned home and walked in just as The Nerd threw up over a copy of Eee Tee 2 and the woman holding it. As I looked towards the door, I saw myself reflected back: bemusement, disdain and a lack of willingness to understand. I guess that means that I’m a teenage girl and James Rolfe is Harry Stiles. Maybe.
And that’s the point. This is by no means a film for everyone. It is specifically a film for the fans of James Rolfe’s character The Angry Video Game Nerd, the central character in his webisodic (it’s now a word) series in which he reviews terrible old games in a foul-mouthed and occasionally aggressive manner. It’s a film full of references to the series, made for the fans, and a pet project for Rolfe to flex his big-budget muscles and show exactly what he can do once he leaves his underground lair.
The storyline concerns the release of Eee Tee 2, the sequel to Eee Tee, the biggest flop in video game history (and barely hiding the reference to E.T.). The Nerd has always refused to review this game, but when an opportunity arises to go to New Mexico and dig up the infamous New Mexico Atari landfill as a tie in to the sequel, he agrees. The Nerd and his two assistants start the quest but are pursued by federal agent General Dark Onward, who believes The Nerd is trying to investigate Area 51.
It is quite a convoluted plot but it’s not really there to win any awards for screenplays. It’s a platform on which Rolfe bases some quite hilarious moments and I see the film as a success. Yes, it’s probably a little long but I can forgive Rolfe for this – he was bringing his own dream to life and wanted to make sure his fans got the most out of it. Some of the script feels a little like it’s deliberately trying to aspire to be a cult film, and it gets very silly at times, but it’s delivered with enough charm to be forgiven for a few misfires.
There’s a nice bonus at the end, where he finally reviews E.T. The Extra Terrestrial on the Atari, which he has never previously done. The bonus features on the disc are plentiful and give a bit of insight into the film (though many of the featurettes were previously available during the making of the film on Cinemassacre).
Steer clear if you have never heard of The Nerd before but if you want to see what he’s capable of it’s worth the plunge.
[1] For those in the UK, the best option to see the movie in HD is to import from Amazon.com. Be warned though – you will pay through the nose for the postage and then get slapped with import duty when it arrives. It’s expensive and if you aren’t fussed about the HD then you have an option to stream from Cinemassacre for a small fee.
I previously talked about this essay film in a preview last October, and I finally managed to see it this week after it was added to Netflix. I had backed it in a Kickstarter campaign so I’ve had loads of updates from the engine that is Charlie Lyne, a man who has filled the project with as much man hours as he has passion.
Lyne covers the recurring themes we see in teen movies, taking an in-depth look at some key films on each topic. It takes the form of a long essay split into five sections: “Fitting In”, which deals with characters attempting to fit in and conform to their stereotypes (Mean Girls, Cruel Intentions); “Acting Out”, which looks at characters rebelling against suppression and leaving their comfort zones to break the status quo (Bubble Boy, Idle Hands); “Losing Yourself”, a discussion on characters who are keen to explore the wider world (Euro Trip, Jeepers Creepers); “Toeing The Line”, about characters having to conform to stereotypes or trying to break the brainwashed mould (The Faculty, Josie and the Pussycats); and “Moving On”, which explores themes of characters either needing to grow up or not wanting to (13 Going On 30, Drive Me Crazy). These are neatly bookended by a prologue and an epilogue, which tie the themes together nicely.
The film received criticism on its release, perhaps due to the fact it is an essay film and that is a slightly unusual format. Don’t get me wrong, this would have worked perfectly well as an essay, but the content lends itself to being delivered in this visual medium. There aren’t any topics that fall outside the content of teen films and the production team has meticulously sourced footage from every film discussed, which aids the digestion of the discussion points. The concept seems so obvious it’s a surprise it hasn’t been done more often.
Fairuza Balk’s powerful voiceover further endorses the content of the film, and this is further enhanced by an excellent soundtrack by Summer Camp. The script shows a passion for the subject matter that can sometimes lead to the content being given a little too much gravitas. This is never more prominent than the section discussing Euro Trip, which is one of my least favourite films of all time. I found it banal and tacky, but here it sounds like one of the greatest films ever made – I actually want to re-watch it to make sure I haven’t missed anything. In many ways, this is just testament to the passion of the scriptwriters, particularly Lyne, and can hardly be a justifiable criticism.
It’s a film that won’t do much for people who don’t like teen films and will also be lost on anyone unfamiliar with most of the films discussed. It’s a celebration of the genre and works as a great boost to go and re-watch a heap of teen films.
Beyond Clueless is available to stream on Netflix now in the UK.
The sequel to the smash hit musical comedy Pitch Perfect, covering Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson et al. as they struggle to break down boundaries and show the world that a capella singing is actually really cool… Wait, what? In their world, a capella is already cool? They just aren’t cool enough to do it because they’re outcasts. Okay…
I have a slight vested interest in this film, on at least one level. I myself am in an a capella group and also take part in local theatrical productions so performing on stage has always been in my life. From memory, though, I don’t ever recall a capella singing being this popular. When there’s a tournament in Pitch Perfect World, the whole town drops everything to show their support for their favourite group. For me, I’m usually pulling in favours just so my closest family members turn up. Maybe I just don’t have the right acca-skills.
Pitch Perfect 2 has plenty of big laughs but you may have already seen them all in the trailer.
Well, this is a chick flick and it doesn’t have to have a watertight storyline. However, despite throwing away any grasp on reality to accept the film for what it is doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a great film. It’s basically a rehash of the first film – pretty much the same cast going through very similar personal struggles but pulling it together because their dedication to their friends supercedes anything else in life. It’s sweet, and I buy into the basic principal.
Unfortunately, outside the handful of really hilarious moments – most of which you’ve already seen in the trailer – the jokes consistently fall flat. Chrissie Fit’s Guatemalan character is just plainly not funny and every line she delivered felt like it was about forty years out of date. Likewise, Cynthia-Rose (portrayed by Ester Dean) is a really throwaway lesbian character that doesn’t really add anything to the storyline other than some cheap gags based on rudimentary stereotyping.
It was nice to see Hailee Steinfeld – who I know only from her Oscar-nominated performance in the Coen Brothers’ remake of True Grit – in a comedic role but, like the more established Kendrick, she almost seems a little above the content. I’m not sure whether the plan is to keep her in line to do Pitch Perfect 3. I guess time will tell.
So what can I say? It passed the time and I enjoyed parts of it. I wanted to see Mad Max but the majority of the seven other people I was with preferred this. I won’t rush to see it again, but I doubt my indifference towards it will change the fact that its target audience (basically the millions of people who loved the first film) will buy tickets and love it.
Cinema, etc. 