The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups)

It's a film of two halves for me but I will run with the negative part first so I can end on a lighter note.

In terms of narrative, i felt that plotlines and characters were underdeveloped. With the exception of Antoine, every character could be summed up in three words or less - his mother is only ever a conniving scumbag, his father alternately overly cheery and a bastard, his teacher just the second of those. Antoine himself is clearly in a bad situation, and his choices less his own and more based on reactions to events previously - for example, writing on the wall after his teacher punishes him (somewhat) unfairly. However, we never see another side to the characters. His mother never displays any quality worth marrying her for, a fact made more severe when you realise she already had a son. His father just seems to be the step-dad out of water stereotype that you can see anywhere. It is impossible to sympathise with the teacher and his aggression towards Antoine is never explained. I like my characters to have reasons and motives and a distant glimpse of redemption. (Note: This is exclusively for heavily character based films. I don't expect to empathise with a Die Hard villan, because I watch those films to see things explode a lot)

Without a doubt there are comparative themes with La Haine. The Paris setting, the downtrodden protaganist, and the inescapability of their situation are definitely paralell and make me very glad I didn't grow up in France (aside from hating the language!)

On the positive side, the cinematography and direction was revolutionary, and it stands apart from the other films of it's era with quite modern techniques for both editing and shots. Very interesting to see.

La Haine

- Good use of editing and digetic sound.
- Characters are for the most part believable and at least partly relateable.
- Impressively professional appearance for a film shot on handheld camera.
- Big impact ending, although inevitable when viewed as a whole.
- References to the fact it was a movie throughout was amusing.

Good film :)

Hidden (Cache)

A strong dislike of a majority of world cinema gives me an unfortunate bias against this film, but I feel it is as valid an opinion as any. Whilst yes, it is nice to hear a movie use the technique of silence for a change, this movie leans on it like a documentary - except documentaries actually usually use more music than this, and cover something you can care about. Within the part we watched, there were no identifiable or likeable characters, no one I cared about and in a way that was because the film contained barely any dialogue (especially relative to the length of the film).

Whilst it is entirely possible that seeing the entire film would change my perspective (and I would be very happy if it did) on this basis it seems unlikely. A very important part of film-making is knowing where to cut a scene, and this director either doesn't know or doesn't really care. This impatience with static, mostly silent shots that don't show you what's going on could be attributed to a short attention span, but I sat through the whole of Eastern Promises the other day with no problems and that film makes a glacier look nippy when it comes to plot progression. But it does it whilst actually showing me what's happening. If I want to see car's headlights behind me, i'll get my housemate to drive in while I stand facing the gate. But I don't. I turn around.

I have a rule. If I look at a film and think "I could have made that myself" then I will never describe it as creative.