― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 25 September 2006 14:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― emsk ( emsk), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 10:46 (seventeen years ago) link
I never want to see films, but I rather want to see this one. Can't do any time this week, though - I might go and see it in Streatham on Saturday if it's still playing.
― Cabal Of Secret Chefs (kate), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 11:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― chap who would dare to contain two ingredients. Tea and bags. (chap), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 23:14 (seventeen years ago) link
Hah, that's exactly the same reason I read it too.
Yes, it would have been about '93 at the latest, because it was when I was on holiday with my parents in Kent, and '93 or '94 was the last year that we did that.
― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 28 September 2006 06:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― Pandas At War (pandas at war), Thursday, 28 September 2006 08:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― emsk ( emsk), Thursday, 28 September 2006 09:46 (seventeen years ago) link
there are one or two scenes where the acting's a bit cheesy but it kind of worked as a foil for all the unrelenting grimness, i am not let down.
we went to barbican in the end so the sound was wicked.
i will not spoilerise, so if you haven't seen it's safe to keep reading.
it's creepy as hell how cuaron's depiction of london in 2027 is pretty much exactly how my own head pictures it (and plenty of other people i'm sure) - advancements technologically but used for regression of society (eg the bloodyfuckingirritating advertising screens we have in buses now are used for urging people to "DOB YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILIES IN FOR BEING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS", there are security checkpoints on the tube - "you are now entering zone 2" - guards with kickass guns and "please present your ID cards" (ho ho except not really), even bigger gaps between the rich and the poor - that scene in battersea power station is nuts. all that "jobs for the brits" stuff was well scary and made me think of the usa now. the montage of all the countries that had given up while "britain soldiers on" summed up the desperation of "soldiering on" - i mean bloody hell, what FOR? lots of really nice touches like the evening standard boards (if you keep an eye out for the details in this film you'll be well rewarded, i'm sure there was loads of stuff i missed but still), some that'll work for everyone, some that were personal - like this grubby little bridge they cross at one point is one i have crossed lots and lots of times. i loved how they did the music in jasper's house too. i was in bleak mood even when i went in, this didn't help (or helped immensely, depending on how you look at it), i left the cinema shaking, LOVED it start to finish and the human race can go fuck itself hurrah.
um i haven't completely processed it yet, i def want to see it again, perhaps not too soon, it was kind of hard going. in a good way.
― emsk ( emsk), Thursday, 28 September 2006 10:04 (seventeen years ago) link
"Emotionally draining" is the best I can sum it up with.
Sound engineering is spot-on, too, as is the no-holds-barred approach to the violence.
― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Thursday, 28 September 2006 10:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― We Are The Village Green Psychiatric Society (kate), Thursday, 28 September 2006 10:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― steal compass, drive north, disappear (tissp), Thursday, 28 September 2006 10:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― emsk ( emsk), Thursday, 28 September 2006 11:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― Bill A (Bill A), Thursday, 28 September 2006 12:16 (seventeen years ago) link
yeah it's a reference to the cover of pink floyd's animals LP.
http://www.thebestofwebsite.com/Photos/Music/Pink_Floyd/Animals.jpg
the reason it's such a good reference (and therefore not really a joke, as such) is that it's something you can actually imagine happening soon in the version of britain which may have immediately preceded the police state in the film, i.e. britain as it is now. it's not even a stretch to imagine it happening.
my expectations were not particularly high for this (and madchen, the trailer makes it seem like it's going to be a much worse film than it actually is) but i thought it was absolutely brilliant. packed with great moments and scenes: the kitten crawling up clive owen's trousers, him walking around in flip flops because he's left without his shoes; the scene where the five main characters in the film get ambushed after having their path blocked by a burning car; the battersea power station scene just mentioned with the young guy and his ADDish addiction to some transparent version of the internet). There are things which seem like small ideas but which actually make the whole mess seem entirely feasible: the fact that Julianne Moore offers Clive Owen £5,000, which seems a paltry amount of money for something set in the future until we see him stooping to pick up pennies from the street a few scenes later. it's a very clever touch in a very intelligent film. it's also quite thrilling to see something of this scale which is not set in america.
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 30 September 2006 16:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 30 September 2006 16:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 30 September 2006 16:47 (seventeen years ago) link
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Saturday, 30 September 2006 19:16 (seventeen years ago) link
Haha one of the two errors noted on IMDB is that they get into the wrong kind of fictional bus!
Me and Emsk both thought/hoped the geordie terrorist was going to be Jake from Doctor Who! But it was someone else off Byker Grove instead.
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Saturday, 30 September 2006 19:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― chap who would dare to contain two ingredients. Tea and bags. (chap), Saturday, 30 September 2006 19:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 30 September 2006 20:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 30 September 2006 20:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Saturday, 30 September 2006 20:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 30 September 2006 20:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― sean gramophone (Sean M), Saturday, 30 September 2006 23:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Sunday, 1 October 2006 23:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― derrick (derrick), Monday, 2 October 2006 05:08 (seventeen years ago) link
It was just all too realistic, and that was what made it terrifying. (Ha ha, there was a review in Country Life that said that the London of the film was jarringly unlike real London - bloody hell, what London do you live in? Probably the posh parklike behind the gates at Admiralty Arch.) It seemed so terrifyingly... normal.
I liked the fact that the infertility was relatively unexplained, that was what kind of made it different than The Handmaid's Tale. It just... happened, and humanity was left to deal with it. Though I would have liked to see more about how the resulting gender conflict would actually have been resolved. With the genders relieved of the ability for procreation, would the balance of power changed? Would the world have stumbled towards equality (probably not, in such a dystopia) or would one gender have risen up and attempted to destroy the other? That would have been as interesting to me as the class war and "Fugee" conflicts.
I thought the Christian symbolism was a bit heavy-handed, though. (I mean, christ, the revelation in a sodding stable? Why not throw in a manger, while you're at it. And did every woman on the side of good have to be called a variant of Mary? It would have been too obvious to make the pregnant girl a Mary, I suppose.) Surprised you didn't catch that, Emsk.
But all in all, very good. Very thought-provoking, a film you really come out of feeling dazed and terrified, and you see London not quite the same way afterwards. "Britain Soliders On" - terrifying, but at least the idea that our Island/Blitz mentality would keep us soldiering on.
― Virginia Plainsong (kate), Monday, 2 October 2006 08:45 (seventeen years ago) link
yes! and the fact that the details of the horrible catastrophes of the recent past that left the world in the state it's in are very vague and suggested (did i imagine an image of an a-bomb going off somewhere in the film, on the tv news?) is very effective too - maybe there was no great huge calamity? maybe this is just the direction we are currently leading towards?
― i am not a nugget (stevie), Monday, 2 October 2006 08:51 (seventeen years ago) link
― Virginia Plainsong (kate), Monday, 2 October 2006 08:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― chap who would dare to contain two ingredients. Tea and bags. (chap), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:02 (seventeen years ago) link
OTM
― i am not a nugget (stevie), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:03 (seventeen years ago) link
oh, was it a stable? i just thought it was a derelict building.
Why not throw in a manger, while you're at it. And did every woman on the side of good have to be called a variant of Mary? It would have been too obvious to make the pregnant girl a Mary, I suppose.) Surprised you didn't catch that, Emsk.
ki?
― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:15 (seventeen years ago) link
I don't get this, you seem to be saying that a truce of fucking is the only thing holding back the Council of Men and Council Of Women from outright war? That's a pretty literal interpretation of the battle of the sexes, I think (also it implies a lack of hope, which by definition anyone who hasn't taken their Quietus has some of).
And did every woman on the side of good have to be called a variant of Mary?
But.. they aren't. Kee isn't, and Julian isn't, and Miriam and Marichka are quite obscure variants, I think you're reading more into this than there is.
"Britain Soliders On" - terrifying, but at least the idea that our Island/Blitz mentality would keep us soldiering on.
Well yeah, this seems to sit in an awkward and interesting way with her Tory nature. On the one hand clearly Clamping Down on Immigration works, and the story isn't kind to people opposed to same, but the film, possibly just by having an person you can empathise with playing Kee, seems to run against it. People who've read the book, what's it like?
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:29 (seventeen years ago) link
OK, a milking shed, not a stable, but still. It was a very overt nativity reference.
― Virginia Plainsong (kate), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― Virginia Plainsong (kate), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― Virginia Plainsong (kate), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― Virginia Plainsong (kate), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:46 (seventeen years ago) link
You don't have to be Christian to realise why it's a good idea to have a cease-fire around the first baby in 18 years.
The problem with Christians is that they don't believe that Athiests can feel awe at things.
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:49 (seventeen years ago) link
― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:49 (seventeen years ago) link
― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:50 (seventeen years ago) link
x-post
― Virginia Plainsong (kate), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:51 (seventeen years ago) link
― chap who would dare to contain two ingredients. Tea and bags. (chap), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:55 (seventeen years ago) link
!
― sean gramophone (Sean M), Monday, 2 October 2006 09:55 (seventeen years ago) link
I also loved this movie for all the reasons stated above, but it must be said that this is some of the best actual nuts-and-bolts filmmaking I have seen in a long time. Some incredibly memorable images - the explosions going off in the distance through the fog as Theo and Ki sit in the rowboat were so haunting. And this should be the number one film cited in any defense of CGI work, which I usually hate with a passion.
― Tiki Theater Xymposium (Bent Over at the Arclight), Monday, 2 October 2006 10:07 (seventeen years ago) link
was it that cheesy though? there were cheesier bits. i dunno, i didn't leave with much of a feeling of hope, even once she'd been picked up. who are these human project people? they might be just as bad as the fish. or they might just be useless.
It had me in tears in points. I know I don't see films as often as other people, so they tend to affect me more.
i dunno if it's anything to do with seeing less films... i see quite a lot and i was in tears pretty much the whole way through! i think it's just that it's an incredibly well-made, timely, insightful, powerful film that chimes with modern fears and is realistic enough to upset us in a non-escapist way.
― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 2 October 2006 10:25 (seventeen years ago) link
i read it last night, it seemed fine and uncontroversial to me, mostly a round-up of things people have already said
― À la recherche du scamps perdu (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 2 August 2020 11:24 (three years ago) link
This film was very quick off the mark to use dubstep in the soundtrack. As it turns out that was one of the less credible projections for 2027, although it's mostly not mixed all that prominently anyway.
― Stanley Halfbrick (Noel Emits), Sunday, 2 August 2020 13:22 (three years ago) link
Well... I hope in 2027 when the entire world is firm in the grips of a massive dubstep revival that you come back to this thread and apologize roundly to everyone reading.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Sunday, 2 August 2020 14:26 (three years ago) link
Lol yes - That scene read very much to me as the 2027 version of “old git blasting Led Zeppelin”
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 2 August 2020 14:29 (three years ago) link
That's the vibe I got, too!
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 2 August 2020 14:35 (three years ago) link
LOL are you grandad's talking about Jasper's "zen music"? That's Aphex Twin IIRC. The dubstep stuff is playing in the background of a few scenes and presumably supposed to be contemporary; Kode 9 & Spaceape in the pub I think, and Digital Mystikz Anti War Dub which I just checked prices on and if there's a revival in 2027 I'll really be wondering if I should have hung on to those DMZ 12"s a bit longer.
― Stanley Halfbrick (Noel Emits), Sunday, 2 August 2020 20:30 (three years ago) link
ahh i had never noticed that. well 90s house continues to be fucking everywhere, so....
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 2 August 2020 20:31 (three years ago) link
Good on that!
― Get the point? Good, let's dance with nunchaku. (Eric H.), Sunday, 2 August 2020 20:41 (three years ago) link
Also Roots Manuva's Witness (1 Hope) in one scene, which will probably still be getting rinsed in 2027. I guess maybe in the world of the film pop culture stagnated when there stopped being young people?
― chap, Monday, 3 August 2020 10:12 (three years ago) link
that’s a really good point
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Monday, 3 August 2020 10:34 (three years ago) link
Yes that works out rather well. I mean I think really the music was used as a signifier of 'near future urban dystopia' rather than any serious attempt to predict the pop charts of 2027, so I was being facetious.
Tell you what though, what if.. hear me out.. what if what happened is there was a technological singularity, say around 2012 and the world of the film is a simulation maintained by super advanced AIs (the titular 'children if men'.) and derived from media created in the period immediately before the onset of exponential AI development The main limitation of the simulation being that new humans can't be created.
― Stanley Halfbrick (Noel Emits), Monday, 3 August 2020 11:07 (three years ago) link
There aren't really enough many 3-year-olds making dubstep, though - Baby Diego would've grown up with a whole generation above him making music (and the ones above that, as well - more so if they're not making babies!)
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 3 August 2020 12:34 (three years ago) link
Lol it's a very bad, boring piece if you know even some of the terrain.
And in fact covid has actually made capitalism seem incredibly fragile, it's end closer and possible, and the last general election and movements around the world show that people are thinking of alternatives. The New Statesman plays it's own part in demonising and talking down these movements so ofc it will write about clapped out thrash like Children of Men.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 3 August 2020 13:00 (three years ago) link
"Cuarón was inspired by the 20th-century film theorist André Bazin, for whom fast editing diminishes a scene “from something real into something imaginary”."
Like this...doesn't sound right? Bazin was writing (and died) before the really long takes became a thing later in the 60s and then 70s Euro film? And he was more for backing a kind of realism in filmmaking (from my fuzzy memory).
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 3 August 2020 13:05 (three years ago) link
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Monday, 3 August 2020 14:10 (three years ago) link
"bad, boring"
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 3 August 2020 14:38 (three years ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/18/toxic-chemicals-health-humanity-erin-brokovich
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Friday, 19 March 2021 17:47 (three years ago) link
I heard a shocking factoid recently: an average human body today contains at least 500 chemicals that did not exist before WWII.
― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, 19 March 2021 17:52 (three years ago) link
At this point it's hard for me to read an article like that and muster the sense of panic she is trying to evoke. The future looks bleak for humanity, but it would be poetic justice that if we wiped ourselves out before we could finish making the world uninhabitable for most other species.
― beard papa, Sunday, 21 March 2021 00:07 (three years ago) link
This film...
London 2027 in Children of Men is a functional society - you still get a coffee, go to work on the bus, put a bet on the dogs, go to the pub - but it’s not one you’d want to live in. pic.twitter.com/3T81bCyl68— Flying_Rodent (@flying_rodent) November 3, 2022
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 3 November 2022 12:47 (one year ago) link
― xyzzzz__, Monday, August 3, 2020 6:05 AM (two years ago)
yeah, my fuzzy memory aligns with yours ... it would probably be more accurate to say that Cuaron was inspired by 60s/70s filmmakers whose long takes were partially a response to the theories of Bazin (e.g. the Godard traffic jam scene in Weekend)
― sarahell, Thursday, 3 November 2022 16:13 (one year ago) link
Bazin did celebrate long takes, but he was probably thinking about "master shots" rather than the sometimes showy takes of later filmmakers. It wasn't the length of the take or the impressive camera movements that was important to him:
I would even say that Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope could just as easily have been edited in classical fashion, whatever artistic importance one may legitimately attach to his approach. On the other hand, it would be unthinkable for the famous seal-hunting scene in Nanook of the North not to show us, in the same composition, the hunter, the hole in the ice and the seal.
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 3 November 2022 16:53 (one year ago) link
All the news about Manston has had me thinking about the Bexhill scenes in CoM over the last few days.
― brain (krakow), Thursday, 3 November 2022 22:56 (one year ago) link
Yup
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Friday, 4 November 2022 01:00 (one year ago) link
Saw this for the first time last night. I'm afraid, when everyone stops fighting as he carries the baby out of the building, I was unable to get this bit from The Day Today "War" out of my head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRjtVdWvNzY
― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Friday, 7 April 2023 17:43 (one year ago) link