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Reviews
Abroad Again: The Case of the Disappearing Architect (2007)
Cuthbert Brodrick
I think the best of JM's programmes, possibly because I happen to like Victorian buildings - well, find them interesting, atmospheric and individual even if not always strictly beautiful. Also because the subject matter is highly visual which helps on a television rather than a radio programme. Also because you get rather more of the subject Brodrick and less of Meades than in some of his other more whimsical/opinionated works. I wish the producers would list the background (mostly 'modern classical') music used much of which is interesting at least in this case. Any information or listing from the musically better informed would be appreciated.
Hard Candy (2005)
Un Real - but Maybe that's the Idea (?)
Spoilers - maybe ?
I only watched about half the film, actually less. I recorded it off TV - glad it cost me nothing - and whizzed through much of it on fast forward. Not a good sign.
My assumption is that the Page character is not real; she's meant to be a personification of his guilt at having been in some way involved in the death of this other girl who disappeared. That would explain a few things.
It would explain why she doesn't act like a 14 year old girl, talks (pretentiously and endlessly) like someone much older, is able to manhandle her victim in ways which would be physically impossible and so on.
It would also explain why, although he has plenty of opportunities to escape from this situation, he never takes any of them. I suppose he's meant to be struggling within himself, intends to castrate himself but can't go through with it and eventually commits suicide.
Of course this doesn't explain how this personification of his own guilt is able to interact with his neighbour but then this is a film so you don't expect logic or consistency or really anything much at all.
The Owl Service (1969)
Dire piece of experimental/improvised film-making
Be warned that Alan Garner doesn't go in for conventional story-telling. This is really an experimental work of the type sometimes seen (fortunately very rarely) in 60's/70's films and which I suppose has its origins in surrealism. Real film student stuff. Badly (over) acted - or perhaps improvised - mostly by a cast which is too old for the roles they're playing. They look to be late teens/early twenties when they're supposed to be about 15 so their behaviour seems ludicrously and unbelievably adolescent given their evident real ages. Badly directed and edited - if it was directed at all. I'm quite serious about this. It looks as if the 'director' just let the cast do what they wanted without any guidance and the result is a complete mess. The style of filming also seems experimental. Poorly planned, uninterestingly framed, unmemorable except for the wrong reasons. Cold, badly lit, unatmospheric and alienating. If you want to learn what not to do and why most films and TV are not like this it may be worth watching. Disgracefully padded out. Might have worked at 1 x 30 minute like one of those M.R.James adaptations the BBC did in the early 70's - with a better director and much better source material. Excruciating punishment at 8 x 30 mins. I forced myself to watch the whole thing having paid for it on disc but could only bear to do so by spreading it over a week. The story (meaning the original Welsh myth) is simply too thin, bizarre and uninteresting to be stretched to this length.