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Fish Tank

August 4th 2010 22:05
Fish Tank
Fish Tank 2009

Fish Tank begins with a familiar template, reminiscent of Loach and Leigh, but it doesn’t mean we’ve seen it all before and shouldn’t delve into it. Mia lives with her single working class mum and younger sister in a large decaying council estate maze in Essex. The landscape mostly, though not entirely, is distinguished by blank horizons and vestiges of vanished industries. Words are shrieked as they are felt without pauses for niceness. It is a world where people live too close to each other yet their lives are isolated and only linked by their mutual contempt and abrasion.

Mia is an aggressive, street-tough kid shaped by her with a tortured home life and tough surroundings. Her non-involved alcoholic mother only acknowledges her daughter by pushing her around and screaming epithets at her. Mia has a similar reciprocal relationship with her younger, almost-equally mouthy sister who matches Mia’s exclamations, calling her, ‘c**t face’ when Mia calls her, ‘fuck face’.

Mia’s physical and emotional self-defence exudes in most of her actions. In Mia’s first onscreen five minutes, she we see her call a friend’s dad a ‘c**t’ and head butt another girl. Constantly bored and contemptuous of her surroundings, Mia never ventures far from home until she spies a flyer saying, ‘Female Dancer Wanted’. This gives her the impetus to focus on something she feels really matters, hip-hop dancing. Lying down her CD player and speakers in an empty flat above her own, she practises her dance movements in preparation for her audition. She dances without joy, with a strong hardness with her hood over her head in the darkness. Throughout the film, dance is used as integral way for Mai to communicate and escape into. Indeed, it is an essential, delicately beautiful part of the almost soundless resolution between disaffected Mia and her mother.

Fish Tank - Katie Jarvis
Fish Tank - Katie Jarvis


Used to her mother’s contempt and lack of concern about her and her life, Mia is defensively surprised when her mother’s new boyfriend, Connor seems to notice and actually care about her. Connor is funny, sexy, confident and calm where everyone else appears clenched with hardened resentment. Mia’s quiet smiles show that she likes him, while he pays her more attention than anyone else in her life, praising her dancing, giving her a piggyback, even tucking her up in bed when she pretends to be asleep. Initially, Connor’s intentions are not clearly defined, he seems genuinely nice, especially supporting Mia’s ambitions to be a dancer yet his actions become concerning. Their relationship takes an unexpected and disquieting turn, but as always, director Arnold avoids any overt judgments or explanations. The tangled and increasingly complex relationship that develops between Mia and Connor is both disturbing and devastating, with a certain amount of empathy allowed for both characters.

Fish Tank - Michael Fassbender
Fish Tank - Michael Fassbender


This is Andrea Arnold’s second feature film that has again earned her the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film festival in 2009. Her debut film, ‘Red Road’ from 2006 also gained the same title. After 'Fish Tank' won the British Independent Film Award for Best Director of a British Independent Film, her work has since been likened to established names such as Michael Haneke and Lars von Trier.

It could be ascertained that the title is a metaphor for the way Mia feels helplessly confined in an environment where she just goes around and around with no chance of escape. While it sounds like this is a dismal tale, the blazing English sun adds some lightness interlinked with some humour. As with other films in the social realism vein, Fish Tank doesn’t conclude with a neat, mushy decision. All ends aren’t tightly tied up and the characters don’t morph into someone completely different. It deftly shows highlights how unexpectedly vulnerable the seemingly bolshy and aggressive teenagers who live in these housing estates can be.


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Sex and the City 2

June 7th 2010 09:18
Sex and the City 2
Sex and the City 2

I received the dreaded email the other day: ‘Your Orble blog is inactive’. Fair dues, I understand where they’re coming from. Since creating and sustaining a human life, my beloved blog has been deserted. And Orble has been very understanding and I'm grateful. Every few weeks, I make a silent vow to make time and sit and write my reviews...but somehow it just doesn’t happen. Outsiders might think that my life is one great big tea session with the odd load of washing to do, but nope, it’s busy. It’s a scramble in-between naps, nappies, feeds, food and housework to do other non-baby related things. But, on a quiet aside, my muffin consumption has risen in the last year or so...but surely that’s understandable.

Anywho, back to Movies and Life. Yes, I do still see films. But definitely not anywhere near as many as I used to. And I have far less time to sit and absorb the film now. That portion of my life has definitely reduced. And as I might’ve mentioned in an earlier post, my taste was really dubious at one stage...Yes I admit it, I saw...and enjoyed crap. So this leads me to my recent film adventure. Sex and the City 2. Yes, I paid money to see it at the cinema. There were extenuating circumstances, but in all honesty, it was my choice. I went in with my proverbial eyeballs wide open. I knew it was likely to be rotten, tripe even. I was right; it was tripe to the power of four. It was off the tripe-o-meter. It was an appalling, dismal, over clichéd, over-dressed, designer-clad pantomime.

The plot had encouraging glimpses of potential which unfortunately were glossed over in disappointing Hollywood style: Carrie is unnerved by Big's new zeal for comfy dining-in and watching television in bed, Miranda is being bullied by her chauvinistic boss and Charlotte is exhausted by motherhood and worried about her husband being attracted to their strangely bra-less nanny. These plots are skimmed over, without much depth or imagination. They lack the grittiness and insight that made the program what it was.

Desert scene - Sex and the City 2

I’m not going to dissect the film and explain which bits might’ve worked and those that didn’t. I’m sure you’ve read at least one review. Rather, I’m going to tell you about a scene that I’m worried I will never recover from seeing: Liza Minelli’s rendition of Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it)’. I’ll let the clip do the talking...and remember as I saw on the big screen, its impact was even more disturbing.

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Micmacs

April 8th 2010 22:32
Micmacs


I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a film like Micmacs which makes it quite a challenge to write some type of a review. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s past films Amelie, A Very Long Engagement and Delicatessen all have a familiar directorial flair for the non-conventional. Amelie is the most successful French-speaking film of all time, yet conversely, Jenuet’s foray into Hollywood, Alien Resurrection (1997) was considered a dismal flop. With Micmacs, Jeunet is back at home in France with his quirky, idiosyncratic tale of a group of social misfits who find a home together. Protagonist, Bazil played by Dany Boon is a hugely popular comedian in France and is best known as the writer-director and co-star of the comedy Welcome to the Sticks (2008).

Bazil (Dany Boon) has a bullet lodged in his head that could kill him at any time so he decides to live like he has nothing to lose and indeed he has seemingly little. Both his parents are dead, he’s homeless and jobless. Hence, these factors are part of his motivation to bring down the corporations responsible not only for his father's death but for his own tremulous situation.

Bazil falls into his new home, a steel cave beneath a junkyard. It is already inhabited by a circle of eccentric societal misfits, mothered by Tambouille. The residents are best summarised as circus performers without a ring – each has a special talent: there's a human calculator, a contortionist, a human cannonball (played by Jeunet regular Dominique Pinon) and an ethnographer who communicates solely with proverbs. After Bazil discovers the identity of the Parisian company who made the bullet and he determines to affect revenge with his talented, batty gang of affable oddballs.

Micmacs - Jeunet


Micmacs


Jeunet’s world is full of magical schemes which consider some of the bewildering mysteries of life all said with Jeunet’s usual panache and exuberance for life and non-conformity: is it better to live with a bullet housed in your head or have it removed? Is a zebra white with black stripes or black with white stripes? And how can you fit a woman fit inside a refrigerator?

Micmacs - Jeunet


And what does the title mean? Well, apparently it lacks an exact English equivalent, but its loose translations move between, ‘a mixture,’ and, ‘shenanigans’. Its original French title is actually Micmacs à tire-larigot, meaning, ‘Non-stop madness'. It doesn’t matter which title is used, both are indeed apt.

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Dedicated method actors

February 22nd 2010 09:32
Method acting, or as it is sometimes known, the Method is a technique where actors rely on using their own emotions for a role. It is believed to be one of the most difficult techniques to learn as there are no technical forms or lessons that can be practised to learn it. The initial approach is to recall a past experience and immerse oneself in the emotion of that experience so as to apply it to the scene presently being undertaken. Thus, this creates a new depth to a part.

The method is thought to have revolutionised acting as we know it today. It is often perceived as the antithesis of the ‘wooden actor’ by using techniques such as sense and memory to achieve realism in acting. Actors often also use vocal intonation or facial expressions to add authenticity. Alternatively, some actors choose to use their imagination to get into the mind of the character and adopt the emotions that the character would have. In both of these approaches, actors can harness real emotions in portraying their characters


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Festive wishes

December 24th 2009 22:28
Festive lights


Even though I haven’t been around much this year, I still want to wish everyone a Happy Christmas. I’ve been more of a voyeur around Orble than a participant lately, but I’m aiming to change that in the New Year


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The Welsh Connection

November 9th 2009 06:45


It occurred to me earlier that one aspect of my life I only intermittently embrace is my half-Welshness. And why is that? Perhaps it’s something to do with their comedic lilting accent or society’s obsession to connecting them with sheep. Or perhaps it’s the robust urban myth that Welshies are a bit dim? I’m not sure, but I do know there are some good bits that are often not noticed such as, Welsh cakes, serene countryside, strong rugby skills and their ability to create and use a language without vowels and much spitting


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My life of verbs

September 10th 2009 21:42
My life of verbs - Tracy

Well, it’s happened, I’ve given birth, I’m now a mum. Well, if you want to be technical I was one for nine months but I think you might know what I mean. Tracy Junior popped out on the 28th July at 6.55am. The labour was arduous, slightly traumatic but worth it. Our boy is gorgeous, healthy and cheeky. For the sake of internet security, I think we’ll call him LJ.

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The other bits

July 16th 2009 23:32
Love and hands

Yes, I’m still burbling away but this time I decided I should balance my grumblings and tell you the parts of the pregnancy ladder I will never forget:

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Pregnancy fun

July 12th 2009 21:52
Feet and sunshine

I’ve been on Matted Leave for three weeks now and only have less than a fortnight to go and while pregnancy has been a brilliant experience, there are a few things I know I won’t miss:

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The mandala of life


1. ‘You know that you can’t have sex at all while you’re pregnant, don’t you?’ Week 6


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