CONSUMERS FOR CHRIST!

I hope you had a good Christmas, I know I did. I'm overdosing on the Xmas TV schedule to begin with - it seems someone has aquired the rights to Studio Ghibli's entire back catalogue. Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa and Castle Caliostro are all on later this week - and Porco Rosso was on last week. And in a fest of Santa Clauses, Miracle on 34th Streets and Great Escapes, I'm lapping up the non-festive fare. Particularly excited to record Oldboy and Sexy Beast on Christmas Eve...even more excited now I've seen said Sexy Beast, which is great - a Scorcesefied, slightly surreal Brit gangster flick about a retired Ray Winstone lazing around in Spain, until an extremely nasty Ben Kingsly turns up to get him on one last job. I'm gonna say it - there was a bit too much swearing. Yes, I know these are nasty people, but we didn't really need to hear the C word used so often or with such enthusiasm. It wasn't even that it was out of context - they needed to establish Don Logan as the second most unpleasant person in the history of the world, straight after Archie from Rob Roy. Still, it didn't sound convincing...apart from that, though, the acting was amazing, the use of music perfect and as Goodfellas as it gets this side of, er, Goodfellas...and the direction really interesting. And Don Logan was still a great character. A creeping nastiness that everyone can relate to - the house guest who overstays their welcome and won't take no for an answer.)





GIFT ROUNDUP:

• the Kinski/Herzog boxed set. OH YEAH! Aguirre: Wrath of God, Nosferatu, Fitzcarraldo, the documentary My Best Fiend along with another one beginning with W and spelt in foreign. I am happily retiring Warner Herzog as my favourite director whose films I've never seen - goodness knows who will take his place.


• Blade Runner:Final Cut - well, my parents decided not to shell out for the limited edition briefcase, which is fair enough. What I got was the bog standard tin - four different versions of the film, and a


• Curse of the Golden Flower - this is gonna look pretty on the new big TV, regardless of what Empire said about it as an actual piece of cinema.


• A Grindhouse wallet! Yes, an unecessary piece of merchandise for a film I STILL haven't seen yet. But boyo is it cool.
• A History of Violence
• The Res Dogs action figures! Messrs Orange, White, Pink, Brown and Blonde carved in insanely lifelike replica, along with sunglasses, firearms, and a can of gasoline...accordingly, I have taken my sister's rabbit hostage, then her Zeemoog, then her poseable Jack-from-Lost hostage. We also managed to kidnap Friend 5's rabbit when she was out of the room for a looong time. We got as far as wrapping paper blood pools, Christmas hat gags and an ipod-speakers version of Said Tune before she returned, and we scrambled the incriminating evidence behind cushions...I do have photos though...

Speaking of ears, if you treasure yours at all, then hotfoot to the official Youth Without Youth website, where the whole soundtrack can be devoured. Isn't it lovely? it swings between mysterious and delicate, to full blown romance. Quite a lot like swiming in a pool of honey and windchimes.

I've spent most of this morning being excited about said film. Check out the trailer - now I'm excited. it has to be good, because it's already demonstrated the two things which make up 2/3 of a film's quality. The first is cinematography or, to be specific, the colour scheme. Did you see all that gold?! I love gold films! It's right up there with sepia and brown. What, you thought I liked Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for redefining the Western genre? Nope, it's the colours all the way.

The second was the soundtrack. Films often use other music in their own trailers (think the exciting use of Requiem for a Dream in the ace Two Towers trailer), but the tune here has really pipped my interest. I don't know what it is, but it sounds like James Newton Howard, a.k.a. the only reason I love The Village. I was kidding about BCSK above - there are a hundred reasons I adore it - but here I'm virtually serious. Seconds into that trailer, piano music like rain starts - perhaps it's the doctor telling him his survival is amazing utting Unbreakable in my head? Whatever it is, it has my attention undivided. And even if this music is from elsewhere, we've already established that the actual soundtrack is good enough.

Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3I1oZZQyUA

There are also five clips, but I'm not going to watch them...

PS - observation about Beetlejuice. The title character's name is actually spelt like the star, Betelgeuse. Somewhere in the production process, they decided that calling it "Betelgeuse" was going to cause endless spelling and pronunciation problems, so went for Beetlejuice instead. Odd, eh?

PPS I have finished my

PPPS - today's post title comes from a banner held by a Salvation-Army-style parade, in my favourite Christmas film Brazil...