So, we've been catching up on our LoveFilm flicks in the past week. First up, Tell No One, a taut French thriller that was enjoyably twisty and turny. While fairly grim, it had some light-hearted moments set on and around various Parisian housing estates. Equally grim but considerably more bloody was A History of Violence. This was an excellent companion piece to Eastern Promises, which we saw last year: In AHOV, Viggo Mortensen plays [spoiler alert] a bad man gone good, while in EP he was [spoiler alert] a good man who's possibly gone bad. Of course, Cronenberg delights in making the audience complicit in the violence; it's impossible not to (silently) cheer when the son in AHOV beats the bullying jock to a pulp in a hallway brawl, while being impressed at Viggo's throat-stomping antics in Philadelphia. And Viggo was just great in both, making the most of underwritten roles.
Last night I got to watch The Company of Wolves as part of the film course. Despite being a child of the 80s, I'd not seen this before. All I knew about it going in was that it was based on Angela Carter's stories and featured a naked Danielle Dax. While a little long-winded in parts, I enjoyed the fairy-tale pastiche design and the class conflicts outlined within; the wedding story with the rapacious aristos turning into wolves was probably the best in the whole film. And the special effects were pretty good for a 23-year-old film. I can safely say it will probably be more enjoyable than The Curse of Frankenstein, which is also on the agenda for later in the term.
Yet to see: No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. Neither look like they contain many laughs, though.
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