Danton’s Death

I watched a feature the other day about this — it was an interview with the cinematographer. He explained that Clarke wanted to use very long lenses for this one, so everything is filmed from across the room.

Sounds logical.

So… this is about the French revolution — Robespierre is apparently launching a crusade against people behaving immorally. Danton is part of the revolution, but not pure enough? So this piece is mostly the two characters speechifying against each other (to respective friends etc).

Nothing much is explained — I think it’s assumed that you already know how the French revolution happened in some detail.

Ian Richardson isn’t just chewing the scenery here — he’s chewing the entire arrondissement.

But it suits the role.

But I have to say that I find this a crushing bore. And I usually like this sort of thing — it’s filmed theatre, so the bombast is part of the charm. But this is just so… it’s all caricatures, and we’re meant to pelt Robespierre with tomatoes.

And I don’t have any here!

The bits where they talk directly to the camera work well.

Wanamaker is great in this.

I found myself starting to read the article on Robespierre while watching this, just to understand what was going on — because it’s not a very didactic piece at all. So, that’s not an ideal way to watch this, and perhaps it’s awesome and stuff.

But I don’t think so.

Danton’s Death. Alan Clarke. 1978. ⚂

A Follower for Emily

This is very contemporary! It’s about an influencer?

These restored TV shows have an interesting visual thing going on — everything’s been over-sharpened (probably because one of the generations is on video tape), so there’s these pre-shadows and post-shadows on all the sharp angles…

I really thought I’d got further than 1974 in this box set…

Yes, I’ve fired up the Dissent & Disruption box set again.

So this is another movie set in a retirement home… it feels like Clarke was specialising in doing TV shows about institutions? Jails, hospitals, boarding schools…

This one feels very artificial. Like it’s written by somebody who’s never actually been around an old person.

This is kinda similar to the previous one about insane asylums… there doesn’t seem to be much of a traditional plot here, but instead we just drop in on these various characters apparently at random…

I mean…

Brown sauce!

None of these lines are believable. It’s incredible. It’s like an eighteen-year-old was tasked with writing a play about old people.

But Brian Clark was born in 1932, so he was over 40 when he wrote this.

You’d think a programme about an institution like this would be A Harrowing Portrait Of A Horrible Place, but no — like the one about the insane asylum, it shows the place as being pretty nice: Well-run by well-intentioned people.

Heh, he just said the thing I was typing up there.

I quite liked this one. It’s so straightforward and undramatic that you think it’s going to be about… something, but then it’s not.

A Follower for Emily. Alan Clarke. 1974. ⚃

Thank God It’s Friday

I don’t quite recall how I came to buy this movie. I think it’s either because somebody said that it was the worst movie ever made, or somebody was interviewed in The Wire and said that they liked it even though everybody thinks it’s the worst movie ever made.

That sounds like something I’d respond to. A challenge!

So here we are.

But this is a 2K remaster, so it can’t be that disliked, so perhaps I totally misremember.

Hey! It’s him!

Heh heh.

The humour is very broad. It’s basically a series of under-developed skits about these characters we’re following — two dozen of them — in this discotheque.

The musical choices are confusing. There’s a few recognisable hits, like From Here To Eternity by Giorgio Moroder, but there’s mostly just a bed of “generic string disco” going on beneath all the gags.

Hey, is that Donna Summer!?

That’s the speaker I want in my living room.

OK, the music is getting better now.

Heh heh. From the director of Weekend at Bernie’s II.

He’s written some other movies, but nobody let him direct another movie for fifteen years after this one.

I can totally see what they’re going for. The script for this movie is a totally zany thing where you spend a couple minutes with each group of people, and zany, funny stuff is going on, and it all builds to a totally hilarious movie.

But it’s just directed and edited so ineptly — there’s no comedic timing, and there’s no feeling of that escalating madness this thing needs.

Instead things constantly devolve into this sort of scene where all sense of urgency is missing.

You can see why they’d think he’d be good for the Weekend at Bernie’s sequel.

By any reasonable estimation, this is a ⚀ movie. But… it’s like… I kinda enjoyed this? It’s like the movie has good bones? It looks good, and some of the performances are fun, and there’s some good jokes. It’s just so horribly directed! It’s embarrassing! It’s not good!

But still. I’m not going to be reasonable. I was kinda fascinated by how much of a train wreck it is. It’s charming in that way.

Thank God It’s Friday. Robert Klane. 1978. ⚃