The Canal

Just to mess with your heads, I watched a movie from 2014.

Just kidding, I watched it because I came across a scene and looked it up. Because it seemed interesting, I watched:

The Canal (2014)

The Canal is an Irish/UK production and is written and directed by Ivan Kavanagh. It stars Rupert Evans as David, a film archivist. His wife Alice is played by Hannah Hoekstra and their babysitter is played by Kelly Byrne, amongst others.

According to the official cover blurb we know that David and Alice movie into an old house. Five years later their son, Billy is in kindergarten and David gets an old film reel from 1902(?). It shows that a man who lived in their house murdered his wife for infidelity and later on also killed his children and their nanny. David soon suspects that Alice is having an affair and horror starts to happen. Oh yeah, it is a low budget horror movie.

Mind you this is all from the cover of the movie so technically it's not a spoiler. I'll try not to spoil anything else, so I'll keep this short and vague.

David sees a ghost and is convinced it is behind all the bad things that happen. He struggles with trying to prove the existence of the ghost while also keeping his sanity intact. How successful he is remains to be decided by the viewer. You see, The Canal is one of those “Could be supernatural – Could be mundane” movies. Ultimately either could be true, but there is a scene or two that put me on the side of the supernatural. Your experience and opinion may be different.

All in all, The Canal is a mixed bag for me. Countless other movies have played with the tropes that makes up the story and often done so better. Not that The Canal is bad, far from it, but it isn't all that original either for the most part. Even the title is a mixed issue. The canal itself is important, but the movie could also be titled The House and it would be equally correct.

Speaking as a long term horror aficionado, half the scares weren't scary. You can see them coming a mile off. Of the remaining half, most other scares are solid and a few were quite good. The actors are all good though. I have no complaints there, not even with Billy's actor, Calum Heath. The story wouldn't work without him and he isn't even annoying as so many kids are in horror.

The cinematography is nice and solid. Not groundbreaking in my opinion, but still good enough. In a way that is the main verdict of The Canal – Good enough.

The biggest problem really, is that everything happens so fast you have very little time to get to know the characters before you need to either feel sympathy or disdain. You don't get that time, but then again that also means that the movie doesn't drag on. Some call it a slow burn but I have to disagree, it's not slow it is paced.

So do I recommend this movie? Usually I say yes if you are a fan of the genre or something like that. This time I have to say yes, if you don't watch a lot of horror. I found it pleasant but bland, but a non-horror aficionado might find it quite scary. So if you want a spooky evening, give it a shot. Just make sure your parents are out of the room by the time you get to the end or it can get a bit embarrassing. Enough said.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

The Big Sleep

I took my second step into film noir a couple of days ago. I watched another Humphrey Bogart movie, this time:

The Big Sleep (1946).

Directed by Howard Hawks and also starring Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely and Martha Vickers amongst others, The Big Sleep is an archetype for the noir genre, just as much if not more than The Maltese Falcon. Both were instrumental in cementing certain tropes since both were based on novels by some of the biggest names in the detective fiction of the time.

In The Big Sleep, Bogart plays private eye, Philip Marlowe (as opposed to Sam Spade in the Falcon). He is hired by a retired general Sternwood to handle a blackmail case. In the process he meets the generals two daughters, the beautiful but impossible Carmen and her dangerous older sister Vivian (Bacall). The case leads in several directions at once, with murders, beatings, shoot outs and romance. As usual, I won't spoil anything further, but this is not a dull movie by any means.

The actors are great, especially Bogart and Bacall. Bogart was drinking heavily at the time and the studio had to cap his intake to one beer at lunch. Still, he produces quality acting throughout. Marlowe is cheeky, cocky and calm as a cucumber. At least most of the time.

Bacall is elegant and seductive throughout. Even when in mortal peril she keeps it together, but not without subtle hints that Vivian really is scared.

The plot is good, but a bit too complicated. There were times when I lost track a bit, since the cast is pretty big and names are tossed about at a rapid-fire pace. Everything is explained in the end, but I did have to read a synopsis to make sure I understood it correctly. There are layers within layers and the storytelling could have been a little bit smoother. It is by no means a deal breaker, just an observation.

 

Fun fact: When Marlowe meets both daughters, both comment on his lack of height, like this;

Carmen Sternwood: You're not very tall, are you?

Philip Marlowe: Well, I, uh, I tried to be.

And

Vivian: So you're a private detective? I didn't know they existed, except in books, or else they were greasy little men snooping around hotel corridors. My, you're a mess, aren't you?

Philip Marlowe: I'm not very tall either. Next time I'll come on stilts, wear a white tie and carry a tennis racket.

Vivian: I doubt if even that would help.

This was because Bogart wore platform shoes to make him noticeably taller than the ladies and they couldn't help poke a little fun at it.

Another fun fact is that Marlowe comments several times that Vivian is shaking. She brushes it off every time with excuses like “I'm not used to being kidnapped”. In truth, Bogart and Bacall were having an affair and her nerves were worn thin not knowing whether he would leave his wife for her, making her shake in real life. In the end they did, and they stayed married until his death in 1957. Bacall carried on and passed in 2014.

Final fun fact. The Warner Bros. executives were so impressed with Bacall that even though this was only her fourth movie, they increased her salary from $350/week to $1000/week. How often does something like that happen?

So do I recommend this movie? Absolutely! It is a quintessential film noir as well as a great detective/mystery in general. As with The Maltese Falcon, you should absolutely watch it unless black and white really annoys you.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

An unusual black bird

 I decided to venture into a movie genre I'm not terribly familiar with, the film noir genre.

I haven't seen very many film noir, so as I tend to do, I consulted a couple of top list. However I found myself a bit annoyed by them and quickly realized that I subconsciously wanted the list to place The Maltese Falcon at the top. So I ditched the lists and just sat down to enjoy this classic.

The Maltese Falcon (1941) is not the first film version of the novel by Dashiell Hammet, but it is the best known. It was the directorial debut by the now legendary John Huston and stars Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and others.

The first five minutes were a bit of a shock to me. I genuinely wondered what I was getting myself into, but this lasted only until my brain adjusted. The Maltese Falcon is not the oldest movie I have seen, I believe Nosferatu (1922) holds that distinction, but the way films were made back in the 40's is rather different that how they were made later on. Everything is a stage, there are no natural scenes, and it shows. It feels more stiff and formal, more like a play than a movie, but once I acclimatized to it I started to enjoy myself.

The Maltese Falcon is in pretty much every way the archetype of the noir genre. The private detective (Bogart), the damsel in distress with skeletons in her closet (Astor), the shady dealer (Lorre), the tough cops, desperate gunman etc, it is all here, and it is done well.

It is hard to know when a movie is too old to spoil. At what point are you released from the responsibility to keep silent? I don't know, but I'm not going to spoil the plot, I'll only say that there is an incredibly valuable statue, the falcon, and that everyone wants it. Trouble and tribulations follow. This is very much a case of the journey being more important than the destination, not that the destination isn't important. The acting is superb once you get a hang of the style. Like on a stage, there is a tendency towards over acting, but it's just the style of the time. The movie does a lot of close-ups on the faces which places a demand on the actors to perform with expressions and they deliver, but the real gold comes from the cinematography.

The camera work is truly excellent. Huston created an incredible tension is scene after scene with very little to work with. Between the acting and Huston's technique, you get some truly suspenseful scenes, that any modern movie would be hard pressed to equal let alone surpass.

The dialogue is amazing. Rapid fire wit in scene after scene that puts many comedies to shame and this is far from a comedy to begin with.

Praise aside, The Falcon has some problems. All I could find in the way of continuity is a continuity clerk, not a whole department to keep track of things. Example: when Bogart punches out Lorre, Lorre's tie changes between from when the punch starts and he passes out. Small things like that are littered around. What really stood out to me was the opening scrawl. It explains that "In 1539, the Knight Templars of Malta, paid tribute to Charles V of Spain, by sending him a Golden Falcon..." The leaders of the Knights Templar were arrested in 1307 and the order was disbanded in 1312... It is possible they were thinking of another order of knights or that they simply didn't give a damn. Either way, it is pretty silly.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes, absolutely. Unless you are allergic to old black and white movies, you really should watch The Maltese Falcon if you haven't done so already. I had blast and I'm looking forward to getting to know the film noir genre better.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great and safe week!

Viva La Dirt League

I have something different for you today. Browsing on Reddit, I tripped over a link to the Youtube channel Viva La Dirt League. They are a bunch of gamers from New Zealand that make comedy sketches about games and gamers. 

Games and the people who play them tend to fall into certain patterns. Idiosyncrasies, if you will. A kind of logic that can be incredibly specific. Viva La Dirt League are very good at bringing these things forward in such a manner that you can't help but laugh at them. If you have ever played a game like an MMO or fantasy games in general you will undoubtedly recognize what is going on.

It isn't just fantasy either. The have sketches about PUBG, Tarkov, Red Dead and more. I myself have mostly been watching the series Epic NPC Man, with sketches ranging from 1-5 minutes. I'll embed a few below.

Here is the link to their channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/VivaLaDirtLeague/videos

And here is the NPC man list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbJ51AJuR7E&list=PLSMETuURtTXCzW7Q_ZIy4QzEnyUG8totf&ab_channel=VivaLaDirtLeague

And that is really it. I urge you to give it a chance, I myself can't get enough. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!