One Ugly Duckling Hoping To See A Black Swan

I know, this is one trailer that’s been doing the circuit for a long time. Way too long. It’s almost as bad as when I was in America and I went to see Transformers. They showed the teaser trailer for Cloverfield at the beginning, and after getting all hyped up and excited about it, like a giddy school-girl does when she hears a boy fancies her, I was dumb-struck when I found out I had a year-long wait. They seem to be doing this more and more. I understand you need to get people interested in advance, but surely, a whole year is way, way too long. Way.

Anyway Black Swan is my new lust-after movie. I’m desperate to see it. I stumbled onto Dan Aronofsky a couple of years back. Skimming through my Sky channels, I noticed Requiem For A Dream had been on for just a couple of minutes. There and then I decided to tune in. About 2 hours later I sat, staring silently at the T.V. I had cried so much I was clutching an empty toilet paper roll. The film actually blew my mind apart. I spent the rest of the night trying to digest what I’d seen, and then I decided I would never watch it again. After that I developed a curiosity with the director and I proceeded to watch The Fountain. Another film that, whilst it didn’t have quite the same still-shock effect, was so interesting and beautiful I was mesmerized. Then of course The Wrestler, which I would say is probably his most mainstream film to date (anyone else noticed he’s going to be directed Wolverine 2?), but it was fantastic. What a great performance by Mickey Rourke eh? I’ve still got to watch Pi, but don’t you worry yourself over it, it’s on the list. Chillax.

But Black Swan is currently plaguing my mind; its feathers are tentatively tickling my film fancies. I’m hoping against hope to get last-minute tickets for the London Film Festival Gala Screening, but I don’t think many people will change their minds about going. It’s going to be huge. Nevertheless, I shall continue to click refresh on the BFI LFF homepage just in case. Yes you may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one… *thanks goes to John Lennon*

Here’s the trailer if you’ve been in space circling the planet for the last 4-6 months and haven’t managed to catch it yet. It’s going to be hella good.

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• Toronto: Taking a twirl with Black Swan (timeoutny.com)
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• International ‘Black Swan’ Posters (slashfilm.com)

Love Sucks in Let Me In

 

Cover of Let The Right One In

 

The Gala Screening of Let Me In, the Hollywood version of the breathtaking Swedish film Let the Right One In (or Låt den rätte komma in), both adapted from a book by the same name, is screening tonight at the London Film Festival.

As always when it comes to American adaptations of foreign language films, I am in two minds about whether it’s a) necessary b) justified and c) worth going to see. From all the reviews I’ve read a pattern is emerging that says, in one way or another, that the American version lacks the delicacy and nuances of the original. In general, I feel (as I know many others do) this is a trend for the typical ‘Hollywood’ foreign film remake. I can completely understand the reasons why someone wouldn’t like watching a subtitled or even dubbed movie. Subtitles can distract us from the visuals of the movie, and dubbing, well in most cases, it just doesn’t look down right bad. When does a mouth moving in a different direction to the words behind said not look scary awkward? One of the problems with these remakes though is that sometimes they feel like things have to be spelt out for the audience, and rarely is that a formula for success, in critic land anyway. Then again, are these movies made for critics or plainly to make a profit? I’d settle on the latter.

Interestingly this movie comes by the way of the revitalised Hammer Films, so one thing that we can expect, different from the original film, is blood. Bucket loads of it.

I’m going to be headed to the Film Festival tomorrow – winging my way up there to see which tickets I can grab at the last-minute. My fingers are tightly crossed for Never Let Me Go. But this baby comes a close second.

Let’s do a little cross-examination of trailers…

Let the Right One In >>>

Spooky music? Check. Creepy Swedish Kids? Check. Jumpy moments? Check.

And Let Me In >>>

Spooky music? More discotheque. Creepy Kids? More familiar, rather famous faces. Jumpy moments? Hmmm not really.

One thing I did notice from watching these trailers back to back is that the new movie takes a lot of visuals from the old. Could this be called creatively stealing? Or could you call it an homage? To me, there’s just something not right about a 2008 movie being remade two years later using exactly the same shots as the original… I hope it brings something more to the table rather than just adding extra red gooey stuff. I’m definitely out on this one.

Related Articles

• [Movies] Let The Right One In / Låt den rätte komma in (2008) (geeky-guide.com)
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The Woman In Black on the big screen?

 

Image via Wikipedia

 

Filming has started in Layer Marney Tower (near Colchester, one of my favourite towns) for the Woman In Black. I went to see the production of this in Brighton at the start of the year. Having never been to see a horror play before I was extremely blasé about the scare factor. Urrrr how can a play make me scared? It’s live, I can’t imagine jumping in a theatre. How wrong I was. For the first time in my life, and even as a regular horror movie watcher, I screamed out loud. In an involuntary and blood-curdling way. At least I wasn’t the only one screaming, the whole theatre was freaked out by the ghostly apparition that seemed to pop out of nowhere on the stage. I’ll admit, in the beginning, I was a little bored, I just wasn’t feeling the tension. But as the play reached its climax, my heart was beating faster than a steel band playing ‘Ain’t Nobody’ (*Must be the Music reference*) and I confess, I was left a little bit breathless but with the adrenaline pumping.

This is one play that could definitely translate well into a movie. I see Woman In Black as an The Others kind of feature. There’s no blood or gore really, just the build up of tension and ghostly scares that make movies like this and Sixth Sense even, so gawd damn good.Daniel Radcliffe features as the young solicitor who is sent to a remote mansion to sort out a client’s affairs after their death and ends up getting more than just a lot of financial paperwork (which is surely scary enough). Constantly haunted by a woman dressed in seriously morbid attire, the story of the grisly ghost unravels with terrifying results. Interested? Well you’ve got a long wait, this film won’t be out for a long while. But you could always catch the play (it’s been running for an incredible 21 years!) to prepare yourself http://www.thewomaninblack.com – Here’s the trailer for the play. Spoooookkkkyyyyy.

I sincerely hope they do the horror justice.

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• Daniel Radcliffe pictured in The Woman in Black (telegraph.co.uk)