The Story of Droning by Mark 'Despair' Cousins
I knew it was all utter nonsense when Cousins interviews other pretentious arse head Lars Von Trier about Dryer and Von Trier stammers and dribbles through an utterly pointless and horribly shot interview segment saying 'I don't know why he's great but he is'. Oh well that's ok then Cousins.
At one point, while randomly and casually discussing the birth of documentaries, Cousins actually says "Seemingly they were only co-directors, the other director being life... itself"
Jesus!
Lastly the documentary is so utterly horrible to look at. Amazing clips are presented with no life to them, the interviews are unlit and discoloured giving them the look of 3 day old dried sick and the footage he took from around the world is bleak, too slow, shot on cheap video and unimaginative making the world a cold and ugly place to look at. The whole thing is accompanied by the dreariest music Cousins could find (probably from his own personal collection of Latvian dirges) that makes it have the feel of a 'help you quit smoking' hypnotic video from 1989.
How can you take an art form so full of innovation, creativity, life, excitement, message, propaganda and importance and reduce it to this droning, creaking, plodding, monotonous, opinionated and slanted 15 hours of tedium?!?
Some review on imdb described it like he was trying to hypnotise an otter. I can't beat that.
I imagine that a dinner round Cousins house takes place in a cold grey room, on a bare, rough table (because, you know, poverty and despair are "REAL"), while Russian funeral marches play on a small wind up, war time gramophone and the 7hr Eric Von Stroheim film Greed plays on a loop, projected on a blood stained sheet next to a bare window, while his wife sobs uncontrollably into the mash potatoes and Cousins drones on saying "These are the worst mashed potatoes so far in the story of Cousins, there's no cream, no butter, no taste and yet think again, look closer, the preparer has left the skins on, the skins are red. Maybe the red potato symbolises hope amongst this futile dinner time. Maybe it's just a potato. The server leaves it ambiguous and who am I to ask?"
It all makes you want to scream and say cheer up you miserable bastard!
If I manage to wade through any more I will let you know.
Twat.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams - 11th June 2011
I am still not sure, having not seen the 2D version, just how much the third dimension added to it but despite that it was a rich, intelligent, fascinating and detailed type of work the likes of which we rarely see anymore.
This is a documentary in the purest sense, as it is, quite simply, just a documentation of something. It just so happens that this 'something' is beyond valuable and utterly remarkable.
It has no axe to grind, no drum to beat, in typical Herzogin fashion, the Bavarian loony genius shows us something, offers up a couple of intriguing questions and moves on without long diatribes or half baked assumptions.
For those not in the know this is all about some 35,000 year old cave paintings in France and Herzog is the only person who has been allowed down there to film it for all to see and thank Zeus he has because I can't imagine anyone doing a better or slightly weirder job. From the people he chooses to interview to the questions he asks and the observations he makes, the whole thing is just a little off its axis in a charming, slightly nuts way.
The film throws up so many discussions your mind can barely contain them all and the more you think, the more you see the ramifications of these paintings. Questions of tribal behaviour being more observant and artistic than you'd expect, questions of religion, or at least some form of basic gathering/worship/celebration, questions on sex/gender and of course questions of evolution while the whole time it also balances the fact that the paintings shine a light on our self inflated sense of our own creativity and how, really, little we have creatively progressed in that vast chasm of time.
Herzog's use of simple cameras, a tiny crew and minimal lighting when he is down in the cave, is just hypnotic and don't worry he covers every inch he can with those cameras and towards the end of the film he does just let the images play out, utilising evocative music and simple but highly effective light play to transport you back 35,000 years with those questions still swirling in your head.
To hear me review this film in more depth, along with others, please listen to the third episode of my podcast:
Available to download now from http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/110745
and iTunes (just search 'after movie diner' in the podcasts section)
9 out of 10 Bavarian fruitcakes
Points from The Wife 9 out of 10
American: The Bill Hicks Story - 8th May 2011
No, actually I was wrong to say that, go and watch this - Bill Hicks - Relentless, which is Bill Hicks live in Montreal in 1991 (you gotta love YouTube) and possibly one of the greatest stand-up shows of all time and then maybe watch this documentary.
You see the problem is that it's too in-depth to be an introduction piece and not in-depth enough, in certain areas, for die hard fans. Unfortunately and I hate to say this but it doesn't even work like one of those documentary's, like the US Vs. John Lennon, where we reflect on the past to comment on the future, socially and politically. Considering the time, energy and effort obviously put into this documentary, not just by the film makers but by all the friends and family of Bill's who show up to be interviewed and open their archives, it's a wonder that the subject matter chosen is so mundane.
Let me start from the beginning. I am a Bill Hicks fan and was a huge Bill Hicks fan. As a teenager and then a young man I collected all of his CDs and whatever video footage was available, I have also read his unofficial biography, his official biography and his book of shows and interviews 'Love All the People' so I can accept that it would've been hard for this documentary to really show me something new.
That said there were a couple of tantalising stories in there, where there was some new information, but I guess what frustrated me was that those seemed rushed and unevolved as ideas. Yet stories about his, well documented, drug use and alcohol abuse, never ending, unappreciated road tour of small towns in the States and the other, well documented, fact that he was performing in comedy clubs since he was a teenager, were given a large amount of the running time to play out but at no point really got under the skin of the man.
The technique used for all this, a sort of long running, almost pythonesque, photo montage and animation, illustrating the stories in the interviews being given, was a novel and entertaining enough way to get passed the 'talking head' structure of documentary's like this, where footage of the actual subject was scarce, but when I sat down to watch it I had no idea it lasted almost the whole length of the film and it got quite annoying trying to work out who was talking, when and why because, sometimes there was no indication. Also, while you could debate back and forth which clips should be played where and why, very often the clips that were shown were, really, in the vaguest of contexts and with no commentary on them afterwards at all.
There was little to no talk about his actual upbringing or religion. There were constant references to his philosophy but normally in the most round-about and unspecific terms. There was nothing about his personal, female relationships. There was nothing about his attacks on Jay Leno and only a passing comment about being censored from Letterman. Only very loose and confusing references made to his illness, in the lead up to his death and no attempt to put any of his, subsequent, frantic amassing of work into any sort of timeline and in fact the whole last 3 years of his life, where his career was taking off in England, he was reconnecting with his family and friends, he headed back to Texas to record extensively for future albums and they made several films was also completely rushed and glossed over in an almost bizarrely crude and annoying way.
This maybe one of those where you need to get the DVD which apparently comes with hours and hours of extra footage because there must be a better documentary in all the access and interviews they got, there must be. I am just not sure who their editor or researcher was because for the area of Hicks' life that they did cover (the road most travelled unfortunately) the Channel 4 talking-heads doc that appears on the Revelations VHS and DVD is far better. In fact just in researching this review I have found better things to watch on YouTube.
Yes it is great that people are keeping Hicks' flame alive and yes it's fantastic this documentary got a theatrical release and all the subsequent attention it got but ultimately, if you are just watching the theatrical cut of this and not all the DVD extras, this is, unfortunately, not a must-see for anyone with a passing knowledge of Hicks. Watch it if you like, it's entertaining enough, some of the clips and photos are relatively fascinating and it's always great to hear the guys routines but if it's information and depth you're after, you are still best doing your own research.
5 out of 10 waffle hut waffles (I am not proud of it, I was hungry)