Sunday 13 February 2011

Black Narcissus/An Education

Nearly finished the list! Just editing out the duplications. Fortunately, I seem to own a good couple of hundred of the required films, but I feel I may be re-joining LoveFilm pretty soon, and learning how to set my VCR (yes, VCR, what's the weather like in the present?) for the random daytime gold that is Film4. I've also discovered the library of DVDs at the university my girlfriend attends, offering up to 3 rentals at a time, for free! Alas, she is only there for a few more months, so I'm going to be renting as many as I can whilst she's there.

Whilst forming the final list, I've managed to cross a few more off (not entirely sure how, as I've not actually printed it yet), namely Air Force One (there is never a time when I don't enjoy Harrison Ford kicking ass), Black Narcissus and An Education. Black Narcissus wasn't what I was expecting, as from what I'd read it was supposedly sexually charged, which I found strange considering it was about nuns setting up a new hospital/school in the mountains of 19th century India. Not to say it was a bad film, as the scenery was incredibly well shot, and the film dealt with some nice themes of faith, isolation and commitment to a cause. If anything, I'm now going to try and read as little as I can about the films before watching them.

This would also have proved useful for An Education, of which I had heard a lot of praise. I found the film enjoyable, but very predictable. Carey Mulligan, as the film's lead Jenny, performed very well, but I feel the film is stolen by her onscreen father, played by Alfred Molina. Bizarrely I had heard nothing of his role before watching, but watching him ascertaining the appropriateness of paying for someone else's petrol when they're treating him to dinner reassures of his existence as one of todays greatest character actors.
Black Narcissus Choose Life 4/10
An Education Choose Life 5/10

Turns out Air Force One wasn't on the list in the end, whoops, but Choose Film 6/10

No comments:

Post a Comment