DVDs
The Age
Thursday November 19, 2009
OverlordDV1, PGRating: 4/5THIS singular, engrossing film €” back in the public eye recently after a long period of neglect €” is a blend of fact and fiction, the archive and the imagination; a poignant, moving, often dreamlike depiction that is full of the texture of the everyday in time of war. Made in 1975 by American writer-director Stuart Cooper, it follows the story of a young British soldier training for the D-Day landing (code-named Overlord, hence the title). Cooper had access to the archives of the Imperial War Museum and this material inspired him to create the film. He has used the archival footage extensively and creatively, in ways that convey the directness of personal experience, ranging from the brutal to the banal. The fictional images and archival footage are combined gracefully and deftly. Cooper's research also gave him a chance to explore the diaries and letters of soldiers and this helped him convey the interior, private aspect of a quiet young man's path towards D-Day. The disc comes with several extras, including a director's commentary and interviews about the archives and the film's cinematographer.Three MonkeysAccent, MRating: 4/5TURKISH director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's slow-building, brooding, grimly beautiful film won the award for best director at the Cannes Film Festival this year. An aspiring politician is involved in a late-night hit-and-run accident. He persuades the man who usually acts as his driver to take the rap, offering him money if he will serve the short prison sentence in his stead. The film follows the consequences of this pact, focusing not, as you might expect, on the would-be politician but much more on the driver's family. There is film noir potential to the way the story plays out but Three Monkeys never feels genre-bound. Rather, the film unfolds with a mixture of coolness and intensity, a few surprises and moments of considerable ambiguity as the driver's wife and son €” and the repressed secrets of the family €” become caught up in the trade-off and its aftermath. There's a sense of claustrophobia to the film but also a feeling of distance. All the characters struggle to act, to assume responsibility, to take control, while Ceylan's camera seeks out disconcerting angles and suggestive images. The sound, too, is evocative and oppressive (and includes the inspired use of a mobile phone ringtone).
© 2009 The Age
