My Week in Film #8

The Motorcycle Diaries is my girlfriend Lauren’s favourite film, which she showed me last Saturday night. The film is the true story of two young doctors, Ernesto “Che” Guevara and companion Alberto Granado (played by Gael García Bernal and Rodrigo De la Serna respectively) and the journey they undertake through South America, en route to a leper colony. The Motorcycle Diaries is by turns breath-taking and humorous as the two protagonists beg, borrow and steal food, shelter and transportation as their dilapidated motorbike, inappropriately named The Mighty One, becomes steadily more ramshackle as they take in more and more of the gorgeously imposing countryside and its inhabitants.

The film’s greatest asset is its subtly employed social conscious. It serves as a kind of origin story for Ernesto and we see how the naive medical student would become the infamous revolutionary through his encounters with marginalised members of South American society. Crucially though, the film never approaches preachy-ness and social tragedy is more inferred than overstated. The film treats its audience as adults and is all the better for it.

Other notable aspects of the film are Gustavo Santaolalla’s soundtrack, which both stirs and excites, and decidedly old school photography, appropriate to the mid-twentieth century setting. Some may find The Motorcycle Diaries a little slow, compared to your average ADHD Hollywood action thriller, but the film is good, honest film-making, that should no doubt entertain, inform and possibly even inspire.

Tuesday 21^st of April was, unofficially, Iron Maiden Day. Across the globe, cinemas in hundreds of cities made one showing and one showing only of Iron Maiden: Flight 666, a documentary (or rockumentary, if you will – one very small cookie up for grabs) detailing the heavy metal band’s recent Somewhere Back in Time Tour, which, to repeat the oft quoted tagline in the film comprised of “23 sold out stadium and arena shows in 13 countries in just 45 days, travelling 70,000km and performing to almost half a million fans”. The film was directed by Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen, the duo behind the celebrated Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey documentary. The band travelled in the environmentally questionable fashion of flying their own jumbo jet, piloted by lead singer Bruce Dickinson. The footage of the band arriving at hotels, flying, golfing and meeting unnervingly rabid fans (the Chileans and the Costa Ricans being the most scarily obsessed) is interspersed with predictably top-notch live performances of classics from their mid-eighties heyday, the theme of the tour (unfortunately the Greenwhich Odeon had some really quite appalling technical difficulties with the surround sound which significantly neutered the live footage for our showing).

As a somewhat lapsed fan of the band, I was dubious to the appeal of the film. Unfortunately, my doubts were not entirely unfounded. As an owner of the rest of Iron Maiden’s filmic output, I didn’t find Flight 666 to be particularly insightful, certainly no more so than Rock in Rio (in particular its extra features) or the excellent History of Iron Maiden series and would have preferred a more significant amount of the run time devoted to concert footage (though for a documentary there was a pretty darn generous amount). The problem, for me at least, is that Flight 666 is neither a pure, in-depth documentary, nor a concert film; either of which would have been preferable to me. However, as Dickinson keenly points out, the Somewhere Back in Time tour was for the new fans (not a cash-in on their most popular period, apparently) and the same is probably true of the accompanying film. Don’t, however, watch this if you have no interest in Iron Maiden at all: I was graciously accompanied by a long-suffering Lauren, who was nearly bored to tears.

Finally, last night I saw the much-hyped Let the Right One In (Låt den Rätte Komma In in the original Swedish) at the Greenwhich Picturehouse. First a word about the cinema – it was probably the nicest one I’ve ever seen a film in (I did go to an even plusher one once, but didn’t actually see a film; I was part of a studio audience). Two words – reclining seats. For the benefit of regular readers, there is a Picturehouse in York, if it’s anything like the one in Greenwhich, I urge you to go.

Let the Right One In is the story of a bullied young boy, Oskar, who befriends what seems to be a twelve year old girl called Eli. Eli, however is a vampire and responsible for numerous violent deaths in the small town in which they live. Let the Right One In is striking in many ways. Firstly, it is beautifully shot: dark, cold and sparse and yet intimate and compelling. Scenery, whether natural or man-made, expansive or claustrophobic is brought wonderfully to screen, each shot composed with the precision of a fine artist. Secondly, the two young leads and their adult supporting cast are uniformly excellent.

Much has been made of the genre blending and bending in this film and rightly so. Elements of the horror and romantic traditions are skewed and hybridised to great effect, making the film stand out as a highly original piece of work. Finally, plaudits are in order to director Tomas Alfredson for the perfectly pitched tone, which is seriously creepy, distinctly eerie and terrifyingly tense whilst also being superlatively sweet and often heart-breaking, sometimes all at once.

My only criticism is that occasionally the hauntingly beautiful orchestral soundtrack comes across as being rather OTT, especially given the introspective and quiet nature of the film. Other than that, I would urge you to catch this film while you can, as I doubt it will be playing for very long. I would doubt that you will see a film anytime soon that, in spite of its brutal grimness, will uplift you in quite such a profound way. Also, watch out for Harvey Dent’s cameo!