Patrick Keiller's 'London'

nomos

Administrator
there is! k-punk's done a review for sight & sound http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49663...

When we hear early on in the film that Robinson has made contact with a series of “non-human intelligences”, we initially suspect that he has finally succumbed to madness. Yet the “non-human intelligences” turn out to be not the extra-terrestrials of a florid pulp-science-fiction-inspired psychosis, but the intra-terrestrial life forms that an ecological awareness reveals growing with a silent stubbornness that matches the brute tenacity of capitalism... Lichen, Robinson comes to realise, is already the dominant life form on large areas of the planet.

it will be odd without paul scofield narrating but i like the sound of robinson's newfound biophilia

 

nomos

Administrator
It could've been there in 2005...? Whenever it was they did the rehang..
Nomos - PM me and i'll send you some stuff if you like

dammit! i just noticed this - 3 years later. my wife's been raving about driftwood - she saw it in toronto years back. are you still lurking glenister?
 

craner

Beast of Burden
The only thing I really like about this film is looking at the footage of early 90s London -- the cars and buildings and whatnot, people walking around without mobile phones or designer handbags, things like that. But then that's why I like old footage of anything. I don't see anything great in this "film" at all -- I reckon half of Dissensus could knock out something like it without too much trouble.

I love(d) Paul Scofield though -- that's an actor! Different league to Olivier and Jacobi and all the other lovey twats.
 

luka

Well-known member
like fuck could they you dopey cunt! read an interview with the man. he's incredibly lucid. or even better try and watch that shitty rip off vesion st ettienne made, cant remember what its called, jims got it. that will show you how well done kelliers is.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
You what? I have to read an interview with the director before I know if the film is any good? Get out of here!

Ponderous, precious, preening -- it's not your sort of thing at all, Luka.
 

connect_icut

Well-known member
You what? I have to read an interview with the director before I know if the film is any good? Get out of here!
Ponderous, precious, preening -- it's not your sort of thing at all, Luka.

My missus showed me London and Robinson in Space before I new anything about them. Viewing them completely unprepared, I was simply bowled over. They make an enormous amount of intuitive sense to me, on every level. They might be odd, challenging and a little willful sometimes, when compared to "proper" films but viewed in their own unique context, they make perfect sense - everything happens for a reason; everything works perfectly. Perhaps more importantly, I feel like these films are saying things that we all feel/know but that don't get expressed so eloquently in any other public forum (except, perhaps, some shadowy corners of the blogosphere).

And I've never even read an interview with Keiller!
 

luka

Well-known member
Ponderous, precious, preening
im used to you saying idiotic things, its pretty much your rasins dettre but this is so wrong headed im almost speechless.
he has a very light touch, very self-aware, playful, the questions he addresses are fascinating ones, the shots are lovely and understated, the pacing is perfect, the script is so full of utterly wonderful lines and phrases that even seperated from its context its one of the best pieces of writing on london and the uk of the era, i thnk you've finally lost it. unless this is revenge for me slagging off hitchens just to get your attention.
you shuldnt need the interview to understand the film, most people are lucid enough to get it by themselves but you seem to need some help.
 

luka

Well-known member
i wish i did, he's one of the only people in the arts i really really admire. if you can get close to writing as good as that you will have a good novel on your hands. i doubt you can sustain your tone as successfuly as he does though. you lack the necessary focus. its a very funny film. uneasy bickering sexual relationship, thats funny.
 

luka

Well-known member
no its a book which expands on the themes a bit. its very good. worth getting on abebooks or whatever.
stills from the film, i think it has the full script, an interview....
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"like fuck could they you dopey cunt! read an interview with the man. he's incredibly lucid. or even better try and watch that shitty rip off vesion st ettienne made, cant remember what its called, jims got it. that will show you how well done kelliers is."
Finisterre is a huge (and greatly inferior) rip-off but isn't London an even bigger rip-off of Sans Soleil?
 

luka

Well-known member
no its not. its not composed of stills for a start. also sans soliel is all the things craner accuses london if being.
 
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