The Hurt Locker

I had watched this film on the Sunday before the lecture and, whilst enjoying it, didn't really feel that it had lived up to its award winning hype. However after a second viewing I began to appreciate it alot more. The performances were all really strong and the tense atmosphere created by Kathryn Bigelow was impressive. The setting of the film felt really realistic and you could really get a sense of how uncomfortable it must be in those conditions. The take on the soldier failing to settle back into civillian life was also really interesting.

One Plus One or Sympathy for the Devil

This 1968 short by Jean-Luc Goddard was hit and miss for me. Whilst I really enjoyed watching The Stones record their classic track, particularly seeing how wasted Brian Jones looked and knowing that this a major factor in him getting kicked out of the band. The majority of the rest of the film failed to grab me. Whilst there were undoubtedly some interesting content I found myself resenting the rest of the film and only really wanting to watch the Stones record and Keith Richards look like the man.

La Jetee

La Jetee is a 1962 film directed by Chris Marker. I really, really did not expect to enjoy this film, but found myself pretty enthralled with it. The film is made up almost entirely of photographs and has almost no dialogue with a narrator providing all the story. La Jetee was really unlike any film I have ever seen and it really was interesting to see suc a radical take on film making.

Dogtown and Z-Boys

Dogtown and Z-Boys is a documentary about the history of skateboarding directed by Stacy Peralta and narrated by Sean Penn.
I had seen this film a few times before not long after it was released and really enjoyed it so I was happy to see it again. I found it really intersting to see the organic beginnings of skateboarding and its progression into the huge industry it has become today. It also interested me to see the different paths the individual skateboarders took as the money and sponsorship entered the picture. I found it particularly poignant to hear the story of Jay Adams. Alot of my friends are heavily into skateboarding and they all speak very highly of Jay's influence so it was sad to see the man regarded as the most talented of his generation (as his contemporarys concured) struggle with drugs and similar other problems as others around him rode the wave of the vast expanding industry and made a lot of money for themselves. The documentary also contains some brilliant old footage and photography and is well worth a watch weather you are interested in skateboarding or not.

Sans Toit Ni Loi

Sans Toit Ni Loi (translation: Without Roof or Law) or otherwise known as Vagabond is a 1985 French film directed by Agnes Varda.
The film focuses on the life of a young, homeless women (Mona) travelling around France. The film begins with a rather dark scene involving a farm worker discovering Mona's dead body frozen in a ditch. This pretty much set the vibe of what was to come. Vagabond then follows Mona as she travels the country meeting people along the way, all the while leaving the viewer waiting to see how she comes to meet her death. I actually quite enjoyed this film (which doesn't seem to be the case for the majority of people who saw it). It was interesting to see the people Mona met on her journey break the third wall and talk to the camera about their experiences with her in a kind of documentary style. It was also good to see a different side to France than the more glamourous or 'chic' portrayal I've tended to see with French films, with the French countryside really looking harsh and grim. One thing that did bug me about the film was that Mona was such an unlikeable character and I found any empathy I had for her at the start of the film fade very quickly.