My latest movie marathon

Once again, it's not my favourite movies of 2006 (that one's taking longer to put together than I thought) so in the meantime here's the skinny on my latest movie marathon.

Every so often, I like to spend a day in the cinema cramming as many movies as possible into a very short period. Yesterday was that day as I embarked upon another 12-hour cinema session. No, really.

Believe it or not, it's not something that's particularly easy to do even when you're a movie geek like me. It's not that I have trouble sitting through that many films - if you've seen my festival posts you know that's not an issue - but simply that it actually requires a bit of planning and a lot of luck.

You see, if you're as fussy as me, then the first hurdle to get over is just having that many films on at the cinema at one time which firstly you've not seen and secondly you're actually interested in. Sure, it's easy enough during festival time, but it's not so easy on a run of the mill cinema day. Then, assuming you find enough of them, you need a bit of luck in the programming stakes as well, or else you'll find they overlap or leave huge gaps in between.

Well, with it being awards season, there are some decent films out at the moment. Some of them I've seen - APOCALYPTO I've mentioned recently and PAN'S LABYRINTH is still packing them in - but there were a few I'd not. And of course there's always the chance of some old classic playing somewhere too.

So that's the number of films sorted out. As for the timing - well, it seems the gods of cinema schedules were smiling yesterday. A brief stop at the Filmhouse at lunchtime for some veggie soup and my engine was running. Off I popped to the Cameo for this week's European matinee - THE QUEEN.

Helen Mirren plays the titular monarch in this British film about the goings on behind closed doors in the days following the death of Princess Diana, as tabloid-fuelled lunacy saw the crazed public railing against the Royal family for daring to grieve the way they wanted to.

Growing up in the UK, the Queen must surely be the most impersonated person on TV sketch shows so my first reaction upon seeing Mirren in the role (an incredible transformation) was to expect some punch line every time she spoke. I quickly recovered from this though, although the feeling did occur again every time some other actor wandered onto the screen playing someone famous.

It's a finely crafted piece of cinema regardless of your feelings about the Royals, and does a cracking job of portraying the Royal family and its traditions, the workings of government and the gobsmacking tactlessness of the deplorable British tabloids, whose job is not to report the news but to sensationalise everything and tell stupid people what to think.

Mirren does indeed deliver a terrific performance that has seen her nominated for numerous awards (I think we'll see her pick up a Golden Globe tonight, too) although my one reservation is that it's hard to assess how accurate her portrayal of the private Liz actually is, since it's a side of the Queen that we rarely see.

The other stand out performance comes from Michael Sheen who plays Prime Minister Tony Blair, in the days when he was only recently elected and before he turned into a mass murdering war criminal. The bloodthirsty madman's every move and mannerism is captured to perfection by Sheen, right down to that insidious painted-on smile of his, the one that says "look at me, I'm a family man and I stand for modern values, but I'm not afraid to kill thousands of innocents and refuse to answer to you for it."

All in all it's a very good film and while Mirren herself is almost guaranteed of big acting prizes it wouldn't surprise me at all if the film itself picked up a gong or two on this side of the pond.

From there it was back down to the Filmhouse for a screening of CINEMA PARADISO, the classic Italian tale (with wonderful score by that man Morricone) about a man reminiscing about his childhood and the love he had for a girl and the local movie house. It's a wonderfully touching movie that was being shown as a tribute to the recently departed master Philippe Noiret. He doesn't actually appear for too long in the film but when he does he leaves every woman in the cinema in tears and every man pretending they've got something in their eye. A definite hankie effort.

Time to replenish vital energies, so a quick stop off at Subway was required for a large toasted sub. I've no idea what the hell kind of red onions they use in there but damn, they're strong. At one point I did get a mouthful of little else but onions which, combined with the fact that I ate far too much of my friend Grant's homemade salsa the night before, means that even now I can taste nothing but onions. Actually, if you lean close enough to your monitor, you can probably smell me.

But I digress.

Back to the Cameo it was, where I then witnessed the late Robert Altman's final film, the just-released A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION. The movie is based around the final night's performance of a country and western radio show that has somehow survived long after its contemporaries have disappeared. The film boasts some great music and a stellar cast from seasoned pros like Meryl Streep and LQ Jones, through quality actors such as John C Reilly and right down to the latest generation with teen queen turned booze hound Lindsay Lohan. It's a heart-warming film that touches on the shadow of death without becoming morbid.

While to date the only Altman film I actually like is the one everyone else thinks is a turd (QUINTET) I'll add this one to the list of positives. It's certainly a swansong worthy of the man.

Then it was quickly back down to the Filmhouse again for I SAW BEN BARKA GET KILLED, a French drama based around the disappearance of a major figure in French-African politics. Based on a real event but crafting an entirely fictional story involving crooks, a documentary film and the French director Georges Franju (EYES WITHOUT A FACE, FANTOMAS), this film was a dull, plodding affair that might have delivered a reasonable punch if the ending had arrived a lot sooner.

If you want a fiction film that uses real events to anchor its story, then a far better option would be the next film I saw. After killing half an hour with a Peanut KitKat, a can of Red Bull and the latest issue of Video Watchdog (best magazine ever), I returned to the Cameo for my final screening of the evening. Expecting the crowds outside (unusual for a late night screening) to be for this movie, I was surprised when only five people turned up inside. I'd hate to think that many people were turning up for this week's special late show ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL. It's really not that good. Anyway, back to my choice...

If I had to list my favourite ever head-refrigerating African cannibal madman, I guess I'd pick Idi Amin. I've read about him, and I've watched a couple of films about him - the trashy film THE RISE AND FALL OF IDI AMIN, which I already featured in my Gobsmacking Cinema series (gobsmacking for many reasons, not least of which was just how much of the film's lunacy was based on real events) and the documentary IDI AMIN DADA: A SELF PORTRAIT, which I've also mentioned here briefly while talking about documentaries.

Naturally then, particularly having recently read the novel, I was enthusiastically awaiting the release of THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND. Adapted for the screen from the novel by Giles Foden, the film is the drama feature debut of accomplished Scottish documentary filmmaker Kevin Macdonald (who gave us TOUCHING THE VOID and the Oscar-winning ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER) and stars James McAvoy as a young Scottish doctor who finds himself acting as personal advisor to the crazed tyrant Idi Amin (a powerhouse performance by Forest Whitaker).

When a director makes his feature debut they can often end up overusing their bag of tricks to the point where the film becomes over-directed. Macdonald however has already proven himself with his documentaries however, and ends up striking the perfect balance between stylish presentation and offering a story free of artistic intrusion.

There is plenty of style on offer, to be sure - there are some documentary style touches and the most wonderfully effective use of quick zooms since the glory days of kung fu and spaghetti westerns. Macdonald manages to give the film a highly polished and distinct look while at the same time keeping it entirely separate in style from his documentaries.

As I've admitted above, I was excited about seeing this film and right from the off it grabbed me. In fact, it grabbed me even before the titles rolled, thanks to a fondness for the Fox fanfare at the start of the films. I can't help it - having spent my childhood growing up with STAR WARS and its sequels and then becoming obsessed with PLANET OF THE APES (greatest film ever made) I still get filled with child-like glee every time I sit in the cinema and that Fox fanfare comes on.

Anyway, the film itself... It's a stunner. It'll come as no surprise that large parts of the book are missing from the film - it always happens - and some of the supporting characters feature a lot less as a result. However, what is preserved on screen is certainly faithful to the book and the support characters are just that - the movie is all about Amin and Dr Garrigan, and how the latter becomes seduced by the charm and power of an evil man, to the point where he can hardly see that evil being committed (and when he does he's already in too deep).

The film has one or two moments that will make for uneasy viewing for more sensitive viewers (including one nasty scene that is alarmingly reminiscent of an infamous scene from CANNIBAL FEROX involving some metal hooks). However, it's worth it even if such things aren't your cup of tea as it's a captivating look at a fascinating man, it's a terrific thriller and it's a showcase for some great performances both in front of and behind the camera. It's a marvellous film and deserves all the accolades it gets.

Whitaker is certainly a stick-on for the Best Actor Oscar as far as I can tell, and I fully expect him to get a Golden Globe tonight too. That is, if he hasn't already. I don't know what time they're on and I don't know what the time difference is between here and America. It's just after 10pm here, so let's see... sod it, I'm off to look and see if they've started yet. Probably not, but there's not much point in me making predictions if they've already happened. Bye for now.

Coming soon (seriously, I speak the truth this time)... The Freakpit's favourite movies of 2006!