Once it's lost, innocence cannot be found again.

The Valley (Obscured by Clouds)

(1972)

Barbet Schroeder's second film and something of a continuation of the deconstruction of the hippy ideal sighted in Easy Rider. But more articulate than a "We blew it", as one character (Michael Gothard) expounds on why he and his companions are nothing more than tourists in a society of even greater restrictions and oppressions than the one they are seeking to drop out from.

This is low-key filmmaking, Schroeder hanging back with the camera and taking a semi-documentary approach, particularly in his observation of the behaviour and traditions of the actual Papua New Guinean tribe that features. The lead, a bored spoilt diplomat's wife (Bulle Ogier in one of only two film roles) on a quest for illegal plumage, comes on as something of a cliché, but naturalistic performances help to sell the hokier elements. She becomes attracted to the quest (Led by Jean-Pierre Kalfon) for a mythical uncharted valley where utopian dreams may be fulfilled.

There's a Pink Floyd soundtrack, but it's more of a book-end than a constant presence (it makes an effective contrast to the observational visual style).

***1/2

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She writes Twilight fan fiction.

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Django Unchained (2012)
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Life is like a box of timelines. You feel me?

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Rejoice! The broken are the more evolved. Rejoice.

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Shyamalan has seized on a horror staple – nubile teenage girls in peril, prey to a psychotic antagonist – and, no doubt with the best intentions, attempted to warp it. But, in so doing, he has dragged in themes and threads from other, more meritable fare, with the consequence that, in the end, the conflicting positions rather subvert his attempts at subversion…

Mountains are old, but they're still green.

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Even after a stake was driven through its heart, there’s still interest.

Prediction 2019 Oscars
Shockingly, as in I’m usually much further behind, I’ve missed out on only one of this year’s Best Picture nominees– Vice isn’t yet my vice, it seems – in what is being suggested, with some justification, as a difficult year to call. That might make for must-see appeal, if anyone actually cared about the movies jostling for pole position. If it were between Black Panther and Bohemian Rhapsody (if they were even sufficiently up to snuff to deserve a nod in the first place), there might be a strange fascination, but Joe Public don’t care about Roma, underlined by it being on Netflix and stillconspicuously avoided by subscribers (if it were otherwise, they’d be crowing about viewing figures; it’s no Bird Box, that’s for sure).

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Starship Troopers (1997)
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If you could just tell me what those eyes have seen.

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Now In Full Color, with a Happier Ending

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