Change Your Image
a-foulcher
Reviews
The Alcohol Years (2000)
the alcohol years
"Some of these comments really display a lack of intellectual understanding, sadly enough." Totally agree. Morley draws ATTENTION to the narcissism of autobiography, and its specific relevance given the nature of who she was at that particular time in her life. I think some of the most interesting aspects of this film are when the interviewees reflexively draw attention to these issues, for example when one of them says (roughly) "i don't know why you'd think people would want to watch this, there are more important things to make documentaries about." and basically says how self indulgent she is. It is an incredibly witty and honest documentary. One of the best ways she forms this picture of herself is by letting everyone else talk and not including herself in the doco.
Self-indulgent maybe but I don't think that's the point - it makes for a good story, is an interesting take on the documentary form, and is honest and important to herself. Autobiography is a way of dealing with your own stories - and why is it so bad to openly do that? People get hung up on thinking that if you write about yourself or make films about yourself than you are entirely egotistical - but if you have a story to tell who can tell it better than yourself? I'm digressing... I guess I was really disappointed to see how many people clearly didn't GET this documentary. I found it very inspiring in many ways, but particularly in terms of its honesty and its manipulation of the documentary form.
The Actress (2005)
Hats off for the low budget, but that's about it really...
The inspiring part of this film was that it was made on $700 - but it really showed. Seeing 'The Actress' made me realise that digital technology in cinemas looks like student film-making - it looked really amateur and hindered the acting performances. Steve McCall saved the film with his performance of character Kevin. The plot was pretty unoriginal and predictable, and wasn't executed very excitingly. However, hats off to Zilditch for the minuscule budget and managing to get a film quality enough to be accepted into film festivals. I wonder though if it has been used as just the 'token digital film' for failure of finding a better one. Also, wanking jokes are not that funny.