All the President’s Men (1976)

 “Follow the money!"

This is the second time I've seen this film- my first viewing was many years before this blog was even imagined. Nevertheless, I'm as blown away by this magnificent film now as I was back then.

This is, despite the desperately important subject matter- back in 1976 we all thought Nixon's sins were the worst imaginable, and had no concept of the sheer evil of Trump- a film about the process and the excitement of investigative jurnalism. Oh, it's beautifully and thoughtfully shot; Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman are sublime, with a nod to the superb Jason Robards; the script is witty, philosophical and natural all at once; and yet it all boils down to the thrill of the chase.

Nixon appears only in stock footage; only functionaries appear in the film. Action is punctuated throughout by radio footage of the 1972 campaign, and the implosion of the Democrats through Republican ratf**king. We see literally everything from the perspective of Woodward and Bernstein, knowing what they know, being utterly unaware that Deep Throat is Mark Felt, and feeling the tension when they have to present their conclusions to Ben Bradlee, properly sourced. It's a thrilling advertisment to journalism as a career in a pre-digital age, and the many scenes of witnesses being cleverly interviewed are fascinating. This is a very strange and very brave sort of film to be so unequivocally sublime. It's up there with the very greatest.

Still, the Republicans in 1972 may have been corrupt bastards- but they weren't fascists who hated freedom, as is every Republican today who fails to recognise Biden as president or fails to condemn Majorie Taylor Green and all of her ilk. May the party either die or suddenly accept democracy.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

"This isn't freedom.This is fear."

HERE BE SPOILERS

This was an extraordinary film when I first saw it at the cinema on my honeymoon and, even with the main twist spoiled, it's an extraordinary film today. The Russo brothers have done a superb job with what is effectively the spy genre of the Marvel superhero films, but Chris Evans is extraordinary too as a World War II Roosevelt New Dealer out of time, struggling to adapt to a time where nobody cares about civil liberties and the military-industrial complex has grown to monstrous proportions.

We begin as Cap bonds with Sam Wilson, another military veteran with similarly invisible scars, and we get a glimpse of Cap's notepad filled with things he needs to catch up on such phenomena as Star Wars, Nirvana (yay!) and the Berlin Wall, "up and down". It isn't long until his first exciting mission, a hostage crisis perpetrated by Cap's old for from the comics, - moustache-free George Batroc. But cracks begin to show between our SHIELD comrades as Cap and Black Widow are given markedly different mission objectives. Cap's complaint to Nick Fury leads to his being shown Operation Insight-a massive and, in Cap's view, disproportionate armoury. How can this be synonymous with freedom?

It can't, or so it seems, as there is a cancer within SHIELD, one that disdains Cap as much as it disdains liberty: HYDRA. And the revelation of this, and that Cap is suddenly hunted prey, is the most shocking and exciting part of the film.

There's so much more, though; Cap's heartbreaking meeting with the elderly Peggy, the nice bit of exposition in the bunker as Arnim Zola spends his last moments as an uploaded AI life form expositing on how HYDRA's takeover of SHIELD came to be, Natasha's general awesomeness, capped by a kick-ass session at a Senate hearing, the whole sequence with Nick Fury under pursuit in the car that leads him to fake his death. But the film is ultimately about the Winter Soldier; Bucky, Cap's oldest friend. Behind the explosions and the awesomeness the film always has a heart.

There's a lot of Marvel life here- HYDRA's targets include "Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange"- but the film is about two things: civil liberties vs. security and friendship. Hence Cap's new yet strong friendship with the Falcon. Hence Bucky being unable, when the moment comes, to kill Cap. It's an incredible film, but it ends with Bucky still at large...

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)

"Because it's a legend, you numbskull!"

I must have read Patrick Suskind's novel back in the late '90s, so my memories are hazy. I remember liking it, but little else. Huge Nirvana fan that I am, though, I'm well aware that "Scentless Apprentice" on In Utero is entirely about the novel, the only novel that Kurt Cobain ever wrote a song about.

But what of the film? Well, they did the best they could- it's well-shot, well-acted, well-made- but there's no getting around the fact that the book is unfilmable. The visuals are sumptuous, yes, especially of Provence, but it is the olfactory, not the visual, that is the point. A film cannot convey smell in the way that words on a page can. This is a valiant attempt at the impossible.

Still, as I said, it's a well-made film. Ben Whishaw is very good, John Hurt's narration is excellent, Dustin Hoffman gets a fun little part, and the harshness of eighteenth century France is conveyed well. But the very oddness and creepiness of Jean-Baptiste Grenooulle as a character leads to a lack of charisma at the centre of the film, something that matters less to the novel. However gorgeous this film looks it is, ultimately, a failure.