One In A Million is Patrick Ireland’s graduation film from the London Film School. Ireland loosely based the story on his own life experiences, growing up in Herne Bay, Kent, describing it as a rundown, seaside town, with his script perfectly encompassing the anxiety and discomfort of adolescence. The need to impress and the subtle competitiveness underides the story, exposing the vulnerability involved when bodies change and people try to adapt to the expectations of others. For some it appears easy and for others, like Kevin (Eddie Chamberlin), who is fantasising about winning the lottery and creating an easier life for himself, things are tougher when you don’t quite fit in. With social services replacing any parental affection, support or a welcoming home, Kevin loses much more as the film spirals into a tragic climax. Cinematographer Simona Susnea’s images in rich black and white, have added a beautiful aesthetic to the story.
The film is essentially about intolerance towards difference and the consequences that occur when people are not only bullied, but forced to live with the person causing them the most grief. Ireland has captured the awkwardness and loneliness that teenagers feel during the time when the most change is taking place, retreating to their bedrooms in order to shut the door on it all and try out a new identity, from a person with unlimited wealth to another who successfully navigates relationships. Despite the seriousness of the subject he has maintained some lightness through the funny failed attempts to impress.
The film was co-produced by Shout Out UK and the London Film School with additional funding supplied by Kent County Council. In a piece Ireland wrote for the organisation Shout Out UK an independent youth multi-media network for which he is the creative director, he stated that “British cinema – and art in general – needs more voices that express a different kind of life; a different kind of attitude; and that come from a different kind of background.”
Before attending the LFS, Patrick Ireland had already directed a few diverse films including other short films and the 2015 documentary Anonymous: A Million Men.
The Opera Singer is a short but emotional film by Steve Kahn about an elderly lady who regrets never going to Italy to sing opera when she was younger. The first person narrator tells of how she has become less mobile because of an unfortunate accident. She never thought that she would end up like this.
Scenes are filmed with images that portray the same heart felt lament that the narrator’s voice and her words provide. This brief look into this woman’s life is captivating and sad, making us as the viewer consider not to waste any chances we may have, for fear of looking back in regret like she does.
The Opera Singer
Opera (Italian: [ˈɔːpera]; English plural: operas; Italian plural: opere[ˈɔːpere]) is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (libretto) and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing: recitative, a speech-inflected style[2] and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestraor smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor.
In celebration of Warner Bros. launching their Iconic Moments collection we decided to highlight a few moments we consider the most iconic in each of these incredible movies.
Cool Hand Luke
Can a man eat fifty eggs in one hour? Probably not, but that was never going to stop Cool Hand Luke. He’s a man who wouldn’t be told what he could or couldn’t do. Academy Award nominated Paul Newman delivers a character that is part smirk, part smoulder and all American grit in this adaptation of Donn Pearce’s novel of the same name.
Running from the back breaking work of the chain gang, bucking against the system that put him there, Luke gets caught, beaten by the warden and thrown back to the feet of his fellow inmates.
“What we’ve got hear is failure to communicate”.
Anybody who grew up on Guns N’ Roses will remember that line from their track, Civil War. It’s an eerie moment as Luke is shackled and knocked down. I would argue it’s the most iconic in the entire movie. We know he’ll get back up. We know he’ll fight again. But that first time we see him hit the dirt gives us the measure of the man and the reactions from George Kennedy, Harry Dean Stanton and co. make it a difficult watch.
Goodfellas
“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster”.
Speaking of difficult watches. Has there ever been a tenser dinner table scene as when Joe Pesci’s Tommy sets upon Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill, and the laughter in the room disintegrates as the hot-tempered Tommy begins to lose his cool.
“What do you mean I’m funny”?
In a film fuelled by F-bombs and excessive violence this scene, shot by Scorsese with unusual restraint, knots up the tension in the pit of your stomach, creating one of the most iconic moments in gangster movie history.
Warner Bros. Iconic Moments
Casablanca
“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world…”
Whether it’s a misremembered Bogart quote, the heartache of THAT airfield ending or the bittersweet memory of hearing As Time Goes By, Casablanca is brimming with classic lines, powerful performances and sumptuous visuals.
Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) positively vibrate onscreen and as her plane flies away at the movie’s conclusion a forlorn Rick turns to Claude Rains’ Captain Renault as they’re walking off into the fog and says, “You know what Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”.
The perfect ending to a near perfect movie.
Se7en
“What’s in the box”?
The culmination of serial killer John Doe’s entire master plan rests with the contents of a box, delivered to Mills (Brad Pitt) and Somerset (Morgan Freeman) out in the middle of nowhere. With helicopters overhead and panic in the air, Kevin Spacey’s Doe calmly waits as first Somerset, and then Mills discover the packages grizzly contents. 21 years on and this moment is indelibly marked in my mind and I’ll forever be wary of Fed Ex and UPS parcels landing on my doorstep.
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
For many, this is a tale of an English folk hero with an American accent who makes his way from the crusades back to Nottingham where he battles a tyrant, saves a maiden, gets blessed by Sean Connery and fades into the credits where we’re swept away by Bryan Adams.
For me… this movie is all about the late, great Alan Rickman. Camping it up like a pantomime villain, his Sheriff of Nottingham is superb. Sneering, dastardly and sporting a wickedly sexy beard, Rickman calmly runs a sword through his own cousin, Guy of Gisborne (Michael Wincott). As his fearful henchman look on he leans over the body of his dying subordinate, smiles and quips with a line that perfectly encapsulates everything that is so deliciously despicable about Rickman’s Sheriff.
“Well at least I didn’t use a spoon”!
Gremlins
From the creative forces of Joe Dante, Chris Columbus and Steven Spielberg comes a very special Christmas Horror. One in which a cute and lovable Mogwai named Gizmo births a plague of vile, monstrous creatures that terrorise small-town America.
As a go-to movie of my childhood there are several scenes that stick in the mind. Phoebe Cates’ ghastly monologue about how she lost her father, the adorable moment Gizmo rides a toy car, the Gremlin hoard singing along to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves’ “Hi Ho” or even the phenomenally hummable themes for Gizmo and The Gremlin Rag by Jerry Goldsmith.
Most important of all are three simple rules passed down from Grandfather to Mr. Peltzer, from Mr. Peltzer to his son Billy.
“Keep him out of the light… don’t give him any water… never feed him after midnight”.
We’ve adopted these same rules for my sister’s boyfriend. Who says you can’t learn anything from the movies?
True Romance
“… and all I could think was, you’re so cool”!
And all I could think was, Quentin Tarantino’s dialogue here is as classically quotable as it gets. Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater are hip, loved up and in desperately in trouble. Throw in a supporting cast featuring the likes of Val Kilmer, Brad Pitt, Gary Oldman, James Gandolfini and Samuel L. Jackson and you’re pretty much somewhere in the realms of, “Greatest Cast of the 90s”.
Oh… and did I forget to mention the most iconic moment in the movie? Well… it’s probably because I couldn’t quote it without throwing a tenner in the swear jar first. It features mob boss Coccotti (Christopher motherflippin’ Walken) interrogating the fearless father of Slater’s Clarence (played by Dennis Hopper). These two screen legends manage to both chew up the scenery and verbally dance with one another in a way that still gives me chills.
“If there’s one thing this last week has taught me, it’s better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it”.
Warner Bros. Iconic Moments
Max Max: Fury Road
In a year that gave us belated sequels to much larger and bigger budgeted franchises there was one film that stood out with its high octane, super charged, nitro-injected awesomeness.
From the flame thrower guitarist riding aboard the doof-wagon, to Charlize Theron’s Furiosa, seemingly hewn from rock and raised in a fiery bit of kick-assery. From writer/ director George Miller’s rich mythology, retooled, repurposed and re-ignited, to the passing of the titular mantle to Tom Hardy, a man of few words but plenty of action.
Operatic, cacophonous and pulse pounding from start to finish; Fury Road is a mad race, a desperate escape and a chance of redemption for more than one.
Catching sight of his fellow War Boys in pursuit of Furiosa in the midst of a colossal sandstorm, a young and fevered Nux (Nicholas Hoult) marvels at the mayhem he’s racing toward.
“Oh what a day… what a lovely day”!
Mediocre this is not.
The Matrix
“There is no spoon”.
We’ve all been there. After following an Australian woman with a white rabbit tattoo and eventually opting to swallow a red jellybean, you wake up in slimy goo, get flushed down a giant pipe and rescued by Larry Fishburne and his crew on board the Nebuchadnezzar.
Bullet time, techno music, leather outfits, trench coats, old Nokia phones and “guns… lots of guns”. The Matrix remains one of the slickest films of all time and completely changed the game with regards to the action genre.
While the subway fight between Neo and Agent Smith drops jaws, and Trinity’s “Dodge this” as she finally outguns an Agent in the coolest way possible are both just shy of perfection, the lobby shootout as Neo and Trinity attempt to rescue Morpheus is a stylistic masterpiece. I’m not sure if it’s Propellerheads – Spybreak!, the gravity defying martial arts, super slo-mo or the wanton destruction but some beautiful alchemy from the Wachowski’s puts this scene at the tip-top of iconic moments in action movie history.
Full Metal Jacket
“Seven-six-two millimeter. Full metal jacket”.
Kubrick’s intensely “anti-war” war movie is notable for several landmark performances including Matthew Modine’s Private Joker and Gunnery Sergeant Hartman but the heart, soul and misery of war personified must be Vincent D’Onofrio’s turn as Private Pyle.
Despite his limited screen time, the very image of Pyle, seated and grinning at Joker as he starts his pained descent into the abyss is both utterly captivating and hauntingly horrific.
“This is my rifle, there are many like it but this one is mine…”
2001: A Space Odyssey
“My god… it’s full of stars”!
You’d be hard pressed to find a Kubrick film that didn’t feature at least half a dozen iconic moments. Not only is 2001 a masterful adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s original novel but also a work of art in its own right.
With no need to venture further than the film’s opening, we witness the dawn of man, right through to the far-flung future of 2001. As a statement of intent, Kubrick starts with powerful symbolism and possibly the most important footage of tapirs in human history.
Both a tale of discovery and justice; Embrace of the Serpent tells the story of Karamakate (Nilbio Torres, and Antonio Bolivar), an Amazonian Shamen living alone, the last of his people, who over 40 years helps two western explorers find both their dreams, and their end, as they search for the same healing plant they believe to be the solution to their suffering. Karamakate, depicted as both young and old repeats the same path on this lumbering but beautiful journey as this ethnographic tale of colonialism portrays the truth of a politically divided Columbia.
Based on the diaries of Theodor Kock-Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes, who are both portrayed in this film, Ciro Guerra delivers a psychedelic and emotional film filled with hatred, love and respect in equal measure. Guerra injects no pace into the film, and whether this is an attempt to create realism or not it will divide audiences on whether Embrace of the Serpent is an artful a masterpiece, or a bit of a bore. It’s not that this is a boring film and that very little happens. In fact the opposite is true, with interesting action and incredible dialogue this has everything to be an incredibly exciting film. It’s just that the slow transitions and the thoughtfulness of the dialogue, much like the slow cinema of Tsai Ming-Liang though on a much smaller scale create a sluggishness that in some respects adds to its beauty but also detracts from the event.
The stars of Embrace of the Serpent are spectacular. The five main stars excel in their roles, with Nilbio Torres’ portrayal of young Karamakate particularly exciting, each actor captures their character well. Their motivation and vastly polar political and moral views are stark and obvious which helps to create a constant tension despite their co-operation which is the lifeblood of this film.
Ultimately, this kind of cinema isn’t for everyone and while I might not give Embrace of the Serpent and immediate re-watch, and I won’t be recommending it on my blockbuster hit list, I’m glad to have seen it. If you love art, politics or the study of people and cultures, then this film is definitely for you and I’d be rushing to get yourself a copy.
Preacher’s Boy was directed by Brian George Hutton, written by Benjamin Cyrus-Clark and stars Richard Angol, Marissa Joseph and Mohamed Dyfan.
Ezekiel learns the hard way that not all new beginnings are a blessing.
The film looks into everyday relationships and the role religion plays in our everyday lives. This premise holds enough merit for this brief exploration.
I appreciated the performances; especially Richard Angol as the preacher of questionable charecter Joshua.
However; the main thing I noticed about this film is the sound production was really rough – even for something produced for YouTube and I found this very distracting from the story.
