The Look of Love

With the recent release of the UK’s rich list in The Sunday Times, the timing of the release of Michael Winterbottom’s biopic of Paul Raymond, one of Britain’s very own millionaires, seems appropriate. With a cast reading like a UK comedy rich list, led by ‘the man who thinks he’s it’, Steve Coogan, a film about one of Britain’s most famed smut peddlers has the potential to go any number of ways.

Charting his rise from lowly entertainer to Britain’s richest man, the focus of much of the plot is on his relationships with the most important women in his life: his wife, Jean Raymond (Anna Friel), his lover Fiona Richmond (Tamsin Egerton) and, most importantly, his daughter, Debbie (Imogen Poots). While riding the wave of success his money brings, gradually, each of these relationships breaks down as he fails to leave the clubs, magazines and women behind and form a normal life.

Starting in black and white, in what seems like a slow-paced montage, WInterbottom adds colour to the screen as the Soho nightlife begins and the female clothing ends. The film then dives into a world of sex and drugs and every hole’s a goal, as the money builds and Raymond’s fancies change.

While the main plot focus is on Raymond’s relationships, these are often interspersed with scenes from his various nude shows or photo shoots for magazines that leave little to the imagination. These could, perhaps, have been toned down a little, or even left out, but being that this is a Michael Winterbottom film, there is a sense of trying to push boundaries, though this lacks the ambitious nature of ‘A Cock and Bull Story’ of the ground-breaking release of ‘9 Songs’.

The juxtaposition of music gigs and full sex scenes in ‘9 Songs’; the dialogue between Coogan and Rob Brydon and English countryside in ‘The Trip’ manifest here as love and lust in Raymond’s life, with his love of the women in his life sabotaged by his lust for looking at beautiful women naked and results in a decent little film, but never pushing too far beyond that. More could have been done to add humour into the script or put more into his troubled relationships, rather than filling time with scenes that result from the BBFC’s more relaxed governing – a situation Winterbottom helped create.

The performances here are good, though you do want Coogan to let out an ‘ah-ha’ every now and then, showing he is yet to fully shake the monkey off his back. Imogen Poots is convincing enough in making you believe she’s the annoying result of a slightly warped upbringing; and Chris Addison shows he is perhaps more method actor than stand-up comedian. Though Dara O’Briain will never pull-off an 80s Alexei Sayle.

British films featuring a cast of comedians with a slightly raunchy theme come from a long line in tradition of being neither sexy nor funny. ‘The Look of Love’ does not follow a similar path, though perhaps here, much like with Raymond himself, lust slightly overpowers love, leaving neither fully satisfied. 

Every 14 Days...(15)

Clockers (Richard Price)

‘Clockers’, the 1995 Spike Lee film, is one I have not seen for a while. The book of the same name pre-dating it by 3 years is written by Richard Price, a regular contributing writer on ‘The Wire’. Since I have a liking for both, I decided to take it for a spin, a rather long spin.

Split in two halves, alternate chapters focus on ageing homicide detective, Rocco Klein, and drug dealing lieutenant, Strike. After being given the duty himself, Strike discusses with his estranged brother that a local restaurant manager and low-level drug dealer has ‘got to be got.’ But before Strike can fully whimper out of his murderous responsibility, he is shocked to find that the deed has already been done and that his brother has turned himself in.

Put on the case, Rocco finds himself at odds to explain why a decent, hard-working man would hand himself in over the murder. Believing his brother Strike has to be involved somehow, Rocco presses hard to put the young clocker under pressure to take responsibility for the murder and clean his brother’s name.

The bold David Simon quote on the front cover reads ‘The Wire wouldn’t exist without Clockers’ and is one that can be taken as true. Written at a similar time to Simon’s books, it has a similar vein running throughout, focusing on individuals and building up their character and traits slowly. Many ideas, themes and characters from this book feature in ‘The Wire’, which Price would later write on.

It’s a long read and an intense one, focusing largely on the two main characters, but is well written, engrossing and asks some interesting questions about what would drive a man to kill.

Days to read: 26

Days per book: 14.5

The Box Lady and Other Pesticles (Richard Herring)

Following on from where ‘Bye Bye Balham’ left off, this is the second instalment of paper publishing of the second longest online blog in the world.

Looking back at himself a decade down the line, he sees himself starting to set-up his new life in Shepherd’s Bush following having said ‘bye bye’ top Balham. It’s more of the same, showing regret and shame at some of his previous actions as an older, wiser and now married man.

Being that this blog has now made its mark on Mr Herring’s ‘Warming Up’ blog, I can’t wait to see my name in print in 20 years or so time.

Days to read: 15

Days per book: 14.6

Mao: The Unknown Story (Jung Chang and Jon Halliday)

Back in August, 2008, I bought and started to read ‘Mao: The Unknown Story’. But by September, only just over one hundred pages in, I got bored and chose to start something else instead. Ever since, the seemingly never-ending book has remained on floor piles or shelves in the various accommodation I have since inhabited. But, seeing as everything else on my bookshelves had already been read, I thought it about time that I finally finished the bastard.

At some 765 pages, if you remove all the appendices and index, and small print, this is a long old book. Upon starting it, I whizzed through the first hundred pages again on train journeys, but beyond that, found the book to be slow and plodding. The book starts off at a pace you feel you can keep up with, but when getting to The Long March, you feel like you might have actually been part of it, as it seems to read in a ‘and then this happened’ manner. Motivation to keep going, therefore, soon started to decrease.

Reading ‘Mao: The Unknown Story’ is a bit of an ordeal, struggling through a long-winded book, feeling less motivated and as if you aren’t intelligent enough to care about some thing that happened loads of years ago.

The book, however, does not always sit amazingly well with me. While a history book – looking into ‘facts’ – it feels written in a story-like manner, as if first-hand experience. While all sources, etc. are cited at the back of the book, they are not always linked to the text, and the little inflictions and adding of ‘our italics’ seem more like the authors painting the picture they want you to believe, rather than leaving you to conclude your own opinions based on evidence.

Much of the book is undoubtedly true and it uncovers some previously unknown information, but with the style in which it is written and the negative attitude towards the subject from the outset, it feels less an academic text, and more a biased television documentary. This is a book that will divide opinion, but one thing that is for certain is that this is not the most comfortable read.

Days to read: 91

Days per book: 16

009 Re:Cyborg

So far for me, 3D films have been a failed experiment. Films have had to incorporate needless moments to try and justify the increased expense the format has brought with it; or they are simply nothing more than demonstrations of three dimensions on screen, with a loose plot fitted around it. My hopes, therefore, for Kenji Kamiyama’s addition to the 009 Re:Cyborg manga and TV series were somewhat muted.

‘009 Re:Cyborg’ is the first animated 3D film I have seen, and I have to admit, the best yet. On looks alone, the film is a nice piece of work, with the multilayers that the format offers working brilliantly, despite the need for subtitles on screen. Much like that other manga/anime franchise that Kamiyama has worked on, Ghost in the Shell, ‘009 Re:Cyborg’ is suited to a 3D format, combining futuristic action scenes in an aesthetically pleasing environment.

But that’s all about the format: what about the film itself? Plot-wise, the film centres around the reforming of a group of nine cyborgs from the 00 series to combat mysterious acts of terrorism carried out by those that claim to hear ‘His voice’. Having followed different paths over the years, there is friction between certain members of the group, hindering their ability to save the day. The ending leaves little explanation as to events or really establishing what ‘His voice’ is, felling a little unsatisfying as a whole.

Much like Kamiyama’s ‘Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex’, there is a lot of philosophy throughout the film, with lengthy explanations of various values and ways of thinking. And maybe that is where the film falters a little. With each ‘GITS: SAC’ Gig, there were 26 episodes to develop and execute as many deep philosophical musings as possible, but in just over one hundred minutes of cinema time, the ideas around ‘His voice’ are a little patchy and in need of more development and work.

This is very much a Kamiyama work, appearing and written in a similar vein to the ‘GITS: SAC’ anime series. Throw in religious undertones similar to those of ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’ and you find Kamiyama’s interpretation of Shotaro Ishinomori’s ‘Cyborg 009’. The film shows two things: firstly, the strength of 3D when used appropriately in anime to create an extra dimension to 2D design, justifying the four times extra effort that Kamiyama claims it added; and secondly the potential for Kamiyama to take ‘Cyborg 009’ to a television series format, allowing him to explore all those crazy ideas he so loves further. It also shows the great Japanese sense of humour, with British Cyborg 007 named simply ‘Great Britain’. Larks.