Local Hero (1983, PG)

 

In the post-Twelve-announcement discussion frenzy, I saw Local Hero mentioned a number of times as a must-watch PC film, so I made it a top priority. Well picked – this charming little film hops continents and deftly skips between reality and magic.

 

The story follows Mac, a young representative of Knox Oil, from Texas to Scotland on a mission to secure land for a new refinery. As he negotiates with the inhabitants of a small coastal village, he is gently drawn to their way of life. Stargazing, accordions, a house built entirely from scraps washed up on the beach – what more could you want from a movie?

 

Well, if you’re kicking off a Capaldi Fall, obviously the answer is “Peter Capaldi,” and this movie delivers on that score, too. PC plays Danny Oldsen, a local Knox representative that Mac meets up with upon arrival in Scotland. A friendly but awkward polyglot, Danny is less interested in the land deal and more concerned with attempting to woo a lovely young woman who may or may not be a mermaid.

 

PC brings an odd charm to Danny. Whether feeding an injured rabbit or giving a show-and-tell lesson on the word “kiss” in Japanese, he’s amusing to watch and fits in seamlessly with the film’s off-kilter appeal. Also, the fantastically silly run he’d perfected by The Thick of It was in its gangly early stages here.

 

And can I just say – holy youngness, Batman! This film is 30 years old, meaning that PC was only 25 when it was made. I love seeing the early works of older actors, searching the fresher faces and ungrayed hair for traces of the performer you know.

 

Accent Watch – I’m an accent nerd, all right? So sue me.

 

Score one for the Glaswegian! Scottish accent. 

 

(I have to admit, I’m not familiar enough with various Scottish accents to tell the difference between them, so some of the ones used by PC may not be his own. If anyone more knowledgeable wants to set me straight, feel free!)

 

Recommend?

 

In General – Yes. It’s super ‘80s, and it takes its time getting started, but it’s a quirky delight.

 

PC-wise – Definitely. PC has a good-sized role here, and the character is just plain smile-inducing.

 

Warnings

 

Nothing of significance – some language and sensuality.

Capaldi Fall

I’ll be honest – when Peter Capaldi was first announced as the Twelfth Doctor, my immediate reaction was “hmmm.” I wasn’t ecstatic, horrified, on pins and needles, or awash with skepticism. I was merely intrigued. “Hmmm, interesting.” “Hmmm, that could work.” “Hmmm, this will shake things up a bit.”

The more I thought about it, though, the more this seemed like perfect casting. I hadn’t seen Peter Capaldi (hereafter referred to as PC, just cuz) in many roles, but each one had made me sit up and take notice. I knew he could play humor, drama, anger, and pathos. I knew he had energy in spades. I’d been hoping for an older Doctor to take Matt Smith’s torch, and PC seemed brimming with potential.

In the fan-frenzy that followed the announcement, I found my way to one Whovian’s amusing creation: Malcolm Tucker IS Dr Who! Blending Who clips with snippets of PC’s incredibly foul-mouthed spin doctor character from The Thick of It made for some good old-fashioned absurdity, and it was just the kick I needed to finally start watching The Thick of It.

I’d been aware of it. I’d seen In the Loop when it first came out, and I’d heard that it was based on a TV show, but I’d just never got around to it. However, I figured that the Malcolm/Doctor dissonance would be a lot weirder if I watched The Thick of It for the first time after seeing him as the Doctor, and that video was too much fun to pass up.

Well, a week-and-a-half later, I’d devoured The Thick of It and realized that PC was definitely one to watch. With the first glimpse of the Twelfth Doctor several months away, I’ve decided to spend the interval acquainting myself with PC’s filmography. And, since I’m neurotically ordered and enjoy meaningless projects, I’ve decided to resurrect this old blog and use it to document my experiences during… Capaldi Fall!

In the coming months, you’ll find a (hopefully daily) update reviewing a PC film, TV episode, or short. Enjoy my entirely inexpert opinions, and we’ll count down the days until Christmas together!

(Note: since I mainlined The Thick of It over a short period of time, a lot of the episodes and their choice bits blend together in my head. As such, I won’t start reviewing it or In the Loop yet – better to save them and revisit at my leisure, to keep things hilarious once I’ve worked my way down to bit roles.)

Let’s get started, shall we?

The Website Has Landed

As of now, the final project is, in a manner of speaking, "done". I may or may not spend the coming weeks/months tinkering and fiddling away all sorts of time, trying to make it "just right", but I figure that if it's good enough for a grade, it's good enough for anyone who may read this blog. View if you'd like - I hope you enjoy.

Hong Kong Love Story: http://www.wix.com/fallenrocket/hongkonglovestory

Project Progress

I spent a hefty chunk of my Thanksgiving break working on my project. I finished watching the last three films, and the page for each film is essentially done. I may mess around with the transitions, and I'll probably change some of the colors to make for easier reading, but the bulk of my main pages is completed.

I'm nearly completed with some of my supplementary pages as well. My 'Actors' page is giving me a bit of trouble, as there are two in-site links that refuse to work for some reason. I may just delete the text for those links and make them again.

I haven't begun working on my 'Source' page yet, but I've been organizing my source information. I decided that I'll have a main source page, and the citation for each film will be accompanied by a link to a minipage for screencaptures from that film and their citations. That will be easier than trying to fit over 50 images on a single page.

I have a few more citation questions. First, people credited for films (director/performers) aren't credited "Last Name, First Name" the way that authors are. However, Wong Kar-wai follows Chinese name order - Wong is his surname. I'm assuming I can credit him in the citations as "Wong Kar-wai" instead of "Kar-wai Wong?"

Also, I'm not sure whether to credit films according to the year they were made or the year the DVDs I watched were made. For most of the eight films I watched, this isn't an issue, but there are two special circumstances I'm unsure about. For the film "In the Mood for Love" (2000), I watched the Criterion edition, which wasn't put out until 2002. More significantly, I watched a remastered edition of "Ashes of Time" (1994), a DVD that didn't come out until 2009. With that film, I understand that entire scenes from the original were replaced, as some of the film stock was badly preserved and couldn't be remastered. Am I right in thinking I should credit the film as being from 2009 and give it the name on the box ("Ashes of Time Redux")? I'm not quite sure how to reflect the specific edition I watched and still include the actual age of the film - MLA guidelines don't offer much insight.

Procrastinated Project Progress

Because I'm so clever, I was working on my project last night and completely forgotting about posting a blog about it (apparently, something due in three weeks is more urgent than something due last night). Anyway, here is my update, if a behind schedule.

Things are gong well with my project. I'm nearly completed with six pages of my Wix project - the introduction page as well as pages of five of the eight films I need to watch. I have my hands on two of the remaining films, and the last should be coming to be today via Netflix.

I'm enjoying working with Wix. I've gotten into a rhythm for working on my project, and I think it's turning out nicely. I need to make several informational pages - one for films, one for actors, one for my sources, and one explaining navigation for the site. The actors page is in progress, and with any luck, I'll finish that or be close to it before I watch the last three films over Thanksgiving break.

One thing I'll have to do is go over all my pages again and work on my transitions. When I move to a new page, everything sweeps in from the right, and I'd like to find something a little gentler.

One thing I'm not sure about is whether I need to cite sources that I link to. For example, if clicking on the name "Maggie Cheung" sends the reader to the actress's Imdb page, do I include that on my sources page? Any help with that?

At any rate, I'm enjoying the project, and it's encouraged me to think about other poems I've written that could be enhanced by hypermediation. Something to ponder...

Project Progress

I've been working on making a Wix site for my project, "Hong Kong Love Story", for a few weeks now. I've been gathering resources for each page film by film. I've rewatched five films so far, grabbing screen captures and writing down useful quotes as I go. I've just about finished the main pages for the films I've seen so far, and the minipages are works in progress.

Initially, I had a little trouble when I started on my minipages and then went back to revise my main pages. With the minipage frame occupying so much of the space, I had a hard time grabbing the pieces that I wanted, and I soon discovered that my revisions weren't showing up on every minipage. In fact, entire blocks of text would disappear as I clicked from minipage to minipage, and that wasn't exactly what I was going for. I admittedly wrestled with this for some time before I realized I should just reduce the size of my minipage frame and revise the main page to my satisfaction before resizing and getting to work on the minipages.

I've been working both on and offline. After I see a film and collect my images/quotes, I generally print my images and then cut them out. On the back of each image, I write the description or quote that will accompany it, and then I paper clip the pictures to another page with descriptions for each stanza on that particular section of the poem. This makes it a little easier to keep track of everything and visualize what I want to do when I get on the computer.

Project Proposal

Wong Kar-wai is a filmmaker who specializes in melancholy romances. He's known for his bittersweet themes, lush cinematography, dreamlike voice-overs, and excellent actors, many of whom appear in more than one of his films. His understated love stories that almost never end well aren't for everyone, but I'm a big fan of his work.

About a year ago, I wrote "Hong Kong Love Story", a long poem that imagines a continuous thread running through Wong's eight films. For my final project, I plan to design a website to showcase my poem. The section for each film would have its own page, and certain lines would link to screen captures, descriptions of scenes/characters, quotes from the films, or Imdb pages. I want to allow the audience members to pick and choose what they want to see - for example, someone who's never seen any of Wong's films would benefit from written descriptions of scenes. Conversely, a long-time fan would more likely be content with the poem/images and wouldn't need to click on the descriptions. I want to create a multi-layered site that could allow anyone to enjoy the poem, regardless of their previous knowledge of Wong Kar-wai and his films.