|
I'm beginning to feel a tad proprietorial towards the Merc: for 3 weeks in a
row, I've gone there and been thrilled out of my boots. Honestly. These very
boots I'm wearing now.
This week, Mark P. in all his wisdom decided to offer the audience a
different kind of live sport, and gave me my chance at the lectern. I
anticipated some sort of gleeful free-for-all, in which patrons incensed at
my pillorying of the Hollywood megalith descended in vengeful wrath and gave
me a right kicking. It was not to be. Fortunately for me, and perhaps
for you, since otherwise you'd not be getting this report.
No, the nearly full house (once again. I'm astonished at the ability of
Adelaide audiences to turn out in droves, bless their little cotton socks.
Or boots. Or footwear of choice) chose not to launch said boots at my head.
Instead, and this brought a tear to the old eye, they listened politely and
refrained from shouting rude comments during my wiffling about the nature of
anime, bless 'em once again. Said wiffling, if you care, consisted of some
assertions that anime was one of the few cinematic forms that doesn't,
indeed can't, rely on a couple of famous faces and some explosions to carry
a movie. Instead, anime rests solely on the quality of the images, sound,
and story.
Oh, I'm wiffling again. I get all emotional some times, you must bear
with me.
On with the story: the featurette, Cowboy Bebop, was yet another
hit, and warmed up the audience nicely for the dash of ice-water to the
spine and fog to the brain that is Perfect Blue. An interesting
combination, these two: the edgy graphics of Cowboy Bebop
underlined
the cool, jazz-in-space motif of the story, while the pastel people and
washed-out urban landscapes used in light fluffy anime provided a surreal
background to the mounting suspense that was Perfect Blue.
Having already seen both (I do like to prepare before opening my mouth,
although it doesn't always show), I'd expected to sit through the sessions
stifling polite yawns, but this was not the case. I got caught immediately
by the extremely cool intro to Cowboy Bebop, and sat there thinking
"This Spike, what a guy, eh?" as the hero jeet kune do'd his way
through the bad guys, and just whizzed about in his wee space vessel (I'm a
true space cadet at heart).
|
Cowboy Bebop
|
|
And then, of course, Perfect Blue happened. For those of you not
present at the event, please note that I even found it difficult to describe
this film, besides calling it a thriller which has been compared favourably
to works by such masters of suspense as Dario Argento and Alfred Hitchcock.
The blending of the real with the virtual, the daydream with the nightmare,
and the gradual descent of the girl at the centre of the story into total
distrust of her own perceptions, was masterful.
This led, once again, to a bit of a revelation for me: although several
audience members seemed to be of the "laugh loudly and derisively at
random occasions", and I thought I'd have to demonstrate my left cross,
they quieted down as soon as the atmosphere became heavy. The director,
with cunning use of visuals, angles, and story, had trapped the entire crowd
in his web of suspense. There were even several heartfelt and relieved sighs
as the film ended, and people prepared to face the far more mundane terrors
of Hindley Street at night.
And in yet another bit of shameless self-promotion, I have to say I'm
really looking forward to this weekend, which will see the last 2 sessions
of this season (a season which will be repeated, with any luck, given the
success we've had this month). Mark P. has lined up the guys from Lee's Tae
Kwon Do to give another demonstration, there'll be unspecified fun to be
had, and for those of you that missed your chance to this week, I'll be
speaking briefly before the film on both nights, so bring along anyone you
can find to catch what will surely be an historic event, this Friday and
Saturday at the Mercury.
Alison Jobling reporting
|
Perfect Blue
|
