the dreamers (2003)

bernardo bertolucci's love letter to the cinema of the "nouvelle vague" is a film i have avoided for quite some time. i was under the impression that it was rather embarassing in its adoration, and while i wasnt proven right, i dont feel as tho i was entirely wrong.

first things first; im a huge fan of the period of cinema that bertolucci is aspiring towards with "the dreamers". alas i feel as though he has pandered his view somewhat, and although the film is incredibly enjoyable, it falls short of being addressed as a serious piece of cinema. the main fault lies in the script. the wording seems aspirational as opposed to authentic, and the characters lack genuine characteristics, and are at once incredibly shallow. performance wise eva green steals the show. her engenue provokes michael pitt's rather tepid performance to no end, while louis garrel seemes nothing if not peripheral, and wasted.

while it wasnt entirely successful i did really enjoy it. the geek in me really enjoyed the numerous film references, and i feel like it is definately a worthwhile experience, even if it did feel very much like a student film as opposed to the films it was a celebration of.

casino royale (2006)

the film that not only breathed life into a dead franchise, but actually made the franchise in question much more interesting, martin campbell's ''casino royale'' (not to be confused with the david niven film of the 1960's, although admittedly that would be fairly unlikely) may draw many lazy comparisons to the bourne films, but i feel that its much closer in tone to the french connection (1971). gritty reinvention is nothing new, but with the bond franchise it actually opened up one of the largely ignored aspects of the original source novels, at the same time as serving a major plot purpose - the concept of a wet behind the ears bond, that would sooner kill than slow down and react ''properly'' to a scenario is one that not only makes perfect sense structure-wise but also conceptually applies to a large number of the intended audience. the emotional engine that the previous films lacked is front and centre in casino royale, gone are the over the top gadgets and the carry-on style humour, a necessary sacrifice in this post-austin powers universe. put simply the bond series couldnt carry on as it had been doing prior to royale, the concept had dated so badly, and had been pastiched to death. it is the aforementioned emotion that is the narrative string that i look forward to following through this new generation of bond films.