#cinemaniacs

[invisibleicewands]

Cinemaniacs E08 28/03/2015 - #2

[flannelandcurls]

Michael Sheen, SUPER ACTOR! takes the "Hit My Mark" challenge.

[marvelmaniac715]

I’ve known about Michael Sheen for years, but not in a way that a lot of you would expect. I’m pretty sure I watched him in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, but if I truly conjure up my childhood memories of him, it’s a CBBC show called Cinemaniacs, hosted by Oli White, and it was all about films and the making of movies, and there was this one segment called Michael Sheen: Super Actor, where Welsh actor Michael Sheen would partake in a challenge. One time he pranked his parents in disguise, one time he competed against a group of children to see if he could fake cry faster than they could chop an onion, and one time he put his acting to the test in this challenge in front of a green screen, it was mad:

It was honestly one of my favourite shows as a kid obsessed with dvd bonus features, so when I finally became obsessed with Good Omens, it was a delight to see an aspect of my childhood there onscreen as the Principality Aziraphale.

[batri-jopa]

I'm digging through my drafts lately so now the time has come to speak about movies that are like milestones for me:

Collateral (2004) dir.Michael Mann

I watched it for the first time in June 2021 and it became my hyperfixation, something I've been obsessed so much that... well, I literally LIVED that movie for about 4 months and I consider it changed my life's goals' perception❤️‍🔥 I've been reading all possible reviews, comments, interpretative theories... I wanted to wrote my own review and interpretation of the film.

(Just for those freaking abt actors: ppl who hate movies with Tom Cruise in it - usually make exception for the Collateral - and if THAT'S not convincing to you I don't know what is!)

Who would have guessed that the story about heartless hitman interacting with that poor random taxi driver has a potential to change a live perspective of a 35 years old person? Vincent is so inhumane I'm not even sure he deserves to be called a "character" (not more than a killer-cyborg probably) and what he says to Max about his attitude toward the world and his life and his dreams is so provocative and cruel but... it's all so freaking true. You are over 30 already and the time to act and to change your life and to fulfill your dreams is NOW! Now or never!

"Someday? Someday my dream will come? One night you will wake up and discover it never happened. It's all turned around on you. It never will. Suddenly you are old. Didn't happen, and it never will, because you were never going to do it anyway. You'll push it into memory and then zone out in your barco lounger, being hypnotized by daytime TV for the rest of your life."

Not to mention every next victim feels like another lesson in personal developement of Max (or any viewer sympathising with him), just like those lessons given to Scrooge by ghosts in A Christmas Carol. Yes, there are five of them instead of three but it's like the first case is: "wake up!" - the next: "this happens for Real!" - then "and there's nearly nothing you can do about it..." - and "...but you got to try anyway..." - followed by: "...because it's all about you right from the start!"

(One night you may need to turn your whole life upside down)

And I know some people see the last case as lame, cliche, unbelieveble, predictible or whatever - but jeez, ppl, that's how it works in a theater play! Of course it could have been predicted and so what?! It's the story about Max's character and in my opinion: that when he gets to know about his key role in all this - in a way similar to Bastian in The Neverending Story.

And I dare to say at this point it is not about any "love" or any such thing (here, take my AroAce filter): it's about a dream, that still is to be fulfilled, about a life, that could have been, about the right to be yourself and freedom to choose your way. About an urge to fight for something so important that you simply can't turn away from it anymore. About a need to defend something that feel so close and dear to you like it's your core, like it's yourself - like it was all about your life from the very beggining!

(And what if: maybe it all would never had happened if not for Max symbolic giving away his dream "island"?🤔)

I love how the provocative speech of Vincent to Max and all the uneasy questions he gives to him are meant to get him out of his comfort zone: your job is to take the client from point A to B, never before have you cared what they gonna do there, maybe all of them where going to kill or hurt somebody, so why did you not care about it ever before? Why would you care about it now? What the difference if the bad thing is happening close to you or far away from you? What's the difference if you do or do not know about it? And what actually changed in your case now - anything other than that now you know? In all this you are irrelevant, COLLATERAL, you are only a fucking meaningless, powerless cab driver! Look at you, you're not even the one to decide your own route! And if you decided to only always do your job without the second thought - then why don't you just do your fucking job right now?!

And then it's like: you can run from your problems and avoid hard decisions for just so long - there's literally no more place left to run and hide, and you got to face your greatest fear... To save a life.

Not your life though.

You'll be reminded it's NOT about you. That it's not your business. So you can simply step back and live. Just keep on being nobody, not having anything to say, not having any power over bad things happening around you. You'll be reminded that you're weak and you can keep the safe distance and remain comfortably numb just as you always used to be...

You could remain COLLATERAL

Only would you be able to live with knowing you haven't even tried?

As much as I hate guns IRL - I loved to learn about the "mozambique drill" (some fans probably breaking new record of rewatching "yo, hommies" scene over and over again) and reading other viewers' interpretations of what actually happen in the final shooting... and of why he could not or would not reload... (as a neurologist I'd vote it's bc of his brachial plexus) and finally thinking about the spontaneous act of previously non-spontanous character - winning over cold routine of the one always talking about "adapting to enviroment"... Like Max've won over him by actually learning his lessons!

This movie is filled with symbols and allegories. Starting with the silver gray Vincent: I like to compare him to a heartless cyborg T1000 from Terminator 2: The Judgement Day, or see him as an angel of death, or even - as mirror giving a dark reflection, like an evil alter-ego of the main character! (there's the allusion of policemen that a taxi driver might get rampage and kill ppl around the town - followed by Max's mother asking "Who?" like not noticing Vincent - to the point Max actually "acts" Vincent - all these priceless little hints that Vincent might not even exist in a first place...)

My own favorite interpretation is that Vincent is personification of a coyote - the spirit animal meant to teach you life lessons that are many times very uneasy but really rewarding

(And don't listen to director talking about Vincent, it seems to me that Michael Mann did not himself get any deeper meaning of this guy at all!😑 Like treating his past history seriously? Oh please, have mercy...🙄 Vincent's power derives from the fact he's so perfectly inhumane he barely touches the earth! Or at least he's the perfectly neutral transparent everyman... who's empty of emotions. And you can treat as a symbol of anything you want!😋)

The story takes place in the middle of the night - with the broad streets of the great town being almost empty - and it's such an unusual view it gives an almost dreamlike mood. Perfect time and place for a life-changing story about changing your life.

All in all this story is so brilliant someone definitely should have made a movie about it!

😆

PS. And I love the soundtrack.

[batri-jopa]

Okey, I guess Neverending Story / Die Unendliche Geschichte (1984) doesn't count for being too widely known (even though it was in fact my most favorite childhood movie and one of my lifelong inspiration)

So, let it be:

Historia żółtej ciżemki (1961)

(whole movie's here on YouTube)

I love it for... well, everything actually, but I'll try to give you some more obvious reasons:

Medieval times being shown colourful as a in a fairy tale (justified by the fact the main character is a child and childhood memory is always more joyful and colourful, isn't it?) though still not unrealistic (like main character is a homeless orphan AND he doesn't talk back to his authorities - can you imagine that in a nowadays story?!)

Passionate main character!!! Wawrzek is an orphan who's favorite activity is woodworking. He leaves his village, heading to capital city (Kraków) where he can learn how to carve in wood. He's desperate enough to sleep on the street or work at night only to have the opportunity and finally he manages to get into the workshop of Veit Stoss and his team of sculptors

The way of showing tension in a movie scene in 1960's: Wawrzek walks into the real workshop for the first time - feeling as if he just walked into a cathedral of sort - no talking - showing eyes of the character looking left, looking right - with a music in a background - and you just FEEL what the character is feeling! - enough to make you sit at the edge of your chair!😍 (you know, something like in the final scene of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly 1966)

And last but not least: Marek Kondrat being 11. And Gustaw Holoubek. Being 38. These eyes. This voice. Sorry Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name", I love you, but my heart belongs to young Gustaw Holoubek and his Veit Stoss!❤❤❤

Like for the scene like this one (Veit Stoss walks into the workshop and is surprised to find Wawrzek there, with a wooden rooster that the boy was carving):

Veit Stoss (stern voice): Do you know that all respectable people...

...are asleep at this hour?

Wawrzek (innocent voice): And why aren't you sleeping, sir?

Veit Stoss:

(God I love his face here😆😂🤣)

Ps. I had no idea that english dubbed version of this film exist but apparently it does:

since i just watched a very beloved movie of mine, that i wish more people knew:

reblog and put in the tags a childhood movie you wish was as popular and influential as all those american/english movies everybody always talks about.

[inemi]

Marilyn Monroe, 1955

[#Cinemaniac ]

[termiteterraceclub]

Termite Terrace Club - October 10th

1936 - Boulevardier From the Bronx - Dir. Friz Freleng

1959 - Wild About Hurry - Dir. Chuck Jones

#LooneyTunes #LooneyTwt #roadrunner #wileecoyote

TV

1990 - Tiny Toon Adventures Season 1: "Cinemaniacs!" ("Superbabs" / "Duck Trek" / "Pasadena Jones")

1992 - Taz-Mania - "The Outer Taz-Manian Zone" / "Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Part 2".

1997 - Pinky and the Brain Season 3: "The Real Life"

1998 - The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries Season 4: "The San Francisco Beat" / "Triangle of Terror"

2002 - Baby Looney Tunes Season 1: “Band Together” / “War Of The Weirds”

[invisibleicewands]

Cinemaniacs E08 28/03/2015 - #1

[fillertumblername]

Truly shocking that my introduction to Michael sheen was through cinemaniacs (2015 CBbc show) where he was quite rightly actor extraordinar and pretended to be gorrilas and things , and I being about ten thought who's he whys he beinh actor extraordinar he's not in anything,,,

Anyway sorry about that , happy birthday Michael actor extraordinar

Happy 55th birthday to our feral, light and fluffy, serious actor and truly just the nicest person: Michael Sheen!!

[famousmortimer]

[el-cheung]

[batri-jopa]

Is it just me or could there be more gay-movies with boys than with girls? 🤔 I realised that I already watched few movies with boys/men love but never actually watched a good movie with girls love (at least nothing I would remember * ).

My choice was: Friend / Rafiki (2018, dir. Wanuri Kahiu)

[photo source pinknews.com.uk]

First of all I have to warn you that I am going to compare that movie to And Then We Danced / და ჩვენ ვიცეკვეთ (2019, dir. Levan Akin) - mainly because I love it so much that for me it's like a model-of-a-meter-from-Sevres in gay cinema😉 But also because that one movie was in fact a key reason why I chose another...

...because ATWD and Rafiki are alike in many aspects: main characters are very young adults (about 20 - and those girls just finished school so I guess they are even younger than boys in ATWD), still living with their parents (divorced parents even), in a rather poor country with huge homophobia (not as severe as in islamic countries but still). Okey, I'm not sure if people in Kenya are as poor society as the one in Georgia but those old blocks of flats seemed oddly familiar

...and Kena wears a hoodie!😆 with short sleeves but still😋 (ATWD fans will understand😉)

Now about the aesthetics (least important, I know, but I am visual artist and I can't just ignore it): all those vibrant colours and patterns in every scene are mesmerising!!!🤩

Yet I feel like the movie kind of lacks a music... I mean there sure is some music in the background but it did not left any memory in my mind after end credits. Maybe it's just my fault, maybe it was not "my kind" of music so my brain not paying enough attention? I mean I remember they were dancing with those colourful lights so there must have been some music, why do I not remember that music at all? Well, okey, I get it's not And Then We Danced with it's soundtrack (and dances) leaving me enchanted and wanting more **, bringing back all the movie emotions every time I hear it and provoking me to dig for hidden message in the lyrics and dance moves many months after first watching... (yes people, And Then We Danced is a masterpeace that does it all!). But at least I'd love to have that one song that would stuck in my head, that I could add to my playlist as a movie reminder... There was no such thing in Rafiki or I did not notice

[photo source sbs.com.au]

I loved that relationship!!!😍 I can confess now, that I was a bit afraid of what I may see and how my brain would react to that (don't get me wrong here - no matter if it's LGBT or cis-het movie I just simply don't like to see any shocking scenes! And my fear of seeing such thing has been rooted in a fact that polish and generally european "ambitious" movies seem to assume that without drug taking, doing something disgusting, raping or braking the law the movie is "not ambitious enough"🤦). But the way it was shown was very subtle, gradual and felt so natural, simply organic thus very convincing to me. It also reminded me of And Then We Danced. It's when I see them together (Kena with Ziki or Merab with Irakli) I have that feeling of warmth and comfort... I don't have any awkward revelation of "seeing gays/lesbians"... It feels as if none of them were any longer woman or man to me - I can only see two people in love... And any words to name what is between them are needless or utterly wrong and vulgar.

It's worth to mention that both characters are really "good girls": with good grades, going to study and their greatest rebellion act is staying out at night - those girls are definitely someone easy to relate to.

Girls in Rafiki talks about their relationship quite a lot while boys in ATWD do not at all (they mostly communicate with dance - but OMG what dance it is...). I guess girls are generally more likely to talk about feelings. Georgian guys might not even have words to describe what they were experiencing

And there's even religion issue. Nuff said...

[photo source es.unifrance.org]

Now for the sad part: --------------[SPOILERS AHEAD!]------------ I was naive enough to think two girls are more safe from violence than two boys would be... Yes, there is violence.

...and thinking of which parent would be more supporting, compassionate or at least the less judging you? Like I would expect that when you're living with your mom and women are meant to be more compassionate from definition, and you do not even want to talk to your dad who left you both for another woman... and when the hour of trial comes - you are just heartlessly rejected by that "closer" parent with no respect to the fact you were almost killed, I mean... People are like this FOR REAL?! I can't believe it, I don't want to believe it, yet I guess people are just fucked up more than I thought they were and that's just how they work... Maybe it's even a cliche LGBT movie trope, I have no idea...

And then there's the part that I'm crying my eyes out and if it was not enough it is followed by that another scene (as if the movie makers saying: "hold on a second don't put your box of tissues yet!") - when that guy sits... Just sits near. It may not seem like any start for the community, I mean it's not that they ever even talk - they don't even look at each other. Yet they are... together. Just silently together in this. (And I suddently wish I knew that background boy character better and I want to hear his story so so much...)

I wonder about the woman in the end telling Kena not to touch her... yet as the very next thing she throws that certain information for her. Why? While watching I thought it was just another provocation from that gossiping bitch but after the film I thought maybe that was some kind of poor trial of making amend? She was definitelly a bitch and she still kind of despised Kena even now - yet I suppose all she ever wished for Kena was humuliation and not the actual severe death-threatening violence that occured - and for that she might wanted to make amend by giving the information (most probably not realising that Kena already knew)

The end is not straightforward happy but it is promising so I am satisfied ❤

__________

* Ok, there is one girl couple in Wet Sand / სველი ქვიშა (2021, dir. Elene Naveriani) but that relationship is not it's main topic and also it is more complicated than just "lesbian couple" as one person is suggested to be trans or maybe nonbinary ("born in wrong body") and the other seemed demisexual to me (if not asexual even).

** It is actually the very moment I hear the accordion of Ra Lamazia Tusheti in the beggining of End Credits of And Then We Danced and then the title appears, and... I just know I have to watch it again right this instant, and hell I know it's 2 a.m. already, and it will be another 2 hours, but who the heck would need to sleep at all when you can just rewatch your favorite movie over and over again?! So I found myself sleepless drug addict to the movie because of its soundtrack - why, thank you Levan Akin, that's exactly what I needed in my life...

[jerrylewis-thekid]

The gaze of Jer/American cinemaniac, tho 😍​

Jerry’s face in “Hollywood Or Bust” (1956) appreciation post because reasons

Part II: The American, Russian and French movie fan. 

[meridianrose]

Movie Star Michael Sheen Pranks his parents on CBBC's CINEMANIACS

[bastard-of-the-realm]

Some of you Good Omens stans never watched the Michael Sheen Super Actor segment in Cinemaniacs and it really shows.

[fictosphere]

Introducing...RANDALL MALUS!

Introducing…RANDALL MALUS!

I guess this is supposed to be, like, a resume or something…? Okay, here goes nothing.

Hi, everyone! My name is Randall Malus. Some of you may remember me from the now-defunct true crime and catch-all journal blog entitled Malus ‘N’ Mayhem, or you may remember me from my time as a “Classic Video Game Examiner” on Examiner.com. At least a couple of you might have read my self-published spy…