In Contention

Tag: Howl’s Moving Castle

  • Standing up for Bale

    Christian Bale

    Even the Batman thing is a collaboration with an artist, Christopher Nolan (as Cage tried to support The Pangs and LaBute – amongst others – and make commercial cinema with edge, like Burton’s non-starting Superman). Do we need to beat up a guy who did two Batman movies and a Terminator while also doing I’m Not There, 3:10 to Yuma, The Prestige, Rescue Dawn, New World, Harsh Times, Howl’s Moving Castle, The Machinist, Equilibrium, Reign of Fire, Laurel Canyon, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Shaft, and American Psycho?

    Look at the list. High-artistic-ambition directors Haynes, Mangold, Nolan, Herzog, Malick, Miyzaki (sic), Brad Anderson, Cholodenko, Mary Harron, plus artistically ambitious commercial directors like Singleton and John Madden in his Shakespeare In Love follow-up.

    David Poland’s defense of Christian Bale against a mean-spirited, thoughtless attack on the actor by The Wrap’s Deson Thomson.

  • Raves roll in for Miyazaki

    Six days in, and a rather quiet Venice Film Festival has come up with its first unalloyed critical triumph – an animated Japanese re-imagining of Hans Christian Andersen, aimed primarily at children still in the single digits.

    That would be surprising were “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea” directed by anyone other than Hayao Miyazaki, the Oscar-winning animation master who has, in recent years, crossed over to being one of the industry’s most venerated auteurs. After all, “Spirited Away” — for me, still one of the crowning cinematic achievements of the decade — began its incredible success story when it won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 2002 (sharing with Paul Greengrass’ “Bloody Sunday,” no less).

    2005 follow-up “Howl’s Moving Castle” didn’t reach quite the same dizzy heights, but it was another richly textured, narratively daring work that received its fair share of acclaim, and a second Oscar nomination for Miyazaki.

    Now comes “Ponyo,” apparently a return to the simpler, gentler storytelling of earlier films like “My Neighbour Totoro,” that is already doing spectacular business in its home country. And it seems the looser style and younger target audience hasn’t deterred critics in the slightest. Screen Daily breathlessly raves:

    Visually, it’s extraordinary; imaginatively, it’s daring. Once again Hayao Miyazaki is playing in a league of his own with … a sweet, gentle, moving, and always delightful Japanese take on the classic Little Mermaid fable … “Ponyo” is firing on all cylinders on every level. From the sheer creativity of its traditional cell animation to its characterisations (every adult here feels real); the interactions between old and young; the untrammelled imagination on display throughout the story; and, above all, the way Miyazaki still dares to be different.

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