This week I went to see the film Gravity in 3d. I enjoyed it, thought it was good, before you decide whether to take account of my opinion you should know that since I started producing films and found out just how difficult they are to bring in to being I am a lot less critical, I accord a lot of points just for getting it on screen, I’m the guy giving a one man standing ovation while everyone else leaves the cinema thinking the film maker just stole two hours of their time. So with that balancing information shared I will re iterate: I enjoyed it and as many reviewers have suggested the 3d was perfectly judged and utilised, so much so that you forgot it was in 3d, whether this is a sign of a maturing 3d language or just a serendipitous alignment with the three axis movement of a story in space I wouldn’t venture to say.
My girlfriend who has perhaps watched more than enough of the less macho Sandra Bullock vehicles found she just could not get over the Sandra Bullockness of the whole thing- she was constantly troubled by the fact the space program’s psych testing hadn’t spotted that Sandra had issues and might not be the best candidate for the space program, this confusion is perhaps itself a testament to Ms Bullock’s previous performances. As I can just about remember Sandra in Speed and not much else I thought she was really good in Gravity and I also liked the consciously ordinary dialogue, how the hell else are you going to respond up there when your chance of making it seems vanishingly low? You are not going to discuss Tarkovsky’s Solaris or whether or not Reagan believed in the end times or whether Facebook enhanced or devalued your life. I think I might have relished sharing a bark with a random crossed wire radio transmission too. Anyway by accident or design Cuaron channelled a couple of great movies. The relentless overlapping ticking clocks of oxygen running out and the debris cloud orbiting the earth were martialled into a rythmn that reminded me of the faceless pressure of Spielberg’s Duel and once MsBullock got back on board a space station she and Cuaron were channelling Ripley in the escape capsule in the first Alien movie, it was like the really long version of that scene that you really wanted to see and Ridley Scott never shot.
Best of all when Stone (Bullock) returns to earth the planet seems empty and extraordinary, Cuaron only shows us water and land, he spares us any human welcome.
Today’s sonic experience was listening to some of “In East Berlin” a two CD set of solo perfromances by jazz pianist Cecil Taylor in ’78 and 88 in East berlin. I came across it because I was sorting through an enormous stack of CD’s which of course seem incredibly clumsy and tedious compared to a server full of mp3 files. I have to confess that as I am now living in a musical world more suited to driving a muscle car through the southern states of the USA my primary response to this particular CD today was to ask why did I buy it in the first place?- the answer to which is that a small plain black box labelled “In East Berlin” seemed deeply renonant and perversely cool in the ’80’s, whatever noises it might have contained, plus I was in my Miles Davis Agharta phase and didn’t realise that piano no matter how intense or out there could not have the messed up grandeur of Agharta’s extended and grindingly revved up guitar playing by Reggie Lucas anhd Pete Cosey..
Gravity- lie on the ground and feel it. Music- watch the shapes. Give it up to film, it won’t hurt.