🎬 #154 Clandestine Clubs.
This week we’ve got one of my favourite films from 2024 and one favourite from my childhood. Both deal with secrets and invite us into a world not glimpsed by mere mortals.
Happy choosing, happy viewing
Bry
FILM ONE: CONCLAVE
2024 Dir Edward Berger
2 hrs
Edward Berger’s follow-up to his remake of All Quiet On The Western Front is a chamber piece of tight suspense and sharply framed conspiracy. The filmmaking here is as crisp as the Cardinal’s uniforms. Not a frame is wasted to tell the gripping story of a Conclave, where Cardinals have been gathered from all around the world to vote for the next Pope. There is a sharp contrast between the classical architecture and the remotely controlled metal shutters that keep the outside world at bay, as they politic their way to a very man-made decision. Voting under the heavens painted above them in the Sistine Chapel.
The use of space and the framing of architecture with the characters contained within it, reminded me a lot of Bertalucci’s, The Conformist. Fiennes is really great as the man placed in charge of running the process, as is everyone around him. Stanley Tucci never fails to nail the job he’s been given to do. This is a beautifully constructed thriller, bound within the walls of one of the most secretive acts in the modern world.
TL;DR: Button down for a glimpse into the stressful process of naming the next Pope.
*In cinemas and available to rent on Amazon in the US, and on Apple and Amazon in the UK.
Fact: The word Conclave comes from the latin, meaning a place that can be locked up.
FILM TWO: INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE.
1994 Dir Neil Jordan
2 hrs 03 mins
I hadn’t seen this film in years and rewatched it over Christmas. What’s really striking about it, is its ability to create an atmosphere of a very specific time and place. The dawn swamps of Louisiana, the catacombs of Paris and 90’s San Francisco. There is a Koyaanisqatsi-like opening shot of people in the city streets at night - showing us that people will always walk the Earth like this, but who walks in secret amongst them? While watching it in 2024, the modern San Francisco sequence just feels like another stop along the immortal timeline experienced by the main characters.
Stan Winston’s company did all the practical vampire effects - all of which are great, like a deathly, beautiful veneer of white with lines of blue veins - and cold exotic animal eyes. It also still features some of the most impressive fire stunts I’ve seen and is punctuated with beautifully yet unsettling images. One is of Lestat on fire as he climbs up the ceiling, another - brooding, all black horses emerging from the mist in a tight Parisian street, in slow motion. Indulge in a look back at a vampire classic.
TL;DR: Jordan’s take on the vampire is an atmospheric, melancholic but fun adventure. Kind of how I’d imagine a vampire’s life to be.
*Available for a small rental fee on Apple and Amazon in the US and the UK.
Fact: Any actor playing a vampire was held upside down so that the blood would rush to their heads. The make-up team could then trace the bulging blood vessels in their faces.