The Polar Express is ten years old and being re-released again this festive season.. Mark Searby discovers why the film has grown in stature since its chilly reception in 2004.

More New Empress Magazine Video Blogs

The latest New Empress Magazine video blog raises questions about the impact of censorship and classification on the action genre. Although many might argue that the introduction of the 12A has meant decline and dilution for the action genre, this issue isn’t as recent as some believe. Furthermore, the 12A doesn’t necessarily mean that all action films are being dumbed down; there are releases in the last year which rebel against this idea. Click below to watch the latest video blog and find out more.

To read more about violence in the 12A movie-verse click here.

Have you ever had a dream that was so alike your real life? So mundane, so nothing-y, so run-of-the-mill that when you wake up you’re unsure if it was a dream, or if it was in fact reality? Michel Gondry’s understated ‘The Science of Sleep’ showcases the true capacity of his creative visual flair in the tale of a young man struggling to make sense of his life and his dreams and how, on occasion, the two can blur and form something really quite extraordinary.

Gondry is perhaps best known for his 2004 Academy award-winning ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ in which he was noted for his inventive use of both reconstructing and deconstructing the film’s mise-en-scene – enabling him to create something both visually stunning and completely surrealist. The techniques he employed within ‘Eternal Sunshine’ are at their finest, at their most sensational and at their most captivating in ‘The Science of Sleep.’ As soon as the opening credit sequence begins, there is a sense of both haunting nostalgia and incredible creativity in every visual that is on screen: from viewing the inside of the central character’s mind (in the form of a cardboard box), to ‘baking’ a dream in the same way one would a cake, everything is beautifully ‘other-worldy’.

There is something in the characterisation of the film’s protagonist Stephane (played by the fantastic Gael Garcia Bernal) that is relatable and incredibly likeable. The normality and humdrum routine of his new job working in an office is often radicalised by his fanciful daydreams that play out like something from the pages of Lewis Carroll.

What makes the film so interesting, is that the more Stephane sleeps and daydreams, the more his dreams become intertwined with his reality. There is a wonderful scene in which he dreams he writes his neighbour a letter and posts her it, only to then awaken in his bathtub, with wet foot prints leading out of his apartment. The more confused and clouded his reality and dreams become, they are as equally confusing for an audience to make sense of too. The film plays like one big dream sequence. It is utterly mesmerising.

I find it incredibly rare for a film to offer both style and substance in equally fantastic measure without one trying to over-tip the other. Stylistically, Gondry is masterful and offers a platform for audiences to use their own imagination; to be a part of the film. The purposely flimsy set pieces and the often hand-drawn scenery is both fantastic to look at and also serves as a means to be a part of this fantasy world. It’s as much in our imagination as it is in Stephane’s. In terms of substance, Gondry has created a wonderfully original tale of seeing the wonders in life in something of a childlike manner. For 90 minutes, the pressures and responsibilities that come with adulthood are lifted and a wonderful world of creativity and escape is before us.

Issue 10 is now available to order.  As our magazines sell out within weeks of going on sale we recommend ordering to avoid disappointment. Our theme this issue is Time in Film and consequently you’ll be able to read up on how plausible film time travel techniques actually are, the role of stopped clocks in the movies, what Virginia Woolf thought of cinema in the 1920s and enjoy a special section that looks decade by decade at 20th Century Cinema – from its silent origins to its blockbusting finale.

Alongside our time-related features you’ll also find a smattering of topical articles including a 2-page preview outlining the must-watch films this summer, some musings on potential story lines for Jurassic Park IV, interviews with independent filmmakers, reports from special film events and our very own tribute to the seemingly untouchable Benedict Cumberbatch. All this and words from all our regular columnists that you know and love.

Issue 10 will be shipped to subscribers and buyers on 20th June 2013.

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I recently spent a good three hours sobbing my heart out in the darkest corner of New Empress HQ; clutching my John McClane action figure like it was the last thing I had in the world. Why? I’d just received the news that A Good Day to Die Hard had been granted a 12A certificate. You see, I’m an old fashioned kinda gal; I like my heroes to sweat and bleed and swear, uncensored. Die Hard Mother Fudger just doesn’t have the same ring.

Those who have seen Die Hard 5 may argue that the film’s classification is the least of its problems, and that’s a fair cop, but it is also possible that the 12A certificate is at the root of some of its issues. Did the first Die Hard really have that much of an original storyline? Nope. But the smart-talking script, complete with appropriate swear words and snappy, unabashed dialogue, covered up the cracks in Alan Rickman’s accent and established John McClane as a watchable hero. That and the fact that John at one point jumps from an exploding skyscraper attached only to a fire hose.

The original John McClane was a tangible, fallible idol. When he walked across shattered glass barefoot (he had his reasons), he bled. When he crawled, inch by inch, through claustrophobic ventilation shafts, he perspired. When he made the mistakes anyone else would have made in the same situation, but he should know better because he’s a member of the NYPD,  he called himself an asshole. Because that’s real; because that’s honest.

Thanks to the new kids on the block at 20th Century Fox, John is no longer a man you can touch and smell. He’s an airbrushed fantasy with perfect muscles, able to endure any amount of beating; any number of gunshot wounds and emerge with nought more than a scratch on his forehead. He’s a superman, not an everyman meaning he’s not as relatable. Not as interesting. Not as funny. He’s not drawn that way.

Sad as this is for fans of the original Die Hard films, there are, potentially, bigger concerns about the 12A certificate. Yes. I know it’s difficult to imagine anything more important than the integrity of John McClane but I’ve read some books and looked at some charts and I’m fairly convinced my next point falls into that category: in the 12A movie-verse there are no repercussions  Bullets fly, beatings are issued, necks are snapped but there is no blood to show for it. No corpses; no broken bones; no consequences.

Jack Reacher, rated 12A, opens with a particularly chilling sequence in which a murderer snipers down several people, including a little girl in the arms of her nanny. We see the gun firing, it is clear that the people are dead but we never see them die. According to an article on Digital Spy at the time of release, the producers cut two seconds in order to secure the 12A rating. Two seconds is the difference between a film that could unnerve young and vulnerable viewers and a film that couldn’t. Similarly The Dark Knight Rises shows Bane snapping necks, but cuts away before the consequence. It’s not that there aren’t any forthright 12A films at all (The Hunger Games stands out as one of the more daring examples) but on the whole a 12A certificate tends to be code for big studios sanitising startling subject matter.

Some readers may think this is just fine. These films are going to be watched by bairns, of course they can’t portray graphic violence. That would be wrong. And immoral. And irresponsible. While it’s understandable that people feel this way  it seems that everybody is so concerned about what will happen if people are exposed to media violence they haven’t given any thought to what happens if you edit it out.  Will sheltered young people eventually be in a position where they don’t understand the bloody fallout of violent actions? It seems implausible on the surface and yet most of us have seen documentaries showing the impact of internet pornography on how young people perceive their own bodies and the nature of sexual intercourse. It’s not necessarily behaviour that is affected, but perception of key social frameworks. Is this potentially more damaging to young and vulnerable minds than the depiction of realistic violence? Only time will tell but it makes me uncomfortable that studios are effectively turning bigger profits by making violence more child-friendly.

Why are so many films aiming for the 12A certificate? As Maryann O’Connor reported in our 2012 Film Year Book the answer is, very simply, to make more money. The wider accessibility of a film, particularly to a teenage audience with plenty of expendable income, makes it more likely that the studio fat cats will gross dollar one. How they are achieving it is a more complicated issue and brings us back to the original travesty of the 12A classification of a Die Hard film.

In his recent video ‘A Bad Day for Die Hard?’ critic Mark Kermode details the notes from the BBFC website stating that the producers of A Good Day to Die Hard showed the film to the BBFC in an ‘unfinished form’. The BBFC advised that it would receive a 15 certificate but that the “preferred 12A certificate could be achieved by making a number of cuts to both language and visuals.” Shortly after the BBFC declared Die Hard 5 had been “passed uncut” and classified 12A and this is the version that was released theatrically. As Kermode rightly points out the film was not censored by the BBFC, they would happily have dished out a 15 certificate for the film that was shown to them. The company that made it, however, decided to censor their own work in order to procure the pre-teen pound.

Going beyond our responsibility to young people and making sure they’re kept safe from images that might disturb them this process raises questions surrounding both the integrity of the industry and its artistry. Was the film really ‘unfinished’? Unlikely. More likely is that they had the film they wanted to release but needed to test whether it would reach their market. Kermode predicts that the 15 rated version of A Good Day to Die Hard will reach audiences via DVD, just as the extended cut of Taken 2 did, and he’s probably right. With this in mind, is it that likely that it was ‘unfinished’ or were Fox simply looking at means of making more money? Whatever the answer to this question Kermode finishes with a very important point: this is the future of filmmaking; studios trimming their own work to maximise money-making potential.

This begs the question: will directors and scriptwriters ever again see their visions truly realised on the big screen? Will audiences start to see cinema as a medium that does not present the ‘real version’ of a film but instead something that has been tampered with to keep it more politically correct? Is cinema going to seem like a place where we go to be babied, the only true independence to be found in home entertainment? Why would you, after all, go to the cinema to watch wishy-washy tripe that doesn’t reflect the true tone of a film?

Unless studios want to see the theatrical model fall to pieces, and we don’t know for sure how much value they place on cinemas now, they should reconsider their constant gunning for the 12A.  And, perhaps, the BBFC should consider carefully whether or not it is appropriate for a studio to come to them for this kind of advice. Both are playing a part in this new process that, seemingly, deems the adult picturegoer practically worthless. These are the people making the sacrifice; suffering through low quality imitations of franchise films that once meant something to them. Furthermore, the current approach implies, in a manner that is almost insulting to our intelligence, that kids can’t get hold of the uncut versions of these films easily enough anyway. Back in the 1980s many young people got hold of ‘video nasties’ even though they were banned and they didn’t even have the internet. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the current theatrical model is unlikely to protect anyone in the long run.

The BBFC are currently holding a public consultation. Complete the online survey here and tell them your views.

To view Mark Kermode’s video in full click here.

More columns from The Empress can be read in our latest print issue and at lostinthemultiplex.com

What would happen if King Kong went on a dating show? Now you know thanks to our talented cover artist Dan Havardi.

This issue is our Romance Edition. Inside you’ll find all sorts of quirky features on the theme of love and attraction as we explain why men hate romantic films, what you could expect from a real-life Jessica Rabbit and how to reenact your own real-life Tom Hanks rom-com. We’ve even got a special section devoted to classic couples where you’ll find our thoughts and analysis on the likes of King Kong and Ann Darrow, Greta Garbo and John Gilbert and Robot and Frank.

In addition to our themed entries we’ve also got interviews and articles on all the most important cinematic topics including the impact of hype, the digital revolution and the identity crisis in French horror.

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Subscription copies and orders will be shipped Monday 18th March.

The collection is made up of three films covering a thirty year period in the history of a country that many of us don’t know much about. Given China’s post-second world war history, you might think that Pickpocket, Platform and Unknown Pleasures would cover the colourful political goings-on but the attraction of these three films is that they focus on social and cultural changes above anything else.

Pickpocket (1998)

Focusing on the opportunistic thief Xiao Wu, Pickpocket is the most conventional but also the most touching film of the three. Xiao Wu has seen his childhood friends move on from petty crime to the more ambitious and, more importantly, harder to prosecute worlds of fencing goods while he remains stuck in his rut. We see him struggle for acceptance with his family and friends, who all think he should get a proper profession and more importantly get married to a girl who looks like an actress, like his former petty thief friend. We also see him struggle with the authorities, who are now cracking down hard on his sort of crime. He meets a nice girl and for a time you have hope that he’ll find the acceptance that he needs but it doesn’t go the way he might have hoped.

Platform (2000)

The name refers to the title of a song that was popular during the time the film was set (1979-1989) which was a important time of change for China; the ‘Open Door’ policy letting music and pop culture in from all over the world for the first time. We follow a group of young people who tour China with a general entertainment and dance show, experiencing the changes occurring in the country as time goes on. It’s easy to appreciate the documentation of these social changes and the individual struggles of the group’s members but at times the lack of connection between events leads your mind to wander quite often during the 154 minute running time.

Unknown Pleasures (2006)

The third and final film in this roughly hewn trilogy focuses a little more heavily on dreams and the absence of them in a time of economic hardship and clashes between the state and members of a spiritual/religious organisation, Falun Gong, who the state machine recognised as a threat. Guo Bin Bin and Xiao Ji are slightly disillusioned and unemployed young men who through Xiao Wu learn that there are opportunities for employment by Mongolian King Liquor, who are looking for dance troupe members to promote their spirits. They meet Mongolian King Liquor’s star dancer, the famous Miss Zhao Qiao Qiao, and somehow their fates get tangled up together. Watching Unknown Pleasures you really get a sense of the isolation of each character and the strange pairing of a depressing lack of opportunity mixed in with a lingering sense of hope for the future.

This trilogy won’t be for everyone. It is an intriguing record of change and humanity but, with the possible exception of Pickpocket, will probably appeal most to social historians and those specifically interested in China and its colourful past. The special features provide some interview action with director Jia Zhang-Ke and worthwhile context to the social change documented by the three films.

Maryann has awarded the Jia Zhang-Ke Collection three Torches of Truth.

What do Linnea Quigley, Bette Davis and killer telephones have in common? All three appear in our spooky horror special which is out at the very end of October. Other treats for readers include an exclusive interview with Richard Bates Jnr on his new psychological horror: Excision, an exposé on the role of distributors in the UK exhibition market and a flashback to cheeky horror Strip Nude for your Killer.

As if that’s not enough we also go on the hunt for a lost Oscar, mix up several vats of fake blood to find the ultimate recipe and lovingly remember the man of a thousand faces, Lon Chaney. Find out what it’s really like to be an extra, how the multiplex came into being and learn about the origins of the occult horror sub-genre.*

Subscribers receive their issues first before shops, before cinemas. The last few issues have sold out very quickly so we recommend subscribing to guarantee you never miss an issue. To subscribe click here.

Many thanks once again to our talented cover artist, Dan Havardi.

To order an individual copy of issue 7 for delivery next week, click here.

Limited back issues of editions 1-4 are also available here.

*Due to our pledge to CAC (The Committee Against Cliché) our horror issue is strictly Christopher Lee free.

]]> http://newempressmagazine.com/2012/10/issue-7-our-horror-special-order-yours-today/feed/ 0 http://newempressmagazine.com/2012/10/issue-6-1-is-here/ http://newempressmagazine.com/2012/10/issue-6-1-is-here/#comments Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:16:40 +0000 http://newempressmagazine.com/?p=13912

The second digital edition of the year is here! Our front cover is illustrated by Rory Mitchell and inspired by the unforgettable body horror: Videodrome. New Empress Magazine’s Minema  titles are a mini-digi-dose of film commentary, interviews and flashbacks. Inside this issue our writers have examined the way brands, TV, music and other elements of popular culture cross over into the world of moving pictures. In addition to articles on Videodrome, Mac and Me and Joe Pesci’s singing career we’ve also got an exclusive interview with director Mark Andrews and producer Katherine Sarafian who have most recently worked on Brave. Our new columnist Girl Gatsby offers her exclusive guide to silent film and regular columnist Adam Glasspool explains yet again why he hates film, this time it’s all about spoilers. The digital issue comes to subscribers free of charge or can be bought as an individual taster for £2.50.

Simply purchase the issue online and a private link to the digital edition will be sent to your inbox!

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A largely-forgotten adaptation of a truly delightful book, Holes (2003) sees Shia La Beouf, Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight and The Fonz bring to life the characters of a fictional correctional camp for kids: Camp Green Lake. 

Stanley Yelnats (Shia La Beouf) is an innocent young man sent to Camp Green Lake (it’s not green and there’s no longer a lake) where he has to dig holes every day after being falsely accused of stealing a pair of shoes. Mr. Sir (Jon Voight) is in charge of making sure the lads don’t slack off their duties or faint in the heat but it’s really The Warden (Sigourney Weaver) who is the force to be reckoned with – the number one rule is not to get her angry. Over time it becomes clear that The Warden isn’t just getting the boys to dig holes in order to teach them a lesson, she’s looking for something linked to both her personal history and that of Stanley’s. Something that has the power to change all of their lives forever and right the wrongs of the past. Throw in bit part performances from Patricia Arquette, Eartha Kitt and Siobhan Fallon and you’ve got all the ingredients of a fun-packed but intriguing yarn that will entertain kids young and old.

Click here to watch today’s Saturday Matinée. Click to full screen and enjoy!