A Passage to India (1984)
Director: David Lean
Country: United Kingdom
Length: 163 minutes
Type: Drama, Historical, Epic
David Lean's final work,
'A Passage to India' is far less "epic" than his 60s films (it's literally lacking in "scope"... as in the ratio), it reminded me more of
'Picnic at Hanging Rock'. This too features a pilgrimage by English colonial women to picnic at a mysterious ancient cliff site, which seems to exude a primal humming power, inducing madness and sexual awakening and inflicting a terrible karmic price on the trespassers. In Lean's
'Lawrence of Arabia', his characters are at the centre of a whirlwind, in
'Doctor Zhivago' they are only vaguely caught up in the storm but in 'A Passage to India' the characters act in sympathy with the political context. The formally affable Dr. Aziz becomes sickened with British rule due to his personal mistreatment in the story, you can see echoes in the wider move to independence and Adela's condemnation of Aziz and then sudden admission of his innocence, precipitating his euphoric release. The cast is all-star, including a wonderfully strong willed
Peggy Ashcroft and
Richard Wilson plays a very hissable villain, exuding an air of condescending, paternalist, superiority without needing to say much.
Alec Guinness in "brown-face" is regrettable for 1984 (but still not exceptional in the 80s sadly), although it's mostly harmless and partially offset by Lean packing the cast with top-tier South Asian stars like
Victor Banerjee,
Saeed Jaffrey,
Art Malik and
Roshan Seth.
Blade Runner (1982)
Director: Ridley Scott
Country: United States
Length: 117 minutes
Type: Sci-Fi, Noir, Drama
I’ve watched
‘Blade Runner’ more times than I can count, first taped off TV, then I remember buying a 1997 Director’s Cut widescreen letter boxed VHS from one of the now defunct Virgin Megastores, then upgraded to the 1999 DC snap-case DVD, then arguably downgraded to the 2007 ‘Final Cut’ blu-ray (simultaneously released on HD-DVD, when that was a thing) with its revisionist teal grade, this time it was my own 'Penultimate Cut' version, opting to watch with the isolated score and subtitles to soak up the visuals and appreciate the late great Vangelis’ peerless music. It’s interesting to hear how much of what you might think was soundFX, is actually part of the score and what sounds like music is really the rhythmic humming of the future city, or the hypnotic beat of computers, it’s a sometimes indivisible soundscape. Many of the things I love most about the 1982 original, are missing from the belated 2017 sequel. That gorgeous emotional score, perfectly fusing old fashioned Jazz with 80s synths, the film-noir romance, the colourful neon lighting, oppressive rain and atmospheric fogging, perfected in every camera angle by master Cinematographer
Jordan Cronenweth and the beautiful detail of the design and visual FX that is so rich I doubt you could ever re-watch this and not spot something new. I love the eccentric way the three replicant designers are presented. One like a Yeti spider in a frozen web, another as a Geppetto toymaker squatting in a dilapidated, mouldering baroque mansion and of course Tyrell as an Art Deco pharaoh, bathed in golden
'Phantom of the Opera' candle light.