Centre Point

car sleep, originally uploaded by DogBanjo.

Sometimes the camera just comes to rest. After spending half a movie chasing the characters and always behind the action , always wrong footed, never in charge or an equal or comfortable but always out of breath , sometimes there is a moments poetic meditation when the camera just stops and stares with its mouth open. This is one of those scenes. In my imagination i’m seeing a contemporary drama about the emotional journey being taken by a young city dweller. Here’s my review: After his commanding, polemical reinvention of the World War II musical in The Sound Of Gunfire Off In the Distance, Dogbanjo takes up a smaller canavas with his spare, timely drama, set against the background of the world wide recession. In Fitzrovia a young woman ( Kate Winslett) hears the news that a colleague (Eric Cantona hopelessly miscast) in the small bookshop where she works is about to be made redundant. She is devastated, the more so because she has, overtime, developed a girlish crush on him. Meanwhile Nigel (Alec Guinnes) an elderly African forrester working in France, sets out to find his long estranged son. As both characters arrive in the heart of London, their heads full of conflicting emotions and barely reconcilable narratives it is only a matter of time before they meet. Dramatically barren, Dogbanjos film avoids the cliches about cultural misunderstanding that are so prevalent in the current spate of globally themed films. The central dream sequence with a sleeping Winslett exhausted and traumatised whilst parked outside the Dominion in Tottenham Court road remains to this day one of the most fraught and pointless exercises in contemporary cinema. While Winslett offers her her most compelling performance since Hideous Pervert veteran Brittish actor Guinnes offers an immense presence alongside a barely credible accent. Strong support comes from Star Trek alumni William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, as well as Jim Davidson as a policeman. With its matter of fact London locations, the film captures the city life in ways usually the preserve of non British Directors. Here Dogbanjo persuasively and movingly channels downbeat UK realism in a manner barely attempted by Tony Scott. Amusing too to think that in barely a years time Tarrantino would pick up on the Lynchian dynamic of Jedward and transport them into the surreal and warped universe of Club Mambo.

Dreaming woman

This highly anticipated feature debut from Dogbanjo has Justin Timberlake as an introverted London teenager , all but dersterted by his parents, with a mother distractedly working nights and a father who has settled with a family elsewhere. He spends time hanging around the Dominion theatre desperate for a glimpse of his idol, the musical star and tv personality Shane Richy. He meets beligerant granny Jasmine (Judy Dench ) who is escaping the stifling environment of her care home. This unlikely couple have a shared adoration for Richy which leads them to bond instantly. They trawl the city and its nightspots , fantasising about a time when they might have Richy for themselves, yet when the news breaks that the star is a transfer target for Les Miserables in Cambridge Circus they take drastic action to prevent him leaving. One of Dogbanjos projects which was developed as part of Enfields tenure as European Capital of Culture, and loosely adapted from an unrealised screenplay by Valerie Singleton, Dreaming Woman is a markedly assured feature debut from the director, an intelligent and witty comment on modern celebrity culture with outstanding , contrasting performances from Timberlake and Dench at its core.

Little Havana

Little Havana, originally uploaded by DogBanjo.

Filmmaker Dogbanjo is what one might describe as a hidden gem of British cinema, a gem that has fallen down the back of the comfy sofa that is British culture and now sits half obscured amongst the soiled sweety wrappers and banana skins from last nights party. Despite this overlong metaphor his beautifully crafted films have delighted and intrigued audiences here at the Enfield film festival for over a decade. As with his wonderful previous work, such as Punch Out My Lights and Centrepoint, Little Havana is a deceptively banal story, that through its simple storytelling, wooden script and shockingly overwrought performances is hypnotic in its effect. To merely expose the bare bones of its plot – a bored writer on the cusp of success falls into a relationship with a nightclub waitress who has a dark and desperately sad past – is to do a disservice to dogbanjo and the crumpled ex colleague he stole the idea from. This is a bittersweet and eventually tragic tale that invites some comparison to the work of Carver. An invitation that if taken up reveals to us just how good Carver is in comparison. Despite this Little Havana is a sophisticated, minutely observed and engrossing piece of manufactured marzipan hand woven by mice in the hysterical imagination of Terry Gilliam. Dogbanjo remains one of Britains most original, yet still underappreciated talents.

Last night I Dreamt of the Marais Quarter

 

Last night I Dreamt of the Marais Quarter, originally uploaded by DogBanjo.

Last Night I Dreamt of the Marais Quarter is based on the life and works of Savage Rhymes who was forced into exile on the outskirts of Hampstead in 1972 and subsequently awarded the Enfield Prize for Literature in 1987. Rhymes never returned to his homeland in Palmers Green but once said that, if he did so, he would return by bus. In this multi – layered film, director Dogbanjo and writer Martin Amis imagine that Rhymes ( a powerhouse performance from Nick Nolte) did return, traveling by tube to Mooorgate and then catching the overground train via Finsbury Park – a voyage that also becomes a journey into the past. Dogbanjo intersperses the film with his own animation, moving easily from reconstructed memories to historical footage and a fictional present. Based on Rhymes celebrated essay of the same name the film focuses principally on memories of life in a communal apartment near Wood Green, evoking the ongoing lives of his parents as he still remembers them. Frustratingly the central dream sequence set mysteriously, and for no apparent reason, in the Place De Vosges remains to this day one of the most confusing sequences in contemporary cinema. A work of imagination rather than biography, the film strongly evokes the atmosphere of his home city in the 60s and 70s and it’s status as an ongoing source of inspiration. Dogbanjos film is not only a fitting tribute, but a reminder that innovation does not preclude communication.