Screening Log

This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.

April 2006 activity

Total Log Entries: 73

Total Comments: 32

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The Gladiators / Gladiatorerna / UK/ Sweden / 1969

Another wild card from late night Cable, this was screened without subtitles, rendering the lengthy scenes in French and Swedish completely incomprehensible. I managed to follow most of the plot- concerning an televised international ‘Peace Game’ which has taken the place of war in a crypto- fascist future society- but had to read a few synopses online to understand the finer points.

It’s an ominous, unforgiving film, shot in pseudo- documentary style like director Peter Watkins’ earlier masterpiece The War Game , but eschewing almost every convention of common narrative cinema- there are no real characters to root for, no build up and certainly no climax, and to make matters worse the parochial, initially informative voiceover soon starts lying to us. The game itself makes no sense, either to the audience or the players, actions consistently lack consequences and rules are randomly broken. Intended as a critique of society in general and warmongering in particular, the film succeeds brilliantly on every level except one- it’s very hard to care what happens next.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: Cable TV
26 Apr 2006 10:39 AM | Submit Comment

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