It is always a good thing that among a pile of mediocrity, one finds some positive aspect to focus on. I struggle sometimes. I struggled here and failed hopelessly. It is also good that if you have nothing good to say you should just shut up. I am failing hopelessly here too.
Yes, so I went to see White wedding last night. The biggest…, well the only laugh I had was the reaction of the audience to an interracial kiss. One guy actually said Hayibo!. My friend sitting next to me said, ‘oh, that’s just wrong’. It is after all 2009 and it amazed me that an interracial kiss still brings out that cringe reflex in us.
Safe to say that the movie gave me nothing to blog home about. And why do I bother? I bother because I also believe that constructive criticism can only help. South African movies are crap. It gives me no pleasure to say this as I really really want South African movies to step it up a notch. My favourite ‘South African’ movie remains Cry the Beloved Country. It was a beautiful movie based on a beautiful book, but it too would probably not feature on my all time top 10 favourites.
I think the problem with South African movies, other than the limited imagination and wooden characters, and lack of finesse and… okay, there is a lot wrong with it but for this particular movie I think the problem was the casting. Over and over again we see the same people in South African movies. There is an inability to cast outside of what we see in the daily soaps and television shows. It seems to be a very closed industry where new faces are incredibly hard to find. The same faces are squeezed into characters that, because they can not pull them off, they make them in their own image. Does that make sense?
The basic story line, it is a road trip movie. A groom-to-be needs to get to his wedding from Jo’burg to Cape Town. He needs to make a few stops along the way and one of them is an experience that I think most of us have had. They stop in a baie Afrikaans dorp where the bar is flying the old South African flag. I had that experience once, between Cape Town and Johannesburg. The dorpie was Leeu Gamka and it was a tragically comedic experience!
So most of us will identify with the various scenarios presented in the movie but the thing is, stating the obvious does not necessarily make for poignant story telling.
6 comments:
ah, and I was really looking forward to this one. But knew it wouldn't be fantastic or anything close. Just South African's on the big screen really.
Your comment about the same old faces. Isn't that true of Hollywood too? But we don't mind them...
I regret my post.
why?
oh, and you know shaun de waal liked it too - you know the dude from the Mail & Guardian. He's hard to please. So that you disagree with him. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. You must be the hardest critic to please dear sis. But then again you say you regret the post. I still ask, why?
I regret it because I should be more supportive of this SA industry. But then again, I spent my 15 bucks so maybe that is being supportive. I promise to keep spending money on SA movies but reserve the right to trash (or praise) them like any other movie.
So I finally went to see this here movie tonight...earlier tonight. And well, oh dear comrade Brokensword...I can't believe you forgot to mention that popular journalist and political commentator for the Times and etv...amongst others...Mr Justic Malala, my former boss...plays a cop in this movie. I just can't for the life of me imagine why hee would have done it. It seems journalists also have secret desires to be famous. Remember what Ferial Half-a-g did with that lover...ahem I meant clover. I know...I am very dry neh.
Anyway, what did I think of the movie you think? Well, I thought they could havee taken that same script and done a little bit of work on it, and donee a little bit morre directing with the actors and it could have turned out so much better. It just seemed like a half done job to me. Just not done properly...that said...I laughed along with the crowd...and...well...I just don't think South Africans do on screen kissing very well. It wasn't so much the white girl, black man thing. Even the bride and groom made me sick to my stomack. Argh!
I reckon there is a gap in the market. If you are up for it, you, dear reader can become a kissing coach and make million out of south african dramas and movies.
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