Пожалуй, немногие из вас застали мой “криминальный” этап жизни. “Криминальный” - в кинематографическом смысле. Некогда моими любимыми режиссерами были Тарантино, Скорсезе и Ричи. А Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels после трилогии Властелин колец - вторая картина в моем списке «пересмотров». Когда-нибудь эти фильмы войдут в отдельную подборку “любимых фильмов юности”, где я подробнее расскажу о себе, но сегодня мой текст полностью перейдет в собственность «Владычицы морей». Начнём же говорить о Великобритании.
Великобритания - одна из старейших европейских держав. Многие (но не большинство моих уважаемых подписчиков), могут не любить ее за колониальное прошлое, ксенофобию даже в конце 20 века и излишнюю консервативность, но стоит признать тот факт, что британская культура оставила за собой колоссальное наследие: Шекспир, Байрон, английский театр, Диккенс, Толкиен, Queen и Beatles, панки, Джоан Роулинг и, наконец, альтернативный рок 90-х - горячо любимые мною Radiohead and Placebo. В общем, список “культового” уже вышел обширным.
Но Великобритания - это не только Англия. Это несколько соседствующих с ней стран, имеющих разный формальный статус и разную степень независимости, собственные органы власти и культуру, но подчиняющиеся одной короне. И отдельно стоит упомянуть Ирландию, которая хоть и является географическим соседом Великобритании по островам, но находится в статусе суверенного государства - парламентской республики. А еще Великобритания и Ирландия известна своими сепаратистским волнениями и криминальной средой. Об этом и пойдет речь в последующей подборке. Перейдем с небольшого ликбеза в плоскость кино. Встречайте подборку великобритано-ирландских криминальных комедий по одной почти на каждый регион:
P.S. And I'm glad to announce to you that there will be one big surprise in this selection. It will be fully written in English. Prepare your dictionaries and enjoy reading.
Trainspotting
The film is an novel’s adaptation of famous writer - Irvine Welsh. And the picture has some similar ideas of another Irvine’s adaptation Filth - amorale heroes, tragicomedy dramaturgy and Scottish setting.
Trainspotting is a history about a band of 5 Edinburg’s friends - Mark “Rent-boy” Renton (Ewan McGregor), Daniel “Spud” Murphy (Ewen Bremmer), Simon David “Sick boy” Williamson (Jonny Lee Miller), Tommy MacKenzie (Kevin McKidd) and Francis (Franco) Begbie (Robert Carlyle). They have fun from robbing, hooliganism, fighting, sex and the most driving - use drugs. At one moment the game is going too far and the lives of friends start to go down. Death of Sick boy’s daughter, the prison and life difficulties don’t motivate them to get off the needle. But once after withdrawal, Mark decides to begin a new life. He immigrates to London for working a usual job. But Mark’s dreams about quite life are broken, when Begbie returns to his life.
The criminal comedy was directed by Danny Boyle. And it would become one of the most sad realistic story with hard black humor, dialogue on separatism, excellent soundtracks and unforgettable scenes of trips.
Snatch
The feature film of Guy Ritchie is one of the most favorite pictures of the criminal genre in Russia. It has a high mark on “Kinopoisk” and includes a “250 the best film” rating. Why is it so popular? There is an opinion that it’s influenced by the rememberies from 90-x and the same narrative of marginal gangster life. Maybe the first film of English director - А Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels helped to raise the popularity of Snatch. Of course the cast must be worthy of special attention - Brad Pitt, Jason Statham, Stephen Graham, Vinnie Jones, Benicio Del Toro.
Snatch is the history of hunting on diamond with several criminal groups - the Jews, Gypsies, Russians, Americans, old London mafia and two young shady promoters which accidentally found themselves on the periphery of events. It’s the light humorist picture with a lot of fragments that are parsed into quotes. The film can be described as a lot of brutal men are “solving questions” in the masculine world without women but with pathetic dialogues, charismatic heroes and street english culture.
The guard
The first John Michael McDonash with native Irish Brendan Gleeson film is an antiracism statement. The story is about a police officer at a coastal county town which once upon a time the gang of drug dealers have started to operate. The agent of FBR (Donald Frank Cheadle) had been sent to help with the investigation. For the first time, an Afro-American detective and Irish officer relationship is not warm. Ruby racist jokes from Paddy and his hedonistic lifestyle do not match with professional perfectionism and strict disposition of agent. But once upon a time their relationship has progressed and their racial and personal intolerance has changed to mutual respect. The similar plot the viewers can see in “Green Book”, in its turn “The Guard” has finished more sadly and mystically, but there is a place for hope, so important today.
Twin Town
The one more cult’s black crime comedy about two junkie brothers in “pretty shitty city” - Swansea. Real-life brothers Rhys and Llyr Ifans play the main roles of Jeremy and Julian, and Twin Town was filmed by Kevin Allen and was called kinetic and anarchic. There are some reasons. After unsuccessfully attempting to seek compensation for their father, there rapidly escalates chaos war.
Hunger
Bonus. “Hunger” is not a comedy, but actually a film nowadays. Feature-length debut by Stephen McQueen (12 Years a Slave) about IRA members who find themselves in prison. At large, they fought for their right to be an independent state from the empire, but the walls of the prisons did not break their will - even behind bars, they continued to fight. I hope this story will serve as an inspiration for many as an example of the struggle for ideals.