Date: October 28th 2007
CHESTER FILM SOCIETY eNEWSLETTER
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Our
next film takes place on: Harry He's Here to HelpDominik Moll/France/2000/112 minutes |
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| Review | ||
Rarely since the great days of Claude Chabrol - the master of the French psychological thriller - have we had suspense this good. And rarely since the great days of Hitchcock have we had a director as good as Chabrol. "Harry, He's Here To Help" is in a direct line of descent from these two fine talents, as expertly polished with black comedy and dry wit as it is with unnerving suspense. Although this was Dominik Moll's first feature, he looks very much like a director who has spent his life making psychological thrillers, and how refreshing it is these days to find the shocks rooted in the minds of the protagonists rather than lighting up the screen like a crude fireworks display. It also makes a pleasant change - in terms of contemporary French cinema - to watch a film where the bistros and bars of Paris do not enjoy key roles and where middle class professionals are not thinking themselves to death. Michel and Claire (Laurent Lucas and Mathilde Seigner) are a low-income, educated couple who - with three demanding daughters in the back seat - are on their way to their holiday home, a rough-and-ready stone pile which requires so much work that it consumes their entire vacation. On their way, in the toilet of a filling station, Michel is approached by Harry, a school acquaintance he can't remember, who then proceeds to invade Michel's life, twisting him every which way like a successful puppeteer. Moll - whose approach is measured but tight - gives Harry, and increasingly Michel, enough ambiguity to keep you guessing, and the silence of the characters also tops up the tension. His highly individual take on responsibility versus freedom (particularly creative freedom) is as admirable as his plotting and pacing skills, not to mention fine choice of cast. A low-key beauty. Michael Thomson, BBC |
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Trivia |
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| Dominik Moll cast López as Harry because the Catalan actor's unusual
accent helps to set him apart. Harry is also a rare name in France, adding further
oddity to the character but evoking numerous cinematic Harrys - from Lime to
Dirty. |
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| The Wilhelm Scream | ||
Ever thought
about the sound effects in a film? Around Halloween, I'm always reminded
of The Wilhelm scream. This is a stock sound effect first used in 1951
for the film Distant Drums. Actor-singer Sheb Wooley is considered to
be the most likely voice actor for the scream, having appeared on a memo
as a voice extra for the film.
The Wilhelm scream has been featured in many films and television programs since. Alongside a certain recording of the cry of the Red-tailed Hawk, the "Universal telephone ring", the Goofy holler and "Castle thunder," it is probably one of the best-known cinematic sound clichés. The Wilhelm's revival came from Star Wars series sound designer Ben Burtt, who tracked down the original recording (which he found as a studio reel labelled "Man being eaten by alligator"). Although Distant Drums was the first known use of the sound, Burtt named it after "Pvt. Wilhelm", a minor character who emitted the same scream in the 1953 film The Charge at Feather River. The Wilhelm scream is often used for when a character is plummeting to a great distance, usually falling off a ledge. Its use in the Star Wars films was the beginning of something of an in-joke among some sound designers of the film industry, especially at Skywalker Sound, and Weddington Productions (now a division of Technicolor Sound Services). They continued to try to incorporate it into films wherever feasible; action films are naturals, but film sound cognoscenti are particularly impressed when it is used naturally in films such as A Star Is Born (with Judy Garland), The Wild Bunch, Dante's peak, Kill Bill volume 1, A Goofy Movie, Gremlins 2 The New Batch, Indiana Jones, Lethal Weapon 4, Reservoir Dogs, AeonFlux and in 2007 was heard in Transformers, The Invisible and 30 Days of Night. All three Lord of the Rings films also use the Wilhelm Scream. It also appears at the end titles of PIXAR's short film "Lifted". There's a compilation below, but if your email client can't show directly
you can check out the web clip here. |
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Please visit http://www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk/mailing_list/news_071028.htm for an online version of this issue. |
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| This newsletter is produced by Mike Graham for
Chester Film Society. Please visit www.chesterfilmfans.co.uk regularly for programme information. |
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