Rhys Ifans

Rhys Ifans is a welsh actor born in 1968 and is a relatively low key actor but has a vast catalogue of many films and works to date. He has a fantastic ability to pull off almost any role, from the hopeless yet hilarious Spike in Notting Hill, The smooth sexy Gavin Cavanagh in the Boat That Rocked to the crazy and eccentric Xenophillius Lovegood in Harry Potter and the remarkable portrayal of Howard Marks in Mr Nice. Rhys attracts a small but loyal audience and surprises with his talent of being able to anything and everything, and make it funny.

What techniques do 500 Days of Summer and Summer with Monika use to convey the changes in the relationship between the main characters?

These two films are very different in lots of ways but also share a great deal of similarities too, for example 500 Days of Summer is a very modern, accessible, film which just about avoids cliché and has many interesting features whereas Summer with Monika was made in the early 50’s, in Stockholm in a world completely alien to a viewer such as myself.

However they also share lots of similarities, particularly in the how the characters’ relationship is depicted, for example the use of light to demonstrate how they feel. In 500 Days the background of the titles that tell you what day it is, towards the beginning of the relationship they’re very bright and summery, and use vivid colour palettes and bring an air of lightness to the scene and also works in reverse by getting darker, more depressing and using illustrations such as the leaves falling off a tree to portray his feelings towards summer. Likewise in Summer With Monika the actual make-up of the shots and mise-en-scene duplicate the feelings that are being shared, such as the early shots of the holiday on the boat are drenched in sunshine and very bright and warm whereas the shots in the city are dark and dingy and reflect the relationship turning stale quite accurately.

Mr Nice

Mr Nice is a biopic based on the autobiography of Howard Marks, Directed by Bernard Rose and released in 2010 starring Rhys Ifans, Chloe Sevigny and David Thewlis. It presents the story of Marks from his teenage years through to graduating from oxford and then his rise to infamy as the world's largest drug smuggle, connections with MI6, CIA, IRA and run-ins with the law leading to his ultimate arrest and incarceration at Terre Haute Prison, America.
The film initally received performed poorly and received mixed reviews from critics but has gradually become an underground cult hit and has boosted the sales of an already bestselling book and that in turn has had an effect on the growth and status of the film.

I originally saw a trailer for the film on the internet after looking him up on recommendation and immediately bought his book and read it several times through before seeing his stand-up show live at a festival over the summer and happened across meeting him afterward and having a little chat, and finally got round to buying the DVD a few weeks ago and watching it with a few friends who were equally as interested.
It misses out large portions of the book however, which bothered me as the book shows the full extent of everything he did whereas the film tones it down quite a bit, other than that it was completely fascinating and interesting and a real joy to watch as it's such a departure from any other activity that you hear about.

Well, after a really really hectic weekend

Ive picked up some 350 new films on my hard drive courtesy of a good friend of mine, Ive already watched a few of them, so i suppose i should starting writing some of them up (:

Start.

After the not so coincidental arrival of my new 1TB hard drive and the start of film studies at college, I've been given a rather pleasant task of watching movies and blogging about them. Which is a fantastic opportunity to download as many films as is physically possible, and getting started right away I have about 10 films to watch already, and to top it off I bought a DVD of my favourite film yesterday after work, and already watched 3 films this week before college even started, so I have my work cut out

The list so far:

Mr Nice
Che: Part One
Cars (1 and 2)
Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides
Paul
Pineapple Express
Fast & Furious 5
500 Days of Summer
The World's Fastest Indian
Jackass (1, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5)
Thor
Tron
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World.

Let's get cracking.