Thursday 28 November 2013

Life of Pi

2012 - Dir.: Ang Lee - 2 hours 7 minutes

Shown at The FeckenOdeon on 30th November, 2013

Special effects, animation and model work are taken to the ultimate level in this most realistic of films. The caption “No animals were hurt in the making of this film” is pretty well redundant - barring a couple of shots of animals in the wild, all of the furry creatures have been created through CGI and conventional stop frame animation. The special effects team had been able to practice on the Narnia films but this is on a scale that even they couldn’t have imagined.
Taiwan-born Ang Lee rapidly established himself in the 1990s as one of the world's most versatile film-makers, moving on from the trilogy of movies about Chinese families that made his name to Jane Austen's England (Sense and Sensibility) to a martial arts movie in medieval China (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) followed by a spy thriller in wartime Shanghai (Lust, Caution), and then a western about a gay relationship in present-day Wyoming (Brokeback Mountain). He adopts different styles to fit his new subjects, and while there are certain recurrent themes, among them the disruption of families and young people facing moral and physical challenges, there are no obsessive concerns of the sort once considered a necessity for auteurs. He has a fastidious eye for a great image but he also has a concern for language. There are differing opinions as to the success of his interpretation of Yann Martel’s novel but it’s certainly one of the most intelligent and beautiful pieces of work to emanate from a Hollywood studio in recent years.

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