Star Wars Attack of the Clones (2002) review

 It might not surprise some of you to learn that this film does not land a place on the top 1000 films of all time. The Star Wars prequels were polarising to say the least, but I think Attack of the Clones deserves a place (not a high place, but a place nonetheless.)

Attack of the Clones picks up ten years after the Phantom Menace left off where the prophetic chosen one Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) is now a Padawan learner under Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan Mcgregor.) The galaxy is on the edge of civil war, as more systems secede from the Republic to join a Separatist movement led by Count Dooku (Christopher Lee.) Meanwhile, Anakin begins an illicit romance with Senator Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman.)

I'm sure there are many Star Wars' fans who are frothing at the mouth when I suggest that Attack of the Clones is good enough to have merited a place on the top 1000 films, but as long as you take it for what it is - good fun, there's no reason that it shouldn't have a place. Don't worry, I'm not going to start advocating for a Phantom Menace or the sequels.

Yes, Hayden Christensen is pretty creepy/wooden throughout the film, but no creepier than Leia kissing Luke not once but twice and then having her confess that she's always known that Luke is her brother. Not to mention that Christensen had some awful dialogue to recite. How charismatic can you be when you have to talk about sand? I would also question how much chemistry he had with Natalie Portman.

Yet where Star Wars always delivers is the action sequences and Attack of the Clones delivers here. These are the parts I remember the most about this film. We get some awesome light-sabre rattling as Obi-Wan and Anakin fight Count Dooku, before we learn why Yoda is the greatest Jedi of all time. The fight in the Geonosis arena also led to some thrilling viewing.

This more action-oriented edition of the Star Wars saga helped to steer the franchise away from the more tedious aspects of A Phantom Menace. Long gone are the trade negotiations. It also marked a darker tonal shift, as we gain more insight into what made Anakin Skywalker become Darth Vader. There are plenty of dark scenes, as Anakin channels his inner-angsty teenager, and massacres the group of sand-people who captured and tortured his mother to death.

Like I say, I wouldn't have placed Attack of the Clones highly on my top 1000 film list, but I would have still given it its dues. Yes, it has flaws, but these flaws apply to the franchise as a whole - and A New Hope and the Empire Strikes Back feature in the top twenty, so there you go.

 

Paris, je t'aime

 Number 618 on the top 1000 films of all time is the anthology film 'Paris je T'aime.'

Paris, je t'aime is a collection of eighteen short films all set in Paris and exploring the theme of love. Each film has its own director and cast. Directors include the Coen Brothers, Alfonso Cuaron and Gerald Depardieu. Some cast members include Maggie Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Steve Buscemi, Rufus Sewell and Emily Mortimer.

In a film containing eighteen short films, it is inevitable that some would be better than others and that was certainly the case here. However, it didn't always come down to overall quality, but ]how some of the films were structured. Some of them were full stories with a beginning, middle and the end. Others just seemed to have a beginning. They left me asking "is that it?"

The obvious example is director Gurinda Chadha's short film: Quais de Seine where a young man befriends a Muslim woman. The short film centres on the beginning of their friendship and that's where it ends. Obviously, it is only a short film, but I think it could have explored their relationship further.

The same could be said for Le Marais where a Frenchman speaks candidly to a new colleague believing he has found a kindred spirit. This story could have used a bit more foundation to have been truly effective. It had a good middle and ending, but the beginning needed more work.

Out of the eighteen films, I have three favourites: Tuileres by the Coen Brothers which starred Steve Buscemi as an American tourist who breaks the cardinal rule of never looking at somebody on the Paris Metro. It had all the trademark surrealism and humour that we would expect to see from the Coen Brothers. Secondly, there was Alfonso Cuaron's one-take Parc Monceau focussing on the relationship between an older man (Nick Nolte) and younger woman Ludivine Sagnier which was topped off with a clever twist, and the emotionally powerful Place Des Victories where a young mother comes to terms with her son's death.

The nature of an anthology film means that it allows different directors to interpret the theme of love in so many different ways. This led to some truly creative and kooky ideas. No more so than with Quartier de la Madeline which saw Elijah Wood falling in love with a vampire. It was a wonderful exercise in creativity.

Overall, Paris Je T'aime is an entertaining if uneven collection of stories set in the city of love.