Image via Wikipedia
So this is hardly a new problem but it’s just one that really pervaded my film-watching experience recently. A few nights ago, I was watching Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Requiem for a Dream’ on the TV with a friend.
This film, if you haven’t seen it before, is a pretty gruelling experience that should leave you feeling hollow and empty, which is exactly how I felt when I first watched it (having rescued it from a bargain bin of dvd releases – seriously, what was it doing there? It’s a fantastic film!) My friend, however, said ‘it wasn’t really that bad’ – I just couldn’t understand her sentiments. I’m not going to go into the plot details because it really isn’t something you’d want to discuss, but let’s just say it IS THAT BAD.
We had a brief discussion about it and it quickly became apparent where the problem lay – the adverts. As with many of Aranofsky’s films ‘Requiem’ is quite slow-moving, deeply atmospheric and incredibly dark… so when you combine this with Fearne Cotton chasing around a Santa to a soundtrack of ‘Anything you can do, I can do better’, every single bit of tension or drama is lost.
It’s like reading a gripping novel and then halfway through someone snatches it away from you, does a silly dance, then expects you to pick up where you left off. They’re even doing it with the credit sequences now, as eloquently explained by Charlie Brooker here (strong language).
So, what’s my idea here? Well, despite being called Tremaine, I’m really not that evil – I’d just like there to be a rule that if you’re showing a film of this sort, stop the adverts! Or allow just one interval midway through – planting one in the climactic end scenes is just horrible!
Well, there’s my first rant over and done with. Oh, and hello new readers – I’m Tremaine and I’ve wrestled this blog from the lovely Idearella. Hope you enjoyed this post and look forward to even more ranting, blathering and general hoo-ha.
