Sunday, February 19, 2006

Mirrormask

I?m a long time fan of the ~~illustrator~~ artist Dave McKean. His work has inspired and enthralled me since my mid teens, and continues to. In fact, he's one of the primary reasons myself and Nursey wound up talking to each other on our first day at art college - discussing our love of his work.

I've also had much admiration for his frequent creative partner Neil Gaiman, and his darkly rich works of fiction. Like Dave McKean, some of his writing has had a lasting impact on me down the years. So, given my admiration of the pair, you can imagine my excitement when I learnt they were making a film together.

I finally got to see Mirrormask in past days and can say it was at times sublime. It started out very strange seeing McKean's drawings on the screen as moving images - but before long the screen was awash with some of the richest visuals I've seen in a long time. It is literally a Dave McKean comic on the screen, turned up to 10 and with fleeting glimpses of Gaiman's imagination and inventive story telling.

The early scenes in Brighton are shot in a strangely disembodied manner that reminded me of their early work Violent Cases - and was a little disconcerting at first, but then the fantasy element kicked in and the screen just didn't stop moving with murky shapes, colours and tones and scenes of eye wilting beauty. Weirdly surreal, strangely familiar, there were several moments of breath-taking invention where I was literally carried away with the spectacle.

It wasn't without problems though. At times the story took a real backseat to what was happening on the screen, and was less than satisfying. The characters also suffered, they elicited very little empathy despite quite a touching family tale at its heart.

But all these things don't really bother me. I'm a visual person, so I never really take much heed of those elements when I watch a film and it's this good to look at. For visual excitement, this film delivered by the bucket load. Other than one or two of the visualisations, which veered towards dodgy Marilyn Manson style 'Rock Video' obviousness and pretension, it was lavish and enveloping.

At times the work of artists like Bosch, Escher, Goya and Breugel were brought to mind, at others films like the City Of Lost Children, the Singing Ringing Tree and Dark City, all of which McKean pretty much stamped over with his own unique vision and imagery. Rich and multi-layered I'm going to be watching this one many more times in the future. Now that Batman is cinematically worthwhile again, if someone would just give Dave McKean the money to remake his graphic novel Arkham Asylum, we would be more than grateful and in for a treat of cataclysmic proportions!

Posted by Dio Bach at 13:45

4 Comments:

holly said...: I want to see this so much! It's not even playing in my town...; 8:37 PM
Dio Bach said...: I think it was out in the US in September, I saw the US DVD, I don't think its had a cinematic release here yet - which beggers belief.; 11:50 PM
greg said...: An artist I knew went on at length about this one, and I know I must see it. Think I have to wait for DVD release as it's pulled from theatres around here by now.

I know what you mean about the visual impact of film overshadowing the other bits that people seem to care about. I was stunned and amazed at Jackson's King Kong, and then hear people whine "oh, there's no story ..." Fah! didn't you see the freeking amazing 3d hair on that ape??? :D; 7:01 PM
Elise Tomlinson said...: I hadn't heard of that film Dio, but now I *must* see it! Thanks!!!
:); 3:39 AM