jugulum6

Did anyone else notice the similarity of Somersault to Blue Car? I spent a lot of the time in Shortland's film thinking about Blue Car, and alas, thinking that I preferred BC (even though it had a crap title). There was nothing particularly surprising or clever about Blue Car (except for maybe the sister's role, which I couldn't remember having seen before), it was just a beautifully realized portrait of a young girl experiencing a similar crisis to Heidi's.

I thought Blue Car a more accomplished piece, but then again it's hard to judge whether this is simply because I saw it first. (I was less impressed with Phone Booth than I would have been had I not seen Liberty Stands Still).

I thoroughly enjoyed Beneath Clouds, and thought it was a fantastic film all round...especially since it is part of the rise of Aussie films dealing with Aborigines (both historical and contemporary). The main thing that struck me with the film, however, was the similarities it had with Tom Tykwer's work (specifically The Princess And The Warrior, and to a lesser extent Heaven). I thought the mood, depth of emotion and the manner in which the story was told was almost identical to Tykwer's work. I mainly am writing this to see if anyone else shared my thoughts on this. Considering that Tykwer is one of my favourite directors I guess this was the only aspect of the film that disappointed me (there's nothing wrong with either mimicking or coincidentally sharing stylistic aspects, it's just that I couldn't stop thinking 'this is a Tykwer film' when watching it).