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Post by saffy on Nov 4, 2013 19:49:03 GMT
.. Fighting it out a bit at the top, but this film was the one that introduced me to Shane Meadows and his crew. It doesn't matter though as all my Top Ten are fantastic films (maybe some of you wont like Lion King? Heh)
We'd gone to a night out in Derby .. The Rockhouse the place was called .. heh. The Rockhouse, yet it had an original 70's light up dance floor. Mebbe it was at an after party or maybe in the club, but Ant Plate from Rhythm Plate told me about Dead Man's Shoes .. said .. "Ere, it's filmed on't Hurst Farm and it's reight good!"
Anyway, I googled it and nosed at The Trailer and thought .. "Buggering hell, there's Riber Castle", so the next film rental from Block Busters was this film.
Settled down to watch it as ya do, with a bottle of wine and some pork scratchings and was immediately stopped in my tracks .. or gob smacked as they say around here.
Music, scenery, atmosphere .. and, you're captured. You already get the gist of a "I wonder where this is going" feeling.
Could talk about about the film all day, but that has already been done ..
The method of "loose" direction .. and I don't mean that disrespectfull"; I mean that it's filmed on the go, or "this is what I want to happen and you just fill in the bits of dialog that you feel you want to add" .. I mean, that's obviously been in a few films in the past but Shane's way of filming was to be part of the people on the set and see it through their eyes, aswell as playing to the audience. It was SO natural it even made ME feel like I could be an actress. (Ok, my Chava in Fidler on the Roof went to my head a bit). You all know what I mean though.
It's a film we can all connect with at some point .. especially if you've lived in Matlock .. or near it .. actually, anywhere within a 50 mile radius,
Taps all the emotions ...
Has everything really .. apart from romance ..
Some people I know wont watch it because they have heard it's menacing and they want a feel good film .. those that want to escape from reality and the shit that is generally overflowing around us. (I still like Lion King)
It took me a family pack of maltesers, some Rekoderlite (??) a bag of revels and the promise of feet tickles for my daughter to even THINK about watching it.
Was she impressed?
Gob smacked .. still coming to me with quotes and scenes ..
.. and yes, we both cried at the end.
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Post by Dave on Nov 5, 2013 21:58:21 GMT
I remember going to see it in the cinema when it was released because I was (and am) such a Shane Meadows keener!
I think I was pretty lucky to get the chance to have a cinema viewing as it seems that there were hardly any film prints made of the film, so it wasn't given the chance to make any money at the box office really.
... and let's not forget... the release of Dead Man's Shoes is what finally got me to pull my socks up and get a Shane Meadows website set-up!
I saw a clip on Film2004 (a short bit of the Richard and Sonny confrontation by the fence) and thought, "That looks like it might be a Shane Meadows film!". It wasn't reviewed on the programme, it was just thrown into a short montage of "also released this week" films.
At this point in time, Shane wasn't all that known, so there was no mention of who directed this intriguing looking film starring Paddy Considine. So, of I trotted to the iMDB to look up the film, and lo and behold, it was a new Shane Meadows film! I couldn't believe my luck.... but also couldn't believe I hadn't heard of it until it was being released!
From that point on, I thought I do solemnly swear to never let a Shane Meadows fan go without fore-warning of a Shane Meadows project! ha
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Post by scheevers on Dec 9, 2013 23:38:53 GMT
Its still in my top 5 films of all time. My Top 5 are...
1. La Haine
2. Taxi Driver
3. Fucking Amal
4. Dead Man Shoes
5. Drive
It was my first taste of Shane's films and I still think it's his greatest film to date, although This is England and ARFRB are great films. It was the film that certainly put Shane on the map to a larger audience, I read a article in Uncut magazine about Shane during time of ARFRB so knew of his name. I remember it was in Uncut's Films of the year list and that picture of "One Down" really stood out for me. I got it on DVD and was really blown away by Paddy Considine's performance, it reminded of prime Gary Oldman or De Niro. Plus the natural feel of the film with the way it's shot and written really set it apart. It always bothers me that Shane isn't given enough credit as a great filmmaker outside the U.K, while Ken Loach and Mike Leigh are treated as Gods. Still Dead Man Shoes is without doubt the best film made in the U.K in the last 20 years.
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Post by Dave on Dec 10, 2013 14:27:22 GMT
It was the film that certainly put Shane on the map to a larger audience, ...eventually! In the cinema it did pretty badly. I was one of the 10 or so people that saw it in the cinema on release!  (I was already such a Meadows keener). It was Warp Films first feature too, and there seemed to be only minimal promotion for it. Even a fan like me didn't even notice it was being released until a brief mention on Film2004 at the beginning of the week. Having nowhere online to get all the Meadows news means I didn't know about it and it's the reason I started this website! |
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Post by scheevers on Dec 10, 2013 19:19:25 GMT
It was the film that certainly put Shane on the map to a larger audience, ...eventually! In the cinema it did pretty badly. I was one of the 10 or so people that saw it in the cinema on release! (I was already such a Meadows keener). It was Warp Films first feature too, and there seemed to be only minimal promotion for it. Even a fan like me didn't even notice it was being released until a brief mention on Film2004 at the beginning of the week. Having nowhere online to get all the Meadows news means I didn't know about it and it's the reason I started this website! Fair play David, It's a great site and it's nice to see other fan's about of Shane's work. Thank god for DVD cause they've been very kind to Shane's work, no wonder he makes sure his DVD's are packed full of extras. I remember here in Dublin, only one cinema showed This is England when it was first released. Same goes for Somers Town and Le Donk. To be fair they are the same for Irish films, a great Irish film called Pilgrims Hill which was one of the most lauded Irish films in years was given a shoddy release here too. So it's something that needs to change really here and in the UK. I bought it on DVD for one of those 3 for 20 deals in HMV, and after seen it for the first time it blew my mind. Then watched it another 3 times that day. I was studying film at the time too, so it was a big influence on many in my class. So it made me buy all of Shane's pervious work which was very hard to find. |
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Post by GR on Dec 10, 2013 23:20:07 GMT
It always bothers me that Shane isn't given enough credit as a great filmmaker outside the U.K, while Ken Loach and Mike Leigh are treated as Gods. Still Dead Man Shoes is without doubt the best film made in the U.K in the last 20 years. Mike Leigh is actually one of my all-time faves, but I put Shane right up there with him -- Life is Sweet and DMS are my favorite films of theirs, respectively. It's a little frustrating being a Shane fan in America -- I had to buy a new DVD player (one where the region code could be removed) and get an account with Amazon.co.uk just to see ARFRB. (Totally worth it, though! That's also how I got to see Pawel Pawlikowski's Last Resort, since it, too, is sadly unavailable on Region 1 disc...) Plus, Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee never really got a proper US release, though it plays on the Sundance Channel once in a while; I still have it on my DVR from a year ago. On the other hand, I got to see TIE on the big screen when I lived in Omaha; and I got good deals on Amazon.com for 24/7 on VHS and DMS on R1 DVD.  |
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Post by scheevers on Dec 11, 2013 2:51:33 GMT
It always bothers me that Shane isn't given enough credit as a great filmmaker outside the U.K, while Ken Loach and Mike Leigh are treated as Gods. Still Dead Man Shoes is without doubt the best film made in the U.K in the last 20 years. Mike Leigh is actually one of my all-time faves, but I put Shane right up there with him -- Life is Sweet and DMS are my favorite films of theirs, respectively. It's a little frustrating being a Shane fan in America -- I had to buy a new DVD player (one where the region code could be removed) and get an account with Amazon.co.uk just to see ARFRB. (Totally worth it, though! That's also how I got to see Pawel Pawlikowski's Last Resort, since it, too, is sadly unavailable on Region 1 disc...) Plus, Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee never really got a proper US release, though it plays on the Sundance Channel once in a while; I still have it on my DVR from a year ago. On the other hand, I got to see TIE on the big screen when I lived in Omaha; and I got good deals on Amazon.com for 24/7 on VHS and DMS on R1 DVD. Was actually watching Life is Sweet on Youtube this afternoon. It's my Third favourite Leigh film after Naked (David Thewlis is really something else in that film) and Secrets and Lies. I think if DMS, TIE and ARFRB were made by Leigh they be lauded with Oscar noms and Cannes Palm D'or awards, that's how highly I think Shane work is. I do think American critic's and Film studios have neglected Shane's work for too long, why can't The Criterion Collection release a Four set DVD collection of his film's imagine those awesome DVD covers they would make for his films . Last Resort was a good film. |
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Post by GR on Dec 11, 2013 21:06:14 GMT
Secrets & Lies was my introduction to Mike's work, and I still love it (the last 20 minutes tear me up every time); I can't believe I still haven't seen Naked, but I'd like to get my hands on it sometime... But yeah, it would great if Shane could get the same level of recognition, especially here in the US.
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(I was already such a Meadows keener). 
