Bellejam

Bellejam presents Hannah J Davies’ BARBIE BABY photo set, Aug/Sept 09…

Underage Festival 2009 was a great success for the Bellejam girlies…we were working for Artrocker.tv& wrangled backstage interviews with some cool cats … highlights can be found here and more will be in next month’s Artrocker magazine wooo!

Go on…treat yourself…buy it & a couple of special offer Dairy Milks. I won’t tell…

H x

Behind Enemy Lines: Christian Bale’s accent in the recent film Public Enemies was all over the place, which got me thinking…if I was a Welsh actor who had lived in England and starred mostly in American films, would I invest in some faux-heritage. Le Bale apparently lived in character as FBI agent Melvin Purvis for sometime during the filming, although you’d never guess it, the way he floats between lilts. Johnny Depp saves the film, with his usual cheeky glints of deviance on show as convict John Dillinger, and his on-screen chemistry with Marion Cotillard (his lover Billie Frechette) is convincing and compelling. The plot is full of holes, and as we watch Dillinger - infamous bank robber and public enemy number one during the 1930s in the US - evade capture several times in shootouts and prison escapades, it is less of a cat and mouse game and more of a one-horse race.

Then there’s the clumsy cinematography (it is shot in which is anachronistically light and bright HD, and is ‘Blair Witch’ shakey) which is devoid of the grit one would expect in a ‘classic crime genre’ film. An injection of malice from lawman Purvis would have improved this film tenfold too; Bale is - at most - a modest performer and does not come anywhere near close Depp’s dizzing charm as Dillinger. His lack of conviction stops the film from feeling real, as well as that aforementioned digital shine. A soupcon of drama and a hole-ridden plot cannot be hidden by a handful of immense turns from Depp, Cotillard and Adam Mucci as a violent police interrogator).

The gloss of this production is worthy of commendation, but director Michael Mann would’ve done better to replace Bale with someone with more presence and intensity opposite Depp, who - in my opinion - has been a saviour of some poor pictures throughout his career, this being one. The trailer is pretty exciting though…

H

I thought that it may be nice to add a little music to the very new bellejam website. Lo Fi Culture Scene this is with Abstract - a band Hannah and I will be seeing live next month for Artrocker magazine - yes, you could say we are up and coming!! Haha. Anyways, a good song? What music are you liking at the moment?