A Quantum of Solace
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung yesterday had a witty guest column by Roger Moore about the James Bond title songs (from which the title vanished half way through his reign). I don't like the one for A Quantum of Solace very much, but then that was true for a number of Bond films and is actually my worst criticsm. Which isn't to say I loved the film the way I did Casino Royale, but then, I hadn't expected to; you can't repeat an origin story, and to make Casino Royale into a Bond origin story was the most inventive twist of that film. A Quantum of Solace, by contrast, is the franchise's first genuine sequel. Which is to say: if you haven't watched Casino Royale, you can't watch this one, because you'd missing out on several motivations, who-is-who's and wrap-ups. Those of you who are familiar with Joss Whedon might or might not recall his story about feeling completely betrayed when after the first Bond film he watched as a boy, Live and Let Die, Jane Seymour as Solitaire was nowhere to be seen and, like all other Bond girls except Diana Rigg's Tracy (whom Bond marries in In Her Majesty's Secret Service and who gets referenced a few times in later films, though only very briefly; in the books, both Vesper and Tracy get mentioned, but that's a different continuity), was never heard of again. (In the interview I've read, Joss continues by developing his own scenario for a Bond film. This involves Solitaire becoming the biggest bad of them all and putting Bond through hell. As is often the case, I can't tell whether he's kidding.) Anyway, our Mr. W. should be happy on this account with Quantum of Solace: Vesper Lynd is as often referenced as Rose Tyler in the third season of New Who.
Kidding aside, I'm actually happy about this, too. After twenty two films, they need to offer something they haven't done before on occasion, and if that's emotional continuity, all the better! What's more, the use of the supporting cast goes far beyond the pre-Craig era "Bond enters, flirts with Moneypenny, gets orders from M, gets snarked at by Q, exits". Needless to say, Judi Dench as M continues to rock, and the writing treats M as a character - and remembers they have Dench as an actress - rather than as a cypher. At the start of the film, one of her agents, who was with her for eight years, betrays her in what triggers the second action sequence of the film. The next time we see her, she's reacting to that instead of it being ignored, and it plays into the question of trust between her and Bond which is important throughout the movie. The biggest surprise for me was the return of Mathis. Especially since the film used Mathis to fake the audience out on the "who's the double" question. (The novel doesn't.) The Mathis scenes were in turns melancholy and touching, and used to highlight Bond is still capable of feeling deeply, no matter he tries not to feel anything at all anymore. Great interplay between the actors, too. Felix Leiter fans may be frustrated that his role continues to be small - though the scene he gets with Bond is a good one - but honestly, Felix isn't going anywhere, so I'm glad we had Mathis promoted to male-character-to-play off spot one more time.
As for Bond, it bears repeating: Daniel Craig really is the first one since Connery to sell the "dangerous agent/killer" dimension while also projecting emotion (Dalton did that, too, but with a far worse script in his second and last outing). And he really thrives when you give him character scenes with actors like Judi Dench or Giancarlo Giannini (who plays Mathis). His scenes with Olga Kurylenko, who plays Camille, this movie's main female character (the second Bond girl is Gemma Aterton as Fields, but she has a similarly brief role to Solange in Casino Royale), are also good. Incidentally, I missed most of the films of the Brosnan era since I don't like Pierce Brosnan and only saw Golden Eyes and the occasional fragments of scens from other films when switching channels, so I might be wrong, but Camille could be the first "main" Bond girl with whom Bond doesn't have sex with at all, as the script gives them more of a comrades-in-arms type of relationship and parallels Camille's near-suicidal vengeance quest, her literal and metaphorical scars with Bond's. (And I'd like to report that in a scene where I, veteran of 70s tv, thought "but she couldn't walk there with these shoes!", she immediately stifled my protest by taking them off and carrying them, thus being able to walk in a believable way.)
Lastly, this is definitely Bond reimagined not just in the post Le Carré but in the post-Spooks era. If you're not familiar with either: let's just say this particular outing isn't complimentary about American policy in South America, past and present, and relations between agencies are... strained. Now I really want to read that crossover in which M interacts with Harry. But not before astolat or someone else writes fanfic about her and Bond again, based on the juicy new material.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/425549.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
Kidding aside, I'm actually happy about this, too. After twenty two films, they need to offer something they haven't done before on occasion, and if that's emotional continuity, all the better! What's more, the use of the supporting cast goes far beyond the pre-Craig era "Bond enters, flirts with Moneypenny, gets orders from M, gets snarked at by Q, exits". Needless to say, Judi Dench as M continues to rock, and the writing treats M as a character - and remembers they have Dench as an actress - rather than as a cypher. At the start of the film, one of her agents, who was with her for eight years, betrays her in what triggers the second action sequence of the film. The next time we see her, she's reacting to that instead of it being ignored, and it plays into the question of trust between her and Bond which is important throughout the movie. The biggest surprise for me was the return of Mathis. Especially since the film used Mathis to fake the audience out on the "who's the double" question. (The novel doesn't.) The Mathis scenes were in turns melancholy and touching, and used to highlight Bond is still capable of feeling deeply, no matter he tries not to feel anything at all anymore. Great interplay between the actors, too. Felix Leiter fans may be frustrated that his role continues to be small - though the scene he gets with Bond is a good one - but honestly, Felix isn't going anywhere, so I'm glad we had Mathis promoted to male-character-to-play off spot one more time.
As for Bond, it bears repeating: Daniel Craig really is the first one since Connery to sell the "dangerous agent/killer" dimension while also projecting emotion (Dalton did that, too, but with a far worse script in his second and last outing). And he really thrives when you give him character scenes with actors like Judi Dench or Giancarlo Giannini (who plays Mathis). His scenes with Olga Kurylenko, who plays Camille, this movie's main female character (the second Bond girl is Gemma Aterton as Fields, but she has a similarly brief role to Solange in Casino Royale), are also good. Incidentally, I missed most of the films of the Brosnan era since I don't like Pierce Brosnan and only saw Golden Eyes and the occasional fragments of scens from other films when switching channels, so I might be wrong, but Camille could be the first "main" Bond girl with whom Bond doesn't have sex with at all, as the script gives them more of a comrades-in-arms type of relationship and parallels Camille's near-suicidal vengeance quest, her literal and metaphorical scars with Bond's. (And I'd like to report that in a scene where I, veteran of 70s tv, thought "but she couldn't walk there with these shoes!", she immediately stifled my protest by taking them off and carrying them, thus being able to walk in a believable way.)
Lastly, this is definitely Bond reimagined not just in the post Le Carré but in the post-Spooks era. If you're not familiar with either: let's just say this particular outing isn't complimentary about American policy in South America, past and present, and relations between agencies are... strained. Now I really want to read that crossover in which M interacts with Harry. But not before astolat or someone else writes fanfic about her and Bond again, based on the juicy new material.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/425549.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.