Nadia Cheung

creative portfolio & blog

  • 24 Hour Party People

    Original article can be found here.

    One of the first things you may think about while in Manchester is the Madchester music scene and the Haçienda, before disappointingly discovering it is now a luxury apartment building with a reception and concierge next door to Deansgate Locks.

    But fear not, for Michael Winterbottom’s entertaining comedy 24 Hour Party People offers you the opportunity to relive what was best believed to be part of the height of the music culture in Manchester from the late 70s to the 90s, which arguably defined youth and rave culture as it is now.

    The film centres on Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan), the former television presenter, co-founder of Manchester’s Factory records, and manager of the Haçienda club which is central to the film’s setting. In this film, Tony Wilson frequently breaks the fourth wall, and in a sense, plays the role of the presenter of his own reality. 24 Hour Party People may very well be seen as a biographical film about Tony Wilson’s career, but through him, we discover how the iconic club Haçienda became as it was as dance music began to become more and more popular. We follow the shenanigans of Factory-signed bands from the likes of the Happy Mondays, Joy Division/New Order, and A Certain Ratio. Whether they actually happened in real life or not, it’s certainly funny.

    Of course, there were drugs, sex, and violence. The emphasis of ecstasy, dancing and raving until the early hours of the next morning places you in a sense of authenticity of what it could have possibly felt like in Madchester during the 1990s. But this is all done with no intended seriousness and Michael Winterbottom’s aim of a comedy, at the expense of these real-life characters, is well achieved.

    All in all, what can be taken from this film is a renewed fondness for Manchester and the music that came out which embodied what the city was and is still very much like. But you are introduced to bands that had arguably defined a part of the Manchester music scene as well as set a progressive trend for UK music. By the time you watch this film from beginning to end, whether you are new to Manchester or not, you may not have a completely accurate historical representation of Manchester, but what you will certainly have are a few authentic Mancunian bands under your belt if you did not know any already.

  • Still Alice

    If you know about the Oscar win, I think it’s fair to say that Julianne Moore without a doubt stood out in this particular film. If you didn’t. Well… now you do. Expect a really, really gripping performance by Julianne Moore.

    The protagonist of this film is Dr. Alice Howland, a successful academic, a mother to grown up children going on with their own lives and a wife to a man (Alec Baldwin) who also works just as much as she does career-wise. That being said, what seems to be a really good picture-perfect life begins to take a downfall when Alice begins to start losing her memory, setting you up for a wave of all kinds of emotions (because this is a drama).

    Still Alice is a typical drama that explores the conventions of emotions and complex subject matter. So any action you’ll see in this film will most likely be those associated with emotions.

    The focus of this film stays at home, where Alice’s journey of Alzheimer’s disease is followed. Still Alice explores family relationship dynamics as well as familial love. Kristen Stewart portrays worried daughter, Lydia, who works to build the bond on the between her and Alice.

    For a film that approaches the subject matter of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as being an adaptation of a book, Still Alice successfully takes an audience through an emotional journey of the protagonist’s problems into problems of our own, whilst also making us think about the values of love, family, and memory. I didn’t cry, but I did feel a wave of emotion hit me in certain parts of the film, and before I left the cinema, I made sure to check those behind me and saw an army of red, puffy faces.

    Original article can be found here.

  • Sex on Screen

    Film feature article exploring the evolution of sexual content in films. Originally published in The Mancunion, February 2015.

    I think it’s safe to say most people have seen sex on screen. From bare breasts to full frontal genitalia, there is a lot to say about films that have sex in them, as to pornography with a well-plotted narrative. Simulated or not, sex is part of being human. Like each human relationship, films with different narratives and stances on style will treat sex and eroticism differently. We can thank the 1960s for liberating pornography into the mainstream through to the 1970s where films like Deep Throat became box office smash hits. Experimental artists like Andy Warhol explored film as a new art medium to explored sex and voyeurism, opening the doors to bondage, homosexuality, as well as other forms of pornography. Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour is one of my personal favourites from this time—and I think it liberates fantasies of sadism, masochism and bondage on screen. Made in 1967, this film explores a recently married virgin who, rather than consummating her marriage with her husband, leads a secret life as a prostitute working in a high-class brothel during the day.

    In more recent years, films like Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac Part I and II have made us question film as art, whether we are being brought to the attention on the subject matter of a sex addiction, or if the shock value is what is desirable about it. Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue is the Warmest Colour also chooses to do this as well, but perhaps this is less shocking for some because it is a sexual relationship between two women being shown on screen explicitly. Pornhub recently published their most searched terms for their website, and for a few countries, particularly in the UK and in the USA, “lesbian” was the most popular to a majority of male subscribers. There is still a thing for MILFs and teens too, so not much has really changed.

    In terms of cinema history and some theory, too, you could very well argue that eroticism on screen began with women being portrayed as a visual pleasure for the spectator. I’ve lost count of the number of times I have seen bare breasts on screen, but I’ve certainly seen more than naked men on screen. Some films like Bronson (2008) treat male nudity as a choice that the characters themselves have made that you don’t quite question why or how—other than for comedic value. Sex symbols like Jean Harlow, Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe rose to prominence for their presence on screen as well as talent. Male counterparts of the female sex symbol also exist. Actors like Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, Channing Tatum among many others are those that many women (and men) gush over. But that isn’t necessarily sex—it is more of a fantasy. What I mean is that we are introduced to up and coming stars who are not only talented, but attractive, and we are given the privilege to look at them topless, semi-naked, or thrusting a fellow actor on screen.

    I think cinema today can say a lot about the society we live in. There has been a sense that even though we are in the 21st century, people are still tight-lipped about what they get up to behind closed doors—not a lot of people discuss sex openly and Andrew Haigh’s 2011 film Weekend articulates this idea beautifully—particularly when one of the main characters expresses how homosexual sex is treated as shameful, and it’s not talked about so much as heterosexual sex. However, films like The Living End (1992) and Law of Desire (1987) appropriate stereotypical attitudes to homosexuality. Both films are particularly funny, approaching subjects like the fear of AIDS and dysfunctional homosexual relationships that haven’t really been explored in mainstream cinema before. There are a lot of films that approach sex differently, and because sex is something so private to a lot of people, it can be uncomfortable for most to talk about – instead there are innuendos, corny jokes, and the occasional sharing of tips between on another. I feel that sex in film is a way to liberate this discomfort—visually experiencing something that feels familiar yet comparative. Perhaps that’s why 50 Shades of Grey has been so popular. Yes, we are so, so liberated.

  • Gilda (1946)

    There were a lot of films of the film noir genre which were released in the mid-1940s and this reflected many attitudes during and after the Second World War. Filmed in black and white and set in Buenos Aires, Argentina, just as World War Two ended, Gilda does not have the typical Hollywood narrative of equilibrium-disequilibrium-equilibrium. In fact, you could even argue that there is no narrative structure at all, that some events happen in the film out of nowhere, leading you to surprise or befuddlement.

    This film stars Rita Hayworth as the central character of Gilda, represented with the suggestion that she is the femme fatale character because she is the only female you ever really get to know at all; there is no questioning as to why that is. The femme fatale in this film is portrayed in a different light because you feel empathy for her. This contrasts with most femme fatales you may have come across, such as Barbara Stanwyck’s character Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity, where you do not at all see the struggles of the femme fatale and therefore cannot empathise or experience any particular emotions for her. You come to accept the punishment of the femme fatale because she has done wrong, favouring the male protagonist, who is the wronged one. In Gilda, however, you do empathise with the femme fatale, because you see her fall victim to the character of Johnny (Glenn Ford), her love. Gilda is subjected to punishment at numerous points in the film, which in some respect makes you truly feel sorry for her. This is subject to opinion, however.

    What I have found most intriguing about this film is the relationship between the two central male characters, Johnny and Ballin (George Macready) which you could somewhat describe as homoerotic. Several scenes are accompanied by visual innuendos; the weapon that Ballin had called his “little friend” hints at the third person in Ballin and Johnny’s relationship when Gilda is not present, leading us to the idea that this relationship is more than just a friendship. You might compare the weapon as possessing similarities to Gilda, who is the object of desire for both of these characters in this film.

    All in all, I think this film is a must-watch. There is a lot that can be read in this film and so many possible interpretations to be found, viewing after viewing, that it is certainly a classic. And if you haven’t seen it, well, what’s stopping you?

    Original article can be found here.