Dogme

I have just seen a film by a director who was a member of Dogme 95 and, I can tell you, it was very good. Called "The Hunt", it was about a youngish man who is accused of a sexual act against a young girl of about six years old and the dreadful consequences of the accusation: people in the village where he lives turn against him, at first just spurning him but later turn violently acting against him. That the accusation is false does nothing to prevent his downfall since, once the accusation has been made, then everyone believes it - no smoke without fire, sort of thing.
The gripping drama of the man's despair and later, when he's on the edge of insanity, is most compelling because in this day and age anyone could find himself (not often herself) facing a similar sort of dilemma. What do you if a child makes an accusation of sexual harassment against you? The child is always believed or even if he or she isn't, the police feel forced to investigate the matter and you find yourself in a similar position to the main character in this film.
Dogme filmmakers set out to go back to basic filmmaking concentrating on story, acting and theme. They set out in a sort of charter called "The Dogme 95 Manifesto" their rules for creating films: all films on location; hand-held cameras; no sound but real sound; no superficial action e.g. murders, weapons; director not credited and so on. No special effects.
The manifesto it seems was dropped in 2005 and the film-makers like Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg are a bit less inclined to keep to the rules they set out originally though the technique is basically the same: hand-held camera, no special effects and so on.
It works. You do get involved in the story and feel for the characters who are caught up in the action.
After seeing "Skyfall", this was a tonic even though the mood of the film is bleak.

Bond

I think it must be me. It seems that the whole wide world of film-goers are filling cinemas where the new Bond film is showing. In a complex in Cardiff it was showing in five cinemas at a time. Apparently it's the biggest money maker of all time for any films. Also, practically every film critic has praised it: look up the Rotten Tomatoes website and see that the world-wide critics of national newspapers and magazines give praise to it. So it must be me. I didn't like it much. I thought the opening sequence was exciting and that the song by Adele was almost as good as those Shirley Bassey's numbers e.g Diamonds are Forever. But that's about it. I had the feeling that the director Sam Mendes wanted to give some weight to the theme and characters - well, after all, he does have that status in the artistic world encompassing both stage and screen. But "stopping" to supply depth and weight made some of the film slow and sluggish - people talked instead of acted. And when they acted, things got really quite daft and a lot got to be unexplained. How did Bond escape from being drowned twice? When he prised out two pieces of metal from his chest, what were they and why didn't the analyst analyse them? Why was the girl shot? Why didn't they shoot Bond at the same time? Oh no, you can't do that - film over and finished before the villain, a particularly silly one here, had chance to quiz Bond over his relationship with M and to give the impression that his desire to kill M had something to do with mother love.
Okay, I may be wrong; maybe it had nothing to do with mother love. Maybe I was seeing depth when there was only the appearance of depth.
I like Daniel Craig as Bond: he's a more serious-minded guy that the others with their ability to dispense sly humour even when death is close. But he's wasted. I have the feeling he wants the films to be something they aren't - serious thrillers. They aren't and they never have been (maybe Goldfinger was close) and, Daniel, I'm afraid they never will be, what with the money they take at the box office controlling things. While Mendes and Craig may want to infuse depth into the formula, the producers will always insist on those "exciting" scenes that any under age person enjoys. "Cor, look at that explosion and now the gunfire: how can Bond escape from that?" Well, with one great leap Bond was free. Again.