Shaun Tan’s ‘the Lost Thing’ as an animated short
Shaun Tan is one of my favorite authors/illustrator. His beautiful book The Lost Thing has been animated and I must say that it looks wonderful.
Have a look at the trailer:
Distilling the Aurora Borealous to make Music
I've been a big fan of Guy Maddin for several years now ever since the Walker first started showing his films. Unlike a lot of experimental film makers he has a great sense of humor. He also has a good feel for making the narrative seam like a dream. As good as his features are I think his shorts are even better.
The Canadian National Film Board is streaming his new short "Night Mayor' on their site right now. Here is a repost of it.
Please watch it in HD and full screen. I know this can take a while but you could take a nap, call your Grandmother, read the paper or write some poetry. Then come back and watch this film.
Thanks to the Criterion blog for the tip.
Bonus: Guy Maddin's Top Ten Movies
Mars : a trailer
I love the spaceships in this trailer.
MARS - The Movie [HD Trailer] from Geoff Marslett on Vimeo.
+ + + + + +
The animation used in this looks great and similar to the Richard Linklater animated films. My biggest problem with Linklater's "A Scanner Darkly" and "Waking Life" was that the acting came across as emotionless. I loved both the story and the look of the films. It will be interesting to see what another director can do with this technique.
DVDs of 2009
The BFI has a great list of peoples favorite DVDs that came out in 2009
Many of these films I have never heard of. The ones that I have seen are brilliant.
2009 in Photos day 2 and David Lynch
2009 in photos continues over at the Boston Globe. Part 2 of 3
also
Wookies give David Lynch a headache
Thirst
Park Chan-wook, the director of Old Boy brings us his new Korean Vampire horror thriller: Thirst
It opens in Minneapolis at the Lagoon Theater on September 4th, 2009!
Circus at the DNC. PBS shows Chicago 10
Chicago 10 - PBS - A Review
This week the PBS show Independent Lens showed the uniquely entertaining Chicago 10.
I always thought it was 7 but I was wrong. The film include 8th defendant Bobby Seale and the 2 defense lawyers William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass. The documentary included actual footage from the 1968 Democratic Convention along with an animated re-enactment of the courtroom scenes.
The voices in the animated sequences are played by Hank Azaria (Abby Hoffman), Mark Ruffalo (Jerry Rubin), Jeffery Wright (Bobby Seale), Liev Schreiber (William Kunstler), and Roy Scheider (Judge Julius Hoffman). The scenes that included Judge Hoffman being my favorite. His complete out of touch attitude setup the antics of Abby Hoffman and William Kunstler perfectly.
My only problem with the documentery was that there wasn't enough courtroom scenes and too much of the protests from the convention. Every moment of the court transcript is ripe drama and could have sustained the full movie.
After the documentary PBS played a short BBC news story from 1968. It had interviews with all of the involved parties.
The photo at the top of this page is by Richard Avedon. I saw an Avedon exhibit in the early 90s where this was shown on a wall opposite a photo of the Joint Cheifs of Staff. These photos were huge filling entire walls of the gallery rooms they were in. The exhibit was easily one of the best I've seen in my life.
My Name is Henry Krinkle* / Stu Shepard
Last night I watched Phone Booth and this morning I watched Taxi Driver. Now I have seen Taxi Driver more times than I care to admit, but it has been a while so after watching Phone Booth I was inspired to watch the real deal. I do remember that when Phone Booth was about to be released that the D.C. Sniper shootings were going on and so it was held back, and when it was finally released it was a quiet event.
The first thing that is obvious after watching Taxi Driver now is that this version of New York no longer exists. Sure there are probably the neighborhoods that no taxi driver would feel safe entering, but the New York in Taxi Driver had seediness around every corner.
Phone Booth is set in contemporary New York. The cleaned up sanitized Rudy Guiliani New York. The one where there is a Disney Store and a Starbucks and giant Billboards with celebrities. Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) reflects this world. He was created by it. You see Stu on every block in Midtown Manhattan.
Travis and Stuart are alike in their loneliness. Travis lives in his head with his psychosis where as Stuart has created this character that he lives through and is so harsh towards anyone else that it isolates him. Stuart has to be broken down in order to discover his loneliness.
It is funny how many similarities there are in these movies. Both movies have two women who are the focus between the main characters struggles. Travis has Betsy whom he wants to save from boredom and the lack of respect of her coworkers and Iris whom he wants to save from the horrible world that would subject an innocent child to such madness. Stu has Kelly, his wife whom he wants to keep from the lies he has to spin in the world he has created. He also has Pamela, the girl he thinks he has as a girlfriend who humors him because she thinks he is innocent but is oblivious to the lies he tells others about their relationship.
Travis and Stu also have male adversaries that complicate things raising the level of crisis in each persons life. In Taxi Driver it is Albert Brooks (Tom the campaign worker) and Harvey Kietels (pimp) characters who come between Travis and the women that he wants to be with or save. In Phone Booth it is Kiefer Sutherland (caller/sniper), Forest Whitaker (cop) and John Enos (strip club bouncer) who disrupt the lies between Stu and his wife and girlfriend.
Unfortunately in the end Phone Booth is not a great movie where Taxi Driver is a classic. Phone Booths problem comes form Kiefer Sutherland's character. He may be great in the character of Jack Bauer but he seems comical as the psychopathic caller who keeps Stu in the phone booth for the duration of the movie. The character almost comes off as camp where it should have been slow, methodical and sadistic.
* Henry Krinkle (origin)
Travis: Hey, what kind of guns do you guys carry? 38s, 45s, 357 Magnums, somethin' bigger maybe?
Agent: Look, uh, if you're really interested, if you give me your name and address, we'll send you all the information on how to apply. How's that?
Travis: You will?
Agent: Sure. (The agent takes out a notepad.)
Travis: OK. Why not? My name is Henry Krinkle. K-R-I-N-K-L-E. 154 Hopper Avenue.
Agent: Hopper?
Travis: Yeah. You know like a rabbit, hip, hop. Ha, ha. Fair Lawn, New Jersey.
Agent: Is there a zip code to that Henry?
Travis: Yeah, 610452. OK?
Agent: That's, uh, six digits.
Travis: Oh, well 61045.
Agent: OK.
Travis: I was thinking of my telephone number.
Agent: Well, I've got it all. Henry, we'll get all the stuff right out to you.
Travis: Thanks alot. Hey, great. Thanks alot. Hell, Jesus. Be careful today.
Agent: Right. Will do.
Travis: You have to be careful in and around a place like this. Bye.
James Jean Prada Video
Comic book cover artist James Jean has designed a video for Prada entitled Trembled Blossoms. The video is directed by James Lima with music by CocoRosie.
On Jean's blog he goes through a bit of the process of the design
that goes into this video.
Jean is an artist who is most know for his comic book covers.
He does the monthly cover for Fables which put out by Vertigo.
He also put out a limited edition book of his artwork that is a
must buy if you like his art. It is put out by Adhouse Books and available
at most independent comic book stores or online.
Here is a video of the book.
Now why did I make that movie?
It appears David Cross is having to defend himself for appearing in the fine Alvin and the Chipmunks film.
.... I tried again to explain the concept of the value of "credibility" and "artistic integrity" but he refused to take it in exchange for the house. This guy was a fucking idiot! But what could I do? He wouldn't take no for an answer. If I wanted that cottage I would have to pay him money.
If you check my daughters blog I'm sure she has Alvin & said Chipmunks in her top 5.
.. and Jees, cut the guy a break, he look awesome as Allen Ginsberg. Oh, this is actually Ginsberg.
What am I up to? Duh, watching Movies.
Yes I realize that I haven't posted in a coon'z age, and you might be thinking to yourselves that old Bill is gettin' might lazy.
Well you would be right.
One thing that I have been doing is watching movies. I think we can thank the TV networks for getting me off my ass and reminding me that the silver screen out does the boob tube 275 to 3. Those are exact numbers, check'em.
Here are some of the films that I have seen recently that I quite liked. They are in exact alphabetical order.
No Country For Old Men, The Orphanage, Persepolis, Juno, Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), Eastern Promises, Superbad, Enchanted, Charlie Wilson's War.
I also watched Inland Empire, but that is between me and my therapist.
One thing that I haven't been doing is watching movies on my phone. No sirree. I wouldn't do that.
He always swears. Does he have to do that? Every single fucking clip.
Como se dise Movie?
Satoshi Kon's Paprika
The NY Times has reviews of a couple of upcoming foreign films that look interesting.
The first is the Japanese animated film "Paprika". Not only does it look fantastic but it does what American animators fail to do, make films for adults.
The thing that I like most about Satoshi Kon's films is that they are not like most anime. His characters mix reality and fantasy but he draws from the west in ways that other Japanese animators don't. He is influenced by Alfred Hitchcock and Philip K. Dick. His stories tend to hold together slightly better then most . He also has a fantastic sense for the dream world and when scenes go down the rabbit hole it is best to go along for the ride. The ride is usually a fun one.
Satoshi's previous films are Tokyo Godfathers, Millinium Actress and Perfect Blue.
Luc Besson's Angel A.
Also coming out soon is a new movie from Luc Besson called Angel A. Besson's films are always worth tracking down. He makes Hollywood style films in a very un-Hollywood way. His output has slowed down in resent years and he has threatened to retire. I hope this is not the case.
All of Besson's films seem to have one character who is full of strength and confidence and another character who is vulnerable and needs saving. With a ton of action and violence these roles always seem to reverse by the end of the film. This film looks to be no different with a plot about a chain smoking, kick ass angel sent down to save a bumbling man who is about to commit suicide. The only difference is this appears to be a comedy instead of an action film. We will see.
I do remember the male character as the slow-witted produce stand worker from Amelie. His name is Jamel Debbouze and he was great in that.
After these two films comes the onslaught of the Cannes winners. There appears to be some good ones and I will write about them next time I'm thinking about film.
What have you seen lately? What are you looking forward to seeing? Leave a comment.