Archive for film
9.4.10
the river
Mystical, mysterious river magic.
*Not a music video, just scenes filmed on a river from The Anthropologist, a site discovered by Pia.
6.1.10
cracks
Haven’t seen this movie, but the English boarding school sets and costumes look like perfection.
4.21.10
les aventures extrodinaire d’adele blanc-sec
I don’t understand a word of it, but Luc Besson’s next film looks cute, like Amelie meets Indiana Jones. I’m such a sucker for archeology. (Found at Marraine’s place.)
3.22.10
the great white northern lights
This beautifully shot doc just premiered at SXSW. S’gonna be gooood. (That Jack sure wears a kilt well.) The Playlist raves…
Raw, rough-hewn and yet roaring with an electric vitality Emmet Malloy’s “The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights” is the blueprint for music docs that all filmmakers should strive for: ones that are loose, feel like they have a sense of danger to them and crackle with life. Without spoiling too much, the concluding, wordless scene is flooring. On the 10th anniversary of the band’s existence — still to this date their last show ever played so far — Jack White takes to a piano, exhausted, to play “White Moon.” It’s not for anyone other than Jack himself and Meg who quietly saddles up next to him on the piano bench. As White moans through the devastating catharsis of the song, Meg begins to gently weep as Malloy’s team silently captures the moment. It’s utterly breathtaking and quivers with emotion and magical, unspoken depth. Did the band break up in that moment? (That’s the rumor, they haven’t played since). It is a goodbye or happy tiresome tears for 10 years on the road or just of the moment? We may never know and it’s as beautiful a scene as anything burned onto celluloid we’ve seen this year.
3.19.10
eat, pray, love
I don’t care about the book’s backlash or that it stars Julia Roberts, I can’t wait to see this! (Anybody need a refresher on Elizabeth Gilbert’s inspiring TED talk about creative genius?)
P.S. The Hobbit begins filming in July :)
11.17.09
victorian love letters
Thank you to Pia for directing me to (the film) Bright Star’s website! Check out how love letters were folded in 1818 and all sorts of other romantic behind-the-scenes goodies from this gorgeous, gorgeous film.
11.12.09
sebastian’s voodoo
Guess I’m in a spooky, halloween-y mood about two weeks too late. My friend Susan sent me this short film that won best short film at a festival she attended a few weeks ago. Brilliant how such a brief narrative, without any dialogue, can provoke such an intense emotional response. At least from me!
I was reminded of this short film after reading this NYT’s article, Unleashing Life’s Wild Things, sent to me by my friend Kate. Incidentally, it relates to an on-going discussion with Susan (who makes short spooky films for kids) about what qualifies as too scary or mature for children these days. “Children’s horror” or “Spooky Children’s” is an expanding genre (think Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.) I guess you could even include Spooky Children’s Choirs if you count Dead Man’s Bones! The trick for writers/filmmakers who are creating spooky children’s material is determining what kind of spooky is just too spooky. There’s also a huge difference between what’s too spooky for a 4 year versus a 10 year old. Tricky business. Tricky market place. Where The Wild Things Are seems to have brought this discussion to the forefront recently.
*Note that I’m not even sure if Sebastian’s Voodoo qualifies as a spooky children short. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was made for adults. I don’t see kids relishing this short. Unless they are 11 year old boys. Maybe.
10.30.09
collapse
This is the documentary I wanted to make after I finished my Buckley film back in 2003. I even begun pre-production on it with a friend. It was going to be called “The Shift.” However, my research was so depressing and so overwhelming (and so frightening after I spoke with a man who worked consulted for a Pentagon think tank), I decided it best for my mental health not to immerse myself in this material for several years. Thankfully, Chris Smith did! Smith, one of my inspirations (he made one of my all time favorite docs, American Movie), has taken on a subject – THE subject – that I have been obsessed with for the past decade… the collapse of society as we know it. If you know me, then I’ve already chewed your ear about this a million times. And, I’m not talking about a collapse unfolding over the next few decades, but a radical spike in chaos over the next few years culminating in some pretty wild stuff that acts as a catalyst for systemic change. I truly believe that we all happen to be alive at the apex of a cycle that’s been winding to a close for hundreds (maybe thousands of years.) It’s like those of us who are alive at this juncture in history have won a bizarre lottery. This is no longer a slow unfolding, it’s the official turn of the tide.
Collapse, while highlighting the chaotic scenario as independent writer/researcher Michael Ruppert sees it, will also inevitably venture into what “knowing” this kind of information does to a person like Ruppert. Once you look behind the curtain of what mass media presents and investigate what’s really going on inside all of our major institutions from the Federal Reserve to Agribusiness, it’s enough to make even the most staunch optimists cynical, hopeless and paranoid. And, honestly, just because the word *conspiracy* is uttered around some of these topics, does not mean we should throw out the baby with the bath water. There are half-truths, lies and manipulations everywhere these days. Sometimes we have to open ourselves up to selective bits & pieces of conspiracies in order not to qualify as fools. It’s a delicate balance. My only worry is that the film is not going to delve into why this coming collapse will, ultimately, be one of the best things that could happen for this world – even if it’s going to be a rough ride for a bit – but I will save the post collapse discussion for another day!
This is definitely one of the must-see documentaries of the year. (It’s getting stellar reviews.) GO SEE THIS FILM when it opens on November 6th and we’ll talk…
10.18.09
bright star
This weekend we went to see Jane Campions’s, Bright Star, about John Keats love affair with his next door neighbor Fanny Brawne. It’s such an exquisite film with its delicious color and textures, the furniture, the teapots, the linen, the butterflies, the flowers, the handmade chapeau….and THE LIGHT. Everything in this film is so lovely and romantic and English! I wanted to jump inside and live there. The story, of course, chronicles a besotted Keats and Brawne and the poetry/letters their love inspired - You have absorb’d me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I was dissolving. [Sigh] Oh, to live the gentle life.
Here is a review of film, interpreting Campion’s unique approach to the affair, which focuses on Brawne as much if not more than Keats, worth reading if you liked the film. In retrospect, I can see how Campion chose to focus more on the “stuff” of Keats writing, rather than Keats himself.
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