Archive for trailers
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 :)
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…
9.29.09
whip it
Two choice tracks off the Whip It soundtrack, which R.O.C.K.S. It’s good to be excited about a movie again. There was a dearth of good movies this summer.
“Pot Kettle Black” by Tilly & The Wall (who gave one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen.)
“Boys Wanna Be Her” – don’t watch (just listen) if you don’t want to see Peaches doing her thing and some hand banging bloody heads…
6.6.09
food, inc.
Viva la food revolution!
With a constituency limited to anyone who eats, “Food, Inc.” is a civilized horror movie for the socially conscious, the nutritionally curious and the hungry. Yes, it has a deceptively cheery palette, but helmer Robert Kenner’s doc — which does for the supermarket what “Jaws” did for the beach — marches straight into the dark side of cutthroat agri-business, corporatized meat and the greedy manipulation of both genetics and the law. Doc biz may be in the doldrums, but “Food, Inc.” is so aesthetically polished and politically urgent, theatrical play seems a no-brainer, though it won’t do much for popcorn sales.
[...]
Disturbing as it is, “Food, Inc.” doesn’t present some doomsday scenario. People can make a difference, it says: After all, look what happened to Big Tobacco.
– Variety
5.6.09
district 9
I hate horror films, but I’m a sucker for a good sci-fi alien movie, especially one produced by Peter Jackson! The premise sounds fascinating – “District 9 depicts a fictional world where extraterrestrials have become refugees in South Africa.” I like the raw, pseudo-documentary feel of the trailer. The best sci-fi films are the gritty ones that are not too slick with just enough special effects to make it real. (Though, the film’s website is definitely slick.) I’m excited to see it, even though I kinda giggled when the alien started clickity-clacking away. There’s also a part of me that’s worried that these aliens are going to be mistreated and discriminated against, and I’ll leave feeling horrible about the human race. Remember how you felt after E.T.?
4.20.09
the countess
I adore July Delpy. If Before Sunrise and Before Sunset were coupled into one film it would be my number one movie of all time, ever. I’m also a big fan of her directorial debut, 2 Days in Paris, which tackled two of my favorite topics, Americans in Paris and the realities of love. (Not only did Julie star in 2 Days in Paris, but she wrote it, produced it, composed the music, and took all the photographs included in the film!) There are not too many female filmmakers out there these days, so I find Julie (along with Sofia Coppola) very inspiring.
Julie’s latest film, The Countess, is loosely based on the life of Elizabeth_Báthory, a Hungarian countess who reputedly killed young virgins, drained them, and then drank and bathed in their blood. Báthory’s legend makes her history’s most notorious female serial killer. In fact, it’s rumored that Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula was actually based on Báthory.
The trailer for The Countess makes me think that Julie chose to focus less on Báthory’s “vampirism” and more on what might drive a woman like Báthory to become so obsessed with maintaining youth and beauty that she becomes a deranged murderer — basically, a *mediation on aging* Delpy style!
About the archives
Welcome to the archives here at Cherry Coloured . Have a look around.
