Tag: film
artpost: preparing for lift-off
“A dangerous mission reunites STINGRAY SAM with his long lost accomplice, The Quasar Kid. Follow these two space-convicts as they earn their freedom in exchange for the rescue of a young girl who is being held captive by the genetically designed figurehead of a very wealthy planet. This musical space-western miniseries is designed for small screens and perfect for screens of all sizes. “
It’s not Werewolf Hunters of the Midwest, the next film he was ostensibly working on, but it looks to be just as weirdly captivating. For extra points, his sweetheart co-star in this kooky Cowboy Space Musical is his wee little daughter, it’s narrated by David Hyde Pierce, and rumour says it was filmed in only two weeks. I believe the proper response is Hell Yeah!!
found via Marc-Antony, popular purveyor of joy
falling in love with the fall
In Los Angeles circa 1915, a little immigrant girl (Catinca Untaru) is in a hospital recovering from a fall. She strikes up a friendship with a bedridden stunt-man (Lee Pace), who captivates her with a whimsical story that removes her far from the hospital doldrums into the exotic landscapes of her imagination. (All of which are actual places ~jh). Making sure he keeps the girl interested in the story he interweaves her family and people she likes from the hospital into his tale. Shot on location in 18 countries around the world, The Fall is a moving, visually sumptuous fantasy of exotic bandits, evil tyrants, dream-like palaces and breathtaking landscapes.
I’m showing Tarsem Singh’s The Fall at my place Sept 9th, 8 pm.
incredible
from nymag.com:
Tagline: “I’ll tell you a story…”
Translation: “…about how this film, from that one-named guy who directed The Cell, nearly got buried forever and has only now been resuscitated by David Fincher and Spike Jonze.”
The verdict: Remember The Cell? The hallucinogenically beautiful and vaguely nonsensical 2000 serial-killer movie starring Jennifer Lopez and Vincent D’Onofrio? Well, here comes The Fall, another hallucinogenically beautiful and potentially nonsensical movie from the same director, Tarsem Singh. The film, which the mono-named Tarsem shot in exotic locations by piggybacking on commercial shoots (!) and which he financed out of his own pocket (!!), premiered at the Toronto Film Festival way back in 2006. Grumpy reviews scared off distributors, and it’d been gathering dust — until David Fincher and Spike Jonze threw their collective cred behind it to secure a limited release. Now: Behold the colorful marvels of Tarsem’s world! Gasp at his visual acumen! Wonder if the story, which here looks like a mash-up of The English Patient, Pan’s Labyrinth, and 300 (right down to that dude booting that guy in the chest in slo-mo), actually holds together in any cohesive way! Or if that even matters! And download the haunting music (Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major) from iTunes, pronto. —Adam Sternbergh
thanks Keith!
for the record
I could say more, but it would be blathering and the important part is not what I have to say, but that it’s reduced me to blathering. It’s just that bloody good.
I literally yelped when I found out about this. Then I jumped up and down.
Pacific Cinematheque presents Tales of the Brothers Quay: A Retrospective
Stop-action nightmares are brought to life in this retrospective on Timothy and Stephen Quay, identical twins and masters of disturbing, fetishistic, visceral, and extraordinary animation. This double-bill program of thirteen shorts is selected from a quarter-century of startling work that has earned the brothers an enormous cult following. Includes Street of Crocodiles, recently selected by Terry Gilliam (Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Brazil) as one of the ten best animated films ever made. “This megadose of the Quays’ singular vision will haunt your perception for days” (Time Out New York).
Their The Piano-Tuner of Earthquakes stole my breath when it came through with the Vancouver International Film Festival. Ethan brought me. As arresting as Strings, (another film absolutely everyone must see), it was infatuating, erotic, and haunting. I’ve never stopped looking for a copy. We agreed after that we’d not ever seen anything that so exquisitely captured the marvelous feeling of a trembling dream. There was a sense of timelessness I couldn’t let go of, nor did I want to for days after. I could catch glimpses of it between my lashes as I sat looking out the window of the bus or waiting in a line-up. Their work is transformative and not to be missed.
So, that said, what are people doing Saturday night?
May 4, 5, 7. Titles + showtimes.
in my top ten powerful performances
“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
People commonly talk about Network using words like “classic” or “landmark”. My word is “essential,” as in absolutely necessary; indispensable; pertaining to or constituting the essence of a thing. Taking the ordinary vanity of television and turning it into a wicked radio babylon, it only continues to gain social relevance, even thirty years after its release. There has yet to be made a better exposure of the all too common greed-before-democracy propaganda reality that’s taken over popular media.
leaving without a conventional expression used at parting
Robson street, Vancouver’s brand-name straight-line shopping district. Peace as body lotion instead of solution, sold for fifty bucks a bottle behind white walls and vast plate windows, images torn from magazines that cost more than a meal. Thick with logo stamped angels, tight strappy sandals and tight strappy jeans, wide retail smiles and cocaine-bright children surgically attached to thin cell phones and even smaller hand-bag dogs, this is not my neighbourhood. Barefoot, I can feel the concrete but don’t feel connected. “Can’t buy me love, everybody tells me so.” Looking for nothing in particular, I stop for breakfast.
My dyed hair is a flag, marking my place in line. I look for my reflection in the black marble facade in front of me and find nothing but the eyes of red haired chef making crepes. On reflex I wink at him, but my thoughts are elsewhere, threading from the apparent cure for cancer just found in Alberta to the neuro-chemical reactions that trigger love; dopamine, serotonin, vasopressin. Triggered by the sad knowledge that I’ve likely burned out all the neurotransmitters that are part of the brain’s built-in reward system, I order my memorized taste of a perfect oxytocin kiss – strawberries, lemon juice, and sugar.
It works. Instant flash of a cold stone floor, the second hand taste of wine, cigarettes, a forged key to my weakness, waking with tousled black hair and my favourite voices. Music sent back and forth to finally meet in an airport, meet in a stairway, on the street, the lights strung up above the bed from before Persepolis abandoned me back. Why do they always have dark hair? I never noticed until just now. Curls. Temples going to silver, little places for me to kiss.
By the time I reach the bus-stop, I’m already talking to strangers and figuring out who to contact to prepare my house as efficiently as possible. My roommate, Sasha and I are on the same page. Out as soon as we can without leaving the other in the lurch. He’s going to be moving in with Mel, I’m still uncertain where I’ll end up. I need a staging ground for our last shot at the theatre before I finally give up, fold house, and leave town. Mihi cura futuri.
Akira Kurosawa‘s Rashomon has fallen into public domain and is now available on Internet Archive and Google video.
Sam’s in a silent Italiana nunsploitation film this year.
on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25th, just in time for Hallowe’en.
Screening of the Completed 5 min. Short Horror Films in 2006 BLOODSHOTS 48 HOUR HORROR FILMMAKING CHALLENGE
Other Films to Be Screened Time Permitting
Doors – 7:30pm Show – 8:00pm Admission – $5.00 at the door
The ANZA Club, #3 West 8th Ave. at Ontario St., Vancouver, B.C.
ZOMBIEWALK, written, directed and produced by Kryshan Randel, co-written by David Lewis, music by Goblin, starring David Lewis (Lake Placid, The Bully Solution) and hundreds of zombies. 5 min., documentary / news segment, 2006. Produced for Novus TV’s news program “City Lights” – On August 19 2006, hundreds of zombies marched the streets and beaches of downtown Vancouver; stopping traffic, climbing into moving vehicles, terrorizing beachgoers, and eating a whole lot of brains. And all of this was caught on tape, as exclusive media coverage of Vancouver’s second annual ZombieWalk.
WARNING: What you are about to see is 100% real, and is not for the faint of heart.
Time permitting, these will also screen:
VICTIM, directed by Kryshan Randel, written by Kathryn Cottam, produced by Tammy Bannister and Kryshan Randel, DOP Jason Pope, music by Julie Blue, edited by Tony Dean Smith, starring Victoria Bidewell (What Lies Beneath), James Lafazanos (Stargate: Atlantis) and Katrin Bowen (Bang!). 5 min., horror, 2004 – In the early ’70s, Jessie frantically searched for her missing boyfriend deep within the woods, and discovered a terrifying secret. VICTIM was made for the 2004 Bloodshots Film Festival, and had to incorporate backwoods horror, a crab, a chainsaw and the line “I gave blood last month”.
THE CRITIC, written & directed by Jaman Lloyd, produced by Chris Ferguson, staring Matthew Walker & Paul Anthony, 11 min., Crazy 8’s, 2006 – a gothic horror set in 1840s Philadelphia exploring the last moments of a literary critic confronted by a spurned poet. James Wilmot narrates his final night alive when confronted by an obscured and bedimmed figure. The figure is Edgar Allen Poe who has come to kill Wilmot for the degradation of his early writings.
THE VEIL Directed by Mike Jackson, Written by Sam Dulmage and Mike Jackson, Cinematography by Sam Dulmage, Music by Jeff Tymoschuk, Edited by Jean-Denis Rouette, starring Corina Akeson, MacKenzie Gray & Charles Zuckermann with Toren Atkinson and Robyn Forsyth. 11 min., Horror, Short, 2006 – A young married woman is haunted by dark visions. Is it her medication, or something more sinister? A lovecraftian period piece. 2005 Bloodshots horror short competition. This 11-minute version has been re-edited and re-mixed, with additional scoring and visual effects. Official Selection of the Chicago Horror Film Festival, H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, Chicago International REEL Shorts Festival, and plays Oct. 22 at the Toronto After Dark Horror Festival.
cut and pasted from rumble.org
I do these every year and I have yet to regret it. The Eye of Newt Collective is an exceptionally good group of musicians, I’ve been an avid fan of the NOW Orchestra ever since I was a little kid. The people who come out to these tend to be of the fun and educated sort. I’m going to be at this tonight, you should be too.
Also, in lieu of a Friday night party at my house, we’re having another Sunday Garden party at my night-time house,so drop by this Sunday, at Victoria Drive between Grant and Graveley, anytime between 2 pm and 8 pm. Bring instruments, and food if you like, we’re stocking up at the farmer’s market tomorrow, and we can throw together a meal for 6-ish. (And of course there will be copious amounts of red wine.) Then, at 8:00, we’re trooping down to Grandview park for the outdoor screening of the 1927 silent classic Metropolis, (see below).
Silent Summer Nights
Celebrate the End of Summer in Style
Grandview Park, Commercial Drive at William Street, Vancouver
September 1 – 3, 2006
Screenings begin at 8:15pm – FREE !
Do something a little different this Labour Day weekend—stroll into Commercial Drive’s Grandview Park for the sixth annual Silent Summer Nights, three glorious evenings of the best in silent film. Park your blanket under the stars and enjoy great cinema, all to the thrilling accompaniment of original live music by Eye of Newt and special guests. A Labour Day classic.
Weather Update, Sept 1, 2006: It’s Sunny—see you there!
The Gold Rush
(1925) Friday, September 1, 2006
The film Charlie Chaplin most wanted to be remembered by – The Gold Rush is the quintessential Chaplin film, with a balance of slapstick comedy and pantomime, social satire, and moments of tenderness. A Lone Prospector, a valiant weakling, seeks fame and fortune in the mad rush for hidden gold in the Alaskan wilderness.
Featuring live accompaniment by Stefan Smulovitz (viola/laptop), Viviane Houl (voice), Pepe Danza (winds/percussion), and Peggy Lee (cello).
Three Monks
(1980) Saturday, September 2, 2006
Winner of a Golden Rooster and a Silver Bear, A Da’s animated Three Monks is an adaptation of a Chinese folk proverb:
“One monk will shoulder two buckets of water, two monks will share the load, but add a third and no one will want to fetch the water.”
Featuring live accompaniment by Stefan Smulovitz (viola/laptop), Viviane Houle (voice), Pepe Danza (winds/percussion), Peggy Lee (cello), with narration by Andrew Laurensen.
Metropolis
(1927) Sunday, September 3, 2006
Possibly the crowning achievement of silent cinema, Fritz Lang’s blockbuster fuses the frenetic storytelling of twenties pulp fiction with Lang’s personal fascination with the dark side of human nature. A vast towering city’s exploited subterranean workforce threatens to overthrow the technocratic elite who callously rule them from above – even if it means destroying the city itself. Lang’s dystopian vision of the future pits science against religion, love against death and revenge against redemption.
Featuring live accompaniment by Chris Kelly (sax/laptop), Randall Schmid (guitar), Pete Schmitt (bass), Skye Brooks (drums)
Eye of Newt’s Silent Summer Nights is a Rumble and Radix co-presentation.
This event is supported by Black Dog Video, The Wise Hall, Artrageous, and Now Orchestra.