June 20, 2008
michael beharie dot com
he and tom wrote the music for my undergrad thesis. I made some videos with him this winter, one of them is on his new website.
hometown in the news
this scary thing happened right outside the coolidge corner theater on harvard street in brookline, my old haunt; I saw l'humanité, chuck and buck, freaks and the american astronaut there, all without knowing what I was in for, and many other great movies, and all for free after I bought the manager sour patch kids once and because one lecherous ticket taker had a thing for high school-age boys.
fantastique
stewart's friend is in this troupe. I once saw one of those japanese puppet theater (bunraku) plays filmed by cinematographer kazuo miyagawa -- rashomon, sansho the baliff and puppets?!
June 18, 2008
fragmented science
frederica started a blog. the title comes from a michael haneke quote, that's good enough for me.
UPDATE: she erased her only post. lame!
UPDATE: she erased her only post. lame!
June 16, 2008
June 15, 2008
celine and julie almost don't go boating
I didn't realize I had sat in the wrong theater yesterday until a pink HBO films logo came up, followed by shots of new york city over loud music. this was definitely not "one of the most accessibly enigmatic jewels of the french new wave," it was sex and the city! luckily, I found the basement theater and a seat in the front row just as the opening credits were ending, and 193 minutes later found my friends. director jacques rivette talks about the movies he loves and hates here.
June 13, 2008
sansho the baliff
playing at 11am tomorrow and sunday at the IFC.
I've seen 354 movies since I saw sansho the first time. I cried both times.
I've seen 354 movies since I saw sansho the first time. I cried both times.
June 11, 2008
June 9, 2008
not nicole kidman
today my boss referred to a certain actress as "the nicole kidman of korea." I've heard this from foreign moviemakers before, for some reason they think nicole kidman epitomizes english-language stardom. but in the united states, it's obvious that nicole is old news. who then, my boss asks, is the nicole kidman of the moment? angelina jolie seems the best bet. but maybe cate blanchett? kiera knightley? scarlett johansson?
frozen
travis and I realized we both have vivid memories of looking at the box of this movie at the video store but neither of us ever rented it. and we both remember the story ("based on real events") about a chinese artist who commits suicide by hypothermia, encasing himself in a block of ice to protest government repression (kind of the opposite of monks who light themselves on fire). it had a great cover and it still sounds good.
summer movies
I was talking with friends about how refreshing it is to think that the dark knight, the new batman movie with heath ledger as the joker (spooky), is going to blow ironman away. I think it has a chance of becoming the highest grossing movie of all time (titanic holds the record, $1.84 billion!) but when is it coming out? july fourth weekend? here are some summer movies I want to see and their release dates:
now playing
savage grace
the unknown woman
wonders are many
kung fu panda
take out
june 13
the happening (dir m. night)
my winnipeg (dir guy maddin)
baghead (duplass brothers)
quid pro quo
june 20
get smart
june 27
wall-e
july 2
hancock
july 11
hellboy 2
july 17
lou reed's berlin (dir julian schnabel)
july 18
the dark night
july 25
x-files 2
american teen
august 1
frozen river (sundance grand jury prize winner)
august 8
pineapple express
blindness
august 15
international (dir tom tykwer, starring clive owen)
towelhead
tropic thunder
august 22
I served the king of england
august 27
hamlet 2
august 29
babylon AD
traitor
vicky cristina barcelona (dir woody allen)
now playing
savage grace
the unknown woman
wonders are many
kung fu panda
take out
june 13
the happening (dir m. night)
my winnipeg (dir guy maddin)
baghead (duplass brothers)
quid pro quo
june 20
get smart
june 27
wall-e
july 2
hancock
july 11
hellboy 2
july 17
lou reed's berlin (dir julian schnabel)
july 18
the dark night
july 25
x-files 2
american teen
august 1
frozen river (sundance grand jury prize winner)
august 8
pineapple express
blindness
august 15
international (dir tom tykwer, starring clive owen)
towelhead
tropic thunder
august 22
I served the king of england
august 27
hamlet 2
august 29
babylon AD
traitor
vicky cristina barcelona (dir woody allen)
June 8, 2008
June 7, 2008
June 6, 2008
to see
tomorrow, 5pm at MoMA:
little fugitive, inspiration for the 400 blows.
this tuesday at the french institute alliance française:
the loneliness of the long distance singer, (directed by chris marker)
part of their yves montand retrospective through june & july.
little fugitive, inspiration for the 400 blows.
this tuesday at the french institute alliance française:
the loneliness of the long distance singer, (directed by chris marker)
part of their yves montand retrospective through june & july.
June 5, 2008
June 4, 2008
information movies
movies: images changing over time (moving images) with or without sound.
I have been thinking about the crisis movies are experiencing today because of new media (predominantly video games). it is similar to what painting went through at the advent of photography: when painting became unnecessary and was thought inferior for representation, practitioners were forced to recognize what was essential to their medium, the material and viewing conditions themselves (color, surface, exhibition, etc.), not subject matter.
since both movies and new media fit the definition given above we must amend it in order to differentiate what used to be from what is new. here, it is tempting to discuss the difference between film and digital technology, or the dissemination of movies over the internet, or the overwhelming popularity of games like halo 3, but what truly sets new media apart is not format or exhibition but interactivity, the ability for the audience to participate in what is seen and heard.
this also changes our understanding of the definition of movies, by making explicit what was only implied before: moving images with or without sound that are non-interactive. until now, this third characteristic of the medium was irrelevant to the definition because there was no other, interactive medium from which to differentiate what was just images with sound. but this quality, or lack thereof, was always an essential, if latent, part of the movie experience.
* * *
in october 2005, speaking against simultaneous theatrical and home release, m. night shyamalan said to the showeast convention of cinema exhibitors and distributors:
"I'm going to stop making movies if they end the cinema experience. if there's a last film that's released only theatrically, it'll have my name on it. this is life or death to me. if you tell audiences there's no difference between a theatrical experience and a DVD, then that's it, game over, and that whole art form is going to go away slowly."
but it is the remote control, not the DVD, that makes what he calls the "theatrical experience" of movies, but we understand is the non-interactive experience, different. alfred hitchcock, to whom shyamalan is often compared, put it this way: "the length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder." it is not the popcorn and throat-clearing we usually associate with the theatrical experience that makes it essential, not sitting in the "common dark," but sitting itself as opposed to playing and pausing. it is being creatively passive, which does not mean intellectually passive, to the experience of the movies.
recently vadim sent me this article about the slow pace of andrei tarkovsky films, which some say are boring and the author argues offer spiritual improvement. in the light of our new definition of movies, it becomes clear that tarkovsky's insistence on long shots and long movies (andrei rublev, tarkovsky's film about the 15th century icon painter, runs 205 minutes) derives directly from non-interactivity. indeed, a movie's pace and length are only relevant so long as the viewer cannot pause, rewind or fast-forward. difficult, if not impossible, to watch straight through, tarkovsky's movies challenge and raise his audience's consciousness by being defiantly non-interactive: long and boring.
* * *
from this new understanding we arrive back at the beginning, the crisis between movies and new media; but now there is a line drawn in the sand, on one side interactivity and on the other non-interactivity. there are already moviemakers who have chosen sides: on the DVD of timecode, which consists of four 97 minute-long shots shown simultaneously in splitscreen, the pause and rewind functions have been disabled. and the DVDs of david lynch's mulholland drive and inland empire have no chapters to navigate by. on the other hand, michael lew of the MIT media lab europe created office voodoo, "an algorithmic film with a real-time editing engine" that responds to viewer input.
for now, however, the majority of movies exist in the in-between zone; on youtube and ipods we have navigable progress bars, on the DVDs shyamalan spoke out against we have chapter breaks, angle and zoom control. but skipping ahead or pausing a movie to get a glass of water is a far cry from massive online role-playing games; it is only interactivity lite, the worst of both worlds. but as movie ticket sales continue to fall and video games proliferate (halo 4 and 5, wii II) , their will be a radicalization of non-interactivity. shyamalan's dream, or nightmare, of movies that are released only in theaters, -- and they won't be multiplexes but art-houses and museums -- will come true. and there will be stranger, as yet unimagined forms of exhibition.
I will continue to think and write on this subject and welcome comments and ideas.
-george
I have been thinking about the crisis movies are experiencing today because of new media (predominantly video games). it is similar to what painting went through at the advent of photography: when painting became unnecessary and was thought inferior for representation, practitioners were forced to recognize what was essential to their medium, the material and viewing conditions themselves (color, surface, exhibition, etc.), not subject matter.
since both movies and new media fit the definition given above we must amend it in order to differentiate what used to be from what is new. here, it is tempting to discuss the difference between film and digital technology, or the dissemination of movies over the internet, or the overwhelming popularity of games like halo 3, but what truly sets new media apart is not format or exhibition but interactivity, the ability for the audience to participate in what is seen and heard.
this also changes our understanding of the definition of movies, by making explicit what was only implied before: moving images with or without sound that are non-interactive. until now, this third characteristic of the medium was irrelevant to the definition because there was no other, interactive medium from which to differentiate what was just images with sound. but this quality, or lack thereof, was always an essential, if latent, part of the movie experience.
* * *
in october 2005, speaking against simultaneous theatrical and home release, m. night shyamalan said to the showeast convention of cinema exhibitors and distributors:
"I'm going to stop making movies if they end the cinema experience. if there's a last film that's released only theatrically, it'll have my name on it. this is life or death to me. if you tell audiences there's no difference between a theatrical experience and a DVD, then that's it, game over, and that whole art form is going to go away slowly."
but it is the remote control, not the DVD, that makes what he calls the "theatrical experience" of movies, but we understand is the non-interactive experience, different. alfred hitchcock, to whom shyamalan is often compared, put it this way: "the length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder." it is not the popcorn and throat-clearing we usually associate with the theatrical experience that makes it essential, not sitting in the "common dark," but sitting itself as opposed to playing and pausing. it is being creatively passive, which does not mean intellectually passive, to the experience of the movies.
recently vadim sent me this article about the slow pace of andrei tarkovsky films, which some say are boring and the author argues offer spiritual improvement. in the light of our new definition of movies, it becomes clear that tarkovsky's insistence on long shots and long movies (andrei rublev, tarkovsky's film about the 15th century icon painter, runs 205 minutes) derives directly from non-interactivity. indeed, a movie's pace and length are only relevant so long as the viewer cannot pause, rewind or fast-forward. difficult, if not impossible, to watch straight through, tarkovsky's movies challenge and raise his audience's consciousness by being defiantly non-interactive: long and boring.
* * *
from this new understanding we arrive back at the beginning, the crisis between movies and new media; but now there is a line drawn in the sand, on one side interactivity and on the other non-interactivity. there are already moviemakers who have chosen sides: on the DVD of timecode, which consists of four 97 minute-long shots shown simultaneously in splitscreen, the pause and rewind functions have been disabled. and the DVDs of david lynch's mulholland drive and inland empire have no chapters to navigate by. on the other hand, michael lew of the MIT media lab europe created office voodoo, "an algorithmic film with a real-time editing engine" that responds to viewer input.
for now, however, the majority of movies exist in the in-between zone; on youtube and ipods we have navigable progress bars, on the DVDs shyamalan spoke out against we have chapter breaks, angle and zoom control. but skipping ahead or pausing a movie to get a glass of water is a far cry from massive online role-playing games; it is only interactivity lite, the worst of both worlds. but as movie ticket sales continue to fall and video games proliferate (halo 4 and 5, wii II) , their will be a radicalization of non-interactivity. shyamalan's dream, or nightmare, of movies that are released only in theaters, -- and they won't be multiplexes but art-houses and museums -- will come true. and there will be stranger, as yet unimagined forms of exhibition.
I will continue to think and write on this subject and welcome comments and ideas.
-george
apple a day
posts are slowing down, but I have been watching movies, here's the rundown:
keane: actor damian lewis is a beast. he is on screen for almost every frame of this movie, the camera will not let him go. it's grueling to watch but so satisfying to see a insistent vision. writer/director lodge kerrigan studied cinematography (rather than directing) at NYU film school and shot his first feature clean, shaven as soon as he got out, more subjective, about a similar character, it is similarly awesome.
after life: drab bureaucrats help the recently deceased choose and film happy memories to take with them into heaven. almost like a frederick wiseman movie, what little plot there is only distracts from the pitch-perfect everydayness of the fantasy institution.
the linguists: documentary, great subject, bad moviemaking. linguists david harris and gregory anderson travel to remote corners of the globe to study endangered languages (from sora which has 300,000 speakers to chulym which has 5). but bad shooting, bad editing, etc.
nikamowin (song): experimental short video exploring the cree language. watch the intro here.
sikumi (on the ice): andrew okpeaha maclean's sundance jury prize-winning short was made with support of the sundance institute's native initiaive and in it the characters speak the previously unfilmed iñupiaq language. maclean wrote the script in english, his mother helped him translate it and he says he took some liberties with the english subtitles: "you're very, very crazy!" in iñupiaq he translates as "you crazy motherfucker!"
sympathy for mr. vengeance: manohla dargis disagrees but I think this is a ingenious critique of capitalist's society's effect on individual morality. out of financial desperation the characters do wrong and eye for an eye violence consumes the entire cast, but fails to have any effect on the original problem: the prohibitive cost of health care. part 1 of a trilogy with old boy and lady vengeance.
keane: actor damian lewis is a beast. he is on screen for almost every frame of this movie, the camera will not let him go. it's grueling to watch but so satisfying to see a insistent vision. writer/director lodge kerrigan studied cinematography (rather than directing) at NYU film school and shot his first feature clean, shaven as soon as he got out, more subjective, about a similar character, it is similarly awesome.
after life: drab bureaucrats help the recently deceased choose and film happy memories to take with them into heaven. almost like a frederick wiseman movie, what little plot there is only distracts from the pitch-perfect everydayness of the fantasy institution.
the linguists: documentary, great subject, bad moviemaking. linguists david harris and gregory anderson travel to remote corners of the globe to study endangered languages (from sora which has 300,000 speakers to chulym which has 5). but bad shooting, bad editing, etc.
nikamowin (song): experimental short video exploring the cree language. watch the intro here.
sikumi (on the ice): andrew okpeaha maclean's sundance jury prize-winning short was made with support of the sundance institute's native initiaive and in it the characters speak the previously unfilmed iñupiaq language. maclean wrote the script in english, his mother helped him translate it and he says he took some liberties with the english subtitles: "you're very, very crazy!" in iñupiaq he translates as "you crazy motherfucker!"
sympathy for mr. vengeance: manohla dargis disagrees but I think this is a ingenious critique of capitalist's society's effect on individual morality. out of financial desperation the characters do wrong and eye for an eye violence consumes the entire cast, but fails to have any effect on the original problem: the prohibitive cost of health care. part 1 of a trilogy with old boy and lady vengeance.
June 2, 2008
soultravelers3
her parents had her start playing violin at 23 months! here is a montage of her playing around the world and here is what she really sounds like. check out the family's website to try to understand them.
MTV movie awards
transformers won best picture, will smith best actor for I am legend, all the rest and pictures of lindsay lohan's marilyn monroe move here.
June 1, 2008
ballast
read this crotchety review of sundance darling ballast to get an approximation of how I felt about it. other reviews made reference to charles burnett's killer of sheep, presumably because it stars black people, and the dardenne brothers because it is handheld and depressing. director lance hammer (whose imdb credits include VFX work on batman forever and batman & robin) said he made the movie in response to his experience of the landscape in Mississippi but that he would only shoot when it was cloudy because of his affection for european cinema -- he should have just shot in belgium. he wouldn't say how much it cost (he said, "less than a million and more than two dollars") or how he got the money but he did say that he wrote for 2 years, shot for 45 days and edited for 2 years, so I guess he's independently wealthy.
from the guys who brought you superbad
david gordon green directed pineapple express?! why don't the ads say, "from the guy who brought you george washington and all the real girls?"
(DGG retrospective at BAM july 17-24.)
(DGG retrospective at BAM july 17-24.)
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