It's a shitty week for lovers of art house films. The great Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni died today. He directed L'Avventura, which like it or not, changed the way people make films. He was 97 though so we knew it was coming soon.
Hopefully Woody Allen and Jean Luc Godard can make it to the end of the week.
I knew it was gonna happen soon but it still hits me pretty hard. This man is largly responsible for my post 2000 film making resurgence. His dramatic films are suffused with the stuff that all great directors strive for: internal realism. So many directors have tried to emulate his approach to moviemaking. The most successful is Woody Allen. Bergman's followers are legion but their names escape me at this time. Go out and watch Scenes from a Marriage, Wild Strawberries, Persona, Saraband...where to start. If you aren't familiar with him go out and do so.
Mona and I tried to go see Sunshine, the new Danny Boyle movie, today but didn't get around to it. We'll try to see it very soon. K.M. saw it and said it's a winner. What it's got going for it in my opinion is the cast (Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh and those other people who I've seen and loved but can't recall where) and the Cinematographer(Alwin Kulcher, responsible for lensing two of my recent favs: Morvern Callar and Code 46). With all this mindless action and sci-fi coming out who doesn't want a substantial, mind-fuck of a summer blockbuster?
We drove to Richmond's Yaohan Mall twice in the last 14 hours to acquire high end hair products at discount prices . Last night we got there at 8:30 only to discover it closed at 8. So off we went today for a repeat expedition. Mona dropped $124 but when you buy it by the gallon you know it's gonna last. The asian guy that sold it to her seemed to know his stuff, albiet spoke too fast for one with such limited English skills. He kept pushing the buy-more-you-get-discount mantra, which seemed to have some merit since I've seen what women pay for this stuff in salons and it's not mice nuts.
Off to Kelowna on Thursday for four days. Bask in heat, drink, hang out with family will be the program once we get to the Vineland.
This is an old post that got lost in the shuffle. So here it is. I think it's as relevant as it was when I wrote it...
Mona and I finally received the Four Eyed Monsters DVD in the mail yesterday.
It took over 2 months for us to get it but seeing how they are basically a two person operation, we let it slide. Up to this point I've been watching their podcasts and following the life of this film. Arin and Susan, who are the writers and directors of this film, have done an amazing job marketing and promoting this film. I was fearing it was gonna suck huge. With so much sub-standard crap being thrown at us these days it's impossible to wade through the hype.
We really wanted to like this film but expected it to be a piece of crap.
We put the disc in our DVD player and braced ourselves for a pretentious, stilted, overly earnest look at NYC scenester life. After the first ten minutes Mona and I looked at each other and said - so far it's pretty good. This feeling only intensified as the movie went on. When it finally ended we both agreed that this movie was FUCKING AMAZING.
It is a deft look at relationships. The main characters, who are just romanticized versions of Arin and Susan, don't want to slide into the same shitty behavioral patterns they have in the past. These two don't want to become the same old Four Eyed Monsters (couples) you see at cafes, movies and park benches. It is funny too. I wasn't expecting it to be as droll as it was, you don't really get that from the podcasts they made to accompany this film. There are some great pseudo-doc moments that are on par with Christopher Guest's best stuff.
The editing, visual aesthetic and pacing are all first rate without being too slick.
So, yes this is a great addition to an already strong American idie scene that's been building over the last few years. I don't quite think this counts as being Mumblecore but it's just as good as any of those filmmakers entries.
you can see the whole film on youtube until Aug 15th.
Had to post about Colin's latest audio projects. Nowadays, it seems my good friend is recording some of the best bands around, not just locally, but internationally, too. He's recently finished two albums I am particularly excited about.
I've been listening to the Cave Singers since it was completed a few months now. They hail from Seattle and are masters of channeling that great rootsy hillybilly sound that many artists have done over the last decade (Will Oldham is the first that comes to mind). This was recorded at the hive with little fanfare or prospects of being released. Then they got signed to Matador and you know the rest. This is hot indie-folk that will gain a audience. I am not sure how big but they will be devoted.
Hear a Cave Singers track from the matador website - Seed of Night
Then there are the Ten Kens. They are the best band I've ever heard to come out of Toronto. Yes, I am including Broken Social Scene, Triumph and Rush.
Colin is starting to become a very in-demand producer and over the last few years he has traveled to other studios to record bands. This is the case with the Ten Kens, in which he chose to go to Montreal and lay down tracks at Break Glass studios (Wolf Parade, Besnard Lakes, Sunset Rubdown). The result is an album soaked in natural reverb, the stuff us audio fanatics dream about. The main recording room at the studio is just amazing sounding. Colin has, in my opinion, recorded some of the best drum sounds of his career (or anyone's for that matter). These are un-mastered tracks I am listening to as well so that makes what he's done even more astonishing.
Not to overshadow the band themselves, who are very original and extremely listenable at the same time but Colin likens their sound to Nirvana though I don't really hear it as much. They do have that Canadian indie sound (Victoria-via-Montreal) that is winning over the world and thanks to them being on Fat Cat I'm sure that's just what they will do. David Lynch sountracks, Noir-Country, and Late-80's College rock: these are all conjured up when you listen to their tracks. You can go to their myspace page to hear their songs until their record comes out in a few months.
Myriad Harbour is probably the best New Pornographers song to date. As we know, Dan Bejar is an active recording and touring member of said Vancouver supergroup. Every album, they allow him a couple of songs to fill out the track list. He's the darker edge that offsets the power pop sweetness that is key to huge success they have achieved.
In the past, I thought his additions to NP albums were too finely polished and quantized by the machine that A.C. Newman captains. This time around he's channeling the same ghosts of rock past that he does in his other group but when the background vocals kick in you know it's none other than the New Pornographers. Still, the ragged beauty of a Dan Bejar song reaches the listener unmolested.
I have noticed since their last album things have gotten a little more melancholic in NP land. It's a good move and Dan Bejar fits in perfectly with this new aesthetic.
Sure, there are better songs on Destroyer albums but this is going to be heard by a lot more people. That more people will finally hear less diluted Bejar is a long time coming. The mainstream is finally getting a taste of what great music lies just below the surface.
First, I wanted to illustrate this point: I am able to run over uneven terrain for great distances with out upsetting my equilibrium.
I am fed up with the state of the sidewalks in East Van; the streets are hilly, undulating, peaceful tree-lined idyllic setting, perfect for running, right? Don't be lulled in by these serene setting, it's war out there. These trees have root structures that are perfect for forcing sidewalks into jagged foot hungry predators. In my life as a runner, which started in July of 1990, I have lost my footing only 2 or 3 times. In the last four months I have been tripped up 3 times by the mean streets of East Van, almost 4 but that time the edge of the sidewalk just ripped a hole in the side of my right shoe.
I don't expect the city to do anything about this. They have already tried to smooth out some of the nastier spots with asphalt. Right now, they are putting all their money into the Olympics, which is far more important for their public profile.
What I do suggest, though, is the citizens of the area not ride their bikes on the sidewalks. It's hard enough trying to watch your footing without some myopic septuagenarian coming at you with a rickety old 10 speed. Also, when riding your bike in a prohibited zone try not to carry two cardboard boxes, which further inhibits your less-than-ideal pedal pushing skills. I am glad that none of them wear helmets (even though it is the law, our Olympic -centric civil servants turn a blind eye) because it makes it easier for me to store your guilty faces in my lexicon of inconsiderate cluster-fucks. Your time will come.
M.M. and I just saw Paris Je T'aime and, in our estimation, it's one of the best collection of short subjects every put up on the screen. This shouldn't work in theory. Two producers come up with and idea to have 18 world renowned directors describe their favourite French city. Add some A-list actors, the best cinemtographers and mix vigorously. The result: comedy, drama and romance along the better streets and buildings of Paris. After having just seen the hit-or-miss collection Chacun Son Cinema we thought PJT would be more of the same. Not so, this is one hell of a consistent compendium.
Of course, some of them stood out but of the whole collection there were probably only three I didn't like: one involving mimes (you knew there was gonna be one of those) and a Vampire who's got the hots for everyone's favourite Hobbit were two of the lesser entries. Not that they were bad, just not my taste.
I feel truly inspired after seeing these films and am suffused with the power of Cinema's potential. PJT is the best of that art form. The assembled actors are the finest working today and include: Maggie Gyllenhal, Emily Mortimer, Natalie Portman, Sergio Castellito, Steve Buscemi, and Gena Rowlands. It amazes me now how much these directors packed into a short considering they've been working with long form pieces for the greater part of their careers.
The directors that surprised me the most were Wes Craven and Alexander Payne. The master of horror's entry, "Pere-Lachaise", is in full Woody Allen mode and man does he have a deft touch when he leaves his comfort zone. I would love to see more projects from him like this. Mr. Payne's entry "14th Arrondissement" shows his talent for blending humour and poignancy without the benifit of a feature length pallette. After writing him off because of my dislike of his last two films this is being very generous but deservedly so. This omnibus has really made me reassess cinema's bastard child, the short film.
Furthermore, I was very moved by the sum of all these films. When I forget to criticize what makes a film tick and am just swept away by the sounds and images this is a sign of great art. It shows that even though the whole endeavor may be contrived and packaged to entertain the masses the outcome can still be sublime.
Just finished ready Harkuki Murakami's Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and Kafka on the Shore, back-to-back. They totally straddle the line between what's real and imagined in a brilliant way. Murakami loves to put the everyman/woman in otherworldly situations and then take them (and you) to fantastically imagined planes of reality. I would recommend his books to anyone who loves detective stories that go deeper than the standard Raymond Chandler or James Elroy crime novels. What I'm trying to say is: his books are modern extensions of what noir masters have set forth. Not for everyone but for those who get Murakami he makes our lives feel a bit more substantial. He writes about Japanese people but from a western point of view. His Japan is informed by the west and isn't some exoticized Eastern netherworld. I need to read his new book After Dark and his biography to completely absorb the entire canon (aside from a few short stories).
Last night we showed our trailer 3 special guests whom gave us many helpful hints. They mostly liked it but they felt it needed some more key points of info. We're up to the task so it won't be a problem. When you seen the final film you won't be disappointed.
