"Someone like Jean-Luc Godard is for me intellectual counterfeit money when compared to a good kung fu film."
January 04, 2007
Ha ha... Hal Hartley:
"I used to co-own a video store and we had a “respected American directors” section. Hal Hartley was not in it. People wearing untucked dress shirts would always ask me why he was not in that section, and I would reply “Because we don’t respect him, his movies are over here with the Mike Leigh and Atom Egoyan stuff”."
From Chunklet's The Most Overrated Indie/Underground/Art Filmmakers of All Time! Yeah, the Chunklet dudes can be know it all pricks, but at least when the guy disses Godard, he urges the clueless hipster to watch Robert Bresson instead!
posted by Sean on 1/04/2007 10:01:00 PM| link
December 05, 2006
The halcyon days of VHS! -- who knew that we would be nostalgic for those glorious hours spent in the mom-and-pop video store, with the oversized boxes, faded from constant plate-glass sunlight... and the boxes, empty and cellophane wrapped (the tapes shelved safely behind the counter), lighter than air almost, would tumble like hollow dominoes with the merest brush of an elbow. And the forbidden pleasures and horrors the box's artwork would promise-- as if you would never see a movie bloodier and and more debasing than Dr. Butcher, M.D. (Medical Deviant), until you run across a tattered box for Bloodsucking Freaks, and then, one step beyond, the non plus ultra of home video depravity, Faces of Death, where real people actually died on screen! What a world!
See glorious examples of VHS box-art with Critical Condition's A Visual History of Video Companies in the 80s, a series that begins with examples of Paragon's releases, and will update with examples of other video producers like Midnight Video, Gorgon Video, Media Home Entertainment and Wizard Video. 2 day rentals only $2.50! Free popcorn!
posted by Sean on 12/05/2006 09:11:00 PM| link
November 30, 2006
Found on YouTube-- See it before the powers that be take it away. A video mashup with the title sequence of the new Casino Royale (very nice in its own right) set to the original Burt Bacharach penned Casino Royale theme from the 1967 spoof. Not earth shattering, but prety cool to watch. Anyway, more on Casino Royale this weekend.
posted by Sean on 11/30/2006 11:15:00 PM| link
November 21, 2006
R.I.P. Robert Altman... American Patriot, Filmmaker, Crazy Coot, Great Unique Talent, Dog Tattooist...
GA: ...Is it true that in the forties you used to tattoo dogs?
RA: Absolutely.
GA: Can you explain?
RA: Well, in the forties, I tattooed dogs.
Right after the war I got a dog for myself, a personal dog. I don't know why, it was a terrible Bull Terrier. The guy I bought it from had this thing called an identicode, which he would tattoo on to dogs for identification. I thought this was a terrific idea. Before I got out of the shop with my Bull Terrier, I was the vice-president of this company.
So, I became the tattooist. We would take the dog, and inside the groin, by the right-hind leg, we would shave and put on the antiseptic fluid and then with the tattooing machine I would do letters, and I got pretty good at it, and we'd put the number of that dog that was registered. We thought we were off to be millionaires. It turned out that I just got a few dog bites.
GA: I also heard that you tattooed President Truman's dog.
RA: Yes, I did. We tattooed Harry Truman's dog in Washington. That was a publicity stunt. Although the dog was actually tattooed. I also tattooed a waiter.
He was bringing drinks up to a hotel and he said, 'What are you guys doing.' We told him we tattooed and he said, 'I always wanted to have that!' So, we were a little drunken, I remember this guy took his shoe off and I tattooed on the bottom of his foot his army serial number and his name. His name was D W Stiles. I don't remember his number.
GA: Do you regret having given that up for film-making?
RA: Well...they're both about the same.
posted by Sean on 11/21/2006 07:09:00 PM| link
November 15, 2006
While we may marvel at Hitchcock's artistry and crafty cinema, I've always been fascinated by Hitchcock the huckster, the self-promoter. I've often wondered when Hitchcock was first pushed as a selling point for his productions. In his his early days in Britain, he was touted as a "boy genius", and, with his series of thrillers in the 30s, he was starting to wear the sobriquet of a "master of suspense". But when exactly was the image of Hitchcock, the droll fat man in funereal black suit as we know him today and as we knew him forever, used to sell a picture? Was it this sort of ugly looking caricature on this poster for his 1942 movie Suspicion. And not to think that this is too much of an anomaly, here's another poster for the very same film, now featuring a much more stylized impression of Mr. Hitchcock (and much more flattering to boot!). His distinctive physical appearance was one that Hitchcock used to separate himself from his peers. One can't imagine seeing a picture of an eyepatch wearing Ford chewing on a handkerchief pushing Gideon of Scotland Yard or slim, gray Hawks pushing Man's Favorite Sport? Of course, his sense of cinema was distinctive enough to set him apart as well.
Yes, this is a very modest and pissant addition to the Hitchcock blog-o-thon!
posted by Sean on 11/15/2006 08:43:00 PM| link
November 12, 2006
Raise a tall glass, wherever you are, to the memory of Jack Palance, issue of Ukrainian-Pennsylvanian coal mining folk, former prize fighter, American film star. As distinctive as his face (sharp, flat, angular, cubist almost) was his voice (also sharp, flat, angular, probably not cubist though). While his looks made him a movie heavy, his voice, velvety smooth and sharp and cruel made him an actor that transcended the lot of your usual 1950s badguys like Jack Elam, Lee Van Cleef and Neville Brand (although I'm very fond of those guys as well). While his face scored some very memorable moments in film (like his his scarifying death grimace at the end of Aldrich's Attack, a spectacular film!), it was his voice that created exquisite moments of cinema for me.He didn't write the lines he spoke, but by all rights, we should claim ownership. Here are a couple.
"Pick up the gun..." from Shane, incorporated into a great bit by Bill Hicks...
"Gods. I like gods. I like them very much. I know exactly how they feel. Exactly." Godard cast Palance as the vulgar American movie producer Jeremy Prokosch for his Contempt. Palance was reportedly very miserable while making the film as Godard refused to listen to any of his ideas for the role, giving him the most menial physical instructions: walk three steps, hit the mark, look to the left and smile... They squabbled throughout the shoot and Palance phoned his agent everyday to get him off the production. Afterwards, Palance referred to Contempt, a film one critic called the "greatest work of art produced in post-war Europe", as a picture he made with "some French director". The tensions made for great cinema, though, and Palance's bestial performance is crucial to the film.
But Palance had little regard for most of his film work. "Most of the stuff I do is garbage," he said. He also had nothing but disdain for his directors, "Most of them shouldn't even be directing traffic."
One of those directors he disdained was probably that Spanish iconoclast, the visionary/hack (or hack/visionary) Jesus Franco, who directed him in Justine, an adaptation of a Marquis de Sade piece, where Palance chews the scenery like Matter Eater Lad (on acid!). Don't believe me? See highlights of his performance here.
You wouldn't want to hear Palance upset either! But if you do, listen here (mp3).
Also, he recorded an album in the late 60s, a Lee Hazelwood influenced country-ish effort. Here's a song he wrote and sang, "The Meanest Man Who Ever Lived".
posted by Sean on 11/12/2006 10:13:00 PM| link
November 09, 2006
One of these days a legit version of El Topo's going to be released in North America, maybe soon (here's a site for Abcko Films, who are going to release three of Jodorowsky's films, in theaters and on DVD, one of these days --check out the nifty video!-- Jodorowsky is such a delightful blowhard). In the meantime, let's go crazy with some El Topo links, shall we? First, crazy stills from the movie... from Subterranean Cinema, the complete text (with images) from El Topo: A Book of the Film (the script, actually)... also, from subcin, the complete soundtrack (in mp3) from the El Topo soundtrack (released by Apple Records!)... if that's not enough, there's a motherlode of links on Jodorowsky here (the guy does not lack for fans), including this really interesting essay on Mexican experimental cinema (Jodo wasn't the only one)... Also, if you're lucky, you may see the entire film here on Google Video (I saw a little bit of it a week ago; now the site states that the "video is currently not available -- Please try again later".
Jodo Update!: The wonderful WorldWeird Cinema blog offers the latest news on recent Jodoworsky screenings. Check it out!
posted by Sean on 11/09/2006 10:23:00 PM| link