I usually don’t write negative reviews, but either it was the brain washing of the Vatican or perhaps Golden Compass is just a bad movie. The plot keywords made me salivate in anticipation, but as soon as the lights went out and the endless trailers and commercials had ended, I quickly found out that this particular film wasn’t my cup of tea. While Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra wasn’t exactly an untalented actress, she failed to breathe life to the synthetic, blue screened scenes. Nicole Kidman herself had slight troubles orientating to the invisible daemon friends who were all digitally added to the frames in the post, no doubt.
This is a problem I’ve seen in many, many films. I, Robot suffered from the same blue screen syndrome. So did Mirrormask by the way. (On the other hand, I did like Beowulf quite a bit… perhaps it was because it didn’t mix live action with CGI, who knows)
It is hard for an actor or an actress to imagine that they are talking to a 4 meter tall polar bear when they are actually just talking to a giant chroma key wall or, even worse, to the microphone in a tiny little voiceover booth.
Before I forget it, let me just mention that my favorite performance in Golden Compass was Sam Elliot as Mr. Scoresby.
Technology aside, I wasn’t swept away by the plot either. It felt very much like a made-to-order saga with a little bit of myths and scandinavian names thrown in for good measure. The film is based on a book by Philip Pullman, one of England’s most outspoken atheists. There is a strong anti-christian (or anti-dogmatic, to be more precise) undertone in Pullman’s script. On the other hand the fascination with the ancient mythology seems very shallow and gimmicky in this context.
I’ll give Golden Compass two stars out of five. Ahh, I’m looking forward to I am Legend to also give two stars only. This will equalize my ratings scale nicely and make it look more like a gaussian curve instead of a baseball cap with every other movie getting three and a half or four stars…
I’ll be back 
Posted by api at 23:04 - 3 Comments »
Tom Hanks Interview
The Oscar-winning actor spent months on a remote Fijian island for his new movie Cast Away and far from being an idyllic experience it proved to be something of a nightmare for the 44-year old star.
Not only did he have to lose 55lb in weight for the role and spend weeks up to his neck in water, the shoot almost turned to tragedy when he caught a serious infection.
“Just before we left the island I had a little sore on my knee and something got inside there. We left Fiji on the Friday and by the Sunday my leg was twice its normal size,” explains Hanks, looking more than a little relieved to be in the urban surrounds of London.
“I had to go to the doctors and I thought I was going to get it cleaned and some antibiotics to take. The next thing I know there were five doctors running around in a panic trying to figure out what was inside my leg.
“I underwent surgery that night and was out for three weeks. We had to shut down the movie. I was very close to blood poisoning, which can kill you. If I’d really been a castaway on that island, doctors told me I would have been dead in five weeks.”
I really liked Cast Away, but I don’t think Tom Hanks did a very good job with his method acting a.k.a. losing weight for the role. He had a full year to do it. He had a special “Weight loss trainer” that is credited at the end.
There was a lot of press about the weight loss and Mr. Hanks got completely bored with endless questions about it in interviews. Just to give a little perspective to Tom Hanks’ 55 pound loss, Christian Bale lost a third of his normal body weight (63 pounds) for his role in The Machinist. Tom Hanks had gained extra weight for the first part of the movie and I think that he simply returned back to slightly below his normal weight.
Although method acting doesn’t usually refer to physical alterations in an actor’s apperance, weight loss and gaining for a role is often seen as a measurement of actor’s commitment to the role. Sadly, sometimes things go a bit wrong when people commit themselves too deeply. Requiem For A Dream star Jared Leto was diagnosed with gout after losing weight for a film role.
Body weight is one of those things that you can’t yet fix in the post.
Posted by api at 09:25 - 3 Comments »
I just read an interesting story about the new generation of wiretapping technology that FBI is using in the USA. Coincidentally, three of the last Hollywood blockbuster movies I’ve seen (Bourne Ultimatum, Die Hard 4.0 and Ocean’s 13) have all dealt with the general themes of “individual versus the surveillance system” and “we can see your every move at the hidden command center”. I also saw Wim Wenders’ “The Land of Plenty” which was about a Vietnam war veteran who had become more or less obsessed with surveillance.
I remember seeing scenes in Hollywood movies portraying the Echelon as early as 1994 (”Clear and Present Danger”), but recently it has become the most trendy plot element that you can have. The usual way to weave it into an action film plot is to have the protagonist somehow fool the system and simply outsmart the government agents at the hidden command center by switching the sim card in a phone or hiding behind a balloon seller at a busy railway station.
Bourne Ultimatum went completely over the top with the surveillance theme though. All I can remember about the plot was that the same scene was basically acted out in slightly different variations about 5 or 6 times. During the end credits they played the theme song by Moby.
Well, I guess my point is that not only the script writers, but also the audience in this seemingly less secure world have become fascinated with wiretapping and remote sensing. Whether it’s good entertainment or not, I can’t say. But I do know that during insecure times, horror films repeatedly become a more popular genre. A society based on the remote surveillance and monitoring of the potential threats in the neighbourhood is indeed a bit horrific.
Posted by api at 13:26 - No Comments »
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I picked up a rental DVD of Terry Gilliam’s latest creation Tideland. I knew that the film hadn’t been a commercial success, but that was nothing new as far as his works are concerned. I had enjoyed Brothers Grimm and come to think of it, every other movie by Terry Gilliam as well, so I decided to give it a shot. The movie is a roller coaster ride through the life and inner universe of a junkie’s daughter. It is rated R for “bizarre and disturbing” content and I can’t blame the rating people for that decision. It is disturbing and provocative, but at the end of the day, it is a kind of movie that sadly very seldom gets financing. It must have been obvious to even some of the financers that this might be a commercial flop around the premiere, but like many other Gilliam’s movies, I’m sure that it will recognized as a masterpiece in the years to come.
The plot is not very important and I don’t want to give it away. If interested, have a quick peek at the user comments at IMDB. According to director’s own words, this is a movie about the resilience of children. He has mentioned that many people will hate the film and many people will love the film. In the DVD version he notes that he is 64 years old now and it took this long for him to find his own inner child. He ends the intro by thanking the audience (three times in a row!) for watching this film and it makes all the difference if you watch this plea before watching the actual movie, which can be quite a shocking experience if viewed mentally unprepared.
I saw Pan’s Labyrinth and read The Life of Pi last year. Tideland has a rather similar concept. It is not only about resilience of children, but also about innocence, which seem to go hand in hand in this beautiful, magical and yet very unsettling work.
Posted by api at 22:39 - 3 Comments »
On Saturday the local audiovisual oasis for film addicts, über cool Alphaville, hosted an excellent 10 year anniversary party at the Gartenbau Kino. Unfortunately I’ve had a streak of bad luck and I’ve managed to break down both my iBook and the brand new ceramic inlay which I had inserted on my first molar about a year ago in Bangkok. I’m heading over to Hungary as a dental tourist to have the inlay fixed and hopefully get a new logic board for the iBook later this week.
Anyway, I missed some of the earlier shows at the party while I was arranging my travel schedule. I did make it to the gala premiere of Life in Loops which is a remix of fresh footage, music by Sofa Surfers and raw footage from another film called Megacities. I especially liked the New York hustler and crack dealer sequences and the dyestuff man in India:
Timo Novotny labels his new project an experimental music documentary film, in a remix of the celebrated film Megacities (1997), a visually refined essay on the hidden faces of several world “megacities” by leading Austrian documentarist Michael Glawogger. Novotny complements 30% of material taken straight from the film (and re-edited) with 70% as yet unseen footage in which he blends original shots unused by Glawogger with his own sequences (shot by Megacities cameraman Wolfgang Thaler) from Tokyo. Alongside the Japanese metropolis, Life in Loops takes us right into the atmosphere of Mexico City, New York, Moscow and Bombay. This electrifying combination of fascinating film images and an equally compelling soundtrack from Sofa Surfers sets us off on a stunning audiovisual adventure across the continents. The film also makes an original contribution to the discussion on new trends in documentary filmmaking.
After the premiere we headed to the pavillion in Stadtpark and bumped into two finns who were on a day trip from Budapest where they were studying to become hotel professionals. They had interesting stories to tell about their work. An older gentleman comes to the hotel with a different young lady several times a week and then visits the same hotel on a Sunday brunch with his family.
After midnight I ended up sitting almost next to one of my musical heroes, B. Fleischmann, while he was busy with his laptop mixing a new soundtrack to an old Buster Keaton movie. The movie was mostly about the american civil war and steam engines. The soundtrack was superbly minimalistic true to his inimitable style and he sipped a well deserved beer after the credits.
I’m off to Innsbruck next weekend. I’ll probably visit the Stubai Glacier to do some summer snowboarding to get some sun and shake off the bad vibes about stuff breaking down around (and in) me.
The all healing Summer is finally arriving and the sun is shining with it’s wondrous warmth and unrestrained luminosity. Take care, brothers and sisters… and remember to enjoy what life and mother earth have in store for you!
Posted by api at 13:24 - No Comments »
Smokey the Bear web site has an inspiring Museum section.
The campaign is the longest running public service campaign in history. Tv infomercials have a long tradition of using motion graphics and animation to convey their message. It is interesting to explore the various visual styles and approaches to the subject over the decades.
The flash intro of the site is a little spooky. As several horror movies have demonstrated to us, you can turn almost anything a little spooky by combining it with a children’s rhyme. The intro reminds me of Twin Peaks and the first poster of the museum reading “Death Rides The Forest”. Quite different from the 70’s Remember, there are babes in the forest poster. The new flash intro is a re-using a visual idea from a 1972 tv spot though.
The TV & Radio section of the museum has radio ads by celebrities and artists such B.B. King, Grateful Dead, Cheech & Chong and Dr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy). Ripe for sampling.
Posted by api at 10:20 - No Comments »
What is the common denominator for the Woodstock documentary, Michael Jackson’s Bad music video and The Departed? Why, Thelma Schoonmaker as the editor, of course! This lady has won 3 Oscars. She began her film career assisting an editor removing random frames from the classic films of Truffaut, Godard and Fellini in order to conform their length for the U.S. television broadcasts.
While giving one of her keynote addresses she has noted that she doesn’t feel like the computer based editing saves her any time cutting a film, it just allows her to experiment more. (She is using Lightworks instead of Final Cut Pro or Avid, by the way.)
Film editing is an invisible art. The rule of thumb is that the better the editing, the harder it is to observe. But… she obviously has the courage to break the rules and be truly innovative with her cuts. Her style is just phenomenal.
IMDB Trivia
Works mainly as editor to Martin Scorsese, who tried to convince her to work for him for years. She was unable to work in Hollywood, however, because she couldn’t get into the union. When Scorcese called to ask her to work on Raging Bull (1980), she again demurred because of lack of union membership. However, she believes that Al Pacino got her into the union. To this day, she does not know what influence was used to gain her union membership.
Martin Scorsese introduced her to her husband, Michael Powell.
Her father worked for an oil company, so she was born in Algeria, but grew up in Aruba. She did not live in the United States until her teens.
She met Martin Scorsese during a summer program at New York University, where she was taking an editing course. As she had some professional experience editing movies for late night television, she was brought in to help student director Scorsese with problems on his film.
Honorary doctor of the School of Motion Picture, Television and Production Design in Helsinki, Finland.
Posted by api at 19:36 - 1 Comment »
Space: 1999 Catacombs- Episode Guide
Film Compilations / Film 0 (1976) - 88 minutes
Compiled From:
Breakaway
Ring Around The Moon
Another Time, Another Place
Background
This movie was edited from three episodes to launch the series in Italy. The poster shows astronauts fighting; the spacesuits are white. This scene was not in the movie. It was subsequently released to Italian video.
Music
The title music and incidental themes are by famed composer Ennio Morricone (A Fistful of Dollars, Once Upon A Time In America). Most of the music is random tonalities, but it becomes more lyrical during the return to Earth sequences.
Yes, yet another post related to space exploration! It must the Christmas that’s approaching ever so quickly (and those clever Swedes that made it space before us, dammit) that is inducing these fantasies about unexplored frontiers.
I still can’t believe that I missed the Ennio Morricone concert in Hammersmith Apollo while I was practically there… just a few tube stations away. The 50 pound ticket price seemed too steep at the time, but after I saw what eating out and living cost over there, it seems like a bargain now.
He is already 78.. I hope Lady Fate will grant me with one more chance to hear the master before he passes on to the eternal hunting grounds.
Posted by api at 11:44 - No Comments »
Nankyoku Monogatari (”South Pole Story”; released in the U.S. as Antarctica) is a 1983 Japanese movie starring Ken Takakura about the February 1958 Japanese scientific expedition to the South Pole, and the party’s dramatic rescue from the impossible weather conditions they encounter on the return journey. It focuses on the relationship between the scientists and their loyal and hard-working Sakhalin Huskies, particularly the lead dogs Taro and Jiro who, without human leadership or assistance, complete the journey back to the base to summon a rescue party. The film features a score by Vangelis released worldwide (including Japan) as Antarctica.
Disney has recently released a remake of a japanese film called Nankyoku_Monogatari. The remake is called Eight Below. I haven’t seen the original japanese version, but Eight Below is actually a decent flick. I don’t know what it is with these dog movies, but they seem to remain popular generation after generation. There must be the same type of speculation about the next Lassie as there is about the next James Bond. The current Lassie is Lassie number 10 (all from the same line of dogs apparently).
I wonder when they will start cloning the most succesful dog movie stars. The first cloned pet has already been sold. It is a cat though.
Posted by api at 13:35 - No Comments »
I’m not a big fan of Jack Black, but little birds told me that I should go and see Nacho Libre. Well, I finally had a chance to see it and it was a real delight. The film is wonderfully absurd. There is a strange mix of cheekiness and seriousness with a very humane overall mood. Farce is one of the most difficult forms of comedy. One of the easiest ways to spoil it is to underline every single joke so much that it’s no longer funny. Fortunately Jack Black, Héctor Jiménez and the rest of cast manage to maintain subtlety in their performances.
I admire the filmmakers for balancing so finely between slapstick and traditional story telling. Jared and Jerusha Hess have done an excellent job with the script. If you can watch and enjoy a random episode of the Simpsons and Zardoz in one go, you’ll probably love Nacho Libre as well. My verdict is four and a half stars out of five.
Posted by api at 21:40 - 5 Comments »
My friendly local cineplex Kinopalatsi had a 5 euros per movie discount day yesterday. I picked the new Finnish wuxia drama Jadesoturi ( Jade Warrior ) over Al Gore’s Inconvenient truth. I plan to see Gore’s movie at a later date though.
The Jadesoturi production is has a unique background. As funny as it may sound, it is a Finnish/Chinese/Estonian co-production mixing kung-fu, elements from the Finnish national saga Kalevala, Kaurismäkian dialogue, superb visual effects and a love story spanning several millenniums. No matter how you look at it, it is an extremely challenging and, in a way, inexplainably brave concept for a movie.
I deliberately avoided looking at too many teasers or reading spoilers about the movie. There is quite a publicity campaign around the film involving merchandising (including a Kalevala Koru pendant), a fancy web site, an irc-galleria campaign etc. The movie is being distributed in China with 150 copies!
Well, it’s easy to be sceptic and subconsciously I expected it to be some sort of overproduced special effects lollapalooza with a lot of artistic compromises being made here and there for the sake of financial reasons. I was happily surprised to notice that film was obviously a labor of love and there was plenty of artistic vision, skill and integrity to be seen. It is not an easy movie for the viewer. The plot is complicated and there are obscure elements of folklore and fantasy from two different cultures and traditions being mixed. Some people left the theatre early and I can’t really blame them. They were probably expecting some sort of high speed action packed martial arts movie. What it in fact is, is a love story. To connesseurs of wuxia this is hardly a surprise.
Tommi Eronen has been praised for his admirable work playing two roles and I tend to agree with some of the other reviewers who pick him out as the best actor in the movie. It is, however, a balanced cast and the rest of the artists do solid performances as well.
The visual effects were excellent and with my modest CGI artist background, I would even say that they are one of the best parts of the movie. All in all, it is an ambitious project and it is a great stepping stone and source of inspiration for other aspiring filmmakers in Finland. Although it might not be the most enjoyable or approachable movie you see this year, I still recommend that you go and see it. If for nothing else, for support of creativity and boldness in our small, Northern country. Four shining stars out of five.
Posted by api at 09:10 - 2 Comments »
What do you get when you mix Spike Jonze, David Lynch and Bjork, sprinkle it with a little Monty Python and roll it carefully in a layer of John Woo? The one and only Beat Takeshi!
Helsinki Film Festival has faithfully been showing Takeshi Kitano’s latest creation every year. Like a deer in the headlights I’ve been mesmerized by them every single time. This time he has created a retrospective, highly symbolic and dream-like look at his career and movies. The movie is called Takeshis’ and it is once again a bizarre and eclectic mix of seemingly unrelated elements. Conceptual art, yakuzas, violence, comedy, dance, women, noodles, blood, existential philosophy, star constellations, slow motion, show business.. just throw it all together and blend thoroughly. His artistic process is obviously greatly influenced by dreams and the subconsciousness.
Many of the user comments at IMDB focus on the fact that the movie is a lot more approachable to someone who has seen his earlier work. To quote one of the comments:
Quirky? yes. Disjointed? Yes. Hysterical? Absolutely. Having watched Kitano’s interpretation of Zatoichi, Blood and Bones, Brother, Kikujiro and Battle Royal I and II, this movie is a complete spoof of his recent movie making career. How he managed to bring so many actors from all of these previous films onto one stage is quite something. In all honesty, viewers shouldn’t try to read too much into Takeshis’. It’s Kitano. It’s Kitano showing us what he feels we know of him in his films. Explosive, comical, distant, a little off the hook. Takeshis’ won’t make much sense to someone who hasn’t at least seen some of the aforementioned movies. Takeshis’ is classic Kitano. You either like and understand this fellow, or you scratch your head in wonderment.
According to his own words, this film marks the end of a specific stage in his directing career. I hesitate to call it a spoof.. it is much more than that. Just like the lonely fan in the film, I admire his work beyond words and consider him one of the most brilliant film makers of our time.
Posted by api at 09:07 - 1 Comment »
Take note, Neil Gaiman and Jim Henson fans:
MirrorMask (Theatrical Release) review
Long after the death of its founder, The Jim Henson Company continues to search for the next project that will be the next creative gem that people will want to watch and enjoy over and over again. Entering an early screening of Mirrormask, I wasn’t sure what to expect. As a child I had come to love everything Henson touched from The Muppet Show (reviewed elsewhere on this site) to The Dark Crystal. I don’t know why I had any doubt in my mind because I was glued to my seat from the first frame until the last, in complete amazement of the entire film. Everything from the production design to the casting was top notch, with that great engulfing feeling of not wanting the adventure to end I had not experienced in a while. Maybe this has to do with me being a kid at heart or simply having a heart, though it was not any kind transference from previous works in the genre. For any age, Mirrormask is a beautiful journey into the heart and certainly the child in all of us.
Apple has a little article about the Dave McKean.
The digital visual effects in this film were made a by a squadron of 16 freelance animators in a what essentially was a “Do-it-yourself visual effects studio”. Photoshop, Maya and Shake, dont’ stir.
EDIT: I originally posted this blurp on September 30th, 2005. Well, I saw this film today at the Espoo Cine Film Festival and boy, was I disappointed. The visual effects were passable, but the dramaturgy and screenplay left a lot to be desired. I usually enjoy practically all kinds of fantasy films, but this one was almost boring. There were a lot of good ideas thrown in, but they got drowned in a plethora of confusing scenes that followed each other. I didn’t like the performance of the actors and actresses either. My verdict on a 1 to 5 star scale is one and a half.
Posted by api at 04:59 - No Comments »
Due to many coincidences I ended up seeing this film yesterday at the Espoo Cine Film festival. Here’s what the Norwegian Film Institute says about it:
The Bothersome Man
(Den brysomme mannen)
In The Bothersome Man there is neither death nor dreams, and no love either. When Andreas Ramsfjell arrives in this society, everything has been laid out for him. He is given a place to stay, a job and clothes. He is handed a life. Not unlike the destiny of a refugee coming to Norway.
The film describes total loneliness in a world that has everything - but that’s also all it has. A society which has lost something along the way in its quest for perfection. A dead society.
The film takes place in a parallel universe, or the life after death. Our main character is the only one who seems human, with his feelings and needs intact. Through his desperation and despair we can relate and maybe take a look at how we lead our own lives.
The movie was a real gem. It is competing for the Best European Fantastic Film title in the Melies Dor competition and it recently won the ACID award in Cannes. The protagonist in the film is a sympathetic man called Andreas. He arrives in a weird, utopian city with no memory of how he got there. Everything is so normal and perfect that it is grotesque. I loved the straightforwardness and genuinity in the story telling and cinematic style of this film. Surprisingly, this highly visual film is based on a radio play by Per Schreiner. The general vibe is a strange mix between Solaris, Brazil and The Truman Show.
I felt refreshed and inspired after seeing this masterpiece. The absurd and fantastic elements have been integrated in the story while still keeping it completely plausible in a strange kind of way. It resonates especially well with anyone who has lived in a Nordic welfare state. Five stars.
EDIT: This movie is on the programme of Helsinki Film Festival. Well worth seeing.
Posted by api at 10:50 - No Comments »
Bums’ Paradise
Bums’ Paradise is a 53-minute documentary that depicts the lives of the men and women who lived in the ten-year-old Albany Landfill community prior to their eviction. It follows them through the eviction and documents them one month after the eviction. The film emphasizes their concepts of community as well as the amazing art that they created. Instead of being a documentary about homelessness, Bums’ Paradise considers the question: What if the homeless — the indigent, the bums — told their own stories? This is exactly what filmmakers Tomas McCabe and Andrei Rozen set out to explore with the Albany Landfill residents. Both McCabe and Rozen shot for five months. Landfill resident Robert “Rabbit” Barringer was also given a camera to film life as he experienced it as a resident on the Landfill. What unfolds is a rich and complex story showing the full spectrum of human experience. We see segments on love, family, home, politics, community, art, insanity, and addiction: Paula and Chris are a couple — Sparky paints pictures on broken pieces of concrete — Rabbit talks about social egalitarianism and Marxism. Ashby talks about his experiences with the police; “Mad” Mark talks about a gas or liquid drug that induces hypnosis. Jean Paul reveals his shattering thoughts facing jail time versus being evicted:
For a long time I have had a soft spot in my heart for bums, wanderers, hobos, travellers.. whatever you want to call them.
A lot of phenomenal documentary movies have been made about the subject. One of my favorites is Dark Days by Marc Singer. It really opened up my eyes to the harsh reality and hopelessness that some of these people are facing. I’d love to see Bums’ Paradise as well. I don’t know what kind of education movies they are showing at schools these days, but here is probably one fine candidate for that purpose.
Posted by api at 12:48 - 2 Comments »
