Documentary Ethics, Economic Disparity, and LAST TRAIN HOME
The problem with many modern documentaries is that it’s hard to know what to think without more information on their production. Take for example The King of Kong, an exceedingly-entertaining glimpse at the battle for the Donkey Kong high-score whose ultra-simplistic David & Goliath story felt too good to be true. Turns out it may [...]
Youngblood on Film: The Emerging Genre of Cinema Anima
In the 90′s and 00′s, a group of international directors began to shape a new genre of cinema . . . unaware of each other or the synthesis they were fumbling towards. They were filmmakers from cinematically-marginalized countries such as Vietnam, Hungary, South Korea, Iran, Taiwan, Mexico, and Thailand. They admired the plot-light, mood-heavy cinema [...]
50,000 Films Produced a Year – Good Thing or Bad Thing? Discuss
Via Metafilter comes a nice little post on the flood, (torrent?), of films available to watch now that the costs of production have collapsed due to the new technology: 50,000 Films Is a Very Good Thing “I believe that likewise, in film, we now have legions of young people who have learned to shoot, edit [...]
Cinema Splits In Two: the Real vs. the Unreal
Yeah we all know about computer assisted imagery – it’s everywhere in moving pictures – heck, some folks even go to the movies just for the effects alone. But I don’t know if peoples out there really know how much the new technology has invaded the cinema system – and this invasion I would argue doesn’t just [...]
TFT 105 – AVATAR with Glenn Kenny and Armond White
TFT 105 / 35 mb MP3 / 72 minutes / SPECIAL GUESTS: GLENN KENNY / ARMOND WHITE DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE: OPERATION SAVE THE FILM TALK AVATAR / JAMES CAMERON / SILENT RUNNING / 3D / ROBERT ZEMECKIS / WALL-E USED CARS / XENOGENESIS / SUMMER HOURS / A SERIOUS MAN / STAR TREK / THIS IS [...]
This Post Is Not About Avatar
Oh, sure I’d like to go all Avatar here - discuss in detail my response to this most Camerony of films – but that’ll have to wait till this weekend’s podcast Dear Reader. Instead I proffer some experiences of the last few days and a some selected gems from this week’s trawling of the webs: First off – [...]
A Week in the Life of The Film Talk, Part 2: Antichrist and Arthur
Four New TFT Members of the Week We’ve been busy this week at TFT Central – so busy, in fact, that we haven’t managed to produce posts as regularly as we’d like. Jett and I spent last night at a cabin in the woods of Tennessee, a perfect location to ruminate on our shared expereince [...]
TFT 100 – An Interview with Ben Foster on 'The Messenger' / 'The Box' / Our Favourite Films of the Past 100 Episodes
[I'll be introducing 'The Messenger' at its 7:30 Premiere this Friday here in Nashville at The Belcourt Theatre] In this week’s action-packed, adrenaline-fueled thrill-ride of an episode Gareth and I talk with actor Ben Foster about his experience of making the extraordinary new film The Messenger’, why he wants listeners to write a romantic comedy [...]
TFT 99 – 'A Christmas Carol' Investigated and Armond White Interviewed
In this week’s action-packed, adrenaline-fueled thrill-ride of an episode Gareth and I launch ‘OPERATION SAVE THE FILM TALK’, delve into the new film of a ‘A Christmas Carol’ while discussing in not some small detail the flaws in Charles Dicken’s original, speculate as to the nature of 3D and motion capture cinema and have a [...]
Cinema is Collapsing? So What Are You Gonna Do About It?
(My thoughts on the below were cross-posted at Current – to read Current readers responses click here) Don’t know about you but I was excited to hear that Francis Ford Coppola thinks cinema is collapsing: “The cinema as we know it is falling apart,” says Francis Ford Coppola. “It’s a period of incredible change,” says [...]
'Up in the Air' vs. 'Armored' – The Collapse of Imagination and the Cowardice of the Market in Trailers
Watch the trailer below for ‘Armored’, (Spoiler Alert – the trailer is the entire film, presented in a linear and condensed format): Now watch the trailer for ‘Up in the Air’: See the difference? I have a fond memories as a kid attending a 5 hour trailer marathon at the old UC Theatre in Berkeley. [...]
A Non-Dogmatic Declaration of Intent, Part 1
In light of our three recent posts on ‘2001’ – in which I reflected on how and why I love this movie; we had the pleasure of interviewing the man-ape himself, Mr Dan Richter, and most recently Jett told us about a kind of High School Musical version of the opening titles – listener Kyle [...]
Roger Ebert, Glenn Kenny and A.O. Scott Weigh in on the Collapse of Cinema, Culture and Cinema Culture
UPDATE OCTOBER 21ST: FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA ON CINEMA’S COLLAPSE – – – Much gnashing of teeth of late on the webs re: the collapse of cinema and cinema-going culture. Check out these posts, (and the comments from their Readers), from the always-necessary Roger Ebert, Some Came Running’s Glenn Kenny and and One-Ben Replacement A.O. Scott: [...]
What Rights Do You Give Away on the Various Video Services?
The costs of production for film-making, (in terms of stock/processing/editing anyway), have fallen dramatically – and now there are myriad ways for the image maker to distribute their work online, (ahh – but marketing – there’s the rub!). Anyhew, what rights do you give away when you upload to services like YouTube and Vimeo? Advancing [...]
The Summer-Movie-Looking-Forward-Or-Not-TFT-Continuum
It’s summer, so five kinds of movies will soon arrive: the rare ones that justify the existence of the Hollywood machine; the ones that I shouldn’t like but probably will; the ones that could turn out terrible or fine; the ones that are completely unpredictable; and the ones you couldn’t pay me to see. Given [...]
'Wolverine' Affected by Piracy?
Via The Hollywood Reporter comes the news that News Corp’s Fox says the workprint of ‘Wolverine’ has been downloaded illegally 4 million times: Pirated ‘Wolverine’ bigger than expected Now, as addressed in our ‘Wolverine’ podcast analysis: The Film Talk – Part 64 – Wolverine / State of Play I found the workprint of the film [...]
Francis Ford Coppola: Argentina Experiment
As Jett posted yesterday, the first three minutes of Coppola’s new film ‘Tetro’ are on line. They look gorgeous. It’s his first original screenplay since ‘The Conversation’ thirty-five years ago; and only his second film as director in over a decade. Most people know him for the ‘Godfather’ saga and ‘Apocalypse Now’ – but there’s [...]
First Three Minutes of Francis Ford Coppola's 'Tetro' Online
I love, love, love the idea of putting the beginning of films online, (analogous to the success of Doom perhaps? = give the first level away free then charge for the rest). So am excited that the first three minutes of Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Tetro’ are now online: First Three Minutes of Tetro First thoughts: [...]
Sita Sings the Blues
The film with this image as one of its centerpieces is currently available to watch for free at Reel 13. I’ll say it again. The film with this image as one of its centerpieces is available to watch for free at Reel 13. The creator (director, writer, animator, editor, pretty much everything else-er), Nina Paley [...]
The Film Talk – Part 61 – That Evening Sun, Walton Goggins and Hillbilly Art Films
In This Episode: Walton Goggins / That Evening Sun / Nashville Film Festival Get TFT delivered weekly via iTunes Subscribe to our podcast Subscribe to our blog Follow us on Twitter
Two Remarkable Animated Films at the Nashville Film Festival You Must See: 'I Am So Proud of You' and 'Slaves'
(Jett is a Juror at this year’s Nashville Film Festival, (April 16th-23rd); he’ll be updating ‘The Film Talk’ throughout the Fest with thoughts on films seen both in and out of competition – as always Spoilers Ahoy) – – – I Am So Proud of You / By Don Hertzfeldt Normally. Normally. Normally I wait [...]
Gareth's Recommendation of the Week: Man Push Cart
We don’t usually do recommendations of the week; heck often we don’t do recommendations at all. But after the exhilaration of wall to wall documentary at Full Frame, I settled in last night, as I am wont to do, to catch up on a film I know I should have seen earlier, but was watching [...]
Why Not Re-Hab Films Like We Do Houses?
The area of East Nashville I live in is in turnaround. Decrepit old houses are being done up. Young couples are moving in. Which got to me to thinking. There’s plenty of crappy movies out there. Movies that, for whatever reason, poor script, ineffectual acting, befuddled direction, are just not worth watching. But there’s a [...]
