Harry Dean Stanton and Art Garfunkel Sing to Jack Nicholson
It’s Saturday, I don’t feel like serious posts right now – so here, via Reddit, is Harry Dean Stanton and Art Garfunkel singing to Jack Nicholson at an AFI tribute. This clip brings out in me some sort of ‘future nostalgia’ – I have a vision of 700 years in the future – when all [...]
Oh 2012, What Is It About You That Makes Me Love You So?
Oh 2012, what is it about you that makes me love you so? Why I am I so looking forward to seeing you when you’re unveiled this November 13th, while other big budget disaster movies I disdain and even despise? One clue to this conundrum is found in the expression of John Cusack, as seen [...]
'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. [...]
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
Was listening back to our chat with Elliott Gould and decided to watch Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice again. If you haven’t seen it Dear Listener you should – yes it’s a mainstream film that is of its time so can seem swamped with the same indulgence of other pics of that era; [...]
Stanley Kubrick in ‘Inglourious Basterds’
On the left, Stanley Kubrick. On the right Denis Menochet from ‘Inglourious Basterds’. Eerie isn’t it? Of course one can’t help but think of the never-made Kubrick World War 2 pic ‘Wartime Lies/Aryan Papers’. What’s Tarantino up to? – – – P.S. Our podcast analysis of ‘Inglorious Basterds’ will be online this in several days [...]
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: [...]
We're Back!
We’re back Dear Listeners after our Costa Rica excursion. Normal service will resume shortly, with a podcast review of ‘Public Enemies, (to add to our initial take on the pic), and ‘Brüno’. – – – (Photo above: One of our traveling party suggested it would be an interesting idea to get a snapshot of Higgins [...]
A Love of Movies So Pure as to Make Me Blush
Special thanks to Arbogast for tunring me on to this astonishing video: As someone who loves watching and talking about films, yet isn’t obsessed by them, the vid above gives me some small glimpse into the strange, yet touchingly compelling world of the collector. – – – (I would add of course that this video [...]
'The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3' – A Plea
The Good Dr. Higgins is insistent that we review the reboot of ‘The Taking of Pelham One Two Three’, ‘The Taking of Pelham 123′ for this week’s show. Dear Listeners – this prospect fills me with dread. A film obviously made by feeding ‘Swordfish’ and ‘Inside Man’ into Microsoft’s new search engine ‘Bing’ with a [...]
Director T-Shirts
Via Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule comes this series of T-Shirts with your favourite director’s names boldly emblazoned on the front: Director T-Shirts What would the ‘Tarkovsky T’ look like I wonder?
Are Bad Films of Any Value?
‘Terminator Salvation’: an unrecognised masterpiece full of signs/symbols that points towards a new way for cinema? No, I don’t think so. ‘Salvation’ is a film we both roundly denounced on the podcast, (Gareth arguably less so), but the vehemence with which ‘kbm’ puts forwards his comments in this post: Three Questions about ‘Terminator Salvation’ at [...]
Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus
Via Metafilter comes the above. It is what it is. It seems pure to me – there’s no hidden agenda – no pretense – it is. Simply. Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. Isn’t there a kind of beauty in that? – – – For the curious – more information about Asylum, the company behind ‘Mega [...]
'Overexposed' and Responsibility in Image Making
Just finished watching Gregg Helvey’s 2006 USC student documentary, ‘Overexposed’, about the arguably corrosive effect pornography has on men’s sexuality and it got me to thinking: what responsibility do we image makers have when it comes to portraying the erotic in our mediums? In this Pinewood Dialogues interview Werner Herzog says something to the effect [...]
Why Jett and I Have Free Tickets to the Movies
Because we walked out of this and they gave us free passes. We were busy. We had people to see. Things to do. The sun was shining. And by the time Jason Statham’s character had [UPLEASANT SPOILERS AHOY: DON'T READ ON IF YOU DON'T WANT TO] inserted a hot-tar cover shotgun into the backside of [...]
My New Favourite Podcast – The Pinewood Dialogues from the Museum of the Moving Image
My recent trip to Durham for the Full Frame Festival required over sixteen hours of driving there and back – wouldn’t have been able to make it without my new favourite podcast: The Pinewood Dialogues from the Museum of the Moving Image The Peter Bogdanovich / Jerry Lewis interview alone makes it worth the whole [...]
'Let the Right One In' Subtitle Travesty
Via @joblocom comes this excellent post by ‘Icons of Fright’ on what can only be described as a travesty in the U.S. DVD subtitling for fine Scandopire flick ‘Let the Right One In’: Let The Wrong Subtitles In To LET THE RIGHT ONE IN?! Let the ‘Icons of Fright’ post be a warning – always [...]
What Watchmen Creators Zack Snyder and David Hayter Could Have Learned From Peter Weir
Gareth and I have already gone into some depth analysing the myriad failures of the recent film ‘Watchmen’: The Film Talk – Part 52 – Watchmen But am prompted to add a last thought after reading this weekend a plea from ‘Watchmen’ screenwriter David Hayter to go see the film again so as to boost [...]
General Cinema
Via Metafilter comes this wonder blog post on the history of General Cinema: General Cinema’s Feature Presentation The photographs in the post are fascinating – there’s an adult seediness about them that’s missing from today’s tween holding areas; (at the time of course they were still making films for adults – though after the mid-70′s [...]
Just Back from 'Watchmen' – The Theatre was Empty
Has everyone who is going to see ‘Watchmen’ seen it already? After all the websites, Twitter chatter, blogs, etc. me and my film-going companions this afternoon were shocked to find the matinee showing of ‘Watchmen’ empty, only one day after being released. So is all the hype, all the fan-boy excitement just an example of [...]
An Experiment in (not) Reading a Film
I’m a writer. That’s the kind of gambit that gets people in trouble – Rip Torn in ‘Wonder Boys’ comes to mind, the appellation apparently being evoked as the beginning and end of his vocation: he seems to believe that ‘being’ a writer is more important than ever actually writing anything. So I know I [...]
I'm Francis Coppola and I Welcome You – Francis Ford Coppola introduces "Tetro"
I find the above video so enduring. The visionary director, who decades ago prophesied ‘electronic cinema’, putters around his office, holding what I imagine to be a Macbook Air, and speaks directly to you. Gone is the grandiosity, the posturing, the suffocating ambition. Just a guy. Talkin’ on YouTube about his project. Who would have [...]
