Love In Space (2011)

This film which was released just in time to celebrate the Chinese Mid-Autumn festival is a fun and light hearted romantic comedy that inspired me to want to write a love poem after leaving the theater! Did I just say that? Well, maybe not actually write a poem but it definitely made me want to drunk dial someone to empty out a bottle of aged feelings!

The relationships in the movie are a bit contrived but then again what big screen love story isn’t? Corny but charming might be a few good words to describe the film! To be honest, I normally don’t gravitate towards a lovey dovey piece like this but a free screening doled out by the gracious Subway Cinema changed that thinking pretty quickly and I’m glad because otherwise, I would of probably shelved this one.

To my surprise, the cast was ladened with a few HK & Taiwanese heavy hitting pop stars including Aaron Kwok (one of the 4 canto-pop kings of HK which includes Andy Lau, Leon Lai, & Jacky Cheung), Eason Chan (canto-pop’in since 1995), Rene Liu (Taiwanese actress & pop star), & Angela Baby (Taiwanese model & actress). Even Shaw Brother great, Gordon Liu makes a cameo in the film as a garbage man entrepreneur!

The foundation of the story centers around a well to do widow and her 3 daughters who are successful with everything they do but struggle with the prospects of finding true love which is further inhibited by their own self esteem issues. Cupid would make its presence known in Beijing, Sydney-Australia, & outer space?! Michael (Aaron Kwok) and oldest daughter, Rose (Rene Liu) tries to spark a 2nd fire in their relationship while working as astronauts on duty in a spaceship in a galaxy far, far away! The 2nd daughter (Gwei Lun Mei) is an artist who battles with an obsessive compulsive disorder while she dabbles in the book of love with Tony (Eason Chan), a complete polar opposite of her that happens to also be a garbage man! The youngest daughter, Pony (Angela Baby) is an actress that just won the ‘worst actress’ of the year award. She is convinced to go on assignment to work as a server in a cafe to better her acting skills?! Pony would fall as a victim of love to a young & naive boy working 3 jobs to make ends meet which includes being a writer, barista, & peddling watermelons on a tricycle. The mom would also get a ‘taste’ of companionship, too!

Love in Space is anything but groundbreaking or thought provoking and is plenty predictable, however the film does provide a fun romp in the galaxy of love which proves furthermore that men are from mars, women are from venus! If romantic comedies are your thing then this is definitely a movie you should add to your database! Listening to the dialogue flow between mostly mandarin to cantonese to a bit of the king’s english was really neat, too!

I'll leave you with a music video-trailer of Love In Space with a reboot of Teresa Tang's song, "The Moon represents My Heart"!

Agon:Atomic Dragon

One of my sleepy time films....

Agon is a four episode TV series that was edited together for release in theaters as a feature. It ran into trouble with the producers of Godzilla films who found the film a little too close to their creation.

I know the show is floating around in the various markets in a both subtitled and unsubtitled versions. I saw the episodes in unsubtitled form which was fine since the story of the sudden appearance of a giant monster rising up from the depths of the sea to lay waste is easy to follow.

I really like this “film” a great deal. As I said at the outset it’s something that I’ll throw into the DVD player when I can’t sleep. I pop it in, set it for repeat and then sometime about the first time that the monster rises out of the ocean I’m drifting off. This not to say that the film is bad, only that the film is so comfortable it relaxes me to the point I can sleep.

To me the film is one of the few films that is a worth successor to the original Godzilla film. Here is a film that doesn’t treat the subject as cute or for kids. Agon is a mean and nasty monster and he wrecks things mindlessly. There is an edge to the proceedings that all of the color Godzilla films don’t have.

Definitely worth tracking down. The film or episodes can be had from various collectors.

The opening credits can be found here.

NYFF 2011- TIme to get the passes

With in a short time I'll be heading into Manhattan to get my press pass for this years New York Film Festival. John and Bully picked up theirs yesterday and now it's my turn.

As things stand we'll have coverage of between thirty and forty events and films. The huge wave of that coverage will begin a week from Monday and continue for two solid weeks before combining with coverage of the New Yorker Festival and this years New York Comicon and Anime Festival during a third week.

There is a ton of good stuff going on and if you are able, do try an attend something.

Okay- time for me to go...I gotta catch a train.

NYFF 2011:Oliver Stone’s “Untold History of the United States” is out and Salvador is in

Yesterday I got a press release announcing more guests for the Ben Hur screening, the addition of some short films and this:

Due to scheduling conflicts, Oliver Stone’s “Untold History of the United States” will no longer screen at the 2011 New York Film Festival. We are, however, pleased to announce that Oliver Stone will still be appearing at NYFF to present a 25th Anniversary screening of SALVADOR, a film that burst onto the American film scene with a force that immediately established Stone as an artist to be reckoned with. For more information, please go to http://www.filmlinc.com/films/on-sale/25th-anniversary-screening-of-salvador.

For me this is a major bummer since I bought some tickets to go and really want to see it. While Salvador is one of my favorite Stone films it's a film I've seen too many times. It's also shown up in several retrospectives recently so I don't need or want to see it again.

No word on refunds or exchanges.

Check the website for more details on the Ben Hur and short film screenings.

Electric Worship

Trippy 65 minute film collage of images with in images, ambient music mixed with dialog may send you off to higher consciousness or to slumberland or screaming from the room.

There is no plot there is just sound and image as we see images taken from TV, movies and else where all mixed together and altered in a series of parts that flow into each other. For example an early section kind of had a religious overtone. A later one has Japanese pin up girls morphing into monster toys.

Some images repeat. There are lots of references to Godzilla. John Saxon makes several appearances. There is a man with an eye patch from a film I’ve seen but can’t remember the name of. We also have a fascination with beautiful women turning into monsters.

I’m not sure what it means, but sitting in the dark just before bed I found myself forgetting the worries of the day and simply unwinding. There is something to trying to find patterns and meaning in something that ultimately that is meaningless that relaxes one. Actually the film becomes even more trippy after repeated viewings because you start to notice things at various times that you never saw before. The film effectively changes with each viewing.

And I should probably add that it’s also not for all moods and all demeanors. If you don’t like what amounts to abstract art stay away. Also if you’re not willing to give yourself over to 65 minutes of “random” images stay away as well.

When I’m in the right mood I love it. When I’m not I find it insufferable. Either way I think it’s worth seeing if you can find a copy

Capsule Reviews 9/14/11 - Mystery

Mystery of the White Room
One of Universal’s Crime Club movies is an okay little mystery that is kind of sunk by the comic relief. The plot of the film has to do with a murder in a hospital during an operation. The lights go out and when they come back on someone has stabbed the chief surgeon in the back with a scalpel. It’s a breezy little film that has one of the suspects helping/matching wits with a police detective. The big reveal is very well done with the killer’s identity being known only by a mute victim who was splashed with acid by the killer and who needs a cornea transplant if they are to be able to point out the killer. For the most part the film works, sadly a nurse with a voice that can peel paint and nosey orderly with no brains ruin any suspense and tension with their stupid antics and comments. Still if you can manage to see this do so, it’s woth 57 minutes of your time

Tiger Bay
Rich boy decides that the romantic ideal can exist in the lowest of run down locations and he heads to Tigerbay, a seedy seafront area. There he gets mixed up with various people and falls for the blonde step sister of Anna Mae Wong who is running a run a gambling den that’s coveted by sinister powers. Moody and full of great supporting characters, this film was apparently a British quota quicky that turned out better than it was probably intended. I’m mixed on the result. I love the mood and the atmosphere a great deal. The places in the film have a weight and feel that make you never realize that this was done on the cheap. Most of the characters are finely drawn people. The trouble is that the two romantic leads are so out of their depth that you kind of cringe when they show up on screen. If you’re like me you’ll wish that they had cut them out and just focused on the top billed Anna Mae. Definitely worth a look if you run across it.

The Spider (1945)
Richard Conte plays a detective in New Orleans trying to get an mysterious envelope for a certain young lady. Along the way there is a couple of murders and Conte has to dance around the police and a few suspects. A well done program mystery that is just dark and shadowy enough to put it into the realm of film noir. Filled with a great cast including my perpetual favorite Mantan Moreland playing it more or less straight, this is a neat little mystery. Is it the be all and end all? Absolutely not but it moves at a good enough clip that you just get dragged along. A solid little mystery.

Cropsey (2009)

Cropsey is a creepy documentary about what happens when folk lore crashes into to reality. It’s not the sort of film you want to watch alone late at night with all the lights out.

The title derives from the name of a mad killer said to roam through various parts of lower New York State and connected parts of New Jersey Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Supposedly a well to do man, he went mad for some reason ands began to kill children. It’s the sort of tale you tell around a camp fire.

The film chronicles the events on the Staten Island in New York where the Cropsey Maniac was said to wander the wooded areas around the closed Willobrook psychiatric center and attached grounds (It’s a huge complex of buildings and tunnels in the middle of hundreds of wooded acres, now all abandoned). Of course it was just a tale… until someone started to notice that kids had been disappearing from all around the area.

The film focuses on Andre Rand an odd little man who seemed to be around several of the people who disappeared over the years. Rand was eventually convicted for the kidnapping of two of the children, but he is a suspect in at least five more. The film tells us the about the disappearances, how the police investigated and came up with theories (Satanism?) and how Rand came into view again and again. It’s the story of the filmmakers trying to get to the bottom of what actually happened and if Rand could have been the only one involved.

This movie creeped me out. I was watching this alone at night with the lights off and the film just played me like a violin as spins out it’s tale of murder and madness perfectly. It’s the sort of feeling that all of the pseudo-documentary horror films try to create but never manage to do. Of course this is a true story instead of a made up one, but the feel of the film is that of a great campfire story.

It’s story that begins as fiction, changes to reality. From there the reality begins shifting as you are told a tale that may or may not involve the subject of the film. Rand for much of the film seems to be a sad little man, however as you get farther and farther down the rabbit hole what is true and what is possible begins to change. Maybe he isn’t as innocent as you may have thought…then again even when we get to the end there are still doubts pieces don’t make sense (how did a body suddenly reappear in a place searched by the police when their suspect was in custody?)

I loved this movie a great deal. It’s a wonderful little true life horror story.

The recently released DVD includes about 30 minutes of “additional” scenes. Some are expanded sequences that appear in the film and some are completely new material. I wish the story of the girl who believes she had a long running stalking by Rand had been able to have been in the film proper. It is chilling, but as the filmmakers said, they have no proof it was actually Rand so they couldn’t include it. Also intriguing is a discussion between the directors who are forced to deal with the fact that by asking questions they maybe injuring people since one man ended up in therapy as a result.

If you want to be scared see this film.

A winner of the Tribeca Documentary award in 2009 the film would be perfectly paired with this year’s Grave Encounters which is also set in an abandoned institution.

Clownhouse (1989)

Coulrophobia is the fear of Clowns. It’s been said that up to 15% of the population have or have had this phobia. I can honestly say that in my childhood I was one of these people. The reality is Clowns are friggin’ creepy! For example: Pennywise in IT, the doll in Poltergeist and Bobcat Goldthwait in Shakes the Clown….ok, maybe that last one is a stretch.

In 1989, franchise sequels ruled the horror genre such as Halloween 5, Nightmare on Elm Street 5 and Friday the 13th 8..etc etc. Needless to say there were not many good flicks coming out at that time. However there were a few that managed to slip through the cracks and Victor Salva’s Clownhouse is one of them. Released one year after the more comical approach of Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Salva’s film couldn’t be more different.

Instead of going with the grain, Clownhouse took a page of the book that Halloween popularized. It’s about the suspense, tension and the stalk factor. It’s not a film made with buckets of blood. It plays with your fears and toys with them in a PG-13-ish sorta way.

The plot involves three young boys, all brothers, who when left alone one night decide to visit the local carnival for some light hearted fun. Much to the dismay of young Casey who happens to have a major fear of clowns. Unfortunately for them three mental patients have just escaped from the near by insane asylum and their first stop happens to be the same park. After murdering three of the circus clowns, the mental patients use their makeup and costumes to change their appearance. Casey (played by Nathan Forrest Winters) visits a fortune teller and is told that his life is in great danger. Soon after, the boys flee home little do they know they are being followed.

This is where Clownhouse sets itself apart from it’s competition at the time. The atmosphere and pacing that Salva sets with the boys and the deranged psychopaths is awesome. From the lighting to the music that is used, it all works. Once the men break into the house, Casey, is left to face his fears to save not only his life but the life of everyone else involved.

So I’d be hard pressed to not mention the controversy revolving around the film. In 1988, director Salva pleaded guilty on charges of sex with a minor. That minor was Nathan Forrest Winters, the main actor of Clownhouse. He was 12 years old at the time. I saw Clownhouse when it was first released on VHS in 1990 and had no idea of the story behind it till many years later. When I watch the film now, knowing what went on behind the scenes, of course it’s disturbing especially with a few scenes early on in the film.

In 1995, Winters went public with the ordeal of what happened while on the set of Clownhouse. Salva was directing the Disney-produced film Powder, the story of a boy with paranormal powers. The backlash felt was immediate and the film had a very disappointing run at the theatres. Salva did not direct again until many years later. He turned to the horror genre in 2001 with the successful Jeepers Creepers along with it's sequel.

It’s unfortunate that, in my opinion, one of the better horror films to come out in the late 80’s has such a black mark against it. It was not until 2003 when Clownhouse finally saw the light of the day for the first time on DVD. Although it did not have a long run it now fetches up to as much as $90 for a new copy on Amazon. Two little fun facts about the film: it stars a very young Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2, Cowboys & Aliens) and was helped funded by Francis Ford Coppola.

If you can find a copy, see this movie if have not already. Forget what I said about the history behind it, watch the movie for what it is. There’s no killer with a glove for a hand and no one with a hockey mask cutting teenagers into pieces. It’s an exercise in suspense. Watch it with the lights off especially if you suffer from Coulrophobia.

Nude Nuns with Big Guns (2010)

Sister Sarah is pulled off a bus with some fellow nuns by bad guys (including some clergy), turned on to junk, set up in a brothel and made the plaything of various bad guys. When she wakes up from a near overdose she finds that she has been set on a path of redemption by god. Her mission kill everyone who has wronged her and anyone who gets in her way.

Pure exploitation film is summed up in the title...which is a good thing and a bad thing.

The good thing is that you know going in exactly what the film is aiming at.

Its a bad thing because they take it as a license to be very tongue in cheek and very knowing. Some times that works but most times it doesn't and the knowing attitude creates a distance that makes the film less than it could be. Machete, one of the best exploitation films of recent years let you know it was over the top, yet managed to play it perfectly straight so you became invested in what happened. With Nuns we're never really invested in what happens, we never get anything approaching real character development, we just get pawns to be moved around. Most of what we feel we bring to the film. Its all about cramming as much exploitation material in the shortest amount of time. On that level the film is a rousing success with all of the things promised delivered in great abundance.

As you can tell I'm very mixed on the film. On some level I have to admire the fact that this a competently created exploitation film that is bold enough to wear it's heart on it's sleeve. On the other hand I wish it hadn't been so damn jokey at times, I mean honestly this film is good enough that had the film played it straight we'd have a true classic of the exploitation genre.

Ultimately Nude Nuns With Big Guns is a film for people who can see the title and know that the film doesn't get much better than that...it comes close...but mostly it is what it says it is. (And as ambivalent as I am towards it I am hoping for a sequel)

Currently out on the festival circuit

(And a big Happy Birthday Dad)

goings ons, comings ups

We are heading towards some pretty hectic times in New York City for followers of interesting films. Depending on your attitude about movie-related events, you will be pleased with the many choices at hand or yanking out tufts of hair in frustration over not being able to catch it all.

At the center is the New York Film Festival, for which Dbborroughs has been providing the lowdown. Making its home within the NYFF this year is a self contained series that takesa look at films released through Nikkatsu Studios over the years, with plenty of yakuza, rebellious youth, and erotic content. There is also New York Comic Con, which will again share its space with the New York Anime Fest, coming mid October in its biggest 4 day configuration yet. Not exactly a film event perhaps, but it is sure to include some interesting tie-ins.

Here are a few more events that will be orbiting Manhattan this Fall:

Sion Sono: The New Poet @ MAD Museum

This very interesting and timely (as Sono has been on a streak of recognition lately) retrospective comes to a relatively new resource for film, The MAD Museum (MAD being an acronym for Museum of Art and Design, although personally I would love to see a museum devoted to anger). There is a chance to once again see his two latest works, LOVE EXPOSURE and COLD FISH, which both explode with the sort of vivid imagery deserving of a large screen. Other highlights include two movies that have rarely if ever been available to see in the US: Sono's first feature film BICYCLE SIGHTS and 2005's INTO A DREAM. There is also a rare opportunity to see his cult favorite piece of provocation SUICIDE CLUB on a big screen.

The series takes place on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from October 7 through November 11. http://www.madmuseum.org/series/sion-sono


Yeonghwa: Korean Film Today, 2011 @ MOMA

While a bit more studious and reserved than other more free wheelin' Korean film fests going on internationally (No Bikini Aliens here nor any crime thrillers by Ryoo Seung-Wan, although the New York Asian Film Festival had the latter covered), there are some interesting screenings on hand. Kim Ki-Duk's latest, an introspective reaction to his own recently stilted activity, AIRRANG will be shown. So will a 30 minute short film by Bong Joon-Ho (Memories of Murder, The Host, Mother) called INFLUENZA. There is also a recent thriller from 2010, MIDNIGHT FM, and three dramas that comprise the intriguing TOWN trilogy.

From September 22 to October 2. http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/1205


SCARY Movies @ Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center

Right in time for Halloween, Film Linc will continue its annual celebration of the macabre. In the past, this has been a short but jam-packed series. Last year's event gave us classics (Carrie, Hellraiser), left by the wayside exploitation anomalies (The Mutations, Messiah of Evil), and premieres (Stake-Land, Black Death). There is also promise of an eye towards the international, as last year included the premiere of French film Village of Shadows with the director on hand for a Q & A. Look forward to this event, which will probably begin about a week before October 31.

The Korean Cultural Service brings more free screenings on Tuesday nights at Tribeca Cinemas with its next being a dark future vision, END OF ANIMAL, and a horror movie right on Halloween night, MOSS.

Indeed there is no lack of things to see. Enjoy!

11 09 01 (September 11) (2002)

Ten years ago today the entire world changed when two planes crashed into the World Trade Center, another crashed in to the Pentagon and the a fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. To mark the day I’m going to post a review of the once controversial, once impossible to see in the US film 11 09 01 (The way 9/11/01 would be written else where in the world) which was retitled September 11 for the US release.

The film is a series of short films each running eleven minutes, nine seconds and one frame long. Each film was made by a well known director. The films take various courses going from comedy (the story of a bunch of kids who think they see Osama Bin Laden in their village and decide to capture him for the reward) to personal essay (the events in Chile on another September 11) to allegory (The final story of a Japanese soldier who doesn’t think he’s human) to drama (an elderly man tries to come to terms with the loss of his wife on a certain Tuesday morning) to straight reporting (the devastating and haunting sequence from Mexico where we hear the sounds of the aftermath of the planes crashing before we see what those sounds really are).

The film is hit or miss with some playing better than others. Several of the pieces (the piece from Mexico and Sean Penn’s tale of old age) are two of the most heart breaking things you will ever see. Others are nice ideas but don’t quite work (the pieces I haven’t mentioned).

The film has, for the most part, aged gracefully. What was once considered an anti-American tirade by many people (almost all of whom never saw the film because they didn’t have access to it when the film was first released over seas) has come to be seen as a nice meditation on how events were seen and processed by different people across the globe. The anti American feelings are seen to not really be there.

This is a film that should be seen by anyone who wants to know how the events ten years ago affected everyone who lived through it. (Though I warn you the afore mentioned sequence from Mexico is tough viewing and I have yet to meet anyone who has not been left an emotional wreck by it. Anyone who has seen it on DVD has turned off the film and walked away for a while, and anyone who saw it in a theater walked out too emotional broken to continue)

Though the pieces are uneven this collection of 11 short films is truly a moving and human experience. There were some who, in the wake of the emotion on the anniversary of the bombings, took this to be anti-American. I don't think thats the case, even though some parts might be taken that way if you don't look behind the obvious. Ultimately the film is nothing except an attempt by people to express their confusion, sympathy and feelings about what happened. These are stories of people who's worlds have been shaken up by what happened on a Tuesday in September.

Hamlet- David Tennant (2009)

Dr Who does does Shakespeare once more in the BBC version of the Royal Shakespeare company of the story of what is rotten in Denmark. This time out it's David Tennant as Hamlet. He is ably supported by Patrick Stewart as his Uncle and his father.

A serviceable version of the play, It's the performances that make this a must see. Tenenant is amazing as Hamlet. He's a force of nature and gives the sort of performance that you can't help but watch, whether you want to or not. In all honesty my interest in this version came and went and there was a couple of times where I considered turning it off however watching Hamlet dismantle made stopping the DVD not an option.

The equal of Tennant was Patrick Stewart as both Hamlet's uncle the king and as the ghost of the Hamlet's murdered father. Talk about being intense.

For me the problem with the production is that as good as the performances are, most of the characters fail to register. I think the problem is that this version is too focused on the father/son and stepfather/ stepson issues to work out side of those narrow confines....

...actually I think the problem is that the two leads are so strong that they unbalance the rest of the play to the point where everything else is kind of laid waste.

That statement would kind of make you think that I'm ambivalent or hesitant to recommend the film, and that's not the case. This is really good film version of Hamlet, the trick is that you have to understand going in that the strength of the film is all about the performances. I wouldn't want to direct anyone who wanted a great understanding of the play to this (That would be to yesterday's full version)

Buster Keaton: "The Playhouse" (1921)

Director: Buster Keaton & Edward Cline
Stars: Buster Keaton, Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts
Genre: silent film, comedy


Last monday on Labor Day, the Film Forum had an all day run of Buster Keaton films accompanied by Steve Sterner on the piano! I caught a few screenings that afternoon, but The Playhouse was the funniest one out of the lot. It’s only a 22 minute movie but it packed a heavy handed comedic punch! The 1st part of the film would contain an MVP worthy, full of Buster Keaton clones onstage performing in a live variety act. Keaton would be the conductor, the whole orchestra, the dancers, the actor, and even the audience members. Talk about camera trickery in the 1920’s! A true one man show! The playbill program listed the following: “Keaton’s Opera House**Program**Buster Keaton presents--Buster Keaton Minstrels”. What an insane cast or solo act I should say! Unfortunately, Keaton awakens and finds himself sleeping in a bed on the set of a stage. It was all a dream and the real Keaton emerges working as a stagehand in the theatre. His mundane duties included sweeping the set and helping to put on clothes for a monkey to get ready for a live show with the trainer. Just as luck would have it, the monkey escapes which leaves Keaton no choice but to put on the clothes along with makeup to disguise as a monkey! Buster’s facial expressions, slouch, & walk really resembled an ape! Part of the act had the trainer socializing with Keaton in monkey form and it was hilarious! You’ll see Keaton climb up a pillar and take down a a wall prop! He’ll even hop off stage to interact with a lady from the audience! Keaton was the modern age monkey king! Other neat skits in The Playhouse included the zoave act and the beard that went on fire! There’s also a sprinkling of romance in the film as Keaton falls in love with a girl (Virginia Fox) who happened to have a twin sister also played by Virginia Fox that he could never tell apart! The ending will leave everyone all washed up!

If you ever get a chance to see The Playhouse or any of Buster Keaton’s films in a theatre with or without a live piano accompaniment, we strongly urge you to go! You will see “The Great Stone Face” in his element of comedic yet stoic brilliance!

Hamlet- Kenneth Branaugh (1996)

Kenneth Branaugh, who recently had his biggest popular hit with the Shakespearean tinged Thor, made the eclectic and wildly uneven full version of Hamlet.

How full is full? The film runs just over four hours and contains every bit of known dialog.Branaugh wanted to record the entire play for posterity. No film version had ever come close to getting it all on film. The trouble was that no one was going to pony up and pay for a version that ran over four hours long. Branaugh solved his money problems by coming up with two solutions.

First he said that if the producers would let him film the whole play the way he wanted it, he would chop out an hour and a half and make a more manageable version that ran some where around two and a half hours. The idea was that this shorter version would play smaller cities and would go out to schools. To the best of my knowledge this shorter version was prepared but I don’t remember ever hearing that the film ever screened. I know when I saw the film when it first played the only option was the full version, and that’s the version that I’ve only seen on TV and home video.

The second solution was the “stunt casting” of numerous name actors (Jack Lemmon, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, among others) to play some of the smaller roles. It’s a hit or miss prospect with some of the wide ranging accents slightly distracting from the matters at hand (Brooklyn is not in Denmark the last I checked). On the other hand you get things moments like Charlton Heston tearing down the house with his performance as the Lead Player.

I really like the film a great deal. It makes much of the film much more accessible than some of the more traditional versions. Frankly the atypical versions such as this and the Mel Gibson version play better to me than the say the Olivier one.

No, it is not perfect. The performances are all over the place, the film rambles on and on and on with some sections in desperate need of trimming and some have argued that Branaugh’s rearrangement of some of the action (Get thee to a nunnery is near the very beginning) gives some people fits, but for the most part the film is a masterpiece of cinematic art. It’s a film that over comes all of it’s flaws to become something greater and over whelming.

On some level I think the film works simply because it beats the audience into submission…but in a good way.

Definitely worth a look see. Even if you don’t like Shakespeare you will probably find something in this behemoth that you can connect to which is something that you can’t say about many other Shakespearean adaptions.

New Yorker Festival and New York Film Festival tickets on sale soon plus Shut Up Little Man

Three quick notes

Tickets for this year’s New Yorker Festival go on sale at noon tomorrow. This is a grand annual festival with talks, films and performances in a wide range of subjects. You should check the site for details, but you should know that Steve Martin and David Cronenberg will be speaking and the films Anonymous and Coriolanus will be screening with the directors in attendance. Those not in the NYC area should be interested since several of the events will be streamed on the web. We at Unseen will be attending as many things as we can score tickets for and manage to get to when not dashing from this years New York Film Festival.

Speaking of which tickets for the NYFF go on sale Monday at 10am for the general public (they are on sale for members already). Yes I know it’s pricey, but there is a great deal of good stuff going on, especially in the special events and directors dialogs (Abel Ferrara and Wim Wenders are speaking). I suggest checking out the website and making plans getting tickets to anything that interests you. One piece of advice skip the galas and the open, closing and centerpiece films. They are a great deal of money for films that are coming out with in a couple of days or weeks of the festival.

Unseen will be covering the festival with a little less vigor than I had hoped. Mostly I had to reign myself in when I realized that I couldn’t afford the time or tickets for all of the events I wanted to see. Not to worry we’re still going to see a majority of the films so by the end you’ll have a good idea as to what’s worth your time and what isn’t.

Lastly I want to point out that the film Shut Up Little Man! Is playing on pay per view and is going to be hitting movie screens starting this week. This is the story of what happens when two young guys move to San Francisco and end up living next to two career alcoholics who fight all the time. They end up recording the bouts and passing them around between friends creating an underground sensation. A funny and enlightening documentary, it’s a look at the tapes, the people involved and the whole notion of audio verite. I’m working on a long review which will run after the NYFF, but for now, with the film about to be in theaters and now on pay per view I had to say go see the film.

Breath (2000)

I’m tired of really long films.

I’m exhausted

Seven hours Monday, another seven Tuesday and eight yesterday making for almost twenty four hours in three days, that’s a lot of time sitting watching very few movies.

I’m going to take a break here and go off the board and do a short film; a really short film. It runs two minutes long.

The film Breath was made by Damien Hirst as part of the Beckett on Film series back in 2000. It’s the 45 second play stretched to two minutes thanks to opening and closing credits and Hirst’s pacing.

The film it self is a flying tracking shot of a garbage strewn landscape while we hear some one take a couple of breaths. There is very little that could have been done with the play since the Beckett estate imposed strict restrictions on filming (as they inflict on any performance) which say that you have to follow Beckett’s directions/ intentions to the letter. Any variation has to fall outside of things that they can’t control. In theory this should assure that all versions of Beckett’s plays are all close to being the same on the same level in execution and in quality, however as anyone who’s had to suffer through a bad version of say Waiting for Godot or Happy Days knows that isn’t the case.

Hirst took what he had to work with and transformed the play into an intriguing cinematic convection. It’s a brilliant little film that had me playing it over and over again the first time I saw it…

…of course it pissed off the Beckett estate who didn’t think it was what Beckett intended. Actually from what I heard the Beckett people hated many of the films in the series because they didn’t like what was done to them. I do, as the fact that I've reviewed 4 of the films last year in a pair of double features.

Worth a look.

Matthew Barney: No Restraint

Earlier today I ran a review of the Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle as part of the long movie week. As the Wednesday matinee I'm presenting a look at Barney, his art and his filming of his film Drawing Restaint 9.

Matthew Barney No Restraint is about Barney's filming of Drawing Restraint 9, a film that he made with his companion Bjork. Its set on a Japanese whaling vessel and, as with much of Barney's work, involves a great deal of petroleum jelly. It begins in Brooklyn where Barney is testing out a tank that will be used to make a petroleum jelly casting on the whaling ship. The film then moves to Japan and we follow the filming of the movie. There are also interviews with people who know and admire Barney's work so the film acts as a nutshell biography of Barney and his art. While watching the new piece come together we get a taste of some of his other works, and since Barney's art consists of not only creating a piece of art but filming its creation we also see the works being put together. (Warning: some of it can be disturbing).

The title Drawing Restraint 9 refers to a series of works Barney has done where he limits his ability to move while making a drawing, say tethering himself to a bungee cord which keeps him from being able to stay at a paper attached near the top of a ramp. (The end credits for this film contains the film record of Drawing Restraint 10) I'm not a fan of Matthew Barney. I do like the imagery his filmed projects produce but at the same time I wonder if he's for real. I keep getting the feeling that he's a talented person who's found a way of bilking rich patrons out of a great deal of money. His work constantly makes me wonder if he's serious or not. Actually I know he's serious since few people would go as far as Barney and not reveal its all been a joke.

I had hoped that this film was going to give me some clue into to the art and mind of Matthew Barney. Unfortunately other than telling me how he does what he does, and providing some very beautiful imagery it left me cold. I still think Barney is full of it on all but a purely visual level, I especially find his his deeper meanings and explanations for what he's doing bordering on ludicrous. His massive Cremaster series (which is discussed here), which runs around 9 or 10 hours concerns itself with (I'm quoting someone in No Restraint here) "The descent of the testicle and the quest for freedom". Having seen the films created as part of that earlier cycle I have to say that at no time did a descending anything ever cross my mind. Clearly Barney and I have completely different take on his art. Then again watching the reaction of some of his supporters there are many people who want to be baffled by images Bjork waste deep in petroleum jelly hacking her legs off.

No Restraint is a tough slog. Certainly seeing how Barney brings his vision together is interesting but only to a point. We get only limited insight into what Barney is doing. He explains what he's doing, but since we see very little of Drawing Restraint 9 his explanations mean nothing (Barney is insisting that like Cremaster that work will never be seen on home video). At the same time the section of the film that show Barney's past work is of limited value since the people we see discussing it all seem to be somehow connected to Barney. Granted we get glimpses of what else he's done, but the work is very limited in context. I'm sure that had I seen Drawing Restraint or had been more familiar with the earlier work (and had liked it) this would have meant something to me. Instead it was 72 minutes that felt as though it was 60 too many.

Recommended if you want an introduction to Matthew Barney, but don't have to pay for it. Alternately if you're a huge Bjork fan and must see everything she's done or need to hear her talk about her work and life. Just keep the remote handy.

At the same time everyone else may want to just stay away

Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle

Matthew Barney’s art film cycle Cremaster is a wildly uneven mix of amazing sound and images and the most pretentious notions. It’s the sort of film that is everything that is wrong with art and artists, and yet, in places, it’s a hypnotic masterpiece. It’s literally an art film.

I’ve seen it all, once, in one sitting and I never need to see it again.

Okay, the short version of what the film is. The Cremaster cycle is a five film series funded by the Guggenheim in New York and other museums. Shot and released out of order, the film does not have a cohesive plot…er…any plot. It does however have a series of visual motifs that repeat.

Cremaster 1 was shot on video and involves dancing girls in a football stadium going through a routine while the good year blimp hovers over head/ Inside it four women sit around a table smoking and talking and occasionally looking out at the dancing below. Under the table another woman writhes around and puts a hole in the table so she can steal grapes. It’s forty over long minutes of a film that appears to have been made by a man who doesn’t know how to make a film.

Cremaster 2- is interesting, but still rambling. We have Norman Mailer as Houdini and Marney himself as Gary Gilmore.

Cremaster 3- is the best section, which explains why this film had a long life when it was released to film theaters. It has something to do with earth gods, cars, a may pole in the Chrysler building and assorted other strangeness. The last of the three hours is a section called The Order (this is the only portion available on DVD) about the order of life. It’s set in New York Guggenheim and involves Barney climbing around on the inside of the museum, punk rock bands, animal people and a long line of dancing girls. The hypnotic images of the first two hours of the film are kind of tossed by the way side by the stark nonsense of this last hour.

Cremaster 4 is an hour or so of strange nonsense with a goat man in a white tux dancing while motorcycles with side cars race around the countryside. It’s more drawn out tedium.

Cremaster 5 is operatic, literally. A woman in an opulent dress sings opera in an empty theater while an orchestra plays, a man scurries around the proscenium, and another man rides a horse into a European city and stops on a bridge. There are some beautiful shots here but the images go on and on and on.

By this time you’re either enthralled or bored to tears. I was mostly bored to tears since this is one of the most pretentious pieces of twaddle I’ve ever seen. The thought of sitting in a theater for 8 hours to see again this makes my skin crawl.

And yet I’m begrudgingly recommending the film…whats up with that?

Simply put this is a classic example of an unseen film. The film as a whole is apparently never going to be released on home video (short of the one segment) so you'll have to attended an occasional screening at an art house theater or art museum.

I'm mentioning the film because some people love it while other people hate it. I think there is some good things in it but the thought of sitting through 8 hours of it kind of blows my mind.

This is the ultimate viewers choice film.

Read on it, research it and determine your tolerance for the ultimate art film experience and then make your decision based on that. If you do want to try it, but aren't sure aim for the third part and go with that. It's the most "normal". If you want to see more (most of which is close to the last section called Order) then watch the rest.

No it doesn't matter what order you see them in. Barney shot and released them out of order. And since there is no plot, only repeating motifs, you're not missing anything.

Your choice-I'm just mentioning it's out there.

(A documentary on Matthew Barney and his art, No Restraint, is today's "matinee" and will appear later on this afternoon))

War and Peace (1968)

Arguably the greatest, or one of the greatest films ever made. The six and a half hour International running time caused the film to be screened in two parts (and its still several hours short of it’s full length). The extreme running time also resulted in the film being referred to as a joke, except it’s not, even to the point of winning an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

It was originally shot as four separate films that were released in Soviet theaters over a period of four years. The film was then cut together and the cut down for international release. As one of the extras on the Rusico release the head of Mosfilm, which produced the film, says that it’s the international release that became the only existing copy of the film anywhere, even in the Soviet Union. When it came time to restore the film (at a cost of several million dollars) a search had to be made across the globe in order to find elements of the film that they could use and restore. It was only through chance that they found an odd print here or there. The film was then restored digitally, and as of the time the restored films (they returned the one film to four) they never struck a new print. (The film was semi-recently released into theaters once more by a company who ignored my questions about their restoration. Like why their cuts of the four parts of the film varied wildly in running time from any known prints)

First off when you see this film, do your best to see it widescreen. For years Kultur had a version on VHS and on early DVD that was so cropped that one section of the film was called 81 instead of 1812.

Second try and find the longest and most complete version you possible. Right now the Rusico restoration seems to be the most complete and with all it’s additional goodies is the best way to go. It adds back in well over an hour of footage that makes things much clearer and deeper. This version also comes with an English dub, which while not ideal, does make watching an almost 8 hour long film easier than reading subtitles all that time (The restored footage is however in Russian and will play with subtitles automatically if you are watching it in English).

For me watching the film is like going into an isolation tank.I’ll start the film, fight with it for about 15 or 20 minutes before I click with it and I find that I’m in Russia for the next 8 plus hours of a weekend or several weeknights.

As great as the film is over all, the film, as it unwinds, is wildly uneven, going from truly amazing to almost laughably bad often with in the same sequence. There is huge spectacle and small human drama. There is a kind of whiplash to it all, but at the same time the film sucks you in and shows you events and people in a way that almost no other film has ever managed. Rarely have I ever felt that I’ve gotten to really know a character, any character, so thoroughly as I do here. (which one? all of them)

I can't say enough good about the film.

Actually the problem with this film is that it's considered a joke. The whole idea of War and Peace is a punchline and it carries with it certain connotations. Trust me I had reservations. When I first started the film for the first time I expected to see a film that was a joke. What I got was a film that blew me away. It changed the way I saw Film. Actually what I got was a film that had me chasing fuller and fuller copies across the globe.

The film is simply put one of the greatest films ever made

Yes, I know I haven't gone into details. I haven't gone into the story of the Russian nobles fleeing Napoleon and trying to make sense of life. I haven't gone in to the breath taking look of the film. I haven't mentioned the shattering performances. I haven't done so because if you haven never seen the film and are reluctant to see it there is nothing I can say to make you see it. The only way to do so would be to kidnap you and force you to see it.

I can't do that.

The only thing I can do is say see this movie because you really need to see this. (okay I could probably send you all copies of the film but I don't have that kind of money)

You want a great film, see this film.And if you've ever seen this film but only saw it on TV in a pan and scan version see it restored and wide screen, because until you've seen this widescreen and restored you haven't seen it.

This is the top of the heap as far as I'm concerned. It's as good as movies get--and it's a great film both emotionally and intellectually.

See this film and see the world differently.

Volatile Day, Bleak Night

The free screenings of Korean films brought to us by The Korean Cultural Service NY rarely seen in the United States continues with a second series of Hidden Gems of Korean Cinema. They have acclaim at festivals or in Korea, but do not make it here. The first film in this series is the harrowing drama, Bleak Night, released in March of this year. It is being screened Tuesday, September 6, at Tribeca Cinemas. The movie starts at 7 pm and seats are available on a first come first served basis. It is the first of several films that you will probably not want to miss.


There have been notable Korean films with troubled teenagers somewhere in their focus. Bleak Night is the first film to come to my attention that solely features high school-aged protagonists amongst a nearly all teenaged cast. This debut feature length film from the young and incredibly talented director, Sung-Hyun Yoon, gives audiences a frank look at the way juveniles interact with one another and perceive their world, while at the same time unfolding a tale that, as the title suggests, consists of some poignant tragic events. The movie gives me the sense of a uniquely Korean or Asian phenomenon, one that is very contemporary. Classroom scenes, for instance, evoke the same sort of unsettling anarchic franticness as depicted in the opening moments of Japan’s drama about damaged adolescents, Confessions. Some viewers, however, may find themselves relating to universal themes of the difficulties of approaching adulthood.

As the movie progresses, the focus settles on three male friends: Gi Tae, Yoong Dong-Yun, and Hee-Joon, who is more commonly referred to by the nickname Becky. Through their interactions, each one’s personality becomes more clearly defined. At the two extremes are Gi Tae’s impulsiveness as the class’ alpha male and oftentimes instigator, and the shy but quiet confidence of Becky. Added to the interactions between these friends are shifts in time to a few months later, which reveal that Gi Tae has died under unclear circumstances, as the boy’s father seeks out an explanation from friends and classmates.

This may be a film about kids for adults, but the audience is certainly not being pandered to. There is something very genuine and unglamorous to the way the characters behave. Comparisons would even be in order to 1995’s Kids, if that were a better and less sensationalistic movie. A very believable system is depicted with its own complex politics and hierarchy, yet it is dictated by the hotheaded temperamental nature of adolescence. The film’s realistic portrayal of today’s youth especially comes through in the dialogue, as well. Characters answer each other’s questions with their own questions or other vague responses. There is a maddening indirectness about it at all that is maintained consistently throughout.

Indeed there is a lot of suffering in the film. I prefer to use this term instead of ‘angst,’ which tends to be overused and suggests a kind of moaning over trivial things. The weight of the issues these characters take on at too young an age is truly heavy. At the core of these problems appears to be the students' inability to express one’s self. Confrontations resemble tribe-like mating rituals with characters verbally butting heads and puffing out chests, dancing around the issues at hand instead of dealing with them directly. When characters attempt to open up and express their feelings, they often do so with suggestions of violence, either spoken or physical in the form of leaning forward imposingly, jostling, slapping. So filled with insecurities and desperate to be independent are these kids, they are unwilling to let their guards down for a moment. This goes on until tensions reach their boiling point and verbal assaults are unleashed, done with so much pent up rage, it is like a sudden violent release of pressure that has been building and building with nowhere to go. The minor skirmishes become violent assaults. Misunderstandings lead to tragic self-inflicted wounds. This all leads to the severed ties that the viewer is left to make sense of.

There are serious implications to the film, despite its subtle nature. Who is guiding this generation? Or perhaps, a better question is: Who isn’t? Teachers are all but left out of the picture and other adults are pointedly lacking in any prominent roles. When Gi-tae’s father is seeking out answers, it is already after the fact. He seems slight and diminished during these infrequent sequences and is ultimately ineffective in his search. Gi-Tae, in an exchange with his friends that takes place before his demise, describes how he goes home to cook his own dinner every night, lucky to occasionally see his father for a moment. His mother is simply gone.

The director’s decision to sequence events out of order could come across as strange or even haphazard. As the end of the film approaches, events become more difficult to place within the timeline. The tension that had been built up so steadily before seems to dissipate and the final moment of confrontation between victim’s father and friend, where one might expect a powerful resolution, proves inconclusive. Any misgivings I had about the mastery of this film were erased after I had the privilege of giving the film a second viewing. The interspersion of past and present events is in fact very meaningfully constructed. Words and gestures hearken back to earlier moments, creating the sense of something possibly even bigger and harder to cope with than the events that were clearly shown, lingering under the surface. As for showing events before and after, but not including the actual tragedy at the film’s center, here the director drives home how muddled our understanding of those around us truly can be. If we don't seek out clearer communication, we can only speculate on the lives of those around us.

A possible part of the film’s appeal on the festival circuit and indie success in its native Korea is how emotion is expressed effectively without the use of elaborate set pieces or visual effects. Even background music is used sparingly, although the few moments of music used during the story and over the credits are made up of haunting electronic-tinged melodies. They leapt out at me and left me yearning to discover their source. It’s a minor touch, but one that further shows Yoon is a director of enormous potential to look out for and Bleak Night is a film well worth seeing.