The trailer for Potiche was played when I saw Heartbeats.  I'm pretty pumped up.  It's coming out next week~

Les Amours Imaginaires

I really liked Heartbeats, a film about a love triangle.  Marie ^ from the film  had such charming style.  This was the first French Canadian film I've seen, I believe.  Parts of it were a little too "hip people doing hip things" and by the third arty sex scene I was kinda over cello and close ups of body parts...but overall still really great.  Awesome soundtrack.  When I read that directer Xavier Dolan is only 22, I was shocked.  To have made something this good, so young~

poster is cool too.

Some cool tracks from the soundtrack:

Footloose

Footloose isn't as bad as I remembered it.  It does drag as it goes on, though.  It was interesting to see young Sarah Jessica Parker...although at the end where the two dudes beat the other two dudes up, like really hardcore, and the girls are all like YEAH WOO HOO AWESOME...that was pretty terrible.  Like, do people really like seeing other people get the crap beat out of them? ...what?

Although, I must say that a prom with GLITTER RAIN would be awesome.

A lot of shots of feet being, uh, "footloose."  Not sure if they're were just trying to go with the flow on that one or if we had some foot fetish people on this crew.

It was the "special edition" DVD.  lol @ this movie having a "special edition."

Also, this movie is awesome for inspiring this:

Short Attention Span Environmental Film Festival

I went out to the Short Attention Span Environmental Film Festival last night at the David Brower Center in Berkeley.  When I heard about the festival, I was debating whether or not to go but after all the fun I had seeing films at Cinequest and SFIAAFF, I decided to make the 45 minute drive up to Berkeley, and I'm glad I did!

The very first short was a sort of documentary/infomercial for a nonprofit group, and at first I was afraid that the whole festival was gonna be like that, but thankfully it wasn't.

Pigeon: Impossible was the first film.  I'm usually a hard sell when it comes to CG movies, but I thought this was actually cute and really well done.  But hey! You can watch the whole thing online here:

Hairytale was the next short.  I can't find any pictures online, but it was a documentary about a guy in the UK who used to own a hair salon and realized how much hair gets thrown into landfills...so then he dedicated his life to finding alternative uses for discarded hair and made...a hair chair.  Had a funny final line.

Salt (2009) was next, not to be confused with the Angelina Jolie movie of the same name.  This film followed photographer Murray Fredericks (check out his photography on the website, it's amazing!) on his journeys to literally the middle of nowhere in Australia.  He explained the concept that the place where he was going, he could see NOTHING anywhere on the horizon for 360 degrees.   CRAZY.  I had no idea places like that still existed anywhere in the world (other than the ocean).  It raised a lot of questions for me...   This film has a lot of breathtaking shots. As I understood it, Fredericks shot all the footage himself over several years and then later it was edited down into the film.  He had a really great eye for the shots, but I guess that makes sense because he's a photographer.  In the end, though, the film was a bit long for my tastes...I'd rather go see an exhibition of the photography.

Scrapertown is a documentary short from a series about California called California is a Place (I will definitely be watching these later).  It follows a group of kids in East Oakland who are part of the 'scraper bike movement', where people fix up their bikes with interesting paint, decor and decorate the spokes.  The bikes are pretty cool.  The organizers of the festival told us that they were gonna try to get a kid from the film to come speak at the festival, but he didn't show.  Boo!

The Crab Revolution , was an awesome, adorable French animated short.  I loved it!  French just seemed to be the perfect language for this story.  Or maybe the voice actor was just really good?  Watch here:

I didn't see Fat Tire Fury on IMDB.  It's basically footage of a mountain...bike...unicycler.  The ultimate rush??

I couldn't find any suitable pictures of Living Lightly.....chronicles of a farming cult with a scythe (yes, scythe) fetish.  I don't mean player hate here but uh...yeah.

A few photos of the evening:

cool kinetic sculpture at the Brower Center. I wish this were video!

 DEEP FRIED PIZZA at Sumo Grub--not a bad spot to grab a bite after a late showing in Berkeley as they are open late.  They have tons of deep fried desserts...for the heart attack in you

our friend KJ wore awesome bright gold shoes.

9 to 5

I remember watching 9 to 5 when I was a kid and wanted to re-watch it.  Dolly Parton is awesome!  The 9 to 5 song is cool even in spite of the fact that it's annoying when rich famous people sing songs about the working man.  I wish this movie had a more awesome feminist revenge, but I'll settle I guess.  The outfits are a highlight, too.

Also 9-5?? Yeah right, more like 8-7.

F BOMB WUT

So, I just read this article about the most buzzworthy moments at last night's Oscars.  The only thing that was even remotely interesting was Melossa Leo saying fuck for the first time ever at the Oscars....It was basically just surprising because you'd think people would have said it a long time ago.  Get over your fucking selves.

Malcolm X

Malcolm X is one of the best biopics I've ever seen.  It really wrenches one's heart to see racism like this.  Denzel Washington lost a lot of weight for this role! And this was probably one of Angela Bassett's best roles.  The beginning of the film is really fun.  I love all the jump cuts.

This dance scene is really fun:

2011 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts

Today I saw the 2011 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts.  Camera 3 downtown was showing them, and I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to see them as well!

Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage is a sort of pastiche or scrapbook in film form of a man's trip to Madagascar. It utilizes many different styles of animation.....it's breathtaking in some parts, but in others it looks a bit less fleshed out.

Let's Pollute is a subversive environmentalist film done in the style of corny old educational videos.  I think corny=corny rather than corny=funny, but the old people in the theater seemed to think this was hilarious.  The animation is styled like a kid's cartoon.  There were a few good jokes.  My favorite think about this short was how the animators utilized lots of interesting patterns.

The Gruffalo was nearly half an hour and almost put me to sleep.  It's based on a children's book. I'd never heard of this book because I don't have anything to do with kids, but you can tell it's based on a children's book because:

1. the story is repetitive, and children's stories are repetitive
2. a name like "The Gruffalo."  Enough said.

I just really, really hate children's stories.  This was boring.  The music was cool.  Kids would like this. (I think?)  Helena Bonham Carter did one of the voices.

The Lost Thing was OK.  Full of washed out colors with a bit of angst.

Day & Night is my Oscar pick.  It was awesome!  Conceptually and visually the best film shown.  According to my sister, this was shown before Toy Story 3 (which I haven't seen).


This is the whole movie, although youtube quality really isn't ideal for watching this:

The next two were just bonus shorts, they weren't nominated for Oscars this year.

Urs.  What is an "Urs"?  Who knows.  Quiet little movie with a sort of impressionistic animation style.

The Cow who Wanted to be a Hamburger looks like it was drawn in MS paint.  And it is awesome.  This was really funny.  Reminiscent of Rocko's Modern Life.

clip:

Would I steal a car? No, but I'd copy one if I could.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

If I had to say, I'd probably declare Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom my favorite Jones movie.  When I think "Indiana Jones", imagery from this movie is what pops into my head.  I finally finished my Indiana Jones rewatch after seeing this today...finally!

I'd forgotten how over the top this movie is.  From being chased by raging water to almost falling off a bridge to sword fights in a couple of minutes...it's pretty ridiculous.  This movie also has a bunch of stupid stereotypes about women and Indian people (that aren't even true or real stereotypes, haha).  Still, though, it's a good adventure.

Also, Indiana Jones wouldn't have been nearly as good with a different background score.

I'd forgotten this opening sequence was even in the movie!

The Room

this picture most accurately portrays the film

The Room.  A movie which needs no introduction.  I finally saw this last night at a screening at Camera 3 downtown.  It was the first movie in their new midnight cult movie screenings....there are gonna be a few interesting ones, including Pink Floyd The Wall, Rock 'n' Roll High School, & Eraserhead (all of which I am planning on seeing!).

This was my first time going to any sort of audience participation movie.  I am going to avoid with all of my might ever seeing Rocky Horror Picture Show with a live audience.

It was fun/funny.  What else need be said?  

excellent posters, too

IT'S JUST EVERYTHING

tailers

saw a couple of trailers at the theater and these look interesting:

Nora's Will looks pretty hilarious and is coming into town later this month...!

I was also surprised that the trailer for Jane Eyre piqued my interest, as this isn't usually my kind of movie.  I'll admit to not having yet read the book, though :'((((  I'm gonna see what the critics' consensus is on this one, but still an interesting trailer!

The Ten Commandments (1956)

god was pretty impressive

So, I'm an atheist but I still figured that I should watch The Ten Commandments.  The movie was kind of interesting at first because the story is familiar (I was brought up a Catholic), but after more than three hours my interest in the doings of these nutcases waned considerably.  It's pretty mind boggling that such a big hullabaloo of a production was created all about a bunch of made up stories about "god."  Everything about this movie was totally over the top from Charlton Hestons escalating facial hair to the crazy over the top score with the loudass horns.

It kind of annoyed me how they portrayed the Egyptians as bad and as atheists of sort (not even faithful to their own gods).  Definitely fodder by Christians for Christians, and that's probably why this long, long movie is remembered so fondly.  Although, I will say that uh they probably spent a lot of money on this, huh?

This would actually probably be a better movie:

Friday

Uh, so, Friday is a terrible movie.  Chris Tucker is annoying.  This movie is one unfunny racial stereotype after another.

拳銃は俺のパスポート

I def. watched this while wearing my snuggie.

So, I've finally finished the Nikkatsu noir boxset & A Colt is my Passport (cool title, eh?) was my hands-down favorite.  If you watch one movie from this boxset, watch this.  The other movies are really only of niche interest...the boxset is a great gift for any hardcore Japanese film fans or noir fans, but otherwise they're not of general interest.  

Anyway, this movie is one of Jo Shishido's best.  The film has a lot of beautiful shots.  I also liked the music--kind of a lonely Spanish/western sort of soundtrack with a lot of horns.  The final shoot out is great and shot in an empty landscape so the action speaks for itself.  It's a nice change of pace from the usual shootouts where people are hiding behind things and it's just bullets ricocheting everywhere.

main theme:

poster:

二十四の瞳

Twenty-Four Eyes is a sentimental movie following a woman who teachers in a far-flung island of Japan and her first group of students as they grow up through WWII.  The movie has many scenes with children's folk songs, and those really elevate the film and made it one of my favorites.  There are so many songs it's almost like a musical.  The look into rural Japanese life is interesting as well.  I am not sure what the status of this film is in Japan, but it has all the makings of being something like a Japanese It's a Wonderful Life or The Sound of Music ... just a classic remembered fondly by all.  A must for all fans of Japanese cinema.

one of the songs: